Warhammer Online Newsletter #28 - February 2008

	As you have no doubt seen in recent podcasts and newsletters, we’ve added Keeps and Siege to Warhammer Online! Now it is time to offer an in-depth explanation as to how these systems work and how they are integral to the Realm v Realm™ (RvR) experience. Integrating keeps into WAR builds on the foundation and success of Dark Age of Camelot™. In that game, keeps were the epitome of land ownership and helped drive the sense of pride in RvR. In WAR, keeps are once again a focal point of pride for your Realm and worth the battle defend or capture them. Read more about Keeps & Siege >> Here’s an exciting chance for you to get into the Warhammer Online closed beta test! When BOOM! Studios' new comic, WARHAMMER: CONDEMNED BY FIRE, hits stands this April, readers will have a chance at gaining entry into the WAR closed beta test. Each copy of WARHAMMER: CONDEMNED BY FIRE #1 contains a special scratch-off which reveals a code giving readers a 1-in-5 chance to get into the Warhammer Online beta test.* Not only will you discover some great new Warhammer fiction, but there is also a chance you could be fighting your very own battles online. Pre-order your copy of issue #1 today and get ready for WAR! Cover A Cover B WARHAMMER: CONDEMNED BY FIRE #1 (of 5) Story by Dan Abnett and Ian Edginton Script by Ian Edginton Drawn by Rahsan Ekedal The Witch Hunters come to the fore in this five issue mini-series from the same team that brought you WARHAMMER: FORGE OF WAR. Tireless foes of Chaos in the Warhammer universe, Witch Hunters roam the Empire seeking to stop the spread of dark magic and witchery of all kinds. When Witch Hunter Magnus Gault hears that the nearby village of Loughville has fallen prey to the canker of Chaos, he is driven to investigate. Once there, he finds the buildings rancid and rotted and the villagers wretched and mutated - eager to prey upon any lost soul who should come their way. Can one man stand against this monstrous regiment? Warhammer 40,000 novelist Dan Abnett, multiple Eisner Award-nominee Ian Edginton, and fan-favorite artist Rahsan Ekedal return to bring you another tale from the epic, fantasy realm that is Warhammer! Issues #1 through #5 are available now for pre-order at the BOOM! Studios website: www.boom-studios.com. To find a comic shop near you visit: http://csls.diamondcomics.com/ Our community team gets to hear everyday how much the beta testers are enjoying the game. We thought we would share the love with some of our favorite quotes from beta players. “Music rocks. Lighting is nice. Combat is much more fluid and responsive. PQ’s are fantastic, especially loot and rolling. Shadowing is nice and the artwork on characters is amazing to me. Good to be back in. Marauder seems fun so far.” -Level 4 Marauder “Having quests like this that direct players to new areas is a feature I like very much; there are some games that leave you wondering where to go once you have out-leveled an area, and the system you have in place prevents that while still leaving room for exploration.” -Level 4 Bright Wizard “Chapter 1 is a fun introduction to the game. The public quest ending with the giant fight was unique and I really liked the roll system for loot with the scoreboard.” -Level 4 Warrior Priest “The Marauder looks fantastic. Your art dept is amazing for this entire game, especially the class looks.” -Level 11 Marauder By Brian Wheeler, Adam Gershowitz and Justin Webb This month we check in with three team members to get the skinny on the Renown system. What is Renown? Why do I want it? Once I have it what can I do with it? Read more about Renown >> Episode 2: Stone Troll Crossing and Talabec Dam by Brian Wheeler, Lead RvR Design Welcome folks to another episode of Scenarios 101! This week we’ll be focusing on more Chaos vs. Empire scenarios: Stone Troll Crossing and Talabec Dam. Read more from Scenarios 101 >> Bright Wizard Career Masteries Master of the Lore of Fire, the Bright Wizard is the most destructive battle wizard in all of the Empire. The Bright wizard is renowned for his ability to incinerate anything, ranging from individual soldiers to an entire hillside. However, destructive fire is not the only trick in his arsenal. The Bright Wizards is also capable of manipulating the wind of Aqshy to cause a variety of debilitating effects, ranging from thick banks of choking smoke, to withering heat that saps the strength and endurance from even the staunchest warrior. Some Bright Wizards have even been known to dabble in the healing arts, though cauterizing a wound with white hot fire is never a soldier’s first choice! Bright Wizard Mechanic Due to the volatile nature of Aqshy, the Red Wind of Fire that they manipulate, the Bright Wizard is always risking a backlash that could incinerate himself as well as his opponent. This buildup of Aqshy is known as 'Combustion' and the greater the level of Combustion a Bright Wizard places into his destructive spells the more likely they will explode with stupendous results (Critical Hit). However, even the most skilled wizard will get burned when playing with fire. Pushing the combustion level too high can result in a backlash of magical energy that will damage the Wizard himself. Bright Wizard Masteries Path of Incineration The Path of Incineration primarily focuses on destructive single-target spells. About half of these spells have high values of Combustion allowing those who master the Path of Incineration to focus on weaving high risk spells in with more reliable destructive magics for optimal single target damage. Path of Immolation The Path of Immolation focuses on damage over time and debilitating, lingering debuffs. A Master of Immolation is more patient, relying less on high-Combustion spells with explosive effect and more on slow burns that build up into an unstoppable inferno. Path of Conflagration The Path of Conflagration is the most destructive of the Bright Wizard masteries with area effect spells capable of burning entire swaths of land to a crisp. However, Masters of Conflagration must exert the most self-control; most of their spells build up high levels of Combustion andtehir reckless use could mean the Bright Wizard’s doom as well. Zealot Career Masteries The Zealot is a fanatical orator, intent on spreading the glory of the Raven God throughout the land and serving the will of the Great Changer. Draped with ritual vestments and tools of sacrifice, the Zealot can imbue various talismans and potions with the primordial power of Chaos. These items become potent magical conduits through which he can mend wounds, enhance his allies, and plague his enemies with unholy scourges. Zealot Mechanic Zealots are some of the few mortals who can call forth a Mark of Tzeentch upon living flesh, branding their allies as sanctified soldiers of the Changer of Ways. These marks will not only bolster their holders' powers far beyond normal human limitations, but also serve as direct conduits to the powers of Tzeentch himself, allowing their bearers to gain entirely new abilities. A Zealot can also desecrate a patch of land with Dark Rituals & Rites, marking that spot as claimed by Tzeentch and crippling any nonbelievers who dare to tread upon it. Zealot Masteries Path of Alchemy The Path of Alchemy is the Zealot's primary healing mastery. A specialist in Alchemy will become a mighty healer, capable of mending the most grievous wounds and ensuring that Tzeentch's armies live to see their enemies fall before them. While a player who selects this mastery may not necessarily gain the most powerful offensive capabilities, they will have absolutely no problems finding allies to protect them and do their bidding. Path of Ritual The Path of Rituals is focused on warping the entire balance of power across a battlefield, skewing the fight to bring about the inevitable triumph of Tzeentch's followers. They are just as proficient at enhancing their allies as they are at stunting their enemies - and, in fact, can do both at the same time. Path of Witchcraft The Path of Witchcraft is for a Zealot who chooses to make himself into a talon of Tzeentch, reaching out to slaughter his enemies through magical attacks. These manifest themselves as deadly portents of chaos. Flocks of shrieking ravens may fall upon a Zealot’s foe to consume their flesh, or strange demonic manifestations may appear out of thin air to lash at his foes. EMPEROR KARL FRANZ – Leader of the Empire Army A soldier, statesman and leader without peer, Karl Franz rules the greatest nation of men in the Old World. Karl Franz is not only a fearless and cunning general who leads his loyal armies from the front rank; he is also a patron of the arts sciences, and an advocate of innovation. During his reign, the Imperial Engineers' School has grown and the Colleges of Magic have thrived. In the time that Karl Franz has ruled, the Empire has flourished, its armies claiming one victory after another against the savage Orc hordes and the dread legions of the Chaos gods. The Age of Reckoning, however, is war on a scale that even the Great Statesman has rarely seen. The people of the Empire are depending on the heroic leadership of Karl Franz to see them through this dangerous time, and all hope of survival for the Old World may well rest upon his shoulders. FINUBAR THE PHOENIX KING – Leader of the High Elf Army Unlike previous insular monarchs of Ulthuan, Finubar the Seafarer favors relations with the other races of the world. He is a proponent of maritime trade, and has opened the grand city of Lothern, capital of the island nation of Ulthuan, to visitors from around the world. Finubar's progressive nature will prove a valuable asset in the Age of Reckoning, for the High Elves must depend on the Empire and the Dwarfs, just as the Old World will depend on the aid of the High Elves. Only united together can the Armies of Order stand against the rampaging hordes that assail their lands. HIGH KING THORGRIM GRUDGEBEARER – Leader of the Dwarf Army Reigning from his seat in the ancient fortress of Karaz-a-Karak, Thorgrim Grudgebearer is a model of Dwarf resolve and steadfastness. At his side, the High King keeps the Dammaz Kron, the Great Book of Grudges. Like all his people, King Grudgebearer takes the recording of grudges very seriously, to ensure that no offense goes unanswered Since the time of Sigmar, the Dwarfs have enjoyed a relationship of mutual respect with their neighbors in the Empire. Their attitude toward the High Elves of Ulthuan, however, has ranged from mistrust to outright hostility. If the Dwarfs are to survive in this new era of strife, the High King will need to set an example for his people, putting aside old enmities for the good of the war effort. In this month’s tease, we unveil the High Elf Shadow Warrior in all her Dark Elf-hating glory. Armed with a pair of swords and finely crafted bow and arrows, she is more than a match for anything Destruction can send her way. Stay tuned for more as we bring you another peek at the WAR cinematic next month. Enjoy! As the heart of Ulthuan's magical traditions, Saphery is a natural target of the Dark Elf invasion. Not only is Saphery home to many of Ulthuan's High Elf Archmages, it also holds countless artifacts and items of power. If the servants of Malekith can gain control of even a fraction of these magical resources, they can twist their power to their own ends, while simultaneously weakening the High Elves. As the Dark Elves march from Avelorn into Saphery, they advance along a number of fronts, intent on dozens of targets. Prime amongst these are the many towers of Saphery, wherein the magical knowledge and power of the High Elves is kept. Of these, the Ithilmar Tower, the Tower of Flames, and the White Tower of Hoeth are three key objectives. If the Dark Elves were to take all three towers, it could spell ruin for the High Elves. Read more about Saphery >> Banker Assistant Banker Librarian Assistant Librarian Khorne Spawn Nurgle Spawn Tzeentch Spawn Warhammer Online Podcasts are now available on iTunes! Subscribe today! Click Image to Watch Podcast As voice talent goes, the various artists, designers, programmers and writers at EA Mythic turned out to be very talented . . . artists, designers, programmers and writers. What can we say, we were early in development and needed some placeholder sound. For the finished game, Sound and Music man, Brad Derrick, and everyone’s favorite British bandleader, Paul Barnett, traveled to sunny Los Angeles, California to record with professional talent to give the people and creatures of WAR a true voice. Join Creative Director, Paul Barnett, and his trusty video phone for a truly unique look at the making of WAR. This month, Paul celebrates getting old, watches a director in action, pals around with White Dwarf and Gamespot, and shares gifts from Father Nurgle. View the Video Blog >> Updated Empire and Chaos content and open world keeps and siege are being tested on beta now. Don’t waste any time, sign up now to take part in one of the largest beta tests ever for an MMORPG. More than a half a million players have registered so far, but we are always looking for new recruits. Sharpen your sword, unleash your inner mutation, and prepare to meet your destiny on the battlefields of Warhammer Online. Sign up for the WAR Beta at: betacenter.eamythic.com WAR is coming! Are you ready? There are a million stories in the Age of Reckoning just waiting to be told. What is your tale? This month we follow a tried and true Warrior Priest into a galiant fight with Chaos warriors. Will he make it out alive? Read This Month's Beta Journal Entry >> WAR is coming! Are you properly dressed? JUST ADDED – WAR BELT BUCKLE Hold your pants up with style and show the world you are ready for WAR! Do you feel like you’ve been lacking accessories in your WARdrobe? Well not any more! Now available exclusively at the EA Mythic Store is the new WAR pewter belt buckle.* Supplies are extremely limited so order now! Visit the EA Mythic Store! * Offer valid for U.S. residents only EARN A SPOT IN THE CLOSED BETA! Feeling creative? We know we have some talented fans out there and now is the time for you to demonstrate your skills. Send us your WAR-inspired art and we’ll showcase the best submissions in upcoming newsletters. Plus, featured artists will be invited to join us in the closed beta test! Griefing Chicken by J. Turunen Choppa Attack by C. Willis Cuisine by Sussan Swordmaster by D. Stokes Repent! by S. Ahola Avenge the Fallen by A. White Visit the Fan Art Gallery >> Submit your artwork >> EARN A SPOT IN THE CLOSED BETA! Have a knack for creative writing or a story you are dying to tell? We are looking to “publish” the best WAR-inspired fan fiction written by our readers. We will choose our favorites and feature them in upcoming newsletters. Plus, featured writers will be invited to join us in the closed beta test! Submissions must be no longer than 2000 words. This Month’s Featured Stories Order The Preceptor (Part One) , A. Marshall Quietus Est, J.D.C Destruction The Tale of Skeg, Gabriev Gul'ug's Wild Ride, L. Brown The Legends and Lore section of the WAR Herald is only as good as the community can make it! Check out the stories from the Armies of Order and Destruction, and let us know how many mugs of ale each tale is worth. (Votes do not immediately display.) Think you can do better? Submit your own! Submit your WAR Story >> Welcome to the WAR Grab Bag, where our friendly neighborhood community team answers the most pressing, the most popular, and the most interesting questions from fans. Keep those questions coming, as we’re eager to hear what you have to say! Check out this month’s Grab Bag >> In the future we will collect grab bag questions from a different fansite each month. If you have a question you would like to submit for next month's grab bag please submit your questions on Warhammer Alliance dedicated forum page. "I’d like the tone of the Warhammer universe to be conveyed by the underlying game systems in addition to the content in order for the game to deliver an experience that is undeniably Warhammer." Developer Profile >> "My hope is that even my friends who haven’t liked other PvP games so far will love WAR’s RvR!" Developer Profile >> The next phase of the WAR Beta is underway and we are debuting all-new content and RvR mayhem! Each month we'll randomly select 20 names from the newsletter subscriber database for entry into the Beta Test.* If you are a current Warhammer newsletter subscriber, then you're automatically entered into the drawing every month. If you are not yet a newsletter subscriber, visit betacenter.eamythic.com to register for the Beta and subscribe to the monthly newsletter. February Winners: A. Reneau/North America M. Street/Europe T. Farr/North America R. Gravelle/Europe G. Bersani/North America R. Karlson/Europe T. Groover/North America L. Palma/Europe T. Traub/North America C. Cavallier/Europe M. Rowland/North America C. Altet/Europe K. Griffith/North America M. Donato/Europe G. Hitt/North America J. Ymedio/Europe A. Barber/New Zealand K. Robertson/Australia C. Lombard/New Zealand M. Akins/Australia This month, decorate your desktop with more images of WAR. Regular Wide Screen January 2008 December 2007 November 2007 October 2007 September 2007 August 2007 Each month we’ll be shining the spotlight on WAR fan sites that exemplify what we consider to be the best in WAR community spirit. The writers of the “Warhammer Community Writing Project” are currently hard at work developing a novella featuring Warhammer lore. The writers, who came from every corner of the WAR community, will be presenting their novella as a free download later this year. Keep your eyes open for this interesting and exciting work of fiction and check out www.warhammerconflict.com for more info! Is your fan site doing something cool, informative, or fun? Let us know by sending an email to war-community@mythic.ea.com and you could be featured in the next community spotlight. Download the WAR Fan Site kit. The views expressed in the linked sites are the views of the respective owners of each site, and do not necessarily express the views of Electronic Arts, its wholly-owned subsidiaries or Licensors. Electronic Arts does not endorse and is not responsible for content on third party sites, including fan sites. 2008 marks a very special year for Warhammer as it is the 25th anniversary of the launch of the fantasy battles game! To commemorate this momentous milestone, Games Workshop has plans to celebrate with a host of global promotions, parties, and events. Cake for everyone! In the coming months, we’ll let you know how you, the Warhammer Online community, can take part in the fun as well. Stay tuned for more details. Masters of Magic Under constant pressure from its enemies, the human Empire maintains mighty armies to protect itself. Crucial among these troops are the Imperial Battle Wizards, trained to rain fiery death upon their foes, or summon the fury of the heavens. When Grey Wizard Lothar and his colleagues ride to war against a massive Orc invasion, can the Wizards control their rivalry and ambition long enough to defeat the enemy? Masters of Magic is now available for purchase at www.blacklibrary.com, or in all good book stores. What is going on in this picture? Send us your best caption and we’ll send the winner into the Closed Beta! Please keep your captions clean if you want them to be printed! Enter your Caption: Enter your Email Address: Last Month’s Contest Winner Winner: "Orc Bathroom Air Fresheners, The Latest In Home Trends" Runners-Up: "For safety reasons, the giant shark on a rock was replaced by balloons on a mailbox as the accepted indicator of party location." "Hey Hun, remember that goldfish we flushed a year ago? He came back." "When they said I would forever be known as THE defender of La-trine ... I thought it was a city." Get your hands on the latest build of WAR at one of the following events: New York Comic Con April 18-20, 2008 Baltimore Games Day June 14, 2008 Toronto Games Day June 21, 2008 San Diego Comic Con July 24-27, 2008 Chicago Games Day July 26, 2008 LA Games Day August 23, 2008 Penny Arcade Expo August 29-31, 2008 Stay tuned for more information about our upcoming 2008 show schedule! More news and exclusive information from the frontlines of WAR, including: Destruction Leader Profiles New Career Mastery Updates Zone Overview – Mountains of Caledor New images from the WAR Cinematic Plus, some other exciting WAR announcements! * The BOOM! Beta promotional code must be activated by May 31, 2008 to be eligible for the Beta Test. Previous registrants can add the promo code to their existing accounts by visiting the Beta Center. One in five registrants using this promo code are potentially eligible to participate in the Beta test. However, this is dependent upon the registrant meeting specific computer system specifications and the time of entry is not guaranteed. The Beta Test is an ongoing process and registrants will be invited to participate at various intervals until the launch of the game. Offer valid for North American residents only. In order to participate in the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Beta you must agree to a Beta Test Agreement, in which you will represent and warrant that, among other things, you (a) are eighteen (18) years of age or older, (b) are not a principal, employee, agent, independent contractor, officer or director of a developer or publisher of video or computer games (other than EA), and (c) are not a principal, employee, supplier, independent contractor, officer or director or of any entity that participates either directly or indirectly in the sale of in-game items, including but not limited to, in-game currency, armor, weapons, etc., whether these sales are to the general public or to a third-party. Please know that at EA Mythic, we don't want to send you information you don't want to receive. If you no longer want us to contact you, please click here to be removed from our mailing list or to change your preferences. You can also write to: Privacy Policy Administrator, Electronic Arts, 209 Redwood Shores Parkway, Redwood City, CA 94065. 'Warhammer' ©/™ and/or ® GW Ltd. Newsletter © 2008 Electronic Arts Inc. All Rights Reserved. EA and the EA logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.All other trademarks are properties of their respective owners. Legal Information Privacy Policy Terms of Service

Read Full Article

Zero Punctuation Reviews - Drake's Fortune

Read Full Article

Lego Universe Details (MMO)

The scoop's over at Kotaku.

The Lego world is all about creativity and building and Lego Universe will be no different. Players will start the game by customizing their mini-figs. According to Hanson, each figure will be endlessly customizable so that you can create a character that looks just like you (or not) to inhabit your little section of bricks. Each world of the universe will have a different theme that corresponds to the different sets of Legos. For example, you will be able to visit the Pirate Planet or perhaps jet over to the Medieval Castle Planet. Lego will provide the basis for each world and then the rest is all up the the users. You can own property and build up whatever creations your mind can come up with using your stock of bricks. Bricks can be earned by a combination of randomly finding them, completing missions and even battling. The more you play, the more bricks you can earn. While there will be no actual PVP battles, players will be able to create creatures/machines and use them to battle other players creations in their quest for more bricks.

Dammit, I think I'm already sold.

Read Full Article

EA wants to buy Take Two

I hope they don't get it. Too many good game properties in 2K games for them to ruin.

Story

Read Full Article

Doom 2 - Rick Astley Custom Weapon

Har.

Read Full Article

Off Topic Friday #22 - Za Warudo

MUDA DA!

MUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAMUDAM UDAMUDAMUDAMUDA!!!

ZA WARUDO!!!

TOKI WO TOMARE!!!

.....Soshite, toki ga ugoki desu...

MUDA DA! *CRASH*

WRYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY! !!!!!!!

Read Full Article

Zero Punctuation Reviews - Yahtzee at the GDC

Read Full Article

Cryptic Studios Announces Champions Online

Hot on the heels of the confirmation of the untimely death of the Marvel MMO, Cryptic is trying again with Champions Online... I'll be keeping an eye on it.

Cryptic Studios also announced today that it has acquired the Champions intellectual property (IP) from Hero Games. First published in 1981, the Champions role-playing game is one of the first RPGs to forgo the traditional dice-rolling system of character generation in favor of a point-based system. Cryptic Studios has licensed back to Hero Games the right to produce Champions RPG books, and the sixth edition of HERO System and Champions, set to release in 2009, will include rules on how to recreate Champions Online characters and scenarios.

Read Full Article

Review - Audio-Surf

A tiny little game with a small 10 dollar price tag, which has had some big buzz in the back alleys of the net, and now I'll break it down for you.

Gameplay -
Audio-Surf is a rhythm game, sort of a distant cousin to Guitar Hero or Amplitude. The basic idea of the game is that it takes your music collection and turns it into levels for playing. The song takes the form of a sort of multilane highway which dips and bobs and weaves according to the music, and your little character flies down this highway picking up colored blocks which then stack in columns on a "board" according to what lane in which they were picked up. When 3 or more blocks of the same color in your board touch, they will clear away and give you points. So not only do you have to keep your eyes on the road, you also have to watch your board of previously collected blocks, trying to catch blocks to match in the appropriate lane.

The game has over a dozen modes of play, which are triggered by choosing a "character" from the game menu. For instance, the "Pointman" character lets you scoop up blocks and drop them in different lanes, a-la Klax, the "Mono" character invokes a mode of play where there are only two kinds of blocks (colored and gray), and grey block clog up your board by refusing to match and clear even with themselves. There's also two-player cooperative characters (though both players must be on the same PC, one uses mouse and the other keyboard).

The game really has an addictive hook to it, especially since it is using music you already love (unless for some reason you keep MP3s of songs you hate, and even then specifically choose to play them). It even comes with a collection of songs from the Orange Box soundtrack, including the omnipresent "Still Alive" by Jonathan Coulton (two versions, actually.. the one in the game sung by GLaDOS and a version sung by Coulton himself).

The game also tracks high scores of the songs played (it uses the ID3 tag data inside the songs to keep track of them), and lets you compare how you're doing vs everybody, or just people in your general geographic vicinity, or specific friends you add to your friends list.

Graphics -
While certainly not groundbreaking for realism or detail, the graphics in Audio-Surf are just what they need to be - sleek, shiny, and high framerate. Even most laptops these days would not be overexerting themselves playing Audio-Surf, and yes, I did test it with my own laptop using its on-board Intel video. They did a good job and did it efficiently, and even threw in a little eye candy to distract you while you play as well.

Audio -
The audio of the game largely depends upon your own music stash, since the hook of the game is that it uses your own music files to make levels. Songs with good, firm beats tend to make good levels, if slightly bumpy. Slow, quiet songs make for easy, gentle levels while thrash metal, as seen above, makes for a wild and crazy ride. It's pretty well implemented.

The Final Word -
Audio-Surf is definitely going to be one of those games that takes its place in the "names among names" for computer games. It's a little bit of a cult hit right now, but word will spread. I can't say it'll ever get as big as guitar hero, but it's certainly less expensive. Ten bucks sure beats having to spend money on squeaky fisher price instruments, eh?

Verdict - A

And that's the word from Bandit Camp.

Read Full Article

Review: Burnout Paradise

Have a guest review in from Psyclone today, because I refuse to buy another gaming console. -GB

The popular Burnout series finally makes it's next-gen debut. The developers have repeatedly stated that this was to be a "complete re-invention" of the series to mirror the change in hardware. Does it manage to maintain the same entertainment value of it's predecessors? And is it really a "complete re-invention"? The answer to those questions: "Hell Yes" and "Uh...kinda". Read below to find out why.

Gameplay:

The most noteworthy addition to the game is obviously the open world of Paradise City. And by gum, it's amazing. Not only is it huge in area, but there is also quite a bit to it vertically: areas under and over highways, a completely empty rail system you can use to get around, parking garages that you can use to explore ROOFTOPS, etc. The game teases you to find every single short cut (signaled by flimsy fences with "Private Property" signs that you can bust through), bust through every single Burnout billboard scattered through the city (some of them in really out-of-the-way places) and jump through every single "Super Jump" (you know you're in one due to the awesome slo-mo cam and the huge "Super Jump" caption in the corner of the screen), though unfortunately these don't allow progression in the game. For that you have to compete in the game's events.

And there are a lot of those too. There are a grand total of 120 events in Paradise City: and unlike most games of this kind all of them are available right from the start. The game progression works with a "license" system: you gain a "Learner's Permit" at first then move up to the "D License" then "C License", etc, as you complete events. Every time you upgrade your license, you gain a new car, the events become harder (race competitors get better cars, you need more takedowns to win Road Rage events, etc) and the events you completed are reset, so you can do them again (only this time they're harder, as stated). Also, every time you win a certain number of events, a new car is unleashed upon Paradise and to unlock it you must find it and take it down. This can be a bit tiresome at times :the cars seem to just show up after you drive around for a while and some of them seem to crash a little TOO often (making you have to wait until they respawn so you can take them down), never the less, it's an refreshing rake on the "unlocking" concept.

And where do these crashed cars go? To the junkyard, of course. Junkyards are scattered across the city and serve as the points where you can choose a new vehicle. Also scattered across Paradise are Auto Repair Shops (which, shockingly, repair your vehicle), Paint Shops (which randomly repaint your car) and Gas Stations (which refill your boost meter). These three can be used even during events, which makes them very useful (especially Auto Repair during Road Rage and Marked Man events).

When you get to the cars themselves, however, you start to question the "complete re-invention" promise: the cars have been split into three classes that turn their boost mechanics into some sort of "Burnout Greatest Hits Collection". The classes are Stunt, Speed and Aggression and each car has the classic stats of Boost, Speed and Strength. Stunt cars have the most accessible boost mechanics: boost fills up by the usual means (takedowns, driving in oncoming traffic, near misses, etc), being filled up faster by stuff like jumps, barrel rolls, flats spins, etc. They also have the most balanced stats. Aggression cars' boost fills up VERY slowly except for traffic checking (which is utterly worthless in this game, since only cars with near maximum strength can hit traffic from behind at high speeds without wrecking and hitting them from the sides doesn't register at times) and takedowns. Takedowns with Agression cars are the only ones that use the Burnout 3 mechanic of increasing the boost meter with each takedown. These cars have the highest Strength stats but have very low speed. Finally Speed cars are throwbacks to the original Burnout: boost cannot be used until the boost bar fills up, yet these cars are the only ones capable of chaining Burnouts. Speed cars are fast, but usually fragile.

The throwbacks end in the events however. Every traffic light in Paradise City corresponds to a certain event which starts at that light, however each event (with the exception of Road Rage and Stunt Run, more on those later) has it's finish line at only 8 different landmarks. That's right. They don't even try to hide it: they showcase all of them in the opening video. While this may seem a little dodgy it soon becomes rather irrelevant once you get used to the game's new event structure.

The thing that might get on most people's nerves is how all events have embraced the open world structure, for better or for worse. The one that is most impacted and may frustrate people is the basic race. Instead of having a looping track or a straight run with invisible barriers (like in Need For Speed: Underground 2 and the like), the game instead allows players to choose their own route, making it a cross between Burnout and Crazy Taxi at times. In order to help players who don't want to memorize the entire map from the get go, the game possesses three critical tools: the minimap, the compass, and the (often ignored) turn signal. The minimap, obviously shows the map of your immediate surroundings. The compass always points toward the finish line and tells you the distance to it (and more importantly whether you're approaching your objective or moving away from it). The turn signal is the AI's way to suggest a route: whenever you approach an intersection, your car's turn signal will light up and the name of the suggested road you take flashes on top of the screen. Unfortunately, even though it has all this and you hear a tone indicating you must turn, it's still VERY easy to miss the turn when you're cruising a Burnout's breakneck speeds. Even more unfortunately, sometimes that could mean the difference between defeat an victory, especially in certain regions like the outskirts of the city (where there aren't many intersections), when you mistakenly enter a freeway (which despite being riddled with holes in the walls and exist ramps, are STILL a tad difficult to leave at times) or when you are very close to the finish line (in that case it's your fault). Also, obviously, the turn signal doesn't include shortcuts, making shortcut taking kind of a double edge sword in which you either cut down race time dramatically or end up stuck in such a long route, you might as well quit the race. This can of course be compensated with knowing the city, but it's still a (relatively uncommon) annoyance. Naturally this open ended nature removes the infamous "rubberband AI" so you can finally brag about finishing a race way before anyone else.

The only other events that remain beside Races from the previous Burnouts are Road Rage and Burning Laps (now obviously renamed Burning Routes). Road Rage has possibly the best overhaul since you are no longer constricted by a track: now the entire city becomes your battle field as you and a brand of respawning rogues duke it out trying to reach the all time takedown record. Since this in this event the rubberband AI remains, you can easily take the battle all across Paradise much to the terror of it's denizens. Burning Routes boil down to getting your car from Point A to one of the 8 Landmarks in x time. Burning Routes are tied to individual vehicles and beating them unlocks a tweaked version of that vehicle for you to use.

The new events were designed from the get go with open-endedness in mind: Marked Man and Stunt Run. Marked Man has you go from Point A to Landmark B while being hounded by maniacs in extremely tough black cars without getting totalled (like in Road Rage you can crash a couple of times but if your damage gets past "Critical", it's over). In this kind of event it's all about trying to avoid them, taking them down to gain time and going the shortest way possible. Great fun. The final event is Stunt Run. Basically Tony Hawk with cars: you run around trying to chain together combos of boosting, drifting, barrel rolling, jumping and flat spinning for the maximum points possible. While laughably easy at first, eventually it gets to the point that, also like Tony Hawk in a sense, you have to "memorize" the perfect "lines" in order to win.

Thanks to the growing trend of "Achievements" in games, Criterion has thrown in a bunch in both console versions (the PS3 version achievements are called "Paradise Awards" and naturally, can't be shown off) to keep players occupied. From the laughably easy (finish your first race, upgrade your license), to the intermediate (chain x Burnouts, make a 260 flatspin) to the hardcore (100% completion), there is something for everyone.

Baffling however are the so called "Road Rules": every road in Paradise has an associated time record and Showtime record (more about that in a sec). Beat them both and you've "dominated the road". You can also have your console look for records online for you to beat and upload. This serves for absolutely no purpose than 100% completion (which makes said completion fall into the realm of, as the great Yahtzee would say, "unemployed psychotics and Koreans"), bragging rights and/or online pissing contests, IMHO. If you enjoy getting your name in the leader boards, be my guest. Not to mention some roads have no business having records. For instance, you get an achievement for beating the offline time of a road that is literally about 300 meters long! And if you go to the online records, people are desperately trying to defeat the current record of 2.4 SECONDS! WTF?

And then there's Showtime: the single greatest disappointment in the game. If Crash mode was, in your opinion, the single greatest thing about the Burnout series, then by all means, do NOT buy this game. Showtime is basically a shadow of Crash Mode's former self. Gone is the strategy, the puzzle element and the satisfaction. Basically, you drive somewhere, activate Showtime and your car starts bouncing around at which point you try to guide it around and hitting the boost button to make it jump into cars. It's laughably easy at times, and incredibly pointless (unless you want to try to make the crash cross the entire city for some inane reason). And, like the billboards, and jumps, offers no progression in the game. One has to wonder what Criterion was even thinking (besides the aforementioned pissing contests).

The interface in this game has been kept to a minimum. You can almost go through the game without looking at a menu screen. Every single common action can be made in the game itself. Want to start an event? Pull up to a traffic light and press the brake and the gas. Want to end an event? Just stop the car. People may get annoyed with the fact that you can't reset an event (especially when you're going for the Burning Routes), but there are so many events that you can just start another one right away (unless you happen to be in the town's outskirts, in which the events are more sparse, but even that can be forgiven)

Sound:

Once again the soundtrack is nothing to write home about. From crappy punk, to some techno and rock, the soundtrack is as ho hum as it ever was. In fact, you may not even notice it while you play... until Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" starts playing, at which point it's all you can hear until you hit the ever so helpful "track skip" button.

The sound effects are good as usual: the whooosh of the boost, the sound of metal crumpling in slow motion when you crash, the clash of two speeding cars, etc. It may sound a little under-whelming at times, but overall it's excellent.
A (relative) improvement in this game sound wise is the DJ. After learning their lesson after hiring DJ "I Can't Believe This Annoying F**ker Works At An Actual Radio Station" Stryker for Takedown, EA decided to get the more well received DJ Atomika from SSX 3 to takeover Crash FM. Unfortunately, he seems to be a tad bitter with his transfer, since his amusing anecdotes from SSX 3 have vanished and only speaks to spout out newbie level hints which at times sound quite condescending (for example, after losing an event, he may say something along the lines of "You lost? Here's some hints: drive fast, and don't crash!". Gee, thank you, Mr DJ!). He does remain mostly quiet though, which is always a plus.

Graphics:

Once again, Criterion did a great job graphics wise. Everything in the game looks gorgeous and (in the PS3 version at least) completely devoid of slowdown.
Paradise City is very diversely designed city. Taking influences from several American cities, it manages to seem varied though you're technically not leaving the city. The outskirts of the town also manage to bring some variety to the events thanks to it's countryside feel.

The lighting effects, particularly on the cars look amazing. Though the civilian cars' models are once again not very detailed, that's largely irrelevant. The player controlled cars, however remain great as ever. You may notice pop up with the civilian traffic and a few pixellated scratches on crashed cars, but the game is still beautiful. The sense of speed the series is known for remains overwhelming, even in the first vehicle you get.

And the crashes. The crashes look better than ever. The bits of metal flying through the road, the metal crumpling in slow motion when you collide head on into a wall of another vehicle, all looks amazing. Criterion has truly taken advantage of the next-gen consoles' power.

Conclusion:

If you're a fan of the series then you may object to some of the things this game does. However, if you're like me, you'll be able to forgive it, because the rest is a great gaming experience. This game is truly much more than the sum of its parts and everyone with a next-gen console owes it to himself to try it out. It's a few points short of being perfect, but it's heavily recommended.

Verdict: A-
-Psyclone

Read Full Article

Off Topic Friday #21 - The Most Spoiled Girl in the World

Get ready to get sick.

Read Full Article

StarCraft Ghost Mostly but Not Entirely Dead?

The guys over at Joystiq have the news that while ghost is apparently "not likely to come out in our lifetimes," it's not technically "cancelled."

Uh huh.

Read Full Article

GeForce 8 Series to get PhysX

From Bluesnews-
The Tech Report has some skinny from NVIDIA about their plans for PhysX following their acquisition of AGEIA (story) that were revealed in a Q&A that followed their fourth-quarter financial results conference call. It sounds like speculation that there will be no more dedicated PhysX cards is accurate, but NVIDIA CEO Jen-Hsun Huang says the PhysX engine will be ported to CUDA (Compute Unified Device Architecture) which will allow it to be run on GeForce 8 cards:

We're working toward the physics-engine-to-CUDA port as we speak. And we intend to throw a lot of resources at it. You know, I wouldn't be surprised if it helps our GPU sales even in advance of [the port's completion]. The reason is, [it's] just gonna be a software download. Every single GPU that is CUDA-enabled will be able to run the physics engine when it comes. . . . Every one of our GeForce 8-series GPUs runs CUDA.

Our expectation is that this is gonna encourage people to buy even better GPUs. It might—and probably will—encourage people to buy a second GPU for their SLI slot. And for the highest-end gamer, it will encourage them to buy three GPUs. Potentially two for graphics and one for physics, or one for graphics and two for physics.

Read Full Article

Zero Punctuation Reviews - Sim City Societies

Read Full Article

Portal's Still Alive in Mario Paint

Too. Much. Time. On. Your. Hands.

Read Full Article

Red Alert 3 Coming

This cover from PC Gamer, embracing all the Freudian methods of marketing, lets us know. I'm cautiously optimistic. I hope they use C&C 3's innovative UI, and I'm sure they'll use the artistry and storytelling we've come to take for granted from the RA franchise. I also hope they'll use the same creative voice acting as from Generals, but no game since has, really.

Read Full Article

Vista SP1 Still Kinda Broken

Watch your butts, Early Adopters. Article.

Despite being released to manufacturing last week, Windows Vista Service Pack 1 is not being made available to all customers because Microsoft is trying to resolve an issue in which hardware devices may stop functioning after SP1 is installed.

Apparently, there is a problem that can occur when the operating system re-installs drivers after SP1 is loaded onto a system. Microsoft says the drivers themselves are not at fault, but ostensibly because Vista SP1 is already finalized, the company has opted to work with hardware manufacturers to implement fixes.

Read Full Article

Marvel MMO Cancelled

Reading between the execuspeak, it seems Microsoft apparently isn't willing to discuss any MMO that won't be certain to kill World of Warcraft. Snort. Yeah, good luck with that. From here.

...if you really look at the data there’s basically one that’s successful and everything else wouldn’t meet our level or definition of commercial success.

Well, I suppose people will merely continue making their City of Heroes characters look suspiciously like X-men.

Read Full Article

Review - Sins of a Solar Empire

It's been a dry couple of months since November or so, the last time anything noteworthy came out. Granted, we were deluged under several top-shelf titles all at once, but the months since have been a veritable desert. Hither comes "Sins of a Solar Empire."

SoaSE is a spaceborne RTS. The imagery involved in it is reminiscent of Masters of Orion or Ascendancy, but unlike those two titles this one is not turn-based. There are quite a few other important distinctions as well, so it is important not to go into this game expecting MOO or any other space-based strategy game you've played before.

Graphics
The visual quality here is rather good. There are options that allow the game to scale as far down as need be to let it run well on older computers, but even with all the bells and whistles turned on it isn't anything that would tax most systems horrendously. If you look around with your camera, you'll see some very desktop-worthy spacescapes. The game is very pretty, and compliments the interface in a way that could almost be called elegant, yet it has an austere quality that still communicates the emptiness of space. Most of the time you won't be paying attention to this sort of thing, of course, given that the game will keep your mind too busy to go sightseeing, but it's nice that it wasn't neglected. I would have liked some of the displays and controls to have been a little less static, though. Many of the depictions of humanoids (leader portraits, the face of the space pirate on the pirate interface) seem flat and lifeless, maybe a little disjointed from the rest of the rest of the artistry of the game. After a beautiful intro movie, one is left to wonder why more liveliness and animation wasn't put into the game itself.

Audio
The audio is good quality and suitable for the atmosphere of the game. There's lots of bass rumbling around as ships slide through space, explosions, weapons fire, and of course the voices of your ship captains and what I'm assuming is your adjutant or some such. It is handy that the adjutant, or whatever he is, often clues you in to what's going on where you aren't looking, yet it avoids the annoying "Our base is under attack!" repetitiveness that has been present in many a Command and Conquer game, for instance. The ship captain voices are only as diverse as the different types of ships, but they are distinct enough that you can tell one ship type from another simply by the sound of the captain. Of course, Warcraft/Starcraft and C&C games have spoiled me a little in this regard, especially in the area of injecting humor into the voice acting of units, and that is not present here but it gets the job done efficiently. The musical score suits the game well too, while not exactly soul-stirring is competently arranged and alters itself according to events occurring in the game.

Gameplay
The game is real-time strategy with an efficient command and queuing system that is at the current end of the logical progression set by previous games of the genre. Lots of UI refinements pioneered by those RTS predecessors are used here, such as convenience of selection and queueing and building, hitting tab to select certain units within a group selection, holding shift to queue up subsequent orders, etc. Also, much like Supreme Commander, there is no distinction between a small scale map and a strategic overview. To get from one to the other you simply place your cursor and roll the mousewheel, and you can zoom as far in or out as you like, from counting the lit windows on a ship or watching hovercars zoom around on a planet to viewing the entire star system all at once.

An important part of the interface is the empire summary that sits on the left hand side of the screen. At first it's a little daunting, but once you understand it and customize its level of detail a little, you can maintain a situational awareness of every fleet and planet in your empire at a glance. The interface also does a good job showing you (through surrounding pips with rollover tooltips) the important things around each planet without you having to zoom in and hunt for them. There is a bit of a learning curve to the UI and controls, but the game provides short tutorials that get you the basics and then the rest follows and gets easier as you play.

The "research" aspect of the game is a little different from most games in this setting that I've seen before, and truth be told I was a little disappointed in it. Rather than grope your way along branching tech trees that lead to improvements of a distinct type from those you would have received if you had gone another way, each faction has its entire set of tech upgrades laid out before it with prerequisites and resource requirements plainly displayed. It takes a little of the "mystery" out of scientific discovery. However, it opens up a lot of strategic options because you are very much in control of what advances you get in what order (though by the end of any given round of the game, you will pretty much have them all). You can even queue up research, so long as you have the resources available to pay for it all in advance. I also like that any research you complete automatically upgrades all units in the field, so there's no tedious calling home all your ships to spend hours retrofitting every last one of them. I would have liked there to be more of a "design" aspect to new classes of ship, but in a game that isn't turn based I can see how that'd not be a good fit. Sending ships around and building orbital mining platforms doesn't leave a whole lot of time for deciding how many and what kind of lasers your new ship class should have.

The dynamic of space combat is rather simple, and focuses around four types of vessels - Capital ships, Cruisers, Frigates, and single-seat fighters and bombers. Each type of vessel can also get "special abilities" that are on cooldowns and use some of the vessel's "antimatter" (which regenerates over time by itself and serves no purpose other than to power the special abilities), but you don't have to micromanage because these ships default to allowing the AI to "auto-use" these abilities when they want to, and they're pretty good about picking the right moments to do so (not just mashing everything at the first hint of combat). So it can be as hands on or off as you care to be, in regards to micromanagement (or lack thereof). The ships are all specialized and balanced for certain roles, and while the actual tactics during battle have only a limited effect on who will win and lose, configuration and placement of forces and formations ahead of time can really make a difference. Capital ships, which are involved enough to require specific "research" done for each additional one you want to build past the first one, also gain experience and "level" with combat, granting them access to more special abilities. There's plenty of combat to go around from the get go, because even uninhabited planets start off with a few "creep" type privateers around them that will attack everyone else on sight, so expanding without at least a small navy is not an option. Also, very shortly after a game begins you will start to have pirate raids, with rival empires bidding against each other by placing bounties on each others' heads, and whoever ends up with the highest bounty is the one the pirates go after... until 12 minutes later when the bidding starts over.

Even the "short" map in the game ended up lasting me 5 hours on the easy difficulty. The normal difficulty AI can be pretty punishing for newbies, so you might want to get your feet wet with easy for the first round or two.

The Final Word
Despite coming from a small developer, Sins of a Solar Empire is a solid title. It lacks a few "bang-zoom" bits to make you ooh and ahh, falling just short of what would have otherwise been a milestone in the genre to compare with any other of the big names if only it had a slightly bigger development budget. Nevertheless, once you get used to the interface the game really starts to get some depth to it, and it is easy to appreciate both the way the game breaks new ground and yet still builds on good gaming concepts put forth by previous RTS titles. It's hard to put it right up against the RTS awesomeness that is Supreme Commander, and it doesn't have a storyline at all to drag you in like the War/Star-Craft series, but those who appreciate real-time strategy involving space and fleets of vessels will find this a title they'll enjoy and come back to often. Verdict - B+. And that's the word from Bandit Camp...

Read Full Article

EA Publically Owns Up To Making Things Suck

From Kotaku:

EA CEO John Riccitiello on how EA ruined some of the best development houses the industry has ever seen. Bullfrog (Dungeon Keeper). OSI (Ultima). Westwood (Command and Conquer).

My note? Tack on Mythic (DAOC) and DICE (Battlefield) to that, as well as a few others.

Read Full Article

Off Topic Friday #20 - 7 minutes of pain

There's some cat stuff in the middle everybody's seen a billion times already, but around that minute or so is about seven minutes of people hurting themselves in very ridiculous ways.


And some bonus pain-

Read Full Article

Samurai Movers

Put granny's furniture in her house... using this trebuchet.

Read Full Article

Holographic Imaging Breakthrough

Apparently a company has developed a way to create and redraw true 3D holographs using only minutes per read/write cycle. This is a big improvement over previous holographic imaging which was write-once only and took longer to construct. And the new stuff has the same definition as standard NTSC television.

I'm crossing my fingers for holographic monitors some time in the next 10 years...

Read Full Article

Zero Punctuation Reviews - Call of Duty 4

Read Full Article

Interview With Al Lowe on Rock Paper Shotgun

RPS has interviewed the brain behind the Leisure Suit Larry series (except for LSL: Magna Cum Laude, that was done entirely without him). It makes for an interesting read and a good nostalgia trip for anybody who remembers what computer games were like in 1988 or so. It's over here, so go read.

Read Full Article