VentureBeat » The Secret World

The Secret World developer shuts down Beijing studio — executes layoffs at other offices

Jeffrey Grubb — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 16:27:03 +0000

It’s hard out there for a massively multiplayer online game developer. As evidence of that, Funcom announced today the closure of its Beijing studio and layoffs at its Montreal and Raleigh offices.

Funcom is the developer of MMOs like The Secret World, Anarchy Online, and Age of Conan. Following the launch of The Secret World, it quickly shifted its focus to “smaller, high-quality online games with more limited budgets and shorter production timelines,” according to a statement on its website.

The company’s Beijing studio worked on the visuals for The Secret World. Funcom will shut that down and bring developers into its Raleigh, N.C. offices. Meanwhile, the company’s Montreal studio will send some developers to Raleigh, while shifting to work exclusively on tablet and mobile games.

“The live team in Raleigh, North Carolina, has up until today only housed our billing/tools, community, customer service, operations, and quality assurance teams,” Funcom chief executive officer Ole Schreiner said in a statement. “By bringing the developers on our live games to Raleigh, it allows us to build a stronger, more unified team that can service and support our online games as they work to expand these worlds and create new experiences for the players who inhabit them. This will also allow us to have the team staying in Montreal focus exclusively on their new responsibilities of developing for tablets and mobile devices as well as working on new tech.”

Funcom also noted that it laid off employees at both the Raleigh and Montreal offices in certain departments.

The Secret World started as a subscription-based game, but the developer recently updated it to a free-to-play model.

Funcom is currently working on an MMO based on the Lego Minifigures products.

(Thanks to Playnews.biz for the tip.)

Filed under: Games

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The best MMOs of 2012

Kat Bailey — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 22:58:46 +0000

Want proof that the massively multiplayer online (MMO) game industry is in a state of extreme flux? Look no further than ostensible World of WarCraft-challenger Star Wars: The Old Republic, which lasted all of seven months before going free-to-play. The times are certainly changing.

Profound disruption, however, can have its advantages. More than ever, underdog MMORPGs and other online games are finding niches in which they can survive and thrives for years. Even apparent busts can right the ship with some smart content and a good free-to-play model.

With that in mind, here are five great MMOs from 2012.

Planetside 2

Welcome to the future. That’s pretty much all we need to say about Sony Online Entertainment’s Planetside 2, which marries a free-to-play model with a full-scale shooter that’s nearly on par with big-budget games like Call of Duty. Sony Online obviously spent a lot of money on this game. That it’s free-to-play says a lot about where online gaming is headed.

More impressively, Planetside 2 really is free, which is more than can be said for many F2P titles. Free players and premium players are more or less on equal footing, with the main differences being in weapon efficiency. It’s a smart move on the part of Sony Online, since skewed balance tends to be felt rather keenly in games such as these.

Apart from being a free-to-play shooter, Planetside 2 is worth experiencing simply because it’s so huge. True, it’s bewildering at first. You’ll spend your first few minutes flailing around, desperately trying to figure out what all the icons mean and what you’re supposed to even being doing. But once you get your feet under you, the firefights that form and dissipate across the massive battlefield are consistently impressive.

At this early juncture, Planetside 2 is certainly still experiencing its share of growing pains, and it feels a touch floaty compared to other shooters. But nevertheless, Sony Online has found a standard-bearer for both its own offerings and free-to-play at large.

World of WarCraft: Mists of Pandaria

The decision to add in the Pandaren race is a transparent attempt to bring in new players and perhaps appeal to a younger demographic. But in practice, Mists of Pandaria has turned out to be very much for longtime fans of the series.

Mists of Pandaria’s feature list is familiar — a new continent, a new race, and a new class. But Pandaria seems less interested in introducing a world-destroying bad guy like Cataclysm’s Deathwing than reigniting the spark of what made the World of WarCraft so appealing in the first place. The continent of Pandaria is everything we’ve come to expect from the series over the years — lavishly detailed and full of nods to games of the past, all rendered with a winking sense of humor.

The actual content is likewise meant to recapture the attention of the old-guard. Aside from a host of challenging new dungeons, Mists of Pandaria brings with it a pet battling system much like that of Pokémon. For longtime players, it’s a great opportunity to dust off all those pets from BlizzCons gone by.

In general, you can say the same for the rest of the game. It’s not an expansion that’s apt to win many new fans, but World of WarCraft seems to be past that point. For those players who have been collecting pets and following the lore from the beginning, Mists of Pandaria is delightful.

The Secret World

At first blush, The Secret World seems like a pretty traditional MMORPG with a modern setting. In this case, it’s set in a world where every myth is essentially true — Lovecraftian demons, vampires, the Illuminati, and all the rest of it. But from there, it goes in some very interesting directions.

One way in which The Secret World shakes things up is in its open-ended battle system. In essence, The Secret World is something of a card game, with your deck of skills determining your role in a party. The goal is to allow players to avoid being pigeonholed into one role, and it’s rather successful in that regard.

The other way The Secret World stands apart is in its approach to its world. Some of have called it a “puzzle MMO,” and that description isn’t far off. Even before The Secret World came out, its marketing was placing riddles around the Internet. The resulting collaboration has been rather interesting to watch.

Unfortunately, like many Funcom titles such as The Age of Conan, The Secret World has been dogged by issues of content and various bugs. Having recently dropped its subscription requirement, however, the hope is that The Secret World will soon be able to reach its considerable potential.

Rift: Storm Legion

Along with World of WarCraft, Rift is one of the very few subscription-based MMORPGs still kicking around. Newcomers Star Wars: The Old Republic and The Secret World shifted away to new models rather quickly, while Rift has managed to hold on. Storm Legion offers a hint as to why.

Simply put, Storm Legion is more proof that Rift is run by one of the best teams in the business. Extremely polished for an MMORPG release, it roughly doubles the size of the world while further building upon the dynamic content that helped define the game early on. Events take place on a grand scale, occasionally overwhelming entire zones. It’s a spectacle certainly worth seeing for yourself.

Also worth noting is the way in which Storm Legion addresses replayabiilty, which was an issue in the original game. Storm Legion’s expansion areas include a rather substantial route split, meaning a whole different set of content depending on which you choose. For those who aren’t extremely interested in traditional raids, the added replayability is a nice plus.

Like Mists of Pandaria, Storm Legion has flown under the radar a bit. The very fact that Rift has managed to last this long as a subscription-based MMO, however, suggests that Trion is doing something very right. The high quality content of Storm Legion is proof.

Guild Wars 2

ArenaNet intended Guild Wars to be the embodiment of disruption in the MMO space — an RPG that broke all the rules and redefined the genre. You can argue whether they have succeeded; but either way, Guild Wars 2 is still a terrific MMORPG.

Pretty much everything Guild Wars 2 has done has been to thumb its nose at the likes of World of WarCraft. Dedicated healers? Gone. Traditional loot distribution? That’s gone, too. Guild Wars 2 ends up sacrificing some depth for being as free and organic as possible; but in that, it ends up being far more welcoming to new players than many of its ilk.

Thanks in no small part to these changes, a vigorous marketing campaign, and strong word-of-mouth, Guild Wars 2 has arguably received more attention than even Mists of Pandeira. Though perhaps not the revolution that ArenaNet was hoping for — it’s still very much a classical MMORPG in form and substance if not in style — it is still strikingly beautiful and well executed. It is the perfect MMO for a genre in flux.

Filed under: Games

Funcom removes subscription requirement for The Secret World

Stefanie Fogel — Wed, 12 Dec 2012 20:29:38 +0000

Norwegian game developer Funcom’s The Secret World is the latest triple-A massively multiplayer online role-playing game to scrap subscription fees to boost its player base.

Starting today, anyone who purchases the game online or at retail (for about $30) can enjoy all of its content, features, and storylines without paying a monthly fee. The business model is similar to the one NCsoft uses for its Guild Wars franchise. Funcom says people who buy the game before Dec. 31 will receive “Issue #5,” The Secret World’s next piece of downloadable content, along with the Initiate Pack, which includes starter weapons, a Blood Raven pet, and extra social clothing.

Funcom is still offering an optional membership that gives subscribers benefits such as experience boosts, in-game items, and in-game store discounts.

Having been in production on and off since 2002, The Secret World finally launched in July to generally favorable reviews, but has faced steep competition from other MMORPGs like Star Wars: The Old Republic, Guild Wars 2, and World of Warcraft. Funcom announced back in August that it’s now shifting its focus to smaller games with shorter development periods, starting with a free-to-play Lego title, according to Gamasutra.

Filed under: Games

Firefall dev discusses major gameplay changes and its Kickstarter-inspired monetization strategy (interview)

Sebastian Haley — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 20:46:22 +0000

Firefall is one of the more interesting and brave massively multiplayer online games currently in the works. Despite lofty promises to the contrary, games like Guild Wars 2, The Secret World, and The Old Republic all feel incredibly samey. Firefall dramatically shifts the MMO template with heavy real-time first-person shooter elements, a Borderlands-esque art style, and a bold free-to-play strategy.

I participated in the ongoing closed beta a few months back and found the game to intriguing but somewhat unbalanced and undercooked. Since then, Red 5 has implemented what could easily be considered Firefall’s Adventure Update (for any Minecraft fans out there), adding and tweaking lots of game systems and content. This includes removing the typical MMO leveling system altogether, allowing players to build the characters they want with fewer restrictions on a more open-ended customization tree.

With that in mind, GamesBeat sat down with Red 5 Studios CEO Mark Kern to chat about what’s new, Firefall’s Kickstarter-inspired Founder system, and cosplay.

GamesBeat: Can you highlight some of the major changes based on the ongoing feedback from the beta?

Mark Kern

Mark Kern: We learned that our PvP, while it was very approachable, would sort of max out for skilled players. They’d say, “OL, I can go this far with my skill and not any higher.” What we did is we raised the skill ceiling. It’s a lot higher. At the higher tiers of competition, you have a lot more capability to display your twitch reflexes and everything else. That was one major change, based on feedback.

The other one was that the whole leveling system wasn’t working out for people. It didn’t seem to fit right with the game. It kind of fought against the horizontal progression that we’ve wanted to do. But we still wanted to have some type of different classes of progression. We broke it up into tiers instead, and that way we give you a road map of your character. You know what to expect. You kind of plan your way to what you want to unlock. That’s been very well received. It’s something where it wouldn’t have been possible if we hadn’t been willing to share our earliest systems in the beta.

A lot of companies, companies I used to work for, they would polish the heck out of something. Then they’d put it out there and get the feedback. If you’re Blizzard, good, you take it and you redo it. That’s very demoralizing for the team, though, because they polished it to such a high level in the first place. If you’re another company, you often don’t have that luxury. You’ve done a commercial beta, not a real beta. By the time you get that feedback, you can’t make dramatic changes to the system.

GamesBeat: I did play the beta several months ago, and I noticed that I felt that the difficulty, even from the onset, was pretty rough if you tried to do it either solo or with a two-man team. Especially for newbies who are starting out and maybe don’t know how to work together. Do I just suck, or is the game intentionally designed to be a multiplayer-only experience?

Kern: It’s really good that you picked up on that, because that’s the next round of beta feedback for this milestone. Our PvE milestone. We did our classes-tuning and our leveling progression in the last couple months. Now we’re working on the PvE aspect and the solo-ability of the game. We want you to be able to participate in world events and get credit for it even if you’re not grouped up. If you just show up, we’re going to be building in public quests. That type of dynamic where you can get points for participation even if you’re not grouped.

We also want to make sure that when we guide you down the path, the difficulty is matched much more to the ability of the solo player, but group players can still have that social experience and get a couple special things out of it. So I’d agree with you. I think the game, as it stands right now, is too hard to solo. That’s one aspect that we’re getting feedback on. We change everything and create fun. That’s our motto.

GamesBeat: What has the overall reception been to the game so far? And the player retention? How long do people play the beta before they move on?

Kern: I can’t give out specific numbers, but I can say that prepatch and postpatch, we’re about three times stickier than we were when you played the beta. So the changes we’ve made have gone to great lengths to make it stickier. We’re still in closed beta. We’re not inviting everybody in yet. But everyone who plays at PAX automatically gets in. That’s kind of our thing. I’m really happy with the retention rate right now. It’s much better than it was, and it’s going to get even better with the PvE patch.

GamesBeat: How do you guys feel now that PlanetSide 2 is on its way? Do you feel that kind of gives you a little extra competition?

Kern: Oh, I know [Sony Online Entertainment's] John Smedley really well. I put him in the Firefall beta a while back. He likes the game. I like PlanetSide. I was a big PlanetSide fan. I think we fill two different niches. They’re about the massive PvP, we’re more about the eSports PvP, as well as this big component of PvE, exploration and co-op multiplayer that you can’t get in PlanetSide. So I think we complement each other really well. But I keep teasing him, because we’re coming out with a massive PvP mode that we’re going to be in beta with in the fall. At that point, maybe it’ll be a bit more competition. But right now I think it’s a really good way to get two different experiences.

GamesBeat: At the beginning of PAX, you guys unveiled your founder system. There’s three different tiers. Was that inspired by Kickstarter?

Kern: It really was. I was amazed by Kickstarter, and then I saw… like, MechWarrior Online did a pack. I asked the community months ago, “Would you like to see something like this from us?” Overwhelmingly, the response was “Yes.” They want to support Firefall. So, OK, let’s put something together. We did three packs, and they’re doing really well.

GamesBeat: It’s a cool system. Plus the XP gain, the permanent XP gain, I was sold. In-game pets and XP boosts will do it for me every time.

Kern: Yeah. The Merch is really special. When you unlock it, we’ve got a lot of behaviors we’ve coded into it to be true to the Penny Arcade version.

GamesBeat: Can you talk about the cash shop and what players can expect there?

Kern: OK. We’ve got the beta shop open now. We truly mean “beta” shop, just like our beta is a true beta. We set some price points to experiment. You can buy a lot of aesthetic items, eyepieces, different hairstyles, different hats that you can wear. We sell temporary XP boosts — 1 hour, 3 hours, 8 hours — for 20 percent. We also sell garage slots. If you like the game, you want to experiment with more tiers of battle frame. If you unlock more garage slots, you can keep them all on the same character.

GamesBeat: I know that, for a year or more now, you’ve been using Crystal [Graziano], the cosplayer, to represent your game. But in this weird unprecedented move, you’ve also sponsored the other costuming she does. Non-Firefall, non-gaming sometimes. I was wondering, why that very specific move?

Kern: I think it’s because we wanted someone to play Mourningstar at conventions who was really a gamer. Not only that, we wanted a real cosplayer, someone who could appreciate the costume that we’re building. It turned out that Crystal is a huge fan of Steve Wang, who’s a Hollywood effects guy that designed the Predator. A big name. He did these costumes for us, for Typhon and Mourningstar. She was just thrilled to meet him. We’re actually shooting a show about here, kind of behind the scenes with her and Steve about building these costumes. We’re going to be releasing that as a video pretty shortly here. Something you can view for free online.

We sponsor her other costuming because Red 5 is really about getting the gamer’s story out there. A lot of our stuff, in the industry, is very PR-focused…. Here’s the front of the mask, right? We want to change that. Because now we’re a direct-to-consumer industry, especially us. PAX is the show that we love the best. Sponsoring player activities, cosplay is well-loved by gamers, that’s how they show love for games…. So let’s sponsor that. Let’s sponsor eSports. Make it about players in the game.

Filed under: Games

GamesBeat Weekly Roundup

Jasmine Maleficent Rea — Fri, 01 Jun 2012 18:33:22 +0000

If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly checkH our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best games stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week, 38 Studios founder Curt Schilling calls out the governor of Rhode Island for damaging remarks, Activision settles lawsuit with former Infinity Ward heads West and Zampella, and Trip Hawkins resigns from Digital Chocolate.

You’ll also find previews LEGO: Lord of the Rings, Hitman Absolution, Metro Last Light, and Rock Band Blitz. GamesBeat also reviewed Go Ninja, Dragon’s Dogma, and Mad Riders.

GamesBeat:

The DeanBeat: What to expect at E3

Machinima scores partnership to promote highly anticipated Hawken game (exclusive)

Warner Bros. to bring online battle arenas to consoles with Guardians of Middle-earth

Warner Bros. confirms LEGO: Lord of the Rings video game (preview)

Just what kind of game is Star Wars: 1313?

Hitman Absolution lets you perform hits in giant crowds (hands-on preview)

Konami Pre-E3 2012 event: More Castlevania and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Go Ninja is like Canabalt with gore and swords (review)

Activision settles lawsuit with former Infinity Ward heads West and Zampella

Battlefield 3 gets numerous tweaks and fixes, just in time for new $50 “Premium” service

Intel Video Superstars competition calls for gaming filmmakers

Sony next-gen console almost used download-only format

4 celebrities (other than Curt Schilling) whose games failed

The Nordic Game Program matters to everyone

TERA publishing VP reminisces starting a company, westernizing an MMO, and a little friendly competition (exclusive)

Mad Riders is beautiful but flawed (review)

Metro Last Light fights shooter fatigue with deeper single player (hands-on preview)

Dragon’s Dogma is an ambitious open-world action fest (review)

Rock Band Blitz trades peripherals for pandemonium (preview)

THQ attempting creative math to maintain NASDAQ listing

Investigating something wicked in The Secret World

Nvidia demos upcoming Hawken mech game using cloud graphics (video)

VentureBeat

Robert Bowling dishes on his move from AAA to Indie (exclusive)

Game pioneer Trip Hawkins was forming a “rebel alliance” among indie game developers (exclusive)

Kixeye expands to mobile games, creates Australian studio

Microsoft says it has sold 67M Xbox 360s, 19M Kinects, and generated $56B in game revenues

Leisure Suit Larry creator wants “infringing” Kickstarter campaign taken down (exclusive)

Badgeville raises $25M to break out from the pack in gamification

Struggling publisher THQ names game veteran Jason Rubin as president

Gaming pioneer Trip Hawkins resigns from Digital Chocolate

Curt Schilling dings Rhode Island governor for damaging remarks on 38 Studios

5 Hit Points: We quiz the creators of You Don’t Know Jack

Filed under: Games

Investigating something wicked in The Secret World

Stefanie Fogel — Sun, 27 May 2012 17:12:15 +0000

“There’s a pressure building,” says elderly shotgun toting Kingsmouth resident Norma Creed as she stands by a large bonfire in her front yard. “The kind that comes before a storm when it builds and builds but just won’t break.”

She looks up. Ravens fill the trees in her yard. Lots of ravens. “They feel it too,” Norma says. “Last time I saw ‘em like this, when the trees were more birds than branches…there were murders.”

When Norwegian developer Funcom’s latest massively multiplayer online role-playing game, The Secret World, launches in July, two things will no doubt set it apart from its competitors: its real-world Lovecraft meets Stephen King meets the X-Files setting and its challenging, brain-teasing missions.

Massively multiplayer online MMO veterans know how questing traditionally works. You stumble upon a hub of non-playable characters with golden exclamation points over their heads. You scoop up every task they offer, then you spend the next few hours grinding them out as efficiently as possible, sometimes while simultaneously watching TV. The Secret World changes all of that by restricting the number of active missions you can have at one time. While some players will find this too limiting, I think it’s a good thing. The Secret World is a story-driven game, complete with cutscenes and voiced dialogue. Many of its missions require attention, thought, and the occasional Google search. Flitting from one mission to another like a hummingbird with ADHD would ruin the experience.

“Find more information about the murders.” After speaking with Norma, this is the only clue I have on what to do next. It’s here I realize The Secret World’s investigative missions are refreshingly free of hand-holding. There is no arrow on the mini-map telling me where to go. Sure, I could probably hop on the Internet using the game’s integrated web browser and find the solution on the official forums, but where would be the fun in that?

After a bit of exploration, I find the information I’m looking for and feel a small rush of accomplishment as my journal updates with yet another cryptic clue. Missions are divided into sub-tiers that need to be tackled in the order they’re given. Once I’ve completed all the tiers and tracked down Norma’s mystery killer, I send a report back to my faction handlers with the simple click of a button and claim my reward. There is no tedious backtracking, which is a nice touch. I find another investigation mission, and it’s not long before I’m searching Kingsmouth for Illuminati symbols for a slightly nutty priest who claims to be the secret society’s biggest fan.

I suspect that The Secret World is not a game for everyone. Quest grinders will no doubt find the game’s slower pace annoying, and action junkies might be disappointed by its floaty, vanilla combat. But if you’re the type of gamer who loves exploration and puzzle-solving, if you love classic adventure games, or if you’re just looking for something a little different, The Secret World might be right up your alley.

Filed under: Games

GamesBeat Weekly Roundup

Jasmine Maleficent Rea — Fri, 11 May 2012 20:48:39 +0000

If you follow VentureBeat but don’t regularly check our GamesBeat site, here’s a list of the best games stories we ran over the last seven days that you may have missed.

This week Minecraft on 360 broke all digital-sales records on its first day, controversial marketing specialist Paul Christoforo filed a lawsuit against N-Control, Activision Blizzard touted Skylanders as bigger than Angry Birds, and Take-Two delayed BioShock Infinite.

You’ll also find reviews for Minecraft: Xbox 360 Edition, Toy Soliders, Lone Survivor, and Awesomenauts.

7 reasons why you should play The Secret World

Stefanie Fogel — Fri, 11 May 2012 12:00:25 +0000

What do werewolves, H.P. Lovecraft, and the Bogeyman all have in common? They’re part of The Secret World, a new massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) from Norwegian developer Funcom. More than five years in the making, this ambitious title features a modern-day setting where secret societies work from the shadows to influence governments, investigate strange incidents, and battle the evil that threatens an unsuspecting populace.

Sounds intriguing, doesn’t it? Players will get to experience The Secret World for themselves during the game’s first public beta test this weekend. One million people have already registered for the event, according to the developer. Here are seven reasons why you should be number one million and one.

It’s not high fantasy

After more than a decade of frolicking with elves, dwarves, and orcs in MMORPGs like Everquest and World of Warcraft, spending an hour in Funcom’s urban fantasy world is refreshing. There are a variety of locations to explore, both real and imaginary. Players can travel to a foggy New England town to investigate a zombie outbreak, or they can discover the secrets behind a major archaeological find in the Egyptian desert. They can ride on a cursed cargo ship, visit an occult prep school, or go all Jack Torrance in an abandoned motel. You can keep Azeroth and Norrath. I want to hang out in Transylvania and New York.

It’s mysterious and spooky

If you enjoy TV shows like The X-Files or Fringe, or authors like Neil Gaiman and Stephen King, you’ll love The Secret World’s atmosphere. This is a world where portals to alternate dimensions hide in public spaces, where crazed street prophets who may be kings predict the end of the world, where childhood nightmares come out from under the bed and set up shop in the local amusement park. From the very beginning, the game asks questions that are begging to be answered. Like, how did I get these magic powers? Who (or what) was really behind a terrorist attack in Tokyo? What the hell happened to that subway station?

As any die-hard fan of Lost will tell you, a good question will keep you watching — or clicking — for a long, long time.

The free-form character progression

In The Secret World, there are no character classes or levels. You don’t start out with a wooden sword doing 5 points of damage to a rat in some guy’s basement. You immediately feel powerful wielding whatever weapon you choose, whether it’s a handgun, sword, or spell. Experience gained throughout the game awards points that can be spent on various active and passive abilities organized in a wheel. Since most basic abilities are cheap, experimentation is easy. You can be a fireball tossing brawler one minute and a shotgun toting healer the next. Funcom boasts the game has 525 unique abilities that scale with your gear, and they’re all available as long as you have the points.

The focus on storytelling

Since 2001, Funcom has worked exclusively on MMORPGs, which makes it easy to sometimes forget that the company is also responsible for two classic adventure titles — The Longest Journey and Dreamfall. Both featured wonderfully mature and compelling storylines that left an impression on a lot of gamers (including this one). Now the writer of those titles, Ragnar Tornquist, is penning The Secret World. The game features plenty of cutscenes and voiced dialogue, and its three factions each have their own overarching storyline filled with quests that strive (but don’t always succeed) to be more than the traditional MMO grind.

The investigation missions

When was the last time a game asked you to do actual research? One of the most intriguing aspects of The Secret World is its investigation missions. Designed to be serious head scratchers, each one is a puzzle that will require you to look at images, listen to sound clips, or explore the world around you. There is even an in-game web browser for looking up real-world myths and legends that may tie into these quests. I can already picture the amount of time I’m going to waste staring at it.

The combat won’t put you to sleep

Funcom already proved with its previous title, Age of Conan, that it knows how to design a fun combat system. Like AoC, The Secret World features collision detection, which is useful for strategies like bottlenecking. It places a greater emphasis on mobility as well. Mobs often have special attacks that need to be avoided, and most abilities can be activated while on the move. Only seven active abilities can be equipped at a time, forcing you to carefully pick what you’ll bring on each mission. Luckily, many skills have synergistic properties that savvy players can take full advantage of, and I anticipate a flood of interesting builds on the web in the weeks following the game’s launch.

The PvP

Two words. Fight. Club.

The three major cities in The Secret World have underground arenas where players can beat the snot out of each other. How cool is that? There is also the typical instanced, objective-based battlegrounds, but the real action is going to be in the war zones. These are persistent areas where a massive amount of players can battle over control points and take over the zone for their faction. With three factions in the game, these power struggles are bound to be interesting. Hear that sound? It’s the sound of former Dark Age of Camelot players drooling on their keyboards.

Filed under: Games

The top 5 MMOs of 2012 — and what they’re doing differently

Sebastian Haley — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 18:50:27 +0000

2012 will see some of the biggest releases ever in the massively multiplayer online role-playing game genre. GamesBeat has rounded up the most promising titles and asked their developers, “What makes your game unique?”

You’ll also find beta information, minimum system requirements, and preorder bonus/collector’s edition details if applicable. Let’s begin!

Firefall

Developer: Red 5 Studios
Release date: TBD, 2012

Developer Red 5 Studios, which includes former Blizzard employees who previously worked on World of Warcraft, is self-publishing Firefall. Blending first-person shooter and real-time strategy aspects into the usual massively multiplayer formula, the game first left a “Borderlands MMO” impression; though, just leaving it at that would be selling the game short.

Firefall sets itself apart primarily via its sci-fi setting — a stark and all-too-rare contrast to the high fantasy-riddled MMO genre. Sci-fi writer Orson Scott Card has assisted with the game’s fiction while the former World of Warcraft team lead and Tribes lead designer have directed the gameplay. Set 200 years into the future, classes in Firefall are called Battleframes and can be switched out at set places, allowing any character to use any class in the game (similar to Final Fantasy XI). The Tribes influence comes by way of jetboots, which allow players to fly about exploring areas or killing giant, Starship Trooper-esque alien bugs.

To sweeten the pot, Firefall will be completely free. The game is already enjoying a closed beta that runs 24/7 with more and more invites constantly going out. Eventually, the closed beta will become open, and then the beta status will just drop off completely. It’s a brave way of introducing a game to market but one that has worked well for indie iOS developers and may pay dividends for Red 5 as well.

What’s unique?
“[Firefall] takes the premise that a triple-A game can be given away for free and that an e-Sports quality shooter can be turned into a massive, persistent, online world experience,” says Red 5 Studios founder Mark Kern. “It represents a new experiment in online gaming, challenging nearly all the conventions of traditional MMOs in the relentless pursuit of fun.”

Preorder Bonuses:
Since Firefall will be free for everyone, there won’t really be a preorder bonus. But Red 5 plans to monetize the game with a microtransaction item mall and may award devout “testers” when the time comes.

Filed under: Games

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Top 10 new game brands of 2012

Stefanie Fogel — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 15:00:37 +0000

Earlier this month, VentureBeat published a list of 10 of the most anticipated video games of 2012. Some of you had plenty to say about our picks, especially the fact that most of them were sequels. With many established franchises moving to a yearly release schedule, one might start to wonder where all the originality in gaming has gone.

Well, wonder no more.

While newly announced intellectual properties like Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us and Epic Games’ Fortnite don’t make the list because they currently have no release date information, there are still plenty of promising new IPs set to hit store shelves in 2012. Here are ten brand new titles worth keeping an eye on.

Asura’s Wrath
Developer: CyberConnect2
Publisher: Capcom
Platforms: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Release Date: Feb. 21, 2012

Asura was once a revered deity before he was betrayed by his fellow gods, banished from the realm of Shinkoku, and stripped of all his powers. Twelve thousand years later, he is awakened by a mysterious voice and, consumed by vengeance, he sets out on a quest for revenge against his betrayers. Asura’s Wrath, Capcom’s latest beat ‘em up, will be told through episodic gameplay similar to a TV drama series, blending Asian mythology with sci-fi.

Capcom says Asura’s Wrath will deliver a fresh take on the action genre by combining intense combat with a seamless player-controlled narrative. Through a mix of range attacks and close quarter action, Asura will face off against numerous unique enemies, including planetary sized bosses, that Capcom says will continually challenge your expectations.

Dishonored
Developer: Arkane Studios
Publisher: Bethesda Softworks
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Release Date: Q2 2012

Dishonored is an all-new first person action game currently under development at Arkane Studios. It’s the studio’s first project since being acquired by ZeniMax, the owner of Bethesda, in 2010. Overseeing the project are co-directors Raphael Colantonio, former lead designer on Arx Fatalis, and Harvey Smith, former lead designer on Deus Ex.

In Dishonored, you take on the role of Corvo, a legendary bodyguard falsely imprisoned for the murder of the Empress, in an industrialized retro-future game world designed by Half-Life 2 Art Director Viktor Antonov. Using a mix of assassination and stealth, you will have to unravel the conspiracy behind the murder and hunt down those responsible. You will have numerous powers and tools to accomplish your tasks, and Arkane says each encounter will play out based on hundreds of different factors.

I Am Alive
Developer: Darkworks (2008-2010), Ubisoft Shanghai (2010-2011)
Publisher: Ubisoft
Platforms: PlayStation 3 (PSN), Xbox 360 (XBLA)
Release Date: Q1 2012

Publisher Ubisoft says I Am Alive is an action/adventure game engineered to create a convincing post-disaster world in which players are faced with thought-provoking choices. The game follows a man’s journey to find his wife and daughter in his hometown, Haventon, one year after a cataclysmic “Event” wipes out most of the human race. The mystery of the Event is an important part of the experience, the publisher says, and you will have to figure it out for yourself based on what you see and what others tell you.

Stamina and resource management will be key to surviving I Am Alive’s post-apocalyptic world. There are no supernatural threats. Instead, you will have to brave deadly dust clouds and scale enormous buildings to search for supplies while using a unique combat system that requires you to utilize intimidation against your foes.

Journey
Developer: thatgamecompany
Publisher: Sony
Platforms: PlayStation 3 (PSN)
Release Date: Spring 2012

thatgamecompany, the studio behind flOw and Flower, is known for challenging traditional gaming conventions and Journey is their vision of a unique online adventure experience. After awakening in an unknown world, you will walk, glide, and fly through an awe-inspiring, interactive landscape and discover the history of an ancient civilization. The game encourages exploration without violence and seeks to “de-empower” you, making you feel tiny and helpless in a vast world.

Journey’s approach to online gaming sounds similar to that of Demon’s Souls or Dark Souls, in that you will occasionally be able to explore your surroundings with fellow travelers who cross your path. By traveling together, you will be able to re-shape the experience in a way that the developer hopes will be authentic, emotional, and memorable. Here’s our interview with Journey co-creator Jenova Chen.

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
Developer: 38 Studios, Big Huge Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Platforms: PC, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
Release Date: Feb. 7, 2012

38 Studios is the creative enterprise of former MLB pitcher Curt Schilling, who also happens to be an avid gamer. Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning is the studio’s first project and it has already generated buzz simply because of the names attached to it. Ken Rolston, former lead designer of classic role-playing games The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is leading the project, while New York Times best-selling fantasy author R.A. Salvatore is creating the lore and game world and Spawn creator Todd McFarlane is in charge of the art direction.

38 Studios says Reckoning will have the open-world exploration, vast narrative, and character customization fans expect from the genre, as well as fast-paced, graphically stimulating action and fluid controls. If God of War and Fable had a baby, it would probably look a lot like Reckoning, and expectations are high for this brand new IP.

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