LEGO Universe

A LEGO MMO? There’s no way this can end well. Right?

Uh-oh, this video has me interested. I won’t cave, I won’t. Well, maybe it won’t be ALL bad.

Add comment January 10th, 2010

Champions Online (again)

The Champions Online beta is over and the game is finally ready to go live for everyone. A few thoughts on the game so far…

This is far more like City of Heroes than any other MMO I’ve tried. Not that that’s a bad thing. From the way level upgrades are handled to the way gangs sort of hang around, it’s very familiar.

The storyline(s) are ridiculous and cheesy. This has been debated online a bit, but I like the B movie flavor of it all.

The character creator is unbelievably fun. I’ve seen some excellent toons out there. Favorites I’ve seen include Josie from Josie and the Pussycats, Duke Nukem and what looked a lot like Samus from Metroid. There are plenty of generics too, but the variety is pretty awesome.

CoH/CoV had pedestrians spouting funny lines at you when you’d run by. The enemies do more of that here. Hearing (or rather, reading) goons in nuclear waste talking about their latest mutations is entertaining.

There need to be more open objectives that can be done with large groups ala Warhammer Online. There are some, but more would be welcomed.

Millennium City feels like a ghost town. It’s big, it’s shiny, but it needs way more activity. This may change in later levels, I don’t know. For now going there for any reason other than that you have to feels pointless. I was hoping to “want” to go there.

If you visit the official site forums you’ll be bombarded with topics like “you guys broke the game!”, “I’m not playing this anymore” and “Cryptic, why did you nerf my class?”. Every MMO has message boards that look exactly like these, pay them no mind. I’ll be back with this topic another time, I need to sink another 3 months into it first.

If you see me playing, say hello! I’m usually online with the Mrs. who plays as Nurse Death.

Doctor Death

On a completely unrelated note, these are the lamest wax figures I’ve ever seen.

Add comment September 1st, 2009

My future of gaming – Champions Online

The question I get asked the least as a customer service rep is “Scott, thanks for the truly amazing help, but I just have to know… what game are you most anticipating this year?”. I’m glad you didn’t ask. That game can be summed up in two words, Champions Online.

Now I know what you’re probably not thinking, “Another MMO? Wow. That’s exciting”. You’d be right and wrong. Right because it is exciting, and wrong because I know you thought that in a snarky way and weren’t being at all serious. Champions Online is being made by Cryptic, the studio best known for the early and excellent MMO entry City of Heroes, and the so-so pseudo sequel City of Villains. I loved City of Heroes when it came out, the design was cool and the gameplay was actually pretty original. Add on the ability to soar through a city and I was hooked for a while. Then it started raining MMO’s. It seemed like there was an MMO coming out every other weekend. Some were good, some were bad. Well, ok, most were bad. The bulk of them died quick and deservedly painful deaths, but a few have managed to stick it out and have loyal fanbases. I was one of these loyalists with my allegiance pledged to CoH for quite a while. You can probably guess what happened then. Yep, a free trial of World of Warcraft was sent my way. With that, I couldn’t go back. It felt like I was going from DVD back to VHS. Not that WoW doesn’t have its faults (it does, really), but it did have what CoH didn’t have enough of, things that kept my attention like differing landscapes, a variety of enemies and well-defined PvP. I grabbed the WoW by the horn and played like there was no tomorrow. Many tried to tempt me, but none could tear me from the beauty that was my WoW.

It’s been a long time, but a challenger actually appears to be here and damnit, I’m ready. I’ve suffered through broken promises (I’m looking at you Tabula Rasa), crappy mid-level gaming (hello Age of Conan), amazingly empty worlds (hi there Guild Wars) and possibly the worst game I’ve ever played (cough. Vanguard. cough.). I’m ready Champions Online, and you better not disappoint me. So far the game looks like they’re actually making exactly what I’ve been looking for, taking what made CoH/CoV excellent and allowing you to roam through what appear to be an interesting world that doesn’t feel like you’re just fighting the same 5 people looped over and over in a warehouse you swear you’ve been to already.

Now this could just be a case of me wanting a game not to be terrible because it sounds good, and I’ve been through this before with many others. Still, the footage I’ve seen and the feedback it’s getting are both excellent. The only thing that I’m not psyched about is that it’s going to be grouping both PC and Xbox 360 players together. No offense Xboxers, I’m with you in most cases, but the thought of listening to a 12 year old complaining in a voice that’s yet to change that this isn’t as fun as Call of Duty 9 doesn’t excite me. Taking that awful thought away, I’m going to be there on day one. I may not be there on day twelve, but here’s hoping Cyptic can do it again and actually hold my attention while other companies try to sway me with shiny objects. Oh, did I mention that this game is going to have a huge assortment of super powers to use? Did I forget to tell you that the character customization is going to be truly awesome? Sorry ladies, I’m taken.

Official website:
Champions Online

Preview:
Destrucoid

Related video:
Creating a character
Hands On with G4

Add comment August 3rd, 2009