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May 12th...

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Just a thought - The Rise of Non-Linear MMOs

2013 was a shaky year.

Many MMO titles have fallen on and off the radar.

Many F2P MMOs have been shut down due to publisher negligence and greed.

And World of Warcraft continued its tight stranglehold on the entire industry.

But today, it’s becoming more apparent that gamers are getting burnt out on MMOs altogether. Mainly due to years of conditioning brought by World of Warcraft, many titles have been forced to follow its formula down to a T, as well as follow a strict check list for progression, features and amount of control the player has up until the endgame. For any MMO that doesn’t have a massive amount of content like World of Warcraft, it’s a formula that becomes a time bomb for any MMO attempting long term development.

Previously at GDC 2013, Park Seong Joon of Neowiz CRS hosted a lecture regarding the pitfalls of maintaining a modern MMO, with average scenario that happens after an MMO has launched:

Wonky grammar aside: his lecture explains is that most players will burn through the content of a new MMO faster than any development team can crank out new content for it. While I tend to play my MMOs at a more casual pace these days, it’s a routine that I see time and time again, as many gamers seem to be convinced that the endgame is where all the “fun stuff” happens, and with the linearity that most modern MMOs have, they’ll soon realize that the endgame actually has an –end- to it.

GunZ 2 - EU CBT Impressions

At long last, MAIET Entertainment is finally giving the English speaking world a taste of their long-awaited TPS title: GunZ: The Second Duel (GunZ TSD). "ProSiebenSat.1 Games", the same publishers that host Alaplaya, has recently launched their second closed beta test back in Novemeber, and this time with very little signs of IP blockage. While I could have waited for the upcoming Steam version that’s set to be released this December, I rushed for the nearest beta key I could get and hopped in, because as some of you know, I’m a complete and total GunZ fanatic.

For those that have been living under a rock: GunZ: The Second Duel, sequel to the original GunZ: The Duel, is a third-person shooter that’s all about doing things with style. While it may look like just your average third-person shooter, GunZ TSD throws in a bunch of its own unique mechanics that will make you feel like acrobatic action hero, such as being able to climb and run along walls, knock enemies into the air and then gun ‘em down all Devil May Cry-style, and plenty of other neat tricks that come straight out of a Hollywood popcorn flick.

One of the biggest changes to GunZ: The Second Duel compared to its predecessor, however, is the removal of K-Style: A popular playstyle that significantly changed the overall flow of gameplay by allowing players to jump, dash, block and shoot all at the same time. While this made the gameplay a lot more intense and exciting, it also brought weapon imbalance, made latency issues more apparent and even brought about health concerns from prolonged performance of K-style techniques, such as Carpal Tunnel.

MAIET thought long and hard about wanting to bring K-style back for the release of GunZ TSD, as shown in the game’s alpha footage: Players were able to perform moves including shotslashes (rather than slashshots), light steps and more. But in the end, MAIET came to the conclusion that it was too much of a hassle to bring it all back if they were going to achieve a more balanced shooting game.

So now, GunZ TSD lives on as a game that’s (literally) sticking to its guns to provide a TPS experience that’s fast and accessible to all gamers, but will it be fast enough for hardcore fans of the original?

Tekken Revolution - Review

Look at this! I'm reviewing another console game for a change! But anyway...

F2P gaming has always held close ties to PC gaming. Ever since its early iterations that started way back in the early 90s, F2P gaming has exploded and is now considered to be one of the most preferred ways of monetizing an online game.

Now the F2P market is starting to expand over to the console gaming market, and with Namco Bandai being one of the first to take advantage of this untapped territory by creating a F2P version of one of their flagship title: Tekken.

Tekken Revolution marks the first game in the franchise to be made into a F2P title, and promises to stay as deep and complex as its predecessors while being more accessible to new players. However, it seems that they skimped too much on the “free” aspect of F2P, and instead provided a game that feels more like a glorified demo of their previous Tekken titles.