Tagged News: sci-fi

Tabula Rasa is the sci-fi MMO developed by Destination Games and published by NCsoft. It launched close to two months ago on November 2nd and I've been playing it daily since the Pre-Order Head Start in October. That's part of the reason why it's taken me a bit to write this review.

Sound

The sound in this game is amazing. I actually left the music on, and for me that is a rarity. Audio in Tabula Rasa is used effectively to make it necessary to listen in order to maintain situational awareness. Several times while I was running around the battlefield I actually had chills when I heard a Bane Dropship coming in behind me. The screech of a Lightbender or the hissing speech of the Thrax will haunt you even when you aren't playing. Tabula Rasa does have in-game voice chat and the quality is quite good. While not absolutely necessary, voice chat does make Control Point battles and instances go much smoother.

Click Read More to see the entire review of Tabula Rasa.

The official Jumpgate Evolution website has re-launched and contains loads of new content for fans of the game to enjoy. It even includes some videos of the re-make of NetDevil's space MMO classic.

Check it out here.

I'm not sure when the last time I saw a Weekend Roundup on a Monday afternoon before, but it seems that the upcoming Rage nerf is the topic of this one.

For full details of how they're fixing the bug, click on to the next page.

NCsoft and Destination Games have opened the Sci-fi MMO Tabula Rasa for business today:

NCsoft®, the world's leading developer and publisher of online computer games, announced today that Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa®, a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game for the PC where players are thrust into an exciting intergalactic struggle, launches commercial service in North America and Europe on November 2, 2007.

"Now the fun begins! I can't wait to join thousands of other players in this exciting galactic war," said Richard Garriott, the game's executive producer. "It is time for us to release Tabula Rasa to the players. I am eager to see player reaction to the game, and am ready to build on what we've started here. We've got plans for new features and expansions for the foreseeable future and I'm hoping the players will enjoy the game and get excited about what's in store for them next!"

I may have to check into getting the Collector's Edition, just for the SpecOps Black Paint for my armor. Yeah, it's like True Black dye tubs in UO.

Full press release after the jump.

Word from the Top of the World is the EVE Fanfest has started up and won't stop for 3 days:

EVE Fanfest 2007 opens!
At 11.00 GMT today, 1 November, we opened the doors to the EVE Fanfest 2007!

This marked the start of 3 days of fun with presentations, roundtables, a trip to the Blue Lagoon, PvP tournament, CCG demonstration and tournament, silent auction charity, the dev band RöXör and of course a chance to meet friends and foes and devs. For the full schedule, please download the Fanfest brochure.

Everything will culminate on Saturday with the famous Party At The Top Of The World™!

Dana Massey is attending on behalf of WarCry and will have updates and a bunch of stories of Viking mayhem to relate when he gets back I'm sure.

Friday morning, someone hacked the EVE Online database and tried to manipulate data, possibly to give themselves an unfair advantage. CCP quickly discovered the intrusion and handled the problem, and then issued the following statement:

At 10:25 GMT today we discovered an anomaly in the EVE Online Database indicating a potential exploit. Our policy in such cases is to mobilize a taskforce of internal and external experts to evaluate the situation. At 12:57 that group concluded that our best course of action was to go completely dark while an exhaustive scan of our entire infrastructure was executed.

Our taskforce quickly found the security breach and prevented that from being used. We subsequently found three cases of database actions being performed through the security breach but none of those affected other users than the one doing the actions. We can also confirm that no personal details such as users' credentials or credit card numbers were exposed through this incident.

To see the official statement in its entirety, hit the jump.

Sci-Fi MMO's are the new toy everyone wants to play with. A new game known as Project V.I.L.E. was announced recently and it looks very interesting:

Vile Studios today announced their premier title, Project V.I.L.E., a beefed-up Sci-Fi Fantasy MMORPG that brings many facets of the science fiction genre together for the first time in a massively multiplayer online format. Project V.I.L.E. is being developed for the PC platform, but Vile Studios is looking into releasing this epic Sci-Fi Fantasy MMORPG across multiple platforms. Project V.I.L.E. is in early production solely in Vile Studio's Brisbane studios and is scheduled to be released late 2008

"Project V.I.L.E. is going to be a full-flavored, shooting, fighting, action-packed Sci-Fi MMORPG which gamers, both casual and dedicated, can really sink their teeth into. We will be incorporating and twisting all of the coolest concepts the Sci-Fi genre has been known for and we have all been eager to see in a Sci-Fi game" said Vile Studio's Creative Director, Ashley Hodgetts.

Developing for consoles as well as PC could push this game into best seller land. Since Blizzard is adamant about never putting WoW on a console, the Hubris Detector says that the game that will dethrone World of Warcraft as the current holder of the most credit card zombies will be available on consoles.

For a full V.I.L.E press release, hit the jump.

EVE Online looks like it is set to leave Boot Camp behind as a native Mac/Linux client has been announced for later this year:

CCP Games, one of the world's largest independent game developers, today announced a partnership with TransGaming Inc. (TSX-V: TNG) , a leading developer of software portability products for the electronic entertainment industry. The strategic relationship will enable CCP to deliver its popular massively multiplayer online game (MMOG), EVE Online, with Linux and Macintosh platforms later this year.

TransGaming provides technology and expertise to deploy games across a range of platforms without the need for redevelopment and still maintaining the high quality of gameplay and allowing users of different platforms to play in the same perpetual online universe. As a result of this partnership, CCP will be able to expand the reach of its Sci-fi MMOG to new groups around the world.

Along with the graphics upgrade coming later as well, this is making me really want a new MacBook Pro. I know, what would I do with it other than play EVE and WoW?

Hit the jump for the full announcement.

Caldari Battleship V - 14d, 13h, 44m

Latest news from NCsoft says that if you're waiting for Tabula Rasa, you won't be waiting much longer:

NCsoft® Europe, the world's leading developer and publisher of online computer games, announced today that Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa® has reached gold master status and will launch commercial service in Europe and North America on October 19, 2007. Pre-order customers will begin their three-day head start on October 16.

One of the most anticipated PC games of the year, Tabula Rasa is gaming legend Richard Garriott's newest title, which combines a vast, persistent game world and rich storyline with fast paced action. Set in a near-future science fiction storyline, players create characters that must fight to save humanity against hostile alien enemies while trying to gain control of the universe. The game introduces several innovative elements to massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, including a Character Cloning System™ that allows players to explore different character classes without having to create a new character, and dynamic battlefields where players experience the frenetic action of combat in an ongoing war.

See the press release in its entirety after the click.

Dr. Eyjo "DrEyjoG" Gudmundsson, Lead Economist at CCP Games, has published his first official dev blog and discusses the mineral market. You can read all about it at http://myeve.eve-online.com/devblog.asp?a=blog&bid;=498. Also, EVE Online set a PCU (Peak Concurrent Users) record on September 3rd, with a total of over 35,000 players logged in at once. That's a great accomplishment for an MMO that at one time didn't even have 35,000 subscribers. Well done!