Tagged News: video games

MMO Games Directory is featuring an interview with Atanas Atanaso, CEO of Masthead Studios. Masthead Studios is currently developing a post-Apocalyptic world MMO called Earthrise. Earthrise is set to debut sometime in 2009.

Here's a bit about the game from the Masthead site:

In the aftermath of the Third World War, mankind has managed to survive and build a new society: the prosperous city of Sal Vitas. Cloning, nanotechnology and quantum engineering are part of a new reality. Thanks to these technological advances, the human species has become immortal; each individual's consciousness is stored in a data vault, ready to be uploaded into a cloned body as necessary. New energy sources have been discovered. There is a unified government that takes good care of those citizens who abide by its strict laws. Paradise, it appears, might really have come to Earth, and the people have embraced it.

Click below to read a portion of the interview.

Game Daily is featuring an interview with Epic's CEO Tim Sweeney. In the interview, Sweeney indicates that PCs are not the best platform for gaming...though not because of the medium but because of PC makers:

it is very important not to leave the masses behind. This is unfortunate, because PCs are more popular than ever. Everyone has a PC. Even those who did not have a PC in the past are now able to afford one and they use it for Facebook, MySpace, pirating music or whatever. Yesterday's PCs were for people that were working and later playing games. Even if those games were lower-end ones, there will always be a market for casual games and online games like World of Warcraft. World of Warcraft has DirectX 7-class graphics and can run on any computer. But at the end of the day, consoles have definitely left PC games behind," he said.

The article goes on some more and is worth reading so check it out.

Mark Skaggs, a veteran developer, has joined the board of Top Secret, a community designed and built MMO project put together by Acclaim and David Perry. Skaggs is an industry veteran, most notable for his contributions to the Command and Conquer series of games. He has worked for both Electronic Arts and Nintendo.

Top Secret is an MMO project where the community collaborates on the design and then the game is built in an interactive competition with a top prize of $100,000 and a development contract.

Read more after the leap.

In his latest column, Jim Moreno celebrates the life of the man himself: Gary Gygax. The pen-and-paper legend and Dungeons and Dragons co-creator passed away last week.

The spark that fired my imagination for RP gaming was D&D;, where Gygax shared with me adventures in lands from his own imagination. To depart a bit from the usual RP conversation here, I want to tell you what else I learned from D&D;, things about the real world that were taught to me through a fantasy game, and how they have and are coming full circle.

Read more after the jump.

Rockstar founder Sam Houser thinks a Grand Theft Auto MMO is something to dream about. According to Massively.com (via 1Up.com), it's something Houser has given a lot of thought:

Boyer raked Houser over the coals a little bit, trying to glean from him what the future of the franchise might be. In terms of multiplayer, Houser didn't shy from expressing his enthusiasm for the idea of a GTA MMO. Specifically, he said such a title, "is very, very doable and is a very, very compelling proposition." In a subsequent question he refers to a mainstream subscription-based MMO on a console as "the Holy Grail."

Check out a bit more by clicking below.

Winners of the Design-a-Weapon contest were announced recently. Sounding like a daunting task for judges, here's a snip of the press release:

From the more than 1,000 entries, through multiple levels of judging, approximately 100 concepts were selected as finalist entries. Then, the entire Guild Wars Development Team judged the finalists. Eleven concepts were selected as winners, and those concepts will be the basis for new items that will be added to the game in the upcoming months. Another fourteen item concepts were selected as Honorable Mentions, and it is possible that those concepts may also become items in the future. In two instances, design concepts from multiple contestants were combined to form a single entry for judging and those combined concepts would be used as the basis for one new item, although each of those contestants will receive a prize.

You can view all the winners and see what prizes they won at the link above.

For players who have met and crossed the fifty-seven month mark in the Star Wars Galaxies, there is a great reward in store: A homing beacon:

The homing beacon, the 57 month veteran reward, allows pilots in the system to land their ships from the space station above their home. Placing the beacon in a house or other building will mark that location as a direct landing spot for any starship.

The homing beacon is a No Trade item that veterans can place in any structure they own. This item can be placed in a structure like any other piece of furniture or decoration and will automatically set the structure as a landing zone.

Check out the images and the rest of the description at the official site listed above.

Requiem: Bloodymare has officially entered its closed beta testing phase of development. A select number of beta access keys are available. Besides what is listed below, players can win a beta key here at WarCry. Be sure to enter. Otherwise, here's the other information necessary:

The Requiem: Bloodymare Closed Beta Launch is scheduled to officially begin Friday February 29th.

To guarantee access to the Requiem: Bloodymare closed beta you will need to acquire a Closed beta access code for the registered account, which will become available from the following sources.

• Starting Tuesday February 26th, Fileplanet will have a limited quantity of Closed Beta codes for Requiem, available only for Fileplanet registered users.
• Friday February 29th, MMORPG.com will have closed beta codes available.
• And also on Friday February 29th, MMOSITE.com will also have a limited quantity of closed beta codes available.

For those that register on the website but are not able to acquire a closed beta access code for that account we will be offering another chance to participate in the closed beta. As space allows we will randomly select from the pool of registered, but not game-accessible, accounts and grant them access to the Closed Beta as the Beta period progresses.

The closed beta period is scheduled to run from Tuesday February 26, at 4pm PST until Wednesday March 26, 10am PST

The registration page for both the Forums and the Website will be made available on Monday February 25th.

Click below for more information about Requiem.

The official NWN 2 forums are now home to a weekly "Mysteries of Westgate spotlight" thread. This week's is entitled "The Legend of the Quelzarn" and says:

Curse it all! Wouldn't ye know we'd be attacked by the Serpent of the Harbor! Blast Umberlee, Queen of the Deeps, for that foul beast and our even fouler luck! - Captain Ferro Merrig

The mages of Faerūn say the race of gigantic eel-like serpents known as the quelzarn are of magical origin, perhaps the result of long-ago experimentation by the mages of Unther; certainly, the beasts were hunted there. Between 30 and 40 feet long, the quelzarn are rapacious, agile, and skilled hunters known to be willing to eat anything, even carrion if desperate. Highly resistant to the foul waters of busy harbors and vast swamps alike, they are adept at using the cover given by intense pollution to mask their approach until the moment of strike.

Find out more by clicking below.

Star Trek gaming site, Hailing Frequency, reported today an interesting turn around for the recently closed official Star Trek Online site, which returned with a brand new background and a "Coming Soon" underneath the logo. The WhoIs information have not been updated as of yet, but as noted in the HF report, this might change very soon:

This could signify a change in hands of the domain, potentially from perpetual, to whoever may be developing it now, but, attempts to trace the domain back to its new owner do not give any results.

As the recent rumors have indicated, Cryptic Studios might be the secretive new developer, but their lips are tightly shut at the moment. Stay tuned as we continue covering this very possible resurrection of Star Trek Online!