Raising a 1yr old consumes a lot of time. So does raising an MMO. Both have been consuming mine as of late, so i thought I would pop in with a status report.

Reagan is just fine.

Truthfully, I've been holding off on this post due to an intense desire to see Firefall succeed. It wasn't perfect but that's the stuff of betas and the ideas pushing it forward were revolutionary in the industry: An MMO FPS-RPG driven by a dynamic, expanding world that focused on PvE against a central AI dispatching forces to ensure your demise based on strategy and tactics. I could spend the next few paragraphs expounding on the virtues of Red 5's Firefall but we're not here for that. We're here for the tornado siren echoing on the edge of town screaming suck and fail as the twister approaches.

Those are hard words for a game in its beta, especially a game in its "pre-open" beta phase, but the writing is beginning to appear on the wall and I've got a good track record on this sort of thing. Open beta is coming up and advancement isn't finalized. Content is nowhere near ready. Enemy AI sucks ass. And while the forums are debating whether or not Firefall is even ready for that milestone, the CEO says this:

"We're not interested in what other companies call a beta. What we are calling a beta is *early* participation...2/3rd of our development time has been public, and its actually been invaluable. The old way of doing short betas after all core features are done is just idiotic in today's big budgets. The old way is greatly responsible for the "surprise" failures of many high profile MMOs that didn't realize their core systems needed work until it was far too late."

Good for you, Tex. Blaze your own trail. Do it your own way. And while you're at it, fall on the sword because while you're busy doing it your way, your gamers are expecting something else entirely. They're expecting a game that hasn't torched two radically different advancement systems and has barely settled into a third. They're expecting marginally balanced classes, not ones still being aligned with the new system for the third time. They're expecting real content to be enjoyed, not piece meal bullshit that barely works and half assed level design. They're expecting your resource and crafting system to be worked out by the time you say the word "open beta," not something still shifting like quicksand.

Most people are fine with giving you time to iron out the bugs and tweek the settings, but when you say open beta, they're expecting a intact product that- while rough around the edges -gives them a good idea of what to expect, not a CEO who wants to play word games with industry defined terminology. At less than two months until their self proclaimed open beta, Firefall is none of what players are expecting when they hit download for the first time. There's no vision, no meat, no identity. I've watched it lose its way across three advancement systems. It's no longer a game that puts fun first. Hell, it can barely lay claim to being an RPG of any sort these days. In short, Firefall has become some self absorbed FPS with multiple personality disorder and it's killing the franchise. I've never seen the offical forums as devisive as they are now.

All of that said, players are a forgiving lot. If Firefall can indeed turn their turd into something a sight more cohesive and reclaim its identity before their open-beta-that-really-isn't date in July, it stands a chance of making it to market and maybe a profit, because let's be honest-- You only offer founders packs to generate eyeballs and revenue. Going open beta in this condition, this early is easily a sign that the purse strings are undoubtably tighting with their parent company The9 regardless of how it's explained away as "...just idiotic in today's big budgets."

...Pushed to the wayside with "When it's ready," I guess.

I certainly hope Red5 and Firefall defy expectations, and not for the cash I've thrown in on Founders. That's an indication of faith in their vision, but I have to be honest, that vision is starting to faulter as they continue to set fire to key game elements while seemingly poised to point their finger back to the community for having welcomed their feedback a bit too much. While there seems to be no lack of vision and ingenuity, the hand on the steering wheel seems to be a bit too loose,and watching Firefall develop is like watching a drunker driver weave across five lanes of interstate traffic. Eventially something's going to get smeared across the pavement.

...Or I could have never participated in a real beta before. That seems to be the most popular counter-argument to date.

These last few months have been pretty interesting with the Betas of no less than three Free to Play FPSs: Hawken, Mechwarrior and Firefall. Truely the golden age of the Tactical FPS has arrived, so lets go sacrifice a few chickens at the alter of the gaming gods and live it up before the world ends in six days*.

These three titles share a lot of ground beyond their commerce model and genre. Most superficially they are all mech style games, or in Firefall's case, powered armor. Of course they are free to play with by-in elements, and to some degree, first person shooters. Their commonality begins to drop off substantially after that and what may float your boat for one will sink like Battleship at the boxoffice in another. For those of us with limited time and attention spans, seperating the cream frrom the crap is vital, especially for those who don't have the patience in waiting for a 4gb download and numerous patches.

For my brothers and sisters in ADHD arms, this overview is for you. It isn't a comprehensive review of each game, but it should give you an idea of what you might or might not like. Or utterly hate. Like Worms: Revolution. Yes, I'm still bitter about that.

Bitches.

Mechwarrior: Online

As an analog to the dystopian Battletech universe, Mechwarrior has had a number of successful- and not so successful -PC titles attributed to the franchise as far back as 1989. In its hayday you could actually stroll on over to a Battletech Center and jump into a full immersion cockpit and I'm pretty sure I still have my membership card somewhere from back when. Regardless, it was only a matter of time before it went online in the here and now with Pirahna Games offering.

So far there's not a lot here as a Beta offering-- Only a handful of maps and the mechs themselves, but it's enough to get a good idea of the commerce model and how the game plays. In a nutshell Mechwarrior feels like a Mechwarrior game. For those who have missed out, you're driving a giant, walking tank; that is to say big, lumbering and powerful. Of the three games highlighted here, it is the the most simulator driven, faithfully allowing the player to manage parts, weapons, armor and as always, heat. It looks good and feels authentic, but the current gaming modes clash with the mechwarrior style. The only game mode at the moment is Capture and Hold team death match and most of the maps are smaller and cluttered, putting the feel of the game at odds with the strategic nature of a walking tank.

It's still enough to get a good idea as to where the game is going and supposedly an open world campaign is slated to be introduced in the near future. The environments are nice and detailed, as are the special effects and explosions. Sadly, you won't see anybody go critical in this version of the franchise. The cash shop appears to be fairly balanced at the moment and while there is a pay to win aspect in buying specific mechs with better base attributes, I doubt it will be enough to turn the tide against a skilled player. Cosmetic purchase and garage slots will also be availible, so for the moment, the cash shop doesn't appear overly lopsided and you can even subscribe after a fashion.

Personal Opinion - MW: Online seems to be a reasonably faithful reproduction of the franchise that isn't quite there yet in terms of Beta. You'll get a taste of what this game is about even though the arcade sized maps are a tad misleading in nature. Its simulator roots may not be for everyone. Assuming Pirahna continues to develop MW:O and doesn't get overly greedy, this should be a title worth competeing for your gaming dollar.

Hawken

The first offering by Adehisive Games, Hawken could be thought of as Mechwarrior light. If you don't like the relatively slower pace of the Battletech universe, Hawken speeds it up with a healthy dose of WASD combat and smaller, more nimble mecha. The visual styling rings a number of nostalgic bells, many of them from Japanese culture like Ghost in the Shell, Armored Core, etc. Players will boost around the battlefield, swap parts in the garage and generally lumber around an exquisitely detailed battlefield leaving destruction in their wake.

As of this posting the game seems decidedly Player vs Player with a number of admittedly compeling matches that include (for the moment) siege, capture and hold, death match and team death match. It sounds pretty cut and dry, but the modes are creatively implimented, usually incorporating some unique wrinkle to liven the match. In game combat certainly replicates the feeling of a midsized mech; that being clunky and pounderous, but still more repsonsive than Mechwarrior. You can boost forward and side to side for increased manuverabiliy, deploy missiles, mines, turrets, etc for a more tactical experience. Mech customization is the keynote of Hawken beyond the various combat modes, which quickly brings us to the most important question: Cash shop?

From the Hawken FAQ: "Adhesive Games will be following the example of games that successfully use the free-to-play model without unbalancing the game. In Hawken, many things available for purchase will be visual customizations and aesthetics. In most cases, weapon and armor upgrades that can be bought can also be earned through playing the game. More details on that in the future." And... "Meteor Credits are used in-game to instantly unlock new mechs, mech parts, repair drones, camouflage, weapons, items, attachments, boosts, and more!"

Right. I'm pretty sure that is the definition of pay to win, or at least part of it. Yes, I'm sure you can grind content to get the same items, but wether paying for the same is overly offensive is ultimately up to you, the player. As always, the game is in Beta but it's a solid product even if the value of the cash shop is in question.

Personal Opinion: If you're looking for a faster pace of combat that is visually stunning with superior audio, look no further. While F2P-FPSs are hardly in short supply, Hawken definitely has sex appeal, especially if your tastes run toward gun and run mech action. For me, the pacing felt too clunky. I got WASD controls and still felt like I was lumbering around... Which was some of the point, I'd imagine. There was a lot of hype touting Hawken to be the next big thing and while it's certainly pretty, it isn't ground breaking.

And being real here, the cash shop as explained in the FAQs makes me wary-- At very least it unearths the worn argument of grinding for stuff versus paying for the advantage outright. The application of the the disclaimer "in most cases" raises an eyebrow as well.

Firefall

Didn't I just visit this one? If Mechwarrior represents the heavy mech genre and Hawken midrange, then Firefall takes the lightweight belt. Players don classed power armor to explore a transformed earth under siege by not only mutated wildlife, but alien invaders. Scifi plot is at the heart of the Firefall story with the gameplay revolving around it in a manner rarily seen. The world battlefield is truely dynamic and can transform while you're asleep as siege points are taken and reclaimed. Theoretically entire servers can be lost to the invasion.

Firefall's gameplay is also WASD and their power armor occupies many of the archtypes we're all familiar with: Sniper, DPS, Tank, Medic, and Engineer. Close analogs to Firefall's gameplay would be Starsiege Tribes and Halo classic. If you for some reason get tired of the dynamic world, there is alway s PvP multiplayer with the classic modes you know and love. While you can literally trip over FPS PvP everywhere and anywhere (see Hawken), its the ambitious dynamic world and the campaigns slated to go with it that will hold your attention long term.

The cash shop seems simple and fair. About the only thing you're paying for is character customization and garage slots. To save you time and space here, see my beta first look here.

Personal Opinion: Unless you simply don't like the FPS genre (hey, you can change to third person) along a more tactical line of gameplay, there's a lot of win. It's an ambitious project with a fair commerce model  that deserves a second look.

Normally I use this soapbox to whine and bitch about how free to play is a bane to gamers everywhere. Normally they screw up in some way and can no longer ask for cash up front or are looking to rape your wallet on the backside. Normally I have low expectations from anything from the F2P cesspool, fully expecting this all to take place in some way, shape or form.

Normally.

Firefall by Red 5, however, has had my attention for a while and it's been looking damn good. The rise of the true FPSMMOs is underway, so I have to ask if Firefall is the herald to that mantle? Before we answer that question, lets make a few things painfully clear: An MMO isn't 32 to 64 people fighting it out within a closed loop map. We had that shit as far back as 1998. It's not new and it's not an MMO, so it can go STFU as far as this reviewer is concerned.

Firefall, on the other, is an MMOFPS with Role Playing underpinnings. The quick desriptive would be to imagine the expansive free range environment of World of Warcraft, sprinkle in some of the sandbox tactical classing from the Tribes series and stir vigerously with Halo. Now make it look sexy. What comes out of that mix is an actual world full of aliens and bugs waiting to be explored and recounquered by you and other players. Key to this conquest is the use of Battle Frames-- Powered armor constructs revolving around specific classes that can be customized to the pilot's preference. As of this moment in Beta, five Battle Frames exist: Recon (Sniper), Bio (Medic), Assault (offensive DPS), Engineer (Deployables) and Dreadnaut (Tank).

Normally this is where I would go into progression and leveling, but the game is still very much in Beta and this area is in flux. Still, the long and short of it is you can pretty much customize the weapons and armor of your chosen frame to match your needs, while progression determines your skill set. Mostly. Right now a tier system is in place where you aquire skills through XP that will eventially unlock you next Battle Frame, though that sounds like its slated to change. Honestly, the current iteration is not the most elegant system I've seen implimented and I'll be happy to see this version go.

Such is beta.

Still, Firefall is quite serviceable as a game and imminently enjoyable regardless of its build status. Unlike Mechwarrior Online, the centerpiece of Firefall is the world battlefield and Red 5 chose to impliment it at an early stage. It was a damn good move IMO, as it gives early adopters a good idea of just how ambitious the developers expectations are for this game. To sum it up, it has pwnage written all over it.

The open world of Firewall is truely that: Open. You can go anywhere and scale to any height with a minimum of artifical restrictions across gorgeous terrain. Red 5 has invested heavily here and is shows from the top down. Alien wildlife inhabits the countryside and while you're relatively safe by day (stupidity not withstanding), nightime travel becomes a tense adventure in and of itself with only your flashlight and a handfull of flares to light the way. Earth is likewise under siege, not just via the spacial disaster that befell it, but an alien force from the void known as the Chosen. While you're exploring, they're invading; whether it be minor scouting missions or full up assaults designed to take over nodes that represent tangiable world progression. It's kill or be killed and nodes can be won or lost. It's also entirely possible to lose an entire server to the Chosen invasion if all the nodes are taken, which is epic in and of itself.

And hey, there's PVP too, but it frankly pales in comparison to what Red 5 is trying to accomplish in the persistent world. In this reviewers opinion it's fine that PVP it exists, but you can go to any game for FPS PvP combat. It's the world that makes this game special with PVP there when youn eed a change of pace.

I wish I could detail a bit more on the classes themselves, but as I mentioned, they're still being tweaked. Most of the Battle Frames are still trying to find that sensible balance in gaming as is the progression tree they rest upon, but that's hardly something I can hold against a game still in the throes of a true Beta...Unlike that advertising beta crap you see regularly. In a rare lapse of sanity, I went in for one of the Founders packs just as a show of support and confidence. This game may be free to play, but Red 5 is apparently looking to go about it fairly. The game is creative and ambitious.

I like to reward that in a commerce model generally steeped in apathy and fail.

Gaming, like cinema, has its share of cult classics. Back in the day when polygons and anti-aliasing were the next big thing there was this company called Microprose. Defunct today, they were undeniably one of the industries leaders in combat simulators. Classics like Gunship, Silent Service and others were hallmarks of this developer, but none were so enduring as a little game called X-Com: UFO Defense. While there were numerous spinoffs of this series,  they never reached the acclaim as the original and like many of the Highlander movie sequels, are best buried in napalmed earth and consecrated with salt so nothing may ever grow there again.

Long story short, the original X-Com was a turn based game featuring tactical squad based warfare and base management pitting you against an overwhelming tide of alien invaders. Even in moderate difficulty levels, the game was ruthless. Troops you had been weaning up from green recruits to power armor badasses could be erased from the map in the blink of an eye. Aliens could invade your base just as assuredly as you could theirs. Manpower was plentiful, but it was the material and knowledge you were scraping tooth and nail for while your soldiers paid for it all in blood. It wasn't without its flaws and the sprite graphics are now light years out of date, but it was a masterpiece in its own right.

Yes, I still have my original manual and 3.5in floppies.

Any fan of the original has a right to be pessimistic concerning anything claiming X-Com's lineage. It's all sucked for the most part and now there is a new attempt to usurp that sacred ground: Firaxis' XCOM: Enemy Unknown. New graphics. New gameplay. Cross platform marketing. Should you go out and buy it right now or does Firaxis deserve to die in a fire like Team 17 does for Worms?

Friends, there'll be no fires or pitchforks today.

• Review

The first, most obvious update to this iteration of Xcom is the use of Unreal's graphics engine, creating full 3d environments for your base and combat environments. While the this improvement largely goes to waste in the base view, it absolutely shines in squad based warfare. The more or less isometric tile based movement is still present, but your troops operate in a fully 3d environment that layers cinematic camera angles when the action occurs. It's all eyecandy from top to bottom and exactly how you would want a modern rendition of this classic franchise to look. Even better, PCs with modest hardware should be able to run X-Com full out since we're not exactly talking 60fps first person shooter combat.

So the graphics are good to go but realistically, that should be a given in this day and age. How does the game play? Is it faithful to its namesake? Surprisingly, the answer is yes. For the most part.

Let's get this out of the way first: Time units are gone. While combat is still turn based, you now have two actions allocated per soldier per turn; nothing more, nothing less. You can move twice with your two actions or move and fire, but you only get two and firing automatically ends the soldier action period unless you have a special condition preventing it. Does it work? Yes. Am I overly fond of it? Honestly, no. Still, it's fun for what it is and we'll get into my nitpicking later.

Terrain and cover feature prominently, just as it did in the original games if not moreso. Cover is everywhere and if you don't use it, the aliens will happily hand you your ass since they're intelligent enough to use their turn to flank you and take shots from directions you aren't covered. Your cover is also quite transient in nature, meaning that any prolonged stay in one position during a fire fight is likely to reduce said cover to burning cinders or worse. Most of your favorite aliens will be present minus snakemen. I suspect creating a slithery 3d model was simply too much trouble so you'll be seeing humanoid opponents for the most part. Just to assuage your concerns, yes, Chrysalis are still an unholy pain in the ass.

Combat is only half the game, of course. Research and development are completely intact, requiring time, material and manpower to move up the tech tree and produce vital weapons, armor and systems in order to repel the alien menace. As added icing on the cake, you get cut scenes of weapons testing and- get this -messy alien autopsies with quality voice overs. Graphics and presentation are two things the new XCOM in spades. Your soldiers can also be customized in both appearance and armor configurations, further adding to your attachment to that poor team when things go horribly, horribly wrong.

Further diverging from the original, all soldiers now have a specific class upon hitting the Squaddie rank. I found it adds quite a bit of flavor; more so than simply stat building until everything maxes out ala UFO Defense. Like any RPG you've played, these classes have specific roles, can use specific weapons and items that can have a drastic influence in your combat tactics in the field. Bad news: You can only have six soldiers on any given mission. They also level after a fashion, gaining unique skills as they progress... Assuming they stay alive long enough to do so.

Overall, it's an amazing amount of win for a franchise plagued with fail, but it's not all perfect. Most of my gripes can be categorized under a single overarching topic:

Consolization.

These days, developers are increasingly programming to the lowest common denominator and when you're talking about selling across multiple gaming platforms, that means optimizing for the generally more limited hardware of the console. It's a trend worming its way into an increasing number of games and XCOM unfortunately suffers in the same manner.

First, the game rushes you a long at an unnatural pace, as if to force the action in an manner reminiscent of catering to players with a short attention span. Yes, you can build your base, you can research your finds, but the game will invariably force you to move along with Alien Abduction episodes, pushing you to make the best bad choice of three abduction sites. The other two not chosen invariably increase that regions panic, ultimately leading to a scenario of too many fires to fight if you don't move along to the game's forgone conclusion. Base construction has been somewhat dumbed down, which doesn't really matter because aliens won't be invading yours anyway. On that note, you only have one centralized base with little more than prepositioned fighter interceptor nodes in the various regions you control.

Combat suffers as well. Maps are noticeably smaller and by the time you work your way up to a medium UFO, you'll find the UFO interior is the map with your Skyranger setting down at the craft's doorstep. You are also now limited to six soldiers unstead of the 10+ of the original. The previously mentioned two action turn mechanics for you soldier reduce the game to that of the level of checkers in my opinion. It's still fun in its own way, mind you, but somewhat thoughtless.

Protip: Use one action to move to cover and the other to Overwatch. This will win 80% of your battles.

Speaking of cover, it's virtually impossible not to trip over it in mass quantities. Where durable cover was a rare luxury in UFO Defense, it's everywhere you look in Enemy Unknown, lessening the amount of battle field uncertainty. Sure, you'll find times where dashing across an empty parcel of real estate is required, but it's not nearly as nail-biting as the original game.

While not wholey tied to 'consolization', UFO interception events are actually worse than the source material if you can believe it. Instead of a radar display to indicate the action, ugly 3d wireframes bobbing back and forth from a single viewpoint fill this particular role and about the only fighter customization you can equip are one-shot powerups just waiting for a button press. On second thought, it absolutely reeks of consolization now that I think about it. UFO interception is probably the lowest point of the game, really. At least the original had an excuse-- Namely a 66mhz processor with 4 megabytes of RAM and a litebrite for a graphics card.

Other aspects of the game merely annoyances. Rarely will you ever catch an alien squad with its pants down during your action turn. You will see them and they will instantly react with a free action move to disperse and cover. Aside from the rocket launcher, you can't simply shoot away at barriers via free aiming. All shots must be taken at visible targets, otherwise you simply cannot deploy your weapon. Finally, most soldiers get to carry one primary rifle, a secondary pistol an have a single inventory slot.  That's it. On one hand I think it balances out the walking armory syndrome from the original X-Com, though on the other, I'm relatively sure our regular army can carry more than one grenade.

But hey, at least you have unlimited ammo :\

With the bitching out of the way, it's still a fun game. Most of what you have come to expect from UFO Defense and Terror of the Deep has been translated faithfully in Firaxis rendition of XCOM. There are still the moments of desperation and terror. Moments where you absolutely shit your pants as you walk into combined party of Mutons, Chrysslis and Cyberdisks. Moments where you will cuss out your soldier for missing a 95% shot. You will be forced to make command decisions with dire consequences. Resources are even more strained than the previous X-Com. Do you build another lab to speed up research for more weapons or use that money to build armor? While the pacing of the game may be more console-like, its also easy to absolutely shoot yourself in the foot through poor resource management.

So yeah, I think I can safely say you should buy this one. Sure, I've got my gripes and i don't think it has the depth of the original, but even that is balanced out by the various mission types. Where the original had either terror or search and destroy, Enemy Unknown fills the content gap with Bomb Disposal, VIP Escort, Terror Missions and of course the classic Search and Destroy. And hey, there's even multiplayer. It's not the XCOM I would have made, but it's still a pretty good effort. Maybe wait a few weeks for the bleeding edge price to drop off and it will be well worth the money.

"Greetings and Salutations. I am a spokesperson for Team 17*. Some of you may have heard that ATI graphics card  users won't be able to use anti-aliasing in the new Worms Revolution game. Essentially this is correct. As you know, Anti-aliasing is a relatively new technology- barely months old -that few gfx cards actually support. As such, the hardware requirements for this game are quite high and some may experience sub-optimal performance because of it.

Contrary to the viscious and slanderous rumor being circulated by malcontent internet trolls, this is not a result of incompetence, nor did our development team somehow miss, and I quote, "a hardware bug the size of a super star detroyer manned by death stick addicted storm troopers," let alone cripple half our gamers using plainly inferior ATI/Radeon hardware produced by means of slave labor and drug financing.

Such a bug would have never passed our rigorous Beta Testing of course, and we ask that you check your system to ensure the most current Direct X and driver support even though you are able to play Modern Warfare 8 at max settings and 60fps. Once again Worms Revolution is the most advanced and undeniably pretty artillery style game in existance. Please check your hardware and email us your dxdiag so that we may somehow throw this back upon you."

Thank you,

-The Team 17 Worms Revolution Developers.

*Satire. But seriously, there's no excuse for this, let alone claiming and I quote: "This is because Anti-aliasing is provided through NVidia’s FXAA shader solution. This is a complex shader and will not compile on all graphics cards."

This is really your offical excuse? Really? Sombody needs to go die in a fire right now because there's no fucking excuse for this shit in the year 2012.

Now don't get me wrong, there's a lot I wanted to like about this game; namely the dark and moody conspiracy theorist atmosphere that The Secret World inspires. Surprisingly it delivers on this promise to a large extent. The voice acting is exceptional and the world environment is well rendered along the theme of things that go bump in the night or may very well damn your soul. In fact, any MMO gutsy enough to induce a tutorial stage through implied lesbian sex at very least deserves a second look, but it's after that second look is taken does the moody emo veneer wear thin.

At its core, The Secret World is another Hero game. City of Heroes, Champions Online, etc, etc. You've played them before and now you'll play them again with just enough difference to hopefully attract the eyeballs nessisary to sustain long term operations and not immeditely fail out to free to play mode.

The first sour note the aspiring player will hit is in the character generation screen, where yet another developer displays just how incompetent they are in implimenting your MMO presence. Every time I think that a dev has learned the value of first impressions, a company like Funcom rolls up to the plate and completely fucks it up with badly rendered facial models, uninsipired body characteristics and bland clothing sets. Seriously guys, the next time you're making a MMO character generation screen, do me a favor and stop for a moment, then take a hard look at those faces.0 If your character has lips that stretch longer than your office desk, you're failing at it.

Next we stumble into the gameplay, which desperately wants your attention by claiming a classless, infinitely customizable character. So in other words, you're now playing Champions Online where choosing a weapon type determines your class. You even have a baseline attack that builds 'resource points' for other attacks ala Champions. Uh-huh. Now there is something to be said in the fact that you can combine these clases any way you like two at a time (hmm... like hero powers?), but we're hardly talking about inspired gameplay here.

Besides, all of that will be restricted when this game goes free to play anyway.

Also making an appeaance is an overly complex skill point wheel system that could have been simplfied into a single, elegant screen instead of the nested skill screens that makes you scratch your head in wonder. Sure, you get used to it, but it ends up feeling like a desperate stab at relevance. It's inelegant and completely unnessisary.

The world itself... Well, once you're done marveling at the brooding atmosphere and conspiracy tie ins, it's like the first gen hero games; completely subdivided into instanced zones. Remember the giant blue walls that obviously and artifically subdivide your hero games? Same here, just not as obvious. Everybody runs around a common area and when its time to go on a real combat mission, you port to another map.

Wheee.

Combat comes down to running around until your cooldowns are up, which to be fair is most MMOs these days. Where TSW would like to set itself apart is the aformentioned unlimited-limited class structure, that allows you to combine active and passive skill sets as you see fit, but only for a limited number of slots according to you weapon type; Eight or so of each as if I recall.

As an aside, claw weapons now miraculously inspire healing abilities somehow. And here I thought the heal gun was one of the more inane concepts in gaming. What's next, the heal knife? I know, let's stab our friends back to life!

Anyway, you don't get everything you want in terms of active techniques given the slot limit but you can save builds you like for later recall, allow you to adapt to a situation. Theoretically you could skill up every tech the game has over a long period of time, but realistically you're going to specialize only a couple first. Again, this will probably be the very first thing to disappear when the game goes F2P and it doesn't lend much to the game play anyway. Sure it's nice tactical touch, but they're sprinkles on an already bland experience.

I will give the game props for mission types. Not everything you do is 'kill X of Y for Z' and some quests are better if you don't engage in that behavior. Funcom at least tried in this aspect but I don't think it will be enough to ultimately keep the game off life support. In fact, the whole secret society thing loses its appeal far too quickly in many cases. Templars, for example, just walk around to openly recruit you as if they weren't a secret society at all and more like just another intelligence agency. It's a stark contrast to the atmosphere the game seeks to create; especially when it comes to your missions. The first, most glaringly obvious example is finding the giant wolrd spanning teleportation pad, convientely located in plain sight by the bike shop just to the right of that Harry goddamn Potter's train on platform 9 and fucking 3/4ths.

If it comes up for beta again, I'll spank it further with a stick, but I'm not seeing much to pay for unless you have nothing else better to-- Oh right. You're done with Old Republic already. I guess you could give this a shot. I'd actually rate this a fraction better than TOR for the attempt at creativity alone.

There's a lot of us that saw this coming from day one, but I don't think any of us thought we'd see it so soon; though maybe it was inevitable. There's no way Old Republic could have lived up to its prelaunch hype, let alone the pwnsome CG movies crafted for it. The final product was polished in some ways but epically mundane in the ones that matter, contributing to early stage subscription hemmoraging. Old Republic free to play has been specualated and rumored for some time now because of these issues, but apparently there's now substance to the speculation... Offical substance.

"So we are looking at free-to-play but I can’t tell you in much detail. We have to be flexible and adapt to what is going on." -Bioware, IGN

Now this could mean anything from your first 20 levels free to a full-up cash shop model [Edit- I'm told this may be 1-15 free], but it only confirms the writing that's been on the wall for some time now. There's also something else that's worth noting beyond the ITYS aspect of this story and that's the viability of the subscription based model. Some people will see this as the inevitable failure of subscriptions in the face of the purportedly superior F2P gaming, though frankly that's a crock.

F2P is still the haven for the weak and the lame. Developers would still rather have your money up front rather than wait for you to maybe-possibly-if-you-feel-like-it-today give it to them in a cash shop. Evidence of this fact is that Bioware tried the former before considering the latter, but if Old Republic's conversion doesn't represent the innate superiority of free to play, what does it represent?

If there is one thing that the MMO gaming industry at large should take away as a lesson from Bioware's fall from grace it's that gamers are smart. They're discriminating. And most of all, they won't spend their hard earned money on half complete bullshit no matter how big your name is. Certainly Old Republic had its moments, but you can tell where they spent the money and where they just said 'Fuck it, good enough." The failure of Old Republic- yes, failure -should be a standing notice to anybody looking to develop an MMO.

Don't waste our time.

If you're not going to do a good job, don't bother. If you're going to launch with large chunks of your game incomplete, don't bother. If you're going for just good enough, don't bother. It's 2012, folks. We can get all of that in free to play games that actually look halfway decent. Developers, if you're going to ask for our money up front you have to be better than these people. You have to have a quality product that stands out. 'Good enough' isn't anymore. The lesson learned from Old Republic is that gamers are tightening their standards and that offering up a halfassed product is no longer acceptable if you're going to ask for a reoccuring monthly payment.

In other words, don't screw up and you'll do just fine.

PC Role Playing Games come and go, but some endure well beyond their time. In a genre increasingly co-opted by the MMO, these games are still played and modded because they are just that damn good. They earned their hard drive space in a manner your rarely see these days.

The Baldur's Gate series is one such franchise.

This is the RPG that put Bioware on the map. It created the fanbase you see today. I would even go so far as to say that this series is the sole reason they were able to field Mass Effect and Old Republic in the first place. In other words, friend, if you haven't played these games yet you owe it to yourself to do so. Baldur's Gate 1&2 are not only Bioware's roots, but hallowed RPG ground that is a tour de force even a decade downrange.

But what does this have to do with that?

With the success of Baldur's Gate, Bioware moved on to set up the Neverwinter franchise using a new graphics engine and post 2.5 AD&D rule set. It was, shall we say, a fairly bland attempt saved only by the expansion packs and player modding community. Still, they had built up enough brand name recognition to roll a successful save versus failsauce and moved on to create the far more successful Knights of the Old Republic console series which in turn solidified their RPG credentials. Neverwinter Nights was left behind and forgotten... Or perhaps not.

In an interesting turn of events, Cryptic is apparently engineering an end runaround to create their own Dungeons and Dragons series behind Turbine's back using the imminently recognizable Neverwinter brand. If you've been thirsting for hardcore D&D MMO untouched by Turbine's profiteering idiocy, your reaction was probably similar to mine; that is to say "Fuck yes!". Cryptic has been known to produce some decent games so a well wrought rendition of AD&D would be a welcome one; especially as good as this one is looking.

But there's always a catch.

Cryptic doesn't have Bioware's deep pockets or name brand recognition; nor have they had Bioware's seemingly unending string of natural 20s. In lieu of these stats, Cryptic has turned to another method by which to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory-- Blood sacrifice and an unholy alliance with Perfect World . My cries of joy instantly turned to bitter ash upon realizing just who Cryptic was distributing through: A company well known for its subpar MMO spam (they actually aquired Cryptic back in August, 2011). You won't see their name in the teaser movie. You barely even see their name in the MMORPG.com piece, never to be mentioned directly. But you will see their name in the secure URL of the official Neverwinter website.

I so cried.

In that moment, Neverwinter went from unquestionable buy-in to wary trepidation. Sure it's "free" but for now I'm solidly in a wait and see mode for this game because friends don't let friend play anything Perfect World has touched. Instead, I'll fire up another Baldur's Gate II campaign, safely ensconced on my hard drive with the only two mods you'll ever need: Shadow Keeper and Dungeon Be Gone.

Hopefully Cryptic will prove better than the name backing their title. It's possible. But with Perfect World sticking its fingers in the proverbial pie? I won't hold my breath.

[Edit]-- DragonDagger also makes a saliant observation in that Neverwinter is reporting a supposed release date of 4th Quarter, 2012 and that the game is listed as 'pre-beta', which makes for an awefully tight timetable to work within and expect a stable, coherant product. Unless they're a lot further along than they're reporting, this all but screams 'shake and bake' MMO.

*If you're new to the Baldur's Gate series, I recommend playing BG2 first, then BG1 as a prequel even though they were released in numeric order. BG2 is by far the superior of the two and tells you everything you need to know about your back story anyway.

If you're looking to return to Baldur's Gate 2 for the fond memories, Dungeon Be Gone is indispensable toward your sanity, eliminating the first and woefully unnecessary tutorial dungeon while keeping the XP, items and quests you would have normally gained. Shadow Keeper is a save game editor that allows you to edit your character beyond the normal 2.5 silliness. For example, my latest campaign is with a Lawful Evil Ranger/Archer kit. Oh, the female-female Viconia romance is just a bonus :)

While most MMOs on the market are content with the status quo, there is a diverging population amongst developers and players looking to break the holy trinity of healers, tankers and dps with a special focus on the healer. In a nutshell, your user experience as a priest-like class boils down to what is essential digital whack-a-mole as HP pop up and down for your amusement. I was recently in a beta chat with people making light of being a priest in Warcraft's Molten Core to the affect of  "Content? What content? All I remember was health bars and a red haze."

And really, that pretty much sums it up; you end up forgoing content just to do your job.

As alluded to in a previous blog entry, it's not just play mechanics that are the problem, but developer imposed class scarcity. Many MMOs have a single priest class, ensuring you'll be waiting a lengthy amount of time for that person that wants to watch your HP bar bounce around. If your MMO has more than one priest class, it's usually a main priest class and 'that other priest class that doesn't heal quite so well,' with the very same waiting bottleneck as before. Likewise, that marginalized secondary class is the one you'll choose only if you have no other choice. So how do we fix the healer class? How do you allow your players to have a rich gaming experience that is more than just raid whack-a-mole when grouped? How do you ensure other players aren't always waiting on a Priest to get up and go? Hell, how do you balance it all?

I've got a feeling...

A few brave developers have tried to break the healer monopoly and so far I've seen only limited success. I say limited because their attempts at reinventing the wheel usually create other new problems that end up souring the experience. To keep you from chasing HP bars, some franchises rely heavily on cone and AoE healing, usually watering down the skill it takes to play the class in the process. Warhammer has you fight for the energy to heal. Other devs- like Arenanet -are trying to break the trinity coimpletely by delegating healing to self responsibility, not a central class/role. I've never been a fan of reducing player options and feel this fundementally changes what an RPG is in the first place, but what are the options?

Let's take a step back, first. Back before Warcraft. Yes, Jimmy, there was an RPG before Warcraft. Back before Everquest and back to pen and paper. You know, old skool Dungeons and Dragons. They faced the very same problems as today: It had one main healing class, the cleric. If you had a pally you could pull very limited secondary healing. Beyond that you had your pots and that was it, and yet somehow it worked. Healers were balanced and fun to play. HP bar spanking heppened, but was usually kept to a minimum. What happened?

The modern MMORPG happened.

The Clerics of old couldn't spam healing, for one. You had a certain number of pre-memorized spells and once you were out, you were out until you rested again. The game was far more tactical in nature. Today, your heals are on a three second cast time with a one second cooldown until you ran out of mana to cast them. The modern MMORPG has serialized healbotting by design. That's all you do because you can. Your other players know it and expect it the heals to flow without cessure.

...That Tonight's Going to be a Good Wipe.

I would submit that you don't need to break the trinity. You don't need to dumb things down to AoE and cone healing (a spell here and there won't hurt, obviously) You don't need to build up healing rage. The very first thing these games need to do is to eliminate heal spam. How? Easy. D&D had a memory system worked out. You can either replicate this in real time MMO combat and/or just utilize a really long cooldowns on all major heals for the same effect. The healer can no longer healbot due to the innate scarcity of resources, creating a more tactics driven game and one in which the healer is freed up to do other things...

...Like play the game with people, not HP.

The second thing I would consider is reducing the demand for the healer. Most MMOs have instance content that cannot be completed without at least one priest class present by design. Why? This, in my opinion, is a mistake. If the average MMORPG has a single major problem attributed to its name, it is that you have two scarce, must have classes paired against a plethora of DPS options. The tanks and healers will always have a group. The DPS might have to wait (a while) because of class population bloat. Even looking at more cutting edge games like TERA you can see this problem already looming on the horizon-- A single primary healer, a marginalized secondary healer and more DPS than you can shake a stick at.

It doesn't have to be this way and you shouldn't have to have a healer to complete every instance. Sure, it may be a tad more difficult without, but hardly impossible. It would go a long way toward allowing the priest to play the content while allowing the DPS lovers a way to enjoy it as well and not about their slot in a 5-man so much.

No class should be that indispensiable, and yet they are made that way by design.

In fact, the constrast between most instance play and PVP battlegrounds is huge when you thnk about it. In an environment where people die in seconds, nobody rightly expects timely heals. Some rounds won't even see a priest. Players are left to their own survival and tactics, and if you recieve healing support while you're wailing on somebody, hallualuah. It also allows priests to play a game other than the pidgeonhole of hunting for hitpoints. They PvP like everybody else and if they can, they throw out heals without the pressure of expectation.

The above only works, however, with a priest unable to spam healing all day long. Without the spam, a 5m instance now has the same expectations as they do in a PvP battleground-- Heals are great, but you can't expect them 24/7. Priests do what they can, when they can and actually get to play the game. Bonus.

Hoepfully that makes some sort of sense, and without the silliness attatched to the current methods of crippling clerics content under the guise of improving their gaming experience.

Next, a look at tanks.

Reskinned dwarf.

Just sayin'. That, and they look like dogs as depicted here on MMO Champion. Just... Horrible.

Pets, Pandas and now even worse:

"The Tillers faction will let you run your own farm! The farmer's market will provide daily quest to improve your farm every day, you will be able to clear plots of land and plant things like cooking ingredients, herbalism nodes, gifts for NPCs to build your reputation... etc."

Seriously?

TERA and Guild Wars 2 can't come soon enough, I'm telling you.
Thanks for the heads up DD.