With the STO beta about a week old and the demo making the rounds thought various cons first at MCM which ran Oct 24/25 in London where we got a review from ROCK, PAPER SHOTGUM and now the demo is at EUROGAMER EXPO London which started yesterday and concludes today. MCM was more of an entertainment expo with a game element were as EUROGAMER EXPO is exactly what the name says all games all the time. The industries heavy hitters are here and among the games making their UK debuts will be Aliens vs Predator, Assassin’s Creed II, God of War III, Mass Effect 2, New Super Mario Bros Wii, Red Steel 2, Army of Two: The 40th Day, Left 4 Dead 2 and more. Rupert Loman, managing director of Eurogamer had said prior to the event “It’s been nine months in planning but we’re now only a few days from opening the doors to Eurogamer Expo 2009,” and “Judging by the number of emails and calls we’re getting since London sold out, we could have sold twice as many tickets as we made available. This bodes very well for our plans for next year.” Gamers began queuing three hours ahead of the expo’s opening, keen to play upcoming games from publishers including EA, Ubisoft and Capcom. Over 4000 gamers are expected through the doors of the two-day London event and a lot of those gamers will be looking for Star Trek Online like Josh Fall who’d travelled from Bristol for the event and was the first person on the floor “I’m looking forward to all of the games to be honest,” he said, “but particularly Star Trek Online.” Eurogamer also did a review of the game and gave some good details of the game mechanics but then thats what they do as a bussines is reviewing games and this one has me being optimistic about game issues like movement during battle which could be a game breaker if it isn’t done right. In an interview with TENTONHANNER Craig Zinkievich also answered a question I have been wondering about “Will STO have separate servers, or will it be one massive universe?”
“at launch it’s going to be one shard, one universe. Bruce Rogers, our CTO, has done a fantastic job of architecting a system that allows us to have that one shard, one universe,’ Basicly the same as Champions Eurogamer’s review and the TENTONHAMMER Q&A with Craig are both worth reading as they actually shed some light on the game and it all sounds very good
Eurogamer plays Star Trek Online at Eurogamer Expo and spills the beans
October 31, 2009 — NeroKlingon Propaganda: 1 Federation: 0 (video)
October 29, 2009 — NeroIn a move that could only make me beg the Klingons for mercy a second video called ‘Federation’ has surfaced in response to ‘Klingon Propaganda’ that came out late last week, it’s short very short at about 17 seconds and promotes diversity in the Federation of Planets ” Fellow sentients, it can be difficult to make the right choice of which galactic organization you want to be a part of. Choose the one that lets you be you. Because you’re special and you should go on being special. ” The animation is similar in style to ‘Propoganda’ and the time period that both take place in is the same, we see a Klingon D7 Battle Cruiser human looking klingons and ‘Cage’ era ensigna in ‘Federation’ which suggests a TOS time frame, this should rule out any link to STO which is about a 150 years later, or does it?. There is a viral marketing campaign going on here but for what reason that is the question. is it Trek 2 or maybe a new animated series or as one person suggested and ‘online clan’ doing some recruiting of their own. What ever it is it’s far to short to draw anything but superficial comparisons between the two, ‘Federation’ my only be a clip of a larger video that we will see at some later time.
12 new Screenshots for STO
October 28, 2009 — NeroCryptic has released 12 new screenshots for STO and if this is how the game looks you can beam me up right now. Our good friends at KOTAKU who have played the game when it was at PAX WEST have a more measured approach and a leery eye doesn’t hurt in these matters but you can still beam me up I drank the Kool-Aid long ago when I first heard Cryptic’s announcement ( they even had Leonard Nimoy on hand) that they were bringing out STO, of course back then I and probably everyone else was thinking it would be years down the road before this one saw the light of day yet here we are in Closed Beta with a Q1 2010 release date If you like your screenshots extra-large and who doesn’t ZAM has 5 of them fore you 
The War is On, Future Past – Part 2 (video)
October 28, 2009 — NeroCryptic releases the second part of their video history lesson leading up to the start of Star Trek Online and there is some more Klingon goodness to be had and an unknown race is revealed but enough of what I have to say here are two sources to choose from GAMESPOT TRAILERSPY both are HD. If you haven’t seen PART 1 follow the link
Klingon Propaganda is it a better way? (video)
October 27, 2009 — Nero
Klingon
All I can say is you have to see this video it is truly inspired. Cryptic claims they know nothing but I’m sure there enjoying it anyway “Qapla” The Federation can’t take this laying down a challenge has been offered and we must respond hell the Romulans and Vulcans have to put out videos to. The web site i09 has a different take saying it’s possibly linked to J.J. Abrams Trek 2 or a new animated Star Trek which would make more sence, the movie is at least a year or two away but an animated series ala Clone Wars makes you think, or it might just be an awesome video and great marketing for STO. The conspiracy deepens for those who want to believe
MMORPG talks to Craig and ROCK, PAPER SHOTGUN speaks
October 27, 2009 — Nero
MM()RPG.com
It’s been 6 or is it 5 days since the STO Closed beta started and Cryptic along with Craig Zinkievich are hard at work fixing what ever problems those lucky beta testers are finding, which is hopefully nothing. This may also explain why his twitter account hasn’t been updated in that time period, but Craig took some time out of his busy schedule to talk to the good folks over at MM()RPG for a brief Q&A and fill us in on how things are going so far. Over at ROCK, PAPER SHOTGUM one lucky person by the name of Kieron Gillen was at the MCM EXPO in London, which was held this last weekend on the 24-25. She got to sit down and play a demo of STO and besides her fondness for the movie ‘Silence of The Lambs’ we get her first impressions of the game. I can’t help thinking of a certain Warehouse 13 panel I would have liked to see
September was good to MMO’s
October 25, 2009 — NeroWith the resent release of the NPD PC charts for September one thing hits you right away MMO’s had a good month with Aion which was released in North America on September 22, 2009. and Champions, whose release was originally set for July 14, but on May 16 Cryptic announced that Champions Online would be delayed and the game was officially released September 1. Executive producer and design director Bill Roper cited that the team needed more time to implement important features that the beta test group felt were necessary at launch. NCsoft’s Aion the normal version took top spot on the chart which is great considering it was released on the 22ed but this also came with lengthy queues reported at several hours. Aion the limited edition takes the 5 spot. Cryptic Studio’s Champions Online snagging number 3 spot. This means near domination of the top 5 for MMOs last month, with World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King at number 4 while The Sims 3 slips down to 2. Player response has been great since the launch of Champions on September 1st, and Cryptic Studio’s is asking do you “Hate zombies? Abhor mummies? Detest the dreaded undead? Like to play MMOs for free? You could be the one. You could be the Champion we need!” If your answer is YES and who wouldn’t, after all it’s free then next weekend, which begins Friday, October 30th and runs until Monday, November 2nd. you can give the game a try during their free Blood Moon Weekend. were you can play the game and experience the Blood Moon event which begins on the 27th. Now if free MMO play makes you feel good than donating to a worthy cause will do wonders, The 4th annual MMO Calendar will be on sale starting October 21st and end on November 2nd. with all proceeds from the 2010 edition going to the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital cheak out Massively’s article for more details on artwork and prizes to be won.
The Value of Voice Over in MMO’s
October 24, 2009 — NeroAn old argument has recently been brought to the forefront about VO in video games and particularly MMO’s, because of a statement made by Cryptic Studios executive producer Craig Zinkievich, the developers of the hotly anticipated MMO Star Trek Online. In an interview with Videogamer.com he questioned Bioware’s decision to fully ‘VO’ Star Wars: The Old Republic Saying “You put voice over in the game and the very first thing players want is the ability to skip through and get back to the action. “Whether or not they have any mechanics like that – whether or not it feels good in the game, or whether or not it ends up breaking up the action, whether or not it breaks up what’s going on to a point where people don’t like it – it’ll be interesting to see how that pans out.” Bioware, a Canadian company that has a solid track record for making good games. with deep and immersive story lines has garnered a lot of attention with their decision to fully VO which most MMO’s do not do, notable exception EQ2. Bioware obviously feels this will enhance the gaming experience of their players and Cryptic who’s game will not employ full VO feels somewhat different. I fall of the side of Bioware I hate reading my way thought a game, probably because i’m a slow reader and I find it completely pulls me out of the experience. I would rather sit back relax and let the NPC tell me a tale as long as it doesn’t turn into a Xenosaga like cut scene that lasts 20 mins. Bio Break has a excellent article on the subject which puts him squarely in the Bioware camp he talks about game devs engaging both the sight and sound senses of the player. Craig Zinkievich makes some valid points to saying “What we want to make sure we do is be able to have a pipeline, is be able to make content and get that content out to the player as soon as possible after launch, and continue to update the game and continue to do things to the game. Putting that big huge VO section right in that pipeline makes things a little bit more difficult in terms of getting content out.” Reading the comments made about Bio Break’s article I get the feeling people fall on both sides of the argument some say VO pulls them out of the game, they are the fast readers and others are like me, the more VO the better. If there is such a split and given the extra cost of puting it in I can see why most don’t
FFXIV Casts its Second Trailer Spell
October 24, 2009 — NeroHaving played FFXI for many years I was interested when FFXIV was hinted at in Sony’s E3 presentation as almost an after thought to FFXIIV. The problem with 13 was it looked dull, when compared to say Guild Wars were your Flaming Sword actually flamed and soloing past Level 10 was a death sentence, not all of us what to spend all of our time fighting in a party and that’s after the BS of finding a party to begin with. Then along came WOW and the Wii and game makers seen that there is a market for a more casual gaming experience and lo and behold we will play just ask the 11 million WOW players. lets hope the guys at Square Enix have listened and learned and you never know I my be giving the mobs a beat down in a FF game again. Nothing comes close to An MMO for a true gaming experience yes parties and all. Oh yes the Trailer which looks great but we have all be fooled by those before what I find interesting is that the characters are the same the names have changed and the world is more technically advanced opening the way for a wider veriety of more powerful Items Source: Massively
The Closed Beta for STO has started as of today Oct 22
October 23, 2009 — Nero
Star Trek Online
Another mile stone has been reached with the commencement of the Closed Beta and the first batch of players are giving STO a test drive in there shinny new ships.
Craig Zinkievich, Executive Producer of Star Trek Online, offers some comments on today’s announcement:
“We’re pleased to begin sharing our addition to Star Trek’s legendary story with the public, we know fans of Star Trek, and fans of MMOs, will be incredibly impressed by what they see when they play Star Trek Online.”
MM()RPG is saying that they think lifetime and six month subscribers to Champions Online should be the first ones into the Star Trek Online beta, if so sweet. Cryptic is still excepting applications if you haven’t applied yet, just go to the Star Trek Online web site and give yourself a chance to play Source: MM()RPG
