Video game news and reaction

[VisualStatic]

For those of you who haven't gotten a beta invite to SWTOR.  If you're signed up for it, prior to today you will.

Big Beta Weekend

If you hadn't signed up,  you can still see if you can get a beta code.  See previous link. 

Look like they want to do a big stress test late in November, prior to launch.

[Antilles]

Yup, just got the invite confirmation. Looking forward to it.

[Mister Andersen]

It will doubtlessly surprise none of you that as DCUO free-to-play has 2 character slots I've gone 1/1 hero/villain, and that it is my villain who is occupying my play time at the moment.

And when I say villain, I mean it. The stuff they have you doing is DARK -- sacrificing Raven to Trigon, releasing Eclipso, cleaning up after LexCorp's grossy illegal meta-human experimentation, slaughtering defenders of the innocent, force-converting a whole stack of people into demons and shadowmen. And that's just in Metropolis; I can't imagine it getting any nicer once I start mucking around in Gotham.

There's a random encounter that both sides will come across -- the distressed citizen contemplating the express route off a tall building. The hero talks them down, the villain help them down by pushing them off the building.

I mention this because it's the latter scenario that bothered someone. They were all "OMG! I can't believe the gamedevs scripted that!" surprised, and when the comparison was made about what you actually get rewarded for in the game, they were sheepishy indifferent. Like rampant professional evil-doing didn't matter in the same way as that casual act of murder.

[foproy]

in the last 2 days i have played skyrim for many hours, (15 plus) realy enjoying it so far. i am of two minds about the core system changes, but overall a good game. finished one daedric quest so far (sanguine) and have one more in progress (bolag)

[TheTSKoala]

So.. without breaching NDCs or such.. SWTOR... if you like WoW.. if you like ME2.. you like SWTOR.  At least in my opinion.  I got 6 hours in on the Imp. Agent while I had some time off.  Found a few annoying bugs that they need to work out, but all in all.. very pretty.  (And I didn't think I'd care about the voice acting.  I was wrong.)

[MilitiaJim]

What Krensky Koala said.

[VisualStatic]

So true.  Mechanics are pretty much the same as any MMO, story/VOs make the difference.

Makes, me at least, almost feel like its a RPG again. 

[TheTSKoala]

What Krensky said.

*looks up on this post* ..did you just call me Krensky??

[MilitiaJim]

What Krensky said.

*looks up on this post* ..did you just call me Krensky??

Hmmm.  At this point I can't rule that out.  All you IT guys look alike.

[Bill Whitmore]

They DO both look like stuffed animals.

[Nepenthe]

I got the invite too. First computed the cost of a new PC that I'd actually want (1927.90e), then got an attack of cheapness and repartitioned my Mac Mini, doubling the space Windows has.

[OverNinja]

Got invited as well.

[Crafty_Pat]

I've been hesitant to say anything due to the NDA but we're close enough to release now and enough folks are playing that I think it's fine.

Still speaking in broad strokes (just in case), I love that Bioware's managed to create an MMO that invests people in the story. I have two concerns, however...

• It's going to be much harder for them to replicate, and content lag may be fierce.
• What about replay value? Even with just two toons on each starting world you're having to play through a lot of content more than once, and all that voice work is probably going to get old after a while.

Just my two cents, and I still love what they've done.

[TheTSKoala]

*gets out his industrial size paint roller*

So.. as C_P says.. we're gonna tip toe around using brush strokes the size of a xmas tree.

Content lag.  Not sure on.  I don't know what they're using for virtualization... but with reported budget I'm not over worried on this one.

Replay value.  Well, one of the developers in an interview said, success as an obvious pre-req, they plan on adding world after world post launch.  Some new end game, some new for starting zones. And everything else in between.  As long as there are more than 2 'leveling' paths, I don't see you going over alot of the same content, unless you choose to obviously.

[Crafty_Pat]

Content lag.  Not sure on.  I don't know what they're using for virtualization... but with reported budget I'm not over worried on this one.

By "content lag," I mean "production lag." Voice work is not fast, nor is it cheap. They can't just drop new missions in over a few weekends  - that's what I'm sayin'.

Replay value.  Well, one of the developers in an interview said, success as an obvious pre-req, they plan on adding world after world post launch.  Some new end game, some new for starting zones. And everything else in between.  As long as there are more than 2 'leveling' paths, I don't see you going over alot of the same content, unless you choose to obviously.

I can't really comment on this one without breaking NDA. I can say that I think my worry is justified, and I'll be really curious to see how other folks respond to the same issue as the game goes wide.