2012年2月23日星期四
Walmart flyer points to US Xbox 360 price
Walmart is reportedly planning to slash $50 off the price of the Xbox 360 4GB Kinect hardware bundle from this Sunday, August 28. That's according to a flyer obtained by Joystiq, which reveals that one of the world's largest retailers is planning a "rollback" on the price, from $299 to $249.This doesn't necessarily mean an official Xbox 360 price reduction is inbound. It could merely be a special promotion, but it wouldn't be the first time a Walmart circular has outed news of a price cut either.Xbox 360 is the top-selling console in the US year-to-date, but the introduction of a global PS3 price cut last week is likely to force Microsoft to react sooner or later. Tom Ivan
2012年2月22日星期三
Mass Effect 3 will say goodbye to Shepard
Mass Effect 3 will conclude protagonist Commander Sheperd's story, Bioware CEO Dr. Ray Mazuka has confirmed. Talking to our mates at PC Gamer during Gamescom, Mazuka described the third game as "a brand new beginning" saying that the Mass Effect universe will live on without The Shep."We have ambitious plans to continue this franchise going forward," Mazuka reassured our colleagues. "Mass Effect 3 is simultaneously a couple of different things; a thrilling and epic conclusion to the trilogy as we promised our fans we'd provide for Commander Shepard," he added. "But it's also a brand new beginning - it's an entry point for new fans and it's also a brand new beginning."Have a look at the latest Mass Effect 3 trailer, focusing on combat, which also came out of Gamescom. Tom Pakinkis
2012年2月21日星期二
Fulham follows Man City with FIFA 12 deal
Fulham is the latest Premier League football club to sign a deal to become an EA Sports 'Official Video Game Partner'. Following Manchester City's 'unprecedented' FIFA 12 deal, Mohamed Al Fayed's boys have put pen to paper to receive a number of game-related benefits - even if none of them sound quite up to par to Blue Moon's "digital channels" and 3D head scans of the entire team.Throughout the season, Fulham and EA Sports will be holding a range of Club events and experiences that Fulham fans will be able to get involved in.These include a bespoke FIFA 12 trailer (that's the vehicle kind) which will be present at Craven Cottage on selected match days, EA Sports branding on the LED perimeter board and a Pro Player Tournament at the club's training ground to determine which Fulham player is best.EA will also be producing a Fulham specific FIFA 12 game sleeve which fans will be able to download for free from the club's website (www.fulhamfc.com) around the launch of FIFA 12. We bet Fulham Fans will still have to play in "Forest Park Stadium" in the actual game, but at least Dempsey's on the box.Nick Harford, Football Business Lead at EA Sports said: "We are thrilled to be partnering with Fulham Football Club and look forward to providing a series of FIFA 12 gaming experiences for both fans at Craven Cottage and players at the Motspur Park training ground." Alistair Mackintosh, CEO at Fulham Football Club said: "Partnering with EA SPORTS is a fantastic opportunity to offer our fans a unique gaming experience on match days at the ground, and on-line. We are very excited at the prospect of seeing our players in this state of the art game, and welcome EA SPORTS as Official Video Game Partner."FIFA 12 is out on September 30. Andy Robinson
2012年2月13日星期一
The Myth of the WoW Killer
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Now, AoC is still on its second expansion, Rise of the Godslayer, with most of the bugs from its launch fixed. However, AoC still fights against its bad reputation to prove to players that the game is worth trying a second time.。
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Of course I’m not disregarding titles that have been truly unique experiences (Champions Online for one) however they have yet to achieve the “legendary” status that WoW Killers seem to have.,福州装修。
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For me though, I say that this title is rubbish and a myth. And I’m saying it with conviction.。
As far as I am concerned, I stand by my call that the WoW killer would stay as myth unless I see games that can uproot what WoW has established. Only time will tell if that would ever come to pass.。
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By: Vincent Haoson, OnRPG Journalist。
The WoW playerbase was immediately affected come AoC’s launch. However after a few months, players started returning to WoW after experiencing Hyboria for themselves, disappointed with what they have experienced. The majority of those returning complained of bugs. If Funcom would have given the game development a bit more time, history might have taken another path.。
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Before anyone would raise their arms in utter outrage on that statement (if I guess there would still be anyone who would care for that) I would say in my defense that I’m not a WoW fanboy. My WoW experience took only two or three months of my life. In that span of time most of it was spent as a Blood Elf Paladin (all types) and I stopped playing because (1) my budget can’t afford me to keep on playing (2) I really needed to get away from WoW before I got too addicted and stopped working all together.。
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People who have been immersed in the MMO scene for the past decade for sure wouldn’t find this “title” new. In the off chance that you are part of that rare group of people, I would say that you have been living under a rock that’s under another rock. In the past decade there have been MMO titles that have been called as such because people believed that these titles would finally steal the crown off WoW as one of the biggest game titles in the MMO industry.。
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I could list on and on what WAR did wrong, but in the end players decided to just cancel their subscription. The supposed WoW-killer with a killer budget failed to even put a dent on the WoW front, and now WAR is slowly losing its servers one by one.。
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Warhammer Online was considered as the biggest contender against WoW. I personally would have to agree that the game had a lot of potential. It allowed new players to get into PvP from level 1. It had a rich history based on the Warhammer franchise before it became an MMO, ensuring a huge following of promotional fanboys leading up to launch.。
However, try as developers might, WoW would not budge since up till now it is still going strong. Sadly, as the years continue I can only say that the idea of an MMO being able to defeat WoW is more and more becoming a wishful dream—myth-like if you will, especially with the trend of MMOs these days.。
Developers have stopped trying to be different but instead went with the safe route of getting elements from what WoW has set and just merely adding a few tiny pinches of “creativity” into their games. Of course who could blame them? After seeing titles burn out after going against WoW developers would then prefer to just get some sort of return regardless if they are copying WoW or not.。
The lack of any attempts on developers to becoming bigger than WoW and just settling for something that can rake in some cash is one of the reasons why I think that the idea of a true WoW Killer is a myth. Developers these days either would not take risks or are that just lazy and create game, after game, after game that would follow the WoW formula.。
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The current set of MMOs being released lately has started to incorporate elements of WoW into their games. May it be in the way of the job class, skill tree or even the interface, you constantly see MMOs trying to copy WoW elements rather than innovate away from them.。
Also if you are wondering why I only used these two as example when there are a lot of MMOs out there who may have been presented as a WoW killer one way or another, my reason is that AoC and WAR was heavily marketed as the WoW killer.。
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The lack of any attempt to be better than WoW really has strangled the growth of the MMO scene. In the east alone- WoW clone after WoW clone have been released and I don’t see it stopping anytime soon.。
There are still people out there who chronically title MMOs as the possible WoW killer that we’ve all been waiting for. As far as I recall, I only remember of two BIG titles (in terms of marketing) that has been crowned by the gaming public as the “chosen one”.。
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Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (back then) was one of the major MMO titles that would’ve given Blizzard a run for its money. The game presented a whole new gameplay aspect never tried in an MMORPG. The worlds were wonderfully made, and the women NPCs were downright beautiful. It was set as one of the highly anticipated titles to come out back then.。
Upon the game’s release, players flocked into the Warhammer servers hoping to enjoy what Mythic has promised. However, upon experiencing the game first-hand, players would slowly but surely leave the game for WoW again (or another MMO). WAR had failed to maintain proper class and population balancing which is integral in a PvP oriented MMO. The promised big battles in WAR failed to deliver when the server itself did not live up to the hype and crashed hard once 50-100 players flocked into the same battleground.。
To make things clear, WAR and AoC aren’t bad games. In fact, if they were better run by the companies who managed them, I bet WoW wouldn’t be comfortably sitting on its perch as the MMO who pwned them all.