Author Archives: TheUser

Graal Classic for iPhone!

Graal, originally uploaded by theuser.

Graal Classic is a version of Graal Online developed for the iPhone! It was released last month, and I just tried it today! It feels pretty good! Menus and such seem to lag a bit. Hopefully they’re better on an iPhone 3G. The game ran smoothly over WiFi and claims to work over Edge and 3G. I’ll check that soon! I died pretty quickly after starting. Everyone’s pretty PVP crazy in Graal. You can see a picture of my first death!

 



Hellgate: Resurrection Coming Soon

Hellgate: London servers set to reopen in Europe and U.S.

Hellgate: Resurrection: Hellgate: Tokyo Announced Today – MMORPG News – New MMO News, Free MMOs, Tidbit, Top 10, Topics, Previews – News.mmosite.com

Joystiq reports from gamesindustry.biz” that HanbitSoft, who owned the rights to Hellgate: London in Korea, has acquired worldwide rights to publishing the software and plans on reopening servers in Europe and the United States. The game will now be called Hellgate: Resurrection and will have new features.
This is definitely good news. Reading through the comments on Joystiq, it’s obvious that a lot of people do not share my excitement at Hellgate’s return. Most likely they’re judging the game based on what it was originally. Yes, Hellgate: London was pretty horrible (although still fun!) at launch, and it remained so for quite some time; however, the game was much better at the time of server shutdown. I was actively playing at the time, having recently come back to the game. Hellgate definitely still has some issues.

 
My three biggest issues were needing to use the mouse to look around while also needing to use the cursor, the sluggish interface, and the bland atmosphere. The first two problems combine to be particularly annoying, but you do get used to the cursor usage. I doubt the atmosphere can be fixed. The entire game is gray. Thanks Gears of War for making gray worlds so popular! I understand their reasoning: a post-apocalyptic world should be covered in dirt and dust. Still, I feel like some more color could be used.
Despite these shortcomings, the game was actually very fun. While marketed as an MMO, it functioned similar to Guild Wars. The towns were like MMOs, but everything outside of town was instanced. Playing similar to Diablo, it was really an online, role-playing, dungeon crawler. It had an intriguing plot that I never got to see through to the end. I was always sad that I didn’t get to find out what happened at the end. Hopefully it doesn’t disappoint! The graphic novel and three novel series were very entertaining. The novels seemed to end without as much conclusion as I had hoped, but they were still quite enjoyable.
mmosite.com reports that Hellgate: Resurrection includes The Abyss Chronicle, the second patch (the first being the Stonehenge Chronicles), which was developed by Flagship Studios and on the test servers but never released. In addition, HanbitSoft also has new content known as Hellgate: Tokyo, which will take place in Tokyo, Osaka, and Yokohama. I hope those locations are more colorful! The game has also been tweaked a bit with the removal of the level cap (uh, I doubt there’s no cap), a new/changed character advancement system, and changes to class balance.

WoW Developer Twitter Chat

Developer Twitter chat transcript for January 15th, organized by category
WoW.com put up a nice transcript of the WoW developer Twitter chat organized by category. I’ve included some of the more interested ones to me.

 
Q. For those of us who collect tabards and armor sets, do you see a way for us to store and not use our very limited inventory?
A. Yes. We’d like to store them the same way you do titles. In general, we don’t want to punish the packrats out there who just like to collect stuff. We will have to wait and see what we can do about it though.
This is great news! Tabards should be easy, but I’m curious what they could do for armor sets. When they answered this question, they were probably specifically thinking of tabards and not armor. I’d like to see a 100-slot bag, only purchasable at the level cap, that can hold any armor or weapon piece that was a certain item level below the current tier item level. In other words, you can always put your old stuff in it.
Q. What knowledge have you gained from WotLK/ICC in regards to your future design plans for Cataclysm?
A. That’s a broad question for just 140 characters! I’ll say one thing we learned in retrospect was that the progressive badge structure has ended up confusing. We have a simpler one in mind that accomplishes the same goals.
It wasn’t confusing at all. It worked really well.
Q. Will you be emphasizing more Horde vs. Alliance hatred in the future?
A. It’s a major focus for Cataclysm. Neither Garrosh nor Vyrian is a major fan of cross-faction cooperation.
Are we going to get at least some leader to whom we can admire? Garrosh is war crazy, Cairne doesn’t do anything, Vol’jin doesn’t do anything, Sylvanas is kind of mean (and I don’t trust the Forsaken), and I don’t even know who the leader of the Blood Elves are. Who should I look up to? Tirion Fordring? I’m not a paladin. Do priests count for anything to the Light? Will he be around in Cataclysm? I doubt the Ashen Verdict will still exist. Will the Argent Crusade, in some form? Will Fordring still be amicable to Horde? I suspect he will, but he’s not really my leader. Darion Mograine? I’m not a Death Knight. And I have no idea how the Knights of the Ebon Blade will be integrated into society without the driving force of killing Arthas. Maybe I should look closer to home. My guild leader? Oh yeah, she’s inactive, lol.
Q. Will Trolls ever get either their own capitol, or a district in Orgrimmar like the Gnome district in Ironforge?
A. Personally, I think it adds a little to the troll story that they have such an amazing cultural legacy and have fallen so far from that in recent history. That said, we have a little bit of love for trolls in Cataclysm (beyond the ability to be just about every class in the game).
*excited*
Q. Can we expect a Canadian style pet for the Olympics this year?
A. I will put in a request today for an epic moose mount, not sure if it will make it in though.
Room… with a moose!

Project Needlemouse featuring Just Sonic


SEGA America Blog | Project Needlemouse Character Countdown – Finale and Concept Art!
SEGA America Blog has been eliminating possible characters for Project Needlemouse, the new 2D Sonic game, all week. They posted a picture with various characters’ names on Monday, and each day they’ve been rejecting some of the characters. Today SEGA finished by rejecting every character other than Sonic. This is pretty good news for long time Sonic fans. To be honest, there’s a lot of characters I don’t mind. Tails is alright, although I feel like being able to fly breaks the game a bit. Knuckles is fine, and I enjoyed playing as Amy in Sonic Advance. Still, I hate the introduction of random, additional characters with each game. Here’s hoping Project Needlemouse turns the Sonic series around!