Fallen Earth launch day roundup

by Shawn Schuster Sep 22nd 2009 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Fallen Earth, Launches, New titles, Massively Event Coverage

In addition to Aion's launch, today is also the official launch day for Fallen Earth, the post-apocalyptic MMO that is already gaining indie cred among old school MMO gamers. As a way to get our best Fallen Earth coverage into one place, we created this handy roundup for you to peruse while the servers are down before launch. We have helpful game guides, a FAQ and posts from our developer diary series that ran during the summer. This won't be it though! You can bet we'll be pumping out more Fallen Earth feature articles very soon.

	A WoW player's guide to Fallen Earth At Massively, we like to focus on making more MMOs accessible to more people. That accessibility to other MMOs is initially started by the 800 lb gorilla: World of Warcraft. Without WoW, a large percentage of MMO players would not be enjoying their current game today, even if they haven't stuck by WoW this whole time.
	FAQ That: Common answers to your basic Fallen Earth questions It's not easy figuring out what to do with yourself in the post-apocalyptic world, but thankfully we here at Massively have been working on compiling a list of questions that should help make your first steps in this strange new version of Earth a bit easier.
	Beginner's guide to horse crafting in Fallen Earth When you think of post-apocalyptic mounts, you probably imagine a gas-sipping motorcycle, an armored truck or the last of the V8s, right? Yet, a very practical way to get around when society falls is on horseback. In Fallen Earth currently, a horse mount is probably your best option -- especially considering the fact that you can get one very early in the game.
	First Impressions: Fallen Earth To say that it is an ambitious step into the field is an understatement of some pretty extreme proportions. It's not every day an MMO company decides to drop an MMO smack into the middle of a scale map of the Grand Canyon. More properly, a post Shiva-virus and nuclear post-apocalyptic Grand Canyon. Ambitious? Definitely. Whether or not it works, well... read on for my First Impressions, and make your own call once you have more of an idea what's in play here.

	Top 5 helpful hints for your first days in Fallen Earth The Fallen Earth NDA has lifted today and we can't even express how happy we are to talk about this game. To finally have a true post-apocalyptic title built on a skill-based, classless system is a dream for those of us who remember the old days before loot and levels were king. Sure, there are still loot and levels in Fallen Earth, but the gameplay allows for so much more than that as a main focus.
	Wes Platt sheds some light on Fallen Earth Recently we found out that the team at Fallen Earth LLC have decided to push the game's release date back to the 22nd to allow for a bit more polishing before the final launch. Currently, those who pre-ordered through Direct2Drive or the Fallen Earth website are enjoying a headstart in the strangely altered lands around the Grand Canyon. Still others are biding their time, seeing just how the game develops after release and keeping an eye out for news from this small independent studio.
	Fallen Earth Developer Diary: Character builds Although classless advancement in Fallen Earth gives players more freedom to build the characters they want and level with skills of their choice, learning how to navigate a wide-open system can be a bit daunting for even the most experienced players. With a little help from the dev team and some crib note suggestions, players can learn how to make the most of the classless advancement system.
	Fallen Earth Developer Diary: New Flagstaff University Higher education's never been quite so deadly as it is in New Flagstaff University. The campus was established by GlobalTech in the Northfields section of the Grand Canyon Province soon after the megacorp took over the national park from the federal government. A prominent and well-funded university, NFU provided top-notch scientific research and experimentation programs. In the century since the Fall, the school-like the great city that yielded its name-has crumbled into disrepair. However, it still contains equipment that's useful for scientific tinkering.
	Fallen Earth Developer Diary: Exploring the Cult of the Dead lair Sunset Cemetery, also known as the Cult of the Dead lair, is a small instance available to players in the Northfields area of Fallen Earth. Unlike the massive Old Kingman Prison instance or the sprawling Hoffa Bunker level, the Cult of the Dead lair provides a linear experience. The tone of the story and instance design represents a departure from earlier gameplay.
	Fallen Earth Developer Diary: Exploring Hoffa Bunker In the rugged hills of Toro Bend, far north in the Plateau region of the Grand Canyon Province, slouches a fenced town called Trailer Park. It's comprised of big-rig trailers and cargo containers left over from before the Fall. The inhabitants are mostly castoffs who can't fit in anywhere else – and in a mad world after the apocalypse, that's saying a lot.
	Developer Diary: Exploring Levels in Fallen Earth Old Kingman Prison is the first major instance available to players in Fallen Earth. The level offers a compelling end to one of the early overarching plotlines in the game, and provides interesting group gameplay through a structured series of encounters. When we created the prison instance, we agreed on a few rules for our design. We wanted players to contribute directly to furthering the plot. We wanted the instance to be easily accessible. And of course, it had to look great and have enjoyable fights.

Tags: fallen-earth, launch-day, mmo-roundup, post-apocalyptic, roundup

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Bernie B said on 11:49AM 9-22-2009

As good as the game is, there are two reasons I didn't buy it.

1. No current or future plans for Gamepad support
2. No option to become a lifetime subscriber (hate monthly fees)

These may not be important to others, but as much as I wanted to play FE the above are major deal breakers to me.

kanechart said on 1:56PM 9-22-2009

I can see number 2 being a personal issue and I accept that. But the no gamepad support is a real lame thing. I mean its a PC mmorpg not a console game heh.

Prinny Squad said on 12:46PM 9-22-2009

I'm really tempted to buy the game.
Either this, or try Aion.

kanechart said on 1:56PM 9-22-2009

I played both and went to Fallen Earth in the end. Fallen Earth is something new and clean and fun and more challenging. Aion feels to much like a lot of games you know EQ2 Vanguard WoW it's just all feeling the same thing...

Here Fallen Earth your in for a new feeling and style.

ClassicComposer said on 1:38PM 9-22-2009

I really loved the beta of this game. It really reminded me of the open feel of SWG. I don't know why I am so on the fence when it comes to deciding whether or not to take the leap and buy the game. I think it might be the combat system. I am speaking entirely from my beta experience. The tutorial was great i loved how the combat felt there. Once out of the tutorial however it felt like i couldn't hit anything and the guns all had weird limitations like the xbow had really long reload time and the air pistols did almost no damage when they hit something which wasn't very often. I understand you goto start somewhere but it felt like they were forcing you into melee combat.

I like the game though... grr i wish i knew why i was so hesitant to dive into this one.

kanechart said on 1:56PM 9-22-2009

Your worried they may stop updating or patching and such and I also felt the same way. But since I started the head start there has been many updates.

Check out today's:
http://apoc.in/2009/09/21/patch-notes-version-1-0-8-for-tomorrow/

The game has real devs fixing things every day and does great patches. Not like some games that take a month + for just a small fix.

jerm said on 7:14PM 9-22-2009

Is this game any good?

abadcoverband said on 12:02AM 9-24-2009

I noticed this game pop up on steam tonight, and haven't heard anything about it until now. I have to say, first off, what the hell is this? It's a blatant rip-off of Fallout 3 with horrible graphics. They even have things that look like super-mutants and call points, AP. They even call the gang members Raiders, just like in Fallout 3. How are they even allowed to make this complete knockoff legally?

Cipher Null said on 4:40AM 9-24-2009

The post-apocalyptic genre does NOT begin and end with Fallout 3 - it's been around for quite a while, in movies, games and litterature.

The Fallout games went with a retro-future style, where everything was styled and themed after a 50's cold war theme, with a graphics style to match. Also, everything was nuked to hell, with that being the apocalyptic event that defined Fallout.

In Fallen Earth, the main apocalyptic event was a virus that destroyed most of the earth's population, and rather than go with a 50's-future graphics style, the developers went with more of a present-day theme. Buildings are more decayed and run down than they are ravaged by nukes (as you see in Fallout). The graphics style is quite different, and with proper tweaking, you can make things look quite nice.

Also, it should probably be worth noting that FE has been in development for 8 years - So they actually started their project way before Fallout 3.

Anticrawl said on 1:50AM 9-27-2009

This is an old post I know, but "Fallout 3" is not Fallout. It is Oblivion-with-guns right down to copy-pasted dungeons and the identical pre-get-to-know-the-game-bullshit. The only thing it shares with Fallout 1, 2 and the spinoff by some other dev are the names of objects, enemies and the setting. They did a horrible job of capturing the game's spirit in 3D and there was only one instance of the dark/crude humor that made Fallout so charming in the story (the cannibal mission). The game was terrible (as Fallout) but pretty good as an Oblivion mod.

I guess I'll wait another 10 years for a real Fallout 3 (along with Duke Nukem Forever lolwut).

happyscrappy said on 11:16AM 9-29-2009

This game has been in production before fallout 3 was even a thought.
The game itself is quite fun. Sure it has some bugs and the graphics a bit behind, but it's been getting better and better since alpha and the devs listen to the players. I think once everything is worked out it'll be one of the best mmos out there, give it time.