Filed under: Consoles

The Daily Grind: Do you use PlayStation Home?

by Seraphina Brennan Oct 30th 2009 at 8:00AM

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Consoles, Virtual worlds, Home

Now here's an odd question that could only be thought up at 8 in the morning. If you own a PS3, are you an avid user of PlayStation Home, or do you avoid the console's virtual world like the plague?

We ask because the world seems to present two very different versions of itself. On one hand, some of the mini-games are kinda interesting, the virtual environment does take full advantage of the PS3's graphical capabilities, and the virtual spaces for the different PS3 games are kinda cool.

However, on the flip side, you get to deal with the worst of the PlayStation Network community while you can't completely remove them from your screen. If you make a female avatar, get ready to get swamped by every guy in a 30 virtual mile radius no matter how you're dressed.

So tell us why or why not you use Home, and don't be afraid to give us all of the gritty details. Go readers, go!

Crafting in Final Fantasy XI: A few tips to achieving success

by Seraphina Brennan Oct 20th 2009 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Game mechanics, Guides, Crafting, Tips and tricks, Consoles

Most games give crafters the shaft. There's no real art to pushing a button and having an item pop out, especially when today's modern MMO design heavily favors "quick crafting." Crafting is an afterthought to most games, or something that players can do to both pass the time and perhaps offer an alternative to buying items from the shops.

Then there's Final Fantasy XI. The game equipped with a crafting system so complicated, people still have arguments about how the game calculates success 6 years after its American launch. A crafting system so complicated, some people like to refer to it as "voodoo crafting."

The ins-and-outs of the system may be hard to grasp for the starting player, but we here at Massively want to give everyone a fighting chance at what is a very interestingly designed crafting system. So if you want a few tips on how to leverage the crafting system in your favor, or if you want to find out what makes crafting in this game so difficult and draw so much debate, then this is the guide for you.

Ranger, beastmaster, and summoner targeted for job adjustments in Final Fantasy XI

by Seraphina Brennan Oct 16th 2009 at 2:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Classes, Game mechanics, Patches, News items, Consoles

No, you can't curve the bullets just yet, but Final Fantasy XI's next set of job adjustments, coming in the November version update, is targeting three classes -- the ranger, the summoner, and the beastmaster.

In the first part of the job adjustment news, Square-Enix has released details on the changes coming to the ranger. Two of the changes really stand out, including the adjustment of Velocity Shot's ability duration from five minutes to two hours and the addition of textual notifications that will tell the ranger how successful their shot was from where they were standing.

DUST 514 trailer released

by James Egan Oct 9th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, MMO industry, Consoles, MMOFPS, DUST 514

EVE Online creators CCP Games made quite a stir when they announced the console title DUST 514 in August. It's one of the more ambitious game concepts we've heard about in quite a while. A ground based console MMO that ties in with EVE Online? Two separate games, one setting and one community? (The game's tagline is "ONE UNIVERSE // ONE WAR".) There are so many questions that remain unanswered about how DUST mercenaries will interact with and affect EVE's capsuleers, but a more immediate question is, "How does it look so far?"

Unless you were actually in Cologne to see CCP's DUST 514 reveal at GDC Europe, it's likely all you've had to base your impressions off of was a somewhat blurry video capture of the presentation. That is, until now. CCP's released the GDC Europe DUST 514 trailer and it's good to see a crisp version of that footage. The trailer shows how the conflict between EVE's Caldari and Gallente races plays out on the ground on the Gallente planet Intaki V. It gives us a look at War Barge interiors, Mobile Command Centers (MCC) floating over what is now a war-torn Intaki homeworld, and some of the ground and air vehicles that DUST 514 players will put to use.

We've got an embed of that video, so stick with us after the jump for a look at DUST 514.

Final Fantasy XI holds a contest to draw the professor, Vana'diel's newest royal successor

by Seraphina Brennan Oct 8th 2009 at 6:30PM

Filed under: At a glance, Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Contests, MMO industry, News items, Consoles

We have news for all of you readers, you can now draw pictures of your future fearless leader! Final Fantasy XI's Lady Shantotto is the focus of the mini-expansion, "A Shantotto Ascension," and she wants to make sure her reign begins with your full apprehension!

If you are artistically inclined, then drop by the Final Fantasy XI website in time! There you will learn the contest's basics, so hopefully you can learn enough to face it. Many renditions of her fabulous nature will be chosen, but only a few will get the medal that is golden!

Those selected to win a prize will see it appear right before their eyes. A Nomad Moogle Rod is the contest's winning, and we think you'll find that the item will keep you grinning. Target a fellow party member and before you can say do-si-dori, a gift will end up in their inventory!

So don't wait and stop to yawn, or else this contest will have come and gone!

Sincerely, Professor Shan... er... the Massively.com staff. O~hohohohohohohoho!

Final Fantasy XI's November version update announced

by Seraphina Brennan Sep 28th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Expansions, Game mechanics, Patches, News items, Consoles

While it was a foregone conclusion that we'd be seeing a content update in Final Fantasy XI very soon, thanks to the release of the trailer for "A Shantotto Ascension," we now have confirmation on the target month for the gigantic update -- November.

The November version update will include new Wings of the Goddess nation quests, more Moblin Maze Mongers features, a mysterious new "item related system," and a continuation of the job targeted enhancements. The next few months will be filled with exciting news as we'll get to find out what jobs are being targeted for changes during this update and what exactly this mysterious new system is.

Of course, the version update will also come with the newest mini-expansion, "A Shantotto Ascension," which we have the trailer for already! So check out the trailer, and stay tuned to Massively for all the information related to the upcoming version update!

AGDC09: EVE's Nathan Richardsson on the Dominion expansion and beyond

by James Egan Sep 19th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Events, real-world, Expansions, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, Consoles, Massively Interviews, Massively Event Coverage, DUST 514

Massively was on the ground at the Game Developers Conference 2009 in Austin this week, and had a chance to sit down with Nathan "Oveur" Richardsson, Executive Producer of EVE Online. We discussed EVE's winter expansion, Dominion, and the new dimensions to the sci-fi MMO's setting that CCP Games hopes to introduce. We also learned a bit more about the company's plans to expand EVE into other platforms, namely through the COSMOS social network which will tie in with the game from Dominion onward.

Redefining MMOs: The Shooter Invasion

by James Egan Sep 18th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Game mechanics, MMO industry, PvP, Opinion, Massively meta, Consoles, Crime, MMOFPS, Redefining MMOs

The MMO industry is always changing, and if we're going to stay ahead of the curve, we need to re-evaluate some of our views and ingrained notions from time to time. The Redefining MMOs series at Massively is our look at the state of massively multiplayer online games as it is today, and where we see it going. This week we're going to look at how shooters have invaded the MMO space, give you a run-down of some promising MMO shooters on the horizon, and finally tackle the question of whether or not they should be covered here at Massively.

Something we're seeing more and more is a blurring of the lines between formerly distinct game genres -- this is especially true of shooters and MMOs. There are a number of shooters on the horizon that fit the bill as MMOs (although not RPGs), but such games are a radical departure from the DikuMUD pedigree shared by most MMORPG titles we cover at Massively. These shooter-MMO hybrids may have quests, levels, and classes, but they cast few illusions about being true RPGs. They're shooters through and through, but have persistent settings or are massively multiplayer -- traits which catch our attention.

AGDC09 Breaking: Turbine confirms console MMO in the works

by Seraphina Brennan Sep 18th 2009 at 3:15PM

Filed under: Business models, MMO industry, New titles, News items, Consoles

During his talk at AGDC entitled "MMOs to Consoles -- Challenges, Opportunities, Emerging Trends," Turbine's Craig Alexander, the VP of project development for the company, has confirmed that they are working on a console MMO.

The project has been in Turbine's production house for a year and a half now, and the staff is actively seeking to launch the title on Xbox 360 and PS3 consoles. Turbine does also have plans to develop for Wii in the future, although they did not go any further into that topic. Over 20 million dollars has been spent on developing the platform for this title. The targeted release date for this project is early 2011.

Craig also said during the speech that he believes that consoles will eventually pass PCs in the MMO market, making this a lucrative endeavor. He also hinted briefly at a free to play subscription model, saying that MMOs should have "minimum friction to access."

Turbine has said in the past that they will completely confirm their console MMO plans in early 2010, but speculation is still in the air as to if this is a brand new IP, ~~or perhaps one of their former titles repackaged for the console~~. (Edit: Craig has now said, and we quote, "Under no circumstances should you attempt to port a title." This now looks to be a brand new console IP for Turbine.)

We'll keep this post updated with new information as we receive it.

Gallery: AGDC09: Turbine talks consoles

Blitz burly bovines before bovines blitz beneficiados

by Seraphina Brennan Sep 18th 2009 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Events, in-game, Game mechanics, Consoles, Humor

All of our MMOs sometimes have odd festivals, but they don't get odder than Final Fantasy XI's annual Buffalo Blitz. Each year during this festival buffalo are released into Ronfaure, Sarutabaruta, and Gustaberg, the starting areas outside of each city, and players must help the mog house moogles in wrangling them up!

Wrangling one of the herds of buffalo is as easy (or as complicated) as approaching a herd and seeing how they react to you. Use their behavior to lead them into one of the moogles stationed in the zone and claim some of the event rewards! It's silly, and it's fun, and it gets you stuff. What's not to like about that?

This year's Buffalo Blitz starts on September 25th, but the buffalo will run off into the sunset on October 5th.

Crytek's CryEngine in UK classrooms

by Brooke Pilley Sep 12th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Aion, MMO industry, Consoles, Academic

Students of video game design in the United Kingdom should be doing back flips after hearing that Crytek is donating their CryEngine free of charge to all universities in the country. CryEngine is most famously known as the graphics engine behind visually stunning titles such as Crysis and Aion.

This is really big news because only the priciest universities tend to license high quality software for their students to learn on. They're the only ones that can afford it. It's also great for students to dream up pie in the sky concepts for games, but knowing what's practical in the real world is essential. "Universities are looking to foster creativity and send people out into the industry who have lots of ideas, but it's also about that practical hands-on training so that they know what the limitations are," says Managing Director of Crytek UK Karl Hilton. "It's very easy for students to come out of the academic world and not have a grasp on the realities of making a video game."

We hope more MMOs are released with CryEngine due to its stellar performance and scalability and it would be great if other graphics engine companies followed suit to increase the options in our genre.

NCsoft PS3 'MOG' discontinued

by Kyle Horner Sep 12th 2009 at 10:00AM

Filed under: MMO industry, News items, Consoles

So remember that announcement NCsoft made a few years back about working with Sony on a console MMO for the PS3? After many months of silence, VG247 has pried the news from an NCsoft Europe head has finally revealed that said project has long since been shelved. Apparently, the game was of a casual bent and seemed to hit a brick wall of some kind.

While the reason behind the mysterious game's discontinued development may never be known, NCsoft is still interested in console development. And why wouldn't they be? It's a completely -- well, mostly -- untapped market that's just waiting for a company to offer something perfectly suited for it, like say, All Points Bulletin. Until that does happen, we'll just have to keep playing all our "massive online games" or whatever you'd like to call them on our personal computrons.

[via Joystiq]

Massively tours Final Fantasy XI's latest version update

by Seraphina Brennan Sep 11th 2009 at 6:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Expansions, PvE, Hands-on, Consoles, Massively Hands-on

Not too long ago, we were taken on a tour of moogles and mayhem by the developers over at Square-Enix as we got an inside look into Final Fantasy XI's July version update. There's a lot of meat to this update as it includes everything from Ninja job changes, new blue mage spells, more item augmentations, campaign quests, expansions to Moblin Maze Mongers, and their newest mini-expansion pack, "A Moogle Kupo d'Etat!"

Our hands-on is set to cover all of these new additions, so let's waste no more time here on the front page. On to moogles and more!

Cryptic's Jack Emmert baffled by lack of MMOs on Xbox 360

by James Egan Aug 28th 2009 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Business models, Interviews, MMO industry, Consoles, Champions Online

A number of massively multiplayer online game developers have touted the fact that their titles will be playable on both PC and Xbox 360 but, with rare exceptions, they've failed to deliver on MMOs for this console. But can the blame for this really be laid solely at the feet of the developers? That seems to be the typical reaction, as many of us get frustrated over these broken promises. However, looking at the various titles that were aiming for 360 and missed, perhaps we should look at what all of these stories have in common: Microsoft. (Lest the fires of console fanboy rage blaze out of control, we're not exactly inundated with PlayStation 3 MMOs either.)

Patrick Garratt from VG247 recently spoke with Jack Emmert from Cryptic Studios about this issue, and his perspective on playing ball with Microsoft to get Champions Online on the 360. Emmert stated that Champions Online for Xbox is almost ready to go, but lack of action on Microsoft's part is holding up the project.