vulcan posts

Spock!

by James Egan Dec 22nd 2009 at 7:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Video, New titles, Star Trek Online

We recently showed you a video of Zachary Quinto -- Spock Reloaded, if you will -- doing voice work for Star Trek Online. Quinto won't be reprising his role as the famous Vulcan though, and will instead guide new players through the tutorial as an Emergency Medical Hologram. Now we've come across footage of Leonard Nimoy lending his voice as well for Cryptic's massively multiplayer take on the Star Trek IP. He'll be providing the narration that brings players up to date with events in Star Trek Online's setting.

Stick with us past the jump for footage of Leonard Nimoy (and clips from the game) in a behind-the-scenes video for Star Trek Online.

Tags: behind-the-scenes, cryptic, cryptic-studios, leonard-nimoy, narration, narrator, new-titles, pointy-ears, sci-fi, spock, star-trek, star-trek-online, sto, video, voice-over, vulcan, zachary-quinto

Star Trek Online lore: 2379 to 2384

by Adam Holisky Nov 3rd 2009 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Star Trek Online

It's rare for an MMO to bring with it a history as rich and generational as Star Trek. The Trek universe is as deep and rich with lore as Lord of the Rings or Star Wars, and just like both those titles the lore has been passed down from parent to child over generations now. This leaves any game which attempts to encapsulate that lore in a precarious situation of both having to remain close to the canon, yet leaving enough creative room for the player to feel like they're making a true difference in the universe.

And while we have yet to see if Star Trek Online lives up to the second part of that criteria, we can take a look at how they are moving the lore forward and dealing with the canocial events of past Trek incarnations. The main conduit for this lesson in lore has been through the sporadic postings of The Path to 2409 on the official STO website. However, there's a lot of information there and it's quite easy to get lost in it all.

So, let's take a look at the Star Trek Online timeline Cryptic has released thus far. To begin with, we'll go over the years 2379 through 2384.

Tags: alternate-timeline, bajor, cardassian, cryptic, cryptic-studios, featured, federation, jj-abrams, klingon, reman, romulan, spock, star-trek, star-trek-movie, star-trek-online, star-trek-timeline, stark-trek-movie, sto, sto-featured, sto-timeline, timeline, vulcan

Star Trek Online featured on the cover of PC Gamer

by Kyle Horner Aug 20th 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, New titles, News items, Star Trek Online

We've got to hand it to Cryptic for putting fake censor strips on these images of the new PC Gamer Star Trek Online cover. They really had us fooled for a while.

It wasn't until we finally saw an official image of the cover, sans censorship, that it became apparent we'd been duped. Of course, this particular image had something to do with our initial suspicion. Unless you're the type of person who claims to have an affinity for forward torpedo bays.

If you're interested in getting a copy of the magazine, you'll be happy to know official forum goers have reported that it comes with both a double-sided poster along and -- we're assuming here -- some decent information concerning the game itself. We'll have to see about tracking down a copy and reporting any potentially new information. Although, we're not really sure who to gift our poster to, since we don't know any 14 year-old boys in dire need of wall art.

Tags: atari, censorship, klingon, pc-gamer, star-trek, star-trek-online, sto, vulcan

Watch this strikingly good Star Trek Online character customization video

by Kyle Horner Feb 8th 2009 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Video, New titles, News items, Star Trek Online

Look, we know City of Heroes was the first MMO to offer so many character customization options it caused brains to melt out of people's nostrils. And it's becoming exceedingly apparent that Champions Online will have a customization system that will cause our once-liquefied brains to ooze their way back into our skulls and do the chicken dance -- but this new Star Trek Online video is almost too much.

What are our brains supposed to do when they process the fact that craniums, noses and more can be dynamically scaled? That scar textures can be applied and then moved around the head freely? Don't even get us started on the reality that we can finally make that Klingon-Vulcan hybrid race, either. Take a look at the dauntingly awesome video after the break.

Tags: atari, champions-online, cryptic-studios, customization, klingon, ncsoft, star-trek, star-trek-onlin, sto, vulcan

Star Trek Online producer confirms familiar races and locales

by Samuel Axon Nov 21st 2008 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Interviews, New titles, News items, Star Trek Online, Races

Bet you'd just about forgotten about Star Trek Online by this point, hadn't you? There was a big explosion of information when Cryptic announced its iteration of the game in August, but since then, we've seen less and less information as time's gone by. But lo! There has been an update at the officlal site! Turns out the executive producer, Craig Zinkievich, did an interview with Skewed and Reviewed.

It makes for a decent overview if you're new to Star Trek Online, but there isn't much in the way of new gameplay information except for some specific revelations about visitable locales and playable races. First of all, he confirmed that Deep Space Nine -- the setting of the TV series of the same name -- will be in the game. He also rattled off a few of the playable races (but not all, and remember you can create your own): "Human, Vulcan, Andorian, Klingon, Orion and several others." Trekkers / trekkies should be glad to hear that there will be no shortage of scantily clad green people or blue antennae.

Tags: andorian, craig-Zinkievich, cryptic, cryptic-studios, deep-space-nine, human, interview, klingon, orion, races, star-trek, star-trek-online, sto, vulcan

The Digital Continuum: Pondering Star Trek Online

by Kyle Horner Aug 16th 2008 at 8:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, New titles, Opinion, Star Trek Online, The Digital Continuum

As a kid, I grew up on Star Trek: The Next Generation. Mostly because my parents watched it constantly, but also because I found that I enjoyed the show. Another staple of my nerd-influenced upbringing was a steady diet of Star Trek movies. Since those formative years I've also watched Deep Space Nine, Babylon 5, Voyager and more recently Battlestar Galactica. So it's safe to say I'm at least a casual sci-fi and space nerd. In fact, when I'm not entrenched in some form of entertainment, I tend to spend my extra time over at the official website of Astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

Of course Star Trek has never been purely about Science. It's always been -- to me, at least -- a mixture of social-political issues, engaging drama and several degrees of actual science. Different writers and directors have, over several decades, writ large their envisioned versions of Star Trek, with varying amounts of the three critical factors that make up a Star Trek experience. So, obviously, I now find myself wondering what Cryptic Studio's massively multiplayer online version is going to be like.

Tags: andorian, babylon-5, battlestar-galactica, captain, ccp, cryptic, cryptic-studios, deep-space-nine, doctor, engineer, eve-online, featured, gorn, human, joystiqfeatures, klingon, neil-degrasse-tyson, orion, science-officer, space-ship, star-trek, star-trek-nemesis, star-trek-online, sto, tactical-officer, voyager, vulcan

The hidden art of Star Trek Online

by Krystalle Voecks Jul 28th 2008 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, New titles, Star Trek Online, Races

There is much buzz in the MMOG universe this morning about the upcoming title Star Trek Online. Being absolute fanboys and fangirls of Star Trek ourselves (much like our friends at STO Zone who had the same idea) we wanted to show you a couple of nuggets of interesting art that we've extracted. These two images were taken from the backgrounds of the Cryptic Star Trek Online site that was unveiled last night.

The top image shows an Andorian female in the foreground of what appears to be an away team. Some of the staff think that may be either a Bolian, Benzite or an Orion male to her left, but it's very hard to make out. (Not that many people remember the Orion males anyway.) Below that is a Klingon at the helm of what appears to be a Bird of Prey with a Human, Ferengi, Cardassian and Vulcan manning the controls, dressed in Federation uniform, or wearing Federation insignia. Speculation from some blog sites suggest that Cryptic is likely looking at a period of time post-DS9, tied to the Officer Exchange Program that started in the episode "A Matter of Honor" during the TNG series. It seems like an excellent spot in the continuity to place an MMO, we think.

Tags: andorian, background-images, backgrounds, cardassian, continuity, cryptic, cryptic-entertainment, ds9, ferengi, hidden-art, human, joystiqfeatures, klingon, new-titles, orion-slave-girls, star-trek, star-trek-online, sto, sttng, TNG, vulcan

The Daily Grind: Which Star Trek races do you most want in the MMO?

by Kyle Horner Jul 4th 2008 at 8:00AM

Filed under: Opinion, Star Trek Online, The Daily Grind

There are many races within the Star Trek universe to choose from when it comes to your favorites -- and we say that in plural form because lets be honest, you can't pick just one -- so of course we're curious about your personal choices. If you had the power to choose four or five races for Star Trek Online, what would they be? Vulcan? Cardassian, Bajoran, Ferengi, Klingon, or Romulan? Or maybe something less expected like the Voth? We'd totally roll some bipedal hyper-dinosaur characters. Obviously we're assuming that Humans are included in this list, but hey if you want to exclude them feel free.

There's certainly a lot of room for discussion on this topic, seeing as there have been six Star Trek series (if you count the animated series) and ten -- but soon to be eleven -- movies. One thing we personally thing is that all Game Masters should be forced to be the Q race, because come on... that just makes too much sense!

Tags: bajoran, cardassian, ferengi, klingon, q, romulan, star-trek, star-trek-online, the-daily-grind, voth, vulcan

Star Trek Online devlogs explore strange new world-building techniques

by Samuel Axon Oct 31st 2007 at 9:24PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, New titles, Star Trek Online

If you've been following Star Trek Online, then you know we get the sweetest little tastes of information in Perpetual's monthly devlogs. This month's devlog is about game art -- specifically, putting together different building-block pieces of it to form a variety of locales. This is appropriately demonstrated with pieces of a Vulcan town -- "Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combinations," get it?

While that's (Vulcan voice) fascinating, the highlights of the devlog are arguably the little bits of concept art. Most if it is Vulcan stuff, but devlogger Mike Stemmle did toss in the above-pictured TOS Doomsday Machine. If you're a real Trekkie, that bit alone should make the wait unbearable. We're trying our best to be patient and to not let Perpetual's Gods & Heroes self-destruction get to us. To quote Spock, "you must have faith that the universe will unfold as it should."

[Via Warcry]

Tags: concept-art, devlog, mike-stemmle, perpetual, perpetual-entertainment, star-trek, star-trek-online, sto, vulcan, world-building