Filed under: First Impressions

Rise and Shiny: BatMUD

by Beau Hindman May 20th 2012 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Video, Bugs, Culture, Previews, Opinion, Free-to-play, Casual, Roleplaying, First Impressions, Rise and Shiny, Miscellaneous

Here I am making myself crazy once again. Why? Why do I insist on visiting games that I know will provoke issues both physical and mental? I guess it's because lately I have been fascinated with MUDs, or multi-user-dungeons. They are better described as text-based MMOs or choose-your-own-adventure books written with thousands of other players. It's a fascinating concept, especially when you consider how dissimilar it is to today's modern, easy-to-play offerings. The ancient design of the MUD now feels fresh, so much so that I have decided to dedicate a future article about the possibility of MUDs' viability in today's three-dimensional world.

I have found some good and some very bad over the last several weeks. I've also stumbled across brand-new versions of the migraines that often bother me when I concentrate way, way too hard on PC text. I have to admit that my issues do not seem that common, but it is important to look at a game from all angles, even from the angle of someone who has specific issues. BatMUD has tested my patience over the last few weeks and several hours. It's also shown me some wonderful adventure and sparked my imagination.

Some Assembly Required: I saw the wilds of Salem (and lived to tell about it)

by Jef Reahard May 18th 2012 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Economy, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, New titles, Previews, PvP, News items, Opinion, Free-to-play, Hands-on, Massively Hands-on, First Impressions, Some Assembly Required, Sandbox, Crafting

I spent an hour romping through the woods of Salem last Friday with Seatribe head honcho Bjorn Johannessen. The tiny indie company (current dev population: two) is hard at work on its followup to Haven and Hearth, an acquired taste of a sandbox game notable for its no-holds barred approach that includes permadeath and the ability to summon (and kill) criminal characters -- even while their lulz-loving puppet-masters are offline.

Publisher Paradox bills Salem as "the crafting MMO," and boy it's not kidding. Over the course of this particular dev tour, I saw crazy amounts of tradeskill functionality, all kinds of cool world-building stuff, and ultimately, more than enough reasons to spend time with the game when it launches later this year.

Hands-on with The Secret World's mission system

by Jef Reahard May 17th 2012 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Horror, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, Previews, PvE, Opinion, The Secret World, Massively Hands-on, First Impressions, Guides

So The Secret World's mission system treads well off the beaten MMO path. It's pretty cool, actually, though portions of it may irritate quest-grinders who just want to blow through zones on their way to the game's equivalent of a max-level toon.

For the rest of us, there's a nifty interface, some challenging puzzles, and plenty of well-written quest text and dialogue to keep us entertained for weeks at a time.

Hands-on with The Secret World character creator

by Larry Everett May 11th 2012 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Horror, Real life, Video, Age of Conan, New titles, Previews, Opinion, Hands-on, The Secret World, Massively Hands-on, First Impressions, Miscellaneous

The real secret to The Secret World is that it's the Matrix (see the above picture from the character creator that resembles Carrie-Anne Moss).

Actually, the first and most important stop for an MMO gamer is the character creator. When you're in beta, it might not be as important because the character will be tossed away in a few short weeks. However, in the live game, this character will not only be the same one you might see for years to come; it's also a reflection of you as a player. There are some players who insist on playing the ugliest races in the game, while others want the prettiest or the strongest. Personally, I lean toward playing female characters. I'm not sure what that says about me.

The creation of our character says so much about us, so it is extremely important that western RPGs and especially MMORPGs allow us to express ourselves. The Secret World's character creator has its good elements and its bad, but the most important part is how much Funcom's version allows us to express our personalities.

Hands-on with The Secret World's Templar experience

by Jef Reahard May 11th 2012 at 8:00AM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Horror, Galleries, Screenshots, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, Previews, Opinion, Hands-on, The Secret World, Massively Hands-on, First Impressions

The Secret World - Don't mind this hollow earth portal

Believing in The Secret World takes a certain of amount of... faith. And I'm not just talking about Funcom's less-than-stellar reputation when it comes to bug-free MMO launches. No, the very foundation of this particular title rests on a narrative about things unseen, and that cryptic, otherworldly esoterica informed every moment of my time spent in the press beta over the last couple of days.

The basic premise, of course, is that everything is true. Every myth, legend, and spook story that our rational minds scoff at has a place in this particular riff on reality.

The Secret World is also quite heretical when it comes to gameplay. It eschews the tried and true class-based approach for a complex grimoire of a skill system featuring an ability wheel made of hieroglyphs and higher math (or so it first appears). To come right to the point, though, I bought into the game almost immediately.

Gallery: The Secret World - Press Beta (Templars)

Rise and Shiny: Looking back on two years and making changes

by Beau Hindman May 6th 2012 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Screenshots, Video, Culture, New titles, Opinion, Free-to-play, Browser, Mobile, Hands-on, Casual, Humor, First Impressions, Rise and Shiny, Miscellaneous, Anniversary

This column will turn two years old on May 8th, 2012. I'm proud of not only the fact that I have been able keep up the column with a decent amount of content and writing that has slowly gotten better over that time but also the fact that I have introduced the readers of Massively to so many games that they wouldn't otherwise have known about. Recently, I have increased my efforts by streaming odd and indie games as well as writing about the relatively new world of mobile MMOs.

This might all seem like I am attempting to build some sort of indie hipster street cred, but the totally honest truth is that nothing thrills me more than exposing a new game to the world or giving an older game some much-needed sunlight. If someone posts, "This game is still around?" in the comments section, I call that a win.

From now on, I am going to tweak how I do things for Rise and Shiny in order to raise the quality of coverage. Let me explain how as well as give you a few figures to illustrate just how many titles I have covered.

The Firing Line: Hands-on with Firefall's beta

by Jef Reahard May 4th 2012 at 10:00AM

Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, Opinion, Free-to-play, Hands-on, MMOFPS, First Impressions, The Firing Line, Firefall

The Firing Line - Hands on with Firefall's beta

I'm dying on the beautiful beach outside Firefall's starter town. As I lay bleeding from a hundred holes and generally making a mess of my shiny new bumble bee-colored battleframe, my avatar collapses to the sand and says the funniest thing I've heard in a while.

"Grandpa!"

This is delivered in his best rural Georgia twang, and it lessens the sting of my latest newbie move. The whole scene is Firefall in a nutshell: It's fun, frustrating, and funny all at once.

Weekend warrior: Two days with TERA's beta berserker

by Jef Reahard Apr 9th 2012 at 2:30PM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Classes, Events, in-game, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, News items, PvE, Opinion, Hands-on, First Impressions, TERA

This all feels very familiar.

The gorgeous Asian aesthetics, the sexed-up avatars, and the hordes of high school tykes runting and squealing in global chat take me back to September of 2009 and the opening gyrations of the themepark orgy that was Aion.

Only this time, there are no angel wings, there's but one faction, and the game's called TERA.

PAX East 2012: The Secret World demo

by Elisabeth Cardy Apr 7th 2012 at 10:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Horror, Events, real-world, Opinion, Hands-on, The Secret World, Massively Hands-on, First Impressions, Massively Event Coverage

He wants to believe like I want to love this game. Can I get this shirt?

Funcom's The Secret World has had a big weekend at PAX East with its first public chance for hands-on interaction! It's a game that's been stirring up quite a bit of interest; the classless, level-less progression system, secret societies, and sword-and-automatic-rifle genre-bending are just a few of its selling points. My ears tend to perk up when the game gets mentioned, so of course I was all but falling over myself to hop into the playable demo this weekend. Walking away from that experience, though, I'm unconvinced.

PAX East 2012: TERA hands-on

by Elisabeth Cardy Apr 7th 2012 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Video, Events, real-world, Game mechanics, Previews, Opinion, Hands-on, First Impressions, Massively Event Coverage, TERA

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/04/07/pax-east-2012-tera-hands-on/

In the service of Massively's ongoing PAX East 2012 coverage, I spent some time today in and around the TERA booth, ogling the pretty trailers and getting a seat in a group press demo to tackle some fun high-end content in the form of a five-player encounter with an Argon boss. Read on for an overview of what I saw!

Gallery: TERA PAX 2012

PAX East 2012: Neverwinter discussion and impressions

by Eliot Lefebvre Apr 7th 2012 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Classes, Game mechanics, New titles, Previews, Opinion, Free-to-play, Hands-on, First Impressions, Massively Event Coverage

Many words come to mind when you mention Dungeons & Dragons, but "action" is not usually one of them. So at first glance, Neverwinter might seem like a bit of an odd beast. The game is meant as an action-based MMORPG that takes place in the distant future of the beloved Neverwinter Nights series; it's being developed by Cryptic Studios and published by Perfect World Entertainment. While the game isn't yet in open testing, the early version was playable on the floor of PAX East, and we had a chance to sit down with Cryptic Studios to discuss the game's development.

I came to the show with no real expectations about the game beyond the fact that I knew the companies involved and was distantly aware of the game's development. I walked away more than a little impressed by what I had seen. However odd the collection of elements might seem, the game itself certainly piqued my interest.

Gallery: Neverwinter

Choose My Adventure: Dark Age of Camelot, week two

by Justin Olivetti Mar 21st 2012 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Polls, Dark Age of Camelot, Hands-on, Humor, First Impressions, Choose My Adventure

Some of you probably know that I first got into the blogging scene with my Warhammer Online blog Waaagh! Back then in early 2008, I was a veritable Mythic and PvP newbie, and I spent a good portion of the lead-up to the game's release reading up on Dark Age of Camelot. I figured that, after all, WAR would be built on the foundation of DAoC. In a way, it both was and wasn't.

The one thing I never did was actually play DAoC. Older MMOs can be quite intimidating; they have deep-rooted communities and tomes of updates and history, and they were more rough around the edges. Rough in their cores, too, if we're being honest. So the intimidation factor kept me away until this past week, when Massively readers sent me on a quest to Camelot for the first time in my life.

Last week readers voted on the character I was to roll. An impressive 82% of you said to check out the realm vs. realm ruleset and roll a a Midgard (43.2%) beastly (40.8%) hybrid (43.3%) character. After reading some of the recommendations in the comments, I ended up making a female Troll Skald on a traditional server. She may be lumpy and bulky, but I took a shine to her right away.

All the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria previews you can shake an empty fist at

by Justin Olivetti Mar 19th 2012 at 10:00AM

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Expansions, Previews, Hands-on, First Impressions

In the wee hours of this morning, the press NDA for World of Warcraft's Mists of Pandaria expansion came tumbling down, and our sister site WoW Insider has a bounty of coverage to share. The much anticipated -- and much debated -- expansion is slated for release this year and will include a new continent, the Monk hero class, the Pandaren race, pet battles, a level cap increase, and a massive overhaul of the game's talent system.

World of Warcraft players are undoubtedly fixated on the expansion, as January's 4.3 patch was announced to be the last major update to the game before MoP arrives. You can check out all of the juicy info squeezed from the press beta groves after the jump, including hands-on impressions and insights you won't find anywhere else!

The Firing Line: Why you should be playing Tribes: Ascend

by Jef Reahard Feb 24th 2012 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, Video, Classes, Game mechanics, MMO industry, New titles, Previews, Opinion, Free-to-play, Hands-on, First Impressions, The Firing Line

The Firing Line - Tribes open beta edition

Skiing! Jetpacks! Pew pew!

Yes, kids, Tribes: Ascend is officially in open beta, and that means you no longer have an excuse. Hi-Rez Studios threw open the doors this morning, and despite the fact that the game's closed beta exceeded all expectations and hosted over 300,000 players since its November kickoff, there's always room for more.

Massively's Guild Wars 2 closed beta impressions

by Shawn Schuster Feb 20th 2012 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Screenshots, Video, Game mechanics, New titles, Previews, Opinion, Guild Wars 2, Hands-on, Massively Hands-on, First Impressions

This last weekend, ArenaNet invited a few dozen members of the gaming press into its highly anticipated MMO, Guild Wars 2. The game is still in its closed beta testing stage, but the reveal of this event is an opportunity for the public to finally see what this game is all about.

Our Guild Wars columnist Elisabeth Cardy and I spent a good part of this weekend exploring as much as we could in the game in preparation for today's embargo lift. Read along for each of our impressions below, and be sure to watch our beta montage video at the end of each article.

Elisabeth's impressions | Shawn's Impressions

Massively Features

Events Calendar

Name	Date
Cataclysm Launch	Dec 7, 2010
DCUO Launch	Early 2011

Massively Staff

Name	Title
Shawn Schuster	Editor-in-Chief
Brianna Royce	Senior Editor
Rubi Bayer	Community Manager
Brendan Drain	Contributing Editor
Eliot Lefebvre	Contributing Editor
Jef Reahard	Contributing Editor
Justin Olivetti	Contributing Editor
Krystalle Voecks	Contributing Editor
Larry Everett	Contributing Editor
Beau Hindman	Columnist
Edward Marshall	Columnist
Greg Waller	Columnist
Jeremy Stratton	Columnist
Karen Bryan	Columnist
MJ Guthrie	Columnist
Patrick Mackey	Columnist
Ryan Greene	Columnist
Lisa Poisso	Columnist

More about the Massively staff

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