If you can’t have one big server where all the players play, there are ways to have the next best thing. Funcom’s Secret World, for instance, was really good about letting players bop around among servers to play with each other. You could even chat freely with anyone anywhere, regardless of which server you were on. It was the best kind of MMO spread across multiple servers: one where the server boundaries are invisible.
Guild Wars 2 will do its part to tear down server walls with what they’re calling a “megaserver system”.
With the megaserver system, players won’t be separated into different copies of the same map based on the world they selected on character creation. Instead, you will simply arrive in a map and be assigned to the version of that map that makes the most sense for you as selected by the megaserver system we’ve developed. This new system takes your party, guild, language, home world, and other factors into account to match you to a version of the map you’re entering. This will increase the odds that you’ll see the same people more often and play with people of similar interests.
With megaserver technology, there are as many copies of a map as are needed to comfortably hold the population of players in that map at a given time. Rather than having a separate map copy for each home world and artificially limiting the amount of fellow adventurers you see, the megaserver system brings players together and dynamically opens up new map copies as necessary.
While I’m excited that this will allow me to easily play with friends, I think I’m more excited at what this means for player population. Guild Wars 2 is a rare game that gets better as you’re playing with more people (ironically, Secret World’s downbeat horror setting fares best with fewer people around). There is never any penalty to having other people running around doing what you’re doing. In fact, there are group quests and roaming bosses that feel like content you can’t enjoy if you’re not on a crowded server. The new megaserver system will let Guild Wars 2 be exactly as crowded as it needs to be.
Megaservers go live on April 15. Read more here.
GameSpy Technology is shutting down. The service that provides multiplayer matchmaking and back-end server functionality will cease operating as of May 31st according to a post on the company website.
Effective May 31, 2014, GameSpy will cease providing all hosted services for all games still using GameSpy. If you have any questions about how this impacts your favorite title please contact the game’s publisher for more information. Thanks for a great ride!
GameSpy Technology still provides matchmaking and connectivity for many active games. Capcom claims that they are evaluating various services to replace GameSpy in some of their effected games. Epic reassured fans that they have an in-house strategy they are working on for their older Unreal titles.
One of the largest active set of games impacted will be Bohemia Interactive’s Arma series. Bohemia’s CEO Marek Spanel announced that the GameSpy server shutdown would result in loss of the in-game server browser, CD key authentication, and NAT traversal for the following games: Take On Helicopters, Arma 2, Arma 2: Free, Arma, Arma: Cold War Assault. Bohemia is working on migrating current GameSpy multiplayer functionality to Steam for Arma 3 and Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead.
GameSpy Technology began as a server listing service for Quake in 1996 when it was called QSpy. In 1997, the service was incorporated as GameSpy Industries. Over the years, the company expanded into gaming and web media and eventually split the original multiplayer services arm into GameSpy Technologies. The media company GameSpy Industries, was purchased by IGN Entertainment in 2004 and shut down in 2013. GameSpy Technologies was purchased by Glu Mobile in 2012.
Indie survival games Don’t Starve and FTL get more stuff added to their gameplay today thanks to expansions. Don’t Starve’s Reign of Giants has been released on Steam early access, and FTL has been updated with the free Advance Edition content. More enemies! More junk to collect! More slow starvation and explosive decompression!
Reign of Giants by Klei Entertainment unsurprisingly adds giants to Don’t Starve to fight and conquer. The expansion also features Spring and Summer seasons to go with the base game’s Winter period, and a new save slot to clutter up with your doomed character. New NPC creatures and player character types come with the expansion as well. The Reign of Giants beta is available now on Steam.
The Advanced Edition update is a free expansion for FTL. Subset Games added a new playable race, a clone bay that reproduces dead crew, hacking drones, and an even harder difficulty level for masochists to enjoy. “Guest writer” Chris Avellone contributed new storylines to the update so players can get their death in space presented with flair. FTL: Advanced Edition is also available now as a complete game for Apple devices for $10.
Microsoft has formally announced Age of Mythology: Extended Edition. The real-time strategy classic from 2002, is being released on Steam this May and will come with a host of improvements. The game features a mix of ancient world units like hoplites and myrmidons fighting alongside mythological creatures such as minotaurs and wadjets. Ray Harryhausen would be proud.
Like the recent Age of Empires II HD release, the extended edition of Age of Mythology will feature higher resolution graphics adjusted for modern monitor aspect ratios, Steam workshop integration, and in-game Twitch streaming support. The game will also come with the Titans expansion.
Update: The Age of Mythology Extended Edition has been posted to Steam. The pricing for pre-order is $23.99 with the 20% discount.
Amazon has announced the Fire TV media player and entertainment console. It’s an Android-powered device that combines the media-streaming capabilities of something like the Roku and the gaming functionality of the Ouya. The Fire TV can stream most of the popular services like Netflix, Hulu Plus, Crackle, and Youtube as well as Amazon’s own instant video selection available with a Prime subscription. (Notably absent from the streaming services is HBO GO, putting Game of Thrones fans at a disadvantage.) On the gaming side, Fire TV boasts a jillion games through Amazon’s curated version of the Android store. A typically gamey looking console controller is being sold separately for $40 so people can enjoy Flappy Bird clones blown up on their living room TVs.
The most notable feature of the Fire TV is the voice search feature. According to Amazon, Fire TV has voice search “that actually works” which should be interesting to test in real-world settings.
Amazon Fire TV’s remote has a built-in mic so you can instantly search TV shows, movies, actors, directors, and genres using just your voice – no more typing with your remote to find what you want. We’re confident Amazon Fire TV’s voice search is the best you’ve ever used.
The Amazon Fire TV is available now for $99. Support Quarter to Three by ordering through this link.
Lab Zero has added a new character to Skullgirls. Fukua is a recolored “clone” of Filia that uses much of her animation set. The character is a tongue-in-cheek homage to the palette-swapped characters that many fighting game franchises have used as a development shortcut. In particular, the announcement video seems to skewer the newest character revealed by Capcom for Ultra Street Fighter 4 which was Decapre, a clone of Cammy. Fukua was added to the beta and main versions of Skullgirls yesterday.
What started as an April Fools’ joke may be more permanent. Undead Lab’s Peter Bartholow says that they are leaving it up to the community to decide on whether or not to keep Fukua in the game.
Electronic Arts’ Origin store is saying good bye to physical discs. EA’s Craig Harris posted the announcement on the offical Origin news feed. Origin will no longer offer customers the option of recieving a physical product after April 4th. The service will be 100% digital going forward. According to the post, only a small percentage of customers opted for the physical disc delivery.
What does this mean for you? If you’re among 99% of our users, absolutely nothing. Your shopping experience hasn’t changed one single bit.
Charlie Sin, the Maxis brand spokesperson, clarified that their games will still be available in disc form via other retail channels.
Might and Delight have announced a sequel to Shelter, their motherly badger sim. In Shelter 2, players take on the role of a mother lynx, raising her young, hunting prey, and avoiding larger predators. The developers say Shelter 2 will include more advanced gameplay through such features as keeping track of stamina, interactions with cubs, and a variety of smaller animals to hunt. Being somewhat more in the middle of the food chain than a badger, the player’s new role as a lynx will include ranging out from a central location to provide for the family.
Players of Shelter 2 set out to explore huge open territories from a safe haven – the den. A central place in the world where the lynx can always return to, either to gather strength, or to place bone trophies and other pickups such as rare plants and leafs.
Shelter 2 is scheduled to launch this Fall. Check out the teaser video here.
I’m not much of a comic book guy, so I have a hard time keeping up with the heroes in Marvel Heroes, which includes someone who summons squirrels, a member of the Black Panther movement, and an actual raccoon. Today, Marvel Heroes adds Doc Strange (pictured, foreground) to the roster. Frankly, I don’t know Doc Strange from Doc Severinsen, so I had to check the Marvel Heroes site for this helpful information:
When the injuries he sustained in a horrific accident ruined Stephen Strange’s career as a surgeon, he searched the world for a cure. In the mountains of Tibet, he found a mystic named the Ancient One. But instead of being healed, Stephen ended up as the old man’s apprentice and learned the secrets of sorcery while gaining humility and wisdom. Eventually, Stephen became the Sorcerer Supreme, dedicating his life to protecting the world from extra-dimensional enemies.
You have to admire a man who can switch careers like that late in life.
Doc Strange is available today for the low price of however many spacebucks he costs. And while you’re spending, Marvel Heroes has a “buy one, get one free” deal on all heroes this weekend. Well, all heroes except Doc Strange.
To the surprise of no one who’s played a World War II game because Saving Private Ryan, Sega will add America to Company of Heroes 2, which had previously languished on the Eastern Front where you couldn’t be America.
Company of Heroes 2: The Western Front Armies brings players back to the Western Front first introduced in the original award-winning Company of Heroes. The Western Front Armies introduces two unique collections of new content — the US Forces and the German Oberkommando West. Each army has distinctive tactical gameplay options, new infantry, team weapons, vehicles, abilities and upgrades on a total of eight seasonal multiplayer maps set on the Western Front. The Western Front Armies also includes a new progression system that introduces other unique content into the game and enables players to dive deeper into the tactical and strategic aspects of the game than ever before.
America isn’t free, of course. America will cost $13. Germany will also cost $13 but whatever. America. The country that won World War II and therefore history. Brought to you by Sega this June.
I don’t know of many games that have been made to use the Kinect for Windows sensor, but there’s an update coming for the hardware. Kinect for Windows v2 has been revealed. It looks very similar to the current Xbox One unit, except the Xbox logo has been removed in favor of a plain power indicator. It also has “Kinect” written discreetly on the top of the unit, where few people will ever see it. I guess the professionals using these in operating rooms and engineering labs didn’t want anyone to know they were playing with a glorified Xbox accessory.
Shadowrun! Orcs and elves mixed with cyberjacking and street samurai! With all the focus on Shadowrun Returns by Harebrained Schemes and its recently released expansion Dragonfall, it’s easy to forget that there is another Shadowrun game that began as a Kickstarter. Shadowrun Online by Cliffhanger Productions is ready to release on Steam early access next week. The early access version of the game will include a “prequel” campaign, a PvP map, and a couple of basic characters and skills to start. Cliffhanger co-founder Jim Wagner explained the release strategy.
“We don’t want to pile on features unless we have nailed the core gameplay elements, so we created this small and polished section for our players to enjoy.”
Cliffhanger hopes to push out monthly updates until the full release of the game which will include PC, Mac, and mobile versions.
Travis Baldree and Erich Schaefer are leaving Runic Games to start their own indie studio. The co-founders of Runic announced their departure on the official forums yesterday. Baldree thanked publishing partner Perfect World and said that the split is amicable. He went on to say that he was excited to be going back to smaller-scale development. Max Schaefer, Erich’s brother, will stay on at Runic as CEO. He wished the co-founders well on their departure and teased the next Runic project after Torchlight II.
Meanwhile, the rest of us here at Runic are excited to move on and continue to work on this crazy, cool, completely secret project we’ve been working on. We’re champing at the bit to talk about it, but will wait until we’re ready to show it off.
As of September 2012, Torchlight II had sold 2 million copies.
Flippfly, creators of Race the Sun, have anounced their next project. Hexarden is a puzzle game about maximizing garden space. The puzzler began as an entry in the 2012 Ludum Dare 24 game jam. According to Flippfly, the full game will add “new twists” and update the graphics.
Hexarden will release later this year. No platforms have been announced.
We’ve seen special packages of games that included high-end performance cars, a space flight, or a bloody bikini-clad torso, but Bethesda’s Panzerhund edition of Wolfenstein: The New Order offers gamers a few tchotchkes to go with their nazi killing. Gamers that purchase this package get “classified documents” from the game, a small statuette of the panzerhund enemy, some postcards, a steelbook case for the game, some patches and dog tags, all packed into a commerative footlocker for $100. It would be a nice deal except for one omission.
This collector’s edition does not include a copy of the game.
That’s one way to bring the price down.
