Marvel MMO restarted
Marvel has contracted with Gazillion Entertainment to publish a new MMO based on its stable of comic characters. Sound familiar? It should, since this is the second attempt by the comic giant to start a MMO based on its popular line of super heroes.
Back in 2006 Marvel made a lot of waves by suing Cryptic Studios, makers of City of Heroes, the only superhero based MMO in the market. The lawsuit alleged that City of Heroes had infringed on Marvel’s intellectual properties since the City of Heroes’ costume creator could replicate the design of a number of trademarked Marvel hero costumes. Read more
COH: Mission Architect
With issue 14, the City of Heroes franchise will be rolling out a new feature called Mission Architect. This feature has received quite a bit of press lately since it may be the first time that you’ll be able to create your own missions (everything from designing levels to customizing enemies) in a MMO. Sure, there have been level editors in other games, notably first person shooters, but having this feature built into a massively multiplayer game is unique. Further, the best content could win the author a bit of fame or even notoriety since developed missions can be made public and shared. Read more
DC Online vs. Champions
In the coming months, the superhero MMO market will become much more crowded. Cryptic studios will be releasing Champions Online sometime this year. Champions Online is based on the table top, pen and paper role playing game. Cryptic went ahead and acquired this IP when Cryptic and Marvel parted it ways. Champions Online thus has a legacy of having much of the original development staff of City of Heroes, having worked on the Marvel Universe MMO (before the game was shelved) and finally representing the Champions universe as the game’s final incarnation.
DC Online will be based on the super hero world of DC comics (Superman, Batman, et. al.) I haven’t paid much attention to this title mostly because it’s being developed by Sony Entertainment. Sony’s legacy with Star Wars Galaxies colors my perception of them to this day. However, upon seeing recent game play footage of the game, I’m willing to give them another chance. The game looks great and the PvP action shown in the trailer appeals to me. The game play is fast and it features interactive environments. PvP also seems to be more objective based (e.g., capture the flag) rather just fighting against other players. Read more
Great games of 2009
2008 was an awful year for games if your primary platform of choice is the PC. Arguably, the best game of the year was Fallout 3, and admittedly, it was pretty good. However, 2008 was also the year that a number of high profile games just tanked. It wasn’t enough that Hellgate: London had to announce it was shutting down but also Tabula Rasa. And with this economy, a number of others seem to be following suit. If you’re tired of the fantasy genre (I didn’t have much interest in either Warhammer or Age of Conan), then having the two premier non-sword and fantasy MMOs go belly up equals a pretty bad year for me.
I’m hoping that all that bad karma in 2008 goes away at the start of this year. Here’s three titles I’m eagerly hoping will make a strong showing this year.
