Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning – Review of the Hype

July 22nd, 2010

38Studios, EA, and Big Huge Games held a panel at San Diego Comic Con this afternoon to expand upon their initial announcement of Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning (formerly Project Mercury).  A recap of the live tweet can be found below.  There are a few bits of info in the live tweeting, but the medium still has a long way to go for adding hype to something like an info panel.  I still appreciated the updates.

So…between Tweet updates…I decided to check out the official Reckoning website, which had since been “dark”.  Bingo!  It was up and ready to go.  So while the crowd in San Diego was listening to the panel (believe me, I would have rather been there), I was checking out the somewhat wonky site.  Just some initial tech issues that will be worked out, I’m sure.  And what I saw, I liked.

Check out the KoAR Site
Check out the Live Tweet

For months…I and many others have been thinking about, chatting about, speculating about what could be so special about this secrect world we now know has been named Amalur.  My biggest pet peeve about any one game is that I don’t feel “special”.  That my story is boring.  It’s like hundreds of others.  But even real life isn’t all that special…we have many parallels with many other people.  That makes it worse for game devs, I suspect.  We don’t want the real world.  We want a unique experience in a game world.  And we want to be special.  We’re told, once again, that we will be special.  So, we’ll have to wait and see.

The interesting twist with Reckoning is the very premise of the game – What if you could chose or fight your fate after you die?  At least…this is the impression I have about the premise of the game.  I also have to believe, from earlier remarks by R.A. Salvatore, that it is a central theme of the pending MMO with the codename “Copernicus”.  Remember Salvatore’s earlier examples about how to explain why characters can come back to life after dying?  Just going with the theme here, but I’m intrigued already by the info on the site.  I’ll be kind and won’t spoil anything here.

Anyway…I have to keep this brief.  I will share that I’ve done my duty today and set my wallpaper to the one provided on the Reckoning site.  I’ve Tweeted a bunch.  I’ve poured over the official site.  I’ve watched the trailer more than 20 times.  I’ve been listening to the damn music on the site the whole time I’ve been writing this.  I’m afraid…I have given into the HYPE.

But you know what?  The hype is being handled very well by all involved with Reckoning.  Also, check out this picture of a Troll toy posted by 38Studios developer Steve “Moorgard” Danuser.

EA and 38 Studios Give Project Mercury “Real” Name…

July 20th, 2010

Here is the official press release from 38 Studios:

EA and 38 Studios introduce Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

The cinematic debutes on Thursday the 22nd on the official site:

Reckoning the Game

What to do?

July 11th, 2010

Well…my blog has died.  Can’t find the inspiration.  Can’t find the time.  Can’t find the…the…um…the…

Damn.  I think about you every day.  You.  The reader.  The person who does me a favor and checks me out.  Even if your RSS feed hasn’t dropped my blog name in a while.

As a matter of fact.  That bowel movement you were going to take this morning.  I know it came with a little force because you had to crap yourself after seeing that Makkaio actually updated his blog.

But…then…you just sat there.  You stewed in it because you realized it was just another post about Makkaio not posting.

I will redesign.  I will come up with a fresh take on this whole blogging world.  I will…um…um…um….

Well…what would you kinda sorta supposedly kinda maybe possibly really want to see…or…read?

He’s the Cat. We’re the Mice.

June 18th, 2010

McKinley

We weren’t actively looking for a cat.  McKinley just happened.  Kind of like the love you never expect to find…and then you turn that corner.

A couple of days ago, I took our black labs, Buddy and Zak, to the vet to update their vaccines so they could be boarded this summer.  Nothing out of the ordinary.  Pretty routine.

When I got there, I left the boys in the car so I could go in and get some guidance on the easiest way to proceed with their appointments.  In the lobby was a woman with a little black Cocker Spaniel, and another woman with a cat in a crate.  I let the Spaniel sniff my hand and nodded hello to the woman with the crate.  Then…across the room…in a cage on a table…sat a cat named Cameo…meowing at everyone.  So I walked over to the cage…

At this point, I have to say that my wife Julia and I have talked over the years about getting a cat.  But we never actively looked for one outside of stopping into an adoption center at the mall.  Oh…we joked with family and friends here and there.  But most of the time, alone, we would just throw out ideas of what we would require if we were to take a feline into our home.  We set the bar pretty high…mostly to stave off actually getting another animal.  Julia wanted an orange cat with interesting markings.  She wanted a cat that would snuggle.  For me…the cat had to get along with Buddy and Zak.  Well, not just get along.  The cat had to be active with the dogs.  Snuggle, play, torture…things like that.   The cat had to have a personality…be interesting…and be a part of our home.

Hmmmm…Cameo…orange with tiger striping and cool orange and white stripes on its tail.  He meowed.  I stuck my fingers in the cage.  He nuzzled them and walked away, making sure that my finger tips scratched the entire side of his body.  Crap.  I took out my cell phone…shot a picture…then sent it to Julia.  The reply text:  I hate you.

I went out and brought Buddy into the vet’s office to have his heart-worm test done.  I took Buddy back out to the car and brought Zak in for his test.  Then Zak and I waited for his exam and kennel cough shot.

Zak didn’t really pay attention to Cameo, but the cat sure knew Zak was there.  Cameo meowed at Zak once in a while.  Then the cat started to eat.  In between bites, he would turn and look at Zak…mindful of his presence.  Here and there he would let out a meow.  So finally…I brought Zak over to the cage.  What the hell, right?  I prompted Zak to look at the cat…so he stuck is nose up to the cage.  Cameo didn’t flinch and didn’t hiss.  He calmly leaned down and sniffed the end of Zak’s nose.  That was it.  Zak turned around and went back to waiting for his appointment.  Cameo was satisfied he’d met and conquered another dog.

Then it was Buddy’s turn.  I exchanged the dogs and immediately brought Buddy into the vet for his appointment.  After the routine of being checked over and having the vaccine sprayed down his snout…we exited to the lobby.  I almost took Buddy back to the car, but thought, why not introduce him to Cameo?  No harm…right?  It’s at this point I’ve receive a text or two from Julia trying to remain rationale about why we can’t get a cat.  I hadn’t even said we should get him, so I knew she’d been smitten after seeing just the one picture.

So I bring Buddy…lover of all things…up to Cameo’s cage.  Bud stretched his head up to the cage and drew in large sniffs.  Cameo looked at Bud…meowed…then did a full-body snuggle against Buddy’s wet snout.  You have got to be kidding me.

Now…during this whole process…I’ve been asking a friend who works in the office about the cat.  Standard stuff.  Fixed?  Check.  Litter trained?  Check.  Vaccines?  Check.  But the cat is being adopted out of the vet’s office…so what’s wrong?

“Nothing.  But someone brought him in after finding him in a field.  He had been shot.  It shattered a bone in his leg.  We fixed him up and are looking for a good home for him.”  I was stunned.

Orange?  Check.
Interesting markings?  Check.
Gets along with the dogs?  Check.
Snuggles with the dogs?  Check.
Plays with the dogs?  Check.
Tortures the dogs?  To be determined.
Personality?  Check.
Interesting story?  Check.

Damn.  Long story short.  Julia didn’t even meet Cameo until he was home and getting acclimated that night.  She had trusted my judgement like she had with both our dogs (although she did get to meet both of them before they came home with us).  Julia actually agreed to getting Cameo over lunch that day.

Oh yeah…I called the cat “McKinley” at the beginning of the post.  Yes.  We renamed Cameo to McKinley, after the president who had been shot.  We wrestled with various names of famous people who had been shot…but went with McKinley because his happened in Buffalo.  And McKinley actually survived his shooting, dying from infection several days later.  So, that was good enough for me.

McKinley it is.

38 Studios: EA to Publish ‘Project Mercury’

March 9th, 2010

EA, 38 Studios and Big Huge GamesInteresting news out of 38 Studios today, giving a lot to speculate on.

To get caught up, check Ryan “Blackguard” Shwayder’s blog entry over on Nerfbat, EA Signs Publishing Deal with 38 for Project Mercury.  He has a link to the official press release.  The news is starting to hit game sites like Gamasutra, NOW Gamer, and Shack News.

With the powerhouse publisher on board, it looks like the stars are aligning for 38 Studio’s master plan to build a whole new universe from scratch.  So it is time to stop thinking of the company as an MMO game developer, and start thinking of it on a level of Marvel, Disney, DC Comics, Star Wars, etc.  They’ve said that from the beginning, but nobody seems to have listened.  Until now.  Sort of.  Maybe.

The MMO is going to be just one of many ways to delve into this universe.  With creative and artistic direction from R.A. Salvatore and Todd McFarlane, you know there are going to be books, comics, graphic novels, toys…maybe some animated works…and…of course…video games like “Project Mercury”.

People have been worried and have speculated about 38 Studio’s financial situation.  Hopefully, a well-polished and well-distributed video game will be the kind of infusion the company needs to put those worries at ease.  More importantly, the video game will give us a way to start connecting to the “universe” they have (not) been talking about for so long.

There is, of course, some skepticism in me.  After all, building an entire universe isn’t easy.  I mean, some of these people haven’t even solved the age-old questions of pie versus cake, or ninja’s versus pirates.  How do they tackle whether the world of “Copernicus” is flat or round?  We’ll just have to wait and see.

There are still hurdles to clear.  38 Studio’s owner Curt Shilling along with R.A. Salvatore and Todd McFarlane have millions of people who know them and love them.  I count myself as one.  But they also have millions of people who know them and don’t like them.  I think some of that audience needs to be won back.

Another thing that I would love to know is if everything is still on track time wise.  Is Copernicus still moving along like they want?  Has development slowed to give more resources to Project Mercury?  It was three or four years ago the company said they wanted to try and launch the MMO in five years.

For now…it  looks like my anticipation will be toward the the RPG game, Project Mercury.  And I’ll be keeping my sites set on any news that may come from the Game Developers Conference going on right now in San Fransisco.

EverQuest II: Sentinel’s Fate

February 25th, 2010

Since the new expansion for EQII came out on February 16th, I haven’t had much problem gaining three levels.  However, around level 83 there is a bottleneck in adventure XP.  The easiest way to gain XP is to do some repeatable quests given by a pair of Kerra in Toxxulian Forest.  So, I’ve gone back to do some questing in Moors of Ykesha.  In the meantime, and while I wait for the servers to come back up on my sick day, I’ve done some adventuring and took a few screenies along the way.

City of Paineel

Looking from the Great Spire Isle to the City of Paineel.

Great Spire Island

A view of the Great Spire Isle.

Inside Toxullia's Lair

Inside Toxxulia’s Lair.

Outside Toxullia's Lair

Flying around Toxxulia’s Lair.

To Kerra Isle

Flying to Kerra Isle.

The Hole

Sentinel statue in Paineel’s Hole.

Queen Bayle???????

Hanging with the Queen.

Back on Corellia in Star Wars Galaxies

February 2nd, 2010

Back in Corellia

I guess I had to wash Star Trek Online out of my hair and resurrect my bounty hunter in Star Wars Galaxies.  But it’s not just for kicks this time.  The devs have given the Galactic Civil War a face lift and added some features that, quite frankly, I and several others had championed for a long time.  I would go so far as to say a key core group of us players back in the day basically wrote the documents for what has been put in place now.  But I digress.

I’ve always felt that SWG lacked focus.  What Sony needed to do was base the game around the Galactic Civil War.  Well, that’s what they’ve done in Game Update 15.  Check out the changes for yourself on their site.

So, I logged back on to Mystt Terien and have started primping him for some war.  Of course…I have several years of updates to catch up on, but I’m slowly making my way through.

I’m on Starsider now, so I need to hook up with a good Player Association and jump into the fight as soon as I can.  If anyone reading this is still playing and is on Starsider, let me know if your PA has an opening.

THEY ARE GIVING OLD PLAYERS A MONTH FREE…ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS LOG IN.

Star Trek Online Review

January 18th, 2010

STO ScreenshotMy initial impression of Star Trek Online (STO) wasn’t all that great.  But I gave it a day or so.  The game is by Cryptic Studios, which also developed Champions Online.  Cryptic designed the game engine that is used for both MMOs, and the resemblances are glaring.  My biggest gripe is the chunky UI.  I hate chunky UIs with a passion.  I have a 22″ HD monitor, so I’d hate to be playing on anything smaller.

Character Creation

One thing that Cryptic has down and has passed along to STO in force is the character generation system.  The optimization is endless.  You can customize everything from brow to boot sole.  If you like to spend some time creating your character’s appearance, you will enjoy yourself in this facet of the game.

Tutorial

I should know by now that the situations in game tutorials are never as dire as the NPCs lead you to believe.  For once, I would love for a tutorial area that is under attack and everything is placed on your shoulders to save the day to explode in grandure if you fail.  Let’s get some consequence here.

The intro/tutorial to STO does a good job of setting the mood of iminent destruction.  You kind of feel rushed through.  Unlike other games, you also barely get a pat on the back for saving everyone’s ass.  There really is no clear cut ending and you really don’t feel like the hero you’re suppose to be.  Actually, you feel like you’re the rookie running back and everyone else is patting you on the butt to get you to move along.  If they could speak, they’d say, “Could you save us a little quicker?  We have better things to do…”

Combat

In space and on away missions (ground missions), combat is slow.  There is no auto attacking, so you spend time watching your ability timers.  I personally do not like this style of combat.  To be frank, it’s boring.  While all hell seems to break lose around you, you’re waiting a couple seconds for your damn phaser or laser to recharge.  However, things are a bit more fun when you are fighting with your crew.  But still, your personal involvement in combat seems shallow.

One thing I do like is that cover and terrain do matter in firefights.  On the ground you can duck and roll out of harm’s way to replenish your shields and health, then roll back into combat.  In space, ducking behind debris or meteors can buy you some time to replenish shields.  It’s a real part of combat strategy.

One interesting aspect in space has to do with shields.  You have fore, aft and side shields.  The strategy is to keep your strong shields facing the enemy while attacking the enemy’s weak shields.  Once I picked up on this and really learned how to implement it, I was a terror in space.  But…space combat was still way too slow, unfortunately.

Advancement and Skills

I really don’t have any gripes about advancement in STO.  They do mask the level 1 – 50 grind by calling it an officer title and rank system.  But that’s good for role-play in the Star Trek setting.  It’s still a standared XP leveling and skill allocation system.  However…

I think the skill system is a bit complex.  Lots to choose from, but I barely understand the impact any of the skills really have on the game.  How much does one skill point spent on a skill actually give you or improve your play in the overall scheme of things?  It’s too new to tell.  All I know is that there are an awful lot of skills available for a game with a cap of level 50.  Not to mention you get crew members and advance them, too.  That gives you the chance to create a balanced team, tactical team, buff team, or defensive team.  How screwed you are if you make the wrong decisions is still up in the air.

Graphics

I need say nothing more than it is a beautiful game.  Character models are highly detailed.  Terrain is nothing special, but it sets the right mood.  Space gives you that feeling of wonder that you get when you use Google Earth.

Summary

That’s all I can think of off the top of my head.  The game has its bugs, but don’t they all?  Nothing game breaking at all.  Plus, some stuff is shut off until launch, which I believe is February 2nd.  If you have any questions, I’d be happy to answer in the comments section.

Live long and prosper.

Star Trek Online All Over Again?

January 6th, 2010

Over at Kill Ten Rats, Suzina draws some eerie parallels between the launch of Star Wars Galaxies and the upcoming release of Star Trek Online.  I’m probably going to still give STO a try, but I won’t expect much.

STO: The Real SWG2 at Kill Ten Rats.

New Home Page…

January 2nd, 2010

I decided to change up my site a bit and created a “hub” for my home page.  Since I’ve been branching out into some freelance web programming and solutions, as well as landing a writing gig with Bright Hub, I decided I needed a little different direction with makkaio.com.

So…The Fickle Corebear is going to truly be my gaming-only blog.  I’m going to create another blog where I will write about everything else.  As soon as that is set up I will post it on my hub page and here.  That way readers can follow whichever they want, as I know some people could care less about one topic or the other or both.

So there you have it.  My RSS for the gaming blog should not have been harmed during this process.  If you have me on RSS and it seems broken, please let me know.

Chat with you later!