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WAIT WAIT WAIT.. HOLD THE PHONE

dude i listened to your last podcast. And you were talking about instancing of the world. Thats kinda a deal breaker there. Thats not something you discuss as an after thought. 70 vs 70 limits and zones not connected. WTF??!?!?!?!

Like in WOW if i assault a city i want to be able to get 600-1000 of my friends and bring everyones computer to a crawl if i want. this is what WOW offers and you know what. I love every moment of those large city battles. Now its not like i am looking for quality of play here. What i am looking for is a sense the world is THE WORLD. Computer power will eventually catch up and make that possible. What i want to make sure is the world is designed to be M.M.O. Instanced World design = M. O. not M. M. O., Until a game designer gets it that you can’t skimp on the massive part of MMO I just don’t think anything will come close to where WOW is. I can’t believe this you even deluded yourself. I could tell in the podcast you left it to the end because you were embarrassed to discuss the fact that this is a deal breaker and will turn the game to one big who the hell cares another useless MO. Many of us hated Age of Conan cuz we bought it loaded up the world realized it was instanced and logged out and threw the game in the garbage. ~Jayson Cowan

First let me start of by saying there are only a few occasions where instancing occurs in Warhammer Online:

• PvP Scenarios - 12v12, 18v18, 48v48, etc. These scenarios are set up the same way as battlegrounds from World of Warcraft and Dark Age of Camelot. Each scenario has a PvP-oriented objective (flag, bomb, murderball, frag fest, etc.) and you are pitted against an equal number of enemies to ensure a somewhat balanced playing field. These scenarios can be accessed from anywhere in the world with the click of a button. You port in and then port back to your original spot once complete.
• Dungeons - Many dungeons are realm-instanced, which means both Order and Destruction can enter them, but they have their own instances and will never meet once inside. This gives each realm unencumbered access to the dungeon content, where enemies can’t harass them. That said, some dungeons are planned to be non-instanced, so Order and Destruction will meet inside and compete over resources and control.
• City Siege - Once you have locked down two enemy fortresses, the enemy’s city will enter a contested phase. Once contested, any amount of attackers and defenders can enter,  but they will be instanced off into 48v48 pairings. This is mostly for performance issues because the scale of these cities is so large and they’re so detailed that any more than a hundred people fighting inside would make the experience extremely laggy and difficult to enjoy. I believe each phase of city siege will be instanced to 48 people, though I’m not entirely sure.

Here’s a description of city siege from Mark Jacobs himself:

Cities are broken up into instances of 48 on 48, which in the concentrated, urban environment is quite intense. Players must play a tug of war in the city wide public quest to attempt to beat the other side (one side is trying to put out the fires that the other is lighting) in addition to controlling battlefield objectives at key strategic areas. This PQ plus winning scenarios contributes victory points, and much like normal zone capture this is displayed in the victory points bar above the minimap.

At this point the defender will either win and oust the attacker or the attacker will capture the city. No defenders can enter the city at this time and the rest will be booted once they’re dead (but they’re still able to put up a fight!) If the defenders win the campaign resets and control goes back to the neutral tier 4 zones.

Once the city is captured 2 public quests unlock and players are able to explore the PvE dungeons within the city. (expanding the amount of PvE content available to the server.)

Once these two PQ’s are defeated the king encounter unlocks for all city instances and warbands can now assault the palace and challenge the king.

Next I want to talk briefly about interconnected zones. In Warhammer Online, each Tier is made up of four or five Chapters (mini-zones). All of these chapters are connected without a loading screen. Tiers, however, are linked together by loading screens. The reason? Tiers are huge and each of them contains a large RvR zone that increases in size as you progress from Tier 1 through Tier 4. The main reasons I believe each Tier is separated by a zone wall is that it makes them much easier to manage on the back end and it gives a very obvious visual cue for players trying to understand the model. Also, having one seamless world at this scale for each pairing would likely introduce performance issues.

I also want to discuss the city siege concept Jayson explains. It’s been over a year since I played World of Warcraft, but from what I remember, Orgrimmar was never sacked on Shattered Hand (PvP server), nor was it ever really designed to be. I very much doubt anyone’s system could handle 600-1000 attackers and defenders fighting in that city because it barely ran well with 300 allies just sitting around AFK. Are you really willing to sacrifice gameplay for a truly MMO experience? I think the MMO provided in WAR is more than sufficient, especially in the open-world RvR, which will end up being at least 50-75% of the endgame, as it’s a requirement for city siege.

Do you honestly think anyone would enjoy a city fight with THAT many people around in WAR? Not only would their systems screech to a halt (anywhere from locked to 1FPS), but even if their computers could handle it, they would die instantly unless they turtled up with the zerg. I already dislike the 50 vs. 50 keep standoffs… I can’t imagine I’d enjoy a 500 vs. 500 city standoff even at optimal performance.

I also find it hard to understand where all the WoW bias is coming from… If anything, it has as much or more instancing than WAR plans to have. WoW has 5-mans, 10-mans, 25-mans, 40-mans, battlegrounds, etc. You even encounter a loading screen when travelling to different continents (Outland, Kalimdor, Eastern Kingdoms, and soon, Norrath - that’s what it’s called, right?).

Finally, there is really no comparison between the 20-level sandbox and destiny quest line in AoC and WAR/WoW because you won’t find anything remotely like them in either of the latter games.

REDWOOD CITY, CA – August 27, 2008 - Hudson Entertainment, the North American publishing arm for HUDSON SOFT, today announced their lineup for the Penny Arcade Expo 2008 that takes place in Seattle later this week. The Hudson lineup includes Alien Crush Returns and Bomberman Blast both for Wii™ on WiiWare™ as well as Fishing Master World Tour and Deca Sports (both for Wii). PAX takes place in Seattle Friday, August 29, and runs through Sunday, August 31. The company will be exhibiting in booth 261 all three days. Information on each title that will be on exhibit at the show is listed below. For more information on Hudson at PAX or any of these titles, please visit www.Hudsonentertainment.com.

Bomberman Blast (WiiWare)
Bomberman Blast is an all-new Bomberman for digital download for WiiWare on Wii. Retaining the classic features Bomberman fans have come to love such as online multiplayer battles and numerous arenas, Bomberman Blast also incorporates new gameplay elements, including the use of Miis™ and 8-person online multiplayer – the first time for Bomberman on the Wii! Players can battle it out with each other worldwide going solo or as part of a team. By using their Mii character, gamers will have the opportunity to show off their Mii by suiting him or her up into a Bomberman costume, then blowing away the competition! Now who has the best Mii?

Alien Crush Returns (WiiWare)
Alien Crush Returns is a sci-fi pinball game based on the classic TurboGrafx-16 Alien Crush series. In extraordinary pinball fashion, the game offers gameplay spanning two screens, providing players a lot of real estate to rack in points, multipliers, and bonuses. The game is played across multiple boards, all of which feature an eerie alien landscape and enemies that try to prevent pinball perfection. For players who are confident in their alien crushing skills, they can go online to play against friends to see who can get the highest score! Alien Crush Returns is the only pinball game for WiiWare that lets gamers compete head to head online. In addition, the game includes online leader boards for score-obsessed pinball players.

FISHING MASTER WORLD TOUR (Wii)
Coming to North America in Q1 2009, FISHING MASTER WORLD TOUR offers over 200 different types of fish to catch, enabling players to catch fish in their native waters around the world in the first ever global fishing game on Wii. FISHING MASTER WORLD TOUR offers over forty different locations to fish from in seven different regions. Players can fish on Easter Island, under the Golden Gate Bridge, on the Amazon River and many more exotic global locations. Staying true to the first version’s realistic controls, anglers use the Wii Remote™ and Nunchuk™ to battle fish just like in real life. Pull the Wii Remote left and right as the fish fights from the end of the line and adjust the drag to avoid breaking the line. Once players have their skills down, they can compete with friends with four-person multiplayer modes, catch rare fish with exclusive boss battle controls or jump online in Wi-Fi leaderboards tracking the best players in the U.S.

DECA SPORTS™ (Wii)
DECA SPORTS™, a unique ten-sport game, exclusive to Wii™, is now available at retail for $29.99 SRP. Combining ten sporting events into one game, players can compete in beach volleyball, snowboard cross, badminton, basketball, curling, figure skating, archery, supercross, soccer and kart racing. The game offers a wide variety of sporting events and activities, some rarely seen in a video game. Designed with pick-up-and-play intuitive controls for the Wii Remote™ and in three sports, the Nunchuk, DECA SPORTS also includes advanced controls for power spikes, curls, and mid air tricks for the gamer!

The internet moves fast. As soon as a potential story emerges, it seems that there’s someone ready to slap it back from whence it came. In today’s case, it’s Kotaku’s post about a potential new DS model to be released next year:

“According to several industry sources outside of Nintendo, the company is working on an updated Nintendo DS. The screens are supposedly slightly bigger, but the biggest change is that the new DS will apparently have two touch screens — so it’s like a dual touch DS. That way, players can interact via the stylus with game play on both screens. Here’s the kicker: Word has it that this announcement, if true, won’t hit until early next year” said the popular blog.

Now, if you know Nintendo, you’ll probably realise that there’s little chance of this happening - perhaps a DS Micro, with no GBA support (though that would piss off Activision whose Guitar Hero: On Tour requires the cart slot) but never a complete hardware revision which could lead to games being compatible for one system but not another. Nintendo doesn’t do confusion. Well, not when it comes to hardware, anyway.

Still, it’s good to see that little rumour being treated with the contempt it deserves, Nintendo swatting it away like a pesky fly by telling GI.biz that the story is “”rumour and speculation”.

Bookmark to:

I think many an innocent childhood ended about the same time Bambi’s mother was shot in the classic Disney film. Well now it looks like the tables have turned, and Bambi…er, “Bambina” may get a chance for revenge in the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King. WoW has always been known for it’s humorous pop culture references, and it looks like the new expansion may bring even more to the table; including this homage to a certain orphaned deer. But instead of going off and crying when her mother is killed, Bambina will strike back at the hunter. If “Mother of Bambina” is killed, then Bambina transforms into “Vengeful Bambina,” and apparently goes all Steven Seagal on you. No word yet on what sort of stats or loot this new NPC may possess, but rumors are already swirling that it may be a pretty powerful foe. Now if they can just include a battle where I can fight the giant-sized Ursula from The Little Mermaid, then they’ll have covered all my childhood scars marked by Disney movies.

Via WoW Insider

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Related Articles at Gaming Today:

• WoW: Wrath of the Lich King’s Alpha is Underway
• WoW: Wrath of the Lich King Bestiary; Nerubian Vizier and Plague Eruptor
• WoW: Wrath of the Lich King to Fall on China
• World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Trailer
• World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King Screens

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Title Update fixes



1. Graphical Glitches: Minor stuff, like Valkyrie feet sinking into the ground and floating bodies. Smoothing out the cutscene animations would be nice but I realize that may be too large of an undertaking.



2. God-Awful Menu SFX and Sound Loops: the Equipment and Stats menu screens make my ears bleed. 'Nuff said.



3. Sound Options: This omission puzzles me to no end.



4. Advanced Online Matchmaking: Let me search for games based on other players' levels and include a message for the type of game that I am hosting, such as doing a level run or playing to get an Achievement.



5. Coat of Polish: This is harder to put my finger on. Menu navigation needs to move faster. I also really wish there were notifications for completing rune quests and finding the last piece of an armour set. Show me the most recent batch of loot that I've picked up in the Equipment screen, sorted from most powerful on down. Little things like this...


And on the DLC side of things:


6. Expand the Number of Players in Co-op: If not 4, then at least experiment with 3. Even playing 2-player, I've noticed that the action can reach intense levels and kill poaching can be a small issue. With 4 amped-up Level 50s sliding around, I'm sure that would present some design issues... readily fixed by scaling up the difficulty of enemies but, how would the frame rates and net code be affected? With Denis Dyak slyly hinting at the possibility of increased co-op fun, it's likey not as big a design problem as some make it out to be. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.



7. New Enemy Types: A new critter doesn't even have to be that unique. Do a nastier variation of the trolls or driders or goblins. Do a minor palette swap but give them a cool new ability to combat.



8. Bonus Challenge Areas OR a New Stage to Beat: I would love to continue Baldur's adventures just a little bit longer before warping back to the Hall of Heroes and having to do it all over again. A fifth bonus act doesn't have to be that fleshed out or large... just make it memorable and fulfilling for players to fight through.