MMO


MMO

World of Darkness

Publisher: CCP Games
Release: 2012
We still don’t know how badly CCP’s White Wolf MMO has been affected by the recent layoffs, but their senior producer Chris McDonough has reassured the community that it really is still happening. Honest. Pitched as a brutal take on the vampires ’n’ werewolves roleplaying setting, World of Darkness will feature the rather nasty sounding permadeath: but we’re not quite sure what that means when everyone has already died.

Infinity: The Quest of Earth

Publisher: I-Novae Studios
Release: Christmas
The dream of seamless spaceflight has been around as long as PC gaming. Infinity is incredibly ambitious: a freeform sci-fi MMO featuring everything from fighters to dreadnoughts, set in a vast randomly generated universe with full atmospheric flight. Few details are available, but as dreams go, we really, really want this one to come true.

Phantasy Star Online 2

Publisher: Sega
Release: 2012
Currently confirmed for Japan only, the sequel to Sega’s 2000 action MMO features new boss battles and a revamped combo system. The original game introduced a number of concepts – like hub areas with combat instances branching off them – that have since become part of the fabric of the MMO. Who knows – maybe the sequel will be just as forward-thinking.

Living After War

Publisher: Prosiebensat.1 Digital
Release: Spring
Real-time strategy gets post-apocalyptic (read: mohicans) in this free-to-play title. Some 200 years after a nuclear war, humans return to find earth overrun with radioactive mutants. The blend of strategy and shooter sounds interesting, with players able to control mechs and tanks directly. However, surely we’re getting a little tired of the post-apocalyptic setting by now?

Otherland

Publisher: Gamigo
Release: Spring
If the Mass Effect MMO never happens, I suppose we’ll have to make do with Otherland. Based on Tad Williams’ popular series of virtual-reality themed novels and running on Unreal Engine 3, it thankfully looks a tad more substantial than your average sci-fi opera MMO. Better than all that, it’s going to be free to play, too, so you won’t have to part with your cash if it turns out to be rubbish. But we’re sure it won’t be.

Royal Quest

Publisher: 1C
Release: Summer
Marking 1C’s first venture into the world of MMOs, this comes complete with castles to capture and loot to gather. 1C have form in the fantasy genre: they published both King’s Bounty and Fantasy Wars, and this should put the game on a good footing in the bulging MMO market. Hopefully they’ll stick some IL-2 Sturmovik planes in there as well.

The Secret World

Publisher: Funcom
Release: Spring
Ragnar Tørnquist’s story-driven MMO is set in a twisted take on the real world, where all conspiracies are true. Join one of three secret societies and battle dark Lovecraftian horrors while taking part in a grand ARG-style mystery that extends beyond the game itself. It’s a big year for MMO fans, and The Secret World is a serious, if quirky contender.

Sevencore

Publisher: gPotato.eu
Release: 2012
Cheap post-apocalyptic MMOs are usually greeted with a collective sigh in PC Gamer towers, but Sevencore does look a bit more interesting than most. Particularly because it features both dragons and motorbikes. But not dragons on motorbikes.

Wizardry Online

Publisher: Gamepot
Release: Autumn
The Wizardry tabletop RPG games enjoyed huge success in Japan, leading to this MMO. It’s currently in beta testing, with an impressive trailer setting the scene. We hope that western audiences get a hilariously dodgy translation, too.

Lime Odyssey: The Chronicles of Orta

Publisher: Aeria
Release: Spring
The lime of the title isn’t a fruit, it’s a mysterious artefact that will reunite Nisis’ ravaged realms in this MMORPG. It looks colourful and playful, with characters donning funky hats before milking cows.

Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online

Publisher: Vigil Games
Release: 2012
Last year’s E3 trailer confirms that while there is only war, ‘war’ can be broadly interpreted to include giant stompy Titan robots, motorcycles, and angry-looking shooty men. Good news!

World of Planes

Publisher: Gaijin Entertainment
Release: 2012
This just happens to also be a World War II air combat MMO. Locations have been painstakingly reconstructed from satellite imagery and contemporary maps, and the damage model boasts unprecedented levels of detail.

Bounty Hounds Online – Pro Pack

Publisher: Lace Mamba
Release: Spring
A sci-fi MMO set on ‘Clear Sky Planet’, which is presumably a place and not a theme-park dedicated to the Stalker expansion. You’ll pick one of five mercenary classes and battle on behalf of your choice of faction. The £9.99 game client comes with £10 worth of in-game credit. It’s an interesting business model: ‘free to play’ with a mandatory initial payment.

Eligium – The Chosen One

Publisher: Frogster
Release: Summer
Silly us – we assumed they’d just misspelt Belgium. Eligium is another free-to-play MMO promising five classes, a high degree of customisation, manifold dungeons and PvP action. And lightning. Apparently one player is “the chosen one”, which kind of defeats the point of it being an MMO. Maybe only one person will play it.

Age of Wulin – Legend of the Nine Scrolls

Publisher: gPotato.eu
Release: 2012
Age of Wulin – Snail Game’s latest MMO – certainly has a large budget, with astonishing graphics and proper human characters. It takes a skill-based approach to the genre, where your character picks up such Jesus-beating skills as running on water. Don’t write it off just because it’s relatively unknown.

Fallout Online

Publisher: Interplay
Release: Summer
There doesn’t seem to be any end to the Bethesda/Interplay interminable legal scuffle over Fallout Online. It makes the OJ Simpson trial look like an episode of Judge Judy it’s gone on so long. So far we know that humans and ghouls will be playable characters, and that the game will feature tough choices and quests with multiple solutions. Let’s hope it escapes the courts long enough for us to find out more.

Salem

Publisher: Paradox Interactive
Release: Summer
Set in a fantastical version of 17th century New England, Paradox’s MMO likes to do things differently. Rather than respawning, if your character dies they’re gone FOREVER. So all the items they’ve created with Salem’s alchemic crafting system can be collected by other players. It seems like a particularly masochistic take on the MMO, and it’ll be interesting just to see if it works.

Wakfu

Publisher: Ankama Games
Release: Spring
A turn-based tactical follow-up to the wildly popular Flash MMO Dofus. It’s got a lovely hand-drawn art style with a self-consciously videogamey twist: something like Hayao Miyazaki drawing Scott Pilgrim. Deep crafting and an interesting take on online citizenship – where players can take roles as governors, guards and outlaws – round out the package and make Wakfu one to watch.

Tera

Publisher: En Masse Entertainment
Release: 2012
If MMOs are growing up, Tera is a late-adolescent teen: slightly gawky but strikingly beautiful. (She’s over 16, honest.) It’s powered by Unreal Engine 3 which allows for some gorgeous visuals, and it adds shooter mechanics to the mix. Developers En Masse Entertainment say they’re tailoring it specifically for western gamers.

Wildstar

Publisher: NCSoft
Release: 2012
WildStar is billed as an attempt to create the ‘next great MMO’. It’ll feature varied challenges tailored to the player’s choice of faction, race, and class. It faces increasingly tough competition, however: not least from NCsoft stablemate Guild Wars 2.

Deadlands

Publisher: Cliffhanger Productions
Release: 2012
Deadlands Online is an action- RPG from Pinnacle Games, based on a horror western setting. Cliffhanger are still looking for a publisher, so don’t hold your breath – but we’d certainly be happy to have it see the light of day.

Shadowrun

Publisher: Cliffhanger Productions
Release: 2012
Cliffhanger’s take on the legendary cyberpunk pen-and-paper franchise will be an online browser game. It’s about time this setting got a proper outing, but with no game details the jury is out on whether it’ll do it justice.

Star Conflict

Publisher: Gaijin Entertainment
Release: 2012
A mass-multiplayer spaceship combat game, team-based with multiple modes and customisable ships. While it bills itself as an MMO, Star Conflict’s matchmaking and progression systems sound more like Battlefield than EVE.

RaiderZ

Publisher: Perfect World
Release: 2012
An action MMO, RaiderZ has been in development since 2006. It features acrobatic twitch combat and a bright, colourful design. This particular take on the multiplayer RPG hasn’t had much of a showing on PC, so it’s worth keeping an eye on.
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Publicat de Unknown la 08:21 0 comentarii
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ADVENTURE

ADVENTURE

The Mystery of the Wicked Village

Publisher: Alachofasoft
Release: 2012
A follow-up to Murder in the Abbey, The Mystery of the Wicked Village marks the return of Brother Leonardo de Toledo. He’s stranded in a backwater village following a funny turn and must point and click his way to the bottom of the strange goings on in this rural locale. Guest starring the Devil, of all people. Well, he always likes to poke his pointy nose in.

The Thirty Nine Steps

Publisher: Lace Mamba
Release: Summer
An adaptation of the John Buchan novel of the same name, The Thirty-Nine Steps is part of an initiative to bring classic stories to people who don’t read. It’s billed as a storytelling experience rather than an adventure, using on-screen text to help players stage manage their own experience. It’s a laudable goal, but we’re not sure whether it’ll qualify as a game.

J.U.L.I.A

Publisher: Lace Mamba
Release: Spring
Sent on a mission to investigate the first extraterrestrial lifeforms, astrobiologist Rachel Manners wakes from a cryogenic sleep onboard her spaceship and finds her fellow crew members dead. The plot immediately recalls RAGE, but this is a very different kind of adventure. Her only companions are a giant robot called Mobot and the eponymous mothership AI. It’s all pleasingly reminiscent of The Dig with a touch of Silent Running.

Extrasolar

Publisher: Lazy B Studios
Release: 2012
Browser-based space science from the chaps behind Cogs, all wrapped up in an alternate reality-style package. You control a planetary rover in real-time, waiting hours between orders while trying to uncover the mysteries of another world. An earthbound narrative runs alongside the game, fleshing out the mysterious company funding your activities. Potentially a very cool use twist on the longform browser game.

Fables

Publisher: Telltale Games
Release: 2012
Based on the comic book series about fairy-tale characters in exile in the modern world. The focus has always been on smart dialogue and detailed characters: something that we’d love to see refl ected in the game.

The Silver Lining Episode V: A Thousand Times Goodnight

Publisher: Phoenix Online Studios
Release: Spring
The fan-developed follow-up to King’s Quest by Phoenix Online Studios. Episode V brings the saga to a close nearly ten years after the project began.

Catherine

Publisher: Atlus
Release: Christmas
Catherine is an intriguing adult psychological thriller in which the woman prances around in a variety of frilly but ultimately impractical underwear. We want this to appear on the PC so badly, and informed rumour has it that it’s going to do just that.

Realms of Ancient War

Publisher: Focus
Release: Spring
Realms of Ancient War – aka RAW – is a two-player co-op fantasy hack and slasher, with a topdown perspective. It’s being developed for Xbox Live and the PlayStation Network as well, and it looks like a cross between Magicka and Lara Croft and The Guardian of Light. It’s promising stuff: if the devs nail the ‘dip in and out’ feel of hack and slash, it could really work.

The Lost Chronicles of Zerzura

Publisher: Lace Mamba
Release: Spring
Horror adventure titles can be really, really good (Amnesia) or really, really bad (pretty much everything else). There is no such thing as a mediocre horror adventure game. This one follows a young inventor who discovers the mythical land of Zerzura during the Spanish Inquisition. Unfortunately, it just doesn’t look or sound particularly scary. More horror please.

The Journey of Iesir

Publisher: Big Blue Cup
Release: 2012
An indie developed Adventure Game Studio project, The Journey of Iesir follows a young Viking looking to reclaim his heritage. Similar to Monkey Island, it combines a historical setting with modern humour, sending up hippies, gangsters and Japanese demons, among others. Iesir certainly looks remarkable, with a hand-painted style that rivals anything else in the genre.

Y: The Case of John Yesterday

Publisher: Focus
Release: 2012
Amnesiac point-and-click adventure hero John Yesterday is tasked with tracking down whoever is burning homeless people alive in modern-day New York. The teaser hints at a supernatural change of pace for developer Pendulo, better known as the studio behind the Runaway series. Here’s hoping for an unexpected take on the ‘hero without a memory’ cliché.

Twilight Zone

Publisher: Legacy Interactive
Release: Spring
The classic black-and-white American sci-fi horror TV series is transmogrified into a game. You play as a struggling actor who gets trapped in a recurring role in a TV series, and you have to find out why you’re in this nightmarish scenario. Developers Legacy Games have established themselves in casual TV licences – they’ve already made tie-in games for Doctor Who and House.

Lucius

Publisher: Lace Mamba
Release: Spring
Lucius’s twist on the Omen mythology is that it sees you take control of the so-named spawn of Satan. It’s a horror title that revels in references to classic ’70s scary sprog movies The Exorcist, Carrie and The Shining, too, with Lucius riding a trike and being exorcised by priests. The key to getting it right is going to be making Lucius someone players can identify with – and making it as scary as Amnesia. Both of these are pretty tall orders.

Haunted

Publisher: Lace Mamba
Release: Spring
Taking place in 19th century Europe, this sounds like a wacky counterpart to the Blackwell series of point-and-click adventures. It follows protagonist Mary as she befriends ghosts in old London, Scotland and Transylvania. Up to six companion ghosts – and a werewolf – are available to help solve puzzles, including a giant blue Scotsman and a tiny pirate

Cognition: An Erica Reed Thriller

Publisher: Phoenix Studios
Release: 2012
Jane Jensen is best known for her work on the Gabriel Knight series, and more recently Gray Matter. Cognition employs her talents as a story consultant in a game where heroine Erica Reed is able to investigate crimes by seeing into the past. Kind of like a less useful Minority Report. It’s currently seeking Kickstarter funding, so it might never see the light of day unless YOU donate.

Men in Black: The Videogame

Publisher: Activision
Release: Summer
The world really needs another Men in Black film, doesn’t it? You wouldn’t have imagined that to be the case, but those whacky folk at Columbia certainly think so. And of course with it, along with the action figures and lunchboxes comes the inevitable tie-in game. It’s being made by Activision, whose Transformers titles have been sort of all right. It might not be entirely terrible. We can hope.

The Testament of Sherlock Holmes

Publisher: Ubisoft
Release: Spring
The latest in the Frogwares series sees Holmes attempting to clear his name when he becomes the main suspect in a vast fraud. Puzzles are said to have been toned down to make the game more accessible to new players. Holmes’ new clue-finding ‘sixth sense’ sounds a bit like Detective Vision, shortening the distance between the World’s Greatest Detectives. We approve.

The Secret Files 3

Publisher: Deep Silver
Release: 2012
Those Secret Files aren’t so secret any more: after the original and its sequel, many, many people know about them. So why don’t they call it Moderately Well- Known Files, instead? The third in the series sees protagonists Nina and Max return, and the only thing we know is that they’re getting married. What could possibly go wrong? And will it result in a series of convoluted, mindless puzzles tacked together to make a ‘story’?

Botanicula

Publisher: Amanita Design
Release: Spring
Amanita Design’s Machinarium was a charming, beautifullypresented point-and-click adventure that sadly ran out of steam towards the end. While ploughing a similar furrow, Botanicula seems to lose Machinarium’s swampily melancholic atmosphere, and is more focused on being fun and cute. That’s not necessarily always a bad thing, although it does look a tad Worker and Parasite at times.

Deponia

Publisher: Lace Mamba
Release: Spring
A comedy adventure game with multiple protagonists set in Deponia, a world modelled after the work of Douglas Adams, Terry Pratchett and Matt Groening. It’s a comedy of errors in the traditional sense, complete with elaborate cases of mistaken identity. The hand-drawn backdrops certainly look nice, and it’s interesting to see an adventure game wear its influences so openly on its oversized lacy sleeves.

Amy

Publisher: Lexis
Release: 2012
A small midwestern town is beset by zombies after a mysterious meteor strike. Protagonist Lana is infected, and must take care of an eight-year-old autistic girl with mysterious powers in order to survive. As high-concepts go, it’s a mixture of the novel and the deeply familiar: providing it avoids the usual escort-quest pitfalls, it could be one to watch.

Captain Morgane and the Golden Turtle

Publisher: Reef Entertainment
Release: Spring
Follow Morgane as she searches for the lost treasure of Turtle Island and tries to become the most fearsome female in the Caribbean, proving that turtles really are the new monkeys.

Hidden Mysteries Titanic 2

Publisher: Big Fish
Release: Spring
You are an amnesiac ghost tasked with creating a timeline where the Titanic didn’t sink. It’s a hidden object puzzle game, suggesting that the fabness of a high concept is inversely proportional to its actual mechanics.

Beyond Good and Evil

Publisher: Ubisoft
Release: 2012
Three years have passed since Beyond Good & Evil 2 was teased and we still don’t know very much about it. Rumoured to be too massive for the current generation of consoles – but it would be good to know that the game does exist.

Mage’s Initiation: Reign of the Elements

Publisher: Himalaya
Release: Christmas
Build your character by earning the favour of the elements: fire, earth, water and air. The pre-order version even comes with a cloth map, if it wasn’t already old-school enough for you.

Jack Keane 2

Publisher: Astragon
Release: 2012
No details – save a 2012 release date – have emerged for this sequel to Deck13’s 2007 matinee point-and- click adventure. Here’s hoping that Jack’s second outing is able to escape from the long exhausted Monkey Island influences.

Publicat de Unknown la 08:17 0 comentarii
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RACING

RACING

Time@tack

Publisher: Yami Hoshi.nl
Release: Spring
A free car time trials game set to leave the grid after the launch of Windows 8’s Store. Apparently it’s been made by a not-for-profit bunch of journalists. We doubt it’ll have the depth of DiRT 3, but it’s sure to offer a few drop-in bouts of fun.

Ridge Racer Unbounded

Publisher: Namco Bandai
Release: Spring
Marks the long running series’ first move away from the arcades towards more realistic racing, as well as its first venture onto the PC. It promises exhilarating collisions and a TrackMania-style track editor.

Crash Time IV: The Syndicate

Publisher: RTL Interactive
Release: 2012
Race around 100km of racetrack in modern Cologne while solving automotive crimes. It received a critical panning when it came out on Xbox earlier in the year, so best not to get your hopes up.

Project Haste

Publisher: Ubisoft
Release: 2012
It’s an ATV racer by Techland, the folks behind nail’d. Project Haste is a working title, so this could well be a sequel. All we know is that it’ll feature aerial tricks and extensive multiplayer. The original picked up a solid 76% back in PCG 223.

RaceDriver: GRID 2

Publisher: Codemasters
Release: 2012
The little we know about this track racer suggests increased online integration in the manner of the most recent Need For Speed games. As a cousin to DiRT and direct successor to the venerable TOCA, it’d be great to see it make a return.

F1 Online: The Game

Publisher: Codemasters
Release: Spring
Codemasters have firmly re-established the F1 franchise, but F1 Online sees the racer go free-to-play. We saw it at Gamescom last year and it looked like a fun but basic topdown racer, with direction and speed worked from your mouse. Low system requirements make this an accessible web-game for genre fans, and you can buy new bits for your car too. Vroom?

F1 2012

Publisher: Codemasters
Release: 2012
When F1 2011 escaped from its predecessor’s shadow, shedding a legacy of evil, cheating AI drivers as it went, we were there on the sidelines cheering it on. There are still important places for the F1 sim series to go, however. Proper weather modelling would be nice, as would a long-awaited revamp of the Career mode that has remained unchanged since F1 2010. We’re excited to see what Codies Birmingham will do with a solid base to work from.

Carmageddon Reincarnation

Publisher: Stainless Games
Release: 2012
1997’s Carmageddon introduced an anarchic, fruity approach to the racing genre that remains unmatched. Stainless Games have retained the rights and are updating the game as Carmageddon: Reincarnation. Without a publisher behind it, will Reincarnation get the attention and love it deserves?
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Publicat de Unknown la 08:03 0 comentarii
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PUZZLE

PUZZLE

Nabara World: The Labyrinth of Light

Publisher: Mentor Interactive
Release: Spring
An English-language version of this Spanish title is reputedly heading to the PC early next year. Naraba World: The Labyrinth of Light is an educational game for young children that allows players to learn maths by manipulating light and colour. Let’s see if Rich can tell the difference between this and StarCraft.

Quantum Conundrum

Publisher: Square Enix
Release: 2012
Kim Swift returns with Quantum Conundrum, a first-person puzzle game in the vein of her most famous brainchild, Portal. You’re trapped in your mad-scientist uncle’s manor house and must shift between dimensions to manipulate the environment – swapping into the Fluffy dimension to make heavy objects lighter, for example. Sounds like real science to us.

A Virus Named Tom

Publisher: Misfits Attic
Release: Autumn
“A Virus Named Tom has a nice Dexter’s Laboratory-esque ’50s vibe to it. It’s a game about a strand of dodgy DNA infecting retro robo dogs, among other things. It’s basically the pipe puzzles from BioShock, with the twist that you’re controlling the virus as he changes the flow of fluids. It’s a simple and amiable take on an old favourite, but we figure Tom is a much less threatening name for a virus than Elk Cloner or MRSA.

Toki Tori 2

Publisher: Two Tribes
Release: Spring
Two Tribes’s sequel to platform puzzler Toki Tori is being developed with the close participation of series fans. They’re opting for an open development process that involves a free (but limited) development version of the game on Steam. The teaser trailer hints at various transformations for the teleporting, egg-collecting hero. Bloody egg collectors. Always ruining omelettes.

Monaco

Publisher: Pocketwatch Games
Release: 2012
Monaco describes itself as Gauntlet meets Hitman, a top-down retro heist game for up to four players. You play as criminals attempting to pinch cash and loot from secure locations. It’s also dead good: in 2010 it picked up the Excellence in Game Design award at the IGF. Don’t take their word for it, either. We’ve been playing it, and it’s blummin’ ace.
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Publicat de Unknown la 08:01 0 comentarii
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War Wings


War Wings



Publisher: City Interactive
Release: Autumn
Aerial combat simulators have gained momentum in recent years, and Combat Wings takes us back to World War II. Again. Apparently it’s all been painstakingly recreated from actual battles and aeroplanes, while maintaining a arcade level of approachability. Combat Wings could open its doors and pelt us with bombs of fun.

War Wings: Hell Catz

Publisher: Mad Catz
Release: 2012
The first game from noted peripheral manufacturer Mad Catz, War Wings: Hell Catz is part of a planned series that will explore a variety of different eras of air combat. This first sortie is set in World War II’s pacific theatre and looks to be a little more arcadey than its more traditional simulator cousins. Nonetheless, it’s probably safe to expect that there could well be more than a few tie-in flightsticks and the like.
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Publicat de Unknown la 08:00 0 comentarii
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