Yes, it’s that time of year again! Time to take a look into our crystal ball and see what are our most anticipated upcoming MMORPGs are, and see how games from the 2009 MMO list fared. What’s been released, what’s been building up a fan base, and what’s now buried 6 feet under…

Last Year in MMORPGs

2009 saw a number of high profile MMOs take a long walk off a short pier, starting with Richard Garriott’s fun but flawed Tabula Rasa in Feb, and The Matrix Online was turned off in March.

Star Trek Online

Over the last 12 months only 2 of last years MMO list made it out into the world, and they both came from Cryptic Studios. First Cryptic released Champions Online in September 09 to a chorus of indifference. They followed that up by reskinning the Champions Online engine with some shiny Star Trek outfits, and released Star Trek Online in Feb 2010 (more fun than Champions, but still no where near as good as it should have been.)

Other MMO releases last year that weren’t on the ‘Most Anticipated’ list included Fallen Earth (post-apocalyptic MMOFPS), Aion (NCSoft’s fantasy epic developed for Western and Korean markets), and Darkfall (harsh, old school fantasy gameworld, complete with unrestricted PvP and looting). None of them jumped out at us and said ‘buy me’, but if any readers out there have strong opinions on them, and are interested in sending in a review, get in touch.

This years notable exception award goes to…

Just wanted to mention the notable exception of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer MMO and Firefly MMO from this years list. Although i’d still love to see either (or both of them), I’ve left them off the list due to Multiverse’s inability to produce even a single screenshot of a game that’s been in development since 2008… I did speak to a Multiverse rep about both games who told me that their deal with Fox stops gags them from talking about Firefly, and totally sidestepped the issue with Buffy. I rather suspect both games at this point are staked through the heart…

Top 6 Most Anticipated MMORPGs List 2010

6. Blizzard’s New MMO (position last yr – 6th)

What has Blizzard got up it's sleeve

Still not a lot know about Blizzards ‘next big thing’. We were hearing rumours last year that they might be developing WoW2, although I rather suspect that was the Catacysm update that our source saw. The Blizzard guys have since stated that it will be a brand new IP, which makes sense. Blizzard is unlikely to want to license something, and whatever they do produce, they aren’t going to want it to be something that’s upsets the cash taurean that is World of Warcraft. A number of rumours have it as being an MMOFPS, which would be an interesting shift for the developer. An FPS would be easier to push onto a console, and less likely to cannibalise the WoW player base. All we can do for the moment is wait and speculate. The chances are though, if Blizzard are making it, it’s going to be awesome.

Blizzard’s Website | Release Date: TBA

Warhammer 40k MMORPG

5. Warhammer 40K MMO (new entry)

2007 – Vigil Games announced they were making a Warhammer 40k. Woohoo! Post 2007 – *tumbleweed* *howling wind* i.e. nothing… However at a recent investors call, publisher THQ made reference to the W40k MMO, saying it was still in development, and due to be shown at this years E3. Final release is still a while off (2012), but as old school W40k tabletop gamers, it’ll be one GeekTown will be keeping an eye on.

Vigil Games Website | Release Date: 2012

4. LEGO Universe (new entry)

Lego Universe

We at GeekTown love LEGO. It really is one of the greatest toys ever invented. So the chance to combine our love of LEGO and our love of MMOs has to be jumped at. It’s the first MMO to be solidly aimed at children and parents alike. Although LEGO Universe is made by NetDevil, it’s designed to feel a lot like Traveller’s Tales LEGO Star Wars series. More of an MMO-Platformer than an RPG, it makes an interesting proposition to gamers looking for something new in their MMO. Lots of jumping. smashing and collecting items!

Along with the ‘auto-build’ option that’s utilised in the Traveller’s Tales games that builds pre-defined LEGO models, there also options at various points for the player to ‘free build’ with the LEGO pieces you’ve collected. Any free-build items are then turned into in-game models which can be places around your virtual house. There has also been talk of you being able to order the physical LEGO models of items build in game.

LEGO Universe Website | Release Date: Winter 2010

3. DC Universe Online (position last yr – 4th)

Robin, Batman, Batgirl

With the disappointing Champions Online released, Marvel Universe Online canned, then revived, but stuck in development hell, and the fun but ageing City of Heroes/Villans being the only other kid on the block, the market is wide open for a new superhero MMO. And what better Universe to set it in than DC’s world of Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, et al.

I’ve always been more of a DC than a Marvel kid, and a massive Batman fan, so the chance to take on missions from the Dark Knight himself really cannot be missed! Release date is currently set for May 2010, and I really can’t wait. My only real misgiving about this game is it’s being published and developed by $ony Online Entertainment… Yes, your correct, i still haven’t forgiven them for the whole Star Wars Galaxies fiasco…

DC Universe Online Website | Release Date: May 2010

2. Stargate Worlds (position last yr – 1st)

Stargate Worlds

Things were worryingly quiet over at Cheyenne Mountain. Stargate Worlds was originally scheduled for a 2008 release… Then 2009… Then in Feb 2010 they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, although they claimed development on SGW would continue… Then they announced Stargate: Resistance – A third-person shooter. Okay… not exactly what we were expecting, but hopefully it’ll help keep the lights on at Cheyenne Mountain while SGW continues it’s ever delayed development.

It’s such a shame SGW is struggling, as it seems like the perfect setting for an MMO. Lot’s of worlds to visit. Combat focused story environment. Lots of factions and archetypes to pick from. As massive Stargate fans we live in hope that SGW will ride through the rough patch it’s in at the moment, and live to see the light of day.

Stargate Worlds Website | Release Date: TBA

1. Star Wars : The Old Republic (position last yr – 3rd)

SW:tOR

We loved KotOR. Despite it’s missing story lines, we loved KotOR 2. And of course we love Star Wars. We also love Bioware’s games. If you believe the hype, Star Wars: The Old Republic will be the ultimate MMORPG to end all other MMORPGs.

Every class has it’s own unique plot lines. Ever character is fully voiced by real actors (making it the largest voice over project in the history of gaming, radio, tv or cinema). You can be Jedi, Sith, bounty hunter, smuggler, or a number of other Star Warsy archetypes. Each class will support on-the-fly customisation, rather than the tradional MMO tank, healer, Damage dealer etc… making grouping much easier, as your no longer stuck looking for that one specific class to fill the hole in your team.

You’ll have NPC companions (like in KotOR) that stick with you as you level through the game. Some may even become love interests. And NPC interactions won’t be your usual one-way ‘go here, do this’ instructions or just a bunch of text. SW:tOR will utilse a system more akin to Bioware’s Mass Effect/Dragon Age engine, where it’s more of a conversation, and the answers influence your narative.

I think the thing that excites me most about SW:tOR is that Bioware have hit on something that most current developers miss or choose to ignore because it’s hard to do. Just letting a bunch of people play together does not make an MMORPG. An MMO, sure, but not an RPG. Bioware seem determined to put the focus firmly back on the RPG elements. It’s a massive task with some huge hurdles to overcome, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s Bioware.

Star Wars : The Old Republic Website | Release Date: Spring 2011.

What do you think?

So that’s our list. What are the MMOs your most looking forward to? Are there any games you feel should really be on the list.

We’d like to know, so just leave your thoughts in the comments, or contact us here!

After some extremely inventive hints from Valve, they have officially announced Portal 2 is coming Christmas 2010.

Buy your own 'The Cake is a Lie' T-Shirt!

Along with the rest of Orange Box, Portal got the number 1 spot in our top ten games of 2007, for being a unique and brilliantly inventive first person puzzle game. For those of you that haven’t played it (shame on you! Go and download it from Steam this instant!), you play Chell, who wakes to find herself in an Aperture Science research lab run by an AI computer called GLaDOS.

GLaDOS manoeuvres Chell through a number of testing room utilising a ‘Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device’ aka ‘portal gun’, which allows you to fire a portal entrance onto a surface, and an exit onto another. The test start off relatively simple, but  become increasingly harder… and more dangerous…  GLaDOS (wonderfully voiced by Ellen McLain) gives you encouraging remarks as you as you move through each room, even promising that there will be some yummy cake for you when you’ve completed your tests. Except in one room, you manage to get into a background area of the facility, only to discover the walls roughly scrawled with the phrase ‘The cake is a lie‘. It looks as if all might not be as happy and cheerful as GLaDOS would have you believe…

There’s not been any real detail released on Portal 2 yet, but i think it’s fair to say, given the work of complete and utter genius that was the Portal end credit song, there’s a fair chance GLaDOS will be making an appearance.

Review: Star Trek Online (PC)

As I mentioned in the Star Trek Online History post, i’ve been playing around in Star Trek Online since Closed Beta. I wanted to point out, this is very much a review of the live game experience. You may see a number of reviews out there that are based on the reviewers beta experiences, but that’s extremely unfair on the work Cryptic put into STO before launch. The difference between the live game and the awful ‘car crash’ of a beta test in terms of stability and playability are light years apart… Not that there aren’t still issues…

U.S.S. Geektown

These are the voyages of the Starship, Geektown…

At least they would be if you could log into the server…We’re a few weeks past live release and as far as I can work out, Cryptic seem to running STO on some old networked Spectrum ZX81s powered by hamsters in running wheels. I’m sure they’ll upgrade them soon… maybe get in some Commodore 64s powered by badgers on treadmills. However, this minor annoyance (which is slowly turning into mild irritation after the 3rd server crash today), does give me a break from playing to write this review.

Character Creation

You can pick to play as a Tactical (damage/tank), Engineer (support/survivability), or Science (healing/support) Officer. You’re limited to Federation (Fed) until level 6, where you unlock the Klingon Empire, in a similar way to how Lord of the Ring Online runs it’s ‘Monster Play’. Like ‘Monster Play’, the Klingon side is very much a PvP focused, cut down version of the main game. Choices for Fed races include Human (obviously), Andorian, Bajoran, Betazoid, Bolian, Saurian, Trill, Vulcan, and ‘Alien’. The character customisation is tempered depending on your race, however if you do want to go nuts, you can always pick the alien option, which basically unlocks all the sliders and lets you create your own wacky species. Your race determines your basic look and some of your starting abilities. Betazoids for example are empathic (reducing threat generation), where as Bajorans are creative (increasing skills with ‘kits’ – items that give you extra abilities). You then can pick your costume, which come in a variety of Starfleety type options.

Boldly Going…

Star Trek Online

Being a traditionalist, I picked a human tactical officer as my first character. After a intro voiced by Leonard Nimoy, I pop up in the mess hall on the U.S.S. GeekTown (a Miranda Class Light Cruiser) with red alerts blaring all around. It seems the Borg are trying to assimilate a nearby ship, so I’m instructed to beam over to their medical bay to see if I can give some help to the emergency medical hologram (who sounds suspiciously like Syler from Heroes…) Once a few crewmen are patched up, I’m sent to engineering to blow some Borg out of an airlock, and then fight my way to a transporter, where I get to pick a my first bridge crew.

Bridge Crew serve 2 main purposes. Firstly, they man stations on your ship. As you up level up and get bigger and better ships, you gain more crew, and more advanced station configurations. For example, the Enterprise like Cruiser Class has 2 engineering stations, 1 science, and 1 tactical, where as the Defiant style Escort class has 2 tactical, 1 science and 1 engineering station. Each bridge crew member has their own set of space skills, such as my new vulcan science officer, has a tachyon beam skill that lowers the shields on an enemy ship.

Your Bridge Crew’s second purpose is to serve as party members for the ground missions when your not grouped with friends - side note: when you are grouped with friends, it means the Captains from each ship all form the away team… which I’m sure must breach some Starfleet rule on officer safety… – Again each crew member has a variety of skills, such as the science officer’s medical tricorder, or the engineers turrets and mines.

Space… The Final Frontier…

Beautiful spacescapes

Moving on a bit through the starter mission, I find myself battling a Borg Cube. Thankfully, I’m not on my own. This fight takes the form of a fleet mission, where as you enter the zone, your automatically grouped with other players to take on larger objectives (if you’ve familiar with Champions Online or Warhammer, you’ll be aware of this form of open mission).

I’ve see a number of reviews where people describe STO space combat as fairly slow, but it’s really more depends on the class of ship. Cryptic do need to try and keep the ‘Trekness’ in the game, and to see the Enterprise suddenly pull a ‘handbrake turn’, spin 180, and launch a barrage of cannon fire straight at a Klingon really wouldn’t seem very ‘Trek’. However, if you do want  more maneuverability, once you reach level 11 you can choose to take an Escort class ship (e.g. DS9’s Defiant), which gives you a much nimbler ride, with a whole array of forward facing turrets, but does sacrifice survivability.

Overall I find the space combat mechanics good fun, even if the missions themselves can be rather repetitive – Go here, kill 5 Klingon ships… then kill 5 more Klingon ships… then 5 more etc… There are some variations, but that usually just involves flying to something and hitting the ‘F’ key to scan/repair/interact with it in some way.

Ahead, Warp Factor 5

Warp travel interface

Travelling through space is a different matter. One of the most disappointing things for me was mechanism to warp from planetary system to planetary system. Whilst inside a system, you get to see your ship in these stunningly beautiful spacescapes, scattered with asteroids, nebulas and planets. However, during warp travel, your ship model is thrown onto stylised tactical map interface, which totally pulls you out of any immersion. What would have been great during the warp travel would have been the ability to wander around my ship, or some interaction on the bridge (you can visit your bridge in STO, but it’s basically an instanced room, so you can’t travel in warp and be on the bridge at the same time). The system map interface just instantly made the STO universe seem small and ‘game like’, rather than the vast openness of space it really should be.

Ground Combat

Ground Combat

I beam down to a planet, my newly acquired science officer with me for backup, to show some Borg the business end of a phaser rifle. I have an issue with the ground combat in STO as I’ve had with other Cryptic’s games. I’m sure Cryptic’s proprietary MMO engine makes it easier and quicker for them to develop, but it has this horrible ‘elasticy’ feel to it. Their always seems to be a delay between action and consequence. Throw a grenade, it lands and explodes. Count 1… 2… 3… and then people fall down from the blast. I’m positive it’s not a lag issue, as there was a similar issue with Champions Online, and even City of Heroes. The engine just has this ‘floaty’ feel to it which makes the ground combat feel less solid than most of its counterpart MMOs.

Another issue is the away team AI, which seems to stands for Artificial Idiocy. It is vastly improved from beta, but you do still find yourself occasionally tracking back across a map because you’ve just noticed your tactical officer is stuck trying to walk through a wall somewhere. They also have a tendency to think running through the fire created by the plasma grenade they’ve just thrown is a genius idea. All in all, not Starfleet’s best and brightest.

The Interface

Whilst STOs main player interface is perfectly adequate overall, there are a few basic things that really bug me. Why is it Cryptic still can’t make an auction interface that actually has a decent number of search filters on it? Same goes for any of their NPC shopping interfaces. I can only imagine the conversation went something like “Shall we put some filters on this?”… “Nah, just whack everything into one MASSIVE list, and jumble it all together so it takes them forever to find anything, it’ll be fine!”

Also, given your dealing with Star Trek, surely the obvious thing to do would would be to base it round a LCARS interface? Michael Okuda went to a massive amount of trouble designing LCARS for the Trek universe, and it’s just disappointing there isn’t even a vague nod to it in STO, rather than some generic MMO graphics.

Boldly Going...

But is it Star Trek?

The ship designs and uniforms are very Trek. The history/lore of the universe is tied in nicely to the Trek timeline. They even have Nimoy (and Quinto) doing voice work. But I can’t help thinking, what would Gene Roddenberry say if he saw it? I rather suspect he’d be extremely disappointed in the over reliance on space battles to entertain, rather than exploring and plot. Star Trek was never about combat. It was about exploring new world. Boldly going where no one had gone before. If any game needed an EVE-like vast openness of space, it was Star Trek Online. Instead you get a bunch of instances held together by a map.

Conclusion

Although there are a number of negatives in this review, I am enjoying my time in Star Trek Online. I’ve made lieutenant commander, and am heading toward my next level of ship. It’s just overall, i see it as a missed opportunity to do something great with such a rich and textured license. I would have loved STO to have been more of a Star Trek universe, rather than just a Cyptic game with a Star Trek license slapped over the top. It’s more an MMOG than MMORPG. The role playing bit has got lost somewhere along the way. As someone mentioned in ’system chat’ last week – “We all know we’re just treading water till Star Wars: The Old Republic comes out”… And unfortunately for Cryptic, i think that’s probably true.

7/10 – Fun in places but a missed opportunity.

Star Trek Online - A History

To be honest with you, a few weeks ago I was all set to rip into Star Trek Online. I’ve been in game since closed beta, and I thought the chances of Cryptic ever managing to get STO into a decent playable state in time for launch were slimmer than convincing a Klingon to take up vegetarianism.  However I’m happy to report, thanks to some around the clock work by the development teams, they really managed to pull it out of the bag.

We’ll have a full review up soon, but in preparation for that, I wanted to post a bit about the extensive work Cyrptic have done weaving STO into the Star Trek canon.

When is Star Trek Online Set?

Star Trek Online in the original Shatner/Kirk timeline (as opposed to the new JJ Abrams Pine/Kirk alternative movie timeline). Events take place in 2409, about 30 years after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis (putting it about 145 years after Star Trek: The Original Series). Cryptic have neatly timelined the history of the Star Trek universe from Nemesis, through the events of Abrams movie which lead to the current state of the galaxy.

Star Trek Online: A Brief History

In 2379 following the death of Praetor Shinzon (during the events of ST:Nemesis), Romulus and Remus are plunged into an all out civil war. Never ones to stay out of a good rumble, the Klingon Empire decides take advantage of the chaos and wade into Romulan territory, much to the disapproval of the Federation. On an opposing front, old Klingon rivalries with the Gorn Hegemony (later backed by the Norsicans) flair up into full blow war.

Ambassador Spock

In 2387 the galaxy is threatened by the Hobus star going supernova. Federation ambassador to the Romulans, Spock, proposes that the Romulans transport the precious mineral Decalithium to Vulcan, where they can convert it into ‘red matter’ capable of turning the star into a black hole, negating its threat. The Romulan senate refuse, however Spock finds an ally in Nero, the leader of the Romulan miners who agrees to secretly transport the Decalithium. On Vulcan, things don’t quite go as planned when the Vulcan Council vote against Romulan’s having access to red matter, infuriating Nero.

Returning to Romulus, Nero discovers Hobus has gone supernova (far faster than anyone thought possible) destroying Romulus, killing his wife and child. Driven mad with grief, he has his ship (the Narada) refitted with Borg technology, and goes to take revenge on the Vulcans, who he blames for failing to stop the supernova.

Spock takes a ship (known as the Jellyfish) which has now been fitted with the red matter weapon and destroys the supernova, only to be chased down by Nero. The Narada appears to attack Spock just as the black hole resulting from the supernova’s destruction appears to swallow both the Jellyfish, and the Narada… (see the 2009 Star Trek movie to see what happened to them!)

In 2391 what remains of the Romulan Empire finally manage to halt the invading Klingon forces at Zeta Pectoris.

In 2395, Ja’rod, lead of the Klingon house of Duras, is attacked by the 3 shapeshifting Undine (ST: Voyager’s Species 8472). Capturing and torturing one of his attackers, Ja’rod discovers the Undine’s planned to replace him on the Klingon High Command. This leads the Klingon’s to become even more aggressive and mistrusting of other races.

Orion

In 2402 the Klingon (now teamed up with the Orions) win a decisive victory over the Gorns/Norsicans, taking control of the Gorn homeworld. It’s only then do they discover that the Gorn Council had fallen foul of the Undine, who had been manipulating the Gorn’s into conflict with the Klingons. This results into the Klingon, Gorn, Norsicans and Orions all joining forces under the Klingon banner.

In 2404, the Klingons finding themselves emboldened by this new alliance decide to turn their attention to the Federation, invading the Hiromi Cluster, followed by invading the Archanis Sector in 2406… The Federation have no choice but to retaliate plunging the Klingons and Federation into a full blow war once again…

2409 – What happens next? You decide!

Calling Star Trek Online players…

It’s the t-shirt you know you’ve always wanted (well, since Beta anyway!)
Now you can ask the question that’s on every Star Trek Online player’s lips by wearing your…

‘Where is Sulu?’ T-Shirt!

100% cotton t-shirts available in a various sizes, and a wide variety of colours (or just stick with traditional Star Trek graphics style ‘black and yellow’.)

Click here to see both ‘Where is Sulu?’ T-Shirts, or click on the picture below to jump straight to them!

Where Is Sulu? T-Shirt (Male)

Where Is Sulu? T-Shirt (Female)

Stargate Resistance

Somehow I managed to totally miss the fact that this game was even in development, but publisher FireSky have just annouced that Stargate: Resistance, a 3rd person shooter from the guys at Cheyenne Mountain, is being released to PC on 10th of Feb 2010.

The story follows SG teams as they battle against the System Lords who have begun a savage campaign to dominate and enslave the known worlds. Players can decide to join up with the SGC, or side with the System Lords as they head through the Stargate to assault various planets across the galaxy.

This is hopefully good news for Cheyenne Mountain, who are also developing Stargate Worlds (the Stargate MMORPG) which has been worringly short on information since they announced they were having some finacial trouble. They have said the MMO project was very much still alive though, so hopefully we’ll see more info coming on that too soon.

You can find out more on Stargate: Resistance over at their website.