So I was sitting here, at my computer, looking through screenshots of some of my favorite games. Yes, that’s right, sometimes I like to look at screenshots as opposed to actually playing the game. I’m just cool like that. Anyways, I got to thinking which games have better graphics. Of course, at this point, I, in no way, was thinking specifically of Pirates of the Burning Sea and EVE Online, but it did eventually lead into that. The games are already compared to each other on so many levels why not graphics as well? Both are touted as having fantastic environment graphics, as well as ship graphics. Enjoy the screenies, and don’t forget to tell us which ones you prefer!

Here, we have two screenshots, each depicting beautiful backdrops and gorgeous effects. For EVE Online (left) the lighting is especially well-done. For Pirates of the Burning Sea (right) the water just leaps right out at you. Our verdict: Pirates of the Burning Sea.

Now these two shots are actually contrasting each other. We have EVE (left) featuring a very bright, orange screenshot with loads of detail and backdrops. The sun in the background makes the shot look particularly gorgeous. Pirates (roght), on the other hand, has a darker backdrop. While the darkness helps conceal some of the bland textures in the background, it also takes away some of the beauty of the water. Our verdict: EVE Online.

Finally, we have two screenshots that show a bit of action. EVE (left) has a lot of detail in the background as well as an aweomse picture of a ship firing at something. On the other hand we have a Pirates screenshot (right) showing off some of the battle sequences. The water, as always, looks spectacular. The real gem in this shot is the physics of the wood flying up after the initial explosion. Also if you look closely at the water you’ll notice some excellently rendered reflections in the water. Our verdict: Pirates of the Burning Sea.

So, this round, Pirates of the Burning Sea took the torch in a 2:1 victory. It’s not all that surprising, to be honest, despite receiving a graphics overhaul recently, EVE Online is still a few years older than Pirates of the Burning Sea. All of the screenshots were, obviously, looked at with an artist’s perspective in mind as I believe games are one of the highest forms of art out there today. A lot of work and care goes into giving each of these games gorgeous graphics.

So, which do you think are better?

“In the aftermath of the Third World War, mankind has managed to survive and build a new society: the prosperous city of Sal Vitas. Cloning, nanotechnology and quantum engineering are part of a new reality. Thanks to these technological advances, the human species has become immortal; each individual’s consciousness is stored in a data vault, ready to be uploaded into a cloned body as necessary. New energy sources have been discovered. There is a unified government that takes good care of those citizens who abide by its strict laws. Paradise, it appears, might really have come to Earth, and the people have embraced it”.

This is the story-line of one of the newest announced Sci Fi MMORPGs. It looks excellent. If you visit the website at www.play-earthrise.com and look at the news, you will see many new interviews and talk about the game. It is too early to see any real screenshots of the actual gameplay, but it looks promising! Register on the forums, I am Slaradon!

In other news…The weekly watch for this week has been canceled, due to lack of content, look forward to one next week!

There will be a huge interview coming, look forward to that! (Hint: The Octavian’s are unhappy about this.)

So, like I said a week or so ago, I had planned on picking up Pirates of the Burning Sea. I am a huge fan of pirates and, as such, it only made sense for me to at least give the game a shot, right? Now I am here, I have been playing the game for about 3 days (I have been super busy this week) and I am starting to get curious as to whether or not other players feel the same things as I do about the game. I guess I’ll start from the top.

First, let me start by saying: Pirates of the Burning Sea is a refreshing take on MMORPGs. The game can be a whole lot of fun at times. This is all, of course, without mentioning the jaw-droppingly beautiful graphics. Seriously, sometimes after a ship battle with some NPCs I’ll just float around some looking at the water and sunset. It is a very nice touch, and one that, I think, breathes life into the game. Suffice it to say, I think that Pirates of the Burning Sea has nailed down all of the ship combat and movement. So what would I change from here?

Well the first, and most important thing I’d change about PotBS is the avatar design. Seriously, they look lifeless and generally give me the feel that they are stringed puppets. Sometimes, if I look closely enough I can almost convince myself that I see the strings. . . This is a very serious concern for the game, not because avatar movement/combat is a huge part of the game (it’s not), but rather because the developers have seen it fit to introduce the player to the game by starting him/her out as an avatar. Not a good idea, in my opinion, with those avatars. This also goes without saying that the avatar combat needs a general reworking as well.

In addition to the avatars, and their combat, the towns are also mostly abysmal. They are quiet, empty, and very much dead. I don’t mean there aren’t a lot of players there either. The starting town I was at had a bunch of other gamers inside and yet the town still felt dead. It could have been a Hollywood set for all I could see. When I say dead, I mean the NPCs don’t have much of a presence there. Now, I really hate to compare this game to World of Warcraft, really I do, but I have to go with what I know. In WoW, you’ll often notice that a lot of the towns have a whole lot of flare and presence. You’ll see guards on patrol, NPCs randomly roaming around yelling stuff out, and sometimes even fighting amongst the NPCs. It makes the towns feel alive, and it was one of my favorite aspects of WoW. I could be in a town with no other gamers and yet still not feel alone. In PotBS, I always feel like I am by myself. Of course I haven’t been to most of the towns so this could vary from place to place.

Well, that’s about it. There are some smaller things that I’d change if I could, but they really don’t require elaborating here. Like I said before, the game nails down the ship combat/movement, and even the economy is pieced together very well, as long as you are able to understand it. However, and I stand by this, one of the main things that is going to hold PotBS back is their avatar gameplay. While it’s not the main focus of the game, itself, it is still a big enough part of the game that it will cause a negative impact amongst new players. So please, Flying Labs, let’s get cracking on some fine tuning for that aspect of the game.

What would you like to change about Pirates of the Burning Sea? Let’s here it!

Looks like I have some bad news for a bunch of Republic fans today. Although it’s not 100% confirmed, given the recent rumours, and now this EA investors report I’d say the possibility of an MMORPG based on Knights of the Old Republic is practically non-existant.

According to the rumours, and this report definitely confirms them, BioWare has begun working on a third installment of Knights of the Old Republic. This has been confirmed. What hasn’t been confirmed is whether or not this will be a traditional sequel to the beloved franchise or an MMORPG. However, I really wouldn’t get your hopes up for the latter. As you can clearly see above it shows that BioWare is working on 4 projects now: Mass Effect, Dragon Age, KOTOR, and “New MMO”. Had KoTOR been the “New MMO” they probably wouldn’t have separated it with a comma like they did with every other game in the report.

Once again, this is not confirmed, but I really wouldn’t get your hopes up. You’ll only get tham dashed later. On the lighter side of the news today, I have been hearing murmurings of a new Star Wars MMO being made by an unannounced company. Anything has got to be better than the one that’s out now right?

Getting back into LOTRO about 2 weeks ago, I’ve been looking torwards to the next bid game update, Book 12. Aside from the usual bug fixes, new quests and character balancing, Book 12 actually has some things worth talking about. First up is the new outfit system. While not adding anything to the actual game play, I’m actually pretty excited about this. One of my big pet peeves in MMORPGs is that characters look way too similar, there are usually never enough options to make you feel as though your character is unique. With this new system in place they have added hundreds if not thousands of different outfit combos that you can now use to make you character distinct. While these new outfits provide absolutely no bonuses to your characters stats, they do make you look sexy

Second and more importantly Trubine has added a new area, The Delving of Fror, in the PvP zone of Ettenmoors. In an attempt to make PvP worth playing they have introduced “soul stones” which are dropped by mobs within this dwelling. These stones can be traded to item vendors for a number of armor, weapon and jewelry sets as well as consumables and crafting recipes. Creeps can also use these stones to purchase new corruptions, new skills, new traits, special sessions and new environmental mod.

Now the really interesting part is that in order to take control of the Delving of Fror, all other zones within Ettenmoors must be taken over. This now gives PvP players a reason to attack these other zones other then to get valor tokens, which are worthless. Another small but cool feature is that if your in the Delving of Fror when one of the zones is lost, the main doors shut close, trapping you withing the zone while mobs begin to flood in. In cases like this you need to either map out or use a special skill to flee before the enemy gets you.

I’ve been pretty harsh on LOTRO in the past, but it looks like there getting on the right track. Some more work on PvP and they might have a decent game on their hands.

And I ask this because, in all likelyhood, Square-Enix’s next big MMO project will probably be another Final Fantasy game. Anyways, according to our buddies over at Massively, it would seem that there is a tasty little rumour flying around: Square plans on announcing their next big MMO at GDC this year. Now I’m not going to delve into the where, what, why, etc of this matter. For all that kind of news you can go ahead and click on the link above. What I am going to be talking about here are the possibilities of what that MMO might be and how it pertains to the Final Fantasy world.

In the past couple of years Square has gone on record as saying two things (paraphrased of course):

1. They wish to expand the Final Fantasy VII universe and add more games to that legacy.
2. They are currently developing FFXIII to be the next “FFVII” and plan on making at least 3 games in the Novus Crystallis world.

So, what does this mean for MMO gamers? Well, while no details have really emerged as to what these expansions will be exactly, there could, very well, be a planned MMO in the works for either one.  Although, I will go on record as saying that an MMO based off of FFVII is highly unlikely. Most RPG gamers know the world, and also know that it isn’t really big enough to suit the needs of an MMORPG. Without extensive world reconstruction (perhaps making the game 500 years in the past or future) Final Fantasy VII would not work well in an MMO environment. That said, however, Square-Enix does see and understand that there are very real competitors out there who are using the power of branding to aid their games like Lord of the Rings and Warcraft. Square may want to pull out the big guns in order to reinforce their game which would mean reviving their most popular Final Fantasy franchise in MMO flavor. Still though, I find it to be highly unlikely, which leaves us with Final Fantasy XIII.

Now, we don’t know much about Final Fantasy XIII. We don’t really know the world, characters, or any of that mish-mash usually associated with RPGs. We don’t know these things because the game is still in development. This leads me to believe that a futuristic FF MMO could be in the works under this numerical “sequel”. It would make perfect sense:

1. The game’s world is supposed to be huge and epic.
2. Developing the game now means that they could be making it so that the game’s storyline and world are easily adaptable to MMO status.
3. Square-Enix really wants to make this series of games their stand-out titles, and what better way to do that than to allow you to mingle through it with thousands of other players at the same time.

There you have it. Those are my two predictions of what the next big MMORPG from Square-Enix will be. Of course, I have no insider information (I don’t speak Japanese ), so this is all based off of my own personal speculations and observations of the market. Square may completely throw me a curve ball and not make an MMORPG based off the Final Fantasy world at all. Maybe they will *gasp* make an MMORPG based off Dragon Quest! I love those games.

Thanks for reading.

Back again folks with another weekly watch! This week has been fairly slow accually, we are nearing the launch of some of the greatest MMO’s ever made though. Like AoC and WAR, oh boy, 2008 will be fun beyond belief.

In a message involving me, I have just gotten back into the Lord of the Rings Online. My server is Gladden and my name is Altheron, feel free to message me in-game.

MMORPG.com’s contest for a Ideazon Zboard Reaper™ & Reaper Edge™ keyboard and mouse is going on. Click here to register in the contest. Remember, you must have an MMORPG.com account to register, so make one! 2 Days left!

John Smedley, SOE’s CEO, is hosting a dev blog here. Check it out! Mabye he will do something good this time!

Age of Conan…The soon to be king of MMORPG’s has finally uploaded their beta devolopment Q&A videos! Check them out! #1 here, #2 here, and #3 and #4 here!

Just a little warning, if you play Lord of the Rings Online, there has been a fradulent email being sent around telling you that you have been illegally trading accounts and in-game currency. If you know you haven’t been doing this and you get this email, ignore it. Plus, if it really WAS Turbine, they may ask for username, but never password.

All we can do is wait in agony for the release of the MMO’s of 2008, it will be amazing and I am looking forward too it tremendously.

Yesterday, Nintendo president Satoru Iwata stated that there would be no MMORPGs on the Wii. This got me to thinking about why there aren’t many MMORPGs on consoles, they definitely have a large player base than the PC. Now correct me if I’m wrong, but currently the only MMORPGs that have been released to consoles have been Phantasy Star, Final Fantasy XI and EverQuest Online Adventures. Phantasy Star appearing on both DreamCast and Xbox 360, FFXI on Xbox360 and PS2 and EQ just on PS2. Wow, who knew they ported EQ to the PS2? Anyway, even with Microsoft’s Xbox Live service there were no MMORPG on the first Xbox and there are currently none on PS3, although there are a few that have been announced for the PS3.

So whats stopping consoles makers from releasing a successful MMORPG on there given platform? I mean if the dying PC gaming market can boost dozens of MMORPGs with 10′s of Millions of gamers, why can’t console makers?

It comes back to the fact that PC’s are just a better gaming platform then consoles for certain genres of gaming. MMORPG’s and RTS games are just not as good as they are on a PC and probably never will be. But lets break down what that really means.

Communication – Obviously a big part of MMORPGs. Using a controller is not an option when you need to communicate in-game. So you need to either get a headset or a keyboard if your console supports it. This adds to the cost which might turn away some console gamers as keyboards can be expensive.

Interface – The interface of MMORPGs today is very point and click. This again can’t be done quick enough with a controller to make it effective. A controller only has so many buttons. Have you seen some of the MMORPGs today? In LOTRO I had 4 complete bars full of actions, items and skills so that I could use them instantly. Having 8 buttons just isn’t good enough.

Fees – Gamers are already paying a monthly fee on Xbox Live, so to charge them again per MMO, would be pushing it. I think developers know this and are worried that the player base will be very small because of it. On the other hand P3′s online service is free, so go figure.

Information – Ask any MMORPG player and I would guess that 99% of them have used websites while playing to find locations, complete quests or just to find out what to do next. This isn’t possible on a console. Theres no CTRL + ALT + Delete to minimize your game, check out a map of your gaming world then quickly switch back. If you want to use your consoles browser, well your looking at at least 5 mins before you get back into your game. Log out, open browser, search, log back into game, not to mention all the loading screens. Or you can go to your PC to find the info. Then again, I have 2 monitors so I have all my info right next to my screen while I play, can’t do that on a console.

Competition – Consoles have a much larger gaming library compared to the PC. Sure the PC gets all the best games but they can’t match the volume of games produced by console makers. I would think this might have some impact on developers worried that they would not be able to keep a hold on gamers like the PC can. With a major game release what seems almost on a monthly basis, console gamers might move on too quickly.

System Hog - MMORPGs are single player games when it comes to the console. So if you have a MMORPG gamer on a console, they are not only hogging the console to themselves, but also the TV. I WANT TO WATCH AMEICAN IDOL DAMMIT!! (j/k)

So what can console makers do to get a piece of the MMORPG pie? We’ll they can make there next console a PC

Perhaps I have just been reading too much of Gamasutra’s recent multi-paged article on the Dragon Quest franchise, of which I am a huge fan, or maybe it’s because no matter which MMORPG I play I always find the game to be lacking in certain areas as compared to it’s single player brethren. In anycase, I bring to you a serious concern for the future of MMORPGs: where did all the RPG go?

Now, I know what RPG literally translates into; you take the role of a character in the game. That character is you, and you act through that character. I understand that, let me be 100% clear by what I meant earlier: an RPG videogame traditionally has a whole lot of story that goes along with your character. These storylines range from good to bad, awesome to FFX-2, but no matter how good or bad the story is the game and story evolves with your character. You have an impact on the world and as such the world has an impact on you. Storyline progression is a HUGE part of the RPG world, and yet, in the MMORPG world it is practically non-existant.

Before any of you interject with pleas of my insanity, I do understand that MMORPGs have storylines. World of Warcraft, Everquest 2, and, especially, LoTRO all have storylines. However, that said, is there really any storyline progression? No, none at all. Your character levels up, gets better gear, and obtains more money, but that’s it. After you kill said boss of area A1 is that boss gone forever? Nope, in fact in about 5 minutes a new one will spawn, or in the case of instanced zones you can literally leave the zone, push the reset button, and hop back in for another go at him. Killing him has no effect on you, other players, or the game world. Therein lies the problem of the MMO. . .

You see, MMORPGs are, right now, being developed primarily to addict you to the game. They draw you in with promises of an awesome world (which many of them are, in fact, awesome) full of treasure and then supplement you with addicting gameplay that feeds off of “rewards” for continual play. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this is a bad thing, I’m just saying that what if in stead of getting people to play based off addictive reward-based gameplay you get them to play based off a massive continual story-line progression where you, your character, can actually have an impact on the world and the players around. Doesn’t that sound more appealing? Would you seriously not at least try the game out?

If only we could get a company to take such a bold risky move in that direction. . .

Thought? Comments? Random acts of flamebaitery? You know where to leave em!

ME!  Did you guess right?  I bet you did.  Yes, a few days ago one of my guild mates from Lord of the Rings Online told me that his friend got into the AoC beta but wasn’t interested.  I guess he just signed up for the hell of it, but whatever, now I have the invite.  It actually took me over a day to get setup since after I had downloaded the install client, I needed to download a 15 gb update, which was extremely slow.

Since then I have been gaming in the world of Hyboria,  but this post isn’t going to be a preview of the game as I’m only lev 7 and haven’t even been able to chop anyones head off.  Instead it’s just me bragging that I got an invite

But I will tell you that there are some serious bugs still in the game, so I’m glad they pushed the release back as it is still very unpolished.  I’m going to continue playing over the next week and I hope to reach level 20 within a week, then I’ll post a preview of the game.