Look, someone who is different!

Anyone who makes it through this lengthy review of Global Agenda gets an anti-TL:DR cookie.  You all love cookies, yes?

Character Creation: Bottom line, it’s present only so it could be listed as a feature on the box.  Sure, you can make a character, play with some sliders to make it “yours” but it is all for naught.  Once you enter the game you’ll look just like every other character.  When you do get fed up looking like every other member of your class, and believe me, you will, you’ll have to plunk down large sums of credits for new gear skins and dyes to really diversify yourself.

Opening & Lore: Your character comes into existence during the (optional) tutorial mission.  The introduction video and eventual escape from a gigantic test tube is voiced with the background of how all player characters came to be.  The bit of lore is interesting, but it’s just a taste of something greater.  Something that’s never shown in the game again.

There’s actually quite a bit of well-written history and backstory for Global Agenda.  The catch is that struggle between the Commonwealth and the players isn’t documented in the game anywhere.  And that’s why the title feels soulless.  There’s no greater story thrust in our face at every turn to remind us why we keep fighting, who we are fighting for, and who we are fighting against.  To get a lore fix players have to head to the official website and read tales and history that should be presented in the game in some fashion.

Here is a bit of soul.

User Interface: To call Global Agenda’s User Interface clean would be an adequate description.  It’s not minimalist, but far from busy.  The HUD is laid out like most other combat-based MMOGs – hotkeys set to the number bar – but there are only eight buttons located at the bottom of the screen.  That’s not the “default,” that is all there can be.

Each button corresponds to switching to or using equipment.  Furthermore, the equipment is the same across all classes.  Meaning that ’1′ is always your melee weapon, ’2′ is your ranged weapon, ’3′ is your specialty weapon and so on.  The mini-map, party frame, personal frame, chat window and buffs are relegated to the outskirts of your viewing screen.  This leaves players a wide-open targeting area with a single distraction; two small bars displaying personal health and energy.

Global Agenda is a third-person shooter at its core, and the User Interface is designed with that in mind.  It’s just not perfect and the lack of customization doesn’t help.  The major point of contention comes from the Medic class.  Medics quickly learn to hate the UI due to its frustrating auto-targeting of friendly players.  Hi-Rez Studios touts the lack of tab targeting as one of the title’s defining features, but the design decision (and PR talking point) is one that medics whine over constantly.

Obviously, a medic does not point its gun at the thing it wants dead, but the player it wants to save.  When there is a group of players in a tight area, as there often is, a healer will invariably fight with the auto lock-on function of the gun.  It’ll hit the wrong player, stick to players with full health instead of half health, or lash someone far away when the person jumping in front of the gun is the intended target.  There’s nothing more frustrating than watching your assault bite the dust because the Healing Beam decided Mr. Cloaked Recon was more important.

Quests & Grinding: There are no quests at the moment – Hi-Rez Studios is planning to do its own thing – making grinding the only option.  The grind in Global Agenda isn’t like the repetitive monotony in other MMOGs.  Not entirely at least.  The only way to gain experience in Global Agenda is by completing missions, PvE or PvP.  Again, you actually have to complete the mission; a disconnect or crash results in wasted time and lost XP.  Talk about frustrating.

The way Global Agenda awards XP is through perks and bonuses at the end of missions.  Kills, assists, damage, healing, and other statistics are analyzed and calculated to award contributors.  Every player gets something, the skillful get the most.  Therefore, XP per hour is based solely on personal skill and teamwork.

That was me a few levels ago.

Dungeons: The PvE missions are the only thing in Global Agenda comparable to your average dungeon.  There’s only four strict PvE missions, with a fifth assigning two party members to be assassins on the other team.  Only having four dungeons may sound like an incredibly small number, Hi-Rez manages to keep things fresh by adding dynamic elements to each dungeon.

Maps and layouts remain the same, but the Commonwealth adapts to the invaders by mixing everything else up.  Mob count, pathing and placement changes per deployment.  Complicating matters is the addition of (generally) easy-to-avoid platforming obstacles – fire pits, poison rooms, and magmafalls.  That’s until shit hits the fan after a party member hits an alarm, spawning two helbots on top of you as you attempted to tip-toe around a flowing river of lava.  Let’s not forget the rotating team of boss mobs, each with their own unique abilities and attacks.

Believe it or not, Global Agenda’s missions are challenging.  It’s actually quite amazing when you consider how stupid the AI can be.  The Commonwealth’s guards may hide or cower in plain view and they often die to the traps in their own facilities. Very stupid.  Yet, the proof’s in the pudding; 50-70% completion rate is the going norm for a PvE victory, according to information from the Player Search.

PvP:  PvP is a fickle beast in the eyes of many a player.  There’s the group that loves it, the faction that hates it and the people who are indifferent.  This fissure is generally caused by the idea of ganking, or one player dominating another because of level or gear differences.  That doesn’t happen in Global Agenda.

The PvP system is designed so that everyone is capable of participating in all battles.  Two medics of the same skill but drastically different levels will heal on the same level.  That’s because the system rewards higher level players with gear that increases the versatility of a character, rather than its overall power.  There is simply no need to artificially boost or lower the abilities of a character to allow guildmates or friends to play together, because levels are relatively meaningless.  PvP is all about personal skill and teamwork, not time spent.

Player combat, either individually, as an Agency or as an Alliance, is the core experience of most players.  Players train for it, level from it and learn the ropes of the game from level 1 to 50 by murdering their fellow gamers.  Your basic random team PvP matches have a solid range of scenarios to participate in, ranging from payload and escort to king of the hill and assault missions.  The game offers nothing innovative to the idea of squad-based shooting, it just executes the staples well.

Unfortunately, the much touted feature of Alliance vs Alliance combat is not on par with standard PvP.  Large alliances have had a huge advantage over smaller ones – newly introduced Theft Missions notwithstanding – and these guild monopolies have even worked the system by allowing people to take territory, just to take it back for bonuses and perks.  It’s doubtful anyone expected a new mechanic to be perfect at launch, but there are some clear shortcomings to the system.  For instance, why bother having an attacking team load into a mission if there is nothing to stop them.  No players, no automated system, nothing in their way.  Player time is wasted, unless the defending Alliance quickly forms a group and joins before being too far behind.  It is a very annoying and frequent occurrence.

I think I will advance in another direction.

Polish: The core gameplay of GA is polished, period.  Shooting works, PvP is well balanced and PvE isn’t full of bugs.  Unfortunately, there are a lot of issues outside of shooting.  Hell, walking looks painful.  Crafting is annoying, and not worth the time or credits it takes to max level.  The mail and auction house system are archaic and the specialization trees are uninspired.  Even basic grammar and fact checking has been overlooked.  “You team has 90 percent” and an audio warning of “10 seconds remaining” when there are 30 seconds left are just two examples of facepalm-worthy slips.

It is plainly obviously that the gameplay was completed first.  Everything else was put on the back burner until shooting was deemed fun and enjoyable.  That’s actually a good thing though, because the game isn’t broken, just rough.

Technologically speaking, Global Agenda delivers a mediocre buffet of buzzwords and choices.  Graphically, the game looks like your typical Unreal Engine 3 game, meaning average.  Our ears fair no better, receiving a soundtrack and voiceover work that failed to move me in any direction.  There’s a generally acceptable ping for everyone and the game contains enough sliders and tweakable settings to support a wide range of hardware.  The one downfall is Window mode.  Its implementation is poorly executed with a hidden and locked mouse (hit enter to chat to bring it up, or alt-tab out) and persistent sound.

The offering is a lot like Old Country Buffet – there is a lot to chose from, but none of it is better than average.

Uniqueness: Global Agenda is a merger of Team Fortress 2, Tribes and EVE Online with a multitude of various MMOG staples sprinkled on.  I can’t name another MMOG that’s even close to that menagerie (PlanetSide would be the closest).

This is the only spot on this protective AvA dome that a player can land on. Easter egg!

Overall: Global Agenda has two things going for it, it is original and the core gameplay is enjoyable.  The next most important thing is that Hi-Rez Studios has already shown that it is willing to do what it takes to whip the rest of the game into shape.  Two patches have been released to address bugs and tweaks.  Each also included requested features, such as repair kits, and additional content, like new Alliance vs. Alliance maps and mission types.

Players looking for something different would be naive to pass up on Global Agenda.  After all, how many recently released MMOGs have had people talking about how well the company has supported the game and its subscribers?

Now if only Hi-Rez Studios would release some sort of trial to tease you with.  Global Agenda is now available for $39.99 from Amazon and has a slightly lower than normal subscription fee, should you chose to subscribe instead of the single-purchase method, of $12.99 a month.

Hi-Rez Studios held a second Developer Chat two weeks ago (posting the recording days later), and I’ve finally found the time to digest everything in the hour plus conversation.  Executive Producer Todd Harris and VP of Game Operations Stew Chisam fielded the questions chosen from community submissions, with PR Specialist Michal Adam handling the moderation duties.  The second chat was much like the first, long and repetitive.  It’s buried, but there is information in the podcast worth highlighting.

One of the topics of discussion I brought up was pointedly asked by Michal:
“Is Hi-Rez going to do something about the advantage that large alliances/agencies have over smaller ones, or is it going to be a free-for-all like EVE Online?”

Todd responded that the company envisions Global Agenda as a game that will enable small agencies of talented players to be competitive.  This very concern is why the Theft Mission structure (read about it here) was created.  By enabling any agency to assault production facilities the developer has given smaller squads the ability to hurt large ones.  Todd believes the new mission type will lead to a contraction of agency size; the larger the agency the more vulnerable it becomes.  Defense Facilities (also in the notes) help small agencies as well.

The topic came up later on, at which point we were told that Hi-Rez Studios will “continue to be very, very focused” on agency balancing.

The lack of new content for level 30-50 was the largest complaint of the live chat channel.  The background is that after level 25 there is very little new content for the players to access.  There’s no additional game types (PvE or PvP), and all of the deployable equipment has been unlocked.  The only thing to look forward to is additional skill points for the plain specialization trees.  So it’s a very fair complaint.

In the near term, all Hi-Rez Studios can do is placate the playerbase.  We can expect additional payload options for sections that currently have only one option – boost, jetpack and melee weapons – to roll out soon (TM).  The options would unlock depending on level.  The gear would be focused on versatility as opposed to making a character more powerful.  Adding consumables (like from those “elf” games)  was kicked around as well.  These “potion like” items would give players temporary benefits, act as a money sink and open up additional crafting tasks.

The most talked about point of interest was the lack of an open world.  To date, everything in the game is instanced.  There’s no where to adventure, no exploration, no quests and no ability to leave Dome City besides to do battle.  That is going to change via a “premium” content patch (won’t be available to non-subscribers).

Initially, I thought that the decision was horribly unfair.  After all, Champions Online was taken out back when Cryptic tried to charge for the upcoming content patch.  That being said, the more I heard about it, the more I realized how deserving subscribers are of the addition.  The open zone sounds like it’s going to be rather massive in size, “several minutes to jetpack across,” with much to do.  The patch will come with a new mission structure for the desert area.  Basically, Hi-Rez’s version of a quest hub.  Missions will include PvE and PvP choices.  Hi-Rez is rewarding its subscribers, not charging them extra.

The lack of an open world in Global Agenda was one of my main concerns, so I am glad the issue is being taken to heart.  Can’t wait to hear more about it.

A heart breaker to some will be that there are no new classes “in the short-term plans.”

Todd did most of the talking, but Stew verbalized the most memorable sentence of the chat.  He proclaimed that the developers are “here to earn your subscription.”

I’m still waiting on my pony Stew.

Hi-Rez Studio announces that Global Agenda will be progressing to version 1.2 during maintenance tomorrow.  The second major patch for the squad-based MMOG comes just two scant weeks after version 1.1 went live. I hope the developers at Hi-Rez are fully stocked with caffeinated beverages, because they’ve been busy.

Patch highlights:

• Significant updates and new content for the Alliance vs Alliance gameplay, including the addition of Theft missions, defense capabilities, trading and abandoning of territories and a lot more.
• 4v4 Arena Queues – The 4v4 Arena Queue is for pre-made teams of four players, and offers two new maps built specifically for 4v4 combat.
• City Chat
• Numerous bugs fixes and tweaks to PvE (animations), AvA, the AH and mail systems.

Read the full patch notes here.

Global Agenda will be down for patch application between 11:00 AM EST and 3:00 PM EST.  Patching should happen automatically through Steam.  No conquest zones will be available tomorrow to accommodate time differences and patch deployment.  Conquest play, including the two new maps, will be available on Wednesday.

The sheer flood of information coming from GDC 2010 is mind-boggling, and I am sure we are all having trouble keeping up.  I know I am.  I’ve been on the fence about Star Trek Online since its release, so I’ve tuned in to any and all information on the title coming from GDC.

According to a Massively interview, virtual trekkies will be able to select a new playable race “within the year.”  Better still, the decision will apparently be up to the players.

Craig Zinkievich said:

There’s a huge amount of the dev team right now interested in doing Romulan. I think the Borg would be really interesting as just something totally different, totally different gameplay. There are a lot of really cool mechanics, a lot of really cool things you can do there. Really, if you’re in the MMO for the long haul, there are going to be a lot more playable factions, you can’t stop with those two. There’s Jem’Hadar, you’re going to be going to the Dominion, there’s Cardassians [...] so many playable factions that we can and will be releasing with the game.

July has been selected as Star Trek Online’s next big update, one that is to include numerous community requests.

We know that we just had a player survey when you first arrive at the site, and, like, ship interiors. [Players] want a whole lot more there, want a whole lot more functionality, why are other players coming to my ship, what’s going on there?

There’s a big huge outcry for first contact missions, diplomacy missions, more non-combat within Star Trek, so we’re really making sure with that July update we’re really focusing on that.”

Hopefully Cryptic Studios can deliver what the community wants. More importantly, I hope that Cryptic doesn’t let the community ruin its own game.  What race do you want to see this year?

Star Trek Online is available at Amazon for only $30 as of press time.  A deep discount.

NetDevil’s Scott Brown created a new thread on the official community forum to let the community know that the game is alive and well.  In fact, his bullet point list details some of the drastic changes that have been made since missing its original release date.

-”Battlespace” returning to more of its simulator roots from Classic, really a place to practice not advance. I know this will make some of you happy in that advancing will only happen in “real” space not instant action type playing. I still hope to have some achievements/leader board materials form here but not likely to have any equipment or pilot advancing type effects.

-Lots of work on missions. With the new design team map layouts, mission stories, the types of things you do in missions, etc is all MUCH more interesting and varied than ever before. The kinds of things we can now do is very advanced.

-Better faction definition. The stories in the game really tell all about your faction and why you are at war with the others. The story is also darker than before with many of the missions you fly feeling more gray than the typical black and white always doing the good thing type story.

-PvP. Lots and lots of work on systems for PvP, new maps, new game play, new forms of advancement, player built battle stations, capturing sectors, etc. The scope and feel of the massive space battles you will be taking part in against other players will be, IMHO, what really sets us apart.

-AI functionality. Tons of work on making the AI both the right difficulty (it was way to easy before) and also varied in behavior.

Looks like a handful of core systems and mechanics have recieved complete overhauls.  Consider my interests perked, for the second time.

With so many changes in the works it is no wonder why Jumpgate Evoltion is still without a release window.

THQ hasn’t even released a final name for the upcoming Warhammer 40k MMOG, but that doesn’t stop the company from talking about it.  And as my most anticipated MMOG, I won’t stop the information from flowing.

Brian Farrell, THQ’s CEO and President, went on record regarding the pricing scheme for the title.  Farrell told IGN that the game is being designed to support the North American/European preferred method of a subscription, and the Asian preference of microtransaction/time-based simultaneously.  And odd choice, given that many top-notch MMOG are subsidizing subscription numbers with microtransactions even in the West.

Farrell cautiously side-stepped the cliche term of being a “WoW-killer.”  A smart move considering that every title that has attempted such a thing so far has failed to topple the behemoth.  Instead, he feels that the built in fanbase from previous games – board and video – and the dark sci-fi world will allow his company’s new creation to be successful alongside World of Warcraft.

“World of Warcraft is a great game, but as you know in entertainment, there’s always the juggernaut and that means there’s opportunities out there for the right MMO, said Farrell. ” What we love about the Warhammer 40K MMO is that it’s different in that it’s a sci-fi, futuristic-based world. We’re not competing directly in the orcs and elves fantasy environment that World of Warcraft is in. We can differentiate ourselves.”

Warhammer 40k will be fully revealed at E3 2010.  I’ll have coverage for you.

Players frothed at the mouth over incredibly high prices for items such as an additional six bag slots for $20.  Ouch.  gPotato initially said ‘tough,’ standing by its decision.  It appears the company realized its mistake, as it has announced a reduction in prices to key items, including the aforementioned bag.

List of changes in the item shop:

• Vial of Perfume reduced from 75gP to 25gP
• Large Perfume Kit reduced from 1350gP to 300gP
• Holy Rune reduced from 1500gP to 1000gP
• Rough Dragon Hide Backpack reduced from 2000gP to 600gP
• Small Deposit Box reduced from 1500gP to 1000gP
• Small Bag of Crystal Chips reduced from 250gP to 100gP
• Medium Bag of Crystal Chips reduced from 1200gP to 350gP
• Potions reduced from 250gP to 200gP

A gP, or gPotato, is $0.01, so the Rough Dragon Hide Backpack has gone from $20 to $6.  A more reasonable $1 per slot.  The changes put the desirable items more in line with other F2P shops, like the one I broke down for Runes of Magic.

Seeing as Allods Online has so much competition in the field of F2P games, the damage may already be done.  Is the reduction enough to draw people back in, or are the potential customers that left during gPotato’s stonewalling a lost cause?

The developer has backpedaled, but now a show of good faith is needed.  My idea – offer a discount on gPotatoes for a limited time to try to win over the angered players.

The patch includes a few additions that were highly requested by the playerbase including:

• A much needed friends and ignore list.
• New Conquest zones that have times more convenient for the international community.
• Increased plate drops, used for crafting, by 50%.
• Items can now be repaired.
• PvP maps can be chosen, and players can filter PvE for “balanced” groups or the quickest group possible.
• A report function has been added, tweaks have hit the AH, and numerous other small tinkers and improvements have been made.

View the full patch notes here.

The patch addresses some of the cons that I listed in my first impression of Global Agenda.  Hopefully the rest are in the planning stages.

Global Agenda will be down for patch application between 11:00 AM EST and 3:00 PM EST.  Patching should happen automatically through Steam.  The Public Test Realm will be (mostly) available during the downtime of the live server.

February 2 saw the release of two MMORPG.  Both have subscription fees, both offer PvP and PvE content, they include guns and are set in science fiction universes.  The similarities pretty much stop there.  Cryptic Studios’ Star Trek Online is geared to satiate the hungered trekkies out there, while Hi-Rez Studios hopes to appease the Team Fortress 2 crowd.  The main content, philosophies and core mechanics couldn’t be more different.

Global Agenda starts players off in an optional tutorial that explains the basic features of the game, squad-based third person shooting.  The developer used this normally boring ordeal to explain the world, how the player came into existence and their reason for being.  It’s a creative way to introduce players to a game, one that tackles two problems.  First off, it details the absolute basics of the game – movement, jumping, crouching, etc.  Things that MMOG players know.  Thanks to the interactive story running alongside the tutorial players are not bored to tears.  I rather enjoyed learning about the world as I was making my escape.  Too bad I haven’t seen any interesting blend of gameplay and story since.

Pros:

• Gameplay polish – Too many MMOGs are being released with all sorts of bells, whistles, trinkets and garnish, but no meat and potatoes.  Global Agenda has offered polished gameplay since the closed beta period.  PvP combat is fast, accurate, relatively lag free and well diversified.
• Mission briefings – Mission briefings are exactly what they sound like.  Short, non-interactive descriptions of the various PvP locations that a player may find themselves a part of.  The briefings not only describe the objective(s), including a fly-by, but why the scenario is an important asset to claim.
• Timed missions – It doesn’t matter which you enjoy more, PvP or PvE, both types of combat are timed.  This may annoy some players, but it definitely gives everyone a sense of urgency to finish the goal.  Players seem to be a lot less likely to stand around in PvE, and far more aggressive in PvP when there’s a clock winding down.
• Bit-sized gameplay – The combination of instanced and timed mission along with Global Agenda’s own matchmaking system means that gamers can get in and out of a play sessions very quckly.  Global Agenda is a title that is easily digestible in small bits, and easy to level without a guild.  That makes it a good game for casual players until level cap.
• Payload – As characters level up they unlock additional items to equip on their character.  Gear only offers small upgrades, so a player’s defensive and offensive skills are paramount to the success of a mission.  The diversification is as extreme as a few teched out items, or a jack of all trades character.
• Semi-dynamic encounters – In damn near every MMOG, running the same dungeon gets boring as soon as the players learn the ins and outs of pulls, encounters and line of sight abuses.  The developers at Hi-Rez Studios mix it up a bit by changing the positions, mobs, pathing, level layout and even bosses for each instance.  Traps and environmental damage make dungeons even more replayable.
• Stable server & quick support – No MMOG launches without its issues, some game breaking, others just tedious.  Global Agenda’s launch was relatively smooth.  Little to no lag, no queues and with enough population and level distribution to carry out any mission in the game.  That being said, there were small issues present.  Most of them were quickly hotfixed and patched the week of release.
• Diverse PvP arenas – Global Agenda launched choke full o’ PvP arenas.  Players can join a good range of scenarios including payload, attack and defense, king of the hill, objectives and escort.  And soon we’ll be able to decide what we want, instead of it being random.

Cons:

• Stupid AI – The artificial intelligence for the PvE NPCs is atrocious.  Robots can easily die before reacting.  They may hide or cower in plain view and they’ll die to the traps in their own facilities.  Sorry, but these robots and elite assassins should know they’ll get squished or melted in their own facility.
• No world or universe – The Mission Briefing feature I touted above would make you think there might be a universe, but there isn’t.  There’s no where to walk around and take in the sights.  Even Dome City, the game’s home base, is incredibly boring.  There’s lore sprinkled in from the website and a dash in the PvE system, but the briefings will deliver the majority of context the game has to offer
• Ranges on guns – Global Agenda’s successful ad campaign lambasted the cliches of most MMOGs, but the game has some itself, including range.  Various, but not all weapons, have undisclosed range limitations.  It’s incredibly annoying when a weapon is fired and it doesn’t reach the intended target.
• Uninspired specialization trees – One way to specialize your character is through skill trees.  By selecting one tree over another a class can change quite dramatically.  For example, a medic, your typical healer, can morph into a healer that can deal a dangerous amount of poison damage to the other team.  The specializations are nice in theory, but the talents within them are uninspired.  Want to heal more, then select Beam Heal Boost (+4% healing), or Jetpack Power for addition flight (-50% power cost).  Then move on to Beam Healing Boost II (+6% healing) or Power Pool Increase (+50% power pool)!  It’s not only a lack of interesting spells, but a lack of spells in general.  In fact, if you ignore the tiers of spells, then the healing tree only offers seven unique options.
• Lose of XP – Losing XP as part of a death penalty is one thing, but losing it to a disconnect or crash is another.  If a player is dropped from a PvP or PvE match for any reason they are sent back to Dome City.  Their place in the battle isn’t reserved for when they return, and it isn’t filled either.  Because Global Agenda awards XP upon the completion of a mission, getting dropped means you’ve been robbed of whatever XP was coming to you.  It doesn’t matter if you left in the first ten seconds, or the last, nothing is awarded.  I’ve been stripped of XP around a dozen times now.
• Crafting – It’s clunky, time consuming, expensive and unfriendly.  Thankfully, Hi-Rez is already working on an overhaul.
• Non-unique characters – Compound the boring skill selection with few cosmetic options and you have many characters that look exactly the same.  There are costumes available, but few players bother to pick them up due to costs and because the outfit isn’t that different.
• Poor windowed mode optimization – One of the loading tips is that the game runs in Windowed Mode.  It does, it just doesn’t run all that well.  The game will sit on top of the taskbar, you’re forced to alt-tab out of the game to capture your mouse, it has uninspired taskbar art and defaultly spouts its sound whether the window is active or not.  I can’t find a way to stop the sound either.  All of the issues are minor, but they need to be addressed.
• Bad auto-grouping – The various auto-grouping techniques employeed by the multitude of MMOG developers have often been hailed as one of the best features of their respective games.  Hi-Rez Studios’ effort is not in that category.  I understand that getting people in a mission quickly is the utmost priority, but I am willing to wait a few minutes to avoid three medics or three recons in the same foursome.
• Tutorial – The introduction was great, but that’s all it was.  There’s far more complex features, tactics, abilities and choices that are left unexplained in Global Agenda.  The title needs additional tutorials to help new to intermediate players morph in to powerhouses..

I’ve yet to get in to a solid guild/alliance to really dive into the Alliance vs Alliance part of the game.  I was lucky enough to partake in some AvA matches with developers and players during beta, and it was fun.  Essentially, AvA battles are large scale PvP missions against pre-made groups.  I’ll have more on AvA for you as I gain more experience.  To me, half the fun in AvA is making the tactical decisions on the hex grid.  It forces the leaders to be true officers.

The core of Global Agenda offers a well polished, fast paced battle against player combatants or not-so-smart NPCs.  The game shines when you’re in the heat of battle against other opponents.  The rest of the title is lacking in comparison.  That being said, Hi-Rez Studios gave players two months of free play while the company works out the kinks.  I’ll be around for at least that long.

Check out the rest of our Global Agenda coverage here.

Two weeks ago I specified a few reasons why I was going to walk away from Champions Online when my subscription expired.  Normally, I try to look at the positives of a situation, but my experiences with the game, Cryptic’s handling of it and the future plans didn‘t sit well with me.  Or the rest of the playerbase, as a few readers explained their issues with the game in the comments section.

Last week, Cryptic backpedaled on its decision to offer paid for high-level content.  Champions Online – Revelation, what the company claims is a “full-fledged expansion,” didn‘t go over well.  The decision was reversed after people like us spoke our minds about paying for content in a game that is lacking just that.  Commentator Snorlax returned to the post to pose a very good question:

“Do you see yourself coming back now that Cryptic has backpedaled on their paid content pack/expansion and put out some olive branches to the community?”

Initially, no.  The company lost a good amount of my trust, the damage had been done.  But Cryptic followed up last week’s olive branch with another State of the Game address that focuses on the free “expansion.”  Costumes, perks, and additional lairs are always welcome additions.  Two bullet points really caught my attention – Adventures Packs and Monthly In-Game Events.

Adventure Packs are story driven packages that are playable at “nearly any level.”  That will make them perfect for all of the altaholics out there (and casual players).  Personally, I am excited to see the story part take shape.  Who wouldn‘t want to battle with “villains both new and established.”  The more Foxbat the better.

If there’s something that small companies and small MMOGs excel at it’s usually community.  Cryptic Studios is looking to be a large part of that by joining us side-by-side.  We’ll be seeing a lot more of the developers in the virtual space they created thanks to the monthly in-game events.  Dates, times and details will be announced as they happen.

Cryptic, you’ve got about a month to win me back.  It’s been a good start.

Champions Online – Revelation will go live in mid-March.  More information will be revealed when the official mini-site launches this week.