The first time I played the original Realtime Worlds beta of All Points Bulletin I never really got past the first few tutorial missions due to a faulty graphics card. After spending some time with the free-to-play revival of this game, I’m starting to think I may have missed out on a fun experience.

Taking place in the fictional city of San Paro, APB pits criminals vs enforcers in a virtual game of cops & robbers. Featuring no classes, levels or stats, your skill with a gun will largely dictate your success, or failure in this game.

I say there are no classes but that’s not entirely true. Players can purchase equipment and character modifications that grant various buffs in the form of extra health, quicker health regen, ammo regeneration for team mates, and various other goodies I’ve not yet had the chance to play with. This enables players to specialise in various areas, perhaps equipping modifications beneficial to a sniper, or a close quarter shotgun wielder in effect creating your own custom class similar to the perks/specialisation features of modern FPS shooter titles.

Character customisation features some of the most varied options and choices you will likely ever see in an MMO, and will probably suck up a large amount of time when creating your first character. I was able to knock up a hockey masked enforcer tribute to Casey Jones fairly easily. Another childhood fantasy achieved if only in video game form.

After picking a faction and creating a character, players are transported to a tutorial area where your first ‘contact’ will provide a few basic solo missions. As an enforcer I was dispatched to remove some graffiti from a wall and some other basic tasks before given the choice of entering one of three ‘action’ districts, or the ‘social’ district.

Action districts are instanced areas containing up to 100 players where missions or open world activities (such as witnessing crimes or committing them) can be completed. Grouping is handled automatically upon entering an action district, or you can manually join a group or even run missions on your own, although I highly recommend grouping. Sure you can complete things on your own, but there is a lot of fun to be had jumping into a vehicle with some friends and hanging out the windows showering your enemies with automatic fire!

Before long you will find yourself dispatched against enemy players to assault or defend locations, pick up and deliver evidence, raid criminal hideouts, and other various missions. For each successful mission you gain prestige and improved standing with local contacts unlocking clothing, weaponry, and vehicles. Prestige affects the number and threat level of the enemy players you will be matched against which I found to be an interesting way of matching players together.

If you don’t feel like taking part in combat, the social district is a PvP free area containing all the tools required for the huge level of customisation available in APB. Players can alter clothing, give vehicles a new lick of paint, or even change the physical look of their character such as hairstyle, body features etc. Player auctions can also be accessed here and there is a large selection of gear and weaponry to choose from.

So far despite a few niggling issues I’m having a lot of fun with APB. It’s refreshing to play an MMO (of sorts) that relies more on player skill than gear level to progress.

Stay tuned for my full APB Reloaded review.

So you hit level 10 and you feel like you could take on the whole Empire (or Republic) yourself? Star Wars: The Old Republic allows you to take the fight to the opposite faction via PvP battlegrounds called warzones. There are currently three warzones in the game, all with varying objectives required for victory.

Not only are warzones a fun experience, they also provide good rewards in the form of commendations which can be used to purchase equipment, weapons and consumables. Of course, if you want to get your hands on these goodies you’ll need to get amongst some blaster fire and earn your keep!

Here to assist you on your path to galactic domination and help you and your team to victory is a brief guide to each warzone and some basic strategies.

First up is The Voidstar.

The Voidstar is a derelict Imperial starship containing data that could be used in the war effort by either faction. Attacking players must gain access to the ships data core and download the information before time runs out.

The map is made up of three sections, each requiring one of two sealed doors to be destroyed with explosives before progress is possible. In addition to this, attackers must also activate various control panels to deactivate energy barriers or extend bridges along the way. The map is played over two rounds with players each taking a turn at attacking and defending.

Basic strategies for any defensive team include calling out incoming threats to either door, and using AoE abilities to interrupt players planting explosives. Games can be won and lost on people calling out enemies so keep your team aware of what is happening at all times. Inform incoming allies if the area has been cleared of threat for example, allowing them to apply pressure in other areas instead. A fluid team that balances players between objectives with good communication is a hard team to beat, even with a premade group.

AoE abilities are also very useful for the attacking team. Spreading damage out amongst as many enemies as possible gives the defending healers too much to handle, allowing attackers to thin out the crowd. The classic “bait and switch” tactic can also work to great effect in Voidstar and is often the only way past a good defensive team. Applying constant heavy pressure to only one door can sometimes draw all the defenders to one side to help teammates, leaving the second door unguarded for someone to stealthily take without drawing attention. Be ready for a large surge of enemy players once they realise what has happened however and defend the explosive, or use the opportunity to plant explosives on the other door if possible.

There are also plenty of terrain obstacles around the map that can be used by both teams to break line of sight and health pickups in various locations that can help turn the tables in a tricky fight.

Next up is Huttball. If you play Empire, be prepared to see a lot of this warzone depending on your server population.

Huttball is a capture the flag game mode with a twist. The ball carrier can pass the ball to any team mate within range, and the enemy team can intercept passes or kill the ball carrier to take possession. The team in possession of the ball has to make their way to the enemy goal line to score. Along the way are various environmental hazards such as acid pools and flame vents that can be used to hinder the enemy, or be used as an advantage in some situations.

The ball is obtained from the center of the map and is reset if a pass misses or a team scores a goal. The map features raised areas and walkways that need to be crossed in order to score a goal, but the walkways sport timed flame vents preventing progress for a short amount of time. Underneath the walkways is a pit area that players can be dragged or thrown in to that is time consuming to exit.

Passing is one of the most important things to remember here. The second is to pass wisely. Passing works via targeting an area to throw the ball, the player being passed to must be standing inside the marked area on the ground to receive it. When passing, try to be aware that moving players may not see the pass and run by it, so try to anticipate where a moving player is going and throw the ball in their path.

Using the terrain to your advantage is also of high priority. Punting/dragging players into the acid pools or flame vents is a quick way of dispatching them with minimum effort, and applying crowd control to players navigating flame vents can also be used to force players to take environmental damage. If you have any grapple abilities these can be used to drag the ball carrier into the pit area, forcing a pass or a lengthy exit from the area.

If all else fails, name calling is encouraged…

Lastly we have the Alderaan warzone.

A battle is taking place above Alderaan, yet the key to victory lies on the planet. Secure and hold ground-to-air laser turrets to provide offensive support to your faction and blast the enemy out of the sky!

Alderaan is a control point map that requires at least two of three laser turrets to be captured and held to win. Teams are flown into opposite sides of the map (north & south) via speeder bike and can immediately access two of three turrets from the start location. The northern start point can access the west and center nodes, while the southern start point can access east and center. Connecting the east and west nodes is an underground tunnel, located within are speed boost pickups enabling quick access to either side of the map.

As with The Voidstar warzone, calling out incoming threats is the key to a good defense and should be done at every opportunity. A successful strategy is to send a few players to the east or west (depending on your start point) control point, while the rest of the team assault the middle node. Once this has been achieved, split the team between the two nodes and call for support whenever needed, however always try and keep at least one person at a node to inform the team of capture attempts.

Once again AoE abilities can be used to create a large amount of work for healers, and also to interrupt players attempting to capture a node. With this in mind, be aware of your positioning when capturing nodes as you can often use line of sight to achieve a successful capture. Once again, the ‘bait and switch’ tactic can be used to great effect here. Providing heavy pressure to a node will often draw more enemy players in to defend it, leaving other nodes less guarded and available for capture.

Have fun, and stay tuned for my follow up guide dealing with some basic strategies for tanking warzones and effectively providing valuable support to teammates.

EA announced today that Star Wars: The Old Republic has officially become the fastest growing subscription MMO in history, with over one million players registering since the Dec 20th launch.  EA also released some other stats which are listed below.

• Logged 28 million in-game hours – roughly equivalent to watching all sixStar Wars movies, two million times
• Averaged well over five hours a day playing the game
• Created more than 3.8 million characters; 510,000 Jedi Knights and 550,000 Sith Warriors
• Killed more than two billion non-player characters in the eight days since Early Game Access began

The third stat is pretty interesting and reveals something about players class choice . The stat tells us that out of the 3.8 million characters, about 28% are Jedi Knights or Sith Warriors, slightly more than the 25% if we were to divide the classes evenly. I’d be interested to see the numbers for the remains 6 classes especially the Bounty Hunter and Smuggler classes.

In an interview with Eurogamer, RIFT executive producer Scott Hartsman mentioned that Trion has no plans for turning RIFT into a free-to-play title stating, “Right now, absolutely no plans whatsoever“.

Not a big surprise to hear given that the overall consensus is that RIFT is doing pretty well, however when asked for subscription numbers, Hartsman declined to provide any. Although he did mention that the game is “absolutely profitable“.

Not only is Trion making money from RIFT, but Hartsman stated they are licensing the technical platform of all three games (RIFT, End of Nations and Defiance) in which they were built on. So it doesn’t seem like money is an issue for Trion currently.

That being said, it’s almost never a good thing when a publisher doesn’t release any numbers, especially after being release for as long as RIFT has. The only number we’ve seen so far is the 1 million registered accounts that were created during the pre-launch. Had RIFT actually hit 1 million subscribers, I’m sure they would have gladly released that number by now.

This is an open letter to the gaming industry.

Dear Gaming Industry,

Please stop calling every online game you make a MMO. I’m not sure if you know what that means so allow me to tell you. It stands for Massive Multiplayer Online with the keyword being “massive”, that’s very important. You see when someone sees a game being advertised as massive, that person gets the impression that thousands of players will be able to game and interact together in one world or place. Now listen carefully because this is the most important part, it has to be at the same time.

I know this must come as quite a shock to you, but it’s true.  You’re probably saying to yourself, “wow, that’s a lot of people!” and you’re right, but this is why they’re called massive multiplayer online games, because they are indeed massive.

Now, I want to make sure you’re clear as to what that means, so below I’ve listed a few important rules that can be used as checkpoints so you can correctly determine if your game is a MMO or not.

• If your game has a limit to the number of players that can enter at one time and that number is less than a thousand. Your game is not a MMO.

MMOFPSs tend to be the primary abuser of this rule, but it also happens with other genres as well. You see if only 8, 16, 32 or even 100 players can join a game at one time, then it is not massive. Remember, around a thousand players is the magic number. This is more commonly called an online multiplayer game.

• If the whole game is instanced and the only place where players can see each other or interact with are within towns, then your game is not a MMO.

Since the only place where people can see each other, chat and interact with are in towns, then these towns act as a hub or chat room. The actually game is played in small groups or solo, which again means your game is not massive. Think of it this way, if you log onto BattleNet to play Diablo, you can chat with tens of thousands of players, but when you go into the actual game, only a dozen or so can enter due to the fact that every game is instanced. Your game is the same thing, except your using a “town” as the chat room.

I hope this letter has better explained to you what a MMO game is and hopefully in the future you will start to label your games correctly.

Sincerely,
Mike @ MMOCrunch

Today Reto-Moto, the independent gaming studio created by the guys that brought us the Hitman series, released their deput teaser trailer for their upcoming World War II MMO game. Heroes & Generals is a MMOFPS that also offers a strategic campaign management system, which is all based on a massive-scale online world.

Heroes & Generals will feature a persistent online war that is fought by thousands of players on the battlefield and through a tactical war map where some players will make the big decisions that can effect the outcome of the whole war. From the trailer, we can see tanks and airplanes, although it is unclear whether those will be playable units or if they are called it for support.

Currently the game is in alpha testing and Reto-Moto is taking signups, so if you want to check it out, head over to the official site.

Check out the Heroes & Generals teaser trailer below.

Speaking to IndustryGamers, BioWare heads Dr. Ray Muzyka and Dr. Greg Zeschuk, stated that the possibility of a Mass Effect MMO game is very much alive. Dr. Zeschuk said the following when asked about a Mass Effect MMO,

You never know.  I think once The Old Republic is done, we’ll take a fresh look at the market. And we’ll have learned a lot. While making it, you learn an enormous amount. It’s one of the nice things about having these properties in our back pocket… If we want to use something we own as a source for a game, it’s easy to do. So yeah, you never know. We’ve got this giant product to launch, but once that’s done we’ll consider next steps.

Muzyka added,

We’re focused very much on The Old Republic, Mass Effect 3 and [our free-to-play game] Wrath of Heroes, and all the other things we’ve announced, and haven’t announced, but we also have the opportunity to look at our franchises in a way we haven’t ever before. There are lots of new platforms and lots of new business models.

It seems BioWare is taking the wait and see approach with Star Wars: The Old Republic to see how it does before making any decisions about another MMO game. But if the hype surrounding SWTOR is any indication of its success, I’m sure BioWare will jump at the chance to create another MMORPG out of a beloved series like Mass Effect.

Fans of Blizzard who had hoped to learn more about Blizzard’s unannounced MMO, Titan, will be disappointed as a Blizzard representative today announced that Titan would not be present at the convention.

Titan is the codename for Blizzard’s unannounced MMO game which was leaked a year ago via a product release schedule. Set to be released in the fourth quarter of 2014, it seems it’s still to early to reveal just what Titan is. After all with all the hype surrounding GW2, SWTOR and it’s own Diablo 3, Blizzard might be worried the announcement might not get as much attention as it deserves.

Looks like we’ll have to wait for next years Blizzcon for the big reveal.

Class balance is a key aspect to any MMO game that expects to be successful whether it be in PvE or PvP combat, however should classes be limited for no other reason than for the sake of balance?

In a recent interview at RockPaperShotgun, Matt Higby the Creative Director for PlanetSide 2 said something that got me thinking about what the role of developers should be in terms of balancing classes. When talking about distinctive gameplay roles in PlanetSide 2, Higby stated the following,

Like a dude with a sniper rifle AND jump jets, who can now get to a place where no-one can take him out; that’s too strong.

My questions to Mr. Higby would then be, why not allow every class to use jump jets? What is the reason, other than the developers not allowing it, that other classes cannot use them? And not just jump jets, any weapon/utility combination. Set classes and weapons are fine for FPS where the action takes place on an instanced map that never changes, but for MMOFPSs that are trying to give gamers a more dynamic battlefield, why give them static classes?

Why not allow any class to use any weapon or skill combination and allow the players themselves to find a natural balance. Games like MW2 allow players to equip any weapons, skills and utility items they want to combine and create their own custom class and while MW2 is still simplistic when compared to some MMO games, I don’t see any reason why it shouldn’t be introduced into MMOFPS.

One can argue that even with complete freedom in class customization a natural balance will eventually form where players figure out the best combinations of weapons and skills to combine to create the best classes.  So the developers are removing that guess work and providing players with those best classes upfront. While I can see that point, I would much rather prefer the freedom to create my own class tailored to my specific play style than any premade class. What do you think? Should there be more class freedom in MMO games today?

During a press conference today, Square Enix announced Dragon Quest X Online, the first MMO title for the Wii as well as a first for the Dragon Quest series. What’s more is that it’ll be released on both the Wii and Nintendo’s upcoming Wii U console and will allow players on both to game with each other.

This will also be the first time that a Dragon Quest game will be developed internally by Square Enix instead of another studio.

Square Enix also revealed that there will be additional connectivity with the 3DS, possibly allowing players to transfer their characters to the 3DS for doing Spot Pass data exchanged while on the go.

DQX will be released sometime in 2012 with beta details being released soon.