This Week in Gaming - July 23rd
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23 Jul 2012, 16:52
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News
Each week I plan to cover the past week's latest news surrounding the world of gaming, including major tournament results, headline gaming news & headlines and notable games releases and updates. It's been over 6 months since I've written this and Crossfire is a very different place right now.
Gaming News
The Steam sale has ended and for some of you who've made purchases, you might not be looking to buy any more games any time soon. The good news then, is that the moba Heroes of Newerth's heroes have gone entirely free. No longer able to compete with runaway competitor League of Legends, HoN has seen its numbers continue to dwindle in the shadow of the increasingly popular Dota2. In an attempt to stem the tide, S2 games announced that there would no longer be any costs associated with their hero-pool, meaning new players would have a full roster choice available to them when starting. To those who still play HoN, who perhaps pre-ordered the game 2 years ago and are still a tad scorned about the early access hero implementation, this is great news, but to the vast majority of those within the moba genre this is simply too little too late.
The Arma II mod, DayZ, has been taking the online gaming community by storm and now boasts over 700,000 active players. These numbers haven't gone unnoticed, and it was a matter of time before a new developer tried to muscle in on some of the action. So let's meet War Z, a new zombie survival MMO just announced by Hammerpoint Interactive. The game appears to boast more RPG style elements, such as a skill system, customizable characters, item selling, and bounty-setting - while sacrificing some of the more realistic (and brutal) elements that make DayZ such an immersive game.
Competition is never a bad thing, and it's entirely possible that War Z's mere presence will aid DayZ, but aside from being a similar genre, it's unlikely that the DayZ market is there for the taking. The game appeals to a very exclusive niche, a niche of real gamers who want what only DayZ can offer, and a niche which is all too tired of the simplifications and dumbing down of gaming in general (I'm looking at you, League of Legends).
eSports
This weekend just passed saw the MLG SC2 Summer Arena take place. Hosted at the MLG studios in New York city, 32 of the best Starcraft 2 players battled it out for $26,400 over the 3 day tournament. Such is the swing of SC2 in 2012, the foreign players fell round by round, leaving a host of Korean players in the top spots - only French Zerg Stephano managed to reach the top 8.
In the end it was the Terran,
Liquid'TaeJa, who took home the gold, beating his old friend and former-teammate SlayerS'Alicia in the Grand Finals, 4:2. Far be it from me to speak for the SC2 community as a whole but in the interests of prolonging SC2 as a major eSport the foreign scene needs to get their act together and begin competing again, as the ongoing Korean dominance only serves to hurt the viewing figures of this potentially great competition.
Gaming News
The Steam sale has ended and for some of you who've made purchases, you might not be looking to buy any more games any time soon. The good news then, is that the moba Heroes of Newerth's heroes have gone entirely free. No longer able to compete with runaway competitor League of Legends, HoN has seen its numbers continue to dwindle in the shadow of the increasingly popular Dota2. In an attempt to stem the tide, S2 games announced that there would no longer be any costs associated with their hero-pool, meaning new players would have a full roster choice available to them when starting. To those who still play HoN, who perhaps pre-ordered the game 2 years ago and are still a tad scorned about the early access hero implementation, this is great news, but to the vast majority of those within the moba genre this is simply too little too late.
The Arma II mod, DayZ, has been taking the online gaming community by storm and now boasts over 700,000 active players. These numbers haven't gone unnoticed, and it was a matter of time before a new developer tried to muscle in on some of the action. So let's meet War Z, a new zombie survival MMO just announced by Hammerpoint Interactive. The game appears to boast more RPG style elements, such as a skill system, customizable characters, item selling, and bounty-setting - while sacrificing some of the more realistic (and brutal) elements that make DayZ such an immersive game.
Competition is never a bad thing, and it's entirely possible that War Z's mere presence will aid DayZ, but aside from being a similar genre, it's unlikely that the DayZ market is there for the taking. The game appeals to a very exclusive niche, a niche of real gamers who want what only DayZ can offer, and a niche which is all too tired of the simplifications and dumbing down of gaming in general (I'm looking at you, League of Legends).
eSports
This weekend just passed saw the MLG SC2 Summer Arena take place. Hosted at the MLG studios in New York city, 32 of the best Starcraft 2 players battled it out for $26,400 over the 3 day tournament. Such is the swing of SC2 in 2012, the foreign players fell round by round, leaving a host of Korean players in the top spots - only French Zerg Stephano managed to reach the top 8.
In the end it was the Terran,
Liquid'TaeJa, who took home the gold, beating his old friend and former-teammate SlayerS'Alicia in the Grand Finals, 4:2. Far be it from me to speak for the SC2 community as a whole but in the interests of prolonging SC2 as a major eSport the foreign scene needs to get their act together and begin competing again, as the ongoing Korean dominance only serves to hurt the viewing figures of this potentially great competition.
how so?
also lol at war Z XD
Foreign players are carried by their personalities, not their skill (HuK and Idra are two of the most popular players in the world and neither are amazing these days). If Huk played vs. Idra in a Grand Final, the commentators could create a huge narrative for the game, the players themselves are as much of a story as the game, but when the final is Korean #1 vs. Korean #2 (TeaJa vs. Alicia in this MLG for example), there is almost nothing to discuss about the players and the commentary revolves solely around the gameplay. Sometimes that's fine, but generally there needs to be more to create a compelling competition.
The day that Korean players develop personality is the day that the foreign players are truly screwed.
Personally I'm not that bothered, but I'm a huge SC2 nerd and I want to watch the best players at the highest level, but I don't represent majority of the viewers. If the audience isn't engaged in who is playing then they're less likely to care about the result.
EG is atm the most succesfull team marketing wise and their actual players are all doing anything but good.
wow where did I stay this last 10 years
Sc2 probably different for the moment - but once the prizes start increasing a lot and the pops are higher with the new Sc2 release is on the horizon so more players will come into the scene & bigger game exposure = more money etc.
http://greatfrag.com/newsquake/1171-cooller-retires-from-esports.html
:o
shit footballers like barton earn that in a month. how shit
There's no map, no directions, no objective (ok you can actually pick up a map, but it's shit) so what you do is up to you. Where you go is up to you, but you often don't know where you're going. If you play alone then you're kinda fucked because you might die to zombies (they don't hit for much but you start without any weapons so they'll slowly kill you).
So ideally you want to group up, but then if you group with a stranger you don't know whether to trust them or not - if you kill someone you can take ALL of their possessions. The guy who you've met in the woods has an AK-47 and some medical supplies ... you only have a pistol and he has his back to you ... you going to kill him and take his shit? If you do then you're alone in the woods and you don't know what else is out there ... and firing your gun just made a huge bang and everyone else (players and zombies) in a huge area around you heard your gunfire and know you're there. But if you trust him, what if he shoots you in the back? Reasons like that are why it's popular.
You dont play DayZ for the gfx, engine blah blah blah. You play it for the experiences and immersion. Every time you get shot at in DayZ you heart skips a beat and adrenaline gets pumped into your veins by the gallon. Its hands down the best game Iv played since ET and Red Alert 2.
I made a little video/trailer the other day of our adventures.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gfculjtKOs
You can tell by the reaction of my squad mates when they see other players its a big deal haha.
or if u leave a server, will it be saved then if u join another time or other server?
also, is it only possible to play it online if u buy the game?
If you leave a server then you can join another one and be in the same position, just as you were before.
Yes, it's an online only game.