Slashdot Mirror
Matrix Online Ship Date Announced
B1-66ER writes "Matrixfans.net has a report on the launch of TMO. 'Sega of America's new massively multi-player online game, Matrix Online, now has a ship date set. That date is January 18, 2005. The release date change from November is to coordinate the US launch with the European publisher.'"
The library of "things to ponder on while stoned" just got bigger.
Stoned 1: Dude, what if we're *in* the computer.
Phil Undergrad: No dude, wait.. what if we're in the computer that's actually the Matrix!
Sober Guy: What if we're in the Matrix and we're playing a game that's *another* matrix.
Stoned 1: Whoa.
Phil: I need Fritos.
Stoned 2: Dude, don't turn off the PS2!! You'll kill everyone!
It looks like an interesting game - a continuation on many levels of the movie where you can interact with whomever you're interested in. e.g. the machine world or Zion etc... I haven't really gotten into mmorpgs, maybe this will be a good start.
(Sponsored by cheeseSource for President 2012)
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
Let's just hope the MMORPG isn't as terrible as Enter the Matrix was.
"I make people like me... WITH VIOLENCE!" - ATHF
I would've thought they'd be giving the pre-order/beta testers a better special ability than this sounds like...
Kinda like the various AIs from previous Matrixes, especially since the beta testers are going to help the newbies a lot when the non-preorder customers first log in.
If you watch the Animatrix (and consider it to be part of the Matrix canon), you'd realise that humans were just as brutal as the machines were, what with the machine slaughter & war on Zero One and all. Agent Smith wanted to destroy *everything* - the machines and the humans. In the end, the machines *weren't* the greater evil, simply because they were willing to compromise and sue for peace. Smith was not willing to do so.
Condemnant quod non intellegunt.
Let's pretend I'm in the beta, not saying that I am or not. Let's also pretend that I tried the game out.
I'm not quite sure HOW this game managed (if I played it) to be so horribly outdated considering the last movie came out last year. I mean, if I saw something like the graphics in the game (if I saw them) I would think I'm playing a combination of Neocron and PONG. Because that's about where I'd place them. On an ATI Radeon 9800 pro.
Bugs, bugs more bugs, horrible HORRIBLE framerate (if you're graphics suck so much, how did they manage to drop the framerate so badly? it's supposed to be sci-fi not magic and swords). Medicore gameplay, unbalanced issues and a tank load of other things (that could or could not be in the game at this moment).
Unless there was some magic pill THEY were taking to whip this game up to speed in the time span of 4 months, I can't see this game getting past the bargain bin.
Credentials (games I've played/playing)
- Anarchy Online
- Neocron
- Rubies of Eventide
- World of Warcraft
- SWG
- DAOC
- Ultima Online
- Shadowbane
- etc, etc, etc
If I knew anything about this game and was in beta and tried it out for a full week before uninstalling it, I'd say don't buy it...ever. Looks to me (IMHO) like Blizzard are the only people out there without their head up their ass in terms of realizing people are pretty sick of the bullshit and unfinished games most MMORPG companies have been piling on. Latest release of Anarchy Online expansion was a TOTAL waste considering nothing was actually AVAILABLE upon release (and some stuff STILL isn't).
Some of this is reported directly within the three films, the entire story is unambiguously explained in peripheral films such as the Animatrix. So while you might initially think that the film is about machines who enslave the human race, you're starting with a premise that isn't the whole story.
Specifically, the machines want peace. By the end of the third film, that is obvious.
Smith is a threat to both the humans and the machines, two warring groups neither of whom are, by themselves, "evil". So, yes, Smith is the greater evil. And Neo isn't just saving the machines, he's saving humanity, most of the remnants of which are hooked up to The Matrix and likely to be destroyed by Smith.In essense, you believe the series is dumb essentially because you didn't understand it. That's fine, people don't, the deeper (or is it pseudo-) theological and philosophical aspects of it are, for the most part, beyond me too. However, you're making a mistake in what you criticise about the film - a master story teller would have told the same story better, not told a better story.
What you probably need to do is view the following anime films that tell the rest of the story, if you're actually interested. Neither of them were made by the Wachowskis (though the story, obviously, was written and approved by them), so, as you might expect, they're actually quite a bit better:
You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
becaues it required credit card. What's up with that? Did anyone had this?
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
It seems that whatever cache that the Matrix once had has long since been squandered. The 2nd and 3rd films were largely disappointing. "Enter the Matrix" sold well, but was universally panned.
This game's being developed my Monolith, who have always been something of an also-ran. They're always behind the curve technologically and gameplay has never been quite good enough to garner strong enthusiasm (though the NOLF games had some really funny writing).
On top of that, the Matrix is a bleak world that has always been depicted as stark. Ultimately, it's an empty universe and players will be playing this as characters who know that it isn't "real". What's the bloody point?
If there are people excited about the game, I'm interested in hearing what they're looking forward to and what they expect to distinguish it from other MMORPG games
companies generally don't let beta software available for public, as people might get turned off by bugs/things-to-be-worked-upon and cause bad publicity
So unless there are some huge extremely-hard-to-crack problems that the developers stumble upon, I am sure 4 months (may be only 3 before going gold) would be pretty good time for ironing out minor problems and polishing the game.
I'm at my wit's end ... a few months ago, in a matrix discussion here there was a link posted to a very old (Commodore 64?) computer game which was pegged as having a hideously similar premise.
ie. you play a character who discovers that he's in a computer game.
Anyone know WTF I'm talking about? I've been searching for it to no avail tonight.
We can neither love nor pity nor forgive. If you make a slip in handling us you die!
That doesn't look good at all for this game. Like others have said, a huge game on a 5 year old movie is not a great idea - especially when the last tastes we had of the movie were 2 sub-par films and a shoddy video game. And before anyone says that Star Wars is over 20 years old and SWG is doing okay, remember that Star Wars was a part of our childhood. The Matrix was a fun movie many of us saw in college - but it ended there.
Don't be surprised if you don't end up OFF the beta for breaking the non-disclosure agreement you made with the developers upon accepting the beta invitation. Don't worry, it won't be ME that turns you in, because I couldn't care less what you guys do...but someone else probably will.
I'm sure there are a lot of problems that need to be ironed out with the game, and it wouldn't surprise me at all if that were the REAL reason Matrix Online was being delayed. Yes, I'd prefer if they'd actually say that was the reason, but I know that won't happen. But, I'd much rather wait and play a decent game than buy a game full of problems. No game is ever completely devoid of issues, but I'd rather have a delayed game with a few fixable flaws than an on-time game with nothing but flaws.
And, for all these people complaining about the fact that the game is based on a 5-year-old movie franchise...well, the Star Wars games are based on a 17-year-old+ movie franchise, which also had disappointing installments (Episodes 1 and 2, anyone?). So, what exactly is your point? There's more of the Matrix story to be told, and that's what this game is providing for its fans. If you don't like it, don't freaking play it. Stop bellyaching and harrassing people who might be interested in it.