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DC Universe Online To Launch January 11th
Sony Online Entertainment has announced that their long-awaited superhero MMO DC Universe Online will be launching on January 11th in the US and January 14th in the UK. The game will be available for Windows and the PlayStation 3. Massively recently wrote up their impressions from the beta test, and a preview at The Escapist said this of the combat: "Based on my early experiences, the action of DCUO is a lot of fun. You can lock onto targets, but there is no auto attack button. To take down enemies, you must click a button to punch or fire a ranged attack. The brawler-style action feels like a wham-bang comic book. Scenery is not just difficult terrain; picking up barrels and tossing them at your foes is sometimes necessary for tough encounters. Leveling up your skills unlocks combos, with varying effects that can interrupt enemies from pulling off that devastating fire breath or stunning punch. ... The only downside with such frenetic combat is that the keyboard and mouse interface isn't really conducive to all this action. It's hard to follow up nine short left clicks with a long right button click. While I was visiting SOE's offices, I was able to play with a PS3 controller, and this control scheme was preferable."
Or, you could just buy a joypad for your PC? I have one somewhere that is very similar to a PS controller.
Of course I now have a PS3 and no Windows machines, so I know what I'll be doing.
which is totally what she said
Let me tell you my thoughts form the beta:
The game is clearly designed as and plays like an arcade game made for a console; one that happens to have other people running around playing the same arcade game. Every once in a while you need/want to get some of these other people to join you in what you are doing. For the most part though I preferred to play it alone; which is not good considering theis is supposed to be an MMO. Also, the controls are clearly designed for a gamepad including limits on how may powers / attacks you have access to (at any one time – as in you need to swap thing in and out at times) due to the limited number of buttons on a gamepad. So my preference for mouse and keyboard was a liability for the game.
So from my perspective of wanting MMORPG that works well with a PC it is something to avoid. So much so that I canceled my per-order. Basically I was hoping for a better version of CoH set in the DC Universe. But what i got was a piss poor port of a console arcade game with a monthly fee.
Who'll win?
Couldn't one just get a Bluetooth dongle and use the PS3 pad itself?
I feel your pain. There is a part of me that really wants to play this game, but after the fiasco that was SWG, I have zero interest in ever giving SOE money ever again. The only thing I can see about this that looks good is that it will pull a lot of "shiny new toy" players away from cataclysm and maybe make it so that every single PUG doesn't end in the tank and/or heals don't get in a huff and quit half way through.
Yes, or just use it with a USB cable.
In a What if... episode Batman takes on Superman, and for all of Supermans strength, Batmans wealth and intelligence allows him to form a pair of gauntlets made of green kryptonite and procedes to beat the shit out of him lol. You can always use other plausible examples like Superman destroying the core of the earth, thus destroying the earth and as consequence destroying Batman. Or perhaps he just drops a building on Batman while he sleeps lol.. in fantasy almost any scenario is possible and if you look at Grey Hulk, or Onslaught everything is possible.
When you dislike the human race as much as I do, Karma:Bad is inevitable lol.
If it was done any way close to how Square did FF XIV did their control schemes then run away from this... FAST!
I've got boots of escaping! *flees*
Bye!
I thought most MMO's flopped eventually, and it so happens that Star Wars was no exception. Pedigree doesn't save a game that isn't fun and MMO's are hard to make FUN for the number of people that have to like it in order for the game to keep on going successfully.
Bye!
I suppose some people might want to do that, but the point is that with the PC you should be able to use any input system you can buy or even create yourself.
It's really dumb to say it's better playing on PS3 just because of the controls.
which is totally what she said
This game is so great! But the gameplay on a PC is subpar... You should definitely buy the specialized hardware that we just so happen to be selling!
I don't see why you'd need specialized hardware.
There've been console to USB adapters for various controllers for years now if you really wanted to use an official controller. Or you could just use an Xbox360 controller, which work fine on computers. Or you could buy one of the many gamepads available for computers.
"Work is the curse of the drinking classes." -Oscar Wilde
there are a lot of mmos that havent flopped. and swg didnt 'flop' in the normal sense as you put it, like in 'eventually'. it flopped, with the true sense of the word.
Read radical news here
no other company could so grandly flop a mega merchandise like star wars.
Maybe you missed the fact that perhaps nine out of every ten SW games for the past three decades have stunk to high heaven, regardless of who was involved. I've lost count of the number of SW games I've seen in that time, but I can probably count the good ones on the fingers of one hand. It's apparently a prime target for the "bang out a piece of tat and cash in quick" labels, probably because the guy behind the license has no objections on quality so long as there's a profit in it.
your numbers are off, and youre shooting out of your ass. you have said THREE decades. 30 fscking years. that saw a lot of games from x-wing, tie fighter, to x wing vs tie fighter, x wing alliance, rebellion, dark forces, jedi knight, kotors, star wars republic commando and many more. what you have said maybe can pass for the last decade.
EVEN with that, still, the FIRST and so far the only star wars mmo, is not a 'one out of many' star wars games. it is THE star wars mmo. it was properly hyped, properly advertised, and it had huge attendance at its launch, and there wasnt even wow to go around.
flopping that required dedication, and soe had it.
Read radical news here
Usually Sony has not caught on to the fact that MMOs aren't "done, now ship them and cash in" games.
They've released a version for a console. This will make updates and expansions *much* harder than if there was only a PC version. So it looks like your answer is: no, they haven't caught on at all.
I'm going to disagree with the interface evaluation- I actually like it quite a bit on the PC side with the mouse/keyboard set up, and to me that was preferable to the PS3 interface. I could use hotkeys and the mouse combos, which is my preferred playing style, and I thought it worked great.I agree with some of the commentors that the menu interface is a bit clunky, though.
I'm an EQ2 player, been so for like 4 or 5 years.
Do they advertise EQ2 on TV? No.
I think they might in gamer mags, but I don't know, I don't read them anymore (too many of them are just paid advertisers these days, no real reviews or unbiased reports. Plus i'm totally sick of the bullshit hype they do).
But when it come to advertising, Sony sucks big ass donkey balls and always asks for seconds.
Not to mention, sony couldn't even do Free to Play correctly for EQ2. You know, instead of bring new peeps into the already existing servers (that they had to merge recently because of lack of players), they make a new fucking server for it. So, now you have a bunch of noobs, on a free to play, but damn, you better pay out your nose for market shit, server. If the peeps decide they like the game and want to pay for a subscription, are they really going to want to leave the server they were on and made friends on for a normal eq2 server? No, they won't.
Let's discuss Star Wars Galaxies. You know, where sony was in charge and they made it so becoming an jedi was so easy it made the hardcore players quit?
DCU would be best served by anyone other then having Sony as there sugar mom.
Now me, personally, i'm waiting for Champions Online to become Free to play in january. Why? Because I'd like to have a superhero MMO that I can play on occasion. I don't need another subscription for a game I won't find that interesting. Would I spend money for stuff? Probably. I do with DDO even though I don't play that game that much. I'd rather spend $10 every few months then $15 every month.
Be seeing you...
I'd love a game that played like Freedom Force as an MMO. I remember creating X-men vs the Hulk scenarios and ending up with entire city blocks leveled. Of course you would need to instance battles like that but how cool would it be to have Superman hit Doomsday into a building which collapses, Michael Bay style, all around him? Throwing cars at flying heroes to know them out of the sky...
City of Heroes had some knockback but nothing like Freedom Force's epic combat.
>>Couldn't one just get a Bluetooth dongle and use the PS3 pad itself?
Yeah. I've been playing it on the PS3 with the controller. It works fine, though dealing with a lot of powers is kind of a pain.
It really feels more like a brawler game than an MMO, which has some real appeal.
On the downside... it's the DC Universe. The Villain campaign is especially black and white ("Doing Good is an affront to Trigon!" says random NPCs), and poorly written.
usually I'll fanboy for Sony, but...
Yeah, after SW:G and EQ2...
God I almost feel like setting fire to my PS3 adn Bluray player.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Finally, dust off my original PS3 for this game. The only way that the PS3 controls are superior is if that they let you customize the inputs. Customized inputs should be required for all console games.
For every benefit you receive a tax is levied. - Ralph Waldo Emerson
I've played 2 characters into the beta, albeit not very far. I've played quite a few MMO's, the most important being City of Heroes and Warcraft. I'll also say that I love DC comics, and I'm a huge fan of Superman and Batman ( as well as others). This game just isn't doing something that distinguishes itself from the pack. They could have chosed a more comic-like interface, instead it feels like an all too familiar MMO. They could have chosen a different combat system or more creative powers, but it feels recycled. Maybe it feels a lot better on the PS3, but this is one game that will most likely never be installed on my PC once it goes live.
On the downside... it's the DC Universe. The Villain campaign is especially black and white ("Doing Good is an affront to Trigon!" says random NPCs), and poorly written.
"And pleasing Trigon is good, and doing good is bad, so we should displease Trigon by doing good to do bad which is good which is bad.. aaaaiiieee! "
The enemies of Democracy are
The Xbox 360 wired controller works pretty well for DCUO. I bought a controller for some of my GFWL games and found it to work well with Champions Online. For DCUO, you'll have to largely ignore the onscreen PS3 button prompts and do a bit of trial and error, but the gameplay works well. Overall I like this game, but feel it's just missing something. I see no chance to knock down buildings, nor do I feel like I have to worry about property damage or that my actions matter. The game world would benefit from phasing so that my actions have results I can see. As it is, I complete my tasks and am told to move on while the chaos around me continues unchanged. I like the fighting combos and counters. You can block, learn moves to overcome blocks, learn moves to counter attacks, and modify your travel powers into comic book movement based attacks. The game need another year or two of polish, but its fighting does feel nice.
Will there be an open beta? I know FilePlanet subscribers could play it, but they haven't opened it for non-subscribers like previous games. :(
Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).