Posted 05/31/09 at 03:40:33 AM by Nathan Grayson

If you think about it, all MMOs’ days are, in a sense, numbered  -- what with finite amounts of money for servers and all -- but The Matrix Online’s days have now hit the point where people actually care to count. In exactly two months, the periodically slow-moving MMO will finally grind to a halt.

“Now we’ve seen how far the rabbit hole goes and it’s time to wake up from that dream (or go back to sleep, depending how you look at it). On July 31, 2009, we will be jacking out for the last time. It’s a bittersweet moment for everyone involved with the game; as a player or as a developer,” said producer Daniel Myers on the game’s forum.

However, just because the world’s ending doesn’t mean everyone’s gonna stop their slow-mo chop-socky to kiss each other goodbye. Nope – this one’s going out with a bang, via an earth-shattering end-of-the-world event.
 
“The team will also be whipping up an end-of-the-world event,” Myers explained. “It won’t be quite the same as having over 100 developers in the game as Agents like when we ended beta, but we have 4 years of tricks up our sleeve. It’ll be a chance to revisit all the things that make MxO the memorable experience it is. And how could we pull the plug without crushing everyone’s RSI just one more time?”

Four years culminating in one day. If you miss this, you’ll probably regret it for the rest of your life – and then again when your life is recreated in a computer simulation run by robot masters that’d give even Mega Man the shakes. So yeah, jump on this while you have the chance.

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Posted 03/13/09 at 02:24:17 AM by Nathan Grayson

Big-name sequels charting well in their first month of sales? No way. Also clown-in-your-cake surprising is Fallout 3’s staying power (the game first launched in October!), for which we use the only portion of Left 4 Dead that didn’t also claw its way into the top 20 to give a hearty thumb-up.

Check out the full list:

1. World Of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King / Blizzard / $38 (Average)
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe / EA Maxis / $19 (Average)
3. Warhammer 40K: Dawn of War II / Relic / $49 (Average)
4. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest / Blizzard / $37 (Average)
5. F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin / Monolith / $50 (Average)
6. Spore / EA Maxis / $45 (Average)
7. World Of Warcraft / Blizzard / $18 (Average)
8. The Sims 2 Apartment Life Exp. Pack / EA Maxis / $20 (Average)
9. Fallout 3 / Bethesda / $47 (Average)
10. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack / Blizzard / $28 (Average)
11. Call Of Duty: World At War / Treyarch / $46 (Average)
12. Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3 / EA LA / $30 (Average)
13. Left 4 Dead / Valve / $46 (Average)
14. The Sims 2 Deluxe / EA Maxis / $3 (Averge)
15. Civilization IV / Firaxis / $21 (Average)
16. The Sims 2 Mansion & Garden Stuff Exp. / EA Maxis / $18 (Average)
17. StarCraft Battle Chest / Blizzard / $20 (Average)
18. Spore Creepy & Cute Parts Pack / EA Maxis / $18 (Average)
19. Diablo Battle Chest / Blizzard / $34 (Average)
20. The Sims 2 Pets Exp. / EA Maxis / $19 (Average)

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Posted 01/22/09 at 09:48:21 PM by Nathan Grayson

“Huh?! Oh – hello there. Sorry if we seem a tad shaken; we’ve been playing the newly released F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin demo, and the default control scheme must’ve jammed our pretzeled fingers right into an alt-tab. Guess we should have seen that coming after the first F.E.A.R.’s somewhat cumbersome default controls, but then, we can’t lean around corners anymore, so forgive us for our lack of vision.

Now then, we’re just going to hop back into the game and—hey! Is that crying? Oh my, we think it’s a little girl. And she’s all alone, her tears softly landing atop the spilled jars of strawberry jam she was clearly trying to sell. Talk to you later, everyone; we’re off to become some little girl’s hero!”

--Nathan Grayson (1989-2009)

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Posted 12/18/08 at 06:37:50 PM by Nathan Grayson

F.E.A.R. was, without a doubt, one of 2005's best first-person shooters -- deftly mixing balls-to-the-wall, head-exploding action with pee-your-pants level horror. Even better, its sequel, F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin, is poised to top its award-winning older brother in every conceivable way. We were lucky enough to engage in a quick email exchange with Craig Hubbard, F.E.A.R. 2's Principal Game Designer, and we're posting it here for you today. 

MPC: Is this the end of the F.E.A.R. story? Are we going for a trilogy?

Craig Hubbard, Principal Game Designer: As you’d probably expect, our immediate focus is getting the game done. Beyond that, who can say?

MPC: Was the story arc planned from the beginning, or has it evolved as it’s moved along?

CH: It evolved quite a bit, but that’s normal. What works on paper doesn’t always pan out when you implement it, so you have to make adjustments and do what’s right for the game. We also decided to take out the subplot about the unicorn who lost its horn. It was very emotionally resonant, but didn’t really fit the tone.

MPC: What’s the biggest problem you had with the original F.E.A.R.? How do you aim to correct it in the sequel?

CH: The biggest complaint people had with F.E.A.R. was that the environments were repetitive and bland. The sequel has much more varied and interesting settings.

MPC: Are you developing the game simultaneously for consoles and PC? What’s the game’s lead platform?

CH: The team knew how to make PC games but hadn’t done a console title before, so it was easier to ensure that decisions made for the consoles would work on the PC rather than the other way around. When the project started, we didn’t have our tech up and running on PS3 yet, so Xbox 360 ended up being the lead platform by default but we are still developing for all three platforms at the same time.

Continue reading for Hubbard's opinions on DRM, game engines, AI, and the British Empire. 

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