We’re heading towards the end of the year and the game releases just keep on coming. Luckily we have Wukung to give us the low-down on the new releases!

Don’t miss the games Wukung has already reviewed this year, including Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective, Dead Space 2, Kill Zone 3, Little Big Planet 2, Deathsmiles, Bulletstorm, Dragon Age 2, Duodecim, Crysis 2, Portal 2, Mortal Kombat, Final Fantasy IV: Complete Collection, Razer Onza, Alice: Madness Returns, Yakuza 4, LA Noire, No More Heroes, Duke Nukem Forever and Infamous 2 and Renegade Ops, Deus Ex Human Revolution, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine, Blood Rayne: Betrayal, Catherine, Arcana Hearts 3

You can see the full list exclusively on MMORPG Info » Wukung’s Reviews.

Gears of War 3 (Xbox 360)

Gears of War 3 is the finale to Microsoft’s “other” flagship shooter franchise. The changes to the game now reward – in fact they demand – remaining mobile in combat. In previous games in the series, the best strategy was often to stick to one covered position as much as possible. The campaign is well written, with well-paced gameplay. As is usual for the Gears of War games, there are a lot of set pieces but they flow more naturally into the game than before. As well as team death-match, there are some pure co-operative options for multiplayer. The campaign has four player co-op and Gears 2′s much copied horde mode returns with some major overhauls.

The visuals are still great but they don’t wow in the same way Gears 2 did for being so far ahead of the curve. The story closes off the trilogy and not only adds more depth, but also features a burly cast of characters that is no longer exclusively male.

While a wide array of tweaks add up to an improved game both in single and multi player. Unfortunately there are no real surprises and little that is new. However, true to the series form Gears of War 3 is a well crafted game that stands as a new high water mark for cover shooters.

9/10

X-Men: Destiny (Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, DS)

RPG/Brawler cash in on the comic book franchise. This game boasts dull repetitive combat, a poor story, meaningless choices and underwhelming visuals. Rather than playing as one of the many well known X-Men characters, you get to pick one of three new characters, whose mutant powers seem to include being an impossibly generic stereotype. The character that you pick changes some dialogue but has no real impact on the story. Power use is a fairly limited resource, leaving you stuck with the mindless combat most of the time. While combat is rarely challenging, some enemies and bosses can rapidly deliver cheap deaths, a problem compounded by incredibly bad checkpoint placement and tedious unskippable cutscenes.

Character customisation gives you a fair bit of choice in how to set up your secondary abilities. That is perhaps the only positive aspect of an outright awful game. If you were hoping for a game that lives up to the likes of the X-Men: Legends series you will be greatly disappointed.

3/10

Ico & Shadow of the Colossus HD Collection (PS3)

An HD upgraded version of two of the best PS2 games. Both of the games in this collection are utterly fantastic and still thoroughly worth playing.

Ico even as a fairly early PS2 game looks good but certainly not on par with the upgraded version of Shadow of the Colossus. It is one of the best examples of the unique potential for story telling in video games and remains in many ways unsurpassed for that even now nearly ten years from its original release. Its gameplay offers little which modern games haven’t done better but remains enjoyable. Ico was and is a beautifully crafted adventure.

Shadow of the Colossus benefits greatly in this version. The original version had quite possibly the best visuals of any PS2 game but that came at the expense of some frequent and severe frame rate dips. This time around it has a silky-smooth frame rate. The visuals are no longer cutting edge but they are still appealing and put to shame some current games. The gameplay shines through as unique and compelling despite some minor control issues.

The Ico collection is an example of how HD collections should be, not only giving the chance to play classics but taking the opportunity to improve the experience with smoother performance. If you played either of these games before you should need little convincing but they are both worth revisiting. If you have never played them then this is the perfect opportunity.

9/10

Rage (Xbox 360, PS3 (played), PC)

Long in development, this is a post-apocalyptic wasteland-wandering shooter/driving game from the makers of Doom. The two hub areas are not particularly large and seem to be primarily a back drop for other quests. The tasks which do use the hubs are one of the games weakest areas, consisting largely of courier quests: at one stage between the same two locations several times in a row. Self-contained, linear areas which focus on the shooter aspect are where the real gameplay is. With bullet sponge enemies, dull AI, poor and often outright misleading visual feedback, those shooting mechanics don’t hold up especially well.

The weapon switching deserves special mention for being particularly bad: the quick switching is fiddly, doesn’t pause the action and doesn’t reliably select the weapon you meant to. The alternative is to pause the game and use a clunky menu system which takes you out of the action. There are few automated check points, instead relying on manually saving which can be frustrating, especially as save times are not especially quick. My play through, doing all the side content I could find, came to about 16 hours: a reasonable length but taking into account the amount of filler, not a particularly big game.

The driving is a fun distraction and Rage’s much talked up technology produces some great visuals with solid performance despite major texture pop in issues (The other versions of the game suffer less from this issue). Crafting and special ammo give you a lot of options in play style. Rage isn’t really an open world game like Fallout 3 leaving it inhabiting the very crowded shooter market. Weak shooting mechanics mean it doesn’t stand out from the crowd despite its unique features.

7/10

Dead Rising 2: Off the Record (Xbox 360 (played), PS3, PC)

Off the record is an odd remix of last years zombie playground game Dead Rising 2 featuring more or less the same campaign but with the first game’s protagonist Frank West as the main character. Some missions are nearly identical with only minor changes but other parts feature some more drastic changes. There are some minor additions including a new area, some new items, combo weapons and a few tweaks to Fortune City such as changing locations of some particularly useful items. Off the Record also brings a new sandbox mode letting you explore the environment, complete challenges and rack up cash and experience for the campaign. Other tweaks include improved load times, a checkpoint system and setting active mission from a paused menus. While very welcome and definite improvements, they were poor omissions in the original Dead Rising 2. The difficulty of bosses seems to have been increased by giving them ridiculously short recovery times which is not entirely a change for the better. The moderately dreadful competitive multiplayer from Dead Rising 2 is omitted this time around but co-op remains.

Off the Record is very much a remix of Dead Rising 2 rather than a whole new game and it suffers from the same strength and weaknesses. With its budget price tag, it seems targeted both at new players and fans of the series, although the original version is in some ways a better entry point and was already available in a budget edition. If you played Dead Rising 2 and the idea of playing more or less the same game again is not appealing then there is nothing here for you. Still, I found Dead Rising’s mixture of zombies and insane weapons a lot of fun.

8/10

Batman: Arkham City (Xbox 360 (played), PS3, PC in November)

This sequel to Arkham Asylum expands the action into a section of Gotham City that has been turned into a super-prison. Arkham City itself is not an especially big sandbox but adds a much more open feel to the game, making it easy to get lost in the wealth of side content. Navigating the city is mostly handled by a combination of grappling and a much improved gliding system.

The freeflow combat system returns, although none of the additions made feel like a significant improvement. In contrast, the new tools available for the invisible predator sections add some interesting new options and the few gadgets missing this time around aren’t really missed as a result. Catwoman “episodes” are included as a downloadable extra with a code included in all new copies. These take place throughout the story and give a change of pace with some unique game mechanics. A respectably lengthy campaign, including a wealth of side content as well as a wealth of challenge maps focusing on freeflow combat and invisible predator gameplay add up to a very respectable lifespan.

Arkham City uses a much wider selection of Batman’s rogues gallery than the previous game, almost all realised in a way which fits perfectly with this distinct version of Batman, though yet again it’s the Joker who steals the show. The story is pitch-perfect, delivering some of the finest moments in Batman’s long history in any medium. This is helped by great performances from the cast, particularly long-time Batman and Joker voice actors Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill who both deliver their finest performances in their roles.

From start to finish, Arkham City is masterfully executed. It’s not just the plot and presentation that makes this one of the best representations of an iconic character. Moving through the city, watching groups of thugs and planning how to utilise the wide arsenal of gadgets available perfectly captures the essence of what has made Batman an incredibly popular and enduring character, in a way not possible in any other medium. But even more important than being a great representation of Batman, Arkham City is an exceptionally great game.

10/10

Posted by Wukung on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

It was initially the video of William Shatner “singing” Iron Man in a sound studio that made me aware that my life was about to change forever. But honestly, I still didn’t realise what was to come.

SF Signal: William Shatner’s New Concept Album of Space Jams

I like William Shatner and David Bowie for two very different reasons. So it is with mixed emotions that I bring you word of Shatner’s rendition of Bowie’s “A Space Oddity” on a new concept album called Seeking Major Tom.

Part of me is crying with joy. The other part is just crying.

Other songs on the album (available on Tuesday, digitally and on vinyl!) include Thomas Dolby’s “She Blinded Me With Science” and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody”.

Yeah, I think I’m crying. but in a good way. I think.
[Tentatively catgeorized under "music"]

But, it can’t be as weird as all that, can it? I mean, I’ve always loved Rocket Man and I thought his interpretation of Common People was pretty neat. So I admit it, I didn’t realise quite how bizarre this collection might get.

Either You’re Losing Your Mind or William Shatner Is Doing “Bohemian Rhapsody” | Tor.com

So this one time you were out with your special lady/ladfriend and wondering if there’s anything else out there in the universe besides humankind and instead of getting to make out, like, right there, WILLIAM SHATNER’S FACE appears in the sky and sings to you about how he’s just killed a man and doesn’t want to die and there’s a devil waiting for him.

And this is how madness gets you. You’re having a nice date then suddenly Shatner owns your brain. And it just happens.

We apologize in advance for the terror you are about to experience. But not for the thrill.

And my favourite comment from the Tor.com article by Ian Johnson in Santa Cruz, California:

Here’s a tip: if William Shatner’s astronomically huge head appears out of the stars and sings Bohemian Rhapsody at you, you either need more drugs or fewer. Scientists haven’t determined the right amount yet. In any case, you might be going crazy, so see a doctor.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Even though the official modding API hasn’t been introduced (at the time of writing) many people have produced mods for Minecraft. There are mods for the single player game and mods for the multiplayer game, this article will discuss some multiplayer mods.

The server plugin architecture I have used is Bukkit but there are a few others. I’m sure the others have similar plugins to the ones I have tried out. The reasoning behind trying each of these plugins was to add something to the game without making it silly, ie I disregarded “Everyone is Invincible and can fly and do what they like” types.

The first, iConomy, is important because it has links with other mods.

iConomy adds currency into the game. It keeps tabs of how much currency people have which is then used by other mods to allow payment. Linked with this was a mod I forget the name of which takes money from you when you die – you can set it up so it doesn’t drop you below a certain value, takes a percentage, takes a fixed value, etc. There are other similar ones but this is the one I used.

Jobs
This mod enables you to configure simple jobs which reward people with gold for doing them. An example would be to create a Lumberjack and give money each time they cut down a tree. People can gain levels in a job as well as money and you can limit the number of people on the server allowed a specific job (eg Make a Sheriff job and give money for killing things but only allow one person to have it). People can either have a number of jobs or be limited in the amount of jobs they have.

PermissionsBukkit
Lots of mods which do this which is to basically allow functionality of mods to specific people, so you could have someone joining the server not able to do anything (including destroying and placing blocks), you could allow an admin position and everyone with that rank would be able to do the various slash Job commands like give someone a rank (if you weren’t doing it automatically) and an op position which would allow all commands.

HeroicDeath
A ‘silly’ little fun plugin which displays a message to all on the server when someone dies about the method of their death.

mcMMO
This is similar to the jobs plugin but with a couple of differences. Firstly, you’re not defined by job, it just rewards you with exp and levels for doing things like mining, fishing, killing, etc. So far, Jobs is a better mod. However, what this does is to allow ‘supermoves’ based on your levels. By holding a tool and right clicking you activate the jobs power so with an axe you chop things instantly not just the block you’re hitting but others around it. With mining you can mine things faster and based on your level you have a chance of getting double materials from it.

Essentials
This is more of an admin mod which gives lots of slash commands like allowing teleportation to players, setting warps places you can then go to at any point, etc. To be honest the main thing I liked about the mod (and things I’ve now found other mods do, rendering this one a bit useless) is the things it does with signs. You can place commands on signs to allow people to right click them and trigger various effects. One is to allow people who right click it to gain an item, the sign acting like a chest but one which is never emptied. When linked with the iConomy mod though you can have places where players sell blocks to earn money and places where players can spend money to get items which would otherwise take a lot of faffing about (eg Diamonds).

Cookiez
Silly fun addon which makes zombies drop cookies instead of feathers

Stargate
A mod which allows the creation of portals which are linked to each other instead of linking to the nether. Portals can be linked just with each other or to a number of different ones (you choose destination by clicking on a portal sign). Again this can be linked with the iConomy mod to require a fee before use.

There were a few of other mods I’ve seen which I’ve not tried but look interesting, it’s quite overwhelming really. There is a temptation to try everything but I think that could ruin things.

For more information and to look at the other mods which are available, please visit http://forums.bukkit.org/forums/plugin-releases.17/ or http://dev.bukkit.org.

Posted by Talthinar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

It’s time again for a fast summary of games on the market right now so you know what you are letting yourself in for. Wukung reviews a wide selection of games including popular big name games and less-well-known releases.

You can see the full list exclusively on MMORPG Info » Wukung’s Reviews.

Renegade Ops (PS3, Xbox 360 (played))

This top-down shooter feels like a tribute to many classic arcade games such as Ikari Warriors and Smash TV… except in buggies. The twin stick controls are wonderfully responsive and speeding around blasting enemies can be a joy but but the game is mired by some serious flaws. Some enemies can do a lot of damage very quickly with some groupings of enemies causing very abrupt difficulty spikes. Clipping obstacles often leaves you trapped upside down for a few seconds unable to evade attacks, which was frustratingly my most common cause of death. The leveling and skill mechanic acts as a barrier to trying out different characters. It feels like you are too much at the mercy of random health and power up drops which can sometimes leave you seriously under powered for big chunks of levels. I ran into some technical issues such as audio popping during cutscenes, very occasionally levels not loading and glitchy triggering of objectives in online multiplayer.

The presentation is excellent, particularly the motion-comic style cutscenes. The story is nonsensical but still joyous for it’s sheer silliness. The in-game graphics are good and apart from very occasional brief bouts of stuttering, runs smoothly. The environments can be a bit cluttered sometimes making it hard to make out what is going on.

There are is no serious game breaking issue here but there are a lot of minor problems which pile up to get in the way of the enjoyment. Even so Renegade Ops‘ fast-paced action is a lot of fun.
8/10

Deus Ex Human Revolution (PS3, Xbox 360 (played), PC)

Deus Ex is a name that carries a lot of weight and Human Revolution definitely lives up to it. Nearly every challenge has multiple solutions depending on the style of play you want. The upgrade system is a bit harsh in the early game, front-loading the cost as well as an initial crawl in upgrades. By the middle, a well-rounded generalist effective at everything is very possible. An enthralling story and wonderfully realised world is let down a little by the final act. Despite the solid story, the highpoint of the game is exploring the hub areas and doing side quests.

The freedom of choice in approach is well played out but the gameplay for stealth, combat and hacking all have their issues. The inventory is a bit too restrictive and lack of storage options a glaring omission. The handful of boss fights feel very out of place and can be a frustrating road block or trivially easy depending on the ordinance you are carrying going into them.

Human Revolution surpasses the original and belongs among the canon of cyberpunk classics. Definitely one for those who accuse current games of being dumbed down.
9/10

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine (PS3, Xbox 360 (played), PC)

Space Marine gives you a chance to be the original super-human armoured elite. The game mixes shooting with melee combat. Health can be recovered from performing melee kills against stunned enemies. This works best in the early stages fighting hordes of weak enemies. The risk-reward mechanics don’t scale well against stronger foes later in the game, making relying on your regenerating shield often the better option. The run-and-gun shooting is fun if nothing special. The most spectacular moments in the game come from the ridiculously fun jump pack sections.

The campaign is a little short and the story not especially engaging. It gives a much more detailed ground level view of a well established universe than has been seen before. Space Marine captures the feel of being the legendary elite of Empire of Mankind, which is where much of the appeal lies. Fans of the universe will get the most out of this. However in its own right it is a fun and somewhat unique game, even if it lacks depth or longevity.
8/10

Blood Rayne: Betrayal (PS3, Xbox 360 (played))

Blood Rayne: Betrayal is the 2D downloadable follow-up to the long dormant series. Fast-paced combat is mired by some fairly serious control issues. The graphics are nice and the animation excellent but visuals are far too busy, making it easy to lose track of the action. This is even worse in the fairly frequent silhouette segments, set on dark backgrounds with dark foreground elements blocking your view, leaving you more or less fighting blind.

By far the biggest problem is the sudden jump of platforming difficulty that occurs in the latter half of the game and remains right through. The controls do not offer as much precision as is demanded and some very challenging sections have poor checkpoint placement. All of the boss battles are in their own way frustrating. The paper thin plot would not have been a problem in itself but certainly does not help.

While there are some good ideas here, the problems stack up to make this a very difficult game to enjoy.
5/10

Catherine (PS3 (played), Xbox 360)

Catherine is a mix of interactive story telling and puzzle from the team behind the Persona series of RPGs. The story is well told and beautifully presented. The puzzle gameplay involves pushing and pulling blocks in order to create a path upwards. There is remarkable depth to what initially seems a fairly straight forward block puzzle. The random factor added by some complications can be frustrating rather than feeling like adding a fair challenge. Overall though, the puzzle game is incredibly challenging, satisfying and compelling.

While some people will be put off the anime style, that is a shame. Catherine is unique, well crafted and thoroughly enjoyable game which should not be missed.
9/10

Note: Catherine is out in the US but not yet available in Europe. The game does now have a publisher and will likely be released later in the year.

Arcana Hearts 3 (PS3 (played), Xbox 360)

Fast paced 2D one-on-one beat’em up in an anime style featuring an all female cast. The anime style presentation of the all female cast will put a lot of people off. I seem to write that quite often with my love of Japanese games but many people will find Arcana Hearts 3 particularly objectionable.

The visuals are a little dated and a long way off the high mark set in sprite graphics by BlazBlue; however, the animation is slick. The combat mechanics have a great deal of depth and are heavily geared towards aerial combat and relatively easy to execute combos. The fighting styles of the roster are varied, supporting some very varied play styles. The game makes few concessions to easing new players into its unique mechanics. However, once you have a handle on it, the often heavily pressure play based combat is a lot of fun. For sake of rating Arcana Hearts 3 I’m going to set aside its presentation though this will be a major negative factor for a lot of people. Once you get passed that, there is great fighting game with a lot of depth.
8/10

Posted by Wukung on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

*swoon*

No comment necessary, eh?

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

MMORPG-Info had the pleasure of getting an invite to the Sega and Avalanche Studios launch celebration of the game Renegade Ops. Our heroes Tig and Aach attended to tell us all about it so we have two reviews for the price of one!

Tig:
The SEGA launch for their new release, Renegade Ops, was held in the unique surroundings of HMS Belfast, the WWII cruiser by London Bridge on the Thames.

Aach:
The basics: Entertaining top down two stick shooter for Xbox.

Aach:
Controls: Direct the vehicle with one joystick, direct the stream of bullets with the other, two special attack buttons which you can ignore and just race about blasting stuff. Easy to pick up and fairly easy to master.

Tig:
I suppose this must say something about the appeal of the game. Let me say now, it is not my genre but I had great fun zooming round like a lunatic playing split screen co-op mode with a friend.

Aach:
The game: I remember playing games like this more than two decades ago as a teenager in arcades (erm not that I hung about in arcades if my mum is reading this). The graphics and physics engine are better (better than great but short of awesome) but the basic game is to drive about shooting things, grabbing power ups and then shooting things some more. A nominal plot links bouts of shooting things but it can be safely ignored as a friendly red arrow shows you where to go and there are few cut scenes.

Tig:
The story arc is interspersed with graphic comic cut scenes but, to be honest, with this sort of game, you aren’t playing it for the story arc.

Aach:
The game-play is fast and fun. The whole thing has a graphic novel feel to it, particularly the back story and plot. All the nicely rendered friable buildings and vehicles look like comic art, indeed one of the characters is very reminiscent of Tank Girl.

Tig:
As a single player game, it’s not really my cup of tea: my play style leans towards MMOs and the odd first person shooter.

Aach:
The four characters each have special abilities, which are clearly designed to improve co-op play letting you stun a group, put up a shield or do area damage depending on your role. There are lots of upgrade options to pick from, I didn’t get chance to develop a character but it seems that you can get some improvements that shift the game-play a bit to keep things fresh. This obviously offers re-playability too as you can level up each character.

Aach:
The only let down is the AI which is rather predictable but this makes for a short learning curve so this will be a good party game. There doesn’t seem to be much like this in the Xbox catalogue and its arcade gameplay fits the console so much better than the standard first-person shooter formats. I might have been disappointed with this if it were forty quid. At a tenner it is well worth the price tag and you’ll be able to reach into a drawer and use it to entertain visitors for years to come as the style is timeless. If your friends get into it too then there are a lot of hours of game play in this package.

Tig:
Unfortunately, although the invitation promised a free copy of the game, I didn’t receive a copy. I would have given this a longer go to see if it could get me hooked.

The attendees did get a goody bag including a T-shirt, 4GB memory stick with promotional material for reference, a Renegade Ops dog tag, as well as a pen and notebook. Not bad loot for a single evening’s group, I’d say.

For more information, see Renegade Ops on the SEGA website.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

I’ve not paid a lot of attention to Dead Island after the Official Announcement Trailer on YouTube. It just seemed tasteless. I couldn’t be bothered trying to analyse my response but pats_quinade on LiveJournal has written up an interesting consideration of why the Dead Islands Trailer is kind of despicable.

So, really not my playstyle, no big deal. As a result, I don’t actually know much about the game. But thank goodness, there’s always Wikipedia for a quick introduction:

Dead Island – Wikipedia

Dead Island is a first person horror action-adventure video game developed by Techland for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360. It is centered on the challenge of survival on a zombie-infested open world island with a major emphasis on melee combat.

The game hasn’t had an easy launch in the U.S. and is apparently beset by bugs.

News : 2011-09-07 Dead Island Steam Update

Here’s the latest from us on Dead Island PC for North American users. We are deeply sorry for the inconvenience caused to fans who wanted to spend their day crushing some zombie skulls. Thank you very much for your continued patience and support and we are completely committed to ensuring that you have an excellent time with our game.

· First, the correct version of the title is now available on Steam and fans are able to download it now.

· Second, the day 1 patch notes in their entirety are below. Please note that this update may cause incompatibilities between the incorrect version of Dead Island that was released and the fixed version and cause a wipe on some saved data. However, we have a solution to help regain some quest progress: When the game opens, select New Game -> Select the same character as you were using before, and then there will be an option for “Chapter Select” which will allow the player to jump to the last chapter they were playing in.

· Third, Deep Silver plans to announce a “make up” to North American fans who were affected by the day 1 PC issues, stay tuned in coming days for those details as internal discussions are ongoing on our end.

· Fourth, the Bloodbath DLC is still on schedule as planned – fans who preordered the title will still receive the Bloodbath DLC when it launches (date will be announced shortly!) as stated previously.

· Fifth, we are aware of The Ripper activation bug which will not load as a result of the version update and this will be fixed in the next game patch, coming soon.

So, not a lot to see here, really. But as a result of the bugs, people have been looking at the code to see if they can see what is going on. Browsing the Something Awful Forums, it turns out there’s some interesting sub-text.

You can choose one of four characters to play, One of them, Purna, is a VIP bodyguard with an interesting backstory.

From the Purna – Dead Island Wiki we have the following description: “Purna is a former officer of the Sydney Police department. After losing her career when she killed a child molester who could not be touched legally because of his wealth and connections, Purna then turned to working as a bodyguard for VIPs in dangerous places all over the world. She is hired not just for her skills but her looks as wealthy men did not mind showing up with Purna on their arm.”

Sounds like an intriguing character, doesn’t she? It turns out, Purna has some interesting skills. Specifically, Feminist Whore skills.

You think I’m kidding, don’t you…

Apparently, Steam user AlekseiVasiliev was browsing through the files, looking to find out what he could tweak. When he took a closer look at Purna’s abilities, he noticed something unexpected hidden in the depths. He posted his findings to the Steam Users’ Forums:

Data0.pak\Data\default_player_setup.scr

Code:

sub Skills_Purna(){
	Skill("TeamSpirit1Purna");
	Skill("SharpApprenticePurna");
[...]
	Skill("TeamSpirit2Purna");
	Skill("FeministWh*rePurna");
	Skill("MeleeDurabilityPurna");
[...]
}

Note: in the file the skill is called “FeministWhorePurna”. The tactful asterisk in the middle was added by the poster.

Purna also has a “Gender Wars” skill which does 15% additional damage to male characters. Internally, the skill is called “Feminist”. Some have put forward that this was a partial renaming of the Feminist Whore skill but I don’t see it. And honestly, defining “Feminist” as “hurting men” is pretty screwed up all on its own, don’t you think?

According to Eurogamer.net, Techland are disturbed by the reports.

“It obviously violates professional and ethical standards at Techland and should never have happened,” Blazej Krakowiak, international brand manager, told Eurogamer. “We’re investigating this right now and we’ll issue a statement later.

“For now, I can only express my sincerest apologies for this incident and assure you that whoever acted so irresponsibly did not represent the views and opinions of Techland.

“I’m equally sure that aside from the author of that unfortunate line of code, everyone at the office is as disturbed by this as you are.”

I’m glad they acknowledge that it is inappropriate. Still, I don’t know about you, but I can’t see how only one person saw that skill-tree within the development team.

If you watch Purna’s Character Bio on YouTube, she’s clearly intended to show a “strong female” in the male-dominated FPS genre. This makes the code all the more upsetting.

I keep reading that women gamers are the big up and coming market but it’s disappointing that there are still so many game developers who see us as an alien race. Worse, who think that if we believe in ourselves it is damaging to them. It’s just … tiring. Not even the cash incentive of a booming games market seems to be registering on the radar of these guys.

TOP TIP: if you are looking to sell games to women, maybe you shouldn’t refer to your female characters as Feminist Whores, even “behind closed doors” where you don’t think it’ll be noticed. No charge for that one.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

This time last year a Neverwinters Night MMO was announced by Perfect World and Cryptic (previously, Atari was to be the publisher), as publisher and developer respectively. The game has had very little information released since that date, but a few key bits of information have been released.

Classes

It has been stated that there will be 5 classes, which, in keeping with typical Dungeons and Dragon’s roles, will most likely be Fighter, Barbarin (or Paladin), Wizard, Cleric and Rogue. No further information has been given on this matter.

The Foundry

Perhaps the most interesting feature announced as of now, is the fact that people will be able to design their own quests and dungeons, with traps, encounters and NPCs, among others, utilising “The Foundry” which will launch as part of the main game. No details have been given on whether rewards such as gold or experience will be available for these custom dungeons. You can see some (rather small) screenshots here if you are curious.

Backstory

The overarching plot of the MMO will be based off a trilogy of books by renown author R.A. Salvatore, with the first book, “Gauntlgrym”, already out. This should give player a rich story to go along with the rich city of Neverwinter, which has been in use in both the RPG games Neverwinter Nights 1 and 2, as well as the 1991 AOL MMO, by the same name.

Hopefully more details will come soon, as well as a release date, but until then you can keep track of the game and discuss it with other fans at the site and forum located at http://www.playneverwinter.com.

Posted by Conot on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

In Star Wars: The Old Republic, there are a wide choice of races, as well as races to combine them with. Although the restrictions or advantages are as of yet unknown, this promises to allow a lot of customization. From the information released, the race chosen will almost certainly affect your class.

Races

As very little is known about them at this time, this will simply be a short list of those that are so far confirmed for player use.

Human

- The most common race in the Star Wars universe, living almost everywhere, following all paths of life.

Twilek

– One of the trademark races of Star Wars, they sport a mostly humanoid body, other than their odd colouration and head tentacles, more kindly known as lekku. Known for being agile rather than strong.

Zabrak

– The pointy headed human-like race, often featuring facial tattoos. Best known for Darth Maul.

Miraluka

– A largely extinct people, they are most notable for their lack of eyes, as well as their heightened percentage of Force sensitive offspring.

Sith Pureblood

– The original inhabitants of Korriban, and the original Sith, dark force users. The leaders of the Sith Empire, and highly emotional. Most notable for their red skin and small tendrils.

Trandoshan

– Lizard-like hunters, strong and tough. Notable enemies of the Wookie people.

Rattaki

– Pale skinned humanoids, and proud warriors. Warlike and dangerous, they are feared warriors and assassins.

Gormak

– Mysterious tribal people, despite their apparent lack of technology, they are able to manipulate technology with uncanny skill. They also hate the Voss people, even if these feelings are not reciprocated.

Chiss

– A odd, blue skinned race. They lived in isolation for centuries, before joining the Sith Empire by choice. They are officially allied with them, but still have their own worlds and army, making them a unique entity within the Sith Empire. They are secretive, very little being known about them.

Posted by Conot on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Welcome to another fascinating collection of reviews by Wukung!

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Posted by Wukung on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.