Ever wanted to track down, hunt and kill every human being in the universe? Ever wanted to break every fraking cylon toaster or skin-job for what they have done to the original Earth or Caprica? NBC and developer Bigpoint will give you that chance this fall.  On SyFy.com, the new browser-based MMO game will be launched with a free 30-day trial.

Players will be able to choose to be Human or Cylons, and the game will be a blend of tactical space combat, exploration, and mission-based gameplay featuring 3D graphics directly in your browser. Assets from the television production will be integrated into the game to deliver an even more authentic experience.

Anyone else as fraking excited as I am for this?

What is LEGO Universe really about?

In the universe of LEGO, something is causing a maelstrom to rid the universe of its imagination.  It is up to every LEGO good spirit to rid these evil LEGO spirits by using more imagination.  Launching this year for PC only, LEGO will launch an MMO like no other.  I know that sounds cliched but it is a type of MMO that I have never seen before. Reason being is that the only MMO I have ever played was World of Warcraft.

But the idea of a MMO game where there is no leveling caught me off guard.  I didn’t know what to expect from LEGO before the exclusive presentation I was invited to.  The whole point of the MMO is not to “level up” your character but to “level up” your imagination by completing quests and collecting different LEGO bricks, mini-fig parts, and special LEGO accessories.

Create your own universe

With all these collected LEGO bricks you can build custom in game items or you can bring it into your own private property and build your own LEGO land.  Just like what you would do in real life. This was one of the main features of the game that really caught my attention. You buy bricks, build a model and play in it in your home.  With this private property you can build anything you can imagine and invite your friends to play in it.  Build a house, build race cars and a race track, or even build puzzles for your friends to figure out.  Again, the only limit is your imagination which is what the LEGO brand is all about.

More from my meeting with LEGO Universe at CES, screen shots, and a trailer after the break.

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Manga: .hack//Alcor
Story by: Amou Kanami
Art by: Izumibara Rena
Publisher: Tokyopop
Age rating: T (Teen age 13+)
Genre: Action/Fantasy
May include: Mild violence & mild fanservice
Release date: December 2009

.hack//Alcor is the story of Nanase, a teenage girl who plays a really popular online game called The World. While playing this game she falls in love with Silabus an incredibly nice guy who, interestingly enough, is her Guildmaster. How typical, right? Unfortunately, Silabus seems more interested in a female player called Alkaid. But he’s not the only one. Why is that? Well, she’s the undefeated Arena Emperor. In other words, she’s BADASS!

Nanase realizes after a while that, on top of being jealous of Alkaid, she’s also been unconsciously trying to copy her in every possible way. But Nanase doesn’t have the skills to compete. What should she do to get Silabus’ attention? (more…)

Facebook has certainly taken the world by storm and created dozens of time sucks for demographics ranging from tweens to empty nesters. Facebook learned early on to open up their architecture for developers and suddenly hundreds of click based games appeared along with fundraising and even more ways to connect.

Team Ohai followed this architecture and created the click based games called Vampires/Zombies/Slayers/Werewolves. The objective of the games are simple, recruit as many of your friends as you can to become a more powerful being while ranking up and fighting your way to the top of the leaderboards. This is fun to do however it becomes a bit daunting because of the repeated amount of clicks you must perform day in and day out with resulting in little momentum of skill levels. (more…)

I'm Awesome

Here we are again, a day late thanks to some technical issues, but here regardless, to discuss, bash, praise and poop all over some stuff happening in the MMO world.  Two come to the forefront this week.  As you’ll recall from the past week, we’ve been dealing with Blizzard and their lack of follow-through on their Warcraft Twitter contest.  There has been some updates and potential closure on that issue as well as some other things happening in Azeroth.  Warhammer has fallen on tough times, it seems.  I stated previously that I was going to hop into the game, and see what was what with the new patch and if it fixed the glaring issues destroying the core of the game.  Read on after the break! (more…)

In this new gameplay trailer of the upcoming MMO, All Points Bulletin, you can see the 2 main ways you will die.  Bullets and cars.

Finally.  An MMO that steps up the character customization bar.  APB (All Points Bulletin) is an upcoming MMO for PC based in urban sprawls and featuring two sides, Enforcement and the Criminals. In the video above, you can see how much and far you can go with your character.  And for the pervs out there, yes.  You can customize your breast size, just like Total Recall.  Another piece of customization is your ride. You can customize its paint job and decals to your hearts desire.

The only downside of all these customization options is that, will MMO noobs or casual gamers be overwhelmed with it or embrace it with open arms.

Star Wars The Old Republic, the better Star Wars MMO, is shaping up to be one of the better looking MMOs with a few things we’ve never seen on any existing MMOs out in the market today.

One of the special features in SW:TOR is the ability to change gameplay based on the dialogue you use.  Just like the Mass Effect franchise. Depending on what you say or how you act could effect the number of enemies you fight or the types of enemies you fight.

Another special feature is that it is the first MMO to use actual voice actors for all of the dialogue in the game.  That’s gotta be hundreds of hours of sound data.

And finally, a cover system during blaster battles.  You can hide behind a tree, wall or rock. Just like numerous games out there.  But this is definitely a first for an MMO.

Bioware took this game to a whole new level that made me VERY interested and opened my eyes. Enjoy the video above to see what I mean.

Download this Episode

In this episode, we make fun of Nelson.  Then Nelson fails and we make fun of him again.  Then we talk about stuff, like:

• Blizzcon
• The Hilton Parties at Blizzcon (but who cares?!)
• My impressions of Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3
• Joe the Peacock talks about MMO addictions and his experiences
• District 9 impressions
• Sony PS3 Slim
• making fun of Nelson.

Some notable links from this episode

• Fark
• Fark
• Second Skin (An MMO Documentary)
• WoWDetox
• Fark

I used to “play” EverQuest.

For those who don’t know what EverQuest is, think of it like the 1998 – 2002ish equivalent of World of Warcraft. It was the first 3D Massively Multiplayer game out there, taking the elements that made MUDs and Ultima Online and making them into polygons, thus sucking you in in a way you’ve never been sucked in before.

Now, for those of you who might get that these are “games”, but don’t understand what “playing EverQuest” actually entails, and you don’t play WoW or know anyone who does, let me enlighten you:

To play EverQuest was to spend 8-10 hours a day sitting on your ass, pressing arrow keys and clicking a mouse as you steer a virtual you around a world filled with bad guys who cough up gold and items. As you acquire new items (say, a pretty stick), you show other people who run around this virtual world your new pretty stick, and they get jealous and go out in search of a new pretty stick like yours (or better). Meanwhile, someone else will show you their pretty stick, and you get jealous and go out trying to find one like theirs (or better). You get one, and show your friends, and their cycle starts all over again; meanwhile someone else gets a better stick and shows you and your cycle starts all over again.

Of course, there’s more to it than that. Sometimes, it’s a pretty earring; sometimes a shiny robe or new shield. But essentially, that’s all the fuck it is. For 8-10 hours. A day.

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