And so ends yet another hectic week where I haven’t had much time to do anything remotely resembling blogging. Getting caught up now, since I have Fridays off to work on my own projects (thanks to my having a very understanding — and flexible — day job.)
Just a quick warning — the next couple of weeks leading up to SXSW are going to be uber-busy for me as my other site, Protagonize, is a finalist in the 2009 SXSW Interactive Web Awards (in the Community category.) My lovely fiancée and I are going to be flying down to Austin, TX on March 12th to take in the festival and participate in the awards show. And I’m going to be working like a dog until we leave, trying to get a bunch of last-minute major additions to the site in place in time for the show. Whew. Gonna be fun, though.
Either way, today I figured I’d talk about three intriguing looking MMOs that are coming up soon-ish (i.e. sometime this year) that you may not have heard of. I already discussed Champions Online in my last post, and most of you are already aware of SW:TOR (which is still a long way off) and NCsoft’s Lineage/Tabula Rasa follow-up, Aion.
Funnily enough, all three of these upcoming MMOs are first-person, which is a change from the 3rd person games we’ve been seeing of late, and there seems to be a heavy emphasis on sandboxed PvP across the board. None of them are what you’d consider triple-A titles, but they definitely have the potential to do well based on what I’ve seen so far. Let’s hope the hype translates into some good gaming.
I hadn’t heard about the following trio until very recently, so check ‘em out, bookmark ‘em for further reading, and sign up for their respective beta tests if you’re so inclined.
Mortal Online
Thanks to iWinButton for posting about this beauty earlier this morning. Mortal is another PvP-oriented, sandboxed, kill’em-all style MMO in the same vein as Darkfall Online. But the graphics are stupendous — reminds me of Guild Wars, except better; the best of the three games I’m listing here visually, to be sure.
Based on the game’s FAQ, the game is played in the first-person perspective, and they place a special importance on social interaction between players, realism (well, as far as you can get in a fantasy MMO), and you’ll-wet-your-pants-and-run-away-screaming PvP. The game is level-free and skills-based, which seems to be a new trend in the PvP-focused genre, and is apparently supposed to be very “player-controlled”, which could really mean anything, but the FAQ suggests a world that changes dynamically based on player actions.
Mortal Online is due for release in Summer, 2009. A public beta test probably isn’t too far off.
Global Agenda
Global Agenda is something Keen raved about earlier this month that I signed up for afterwards. Here’s hoping I get into the beta.
The game itself is an MMOFPS not unlike a next-gen Planetside, but with what the FAQ describes as a “Spy-Fi” theme as it consists of “action, intrigue and future technology.” Interestingly, the setting is unlike most MMOs we’ve seen of late — it takes place completely on Earth, although sometime in the future, meaning that you’re probably going to be playing an “advanced” human character. Or not. Who knows. :)
If you’re into spies, sci-fi, PvP, and a player-controlled world (notice that term again?), Global Agenda looks to be the game for you. They focus much more on the RPG/character development-side of things compared to most MMOFPSes I’ve seen in the past. The game is (currently — and this is hearsay) scheduled for release in late 2009, and is currently in closed alpha testing. You can pre-register for the beta, too, if you’re up for it.
Fallen Earth
This post-apocalyptic MMO set on Earth in the year 2156 (or 2154, depending what you read) will probably remind most folks of the Fallout franchise. Of particular interest here, based on the ubiquitous FAQ, is that six different factions will struggle for dominance within a specific province of the world, and your character will develop to align with one of them. Like Global Agenda, this is an MMOFPS, combining first-person shooter action with traditional RPG elements.
It was announced that the game was ”feature complete” late last year, and launch is currently estimated for “Q2 2009″, according to MMORPG.com. Not sure how reliable of a date that is, but that’s what I’m hearing. Down with mutants and nuclear fallout? Then sign up for the Fallen Earth beta here and get in line.
Looks like 2009 has a lot in store from a new release perspective, after all. I wonder if this year will be the year we see a new heavy-hitter born from among the smaller, lesser-known players in the industry?
Have you heard of a new MMO that reroller should be checking out? Let us know and we’ll be sure to put together a preview/feature if it looks interesting!
1 comment
I’m currently playing an (sort of) MMOFPS (third person view is better for environmental awareness) on the side of Warhammer:
AirRivals.
It’s an air combat MMO where you pilot “Gears” that look like arcade spaceships if you see what I mean.
Let me tell you, although the grind is inevitable for a free Korean MMO (complete with upgradable weapons for which you will farm bosses/money/pvp points but its not that bad honestly as there are missions to do that give LOADS of experience), the PvP is a BLAST. Never had that much fun in PvP before, high-speeding to pursue your enemies and shoot missiles at them.
PvE is actually a challenge because (depending on your gear choice) actually hitting mobs can be tough as they have special maneuvering abilities and the AI is decent.
The graphics aren’t that special (although gears looks like the coolest spaceships I’ve seen) but the game really shines when you battle for strategic points and Motherships where 200+ players engage in crazy dogfights where you really have to have twitchy fingers and instinct/reflexes to be successful.
The game is free and downloads in less than an hour so if some of you guys want to try it while waiting for those MMOs to launch…