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Quakecon07: Announcement Round-Up
Wow, that was a packed keynote!
During today’s QuakeCon keynote John Carmack unveiled a flurry of announcements including id Software’s newest franchise, Rage, and confirmation of a Return to Castle Wolfenstein movie. They also told the crowd that the new Wolfenstein game is being developed by Raven Software for the PC, 360 and PS3. The mutiplayer portion of the game is being worked on by Threewave Software.
Here’s the breakdown:
id Software’s New Game Unveiled
Quake Zero Announced
Quake Arena Headed to XBLA
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Dated
id Forges Deal with Valve
Hollenshead Talks Wolfenstein Movie
Orcs & Elves II Hits Mobile this Holiday
PS3: Warhawk Gets Date and Price
Everyone’s favorite game developer Dylan Jobe just hopped onto the official Playstation Blog to announce both the date and the price(s) for the Warhawk. The game will go on sale in stores and on PSN on Aug. 28. The game will sell for $39.99 online and $59.99 in a store. The boxed version will come with some extra video content a manual and a Jabra Bluetooth headset.
Jobe points out that the game, while multiplayer only, is quite robust and says he feels it can easily deliver more than 70 hours of enjoyment. Most beta testers logged more than 30 hours and many more than 70.
Finally Jobe announced that the top 100 player in the beta are going to be receiving a fancy, very limited edition metal Warhawk Wings pin.
Warhawk Goes Gold [Playstation Blog, thanks Freneil]
Game Club: Mr Robot Assignment Two
Oooops, I almost forgot to post this. I’ve been so busy with Kahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhn! That I nearly forgot we need to know what to play to in Mr. Robot for our meeting next Thursday. This one should be fairly easy. Just play until you get through the Cryo level and return to the holo deck. I’d like to think it won’t take 11 hours this time around, but I don’t dare say that. See you then.
The Mr Robot Discussion Part 1
Day Note: BrianCon
To: Ash and Flynn
From: Crecente
Re: Bashcraft on Japanese TV, Hates It
TV you say? I think you did fine on the GameHead stuff and I never noticed the reek of vomit in the room after you were done so I’m going to assume you never spewed either. You’ve got to make sure and send me the vid when it hits tv.
Man today was busy. We had three conventions to babysit, both remotely and up close and personally. McWhertor headed out to BlizzCon to cover all things WoW and Starcraft II (and unfortunately no things Diablo-ish) and I sat at my computer doing phone interviews, emailing and basically doing what I could to try and keep a handle on the news and info pouring out of QuakeCon and Fan Faire. Someone needs to talk to these companies about spacing some of this stuff out.
What you missed:
BlizzCon
QuakeCon
Fan Faire
Ready at Dawn Snags Naught Dog creative type
The Optimus Prime case mod
Len Wiseman may direct Gears Flick
Totilo, so brainy….braiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiny
Stranglehold was pricey
Heavenly Sword dated, but sadly, not by me.
Oh, I forgot to mention last night, but the first Game Club meeting went swimmingly. I really quite enjoyed myself. Flynn, make sure to keep an eye on the various cons as they run through the weekend. I’m outtie…mostly.
Clips: Rage
Here it is, your first look at id’s Rage using their new id Tech 5 engine.
Fanfaire07: The Smed Talks to Fan Faire
John Smedley is at Fan Faire talking to the masses about the past, present and future of all things Sony Online Entertainment. I’ll be remote liveblogging it for those of you too lazy to watch it yourself.
Hit the jump to follow along.
The Denver SOE guys are talking up Legends of Norrath right now. Check out our feature on the in-game online trading card game that is free to Everquest players.
OK, now they’re showing two SOE Denver guys playing the game. Keep in mind this will be a free game to Everquest and Everquest II gamers. Cards for the game will show up as loot drops as you play. Loot drops in the card game will also occasionally give you the occasional Everquest items. I think this is a really cool idea.
Looks like they’re having some technical issues with the game. Wait a second isn’t it supposed to launch today? Ah, actually they will be beta testing starting tomorrow with a soft launch next week, allowing attendees to play the new game online. The best part? All beta cards and dropped loot earned in the beta can be kept.
Annnnnd the video stream just crapped out.. or maybe it’s over. Man, that was short.
Feature: Everquest’s Online Trading Card Game Unveiled
I had a chance, last month, to meet with Sony Online Entertanment’s Denver studio and check out their now-announced online trading card game: Legends of Norath: Oathbound.
The Legends of Norrath game is based on the worlds of Everquest and Everquest II and, in an interesting twist, will be playing inside both of the massively multiplayer online games at in-world taverns and such.
Oathbound, the first set in the Legends of Noorath game, has more than 350 virtual cards in it and comes in both 60-card starter decks and 15-card booster packs. The Oathbound set was designed to tell the story of the servants of the Tribunal that rules the Plane of Justice. These masked and hooded servants swear an oath to Justice and must help preserve the balance between Order and Chaos.
The SOE Denver team did several things to try and distill the essence of Everquest into a viable online trading card game. Chiefly they went with the Everquest II model of using archetypes rather than classes. The first set has four.
In the game you control an Avatar which can summon up creatures, use items and cast spells. Another of the game’s unique twists is that as you play your avatar gains experience. As you gain experience the actual attributes and text of the avatar changes. Of course you can always play several different avatars, working to level each up.
The game has two ways of winning. You can either take out your opponents avatar out in the tradition card game way, or you can complete your four quests. At the beginning of each round, the players place one of their quests on the table. As soon as you complete any four of your or their quests you win.
As you play through a match you can either choose to take the path of good or evil, based on the sorts of cards you play. As you continue to use one type of card or another, your half of the playing field starts to change and you get bonuses playing cards that match your field’s alignment.
On top of what appeared to me to be a rather sophisticated and interesting take on online trading card games, The Legends of Norath will also come with a single-player campaign. As you play through this campaign you can build up your avatar and earn reward cards for use in play later on.
While the thing that initially most interested me was the idea of playing an Everquest Online Tradiing Card game inside of Everquest, what ended up really captivating me was the look of the cards the SOE team showed me.
The art is very reminiscent of the sort of art used to convey the Everquest games, but not the kind found in the game. In other words, it’s not computer graphics, its quite beautiful art.
When I last spoke with SOE, they idea was to launch the game today with the announcement at Fan Faire. The game will be free for Everquest gamers but booster packs will sell for $3, while starter packs will likely run for $9 to $10. And with 70 unit cards alone, there’s going to be plenty to buy.
The devs also tell me that the game will include loot drops, loot that will sometimes be cards but will other times be actual items used in either Everquest or Everquest II.
Most interesting is the fact that the game engine, designed from the ground up by SOE Denver, has the potential to support many other types of in-game, MMO-themed card games in the future. So expect to see a lot more of this if things work out.
Personally, I kinda like the idea of sitting down in a tavern to play a deep card game with another player. But I am a big nerd.
Quakecon07: Orcs & Elves II Hits Mobile this Holiday
At the end of the QuakeCon keynote Todd Hollenshead had Katherine Anna Kang, founder of Fountainhead Entertainment, take to the stage to show off a bit of Orcs & Elves for the DS.
After a bit of play, she announced that Orcs & Elves II will be hitting mobiles this holiday.
Quakecon07: Hollenshead Talks Wolfenstein Movie
While not totally finalized, Todd Hollenshead confirmed with me today rumors that id Software has indeed licensed the film rights to an adaptation of Return to Castle Wolfenstein and that Roger Avary will both be writing and directing the movie.
“We are super excited to have Roger Avary attached to the project,” Hollenshead told me. “I met personally with Avary and he has an enormous amount of enthusiasm for the project. That makes us incredibly excited. Movie projects are tough unless you have a really good writer and we want this to be great.”
When I mentioned the mixed reaction to the Doom film, Hollenshead first said he loved the movie but then went on to say that they always want to take their previous experiences and “learn to do things better.”
Before penning the deal, id folks met with the studio to agree to some “creative guidelines” for the upcoming picture.
“We want to make sure things like BJ is the hero, it’s set in World War II and the Nazis are the bad guys,” he said. “But a movie does need to be different than the game, so there is going to be some changes made.”
He added that id will stay involved in the project as the movie is being made and technically, the deal is still in the works. id just wanted to get the word out there during their annual Quake Con.
Quakecon07: id Forges Deal with Valve
Looks like the rumors are true, id and Valve have decided to partner up to sell all of id Software’s library, well almost all of it.
Todd Hollenshead told me today that that all of (well like 99 percent of) id Software’s games from Commander Keen on up to Quake 3 will now be sold on Steam. The distribution deal also includes a mega pack, that lets you download all of those games for $70. Or $60 if you use the $10 discount code given out at QuakeCon today.
The games should be available now on Steam. Hit the jump for the full list of games and packs.
id GAMES on Steam
• Commander Keen, Episodes 1 through 5
• Wolfenstein 3D
• Spear of Destiny
• Return to Castle Wolfenstein
• Ultimate DOOM
• DOOM II
• Final DOOM
• DOOM3
• DOOM3: Resurrection of Evil
• QUAKE
• QUAKE Mission Pack 1: Scourge of Armagon
• QUAKE Mission Pack 2: Dissolution of Eternity
• QUAKE II
• QUAKE II Mission Pack: The Reckoning
• QUAKE II Mission Pack: Ground Zero
• QUAKE III Arena
• QUAKE III: Team Arena
• Heretic
• Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders
• HeXen
• HeXen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel
• HeXen II
id PACKAGES on Steam
• DOOM 3 Pack: Includes DOOM 3 and DOOM 3: Resurrection of Evil
• QUAKE III Pack: Includes QUAKE III Arena and QUAKE III: Team Arena
• Wolf Pack: Includes Wolf 3D, Spear of Destiny and Return to Castle Wolfenstein
• DOOM Pack Complete: Includes all DOOM games released by id
• QUAKE Pack: Includes all 8 QUAKE Titles available on Steam
• Heretic\HeXen Pack: Includes Heretic, Heretic: Shadow of the Serpent Riders, HeXen, HeXen: Deathkings of the Dark Citadel, HeXen II
• Id Super Pack: Every id game on Steam
Select packages are 10% off until August 10.
Quakecon07: Enemy Territory: Quake Wars Dated
Enemy Territory: Quake Wars will be hitting the PC on October 2, id Software announced today during their keynote at Quake Con 2007.
Now word yet on when the title will be shipping for the PS3 and Xbox 360. One more reason to save up your money for this fall.
ID SOFTWARE CONFIRMS LAUNCH DATE FOR
ENEMY TERRITORY: QUAKE WARS (WINDOWS PC) AT QUAKECON 2007
Santa Monica, CA - Aug. 3, 2007 - Gamers in attendance at QuakeCon 2007 were rewarded with a special announcement when id Software and Activision, Inc. (Nasdaq: ATVI) unveiled that Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars™ Windows PC will be on EU store shelves on September 28, 2007 and North American store shelves beginning October 2, 2007. The game, which is in development by Splash Damage, pits the armies of Earth’s Global Defense Force (GDF) against the invading alien Strogg in the multiplayer strategic shooter that transports players to the front lines of an epic new war for Earth.
Offering the ultimate in objective-based multiplayer action either online or offline with bots, Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars is set within the expansive QUAKE® universe in the year 2065. Gamers choose to play as the human GDF or alien Strogg in one of five unique character classes. Employing an arsenal of weapons, vehicles and deployable armaments, players engage in an action-packed test of skill and coordinated teamwork through a series of combat objectives. Persistent character growth and achievements reward players for teamwork, while clearly defined mission and class objectives guide new players to meaningful contributions on the battlefield.
Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars is also in development for the Xbox 360™ video game and entertainment system from Microsoft (Nerve Software) and the PLAYSTATION®3 computer entertainment system (Activision Foster City).
Enemy Territory: QUAKE Wars has been rated “T” for Teen by the ESRB.
Quakecon07: Quake Arena Headed to XBLA
Speaking with id CEO Todd Hollenshead earlier today, he told me that Quake Arena is currently under development for a release on the Xbox Live Arcade. Pi Studios will be working on the port.
Hollenshead said id was very pleased with the Xbox Live Arcade version of Doom and that he had a lot of fun playing it.
“It was amazing, sales were incredible,” he said.
Quakecon07: Quake Zero Announced
During today’s Quake Con keynote the id folks announced that they have a team of developers working on a little pet project called Quake Zero.
QZ will be a free web-based version of Quake 3 multiplayer. Todd Hollenshead told me they decided to kick off this project for several reasons. First and foremost, id hated to see their game, once quite popular for online matches, losing its prominence in the online gaming scene, this will allow virtually anyone with a computer to play matches of their games.
Hollenshead said id also wanted to dip their toe in in-game advertising, and that this seemed like the best way to approach it. So expect ads to be running on the web page when you play Quake Zero,but free games for ads seem absolutely fine to me.
Quakecon07: id Software’s New Game Unveiled
John Carmack today announced id Software’s new franchise, Rage, a game that blends the best elements of action and adventure built on id’s new id Tech 5 engine and developed for a simultaneous launch on the PC, Mac, PS3 and Xbox 360.
Todd Hollenshead, CEO of id Software, walked me through what to expect from the game and the Quake Con presentation earlier this afternoon.
“It’s more than just a first-person shooter, we will show vehicles and racetracks, driving and racing elements,” he said. “It is an action-oriented game but with a lot of adventure elements. It will be story driven, but you can also choose your own route to go through things.”
The game’s basic story is one centered around an oppressive “machine” you are rallying against. While the game, which id has been working on for more than 18 months, will still have indoor and outdoor shooter elements, it will also have plenty of racing including some road rage and the ability to mod and soup up your vehicle.
While Rage will be the first game to launch on id Tech 5, that doesn’t mean that id has ruled out future versions of their exiting franchises hitting the new engine, Hollenshead said.
“We haven’t made the decision that that’s not going to happen, it just isn’t internally.” he said. “We’ve been helping out with Quake 4 and with Enemy Territory: Quake Wars, but we wanted to do something new and different and get everyone’s creative juices flowing. That’s the impetus behind this. id is a studio that has the ability to launch new IPs and give people something new and not have to swim as much upstream.”
While the fact that id Software is working on an entirely new franchise is exciting, the big news, Hollenshead said, is the engine the game is running on an engine that can allow a developer to create games for the Mac, the PC, the Xbox 360 and the PS3 simultaneously by using identical media for all four platforms.
“Rage looks the same on all four platforms. It’s all the same media, it’s the same art, literally” he said. “It’s damn hard to do that, but if you’re a genius you’ll figure out how to do it and that’s what (Carmack) has done.”
The brief tech demo of Rage shown at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference was running at 60hz on the Mac, something it will do on all platforms without any discernible difference, he said.
Typically when a game is being developed for multiple platforms, Hollenshead said, you have to lower the resolution for different platforms, or have less stuff in the environment going on. But with id Tech 5 there is no changes in any of the versions, Hollenshead said.
“That is huge, you don’t have to have a second, third development team working on your different ports,” he said. “For instance with a game based on a movie license, where you are tied to a specific launch date, previously you had your problem platform and you would put 150 people on it to get it to work. There’s no need for that with id Tech 5 as long as you are prudent with your production management.”
I asked Hollenshead about the whole furor surrounding Unreal’s engine and accusations that it doesn’t work as well with the Playstation 3. Hollenshead acknowledged that the PS3’s architecture does have some interesting challenges, but said they figured them out. id brought on one of the top PS3 programmers in the world to help with the design of the engine from the beginning.
“From a architectural standpoint, (id Tech 5) was intended from the beginning to be a multiplatform engine,” he said.
While id Software plans to eventually license their new cross-platform engine, that probably won’t happen until closer to the end of this year.
Quakecon07: “Major News” Coming at QuakeCon Soon
Expect to hear some news in just a few from the QuakeCon Keynote. id Software CEO Todd Hollenshead and technical director and co-founder John Carmack will be taking the stage for the back-to-back press conference and keynote address.
“We look forward to QuakeCon every year as an opportunity to have a great time partying and playing id games with our fans,” said Todd Hollenshead, CEO, id Software. “QuakeCon’s continuing popularity is a credit to the dedication of our volunteers and grass-roots support of sponsors and exhibitors; and the fans’ enthusiastic and passionate response to our big announcements is inspiring.”
Check back to read the news and our interview with Hollenshead.
Clips: WoW’s Wrath of the Lich King Trailer
Here it is, in all of its glory the first official trailer for the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion pack Wrath of the Lich King.
Warth of the Lich King [Blizzard]
Blizzcon07: More Lich King, Seige, Death Knight Deets
The Games For Windows folks have posted some more details up about the upcoming Wrath of the Lich King that was verified earlier today during BlizzCon 2007.
The September issue of Games for Windows will have a blow-out on World of Warcraft expansion pack, but here are some interesting details:
The Story
Having cleaned up Outland (or at least having set things in decent enough order for now), the Alliance and Horde turn their heads northward to the continent of Northrend, where a terrible threat has gone unchecked for far too long: that of Lich King and his undead army, the Scourge. On the day Wrath of the Lich King launches, players will be able to set sail from various points in old Azeroth and join the fight against Arthas Menethil.
New Continent: Northrend
Having learned a valuable lesson about funneling 8.5 million players into once single starting zone with The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King lets players pick a zone on either side of the continent to start from: Borean Tundra in the west or Howling Fjord in the east. Each zone has level-equivalent quests (appropriate for approximately level 68 through 72) and one Hellfire Peninsula-style instance hub with multiple dungeon wings for level 70 characters, level 80 characters, and raiders. While Northrend immediately calls to mind ice and snow, Blizzard doesn’t want to make those themes dominate Northrend completely-expect as much variety as ever, only not quite as weird and wild as Outland.
Northrend’s indigenous inhabitants include a Viking-like race called the Vrykul: 15-foot-tall humanoids with a strong Norse influence. Most Vrykul you encounter will be your enemies, as they’ve been in Northrend so long that the Lich King holds a lot of sway over them. Another friendly race — the walrus-like Tuskarr — will serve as a cute little counterpoint to the lumbering undead-loving oafs.
New Zone Type: Outdoor PVP
One of Northrend’s 10 new zones (final count still tentative) is an outdoor PVP zone that introduces the concept of siege weapons (Meat Wagons, Steam Tanks, etc.) and destructible buildings. Blizzard describes the outdoor zone as basically a “non-instanced Battleground” where completing objectives earns world-wide bonuses for your side (Think Spirit Shard buff in Auchindoun instances). The PVP zone is entirely avoidable (if you’re the carebear type), and seige weapons won’t be useable outside their designated PVP area.
New Hero Class: Death Knight
World of WarCraft’s first Hero Class is a plate-wearing tank/DPS hybrid that works a little something like this: When players hit level 80, they’ll be able to embark on a quest (similar in difficulty to the Warlock’s epic mount quest, back before the level cap was raised to 70) that unlocks the ability to create a Death Knight character. The Death Knight starts at a high level (somewhere around 60 or 70, though Blizzard isn’t certain yet), so you won’t have to grind your way back up all over again. It’s intended as an alternative, advanced class for end-game use only.
Rather than using rage, energy, or mana, Death Knights have a special “rune sword” displayed beneath their health bar, onto which the player can etch six different runes (choose between Frost, Blood, and Unholy). Different abilities require different mixes of runes, and using abilities consumes the requisite runes until a cooldown timer causes them to be available again. Stuff like talents, spells, and other specifics are still being finalized. So are key questions like what races can be a Death Knight (start a Gnome petition now) and whether unlocking the Hero Class on one server means you can create a Death Knight on any server.
New Profession: Inscription
Wrath of the Lich King will introduce a new profession called Inscription that will let players customize individual spells and abilities in their spell book — to change the cooldown timer on a Fireball, for example, or alter the crit rate of a healing spell.
There’s lots more in the upcoming September issue of Games for Windows: The Official Magazine, on sale in the next couple weeks, including candid insight from the developers, details on some of the new dungeons not shown at BlizzCon, and word that The Burning Crusade ain’t over yet…there’s more BC content coming beyond Zul’Aman.
Kahhhhhhhhn: Because We Con, Con, Con
Today and the rest of the weekend is a wee-bit convention heavy. We’re simultaneously covering the 2007 QuakeCon, BlizzCon and Fan Faire. The news seems to be chugging along pretty steadily, so if you want to track just what’s happening at your con of choice click the appropriate link below, or you can just catch them as they hit the main page.
Fanfaire07: The Kotaku Fan Faire Foto Stream
Mail your Sony Online Entertainment Fan Faire photos to pics@kotaku.com and they will automagically appear in this photo gallery. Make sure to put FanFaire07 and only FanFaire07 in the subject line so they show up in the right place. Also, anything you put in the body of the message, besides the picture, will show up as the cutline. And yes, I will be checking each and everyone before it goes live. So no goatse! Not even elven goatse.
Soe: Fan Faire 07 is Live
Lest we forget, Sony Online Entertainment’s Fan Faire is officially underway in Vegas. Yes, slots and COS-Player elves… be still my heart.
Today kicks off with a live Star Wars Galaxies event, an EverQuest Best of the Best tourney and a sneak preview of Pirates of the Burning Sea. The day will also be home to plenty of MMO-inspired goodies including the Bazaar and Phat Lewt Store, the Legends Lounge, a silent auction, some sneak peaks at The Agency and others and plenty of time to mix and mingle with the people you spend most of your virtual life with.
Tonight wraps up with a community address from SOE President John Smedley who promises to announce some “top-secret” new products. So check back for our ongoing coverage and hit the site this evening for news and images about the new products.
And if you’re attending don’t forget to send us pics from the event!
Fan Faire [SOE]
