DCUO- will be out November 2. Can apply for beta on main site now.

[UnSub]

Hmm, if its already getting pushed back to 2010, I believe we will see holidays 2010 or early 2011.  It seems more complete than that now, but something will come up. 

"It seems more complete that that" exactly how? The single area of Metropolis they've polished for public showings? With pre-generated characters because player generated characters aren't yet possible?

Sorry, but I'm really waiting until all info about DCUO (and ChampO for that matter) is released to really judge how well it is going to work. Just looking at demos is never going to cut it.

[schild]

With pre-generated characters because player generated characters aren't yet possible?

Hmmm, what?

[AutomaticZen]

With pre-generated characters because player generated characters aren't yet possible?

Hmmm, what?

I believe UnSub is referring to the fact that like ChampO's early demos, they're running the same couple of characters over and over.  Pre-made characters who are built to use the powers they have feature complete for demo purposes.

[schild]

With pre-generated characters because player generated characters aren't yet possible?

Hmmm, what?

I believe UnSub is referring to the fact that like ChampO's early demos, they're running the same couple of characters over and over.  Pre-made characters who are built to use the powers they have feature complete for demo purposes.

I can assure you, having seen and done it myself, that player generated characters were possible AT THE VERY LEAST, before last October.

They use pre-generated ones publically to keep things simple and fast.

[UnSub]

With pre-generated characters because player generated characters aren't yet possible?

Hmmm, what?

I believe UnSub is referring to the fact that like ChampO's early demos, they're running the same couple of characters over and over.  Pre-made characters who are built to use the powers they have feature complete for demo purposes.

I can assure you, having seen and done it myself, that player generated characters were possible AT THE VERY LEAST, before last October.

They use pre-generated ones publically to keep things simple and fast.

They might be possible, but they really haven't been showing that feature at all. Even to journalists who get more time on it in private back rooms. If it did work, they may have changed it now to fit with other design changes / system additions.

Everything I've seen has said, "Our char gen will be awesome, but it's not done yet".

[schild]

They might be possible, but they really haven't been showing that feature at all.

Not might be, it is. I have sat at SOE and done it.

Even to journalists who get more time on it in private back rooms.

Gaming doesn't have journalists.

[Draegan]

I'm pretty sure I saw character creation at NYCC.

[Venkman]

You did. Full character creation, ability choosing, all that has been in for awhile. The demonstrators are just using characters they already know how to play well enough to show the hey-check-out-how-I-kick-ass functions.

Yes, March 31st is the end of their fiscal year, I should've been more clear, sorry.

Ok cool. And yea, only wanted to know because them saying "2010" could be Fiscal 2010 which means it could actually be this summer. I've never actually used fiscal year in normal conversation but am surrounded by people who do it so often they forget the average person wants to know when something is available, not when it'll appear on financial statements for tax purposes 

[Velorath]

Ok. So SCEA is in Fiscal Year 2010 as of April 1?

Yes, March 31st is the end of their fiscal year, I should've been more clear, sorry.

March 31st is the end of their fiscal year, but they'll be moving into FY 2009, not 2010.

[Falwell]

It looks like the stage demo for DCUO on Gamespot got nixed but TTH has one, and it's from the villain's perspective..

http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69230

Holy fuck do they need to work on the animations.

[UnSub]

Bland generic promo trailer.

Flying within an instanced mission - pretty ordinary animations. Features Batman.

Throwing things - watch metal bounce like rubber.

Boss fight - really looks like you mash the buttons until the boss falls over. Features Superman, who won't shut up.

I know it is the DC IP that brings most of this title its power, but it seems you can't do a mission without tripping over a major DC character.

[Nebu]

I think that the industry is getting the idea... that there are people tiring of WoW that may be looking for something new.  The rude awakening comes when these ex-WoW players give your game a shot only to discover that they miss the streamlined and well-crafted experience they got from WoW.  Blizzard has raised the bar and anyone offering a new title should be aware that players will no longer settle for slapped-together-wanna-bes, even if they are dressed in a new shiny.


Forgive me for repeating what others have said for some time now. 

[Malakili]

It seems that the promo guy seems to use "action oriented combat" to describe what I would like to call "button mashing combat"

[Grimwell]

I'll base what I say only upon that which was available for the E3 audience - none of this is from the inside:

If you are mashing buttons, you are doing it wrong. It may look like that, but it does not invoke my button mashing madness (mainly brought on by DOA) when I'm playing.

[Redgiant]

Why does the presenter harp on DC celebrity characters showing up in-game all the time? Yeah, we know that. My guess is that is mainly a marketing nugget against CoX, and for the DC nosepickers who debate the color of Batman's underwear. But they won't survive on subs from just those types.

No amount of "ZOMG it's Superman... again" can save crappy gameplay. I don't care how many famous characters grace my screen. It all comes down to how it plays.

I am not saying this doesn't look promising. I like what I see. It just scares me when someone harps on something so much; it is often a sign of "Hey look over here" instead of at the fist coming at you.

[Kageru]

Looks very much like it would be a bit of fun that fades quickly due to repetition and shallow gameplay. I'm not sure this will worry the CoX guys as much as the champions online developers who are very much aiming at the same space with an infinitely weaker IP.

[UnSub]

New DCUO competition:     

Who's your DCUO BFF? Tell us and WIN!!!

Who is your DC UniverseTM Online Best Friend or Best Foe? Send us a 30-second video telling us and you could win some great DCUO items.  The two winning entries will receive a Lex Luthor in Power Armor poster signed by Jim Lee and the DCUO Development team.

If you make people do something this lame, you should at least be handing out closed beta slots.

[DLRiley]

I think that the industry is getting the idea... that there are people tiring of WoW that may be looking for something new.  The rude awakening comes when these ex-WoW players give your game a shot only to discover that they miss the streamlined and well-crafted experience they got from WoW.  Blizzard has raised the bar and anyone offering a new title should be aware that players will no longer settle for slapped-together-wanna-bes, even if they are dressed in a new shiny.


Forgive me for repeating what others have said for some time now. 

Aion says hi 

[Montague]

New DCUO competition:     

Who's your DCUO BFF? Tell us and WIN!!!

Who is your DC UniverseTM Online Best Friend or Best Foe? Send us a 30-second video telling us and you could win some great DCUO items.  The two winning entries will receive a Lex Luthor in Power Armor poster signed by Jim Lee and the DCUO Development team.

If you make people do something this lame, you should at least be handing out closed beta slots.

DCUO had a demo running at Comicon. The wife and I watched some dude play for a little bit, nothing that hasn't already been shown to my knowledge. The art was very bright and four colorish, and the animations needed some work. The one interesting thing was the demo area was FFA PVP, and I probably freaked out the marketing chick when my jaw was on the floor, but alas it was a special area only made for the demo.

We got VIP passes for a party going on at one of the hotels Saturday night which is basically a meet and greet with the devs (and Jim Lee, which the marketing chick mentioned like 12 times), so if anyone has any specific questions I'll see what I can wring out of them. Or if you have anything you want to say to Jim Lee, who's also gonna be there. Have I mentioned Jim Lee is gonna be there???   

[UnSub]

Jim Lee is apparently a reason we should all be excited about DCUO.  I'd more more excited if he hadn't been handing the work onto his studio to do, or was actually doing the modelling and animation work.

Any questions outside of "when's beta?" don't mean anything at this point.

[Triforcer]

Ask him why Spiderman 3 was so bad and whether he thinks it has damaged his creation.

[DLRiley]

Spiderman 3 never existed. And if it did, it was actually based off the ultimate universe.

[UnSub]

Some of the stuff coming about about DCUO from Comic-Con (and I'm going to rip the key points straight off DCUOSource.com):

    *  Can you make a group like the Krypton Force or Green Lantern Corps? Cao says yes -- making legions and leagues will be a big deal.
    * A fan said that the problem with City of Heroes is the fact that you're limited once you choose your power set (choose to be super-strong, you have to pick super-strong powers), how does that work here? Tactics will change whether you're with a group or on your own. SOE's making sure that you can get in and play when you want to.
    * Secret identity stories confirmed.
    * Cao says there hasn't been a decision on how many characters each account can have, but everyone will be able to play with everyone. There are no server restrictions to worry about.
    * There will be more than just action. You'll need to scope areas and sneak about. (Stealth gameplay confirmed?)
    *  You can change and alter the appearance as it goes along, but if you want to equip the super powerful late-game armor and keep the look you had on day one, you can. You will still get the stats bonuses from the equipment.
    * The focus for the game's launch are events occurring on Earth. They seem to be leaving the option open for leaving Earth in future expansions.
    * You can create sidekicks in the game.
    * Release date: spring 20something. "There will be a 2" at the beginning. (Spring 2010?)

Marv Wolfman (and Geoff Johns) creates the stories, SOE creates the missions:

Wolfman’s job is to come up with major storylines — cases for heroes to solve, crimes for villains to commit. Under his direction, Sony developers in Austin are teasing those out into a seemingly endless array of mini-narratives in which players are sent out on missions: short bursts of action, often only a minute or two long, with even briefer bits of dialogue to advance the story.

Video showing combat and the 'rally or flee' system - on a map you can rally after death three times, each time reviving in the spot you died with less than a full HP bar. After the third, you have to flee - you get revived a short distance away with full HP.

[Venkman]

"There will be a 2 at the beginning"

So I guess no DeLorean's nor 992 year development time frame?

The two things that stick out for me are sidekicks and a shard-less game. Wish I had time for ComicCon this year.

[Lantyssa]

I also noted the "late-game armor".  Possibly loot?  At least you can keep your appearance.

[Margalis]

Ask him why Spiderman 3 was so bad and whether he thinks it has damaged his creation.

Jim Lee != Stan Lee

[Ghambit]

If you see Jim Lee ask him what his brother's (Jae) been up to.

[UnSub]

And how his uncle Bruce is going. He'll love that. 

[Montague]

Finally got home. Unsub beat me to most of the stuff that was talked about but here's what I got at the VIP event (apologies if some of this is redundant/already known):

Missions will be dynamically generated. Jens said that there will be no gangs or villains on street corners - the city will appear normal but your presence will generate content. If I understand this right, there will be no "zones" in the normal sense, and that you can pretty much go anywhere at the start of the game.

Wes Yanagi said that levelling will be very fast, and the intent is to get players into the endgame as quickly as possible. A different answer about sidekicking was given at the party, that there would be no sidekicking option per se but that the power curve between levels is much less pronounced than in other games, so that a lower level character grouped with a high level character could still contribute. Also PVP-wise that a group of lower level characters can easily take down a max level character.

There willl be PVP and PVE servers, and on the PVE servers there will be areas and missions that will flag you for PVP.

There will be loot with costume pieces that give stat bonuses. You can change your look while keeping your stat bonuses - no mismatched uniforms due to gear.

Jens said that places like Metropolis and Gotham, etc will keep as close to the lore as possible. Plenty of LOTRO-esque easter eggs for the explorers.

That's about all I remember. The party itself was pretty badass, a catered afffair with a DJ. Everyone got a Catwoman poster signed by the devs, Marv Wolfman and Jim Lee.

[Trippy]

Wes Yanagi said that levelling will be very fast, and the intent is to get players into the endgame as quickly as possible.

So what is the endgame?

[Montague]

Wes Yanagi said that levelling will be very fast, and the intent is to get players into the endgame as quickly as possible.

So what is the endgame?

I asked if the game would require 20 or so of my closest friends to play at the end, the answer was: "No, but it is a social game". Take that as you will.

[Murgos]

Wes Yanagi said that levelling will be very fast, and the intent is to get players into the endgame as quickly as possible.

So what is the endgame?

Ideally it's when the players stay subscribed to the game but no longer log in to use valuable computing resources.

[HaemishM]

and a shard-less game

Sounded to me like it will share more structural similarities with Guild Wars than World of Warcraft.

[eldaec]

They should have used Christopher Lee, that would have been much more awesome, and half the internet would still think they were talking about the Spiderman guy.

[Draegan]

Wes Yanagi: We’re not revealing any details on player customization yet. The player characters we have shown at E3 and other trade shows are fairly representative of the level of customization you’ll be able to achieve, however. One interesting note is how we are handling itemization – when you get that snazzy new headpiece, for example, you will have the ability to mesh it with your existing costume so everything matches. Of course if you like the original look of your character you can toggle the appearance of new items off to preserve that as well.

I got a few questions answered a while ago.  Interesting thing about gear.