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

[Velorath]

DCUO has officially been delayed until "early 2011"

[HaemishM]

Guess that limited beta thing was good for something after all. "OH SHIT, NOTHING FUCKING WORKS!"

[Hutch]

Gamasutra article, same topic

SOE president John Smedley said that the developer is taking the extra development time "to address community feedback in a meaningful way."

I'm glad. They could have been stubborn and pushed it live in November.

We'll see if the extra development time actually makes the game better.

[Shatter]

The number of 2011 titles is getting excessive   

[UnSub]

I'm just shocked at the delay.

The devs look a bit silly now, given that they've been repeating the "DCUO will be out on November 2" for a bit now and mentioning how "high quality" the title is.

EDIT: Beta is starting in November for all those who preorder DCUO. And live in North America.

[Shatter]

I'm just shocked at the delay.

The devs look a bit silly now, given that they've been repeating the "DCUO will be out on November 2" for a bit now and mentioning how "high quality" the title is.

EDIT: Beta is starting in November for all those who preorder DCUO. And live in North America.

We knew this would happen when all of 1 month ago they mentioned they were still working on abilities.  Although Im a little disappointed by the move, I was hoping to watch this go down in flames from their way-too-early launch, guess I have to wait until 2011 for that enjoyment. 

[UnSub]

To help sate the masses over the delay, DCUO has released some beta combat footage.

Warning: do not watch if you think you may be epileptic.

[Furiously]

The more I watch and hear about this game the less interested I am.

[UnSub]

Beta key registration page up - all you need to do is send a scanned copy of your pre-order receipt by November 15 and you are guaranteed to get in.

I do love a pay-for beta. I'm also tempted to sign up, just so I can see with my own eyes.

[Shatter]

F this game...paid beta = fail.  This is clearly becoming a quick money grab MMO and will likely be similar to CO and STO.  I would have a different opinion if the game actually looked good

[Stabs]

It may be a good looking game and that was just a horrible horrible demo video.

There's too much to look at. By showing a street with dozens of superheroes you're not really showing us a superhero. It looks like they're commuting or something. If you think of the great panels from Batman and Superman often there will be just one or two people. Superman flying through the sky; Batman cradling Robin's broken body - iconic. To show something you have to not hide it amidst a hundred comparable distractions. Compare and contrast the This Secret World video where a woman goes to the fridge to drink milk and then explodes into combat against a cthulhoid monster. The eye knows what to look at in that video.

Another thought is it looks incredibly like the start of Champions Online. It could practically be the same street corner.

And lastly:

EDIT: Beta is starting in November for all those who preorder DCUO. And live in North America.

Not that I was about to pre-order but if I had been then I would be thinking fuck SOE. When will game developers realise that being treated as second class customers (but generally charged more with that lovely 1:1 $:Euro exchange rate) really pisses Europeans off. It's rude. I'm sure people in other parts of the world feel the same.

While we realise that there may be genuinely good reasons (eg translating the game into French and German) often it just seems parochial. Do people at SOE realise that developers in China and Korea are much more understanding and considerate of Europeans than they are despite the similarities of our cultures?

[statisticalfool]

To help sate the masses over the delay, DCUO has released some beta combat footage.

Warning: do not watch if you think you may be epileptic.

Wow. That looks terrible, jerky, repetitive. Are they using like two frames of animation per attack?

Part of it may be the clusterfuck nature of it, but it looks like a lot of standing and trading blows with an occasional small knockback thrown in for kicks. Bravo.

[UnSub]

Estimates that DCUO's journey from 1 to maxlevel 30 will take 60 - 70 hours. It's going to have to be incredibly fun to hold onto players past the first 30 days.

[Malakili]

Estimates that DCUO's journey from 1 to maxlevel 30 will take 60 - 70 hours. It's going to have to be incredibly fun to hold onto players past the first 30 days.

I remember people saying I should wait for this instead of buying Champions, and now who has the last laugh!.... erm...I guess the people that just stuck with CoX

[Lantyssa]

Muahahahahahaha!

[ezrast]

Beta key registration page up - all you need to do is send a scanned copy of your pre-order receipt by November 15 and you are guaranteed to get in.

I do love a pay-for beta. I'm also tempted to sign up, just so I can see with my own eyes.

Time to get my photoshop on.

[Shatter]

Beta key registration page up - all you need to do is send a scanned copy of your pre-order receipt by November 15 and you are guaranteed to get in.

I do love a pay-for beta. I'm also tempted to sign up, just so I can see with my own eyes.

Time to get my photoshop on.

So why not preorder online, print your recepit, cancel the order and mail the sucker in?  Take what..5 minutes?

[Margalis]

Is 60-70 hours a lot or a little?

[Malakili]

Is 60-70 hours a lot or a little?

A little.

[ezrast]

Beta key registration page up - all you need to do is send a scanned copy of your pre-order receipt by November 15 and you are guaranteed to get in.

I do love a pay-for beta. I'm also tempted to sign up, just so I can see with my own eyes.

Time to get my photoshop on.

So why not preorder online, print your recepit, cancel the order and mail the sucker in?  Take what..5 minutes?

Because playing the system is probably more fun than playing DCUO.

[UnSub]

Is 60-70 hours a lot or a little?

The way DCUO has been explained is that there are lots of little story arcs (like CoH/V) that lead up to big boss fights (like CoH/V's later levels) with existing DC characters. This makes me wonder about things like content overlap (heroes and villains will be separate, of course, but how much overlap will there be between a character with Batman as their mentor and one with Superman as their mentor?). Plus there are public quests (called alerts, if I read them right) and PvP / PvE blends.

Plus I always find that devs overstate how long it will take to get through PvE content. That 60 - 70 hours is based off a xp-per-hour calculation that may get blown out of the water once players get hold of the game. And then there is the subscription element, where SOE will want players to keep paying to play, so at the end of that 60 - 70 hours there really needs to be some excellent end game systems (which thus far appear to be raiding and PvP).

On PvP, one of the reports made by a dev was that they found in mass tests that CC powers could make it impossible to capture certain flags - the controlling team could lock down incoming targets, pick them up and throw them away (using the physics system) so that they couldn't get access to a location. It became a battle around who could activate CC the fastest. This is going to be a key challenge of DCUO, because since you can use CC and then act on that CC object, it means players can not only get locked down, they can also get thrown away. That might not be much fun after the 25th time.

[statisticalfool]

On PvP, one of the reports made by a dev was that they found in mass tests that CC powers could make it impossible to capture certain flags - the controlling team could lock down incoming targets, pick them up and throw them away (using the physics system) so that they couldn't get access to a location. It became a battle around who could activate CC the fastest. This is going to be a key challenge of DCUO, because since you can use CC and then act on that CC object, it means players can not only get locked down, they can also get thrown away. That might not be much fun after the 25th time.

Balancing CC is hard! I'm glad they're figuring this out now.

It just seems like if you want satisfying superheroic combat (rather than DIKU + spandex re-skin), you've got to have attacks which actually feel like they have impact. Positioning. Air combat. Knocking people into buildings. There's no indication they can do this competently.

I guess maybe the way to put it is like so: is there anything, anything at all even a tiny bit interesting about this game if you take out the fact you get to meet Batman?

[Sir T]

One of the problems is that, in comics, if someone gets blasted into a building, you generally have the guy getting up, dusting himself off and then charging the other guy. While the other guy just stands there and lets him. Because in a comic, that's dramatic, and lets the fight go on in a static area, and it fills space. It helps the story. It also helps that Supers are not sued for masses of property damage, but I digress.

In a PVP environment if someone gets blasted away the instigator wont just stand there. But if a game about Comics people are going to expect the dramatic superpower action of people getting knocked around, as that's what they see in comic books. Unfortunately once you take supers out of the controlled dramatic environment of the comic genre, of course you are going to have that kind of break with comic reality. Unless you have people bouncing off buildings right back into peoples faces, and you know how that would be received.

[UnSub]

Knockback is arguably the most comic book of effects - sending the opponent flying.

Ironically, it is the thing that is hated most in CoH/V, because it moves targets outside of melee range. It's a perfect clash between genre and gameplay.

[Malakili]

Knockback is arguably the most comic book of effects - sending the opponent flying.

Ironically, it is the thing that is hated most in CoH/V, because it moves targets outside of melee range. It's a perfect clash between genre and gameplay.

The funny thing, its the kind of iconic thing that happens in 1v1 fights all the time, but the gameplay problems happen when you can't knockback for fear of pulling more guys.  And then, all the 1v1 fight boss types tend to be immune..awesome!

[Lantyssa]

Well, comics don't generally have hordes of minions standing around waiting to get slaughtered.  They're either all rushing a target (and thus weak enough to defeat en mass), or just a handful of guys where you can have a dramatic back and forth.  DIKU just doesn't lend itself well to dramatic combat.

[statisticalfool]

I think it's right to think that slapping knockback ontop of DIKU is not likely to lead in fun directions. And obviously, design is tough, etc, etc.

But I don't think that if you start from the design of "there's going to be knockback and CC and people flying everywhere: how do we make this fun?", it's so implausible. Screw diminishing returns: CCing somebody builds up a 'rage' meter. Rage increases speed and strength. Fill it up and the person becomes immune to CC for a short while (which has a strong thematic feel). Give melee characters lenient range and lots of ways to close.  Make a superhero game where travel powers aren't just varying forms of horses.

[Lantyssa]

It's not impossible.  Vindictus is quite fun and would lend itself to more super hero-ish combat if ramped up.  But combat in it is more along the lines of a fighting game than an MMO.  Until we move away from MMO == buttonmash 1-10 + shift1-10 + alt1-10 + ctrl1-10, things will remain more or less the same.

Even GW2 which I think will be somewhat revolutionary in this regard may have a ways to go.

[taolurker]

Character Creation revealed

[Cadaverine]

I don't know if revealed is quite the word I'd use. 


Which is a bummer, cause the idea of being BFF's with the Joker, and getting to hit on Harley Quinn all the time has a certain bent appeal.  Unfortunately, from what I've seen so far, I don't think I could stomach the game long enough to do so.

[sam, an eggplant]

I just got into the closed beta without a preorder, so they must be pretty hard up for apps. I can't find an NDA anywhere but I assume there is one even though it's effectively an open beta with that preorder deal, so I'll just leave it at that.

[Furiously]

I got the email too.

[Nebu]

Character Creation revealed

I like how they say "... or will you take inspiration from an existing DC hero?"  The sheer number of unoriginal copycat heros will be depressing. 

I may still give this game a try.  If it gives me two weeks of something to do, I'm fine with the box cost.

[UnSub]

I remain unemailed with a DCUO beta invite. Possibly because I've been making fun of them, more likely because they aren't interested in non-NA players.

[Chinchilla]

I got mine.  Installing game now.