Coming Attractions: MMOs & RPGs
Level best.
Previously on Coming Attractions: yesterday we discussed some of 2010's highlights in fighting, puzzle and arcade games, and on Monday we toured the gallery of shooters and racing games due in this first year of a new decade. (Yes it is. Don't start.) Today: all things grind.
MMOs
"With this section, the problem wasn't defining it - it was pinning down which games might actually get released," we wrote last year. Almost none of them, it turns out. We knew even then that the big guns would lie silent until 2010, but in 2009 it seemed like the entire MMO industry, smarting from the immense hype and immediate deflation that surrounded Age of Conan and Warhammer Online's launches in 2008, had retreated to its bedroom to think about what it had done.
NCsoft made a success of its western launch of Aion and Cryptic hurried Champions Online out of the door, but that was about it. Even World of Warcraft seemed unnaturally quiet. We're sure that 2010 will be better, much better, but MMOs being what they are, there are still few safe bets to see the right side of Christmas on this list.
Highlights
APB
On: PC / Developer: Realtime Worlds / Publisher: EA / Release: Spring 2010
On paper, you can debate whether APB is really an MMO - capped at 100 players per city, and with no subscription or other ongoing revenue stream, this cops-and-robbers action game could just as easily slot next to the MAGs and Battlefields of the world. Then again, you'll never play with more than 100 others in an instance-based MMO like Champions Online, and APB, with its deep customisation, total persistence and "players as content" commitment to all-multiplayer action, all of the time, has more genuinely massive thinking in its design than most conventional MMOs. Even though the closed beta's already under way, EA isn't shouting about APB yet and we still haven't had a go ourselves - but that's just how Realtime rolls. Crackdown came out of nowhere; APB's going somewhere. Somewhere very interesting.
DC Universe Online
On: PC, PS3 / Developer: Sony Online Entertainment / Publisher: Sony / Release: 2010
With Cryptic, Realtime Worlds and others retreating from any pretence of releasing their games on consoles - and Microsoft apparently being obstructive - hope for massively multiplayer gaming on the sofa now resides with the PS3 and this superhero knockabout (as well as the next game on this list). SOE supposedly has an inside advantage, although its Free Realms has yet to make the jump, which isn't a good sign. Expect the PC version first then, and a better sense of physicality and free-wheeling action gaming than Champions Online managed.
Final Fantasy XIV Online
On: PC, PS3 / Developer: Square Enix / Publisher: Square Enix / Release: 2010
Square Enix is absolutely adamant that this game is coming out in 2010, although with all the info coming from the pages of Famitsu in Japan so far, it's possible the Western world will have to wait a little longer. If we do, we'll be waiting for luscious character art and a loose, level-free advancement system based around equipment rather than class that has learned valuable lessons from FFXI's punishing grind. The publisher's muscle and resolute console focus should ensure a simultaneous PS3 version, too. FFXIV has both pedigree and bravery - a rare combination in any genre, but hen's teeth in MMOs.
LEGO Universe
On: PC / Developer: NetDevil / Publisher: LEGO Interactive / Release: 2010
This has long been our dark horse bet for the next properly mass-market MMO, and a confident showing at CES last week - live alpha demos and an awesome trailer - did nothing to change that. The thematic kitchen sink, the construction elements that scale from "press A to make rocket" to brick-by-brick house-building, the easygoing platforming smash-and-grab gameplay lifted from the TT games; LEGO Universe looks accessible, stuffed with ideas, and happy to set MMO convention aside for the all-consuming love of the brick.
Star Trek Online
On: PC / Developer: Cryptic / Publisher: Atari, Namco Bandai / Release: 5th February 2010
Cryptic continues to have the temerity to make MMOs in a couple of years and release them more or less when it said it was going to, despite the common consensus that this isn't possible. Champions was a bit rough and ready as a result, and the signs are that Star Trek will be too, but wringing every last drop of power from its licence and multi-track approach to content should be enough to get it to warp speed. The naval combat is fresh and fun, too.
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm
On: PC / Developer: Blizzard / Publisher: Activision Blizzard / Release: 2010
We were happy to assume that WOW had peaked with Wrath of the Lich King and lead designer Jeff Kaplan's departure, and would now settle into comfortable routine - but somehow, despite being engorged with 11 million players, Blizzard's still hungry. This momentous effort to rewrite the classic game and drag it up to the standard of the latest content - plus serve a full expansion on the side - will ensure WOW still stays years ahead of rivals' reach. More fun, more of the time: Blizzard's secret recipe is really that simple.
Also in 2010
Taut sci-fi fragging arrives soon in the form of the massive deathmatch game, Global Agenda; Allods Online is a free-to-play Russian epic with skyships and tasty art; cower in fear from Mortal Online, otherwise known as This Year's Darkfall; inscrutable indie beauty Love shows us the oh never mind; EverQuest II expansion Sentinel's Fate arrives next month; talking of expansions, Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer doesn't have a release date, but we wouldn't put late 2010 past it; Ankama delivers more isometric quirk with Dofus 2.0 and Wakfu; EVE Online has an exciting year ahead, with its social network New Eden, planetary gameplay, and, at long last, avatar expansion Incarna; the toothsome Free Realms finally turns up on PS3; Earthrise deputises for the never-happening Fallout MMO; Heroes of Telara takes the straight fantasy route; and whatever happened to Jumpgate Evolution and Huxley?
Probably not coming in 2010
The Agency's gone AWOL; The Secret World is still shrouded in mystery; Guild Wars 2 is going the whole hog, and taking its time about it; EVE spin-off DUST 514 is shooting for the moon, not least in tying console servers to a single universe, and CCP's in no hurry; and we've just heard that Star Wars: The Old Republic won't make the cut, so it looks like WOW's safe for another year. Or three.