"The Ring of a Champion series will serve as a visual tracking system for a player's success within the game. As Madden NFL 08 gamers accomplish various achievements, they will progress through five different levels. Once a player has reached level three, the ring can be purchased through Jostens' website utilizing the code provided within game. In addition to the 32 NFL team logos players can incorporate into their ring, the tops and sides of the rings can also be customized"
You can check out the full story here: http://home.businesswire.com/portal/site/google/index.jsp?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20070716005328&newsLang=en
Rings will range in price from $149 for a non precious ring to $495 for a 10K Gold ring. This pretty much beats all the tie in promotions I have ever seen but back in the tiny spaces of my brain I actually want one. Sad isn't it? I am a huge Madden fan so I can't wait to "tackle" the newest version. Vince Young graces the cover, I hope it doesn't curse him.
I have noticed that my ability to create really kick ass super heroes and villains has not diminished in the 2 years I have taken off from City of Heroes. Although I have had my account since 2004, I have not gotten past level 23. I just always run out of steam and lack the proper SG or group of friends to keep my interest going. One thing I can do however is make really awesome characters, complete with cool back stories that I then play according to their past. If there was one game I would role play in, a super hero game would be it. I went about basically recreating every good character I had as an evil persona, but got names like Doctor Stranglehold for my plant controller and Power Ball for my lightening/energy brute. I also have a mastermind named The Scourge who has the back story of having a rare skin disease, being ridiculed and shunned, and taking his vengeance out on Paragon City by learning how to raise and control the dead. I also made an alien fleet commander named Zordoz, who is so advanced that his language is incomprehensible to our minds. This explains his sonic scream attacks. He is pretty decked out too, in a trench coat with military badges on his left breast pocket and a very stern commander type look. Yeah, you guessed it I am a hard core comic book nerd. That is why I can't but help wondering why Marvel has not tackled this genre yet. I know that something is in the works, but I have not seen any details on how the game will play out. I was able to find the announcement however:
"We are thrilled to finally be able to share the news that Cryptic Studios is the developer on the Marvel Universe Massively Multiplayer Online game. The trio of Marvel, Microsoft and Cryptic is truly a dream team combination and we are committed to delivering a ground breaking interactive experience drawing from Marvel's vast and diverse Universe of characters, locations, and timeless fiction that we believe will redefine the MMO space."
I guess until then I have Marvel Ultimate Alliance on the Xbox 360 to satiate my Marvel Universe addiction (I have the gold version which includes the Hulk, Hawkeye and other new characters). My goal now is to get all these City of Villains alts to level 4 to start that new crafting system so I can see what that is all about. Excelsior!
UPDATE: Speak of the devil, this just happened today:
"LOS GATOS, CA - JULY 17, 2007 - Cryptic Studios, Inc., a leading independent developer of massively-multiplayer online games, today announced that they have added to their growing talent pool with the hiring of a new Design Writer, John Layman. Layman, a twelve-year veteran of the comic book industry and an accomplished game writer, joined the team in their Los Gatos headquarters on Monday, June 25. He will be lending his expertise to Marvel(TM) Universe Online, the highly-anticipated MMO currently in development for PC and the Xbox 360(TM) video game and entertainment system from Microsoft."
Posted by Pvthudson at 9:37 AM
Labels: City of Villains, Madden football, Marvel
Monday, July 16, 2007
My console gaming era finally arrives
1 comments
Well it was a pretty crazy end of the week last week as I got bit by the console bug. I managed to finally get my XBOX 360 and lets just say that all bets were off for logging into any MMO's Wed - Sun. When I did actually touch my computer, it was to setup a Gamefly.com account so that I could get some rented XBOX 360 games in the mail and on the way to me. Gamefly is basically the Netflix for console game players. Pretty much the same deal as Netflix, with the option to buy the game if you like it at a reduced price at which point they send you the case and the instruction booklet. The turnaround time is a LOT slower though for Gamefly, so it is good to get the two games out at once option so you can rotate them quickly in and out of your "Q".
I started off with four that I purchased, and added Dead Rising to my collection Saturday morning after playing the downloadable demo. Ended up playing Dead Rising about 8 total hours this weekend, it is addictive and frustrating as hell with its save option. The game is so much fun though that I kept playing it even though I had to start over twice due to being stupid and not saving enough. The best thing about the 360 is the Live community, which is basically like I-Tunes for a console. You can download movies, game demos, arcade games and even have email and instant messaging, so it really is a cool multi media experience. I even hooked a USB keyboard up to my console to answer emails quickly. The way they added game achievements and things like that really makes you want to play more to unlock more things and bump your score up so you can compare unlocks and brag about things you have accomplished to buddies. Even more addictive about the online content is the demos that are available for download for so many 360 games. Even the Live Arcade games are downloadable then you can unlock the full version by using Microsoft Points. I am not sure if my stock 20 gig hard drive will be big enough in the future.
One thing I kinda got addicted to was one of the only MMO's on XBOX 360, in fact one of only two that I know of (the other being Final Fantasy) and that is Phantasy Star Universe. Now this game generally gets a bad wrap because it is just so...repetitive...but I used to play PSO back in the Sega Dreamcast days and I always like the way this game pulls no punches. It is a straight out grind fest, hidden beneath a very fun combat system and small online community. I compare it to Guild Wars without all the flare and polish. Basically the game plays like Diablo 2 but it is science fiction, has guns, and is real time combat. You pretty much meet other people in instanced community zones like Guild Wars, do your trading and upgrading and shopping, then take another mission and go back in and farm the instance. You can party up if you want or go solo. There is also an OFFLINE component which can be played through like a RPG if you want. The community is pretty hard core, and is very niche. The game requires a LOT of grinding time, but for some reason the masochist in me likes it, maybe because I can have GUNS and other cool weapons. You will spend countless hours grinding through missions to advance your character and collect things and there are even player apartments in this version, plus updates and an upcoming expansion. The expansion pack will be available for download from XBOX Live, and right now you can try the game out with a demo that is downloadable. However be warned that your demo character is subject to deletion and the crowd is, how can I say...less than savory. The full version however seems to find a more mature player base especially if you get in with a well established clan that can help you learn the ropes.
All of this console love (along with the COUCH and a wireless controller) had me lounging around and playing games like mad for hours on end, while my poor computer and EQ2 account sat there blind sided and giving me a frown face. So I didn't get anything done in EQ2 the past few days or really have time to watch too much E3 coverage, however I did download and watch the Microsoft and Sony press conferences. Interesting to say the least, some really good games coming out from Microsoft it seems, they are landing some quality titles. One thing I did do on the PC after reading Kill Ten Rats lately was download and try out City of Villains, and even though I only had a chance to play around with 3 newbie characters last night it was a nice change of pace from playing a goody goody hero all the time. CoH never really stuck with me due to its play ****and the fact that there wasn't much to do, but the new Issue 9 tradeskill thing has my interest up and I wanted to see the new character models and choices for the villains. At any rate I may pursue that this week and see how the game plays out. So far CoV seems to just mimic the good ****s, only toss them new names like instead of Tanker it's Brute. The Mastermind archetype on the evil side is really well done with the ability to summon some really cool minions like robot drones and zombies. I plan to stick with this since I need a change of pace until Tabula Rasa comes out, and I am really burned out on fantasy MMO's right now. Between this, PSU and EQ2 I think I am set for online content, when I get around to it. Right now the 360 games like The Bigs, Dead Rising and Marvel Ultimate Alliance have me hooked, as well as the Catan board game that is available on Xbox Live Arcade. It is an addictive little board game that we see being played every year at GenCon and now with this 360 translation I can play it with computer opponents and they really give me a run for my money. All this XBOX activity I had this weekend does not even include the FULL version of Sonic the Hedgehog I downloaded off Live Arcade as well as Prince of Persia and Gauntlet. I jammed so much gaming in this weekend my head was spinning. The great part was that even the old console ****cs have achievements to unlock so I was busy trying to get pretty far in those.
Right now that is pretty much what I have been up to the past few days. The console gaming has really satiated my need for pick up and play gaming and the 360 is a great little machine. I cannot say for sure when the next MMO update will be since I am pretty hooked on Dead Rising right now and I have hours of that in front of me to play. I have no idea when I will find the time to play all these games, so I think I will have to actually setup some sort of schedule to ensure that I give every game a fair chance at hooking me. That doesn't even count in the fact that NCAA Football 08 and Madden 08 are RIGHT around the corner. I need to win the lottery and just quit my job.