The latest design journal has been posted on the Diablo 3 site that gives a bit of background information about how rift encounters are planned to provide the right mixture of monsters to keep players engaged and to provide mechanics to let player skill and legendary abilities shine. It’s not just random monsters, but carefully orchestrated combinations of avoidance, basic attackers and some type of heavy hitter to keep things interesting.
– Funcom’s Hide & Shriek to be Released on October 25th
Funcom has announced that its fright-fest title, Hide & Shriek, will be released on Tuesday, October 25th. Hide & Shriek is a game where the objective is to literally (and virtually) scare an opponent to death.
Star Wars: The Old Republic – Gear Progression Goes RNG with Eternal Throne?s Galactic Command
BioWare’s latest live stream event detailed the new Galactic Command system coming to Star Wars: The Old Republic with the release of the Knights of the Eternal Throne expansion this December. The structural changes made to gear progression with this system are set to have a far-reaching impact on the game, and the community isn’t exactly too happy about it.
Black Desert Online – Halloween Event Begins, Set to Run Through Nov 9th
Black Desert Online is bringing thrills and chills to players with today’s arrival of the Halloween event. Players can take part in trick-or-treat events that can yield some nice rewards including a hat, a wolf nose, a devil horn headband, a Jack O’Lantern or Scarecrow mask. In addition, there is a special bundle that can be purchased with a costume, pet, skeletal horse equipment, Pears and a Jack O’Lantern mask.
Skyforge – Ascension – Don?t Call it a Comeback
Skyforge’s big expansion Ascension launches today, and we’ve been playing the game’s pre-patch changes in anticipation of the big update. What we’ve found are a slew of very welcome changes to a game that seemed needlessly complex at launch. Read on for our impressions!
EVE Online – Easing the Steep Learning Curve – The New Player Experience
It’s no secret that the EVE Online learning curve for new players is a steep one. A new post on the EVE Online site discusses forthcoming changes to the system that will arrive on November 8th with the Ascension update. The new player experience even got its own spiffy name: Inception.
Crowfall – Livestream Highlights with Ripper & Hive!
Ripper enters the Crowfall Pre-Alpha for some PvP action and stumbles across The Hiveleader! The duo fights off swarms of evil demons, hookers and enemy thugs for some fun times in the Hunger Dome!
Skyforge – Ascension Expansion Released
Skyforge players can now dive into the game to try out the massive changes that have arrived with today’s deployment of the Ascension expansion. Players can now try out a demo version of the Council of Gods, try their hands at defeating a new boss and much, much more.
Hero’s Song – Next Alpha Coming Soon with New Classes, Multiplayer & More
John Smedley has sent out the latest backer update for Hero’s Song where he lets the community know that Alpha 3 is just around the corner at the end of this month. During Alpha 3, players will be able to try out fifteen of the game’s twenty-one classes, though in a very rough state with undoubtedly lots of balance issues that will be resolved later. In addition, multiplayer will be available, basic dungeons, lots of monsters, underworld, loot, points of interest, better AI and more.
– Will We See Smaller MMOs?
Yesterday, Gamasutra ran a feature about how players can only process about 200 social connections drawing attention to Dunbar’s Number theory. It brought up a very interesting point in the MMO world and how important the true size of a game really need to be? The vast worlds of 2000 to 2010 have given way to highly instanced MMOs like Elder Scrolls Online and Guild Wars 2.