Welcome to the 1,157th edition of Loading...
Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news, coverage, and
commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
CrimeCraft has been out a week now, and after playing for a
while, Ethec offers his opinion on the game. CrimeCraft might be the
first genuine persistent world shooter that the gaming community has
ever seen. In a market that tends to punish innovators, how does
CrimeCraft stack up? We'll review the game on its own terms in today's
Loading... CrimeCraft Review.
The Pulse
You vote with what you view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result is the Ten Ton Pulse (
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/thepulse/" target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).
Here's today's top 5 Pulse results:
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/41"
target="_blank">World of Warcraft -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/860">Champions
Online - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/254">Aion
-
EverQuest
2 -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/115">Age of
Conan
Biggest Movers in the past week :
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/856"
target="_blank">Mabinogi
(UP 6 to #17) -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/175">Lineage
2 (down 5 to #19) -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/38"
target="_blank">EverQuest href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/38"
target="_blank"> (UP 4 to #15)
MMO Releases
-
8/4 -
World
of Warcraft Update 3.2 (content patch) size="-1"> -
8/25
- CrimeCraft
(release date) - 9/1 -
Champions
Online (NA release date)
Important
Dates
- 9/4 - 9/6
- Penny Arcade Expo
(PAX) - 9/15 -
9/18 - GDC
Austin - 10/1 -
10/3 - href="http://fanfest.eveonline.com/">EVE FanFest
Releases
- 9/9
- Dungeons
& Dragons Online Unlimited (release date) - 9/15
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/177">Fallen
Earth (release date) - 9/22
- Aion
(release date) - 10/9
- Cities
XL (release date) - Early 2010
- APB
Loading... Daily
We all have our guilty pleasures. For the past week or so, mine's been
CrimeCraft. Last night I finished up the requisite 20 hours we try and
play before giving you our first impressions of a game, and despite the
poor reviews the game has been getting (both outside and inside the
game - the chat channel gets pretty rowdy), I found a surprising amount
to like about the game. I know many of you have already made your mind
up about the game, which is fine. We aren't running any CrimeCraft
advertising, my impressions haven't been bought and paid for (none of
our opinions ever are, it's just rare to have an opportunity to prove
it). I couldn't even get a review copy of the game. So here it is, my
totally and certifiably unbiased look at CrimeCraft.
First, some disclaimers. Other "persistent world shooters" straddle the
fence between multiplayer shooter and MMO. CrimeCraft has some MMO
attributes - crafting, an auctionhouse, customizable weapons and
clothes (and styles that range from cowboy to ninja to rainbow pride
hoodlum, no joke). But the core gameplay of CrimeCraft is 100% PvP
shooter, with two PvE-only formats (Stockpile, a race to gather
supplies from enemy bots, and Safeguard, defending a weapons cache from
waves of NPC attackers) and a mission arc designed as a concession to
co-op only gamers.
While you can stick to co-op for the bulk of the game, the real fun is
in PvP. But make no mistake: if you go PvP, you will die often
at the
hands of other, better players. If your ego can't handle it; if you're
prone to justify your lack of skill with long general chat tirades
about the injustices of lag, hacks, cheats, and griefs (I haven't
really encountered any evidence of these personally), you'll
find an audience but probably not a lot of fun
in CrimeCraft. Like any shooter, you have to do your time to develop
your character and your playing skills to get better.
The good: This is a lobby-and-instance shooter, but
the lobby is a fairly fleshed-out and interactive city environment
where combat is prohibited. The pace for the first 15 levels is just
about perfect - you breeze through your first seven levels with
tutorial missions (heavy on the fed-ex tasks) that are a nice break
from the craziness of your first few instances. Assuming you've saved
up your money and skill points, you can then select a specialized
weapon (light machine gun (lots of magazine capacity), sniper rifle,
rocket launcher, and grenade launcher), which takes your game to a
whole other level. The "jobs" system, which allows you to select 25
achievements from hundreds and customize your rewards to the kind of
game you want to play, is fairly brilliant. My only quarrel with it is
that too many of the newbish jobs and one of the missions are
team-dependent (e.g. winning Safeguard three times in a row while
ungrouped requires the kind of teamwork you typically don't find in a
pickup group). The skill system is pretty cheap to roll back too,
should you find you made some bad choices.
Customizing weapons, specialized ammo (you don't have to buy regular
ammo, but the specialized ammo / magazine size that you purchase makes
a significant difference in combat), and crafting is easy to get into
and offers the same tweak-happy experience of the skill system and jobs
system. Do you toss a new scope and stock onto your sniper rifle to
improve accuracy and reduce recoil (making the second shot more
accurate), or attach a new module and trigger to improve damage and
reload time? It depends on how trial and error. Unfortunately you can't
remove a modification you out-level or dislike once it's been attached;
you'll have to buy a new weapon (we've got to keep the crafters
employed, I suppose).
The relative lack of matchmaking was another pleasant surprise. Even
though a
level 40 is more likely to take out your level 20 than the other way
around (while you both have the same number of ability slots to take
into the instance, he or she's got more abilities to choose from and
can select slightly better weapons and armor), I've facerolled my share
of much higher level characters in the short time I've been playing.
Of the various game modes / formats, I'd have to say I enjoy Turf War
(where two teams sequentially capture one to five points on soem very
well-balanced maps) and Robbery (each team has a safe - you have to
fight your way to the other team's safe, steal their money, and return
it to your safe) the most. Shootout (team deathmatch) maps have a lot
of wide-open spaces and seem to inordinately favor snipers and rocket /
grenade launchers. That's not a problem if you're a high level player
and can easily switch out weapon types to suit the match format, but at
the lower levels you're probably stuck with one specialized weapon
type. That can put you at a disadvantage on some maps, but you can
carry three weapons into every match (specialized weapon, a shotgun /
assault rifle, and a pistol / submachine gun).
The bad: Right off the bat you'll find that the
process of joining a match is extremely unintuitive. You talk to a
match NPC or pull up the screen on your UI (granted, CC does get you
into the action quickly) and join the match, then have to hit tab to
close the screen and "u" to join the match when it goes active. That's
two too many steps. Sometimes it does take a moment for the instance to
spin up, but it would be nice to be able to use that time on
a "gear
up" screen. Too often I find myself with the wrong weapons, gear, and
abilities for the instance, and a quick loadout screen in place of the
"Preparing..." message at the top of the screen would be helpful.
Common loot drops seem frighteningly out of balance. I've looted scores
of "ruined attachments" (you get random loot at the end of every
mission, substantially more if you've picked up the "Looter" skill),
but as an engineer, the core component of my newb recipes is "junk
scraps," of which I've hardly found any. The trade channel is
constantly scrolling with "WTB [component that sounds ridiculously
common]" messages. On the bright side, you can sell just about any
non-gray loot at the auctionhouse for highly inflated prices at the
moment, meaning that as a new player you probably won't be broke if you
can stay away from the NPC vendor except for grays and clothing
components.
If you picked up the game at Best Buy, as I did, you got a $5 card in
the box and maybe saw some cards in larger denomenations on the rack.
This money buys gold bars or game time ($5 = 100 gold bars = 1/2 month
of game time? I'm still confused on this one), but gold bars only buy
you cosmetic upgrades (clothing and paint schemes for weapons). The
clothing doesn't have stats, and even though you can "buy" the stats
from a piece of clothing you don't like, it's expensive, and you're
probably better off just buying something that looks decent and has the
stats you want while you're leveling up. Being a cheapskate, I'm
currently stuck with a teal, tight-fitting T-shirt, cargo capris, and
hi-tops, complete with a forest green do-rag. Needless to say, even at
level 17 I'm not wild about my look, but it gives me the best stats for
what I can afford.
The ugly: The population indicator on the login screen has
got to go. With one realm active and between 250 and 500 players active
every time I've logged in, you might get the sense that CrimeCraft is
an empty world. In truth, I've never not been able to get into a format
that I've wanted to get into, and the world doesn't feel empty at all,
especially if you stick around Oceanside (one of the three city / hub
zones).
A lot of players openly question the monthly subscription model, and
with the rampant advertising, I'm inclined to agree with them. I don't
mind ads, but we've always been believers in the either / or approach -
either you charge a monthly subscription or you show ads. That's the
case with our network and we're sticking to it. If Vogster makes good
on their promise to add ridiculous amounts of new content to the game
on a monthly basis, maybe that's another story. Otherwise it might have
been best for this style of game to go with the Guild Wars model on
this one - just make your money on word of mouth and slow growth into
the millions.
Many complained about the graphics during open beta. CC uses
Unreal Engine 3, not the cheapest solution by any means, and it looks
fine (to me) if not staggeringly next-gen stunning at the highest
resolution.
Just remember 1) that this is an online shooter and graphics should
naturally come second to performance, and 2) to boost your resolution
from the default 1024x768.
All in all, if the price point had been $39.99 (instead of $49.99) with
more of a Guild Wars style or micro-transaction driven model rather
than a confusing monthly subscription scheme, I'd say this is one you
have to pick up if you have any interest in persistent world shooters.
Even so, the jobs, skills, weapons, and levels / character development
aspects of CrimeCraft are potently addictive. Personally, despite the
low population numbers, I feel that the game has a lot of potential,
particularly as a fun, distracting "game between games," and hope this
one sticks. I liked Fury, though, and we all know what happened to that
one.
Played it? Any interest? Any questions I might be able to answer?
Should Ten Ton Hammer form a gang? Take your thoughts and quesitons
to our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=45960">Loading...
forum.
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day
From our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=6">Articles,
News and Events Discussion forum
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=45935">Wedding
Package Images from the Station Marketplace
With
Champions Online fresh out of the gate and Aion heading into the home
stretch another epic thread related to either of those two games would
seem apropos today. But I couldn't resist going off the beaten path
when I saw our news post about EverQuest's new Station
Marketplace Wedding Package. Now, when your avatars want to
get
married in EQ, you can share your special day, complete with a pair of
wedding rings and a cake, with all your friends in your own
"personal wedding zone." You can choose a light or dark
theme...and even select which flowers appear in vases around
the
zone. Don't believe me? We've got
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/73699">screenshots.
Is
this a little over the top? Personally, I'd say it is. And yet,
EverQuest is what it is primarily because it engendered an atmosphere
of community. In fact, a couple of my guildmates met in
EQ, married in the real world, and proceeded to spawn
children.
And it seems many of us know similar stories.
Is SOE's wedding package too much? Is it not what MMO gaming is about,
or is it exactly
what MMO gaming is about?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=45935">Have
your say!
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"Anyone try to marry
their avatar yet?"
- AngryBeaver
==============================
Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">Tell
us!
6 new MMOG home-grown articles today! 10 in
September!
952 in
2009!
New Coverage and Guides At Ten Ton Hammer Today
Features:
-
EverQuest
Wedding Package Images from the Station Marketplace
Fortune and fancy have knocked on the door, and the Ten Ton Hammer
staff has been granted an inside look at some upcoming content for
Everquest, specifically the Station Marketplace's Wedding Package. Ever
since its launch in 1999, EverQuest has continued to explore the
intricacies of social gaming. One of the most interesting aspects of
this initial movement was the in-game weddings that sprouted up as
couples, both virtual and real, tied the knot in the lands of Norrath.
With ten years of experience under their belts, Sony now introduces a
special wedding package that can purchased with Station Cash to further
enhance your special moment. -
Aion
Images Detail Westernized Character Options
Aion open beta is less than a week away when players can finally
experience Aion as a complete game. Along with addition of
quite a bit more content included with the 1.5 version, players will
also enjoy various features that have undergone westernization and
these screenshots are a taste of what is to come! The screenshots show,
in gorgeous detail, some of the new faces and hairstyle option that
will be available during character creation. With so many
customization options, fans will be pleased to see that now there are
even more ways to create your toon in the way that you want! -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/champions/humor/queereye2">Champions
Online: Queer Eye for the Superhero Guy #2
Grab a seat and some popcorn, dahlings, as another installment of Queer
Eye for the Superhero Guy is here to amaze and astound you! Sit back
and enjoy as Ronaldo, your humble fashion corespondent, gives his views
on what the superheroes are wearing. -
World
of Warcraft - Your Rogue Race Sucks!
Life is currently pretty good for Rogues. If you're thinking about
rolling one before Cataclysm hits, Stow here will give you the rundown
on the races to be, and the races to well, not be. If you're new to the
Rogue game, and Min/max is your middle name, here's your guide to
picking the race for your fame!
Giveaways:
-
(NEW)
Earth Eternal Closed Beta Giveaway
Earth Eternal, the browser-based free to play MMO that features 22
unique animal races and novel features like customizable habitats
called "groves," has just entered closed beta, and Sparkplay has kindly
a number of closed keys for Ten Ton Hammer viewers. Plus,
every person that is logged into the game at 5pm PDT (GMT+8) this
Thursday will receive a limited edition Beta Beast banner for their
character! For details and instructions on how to start testing out
Earth Eternal, follow the link above. -
Ran
Online Beta Key Giveaway
It's back to school time, and if the real thing came a little too soon
for you (or not soon enough!), Ran Online features a campus-based
setting like you've never experienced before. The closed beta
has just begun, and Ten Ton Hammer viewers have a chance to test out
this new free-to-play MMO before anyone else! For details and
instructions, follow the link.
Hottest Content:
- Aion
Images Detail Westernized Character Options -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/champions/humor/queereye2">Champions
Online: Queer Eye for the Superhero Guy #2 -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/rise_of_the_godslayer/craig_morrison">Age
of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer Interview with Craig Morrison - EverQuest
Wedding Package Images from the Station Marketplace - Champions
Online: Embracing the Future of MMOGs -
Exclusive
Champions Online Launch Interview with Bill Roper -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/blizzcon09">BlizzCon
2009 href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/blizzcon09">
Coverage Portal - Final
Fantasy XI: Moogle Kupo d'Etat Walkthrough Tour - World
of Warcraft Cataclysm Q&A with J. Allen Brack - Aion
Class Preview - The Cleric
Real World News
(courtesy of Phil Comeau. Have some real world news Phil can mangle
into something funny? Send
it to him!)
-
href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1210535/Dog-owner-let-labrador-balloon-11-stone-fined--escapes-ban-keeping-pets.html"
target="_blank">Dog owner fined £1,000 for allowing his dog
to get too fat
This is what happens when you have too many Weineraners. -
target="_blank">Repeat
offender arrested for hiding in outhouse pits
Several suspects were considered, the defendant was finally identified
through
a thorough process of elimination. -
href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/City/Surat/Electrocuted-mahout-sticks-to-elephant-for-hours/articleshow/4956003.cms"
target="_blank">Man electrocuted while riding elephant
He remained on the animal despite warnings that the
elephant was
charging.
Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our CrimeCraft Game Page.
