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to the 1,246th
edition
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Loading... is the premier daily
MMORPG news, coverage, and
commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.

Ethec's and Dalmarus's early assessment of Star Trek Online's closed beta is the topic of today's newsletter, with the bonus of a link to today's Star Trek Online ship types Q&A with Cryptic's Al Rivera and six other Ten Ton Hammer original pieces. Read on with Loading... Star Trek Online Closed Beta Impressions.

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
are today's top 5 Pulse results:

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">World
   of Warcraft
2. href="http://tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/117">Dungeons
   and Dragons Online (UP 1)
   
3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve">EVE Online (down 1)
4. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro">Lord of the Rings Online
   
5. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2">Aion

style="text-decoration: underline;">

Biggest
movers today:

1. Guild Wars (UP 6 to #18)
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/rom">Fallen Earth
   (UP 17 to #10)
3. EverQuest 2 (UP 2 to #6)
   

• size="-1">9/22
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/254">Aion
  (release date) size="-1">
• size="-1">10/8
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2129">Cities
  XL (release date)
• size="-1">11/3
  - Dragon
  Age:
  Origins (release date)
• size="-1">11/10
  - Final
  Fantasy
  XI Ultimate
  Collection (release date)
• size="-1">12/1
  - href="http://www.lotro.com/gameinfo/464-answer-the-call-of-war">LotRO:
  Siege of Mirkwood (expansion)
• size="-1">12/1
  - href="http://www.eveonline.com/Dominion/">EVE
  Online: Dominion (expansion)
• size="-1">12/2
  - DOFUS
  2.0
  (update)
• size="-1">12/15
  - href="http://everquest.station.sony.com/everquest.vm">EverQuest:
  Underfoot (expansion)
  
  

• size="-1">1/26
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2389">Mass
  Effect 2
  (release date)
• size="-1">2/1
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/926">Global
  Agenda
  (release date)
• size="-1">2/2 size="-1">
  - Star
  Trek Online
  (release date)
• size="-1">2/16
  - href="http://everquest2.station.sony.com/expansions/sentinelsfate/index.vm">EverQuest
  2: Sentinel's Fate (expansion)
• size="-1">March
  2010
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/998">APB

Loading... Daily

Dalmarus shared his worthy closed beta impressions of Star Trek Online in an article published today, and having gotten a decent chunk of time to play the game this weekend, for the most part I agree with his opinions. That Cryptic allows players to look distinct while keeping to a Federation or Klingon regs is a triumph worthy of the reigning character creation masters, space combat is engaging (no pun intended) and often entertaining, the strategic map is a brilliant way to handle space travel, and there are a number of bona fide Star Trek moments along the way. Among those moments, my favorite (so far) is the Akura mission, which centers on a distress call from a freighter whose facing both a warp core breach and takeover by Orion borders. The distress call comes as your gliding through the tactical map for the first time- perhaps patrolling the Vulcan sector, perhaps figuring out which mission you want to tackle first -but it was exactly the sort of thing I wanted in a Star Trek game.

Unfortunately, your impressions of certain parts of the game are largely dependent on whether you have sufficient help or perhaps what your last third-person perspective combat experience was. I'd spent much of last week finally playing Batman: Arkham Asylum, probably the most polished, graceful, and cinematic button masher on the market today, so I was perhaps more deeply disappointed with the ground combat than I would have been. That's an unfair comparison, of course, and I probably should have cleansed my reviewing palette with games like Champions Online or something from the Star Trek: Elite Force series. I think that even if I had done so, however, I still would've been disappointed.

I'll be the first to note that Cryptic is fixing bugs and working tirelessly on the game, and the playerbase has already seen enormous improvements. It's fair to say that the ground game (especially the tutorial) has a fair way to go, though, and my current fear is that the enormous potential of the space game might be sapped by the exertions necessary to nurse the ground game to health. As for specific complaints, my rig, which can run games like Crysis on olympian graphics settings with ease, seriously chugged through the opening parts of the tutorial. Gigantic arrows on monitor screens - hard-to-miss elements designed to guide players to the next area -seemed a little patronizing and a poor excuse for intuitive level design. NPC mission-givers offered instructions like "go behind me" when the thing immediately behind them was a half wall littered with consoles. "Keep going! You're needed in Engineering!" would have been both succinct and much more instructive.

The Borg were as creepy as ever, but when you actually engage in combat, you're limited to a ranged phaser attack, a melee attack, a debuff, sprint, an aim mode, and a somersault that seems largely ornamental. Combat was largely of the firing squad variety - debuff, aim, fire - and adding more enemies to to the mix without the kind of AoE and crowd control abilities that make fighting hordes fun just magnified the displeasure. I was hoping for some of the novel combat chains and cowbell that made Champions Online combat enjoyable, but saw none of it. In the end I was more than glad to finish out these missions and return to the rarefied comfort of my captain's chair.

Other areas of the game ranged from epic to unplayble depending purely on what friendlies happen to be in the neighborhood. The Starbase 24 fleet encounter mission Dalmarus enjoyed immensely was my first "defeat" (that's Klingon for "death"), since I bravely flew into the Klingon ranks with a minimum of AI support and no actual player allies. If it sounds foolish of me, it was, but there was no indication that I would need friends, just a distress call similar to the Akura mission. Other missions might have proven nearly as impossible had not a few friendly pilots been in the open instance with me. Perhaps a queue system similar to WoW's battleground queues or WAR's scenarios might have been a better way to handle fleet encounter missions, either that or better automation of AI reinforcements.

All that said, even if Cryptic didn't smooth out some of these space combat niggles, I could write a lot of it off to the learning curve. There's no getting around the fact that STO, like Borderlands, will be much more fun if you treat it purely as a co-op experience, constantly seeking groupmates and largely avoiding the temptation to solo missions with hordes of +1 and up enemies. Ground combat likewise improved as I moved up the primary episode chain and had more weapons and kits at my disposal, as well as player friends to watch my back. There's plenty of potential here, and without being an STO apologist, I think I can see myself playing STO for a while to come. I certainly can't wait to jump into the open beta and see how the game unfolds.

STO beta testers, what do you think? I know there's a whole lot of you out there that were lucky enough to pick up a beta key from our Ten Ton Hammer giveaway last week. For the rest of you, would you play an MMORPG that had limited solo opportunities but made grouping nearly effortless, mostly interaction-less, and rewarding? Share your thoughts in the Loading... forum!

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day



From our PC & Console Games (Non-MMO) forum



Disappointment sets in!



Khalus, our volunteer Final Fantasy XIV guru, is also following the
single-player console game, Final Fantasy XIII. Yesterday, he posted
his disappointment in finding that there would be no death penalty in
the game. "When you're defeated you can choose to continue, but instead
of being returned to your last save point and losing all progress since
then, you're re-spawned next to the enemy or boss that you lost to!" he
says.



Is a game without a death penalty too dumbed down? Do you
feel differently about death penalties in console titles as opposed to
MMOGs? Chat about it!



==============================

Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread



"I like that you get respawned next to the boss, that way you can easily get killed again seconds later. lol"



- kitsunegirl



==============================



Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell
us!

New and Exclusive Content Today at Ten Ton Hammer

7 new Ten Ton Hammer features today! 35 in January! 35 in 2010!

INTERVIEWS

• Star Trek Online Q&A with Al Rivera - All About Ships
  
  http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/79046
  
  Nothing
  is more iconic than Star Trek's space-going vessels. In Star Trek
  Online players will gain access to many of the ships we've grown to
  know and love from the movies and television shows. From the
  Enterprise, Discovery and Defiant to the deadly Bird of Prey, players
  will get to fly them all. This week we discuss the types of ships,
  upgrades, and progression available for ship captains throughout their
  careers with Cryptic Studios Al Rivera.
  

• Carved in Stone or Written in Pencil: Developers' New Year's Resolutions
   http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/78979
  What
  do MMOG developers resolve to do when the champagne corks pop and the
  confetti rains down on New Year's Eve? We wanted to know, so we asked
  them. Our friends at CCP (EVE Online), Fallen Earth, 38 Studios,
  Champions Online and more delivered up their promises for 2010. Some of
  them are clever or funny, others are sincere, but all of them give us
  food for thought as we ponder what the new year will bring to the
  gaming world.

PREVIEWS

• Star Trek Online – Ten Ton Hammer’s Hands-On Beta Impressions
  
  http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/79051
  
  Star
  Trek fans number in the thousands and each time a video game based on
  this beloved IP comes to pass, those fans are thrust into an unhappy
  world of utter despair and disappointment. Can Star Trek Online finally
  break this vicious cycle? Join Eric "Dalmarus" Campbell as he attempts
  to answer that question with his beta impressions.

FEATURES & GUIDES

• Aion Weekly Newsletter - No Glove, No Love
  
  http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/79028
  
  Whether
  you are an Aion player who is looking to beef up security or a internet
  user who has been surfing unprotected, we've got some good advice to
  keep your love machine clean.  Read up on account protecting tips and
  get the latest game news in this week's Aion Newletter.
  
  
  
  
• Aion Chanter Stigma List
  
  http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/guides/classes/chanter_stigmas
  
  It's
  never easy being a hybrid class. You can't perform a 'pure' class role
  as well normally, so you have to pick and choose the right stigmas.
  Without proper customization, you might have nothing to fall back on
  besides Healing Light when the life bars start plummeting, or no way to
  get the huge hit in on a parry, and having to settle for a Parrying
  Strike. Settle no more! Plan out your stigmas for your Chanter now!
  
  
  
• WoW - Creating the Perfect U.I.
  
  http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/79042
  
  What
  is it exactly that makes the perfect U.I in World of Warcraft? Is it
  functionality, looks, how many mods you can jam on the screen or even
  some combination of all three? Join us as we take a closer look at
  creating the perfect U.I in World of Warcraft, including examples and
  suggestions to make the processit that much easier.
  
  
  
• WoW- Enchanting Leveling Guide 1-450
  
  http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/professions/levelingenchanting
  
  The
  Ten Ton Hammer staff has been working hard to bring many of our older
  World of Warcraft guides up to date. This week we proudly reintroduce
  the Enchanting Leveling Guide which has been revamped and updated for
  Patch 3.3. The updated guide will help take you from 1-450 in a blink
  of an eye with as little cost to you as possible.
  

Today's
Hottest Content

1. Star Trek Online Q&A with Al Rivera - All About Ships
2. Carved in Stone or Written in Pencil: Developers' New Year's Resolutions
3. Star Trek Online – Ten Ton Hammer’s Hands-On Beta Impressions
4. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/78752">Global
   Agenda href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/78752">
   Mission Types Interview with Exec. Producer Todd Harris
5. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/78807">Star
   Trek Online Beta Journal #3 -
   Rising Through The Ranks
6. WoW - Creating the Perfect U.I.
7. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/78791">The
   Anatomy of
   Fleets in EVE
   Online
8. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/78760">Dungeons
   & Dragons Online:
   Eberron Unlimited Review
9. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/78776">New
   Hopes - A
   First Look at style="font-weight: bold;">Allods
   Online
10. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/co/editorial/endgameimpressions">Champions
    Online Impressions Part 3
    – End Game

Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer
network!

- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle
and the Ten Ton Hammer team