E3 '08: DC Universe Online
One of my favorite moments of E3 this year was getting an early glimpse into SOE's DC Universe Online, and even though details are still scarce the game showed more than enough promise to pique my MMO interest.
With over 70 years of DC world-building to draw upon, and given that the game will showcase the DC universe as seen though the eyes of artist Jim Lee, DCUO has material for more expansion packs, extra content, and elaborated environments than just about any game to date. Since the game's two anchor cities will be Metropolis and Gotham, you can just imagine the places we'll be able to visit and the supes and villains we'll be able to interact with. Even more promising must be the list of locations and characters that can't fit into the game - I'm thinking places like Oa, Mogo, Kandor, and so on.
Having spent the last five years developing the technology to pull off a game like DCUO, SOE is focusing on a moment-to-moment experience that's true to the DC franchise. You'll create a character who's already a super hero - choose your appearance, your power type (fire, ice, etc), your power source (ring, fist, etc) and your movement type (teleport, super speed, acrobatics, flight and more). You won't have to level or grind to become superheroic/villainous - while you'll gain and improve skills as you level up, the challenge will be more about skill than grinding: much like Guild Wars, DCUO will only let you bring a set number of skills into the field at any given time, making your success more about creating a play style that works (and works for you) than twinking out your toon with the best gear fake money can buy.
You'll interact with famous DC characters in several ways, including story instances (a-la LOTRO) and shared world mechanics such as, say, having Superman pop up on your communicator to give you instructions for a new quest.
Leagues and legions, for heroes and villains respectively, will constitute the game's guild system, and while the game will ship for PC and PS3, it remains to be seen whether or not PC and PS3 gamers will be able to interact - DCUO isn't quite far enough along for us to know many such details.
Oh - the concept art for this game is beyond phenomenal. We saw a hardbound book of character art that was out of this world and should - must, I'd say - make it into gamers' hands one way or another, eventually.
tiny dancer
Posted to E3, Hot Stuff, MMOs, Video Games, Videos on 22 July 2008
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Other stuff like this: dc universe online, dcuo, e3, e3 2008, soe
DC Universe = ^__^
SOE = >.<