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46k Petitions Delivered By EB Games In Favor Of Australian R18+ Video Game Classification

2010-02-26T14:00:00Z

Earlier today, Australia's largest video game retailer, EB Games, delivered forty-six thousand submissions to the federal Attorney-General's department supporting their recent discussion paper around creating an R18+ classification for video games.

EB Games collected submissions in all of their stores across Australia, as well as online, and in just two weeks it collected the staggering number of favorable statements advocating such a classification for 18+ video games.

Even though submissions have been overwhelmingly in favor of this classification (with the first thousand submissions being processed, only eleven responses were against adding the classification), South Australian Attorney General Michael Atkinson continues to dismiss the opinions of Australian citizens, contending that "only gamers care about this issue"-- I think that's rather the point, as only gamers are affected by the lack of a classification.

Atkinson also continues to equate gamers with criminals or terrorists, repeatedly implying that people in favor of an 18+ classification have left death threats at his home, or are more dangerous than "outlaw motorcycle gangs." While the R18+ classification requires unanimous approval from all eight Attorney Generals, there is a blessed chance that the March 20 election in South Australia may lead to a different party than Atkinson's Labor taking control of the local government, leading to his replacement.

Huge support for adults-only games [via theage.com.au]

Beware The Oncoming Onslaught Of Satanic Videogames

2010-02-25T14:00:00Z

In an article on Tuesday over at The Bulletin (Philadelphia's family newspaper), Susan Brinkmann explores a growing problem facing today's "avid gamers" and their immortal souls. Specifically, a rise in the proliferation of satanic-themed video games targeting God, Catholicism specifically and Judeo-Christianity in general.

Most of the article is built up on quotes by a 32 year old named Lance Christian who declares matter-of-factly that "the devil has a new tool to work with in this age of technology, and the majority of adults in a position of responsibility are left in the dark."

Brinkmann's article cites several examples of soul-corrupting video games being pushed towards sensitive children and teenagers by publishers apparently eager to send honest kids to hell. Most of these examples are out of context, fail to highlight how said acts have negative, punishable repercussions in the course of the story, or are totally misrepresented. Bayonetta was mentioned as a footnote, oddly enough, but not given the same satanist synopsis as Dragon Age: Origins or Nocturne; if any title was going to let an evangelical fap in outrage about being persecuted, a demonic hair witch would be it. Dante's Inferno is also mentioned, even though you're playing a hero doing the work of god through the pits of hell, but I guess they're concerned about a contact high or something.

At any rate it bears repeating: the games singled out are all largely rated mature, which means impressionable children, Christian or otherwise, should not have access to them if they're in the care of responsible parents. A helpful link to Focus on the Family's reviews of titles is provided at the end of the article for parents who wish to avail themselves of "family friendly" titles; spoiler alert: they hate everything.

PSA: Beware the Proliferation of Satanic-Themed Games [via GamePolitics]

Final Fantasy 7 PS3 Remake Unlikely

2010-02-23T14:00:00Z

Say what you will about the later additions to the series, but Final Fantasy 7 still remains an impressive title by the company behind Chrono Trigger, who managed the complicated feat of bringing a JRPG over to a Western audience that had traditionally been antagonistic to the genre.

Even though a downloadable version of the original game has been available on the PlayStation Store for some time, it looks like hopes for a revamped PS3-specific port with upgraded graphics won't happen.

In an interview with TechDigest, Final Fantasy XIII producer Yoshinori Kitase explained that they would be open to a remake, but it's just unfeasible:

IF it were possible that we had all the right facilities and the right environment to be able to make and prepare a Final Fantasy VII remake within a year, we'd very much like a go at it! But even Final Fantasy XIII has taken over three and a half years to create. If we were to recreate final Fantasy VII with the same level of graphical detail as you see in Final Fantasy XIII, we'd imagine that that would take as much as three or four times longer than the three and a half years it has taken to put this Final Fantasy together! So it's looking pretty unrealistic! But if any such situation came about by any remote chance, then yes, we'd do it!

Although I enjoy playing the PlayStation 1 title for nostalgic value, it's pretty obvious how long in the tooth its blocky polygons have gotten. Still, I think it's probably best this way, since a remake will probably make the game look prettier, but would tarnish that original experience with a sheen of glitter and no substance.

FFVII Remake 'Looking Pretty Unrealistic' [via 1UP]

Assassin's Creed 2 Will Require Constant Internet Connection On PC

2010-02-19T22:00:00Z

Confirming their dedication to previous announcements, Ubisoft has recently said that the PC version of Assassin's Creed 2 will utilize their latest attempt at DRM, necessitating an always-on internet connection for the duration of your game time.

Previously, Ubisoft said that it would first be rolled out in their beta test of Settlers VII, but future titles would make use of it. As the PC version of Assassin's Creed 2 comes out mid-March, this doesn't leave a lot of time to gauge how well the new system will actually work, but PC Gamer Blog received an advance copy of the title and their prognosis was rather nasty.

As said, you need to be connected to the internet in order to even log into the game and play. Your internet connection must be maintained for the duration you want to play. If at any point you get disconnected, whether intentionally or due to intermittent issues, the game will pause and give you the option to wait for your connection to return, or save your last checkpoint and quit to Windows; you cannot save your progress at the very moment the game was disconnected from Ubisoft's authorization servers, and any progress made between your last checkpoint and the disconnection will be lost.

Going further, even if your internet connection is stable, you must have constant access to Ubisoft's "Master server." Such a connection can drop out for any reason having nothing to do with your connection to other sites or the internet, up to and including Ubisoft doing system maintenance, connection trouble on their end, denial of service attacks or meteors hitting their colocation facility while you're trying to meet Leonardo di Vinci.

While it's uncommon for major companies to have issues with their data centers (generally), it does happen. The launches of most MMOGs are usually met with lag, players unable to connect, unforeseen bugs or any other issues that can crop up when you have a significant amount of players connecting to a service en masse. Considering how popular Assassin's Creed 2 has been, and how popular it's expected to be, it's not unreasonable to have concerns with the uptime of these master servers. Steam recently announced planned downtime on their servers for three hours, but while they were doing it players couldn't buy games, utilize Steamworks matchmaking services or access their friends list. Such downtime is exceedingly rare for Steam, but it does happen and it's one of the pitfalls of relying on such a system. Warhammer: Dawn of War 2 was absolutely unplayable for most people for the first two days of its launch because the Games for Windows Live servers were slammed with connections from eager gamers-- a fate I suspect Assassin's Creed 2 will share when it launches.

The intended benefit from this system, at least as far as gamers are concerned, is that saved games will be stored online and made accessible to any machines you have authorized to your account. However, as PC Gamer Blog notes, the number of people who actually make use of playing games across multiple computers is small, but the number of players affected by getting kicked from their game in the middle if their connection suffers fault is significantly higher. Anyone who really needs to sync saved games and files across multiple machines has probably heard of services for exactly that, or knows how to drag and drop files to a USB key.

In the end, I personally find this really frustrating. I buy everything I play myself, and it's becoming more and more annoying to be penalized for being a paying customer when downloading a pirated version of software gives me more freedom than buying it. When I have less rights purchasing something than I do stealing it, something is broken in the system. I shouldn't be treated like a potential criminal because I had the audacity to financially support a company and not demonstrate the behavior these arduous DRM schemes are intended to prevent. And when an enterprising hacker will strip this check out of the game or fool the local authentication check in a matter of days after launch, this whole system and all the servers Ubisoft has set aside to support these players will amount to nothing. The game will still be stolen, people who don't want to pay for it will still pirate it, and once again only honest consumers will end up being the ones carrying the burden. Rock Paper Shotgun says that this is "open contempt for paying customers" and, frankly, I agree with them.

First Batch Of Starcraft 2 Closed Beta Keys Passed Out

2010-02-18T14:00:00Z

Much to my own personal devastation, I was not included among the first round of blessed individuals who received access to the closed beta for Starcraft 2 when keys went out yesterday. However, the silver lining to this is that it can hopefully be taken as a sign that everything is on track for a release along Blizzard's stated timeline.

As someone who played Starcraft and Brood Wars so much I wore down both CDs and had to buy a second set, I cannot put into words how excited I am for the game's release after twelve long, long years.

While I figure out who to kill or perform sexual favors for to get a beta key, enjoy these three videos over at 1UP.com taken during their livestream of the beta yesterday. If you picked up a key yourself, show off in the comments. (It makes it easier to narrow down who I need to come after!)

Love Has A Release Date: March 25

2010-02-16T22:00:00Z

Love, the little MMOG that could, has had a wild ride. Developed entirely by one man using a custom-created engine that he developed completely from the ground up, Love is a literal labor of such for Eskil Steenberg. It's gone from a project that many people dismissed outright to a paid open alpha, then freeish beta, and now at last according to Eskil's twitter feed it's getting its official release date: March 25th.

The completely procedurally-generated game has been incredibly interesting to me, least of which due to the fact that Eskil has elaborated about much of the game's development on his personal blog. It's great to know that the game will finally be getting released officially, and it's an inspiring thing to watch considering most MMOGs take a team of hundreds with millions of dollars in their budget years to get their game to a comparable state.

So now that you know when it's coming out, do you guys intended to pick up the game for yourselves at the end of next month?

Video: Heavy Rain Playable Shower Scene

2010-02-16T14:30:00Z

Back in November faePuck posted about how PS3 title Heavy Rain would allegedly have a playable shower scene featuring one of the male characters. Not much was known about the scene other than the details of two messages on Twitter, and until the game was released there wasn't even any indication of what character would be the "star."

Now that Heavy Rain is out, a video of the scene in question has been put on Dailymotion that doesn't leave much to the imagination.

I can't quite say I understand the pixelated appeal, but if thirty seconds of digital animation and two quick time sequences for using a towel get your gears going, click this decidedly NSFW link and see for yourself.

BattleForge: Lost Souls Expansion Now Live

2010-02-16T14:00:00Z

Although it slipped a bit past its target date, the third and latest expansion to the card-based online RTS BattleForge is finally live and available to players.

The Lost Souls content update adds several new cards across two factions, the Lost Souls and Twilight armies:

The basic set encompasses a total of 60 brandnew and unique units. What is more, all of them will also be available in two different variants. With their special Affinities towards an accessory colour the resulting 120 new cards even add up to further enrich the BattleForge card set with a lot of variation and diversion. The principle new set will provide you with 28 units, 16 buildings and 16 spells. The new factions Twilight and Lost Souls will each assemble 14 powerful cards to place at your disposal.

It's another fun update to the game from EA Phenomic who's already done a lot to keep players interested and engaged in this free-to-play title.

PSA: A Fix For Flower's PS3 Error #80029564

2010-02-15T14:00:00Z

You may recall an article I wrote back in December regarding my experiences with getting Flower, an indie title by developer thatgamecompany available for download on the PlayStation Network, downloaded and installed on my then-new PS3. No matter what I did, the game would download completely, but then consistently fail to install at 14% with an error code of #80029564. Sony's tech support was... unhelpful, and even after Kellee Santiago, thatgamecompany's CEO, went above and beyond the call of duty to try and help me, the game never worked and I put it on the virtual shelf, suspecting I'd not get a crack at it.

Last night I serendipitously got an email from someone who had the same problem as myself, who figured out a simple and rather ingenious way to get the game installed correctly. As several people contacted me afterward complaining of the same issue (and the previous article gets a lot of hits on google), I figured I would write up the steps I took to get the game working. And many, many thanks to Chris who gave me this fix in the first place.

At its simplest, the way I got Flower installed was by connecting my PS3 to a United States proxy. For whatever reason my Australian IP was the culprit, as no further configuration was required once the proxy was set up. Here's how to enable it on your device; requisite disclaimers apply: I am not responsible for any damage you do to your PS3, including but not limited to enabling it as a nuclear weapon, so undertake these steps on your own.

1. On the PS3 XMB, navigate to the Settings category and then navigate down to the Network Settings option.

2. Here you want to select Internet Connection Settings and press OK for the warning it gives you; you'll be signed out of PSN (if you were connected) and a menu will ask you if you want to choose Easy configuration or Custom-- choose Custom.

3. If you're on a Wireless connection (as I am), choose that and you will be presented with a series of options. Wired users will have fewer to pick from.

4. You can leave most of the next options as they are, but their variables will depend on your device's configuration and your internet connection settings. Just navigate right through each of the menus until you get to one asking about using a Proxy Server (this is one of the last questions in the wizard), which is the golden ticket.

5. You can google around to find free proxy servers online, but the one I used was the first entry on this list. These servers fluctuate so you may need to check it later, but the one that worked for me was 67.159.178.199, port 8080. Input this into the relevant fields on your PS3 and hit okay. Navigate until you're asked to review your selected settings, then save and test the connection.

6. It will take several minutes, so don't get worried if it doesn't work right away. A proxy server basically routes all your internet traffic through a particular IP address. If you're doing this on a country outside of the US, like I am, this will mean your connection will slow down considerably as everything has to pass back and forth over a line to another country-- compounded by the fact that it's a free proxy which means it's likely to be overused by a lot of people. Eventually, if you've configured things correctly, you'll get a "test successful" notice and will be free to continue.

7. Go to the PlayStation Store and to your downloads. You'll find that everything is really, really slow, but this is normal. Initiate the download of Flower and wait. For me, I had to start the download four times because I kept getting an error right as it began; keep trying and eventually it will start. It took me about an hour to download the full 700~ megs for Flower, but sure enough once it was completed the game installed correctly, no longer giving me the maddening 14% error.

I can't really begin to figure out why my IP address was buggering things up, but it makes it clear that there's definitely a problem on Sony's side. To test that things hadn't cleared up on their own I tried to download Flower first using my un-proxied connection immediately before I tried the fix and the installation continued to fail at the same point. Once I tried the fix it worked correctly.

Obviously, this probably won't help you any if you're getting the error and are already in the US, but given that the #80029564 glitch seemed to be predominantly affecting Australians (and people outside of the US) it is probably indicative of a larger problem with PSN that hopefully Sony will deal with.

Official: No Gamepad Support For PC Bioshock 2

2010-02-12T14:00:00Z

Despite the fact that 2K made it clear last month that Bioshock 2's PC version would not support gamepads, in favor of giving the PC port a unique UI and HUD to better reflect a keyboard and mouse configuration, many players were steamed to see that the game launched without an option to use controllers like the one for the Xbox 360 console.

Towards the end of a four hundred+ post flamewar on the official 2K Games forum complaining about it, a poor community manager wandered in to confirm the bad news: the decision to not support controllers wasn't made lightly and it won't be coming to the PC in a patch. To do so would require "a complete re-envisioning of the UI that the team worked so hard to create."

Personally I don't consider this a loss, as I've never used a gamepad to play games on a PC before ever (that strikes me as missing the point) but clearly this decision has pushed a contingent of gamers into an uproar. What about you guys? If you're playing it on the PC, do you lament the lack of gamepad support in Bioshock 2 or do you just not care?

2K Makes It Official: No Gamepad Support in BioShock 2 PC [via Kotaku]

Starcraft 2 Beta Beginning Soon, Game Releasing Mid-2010

2010-02-11T14:00:00Z

Oh em gee oh em gee oh em gee.

In yesterday's Activision Blizzard earnings call, the company revealed two important Starcraft 2 details:

1) The game's beta will be starting before the end of February, with access being given to "thousands" of players in North America, Australia, Taiwan, Europe, New Zealand, and Korea. The beta will be used to generate buzz for the game and test out the new features coming to the revamped Battle.net.

2) The eagerly awaited sequel to the twelve-year-old Starcraft will be coming out, definitively, mid-2010.

That's it; what else do you need to know!

StarCraft 2 beta begins this month, game coming mid-2010 [via Ars Technica]

Nintendo Awarded $1.5 Million In Piracy Lawsuit

2010-02-10T14:00:00Z

On Tuesday Nintendo announced that it had reached an out-of-court settlement with an Australian man accused of pirating New Super Mario Bros. Wii in advance of its Australian release. The settlement was for a staggering $1.5 million after Nintendo accused Queenslander James Burt of putting the game online days before it went on sale anywhere. Though the game has sold over ten million units since it was released in November, Nintendo says the settlement will compensate Nintendo for loss of revenue because of Burt's actions.

In a departure to normal procedure, Nintendo gave Australia a release before any other territory, a detail they highlighted in their statement as they implied the piracy could affect future releases in the country. Usually, Nintendo releases games in Australia days or months after other countries, and in a statement to GameSpot AU a spokesperson said that the piracy might jeopardize the country getting first dibs in the future:

"Nintendo Australia is always pushing for games to be released here at the same time as the rest of the world, so we were pleased to get New Super Mario Bros. Wii before anyone else," the spokesperson said. "Unfortunately, due to the actions of this individual, future release dates may be affected for Australia, which is disappointing for us."

Personally this seems to be a bit of a cop-out to me, as piracy in other countries hasn't made Nintendo hold back on releasing titles in the United States, Japan or Europe; this seems to be flimsy rationality to tie the two together. At any rate, given the phenomenal success of the title so far, it doesn't look like the estimated 50k illicit downloads of the title will jeopardize sales for Nintendo in the long run.

Price of Piracy for AU Man: $1.5M [via GamePolitics]

Weekend Recovery: The Difference Between Sex And Violence In Video Games

2010-02-08T14:00:00Z

It's Weekend Recovery, your Monday morning, 9 AM intellectual gaming discussion fix. Have a suggestion for a Weekend Recovery topic? Send your ideas to mixvio@gaygamer.net and you might see your name on the grand marquee!

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It should be obvious to anyone who watches the news that, at least in the US, when it comes to how the public at large handles depictions of gratuitous violence or gratuitous sex, reactions usually vary wildly. We're used to violence on movies and television shows, to say nothing of the perpetual sport we as gamers partake in through gunning down criminals and generic "bad guys" through the course of any FPS or action game. We're "desensitized" to this, at least when our impetus is killing enemies in the name of a greater good, and most people don't really balk unless said killing is exceptionally graphic and excessive.

Yet when it comes to sex, and more specifically sexual crimes like rape, we typically have a threshold of tolerance significantly lower than what we're willing to put up with in terms of violence. Watch a movie about killing enemy soldiers and most people are okay with it, but if that same movie involved explicit depictions of rape (as is historically an unfortunate part of warfare in the past) people would have visceral responses of disgust.

Bitmob has a very thought provoking article up about this subject, and Omar Yusuf ventures forward with his own ruminations on why we as a society will tolerate participating (at least virtually) in acts of murder for entertainment, but are usually filled with repulsion if a game asked us to engage in rape. It mentions, as these topics usually do, the Japanese eroge game RapeLay, which we've discussed here before already.

Upcoming PS3 title Heavy Rain features a scene in which the player's female protagonist is forced by a male character to perform a striptease, and Quantic Dream's David Cage has said that the experience is not meant to be sexy but is instead intended to make players feel upset and uncomfortable. By reversing gender roles and making a largely heterosexual male demographic perform a degrading, humiliating act instead of simply watching it, Cage hopes that it will provoke a mature discussion on sexuality and sex in general. Whether his intention comes true or not won't be discovered until the game is released, but the scene in particular is already courting controversy in advance of the title's launch.

As Yusuf says, and I agree, criticisms against games like RapeLay are well-placed, and I think that it's a good thing that most of us find ourselves disgusted by them and would be incredibly uncomfortable if a game expected us to sexually assault enemies instead of killing them. But the overall message is that we, as a society, don't approach depictions of violence with the same measured tones as we do the subject of sexual crimes. I am certainly guilty of blasting away enemies in most action games without ever really thinking about what I'm doing, and this is largely a failure of most games to give you a reason to reflect to begin with. Some have tried, but the experience often falls short of socking you in the gut with the realization of what, in fact, you're actually doing. We accept violence and murder in our media, but are disgusted with sex-based crimes-- the latter is a good thing, because such violations should repulse and not excite us, but I do have to wonder why the former is just accepted "as is" without any of us really bothering to think about it.

Where's The Box?

2010-02-05T14:00:00Z

We Fly Spitfires has an entry up regarding Global Agenda and its decision to go the digital distribution-only method. I mentioned in my review yesterday that it's only available through Steam, but there's also a limited edition version available through purchase on Amazon's US store. Either way it's expected of Global Agenda's developers that if you want to buy it, you're likely going to buy it through Steam.

We've discussed digital distribution here a lot and there's people for and against it on either argument. Personally I'm firmly in the "for" camp-- I haven't used a physical CD in years and it's gotten to the point that if I can't buy a PC game online somewhere and get a digital download, I tend to avoid the game entirely. I remember the days of scratched CDs or worn-down CD-R drives making games impossible to install or play and frankly I don't miss it.

But there's also just as many arguments for physical copies as well. Although I tend to keep installation files on an external HD, it's still space that could be lost at a moment's notice if the drive happens to break. It's also a lot of gigabytes to keep on the harddrive itself, usually more than the necessary memory of a similar installation from a CD. I can also think of several times when a digital distribution system has failed to work correctly, leaving me without access to a game I was interested in buying or playing in the first place. In the case of WFS, Gordon ruminates on whether or not the reason why he hasn't picked Global Agenda up yet is because it's not a game he can buy in a store.

Still, I think that the digital method is an evolution we should expect sooner than later. I can't think of a PC release these days that isn't available on Direct2Drive or Steam at the same moment that it comes out in a Gamestop store, and clearly the digital distribution method is advantageous for publishers and developers whether indie or someone like EA. Even with its weaknesses, I think buying and downloading games online is better than the alternative, but not everyone has been as quick to jump on the bandwagon as I've been.

So what do you think? Is the advent of digital distribution something you accept with open arms, or will they pry your CDs from your cold, dead hands?

Review: Global Agenda

2010-02-04T14:00:00Z

Global Agenda is one of a few new science fiction-themed MMOGs that have been announced recently. Developed by Hi-Rez Studios, the title blurs the line between FPS, MMOG and strategy game, delivering something that is a fun amalgam of the three even if it lacks a lot of the depth found in any one facet. As such, Hi-Rez has named their game a "spy-fi" MMOG.

The game wrapped up its open beta a bit ago, finally going live on February 1st. As an indie title, it's utilizing Steam for content delivery and the Unreal 3 engine as its technological backbone. Since Global Agenda is a fusion of several genre archetypes, it's probably best to explain what the game actually is.

Global Agenda is set in the 22nd century following a severe global disaster. An authoritarian government known as the Commonwealth has taken control of the planet, ruling the remaining population of a billion with an iron fist. In the course of the game you play an Agent, a genetically engineered super soldier who was created under the Commonwealth's control to deal with rebellions but instead was "freed" and given a chance to fight against them on your own terms.

]]> The game features four classes: assault, recon, medic, and robotic. The assault class is your typical general DPS/tank character, recon is your rogue, medic is self-explanatory, and robotic is a hybrid pet class with a supplementary support role. As I tend to migrate towards healer roles in MMOGs I found there to be some balance issues with my survivability compared to the other classes, but I suppose this is probably intended. Compared to other games, Global Agenda pushes grouping as a necessity rather than a begrudging option tacked on after the fact.

After buying the Global Agenda box, the base game itself becomes free to play. The base game includes competitive PvP maps and a series of PvE "missions" for groups of four or more. The PvP maps are essentially instanced skirmish fights across five "modes" and twenty unique maps, pitting teams of players against one another for experience points. The PvE maps have you fighting Commonwealth NPCs in linear "missions" for experience and resources to be used in crafting. The bulk of the game is accessible for players who just buy the boxes, from a level cap of 50, access to the auction house, and player "agencies" for your guild fix. However, for players who subscribe to the monthly fee, a whole new mode of gameplay unlocks called Conquest.

Conquest opens a persistent game area for "Alliance vs Alliance" territory control and ongoing content updates. While the gameplay in the regular PvP and PvE maps come off as a bit repetitive and superficial, Conquest is really where it shines as massive groups of players fight with one another over territory and limited resources, raiding bases and control points to further their sovereignty. To "win" an AvA map requires substantial effort and coordination from player alliances, necessitating cooperation beyond a shallow involvement. Hi-Rez suspects that this will serve as a sufficient "end game" for interested players, although they promise more co-op content updates as the game continues.

For your character itself, each class has access to three skill trees the likes of which we've gotten accustomed to from World of Warcraft and Warhammer. These are dependent on your class and augment things like the medic's healing skill or the robotics' gadgeteering. You accumulate skill points as you level up and have to complete missions for experiences points to do just that. But beyond this mechanic, there's not a lot to be found of the "traditional" MMOG stereotypes. There's no real quests, no expanding story or drive pushing your character's progression, just the ever repeating struggle for territory and resources.

I've found the combat pretty interesting, although I've consistently had issues with matchmaking; in the PvE maps the game really seems to enjoy pairing me, as a medic, up with two other medics and a DPS class. I don't know if it's a lack of players in the queue (though I doubt it, as queues have always ended pretty quickly for missions and I've rarely had to wait more than a minute before I'm in one) or just poor logic in the matchmaking scheme, but I'm sure I don't have to explain how difficult it is to complete a timed mission with only one player doing decent DPS. Similarly, in PvP matches I've always been shoved into teams against players significantly stronger than I was.

However, even though I suspect it will get repetitive fast, I did really enjoy Global Agenda. The combat isn't shockingly new but it was fun and familiar, and the MMOG mechanics worked to create something that was refreshing and enjoyable. Conquest is where the game really shines and a monthly subscription is going to be mandatory for anyone who wants to see the game as anything but another generic third-person shooter. Visually, the game is very pretty, although its character customization sits somewhere above World of Warcraft but under Aion in terms of total control. In the end it's an interesting release in a genre that tends to be pretty derivative, and anyone who favors PvP games will find a lot in Global Agenda to enjoy.

Score: 4 out of 5.