There are at least a dozen major genres of offline games; so why do most massively multiplayer online games stick to the massively over-trodden fantasy RPG genre? Enter Richard Garriott, also known by the modest moniker Lord British. He's the father of the classic RPG series Ultima, which old-school PC gamers revere the same way today's console players worship Final Fantasy. Now, he's crafting his most ambitious project yet, due out late this year: Tabula Rasa.
Saying Tabula Rasa's name is
Last month at E3, we had a chance to hoist a boomstick and romp through the long-awaited massively multiplayer, sci-fi shoot-o-rama, Tabula Rasa. TR is a new direction for legendary game designer Richard Garriott, the mastermind behind the Ultima series. Garriott wanted to design something completely different than his high fantasy opus while at the same time incorporating important lessons from his two-plus decades of game design.
TR is a furiously paced shooter, but still very accessible for
Drugs are good. Probably. Or maybe theyre not. Richard Garriott just cant help making you think about this stuff. His fame was founded on the moral dilemmas of the Ultimas, the games that established the very framework of what we consider the modern PC RPG. You can draw a line from his early work, via Baldurs Gate, to todays greats such as Knights of the Old Republic and Neverwinter Nights 2. But Garriott no longer makes single-player
Richard Garriott knows a thing or two about fantasy-based role-playing games and put his name on the map with his seminal Ultima series. With a non-compete agreement with EA and work on City of Heroes and City of Villains behind him, Garriott has set his scopes on space with Tabula Rasa - his latest shot at the online role-playing scene.
Set in a futuristic world on the edge of annihilation, Tabula Rasa will throw you into the fray as a recruit in the human resistance against a xenophobic
So the Earth was destroyed - space invaders, inevitably, going by the name of the Bane. What chance did humanity have? We can barely get into orbit. The Bane crosses galaxies just to burn worlds.
A few of us managed to escape through the uncovered technology of the Banes estranged brother-alien race, the Eloh. We found other races willing to resist the Bane and bound together into a force that called itself the Allied Free Sentients. And a lucky few - including you - discovered they were
Latin for "clean slate," tabula rasa refers to the philosophical school of thought that we're not born with any prior knowledge programmed into us. Its the idea that we begin life with a fresh start, and NCsoft's next big title, Tabula Rasa, has been hyped as a game that will mark the next step forward in the evolution of the MMORPG genre.
A unique combat system, a skill system based on the alien Logos language invented for the game, improved AI behavior, and a futuristic sci-fi setting all
It’s tough being Capcom. There are fanboys of every stripe in the gaming world, but rarely are there more rabid and stubborn fans than those of fighting games. Die-hards analyze every frame and gameplay change down to its core, and they petition endlessly for their favorite obscure character to be included in every game Capcom releases.
For fans of the original game there's an eerie sense of déjà vu when playing the 2Fort map in Team Fortress 2. Even if you'd already been told it was a remade version of the popular Team Fortress Classic map, or realized simply by looking at the map's name, its layout already exists as a semi-familiar strategy map in the back of your mind. There's that central bridge across the moat, treacherous to cross and half-concealing the alternate entrance to the enemy base. There are the
Soon, Team Fortress 2 fans will be treated to the first of many major updates that Valve plans to release over the next coming year. Expect the update to go live on Thursday, April17 or Friday, April 18. Along with a major makeover for the Medic class, the new update will come packed with the highly anticipated new map, GoldRush.
In GoldRush, the attacking team must push a cart forward along a series of railroad tracks past a series
The first surprise, playing Team Fortress 2, is how incredibly bloody it is. Its fantastically good fun, too, but you can pretty much see that just from looking at it. The explosive gore, bony hunks of shredded men and severed heads are more of a shock among these beaming cartoon smiles, but you soon realize theyre entirely necessary.
In TF2, things do what they look like they should do. A direct hit from a smoke-belching rocket looks like it ought to rip someone apart, so it does. But
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