mmosite.com Posts Seven HGL Combat Stills
Friday, September 28th, 2007Must say, these shots are quite tasty. Dig in:
Source page here.
– Scapes
Archive for September, 2007
Source page here.
– Scapes
Hellgate: London - Charing Cross
Friday, September 28th, 2007HGG user kallenai has just pointed out that Eurogamer has updated us with the second video of the station tours, this time for Charing Cross.
While there is no big write up this time, one may appear later on GameSpy, but for now there is the video of it for those of you who want to watch that.
Our second exclusive stop on the Hellgate underground is the charming Charing Cross. There might be a few more boodthirsty demons and putrefying corpses than you remember, but at least they got rid of the buskers
Update: The write up for this and the video have been put up on Gamespy.
Enjoy 
Bill Roper on Single Player Gaming
Thursday, September 27th, 2007Guardian Unlimited, has posted up an article on Single Player gaming that talks to the makers of Shadow Run as well as Bill Roper about the future of Single Player gaming.
The presence of other players gives multiplayer gameplay a significant advantage over its AI-driven cousins in terms of replayability. But that doesn’t mean developers aren’t coming up with solutions. If there’s one upcoming single-player title that could profess to provide a completely new experience each time you play the game, it’s Flagship Studios’ Hellgate: London. Built entirely upon randomised content, the virtual demon-infested London through which players will be traipsing will have a different layout each time. Essentially, Hellgate offers infinite replayability.
“The social aspect of competing against more than just computer-controlled opponents is what drives the more competitive gamers, and MMOs wouldn’t suck so much time from gamers if there wasn’t a strong community and social aspect to gameplay. Far and away, the most appealing aspect of playing online are the people you’re playing with.”
However, multiple players means that it is more difficult to tell a story. Single-player games, by contrast, are compelling in the way that the player interacts with well-crafted plotlines and characters. However, many would argue that allowing players total control over a game’s story - by essentially removing story completely - cannot result in a particularly engaging narrative.
Read the full article for competing view on this from other developers.
Enjoy
YouGamers Publishes HGL Tech Interview
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007The one that got away! Skipped right over this as I was reporting on YouGamers’ Game-o-Meter for Hellgate: London. The site also has just posted an interview with Flagship Studios’ Director of Technology, Tyler Thompson, about Hellgate: London and the benefits DX10 will provide for gamers.
YouGamers: Having concentrated on just a PC version for the moment (and possibly, for good), did this mean your artists and coders had much more freedom in what they could achieve with the visuals and performance?
Tyler Thompson: Making games for the PC requires thinking about a broad range of hardware. Our artists and programmers had a lot of freedom in some ways, and this allowed them to make some assets and shaders which are relatively complex. We also had to make simplified versions of everything so that we could have a low min-spec.
YouGamers: Since Hellgate: London can use SM4.0, what effects will gamers notice them looking better than in SM2.0?
Thompson: Our DX10 engine has several effects. We have interactive, volumetric smoke which uses the render to volume feature in DX10. We have rain that factors in the direction of the eye and the light direction to read from a texture array. We have a few forms of motion blur. We have soft particles – which helps remove that hard edge that many particle systems display when penetrating the background. We have a better method for computing shadows. We use the improved normal map compression method in the DX10 target as well.
Some nice stills are available in the article as well. Kudos go to Hellgate Guru forumer G-Mann on the find.
– Scapes
HellgateLondon.com Posts Multiplayer FAQ
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007Kaiser Hwang has just updated HellgateLondon.com with a shiny and informative FAQ on Hellgate: London’s multiplayer aspect. Here are some selections from it:
We know many of you still have a lot of questions about Hellgate: London’s multiplayer component. Well, hopefully these many answers will satisfy…
Q: Will I have a single account that lets me play in all territories?
A: For now, you will have to create separate accounts in each territory.Q: Will I be able to create a free account on the European servers using a North American box (and vice versa)?
A: Yes.Q: Why do I need to pay separately for subscription services in Europe and North America?
A: Our billing and accounts services are currently separate in the two territories. We’re looking to rectify this at some point post-release, depending on technical feasibility.Q: So just for clarification: I gave my pre-order Beta code to a friend because I’m in the Alpha and got rolled over. When I receive the actual box, will I get the dye-kit and the Mantawraith, or is that tied to the Beta code?
A: The dye-kit and founder’s offer are tied to the pre-order Beta code. If you want these, you should swap accounts with your friend. The Mantawraith comes with the Collector’s Edition and gets applied to your account when you enter the Reg Key from the CE manual.Q: Will I need to have the DVD in the drive in order to play online?
A: No, there is no disc-based copy protection for the online game.
The full FAQ can be found here.
– Scapes
Community Day Items Released!
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007After what seems like an age, the personalized items named after the Community Day attendees have been publically announced! Here are the ones for Hellgate Guru:
Northrop’s Guru
Hunter Chest
+All Attributes, +Accuracy, +Shields, +Armor, +Hit Points
Scaper-X-Flexers
Hunter Gloves
+Strength, +Accuracy, +%Armor Value, +Stun Defense, +Shields
TEMPLAR ITEMS
Sol’s Invictus
Templar Chest
+%Armor Total Increase, +Defense Against All Special Damage Effects, +Stamina, +Armor, +2 Aura of Defense
Chakl’s Kabuto
Templar Helm
+Armor, +Shields, +All Attributes, +Willpower, +Luck
CABALIST ITEMS
Pyke’s Anorak
Cabalist Shoulders
+Shields, +Willpower, +Power Regen/min, %Chance to cause a Toxic Nova when hit
Mantle of Sulfuric Guru
Cabalist Shoulders
+Shields, +Willpower, +Minion Damage Bonus, +Power Regen/min, +Power Points
Temet Clasps
Cabalist Gloves
WillpowerArmorLegend3, PetDamageBonus3, PetHealthBonus3, OnGotHitSpectralNova3
Balbi’s Ring
Cabalist Belt
+Evoker Skill, +%Critical Chance Bonus, +%Damage Increase, +Ignite Defense
The entire list can be found here. I hereby establish my Scaper-X-Flexers as a currency! Hee. ^_^
– Scapes
What Do A Game-o-Meter, German Rating, And Funny Sword Have In Common?
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007They’re all small pieces of news I’ve put together in this news article. I rarely-if-ever do amalgam postings but these didn’t warrant individual ones. First up, gamer social website YouGamers has created a “Game-o-Meter” for Hellgate: London which allows you to see how your gaming rig stacks up against the title’s system requirements.
Interesting that the Game-o-meter only runs on Windows operating systems. Next up, inHellgate.de’s admin vale has informed me that Hellgate: London has been rated as an adult title in Germany by the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle or USK.
Eurogamer also had a small article on the subject. And lastly, file this one under “Most Bizarre Images From Hellgate: London”. Discovered on 4Gamers a few days ago, these images depict a most curious weapon that looks like it was misplaced from the set of Impossibly Large Sex Toys And The Girls Who Love Them.
All I can say is…OUCH. OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH. (That’s seven, right?)
– Scapes
Hellgate: London - The Big Bad Bosses
Wednesday, September 26th, 2007IGN has updated their website today with a new article that details the bosses of Hellgate London.
Meet Shulgoth.
A beast of some renown, enough so to attain name and rank within the dark legion, Shulgoth guards a Hellrift located off the Templar’s own Covent Garden Station. These Rifts are used by the Demon as staging grounds for localized Demonic incursions. Hell literally pours from tears in the very fabric of our universe - tears that bind the natural to the unnatural. And there stands the beast.
Meet Oculis The All-Seeing.
Like many Demons, Oculis possesses the ability to phase in and out of our universe at will. When drifting across the infernal plane, Oculis is practically invulnerable to conventional attacks. Only when the disgusting creature phases back into our dimension can it be properly engaged.
Meet the Beast of Abadon.
A building with legs, unnatural powers, and meteoric attacks, The Beast of Abadon has long lumbered across London, polluting the very air men breathe with its searing, unquenchable flame of Hell.
Meet…the rest.
These three are but a taste of the villainy to be found rampaging across the once great city of London. Should you wish to meet, greet, and then slaughter them and their brethren, please give Hellgate: London a try this Halloween.
To go with all this, IGN also presents a video of these three bosses.
Thanks goes to HGG member Geishe for the great find.
Enjoy
PC Gamer (Nov. 07) Offers New HGL Tidbits
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007And when I say tidbits, I mean tidbits. Flipping through the issue, I found a few neat little Hellgate: London morsels. Together, they amount to some level of niftyness. For starters, the magazine came packaged with a folded Hellgate: London “Municipal Transit Map” with the word “HELL” burned into it as well as macabre tube station names. Hellgate Guru forumer ScytheNoire has kindly provided us with pictures of it, allowing me to spend time scanning the other HGL crumbs from the issue.
Next up are a trio of Hellgate: London advertisements, a page each. They introduce what is no doubt soon to be a popular battlecry, “I’m going to London.”
After these came an actual mini-article on Hellgate: London, detailing a few of the differences between the DX9 and DX10 versions of the game’s graphics. It includes comparative images of both as well.
Scraping the barrel, I found a response to a letter to the editor which mentions that Bill Roper will be authoring a column next issue for December. Also found were the first Release Meter with a date for Hellgate: London that could be trusted and a teaser for the December issue with appears to have an exclusive front page review of the game, perhaps the first review the game will receive.
Full-sized scans of all of these images can be found here. Time to wait for the December issue of PC Gamer…
– Scapes
GC07 Late Video
Monday, September 24th, 2007Here is a very late video from GC07, however it features an extensive preview by Bill Roper, where he shows off the classes, some of the stations, talks of the game modes and what’s to come for Hellgate. There is also a description of the map system as well as some quests/
It comes from the ViTiVi website, so thanks to kilner for pointing it out.
Enjoy
