Cryptic Studios, the makers of MMOs including Star Trek Online and Dungeons & Dragons MMORPG Neverwinter, have confirmed a number of layoffs due to the ongoing “comprehensive restructuring” of megacorp owner Embracer Group. The “personnel changes” at Cryptic make them the latest Embracer-owned developer to suffer job losses in what continues to be an unrelenting year for thousands of those working in video games.
]]>Cryptic's free-to-play Dungeons & Dragons-lite MMO Neverwinter is one of those fun-looking games that I've only found the time to sink a couple hours into. As such, I'm a little jealous of the folks playing through some of the game's newer high-level modules, including a jaunt through the Underdark and a recently added jungle filled with undead dinosaurs. This week's module - the fourteenth to be added to the game - has my attention, as this one's based on Ravenloft, the ridiculously bleak and gothic D&D setting.
]]>HO HO HO. Christmas is practically upon us, and games eveywhere... well, mostly online... are joining the party. Whether they call it Winter Veil or Frostfell, it's a chance to deck the hubs with bonus XP and let everyone from elves to orcs don Santa hats and hand out treats to the good little wizards and barbarians. Here's a few of the events going on around the worlds over the next week or so. Is there something cool happening in one of your games that you think folks would find fun? Wrap it up nicely in a comment and leave it under the tree. By which I mean the article. Sorry, that metaphor seemed to be going in a better direction at the start of the sentence.
]]>The most dangerous ideas are the ones so compelling, nobody wants to admit they're bad. Also the atom bomb was pretty nasty, but that's a bit out of a weekly RPG column. Instead, let's pick one of the chocolate teapots that people keep mistaking for the Holy Grail - the idea that RPGs can hope to offer anything close to a classic DM experience. It's a terrible idea. It's not going to work. Stop wasting everybody's time.
]]>"Go for the eyes, Boo!" That's a quote from Baldur's Gate. One of the characters says it when attacking enemies. His name is Minsc, and he is a silly man with a pet hamster named Boo. The joke is that he's telling his hamster to attack, but it's just a hamster - and he thinks it's a "miniature giant space hamster" too!
If you enjoyed my dry retelling even though I'm just grasping at someone else's lightning, if you still feeling a twinge of nostalgia at the mention of characters you once adored, hey, you might be into the news that Minsc and Boo are coming to free-to-play D&D MMO Neverwinter [official site].
]]>We're not the world's biggest fans of these traditionally sturctured fantasy MMOs, but Neverwinter is a rare exception. The game lured John into its embrace and cradled him there in a pleasing rhythm of free-to-play questing, levelling and monster-bashing for the length of a three-part diary series. That's old age, in RPS-diary years.
So maybe you're already playing it on John's recommendation, or maybe you saw yesterday's news about the Icewind Dale expansion and decided it was finally time to give it a try. In any case, we've got 10,000 free keys for an in-game booster pack, in case you needed an extra excuse to finally hit download, install and play.
]]>It's been a good decade since Black Isle last took us to Icewind Dale, so how'd you fancy a return visit? This isn't the noughties anymore, mind, so you may find the whole experience a mite different to those old turn-based RPGs. Curse of Icewind Dale, the third big free update for Cryptic's free-to-play Neverwinter, launched yesterday to add new zones set in the chilly land and more modern MMORPG merriment.
]]>Yes they're a (fan-made) real thing. If you have the option to play one and don't, you're basically betraying yourself and all that is good in this world. Get to it. Anyway, on the video-based games front, Perfect World send word that their first major expansion to free-to-play hay-what-this-isn't-all-that-bad-actually MMO Neverwinter has gone live. Fury of the Feywild is based on the fairytale-inspired alternate dimension that is now causing all sorts of bother for our great heroes. Trailer through the portal.
]]>Neverwinter's first big content update, Fury Of The Feywild, is with us in just a couple of weeks. The actually rather good free-to-play MMO peculiarly failed to gouge me of cash as I played through it, so I'm pretty tempted to head back in to look at the new bits and bobs - they'll be free too. There is, at last, a trailer showing some footage of it, albeit very briefly.
]]>There are finally some useful details about Neverwinter's "first" content pack. As we knew it's called Fury Of The Feywild, but other than that they were tight-lipped. Now we know that it's adding a new area, races, weapons and items, more enemies, and so on. And it's out on the 22nd August, and will be freeeeee.
]]>Yes, the MMO set in the Forgotten Realms is almost upon us, officially releasing on June 20th, even though it has been available since April. Despite their name, you may remember the Forgotten Realms from Baldur's Gate or perhaps that one tabletop campaign you played in Derek Chortle's bedroom, which is the other forgotten realm. John has been enjoying the game, despite the presence of other people, and if you want to know how it all works you should read about his adventures. Or you could watch the three minute 'What Is Neverwinter?' video below. It describes the game as a 'love letter'.
]]>As people should be aware by now, I'm in charge of things. I mean, I write The Rules, after all. And come next update, you can be sure they'll feature an entry about whether your F2P game is launched or not. Neverwinter, which I've played to what I'd consider near-completion, has just announced its launch date. No. Its launch date was the 30th April, when it launched, feature complete, and started accepting money for in-game purchases. 20th June is not its launch date, no matter how fast and loose they play with "beta" - it's its first major update.
]]>In the second instalment of our Twenty Bucks series (because we're made of money), John looks at what President Jackson can buy you within the free-to-play halls of Neverwinter. Is it riches beyond your wildest dreams? Or imaginary trinkets that elude your touch. Read on, brave adventurer.
]]>It seems that Neverwinter's had a bit of a weekend. The game was offline for five or six hours after very naughty players discovered an exploit that allowed them to make billions of the game's in-game currency, Astral Diamonds. While that may at first seem problematic, but not too serious, this in-game currency can be used to buy "Zen" from other players, Perfect World's virtual currency bought with real-world money. This sudden flooding of Astral Diamonds into the game's economy broken everything. So the publisher is scrambling to fix things. By turning back time.
]]>The ongoing adventures of a man finding he's been sucked into an MMO for the first time in years. Parts one and two are there.
So I guess I've finished Neverwinter. I've not reached the end of its content, but I've hit the limit of what it seems I'm going to be able to play.
]]>I have apparently taken leave of my entire personality, and am engrossed in an MMO. Worse, I'm *playing with others*. This is about how I came to such a place.
Something's wrong with me. I'm... I'm doing things - things I shouldn't want to do. I'm - and please be understanding - I'm playing nicely with others. For crying out loud, I'm running a guild.
]]>We did it! In what proved to be the most needlessly complicated process, RPS finally has a guild in Neverwinter: The Rotten Realms Of RPS. Right now, I'm in charge of it, which is a ridiculous situation. I've never even been in a guild before. So we'll be looking for volunteers to get it running smoothly, as well as finding out what the maximum number of members is far too soon, I imagine. Details below.
]]>I don't entirely know how to justify why I'm enjoying Neverwinter quite so much. Why I've found excuses to play it nearly the entire weekend, stay up late playing it this week, and even get annoyed that they were doing server maintenance at 8am when I tried to sneak in half an hour before starting work. There's no question that it's very good - it's a superbly made MMO, predictable ongoing server teething problems on launch aside (I'll get to those at the end). It's enormous, jam-packed with so very much to do, extremely approachable, but elaborately complicated if you want it to be. I suppose its biggest crime is to be traditional in its structure, and it turns out that was exactly what I was looking for.
]]>Update: Well, that was a disaster. It turns out the silly game only lets you start a guild if all members of your current party are over level 15, or bought a Founders pack, or transferred Zen into the game. So it didn't happen tonight. However, if those who tick any of those boxes want to email me either via above, or in the game (jennifer@bothererer), we can try to organise something soon.
Sorry I wasn't able to respond to everyone's questions in game - that tiny little chat box and the sheer volume made it impossible.
Cryptic's Neverwinter has just gone live into open beta, not half an hour ago. Which means that now all and sundry can return to the Sword Coast to swash, thieve, bludgeon or feyly dance through it's grrrrr-based adventures. And so it is that it only seems appropriate for there to be an RPS guild within. If you're interested in joining, we'll need some help getting it going - details below.
]]>Neverwinter goes into a proper open beta very soon (today in fact, for those with the head start, 30th for the plebs), and we'll finally be able to have enough time with it to properly get to grips. The all-too-short beta weekends have shown a game that's definitely bursting with potential, not least because of the Foundry in which users can create their own in-game quests and campaigns for others to play. Also, today is the day that Perfect World release the one billionth trailer for the game! Congratulations all involved.
]]>It's not quite "every time a bell rings an angel gets his wings", but there's a saying I hope will lodge in the world's collective unconscious: "Every time Craig Pearson is on RPS, a Neverwinter trailer is released". It's true. Whenever I pretend to be an RPS writer, the guys at Cryptic put out another Neverwinter trailer. For some reason, my being here is inextricably linked to the ebb and flow of audio visual information about a game where wizards are hitting people. I'm here for a couple of days next week, so we'll have definite proof. If they follow up this video of the control wizard in action, then they've definitely hacked into my Google calender. And if that's true, then they know about the.... uh-oh. I'll be right back.
]]>We knew that Neverwinter allowed players to ride giant spiders - that much was obvious - but a new trailer has revealed that they can also ride horses! And there was me thinking those wildly roaming quadrupeds were just for eating.
John had a rather good time with Neverwinter when he played it recently, and the game is currently in beta wot you can sign up for.
]]>After my time spent on the beta weekend with Neverwinter, I've been itching in my chair to get back to the game. It certainly wasn't perfect, but then it's a beta and they're not meant to be, but a couple of days in Cryptic's envisioning of the D&D realms captured a purity of both fantasy and the MMO that made me want to carry on. In the meantime, I'm applying trailer patches to my arms, the latest introducing the Orcs.
]]>Cryptic's Neverwinter had its first beta weekend these last couple of days. I jumped in, rolled a young half-elf, and had a look around for a couple of days. With the game still without a fixed release date, there's clearly still a lot of time for change. But as it stands, here are my hands-on impressions of the game so far.
]]>I've kept Neverwinter at arm's length. I don't know what to think about it. I loved NWN2, and while the series more immediately lends itself to the shared world of an MMO than other BioWare properties, I've got those fan-nerves of seeing a completely separate studio take it on. But then that studio is Cryptic, they of the glorious City Of Heroes, so... I get in a muddle. The good news is, the first beta weekend is coming up tomorrow, so minds can start to be made.
]]>I spent some time typing experimentally into the headline bar "...Wants You To Founder Its Beta Weekend... Founders Keepers... Beta Found Than Neverwintered" and so on. But none of it made any sense. And that is what I came up with. You know. Because drow. Sorry. My powers are gone. Fortunately, by returning to a nest made of shredded RPGs, held together with mucus and bad dreams, those powers can be regenerated. I'll retreat there, probably around February 8-10, March 8-10, and March 22-24, which is when Neverwinter's beta will take place. With its user-generated content and D&D trappings, it should be a healing sort of environment for discombobulated old nerd-wraiths like me. The more excitable among our kind - and those with wallets full of platinum - will like invest in Founders Packs, which are fashionable pre-order garments of the online-gaming catwalk. Or something.
Trailer can be found in the Underdark below! Giant armoured spider mounts from Menzoberranzan! Look over there! *vanishes*
]]>I asked Adam if the Neverwinter remake was out, and he said he thought it was. Then I checked and it turns out it's not. We were both wrong. I was thinking of the Baldur's Gate remake, and Adam just got confused and believed every game ever was released. The boy's been planning a Half-Life 5 marathon, and I had to break it to him. That is the worst part of the job, believe me. He can make a puppy face like no-one else. The best bit is when I get to show you all trailers of upcoming games, especially when they toss around terms like "Great Weapon Fighter". Click your strong internet browser and use your average eyeball lookers to watch it.
]]>No good ever comes from having a creaky old lady narrator. Take Helm's Hold, a healing monastery in Cryptic's upcoming Neverwinter MMO. Its original purpose is to wipe magical curses from the afflicted. A noble place. A safe place. Then the portentous, wobbly narrator starts to speak and you know she's basically invoking trouble. Fiendish cultists have taken over, and now all the people are suffering with itchy magic skin. The recording studio was probably built on an ancient shark burial ground, and her script was likely scrawled on the back of the pattern of the Turin Shroud. Do everyone a favour: take a lozenge and check for bones sticking out the ground whenever you're at a recording session. Neverwinter was such a nice place before you came along.
]]>I'm still feeling pretty on-the-fence about Cryptic's Neverwinter MMO-that-wasn't-but-then-was-again - primarily because 1) it's another fantasy MMO and 2) Neverwinter Nights was kind of the greatest. But, if nothing else, Neverwinter's looking to at least preserve a bit of the BioWare build-o-tron classic's spirit. That is to say, you can make anything your heart desires - so long as your heart desires an MMO mission that can be designed within Neverwinter's (impressively robust) Foundry toolset. Follow a user-created web of lies, deceit, breath-taking plot twists, intrigue, and charmingly rogue-ish quips after the break for precious, precious details.
]]>It's been a little while since we caught up with Neverwinter - the last glimpse being the Blackdagger Keep trailer at the start of this month - but things are continuing to tick along towards the game's "early 2013" release. D&D types will know what to expect from the Guardian Fighter class, which appears below as the first part of Neverwinter's class profiles series. He is, pleasingly, a tanky bastard.
Look below!
]]>There's eventually some nice in-game footage of the combat in Neverwinter in the new trailer, revealed via PAX this weekend. The game is set for release early next year, but in the meantime you can find out more about skull-faced pirate, Blackdagger, below.
]]>I came here to tell you about something pertaining to Cryptic's Neverwinter MMO-that-nearly-wasn't, but then - at the 11th hour - my post got delayed into 2013. The news is, of course, disappointing for many of you, but we're confident that we can use the extra development time to bring you a more polished, visceral post with double the number of guns and sextuple the number of puns. In the meantime, though, I can discuss the delay of another, entirely unrelated game. Let's call it Neverminter. And imagine that the N is upside-down.
]]>If you can ignore the bizarre choice to spend 30 seconds showing the faces of a crowd looking at a screen showing Neverwinter footage you can't see, then the video below will eventually show some "pre-alpha" (which I always thought meant drawings on a whiteboard) in-game content for the Cryptic MMO.
]]>It might just be me, but the tone of this first Neverwinter MMO trailer seems like it's about to break into being a send-up at any moment. I was sat waiting for the punchline that never comes. Anyway, it's basically illustrating that the game's dungeons will be heavy on the story elements, which seems to make sense, given the Dungeons & Dragonsness of it all. Also appropriate: a dragon. The game - which was recently reworked as a free-to-play MMO - will appear next year.
]]>It's not quite clear what IGN's source is for this, but according to them the Dungeons & Dragons online-RPG Neverwinter, which Cryptic said originally was "an old-school tactical Western RPG", but online, is apparently an now MMO more "closer to a game like Nexon's Vindictus". So a free-to-play one where action dominates. Quite how this contrasts against what Cryptic's Jack Emmert told us previously is detailed in part through the link (and mainly consists of learning the lessons of Star Trek and Champions going free), but it doesn't actually seem like that a big a change to me.
]]>You might recall that last year I talked to Cryptic's Jack Emmert about the MMO he called "an old school Western tactical RPG". It's Neverwinter, a game that also, apparently, marks a new direction for the studio. You can see some of the fruits of that new direction over on the official site, and also in the teaser trailer below.
Looks like a fantasy action-RPG to me! Yes sir. The most interesting aspect of this, of course, is that Cryptic are planning to let people come up with their own dungeons, with their own fictions, to be installed in the world. If they pull it off it could be a genuinely interesting spin on the way these kinds of games work.
]]>It looks like Atari, recently the focus of negative attention after Test Drive Unlimited developer Eden Games went on strike due to their treatment, are looking to gather some more cash. Via PCG we see Gamespot spotted the news that the publisher is selling Cryptic, the studio behind Star Trek: Online and Champions: Online.
]]>It's been fascinating to watch the MMO scene evolving over the past couple of years, and seeing the various players stepping away from traditional models. Now it seems to be Cryptic's turn. After City Of Heroes, Champions and Star Trek, they are now looking at creating something a little different: Neverwinter, a D&D game that appeals to both the adventurer and the Dungeon Master, relying as it does on an amalgam of Cryptic's own content and user-generated dungeons for its ongoing adventures. Cryptic's bossman Jack Emmert has already spoken in interviews about how he felt that Champions and Star Trek lacked polish, and in this interview he speaks about what that realisation means for Neverwinter, and why this game represents a new era for the company that originally set out to make MMOs.
]]>Confirming rumours from a previous point in our temporal existence, Cryptic are "do"ing a new Neverwinter game. Specifically, called "Neverwinter". From the details in its press release and about page, it's a persistent world Neverwinter Nights (Including content creation tools) based around co-operative groups of five (with the computer controlling the NPCs if you haven't got the right number) plus fourth edition D&D rules (which is a definite plus for Co-op groups, I suspect) and all the character customisation that Cryptic excel at (though you are kind wonder how much variety can you get out of dudes wearing leather). Interestingly, it's also a "multi-platform event". Except it doesn't mean consoles. It means a trilogy of novels and a tabletop roleplaying game. Man, I hope we don't have to dumb the game down for those readers. It's planned before the end of next year and I find myself tentatively excited. Yay? Yes, yay.
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