When game developers started packing up last spring to work from home due to the Covid-19 pandemic, I suspect we all knew it was going to be a bumpy ride. Sure enough, there have been game delays galore over the past year as many studios found the adjustment to be a challenge. On the bright side, some seem to have really taken to it. Hi-Rez Studios, the folks behind Smite and Paladins, say "the pandemic has taught us new ways to work that we believe are superior to our previous way of operation." They'll be encouraging 80% of their 435 employees to work remotely if they choose to.
]]>Hi-Rez, the developers of Smite and Paladins, don’t have it easy. They compete head-on with Blizzard’s juggernauts; with their fingers stuck in the same hero-shooter-flavoured pies the comparisons are inevitable, and rarely favourable. Depending on whose questionable extended metaphors you listen to, you might hear it argued that they spend their time looking at where their competitors’ fingers are, and then follow suit.
You might also hear that their games can be uneven, or poorly managed. Some of that rings true, though much is hyperbole. Hi-Rez have made a few missteps, but that’s partly because they take a lot of steps in general.
]]>The Smite and Paladins World Championships didn't get off to an impressive start. Several thousand fans gathered around several adjacent screens occupying the back wall of Dreamhack Atlanta, each blasting out hype reels with near identical scripts. It was cookie-cutter drama played in disconcerting semi-stereo, leaving me uncomfortable in half a dozen different ways.
]]>You'll often hear Hi-Rez described as a company living in Blizzard's shadow. Sometimes, that rings true. Other times, they go ahead and reveal a black female character for Paladins the week after Overwatch fails to - a character named Imani, a mobile damage dealer that can turn into a dragon. You win this round, Hi-Rez.
They've also revealed plans for the Assembly of Champions, an elected group of eight players who'll collaborate with the devs from the start of next year. I'm at the Hi-Rez Expo in Atlanta, and had the chance to ask Paladins brand director Alex Cantatore about both dragons and democracy.
]]>Two weeks ago, I was sat in a dive bar so scuzzy it was practically underwater. It was there my friend told me he spent nearly all his time playing Paladins on his Xbox, and I learnt two things. 1) Paladins must be bigger than I thought, and 2) platform restrictions can make me sad.
Today, in the opening announco-blast of Atlanta's Hi-Rez Expo, Hi-Rez announced that cross-platform play is coming to Paladins, Realm Royale and Smite.
]]>The developers behind Paladins, Smite, Realm Royale, and Tribes: Ascend today announced they're formally splitting into distinct new studios to handle their big games (no, not including Tribes) under an overarching publisher. At the very least, this should assuage some fears about Hi-Rez's track record of ditching older games when their limited teams shifted over to newer games. For now, it seems their three core games are secure. Hi-Rez are also opening two new arms, one company focused on running esports events and the other making art assets. To speak in business terms, all of Hi-Rez's limbs are possessed by alien parasites and wrenching out their sockets to skitter off on lives of their own.
]]>We've just passed the half-way point of 2018, so Ian Gatekeeper and all his fabulously wealthy chums over at Valve have revealed which hundred games have sold best on Steam over the past six months. It's a list dominated by pre-2018 names, to be frank, a great many of which you'll be expected, but there are a few surprises in there.
2018 releases Jurassic World Evolution, Far Cry 5 Kingdom Come: Deliverance and Warhammer: Vermintide II are wearing some spectacular money-hats, for example, while the relatively lesser-known likes of Raft, Eco and Deep Rock Galactic have made themselves heard above the din of triple-A marketing budgets.
]]>I’m surprised by how much I like Realm Royale, the free-to-play battle royale spin-off to Hi-Rez's Paladins. This is battle royale by way of wizards, and an even goofier spin on the genre than Fortnite’s. Neither has the same tension as Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, but - oddly - this isn’t really a game about tension. This is a game about soaring into the air, whacking down a fireball and getting turned into a chicken when your flashy plan falls apart.
]]>Take the class-based wizard shooter action of Paladins, riff on the battle royale modes whizzing all over games these days, and bish bash bosh you've got Realm Royale. Hi-Rez's Paladins spin-off, which previously bore the remarkably cheeky name Paladins Battlegrounds, has now properly launched onto Steam Early Access, letting all play for free. Are you a bad enough wizard to murder like 99 other wizards? Throwing magical class abilities into the battle royale mix might make for interesting team-building in squads, so I'm curious about this one myself.
]]>It feels almost unfair to call free-to-play 'hero shooter' Paladins an Overwatch clone, but then I look at screenshots like the one above, and another one with a big n' heavy character with a chain-hook attack and... yeah, it's pretty clear that Paladins is riding on Blizzard's coattails. But it's also fun, good-looking, and free to jump into. It's been a regular in Steam's top ten most played games for some time, and has officially left early access as of today.
]]>Free-to-play class-based FPS Paladins will launch properly next week, developers Hi-Rez Studios (the Smite lot) announced today, on Tuesday the 8th of May. It's been in open beta testing for almost twenty months, long enough that I'd forgotten it's not actually out-out, and added heaps of heroes and things since then - as well as dabbling in battle royale. Development won't end when it hits version 1.0, of course, but it will be done enough to remove that "early access" label.
]]>The thing about battle royale modes, right, is that the broad principle can be bent to many different games across different genres. They needn't be 'Playerunknown's Battlegrounds but with...' (Plunkbuts, as I'm sure you already know 'em). Robocraft doing battle royale with weird warbots is pretty decent and certainly different, and now battle royale is meeting class-based fantasy action in Paladins' Battlegrounds mode. Yes, that name is gobsmackingly cheeky. But while the name is a rip-off, the game might offer something different. We can see for ourselves now, as Hi-Rez Studios today launched Paladins Battlegrounds into public alpha testing and it's free to play.
]]>The Battle Royale genre brewed for a few years, shifting and gurgling trying to find a stable form until Playerunknown's Battlegrounds burst out the barrel and engulfed the world in its murderous foam. Now everyone's drunk on last-man-standing murder and--watch out!--here comes Paladins stumbling down the digital alley, announcing plans to mix its class-based shooter action with a new Battle Royale mode. It's shamelessly named Paladins: Battlegrounds but might at least turn up something different, as the different classes (sorry, 'heroes' or 'champions' or whatever) and team compositions mean everyone should bring more variety than the usual Royale 'em up blank slates.
]]>Another year over, a new one just begun, which means, impossibly, even more games. But what about last year? Which were the games that most people were buying and, more importantly, playing? As is now something of a tradition, Valve have let slip a big ol' breakdown of the most successful titles released on Steam over the past twelve months.
Below is the full, hundred-strong roster, complete with links to our coverage if you want to find out more about any of the games, or simply to marvel at how much seemed to happen in the space of 52 short weeks.
]]>Playing Paladins is like walking into a supermarket in another country: you recognise most of the stuff in there, but everything is slightly wrong. But where exotic hypermarches have tubes of Prângles, cartons of Jiffy Cakes, and peanut-flavoured toothpaste, Paladins has bizarro versions of characters from Dota 2, Team Fortress, and Overwatch.
]]>Remember the support champ Jenos who was teased as the upcoming new lad for team brawler Paladins [official site]? I can now give you some in-depth details on his skillz thanks to finally having time to pick through the handy dandy patch notes! So who is Jenos, the Ascended and why is he currently descending?
]]>I remember when team-based FPS Paladins [official site] only had eight characters, when all this was fields *gestures expansively* and when Beanie Babies were a financial investment on a par with an art collection or a real estate portfolio. Cut to the present day where Beanie Babies are now Beanie Millennials drowning in debt and avocado toast, fields are something I invoke only in jokes and Paladins is welcoming a THIRTIETH champ: Jenos, the Ascended.
]]>A new champ is always a good reason to check back in with Hi-Rez's free-to-play team FPS, Paladins [official site]. This time it's Willo, of the Summer Court. As you can probably tell from the header image and the name, Willo is a nature-themed fairy creature. Skimming her kit she seems to be a mobile pain in the bum, chucking out damage and getting in the way of healing. I like how anti-heal abilities can make a character feel spiteful and that taps into the less cutesy folklore around fairy creatures.
]]>Day 2 of EGX Rezzed 2017 is underway in That London, where Tobacco Dock [nb: I've discovered it does have a boat but still neither boat trips nor fags -ed.] is filled with games, talks, and lights for three days. We're Rezzed's official "media partner" so we've dispatched Pip, Adam, Graham, and a poorly Alec to poke around, host some talks, interview some developers, and look proud of our 'Cave of Wonders' showcase. To slack off, in other words.
Tonight they're going to the pub 'on official RPS business' and you're invited. I'm not, but you are. So to ensure they continue generating content while swanning about, I'm making them send me updates throughout their day.
]]>Paladins [official site] is a sci-fi-fantasy first-person shooter in which two teams of five do battle, with each player controlling a 'champion' who has a customisable hot bar of skills and who can be upgraded across the course of a round. It's colourful and popular, but it's also been accused of being overly similar to Blizzard's Overwatch. Adam, Brendan, Graham and Pip gathered to play it for an afternoon, and now gather again to discuss those similarities, whether the free-to-play model helps or hurts it, and whether they'd want to play it more.
]]>Paladins is a first-person shooter in which you customise your characters by building a deck of cards between matches. It's made by Hi-Res, developers of Smite, and also draws on elements of MOBAs and MMOs. It entered open beta last week and at the time we gave away 10,000 codes to unlock the 'Black Ice' skin for one of its champions, a frost/ice witch named Evie. Those keys were gone with 24 hours, so here's a second batch of 10,000. Have at it.
]]>The dates for the Smite World Championship have been announced for 2017: 5-8 January. This time around it will be taking place alongside a Paladins Invitational as well as the existing Xbox version of the professional Smite [official site] scene.
In fact, all the accompanying bells and whistles mean developers Hi-Rez are referring to the Atlantan shindig as the Hi-Rex Expo rather than the Smite World Championships nowadays.
]]>When I was out at Hi-Rez Studios earlier this month the developers gave a presentation about Paladins [official site]. At some point during the presentation CEO Erez Goren crashed the stage and joined in the Q&A (which then turned into an impromptu game dev meeting). As part of that I asked for a bit more information about how flexible the team see the in-game champions as being. The answer touches on character identity and how the players currently approach variation – they want more characters with narrower skillsets and not jacks of all trades.
]]>"Gonna wash that man right out of my hair."
This is both a fantastically useful response to a) a failed relationship and b) to being a long-suffering treant in Smite who has spent their entire time having to carry an elderly god in your branches and have now decided it's time to go it alone in Hi-Rez's FPS game, Paladins [official site].
[Translation: A Smite character's mount is joining the Paladins roster as a standalone hero.]
]]>"It's a card game but it's a shooter but it's a MOBA but it's kinda not and there's characters… JUST MAKE IT WORK!"
Rory "Drybear" Newbrough is laughing as he talks to me about the process of creating Paladins: Champions of the Realm [official site], Hi-Rez's shooter where in-game progression comes comes via a collectible card system. I've been trying out the closed beta and had a whole heap of questions about where the game came from and where it's going. Lead designer Newbrough (and studio president Stew Chisam) were on hand to answer:
]]>Paladins: Champions of the Realm [official site], the next from Smite devs Hi-Rez, is now in closed beta. It's a 5 vs 5 shooter in which you must capture control points, escort siege engines, and destroy your opponent's base, but where the real twist is that your character levels over the course of a match, allowing you to choose from a selection of cards and build a deck of skills as you play. You can apply for closed beta access the traditional way or get in immediately by buying a Founder's Pack version of the game.
]]>Y'seen those folks behind Tribes: Ascend and Smite are working on a new free-to-play FPS, right? After showings at shows, Hi-Rez Studios are now ready to show Paladins [official site] to those of us who didn't schlep ourselves to shows to see the showings. Show. Show? Showww.
Which is to say Hi-Rez have dropped a trailer showing bits of gameplay alongside scenes of people using computers and people wearing their smartest casual clothes talking about the game. Observe:
]]>After starting out under ye olde subscription model with their first game, Global Agenda, Hi-Rez Studios turned it free-to-play and have stuck that way since. Over-the-shoulder MOBA Smite was the first game of theirs that seemed to really take off (poor, dear, sweet Tribes: Ascend, left to fade away). Now they've announced another F2P game, and another FPS - a fantasy "strategic team-based shooter" named Paladins [official site].
It sounds a bit MOBA-y to me. This being Gamescom week, they don't have much to say about Paladins just yet but will be yammering all about and showing everyone in a few days.
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