MAX PAYNE & ANARCHY ONLINE REVIEWS AND STRATEGIES / 2 = Z ce iv ey ed g Lad | yi *- ~ BY PY.) SS ¥4( ve es Exclusive! 3 , j eee { i . “(ee ‘rio! -) ne mmm CU Cm A Amt aBy Jeff Green ra at will Blizzard do next?" It’s a question we love to 1’ ' oe Cielo ag Ere tee a Re Meta ‘So when Blizard announced that they were going to reveal their next project this September, the speculation ran rampant, a usual, as fanboys and industry dorks alike started guessing at the possibilities. STARCRAFT 2? Massively multiplayer DIABLO? Nines one sccm isa ie mel ‘September 2 at ECTS in London—and, as usual, everyone Pee Cot ge os P= oO Rea A sively multiplayer RPG set in the WARCRAFT universe, And Elst meres) eS ene ee ee eRe) (uM Nc ee Cooma s: ))-SV eu me Cog their fantasy universes. Finally, instead of commanding troops RONAN g | Oe seon eis i eel ene s sory Neco ais next 40 pages, the ereen-skinned CGW, peons are feady to take You on a tour of the now-living Pee Ce a LaIn WARCRAFT Il Blizzard will introduce a third race for player characters: the Tauren, huge ‘creatures who live in a peaceful, tribal so- ciety. They are a wise, nomadic race, who ally with the Ores in WARCRAFT Ill because they identify with the Ore struggle to retain their traditions and identity. The Tauren live in the grassy lands of central Kalimdor; theit only natural enemies are the brutal cen- taurs of Kalimdor, who have raided Tauren vil lages for genera- \ fk \) Bizzars. There wasn't much to think about ne ree Perens Rie ari a s any serious WARCRAFT geek knows, Blizzard has long had 2 huge story in place for its flag ship univorse—but most of that tory never appeared in the {games themselves. But the WARCRAFT | and I designers were obsiously fstrated story tellers, because they packed the manuals ‘and subsequent novels with details of a deeply thought-out fantasy worl (some. \what reminiscent of Raymond Feis’s great Rftwar Saga) that has just begged for fur ther enrichment. Blizzard tried to build on the story in the neverveleased WARCRAFT AOVENTURES, and the fact that they're com- ing back to it again—this time in an oniine RPG—just proves the level of their obses: The simple fact is that WARCRAFT is our flagship gig.” said Chris Metzen, longtime Biizard veteran and "keeper of the arcane flame" of al WARCRAFT continuity. “DIABLO hicks ass, STARCRAFT kicks ass—I'm partial (OF WARCRAFT may represent a quantum leap in ambition, scope, and technology ‘ver anything they've done previously, at root, this is stil going to be a Blizzard game—with all the simpliciy, ease-of-use, ‘and—in theory—fun that that implies, AT YOUR SERVICE From the moment you launch WORLD OF WARCRAFT, Blzard aims to make the ‘Dude, how cool would it be to be in this world, to be those heroes?" to.allof them. But ultimately, we were like this is tthe WARCRAFT universe is Iwas a perfect fit for this kind of game. ‘And while it may seem odd for Blizzard to \ be announcing another new WARCRAFT game while they'e stil struggling to finish WARCRAFT Ill (now bumped to 2002), the fact 's, WORLD OF WARCRAFT has been in development fora year already, wth a team of nearly 40 people working on it ful time. ‘When we flew down to check out the game in mid-August, the team demo’ed it ive, on a running server, with other Blizzard employ es for a full hour ‘And the great news is that while WORLD experience as simple as in al oftheir other ames, Like all MMORPGS, you'l start out by creating your character. At this point, Blizzard is announcing only three of the player races: Human, Orc, and Tauren. The fist two we all know about, while the fatter isa race being introduced in WARCRAFT I (see sidebar) Players will have a healthy number of options for making their characters stand cut physically, because the team realizes that in MMORPGS, as in real life, looks do matter. As such, Blizzard is including loads of options for character creation, including humerous facial choices, hai (of, in the Taurens’ case, horn) siyles, skin colors, andeven tattoos. Armor and y huge, of course, and (as in DIABLO) the acqu: ition and wearing of unique, bad-ass items ur character stand ‘ reveal character classes y that they'll fit into the rSe—S0 you can at least Standard mix of warriors, spelicas. iers—and you can look to the FTI (and Ill, when it ships) manuals, for further id st interesting part about character creation in WORLD OF WARCRAFT is what you don't do. At the b you don’t assign shill points at all. That's right: no numbers, You'l pick and your * hen you jump into the game want this all tobe really, really simple, ngtime Blizard veter ime, long aj fed all the 10 WARCRAFT I). "We don't want you to make choices about things without any infor we don't want you sudden stats and sks that you hi ut. Much like DIABLO I, the right stats for acter type. But as you play and start learning n points, and i dumb down the REG W's simply a ma tying to do iis create a game to learn and hard to m as many on the team repeated through the current massive id Roper, “the truth mostly to the hard ore. The interface is very dificult, the eis too steep, and they punish y rely too early ct lead Shane Dab added, “For lots of people, you gotta remember, i's stil scary to POM ee oe nr even go muti- PAM co! aramp jungles of Stranglethorn. WARCRAET players will recognize the goblin zep= Cec uct eRe ue A,Feature: World of WarCraft Harvest Golem ‘Stranglethorn Jungle, a previously unseen area in Azeroth, shows off the bright color palette Blizzard is going for in WORLD OF WARCRAFT. ‘The large green fellow on the left is not of a multi-part quest. The treant shakes the player's screen slightly when he's nearby, and shakes it a lot when you kill him, READY TO SERVE Once you create your character and enter ‘Azeroth, it becomes clear just how serious Blizzard is. The team has created a brand: ‘new 3D engine for the game, which you ‘can View from a fist- or third- person perspective (easily switchable with the mouse Whee!) and itis a marvel. Unite neatly every other massively multiplayer ‘game around, WORLD (OF WARCRAFT is not Boing for a “photore alistic™ look with lots of earth tones. itis instead opting for a more surreal and colo look that is faithful to the WARCRAFT palette, and that feels, as Roper put it, “almost like you're inside a painting For Metzen, this look was crucial. “It was a very specific goal for us, to glom onto the WARCRAFT look and try to extrapolate it into first-person universe. We were looking for something more iconic; we wanted a level (of mightiness not found in other games. ‘And that's what this game is about: mighty dudes doing great deeds. mere shrubbery. He's a bad-ass monster called a treant, and he was the “end boss" Coyera To ge the world a “Ive" feel, the team has added large environmental effects tke ‘moving water and skies, along with more subtle effects like swaying cobwebs and fly ing butterflies and birds. More important, all the monsters and NPCs in the gameworld ate always doing something. NPCs don't stand around waiting for you to come to them; they have assignments, such as patroling, guarding, oF hunting, You may even see a line of peons chopping wood. You traverse the world mostly on foot at first, though higher-level characters wil gain items lke teleport scrolls. The world is ‘going to be huge, encompassing at least a ‘200d portion of Azeroth as depicted in the WARCRAFT Il manual, along with new areas depicted in WARCRAFT IlI—though Blizzard declined to be more specific on this point. Perniaps the coolest element of travel ‘and a feature that all veteran massively multiplayer gamers are going to shout out loud about—is that there are no load times between zones. The word is streaming, 2 in DIABLO I, so that you actually experi fence a smooth transition as you move from one ervironment to the next, with no load screen whatsoever. We actually saw this work, so unless Blizzard was usingMog ana. To cast « the blue ‘smoke and mirtors to fool us, they've already solved a major MMORPG head: ache. In addition, every player will have the ability to bind to a location via huge binding stones scattered throughout the world—so you won't have to beg another player to do it for you right Mica Sur Mees wait an hour to lure one creature out and then spend 10 minutes trying to kil him, (We don’t fee ike you should be reading 1 book or doing your laundry during com bat,” said Roper.) Death is going to be made somewhat less painful than in the curtent crop of MMORPGs. “We want i to be not terribly ‘So what, exactly, are you going to be doing in WORLD OF WARCRAFT? Combat, obviously, wil play a huge cole. (Yes, there will be playerversus-piayer—and yes, you ‘can avoid it if you want.) Blazard is promis ing, however, that battles will happen faster ‘and more often than is typical of the genre. It won't be quite as frenetic as DIABLO Il, bt on the other hand, you won't have to jarring," said Dabir, “You've gotta be sorry when you die, but you shouldn't fee! lke you just got punched in the stomach and want to go ery for a week. You've got to want. to jump right back in and ty to do better, rather than shut the computer off and think ‘the game screwed m Blzard is also stressing, however, that players will be able to gain experience from activities other than combat, such as going on quests, practicing trade stil, helping other players, and maybe even just exploring. Quests wil range from easy, Solo missions that you can doin ane or two hours, to large-scale quests that may involve many players roaming all ver the word for weeks. Blizard demonstrated a sample quest for Us, a multipart one that requited us to trav €l to different locations. The original quest, fBven to us by an NPC, isto destroy a strange tree beast that attacks folks out in a jungle. On our way, we discover that we eed a specific weapon, a flaming blade called the Firestar, to defeat him, but that ——WIDE Le teney fetelneM eS about: Durty dudes doing great deeds. separated, 0 battle some monsters in a'ocal graveyard, and to get the blade, we need to find the thief in town both ogether for us and we're on our way. And the bonus, after we've illed the tree beast, is that row we have a flaming s ‘A Human fights two ghouls. Damage appears onscreen, leaving the chat Window free for its intended purpose. UM au NC a TE toward a huge keep in Iron Forge— VASA rae ey ery Peres enum d fos FOR THE ALLIANCE Of course, the game is really all about other players. Blizzard is fo attention Cipating in the commun with others, exciting is that of ritual ill require multiple casters to use. The exam ple they demonstrated for us was a ritual ual is that all the casters can then tra i sis barred to anyone else. So if you're one of the plein the world who ean do cert al magic yone will know it, and you're going to be a popular player. ‘Another good reason to group with othersFeature: World sai aie ren and Human players band her to fight gnolls near the wood border. This bridge will actually take you to another zone, but, unlike other MMORPGS we've seen, you'll get there without a filled in with more detail than maps of other classes. If you group with a ranger, you will receive that bonus, as long as you stay with him. Because different races will have different classes, this will also aon encourage players of different races to band together. Ores and Humans, banding together? We're not sure. And Blizzard isnt telling, WORLD OF WARCRAFT actually takes place about five years after the conclusion lof WARCRAFT Ill—and whether these mortal enemies can now live in peace is a plot spoiler that Blizzard will not reveal, Differences in faction definite wil be @ part of the game, how Te eee, how you conduct yourselt, of course, wil also affect how the other denizens of Azeroth respond to you WORK Ital sounds good now, in theory. But will Blizzard really be able to pul this off, avoid ing all the technical problems that have plagued nearly every other game of this type? So far, they remain confident. ‘We've leamed a lot from battle.net over the years, both good and bad,” said Roper. it's stil the largest online multiplayer game service, so we have lots to draw upon, choi snouia or doing zn (J Obviously wo're not going to be running WORLD OF WARCRAFT on DIABLO II realms, because it's a completely clilferent para digm. But we can utlize the full breadth and scope of our knowedge on getting hundreds of thousands of people online h each other really simpy. Blizzard wil be setting up multiple realms (on servers around the word for WORLD OF WARCRAFT, and the company plans to maintain a full-time staff with SNe oe Rec esn't make me feel real Cio Two Humans and an Ore standing around looking cool in Goldshire. Ore and Human players will be able to play together—but you'll have to that relationship to make it happen. Duskwood is the creepy forest to the south of the Human capital. Blizzard is hoping to make each area c¢ pl with a graphical look that puts you inside of a painting.: World of WarCraft A human character casts Word of Recall to return to his bind point. All characters will be able to bind them- selves to a region—you won't have to seek someone's help to do it. Here's Blizzard's latest version of their fantasy World of Azeroth. ‘They're basing the geographical lay- fut on the maps from the strategy games, but are adding areas, like Stranglethorn, that we've never seen before, ora responsiblity of continuing to create new Content for the game. "We think of tas an ‘amusement park moti” said Metzen, "We want you to keep coming back again and ‘again, to keep tying new things. And our job willbe to keep the lines short and keep chang ing up the rides.” Blizzard is also promising to conduct extensive beta testing and swears they're joing to take their time with it. “The beta test is actually the big factor here,” said Roper. "We can't tell you ift's going to be ‘one month or one year. We put the biggest pressure on ourselves. Ifa game ships on time, but it doesn’t work and i's not fun, then who cares? We've always fel i's much more important to get a game right ‘when it comes out, so that four years later people are stil playing it because it's @ ‘Rood game. So what does that mean for a release date? It means, unfortunately, that there ise't one. "No matter what date we tell you you're not gonna believe us," said Roper. *So we don't have a release date.” ‘And that was the only lousy thing we'd heard all day. FOR THE KING ‘With WORLD OF WARCRAFT, Blizzard is veering away from familiar terrain ano ‘entering an extremely competitive gaming landscape fraught with hazards—as the frazzled teams of EVERQUEST, ANARCHY CONUNE, WORLD WAR II ONLINE, and others would ail attest. But i's a challenge that clearly has Blizzard jazzed, “Huge communities have alvays built upSunset over the Swamp of Sorrows, near the Ores' Dark Portal, around our games, from WARC to interact Thon. multi lust the next logical step. exciting to us is siting around and about a gam ‘thave a chat room. Tae cos See arc and hundreds of hours lost OU Cue a ou ene ek CL ore ca ny Po aM uae Blizzard kept vowing that the incredible amount of new gameworld content in ‘WC3 will have a huge impact on the erie ea ea era So how long until we can see that 200- percent increase in content and start be talking to other p all the time. I's exciting s and gamers. You'l yur char Us as develop thal last part is why Blizzard always gets it right: At root, they are gamers like the rest of us. The 1 OF WARCRAFT becaus that they want to play Pe ee eee Ly Patt Well, not until spring of 2002. The good news is that Blizzard has nailed Peo een ee cence SOU eee cna Roney cae) ‘come (an intemal beta should be Meo Rui Os Mio eure aus for all the races, adding new low-poly Dect aa Pere aac Ores versus Humans in the Iron Forge mountains. 001 would it be to be in that those heroes, and adventure in the places we fought all those massive batties in? Dude, we couldn't agree more, p, finish W ‘and let us into the world. The kingdom of Azeroth needs heroes like us. They're tweaking the tech tree for all tae eS h Peer tian ay aviary for the Humans. Lumber har. Nee eee Renee Ly Reena etc Pr UCn ae cuate) Sea eer players from hacking down entire forest walls. Additionally, a great deal Oo uO ear RCS CSCO n eeu) Cree eI as aoc eerie es of certain races. Oh, and there's that little matter of actually creating a Pree each mate the story line Is pretty well set and the CMU ea en en kuCrcs Oe NCC Ren ee What we saw looks good. From the Rio mien eC Rcy CON usa enue Pe eae es Cerra Gas eco well on its way to delivering a great Po oe oe ey