naut
07-29-2010, 17:34
So I'm a LEGO fanboy and I just received my LEGO Universe BETA Key. Let me just say.... EPIC!
For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about:
LEGO Universe Impressions (http://www.gamepro.com/article/previews/215572/lego-universe-impressions&a=2)
It has every kind of LEGO brick ever made featured in it, and the way it allows you to build with them is so advanced that you can even follow real-world LEGO instructions to build objects. All that, plus it's a full-on MMO too.
What we're talking about: LEGO Universe, the massively multiplayer online game that uses blocks and minifigs. It’s LEGO. You might have heard of it, right?
Where we saw it: A behind closed doors demo at E3 where the game was demonstrated by the team from NetDevil. The beta, which is currently running, was also available for play on the show floor.
E3 2010: LEGO Universe Impressions
What you need to know:
* Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and NetDevil announced this week that the game will be out on October 26. If you want to get it even earlier than that, you’ll be able to go to a LEGO store, or LEGOland and buy it on October 12. If you do this, you’ll be dubbed a “Founder.”
* The game will be available for both PC and Mac on day one. Apparently it was one of the most requested things that the team at NetDevil heard when they asked for feedback on the game.
* Even though you may look at it and think it’s aimed squarely at kids because it’s a game where toys are brought to life, it’s actually a full-on MMO with some incredibly in-depth features. If you have any interest in LEGO, it seems that there’s something in this game for you.
* This information isn’t necessarily new, but it’s worth stating here. The storyline is set in an alternate universe that’s populated by LEGO minifigs. In the past, a team of minifigures sought out the essence of pure imagination, and once they found it inadvertently unleashed a dark power known as the Maelstrom. This form of “dark” imagination is able to turn minfigs and LEGO creatures into Stromlings. Bad guys, basically. In order to defeat the Maelstrom the good guys formed an organization called the Nexus Force, whose job it is to protect the remaining sources of imagination in the universe. Nexus Force is divided into three factions with different philosophies; the Assembly, who specialize in building things from LEGO, the Sentinels, who specialize in combat, and the Venture League, who specialize in exploring.
* At the beginning of the game, players can create their own minifig and enter the game. Unlike many MMO titles, there is no specific “job” system to LEGO Universe. Instead, everything is object based, so players can adapt their character to the needs of the task at hand or the environment. This is intended to mimic the adaptability of LEGO.
* LEGO minifigs never die, instead they just fall apart. At their heart is a spark of imagination - the central “mana” resource of the LEGO universe.
* Quests are mainly centered around pushing back the Stromlings and protecting sources of imagination, but the methods for doing this are firmly rooted in LEGO culture. Superficially, the game plays a little like the TT Games LEGO titles. When you attack things or break scenery they break into pieces, and there’s a lot of item collection. The primary collectibles in the game are sources of imagination, health, and LEGO blocks. It’s the latter that makes things really interesting though.
* Many of the objectives in the game require building items from blocks. Sometimes this can be performed in a very similar way to that in, say LEGO Star Wars, but the more complicated stuff requires the player to collect bricks and then enter a special mode by donning a creativity hat. When wearing the hat, the focus is entirely on the building of objects, and all game-world threats are suspended. Early on, players are introduced to the concept by having to build a simple rocket ship that will take them to their first quest. A number of pieces are available, and a wide range of possible ships can be constructed by moving the appropriate pieces into place and connecting them together. Once completed, the player takes off the creativity hat and the object appears in the world and can be used.
* It’s not just quest items that can be built. The game offers personal spaces where you can construct a “home” out of LEGO pieces that you have collected. There are numerous pre-built building pieces that can be clicked together, or they can be broken down to their constituent, individual bricks.
* The game features every kind of brick that LEGO has ever produced, and only those bricks. There are thousands of them though, and their supply in the game is plentiful.
* Because you can break everything in the build mode into individual bricks, it’s actually possible to follow real-world LEGO plans, and construct items brick-for-brick in LEGO Universe. To help this, the game has a clever sorting and filtering system for sifting through the bricks. Instead of virtually “rummaging” the way we do with the real stuff, in Universe you can give the game the parameters of the piece you need, and it’ll sort through your collected blocks for you.
* You can build pretty much anything you want, plus you can apply behavior to all of these objects too. In the demo we saw, the NetDevil guys built chickens, which they defined as “creatures” that hopped around, and then built a dinosaur which they set some specific behavior to. Using a simple, object-based behavior tool, they told the dinosaur to chase after anything that made the sound that a chicken makes in the game. It simply involved dragging and dropping some behavior pieces in a simple-to-understand menu.
* The game has a clever friend management system to protect players (particularly kids) and ensure that constructed items don’t end up being seen by people they shouldn’t. You can declare another player as simply a “friend,” which is anyone you meet in the game, or “best friends” which is a verifiable way of connecting people that you know in real life. Certain sharing functions are only available to best friends, so if you’re building an epic construction, you can limit the people that can see it, or participate in the building of it to real buddies.
* The is no tutorial mode. Everything you learn in the game will adhere to a "learn by play" mechanic. You get a simple objective, and you learn how to perform an action by fulfilling the objective.
* The game will cost $39.99 to purchase on PC and Mac, and it's a subscription based game. One month will cost you $9.99, but longer subscriptions are available at a cheaper rate. Six months will set you back $49.99, and a full year will be $89.99. International rates will be comparable.
E3 2010: LEGO Universe Impressions
Point in development cycle: The game is already in a public beta, which is going on right now.
My take: This is one of the rare MMOs that we can discuss without the need for it to be contextualized with World of Warcraft. It’s a genuinely unique MMO experience, and I think it has a ton of huge potential. The quest-based gameplay seems to be very strong, but the real draw for many people is going to be the construction stuff. I could see putting a lot of time walking around to acquire bricks so that I can build some epic and awesome stuff with my kids. I’m certainly excited to play it, and I know my kids will get a kick out of it too. Thanks to the charms of LEGO, Universe has the opportunity to command an incredibly broad appeal, much like the TT Games LEGO titles. Plus, as someone that uses a Mac as their primary computer, I’m pleased to see they’re supporting the platform from launch.
For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about:
LEGO Universe Impressions (http://www.gamepro.com/article/previews/215572/lego-universe-impressions&a=2)
It has every kind of LEGO brick ever made featured in it, and the way it allows you to build with them is so advanced that you can even follow real-world LEGO instructions to build objects. All that, plus it's a full-on MMO too.
What we're talking about: LEGO Universe, the massively multiplayer online game that uses blocks and minifigs. It’s LEGO. You might have heard of it, right?
Where we saw it: A behind closed doors demo at E3 where the game was demonstrated by the team from NetDevil. The beta, which is currently running, was also available for play on the show floor.
E3 2010: LEGO Universe Impressions
What you need to know:
* Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and NetDevil announced this week that the game will be out on October 26. If you want to get it even earlier than that, you’ll be able to go to a LEGO store, or LEGOland and buy it on October 12. If you do this, you’ll be dubbed a “Founder.”
* The game will be available for both PC and Mac on day one. Apparently it was one of the most requested things that the team at NetDevil heard when they asked for feedback on the game.
* Even though you may look at it and think it’s aimed squarely at kids because it’s a game where toys are brought to life, it’s actually a full-on MMO with some incredibly in-depth features. If you have any interest in LEGO, it seems that there’s something in this game for you.
* This information isn’t necessarily new, but it’s worth stating here. The storyline is set in an alternate universe that’s populated by LEGO minifigs. In the past, a team of minifigures sought out the essence of pure imagination, and once they found it inadvertently unleashed a dark power known as the Maelstrom. This form of “dark” imagination is able to turn minfigs and LEGO creatures into Stromlings. Bad guys, basically. In order to defeat the Maelstrom the good guys formed an organization called the Nexus Force, whose job it is to protect the remaining sources of imagination in the universe. Nexus Force is divided into three factions with different philosophies; the Assembly, who specialize in building things from LEGO, the Sentinels, who specialize in combat, and the Venture League, who specialize in exploring.
* At the beginning of the game, players can create their own minifig and enter the game. Unlike many MMO titles, there is no specific “job” system to LEGO Universe. Instead, everything is object based, so players can adapt their character to the needs of the task at hand or the environment. This is intended to mimic the adaptability of LEGO.
* LEGO minifigs never die, instead they just fall apart. At their heart is a spark of imagination - the central “mana” resource of the LEGO universe.
* Quests are mainly centered around pushing back the Stromlings and protecting sources of imagination, but the methods for doing this are firmly rooted in LEGO culture. Superficially, the game plays a little like the TT Games LEGO titles. When you attack things or break scenery they break into pieces, and there’s a lot of item collection. The primary collectibles in the game are sources of imagination, health, and LEGO blocks. It’s the latter that makes things really interesting though.
* Many of the objectives in the game require building items from blocks. Sometimes this can be performed in a very similar way to that in, say LEGO Star Wars, but the more complicated stuff requires the player to collect bricks and then enter a special mode by donning a creativity hat. When wearing the hat, the focus is entirely on the building of objects, and all game-world threats are suspended. Early on, players are introduced to the concept by having to build a simple rocket ship that will take them to their first quest. A number of pieces are available, and a wide range of possible ships can be constructed by moving the appropriate pieces into place and connecting them together. Once completed, the player takes off the creativity hat and the object appears in the world and can be used.
* It’s not just quest items that can be built. The game offers personal spaces where you can construct a “home” out of LEGO pieces that you have collected. There are numerous pre-built building pieces that can be clicked together, or they can be broken down to their constituent, individual bricks.
* The game features every kind of brick that LEGO has ever produced, and only those bricks. There are thousands of them though, and their supply in the game is plentiful.
* Because you can break everything in the build mode into individual bricks, it’s actually possible to follow real-world LEGO plans, and construct items brick-for-brick in LEGO Universe. To help this, the game has a clever sorting and filtering system for sifting through the bricks. Instead of virtually “rummaging” the way we do with the real stuff, in Universe you can give the game the parameters of the piece you need, and it’ll sort through your collected blocks for you.
* You can build pretty much anything you want, plus you can apply behavior to all of these objects too. In the demo we saw, the NetDevil guys built chickens, which they defined as “creatures” that hopped around, and then built a dinosaur which they set some specific behavior to. Using a simple, object-based behavior tool, they told the dinosaur to chase after anything that made the sound that a chicken makes in the game. It simply involved dragging and dropping some behavior pieces in a simple-to-understand menu.
* The game has a clever friend management system to protect players (particularly kids) and ensure that constructed items don’t end up being seen by people they shouldn’t. You can declare another player as simply a “friend,” which is anyone you meet in the game, or “best friends” which is a verifiable way of connecting people that you know in real life. Certain sharing functions are only available to best friends, so if you’re building an epic construction, you can limit the people that can see it, or participate in the building of it to real buddies.
* The is no tutorial mode. Everything you learn in the game will adhere to a "learn by play" mechanic. You get a simple objective, and you learn how to perform an action by fulfilling the objective.
* The game will cost $39.99 to purchase on PC and Mac, and it's a subscription based game. One month will cost you $9.99, but longer subscriptions are available at a cheaper rate. Six months will set you back $49.99, and a full year will be $89.99. International rates will be comparable.
E3 2010: LEGO Universe Impressions
Point in development cycle: The game is already in a public beta, which is going on right now.
My take: This is one of the rare MMOs that we can discuss without the need for it to be contextualized with World of Warcraft. It’s a genuinely unique MMO experience, and I think it has a ton of huge potential. The quest-based gameplay seems to be very strong, but the real draw for many people is going to be the construction stuff. I could see putting a lot of time walking around to acquire bricks so that I can build some epic and awesome stuff with my kids. I’m certainly excited to play it, and I know my kids will get a kick out of it too. Thanks to the charms of LEGO, Universe has the opportunity to command an incredibly broad appeal, much like the TT Games LEGO titles. Plus, as someone that uses a Mac as their primary computer, I’m pleased to see they’re supporting the platform from launch.