T-Shirt of the Week: https://store.hbo.com/game-of-thrones-stark-t-shirt-black/detail.php?p=298870&v=hbo_best-sellers

It seems we’ve hit a slight lull in big MMO news. Not an outright drought – just a lack of stories that are prompting my usual editorial spiel.

In order to combat this, I have a proposal: an episode dedicated to the best of MMO music

I need YOUR submissions…
* If there is a specific GAME that sticks out in your mind as having an incredible soundtrack.
* If there is a specific SONG that you think is fantastic (EQ2’s Qeynos theme, e.g.)
* If you don’t care for music, I’d like to hear why, or what sort of music you listen to while gaming.

Please include links to samples I can listen to when submitting your responses!

LINKS WORTH TALKING ABOUT:

APB may be charging a box fee for their “F2P” game?
https://www.mmocrunch.com/2011/07/14/free2play-apb-hitting-store-shelves/

GW2 World Tour ‘11:  NCSoft @ GamesCom, ArenaNet @ PAX
https://www.mmocrunch.com/2011/07/18/guild-wars-2-world-tour/

HELLGATE: REVIEW

Getting the game downloaded, installed and patched can be a long, tedious, boring process.
And the patcher is always on top! It cannot be moved beneath other windows!
– It has been recommended to use the uTorrent download, but I went the traditional route.

This game was originally published in 2007 and was already showing its age.
– I’ll let the visuals speak for themselves at this point, and audio listeners may get more value by watching the video version of this particular episode.

I will making frequent comparisons of this game to Diablo II, Torchlight and Borderlands.
– And unfortunately, while this game sits somewhere between those three spiritually and mechanically-speaking, it doesn’t really stack up to any of them individually. And not for any single particular reason, just as a compounding of all the little things. Most of which I hope to show you in this review.

It’s an easy, casual experience. Pick it up, shoot some stuff, grab some loot, walk away. But don’t expect any deep or meaningful experience.

The gameplay is driven by greed and power — kill things to get better gear, so you can kill bigger things to get even better gear. This cycle breaks down at the high end of the game however, where it suddenly becomes necessary to care about the world, in order to care about progressing. Unfortunately, the world as a whole is relatively bland with no real sense of urgency or community.

The sole virtue this game has going for it, is the non-existent barrier for entry. For the cost of nothing but a few hours of your time, you can start enjoying a basic hack-and-slash, shoot-em-up mindless loot grind, and even bring along some friends for the ride.

For my part, I still feel like this game fails as a comparison to Diablo II due to shallow mechanics, and incomplete feeling animations. Add to that the confusion of the crafting system, frustration of inventory management, and the lack of a compelling storyline, and it leaves me thinking that FREE is about as much as I’d honestly pay for this title.

If you want a good loot-whoring shooter, go play Borderlands. It’s worth the box cost, and contains multiplayer. And if you’re willing to try out an older title for your fix, Diablo II has aged surprisingly well, and Torchlight 2 is just around the corner!

Next Week: Comic-Con in review!

• It’s happening at the time this episode is being published, and already there is speculation that several large announcements may be occurring, including:
  The unveiling of Zenimax’s MMORPG (assumed to be based on the Elder Scrolls universe)
• Official details on Blizzard’s “TITAN” project (though I suspect this will happen @ BlizzCon)
• The official release date of SWTOR

Speaking of TOR announcements…
SW:TOR’s box art released (Standard & Collector’s)
https://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/loadNews/21245