Lord Of The Rings Online Goes Free-To-Play

This autumn you will no longer need to subscribe to play LOTR Online.

This announcement is quite timely as just the other day I discussed DC Universe Online and its prospects. It’s almost as if studio Turbine knew, and arranged it specially.

This is good news for folk like me who don’t want to subscribe to MMOs monthly and also provides another good option for console bound MMOs. In short console users are unlikely to be open to monthly subs. LOTR Online will now make all of its money from micro-transactions, quest packs and optional VIP accounts. Any people with existing lifetime accounts will immediately be given the VIP set up plus 50 Turbine points per month.

The key is that it gets people in the door, the more people in a quality MMO the more people are likely to stay and spend. Turbine’s other MMO Dungeons and Dragons: Eberron Unlimited used this model last September and subsequently disclosed that sales increased by 500% *, not bad business though no real word on the long term effect of this.

Your hard playing MMO user will probably end up paying the same, but I will be able to knock through 40 hours or so at minimal cost. So it’s win for me and I think we can all agree, that’s what really matters.

*source

New Guitar Hero

I’ll make no secret of it. Guitar Hero/Rock Band games are pretty shit. While I appreciate it’s just another branch of karaoke (yes, they sold you karaoke for £80) I don’t like them because it’s a flimsy simulacrum of actually making and performing music. The controller is counter-intuitive and so on and so forth.

Here it seems Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock has been sniffing the crotch of Brütal Legend because that’s they very definite vibe I’m getting here. I guess it’s a logical step to try to introduce something, anything into the series to keep it relevant and riffing (I had to) after BL’s love letter to metal is fertile ground and is even a little bit retro at this point. Perhaps even kitsch?

Anyway the story will allow you to save rock and roll in a clipped version of the aforementioned Brütal Legend, whose RTS swing left some players a little bit cold. If you’re gonna buy this you’re gonna buy it and there’s not a damn thing anyone can say to stop you.

Except I’ve kidnapped your pets and your favourite primary school teacher and they wont live to see your brand new guitar controller which is “specifically made for shredding”, unless you promise not to buy it. Obviously I’ll need collateral after I release them so you’ll have to promise scout’s honour.

via ars

Nerd Tattoo Choices

I’m arranging a tattoo probably next week, and I’ve whittled it down to 2 remaining choices, having eliminated/postponed robots, Okami art and Katamari.

The location is forearm, not decided which.

The choices are

or

The Tanooki could be too muddled so may be replaced with an item box. I shopped these Mario icons from a site which ripped the actual game sprites from Mario All Stars on the SNES.

Some days I want one design, some days I want the other. On one hand Zelda (III) first got me into games and is still my favourite series. On the other these Mario icons epitomise gaming and represent the beauty of simplicity in game design. And really, what problem could you not solve in life using these 5 things?

Tweet, Face or comment. I want your say.

Site News: PSN Store Updates

Don’t you hate it when you’re walking down the high street, talking to a buddy or whomever and you realize you are alone? That your friend has stopped five shop windows back and you’ve been blithely ranting to yourself like a deranged street preacher for 150 yards?

With this in mind I’m gonna stop posting the weekly PSN Store updates.

No-one’s really reading them because you can get the list from the Playstation.blog, who are the official vendors for this information. Everyone just goes there which is fair enough. I guess it seems like cheap filler to re-post it anyways.

DC Universe Online Ships In November

As the headline says peeps, Sony scooped to IGN that we’ll finally get our paws on this nugget. (check this decent preview, not by me)

There’ll be big reveals at E3 as I expect Sony will make somewhat of a centrepiece of it at their Keynote address. It will be out before Final Fantasy XIV but after APB so it’s anyone’s guess how they will price it.

On one hand companies like Cryptic are avoiding console ports of Star Trek Online as there is a mess of problems over who would get paid according to their monthly subscription model, Sony Online Entertainment are making DCUO so that eliminates a middle man, you can simply subscribe through PSN.

On the other hand, monthly sub is an increasingly outdated method and one I don’t believe is transferable to console users. Realtime worlds has the right idea, increments of £7 for 20 hours is a ridiculously simple purchase plan and  implementing that on PSN as simply another item in the market place is even easier. Easier than setting up a sub and easier to swallow especially when Sony will already be asking for a fee to use PSNPlus.

At this point the fee is my only barrier to entry. As with Star Trek Online, I refuse to pay a monthly sub, purchased hours enabling you to leave the game inactive for a month or two and still be able to return to your account without paying for dead time are a must.

Hells Yeah

Earthworm Jim (he’s such a groovy guy) on the Mega Drive (U.S. – Genesis) and then the SNES was simply excellent. Holy Shit it was released in 1994.

The subsequent cartoon is an example of fine animated irreverance but for shame it only ran for 23 episodes.

There was an iphone port late last year I do believe but what with having to use the screen as the controller I must say that it was bunk, just an annoying bitch of a set-up so I played half a level and gave the phone back. This did not sully my memories however, so I’m overjoyed that Earthworm Jim is getting an HD remix for 360 and then PSN a month later.

If you know nothing about Earthworm Jim then congrats on hitting puberty and all you need to know is; Bob the Killer Goldfish.

Gone Fishin’

…Back Tuesday.

In the meantime yes you may use your mental image of me to masturbate to.

PSN Store Update 26th May 2010

Oh hi.

How long have you been there?

Listen, I can totally explain what I was doing……….yes it’s kind of like yoga.

Oh hey look behind you, it’s this week’s update.

Sonic 4 Episode 1 Delayed

This game will now get released in the second half of 2010 as Sega want to extend development time because:

The additional time will allow the Development Team to focus on ensuring overall high-quality throughout the game by continuing to tune, balance, and maintain the kind of polish that an important title like this demands, and ultimately providing fans with an unrivalled classic Sonic feel.

I’m probably not supposed to say this as it might alienate readers and whatnot but Sonic is pretty gash. I always want to play but then I do and all I can thing is “this is really not fun”.

So screw sonic. I’m glad he’s delayed. I hope no one ever gets to play Sonic 4 Episode 1.

source

Call of Duty: Black Ops Trailer

Above is the trailer released yesterday for Trayarch’s next stab at the CoD franchise.

It’ll probably be the last standard CoD as next year the gutted Infinity Ward studio’s will probably be more like MAG in nature, as Activision try to rip as much money from you as possible.

I probably will not buy this, I’m on the verge of trading in Modern Warfare 2 as soon as something worthy comes up. I’ve got Red Dead on preorder so it’s too late for that, though Amazon still haven’t dispatched and my knickers are bunching up right now because of it. (Note to self, give the girlf her knickers back)

I can’t remember whether I included the Bloack Ops Teaser when that was released, so have that too.

On a side note, Machinima Respawn seem to be quietly getting things done on the YouTubes. They have rapidly became a vuluable hub for trailers as well as hooking gameplaying talent like TheIMightyHutch. I personally enjoy WingsofRedemption’s commentary videos also, despite the beefing and the flamboyant name. Not that I dislike flamboyance, far from it, it’s just unusual. Not that that’s bad either.

Just watch the fricking trailers.