Not Secret Window

Johnny Depp has been a musician, a director, a writer??, a vampire, a pirate, a guy with scissors for ?hands, and proprietor of a chocolate factory, among other things. I'm not sure which of those he's actually been and which he hasn't, but he can now add television producer to that list.

Depp's production company, Infinitum Nihil, is producing a TV show based on the dark fantasy MMORPG The Secret World.

The Secret World has always been rich with story, as evidenced by its relaunch back in June as Secret World Legends. It was newly described as a "shared-world online RPG," allowing players to choose between multiplayer or experiencing its massive content through a solo campaign, a wise m??ove for a game that's been lauded mainly for its stories.

The war between the Illuminati, the Dragon, and the Templars will feature in the show along with a mixed bag of ancient myths and legends, the supernatural, current news, and conspiracy theories. There should plenty to mine from all that to fill out an entire series. It will be produced by Johnny Depp, Christi Dembrowski, Sam Sarkar and Gudrun Giddings alongside Showrunner Pam Veasey, who's best known for CSI: NY. Giddings and Sarkar optioned the rights to The Secret World media back in 2012. “It is one of t??he most character-driven and well-developed games I know of,” says Giddings. “Hence it naturally lends itself to fantastical storylines with intriguing characters,?? a thrilling and binge-worthy international TV show.”

The most exciting bit for me is that it's being written by James V. Hart, who wrote that Hook movie with Robin Williams that made me want to eat imaginary food with the Lost Boys as a kid. Now it??'s kin?d of depressing to think about. 

 Johnny Depp helping produce The Secret World TV s?how [Eurogamer]

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Chaos and elder gods

Sometimes, myths and legends have a chance to be reborn. Stories evolve and change over the years, warping and twisting with each new retelling. The same can be said for Funcom's Secret World Legends, with its official launch today.

Secret World Legends is a free-to-play reboot of 2012's The Secret World. Though it looks similar to the original version of the game, which stood out from the already crowded MMORPG market with a modern-day setting and unique atmosphere that blended horror influences with well-known mythological creatures, Funcom have stated that Legends entirely "revamps to core gameplay experience."

In addition to the free-to-play direction, Secret World Legends is designed to accommodate both solo and cooperative play t?hrough streamlined questing and a more action-focused, reticle-based ??combat system, as well as a new multi-part campaign.

I only played The Secret World for a dozen or so hours after it first released. The game's mashup of "real-world" locations, supernatural monsters, and character classes (like shotgun-toting, fireball tossing battle preachers) drew me right in. The gameplay, however, left me wanting a bit more. I'm not quite sure if Legends will rectify the issues I had? with the original, but since? it's free-to-play, it doesn't hurt to find out. You can find out for yourself by downloading the game from its official site or waiting until it comes to Steam on July 31.

The post Free-to-play MMO Secret World Legends launche??s today appeared first on Destructoid.

Another one bites the dust

I don't know a whole lot about The Secret World, but I do know that it launched with the requisite subscription model that almost every MMO starts with. When sales were lower than expected, developer Funcom decided to go with a buy-to-play model that saw a one time purchase similar to Guild Wars.? It looks like the time for that final transition into free-to-play territory is upon us??.

Funcom has announced that The Secret World will be relaunched this Spring as Secret World Legends with a completely free business model. I'm surprised Funcom was able to last five years in a post-World of Warcraft world without going F2P as basically every other MMO can barely last a full year.

As for what this new freemium model entails, Funcom has stated, "You will be able to earn everything in the game without spending money." I'll believe it when I see it. S??ome of the microtransactions listed are extra character slots, extra inventory slots and vanity items.

For anyone worried about losing their previous progress, Funcom has stated they will keep the older servers online. Anyone who actually bought a "Lifetime Subscription" for the original will have that carry over into Legends in some unspecified manner al??ong with any "virtuacash" acquired. How nice.

The post The Secret World is going free-to-play this sp??ring appeared first on Destructoid.

'Oops!'

I love co-op in my video games, especially when it comes to close-knit survival. There’s something exciting about a group of strangers instinctively realising that, despite their differences, they need each other to survive. Left 4 Dead is still king of this concept, but I’ve also enjoyed the tweaks in its template, leading me towards the likes of Payday 2 and Red Dead Redemption. Hell, if it wasn’t for co-op, I wouldn’t have gotten through Aliens: Colonial Marines as merciful as I did.

So the idea of an online raid, a mini-campaign of camaraderie, intrigued me. The most exposure I’d ever received before The Secret World was the infamous “Leeroy Jenkins” video and my brother playing early Runescape. I’d put it off for as long as I could, and with some inspirational words heard during a Henry Rollins spok??en word show, it was time to quit being so scared of “What if?” and just bloody do it. Hopefully, it wouldn’t matter that I looked like a tit in the process.

It was about 70-80 hours in before I took part in my first raid. I was still playing the game almost blind, using an online guide for quest puzzles and not much else. By this point, I’d become pretty adept with the basics, unlocking a large array of pistol skills and quality items along the way. The Secret World still maintained a challenge for solo pl??ay, using solitude to its atmospheric advantages, but I knew I was just treading water; one foot in, one foot out.

My initial reluctance was born from the dreaded “Kicked from Lobby” message, usually associated with more complex co-op games. I love Payday 2, but before I reached the Infamy status, I saw more of the lobby screen than the heists. Now, in The Secret World, I was walking over most enemies with good gear, nice threads, and an accidental acquirement of the Quantum Brace; a powerful DLC weapon I wasn’t meant to have just yet. I had a fighting chance, or at least my avatar looked the par??t. So I signed up for the easiest dungeon, clicking on all the pretty coloured icons at the bottom, not thinking how essential they were later on.

The wait didn’t take long and I was dumped near the coastal wreck of the Polaris; a research ship that doubled as a dungeon. I’ve said it before, though it bears repeating, The Secret World doesn’t get enough love for its use of reality to paper over some very classical RPG traits. Dungeons don’t have to be dank crypts and endlessly winding caverns. They can be the New York subway system or the backyard of a dingy motel. It totally reminds me of the underrated Hellnight a.k.a. Dark Messiah, a bizarre homage to Monster Maze 3D set in Tokyo’s underbelly.

There were five of us in total. A divisive wild bunch to be sure. My team comprised of an undead-looking Danny Trejo, a pink-haired girl in a business? suit, the gasmask fella from Slipknot on what must've been a smart causal day, Rutger Hauer playing John Constantine, and myself, dressed like a Gap reject.

I knew I was out of my depth with this lot, and not because I was dressed for Spring/Summer 2016 in the middle of a raging storm. While my cohorts ran around with electrified hammers and blood magic tomes, I had two pop-cap p??istols and a drone that made the sound of a dying bee. That Quantum Bracer I mentioned earlier? It seemed more useful at a steampunk convention than up agai??nst these steroid-abusing freaks.

The four sprinted ahead, wiping out?? every supposedly overpowered creature in their path. Small hordes of zombie fishermen and mindless Deep Ones dropped in seconds, their bodies left in the briefest of wakes. Now don’t get me wrong?, I did my part. Screaming, “Bang, bang, bang!” to make my guns sound more powerful was better than nothing, right?

Jokes aside, I did actually do some damage, but it was here where those old thoughts of disconnection were at their strongest. Out of all the people fighting the giant octopus with a lion’s face, I just had to be the one with the existential breakdown. Click-click-click went the mouse, buzz-buzz-buzz went the healing drone that couldn’t keep up, and all the while I thought, “What the hell am I doing? Am I actually doing anything at all? Man, this would make for a decent read about nihilistic detachment in video games. It's a shame I’ll write a goofy virtual travelogue??, instead.”

None of this would be so bad if it wasn’t for my faux-pa beforehand. After cutting down several mini-bosses like they were low-level minions, my group stopped at the glowing edge of another arena. Some ?kind of ?Super Draug wandered around in a haze, nothing I hadn’t seen before, but in the raiding world, reskins were deceptive.

“Who’s our defence?” as?ked our de-facto leader, ol' Rutger Constantine. Wh??oever it was, they were going to be the one to shield our best attackers from crippling damage.

“It’s ??StevilT,” said the admin assistant with Hot Topic hair.

There w?as a long pause, filled with twiddling thumbs and idle animations. I’d like to think I’m a well-read person, but I couldn&r??squo;t figure out why all eyes were on me.

Then the penny dropped, louder than the crashing waves against a battered shipwreck. I had been chosen, not because a slot was free? and the raid needed five people to start, not because I had high-quality equipment or 5K HP, but because I blindly ticked all the coloured boxes and never thought about the consequences. Basically, the host chooses you on based on roles and I’d signed up for anything.

Now, there are many excuses I could’ve conjured up here. I could’ve told the truth, written a detailed apology and explanation for ending up in their raid, only it would take too long. I could’ve saved face and said something so slippery that I’d have to change my name to Carter J. Burke. But I’m a man of brevity. The best writing advice I ever heard was from my novelist friend (terrible shill, buy her book): kill your darlings. With the awkward seconds ticking away, my fing??ers hovered over the keyboard. It had to be quick, perfectly reasonable.

“Oops.”

Oops? OOPS? What the hell was that? "Oops" is when you knock over another pint of milk in Starbucks. "Oops" is when you bump into your girlfriend coming out of the bathroom, when you’re both late for work. "Oops" is for the little things, when we’re all friends and there’s no point in being formal, especially if it happens repeatedly. "Oops" i??s when you want to gain sympathy by looking clumsy.

There was no reply, no sympathy, just st??unned silence.

“Fine,” said Rut??????????????????????????ger Constantine, “I’ll do it.”

T?here was a little bit more, probably talk of re-jigging his menus, but it was white noise under all that exasperation. Any other game, I would’ve been kicked on the spot. Here, thankfully, they let?? me tag along (no real penalty for death), allowing me to complete the raid. Despite being greenest of the green, I was quick to adapt, even quicker if it meant staying alive. I hoped they’d notice that.

The giant lion-octopus Lord loomed out from the bottom of the cargo hold, fighting back with all its might as five strangers use?d every trick they had to bury him beneath the ocean floor. It was no match for humanity, despite their differences in ideology, however. The chopper came in, ready for evac. In ?the victory cutscene, Undead Danny Trejo looked square at me. From his perspective, he probably saw some embarrassing dweeb in a natty tank top.

But it wasn’t over, that much was certain with Not-Cthulhu flapping its ??wings in the background. The helicopter crashed and we were forced into a deadly game of squid-and-mouse, hiding behind rocky pillars, throwing buffs at each other and hoping my pissing drone helped. It might’ve grown more powerful through trans-dimensional warps and stalked us through glowing mists, though like the beasts b??efore it, Not-Cthulhu wasn’t long for this world.

With the second chopper in sight, the raid was complete. Four of us were heroes, while one w??as just thankful enough to bask in ??their reflected glory. It didn’t matter. I adapted, survived, and beat my first ever raid. I knew I’d get better at it, too. Standing back in the miserable surroundings of Kingsmouth, both my feet were firmly planted in the MMORPG world.

Too bad I was meant to be in Egypt.

The post Musings of The Secret World noob Part 2: Raiding in the Plague? Age appeared first on Destructoid.

or: How Stevil Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the MMORPG

As some of you already know, I almost lost t??he fire inside. Video games didn’t excite me anymore, and while that was mostly down to their ever-decreasing circles of cre??ativity, I’d also gotten lazy, stuck in my ways. The same thing happened with my voracious musical appetite until I discovered Bandcamp; a site that single-handedly brought my record-browsing self back from the dead (and long may it independently reign).

I wanted to get back into the hobby, prove everything wrong, and I could only do that with an open mind. So I decided to try out a MMORPG with the sa?me “screw it�attitude my closest friend had when she bought a violin. But unlike that neglected instrument, currently collecting dust while she teaches in S??audi Arabia, I was determined to get money’s worth.

I first tested the waters with the free-to-play APB: Reloaded. That lasted all of two hours before I realised the Tories didn’t kill this game with their tax cut refusals, just outright bad development. It wasn’t a great start and my options were pretty narrow. I was never really a fan of Star Trek and I’d rather play Knights of the Old Republic III than whatever EA/BioWare were peddling in its place. During my search for the ideal gateway game, it became quickly apparent how much MMORPGs were in love with their fantasy settings. Anything else was just an unprofi??table niche.

But, luckily, The Secret World was my kind of niche. Swords and sorcery, orcs and elves, none of that has ever appealed to me. The Dark Tower is the most fantasy I’ve ever read, and after putting so about 80 hours into The Secret World, I find the two are very much alike in the way they acclimatise their audiences with familiar, generalised genres, before unveiling grander, cosmic t??????????????????????????hemes culled from more obscure sources. Not many video games can claim they used a?n Umberto Eco novel as a puzzle solution, that’s for sure.

The Secret World is still fantasy, albeit grounded in some semblance of reality. Funcom clearly designed it to capitalise on H.P. Lovecraft’s recent resurgence in popularity and cater towards Chaosium Inc.’s Call of Cthulhu fanbase (with a bit of Delta Green for good measure), but then there are nods to Hellblazer, Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, and The X-Files�cool brand of paranoia. And for all that, The Secret World ??ends up being unintentionally '90s throughout; which is okay by me because I love that era of o?ccult self-awareness and fuzzy guitars, anyway.

I suppose most people remember it for two things: the awesome “Katana Girl vs. Cthluhu�artwork and that mystical fellatio scene when you joined a certain faction. But playing it now and looking back on the initial hype, those two images sum up The Secret World’s insurmountable odds and jet-black absurdity in a nutshell. Chilling tales are told through comic book extremes, epic quests are played out in universities, subways, and amusement parks, and the secret societies ??you work for �Templars, Dragons, or the Illuminati �are pompous high scho?ol cliques.

I’m getting ahead of myself here, telling you the bigger picture before my own intimate experiences, but I do love The Secret World for what it is, n??iche or not, and in its twilight years. I understand the appeal of MMORPGs now; the time investment, the co-operative raids, the passing camaraderie, the clutch kills, the endless looting, the archaic cheekiness of buying?? "Funcom Points" with real cash, and the addictions of quest management.

So how did I get to that point? Well, it started with a deep breath and several hours in the character creator. Look, honestly, if your character creator can get my likeness vaguely right, then your game has already won me over. Jonathan Holmes cries a lot about generic 30-something white guys with brown hair and stubble i??n games, but I’m actually okay with playing that type because I’m a narcissist. I also had to choose a permanent faction and a server. The former was easy since I was totally down with the Dragon’s love of chaos theory, but due to my lack of experience, 20-30 minutes was spent browsing server topics on Steam forums. In the end, I picked Daemon and never looked back.

Creating a whole new world, especially for a MMORPG, is an unenviable task. You have to make a coherent and snappy introduction over a phonebook of lore, while teaching someone the basics that’ll become their second life. Oh, and don’t ramble despite the epic scope because someone might reach for the refund button. Thankfully, The Secret World’s opening is pretty sparse compared to the m??anageable stream of information later on. You get stung by a magical bee, and now you’re a superna??tural warrior with a penchant for Topman/Topshop clothing. End of Prologue, on to Act 1!

After meeting up with the Dragon??s in Seoul, I’m asked to choose a starting weapon/offensive skill. Avoiding the usual fantasy cliches, I went the way of the gun. ?Dual action, all the way. Of course, I didn’t take into account that I’d be hearing the same “pew-pew-pew�sound effect for the next 80 hours. I’m now leaning towards blood magic and sword skills to keep my sanity intact.

My apprehension quickly piqued when the game nudged me towards the most infamous of MMORPG traits: micromanagement. Curiosity and dread flowed with equal measure, but I was surprised to find how easy it was to pick up, and how much easier it would be to master if I bothered with the hotkeys (something I stubbornly ignored until the first real boss kicked my arse, several times). The whole experience reminded me of when I first heard about The Dillinger Escape Plan and thought, “Ooh, they sound like they'd be a bit too much for me,�only to find they weren’t that inaccessible at all. In fact, later on, they even knew their way around a damn good melody.

But I digress, as after learning the ropes in a post-apocalyptic vision, I was quickly sent investigate mysterious goings on at Solomon Island, just off the coast of Boston. Long story short: Zombies and Deep Ones. Eyes should’ve rolled, but it was the perfect introduction for me, as both the MMO virgin and a lover of survival horror, and having to deal with something familiar through unfamiliar means was wholly refreshing (see also: Koudelka).

Everybody at the besieged police station was asking for a favour, and those favours usually involved killing monsters. I'm no stranger to RPGs, but this was the first time I was involved in taskbar combat, and the whole experience was disconnective. RPGs have the benefit of free time, a considered direction of battle, but in the MMORPG realm, it's all online and real time, giving the illusion of player input. Though my avatar pumps infinite bullets into a small horde, I'm really just clicking icons in a certain order below and the right order is key to my survival. I'd like to think that I died a lot due to this usual laspse into an existential crisis, but it w??as really down to my lack of leveling up.

After Wild Arms 3, I'm used to the dreaded grind. But even though The Secret World proclaims that it does leveling up differently by putting an emphasis on stat-changing equipment, much like the underrated Resonance of Fate, you still have to grind to upgrade. I knew "Kill 10 Pigs, Now Kill 20" was another infamous MMORPG trait, and stupid me tried to cheese my way to the endgame. It's like they knew me so well when I had to confront an ethereal beast with more 0s in its HP than my bank account. But I noticed quickly that to ease the burden, my Doctor Who-cosplaying self was always hitting EXP milestones, and mini-quests were just a ??stone's throw away; thus crea?ting this "just one more" mentality in the process.

I get it now, why people devote their livelihoods to World of Warcraft. Sometimes, I find myself considering a?? quick session, completing a side quest before shooting off to make coffee at Starbucks. And here’s a secret to making a good Caramel Macchiato: there is none, they all taste like over?priced shit, regardless of what you do.

Am I worried about being addicted? Nah, not in the slightest. If you've ever read my Silent Hill Retrospective or one-offs about cinematic games, then you'll know I'm a nut for narrative. As it stands, I treat the The Secret World like any single-player RPG, immersing myself in the plot and seeing it through to the season finale set in Tokyo. Grinding just ensures that I get through the main story arc, where quality equipment is essential for progression. Outside of that, the quests are busy work involving reskinned monsters, investigative turns, and mini-bosses to cap them off. That said, The Secret World is beautifully presented and wonderfully written. It's too bad, much to my newfound disappointment, that the la?tter part is routinely ignored.

NPCs might dole out quests with a sense of deja-vu, but it’s their natural monologues and interactions that keep me invested. Their dialogue flows off a dry tongue, sharp wit cuts through the odd slice of melancholy, and just about everyone I meet has a long sordid history for being themselves. Sure, the quests a??re repetitive, but the reasons for being sent out into the middle of the woods to exterminate giant insects are pretty gripping. On Solomon Island alone, there’s a bickering Indian tribe, a Hunter S. Thompson photojournalist, a drunken and dis??illusioned horror writer, a foul-mouthed park owner, a morbid dean lacking any self-awareness, government agents completely out of their depth, a gossiping cat lady, and a supervillain mage who reminds me of Russell Brand.

They all make up for a lonely experience, too. I’m sure, at one point, The Secret World was teeming with other players, and that the overall experience was less challenging for it. And while the isolationism works for the spooky atmosphere, I’ve obviously still missed the boat. When I do meet another player, they’re incredibly helpful in a fleeting and somewhat shy way. It's almost always awkward to get a conversation started after so??meone saves your skin.

“Thanks for killing that horde,�I once typed into chat, before reluctantly aski??ng, “Hey, how do you join up with people in this game?"

I expected the worst, being the new guy and all. Not swearing, just the silent treatment before they flew away on a hoverboard. Yeah, I forgot to mention the hoverboards. They’re a thing in The Secret World.

“Ctrl+C, then invite,�they explained, eying up my Portland hipster attire from behind cool designer shades. “I’ll join you on the invite. What missions are you doing?�/p>

"Oh, just the college ones," I replied.

There was a long pause, enough to tell that they had no desire to go back there, then they ran off (no hoverboard) and we never teamed up. Not that it mattered because I was actually looking to take ?part in a raid, and that, as I found out 80 hours later, was done th?ough Ctrl+V. Bugger!

Presently, I lead by example, diving headlong into battle for new struggling players. I'm more confident in what I do, which makes their silent shyness all the more jarring. In the background, I catch sight of this Templar couple, jumping around, hand in hand, wishing I was their awkward third wheel. Still, it's better than being shunned or killing someone else in a designated PvP area, where I'm not entirely sure what it is I'm supposed to be achieving. Maybe it’s to do with a smaller-than-usual community wanting to keep the numbers stable, or maybe it’s just because o??f the type of fans it attracts, but nobody ever turns out to be an arsehole and it makes those passing moments all the more special.

Anyway, I eventually killed the Russell Brand mage, and that’s when things got really weird. Plot pieces started falling into place and I was struck with the realisation that we were completely misunderstanding our en??emy. It wa?s bigger, more ancient and abstract than some Cthulhu-inspired monsters on a Bostonian island. My handler didn't care and I was sent packing to Egypt to take part in a Holy Skirmish or two.

This ??time I felt ready to take on a new area. Sure, I was still learning about this MMORPG stuff, but I was also fully committed to the cause. I'd gotten the fire back in me. Under the baking sun, I planned out the quests ahead, wondering how the golden desert connected to the gothic nights of Transylvania and eventual horrors of Tokyo.

Suddenly, the group finder alerted me.

It was finally time to tak?e part in my first raid.

The post The not-so-secret musings of Th??e Secret World noob appeared first on Destructoid.

Will you buy a ticket?

Funcom’s take on the ooh-this-is-a-spooky-abandoned-amusement-park-shall-I-enter-this-terrifying-looking-ghost-train trope The Park will hit current-gen consoles on May 3, 2016.&?nbsp;

The first-person horror game from The Secret World developers - which was originally intended to release on PS4 last week - marks the studio’s?? first foray onto consoles for a decade.

The horror game is already available on PC. In our review we gave The Park a 6, stating: "If you're looking for pure horror, maybe go elsewhere. The Park isn't a "survival" game nor is it going for scares -- there's only one portion that provides that feeling, in fact. Instead, the narrative attemp??ts a more disturbing tone, with realistic and relatable problems told through the veil of a creepy theme park."

Reception so far has been lukewarm, but I'm still tempted, mainly because this game reads like a Dean Koontz novel and I never recovered from the OMGITSGOINGTOMOVE Robbie the Rabbit costume at the beginning of Silent Hill 3. Am I the only one...?

Funcom's horror game The Park is coming to PS4 and Xbox One?? in May [Eurogamer]

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70,000+ units sold in the month following the new business model

Taking The Secret World from a subscription-based game to the "buy-to-play" model has done quite well for Funcom. The company has called this re-launch a success, announcing that "Activity levels in the game have increased by over 400% as original players have returned joined by thousands of new players. After its re-launch, The Secret World has sold m?ore than 70,000 units in the last fou??r weeks alone, which is close to 30 percent increase in total sales."

This spot of good news was mixed in with word that internal restructuring is still very much the plan. Through office closures, consolidation, and streamlining internal processes, the idea is to be "better equipped to realize the strategy of building smaller high quality MMO games such as the upcoming LEGO Minifigures game" while supporting current releases such as Age of Conan, Anarchy Online, and of course The Secret World.

After Guild Wars 2, I can't see myself ever paying a subscription fee only to f?eel guilty when I can't actually find the time to play regularly. Full retail price to own the game and receive continued access? No problem. But I fear commitment, and based on Funcom's figures, I'm hardly alone.

Drop?ping Subscriptions Nets The Secret World a 30% Total Sales Boost [Escapist]

The post The Secret World sees 400% increase in ‘activity levels’ appeared first on Destructoid.

Another MMO skirts on the freemium line

The Secret World has become the latest MMO to learn that, if it ain't Warcraft, it ain't getting away wi??th charging subscription fees. Mandatory fees h??ave been dropped from Funcom's ailing game, though other areas of monetization are being used. 

DLC? packs will be attempting to make extra cash from January, with the first pack free to anybody who registers for the game in December. An optional payment of $15 a month will give players double XP boosts, bonus points, gifts, and a 10% in-game store discount. There's also a lifetime membership option, granting a 20% store discount. 

Anybody who still has a lasting subscription with the game shall be granted 1,200 points, a time accelerator boost,? and a gift item. 

At this point, it really can't be surprising, no matter how optimistic a developer may be. Outside of Blizzard's flagship MMO, there just doesn't seem to be a market willing to keep paying a fee over and above the initial purchase price, certainly not one big enough to sustain a business. Makes me wonder what The Elder Scrolls Online is going to do now. 

The Secret World drops subscription fee but isn't free-t??o-play [Eurogamer]

The post The Secret World scraps subscription fees appeared first on Destructoid.

Plus, tentacles in New York

After four months, The Secret World finally ge?ts its first raid, along with new missions and features in the largest update so far. It was this MMO's dearth of multiplayer opportunities that made me ditch it in favor of other more sociable titles, so it's great to see it? finally trying to give people are reason to group.

Set in New York, this first raid pits all three factions against eldrich, tentacled horrors. The instanced group content, despite not being great in number, was a highlight of the game for me; so let's hop?e the raid is as well paced and tactical as the dunge?ons. 

New combat and investigation missions will appe?ar in places like London and The Innsmouth Academy, revealing more about the secrets of those places. New starter decks have also been added, hopefully guiding first time players along a sensible build as they get the hang of the somewhat intimidating ability wheel.

The Secret World has a lot going for it, and this update ??certainly seems to have addressed some of the areas in which it was lacking. It might even be enou??gh to bring lost players back into the fold -- surely something Funcom is desperately wishing for. 

The post The Secret World gets a chunky update appeared first on Destructoid.

Ghost cats for all!

Are you still playing The Secret World? Now would be a good time to log back in, as Funcom has pushed out some Halloween-centric content by way of the new update, Issue #3: The Cat God. It wouldn't be an MMO wi??thout no?ds to real-world holidays; at least this one fits, thematically.

In the video, game director Joel Bylos talks us through the new storyline, which involves a creepy new foe and, yes, more puzzles to solve. Other additions to The Secret World include costumes and pets, including a ghost cat. Halloween or no Halloween,?? I hope players rock the ghost cat.

The post Halloween comes early to The Secret World appeared first on Destructoid.

Could also use a 'hybrid' model

Following the recent layoffs at Funcom, GamesIndustry caught up with CEO Ole Schreiner to talk about the subscription-based model The Secret World uses. He says that the game is profitable now that re-structuring has happened and they expect this t??o remain the case "for the foreseeable future."

"That's also why we are committing to the ambitious post-launch update plan," he said. "Of course, operating in the MMO business means you ??have to stay adaptive and evaluate yourself, your community and your competition, so we can't rule out a change in direction somewhere down the line. But we're quite comfortable with where we are now and what we're providing our players."

The Secret World was, according to Schreiner, "developed as a subscription-based game and the decisions made during planning and production was based on that business model. He continues: "We tried leaving our options open during development so that we co??uld launch with a different model should we have decided during development that's what we wanted, but eventually we did settle on the subscription model and that's what informed much of the game's design.

"That said we definitely have the tools to turn The Secret World into a free-to-play game -- or even hybrid -- should we decide to do that somewhere down the line. We did that with Age of Conan with significant success. We all know that trends and expectations in the gaming business, and perhaps particularly the MMO genre, is evolving quickly, and we're regularly re-evaluating our business model against the changing currents of the marketplace and our own player base as well. Not only in terms of The Secret World, but also our future games."

Funcom: "We have t?he tools to make The Secret World free-to-play" [GamesIndustry]

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Financials for Funcom for this last quarter show disappointing results for their newest, MMO The Secret World. The game sold only 200,000 copies since its June 29th launch, despite more than half a million players having signed up for the beta. 

They blame low scores in the press as well as launching along PC giants like Diablo III and Guild Wars 2. That's definitely a one-two punch.

As a result, the company will be cutting costs and staff. Gamesindustry says th?at they saw a lost of $49 million, compar??ed to $3 million the previous year.

From here on out, Funcom will put their energies into more focused games that require less time and development cost to bring out. They're?? starting development on a LEGO free-to-play MMO now.

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Set to go live July 31st, The Secret World's first content update, Unleashed, (referred to as Issue #1) has been revealed, with promises of mor??e issues coming every month. This first round of content will contain seven new missions, two new nightmare modes for existing dungeons, the Marketplace, and other goodies.

Although the cynic in me is doubtful that Funcom can or will keep new updates coming every month, the hopeful part of me wants them to succeed. I find the level of tomfoolery and general playfulness of TSW del?ightful and like th??e idea that the game represents. So are you excited for this first Issue? Do you like the way Funcom is handling updates, or do you want something more traditional?

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Funcom has launched a new profile and leader board service for new MMO The Secret World today called Chronicle. By logging in here players can view a complete record of their journey through the game, as well as character profiles and leader boards covering both PvE and PVP.? It's neat as it lets you size your character up against others by 'following them (profiles updated every 24 hours).

I checked my own profile out this morning and learned that I have a long way to go. The top three leader boards (zombies kil??led, total xp earned, and golems killed) make my scores look crappy. Still, it's neat to see where I rank. I really enjoyed being able to see where I stand with my abilities and skills at a glance, in a web browser.

Today marks the kick-off of the public beta phase, which means that the feature set is still limited, but Funcom says th?at it will continue to grow as the game and its community does. 

Funcom says that this is just the beginning, as they have many more?? features planned. Look for further in-game integration as well as ties to mobile devices and social networks in the future. 

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Hey guys! If you missed today's LIVE Destructoid Show,???? here's a nice convenient recording of it for you to watch. 

For starters, NiGHTS Into Dreams and Dragonball Z Budokai are both getting HD rereleases, and Final Fantasy VII is getting a new PC port. There's a good chance Sony's gonna be releasing some new kind of Playstation 3 this holiday season, possibly a slimmer one, and Playstation All-Stars Battle Royale is getting some new characters announced at EVO. 343 Industries has some new info about Halo 4 and The Secret World involves blowjays. Activision decided The Walking Dead isn't ?getting enough attention, so they're putting out a new first-person sh??ooter based on the TV show.

Also here's a thing I did with a unicorn. 

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If you've been keeping up with Funcom's newly released MMO The Secret World, you'll know exactly what to expect. But, for those that haven't, this new launch trailer shows just how vast and lovely this game's world is. Either way, check i??t out.

I'm all up in it now, and really liking it. The Secret World is all modern-day and edgy, and that really speaks to me as I've grown tired of the old fantasy stuff in MMOs lately. In this world every urban legend, fairy tale and conspiracy theory is true. The Templars and Illuminati are still around,?? and are pulling strings in the background. The whole world goes on as usual as this crazy, underlying world awaits for you and your new powers. 

Is anyone out there already in and playing?

The Secret World is available today for PC, for $49.99.

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Wow. One day before the launch of The Secret World, Funcom's latest MMO, CEO Trond Arne Aas resigns. Sounds scary, right? Actually, there's nothing wrong with the game (in fact, it's great) or the company (stock is up), though. Aas just wants to spend more time with his family as well as move on to a "freer role" now that The Secret World is finally launching. 

Aas isn't completely out the door. Gametrailers reports (via Norwegian news outlet e24) that he will move into a director of st??rategy role while holding an advisory position on Funcom's board. Ole Schreiner, the current COO, will take ov?er as CEO. 

The Secret World launch??es tomorrow. I've been spending a bit of time with it and I think it's a winner. This game marks my official return back to MMOs after swearing off of them a few years back.

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Funcom sends word that the early access pre-launch period for upcoming MMO The Secret World begins today. The game's official launch goes down on July 3, but existing pre-order customers will get to get in early, starting right now. It's not too late, though: simply head over to the official site, put in yo??ur pre-order and get your early access.

Through preview events I've become quite excited about The Secret World. I love its modern-day setting and ties to mythol??ogy, fairy tales and pop culture. I grew tired o?f the standard MMO a long time ago, so this game is like a breath of fresh air. 

I'm in. Are you? 

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The fourth beta weekend for The Secret World will run from 9:00am Pacific on June 22 to 11:59pm Pacific on June 24. In addition to being the final event -- the full release of the MMO is set for July 3 -- this one is worth a special mention because it'll be open to everyone who signed up for the beta.

If you have yet to do so, it's not too late: Funcom is going to let anyone who signs up by June 22 into the beta weekend. The content itself spans what was featured in the three prior events, plus the introduction of player vs. player modes. You're getting the persistent 200-person PvP?? and smaller-scale battles in Stonehenge and Eldorado. Seems like a perfectly reasonable way to spend the weekend.

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The Secret World was supposed to launch in mid-June, but Funcom has pushed it back to July 3rd for market reasons. They say that this adjustment puts the launch da?te in a more positive window. Here's the real question: what were they up against?

Early access starts June 29, if you'r?e in on that action.

Funcom has also mapped out the remaining beta week??ends. The weekend o?f June 15 will let players try out the Illuminati and Dragon starting experiences. They'll get to enter the 'Hell Raised' dungeon, too. 

The la??st beta weekend, starting on June 22, will focus on PvP. There's a warzone that will be ??opened where over a hundred players can fight in persistent battle. 

Are you down for The Secret World?

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As the time draws near for the release of The Secret World more information is coming out, like this video which details combat abilities and skills. At eight minutes this is quite the detailed video, but if you're curious and haven't been paying any attention to the gam??e so far it's a good way to find out more about it.

Of course the second beta weekend started this? Friday as well, so if you?? got into that you know all about the combat. Of the two, I'd personally rather try the beta than watch the video, but if you don't have that option here you are. 

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The second beta weekend event for The Secret World is almost here. It'll run from Friday, May 18 at 9:0?0am Pacific to Sunday, May 20 at 11:59pm Pacific. Those of you who participated in the prior beta can continue to use you??r same character from before.

This new event will expand what's happening in Kingsmouth with additional characters and missions. For specifics, head over to Funcom's blog post which in??clude??s a brief summary of the playable content.

I'm not sure how it took me so long to realize that limited-time access to MMOs ahead of their full release is a dangerous way to accidentally spend an entire weekend in front of a computer, but Guild Wars 2 might have had something to do with it. Between The Secret World and Diablo III, it sound??s like many of you PC gamers will have your weekend made.

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Roughly 1/7000th of the people in the real world are currently registered and anticipating the beta events of The Secret World. This weekend will be the first beta event, open to everyone who pre-ordered the game alongside others who have reached a certain rank in "The Secret War social experience." I assume the most hardcore of Secret World fans are well aware of that, though.

This first beta event is titled "Kingsmouth Calling" and will put you in the shoes of one of the Templar initiates. Kingsmouth is under attack by mysterious forces and who better to help stop them than you and everyone else who pre-ordered? Personally, I can't think of anyone?? better for the job. 

More details, including a FAQ can be found here. The game officially launches on June 19th.

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The Secret World launch date is steadily approaching, and to get ready for that, pre-orders have been announced. Should you choose to put down money for the game before it's release, you'll get a few things in return, the most notable of which is access to every Beta weekend. You will also get early access, up to four days head start before the?? game releases, an experience-boosting item and unique in-game shirt. You'll also get an in-game pet and ??early access to character name creation.

I'm not sure about most of those pre-order bonuses, but beta access is pretty nice, so if you are just dying to try it out, go reserve a copy. As for me, I think I'?m going to wait on outright buying the game. I may be down with a pre-order though, if it?? lets me try the beta weekends.

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For some of us, upgrading our PCs with the best hardware and enjoying the most jaw-dropping games in all their glory is a not-so-distant memory. Even though I've consistently owned beefy rigs my whole life, I've spent less and less time utilizing their full power, due to a slowly dwindling and fluctuating PC market. For several years, my PC gaming life was akin to the Brooks Hatlen character from The Shawshank Redemption -- every day, continuing to feed the pigeons in ?the park, hoping for his old raven buddy ??to return.

Lately, the PC gods have arisen from their slumber and decided to bless us with some stellar (and demanding) PC-focused games. Now high-end graphics technolog??y is starting to look more and more worth its market value. Over the past week, I've had the opportunity to pilot NVIDIA's upcoming beast of a doomsday machine, the GTX 680, and make obedient subjects of the powerful games that once laughed at my PC's inadequacies.

NVIDIA set out to make not only a more powerful graphics card, but a more efficient one that doesn't require a lot of ext?ra t?ech (such as a whole extra card) to get the best experience possible.

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Release: March 22, 2012
MSRP: $499

Important GeForce GTX 680 specs:

• CUDA Cores: 1,536 (Three times more than the 580)
• Base Clock: 1006 MHz
• Boost Clock: 1058 MHz
• Memory Clock: 6008 MHz
• Interface: 256-bit
• Total Memory: 2048MB GDDR5
• Total Memory Bandwidth: 192.26 GB/s
• Texture Filtering Rate (Bilinear): 128.8 Giga Texels/sec
• Connectors: 2 x Dual-Link DVI, 1 x HDMI, 1 x DisplayPort
• Recommended Power Supply: 550 Watts
• Thermal Design Power: 195 Watts (244 Watts for 580)
• Power Connectors: 2 x 6-pin (One 6-pin and one 8-pin for 580) 

My general PC specs:

• Windows 7 x64 (cards are already compatible with Windows 8)
• Intel i7 2.80 GHz
• 8GB DDR3 SDRAM

I'm just going to get straight to what most of you want to know: How it handles games. The reason I posted my rig's not-so-uber specs above is actually a way of pointing out that my 680 has been taking a lot of the stress with all of the graphical?ly heavy games I've thrown at it. It's all for the card. Believe me, I would have gladly negl?ect mentioning my specs, as mentioning your lackluster PC to techies is like showing your four-incher to a porn star.

The first game I tested -- and the most obvious -- was Battlefield 3. An important note about its Frostbite 2 engine is t??hat it's very efficiently built to run on an adequately powered rig. My old 560 Ti (always overclocked) could handle ultra settings at around 40 to 50 FPS, minus VSync or anti-aliasing. So it's obvious that a 680 would make short work of this game's demands. However, even on powerful rigs, framerate drops are common during heated battles with an abundance of particle effects (smoke and explosions) and game models crowding the screen.

To test this out the best I could, I played through several "Conquest Large" matches on BF3's biggest maps available, all on completely maxed-out settings. Even when a team had only one point captured, and the player focus was centered on that entire area, I didn't ??witness a single drop in smoothness. I mean I literally kept my eyes on the framrate as the sh*t was hitting the fan, and n??oticed no fluctuation at all.

I then tested the 680 on an engine that isn't very efficiently built. The Witcher 2's RED Engine has turned quite a few heads due to its looks, though it's no secret that maxed-out settings require an overall top-end PC. More specifically, the "Uber Sampling" feature is typical?ly what kills the game's performance, as it renders each scene several times over to provide a smoother image quality. Most people turn this feature off, as the slight visual improvement doesn't justify the hardware demands.

On my 560 Ti, you could swear I was playing some game I received from ten years into the future; a w??hopping 15 FPS was the best I got out of it. With th??e 680, though, it ran at a very stable 40 to 50 FPS, with almost no drops below that 40 (even during combat).

Mainly due to the RED Engine's cumbersome features, The Witcher 2 was one of the most technically demanding games I could test on it. A close equal was Crysis 2 with its DX11 upgrades, which ran surprisingly better than Witcher. Out of all the games I tested on the 680 (others include Skyrim, Rage and Just Cause 2), the most rewarding was undoubtedly Crysis 2.

The Frostbite 2 engine looks beautiful because of it versatility, but the CryEngine 3 looks incredible because of its cutting-edge features, and the 680 handles them all brilliantly. Displacement maps, high-quality HDR, real-time reflections, and particle motion blur all look absolutely fantastic. My 560 Ti could barely handle Crysis 2 on max settings at around 30 FPS. My 680 l??aughs at it, with a strong 60 FPS, only dropping to near 50 during moments of ext?reme action (lots of explosions and particle effects).

After all of this, I can't say I'm surprised that the 680 performed the way it did. Many people may remember the Unreal Engine 3 Samaritan Demo from last year's GDC. Well, that demo, mind-bogglingly beautiful as it was, originally required three GTX 580s and a power supply the size of a small child. When I was first presented the 680 at NVIDIA's Editor's Day event during GDC 2012, the same tech demo ??was shown ... running on a single 680 and nothing else.

NVIDIA wants this card to really mean something to the gaming community, not only by being ultra powerful and providing us with longevit?y, but also via the cutting-edge features that are idiosyncratic ??to NVIDIA cards alone.

A lot of you might have been wondering h??ow I got such close framerate fluctuation with VSync presumably on (it?? was). Without getting too technical, a big issue people have with VSync is that it forces the framerate to drop by positive integers, based on your monitor's refresh rate (i.e. a 60Hz monitor dropping by 60FPS, 30, 20, 15, etc.) all for the sake of preventing "screen tearing." We gamers can see the obvious problem with this, as the drastic drop in framerate results in "jittering." To combat this, NVIDIA has developed what's known as "Adaptive VSync," which automatically turns off global VSync whenever the framerate needs to fall to anything below your monitor's max refresh rate. No more jitter and no more screen tearing.

As another means of providing a smoother gaming experience, NI??VIDA is aspiring to do away with MSAA (Multisample anti-aliasing) by providing their own FXAA, which can be activated within the card alone and be applied to any game. They're also providing the upcoming TXAA, a new film-style AA that is?? at least 4X more effective than MSAA. The result is a welcome addition, as we've been long overdue for an upgrade in this area.

Another great feature that we're all becoming acquainted with is PhysX, NVIDIA's proprietary physics engine. PhysX has been steadily appearing in a lot of high-quality titles, providing great rigid and soft body dynamics, as well as fluid and cloth simulations. At NVIDIA's Editor's Day, Gearbox Software CEO Randy Pitchford showed off Borderlands 2 and how it implemented PhysX. Fluids pooled and flowed in complete real-time, and even reacted to explosions -- splashing about into numerous smaller puddles. Cloth materials reacted accordingly to foreign objects, and could even be torn and shredded when fired at. It was quite incredible how these effects could be handled with such relative ease in real-time, when just five years ago it took me several hours ??to render them for 3D animations on a high-end PC.

The la??st upgrade I'm going to mention is, in a lot of ways, more of a downgrade, but sold me on the card merely due to my living situation. As stated before, the 680 is a very efficient card, and that applies more than anything to its power consumption. The 680 is so streamlined that it actually draws less power than its predecessor, the 580 (see the specs above).

What does this mean for me? Well, a?s a city that desperately tries to retain some sort of bullsh*t identity, San Francisco is adamant about holding on to their Victorian architecture o?f the 1920s. This includes the f*cked up power distribution systems that came with them. With that said, I can only have about two appliances on at any one time, before I cause a power surge and my place goes completely dark. When it comes to PC gaming, this presents a problem. I actually used to SLI two 560s, but had to get rid of one if I wanted to game with my heater on -- enduring cold San Francisco nights is definitely not worth an extra 560 Ti.

So you can imagine that a card like the 680 fairs well for someone with my situation, if not also for people who dig the environment or like saving money on bills. Not only does it consume less power than the best of last generation, but its TDP is only 25 more than my freakin' 560 Ti. After seeing the Samaritan demo and what it took to run it last year, I don't know how they accomplished what they have with the 680. It's like someone sold the?ir ass to the Devil to make this thing.

To really explain every notable change and addition with the GeForce GTX 680 would take so much more time. This new line of gr?aphics cards is leaps and bounds beyond the 500 series. This review alone is obviously not going to convince you to throw down $499 on a new card, but I do hope it drives you to do a little more digging into the fine details of the 680 ... especially if you plan on upgrading.

PC gaming is slowly but surely making a comeback, and the GeForce 680 is the card to welcome it with open arms. Several games are in development right now with this very card in mind (others shown at the NVIDIA event were Max Payne 3 and The Secret World). If you yearn for the time when you filled your PC with the best of the best tech? in preparation for the hottest-looking games to c?ome, then the time is certain now, and the tech is certainly this card.

Oh, and before I?? go, all of you hardcore NVIDIA fans a?re probably going to want to watch this:

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The MMO space ha??s been steadily filling up since people realized just how much money Blizzard is actually making. Many have tried to break into that space, but most have failed. Funcom has a pretty consistent history of bringing solid titles to market -- nothing n??ecessarily groundbreaking, but they work.

When The Secret World was announced, though, people got legitimately excited. Here, we had an MMO taking place not in space or some generic fantasy land but in the modern day, with a story running parallel to our own world. Here are a few of my initial thoughts on the The Secret World.

The Secret World (PC)
Developer: Funcom
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release: June 19, 2012

Like World of Warcraft and The Old Republic, The Secret World is based on interfactional warfare. There are the Templars based out of London who want to restore and maintain order, the Dragons based out of Seoul who are the embodiment of chaos, and the Illuminati based out of New York who are comparatively moderate. Each of these factio?ns is con??????????????????????????tending with transdimensional foes, and there are a lot of unanswered questions and a lot of figures vying for power.

Everyone will have a recruitment mission to get them set up with one of the groups, but there is no typical class selection here. Funcom has decided upon Skyrim-style class selection -- pick what you wan?t, do what you want, and f??ind a role for yourself.

There are more than 500 abilities and nine classes of weapons (though some of those are magic), and as you gain experience, you get skill points to distribu??te into any category to shape your character however you want. Each player is also limited to seven active abilities and seven passive abilities, so careful selection and strategy plays into deciding what you use. It's a really intriguing system that is el??egantly implemented with a stunningly beautiful, semi-minimal interface.

Taking cues from TOR, the majority of the game is voice??d, though the player charact??er is a silent protagonist. It's a much more engaging way of conveying stories and doling out quests, and it represents another area where Blizzard is starting to fall behind.

Quests themselves are more organic than in other MMOs, and the story is told more through?? the perspective of gathering information and lore to piece together what is going on rather than through the traditional fetch quest. "Quest givers," if they can be called that, will often actively mislead you either intentionally or unintentionally, and they represent ?an interesting break with the established tropes of the genre.

I had a good 30 minutes to play the game after a presentation by Funcom staff showing off some new content. I wasn't able to get too far into the real meat of the game, but I got to pick up a few weapons, tool around with some basic abilities, and run around London for a bit. The overworld is rich and lively, and for once, there's a game which d??oes not seem to have the utterly impractical architecture of other MMOs (i.e. buildings that are so utterly gargantuan as to be ridiculous).

Combat is smooth, and everything takes place in real time. The player can move while casting, charging, shooting, etc., so battles feel more like an action RPG than anything else -- faster and more frantic without ever losing complete control. It's a fun and refreshing mix that I can't say I have seen replicated anywhere else.

The Secret World is due o??ut June 19th, which is good because I've been looking forward to this since I first saw it at PAX '09. I'm still? a bit concerned as to the longevity of the title, but a lot of work has gone into "reinventing the wheel," as it were, and it definitely shows.

The post P?review: Reinventing the MMO with The Secret World appeared first on Destructoid.

The Secret World is coming along quite nicely. We saw Funcom's unconventional modern day, classless, action driven MMO at their offices late last year, but I've had the pleasure of checking in on their progress last week. They're about to wrap up on about a decade of work, putting the final touches on this early summer release, and i?t's clear that they're excited for the world to start playing their game. 

Funcom was nice enough to have us out to show off a bit more of the game's huge story and world, a couple of the insane dungeons and several of the most brutal bosses I've ever encountered. They were also nice enough not to laugh when I died. In addition, they let us tinker with new t??weaks and usability improvements spurred from press and tester feedback.

The Secret World was already on ??my 'to play' list, but after the new things I've seen I'm even more drawn to this game.

The Secret World (PC)
Developer: Funcom
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release: June 19, 2012

After making it to HQ and through the first training mission, I set off to sunny Egypt, to an area called the Scorched Desert, where I was far too busy fighting off crazed cultists and monster scorpions to enjoy the scenery. I thought I would be able to hang with the?? big boys with my prior experience, but was quickly put in my place by the stiff challenge and 3-4 skull (TSW's 1-5 enemy difficulty rating sy??stem) baddies. I felt a bit better about myself after hearing that this section of the game comes up after some 60 hours of play. 

For as difficult as it was, there is a lot of fun to be had in the Scorched Desert. For example, my first interaction there was with a fast-talking mummy in a three-piece suit and hat, talking on a cell phone. He may be rotting a bit, with some of his body oozing through his otherwise sharp suit, but he's surprisingly up on secret society happenings for a three-thousand year old corpse. Again, they've made it to where NPC dialogue is a treat and not a chore. I cannot stress enough how enjoyable the story segments of TSW are.

In Egypt I joined a group with three others to take on some of the area's many missions together. We set out to find out a bit more about the angry cultists that were sneaking about the ar??ea's main city and surrounding homes. Unlike other MMOs, where you would devise an attack plan and go in with guns-a-blazing, we were sent on wild chases around the city looking for leads. We eventually encountered a suspicious villager that we tailed, stealth style, to later find that she and others entered a secret door in the mountains. Kicking the door down didn't work; we eventually learned that we needed to take down cultists so that we could use their clothing to sneak in. 

This is just one of the game's many examples of how Funcom's team enjoys sending players on a bit of hunt. It's also a good example of how TSW isn't afraid to take a break from standard MMO combat for a bit. Some of the missions, like the combat-free investigations, are so unconventional that I think some MMO players are going to find themselves wearing their thinking caps for the first time. One such mission had my team and? I trying to hack a computer with only a few hints pulled off a dead body for a password. This sent all four of us to Google, using the game's built-in browser to comb Wikipedia and? other sites for clues. This search led us to an Edgar Allen Poe that was tied to cryptography, and one of my brilliant team members was able to reverse that cryptography to come up with the password! 

Our play session ended with a crawl through two of the game's dungeons, taking us through the bowels of Egypt's pyramids, and then onto Hell. They were a blast to play through as a group as they were filled with strange creature types, stiff platform-y challenges and some ridiculously difficult bosses. Instead of picking off random enemies in a tube-ish corridor, The Secret World's dungeo??ns are like tightly crafted adventures peppered with puzzle-like interactions and key battles. In one dungeon, little floating electrical balls called Motes would randomly attach to the heads of players to render them useless and mute. Another mote-free party member would have to pick them off before the player's brains were drained. Imagine dealing with this during boss battles??!

The sub-boss and boss battles were imaginative and exciting. They all feature creative design, great art, and a high difficulty level that requires strong teamwork to survive. The boss fights all seem to have a puzzle twist that goes well beyond that tired 'find the weak point' challenge. One particularly memorable fight had a massive Egyptian beast pushing my party and I toward the end of a dead end bridge, squeezing us from both sides. We had to attack as fast and efficiently as we could before the boss and his spawn pushed u??????????????????????????s to the edge, and we eventually made it with only seconds to spare. Some of the location and enemy details of these battles are still on lockdown, but I can tell you that all I've played through so far are a thrill, and all serve as yet another example of how much care Funcom has put into this game.

During my adventures in New York, Egypt and Hell, I tinkered with The Secret World's skill and equipment systems, both of which have seen improvements since my last play session. There are no classes in this game, but there are 550+ abilities to pick and choose from to create your own class, with an available 7 active and 7 passive ??abilities open to you at once. With some help I crafted a sword user that also dealt with elementals, which made for a DPS character that could run in and do some major slash damage if needed. Playing through missions earns you experience that you can freely dump into any of these abilities to create and refine your character, pumping in points to unlock attacks and spells in categories separated by weapon and attack type.

It's fun to dig deep into this "skill wheel" to see what you can create, but with the high number of abilities and combinations, it can also be kind of scary, as I noted in my last preview. Since then Funcom has added a set of suggested builds for each of the three factions. They call them "decks," and they're not unlike the decks in a collectible card game like Magic: The Gathering. These decks will start players out with preset ability combinations, but can be changed freely with diffe??rent abilities. They've also ?added a search option that let's you dig down deep into those 500+ abilities to find, say, all the critical hit abilities. Beyond this, "builds" of abilities and equipment can be saved in slots and shared with other players. 

There's a freedom to The Secret World that makes it open to so many different types of players. Love a good story? Dig in with the investigation missions and conspiracy theories and get lost in it. Hate stories and just want to fight? Learn to use shotguns (yes, they're great) and go after the huge bosses. The class-free, totally open abilities system means that you can make any character type you can imagine. The open-ended mission system means you can delve into the types of things that interest you. Its huge world and nearly endless possibilities may prove to be daunting for ??players stuck in that MMO rut, but I'd bet they'd eventually prove to be freeing. 

The Secret World is quite different from other MMOs with its classless system and unconventional mission design, but these are also among its greatest strengths. The sense of freedom, smart ?writing, and modern setting are also major plusses. They come together to make the first MMO I've been excited about in a very long time.

The post The Secret World: An unconventional, modern MMO appeared first on Destructoid.

One of the coolest MMO games I've played in a long time, The Secret World, finally has an official launch date: June 19, 2012. It was originally marked for an April launch, but Funcom ??says?? that they're wanting to put a bit more time into it to apply more polish. 

It's already looking really good. I've ??spent a couple of different days with the game at press events, and have come away excited both times. Later this week I'll give you my impressions of the latest round, which included some great dungeon action and ridiculous boss fights. 

"Allowing for even more time to polish the game really shows just how much faith Funcom as a company has in The Secret World and how committed we are to making it the best it can be," says Creative Director and Senior Producer Ragnar Tørnquis??t. "The additional time will also allow us to carry out even more quality beta testing, and soon we will also be announcing several public beta events where hundreds of thousands of gamers will get to test the game prior to launch."

More than 750,000 players are already signed up for beta. If you want in on that (and I'm telling you that you will), hit up the official site.

The post The Secret World launches June 19 appeared first on Destructoid.

I've found over the years that lots of MMORPGs release with a good artistic style while at the same time missing out on offering an engrossing atmosphere. Funcom's The Secret World is one that definitely takes an interesting approach, a mixture of modern stylin??g wit??h otherworldly Gothic horror.

A new trailer has been released that is all about the atmosphere. Featuring a location in the game referred to as "Blue Mountain," it shows the dark and dreary landmarks of the area, such as broken-down refineries, with mood-setting shadows and fog like something straight out of a Silent Hill. There is?? also some somber narratio??n that sets up the basic lore for the area.

It's one thing to make a trailer -- even if it is seemingly comprised of in-game footage -- and another thing entirely to have that same sense in the game itself, especially with one that has tons of others running around with you. Hopefully, the dedication to atmosphere as portrayed in the video is tied deeply enough to the game to really make something spe?cial.

The post Location trailer for The? Secret World sets the spooky appeared first on Destructoid.