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Why Robin Makes Batman Better Flagship Studios has announced a new patch for Hellgate: London. Patch 1.2 contains a bunch of new features and improvements to the game. Most notabe is the addition of an in-game mail system hat will allow players not only to communicate, but to send items to each other as well. There is also a major character class balance and upgrades to certain in-game characters. Also included is a new enemy, six new weapons, higher monster spawns in certain areas and “pets with abilities”.
All the gory details of the patch can be found on the Hellgate:London forums.
Sumea caught up with Flagship Studios’ David Glenn at last year’s Game Connect event down in Melbourne. Instead of staring at him like some sort of Egyptian god or throwing underpants at him, an interview was requested instead.
Here’s what Glenn had to say about starting up shop after the core team parted ways with Blizzard:
We only had nine of us. So our whole goal that first year was just to put together the basic foundation of the game and start the company and find a publisher and all that, so it really helped us in negotiations, because we didn’t need anybody’s money right away, we could work, and create the game we wanted to create and shop it around.
There’s the secret to success folks. Work for a really big games developer, make lots of money, then decide to start your own studio. It’s so simple! Sumea Interviews David Glenn, Art Director with Flagship Studios [Sumea]
Most of us at Kotaku (everyone minus Fahey) generally avoid MMOs like cactus barbed with Hello Kitty needles. But this new trailer of Mythos (the Flagship Studios Diabloesque MMO made by some ex-Blizzard folks) has us seriously questioning whether or not we really need lives after all, and if interactions with others—in the flesh, without the +2 Electric Boots of Courage—aren’t entirely overrated.
It’s a short clip, but it gets the point across. Until we see Diablo 3, this is our Diablo 3. On a side note, if Blizzard wants by $US 15 a month, they officially know how to get it. New footage from Dialbo-y MMO Mythos [via N4G]
The already rocky launch of Hellgate: London in Asia has gotten even rockier. After several weeks of server crashing issues, a patch known as Patch0 was created to help solve the problem. After numerous attempts to apply the patch to the servers it was discovered that the only way to make it work would be to perform a complete character wipe. Needless to say, Asian players of the game who have spent hours leveling up their characters are furious and in an attempt to appease them, IAH Games is offering players a months worth of free play time. Now at least they won’t have to pay for all the time they will have to spend grinding back up to where they were before the wipe if they choose to continue playing.
You can read IAH Game’s notice about the wipe after the jump
Xfire is hosting a special chat with the developers of Hellgate: London this Wednesday, which acts as both the launch day for the game as well as International Spooky Day. Flagship Studios CEO Bill Roper rounds out the five-man crack team of people who discuss things:pertaining to Hellgate: * Bill Roper, CEO Flagship Studios * Aletheia Simonson, Art Producer * Bill Manegold, Game Programmer * Amir Ebrahimi, Graphics Programmer * Guy Somberg, Audio and Gameplay Programmer
The team will discuss the ins and outs of creating the game while touching on the game mechanics, classes, multiplayer, etc. The chat is scheduled for 10PM GMT, which in a real time zone like Eastern is 6PM. Silly made-up time zones.
Hellgate: London Page at Xfire [Xfire]
It’s been an extremely long time coming, but Flagship Studios has announced that the oft-delayed Hellgate: London has finally been freed from the nest, finding a new home at the manufacturing plant. A very proud Bill Roper of Flagship, teary-eyed from an errant stream of champagne and certainly not emotion, said that making Hellgate: London was an “amazing journey for us.”
Whomever writes the press releases at EA or Namco Bandai Games reveals that the singe-player demo for the PC game will go live this Friday, October 19. Gamers will get their hands on the full version of the game on Halloween day. Yay!
HGL Gone Gold, Demo Coming! [Hellgate: London]
EA and Namco Bandai are offering some special Halloween treats for those intrepid gamers who pre-order a copy of the long-awaited Hellgate: London, set to hit stores at the end of October. Everyone who orders early will receive this set of lovely parting gifts:
• A key to an exclusive Beta starting next week and ending October 7, 2007.
• One of four exclusive dye-kits that will give your hero’s gear a cool colour theme right off the bat when Hellgate: London officially opens on Halloween.
• Eligibility to take advantage of the Hellgate: London Founders Offer, giving hardcore players a chance to purchase a lifetime subscription to Hellgate’s premium service for $US 149.99.
This offer is extended to purchasers of both the regular and collector’s versions of the game. It should be noted that the “dye kit” will become available to players once the game goes live and will not work within the beta. The colour themes will vary depending on which retailer you get your pre-order from.
Full press release with more details and fine print after the jump.
I don’t like two-tiered pricing structures. I’m a gaming socialist, I like everyone on the level. But that’s me. Not necessarily you. For those not so fussed, Flagship have announced the pricing structure for Hellgate: London for the European market. Subscribers can cough up €9.99/£6.99 a month if they want to get “new character classes, areas, monsters, items and raid content [and]new game modes”. Players who don’t want to pay still don’t have to, but you get to wear sack-cloth armour and sleep outside with the rest of the bums. The game’s out November 2 in Europe if you’re interested.
For centuries humanity had struggled to keep the demons from entering our dimension, until the year 2020 when we faltered, unleashing a horde from the dark pit upon an unsuspecting populace. Hellgate: London picks up the story 18 years later, and what better time to usher in a game about all hell breaking loose than Halloween, when the veil between worlds is said to be at its thinnest? What I’m hoping to be one of the best PC RPGs since Oblivion is hitting retail stores across North America on October 31st, with the Europeans playing catch-up two days later on November 2nd. I’m not one to get excited about a PC that isn’t an MMO, but after catching the trailer and seeing the game in action on several occasions, I’ll be staying in this Halloween to the relief of multitudinal Atlanta area kids who would otherwise be clutching their candy white-knuckled against their chests, terrified of my legendary hunger for chocolate bars in pillowcases and the tears of small children.
