High Scores And Egos: There's Always A Bigger Doodle 
The Last Moments Of GAME 
How Bad User Interfaces Are Ruining Video Games And Other Wonderful Things 
She Tried To Make Good Video Games For Girls, Whatever That Meant 
The Story Of Doodle Jump: Brotherly Love And Digital Snacks 
Sunday Comics: Dead Island
After months of testing that may have seemed like playing a launched game to the uninitiated, Perfect World’s Ether Saga Online is finally declared fit for launch.
Perfect World Entertainment have announced the closed beta of their latest anime-flavoured MMORPG Ether Saga Online is just around the corner, and loaded for with bears.
I’ve been watching the movements of Beijing Perfect World with some interest; in comparison to some of the up and coming companies, they’ve certainly kept a reasonably low profile lately. Until, of course, they launched the ‘international’ version of their original MMO, Perfect World. Now they’re eying another go with the Japanese market, bringing their Chi Bi (‘Red Cliff’) MMO to Romance of the Three Kingdoms-mad gamers. I’ve heard tell Perfect World will be releasing another of their games to the US market in the near future, and we can only hope that it’s Red Cliff — I’m all about some classical Chinese fiction renovated for a 21st century audience. The Three Kingdoms gaming phenomenon is fascinating to me, and one that I hope to write on formally at some point in the not-too-distant future. Press release after the jump.
So, we mentioned that the English-speaking world is getting its own version of Perfect World, so it can stop piggybacking on a couple of servers on the Malaysian version; along with another launch comes another closed beta, which will be starting on August 19th. The news page has more information on giveaways and the like, or you can just register on the game’s site.
I’ve been galloping around the test servers for the past week or so, and I’ve been having a reasonably good time (especially considering I usually abhor actually playing MMORPGs). It’s pretty, it’s free, and if you haven’t already, may be worth checking out.
As we mentioned last weekend, John Woo’s next film èµ¤å£ (The Battle of Red Cliff) is getting the MMORPG treatment courtesy of one of China’s biggest game companies, Beijing Perfect World. And in fine Perfect World tradition, they’ve presented us with an almost unintelligible press release telling us so! The game will be released ahead of the film and is scheduled to launch later this year (the film won’t be arriving until 2008). Full release after the jump.
Beijing Perfect World, the developer and publisher of several big-name Chinese games, and China Film Group Corporation have reached an agreement that Perfect World will develop a MMORPG based on John Woo’s latest film (due out next year) titled èµ¤å£ (The Battle of Red Cliff). Based on historical events (and included in the classic Chinese novel, Romance of the Three Kingdoms), the movie focuses on a decisive battle in 3rd century BCE China, and the MMORPG will follow the same path – while differentiating itself from all the other Romance of the Three Kingdoms-based games that came before it.
