Not exactly news, but Guido Henkel published an article a couple days ago giving some insight on the technology behind Deathfire. That reminded me I wanted to post some pictures of the character generation screens, because they are looking pretty neat:
This last one looks particularly promising; while the first two could be from any Infinity Engine game, those skills scream Realms of Arkania. The mere presence of disadvantages just makes me tingle tingle. I mean, look at that! Pessimism! Suspicion! I just hope they have a bit more weight than they had on the original games, were apart from superstition (that lowered magic resistance) the disadvantages were hardly used. Having a chronically pessimist jester sobbing his way through Shadows over Riva would have been… well, different, wouldn’t it?
If you were born before the Super Nintendo was released, chances are you probably know what HeroQuest is, apart from almost the original name of the first Quest for Glory. If you lack that knowledge, Dark Quest, featured in the video above, might give you a general idea, since it’s deeply influenced by Stephen Baker’s boardgame.
So, lane pushers, DOTA clones, Multiplayer Online Battle Arenas, Action RTS, or whatever you want to call them. Since League of Legends became The Next Big Thing (or, to be more precise, The Big Thing Right Now), we’ve seen a few companies launching their own products, Defense of the Ancients 2 by Valve being the only one, for now, able to gather a somewhat noticeable playerbase, apart from the older Heroes of Newerth, which peaked at 120k concurrent players during September 2012. Demigod was a fluke (sadly, I kind of liked that one), Smite might, or might not do well (hey, they got Manowar for their trailer), and Infinite Crisis is looking alright, I guess, but I don’t really see how the Joker could ever fight Superman unless kryptonite is somehow a resource in-game. Anyway, we can expect lots of shitty products in the future, as MOBAs are the new MMOs, just way cheaper (and faster) to make, thus becoming a much more interesting investment for all those venture capitalists. Mark my words.
But, we’re still on that phase when good things can still come out, and crazy, innovative ideas aren’t totally out of the question. That’s why we’ll get a MOBA based on Magicka, of all things.
And what will make Magicka: Wizard Wars game any different? Mostly, that there are no champions/heroes/gods/characters. Everyone will be a mage, just like in the original Magicka; but the awesome element mixing spell casting will still be there, being the most apparent gimmick of the game. There’s still not a lot unveiled apart from that cinematic trailer, but I can see how this could become quite an enjoyable game, if not for truly competitive gameplay, for the sheer chaos I remember from those 4 player co-op runs.
