WildStar gameplay starts to give you an idea on some core mechanics.

If you’re looking for some WildStar gameplay you’ve come to the right place my friends! Today I finally get to share with you some Scientist and Settler path gameplay from Carbine Studios‘ upcoming MMORPG. As you’ve seen almost all day we’ve been posting tons of new information about WildStar that I gathered during a recent trip to visit with the team in San Francisco. This WildStar gameplay is just part of the images and info I got out of the West Coast carrying!

This WildStar gameplay video, while focused on the Scientist and Settler, starts to reveal quite a bit about the game. Questing, environment quests, core path mechanics, it’s all here. Now, being only closed beta and my VERY limited hands on time, please do NOT take this video as a review of the MMO. Having only a few hours of play I barely had time to register what I liked about the game let alone start finding things I didn’t like about WildStar.

Are you into collecting? Check out in the video how almost everything the Scientist scans starts to build collections. I can already see some of my friends that have 100+ mounts in other games going nuts with this type of massive collection scheme!

My WildStar gameplay also included the Settler, the path I am most interested in myself. Check it out as I work with a NPC gathering resources laying around in an attempt to polish off a massive structure that will add NPCs that give out quests for everyone to do.

As an added bonus, I’ve thrown some screen shots into the end of the video during the wrap up and even added the gallery below for you to see brand new images of both the Scientist and the Settler. 

Have questions about the the game? Feel free to ask below and I’ll answer it if it was part of my San Francisco WildStar gameplay hands on time!

The post WildStar Gameplay Video appeared first on Gamebreaker.tv.

Executive Producer Jeremy Gaffney sits down with Gamebreaker for a WildStar interview!

During my trip to San Francisco to get some hands on time with the Scientist and Settler paths in WildStar, I was fortunate enough to snag some time with Carbine Studios‘ Executive Producer Jeremy Gaffney and chat in this WildStar interview.

If you aren’t familiar with Jeremy, at the risk of putting him in the same category as many did when they described former President G.W. Bush, he is certainly the type of guy you would like to sit down and have a beer with. It is easy to see where WildStar is getting the sense of humor that it has after just spending a few hours with Gaffney and his team.

Gaffney has a long history with MMOs, as the WildStar interview details, and for those of you that have played some of the previous titles he’s been involved in you may see some earlier game systems more fleshed out in WildStar. Looking at the extensive list of titles under Gaffney’s belt is like looking at a “Who’s Who In MMOs” list.

In the interview, Gaffney and I chat about the two new path reveals, discuss how “easy” the telegraph system in WildStar is, and even get some additional details on housing dungeons. These random dungeons almost didn’t even make it into the release of WildStar but, as Gaffney describes, the sheer dedication of the team over at Carbine made SURE they got included.

Take a listen and let us know what you think about out WildStar interview. When you hear Gaffney’s answer about payment model, does it tip you off as to what WildStar will be doing? Could we see a “Buy to Play and a Cash Shop” a la Guild Wars 2 type model, or could Carbine have something else in store?

What do you think? 

Really, you still need a link for beta sign ups? Well…okay then, since we’re friends. You can sign up here!

The post WildStar Interview With Jeremy Gaffney appeared first on Gamebreaker.tv.

Recently I Traveled To San Francisco To Get Some WildStar Hands On Time. I Left With A Whole Lot More!

Like many of you I have had my eyes on WildStar, the upcoming MMORPG from Carbine Studios, for quite some time. I’ve been intrigued by many of the talking points that we’ve seen released. About two weeks ago I got the chance to head on out to the west coast and spend some time with Jeremy Gaffney, Executive Producer, and team and get some WildStar hands on time with both the Scientist and Settler paths. Not only that, but I gathered a ton of information from anyone willing to talk and want to share it with you to get your take on some of the directions in which WildStar is moving.

Until now, very little information has been released regarding the Scientist and Settler paths. We had a basic idea, one would collect and one would build, but we really didn’t have much more than that. In my WildStar hands on time I got to play with both classes. I have included screen shots of my gameplay for you as well! (Yes, we had permission from Carbine to do so )

Let’s Talk Science!

Scanning the local wildlife with my Scientist

The Scientist path caters to the more collection hungry among us. In Gaffney’s words the Scientist builds on that inherent human desire to make order out of chaos and complete various collections. Scientists roam the world of WildStar with a companion scanning bot that is used to seek out items of note in the environment. Items that are able to be scanned have an additional icon next to their nameplate for easy recognition. You won’t just be scanning rocks and things either. Some monsters can be scanned and if you scan enough of a certain type you’ll find advantages in combat coming your way.

For the more collection oriented, Scientists can scan various items of note in the environment and gather loot, details, or even open up puzzles to access new map locations that other players couldn’t reach. In the gameplay we watched before playing (which was a live demo, not a prefabricated video) Gaffney’s team stumbled upon an unusual looking huge disc on the ground. Once scanned by a Scientist, this disc generated a puzzle based on the four elements. Certain switches triggered different elements to light up and others to extinguish. The goal was to light all four elements at once. Players that do not choose the Scientist path could only take part in the puzzle if they were in a party with a Scientist that scanned the puzzle to “unlock” the ability to try and solve it, or happened to be nearby when a Scientist scanned the disc.

Once solved, a cave opened up that had a sort of “mini-dungeon” and boss inside for some extra special loot. Here’s the catch. Gaffney told us multiple times that the team at Carbine wants WildStar to be a game you could find a strategy guide for if you wanted, but walkthroughs for many things (like this puzzle) would be scarce. Why? It seems the puzzles in WildStar have a bit of a random element to them. Each puzzle has multiple versions. The puzzle you play may have a very different solution if you attempt it tomorrow.

Settle Down Now

Settler Getting Her Build On!

For my WildStar hands on time I was most eager to check out the Settler path. I wanted to see exactly how the whole “build and maintain” play style was going to work. As it turns out, from my limited WildStar hands on time, I think Settler is shaping up to be an experience unlike anything else in other MMORPGs. 

So here’s the gist, then we’ll get to some really cool mechanics. Those that choose the path of the Settler are charged with the learning, building, and maintaining of everything from torches in an existing town that need to be lit at nightfall, all the way to full blown outposts outside, for example, a raid instance. Settlers have the ability to repair broken down structures whenever they come across them and I found myself doing exactly that during my WildStar hands on time. I couldn’t leave any item unclicked. Even though they may have been worth very little path experience (yes that’s different from your character’s basic experience) I couldn’t walk past an unlit torch, a downed fence, or a barricade that was broken leaving NPC guards exposed. 

While these items may seem small in the grand scheme, the Settler really shines when building large structures. Building a jailhouse in a rundown outpost not only added a new structure but also added NPC quest givers that were available to everyone. Structures take maintenance, however, so other settlers can click on places you’ve built and add resources of their own to increase the amount of time before the structure collapses.

Not only can Settlers provide additional buildings, NPCs, quests, and vendors to other players, but they also play a huge role in your transportation. 

An example from Gaffney might shed some more light here. You have a typical zone and there is an existing city that serves as a gathering or staging point for a raid located on the far side of the zone. That’s quite a walk. Bring a bunch of Settlers with you! Once you get to some ruins outside the instance, Settlers can rebuild the outpost NPC guards and all.

Not only that, but Settlers have the ability to set up travel paths (read: flight path without the flight) between the outpost and the hub city. As if that wasn’t enough, Settlers also have the ability to build mount vendors who will be happy to sell you temporary mounts.

That’s Great, But What About When Paths Intersect?

Paths in parties provides a bit of a design challenge. Carbine doesn’t want raids and other elder game content to turn into an attendance roll call of certain paths but they do want to provide an incentive to have multiple paths involved in a group. Path experience plays a big part in this system. Not only do you gain path experience for performing tasks in your given path, but you also receive path experience when helping others with their paths. Team up with a Scientist and help them complete certain path objectives and you’ll be rewarded in your path for doing so. 

Interaction with items of your creation can even net you some path experience when you aren’t around. While I was not at high enough levels to get footage of this during my WildStar hands on time, Gaffney was happy to oblige with another example.

Settlers can make a campfire. This campfire gives buffs to those that use it. When used, the Settler that created the campfire receives path experience. The meta game this type of behavior opens up is one of “supply and demand.” In the first week, setting up a campfire outside a popular dungeon may net you a ton of path experience for your Settler as everyone who enters the dungeon uses your campfire. Once other Settlers see this though, the area could become covered with campfires. It’s up to you to find the next “golden” location for your campfire when this happens.

Path experience is important. As you level your path not only are you rewarded with additional path based abilities, but you can also receive both gear and housing items as rewards for your accomplishments.

What About That “More” You Mentioned?

Tracker In The Lower Right Tracks All Quest Types (Regular, Path, etc) Dynamic Events Track Below Your Mini-Map

While my WildStar hands-on time would have been enough for me, here’s a list of other interesting tidbits I managed to smuggle out of San Francisco. 

As of two weeks ago, Gaffney says that WildStar has about 220 hours of content already available in the game and more is being added before launch. When you think about some other recent MMORPG releases, this number seems staggering for where WildStar is in the beta process. Not only does the game contain that many hours of content, but Gaffney also says that your path only makes up about 20-25% of your overall gameplay experience. This leaves plenty of room for other content along the way.

On the idea of “content level”, Gaffney shared some of the results of beta phase 1. The obvious question was how the distribution of paths among players was progressing. Since you cannot currently change paths after you complete character creation, it is important that there are adequate numbers of each path to maintain consistent gameplay. Gaffney was pleasantly surprised by the path distribution so far and even said that the team at Carbine will continue to monitor how many players are rolling new characters simply to change paths to make a decision on if players should be allowed to change paths at any time.

Closed Beta Phase 1 also had a level cap of 22 (increased to 30 in Closed Beta Phase 2 and PvP options have been added) and Gaffney told me that the data shows it took players on average 44 hours to go from level 1 to level 22. What surprised me here is that Gaffney and the team at Carbine actually thought this was about 5% slower than the team expected it would take.

In my WildStar hands on time I also noticed that a quest or two seemed to be phased. Gaffney did say that the game utilizes a little bit of phasing but since they aren’t generally fans of this mechanic Carbine is looking for ways to remove as much of the phasing left as possible.

Finally, group content is a huge part of WildStar, and instances are challenging by design. Carbine doesn’t want them to be easy. As was mentioned on Gamebreaker before, instances can also be dynamic (even occurring as you dig out your plot of land in your personal house) in that a boss may have different mechanics or a different add compliment each week.

If your group can’t hang with a raid boss that has three healing adds, maybe next week you’ll fare better when the healers have been swapped for warriors. While this is just a very basic example of the concept of dynamic raids, it does make me a bit excited for the PvE leader boards that will be in WildStar. Each week guilds can try to tackle the leader boards for shortest kill time and each week every guild has another chance to claim those rewards since the instances change. That should keep elder game content a bit on the interesting side even after “farm” status is achieved.

So what do you think? All in all I felt good leaving San Francisco. While I certainly wouldn’t say I know everything about the game, my WildStar hands-on time did leave me wanting to play some more and excited about some of the features I was able to see in action.

What intrigues you the most about WildStar right now?

If you haven’t already, you can sign up for the WildStar beta here. They’ve got a stress test coming up and Closed Beta Test 2 participants will have access to a new zone, faction, dungeon, and PvP content.

The post WildStar Hands On Path Reveal And MORE! appeared first on Gamebreaker.tv.

Still Confused On The Path You Should Take? Let The WildStar Dev Speak Be Your Guide

The humor from the team at Carbine Studios continues in the latest installment of WildStar Dev Speak, the quasi educational, always funny video series about the upcoming MMORPG. 

This time “Paths” are the topic of discussion. If you still aren’t quite sure which path you plan to take on first, the WildStar Dev Speak gives you a nice breakdown of your options. 

Soldier, Explorer, Settler, and Scientist all make appearances in the WildStar Dev Speak and it’s nice to see some additional details for some of these paths since information has been scarce on the Settler and Scientist until today! 

I think I’ll actually be rolling a Settler first. I don’t know what it is about the gameplay we’ve seen showcased, but something about being an integral part of how the entire game world is shaped just really appeals to me. As an added plus the WildStar Dev Speak says that I’ll be able to build speeder bikes too! Don’t worry, I’ll be happy to sell them to any Gamebreaker fans out there.

Also of note in the WildStar Dev Speak is the Explorer. I do like the idea of having speed run quests as part of my path leveling, so maybe Settler isn’t the way to go first…damn…now I’m torn.

I do like the lore aspect behind the Scientist too though. Soldier on the other hand…

Never mind, I still can’t decide what I’m going to roll first and if anything the additional information provided by the WildStar Dev Speak just made the decision harder, not easier.

Do you know what path you’ll embark on first? Let me know below, maybe it will help me decide. Stay tuned to Gamebreaker all day today as WildStar information will be spilling out all day.

If you haven’t already you can of course sign up for beta right here. If you want to see more WildStar videos, you can check out their official YouTube channel here.

The post WildStar Dev Speak Shows You The Right Path appeared first on Gamebreaker.tv.

Information Is Starting To Flow About WildStar Paths And How They Function

We’ve seen more and more information out of the team at Carbine Studios lately, and especially today. It seems the PR train for WildStar is starting to hit its stride and a detailed explanation of the WildStar paths is in order. In typical humorous fashion, the WildStar devs announce that “Class Is Dismissed” and show off the key traits for all WildStar Paths.

Here’s a breakdown of what to expect when you first create a character and choose a path in the upcoming MMORPG:

• Explorer – Examines vistas, lost tunnels, and engages in scavenger hunts all in an effort to be the first to claim “Been there, done that.”
• Soldier – Do you like to hit big things with big weapons? Kind of a no-brainer here then. Enjoy the large bosses this WildStar path is planning to send your way.
• Settler – Build your way to success. Whether it’s a large piece of infrastructure or something as simple as a campfire you’ll be paving the way for others around you.
• Scientist – This is the WildStar path for you completionists out there. Scan the environment, lost items, pieces of lore, or even monsters to build your knowledge and hopefully increase your chances for survival.

The latest WlidStar paths personality video showcases each path nicely and really starts to give hopeful players a solid foundation to make their choice. If this video didn’t make your decision for you have you checked out the WildStar Dev Speak on paths also released today yet?

Looks like it’s time to study up on WildStar paths as beta moves to phase two and phase three is only about 4 weeks away!

What did you think of the video? Still loving the comedy Carbine provides? Let us know!

Really? You STILL haven’t signed up for beta? Sure I’ll give you the link once again right here. If you want to see more WildStar videos check out their official YouTube channel here.

The post WildStar Paths Show Some Personality appeared first on Gamebreaker.tv.

Whitevale Zone Set To Nail WildStar Beta Players With Weather

What? You still haven’t gotten enough news today about Carbine Studios upcoming MMORPG WildStar? Ok, well I’ve got one more tidbit for you today and I even posted some screen shots below for those of us not lucky enough to be in the closed beta. 

WildStar beta players will have access to a new zone in this phase called Whitevale. This zone is heavily contested by the Dominion and the Exiles but this beta phase won’t be that contested since only Dominion will be available. Whitevale also adds in the challenges of weather and a technologically advanced race known as the Ikthians.

I’ll let the team at Carbine sum it all up for you:

“It’s high adventure in the frozen wastes of Whitevale! Located near the monolithic Focus of Water, Whitevale is a wild and unexplored territory with deep thermal lakes, marshy grasslands, snow-covered hills, and towering walls of rock and ice. As the Dominion and the Exiles battle each other to control this dangerous, unclaimed territory, they also fight to survive the unpredictable weather that threatens to destroy them all. After facing soldiers, spies, and bloodthirsty space pirates, adventurers from both factions will journey into the cold, icy wastes near the Focus of Water itself—and there face the hostile and technologically advanced Ikthians!”

Looks like beta testers can expect some new challenges in addition to the added dungeon and PvP content in this phase of the WildStar beta.

What do you think of the screen shots? Are you happy with the variety of zones we’re starting to see or are you still holding out for more?

Ok sure…I’ll throw that beta sign up link here one more time for the stragglers. 

The post Whitevale Added To This Round Of WildStar Beta appeared first on Gamebreaker.tv.

Peace Offering To Players For Neverwinter’s Bumpy Road So Far

It doesn’t really matter if you call it open beta or full launch, the fact remains that the first few weeks of Neverwinter‘s existence have not passed without the free-to-play MMORPG seeing its fair share of problems.

With normal game launch bugs, connection issues, lag, hardware failures, and an Auction House exploit that brought servers down for an extended period over the weekend, the Neverwinter devs decided to give the players a little something for their troubles.

All characters created before 6am on Tuesday May 21st will receive the Caturday Survivor’s Pack in their in-game mail. The pack includes 2x XP Boosters, 5x Protector’s Enclave teleport scrolls, a Dwarven Facemask, a Stone of Health, and a Cape of Catastrophe. At least they managed to maintain a sense of humor about it all.

From the official announcement:

“What we did not expect, and should have, is how amazingly supportive and helpful our community would be during the brief snags that we might hit along the way.  We are sincerely overwhelmed by all of the positive comments and feedback that we’ve received from you over the past few weeks, and would like to express our deepest thanks for your ongoing support and willingness to help us make Neverwinter one of the best free-to-play MMORPGs around.”

Servers were rolled back following that Auction House exploit that came to light on Sunday morning, and many players lost progress from time played after 5:20 am PDT on Sunday. The auction house and Zen exchange were not accessible once the game was finally brought back online, although the Zen exchange should be available again now, and they are working on bringing back the auction house as soon as possible.

Cryptic has an official FAQ going on the Neverwinter forums that you can check out if you have questions regarding your character’s status following the rollbacks. 

What do you think of this gift from the Neverwinter devs? Does this help make up for the problems you’ve had so far. Leave a comment and let us know.

The post Neverwinter Gives Players Gift For Beta Troubles appeared first on Gamebreaker.tv.

On May 28th Guild Wars 2 will launch the next part of their living story: Last Stand at Southsun. This update has a lot for WvW and a few new features for people interested in PvE as well. In addition there are some cool new items.

Living Story Continuation

The person behind the wildlife attacks has been revealed in the last update as the renegade sylvari Canach. Now you can embark on a new solo mission to face him. Once you have defeated Canach you also will unlock a new group adventure.

In addition to the new story dungeon there is also a new open world event at Southsun Cove. The settlers will need to be protected from rampaging wildlife or else they will be overrun. And, on June 6th there will be a new “hulking monstrosity” that will join the fight to get rid of the settlers.

World vs. World Changes

On of the most important changes to WvW is the number of activities you can participate in during WvW which yield XP will be increasing. Some examples of things which will now give XP are destroying siege weapons, repairing walls, and doing escort missions. Clearly they are trying to encourage people to take part in more than just attacking the other team and are trying to make the other WvW activities more attractive. Which, in the long run, will probably improve the entire WvW experience for everyone.

GW2 is also adding new WvW daily achievements you can choose between. You will also be able to attain new WvW abilities (Burning Oil Mastery or Defense Against Guards) which will increase your effectiveness in WvW. Also, if you have ever felt underwhelmed when you attained a new rank, GW2 is looking to fix that. Now when you reach a new rank you will receive a bonus chest which will contain useful items for WvW.

Lastly, but certainly not least, GW2 is making some changes to the matchups. You will be facing new opponents in new matchups to further test your WvW skills. More verity is the aim of this change.

New items!

A new game update wouldn’t be complete without new items to earn, would it? Of course it wouldn’t! Why not start with the new Mini Reef Rider. This little guy is only available until June 11th, and you have to find him to obtain him. Sadly there are no spoilers on the Offical Wiki about where/how to find him.

In addition you can also obtain a Settler’s Amulet, Keepsake, and Ring either from creatures and chests in Southsun Cove or by playing the Crab Toss.

There are also two new back pieces which can be obtained through completing different achievements. The first one is the Fervid Censor which you obtain from completing the Southsun Volunteer Fieldwork achievement. The second back is the Sclerite Karka Shell which you obtain by completing 25 of the Secret of Southsun achievements. The bonus for the Sclerite Kara Shell is you can upgrade it to Ascended level.

Price Reduction

Separately from the Last Stand game update, but equally important, Gamasutra is reporting a permanent reduction in the price of Guild Wars 2. This price reduction takes effect as of 18:00 (6:00pm) BST today, Tuesday May 21 ^st. The new prices will be £34.99 for the Standard Edition and £49.99 for the Digital Deluxe Edition. For anyone who hasn’t given GW2 a try at this point, the reduction in cost should be a very nice carrot. Not to mention the consistent content updates which you do not get charged for.

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Auction House Exploit Brings Down Neverwinter Servers And Triggers Server Rollbacks

So for those of you that were hoping to get in some time with Neverwinter on a lazy Sunday, you probably noticed that all is not well in the D&D inspired Cryptic Studios MMORPG. Following the game’s social media outlets probably gave you a basic idea of exactly what was going on.

Without explaining the exploit in step by step detail, an exploit focused around being able to enter values in the auction house that really shouldn’t have been allowed was abused and thus astral diamonds were being duplicated. This quickly led to items being posted for absurd values so duplication could be completed on larger scales. Since Astral Diamonds can be exchanged for Zen (Perfect World’s Cash currency) in Neverwinter, this duplication had real life money implications in multiple ways.

In response to the exploit, Neverwinter disabled the in game auction house at around 11 A.M. PDT while the team at Cryptic starting investigating the reports. One hour later, Neverwinter stated on their Twitter account that the servers would be taken down totally so investigations could continue. The estimated down time was 1 hour.

Fast forward 12 hours later and the servers were still down.

At 11:13 PM Pacific Time, the Neverwinter team posted that they will in fact be performing a server rollback of 7 hours. All progress made between 5:20 AM Pacific Time and the time the servers were taken down would be reverted. Players are assured that all Zen purchases would remain in tact. Whenever the servers are actually brought back up, the Astral Diamonds exchange and the Auction house will be unavailable for an unknown time period.

Players will be receiving a free gift in recompense for the rollback and the full situation FAQ is available here, and for those interested parties, you can check out the full announcement here.

Cryptic has stated that they have isolated the accounts involved in the exploit and is planning on taking actions up to and including the banning of accounts but, as is usually the case with these sorts of things, innocent players may find themselves banned from the game erroneously. If this happens to you, Perfect World Entertainment (PWE) has advised you to file a support ticket.

There are a number of concerns that this brings up for the fledgling free to play title though. Numerous exploits have already been reported (such as Foundry and Boss Fight exploits) and the fixes for many have been slow in coming. Closed beta players are also chiming in on the twitter discussion and the forums to advise that this exact auction house bug, and many others, were reported in closed beta yet still made it to an open beta that PWE is making money on.

What impact this whole situation has on Neverwinter‘s ultimate success still has yet to be seen, but having your Cat market bubble burst like the housing bubble can’t be good in the long run.

Should Neverwinter just roll back their servers or is a complete beta wipe called for? What do you think?

The post Neverwinter’s Economic Meltdown appeared first on Gamebreaker.tv.

Patch 5.3 Release Date Is Confirmed By Blizzard on Twitter

World of Warcraft Patch 5.3: #Escalation is releasing Tuesday, May 21. bit.ly/16flrlG

— World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) May 18, 2013

Blizzard has taken to twitter of all places to announce the patch 5.3 release date: it’s May 21st! This is in just a few days time, that’s right, it lands on Tuesday, and Wednesday in the EU. There’s an absolute ton of stuff going on in this patch, so do check out all Gamebreaker’s coverage! There’s big changes that take the grind out of Pandaria, there’s a 33% nerf to the XP required to get from 85-90, and there’s a change that removes bad luck from your charms! Every time you use one you’ll get luckier and luckier. 

What’s more there are also heroic scenarios, which will require a pre-made group, have greater challenges and drop high end loot as well as a ton of valor. Not only that, but 2 new ranks are being added to the Brawler’s Guild, as well as a new area specifically for rank 8 players to hang out.

What’s more there are massive changes coming to PvP. Resilience’s days are over, it’s all going to be base resil now, and PvP Power is king. There are also changes to the amount of PvP Power on gear, as well as PvE gear being scaled back in PvP instances. We’re all going to be really interested to see the outcome of these changes. 

You can check out Blizzard’s official guide to getting ready for patch 5.3 here.

So, what do you think? Is the patch 5.3 release date sooner than you thought it would be? It’s certainly come in fairly fast, only a few days after the release candidate hit the PTR. Of course, this patch has no additional raid content, but there’s a huge amount of stuff coming in!

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