Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Dead Space 3 Review

Details About This Game :
    Game : Dead Space 3
    Platforms : PC, PS3, 360
    Genre : Action
    Publisher : Electronic Arts
    Developer : Visceral Games
    ESRB Rating : Rating Pending
    Release Date : N/A
    Also Known As : N/A



If pop culture has taught us anything, it's that space can be a pretty lonely place. Like Ellen Ripley before him, Dead Space's Isaac Clark had to endure two full games of solitary terror in order to arrive at where he is today. To give the guy a break, EA and Visceral Games decided to expand the third installment in the series by allowing a second player to assume the role of John Carver, and officer in the Earth Defense Force with a bit of a troubled past. Together, the two of them journey from the familiarity of decrepit spaceships to the unfamiliar hell of Tau Volantis, a frozen planet that holds the key to saving humanity. With this newfound importance placed on cooperative play, we decided that it would be best for 1UP editors Jose Otero and Marty Sliva to team up and review Dead Space 3 together.

Marty Sliva: Before we delve into Dead Space 3, I feel like we should first state our history with the series. How versed are you with the prior games?

Jose Otero: I played and loved the original Dead Space. I can't say the same for Dead Space 2 -- I played about an hour of it and moved on. I know Dead Space and its sequel are often compared to distinct differences between Alien and Aliens, but the blockbuster path of the sequel kind of turned me away from the series. Plus, I had other games to play for work at the time. I also played about an hour of Dead Space Extraction and one of the iOS games.

MS: Ok, so you're much more familiar with the series than I am. As much as I love the survival horror genre, I completely missed out on the Dead Space train in 2008 and 2011. I know a whole mess of people who claim that the first one is a truly terrifying experience in the vein of Alien, and that like you said, the second one becomes much more of an action story. I was a bit worried that Dead Space 3 would take that thought even further and strip away any sense of horror, instead focusing on action scope. And wouldn't you know, that's exactly what Visceral delivered: A kitchen-sink finale that had trouble finding a singular voice.

JO: Silly stories are practically a staple of survival horror games, but I wouldn't claim Dead Space 3 lacks a singular voice. It's true that the narrative consistently bumbles the peril and plot twists -- with the developer often predictably showing their hand and their hordes of malformed enemy types waiting around the next corner -- but this game still fits into the overall tone of Dead Space. The environments and graphics preserve a seamless transition between storytelling and action that's remained a consistent elemnet since the first game, and the level of detail found in this experience can often feel breathtaking.

Every element of the environment consistently makes you feel consistently uncomfortable. The harsh sounds that doors make whenever they close behind you. The way you stumble across corpses that lie still in the silent and creepy environments. Even the notes left behind by the fallen contribute to a general sense of unease. Space and the planet Tau Volantis are cold, hard, and sometimes terrifying in a way that matches up to some of the best of sci-fi.

Of course, I'm not a huge fan of the way Dead Space 3 oscillates between action and suspense, but it stays consistent with what I played of the sequel, and tries to incorporate more ideas that make sense with the character -- like the crafting system. To some degree, the problems I have with Dead Space 3 come from issues with pacing, both narratively and from a gameplay standpoint.

MS: I completely agree that DS3 is an aesthetic wonder. The empty vacuum of space, the decrepit remains of a once-powerful flotilla, and the unforgiving surface of Tau Volantis are all rendered with a level of artisanship that stands against anything we've seen this generation. Each location feels like a place that was lived in before the universe went straight to hell. The visuals are complemented by some great sound design that toys with your senses and plays tricks on you all in the name of tension. Sadly, I feel like a lot of this great work is hampered by rudimentary mission design and a crafting system that, though robust, pulls you out of the world every time you saddle up to a workbench.


Far too often, DS3 falls into the banal routine of forcing the player to collect three nick-nacks in order to power some sort of larger gadget. After you manage to find what you're looking for, you inevitably stumble upon another piece of broken technology that, once again, requires Isaac to set out and gather another trio of objects. The few times that the story deviates from this cycle usual come in the side-missions, which each contain their own smaller narrative and have you descending into a dungeon-esque area removed from the main story. You'll come across wrecked souls who've boobytrapped their own ship, and generals who had no qualms with brutally killing their own innocent men in the hopes of staving off infection. I would've loved to see the entirety of DS3 exude this same sort of unique surprise.

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Download Boot Camp Drivers Fot Windows 8

Four months after the release of Windows 8, Apple has finally updated Boot Camp Assistant to add support for Windows 8. Yes, Boot Camp 5.0.5033 includes drivers for Windows 7 as well as Windows 8.

Boot Camp for Windows 8

Mac users who would like to install and enjoy Windows 8 on Mac machines without going through driver issues can now download the newest version of Boot Camp drivers from Apple’s download page. The new Boot Camp should address issues with the trackpad on some MacBook Air and MacBook Pro models.
If you have no idea about Boot Camp, it’s an assistant software available on OS X Lion and Mountain Lion to help users easily partition the hard drive, prepare bootable Windows media, and then install Windows alongside your existing Mac.

According to the official Boot Camp support page, Boot Camp 5 adds support for Windows 8 (64-bit) and the new drivers support both Windows 7 (64-bit) and Windows 8 (64-bit). Unfortunately, Boot Camp 5 doesn’t support 32-bit Windows 7 and Windows 8.

So, Mac users have no option but to install 64-bit Windows using Boot Camp. However, the previous version (v4.0) of Boot Camp supports 32-bit Windows 7.

The support page also notes that Boot Camp supports upgrading from Windows 7 to Windows 8, provided that you install Boot Camp 5.0 drivers on your Windows 7 machine before upgrading to Windows 8. If your Mac comes with Fusion Drive, it turns out that Boot Camp Assistant will help you install Windows on hard disk drive, not the Flash drive even if you have sufficient free space. Also note that Boot Camp doesn’t support installing Windows on external hard drive.

Interested users can check out our step-by-step how to install Windows 8 on Mac guide to successfully install Windows 8 on your Mac. Once installed, you need to press and hold the Option (Alt) key while you start up your Mac to select your Windows operating system.

Boot Camp Windows 8

The download size of Boot Camp drivers (5.0.5033) is 553.62 MB and supports following Mac models:
  • MacBook Air, mid 2011 or later
  • MacBook Pro, mid 2010 or later (MacBook Pro 13 inch mid 2010 isn’t supported)
  • Mac Pro, early 2009 or later
  • Mac mini, mid 2011 or later
  • iMac, mid 2010 or later
Download Boot Camp Drivers

View the original article here

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

How To Import Photos From iPhone To Windows 8

Apple iPhone is still one of the best smartphones out there and selling pretty well in spite of stiff competition from the beautiful Nokia Lumia 920 and powerful Galaxy S3/S4. We all use our iPhones to catch memorable moments and would like to keep a backup of photos on our PCs. 

Import iPhone Photos to Windows 8 PC

If you own an iPhone/iPad and would like to transfer your photos from iPhone to your Windows 8 PC or tablet, you can do so with a few clicks or taps.

The native Photos app in Windows 8 not only lets you view pictures but also allows you import pictures from your smartphones and digital cameras. In this guide, we’re going to show you how to safely transfer photos from your iPhone to your Windows 8 PC without the need of iTunes or any other third-party tools.

Method 1:

Step 1: Connect your iPhone to your PC using the connection cable provided by Apple.

Step 2: The moment Windows recognizes your iPhone, you will see a toast notification on the upper right of the screen asking Tap to choose what happens with this device

Import iPhone Photos to Windows Step1

And if this notification isn’t appearing on your screen, it’s because you have either disabled the toast notification feature or turned on hide notification for 1, 4, or 8 hours option. In this case, you can follow the instructions provided in Method 2 to import your iPhone photos.

Step 3: Click or tap the notification to see three options: Import photos and videos, Open device to view files, and Take no action.
Import iPhone Photos to Windows Step2
Click or tap Import photos and videos option. This action will open all photos on your iPhone in Windows 8’s Photos app.

Step 4: Select photos and videos that you wish to import and then click or tap Import button to start copying all photos from your iPhone to PC.

Import iPhone Photos to Windows Step3
Import iPhone Photos to Windows Step8

Step 5: Once Photos app completes its business, you’ll see an option to open up the folder to view imported photos. You can also close Photos app if you would like to view photos later.
Import iPhone Photos to Windows Step9
All imported photos are located in Pictures library. To open Pictures library, open up Computer (File Explorer) or any other folder, and then click Pictures option located in the left pane. Good luck!

Method 2: Use this method if you have already connected your iPhone to Windows 8 PC.
Step 1: Switch to the Start screen, click or tap Photos app tile to run the app.

Import iPhone Photos to Windows Step

Step 2: Right-click anywhere on the Photos app to see Import option in the lower right corner of the screen.

Import iPhone Photos to Windows Step6

Step 3: Click or tap Import button to view list of all connected devices to your PC.

Import iPhone Photos to Windows Step7

Step 4: Click or tap your iPhone entry, select photos and videos that you would like to import, and then click or tap Import button to start transferring selected photos and videos to your PC. 

Import iPhone Photos to Windows Step3
Import iPhone Photos to Windows Step9
Photos app saves all imported photos in Pictures library. You can view all imported photos either using Photos app, Windows Photo Viewer, or any other program.

View the original article here

Monday, April 1, 2013

Download UC BrowserHD For Windows 8

Regardless of the editions of Windows 8, Internet Explorer is available in two versions: Internet Explorer for desktop and Internet Explorer with Modern UI. The desktop version of Internet Explorer is the legacy one with all the bells and whistles, and the latter one is cut-down version of the desktop version designed for touch screen.

Up until now, computer users who’re running Windows 8 on a touch screen had no option but to go for Modern UI version of Internet Explorer as Google Chrome with Modern UI and Firefox with Modern UI aren’t quite ready yet. If you’re looking for an alternative to IE10 Modern UI, you can check out UC BrowserHD.

Web Browser for Windows 8 Picture1

UC BrowserHD is a free web browser designed exclusively for Windows 8 and is available in the official Windows Store. This browsing app packs-in all the features of Internet Explorer app plus some additional ones.

Web Browser for Windows 8 Picture2

The home page of the browser sports a speed-dial which lets you open Google, YouTube, Yahoo!, Twitter, Facebook and Gmail with a tap. One can configure the speed dial by adding or removing URLs.
Web Browser for Windows 8 Picture4

The toolbar or app bar of the browser which includes an address bar and  search box always appears by default. However, one can configure the browser to hide this one. Another useful thing is that, just like desktop browsers, you can easily switch between search engines with a tap.

Features:
  • Supports bookmarks
  • Supports incognito browsing mode
  • Supports bookmarks sync
  • Home page with Speed dial
  • Full touch screen support
  • Customizable home page background
  • Option to clear history
  • View history
  • Multi-tab support
The download manager of the browser can be accessed by tapping the Download button located on the toolbar. Bookmarking a webpage is quite easy. When a webpage is open in the app, simply click the Plus button that appears before the address bar to see Add to Bookmarks, Add to speed dial, and Pin to Start options.
Web Browser for Windows 8 Picture5

If you have enabled bookmarks sync feature under settings, the app automatically syncs the bookmarks list with your other computers.
Overall, as of writing this article, UC BrowserHD is the best and only web browsing app available in Windows Store. If you aren’t exactly happy with the Modern UI version of Internet Explorer, we recommend you try out this free app. Visit the store link your web browser see what developer and users have to say about this cool app.Click here for download UC BrowserHD



View the original article here

Kaspersky PURE 3.0 FreeDownload

Kaspersky has updated its flagship product Kaspersky PURE to version 3.0 and the final version of the software is now available for download. Even though PURE isn’t as popular as Antivirus and Internet Security, it’s the ultimate protection software available from Kaspersky to secure your PC.

Kaspersky PURE 3.0 for Windows

Kaspersky PURE is packed with all features of Antivirus and Internet Security plus some additional premium features such as Secure Keyboard Input and Password Manager.
The newest version of Kaspersky PURE has received many improvements. In addition to Kaspersky cloud account, users can now use the backup tool to backup data to Dropbox, for instance. Please note that Kaspersky Password Manager doesn’t work on 64-bit Windows, as of now.
New and improved features in Kaspersky PURE 3.0:
  • Sync feature in Password Manager
  • Online backup
  • Secure keyboard and improved virtual keyboard
  • Safe money
  • Automatic exploit prevention
The online backup currently lets you backup data up to 2GB to the popular Dropbox service. And in order to use this feature, you need to first create an account with Dropbox, if you don’t have one already.

Kaspersky PURE 3.0 for Windows Picture1

Safe Money is another new feature introduced with this version of PURE. When you visit banking website, Safe Money not only checks the website URL against a list of secure sites but also lets you open the website in the special safe money mode for better protection.

Kaspersky PURE 3.0 for Windows Picture2

Secure Keyboard feature prevents keyloggers from accessing your data that you type when you visit a website. Just like the previous version of the software and many other security software out there, PURE also comes with an improved virtual keyboard to help you enter confidential data without touching the physical keyboard.

The password manager with password sync feature is pretty good as it now supports password syncing across your computers protected with Kaspersky PURE.

Kaspersky PURE 3.0 for Windows Picture5

Event though features to better protect PCs are always welcome, we feel that features such as online backup and PC cleaning tools aren’t necessary in a security software as there are better programs available to perform backup and clean-up. 

Overall, Kaspersky PURE 3.0 is the best software out there to protect your PC, data, passwords, and network. It’s probably the only ultimate all-in-one security suite available features with tons of features.
Kaspersky is providing a detailed PURE user guide for users who’re not familiar with the PURE software. Visit this page to download the PDF guide. Kaspersky PURE 3.0 is compatible with Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8 operating systems. Existing Kaspersky PURE 2.0 users can upgrade to PURE 3.0 for free.

A fully-functional 30-day trial copy of the software is also available. Interested users can jump to the download page to start downloading the setup file.You can download PURE 3.0 here

View the original article here

How To Uninstall AVG Toolbar Fro Web Browser

These days, every other free program comes with browser toolbar and other programs. While most of the programs out there offer an option to not to install the toolbar, some free programs automatically install toolbar along with the main software that you’re willing to install.

AVG Toolbar

And the worst thing is that some browser toolbars can’t be completely uninstalled from the Control Panel. To get rid of some toolbars, you even have to download a good third-party uninstaller program.
Computer users who frequently install free programs probably aware of AVG toolbar, a free browser toolbar from the team behind popular AVG Antivirus software. Installers of many free programs offer you install AVG browser toolbar for Internet Explorer, Firefox and Chrome browsers. If you don’t pay close attention while installing free programs you end up installing these browser toolbars.
About four months back, we covered in detail on how to completely uninstall Babylon toolbar from your PC. In this guide, we’re going to show you how to uninstall AVG toolbar from your PC. Fortunately, you can completely uninstall AVG toolbar without taking the help of third-party uninstallers.
To remove AVG Secure Search and AVG Toolbar and revert all changes done by AVG Toolbar and Secure Search you need to perform following steps:
Method 1: Uninstall AVG Toolbar from using the inbuilt uninstaller of AVG Toolbar.
Step 1: Launch Internet Explorer desktop browser. Please note that you need to launch Internet Explorer browser only even if you have set Google Chrome or Firefox as your default browser.
Step 2: Click on the arrow button that appears next to the AVG logo in the AVG Toolbar area.

AVG Toolbar Windows

Step 3: Click Uninstall AVG Security Toolbar option.

Step 4: Select Remove the toolbar and AVG Secure Search option and then click Ok button to uninstall selected items from your PC.

Method 2: Uninstalling AVG Toolbar with the help of official AVG Toolbar Remover program.
Step 1: Visit this page of AVG and download AVG Toolbar Remover program.

Step 2: Run the downloaded AVG Toolbar Remover program.

Step 3: Click Accept button when you see the license agreement screen and then click Continue button to begin uninstalling AVG Toolbar from your PC. Please note that when you click Continue button AVG Toolbar Remover will automatically close all running browsers. Make sure you have saved your work, if any.

Step 4: One Toolbar Remover completes its business, you will see the following screen:

Click Exit button to close the program.

Saturday, July 14, 2012

iPad Mini coming this October

Early last week, Bloomberg claims that the potential “iPad Mini” might hit the market late this year with specific October release. In relation, The Wall Street Journal added that Apple’s component suppliers are raging for production of the iPad mini to start in September. If you’ll remember, Steve Jobs don’t have plans for a 7-inch iPad, however, the time for a smaller iPad might be on-track as competitors such as Amazon with its Kindle Fire and Google’s Nexus 7 have been getting the right attention with its less expensive listing of $199 price tag. The iPad mini will be keeping the iPad on-top of the tablet market as the device-trend moves to much smaller 7-inch game.

Accordingly, Bloomberg known sources told that the iPad mini will “have the same number of pixels as those in the iPad before it was upgraded to the so-called Retina Display earlier this year”, giving the device a resolution of 1024×768 pixels. At these screen resolution, the developers will limit fragmentation for apps in different iDevices such the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.
The news are coming out from Bloomberg and WSJ which seemed on a clear track for Apple-related rumors, let’s just wait for further developments as for sure there will be lots of leaks coming our way.

Original Source

Friday, July 13, 2012

Feature: Resident Evil 6 Preview





Everyone was surprised when Capcom suddenly announced the next chapter in the Resident Evil series, earlier this year. Even more since not only was it being released this year, but a Resident Evil 6 demo was also coming out a few months in advance, exclusively on the Xbox 360.

The only trick is that it requires the purchase of Capcom’s recent blockbuster Dragon’s Dogma to try the Resident Evil 6 demo. But will the demo leave players eager to play more, or as cheerful as the zombies that Resident Evil is so well known for?

The demo consists of one short section for each of the three main character duos. This is slightly reminiscent of the earlier Resident Evil video-games, where the player would have a somewhat different experience, based on the character picked. This time though, each campaign feels completely unique both in how it’s presented and played.

Playing as Leon or his guilt ridden partner Helena Harper is perhaps the closest Resident Evil 6 will get to the original. Both are stuck in the middle of another virus outbreak. For Leon it’s just another day at the office, but Helena has never met a zombie.

We all have secrets, but Helena seems to have a deadly one, which suggests that it will help this story move forward. The pacing in this campaign often changes from slow to frantic.

It’s easy to see that this is an attempt at making players feel tense. It does work for most of what is played, but it’s also frustrating on a few occasions. Perhaps it’s because it is introducing the player, so it will likely end up being different in the full version.

What this portion of the demo does extremely well is provide plenty of classic horror moments. This is down to the superb use of typical horror props such as music, lighting and suggestive imagery. There are various bodies in the dark and other disturbing sightings found throughout. What makes it so scary is that most of it is left to the imagination. Will those dogs barking suddenly crash through the windows?

Are those corpses really dead or are they waiting for the perfect moment to jump up? Everything is deadlier under the cover of darkness, and the same applies to the desolate hall of the once prestigious Tall Oaks Ivy University. This has potential for being the campaign that will provide the most spine chilling frights in Resident Evil 6.

The section with Chris is very similar to his adventures in Resident Evil 5. There is a lot of focus on gunfights. It’s just a small section but if the rest of this campaign is anything like it, then expect plenty of confrontations with mutated enemies.

The guns have a kick to them when fired, and some even become less accurate, if used for more than a couple of seconds. There’s a rudimentary cover system used in this campaign. It requires pressing the trigger to keep in cover, while holding the stick to aim at enemies. It’s not exactly the most comfortable way to stay in cover, but it didn’t exactly feel essential to use it, while playing this demo portion.

Playing with Chris or his new partner Piers is pretty straightforward though. It’s more about strategy, since it is all out war on the new J’uavo enemy types. J’uavos are interesting creatures since they start out looking like humans, but mutate when under fire. These mutations range from shields to flying creatures – similar to those found in Resident Evil 5.

The final campaign section of demo consists of newcomer Jake and a grown up Sherry. It’s easy to think of it as the cherry on top of the cake. Both characters are being chased by a giant beast hell bent on capturing Jake. It’s fairly confusing at the start due to a running section, since the instructions aren’t exactly clear. Jake is not an easy character to play as, since he relies more on physical attacks.
His attacks have a fairly short range, so it’s best to try and sneak up on enemies. But it improves once the duo is inside an abandoned building. It’s here that tracksuit clad transformed enemies pop up. They are only a minor distraction compared to the giant B.O.W climactic fight towards end of this demo section. It’s nothing ground breaking, but it’s still interesting to try and fight it off by making use of the environment. This campaign feels a lot like playing Resident Evil 3, and even Code Veronica to a certain extent.

A closer look will reveal some other changes in how Resident Evil 6 tries to evolve the series. It’’s now possible to evade enemies, and even perform a fancy move where the character does a back dive. It’s now easier than ever to physically attack enemies, by continuously pressing the right trigger.

A lot of effort went into making sure that the controls have different options, such as the ability to pick which side the HUD appears. It’s possible to even change minor details like the gun laser sight colour. There’s a few minor issues that do make playing the demo less enjoyable, but it’s early days, so plenty of time to fix them. These include the way that quick time events are presented, since it’s not clear at first what action is required.

The controls aren’t quite there either, and would benefit from being more accurate. It’s also not clear how it will make use of a second character. The demo only included simple actions, such as breaking down doors. It’s an easy way to ensure that players don’t feel frustrated, when relying on the AI partner.
The re-designed interface is a major improvement over the one found in Resident Evil 5. It’s now much easier to equip items, since it still lets the player control the character.

Inventory menus for each campaign are different, but are designed in a way that they are extremely easy to use. This is vital because it’s essential to use items quickly, when surrounded by enemies. The AI is good enough to help fend off enemies, but the demo doesn’t provide any challenging sections to test it.

Overall, the demo clearly demonstrates Capcom’s commitment in trying to appeal to different fan bases. Resident Evil has grown as a brand in such a way, that it has many different audiences to cater for. It manages to do so to a certain extent, by including the three different campaigns.
However, it’s clear that all three will make use of modern Resident Evil mechanics. It’s still early days, but there is certainly potential for Resident Evil 6 to turn into the one that manages to please everyone.

Walking Dead Episode 3 Coming In August


The first and second episodes of Telltale's The Walking Dead game were released two months apart. That's too long of a wait, the company says, and they want to deliver the next episode faster.

Walking Dead: The Game is set in the immediate aftermath of the zombie apocalypse. A (mostly) new group of survivors band together to fend off "walkers." They'll also have to deal with other humans driven to desperate measures by the crisis.

Episode One introduced us to the main character, escaped convict Lee Everett, as well as his fellow survivors. The group has to find a safe haven to wait out the apocalypse. In Episode Two, they're running low on food and have to venture out into the wilderness to find more.

"Our goal from day one has been to deliver your game episodes as quickly as possible, and where we can, simultaneously across all platforms and regions," said Telltale. "We've been working closely with our phenomenally supportive partners to try to make this a reality. We will continue to work on this and furthermore, we will strive to improve our communication with you so that you know what’s happening. Please rest assured that we are doing all we can to get your game episodes to you as quickly as possible."

Episode Three, entitled "Long Road Ahead," will be available in mid-August. Telltale says they're going to try to release the game across all platforms and regions in close proximity. They've done a pretty good job of that so far, except for the iPad version. iPad gamers haven't even gotten the first episode yet.

If Telltale adheres to a monthly release schedule from here on out, the fifth and final episode will arrive in October. That's around the time that the third season of the Walking Dead television series will premiere. That timing works so well that I think they planned it all along. Hopefully Telltale can stick to that schedule.

EGM Interview: The Secret World’s Martin Bruusgaard



Set in a world just like ours, The Secret World asks what would be if all the monsters, myths, and legends we’ve told over the years were actually true…and gives you a chance to kick their butts. We sat down with Martin Bruusgaard, Lead Designer on The Secret World to pick his brain about it all as the game launches today.

EGM: Instead of your typical class or level systems, The Secret World touts being ‘highly customizable’ when it comes to your characters so there isn’t the standard level grind of a lot of other MMOs. How do you think this will affect the draw of your game to the more hardcore MMO player who is used to these systems and how does this customization feature work in powering up your character?

Martin Bruusgaard, Lead Designer: I think hardcore MMO-ers will find this as a very welcomed break from the norm. I think players have been waiting for a game where they’re not locked down to a class, but rather let the players forge their own play style. Remember that when you play a class, you are locked down to that class forever. If you want to try a new class you have to start a new character and then play through all the content you played before, while your friends are all in the endgame. In The Secret World you can swap out abilities whenever you want, except for when you’re in the middle of combat. This means that the different strategies to take down a difficult encounter multiplies thousand fold, and this has always been the design intent; To give players the freedom to make smart decisions, and reward them for it.

EGM: The game takes place all over the world in both real world locales and fictional settings. With the real world settings it is easy to draw inspiration from, but where did you get your designs for the mythical places your adventure in The Secret World will take you?

MB: What do you mean by fictional setting? Everything is true! Hehe, joke aside, we have a fantastic team who have investigated all types of myths and legends all around the world. We developed many different concepts for the different locations, and went with the ones that seemed most plausible in our real world setting. Since we are mimicking the real world, OUR real world, it’s very important that even the fictional locations are believable. We are trying hard to make it feel just like another place you can visit. What does El Dorado look like today? What is all this machinery doing in Hell? Play the game and find out!



EGM: Aside from these mythical locations, much of the game draws from various mythologies, local legends, and pop culture and even features time travel. How was it to try to strike a balance between these creative elements to make them still feel new and refreshing to players?

MB: As I mentioned, we have a great team that investigates all these different elements of our world, and a lot of the challenge are incorporating this into the game world in a believable fashion. I really hope players will appreciate the amount of research that has gotten into the game. Everything from NPC names, to item names to little snippets of information you can pick up through the lore system. Some players will probably enter our travel hub, and think “Cool, they have a travel hub”, but I hope most of our players will actually Google why it’s called Agartha…

EGM: A key to any MMO is PvP. Talk to us about how The Secret World‘s PvP works in a world without leveling and what makes it stand out from the competition.

MB: First of all I should mention that we have 3 factions, The Templars, The Illuminati and The Dragon. Having three sides in PvP always creates more interesting gameplay. There’s never 2 sides just butting heads, but one always have to look out for that joker in the mix.

We have 3 different kinds of PvP. In each hub, we have a fight club, which is a free for all PvP arena. This is a perfect spot for players to practice dueling, or just to test out their builds. Players are also already making plans to host PvP tournaments there. In addition to that we have the Battlefields. These are legendary locations all over the world, which the secret societies fight over. The two locations we launched with are Stonehenge, and Eldorado. Stonehenge is a king of the hill type of match, where each of the three secret societies has sent a team of five players to battle over who gets to control the power of Stonehenge. In Eldorado, the secret societies have sent a team of 10 to battle over some ancient Mayan artifacts. This is a capture the flag type of gameplay, but the twist is that instead of bringing the flags back to your base, you have to pick a spot on the map and defend them with your life.

Finally we have the Warzones, which are persistent PvP playfields that can hold up to 275 players simultaneously. Players fight over control of different facilities, and the cool thing is that the bonus for controlling these facilities is distributed across the whole secret society, not just the ones fighting. So you can basically go in there, kick ass, and become the hero of your secret society, since they all benefit from your efforts.



EGM: Another thing that we noticed makes The Secret World stand out a bit is the audio. From the moans and groans of the undead to the citizens you try to help, it sounds like there is a voice actor for every character in the game! What went into the audio production in the game and how important do you think it is to setting the supernatural mood?

MB: We are putting huge emphasis on the sound in our game. We have gotten some fantastic music composed that really sets the tone perfectly if you’re walking in a back alley in London, exploring the forest in Transylvania or traversing the desert in Egypt. We have also gotten some world class voice actors to give life and soul to the various characters the players will encounter. We give out quests or missions as we call them, a bit differently in our game. The characters the players will meet in the game world will never ask for anything specific from the player, but rather tell them a snippet of their own life and the situation they’re in. Therefore it’s very important that their voices are first class, and that the players believe and empathize with them.

EGM: The elephant in the room is obviously you guys have a subscription base going in. You’re starting to see a lot of MMOs move towards the Free-to-play route. Was this ever an option for you guys? Is there a possibility of that happening in the future? What made you stick to this route?

MB: We’ve obviously considered several business models, and we concluded that the subscription model was the right one for The Secret World. There is definitely still room for the subscription MMO provided you can supply the level of quality both in the launch version as well as in the ongoing updates after launch.



EGM: You’re wrapping up the beta here as the game prepares to drop July 3rd. How important has the beta been towards making the push to the final product and making those last tweaks to the game world, especially so close to launch?

MB: It’s been incredibly valuable. We have had some fantastic testers, which actually focused on testing, instead of just playing the game for a couple of hours to see if they will buy the game at launch. We have reacted to their feedback continuously, and have patched very frequently. We have also set up runs with the testers where the developers went in as observers to see what issues the players were facing, what they could potentially exploit, measure the difficulty rating, etc. It has been a very successful beta in our views, and we are very grateful to all our testers.

EGM: The game’s story does come to an end after a long and winding road, but are there any plans in the future for add-ons possibly already in the works or a fourth faction maybe to play as aside from the Dragons, Illuminati, or Templars?

MB: We have lots of plans for the coming years! The story does not end, but a chapter finishes. It will give the players some closure and more understanding of The Secret World universe, but there are still questions to be answered. As the players play the game, they will realize that there are definitely other factions at play here, but if the players get to play as them remains to be seen. We will release our post launch plans, and our content update info relatively shortly after launch.



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