the-agency posts

It may be the first week of March but some folks are already looking forward to the summer where there will be a number of gaming events that fans will be attending. Sony Online's annual Fan Faire event has just announced that the 2010 edition will be held on August 5-8 in its usual location of Las Vegas.

Usually the event concentrates on their long running EverQuest MMO franchise with announcements of the next expansion packs for both EverQuest 1 and 2. However other games are shown off during the event and we suspect one of the will be the long awaited DC Universe Online. There are several pricing plans for this year's event ranging from a bare-bones $39 day pass to a $139 Platinum Pass with lots of extras and special privileges.

We at Big Download, and the game industry at large, are always interested in seeing what Wired magazine will put into their annual Vaporware list. However, we have been greatly disappointed with the games and game related products that Wired has picked to be on the list in the past few years.

This year's list included StarCraft II at number one which we certainly agree with. However it also included the third episode of Penny Arcade Adventures which we think is a little unfair since two episodes were released last year. And putting Black Mesa, a Half-Life 2 mod that's been in development for several years, is very unfair since the folks behind it are doing it for fun, not for profit or even a deadline.

The truth is there are a lot of high profile games and game-related hardware projects that certainly fit the term "Vaporware" far better than Wired's article. We've decided to give our own Vaporware awards to put the spotlight on those games that were promised at one point for release in 2009 but have not only missed that deadline but have dropped off the the grid in terms of recent publicity and/or any firm new release dates (in StarCraft II's favor, its developer/publisher Blizzard has shown the game as playable at recent events like BlizzCon). We've picked 11 candidates for the award and also given a special mention to a game that, while it didn't have a 2009 release date, should have been out by now as well.

Click on the image above to continue reading Big Download's 2009 PC Game Vaporware Awards

It's been a long, long time since there's been any real news on The Agency, Sony Online's upcoming super-spy themed FPS MMO. The game was first announced over two years ago but so far the the development team has only shown the game in video form rather than give the press any hands-on time with the game. Last July a number of the game's key development team members left Sony Online's Seattle offices to form a new game studio.

Our sister site Joystiq got a chance to chat about the game's current status with Sony Online's head man John Smedley today at the Austin Game Developers Conference. He said flat out, " . . . there's this rumor going around that we're going to cancel it -- that's ridiculous." He added, " . . . we're going full-bore towards it. We're simply keeping it under wraps more because we want to make it the best possible game we can. I'm an FPS player first and foremost, so we're going to get that game right, period." Sounds good to us but we just wonder how much longer we will have to wait.

Sony Online announced their super-spy shooter MMO The Agency over two years ago but since then the game seems to have more of a promise than an actual product with no indication of a firm launch date or even a beta test. Now a number of the team's senior staff members have departed Sony Online's Seattle studio to form a new company.

Eurogamer has confirmed that three of The Agency's senior team members, including SOE Seattle's studio director Matt Wilson, had left to form Detonator Games which seems to be one of the growing number of game developers devoted to making titles for social networks. Rumors that The Agency will undergo a development reboot following the departures were denied by Sony Online with a spokesperson saying, "the team in Seattle is still working diligently on this project and we're looking forward to showing you new content in the future."

Big Download is still counting down to the start of E3 2009 (less than a week to go now) with a series of features spotlighting the titles we want (or at least wish) we could see at the LA Convention Center. We have already given our wish lists for the FPS and action categories and today we look at the RPGs and MMO games that we would hope to catch a glimpse at during the show.

E3 2009 will not have appearances by NCsoft, Atari or Blizzard which means no demos of Aion , Guild Wars 2, Champions Online, Star Trek Online or (sniff) Diablo III. However we should have plenty in the RPG and MMO space to check out at the show. Come back later this week as we offer our final list of the rest of the game we want to see at the show.

Click on the image above to continue reading Countdown to E3 2009: The RPGs and MMO Games We Want To See

By John Gaudiosi

With a large number of massively multiplayer online (MMO) games in development using Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 technology, Epic Games China has created the first development suite of tools catering to this growing sector of games. Atlas Technology consists of persistent world server technology and MMO games content creation and management tools that work directly with UE3. This new technology will provide developers with a solid foundation on which to build MMO games, casual and session based games, and community and e-commerce applications.

On Wednesday we introduced you to the concept of the BigAss 25, a list of the 25 most exciting PC games that we will be covering a lot of on our site. These are also the games that you as fans will be playing and talking about more than most. We started with the first 13 titles and today we conclude with the final 12 in alphabetical order

We have games that were released in 2004 and games that won't be released in, well, we just don't know yet. We have shooters, RPGs, RTS games, MMO titles and much more. Remember this list is not set in stone; we plan to revise the BigAss 25 list every few months.

Click on the image above to continue reading Big Download's BigAss 25 for Spring 2009 - Part 2

So far our multi-part look at the forthcoming PC games of 2009 have looked at action games, FPS titles and strategy-RTS games. Now two more popular genres of games, the RPG and the MMO, get the once over for our preview feature and there are some major games due for release in both categories in 2009. Once again we have snagged some exclusive screenshots from a couple of these game titles including one for Sony Online's super hero MMO DC Universe Online.

Stay tuned for Wednesday's final installment of our 2009 PC games preview feature as we go over a number of other titles we are looking forward to playing next year.

Click on the image above to continue reading 2009 (And Beyond) PC Game Preview: RPG-MMO Titles

If you are like most of us, the economy's quick drop this fall may have left you with a lack of cash to pay for that new copy of Left 4 Dead or Far Cry 2. However if you want to play a first person shooter game for free and don't feel like paying for it there are actually quite a number of free-to-play titles out there that you can download and play right now.

Big Download has noticed a growing trend of first person shooter titles that are already out there, in beta testing or coming up in the near future that you can just download and play. Some of these games do have or will have premium fees or micro-transactions to get more content but all of them can be enjoyed for free without the need to pay a cent. We decided to do a quick round-up of just a few of the current and upcoming free-to-play FPS titles. And remember, the best things in life are free..or so we have been told.

Click on the image above to continue reading about Free-to-play FPS games

Sony Online's upcoming casual MMO Free Realms will be using a free-to-play model with micro-transactions and in game ads. However, that was announced as part of the game's appeal to a large audience. In a new interview with Kikizo, it has been revealed that Sony Online may be using a similar model for their super-spy action-MMO The Agency.

According to a quote from Sony Online's Kevin O'Hara, "We're acutely aware that shooter players are not used to playing monthly fees, so I doubt we'll go for an outright $15 a month, which works on some of our other projects. So we're checking out Free Realms to see how they're going to do with their micro-transactions, and we might incorporate some of that. We'll definitely have some ad revenue models. The Agency's the perfect place for some in-game product placement." The long delayed game currently does not have a set release date.

[Via Massively]