In the middle of the week I spend my time looking for a digital buffet of gaming goodies – I post them here on the Humpday Bump.
This week’s bump features some more info on Treyarch’s upcoming sequel Black Ops II, and how the development team is hoping to change the way in which the CoD franchise works. The most notable change, and so far my favorite, reworks the whole pre-made class system with something a lot more customizable. It’s about time; I mean how many years now have we been given access to pretty much the same five boring “starter” classes? Five? Six? I’m glad that someone finalized realized that after all of these years we don’t need out hands held when starting yet another CoD game.
Even though that change is my favorite, it’s still just the tip of the iceberg. In a Joystiq piece yesterday they outlined all of the major changes to the game, including the wildcard system which allows you to customize your loadouts further than normal, but at a price, a more open customization system where everything is available from the beginning, and score streaks which remove kill streaks for something more objective based. They’ve also added league play, which will work as a kind of ranked play system, allowing those who wish to curse even more at their televisions the right to do so.
—
Blizzard’s still trying to woo players back to Diablo 3. After doing well initially the demonic dungeon crawler failed to keep many players from leaving once they had reached maximum level as there wasn’t much to do. In a blog post last week they outlined some of the changes their making to the game in their upcoming patch, unfortunately instead of adding any sort of substantive gameplay the patch seems to only make the existing gameplay less difficult. Is it me or does it seem like Blizzard doesn’t know the fundamental problems with Diablo 3? Sure, parts of the game are too difficult, but what’s keeping players from playing isn’t the difficulty, it’s the lack of end game content. However if you are a fan of the game you should be happy to know that they’re removing the invulnerability prefix from their elite packs. It’s a start I guess.
—
Speaking of Call of Duty, Gamasutra has posted a piece regarding declining MW3 sales compared to Black Ops which has led many to believe that the franchise is past its prime. While I’m not sure that comparing games from two different developers is a good idea, it does show that fans seem to prefer Treyarch over Infinity Ward. It will be interesting to see how Black Ops II fares compared to its predecessor, but no matter how it turns out sometimes it seems like we’re splitting hairs. Who thinks that Black Ops II isn’t going to sell a lot of copies, hm?
—
Well Day Z went from a mod, to a standalone PC title, to fully fledged console title, hopefully. According to Joystiq, Day Z developer Dean Hall has said that he really hopes the standalone version does well, because if it does they’ll start working on a version for the Mac, 360, and PS3, a move that could turn the little mod that could into a fully fledged zombie powerhouse.
—
Free-to-play seems to be on everyone’s mind these days, and EA is no exception. According to Rock, Paper, Shotgun, at gamescom today, EA announced that Command & Conquer Generals 2 will be free-to-play. Sure the move might not be as “bold” as they say, but considering it’s EA we’re talking about, it’s a start. It’s not entirely a selfless move, as Valve’s TF2 has shown; F2P can actually increase the amount of revenue generated by a game. So while they may make it sound like they’re doing it all for the fans, they’re probably going to make some money as well.
—
Taking up the anchor position tonight is a review from Eurogamer for THQ’s upcoming Darksiders sequel. By the looks of it, Darksiders 2 is adding a lot more customization this time around. While that means you may be sorting through more loot, it will give you more options as to how you wish to eviscerate your enemies. I thoroughly enjoyed the first game, and if this review is right it looks like I’ll be enjoy the second at least as much.
