Glad to see they're incorporating the lens flare from the latest film

For those of you looking to enjoy a little bit of phaser on phaser action with Cryptic Studio’s Star Trek Online, the wait isn’t going to be too long.  The Roddenberry-centric MMO has been scheduled for release on the 2nd of Feburary, 2010.

Yesterday the team released images of the game’s box art for everyone to ogle.  It basically encapsulates what the game is all about: being a planet-sized Star Fleet officer who likes to jump out of flaming suns holding a phaser while phantom Klingons look angrily on.

Or maybe I’ve misinterpreted something here.

Anyhoo, for anyone who wants to try before they buy, applications for the closed beta are still being accepted on the game’s official site.  So if you’d ever fancied yourself as a budding Kirk or Picard, you can now … make it so.

You know I’m very much looking forward to this game.  Not only should it be cool to play, but I’ve just got so many Star Trek puns to unleash in the lead-up.  Let me just say that I’m apologising in advance for what I’m going to put the readership through.

For anyone who’s interested in participating in the closed beta of Cryptic Studio’s upcoming MMO Star Trek Online, applications to join have now been opened up to the public.  People who signed up to Champions Online (Cryptic’s other new MMO) are already pre-approved for beta participation, to the best of my knowledge, but anyone else who wants to give it a go can now send in their details.

In the "prime" timeline, everyone should sport a Riker beard

The game will take place several years after the destruction of Romulus, in what’s referred to as Star Trek’s “prime” timeline (that is to say, the timeline where all the good stuff happened, and there is no gratuitous lens flare).  Players can ally themselves with either Starfleet or their on-again-off-again enemies the Klingons.  The game promises a high level of customisation, not only to your individual character, but also to the starship you pilot.  Thought the Enterprise-B kicked the Enterprise-E’s butt?  By all means, begin your unlicenced knock-offery!

Star Trek Online has been gaining a lot of interest lately, so much so that I think I might send my own details in to try for beta access.  But one question plagues me: are we all going to be able to have Riker beards in this game?

If the answer is yea, then you’ve probably sold your game to both me and my wife, Cryptic!

Head on over to enter your details, if you’d like to apply for beta access.

He's a sword and martini kind of guy

For an era where graphics are sometimes more important to reviewers than the actual gameplay of a given game, it says something that I’ve been playing Kingdom Of Loathing on and off for around five years now. This might suggest to you just how much I enjoy the game’s writing and community.

For those of you who haven’t heard of the game, it’s kind of like a strange combination of an online RPG, a paper-and-pencil table game and an encyclopedia of the most obscure pop references and puns you’ve ever read. The overall idea is to defeat the Naughty Sorceress and free the enprismed (that’s not a typo, by the way) King of the Kingdom. Players accept quests, customise and create different armour and weapons, raise their stats, accrue Meat (the Kingdom’s currency) and eventually ascend to begin the game again (while keeping their accumulated items and making one skill permanent each time). Players are given 40 adventures (essentially like a turn) each day, that can be boosted by consuming food and alcohol. Players have to be careful with their consumption, however, because consuming too much booze means that the character will be “Falling Down Drunk” and be unable to adventure properly for the rest of the day. Better food and better drinks yield better adventure gains, but in turn is harder to make (and can be sold for a better gain). (more…)