Otherland Comments by Oli Welsh

Well that sounds quite awesome.

Rez meets Blade runner meets WoW?

I kinda dig the looks of this. Curious.

If this is as good as I hope it will be, I'd better buy myself a gaming PC...

Thank God for no more Conan and WARs..!

Read these books years ago, sprawling 4 part series. First part was especially good and I'd recommend you all give them a go. Interestingly there is a LOTR "world" in the novels although I doubt we'll get to see that due to licensing. Not sure how they'll deal with the large sections which are set in the real world though (which propel the plot forward considerably). For example there is a large subplot concerning a serial killer. Anyway I'll definately be looking out for this!

I'd recommend the books too although, like Hamilton, Williams could do with a good editor. I'm a little suprised that people are thinking of making a game of it.

World of world of Warcraft. Finally! I'm sold.

Let me guess. WoW-style icon-queing for combat.

I really hope it doesn't end up with that system, but more or less every MMO ever does, for some absurd reason, and if it does end up going down that route, i'll be skipping it.

Only read the first otherland book so far but it was awesome. Very sinister all the way through.

Really liking the sound of this. The setting should provide as much scope as the devs want with respect to zones, and can keep things interesting with the different physics/rules in different zones.

My only question would be is there enough storytelling to propel players through the game? I like a bit of lore, me.

"but more or less every MMO ever does, for some absurd reason"

Lag, surely.

Loved the books, this could be good and if they get a good variety of genres in there it could be stunning. The whole of the .hack stuff which came out after Otherland seemed a little ripped off from this.

The books are some of my best-loved books ever. This is quality news.

.::: Based upon the books!? Holy crap! Awesome!

"Real U is also working on 3D mouse support for object manipulation"

I hope things like the OCZ Neural Impulse Actuator are more common goods by then, Williams wouldn't be far off in his books.

This article fills me with wild hopes and stellar dreams of things to come... Off to the bank to start saving for that awesome Octacore pc!

Oli Welsh, you've been to singapore! plz show some trip photos :) oh and the game looks rad

Extremely ambititous - possibly too much to do. I've read the books and yeah a fascinating idea and concept. The pinnings together they seem to have are great ideas - lets see what happens.
Mind you 2010? I think more 2012 if only 15% complete

@UncleLou: Yeah, you're probably right there. Planetside managed real time combat in an MMO years ago, though, so there's not much excuse.

There's clearly a market for WoW-style MMOs, but there's no reason for everyone to keep copying it over and over with a new skin, like Stargate and Tabula Rasa and so on. Then of course, the devs whine that they couldn't beat WoW. I wonder why.

Looks very interesting, one to keep an eye on. Although that's been said so many times about MMOs.

with 1080p visuals on a quad-core PC the benchmark

lol. 1080p is a TV resolution...

If it's made by the Shadowrun crew, then I'm totally on board, for better or worse.

Well Chufty, that's how they described their goal for video output to us, and indeed the game was demoed to press on HDTVs at 1080p. Call it 1920x1080 if you prefer.

Dan260775, they won't deal with the real-world sections at all - the game is set entirely in VR. It's not a straight adaptation of the plot of the books per se, although some characters and events will make an appearance.

Very interesting...should be great if they pull it off. Good luck on this one.

Oh wow. Ever since I read the books, Otherland has been the kind of mesh of virtual worlds I've been hoping to be able to play in. The books were a great read (especially the first one) and I hope these ideas will work out to produce something truly original.

Sounds fascinating. Well written article.

Finally an MMO that sounds vaguely interesting. Begone Orcs and elves! Hello Virtual Reality.
Now if they could provide support for VR headsets we'd really be talking.

And will it be mac compatible?

I try never to get excited about PC games until I hear I'll be able to play them. Without dual booting.

looks like a Rez HD MMO :D

Virtual world about Virtual Worlds....

I think The Matrix Online could claim that first medal quite aptly.
Custom Avatars that were "jacked in" and every player was a red pill ie someone that knew the Matrix around them was a construct.

Much like Neo and Trinity, you were able to download programs from Aikido to hacking programs (albeit only at Jack in time). So you could easily reskill within the framework of the setting.
Also unlike the movies, a circuit breaker had been installed which meant that death in the matrix was interrupted in the "real world"

A contrast to how Otherworld deals with this element of continually respawning characters, something I find strange about most MMOs.

So.. abstract.

That sounds awesomefuckingsauce.

Can't wait to see if they pull it off.

From the staff behind the (good) Transformers game? Cool, shame me and the vast majority of people won't have PCs to play this, get it on a console and I'm there!

This is being added my WANT LIST!

Very meta. But I don't know... VR depicting VR makes me very skeptical. The basic disconnect is, it only becomes convincing in a race against the real thing. Or is it the real thing?? Hoo-boy. Very meta.

And this all sounds very Matrix. Certainly the Matrix is not "original" but it kind of blew the proverbial load for the genre in some ways. It just sounds a little ... familiar.

But ultimately it all boils down to content. A hundred simulations is only as good as what's being simulated. You'll need a hundred independent reviews.

Personally thought the books were a pretty basic and cliched sucked-into-the-evil-videogame-that's-eating-people's-brains
story that's been done to death (better, and SHORTER), but the concept as a springboard for a game could be fantastic. Or if Sony would steal the idea and make Home into this as an option, could be insane. But it will have to be toned down a lot - seem to remember some rather nasty kink in some of the private scenarios. Unless they let players loose with scenario building, which given the Spore Penisosaurus debacle, would see the game becoming exactly what the book was criticising - meta irony collapse overload!

/watches and waits

"Let me guess. WoW-style icon-queing for combat.

I really hope it doesn't end up with that system, but more or less every MMO ever does, for some absurd reason, and if it does end up going down that route, i'll be skipping it. "

I also dislike that, but the reason is generally:
a) low barrier to entry
b) attack queueing doesn't suffer from lag so badly.

I like the look of this MMO, but would be even happier if it were nothing but a VR themed world.

I've not read the books yet, but that is one excellent looking scenario. Wonder what the combat/trading/whatever mechanics are going to be like?

I love the Otherland books, particularly Tad Williams' idea of a near-future realisation of VR. I always considered Second Life kind of delivered a simplied version of the social aspects. A "gamey" version would be most welcome.

Watching this with interest and keeping fingers crossed for some goodness.

Sorry to say this is not the first "Cyberpunk MMO". The first was a great game called Neocron released in 2002.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neocron


Otherland...
This game sounds like another.."MMO Attempt #11457-b." The game will take forever to move to beta, release will be pushed back many times, when it's finally released it will be unfinished and unpolished. The devs will blame the players for it's failure. People will again flock to Blizzards latest offering.

It seems like they are trying to attract players who enjoy the social networking of Second Life and the uber complicated game play of some game not yet released. The two will not mix. People who want an easy social networking style of game play will play WoW, because lets face it, WoW is easy. People who want complex combat and crafting systems won't touch the social networking aspect, so if the gameplay isn't on par with other MMOs in that respect, they wont play either.

I do applaud the attempt at a non-fantasy based MMO though.

"OK"

I hope you will be able to hack into other players worlds "a chunk of real estate"... and in turn your world can be hacked, ala REZ

Imagine it, Setting up defence systems and firewalls, Firewall busting action...

I cant wait to see more!

Strangely, I think this might have worked better as a single player game or limited multi-player. Otherland is all about discovery and you can't have that properly in an MMO where everyone has already been there.