Champions Online is offering up a special edition of its Ask Cryptic Q&A feature as design director Bill Roper steps up to field questions from the Champions Online Community. Roper covers queries on his personal background, experience and opinion as well as CO.

Roper brings new eyes to Champions Online with experience of playing running the original Champions pen and paper RPG. He also intends to impress his lessons learned from Hellgate: London on the Cryptic team.

Roper assures players that although specific details on the CO MMO are few and far between in the malleable alpha phase, Cryptic has plans to get word out as soon as elements start to stabilize. He’s particularly excited about the level of customization availible for character creation and the Nemesis System. Get the full scoop at the Champions Online website.

Looks like all the hoopla surrounding Guy Somberg’s blog post about trouble brewing at Flagship Studios was not so far off after all, despite denials to the contrary and allegations of media sensationalism.

Reports started surfacing yesterday about lay-offs at Flagship Studios, and Flagships’s Community Manager, Taylor Balbi, has revealed that all Ping0 and Flagship Studios staff have been given pink slips after having been notified that on Saturday (today) the offices will officially close down.

Now, here comes the rumors and denials part. Korean distributor HanbitSoft, has released a statement regarding intellectual property control:

“It is unfortunate that Flagship turned down additional investments HanbitSoft offered to make that would have allowed it to keep its doors open.”

HanbitSoft hopes to independently continue development of Mythos, to which it owns the rights due to a loan agreement with Flagship, and Comerica owns the Hellgate: London rights through a similar loan agreement, and plans to continue Asian development of the MMO through HanbitSoft.

Rumors regarding selling the rights to Mythos and Hellgate: London to EA (the American publisher) or other houses are spinning the net, but HanbitSoft has made a move that has the former Flagship head-honchos up in arms.

Over on Gamasutra they are reporting that the fan site Hellgate Guru has translated a Korean news report stating that HanbitSoft, “…is taking full control over the Hellgate: London intellectual property from Flagship Studios,” and that they will not only continue to publish the game in the region, but will also use in-house staff to continue with the development.

Thus, Flagship has responded, calling the HanbitSoft’s comments in the Korean news report an “outright lie” and have asked legal counsel to pursue the matter. Flagship also went on to state that any attempt to take over the IP will be met with a “strong and swift response.”

“This story is an outright lie. We have no idea where they are getting their information from and have asked legal counsel to pursue the issue… We are mystified by Hanbitsoft’s conclusions and any attempt to take over the IP will be met with a strong and swift response.”

Now, with the lawyers stepping in on all sides, HanbitSoft’s US lawyers have issued a statement:

“(1) HanbitSoft is an exclusive licensee of both Hellgate and Mythos in Asia, with rights to sublicense the games; (2) in addition, HanbitSoft is a secured creditor who has been pledged the Mythos (but not the Hellgate) intellectual property as collateral for a loan; (3) Comerica, another secured lender, has been pledged the Hellgate intellectual property as its collateral for a loan; (4) Flagship Studios does not currently own the intellectual properties to either game, which are held in separate companies subject to the security interests of lenders, and Flagship Studios’ interest in those companies is also pledged to its lenders; (5) it is unfortunate that Flagship turned down additional investments HanbitSoft offered to make that would have allowed it to keep its doors open, but HanbitSoft hopes to work with Comerica and some of the team at Flagship to see if there is a way to continue to generate content to keep Hellgate online in Asia and to finish the development of Mythos.”]

To add even more fuel to the fire brewing in the Flagship corners of Seattle and San Fransisco, an unidentified source had told Kotaku that developers for both Hellgate and Mythos have a “hope that they will all have their jobs back at the end of next week at a brand new company.”

That statement (if true) could mean that Flagship has indeed been bought out by another company – or it is just a a former employee hoping and praying that they get their job back someway, somehow. We are not sure what is exactly going on at this point, other than the death of Flagship Studios as we knew it. It is the weekend, and I am sure more information regarding what really happened will surface sometime Monday when all the news outlets and offices are back in business after the two day break.

For more information on all of this, you can hit all of the following links below.

Via: Gamasutra, VoodooExtreme, Kotaku, Evil Avatar

Flagship Studios released its first major patch for Hellgate: London yesterday after a short delay. Unfortunately, it appears that it should have waited a little longer before releasing this one into the wild.

I covered the contents of the first edition of Hellgate Chronicles (as it is called) yesterday, so I’ll only briefly sum up the new content. The Evoker and Guardian classes were completely overhauled, and multiplayer subscribers were treated to the new Stonehenge content. After several hours of multiplayer gameplay here’s what I have found:

• There’s a new display option to help with virtual memory issues by filtering how many unique characters will be displayed.
• A number of tweaks have been applied to the item modification process, such as requiring nano shards to use the Nano Forge to upgrade weapons.
• All in all, most of the changes are for the better.

However there are several problems with this patch that haven’t been ironed out even after two weeks in beta. There are sound distortion issues with some sound cards. The lag was incredible on a server with an average population making mouse movements difficult. After I’d been killed by four identical rare MOBs spawned at one point, I found that my video display didn’t revert to color after I revived. I wasn’t able to normalize my display even after using a PRD or traveling via the Station Terminal.

When I first reviewed Hellgate: London, I gave it a fairly good rating. I did cite the difficulties with release, but chalked them up to a new company pushing to meet a deadline. Flagship Studios has several veterans on staff, however people still need time to learn to communicate effectively and work together well. Unfortunately, it seems the Flagship Studios’ team may not be functioning as a cohesive unit yet. Despite the firm launch plans and the extra month delay, part of the reason for further delay of the patch was the release had been broken thanks to a developer putting in “some strings (lines of text in skills and such)” that are meant for the next big update. Perhaps Flagship just isn’t ready to sail into the open ocean yet, and should follow the coastline a little longer.

The bigger question I see on the game’s website is “Is this worth $10 a month to subscribe to?” and unfortunately the answer at this point is wait a little more. Let Flagship pull out a few more content updates and see if you want those. The current crop – Stonehenge included – is not even as much content as free MMO’s like Guild Wars pushed out shortly after launch and definitely isn’t on par with 1st tier games like Lord of the Rings Online or World of Warcraft.

Personally I hope this product survives and thrives, but it is becoming unfortunately clear that Flagship Studios may not quite be ready to support all their grand plans.

via Hellgate Forums

Flagship Studios has released a third Hellgate: London Developer Diary featuring Factions and Classes. The piece describes how the original character concepts for Hellgate evolved into the three factions and six character classes players will choose from in the finished game.

Players can choose a member of the Templar faction which uses short ranged and melee weapons. These include the duel wielding Blademaster or the traditional sword and shield paladial class, the Guardian. For those who prefer magic users and splash weapon, the Summoner and the Evoker classes of the Cabalist faction would be a better choice. The Hunter faction is most like FPS play. The Engineer and the Marksman classes both wield high-damage long range and hightech weapons.

For the full details on these character classes, read the Hellgate: London dev diary on Pro-G.

Here’s a short 30 second video clip on Break that could possibly be part of a Hellgate: London TV spot as hinted here. Don’t know about you, but that guy looks pissed. Here’s what Scapes over at Hellgate Guru had to say about the video:

Matching the style of the print ad series found in the November issue of PC Gamer, this 30-second spot is part of the same campaign and was produced by a genuine horror movie production house… …I’ve a feeling there might be two others as well.

W00t! More goodies to pump us up for the Halloween release of Hellgate: London. That’s right folks; we’re less than 2 weeks away from all of Hell breaking loose.

Be on the lookout later today for the Hellgate: London demo here at FileFront.

Thanks, Hellgate Guru!

Demons of London beware… your reign of terror is officially coming to an end! Electronic Arts, Namco Bandai Games, and Flagship Studios are excited to announce that Hellgate: London has gone gold master and will be available for the PC on October 31st in North America and November 2nd in Europe.”This has been an amazing journey for us and we couldn’t be more proud of what we’ve accomplished,” said Flagship Studios CEO, Bill Roper. “We’re anxious to get Hellgate: London into gamers’ hands and we can’t wait to play right along with them.”

But wait, here is more great Hellgate: London news – gamers anxious for their hands to be dripping with demon blood can download the singleplayer demo tomorrow, Thursday, October 18th, on FileFront.

In the singleplayer demo gamers can choose from two of the game’s six character classes: the Blademaster, a master of swordplay and action-packed melee combat, or the Marksman, a cool, calculating, long-range specialist. In the demo, these heroes are able to battle through a small handful of storyline and side quests as they adventure through the streets and tunnels around London’s Holborn Station.

Hellgate Halloween is only 15 days away, and the demo will be here in mere hours so be prepared to kick some demon keister tomorrow.

Everyone loves lists, and within this list is something everyone can love. Below you will find complied release dates for games coming out in October. The dates listed are as current as possible, so if a publisher changes the date we will try our best to update the list. We are well aware that September still has a couple of weeks left, give or take, but we just want to help plan your lives for the next month or two. Who loves you baby?

10/1/2007

Backyard Basketball 2007 —- GameCube
Field Ops —- PC
Heavy Rain (working title) —- PS3
Hot Shots Golf 5 —- PS3
MLB Power Pros —- PS2
Popx3 —- Wii
Race —- PC
RACE 07 – The WTCC Game — PC
The Chosen – Well of Souls —- PC
The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass —– DS
Ultimate 3D Pinball —- PC, Wii

MORE AFTER THE BREAK

Read the full article

Not familiar with the upcoming fps online rpg Hellgate: London? Have you been living under a rock? No matter. Here is some info for you pulled from the site:

“Set twenty-five years in the future, Hellgate: London introduces a world devastated by a demon invasion and a desolate city scorched by hellfire where mankind has gone underground to survive. Among them are the Templar, an archaic and secret society that foresaw this demonic apocalypse centuries ago. Followers of arcane rites, the Templar combine futuristic technology with ancient artifacts to forge powerful weapons and armor. The mystic sanctuary of the Underground system provides players safe conduct throughout the sprawling metropolis of London as they seek to preserve the bloodline of man and gain a foothold against the minions of darkness.

Hellgate: London combines the depth of role-playing games and action of first-person titles, while offering infinite playability with randomly created levels, items, and events. The player creates a heroic character, completes quests, and battles through innumerable hordes of demons to advance through experience levels and branching skill paths. A robust, flexible skill and spell system, highly customizable appearances, and a massive variety of randomly generated equipment allow players to create their own unique hero”.

Set for an October release, just perusing the screens and the trailers makes me think seriously about paying $10 a month for premium membership. Well, at least that is the price Namco and Flagship Studios are considering – the price could go up or down depending upon the greed factor. Either way, $10 is not a bad price considering some of the other online games are much more expensive, and it is still a few bucks cheaper than a certain mmo we all can’t seem to get away from. The game looks awesome, so have fun with the new screens, and check out the other cool Hellgate: London stuff we have here at FileFront.