DC Universe Online To Launch January 11th 49
Sony Online Entertainment has announced that their long-awaited superhero MMO DC Universe Online will be launching on January 11th in the US and January 14th in the UK. The game will be available for Windows and the PlayStation 3. Massively recently wrote up their impressions from the beta test, and a preview at The Escapist said this of the combat: "Based on my early experiences, the action of DCUO is a lot of fun. You can lock onto targets, but there is no auto attack button. To take down enemies, you must click a button to punch or fire a ranged attack. The brawler-style action feels like a wham-bang comic book. Scenery is not just difficult terrain; picking up barrels and tossing them at your foes is sometimes necessary for tough encounters. Leveling up your skills unlocks combos, with varying effects that can interrupt enemies from pulling off that devastating fire breath or stunning punch. ... The only downside with such frenetic combat is that the keyboard and mouse interface isn't really conducive to all this action. It's hard to follow up nine short left clicks with a long right button click. While I was visiting SOE's offices, I was able to play with a PS3 controller, and this control scheme was preferable."
It is a MMO Arcade game not a MMORPG (Score:2, Interesting)
Let me tell you my thoughts form the beta:
The game is clearly designed as and plays like an arcade game made for a console; one that happens to have other people running around playing the same arcade game. Every once in a while you need/want to get some of these other people to join you in what you are doing. For the most part though I preferred to play it alone; which is not good considering theis is supposed to be an MMO. Also, the controls are clearly designed for a gamepad including limits on how may powers / attacks you have access to (at any one time – as in you need to swap thing in and out at times) due to the limited number of buttons on a gamepad. So my preference for mouse and keyboard was a liability for the game.
So from my perspective of wanting MMORPG that works well with a PC it is something to avoid. So much so that I canceled my per-order. Basically I was hoping for a better version of CoH set in the DC Universe. But what i got was a piss poor port of a console arcade game with a monthly fee.