The world is getting ready for the official release of Star Trek Online tomorrow. But Cryptic are already working on what is going to come next (and dealing with issues from their ‘head start’). Details on those below, plus find out how to participate in a STO Costume record attempt in London, Midnight Gamestop events tonight and more.
Cryptic responds to Head Start issues – already preparing updates
Since Friday those who pre-ordered Star Trek Online have been able to participate in the ‘head start’ for the game, but there have been a few growing pains, including server downtime and accessing special bonus features. Cryptic made a special post on their site saying that the issues have been or are being resolved.
In addition, Cryptic has posted an update on "What’s Next for Star Trek Online" which details some of the upcoming episodes and additions that will be coming to the game, including episodes with Q, and the Borg. There will also be ‘endgame RAID episodes. Cryptic is also promising more Klingon content for the game including a new ship, fleet actions, and locations (like Rura Penthe). Read the full report at startrekonline.com
Cryptic would ‘love’ to get STO onto consoles – Mac unlikely
Star Trek Online launches for the PC only. However, Cryptic is still interested in seeing the game on more platforms. STO Exec. Producer Craig Zinkievich tells CVG:
We would love to get STO to the console. At launch it will just be available for the PC but here at Cryptic we want our games across multiple platforms. But we’ll have to see how Star Trek does and then secondly we want to do it justice and not hurry something along just to get it on the console
Some fans are also awaiting a Macintosh release, however Zinkievich has told TrekMovie that he does not expect to be developing a Mac version of the game, or at least any time soon. However, Zinkievich does point out the game runs using "Boot Camp" which lets you run Windows on a Mac.
Gamestop event Midnight tonight
10 Gamestop stores across the US are holding special events tonight at midnight. Fans can arrive just before midnight (local times) to pick up their pre-ordered copies of STO and be eligible for prizes. For more details and a list of locations goto : startrekonline.tumblr.com.
STO London Cosplay world record attempt
Namco Bandai and Atari have announced that they will be holding an event in London on 14 February 2010, in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of people dressed as Star Trek characters. The event, titled ‘Report To The Bridge’, will be held at the Millennium Bridge in London. Anyone wanting to take part should be there for mid-day until 14:00, and must be dressed as anyone or anything from Star Trek. There will be prizes for costumes. More info at ve3d.ign.com.
More STO Links
- Gaming site Kotaku is doing a ‘Star Trek Week‘, including looking at ‘building the perfect Star Trek Frankengame‘
- USA Today profiles STO, including quotes from TrekMovie’s Anthony Pascale
- The Sun (UK) is doing a STO laptop give-away contest
I would STO on a console. I kept up with computer gaming for two decades so its not like I don’t understand computer games, but I got sick of constantly upgrading & praying. At least with a console you know what games will work and what won’t.
@ #1:
I agree, but with the 360 being unreliable, only the PS3 seems like a viable console to run STO. I have a 360 and I feel like if I play it for more than a couple of hours it will crash… again.
Upgrading PCs is DEFINITELY a pain. I just bought a new computer and it’s still a couple of years behind the times. They are too expensive and get outdated way too quickly. This will be the only computer I have for years and it will barely run STO at high settings.
The downtime on STO this past weekend was horrible. It’s documented on startrekonline.com I feel sorry for the Head Start players.
Yeah , there is just no point in being first to something like this/
There are always problems of some kind or another at the beginning.
They have this thing running perfectly in a few months or so.
Speaking of which 10 minutes to mid night, we will see how it goes.
Started playing it yesterday with the preorder. Having a lot of fun. Over time, hopefully any bugs get worked out, but so far I’m having a blast.
Just got back from launch event, won a signed copy in a drawing, also got a copy of nvision magazine featuring the game, a cup and a poster
I’d love to play the game, but gave up on running any serious graphic games on my PC some time back. For games I just use my PS3. I’ll just have to wait for this one.
To be fair, we got head start…which is a bonus, so I’m not complaining as technically we shouldn’t be playing yet…
…I like how the ‘Report to the Bridge’ event is happening on Valentines Day…guess few Trekkies will be out for a romantic meal….
(I am of course joking…I am a Trekkie and going out…)
I’ve never had any issues with my 360. After watching Jolene Blalock in the most recent episodes of Legend of the Seeker I got to thinking about Star Trek again so after checking out http://www.legendseeker.net I ended up here and looking at Star Trek Online! I can’t wait for this to come out and may even upgrade to Windows 7 (all I need is a graphics card and I’m golden). Sure beats repetitive crap from EVE Online which I did since they were in Beta
I’m loving this game.. can’t wait for it to iron out all the teething trouble and open up the entire Star Trek Universe (which they bloody well should!) :)
see you out there!
STO is even now like a low budget version of bridgecommander combined with a low budget version of Star Trek Elite force. Okay, of course with the option to level the Char.
And you don’t avoid repetition with STO (compared to EVE). In fact, if you PVP, you will barely play more than one map (yeah, it’s like an ego shooter multiplayer map) a day. Surely there are some more ground and Spacemaps, but some of them seem to be preferred (like Ghostship map).
The Episodes take place in different locations, but i’ve noticed some basic pattern like “enter the system, defeat enemy ships, beam down to the planet surface and defeat enemies, leave the system” After the first 10 times its exciting like Ore harvesting in Eve (for 2 hours!).
If you still like STO, perhaps it will beat the shit out of you when you enter Sol Station or Qo’noS. Of course you will hear “where is …. [mostly Sulu]” at least 2 times the minute, and every RPer or Trekkie (well, anyone who expects Startrek atmosphere in the game] will have to fight down the tears after listening to the chat for more than 5 minutes. (well, it sets a new standard for OOC).
Oh, the character builder is such a nice thing. Even in beta i could create easily some canon alien species like cardassian, tarlac or Ellora. or some semi canon like Reman. The downside of it is:: At times you will see tiny klingons in pink armor, or some kind of blueskinned ferengi with horns, short legs and too long arms. Surely, some people have fun playing with proportions, but do the creations have to look like eugenic war victims??
So anyone expeting to play STAR TREK online : look for the right fleet and learn to ignore anything nonStarTrek.
The good point of the game is that you’ve learned the basics within 2 minutes (i guess EVE players who are profis in probing will find it far too easy)
The PVP will let you fight only against similar leveled players, so the death by superior force (like it happens in eve from time to time) will not be happening.
I’m loving STO. Hopefully I can successfully sneak in the fact that it’s 15 bucks a month to my wife at some point now that I’ve actually bought it.
Maybe if I promise to never buy anything else for myself for the rest of my life… :-)
Just a computer graphics question: Now that we’ve gotten to the point that we can put multiple processors on the same chips, isn’t it going to be soon that we’ll get to a limit to how fancy a graphic card for a PC or a game console can get? Short of someone inventing a full-on holodeck, that is?
Eli, next big thing will be ray tracing which requires a one hundred fold processing power increase.