DC Universe Online

Blog Post: PlayStation 4 Version Looks Great, Will Likely Be Cross-Platform With PS3

Mike Futter — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 18:11:00 GMT

It's been a long time since I've played Sony Online Entertainment's DC Universe Online (in fact, it was prior to the shift to free-to-play). After seeing it running on PlayStation 4 though, I'm considering a jump back in later this year.[Excerpt]

I sat down with Jens Andersen, senior creative director on the title (and the voice of some of its characters, including Aquaman) to discuss how the move to the new system is coming along. The overriding theme of the conversation was about the community. "We don't want players to make the choice to upgrade to the PlayStation 4 version and leave their friends behind," Andersen explained. Though, the drastic improvement in fidelity is certainly going to be a motivating factor for diehard fans.

The team understands that players are invested in their characters and that the 11 million global registered users (across PC and PlayStation 3) might be hesitant to abandon that progress. For that reason, profiles and characters will transfer over. Additionally, Andersen and his team are working hard on cross-platform play. "It's our intention for players on both consoles to be on the same servers," Andersen told me. "Talks are going well."

The team would also love to see the barriers between PC and PlayStation to come down, but legal and business reasons (and not technology) have kept those servers separate. Unexpectedly, content will continue to roll out on all platforms at the same time. For those that haven't yet played, four DLC packs are released each year. Players can continue to experience DC Universe for free, but spending $5 per month automatically bumps an account to "premium" status. The legendary membership at $15 per month (the same as the subscription fee when the title launched), gets players in-game currency and additional gifts.

I asked about new Joker content given that Troy Baker has assumed the role for Warner Bros.' Batman: Arkham Origins. Jensen told me that Mark Hamill did come back and do The Last Laugh DLC, but now that he's retired from the role, the character might not have new material. A new actor would mean having two different voices for the Joker within the game, which would be jarring.

Down the line, second-screen functionality is planned for addition, but Andersen wasn't able to tell me more.DC Universe Online is slated for the PlayStation 4's launch window, and the team would love to be on the system day and date with the console's arrival later this year.

Blog Post: PlayStation 4 Version Looks Great, Will Likely Be Cross-Platform With PS3

Mike Futter — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 18:11:00 GMT

Blog Post: PlayStation 4 Version Looks Great, Will Likely Be Cross-Platform With PS3

Mike Futter — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 18:11:00 GMT

It's been a long time since I've played Sony Online Entertainment's DC Universe Online (in fact, it was prior to the shift to free-to-play). After seeing it running on PlayStation 4 though, I'm considering a jump back in later this year.[Excerpt]

I sat down with Jens Andersen, senior creative director on the title (and the voice of some of its characters, including Aquaman) to discuss how the move to the new system is coming along. The overriding theme of the conversation was about the community. "We don't want players to make the choice to upgrade to the PlayStation 4 version and leave their friends behind," Andersen explained. Though, the drastic improvement in fidelity is certainly going to be a motivating factor for diehard fans.

The team understands that players are invested in their characters and that the 11 million global registered users (across PC and PlayStation 3) might be hesitant to abandon that progress. For that reason, profiles and characters will transfer over. Additionally, Andersen and his team are working hard on cross-platform play. "It's our intention for players on both consoles to be on the same servers," Andersen told me. "Talks are going well."

The team would also love to see the barriers between PC and PlayStation to come down, but legal and business reasons (and not technology) have kept those servers separate. Unexpectedly, content will continue to roll out on all platforms at the same time. For those that haven't yet played, four DLC packs are released each year. Players can continue to experience DC Universe for free, but spending at least $5 automatically bumps an account to "premium" status. The legendary membership at $15 per month (the same as the subscription fee when the title launched), gets players in-game currency and additional gifts.

I asked about new Joker content given that Troy Baker has assumed the role for Warner Bros.' Batman: Arkham Origins. Andersen told me that Mark Hamill did come back and do The Last Laugh DLC, but now that he's retired from the role, the character might not have new material. A new actor would mean having two different voices for the Joker within the game, which would be jarring.

Down the line, second-screen functionality is planned for addition, but Andersen wasn't able to tell me more. DC Universe Online is slated for the PlayStation 4's launch window, and the team would love to be on the system day and date with the console's arrival later this year.

Blog Post: PS4 Trailer Drops For SOE's Superhero MMO

Adam Biessener — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 19:47:00 GMT

It's already on console, but now it'll be on a newer, fancier console. And still free to play.[Excerpt]

DC Universe Online lets players create their own superhero or supervillain and take to the streets of Gotham City and Metropolis. Adventuring alongside Batman and Lex Luthor is just the start, as player-versus-player matches, build-your-own lairs, and more await dedicated players of Sony Online's action-oriented MMORPG.

[View:2474852062001]

What the original DCUO PC/PS3 release lacks in polish, it makes up for in pure dumb-fun super-powered antics. There's no reason to believe the game will lose any of that charm on the PS3's big brother.

Visit our E3 News Headquarters for all the stories from the show.

Wiki: DC Universe Online Guides

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 23:15:00 GMT

Guides for DC Universe Online

Blog: DC Universe Online - PlayStation 4

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Jun 2013 18:15:00 GMT

Blog Post: DC Universe Unique Combat Gives it Edge

-Jet- — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 21:04:00 GMT

Playing through Runescape and WoW have always left me with a small feeling of dissatisfaction.The games are in no way bad, its just that I have always leaned more towards the hack-n-slash/action-rpg type games. With enemies moving seconds after I have already landed a blow, its hard to feel truly like a warrior.

Fortunately, DC Universe is the only one I have seen who has perfectly managed to add hack-n-slash combat to a massive online game. Punching through enemies actually produces a reaction, and moving to dodge attacks bring on some traditional action elements.

Character customization is also completely on par. While not exactly City of Heroes quality, it does manage to let players have an almost unique character on every occasion.

The only things I found wrong with the game is the morality system its bugs. Rather than letting players choose their sides as they go, Players are prompted to simply choose "Hero or Villain". Of course being a hero probably isn't as simple as "I'm going to do good", or "I'm going to go hurt somebody". Some heroes would rather rob a bank, and take down a monster ravaging the city if necessary.

Bugs also distract from the experience, with a few frame rate issues, and some texture problems. Of course bugs are a normal part of a MMO experience.

Overall, The game is free, and if you've just received a PS3 with no games to accompany it, this could fill the gap for the time period . Satisfying action and MMO gamers is a smart move on DC's part, and I am only sad Marvel could have done it first.

Blog Post: Collector/MMO Player/Casual Review

Mafia Merc Mike — Wed, 27 Jul 2011 19:56:00 GMT

First Off: The Trailer? The Game Does NOT live up to that Teaser of an AWESOME Video. Bad/Ugly First as always:

1. Lack of Customization right off the bat...With Champions, City of Heroes, and Other super hero games, even considering Marvel games (Ultimate alliance), Almost each type is done well in those games. Not this one. Not much to choose from on Powers. Weapon/Combat wise? Yes. But powers such as Fire/Ice? No...Also where they come from is lacking. The Color changing is crappy, and their excuse was PVP? I can't make a guy with Black Ice as a Villain because...people might not know I have Ice powers? So it kills PVP aspect? Please...your Debuff and Damage's numbers could easily determine what style you are. They got lazy on this...and I guess I kind of Expected Lazyness with Sony.

2. The Naming System. Was just laughable...really? I couldn't put Spider-man but If I put Peter Parker it will take and They gave so much crap about making clones from other franchises..it's silly. Even though I understand one of the comic book games got sued..still...I have a Dr. Doom Clone and I called him Doom Doctor....I still LOOK like Dr. Doom, but because of Copyright issues...(this portion was more of a warning, and not effecting my Review Score).

3. Chat System was horrendous. It was...straight...garbage. Not done properly in the least. Your Naughty Word Censorship is atrocious...you even say "Ass" in one of your cut scenes! (Supergirl/Wondergirl fight cutscene). But if you say something like Bass or Sass, you block every letter and input #$%@. and I could have said any other word. If the word it came after a word that ended in t, so it MIGHT form "tit" it blocks it. I.E. That it Tha will be left and #%@$%#@ So if I asked some one in chat "Is that it?" it will block "Is tha#$%@?" Stupidly done...poorly done/not tested.

4. Items/Inventory is shoddy. Items are few, some items are done horribly wrong like Urban shoes has long socks that go OVER your pants -smh-...just..they need to be tested before putting them in. Weapons are few. There is like 5-6 skins of your weapon...and the only one to the updated ones is grinding tokens...

5. Difficulty/Boss Fights/Mobs are done very bad. Some glitch, some do more damage then warranted. The World Bosses go from Laughably easy to WTF JUST HIT ME? Grundy is prime Example and so is Bizzaro. Respawn Rate is down right NUTTY and overwhelming. Threat/Aggro is down right poor.

6. Level Cap is 30...After 30 it's grinding Tokens for Gear, which is poor...

7. PVP I...don't like one bit. Too many cookie-cutter types and so many stun moves/CC its ridiculous.

Last Statement for the Ugly isn't reflective of my score at all: Thanks to the Sony Hack, its a ghost town on a major level. PVP is a long waiting list, you might end up fighting the same people over and over who will steam roll you thanks to being a higher level. so New Players beware. It's not The Game Maker's fault, its just lake of interest in the game/lack of people coming back after the LONG hiatus thanks to the hacker issue.

------------------

The Awesome, why I gave this MMO of DC Universe a 7 .50

The Display of your character is done well. I've made a Green Lantern Clone (Before the DLC Came out) a Robin/Red Robin Tim Drake Clone, a Colossus and Dr. Doom clone. And I have ALOT of fun playing them. The Combat isn't too tough to learn, but...Because they don't have a straight forward power/fighting system implace...I wind up having to do frost moves on Colossus even though I really just want a ground/pound/beat um up style, but I still feel nice when playing him anyway with the Melee/Brawler Fist. The Weapon choices are ALOT and fun to pick up. Alot match the DC Counter Parts, some don't, but it's alright because you're not SUPPOSED To be a clone, you're supposed to be your own...I understand that.

The Trailers, the Voice Acting, all done very well. THANK YOU FOR BRINGING BACK MARK HAMIL TO THE JOKER. not Jack, not Heathe, not the silly guy from the Old School TV show with Adam West...none MATCH the LAUGH that is Mark Hamil/Luke Skywalker/Animated Series.The moment I played my bad guy and had Joker popping up on my intercom in Arkham Asylum? I got the same shivers of joy up my spine when I heard him on this game coming into my communicator telling me what I should go do to HAVE SOME FUN! I was excited to see what else they would give him. Being a Villain was entertaining so is being a good guy. Game Play mechanics are decent and the cooldowns aren't too bad at all. limited yes, but fun none the less with friends or solo.

I like the Solo Dungeons better then the Raids. Most of the Raids are tossed together baddies that have no real uniqueness, but thats fine, JLA always had those when it came to fighting Darkseid or Braniac with his mindless robots/soldier waves, even joker had his long list of Minions batman had to fight to get to him. Random running around is fun, there is some silly helping random citizens out moments that are cool.

Travel powers are awesome you get to pick between Flight, Flash's Running/Sprinting, and a Beastial Agility type Travel mode where you run and climb walls/jump and glide. Flight mode is my favorite, but Super-Speed/Flash travel has been growing on me alot. The Races/Timed Races they have are fun with all three, specially The Super-Speed and Flight. Put on some good Music and it enhances them. :)

The Best Feature that I love about This game the most: The Styles Collection menu. Its somethign every MMO should do from here on out. You collect a Suit of Armor and LOVE its stats right? Well you're character is a mafia gangster in a Fedora/Suit and an AK-47...well when you pick up items they all have a "Style" that goes with said item. So you do a Dungeon/Raid...and drops a Two handed LAZER Gun...but I'm a mafia gangster? I want to keep my AK-47 look. Well you can, even when you equip the upgraded gun. Your Styles decide your Looks of your Clothes/Weapon. So, even though the style given to the said Lazer Gun is just that, You can keep your look, or change it at any given time as long as you have collected it on that character. The Armor too. Some Gloves drop and it belongs to a DRUID/MAGICAL Mage type, but you want to keep your Power Gloves becasue it fits you...well go to the drop down menu, select your Power Glove Style and bam, you have the "Archdruid Magical Gloves of Magic Damage" equipped with its +10 to Damage what ever, and you get to keep the look you wanted to in the first place.

--------

Overall: Difficulty is up/down, User Hud/Chat interface is annoying, Raids = Same Old MMO garbage, Dungeons (Solo Dungeons) = Fun and intriguing to comic book fights. Vanity Wise: Awesome with small issues of item artwork choices, cutscenes done well, Voice Acting Superb. PVP = Garbage (IMO). Fans of DC Universe will love this game definently, I still do. I play this when I want a break from other MMO's like WoW, AoC, and the likes. I usually put some good music on and do quests when playing.

Blog Post: DC Universe making the best out of a sh%t sandwich

Spike — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 17:07:00 GMT

Wow, where do I start with this game. How about the upside? Decent story and graphics aren't too bad(but not great either). Its fun teaming up with people for quests. The items are pretty cool although it takes FOREVER to get anything worth a ***. Uh...I guess fighting with other players can be fun. And, that's it.

Now the downside....everything. Let's start at the 15 dollar a month price tag. Its not worth it. Oh, and once you buy the game you can't sell it back. NO NEW CONTENT WORTH MENTIONING. No real way of connecting with people(most people who play this game are jerks and try doing everything themselves which flys in the face of the very thing that could make this game great: cooperation). Also, these people trying to do it on their own end up screwing everyone else's game up.

Most lvl 30 missions are too hard to do alone and usually give you crap that isn't useful. There isn't that much to do in the game once you reach lvl 30 which takes no time at all and for 15 bucks these people must think we're suckers. Oh, and the classes aren't balanced, I'm tech like batman so I have gadgets and everyone with fire/magic is WAY TOO POWERFUL. The idiots that made this game couldn't even make the friggin' classes equal which is pretty *** basic and might make your head explode if you think about it too much. Almost everytime I do an Arena(PVP) or Legends PVP the game freezes...AND ITS IN ITS 3RD MONTH!!!!! DID I MENTION YOU HAVE TO PAY 15 DOLLARS A MONTH FOR THIS GAME. What has been changed since it came out??? NOTHING. What's the new content? Some stupid love story *** for Valentine's Day THAT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH ANYTHING AND IS INCREDIBLY BORING AND STUPID. Whatever you do DON'T BUY THIS GAME.

Blog Post: In The DC Universe, Villains Hide In Bars - Not Behind Them

Tim Turi — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 23:07:00 GMT

Not all bad guys in the DC universe have mega-towers to hide away from Batman and Superman in. Those places may be secure, but what kind of tap selection do they have available in their bar? Luckily you don't have to worry about such issues, because most villain lairs in DC Universe Online are in adult beverage emporiums.[Excerpt]

The superhero MMO got off to a great start when it released in January, and the hype train is still rolling with videos like the one below.

[View:833974021001]

Blog Post: In The DC Universe, Villains Hide In Bars - Not Behind Them

Tim Turi — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 23:06:00 GMT

The superhero MMO got off to a great start when it released in January, and the hype train is still rolling with videos like the one below.

[View:833974021001]

Blog Post: What could have been great ends up merely mediocre.

Captiosus — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 21:06:00 GMT

I want to love this game, I really do. But there are a lot of problems with it that are simply inexcusable. Many people want to compare it to the behemoth that is World of Warcraft, but such a comparison is inherently flawed. A proper comparison would be DCUO versus 1st month City of Heroes (COH) or 1st month Champions Online (CO).

Let's start with the good.

Customization is excellent. People may want to say it's not as robust as COH or CO was at launch, and they're somewhat right, but not in terms of the costume choices. The critical difference between DCUO and COH/CO is that all of the styles (except for veteran rewards) were available to you at the start from COH/CO whereas you have to unlock styles through gear acquisition in DCUO. Even after you've parted with a piece of gear, the style remains and you can mix and match pieces and individually color them within the color palate. Customization is certainly a strength. If, however, you want to customize every single facet of your character, meaning things like your face structure, or your female toon's bust size.. well, you'll be disappointed. CoH and CO certainly wins on the micro-customization front.

The story of why there are so many new heroes, knowing that the DC Universe technically has thousands of parallel universes makes great sense. The story arcs do a good job making you feel like you're a hero or villain in the this particular universe. However, I would be remiss if I did not point out that many of the large arcs are completely linear, and you only ever return to quest NPCs at the mid-way or end point. The exception to this are side-quests which often make you return to the NPC for that specific side quest.

Those are the overwhelming "good" things about the game. There's one aspect that is simultaneously good AND bad and since it does not fit neatly into either category, it deserves its own listing: The combat system. The combat system is refreshing - it's like playing God of War in a persistent world - and it utilizes combinations of button holds and taps to attack, block and perform special moves. The bad, however, is that the game relies heavily on aim assist and often doesn't properly register your input. It is very inconvenient to have to hold L1 to target lock, but if you don't you might just attack an enemy across the street, or a barrel next to an enemy trying to smash your face. Additionally, many times I've tried blocking where the game simply doesn't register it on a simple, blockable hit. While they achieved their goal of preventing the repetition of another plant-and-cast MMO, they seem to have overlooked the fact that hitting the same combos, over and over, for 30 levels and end game, is JUST as repetitive.

Now for the bad:

Graphically the game is terrible on PS3. I have never had a game on the console chug to keep up as much as this one and, while I expect that in large player populated areas, it happens even in secluded corners of Gotham and Metropolis. Texture pop in is horrible on static models which doesn't come as too much of a shock because the game uses Unreal Engine 3 which is prone to frame drops and texture problems when not properly optimized. There's nothing quite as disappointing as being point blank with a building and waiting for the texture to show up. The more people you get in one area, the worse the graphical problems get. While a problem like this can be addressed on PC by upgrading components to handle the increased graphics, no such remedy exists for PS3 so the onus was on the developers to optimize the graphics and code to prevent such problems. It feels like they didn't even try.

The cities might look pretty but they're smaller than they appear. By utilizing crafty, distanced 2D art with distanced lighting makes the cities look large but are actually pretty small and repetitive, and unlike other MMOs, they're the only two active zones you have (the Watchtower and Hall of Doom are just staging zones). One of my biggest complaints about City of Heroes at launch was that there was only two zones we started in - Galaxy City and Atlas Park. However, once you reached a certain level, you left these zones for others. In DCUO, you start in either Metropolis or Gotham, regardless of whether you're a hero or a villain, and you stay, exclusively, in these two cities. They get boring fast.

The voice acting is absolutely terrible. While some people may be glad they don't have to read quest logs, I find myself reading them and ignoring the terrible voice over work. To give an example, Wonder Woman sounds like Annie the Chicken Queen, the woman Popeye's uses for their fast food ads. Yeah, it's that bad.

The game, itself, doesn't help newer users to understand the roles available to them. At level 10, every character becomes a hybrid. Either you're healer-dps, tank-dps, or controller-dps. But the game does not properly explain how to switch stances into your various roles, or get into the nuts and bolts about the team dynamic of each role. Instead, if you want to learn these things, you have to go to the official game site and read the myriad of game guides they posted. Why? These are very critical functions of an MMO, and players should be gradually educated into these roles. The fact that stance switching and role synergy is not well explained is easy to spot when you go into your first On Duty dungeon and everyone shows up in a DPS role. Likewise, players can easily go from 1-30 without ever grouping, and then get to 30 only to find out grouping is mandatory for character progression.

The User Interface is an absolute travesty, probably one of the worst I've seen in any MMO, and you can't control any elements of it. You can't move any parts of it nor can you resize any parts of it. It is how it is and you're stuck with it. Communication, as part of the UI, is absolutely terrible. Trying to type, even using a USB keyboard, causes you to stop anything you are doing on screen as it brings up the on screen keyboard while you're typing. Voice chat works only sporadically, at best. Communication is critical to the success of MMOs where grouping is necessary to progress, and DCUO's Communication and User Interface is a hindrance more than a help.

While there may be decent quests from 1 to 30, 30 becomes a brick wall of boring repetition. At 30, all there is to do is stand around in a safehouse and wait in the On Duty queue - single server pve and pvp queues whose wait time fluctuates - to get into your daily PVE and PVP runs, which you will be sick of after a week. There are two raids, which have one week lockouts. This repetition is marred by bugs that should have been addressed before the game left beta, bugs such as doors to the final boss not opening and loot either not appearing or disappearing from inventory after killing a mob or boss. Since the queue system isn't robust, it could throw 5 DPS together and then put you in a bugged instance, forcing you to leave and try again.

If you're looking for a Super MMO with a moderate customization, decent story lines and a polished presentation, DCUO only delivers on two fronts. All in all, it does neither the MMO side nor the button combo, Action platformers (think Devil May Cry, Bayonetta, or God of War), side of combat well. If you can overlook everything this game does poorly, you will likely get your $60 out of it, when it's playable, but there's little here which makes it worth a recurring subscription fee, even at the newly reduced $29.99 per 3 month plan.

Closing comment:

The game could become better than the 5 I gave it, but that depends on how much work SOE wants to put into it. Given their lack of communication on the official forums, the fact that they have been deleting multi-page threads with constructive criticism of and suggestions for the game rather than addressing them, and the fact that they do not disclose patch notes to the playerbase, even if said patches are simply for server-side issues, I simply cannot believe SOE will support this game for the long term. With Rift, Guild Wars 2 and SWTOR on the horizon, I expect DCUO to be all but forgotten by late summer unless SOE pulls a very large rabbit out of their hat.

Forum Post: about dc universe online

tim godbout — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 15:57:00 GMT

Ok the game is good when i played the free beta and i was palnning to buy the game untell i learned about the pay to play it should be free to play this game if we buy it becuase the hero version cost around 60 dollers and the limited edition that comes with the batman toy cost 100 dollers and reason it should be free to play online is becuase most people have to pay 20 to 200 dollers for internet bills that might be bundled with a phone and tv package so if you cant afford the 15 a month they dont care i guess

File: DC Universe Online

Ben Reeves — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 23:32:00 GMT