Hellgate London - Closing

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SasqWatch
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Gamespot has the news.
The writing has been on the wall for some time, and now it's official: Hellgate: London will be taken offline as of February 1, 2009. As has been the case since Flagship Studios' collapse was revealed this July, Namco Bandai will continue to operate the game free of charge through January 31.
Launched October 31, 2007, Flagship Studios' ill-fated massively multiplayer online game quickly drew withering criticism from its user base due to the prevalence of crippling bugs. The game also suffered from unwieldy expectations, due in large part to the pedigree of its developer. Counted among its founding members were former Blizzard North brass David Brevik, Max and Eric Schaefer, and Tyler Thompson.
More information.
 
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It certainly didn't last long
 
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Dear Green Place
This is just pathetic..

No other way to describe it.. I bought the damn thing, and was hoping for at least a time when it was patched to a state where it would be enjoyable online with a few buddies..

What a flop.. I even had a couple buddies buy it.. Wow mud on my face..
 
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This is just pathetic..

No other way to describe it.. I bought the damn thing, and was hoping for at least a time when it was patched to a state where it would be enjoyable online with a few buddies..
Same here - now thers only the offline mode but thats not exactly how hellgate was intended to play. Im not sure what to think of this - triple A game I bought just year ago somhow becomes only half-playable in one years time.

In future I think I wont buy a single new "online" or whatever game until I have sure proof that I can actually play the darn game in future too. Ill wait atleast six months after release before I make any decision to buy for now on.
 
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It should of also had a lan option from the get go too..

I think the thing to boycott would be non LAN capability in all future games..
 
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I feel I got my $50 out of it ... more than many other games. Not to say it was very good, as I think I made my opinion pretty clear before. I feel bad for those who paid the subscriptions though.
 
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Does any one know how modable this game is? With some tweaks it could be turned in to a fun rouge like or something.
 
That's to bad but it's not like we did not see it coming. As far as it getting my money's worth I think that it is one of the few games that I put 100's of hours in with by friends playing on line. Was it perfect? No but I did not find it as messed up as some others were bitching it was. I have been playing games for 30 + years. You get what you can from what you are given to work with, and Hellgate was quite playable by December and quite fun to play. I too wish that there was a LAN component as my friends and I could then still play together. In some ways HG was quite innovative like the individual loot drops for each one in a group.
Well it will be missed.
 
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Is there any particular reason y'all couldn't do local hosting like NWN? I understand the MP package wasn't designed to do that, but it would seem to be a pretty simple change for some of the uber-geeks of the world.
 
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That's to bad but it's not like we did not see it coming. As far as it getting my money's worth I think that it is one of the few games that I put 100's of hours in with by friends playing on line. Was it perfect? No but I did not find it as messed up as some others were bitching it was. I have been playing games for 30 + years. You get what you can from what you are given to work with, and Hellgate was quite playable by December and quite fun to play.
I had no hurry since I had other games to play. So I waited for the "great" 2.0 patch that was suppose to be released this year but as we know it never did. I never "bitched" about the game though but the forums were full of it - I just stayed away and waited. I didnt expect flaghsip to die of bitching though - bitching is naturally inherit to all online games.

But die it did and in just six months! I dont recall ever seeing anything like this before - you dont buy triple A (hellgate was a major title) online games that go offline within year of release! As a customer I reserve the right to say I feel a bit cheated. The least they could do is release the server software to public so they can do their own hosting, but namco might just keep it to themselves to use in their other projects.

Ive played games for 20+ years and I dont usually play them on release dates anymore. I dont rush from this game to the next just based on release dates. I play the next game once I have the time and I see it has received all the patches and expansions it can get i.e I never played mass effect before it got the first patch and DLC.

But as I said I still have three months and thats propably more than enough. I didnt play wow for more than 3 weeks even. Incase of most online games month or two is enough. Hellgate seemed like an exception though because I liked what it offered. It had guns and fps style shooting.

But there will be other similar games - well atleast one - borderlands is suppose to be released within next month or so:

Little is currently known about gameplay, other than the game will feature four player cooperative play along with other singleplayer and multiplayer modes. In addition, players have access to customizable vehicles for "vehicular combat" and will also be able to customize their character. Deceased enemies will drop their equipment, which is available for you to pick up. You will be able to choose from 3 different playable characters, who each have their own unique abilities.[1] It is inspired by the Mad Max film series and Diablo by Blizzard.[1]

Like traditional RPGs, much of the player's time will be taken up by quests. There will be many quests of varying length and complexity. Many of these quests will not be mutually exclusive, and can be completed together. Gearbox wants to encourage the player to push themselves just a bit further to complete the next quest on their list. Each quest carries its own rewards, such as new weapons, or perhaps revealing a new piece of the story.[1]
 
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