Hi-Rez Studios

Four months after its official launch, Global Agenda, the Tribes-meets-TF2 MMO from industry newcomer Hi-Rez Studios, launched the first in a pair of massive content updates. The 1.3 update, known as Sandstorm, dramatically changes much of the game's UI, weapon system, currencies, crafting, and AvA combat. A few of the more MMO-ish components are still planned for the near future, but later today might be a good time to try the Global Agenda trial, available on Steam.

Apparently, Mondays aren’t the best time to do this, so I’m going to start doing this on Wednesday and see where it takes me.  I really enjoy seeing the state of MMOs because it’s so much more important than on other games.  Whereas a game can be produced and patched for a time, if it’s not being constantly monitored, an MMO becomes lost or not even really a game anymore.  So let’s see how long I can keep this up.

This week we hit APB, Aion, Champions Online, City of Heroes, Everquest 1 and 2, FFXI, Fallen Earth, Global Agenda, Warhammer Online and World of Warcraft.

The term 'class-based shooter' has been getting thrown around a lot lately, and combining that trend with the rise of the MMO is a logical connection to make. Global Agenda, from Atlanta-based industry newcomer Hi-Rez Studios, aims to find its place in that extremely competitive world of multiplayer-focused shooters. While Global Agenda has been marketing itself chiefly as an MMO, it takes the unusual approach of creating, in essence, a separate subscription package – not unlike a concurrently-released MMO-expansion. But Global Agenda is a full game even without its subscription content, and I will be addressing that content in this particular review. So what does this upstart pseudo-MMO shooter bring to the table? Find out after the jump.

As gamers, we live in an exciting time. The technologies that drive the games we play are advancing at a break-neck pace to the point where we have created entirely new kinds of games in the last few years. One such example is the MMO game. Though many principles of the "genre" have been set since the dawn of online gaming, the rise of publicly available high-speed internet connections has allowed it to flourish into one of the defining examples of modern gaming. But like any new genre, MMOs have a long way to go in defining themselves to the point where the moniker is actually a useful tool. So what can we, as gamers, do to stay for-armed against the trappings of a bad MMO?

With the recent setback on dedicated servers with Modern Warfare 2 messing up community plans, I think Global Agenda just got a little more exciting as a community building game.  I mean, who doesn't love deathmatch style combat in an MMO?  Well, that's only a very small part of the game.  What about pricing? Hit the jump for snippets from the news letter.  It's actually quite a nice surprise.