The Matrix Online Delayed

I was into City of Heroes for a hot minute, just long enough to see a couple of glaring problems:

1. There was a huge outside area in Galaxy City where there was no ground. Literally you would fall into the ground and be stuck below street level looking up at the world above you. The only way out was to fly out or log out.

2. Random kicks from the Infinity game server would somehow corrupt critical game files causing a huge delay in restarting another session while the game reloaded core files and validated each one - over and over.

Naturally no online game is going to be perfect. However, if MXO is getting another release date bump, I would expect the beta experience to be riddled with similar gameplay issues, which Monolith is desperately trying to stomp out.

Jason Hall went from an assuredly 'on January 18th it's out', to a reluctant 'the game is not ready, see you in spring '04'.

Check your shoes, it smells like someone stepped in Matrix.

Didn't this game miss its "window" - who is going to play this?

This is not suprising - http://www.shacknews.com/ja.zz?id=8818087

I knew from playing the 'beta' that what they had felt more like Alpha and if they actually released it in Jan, it was going to suck. Hard. Hopefully this extension actually has an effect on the project.

I am conflicted:

1. I REALLY hate to see Monolith fail. They have done much good for my gaming experience.

2. I really want a cool Matrix MMO, but this does not sound like it will be. Turn based kung fu? No thanks.

I had to hunt for this interview but I found it:

GS: How solid is the January release date?

JH: I can assure you that it’s going to ship on January 18. From a technical standpoint, if we really wanted to not include other countries, we could have shipped it a little bit earlier. This is why we’re very confident in our ship date. Our decision revolves much more around maximizing the opportunity with the Matrix and reaching as many users as possible, and much less around things like a technological or production hiccup.

Strong words from the former CEO of Monolith and current senior vice president of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2004/09/16/news_6107629.html

The fact that this game is still under a strict NDA for the beta testers is not a good sign.

Maybe they forgot to put in the stuff that makes a game fun

This game is at the top of my shortlist of games to be cancelled.

You don't say?

I'm glad for the delay, I got to play the beta a bit and while it's conceptualy sound, it's in a bad place technologicaly.

The game has some good ideas, I wouldnt mind seeing them come to fruition someday (preferably on a stable platform.... after i've recovered from my WoW addiction)

OH NOS!! TEH SOURCE CODE WAS STOLENS

Oh, wait.......

nevermind