The new game Atlas Fallen by Deck 13 immediately caught the attention of MeinMMO author Irina Moritz during the Opening Night Live.

Many of you will surely know this feeling when you see a trailer that instantly appeals to you. The initial curiosity that keeps rising until it transforms into “Oh wow, that looks really cool!” because everything just looks coherent.

I experienced this during the Opening Night Live on August 23, when suddenly Atlas Fallen was featured in the endless trailer stream. More information only ignited my interest further.

But unfortunately, I had to rein in my enthusiasm for Atlas Fallen quite a bit. At least for now.

This is Atlas Fallen: The cinematic trailer opens with the backstory of the world of Atlas, which was changed long ago by gods supported by human heroes.

The gods craved the essence of the world, a valuable resource that allows sand magic to be used. Thanks to the essences, the supreme god Thelos dominates the humans and keeps them in check. However, this leads to the world deteriorating further.

As a fan of destroyed or dying worlds from Dark Souls and Legacy of Kain, I was immediately hooked by the premise. The visual representation and the design in the trailer, underscored by epic music, sealed the deal. If there’s anything about the design that can instantly capture me, it’s cool capes and masks.

More information about the game, such as the detailed interview with our colleagues from GameStar, further intensified my interest. In the action game, you play with a self-created character and use a magical glove that allows you to utilize sand magic in battles.

The gameplay in Atlas Fallen revolves around this glove. In the trailer, you can see how the characters summon large weapons and can switch between them. This should also be possible in the game.

• You can unlock your active and passive abilities with essence,
• acquire new weapons,
• expand talent trees and more.

The combat system is faster than, for example, The Surge or Lords of the Fallen, earlier titles from the developer Deck 13. With the special movement abilities, you can glide over the sand, which is also shown in the trailer.

All in all, the information known so far about Atlas Fallen sounds like a game that is 100% my thing and would normally be an instant pre-order, were it not for one problem.

Bad experiences can be a game spoiler

As a long-time gaming fan, I regularly find myself in a paradoxical situation: On one hand, I am quickly excited when I see trailers and news about new games. After all, it is my absolute passion, and the anticipation of new gaming experiences quickly arises, especially with games like Atlas Fallen that hit my taste on all levels.

But on the other hand, every long-time gaming fan is often also a burned child. You know: Just because a trailer looks great and the information about the game sounds exciting, it doesn’t mean that the game will actually be good or simply match your taste.

Experience shows that there can be worlds between the announcement and the finished product. The pendulum can swing in both directions here, meaning: An announced game can either be a disappointment or turn into a hidden gem.

Experience has taught me (and probably many of you as well) to rein in my initial enthusiasm time and again. Especially when very little of the actual gameplay has been shown. It has often happened that games have appealed to me on all levels, only to turn out in the best case as “not so great”.

One such case that I immediately recalled with Atlas Fallen was, for example, Godfall. It sounded great before the release and the gameplay looked fun, but that was only enough for a rating of 61 on Metacritic.

I’m sure I could think of other examples, but you probably understand what I mean. I want to be excited about Atlas Fallen, really. It looks great and sounds like a game that could be exactly my thing. Deck 13 is also a studio that has a lot of experience in action games with Lords of the Fallen and The Surge.

But I have to keep forcing myself to dampen my anticipation to also keep the potential disappointment lower. This was also the case with Elden Ring, and FromSoftware is one of my absolute favorite developers, whom I trust completely after Sekiro.

Therefore, Atlas Fallen will be placed on my “cautious wish list” for now, and I will look forward to it very cautiously. The right excitement can come when the release turns out to be really awesome.

Fingers crossed.

A big new MMO kicked off gamescom 2022 – But damn it, no one can do anything with that

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At gamescom 2022, a trailer for Everywhere was shown, a new ambitious MMO from former Grand Theft Auto man Leslie Benzies. The game has been in development for 5 years and is said to be extremely ambitious and bold. It was said beforehand that Everywhere should be a kind of “Real Life Ready Player One”. But MeinMMO author Schuhmann says: With the trailer and the information, really no one can make anything out of it.

What did we know about the game beforehand?

• It was known that a very important developer of GTA Online raised $42 million and is developing an “open-world” game called Everywhere. To this end, he founded the company “Build a Rocket Boy Games”, apparently a reference to a song by the band “Elbow”.
• This new company has hired some important employees from GTA 5 and currently employs a total of 130 people.
• The game was supposed to be a “massive open-world game” that offers players maximum freedom, features many modes and styles. The developers said they wanted to tell “not just their story”, but players should be able to live out their identity in Everywhere.

In May 2022, it was then said that the game should be a “Real Life” Ready Player One with multiplayer. Players should be able to develop their own worlds in a virtual sandbox. There would be “deep social integration.”

Everywhere opens gamescom 2022 with trailer

What does the trailer show us now? Everywhere had the honor of opening gamescom 2022. The game was in the first trailer spot. Those who know Geoff Keighley’s shows know: Such spots are coveted, you get very little time and have to make optimal use of this short time in the spotlight to present your game to a million-strong audience.

While some players were rushed through in 30 seconds, the games at the beginning and end of the show deserved a special treatment and got extra time.

But in the trailer for Everywhere, a multitude of developers talked relatively flowery about making an incredibly ambitious game that gives players maximum freedom. They have been working on the game for 5 years but need a little longer. It is something very unique and very bold.

Not a single word was mentioned about what genre it even has, what models it is based on, or what players it aims to reach. Hard facts: A release date, which platforms they want to come to, how they will further develop or monetize the game – there was no space for that in the developers’ talk…

It should just be “Everywhere”, simply somehow everything.

However, I would like to note that “Everywhere” sounds like the name of a product with which the Joker wants to take over Gotham or like something that James Bond must prevent at the last minute.

The bonus time to clarify such a complex game like Everywhere to the gamescom audience was therefore not used at all by the developers.

After 100 seconds, viewers then saw confusingly chopped landscape images, with characters just being there or driving something, but not following any recognizable action. The graphics looked like a comic game like Fortnite.

In the last 15 seconds of the trailer, viewers then saw even faster chopped images with an apparently different graphic style and then the trailer was over.

Here is at least the gameplay part of the trailer to be seen, without the prior speeches:

Players immediately suspect: Surely there are NFTs in there! Better watch out

What was the first reaction? The trailer and the job postings on the site immediately set off all alarm bells for gamers. Because the combination:

• ambitious talk
• absent gameplay

players today associate with “NFT”/”Blockchain” models and which have a bad reputation.

Therefore, the suspicion quickly arose that the new game “Everywhere” would rely on blockchain/NFT.

The developers neither wanted to confirm nor deny it, but said they did not want to exclude new technologies from the outset (via ign).

The game will be “developed on Unreal Engine 5, not on the blockchain.”

More on the topic

NFT is the new trend in gaming, companies are worth billions of dollars – But why?

von Schuhmann

“We are making a good game, we promise”

How is the trailer received? Not particularly well (via youtube).

The only thing that speaks for the game in the comments seems to be the reputation of Leslie Benzies, who has received some advance praise.

But the graphics in many parts of the trailer, which remind many of Apex or Fortnite, are criticized – the fact that there is another style in the last seconds rather creates confusion,

And the lack of information in the trailer appears almost ridiculous to some:

• One user says: “We are making a good game, we promise.”
• Another user says: “Looks great. But what genre is it anyway? Sandbox?”
• A third says: “Another gaming company that puts nothing on the table. As long as you don’t send us any gameplay, at least tell us the approximate direction of how the game is supposed to look in the end. All these statements are nothing but lies.”

If this is supposed to be the future of MMOs or even really “Ready Player One”, then it is certainly not recognizable yet.

More about gamescom 2022:

I say: gamescom 2022 already has a big winner – And one game is as good as dead

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Yesterday, gamescom 2022 kicked off in Cologne, and over 35 games were newly presented or received new trailers. MeinMMO author Schuhmann looks at who won the unofficial “Battle for the Trailer” for him and which game already seems hopeless right now. This is Schuhmann’s impression of the gamescom Opening Night Live.

Which games were presented? A total of over 36 trailers were shown last night in 2 hours, of which only one game, Dead Island 2, had two trailers to itself.

We have summarized the trailers for you in the live ticker.

Harry Potter has the biggest hype before the start of gamescom

Which game had the highest expectations beforehand? If you listened on social media before gamescom, most Twitter users were excited about “Hogwarts Legacy”, the game from the “Harry Potter” universe. For many Potter fans, this seems to be the game they’ve been waiting for – and Harry Potter is one of the biggest pop culture brands in the world, on par with Star Wars or Lord of the Rings.

A controversy surrounding the alleged transphobia of author J.K. Rowling cannot dampen the anticipation.

3 games received a lot of applause in the hall

Which game had the biggest reaction in the hall? The gamescom in Cologne has a live audience for the first time in 3 years that could react to the trailers. The last major events were held purely virtually.

According to MeinMMO editor-in-chief Leya Jankowski, the biggest reaction in the hall was Dune: Awakening, a new survival MMO from Funcom, who had already developed Conan Exiles. Leya wrote to us that she was close to fainting after the announcement.

Similar positive reactions were also seen for Hogwarts Legacy; it was enough to mention the title, and the mood in the audience was good.

The pretty violent Callisto Protocol also impressed the audience in the hall.

The laughter was on the side of games like Return to Monkey Island or Goat Simulator 3. In the “You play a goat” game, even the title is a joke: There is actually no game called Goat Simulator 2. The developers are such trolls that they already allowed themselves the first joke with the title and broke the rules for the numerical designation of a game.

This trailer could excite the hall: Dune: Awakening

PS5 Controller and Dune are the big winners of gamescom 2022

How are the views looking? About 20 hours later, the trailer views for these 3 audience favorites look like this:

• Dune: Awakening: 226,462 views – 4,556 likes
• Hogwarts Legacy – 148,165 views – 6,878 likes
• Callisto Protocol – 79,917 views – 2,688 likes

Out of competition, the trailer for the new controller of the PlayStation ran:

• Dual Sense Edge Wireless Controller – 698,691 views – 28,329 likes.

The PS5 controller is definitely one of the big winners.

Regarding views, we refer to the official trailers – game trailers often have many views through other channels as well.

Who won in the games? If it depends on the video views on the trailer and the upvotes on reddit , “Dune: Awakening” seems to have won the start of gamescom.

In the gaming-savvy audience, the SF brand “Dune” is even a bit hotter than among the Twitter public, where Harry Potter fans dominate.

Classic Rock or Metal makes every trailer better

Who was my favorite? I, Schuhmann from MeinMMO, especially liked the trailer for

• The Lords of the Fallen – it has 154,382 views and 1,159 likes

This is not because I liked the game so much, or that I’m a Dark Souls fan, but I’m just totally conditioned:

Because the game with the somewhat silly name, like every “Dark Fantasy” game, relied on a rock classic, Danzig – Mother.

The combination of action trailer and classic rock has convinced me since the first Destiny trailer, where Bungie showed how much they love Led Zeppelin.

For me, one of the best hype trailers ever:

Unusual game walks on dangerous paths

Who is already the candidate for “The Game is Dying?” It is a bit sad because it was also received with applause in the hall and wants to appeal to core gamers and enthusiasts, but I must admit that “Moonbreaker” has poor chances of surviving long-term.

The game wants to be a “turn-based strategy game” and replicate the tabletop experience of miniature games like Warhammer; you should even be able to paint miniatures.

• The trailer for Moonbreaker has 38,000 views and 535 likes.

The game wants to be a mix of “Xcom and Hearthstone”, combining two successful games.

However, it seems to me more like a mix of “Atlas Reactor” and “Battleborn”, two terrible flops. Although I actually liked Battleborn, it just didn’t work with its insane aesthetics, where every character was somewhat odd, it simply did not function.

And Atlas Reactor was such a bad flop that it not only died once but three times.

In the comments on YouTube, some people are already saying that instead of playing something like this, they would rather just stick to the original.

The development team behind the game is known for drastic genre switches and surprises. With “Subnautica”, they had a pacifistic survival hit, but that Moonbreaker will be a success can already be doubted – even though I would genuinely wish for a “against all odds” success for the game.

But I doubt the game, also because “Mister Death Kiss himself” has already taken Moonbreaker into his heart: former MeinMMO editor Jürgen Horn said he liked the game, so he’s already sure it will die soon. Jürgen has some kind of little curse going on:

5 online games that I think are good, but you don’t!

How have you experienced gamescom 2022 so far? Who are your winners and which game will hardly hold its ground – what do you think?

More from gamescom: Conflict between Twitch streamers Tanzverbot vs Orangemorange escalates into physical assault

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