The Agency is a game that’s been on my radar for quite a while and that I’ve been pretty excited about. As a fan of Alias, James Bond, and any number of other espionage series, I definitely have been hooked by the notion of a game that touts a full MMORPG spy experience. After Sony Online Entertainment’s announcement yesterday, however, my hype for the game has come crashing down for a kick-in-the-face reality check. See, Sony wants players to use real money to buy their gear, clothes, vehicles, and weapons in the game, rather than actually play to earn the goodies. I, for one, am vehemently opposed to this microtransaction gaming model that defranchises anybody who just wants to pay a monthly fee to play and build their characters. Here’s a snippet of the official release from SOE:

Live Gamer, the premier operator of a publisher-supported marketplace for real money trading of virtual items, has announced it has entered into an agreement with Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) to offer real money trading (RMT) in the upcoming titles published by SOE - The Agency^TM and Free Realms^TM. The two companies are leading the evolution of the gaming industry into transaction-based business models that open emergent game play styles for gamers and opportunities for publishers.

Live Gamer’s service, called Live Gamer Exchange^TM, will provide the SOE gaming community within these new games with a trusted way to conduct real-money transactions. Earlier this year, Live Gamer incorporated SOE’s proven Station Exchange technology, the first publisher-developed and sanctioned RMT marketplace, into its own e-commerce platform. The Live Gamer Exchange is currently operating within EverQuest® II, SOE’s popular MMORPG (www.livegamer.com)

The next genre of SOE MMOGs to incorporate the Live Gamer Exchange will include:

* The Agency, a fast-paced online action shooter, will let players experience the life of an elite espionage agent with a “you are what you wear” level of customization. As they travel to exotic locales, infiltrate enemy organizations, and seek global domination for their own agency, gamers will be able to customize their characters through attire, weaponry, gadgets, vehicles, gear and aliases that tailor their game play.

There’s a mention of the possibility of The Agency being a free-to-play game that just requires money whenever players want to buy stuff for their characters, but even that seems pretty sketchy to me. The pay-for-loot business model might appeal to casual gamers who want to be able to log in and play for a couple of hours a week and might not have the time or attention span to work for the high-end content, but I can’t see how this RMT model will do anything but wreck any sense of accomplishment in the game for players who want the full gaming experience.

Source: Kotaku

Over the past few days, information has been pouring out about Guitar Hero IV and how it’s going to be ripping off implementing some of Rock Band’s core features. Among those features is the inclusion of drums (how is it still Guitar Hero?) and vocals. Game Informer magazine has the first shot of the new drum kit for GH4, which differs from its Rock Band brethren in that it includes a couple of raised pads to act as cymbals. One interesting tidbit from the Game Informer article is a statement from project director Brian Bright about how the GH4 drum kit differs from the Rock Band one:

“One of the things we really wanted to do was make it quieter than our competitor’s kit,” comments Bright. “The drums are loud as hell and it’s distracting. Everyone else in the room is like ‘Shut up!’ We also wanted to be able to send along velocity data. We know how hard you hit all six, including the pedal.”

Source: Joystiq

Have you helped the Baa sheep launch an attack on the Ook monkey kingdom to recover their lost gems lately? If not, you need to check out Boom Blox, the new puzzle game for the Wii from EA.

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