Tag Archives: DCUO

DCUO Super-Speed Video – Featuring the Flash!

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Sony Online Entertainment has released a short video showing off super-speed in the upcoming DC Universe Online massively-multiplayer online game. Creative Director Jens Andersen introduces the clips, which feature both the Flash and player-created characters.

The video highlights not just running fast, but running up buildings, running upside-down on the ceiling, and special combat moves like whirlwinds.

If it doesn’t work here, or you want to watch it at a different size, you can watch it at YouTube. (Found via ComicBook Movie, though I couldn’t get the video to play there.)

Judging by the comments on yesterday’s Flash #3 variant cover, I should probably mention that this game has been in the works for quite a while. I wouldn’t be surprised if the Flash shown above was designed at a time when Wally West was still the main version of the character.

DCU Online Flash — Concept Art and Screenshots Reveal Wally West

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Sony has just released character designs and a bio of the Flash in DC Universe Online, and Newsarama has the scoop. The Flash has previously appeared in demos and screenshots of the upcoming MMORPG, but I don’t recall seeing the design artwork before…or the character biography.

Flash design for DC Universe Online

The surprise here is that Jim Lee’s design is still recognizably Wally West’s costume with the V-shaped belt, rather than Barry Allen’s. Considering that DC has been re-focusing the Flash franchise around Barry Allen, I would have expected them to use him for their next flagship game. And besides, Geoff Johns is writing both Flash: Rebirth and the storylines for DCUO. On the other hand Mortal Kombat vs. DCU used a costume that was closer to Wally’s than Barry’s, and called him Barry Allen. The biography is quite specific, though:

The Fastest Man Alive, Wally West easily runs at light speed, vibrates through objects, create explosions through friction – and, when at agonizing top capacity, can manipulate time and bridge dimensions.

The Flash is a time-honored member of the Justice League. The latest in a long line of Flashes, each with their own unique way of tapping into the primal “Speed Force,” Wally is determined to live up to the noble legacies of speedsters such as Barry Allen, Max Mercury, and Jay Garrick.

It’s hard to get more specific than that!

(Speaking of Jay Garrick, the design for his appearance in the game was released last summer.)

Newsarama has more images and details.

Update: jcbagee points to a gallery of more images at Kotaku. In addition to some slightly larger versions of the same images, there are a bunch of screenshots from the game itself, including this one with some (presumably) player-character speedsters:

Flash Group

Oddly enough, the Flash’s eyes seem blue in the renderings…

Update 2: CBR has the same set of images as Kotaku, and the bio.

Speed Reading: Movie, Geoff Johns and DCUO

Geoff Johns talks to MTV about DC Universe Online, saying that the massively-multiplayer game is likely to ship in early 2010 or late 2009. He also says he’d love to tackle a Flash or Superman movie.

And speaking of movies, Variety reports that the film industry is starting to take super-heroes seriously, and looks into which characters are likely candidates for the big screen.

Michael Doran, co-founder and senior editor of the comicbook news site Newsarama, sees the most movie potential for DC Comics’ the Flash.

“Superspeed just is so elemental,” he says. “The character, especially the Wally West version — the fast-talking, quick-witted type — his personality almost matches his superpowers.”

Back to the fan perspective, Comix 411 has a wishlist for the Flash movie, and Siskoid looks at “The Human Race”.

Linkage: Geoff Johns on DCU Online

Geoff Johns is seriously busy. The writer on Justice Society of America, Action Comics, Green Lantern, two Final Crisis tie-in miniseries, Flash: Rebirth, and a Smallville episode has been announced as the writer for the back story for the upcoming MMO game, DC Universe Online, joining art director Jim Lee. Newsarama and Comic Book Resources both have more:

Gaming Bits from San Diego

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I didn’t manage to try out DC Universe Online myself — there was always a longer line than I wanted to wait for — and I missed the two gaming panels on Friday. (I think it was Friday. It’s all sort of blurred together.) So here are some write-ups I found online.

Newsarama’s J.K. Parkin writes about playing a speedster in the DCU Online demo:

The coolest part, though, was when I hit the right joystick and turned on the Speed Force. Throwing rocks at my enemies and slamming them with my staff was cool and all, but you’d expect that in any superhero-based MMO. Having my character run through the streets of Metropolis at super speed, trailed by what looked like the Speed Force that all comic fans know from the comics? That’s the kind of detail this game needed to really set it apart. And from what I’ve seen so far, it has it in spades.

They’ve also got an article on the DC Universe Online presentation that Sony made Wednesday night.

IGN has extensive coverage of the gaming side of the con, including a write-up of Friday’s DCUO panel, video clips, an interview with Jim Lee before the show, and Greg Miller’s demo experience:

I chose to quit, take Jim Lee’s advice, and try out the speedster.

Named Rock Solid and decked out in black and gold, the speedster was just about everything I could want in a low-level superhero. Clicking L3 put the dude into super-speed mode so that he could scoot around Metropolis with a wicked speed effect at his feet, run up the sides of buildings, and get away from foes, but being earth-based gave him some more nifty powers.

Moving on to Mortal Combat vs. DC Universe, Newsarama’s article on the MK vs. DC panel, includes a description of one of the fights in the preview video:

Finally, the Flash darted around Soyna, leaving her spinning and dazed before running her off a cliff, the pair trading blows all the way down before the Flash got the upper hand and whipped his opponent into the ground, creating a small crater.

Each brutal blow drew “oooohhhs” from the crowd, who also cheered when Superman cut loose with his heat vision, and when Flash delivered several attacks at his trademark speed.

IGN had its own panel write-up, including the video clip, and added that gameplay is structured in chapters, with each character associated with a chapter. That might explain why we keep seeing the same match-ups in the demo footage.

(Images via IGN)