One of the biggest and buggiest problems to interfere with CoN was the online play. This was in part to the poorly designed lobby and game creation interface that SOE chose to deploy with the final product. Having learned a lesson the hard way, RtA promises to fix all those annoying issues and potential gameplay exploits by taking the step of storing all data on its own servers. This means that PS2 memory card exploits are now a thing of the past, so money and item duping should be irradiated completely this time round.
A new lobby interface will make it much easier to find buddies and create and host games. The game is only supported by a broadband connection which should mean that the action keeps moving in a suitably fast and furious manner. Of course, Voice over IP (VoIP) chat is still a welcome feature in-game, and is now also included in the lobby environment. There will be all manner of game stats tracking too, so expect to see some Best of the Best-style leaderboards popping up -- bragging rights must be earned! Possibly to coolest new feature of RtA, however, is the Medal Rounds. These are cool mini-games (which can also be enjoyed online) that consist of various skill-based challenges. When completed, these challenges will open up new areas, online-specific maps, items, and rewards -- all of which can be used to trick-out your character! Each Medal Round offers a bronze, silver, and gold medal to be won, and depending on your skill level, the better you perform, the more impressive the reward will be.
The multiplayer component remains just as important and just as much fun as the single-player game, and for RtA, you can all look forward to some brand-new PvP blood-and-guts action. While I'm not at liberty to divulge too much information at this point, let's just say that there are numerous different PvP game styles, making room for some truly epic multiplayer "rogering" sessions. It's all good clean fun, y'know.