I came. Then I heard the soundtrack from Dragon Age: Origins' otherwise kick-ass E3 2009 trailer, and went numb again.

 (...)

 Continue reading 'There Be Dragon Age E3 Screenshots'...

Because you can't have an MMO in this day and age without expanding it during the first few months after release (and bug-fixing it throughout its entire lifetime), Warhammer Online, too, is set to receive its first live expansion soon enough. Titled "Call to Arms", it will be rolled out - for free - in early March, and will be running through the beginning of June. At which point, presumingly, another one of these "live expansions" might follow.



Copy-pasting from GOA's announcement, Call to Arms will introduce an array of new content for WAR players, including two highly anticipated new careers - the Orc Choppa and the Dwarf Slayer - and a new dungeon zone called "Land of the Dead", set in the desert realm of the Tomb Kings. It will also include 3 in-game live events, a new Realm vs. Realm (RvR) Scenario, added functionality to the Realm Wars section of the WAR website, the opening of the official WAR Forums, and a new free trial version of the game.

In the announcement, Mark Jacobs from Mythic refers to this huge new Tomb Kings dungeon as a "spiritual successor to the Dark Age of Camelot dungeon, Darkness Fall", and restates their commitment to keep on delivering a massive amount of free content "now and in the future".

Below you'll find the full schedule of the Call to Arms live expansion, (...)

 Continue reading 'Warhammer Online Expands With Call to Arms'...

Gayspot, the website that fires senior editors for not sucking the small dicks of sponsors (feel the Kane and Linch review, if it is still on), reports on a Q&A regarding Elemental: War of Magic, which we have announced some time ago.

As they say, the game will draw its purpose from several franchises, such as The Lord of the Rings, Master of Magic and Civilization, BUT FAILING hard at getting elements from the only TBS that really matters. I'll let you guess which one that is. It starts with “Heroes”. And it ends with " Might and Magic 3".

As usual, when we talk about Starcraft 2, we all go “WTFFFS WHY??". It is normal, and absolutely decent. Because a game that comes in three fucking parts smells like a milk cow. Even if Blizzard says it does not.

Recently, Speaking with Videogamer, Blizzard's Paul Sams started to spit so many “NOHEZ” words about this issue, that even I tend to call him a bull crap. As I said before, this merger between Activision and Blizzard will eventually lead to serious issues. We have Starcraft 2 in three parts, then Battle.Net on a pay roll, then... who knows, fucking Diablo III monthly fee, mayhap.

The fact of the matter is, it's absolutely, positively untrue about us trying to stretch it out and milk it. People think that it was a monetary driven decision. I can absolutely, positively tell you, with 100 per cent certainty, that that was not part of the conversation. I guarantee it. I give my word. There was never, ever a conversation where we said, 'let's do this because we're going to make more money'. I guarantee it. As a matter of fact the sole reason we did it was because we thought it was going to be a better experience. Anybody that says otherwise is not correct. It is absolutely not what we did it for.

Source.

I've always been a sucker for Collector's Edition, even if the game was excrushiatingly boring or incredibly stupid. (Hell, I even own a copy of Age of Conan CE, and that says a lot). Sacred 2 may not have been the best game to be released this year, but it certainly is an ok-ish hack & slash, with lots of places to go, thousands of little monsters to eviscerate and, last but not least, the crème a la crème of new generations, impressive graphics.

So of course I went a bit mad when I found out that Sacred's Collector's Edition will (or is) only available in North America, via online shopping monsters such as Amazon.com, Amazon.ca, Future Shop or EB Games Canada. Because I want a copy too. For those interested, here's a quick summary of what this baby has to offer:

- An extra DVD containing the "Elite Texture Pack," a set of ultra-high resolution textures for users of high-end computers
- A code to unlock the Carrier Imp, a special "pet" that transports the player's treasure and additional inventory to its owner whenever summoned. A video of the Carrier Imp in action is available at the link below.
- A four-song music sampler from Nuclear Blast records, whose artist, Blind Guardian, is showcased in the game's soundtrack, and an exclusive audio interview with the band and the game’s developer, discussing their collaboration to feature the band in-game.
- A printed map of the world of Ancaria that doubles as poster
- An electronic version of the Sacred 2 "Art and Vision" booklet

MMO players can be divided into two categories: the ones who play World of Warcraft and the ones who WILL play World of Warcraft sooner or later. A sad fact it may be, but it seems that the only way to actually quit playing Blizzard's massive milk cow is to quit playing MMOs alltogether. Just like I did.


During a recent earnings report, Blizzard's president Mike Morhaime has shown us a few very uninteresting numbers, also mentioning that, unlike some enthusiasts may have predicted, large numbers of players that have “quit” WoW recently, in the light of would-be competitors like Age of Conan and Worhammer Online, are slowly, but steadily, renewing their WoW subscriptions. Because the other games just plain ol' suck.

So, according to him, 68% of those dumb enough to think Age of Conan will be a big hit are coming back to WoW with their tail between their legs, while 48% of those who listed Warhammer Online as reason for cancellation... are doing the same. See any pattern here? Because there is only one pattern. There is no way in Hell a MMO game can challenge WoW at this moment, and win.

Source.

And, since we are still lurking like (greater) shadows in the realms of Turn-Based Strategy, it is probably worth to mention Elemental: War of Magic, an incoming game from Stardock. When I say "incoming", I mean "incoming so far away, that we will probably forget about it".



We will most likely get the hands on this fantasy game not earlier than the beginning of 2010, with a public beta to start in June 2009. As usual with Stardock games, players will be able to use impulse for the game download, and beta testers will be able to give feedback, and even do some creative work in-game via the modding tools provided.

Some more screenshots here.

If you were anything like us (which, I hope for your sake, you are not), you would be extremely aroused to hear that the infamous King's Bounty, the TBS/RPG/Adventure/Thing from Katauri is about to receive an expansion.



For starters, let's just say that King's Bounty is the king and queen of awesomeness since Heroes 3 hit the shelves. Second, it is worth to mention (for all you lolicons out there), that this time around, you will spank Princess Amelie in a brand new (and possibly dangerous) land, called Teany, while she will do this, and that, and various other things (to herself, hopefully).

Although the official website is in Russian, I was able to steam up some of the features King's Bounty: Princess will hold (clickie to continue): (...)

 Continue reading 'King's Bounty Expansion INCOMING!'...

What a time I found for quitting WoW... again! Not only is the Lich King unleashing his Wrath in less than a month, but today the big-bad patch 3.0(.2) is being deployed, giving players a taste of things - and inevitable patch-fixing patches - to come.

As any WoW player and his lolpet knows by now, this latest major update is called "Echoes of Doom" and brings more changes and additions than you can read while downloading it; no matter how bad your connection, or how huge the patch. And it's HUGE, like 1.6 GB worth of porn downloads. Not to mention the patch notes are longer than a Wednesday morning maintenance; and we've all had those... So you might want to start reading those official patch notes for v3.0.2 right away.

You won't be seeing this screen for much longer.

Below I'll only slap the "General" section of said patch notes - should be enough to get you through a pack of cigs. So enjoy the read, and I'll see you in-game. Oh... wait... wasn't I quitting WoW? Again? (...)

 Continue reading 'World of Warcraft Patch 3.0 Deployed'...

In the dawn of Mines of Moria, the fine ladies over at Turbine decided “Hell, it was about time” to open a new development office, right in the heart of Redwood City, California, U.S. Of A., Earth. And, since opening new businesses usually involves new job spots, some ex-Flagship employees were keenly lured to join forces, in whatever future project (or projects) the company has in mind.

The first one to join Turbine's military is Dave Brevik, “ex-chief visionary officer” at Flagship, followed by Jeff Lind and Matt McKnight. All these guys were involved with Flagship, while previously Brevik was president of Blizzard North and Lind did some nasty things over at Electronic Arts, involving franchises like the The Sims and The Lord of the Rings.

We wish them luck. And most of all, we wish they can actually do a better job here than that craptastic Hellfail: London, that nobody played.