MMO

New Star Trek Online screenshots show character options

Posted Oct 11th 2008 1:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: MMO, Screenshots

It's been a little while since there's been news on Star Trek Online, the upcoming Cryptic Studios MMO based on the long running sci-fi franchise. This week, however, Cryptic did release three new screenshots from the game. Two of them are rather bland environment shots but the third shows how the game will handle player character visuals.

The shot shows six female portraits and each of them is a different species in the Trek universe, from Human to Klingon to Andorian and more (hey, where's the Orion slave girl portrait, Cryptic?). Since the developer knows how to make a character creation tool from their previous work on City of Heroes, we are betting their work in this area will be stellar. Star Trek Online still does not have an official release date.

Gallery: Star Trek Online

WoW Insider covers World of Warcraft from BlizzCon

Posted Oct 11th 2008 11:00AM by John Callaham
Filed under: Culture, MMO, Meta BD, World of Warcraft

While Diablo III and Starcraft II seem to be getting the most press coverage from BlizzCon this year, that doesn't mean Blizzard's MMO World of Warcraft is being ignored. Our sister site WoW Insider has the convention covered on that front with tons of articles and galleries from the show floor.

Included in the highlights are coverage of the press conference by Blizzard president Mike Morhaime, coverage of the World of Warcraft class panel presentation, an interview with the game's lead producer J. Allen Brack, coverage of the World of Warcraft UI panel, and more. But we know what you really want to see: All those cool costumes on the show floor, the show floor itself, and coverage of the costume contest. Check out the round-up of Day 1 of Blizzcon and stay tuned for Day 2 coverage today.

World of Warcraft-branded PC gaming mouse revealed

Posted Oct 11th 2008 9:00AM by John Callaham
Filed under: Hardware, MMO, World of Warcraft

With the upcoming release of Blizzard's MMO expansion pack World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King, folks want to see if they can ride the coattails of the expected massive sales of the game. Enter SteelSeries, the PC gaming accessory company who has announced plans to release a new gaming PC mouse with some World of Warcraft branding and fuctions.

The SteelSeries web site has the detail on the new mouse which Blizzard collaborated upon. The mouse has 15 programmable buttons and over 130 commands for macro creation. The mouse also has back light support which can be changed for over 16 million color choices. The mouse will ship on Nov. 13 (the same day as Wrath of the Lich King's ship date) but it will cost a pretty penny at $99.99.

[Via Engadget]

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Warhammer Online gets 750,000 registered users

Posted Oct 10th 2008 6:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: MMO, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

It looks like the launch of Warhammer Online has been Electronic Arts' biggest success in the MOM genre to date. The fantasy MOM developed by Mythic Entertainment has now registered 750,000 players in North America, Europe and the Oceanic territories (Australia and New Zealand) since launching last month, according to a press release issued today.

Of course, having high initial player participation doesn't mean you will be keeping all of those players and we are approaching the time when the 30 day free period included in the game's box is going to run out for those players. We will soon see if the churn rate is acceptable to Mythic and EA but for right now having three-quarters of a million players online is certainly an achievement.

Gallery: Warhammer Online

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Lord of the Rings Online to get social networking web site

Posted Oct 10th 2008 1:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: Culture, MMO

Turbine has been promoting its upcoming Lord of the Rings Online expansion pack Mines of Moria for the past several months but the developer has some other plans for their fantasy MMO as well. Gamasutra reports from the Tokyo Game Show that Turbine plans to launch a Facebook-like social networking web site around the game sometime before the end of 2008.

Turbine CEO Jim Crowley stated during his presentation that the web site would contain features like player profiles, friends, character achievements, blog sites, and player created videos and screenshots. Turbine's other two current MMO titles, Dungeons and Dragons Online and Asheron's Call, will also have similar social networked sites in the near future.

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Big Download (with WoW Insider) to cover BlizzCon 2008

Posted Oct 10th 2008 8:00AM by John Callaham
Filed under: Culture, Action, MMO, RPG, RTS, Meta BD, Starcaft II, World of Warcraft, Diablo III

Yeah, the Tokyo Game Show may be happening right now but that event is almost all console games. The real cool PC cats know that the place to be this weekend is BlizzCon 2008. And we can report that thanks to our friends at our sister site WoW Insider Big Download will have exclusive coverage of the events going on at the Anaheim Convention Center beginning today and ending on Saturday.

Specifically our special WoW Insider correspondents will be covering the non-World of Warcraft games that will be shown at BlizzCon. Yep, that means both Starcraft II and Diablo III will be covered on our site (and it looks like Diablo III will be playable to the public for the first time this weekend). Of course WoW Insider is your best bet for coverage of all of the World of Warcraft related news and events at the event and we want to thank the team for their help in covering BlizzCon for us. It's going to be a very cool couple of days and we hope you stick around for it.

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BlizzCon 2008 updates

Posted Oct 9th 2008 7:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: Culture, Action, MMO, RPG, RTS, Starcaft II, World of Warcraft, Diablo III

We are just a couple of days away from the start of BlizzCon 2008 and Blizzard has been updating the official web site with more info on what will be happening at the convention on Oct 10-11 at the Anaheim Convention Center. One big development is that Blizzard will be streaming "selected" portions of its various game tournaments from the BlizzCon web site so folks who are unable to attend can at least see some of the tournament action for free.

Also, people unable to attend can enter the Original Question Contest. You can submit a Blizzard related games question and Blizzard team members will answer a select number during BlizzCon. People who have their questions selected for answering will get a prize package of BlizzCon related merchandise as well as an ATI graphics card.

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Mines Of Moria shipping out Nov. 18; pre-order specials and contest revealed

Posted Oct 9th 2008 6:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: Contests, MMO

Turbine has finally announced the ship date for their upcoming MMO expansion pack Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria. The expansion will ship to stores on Nov. 18 as part of a new "Complete Edition" that contains the original game, the expansion and all of the free downloadable content that has been released prior to the expansion.

Pre-orders for the Complete Edition are being taken now. Folks who do pre-order the box will have the options of signing up for $9.99 a month as part of a multi-month subscription deal or a $199 lifetime subscription. They will also get a number of in-game items and a free music CD. Current subcribers can also pre-order the downloadable digital edition of Mines of Moria. They will also get the same subcription offers and in-game items.

Turbine is also holding a contest to celebrate the launch of Mines of Moria with codes inside the retail box that can be redeemed for instant win prizes. They also serve as entries for one person to win the grand prize of $10,000.

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New Dungeon Party screenshots

Posted Oct 9th 2008 11:00AM by John Callaham
Filed under: MMO, Screenshots

Several months ago, French developer Cyanide Studios announced plans for Dungeon Party, a free to play MMO with a cartoony art style. It's been a while since new info has been released on the game but this week Cyanide released new screenshots of Dungeon Party for all to see on the game's official forums.

While the game apparently missed its beta test date for this past summer Dungeon Party is now scheduled for launch in the first quarter of 2009. It's still going to have players pick from six character classes and then battle in teams of five players against another team searching for treasure with a number of traps and monsters to deal with in each round.

Gallery: Dungeon Party

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Gathryn revealed

Posted Oct 8th 2008 7:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: MMO

Another day, another entry in the very crowded MMO game genre/race race. Today's new announcement is for Gathryn, a new title with a kind of "steampunk" setting that's being developed by Mindfuse Games, a San Francisco based developer of 30 team members.

The title takes its inspiration from books from Jules Verne and H.G. Wells with this alternate Victornia-era timeline full of airships and other out-of-place items. According to the web site, "You assume the role of a Victorian themed character as you explore, socialize and quest your way through the world." No release date for Gathryn has been mentioned yet.

[Via Blue's News]

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Fallout co-creator speaks on Fallout 3 and MMO

Posted Oct 8th 2008 10:00AM by John Callaham
Filed under: Interviews, MMO, RPG, Fallout 3

On Tuesday we reported that Tim Cain, one of the original developers of the Interplay Fallout RPGs, was taking on the duties of design director at NCsoft's Carbine Studios. But that doesn't mean he's forgotten the Fallout franchise. In a new chat over at Edge Online, Cain states he is looking forward to playing Bethesda Softworks' take on the series with Fallout 3. Cain is quoted as saying, "It's not necessarily the direction I would've gone, but I can tell you I have my Fallout 3 pre-ordered. I want my life-sized Pip-Boy. I'm going to be playing that at the end of the month."

Cain does have a design concern about both Fallout 3 and the upcoming Fallout MMO that's being handled by the now revamped Interplay. Cain says in the article, "The biggest problem I have with expanding the game is that the original games were designed to make you feel like you were one of the last people left on Earth. And with Fallout 3 and the online version, I'm curious about how they'll handle making the game not feel too crowded--making it feel like there's not much life left out there after the war."

Gallery: Fallout 3

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New Mines of Moria screenshots reveal Legendary items

Posted Oct 8th 2008 9:00AM by John Callaham
Filed under: Expansions, MMO

The new screenshots from Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria continue to come from developer Turbine as the upcoming MMO expansion pack gets ready for its release this fall. This week five new screenshots show off some of the new "Legendary items that players can get their hands on in the game.

As we have previously reported, Mines of Moria will be released as a paid download for current subscribers and bundled in a new release of Lord of the Rings Online for retail stores. In addition to two new player classes (the Warden and the Rune-keeper), the expansion will raise the level cap to 60, and add 200 new monsters and 10 new areas along with lots more new features.

Gallery: Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria

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World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King system requirements revealed

Posted Oct 8th 2008 8:00AM by John Callaham
Filed under: Hardware, MMO, World of Warcraft

If you are one of the millions and millions of World of Warcraft players around the globe you may have some concerns about if the second expansion pack for the game, Wrath of the Lich King, will run on your PC or Mac. Thankfully Blizzard's official message boards have some updated system specs for you to take a look at. Both PC and Mac versions require 15 GB of hard drive space, a keyboard and mouse for controls (multi-button mouse with scroll wheel recommended) and a broadband Internet connection (duh).

For the PC Blizzard has minimum and recommended specs for your system:

OS: Windows XP (Service Pack 3), Windows Vista (Service Pack 1)
Processor: Minimum : Intel Pentium 4 1.3 GHz or AMD Athlon XP 1500+ -- Recommended: Dual-core processor, such as the Intel Pentium D or AMD Athlon 64 X2
RAM: Minimum - 512 MB RAM (1GB for Vista users) -- Recommended - 1 GB RAM (2 GB for Vista users)
Video Card: Minimum - 3D graphics processor with Hardware Transform and Lighting with 32 MB VRAM (such as an ATI Radeon 7200 or NVIDIA GeForce 2 class card or better) -- Recommended - 3D graphics processor with Vertex and Pixel Shader capability with 128 MB VRAM (such as an ATI Radeon X1600 or NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT class card or better)
Sound: DirectX-compatible sound card or motherboard sound capability

Mac owners, here's your minimum and recommended system specs

OS: Mac OS X 10.4.11 or newer
Processor: Minimum: PowerPC G5 1.6 GHz or Intel Core Duo processor -- Recommended: Intel 1.8GHz processor or better
RAM: Minimum: 1 GB RAM - Recommended: 2 GB RAM
Video: Minimum: 3D graphics processor with Hardware Transform and Lighting with 64 MB VRAM (such as an ATI Radeon 9600 or NVIDIA GeForce Ti 4600 class card or better) - - Recommended: 3D graphics processor with Vertex and Pixel Shader capability with 128 MB VRAM (such as an ATI Radeon X1600 or NVIDIA 7600 class card or better)

Gallery: World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King

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NCsoft promotes director at Carbine Studios

Posted Oct 7th 2008 7:00PM by John Callaham
Filed under: Biz, MMO

NCsoft may be restructuring its Western operations but the company still has a number of US based dev studios working on various projects. Today the publisher announced that Tim Cain, best known as one of the creators of the original Interplay Fallout games, has been given a promotion at their Carbine Studios operations.

Cain, who joined Carbine in 2005 as their programming director, now has been named as the design director of the studio. Carbine is currently working on a so far unnamed MMO project. Cain was one of the designers of Fallout and Fallout 2 and later helped to form Trokia Games which released a number of RPGs including the acclaimed Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.

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Decorating tips for new EQ2 guild halls

Posted Oct 7th 2008 4:30PM by Steven Wong
Filed under: Downloads, MMO, RPG, Trailers

This video offers 5 tips for EverQuest II guild hall design. At the same time, it shows off many of the guild hall features recently put into the game.

Download HD EverQuest II Guild Halls Trailer (79 MB)