Welcome
to the 1,299th
edition
of Loading...

Loading... is the premier daily
MMOG news, coverage, and
commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.

In yesterday's Loading..., Sardu reviewed the popular MMRLG Airport, and now that the ever-talented and beautiful Ten Ton Hammer team of Mattlow, Sardu, and Ethec is on the ground in Boston, its time for a look at the massive raid instance known as PAX East 2010. PAXe hosts its own share of trash mobs, scripted encounters, epic bosses, and loot, and we'll offer you a special hands-on preview (badge-on preview?) in today's Loading... Raiding PAX.

cellspacing="0" width="100%">

The Pulse

You vote with what you
view at Ten Ton Hammer, and the
result
is the Ten Ton Pulse ( href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/thepulse/" target="_blank">What
is The Pulse?).

Here
are today's top 5 Pulse results:

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">World
   of Warcraft
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2">EverQuest
   II
3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aoc">Age of Conan
4. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo">Dungeons and
   Dragons Online
5. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro">Lord of the
   Rings Online

Biggest
movers today :

1. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/926">Global Agenda (UP 5 to #19)
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/38">EverQuest (UP 4 to #16)
3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/175">Lineage 2 (UP 3 to #18)
   

size="-1">Recent Releases

• size="-1">2/1
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/926">Global
  Agenda
  (release date)
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">2/1
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1004">Mortal
  Online (release date)
• size="-1">2/2 size="-1">
  - Star
  Trek Online
  (release date)
• size="-1">2/16
  - href="http://everquest2.station.sony.com/expansions/sentinelsfate/index.vm">EverQuest
  2: Sentinel's Fate (expansion)
• size="-1">2/16
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81479"> LotRO:
  Oath of the
  Rangers (content update)
  
  
  

size="-1">Upcoming
Releases

href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1004">

• size="-1">March
  2010
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/998">APB
• size="-1">April
  2010
  - href="http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/game_updates/issue_17/issue_17_overview.html?utm_source=COHemail&utm_medium=US&utm_campaign=banner">City
  of Heroes: Issue 17
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">Spring 2010
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1801">Mytheon
• size="-1">TBA
  2010
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2079">Final
  Fantasy XIV
  
  
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">Spring 2011
  - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/swtor">Star Wars:
  The Old
  Republic size="-1">
  
  
  
  

size="-1">Upcoming
Events

• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">3/26 - 3/28
  - href="http://www.paxsite.com/paxeast/index.php">PAX
  East 2010
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">4/17 - 4/18
  - href="http://www.ankama-convention.com/en">Ankama
  Convention #5
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">6/15 -
  6/17 - href="http://www.e3expo.com/">E3
  Expo
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">6/25 -
  6/27 - href="http://www.lfgexpo.com/">Looking
  for Group
  Expo
• size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">8/5 -
  8/8 - href="http://events.station.sony.com/fanfaire/">SOE
  Fan Faire 2010
  
  
  

Loading...
Daily

Yesterday, Sardu conveyed his experience with the rabidly popular MMRLG Airport, and today I have what I guess you could call a hands-on preview of this weekend's hottest raid instance, PAX East 2010. We put PAXe to the test yesterday, but unfortunately the concept was in pre-production, with a massive concrete and tape wireframe show floor in place. The top designers, Gabe and Tycho, were milling about the press badge and volunteer queues looking a bit nervous, but since the plan is for a soft launch (the floor opens at 2pm), there was plenty of time for a textbook beta crunch this morning.

Once inside, the plan is to clear out the trash mobs of middleware demos, rabid fangrrls, and under-informed volunteers, moving on to today's boss encounter: a two-stage encounter with Turbine to see the latest and greatest on Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online. Then we'll check out Nvidia's reveal of two new cards and a new 3D demo with World of Warcraft before distributing the loot to you in terms of live coverage. Some of that coverage will be posted tonight, so keep an eye on http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/paxeast2010 for all the latest from the event.

As our PAX East 2010 raid moves into its final stage tomorrow, we'll face scripted encounters (hopefully not entirely scripted) with APB, Fallen Earth, City of Heroes and more. Then, tomorrow night, for a final epic encounter we wrap things up with Turbine's Adam Mersky and a special live event! We're proud to partner with podcasting veterans omfg.fm (Original Media for Gamers, clever eh?) for a special preview edition of the Ten Ton Hammer Live Podcast tomorrow night from PAX East 2010. If you don't have plans (and if you're not at PAX East, how can you?) join us and host Jesse Cox tomorrow night from 7pm - 8:30 EDT (4pm PDT, 2300 UTC) at http://omfg.fm/ .

And that's the latest from PAX East 2010 - we're just getting started! If you see anything brewing that you want us to cover in-depth, if you'll be at the event and want to meet up and say hi at one of the Saturday sessions, or just want to give us a shout, let us have it in the Loading... forum!

---

Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day



From our Tavern of the Ten Ton Hammer Forum

Farewell, Dalmarus!

I
suppose it's cool that Ten Ton Hammer has proven to be a stepping
stone, but it's hard not to feel the weight whenever one of our best
and brightest leaves to pursue a career on the dev side of the
gaming industry.

Today we're saying goodbye to Eric "Dalmarus" Campbell. Eric started out as a hardworking writer for our Vanguard community site
(I should know; I was the one cracking the whip). Eventually, he took
up the responsibility of site lead for Vanguard. His latest gig has
been as Admiral--er, site lead--for our Star Trek Online community site. If you've enjoyed the guides and mountains of content our STO team has produced, you have Eric largely to thank for it.

Today we're sending Eric off to his new position at none other than Blizzard. Stop by and wave goodbye.

==============================

Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread


"There's making it, and then there's making it into Blizz. Congrats on the legendary drop, Dal!"

- Anacche
==============================



Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? Tell
us!

---

New
and Exclusive Content
Today at Ten Ton Hammer

4 new Ten Ton Hammer
features
today! 105 in March! 335
in 2010!

CONTESTS



Star Trek Online: Season 1 and Killer NIC Giveaway Continues

title="http://www.tentonhammer.com/giveaways/STOSeason1"
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/giveaways/STOSeason1">http://www.tentonhammer.com/giveaways/STOSeason1



It's free and easy to enter, so
do it today! Prizes beam out from March 29th to April 2nd



Ten Ton Hammer is partnering with Atari and Bigfoot Networks to offer
you a chance to win an incredible prize packs in celebration of Star
Trek Online's newly revealed "Season One: Common Ground". Check out
these great prizes:

• One
  Grand Prize: Killer Xeno Pro
  NIC, Star Trek Online Collector's Edition with a 6 month subscription
• One
  First Prize: Killer Xeno Pro
  NIC, Star Trek Online Collector's Edition
• Three
  Second Prizes: Killer Xeno Pro
  NIC, Star Trek Online Digital Deluxe Edition
• Seven
  Third Prizes: Star Trek Online
  Digital Deluxe Edition

One entry per registered viewer, premium members get additional
entries. Winners will be posted in this thread starting March 29th and
running through April 2nd.

DOWNLOADS



WoW: Patch 3.3.3 Download Available Now

http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/patches



Looking
for somewhere to pick up patch 3.3.3 for World of Warcraft? Look no
more because it's now available here at Ten Ton Hammer. We've got a
speedy download with no queues, waits, or gold ads to get between you
and the game. If you've already downloaded it be sure to look over the
patch notes to see what's new.



FEATURES & GUIDES



EQ2: Gearing Up in a New Tier

http://www.tentonhammer.com/EQ2/guides/gearingup



If
you are stepping back into EverQuest II after a break then you'll find
that your armor and weapons are lacking a little in comparison to other
players in the upper levels. Rather than suffer through to level 90
while striving to gear up and level up at the same time, read our
overview of the better armor and weapon sets that are more attainable
for returning players in these tiers.



Global Agenda Recon PvP Guide

http://www.tentonhammer.com/globalagenda/guides/recon/pvp



Unlike
other stealth classes in MMOs today, the Recon of Global Agenda isn't
any more frail or less resistant  to damage than the other
soldiers. Normally that'd be enough to make people cry about it being
overpowered, but it's also the most dangerous class in the game,
capable of killing a target in less than a second from seemingly miles
away. Welcome to the life of the Recon in PvP...and with our guide on
how to excel at it, life is good!



WoW: Loremaster's Corner: The Ethereals

http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/lore/ethereals



The
Loremaster's Corner is back again this week talking about the races
that have long since been forgotten. This week we focus on the
Ethereals also known as "weird space mummies." Who were they, where are
they in WotLK, and what were they about? These questions and more
answered in this week's Loremaster's Corner.

Today's
Hottest Articles, Guides, and Features

1. Star Trek Online: Season 1 and Killer NIC Giveaway
   
2. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2/features/terran_earlygame_evolution">The
   Evolution of StarCraft
   Armies: Early Game Terran
3. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/82623">Hero:
   108 Online Hands-On Preview
   from GDC 2010 href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/82623">
   
   
4. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/gdc2010/tsw"> style="font-weight: bold;">The Secret World
   Details Emerge at
   GDC 2010
5. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2/guides/allraces/terminology"> style="font-weight: bold;">Starcraft II
   Terminology Encyclopedia
6. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/reviews/dragonageawakening">Dragon
   Age: Origins - Awakening href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/reviews/dragonageawakening">
   (PC)
   Review
7. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/editorial/craftingcomparison">Crafting
   - A Comparison of Old School vs Next Generation MMOGs
8. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/82378">Sins of
   a Solar Spymaster #40 - Make More Sandboxes
9. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/gdc2010/swtor_erickson">Star
   Wars: The Old Republic Lead
   Writer Interviewed at GDC 2010
10. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/gdc2010/ddo">Democratizing
    DDO
    - Turbine Reveals New
    Facts and Figures at GDC 2010

---

Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!

- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and
the Ten Ton Hammer team