“Sanity is for the weak!” – Chaos Space Marines (Dawn of War)
Everyone can use a feel good moment to start the day. Let’s go with this…
A big thank you for taking some time to read the column today. Thanks also to those of you following me on Twitter . Look me up on Google+ if you feel the need for one more obscure person in your circles.
It’s not a role playing game, but it is near and dear to my heart; Age of Empires Onlinelaunched on the 16th. If you haven’t tried it, then give it a go and let me know your impressions.
Changing gears to a game I had heard nothing about prior to Gamescom, WildStar has grabbed my attention.
Sure, it’s only a trailer, but it has that Firefly feel to it. It’s “cartoony”, which means to me that in three years I won’t be wondering why the graphics look so stale. Games with that look are timeless. Ben and Jeff haven’t reported back much on the gameplay, but I’ll hit them up and get the scoop.
What appealed to me, more than anything else though was the humour. Far too many MMOGs take themselves too seriously. Make it fun, give the player a few laughs and they will come back for more. The problem with that of course is that humour is perhaps the most difficult element to add to a game. It’s a lot like a daily column in that respect. One of our Board of Directors often uses the saying, “Tell me a joke funny man!” The point is that it’s hard to be funny on demand.
So… while I don’t particularly want to play a humanoid rabbit (though Bugs did it pretty well) in a MMOG, I do like the track that WildStar is taking. The guy on the motorbike had some cool moves and the mercenary looked badass.
If you dare read the comments on YouTube you will see that many of the denizens of that service think it looks like a Disney movie. Well, frankly, nobody ‘s parents were killed in the opening scene leaving him or her homeless and destitute, so I don’t get the correlation. Somebody explain!
At gamescom 2011, Ten Ton Hammer sat down with The Secret World Creative Director Ragnar Tørnquistto learn more about endgame PvP, the pervasiveness of Internet lore and links in the game, fast travel, and much more!
Transmogrification is coming to World of Warcraft and we’ve got the full scoop on what Transmogrification is and why so many people are talking about it.
Star Wars: The Old Republic (SWTOR) offers a number of ways to indulge the PvP urge of players and one of those is in the warzone of Alderaan. At last week’s gamescom event in Cologne Germany, TotalBiscuit, the Cynical Brit picked up some new footage from the SWTOR booth of a full match between the Republic and Empire fighting for control of Alderaan.
Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) announced at this year's SOE Fan Faire that it will launch the 18th (18th!) expansion to its long-running MMORPG EverQuest this November with Veil of Alaris, and now they've gone and teased us with some concept art.
Some believe PC gaming is dying, but PC hardware developer Razer believes otherwise and they've recently put out an "open letter" to PC gamers calling gamers to stand together on August 26th, which also happens to be the first day of PAX Prime in Seattle. Switchblade announcement, perhaps?
Disclaimer: No, the word "tidbit" is not booth babe related!
Gamescom 2011 is in the record books now. We sent Jeff and Ben to provide lots of great exclusive coverage (some of which is still headed your way as they write their little fingers to the bone). Of the new MMOG announcements (like Wildstar), the news on upcoming MMOGs (including beta and launch plans), interviews, hands-on previews and more...what got your gamer blood pumping?
We're working on a full-featured World of Warcraft database to accompany PlayerScore. For now, we've just cracked the door open to give you a peek at what's to come.
We'd also like to ask for your help. There's some information, such as mob drops and npc locations, that must be gathered in-game. We've run all over Azeroth and Outland, but without more help we'll never get it all ourselves. So, please consider downloading our AddOns to help.
Jeff joined the Ten Ton Hammer team in 2004 covering EverQuest II, and he's had his hands on just about every PC online and multiplayer game he could since.
