Welcome
to the 1,290th
edition
of Loading...
Loading... is the premier daily
MMOG news, coverage, and
commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
Things are
winding down to their inevitable conclusion at GDC 2010, and today we
have a special soldier's eye view of the conference sent in
to the Ten Ton Hammer HQ from Ethec. In it he covers the biggest
reveals and highlights from the event, as well as some of this
year’s biggest GDC gripes and no-shows. This plus links to
our latest Global Agenda
guide and much more today in
Loading... From the Trenches.
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 over the
last week:
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">World
of Warcraft -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2">EverQuest
II - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve">EVE Online
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo">Dungeons and
Dragons Online -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/lotro">Lord
of the Rings Online
Biggest
movers today:
-
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)
Releases
-
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 href="http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/game_updates/issue_17/issue_17_overview.html?utm_source=COHemail&utm_medium=US&utm_campaign=banner">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">3/9
- 3/13
- Game
Developers
Conference 2010 -
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;">6/15 -
6/17 - href="http://www.e3expo.com/">E3
Expo
Loading...
Daily
Today we have a
special report from Ethec who has been down in the
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/events/GDC2010">GDC
2010 trenches
over the past few days. As anyone that's attended a number of
industry events over the years will tell you, they often tend to be a
mixed bag of unexpected surprises, both positive and negative, and from
the sounds of it this year's GDC was no exception. So without
further adieu, here is Captain Ethec's soldier's
eye view of the conference:
------------------
Biggest
Reveals - Hero
108, the newest show on
Cartoon Network and
soon-to-be MMO from Gamania, looks to be the perfect step-up MMORPG
between kids titles and something like WoW. With an enjoyable cast of
unique characters, some teenage heft to the storyline, comfortable and
very recognizable adaptations of core MMO concepts like raiding, and a
seamless portrayal of the show (which was created using Flash, so in
many cases the same assets were used for the game as were used for the
show), Hero 108
could be the hero to a currently untapped
market
segment. More in our full-length article coming up next week.
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2339">TERA
(published by En Masse, originating in Korea), Vindictus,
and
Dragon Nest Online
(both from Nexon, publishers of
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/293">MapleStory
and
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/856">Mabinogi
in the US) also came to the show floor for the first
time ever
at GDC 2010, and all look to be another solid action MMORPG originating
in the east.
Biggest
Highlight - Ten Ton Hammer had
three troops on the
ground at
GDC, and for the most part we went to separate appointments so it's
very possible Ben and Jason saw something cooler, but for me seeing Civ
V demoed was the highlight of the show for me. I haven't owned a
computer that some iteration of the Civ franchise wasn't installed on,
and aside from dazzling DX11 graphics, rule changes such as the
elimination of "stacks of doom" (only one unit can occupy each hex)
will add extraordinary depth to the gameplay while keeping the pace
uptempo.
Biggest
Gripes - Our biggest
appointments all carried embargo
dates,
meaning that we were asked not to release information from these
appointments until later this month (or in one case, April). So if you
haven't seen coverage on games you know and love, chances are we're
honoring their wishes to not go to print, so stay tuned.
Biggest
No-Shows - When we asked for
your questions earlier
this week,
a few of you came back with questions for Square Enix and Blizzard.
They're definitely at GDC, but only in a recruiting capacity. No
worries though, we'll have plenty of opportunities to talk to these
companies in the coming months.
------------------
And there you have it folks! Be
sure to keep an eye on the site as
we
continue to bring you coverage from GDC 2010. It sounds as though we
have a number of cool things that we won't be able to reveal
right away (darn those embargos) but there's still plenty of
awesome content from the event on the way. In the meantime, drop on by
the Loading... forums and share your thoughts on GDC 2010,
and as always have a great gaming weekend!
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day
From our / href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=4">OOC
(Off-topic) forum
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=50107">Most
addictive game since Cananbalt
I
couldn't send you all off on a Friday without wishing you rainbows and
robot unicorns over the weekend, could I? Of course not. And so, with
thanks to Anacche, Discoverer of Robot Unicorns, href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=50107">here
they are.
To quote Anacche--you're welcome.
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"I hate you. Now I'm not going
to complete my Brew Day quests. It's sooo pretty lol ."
- stefman123
==============================
Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums? href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=32559">Tell
us!
New
and Exclusive Content
Today at Ten Ton Hammer
2 new Ten Ton Hammer
features
today! 46 in March! 276 in 2010!
DOWNLOADS
Myst Online: URU Live Again
Available for Download at Ten Ton Hammer
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81995">http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81995
In
February 2010 Cyan Worlds, developers of the online incarnation of the
popular Myst series of single player games, brought new life into the
game with the aptly titled Myst Online: URU Live Again. Now, Ten Ton
Hammer is pleased to offer our readers the game installer download
mirror in one of two exciting flavors. While a torrent download is
available for all registered members,
href="http://tentonhammer.com/membership">premium
members will have access to a
high speed direct download.
GUIDES
Global Agenda - Assault PvE Guide
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/globalagenda/guides/assault/pve">http://www.tentonhammer.com/globalagenda/guides/assault/pve
Everyone
loves a good tank, and everyone loves good DPS. In Global Agenda, you
get the best of both worlds in the Assault for PvE. You are unmatched
in the ability to take a hit and in the duration your massive Minigun
can fire for. There's more than meets the eye to this firepower master
however! Check out how to turn your Assault from Minion Fodder to
Minion Master in PvE.
Today's
Hottest Articles and Guides
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2/preview/multiplayer_1stimpressions">StarCraft
II href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/starcraft2/preview/multiplayer_1stimpressions">
Multiplayer Beta Preview & First
Impressions -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/aion/interviews/update1.9">Aion
Update 1.9 Interview with NCsoft -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gdc10/projectmercury">EA
to Publish First 38 Studios Title href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/gdc10/projectmercury">
-
href="http://tentonhammer.com/node/81709">CCP
Interview About EVE Online's
Tyrannis Expansion -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/uimods/reviews/elitistgroup">WoW
Elitist Group Addon Review href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/uimods/reviews/elitistgroup">
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81501">An
style="font-weight: bold;">Exclusive
Interview
with Video Game Composer style="font-weight: bold;">Matt
Uelmen -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81817">WoW
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81817"> - To
Buff, or
to Nerf: That is the Question -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81640">Aika
Class Interview Series Part
2 - The Cleric -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/globalagenda/guides/robotics/pvp">Global
Agenda Robotics PvP Guide href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/globalagenda/guides/robotics/pvp">
-
title="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81864/"
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81864">Supplying
Minerals Through Market Acquisitions In
EVE Online title="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81864/"
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/81864/">
style="font-weight: bold;">
Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer
network!
-
Reuben "Sardu" Waters and the
Ten Ton Hammer team
