MMO news, guides, reviews, features, interviews and more at Ten Ton Hammer

When CNN leads with Cheerleading injuries on the rise Good God Man! What is the world coming to? However will we win that game if Becky Sue doesn't get over her sprained pelvis?

I laugh and I joke, however, as everyone knows this is the time of the year when all of the developers collapse from the sheer stress of the Holiday Rush. So the result of said collapse is a decidedly lack of good postable news.

Please bear with us in this "dry" time. I promise lots more sarcastic, droll, witty, bitchy comments.

The devs at Chronicles of Spellborn were busy this weekend. First, we have a whole new batch of screenshots to drool over at MMORPG.com. Second, Coen Neessen, the Lead Game Designer for The Chronicles of Spellborn has written a comprehensive article on the Skill and Combat system.

Tactical Choices
What we are doing with the combat system in TCoS is to increase the effect of tactical choices made by the player during combat. Furthermore we think that too many games use a combat system that is too dependent on damage outcome using formulas and percentages that sort of take away player control, and can take away the joy of victory. For instance this can be especially true of a combatant who wins due to a lucky streak of critical hits, or by using a weapon which does random bonus damage.

Happy reading Peeps!

More Chronicles of Spellborn News and Info

Don't say that you never get anything for free.
MMORPGDot.com
has the final of there "Free Games Round-up of 2005".

Here it is, kids, the LAST FREE GAMES ROUND-UP OF 2005!!! I can't believe
it's almost been a whole month since this column began. Over the two previous
installments we've laughed, we've cried, we've found love... but mostly we've
cried. Well, break out your hankies folks, because we're going out in style!

There are a total of 9 games with stuff for you!
Check it out!
Happy New Year Everyone!

Wow, we can almost play Burning Crusade!
MMORPG.com
has an editorial by Garrett Fuller concerning the expansion to one of the biggest
MMOs out there- World of Warcraft:

No release date has been announced. There will be a level cap boost to 70.
There is a Horde race. The Alliance race has yet to be seen. There will be
new instance dungeons. There will be new raid dungeons. There will be a new
zone with flying mounts and quests. All this sounds nice and good, well actually
not all of it. In this editorial I want to try and bring up some questions
about what The Burning Crusade will mean for five million players.
That is right, five million! Congratulations Blizzard on the largest selling
MMORPG to date! In doing more research on this game I am most surprised at
the sheer amount of people who play. From executives and celebrities to my
friend’s twelve year old son (who still beats me in duels), it seems
like everyone plays this game. Is everyone happy with the content and game-play
of Warcraft? Some yes, some no, we have all had a lot of things to say about
the design of the game and its flaws. The biggest question players have is
what will The Burning Crusade bring?
Blizzard has given us a wonderful preview video. A look at the Blood Elf
race and answered some questions about content like Medivh’s Tower and
Karazhan. I for one am looking forward to the Caverns of Time and the Outlands.
A large concern is how the boost in level will affect players who have reached
their end-game at level 60. For example, will dungeons like Molten Core and
Blackwing Lair become obsolete? Will all the time players spend farming those
dungeons for epic items go to waste? With Blizzard using level based loot
as rewards for questing, PvP, and factions, will these items even compare
to the level seventy gear that we all expect to see? This is a very difficult
question to ask and unfortunately Blizzard has not given any straight answers
to their players. One post on their forums had said that they will certainly
come up with something to balance the loot by the time the expansion is released.
Many players remain concerned on how the level seventy content will impact
all the time spent playing at level sixty.

Find
out what else he has to say.