Welcome
to the 1,265th
edition
of Loading...
Loading... is the premier daily
MMOG news, coverage, and
commentary newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer.
It's been an extremely busy week in the news in and outside games, from the end of manned extra-orbital space flight for the foreseeable future, to new space voyages just beginning, to significant announcements from a number of game developers. We'll review this week's events and toss in some late-breaking announcements in today's Loading... Busy Week Indeed!
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:
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow">World
of Warcraft - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eq2">EverQuest II (UP 1)
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto">Star Trek
Online (UP 1) -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/ddo">Dungeons and
Dragons Online (down 2) - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve">EVE Online
Biggest
movers today:
-
size="-1">12/1
- href="http://www.lotro.com/gameinfo/464-answer-the-call-of-war">LotRO:
Siege of Mirkwood (expansion) -
size="-1">12/1
- href="http://www.eveonline.com/Dominion/">EVE
Online: Dominion (expansion) -
size="-1">12/2
- DOFUS
2.0
(update) -
size="-1">12/15
- href="http://everquest.station.sony.com/everquest.vm">EverQuest:
Underfoot (expansion) -
size="-1">1/26
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2389">Mass
Effect 2
(release date) -
size="-1">2/1
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2155">WonderKing
Online (release date) -
size="-1">2/1
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/926">Global
Agenda (release date) -
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">Q1 2010 -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1004">Mortal
Online (release date) -
size="-1">2/2
size="-1"> -
href="http://www.startrekonline.com">Star
Trek Online (release date)
Releases
-
size="-1">2/16
- href="http://everquest2.station.sony.com/expansions/sentinelsfate/index.vm">EverQuest
2: Sentinel's Fate (expansion) -
size="-1">March
2010 - href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/998">APB - size="-1"> style="font-weight: bold;">Spring 2010 - Mytheon
-
size="-1">TBA 2010 - Final Fantasy XIV
-
size="-1">
style="font-weight: bold;">Spring 2011
- href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/swtor">Star Wars:
The Old
Republic
Loading... Daily
If you blinked this week, you might have missed some big news. Here's a re-hash of this week's events, plus some late-breaking developments:
- Congrats to Cryptic Studios and Atari on one million Star Trek Online accounts. Star Trek sells, this we know, but I think we're all anxiously waiting to see how well the game retains subscriptions in the coming months.
- Global Agenda is busily reinventing the way we think of online shooters at this moment as well, after launching earlier this week.
- WoW Patch 3.2.3 brought the Lich King onto the stage a little more than a year after the retail expansion bearing his name was released. It only took 2 days to undo Arthas, or did it? See the epic thread below.
- SOE announced that February will bring not only the endgame-heavy "Sentinel's Fate" expansion to EverQuest 2, but PvP battlegrounds as well. Though I agree with Sardu's sentiment that EQ2 doesn't really strike me as a PvP game -the fun but now useless arenas system that came out with Desert of Flames sort of proved that to me - kudos to SOE for dishing content to all (or most) levels with their expansion.
- A Fallout New Vegas trailer is out, showing a combination of teaser-ly understatement, a surprisingly vibrant Sin City and, for the first time if I'm not mistaken, a Fall 2010 release date. It's beginning to look like Bethesda might cover most of the American metropolitan areas before we see a Fallout MMOG.
- WonderKing Online and Mortal Online saw the light of day this week. My Mortal Online "Collector's Edition" came today, actually. It was essentially a metal box with a DVD insid, and that's it. The CE wasn't even shrink-wrapped and contained no manual or install code. Unless this thing is made of rare earth metals, well, good one, Star Vault AB.
And as a cruelly ironic footnote after two weeks heavy with space game releases (including Mass Effect 2), Obama announced an end to the NASA's Constellation program during his State of the Union address, at the same time (paradoxically?) upping the NASA budget.
Constellation was NASA's so-called "back to the moon" project, and the news puts future extra-orbital manned flights in extreme doubt for at least the next few decades, since Russia reportedly has zero interest in going beyond earth's orbit and China, the world's third largest space agency, is comparatively underdeveloped. Thank your lucky stars for quality space games, since the Normandy and the USS Enterprise might be as close as we're going to get to space flight for quite some time.
What's the biggest news of this busy week for you? Discuss it in the Loading... forum, and have a great weekend!
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day
From our WoW News Discussion forum
Ensidia World First Lich King 25, or not?
Did
the Euro guild, Ensidia, get the first 25-person Lich King kill?
Maybe...maybe not. According to our World of Warcraft news writer,
Cyrak, "Apparently Ensidia used an exploit that involved using Saronite
Bombs
to 'rebuild' platforms destroyed by the Lich King, thereby trivializing
a significant mechanic in the fight. Blizzard responded by issuing a 72
hour suspension to all players involved in the kill, and removed all
achievements and items that they recieved."
Did Ensidia use an exploit? Seems Blizzard thinks they did. What are your thoughts? Share them!
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"At what point though, does ingenuity become an exploit?"
- Stormbrjnger
"Common sense applies. I don't know this fight, but using bombs to put
things back together, as opposed to damaging them, sounds like a bug to
me. And like something someone found by accident, not by ingenious
reasoning."
- Zeep
==============================
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! 32 in February! 147
in 2010!
EXCLUSIVE MEDIA
All New Screenshots of EverQuest 2's Sentinel's Fate
http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80413
EverQuest
2's newest expansion, Sentinel's Fate, takes players to Odus. This once
great continent has changed over the centuries and now players will be
able to return to the land and uncover the story of Roehn Theer. Five
new Heritage Quests, new armor and equipment, twelve new dungeons, and
Battlegrounds are part of the expansion as the level cap is raised to
90 and players begin a new series of adventure. Ten Ton Hammer has six
exclusive screenshots of the new zones and a sneak peek at new
Battleground Armor.
FEATURES & GUIDES
Global Agenda Class Overview - The Medic
http://www.tentonhammer.com/globalagenda/guides/medic_intro
MEDIC!
Your team cries out, begging to be healed...but in Global Agenda, you
have another option to stop the pain, you could simply kill the person
causing it. Medics are the masters of healing and poisoning and will
cause havoc in the enemy ranks while keeping their own ranks smiling.
Just how can they pick up kills and assists while targeting teammates?
We break down the Medic's tools of the trade in our Medic Overview.
Star Trek Online: The Traveler's Guide - Episode 1
http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto/media/images/thetraveler_episode1
The
universe is an awfully big place and it would take more than a human
lifetime to see it all. Realizations like that make the idea of a
personal tour guide sound pretty good, don't they? Today's your lucky
day then, because we (allegedly) smuggled none other than The Traveler
onto a Federation ship to bring us weekly images from every quadrant of
the galaxy and beyond just for you!
WoW: Loremaster's Corner: The Rise and Fall of Illidan
http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/lore/illidanstormrage
The
Loremaster's Corner is a new feature here at Ten Ton Hammer that covers
the lore for the World of Warcraft franchise. We read the books, flip
through the comics, and stare at quest text so you don't have to. This
week we take a look at Illidan Stormrage, Malfurion's brother, and one
of the key villains in The Burning Crusade expansion. Who is he, why
was he evil, and how can so much wrong come from such great intentions?
Today's
Hottest Articles and Guides
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80275">Daring
to Dev - The Journey from Fan to Game Designer - All New Screenshots of EverQuest 2's Sentinel's Fate
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80183">Mass
Effect 2 href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80183"> (PC)
Review -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/globalagenda/editorials/betaimpressions">
style="font-weight: bold;">Global Agenda
Beta
Impressions -
Star Trek Online: The Traveler's Guide - Episode 1
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80275">
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/patches">WoW
Patch 3.3.2 Available for
Direct Download
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/sto/ground_ui_guide">
style="font-weight: bold;">Star
Trek Online: Ground UI Guide -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/79985">Conquest
Agenda - A Global Agenda
Q&A with Todd
Harris -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80215">Flying
Stealth Bombers In href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80215">EVE
Online -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80266">WAAAGH!
Warhammer Online
Revisited - A Look at WAR's
Free-to-Play Intro href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/80266">
Thanks
for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer
network! Have a great weekend!
- Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle
and the
Ten Ton Hammer team
To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our EverQuest II Game Page.
