Previews

DDO Preview at GameSpot

It's ironic that both the original pen and paper Dungeons and Dragons and the new computerized virtual Dungeons and Dragons will be played in basements.
GameSpot has posted a preview of Dungeons and Dragons Online: Stormreach. Basements across the nation went quiet for a few minutes while Dungeons and Dragons fans read the following:

" We recently had a chance to catch up with Dungeons & Dragons Online: Stormreach, the upcoming online game from developer Turbine Entertainment and publisher Atari. The new game will be based out of the massive town of Stormreach which exists on Eberron, a new world created for the game's recently revised 3.5 Edition rules. The town will be broken up into seven different districts, or wards, from which you can find many, many different quests and adventures from various characters in town. The game has been in development for some time and has entered a closed alpha testing state; beta will begin, according to Turbine president Jeff Anderson, "soonish." "

You can read the entire Dungeons and Dragons Preview at GameSpot.
The undisputed #1 Dungeons and Dragons Online Site is waiting for you at DDO.TenTonHammer.com

Features, Previews

Tue, Aug 16, 2005

Boomjack
WoW Arathi Basin Preview

The Arathi Basin Makes Handwashing Fun.
Blizzard has posted a preview page covering the upcoming Arathi Basin Battleground instance. Crop circles in Russian wheat fields spelled out the following message:

" Arathi Basin, located in Arathi Valley, is a fast and exciting Battleground. The Basin itself is rich with resources and coveted by both the Horde and the Alliance. The Forsaken Defilers and the League of Arathor have arrived at Arathi Basin to wage war over these natural resources and claim them on behalf of their respective sides. "

You can read the entire World of Warcraft - Arathi Basin Preview at The Official Site.

Features, Previews

Fri, Aug 12, 2005

Boomjack
Auto Assault Beta Journal

Transmissions from the central wastelands. It's a car game, transmissions, get it?
NCSoft has posted Volume Two of their Auto Assault Transmissions from the wasteland. Britney Spears was eating a greasy burger so we couldn't understand what she said, but it might have been this:

" Every week in the month of August we'll be presenting a new volume in the Transmissions from the Central Wastelands, a compendium of stories, screen shots, and other goodies from the wonderful Auto Assault beta test corps. This sizeable entry was completely contributed by bean23. "

You can read the entire Auto Assault Tranmissions from the Wasteland at The Official Site.
You can read pages and pages and more pages of Auto Assault information at AutoAssault.TenTonHammer.com.

Features, Previews

Fri, Aug 12, 2005

Boomjack
Guild Wars Game Update Notes
More Guild Wars Goodness.
ArenaNet has posted the latest Guild Wars update notes on the Official Site. Vin Diesel can play six Guild Wars characters at once and never lose an arena battle:
"Update – Wednesday, August 10
- Fixed a bug that was making some desert teleporters unresponsive.
- Corrected flaw in Price of Failure skill that was causing missile attacks to miss their targets more than 25% of the time.
- Corrected Hundred Blades skill to deal damage accurately; previously it was dealing only 75% of its intended damage.
- Corrected Mind Freeze skill so that damage is dealt regardless of whether the caster's energy is lower than the target's energy.
- Corrected flaw in Mist Form skill that was preventing it from reducing damage from elemental damage attacks.
- Corrected "The Price of Steel" quest so that so that White Mantle always drop Ruined Armor for players on the quest.
- Fixed a bug that was preventing the skill-swap dialog from disappearing after talking to Captain Greywind.
- Fixed several rare client and server crash bugs."
You can read the Guild Wars Update Notes at the Official Site.
Features, Previews

Thu, Aug 11, 2005

Boomjack
Hero's Journey Preview at RPGVault

You take the high road and I'll take the low road and may the beasties be on the high road.
RPGVault has posted the fourth preview in their Hero's Journey series. Vin Diesel, the original hero, had this to say about Hero's Journey and RPGVault's coverage specifically:

"Three Simutronics team members join forces to inform us about Human settlements in their fantasy-themed project."

You can read the entire Hero's Journey Preview at RPGVault.

Features, Previews

Thu, Aug 11, 2005

Boomjack
City of Heroes: Issue 5 Preview

Issue #5 - 95 More Until The Cool 100.
Gamespy has posted a preview of City of Heroes: Issue #5. Vin Diesel arrived for some City of Heroes villain arse kicking, but before he started he said:

"The good news for everybody who still fights on the side of law and order is that NCSoft isn't resting on their heroic laurels when it comes to their incredibly fun superhero MMO. Since its release in April of 2004, the game has undergone a steady stream of large-scale content upgrades. Dubbed "issues" in honor of the game's comic book roots, these content upgrades have changed the world of Paragon City, adding limited Player vs. Player in the Arena, new Epic-level powers, the chance to play as the alien Kheldians, and, of course, capes. The latest upgrade prepping for release is "Issue 5 -- Forest of Dread.""

You can read the entire City of Heroes: Issue #5 Preview at GameSpy.

Features, Previews

Thu, Aug 11, 2005

Boomjack
D&L Beta Tester Testamonial

Nine out of ten beta testers prefer Dark & Light!
Dark and Light's official site now sports a testamonial from a beta tester, commenting on a recent build. Apparently this MMORPG is going to have more GM involvement in the way of lots of intelligently controlled quests and events. We won't hold our breath, but it is a cool idea.

"The most exiting part though is the events that AD does with us. A recent one I participated in started for a dieing man calling for a long lost love, and ended with us bringing her back from the dead to see him. Little events like this happen throughout the tests with AD controlling the characters. Big ones that involve all the beta testers in big battles have happened too. Another one I recently did had several Darkies trying to cheat a man (A character played by a GM) out of his fortress, and almost succeeded until the lights came to rescue him. After a big battle the light ended victorious, but the man we were guarding didn’t. Poor Dotarius."

Read the rest of this beta tester's testamonial at Dark & Light's Official Site.

Features, Previews

Wed, Aug 10, 2005

Ethec
DDO's Monster Profile #13 Posted

Dwarves and Giants... Fair Fight or Dev Megalomania?

The latest in a series detailing the various mobs you'll run into in DDO has hit the official site, this time recounting a duel between a few good-guy dwarves and a bad-guy Fire Giant. The only other story we could find about a dwarf and a giant involved Bridget the Midget, and parents will want to prevent their kids from google-ing that one!

Note that you'll need to register for full official forums access to get the full article (it's free!), but here's a teaser:

Watching a dwarf fight a giant is an interesting sight - the dwarves are trained to combat larger foes and dodge about the blows of their larger cousins with surprising ease. Zarn brought his greataxe down, sundering the giant's armor, giving Khovis the opportunity to deal a grievous blow to his opponent with his holy warhammer.

Meet a Fire Giant here!

Features, Previews

Sat, Aug 06, 2005

Ethec
Irth Online Beta Preview Posted

The Space Shuttle isn't the only thing getting a bird's eye view of Irth...

Magic Hat Software's "Irth Online" gets an honest look from MMORPG.com. With the planned release less than 10 days away, it looks like Magic Hat might need to pull some magic out of their... hat (sorry).

"Combat procedure is pretty standard for an MMO, with a few good original tweaks — and a few bad ones. For instance, whenever the player is hit their screen flashes red. This effect is pretty cool as long as you are not hit very often, but if you have two or three monsters attacking you it becomes a real eyesore. One solution to this (and to the loss of hit points in general) is to use spells such as Nuke or Divine Touch to kite monsters. Cast a spell on your target, turn around and run a bit, then turn and cast another spell. Most of the monsters in the game are your speed or a tiny bit slower."

Find out what else this alternate-reality MMOG (set roughly in medieval times) has to offer you here!

Features, Previews

Sat, Aug 06, 2005

Ethec
AA Dev Offers Some Backstory

The little known NKGN (North Korea Goes Nuclear) factor in modern MMOG development...

What's it like to enter the big-time MMOG industry as a small independent developer? How will a vehicle-based futuristic game fair in a genre primarily geared to the wonts of fantasy fans? Will Kim Jong Il influence AA's development? How many cuss words will a dev have to have visi-bleeped in a formal interview?

Answers to these burning questions and more in a candid interview with Design Director Ryan Seabury at UK's Prodigious Gaming website:

Pro-G: Was there ever a point where you felt you had undertaken a job that was slightly beyond you?

Ryan: NetDevil has a pretty can-do attitude - obvious by the hours that we work. We bend over backwards to do what we say we're going to do. There's always uncertainty as an independent developer. Until you have a consistent revenue stream coming in from some hit game, or at least a couple of OK games, it's pretty scary, because all of our money is coming in from one publisher at this point. JumpGate is still active but it's not by any means a commercial success.

North Korea could just blow the sh*t out of Seoul someday which would destabilise NCsoft because they're a Korean company. We think about those things. We have to. That would destroy their cash flow and then our project's gone all of a sudden. Those are the kinds of things that have to enter your mind as part of the cognitive process for an independent developer.

I don't know if there's ever been any 'oh sh*t' moments. There's never been a point when we were like, 'man this sucks, like what have we been doing?'

Ryan recounts more indy-dev highs and lows here!

Features, Previews

Sat, Aug 06, 2005

Ethec

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

News from around the 'Net