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

Because you only get one chance to make a first impresson.
GameSpy has posted a first impressions look at EverQuest 2: Desert of Flames. When asked if he had read the article, Christian Slater looked hard and long at us, pursed his lips and stated:

" SOE has been pretty aggressive when it comes to updating EverQuest II: two adventure packs, a busload of patches, and dozens of gameplay updates and refinements. At this point, a full-on expansion pack almost seems like overkill, but lo and behold, it's Desert of Flames! The first expansion to EverQuest II, from where we're standing, seems like it's jam-packed. It ups the level cap, introduces the first real PvP elements to game, and adds a whole new continent for players to adventure in. EQ veterans will know it well: the Isle of Ro, the desert region that served as a central hub for much of the original game's life. EQII finds a changed place, to be sure, but fans of the first game will find much to stir up the nostalgia. "

You can read the entire EverQuest 2: Desert of Flames First Impressions Article at GameSpy.
Related Links:

• EverQuest Meta Search Tool - Search all of the big EQ2 sites in one click.
• EverQuest 2 Community at TenTonHammer - Free Guides and much more.
• Other EverQuest 2 News

It's a Desert of Fun.
GamerGod has reviewed the recent EverQuest 2 expansion, Desert of Flames. We called Richard Pryor to ask if he was still afraid of flames, but his agent told us to:

"On September 13, 2005, all hell broke loose at Sony Online
Entertainment as half a million people logged on to the EQ2 servers.
Having just installed the Desert of Flames expansion released that day,
everyone was salivating at the mouth, ready to dig into the new
content. But alas, first, a patch."

You can read the entire EverQuest 2: Desert of Flames Review at GamerGod.
Related Links:

• EverQuest 2 Community Site - Guides, Forums and Much More!
• The Latest EverQuest 2 News

A golf MMO? Those krazy Koreans!
Broken English and hole-in-one hackers! Korean developer OnNet's "Shot Online" puts players inside a world populated by golfes and lets them golf together. A lot.. How exactly does this work out? I could tell you, but I'd rather quote something funny.

"A sample description [for one of the playable characters], this for Wotan: “Reticent and sincere. With a great sweat, he ranks one of the tops even though he lost his one eye in an accident. His nick name, Odin becomes him.” If you’re anything like me, first off, your wondering what is up with the names? Then you get hit with the broken-English translations, (which is a recurring theme). I had to laugh at this description numerous times. If he has a “great sweat”, it does not sound like much fun playing 18 holes with him. Kind of like that underarm deodorant commercial where the golfer sinks a putt, raises his arms in victory, and the entire crowd, wildlife included, fall over from the apparent stench. Also, if he “lost his one eye in an accident”, would not that make him partly blind? I would be pretty impressed if he still ranked as “one of the tops” then! "

The article does a good job of detailing how a golf MMO works, or doesn't work. You decide! The Shot Online review at MMORPG.com.

A long-time MMO that's "dragon" itself back into the big time!

The notion of playable dragons is enough to make any fantasy gamer drool, and this stalwart MMO in the vein of EverQuest Live delivers that, a enwizened concept of tradeskills, and more. But is it innovative enough to recover from past financial woes and a 2005 developer change-of-hands, recapturing market share from big-name games like World of Warcraft and EverQuest 2?

"Horizons: Empire of Istaria" is a charming fantasy MMORPG that, for much of its life, has led a troubled existance. Originally the 1999 brainchild of now-defunct Artifact Entertainment, the game launched in December 2003 but ostensibly could not defray its titanic accrued development costs. As the rumor mill has it, the game was originally intended to include sublime MMO concepts like "character aging," but could not carry many of its markedly innovative ideas to implementation.

What Horizons does offer, aside from a solid fantasy MMO experience in the vein of EverQuest, is a heady multiclassing system, playable dragons(!), and most of all, the most robust crafting system the genre has ever seen.

See the full Horizons: Empire of Istaria profile as the latest addition to our "History of MMO Gaming" series.