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It's in the game?

Warhammer Alliance gets gritty with videogame colussus (and MMO peewee) Electronic Arts. Kudos to the WA folks for asking some tough questions, but the result is about what you'd expect, a verbal tug of war where Chip Lange of EA reads something like a talking press release.

Motor City Online, Earth and Beyond, Ultima X, UO2�. By my count EA has published more failed MMOs than any one publisher in existence. How did EA approaching this deal differently than its past ventures? Why should gamers believe something is different about this deal?

Chip: We feel differently. UO is the longest running MMO in gaming history and still supports an active user base who love the game as well as the new content we're pouring into the UO universe. We've had some other projects which have not lasted as long in the space as UO, but the learnings in game design which have come from those projects make EA a better partner in this space. We look to combine this learning with Mythic's design excellence and create the most dynamic and exciting games in the genre for years to come.

UO ftw, eh? Those of us whose entire UO experience consists of swinging at a practice dummy for an hour only to earn a sound beating from a cow feel differently about Ultima Online.

Anyway, check out the latest word from EA on the Mythic deal at Warhammer Alliance, then head to the Ten Ton Hammer Warhammer community site to discuss.

Hooked on WoW?

Hooked on Games has posted a preview of WoW's soon to be released expansion The Burning Crusade. Keep reading to see how they think this expansion is shaping up.

The first new race being introduced to the Horde by the expansion is the Blood Elves. The Blood Elves are outcasts of there native homelands, driven out and stripped of their eternal life after they became corrupted by the very magic in which they sought out to possess. Currently the class selection available for the Blood elves will be Rogue, Mage, Warlock, Priest, and Warrior. Their racial traits will be centered around using magic. These traits will include Mana Tap, which gives the Blood Elf the power to drain mana from an opponent, and Arcane Torrent, which silences an opponent for two seconds.

Check out the rest of this preview and don't forget to head over to WoW Ten Ton Hammer for all the latest news, information and interviews. Stop by the forums and share your thoughts with us about this upcoming expansion.

Double The Previews

Today both GameSpot and IGN have previews of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning posted. Keep reading to see what they have to say...

GameSpot starts us off today.

Nothing says "summer" quite like having a bunch of video games in one place. At a recent press event at which publisher EA Games showed off a great many of its upcoming games, we had a chance to take an updated look at Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, the upcoming massively multiplayer game from developer Mythic and its brand-new publisher and corporate owner.

According to Mythic's Jeff Hickman, much of the content for the game's first "racial pairing," the dwarves versus the "greenskins" (a faction of orks and goblins), is complete, including many of the lower-level areas and items. In addition, though we were unable to see it in action, Mythic has begun production on the game's high-level player-versus-player (PVP) content, such as capital city raids, which will offer multiple types of treasures (including open, undefended loot and special items that can be obtained only by defeating specific enemy characters, such as merchants, barkeeps, and kings). These raids will let players capture enemy dignitaries and hold them hostage (and for some cheap humor) until they can be rescued by players from the opposing side.

Does IGN feel the same about this forthcoming game? Take a look and see...

Electronic Arts was prominently featuring Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning at its press event today, as the game's developer, Mythic, was recently purchased by EA. We got to play the latest build, and while it was basically the same game we played at E3 a couple months ago, there are a few significant updates to report.

Tell us what you think in the forums here at Ten Ton Hammer!

Blizzard's VP of Game Design, Rob Pardo Talks To CVG

ComputerandVideoGames.com had a chance to sit and talk with Rob Pardo about World of Warcraft's much awaited expansion The Burning Crusades.

World of Warcraft is such an unstoppable behemoth of a success story, it hardly even needs an introduction anymore. Still, there's plenty that developer Blizzard is keeping tight-lipped about regarding the forthcoming expansion Burning Crusade, so we'll seize any chance we get to weed out further nuggets of fact.

We sat down with Blizzard's VP of game design, Rob Pardo, to probe his impenetrable cavern of revelations regarding just what we can expect when Azeroth's dark portals finally open, the benefits offered by the expansion's two new races and, of course, the new level 70 cap. Read on for more.

Read the interview at CVG.