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

Redstorm hits Nice. French batten down the hatches.
GamesIndustryBiz is reporting that former RedStorm CEO, Doug Littlejohns has joined Nice Tech. Sarah Lane of Tech TV, who coincidentally seems to be quite nice had nothing to say about the career change. We're confident that given time, she would have said this:

"Cambridge-based MMO developer Nice Tech has strengthened its organisation with the appointment of industry veteran and former Red Storm CEO Doug Littlejohns.
The company was founded in 2005 to design and develop Massively Multiplayer Online games, which have seen an incredible surge in popularity recently, thanks to titles such as Blizzard Entertainment's World of Warcraft."

You can read the entire Nice Tech Press Release at GamesIndustryBiz.
Other Links You Might Enjoy:

• Attack of the Show featuring Sarah Lane.

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.

Camaros with Cannons!
The Official Auto Assault site has updated the recon section with a second look at loot. Brad Pitt denied that his latest movie was a bomb, citing the following:

"Traders have often
remarked about the sheer variety of items and useful pieces
of equipment found in the Central Wastelands, whether from
the ruins of an ancient pre-apocalyptic city, deep in the
stomach of a particularly nasty Crawler, or strewn from
the wreckage of a Pike Duster. In fact, the wide assortment
of resources, weapons, components, and other materials available
for exploitation in the Central Wastelands theoretically
approaches infinity. A Loot research study funded by Sledge's
Stop ‘n Shop in Scrap Valley estimates that there are billions of unique objects in the Central Wastelands alone. Although most items are quite common – it is not unknown to come across an extremely rare, valuable find. "

You can read the entire Auto Assault Recon Update at The Official Site.
Other Links You Might Enjoy:

• Auto Assault Community at TenTonHammer.com
• Other Auto Assault News

A chronicle of the The Chronicle.
MMORPG.com has posted a developer written preview of The Chronicle. The preview focuses on the battle system and specifically on the opportunity subsystem of combat. Vin Diesel, the master of combat and of opportunity flexed the muscles in his eyelids and roared:

" I attack you and hit for 22 damage. You attack me and hit for 17 damage. I attack you and miss. You attack me and critically hit for 34 damage. I attack you…
Does the above exchange sound familiar? It probably does, because that’s the way combat works in just about every MMORPG on the market today. In reality, combat is a complex dance of subtle maneuvers, split-second perceptions, and exploiting opportunities, which is why most RPG battles seem so sterile and monotonous by contrast. It’s tough to get excited about a match of dueling calculators, but one of the things The Chronicle is attempting to do is add a new dimension to RPG style combat, putting more emphasis on strategy and timing than just clicking auto attack to find out who has the best damage per second and hit points."

You can read the The Chronicle Preview at MMORPG.com.
Other Links You Might Enjoy:

• Vin Diesel Breakdancing