Welcome to the 1,093rd Edition of Loading...
Loading... is the premier daily MMORPG news and commentary
newsletter, only from Ten Ton Hammer. It takes about 10 seconds to
href="http://newslist.tentonhammer.com/">have this
newsletter sent straight to your inbox if you aren't already.
Heroes of Telara, Final Fantasy XIV, Global Agenda, Champions
Online, and Fallen Earth were all a part of our day 2 lineup. We'll
have feature length articles and videos up for each as soon as hotel
wifi allows, but for now here's a quick preview of what we saw of each
of these games in Loading... E3 2009: Day Two
It's
all geek to me is the lighter side of Ten Ton Hammer,
offering Coyote's humorous take on all things geek in one daily column.
Today's topic: Left
4 Dead 2? (Send more paramedics)
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 Pulse?).
Here's today's top 5 Pulse results for today:
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/41"
target="_blank">World of Warcraft -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/115">EVE
Online (UP 7) -
Star
Wars: The Old Republic (UP 7) -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/117">EverQuest
2 (down 1) -
Age
of Conan (down 3)
(See more
Biggest Movers in the Top 20 today :
-
Final
Fantasy XIV Online (UP 25 to #18) -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/47">Guild
Wars (UP 11 to #19) -
Champions
Online (down 6 to #10)
Releases
- 5/15
- href="http://www.eveonline.com/updates/patchnotes.asp?patchlogID=187">EVE
Online Apocrypha 1.2 (patch) - 5/19
- Warrior
Epic (launch date) - 5/19
- href="http://vgplayers.station.sony.com/newsArchive.vm?id=888§ion=News">Vanguard
"Halls of Pantheon" (content patch) -
size="-1">5/28
- Dragonica
(CBT key giveaway)
Releases
- 8/25
- CrimeCraft
(release date) - 9/1 -
Champions
Online (release date) - Early 2010
- APB - ??
- Jumpgate
Evolution (release date)
Dates
-
6/2 - 6/4
- E3 2009
Loading... Daily
Our second day at E3 started with Champions Online. Atari
pulled out of E3 2009, inciting fear and panic that we wouldn't be able
to see CO, but Bill Roper and the Cryptic team set up camp in a large
back room of a trendy nearby restaurant. Since we're fairly current
with Champions Online, Bill Roper didn't demo the game per se, but we
were treated to a look at the new travel powers like hover disk, rocket
jump, burrowing, and fire flight. One current focus for the Cryptic
team is making melee more awesome by getting close-in fighters into the
fray faster. Bill explained that rocket jump, for example, triggers an
AOE stun when you land.
Not only that, but the effects on these powers are very nicely
done. When you land on concrete after a rocket jump the concrete
crackles and displaces with the impact. Landing on grass or something
soft and you'll see a much more subdued impact. Burrowing, a form of
stealth travel, is now in the game too, and looks nothing short of
awesome as you tunnel around just below the surface of outdoor areas.
Bill explained that he was really happy to get burrowing in, since it
is part of the core Champions game.
Next up was Heroes of Telara, one of the very few fantasy
games we saw this year. To be honest, I was expecting a pretty bland
showing of Trion's first in-house project, the trailer looked fairly
bright and fantastical, but maybe a little cookie-cutterish. Visually,
you might be forgiven this assessment until you get to one of the first
"heroic quests" (which are really... well, public quests - we asked a
few of the guys from Mythic how they felt about this and they knew
other games would use the idea) and Seleas, a grave lord which is
causing the local villagers distress. Seleas looks awesome, sort of
what the anti-hero of the Overlord games should be, and that's just one
boss mob. Better yet, he dropped the grave lord subclass... as loot.
You've probably read something on Heroes of Telara and while
it's not exactly true that you can change classes on the fly (you have
to be in designated areas like towns and cities to switch among the
four standard archetypes), you can change subclass at will. Russ Brown,
a twenty year veteran of SSI fame et. al, explained the concept in
terms of the Paladin subclass, which would take on more holy damage
dealing aspects when subclassed by a warrior and are more skilled at
healing when subclassed by a cleric.
You'll want to tailor your subclass choice to the encounter,
too. When a hulking demon with knockback came to raid the now very
troubled form of the village in the demo Russ switched from warrior -
berserker to warrior-gravelord, since gravelord offered both skeleton
pets and a few ranged spells to deal more easily with this opponent.
Dynamic content is a big thing in Heroes of Telara, and according to
Russ, these kinds of events won't be something on a timer - they'll pop
randomly and as Russ says, they realize there's gameplay value in
offering you the choice to let the village burn.
We also attended a press conference for Final Fantasy XIV, a
report from which should be on the site shortly, a behind closed doors
demo of Dragon Age, and lengthy demo sessions for both Global Agenda
and Fallen Earth. We'll be telling you all about those in the coming
days, but for now I'm out of time.
What's the best thing to come out of E3 for you so far this
year? Discuss what you've see so far in the
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=43331">Loading...
forum, or as usual, feel free to
href="mailto:[email protected]">email me.
Shayalyn's Epic Thread of
the Day
From our
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/forumdisplay.php?f=6">Articles,
News and Events Discussion
All
news is good news!
Ten
Ton Hammer's main site staffer, Martuk, wants to know who blew you away
with their announcements this year at E3. Was it Microsoft, who
announced the eerily sentient
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=43327">Project
Natal? Was it EA and BioWare with their
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=43361">great
showing
for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic? Or Ubisoft with Assassin's
Creed 2 and other impressive game announcements? What about Nintendo
with two new Mario games and the long-awaited return of The Legend of
Zelda for the Wii? Or was it Sony and the PS3 who scored big with the
announcement of
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=43335">Final
Fantasy XIV?
Cast
your vote and let us know who rocked your socks.
==============================
Awesome Quotes from the
Epic Thread
"If only watching the EA
presentation because its the only game I'm interested in at E3 this
year counts...then I vote for EA."
- Rocqu
==============================
Have you spotted an Epic Thread on our forums?
href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=41426">Tell
us!
10 new MMOG hand-crafted articles today! 30 in June! 667 in
2009!
New MMOG Articles At Ten Ton Hammer Today
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69230">E3 2009: DCUO
S.T.A.R. Labs Demo with Jens Anderson
As the only established super hero universe coming to the MMO market in
the near future, Sony Online Entertainment's href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1407"
target="_blank">DC Universe Online
has already established a fairly fanatic following. At E3 2009, Ten Ton
Hammer's Garrett Fuller got another chance to chat with developer Jens
Anderson who talked in-depth about the state of the game and gave the
team a nice demo run. Highlights of this video include an encounter
with Solomon Grundy, Bizzarro Superman, Joker, Harlequin, Wonder Woman,
Green Lantern and a few more. -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69228">Jumpgate
Evolution E3 2009 Interview - "Indoor"
PvP Battlespace, Achievements, and More
If there's one game that seems to be on every Ten Ton Hammer fan's
radar, it's href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/306"
target="_blank">Jumpgate Evolution,
the upcoming MMO space combat game from NetDevil and Gazillion. During
the E3 2009 blitz, Scott "Scorch" Brown had a chance to chat with the
Ten Ton Hammer staff about a variety of elements in the game. Included
in the discussion was the new "indoor" battle arena, the medal and
achievement system, and much more. Check it out! -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69127">E3
2009: face="Arial" size="2"> size="3">DC Universe Online Screenshots and Concept Art
Unveiled
face="Arial" size="2"> size="3">DC Universe Online has joined
the information buzz coming out of E3 2009. The event has already
unveiled many surprises and a lot of things that have the Internet
buzzing and today we have one more. DC Universe Online
has released several new screenshots and some of the concept art for
the upcoming superhero-based MMOG and you can see them href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69127" target="_blank">right
here at Ten Ton Hammer. -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69101">E3 2009:
Huxley: The Dystopia Opening Cinematic
Players looking for a true blend between an MMOG and a first person
shooter may have received their wish in the form of the upcoming
MMOFPS, Huxley. Forced to battle against one another for the
continuance of each race, Sapiens and Alternatives are willing to do
whatever it takes to wipe out the conflicting race and gain control of
the world and its resources.The latest Huxley media is a trailer
rendered in the stunning cinematic style developer Webzen is known for
that showcases a lot of large scale, shoot 'em up action punctuated by
intrasquad chatter. The video displays a horde of weapons, including
the following: guns, rockets, cloaking and shields, mounted automatics,
and possibly some sort of ion gun that shorts out electronics. The
whole thing closes with a potential father-son showdown and special
uninvited guest. View the video to see all the action and
drama. -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69253">
face="Arial" size="2">
size="2">E3
2009: face="Arial" size="2"> size="2">New
Fallen Earth Screenshots
face="Arial" size="2"> size="3">E3 2009 isn't over yet and developers are still
taking the time to show off their upcoming games. Fallen Earth
developer, Fallen Earth, LLC released four new screenshots to their
upcoming post-apocalyptic-based MMORPG. -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69141">
face="Arial" size="2">
size="2">E3
2009: face="Arial" size="2"> size="2">Global
Agenda Screenshots
face="Arial" size="2"> size="3">Hi Rez Studios is enjoying the hype machine that is
E3 and they have released four more screenshots for their upcoming
MMOG, Global Agenda. The new screenshots show off some of the games
character models and environments for the sci-fi-based MMOG using the
Unreal 3 game engine. -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/tid/2099">E3 2009:
style="font-weight: normal;">Final Fantasy XVI Press
Conference Details
Square Enix certainly made a splash at this year’s E3 with
the announcement of href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/2079"
target="_blank">Final Fantasy XIV Online.
To help answer some of the impending avalanche of questions surrounding
the upcoming title’s gameplay details, the developers held a
press
conference at the convention and Ten Ton Hammer’s Garrett
Fuller was on
hand to learn all he could of the newest installment of the Final
Fantasy saga.
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69170">
face="Arial" size="2">
size="2">New
Lord of the Rings Online Volume II: Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-dum
Screenshots
face="Arial" size="2"> size="3">Turbine has been releasing regular free updates for
its flagship MMORPG, Lord of the Rings Online and
they are readying for the release of yet another. Volume II:
Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-dum will be launched in June and
Turbine has released 12 new screenshots to show off the latest content
coming to Lord of the Rings Online. -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69125">Sins of a
Solar Spymaster #14 - People of RISE
For
the latest edition of href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/features/mittani"
target="_blank">Sins
of a Solar Spymaster,
The Mittani takes a fitting break from his “usual
flippancy” when writing about the war in New Eden
to bring you a thoughtful memorial for PFC Roy
Mason, otherwise known to players of href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/eve/" target="_blank"> style="font-style: italic;">EVE Online
as RoyofCA. In it, he recounts the tale of how one man undertook a
campaign to bring down an entire alliance of the Swarm’s
enemies, and succeeded: -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/wow/guides/classes/rogue/glyphs">Guide
to WoW Rogue Glyphs
Glyph of Rupture - Increases the duration of Rupture by 4
seconds : Rupture should always be up with these builds, and
having it last two ticks longer, or 20% is considerably more damage and
allows you to get in another combo rotation before you have to refresh
it. You'd be a second-rate rogue to pass this one up!
Hot Content - Or, what I took a fancy to:
-
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69228">Jumpgate
Evolution E3 2009 Interview - "Indoor"
PvP Battlespace, Achievements, and More -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69230">E3 2009: DCUO
S.T.A.R. Labs Demo with Jens Anderson -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/tid/2099">E3
2009: Final
Fantasy XVI Press Conference Details -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69111">E3 2009: Star
Wars: The Old Republic Demo Report -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/68937">LOTRO: Volume
II: Book 8: Scourge of Khazad-Dûm Preview -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/68911">
face="Arial" size="2">
size="2">E3
2009: New Final Fantasy XIV Screenshots Revealed -
href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/69099">E3 2009: Star
Wars: The Old Republic CG Trailer - Earthrise
Interview: Guilds and Territory Conquest - Champions
Online Powers Interview #1 - Gadgeteering, Munitions, and Archery - target="_blank">Exclusive Dragonica Online Beta Key Giveawa
Thanks for visiting the Ten Ton Hammer network!
-Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and the Ten Ton Hammer team
