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SOE shows off EverQuest II's afterlife in new expansion video
EverQuest II's ninth expansion is less than a week away, so expect Sony Online Entertainment to ramp up the publicity machine in the coming days. The first salvo is a new video focused on Chains of Eternity's environmental spiffiness. Game Designer Nathan McCall and Senior Environment Artist Maria Del Casino narrate a quick look at the new zones of Ethernere, otherwise known as Norrath's afterlife. "When you get to Ethernere, you really have to question whether this is reality or not," says McCall, before going on to describe the Obol Plains and the Eidolon Jungle with terms like "lush" and "technicolor." It's not all bright colors and happy fun times, though, as SOE also shows off some eerie grayscale locations and plenty of fearsome mobs. See all that and more in the clip after the cut.
EverQuest II gives a sneak peek at New Halas
EverQuest II fans everywhere are glad to see the return of the fallen city Halas, lost during the Age of War thanks to the Rallosian horde. Now we're getting a sneak peek at New Halas, thanks to Game Designer Nathan McCall and Zone Artist Stacey Norman. McCall provides an interesting look at the lore behind Halas, the Age of War and the Age of Cataclysms. What's changed since then, where has Halas been, and what is behind its return? The short answer to these questions is that Mithaniel Marr, The God of Valor chose to return the city, establishing it on an icy land mass in the Frostfang Sea. The long answer is a great story full of familiar names for all of you lore fans. The frosty location of New Halas provided some interesting challenges for Stacey Norman - a city on an iceberg provides limited resources for landscaping. The stories behind both the design and the lore are well worth reading, so check them out!
Be heard this week with EQII and PotBS IRC chats
Stratics is going to play host to some more "House of Commons" IRC chats later in the week, for both EverQuest II and Pirates of the Burning Sea, giving fans a chance to pose some questions to the teams behind these two games. On Wednesday the 18th at 5PM PDT/8PM EDT, the PotBS chat will take place, and will feature producer Joe Ludwig, lead game designer Kevin Maginn, lead world designer Cory Herndon, community relations director Troy Hewitt and community specialist Tom Atkinson-Edwards. Full details on how to join in on this chat can be found here.The EQII chat will take place a day later, on Thursday the 19th at the same time slot of 5PM PDT/8PM EDT. Representing the game in the chat will be Josh Kriegshauser and Greg Spence from EQII Engineering; Kyle Vallee, designer of "Runneye: The Gathering"; Nathan McCall, designer of the Void Storm quest series; and Tiffany Spence and Aaron Bisnett from the community relations team. You can find out how to join this chat at this page, and don't forget that we here at Massively will be speaking to the EQII team this week as well, so you can also drop any questions you might have in today's Daily Grind for us to bring to them.
