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Shadowfell Conspiracy now live in Dungeons and Dragons Online
The next major content expansion for Turbine's Dungeons and Dragons Online, known around these parts as Shadowfell Conspiracy, is officially live. Dragon-slayers across the globe can now cruise the prison city of Wheloon and venture into the mountainous passes of Stormhorms, killing new monsters, collecting new loot, and earning new levels along the way. Shadowfell Conspiracy brings a host of features to Dungeons and Dragons Online including new iconic heroes, the now-standard geographical expansion, and a level cap raise to 28. Two versions of the expansion are available: one collector's edition ($49.99) that includes three character slots and three iconic heroes and a standard edition ($29.99) including one character slot and one iconic hero. Both include varying quantities of Turbine Points and skill tomes. If you're curious to see Shadowfell Conspiracy in action, be sure to check out our in-depth look from July. [Source: Turbine press release]
Creating the DDO: Shadowfell Conspiracy character of your dreams
Last week, we sat down with Turbine to look at Dungeons and Dragons Online: Shadowfell Conspiracy's new adventure hub of Wheloon. But running through these special missions and dungeons are only part of the expansion, as your character's growth and build are always at the core of DDO. So for our second sit-down session covering the upcoming expansion, Turbine chose to focus on the three new iconic classes coming to the game and the overhaul to the enhancement system that should make building the character of your dreams a lot easier. Prior to adding new enhancements, reincarnations, or epic destinies, DDO had only a meager 250,000,000,000,000 possible builds to choose from. No, we didn't fall asleep pressing the "0" key. But now the choices are even greater, which is why it's of increasing importance that players understand what their characters are capable of doing and how to best build a functional toon. After all, even Turbine admits that many of the 250 trillion builds "are not really great to play with." So what will be fun to play? And why should players be interested in rolling one of the new iconic classes instead of sticking with their tried-and-true Bards?
Touring DDO: Shadowfell Conspiracy's prison city
Take a formerly prosperous town, wall it up, and turn it into the region's largest prison. Then add a handful of adventurers who are sent in to rescue a kidnapped official while kicking all kinds of butt. If Dungeons and Dragon Online's Wheloon sounds a little like the 1981 movie Escape from New York, well, that's intentional. Turbine's team wasn't afraid to put in a sly reference to John Carpenter's seminal prison film when the devs were constructing this new adventure area for DDO's Shadowfell Conspiracy expansion. The devs also weren't afraid to push the boundaries of what's been done and seen in the game up until now. We took a tour of Wheloon's highlights and managed to escape that wretched place with a first-hand look at the sinister goings-on of this unusual penitentiary. It's all the purple you can stand and then some when you head over the wall into this town!
The Perfect Ten: The evolution of /dance
I recall when I was a wee... teenager and C+C Music Factory would blast through our Walkmans to demand that everybody (1) dance and (2) dance now. It was commanding, enthralling and extremely dorky, but the dance could not be denied. Dancing is in the soles of our souls as humans; we simply must boogie to a good beat. I'm not quite sure when or where dancing in MMOs became all the craze, but these days it seems as though every game (except the dour ones with bears, bears, bears) prides itself on a good set of /dance emotes. For some players, it's the perfect way to unwind after a long raid or chew up a bit of time while one waits for SgtCuddlyMonkey to return from his refreshing bio break. For others, it's a legitimate career path with a long and distinguished history of gyrating on top of mailboxes while annoyed postal recipients long for a day when a pelvis will not be gesturing at eye level. So this week, let's loosen up, let our hair down, and samba across the ballroom floor as we count down (up?) 10 incredible MMO dances.
