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Our tour of Fantasy Earth Zero's October update
Fantasy Earth Zero is an interesting little title, a game that's not for everyone but will hit just the right notes for some. It isn't a graphical powerhouse or a deep PvE title, but what it does accomplish is the laudable goal of being a PvP-focused game that both lets low-level characters perform useful tasks and remains balanced despite being free-to-play. Having released this past May, it's a four-year-old title that keeps itself on solid grounding with its systems. Still, five months out from launch there's something big coming for the game, with a major update scheduled to go live on the 19th of October. Featuring a new gameplay mode as well as a new class for players to enjoy -- and Fantasy Earth Zero players will know that a fourth class in the game's environment will have a big impact. Take a look past the break for a rundown of the game as well as the big changes coming with the October update.
Massively's hands-on with Rift: Planes of Telara's dynamic content
Just a few weeks ago, I was invited to attend Trion Worlds' Gamer's Day in San Francisco to get some hands-on time with a couple of the company's upcoming titles, including Rift: Planes of Telara. If Rift seems to have come out of nowhere, that might be due both to the acquisition of EverQuest II veteran Scott Hartsman to head the project as executive producer, and to a clever name change meant to reflect the team's shift in development focus. In fact, that shift in development focus is precisely what I was at Trion's studio to test -- I got to check out the Rifts themselves in all their glory, in the context of the greater dynamic content system that the developers are so excited about. Massively's writers have been able to play and report on character creation and the starting areas of Rift several times over the last year or so, including earlier this summer at E3. But until today's embargo lift (coinciding with the reveal at Gamescom), no one had quite seen the fabled planar invasions and takeovers in action. Now we have.
Fallen Earth's huge Blood Sports patch dated
Icarus Studios, makers of the post-apocalyptic sci-fi MMORPG Fallen Earth, have announced the release date for their Blood Sports content patch. The update, version 1.4 of the game client if you're keeping score, is heavily focused on player versus player conflict and includes four new PvP areas, over 500 related achievements, a Clan War system, and the updated region of Deadfall. The 1.4 update will launch on May 7 and will also feature an expanded level cap (up to 50), a one-time character respec option, and a boatload of refinements including animation tweaks, effect revamps, and of course the new Blood Sport PvP matches. These matches include Survival, Capture the Flag, Assault, and Deathmatch, and allow players to queue up for PvP action regardless of their world location. Participatory and victory points will also be awarded and can be used on end-game armor and assorted gear. Current subscribers can access the live content on May 7, while new players can purchase Fallen Earth Blood Sports from retail and digital download outlets and receive a full copy of the original game along with the content update. "We are thrilled to be able to launch all of the new content in one major patch," said Colin Dwan, Fallen Earth Project Manager. "The team has worked very hard to make this happen and we're sure players will enjoy all of the new gameplay enhancements." Check out the official site for more info, and be sure to sign up for the test server if you can't wait until May 7 to get your hands on the new content.
Children's Week ruins Battlegrounds
I'm sorry Blizzard, but I'm with the whiners on this one. The School of Hard Knocks is so badly designed that it's ruining, instead of enhancing, the Battleground experience. Take, for example, the requirement to return a flag in Warsong Gulch. First of all, the requirement is that the player return the flag personally as opposed to being in the vicinity of a flag return. This means that all ten players on one side are angling to return the flag... which is great in theory but in practice encourages entire teams to wait inside the base hoping to get the Achievement. This results in extended stalemates that don't actually encourage what needs to be done, which is to capture the flag.In Alterac Valley, we have forty players and four capturable towers or bunkers. Sure, the opposing faction can defend the towers/bunkers allowing it to be recaptured, but the whole business of racing to capture one -- again, personally -- turns every Alterac Valley into a race. This means lesser chances of defended towers. Realistically, if players tagged and defended until the objective burned down, only 10% of the team would be able to accomplish the Achievement requirement in every match. I'm sorry to tell all those who are allergic to PvP that you'll actually have to play quite a number of Alterac Valley matches just to get this one. Unfortunately for me, on my Battlegroup, playing Horde-side AV is like pulling teeth.
The OverAchiever: Master of Warsong Gulch
Warsong Gulch. The game's oldest Battleground. I still remember those days when it was only possible to queue up in the Barrens (or in Ashenvale, if you were Alliance) and enemies made sport of players zoning out of the Battleground like so much sitting ducks. It's still going strong, as far as Battlegrounds go, even prompting Blizzard to share some thoughts on strategy while others even advertise that you just might find true love. It might not be the Battleground Holiday, but it's still worth the visit as Warsong Gulch remains the most combat-heavy Battleground of all. While you're at it, why not go for some Achievements?Warsong Gulch VeteranWin 100 games. Just like all Battleground veteran Achievements, this is just a matter of time. Depending on your luck and your faction, this can breeze fast or painfully slow. If you're grinding for reputation, you're pretty much guaranteed to finish this Achievement before getting to Exalted. As fun as it is to engage in battle mid-field, just remember that the goal of the map is to capture the flag. Unlike other Battlegrounds, Warsong Gulch can drag on for a very, very long time if players don't keep focused on the goal or are too evenly matched.Difficulty: ModerateCapture the FlagCapture the flag. This is one of the easier Achievements in this meta, and it helps if you're a class with some mobility like a Druid, Shaman, or even a Rogue and Mage. That said, it shouldn't be too difficult to do this once out of all the many games you'll be playing.Difficulty: Easy
6 Achievements for the Warsong Gulch Holiday
In the days since Echoes of Doom went live, I've spent pretty much every minute of my play time in the Battlegrounds. Alright, that's probably not too different from how I used to spend my time pre-patch, but this time it's different. Instead of playing the Battlegrounds intending to earn Honor, I would go in looking to complete Achievements geared towards my end goal. Here are six relatively easy Achievements you can pursue during this Warsong Gulch holiday while playing solo.Capture the FlagEven if you're not a Druid, you have every right to go and grab that flag. This one should be easy enough to do with a little luck and cooperation from your teammates. You know the drill -- grab that flag and bring it home.Quick CapThis one is more difficult than the previous one if you play a class with no special means to move around like Travel Form or Blink. This also requires that you travel virtually unmolested, so any attempt by the opposing team to stop you or possession of your team's flag will likely cut your attempt short. You'll just need a little perseverance here. You should probably travel through the tunnels to try and get both speed buffs and pack some Swiftness Potions for that necessary boost. Keep your fingers crossed.
The Art of War(craft): Battleground Achievements part II
Last week we took a look at some of the Battlegrounds Achievements that can be unlocked in Wrath of the Lich King and examined how they could change the game for the better. Goal-oriented Battlegrounds PvP is certainly something to look forward to in this age of mindless fighting in the mid-field or roads. Having Achievements certainly make it prone to the glory hounds, but it also helps to keep everyone's eyes on the prize.Eye of the StormBecause it's a new Battleground not associated with any faction (which makes me feel like I'm not fighting for anything worthy), there's no reputation to be gained and no associated gear to be obtained. This means that there are virtually no retroactive Achievements for the Eye of the Storm. There is the basic Achievement of Eye of the Storm Victory, which all but the most hapless and luckless of combatants will get. There is the Eye of the Storm Veteran iteration, which requires 100 wins in the Battleground. Not quite as easy to get, but most of us will get there eventually.
Sweeping changes to Hellgate: London in Abyss Chronicles
Hell is about to get even hotter, as Flagship Studios prepares to unleash fresh content for Hellgate: London. Our sister blog Big Download has some posted new screenshots of the upcoming Abyss Chronicles for HG:L, as well as info on the 2.0 and 2.1 updates to the title. Patch 2.0 will be Hellgate: London's second major content update, and brings with it a host of new features and changes to the game. The build is likely to go live on the Test Server in the next week, but until then, here's Big Download's breakdown of the 2.0 changes: A new quest line that covers the spread of the Abyss through Parliament Square and the survivors' efforts to fight back A major rebalancing of the Blademaster class A complete PvP overhaul, including achievements, rankings, rewards, and a new CTF team gametype Changes to the Shared Stash, such as a separate pane for each difficulty Addition of two new trinket slots for players to add rings and such to their characters An attribute respec NPC that allows players to remove points from an attribute for a fee-per-point Three new skills for each class A consignment house (read: auction house) where players can sell stuff to other players without direct trading Beyond rolling out The Abyss Chronicles with 2.0, the next area Flagship Studios is focusing on is PvP through Patch 2.1. The patch will 'open up an entirely new side to Hellgate: London' by introducing five cohesive elements of PvP in a single update: ranking, matchmaking, rewards, achievements, and Capture the Flag. The end result is what Flagship describes as 'a robust PvP experience.'
Erling Ellingsen shows off AoC PvP video
Those of you not currently enjoying the closed beta will want to take a look at this: Age of Conan's Product Manager Erling Ellingsen gives us a look at a couple of PvP mini-games in the latest "Hyborian Insider" video. While there isn't a ton of information in this video, Ellingsen does explain the game mechanics behind two PvP game types, Capture the Flag, and Team Annihilation.Capture the Flag is exactly as you'd expect, if you've ever played that type before. The object is to retrieve the enemy team's flag from their side and bring it back to your side; the team with the most points at the end of a predetermined set duration of time wins. The video shows off a few zones of combat that frankly appear very similar to each other, and could use a better color scheme to visually differentiate themselves.
The Art of War(craft): Warsong Gulch reborn
I once wrote that Warsong Gulch was my favorite Battleground. To be quite honest, in the past couple of weeks prior to Patch 2.4, I had seriously begun to doubt that. I was grinding reputation with the Warsong Clan on my Blood Elf, and increasingly, the games became excruciatingly long and even though I often engaged in exciting combat, the protracted games would sometimes end in a 0-3 loss that would net 0 bonus Honor and 0 reputation. For many players, this is the prevailing experience. For many players, Warsong Gulch sucks. Despite how much I always enjoyed my WSG games, grinding it for reputation is a total pain. That hasn't quite changed with Patch 2.4, which still doesn't award any reputation whatsoever for losing games as opposed to Arathi Basin or Alterac Valley, but the games will no longer last for hours.Paradigm shiftI know that Mike speculated that the changes to Warsong Gulch might not have helped, but I have a dissimilar experience. The important thing to remember is there has to be a complete change of attitude because it's no longer possible to turtle. Yeah, I know that people have been groaning about the continued turtling. They're wrong. That's because when the Focused Assault debuff is on, there's absolutely no way healers can keep up the flag carrier. In some of the games that I've participated in, players going after the flag were still concerned about the healers and wasted time burning them down or crowd controlling them. One word: don't. Ignore the healers when the debuff is on. Unless they have nine guys spamming heals on the flag carrier, it will be next to impossible to keep up a flag carrier with the debuff on, even more so with Brutal Assault. Ever tried healing through an enraged raid boss? Or maybe Gruul at 20 grows (who even lets Gruul get to 20 grows?)? It's sorta kinda of like that. Enjoy.
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Addressing time issues with Warsong Gulch
As our own Zach Yonzon has pointed out, Warsong Gulch, the capture-the-flag battleground, is broken. Despite Warsong being his favorite battleground, there are several issues confronting PvP'ers.Here's the short version: WSG has the lowest honor gain per time played of the four battlegrounds, even on its holiday weekend. Warsong is the least effective battleground from which to farm honor. Warsong reputation is not necessary to acquire PvP gear. In addition, reputation gains with the faction are low. Games often last a very long time. Fortunately, Drysc commented this morning on a forum thread started by Moobert, designed to call attention to the issue and draw out a response. While Drysc confirms that the developers are aware of the problems with Warsong Gulch, and that in fact, several possible solutions are already being tested internally. Unfortunately, he cautions that these changes are not likely to be seen any time soon. How do you feel about Warsong right now? Do you love it or hate it and why?
TR beginner's guide to the Spy
IGN's TRVault has the first part up of a new series covering the major classes of Tabula Rasa, and first up is the Spy. It's reasonably concise, as primers go. For those who don't know, Spies are TR's version of the rogue class. They're stealth armored, blade wielding killing machines that can do everything from polymorphing into an enemy soldier, to causing hostile foes to turn traitor, to calling in bombing runs.Currently, Spies are not only the most popular class in the final tier, but arguably the most powerful too. Spies are the only class that can tank, heal, resurrect, and DPS as the situation requires -- though some of these may change if Polymorph gets the rumored bug-fix in 1.4. Spies are great for experience multipliers when played properly, too.Spies are amazing at PvP as things stand, so I can see the temptation to level one built for PvP. But unless you're in a very active PvP clan, the better option is to level yourself as PvE, gather as many clone tokens as possible from Targets of Opportunity, then clone yourself a pure PvP Spy when relevant updates are implemented. Tabula Rasa Capture The Flag, anyone?
The Art of War(craft): Warsong Gulch, the Broken Battleground
I have a confession to make. I love Warsong Gulch. It's my favorite Battleground. Most people I know abhor the place, but I genuinely enjoy it. The way I see it, Warsong Gulch is a map that's conducive to combat. It's small, straightforward, and fairly uncomplicated. Other Battleground maps are big enough to avoid confrontation. Alterac Valley, in particular, often turns into a race with minimal conflict -- even with the new changes. There are games in Arathi Basin or the Eye of the Storm where one is left guarding a node for the entire game and hardly see combat. On the other hand, it takes a monumental effort to avoid fighting inside Warsong Gulch. Warsong Gulch is situated in the Southern part of Ashenvale and the Northern part of the Barrens. It represents a contested area where Grom Hellscream's Warsong Clan made incursions into Ashenvale with their logging operations, earning the ire of the tree-hugging Silvewing Sentinels. Fighting in Warsong Gulch awards Warsong Gulch Mark of Honor, which is used as currency along with Honor points for various items. Players can fight in Warsong Gulch starting at Level 10, making it the first Battleground players can enter. Warsong Gulch is the domain of the Level 19 twinks, so lower-level players wishing to get a taste of their first Battleground would have it in their best interest to be prepared to face opponents decked out in fully enchanted crafted and twink run blues. As a general rule, it would be best to be at least at the highest even-numbered level of a bracket -- 18, 28, 38, etc. -- when joining the Battleground in order to contribute more.
Beta update for Age of Conan, more invites sent
Following the latest newsletter from Hyboria, the Age of Conan website now has details of the new beta update. Apparently there was a very large patch that added lots of new content, and because of this, Funcom has decided to send out some more beta invites, so check your inbox and spam filters if you have previously signed up. This update also saw the introduction of the Capture the Flag PvP game for the beta test.In website related news, there are some new RSS feeds that you can nab in a few different languages to get the latest AoC information as soon as it's out, and a couple of screenshots of the freshly revamped Picts have been posted. Above you'll see one of them, but there are more at the site. Very scary indeed, and they do have that "wear your face as a hat" look that Funcom mention they are going for.
Killzone to feature Infrastructure multiplayer, but not at launch
Killzone: Liberation is one of the most anticipated games for the PSP. The shooter will feature six-player Ad-Hoc multiplayer modes including Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Assault and Capture the Flag. Not bad. But more exciting is the potential for Infrastructure, which will be made as a downloadble upgrade a few weeks after the game's release on Halloween. In addition to multiplayer, two more maps will be released at that time and a new single player chapter, with four new missions. I'm assuming that it'll be good and free as the downloadable content in Wipeout: Pure. Even more exciting is knowing that downloads will be available throughout the year 2007 as well. Sweet! [Via Worth Playing]
We pledge allegiance to capture the flag
Our colleagues at AOL Games are running a festive feature to celebrate this 4th of July. Instead of the usual stuff about barbecues and fireworks, they took the flag route. No, not the red, white & blue ... just red and blue usually ... on two different flags. Yup, we're talking about every online gamers favorite pastime: Capture the Flag (that's CTF to most of us).With essays from the AOL Games staff, and contributions from Jay is Games' John Bardinelli and GamerDad Andrew Bub, it sure is a nice way to spend an uneventful 4th. That is, unless you're either busy: a) drinking your face off; b) playing Capture the Flag. If you aren't doing one of the above (poor sod), check it out and celebrate the red and blue!Snip from Scott Steinberg's piece: "Allies may shoot us in the tush. Prepubescent teens, call our manhood into question. But bombing the base and swiping the goods isn't sport or fancy: It's everything, period. And, like an homage to the pleasures of flag-snagging excitement, let the plasma-scarred torsos of friend and foe alike serve as a testament of our devotion -- we love, I mean really love, Capture the Flag." Amen. [Thanks, Dan]
Warsong Gulch Quickstart Guide
"Look before you leap". Wise advice, but it's easy to fall into a trap of complacency in WoW, believing that you can conquer anything and everything. Throwing other players into the mix as opponents can make the game change drastically, however.With the PvP Honor Contest coming to a close this Tuesday, this weekend is an excellent chance to stock up on honor and try to make it to the top. In fact, thanks to the battleground holidays, there's extra honor available this weekend than throughout the rest of the contest. Having seen several players on the Honor Contest Realm who evidently have no idea what Warsong Gulch is all about, here's a quick guide to what's going on:
