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Massively previews Dungeons & Dragons Online's Module 7
Dungeons & Dragons Online continues to hold their own in a quickly-growing MMO world. When DDO first showed up as a licensed MMO of the grandaddy of roleplaying games, their main goal was just to meet expectations -- so many people have been a fan of the pen-and-paper game for so long that putting it into MMO form was no easy task. But since release, the DDO team has made improvement after improvement, and added so much content to the game that it's moved beyond the license to stand on its own as a very singular kind of MMO.Massively got a chance to sit down with the team and take a look at the latest update, Module 7, due out on June 3, and currently in public testing. In addition to some extended playtime with the new Monk class, we got to see updates to the lower level Three Barrel Cove area, a shrine to recently passed-on D&D creator Gary Gygax, and the new raid area under the destroyed Marketplace tent, as well as a few new monsters and raid bosses that can be found down there.To start your tour through Module 7, just roll a d20 and click on through. To jump to any section of the walkthrough (including directly to our exclusive video preview, if that's what you're looking for), hit the links after the break.%Gallery-23551%
WoW Insider responds to Comedy Central for their response to our post about their post
Comedy Central's Indecision 2008 blog is feeling froggy -- after we posted about their failed attempt at World of Warcraft humor, they got the original writer of their article, who is apparently an old school D&D gamer, to respond to our allegations that the piece wasn't funny. He calls us WoW players "Lancelot-come-latelies," and says that before we ever rolled our first Night Elf, he was rolling d20s in his friend's parents' basement.Which may be true. But he's wrong about one thing: we WoW players are funny. Just look at our memes, our injokes, and our heroes, from Steve to Leeroy Jenkins. We know funny. Tony DiGerolamo probably hasn't even ever tricked somebody into /gquitting -- he wouldn't know funny if it was an epic drop off of Saurfang himself! And he wants to play the nerd card by claiming he's nerdier than us? Listen, Tony, you may have been hanging out with your friends in basements, but we're hanging out in basements alone!Wait...At any rate, we hope the excellent Indecision 2008 blog has learned something from this experience: leave the Warcraft humor to those who've powerleveled it up to a 375 skill, and stick to the political jokes. Seriously, though, is Lewis Black hiring? Because I've got some jokes about Warlocks that are comedy gold!
Hi-Def disc audio demystified
We gave this a go some time ago, but compared to the job Hi-Def Digest did, ours is pathetic. Not only do they go into detail about what every audio format available for both HD disc formats is all about, but they go on to give examples of discs that include them, and to top it all off, how to enjoy them. It's more complicated than you think because not every player or connection method supports every audio format. To be honest it's far more complicated than it should be and we wonder how anyone could make heads or tails of this mess without being very dedicated. Lucky for us, Joshua Zyber is up to the challenge and his article should help clear things up for just about everyone.
Sony's BDP-S1 updated to support TrueHD and DD+
Since, HD DVD and Blu-ray firmware updates seem to come out weekly, we quit covering them; but Sony just dropped a big one this morning. After you update your BDP-S1 you'll be able to enjoy Dolby TrueHD and DD+, like HD DVD fans have for some time. We are actually surprised that Sony would even bother, considering they have a new player right around the corner. [Via AVSForum]
DRM-laden "playback only" DAP for Japan
Apparently acquiring music illegitimately is a huge fiasco in Japan, or at least that's the impression we get based on the newest "playback only private memory player" slated to hit the presumably scandalous Tokyo streets. Based loosely on the "digital disc" (DD) EZmax player already sold in Korea by Liztech, this device sports an unsightly black enclosure and enough DRM stipulations to make even the RIAA cringe (well, probably not). Thanks to two seemingly right-shunning companies (C4T and DRMS), the forthcoming DAP will purportedly come pre-loaded with tunes and will be sold directly by the record labels, and we can only assume the amount of CDs it carries will be determined by the capacity (32MB to 2GB) you choose to purchase. Moreover, since the files sport a proprietary file format and incorporate the "acuagraphy" watermarking technique, ripping / distributing this stuff will probably create some massive headaches. The unit itself also features a lonely headphone jack, a five-band equalizer, and gets power from a single AAA battery, and while we aren't sure how much these (near worthless) things will sell for with they land next year, we can't think of anyone in their right mind who'd even care.[Via Impress]
Which is it, Sony? "Blu-ray is dead!" or "Long live Blu-ray!"?
Sony needs to get its story straight. On the one hand, there's Ken Kutaragi, top chihuahua of Sony Computer Entertainment, who says that the PlayStation 3 has a product life span of 10 years. One full decade! Long live Blu-ray! On the other hand, there's Jamie MacDonald, VP of SCE Worldwide Studios Europe, who claims that digital distribution will overtake physical media (such as Blu-ray discs) within five years. Blu-ray is dead! What's going on here? Is Blu-ray a tax on people too thick to subtract five from ten? Well, SCE's MacDonald backtracked a little bit, explaining to GameDaily, "The thing about Blu-ray discs - and this is the crucial thing - is that not any time soon will you be able to download the amount of content you need for a big triple-A title down a typical 2, 4 meg broadband connection. That's not going to happen now or in the next year." Tell that to Fios users, MacDonald. 30Mbps downstream will chew thru one of them fancy Blu-ray discs pretty fast. The real question is how long it'll be before the rest of us have access to fiber in the home.
Hey Nintendo, make the switch to paper boxes permanent!
Nintendo's apologizing to European customers because they've had to temporarily switch to cardboard game boxes as a result of shortages afflicting that territory, according to Gamasutra's David Jenkins. Nintendo, ever sensitive to gamer needs (and we can't fault them there), is tossing a coupon into paper boxes offering customers a plastic case once supply issues have been resolved. We admit, those are some high quality plastic cases, but c'mon. The DS cartridge is tiny and holds just 128 megabytes of content. Does it really need to ship with plastic that weighs many times more than the product (3.5 grams)? It's environmentally irresponsible. We understand that large game cases help titles fight for attention on a retail shelf, but there's no reason that they can't do that fighting using more responsible materials. Comprised of bits, games should be the most environmentally-friendly products to distribute. Nintendo (and other industry players) should use this opportunity to examine packaging.
