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Comic-Con 08 in pictures
We braved the jam-packed San Diego Convention Center show floor to bring you some eye candy from this year's Crowded-Con. Included in the gallery are MMO publisher booth tours, the palatial Upper Deck booth, and some general Con pics as well as highlights from a few of the panels and from the SOE block party Saturday evening. Sister site Joystiq has a gallery of some of the great costumes and gratuitous cosplay seen at Comic-Con, so be sure to check those out as well via the preview embedded below. Comic-Con 08 in pictures >> %Gallery-28668% Gallery: Costumes of Comic-Con 2008
Barb Dybwad07.29.2008Age of Conan rep talks Kingship, new zones, and more
The folks at Ten Ton Hammer met with Funcom Product Manager Erling Ellingsen at Comic Con over the weekend. Ellingsen described many of the planned updates to Age of Conan. We'd already heard about most of them, but this video interview is a good place to go for a round-up of what's to come.Ellingsen did reveal a tantalizing new detail about the Kingship system, though. If you're not familiar with Kingship, that's not surprising; it was only mentioned in one interview before now. It allows guilds to form alliances. Those alliances can build and fight over "legendary battle keeps." The new info: alliances can build "wonders of the world" in those keeps. We're intrigued by that idea; it sounds like something from Sid Meier's Civilization.Ellingsen also talked about plans to add more NPCs walking around guild cities, and to greatly expand visual customization options for the cities.
Samuel Axon07.28.2008Mirror's Edge Comic-Con exclusive comic book scans
Unless you are in San Diego, you are not at Comic-Con. Therefore, you are missing the exclusive prequel comic to Mirror's Edge that we mentioned last week . Luckily for us, Siliconera was kind enough to scan seven pages of the mini comic book for everyone's enjoyment. The pages highlight Faith, who is the main character of the game. It also goes into more details about her occupation as a runner and what the game title's namesake refers to. Take a look here.
alan tsang07.28.2008Comic-Con 08: Hands-on with DC Universe Online
Two weeks ago at E3, the Massively staff had their first glimpse of DC Universe Online gameplay footage. Developers showing the trailer promised players could play equally well whether on a PC or PS3, engage in battles unlike any before and push the limits of the Unreal physics engine that is the technological base of the game. After getting my hands on a pre-Alpha build of the game this week at Comic-con, I can tell you one thing for sure: this game delivers on its promises.I've rarely had so much fun playing an MMO in such an early stage of development. Running up the sides of skyscrapers at superspeed, picking up city buses and smashing them into enemies, encasing the bad guys in blocks of ice and punting them two city blocks, the list goes on. These activities not only make the player feel truly heroic, but create an environment where players can coordinate their attacks with each other to defeat supervillains in all new and unexpected ways.
Dan O'Halloran07.28.2008Comic-Con 08: Hands-on with DC Universe Online part 2
The special abilities were a powerful melee attack, the ability to encase an enemy in a ball of light disabling them for a short time, an AE knockback ability and a cone-based, channelled push back. In fact, many objects in the DCUO world can be used to flatten enemies: traffic lights, fire hydrants, cars, city busses and, of course, other enemies. Another interesting trick with this toon is the ability to charge items he picks up with electricity so they explode for extra damage when he smashes other with them.
Dan O'Halloran07.28.2008Contest: Win an exclusive City of Heroes in-game item from Comic-Con
We stopped by the NCsoft booth at Comic-Con 2008 and had the chance to chat with City of Heroes Community Manager Alex 'Lighthouse' Von Minden, who noted that a number of community members were disappointed about not being able to attend the Con for a chance to snag the exclusive in-game item from the VIP Pass. We thought it would be fun to give players not in attendance a chance to pick one up, so we're happy to present Massively readers with 10 chances to win a unique in-game CoH Comic-Con item. This contest is open to all ages and locations -- you'll just need an active City of Heroes account to claim it. To enter, just leave a comment in this thread by 5pm EST Wednesday, July 30. We'll choose 10 winners at random to receive a code for the unique in-game item. Good luck!Update: contest closed! Thanks to everyone who entered -- we'll be announcing winners ASAP!
Barb Dybwad07.28.2008NCsoft's Operation Immortality to send human DNA into space
A banner atop the NCsoft booth at Comic-Con 2008 read cryptically: "DNA Test Site: Adam & Eve 2.0." Several rows of brightly-colored buttons arrayed on a table, there for the taking, were emblazoned with the same message. Even more puzzlingly, couples were lining up to swab their cheeks with Q-tips to be stored in plastic pouches labeled with their names and today's date. What kind of crazy cabal initiation was underway at NCsoft's booth?Without fully revealing the mystery of Operation Immortality, an NCsoft representative shed some light on the cheek-swabbing activities of the fans lining up two-by-two. Five couples, one per day of Comic-Con festivities, will be chosen to have their DNA sequenced and stored in a hard drive that will be jettisoned into outer space -- and why exactly? In case the horrifying possibility of a Bane victory renders the human population of Earth annihilated, we'll be able to repopulate it with the human DNA kept safe in the off-site storage of space.
Barb Dybwad07.28.2008Comic-Con 08: New DC Universe Online screens
Sony Online Entertainment released a handful of new official screenshots for DCUO at Comic-Con this past weekend, and also had a playable pre-alpha demo on the show floor for us to get our grubby mitts on. Check out the galleries below for the official shots plus some screens we culled from play sessions on the floor, and stay tuned for our hands-on impressions, gameplay videos, and coverage of the DC Universe Online Comic-Con panel with Jim Lee. DCUO Comic-Con screens >> %Gallery-28593% %Gallery-28594%
Barb Dybwad07.28.2008Comic-Con 08: Turbine's truck o' trailers
The Massively team has been in San Diego this weekend getting hands-on with the latest beta builds of DC Universe Online, Warhammer Online and Stargate Worlds. Curiously absent from the Con has been Turbine. When we spoke to them earlier in the month, they said they were going to focus their promotional efforts on GenCon and PAX in August. However, this weekend we spotted a truck outside the San Diego Convention Center broadcasting a trailer for the upcoming Mines of Moria expansion with loudspeakers and a six-panel big screen. Seems Turbine decided that they couldn't afford to lose out on getting the word out to the geek crowd after all.
Dan O'Halloran07.27.2008Go behind the scenes with Stargate Worlds at Comic-Con
For all of you who have been patiently waiting to see some gameplay from Stargate Worlds, the folks from Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment have set up a series of torrents, chock-full of love for you. With the help of the folks from SGWIrc, the Stargate Worlds crew's downloadable coverage boasts not just candid gameplay video like the one above (we love the "run away!" comment) but also pictures of other shenanigans going on at the event. Also, don't forget to head over to the Stargate Worlds blog to check out the convention from their perspective. We also have our people on the ground at Comic-Con, so be on the lookout for some more upcoming footage of Stargate Worlds, as well as all the other news coming out of San Diego! [Via GamingToday]
Krystalle Voecks07.26.2008Costumes of Comic-Con 08: Days 1 and 2
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/comics_animation/Costumes_of_Comic_Con_08'; We're only halfway through the pandemonium that is Comic-Con this year, and the International Masquerade is still to come -- but in the meantime we wanted to bring you just a taste of the eye candy available on the show floor and in the clogged halls of the SDCC. Us? We're wearing our patented bedraggled blogger hobo look. These are the people who made an effort. Comic-Con Costume Gallery >> %Gallery-28557%
Barb Dybwad07.26.2008WoW Insider at the Comic-Con WoW panel
Blizzard, as well as reps from companies that make Blizzard products (TokyoPop, Upper Deck, Wildstorm) were on hand at Comic-Con in San Diego today to talk about their plans for the rest of the year. Comics, books, sculptures, miniatures, and the trading card game were all discussed and WoW Insider was there to bring you back this report.Wildstorm Comics, makers of the WoW comicsWildstorm kicked off the session by polling the audience on who would like to see a comic title that focus solely on Horde, then solely on Alliance and then pitting the two against each other. As you can imagine, the audience was very happy to hear this. No details were given, but clearly something along these lines is already in the works.
Dan O'Halloran07.25.2008DC Universe Online walkthrough straight from Comic Con
DC Universe Online probably won't be out until this time next year, but it's already playable today at Comic Con. Can't make it? Mr. Rubenstein of the PlayStation Blog has your back. The video above shows the game's Creative Director, Jens Anderson, giving us a tour of the game in its current state. The character visuals may look a little rough, but the gameplay looks pretty interesting. For an MMO.We love the look of running up and down buildings and throwing cars in a persistent world on the PS3, but can't help feeling a niggle at the back of our mind. Why couldn't it be Marvel Universe Online? Maybe one day ...
Jem Alexander07.25.2008Check out a DC Universe Online interview, gameplay video
Mahalo spoke with DC Universe Online Executive Producer John Blakely at Comic Con this week and videotaped the conversation, along with a whole bunch of gameplay. The gameplay includes a player running around at lightning speed, scaling walls, picking up and throwing cars, and some gunplay. In the interview, Blakely said that to watch DCUO's MySpace page for updates about the release date and other news. Specific gameplay info was thin, but he did suggest that player skill will matter just as much as your character's abilities. They all say that, though, and unfortunately it's usually only half true. Mahalo also recorded video of a panel on which famous comic book writer Stan Lee glowingly talked about storytelling in video games. We've embedded both parts of that video beyond the jump.
Samuel Axon07.25.2008DC shows off what look like Series 4 Figures at ComicCon
Empire magazine is already posting pictures from this weekend's ComicCon out in San Diego (WoW Insider also has correspondents there on site), and though they have no idea what they've stumbled across, it sure looks to us like what might be DC Unlimited's Series 4 WoW figurines. And rather than just the standard player characters, Blizzard and DC are going a little NPC for this series -- as you can see above, they've included everyone's favorite elite gnoll, Hogger himself. Also included in the series are a Succubus of some sort (with what looks like a Tauren with a polearm in the back there), and a gun-wielding Tauren Hunter.The figures all have signs that say "Worldwide Debut Friday 4pm" on them, so it looks like we're getting to see them a little early. And Blizzard is excited, too -- Slorkuz has even written a poetic ode to Hogger in honor of his likeness being immortalized.We'll keep an eye out for more info -- looks like DC is expanding their action figure line to include a few more less traditional character types. Who else should they honor with a figure in the future?
Mike Schramm07.24.2008Marvel-ous new Ultimate Alliance 2 trailer
Imagine if Marvel's super heroes were to form a sort of ... alliance. An ultimate one, at that. Then, they somehow gained the ability to fuse their powers together. You'd have yourself a Marvel Ultimate Alliance of Fusion, or "MUAF," but we don't think we like how that acronym crawls off the tongue. Tweak it a bit and you have Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2: Fusion, Activision's next action-RPG team up set in the Marvel Comics universe, where players will, in fact, be able to combine the powers of various heroes to make more powerful powers.The game was announced at Activision's E3 non-E3 event, where only a brief teaser was shown. This slightly longer snippet was unveiled at San Diego Comic-Con 2008, which got underway today in Southern California. It indeed shows off various Marvel characters fusing their powers, but looks far from actual gameplay. It's still pretty slick to see Wolverine and The Hulk team up for a variation of the Fastball Special, though.
Randy Nelson07.24.2008Cartoon Network announces browser-based MMO
Today at Comic-Con, Cartoon Network has announced the release of the first-ever MMO for kids which will be entirely browser-based. Cartoon Network Universe: FusionFall is a futuristic adventure set during an alien invasion of the Cartoon Network universe. This means that players will not only be able to team up together to defend the universe from this alien invasion, but the game will incorporate all of Cartoon Network's most popular characters including stars of Ben 10: Alien Force, Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, Ed, Edd n Eddy, Dexter's Laboratory, The Powerpuff Girls and more!This game will consist of 60 play areas and utilize the Unity Technologies game engine. This engine has been the cutting-edge choice for several gaming projects such as Freeverse, Shockwave.com, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Flashbang Studios and more. Look for FusionFall to release later this fall.
Shawn Schuster07.24.2008Comic-Con 08: Will Wright keynote
Will Wright gave the opening keynote today at the nerd-packed Comic-Con 2008, an event so chock full of fellow geeks we're hard-pressed to find a free patch of San Diego Convention Center floor to stand on. For the first half hour or so Will rattled off profound observations and inspirational quips at approximately the speed of light, leaving the second half of the presentation to an extensive demo of the civilization and space stages of Spore. The touted reveal of the MashON Spore Comic Book Creator wasn't much more than a few minutes' discussion of the tool that will live at http://mashon.com/spore/, enabling players to take the creatures and other assets they make in the game and import them into an interactive comic book creation engine. A booklet passed out to attendees while waiting for the keynote tells us you'll be able to drag and drop screenshots taken in Spore right into the tool, add audio and video clips and other assets, create and lay out the entire story environment and share it with friends via email or Flash embed code. Users can rate and save other players' stories on the Mashon.com site and play them back as digital flip books as well as print them out. Wright talked about how the Comic Book Creator fits within the overall ethos of the game, which is about putting players more in the role of George Lucas than Luke Skywalker, allowing them to actually create the worlds themselves beyond just playing in them.%Gallery-28501%
Barb Dybwad07.24.2008DC producing Mirror's Edge prequel comic
Electronic Arts has announced a partnership with DC Comics to produce a six part comic series based on the upcoming run-em-up Mirror's Edge. The comic will take place before the events of the game and chronicle the back-story of its main character, Faith, promising that "Frame by frame, page by page, [readers will] learn more about the events that shaped both her and the city." The comic will be penned by Rhianna Pratchet -- who is also the writer of the game itself -- and drawn by artist Matthew Dow Smith. The first issue will be available at the San Diego Comic-Con this weekend. Details on when the comic will be more widely available are still up in the air.[Via Joystiq]
Richard Mitchell07.24.2008