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Choose My Adventure: Agon awaits
Join me as I become an action hero for hire, experiencing an online adventure directed by you, the Massively readers. You'll get to choose the game, character creation options, and in-game goals, then sit back and watch how it all plays out (or join me in-game to get in on the fun). Choose My Adventure game arcs run for six weeks, and after the concluding episode, we'll do it again in a new title. 'Tis the season for voting, and I'm primed to do my part to balance the PvP, eliminate missed launch dates, and provide a strong national troll defense. OK, maybe I'm as full of hot air as your average elected official. Last week, though, while some of you were fooling yourselves into thinking the U.S. midterm elections were the most important voting opportunity in your lifetimes, the real action was going on right here in the form of the latest Choose My Adventure poll. Thanks to a monumental zerg by members of the Darkfall forum community, I'll be heading to the lands of Agon for the next six weeks. While Final Fantasy XIV and EVE Online both looked like early frontrunners, nothing could withstand the momentum of 1400 frothing FFA Forumfall fanboys (not even a late-week surge by Global Agenda). If you're not familiar with Darkfall, join me after the cut for a brief history lesson. If you already know it all, join me after the cut anyway to help pick my character race, game focus, and social status.
Aventurine squelches Darkfall 2 rumors, for now
Darkfall news has been flowing fast and furious of late. Whether it's info on the newly minted Hellfreeze expansion and its patches, upcoming character model upgrades, or new lore, it seems like the little Greek MMO that could is gathering a head of steam. One bit of news that got blown slightly out of proportion was a reported mention of Darkfall 2. Aventurine's Tasos Flambouras briefly mentioned Darkfall 2 at a recent event, and some fans took that to mean the company was already working on a sequel to the sandbox MMORPG. In reality, Flambouras was speaking of reusable assets and the fact that the development firm is "keeping the future of Darkfall in mind while we work on this version of the game. It doesn't mean that we're working on a new game." In a post on the official forums, Flambouras reiterates that Aventurine's devs are not currently making a Darkfall sequel, and even if they were, "it would take years to complete and we would not stop full development of Darkfall 1."
Darkfall teases character model upgrades and more
The devs at Aventurine apparently never sleep, as releasing a major expansion and graphics revamp was the tip of the iceberg as far as what's happening on Darkfall's horizon. The team has generated three separate news items in the last week, all of them pointing towards exciting things in store for the world of Agon. First up is a design blog posted on the official website. In it, community manager Laenih gives us an inside look at the process of converting a quick design sketch into a finished in-game model. Due to the small size of Aventurine's development team, this process often means that quest designers take up paper and pencil (or the digital equivalent) in order to present modelers with a clear idea of their vision. Next up are some screenshots previewing Darkfall's new character models. While the world of Agon is often praised for its size, detail, and beauty, the game's character models have thus far lagged a bit behind the current MMORPG visual standard. Not to worry though, as an upgrade is in the works, and you can view photos of some of the new models on Darkfall's Facebook page. Last but not least are the patch notes from this past week, which address a few niggling issues related to the Hellfreeze expansion. Read all about it on the official boards.
Hell freezes over as Darkfall's latest expansion takes a bow
Darkfall isn't exactly renowned for its subtlety, so perhaps it's only fitting that the latest expansion for the indie sandbox game sounds like something an amped-up PvP junkie would choose for a character name. Ladies and gentlemen, Aventurine presents... Hellfreeze (cue the bombastic Hans Zimmer music). All kidding aside, today's update contains quite a lot of PvE content for a PvP-centric game (perhaps the titular hell freezing over is a result of this interesting development?), as well as a hugely ambitious graphical reskinning of the entire world of Agon. In addition to the extreme makeover, no less than 17 dungeons have been redesigned to feature better rewards, more challenges, and new daily quests. All of the PvE-craziness is intended to "set the stage for many new dungeon style encounters to be introduced in the near future," according to the expansion announcement on the official website. The update also introduces Funhulks, the Player Flag system, and new mounts and ships (including the first craftable vessel that doesn't require a shipyard), all of which points to Aventurine's desire to broaden the game's horizons beyond the red-equals-dead crowd that typically inhabits a FFA/corpse-looting MMORPG. Check out the official announcement for more gory details.
