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Games Day '09: Our impressions of Warhammer's Land of the Dead
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Massively_s_impressions_of_Warhammer_s_Land_of_the_Dead'; So we've been over the cold, unfeeling facts about Land of the Dead. It's big, it's a throwback zone to action RPGs, it has RvR and PvE, and it's filled with mummies. But you don't want the facts, right? You want to know how it plays and you want to know if it's worth your time to pick up Warhammer or resubscribe to the game.During my time at Games Day, I got the chance to participate in a bunch of the PQs in the new zone and try out a few areas of the Tomb of the Vulture Lord, the capstone dungeon of the whole experience. I got to be shanked by swinging blades, pierced by surprise dart traps, and I even got to wear the Sovereign armor set, the pinnacle armor of the game. (Yes, it looks completely badass.)
Games Day '09: An overview of the Land of the Dead
You've heard us talk about it, you've heard us discuss it, and it's now time for us to tell you exactly what it's all about. Land of the Dead is not your father's MMO dungeon -- it's a dungeon that is something more than just a dungeon. It's an entire zone filled with activities and sub-dungeons, all culminating in an epic instanced dungeon that features a face off with the first leader of the Tomb Kings himself, King Amenemhetum. (Try saying that five times fast. Heck, try saying that one time fast. Not even Gabe Amatangelo, one of the chief designers, can say that name properly. He got close to it though during his Games Day presentation.)So how do you get down to test wits with the Tomb Kings? What public quests and objectives are scattered throughout the zone? What changes and improvements are coming with this addition to the game? Read on warriors, and find out!
The cake of WAGGGGHHHH!!!
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Ace_of_Cakes_s_Chef_Duff_makes_an_awesome_Warhammer_cake'; This last Saturday was Games Workshop's Games Day celebration, and Massively.com was on site to get you the latest Warhammer Online coverage straight from Mythic Entertainment. Want to know more about Ultima Online's Stygian Abyss expansion? Curious about Land of the Dead? Interested as to the future direction of Warhammer Online? Do your favorite devs play on order or destruction? Find all of these answers and more in our full coverage of the event starting tomorrow, including our hands-on impressions of the new mega-dungeon, Land of the Dead!In the meantime, if you're hungry for coverage, let your eyes feast on this awesome squig herder cake, made by Charm City Cakes. You know, Chef Duff from Food Network's Ace of Cakes? Yeah, he would be the guy who cooked this bad boy up. The cake lasted for the entire show, but we think there might have been some squig pieces shared amongst staff once the event's doors closed.Excited? Come back tomorrow and check out all of the tasty coverage. The squig is only the icing on the cake! Ok, we're done with the bad puns now, we promise.
WoW, Casually: Guide to the latest features
Robin Torres writes WoW, Casually for the player with limited playtime. Of course, you people with lots of playtime can read this too, but you may get annoyed by the fact that we are unashamed, even proud, of the fact that beating WoW isn't our highest priority. Take solace in the fact that your gear is better than ours, but if that doesn't work, remember that we outnumber you. Not that that's a threat, after all, we don't have time to do anything about it. But if WoW were a democracy, we'd win.Before Patch 3.1 hit the live servers, I wrote about the changes that would be coming for those of us with limited playtime. Now that we've had the patch and some fixes and more fixes and yet even more fixes, let's talk a bit about what actually happened and how best to take advantage of the features for casual players.First of all, the Gear Manager did not make it into Patch 3.1 or 3.1.1. Hopefully when it does, it will allow for automatic equipment switching when changing forms/specs. With Outfitter being developed again and with other options available, there is no reason to include this feature until they get it right.
[1.Local]: To agree, to disagree, or to agree to disagree
Reader comments – ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.Flamers and trolls aside, WoW Insider readers are generally a contentious lot. Their viewpoints are as divergent as the player demographics the site attracts – all types of players, from the casual to the hardcore. With this many angles to consider, WoW Insider becomes a melting pot of ideas and opinions, from the sublime to the ridiculous. (And let's face it – some of the so-called ridiculous ideas are the most entertaining to read.) Yet this week, readers seemed to be more often of one mind than not – whether that agreement was ultimately to agree over the topic at hand or to agree to disagree. [1.Local] highlights several reader conversations that made the radar this week.
Massively webcomic: Grinders - You Reap What You Sow
Today's Grinders takes a little deviation from the earlier formats into a more political satire direction. Still, farming is a hot topic in any reward-driven MMO, and the recent farm wars have made the agrarian playstyle all the more relevant. Still, whatever your stance on the debate, you're always welcome to join those of us chuckling from the sidelines.Have a funny story of your own? Submit your tale complete with a screenshot to lemuel.pew@weblogsinc.com. The best will be tenderized into a square patty and grilled on the barbie for our next luau. Or just put in the comic.%Gallery-63060%Lemuel Pew is a webcomic artist and MMO player with the attention span of a guppy. Between sketching gamers in cartoon form and making too many alts in City of Heroes, he draws an online comic called Blank It. Feel free to watch his Twitter at your own risk.
Two Bosses Enter: Drakos the Interrogator vs. Salramm the Fleshcrafter
Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW Insider's series of fantasy death matches. This season's bosses come from the five-man instances of Wrath of the Lich King.This week's Two Bosses Enter deathmatch definitely's got that boom, boom, pow. Now, we know you're not fond of The Oculus. We do know. Nonetheless, we're asking you to set aside your prejudices and consider this week's explosive contestants on their own merit: Drakos the Interrogator of The Oculus versus Salramm the Fleshcrafter of The Culling of Stratholme. Let's review the ground rules: Assume that these foes share similar levels, health pools, damage output and are fighting on neutral territory. Don't get caught up in game mechanics and what actual players might do in each encounter. Focus your debate on the three S's -- Style, Story and Scale – and consider the flavor each villain brings to bear. What do you think would happen during this battle? Leave your comment explaining what happens, and cast your vote for who you think blows up who.
One Boss Leaves: It's Herald Volazj by a landslide
Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW Insider's series of fantasy death matches. This season's bosses come from the five-man instances of Wrath of the Lich King.The results of this week's Two Bosses Enter, One Boss Leaves deathmatch didn't show much insanity – just plenty of old-fashioned whuppin', as Herald Volazj laid the smack down on Novos the Summoner in a reader poll landslide. Zeplar pled the case for Novos: "Insanity is really not that hard a phase, considering Novos doesn't have a tree healer messing him up. So I'll have to give this to Novos."Remember, though, that the really hard part about Volazj (at least before we got all epixed and stuff) was the trash guys just before him. Those things hit hard. To add to that, I think Volazj will win the vote because he's harder for players -- but if we are really considering him being against Novos, you have to remember Novos doesn't have a healer during Insanity."
WoW Rookie: Keeping your account safe and sound
New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the resources they need to get acclimated. Send us a note to suggest a WoW Rookie topic.It doesn't take keyboard gymnastics to prevent your account from getting hacked. As a new player, you're bound to be concerned – and if you do any digging at all, you're also bound to uncover a tangle of acerbic, rather arcane-sounding comments (many of them on posts right here at WoW Insider) about what operating systems, browsers and browser add-ons are most secure.You really don't have to change your entire computer system simply to keep your WoW account safe. This week, WoW Rookie rounds up a selection of WoW Insider posts that show you how (and why) to keep your WoW account from being hacked and prevent your computer from spilling its beans to the world at large.
Shifting Perspectives: An Ulduar class preview, part 3
Every Tuesday, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting Druids and those who group with them. This week, as other people continue their march through Ulduar, I continue to ask myself if it wouldn't be more cost-effective in the long run just to take my ailing graphics card out behind the woodshed and end its pathetic misery once and for all.Greetings, fellow Druids. There have been a few changes to Ulduar of late which I haven't yet seen play out on the live realms, but most of the changes concerned are nerfs, which should have little impact on overall raid strategy apart from giving you a bit of extra breathing room. Today we're going to address what you can expect from Auriaya and Mimiron. Mimiron in particular was the subject of some concern from feral tanks on the PTR and, well, the mechanic driving that concern is still a problem, but less of one than you might think. I was originally going to include Freya in this installment as well, but noticed that her two erstwhile comrades were starting to consume rather a lot of space. Suffice it to say that trying to describe these two fights is awkward at best, so I'm restricting myself to as much Druid-centric information as possible rather than describing every possible means of handling the fights.Oh well. Batting first for us today is sad spinster Miss Auriaya and her smelly cats, although she's a bit complicated to describe:
15 Minutes of Fame: Boubouille proves an MMO Champion
15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.What does it take to bring WoW fanatics the freshest World of Warcraft news on the planet? Imagine, if you will, a guy who sleeps literally no more than three or four hours at a stretch so he won't miss any World of Warcraft news. Imagine a guy who spends hour upon hour digging through game database files searching for anything that appears remotely different. Imagine a guy who no longer raids because he's so weary from 10-hour stretches on the PTR (public test realm).Meet Boubouille, the force behind MMO-Champion. The hard-working Boubouille is also one of the friendliest, most genuine voices in the WoWosphere. Ever notice how often WoW Insider links developments, new items and spells and breaking news back to MMO-Champion? While Boubouille's first on the money, he's also quick on the tips and first to share a really interesting scoop – that's just the way he rolls. We poked our heads into his insane, non-stop schedule to find out what keeps him ticking along and where MMO-Champion is headed as WoW evolves over time.
Massively's hands-on with Final Fantasy XI's April version update
Prophecy, valor, campaign, and item augmentation, oh my! This latest version update was packed with goodies for the Final Fantasy XI player base, making sure that something for everyone was included in the game. I recently got the chance to sit down with the Final Fantasy XI team and play through some of the content, experiencing what their newest mini-expansion, A Crystalline Prophecy, had to add to the game.Past that, I also had the chance to see the new Fields of Valor areas in action, aid the Mithras in defending Windurst from the beastmen during the Crystal War, and experience some of the hard tasks in the campaign missions first hand.So does the April update get a thumbs up? Is Crystalline Prophecy worth the ten bucks? Those questions and more will be answered within.
All the World's a Stage: So you want to be an Enchanter
This installment of All the World's a Stage is the thirty-first in a series of roleplaying guides in which we find out all the background information you need to roleplay a particular race or class (or profession!) well, without embarrassing yourself. Enchanting cries out to be roleplayed. It could be a kind of magician's engineering, or a more refined cousin of alchemy. Although you could certainly play an enchanter as another sort of magical mad-scientist, the profession actually lends itself well to a more gentlemanly (and sane) approach, where experiments are not so much about creating some sort of autonomous monster or mind-controling love potion of serene bliss, but rather altering the nature of things to do what they never would have done previously.Enchantments have a huge role in mythology and literature. Cinderella's fairy godmother turned a pumpkin into a stage-coach with an enchantment, Hogwarts School's "Sorting Hat" famously talks to students who wear it, and the One Ring even contains the soul of Middle Earth's lord of evil personified. All these are enchantments in which ordinary items are magically enhanced so as to reflect some aspect of character development or plot in the story, and a roleplayer at the keys of an enchanter character can work similar magic in telling his own story.
EVE Evolved: Combat boosters
The drug trade has been a part of EVE since the very beginning. Originally, drugs were nothing more than a trading commodity occasionally demanded by agents in low security space. The old drug trade goods still exist in EVE, a non-functional relic of years gone past. A new drug trade has taken its place - the black market for performance-enhancing combat boosters. If you want to push your ship to the absolute limit of its abilities, whether it's for PvE or PvP, you're definitely going to want to get your hands on some combat boosters. In this article, I take a look at the drug trade in EVE and the different kinds of performance-enhancing combat boosters that are available.
[1.Local]: The theory, debate, controversy and scandal edition
Reader comments – ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week.The [1.Local] PuG was in rare form this week, postulating theories and pontificating on issues ranging from the Martin Fury scandal to whether or not Ulduar difficulty and loot is on target. We highlight not one but two in-depth posts on the lore behind the Horde/Alliance relationship, each with extensive reader reaction.This edition of [1.Local] also spotlights fresh reaction from Karatechop, the player at the epicenter of the Martin Fury brouhaha. What does he think about all the hullabaloo over his banning in the wake of his use of a GM-only item that came into the hands of a guildmate? Karatechop responds to the pages of comments on our exclusive interview with him about the incident. All this and more, after the break.
Massively webcomic: Grinders - Big Ships Eat Little Ships
This is probably a common gag for EVE players familiar with the Titan capital ships, and Arkhamina from GoonFleet was kind enough to share it for Grinders, along with this adorable little narrative:"Once upon a time, there was a sad Titan. All of his buddies had gone to Empire space to gank the freighters who were safely moving things around where Concord was there to protect them. Since Titans are not allowed there, he could not go play with his Goon friends, he wandered lonely alone, until he saw a Tempest, all alone. He opened his mouth wide and..... CHOMP."Have a funny story of your own? Submit your tale complete with a screenshot to lemuel@massively.com. The best will be tenderized into a square patty and grilled on the barbie for our next luau. Or just put in the comic.%Gallery-63060%Lemuel Pew is a webcomic artist and MMO player with the attention span of a guppy. Between sketching gamers in cartoon form and making too many alts in City of Heroes, he draws an online comic called Blank It. Feel free to watch his Twitter at your own risk.
The OverAchiever: Guide to Children's Week achievements
All right, folks, we've got another sub-achievement needed for What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been (and thus the 310% speed Violet Proto-Drake) on our hands here. I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that most of the achievements for Children's Week are fairly straightforward, and should be easy (and even fun) to complete. Appropriately enough for a mini-holiday, most of the achievements are simple, amusing, and not too time-consuming. The bad news is that one of the achievements may be a huge headache to get done, and unlike Noblegarden, your character has to be at least 75 in order to get all of the achievements needed for the year-long meta. Children's Week runs from Friday, May 1st at midnight through Thursday, May 7th at 11:59 PM. Got your kiddo? Let's get cracking.EDIT: This article's been revised and updated to reflect new information and the hotfixes that have gone live since initial publication. All information herein should be accurate as of 11:30 AM EST Saturday May 2nd.
Anti-Aliased: Five free to play MMOs that are ahead of the class
Times are tough, the wallet is tight, and you still need a game to play. But what free games can you wrap your hands around that just don't suck, right? That seems to be the trouble with free to play games -- many selections all with very low quality.But the market is not as bad as you might think. There are certainly some gems out there in the free to play market, just waiting for you to wrap your hands around them and play. Finding them however, hasn't always been easy, until now.With the recommendations of my colleagues here at Massively, and my own personal experience, I've complied a list of 5 free to play games that are worthy of your play time. In advance, however, I wish to apologize to Chronicles of Spellborn, Wizard 101, and FusionFall. All three of these games made our favorites list, but I'm skipping them as their focus is more of a "freemium" experience, where massive areas of the games are locked out until a subscription is purchased. This column is only going to concentrate on the free to play, item mall driven games, just to clarify for all of you readers out there.So which games made the best of the free to play list? Continue reading and you'll find out.
Two Bosses Enter: Herald Volazj vs. Novos the Summoner
Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW Insider's series of fantasy death matches. This season's bosses come from the five-man instances of Wrath of the Lich King.While this week's Two Bosses matchup was a fairly straightforward victory for Ahn'Kahet's Prince Taldaram over the Maiden of Grief from the Halls of Stone, this week's scenario is a little farther off the beaten track: Herald Volazj (Ahn'Kahet: The Old Kingdom) versus Novos the Summoner (Drak'tharon Keep). What insanity will ensue?Let's review the ground rules: Assume that these foes share similar levels, health pools and damage output. The battle will take place in neutral territory. For the sake of this battle, since Novos is invulnerable to damage until his shield is broken down, we'll say that each round of Novos' summons and Volazj's Insanity follows one after the other, without pause. Don't get caught up in game mechanics and what actual players might do in each encounter. Focus your debate on the three S's: Style, Story and Scale. Consider the flavor each villainous gladiator brings to bear, leave your comment on what you think would happen and why, and then cast your vote for who you think would come out on top.
One Boss Leaves: Prince Taldaram embraces victory
Two Bosses Enter ... but only One Boss Leaves, in WoW Insider's series of fantasy death matches. This season's bosses come from the five-man instances of Wrath of the Lich King.Prince Taldaram of Ahn'Kahet: The Old Kingdom managed to Embrace (of the Vampyr) victory in this week's matchup against the Maiden of Grief from Halls of Stone. Despite the Maiden's relentless shadow damage, Prince Taldaram's Bloodthirst, Flame Spheres, Vanish and Embrace of the Vampyr reduced the Titanic Maiden to rubble."Close fight that goes to Taldaram," called Jawajoey. "Shock of (Sorrow) won't help her much in a one-on-one, especially with an intelligent, mobile enemy and all the storms and pillars she'll throw around. Embrace of the Vampyr will be a nice tool -- though assuming the Maiden is smart enough to keep Pillar of Woe on him and keep him moving with Storms, it won't dominate her. "
