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No launch DLC for Blur, but there will be plenty
Blur has been in development at Bizarre Creations for at least a year now, and probably even longer, but in all of that time, no one in the studio has worked on any DLC, according to lead designer Ged Talbot speaking to MTV Multiplayer. While the title does have some in-game pre-order bonuses ready to go, there won't be any launch DLC, so you'll have to be satisfied with the 50 cars and 30 racing locales coming on the disc for a little while. But Talbot does say that Bizarre will be releasing additional content soon after the game goes on sale, and that "it's always been a massive part of the strategy to support the game with DLC." Your late '92 baby blue Subaru might not be in there right now, but just be patient, baby -- it's coming for you.
Dragons abound in the Sentinel's Fate launch day trailer
An epic expansion deserves an epic trailer, and that means adding as many dragons as possible to your video. The new Sentinel's Fate launch day trailer takes a good look at all of the new monsters and encounters available in the game, but it seems to have a particular focus on large dragons and how they destroy people with their acidic breath. Fun if you're a dragon lover, bad if you're on the receiving end of that breath. If you haven't gotten a look at the expansion in motion yet, or want to watch some dragons eat some people, we have the video for you embedded after the break. Just click the continue reading button to see the eye candy if you dare to cross into the dragon's lair!
The Tattered Notebook: A look into grouping, and a roundup of our Sentinel's Fate coverage
While Sentinel's Fate doesn't hit the digital download shelves for another week, retail players (and the many winners of retail access keys) are already enjoying the brand new lands of Odus as of this morning, thanks to today's headstart launch! The magical barrier protecting the continent has fallen, and many adventurers have already accessed the wizard spires to throw themselves into the Sundered Frontier and right into the intrigue. But, while you're waiting to patch (or if you're an international customer, waiting for the servers to come up) we have just the thing for you -- our roundup of Sentinel's Fate coverage. Plus, this week we're taking a look at forming groups in EverQuest II, and how you can quickly and effectively put one together.
White Knight Chronicles launch DLC ready to go
Sony made us wait a few years for a North American release of White Knight Chronicles, but it's not waiting at all to give us a chance to spend more money on the game -- the official Sony blog has news that the first DLC for the game will be out ASAP, offering up microtransactions for items to fill out the in-game "Georama" space, as well as a $4.99 "key" that will allow you to completely re-customize your character without having to start the game all over again. Of course, Sony guarantees that "there is PLENTY for you to work with in the game itself," but just in case you want to pay a little more of your hard-earned paycheck, Sony will be happy to take it. And finally, just in time for launch day, it's offered up a brand new trailer. That won't cost you anything but a click on the link below, as it's available to watch after the break. [Via VG247]
We have an agenda: Global Agenda launch day coverage and play with Massively event
The cat's out of the bag! Or perhaps the spies are out of their hexes? Either way, Global Agenda has gone into official launch mode today! We here at Massively can't help to celebrate by looking back at our past coverage of Global Agenda, as we watched the game go from a little team-based TPS to the MMORTS that it is today. If you like commanding, or if you just like shooting people with hi-tech guns, then this might be the game for you! In any case, we promised you an event to go along with the launch! Tonight, jump in to Global Agenda at 8 PM EST to meet up with Shawn Schuster (Agent Name: Ampersand, Medic) and Seraphina Brennan (Agent Name: Seraphina, Recon!). Both editors will be commanding their own PvP strike teams and will be launching into the queues head first. By the way, don't forget your headset -- it makes team building so much easier. If you don't have one, no worries, just be ready to play. So, without any further delay, let's take a trip down memory lane and look back at the best of our Global Agenda coverage...
Spy with the best: Join Massively for Global Agenda's launch! [Updated]
Readers, we're contacting you through an encrypted channel right now to deliver some very important information. Agent Schuster and Agent Brennan will be on deck for the launch of Global Agenda, ready to fight the Commonwealth at your side. Come Monday, log into Global Agenda and team up with Sera and Shawn to fight the good fight in both PvP and PvE strike teams. The dossier is still sealed on this mission, but keep an eye on this post and the encrypted T-Feed (@massively on Twitter) for the full information on how to link up with Apoc and Archangel on the day of the launch. We'll announce our play times and character names come Monday by updating this post, so just place a bookmark here and get your game all patched up. Take advantage of the early start while you're at it and get your characters leveled up for launch. This way our enemies will never know what hit them.
Massively's WonderKing Online launch day roundup
It's launch day for WonderKing Online and Massively, as usual, has you covered. But wait! What is WonderKing, you ask? WonderKing is NDOORS Interactive's newest free-to-play title, joining the ranks of Atlantica Online and Luminary: Rise of the GoonZu. WonderKing plays very much in the vein of MapleStory, offering a two-dimensional, action and platforming based experience rather than the traditional 3-D MMO targeting combat. However, unlike MapleStory, WonderKing goes a bit further with its MMO aspects in the form of crafting and cooking systems, an upcoming player housing system, and the upcoming ability to become a king by taking over a castle and defeating other players. We've been keeping up with WonderKing for you guys, so here's a roundup of our coverage on this new free-to-play title. Read, learn, and find out if WonderKing is right for you!
Final Fantasy XIII launch day sales exceed 1 million in Japan
In the roughly 24 hours since Square Enix dropped Final Fantasy XIII into retailers across Japan, over 1 million consumers have snagged the game for their PlayStation 3s. The Japanese publisher says that the number doesn't include the Lightning Edition PS3 hardware bundles, which would presumably add another handful of copies to the grand total. With another few months to go until North American gamers can hungrily grab up the sequel, we'll have to focus our time on jewelry contests instead. [Via Kotaku]%Gallery-41346%
Massively's Alganon launch day roundup
With Alganon's launch today, fans -- or potential fans -- of the game may be looking for more information on the fantasy MMO from Quest Online. To help you out, we've compiled this comprehensive roundup of our best Alganon coverage. Plus, look for a letter from Quest Online's David Allen on the state of the game's launch and a look into the future. Check out the interviews and galleries below, and be sure to let us know how you're enjoying the game so far. Alganon community interview: Your questions answered Last week, we reached out to the Massively readers for questions to ask the team at Quest Online regarding the upcoming Alganon MMO. David Allen, president and co-founder of the studio, stepped up to answer the ten questions chosen for him by us. Alganon's State of the Game address The first piece of information is good news: they are set for the December 1st launch with no delays in sight. The Alganon team has been working hard lately, taking the servers down more frequently to patch and update, which should help to minimize problems at launch. The address did mention the postponement of the original launch date, citing a desire for the most polished game possible -- reasoning that we can certainly support. Massively's pre-launch interview with Alganon After a newly-announced launch delay, we now have just under a month before Quest Online's Alganon releases to the public. Now in its beta stage, Alganon has enjoyed mixed reviews since the NDA was lifted two weeks ago. We thought we'd take this opportunity to ask some of the questions floating around about this new fantasy MMO, and how it sets itself apart from existing fantasy MMOs.
Massively's LotRO: Siege of Mirkwood launch day roundup
Lord of the Rings Online's newest expansion, Siege of Mirkwood, will release today for North America -- while later this week it will release for the European servers -- and we have a comprehensive wrapup available for you to find the biggest news for the new content. We have a dev tour, a video of the new maps, an interview with Jeffrey Steefel and more! A visual tour of LotRO: Siege of Mirkwood If you haven't had a chance to see Turbine's latest creation, check out our video tour of the expansion just after the jump below. Also, be sure to watch Massively for more coverage on Siege of Mirkwood from now to December 1st and beyond! LotRO: Siege of Mirkwood developer tour If you've been faithfully following along with the Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood beta, you may be excited by what you've heard -- or even seen yourself -- so far. The new expansion, which is set to launch on December 1st of this year (December 3rd for EU), centers around the forest of Mirkwood, just to the east of Lothlorien. It introduces us to a large new map of Mirkwood, the skirmish system, five new instances and much more. Massively Speaking Episode 78: An interview with Jeffrey Steefel Massively Speaking Episode 78 is back with Rubi, Shawn and special guest Jeffrey Steefel, executive producer for Lord of the Rings Online. They talk about Siege of Mirkwood, LotRO's future, Jeffrey's past and much more! Lord of the Rings Online to make drastic combat changes with Siege of Mirkwood It's very rare that you hear about a game changing how combat works at a fundamental level, but that's exactly what Turbine is doing in Siege of Mirkwood. We hope you guys weren't in love with weapon speeds and slow animations, because those are two of the things that are getting major overhauls.
Cities XL launch day roundup
Today is the European launch of Cities XL, while tomorrow is the North American launch of the game. We've enjoyed playing the game throughout beta, and have given some hefty coverage along the way. Check out our best Cities XL posts and articles below, preparing you for getting started easily. Massively hands-on with Cities XLAs the Cities XL closed beta continues to run strong, we got word that the beta's NDA has lifted [Edit: for press] and we can spill the beans on our first impressions of the game so far. Now, two very important points to be made here include the fact that this is not a review (MMO reviews are bad, mmkay), and this is still in early closed beta stage. E3 2009: A chat with Cities XL's Alexandre ZambeauxLast week at E3, we had a chance to sit down with Alexandre Zambeaux, Marketing Director for Cities XL developer Monte Cristo Games, for some more info on the current state of the game, and what MMO gamers can expect from such a project. You may remember a pre-beta Q&A we did with the Monte Cristo team a few months ago, and as the game hasn't hit an open beta just yet, it will later this year. Cities XL closed beta Q&AMonte Cristo was founded in 1995, and has mostly been very focused on simulation games. In recent years we have shifted our efforts to the city builder genre, especially with our latest game City Life. We currently employ over 80 people in two studios in Paris and Kiev, and we have been increasing in size a lot (and still are) for Cities XL. Cities XL Limited Edition box contents revealedMonte Cristo and Namco-Bandai have recently announced the contents of their Limited Edition box for the upcoming city-builder MMO, Cities XL. These Limited Edition boxes, as well as the Standard Edition boxes, are available in Europe on October 8th.
Fallen Earth launch day roundup
In addition to Aion's launch, today is also the official launch day for Fallen Earth, the post-apocalyptic MMO that is already gaining indie cred among old school MMO gamers. As a way to get our best Fallen Earth coverage into one place, we created this handy roundup for you to peruse while the servers are down before launch. We have helpful game guides, a FAQ and posts from our developer diary series that ran during the summer. This won't be it though! You can bet we'll be pumping out more Fallen Earth feature articles very soon. A WoW player's guide to Fallen EarthAt Massively, we like to focus on making more MMOs accessible to more people. That accessibility to other MMOs is initially started by the 800 lb gorilla: World of Warcraft. Without WoW, a large percentage of MMO players would not be enjoying their current game today, even if they haven't stuck by WoW this whole time. FAQ That: Common answers to your basic Fallen Earth questionsIt's not easy figuring out what to do with yourself in the post-apocalyptic world, but thankfully we here at Massively have been working on compiling a list of questions that should help make your first steps in this strange new version of Earth a bit easier. Beginner's guide to horse crafting in Fallen EarthWhen you think of post-apocalyptic mounts, you probably imagine a gas-sipping motorcycle, an armored truck or the last of the V8s, right? Yet, a very practical way to get around when society falls is on horseback. In Fallen Earth currently, a horse mount is probably your best option -- especially considering the fact that you can get one very early in the game. First Impressions: Fallen EarthTo say that it is an ambitious step into the field is an understatement of some pretty extreme proportions. It's not every day an MMO company decides to drop an MMO smack into the middle of a scale map of the Grand Canyon. More properly, a post Shiva-virus and nuclear post-apocalyptic Grand Canyon. Ambitious? Definitely. Whether or not it works, well... read on for my First Impressions, and make your own call once you have more of an idea what's in play here.
Aion launch day roundup
Today is the official launch day for NCsoft's Aion, and if you're looking for a few guides to aid you through your first steps in Atreia, we've got you covered. As far back as early June, we were pumping out the Aion guides, so this roundup should be handy to have everything in one place. A WoW player's guide to AionSo, you're a big fan of World of Warcraft (or at least you were at one time) and you've heard about this new MMO called Aion. "Hmmm, I wonder what that's all about?" you ponder. "Anything similar?" you posit. "What's so different?" Well, we've written a WoW player's guide to Aion just for you! Sit back with a cup o' joe, while we compare and contrast the two MMOs for you. The Aion server queue survival guideSo you pre-ordered Aion and you're super excited to jump into the game during the headstart release that's going on right now. You've set aside a whole block of time for your game play, you have your snacks at your side and your DVR ready to play some great entertainment while you grind your night away. You type in your username and password, accept the EULA, select the server that you made your character on during the pre-selection annnndd..... ...you get slapped in the face with a 2 hour wait time. Aion is the single most pre-ordered MMO this yearIn a piece of news that we're betting surprises precisely nobody at all, Aion has just broken the 400,000 pre-order mark. What's notable about this number is that it's enough to make Aion the largest number of pre-orders on an MMO for 2009. As Aion is also holding strong in the Steam and Direct2Drive sales charts, we wonder how many more we'll see added to that number before the official launch next Tuesday. Five reasons to play AionWe hope this article will shed some light on Aion and help you decide whether or not it pleases your taste buds. Aion is undoubtedly a unique game but it also offers enough familiarity to make things feel homey. It all comes down to player preference really, but based on the anticipation leading up to release, we are sure the game will have a successful launch.
The Daily Grind: Should MMOs launch on the same day?
You know where I'm going with this already, don't you? Today is the launch of both Aion and Fallen Earth, and while many MMO fans believe that this will spell disaster for the least-popular one, others recognize the fact that they appeal to completely opposite groups of gamers.But today's launch demographics aside, is releasing an MMO on the same day as another MMO generally a good idea? There's always a possibility of crossover between any two games -- even in the case of Aion and Fallen Earth -- but competition is competition, right? Let us know what you think of today's double launch, and what other upcoming games would probably work well together as a double launch.
Massively's Aion and Fallen Earth launch day schedule
As we mentioned on Friday, we are excited to join you in-game for the launches of both Aion and Fallen Earth tomorrow. We'll have staff in both games, ready to group up and play with any readers who want to experience the beginning areas with other readers. In addition to this, we'll have contests, giveaways and prizes to those who attend or meet-up with us. Follow along after the break for complete details on where we'll be, who will be there and what we'll be doing.
Join us in-game Tuesday for the launch of Aion and Fallen Earth
We did it in Champions Online, and now we're ready to do it in both Fallen Earth and Aion. In-game launch day events have been quite a hit so far, and we really look forward to a double-header coming this Tuesday, September 22nd.Whether you're looking to get into one or both, we'll be in-game right along with you for those first few levels. Plus, we'll come bearing gifts! In Aion, we'll have some in-game goodies to hand out, and in Fallen Earth we're looking to do a bit of post-apocalyptic trivia to prepare you for the wasteland. We'll have more details on Monday, including exact locations and times for these events. See ya there!
Massively's Dungeons and Dragons Unlimited launch day round-up
Dungeons and Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited goes free-to-play today, so we put together a little round-up of our best guides for this new content. Maybe you're confused on how the new DDO Store will work, or have heard rumors about what aspect of the game is truly free-to-play. Massively has you covered! Massively's DDO Unlimited developer tourLove can sometimes be a fickle thing, but I'm pretty sure that I love what Turbine has done with the DDO Store in Dungeons and Dragons Online Unlimited. I'll admit that initially I was a little concerned with the concept of an in-game store, but after playing with it at bit and asking some questions my fears have pretty much melted away. Massively Speaking Episode 57: DDO with Jerry SnookMassively Speaking Episode 57 returns this week with an entire episode dedicated to Dungeons and Dragons Online and their recent announcement about going free-to-play. Shawn is joined by DDOCast host Jerry Snook as they discuss the ins and outs, good and bad of a 3-year-old game going F2P. The pros and cons of free to play Dungeons and Dragons OnlineDungeons and Dragons Online going free to play is undoubtedly an awesome announcement. But exactly how awesome of an announcement is it? Yesterday we were all over the announcement, covering the basics of what can be expected with this changeover from subscription based to free to play. But now, I'd like to break that down even further, and really look at the changes in an in-depth manner. DDO goes F2P: An interview with TurbineAs the news hit yesterday concerning Dungeons and Dragons Online going free-to-play, many MMO gamers collectively rejoiced, while others didn't. The idea of this hybrid business model is wonderful for those who have yet to experience DDO, as it now gives them a chance to play the game as long as they'd like, with no level cap restrictions for absolutely no cost. This means no credit card info changing hands, no commitments to a monthly fee and the implied need to "get your money's worth" and no real need to quit the game if you can't afford it. But it can't be that easy, can it? Well, there's a slight catch.
Looking back on launch day: Champions Online
You won't normally find me anywhere near an MMOG on launch day. As much as I love our shared hobby, I'm usually one to wait six months or so for the operators to stop the servers from catching on fire, massage out the worst of the glitches and for the pack to spread out so that the low-level zones aren't packed shoulder-to-shoulder with folks hunting the same low-level spawns. Well, I made an exception for Champions Online, which was unexpectedly available in Australia on the actual USA launch day. Considering how a lot of other launches have fared, I was quite pleased and surprised.
A big thanks to all those that came to the Champions Online launch day partying
Yesterday was the superheroic launch of Champions Online, and we were very happy to get to play alongside some of you! Throughout the day we were jumping around on our characters, breaking from our former plans of camping in the Crisis zones to tackle challenges all over the Champions globe! From Canada to the Desert to even the fouler reaches of Millenium City, Massively readers were taking down some serious threats to the safety of the NPC population.Didn't get the chance to catch up with us? No worries! We're on your friends list (most likely) so it won't be that hard to catch up with us while we're in-game. Thanks to the wonders of sidekicking, we're here if you ever need backup or just want to go out and save the day.We hope you're all enjoying your time in Champions Online and your time partying and defeating villains with us. We know we're enjoying it, and thanks again!
Champions Online launch day round-up
Today is the official launch day for Champions Online and we thought you might appreciate this handy round-up of our very best and most pertinent info that you'll need to get started in the game. You're welcome. Don't forget we'll also be in game all day today getting together with readers to bash some villain face in. Join us, won't you? Glean info in this video walkthrough of Champions Online's tutorialIf you've been wondering what the starting area for Champions Online was like in moving pictures, you'll be happy to know that a two-part video has surfaced online for your viewing pleasure. The video is new gameplay footage blended a little bit with older trailers. Overall, if you're looking to see what the game actually looks like while being played, this video is a decent place to start. Ten things to know when starting Champions OnlineEvery time a new MMO launches, there's always a good list of things that wouldn't hurt for a new player to know, and Champions Online is no different. We're all about making your first steps into an unknown game as grief free as possible, so check out Syp's list if you're interested in such a proposal. He's got a very good rundown on things you need to know when entering the tutorial zone. Travel powers trailer for Champions OnlineYeah, we know the Champions Online open beta is out and many of you have probably been messing around with all these travel powers already, but it's always nice to get a preview of all your options in one nicely packaged trailer. Plus, trailers are a great way to kill a minute or five, depending on the game in question. The Digital Continuum: Five reasons to play Champions OnlineIt's been a long wait since the announcement of Cryptic's next project, so long that some of us began to run around our houses wearing towels around our necks. Thankfully, September 1st is now less than a month away. Open beta? That's even sooner. Before we know it the game will be sitting on our desks and shelves.
