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Leapers and gliders swoop into EverQuest II
Slipping in under the cloud cover -- or soaring above it -- of a busy day for SOE is the news that leapers and gliders have landed in EverQuest II. These are special mounts for lower-level characters that allow them to get a taste of flight without the full thing, by giving them either the ability to "super-jump" or glide for a good distance. We first heard about these mounts at E3, where David Georgeson revealed how players as young as level 30 could start earning their wings (so to speak). As part of this update, ground mounts have had their speeds significantly increased, going from 65% to as high as 130%. Ground mounts are still faster than leapers and gliders on land, and players will have to stick to the same category of mount for alternate appearances (no flying rhinos, alas). EverQuest II has the details about where to get your spiffy new mounts, and don't miss our own thoughts about how these jumpers and soarers will change the landscape of the game!
Do the shopping cart: Prius Online opens item shop
Prius Online has taken another step toward full-fledged release, as gPotato opened the doors to an in-game item shop today. As with many free-to-play titles, Prius Online will chug along under the power of microtransactions from shop purchases. The item shop will hold an attractive array of fun and useful goods, ranging from costumes to mounts to all manner of helpful trinkets. To celebrate the shop's opening, Prius Online is handing out a free Leaf of Oblivion to players who log in between June 15th and 19th. The Leaf is capable of resetting your skill points, including your initial job choice, so that you can respec into a better build. Prius Online went into open beta earlier this month, and any interested parties can check the game out by visiting the website and signing up!
The OverAchiever: Mountain O' Mounts from professions
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. Today, we are convinced that archaeology's RNG won't apply to us. There are a number of interesting (and by interesting, perhaps I mean "occasionally very expensive and likely to drive you insane via RNG-laden accessibility") mounts available from professions, though for some of them, you'll have to be a practitioner in good standing before you'll ever be able to learn them. Regrettably, I am the bearer of some very bad news this week concerning the Vial of the Sands for all those of you who like circumventing the highest costs in the game. Also read: Combining The Ambassador and Mountain O' Mounts Mountain O' Mounts in Outland Mountain O' Mounts in Northrend Mountain O' Mounts in 5-man dungeons Mountain O' Mounts in raids Mountain O' Mounts from achievements Mountain O' Mounts from PvP
Winged Guardian mount in action
Blizzard has just released the Winged Guardian, the newest mount in the Blizzard pet store, which of course means I had to buy it and quickly throw together a video of this majestic beast in action. The Winged Guardian works as both a ground and flying mount, scaling with your riding skill all the way up to 310% mount speed. Over a year ago, WoW players ran the gamut of emotions when the Celestial Steed was introduced. Now, however, DLC (downloadable content) has become a fact of life for many games and virtual worlds. In fact, many people (myself included) don't understand why these mounts don't come out even more frequently, because there is obviously a market for these cool extras. Check out the video of the Winged Guardian in action. So far, I like this guy. He feels thick and beefy, with a lot of weight to him -- definitely an imposing presence. Plus, it's not another dragon, and we can all be excited for that.
Winged Guardian flying mount now available at the pet store
The Winged Guardian flying mount is now available for purchase at the Blizzard pet store. Much like its Celestial Steed counterpart, the Winged Guardian is available to every one of your characters in game and costs $25. Head over to the Blizzard pet store now to buy this awesome flier. EU players can get the mount at the EU Blizzard store.
One Shots: Press 1 to charge, press 2 to breathe fire
We're kicking off Mount Week on One Shots with the perfect blend of traditional and futuristic mounts: a robot horse. Today's image comes to us from Massively reader Clinton: In RIFT, players have an option of playing one of two separate factions -- the Guardians and the Defiant. It's been noted that Defiant have a heavy majority of the population on lots of servers, and people have been trying to figure out why for a while. It's been in front of everyone's noses all this time -- the mounts! Who wouldn't want to ride a silver robotic horse with a dragon's head for the hindquarters? While we have to agree that a robot horse with a dragon's head on its hindquarters is the very embodiment of awesome, we also know that there are more mounts out there that are just as awesome and/or unusual. Prove us right and grab a screenshot of your finest ride, be it hooved, feathered, wheeled, or otherwise. Send it to oneshots@massively.com along with your name and the name of the game, and tell us a little about what we're seeing and how you came by that particular mount. If you'd like a head-start on the following week, we'll be focusing on weird foes. Do you have a great shot of a dancing Abaddon in Guild Wars or a nose-picking foe from Gates of Andaron? Send those in too and we'll feature them on One Shots! %Gallery-112285%
The Road to Mordor: Shopping at the LotRO Depot
About 99% of the time I'm in Lord of the Rings Online I never think about the LotRO Store. Ever since the store came online last year, it's been adventure as usual in the Olivetti household. Sure, I mock the "You got 5 Turbine Points! Now you can retire in the Caymans!" popups like everyone else, but I've always felt that Turbine does a good job balancing the store presence between the polar extremes of obnoxious and invisible. That isn't to say I haven't used the store at all; on the contrary, I've been a sporadic if loyal customer of sorts, trundling my shopping cart through the aisles of Shire-Mart looking for a good deal. Thus far I haven't dropped any additional cash into the game, choosing to subsist on my monthly allotment of TP with whatever I earn through deeds. Every once in a while I'll boot up the store and see what niceties I can give to my character as a reward for slaughtering his 5,000th Neeker-beeker. The LotRO Store has two categories of customers: the free-to-players and the upper class. Does that sound snooty? It's not intentional -- all I mean is that some folks use the store to provide basic necessities for gameplay (like quest packs, riding skills, class unlocks) while others are already well-off in the game and shop for luxury items. I'm in awe of the F2P gamers who can get a good chunk of their content by methodically knocking deeds out so they can purchase the next zone, but I'm fortunate enough not to have to do that. So today I wanted to give myself an audit of what I've spent in the store so far and analyze whether they were wise purchases, wasteful frivolities, or overpriced insanity.
Explore Realms Online on a new mount from Massively and GameSamba
GameSamba, one of the newest names in the free-to-play MMO world, has big plans for new titles this year. The company's third title, Realms Online, began open beta today, and we've got a gift for you to celebrate! We've got an Alsius White Wolf mount so you can enter the game in style. "Brought to these lands by the Nordos, their predatory instinct made them some of the most feared beasts of the Icy Mountains. Since ancient times, the Nordos learned to tame them, making them one of the most attractive mounts available in the world." Ready to saddle up and get into the game? Simply pick up your Alsius White Wolf code on our giveaway page and download Realms Online. Once you're in-game, press ESC and choose "Redeem Code" from the popup window. Enjoy your new mount, and enjoy Realms Online!
Lethal Pro v2 review
A name like "Lethal Pro" invariably creates a certain set of expectations. Namely, that the product in question is suitable for professional use, and that it least looks like it's potentially lethal. As you can see, this particular all-purpose tablet / smartphone / camera accessory certainly succeeds on the latter count. But can it do more than just double as a prop in a remake of Runaway? Read on for our full review. %Gallery-122324%
PadTab: inexpensive iPad wall mount
The PadTab is an iPad mounting system that takes your iPad and lets you mount it to a flat surface without the use of any power tool, screws or hammers. The PadTab is a two-piece solution that uses a high strength adhesive wall mount and a plastic mounting plate for your iPad. For the low cost of US$19.95, you get a mounting plate for the iPad and two wall mounts. Additional wall mounts are available for $9.99 each. It is compatible with the iPad, the iPad 2 and select cases, such as the Marware Hard Case. We have not tested this system ourselves, but the idea is interesting. It would be an easy mounting solution to use in the kitchen for recipes and entertainment while you cook, or in your workshop so that you can follow This Old House while you build your brand new deck. Without using a stand or a stand case, you can keep your valuable counter or workbench space and still have your iPad close by. A win-win situation, no? [Via ZDNet]
The OverAchiever: Mountain o' Mounts in Outland
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we continue the Mountain o' Mounts grind in Outland with a few notes on BC reputation. If you're catching up with us after last week, we've finished off both The Ambassador and the first leg of Mountain o' Mounts. I have to confess that I approached both achievements from the perspective of a player who wasn't necessarily at the level cap (I've been leveling a goblin priest lately and greatly enjoying the benefits of faction tabards in dungeons), and I completely forgot that the Argent Tournament even existed. Whoops. (Either that, or I've got one hell of a mental block concerning jousting.) This week, we're going to hit the dark portal in pursuit of more mount and reputation achievements. Outland is the single most fruitful continent for getting lots of mounts from a limited set of factions. If you've got the patience to make it to exalted with the three factions that sell transport around this shattered hellhole, you'll have an additional 19 mounts at your disposal. You can bump this up to 21 if you count the two PvP talbuks available from Halaa, but these days you'll probably have to arrange a battle royale in the zone in order to get the kills (and tokens) needed. More on this in a bit. Otherwise, your three targets here are the Netherwing, the Sha'tari Skyguard, and the Kurenai/Mag'har. But first, a brief history lesson for all those of you who joined the game in Wrath of the Lich King and still need to work on your Outland reps ...
The OverAchiever: Combining The Ambassador and Mountain o' Mounts
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we contribute to Azeroth's obesity epidemic by refusing to walk. Mounts: They get your ass from point A to point B, and if you're lucky, they'll do it as stylishly as possible. They're the most immediately visible status symbol in WoW and often give you a one-glance note on the kind of player at whom you're looking. People astride Invincible can be counted upon to be hardcore raiders from the Wrath of the Lich King era, someone riding a Violet Proto-Drake is never new to the game, and players rocking a White Stallion are seriously old school. Players who have been around for any length of time almost inevitably accrue a stable's worth of beasties to cart them around, but some folks go the extra mile for the Leading the Cavalry and Mountain o' Mounts achievements. In Cataclysm, these are a lot easier than they once were, although you should still be prepared to dump a ton of gold and time into them no matter what. Fortunately, the first part of the Mountain o' Mounts trek should also net you The Ambassador achievement and title.
The Lawbringer: Fighting the gold fight -- how the strategy must change
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Running parallel to the games we love and enjoy is a world full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play? Last week on The Lawbringer, I introduced you to the world as it is, a battlefield littered with the corpses of stolen accounts, inconvenienced players, and a priceless reputation on the line. This week, we look at concrete solutions to actually helping the gold selling system wind down and remove many of the hurdles that instant gratification with purchasing gold sets up for Blizzard. You might have mixed and angry reactions to what I'm going to talk about, but do give me the benefit of the doubt. I think being open-minded might win this fight. So what can Blizzard do besides selling its own currency? Here are my suggestions for the first steps that Blizzard needs to take in the new war against gold selling.
Visualized: Smart Cover magnets can turn your Apple tablet into a FridgePad
Has the iPad 2 not proven its versatility to you yet? Well, buy one of those "don't call it a case" Smart Covers that Apple launched with it and you'll be able to turn your new dual-core slate into a bona fide FridgePad. Just add fridge.
The OverAchiever: The curious case of the Grey Riding Camel
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, we begin an epic search for transportation across the Uldum sands. The developers' strangest and most eccentric additions to the game often wind up numbering among the things that make World of Warcraft truly great, and -- fortunately for this column -- many of them are achievements as well. Today, I'd like to talk about something that, strictly speaking, is not yet an achievement. As of the most recent PTR build (13750), we know that it's going to be one in patch 4.1, and I am highly delighted that the Grey Riding Camel is now fair game for OverAchiever. If you've followed Cataclysm zone or reputation news at all since the beta hit, you've probably known about the two camel mounts available at exalted with the Ramkahen faction. Getting them is a pretty straightforward process: Quest in Uldum, meet the kitty people, buy the kitty tabard, get the kitty people to fall in love with you -- and sooner or later, a Brown or Tan Riding Camel will result. Actually, that makes the process sound a lot more salacious than it really is, but I digress. The Grey Riding Camel has always been different, and in order you get one, you'll engage in a little quest worthy of the zone's Indiana Jones feel. As with all Indiana Jones stories, it all starts when you find a valuable artifact after an agonizing search ...
The Lawbringer: Fighting the gold fight -- the world as it is
Pop law abounds in The Lawbringer, your weekly dose of WoW, the law, video games and the MMO genre. Running parallel to the games we love and enjoy is a world full of rules, regulations, pitfalls and traps. How about you hang out with us as we discuss some of the more esoteric aspects of the games we love to play? The Lawbringer has in the past been used as a personal launching pad for some of the more out-there or esoteric ideas that I have in regards to the World of Warcraft and virtual currency in general. You guys seem to love it, and there's always plenty of great discussion about these ideas. For the next two weeks, I want to introduce you to my thoughts on how Blizzard should be attacking gold sellers and, at the same time, working to remove some of the content gates that gold has erected in the MMO we all love. This week, we will set up the story and the history of it all, and next week, we will talk about hard conclusions. Gold selling isn't going away as long as fungible and liquid currency exists in MMOs. Gold is "fungible" because it can be exchanged for something exactly like it, at a 1:1 ratio -- gold is gold. Gold is also liquid, as it can be used and exchanged for other goods or services. Short of Blizzard's getting rid of this type of currency altogether or selling its own currency for a cheaper price than gold sellers can furnish it, people will sell gold and items that can be traded. Blizzard has shown that it has the guts to go after gold selling as an industry but has so far failed in scope to bring down the snake that slowly poisons everything it has worked to build. As sellers become hackers, and as hacking chips away at the good will, reputation, and stability of the game we love to play and the company we love to patronize, there has never been a more urgent time to fight the gold fight. The strategy needs to change from focusing on the people who sell gold to a combination of those that sell and the gold itself.
Patch 4.1 PTR: Wintersaber mount grind goes daily
For a long time now, the Wintersaber Trainer grind (for the Reins of the Winterspring Frostsaber) has been one of the last holdouts of the old world's long, slogging reputation grinds, featuring repeatable quests that give relatively small chunks of reputation and require slogging all over a zone. Admittedly, the grind is a lot easier these days thanks to tweaked drop rates, slightly higher reputation gains, and old world flight, but it still stands as a symbol of a different time. In patch 4.1, this will stand no longer. The Wowhead blog is reporting the Wintersaber grind is being turned into a series of daily quests that put you in charge of the care and feeding of a Winterspring Cub on the PTR. After 20 days worth of dailies which earn you Winterspring Cub Whiskers, you'll be able to turn in the They Grow Up So Fast quest for your very own set of reins. In addition, you can buy a Winterspring Cub permapet from a vendor in Everlook. It's Bind on Equip and sold by a neutral vendor, so even Horde and Bloodsail Admirals can get thier hands on it.
WoW Rookie: How to start collecting mounts
New around here? WoW Rookie has your back! Get all our collected tips, tricks and tactics for new players in the WoW Rookie Guide. WoW Rookie is about more than just being new to the game; it's about checking out new classes, new playstyles, and new zones. When you hit the end of your leveling process, there are a few obvious things to do. You can gather additional gear by doing heroics, and you can start exploring the wide world of raiding. You can start cruising the world of PvP, especially if you already did some battlegrounds while leveling. Another way to spend your time is collecting mounts. You can cruise Stormwind and show off your collection, or just enjoy the roleplaying value of having 100 cool rides. The game even has a series of achievements to show off your accomplishment. You get Filling Up The Barn for 25 mounts, Leading The Cavalry for 50 mounts, and Mountain o' Mounts for 100. As you'd expect, you get a new mount for achieving Mountain o' Mounts. Let's talk about a game plan for getting to 100 mounts.
The Road to Mordor: Creating your roadmap
I wish to preface this week's column by saying that I'm not advocating just one way to play a game. I think it's equally valid to explore at your own pace, team up as a duo, maximize TP revenue, or set whatever goals you like and pursue them. But after leveling one character to the cap and playing several others, I've begun to develop a roadmap, if you will, that helps guide my progress somewhat efficiently. It's this roadmap that I want to share with you today. The thing is, for all I love about Lord of the Rings Online, the game is definitely littered with timesinks of epic proportions. It already takes a long, long time to get your character up to 65 and through the two expansions, and that's only going to increase as the game grows. There are a lot of distractions and unnecessary grinds (such as virtues you will never use) that can bog you down too long and perhaps dishearten you. So when I created a Minstrel in LotRO a little while back, I decided to map out his progress from level 1 through 65 by creating a broad framework -- an outline, really -- that serves to keep me on track so I don't have to backtrack as much later on to get these goals done. I have a very "two birds with one stone" mentality, so if I'm doing one task in a zone, I'd rather be accomplishing two or three at the same time. So for example, if I'm grinding out a deed, I'd rather do it at level at which I'm getting XP than 20 levels later when I'm not (although the latter has its merits for rapid deed completion). Hit the jump and I'll give you the rundown of how to eliminate some of the confusion and speed bumps of leveling.
Ricoh GXR will swap out lenses with Leica M mount, make Micro Four Thirds mildly jealous
Ricoh's sensor-swapping GXR camera is getting more interchangeable than ever before -- this fall, the company plans to introduce a APS-C sized 12.9 megapixel CMOS module that lets you pop out lenses too. Rather than building a new set of macros and zooms, though, the new unit will serve as an adapter for the vast hoard of Leica M glass you've been stockpiling for a rainy day, and sport a new focal plane shutter too. No word on price, but considering Leica M adapters for Micro Four Thirds can be had for a reasonable $200 and an APS-C GXR package runs about $700 on the street, you can probably do the math.
