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The Perfect Ten: Why a Harry Potter MMO makes sense
The idea of a Harry Potter MMO is hardly a new one at this point -- we've even speculated on it around Massively for years now. Rumors and wishful thinking have brought up this hypothetical MMO time and again, and for good reason: It simply makes sense. In fact, the more you think about it, the more surprising it is that we haven't heard official word of a Harry Potter MMO by now. After doing some poking around, the most likely suspects to take on this project would either be Warner Bros. (which owns the rights to the franchise) or Electronic Arts (which purchased a license from WB to make the movie video games). Both companies have MMO studios at their command -- Turbine, BioWare, Mythic -- and both have the resources to make it happen. So why does Harry Potter make perfect sense for MMO-adaptation? Hit the jump and I'll run you down the top 10 reasons! And if you post a positive comment after this column, I'll add five points to the house of your choice (go Hufflepuff!).
The Perfect Ten: Best non-traditional MMO fantasy races
Elves. Dwarves. Humans. Halflings. Gnomes. Hobbits. Dark elves. High elves. Half-elves. Wood elves. Keebler elves. Elvish impersonators. Are you as tired as I am of the endless regurgitation of stock fantasy races in our MMOs? It seems inconceivable (I do not think that means what you think it means) for a new fantasy title to come out without most of the above races infesting the character creation screen with moldy unoriginality, putrescent stank, and dusty boredom. That's why today I'm standing up to praise 10 MMOs that dare to go above and beyond the stale by offering mostly unique and different races than the rest of the market. Hopefully future games will learn from their example and throw off the yokes of generic oppression to give us something bold and refreshing!
The Road to Mordor: The Professor
This past week on January 3rd, J.R.R. Tolkien celebrated his 118th birthday -- or rather, we celebrated it for him. Tolkien was born in South Africa in 1892 and lived a rich and full life, from fighting in the first World War to working on the Oxford English Dictionary to taking a position at several universities that would earn him the nickname "The Professor." He is, of course, most well-remembered for his seminal works of fantasy -- The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings and The Silmarillion -- although his writings didn't end there. Due to Tolkien's love of nature, linguistics, and mythology, his creations were born out of comprehensive backgrounds and rich histories, which he seemed to love making up just as much as the stories themselves. For years now, Tolkien fans around the world have remembered his birthday by raising a glass on his birthday and giving a simple toast, "The Professor," at 9:00 p.m. wherever they lived. Likewise, in Lord of the Rings Online, many players gathered at their tavern of choice to do the same. Today I thought I'd remember the Professor in a slightly different way by exploring the quest chain "Missing the Meeting." While it's not completely overt if you happened to come across it, "Missing the Meeting" is a tribute to J.R.R. Tolkien and his life, and it's worth going through at least once if you want to pay homage and get a nifty token by which to remember him.
Red Dead Redemption joins Games on Demand (for $60!)
Xbox Live Marketplace's Games on Demand has added Red Dead Redemption, Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands and Narnia: Prince Caspian at prices one could kindly classify as "outrageous." Red Dead Redemption is listed at its full boxed retail price of $60. We've confirmed with Rockstar that the digital copy is just the original game and doesn't include any of the DLC. Obviously, we recommend purchasing this through the marketplace like we recommend a rattlesnake bite to the groin. Prince of Persia: TFS and Caspian are priced at $30 apiece (way above their Amazon prices). With all the deals we've seen leading up to Christmas, we can't in good conscience recommend any of these to you. If you have any interest in these titles, just wait and see what discounts will be available at retail after the holiday. [Thanks, Brian]
Engadget HD CES schwag giveaway: Blu-ray discs and more
Although the announcements at CES weren't particularly wonderful this year, the schwag was pretty sweet. In fact at the Blu-ray Disc Association press event some of the best schwag of the entire show was dispensed -- assuming you like Blu-ray Discs, which we do. You'd expect that if discs were given away, the titles wouldn't be anything to write home about. But in this case, the BDA gave out six movies and a few of them were not only the hottest selling this year, but one of them (The Dark Knight) was the hottest of all time. So we're passing on the goods to our favorite people, which is of course our readers. Up for grabs is four sets of the following movies; The Dark Knight, Batman Begins (Limited Edition Gift Set), WALL-E, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Pineapple Express, and Dr. Suess' Horton Hears a Who! We're also including a Blu-ray branded bag to tote 'em in and one lucky winner will also receive some additional schwag. If you're interested, leave a comment below and we'll randomly pick four winners for the discs and one of those four will also get a TiVo doll, a Cyberlink wallet and a few other goodies -- see below. The rules: Leave a comment below. Any comment will do, though we'd prefer to hear about your favorite CES announcement. You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.) If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you'll be fine. Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad. Winners will be chosen randomly. Four winners will receive one (1) copy of each of the following movies on Blu-ray; The Dark Knight, Batman Begins (Limited Edition Gift Set), WALL-E, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, Pineapple Express, Dr. Suess' Horton Hears a Who!, and a Blu-ray bag. Approximate value is $239.99. In addition one of those winners will also receive a TiVo doll, REALD 3D glasses, Cyberlink wallet, Samsung notebook and pen, and Rock & Roll beads from The Digital Experience. Approximate value is $5. Entries can be submitted until Monday, January 26th, 11:59PM ET. Good luck! Full rules can be found here.
Deal time: CoD4 GOTY for $49, gift card with Narnia
It's Sunday deal time and this week U.S. retailers are being stingy lil' buggers when it comes to Xbox 360 savings. For serious. The only semi-good deals we could scrounge up were over at Circuit City who is selling the Call of Duty 4 Game of the Year edition for $50 and giving out a free $10 gift card with purchase of Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. And that's it. Seeing that the good deals Stateside aren't as fruitful as we expected, we took our research up north and discovered that this week Best Buy Canada is offering The Darkness for $20 and both GRAW2 and RSV for teh free with an Xbox 360 Pro purchase. That's all we could find, now go be good citizens and spend your bi-weekly check on gaming related goods to help stimulate the economy. God knows it needs it.
Disney reveals four blockbusters coming to Blu-ray in 2008
While it was only a matter of time before Walt Disney brought one of its famed animated classics to BD, today the company has finally revealed what that first title will be: Sleeping Beauty. The disc will include a "virtual castle and multi-player activities," both of which utilize BD-Live technology, and if that wasn't enough, the studio also announced that it would be bringing Finding Nemo and The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe to Blu-ray next year. Finally, National Treasure will be the outfit's "first BD-Live" title to hit the market when it lands next summer, sandwiched between Narnia in the spring and Finding Nemo / Sleeping Beauty in the fall.[Via MovieWeb]
HDTV Listings for September 23, 2006
What we're watching: What game you get on ABC tonight depends on where you are, some will see Notre Dame at Michigan State while west coasters get USC vs. Arizona. If you missed the premieres of Smith, Jericho, Law & Order: SVU or Kidnapped, tonight you'll get a second chance at a first impression. Finally, for those who didn't already watch it via VOD, The Chronicles of Narnia is on Starz-HD.Our traditional high-def listings continue below.
Comcast offering over 100 hours of HD VOD beginning...today
Cable executives have talked about the importance of high definition video-on-demand, and today Comcast is putting some muscle behind those words. Besides making 100 hours of HD programming available on VOD beginning today, they also announced they will have at least 20 hours of high-def content from Starz available each month. Today, viewers will be able to watch The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe on HD VOD before it airs on Starz HD. Doubling up on the Comcast HD news, in an interview yesterday with TV Predictions, president Steve Burke announced they plan to release a Panasonic DVR in 2007 with double the current recording capacity, and increase the number of HD channels to 35 by the end of next year. He also noted that the TiVo package is on track to release before the end of this year, for people who can't quite stomach the price of a TiVo Series3 DVR. If the quality is up to par, forget fighting off IPTV and satellite, this may be enough to put even a new Blu-ray or HD DVD player purchase on hold, it's not like Narnia is out yet on Blu-ray anyway.Read: Comcast Launches Unprecedented HD Programming Initiative to Offer 100 Hours of High-Definition Video-On-Demand ProgrammingRead: Comcast's Steve Burke On HDTV
