necropolis
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'Dark Souls' publisher brings 'Necropolis' to PS4, Xbox One
Here's one to add to your video game watch list: Necropolis is a stylish, hardcore dungeon-diving game from Harebrained Schemes, the studio behind the magnificent cyberpunk title Shadowrun Returns. It was originally due to hit PC and Mac on March 17th, but now Dark Souls publisher Bandai Namco is involved and the times, they are a-changing. Necropolis is now due to hit PC, Mac, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in the summer, with Bandai handling the console publishing duties. Harebrained Schemes is self-publishing the game on Steam.
Shadowrun dev reveals deadly dungeon dive, Necropolis
Necropolis puts players in a magical, massive tomb that changes according to the whims of the Brazen Head, a supernatural intelligence created by the powerful archmage, Abraxis. The Necropolis is a dangerous, deadly dungeon that feeds on the deaths of adventurers that attempt to escape, using their spirits to power its gears and their reanimated corpses to patrol its passageways. Necropolis comes from Harebrained Schemes, the studio behind the Shadowrun series. It's a third-person action roguelike with ever-changing dungeons in a low-poly environment. Harebrained describes the game as follows: "Thousands have entered the Necropolis. Legend says, somewhere inside, undead and immortal, Abraxis presides on an onyx throne. In ten centuries, only one adventurer has escaped, and I'm afraid he emerged quite mad. But you ... I'm sure you'll make it out just fine. You seem like the adventurous type." Necropolis is due out in 2016 for PC and Mac via Steam, and unannounced consoles. [Image: Harebrained Schemes]
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!
Reminder: Now's the time to get your necrotic runes
No matter what you call those big floating pyramids above Azeroth, right now is the right time to chase them down and kill the Scourge hanging around beneath them. If you don't have epic gloves or shoulders on right now, odds are that you could use the upgrades from the Argent Dawn, and while the necropoli were completely camped early on in the event, things have died down a bit now, especially in the off-prime hours. I was able to pick up my 30 runes earlier this week, and when I got lucky on a leggings drop (I love that my Hunter is in a mail kilt-y thing now), I picked up two nice new epics, a cool tabard and an achievement.We don't know exactly when this stuff is all ending -- it might be soon, or it might run right up to the Wrath release, but either way, now is probably the time to play it safe and pick up your runes. Look on your map for the purple skulls when they spawn and make a beeline for the zone when you see them, keep an eye around the zone as you fly in where the necro might be, and with most people already having nabbed all the runes they need, the pickings are probably about as good as they're going to get. You'll have a tougher time nabbing the rare spawns that drop the legs and the chest, but if you just want to nab some runes for the various Argent Dawn rewards, it'll go fast.Now if I could just get people to stop camping my fish pools until I get Mr. Pinchy...
The plural of "necropolis"
With the Scourge invasion in full swing, there are a lot of large, pyramidal structures hovering around Azeroth answering to the name of "necropolis." This has led to a certain amount of discussion in game and around the WoW Insider bullpen, as well as on the WoW Ladies community, on the topic of what you call more than one of them. Naturally, I had to go look it up.And the answer is: necropoleis or necropoles. The first form comes from Greek, where the word originated (literal meaning: city of the dead), and is pronounced as if it were spelled "-ase." The second form comes to us through Latin (as most of our Greek-derived words do), and is traditionally pronounced by English speakers as if it were spelled "-ese" (although in Latin it would have been pronounced as "-ase" again). Necropolises is also perfectly acceptable as an English-native pluralization, so don't be too hard on your fellow adventurers who just want directions to the darn things.There are a number of words that are not a reasonable plural of "necropolis." Foremost among them is "necropoli," which arises by mistaken analogy to words like "cactus." Although the -is ending in "necropolis" is pronounced more or less the same (depending on your dialect of English) as the -us ending in "cactus," it does not come from the same category of Latin words (third declension as opposed to second, if I'm not mistaken), and thus does not pluralize the same way. Just say no to "necropoli" -- kill that urge and fight the Scourge.Edit: Yes, I know that languages evolve, and that M-W likes "necropoli." I still don't like it, though, mostly because it's based on a bad analogy. Now get off my lawn, you crazy kids!
The Death Knight class revealed
Via Gamespy and Worldofwar.net, we finally have a good idea of what rolling a Death Knight will be like. A lot of the rumors seem to have panned out, but others have not. All I know is that at this point, I am full speed ahead to make a Death Knight my new main come WoTLK. There's a lot of meaty info to dig into, so let's get to it after the break.
More Wrath of the Lich King impressions and information coming out
WorldofWar.net also got an invitation to the Blizzard event this past week (our invitation must have been lost in the mail, maybe?), and they've got six full pages of text about what they saw. Six pages hard to read though, so we've got all the salient points right here: Both Jeff Kaplan and Tom Chilton presented, with Kaplan showing off the Death Knight class and Chilton showing off the work they've done on Northrend. The Forsaken-designed starting town Vengeance Landing was shown off -- this was the same area we got to play back at Blizzcon, as well as Utgarde Keep They also got to see Valliance Keep (the other Alliance starting area), and Warsong Hold, a huge gothic iron structure run by Garosh Hellscream that Kaplan apparently called the "new look " of the Horde Horde players will be taking a Zepplin up to Northrend The Nexus, in the Coldarra part of the Borean Tundra, is the first instance on the western side of Northrend from Utgarde Keep, and it's a three wing instance with a raid dungeon where players will meet Malygos. The Badge of Justice system will continue in Northrend, but there will be new tokens to act as Badges and be returned for loot. Lots more after the break.
Dalaran might be Alliance-only
Sorun is a rogue who loves his Horde-Alliance conflict. As he posted on the forums, he feels that every action and little quest in the World of Warcraft should reflect the reality of War that exists in that world, not the good old intra-faction get-together that Shattrath has turned out to be. If Dalaran is going to be a neutral city in Wrath of the Lich King, however, it could really mess up the lore and war-filled feeling of the game:Neutral Dalaran? How does that even make any sense when horde to this day have quests to go attack the ruins of dalaran and can and have been freely killing the wizzards [sic] all around that area. He's got a point there. What is Blizzard really going to do with Dalaran in the next expansion? Read on to see what Blizzard says about it.
