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A look at GM Island and the Player Jail
It's hard to judge exactly how many players know about GM Island. Some of the older players will remember the flood of trade chat and guild chats whenever a GM was online and visible in GM Island, and those folks who like to mess around with private servers and unexplored places will have at least heard of its existence. However today, with the island being so cordoned off, many players probably are not familiar with the mythical island of the game masters. GM Island is a piece of land that used to exist in the very upper left hand coordinates of Azeroth, far beyond the reach of players. It exists as an in-game entrance point for Blizzard GMs, and is a relatively mundane place. It has a small keep and a dock, a few trees and bushes, and that's it. There was a time when players were able to swim out to the island, and that swim took around an hour of hard work. It involved using a level one character constantly casting renew and other healing spells; and the player had to know exactly where to point themselves or risk being hopelessly lost in the vast oceans of Azeroth. The trick used to get there was similar to the one that allowed players to get to the Isle of Quel'Danas on the patch 2.4 PTR back in 2008. It was also possible to water-walk out there, but not much is known anymore about that method, at least publicly. After the break we'll take a look at a few of the features and lore surrounding GM Island, as well as look at some videos. However, please be forewarned that some of the images and videos in this post are from private servers. Enough legitimate in-game footage simply doesn't exist. %Gallery-86576%
Legendary to open this summer for Xbox 360, PS3, PC
Atari and those wily rascals at Gamecock have announced a release date window for the upcoming first-person shooter Legendary, currently being banged out by Turning Point devs Spark Unlimited. The publishing duo note that Legendary (thankfully having dropped that silly 'The Box' subtitle) will be available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC this summer. So far this has only been confirmed for the game's UK release, though given that the title is being co-published by both Atari and Austin-based Gamecock, we expect a similar window to be confirmed for North America in short order.First unveiled as part of Gamecock's lineup during E3 2007, Legendary left us impressed with its focus on frenetic action and a compelling story about a thief who is tricked into stealing and inadvertently opening the mythical Pandora's Box, letting loose all of the freakish goodies inside. Details continue to be scarce, though Spark's top banana Craig Allen notes that the developers are taking extra effort to "ensure optimum performance, regardless of platform." This is one we can't help but keep on the ol' radar, and now that we have an idea of when to expect Legendary to drop we can stop climbing the walls and get back to doing something more constructive. Like continuing our letter campaign to Spark to change the name of the game.Update: As suspected, Gamecock reps have confirmed that Legendary is set to be released in North America this summer as well. And we've also added some new images of the game to the gallery!%Gallery-4924%
Joystiq impressions: Legendary: The Box
Legendary: The Box is quite possibly the worst name given to a game with a massive amount of potential. They could have called it Pandora and used one perfect word to describe this first-person shooter in a nutshell -- but they didn't. Thankfully, developer Spark has till Spring of 2008 to change the name. Pandora Legendary: The Box starts with a thief being hired to break into a museum to steal a box. Oops, turns out it's Pandora's box which the thief accidentally activates and all hell breaks loose -- literally. In an incredibly intense scene reminiscent of a Call of Duty or Medal of Honor sequence (coincidentally that's what the developers from Spark worked on previously), the world just plunges into chaos. You'll watch the whole thing happen in real time. From the moment the box is opened you'll attempt to escape the crumbling museum, avoid the griffins, try your best to soak in the insanity that ensues around you, and run away from a golem created from cars and building parts. If your character stops, he'll die.A later piece of the game takes place in an English cathedral infested with werewolves. Yes, the developers are quite aware the issue there and are looking to tweak it. The controls are your standard FPS stuff and the weapons we saw are based on modern weaponry. You get ammo off the fallen soldiers belonging to the private army of the man who hired you to "steal" the box. Also, the box infuses you with the power to suck life force from fallen beasts to recover health. The game uses the Unreal Engine 3 and considering we're still a little under a year from seeing the final product, the game is already looking fantastic. The developers say where they invested time was in enemy recognition of objects and surroundings so that the experience is never the same twice. The werewolves don't take the same path to a target every time and they'll crawl walls, drop from the ceiling, jump over boxes and the only way they'll stay dead is by shooting off their heads.The developers also said that multiplayer will be different, utilizing the creatures into various multiplayer types. Humans vs. creatures already sounds like a good and obvious multiplayer experience. We're excited to see more of this game as it comes along. It's still way too early to tell if the game will be any type of good, but a game that utilizes Call of Duty intensity with a modern tale of Pandora's box sounds very cool. Now somebody please change the name of this game to accurately convey how great this title could be when it releases.%Gallery-4924%
E3 '07 trailer roundup: Day Minus One
E3 hasn't even officially started yet, and the trailers are already ankle-deep from Monday's appearances alone. Just wait until it's raining assets later in the week and you can't keep up with anything. You'll feel a bit like Malcolm McDowell in A Clockwork Orange. You won't want to watch anymore, but you won't be able to help it.Viddy everything that popped online Monday after the break, with the added bonus of the Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare E3 trailer. Even though it came out a couple of days ago and is a total mouthful, it's well worth a second look.
E3 opens up trailer for Legendary: The Box
Seriously, Pandora's Box ... why do people keep opening that thing? Unless there's a sign taped to it that says "Free donuts inside!", it's hard to understand why anyone would want to open this up. Plus take a look at how nasty Spark has made the it look. It's not exactly the kind of box that screams for you to open it up. We're getting a distinct vibe that it's not too appealing to the touch.Of course, there's always a troublemaker somewhere in the group. Check out the nastiness that invades after someone takes a peek inside in Legendary: The Box. Mystical creatures and beasties attacking a modern-day world? Sounds like what the single player version of Shadowrun could have been. "Coming soon for next generation console and PC" ... just one console. But which one?!The game will be out sometime in Spring 2008. Check out the press release after the break.
SEGA unveils "The Box"... a new console? No... just a game...
Sad. While we all know deep down we'd like to see the Sega Phoenix before we die, that's a pretty darn slim possibility. But if they pulled their heads out of Microsoft's, Sony's, and Nintendo's bums and make sequels to games that more than deserve them, it could happen. Ranting aside, there are rumors surfacing about Sega making a new horror title called The Box. Or The Gift, The Sacrament, or Crucible. The Box is the best... aren't the Gift and the Crucible already titles for books? I guess everything is, really, but those sound like really well-known books...Anyway, Sega passed out a survey that had a short description of the supposed PS3-60 (get it? It's multi-platform genius!) horror title. It went a little exactly like this: "An open free-roaming action horror game where the player undertakes a terrorizing journey of suspense, fear, power and discovery, And where every decision has multiple consequences... Uncover an ancient chest with unimaginable power that seduces you into evil, sin and corruption." This sounds kind of like a mix between Indigo Prophecy and Siren. Both were good. Will they mash together well, though, and create the new Silent Hill? Or will they sort of smush around and make some sort of blemish like [insert crappy horror title here, I can't think of any right away]. Don't say Fatal Frame 2 though -- that game scared the bejeezus out of me. Multiple times. Leave us your thoughts!
