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The Perfect Ten: Best MMO theme songs (part one)
As I've well established both here on Massively and elsewhere, I'm somewhat of a nut for video game music. Whereas others might collect vintage hair metal tracks or the latest Justin Bieber opus, I'm always digging through obscure (and not-so-obscure) official soundtracks to games like Wipeout and Kirby. Video game scores can be right up there with the best that the film industry puts out, and the fact that they tie into personal experiences that we've played through can lend them sentimental weight. So for the next two Perfect Tens, I scoured all the MMO theme songs that I could get ahold of in an attempt to formulate a list of the very best. It was originally slated to be just one list, but after an hour or so of listening to tracks and having friends and fellow staffers weigh in on the subject, I knew it was impossible to keep it there. Two important things to note for this list. First, I wanted to keep to just the title/login screen tracks so that I wouldn't be working on this for the next 2.5 years. Second, unlike most past Perfect Tens where there's no significance to the order of the list, in this case we're going to have a genuine countdown to the best MMO theme song of all time. And I expect to take no flak about it, do you hear me? Good. Let's begin.
The Road to Mordor: Soundtrack bonanza!
One of the probably-not-very-interesting things about me is that I'm somewhat of a video game soundtrack aficionado. Ever since MP3s became all the rage, I've been collecting my favorite tunes from console and computer games, often replacing the in-game score with my own personal soundtrack. MMO soundtracks, as a whole, are hit or miss with me. While there are many incredible pieces out there, a bulk of what you find is low-key atmospheric stuff that isn't meant to be on anyone's Top 40 playlist. Lord of the Rings Online has its up and downs as a soundtrack, but overall it really does evoke the spirit of Middle-earth. It's hard to imagine playing the game, especially the early levels, without hearing these tracks. I've collected both the soundtracks to Shadows of Angmar and Mines of Moria and have been saving them for a special occasion. Today is that special occasion. These were composed by Chance Thomas (who's scored many Lord of the Rings-related games) and Stephen DiGregorio. Ranging from bombastic to sinister to folksy, this score covers the gamut of themes and emotions related to the journey of the Ring. It's cool to listen to it independently of the game, as you can appreciate the score for what it is -- and see how the pieces evoke memories of your times in LotRO. Instead of individually reviewing all 40 or so tracks, I'm simply going to pick my 10 most favorite to share with you!
10 apps you should install FIRST on your iPhone
You've taken the plunge and bought your first iPhone. You've activated your service with your local wireless carrier, connected and synced it with your main computer for the first time, and brought over as much music, photos, and videos as you can squeeze onto it. Maybe you've even played around with Apple's default apps a bit. "Now what?" you may be asking yourself. "I've heard about all the great apps that are available for the iPhone, but where do I start?" That's a very good question, and it's one that gets harder and harder to answer the more apps make their way into Apple's App Store. With hundreds of thousands of apps now available for the iPhone, it may seem overwhelming trying to sift through them all if this is your first few hours with an iPhone. Not to worry, because we've got you covered. We put our heads together and came up with a list of the apps you should install first on your brand-new, factory-fresh iPhone. Keeping in mind that people from all over the world use iPhones and read TUAW, we excluded from consideration any apps that don't have full international functionality. This meant leaving a number of very cool and useful apps out of consideration, but we wanted to make sure this is a list that applies to everyone, not just US or UK readers. We also kept this list pretty simple; if you're familiar with the way iTunes separates music collections into The Basics, Next Steps, and Deep Cuts, you'll see that we very much went for The Basics for this go-around. Click "Read More" to see the full list of recommended apps for first-time iPhone users and our rationale for choosing each one.
Adobe dominates Kaspersky Lab's top ten PC vulnerabilities list
Being number one is usually an honor, but not when it comes to Kaspersky Lab's top ten PC vulnerabilities list. Unfortunately for the software giant, Adobe took top dishonors for Q1 this year, pulling in five total spots on the list, including the top three. According to the security firm, all of the vulnerabilities appearing on the list allowed cyber-criminals to control computers at the system level. The number one spot was occupied by a vulnerability in Adobe Reader that was reportedly detected on 40 percent of machines running the application, while Flash Player flaws took second and third. Other dishonorees included the Java Virtual Machine, coming in at fourth and fifth place, Apple QuickTime, Winamp, and Microsoft Office. That ain't bad, considering Microsoft ruled the vulnerabilities roost in 2010.
The Perfect Ten: The secret lives of NPCs
It is fun, I've decided, to overthink things in life. This is especially relevant in MMOs, where we've long since taken absolutely bizarre staples as the accepted status quo. Sure, it's all polite fiction that allows developers to merge necessary game mechanics with a veneer of credibility, but many elements of MMOs simply fall apart when put under the microscope. Case in point, the NPC. Is there a figure in online games that more symbolizes the thin barrier between the server database and user playerbase than the non-player character? NPCs exist to fill the world with warm bodies so that places don't feel empty, yet they also exhibit no more life than a mannequin with a tape recorder strapped to its back. These cardboard cutouts of the MMO scene are either reanimated corpses struggling to remember basic quest-giving instructions, or else they're prisoners of a foul witch who has struck the entire land with a paralyzing spell. So even though it's 2011 and you'd think that NPCs would be showing us more signs of life than swiveling slightly when we approach, I'm happy to jump in and offer my opinion as to the secret life of these figures. What makes them tick? What do they get out of helping -- and prodding -- us into action? Why don't they ever sleep or use the bathroom? Just who are these people we encounter and dismiss every day?
Massively's top 10 MMO blogs of 2010
Believe it or not, Massively isn't the only MMO blog out there. I know, you're as surprised as we are, right? While we do spend most of our day obsessing about our own site, we also spend a great deal of time reading the writings of others. I often find myself turned off by straight journalism that seems dry or fabricated for the sake of traffic numbers, and attracted to the more personal and opinionated style of blogging. As far as I know, these are all volunteer, unpaid writing positions, which means they do it for the love of the subject matter. I certainly respect that. Many of the writers I've hired here on Massively are bloggers I've read for months or years. So what better way to spotlight our favorites than by making a Top 10 list about them? Follow along after the jump, where we'll tell you to leave this site to go look at a bunch of other sites. Just don't tell our ad department!
Apple lists top iPhone, iPad apps of 2010
As we reported earlier, Apple has highlighted the best of iTunes from 2010. Their showcase reveals their picks for the best movies, music, podcasts, audio books and apps for the last 12 months. For those of you who don't want to scroll through iTunes' rather cumbersome app navigation system, BoyGeniusReports has compiled easy to read lists of the top ten iPhone/iPod touch apps in the "free," "paid" and "grossing" categories, as well as the top ten iPad apps in the same categories. Unsurprisingly, some version of Angry Birds showed up in all but one of the six categories. Catch the full lists after the break and, once you've seen them, tell us in the comments how you think they match your top apps. Did Apple leave any stellar apps out?
The Perfect Ten: Halloween MMOs
We're only a few days away from Halloween, and already the Massively office staff is dressing up in anticipation. Shawn's post-apocalyptic gear is at odds with Rubi's tastefully modest Guild Wars Elementalist outfit. Greg's Squig is in the corner battling it out with Larry's Chewbacca. Bree is dudded up as a giant red corrective marker; Jef's free-to-play outfit requires microtransactions to view in full; and Kyrstalle is photographing it all with her Poloroid One-Shot camera. I think Eliot showed up in full plate armor and riding a mechanical bull, but that just may be his normal work attire. So as everyone else is goofing off in the spirit of the holidays, it remains to me, your lovable intern, to hack out a top 10 list in honor of All Hallow's Eve. It's the least I can do since they're paying me in candy. While every MMO incorporates horror at some point (even, yes, Hello Kitty Online's Cat-Tastrophie zone), and it's nearly impossible to escape a clutch of giant spiders in any game you visit, I've picked out 10 MMOs that best deliver a slice of October 31st. Some are old, some new, some canceled and some yet to come, but these are 10 of the spookiest MMOs in the world.
The Daily Quest: What if
Here at WoW.com, we're on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment and you may see it here tomorrow! Take a look at the links below, and be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites. Oh Rhonin, you're so silly. Messing with timelines and making "what if" questions out of nowhere. Let's look around the blogosphere at some what-if's and various other speculation, shall we? Tobold's MMORPG Blog wonders what if WoW had an expansion every year? World of Warcraft Philosophized wonders if better gear should look more unique. Aspect of the Hare has a learning experience, specifically the top ten things they've learned since returning to WoW. Looking for More has a top ten list too -- the top ten things they will do if they become a boss.
The Daily Quest: A daily dose of Top 10 lists
Here at WoW.com, we're on a Daily Quest (which we try to do every day, honest) to bring you interesting, informative and entertaining WoW-related links from around the blogosphere. Is there a story out there we ought to link or a blog we should be following? Just leave us a comment and you may see it here tomorrow! Take a look at the links below, and be sure to check out our WoW Resources Guide for more WoW-related sites. It's Wednesday -- are you getting your BlizzCon tickets tonight? Here are a few top 10 lists to read while you're waiting in what is bound to be a very, very long line -- and if you didn't make the line, don't worry. There's always Saturday. Linedan over on Achtung Panzercow throws us the Panzercow's own Top Ten Predictions for Cataclysm. Fuubaar over at Killing 'em Slowly gives us a Top 10 List of A.D.D. Things to Do before Cataclysm. Jed over at Jed's Corner of WoW Shenanigans serves up his Top 10 tips for guild leaders. And for something completely different, Ambrosine at I Like Bubbles has a couple of handy flow charts.
NPD 10 top-selling games for (all of) 2009
With the final month of the year in our snowmobile's rear-view, we can now pore over a totally complete and official list of the best-selling games of 2009 and boy, what a difference a month makes. While Modern Warfare 2 for 360 and PS3 still hold the #1 and #8 slots respectively, December has allowed first-party Nintendo games to fill #2 through #7. Heck, Pokemon Platinum even sneaks back in there at the end for good measure. Gamasutra's got the full list here, if you feel like perusing. We at Joystiq Publishing would again like to apologize to our investors for failing to crack the Top Ten list for the seventh year running. That said, we've been learning from these success stories and we're pretty sure that Healthy Race Island: Now With Shooting and Pokemon, will lead the way to a much brighter 2010.
Nielsen stats: a lot of iPhones out there, but also a lot of everything else
Fact: most phones last. Thing is, for us (and likely many of you), they last far longer than our clinically-diagnosed Gadget Attention Deficit Disorder would ever tolerate -- but for your dad, your sister, your college buddy with the hand-me-down ZEOS Pantera running Windows 95, or anyone weary of re-upping a two-year commitment, a handset can easily become a serious long-term investment. That helps explain why Motorola's venerable RAZR series remains staggeringly high on Nielsen's latest US phone usage report -- third place, to be exact, at 2.3 percent of all subscribers behind the iPhone 3G at 4 percent and RIM's BlackBerry Curve line at 3.7 percent. Needless to say, that doesn't mean the ancient V3 line is still in third place for sales -- it's more a testament to the staggeringly huge RAZR user base Moto managed to develop over the years, many of whom scored their phones at sub-$100 price points as an attractive, midrange value in the phone's twilight and have no intention of upgrading any time soon if they don't have to. Maybe the most interesting part of this is that two V3 variants are also topping 2009's most-recycled list, so they're definitely getting taken out of circulation -- it just might take a few years yet before you don't know anyone that uses one, that's all.
Best iPhone games of the year picks start to roll in
Gamasutra wins the award for being the first (that I've seen) to pick awards for their best five iPhone games of the year, and the list is respectable, if a little short for such a huge set of possibility. Unfortunately, they don't win any TUAW points for going with Skee-Ball over our preferred Ramp Champ, but Rolando 2 was a worthy sequel to a worthy game, Edge (now Edgy) and Eliss are both great games (too bad you can't play the former, but the latter was underrated for sure), and Space Invaders Infinity Gene deserves to be on almost any end-of-the-year iPhone game list. Good picks in there for sure. DigitalTrends also has a long list, though strangely, they tend to stick to big names and brands. There are a few gems in there -- Spider, UniWar, and Vay may be a couple good choices that you haven't heard of yet. And here's another top 10 list with some repeats from the ones above and a few more nice picks. I guess with the end of the year upon us, we'll probably have to choose TUAW's favorites of 2009, too, eh? Stay tuned.
Top 10 July PSN games revealed by PlayStation 'Pulse'
No, silly goose, PlayStation Pulse is absolutely not the Sony version of the Wii Vitality Sensor, though we understand how the name could lead you to believe otherwise. It is, in fact, a once monthly roundup of all things PlayStation Network. On the July 30 episode, after a thrilling commercial break for Fast & Furious, the show's host reveals the top 10 PSN games for the month of July, with Battlefield 1943 taking top honors. Notably missing from the list is Shatter, possibly due to it's July 23 release date. Worse? 60% of the list is made up of ports, which makes us feel kind of lonely inside. [Via VG247]
AchievementTracker tracks achievements across the realms
Reader Jeffrey R. was kind enough to send us his achievement tracking site, named (conveniently) AchievementTracker.com. We've seen quite a few sites for tracking achievements on your own character out there already (especially since the Armory opened up the information to the web), but unlike the others, AchievementTracker seems to be focusing on ranking only -- instead of browsing over your own information, all the site really presents is a list of the top players in the world, US, EU, or by the various realms.There are a few caveats, the first being that they're only tracking characters above level 70, and the second being that they're not tracking everyone -- I had to put my own character into the system (though that won't matter if you're just looking for the top players, since I would never even rank on any lists anyone was watching). And while WoW-Achievements has Beelsebub of EU Darksorrow at number one and Minipuff of EU Stormscale in second place so far, AchievementTracker has them backwards (and their point totals are lower -- maybe Armory lag?).And of course we don't know for sure if there's someone on the realms that neither of these sites are tracking with more achievement points (it may be worth noting, too, that beyond Armory links, neither site tells us much about the characters -- is there a class or spec that's better for achievement point earning?). It'll probably take a little while until we can get a standard for tracking these, but until then, looks like we'll have a few different lists to watch.
Top 10 HD sports broadcasts of 2008 -- do you agree?
We know, they're essentially meaningless in the grand scheme of things, but there's something about these "top lists" that just warms our hearts. Arlen Schweiger over at Electronic House took a long, hard look back at all the sports he consumed over the course of this year in order to compile a best-of-the-best list for HD content. We don't want to give away any spoilers before you give the read link a visit, but let's just say "Texas tips Oklahoma," "Giants Freeze Packers" and "Celtics Return to Glory" are scattered about in there somewhere. And while we're on the subject, what's your top 10 high-def sports list of 2008?
Age of Conan makes 10 most disappointing list
The end of the year is coming, which means that it's time for everyone to publish their best and worst of 2008. As such, we were interested to note that among many console near-misses like Mirror's Edge and Dead Space, only one MMO made it to the top ten on the Wired listing. That's right - clocking in at number 10, is Funcom's recent MMO offering, Age of Conan. Though they give some love to the combat system, they say their primary reason for including it is because it seemed as if it were shipped before all bugs were ironed out, and with not quite enough content. We'd have to agree to a certain extent, but we'd be remiss to note that Funcom is far from the only company to roll out an MMO this year that couldn't have used just a wee bit more polish. At least we can say that they are finally getting it now. Whether or not its too late for those MMOs to build up more interest - including Age of Conan - only time will tell.
The Best of Massively: Our most helpful guides
In just over one month, Massively will celebrate its first birthday! Last week we started a countdown to the event by kicking off a series of features highlighting the best stuff from the site so far. We started with our ten most important interviews. Today, we're continuing the weekly countdown by listing some of your (and our) favorite guides!We broke them out into six categories, counting down to the best and most popular. A wide variety of games are covered, so chances are you'll find something useful in here. This list can serve as a springboard to a ton of content -- dozens and dozens of articles. So consider this your go-to place for info on some of the hottest games.Without further ado, here's the guide to our best guides. Wow, how meta is that! Click to start >> %Gallery-32805%
Top 10 things we all want in a KotOR MMO
The Knights of the Old Republic MMO concept has been laid out there, despite no "official" announcement, and excitement is brewing everywhere. What would this MMO bring to the table? How would they successfully create another Star Wars-based online world and make it at least competitive in today's crowded MMO market? Enter IGN's "Top 10 Things We Want in a KOTOR MMO" list. This list was compiled by the folks on IGN's PC Team to let us know what they think would make the game exciting and successful. Some of the features they've cited include space combat comparable to TIE Fighter, player-run territories (planets?) and no over-saturation of Jedis. Check out the complete list at their site for more, and let us know what you'd add to that list.
Top 10 questions from WoW players on the EQ2 forums
We get the distinct impression that EverQuest 2 players might not appreciate it when World of Warcraft players come to their forums. Call it a territorial thing, call it something else, but the beauty of this interaction is when we get a gem of an article like the one posted by SpyderBite over at Allakhazam. The topic pretty much says it all, but we'll let you read through these yourself, nodding your head in agreement (if you're an EQ2 player) or getting frustrated and ready to flame this post in the comments (if you're a WoW player). Enjoy!10. Where's the auction? How do you people trade with each other?9. My mods aren't working. Can somebody help me get them to work in this game?8. Where's the Battlegrounds? I tried a PvP server but people kept killing me.
