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One Shots: You are not cleared to buzz the tower
While Star Wars Galaxies is currently tearing up the Choose my Adventure voting by mobilizing their forum community, there was another SOE game in the mix that was doing very well at the beginning of voting -- Vanguard! With Vanguard having grand vistas like this, and the ability to fly around on pegasi, we can understand why folks might be curious to see more of this game. Still, we do have today's lovely One Shots that comes to us from Солнцев А., who writes in to tell us more about it: "Here my Wood Elf ranger Antalisia on Halgar (EU) server (The Third Sun guild) wanted to show you one of a many spectacular places in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. The place is called Jalen's Crossing and it is aimed at low levels (around 8-12). It is an immense bridge built by the race of Raki (foxlike people). You can also see on the shot the several floating islands. This is called 'Arks of Harmony' -- [it is a] floating temple built by Raki, but now infested with elementals. You can get there either taking pegasus or via teleporter on the bridge." If you think we're not showing off your favorite game often enough, there's an easy way to fix that: send in your own screenshots and tales! One Shots is entirely dependent on community input, so you guys make or break the depth (or non-depth) we show here. Our email address is oneshots@massively.com: Be sure to include your name, the name of the game, and a description too. In return for sending in your best shots, we'll give you the credit for sending in something we haven't seen before. Couldn't be easier. %Gallery-85937%
One Shots: A beautiful day for a flight
While we may not often see the lush landscapes of Vanguard here, they stand waiting for those who are interested in checking out this scenic world. That's why we're glad to hear from the occasional adventurer who wanders into Vanguard -- and other off-the-beaten-path MMOs like it. Today, we have a great One Shots that comes to us from the intrepid wanderer, Vendayn, who sends us reports on his travels from time to time. He writes: "Hello from Vendayn. I re-subscribed to Vanguard: Saga of Heroes recently and was amazed at how good the graphics still are. By removing fog in-game, you get an amazing view of the land like you can see in the screenshot. This was taken on Isle of Dawn, while I was doing the Pegasus scouting quest." If you're playing an MMO that doesn't often get love here on Massively, why don't you grab a screenshot of life in that game and tell us all about it! All MMOs are welcome, from big to small. Just email them in to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, the name of the game, and a description of what we're seeing. We'll post them out here for everyone to look at, and give you the credit for sending it in. %Gallery-85937%
SOE announces dates for Fan Faire 2010
For fans of Sony Online Entertainment's stable of MMO titles, the time has come once again to start making plans for Fan Faire. It looks like we'll all be heading back to Bally's Hotel in Las Vegas from August 5-8 for a weekend chock-full of all manner of crazy gaming fun with MMO friends. This year, they're offering everything from day passes at $35 on up to a Platinum badge which -- for $135 -- will net you access to all events, plus an additional in-game item, a special swag bag boasting more than just regular Fan Faire goodies, access to a VIP lounge, and even private VIP events. Add to that the room discounts starting at $65 a night for a swanky hotel right on the main Vegas strip, and this could well be a great vacation that just happens to include the awesome fun of this year's SOE Fan Faire. For now, there's no details on the schedule of events, but we wouldn't be surprised to see Alan "Brenlo" Crosby wedging people into t-shirts three sizes too small, as well as an appearance by of one of our favorite Dwarves. If previous years are any indication, this is a should-not-miss event for any serious SOE fan.
Vanguard paints a rocky road to come in the year ahead
While the holidays are a time full of cheer and special events, things in Telon aren't looking as bright as usual.In a recent announcement to the Vanguard community, the team has decided to be as frank as possible and outline the road map for the game in the year ahead. Due to limited resources and a new focus on bug elimination over ambitious content releases, some of the game's anticipated updates are being shelved indefinitely. Those features include the Halls of Shattered Souls, Pankhor Zhi, Nexus, and the anticipated "alternate advancement" system.
Vanguard welcomes back former subscribers with free game time
Vanguard wants you to come home for the holidays and spend an evening next to your fireplace in Telon. In conjunction with their holiday events, former subscribers that were inactive for longer than 45 days have had their accounts reactivated until January 31st, 2009. You don't have to do anything to pick up the free game time, all you need to do is run Vanguard and play. Even if you don't have your disks, you can still download the trial client and it will patch you up to the full client when you run it.The free game time will let you check out the new features to the game, like the addition of fishing, a new ship, a new raid, new enhancement slots, the Festival of Gloriann and all the decorations that come with it. So fly back to Telon with Randolph the Flying Reindeer and fight off some evil snowmen. It's free!
Fender's modeling VG Stratocaster gets inspected
A legend in the guitar industry pairing up with a heralded name in the modeling biz? No, it's not too good to be true, as Fender and Roland have teamed up to create the first modeling stratocaster. Just weeks after Gibson's own digital axe finally went on sale, the VG Stratocaster is built to look, feel, and play exactly like the strats of old always have, but a few subtle (albeit substantial) alterations open up a whole new world of riff creations. The six-string gurus over at GuitarGearCentral have taken the time to carefully inspect the changes, and it looks to us that even the purists could find something here to love. The thin Roland GK pickup mounted at the bridge provides the ability to emulate "37 Fender Stratocaster, Telecaster, humbucking, 12-string, and acoustic sounds,"while a pair of LED status lights provide a bit of flash and a new duo of knobs (Mode Control and Tuning Function) are used to further dictate the sounds. Dubbed a "Swiss Army knife of tone," this instrument allows you to dial-in alternate sounds and tunings on the fly, giving players the ability to add some chunk with Drop D tuning sans fiddling with the tuning head. Although the crew admired the simplicity Fender somehow managed to achieve with all the complex features that have been added, they still would test out a few more guitars to make sure this is your bag before throwing down the (admittedly reasonable) $1,699 required to take one home.
Three million units sold?
VGCharts, the "premier source for videogame sales charts on the internet", has totaled worldwide Wii sales now in excess of three million units. The same list has Xbox 360 at 7.74 million, and the PS3 at a rather stunted 1.18 million. By comparison, other-unofficial-internet-tallying site NexGenWars has the three consoles at 9.18 million for the 360, only 2 million for the Wii, and 800,000 for the PS3.Which should you believe? We're inclined to roll with VGCharts, which seems to have a very meticulous method of gathering numerical data. The competition uses an arbitrary "unit sold every x seconds" formula until the site owner can alter the data manually after press releases and official data; in the first week of sales, the Wii inexplicably went from 700,000 to 400,000 in the blink of an eye.We all know that Nintendo promised four million worldwide by year's end, but over 75% delivered isn't such a terrible let-down. And hey! There are still five days left! C'mon, Nintendo, you can do it![Thanks, Richard!]
