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Warhammer Online hands-on time at E for All
WanderingGoblin.com has posted their extensive impressions of some time spent with Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning whilst at the recent E for All event. Seeing as no one else gets to play Warhammer at the moment, the hands-on may provide a much needed hit for anyone experiencing withdrawal symptoms.The article discusses various aspects of the game. There is a breakdown of some of the standout classes, of which the Warrior Priest sounds quite interesting. It is also noted that the two factions in the game, Destruction and Order (referred to as Chaos and Order in the article), do not simply contain identical classes with different names. This has weighty player-versus-player balance implications, and you can be sure that the game's forums will consist mostly of threads beginning with "___ class is OP!", followed by "It's fine, lrn2play", but it is a bold move nevertheless.Speaking of PvP, it seems that EA Mythic prefers to call it Realm vs Realm or RvR, which hearkens back to Mythic's much earlier MMO Dark Age of Camelot. The article includes a reminder that players will gain leveling experience and loot by killing other players, a concept which should tickle the fancy of anyone fond of PvP. The full article is linked below and contains much more about WanderingGoblin's time with with Warhammer at E for All.
Warhammer 40,000 Squad Command downloadable demo
It's been a while hasn't it? Finally, after months of nothing -- we have a new downloadable demo to enjoy. Seemingly coming out of nowhere, here's Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command. This strategy game has some pretty good looks, and will attempt to teach you the very basics on how to play the game.1. Download the demo zip file.2. Extract the contents of the zip file.3. Connect your PSP to your computer using a USB cable.4. Go to the PSP/GAME folder.5. Copy ULUS10313 folder into the GAME directory. Make sure there are no sub-directories in this folder. Check out our demos site:demos.pspfanboy.com %Gallery-4104%
E for All galleries
We had a chance to hit up the inaugural year for E for All in Los Angeles, and while turnout wasn't so hot, there were a few goodies we were able to get our hands on. We collated the MMO-related shots for a Massively-flavored E for All gallery: %Gallery-9572% We also offer a screenshot gallery from the time we got to spend with Warhammer Online: %Gallery-9466% And some initial screenshots from the upcoming title from Avatar Reality, Blue Mars: %Gallery-9463% For the full mega-gallery featuring your required dosage of cosplay and Rock Band almost-stars, check out the complete Joystiq E for All gallery: Gallery: E for All 2007
Week 1 - Checking in with the Warhammer Online beta
When it comes to the Warhammer: Age of Reckoning beta silence is never golden. Instead of leaving everyone in the dark to fend for speculative scraps and gossiping guffaws, the development teams working will report to the masses every week on the progress they are making in different areas of the game to keep our salivating tongues dripping. Check out the full script for yourself or stick around for a recap. Public Quests were reportedly a little on the iffy side before the developers stalled the beta, currently influence and experience rewards are being adjusted for perfection. There are still a lot of UI enhancements in the sketch phase and it may not be until January, a whole month after the beta kick-starts into high gear, before beta testers see those easy-on-the-eyes UI improvements. The biggest undertaking by the Public Quest team is dealing with the teeter-totter that is balancing loot and fine-tuning it so the pig-hats stats aren't pig-crap, make it worthy! When it comes to RvR players can now flag themselves for some PvP action, although, the same regular rules apply for removing the flag. Guards in the Chapter hubs will flag any player if they are disrupting the peace and commence a beat-down to punish their wily ways. A very slight acknowledgement but unfortunately no juicy information this week on battleground objectives but the RvR team does promise to divulge some information in the near future.
Warhammer maps on Ten Ton Hammer
Seriously, there are so many puns for this one I will just steer clear of them all. Ten Ton Hammer has outdone themselves, publishing a Cartographer's Corner with all the lovely mapage from Warhammer Online that you could ask for, and even some you didn't. The maps themselves seem to be drawn by characters within the game, and give us more than just a sense of the vastness of this landscape. We're shown that this game will definitely have a sense of humor (just check out the sample above to see "wut" I'm talking about.)All told the current number of maps in the corner totals 19, and it looks like they are still expecting a few to fill out their collection. Are they MMO players or what! If you are at all interested in what this world looks like, pop on over to Ten Ton, and tell them Amanda sent you.
The Virtual World Boom
Looking for a great escape from reality? Nothing comes close to a Virtual World for a thrill seeking whimsical adventure that doesn't require you to crash your bank account or take some time away from work-- except when an expansion is released or you that long-awaited beta invite shows up, thank you sick leave! It's only natural that people from all walks of life and ages enjoy being entertained by an interactive medium that offers socialization, avatars, items, mini-games and other various shenanigans. Everyone from Webkinz moms, Club Penguin kiddos, the voracious World of Warcraft indulgers and in between is getting in on some Virtual World action. The whole Virtual World genre is going to get a lot more crowded as big media conglomerates take notice and throw staggering piles of cash around in an attempt to attract new visitors. Recent findings by the Virtual World Conference suggest that from October 2006 to October 2007 more than 1 billion dollars was invested in 35 virtual worlds companies. Over at Business Week, there is a great write-up from Paul Heyman of Game Daily about the stirrings from the last Virtual Worlds conference and where some of this money is coming from and where it's going. You won't find any Jeff Kaplan quotes on "welfare epics" but it's still worth a gander if you are interested in an upcoming subset of the genre that will probably prove to be more popular than traditional based fantasy MMORPGS. It isn't the promise land for every Virtual World. Mike Schramm recently reported on the MMO Boom and how it isn't always peaches and cream. This year has been rough on Auto Assault and Gods & Heroes: Rome Rising as both MMOGS shut down permanently while Ryzom is still hanging on for dear life. Despite the pitfalls, MMORPGS will thrive or World of Warcraft will at least, for how long? If Ultima Online has lasted 10 years, WoW will easily top that. 2008 should prove to be a better year for MMORPGS with Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures set to hit our desktops. My hope is that these Virtual Worlds, the ones with elves and fireballs and not Hello Kitty, will be just as fun to explore as their predecessors.
The MMO scorecard
Ancient Gaming Noob has a scorecard up-- after all the hype about the next big MMO after World of Warcraft, he's listed out eight criteria an up-and-coming MMO needs to meet to really be as big as Blizzard's epic game is.And I tend to agree with everything. A great MMO needs to be both a brand of its own and a strong IP, and that right there is enough to get rid of most of the contenders. Tabula Rasa is a good idea, but what makes it unique to any of the other "sci fi legends" settings throughout the rest of history? System spec compatibility, quality and polish, and solo play are Blizzard standbys, and they had the genius and the knowhow to put them into an MMO. Not many game companies can do these three things effectively, although I'd put Bioware on that list (what they miss out in system specs they make up for in quality), and their upcoming MMO will be something to see for sure.PvP and Sandbox play are two things that can turn a good game into a really great game, and again, there are only a few companies so far that can really get it right. Mythic is an old veteran of PvP, but the big question with Warhammer Online will be whether it can appeal to a casual audience in the way that WoW does-- remember, you have to meet all eight of these criteria to really have a chance at beating WoW. And finally, AGN lists financial stability as a must, and that's a no brainer-- it's why Gods and Heroes didn't make it.It's a good list-- I'd say that if he's missing anything, it's that you need to make 100% sure your game is socially accessible. WoW does that with a strong guild system, an easy to navigate realm system, Horde and Alliance factions (you're more likely to make ties when you know an opponent is hunting for you), lots of emotes and waves, and pop culture references that even new players can "get" and see as familiar. Even a terrific game won't reach WoW heights if nongamers log in and don't understand what they see.
Warhammer closed beta going offline until December
If you're lucky enough to be involved in the Warhammer Online closed beta, get ready to not be in it for two months-- TwoTonHammer reports that Mythic is shutting down the reported WoW-killer for an extended period, from October to December.Bad news for WAR fans? Maybe, maybe not. An extended vacation could mean that Mythic isn't happy with what's happening so far (though obviously they haven't given any public indication that that's the case). Or it could mean, as TTH notes, that this is just what the doctor ordered to turn WAR from a good game into a really great game.At any rate, we're not finding out which it is anytime soon-- the servers are reopening in December 2007, and if there is in fact an open beta (there will be, won't there?), it obviously won't happen until after that. More like Waithammer, amirite!?[ via Keen and Graev ]
New Warhammer 40,000 trailer has pretty cutscenes
Not to be confused with that other Warhammer game, Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command actually seems like it's shaping up to be a decent title; just take a look at those downright awesome-looking cutscenes the game is sporting in its new trailer.Although the in-game graphics aren't up to par with the game's cutscenes, Squad Command does feature some pretty intense explosions as you'll be able to completely destroy the infrastructure in the levels.What's more, the trailer confirms the game will support up to eight-player "local and global" multiplayer, which, if done right, could make this turn-based strategy game completely worthy of your purchase when it releases later this year.
THQ continues Dawn Of War expansion with Soulstorm
THQ has once again returned to Games Workshop's well for a drink, announcing yet another expansion for the company's popular Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War real-time strategy franchise. The series, which launched in 2004 for the PC and already includes expansions Winter Assault and Dark Crusade, is based on the popular tabletop miniatures war game, though thankfully the electronic version is far less expensive. In development at Relic, Soulstorm is expected to launch in spring 2008. In addition, like Dark Crusade, Soulstorm will be a stand alone expansion, allowing players to jump right into the grim darkness of the far future without having to pick up the other games in the series to do so. Previous expansions added new armies like the Imperial Guard, Tau, and Necron, and Soulstorm looks to continue this tradition by introducing two new factions, bringing the series' total to nine playable races. While THQ remains tight lipped on one of these new races, the other will be the Dark Eldar. The game will also add new units across the seven other races, including air units, a first for the series. Finally, the scale of the game is swelling as well, with THQ noting that players will do battle across an entire star system. For the Emperor!
Frank Pearce talks WoW 2, competitors and Team 3 with Gamasutra
Senior VP Frank Pearce and Starcraft II producer Chris Sigaty sat down with Gamasutra to chat about "The State of Blizzard's Union" recently, and while there's not a lot of new stuff ("Team 3" is mentioned, but no hints are given), it's always cool to have an inside look at what it's like running the biggest MMO in the world.Pearce does talk about a possible WoW 2 (not gonna happen, he says, until Blizzard needs a whole new framework, and that's not going to happen for a long time), and WoW's competitors-- he namechecks Warhammer and Age of Conan, but as I've said before, we won't know how those games will actually do until they see release.There are a few interesting numbers thrown around in the interview as well-- while Blizzard has said they've got 9 million before, Pearce specifically says 8.5 million subscribers, so it does seem like they're dropping a bit (updated-- see note below). Still, especially with the release of Wrath of the Lich King in the next year or two, they remain optimistic that they'll hit 10 million before it's all said and done. It's also amazing to see Blizzard's growth-- Pearce co-founded the company, and they started out with around 50 employees. Before WoW, they had about 500, and nowadays, they've got 2700 people working for them. And the teams are really interesting, too-- WoW has 135 developers, Starcraft II has 40, and Team 3 has 50, plus Blizzard has 85 people (also devs, however) that work on their famous cinematics, and extra teams for sound and quality assurance.Very interesting to get a look inside such an amazing videogame developer. Now if only we could find out what Team 3 was...[ via WorldofWar ]Update: Blizzard contacted us to say that this interview happened way back at E3, which was before this press release dropped. Subscriber numbers are not dropping-- when Pearce did the interview they had 8.5 million, and after that, they rose to 9 million. And Blizzard tells us that since then, they are above the 9 million mark.
USK lists Warhammer: Mark of Chaos for 360
Ah, the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle, better known as the USK or, simply, the German version of the ESRB. We love 'em. Why? Because they constantly tip us off about games that publishers work so darned hard to keep secret. For example, the USK has now listed Namco Bandai and Black Hole Entertainment"s Warhammer: Mark of Chaos for the Xbox 360. A real time strategy title that debuted last holiday to decent reviews, Mark of Chaos would be yet another addition to the Xbox 360's burgeoning RTS library. The 360 game has another subtitle tacked onto it, making the full title actually Warhammer: Mark of Chaos -- Battle March. Whether this means we'll see a completely retooled game or an expansion to the original we're not sure. In an interesting twist, the entry on in the USK database is labeled "GC-Demo" which would lead us to believe we'll see a Mark of Chaos demo before too long. Once again, thanks USK![Via IGN. Thanks, IncredibleBulk92]
Warhammer: Mark of Chaos rated for Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 may become home to another, less infuriating Mark of Chaos in the coming months if the Unterhaltungssoftware Selbstkontrolle website is to be believed. The German software ratings board -- think ESRB but far more interesting to pronounce -- has updated its database with an entry for "Warhammer: Mark of Chaos - Battle March (GC Demo)" for the Xbox 360. The title would imply the existence of an Xbox 360 version of last year's PC real-time strategy game, due to be shown off at the Leipzig Games Convention taking place later this month. Developed by Black Hole Entertainment, the original game received some varied reviews and several complaints about its adherence to the tabletop game's rules. If indeed a real game, Battle March joins a steadily growing battalion of RTS games marching onto Microsoft's console. [Via Eurogamer]
Warhammer 40K: Squad Command bound for DS, PSP
THQ today announced a portable entry into the Warhammer 40,000 franchise in the form of Squad Command. A turn-based strategy game bound for the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP, Warhammer 40,000: Squad Command will boast an "engaging, authentic single-player storyline," as well as an online multiplayer mode. It will also (presumably) allow you to command a squad at some point. Whether said squad belongs to the Imperium of Man or Chaos Space Marines is up to you, as is the manner in which you conquer the game's "fully destructible" 3D battlefields. THQ promises that both versions will make full use of their respective platforms, and that you can look for the game on shelves later this year.%Gallery-4107%
Warhammer 40,000 bringing turn-based strategy to PSP
THQ has announced today that a new Warhammer title will be hitting PSPs. In Squad Command, gamers play as the elite Space Marines of the Ultramarines chapter and must fight the (obviously) evil Chaos Space Marines. The game promises 13 single-player missions and a "robust multiplayer mode" with 9 unique missions.Of particular note is the "fully destructible, real time 3D battlefields" the game promises. Theoretically, this means that each battle can be dynamic and different, although we haven't seen the extent of the damage that can be dealt.There will be over 20 ranged and close combat weapons in the game, taken directly from the Warhammer 40,000 universe, including the Bolter, Plasma Gun, Chainsword and Power Fist. Expect more details on this new game in the coming months.%Gallery-4104%
THQ brings Warhammer 40K: Squad Command to the DS
Usually, when we were playing with figures they were of the GI Joe variety, but many of you fine readers out there probably engaged in some fierce combat with the Warhammer figurines. There were even entries into the video game arena, as the board-turned-video-game kept its strategic elements during its transition. Now, us who find ourselves so fond of handheld gaming, get a chance at seeing what the franchise is all about when Warhammer 40K: Squad Command comes to the DS later this year.You might think we're crazy, upon heading over to THQ's official site and finding only a listing for the game on PSP, but we assure you the title will also be gracing the DS. And, as with the PSP version, should feature Wi-Fi Connect compatible gameplay to boot.
Warhammer Online starts beta with 200k signed up to play
EA Mythic wants to show they're off to a good start with Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning by letting everyone know that 200,000 players are currently signed up to play their closed beta. The beta started on May 30 and the 200,000 mark was reached ten days after launch. What's the average amount of time that normally takes? Who knows, but they put it in the release so it must be an interesting fact. The Halo beta ended up having 820,000 players (that's actual players, not "signed up"), but that's an apples to oranges situation, and yet, also an interesting fact. There are still spots open for the beta and EA Mythic is taking applications at the WAR site. WAR was recently delayed from this year until sometime in 2008. EA Mythic is looking to have this dog ready for the show by that point. We're sure to get the first tidbits of how the game is sometime soon and we're definitely going to get our first real taste for the game when EA shows it off at E3. [Via Press Release] Update: Oops, EA Mythic has 200k players signed up for the beta, they don't give an actual number of people who are playing.
Warhammer Online seeks beta testers
EA Mythic is starting beta registration today for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. The game, which was recently delayed until 2008, will begin an invite-only beta in the relative future. To sign up you just click here or there is more information on the Warhammer site. We've got the nagging suspicion that Warhammer Online is going to follow the same route as Lord of the Rings Online in terms of polish. EA Mythic is holding on to the title for longer than necessary to tweak and get that game to shine when it goes gold. Remember, entering the fantasy MMO market, games can't go in fresh, they have to feel like they've got two years of battle under their belt to compete against World of Warcraft. Where's Tabula Rasa already for those done with fantasy and need an MMO sci-fi fix? [Via Press Release]
Warhammer Online delayed until 2008
EA Mythic's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning has been delayed to 2008. The game was originally expected this fall, the statement was made in a newsletter stating the delay was caused by Mythic's acquisition by EA and they've been "afforded many wonderful development opportunities" which they plan to take advantage of, which "includes taking several additional months to make the best MMORPG possible." Warhammer Online is EA's ticket into the MMO market and they aren't releasing this game until it's perfect. Mythic is best known for creating the successful (by pre-WoW standards) Dark Age of Camelot and EA purchased Mythic in an attempt to have a successful MMO in their portfolio following the colossal epic ginormous mythic failure of Earth and Beyond and The Sims Online. When we saw a very early version of Warhammer at last year's E3 it looked perfectly fine and was moving along with some interesting innovations to the genre. We're sure to get a better idea of the final game and what to expect by E3, followed by months of tweaking by the developer. If the Warhammer Online team follows the lead of the Lord of the Rings Online then they know that an MMO can't enter the market without being well-done. MMO's can't feel like they're just starting, they need to feel like there's been two years of extra content built into them -- it's one nasty genre to get involved in at the moment.
THQ announces Warhammer 40k MMO
From Gamespot, the same people who brought you the fake World of Starcraft, comes the announcement of a Warhammer 40,000 MMO -- this sci-fi MMO based on a popular franchise is real though. The Warhammer MMO should also not be confused or compared to the orcs and humans Warhammer: Age of Reckoning MMO by EA Mythic, expected this holiday season.THQ will develop the game with Austin, Texas-based Vigil Games. All of this Warhammer 40k MMO stuff is just in the talking stage at the moment, so expect the game sometime near the next decade. By then we should have hoverboards and Duke Nukem Forever.
