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Cataclysm Beta: New maps
Jolesole of raevyn.net (coincidentally a great source for Cataclysm info) has been datamining the latest beta patch, and he's found a whole bunch of new or changed maps for zones in the new expansion. Zones include Redridge Mountains, Westfall, Vashj'ir, and more. You can check them out in our gallery below. %Gallery-96665%
Runes of Magic releases Chapter 3 zone preview
Frogster, publisher of the free-to-play giant Runes of Magic, has posted some new information on their upcoming Chapter 3 release, The Elder Kingdoms, planned for May. This information was spotted on RoM's international website, but is sure to make its way to the US one soon. "Beginning in April our players will be able to set foot on the previously forgotten continent of Zandorya and explore its first zone. And today we will be showing the first detailed glimpses into the 'Thunderhoof Hills' area and the kingdom of 'Dalanis'!" This zone preview has some nice flavor text on the new area, some information on one of their soon to be released dungeons, and new screen shots to boot. This is just a small part of the list of features going in to Chapter 3 that players can look forward to. The Elder Kingdoms will be giving us even more new zones, difficulty settings on dungeons, new pets, a marriage system, and more. This zone preview is just a small taste of many things to come. Runes of Magic has been steadily churning out content, since their official release last March. After a big birthday bash, the announcement at GDC has kept us all waiting for more news. Recent news of RoM adding Vivox integrated chat has kept us excited, but we are really glad to see this sneak peek of actual new content.%Gallery-88042%
Worgen starting zone preview from Scrolls of Lore
In lieu of providing any new information on Cataclysm in the wake of BlizzCon, Blizzard's been showing the goblin and worgen starting zones at a lot of major gaming conventions, which means a good handful of players have had the chance to try them out. Nostra from popular lorecrafting site Scrolls of Lore is one of those handfuls, and they've written up a fantastic walkthrough of the worgen starting zone, starting from your character's royal connections and subsequent infection and culminating in Deathwing's cataclysm. What's not explained (so far, likely because no one's able to get that far yet) are how the night elves play into the whole worgen "thing" as shown in the Cataclysm trailer, but there's still a lot of new information on phasing, quests, and scenery in Gilneas besides what we've already covered, as well as accompanying photos. It's definitely worth a read. Hopefully Blizzard will continue to fill in more blanks in the worgen storyline as we get closer to the expansion's release, or maybe even update the Cataclysm site more than once every four months. In the meantime we can rely on sites like Scrolls of Lore to give us exhaustive previews of public demos like this one. Thanks, Nostra! World of Warcraft: Cataclysm will destroy Azeroth as we know it. Nothing will be the same. In WoW.com's Guide to Cataclysm you can find out everything you need to know about WoW's third expansion. From Goblins and Worgens to Mastery and Guild changes, it's all there for your cataclysmic enjoyment.
Roadmap to Cataclysm zone overhauls
Okay, how did we miss this? We've been wondering about the level of change in each old-world zone for Cataclysm for months now, and the answer has actually been under our noses since BlizzCon. During the Art Panel, the above planning map was shown, along with some information to either side of it. We can't make out everything in it, but there's a lot of information if you know what you're looking at. The zone colors, from what we can infer, indicate the level of overhaul each zone is receiving. Red is a heavy overhaul, yellow is moderate, green is light, and blue means a brand-new zone. The yellow stars indicate a dungeon, and the red stars indicate a raid. The white tabs each have a letter on them, indicating what in the zone was being changed at that particular point -- L for level, Q for quests, etc. Astute readers will see some things jump out at them immediately, like Thousand Needles having two stars on it. The full list of visible zone changes after the break, along with other pertinent info. Disclaimer: While this image was captured during the BlizzCon 2009 Art Panel, the capture displays a photo taken by Blizzard staff, which is undated. We don't know if it was a day before BlizzCon 2009 or six months before. Things could have changed between when this picture was taken and when this article was published.
Cast your vote, new content poll for Champions Online
The first time Cryptic held a poll for Champions Online, it related to what kind of zone players would like to see. This time, the developer is curious to find out what level ranges its players are most interested in for new content. We're aware that most players feel like the 40+ sections of the game are in need of content, and usually the late game areas tend to get the most love when it comes to content updates. Still, it never hurts to give a little love to the middle-levels, either. As cool as this is of the developer to do, it's important to note that the poll's outcomes aren't a guarantee. This poll is merely a guide for Cryptic to use in future content decisions. Nevertheless, if you're invested in the game at all, you really want to get in on this vote while the getting is good. We're sure many of you have your own impassioned opinions on which level spreads need the most content love.
What new zones would you like to see in Champions Online?
That's the question that Cryptic is asking Champions Online players via a poll on the official website. They make it clear that this poll doesn't ensure the winner will see implementation, however. Cryptic is essentially licking their thumb and sticking it in the wind, rather than mapping exactly what the community wants to see -- which is probably the best choice.Nevertheless, it's undoubtedly a good sign when a developer takes an active interest in what kinds of content its community is most interested in seeing. Plus, it shows us what kind of content we may be seeing in the many months of Champions Online yet to come. So, we hope those of you playing cast your vote, because more than ever before, Cryptic is listening to what you've got to say.
Breakfast Topic: Will you miss the Old World?
So when I first heard about the Cataclysm, I actually sort of figured Blizzard would use a sort of phasing system on the old world: You'd start in the current old world, and at some point, you'd do a quest series that would phase you into the new, Deathwinged Azeroth similar to the way one progresses into Icecrown in Northrend. However, the word has come down: When Azeroth burns, it'll be changed for good. There's no going back. Even those who don't buy the expansion will still find themselves in Deathwing's new world.While we're told some zones will remain relatively unscathed, almost every zone will be touched in some way, whether it be simple storyline changes or more massive shakeups from rivers of lava or shrunken coastlines or war, or even more greenery thanks to shifting water sources. So here's my simple question: Will you miss it? Will you be nostalgic for a desolate Desolace or the massive Barrens? Will you mourn for fallen Astranaar and Auberdine? I'm sure some things will be missed more than others, but then again, change can be good. Being able to move on to new challenges and new excitements has me pretty psyched all told. But then again, what if they get rid of Lakeshire Bridge? I have been waiting a long time to see that done. When the Cataclysm comes, what will you miss? What will you be glad to be rid of?
The best zone of Wrath
Spinksville, following up to an earlier post concerning a great lore moment in Vengeance Landing, concludes that as a Horde player, Howling Fjord has emerged as the single best overall zone in Wrath. The more I consider it, the more I'm inclined to agree with her. The Fjord has a mostly unified questline that slowly splits off into sub-plots concerning the Kalu'ak and Taunka, and the farther you get, the more you realize the impact your previous actions have had on that little slice of the world (and most of it's not good). As Spinks observes, it's a very immersive experience that does a great job of conveying both the moral ambiguity of the Forsaken's position, and the fact that Northrend's a continent without a lot of good options. "Forced to choose between the lesser evil and the greater evil," she writes, "... you had better hope that the greater evil is very bad indeed because it is the only way to justify the things you have had to do."That said, I have to admit that Icecrown is also pretty tough to beat lore-wise (with the Matthias Lehner quests being a particularly good touch, and please don't click that link if you haven't run into him yet). I haven't yet played an Alliance toon through Northrend, and Spinks is also a Horde player, so I'd like to get some input from Alliance-side players too. Is the Fjord as good for Alliance as it is for Horde, or are your best questlines elsewhere? If you're Horde, do you agree that the Fjord was your best questing experience?
Wintergrasp disabled
We noted an error earlier this evening which was causing the Lake Wintergrasp PvP zone to be reset prematurely. Since ending epic battles early is a bad thing, Blizzard has gone ahead and "shut off Wintergrasp" completely for the time being.This change is affecting all realms.There is no word when a fix will come through, but we're hopeful it will happen sometime soon. Disabling an entire part of the game is a big thing, and an error that usually is corrected quickly.Some speculation points to the change in daily (now weekly) quests that just went in, however there is no evidence to support this.
Niveus goes consumer-level with tantalizing Zone HTPC
Each year at CEDIA, we've been downright floored with Niveus' lineup. Unfortunately, it's out of reach for the vast majority of "mainstreet" dwellers. At long (long!) last, the company has decided to expand its reach and offer a product for the blue collars in America, and on paper, the Zone looks like a real champ in the flagging HTPC arena. Measuring in at 6.5- x 6.5- x 1.97-inches, this 3.2 pound box packs an awful lot of media playing oomph into a ridiculously small enclosure. Specs wise, we're looking at a 2GHz Core 2 Duo T5750 CPU, 2GB of RAM, gigabit Ethernet, a 160GB SATA drive, slot-loading Blu-ray optical drive, front-mounted IR receiver, bundled media remote, Intel's GMA X4500 HD graphics, HDMI 1.3 / eSATA ports and support for 7.1-channel surround sound. Over on the software front, you'll see Windows Vista Home Premium along with Niveus' own suite of apps (Movie Library, Studio, Media Server Companion and Weather). Unlike any other Niveus system, consumers can purchase the Zone for $1,499 directly from the outfit's website, and there's also a unique Zone Community down in the read link; check out a promotional vid after the break if you wish.
EverQuest II Game Update 52 preview includes revamp of Lavastorm
Brett Scheinert, game designer on the SOE flagship product EverQuest II, has dropped into the official forums with a sort of 'New Year's Resolution'. In point of fact, it's a preview of new content coming to the game in Game Update 52! Posting with his forum name of timetraveling, Scheinert promised we'd see the following within the next few months: A new instance with 9 bosses geared for two groups at a time. Over half of the bosses will be slated to drop Void Shards, the new metacurrency introduced with the Shadow Odyssey expansion. This will be endgame content balanced for characters with only the very best gear. On top of that, players will also see a similar raid balanced for four groups at once. Tradeskillers will be seeing another trades instance, this time based in the epic dungeon 'The Void'. The classic zone Lavastorm will be seeing numerous improvements, similar to changes made to Everfrost in GU 48. Among these changes, players will see brand new areas with level 80 solo content tied into an all-new Lavastorm-based faction. This faction will offer numerous pieces of gear to earn, including 12 new armor sets with brand-new appearances. timetraveling makes a point to note that one of these armor sets is going to be a brand-new robe model with helm, shoulders, and legs as seperate visible pieces from the chest-part! Coming hard on the heels of an entire new expansion with multiple new dungeons, it's interesting to see the tack the EQ2 designers are taking with this. All new endgame content to explore, with new loot/appearance rewards tying into their revamp of older content. It's a great continuation of strides they took forward in 2008, and makes it sound like 2009 will be a great year to be an EverQuest II gamer. Stay tuned to Massively after the holidays for details on this new content!
Breakfast Topic: What Northrend zone did you begin in and why?
After the Midnight Launch, I rushed home with my precious Collector's Edition, installed, patched and made a Death Knight. I'm not ready to play my DK yet, but I wanted to reserve the name and get her resting. Then I put my druid on a zeppelin and went to Northrend.I didn't research the best starting zone for my class. I didn't even think about where the zeppelin might be taking me. I just randomly chose the Undercity portal from Shattrath and went from there. So here I am in the Howling Fjord. From a Tauren perspective, I'm not sure how I feel about doing chores for the Forsaken. Ah well, we're all in this together, right?Where did you begin your Northrend questing? Did you research your decision, choose randomly or follow the pack?
Zone mode edited in final version of WipEout HD
If you read our preview, we said that WipEout HD's Zone mode was one of the most intense experiences we had the pleasure of racing through. Unfortunately, it appears the mode has been seriously toned down, most likely to pass epilepsy tests. In our preview, we said that the floor textures would respond to the music playing in the background, changing color suddenly when appropriate. The reactive floor textures have been removed for the final version of the game, and now Zone mode looks much more sterile. In fact, it reminds us a lot of the Zone mode found in the PSP games, WipEout Pure and Pulse. Granted, it still looks very nice. However, it saddens us to know that we may never have a chance to play a mode notorious for its sensory overload.See a comparison video at D-Pad Magazine.[Via NeoGAF]
Age of Conan video interview focuses on player concerns
Erling Ellingson, Funcom's Product Manager for Age of Conan, recently gave a video interview with Jon Wood from MMORPG. Wood brought some tough questions to the interview regarding the problems many players are having with the game, questions that may not have simple, clear cut answers as the footage implies. Or perhaps they're just not the answers many gamers are hoping to get. Wood's interview covered the gambit of player concerns about the game: the lack of DX 10; missing and upcoming features; and speculation about changes in mature content. Perhaps of greatest significance to the Age of Conan player base is the content drop off after level 20. On the post-20 game experience, Ellingson likened Age of Conan to being two titles in one -- a single player experience and an MMO. The introduction to the game is meant to be very detailed to draw the player into the setting, but the second part is a different experience. Some people may like the first part more than the second, he says. Also, in terms of content thinning as levels go up, he feels that this happens with most MMOs when they launch, and states that even when World of Warcraft launched, "the higher level content was relatively sparse." To remedy this, Funcom is now focused on adding higher level content, including level 80 dungeons, and Ymir's Pass -- a level 55+ zone.
The Eye of Sauron makes an appearance in Wrath of the Lich King
The ultimate evil in the Lord of the Rings trilogy is represented by a large eye sitting atop a gigantic tower in a desolate and war torn land. It is one of the most iconic images in not only fantasy literature, but also in recent cinematography. Just about anyone who has paid attention to movies in the past eight years would be able to pick the Eye of Sauron out immediately, and I would have to imagine just about everyone playing WoW would be able to as well.The Eye of Sauron makes an appearance in Wrath of the Lich King in the Death Knight starting zone. It goes under the name of the Eye of Acherus. In the image at the top of the article you can see the two side-by-side – the Eye of Sauron on the left, and the Eye of Acherus on the right. Arthas himself directs you to control it and use it to gather data from New Avalon, a nearby Scarlet Crusade fortification. Take a look at the gallery below for images of the quest, what you do during it, and how everything appears.%Gallery-28758%
Player vs. Everything: Pointless mini-zones
How pointless are so-called "pointless mini-zones," really? Michael did a post the other day which examined the history of a zone in EverQuest called Surefall Glade. Hitting his links gave me a nice little walk down memory lane -- I have fond memories of Surefall, being an old-school EQ fan who cut his teeth in Qeynos Hills, back in the day. There really isn't all that much to the zone, though. It's like the article says: a cabin, a lake, an archery range, and a few hidden caves with some bears. There's nothing to do but raise your fletching skill, and nothing to kill that's worth killing. Eventually they added some stuff to it, but it was still never anything more than a small, transitional town. Surefall was the essence of a pointless mini-zone: Most players never had any compelling reason to go there. Still, did it add something to the game with its mere presence? Like Moonglade in World of Warcraft, you could argue that it was kind of a neat place for players to discover and hang out. We get so focused on the "content" of these games that sometimes we forget that exploring a new zone you've never seen before, even if there's really nothing to do there, is content in its own right. Besides, does every single zone in our MMOGs have to be a big quest hub tied to a specific zone? Can't some places just be places?
Choosing your first pet
Another new service provided by Mania's Arcania is a series of in-depth articles about how to choose your first pet when you're just starting out leveling your hunter for the first time. She covers the starting zones for each race, and highlights the pros and cons of all the best pet choices in each zone. So far she's covered the orcish, night-elven, and tauren starting areas, and more are sure to come.If anyone is starting out with a hunter character for the first time, her guide is the best I've seen on this topic, especially if you really care about the details. Most beginning hunters just choose what seems nice to them at the moment, of course, (or whatever their friends recommend to them), but it's nice to have a special recourse for those who like to do all the right research and make such choices wisely.
Revolutionary: Balance Boarder
Every Tuesday, Mike Sylvester brings you REVOLUTIONARY, a look at the wide world of Wii possibilities. var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/DIY_Wii_balance_board_used_to_play_snowboarding_game'; Inspired by Nintendo's own design, the work of another DIYer, and Alisha's challenge, I ventured to design and build my own "balance board." For a little more than $20 in materials, I've conceived an oversized Wiimote shell to translate exaggerated body movements into game commands through GlovePIE. I'm going to show you how I made it, and how it plays.
GayGamer explores the Comix Zone
We don't see many features about individual Virtual Console games, which is kind of a shame. We love talking about old games, and we kind of thought other people did too. And since we can't download demos, it's beneficial for bloggers to talk up their favorite VC games and let people know what's good, or even what these games are. That's why we're highlighting this article on Comix Zone over at GayGamer. While their recurring feature isn't always going to be about Virtual Console games (it's about comics-related games), we're happy to point you to it now that it is. And don't forget to check out our own Virtually Overlooked feature every Thursday for the best Virtual Console games that aren't Virtual Console games yet. And let us know if you've found some in-depth VC game features!
GPSPrevent intros GPS-enabled G200 speed zone warning detector
Sure, the higher-ups in Switzerland aren't exactly fond of GPS devices that sniff out speed cameras, but that's not stopping France's own GPSPrevent from kicking out a rendition of its own to fight The Man whilst driving. Presumably similar in function to Cobra's own forthcoming (and controversial) red-light camera / radar detector, the G200 integrates a GPS receiving into a typical detector in order to warn drivers about "fixed radars, danger zones, and mobile radars" throughout France and Europe. In an effort to get extra fancy, it even informs the driver of the distance until a zone is reached, what the authorized speed limit is, what type of radar it is, and how frequent the given camera looks for victims. The device signifies that you're coming up on a speed trap by beep or robotic yelps (read: male or female vocal cues) from up to 600-meters away, and the volume can be adjusted depending on how frightened you'd like to be when this fellow blasts out your faults. Additionally, drivers can program in their own alarm points thanks to the built-in memory, adjust the brightness of the digital display, and save themselves from quite a few tickets starting right now for €129 ($170).[Via NaviGadget]
