The Might and Magic franchise is coming to the MMORPG genre, courtesy of publishing giant Ubisoft and the Chinese development studio known as TQ Digital. The original Might and Magic series, considered by many to be a classic example of the early PC roleplaying game genre, was rebooted by Ubisoft in 2006 with Heroes of Might and Magic V, and later with Dark Messiah of Might and Magic.
The new MMORPG, Heroes of Might and Magic Online, is slated for closed beta in May 2010. The game will marry elements from an early entry in the franchise, Heroes of Might and Magic III, to the visual upgrades established in the last two Ubisoft games, culminating in a 2.5D massively multiplayer experience featuring a turn-based persistent world. (Perhaps similar to the 3D but turn-based Atlantica Online.)
The game will feature eight factions, sixteen classes, and a variety of campaign missions. Additionally, TQ Digital will be hosting a variety of PvP events, including Team PK, Extreme PK, and various Guild combat events. You can register for the closed beta as well as visit the official website, and don’t forget to stay with Massively for more info on Heroes of Might and Magic Online as it becomes available.
Castille Uncategorized
If you’re a MAG player, you know that the Electronics skill tree is one of the more confusing in the game. The fine folks at MAG realized it can be a bit much to figure out, and recently posted some help on the game’s official blog.
It’s a long entry, but very well done, breaking the explanation down by item. Each individual item is further broken down by effect, stacking and activation information, and miscellaneous important points, so it’s fairly simple to navigate and figure out.
It’s a valuable resource for players, made even more so by the addition of a discussion thread linking back to the blog entry, giving the fans a chance to discuss the skills among themselves and ask more questions.
If you’re a MAG fan who has been a bit frustrated in the past by the Electronics skill tree, you’ll definitely want to check this out.
Castille Uncategorized
The crew over at Perfect World Entertainment have been hard at work localizing their upcoming action MMO, Battle of the Immortals. But as we find out from their Product Manager, Jonathan Belliss, this isn’t just a question of localizing the story or converting the in-game text over from the original language to English — the ramifications are far further-reaching.
In their most recent video developer update, we’re not only treated to some in-game eye-candy, but Belliss informs us that the team at PWE has been really doing their homework on the differences between Eastern and Western gamers and what they enjoy in their games. One of the major things many were wondering about is how the cash shop will be utilized. In China, players expect a “pay for power” model, which Belliss clearly states that they know Western players “absolutely hate.” As such, they’ve put in a lot of time doing a massive overhaul of the game, placing the power upgrades in as drops, and instead gearing the cash shop towards “convenience” — something much more palatable to the Western gamer.
Add to that, we’ve now gotten word that the plans are to start up the Battle of the Immortals closed beta on April 14th for players to get a chance to start testing these new gameplay changes. So if you’ve been curious about getting your hands on this beautifully-detailed upcoming Diablo-esque action MMO, then you’ll want to be sure to head over to the Perfect World Entertainment site and get signed up. If you’re curious about everything Belliss had to say in the recent developer update, we’ve embedded that video behind the break for you to check out. We’ll also be talking with Jon Belliss and Jason Varden from PWE on an upcoming edition of Massively Speaking, so you’ll undoubtedly be hearing more about this game soon!
gmaxwell Uncategorized
Warhammer Online’s 1.3.4 patch has gone live as of today is coming soon. The update includes a torrent of changes with a primary focus on streamlining Scenarios — the game’s beloved-yet-flawed open-ended PvE encounters easy-to-access PvP instances — and City Sieges. These changes are aimed at pleasing the game’s community, who’ve been giving plenty of feedback to Mythic.
The original problem with Scenarios were a matter of player population. If you didn’t have enough people to complete a 5 or 10-person start a Scenario, well, you were waiting in queue forever. Hopefully, the issue of achieving “critical mass” should all be in the past with the 1.3.4 patch. While new weapon rewards are being added to Scenarios, not everything is making the cut. Less popular Scenarios have been removed, although Mythic is promising that some will return in special weekend events.
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Castres Uncategorized
There are parts of the game that you look at it without a great deal of affection. They’re bland but functional, the sort of thing that doesn’t show up in pre-release screenshots for obvious reasons. Then there are the parts that you look at that could curdle milk based solely on the visuals. They bring you to a state of Lovecraftian horrible knowledge about the hideous true nature of the universe.
Maybe something has been modeled to be something particularly ugly, or perhaps it’s a combination of poor polygon counts and bad choices in terms of color. In creator-heavy games such as City of Heroes and Champions Online, you might wind up with a character whose calculated appearance is eye-searing. What’s universal is that they are so ugly that even if you’re used to playing games with unskinned conglomerates of polygons, they strike you as downright hideous.
What have you seen in your favorite game that made you just recoil in shock, horror, and possibly disgust? Was it a badly-designed model, or something that was meant to be horrific and succeeded far too well? Did you take screenshots to prove how nauseating it was, or did you just get away and never look back?
Castillans Uncategorized
Star Vault’s Mortal Online seems to be progressing quite nicely as their second stage of closed beta is set to open next week. On August 3rd, 2,000 more players will be unleashed on the beta servers with even more to come in the following months. As previously mentioned, these blocks of beta players will be let in according to a schedule posted on their site. With 10k total slots available in the beta, players who pre-order the game are being allowed in every other week from July 20th to September 14th.
If you’re curious about this highly-anticipated MMO, check out their website or our recent coverage for more information on how to play and how to pre-order and secure your own spot in the beta.
gmaxwell Uncategorized
Perfect World Entertainment has spent a fair amount of time talking up their upcoming PvP-focused game, Battle of the Immortals. The game certainly looks gorgeous, but we’ve only heard bits and pieces about how it will actually play. The most recent update, however, certainly provides a fair bit more information on how the game, as it details the game’s classes — Berzerker, Heretic, Magus, Slayer, and Champion. Each class is given a brief writeup of their strengths, weaknesses, and preferred opponents.
In no particular order, Slayers deal a mix of physical and magical damage at close range but have next to no defensive abilities. Heretics are a combination of priests with more sinister magics, dealing damage and healing as well as inviting a few obious comparisons. Magi (or maguses, if you prefer) are… well, okay, they’re kind of obvious. Berzerkers have an errant “z” in their name and focus on dealing out physical damage at the cost of some defense, and Champions wield a weapon and shield to be all but indestructible. The classes seem set to provide a fair mix of the usual “holy trinity” mechanics and PvP skills, so take a look at the official preview to get a clearer picture of what you might want to play once the game goes live.
gmaxwell Uncategorized
Back in October, City of Heroes players got a treat in the form of three arcs created by high-profile creative minds. The Guest Author program used the Mission Architect system and gave players the enjoyment of working through missions scripted by authors known outside of the realm of Paragon City. We haven’t heard much about the program since then, and so it might have seemed as if the feature had been forgotten, but it turns out it was simply in brief hibernation, as the official site has announced the next group of writers.
Mercedes Lackey (known for her series of fantasy novels set in Valdemar), Troy Hickman (known for the meta-superhero series Common Grounds), and Austin Grossman (longtime writer of video games and author of Soon I Will Be Invincible) make up the next batch of guest writers crafting their own arcs in City of Heroes. Two of the arcs should be live today (assuming you’re reading this on January 26th), according to a small supplementary piece which includes a few words from Sean McCann. It’s good to see the game continuing to emphasize and enhance the experience of user-created content, and players should look forward to some high-profile names continuing to take their swing at it.
gmaxwell Uncategorized
One of the things many people love about Guild Wars is the tremendous imagination and feel of the artwork in the games. While we didn’t get a description to go with this interesting screenshot taken by Logen, it reminds me of a gorgeous piece of art from Guild Wars. The work in question won a prize at the Into The Pixel showing at E3 2008. Thankfully, the artwork is available on the Into The Pixel site for everyone to enjoy. Check out today’s great One Shots full size, and then look at the ITP gallery piece from artist Tyler West. We think you’ll see the connection too.
Are you one of the people who really love the artwork in Guild Wars? We’d love to show off more, but we need your screenshots to make that happen. Send your best screenshots (all MMOs welcome) to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com along with your name, a description of the area, and the name of the game. We’ll post them out here for everyone to enjoy and give you the credit.
Castres Uncategorized
See, this is what happens when we let Seccia write titles for us. Ughs… sorry about that readers. We don’t proclaim any victory, nor do we have any rage towards the citizens of Norrath or EverQuest II. We are, as always, unbiased in our viewpoints… unlike some new Dark Elven interns.
However, Seccia has noted that we’ve received a package today from a member of her elven bretheren, a certain community management elf by the name of Kiara. Enclosed were two pieces of a shattered tablet, one named “Victory” while the other was entitled “Rage.” We’re not sure what this whole thing will form once it’s put together, but we do know that other fansites have more pieces of the tablet. (Oh, Dark Elves and their puzzles.)
We’ve put the pictures of victory and rage after the break, so good luck with assembling the tablet and we can’t wait to see what it reveals!
MMOvalue Uncategorized
If you’re a fan of The Chronicles of Spellborn, Beau Turkey at Spouse Aggro found something today that will make you very happy. There have been rumors floating around lately about a restructuring of the game, and those rumors were recently confirmed on the official forums by Howard Marks, the CEO of Acclaim Games: “The rumors are true! Spellborn Version Two is on the way.”
Marks went on to explain that the new version has already been released in Japan to great success. They’ve been fine tuning it, and plans for the English version are underway. If you are a current player of The Chronicles of Spellborn, be sure you have a valid email address on file with Acclaim, because everyone playing the current version will be invited to beta test the new version via email.
While details are minimal at this point, it’s great news for players to know that more is on the way. You can take a look at the forum announcement here, and Beau’s take from a fan point of view here.
Castillans Uncategorized
We’re always on the lookout for more info about Earthrise, an upcoming sandbox MMO with a far future, post-apocalyptic setting. The latest interview updating on the game’s status is a Ten Ton Hammer Q&A with Masthead Studios CEO Atanas Atanasov. The studio head explains a bit about the combat system revamp, aimed at keeping Earthrise’s combat dynamic and fast-paced, with a more intuitive interface as well.
The interview also hits upon how they’re fine tuning the game’s economic systems as well as balancing rewards as players progress, plus Atanasov talks a bit about Earthrise’s “exploration mode” (which imparts faster movement but greater vulnerability to damage) and specialized crafting. Check out Ten Ton Hammer’s Q&A with Atanas Atanasov for an update on the state of Earthrise.
Mustapha Uncategorized
Patch 3.3.2, the next minor content patch, will include the much requested strength-based rings for melee DPS from the Ashen Verdict reputation. This should make warriors, paladins, and death knights quite happy. This afternoon Zarhym has released the stats for the different reputation levels (friendly, exalted, etc…), which we have for you after the break.
The minor content patch will also bring with it an influx of other small changes, as well as arena season 8. You can check out all the changes in the translated version of the patch notes that were discovered last night.
The rings after the break.
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Catalans Uncategorized
Every week, Shifting Perspectives explores issues affecting druids and those who group with them. This week, a quick and dirty guide to raising one’s tree from a young sapling to a mighty oak, or other suitably impressive arboreal species.
Whenever other columnists here write really good columns, I sit at my computer and swear a blue streak, for I am a jealous god. Sacco, damn him, turned out a great article on the basics of elemental shamans, and for a while I’ve been kicking around bits and pieces of 101-esque columns for all four druid specs. This was the last shove I needed to get that done. While I expect our new balance blogger (a.k.a. Murmurs, the person I will be forcing to do all my number-crunching in the future with bribes or, when necessary, threats) will address moonkin, I’ll cover bears, cats, and today, trees.
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Koeningsmark Uncategorized
Star Trek Online offers several levels of character customization beyond the visual aspects, and that first level the player is introduced to is character traits. You select these traits when creating your character, and the choices are numerous. In Massively’s guide to the character traits of Star Trek Online, we’ll look at the different classes of traits and suggest some builds to get you started.
Please remember a few things when reading this guide. First, the information was all obtained in the late closed beta — so it could have changed without notice at release. If that’s the case we’ll update the guide as soon as we know about the changes, but double check everything and don’t click blindly. Secondly, the traits are only a recommendation and should be adapted to your personal play style. If you’re one of those players who always needs that extra bit of health, get the Peak Health trait no matter what role you’re going to play. Finally, there is currently no way to retrain your traits (or skills), so be sure to select them carefully.
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gmaxwell Uncategorized