Words, who needs words when we’ve every single cosplayer available behind the cut. Hit that button. Hit it! Read more…
All the Awesome Cosplay from the #SMITELaunch
Neverwinter Infographic
Neverwinter Curse of Icewind Dale is coming soon, and in anticipation fo the newest module, Perfect World and Cryptic have released a new infographic! I just love infographics, I really do. I always wish there were more information on them. Want to see a class breakdown, or the number of characters that have been created or killed in pvp? Click the little button below to see those factoids plus several more… Read more…
SMITE Live Today! LoreHound Has You Covered (Video)
SMITE, the battleground of the gods, has gone live! Hi-Rez Studios has officially launched the live version of SMITE, and are celebrating its release with a massive $200,000 tournament that will run from Friday, March 28th until Sunday, March 30th in Atlanta Georgia. Half of this prize money was earned via community purchases in the SMITE cash shop – which I think is pretty cool! The tournament includes four European teams and four North American teams that qualified through the weekly tournament series that began in early January, and will occur in front of a live audience. It will also be livestreamed worldwide on the SMITE twitch channel.
Need to catch up on the action of beta? Don’t worry – we’ve got you covered. In fact, we’ll be in attendance at the launch tournament. Be sure to follow the Lore Hound Twitter and Facebook accounts for updates! Read more…
Additional Developers Creating Unified Gaming Platforms
This seems like a no-brainer to the consumers of MMOG, but a pair of multi-title developers have, once again, independently announced their respective intentions to develop a single sign-in platform for their titles. Following Wargaming and Perfect World Entertainment in 2013, this year we should witness the consumer-friendly packaging for the WEBZEN and Trion Worlds games.
Following the purchase of gPotato, WEBZEN will be merging those EU and NA platforms with the Webzen.com system. That will combine some 40 million+ accounts spread across titles such as Age of Wulin, C9: Continent of the Ninth Seal, MU Online and MU Rebirth, to long-time favourites like Flyff, Terra Militaris and Rappelz, and also the upcoming Archlord II.
Trion Worlds isn’t going as gung-ho as WEBZEN, instead rolling its products together via a platform more akin to the Blizzard Launcher. The “lightweight digital hub” is known as Glyph and will roll the more than 10 million gamers across Defiance, RIFT, Trove, and, presumably, the upcoming ArcheAge. Sorry, End of Nations fans, no mention, again, there.
In addition, Trion Worlds said the DRM-free platform will be easy to easy for consumer and developer alike. Yeah, it’s going to be made available to Trion’s partners.
WildStar Coming June 3, Pre-Order & Watch Latest DevSpeak (Video)
Carbine Studios dropped a parade of information on those looking to join the cheeky classic RPG fun that WildStar is planning on delivering. The MMORPG dev/pub recently unlocked pre-orders for its title, as well as finally announcing the release date. Come June 3 players can finally get their hands on one of the most highly-anticipated titles of 2014.
The basic pre-order package unlocks playtime for you and some friends as well as a housing decor item. And we all know that WildStar is all about player housing. The Deluxe Digital Edition ups the ante with a custom title, armor dye, an Eldar hoverboard and more.
And if the pre-order perks and early access aren’t enough there’s a nice new DevSpeak video covering a major aspect of any AAA MMORPG, the common distraction of PvP. For the first time you’ll be able to see two types of Carbine’s design after the cut, Arenas and Battleground. Read more…
SMITE Introduces Ullr – The Glorious One
Well, isn’t that an aptly timed release of the latest deity for the god-based MOBA SMITE. Following the recent unveiling of Sylla, Hi-Rez Studios has patch in Ullr – The Glorious One. Hailing from the Norse pantheon, Ullr is the nordic version of Artemis, the pantheon’s Hunter deity. The stance-based Ullr is another ranged physical character that features high sustainability, making him far less squishy than his Greek counterpart.
The latest patch contains something unheard of in SMITE, potentially by any MOBA, at least by my ears. Hi-Rez Studios has refunded any player that purchased the Nightmare skin for Hades. The 400 Gem purchase has become his default skin – with updates to the Legendary and Golden skins to reflect this – yet not removed from the game. Any incoming player can purchase the Classic skin. Anyone with Hades is grandfathered in.
Aphrodite received a 3D model overhaul. Still as sexy as ever. Meanwhile Nemesis received the Golden treatment. In what could be the final patch before next week’s launch tournament, Hi-Rez Studios focused its efforts on small balance changes, a lot of General updates and a variety of bug fixes.
Full patch notes after the cut. Oddly, the team must be quite busy, as there was no God Reveal video with the patch notes. Read more…
Dead Island: Epidemic Gets Iterative in Beta
The development of MMOGs is not a cheap, quick ordeal. Just ask the folks at Trion Worlds and the development hell that is becoming End of Nations. Meanwhile, the MOBA genre has seen an explosion of interest during the decline of its cousin. Dead Island: Epidemic, the MOBA version of the zombie-filled indie darling Dead Island is one of those titles.
The team at Deep Silver is going to great lengths to ensure that battles are fun, balanced and eventful. To ensure this happens for live players, the company is taking beta testing down an interesting road. Beginning later this week, DI:E, which this blogger just realized spells die, will begin Weapons Weekly.
For the next three weeks players will see their progress reset and begun anew. Week one will focus on feedback for a Workbench level 4, (crafted) Tier 4 weapons, three Armored Characters, and 75,000 Character Points. From there, it’s up to players to generate tons of data and feedback. Each following week will bump the tier to the next level.
Weapons Weekly begins Thursday, March 20 and continues for three weeks. Can’t wait to see the from players and the information from the mined data. Perhaps we’ll get our hands on it to compare if the theorycrafting was correct…?
On the Shores of Lanfar: Therian Sage Interview with Falkarma
When I had a chance to sit down for a Q&A with Virtys about the Therian Saga the last time, I hoped I’d be able to catch them again soon. It looks like soon has come more quickly than I’d expected! The translations of the first expansion has finished and is slated for release tomorrow, so naturally I had a lot more questions to ask! As luck would have it, I was able to catch Francois Desrosiers, known in game as Falkarma, and get a few more answered.
One of these days I need to sit down and write up a more detailed review, now that I have spent more time in the game I can speak a little more intelligently about its depth. There really does seem like there’s no end to this game – the next land area is nearly here and I haven’t even scratched the starting one yet!
But you’re not really here to listen to me talk, so let’s move on with the show…
