Players aren’t just going to be experiencing a dungeon crawling MMOG when Marvel Heroes launches on June 4 (May 28 for Founders). No, no. Whether you’re an Iron Man fan or a webslinger, gamers will experience the full force of the Marvel universe, including original stories penned by none other than Brian Michael Bendis.

First shown in the recent PAX East interview, Gazillion Entertainment will not be using simple stills or quest dialog to inform the masses of the original story. Included in certain zone introductions and throughout the complex storylines will be ‘Motion Comics.’ The first of these episodes can be found after the cut.

Episode One of “Chronicles of Doom” features the beginning of Doctor Doom’s rise to power, the beginning lore of Marvel Heroes. Check out the 2+ minute trailer after the cut. Continue Reading

After finishing Erden Heights, we quickly jumped into Agnis Depths. This place was massive and entertaining to see take shape from start to finish.

Speaking of watching things from start to finish – Sephalon and I will be livestreaming a build session this Saturday April 6th at 12pm PST (3pm EST / 8pm GMT) on Spellbook Entertainment’s Twitch.tv channel: www.twitch.tv/spellbookentertainment

We’ll be letting people watch and listen to us from the start. We’ll be going until about 4pm PST (7pm EST / 12am GMT). Every once in awhile we’ll ask for feedback from the viewers, and be giving away BETA Access & Gold In-Game.

Here’s the description of this fiery dungeon:

Agnis Depths retains the heat of the passionate fury of Agnis.

His hatred for any other than himself is manifested physically by the constant formation of new magma sources pouring through the ceiling and walls.

This place beneath Erden Heights is the embodiment of war and violence.

The portal into Agnis Depths is easy to find if you know where Erden Heights’ is. It’s on the south side of the mountain.

The lore, bosses, and screenshots can be found by continuing to read.

Continue Reading

Perfect World Entertainment and Cryptic Studios welcome adventurers to Icespire Peak, the most popular winter getaway in Neverwinter. Adventurers aren’t drawn to the wintery wonderland to hit the slopes and sip some joe. No, the first adventurers, the Icehammer dwarves, descended upon these lands as 49ers, mining its veins for gold and mithril. During the land’s excavation they discovered a portal to Winterforge.

And accidentally activated it.

The portal unleashed a horde of ice golems and an army of frost giants that quickly wrestled control away from the Icehammer clan. Now, their home in the possession of a fearsome foe, the Icehammer clan has requested the support of adventurers to reclaim their frozen kingdom.

Purchasing a Neverwinter Founder’s pack will guarantee immediate closed beta access, including this weekend’s beta. Can’t make it? Fear not, Lore Hound will be streaming our experience on TwitchTV starting Saturday, March 9 at 12:00 PM EST.

Hit the jump for the latest zone trailer and a collection of applicable screenshots. Continue Reading

There’s just something about the cuteness factor of Ragnarok that made me want to come back. It was probably about 10 years ago that I first played the original Ragnarok Online, my first experience with an MMO.

A super-deformed sprite of the original Raganarok Online, fighting the same creature type pictured in the background of the RO2 screenshot above.

I’ve gone back and played the original game many times through the years, and even picked up the game for Nintendo DS a couple years back, but never really got back into it after having experienced the updated graphics and gameplay of World of Warcraft.

But now, the long-awaited and once-scrapped sequel is finally in open beta, and I was keen to get back into the game. But just as I was about to download the client, an unexpected announcement from the game administrators seemed to thwart my attempts:

“…It’s with our deepest apologies that we announce we will not be able to provide the RO2 game service to players outside of our optimized countries – Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam – due to our license agreement with the game’s developer, Gravity Co., Ltd.” — RO2 Administrator, AsiaSoft (source)

This announcement sent huge shockwaves throughout the RO2 community. Many players on the official forums have expressed disappointment and even anger, saying that they feel like they’ve been strung along for years, only to be told at the last second that they wouldn’t be allowed to play the game. But we also have not yet heard any clarification on the topic from the admins — is this a temporary thing? Or maybe just for the beta period? Will the full game eventually be released worldwide? I’d assume yes, but like I said, we’ve not heard that officially.

Regardless, I suppose the game servers have only intermittently received the message that only players in certain areas should be allowed access — I and many others located outside of those areas have still been able to sign up, download and patch the client, and play the game since after that announcement was made. I’m unsure whether that will continue, but I’m happy that I can at least review and share a few screenshots from what I’ve seen so far.

Continue Reading