15 June 2012 | |
LHStaff
This is a guest article written by Sephalon.
Earlier this week, a Community Manager announced on The Secret World forums that Funcom will be having a “Founding Cabal” lottery. Just in case you didn’t know, a Cabal is just a guild called… well a cabal.
As Famine, the CM who made the announcement, said it:
Attention Guild Leaders!
You and your guild now have the chance to become one of the privileged few that have a unique opportunity to secure your guild’s prominence in The Secret World as a Founding 50 Cabal(cabals in The Secret World are equivalent to guilds in other MMORPGs). Leaders of guilds that are already in existence and who seek to have a presence in The Secret World may apply for one of alimited number of reserved spots. Continue Reading
12 June 2012 | |
Beararms
This weekend The Secret World will be hosting its third beta weekend titled “Hell Raised”. Starting this Friday, June 15th and continuing through the 18th, players will get to see more of the game than in the previous beta weekends. Players will be able to play Illuminati, Dragon, and Templars and will be able to sample the starter experiences in Seoul, London, and New York. If that isn’t enough for you, players will also be able to experience the dungeons “Hell Raised” and “The Polaris”.
Players who have pre-ordered the game are automatically granted access to this beta weekend and will also have early access to the full game on June 29th, a few days before its initial release on July 3rd.
Hell Raised starts on June 15th at 9am PDT (16:00 GMT/ noon EDT) and lasts until June 17th at 11:59pm PDT (Monday June 18th, 06:59/ 2:59 EDT).
8 May 2012 | |
Mike
Today, Funcom spilled the beans about The Secret World‘s first beta weekend, revealing what factions and areas will be available to players.
This first beta weekend, titled “Kingsmouth Calling”, will restrict players to the Templar faction, allowing them to explore the small town of Kingsmouth and the city of London, one of the three hub cities in the game.
The beta begins this Friday on May 11th at 9am PDT, and runs until Sunday May 13th to 11:59pm PDT. The non-disclosure agreement has been dropped as of Friday, so players will be able to post information, pics, and videos of their experience over the weekend; which means you can expect us here at Lorehound to have you covered with first impressions galore.
20 April 2012 | |
Pherephassa
It’s been another great week here at LoreHound. More PAX interviews have appeared, we’ve had a few exclusives, and there’s even been some game industry mudslinging. I was terribly excited to see news about Torchlight 2, and I’m sure there’s even more excitement about Diablo 3. I won’t be playing either game as I’ve got weekend plans, but I’m sure between TERA and Diablo 3 there’ll be lots of beta testing going on this weekend.
This week seems to have flown by so quickly! Maybe it’s because I’ve been sleeping through a nasty flu, or wasting lots of time on The Secret War. Actually, given that I’m ranked #2 for my state on the leaderboards, I’d say I’ve been wasting entirely too much time on The Secret War. What can I say, I’ve got not-so-hidden dreams of world conquest, although I’ve been contenting myself with doing my best to keep Brasil and China in the hands of the Dragons. In any event, I feel like no time has passed at all since I wrote last week’s rundown. But enough about me, I’m sure the week’s news is much more interesting!
- PAX East Interview with Jared Gerritzen of Zombie Studios, who discussed Blacklight: Retribution with iTZKooPA. New maps, game modes, heroes and more!
- PAX East Interview with Chris Rippy of Robot Entertainment where iTZKooPA gets the scoop on lots of gameplay footage for Orcs Must Die 2.
- PAX East Interview with Tor Egil Andersen and Erling Ellingsen of Funcom, talking about character progression in The Secret World. Part Two is where iTZKooPA asks tougher questions, like when will we see more ARGs.
- itZKooPA talked about the new content patch in Champions Online, and how it put the game back on his radar.
- PAX East Interview with Victor Kislyi , CEO of Wargaming.net about the upcoming flying MMO World of Warplanes. If you want to take to the skies, there’ll be a public beta in June!
- Mike told us about Yet Another Free SWTOR Weekend. How many of these do they plan on having? I agree with Mike, they should just get it over with and open up a fulltime free trial.
- I was excited to see the launch of The Secret War, the Facebook app that’s paired with The Secret World, and discussed the unexpected success that shut it down for a few hours. My wild speculations turned me into a laughingstock – I honestly expected the app would be down for days or weeks instead of hours!
- The first beta weekend for Guild Wars 2 was announced!
- TERA‘s open beta weekend kicked of yesterday. Everyone can play this weekend, even if you’ve not purchased the game.
- SWTOR‘s subscription numbers may be declining, according to analyst group Cowen and Company.
- Bluehole Studios called NCSoft a corporate bully, and said they won’t back down. TERA will be released, even if they have to fearlessly stomp through the grist of rumors and lawsuits.
- PAX Interview with Stefan Ramirez of Bluehole Studios. iTZKoopa got the scoop on how the “holy trinity” will play out in TERA, as well as more details about the lauded political system.
- The Diablo 3 open beta stress test weekend is underway, allowing anyone to get their hands on the game. I haven’t had much interest in this, but I’ll admit to being slightly disappointed it’s this weekend when I won’t be at home to play.
- PARTY!! It’s the five-year anniversary of Lord of the Rings Online, and iTZKooPA spoke with Aaron Campbell, Senior Producer of LotRO, about the exciting events happening within the game to celebrate. Fireworks, mounts and costumes are just a few of the goodies available during the festivities.
- PAX Interview with Max Schaefer of Runic Games about co-op, quest sharing and other exciting tidbits in Torchlight 2.
19 April 2012 | |
Pherephassa
… and has been shut down. Talk about poorly planned game launches. The Secret War isn’t an actual MMORPG, but it’s been in the works for months as a part of Funcom’s upcoming game The Secret World. You can win goodies your character will be able to use once the MMORPG launches, such as weapons, clothing, potions and titles. You can also win prizes like a trip to Montreal, and the use of your name in-game (I’ll admit it, I don’t really care about the trip. But I would love to have my name somewhere in the game!).
It’s been a topic of controversy since its announcement many months ago – as it was originally the only way to apply for TSW’s closed beta and required Facebook. Eventually after much forum screaming, Funcom added in a way to apply for beta without having to go through this app, but it seems as though misfortune has continued to shadow The Secret War. The first official launch came and went, and ended with a delay of unknown length. A few days ago, The Secret War was finally launched like a thief in the night, without fanfare or announcement. If there’s one thing that’s certain in the MMO world, however, it’s that fans of a game will discover any tidbit related to their game of choice, and it wasn’t long before people were playing like mad. So like mad that the day after the app launched, Funcom changed the points required to progress from one level to the next, leaving many people – myself included – having to earn their ranks twice.
Continue Reading
18 April 2012 | |
Pherephassa
Remember this long fabled Facebook app for The Secret World? The great countdown to nothing, when it was supposed to have launched months ago? Many fans stayed online for the countdown and anticipated start to this Facebook game, and all we got was an image of broken glass on the main Funcom page. The wait is finally over! The Secret War has finally launched! If you’re willing to spam your friends with advertising for Funcom’s upcoming modern day, conspiracy-themed game The Secret World, you can play and win prizes such as a trip to Montreal, beta access, and goodies for use once the actual mmorpg launches. Take over the world! Or at least, help your faction do so.
As you can see, currently the Dragon is in the lead, although this is a very recent development and the numbers are changing rapidly. When I first took a peek at it this morning, the Illuminati had taken over most of the world. If you’re interested in world conquest, you can sign up, or join in on the discussion on the official The Secret World forums.
16 April 2012 | |
Mike
Today we have another interview from Pax East 2012, this time with Tor Egil Andersen, the Jr. Communications Manager, and Erling Ellingsen, the Director of Communications for Funcom’s newest MMORPG, The Secret World.
iTZKooPA discusses TWS’s skill system and the gear manager, which allows players to save their character builds and to swap them around depending on the combat situation.
The Secret World launches on June 19th, however players that pre-ordered the game can begin to participate in beta weekends starting May 11th and just about every weekend until launch.
Check out The Secret World Pax East interview below.
Continue Reading
9 April 2012 | |
Pherephassa
I’ve been curious how long it would be before someone created a deck builder for The Secret World, Funcom’s upcoming modern MMORPG. And now I’ve had my answer. Poster the9thcircle on the official Secret World forums has provided an early version to play around with. It’s been built using the various images from recent videos, so not all of the abilities have been filled out yet, but hats off to you, the9thcircle for getting it going! I’m pretty sure I’m going to be spending a bit of time with this thing while I wait for the launch of The Secret World!
Want to play with it? You can go to the deck builder to start messing around with what’s there. the9thcircle is also asking for feedback and information to use in filling in the empty abilities on, so if you want to help out or give feedback, his post on the official forums is the place to go.
Earlier this week, a Community Manager announced on The Secret World forums that Funcom will be having a “Founding Cabal” lottery. Just in case you didn’t know, a Cabal is just a guild called… well a cabal.
