World of Warcraft’s latest patch is on the horizon (almost certainly to be released next Tuesday, March 5th) and Blizzard has just realized the trailer for the new patch. Narrated by Lore Walker Cho, it briefly tells the story of the Thunder King in a poem. Written by game designer Dave Kosak, the poem is said to play a key role in story development.
Read on for more.
Today we have a preview of SMITE, Hi-Rez Studio’s upcoming MOBA, as iTZKooPA interviews Todd Harris, the game’s COO, at PAX East 2012.
They discuss the locked third-person camera, jungling and, of course, the different mythological creatures and heroes players can select from and will battle in-game. We also learn that SMITE has a new “auto-build” feature that allows players to select from pre-made character builds for those of you who aren’t interested in constantly tweeking your builds.
Check out the full SMITE interview below.
Hi-Rez Studios takes PAX East 2012 by storm just days ahead of the release of Tribes: Ascend. Expanding upon previous run ins, iTZKooPA catches up with the fast-paced COO, Todd Harris, of the fast-paced shooter to chat about the title’s future.
The pair discuss everything from eSports aspirations, monetization, future content and spreadsheets. Yes, Hi-Rez Studios is well versed in the science of spreadsheets and data collection. Join us for all the boring details.
Funcom released a new video today for The Secret World from their press presentation at GDC 2012, which was held behind closed doors, and so far unseen by the public. The video is about 35 mins long, and walks players through the character creation process; as well as some of the early game experience, game systems, and “The Darkness War” dungeon.
In the video we see the Dragon faction’s starting area, as the female player finds a weird kid in a rain-coat standing in-front of her upon first login; then begins to follow him. The game then takes a very quick turn into a sort of lesbian-matrix reveal where a women tells you, in the same way Morphius told Neo, that what you think is true and real, really isn’t. At this point you have sex with the woman. Yes, very weird.
Up next the video skips forward to the Tokyo flashback quickly, then switches again to show combat mechanics. Here we learn that there are 500 abilities that players can use their points on, but players will have to select only 7 active abilities and 7 passive ones for their character builds.
As the video progresses we see a containment camp, where a government field team is trying to contain something called the “Filth”. We get to learn a little more about the Filth via the voiced cut-scene, then the video moves on to a quest in the same area.
The next part of the video takes us to Transylvania where we get to see some vampire fights. We also hear more about the crafting system, called transcribing, where players break-down items they find in the game and rebuild them to fit their needs.
Towards the end of the video, the last 7 mins or so, we get to see one of the dungeons, called “The Darkness War”, which is a five-man dungeon. This instance sends players back to the past in England, about a thousand years, and in the video we get to see the final boss fight. The boss is a giant bore like animal with huge dragon wings.
Below you can watch the full video presentation.
Holy crap, Metzen isn’t wearing sunglasses. Write this day down in history! Chris Metzen, Lionel Richie’s biggest fan, was caught without his token shades during his opening ceremony presentation. For those of you not into TMZ-style reporting, we’ll move to our regularly scheduled writing style.
Metzen, the vice president of Creative Development broke onto the stage for a short soliloquy compared to last year’s “Geek Is…” monolog. The voice of Thrall and so many others teased WoWers with a new expansion before shifting gears to the upcoming Diablo III, the newly revamped Blizzard DotA and StarCraft proper. Then, after calling the WoWers back, he unleashed pandas on the audience.
Check out the presentation, filled with cheap pops Mick Foley style, above.
Cryptozoic, the company that has been responsible for the WoW TCG for over a year, is now Blizzard’s partner for distributing their manga works in digital and printed form for their various franchises.
Notably, the Cryptozoic iPad app can now purchase Blizzard works as they are released and the backlog is updated. The current selection as of the publishing of this post is as follows:
Each of these will run you $5.99. Warcraft Legends Vol #1 is free til June 2, and all of the other comics (except for Legends Vol #2) have a free preview that includes the cover art and first chapter.
Click through for screenshots and more info.
Beth'tilac, "The Red Widow" is one of the first bosses you will encounter in The Firelands.
Yesterday’s videos were only the beginning of Blizzard’s Patch 4.2 coverage. According to Bashiok, here’s the line-up for the next few days:
4/28
- “The Firelands” Raid Preview
- “A Legendary Engagement” Legendary Staff Preview
- “The Regrowth and Molten Front Quest Hubs”
- BlizzCast 16
4/29
- “Elemental Bonds” Quest Preview
- Tier 12 Teaser
5/2
- Dungeon Journal Teaser (Ama’s note: This is the integrated boss info thing they talked about wanting to implement at BlizzCon 2010).
As of this writing, only the first item on the list has been released, but it’s arguably the most exciting. The official boss descriptions (including hints as to their fight mechanics) follow my own summation of the features culled from both the official preview and an interview Cory Stockton recently did with Buffed (there’s even more info here, it’s worth reading in its entirety):
- Seven bosses (including Ragnaros), the first four of which can be tackled in non-linear fashion.
- No hidden or optional bosses, but Ragnaros’ Heroic fight is vastly different from his Normal one (indications that this will be the only way to see his entire body).
- The raid instance will be about the size of the Alterac Valley sub-zone, and will take place mostly outside, so that players can mount up and attempt to bypass some of the mobs wandering about.
- There will be more UI elements such as bars and meters to better track what bosses are doing, instead of having to always keep an eye on the debuff box. Also, there will be no fire resist required in the instance (and the bosses won’t have it, either).
- “Dragonwrath, Tarecgosa’s Rest” is the new Legendary Staff. It will have an offensive proc, take a long time to make, and require a few non-raiding efforts from the rest of your guild. Completing the staff will reward you with the item, a lengthy cinematic event, and everyone in your guild (presumably of sufficient reputation) will also gain access to a unique vanity pet.
- Other dungeon rewards include the requisite Tier 12 gear, Epic recipes for all professions, and three new mounts (flaming Anzu likely being the rarest/most wanted).
Onto the boss descriptions! Continue Reading
Hot on the heels of the latest content release comes two preview videos for the next patch. Though they are official, they aren’t exactly formal trailers, either. It’s clear that there is still plenty to be worked on and tested, but we do get a good look at some of the bosses (Anthricyst, Aranae. Fandral, and Ragnaros himself), as well as the daily quest area.
There’s not much more to say about them than what you can see in the videos, so check ‘em out below.
Patch 4.2 Firelands Raid Preview
Patch 4.2 Firelands Daily Quest Area Preview Continue Reading
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Eve Online Score: 8.75
|
| Rank | Game Title | Score |
| 2 | Runes of Magic | 8.38 |
| 3 | Star Wars: The Old Republic | 8.25 |
| 4 | TERA | 7.94 |
| 5 | RIFT | 7.94 |
| 6 | World of Warcraft | 7.88 |
| 7 | SMITE | 7.88 |
| 8 | Guild Wars | 7.81 |
| 9 | Star Trek Online | 7.75 |
| 10 | Global Agenda | 7.75 |
