Just in time for the shenanigans at PAX East this weekend, NCsoft has released a whole hodge podge of information, plus some dandy screenshots and even a video on the thief class in Guild Wars 2. Check it out:

Now, I’ve always been a fan of melee classes. Assassin, rogue, thief — whatever you want to call them, they’re my idea of fun. The GW2 thief is about what one expects when thinking of these classes: masters of surprise, stealthy on their toes, good with daggers. But what else?

This weekend, these new thieves actually are on target to be one of the playable professions in NCsoft’s PAX demo, so we’re hoping to bring you some insider insight on just how well they play, and maybe add in some details on what sets these guys apart from the other classes we’ve already played in previous MMOs.

Speaking of the playable demo, here’s what else iTZKooPA and Heartbourne will have their hands full with this weekend at the GW2 booth:

• Debut of the guardian as another playable profession
• New Profession features, from an expanded selection of pets for rangers to new weapon capabilities for necromancers and warriors
• Norn opening experience, including your own character biography, the introductory cinematic and starter areas
• Access to Gendarran Fields, a mid-level area
• New UI, with reportedly new functionality, new chat features and “hints of things to come.”

Check out the official site for all the juicy details on the thief class, and check back here soon for more on what iTZKooPA and Heartbourne have to say about the new demo.

By now the die-hard Final Fantasy fans are logging in to servers around the world for their first look at the release version of FFXIV Online. In this final of our videos celebrating the release of Final Fantasy XIV Collectors Edition today, I finally get in some good gameplay. The video picks up at the opening cinematic for Gridania, then I play around with the UI and basic commands a bit before engaging in combat and seeing more pretty cut scenes. Lots of good stuff in this one. After the video, continue onward for my critiques of the game based on what I experienced in the Open Beta.

As promised, now I lay into the game itself. As I previously ranted, the Open Beta seemed to be very poorly organized. I had to jump through so, so many hoops just to get the client installed, patched and running properly that part of me was no longer even interested in playing the game. Another part thought, “After going through all that, this BETTER be good.”

And in some ways, it was. The character creation process itself is quite detailed and allows for some relatively in-depth customization. Of course, your character will still look like the race that you choose, but with many, many options for skin tone, facial expressions, voice, eyes and nose, hair, etc. That part was fun.

And I loved the transition of my character from the version I created in the first and second videos I posted to one appearing so vividly in-game. In the cut scenes, I was especially impressed with the graphics. Even during gameplay, the look of the characters and environments is gorgeous.

The class system also seems really interesting, although I didn’t progress very far, and the questing from what I played through seemed decent. I enjoyed the switch back and forth between gameplay and cut scenes, too, and think that overall I would be a fan of the storyline. But, for me, that wasn’t enough to suck me in. Continue Reading

Those of you who partake in daily adventures to our humble site already have caught a glimpse of my amateur video-making abilities. Now I get to use them to show you cool new features of Patch 4.0.1. I took a side step and copied my character to the PTR servers early enough to record some great footage for your viewing and ravenous pleasure. In this video, I discover some kinks and perks of the UI Additions and Class Changes.

What do you think on the changes? Nifty, or just unnecessary and  ineffective time-managing?

Again, please drop a comment criticizing my abilities, and drop suggestions on what you, the viewers, would like to see me do.

In an unrelated note, click through for another opportunity to score some PAX goodies. Continue Reading

Hold your horses!  Wait on those character transfers! The Patch Test Realm ain’t up just yet, but it should be reasonably soon due to the release of preliminary patch notes today. Unlike the last one we got, there don’t appear to be any sweeping changes to class balance or anything of that nature. In fact, with this patch encompassing the only remaining high-level content until the expansion (and, at that, nothing significantly more difficult than Icecrown Citadel), it would almost seem like a waste of time to bother.

But the Ruby Sanctum raid dungeon is still an important update, and along with it come several new social options no doubt tied into future Battle.net 2.0 functionality. It seems like they’re taking some cues from chat add-ons and are allowing players to “pop out” a new window, say, to keep whispers with a specific person separate from everything else. Also, the Friends List is getting a couple of upgrades, including the ability to add Real IDs (Blizzard’s cross-game identification) and communicate with them.

World of Warcraft PTR Patch 3.3.5

The latest patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/

The latest test realm patch notes can always be found at http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/patchnotes/test-realm-patchnotes.html

General

• The Ruby Sanctum, an all-new 10- and 25-player raid featuring normal and Heroic difficulties, is now available for testing! Players will find the dungeon entrance below Wyrmrest Temple in Dragonblight.
• Copied Test Realm characters are not copied with their achievement history in order to better facilitate the character copy process.

User Interface

• Chat Frame
  • Players can now right-click on any chat type (Whisper, Trade, General, Party, Raid, etc.) and choose the Pop Out Chat option. This will move that chat type to a separate tab in the Chat frame which can be undocked and moved anywhere on the screen.
    • Using the Pop Out Chat option on a Whisper will place the conversation with that player in a separate tab.
    • Any time a conversation with another player is put into its own tab, the tab will glow when a new message is received.
  • Hovering over the Chat Frame and using the mouse wheel will allow players to scroll through chat text.
  • Players can select Classic Mode under Interface Options to keep the Chat Frame functionality closer to what it was prior to patch 3.3.5.
  • The Simple Chat User Interface option has been removed.
• Friends List
  • A new icon has been added to the top left of the Chat Frame which will open up the Friends list.
  • In addition to its current functionality, the Friends List will now allow players to add Battle.net accounts (Real ID). Players will have to confirm that they are friends in order for a Real ID to be added. Once Real ID friends, players can communicate cross-game, cross-faction and cross-realm.
  • A new Pending tab has been added where players can accept or decline a Real ID friend request, or select the Report Spam or Block Communications buttons.
  • Players can now select from three statuses which will be visible to their friends: Available, Away and Busy.
  • A Broadcast window has been added to the top of the frame. Players can use this to broadcast a message to all of their Real ID friends online. This message will also be displayed under the broadcaster’s Real ID information in each friend’s list.
• For additional notes on Lua and XML changes please visit the UI & Macros Forum: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/board.html?sid=1&forumId=11114