Well I don’t seem to be very good at keeping up with this weekly Crier. Between Neverwinter excitement (I played Neverwinter all day the Friday I had access to it, and then spent ages writing my previews), a family emergency that kept me in the hospital all day the week after that, and a blizzard the week after that, it has been a while since I’ve been here to keep everyone updated on the weekly news. But we have lots and lots of snow outside! It’s cold and wet, and the perfect excuse to stay inside where it’s warm, drink hot cocoa and play video games.
On the game front, things seem to be somewhat quiet, although with PAX East on its way that is likely to change pretty quickly. I wish I could go! We have patch and update news for several games, PAX announcements, a giveaway, and the kind of news that always makes me a little sad – the shutdown of game servers. Hit the jump for links and details!
- iTZKooPA is his usual awesome self with a goody giveaway for Godsrule, an MMORTS with an ancient cultures theme. He’s even added in the game trailer for the curious who don’t know what the game is about. It looks interesting, and goodies are always nice, so give it a look!
- Lord of the Rings Online has another update coming, and iTZKooPA had the news. 4 new instances! I haven’t played LotRO in a while, but new instances might bring me back in for a peek.
- iTZKooPA has the non-spoiler review of the World of Warcraft novel Dawn of the Aspects, Part 1.
- I was asked about what’s going on with the drow in Neverwinter enough times that I went poking about to see what’s up. I did learn something new since then: the vanilla drow are delayed for everyone, even the purchasers of the Hero pack! The only drow at launch will be the Menzoberranzan Renegade, exclusive to the $200 Hero of the North Founder’s Pack.
- iTZKooPA had the skinny about the next Dungeons and Dragons Online update. Exciting news for DDO players!
- iTZKooPA dropped the bomb that Blizzard will be attending PAX East. So will Cryptic with Neverwinter! I really wish I could go!
- WoW announce an upcoming patch, and Heartbourne brought us the trailer! Oh, the sweet rhyme of poetry.
- iTZKooPA brought the sad tidings that Warhammer Online’s MOBA will be shutting down. Even if I’ve never played it, I am always sad to see games die. Fare thee well, WOMOBA.
- Mordil brought us the tidings of the Kraken, along with news of what seems to be HiRez’s new business model.
Hey Pherephassa, I played Secret World for about four hours this evening, and it is amazing, stunning even. I’m still definitely planning on doing the Neverwinter Beta this coming Friday, but NW is going to have to be very, very strong to beat out Secret World. We’ll see I guess.
I love both!
And the best part is, they are both free so you don’t have to choose! Well, once you buy TSW. I plan on continuing to play TSW and Neverwinter as well.
Right, I probably wouldn’t have tried Secret World if it were still subscription. I hate internet auto-rebilling. Yes I really like Secret World. Many of the quests make you think. Unusual for an MMO. ;) My only complaint is that I don’t think the social controls/interface are as good as STO, or maybe I’m not used to them yet. Anyway, I expect that by Friday I will be ready to take a break from Secret World for Neverwinter. Actually, my main worry is that I will end up loving both Secret World and NW. ;)
I love TSW for 2 reasons: It makes you think, and, well, ancient history is a specialty of mine. A game dealing with ancient history is 2x the geeking. :) Feel free to drop me an email if you want to try meeting up in game! Another thing I love about TSW is that it doens’t matter all that much how long you’ve been playing, you can still group up with new players. Obfuscated for the annoying spambots that search out blogs and forums for emails: It’s my name here at lorehound @gmail.com
Hey Pherephassa, I’m blue, because I had my first truly unpleasant MMO group experience in Secret World. :( It had to do with the ‘Polaris’ mission in Kingsmouth. I think too many people take the game way too seriously, and I can see now why the #1 reason people don’t like MMO’s is because of other people. Ironic, don’t you think? ;) Anyways, it wasn’t enough to make me want to quit SW, but definitely enough to make me wary and circumspect of other players in MMO’s going forward. Chock it up to experience I guess.
Drop me an email, I will group with you. :) But yeah, there are some truly bizarre people in TSW. It’s better now than it used to be, which is kind of scary. Well, there are bizarre people in all MMORPGs, I guess. I always say the best and worst things about MMORPGs are the people. I should revisit my old article about community! I’ve put a lot more thought into it since I wrote it years ago…