Previews

Last week, SOE and Flying Lab Software hosted a run-through of the Beta with the press. Matt Lowery was on hand and offered up a complete report.

To go with it, we also have a treasure trove of screenshots and video from the Beta.

We then hopped in our ships and headed out on the open seas for what is at the heart of this game. Ship combat! We had level 15 ships as we headed out on the open seas, where we quickly came across a ship well over level 40. What was cool about ship combat in the game is that level does not equal victory. In PotBS, a cannon ball does X amount of damage, it doesn't matter if you are level 5 or 50. The same damage is done from a cannon. Sure there are plenty advantages to being higher level, skills that allow you to fire faster, or turn quicker, but a player that really knows what he is doing, has a real chance of beating a ship far above his level. This was refreshing to see, especially in a game where PvP areas can open up around you, it is nice knowing that when that high level player starts chasing you, it doesn't mean you are dead.

Read more after the click.

At an event in San Francisco last week, WarCry had the chance to play Age of Conan's early game experience, some mid-level content and even got our teeth into arena PvP. We preview all of this and more.

The strongest part of the first few levels - and I would suspect the game in general - is that for the first time in a long time it feels like a world and not a guided trip through Disney Land. There are challenges and creatures along the way that have nothing to do with the mission at hand, and combat doesn't always wait for you to get ready. For example, right out of the tutorial, I started on a road that led down into the town. My goal was to gain access to that town, and had I wished I could have stuck to the path and got it done, but unlike so many games, there were not sheer cliffs to make sure I stayed on the rails. To my left, I saw a camp of bandits, way above my level and clearly not on my side. The simpleton that I am, I decided to fight them, and I even got one's head before they took me out. I died, but I had fun, and it had nothing to do with the mission at hand.

Read more after the click.

The Lineage II Dev Team is working hard on getting the next free update ready. Lineage II The 1st Throne: The Kamael will not only be a transition from The Chaotic Chronicle to The Chaotic Throne, it is also the largest update to the game since it launched over three years ago.

The new race has a very interesting history. A large part of it has to do with their future as well. Will they be saviors or tormentors? They have a close relationship with dark magic, and seem to almost exist in two different worlds at the same time. While they can use weapons that other races can, in order to realize their full potential they must convert common weapons into Kamael only ones. The Rapier and Crossbow are necessary to allow the Kamael to use their race specific special attacks. While normal special attacks consume Power for other races, as part of their demonic heritage, Kamael fuel their attacks with souls. This means that to kill efficiently, Kamael have to kill constantly. It's no wonder then why they are extremely good at combat. The Kamael classes will be split between Male and Female genders, with each following a different path with distinct combat abilities.

Find out what will be included by reading the full article.

Dungeon Runners is a free-to-play MMO from NCsoft and I went to Austin to check out details of the upcoming new content update, called Chunk #2. What's in store for the game is a number of exciting additions for both Members and Non-Members.

Now on to Chunk #2 and what it has to offer. The first thing that I should tell you is that if you are a Non-Member, you will be seeing ads. I know, when I heard that part I was a bit put off as well, but after seeing how it will be implemented I feel confident saying that the ads will be as non-intrusive as possible. These won't be "in-game" ads in the classic sense, but more "around-the-game" in nature. The most noticeable of these will be a banner ad at the top of the play screen. Yes, I heard you say that, and all I will tell you is that Diablo and StarCraft had one for years, and no-one said a word, even after you paid forty bucks for the game to begin with. Non-Members will also see static ads on load screens occasionally when switching zones. Video ads will play during login and logout. All fairly painless, really.

Get the details after the jump.

In the fourth of our five part "The War on the Impossible" series, we focus on Trinity, the next expansion to EVE Online. Due out this winter, CCP promises a complete graphics overhaul, a brand new client and a host of gameplay improvements. We preview them all in this article and bring you a host of videos that show off the graphics on the final page.

To get caught up on this series, you can check out Part One: Introduction, Part Two: Democracy and Part Three: Ambulation. Part five follows later this week.

"We have a focus in this expansion and its beautiful ships," said Chief Technical Officer Halldor Fannar. "I believe this is only the beginning."

The expansion is about more than just pretty pictures though. During a detailed presentation, Fannar explained that all those graphics would be made possible by a brand new client, which not only provides significant improvements for everyone in a traditional DirectX9 environment, but also paves the way for the future and DirectX10. The goal is not just to throw more polygons at people, but to take advantage of larger company resources to build a client that runs better as well.

Ready to learn more? Click below to get the scoop!

Call it what you want, "walking on stations" or "Ambulation". Next year, EVE Online is going to let people out of their pods and into the world. We preview both the artistic and gameplay plan for the expansion after next as part of our week long series of reports from last week's fanfest.

This is the third part in our series. To get caught up, you can check out Part One: Introduction and Part Two: Democracy.

When CCP looked at their game, they realized an overwhelming percentage of their subscribers were male and many people of both genders just could not relate to a game where people primarily identified with a spaceship, rather than a living being. As they continue to try to grow their game, they felt the need to fix the problem, but also did not want to change what made EVE Online so popular.

By design, Ambulation will not change the way people play EVE. They've gone to great lengths to ensure they don't waste their time with graphical representation of functionality already in the game, but instead create new gameplay for those who do wish to get off their ship and see the sights.

Read more after the jump.

Yesterday, we introduced the coming week of articles based on what we saw at EVE Online Fanfest and today we focus in on our first issue: The Council of Stellar Management. This is CCP's attempt to bring "deliberative democracy" to EVE and in true CCP-fashion, they not only presented their design, but invited a couple people to disagree with them and gave them microphones.

In this article, we describe the system, relate the presentations of Jessica Mulligan and Dr. Richard Bartle, the debate that followed the CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson and then finally our own take on the idea. Enjoy.

CCP then said the Council of Stellar Management exists within the "physics of the world", not to influence it. This statement though is a direct contradiction to the design presented earlier in the day, where the councilors were to serve as people, not players and to consider whatever the players want, which theoretically could and should include questions of game balance and design.

At this point, Mulligan brought up a theoretical example where the Goon Swarm convinces the council to vote that all ships be replaced with pink ponies. It's patently ridiculous, but not really inconceivable. What would CCP do, she asked. They admitted they would not make such a change, as they would need a good reason why and none could be given. However, they argued this would never happen.

Read more after the jump.

In the first part of a multi-part week long look, we introduce what we learned at EVE Online Fanfest held last week in Reykjavik, Iceland. There, CCP Games explained a wealth of information on the future of their virtual society, including a look at the upcoming Trinity expansion, the Ambulation and even a democratic initiative within the game.

Check back every day this week for a dedicated, focused feature on a specific aspect of the game's future.

"War on the impossible," is the company's latest mantra, according to CEO Hilmar Petursson. But, EVE Online has always defied expectations. It launched as a shell of a game to a very limited to subscriber base, yet while most games follow a very predictable life cycle, EVE refuses to quit growing. As of last week, the game has 197,773 subscribers, up substantially from last year. It creates a growth chart that looks more like Google's stock price than the typical bump and decline most games see.

Part of this success is how the world of EVE has taken on a life of its own. While most games divide their players between servers for technical and gameplay reasons, CCP capitalizes on the infinity of space and runs a world that recently hit 37,290 concurrent players logged in. The value of this is not just technical, and their Fanfest demonstrates the fact perfectly.

Read part one after the leap.

The Tabula Rasa Pre-order Head Start began when the servers went live on Monday. I got into the game on Tuesday and have been playing quite a bit since. Here are some early impressions of the game in its current state that will launch on Friday.

After logging in and creating a character, I found myself in the tutorial area, and no offense to Captain Burba, but I didn't want to skip past this first part of the game. After running a few short missions designed to give familiarity with the controls and interface, I made my way into my first combat with the Bane. The combat in Tabula Rasa is fast and dynamic, and even though it gives the impression of FPS-style combat, it's not quite that reflex/"twitch" orientated.

See the full Pre-Order Head Start Preview on the other side of "Read More".

SOE showed us EverQuest's 14th expansion, Secrets of Faydwer. It brings in some of the most innovative gameplay wrinkles anyone has tried in quite some time. Read on to see what's new in the original world of Norrath.

"We did more action-oriented stuff," said Senior Game Designer Ryan Barker.

In the dungeon, Barker showed off four examples. He turned down the fire-themed hall full of monsters, which seemed pretty straightforward. Along the walls are stone dragon heads, and as the players fight the enemies, these dragon heads shoot lethal flames across the hall. Players need to pay attention and time their progress or get burned to death.

Click below to read more.