Tagged News: preview

FreeRealms is a new adventure for SOE. They're making a browser based MMO with free-to-play, microtransaction and subscription elements; and they're targeting young girls. Does that sound like SOE? Not exactly, but they no doubt hope to expose a whole new segment of the market to MMOs and give some of their regular subscribers an option to play with their daughters.

As this game works through popular web browsers, it also made sense to make a Facebook-esque network so players could show off their collections, customization and information. These are not sites for the player, but definitely the character. It's no fun to collect if people cannot brag, and the overarching site lets people do just that.

They also made customization a major theme of the game. Despite the fact it's in a browser, the game is fully 3D and has as many character customization options as one would expect from a traditional MMORPG. Players can be humans or fairies, for the initial launch. Each race has an impressive array of options, and an even more impressive number of clothing options.

Read it all after the jump.

Turbine released a bunch of screenshots to whet our appetites for Module 6. This is just one of them:

You can see the entire set after the jump!

WarCry's Tim Turner last week checked out the forthcoming update to Dungeons and Dragons Online. Module 6: The Thirteenth Eclipse launches on Wednesday and brings a host of changes to the MMORPG from Turbine. Turner and JR Sutich ran through the updates with them and provide this report:

All of the dungeons work at having new features or improved features and great story line. And based on the "Rainbow in the Dark", I have to say they did a great job of succeeding.

After saving all of the missing members of The Twelve, it was time to put a stop to Arraetrikos evil plans. So into the Shroud we went. The Shroud is the raid portion of the module and I just have to say "Awesome!"

Click below to read about it.

I had the opportunity to give dungeon raiding and CTF PvP a go while over in the Funcom offices last week, and today I present my my hands-on report of my experience:

"If the 'Age of Conan' dungeon designers were going for a dark, hellish, dank, and misty look for the Sanctum of Burning Souls, then they well and truly pulled it off."

Whether your game's dungeon raiding or PvP, 'Age of Conan' will be a game to sate your gameplay desires.

In Part 2 of our look at 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons, we will take a broad look at how the new class system works. Players of MMO's will quickly see the inspiration for the new system, and should be able to pick up the play styles easily.

Defender: A character with high defenses and high hit points. This is the character you want getting in front of the monsters and absorbing their attacks. Fighters have been doing this job in D&D; for 30 years. Ideally, a defender ought to have some abilities that make him "sticky" in other words, a defender should be difficult to move past or ignore so that he can do his job.

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Avast! Pirates of the Burning Sea launches tomorrow and I've been playing for the last two weeks as part of the pre-order head start. The first MMO from Flying Lab Software seems to be a game that will soon be taking up all of my free time. To find out why, read on.

Graphically, PotBS looks wonderful. The amount of detail on the ships is simply amazing and has almost resulted in me getting my ship shot out from under me because I was oohing and ahhing instead of paying attention to the large French frigate with 34 guns trying to make large holes in my pretty boat. The avatars and land based environments are well done. However, there is one detail in some sea battles that I cannot fail to mention, and that is waterfalls. Some of them are quite beautiful and looks like they should be in the ads telling you that it's better in the Bahamas. It's little details like this that make the game special for me.

The client also has a lot of sliders and can be scaled back for those who don't have the latest and greatest video cards, which should open it up to a wider range of systems than many of its competitors.

For the full preview, click below.

During CES, SOE and Flying Lab Software hosted an event to give us one last chance to look at Pirates of the Burning Sea before launch. We find out how the pre-order launch treated them, get some early returns on the game's success, a peek at the first update, some never before seen areas and go over some of the game's core features in this preview.

Once the level cap drops on launch day, the designers believe the average reasonably casual player will take about two to three months to reach the level cap, but while this gives an idea of the game's curve, they do not believe it is as important a stat as in most MMOs.

"One of the things I like about our game is that level is not the be all and end all," said Game Designer Drew Clowery.

In actuality, the difference between levels is not that big of a deal. While it certainly cannot hurt to grind out those last few levels, it does not hamstring a character who chooses adventure over the cap.

Read more after the leap.

At CES, we had the chance to sit down and see The Agency and find out what SOE Seattle has been at work on all these months. We came back with fresh screenshots and an in-depth preview of some new nuggets of information.

"Spies don't click to craft," Wilson said with a grin, but quite seriously. At a basic level, it is operatives that do that for the player, and the results are in real-time. So for example, if a player wants a new car, they can build it for a monetary and time cost. Say that car takes a week to create. Well, in this form of offline advancement, a player can login on a Saturday and tell his operative to build him that fancy new car. Next Saturday, that same person has a car.

Read more after the click.

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.