Funcom and Eidos have announced they are rewarding those who pre-order their upcoming MMORPG, Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures.
Age of Conan will apparently be released in Europe on March 23rd and if you pre-order it now you will have access to the game on May 20th, that’s a 3-day head-start. The developer and publishers have another bonus for those of you willing to spend cash early, they’ll also include an exclusive mount: the Killer Rhino or the War Mammoth.
Unfortunately not all video-game retailers are participating in this pre-order deal, so your surest bet would be to go with Gamestop or Amazon.
April 17th, 2008
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Epic’s graphics engine has to be the most popular video-games engine ever developed and it’s about to become even more popular.
Unreal Engine 3 is definitely the most well known of Epic’s graphics engine series, being used in hit shooters like Gears of War or BioShock, but their technology has been successfully implemented in RPGs like Mass Effect and the recent Lost Odyssey, from Mistwalker.
Well, now Unreal technology is about to be tested in a whole new universe, the MMO universe. NC Soft has announced it will be using the engine in two new MMO games. It’s not the first time either, games like Lineage 2 or the soon-to-be-released Exteel are powered by Unreal Engine 2.
So now, even if the games suck, we know they’ll look great!
March 26th, 2008
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The rumors have been confirmed, Ubisoft is really attacking the MMO market using Clancy’s name as its secret weapon.
After acquiring all the rights to the author’s name, the French developer decided to use his popularity as a launching pad for its new MMO project. “Having no fees, it’s going to give us a full return, [so] we’ve really decided now to go for an MMO on the Clancy name, which is big” said Yves Guillermot, the boss of Ubisoft.
Guillermot estimated that the Clancy MMO would cost between $40 million and $50 million to make and added that the company “has the technology to create MMOs… We have lots of games in the Clancy franchise that are already multiplayer. So to create an MMO, we need to have larger teams to actually spend the time to create it.”
March 25th, 2008
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At least that’s what Erling Ellingsen, product manager at Funcom, said during an interview with CVG.
“When it comes to World of Warcraft, it’s going to run up to World of Warcraft and kick it in its knees, I think” Ellingsen said before adding “It’s never going to get the number of players World of Warcraft has”. He acknowledged that Blizzard’s cash-cow has become a social phenomenon that’s incredibly hard to copy and went as far as to compare it with Facebook: “you can try to create the new Facebook, but will it ever become that popular?”
Ellinsen is however confident that Age of Conan will appeal to a large variety of players, because it’s very different than other MMOs. He also praised the game’s combat system, which would fit in any quality single-player action adventure game.
March 19th, 2008
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The guys at Turbine have revealed that the first expansion for the popular mmorpg, Lord of The Rings Online, is coming out this year.
Mines of Moria will take players underground, in the lands of the dwarves, where they will have to battle goblins and many other dangerous creatures living in the dark tunnels. This first expansion will raise the level cap from 50 to 60, and will also add two more character classes, Warden and Runekeeper.
The developers promises a more developed AI, an improved item system and impressive boss battles, including The Watcher and The Barlog.
Stop by the official site for more info.
March 14th, 2008
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World of Warcraft’s biggest competitor for the title of most popular MMORPG has sold more than 5 million copies since its original release.
Last month, Blizzard announced its MMMORPG turned social phenomenon, reached 10 million subscribers. As a response, ArenaNet made a similar announcement, stating Guild Wars, its nonsubscribtion-based MMO sold over 5 million copies since its release.
Both WoW and Guild Wars are doing very well but we have to be realistic, there’s no real competition between them, at least not as far as I’m concerned, WoW is undisputed.
February 27th, 2008
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Blizzard announced on Tuesday that its award winning MMORPG, World of Warcraft has reached the 10 million subscribers mark.
The company actually defined what a WoW subscriber is, there would not be any misinterpretations: “individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers.”
The subscribers are distributed as follows: 2.5 million in USA, 2 million in Europe and 5.5 million in Asia. Here’s what Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment had to say about this: “It’s very gratifying to see gamers around the world continuing to show such enthusiasm and support for World of Warcraft,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment sa. “We’re always pleased to welcome new players to the game, and we’re looking forward to sharing the next major content update with the entire community in the months ahead.”
Way to go World of Warcraft, I guess, although I’m not a big fan of the game or the MMO phenomenon in general.
January 24th, 2008
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Richard Garriott, the man behind the sci-fi MMORPG Tabula Rasa, said that inviting a high number of beta testers when the game was still very unpolished, really hurt their creation in the end.
Speaking about the game’s marketing, Garriott actually said: “I actually think the biggest mistake was made not by the marketing department, but by the development team. We invited too many people into the beta when the game was still too broken.”
The producers went as far as to say that, in the end, they had to contact those beta testers and inform them Tabula Rasa is not broken anymore, and that they should come back and try it: “We’ve had to go out and develop free programs to invite those people back for free before they go buy it. So the beta process, which we used to think of as a QA process, is really a marketing process”
Personally I haven’t tried Tabula Rasa yet, but I hear it’s a pretty decent MMORPG, after all Garriott knows what he’s doing, he’s not exactly new to the game.
January 9th, 2008
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Yesterday, leading gaming website, Gamespot.com, posted some news regarding a possible MMORPG set in the Elder Scrolls universe. Although the facts can’t prove that such a project is in the works, it’s enough to keep the rumor going.
The most important hint that Bethesda is planning on taking its popular RPG series online, is the registration of a domain named elderscrollsonline.com, by Zenimax Media, parent company of Bethesda Softworks. Even though the URL is inactive at the moment, it’s possible that the MMO, Bethesda has announced is working on, could be set in the Elder Scrolls realm of Tamriel.
November 3rd, 2007
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Yes, that’s right people, the world got a little dumber these days when Chinese MMORPG provider Aurora Inc decided to just block roughly 17.000 male players with female characters out of a Chinese MMO called King of the World. No particular reason has been given for this radical act, which makes it even more despicable.
Sure we all know the Chinese cultural taboos and this may be one explanation but still it doesn’t justify it or anything. And now, all the actual women playing as women, have to present themselves via webcam when they log in, as gender evidence. Wow… playing an MMO used to be simpler than this. And talk about a dumb idea, using webcams, maybe I have a sister, or a good friend and I ask her to take the gender confirmation test…it still doesn’t solve anything.
September 30th, 2007
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Square Enix has announced the release of another expansion pack for its MMORPG, Final Fantasy XI.
During the Tokyo Game Show, a trailer will present all the new locations in the game, new beastmen and new adventures players will be able to embark on. Also another addition to the game, is a new character profession, that North American fans will be able to experience first hand at this year’s Fan Festival in Anaheim, California.
September 22nd, 2007
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That’s right people the very…persistent Chinese historical simulation, Three Kingdoms, is going online. Although the game already has an official website I didn’t really look for any details regarding this upcoming MMO because, I for one, can’t say I’m ecstatic. I mean there are definitely better games out there that would make great MMOs, but Three Kingdoms…nah.
September 20th, 2007
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As we all know World of Warcraft is doing great, I mean great is an understatement but you know what I mean. Sure there are other solid MMORPGs out there, like the Guild Wars series, or Lord of the Rings Online, that attract a lot of fans, and there are some really famous MMOs coming out soon, Warhammer Online and Conan: Hyborian Adventures are just to examples. But let’s be serious the chances these new arrivals have of dethroning WoW are as high as Bush becoming president for the third time…which is impossible.
Now to be honest, when I first heard they were making LotR Online I really thought they had a chance. A strong fanbase, a rich fantasy universe to set the game in, great production values, all the ingredients for a successful game. But allthough LotR Online is an impressive achievement, it doesn’t come close to threatening Warcraft’s rule.
September 20th, 2007
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According to Joystiq, a rogue character from the famous MMORPG has just been sold for the sum of 7000€( approximately 10 000$). For this pretty sum, the buyer got himself a hero equipped with the best weapons to be found in World of Warcraft at this time, the Legendary swords dropped by Illidan Stormrage, and 4 out of 5 tiers of the strongest armor currently available.
September 19th, 2007
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The Guild Wars series has been, so far, the only serious competition for the social phenomenon known as World of Warcraft. There are even those who would go as far as to say that Guild Wars is even better than the above mentioned MMORPG, and for good reason too, it’s an excellent video game and Eye of the North is another confirmation.
September 17th, 2007
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MMORPG, PC, Reviews |
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