The Final Fantasy XI 10th Anniversary Concert was this last weekend in Berkeley, and it was a real treat. I had gone to game concerts before, like Video Games Live, but this was a different kind of concert – Video Games Live is insane, top to bottom, and Tommy Tallarico is a showman and performer. This was more classic, more low-key, more focused on the music and the monitor behind, which showed off some of the locations, battles, and cutscenes from Vana'Diel.
The team behind RIFT certainly knows a thing or two about producing plenty of new content for players to tuck into. In the eighteen months since Trion Worlds launched its flagship MMO, the game has received ten updates that have expanded the world and enhanced our experience. Yet, alongside these regular bundles of fun, the team has secretly been toiling away on RIFT’s first expansion.
I was lucky enough to get a guided tour of RIFT: Storm Legion from Will Cook, one of the Senior Game Designers on the dedicated team at Trion. Although we barely scratched the surface during the demonstration, it’s clear that there are some grand ambitions that make this expansion more than simply raising the level cap and adding a few new skills. Adding vast swathes of new land provides the team with space to unleash further content updates down the line, and their unique twist on player housing opens the door to a vast amount of player creativity.
With the launch date of November 13th moving ever closer and closed beta opening soon, Trion has already thrown the door open for preorders, offering a range of in-game items to those willing to put their cash down in advance. There’s even an option to pick up the expansion for free when signing up to a year’s subscription. But if you’re still on the fence or just eager to find out more, here’s a glimmer of what to expect in RIFT: Storm Legion.
We've got pictures of the SOE Live in-game items, hot off today's (9/21) SOE Community Webcast! You have a week to pre-register for SOE Live and have these items granted to the SOE account you register with.
Click the image at right to see the entire gallery. Note that the Free Realms item wasn't available yet. Here's the item list from the SOE Live website:
Also mentioned on the podcast was that the All-Access pass will include the EQ and EQII expansions. The Sunday Developer brunch still has a few seats left, but laser tag has sold out. To register for SOE Live or get more information head over to the SOE Live website!
Know what gets the blood pumping and the adrenaline rushing in a war game? Mimicking the invasion of Normandy: an aquatic and airborne attack that appears again and again in our popular media as the crowning battle of WWII. Battlefield Heroes has attempted to cash in on this popularity in its latest map: Inland Invasion. Does the scenario capture the feeling of Normandy… and more importantly, is it a blast to play? Read on for the details of our playtest from September 17th!
To celebrate the arrival of Sunstone Valley, ZAM has acquired 25 Biker Helmet and Shades codes to give away AND some Station Cash!
Just log into Free Realms ZAM and upload your favorite Sunstone Valley screenshots to the media tab of this page. We'll make a gallery of all the submissions here. Use this thread to cheer for your favorites!
You can enter all you want but you can only win once. Fifteen codes will be given away to the submitters of our favorite screenshots. Ten codes will be given away to random people who were not screenshot winners. Our very favorite screenshot will also receive a code for 1000 ($10 USD) Station Cash!
See the complete rules here: Free Realms Sunstone Valley Sweepstakes.
I have fond memories of the hushed tones that would be used when speaking of The Sleeper in the original EverQuest.
With this in mind, I find the new update to EverQuest II rather exciting.
Traversing Telara is an exclusive series of articles from Trion Worlds that explores Rift's lore and gameplay mechanics through the eyes of one intrepid adventurer. It's a great read and a fantastic introduction to the world of Telara. Even if you're a veteran of Rift, you might enjoy hearing about the game from another perspective! Read on for Traversing Telara #18: Gutter and Quarrytstone Basin!
Every player has his/her favorite little slice of MMO paradise. Maybe you’re a rabid World of Warcraft fan anxiously awaiting the new expansion, or an RTS mastermind praying for an invite to the next End of Nations playtest. Perhaps you go for older games like Ultima Online or Final Fantasy XI because the relationships that you made there have spanned a decade. But for every game that attracts even a few tens of thousands of players, there are a dozen that die alone and unloved, because they didn’t learn from the scores of casualties that came before them. This article is dedicated to those games and the lessons they’ve left behind.
If you want to know what satisfaction born of hard work looks like, Seattle would be a good place to go this morning.
NCSoft and ArenaNet can take a well-earned pat on the back after announcing that Guild Wars 2 has broken 2,000,000 unit sales.
Tomorrow is a big patch day for The Secret World. The servers housing Funcom's modern-era MMO are due to be updated with Issue #2: Digging Deeper, bringing a whole range of new features and missions to the dark, mysterious world.
To herald the changes, Lead Content Designer Joel Bylos takes us through Issue #2 in this fresh video from Funcom. If you’re a fan of terrifying firepower, the close-up shots of the first new Auxiliary Weapon – the Rocket Launcher – are going to have you grinning with thoughts of chaos and destruction. There are also a number of different appearances you can give your new toy, allowing your portable death cannon to perfectly accessorize your outfit.
