Have you ever looked up into the sky and wondered what it would be like to explore the heavens? The team working on Crusades at Vizual F/X Studios have and they would like to give you the opportunity to do just that. We had the opportunity to talk with Daniel 'FatalFX' McMillan about the game; check it out!

Allakhazam : Can you tell us a little bit about your game?

FatalFX : It has been said that is seems 'no game being created is done so out of purity or love for adventure anymore.' However, we disagree. 'Crusades' was created out of the love for adventure. It is an effort to restore the sense of exploration that was prevalent in the early days of science fiction culture.

In the first release, Chapter One - A New Beginning , players will set out on a single planet. It is important that players build up an economic infrastructure, learn essential skills, and gather resources needed to defend what they create before venturing out into the vast expanse of the Universe. The addition of spacecraft in Chapter Two - Explore & Colonize , will present an opportunity for players to explore a virtually limitless expanse and truly 'build their own place in the universe.' The planets allow for massive amounts of player created settlements that may eventually evolve into player owned empires. In time, you might one day log on to discover that your city is under attack or that your guild is launching a full-scale raid against a distant empire.

Being that it's International Talk Like A Pirate Day it seemed only fitting to talk with the fine folks at Flying Labs about Pirates of the Burning Sea, which is also the official game of this now, pseudo-widely celebrated holiday. In the interview I sat down with none other than the Lead Designer Kevin 'Isildur' Maginn, to see what he had to say about a few of the newer additions to the game.

Allakhazam : Hello Kevin, thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy day to chat with us! 

Allakhazam : Tell us a little about yourself! How long have you been with Flying Labs and what kind of work did you do before Pirates of the Burning Sea?

Kevin : I originally joined Flying Lab to develop the Pirates website. We all wore a lot of hats back then, because we had so few people. I've been designing games since I was ten years old, so it was a fairly natural progression for me to join the design team.

Our final mini-interview in this series also spotlights a highly anticipated new SOE game - The Agency.  Please see exactly how Steady-Cam(tm) doesn't help when the camera operator is a total newb in:

Three Questions with...   Matt Wilson, Director of Development, The Agency

In our fifth mini-interview in this series, I stumble over (almost literally) a Fan Faire icon as I'm leaving a panel.  Take a minute and a half to see:

Three Questions with...   Linda "Brasse" Carlson

In our continuing series of mini-interviews from Fan Faire we look beyond the EverQuest brand to exciting new developments.  Here's a bit on FreeRealms!

Three Questions with... Jason "Pex" Ryan, FreeRealms

In the third example of my 1337 camcorder skills, I prove that Quarks is not the best place for a video interview!  But judge for yourself in:

Three Questions with...   Christie "Kiara" Renzetti, EverQuest II Community Manager.

Continuing our series of mini-interviews from Fan Faire, this next bit shows how much the players love their devs!  Please enjoy:

Three Questions with:   Emily "Domino" Taylor, EverQuest II Tradeskill Developer

The SOE Fan Faire is a very busy time for everyone, Developers, players, fansite staff and press are all trying to cram as much as possible into two-and-a-half days of sheer, unadulterated, MMO overload.

Despite a very busy schedule I took my camcorder and got a series of mini-interviews with V.I.P.'s - Very Interesting Persons. You're invited to laugh at my truly amateur camera skills and enjoy a short video series called:

Three Questions With...

Our first victim is Tiffany "Amnerys" Spence, the EverQuest Brand Community Representative.

Are you excited about NCSoft's title-in-development, Aion, and just can't get enough information about it?  Have you been anxiously awaiting every post, blog, or comment from the team just to see if they reveal a tiny bit more?

Will you be at the Penny Arcade Expo to take part in their special exclusive preview sign-ups?

Recently we had an opportunity to chat with Charles "kieron" Dane, Online Community Relations Manager at NCSoft for this highly anticipated title, scheduled for official release in 2009, to discuss some of the more burning questions out there.  Check it out!

Allakhazam: Charles, as the Community Relations Manager for Aion, how excited are you for the community that this game has garnered so early in the development cycle?

kieron: It is a great excitement to see such an active and dedicated Aion community.  Then again with the many features such as full freedom flight, the PvPvE system, Stigma, the beautiful graphics and stunning score, it’s hard not to get excited.  As awareness of Aion grows, we only expect the size of the community to do the same and it is our hope the current community will continues with their support.

Allakhazam: Screen shots for the Abyss were recently released, and no one who's seen the artistic direction for the game would say it's anything less then stunning, yet the system requirements haven't been set yet. When in the process can we expect to have the details narrowed down?

With the closed beta ending at the end of this month, and official launch on the horizon, we felt it was time to sit down with the folks at NDOORS and discuss their upcoming title, Atlantica Online .  We chatted briefly with Peter Kang, CEO of NDOORS Interactive, and here's what we learned:

Allakhazam: Will players be able to explore the world like your traditional MMORPG? For example, the ability to swim in bodies of water freely and climb mountains, etc. for better views of the world.

Peter: Atlantica Online isn’t like traditional MMORPGs in that you can’t explore the world by doing things like swimming in bodies of water. The Atlantica world is unique in that it’s based more in reality, with the Earth’s continents being the same land masses in the game. Real-life locations are places players will have to travel to during the course of the game. Locales like the pyramids of Egypt and Bran Castle in Romania, which is believed to have been the home of Count Vlad of Dracula mythology, are a few of the places where players will have to battle enemies like mummies and vampires to find the fabled lost civilization of Atlantis. It’s a globe-hopping adventure and players will be able to explore many of the locations in-depth. But it’s a world that’s not completely fictional, with players getting to interact with places like the Great Wall of China and India’s Taj Mahal in a whole new way.

I’d also like to add that two of Atlantica’s features, the turn-based combat system and the ability to acquire mercenaries who help you in battle, are not the norm in MMORPGs, and help to distinguish our game further from traditional ones.

Allakhazam: How will Atlantica Online play in comparison to the more traditional turn based RPG such as Final Fantasy III, Chrono Trigger and Breath of Fire?

Peter: It’s true turn-based. You have up to 30 seconds to assign a move for your main character and up to eight mercenaries. Then your opponent has his time to make his moves, and you have to just sit and watch the impact those actions have on your characters’ health points. It alternates like that for the entire battle. There is nothing else dictating which move gets made when.

In the combat action, there are some strategic and spatial similarities to Chrono Trigger, in that you have your characters in a specific formation and how certain moves you make will attack and impact the formation of your opponent. But we think we’ve been able to put together an exciting and fast-paced brand of action. Our development team in Korea spent most of the three years it took to create the game on the turn-based system, and fine-tuning it for an online game.