Not to be outdone by all the fan coverage of last week's Fan Faire 2010, Sony Online Entertainment has released its own smorgasbord of information on the next EverQuest II expansion in the form of an official press release. Destiny of Velious, flying your way in February, looks to expand the venerable franchise while simultaneously paying homage to its roots.
The release will feature an all-in-one compilation pack with the base game, all seven expansions, and three adventure packs, allowing newbs and veterans alike to dive into (or back into) the world of Norrath. Speaking of diving, we've now confirmed that flying mounts will allow you to venture off the beaten path of pre-determined flight tracks, wheeling and soaring at will. Additionally, expansioneers can partake of 300 new quests (including four Heritage Quests), 10 new dungeon instances, a contested dungeon, Velious-themed PvP battlegrounds, two new overland zones, six new raids, and dozens of new armor sets.
Reader Comments (16)
Posted: Aug 10th 2010 6:11PM (Unverified) said
Ah, Velious. Probably my favorite expansion and the one in OG-EQ that I spent the most time in.
I can still remember the primal fear of teleporting into that one
druid ring that occasionally had a GIANT GREEN PISSED OFF DRAGON next to it.
Memories.
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I can still remember the primal fear of teleporting into that one
druid ring that occasionally had a GIANT GREEN PISSED OFF DRAGON next to it.
Memories.
Posted: Aug 10th 2010 7:33PM (Unverified) said
A giant pissed-off dragon surrounded by corpses, sometimes *multiple* corpses of the same character! Ouch.
Reply
Posted: Aug 11th 2010 6:34AM (Unverified) said
Sweet Jesus!
Now thats an expansion!
If I still played eq2 Id be F'n Pumped! good for them!
Reply
Now thats an expansion!
If I still played eq2 Id be F'n Pumped! good for them!
Posted: Aug 10th 2010 6:26PM Controlled Chaos said
I have to admit, Sony is really going out of their way to get Everquest's numbers back up, what with the second F2P server and now this, including a massive pack of all the previous installments. I don't always like the things they do, but I can always approve of keeping the fans happy with a lot more content.
300 new quests alone sounds like a pretty reasonable boost, but that much more? Boon for the players, to say the least.
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300 new quests alone sounds like a pretty reasonable boost, but that much more? Boon for the players, to say the least.
Posted: Aug 10th 2010 7:10PM (Unverified) said
All of EQ2's expansions in recent years have contained the original game, the previous expansions and the adventure packs, so this isn't something "new" that Sony is doing to nab subscribers.
I've been considering picking up EQ2 for that reason; games that make me buy each one separately annoy me.
But I like that this game seems to have regular expansions and plenty of content. I'll have to check it out before the free trial goes away in favor of F2P.
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I've been considering picking up EQ2 for that reason; games that make me buy each one separately annoy me.
But I like that this game seems to have regular expansions and plenty of content. I'll have to check it out before the free trial goes away in favor of F2P.
Posted: Aug 10th 2010 7:33PM (Unverified) said
You'll have a MUCH better time in EQ2 if you wait for the F2P client to go into beta next week compared to the free trial. Performance is MUCH better on the new client compared to the current live client. I'm getting 50-60fps in Greater Faydark completely maxed out (flora too) minus shadows with 8x AF 4x AA. This is on a core 2 duo e8400 with a GTX460.
TRUST ME. If you are new to EQ2 just wait til next week when F2P goes into open beta and officially starts. It has a ton of performance improvements in the client as well as a brand new UI that is easy for beginners to pickup. Checkout this screenshot to see the new UI that will be launching with the F2P client. Ignoring the F2P client just to play the 14 day trial now would be a great disservice.
http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/9075/eq2000006l.jpg
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TRUST ME. If you are new to EQ2 just wait til next week when F2P goes into open beta and officially starts. It has a ton of performance improvements in the client as well as a brand new UI that is easy for beginners to pickup. Checkout this screenshot to see the new UI that will be launching with the F2P client. Ignoring the F2P client just to play the 14 day trial now would be a great disservice.
http://img714.imageshack.us/img714/9075/eq2000006l.jpg
Posted: Aug 11th 2010 7:39PM Wisdomandlore said
Hmm, I recently bough Sentinel's Fate but cancelled before the 30 days were up. The performance of the game (and I have a good computer) was a big issue? Are the engine improvements only for F2P, or are they going Live too?
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Posted: Aug 10th 2010 9:25PM (Unverified) said
Right.. I just meant don't give EQ2 a shot right now whenever there's going to be a much better client going live in the next week or so. Go ahead and give it a shot, but don't give the game your final judgement based on its performance/UI etc, whenever a much better newbie experience will begin when EQ2X/GU57 go live.
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Posted: Aug 11th 2010 1:15AM TheJackman said
Thanks I did try it before but the interface and client kinda put me off I will try again when EQ2X/GU57 go live. The game looks good however!
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Posted: Aug 11th 2010 5:34AM pcgneurotic said
Wow, I love what they've done with the new UI - it's the perfect blend of old, favourite elements with new elements, and all in one tasty EQ2 flavoured wrapper. If the performance enhancements are what you say they are Antodd, this is going to keep me in the same pair of underpants for months!
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Posted: Aug 11th 2010 8:12AM (Unverified) said
The performance is a lot better on both my PC and my wife's PC on the GU57 client compared to the live client. How much better it will be for each person? Time will tell. However, they did boost the performance of flora, one of the biggest resource hogs the game has, by like 90%. Now you can't even really tell a difference if you have flora maxed out, or completely off heh. The UI/spells don't use as many resources as before either. Not sure what other performance upgrades there are..
Shader 3 I don't get much of a performance boost compared to live (not to mention the game's lighting with shader 3 sucks for some reason), however the performance with Shader 1 on the new client is great compared to live.
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Shader 3 I don't get much of a performance boost compared to live (not to mention the game's lighting with shader 3 sucks for some reason), however the performance with Shader 1 on the new client is great compared to live.
Posted: Aug 11th 2010 8:27AM (Unverified) said
Posted: Aug 11th 2010 9:28AM Ocho said
ARGH! I really do have an MMO addiction, I think. A few days ago, I was considering resubbing to STO because of all of the great improvements they've made... then I saw the GW2 trailer and thought "hey, I need to finish GW1 first before that drops! I need to get on that!" and didn't resub, but started playing GW1 again, then you say EQ2X, which will be awesome, goes into open beta next week? That and with my friends playing LotRO... I'm so torn right now...
Its a great time to be an MMO player, but with the limited amount of time I have to play as is, it looks like my time will be split between GW, LotRO, STO and EQ2X, with the possibility of the only real loser being STO because it has a sub fee.
Seriously, what a great time to be an MMO gamer. I'm so glad I got out from under the WoW umbrella to check out all of these other titles that have so much to offer themselves...
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Its a great time to be an MMO player, but with the limited amount of time I have to play as is, it looks like my time will be split between GW, LotRO, STO and EQ2X, with the possibility of the only real loser being STO because it has a sub fee.
Seriously, what a great time to be an MMO gamer. I'm so glad I got out from under the WoW umbrella to check out all of these other titles that have so much to offer themselves...
Posted: Aug 11th 2010 9:43AM (Unverified) said
True.. as far as a traditional MMORPG with tons of features and content, EQ2 is easily my favorite. However, with new mmos like GW2 coming out (the newest trailer is amazing), it makes me lose my urge to logon to my current MMOs EQ2 and Aion heh. ArenaNet seems so passionate about their game compared to how SoE treats EQ2.. I love EQ2 but would love to see SOE work harder to market and improve their game instead of keeping it the same old thing with each expansion. The current playerbase in EQ2, while extremely helpful and friendly.. absolutely hates change in EQ2.
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