Archives for Dec 12th, 2011
Final Fantasy XIV releases notes for patch 1.20
Expected to drop on to the live servers later this week, Final Fantasy XIV's patch 1.20 is bringing with it several large-scale overhauls to combat, leveling, and crafting. In anticipation of the patch release, the patch notes have just recently been posted on the official site; they contain a nu...
Not So Massively: Diablo III news overload edition
It's been a bumper week for online gaming news, with an absolute flood of new information from the world of game development. Rock Paper Shotgun gots some hands-on time with upcoming online FPS Tribes: Ascend and delivered a cautious preview. Blacklight: Retribution's massive character customisat...
Drakensang announces 'massive content updates'
Bigpoint Games has announced that its free-to-play hack-and-slash title Drakensang Online is receiving a "massive content update." Between now and December 25th, Drakensang players will be receiving a couple of large updates, plus a few smaller changes as well. The updates will introduce p...
Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars' elite areas -- The Underworld
All is still quiet on the Guild Wars 2 front, and I'm almost thankful since I was hoping to be able to go over The Underworld in Guild Wars this week. There's a lot more to say about this area because it's so much more difficult, but you can do it -- I promise. The general tips I gave last week a...
ArcheAge CBT4 vids offer a closer look at hang-gliding
MMO Culture has been, ahem, hanging out in ArcheAge's fourth Korean closed beta test, and the fansite has posted a handful of new videos that show off various aspects of XLGAMES' forthcoming sandpark opus. First up are a couple of clips that feature the game's unique hang-gliding mechanics, an...
Star Wars: The Old Republic preps for guild imports, server list takes shape
At 7:00 a.m. EST tomorrow morning, the coveted early access invitations will be sent out for Star Wars: The Old Republic. Some of them, anyway. (Some players will have to wait a little bit longer.) If you're in one of the many guilds that prepared and recruited prior to the game's launch via the ...
Mesmerizing revelation: Guild Wars 2's Mesmer is the final class
No, faithful Guild Wars 2 fans, this is not an illusion: The Mesmer is in the game, so stop rubbing your eyes and pinching your arms in disbelief. To be honest, if ArenaNet had announced that the eighth and final profession for Guild Wars 2 was anything but the Mesmer, there would have been wo...
Lord of the Rings Online delves into the Ring of Isengard
Today's Lord of the Rings Online dev diary brings players behind the scenes with the upcoming instance cluster, Ring of Isengard. This new update includes three small fellowships, one fellowship, and one raid, ensuring that there's something for groups of every size. The team is working off the...
EVE Online Fanfest 2012 tickets on sale now
Hold up there, space cowboy. We know everyone's excited about that other sci-fi game, but EVE Online fans have something to look forward to as well. CCP has announced that tickets are now on sale for the 2012 EVE Online Fanfest. The event will be taking place in Reykjavik, Iceland from March 22...
Wings Over Atreia: Solorius medley
It's simply inescapable: Everywhere I go, I am inundated with tunes invoking the holiday spirit. It started a while ago, and I thought I had artfully dodged it by turning off the radio, avoiding stores, and just keeping immersed in game. But now, even when I log into Aion I cannot escape; just on...
Guild Wars 2 devs fielding your questions this Wednesday
How is ArenaNet countering the massive Star Wars-related hype bomb that's detonating across the MMO industry this week? Hopefully by ignoring it and continuing to work on Guild Wars 2. That said, the company is trotting out Jon Peters and Johnathan Sharp to field fan questions during a live IRC c...
SWTOR: So you want to play an Imperial Agent
Espionage! Subterfuge! Classy accents! Such is the life of Star Wars: The Old Republic's Imperial Agent. If a career full of clandestine operations and lots of assassination sounds like a good time to you, then the Agent is your class. Agents can fill one of two roles: ranged DPS and healing/mel...
SWTOR: So you want to play a Sith Inquisitor
OK, enough of these goody-goody Jedi, all right? It's time to come to the Dark Side of Star Wars: The Old Republic, where the Sith Inquisitor reigns supreme. The Inquisitor fills a variety of roles within the ranks of the Empire, from healing to ranged DPS to melee DPS to tanking. There's an opti...
SWTOR: So you want to play a Jedi Consular
Peace. Serenity. Harmony. These are some of the touchstones of the Jedi order, and they are the values that the Consular embodies. Where the Jedi Knight is meant to be the military and defensive might of the Jedi Order, the Consular is instead a teacher, a defender, and a scholar of the mysteries...
SWTOR: When do I get...?
BioWare has created an enormous world with Star Wars: The Old Republic. Over and over again, developers explained that this is absolutely™ the biggest single project BioWare has ever undertaken. This also means that it is the most complex, and not everything you want to know about the game ...
SWTOR: Advance your classes
Although the idea of advanced classes in MMOs is not new, the developers at BioWare have combined the holy-trinity combat roles into something unique as you level up your Star Wars: The Old Republic character. Traditionally, you choose your group combat role right at the beginning of the game. If...
SWTOR: Warzones whack-a-mole
You cannot make a Star Wars game without some sort of galactic conflict. Subscribers to Star Wars: The Old Republic can play out this interplanetary war in appropriately named instances called warzones. Out of the box, BioWare's MMO includes three of these epic conflicts. The planetary government...
SWTOR: Grouping up for flashpoints
We are all familiar with dungeons in most MMOs -- they're areas that usually require more than one party member to complete, and they're often (though not always) instanced off from the rest of the game. In the early games like Ultima Online and EverQuest, it would literally take an army of peopl...
SWTOR: So you want to play a Sith Warrior
No class embodies the Sith philosophy so completely as the Sith Warrior. Inquisitors hide and scheme, but Warriors let their passion run rampant. It's not that they lack in subtlety, merely that they are capable of channeling their passion into destructive force so effortlessly that careful manip...
SWTOR: So you want to play a Bounty Hunter
So you're thinking of being a Star Wars: The Old Republic Bounty Hunter, are you? It's a fine choice of profession. Challenging work, definitely. Requires a lot of travel, a quick draw, and a willingness to take on impossible odds. Some Hunters might see themselves as the avenging hand of the law...
SWTOR: So you want to play a Smuggler
If someone were to ask Star Wars fans which of the characters had the most personality, most likely they would answer Han Solo. In the Expanded Universe, and most notably in the Star Wars video games, smugglers always mirror this dashing rogue of a character archetype established by none other t...
SWTOR: Ten things you need to know about companions
For those of you who have never played a BioWare RPG before (or any single-player RPG, really), the concept of "companions" may initially strike you as strange. After all, in MMOs we're so used to jaunting off into the wilderness solo without some semi-intelligent NPC tagging along for the ride, ...
Massively's guide to SWTOR's launch and beyond
A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, we first heard mention of a new Star Wars MMO set in the popular Knights of the Old Republic era. Star Wars: The Old Republic, BioWare named it, and we've waited patiently impatiently through months years of hope and hype, fanboys and haters, and at lea...
SWTOR: Starship operator's guide
Congratulations, you are now the proud owner of an actual, factual, interstellar starship! Or you soon will be, assuming that you're planning to play Star Wars: The Old Republic. Starships have captured the imaginations of Star Wars fans for over three decades now, as the Millennium Falcon, Lu...
SWTOR: So you want to play a Trooper
Whether you're attracted to Star Wars: The Old Republic's Trooper class because of the iconic Stormtrooper/Clone Wars trooper look, the ability to dish out massive damage without any pamby-namby "Force" crutches, or the chance to hop on board a sci-fi military saga, you're in for a treat. While ...
SWTOR: So you want to play a Jedi Knight
If it's true that gamers would rather play Luke Skywalker than Uncle Owen, then the Jedi Knight is the class to put that claim to the test in Star Wars: The Old Republic. The Knight is the Republic side's melee specialist and classic tank-mage, who supplements her melee attacks with taunts, buff...
Garriott's Ultimate RPG 'clearly the spiritual successor' to Ultima
The Richard Garriott crazy train is heading toward a section of track that long-time fans of the gaming god might actually appreciate. In a new interview with Eurogamer, the man behind Ultima Online talks a little less about his recent foray into social casino games and a little more about what m...
Leaderboard: Level-based vs. skill-based
When you think about it, the concept of "levels" in MMOs is downright strange -- and contrary to how we live life. I mean, do you suddenly "ding" to a new, arbitrary level after gaining a whole bunch of generic XP for killing spiders because your spouse/roommate/sibling is too scared to do so? Or...
LotRO's Update 5: Armies of Isengard storms servers today
It's Big Honkin' Patch Day for Lord of the Rings Online as a platoon of content is double-timing it to a server near you. Update 5: Armies of Isengard is the game's first post-Rise of Isengard release, and it's been highly anticipated as it will finally add the long-awaited instance cluster to th...
MV Guide: December 12-18, 2011
MV Guide is a weekly rundown of the MMO gaming events planned on Massively TV. Every week, the Massively staff logs in to play various MMOs live and in person, and we'd love for you to drop by the channel and visit. We have a combination of regular weekly games and new surprises, so you'll fi...
The Daily Grind: Should MMOs offer respecs?
MMOs last for so long that you're almost guaranteed to get bored or make a mistake at some point during character development. Most games know this and allow you a do-over, be it through unlearning skills in sandboxes like Glitch and Ultima Online or respecing talent point choices in World of War...
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