Lore

Were you hanging on the edge of your seat after watching the first episode of Marvel Heroes' Chronicles of Doom last week? Hope you haven't fallen to your doo...mise because the second installment is now available.

The episode tracks the sinister Victor von Doom as he makes a devil's deal with Dorammu to gain power and YouTube likes. The Chronicles of Doom is a four-part motion comic series written by Marvel's Brian Michael Bendis, and it can be seen as the prequel to the game itself.

Watch episode 2 after the jump!

Continue Reading

I don't know if you noticed this, but in the fully rendered trailer for The Elder Scrolls Online, the Aldmeri Dominion elves looked nice. In traditional fantasy lore like Lord of the Rings, elves are some of the most beautiful creatures in the universe. However, I've always seen the Elder Scrolls elves as somewhat alien -- like the grey-men kind of aliens. In fact, the dark elves with their ashy skin really looked like grey men, especially if they were bald. Yet that particular MMO trailer presented a different kind of elf.

Of course, that's just a CGI trailer, and CGI trailers rarely represent what we will see in the game. I can accept that. But more and more screenshots have popped up and more in-game videos have appeared on different websites, and in each of them, it appears to me that the elves -- the "mer" -- have received a makeover. And it's not just the elves; even the Argonians and Khajiit look different. I suspect there's a reason for this.

Continue Reading

The big baddie of Guild Wars 2's recent living story has been called out. He's Canach, a renegade who thinks that that the answer to every urban planning problem is "more monsters." The Sylvari is behind a plot to use the creatures of Southsun to free settlers from the grasp of the Consortium.

A showdown with Canach is set to happen when the next chapter of the game's living story rolls out on May 28. The update, titled Last Stand at Southsun, will contain a solo dungeon where players will go mano-a-planto with Canach. ArenaNet says that those who defeat Canach will then open up new group content to tackle.

Other changes on deck include a zone-stomping monster and plenty of changes to world-vs.-world content. Southsun living story events, achievements, and rewards will be available until June 11th.

Last month saw the huge tenth anniversary EVE Online Fanfest, a three-day convention packed full of exclusive reveals, behind-the-scenes talks, and community events. This year's Fanfest was the biggest one yet, celebrating EVE's tenth anniversary with special guest speakers from the scientific community, the reveal of a new virtual reality dogfighter, DUST 514's launch, and details of the upcoming Odyssey expansion. Massively was there to bring you coverage of the big news as it happened, and CCP streamed some of the key talks and events live to viewers at home.

This year's Fanfest sold out so quickly that many people who wanted to go didn't get a chance to, and only a select few talks were shown on the public livestream. With such a packed event schedule, even players in attendance couldn't be there for every interesting talk. Thankfully, CCP recorded over 30 of the most anticipated events and has now uploaded the videos to YouTube. Highlights include the Make EVE Real videos, the EVE keynote, the CCP Presents Keynote, and the talks on how DUST 514 integrates with the EVE economy.

In this week's EVE Evolved, I round up all of the EVE Fanfest videos in a handy list.

Continue Reading

I was talking with a gaming buddy recently who missed the whole space sim experience in the 1990s. He's a Star Wars fan and a real-life pilot pushing 40, so it surprised me to learn that he'd never heard of Wing Commander, Freespace, X-Wing, and the like. My jaw really hit the floor as our conversation turned to current games and I began to evangelize about Star Citizen and Chris Roberts.

"Who's Chris Roberts?" he asked, with a straight face.

Continue Reading

"The Consortium is neither good nor evil. The Consortium is capitalist," ArenaNet Narrative Designer Scott McGough begins as he introduces this faction to gamers in a new video. If you've been playing Guild Wars 2's new living world content in Southsun Cove, then you've undoubtedly bumped into one or two of the representatives from this firm.

McGough explains that the Consortium is angling to be a competitor to the Black Lion Trading Company, and that means selling people all sorts of feel-good products that they want and need. They also appeared to be the savior of the refugees from the previous living story, offering the dispossessed a place to live and work. Unfortunately for the settlers, the Consortium is not prepared to let them go any time soon, and Southsun Cove is a much more dangerous place to live than the Consortium realized.

Check out the backstory video for the Consortium after the jump!

Continue Reading

Any RPG player worth his or her salt knows that there are two primary maxims to making it big: explore everywhere and take everything not nailed down. Fortunately, ZeniMax subscribes to this philosophy as well, which is why the team has placed an emphasis on exploration and loot-gobbling in The Elder Scrolls Online.

In a new video, Creative Director Paul Sage shows how players can loot all manner of goods in the world and then use those items for crafting. He also points out how the world will be populated with readable books, fishable areas, hidden chests, and ability-boosting stones. So if you were wondering if it's OK to rob a church in TESO, the following video should assure you that it's more than fine -- it's encouraged.

Continue Reading

This time of night I've only got one thing on my mind, and that's dinner. Seriously, the Massively graveyard shift makes my stomach rumble. Fortunately Cloud Imperium is here to fill it up with some sweet, sweet Star Citizen concept art.

The main course is a trio of gorgeous images from the former colony world of Orion III. Armitage, as the world was also called, was "the site of the farthest human colony from Earth... and one of the first targets of the Vanduul menace."

After you've dined on the establishing aerial artwork, it's time for dessert in the form of some early sketches for specific planetary locations. Feast your eyes at the official Star Citizen website.

Diablo III was hit with yet another exploit this week as players discovered a way to duplicate gold via a bug in the auction house. Blizzard responded by shutting down the auction house but did not perform a server rollback to reverse the damage. Star Citizen clarified its stance on the lifetime insurance available to veteran backers amidst debate over whether it gives early adopters an unfair advantage over other players. Path of Exile also released a new Letters of Wraeclast lore feature in its latest update, and MechWarrior Online's update 15 added a new Misery mech.

Dota 2 began preparations for its biggest world championship tournament yet with the release of a new Interactive Compendium that players can use to stay up to date with the matches. Rise of Immortals has now officially launched its Battle For Graxia revamp, and Infinite Crisis officially entered closed beta this week with the release of new champion The Joker. Finally, Smashmuck Champions released its hilarious new community-designed champion that's half platypus and half unicorn.

Continue Reading

Now that Star Trek Online's expansion, The Legacy of Romulus has moved into open beta on the Tribble test server, I think it's high time I wrote about one of the biggest changes the game has ever seen. It's not just about what will occur in the game's story; it's how the story is being told.

Players who create a Romulan faction character when Star Trek Online launches the expansion on May 21st will experience something that simply hasn't been seen before in the game. Fair warning: I'll be writing a fair amount about what happens within the first dozen levels of gameplay, so if you're holding out to be surprised, know that there are spoilers after the jump!

Continue Reading

As the Flame and Frost living story in Guild Wars 2 draws to a close, ArenaNet is gearing up for the next step of its story delivery system. Starting on May 14th, the team will be enticing players to return to Southsun Cove, the location of the controversial Lost Shores event.

A new dev blog on the official site outlines what the team is looking to do with the living story: "May represents a transition: The Flame and Frost arc is now complete, and our plan calls for content to build on what came before while also kicking things off in a new direction. With that in mind, Team Spring Break first focused on the essentials: characters, story, and gameplay."

In this first chapter of the new living story, players will team up with Inspector Ellen Kiel of the Lionguard as she and her allies address a tense situation between the settlers and the Consortium. It's only the start of the story, however; events won't be heating up until the summer proper.

Have you been out of the loop in Guild Wars 2? There's been big stuff going on with the game's narrative, sure, but it's easy to lose the thread if you're not playing the game on a regular basis. The latest developer video from ArenaNet is meant to address this, with narrative designers Angel McCoy and Scott McGough talking about the events of the Flame and Frost storyline and how the game's previous stories are leading into future developments.

The crux of Flame and Frost is the allegiance between the Dredge and the Flame Legion, with the former lacking in magical artillery and the latter being cut off from traditional Charr machinery. That alliance led to the capture of civilians, which in turn led to a push by two young heroes to free former prisoners... which in turn has led to a population move to an unexpected place. Watch the full video for a glimpse at how the story elements lead into one another and to get hints about what's around the bend.

Continue Reading

May has just gotten started and already ArenaNet has another content update scheduled for Guild Wars 2. Called The Secret of Southsun, this May 14th update comes right on the heels of the final installment of Flame and Frost and extends the episodic content that began with that first series. This time, the adventures focus on troubles brewing on the tropical island of Southsun Cove where players must quell the rising violence and discover the secret that hides there.

The Secret of Southsun also brings an end to culling in the rest of the world (it was previously only disabled in World vs. World) and introduces two an improvement to WvW -- traps and an improved award system. Traps will remove supply from enemies. and players will gain reward for a wider range of activities in the Mists, such as destroying siege weapons, escort missions, and repairing walls. Players can also try their hand at a new crab toss mini-game.

On top of the update announcement, ArenaNet has recently posted additional lore expanding the story of Rox, the Charr. Read on to see where her latest adventures lead.

[Update: It seems ArenaNet let some of this info out before it intended to, as detailed in this forum post. So the WvW award changes won't be in just yet. ArenaNet has also informed us that it will be holding off on the culling as well and has now altered its official announcement to reflect these changes.]

[Source: ArenaNet press release]

We're not kidding about that title. The latest set of answers for The Elder Scrolls Online's Ask Me Anything is full of lore. Spilling over with lore. Its lore cup runneth over. Do you want to know how old an elf has to be before he's actually old? 200-300 years is old. Want to know if there will be any Dragonborn running around a la Skyrim? Nope, and shouts are a thing of legend. It's all the lore you've wanted and were clearly not afraid to ask about.

There are some other answers in the mix as well. Players will have to guess about the abilities of their opponents in PvP to some extent, since the armor system will not allow you to guess at abilities by appearance. Players can also expect to find puzzles in the game rather than pure combat encounters, although no details are given. So while you'll find the most meat if you're looking for lore, even more system-focused players will find some relevant answers in the full set.

Sci-fi MMO EVE Online has seen phenomenal success recently, from breaking through the 500,000 subscriber boundary to successfully relaunching in China. The game officially turned ten years old today, and CCP celebrated the occasion with events and gifts for all current subcribers. The part-jovian Gnosis battlecruiser was given to every subscribed account at midnight last night and can be claimed before the end of the month, and players logging in yesterday or today will have found a whole slew of bonus gifts.

EVE smashed its previous Peak Concurrent User total during the festivities by a clear margin, replacing 2011's record of 63,170 with a new figure of 65,303 players logged in simultaneously. Part of the reason for the record was the huge number of player-run events taking place that evening, such as the ever-popular Flight of a Thousand Rifters. The event saw almost 2,500 players join together to take down player Marlona Sky's expensive supercarrier. Most of the participants were in small frigates like Rifters and ended up being easy prey when a nullsec sniper Loki fleet turned up. The event was nevertheless a massive success and huge fun for those involved. Continue reading for a gallery of screenshots from the event and video footage from player Scott Manley.

Continue Reading