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If you were among the players put out because Diablo III seems too pretty to be hardcore, you'll be happy to know that Blizzard hopes to re-earn your love, not with art but with gameplay. The company has released a video in which key DIII devs talk up the game's nightmare, hell, and inferno difficulty modes. They promise a veritable ass-kicking complete with hours of wiping and mounting repair costs. Quoth the devs:

"Normal mode was pretty casual. It's very fun -- you're one-clicking and you're having laughs. Once you get into Nightmare mode, it starts turning into all business. [...] The game really starts [...] at Nightmare. [...] The way the game is tuned right now, people have no idea what they're getting themselves into."

Perhaps not coincidentally, the Battle.net World of Warcraft blog is now daring gamers to join a community-driven Iron Man WoW Challenge. Participants eschew luxuries like buffs, talents, and grouping and charge into the world to see just how high they can level. Death, of course, means game over for the hardest of the hardcore.

The Diablo III vid is embedded just behind the break!

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Welcome back to The Firing Line, shooter fans. Some interesting stuff went down this week, much of it related to DUST 514. Even if you're not partial to what some have dubbed "the controller wars," there's still plenty of online shooter news for you to peruse after the cut.

Join me on the other side for a glimpse of Hawken, Firefall, and my PlanetSide character!

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It's time for This Week in MMO once more, and this time around, the show kicks off with the rather daring statement that CCP Games has completely gone off the deep end. Well, maybe not that far, but the show does start off focusing on recent comments from the company about how DUST 514 could be one of the biggest shooters of the year... a statement that strikes the hosts as being just a wee bit pompous.

Aside from that, there's talk about Star Wars: The Old Republic's subscriber numbers and what those numbers mean in the long run as well as the latest trailer for TERA. If you'd like to get some roundtable discussion about the past week's biggest MMO stories, you don't need to go far. Just skip on past the break to watch the newest installment of This Week in MMO, which is quite possibly the best roundtable discussion about MMO news with a six-letter nickname in existence.

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This week on The MMO Report, Casey insists that he's a "wise-cracking superhero with a heart of gold," not a noob who doesn't know his MMO history. "For the record," he says, "I do realize that EverQuest wasn't the first MMO. I was just saying it was the game that brought MMOs mainstream attention... like how Elvis invented rock 'n' roll."

Casey reports on Warhammer 40K: Dark Millennium Online's financial woes, RIFT's new infinite trial, Star Wars: The Old Republic's impressive sales numbers, and TERA's beta plans. Then he dips into Uncle Casey's Mailbag to discuss -- what else -- hot dorf-on-dorf action.

All this and more in the HD MMO Report tucked behind the cut!

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Red 5 Studios is making a little marketing push for Firefall, and the first salvo takes the form of a new dev diary video starring CEO Mark Kern.

If you're not familiar with the game, this clip is a great place to start. Kern explains how Firefall is really two titles in one, with the first game being a ginormous open world featuring loads of PvE content. The second game is centered around Firefall's e-sport components, which include ranked leaderboard matches ranging from 5-on-5 to 15-on-15.

Kern also mentions the game's unique take on beta and launch. In basic terms, Red 5 implements feature sets, collects beta feedback, and iterates on down the line (as opposed to presenting a finished product for mass beta testing). This staged approach will also apply to the game's launch, and Kern says the game will be rolled out "organically" much like Google's Gmail service.

Finally, content expansion in Firefall will be player-driven. Cross-server cooperation will be necessary to craft MRU units that will expand the playable area from 10 square miles to an entire globe. Kern also touches on the trendy games-as-a-service mandate, and he says that as long as players are around to support Firefall, Red 5 will be around to generate new content. Watch the full video after the break.

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The latest Vindictus Europe video has a scary new boss monster on display. Nexon is introducing Thor (no, not that Thor), a giant crocodile-like creature with three mouths and a nasty disposition.

Nexon describes Thor as an "outlaw of the dark and damp underworld," and the trailer shows a cross-section of Vindictus heroes slicing and dicing the new monster using the title's unique action combat mechanics.

While we're on the subject of heroes, the video also teases the latest Vindictus Europe playable character, a giant brawler named Karok. Check out all the gory details after the cut.

[Source: Nexon Europe press release]

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A couple of weeks ago Trion announced its plan to get RIFT in the Guinness Book of World Records for hosting the most virtual marriages in a 24-hour period. Today the company has released a new video designed to show off the matrimony mechanics and give fans a sneak peek of what's in store for the Valentine's Day record attempt.

The festivities begin at 12:00 p.m. EST on February 14th, and Trion says that "any two RIFT players who get hitched in-game will be counted in the Guinness World Records title attempt and will receive 'The Avowed' in-game title." Don't forget to check out the video after the break.

[Source: Trion press release]

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Apparently a brand-spanking-new website wasn't enough for CCP and its EVE Online property, so the company has released a nifty new trailer to go along with the cyberspace re-branding. The clip is two-and-a-half minutes of spaceship porn underscored with the usual fembot voiceover.

The video is clearly aimed at EVE newbs, so there's not a lot to get excited about if you're a veteran capsuleer. Just the same, it's an eye-opening glance at the game's first-class visuals and hard sci-fi art direction. Give it a look after the cut.

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A world as beautiful as the one ArenaNet is making with Guild Wars 2 just begs to be explored. Since fans can't quite do that yet, they're doing the next best thing and making trailers to show the world how ready they are to hop back into the world of Tyria.

The first has been around for a few months but deserves some real love. It was put together by Albert, an administrator at the Spanish fan site Guild Wars 2 Online, using official Guild Wars 2 footage and sound clips from ArenaNet's blog posts on writing and voicing the races of Guild Wars 2.

The second fan trailer from wetwillyhip has been floating about for a couple of days and does a fantastic job of splicing together in-game footage and ArenaNet's more stylized cinematics.
Jump past the cut to check out these fan-made videos!

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If you are familiar with the Mabinogi-hosted contest from November called The Merchant of Venice, California, then you know that the popular free-to-play developer and publisher Nexon asked players to participate in order to win a free trip to the company's California studios to play, relax and discuss the new content. The event celebrated the release of the Merchant of Venice update. The addition gave players the ability to literally transport goods across the lands of Mabinogi. Players gain levels, earn in-game cash that can be used to buy special items and weapons, and gain access to better items to be traded. All expansions in the popular free-to-play title are free.

Sayre, a player from the Mari server, was invited to meet the developers, tour the office and even give some advice about how to make the game better. He received a free Alienware computer, 500 USD in cash and three nights in a hotel right on Venice Beach! In order to qualify for the contest drawing, players were required to have reached merchant level 9 in each of the game's towns.

Click past the cut to watch an exclusive preview of the tour!

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Diablo III delivered 100,000 beta keys to North American fans this week, but it also revealed that the epic death animations from the game's first gameplay reveal were actually faked and won't be in the final game. Upcoming online FPS Blacklight: Retribution has challenged players to play 20 ranked matchmaking games by Thursday to win an exclusive golden helmet, and Massively still has beta keys if you'd like to get involved.

Heroes of Newerth released its potentially overpowered new hero Berzerker this week, placing Artesia into the free hero pool for legacy accounts a week early. League of Legends introduced its updated AI, adding 40 champions to the bot roster for both Summoner's Rift and Dominion co-op games. Dota 2 released a new test version to trial experimental changes without interrupting balance testing, and dungeon crawler Path of Exile showed off two new screenshots of its upcoming 0.9.6 patch. Finally, Bloodline Champions increased all XP gains by 50% this week in patch 2.3 and has launched a hilarious new photo content that's sure to get some questionable entries.

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This week's Lime Odyssey dev blog is all about the Muris, an inquisitive race of tricksters who like to "spread trouble wherever they go."

Aeria Games has released a new cinematic and a couple of screenshots to go along with its textual description, and after viewing all of these after the cut, you'll have a clearer picture of who the Muris are (and why you might want to play one). Despite their cute factor, the Muris can be deadly, and they may be used in tandem with any of Lime Odyssey's four battle classes (Warrior, Thief, Mage, or Cleric).

[Source: Aeria press release]

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