Fantasy

Allods Online is constantly on the move, and as such, the team recently announced that the next update will be coming soon to the game. In addition to a brand-new North American server, patch 3.0.4 will witness significant changes to the mentoring and questing systems.

Mentoring came with the previous update and is still being fine-tuned. With 3.0.4, mentors will be limited to 10 apprentices per character. Apprentices can be dismissed if a player is over the 10 limit and wants to add a new one. The dev team also announced a mentor/apprentice quest line that will give rewards to both. These quests can be accessed starting at level 10 and completed once per five levels beyond that.

Patch 3.0.4 will also include more improvements to questing. The quest tracker and find quest feature are slated to become more intuitive, and the automove ability has been expanded to allow the system to run players through multiple zones in one go. The devs examined the quest flow as well and adjusted it to make it smoother in certain areas.

The new server announced yesterday will be called Avilon and was created in response to a larger-than-expected influx of players onto the single North American shard. Players will not be able to transfer existing characters to Avilon, as the devs want to keep the server fresh and fair for those who roll there.

After months and months of warning us that dark days are coming, Funcom's new horror-sprinkled title, The Secret World, has finally arrived. The game brings a number of new twists to the tried-and-true MMORPG formula, but its character progression is its biggest departure from the MMO formula. While many modern titles rely on class-based systems or other linear progression paths, TSW takes a considerably more open-ended approach with the ability wheel.

However, this freedom of progression comes with a price. With more variety, there's more choice, and with more choice, there's bound to be more indecision. But don't fret: I'm here to help pull back the curtain on the mystery of the skill wheel and its many offerings. Want to know which route to take to dish out damage, take the hits, or heal and support your allies? Then follow along with me as I delve into the many intricacies of The Secret World's ability wheel.

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Now that we know ArcheAge is in fact heading West at some point, I no longer feel bad about discussing the game at every opportunity. Prior to E3, any mention of XL's sandbox and its ginormous feature list felt a little like twisting the knife, you know?

Happily, though, that's no longer the case, and I've spent the last couple of days gorging myself on some of the best ArcheAge footage the web has to offer. Some of these clips you may have seen already; some may be new to you. All are worth a(nother) look, though, if only to see just how much gameplay is coming your way courtesy of the genre's most exciting new sandbox.

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It's not all roses for Funcom following the launch of The Secret World earlier this week. Gamespot is reporting that company shares on the Norwegian Stock Exchange fell by almost 40 percent in recent days.

Earlier this week Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas stepped down, citing internal restructuring as the cause. The company has thus far not responded to media requests for comment on its financial fortunes. The Secret World opened to positive reviews in both the gaming press and MMO fan circles, despite having a subscription fee in an era when gamers are increasingly clamoring for free content.

Creative director Ragnar Tornquist recently chatted about the game's business model with Rock, Paper Shotgun. "The subscription fee and our business model supports a big, ongoing team. We have content plans for a very long time. We have content that's going to be coming on a regular, ongoing basis," he explained.

If you're a fan of Vanguard, you know full well who Brad McQuaid is. If you're a fan of EverQuest, you're probably also familiar with the name. And now, the man behind both games has returned to Vanguard after a lengthy hiatus to rejoin the development team. Considering the game is heading toward a free-to-play conversion in the not-too-distant future, it can certainly be seen as an auspicious event.

McQuaid is the focus of the game's newest Developer Spotlight, where he discusses his role in starting the game and in its early development. He confesses that he took a long break from playing the game, but he seems quite happy with how it's developed in his absence. Looking to the future, McQuaid also talks about making loot drops and quest rewards more viable throughout the game, encouraging players to explore a variety of zones instead of just a few old standards. The interview is remarkably low-key considering that the man in question was one of the driving forces behind the game's original launch. Players can draw their own conclusions about what McQuaid's return will mean for the game in the long run.

[Thanks to Ryan for the tip!]

Drakensang Online welcomes the citizens of Atlantis to its game world today. The hack-and-slash MMO pushed its largest update ever to the live servers, and it's so big that the ocean itself could not contain it. That's what we call "hyperbole" in the biz.

The Atlantis update is a wonder to behold. It includes a new continent with eight areas, 100 additional quests, and plenty of challenges for experienced players to tackle. The city itself is in ruins following its downfall by the giant snake Gorga. The update also includes a revamped world map that should help adventurers find their way.

In related news, Bigpoint claims that over eight million players have registered for Drakensang Online.

[Source: Bigpoint press release]

Turbine has graced us with another behind-the-scenes video focused on Riders of Rohan's production process. This time around, the star is composer Chance Thomas, who says that penning Tolkien-inspired tunes is like "walking on sacred ground."

Senior world designer Chris Pierson agrees, and he says that Turbine is aware of the lofty fan expectation surrounding Lord of the Rings Online's Rohan and the horse-culture Tolkien created. "Rohan is one of the strongest elements in the books, in my opinion, as far as stirring the emotions of the readers, captivating them, and creating a mental image of what people expect," Pierson explains.

Thomas concurs, and he takes it a step further when discussing the audio work that's going into the expansion. "While the players are playing the game, I'm playing the player with some emotional knobs and sliders to bring their emotions into the experience," Thomas says. Check out the full video after the break.

[Source: Turbine press release]

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Much has been said about RuneScape's upcoming combat upgrade, and this weekend, folks will have the chance to test out The Evolution of Combat for themselves. Starting at 5 a.m EDT on Friday, July 6th, and lasting until 5 a.m. EDT on Monday the 9th, all RuneScape members will be able to join the 50,000 current beta testers in playtesting the new features like dual-wielding.

If you happen to miss this one, don't worry -- three more open beta weekends will follow. However, players whot manage to take part in all four weekends will be rewarded with a unique mad scientist outfit.

For more about the upcoming changes, check out Massively's interview with Mark Ogilvie, Lead Designer from Jagex.

[Source: Jagex press release]

Acknowledging you have a problem is the first step to rectifying it. And for Diablo III fans, Blizzard's recent admission that the game is lacking a sustainable endgame gives hope that the problem is on the road to recovery.

In a recent post on the official forums, Community Manager Bashiok stated the company believed that the item hunt would would work for a sustainable endgame but now recognizes that isn't the case and admits that players are eventually "going to run out of stuff to do (if they haven't already)." Bashiok goes on to state that while there isn't currently anything to really keep players engaged, upcoming patches will offer more things for players to do.

For sandbox fans in the Western part of the globe, watching the development of ArcheAge is a bittersweet experience: sweet that a game with so many coveted features is being developed, but bitter that the game is only launching in the East for now. But XL Games has indicated that a Western launch is not so much an "if" as a "when." To that end, the studio is seeking information on North American and European demographics through a short survey posted on Facebook.

The information garnered from responses may be used to shape decisions concerning ArcheAge in the NA and EU markets. Fans can also give their email address to receive information about the game in the future.

[Thanks to Halldorr for the tip!]

It smashes, it flashes, and it makes Jayce a unique character in the League of Legends roster! It's the amazing Mercury Hammer or Mercury Cannon, the transforming weapon wielded by the aforementioned Jayce. Jayce is himself a character organized around a special dual-mode weapon kitted out for both ranged and melee carry roles. As a result, he has a broader range of potential builds and a need for a variable playstyle, one that makes full use of his multi-role talents.

When using his weapon as a cannon, Jayce can create fields to accelerate allies and projectiles, deploy area-of-effect attacks, or hasten his attacks. He can then move into melee range and make use of localize area bursts, mana regeneration on his attacks, and increased armor. Moving in and out of range and switching between the roles is most advantageous, as he gains benefits for each switch between modes, meaning that expert Jayce players will need to be quick to adapt to a shifting situation.

[Thanks to Dengar for the tip!]

Higiri will be delving further into the depths, seeking that fundamental alchemy that separates a generic implementation of mechanics from a standout one. I wish her luck, but this week doesn't focus on her adventures. No, it's time for Rielene to once more take center stage, complete with her twin blades and her dangerous game. Rielene's destiny was to hunt the great beasts of TERA, the monsters whose colossal stature relegates them to assault by groups or fearless individuals.

I speak, of course, of BAMs.

OK, for the epic names that could have been chosen for these creatures, that's probably not one of the better ones. But they're still pretty distinctive. They're these roaming monsters that don't just wing you a bit if they connect with a hit; they shred you to pieces. They're bosses that roam around, daring you to try and take them on alone. And I did just that, and I emerged victorious, and it was undeniably worth the price of admission.

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Ragnarok Online might seem very familiar to many of my readers. In fact, if you are from a certain age group, the group that grew up with the internet instead of watching it come into being while you were already living on your own, you might have played Ragnarok Online. I can often tell a Ragnarok fan as well. They're OK with the grind as long is it pays off in the end, and they usually have a pretty exact way of looking at MMOs. I have yet to find a Ragnarok player who is over 30 and who roleplays more than anything.

In other words, Ragnarok has affected almost an entire generation of MMO gamers. Personally, I always enjoyed the graphics of the game when I got a few chances to play it, but the overwhelming world and gameplay was a bit too much, and I didn't really enjoy the entire experience.

Well, good news for me! I can now roll on a brand-new, old-school server that promises to be more like something from the early days of the game. The best news? All players will start off on the same page.

Want to know more? Keep reading because I sat in on a conference call with Ragnarok producer Jason Koerperich to talk about all of the changes.

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