Archived News:
This press release
has word on new expansions for EverQuest and EverQuest II that
were unveiled at SOE's Fan Faire. The 15th(!) EverQuest expansion, Seeds of
Destruction, is to be released on Oct. 21, while the fifth EverQuest II
expansion, The Shadow Odyssey, is scheduled for a Nov. 18 release. The
EverQuest Website and the
EverQuest II Website have
details on their respective add-ons, which are being given for free to Fan Faire
attendees. An
EverQuest: Seeds of Destruction teaser trailer and an
EQII: The Shadow Odyssey teaser trailer are now available, and here are the
feature sets for both expansions: EverQuest II The Shadow Odyssey Feature
Set:
-- New Zones: Journey through more than 20 new zones, including the new overland
zone, Innothule Swamp.
-- Dungeon Adventures: Experience nostalgic EverQuest dungeon themes, such as
Najena, Mistmoore and The Sebilisian Empire, and adventure through more than 18
goal-based dungeons, such as Ruins of Guk and Befallen.
-- Achievement Point: An achievement level cap increase to 200 that offers new
achievements for class-specific lines.
-- Dungeon Delving: A new mission system for players to replay content with new
and different experiences.
-- Heritage Quests: Five new quests with unique rewards being added.
-- Shard Reward System: A new, mysterious group of erudites with powerful new
armor and equipment will barter for void shards earned during players'
encounters
-- Epic Tales: Stories told through battles with dozens of new creatures and
hundreds of new quests.
-- New Deities: Rodcet Nife and Anashti Sul are introduced into Norrath.
-- Access to All Previous Content: Includes all previous expansion packs and
adventure packs.
-- Legends of Norrath: Includes strategic online trading card game, digital
starter deck and booster pack.
EverQuest Seeds of Destruction Feature Set:
-- Mercenaries: Player-controlled NPCs are now available and will not only scale
to the appropriate level, but also think and act for themselves with limited
player guidance. Designed for extra support or extra muscle in PvE encounters,
mercenary archetypes include a variety of classes from all playable races.
-- Level Cap Increase: Players can now achieve level 85 with new high-level item
sets, new alternate advancement ability lines and new spells.
-- 20 New Zones: Features re-imagined classic content and brand-new realms for
adventurers to explore, including the eerie wasteland of the Void, the Battle of
Rathe on the Plane of Earth and the ultimate Heart of Darkness in the Plane of
Discord.
-- Access to All Previous Content -- Includes all features and content from the
14 previous expansion packs.
-- Legends of Norrath: Includes strategic online trading card game, digital
starter deck, booster pack and loot item.
BioWare announces the Dragon Age tools and plans to demonstrate to toolset at
Penny Arcade Expo at the end of
this month (thanks Gamer's Hell). Word is: Introducing the Dragon Age Toolset
The Dragon Age Toolset provides builders with powerful, developer-grade tools.
Key features include:
Create Original Adventures: Using Dragon Age's rich set of assets and
locations as starting blocks, you can modify these stunning areas by adding new
quests, characters and scripting to create your own adventures, conversations
and cut-scenes.
Powerful Script Editor: You can fully customize combat and creature AI to
create detailed action sequences full of heart-pounding party-based tactical
combat.
On-Going Toolset Content Updates: We have plans to release additional
assets and features for the toolset in the future, allowing for expanded
creation of new areas.
Live Toolset Demonstration at the Penny Arcade Expo
The Dragon Age Toolset will be part of a stage demonstration during the Penny
Arcade Expo, August 29-31, 2008, at the Washington State Convention & Trade
Center in Seattle, Washington.
At the time of this writing, you can attend the live demonstration scheduled to
be on the PAX main stage Sunday, August 31, at 1:30 PM Pacific Time. For more
PAX information and coverage
please check out our
Conferences 2008 web page.
Toolset Demonstration Highlights
At PAX, Dragon Age: Origins Producer Fernando Melo and Senior Designer Ferret
Baudoin will be presenting a 45 minute overview of the toolset for Dragon Age
fans.
The demonstration takes place in the Ruins of Ostagar area
A quick look at the extremely flexible Face Morphing feature
Clothing, armor and weapons will be selected giving a quick look at the variety
Enemy monsters will be selected and placed in the area
The new dialogue editor will be featured
The module created on stage will be played through live in the Dragon Age:
Origins game
We hope to see you at PAX. Stay tuned for more toolset updates and
information.
Eurogamer
reports from SOE's Fan Faire in sunny Las Vegas that designer Hal Milton tells
them cross-platform play between the PC and PS3 editions of The Agency
will not be possible. He admits there is no technological reason for this, but
that they do not feel they will be able to convince owners of either platform
that gameplay is fairly balanced, citing the experience some of their team
members had with attempting to balance gameplay between the Xbox 360 and PC
editions of Shadowrun. They did later suggest it will be possible to use
the same account for both the PC and PS3 editions of The Agency, but that
doesn't seem to offer much, since: "you will not be able to pick up on PS3 where
you left off on the PC version or vice versa, and two different copies of the
game will be required."
This PDF press
release offers the announcement of RHEM 4, a next installment in this
adventure series (thanks Ant and
Adventure's Planet). The announcement is in German, and online translators
get indigestion from PDFs (as if we needed more reasons to hate that format), so
for now we'll just assume the next game continues the non-violent gameplay of
its predecessors, and will involve a good deal of pointing and clicking.
Frontlines Website has details
on a new version 1.20 patch that's in the final stages of development for the PC
edition of Frontlines: Fuel of War, of Kaos Studios' military shooter.
Word is: We are currently in the final stages of development of PC patch
1.2.0 and will start testing it shortly. We expect to release the patch in
September.
The patch will include the following features:
• DLC1:
• Boneyard Map
• Conquer Mode
• Server Browser - Phase 2
• Joystick support
• PC Leaderboards - Unranked
• PC Leaderboards -
• Ranked Dedicated Server Tools
Gametrailers.com has
a debut trailer for The Godfather II, setting the story for the just-announced
crime-movie game sequel. The clip shows some gameplay, and the digitized
countenances of Michael and Fredo (though only the inexpensive one looks
familiar).
A trailer for The Witcher: Enhanced Edition offers another sample of the
updated edition of CD Projekt's action/RPG. The clip is very short on gameplay,
and very long on text, touting the critical praise of the original game and
their enhancements for the update. The clip is posted on
ActionTrip,
FileFront, and Gamer's
Hell.
The Digitalmindsoft Website now
offers a "Lesson 2" trailer from Men of War, the upcoming World War II
RTS sequel. Word is: "This trailer shows you, that in Men of War a key to
success is to wait for the very right moment. Don't shoot as soon as you see
your opponent, wait until he shows his weak spots and than [sic] destroy him totally
unexpected with a single hit." The clip is also available on
FileFront and Gamer's
Hell.
The Sacred 2: Fallen Angel Website has the
GC 2008 trailer from the action/RPG sequel. They say: "This trailer for "Sacred
2 - Fallen Angel" was created by a professional Creative Producer, and shows the
game from a totally different artistic point of view - the classic film view.
Through a series of fast creative cuts, the viewer will experience a wide range
of tough action and wonderful impressions from Sacred 2 - Fallen Angel." This
clip and an "Inquisitor" movie from the game can both be found on
Gamer's Hell.
Massively has links to four ShakyCam clip on YouTube showing off gameplay
from Champions Online, Cryptic's upcoming superhero MMORPG. The clips are pretty
crappy, not even squared to the screen, much less steady, but the audio is clear
enough to hear Jack Emmert's description of the action.
A new Civilization IV: Colonization movie offers a look at cinematics
from the upcoming strategy game remake. The clip can be found on
FileFront, Gamer's Hell.
Perhaps less authorized, but more informative are the clips linked on
Hooked on
Colonization, which demonstrate actual gameplay.
A teaser trailer for Need for Speed Undercover shows off the
just-announced next installment in the long running racing series. The clip
offering over a minute of dialog from a live actor and about five seconds of
action-free gameplay footage is posted on
ActionTrip and
Gamer's Hell.
I woke up this morning suffering another bout of acid indigestion, and a nasty
one at that. This was distressing to me, because I made some most excellent
sausage and peppers for dinner last night, and I would be very unhappy to start
having issues digesting spicy foods, since I love them so much. I then
remembered that I had indulged in dessert later, having made myself a fairly
massive ice cream soda. This means I had forgotten the lesson I learned about
sweets having been the cause of my previous heartburn attacks, which means I
don't have to learn a new lesson about spicy foods (which I would have a far
tougher time giving up than desserts).
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