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The Secret World preview

I’m asking veteran adventure developer Ragnar Tornquist whether MMOs need to be reinvented. “The MMO genre needs diversity. I think that’s what we’re saying,” he says. I get the impression he’s either nervous or modest.

Or maybe he’s both. The Secret World is a modern day MMO in which every conspiracy theory in the world is true. It doesn’t feature classes or levels, it’s concerned with guns not bows, and it encourages you to search for solutions to its quests on the real life internet. Ragnar continues: “Everybody assumes you have to do one thing. That’s like saying Ridge Racer is the only way to do a racer. You might not succeed with everything, but if we look at genres as a single product we’d never have a Call Of Duty, a Crysis, and a Battlefield.”

Interview: The Secret World’s Bylos and Bruusgaard, Pt 1

We’ve got a giant blowout of Funcom’s excellent-looking MMO The Secret World (with exclusive first looks at special missions, dungeons, and PVP) headed your way in an upcoming issue of PC Gamer, but magazines are made of paper. Fickle, fickle paper. Sadly, there are only so many trees in the world, and apparently “but it’s for a really great videogame article” isn’t an acceptable excuse for widespread deforestation.

However, I spent upwards of an hour quizzing lead content designer Joel Bylos and lead designer Martin Bruusgaard over nearly everything imaginable, and I figured you fine folks might be just a teensy bit interested. So, after the break, you’ll find many of the best bits – including balance concerns, how the game’s like Lost, lamentations about the lack of difficulty in MMOs, and more – broken up into handy categories.

Preview: What goes bump in the nights of Funcom’s The Secret World

Your parents lied: monsters don’t just exist in fairy tales and myths. They’re all around us, hiding in the shadows and underneath the stairs, biding their time before unleashing hell upon the world. It’s up to you to keep these horrific creatures at bay, working behind the scenes as part of a secret society to ensure that darkness doesn’t overtake civilization. Such is life in The Secret World, the modern-day MMO from Funcom that isn’t afraid to spook its players.

As a member of the organization of your choosing (the manipulative Illuminati, the chaos-conducting Dragon, or the fanatical Templars), sending these monsters back to oblivion is your number one priority. Our gruesome bestiary is the edge you’ll need in your quest to exterminate these paranormal horrors.

Age of Conan tried by 600,000 players since going F2P, celebrates with more free stuff

Since it’s currently all the rage for developers to offer everyone a peek behind the curtain of their F2P-funded MMO sky mansions, Funcom’s gone ahead and followed suit. After going free-to-play (or, in Conan-ese, “Unchained”) in July, the barbaric MMO has seen an influx of more than 600,000 players. Bonus milestone: I think we can safely say that this is the first time in human history that a 600,000-barbarian invasion has been counted as a “good thing.”

The best part? To say thanks for trying out its free stuff, Funcom’s rewarding players with more free stuff. If you log in before November 21 you’ll snag the King’s Reward pack, which is basically a congratulatory cookie basket, but with a mix of potent potions instead of cookies. Because barbarians only eat nails and fear.

The Secret World open beta coming before Christmas? Nuh-uh, says Funcom

When you’re constantly buried in a world of multi-tendriled conspiracies, smooth-talking secret societies, and all of history’s greatest boogiemen, I have to imagine that it’s easy to let tidbits of a less apocalyptic nature slip out. Such was thought to be the case when recent reports of an alleged pre-Christmas Secret World open beta date surfaced. Funcom, however, has finally set the record straight.

Public Service Announcement: free-to-play Bloodline Champions now on Steam

If there was ever a free-to-play game on Steam, other than TF2, that you needed to play, this is it. Funcom’s fast-paced arena combat game, Bloodline Champions, is now available to one and all on Steam, and we couldn’t be happier—the twitch-based, skill-shot focused arena fighter is a perfect fit for Counter-Strike and League of Legends fans alike. Weighing in at less than 1GB, it’s easy to pull down and jump in to see how its tribal theme and intense teamfights strike your fancy. We’ll have some Steam events in the near future to see who can take down the “amazing” team of my Alchemist and Josh’s Ravener.

The Secret World preview

The Secret World is set in a contemporary realm where every myth, every legend, every so-batshitmental- you-accusemice- of-spying-on-you conspiracy theory is true. It’s moody, it’s dangerous, it’s dark. Any elves that might live there will have sharp little teeth and drag your firstborn off to the woods if you turn your back. It doesn’t look like other MMOs.

So my first question to Ragnar Tørnquist, the game’s creative director: is it like other MMOs? Playing as a member of the corporate Illuminati, the secretive Templars, or the eastern Dragon, will I be killing ten vampires and taking their vampire skins back to a man who wants to make a big pale sack?

Our exclusive look at Bloodline Champions Patch 2.0: Dawn of Relics

Bloodline Champions doesn’t get the attention it deserves, in part due to it’s hardcore nature that can be more than a little intimidating to newcomers. With no creeps, levels, or items to speak of, the gameplay is fast and furious—but as Josh and I can attest, this arena game’s got it where it counts, with an incredible level of depth that makes learning to own all the more fun. Our illustrious 2v2 team, The Nubfaces, may not win every round, but dang it if we weren’t enjoying every down-to-the-wire victory or cringe-inducing defeat versus superior players.

If you still haven’t tried this intense free-to-play arena game, there’s no better time than the present. With the upcoming patch, major changes are on the way, in the update officially deemed Bloodline Champions 2.0: Dawn of Relics. We’ve got everything you need to know about what’s in store for BLC, including customization from Traits and Medallions, balance changes, and improved readability. You could also win a spiffy Titan account by entering our giveaway here, so you can roll into the 2.0 patch with style. Now, without further ado, let’s get a closer look at what Stunlock Studios’ Peter Ilves, BLC’s lead designer, has to say about the huge changes coming down the Bloodline pipeline.

The Secret World opens for beta registration

Funcom’s please-oh-please-let-it-be-good conspiracy MMO The Secret World isn’t open for business yet, but you can sign up to be in the first wave (no relation to the rubbish Nostradamus vs. Aliens rubbish from 1998) of beta. So far, so standard. There’s a neat twist to this one though in that signing up isn’t just a case of putting your e-mail address into a form. First, you have to choose which of the three major secret societies to join – the shadowy Dragon, shadowier Templars or shadowiest Illuminati – either by clicking on one like a boring person, or taking a quick personality test to assign your allegiance.

The Secret World release date set for April 2012

Funcom lead designer, Ragnar Tornquist has taken the stage at Gamescom to announce that classless, conspiratorial MMO The Secret World will be released in April next year. Beta registration will open next week on Friday August 26. A new trailer for the game was also shown. We’ll have that for you as soon as it appears. Funcom are set to show The Secret World’s player vs. player portion for the first time at Gamescom this week.