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MMORPG

MMORPG

Star Wars: The Old Republic video shows part one of the Eternity Vault raid

Tom Senior at

A while back, Bioware released a two minute teaser trailer of The Old Republic's Eternity Vault mission, giving us a glimpse of their top tier raid content. Now CVG have spotted the video above, a proper ten minute walkthrough that skims over the first stage of the quest in which players must shut down a 20,000 year old vault full of chocolate and puppies horrible unimaginable things to save the universe. After an introduction explaining the whole 'broken vault, ancient evil loose' deal, players are thrown off a burning ship into a hostile icy wilderness, where they must race to the gates of the vault before it's too late.

We recently spoke to Bioware about The Old Republic's accessible raids. They told us they're trying to take loot grinding requirements out of their top tier raid content, and ensure that all raiders get rewards for their efforts. What do you think, has the footage above inspired you to give TOR a crack?


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Guild Wars 2 will let players host their own PvP arenas

Richard Cobbett at

That's according to MMORPG.com, which caught up with the developers over PAX. No real details are available on exactly what form these will take, thought MMORPG.com reports the plan is "for players to be able to create and host their own servers or games with specific rule-sets". The obvious is for would be arena and PvP matches, but there's no reason it couldn't extend to other modes too.

These servers are unlikely to be player-hosted dedicated servers though, with simply allowing groups to claim and configure an instance much more likely - and while a full on supported modding community would be incredible, it's far more likely that your management will be about selecting presets and locking strangers out with a password. With ArenaNet in charge though, nothing is certain...


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Star Wars Galaxies to end with epic player-driven final battle between good and evil

Richard Cobbett at

It's always sad when an MMO closes down, but there's often a good side to it: amazing end-of-game events. Star Wars Galaxies is going out with a bigger bang then most, with September 15th kicking off an all-out civil war between Empire and Rebels. For the next three months, both sides will be gathering points, which will be tallied up at some point on December 15th. Winners will be given a glorious celebration in honour of their victory. The entire losing faction will be fed to the Sarlacc.


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The Secret World opens for beta registration

Richard Cobbett at

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.


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Bioware's co-founder on Star Wars: The Old Republic and Dragon Age 3

Tom Senior at

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We spoke to Bioware co-founder Dr. Ray Muzyka at Gamescom this year about Bioware's impressive lineup of upcoming games. He says that the studio are currently "testing the crap" out of Star Wars: The Old Republic, trying to squash every bug and glitch that they can find in TOR's enormous world before it's eventually released. He also talks about the polarising effect of Dragon Age 2, and how Dragon Age 3 plans to marry the best elements of the first two games into something that attempt to please both sets of fans.


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Bioware: Origin won't hurt The Old Republic

Richard Cobbett at

...whether or not you actually want to buy it from EA's new Steam rival or not. At retail, players will have a choice of stores to choose from, but online, The Old Republic will be available exclusively on Origin. At Gamescom we caught up with Bioware creative officer Dr. Greg Zeschuk, and asked him whether The Old Republic's Origin exclusive status would have a negative effect on the game.

"Once you get into the digital space it’s pretty easy to get stuff," says Dr. Greg. " I don’t think packaging it on Origin is going to hurt it in any way - we’ll have such reach and demand that I think it’ll be fine. Our experience of working with Origin is that it’s actually pretty slick and works well. I wouldn’t say it’s totally a commodity to sell digitally but you know that’s an element of it, to create that digital download experience."


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Star Wars: The Old Republic's accessible raids: rewards for all, no gear grinding required

Tom Senior at

Bioware have been showing off Star Wars: The Old Republic's high level Eternity Vault raid at Gamescom this week. We spoke to them recently about their approach to The Old Republic's endgame. One theme emerged loud and clear: accessibility.

That means high level players won't need to go grinding for an extra tier of armour to jump into a raid. It means a rewards system that gives loot to every member of a group. It means raid groups won't be punished should a player need to leave in the middle of a mission, and boss fights will revolve around intuitive visual cues instead of combat logs and ability icons.


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World of Warcraft patch 4.3 to add Deathwing raid, Transmogrifier and Void Storage. Real ID party system now live

Tom Senior at

World of Warcraft lead developer Tom Chilton has been talking to Gamona.de about the contents of WoW's next big patch. MMO Champion spotted the article, which confirms that patch 4.3 will add the long awaited Deathwing raid, as well as a couple of intriguing new NPC vendors.


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Guild Wars 2 trailer shows sea dragon, huge robot, shouty giant

Tom Hatfield at

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The new Guild Wars 2 trailer may start out slow, but don't let it fool you. At around the two minute mark a bloody great dragon jumps out of the sea, then the epic score kicks in and and the real action begins. There's some satisfyingly physical combat on show, along with some of the enormous bosses they mentioned before. In addition to the sea dragon there's a gigantic steampunk robot who fires eye beams and a massive, stompy giant who bellows in the faces of the party in a true brown trousers moment.

Plus there's airships, classical music and someone firing two pistols in slow motion. What more could you possibly ask for? Check out our preview to learn more.


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Wildstar trailer has robot swarms and plant dragon

Tom Senior at

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Carbine are revealing their gorgeous new MMO at Gamescom this week. You can get the first details from our Wildstar preview, or check out the beautiful illustrated art style in the first Wildstar trailer above. It contains a good lesson for would-be adventurers. Don't touch the "dormant" giant robot, even if you really, really want to.


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Star Wars: The Old Republic Eternity Vault raid showcased at Gamescom

Graham Smith at

EA's press conference at Gamescom just ended, where after announcing Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes, Dr. Ray Muzyka showed The Old Republic's first "operation" - or raid, clarity fans - the Eternity Vault. It was first announced at E3 with a snazzy trailer, but this was the world's first chance to see it being played.

The Eternity Vault is an eight or sixteen player mission on an ice planet "where an enemy older than both the Republic and the Empire has been contained." It's a prison, and it must hold some real bad people inside. How bad is up to the players, who can change the difficulty of the raid before they start.


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The Secret World release date set for April 2012

Tom Senior at

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.


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Guild Wars 2 Gamescom demo to reveal major skill changes, Charr starting area, giant bosses

Tom Senior at

ArenaNet designer Jon Peters has been writing on the Guild Wars 2 dev blog about a number of big changes and additions we can expect to see in the Guild Wars 2 Gamescom demonstration this week. Read on for news on the new skill system and an overview of the new areas and bosses ArenaNet will be showing in Cologne.


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World of Warcraft patch 4.3 teased with Void Storage and Transmogrifier NPCs

Tom Senior at

A new screenshot posted on the World of Warcraft Facebook page, spotted by MMO Champion, shows two brand new NPC characters, a Void Storage merchant and a Transmogrifier. They'll likely be part of the upcoming 4.3 patch, but what do they do?

Well, the Void Storage merchant could perhaps offer "storage" for your inventory in some sort of "void," maybe offering a more efficient way of managing vast amounts of loot. The Transmogrifier is trickier, but suggests an ability to change the appearance or properties of an item. But why would you want to do that? We'll find out more from Blizzard's showing at Gamescom next week. Let us know your best theories about the new NPCs in the comments below.


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Guild Wars 2 trailer introduces the Sylvari race

Tom Senior at

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It's Sylvari week on the Guild Wars 2 site. Yesterday we posted some screenshots and concept art of the new race. The video above gives us a look at the Sylvari in their natural habitat, a giant sentient tree from which every member of the elf-like race are born. The Sylvari don't just wear leaves, they are leaves, which raises interesting questions. Do they eat sunlight and expel oxygen? Find out more about the Sylvari on the ArenaNet blog.


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Carbine's new MMO set in a "future fantasy" world

Tom Senior at

Carbine have been teasing their upcoming MMO reveal at Gamescom with a new blog post from art director, Matt Mocarski. He reveals the MMO will have an "illustrated look" inspired by Japanese animated films like Princess Mononoke, and will be set in a "future fantasy" world with magical and technological elements. Carbine have also thrown up a still from the upcoming Gamescom reveal trailer.


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Guild Wars 2 Sylvari week introduces new race of plant people

Tom Senior at

The ArenaNet blog will be hosting articles and screenshots on the newest addition to the Guild Wars 2 universe, the leafy Sylvari race. According to ArenaNet artist Kristen Perry, the brief for the new race boiled down to three words: "noble, beautiful, plant." You can read about the challenges of creating a race made of foliage on Perry's blog post, which also contains plenty of concept art. Writer Angel McCoy reveals more about the new race here. Check out the new screenshots and concept art from Sylvari week below.


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Drakensang Online open beta is now live

Tom Senior at

Drakensang is an action RPG that carries the strong, gory whiff of Diablo about it. That's no bad thing, especially considering that Drakensang is free to play, runs from a browser and is remarkably pretty. The open beta is now live, meaning anyone who wants to give the game a shot can sign up now on the Drakensang site (press the huge green PLAY NOW button to get started), and launch the game from a browser of your choosing. Fling fireballs, kill imps, level up, or check out the screenshots below.


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Transformers Universe beta "very soon," first details revealed

Tom Senior at

Jagex have told Eurogamer that beta testing of their new free-to-play, browser-based MMO, Transformers Unvierse, will kick off "very soon" in preparation for a full release next year. They've also dropped some new details. Read on for information about the class system, vehicle transformation and how Transformers Universe will relate to the recent cartoon series.


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North Korea deploys squad of MMO gold farmers to fund regime

Tom Senior at

The New York Times report that five people in South Korea have been arrested on suspicion of organising a gold farming operation under the instruction of a North Korean government agency.

Seoul police say that a group of 30 young hackers deployed an army of bots to amass huge amounts of in-game gold in popular Korean MMOs like Lineage. These funds were then sold on to gamers for real money. They made an estimated $6 million in two years. A portion of those profits were wired back to the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

According to a senior officer at the Seoul International Crime Investigation Unit, the team of hackers “regularly contacted North Korean agents for close consultations.”


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