WARHAMMER 40K ONLINE: Attention MMO fans. Do you prefer your Warhammer gaming flavored with sci fi spices? If so, you’ll want to eye Games Radar’s WARHAMMER 40K ONLINE interview with David Adams and Joe Madureira of Vigil Games.

The chat first appeared in the current issue of PC Gamer, but the online version offers up a bit more depth. First concept artworks are on display as well.

Unfortunately, we’ve got a long wait ahead of us, so don’t get overly excited. WARHAMMER 40K ONLINE is set for release in early 2009 - so realistically, expect it to hit shelves sometime in late 2010. Read up.

“We have a very robust system for creating distinctive looking characters - and of course, it wouldn’t be Warhammer 40,000 without tons of stuff hanging off your character, including weapons, scrolls, chains, books, medals, and what have you! I hate to say this without showing images to back it up, but I feel like we are going to have the coolest looking characters of any MMO, ever. Of course that isn’t all that hard to achieve being that everything in Warhammer 40,000 is over-the-top badass! Once we begin releasing images, feel free to call me on that remark.”

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STREET GEARS: Gala Networks Europe and NFlavor Corp. (makers of RAPPELZ) have announced their latest free-to-play MMO - and it’s a doozy. Are you ready for STREET GEARS - the extreme rollerblading MMO?

I for one had been dreaming of a “roller” MMO and now I can die a happy man. Oh oh! Can you guess what I’m going to name my guild? That’s right - The Bay City Rollers!

For now, it looks like STREET GEARS will be available in French and German languages and arriving in June. Not sure about an English version. Strap on your blades and glide to the official portal for more extreme rollin’ news as it arrives.

“Street Gears, mixes gameplay elements from MMORPG with a persistant universe and avatar evolution, and elements from other extreme sports game with lots of different tricks and tracks.

Based on the player’s reflexes as well as on the skills of the character, Street Gears uses attracting cell-shading graphics increasing the manga and arcade aspect of its world.”

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FALLEN EARTH: Icarus Studio’s post-apocolyptic MMO, FALLEN EARTH has been in development for over five years now and still does not have an official release date set. Nor does the promising game sport a Beta or any sign that it will ever actually be in a playable state.

I was given a demo of the game a few years back and it looked good and was actually functioning, so I can confirm that the game isn’t complete vaporware. The devs do seem to be working away on the title and release fresh infromation from time to time to prove they are still amongst the living.

Yet, the question remains - will we ever play FE? Observe a few recent screens below and explore further at the official FALLEN EARTH site.

“While humanity fights to survive and rebuild on the ashes of the old world, new factions struggle for dominance: the stern Enforcers, the spiritual Lightbearers, the nature-loving Vistas, the gadget-happy Techs, the merchant-minded Travelers, and the savage Children of the Apocalypse. The conflicts and alliances between these factions create a dangerous ebb and flow that could make even bleaker the future of the Grand Canyon Province … and of humanity as a whole.”

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EXTEEL: Enjoy a fairly cool CG trailer for NCsoft’s free-to-play mech MMO, EXTEEL. Just apply some thrust to the clicker below.

“The game features easily accessible gameplay and a blend of high-speed tactics and team-based strategy. The mechs are highly customizable, and can select from a large arsenal of deadly weapons. Mechs can also select special maneuvers that allow them to deliver devastating attack combinations inspired by the wildest Hong Kong cinema action.”

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WARHAMMER ONLINE: The smell of fresh carnage is in the air and that can only mean one thing - new WARHAMMER ONLINE details! Check below for a trio of new screens and hit the official WAR site for the economy-size helping.

You’ll also want to read up on WAR at New York Comic Con and pick up the June issue of PC Gamer for a preview. WAR can’t come soon enough.

“Well folks, New York Comic Con has come and gone, but WAR has left its mark. Here’s a ton of great videos and articles to check out, loaded with juicy details. We’re going to be taking WAR all over the country the year, so consider this your preview of what you’ll get when WAR come to a show near you. Don’t miss it! FYI, one of the videos contains Paul Barnett in a thong and a close call with the Incredible Hulk…you’ve been warned.”

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AGE OF CONAN: AGE OF CONAN has gone gold (unbelievable!) and Open Beta begins May 1st. Crom! Time to take a look at what the game’s PvP mini-games have to offer in preparation for the upcoming bloodletting. Funcom’s Erling Ellingsen narrates the trailer for us. The sound goes wacky near the end - but it’s still worthy of your time. Hack the clicker below and enjoy.

” ‘Even though it feels like this great adventure is coming to an end, it’s really not at all. The launch is just the beginning’ says Game Director/Producer Gaute Godager. ‘I believe we have created a game that will stand the test of time by its own accord, but we are already busy planning future features and expansions. We want to continue expanding Conan’s world for many years to come, and we have great ideas on what to do!’ “

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ALL POINTS BULLETIN: Gamasutra are reporting that Real Time Worlds, developers of ALL POINTS BULLETIN, have bought distribution rights for the MMO back from Webzen.

Webzen had been set to publish the cops vs thugs title (from the makers of Crackdown) later this year. Webzen, a Korean-based publishing giant, has yet to release an MMO in North America, despite opening local offices and promising to release a slate of interesting titles over the past four years or so.

Oh, all right, if you want to get technical the company has released a localized version of MU ONLINE. But HUXLEY, SUN, PARFAIT STATION, and WIKI are all still in limbo. Heck, none of these MMOs even sport official web sites, though some of them are three to four years old.

What does this tell us if we read between the lines on Real Time Worlds buyback of APB? Pure speculation here, but perhaps Webzen is planning to scale back or retreat entirely from the North American market. Am I wrong Webzen folks? I invite an official response.

“Officials from Scottish developer Realtime Worlds have announced that the company has regained the global distribution rights to forthcoming massively multiplayer online game APB (All Points Bulletin), which it continues to develop at its Dundee studio.

The move follows a widely reported $50 million second round funding deal, although no indication has been given of how much it has cost the developer to buy back the distribution rights from Korean publisher Webzen.”

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CITY OF HEROES: View the new CITY OF HEROES: Issue 12 video which shows and tells all a hero needs to know about Villain Archetypes. Are you listening heroic one? I SAID…”Are you listening?!!”

“Infiltrate the Arachnos organization from within! Upon reaching level 50, Villains unlock two new Epic Archetypes; Wolf Spiders and Blood Widows. They have their own unique storyline and missions, power combinations and costume sets. Branching powersets allow the Wolf Spider to specialize as either a Bane Spider or Crab Spider and the Blood Widow chooses from the Fortunata and Night Widow branches. Each brings with it unique costumes for your Arachnos duties, as well as your newfound role as a Destined One.”

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AGE OF CONAN: Sit back, lift a cup o’ grog and enjoy almost two minutes of beautiful AGE OF CONAN scenery in the new video below. AoC releases May 20th and we haven’t yet heard of another delay. Is this game finally, honest-to-Crom, actually coming out?

“Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures features the groundbreaking graphics of our proprietary DreamWorld engine as well as advanced DirectX 10 support, ensuring the world of Hyboria is rich, lush, and vibrant.”

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WORLD OF WARCRAFT: A bit of WORLD OF WARCRAFT news has just broken that will get your bubbles-a-burstin’. According to a post at WoW Insider, Blizzard have invited a few NDA-signed folks to begin exploring a ‘Wrath of the Lich King‘ Alpha build.

While any fresh news regarding the next big WoW expansion is exciting - it’s important to keep in mind that “Alpha” can be quite a boulder’s throw away from “Beta”. I’ve worked on and played various games in Alpha state and they can be frightful messes, barely “playable” really. And some of them have been in fairly solid condition.

What I’m trying to say here is - allow yourself a hopeful smile - just don’t expect to be jumping into Open Beta anytime soon. I still believe we won’t be seeing a ‘Wrath of the Lich King’ release before Fall. And probably not until November. I hope I’m wrong though and we’ll all be donning our Frost Protection gear come Summer. Wouldn’t that be sweaty?!

“This doesn’t tell us anything about the timing of the expansion’s release (especially since Blizzard historically takes their time going through this cycle), but it does tell us that Wrath’s content is in a playable and mostly completed form — quests, game mechanics, and items are in, even if specific flavor text, names, and even textures are not.”

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WARHAMMER ONLINE: How does six minutes of scenic video from the WARHAMMER ONLINE Closed Beta set to dramatic music sound to you? If you answered: “Pretty darn delicious!”, then slap the clicker below to indulge. I hunger for WAR. Does that make me a bad person?

“NEW! closed beta footage courtesy of a home movie made by the Content Development team.”

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Raise your hands, all of you ancient MMO fans who remember MYTHICA (pictured left), IMPERATOR and the ill-fated, ULTIMA ONLINE 2. There’s a few of you out there with me, right?

The reason I ask is - 1-Up has an article available entitled “Delay of Game“, which looks at “Famous (and infamous) tales of PC game delays and cancellations.” A number of MMOs, such as the above-mentioned, GODS & HEROES, AUTO ASSAULT, VANGUARD and MIDDLE EARTH ONLINE are covered.

I was looking forward to almost all of these titles and enjoyed looking backwards through the ol’ crystal ball. Or, whatever it is we do when reminiscing about extinct, or long-delayed virtual worlds. Read’er.

“EA and Origin publicly unveiled UO2 in September 1999, bullet-pointing a sexy 3D engine, a fantasy-meets-steampunk setting, a reduced PVP focus, and dorktastic creature designs by Spawn creator Todd McFarlane. UO2 hobbled along for a good 18 months (at one point weathering an unwieldy name change to Ultima Worlds Online: Origin — EA’s awful attempt at heading off potential cannibalization of UO subscribers), and it finally got axed in March 2001 amidst massive layoffs, in the face of Origin’s failure to meet EA’s Christmas 2000 launch demands.”

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HERO’S JOURNEY: Much to the dismay of myself and, I assume other eager followers, Simutronics HERO’S JOURNEY web site has lain dormant for the past six months. Last night, however, fresh HJ updates miraculously appeared. Lap up some hot, fresh lookers below and hit the official site for more. Heroic!

“Has the Hero’s Journey website been quiet for you for too long? Well, good news, everyone! We’ve got updates!

We’ve been working on the game, and think it’s time to show you some of what we’ve got! Expect new screenshots and concept over the next few months!”

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REMNANTS OF SKYSTONE: Finally - a Steampunk-styled MMO has been announced. OK, so it’s browser-based and possibly not very “Massive” per se, but I’ll take what I can get!

Explore the REMNANTS OF SKYSTONE developer blog and you’ll uncover many fun-looking screens, an evolving backstory, and developer, Flipline’s plans for the game’s release and beyond. Super Steampunk Skystone, OK!

“Set to release late 2008 on Kongregate.com, Remnants of Skystone has players entering a steampunk world where alien Mimics have infested the land, and the surviving humans have retreated to floating cities in the sky. With the mission to exterminate the creatures below and retake the surface, players can explore and fight in the 2D platforming environments either solo or co-op, and can mingle and chat in the floating city of Nidaria or in their personal airborne ‘floats’.”

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CHRONICLES OF SPELLBORN: Check below for a three-tet of new CHRONICLES OF SPELLBORN Beta screenshots. The game’s certainly a looker - there’s no doubting that. As for the rest - gameplay, longevity, polish, etc. -we’ll just have to be patient and see. Meanwhile, you can read the Morning Chronicle for news as it arrives.

“A few busy weeks have passed in the Enclave of Five Sacrifices: adventurers discovered new areas, hunters sought the mighty bears and other vicious wildlife creatures, fighters tested their strength in Arena!”

Chronicles of Spellborn, The | No Comments »