OG Planet has unveiled a new zone in La Tale, its massively multiplayer online side-scroller. La Tale’s whimsical art style and detailed 2D worlds bring a lighthearted touch to the MMORPG genre, and have won it a large following in Asia. Simple gameplay and intuitive quests make La Tale accessible for players of all ages, while the immersive storyline with a variety of characters, enemies and challenges keep the game intriguing
Blizzard Entertainment® gaming celebration to return to Anaheim Convention Center on August 21-22
IRVINE, Calif. – February 17, 2008 - Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced plans for its fourth BlizzCon® gaming convention, to be held at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, California on Friday, August 21 and Saturday, August 22. BlizzCon is a celebration of the global player communities surrounding Blizzard Entertainment®’s Warcraft®, StarCraft®, and Diablo® universes. In response to the festival’s increasing popularity, this year’s event has been expanded from three convention halls to four.
“We’ve been amazed by the incredible response to each of our previous BlizzCon events,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “We’re pleased to be bringing the convention back to Anaheim this year, and we look forward to this new opportunity to meet Blizzard gamers from around the world.”
BlizzCon will offer a wide variety of activities throughout the two-day event. In addition to serving as a gathering place for Blizzard Entertainment gaming communities, attendees will be able to enjoy:
Hands-on play time with upcoming Blizzard Entertainment games
Discussion panels with Blizzard Entertainment developers
Competitive and casual tournaments for players to showcase their talents
Community contests with great prizes
Commemorative merchandise based on Blizzard Entertainment’s game universes
A silent auction
More exciting activities and attractions to be announced
Further details, including ticket availability and pricing, will be announced on the official BlizzCon website, www.blizzcon.com, as the event draws closer.To keep pace with the continued growth of World of Warcraft as well as development on other Blizzard Entertainment games, the company is currently hiring for numerous open positions. More information on available career opportunities can be found at www.blizzard.com/jobs.
Blizzard returns with its long awaited expansion to the ever popular “World of Warcraft” Series with Wrath of the Lich King.
The story continues with the awakening of the lich king, Arthas, in Northrend. Northrend is a cold fridgid territory reminding one of the Icelandic countries and Russia in others (ie Borean Tundra)
Characters that have reached the edge of their leveling from the last expansion, Burning Crusade, can now look forward to 10 more levels increasing their skills and weaponry. This time Blizzard Developers promised the new equipment that gamer would obtain will last longer and not become useless with every expansion. As for traits and skills, Blizzard added a new Glyph feature to characters. Players will able to enhance specific spell properties such as mages’ evocation to improve performance. A number of other changes to abilities can also be found on the World of Warcraft main site that go into further detail. If you are a power player and reached the max in a day or so, a new hero class is available for you to play.
Death Knight opens a new chapter for those interested in the Warcraft Lore and offer new areas and quests for those that want something new. Also referred to as the “dark paladin”, this casting plate class opens up new opportunities for PVE and PVP with abilities such as death grip ( Simulates Scorpion’s Spear move in Mortal Kombat). This hero class is limited to one per server on an individual account starting at level 55 with a horse and all rare (Blue) gear.
The instances and battlegrounds are all varied and also include the usage of siege weapons such as tanks and catapults. Players will now be involved in epic warfare using everything in their arsenal. The environments are always beautiful with a soundtrack that is quite eclectic ranging from classical to trance techno. Mobs are a bit more intelligent and not as limited on their AI.
Trade skills go up to 450 now so you have much to do in the ways of raising those professions. Materials for some professions don’t come so easy as items are concentrated in the central part of Northrend. The different factions have many differnt item sets that do some major buffage. Also the sets that drop in Northrend will not go out of style so quickly. Blizzard has vowed that this time items will last a bit longer after the next expansion.
Mounts have changed where they are able to carry more than 1 person. Mammoths that are available for those who have 18K gold can carry up to 3 people a vendor and repair/reagent person. There are epic war bears and cold flying mounts available as you go up in reputaion with certain factions. For a death night a skeletal mount is availble when you reach 70.
Evo Factor
There is much to see and do and see on the new continent and there are always new ways to exploit the expansion. So what are you waiting for. Please note that you must have the first World of Warcraft game and the Burning Crusade expansion in order to play. There is much more to the game that the basic stuff that was written here so stay tuned for updates!
The MMO Pirates of the Burning Sea by Flying Lab Software and Sony online entertainment is a fun journey into 18th Century world of pirates. Three factions are fighting for control of the Caribbean and its lucrative wealth. English Spanish and French Factions give career options such as officer privateer and freetrader. The of course there are the Pirates carving a name out for themselves in history.
Early in the game the missions play out like most MMOs however, due to the locations alot of these quests are instanced. I went through a few missions trying to locate where to find the bad guys only to discover that i had to go to the shipmaster and select the mission which went to a loading screen and then i found myself standing near the place i was but in combat. Hand to hand combat was a bit clunky, very much like most MMO’s and consisted of scripted moves depending on your skill level and combat style. Taking to the seas was something i looked forward to. The ships moved quite nicely between the different ports and though it did take a bit of time going from one port to another I was never bored. The animations of the ships and the great soundtrack really gave it a truly epic scale. Approaching an enemy ship would pull you into a combat mode that was truly the star of the game for me. You had to keep track of the wind in order to keep from becoming a sitting duck, since you have to be moving in order to bring your cannons to bear on the enemy. The different types of ammo available for the cannons also helped keep the combat fresh; do you pound on their hull with heavy shot or load bar or landrige and take out their sails and crew. The economy is a bit more daunting and like eve online is complicated but can allow your average player to really become a powerful character in the world.
The graphics on land are mediocre most of the charachters look like plastic dolls (beware of very sharp looking facial hair). Occasional glitches in NPC movements, like carrying non existent barrels and stiff legged walking, removed some of the immersion. On the open sea and in combat you really did feel a nice sense of the scale of the battles. The soundtrack was one of the best parts of the game, really lending to the excitement and swashbuckling action. Hand to hand combat as well as conveying the scale and might of the great fighting ships added to the realism. I was a bit disturbed with the lack of players that were around. It seems as if this game’s heyday had come and gone which is a disappointment since the richness of the world feels like it could have been a really fun game for any pirate fan.
Overall i think this game offers a richness and complexity that most other “easier to play” MMO’s like World of warcraft lack. Though casual players may be turned off by the learning curve players who enjoy a rich and complex experince will like this game. Hopefully it will be around to play for a while yet.
