Exclusive Vanguard Game Update 5 mounts video

by Brenda Holloway May 6th 2008 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Video, Patches, Previews, Vanguard, Races

SOE's Vanguard: Saga of Heroes keeps marching forward with its upcoming Game Update 5. GU5 features a bevy of new features, including new "anti-hitching" code which will cut down on the number of times the game needs to read from disk, smoothing out the gameplay substantially. Not content with just boosting performance, the developers decided to go whole hog (and turtle, and spider, and beetle, and wolf) and introduce new racial mounts for every race in the game.

Click on through to see the mounts Vanguard has in store for their dedicated players! Then, stop by later for a look at the new, improved spell graphics coming in GU5, and an exclusive interview with esteemed Vanguard game designer Lenny "Tiraslee" Gullo.

Gallery: Vanguard Game Update 5 Gallery

Vanguard GU5 racial mounts
There's something about leaning back and letting the monstrous ant do all the work that is strangely satisfying, albeit a little creepy. Expect to see the woods, fields and mountains of Telon crawling with people perched atop their barely-controlled, hideous mounts as soon as GU5 goes live. It's the dev's feeling that just by adventuring from level 10 to 30 under the banner of your home city will gather you enough faction to be rewarded with your beast of choice when you get to the level to use it. And if you've been driving your monster for twenty levels and it's long lost that "new bug" smell, well, you can trade up to an even better one at level 50.

Tags: fantasy, featured, joystiqfeatures, lenny-gullo, mounts, performance, races, soe, spells, tiraslee, vanguard, vanguard-game-update-5, vanguard-saga-of-heroes

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Theadrick said on 10:26AM 5-06-2008

How completely silly. It's like they are adding these new mounts "just cuz". Please tell me how (lorewise) a turtle has anything to do with half-elves. How are half elves even a culture? It makes little sense... and I single out half elves because I find it the most ludicrous example.

Whats up with the trend for bizarre, goofy looking mounts? Conan is the only MMO that seems to not be going off the deep end as far as mounts are concerned (and the rhino is pushing it imo). WoW has some wacky mounts, but at least (for the most part) they are tied to the lore.

Leshrac said on 11:24AM 5-06-2008

I guess at this point anything they add to VG will be well received because it shows commitment from the developers.

Cicadymn said on 11:31AM 5-06-2008

This game just looks terrible. These mounts look terrible. Granted I've never played it, but it just seems that animations on these mounts are just awful.

That being said, I'd also like to bring up this point: Battle Lobster.

Really? Really? A Battle Lobster.

No.

Rollins said on 12:43AM 5-12-2008

Having played the game briefly, I have to say that it looks much better than pictures/videos show. It's actually a rather pretty game.

That said, these mounts look stupid.

Leshrac said on 11:36AM 5-06-2008

It was simply amazing that this game ever saw the light of day. The lead designer, or head of Sigil - Brad McQuaid, was basically MIA for a large part of development. I read that he was sitting in the parking lot of the Sigil offices crying when his team got axed/reduced. The fact that this game is still around shows one of two things (1) the fan base is extremely devoted (2) and/or SOE does not want the game to fail.

Either way - I cannot fault a producer for adding content, or in this case silly mounts.

Elna said on 4:25AM 5-07-2008

Vanguard is making a step forward with any new GU they implement. Vanguard has changed a lot and for the better.

You can't really judge graphics with just some screens and a low quality video. Despite that, just taking these images as reference, I think some of the mounts look really cool like the Blood Widow. The fact that you can try to get any racial mount even if it is not your race gives you a chance to chose the mount you like better, which is good.

And it's not only the mounts what is going into the game with GU5, there is much more. The Devs are trying really hard to take Vanguard where it belongs.

Van said on 3:17PM 5-07-2008

I've played many MMO's, including EQ, EQ2, FFXI, and WoW exclusively for about 3 yrs on and off. I tried this game out when it first released with a few of my friends. It was buggy as hell and it felt a bit empty as far as storyline and lore at first. As far as gameplay it was awesome. I had more fun playing this game despite all the bugs than I have in WoW since BC released and I've been through SSC -TK - Hyjal and BT. Granted I played on Therridon FFA PvP which has since been consolidated I've heard. Aside from these mounts you can also have a normal horse mount at lvl 10 and lvl 30, you can also have different sized / speed - ships that work just like mounts. The game is amazing and I hope it does well in the future I'd really like to play it again. I sincerely hope it lives through AoC, Warhammer, and WoTLK in the coming year.