Filed under: Massively Hands-on

GameX 2009: Our hands-on with Global Agenda

by Seraphina Brennan Nov 3rd 2009 at 2:30PM

Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Game mechanics, PvP, PvE, MMOFPS, Global Agenda, Massively Hands-on, Massively Event Coverage

It's an MMO, it's a shooter, and we stealthily gathered enemy intelligence on it at GameX 2009. It's Hi-Rez's Global Agenda, the "spy-fi" team based shooter that has lots of people talking in excited whispers.

We sat down at Hi-Rez's gaming rigs once again for a look at the game, and this time we went beyond the PvP matches. We got to have some personal time with Global Agenda's PvE mode, getting an inside look at how secret agents deal with insane governments that utilize robots to the Nth degree.

So what can you expect from Global Agenda, both PvP and PvE-wise? If our looks into the game were any indication, you can expect lots.

LotRO: Siege of Mirkwood developer tour

by Shawn Schuster Oct 26th 2009 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, Game mechanics, Interviews, MMO industry, Hands-on, Massively Hands-on

If you've been faithfully following along with the Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood beta, you may be excited by what you've heard -- or even seen yourself -- so far. The new expansion, which is set to launch on December 1st of this year (December 3rd for EU), centers around the forest of Mirkwood, just to the east of Lothlorien. It introduces us to a large new map of Mirkwood, the skirmish system, five new instances and much more.

On top of this officially-released news of these features, we were able to get together with Turbine's Aaron "Rowan" Campbell for a sample tour of the new content. Follow along after the jump for what we saw.

Gallery: LotRO: Siege of Mirkwood Developer Tour

A look back at Aion's first month and impressions

by Brooke Pilley Oct 26th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Opinion, Massively Hands-on

43,829 minutes. That's roughly how long Aion's been out in the West. Depending on your tolerance for grinding, it may or may not have felt like that amount of time passed. There's no doubt it's been a busy month full of ups and downs, so we'd like to take an extensive look back at the last 30-days and give our impressions on the game.

Smooth criminal

Aion experienced one of the most technically smooth launches in MMO history, which was the result of hard work, innovative design, tough decision-making, and of course nearly a year between the Eastern and Western releases. Anti-cheat software, GameGuard, was stripped from the client in the 11th hour. This no doubt eliminated most of the open-beta issues that would have sent a lot of potential players packing shortly after release. Players just aren't as forgiving as they used to be.

A retrospective of Aion's first month (part 2)

by Brooke Pilley Oct 26th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Aion, Opinion, Massively Hands-on

Massively's Aion and Fallen Earth launch day schedule

by Shawn Schuster Sep 21st 2009 at 5:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Aion, Fallen Earth, Contests, Culture, Events, in-game, Launches, New titles, Hands-on, Massively Hands-on, Massively Event Coverage, Giveaways

As we mentioned on Friday, we are excited to join you in-game for the launches of both Aion and Fallen Earth tomorrow. We'll have staff in both games, ready to group up and play with any readers who want to experience the beginning areas with other readers.

In addition to this, we'll have contests, giveaways and prizes to those who attend or meet-up with us. Follow along after the break for complete details on where we'll be, who will be there and what we'll be doing.

Massively tours Final Fantasy XI's latest version update

by Seraphina Brennan Sep 11th 2009 at 6:30PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Expansions, PvE, Hands-on, Consoles, Massively Hands-on

Not too long ago, we were taken on a tour of moogles and mayhem by the developers over at Square-Enix as we got an inside look into Final Fantasy XI's July version update. There's a lot of meat to this update as it includes everything from Ninja job changes, new blue mage spells, more item augmentations, campaign quests, expansions to Moblin Maze Mongers, and their newest mini-expansion pack, "A Moogle Kupo d'Etat!"

Our hands-on is set to cover all of these new additions, so let's waste no more time here on the front page. On to moogles and more!

Dragon*Con 2009: Costumes, the parade and more!

by Shawn Schuster Sep 10th 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Video, Culture, Events, real-world, Hands-on, Massively Hands-on, Massively Event Coverage

Didn't get a chance to check out the costumes at Dragon*Con this year? No problem! We spent the last weekend grabbing literally hours of video footage to stuff into a small, digestible 10-minute chunk for our readers. We have some footage of the costumes around the hotels, the mass of people outside and of course, the epic parade that is held every year.

Follow along after the jump for just a tidbit of our favorite moments from Dragon*Con 2009, and look for a photo gallery of even more wonderful imagery coming soon.

PAX 2009: Hands-on and phasers locked with Star Trek Online

by Kyle Horner Sep 8th 2009 at 3:00PM

Filed under: New titles, Star Trek Online, Massively Hands-on

We stopped by Cryptic's booth at PAX 2009 for a chance to speak with the Executive Producer for Star Trek Online Craig Zinkievich, and obviously to get our hands on the game as well. Well, turns out our demands were acceptable, and we got to both play the game and prod at Craig with our incessant "questions" for your -- and of course our own -- pleasure.

Cryptic's goal for Star Trek Online is to make players feel like they're inside an episode of Star Trek when they play the game. That's why they call their story-focused missions episodes, and why every one of them deals with both ground and space combat. Our hands-on experience focused on this aspect of the game, and much combat was had by, well, us.

PAX 2009: Hands-on and phasers locked with Star Trek Online part 2

by Kyle Horner Sep 8th 2009 at 3:00PM

Filed under: New titles, Star Trek Online, Massively Hands-on

Champions Online launch day round-up

by Shawn Schuster Sep 1st 2009 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Super-hero, Events, in-game, Launches, MMO industry, Massively meta, Massively Hands-on, Champions Online

Today is the official launch day for Champions Online and we thought you might appreciate this handy round-up of our very best and most pertinent info that you'll need to get started in the game. You're welcome. Don't forget we'll also be in game all day today getting together with readers to bash some villain face in. Join us, won't you?

	Glean info in this video walkthrough of Champions Online's tutorial If you've been wondering what the starting area for Champions Online was like in moving pictures, you'll be happy to know that a two-part video has surfaced online for your viewing pleasure. The video is new gameplay footage blended a little bit with older trailers. Overall, if you're looking to see what the game actually looks like while being played, this video is a decent place to start.
	Ten things to know when starting Champions Online Every time a new MMO launches, there's always a good list of things that wouldn't hurt for a new player to know, and Champions Online is no different. We're all about making your first steps into an unknown game as grief free as possible, so check out Syp's list if you're interested in such a proposal. He's got a very good rundown on things you need to know when entering the tutorial zone.
	Travel powers trailer for Champions Online Yeah, we know the Champions Online open beta is out and many of you have probably been messing around with all these travel powers already, but it's always nice to get a preview of all your options in one nicely packaged trailer. Plus, trailers are a great way to kill a minute or five, depending on the game in question.
	The Digital Continuum: Five reasons to play Champions Online It's been a long wait since the announcement of Cryptic's next project, so long that some of us began to run around our houses wearing towels around our necks. Thankfully, September 1st is now less than a month away. Open beta? That's even sooner. Before we know it the game will be sitting on our desks and shelves.

Join us at Champions Online's launch

by Shawn Schuster Aug 31st 2009 at 1:30PM

Filed under: Super-hero, Events, in-game, Launches, New titles, Grouping, Hands-on, Massively Hands-on, Champions Online

How would you like to play Champions Online with the Massively team on launch day? As we mentioned on Friday, we're going to have an in-game event to celebrate the launch of Champions Online. A few of our writers will be in-game to run through some quests, and we want you to join us!

This will take place all day tomorrow, at various times throughout the day. Instead of meeting up in the initial tutorial though, we've decided it would be best to meet people at each crisis zone, which is just after the initial tutorial. This basically means around level 5, which is not hard to reach. Simply send an in-game message to the following account names for a group invite:

Shawn Schuster - @MassiveShawn (in the Desert crisis zone)
Kyle Horner - @General-Kraken (in the Desert crisis zone)
Colin Brennan - @Octal_Black (in the Canada crisis zone)

Since Champions is set up in instanced shards, we'll get groups together as we can in each crisis zone. As a general rule, we'll try to meet up in instance #5 of each zone. Later this week, we'll put up a small gallery of images from the event and hopefully do this more often for new game launches. Hope to see you all there!

Snafzg returns to WAR (week one): An introduction

by Brooke Pilley Aug 13th 2009 at 11:00AM

Filed under: Fantasy, Warhammer Online, Opinion, Massively Hands-on

Rank 40/44 Squig Herder of Phoenix Throne / ex-dedicated Warhammer Online blogger looking for group!

Hey folks; my name is Snafzg. You might remember me from such internet adventures as "Author of TheGreenskin.com," the now-defunct but first dedicated WAR blog, and "A somewhat elusive gobbo of Phoenix Throne!" Welcome to my little experiment: Snafzg returns to WAR. You see, I haven't played the game for quite some time, so I'm going back in for one month (with an open mind) to give it another shot.

Some history

Warhammer Online and I have a history dating back to October 2007. I hadn't played an MMO for over six months and was starting to feel the itch again. A long-time gaming friend told me to check out WAR because he was currently in beta and the game was slated to be coming out soon. I started doing research and got so engrossed that I started a blog about it.

The game was delayed one month later. Bah! I thought, but I at least I have the first dedicated WAR blog. Let's make it grow while we wait. And wait I did. The game was delayed again from Q2 to Q3 2008. At this point though, I was in beta, so I could wait. To be honest, I felt the game needed a lot more time in the testing facilities anyway. Delaying was a good thing.

Massively's hands-on with WonderKing

by Shawn Schuster Jul 28th 2009 at 3:00PM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Galleries, Screenshots, Game mechanics, New titles, Crafting, Free-to-play, Hands-on, Massively Hands-on, WonderKing

Last week, the folks at NDOORS were kind enough to give us a bit of an introductory tour through their newest 2D side-scrolling MMO entitled WonderKing, currently in the closed beta stage. You may remember a recent interview we had with the WonderKing devs, as well as a closed beta key giveaway last month. Our coverage now continues through a series of screenshots we took during the tour, complete with captions that explain major features of the game.

So if you're not in the beta, or are just curious about this game, follow along through our visual tour of WonderKing to find out more.

Gallery: WonderKing

Massively Hands-on: Champions Online Desert Crisis zone

by Kyle Horner Jul 23rd 2009 at 9:00AM

Filed under: Super-hero, New titles, News items, Massively Hands-on, Champions Online

We've given you a look at Champions Online's character creation, combat and first five levels -- plus we just began our Create My Champion feature yesterday. Today, we're here to tell you about one of the two zones you'll encounter after completing the tutorial zone: Desert Crisis.

For this play-through we created a Force character with Jet Boots, who's a bit of Defender and The Comedian all rolled into one baddie-knocking hero. The force explosion power was especially fun and we discovered that taking the passive personal force field ability -- which reduces all incoming damage -- was a smart choice. Never underestimate a well-rounded character, especially when soloing.

Gallery: Champions Online Desert Crisis zone

Preparing for beta: A video tour of Hi-Rez Studios

by Shawn Schuster Jul 21st 2009 at 1:00PM

Filed under: Betas, Sci-fi, Video, Events, real-world, Interviews, MMO industry, Hands-on, Spy, Global Agenda, Massively Interviews, Massively Hands-on

Last week, we made the trek down to Hi-Rez Studios in Atlanta, Georgia to get a look at how Global Agenda is shaping up just before the closed beta goes live. As you may remember, we were one of the first MMO news sites to visit the studio in October of last year, and we're happy to see the popularity that the game has enjoyed since then.

In the video embedded just after the jump, you'll see a bit of the inner-workings of the studio, as well as a few interviews with members of the Hi-Rez team, asking the question, "How are you preparing for the closed beta?"