Part 2 of the Star Trek Online starship tactics video premiered over at IGN, and there are a couple concepts clarified over a few subjects -- but as with the last video, it's nothing really new. The gameplay footage that's attached to the explanation is quite compelling however, especially with the boarding parties where you can see the little shuttlecrafts head towards the Romulan ship. Let's take a closer look at each of the concepts the video covers.

Power management.

Power management is going to play a big role, which we known about for a while. You can see some detailed pictures of part of the power management UI in yesterday's article, located along the bottom of the screen with words like Defense, Attack, and Speed. Say you have 100 units of power, in STO you're going to be able to devote 25 of those units to the shields, 10 to auxiliary systems, 50 to weapons, and 15 to the engines. Power allocation will not be immediate, it will have some sort of delay associated with it. That means you'll have to think ahead about your strategic choices.

Cryptic has released the first part of a series looking at the tactical ship combat in Star Trek Online. It's definitely worth watching, especially if you've been following the progression of Star Trek Online's combat development; in this regards it's nice to finally see some in-game action as we'll experience it when STO releases in February.

There are a few points that STO Director of Production Craig Zinkievich, Game Designer Zeke Sparkes, and Producer Daniel Stahl make which are worth noting. We've already heard most of it, but the in-game footage demonstrates most of these concepts nicely.

You can watch the video above, or head over to our sister site Big Download to grab the hi res version. The hi res version of this video is worth it.

After the break we'll take a look at the major points, as well as talk about some of the high resolution screen grabs of the UI shown in the video.

Today marks the official NDA (non disclosure agreement) lift on Lord of the Rings Online's newest expansion: Siege of Mirkwood. The latest addition to virtual Middle-earth is set to release on December 1st, but many players have already been enjoying the new content on the Bullroarer test server these last few months.

If you haven't had a chance to see Turbine's latest creation, check out our video tour of the expansion just after the jump below. Also, be sure to watch Massively for more coverage on Siege of Mirkwood from now to December 1st and beyond!

Everyone has their own lists of what games have been the most important in the grand scheme of the industry, but it's pretty impossible to argue that EverQuest doesn't deserve a spot near the top of the list. While time hasn't seen the classic game and its sequel remain the 900-pound-gorilla of the industry, it still holds a place near and dear to many people's hearts. More to the point, the impact it had on MMOs as a whole is undeniable. That's why the new Evercracked! video series running on IGN should bring a nice dose of joy, nostalgia, and general good feelings to a number of people.

Hosted by Jace Hall, the series is slated to include interviews with veteran players and designers, behind-the-scenes footage, and a general collection of trivia and recollections. The first episode is now available, with new episodes going live every week until December 10th, so really, what's keeping you? The game has inspired countless people into the genre, including the original sources of the industry's current big success story. Even if you're just looking for historical purposes, it's likely to contain some amusement. And if you got your start in the genre with EverQuest, well, that's all the better.

All Points Bulletin is definitely on the radar for a number of fans of urban crime games seeking a deeper multiplayer environment. While many of us would enjoy a perpetual cascade of felonies (or arrests), Realtime Worlds wants players to have a sense of San Paro as a fleshed out urban setting where they can create their own stories. Realtime Worlds Lead Creative Designer Stephen Hewitt (aka 'KitKat') discusses the stories that will run throughout All Points Bulletin in the latest video podcast and introduces viewers to the criminal organizations players will tangle with at some point.

We get a look at the G-Kings gang, who are essentially punks clawing their way up the criminal hierarchy of San Paro. Hewitt also gives us a glimpse at the Blood Roses, an organization comprised of trust fund club kids dipping their toes into a life of crime just for the thrills. Stick with us after the jump for the latest All Points Bulletin video podcast, The Organizations of San Paro.

Because we don't do straight reviews on this site, a First Impressions piece is the closest you're going to get. In First Impressions, we run through the first 5 to 10 levels of a game and let you know what we thought.

In this one for gPotato's upcoming free-to-play Allods Online, we did something a bit different. Instead of just a write-up, we've also done a short video to show the visual side of our impressions. Why? Because Allods Online deserves it, in our opinion. Keep reading after the jump for the embedded video and a brief run-down of what we thought.

You can argue the specifics about whether or not MAG qualifies as an MMO, but the game certainly fits the "massive" portion of the bill -- 128 characters to a side in battle, customized and developed characters, persistent world based on the performance in the skirmishes. The game's release is only a couple months away, and there's still a great deal more to learn about it if you haven't yet opted in to the preorder beta. Luckily for all of us, Giant Bomb has an interview with Seth Luisi which sheds more light on how the game will play and progress.

The interview is quite substantial, covering everything from MAG's skill progression to leadership roles in the game. Among the more interesting tidbits is the system for squad leaders and further command posts. In order to give some incentive to follow a commander's orders, the objectives they set give a bonus to experience when fulfilled, and as the objectives are fulfilled the leader gets points to help improve their character. It's an interesting dual-reward system that should help lead to people being a bit more inclined to give and take orders in a setting notorious for just the opposite.

But that's hardly the entirety of the interview -- it's only a tiny slice of a talk that ranges to the state of the world affecting map play, character specialization, and some of the problems that the team is facing and working on improving. Take a look at the full interview, which clocks in at around eight minutes long, and you might be inspired to place a pre-order and get your hands on the beta early.

Turbine has released a video for the Shan-to-Kor adventure pack, which is aimed at level four and above players. The dungeon -- which lies deep beneath the marketplace -- is nothing too grandiose or epic, certainly not on the level of Dol Guldur, but these videos serve as a nice way for interested DDO: Unlimited players to get a preview of content before they commit to buying it in-game through the DDO Store.

We wonder if there's a way for Turbine to incorporate these videos into the actual game itself, or at the very least to offer an external link for easy viewing. That may be asking too much, although since they keep making these it seems pretty logical to us.

Check out the video after the break.

There's a new Star Trek Online trailer out from Cryptic, originally released through GameSpot. The trailer features some impressive gameplay footage that illustrates nicely a few aspects of STO we've been hearing about for a while.

There's both ground combat and space combat featured, with Klingon, Federation, and Borg ships taking part in the overall action. In one scene we see a fleet of ships attacking a single Borg cube in quite a nice display of firepower, including several (of what appear to be) quantum torpedoes.

One of the more impressive aspects of this gameplay footage that we picked up on right way was the tactical maneuvering of what appears to be a mid-range ship of Romulan design. A captured still of the scene is pictured above, and you can clearly see in the video that the ship is moving to direct hits against its "bottom side" after the port shields were taking a significant beating. Note that the two ships attacking the main ship with green phasers are Klingon Vor'Cha class, so we're assuming the ship demonstrating the tactical moves is of Romulan origin.

We also noticed that the ship pictured above bares some resemblance to the unidentified "classified" ship listed in the Ships of the Line articles at the official STO website. The above ship can be viewed more clearly in the HD trailer, however the unidentified ship on the STO website doesn't have a clear image -- only a blurry reconnaissance image. The warp nacelles both look similar (espeically if you take the image angles into consideration), both have the same general outline, and both have guns protruding from each wing. An interesting coincidence we wanted to point out.

The video after the break.

We recently mentioned that Star Trek Online fans would get a chance to play through a demo of the game at Eurogamer Expo last week. One of the first reports we've read about the Star Trek Online demo comes from Oli Welsh at Eurogamer who was uniquely positioned to check out the game (it was their Expo after all.) Welsh begins by writing, "Trekkies can put one fear to rest right now: Star Trek Online feels just like Star Trek." Although this might assuage a bit of the apprehension some gamers have about trying yet another Star Trek game, Welsh is up front about the fact that the demo he played through was a contained single player experience. It's too soon to say what gameplay will feel like when hundreds of other players are thrown into the mix.

He writes about the demo's transitions between locations via warp jumps, keyboard navigation of star ships (standard WASD, with additional throttle control), and the pacing of ship combat. Welsh also walks the reader from the bridge of a Federation vessel down to the surface of a planet where Klingon opponents await. Fans of the game should read Eurogamer's hands on with Star Trek Online and may also be interested in the video footage of STO gameplay from Limited Edition, shot at this year's Eurogamer Expo (starting at 02:40. They've also captured gameplay of Global Agenda as well.) We've got a video embed of that for you after the jump.

'I cannot read the fiery letters,' said Frodo in a quavering voice.

'No,' said Gandalf, 'but I can. The letters are English, of an ancient mode, but the language is that of Lawyers, which I will not utter here. But this in the Common Tongue is what is said, close enough:

'You agree to review and adhere to the guidelines on using "Second Life," "SL," "Linden," the Eye-in-Hand logo, and Linden Lab's other trademarks, service marks, trade names, logos, domain names, taglines, and trade dress..'

He paused, and then said slowly in a deep voice: 'These are the Master Rules, the Terms of Service that rule all accounts.'

---

Well, a joint-project of Rhys Moult with Curtin University and the Tabor Adelaide iYouth Project has produced a video which essentially summarizes the 7,500 word Second Life Terms of Service in a straightforward and easy-to-digest form. It's top work, and you can check it out, after the fold.

As we've said before, we got to see many, many people at GameX 2009 this year. But one of the main reasons we went to the expo was to catch up once again with the team from Hi-Rez Studios and ask them some more questions on their "spy-fi" MMOFPS, Global Agenda.

On the top of our burning question list was what exactly made Global Agenda into an MMO, so we set out to ask associate producer Michal Adam all about what made their AvA and persistent world battles so special. Along the way, we also inquired as to what their PvE content will hold, and what rewards players could expect to find from participating in Global Agenda: Conquest.

For our full video interview with Michal, look no further than after the break!

We pointed out last month that EVE Online will get a new look to its planets this December, when the Dominion expansion launches. There's now more footage of the improved planetary graphics which is even better than what we saw in September, with a closer look at the swirling clouds, continents, and oceans, as well as light and shadows on the horizon. The footage is courtesy once again of EVE Online player Flamewave -- who may just live on the Singularity test server.

We've got a video embed of Flamewave's footage of the new planetary graphics as seen on the test server, so stick with us after the jump for a stunning look at New Eden as it will appear in Dominion.