PAX posts

Gaze onto Dol Guldur in Siege of Mirkwood

by Kyle Horner Oct 8th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: Fantasy, Screenshots, Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, News items

Back at PAX09, we brought you information on Lord of the Rings Online's latest expansion, Siege of Mirkwood. Unfortunately, at that time we weren't able to show any images of the breathtaking views Turbine treated us to -- at least not until now.

Say hello to Dol Guldur, the fortress that served as Sauron's home back in his necromancer days in The Hobbit. It's pretty evil looking, yeah? it's also a massive vertical dungeon that -- and we can say from first-hand experience -- will astonish any fan of Gothic architecture . There are plenty more screens in the gallery, so take a look and share your thoughts.

Gallery: The Lord of the Rings Online: Siege of Mirkwood expansion

Tags: dol-guldur, lord-of-the-rings, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, pax, pax-2009, sauron, screens, screenshot, screenshots, siege-of-mirkwood, tolkien, turbine

SWTOR's Coruscant artwork and PAX video

by Kyle Horner Sep 13th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Video, New titles, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

So maybe you missed out on seeing the glorious video reveal of Coruscant at PAX this year. No worries, because BioWare's been kind enough to release a high quality copy of the video into the wilds of the internet. We've posted it after the break in case you'd like to simple jump right into it.

There's more news beyond the video being available on the game's official website, though, such as a bevy of very cool concept art that should entice any Star Wars: The Old Republic fan for several minutes bare minimum -- some of us may spend longer amounts of time staring.

None of this is a big reveal, but that's perfectly understandable given the team's presence at PAX last weekend. So what about next weekend? Well, next weekend they'd better deliver or else we'll have to uh- well we'll just be sad if they don't, but it'll be a really vicious sadness that sends chills down spines!

Tags: bioware, coruscant, ea, electronic-arts, lucasarts, pax, pax-2009, penny-arcade, penny-arcade-expo, star-wars, swtor, tor, video

PAX 2009: Dark mysteries of The Secret World

by Kyle Horner Sep 10th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: New titles, The Secret World, Massively Event Coverage

So, you may have heard: Funcom is taking famous myths, urban legends, pop culture, history and even things like the Rota Fortunae and blending it all into a game called The Secret World. We sat down with lead designer Martin Brusgaar and creative director Ragnar Tornquist at PAX 2009 to discuss the game and a few of its many secrets.

The Secret World has a vibe unlike any other MMO or really game currently out there. Its premise is simple -- all the legends, myths and more are true. Atlantis is rising, vampires roam the night, 2012 is the beginning of a new fourth age and so on. The world is a dark, scary and magical place. Although, it's more of the first two than anything else.

Gallery: The Secret World

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, atlantis, combat, dragon, featured, footage, funcom, illuminati, london, martin-brusgaar, new-york, pax, pax-2009, ragnar-tornquist, screens, screenshot, screenshots, seoul, templar, the-secret-world, tsw, video

PAX 2009: We travel east with Rise of the Godslayer

by Kyle Horner Sep 9th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Age of Conan, Expansions, Massively Event Coverage

Age of Conan came to PAX pretty much directly off their announcement of the Rise of the Godslayer expansion. So when we arrived at our appointment to check the game out and speak with Executive Producer Craig Morrison, you can imagine our curiosity levels were quite high.

This expansion is taking players far into the eastern lands of Khitai, which is essentially a retelling of our own ancient eastern worlds. Something we were told right away is that Funcom wanted to avoid Japanese influences, as they're fairly over-saturated in videogames. Instead, they're going for a heavy focus on Korean and Chinese culture for the lands of Khitai.

Gallery: Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, china, conan, craig-morrison, expansion, featured, funcom, khitai, korea, pax, pax-2009, rise-of-the-godslayer, robert-e-howard, rotg

PAX 2009: We travel east with Rise of the Godslayer part 2

by Kyle Horner Sep 9th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: Age of Conan, Expansions, Massively Event Coverage

Tags: age-of-conan, aoc, cataclysm, ccp, conan, eve, eve-online, expansion, funcom, pax, pax-2009, rise-of-the-godslayer, robert-e-howard, tiger-mount

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.

Tags: atari, craig-zinkievich, cryptic, cryptic-studios, featured, federation, klingon, pax, pax-2009, star-trek, star-trek-online, sto

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

Tags: atari, craig-zinkievich, cryptic, cryptic-studios, hands-on, pax, pax-2009, romulan, romulans, star-trek, star-trek-online, sto

PAX 2009: Turbine tells us all about Siege of Mirkwood

by Kyle Horner Sep 8th 2009 at 9:30AM

Filed under: Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, News items, Massively Event Coverage

This last weekend at PAX 2009 we had the opportunity to sit down with Lord of the Rings Online's executive producer Jeffrey Steefel. He gave us a sneak peek at some of the new zone and instanced content coming in Siege of Mirkwood, as well as many of the new features. So if you're skeptical or just plain curious, we think you'll be most intrigued to see what knowledge we've uncovered after venturing deep into Mirkwood and all the way into Sauron's fortress of Dol Guldur.

Tags: dol-guldur, expansion, featured, jeffrey-steefel, lord-of-the-rings, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, mirkwood, pax, pax-2009, sauron, siege-of-mirkwood, turbine

PAX 2009: Turbine tells us all about Siege of Mirkwood part 2

by Kyle Horner Sep 8th 2009 at 9:30AM

Filed under: Lord of the Rings Online, Expansions, Massively Event Coverage

Tags: combat, horses, jeffrey-steefel, lord-of-the-rings, lord-of-the-rings-online, lotro, my-lotro, mylotro, pax, pax-2009, rohan, siege-of-mirkwood, skirmish, skirmishes, turbine

PAX 2009: BioWare offers Star Wars: The Old Republic fans discount on KOTOR

by James Egan Sep 7th 2009 at 6:00PM

Filed under: Sci-fi, News items, Star Wars: The Old Republic

We're all about MMOs at Massively (shocker), but once in a while something from our RPG past resurfaces and captures our attention again. Clearly we've got a number of Star Wars fans among our readers looking at how many people are following our Star Wars: The Old Republic coverage, and for many gamers the original Knights of the Old Republic (circa 2003) was a memorable experience. BioWare announced at PAX 2009 that they're handing out $10 doses of nostalgia by offering KOTOR downloads for PC through both Direct2Drive and Steam.

Getting back to the MMO angle, there's another 25% off of that for Star Wars: The Old Republic community members who download the game from Direct2Drive. Sure, PAX attendees get their KOTOR downloads for free -- damn you, Kyle Horner! -- but seriously, it's only $10 to begin with. If you missed Knights of the Old Republic the first time around, this is as good a time as any to catch up. Check out the announcement over on the official SWTOR site and create your account before September 15th if you're really adamant about saving a few bucks.

Tags: bioware, direct2drive, downloads, knights-of-the-old-republic, kotor, pax, pax-2009, rpg, sci-fi, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, steam, swtor

PAX 2009: Massively's first look at gameplay in All Points Bulletin

by Kyle Horner Sep 7th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: New titles, News items, All Points Bulletin, Massively Event Coverage

All Points Bulletin was representing at PAX and while the game wasn't playable I did manage to see a very cool PAX-only gameplay video presentation. Epic Games' Mark Rein and Realtime Worlds' community officer Chris Collins – you know, that dashing gentlemen in all those cool video podcasts – played a bunch of the game and edited it into a nicely narrated sample of what playing the game is like.

What I ended up seeing was a game that by all accounts looks very ready for launch, so I wasn't surprised to be told beta was "a few weeks" away and not months. And while that date is still a little ways off, most other attendees who saw the video seemed to agree that launch day couldn't come soon enough.

Tags: all-points-bulletin, apb, chris-collins, ea, ea-partners, electronic-arts, featured, mark-rein, pax, pax-2009, realtime-worlds

PAX 2009: Massively's first look at gameplay in All Points Bulletin part 2

by Kyle Horner Sep 7th 2009 at 4:00PM

Filed under: New titles, News items, All Points Bulletin, Massively Event Coverage

Tags: all-points-bulletin, apb, chris-collins, ea, ea-partners, electronic-arts, epic-games, mark-rein, pax, pax-2009, realtime-worlds, unreal-engine-3

PAX 2009: Massively interviews BioWare and LucasArts on SWTOR

by Kyle Horner Sep 7th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: New titles, Massively Interviews, Star Wars: The Old Republic

PAX 2009 played host to the first North American public demo for Star Wars: The Old Republic and by the cheering and applause of a packed theater at Sunday's stage demo, we'd say it went exceedingly well. Luckily for us, we had the opportunity to sit down and chat with LucasArts producer Jake Neri and BioWare producer Blaine Christine.

Read more below for the inside scoop on what's new for the game at PAX and what we were able to pry from the lips of BioWare and LucasArts.

Tags: bioware, blaine-christine, ea, electronic-arts, featured, jake-neri, lucasarts, pax, pax-2009, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, the-old-republic

PAX 2009: Massively interviews BioWare and LucasArts on SWTOR part 2

by Kyle Horner Sep 7th 2009 at 12:00PM

Filed under: New titles, Massively Interviews, Star Wars: The Old Republic

Tags: bioware, blaine-christine, ea, electronic-arts, jake-neri, lucasarts, multiplayer-dialog, pax, pax-2009, roleplaying, star-wars, star-wars-the-old-republic, swtor, the-old-republic, tor, webkinz

NCsoft and DC Comics announce Aion comic book

by Lesley Smith Sep 2nd 2009 at 5:00PM

Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Aion, Events, real-world, Events, in-game, Lore, New titles, News items

NCsoft and DC Comics have teamed up to create a limited edition comic based on Aion which focuses on the Asmodian Daeva Aiva. She might look familiar as her image is used to advertise the game and a statue of her will also be found in the Collector's Edition when Aion is released later this month.

"Aiva's Story" is the work of artist Neil Googe and writers David Noonan and Ricardo Sanchez. Aiva's life is torn apart when her family is killed by an Elyos raiding party. Embittered, she endures a harsh life as a mercenary, fighting Karnifs and the Mau. She brings with her a festering hatred for the white-winged Elyos, eventually ascending to Daevahood and is posted to the Abyss. The comic book will be available (albeit in limited quantities) at the Aion booth at this weekend's Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle but fans will also be able to get their hands on a copy by purchasing the game at GameStop in the US and Electronic Boutique stores in Canada..

You can check out our gallery below to see the cover art in it's full glory, as well as some internal artwork.

Gallery: Aion: Aiva's Story

Want to know more about Aion? NCsoft invites you into the world of Atreia where the Elyos and the Asmodians fight each other and the evil Balaur for control of the shattered planet. Check out out all our coverage of this must-play MMO!

Tags: aion, aion-aiva, aion-beta, aion-comic-book, aion-patch-1.5, aion-the-tower-of-eternity, aion-tower-of-eternity, asmodian, asmodians, ncsoft, pax, pax-2009, penny-arcade-expo