We have just released an improved version of our popular talent calculators. You will now see all three trees for each class on the same page, and the click responsiveness has been greatly improved under Internet Explorer. Talents that unlock new class abilities will now also display all trainable ranks of the associated ability. We hope you enjoy our new talent calculators!

We're happy to announce the opening of two new Oceanic realms: Aman'Thul a PvE realm, and Barthilas, a PvP realm. These realms will go live tonight at 11:59 PM PDT, June 8th, placing these realms live at approximately 4:59 PM GMT+10, June 9th. This will allow our Oceanic players to begin creating characters at a time comfortable for them. These two new realms will offer our Oceanic players, new and old alike, fresh beginnings in Azeroth!

Taking place inside a gigantic, weather-battered colony tower on the planet DaVinci, Seed presents the player with a lot of new terms and ideas. To help you keep track of it all, the developer is implementing an in-game encyclopedia in the shape of tradable conversation "nuggets." A nugget is a bit of knowledge which can be spread in-game between both players and NPCs. If given to the right NPC, a nugget may also trigger hints, stories, or comments. The encyclopedia will continue to grow as the game world does.

Thanks to the combat system, the fights from PvE as well as PvP are incredibly fun and challenging, because this time around the driving skill of the player comes into play as well, besides the skills of his alter-ego. Each weapon that you can mount on your car has a so-called targeting-arc and if you want to actually hit something, you’ll need to keep it in this arc. Otherwise, you’ll be shooting sideways. Take note that the forward and rear weapons are static, unlike the top mounted turret weapon which can rotate to 360 degrees, so fighting in Auto Assault isn’t just about driving like crazy in the middle of an enemy group and pressing the “Fire” key until your mouse dies in painful agony. Your mobility and the way you know how to use the advantages of your car to dodge enemy fire will be crucial for your survival.

Ten Ton Hammer: Pacing is an aspect of most MMOGs that the players take for granted. How would you compare the gameplay pace in Pirates of the Burning Sea to the current crop of MMOGs on the market?

Tynes: 75% less tedium! We’ve made travel swift without making it safe. We’ve turned crafting on its ear by skipping dagger-grinding and going straight to large-scale resource production. We’ve made combat exciting and involving instead of repetitious and macro-worthy. And we’ve done it all in a game with real style.

The first time I tried to play KotoR 2 (Knights of the Old Republic 2) I was a little disappointed. Obsidian’s original game of the year hit (KotoR 1) was one of the best Star Wars games ever made, not to mention one of the best designed RPGs in a crowded marketplace. When I loaded up the game and saw the exact same textures and nearly identical models from the original, I felt like I was playing KotoR 1 all over again. It got even worse when the story began to unfold. The storylines in both games are so similar you’ll find yourself having déjà vu.

The gameplay is lackluster at best; everything you have to do in this game for the most part is handed to you on a silver platter. There is very little explanation needed in this game. Everything is laid out for you. There are very few puzzles in the game and the ones that are there seem simple enough. I did struggle on a few puzzles though, so maybe some of the readers will find them challenging. Then again I’ve never been a good puzzle solver.

MMORPG.com: How are you working the EQ2 lore and the Adventure Packs? Do you have a dedicated writer or a framework laid out to ensure some continuity?

Matt Higby: Usually the first step for us in developing any adventure or expansion pack is to get all of the designers who will be working on lore; quests, dialog and character history into a meeting room and define exactly what we want to do with that particular plot line. For the AP it was no different, we always start out with a basic idea of what story we want to tell, and then we refine it and figure out all the intricacies and details down to the quests and character level.

Our primary goal though, is coming up with a story that can be self-contained, tells something that affects the rest of the game, and fits in with existing lore. For The Fallen Dynasty we knew we wanted to tell a story that would bridge the gap between EverQuest II Live and our upcoming expansion pack, Echoes of Faydwer. The events that unfold in TFD will become increasingly important in the months leading up to Echoes.

If you are reading this article, you’re probably familiar with the term MMORPG. The MMO part,” Massively Multiplayer Online” was coined somewhere to describe games like EverQuest, World of Warcraft, Eve-Online, and City of Heroes. At any given time, there could be hundreds, or even thousands, of players online simultaneously. I suppose that’s what makes the multiplayer part “massive”. I can accept that. Then there’s the RPG – Role Playing Game – part of the acronym. When I think of an RPG, I think of Dungeons and Dragons. The Dungeon Master always tells a story and brings the character on an adventure, the kind of adventure that inspires poetry, and somehow they involve YOU and make you feel as though you have just personally saved kingdoms and planets alike! When was the last time you remember an MMORPG making you feel like that? Is there something about it being multiplayer that detracts from the story?

• Eldrich Knight
  
• Warpriest

And I'll give more detail later about the whole thing - but, wow. Just.. wow. The videos, the shots - none of that begins to do the game justice and it will rock your world.