Pace is varied nicely throughout the campaigns, with the first couple of missions typically focussing on combat rather than town management and lasting only a couple of hours. The latter episodes in the campaigns are much more epic affairs, taking place on larger maps, with subterranean dungeons thrown in for good measure, which may take anything up to eight hours to conquer. So with 30 missions in the single-player campaigns, averaging around four hours each to complete, you're looking at well over 100 hours' worth of gameplay for your money; and that's before you even factor in the extensive multiplayer options and the standalone single scenario missions. That's a heck of a lot of game...

Unfortunately, this build only featured a small area of the expansion, but we were still able to wander around, explore, and fight for couple hours before we bumped up into its geographical limits. GPG says that Broken World will be in the 10-15 hour range, which is pretty impressive when you consider that many full games offer less, at full price. Look for it on store shelves in August, and keep your eyes peeled here for updates.

I think perhaps mods like these are why “my score” was created. This score would have been a 5 or 5.5, because, despite its flaws the game does tell a mostly coherent story with some amusing moments. However, the author chose to, at various random moments, shove his rightwing politics down the collective throat of his players. I have no problem with well-written political satire from either end of the left/right spectrum. There may even be a place for it in a politically themed NWN mod, but (unless you are a Rush Limbaugh devotee) the attempted humor in this mod falls flat for many reasons.
Firstly, without exception, it comes from nowhere. One second you’re in the middle of a halfway decent dungeon crawl, the next you’re subjected to the author’s opinions on women’s lib or homosexuality (the first is a very bad idea and the second is an abomination practiced by dragon cultists, in case you were wondering). Secondly, the commentary is ham fisted rather than sharp.

The lost Ayleid City Varsa Baalim has been unearthed by a rogue Telvanni arch-mage, in pursuit of a fearsome Daedric Artifact, Mehrunes Razor, which he believes will give him the power he needs to topple the Imperial reign - but what horrors lie in wait beneath the Valus mountains; and can you overcome them to claim Mehrunes Razor as your own?

Features:

* A fully-featured quest takes you deep into the fringes of the Niben.

* Earn the fearsome Mehrunes Razor, with the ability to kill foes instantly.

* 17 new magic items to discover!

* Conquer the largest dungeon in all Cyrodiil.

* Thwart a plot to overthrow Imperial rule in Tamriel.

* 12 new books, notes, and journals to help you unravel the mystery.

* Hidden treasures await!

General Introduction: Hero Online is a Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game where players have the opportunity to experience Asian myth and folklore in a martial arts environment. Players will encounter characters and monsters based on Asian martial fiction. By combining the motif of Asian culture with many unique features, players will experience a game like no other in Hero Online!
...
Game Content: The storyline of Hero Online was created by a collaboration of renowned authors known for their work in Asian Martial Arts Fiction. Players will actually have the opportunity to take part in the story and see how it progresses as they play the game. Through story-specific quests and game content, Hero Online has the feel of a single player RPG where the character must solve the mystery and fight the bad guys while still maintaining the essence of an MMORPG.

SpellForce 2 is, in general, an entertaining game that I found a worthwhile experience. It offers a pretty complete combination of two different genres. The problem is (as I've been told by several developers in the past) creating a pure mix of genres as different as RTS and RPG can be incredibly difficult. The challenge isn't just making a good game, it's making two good games and integrating them seamlessly. SpellForce 2 actually does a very admirable job of it as well. It's a better game than its predecessor, simplifying bits where they needed to be, but it still suffers from some hybrid inadequacies.

Bare in mind, though, that this whole concept of a free game does come with a few qualifiers. NCSoft is a company, and not a charitable organization after all. In order to make money off Dungeon Runners, NCSoft plans to charge a fee for various premium content in the game. This will largely come in the form of elite items that players can equip. What is unclear here is whether these items are consistently head and shoulders above monster drops in the game, or a mixture of super weapons, and cool looking items that only add aesthetic value to a player.

Often times, you may be a tad lost as to where you are “supposed” to be during the game. Obviously, the non-linear aspects of Space Rangers 2 may lose some gamers early on, but once you start running a few missions, the natural ebb and flow of the living universe, will force the gamer to adapt. For example, if you destroy a ship, you can salvage parts of it, to either sell, or use on your own vessel. This in turns adds items and/or money to the dynamic economy, which affects future purchases or sells. Now extrapolate that across countless star clusters, and you just have to say “Wow.”

Tomorrow Thursday, we will upgrade the website, replacing the current engine with a more elaborate one. As a result, Ryzom.com should be down from 3 pm to 5 pm (GMT+2, Paris time). Note that during this time, the forum will be unavailable as well

Alrighty. Got the options dialog box working (dull but necessary stuff like music volume, quit and save, yield the quest, etc). Still more to do in scoring the quest and saving up the historical scores. Delvers tracks all kinds of scores (as I think I've mentioned before) - not just for the current quest, but for all quests and for all Delvers. So you can scroll back through time and see how things are going for you.

We have added some new concept art to our artwork section! Amongst these new images you can find designs for the Trial Caves and the Quarterstone Arena entrance.

Infinite Dungeons allows an unprecedented level of randomization manipulation for the ambitious adventurer. Within the scope of an intriguing story, the Infinite Dungeons module allows the player to change his environment in many ways.

Image 1 - Neverwinter Nights: Special FeaturesFor example, the dungeon appearance itself may be changed to suit an individual player's adventuring needs. From the themes used to the number of levels in the dungeon to the number of doors that appear, nearly every aspect of the dungeon geography can be manipulated by the player.

The Couriers of House Orien, masters of transport and delivery, have begun a new effort to make inroads into the wealth held by Xen'drik and Stormreach. To that end, they have placed enchanted delivery devices throughout the city to allow citizens, for a small fee, to transport items quickly over short distances.

These devices will be found in the city wards of Stormreach when the Twilight Forge Module is released. A representative of House Orien will also be available in the city to talk to and answer the questions of those interested.

The Orphans of Kukai takes a unique approach to its interaction with the world of Guild Wars. All fifty members of OOK are dedicated roleplayers and remain entirely in-character while playing through the game. By doing so, members of the guild are able to further not only the story of their character, but also their interweaving stories with one another. This has helped create a rich history for the guild. OOK's lore, which they have shared with us below, continues to evolve as the guild grows and expands its presence in the lands of Tyria.

The quarter finals of the GWFC Season 2 Playoffs offered several exciting matches. You can watch highlight movies from those four matches in our Competitive Section.

With European guilds earning huge upset victories over the top Korean and American guilds in the first round of play, it came as no surprise that the top two European guilds, Esoteric Warriors [EW] and Irresistible Blokes [iB], would end up facing each other in the finals of the Season Two Guild Wars Factions Championship playoffs.

Many of the readers on this Web Site have been playing MMOs for several years now. From the dawn of Ultima Online through the success of World of Warcraft, we are almost reaching the ten year point in the MMO history of gaming. The next generation of MMOs is offering a lot of options to players; they are also offering a lot of promises. In this editorial I want to try to find out when you finally reach burn out on a game. I definitely am an older player when it comes to video games. I have seen it all, from Atari 2600’s Adventure to The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion, I have played many RPGs. I played my first D&D character at age seven, he was a dwarf fighter. At thirty-three, how many more dwarf fighters do you think I really want to play? None! Variety in games is what many players I know are always looking for. It is that variety that drives us to new ideas in game play. MMOs are always under fire for being very linear and boring. That style of game eventually leads to burn out. How long can you play your Night Elf Hunter until you are sick of him/her? My point with this editorial is to try to find out when players finally reach burn out on a game.

In this three part series we take a look at the different player classes in The Chronicles of Spellborn (TCoS). The previous installments looked at the three warrior classes and the three caster classes. In this final installment we take a closer look at the three rogue classes: the Dead Hand, the Facedancer and the Trickster.

Every class in TCoS has 3 basic attributes -, primary, secondary and auxiliary. The character’s primary attribute is defined by the class’s archetype, while the secondary attribute is determined by the actual class. The third auxiliary attribute has a small impact on the player's statistics but no impact on class-specific statistics and skills.

The primary archetype attribute for rogues is 'focus'. The focus attribute impacts many of the class’s basic statistics like an increased attack speed and allows the rogue to use basic focus-related skills.

The concept is certainly appealing, with history and myth offering great richness to draw upon. It also steps outside the common themes of fantasy and science fiction while still retaining an instant feeling of familiarity. The most interesting design element may be the squad system wherein you can acquire NPC followers, including various legendary beings, that you can then train, customize and lead into battle using either standard formations or your own. The combat looks action RPG-like in terms of pace, with attacks that can be strung together, special finishing moves and impressive "god powers" gained by pledging yourself to an ancient deity. The team is promising over 1,000 story-driven missions. The art direction and the game are definitely attractive.

Around the time World of Warcraft players get their first anticipated expansion, SOE will be shipping the third major expansion onto EverQuest II expanding the world of Norrath yet again. This time around we climb out of the desert and jungle and into an Asian themed expansion.

To prepare for Echoes of Faydwer, The Fallen Dynasty adventure pack will add content onto Kingdom of Sky’s end game. Developed in conjunction with SOE’s Taiwan studio, The Fallen Dynasty Adventure Pack promises to deliver the same downloadable story-rich content seen in the previously released The Bloodline Chronicles and The Splitpaw Saga, but this time with Asian influenced adventure zones, weapons, tradeskill rewards, as well as all new quests.

Please join us on Wednesday, May 31st, for a House of Commons with the developers of Star Wars Galaxies at 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern in the #StraticsHoC channel on Stratics IRC.

The chat will be focused on the E3 event and we’ll have an exclusive video to show!

You can connect to one of our IRC servers through the use of your favorite IRC client, such as mIRC, ircle, xchat, or whichever you prefer. Connect to irc.stratics.com port 6668 or whichever server is closest to you:

stratics.frws.com port 6668, USA - Colorado
irc.glowfish.de port 6668, EU - Germany
stratics.afraidyet.net 6668, USA - Atlanta
irc.epaxsys.net port 6668, USA - Colorado

You may also connect through our handy Java link which may be found right here. You must have Java installed to use this which can be downloaded from the Java homepage.

General chat relating to SWG will take place before, during, and after the chat in room #starwars. We hope to see you there!

A lot has changed since Final Fantasy XI's North American PC launch in 2003. Thanks in large part to PC games like World of Warcraft, City of Heroes and EverQuest II, MMOs have seen their first significant evolution, ushering millions of new players into a genre previously populated by the hardest of the hardcore. Despite this, the MMO genre hasn't seen much action on the console front apart from a couple of key exceptions (the PS2 version of Final Fantasy XI being one of them). Not content to see its long-running and admirably successful MMORPG on only two platforms, Square Enix has decided to let Final Fantasy XI mark its first foray on the Xbox 360. Had it taken place during the previous console generation, this would have been quite monumental. But despite the affection that its devoted playerbase has for the game, FFXI is no spring chicken.

Jonric: What kind of online world is Auto Assault, and what made it suitable as the basis for a trading card game? What were the keys to giving your product the same kind of "feel"?

Paul Dennen: Auto Assault depicts a brutal future where many factions duke it in tricked-out vehicles. Take some cars with flamethrowers, trucks with mass drivers, and then toss in some weird alien technology, and you end up with this extremely destructive, wickedly fast-paced game. It's great for a TCG because of the various and distinct factions and classes with skills, vehicles, and gear that can be translated into cards.

sidefx: Will HiPS work the same as NWN1 or can you give us details of what the changes might be?

[OEI]JESawyer: We are currently re-working our stealth mechanics and HiPS is tied up in that. Sorry I can't give specifics right now.

[OEI]AnthonyD: what we can say about HIPS so far is that when you attempt to use HIPS, it will force anyone who has LoS on you to re-perform their detect stealth check.

WESTWOOD, MA. - May 30, 2006 - Turbine, Inc. announced that it has made its hit title, Asheron’s Call®: Throne of Destiny™ (AC), available for purchase on Direct2Drive (www.direct2drive.com), the successful online digital retail store operated by IGN Entertainment. Now in its seventh year of operation, AC is a fully developed world - complete with a deep history, committed community, and compelling ongoing storyline. “We are thrilled that Turbine chose Direct2Drive as their digital delivery outlet for AC,” said Sutton Trout, vice president, Digital Content for IGN Entertainment’s consumer products division. “Direct2Drive is dedicated to gamers who want the best quality games, and our partnership with Turbine further accelerates Direct2Drive’s momentum as a leader in the digital distribution market.”

“AC represents one of the longest running massively multiplayer online games in the industry and due to continuing demand we have partnered with Direct2Drive to continue to broaden our reach,” said Jeffrey Anderson, president and CEO for Turbine. “Direct2Drive is a leader in digital distribution, offering best-of-breed games from the best developers and publishers in the industry, and we're excited to offer their service to the AC community.” Launched in 1999, AC is a critically acclaimed massively multiplayer online role-playing game that draws together thousands of players within an evolving and dynamic persistent 3D world. With an exciting ever-evolving storyline, thrilling adventures, quests, and frequent content updates, AC immerses players in an intense role-playing environment. An extensive system of formal Allegiances and player influence greatly enhances social interaction within the game. AC has received several awards over its seven year history including being ranked #27 of Gamespy’s Top 50 games of all time. Asheron’s Call®: Throne of Destiny™ is currently available online at http://www.direct2drive.com/782/product/Buy-Asheron's-Call:-Throne-of-Destiny-Download for $19.99. Additional information can be found at http://ac.turbine.com.

May 30, 2006: Level Up Network India Pvt. Ltd., India's first publisher of multiplayer online games, today announced that it has entered into a strategic alliance with indiatimes.com to present Ragnarok, one of India's most popular massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG). Users of indiatimes.com will now be able to get details of all Ragnarok in-game and the offline events, participate in discussions on RagnaBoards, etc, by going on to 'Indiatimes Gaming', the dedicated gaming microsite of indiatimes.com.

Speaking on the alliance, AB Colayco, CEO, Level Up International, said, "Level Up is excited to partner with Indiatimes and the Bennett Coleman group. This alliance will help us grow the popularity of Ragnarok among youth. The wide user base of Indiatimes and their multi faceted strengths as a media and marketing company provides us the right platform to expand the popularity of Ragnarok among the youth."

Partnering with Indiatimes will enable Level Up to extend Ragnarok's reach to larger audience - casual gamers / non-gaming population hence enabling it expand its subscriber base. Indiatimes subscribers can now experience the exciting world of online gaming and build strong online gaming communities, while socializing in the virtual world of Ragnarok, filled with fantasy and fun.

Said Dinesh Wadhawan, Chief Executive Officer, Times internet Ltd said, "In an endeavor to offer our subscribers the most popular games, Indiatimes has entered in to an alliance with Level Up, to evangelize gaming and the MMOG space starting with Ragnarok. As a first step our gaming microsite will feature Ragnarok and Indiatimes will promote Ragnarok to its subscriber base with exciting special offers."

Ragnarok Online is India's first Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG). Through Ragnarok, thousands of online players interact with each other in real time, create their own avatar, form in-game guilds, go on exciting quests and events and most of all use this character to live an exciting parallel life. Players can also interact with their peers through in-game chats, meet new people online and make new friends by building strong communities.

To find out more about Ragnarok Online go to http://www.levelupgames.co.in.

Computec Media is launching www.buffed.de the internet-destination for all online-gamers on the 24th August 2006 at the Games Convention in Leipzig.

A wide range of services and the largest German World of Warcraft databank will position the service as a universal contact point for the community.

Online gamers invest on average 200 Euro a year in their hobby and play on average 18 to 26 hours a week. Online games, along with mobile games, are the largest growth motors in the games market. In Western Europe and North America alone, a sales volume of 1.8 billion Euros is predicted up to 2007 (Source: Screen Digest/Goldmedia). All market research institutes see Europe in particular as a growth market. According to Informa the six billion US-Dollar mark will be reached in 2010 on the international market.

www.buffed.de offers this rapidly growing target group a unique full service package and competent editorial coverage:

· News, tests and market overviews for all online-games

· Online shops with target group oriented products and services

· Communication platforms and chatrooms

· Voice over IP and website solution services

· Comprehensive databank search engine

· Instant game access

· User meetings and community event management

The centrepiece of www.buffed.de is BLASC, the largest German databank for World of Warcraft, the most successful online role playing game in the world. Under the address www.blasc.de this service currently gets more than 50 million page impressions a month. The acquisition of BLASC by Computec Media AG emphasises the service-orientated character of the website. The founders of BLASC helped create www.buffed.de along with the databank, in the future they will be employees of Computec Media.

Christian Bigge will take over management/chief editorship of www.buffed.de in addition to his position as manager/chief editor of the PC games magazine PC Action. “Computec Media is the first publishing house in the world with its own website in this future orientated market. www.buffed.de will increase Computecs’ previous page impressions fourfold right from the start.”

“With the launch of www.buffed.de on the 24th August, Computec Media is realising a major project, which we announced at the start of the year”, said Johannes Sevket Gözalan, Chief Executive of Computec Media AG. “The destination for all nline-gamers will set new standards for this lucrative growth market.”

The media company Computec Media is based in Fürth and reaches an audience of millions around the world of electronic entertainment every month through its magazines and digital media (DVD/Online). Computec Media offers its readers expert information about the complex topics of digital lifestyle, PC and video games, hardware, cinema/DVD and kids. The company currently has around 150 employees. Computec Media AG is an affiliate of Marquard Media AG, Zug/Switzerland. The publisher is Jürg Marquard.

MPOGL: 2) Can you give us a brief over-view of the game for our readers that may not know what “Fury” is?

Hewitt: Fury is an online, team-based, competitive, action-based, arena combat game. Translating those adjectives to normal English you get a MMO game with character development, trials (quests) and loot. You are competing directly against other players in fast paced PvP combat. It has been described as MMORPG style combat and character development with FPS style game types, ladders and arenas.Fury is built completely around competitive game play in such a way that you will still have a good time and progress your character even if you lose the match.

Stratics and Sony Online Entertainment are pleased to be able to offer you an opportunity to try The Matrix Online for free for ten days! This free trial offer will provide for you an opportunity to try out this great game and it could not be easier to do so. All you need to do is complete a simple form and you’ll receive your trial license, then you will be sent to download the file. It is as easy as that!

What is The Matrix Online?
The Matrix Online is the future of the Matrix, picking up right where the trilogy left off. The revolution is over, but within the Matrix a secret war still rages – a war of control between the machines, the Exiles, and the people of Zion. Join the continuing storyline of The Matrix where you decide who to oppose and what to believe. Only your courage and perseverance can protect the legacy of Neo’s sacrifice. Jack in!

To get your free 10-day trial of The Matrix Online, visit this page and follow the instructions!

[ Jack in and enter the Matrix now! ]

RPGDot: The Broken Hourglass is party-based, with the player creating a single protagonist and adding additional party-members as they go. Given your background, should players expect a distinct emphasis on party interaction? Please detail the party dynamics and what form the interactions will take.

Jason Compton: {...} Yes indeed, players should expect a distinct emphasis on party interaction, both between the NPCs and the PC and among the NPCs. NPCs will strike up conversations with each other and the player, and interrupt and interject their thoughts in the middle of discussions or quests when it strikes their fancy. There will also be the prospect of romance between the PC and some of our NPCs, depending on the temperament of the PC and the level of interest on the part of the player, of course.

Some NPCs will get along relatively better than others. A couple won't be terribly popular with anybody in particular. Some will mix like oil and water, although we have made a conscious decision to avoid any "come-to-blows/he-goes-or-I-go" incompatibilities this time out.

In addition, our engine allows us to easily track the qualities of PC actions or words. One NPC may greatly disapprove of actions or words spoken in anger, for instance, while another may applaud the application of rational thought. This will affect their degree of commitment to the PC's leadership, and the PC's ability to influence their power development.