by By: Matthew Florianz

Last weekend, our lead art Jelmer and myself where strolling aroundthrough the Outlands. Playing for well over a year, we had both onlyjust become eligible to enter World of Warcraft’s expansion. Anyonewho’s played Wow towards a high level knows that after a certain pointyou walk into a dungeon, do something there, then walk into the samedungeon again to do a little more and you repeat the process a fewtimes. The end-game routine has definitely set around this point in thegame, but all of that came to an end and the Outlands re-invigoratedour passion for playing WoW. The setting and the quests, the creaturesand the difficulty made the game a lot of fun to play again. As wewhere killing a few monsters on our third or fourth quest, suddenly abig head rose from behind a hill, increasing in size as it came towardsus….those Fell-Reavers are a sight to behold indeed. Given how(comparably) ancient the technology used is, they know how to set amood and atmosphere far better than any “shader” effect could ever hopeto achieve.

Playing games that are fun, makes me want to do some work forSpellborn… That’s just how it works with me. It doesn’t matter if it’sMercenaries o

by Cody "Micajah" Bye

Since this year's Leipzig Games Convention, the internet has been allabuzz about a Balrog. No, it isn't that familiar flaming demon we sawin the Lord of the Ringsmovies. On the contrary, this particular Balrog-scandal was born from apiece of information that Ten Ton Hammer was first to bring you. At theLeipzig GC, TenTon Hammer learned that a Balrog would be included in The Lord of the Rings Online'supcoming Book 11 update.

Turbine has alreadysent you deep into Middle Earth. Now they're preparing to send you deepenough to meet a Balrog

With that piece of information in hand, the official LOTRO forumiteshave been all over the news like Winnie the Pooh going after honey - oras our infamous Boomjack would say, "Rose O'Donnel chowing down onhohos." Even though the amount of controversy over the introduction ofthe Balrog has been quite extraordinary, little news has been escapingthe Turbine offices. A few posts were made on the official forums, butwith over 200 replies to the initial thread, searching for thosedeveloper posts has become more of a chore than anything else. Luckilyfor you, the Ten Ton Hammer editorial staff has been on the case andthis week you'll find

International Talk Like a Pirate Daywas started by the irascible pair of rapscallions - John "Ol'Chumbucket" Baur and Mark "Capt'n Slappy" Summers - as a bit of a joke.It became reality on September 19, 2002 when Dave Barry wrote about it in his column. Five years after the momentous occasion, Pirates of the Burning Sea was selected as the official game of International Talk like a Pirate Day.

The honor was bestowed upon them at Flying Labs Software'scelebration of the holiday event held for fans, friends and family atthe Seattle Aquarium. Among shouts "Yarr" and downing swigs of "grog",pirate aficionados thronged the newly renovated Seattle Aquarium. The Seattle Seafair Pirates lent color, their singing voices and pirate camaraderie to the festivities while music from Pirates of the Burning Sea was piped in.

The party ran through most of the Aquarium with events such as theSea Otter feeding and the Seafair pirates giving rides around the cityon Moby Duck - their amphibious vehicle that was retrofitted to looklike a pirate ship. Flying Labs brought in a lady to do face paintingand swag was handed all around. The highlight of the evening was whenthe pirates shanghaied Rusty Williams,

Whichever world this game is good in, we're not living in it.

Ben Mears, 2007-09-23Score 2.2

Systems: PC, Xbox 360

Developer: Reality Pump

Publisher: SouthPeak

Release date: 7th September 200

We have no doubt that the Xbox 360 is a little on the light side whenit comes to role-playing titles. It's probably the biggest singlefactor in the failure of the machine to set the Japanese marketsalight. Admittedly Microsoft’s console happens to have one of the bestgames that the genre has ever seen, but outside the world of Oblivionthere is little to occupy the orc slayer or the spell caster thatexists within us all.

So, with a rather large hole in the market, it's no great surprisethat someone would try to step up and cash in on all the appetiteswhetted but not completely stuffed full by Oblivion and its subsequentexpansion. You wouldn't necessarily need to make a great game for itappeal to this group of gamers clamoring for something new, just ahalf-decent RPG would sell by the level 12 cloth bag load. Enter TwoWorlds with several very bold claims and even some attempts to dothings that Oblivion didn't do. It should be the perfect solution;should be a must have for RPGers. It shouldn't be th

Funcom's Jørgen Tharaldsen came to AGDC with theglow of three Best of Show awards from the recent game convention inLeipzig, Germany still fresh in his eyes. There, for the first time ata public game show, players were able to line up and actually play Ageof Conan: Hyborian Adventures. In Austin, Tharaldsen told us about thenew PvP features, siege gameplay and their mature slant.

Age of Conan features four brands of player vs. player combat:duels, arena combat, drunken brawling and siege warfare. The first twoare likely relatively familiar to fans of the genre, while the secondnew, are innovations unique to Age of Conan.

The biggest part of their PvP solution is siege warfare. This iswhere guild warfare happens. Guilds can build cities throughout thearea of three kinds: Battlekeeps are the largest, with a limit of ninein existence per server at one time, Forts are the middle ground andthere can be 15 at any moment, and finally resource patches areavailable to a lucky 18 guilds. What happens if they've all been builtand a new guild wants one? Well, they have to first destroy one that anopposing guild owns.

Inside each plot there are a variety of spaces where the guild caninvest in

Joymax shows us the most recent limited time premium item offered to players of its quasi-historical online world
September 19, 2007 - Silkroad Onlineis Joymax' massively multiplayer release based on a fantasy version ofthe historical trade route between China and Europe. Players can switchamong three diverse roles; merchants brave the lengthy journey insearch of profit, while thieves pose danger to them along the way, andhunters strive to protect the unwary. The action takes place inlocations derived from the realworld and the legends of the various regions, and the play involvesquesting as well as fending off a broad range of formidable monsters.The business model is free to download and play, with optional itemsales.

Four exclusive screenshots

Silkroad Online Players Take Wing

Joymax has debuted a new avatar premium item for players of SilkroadOnline. Male and female Angel Wing dresses will remain available for alimited period of time in the game's item mall. They are cosmetic,granting owners from dignified hunters to deceitful thieves theopportunity to equip a majestic pair of white, feathery appendages fora distinctive look.

The BBC reports:
A free tool that allows anyone to create a virtual world has been launched.

Users of Metaplace, as it is known, can build 3D online worlds forPCs or even a mobile phone without any knowledge of complex computerlanguages.

The web-based program is the brainchild of Raph Koster, one of thedevelopers of massively multiplayer online games such as Ultima Online.

Users make the virtual spaces from simple building blocks.

The results, which could be used for gaming, socialising or e-commerce, can be embedded in a webpage, facebook profile or blog.

"We are out to democratise virtual worlds and bring them toabsolutely anybody," said Mr Koster, founder of Areae, the companybehind Metaplace.

Read all about it Here

With this review, I assume the reader is somewhat familiar withEverQuest II. If you've never played EQ2 and you'd like to learn moreabout the game, check out these resources:

• EverQuestII wiki
• EverQuestIICommunity Site

What's Changed

My history in EQ2 is pretty similar to that of a lot ofother gamersI've talked to--I started out strong and loved the game. I was dazzledby the features and graphics, which seemed stunningly high tech at thetime. I lasted about 6 months which, according to my ratherunscientific analysis, is longer than most. Who knew that spending 20levels in one massive zone only to move to another that looked, more orless, just like the first would become dull? SOE should have. But Idigress.

Heading back into EQ2 was a bit surreal. The changes SOE has made tothe game were apparent right from the character creation screen. When Iplayed at launch, newbie characters started as one of four archetypes:

I ventured back into EverQuestII as a fae warden. Hey, it's a free safe fall!

fighter, scout, priest, or mage. At level 10 you narrowed your choicesdown and chose a class (Druid, for instance). At level 20 you pickedyour final sub-class (Warden). That system has been eliminated, an

Gold Spam!!! AGAIN!!!

By: Martuk

Note: Every now andthen a topic will arise that will require my own personal attention inthe form of a really blog-like maybe even rant-like editorial, but witha good point. This is my own opinion and not that of Tentonhammer, theUnited States of America, or any other life you might like to blameafter reading this. It is all my opinion and mine alone. The events youare about to read about took place between Tuesday and Saturday of lastweek over about six hours of play-time and it involves Gold seller spamand Turbines inability to apparently slow this growing problem.

Well, I think the title speaksfor itself. After the week I have had online, I figured it was time topresent a little eulogy on this matter. We all know the current issuewith gold selling companies who send tells to us in-game while we areright in the middle of something and annoy us to no end. My patiencewith this as you might have guessed has worn thin as of late. Sowithout further ado, LET THE FLAMES BEGIN!!!

I am usually a pretty patientperson, but events dealing with Gold seller spam in LOTRO over the lastfew weeks have been striking me wrong in a bad way. Over the last fewdays alone I

From the Press release:

With Bounty Bay Online now running officially, another contentupdate has been put online, adding another pet quest line. Now, playershave the chance to tame canine pets (jackals, wolves, foxes and more)and have them as their companion on their travels and in fights. Thequest starts in the beautiful city of Stockholm and is a lot morecomplex and challenging than the previous pet quest. It has severaldifficulty levels which depend on the players character stats.



Bounty Bay Online puts gamers in the time of early discoveries inthe 15th century. Every gamer builds his own online destiny, whetheryou choose to be a merchant, adventurer, fisherman or pirate. BesidesEurope, Africa and Asia also await players to be explored. The game isavailable in retail for £19.99.



For more information, please visit: www.bountybayonline.com


Some features of Bounty Bay Online

- More than 60 historical cities and ports

- More than 1,500 discoveries – from the Chinese Wall to the Egyptian pyramids

- Enhanced skill system: Become a powerful pirate, merchant or explorer

- Crafting system: Become a farmer, shipbuilder, blacksmith or another historic profession

- Guilding: Each guild has their own