Okay, I will review Warhammer Online, the newly released MMORPG from Mythic. Mythic is a subdivision of Electronic Arts and also produced the MMORPG Dark Age of Camelot, a pretty popular MMORPG for a while. You'll find many Warhammer Online (from henceforth referred to as WAR) players are former Dark Age of Camelot (henceforth referred to as DAoC) players.

I have never played DAoC so I am in no position to compare it in any way to WAR. Now, to start the review.

Tutorial/Introduction

 As you start you'll find character creation very straght forward, choosing from a few heads, hair styles, so on so forth. WAR offers about 9 classes per side (Order and Destruction). Although the Destruction actually has 8 for male and 9 for female being the Witch Elf is female only. The tutorial is fairly well done and leads nicely (kind of seamlessly) into the start of the game.

At first you're introduced to basic combat and quest taking and completing . Then using cannons and collecting stuff and what not. By level 2 you'll be able to enter isntanced Player vs. Player (PvP) combat. WAR has a nice feature, when entering PvP at a low level it will apply a Bolster rank to you and bost your level

 Bwahaha, new blogs are always fun yeah?  Writing stuff even if nobody will read it because nobody knows you.  Fantastic!  That's less people to realize how much of a rambling idiot I am @-@

 Anyways, I had been a pretty avid WoW player since April of 2005.  I tried other MMOs in that time but none were ever able ot hold my interest like that game.  There was just something about it that glued me in... I personally believe it was the community (which ironically was a reason I quit just recently).  Knowing there was always somebody to talk to the game about even in the most obscure places... the cashier at the store, a business partner, players were everywhere.  And the game was just a great entrance into the MMO world for most.  Leveling up, showing off new gear, and collecting wealth in a very new-gamer friendly way helped many get into the MMO mindset.  But after 4 years it became stale to me...

...Warhammer, what most consider WoW's biggest competitor yet, showed me just how flavorless WoW is today.  Kinda like an antique decoratve dish set... people keep WoW around for how much time has been invested in it, keeping

The 12GB Open Beta client is now available for download through the EU official website.

This download is open for everyone, but only Open Beta testers will be able to run the client. Open Beta testers include all current beta testers, Collector's Edition pre-order customers as well as customers who bought a Standard Edition pre-order. To download the client without Open Beta access will only slow the download for other users so we kindly ask you to respect this.

Also the official note: current beta testers will be able to patch their clients; no new download is needed if you already have one.


DOWNLOAD Website

In my last article, I wrote about the games I’m waiting to be released. It’s a boring fact that games have a lull time between older games being released, played out, and then the wait for the next installment of the series. It’s most commonly found in offline games, such as volumes in a RPG series or even sports games, but now it seems that online games have also be thrown in the mix.


In World of Warcraft, let’s face it, everyone has played the mess out of the Burning Crusade expansion pack that was released on January 16, 2007 at midnight in both the US and Europe. Just a year and a half later, fans of this MMORPG are already itching and burning for Wrath of the Lich King. The wait only seems longer as videos are released on streaming sites such as YouTube, featuring clips from the closed beta of the infamously-new Death Knight Class and new areas. The forums are hot and buzzing as fans tap away at their keyboards in a frenzy to chat it up and discuss character builds, new skills, new armor, and the new quest that are specifically for this new class. The new expansion, due in the second half of this year, though not even released yet, have fan salivating a

News Manager Keith Cross recently had the opportunity to speak with Adam Gershowitz, Associate Art Director on Warhammer Online about Shadow Warriors, elite warriors of the High Elves who walk the line between dark and light in their quest for vengeance against the enemies of Elfkind. Adam was also kind enough to send over specific information about the Shadow Warrior's specific abilities, strategic maneuvers, stances, and examples of what a few rounds of combat might look like.  

During the age when the Elven Kingdom of Ulthuan was split by civil war, and the soil of Nagarythe was spattered with the blood of brothers for Malekith’s treasons, an elite line of warriors was born: the Shadow Warriors.

In the time of relative peace between the first chaos invasion, and the war which sundered the Elves into the High Elves loyal to the Phoenix King, and the Dark Elves who followed Malekith the Witch King, these warriors called Malekith’s homeland of Nagarythe their home. They agreed with Malekith’s view that the Elven people were growing soft and complacent, and that the elves needed to stay strong and warlike to face the growing threat of Chaos and destruction, but they disagreed with his

Is the armor your character is wearing stylish enough to make you feel like an epic warrior? or is it just a bunch of rags?

In real life we all dressed appropriately for certain occasions, we wear the formal for the weddings, the casual for the picnic, and the shorts for the basketball game. Wearing some type of clothes make us feel in the mood for certain things, well you might feel inclined to play some soccer while wearing a suit, but your girlfriend is not going to like it.

Armor design can say a lot about your virtual character, if you are wearing a heavy bulky looking armor we are safe to assume that you are a diehard tank ready to take on the next mob eye to eye and face to face. On the other hand, if you are wearing a long blue robe you possibly be a priest or a support character with a low defense.

Moreover, some "designer" armor has been appearing here and there on MMORPGs, which as really made me wonder. Games such as Sword of The New World or Second Life have designer armor models. I am not sure if we can call "armor" the outfits in SNW, I think they are more like elegant dresses and such. I think they should be no restrictions in art, but does "

WarCry Q&A: Warhammer Online
Answers by the WAR Community Team
Questions by Matt Lowery

WarCry: In the recent combat podcast we weretold that you can switch out Tactics between fights, and that you canhave seven active at one time, how many will you have to switch betweenonce you are level 40?

WAR Community Team: As a refresher:

You have seven Tactics slots. Four hold Tactics you earn throughcareer advancement, two hold Tactics you earn via Renown (RvR) and oneholds a Tactic you earn from quests (PvE).

For Career Tactics, the total available will vary by career, but isgenerally between 15 and 20 (out of 30 to 40 available). The othersystems are still being tweaked, but the numbers will be comparablewhen scaled for the available slots.

WarCry: Are their any speed buff, or classes that increase speed like the Minstrel in DAOC?

WAR Community Team: All players have a defaultsprint ability which allows a short period of increased speed at theexpense of your action points, in addition several classes also get anenhanced sprint which uses fewer action points and allows you to runfaster than the standard sprint.

WarCry: What options will players have to store their excess equipment? Will we have b

Answers by Richard Duffek
Questions by Matt Lowery

WarCry: Group sizes seem to be set to 6. For raids, or large encounters, how many groups do you need to take on things like the Bloodthirster, or other epic mobs?

Richard Duffek: We will have a system in place similar to DAoC's Battlegroups, where you basically have a "group of groups" taking on large encounters. Different encounters will be geared to different sized BGs, but that's something we'll be tweaking through beta as more and more testers throw themselves onto the giant pile of corpses surrounding the Bloodthirster's feet.

WarCry: We were told you will be able to customize your guild banner. Does your guild banner do anything, or is it just for looks?

Richard Duffek: While we really can't get into guild features much at this point, I can assure you that the guild banner will do more than just look pretty.

WarCry: In Scenarios, the instanced PvP, what is the highest amount of players allowed in the large instances at a time? What would be the average?

Richard Duffek: We've got Scenarios built for all different sizes - 6-on-6, 12-on-12, 24-on-24, etc. Again, this is something that we're going to be looking at and analyzing a lot th

I quote the Press Release:

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. – June 13, 2007 – Electronic Arts Inc (NASDAQ: ERTS), the world’s leading interactive entertainment company, today announced that more than 200,000 players have signed up for the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) closed beta test.



The Warhammer Online Beta Center opened simultaneously in North America and Europe on May 30th, and the 200,000 registration mark was surpassed over the weekend, less than ten days after launch. This makes the beta test of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning one of the most rapidly growing beta tests in the history of the MMORPG category. The Beta Center is currently open and accepting applications at: betacenter.eamythic

Mark Jacobs, VP and General Manager of EA Mythic said, “We would like to thank the community for their tremendous response to Warhammer Online. The overwhelming worldwide reaction to the beta test has been phenomenal. The team has been working incredibly hard to create a genre-defining experience, and the beta sign-ups certainly validate the direction we’re taking the game. Player input and testing will be crucial in our efforts to complete the game, and w

Warcry has conducted an interview with EA Mythic's Richard Duffek, quizzing the community coordinator about a variety of topics related to Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.

Q: The tabletop game allows you to customize your units color, look and equipment. We know as you level your look will change. Can you talk about some of the options you have to capture the imaginations of those who loved painting their miniatures in terms of character customization?

A: While there will indeed be a lot of freedom in the actual character creation, much of the customization will come while you're actually playing the character. The trophy slots on your character are probably the best example. All throughout the game you will find various trophies that you can hang off of your character in many different manners. They will be purely cosmetic, only there so you can personalize how you want your character to look. Want a dwarf skull hanging from your belt? You can do that. Want some dragon teeth mounted on your shoulder? Sure. We understand how important individuality and customization is to the average MMO player and are definitely striving to provide as much of it as we can in WAR.

 

 

&nb