September 2nd, 2008
Long ago Rock Paper Shotgun had a long interview with Mythics Creative Director Paul Barnett. They have been doing a series of articles based on that interview since June 25th. Resently they posted a new article where they talk with Barnett about his favorite MMO’s which end up just being his favorite games. You can find the full article here.
The closest thing I can find in a modern gaming era to Elite is GTA3. Which is a sort of mixture of Elite and Pac-man. You look at Pac-man and goes… gobbles dots, avoids ghosts, picks up power-pills, eats ghosts and cherries. You look at GTA and it goes – gobbles money, avoids policemen, picks up mega gun, shoots policemen picks up special things in maze. Take that, with Elite, you get GTA3. And that’s being exceedingly mean to GTA3, which I think is exceptional, so I’ll note that on top of that, GTA3 also does something which the Americans are completely confused about: if you want to realise America, what you need is lads from Britain who have only ever watched Miami Vice, Dukes of Hazard and American Movies, and preferably have never been to America. Because the Americana they will realise is an excitable, strangely out of focus bizarre Americana which is wholly fitting. If you actually give it to Americans to realise, they will actually map the city correctly, the police will arrive at the correct response time, they’ll all be carrying the right guns and the amount of prostitutes per square foot will be correct. While the British will go… it’s like this, innit? There’s a big boat. You don’t wear any socks. You get a big machine-gun. There’s lens-flare when you do a jump with your car.
September 2nd, 2008
Mythic just posted a new article on the herald about guild taverns. Access to this is granted at guild rank four and the capital must be rank two for them to be accessible. The merchants and services available inside the tavern will be further limited by guild ranks but mythic have not released precisely what is required for the individual services. As examples they list:
- Flight Master with additional exclusive travel options to Gunbad’s Entrance, Bastion Stair’s Entrance, and Lost Vale’s Entrance.
- Guild standard, crafting, renown, and siege merchants.
- Recall scrolls.
- Leader’s Hall for guild leaders and officers at guild rank 16 which gives rested bonuses.
See the rest of the article and some screenshots at Warhammer Herald.
September 1st, 2008
Jeff Hickman, executive producer for Mythic Entertainment on Warhammer Online has done a short blog over the weekend from Penny Arcade Expo (PAX) at Ten Ton Hammer.
Most of the text is a Q&A where he answers a variety of different questions. Among others he mentions the posibility for a launch event in the US for War, promises they will keep making podcasts and shares a an interesting tidbit of information on Lairs:
Lairs are awesome and have yet to be really discovered and exploited by the players. Let me give you a nudge;
There is a Lair in Nordland. It is on the other side of the mountains from Grimmenhagen village, just past Salzemund. You have to pass by Salzemund and swim down the coast to find it. It, like all Lairs, has a pretty tough boss monster in it that has a chance of dropping some pretty good loot.
There is a Lair in Western Prague that is tough to find. Swim west, up the river from Prague. Don’t stop until you see a little cove on your right. This leads to the entrance to another Lair that not many people (if any) know about.
and he adds
Most of the lairs involve fighting the monster who inhabits it (it is a “lair” after all). These monsters are generally very high level and very difficult to kill. With this in mind, it is probably a good idea to bring a trustworthy group of friends with you when you go exploring for them.
You can see the complete Q&A if you go here.