Also hoping to possibly maybe go to Games Convention in Leipzig in August…we’ll see. Definitely looking forward to Barcelona though.

The MMO Gamer is moving ahead, delayed slightly but moving ahead. Got articles worked on and getting ready for the launch. We’ll even have a launch contest with sponsored prizes! WOO!

Other than that, I’ve mostly been playing LOTRO, which is a really enjoyable game most of the time.

The game looks pretty and all, but I think I’m really getting into the game because I’ve started to play DnD3.5 regularly again. Advancing a character and such is really more fun when you understand the system.

I like the gameplay, almost all of it. All except the horrible loading times. Sometimes you actually play for 3-4 minutes and then spend equal time or more just loading between areas. >_< Maybe it’s more annoying now than it was with NWN because I’ve grown accustomed to seamsless worlds in MMOs.

What I definitely don’t like are all the bugs and glitches in the game. And there are a lot of them. Saving might crash the game. Pressing enter will crash the game. Traveling might crash the game. Your saves might get corruped (happened to me after reaching chapter 2, had to start over because quick save, autosave nor regular save would work.) And of course, the game might just crash randomly too. And then there’s a big black box blocking most of the stat window. Quest related NPCs won’t respond, etc etc.

On a scale from 1 to 10, I’d give it a weak 7. And that’s only because the story is fun, the gameplay is fun and it’s DnD.

Anyway, where does the line go between swag and bribes? The first guy thought the watch was too much and sent it back, but they accept game systems and games and consider them review material. Another guy said they accept anything and everything, but state that they don’t let it affect their writing.

Should there be a line drawn? If so, at what? The first writer said he didn’t notice anybody else react to it, could it be that it’s not seen as a bribe attempt by most game journalists? How would other journalists have seen it, it it had been a press conference for say a non-gaming product? Or something not related to the entertainment business?

About to try EVE Online again though, I did have fun in that game just never kept an account due to not having money. And this news got me interested again. Downloading the client as we speak and my old trial account should have reactivated by now. Going to try it for 30 days before decide whether or not to continue playing and paying.

Going to take a while to get him back to his previous level of 31. *sighs and goes to grind*

I’m only at the first few levels so far, will see if things improve.

Only a very few shots available it seems. Looks really nice and only other game I can think of with comparable graphics is LotR Online. MAYBE Vanguard, if they manage to release footage that isn’t too choppy or too dark.

They flew us over on Thursday and then the entire day was spent for the press event and a dinner in the evening, housing us in a very nice hotel/country club for the night.

I had a great time with the C.O.G crew and got to see more of their games. and although the current versions of for example RFO doesn’t interest me much at the moment, the plans they have for that game and their other games (ArchLord, LotRO and DDO) are looking promising. Time will tell. LotRO and ArchLord are the two games that caught my attention the most.

I put up a few photos from the trip in the gallery. And some random information:

ArchLord:

- The game is PvP and guild focused. And looks like it’ll be -very- competitive and objective focused.
- The main goal of the game is to get your character to become an ArchLord. You do this by having your guild elect you as the challenger. After the guild has taken one of three Archons (some sort of artifacts whihc you gain control over after successfully sieging an NPC castle) and then beating the two other gulds who managed to take control of the other two castles. And after beating those two guilds, you apparently have to be elected by your guild to be the challenger and then move forward on your own to achieve the ArchLord status.
- ArchLords gain lots of powers for 21 days. Including massive AOE effects, bodyguards, castle access for their guild, tax control and…a flying dragon mount. The first person to achieve this rank will also receive an RL full scale replica of the ArchLord armour. Every ArchLord after that will receive a fullscale helmet replica.
- There’s supposed to be massive sieges and warfare, which I like.
- Consequences for PK, which will be in-game/in character measures to try and hamper gankings and promote the actual objective of the game.
- ArchLords gets weather controlling powers as well.
- There’s mounted combat.
- Some terrain deformation results were shown and they talked about having some terrain deformation in the game. Such as a forest being scorched after an ArchLord cast metero shower on the area.
- They also said there would be ca 200 000 quests in the game, which I’m skeptical about. But when asked, they insisted on it and said it wouldn’t be just kill and delivery quests. So we’ll see what that’s all about.
- The graphics are imo mediocre. Mostly because I can’t tell them apart from other korean games such as RFO or L2.

Lord of the Rings Online:

- Setting/main story is Angmar, a rerisen ntion under the control of the Witch King.
- Quests helping the original Fellowship.
- Very atmospheric graphics. I love the art style. The Art Director is a Yamin Dee (sp?).
- The char gen looks promising as well
- A very PvE and storyline focused game. Looking forward to it.
- Awesome water. Just awesome.
- Very few instances.
- Semi affecting the world. Ie people completing certain quests will perhaps see things differently than people who haven’t completed the quest. Guess it’s a step in the right direction.

Hoping to get to try these two asap.

Screnshot Gallery

Go check it out. I’m half expecting it to be a hoax…but since I can find alot of sources….WOW (no pun intended). Also heard that NCSoft hired several if not all of the WoW artists.

Lawyers should be out any minute now…