Age of Conan is apparently still in development for the Xbox. According to Funcom Game director Craig Morrison:

“We obviously had many more challenges than we envisioned getting our technology to adapt to the console platform.

“We are still working on it for the future, and we see it as a potentially valuable platform for our games. Whether we have missed a window for Age of Conan itself remains to be seen.”

He added: “There are many challenges inherent in [developing for console] that many MMO developers haven’t mastered yet.

“… It is currently an untapped market, but as time goes on I think we will start to find good solutions to the challenges that we face there. There are enough people exploring it and working on it that I am confident we will start to see more cross-platform MMO titles.”

So basically they had no idea what they were doing until it was time to put out a product? Hey I think we’ve all been there.

Looking for an Age of Conan Leveling Guide? Check out our original and hands down best in the world guide here.

This week we take a look at some rather MMO’s from horse riding to child care.. it seems now a days you can pretty much find anything you are looking for in the MMO genre. Here are our picks for the strangest of the strange.

 

#10 Prius Online

You may have already heard of this Korean game in the news when a couple allowed their child to die from malnutrition while immersed in caring for a little girl in the game, referred to as an Anima. This game makes our list because of its base in “emotions and love” which can control the outcome of your character in the game. You start off with a little girl called an “Anima” which you have to care for, and based on your actions (such as giving gifts and telling her how to feel) towards this Anima she will act differently, becoming more or less powerful, and developing different skills to help you on your way.

Read the rest of this entry »

Oath of the Rangers

Recently Turbine released Volume 3, Book 1: Oath of the Rangers onto the live LotRO servers. This patch includes a lot of much needed and eagerly awaited features such as four Skirmishes, new skill upgrades, new level 65 crafting recipes and the Depths of Nurz Ghashu instance.

Taken from the official website:

Skirmishes:

 

• At the Necromancer’s Gate, a powerful Olog-Hai thinks he’s king of the hill, and your force must prove him wrong.
• Before the Gate of the Ringwraith’s Lair, creatures of nightmare seek to lay a deadly trap.
• Man the catapults! A powerful force seeks to capture the outpost at Thangúlhad, and you must drive them back into the darkness.
• In the dungeons of Dannenglor, captured elves face torment and destruction, unless you can rescue them from the Enemy!

 

New Skill Upgrades:

 

When we looked at our list of “things we want to do,” sitting right on top was “add level 64 skill upgrades.” So here we are! The new combat system has had some time to mature, and we are feeling more comfortable with making additions to players’ skills.

 

New Level 65 Crafting Recipes:

 

• Make your own power with new Level 65 recipes and updates to crafting abilities.
• New icons and updated stats for all Jeweler recipes.
• New recipes and more powerful products for Cooks.
• New class items for Weapon smiths and Woodworker.
• New crop recipes for Artisan, Master, and Superior Farmers.

 

The Depths of Nurz Ghashu:

 

One of the Rangers, mighty fighter for the Free Peoples of Middle-earth, has ventured into the fiery depths of Nûrz Ghâshu, believing that his daughter is trapped within. In this deadly new Skirmish, you must brave flame and madness to rescue a Ranger of the North who has been called to aid his future King. Should you fail, the hope of Middle-earth may be lost.

After doing a bit of research and asking a few friends who still play Lotro regularly, it seems as if this latest update has been exactly what the game needed PvP and PvE wise, they also say that they are seeing hundreds of new players ever since it went and that the game seems much alive again. Every since DDO went F2P/P2P it seems as if Turbine is getting things in gear as is greatly improving all their products, I recently went back to DDO to check it out, and I was surprised to see about 90-100 people in the starter zone on each server, with almost 100% positive replies about how much the game has improved.

 

I can’t wait to see what Turbine’s next MMO is going to be if this keeps up!

 

In what is apparently an upset, Canadian/American Team EG (Evil Geniuses) ended up winning against Koreas all powerful team “Button Bashers”, and Europe’s “Team Dignitas” both Priest/Mage/Rouge combos. Team EG was not only the team with the least practice but was using a Rouge/Warlock/Shaman combo which was considered inferior to the other team’s P-M-R combos. However, using pure skill and ability they managed this upset and walked away with the 25,000 Euro (35,000USD) Grand Prize!

View the Rankings here.

It may not be an Olympic medal but for us gamers it’s almost as good J

Final Fantasy XIV’s beta has finally begun (and is expected to come out later this year after a long beta) is hoping to become an even bigger success than FXIII. The biggest factor here is, of course, FFXIV is going to be available for consoles, which opens up a whole new market that WOW can’t even touch. However it has been stated a few times by the Devs of FFXIV they have been looking closely at the big (or formerly big) games such as World of Warcraft, Age of Conan and Warhammer to see both what they did right and wrong. Hopefully this will benefit the players and turn this game into something amazing.

Printwarcraft.com’s custom poster contest is now over.. and the third winner has been chosen! Severedsoul of Spinebreaker is the latest winner. Check out the winner and all the entries in the gallery.

 

Apparently there’s a new Trojan about that can intercept Blizzard Authenticator codes and send the wrong code back to Blizzard. It can enable a hacker to change your password, steal all your hard earned goodies… and reach out of the computer and slap you (ok I made that last part up, but if you don’t have an anti virus or take precautions perhaps you should get slapped! )

 

If you’re infected with this Trojan, when you log into your WOW account via the authenticator the Trojan will intercept the authenticator code, send it to the hacker and send a wrong code to blizzard. So, you’ll get an error and the hacker will get the code and be able to access your account!  If you are infected, you have the file name“emcor.dll” on your computer. It will probably be at “C:\Users\(Your user name)\AppData\Temp

So, though the authenticator may give you an added sense of security, it is not foolproof, so remember to be careful what you download and use a virus scanner!

 

Source

Here’s something that made me think… normally one hears about parents trying to get their children off WoW, how it can cause them to pay less attention to school, sports and other things, which is basically an addiction. I found this comment interesting, a child wondering what to do about his father who is addicted to WoW! It’s an unfortunate situation either way but geez, dad, you only have one chance at parenting. Have to feel some sympathy for the kid in this situation. What do you think?

My dad is addicted to World of Warcraft, HELP?

Ok so I am in Middle school now, and my dad has been playing since I was in third grade. Ever since he started he has been distant from the family, playing 8 hours a day, and never doing anything for me. The only time he actually gets up is when my dad’s girlfriend asks him to, and only when we go eat. The day The Lich King came out, he played it non stop and called in sick for work, while he never takes the day off if it’s my birthday, or summer break, or i have the day off, or any other occasion. It’s like he doesn’t realize he has an actual life, but his life is in the game. I am sick and tired of it! Please help?

Read the question and response here.

Bright Future For A Bloody Game!

 

On Febuary 24th, an unexpected piece of news hit the Herald, Carrie Gouskos is becoming the new Franchise Producer for Warhammer Online. Although Warhammer has been in rough waters lately, from what I’ve heard they have been gaining a good amount of subs later with the new RvR changes (woot!) which were part of Carrie’s first goals, and they went over well, I think with Carrie Gouskos joining the team, Warhammer is going to have a real bright future with some good (and much needed) updates!

 

After doing a bit of reading in Patch 1.3.4, it seems as if the some of the PvE of Warhammer Online is going to be switching gears to become more RvR oriented, which is a great step in the right direction in my opinion, how it will affect Warhammer in the long run is still up for debate.

 

In patch 1.3.5, things are going to be a lot more friendly to casual players, making it so they can actually compete in City Sieges and RvR in general, and still get a good amount of rewards, as I play WAR pretty casually lately (may change with all these nice updates coming out), I think these changes are going to help bring in a lot of new subs.

 

In Patch 1.3.6, is going to improve the auction house, which is one of the things I hated most about Warhammer, it seemed to me as if it were thrown together hastily at the last minute, however I’m no programmer :-p, but I can tell by using it that it doesn’t work as intended.

 

So you can see, with Carrie Gouskos, Warhammer is finally seeing changes that should have been added long ago, let’s just hope they keep their promises and keep the updates coming!

 

 

BattleCry at 100%!

 

You heard right, it’s finally at 100%, and with it comes one of the coolest WoW art pieces I’ve seen in awhile, a group shot of all the race leaders standing side by side, they’ve also released the entire mosaic tile (14400×6150px!) for everyone to see, and hopefully find their own picture they submitted to their friends and family.

You can view both from here.

 

Tom Chilton Interview

 

I don’t know about all of you, but when the words Tom Chilton (the game director of WOW) and Interview are in the same sentence, it’s most likely instant win, and this case is no exception, while not all the questions asked were new, almost all of them were really interesting to read. My personal favorite: When our beloved World of Warcraft was still just a baby, Tom talks about how the idea of not having an auction house was discussed. They wanted everything to be handled player-to-player! I remember back then when you had to shout across towns along with a few hundred other people trying to sell your goods, the addition of the auction house was a great step in the right direction I thought, because it actually allowed a player to go play the game, instead of sitting in town shouting their lungs out.

You can read the interview from here

 

Palehoof Interview

 

While it may be hard to follow up an interview with Tom Chilton, the Palehoof interview is still a fantastic read as well, it’s nice to have interviews from a designer standpoint talking more about the mechanics and creation behind tha game, and also a dedicated player interview that talks about the game and community itself (even if he is an engineering maniac!), I’m sure you’ll all find it a very interesting read!