MMO Reporter

Chris, Layanor and Harry discuss their gameplay habits for the past week, some Neverwinter Launch...ummm...Open Beta news, and the Helm's Deep announcement for LOTRO. Listen now: What we did in game  Layanor Lord of the Rings Online! I hit rank 11. Started to rank level 12 but it will take awhile. awhile If I get 10k a day I will be rank 12 in two and a half months. Harry Coderunner Guild Wars 2 Chris Defiance - EGO 260 - Continuing the story LOTRO - Reputation and Hytbold Rift - Opened up the entire map Guild Wars 2 - Zone Completion Neverwinter News Lord of the Rings Online announces Helm’s Deep Experience the Battle for Helm’s Deep – Fight to defend Helm’s Deep starting at level 10, as your character enlists as a soldier in the Battle of the Hornburg, the most massive conflict yet in The Lord of the Rings Online.  Earn rewards for your contribution to the war effort – win or lose, your aid makes a difference! Explore new landscapes across Western Rohan - Explore the Westemnet of Rohan and rally each of the five Ridings as Rohan returns to glory. Traverse the capital of Edoras, mysterious Dunharrow, and the fortress of the Hornburg, deep within Helm’s Deep. Advance from levels 85 to 95 - Experience 10 new levels, from 85 to 95, with new skills and completely updated class specializations. Both mounted and un-mounted combat will challenge you as you war against the evil of Saruman. Continue the Epic Story - Encounter beloved characters such as Aragorn, Éowyn, and Éomer. Restore King Théoden to his rightful lordship and defend the peoples of Rohan at Helm’s Deep. Marvel Heroes Open Beta Weekend https://marvelheroes.com/news/news-articles/play-marvel-heroes-weekend-celebrate-iron-man-3 Time to celebrate the launch of Iron Man 3 in North America This weekend they be opening Marvel Heroes to anyone with an account at MarvelHeroes.com. No emails to wait for, no keys to register... just register yourself here at MarvelHeroes.com and later this week you'll be able to download the client and get ready to play. This Open Beta Weekend will kick off Friday, May 3rd and will continue right through until Monday, May 6th - enough time for you to really explore what Marvel Heroes is all about. Dungeons and Dragons Neverwinter Open Beta https://register.perfectworld.com/nw_splash D&D Neverwinter is a fantasy action uber slahemup game This game is not related to any other D&D game. It is a new original game. One time I opened up some cracker jack and I got a stupid sticker. Wheres the prize? I did however buy another box but I got some paper folding puzzle. That is pretty cheap of them. Neverwinter First Impressions http://mmoreporter.com/2013/04/28/neverwinter-first-impressions/ [4:23:10 PM] Carrie: From the twitter RE never winter. @PWIChannel: To celebrate @Neverwintergame Open Beta, here's a quick Dreamchaser code! 2S4WSK4 One use per account! Redeem here: http://t.co/U7sUES3FNH Defiance contest lets your be on the show! Sorta... Simply register yourself at the official contest page and head into the game to earn the most ark salvage per hour during the contest period from 12:00 a.m. PDT April 30 to 11:59 p.m May 12 in the Most Wanted: Competitor and Most Wanted: Rogue's Gallery in-game pursuits. If you win, you can send in a pic of yourself and it will be superimposed onto a character into the show. I bet you're an alien! Rrrr alien man rraaaarrl!!!! Winners get stuff shoves on their foreheads. Rawrrr!!! http://www.defiance.com/en/most-wanted/?CAS_REDIR=true Guild Wars 2 Flame and Frost goes live Custom Arena’s New living story instance new pointers take out armys level quality lag World of Darkness development shown at EVE Fanfest 2013

Neverwinter is the spiritual successor of Neverwinter Nights, a fan favourite in the computer RPG genre. As an action MMO, it attempts to take the series in a different direction, and ramps of the action and the story to make an epic journey for players to embark upon. Lets take a couple of minutes to look at the first 20 levels, and my experience in game after about 12 hours of game time. Listen now: Combat is fun and responsive. The lack of tab targeting is a fun change, and players can destroy their opponents on the battlefield with fun animations and spell effects. No tab targetting does have some issues, and healing is where it’s most apparent. Finding a target in a group is a challenge that distracts from the gameplay. I’ve already mentioned several times my issues with the single target heals in Neverwinter, and in Open Beta this is still an issue. Action is never far in Neverwinter. Questing is a rapid fire shot of adventure, whisking you from location to location as you battle orcs, bandits and the undead. The quests seem to have a great story to them, but I was rushing through the game so much that I missed most of it.  I did catch enough of the story by R.A. Salvatore to know that I’m going to go through it again at a much slower pace with another character. I also jumped into a few skirmishes, encouraged by some quests I picked up, and got another quick jolt of action, fighting through some quick waves based battles to earn some loot and XP. The ruined neighbourhoods of Neverwinter lend themselves well to these fights to the death. While group based, these Skirmishes tended to devolve into chaotic messes where everyone was taking on large groups without worrying about what the rest of their group was doing. Looking for something a little more structure, I ran the Cloak Tower dungeon again. You can find a video of a run through from one of the Beta Weekends on our Youtube channel. Nothing much has changed with the structure or the mechanics of the dungeon, and I enjoyed myself. Once again, however, there wasn’t much need for any sort of strategy. I don’t know if it’s because we’re still fairly low level, or because most of us had played in Beta, but both runs that I managed to fit in followed the same pattern of zerg and kill. The crafting is very reminiscent of Star Wars: The Old Republic, with minions that you send off on missions (some of these early ones taking as much as 6 hours) but with the addition of being able to complete them immediately for the cost of in-game currency.  I’ll talk about this in more detail in the full review, but so far, it’s working very well. The game is a ton of fun, and I feel myself looking forward to my play time. The fact that this is free-to-play is a bonus, as I would gladly pay money for the opportunity to play Neverwinter. As to the question of the founders packs, this is a personal decision for everyone. What I can say is that I don’t feel that any of the items that you receive in the pack (such as an exclusive race, the drow; mounts and more) are useless. The choice comes down to the value that you put on the in-game conveniences that you get. Should you go check it out? Most definitely! The price is right, the game is fun, and you’ll yourself sitting down for a quick play session and suddenly wondering where the last 4 hours have gone. I’m playing as Almazar the Devoted Cleric in game. Feel free to say “Hi!” if you decide to check it out.

Chris, Harry, and Layanor dive deep into some Guild Wars 2 new PVP update. We also talk about eating a shoe!  Listen now: What we did in game Layanor Nuffin but LOTRO More moors 23k Renown from rank. Harry Guild Wars 2 SPvP and Fire & Frost LOTRO - lock-out is expensive Everquest 2 Bioshock Infinite http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mm5VwYcIXJk&feature=youtu.be http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1-9my0tsutw Fire Emblem retired from Defiance Chris LOTRO - Anniversary Rift - Ding 58! Into Ashora we go. Defiance - EGO 220 or so. Still really enjoying it. Guild Wars 2 - Zone Completion Finished Bioshock Infinite PAX Prime Sells Out in 6 hours News:  Arenanet Conference Call - Guild Wars 2 introduces custom arenas in next update Players can rent arenas and control access and types of maps Anyone can top-up someone else’s custom arena spectator mode introduced all in beta, features not final custom tournaments in the work some speculation about the future, to which devs responded cryptically. going live April 30 pricing not yet announced Living Story continues new instance (Molten Alliance Weapons Facility) Living story is a way to introduce new storyline, without changing the main story. World of Tanks' has been hacked http://worldoftanks.com/news/2239-important-information/ Developers report that "some personal information may have been compromised due to a security incident." Wargaming.net is rewarding each customer with 300 gold when his or her account is updated with a new password. Wargaming suggests that your new password consist of capital letters, lowercase letters, and numbers. The devs also say that the longer your password is, the better your protection becomes.password is successfully updated. Monster Hunter Online Trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nzVqdrxGUEQ Announced by Tencent Games and Capcom, Monster hunter Online is coming to the PC as a free-to-play MMO, with a beta testing phase kicking off in June, ahead of an international release. Areil Cai, CryEngine's director of business development also said "The Monster Hunter games are known for immersing players in breathtaking worlds where great gameplay and spectacular sights go hand in hand.” The mixture of farming items, looting rare materials to create weapons and armour, and toppling nigh-on unbeatable bosses makes for highly addictive play, and now PC owners will be able to get in on the action. Star Trek: Legacy of Romulus Expansion pre-order has hit the interwebs! http://sto.perfectworld.com/legacypack Play as a Romulan or Reman and immerse yourself in new story-driven missions written exclusively from the Romulan Republic's point of view. Romulan captains take command of mighty Warbird Class starships. Push the engines to the limit and unleash the new and devastating powers of the Singularity Core Customize and rearrange your existing traits. Unlock new advanced traits and abilities, further specializing your captain and crew. Base price for the expansion 19.95.http://sto.perfectworld.com/legacypack/starter The Legacy edition costs 124.99$ http://sto.perfectworld.com/legacypack/legacy A NDA game we played! http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2008/02/25 Due to the fact we can not talk about the nda game. We will not. However we can talk about this that will not break a NDA! The NDA patches notes are. Now has 8 second cooldown. Renamed from Expose Weakness. No longer breaks Stealth on use. Tooltips now properly display. Fixed a bug where moving or rotating somthing with the tsomething wasn't enabling the "something" button in the UI. Wildstar Leaked stuffs http://www.

This week we talk about the Defiance launch, Age of Wushu, and get lost in thought on Scarlet Blade! Chris and Harry also reflect on being in Boston for PAX. Listen now: What we did in game   Layanor LOTRO Ragnarok Online: Valkyrie Uprising Infectonator Harry Defiance on PC Defiance on 360 Crying over Defiance on 360 Monster Hunter Luigi’s Mansion Fire Emblem Chris Defiance LOTRO Guild Wars 2 Rift News: Leaked Elder Scroll Online Footage http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/123271-Update-Beta-Tester-Leaks-Elder-Scrolls-Online-Gameplay-Footage http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xz0u8n_the-elder-scrolls-online-hd_videogames?search_algo=2#.UW4vIrWG2Hg   Secret World has a new raid with its update patch http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/update_notes_issue_6 A weak point between realities has been discovered out in the Kingsmouth wreckage, and groups of 10 adventurers can enter the extra-dimensional prison, The Island of Stillborn Stars, to face Eidolon of the Outer Dark.   GW2 Super Adventure Box Soundtrack on Soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/arenanet/sets/guild-wars-2-super-adventure It’s awesome   Age of Wushu is finally out! Age of Wushu is a Fantasy Chinese martial arts open sandbox game The game features plenty of new ideas such as kidnapping and public executions. The game is rated Mature but there are no videos showing anything adult about the game so far. April 23rd you can get the box copy from gamestop. Game not yet out in EU Box copy features include Special mount $20 worth of in-game currency 30 Days VIP Scrolls for added reputation Fashion Outfits for your character Pills for experience and Chi Due to extreme traffic on the servers, Age of Wushu has already added a new server for players to join.   Scarlet Blade has launched! http://scarletblade.aeriagames.com/ageverify Scarlet Blade is a free-to-play MMORPG where you take control of one of the women who were genetically engineered in secret to combat overwhelming forces in order to take back their home. The game features sexy women that fight with huge... weapons. You can fight in arenas and change into your large mechs to destroy anyone in your path. This game is rated M for all of the topless nudity so it is not for kids.   Ultima Online Producers letter http://www.uo.com/article/Producer-Letter “I wanted to take a few moments to fill everyone in on a few things we are doing.  I have heard rumbling from the community that the  sky is falling.  I promise that is not true.  We still have a team that is dedicated to UO and is excited about what is to come.    The Event moderator program is here and still going strong.”   Blizzard buys IGN Pro Leaugue http://wow.joystiq.com/2013/04/08/blizzard-buys-ign-pro-league/   Star Wars: The old Republic Rise of the Hutt Cartel has released http://www.swtor.com/rothc   Subscribers save 50% off the Regular Price - Only $9.99 ($19.99 Regular Price). Continue your Star Wars saga with a new level cap of 55! Discover exciting new technology devices, Macrobinoculars and Seeker Droids, which unlock valuable rewards and additional story-driven missions.   MMO Flashback - Star Wars Galaxies http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hrjqob8-420 Contact Info site: mmoreporter.com email: mmo.reporter@gmail.com facebook: www.facebook.com/mmoreporter twitter: twitter.com/mmo_reporter twitter: twitter.com/harryhol twitter: twitter.com/layanor voicemail: 616-666-6778 or the new widget on the right side of the page. youtube: http://www.youtube.com/user/mmoreporternetwork  

On this special episode of MMO Reporter, Chris talks to Josh of WoW Pet Battle Crew and The Happy Heartstone fame (oh yeah, he's a dev for SOE as well) about his recent trip to GDC. Lots of inside information from the development side of things, and an interesting discussion about different aspects of MMOs and games in general. Listen now:

Chris and Harry, fully recovered from their excursion to Boston for PAX East, discuss their highlight from the convention. We talk highlights, weird moments, and pick our MMO of Show. Listen now:

Harry sits down with  Adam Rippon, creator of 'Dragon Fantasy'. This American JRPG (no, that's not a contradiction. Well, maybe it is.) was born from the loss of Rippon's father, but turned out to be a whimsical, funny RPG in the much beloved 8- and 16-bit style. Listen now:

Harry Hol says a very special Thank You to everyone who donated to get him to PAX East! Listen now:

Harry chats with Jon Landers, Senior Producer on EVE Online, about the game's 19th free expansion: Odyssey. They also talk about the EVE/Dust 514 intergration, and how things are working with the one universe/two games. Listen now:

Continuing our PAX East 2013, Chris talk to Jack Emmert, CEO of Neverwinter, about the currently in beta Neverwinter. They discuss recent class updates, the event system, dungeons, and PvP. Listen now:

Harry has a chat with Julia Humphreys, Senior Producer on the console version of Diablo 3. They talk about the differences between the console and PC version and the development of Diablo 3 on consoles moving forward. Listen now:

Chris talks to Paul Loynd about the upcoming healing mech, the Technician, the new map, and the PhysX intergration. Listen now:

Chris got the chance to sit on a small presentation and q&a session with Executive Producer Jeremy Gaffney of Carbine Studios. Some of the videos may be repeats but there is a lot of live gameplay here along with further explanation of mechanics that we're sure you'd enjoy. Listen now:

Chris gets the chance to talk with Chad Moore, Lead Narrative Designer of Carbine Studios, about how WildStar is progressing and what he's most excited for the fans to explore. Listen now:

Harry talks with Stephane Rivard of Stelulu Technology about the upcoming release of their product the Stinky Footboard. Listen now: