Released at Gamescom, the newest trailer video for Warhammer 40k: Dark Millennium showcases, finally, more information from THQ about the newest media expansion of the Warhammer 40k universe. Shown in the newest Warhammer 40: Dark Millenium trailer is the mighty Imperium, mankind’s interstellar empire comprised of millions of planets and trillions of inhabitants. Amongst the defenders of humanity [...]

In a sudden and shocking announcement today, Bioware’s Sean Dahlberg has resigned as Community Leader for the much-anticipated MMO: Star Wars: The Old Republic.  As far as reasons why, none were offered in his good-natured blog post about enjoying Labor Day. He goes on to state in his blog that while stepping away from his position [...]

Rill's walkthru for Zalazane's Fall is finished! Check it out!

The September version update marches toward Final Fantasy XI, bringing with in a variety of new shinies to keep players happy for quite a while. (Or at least until the Final Fantasy XIV launch, either one.) While we've heard about most of the big updates, Square-Enix has shared a last little batch of improvements that won't change the world, but will usher in several much-appreciated boosts to quality of life.

An additional search tag will be added for players looking for Trial of the Magians parties, to make enhancing equipment that much easier. Players will also have the option of teleporting to Abyssea-linked Cavernous Maws throughout Vana'diel, assuming that the player's character has previously encountered the maw. There will also be a variety of improvements to the Walk of Echoes, and even more updates to the infamous fishing quest Inside the Belly. With the update due out in the very near future, there's plenty for players to look forward to in Final Fantasy XI, even beyond the launch of its sister game.

Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Game mechanics, Patches, Endgame, News items, Consoles

Broadened improvements for Final Fantasy XI originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What began today as a rumor, has now been officially confirmed: Sean "AshenTemper" Dahlberg has departed Bioware.

A bit of living history will become available to PC gamers in November. Strategy First is preparing to release Darkstar: The Interactive Movie, an FMV adventure game that has been in the works for roughly a decade.

Billed as an adventure game in the style of Myst featuring 360-degree panoramics and more than 13 hours of video, it stars a good chunk of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 cast as well as actor Peter Graves in his final role.

The story is set 300 years in the future, with the main character awakening from a lengthy hibernation. MST3K creator Joel Hodgson stars as the commander, with Trace Beaulieu, Frank Conniff and J. Elvis Weinstein also filling roles. Graves, who was a frequent targets thanks to appearances in films such as Attack of the Eye Creatures, serves as the narrator.

When Deus Ex creator Warren Spector originally met with Disney, it wasn't to discuss Epic Mickey. Instead, Spector was apparently set on selling a sci-fi game that could potentially have been seen as a spirtual follow-up to Deus Ex (via Develop).

Spector said he was leery about meeting with Disney to pitch the concept, since he was convinced that they wouldn't be interested.

"I went into the meeting room, pitched them my stuff, and sure enough I was right. The guys started texting in the middle of the meeting. I was convinced they were not interested," he said.

"Toss me the loot, I'll throw you the whip!" If you're looking for a bit of Indiana Jones in your MMO this fall, then Runes of Magic has you covered. The ever-expanding free MMO is adding a brand-new dungeon to the game called The Raksha Temple, and it positively reeks of ancient civilizations, forest overgrowth and nasty traps.

Players will choose between one of three difficulty levels as they encroach upon the sacred grounds of this temple. The complex is guarded by the half-beast, half-human Angren, who made a deal with the forest deity Raksha to guard the temple in exchange for a bit of divine protection. However, this symbiotic relationship is breaking, and the Angren are calling out for help to set things right.

Depending on the level of difficulty selected, the dungeon will increase or decrease the rewards earned. Check out the gallery below to get a peek into the forbidden Raksha Temple!

Filed under: Fantasy, Patches, Previews, Free-to-play, Runes of Magic

Runes of Magic is calling players to clean up the Raksha Temple originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You know how Rill likes to make guides and walkthrus for everything right? Well here's a quick How To Operation Gnomeregan! Zalazane's Fall...

Hot on the heels of PAX, Turbine has provided us with 50 F2P Head Start codes for The Lord of the Rings Online, and we're giving 'em all away!

AION: NCsoft have launched the AION expansion, ‘Assault on Balaruea’. The expac adds two new zones, Gelkmaros and Inggison, pets, new flight mechanics and more. View ‘er below. Video Games | Aion | Assault on Belaurea Launch Trailer XBox 360 | Playstation 3 | Nintendo Wii “Take the fight against the dragonlike Balaur invaders into Balaurea, your common [...]

MMO Family is your resource for leveling a gaming-specced family, from tips on balancing gaming with family life to finding age-appropriate online games for everyone in the family.

How could you not fall in love with a Disney/Pixar movie? I'm not sure that's even possible. Cars revved up belly laughs in the theater back in 2006, earning two Oscar nominations and raking in more than a dozen other industry awards. Kids were captivated by the feisty little car characters, and grownups chuckled at voicing from such high-octane stars as Owen Wilson, Paul Newman and even Cheech Marin.

The MMO version of the franchise, which officially launched last month, pulls away from the starting line without this full tank of charisma. World of Cars Online hits on all cylinders yet somehow fails to throttle up into the type of completely engaging world we've come to expect from a Disney/Pixar creation. It's a 2-D, minigame-centric experience with lots (and we do mean lots) of point-and-click racing. Still, if you've got a young boy around the house who's hankering to burn a little online rubber, World of Cars is an inexpensive, kid-friendly way to do it.

Continue reading MMO Family: A parent's look at World of Cars Online

Filed under: New titles, Kids, MMO Family, Family

MMO Family: A parent's look at World of Cars Online originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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"We took Radiance outside, tied it up to some railroad tracks, and...well...I think you saw the end of this in Red Dead Redemption. Look for this in the future -‐ we will be removing Radiance from LotRO." Thus sayeth Turbine's Jen "Jalessa" Gordy, who confirmed that the controversial gear gating system is headed for a messy death.

In the same WarCry developer chat, the team fielded a number of questions about where LotRO is headed after this week's mega-update. Some of the features in the works for Tolkien's digital offspring include a new raid, class changes for monster play, a barter item wallet, PvMP skirmishes, Isengard, additional minigames and -- yes -- vanity pets for all. The devs also admitted to slipping in a few pop culture mentions into the game, such as Firefly and Futurama references.

And will there ever be any other hobbies than fishing in LotRO? Kate Paiz mused: "All of us devs really want to make golf next, but it's a tricky undertaking, so we don't have a timeline yet, but feel free to start practicing your backswings!"

You can read the full transcript at A Casual Stroll to Mordor.

Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Interviews, Patches, Previews, Free-to-play

LotRO's radiance to be run over by a train and other future tidbits revealed originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Today on the TOROCast forum, it was rumored that Community Manager Sean Dahlberg had left BioWare. Members of the SWTOR community did believe it odd that he did not show up to PAX, which was supposed to be the biggest event of the year for SWTOR. He even tweeted to the Jedi Archive on Saturday: "Nope, I'm back in Austin but Brian is there! Granted, part of me wants to just drive there but I'd be late." That gave everyone the impression that he had a lot of work to do. However, today he updated his twitter page so that it no longer reflected his BioWare title nor a link to swtor.com.

Although there has yet to be word from Dahlberg himself, Joanne Laroche, the Senior Community Coordinator, recently posted this on the official Old Republic website: "Sean Dahlberg has recently left BioWare. We would like to thank Sean for doing a great job building the TOR Community and we wish him well in his future endeavors!" This confirms that Dahlberg has left BioWare, but it still does not answer why this has happened.

Massively will keep an eye on this story and on Dahlberg's personal site for new developments. Until then, we wish the best for Sean and for the game.

[Nice catch, "fo diddy" at TOROcast!]

Filed under: Real life, MMO industry, New titles, Star Wars: The Old Republic

BioWare loses its SWTOR community manager originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 07 Sep 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MMORPG.com has been given beta keys to give out to our community for Ministry of War - a new cutting edge browser based MMO by Snail Games. Get your key while supplies last!

NCsoft has released this latest trailer to coincide with today's launch of Aion's massive Assault on Balaurea update.

PAX Prime has come and gone but the excitement that resulted from our presence there is still lingering amidst our community! If you couldn't get to PAX this year and haven't yet learned the scuttlebutt...

From August 23 through September 4 of 2010, 1UP's Matt Leone and Richard Li left the office and hit the road for our first ever Cross Country Game Tour, visiting the hottest game development studios in the 48 contiguous United States.

With camera in tow, we took an inside look at Bungie's new home, met the actual hand model from the Left 4 Dead cover, got some insight into Thatgamecompany's upcoming Journey, ate tacos with Junction Point's Warren Spector, manhandled id Software's Emmy award, and lots more!

MMORPG.com has been given another 500 beta keys for MicroVolts - a toy based online shooter by RockHippo. The first 1000 we had went pretty quick so grab one while you can!

Players get the opportunity to reenact the good book in The Bible Online. The game has entered the beta phase of development and devs are looking for folks to help work out the kinks in the MMORPG-RTS hybrid. In the first 'chapter' of the game, characters work their way through Genesis participating in some of the timeless stories.

Nexon has announced that the next round of beta testing for Vindictus will begin on September 15th. Players who participated in the first round of testing will continue in the second and will be given two beta keys to hand out to friends. Unlike most beta tests, players participating in the closed beta will not see their characters wiped when the game goes live so no progress or items will be lost.

Bioware has released the latest trailer from Star Wars: The Old Republic. The video was shown during last weekend's PAX in Seattle, Washington. The video features a boatload of roleplay conversations with NPCs, cinematic interaction and combat with many character archetypes showing off their moxy. Check it out!

Earthrise devs have released a screenshot from the ongoing beta test. The screen shows off the crafting interface in the game. We'll leave the analysis and discussion to our readers. Have at it!

Runes of Magic players will have a new dungeon to play in when the next update goes live. Called "The Raksha Temple", the dungeon will also allow players to choose a difficulty level when entering. The goal is to calm the awakened gods....and get stuff. Developers have stated that the harder the level, the better the rewards.

Gazillion Entertainment has released the first trailer for the PvP Card Battle System to be employed in the game. The trailer was shown at last weekend's PAX convention in Seattle, Washington. in the Card Battle System, players build their own personalized decks using all of the Marvel characters and their powers in order to take on others.