Previews

Age of Conan is likely one of the most anticipated MMORPGs headed to market, likely rivaled only by Warhammer Online. With its main competitor not at E3, they had the spotlight to themselves. Unfortunately, through no fault of their own, the demonstration suffered some unfortunate setbacks. Find out what we thought of this Eidos / Funcom project:

Melee combat differs from traditional MMOs. Instead of auto-attacks modified by a series of feats, Conan allows the player to swing their weapon in any one of five directions. Players equip feats that are in reality combinations. A half moon display at the bottom of the HUD shows each of these directions and lights up all the potential moves that would continue one of those feats. So after the first swing, three might light up, each a part of a different combination, after the player performs their second swing, perhaps only one or two light up, and so on. It's a great mechanic in a genre that desperately needed one, although it seems difficult to do with a mouse and keyboard (more on this later).

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At E3 2007, Turbine gave us some clues about Book 11 and a lot of information on Book 10. It includes the feature all MMO players have been waiting for: the ability to play as a free range chicken!

The Rangers and Trolls each cost 5,000 Destiny Points to play and in the interests of everyone getting their turn, play time is limited to one hour. From the look of things though, it will be worth it. We were not able to see the Ranger, but the Troll looked like a lot of fun. They're huge, humans are only leg high, and really gave the feeling that the movies evoked during that epic battle. The troll is all about doing damage to multiple enemies at once, while they told us the Ranger will concentrate (with his bow) on single targets. Prepare for sniper fire!

The great equalizers should balance out the Monster Play areas and provide a lot of fun for those lucky enough to get in the creature's shoes for an hour.

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SOE Seattle once again showed off The Agency during E3. There was not a lot new - the demo was identical - but with some impressive spying skills of our won, we ferreted out a few nuggets of information. Read on for the goods:

"You are what you wear," is their design mantra. That means if you put on a heavy armor, you're going to blow the hell out of something. If you put on a push-up bra and high heels, you're likely at a cocktail party in disguise.

The game relies heavily on instancing, but hopes to make it something that is as unobtrusive as possible. He explained what they're calling "seamless instancing". He gave us this example: A player is in a public space, let's say a bar. There are dozens of players and NPCs dancing up a storm, but in the corner is a quest NPC. He talks to that NPC and is told of a big bad guy hanging out backstage and warned that if anyone sees them talking, trouble could follow. At this point, the quest NPC's indicator turns red and the players know that if they talk to them again, they're going to go into an encounter. That gives them time to load their weapons and get their friends together. Once ready, they bug the guy again and boom, they're in an instance. The real players in the club fade away and the bad guy comes crashing through the back door. Without loading screens, a social situation turned deadly, just like they do in the movies.

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As we continue to bring you daily looks at the big name games we saw at E3 2007, we focus in today on BioShock. This game launches later this month and provided us one of the most complete and impressive demos at the show. Period.

Style's great, but what about gameplay? Well it definitely excels there too. I'd go so far as to call it a fast paced first person puzzle shooter (FPFPPS for short, of course!). Every area was crafted carefully and while in some the best way through is obvious, in others the number of ways to complete an encounter is limited only by the player's imagination. The demonstrator told us that after two days of the show, playing the same high level are over and over, he was still able to find new ways to kill the bad guys. Normally, I'd ignore such a comment as presentation hype, but frankly, I believe him.

The key to BioShock is the way weapons interact with the environment. Shock a guy and it's basically a stun. Shock a guy in a pool of water and everyone with a toe in fries.

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E3 2007 allowed WarCry to see some games that we normally do not cover. One of the highlights was a chance to play Activision's Guitar Hero III. The rock-riff sequel comes out this fall and offers more of the same, which is definitely not a bad thing in this case.

Relieved that I would not have to buy new furniture to house my plastic guitars this fall, I was able to concentrate fully on the game at hand. The gameplay, as one might expect is pretty much identical. In some ways, Guitar Hero III is more like a massive song pack. This time Activision promises 70 songs, the bulk of which will be master tracks (which is code for "not covers"). The actual strumming and playing is virtually identical.

Joe Blancato from The Escapist and I battled it out on three songs: Pearl Jam's "Even Flow", The Beastie Boys' "Sabotage" and "Cherub Rock" by the Smashing Pumpkins. Earlier, I also played "Paint It Black" by the Rolling Stones. Joe took our death match two games to one. He won a Pro-Faceoff battle of "Even Flow", while we split two games in the new Battle Mode. I beat him at "Cherub Rock" and he got revenge during "Sabotage".

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E3 2007 gave us the chance to talk to Flying Lab Software inside the SOE meeting rooms. There we saw the game and spoke to Content Director Jess Lebow who talked about their most recent build, the march to launch and some plans for the future, including a crew system.

With an eye towards the future, Lebow expanded on one plan FLS hopes to add to the game post-launch. Crews are great, but having them just as a stat seems like something that could be expanded upon. In what Lebow thinks will likely be a free content update, the team plans to add crew members with personalities.

As players do missions they'll encounter these personages and eventually they may or may not join the player's crew. These would be officers or high level experts. Once in your crew, they further customize the individual ships. In essence, they'd act like talking persistent modifiers. More than that though, they transform an NPC crew from a nameless statistic to something with a soul.

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E3 is a big show and there are not a huge numbers of MMORPGs on hand, so we decided to stray from time to time and look at some of the other big games that everyone is waiting for. At Eletronic Arts, we saw quite a few titles and in this article we preview three of the highlights: Rock Band, Madden 08's Family Play and The Simpsons game.

And while I didn't dare go near them in a crowded room, vocals also look well done. Of those I heard, clearly you needn't be a good singer to get some OK scores. Invariably, the singer always had the highest percentages in every band I saw and let's just say none of them will be on MTV any time soon. The vocals should add comedy to parties, even if I won't go near them.

An EA rep also told us some welcome news that while nothing has been done or decided, Harmonix hopes to find a way to make the game compatible with the Guitar Hero II guitars. He made clear that there were no promises, but sounded hopeful that something could be worked out. I'll likely grab the new ones for the new toys, but at a certain point, my living room cannot be transformed into a video game recording studio and with Guitar Hero II, Guitar Hero III and Rock Band, that's real possibility.

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Chances are, if you enjoy even a passing interest in MMOGs, you know Richard Garriott. You know Lord British, his online alter-ego from Ultima Online, is a name he takes seriously. So when he walked into the presentation room in which I was sitting in sci-fi military regalia - with a beret and black cowboy boots and spurs - and introduced himself as General British, I had to stand up and salute.

In our first article from E3 2007 we focus in on NCSoft Seoul's Aion. This high fantasy MMO has been unwrapped for a while, but besides being beautiful, not much was known. At E3, they let us look at the first of the playable factions.

Last year, NCSoft introduced the graphically spectacular Aion to the world. This year, at E3, they've begun to show some of what makes Aion a game, rather than just a pretty face. Produced at NCSoft's Korean office, is a traditional MMO in a cinematic high fantasy setting.

The world in Aion was shattered in half. On the bottom half of the broken planet are the "Elyos" and on the top are the "Asmodan". The Balaur live in the middle. Players can play as either the Elyos or Asmodan, while the dragon-man Balaur are NPC only.

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Hero Camp last Thursday offered WarCry the chance to sit down and play Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising and then interview Perpetual Entertainment President and Co-Founder Chris McKibbin about the game. We file this hands-on preview:

"The majority of people who play MMOs have never raided," Perpetual President and Co-Founder Chris McKibbin explained. The sometimes absurd time commitment of raids is why. In World of Warcraft, players need to spend hours organizing dozens of real people. For anyone outside the hardcore, that means high-end raids are a wealth of content that they simply cannot hope to experience. Gods and Heroes turns that dynamic on its ear with its minion system, where a single player can represent six characters on the screen. The result is that a simple five man group can experience raid content in Gods and Heroes, a development that severely cuts into the organizational time required for that kind of epic content.

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Recently, we got a sneak peek at The Agency and today, with SOE's announcement, we bring you our first look at the upcoming spy MMO/FPS. Developed at the new SOE Seattle studio for both the Playstation 3 and PC, The Agency represents SOE's attempt to bring MMORPGs into the mainstream and move away from an endless stream of swords and sorcery fantasy games. Earlier today, along with their press release, they put out an introductory trailer, some screenshots and some concept art for you to enjoy.

Now onto our preview!

In the mission we saw, the players went into an instance to meet someone who had some information for them. As they entered the instance, their target - briefcase in hand - stood on a street corner outside a trendy Prague nightclub. Seems too easy? It is. In true spy fashion, the operative was eliminated just before the players got there and the briefcase taken.

The players then ran in pursuit, only to met by gunmen who jumped out from behind barrels, popped their head out of windows and materialized seemingly out of nowhere organically. Slowly, the team made its way through the cramped European alleys and towards their ultimate goal.

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Recently, WarCry had the chance to speak to EverQuest Producer Clint Worely about this most venerable of MMORPGs. At eight years old, they're on a hard march towards a November expansion and have changed the way they approach things a bit. Find out what they're up to, how they're tackling it and what awaits in Secrets of Faydwer in this new look forward.

Right now, their focus is squarely on those players who've stuck with them and continue to pay the bills. In contrast to EverQuest II, which clearly seeks new fans, EverQuest is all about the hardcore. New people come, but in a game this established, they are just as likely to be returning players.

"EverQuest has always been a hardcore game," Producer Clint Worely told WarCry. It has a steep curve and while they have made efforts to correct this, the new player experience is not really their current focus. Specifically, he characterized the churn of players out of the game as extremely low, a major reason for them to focus on keeping those long lasting subscribers happy.

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Today we build on part one of our preview and get a look at some more unique aspects of Tabula Rasa, issues in the game and more comments from Richard Garriott, the man behind this title.

"In most MMOs, the level grind is life," Garriott told us, using his now signature introductory clause.

In Tabula Rasa, the relative power curve is much flatter. Players can kill enemies many levels higher than themselves, they just need to play smartly. The difference, as Garriott illustrated, is between careful tactical combat and being able to run through like Rambo.

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Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa has entered its home stretch and recently we got the chance to travel to Austin, TX and talk to Garriott, his team and play this unique game. In many ways, it is an answer to the long-standing norms of the MMORPG genre. We look at how its different in this new preview.

Tabula Rasa, there is no question, is different from any MMORPG that's been released to date. Innovation is a noble pursuit, but innovation for its own sake is a waste. With Tabula Rasa, Garriott and his team in Austin have struck that balance and have created a game that will undoubtedly expand the way players think about MMORPGs.

"In other MMOs..." Garriott would begin as he explained each core feature of Tabula Rasa. He used this strategy an innumerable number of times (I tried to count, but lost track quite quickly). He would explain the way almost every MMORPG did things such as combat, then explain why Tabula Rasa did it better.

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Intrepid reporter Carolyn Koh missed out on a few hours of sleep this morning to go to the Seattle, WA launch party for Lord of the Rings Online. Held in a GameStop that sells the most MMOs of any store in the United States, according to Turbine, this was bound to be a big one. The article looks at the event and gets comments from Turbine reps on hand.

To their huge surprise and pleasure it was so well received that the system has been expanded greatly. At launch, players may purchase five different instruments in game - the harp, lute, flute, clarinet and horn. In their first monthly update, the bass and drums will be added. The will also expand the range of the instruments to three octaves, and implement ABC notation and Freeplay - the ability for players to synchronize their instruments in order to create music together as a band.

"Tolkien's world was one filled with music. We had this unique opportunity and we jumped on it. I would love to see bands and concerts. For players to utilize this system in ways I didn't think of," Geoff added.

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