Saturday, July 21, 2007

WAAAAAAAAGH!

Yes it's true.
I recently got accepted into the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning beta.

Yes, I'm very grateful, and yes I know that I'm extremely lucky and that there are 100's of 1000's of devoted Warhammer fans out there that haven't got in (yet).

But with at least 9 months until release, I'm sure there will be plenty more opportunities for you to do so.

The only downside is that sadly I will not be able to say a single word about it. The NDA is very specific in this regard, as are Mythic's warnings to those who breach it (legal action).

To be specific:
You are allowed to discuss the parts that are specifically mentioned in Addendum A of the NDA.

ADDENDUM A

1. The fact that there is an Official Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Beta Program.

2. The fact that you are a member of the Official Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Beta Program.

So, unfortunately, I will not be able to report on anything WAR beta-related here.

What I can do instead, is point you to a couple of recent items that are available to the public.

This is a fantastic video showing in-game footage and developer commentary. The first thing you will notice is that it's about as far from LOTRO as you can get, and that the devs are primarily concerned with addressing the usual pitfalls of most MMORPG's (great stuff!).




This next one talks about the Warzone mechanic in the game, RVR gameplay, Tiered Zones and Battlefronts.




This one shows off some of the fantastic environments within the game.




Here's everybody's favourite: Exploding barrels! ;p




And finally another great developer session. Lots of in-game footage, RVR explained, Personal/Public Quests explained, and details about the centric Tome of Knowledge principle.




Hope that was enough to whet your appetite for now. Wherever possible I'll post publicly available information and links as they come in.

Be sure to check out the Armies of WAR (especially the awesome Chaos pics), the Zone Overviews, and the latest screenshots, on the offical WAR site.

Meantime - only one more thing to say:

WAAAAAAAAGH!!!

Labels:

18 Comments:

At 5:12 pm, July 21, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

lucky bastard!!
*crosses fingers
*spams outlook refresh button

 
At 5:22 pm, July 21, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

From the Mythic website:

We choose 5 subscribers each month and we'll offer additional opportunities to win spots in the future.

Wow Zarres you sure are one lucky guy. /cry

Give em greenskins hell.

 
At 6:19 pm, July 21, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Well deserved Zarres. The more intelligent prodding in there the better, so far as I'm concerned.
Pity we won't be privy to your razor-sharp but brutally honest tongue outside of the beta forums.

Eat a Halfling for me.

 
At 6:27 pm, July 21, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

jeleous as all hell. who do i have to bribe for a beta spot?

 
At 6:31 pm, July 21, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Enjoy WAR Zarres. We'll miss ya over here. :(

 
At 6:33 pm, July 21, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

/wishes he could come to

 
At 7:21 pm, July 21, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

damn! been waiting a year for invites.
gl in there Z. couldnt have picked a better person.

no pressure - just the scorn of all WH vets if you fuck it up :D

 
At 7:30 pm, July 21, 2007, Blogger Zarres said...

Thanks all.

Yes - I feel extremely privileged to have a spot in the Beta. Trust me when I say that whilst it's most certainly exciting, it's also very daunting. I'm taking this opportunity very seriously.

Will do my best! =)

 
At 9:38 pm, July 21, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

dang. lucky SOB. thats to bad you cant share any of it with us.

 
At 8:33 pm, July 22, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yeh I really want to know how the Tome of Knowledge concept is working out. That looks awesome.

 
At 12:14 am, July 23, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

same. i also want to know more about the public quests the developers talk about in that video. so far that i can tell you can get normal private quests but also the public ones are like world quests that you can participate in and gain rep.
sounds a whole lot better than pointless grinding anyway.

 
At 12:59 am, July 23, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Come on Zarres spill! What could they do?
:D

 
At 3:15 am, July 23, 2007, Blogger Zarres said...

What would they do?

They'd break off my nuts, thinly slice them, fry them over a romantic log-fire and feed them to any nearby Squig!

And that's if I was lucky! :D

How about another awesome piece of footage to watch instead? *moves uncomfortably in his chair as thoughts of retaining his nuts come to mind

This is the WAR cinematic trailer. Well worth watching in full, as it portrays the nature of the game perfectly.

Note that this is the compressed version, so the image and sound quality isn't as good as it can be.
If you're a perfectionist, here are some higher quality download options:

1280x720 (100MB)
640x360 (46MB)
320x180 (22MB)

 
At 2:38 pm, July 24, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

i like the idea of being able to go PVE all the way through the zone, or dabble in the RvR side of things, or both.
it seems like the concept gives the game an overall goal, and it's great that the tier1 battles contribute to your overall war effort as well.

seems well thought out, from what i've read/watched.

 
At 5:37 pm, July 25, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

ouchies.
This just in from the Warhammer Herald.

Guess they're taking it seriously.

 
At 2:16 am, July 27, 2007, Blogger Zarres said...

Yup they sure are.

Hey I see over on the LOTRO forums that Turbine have sunk to the lowest of the low, and are offering free time for existing players if they recruit new players - only they're offering these new players founders pricing??
WTF??

No wonder the forums are glowing from a distance. Wow.. that's.. desperate?
And fucked up given that existing (non-founder) players can't even convert to founder pricing.

Still - proves my theory correct that they are in dire need of increased subscription revenue, and that obviously there's been more attrition than they'd planned for.

What's funniest of all however, is the die-hard fanboi morons still defending Turbine?? I nearly cried with laughter reading some of that shit.

Too funny.

 
At 4:21 pm, July 31, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

its melted down over there. the forums are worse than WoW. i get irritated just looking at them. avoid.

 
At 2:36 am, August 02, 2007, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I just left. (the game)
It's a single player game published online, complete with annoying fanboys.
LOTRO < fun

 

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