• Current EverQuest (EQ) HotZones
• EQ Patch Notes - 9th July 2008
• Lower Guk Revamped
• EverQuest Glossary
• EverQuest Group Quests and Camps
• Gillamina’s Elemental Research
• List of old hot zone augments
• EverQuest Augment List
• EverQuest Progression Guides
• Planes of Power Progression Guide

Come along and join the forums!

Eand

Cheers

Eandaen

In December of 2007, the magazine Shonen Jump announced groundbreaking information about new developments in the gaming industry which directly relate to Dragon Ball. Both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 users will be pleased to know that the new Dragon Ball game called “Dragon Ball Z: Burst Limit” will be released in formats that will be compatible with both consoles, this actually makes the new version of the game the first ever (in the series) to be compatible with both stand-alone consoles.

The game itself has very rich graphics which is to be expected of a game which was designed to be compatible with high end consoles, it features several playable characters, among them we have: Piccolo, Frieza, Krilin, android 13, Vegeta, Nappa, Saibaman, Trunks, Gohan, Raditz, Tien and Yamcha.

The environment in which the game was graphically design shows beautiful mountains and valleys just like the ones shown in the series, this was all done in an effort to remain true to the main concept which is to create a very close replica of the environment shown in the Dragon Ball series to provide the ultimate experience.

The scenery was not the only thing that “Burst Limit” designers worked on, it is just the tip of the iceberg, the result of their hard work is better seen in the action and fighting sequences which are shown in the game for instance, Goku’s Kameha wave was beautifully designed to show just how powerful Goku can be, another character who is able to use the Kameha wave is Trunks who also uses a sword to take on his enemies, both Goku and Trunks are able to evolve into their next Saiyan stage which turns their hair “fury yellow”, I believe you know what that looks like!

The high-speed fighting sequences are also one of the strong points of this game, Goku is able to use teleportation to fight against his opponents, if you’re not used to play high speed games then you might find yourself a little bit lost when you use the teleportation technique. Burst Limit characters are able to battle in the ground or in the air, the easiest way to accomplish an aerial battle is to kick your opponent high up in the air and letting him go as high as possible, if you were a fan of the series then you remember how devastating the falls during an aerial battle were, in order to stay true to this concept the designers also made false from the year during a tough battle quite dramatic as well, they show the character as it comes down from the sky and hits the ground with a great force.

Dragon Ball Z fans will be pleased with the high-intensity battles in the number of playable characters which are found in the first ever dual console compatible version of Dragon Ball.

F.E.A.R.

As the name implies, this particular game was designed to send shivers down your spine, it was inspired by Japanese horror movies such as the Ring, so if you liked that movie then you can expect the same level of horror to be delivered in this game.  Since the entire game is played in the dark, you will have to turn the lights off in order to see what’s going on in the game, this increases the tension, if you have headphones things will escalate to a whole new level, you can get the same experience with good speakers.  Regardless of what you use to listen to the sounds you will be genuinely frightened by the whole scenario, sounds and story of the game.

When you put this game side by side with a movie you will see that there is no comparison in terms of how frightening the game can be, Alma is the name of the mysterious little girl who is the key to the game, she appears during the worst possible times at dark alleys and basically out of the nowhere.  Make sure not to be drinking anything because you will be jumping all along because of Alma’s appearance.

As the game progresses things become even more scary and Alma changes her physical appearance which resembles the girls of the Ring.  Sound effects play a huge part in this game since it does a great job raising the player’s heart beat during critical times, and the sounds of people being killed by supernatural beings is just incredible.

This game takes advantage of supernatural beings in order to increase the tension, unlike DOOM (in you face action) F.E.A.R. uses scary dialogs and sounds of dying people to create a strong impression in the gamer.  Similar games (Half Life, Indigo Prophecy, Silent Hill) rely on similar aspects as well as dark environments to deliver true fear.

There are loads of really cool parts to the game and although it doesn’t play as well as the likes of Call of Duty 4, it is still worth a shot.

For those who don’t know, the term “w00t” (with either numbers or letters in the middle) originated pre MMO time, back in the days of DnD board games.  There’s no real agreement on what the abbreviation stands for, but some guesses are:

• “Wow, loot”
• “We owned other team”
• “Want one of those”

MMORPGs such as EverQuest and World of Warcraft brought the term to the mass market, as gamers would regular use the term as an expression of joy.  However, over use of the term means that many have adopted it as a more sarcastic statement.  Some examples:

• When a boss mob is killed - “WOOOOOOT!” - basically like, “HELL YEH!”.
• When a mob drops a rare loot - “WOOT!” - basically like, “Ooooh yeh!”.
• When someone links a crap item - “woot” - sarcasm.
• When someone does something utterly average - “woot” - like, “yeh whatever”

Officials from around the world agree that this is indeed the end of civilisation as we know it.  A spokesman from the Whitehouse earlier today told the world’s media that the American government are working on a strategy to convert American English into a series of 5 simple words.  These terms will be the only words taught at schools and pupils will be encouraged to emphasis them correctly to give them different meanings, using a combination of electro shock treatment and a long stick.

The 5 terms in question are:

• w00t
• l33t
• ding
• OMFG!
• Antelope

President Bush closed the press conference with the following statement: “W00t….tee hee”.

It is thought that this new education system is designed to remove some of the burden on both teachers and pupils - you know, stuff like learning words and being able to write / type properly.

I for one welcome our new ant overlords…

Critics of the reform claim that this will just further the problem, rearing a nation of illiterate yobs using nothing more than rudimentary language skills less advanced than that used by your average colony of ants.

The Whitehouse failed to respond to this as their PC broke and they can’t use the thesaurus in Word to find out what rudimentary means.

MTNLNOWL

(Make The Nation Literate Now Or We’ll Leave) oppose the move, claiming that any system that requires people to use more than one syllable to communicate with is just plain silly.   They claim that the English language is too dated and should be refined to its very core - single letter abbreviations.When asked, “well, don’t you think that could lead to some misunderstandings when people take different meanings from the same sentence”, they responded, “she told me she was 18 and I resent the implication”.

So are you l33t or don’t you know WTF that is?

Is w00t worthy of becoming word of the year?  Is it even a word (it has numbers in it…)?  Do you even care?  I thought not.

10 points and go to top of the class to anyone who can come up with the wittiest sentence that this abbreviates…

WINACBIDLGW

Game on!

Eandaen

Over time though, RPG games really moved into the mainstream gaming market - Final Fantasy led the way in recent years with a phenomenal franchise that has figuratively and literally transcended generations of gamers and paved the way for games such as Elder Scrolls to find their way into gaming store’s top 10 lists.

But there was always a stigma attached to RPG gaming - even a divide, between the RPG faithful and the console generation of FPS gamers.  That divide has been blurred over the past couple of years (mainly due to the popularity of WoW) and now we see games like Bioshock that stay true to traditional FPS gaming, but also pull core RPG elements into their gameplay concepts.

For those who haven’t played it yet, Bioshock is a FPS set in a sunken city.  The basic premise is that you are trapped and fight your way out, killing many zombie-esque enemies with the usual array of FPS weapons.  The twist though, is that the scientists in the city have developed a range of enhancements that you can make use of and these work in the same way as magic skills work in RPG games.

While the game doesn’t go “hardcore RPG” and require the player to level up, complete a multitude of long quests and develop different skills, it does bring in some of the more interesting RPG concepts and applies them to the FPS format.

For example, you can build up currency to buy upgrades (more health / mana equivalent) and new abilities.  These include the ability to set your fire on target (and laugh while they run about trying to find a pool of water to put the fire out) and then the ability to shock the target (while they are in the pool of water) to do more damage!  Even some old school RPG elements such as levitation have a nice FPS twist - you can catch grenades thrown at you and chuck them back at the enemy (similar to Half Life).

I think this integration is great!  I love both genres so I guess I get the best of both worlds from them though!

Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing the next generation of online games - these should really pull together the formats and I hope we will see a nice combination of frantic FPS multiplayer action and RPG style character development and strategy.  IMO, some games are trying to do this just now but it really isn’t working (PVP in WoW is just boring and even some PVP for FPS console games can suck!).

The bridge between being able to log on for some quick action or work seriously on long term character development is still not as strong as it should be - but I think when that bridge is built we will see some interesting changes to the face of the gaming world.

• Call of Duty 4
• Killzone 2
• Lost Odyssey
• Metal Gear Solid 4
• Resident Evil 5

And here we go…

Niiiice.

• A level cap increase
• New zones, spells and AAs
• Heroic items (the only real new change)

I remember when WoW was launched - I played EQ at the time and it really crippled the game - servers had to merge - entire guilds were decimated as their players left to go and play the more entertaining Warcraft game.

I still do like EQ - the raids are fun (I used to lead open raids - “fun” isn’t maybe the right word - it’s more a case of taking joy between the “Leeroy Jenkins moments”! ;)), and some of the new content is great.  But the insane level grind is still there and it has nothing for the new player - meaning that no new blood comes to the game and other than server merges and transfers, you don’t see any new people.

I remember the days when the newbie zones were packed (my first character was a High Elf) and Felwithe / Kelethin was absolutely teeming with life - dozens of low level players - most just starting out - all running around grouping and helping each other!  Since WoW, newbie zones are ghost towns only populated by bored alts. 

A shame really - those days of trains in Unrest or huge corpse runs were great!

WoW is no different.  Less of a grind than EQ, yes, but the same problem is there - Blizzard have made a game that leads one way - to the high end.  I was also in WoW when it launched in the EQ and the same beginners feeling was there - but 2 years later I came back after a break and that’s gone too.  Arrogant twinks take the place of newbies.

The sad fact is that the RPG genre doesn’t lend itself well to the RPG format (or at least just hasn’t been implemented well).  Everything follows a straight path to the end and then there’s a bottle neck.  With each expansion there is a gold rush to hit the level cap, complete the new quests or kill the new bosses.

I know it isn’t easy creating a popular MMORPG, but I think that it is about time someone put some consideration into the longevity of these games.  Gamers do put a lot of time into them and regardless of your opinion of that, it is sad for people to see something they have contributed to so long, die a slow death.

Eandaen