Gamertell

The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar (LotRO) received its first official expansion pack today (November 18, 2008) in the form of Mines of Moria. Now available across both Europe and North America for Windows PCs, the expansion boasts large dwarven environments to explore as well as several additional updates to the core game.

As seen in the Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Moria – or Khazad-dûm to give it its dwarven name – is a massive underground complex located underneath the Misty Mountains of J. R. R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth. In the LotRO expansion it will play host to hundreds of new quests to complete and foes to battle.

As well as marking the beginning of the game’s second volume…

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As expected, Deep Silver is finally releasing more information on its forthcoming MMO 7Million. In particular, more information about the game’s local, Paradise City, and one faction players can join, the Cúram, have been revealed.

See, 7Million isn’t a standard MMO. Instead of being focused on battles, it is focused on accomplishing missions to become the best crook/thief/spy in Paradise City. You have to be smart and resourceful to outwit authorities and other layers to become the best…

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Apparently the craze of selling real-life toys to unlock virtual counterparts in an online world isn’t going to abate anytime soon. The next forthcoming, possible craze creator is Abandon Interactive Entertainment, which is going to be releasing a line of action figures called Freaky Creatures in 2009. Freaky Creatures is going to be an MMO, where players must purchase real-world action figure starter packs to get the USB flash drive with the game, creatures, creature powers/parts and lair furnishings.

You get started in Freaky Creatures by purchasing a $19.99 starter pack that comes with two creature figurines, a reusable USB drive with the game on it, and codes for 50 random creature parts, 20 random creature abilities and four random decorative objects. You install the game, enter the codes for your two creatures and assorted items, and then go to face off in battles against other Freaky Creatures players…

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Code Collective has just released the first beta of the massive multiplayer online strategic card game, The Far Wilds. Both a 3D, downloadable PC version, and a PC and Mac flash version of The Far Wilds can now be accessed from the official website. Code Collective will also be hosting a The Far Wilds Grand Clash competition in late November, 2008, where players can take part in tournaments (using either the PC or Flash versions) to possibly win a $1000 cash prize or in-game gold…

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Holy gilded Loincloth - World of Warcraft, already hailed as the best and most ambitious massive multiplayer game of our time, has just reached 11 million subscribers worldwide - that’s a whole hell of a lot of grinding. We all know that the game is huge (huge isn’t big enough of a word to describe the phenomenon, really), spawning everything from cultural references (like that SouthPark episode) to marriage proposals to several million raging game addictions.

If nothing else, the game proves that the MMO subscription model is absolutely viable - provided that you have the money and know-how to support (and continue to support) a huge, complex game world. With the Wrath of the Lich King expansion nearing the bend, we can only expect that number to increase (Blizzard noted that the Wrath beta was the top reason for hitting the 11 million mark). Congratulations are in order - and whether you love it, hate it, or just can’t quit it, you have to give the company props on their success.

Read [WOW Insider]

• Micro Center’s Black Friday 2008 weekend sales
• The Lord of the Rings Online expands into Mines of Moria
• 7-Eleven getting into video game retail biz for the holidays, possibly longer

If you’ve ever dabbled in one of the many free-to-play massive multiplayer online games, you’ll know that each one celebrates real world holidays in their own way. Halloween is no exception, with many different games from Nexon, Aeria, Joymax, IGG, GameMasters.com, GamesCampus, Outspark,  Gametribe.com, Ntreev and OGPlanet all hosting special events to coincide with the holiday season.

So, to make things easier on you, Gamertell has looked throughthe MMOs from the above publishers and compiled a list of the spooky happenings in select MMOs. Most of these events last until shortly after October 31, 2008, but many MMOs are hosting multiple Halloween events with multiple expiration dates…

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According to a recent article published in the SouthTown Star and written by GateHouse News Service, online gamers may have been wrongly stereotyped.

Of the 7,000 online gamers researchers interviewed who played EverQuest 2, a MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online game), they are not the overweight rotund teenage boys most people once thought they were…

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Combat Arms, Nexon’s free-to-play, MMOFPS (massive multiplayer online first person shooter) has launched commercially, and to celebrate there will be a tournament at E-for-All 2008. On October 4, 2008, from 11am to 6:30pm PST, the PMS Clan (Pandora’s Mighty Soldiers) will be at the Combat Arms booth, ready to take on opponents…

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At PAX 08 I had a chance to visit Twin Skies’ booth.  What I found out about Twin Skies is the truth in their slogan of being “much more than an MMO”.  It appears that Meteor Games is trying to do more than just create the next Everquest or World of Warcraft by revolutionizing the gaming industry with a service that is part MMO, part social networking site plus a site for cool Flash games. 

As an MMO, Twin Skies is powered by BigWorld Technology, which gives it some terrific animations, lighting effects, shadows. The demo I saw looks quite good…

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The entrance to PAX 08 had an impressive display of Jumpgate Evolution, a new MMO space combat game made by Codemasters Online and NetDevil.  The moment I saw it, I couldn’t help but to compare it to Eve Online.  It was hard not to, as it is an MMO game with spaceships.

Of course, no one can copyright the MMO space game and Jumpgate Evolution has one great aspect that sets it apart from Eve:  Jumpgate Evolution skips through much of the boring set-up involved in most MMO games and puts you right into the action. 

When I sat down and began playing, I was on a mission to…

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