The Spring Festival event is once again upon us in Turbine’s Lord of the Rings Online. Players who login can look forward to many in-season activities including the Feast of the Greenfields, the Shire’s Hedge Maze, the Stomp-a-Shrew minigame, as well as special decorations & costumes, and Ale Association quests.

To get you pumped for the festivities we’ve got a batch of new screenshots showing off the Spring Festival celebrations, check them out in our LOTRO gallery.

Source:mmorpg.com

Details on version 1.3 “Sandstorm” of Global Agenda have been announced on the official Global Agenda forums. This latest update, which is scheduled to launch around the end of April, is touted as being the “most important milestone in Global Agenda history.” A pretty hefty claim, so what’s in it for Global Agenda fans in 1.3?

Come 1.3 players will be able to choose one of two specializations (corresponding to the already existing skill trees) for their characters. The choice of specialization will confer additional talent points for that particular skill tree, as well as access to specialization specific weapons and devices. The devices will range in level requirement from 30-50 and will be earned through Conquest Tokens. Conquest Tokens will be earned by playing/winning different parts of the game, up to a certain maximum each day. Subscribers will earn these faster due to the fact they can participate in more areas of the game.

Examples of some of these devices below:

The Laser Sniper Rifle, The Barrage Grenade Launcher, The Claw,The Perfect Rifle, The Beacon Tracker, The Impact Hammer, The Multi-Heal Gun, The Oathbreaker Boost.

1.3 will also see many of the stores in Dome City open, as well as the addition of two new jetpacks to the jetpack store. A new hightech UI will also be implemented, though it may not be fully available when 1.3 goes live.

Loot will be seeing some changes in 1.3 as well. The plan is to have full weapon and armor drops available as loot in PvE, the armor will be bind on pickup. Crafters will also be able to create upgrade kits for weapons and armor to augment their stats. Weapons and armor will also be available for purchase through the use of Conquest and Mercenary tokens.

What’s really stirred up discussion about 1.3 is the inclusion of new open world zones, which are being called Warzones. Warzones are being described as open world zones that players will join in order to undertake a variety of strictly PvE or hybrid PvPvE missions. Warzones will feature a variety of mission types and win conditions as well.

The aim is to allow for 30 players in a PvE zone and 50 in a PvP zone, though Hi-Rez is not sure on the final count since they are reworking the Unreal 3 server code to facilitate this.

View the original announcement here.

Those following the game will be familiar with its premise, but for those who might not be too familiar, a brief recap is in order:

The Secret World is the next game from Age of Conan and Anarchy Online developers Funcom. The game is set in a world where secret societies, freaky human powers and evil horrors from the middle of the Earth are all very real things. Unlike its predecessor, The Secret World makes no use of levels of classes, instead attempting to provide players with a more real life-like experience that relies on the growth over time of skills and abilities.

Recently, the developers released their first small clips of gameplay footage, skewed as though viewed through surveillance cameras. The images that they showed were of zombies, and told the story of the people of a Stephen King-esque town appropriately names Kingsmouth who disappeared one day in a fog and were returned later, as the living dead.

The game, as you can see by the new trailer available today, is visually quite impressive and we learned that Kingsmouth is going to be the first location that players visit after leaving their hub cities.

The goal of the developers here is to allow players to travel all over the world to different and varied locations, fighting the first of the creatures crawling to the surface of the Earth.

“We want this to be a canvas,” said Game Director Ragnar Tornquist, and as such, the game has to be maybe a little bit more believeable as a world because it’s set in contemporary times.

Story

The developers on The Secret World are trying to bring their game’s story to the forefront, using what was described to us as deeper NPC characters, each with their own stories. These NPCs are meant to give each situation a unique personality from government agents to the local sheriff.

Each location will also have its own unique and somewhat complex story that players will experience. In Kingsmouth, for example, players will learn that it isn’t just zombies that are plaguing the town, but that the fog that took them blocks all means of escape, all the while other, more mysterious creatures are rising from the ocean.

“It’s all about digging deeper,” Tornquist told us. Every location will have a different feel, a different interlocking story with new NPCs.

Combat

We had a chance to take in some of the game’s combat while we were there and while we didn’t get a hands-on demo (they’re just not ready yet to let us get our grubby paws on the game), we did get to see some pretty extensive recorded gameplay, mostly centered around combat.

The combat that we saw was extremely action-oriented, giving the impression of twitch combat. That being said, we were flat out told that it wasn’t twitch based but is designed to move quickly, requiring players to be paying attention to what’s going on in order to execute the correct powers at the correct times. This, we are told, is going to be key.

Mechanically, combat is broken down into powers. There are two different types of power: passive powers, which augment stats or powers and are consistent, and then you have active powers, which are your classic press it and something happens kind of abilities. Throughout their careers, players will advance and collect these powers which will run the gamut of what you would expect to find in a class based MMO, from healing abilities to spellcasting-like abilities to tanking abilities. In the end, it’s up to each player to build the kind of power set that he or she wants.

While you can eventually collect them all, only seven of each type (active and passive) of power can be active at any given time meaning that players will have to make wise decisions about the powers that they have before they enter combat (choices can’t be altered in-combat).

State System

When powers are used, they will sometimes put enemies into a “state.” In these states, the enemy becomes vulnerable to special combo moves that can be activated either on your own, or with the aid of your group. It’s an interesting feature that allows a little bit more versatility in team play and should keep players actively engaged.

Other

Having seen the game in play, and talked to the developers about it a little bit, we can start to put together a number of facts about the game that don’t necessarily fit into any specific category. The first is that the game is designed to be solo-friendly, but in order to get through some of the boss encounters you really need to be able to work cooperatively with others and think strategically.

There is a lot of variety in the enemies that the players will encounter playing The Secret World. As was mentioned above, each region that players will visit is designed to be interesting and unique. While we’ve seen the zombies and some of the other creatures that currently inhabit Kingsmouth, we should expect to see different baddies in other regions. If, for example, the game takes players to Egypt, there might be a few ideas about what they might be facing there (especially given the cool mummy-like creature we saw in early trailers and art).

While in the demo, we were also told that most of the game’s missions will actually take place in the open world rather than in small instances. That being said, we were told that the developers weren’t afraid to use instances where they’re appropriate. So, you can expect at least a few of the larger boss fights, for example, to take place in smaller instances.

Guild style players won’t be disappointed by The Secret World as literature that we’ve gotten our hands on states that the game will have player made organisations called cabals. Players will be able to create and decorate their own headquarters and rank their cabals against those of other players.

Worried PvP won’t be making an appearance? Well, rest easy as Funcom has announced PvP in the form of a battle for what they call “Hollow Earth” where players fight for something called anima which is only found deep under the Earth but promises great power for its owners.

Finally, on top of the game’s three player factions (Illuminati, Templars and Dragon), there will also be a number of NPC factions, which promises to make unravelling the game’s story that much more interesting.

Source:mmorpg.com

The March version update to Final Fantasy XI is now live! The update includes the addition of Odin and Alexander summons previously mentioned at VanaFest 2010, as well as new Wings of the Goddess storyline missions, the usual job tweaks, this time for the Puppetmaster, Summoner and Beastmaster, and lots more.

You can view the full patch notes here.

Source:mmorpg.com

Realtime Worlds’ Social Media & Community Manager Chris Collins alongside APB Audio Lead Roland Peddie discuss the game’s “locational VOIP,” which allows players to simply walk up and talk to people, in this latest entry to the ongoing APB video podcast series.

Locational VOIP also creates some interestingly natural situations in the game. For example, if you run over another player you’ll be able to hear their reactionary outbursts.

APB will be at PAX East this weekend as well, so if you’re going to be at the show be sure to check out the demo on the show floor!

Watch the video here.

Source:mmorpg.com

NHN Corporation has announced a number of additions to their free-to-play MMORPG Karos Online. Over the past two weeks the game has seen the introduction of a new zone, Bhalasong, a raise in level cap to 60, the addition of a second character class specialization, a new floor in the Antcave dungeon, and more.

NHN has also provided us with over 30 new screenshots from the updates, including shots of the Antcave dungeon and the new zone, Bhalasong. You can view the new images in our Karos Online gallery.

Visit the official Karos Online website for more information on the Source:mmorpg.comgame.

Big Fish Games, the publishers of free-to-play MMOG Faunasphere, have announced that Faunasphere is now available on Facebook! What is also interesting is that both Faunasphere and Faunasphere Facebook are both linked, allowing players to share the same virtual world, regardless of how they access the game. Neat!

Check out Faunasphere on Facebook, or the original Faunasphere here.

Source:mmorpg.com

You can check out a few screenshots of Ocean in our Tales Runner gallery.  Also, be sure to read up more on the Ocean character here.

Source:mmorpg.com

First Planet Company, the folks behind Planet Calypso, have announced that version 2010|01 is now live.

The update kicked off with a volcanic eruption that changed the face of the game world, permanently altering the Cyclops area between East Scylla Mountains and Fort Troy. However, version 2010|01’s main feature is a new Quest/Mission system. Though the initial offering is but a preview, consisting of a scant five missions, the developers are interested in the community’s feedback so they can explore the feature even further.

View the original announcement and patch notes here.

Image Credit: MMOsite

GameCrep (via VG247) appears to have a bit more information, stating that a top human resources employee at Square Enix posted the following on their personal blog (which has since been taken down):

“I think some amongst you will know, but FF11 started in 2002 … Well, this year it’ll end and the stage will shift to FF14.”

Given Final Fantasy XIV’s similarities to the original game, Square Enix’s desire to allow players to transition easier (such as the ability to carry over one’s name), as well as the fact the blog post has since been taken down, there is certainly some plausibility to this rumor. However, since we cannot confirm anything either way at the moment, this story remains a rumor.

We’ll be contacting Square Enix for comment, so stay tuned!

What do you think the chances are that Final Fantasy XI will be shut down this year to make room for Final Fantasy XIV? Let us know in the comments below!

Source:mmorpg.com