A new Dragon teaser video and interview with Ragnar Tornquist was released for The Secret World’s Week of the Dragon. Nothing marvelously new for those who’ve been following The Secret World, although there are a few interesting tidbits, like shots of what looks like a train station in space. I believe that’s a closer shot of the end of Tokyo Flashback, revealed last week at NY Comic Con and available for public viewing thanks to the efforts of The Hydra Initiative, a Dragon Cabal for The Secret World.

And we get Mei Ling’s milkshake recipe. I’ve always preferred chocolate milkshakes, do you suppose I could use chocolate ice cream instead of vanilla?

• 1½ cups milk
• 2 VERY large scoops of vanilla ice cream
• 1 cup strawberries, hulled
• ¼ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 6 marshmallows, cut in half

In a recent interview with SCEE Playstation blogger James Gallagher, CCP talked about their upcoming MMOFPS DUST 514 and discussed a little about classes, combat, beta as well as other things. Below we have the highlights of the interview for you.

When discussing combat, CCP stated,

Essentially it’s a vehicular combat game on an extremely large scale, and then when you move into installations and outposts, it’s more infantry based.

CCP went on to say that there will be a vast array of vehicles for players to choose from, ranging from buggies to tanks to aircraft. While there is a general class system, light, heavy, etc, they are not labeled as such due to the Fitting system, which was ported over from Eve Online. This system basically allows players to use any type of weapons and equipment for their characters as well as vehicles, giving players a massive amount of freedom to basically create any type of class they wish.

When discussing how beta would work, CCP basically stated there would be no beta and instead there would be something called Private Trials. Since DUST 514 is being integrated into the already live MMORPG, a normal beta testing phase would not work. The trials will be rolled out in small groups and once the first group goes live it will be in essence the start of DUST 514 game service. The Private Trials will also be rolled out with accompanying story-lines for Eve Online players, with the story continuing with each new added group.

Some interesting info, I didn’t realize vehicles would be playing such a major role in the game.

Recently I had to opprotunity to interview one of Allods Online’s Game Masters about some of the upcoming changes coming with the Undaunted update. Undaunted is the fourth major update and is set to be released on October 11th, which will include a new zone for high-level players and introduce the first open-world PvP zone for players at level 45 or above.

In the interview we get some new info about the Kingdom of Elements zone and about the Mausoleum of Sparks. We talk about Astral ship customization, the revamped leveling curve for new players and learn about the two new classes coming to Allods Online, the Xadaganian specialists and Elven oracles.

Continue below for the full Allods Online: Undaunted interview and as a bonus, we have few new exclusive screenshots including the first ever look at the Xadaganian specialist (last pic).

What does the new content in Allods Online: Undaunted have to offer high-level players?

Allods Game Master: A new zone, Kingdom of Elements, brings the toughest monsters that have ever appeared in Allods, and Allods has some pretty tough monsters. The whole place is a disaster zone – first torn apart by a volcano, now by these elementals who are trashing the place. It’s actually pretty cool looking!Undaunted will also make PvP match-making easier and accessible 24/7: you open a menu, put your name on the wait list, and then go about your business until enough other players have signed up for the match. Then the game sends you a message and you jump right in.There’s also the Mausoleum of Sparks, but more on that later!

Players will now have the ability to customize the interior of their Astral ships, but so far only furniture and paintings have been mentioned. Can you talk about other things players can do to make their ships unique?

Allods GM: Astral ships are each player’s home base, and we want to let players customize their home as much as possible. We’ve already enabled players to change the outside appearance of the ship and add or remove on-board devices (like cannons) that change the ship’s offensive and defensive capabilities. Interior customization is the next step, and we think it’s a very cool one!There are hundreds of items to choose from, so there’s really a lot you can do with it. Want a throne in your captain’s quarters? Done. Want to turn your treasury into a den of horror? Also done. You can even change or remove basic structures like banisters, counters, and lights.

The intro content for players level 1-25 is being revamped and it sounds like leveling will be much faster for newcomers. What was the reasoning for the faster leveling? Are there any concerns that veteran players might think it’s too fast now, diminishing the value of their own characters?

Allods GM: We noticed that a lot of players had trouble at the lower levels. Some of that’s the good kind of trouble – the monsters in Allods really will kill you – but some of it’s the bad kind of trouble – early monsters had too much health and armor. We reduced the health and armor but the monsters can still kill you, so we think it’s a pretty good balance! Now you don’t have to spend so much time defeating one enemy, but you still have to pay attention to its attacks.That being said, veteran players will still have plenty to boast about. Only levels 1-25 will be affected by these changes, and levels 26-47 will continue to be where it gets harder. It’s easier to get into the game, but if you want to prove yourself, you still have to work for it.

Two new classes have been announced, but not much has been revealed. Can you provide us with some information on them?

Allods GM: The Empire will be gaining Xadaganian specialists, while the League will get Elven oracles. The specialist is an offensive magic user with a unique skill called Astral Aegis, which buffs a friendly target with a kind of magic mirror. The next time an enemy attacks the target of Astral Aegis, the enemy gets knocked down and receives damage. The new Elven oracles, on the other hand, are more manipulative fighters who sabotage their enemies with mental magic. Their specialty is Grim Prophecy, which increases their critical strike chance for 2 spells or 20 seconds.

Will the Mausoleum of Sparks be an accessible location in the October update or will this be something players will have to wait for in a future update?

Allods GM: It will be accessible! Players will be able to enter the Mausoleum of Sparks in groups of 6, and they can try it 3 times per week. Once you’re in, you fight to survive as long as possible against monsters and bosses that get more difficult the longer you fight. The trial ends when you die, making it a survival mode.6) How does survival mode work? What kind of prizes do the winners get?Allods GM: Every week, the group that’s first to reach certain milestones – first to defeat a certain wave of enemies, for example – will receive a small prize. If you want the big prize, you’ll have to beat the most monsters and get the best time for the entire season – that’s three months. You’ll know who all the champions of the Mausoleum are because they’ll be the ones prancing around with a special title next to their names or cool visual effects on their character. The rewards are unique and a permanent status symbol.

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On September 16th the developers working on Planetside 2 held a Twitter Q&A to answer fans questions about their upcoming MMOFPS. Last night Planetside Universe was kind enough to gather all the questions and answers and posted the full transcript on their site.

The QA session was pretty long so if you don’t want to read through the whole thing, I took the privilege of listing all the details below. Even so, the list is also very long, so I bolded some of the more important answers if you’re just interested in the juiciest details.

• Resources help players unlock items, addons and even accelerate cert learning.
• Lots of faction specific infantry weapons and variations.
• It will include a robust achievements system.
• No medical terminals so far.
• Bases will span multiple hexes.
• No longer range artillery is planned at this time.
• No stamina bar. Sprint speed depends on role/class.
• Lore gets an update.
• Facilities will still have a Sphere of Influence.
• Upon login, players are presented with a world map showing available missions.
• No Empire specific HUDs. Vehicles do have unique HUDs.
• Bunny hopping will be possible, but will not give “much” of an advantage.
• Armor will be customizable.
• ADAD (strafe) spamming will not be possible.
• No animations for entering/exiting vehicles. There will be vehicle “start up sequences”.
• GUI is not currently customizable, but will be at some point.
• Sun glare will not effect pilots.
• There will be different voices for voice macros, some specific to a faction.
• Galaxy troop deployment is being discusses, although no guarantee it will be included.
• Players stats will be available on the web and via mobile apps.
• No stealth vehicles currently.
• More than one continent at launch.
• Online training will be more than twice as fast as off-line.
• Bases still have generators.
• Continents will support 2000+ plus players
• Squad Leaders can choose any class and receive passive perks and coordination tools.
• Continents will have multiple different environments, snow, forest, glacier.
• No MAC support so far.
• Working hard to prevent cheating and aimbotting.
• No pilot class. Any non-heavy infantry class can pilot/gun in a vehicle.
• There will be Killboards.
• MAX suites will have a melee attack.
• There is built-in voice chat.
• Planetside 2 runs on its own FORGELIGHT graphics engine.
• There will be automated and manned defenses for all bases.
• Currently no dual monitor support, but possible added in the future.
• You can still kamikaze your Gal (ship) into players.
• All weapons from PS1 will return in some form.
• Friendly-Fire is on.
• BFRs will not be returning.
• Medics cannot be infiltrators
• Facilities will have multiple objectives before you can take one over

In a recent interview at TORWars, Principal Lead Systems Designer Damion Schubert answered some questions about Star Wars: The Old Republic and revealed two new features that have made it off the “Wall of Crazy” and into testing. To give you some background the “Wall of Crazy” is a wall full of post-it notes where developers put up features they are considering adding to the game. Schubert revealed that two of those notes have made their way off the wall and into testing.

The first is a dressing room where players will be able to alt-right-click to preview an equipment piece to see its appearance on them or their companion. Seems a bit useless imo, why not just equip it to see what it looks like, but I guess if it’s a bindable item, this can be useful.

The second new feature is group leader markings. Group or raid leaders will be able to mark individual players with unique marking so it’s easier to identify where the healer or tank are as well as other members.  A useful feature indeed, but fully expected in a triple A title like STWOR.

Schubert also stated that addition features are coming to make it easier for players to find and form groups, but was not yet ready to release any details. The rest of the interview was pretty pointless as most of the questions went unanswered as Schubert was not willing to reveal any other information.

Wargaming.net is currently working on their second WWII MMO combat game, World of Warplanes, and we recently had the opportunity to ask Anton Sitnikau, WoWP producer, a few questions about the upcoming title.

The interview centers on certain aspects of combat and how, if any, integration between World of Warplanes, World of Tanks and World of Battleships will work.  Also discusses is how Ultimate Conquest, Wargaming’s RTS browser game, will be affected by WoWP.

Check out the full interview after the jump.

In other WW2 flight sims such as IL2 strumovik, players are able to kill the pilot by shooting at the cockpit instead of destroying the plane. Will that be possible in World of Warplanes?

You will not be able kill the pilot by shooting at the cockpit; however there’ll be a chance to knock him out of action for some period of time that will drastically effect the control characteristics of the plane. If you hit the gunner, the accuracy of fire will decrease or you will not be able to shoot at all. Planes will also have hitboxes representing various modules of the plane like engine, radio station, ammunition, fuel tank etc. Thus, if you know the “soft spots” of particular vehicles you’ll be able to use the knowledge in battles.

If a plane is seriously damaged, does the pilot have any options of landing it or trying to escape?

We haven’t decided yet on how this gameplay aspect will work in World of Warplanes. Most likely, there’ll be a landing runway somewhere on the map for those players who realize that due to the damage they have taken they can no longer be of any help to their team in battle and do not want to spend their time flying meaninglessly or just crash and pay for repairs.

This one’s a long shot, but I need to ask it. When a plane is shot down, will the wreckage crash onto the battlefields in World of Tanks?

We’re not planning to combine tank and plane battles on one map, meaning destroyed planes will not fall down on World of Tanks battlefields. Although that would be very cool.

In a previous interview, Alexander Zezulin stated that combat integration between WoT and WoWP would not be possible due to the difference in map scale. Does this mean it will never happen or could we possibly see some integration in the far future?

We do not have any plans like this even for the far future but being a living constantly growing and evolving game we can never say definitely “NO” . We are working on three standalone games with different gameplay styles and our main objective is to make each title interesting and appealing, without mixing them gameplay-wise.

In some of the screenshots for World of Battleships we see planes flying around attacking ships. Will WoWP and WoBS have integrated combat?

No, they won’t… for the same reason as World of Tanks will not have integrated combat with World of Warplanes. But there’ll be an option to call in AI-controlled airstrike that will add more fun and tactics into the game.

How will Ultimate Conquest be affected by WoWP? Will they share the same world map or will it be separate?

We are not yet sure about how everything will work in the Ultimate Conquest, but there’ll definitely be some interesting stuff to explore.

It has been stated that all three “World of” titles will have some form of economic integration where players can distribute resources, can you elaborate on how that would work?

You are right, players will be able to transfer gold and experience from one game to another, there’ll be some sort of integrated profile for all of the three games.

Some interesting stuff although I wish we got some more details about how Ultimate Conquest will work and I do like the fact that you’ll be able to land your plane if you’re heavily damage. Can’t wait to learn more.

In a recent interview with Thomas Farrer, DUST 514 producer, Gamasutra asked him about whether or not CCP has though about creating a PC version of their upcoming PS3 MMOFPS,

Yeah. We thought about all kinds of things. Right now, we’re pretty much just entirely focused on PlayStation. That’s what we’re going to remain focused on at least for the foreseeable future. But you know, who knows what happens in the future.

So there seems to be a glimmer of hope that eventually we’ll see a PC version of DUST 514. Nothing to hold your breath over, but it’s good to hear that a PC version is definitely not 100% out of the question.

Guild Wars 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic aren’t the only upcoming MMOs coming out with massive PvP zones. Enter The Secret World PvP warzone.

Today in an interview with creative directorRagnar Tornquist, we learned some new details as to how TSW’s large-scale PvP warzone will work. Below I’ve outline all the juice bits of information from the interview.

The Secret World PvP Warzone Details

• The three factions, Dragon, Illuminati and Templars will battle it out in the warzones.  It will be possible for one of the factions to get completely dominated and that faction “gets kicked off the table temporarily“
• Warzones are not meant for low level characters. You’ll need to get about 40-60 hrs in before you’ll become useful in Warzones.
• Warzones are not instanced and will be persistent.
• There is currently only one announced Warzone, an unnamed city in China, however there will be more in the final product.
• Players that participate in the PvP Warzone will gain ranks within their secret society.

The rest of the interview focused on PvE and the story-line aspect of The Secret World. If you’re interested check out the full interview at Ten Ton Hammer.

Gamescom has officially ended, but there’s still plenty of information coming out and today we have even more info on Guild Wars 2 PvP system, this time via Ten Ton Hammer as they interview ArenaNet Lead Designer Eric Flannum.

Most of the interview talks about the Conquest PvP demo shown at Gamescom, however there were some questions about World vs World and Guild vs Guild which reveal new details.

World vs World PvP

World vs World PvP matches will run for 2 weeks at a time running 24/7 and will be open to as many players as ArenaNet can ultimately fit onto a server.

It’s basically this giant strategy game with four really big maps, keep sieges, supply lines and all kinds of strategy. At the same time there are mobs for people to kill if they want to, and you can XP up from level 1 all the way to level 80 in World vs. World.

World vs World will match up servers every two weeks based on their win/lost ration.  So if a server is undefeated and another has never won, they won’t get matched up. Currently there are also no plans for any kind of seasons in regards to World vs World PvP, however if there is a demand for it, that could be something that is added in the future.

Guild vs Guild PvP

When asked about GvG, Flannum confirmed what Jon Peters has stated in a previous interview that Guild Wars 2 would not have Guild vs Guild PvP.

No, that’s one thing that is a pretty big departure. The reason we didn’t want to do it is that even in guild vs. guild in Guild Wars 1, we found that what we had to do is create a lot of systems to circumvent that. It was just really hard to get that many people all from the same guild on at any given time.

What we’ve said instead is that our guilds are going to be about building social networks, and if there is a group of people that are the hardcore PvP guys they’re all going to be in the same guild anyway so that’s OK. And they’re going to register as a team, and be known as the team from a specific guild and build up a reputation. And then that gives them the flexibility that if they want to have a top team along with a team 2 and team 3, they can do that kind of thing. So we wanted to disassociate the two things.

Now in World vs. World there are things like guild keep claiming, so you will claim a keep that your world has conquered, and your guild can claim that and fly their banners, they can upgrade it, spend resources, and do all kinds of stuff.

So there you have it, no GvG, but World vs World is sounding better and better the more info that’s released about it. Who else is excited?

In a new interview with GuildMag, Guild Wars 2 designer Jon Peters was asked some interesting questions about the structured PvP system and there were some juicy answers.

When asked whether there would be other structured PvP modes besides Conquest, Peter’s answered,

right now there’s only one mode, conquest

This could mean that either in the current development process there’s only one mode or it could mean there will only be one mode at the time of launch. It took it as there will be only one mode at launch time, but I could be wrong.

Peter’s also confirmed that eventually there will be an observer mode for structured PvP matches, but probably not at launch. PvP rewards will also be available to all players, not just those that play in the structured tournaments. The rewards mentioned were weapon skin unlocks and titles.

When Peter’s was asked “Why abaondon such a successfull format as gvg?”, he replied,

I’m not so sure gvg is all that successful…its a little too complex and little too hardcore

He goes on to talk about the difference between Conquest and how it’s an improvement.

So looks like Conquest mode is going to be the replacement for GvG in Guild Wars 2. Maybe I took his answer wrong, but to me it sounds like there isn’t going to be GvG outside of the Conquest PvP game mode. So can I now be disappointed?

You can watch the full interview after the jump.