MMO News Round-Up: Monday 30th January 2012

ArenaNet shared an update on the 2012 release of Guild Wars 2, promising to “usher out old thinking – the tired old quest model, stiff repetitive combat, and monthly fees – and usher in the new.” I’m excited at the prospect of innovation in quest models but who’ll collect ten bits of generic animal for random strangers now? March / April will see GW2 open up to beta testing with details due to be published here of how you can participate.

Spirit Tales: a “light- hearted anime fantasy MMORPG  developed by X-Legend” has published information about sign-ups for their closed beta. The press release promises a pet capture system and over 40 million customisation options. Having had a quick look I’m not sure how much this “epically cute” MMO will appeal to Western gamers but I’ve signed up on the off chance I get to play a pipe smoking fox person.

Crucible 1.1 dropped for EVE Online players last Tuesday, this expansion update sees a lot of smaller tweaks being introduced which as a whole look to be improving the UI experience. Most importantly, in my very humble opinion, a Loot All option has finally been added .. that damsel will be a lot less distressed now. The full list of features can be found here and are well worth a look see.

Autumn 2012 will see Warner Brothers Interactive and Turbine launch the new expansion to Lord of the Rings Online, Riders of Rohan. The level cap is being increased to 85 and  mounted combat will be introduced. Hobbits on War Steeds, interesting.  Kate Paiz, Executive Producer for LotRO explains that it’s ” One of our largest expansions ever, Rohan is expected to be twice the size of the recent Rise of Isengard expansion and includes the most new game systems and technology we’ve introduced since 2008’s Mines of Moria.”

Funcom have just released a new location video for their upcoming MMO: The Secret World. It’s very creepy and rather exciting, the title is promising to bring us the opportunity to play an MMO without class or level restrictions. I feel we’re well overdue a bit of genuine innovation in online gaming so it’ll be interesting to see how this game pans out.

Riotzone has entered its Open Beta, this free-to-play strategy game from Mail.Ru Games is browser based and offers PvE and PvP gameplay. You enter the foray as a mercenary commander battling against an almost certainly evil Dictator, choosing between two sides: power to the many or power to the few. If guns, mercenaries and women in bikini tops are your thing this might be worth a look in between doing actual work.

Finally and with a little *squee* of excitement comes the news that WAKFU from Ankama has had a release date of February 29th announced. This odd and addictive game features turn-based combat and interesting concepts including the need to manage the eco-system. I played its predecessor DOFUS far too much so I’m hoping this release will follow Ankama’s trend of offering the MMO market something just a little bit different.