MMO News Roundup – 30th March

CCP finally show us some in-game footage from World of Darkness, courtesy of CVG this trailer was shown at the EVE Fanfest 2012 and is a brief taste of what this vampire MMO is aiming for. From what I’ve read this isn’t looking to be some sparkly Twilight cash-in (thank God) but an extension of ideas and gameplay already found in EVE Online where politics *matter* – should you become important enough in this arena you’ll have the ability to inflict perma-death on another character. There’s more details to be found in an interview with PCGamer, the most exciting thing? You don’t necessarily have to PvP OR PvE to be successful.

Hot off the PR press comes news of the fourth closed beta phase for TERA, running from Friday 30th March till Sunday 1st April with the level cap increased to 38, this should allow you to explore more areas and get your questing on. With over fifty hours of testing time available you’ll be spoilt for choice with the Eldritch Academy and Dark Cathedral dungeons earning a mention in the press release. If you’ve pre-ordered you should be granted access to this weekend and any future beta testing phases. With TERA going live on the 3rd of May you won’t have much longer to wait.

A frankly humongous blog post from Martin Bruusgaard, Lead Designer for The Secret World but an excellent one in terms of detailed information on: abilities, skills, gear, progression and crafting. If you’re looking forward to the June 2012 release of this MMO then you could do a lot worse than making a cup of tea and settling down to try and make sense of everything Martin discusses. To be brutally honest, there’s so much here it’s a little overwhelming but exciting points for me are: “TSW does not have any classes, but it has 525 unique abilities. When we say that these abilities are unique, we really mean it.” and “Assembly is a completely open system where you can craft any gear you like – all you need are the materials and a bit of know-how!” Sounds like Funcom are sticking to their promise of making an incredibly open MMO.

Fancy playing with your family tree? Star Wars: The Old Republic game update 1.2: Legacy will let you fiddle with the relationships of your main character and alts with a view to unlocking special abilities or Legacy Rewards. These unlocks will span a range of customisations including: emotes, abilities, passive stat bonuses and ship unlocks – reading through the blog post from William Wallace, Senior Game Designer – it actually sounds well thought out and I imagine it will add a lot of customisation options to the game, not to mention making levelling of subsequent characters a bit more engaging.

Fishing. You either love it, hate it or merely endure it for the sake of raid goodies. RIFT jumps on to the angling-bandwagon with Update 1.8 Infernal Dawn and introduces both Fishing and Survival skills; now you can have your fish and eat it! The Survival skill would possibly be better named “Camping” as it features the creation of buff foods from all those little fishies you caught and making tents or bedrolls.