In Earth and Beyond News... If you have yet to check out Earth and Beyond now is your chance, just in time for the holiday too! For players who have yet to begin their galactic adventures in the world's first online role-playing galaxy, Westwood Studios is giving a sneak peak with a demo. The demo CD will be available at several nationwide retail and online outlets this month. Once installed, it will give players five calendar days in the Earth & Beyond galaxy. All of the sectors, ships, skills and enemies in the full version of the game will be accessible. In addition, the demo will include a $10 mail-in rebate* for the full retail version of Earth & Beyond. As an added bonus, players who purchase the retail version of the game can use the characters they've created in the demo. Players can get the Earth & Beyond demo from: - Electronics Boutique and GameStop stores nationwide for a purchase price of $1.99, beginning November 27 - PC Gamer magazine, in the January issue (cover-disc subscribers only), in mailboxes early December - A free download at: www.FilePlanet.com, beginning December 9 So check it. Also, The newest "Glimpse Inside" has been released with this issue giving us a look at the new combat skills recently introduced into the game. Posted November 27 2002 by Div Devlin

NwN: Collector's Edition Bioware sends word that the best, just got better as they cram so much into a little box. Thats right! The Collector's Edition of NeverWinter Nights will be coming soon! Inside of it you get: - The Art of Neverwinter Nights – The first ever collection of Neverwinter Nights art features 120 pages of exclusive artwork straight from the creative geniuses at BioWare. The book comes loaded with concept art, 'never before seen' sketches and images with a foreword by Ray Muzyka and Greg Zeschuk. - Official Neverwinter Nights Soundtrack – Featuring the soundtrack from Neverwinter Nights in its entirety as composed by Jeremy Soule. Seventy-two minutes of compelling, heart wrenching and primal music. - Official Sword Coast Map/Mouse Pad – The exclusive Neverwinter Nights Collector’s Edition mouse pad features a detailed overview of the Sword Coast – a large geographical area in the Forgotten Realms where the game itself takes place. -Collector’s Edition DVD Case – The entire three-CD game is presented in a new exclusive DVD collector’s case. In addition, the Neverwinter Nights Collector’s Edition will also contain an exclusive 34x22 poster of Lady Aribeth – Paladin of Tyr, as well as a long-sleeve, Neverwinter Nights T-shirt. This is actually a pretty cool package, and worth it for the price. By far, NwN has been the best product I've purchased this year especially with all the player modules available. Millions of hours worth of replayability. The Neverwinter Nights Collector’s Edition will be available in stores nationwide on November 28 for a suggested retail price of $79.99 US. Posted November 27 2002 by Div Devlin

Jobs@Shadowbane? Looks like Shadowbane is one step closer to becoming a finished product. Ubi Soft has several job openings for "a third-party developer for a highly-anticipated massively multiplayer online (MMO) game. Located in Austin, TX." We checked and currently of the two MMO titles that we know of, Myst Online and Shadowbane being published by Ubi, only Shadowbane is based in Texas, home of Wolfpack Sudios. Myst is in Spokane. So, for all you Shadowbane fans, don't just play it, work on it! Of the openings, they are currently looking for: Quality Assurance Testers Engineers Senior MMO Producer Game Data Integrator Lead World Designer If you don't know what those jobs are, then ya really should not apply. Resume's can be sent to mmojobs@ubi.com. Thanks to UnknownPlayer for showing this to me on GamaSutra. UPDATE: J at SBWarcry get's confirmation. Posted November 27 2002 by Div Devlin

Feature: Shattered Galaxy Screens... The folks from Shattered Galaxy sent us 4 new screens of their newest client for the game, version 1.5 which is currently in beta testing. This is looking pretty sweet! You can check out the four shots in our gallery, here. Shattered Galaxy is a MMOG RTS that allows players to engage opponents in frenzied tactical struggles. Unite with allies to contest enemy nations' territorial claims. You can customize your units with equipment best suited for your objectives. Achieve promotions for yourself and new upgrades for your war machines. Research new technologies to devastate the opposition. Where battles in Shattered Galaxy can last minutes and wars span months. The screens! Posted November 26 2002 by Div Devlin

Student killed in failed catapult stunt: A big Thumbs up to you moron's from Shadowbane thinking of using the working Trebuchet to do this stunt! BRISTOL, England--An Oxford University student who was a member of a dangerous sports club has died after being shot out of a catapult. Dino Yankov, 19, fell "an inch or two" short of a safety net. He landed on the ground after being catapulted 100 feet through the air. Thanks to the Sun Times for sharing this. Discuss: Next in extreme gaming! Posted November 26 2002 by Div Devlin

LJ: Gygax MMO Gamesite up... The MMOG Lejendary Adventures based on Gary Gygax's paper game of the same name, has officially launched it's web site for the game. So far there are screen's, boards and a introduction of the game. Check it. [ed. Yes, we know it should have it's own Image Topic now, and not a D20 Image] Posted November 26 2002 by Div Devlin

Sovereign still planned... Remember this MMO game from Sony, well it has not been forgotten. The website has been revamped and has a new look. No info other then a teaser page is available though. Maybe someday? Discuss: Bets are we will see a huge rollout just short of E3. Posted November 26 2002 by Div Devlin

Complete Suckage: You know it really does suck to be me; can I have a Do-Over? Last week Maestro and I hooked at my place to go hit a bookstore. "Reading is Fundamental" and all, ya know. We pull away from my place and get about a block away when we see some flashing lights and hear a loud... well, explosion. He ducks and we have flashbacks to being in the war. (We are both South Side Chicagoans, ya'll prolly don't understand.) Turns out the ElCo's transformer on my block blew. Were thoroughly fascinated by the sparks when a car in back of us tells us it's to time to move on. Show over. Hour later, I return to my place and smell something not good a cooking away. After tearing my place apart, I find the back of my PC smoking. The transformer blew the power, the power came back on, and my PC's power supply decided to send an arc through my system. The surge protector worked tough! The PS sucked. Total system damage: 1 MoBo 1 Processor 1 256Meg Ram stick 1 NIC Card 1 v90 Modem Card 1 250Meg Zip Drive 2 20gig Hard Drives What's worse is I don't have disposable cash on hand to get a new system, nor are any of the items covered under warranties. Like I said, Complete Suckage! Been down for a week, and could use a Do-Over, so instead were playing the catch-up game, not to be confused with tomato paste. Discuss: Can ya spare a dime? Posted November 26 2002 by Div Devlin

DE: Newsletter Codemasters has released the latest Newsletter for Dragon Empires, in this edition they tell us about some Hot Topics: - We have launched a French message board. - We have also launched a German message board. - DE Warcry has interviewed Calistas. - New Dragon Empires competition at MassiveMultiplayer. - Dragon Empires Warcry has launched! - RPG Vault post Dragon Empires Q&A 12. Check out all the DE goodness! Posted November 18 2002 by Div Devlin

Earth and Beyond: Updates... Earth and Beyond sends word they have new content that will be going live Nov.20, things to watch for include: - Six new combat skills, one for each character archetype. - More than 50 new enemies to fight. - New behavior from the unknown aliens that are invading the galaxy. - Three new high-level, epic encounters for groups of 20 or more high-level players. Also included will be new skills, additional enemies, and high-level, epic encounters intended for large groups of players. All are designed to enhance the combat experience for each character class. Posted November 18 2002 by Div Devlin

Neocron: Not in the U.S. If you spent the end of week last week or the weekend searching for a copy of Neocron and were unable to find it, unofficial word has it that the orders were recalled! There seem's to of been a problem with the CD keys where the "Zero's were printed as +'s, so they would not work." Hittin up EBGames and GameStop they estimate to have the new copies in on the 22nd. Meanwhile copies are now arriving around the nation mainly at CompUSA's.There are alot of pretty pissed people No official statement was released. Another MMOG down in flames on release. Posted November 18 2002 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane: A Bard's Tale... A new Bard's Tale was tossed up on the Shadowbane site, this one titled "King Rat" detailing event's which have been occuring within the world of Aerynth. The Burning Legion was in siege of this walled town of Stormwood held by the Covenant of Swords, when the rat’s wiles created a controversy that would sweep the fragment." The Burning Legion was in siege of this walled town of Stormwood held by the Covenant of Swords, when the rat’s wiles created a controversy that would sweep the fragment." Check it and see what happened that has the world in an uproar! Posted November 18 2002 by Div Devlin

UO: Mr. Tact Speaks... Well known for his forthrightness and critically honest discussions, MrTact discusses the recent East Coast hardware move, house decay, the thrilling upcoming Age of Shadows expansion, the 0 damage bug, and even a bit about factions. Here's a snippet: Some of you may be wondering why it's been so long since I last did one of these. Simply put, we have been working hard to hit our first major milestone for AoS, which we have done. The code is in the hands of QA now, so the dev team will mostly be fixing bugs in the release from now until we ship. I'm not really prone to hyperbole, but I have to say that I think this is going to the best expansion to UO yet. There are some big-ticket features, which I can't really talk about yet (beyond repeating what you've already heard, so I'm not going to waste my breath). What I think is going to make this a really cool release is that there are several nice little touches, not big enough to qualify for a bullet point on the back of the box, but that will make the game easier to play. For example, house deeds will be going away, replaced by a "house placement tool" that will let you build whichever type of house you want (and automatically looking in a couple of different places for enough gold to build it). Then there's my personal favorite feature, which is item properties display. When you mouse over an object, you will get a tooltip-like display of the relevant properties of the item, such as durability, damage range for weapons, damage resistances for armor, number of items in a stack, and so on. You can read the entire discussion on the UO Boards, but you need to register. Posted November 18 2002 by Div Devlin

In time for the Holidays: AC2: Fallen Kings goes gold. Asherons Call 2: Fallen Kings has gone gold, and should be in stores this month around the 22nd (November). DAoC: Shrouded Isles goes gold. The Dark Age of Camelot expansion Shrouded Isles went gold, and should be in stores on December 3rd. EverQuest: Planes of Power goes gold. The EverQuest expansion Planes of Power went gold and is now available for purchase in stores. Posted November 12 2002 by Div Devlin

Player Gatherings: Eve: The Second Genesis will be having a Player Gathering this week, November 14th at Chili's in Austin, Texas as announced by Pann. Recluse is going to be in town and would like to get together. Everyone is invited. Please let us know if you plan to come so we'll know how large a table we'll need. Stop over to get the details and let them know if you are going to attend. The SB Players Lunch is coming up next week (November 17th) hosted by PlayersLunch.com also taking place in Texas at the Ren Fair. It's to late to reserve your discounted ticket but you can still let them know you are going to attend. Dev's from Wolfpack will also be there. Posted November 12 2002 by Div Devlin

Project Entropia Fanzine: MindArk, Swedish developer of the virtual universe Project Entropia, today released the second issue of its popular fanzine, The Gate. The Gate is more than a typical fanzine. It offers the best of both the real and virtual worlds: MindArk development news, editorials, employee, fan and society profiles, tales from Calypso, item reviews, contests, a few laughs and more. Click onto http://www.project-entropia.com/ to read both issues of The Gate in PDF. Posted November 12 2002 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane Monday Movie: Ubi Soft released the second installment of their videoview with Sam "Meridian" Johnson yesterday which took place while Chris "Vosx" Mancil was down at Camp Wolfpack. In this episode Sam talks more about the basic functionality of the Shadowbane interface. He also goes into detail about inputting text macros, using and customizing the chat system, and the different interface skins inside the game. Meridian also talks about the local map of Shadowbane, and even takes part in some very brief newbie combat. You can download it from FilePlanet or SB Vault Posted November 12 2002 by Div Devlin

UO: Buy a Bard! Ultima Online, milking it for all the cash it can get has announced that their new Advanced Character Template program is now offering The Bard class for the sum of 29.95 (a one-time fee per Advanced Character) to have this character created on your UO account. Save yourself lot's of time by being jacked up! Posted November 12 2002 by Div Devlin

Gary Gygax does an MMO? The grandfather of RPG's is going online. Gary Gygax has an interview up on GamaSutra about bringing Lejendary Adventures into the MMO Market. Gary Gynax is looking to bridge the gap between gap between pen and keyboard by throwing his Lejendary Adventure pen-and-paper RPG into the MMOG ring (currently being produced by Dreams Interactive). Ion Storm project director Harvey Smith, being an RPG fan of both electronic and paper varieties, seemed like a natural -- and very willing -- volunteer to talk to Gary about RPGs, MMOGs, and the transition from pen-and-paper to mouse and monitor. You need to register on the site to read it. It's free. Posted November 6 2002 by Div Devlin

New Shadowbane Videoview: As J from Shadowbane WarCry noted, Meridian from Wolfpack Studios gave pluggage from what appeared a script for ThunderBox PC at the start of this introductory interview of Shadowbane that was filmed when Chris "Vosx" Mancil went down to the clubhouse. The videoview (part one) gives a walk through and introduction to the world of Shadowbane. Check it. Posted November 6 2002 by Div Devlin

Shattered Galaxy Beta Open: Nexon sends word that "THE SHATTERED GALAXY 1.5 BETA IS NOW OPEN!" You can now be one of the very first to experience the massive changes in Shattered Galaxy! Those who download and play SG 1.5 will experience the new and improved game interface and game play, and explore the overhauled units and revised item library! To register for the play test and download the new SG 1.5 client, visit the SG 1.5 mini-site here -- http://www.sgalaxy.com/mini_1.5/minisite.stm. We look forward to seeing everyone (and your buddies) in the game! Sincerely, SG Team It looks like I know what I'll be doing this weekend. Posted November 6 2002 by Div Devlin

Star Wars Galaxies: Beta 2 Started... In case you missed it, Q-3PO announced that Beta 2 started last Friday. In the announcment, he makes this point very clear if you have not been one of the lucky few to be invited: We are slowly ramping up Beta 2 This is still Focus Testing Beta 2 is not fun Beta 2 is still under NDA Beta 2 is no cup of tea Beta 2 is limited time offer Beta 2 is a major milestone He expands on those points and then does a quick Q&A. One of the items of note, is that as he writes regarding Beta 2 being a limited offer is: What I mean by this is check you profile on the front page of this site and make sure your information (especially email) is correct. If we send a beta invite and more than a week passes without the Licensing Agreement being signed (first step of acceptance), then we may revoke the invite and send it to another person. It may seem harsh, but we need to get people in the tests. Sounds like a good reason to hit the front page and make sure your info is correct. Posted November 6 2002 by Div Devlin

Warning: False Beta Test Invitation If you have recently been invited to Beta Test the Age of Shadows, it's a scam which also contains a trojan. Kerowyn sent us the following: We've gotten word that some Ultima Online players have been receiving bogus e-mails inviting them into an UO:Age of Shadows beta test. Attached to this e-mail is an executable file. Please be warned that this invitation is NOT from us; it is NOT legitimate in any way. Although we will be having a beta test for UO:AoS, please know that it will be a closed beta and that all the invitations have already been sent-no new testers will be requested. Further, the executable file attached to that e-mail includes a Trojan virus. We urge all players to be careful when examining the content of their e-mails, regardless of where you believe it came from. Some programs can allow their creators to hack into your computer and access your passwords, credit card information, and private files, or even destroy your precious data and hard drive. The best defense against such intrusions is to not open any files you did not specifically request. Be wary. It would suck to lose your account. Posted November 6 2002 by Div Devlin

Face of Mankind Shows Off... Face of Mankind the upcoming MMP FPS sent us some 30 screenshots of their game showing off the insides of buildings and outer cityscapes. No exclusives though, sorry. We have the first batch of fifteen up in the gallery for you to check out if you have not seen this game yet. It's looking good. Posted November 4 2002 by Div Devlin

Groone Works... Groone has been hard at work on his free app - Groone's Guild Leader v 4.x.7 fresh out of beta. If you are running a large guild, sticking post-it notes around your monitor or sending yourself e-mails about members in your guild, this is the prgram for you. Donate some cash in support of it, and get some free stuff too! Linkage: Groone's Guild Leader v 4.x.7 Posted November 4 2002 by Div Devlin

Hedron Speaks... Hedron, False Prophet of the guild KAAOS, former ranter of the missed Lum The Mad, Guest Writer everywhere, and all around evil bastard has finally installed an engine on his site False Prophecies in which he editorilizes and rants on PIG's or for those not knowing his terminology, MMO games. A couple of insiteful thoughts are already up. It's a Post-Nuke Template. Bleh. You have been warned. Posted November 4 2002 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane Update: Chis "Vosx" Mancil added us to the Community News lists making us feel all warm and tingly inside as he tells us that the newest addition to the Aerynthian Codex, a travel guide within the world, has been updated by the Bards of the land detailing the lore and history behind the Village of Gwenmoot and the Hamlet of Wainthorpe. After two years, this guy on the boards noticed that the Shadowbane Sword sure looks familiar to another sword. Meridian responded: We've drawn lots of inspiration from Moorcock's eternal champion books, especially the Elric saga. Melnibone' is the direct inspiration for how I would imagine the Deathless Empire of the Elves was at its height. There was a reason why everyone is attracted to this game, and here is another reason why. Posted November 4 2002 by Div Devlin

TSO: I Don't get it. This weekend after a small amount of pestering, I broke down and loaded The Sims Online beta onto my PC for my daughter. She's a huge Simaholic. Play's for about an hour every night before bed. I checked out what Watherthread had to say on it, tossed on the Parental Control Features in the game and let her go at it. About an hour later, she quit. Uh... it was to eat dinner. I think not. We don't get it. I've never played "The Sims" in any of its versions. She has a large collection for it now. We both walked away shaking our heads. Discuss: Could someone else explain this game. Posted November 4 2002 by Div Devlin