I’ve not seen I am Legend yet - I can’t quite see how the book could make a full-length feature film and so I strongly suspect I’ll hate it. If anyone who has read the story has seen the film, do let me know what you thought of it in the comments, please.

Meanwhile, we can have fun replaying the plot on Norrath as a Vampire Slayer extraordinaire. There are a number of ways you can increase your damage against the blood-sucking beasts, making you the darling of Mistmoore Castle raids.

Vampire Master Strike

Vampires don’t have a Lore and Legend quest like most of the other primary races. I suppose this is because they crumble into dust rather than leaving body parts for us to harvest.

At any rate, to gain the master strike you need to complete the Bloodline Chronicles. This is an adventure pack so although I believe it is included free as a part of the Kunark all-in-one expansion, you may find you need to purchase it separately. The adventure pack consists of an extended quest-line from either the Hand of Marr or the Brethren of the Night. The two quest-lines are very similar and aimed at groups but you can do the quests solo (gray) from around around level 45 onwards. [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

It’s been 20 years since the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was released as an adventure game on 5¼” floppy disks.

20 years, and I’ve still not finished it.

This time, I’m going to crack it. The BBC have released two editions based on the results of a contest to supply graphics for the classic game. Edition One is with graphics by Nolan Worthington, who won the competition, while Edition Two is predominantly illustrated by runner-up Andrew Wyld but also includes favorite location images from other entrants. The saved games are not tied to the editions, so you can swap back and forth as often as you like.

The original hints are included as a link but if that’s not enough for you (and it certainly wasn’t enough for me when I bought the original version), the big difference between then and now is that it’s easy to look up a walk-through. I’ll be avoiding reading it to start but if I get stuck on the Heart of Gold again, you can bet I’ll take a quick peek. Wow, it’s been twenty years and I still know exactly where I threw in the towel.

I’ll be slogging along at this on the evenings when I’m not in the mood for multi-player. Let me know if you are playing too and we can share tips!

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Have you got what it takes to burn the rope?

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

It’s that day again - take everything with a grain of salt lest you be fooled. With that warning out of the way, here are my personal favorites for April Fools’ Day.

Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. announces its long-awaited return to console gaming with World of Warcraft: The Molten Core and offers a new Bard Hero Class as a part of Wrath of the Lich King.

WowInsider announce that they are becoming HKO Insider and covering the very popular MMO Hello Kitty Online.

Just as this popular party accessory holds at its core a delicious payload of candy, so too does its history hide a fascinating tale of war, destruction, faith, rebirth and the ultimate triumph of good over evil: The Diablo Loot Piñata

Guildwars has changed all player-controlled characters into stick figures.

LotRO announces the Fowl-Peoples as a new race for the Battle of Amon Hen update, complete with Chicken Coop housing.

The Sony sites are coming back with “You don’t have permission to access / on this server,” maybe their idea of a joke?

If you see any other gaming pranks for April Fools, leave a note in the comments so we can all share in the fun.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Starcraft fans must watch this Korean comedian imitating the game. No, I don’t speak Korean but it’s hysterical never-the-less.

In an attempt to lighten up from all the EQ2flames madness, I thought I’d share Kaladryn’s great post on their forums:
Why I Should Win the Gigglegibber Lottery

Unfortunately, this got hidden away on the server forums and so (in my opinion) never got the attention that it should have.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

It has come to my attention that there are people who do not know the story of Burned Woods. The important thing to know is that there was a zone called Burning Woods, which was a part of Kunark in EQ1.

This took some time because the original thread got destroyed in a forum update and I found various versions floating around that are not quite what I remember the main version. Most seem to have the language cleaned up which - considering he bleeped out 90% of the swearing in the original, struck me as unnecessary. The main version seems to replace “a$$” with Halfling which is totally bizarre.

Luckily, I did find it eventually - on our guild forums. I should have looked there first. :)

This was originally was posted to EQNecros and the follow-up (by someone else) appeared on the thread about a week later.

So there I was…..minding my own business in The Overthere, when all of a sudden I see the message: “d00d sow plz”.
Of course, my natural instinct was not to answer, since I thought the clueless newb (hereafter referred to politely as “the petitioner”) must have been poorly informed at best.

Boy was I ever wrong. [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

Pirates of the Caribbean Online has had bizarrely low-key marketing for a Disney game. As with any Disney game, you need to have enjoyed the films to really get into the game — but if you have a soft spot for Captain Jack Sparrow and his cohorts, this game should at least make you smile. Best thing of all, you can play for free! There are some minor limitations and you will get some in-game advertising (mainly telling you to upgrade for full screen mode) but it’s certainly totally playable.

Disney developers have made some weird assumptions (non-US readers, use [shift]-2 to get the @ symbol when asked for your email address) and when I started up it forced my monitor into 1024×768 pixels; changing to windowed mode didn’t initially fix this but a reboot and reload of the game seemed to get it right. They’ve also made a few unexpected decisions in terms of UI and key-interface but nothing game-breaking.

You only need to give basic details to sign up on the web for your account and then download the client. [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

I think there might be something in the air at the moment. This morning I saw a link to this very weird Chinese real-life PvP game. I was still shaking my head and mumbling WTF to myself when I landed on a post with the somewhat slower paced WoW in Real Life in China piece. Just as I thought I might be recovering, someone else posted this Japanese Ronald McDonald dance flick.

I’m not clicking on any more Youtube links until morning! Maybe things will be back to normal then.

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

What a brilliant idea — you have to help future instances of you get up the stairs to solve the puzzle…

http://www.nekogames.jp/mt/2008/01/cursor10.html

It’s not just about high score - can you make it to the 16th floor? I’ve spent most of today cursing myself for not being more helpful when I needed it most. Not to mention getting in my own way!

Great concept - very, very clever. Now that I’ve sussed it, I’d like to go back and help the previous instances of myself…

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.

You can play Daikatana free until December 31st. Previously held up as an example of how wrong game development can go, word now is that it’s not so bad after all.

Gametap writes:

Daikatana delivered on its promise of delivering a huge game of 24 sprawling levels spanning four distinct ages (Ancient Greece, Dark Ages in Norway, futuristic Japan, and a near-future San Francisco). Each level had a suite of unique enemies and weapons, with the only constant being the game’s hero named, uh, Hiro, and his sidekicks Miko and the regrettably stereotypical Superfly Johnson, both of whom fought alongside Hiro. The titular star of the game, the actual Daikatana sword wielded by Hiro, persisted throughout, gaining experience and effectiveness the more players used it. But while the game delivered the supposed flash of its promise, it failed to deliver the substance.

Still, there’s worse ways to spend a blustery day when the roads are packed with Christmas shoppers. Give it a whirl and see for yourself!

Posted by Taymar on http://www.mmorpg-info.org.