Rock, Paper, Shotgun

I am once again reminded of the existence of a game by the announcement of an expansion. Dungeons & Dragons Online’s shift to free-to-play years ago has given it enough success to keep quietly humming along, with the second expansion in seven years launching in the Summer. The Shadowfell Conspiracy is a content update, with new adventure packs (missions), monsters, and companions. It’ll also bring “Iconic Heroes”, ready-made level 15 characters for those who view grind with haughty disdain. You pay to not play! A teaser trailer for all the new content is beneath these words and some more words.
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I have to admit that it had passed me by entirely that there was a DC Universe MOBA going on. But there is! It’s being made by Turbine and is called Infinite Crisis, and there’s a whole beta application thing going on over here. Seems like things are pretty quiet on this front, though, since the only reason I realised it existed at all was the appearance of two new videos on my video-detector, one showing Gaslight Batman, and one showing the lovely Doomsday. Sure looks MOBA-y.
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Oh no! The DC multiverse is exploding again. Heroes and villains will have to work together to save it by engaging in some sort of free-to-play MOBA called Infinite Crisis. I know quite a lot about DC comics but I don’t know anything about MOBA games but since I’m all alone in Castle RPS at the moment, I’m going to have to tackle this anyway. In place of informed opinion, I present to you a brief anecdote. I installed and played DOTA 2 for the first time this weekend and played through the tutorial, which involved hitting things and then getting dressed. Then I tried to play a game with bots and realised that I didn’t even know what my objectives were, beyond wearing armour. Here is the trailer for Infinite Crisis.

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Well now, this came out of nowhere. Once upon a time, Turbine’s Asheron’s Call – which is still running to this day – had an apocalypse dropped on it. The result? A vastly re-shaped world that had “sequel” written all over it – but mainly on the box, because it was called Asheron’s Call 2. It was quite well-received back in 2002, but by 2005, subscriber numbers had dwindled to a mere 15,000. To put it in perspective using entirely made-up math, that’s one 11 trillionth of a World of Warcraft. So Turbine dropped another apocalypse on its flagship fantasy world, only this time, it was a bit more final. Except that, as it turns out, it actually wasn’t at all. Without even so much as a warning, Turbine’s plucked Asheron’s Call 2 from its early grave, breathed life back into its dusty lungs, and sent it on its way.

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Time. The gaming industry – like everything else in the past, present, and future – exists inside of it, but often, it seems to observe time less as an incontrovertibly defining law of the universe and more as a set of loose guidelines. So delays happen right and left, and everyone cries while conveniently forgetting that their backlog can be seen from space. That in mind, I can’t really complain when developers decide to do things right instead of cutting corners en route to a quickly forgotten whimper of a release. And I especially can’t complain when said developers are super graceful about it, as both Turbine and Trion have been with Lord of the Rings Online: Riders of Rohan and End of Nations, respectively.

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Horses! They go fast. Except when they don’t – for instance, while asleep or carrying a very, very large person. And then, of course, there’s the most common horse sloth cause of them all: beta tests of MMORPGs based on the most culturally pervasive mythology ever to be written by a man with an irrational hatred of cars. The latter has claimed yet another victim today, as Lord of the Rings Online: Riders of Rohan has officially been delayed into October.

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Business horses! With suits and briefcases and stuff! That’s completely not what I’m talking about. And as much as I wish it was, an in-depth look at Lord of the Rings Online: Riders of Rohan‘s mounted combat’s not a bad consolation. Now, obviously, any game could put you in a saddle, hand you some variety of pointy stick, and send you haphazardly swinging on your way, but LOTRO’s basing an entire expansion around hard-charging equine-fu. Classes will have unique skills, playstyles, and – hopefully – /dance options. Ride past the break to watch some nice people explain the real horsepower behind your newfound horse powers.

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Lord of the Rings Online has sort of gotten trampled by the recent surge in new MMOs recently, but the F2P journey through the One Fantasy Universe To Rule Them All actually hasn’t disappeared off the face of the planet. On September 5, it’s even getting a shiny new expansion in the form of Riders of Rohan – which, sadly, is not about putting a saddle on the Rohan region and charging into battle atop a colossal landmass. The largely free chunk of content will, however, give everyone their own WARSTEED from which to do violence to both people and monsters. Turbine’s even sent along a nice trailer, which actually looks really impressive. Go on an epic quest of self-discovery, friendship, and betrayal culminating in a battle that nearly tears the world asunder and also ewww there’s a giant spider past the break to see the full thing.

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Speaking of MMOs, Turbine send word that LOTRO’s expansion, Rise Of Isengard, which sees the level cap raised to 75, and adds some familiar locales and characters to the line-up, is out today. Free-to-play adventurers can now adventure freely in Dunland, the Gap of Rohan, and Isengard itself. Fun times are to be had with Saruman The Betrayer, Grima Wormtongue, and other unpleasantmen. There’s also a 24-player dungeon in which you can “Face the ancient evil of Draigoch”. Mmm.

Watch the trailer below!
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