Da Newz - May 1

Beta Ticker Update: 677,318 (+6,599 from last week)

Quote of the Week: " So, if you've been reticent about PvP combat, or ignoring Warhammer Online because of it, it's about time you stop doing so and start getting yourself ready - [WAR] is coming, and it's going to change absolutely everything." ~ CVG

Big Story of the Week: "The April Newsletter" Days before the official announcement, pages and contents from the official WAR site were mined, and you can go ahead and check out Paul's Video Blogs, Scenarios 101 Part 4, Eataine Overview, the Beta Journal, the Grab Bag and the Guild Podcast. The highlight of the newsletter? Huge chunks of info on the "living guild" system!

• Warhammer Conflict uploaded a fun little flash game called "Orbs", which is WAR-themed. Sorta. You kind of have to see it for yourself.


• Keen's Korner: "When Scenarios Become Mini-Games" compares and contrasts Age of Conan's PvP system to WAR's.


• The Orlock Perspective debuts on Warhammer Geek with an essay entitled "Debuting With Alts In Guilds". Darn it. I just used the word "debut" twice in a sentence, and therefore will be tried, convicted and hung by a jury of English major peers.


• The WHA Waaagh looks at the history and pros and cons of instanced vs. open world combat.


• Warhammer Geek added another parody song to their library: "The Power of Tzeentch"!


• There's another convention hosting Warhammer Online -- this time it's in Germany.


• Warhammer Gamers repainted their site, and it's looking quite the spiff.


• Varhammer Vault vosted a vallpaper ventitled "RETRIBUTION!" Awesome.


• It's been about a month since we last saw the official WAR site post any new screencaps... how's 25 or so sound to you?


• GameSpot's got 12 screenies of their own as well... lush!


• There's a great PvP hands-on impressions piece up at GameSpot. Interesting fact: you can "earn" cinematic quickies as a reward for a battle well-fought!


• The Greenskin wants you to zerg him, baby! Yeah, like that. A little lower now. Stop! Be good! And then he wants you to zerg him just a bit more.


• Warhammer Gamers comes up with 5 ways to wait for WAR. #6? Get out and enjoy the fresh summer weather, people! We can be antisocial in the fall, promise.


• TTH interviewed yours truly in an epic battle of Q&As.


• Is Age of Conan shooting itself in the foot when it comes to its approach to PvP compared to WAR? The Greenskin says yes. The Greenskin also says "hand over your wallet, car keys and dignity."


• Bildo responds: "AoC and WAR: Can't We All Get Along?" Silly bunny, barbarians are for kids.


• Massively covered a bit of the ongoing guild beta drama... where's their coverage of my pain and suffering?


• Videogaming247 has two audio interviews up, one of Mythic's presentation in London, and a one-on-one interview with Josh Drescher. In a follow-up news piece, they reveal that (duh) EA's takeover of Mythic allowed the devs more time to work on the game before launch.


• Warhammer Gamers investigates that mysterious "Coming Soon" button on the WAR official site.


• Warhammer Stratics took at a look at the racial matchups in "Rivalries Part 1- Dwarf vs Greenskin"


• The Greenskin reviewed the "Warhammer: Condemned By Fire #1" comic book


• A French WAR site posted three gameplay videos of various classes in action. Sacre moo!


• Mark Jacobs popped onto the VN boards to clear a few things up about upcoming events. It boils down to this: they don't know how big open beta will be, OB will be about a month before launch, NDA will be lifted before OB, and not all servers will be up for OB and the head start.


• CVG (that's "Computers & Video Games" to you) posted a glowing article about WAR.


• Jeux Online's "Dungeons for Dummies" explores the facets of the dungeons we'll be experiencing in WAR.


• German site WAR-Welten gives you a badly-translated report on their hands-on experience playing WAR at a convention.


• Stratics posted their second part of a series featuring Warhammer's race rivalries, this time looking at Empire vs. Chaos. (Why read it? BECAUSE IT'S CHAOS!)


• Grab your June issue of PC Gamer, 'cause it's WAR crazy!


• The official Warhammer site provides a convenient wrapup of the NY Comic Con coverage, and another mention of all the media surplus on the Herald (courtesy of James Nichols).


• "A Grim Review of Warhammer: Condemned by Fire #1"... in a comic strip!


• Secret Life of Mobs has a new comic: "World of Beercraft"


• There's been some minor changes to the official WAR site (mostly in moving buttons and links)


• A French, or possibly Australian (we're not good at foreign languages), WAR site has posted three videos: Marauder, Zealot and Sorceress in action.


• "The Suggestion Box" makes an interesting connection between WAR and... Starbucks?


• PC Authority calls Warhammer Online a possible "Sleeper Hit Of The Year"


• The Greenskin ponders "Character Progression vs. Character Development" in a knock-down, bloody knife fight to the DEATH.


• Submit your questions for May's Grab Bag over at Warhammer Conflict!


• Keen checks back into the WAR scene (forget AoC, man!) with his thoughts on the April Newsletter.
  


• "The Waaagh blog, despite technically being about some other dirty little game, keeps churning out some pretty good posts." ~ WoW Insider (just liked that quote, thought I'd share!)


• Speaking of Keen, he gives us a simple explanation of "Why WAR (and... AoC... y'know) Is Awesome". One of the best WoW forum posts in a LONG time!


• Warhammer Geek is proud to announce the new name of their podcast: The Podcast of Reckoning. Look for the first installment May 5.


• Only-WAR has a writeup of their EA Mythic Press Conference Call. Pants were not allowed, but pig hats were.

Plug of the Week: Two up-and-coming WAR wikis need your help to fill in content, so get ye over to HammerWiki and MMO Wikis Warhammer to do your duty!