Da Newz - May 22

Beta Ticker: 700,255 (+7,549 from last week)

Quote of the Week: "We're not nervous about its quality, we're nervous about sending it out on the world. It's like sending your kid to school for the first time." ~ Josh Drescher

Story of the Week: Oceanic Servers. The Warhammer Herald put up an Oceanic Server News and FAQ for those of you in that region, and EA confirms that Australia, New Zealand and Oceanic copies will be shipped and go live the same time as everyone else (fall 200. Wash that down with a swig of a GameSpot AU or IGN follow-up interview!

In other news:

• Hardcore Casual has a rant against Age of Conan's launch and a cautionary (if positive) tale for WAR's upcoming release.


• Keen's (shudder) Korner asks, "Will WAR make quests feel like quests again?" Good question. If you solve it, I'll give you 45 xp and this donut.


• The Greenskin is compiling questions on dwarfs and greenskins for a future interview, so pop on over there and give him a piece of your mind.


• Massively Speaking Podcast 5 discusses Blizzard's recent media bomb and how its designed to fight against fans' WAR anticipation.


• Orlock over at Warhammer Geek asks, "Can a game be TOO big?" (in terms of subscribers, not world size)


• As WoW looks to expand, The Greenskin queries "Will WAR follow the WoW expansion model?" I think it's a question a lot of us have on our minds.


• "Paul Barnett is actually six, identical robots that we stole from the British Air Force."


• A visitor to the NY Comic Con invested a chunk of time into the WAR beta, and here's his neat writeup at Sturmgrenadier.


• WAR will be making the printed rounds, with articles in the June editions of both PC Gamer and Game Informer. You can read the (short) Game Informer article on this thread.


• Check out 22 gorgeous new screenshots over at the official site!


• Congrats to Warhammer Conflict and their one year anniversary! Huzzah!


• The Greenskin spotted a few posts by Mark Jacobs on the forums, and he shares the love with you.


• If you have the shakes and need you some videos, Greenskin directs you to WarHammerOnline.tv -- it's new, so we can't vouch for quality or content. Also, check out WHMovies.com for more movie madness.


• Warhammer Conflict has announced their wiki is sporting over 300 entries now -- and they need your help to grow them ever more!


• WHA has set up a nifty RSS feed that you can subscribe to let you know when a dev posts on their forums.


• Next Generation has a WAR preview article up -- standard stuff, but nice nonetheless.


• The Secret Life of Mobs' "The End" wraps up their current short storyline (yet it is not the end for reals).


• The German issue of Frontline (a Warhammer Online rag) was kindly translated into English and can be read here.


• Warhammer Geek's uploaded their second Podcast of Reckoning, which includes an interview with Mr. Greenskin himself. Give it a listen!


• We found a new WAR blog for you to digest: Book of Grudges. Welcome to the WAR community!


• Although this will probably be "old news" by the time you read this, a huge new wave of beta invites went out to both the US and EU communities.


• Allakhazam has a great interview with Josh Dresher that covers, among other aspects, character creation.


• Meet Magnus, a brand new GOA community manager, over on this WHA forum thread!


• West Karana admits she was wrong about Age of Conan -- and speculates that she might be mistaken about WAR's upcoming presence as well.


• Ten Ton Hammer has a wee lass of a Sorceress analysis/rehash up for you to court.


• Two quick notices from EA Mythic: a Condemned By Fire comic beta key FAQ, and an Canadian EB CE Pre-Order Cards Update.


• A blog/site aggregator, Da Big WAAAGH (hey, that's our name! sort of!) is now open for quick perusal.


• "There's Beta and Then There's BETA!" over at Book of Grudges clarifies what's going on with WAR's varying beta levels.


• Paul Barnett bemoans a quote taken out of context.


• Game Arena asks, "Warhammer: Can EA Pull It Off?" Let's see... um, YES.