FREE! NAVIGATE Issue 10 | March 2009 WIN! World Of Warcraft + INTERVIEW Hardware! Jumpgate Jumpgate Evolution MMOZine Are NetDevil prepared Free Magazine For MMO Gamers. Read it, Print it, Send it to your mates Evolution Beta Keys for launch? EXCLUSIVE LOTRO Special Edition + DEVELOPER CHAT Everquest is 10! Happy birthday to Sony’s ground-breaking MMORPG APOCRYPHA EXPLORING THE LATEST EVE EXPANSION + EXPANSION PREVIEW Warhammer Online: Call GOODBYE TABULA RASA FREE REALMS PREVIEWED To Arms + PLUS! MIDDLE EARTH ON TRIAL Mythic go on the offensive CONTROL NAVIGATE |02 Contents WIN! QUICK FINDER DON’T MISS! LORD OF THE Every game’s just a click away This month’s highlights… RINGS PACK! Pirate Galaxy Football Welcome Dragonica Superstars Need for Speed Free Realms to EVE ONLINE: Online Jumpgate Free Realms Atlantica Online Evolution If you happen to be reading this tenth issue on APOCRYPHA Doin’ it for the kids The Chronicles publication day – which happens to fall on the Need for Speed Could this update be Final Fantasy of Spellborn tenth day of March – then you should be the best EVE yet? XI Online Lord of the impressed that today happens to also be a EVE Online: Rings Online significant date in the history of the classic MMO, Apocrypha EverQuest EVE Online, which sees the release of its most Warhammer interview ambitious expansion: Apocrypha – which by Online: Call to Arms frightening coincidence happens to be its tenth. As if this cosmic convergence wasn’t enough to have you avoiding ladders and black cats for The Chronicles the next week, we celebrate the tenth birthday of of Spellborn WIN WORLD OF EverQuest, which a decade ago this month went Could it be magic? PLUS! WARCRAFT GEAR! on to become the most popular MMORPG of its day, and still has a greet deal of life left in it… Warhammer Online: unlike some other games you’ll read about this DON’T MISS ISSUE 11 SUBSCRIBE FOR FREE! issue. Enjoy the mag. Call to Arms Richie Shoemaker, Editor Who could resist [email protected] half-naked Dwarves? WARNING! MULTIMEDIA DISABLED! If you are reading this, then you didn’t choose “Play” MEET THE TEAM when Adobe Reader asked you about multimedia when The MMOZine massive were told to go you opened the magazine. forth and multiplay, which they did… Without the multimedia playing, the magazine will look correct, but you will be missing out on all of the extra content built into each issue, like videos, animated screenshots, annotations, quizzes, competitions and more. PAUL PRESLEY JIM ROSSIGNOL DAN We recommend you close and re-open the magazine and select “Play” when A big fan of Seven, When your number GRILIOPOULOS asked about the multimedia to enjoy the magazine as intended. apparently. The one is up, your number Has his own infinite with Brad Pitt in. is up… improbability drive. CONTROL NAVIGATE |03 Alpha FIRST The closed beta should be LOOK opening up soon enough. Pirate Galaxy Publisher: Gamigo A sideways look at saving the world Developer: Splitscreen Studios Heritage: None What’s the story? Link: www.pirate The hierarchy of MMO games runs thus: Triple-A subscription model galaxy.com games, subscription games with an RMT marketplace, then free-to- ETA: Spring play games with RMT extras, free-to-play with advertising and web browser games. Pirate Galaxy is very much the latter, a sci-fi themed browser game (with optional downloadable client for those so PREVIEW inclined) about space adventurers battling evil aliens and other players FEEDBACK! in a quest to plunder the universe. Click here to tell us what What do we know? you think of Unlike, say, EVE Online, Pirate Galaxy’s space adventuring takes place Pirate Galaxy in full arcade-style 3D, with players using a fairly impressive (for a browser-based system) graphics engine to simulate both soaring through the stars, heading into space stations and swooping down “Unlike, say, EVE onto the planets for atmospheric combat action – beat that CCP! Online, Pirate Galaxy’s Okay, truthfully it’s not likely to give the bigger boys such as EVE or space adventuring Jumpgate Evolution any sleepless nights, but Pirate Galaxy appears to be designed specifically for quick-fire, dip-in/dip-out fun, making takes place in full its chances of becoming a big casual hit all the better. Plus, German arcade-style 3D” developer Splitscreen Studios is hoping that the technology on display will serve as an Don’t worry, the pirates advert for just how far browser-based games are the good guys. have come since Runescape. When do we get more? Currently in a closed beta, publisher Gamigo – the team behind such offbeat hits as Shot Online (the golfing MMO) and the oddly popular Fiesta Online – is slowly opening the doors to new players every day, until a target of 5,000 is reached. Beyond that, we’ll just have to keep watching the stars to see when the Jolly Roger is hoisted and the public doors are finally thrown open. CONTROL ONLINE GAMING • NO SUBSCRIPTION FEES C au gh t Join millions of players worldwide and t S in o u t yo m h play through all four chapters in the u e r m h s o i e award-winning Guild Wars universe! d n a e t t ! h o i f s b F a i r tt e l I e m ? p Out now! €14.99/£12.99 (SRP) © 2005 – 2008 NCsoft Europe Ltd. All rights reserved. NCsoft, the interlocking NC logo, ArenaNet, Guild Wars, Guild Wars Factions, Guild Wars Nightfall, Guild Wars: Eye of the North and all associated logos and designs are trademarks or registered trademarks of NCsoft Corporation. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are property of their respective owners. www.DiscoverGuildWars.com CONTROL NAVIGATE |05 Alpha FIRST Dragonica LOOK Publisher: gPotato.eu Developer: Barunson A sideways look at saving the world Interactive Heritage: Dragon Raja Link: http://en.gpotato.eu What’s the story? ETA: N/A There’s been a definite shift towards grim, brutal fantasy of late. Age of Conan paved the way, Warhammer danced along afterwards, Chronicles of Spellborn and Darkfall are hacking and slashing their PREVIEW way into view and a thousand and one free-to-pay Asian-style titles FEEDBACK! are lining up for a charge, weapons dripping with the blood of their Click here to previous victims. Thank Buddha then for Barunson Interactive’s cute- tell us what Brightly-coloured characters as-heck, side-scrolling, tongue-in-cheek Dragonica. you think of – check. Big numbers all Dragonica over the place – check. Guess What do we know? where this game comes from? On the surface it looks like any one of a hundred They’re so cute when anime-style, cutesy free-to-play games out there, they’re young. but the thought of everything being handled “You even get in a side-scrolling manner in the style of Golden pets and housing Axe, combined with Super Smash Brothers-style combat (think fast, frenetic and very colourful) to give everything and all manner of combos to master, suggests a personal touch” a quick pace to gameplay that makes it perfect for jumping in and out of on a casual basis, or teaming up with friends either to complete instanced missions or to have a good old 10- player brawl. You even get pets and housing to give everything a personal touch. Boss monsters provide the four traditional Warrior, Mage, Archer and Rogue classes with some tactical gameplay, and a progressive class expansion system means you make regular choices about how to expand your personal abilities as you level up. When do we get more? Late spring is the only official word on eventual release, although different territories are firing up private and open betas all the time. The side-scrolling action adventure For Europe that’s being handled by gPotato (an offshoot of casual, is making a comeback. Who’s for a free-to-play specialists Gala Networks) and requires signing up for a Dynamite Dan MMO in 2010? free account to get a chance at an invite. CONTROL NAVIGATE |06 Alpha Atlantica Online Developer: NDoors | ETA: Out now Need for Speed Online New MMOs and content Publisher: EA | ETA: TBC Atlantica Online has a ‘Fortnight updates to mark on of the Oracle’ event that kicked off Having learned from its mistakes with the on March 6th. For the two-week ill-fated (and ahead of its time) Motor City your calendar with a period, everyone receives up to Online, EA is hoping not to repeat them BIG RED PEN! 150% XP boosts, as well as the entirely with the latest instalment in the chance to take part in a series of long-running Need For Speed racing series. UP Free-to-play, NFSWO isn’t just a cheap contests, races and games to earn 7 console port, being built for PC from the extra rewards. Age of Conan ground up, including a completely Developer: Funcom | ETA: Out now customisable interface featuring a fine selection of Conan’s reign has been rocky of late. Final Fantasy XI Online ‘gadgets’ that Large-scale debt and the loss of key Developer: Square-Enix | ETA: Out now players can members of staff haven’t helped, but FFXI has been ticking along nicely in the display alongside on the plus side, the actual game is background, slowly amassing it’s now very their custom- still improving and even about to get impressive half a million-strong userbase. April built cars. a major content update.