I know it may seem a bit strange to see Warhammer instead of Warcraft in the title of my post, but Dave and I got a chance to have a chat with and ask questions of Mythic Community Manager James Nichols at this past weekend’s GameX.  So, I figured given those circumstance coupled with the lack of exciting things happening in WoW this week are a good enough reason for me to allow it to enter my life again.  Temporarily.

A bit of history with myself and Warhammer.   I’m not the Warhammer guy, Dave is, in our little group of friends.  So when I heard about WH Online, to me it was an mad grab for the greedy Games Workshop to get into the MMORPG market while the path Blizzard cut was still clear.  It took nearly all of their promises, gameplay trailers, cinematics and more than a few well written Warhammer fantasy books to even agree to get me to try the game.  So I buckle, agree and sign up for the beta by pre-ordering the game.

About 1 week prior to the open beta, I *finally* got my damned beta key to work.  I jumped into the game to find an average run of the mill riddled with bugs and badness MMORPG.  However, I also saw in WH Online massive potential.  The lore and classes grabbed me and held on tight.  But at the same time, the broken mechanics and bastardization of the game itself pushed me hard back into the loving arms of Azeroth.  I lasted from the time I started in beta until the release of Wrath of the Lich King, fairly hardcore.  After that, I kept WH Online as a side game for about 7 more months before calling it quitsies.  Lack of fixes for release bugs, insane class balance decisions, lack of real competition and the WORST battlegrounds I’ve played in any game yet (Too objective.  Warhammer is about KILLING, not capturing flags.  See below) ultimately led to my downfall.

Read. Follow. Repeat for hundreds of hours.

Now, what follows is the interview with James Nichols of Mythic.

Bill: For all the diehard Warhammer fans out there, this question must be asked.  Are there any plans to include any of the other Chaos Gods in a greater capactiy?

James:  No plans for that right now, other than the small things already in game.  Simply wouldn’t fit with the game mechanics.

Bill: With such an established set of lore, so built upon by the company and fans, why was it decided to take Warhammer Online in a direction that felt more like DAoC 2?

James: Lots of things just naturally carried over from DAoC, ideas the developers just loved.  Then again, a lot of prevalent things like relics did not carry over, making the game different from DAoC.

Bill: Any chance of 3 factions or a free for all PvP server, since WH:O is already so similar?  Those being 2 of most people’s favorite mechanics from DAoC.

James: 3 factions would destroy the mechanics of the game, as they’re built now.  No plans for free for all PvP either, as it would not draw a suficient amount of people to it.

Bill: At release, many broken mechanics and missing features caused an early mass exodus of players from the game.  As of the time I quit, most of those things still existed.  Are they fixed?

James: Patch 1.3.2 addressed almost all of the problems plagueing game play, technical and lag issues.  AOE and CC power issues have also been addressed, to make the mechanics feel less dominating and much more situational.

Bill: Also, the 6 capital cities promised at launch are still 4 shy of that total.  Any chance of seeing the other 4 cities soon?

James: No plans as of right now.  Time constraints at release killed the hopes for all 6, as each city took 9 months for a team to build.

Bill: Warhammer had a huge surge of players at release, but lost most of them.  So to all the people out there that have an account rotting, give them one reason to come back and try the game again.

James: With almost all bugs having been fixed and many other class issues ironed out, Warhammer Online offers the best PvP experience in MMORPGs right now.  Play Warhammer if PvP is your main goal.

That’s that, folks.  James and the other Warhammer devs present at GameX were great guys, very fun to talk to.  I spent a few hours at their booth and even some time at the after parties gabbing it up with them.  Very good people who I think truly want to put out a good game.  Still, I felt a bit of a corporate line being towed during the answering of the questions.  All said, I will be signing up for another month of Warhammer, if nothing more than to see if they delivered on any promises yet.  Keep your eyes open in the next week or two for  a follow-up!

In this week’s episode:

• Goodbye Geocities
• Andrew’s First thoughts on Uncharted 2
• Fan Made Halo Warthog – Operation Chastity
• Bill and Dave went to GameX
• Bill loves Global Agenda the Game

Download this Episode Here

Listen to it below

Here are the photos that we tried to upload during the weekend of the show. But as you read from Bill’s articles, the internet was non-existent due to a lame hotel and internet problems at the con. Also, there were hardly any cosplayers and/or booth babes to take photos of. Nonetheless, here they are. Enjoy them past the break.

Again, big thanks to the GameX staff for a kick ass event.

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Ah yes, the dreaded Day 3 of a good con.  Dread because it comes with an accompanying feeling of “Damn, I wish this wasn’t over so soon” as well as wondering if you should be there at all, because the last days of most cons are always notoriously lacking, for obvious reasons.  GameX did come with the feeling of wishing it wasn’t over so soon, but surprisingly, seemed to maintain about 90% of exhibitors and celebrities throughout the third and final day.  We left mid-way through the day only because of scheduling issues with getting back to Pittsburgh at a decent time.  Barring that, we would have, without a doubt, stayed the entire third day.
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Day 2 of GameX, while starting an hour late for us due to an alarm clock failure, has proven to be just as fun and successful as Day 1.  More, actually, on both fronts.  I’ve never managed to have this much fun at a gaming convention before.  The staff is smart, hard working, friendly and willing to help with whatever anyone needs.  The exhibitors were, with one small exception I will mention later, top notch and full of win.  The floor? Packed today, people old and young, hardcore gamer and people new to the scene.

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On the flip side of the spectrum from Inferno’s “Way too serious” cheese we have Bayonetta. Just as cheesy. Perhaps more so. But with one major difference… Bayonetta does NOT take itself seriously, in any way that I can see. In fact, it seems to poke fun at itself at times, which I find to be fun and it really makes the cheese factor turn into more of a great storytelling and game play thing rather than the glaring problem it is in Dante’s Inferno. An attractive female lead, clad only in her own hair (Which happens to turn into weapons and demons, as well as clothes), with guns strapped to her stripper high heels. Sounds like a recipe for crazy action hero to me!

The levels we got to play were limited to two, both under the title “Foreplay”. It was a series of linear, beautiful, large environments littered with over-sized weapons to use and even more over-sized ridiculous but cool enemies and bosses. The first level culminated with a boss battle with a rather gigantic gentlemen who looked like a demonic version of The King, from Burger King. After a few minutes of button mashing and over the twop use of the environment, the boss fight ends with Bayonetta’s hair demon-dragon-thing ripping through a building, and destroying The King. Impressive, laughable, but always fun. The second level was even more ambiguous story-wise, but it was a wall and ceiling walking fight with what appeared to be a teacher or rival of some sort. All in all, the game looks to be a keeper and it may even prompt me to but a new 360 just to play it.

Keep checking back for our GameX coverage.

Wandering the floor post press badges, we happened upon the amazing display set up for EA’s upcoming new title, Dante’s Inferno. Dante’s Inferno is loosely based on Dante Alighieri’s epic poem Divine Comedy. I say loosely, because having read the literature before, I do not remember double jumps, spine-scythes, giant boobed demon tossing women, Dante being a Templar, O-Button mashing or the other multitudes of over the top cheesy things I saw in this game. Granted, I only played one level, but I see one glaring problem already with Dante’s Inferno. It seems to take itself *very* seriously. Almost “We’re re-writing a classic” seriously. I don’t care for that. The game play itself is a direct rip-off of God of War, down the the exact basic combos and souls/orbs mechanic. Though, God of War was amazing, so while a rip-off, it makes for solid game play.

The level we got to play was “Lust”, as each level is based on a different layer of Hell. Lust was filled with disturbingly rendered – but beautifully as well – naked people, dismembered sex organs on the walls, constant vagina-shaped portals and phallic objects jutting out of every possible area. Visually disturbing at times, but very fitting for the setting, I will admit. After solving quite a few frustrating puzzles and slicing more naked demon chicks with tentacle vaginas than I care to remember, I found myself in a boss battle with a genre-typical GIANT sized sex-demon queen. I’ll leave specifics of the fight out, but suffice to say, one of her more annoying moves is her nipple opens up and spits out demon babies, which she promptly removes from her naked breast, causing a giant jiggle as she throws them down onto the platform you are on. Yes. You read that all right.

Keep checking back for our GameX coverage.

This was written Friday, but due to the Philadelphia having some apparent hatred for internet at both hotels and conventions, could only be posted a day late.  Apologies.

GameX, day 1 has been for the most part fun, organized and impressive. I would judge it on a peer basis with VGXpo (Useless piece of shit con, not worth the price of admission), but to be honest, from my first day here, it seems to be more on a peer with a PAX type event. Granted, it is a mini-peer of PAX, but the quality is here, do not doubt. There were a few minor organizational hiccups, not worth mentioning in specific really, but it seemed to be on the “Good” end of the disorganized spectrum. Meaning I just don’t think they expected this to be as large and popular as it has been. But, all in all, I cannot say enough about how much the con staff and volunteers have done an excellent job making this go so smoothly.

Before even receiving our press passes, Dave and I entered the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center and our nerdy gamer senses were immediately overloaded by the beautiful seemingly endless field of Alienware computers set up as the LAN center here. Row upon row of sleek, shiny black alien motif computers that somehow reminded me of Gandalf’s description of the death and heaven to Pippin in Return of the King. In the evening, we attempted to get a Team Fortress 2 LAN up and running, but as with everything beautiful, ugliness sometimes lies just beneath the surface. Ugliness in the form of cheap power strips that kept blowing out and shutting down entire rows of computers, mid flag cap! They said the issues would be fixed by tonight, so here is hoping for another night of TF2.

The rest of Day 1 consisted of us wandering the floor some more, getting autographs from Brian O’Halloran and cast members of The Guild and drinking BAWLS. Oh, we also formed a Rock Band 2 team called SnoBAWLS, in homage to the delicious frozen slushie treat the BAWLS folks have us all addicted to. We did terrible, but hell, it was fun. Saturday we’ll be taking a close look at a new MMOFPS called Global Agenda, some of the new changes going on in WarHammer Online as well as getting the low down on some hardware and peripherals floating around.

I heartily recommend that anyone in the Philly area or in close driving distance try to make it out Saturday and Sunday. GameX is the one of the most fun conventions I’ve ever attended, and the best on the East Coast without a doubt.

Keep checking back for our GameX coverage.

Hey guy or girl.  Wanna be the cool kid on your block? You can by entering to win Rock Band 2 (for PS3 or Xbox 360, YOUR CHOICE!) and a four-pack of 3-day passes to GameX.  So, not only can you jam with your friend if you win.  You can also take them to one of the best video game expos in the east coast.

All you have to do is go to their Facebook page, Like and Share this post.  Winner will be chosen randomly.  It’s free to enter, so what do you got to lose?!

Do it now! – Enter here

Stargate, Clerks and JackAss cast appear on red carpet at Northeast game expo

Philadelphia, PA—Friday, October 16, 2009— GameX (Games & Media Expo) today announced their final line-up of Hollywood and pop culture celebrities set to appear on the red carpet in Oaks, PA next week October 23-25, 2009. Celebrity guests will be participating in media interviews, panels, screenings, autographing and photo sessions, and walking the red carpet at GameX.

GameX fans will meet film actors Marilyn Ghigliotti, known as “Veronica Loughran,” and Bill O’Halloran, recognized as “Dante Hicks,” who both notably launched their careers in the cult classic film Clerks, directed by auteur Kevin Smith. Ghigliotti has enjoyed her various character roles over the years, while O’Halloran has appeared in Chasing Amy, Dogma and Clerks II. Ghigliotti and O’Halloran will share the stage at GameX in a special Clerks panel session, scheduled for Saturday, October 24.

Read the rest of the press release which names more celebrities that will be at GameX after the break.

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