General Discussion

MMORPG writer Carolyn Koh was at the recent SOE Fan Faire where a new expansion was officially announced for the well known game. Today, Carolyn files this report, giving us a few details about The Shadow Odyssey.

Senior Producer of EverQuest 2, Bruce Ferguson had several things to announce at the opening Keynote speech. The first was the launch of Guildhalls in the fall, the second was the upcoming zone that would be released for free, Vexar, and the third was that the fifth EverQuest 2 expansion, The Shadow Odyssey would be released on November 18, 2008.

The announcement was followed up the next day by a preview panel in a ballroom. Every single seat was filled, and players lined the sides and the back, standing or leaning against the walls or sitting on the carpeted floor. A total of 15 developers were in attendance to answer questions and as each introduced themselves, the crowd showed their appreciation with the Tradeskills designer receiving the most applause including hoots and hollars.

Read the article here.

Just seen the new trailer and it looks horrible, what i don't udnerstand is how they've managed to make EQ2 look even uglier over the years and tried to give it this new art style which just doesn't work. They still havn't fixed the ugly plastic looking models and the textures look really dated.

This picture on mmorpg.com sums up EQ2 for me;

http://images.mmorpg.com/images/screenshots/122007/12666.jpg

Really generic and dated looking, I mean they could make grass look ALOT better and get rid of the fog and put some effort into designing trees and zones themselves. Alot of the time it feels like they got some pre generated crap and stuck it anywhere and let the land barren and uninteresting. SOE even manages to make a Rhino mount really ugly and boring too and the armour in EQ2 is some of the ugliest shite I've ever laid eyes on and the graphics are sooo bad they're only beaten by Vanguard which somehow manages to look even worse.

Really speaks for SOE too because they've never had a game that's looked good with lots of character and great art. Their concept art isn't so bad but for some reason SOE have never been able to bring the concept art to the game.

Agreed, that screenshot looks like crap, but doesn't do the game justice. Try these instead:

www.arcanya.com/screens/EQ2_000055.jpg
www.arcanya.com/screens/EQ2_000062.jpg
www.arcanya.com/screens/EQ2_000086.jpg
www.arcanya.com/screens/EQ2_000096.jpg
www.arcanya.com/screens/EQ2_000100.jpg

I bought a new computer recently, after playing EQ2 on low settings for years, but that is how it looks with all bells and whistles turned on, and in my opinion, for a 4 year old game not bad at all.

But I'm not sure why I even bother posting, considering the majority of replies to EQ2-news here...

Perhaps the author of this article should read things up on Massivly or  go to Bruce Ferguson's Blog to read what TSO really is about. There will be no Dungeons scaling to the levels of either Antonica or Commonlands as you put it (both will get one of those new dungeons). The lowest level to begin scaling up to 80 will be lvl 50 in i.e.  Najena and Miragul. The land mass auf The Moors of Ykesha, once known as Innothule Swamp, wil be the largest overland zone in the game, larger even than any single zone in Kunark, but not bigger than whole kunark as you stated it.

And Papa, you don't need to bash anything with 'SOE' in the text, we all know how you feel...

I love EQ2 for having so much content. It has many things I dont like (like instancing), but over all, it keeps calling for me when I try another of the newer MMOs.

But still it is one of the best MMOs on market. And one of best looking in high graphical options too. How many of MMOs have better graphic?  I speak about playable, good mmos, not something like AoC or Vanguard, or somethink other with prereleased release :) wheres only one thing interesting... modern graphic. I think, i will most likely play by years of developement brushed game with little old graphics, than great looking unplayable game with content for no more then 3 months of play.

WoW still havent the greatest graphics today, but its good playable. Lotro have a verry nice graphics in my opinion and i like it .... but after 4 years, new games will have more interesting look. But ? ... Lotro will have large world and lot of unbugged funny content, same like EQ2 or WoW, or other succesfull games with years of good support.

I like great graphics, but still i think, more important is how is game enjoyable and good made.

I played lotro for year and a half (now i wait for Moria), after that i tried month of EQ2 and now i play month of WoW .... (i must try these older games, because that passed me when i played some other game). Detachedly, these unequal games are both something other, both little differnetly playable, and with some other mechanisms.

But both verry enyoyable for me and i like them. Not DX10 cryengine made graphic, but fun with couple of friends that i know from my real life ... and tahts something more then hi-tech looking.

I cant wait, this is good news for an avid eq2 fan

This game just does not get the credit it deserves in my opinion. It has been consistently evolving and improving since day 1, ( I played beta and the first 3 yrs), and they have stuck to their promises in terms of regulare updates and new packs. I think the marketplace and other aspects continue to show subtle but important innovations that keep MMO's moving forward, whether to some tastes or not.

I will be re-opening my account when this one hits.

Good on yer SOE. This one is a winner in my book.

This looks like a really good expansion packed with a lot of nice stuff.  I like that they are not increasing the level cap, but instead expanding AA, and adding 20?!? new dungeons.

I really think the SOE shot themselves in the foot early on with the adventure packs.  Honestly I thought most of them were horrible.   I mean, who wants to cave crawl?.. and  who wants to pay additional money for published content that other games are giving away for free to subscribers?

Lol remember when Smed said that the Guildwars model was the way of the future?  ppfftt