The official Warhammer Online site has released some nice video footage showing their 3D models performing an "overhead attack" move.  It is accompanied by a nice write-up on animation in their fantasy MMORPG:

So, it's high time we focused on the movement of WO's characters, and what we have here are the player models from each of the five races, rendered with no textures so you can focus on their sweet looking movements as they perform their two handed overhead attack animations. Before getting into discussing the animations, the first thing I'll mention is that you lot have now got a decent height comparison of all the playable races, which I know some people have been eager for. As you can see the Ogres are suitably large, the Halflings rather diddy, and the rest take their place in between (the Elves are actually taller than the humans but in this animation his pose is a little crouched). We're still undecided yet if the Ogres should occasionally forget to duck as they enter doorways causing them to bash their heads in a glorious and randomly slapstick way!

To watch the video and read the full article you can follow this link.

The official Middle Earth Online site has added a new monster to their bestiary, the "corrupt bear."  We have added a couple screen shots to our gallery:

You can find some more information as well as a small movie at the official site by following this link.

NCSoft has very recently announced that they will be unveiling their first expansion for City of Heroes at the 2004 E3 show..."City of Villians".  Although PvP was not specifically mentioned, we hope it will be included!  Below is a quote from their site:

Want to play the bad guy in Paragon City? You'll get your chance in Cryptic Studios' City of Villains , currently under development and to be shown in limited play at E3. While City of Heroes (www.cityofheroes.com) is ready for an April 28 launch, Cryptic developers already are working on the first major expansion to the game that will allow players to take on the role of villain in Paragon's modern metropolis. Turn the tide on all the heroes and heroines and lead your crime syndicate into battle in the impressive 3D backdrop of Paragon City .

The official Guild Wars site has just posted their second combat screen shot...all we can say is WOW!  This one even shows spell effects as well as weapon and shield effects...very cool stuff.  We have added this screen to our Guild Wars gallery:

As part of a new Shadowbane event surrounding the upcoming 2.5 patch, Ubisoft is increasing the rate of character experience gain by 100% beginning tomorrow until May 5. The new Rise of the Upstart Gods patch is expected to launch at the end of this month. Also during that time, an official Treasure Hunt event will take place where many unique and powerful items can be discovered across the worlds of Aerynth.  The two week long event is called Convergence, and more details can be found at the Chronicle of Strife community website (http://chronicle.ubi.com). Patch 2.5 will introduce a wide array of performance improvements to the game along with new discipline and race runes. You can find a detailed list of the planned patch changes in the Chronicle?s In-Development section (http://chronicle.ubi.com/About/In-Development.htm).

You asked for it. You begged, you pleaded and you made threats. Well guess what? It paid off. Mythic Entertainment announced today the latest feature for Dark Age of Camelot Subscribers: Account Splitting.

This new feature will allow players to seperate characters between and into different accounts.

*Credit goes to mmorpg.com Staff Member Kunou for this article.

Square Enix has released extensive information on recent updates to Final Fantasy XI.  New quests, items, crafting recipes, slash commands, and auto-translate words are but a few pieces covered.  Three major pieces in the update notes are the implementations of Ballista, Dynamis, and Mentor program.

Final Fantasy XI is chugging away at full speed!  What other special things do they have in store for us?

You may read the complete update details here.

The MEO Dev Team have posted within their forums, an update regarding the development and expected release date.

You can read the complete post here.

*Credit to mmorpg.com member maboroshi for this article. 

   Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) has advised everyone to watch out for any Everquest 2 beta scams. Recently, one such scam has been circulating around and it appears to be identical to an Everquest 2 news page. SOE has advised that you do not give away your station account and password; this false beta scam is designed to steal your station account.

The official City of Heroes website has posted that they have updated their policy regarding players pre-registering their in-game names for those holding beta and pre-order accounts.  The following was posted:

The beta and pre-order players have been heard loud-and-clear regarding their concerns with the current name reservation system. We have listened attentively and hope this newly revised process is both clearer and easier to implement. We apologize for any confusion and/or inconvenience that our previous name reservation system created. You?ll find detailed information about our new name reservation process for both beta testing accounts AND pre-order accounts here

Mythic Entertainment has issued the following press release about their latest free expansion "New Frontiers" which has just entered its second stage of beta testing:

FAIRFAX, VA - April 21, 2004 - Mythic Entertainment, developer and publisher of the award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game "Dark Age of Camelot," today announced that "Dark Age of Camelot: New Frontiers" has entered Beta 2 stage. "New Frontiers" is a free downloadable expansion that reinvents the game's unique Realm vs. Realm (RvR) combat system. Player characters from the game's three Realms will wage war across new battlegrounds, battle to control new keeps and fight to control expansive new frontier areas. More than 500 players will be play-testing the new RvR zones, abilities and strategies by the end of the week. This limited beta, available by invitation only, is estimated to last two weeks and it will be followed by a larger, open Beta 3. Mythic plans to make "New Frontiers" available to all subscribers in Summer 2004. "Player testing of 'New Frontiers' is now underway," said Matt Firor, Executive Producer and Vice President of Development at Mythic Entertainment. "RvR has always been a key feature of 'Dark Age of Camelot.' We consider the feedback we receive from this beta critical to development, as 'New Frontiers' involves significant changes and balancing the game systems our players are familiar with. Our goal is to make Camelot?s RvR system even more accessible, fun and compelling for all players." "New Frontiers" features revamped geography for each Realm's frontiers as well as updated siege warfare, completely redesigned upgradeable keeps, a Realm War status map, and much more. New travelling systems enable users to get to the action faster with boat service between the frontiers and the ability to teleport directly to a friendly keep. The expansion also overhauls the game's Realm Ability system to further balance character classes.

IGN has just posted an interview with Haden Blackman, the producer of Star Wars Galaxies - the interview covers their first expansion for SWG "Jump To Lightspeed" which will finally enable players to fly spacecraft.  Here is a bit from the interview:

IGNPC: Going from planet to planet is a pretty obvious upside. Is there any special content actually in space? What types of missions and NPCs might the player encounter? Haden Blackman: Actually, the focus of Jump to Lightspeed is providing players with adventures in space. When you're flying between planets, you'll encounter all sorts of enemies, ranging from Hutt pirates to TIE fighter aces (if you're a Rebel). We're creating a number of new mission types specifically for these space adventures.

You can read the rest of this great interview at this link.

You can also find out more about this expansion at the official site right here.

Aware Dreams has announced the release of version 1.0 for Fantasy Worlds: Rhynn!

Fantasy Worlds: Rhynn is a real time MMORPG with a unique twist - it is for mobile phones!  If you have a java-enabled series 60 mobile phone you may download and play the game for free (wireless connection charges still apply).

Here is the list of new features for version 1.0:

• the first items can now be used and equipped
• build your character's attributes as you gain experience levels
• it is now possible to trade with other players
• watch your life since non-player characters will fight back or even attack on their own

Visit their official website to capture this unique experience.

Buddy Program
The Buddy Program is for current EVE Online subscribers that want to enable their friends to try out EVE Online without any obligations. By clicking on the link below you can send your buddies a free 7-Day Access Pass and have them join you online.

No Hassle Guarantee
This is a no-hassle access pass, which means your friends will NOT have to enter any credit card information to start playing. The only thing they need is to download the game and use the access key they will receive. CCP does not harvest any email addresses so your friends will never receive unsolicited e-mail."

Got a friend? Log in and send them a key here!

 - Malkavian

The official site for Guild Wars has recently posted their 4th installment in the lore of the Guild Wars world.  The story is titled "The Dwarves" and features a nice short story along with some new concept art.  You can get glimpse of it here:

Aidan shook his head. "There are few places in the Shiverpeaks where we will escape their notice. Besides, the Deldrimor dwarves have no love for the Stone Summit. They will help us." The ranger swallowed hard. "I think." The dwarven dwellings ahead of them were very different from the last they had encountered. Instead of stone slabs wrapped together by heavy iron chains, here the buildings had worked metal roofs and intricately carved wooden doors. These were homes for families, not barracks for soldiers.

You can read the full article at this link.

FunCom has just sent us some exclusive screens from the highest level in the Shadowlands - "Pandemonium".  In the first shot you can see some new armor only found there.

MMORPG.COM is proud to announce our latest exclusive contest!  On May 15, 2004 we will be giving away a total of 40 copies of Horizons^TM including a 90 day subscription!  One of the most unique features about this contest is that it will be divided into European regions and all other regions in 2 separate drawings!

On May 15 at 1PM EST we will draw the 40 tickets for the European members...the first 20 people who claim these tickets will win a prize!

On May 15 at 9PM EST we will draw the 40 tickets for North American members (all other non-EU nations will be allowed in this contest as well).  The first 20 people to claim these tickets will win a prize!

Our contest page will auto-detect your country based on your account information and automatically route you to the correct contest page.  You can sign up for the contest by following this link: http://www.mmorpg.com/hz_promo.cfm.

We would like to thank Artifact Entertainment and Game Network for sponsoring this great event!  Good luck to all of you!

In an earlier post on the AC forums, I discussed some of the issues involved with moving the player databases of the AC1 worlds from their current aged SQL server machines onto new hardware (and we do mean "aged" there's Viking graffiti on one of the machines). At present, two worlds, Darktide and Harvestgain, have been moved. Morningthaw is scheduled to be moved early next week and Wintersebb shortly thereafter. After that, we have some more work to do on the hardware to get ready for the other four worlds, so there will be a bit of a delay before we move them over. We'll keep you informed and let you know well in advance of when we're going to make those moves. We know theses outages are a royal pain in the butt for you and we apologize for them. We just feel it necessary to start upgrading the equipment now, before it becomes a dire emergency.

The letter can be read in its entirety here.