Mines of Canada Elemental

Two more days till Mines of Moria expansion release for Lord of the Rings Online. I'm somewhat excited; excited because of the new Moria content but heavily dampered by nerfs and bad class redesign. Expect to hear a lot about it in my next post. Also, this next weekend my gaming cohorts will gather and play some more Chronicles of Ramlar and Arkham Horror.

In good and interesting news, Stardock has finally announced their fantasy strategy game in development. You can see an early promo picture to the right for the game. I'll be following this game with much interest till it is released. The release isn't slated until winter of 2010, but as with other Stardock games if you pre-order you automatically get into being able to beta test and can play the pre-release versions of the game. The game looks like it will be the only true spiritual successor to Master of Magic and I have little doubt that it can top the old classic as well. It will be a true 4X game no doubt, but with duel research paths of technology and magic and a lot of interesting dynamics are being discussed that involve trading your power for different kinds of advantages and achieving different kinds of victories. The only disappointment so far is that they're only planning on two playable civilization races for release at this point and I think the game could easily gain from having a couple more. It shouldn't be too hard to do so without falling into the typical elves, orcs, dwarves fantasy trope.

Now the biggest and best news is saved for last and about VOR. I grab local bioplazm forum gamer Scott (left) and went up to Canada to meet "Skuzz" (wave 'hi' Skuzz!) who I caught in the below unprepared picture amid revealing juicy details of Vor 2.0 So I've got the spoilers, sneak peeks, and news about Vor 2.0... unfortunately Skuzz long ago got the promise of secrecy from me so there isn't much I can reveal. I can confirm seeing concept doodles for a new masher unit, and that other work towards the new release is proceeding. My opinions however are not under NDA and I can tell you that I'm very excited and eager for the release of what is in store with Vor 2.0 Old time fans like myself will not be merely pleased with a re-release of VOR but I think you'll be beside yourselves with excitement for the some of the game changes and story advancements. I don't think it will be difficult for VOR 2.0 to make a huge number of new fans as well.

In other VOR news, the next unofficial Golden Growler contest is complete. Head to wargame forums and vote! (and not necessarily for me).

- Sallust/Rishkith over and out!