Yesterday, Blizzard released a few screenshots of the new zone in which players starting new Troll characters will have their own zone, instead of sharing the zone with Orcs.

The new zone, labeled Echo Isles, provides new quests for levels 1-5 such as protecting the Bloodtalon raptors that trolls use as  mounts and protecting the local food supply from other animals. You’ll soon move up to larger targets like a naga invasion force. Eventually Vol’Jin, the head of the Darkspears trolls, calls for you and gives you quests.

Cataclysm, the third expansion pack for WoW, aims to fill in the map of Azeroth with new zones. It will also add two playable races, implement numerous class changes and do a whole lot of other stuff too.

Check the images after the cut.

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LucasArts has confirmed via a recent statement that they are currently aiming to have the BioWare developed / E.A. published Star Wars MMORPG The Old Republic on store shelves by “Spring” 2011.

“While we have not announced a specific date, we can confirm that we are targeting a spring 2011 release for Star Wars: The Old Republic,” said the statement. “We’ve got a lot of exciting updates and reveals planned throughout 2010, including the first-ever hands-on testing for the game”

Time to start getting excited, people

If anything, MMOs are created to be played almost ad infinitum, constantly awarding your efforts with better gear, higher levels and an all around more fun gaming experience. There’s never really an end in sight, and that’s probably what attracts most gamers.

But a Taiwanese man has gone as far as to proclaim himself the first person to “finish” World of Warcraft, and it’s not a stretch if you think about it.

The man’s character, Little Gray, is the first to successfully complete all of WoW’s 986 achievements. To get to this point Little Gray had to kill 390,895 creatures, accumulate 7,255,538 878 points of damage, complete 5,906 quests (an average of 14,62 quests per day!), raided 405 dungeons and hugged 11 players. If that doesn’t give him bragging rights among WoW gamers, I dunno what will.

Technically, Little Gray did cheat. According to the player he’s missing one rare, event-tied achievement called the “BB King”. He avoided this by exploiting a glitch to award himself one extra, and false, achievement point. I say he needs to get back on his ass and get the final achievement before he gets full bragging rights. Read more on MMO-Champion

The first ever screenshots for Funcom’s upcoming MMORPG The Secret World surfaced earlier today, and this journalist for one is most definitely impressed.

Take a look below and judge for yourself.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is going to be a big game, if ever there was an understatement. According to new information released today, the game will have “ten times more lines than Knights of the Old Republic” and “40+ novels worth of content”.

That’s a lot of words.

• - The Old Republic will have ten times more lines than Knights of the Old Republic
• - On any given day, there can be a dozen people working on voice-over — not including actors
• - By the time the game ships, they will have recorded 1,000 four-hour VO sessions.
• - The game’s entire script has 40+ novels worth of content
• - The’re working with hundreds of actors in five cities: New York, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Toronto.

A new holorecord entry has been added to the Jedi Archives. The newest entry tells the story of the Mandalorian Blockade of Coruscant, and the heroic actions of the smuggler Hylo Visz.

The second entry is once again narrated by Jedi Master Gnost-Dural, Keeper of the Jedi Archives, a.k.a. Lance Henriksen.

You can watch it here

Here it is people, the hotly anticipated World of Warcraft 3.1 patch has finally gone live after months of testing! With it comes numerous content additions, including Dual Specs, the new Ulduar raid, and Argent Tournament, and the usually spread of class changes that come with every major patch.

Check out the trailer below to catch up on the story so far in the World of Warcraft, then hit the Read More link for the official patch notes. Warning, they’re long!

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As some of you may know, Norwegian developer Funcom is working on a new MMORPG entitled The Secret World.
Some screenshots have previously been leaked to the internet, but nothing else since then.

But at the Game Developer’s Conference in San Francisco this year, The Secret World will be demoed behind by designer Ragnar Tørnquist.

The title features an original setting created by Funcom, with contemporary elements combining with “magic, myths, conspiracies and dark horrors”.
According to Funcom the game will blend elements of MMO gameplay with ARGs and social networking.

We’ll give you more details if, and when, they’re revealed.

Bethesda Softworks owners Zenimax ZeniMax Media announced in a press release today that it was entering the next phase of a large recruitment drive for staff on a planned MMO by the company.

“We’ve added some great people to the team so far and continue to look for experienced, talented developers in all areas to join the team and help us create the next great MMOG,” said Matt Firor, president of ZeniMax Online Studios.

Nothing about the game is known, its franchise (an Elder Scrolls MMORPG, perhaps), the number of staff on the project, or when it would be released.

For now, we’re just going to have to speculate.

Recent decisions by the Australian classification boards has degreed that, until they receive an age rating from the board itself, the majority of MMOs available to buy in the country can’t be legally sold.

Up until now, MMO were exempt from requiring a legal age rating due to their lack of single-player content, but the law has since changed to include multilayer only titles.

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GOA and EA Mythic have unveiled the first ‘live expansion’ for Warhammer Online, and it’s called  ”Call to Arms.”

The free add-on (Yes, FREE)  is set to release to players in early March and run three in-game events through to the end of June.

Call to Arms will introduce two new careers;
The Orc Choppa
Dwarf Slayer

A new dungeon zone, the Land of the Dead, as well as s new Realm vs. Realm (RvR) scenario.

Mythic says…

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The worlds most popular MMO, World of Warcraft has now reached a userbase of 11.5 million says Blizzard, sale of the game have been fuelled by the new Wrath of The Lich King release, which shifted over 4million copies in it’s first month.

“We’re pleased to welcome the new and returning players who have helped World of Warcraft reach these new milestones, and we appreciate the enthusiasm and support that the game’s global community has continued to show,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO of Blizzard.

Only two months ago, Blizzard was saying that there was a fanbase of  11 million, 500,000 new people have subscribed.

Soon everyone will be playing the game.

The January issue of EGM has pointed out that the “scuttlebutt around the industry” is claiming that Square are planning to reveal a follow up to Square’s Final Fantasy MMORPG, Final Final XI at E3 next year.

Apparently, the MMORPG will co-exist alongside FFXI, instead be attempting to replace it. Details on what the title will be based around were sadly lacking though.

Dragon Quest MMORPG, maybe?

Electronic Arts CEO John Riccitiello announced in today’s investor call that BioWare’s upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic will be “a mid-session game, micro-transaction based.”

“You’ll be hearing more about those in the February [conference] call.” It’s not known if the title will be made available without a subscription (please God, don’t let this happen!), so we’ll just have to hang on until February to find out how EA plans to bilk us Star Wars geeks.

Speaking to Shacknews earlier today, Ensemble tech boss Dave Pottinger outlined the background of the company’s canned Halo based MMO, revealing that the game had been green-lit and staffed by up 40 employees before is was cancelled during an executive changeover.

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