It hasn’t been a good week for THQ whose stock plummeted yesterday nearly 25% on a weaker then expected earnings report and who announced they are cutting 240 jobs. THQ also announced that they are looking to take on a partner for their upcoming MMORPG, Warhammer 40k: Dark Millennium stating that,

Because of the large financial commitment and associated risks, we are being realistic about our resources and we are actively seeking a partner for this compelling new MMO. We will keep you updated on our progress,” CEO Brian Farrell told his investors.

While THQ has come out previously to say that Dark Millennium is fine and there are no plans to cancel it, one wonders what will happen if THQ is unable to partner-up with someone. Currently Dark Millennium has a 2014 projected release date so they have a long road ahead of them and it will be a costly one if they are unable to find someone.

Players will be able to see some new quests that involve a cult called ‘The Lords Of Dust.’ Besides fighting this cult mob, the player will work their way up the chain, assaulting those in control of  the hive mind, the cat-like Rakshasa. While this is new material for a F2P title, the three extra quests are free.

Pushing the F2P note further, the DDO store itself received an update. The virtual general store for adventurers will see new items lining its shelves, the Cloak of Resistance, an Amulet of Protection and a full suite of +1 Elemental Touch Weapons. Players with spellcaster avatars are bestowed a double dose, as Turbine is going to add two items for them; the Omnispell Stone and Omnispell Dust. Both are  material components that can be used for any spell needing material components, freeing up player bag space. Last, but certainly not the least, a new veteran status, allowing players to start at level 7. The status can be earned by gaining enough favor or - of course - by buying it in the in-game store.

You can read the official update after the jump. And don’t forget the extra screenshots.

Dungeons & Dragons Online – Update 13: Web of Chaos

Serving as the prequel to DDO’s upcoming expansion, Menace of the Underdark, Update 13: Web of Chaos brings:

3 New Free Quests

• The Lords of Dust: The Silver Flame must now contend with an uprising cult! Controlled by the Rakshasas, the cult of the Lords of Dust have one priority – free the ancient demons trapped in Khyber.
• Servants of the Overlord: Venture deep down into Khyber and fight resistance as you attempt to thwart the Rakshasas from freeing the imprisoned “Spinner of Shadows”!
• The Spinner of Shadows: Engage in an ambitious battle as you fight to hold off the release of the Spinner of Shadows! Though beware of thinking your task is over, for a menacing journey awaits.

Veteran Status (7)

• Now start your new character at level 7 and gain a head start! Earn through favor or purchase in the DDO Store.

New Items

• Use the Omnispell Dust and Omnispell Stone in place of the material component of any magic spell. Free up inventory space!

New to the DDO Store

• Cloak of Resistance – Aid yourself in the defense of magic attacks and traps
• Necklace of Protection – Increase your armor class by 1
• +1 Elemental Touch Weapons – A full suite of level 1 weapons are now available

I’ve had my eye on Continent of the Ninth Seal for a while now, and was lucky enough to snag an early entry into its global closed beta test. My account even had the ability to jump my character straight to level 50, so I’ve spent the day running around various zones pounding on low leveled monsters, and getting stomped by the high end content. But hey, if you’re going to die, getting killed by an ice breathing dragon is definitely an exciting way to go.

I generally dislike describing one game by comparing it to another, but in the case of C9 (Continent of the Ninth Seal’s shorthand), it’s very difficult not to look at it and think of Vindictus so I might as well come right out and do so. The two games are very similar visually, not only did I continue to have Vindictus flashbacks as I ran around inside the game, but when I made my first shaman character the first thought that popped into my head was – it’s Evie! Vindictus comes out ahead on the visual score, at least in my book, although C9 does look pretty good for a game created in 2009. And I do have to say that I liked the armor designs that I saw for the shaman much better than Evie’s armor, although admittedly, after only a few hours of gametime, my impression is built from a very small sampling.

Character generation is on the higher end of customization, there are sliders for just about everything, from shape of the eyebrows to bust and waist size. I’ll admit it, the first thing that I did was make a giant-breasted, tiny waisted bombshell who wouldn’t even be able to walk, much less fight. I was also very pleased to see that not only were there lots of tattoos (on their own slider no less!), but you can choose the color, as well as size and placement. There are sliders you can use to move the tattos around the character’s face; I had fun moving the flower tattoo I liked from one cheek to the other, then making it so huge it covered my face entirely.

But it’s in its gameplay where Continent of the Ninth Seal really shines – it’s very much the superior to Vindictus. Playstyle is similar, as it is in all action games; you go to the dungeon entrance, select your dungeon and difficulty, then run around and kill monsters in live time. Defeating a dungeon on one difficulty level opens up the next level, there is nothing new there. What C9 has over Vindictus is skills. A great many of them. There are so many skills and combos that you can pull that C9 feels almost like Tekkan – in order to really shine, you’re going to have put time into learning which skills work for you, and how to fluidly pull off all the combos that you have access to. Without knowing how to guard and break your opponents’ combo chains, it’s very easy to find yourself juggled to death. But that also means if you know what you’re doing, you can juggle your enemies to death as well. Much to my surprise, I discovered you can even juggle bosses if you time it right. That’s normal for action-styled games, but C9 has so many more skills and thus options than any other action MMO I’ve played that it’s a real treat.

Unfortunately PvP hasn’t been enabled yet, so all I can say is that from the sounds of it, it’ll be a blast. One of the features I’m looking forward to seeing is infiltration – you can sneak into someone’s dungeon while they’re monster hunting and duke it out in a death match. From the looks of it, infiltrations provide some sort of bonus to your final dungeon score, so I suspect pvp is going to be a pretty big part of gameplay once the game is live.

I also can’t say enough good about the UI. Perhaps I’m viewing it better than I otherwise would because I’m coming from the horrendous UI of

Every once in a while we celebrate great – and sadly, not so great – achievements in the MMOG industry. Today, we congratulate Hi-Rez Studios’ Global Agenda for turning two-years old. As most of you may know, Global Agenda is Hi-Rez Studios’ award winning Sci-fi MMO Shooter that was launched on February 1st, 2010. Since then Global Agenda has had over 1,000,000 registered players, over 12,000,000 PvE missions, and over 1,400,000 PvP missions. It’s been a bumpy road, with the game seeing multiple transitions, often for the better of the title, the company and the associated communities. In 2011 alone, GA made the transition to becoming a free-to-play MMOG, became the first of such games to launch on Steam, and saw its first completely free expansion the “Recursive Colony.”

Not one to miss an opportunity to celebrate its community, Hi-Rez Studios is offering a special thanks for playing the game to new and old players alike. Securing the awards is simple, play in any instanced PvE or PvP matches this week, January 30th to February 6th, and you will receive a limited edition pet, a miniature edition of the boss Switchblade. The second gift takes a bit more to earn, as in you actually have to do something. Players that participate in the special player-managed PvP tournaments will receive a dragon-themed helmet in celebration of the Year of the Dragon. The winning team of the tournament will receive exclusive flair and even a cash prize! If that isn’t enough for you, Hi-Rez has even added appearance and flair item from the past to the ‘Burning Fashion’ vendor in Dome City, so get them at a discount while you still can!

Global Agenda has reached a grand milestone for any MMOG. If you haven’t tried Global Agenda there’s no better time than now to give it a whirl. It’s free, so what’s stopping you?!

Once again, Happy Birthday to you, Global Agenda, and congratulations on the achievement Hi-Rez. We hope the next two more years are even better. I would have sent you guys a cake, but I didn’t know what flavor you guys would have liked. So I just ate it.

/nomnomnom

Red numbers, well, they’ll generally not so hot.

We here at LoreHound.com can’t paint your screen with such euphoric futuresight, but we can still attempt to satiate your number-based appetit. Below aren’t numbers showcasing your expert min-maxing skills or rewards for countless hours grinding dedication. Instead, they are numbers that you, the gaming community that enjoys the content here at LoreHound.com, have directly or indirectly contributed to. Be it subscribing to our YouTube channel, following us on Twitter, liking us on Facebook or simply reading and viewing the content, these numbers and facts are a reflection of the site in a year gone by.

• Nearly a fifth of the visitors are returning community members.
• Not surprisingly, Google is the number one referring domain, followed by WoWWiki and N4G.
• Firefox and Chrome combine for more than 70% of the browsers used.
• LoreHound.com is a worldwide community, with the United States maintaining less than 46% of the visitors.
• Nearly 55% of the non-returning members come to LoreHound by way of search engines.
• StarCraft dominates the top 25 search terms.
• 72% of the YouTube viewers watch from YouTube directly.
• 11% enjoy LoreHound’s video content from a mobile device.
• Video footage totaled over five terabytes…
• whittled down to ~80 videos.
• Social Networking subscribers increased by more than 300%.
• LoreHound missed its thousandth post by less than 40 posts.
• Nearly a dozen writers created just shy of 300 articles.
• The brains punched out .80 articles per day.
• The average article consisted of 325 words. Extrapolated, that’s 95,000 words.

And it was all for you, the community. Thanks for coming to the site, keeping us honest and sharing your thoughts. We look forward to topping these numbers in 2012 with your help!

After there being multiple updates, and rather than multiple links on different articles (or a massive amount of Facebook status updates), we decided to keep a running update page for new updates as they arrive.

Check back every once in a while to see if there is a new update! (Usually around an official Minecraft Update)

MCPatcher (Needed for HD Textures):

Download:

• Current:
  • OS X Download
  • Windows Download

Installation:

1. Drag the .exe or .jar to where you want it to be located, and run it.
2. Select the box next to “HD Textures” (and the others for safe measure) and then hit “Patch”.
3. Once it’s done, run Minecraft with the texture pack and all should work fine.

Single Player Commands:

Description:

• From the developer: Here

Download:

• Current:
  • v3.1.0 Download

Installation:

1. Download the file from above.
2. Click “Install”.

Imperial Texture Pack:

Description:

• You can find the list of changes, known issues, and planned updates, in the file inside the .zip (still LEAVE it in .zip!) labeled “Patch Notes”.

Download:

• Current Testing Version:
  • (HD) Imperial Texture Pack v6.0 Download
  • (SD) Imperial Texture Pack v6.0 Download
• Previous Testing Version:
  • (HD) Imperial Texture Pack v5.0 Patch Notes
  • (SD) Imperial Texture Pack v5.1 Patch Notes
• Current Stable Version:
  • (HD) Imperial Texture Pack v5.0 Download
  • (SD) Imperial Texture Pack v5.1 Download
• Previous Stable Versions:
  • Imperial Texture Pack v4.0 Patch Notes
  • Imperial Texture Pack v3.0 Patch Notes
  • Imperial Texture Pack v2.0 Patch Notes
  • Imperial Texture Pack v1.0 Patch Notes

Install:

• XP:

1. 1. Open up “Run”, and then type in “%appdata%”.
   2. The .Minecraft file will be there, and you can create a shortcut to your desktop.
   3. Open up the shortcut and you will find a folder called “Texture Packs”.
   4. Copy (or Cut) the .zip into there. Leave it in .zip.

• Win7/Vista:

1. 1. Open up your Start Menu, and in the search field type in “%appdata%”.
   2. The .Minecraft file will be there, and you can create a shortcut to your desktop.
   3. Open up the shortcut and you will find a folder called “Texture Packs”.
   4. Copy (or Cut) the .zip file into there. Leave it in .zip.

• OS X (I suggest you make an Alias of the folder for your desktop for easy access):

1. 1. Start running Minecraft.
   2. At the login screen, hit “Options”. Below “Force Update” will be “Game Location on Disc”, followed by a directory link.
   3. Copy that link, and then in Finder, hit Go –> Go To Folder –> and paste that directory there (shortcut is Shift+Command+G). It will open the folder.
   4. Copy (or Cut) the texture pack into the folder called “Texture Packs”. Leave it in .zip.

Everyone fan of The Lord Of The Rings and its online version can rejoice as Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Turbine announced a new expansion for The Lord Of The Rings Online. Unlike its sister game from Turbine, this is the fourth expansion to this ever-growing game. This expansion is slated for a release in the fall of 2012.

This new expansion is going to be called Riders Of Rohan and will bring the player base to the vast plains of Rohan, which will include the areas of Amon Hen and Fangorn Forest. Besides going to these iconic areas, max character level will increase to level 85. Other aspects to get players excited; players are going to be able to join up with the Rohirrim and with the addition of mounted combat, it makes for one good combination.

It will be interesting to see how Turbine pulls off the mounted combat in such an old engine.

The announcement brought along a new logo (right). You can read the official announcement after the jump.

WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT AND TURBINE UNVEIL THE LORD OF THE RINGS ONLINE™: RIDERS OF ROHAN™

New Expansion to The Lord of the Rings Online™ Launching Fall 2012
Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment unveiled today The Lord of the Rings Online™: Riders of Rohan™, the latest expansion to the award-winning free-to-play massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) developed by Turbine. Riders of Rohan expands the online world of Middle-earth where players join forces to ride into the Plains of Rohan.  Riders of Rohan launches in the Fall of 2012 with an increased level cap, the vast plains of Rohan including iconic locations such as Amon Hen and Fangorn Forest, the new Mounted Combat system and much more!
“2011 was another banner year for The Lord of the Rings Online with consistent growth for the game, a successful unification of our European and North American services and the success of Rise of Isengard, our best selling expansion to date.” said Kate Paiz, Executive Producer of The Lord of the Rings Online.  “This is going to be another outstanding year as we celebrate our fifth anniversary and introduce a wealth of new content throughout the year, ending with our arrival in Rohan.  One of our largest expansions ever, Rohan is expected to be twice the size of the recent Rise of Isengard expansion and includes the most new game systems and technology we’ve introduced since 2008’s Mines of Moria.”
NEW FEATURES:

Ø  Experience the Riders of Rohan – Join with the Rohirrim and ride across the sprawling Plains of Rohan; witness the breaking of the Fellowship at Amon Hen; forge alliances with the Ents of Fangorn; and aid Éomer, adopted son of Théoden, as he seeks to protect his homeland from the growing Shadow.
Ø  Introducing Mounted Combat – Ride into Combat atop your loyal War-steed as you defend the people of Rohan from the forces of Isengard and Mordor. Customize your War-steed’s armor and level its skills over time to aid you in mounted defense of King Theoden’s lands. Mount your steed and gather your fellows to fight against Warbands, contingents of roving warg riders that have been scouted all over the Plains of Rohan! It falls to you to head off and defeat this new threat before they over take the land.
Ø  Advance to level 85 – Continue your legend in the next chapter of The Lord of the Rings Online. Experience new adventures in the epic story, and gain new skills and deeds as you face new challenges on your journey to 85!

In this Dungeon Master, we are going to sneak around DDO, gather some information, maybe even grab some items that are not ours. The class this time is, the Rogue.

Lore Bites: The Rogue comes in several different ways. Many thieves you find in the prisons of Eberron are of this slight-of-hand clan, but tales have been heard of noble men and women recruiting these shadowy figures to spy on the rival noble house. The rogues that become thieves mostly had a hard life living on the street resorting, stealing was a means to survival. Rogues that are more honorable – and take honorable lightly – become spies, working for kings and noblemen and women. Many people who tried were not able to find them, but there are stories of a rogue guild where both honorable and dishonorable of their  ilk find employment. Well-paying employment.

The number “1″ reason to bring a rogue.

If the player wants to play a class that sneaks around and is a great help to a party, the rogue should be your first, and let’s be honest, only thought. The utmost important detail of the class is that he is not a frontal fighter. A rogue is meant to pop out of the shadows, using surprise and even underhanded tactics to deal damage. He can’t just storm in and kill the enemy. Second , and this is nearly as crucial as the first, a party that wants to get the maximum amount of loot and the most experience from a dungeon will need to take along a rogue. This makes it crucial to anyone building a shadow hunter to get skills like ‘open lock’ and ‘spot’ to insure party invites.

Besides being a really handy ally in parties, the player can also deal out a lot of damage. But only in a party setting. The rogue’s ’sneak attack’ ability, which adds extra damage if the player is flanking the enemy or he is not seen yet and backstabs him, dominates all opening abilities in the game.

A quick rundown on flanking for the people that might not know it. Flanking happens when the enemy is busy fighting another person and the rogue stands behind said enemy (it’s conical, you can be to the side as well, but it’s far more finicky). The sneak attack bonus goes up to a whopping 10d6 making an attack with even the weakest of daggers a true pain for the enemy.

The down side on this class is that the chance that the player is able to solo dungeons – bar the earliest dungeons – is very, very low. The player could get a combo of skills to compensate, but that would mean offering up more points for the stats to get more intelligence to be able to both, help parties with locked doors/chests and deal a lot of damage, and to solo the dungeons. A character of this nature would become a hybrid, doing nothing to its full potential.

As last, the race of choice is once again, the Drow. Bored with Drows? An Elf and Human are two great backup selections. Elf for giving a bonus to dexterity and the Human again because of the bonus feats and the extra skill the player gets.

Let’s get stabbin’.

The new expansion is called Menace of the Underdark and will bring the player base to the Forgotten Realms, the first of the different areas of Dungeons and Dragons. Not only will we go back, Turbine will add in the master of different forms, the Druid. Besides these two exciting points, the level cap will rise to level 25, which gives the players five epic levels, with that of course comes the epic feats and epic magic.

Color this writer excited for this new expansion. I really wanna see the village in Forgotten Realms called Eveningstar. I truly wanna see how Turbine made the Druid, especially the shapeshifting aspect of the character. Is the Druid going to have just several forms and will it work the same as in World of Warcraft, or is the Druid going to have loads of different forms and the player can only choose just some of them which they think will work the best.We can only wait and see.

The announcement brought some concept art and a new logo (right). The concept art you can see after the button, a little spoiler, along with the official announcement; it is really good!

WARNER BROS. INTERACTIVE ENTERTAINMENT AND WIZARDS OF THE COAST UNVEIL DUNGEONS & DRAGONS ONLINE®: MENACE OF THE UNDERDARK™

First Expansion to Dungeons & Dragons Online™ Launching Summer 2012

January 19, 2012 – Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Wizards of the Coast unveiled today Dungeons & Dragons Online®: Menace of the Underdark™, the first expansion to the award-winning free-to-play massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) developed by Turbine. Menace of the Underdark launches in the Summer of 2012 expanding for the first time into the beloved Forgotten Realms setting and the vast subterranean world of the Underdark, an increased level cap, the new Druid class and much more!

“2011 was a year of growth for Dungeons & Dragons Online as we celebrated our fifth anniversary and completed a successful launch of the game in Europe,” said Fernando Paiz, Executive Producer of Dungeons & Dragons Online. “2012 is going to be our biggest year yet with a wealth of new content throughout the year including the launch of our first expansion pack. We are very excited to expand into the Forgotten Realms setting with a whole new storyline, level cap increase and the new Druid class!”

NEW FEATURES:

Ø Journey to the Forgotten Realms- Experience the classic fantasy and adventure of D&D’s most imaginative and renowned setting. Arrive in the village of Eveningstar and adventure through the surrounding King’s Forest wilderness area where the citizens of the nation of Cormyr must unite to face a new threat to the Realms.

Ø Brave the caverns of the Underdark- Come face to face with the Underdark Drow and Lolth, their Queen and goddess, as you explore this vast and twisted, subterranean world. Infiltrate the Drow stronghold of Shindylryn – the city of portals – where Lolth’s forces work to further her schemes.

Ø Attain Epic levels to 25! Forge your Epic Destiny and create a unique Epic hero with powerful character customization options as you advance beyond level 20 to epic level 25.

Ø Play the Druid Class- Play as the all new shape-shifting Druid class! Wield nature’s magic or transform into a powerful animal form with this classic D&D class.

This review of the

The universe of StarCraft is largely overlooked by its massive and continually growing audience. That isn’t a knock entirely on the community, Blizzard is partly to blame. It’s difficult to remain interested in a universe when original, core material can take a decade to move forward. The only sustenance being a sprinkle of little-marketed novels and other materials to keep one interested. Being the successful team that it is, the issue is being corrected. Blizzard realized the plight and has been working hard to highlight the depth of its sci-fi universe since the successful release of StarCraft II.

The latest in the Extended Universe blitz for StarCraft is StarCraft: Ghost – Spectres. Players of StarCraft II’s stellar campaign should be intimately aware of what a Spectre is, but the name of the author, Nate Kenyon, may escape them. Nominated for multiple awards for his work in the horror genre, Nate has been trying his hand at the science fiction genre as of late. His skillset is an interesting risk in the sci-fi universe, one that works incredibly well for a novel centered around the shadowy Ghost program and its rebellious offshoot, the Spectres.

Nestled in between the activities of StarCraft: Ghost Academy and the game’s campaign, Spectres focuses on Gabriel Tosh and Nova Terra, former class and squad mates at the Ghost Academy. Thanks to the Ghost program’s protocol of brain panning after missions, Nova remembers little, if anything, of her past. That is until she comes across a mysterious gas called terrazine that raises the Psi Index of anyone that consumes it. Another effect of the gas is the unlocking of previously hidden memories, defying the all-important brain pan protocol. The downsides are hallucinations, hardcore addiction and aggression. A dangerous mix of benefits and drawbacks that could make the most disciplined warrior off balance.

Couple the madness and Ghost skills with Gabriel Tosh’s knowledge of Mengsk’s inhumane acts and the plot begins to reveal itself. Tosh, a former pawn of Mengsk, wants to take down the leader of the Dominion for being as corrupt and horrible as the Confederacy of Man and its Old Families. Tosh realizes he can’t do it alone, attempting to “recruit” former Team Blue members and, taking a page out of the Pimp Handbook, hooking other, lesser ghosts on terrazine to bolster his ranks.

Kenyon did a fantastic job reiterating the background of the major characters for those that may have skipped over the original Ghost spin-offs plotlines. He selects key points in StarCraft: Ghost – Nova and the follow-up manga, StarCraft: Ghost Academy, to interject in his plot. The tidbits are added subtlety, giving the reader a view into the character’s growth, while maintaining immersion in the current timeline. This is made easier thanks to a key component of the life of a ghost, getting brain panned at the end of each mission. No need to creatively draft a reason for a memory to fade in, it can easily be an unintended hallucination or a brain pan wearing off! Some may see it as a writer’s crutch. That’d only be true if it was overused or forced. That was not the case.

After the addiction has a firm grasp on Tosh.

The action and monumental acts against the Dominion aren’t only predicated from past events. The character development of Tosh and Nova speak to later events in the timeline, such as their interaction in the Wings of Liberty campaign. It’s unfortunate that Blizzard missed doing more with its own subplot for the game, but readers get a nod to those events, including a mention of New Folsom Prison, during Tosh’s terrazine-fueled acts of revenge.

Spectres is a terran-heavy piece of lore. The zerg swarm makes a cameo appearance, while the protoss hardly get a mention. The focus isn’t horrible, as we get to see the most human storyline progress further, but frankly, it’s the only drawback one can find. Kenyon may have filled in for DeCandido, but the plot he produced is superb, retelling just enough of Ghost Academy, linking to other material, smothering it with action and progressing a handful of important terran characters. The attention to detail and the borrowed universe will entice any read to pick up one of Kenyon’s original pieces. StarCraft junkies would be fools to skip over Spectres, especially if they already missed Ghost Academy.

Still waiting on a few zerg-centric novels. Heart of the Swarm’s impending release will hopefully provide.

Interested in exploring StarCraft’s recent lore further?

You can purchase a hardcover edition of the recent James Raynor tandem – Heaven’s Devils (our review) and Devil’s Due (our review) – for less than $11 each, or save about a buck on the paperback edition. It’s prequel, StarCraft: Ghost – Nova, is years old but still easy to find. StarCraft: Ghost Academy (our three reviews), the excellent manga from recently-closed Tokyopop, is likely to become a collector’s item in short order.

Nate Kenyon is reportedly continuing his relationship with Blizzard by way of the Diablo franchise, working on Diablo: The Order. His other works include Prime, The Reach and Sparrow Rock, to name a few.

Head over to the Extensive Extended Universe post for all the available material from StarCraft and all of Blizzard’s properties.