Aside from the novelty of being called "Diablo in space," Harbinger stands no where near the polished, Blizzard developed title. While the cynical humor might keep you playing, the devoid of detailed graphics and overall, hampering difficulty may keep you from enjoying that play time. Harbinger servers as a product with a lot of good ideas, and some truly great promise, but disappoints in the end as it comes off of a shameless clone of a great game. Silverback has a great building block and a great learning experience in this product, and with several improvements to the battle system, and game balance a sequel could be a truly above average game that Diablo would be honored to sit next to on the shelf at your local EB.

Spell sounds are another fun outlet for me. While we definitely want them to sound natural, it seems like there's more latitude when it comes to design and production when compared to other aspects of game audio. With magic being divided into eight circles, we wanted each spell to embody the essence of its particular circle. So, we found audio "topics", or "subjects", if you will, to represent the individual circles. Death contains lots of ethereal screaming, while Life is harmonious, almost choral. Order is rhythmic while Chaos is sporadic. While creating all of the spell effect sounds I found the audio really helped define and glorify each circle in a substantial way.

There are scores of other inconveniences that seem easily remediable once the larger technical issues are resolved, but they give the game a rough-and-ready feel for the time being. The sum total of those inconveniences makes Shadowbane a daunting prospect for the novice persistent world gamer, but has a been-there/no-biggie feel for MMORPG afficionados. The deeper questions of the Shadowbane project remain unanswered for now. Can non-consensual player vs. player combat ever have more than niche appeal? Ever be more than a gankfest? Are city-building and guild warring deep enough to support extended play in light of the rapid pace of character leveling? Will guild warring even work?

The storyline takes off where Warcraft III left off and each race is building upon what they had after the destruction of the burning legion demons. Although the story has not been revealed, we know that the Orcs have their own separate campaign that will be more of Orc training. The other three races will be on missions to gain control of the Lich King’s Frozen Throne. From there they have added new units and a truly great addition to the multiplayer game will be the ability to have tournaments and true clan support. Right now if you have a clan you can create your own clan tag. The only drawback is your clan must have nine members that will join right away. So the support is for larger clans and small clans may be left without support. Tournaments will be housed through battle.net. The possibilities of this are endless.

Did You Quit AC2? Come On Back!
3/31: If you played Asheron's Call 2 for a while but cancelled your account, you can come play again for the next two weeks (until April 13th) without any charge or obligation. You don't even need to give your credit card information. All of your characters are still there, alive and well. For more information, check out this forum thread.

Now Playing: Evil Avatar
3/31: In the "Now Playing" section of EvilAvatar.com, Emabulator has been posting updates about his AC2 adventures.

blade [...] chiseled from volcanic rock and magically welded with iron to produce a fire that could not be quenched. In addition to the fire damage that it deals, the blade also confers 25% fire resistance.

Event: Harbinger IRC Developer's Chat
When: Monday, March 31st
6pm PST/ 9pm EST
Where: Gamesnet #Gamehelper
Why: Because you liked the game or are just curious:)
Who's Attending?
Andy Muir, Lead Programmer
Steve Macomber, Art Director
Dale Bloom, Programmer.

Brian Gladman, Product Manager may be touching down as well.
Seating Available: 100

Those who do not wish to use a mIRC client can use our java client here:
http://www.gamehelper.com/common/default.asp?App_Module=IRC

Dev chats tonight.
One at 8pm GMT (that's 9pm British Summer Time, we put our clocks forward one hour yesterday)
One at 8pm PST (5am my time, erk!)
Both on #de-devchat on irc.stratics.com
Topic is Q&A;, moderated.

Q: What will be the size of the Ryzom universe at launch?

The planet Atys is divided into 11 continents. Some of them are just huge, they are the cradle of each civilization, and others are very remote. Each continent has its own ecosystem (forest, jungle, desert, lakes, underground...). Beyond the world size (anyone can create huge and empty maps), variety and uniqueness are the true strength of Ryzom. Each place has its own mood, be it an oasis in a desert or a forest of giant trees, each will have unique features. I am really pleased with what we created as the atmosphere of each place also changes with the time of the day or the season. This gives a lot of diversity and each area looks different with each play session.

Austrian based developer and publisher JoWooD Productions Software AG today announced that it has signed an exclusive publishing agreement with Encore, Inc. a majority-owned subsidiary of Navarre Corporation for the marketing and distribution of nine games throughout North America. Encore will be managing the sales, distribution and marketing for these titles while JoWooD will be delivering content.

AquaNox 2: Revelation, Wild Life Park, Cold Zero and Chaser are among the PC titles covered in the agreement, all of which will be available over the next six months in the U.S.

Andreas Tobler, CEO of JoWooD Productions Software AG, commented, 'This is a testament to our new strategy for finding suitable partners in key territories. We are pleased to partner with Encore, a company that can effectively extend our successes in Europe to the U.S. This is important for the success of our games and for our company.'