Red 5 Studios have announced a brand new massively multiplayer shooter called Firefall which will focus on team based and cooperative based gameplay.  The studio, founded by World of Warcraft lead developer Mark Kern and Starsiege Tribes lead designer Scott Young, plans to release the game late next year on the PC utilizing a free to play model.

The core of Firefall seems to be around Battleframes.  These suits allow players to customize their powers and unlock unique abilities for the class based combat of the game.  What stands out for me is the look of the game – which reminds me a bit of Borderlands in terms of style, though there’s still a realistic edge to the terrain.  There’s a 10 minute gameplay trailer on the official site (and posted below) which I recommend watching, and if you head over to the site you can sign up for the beta too.

According to the press release all updates and content for the game will be free as well, instead battleframe enhancements and other customizations will cost players money. 

Here’s a bit of the back story:
“Firefall paints a beautifully devastating vision of Earth, 200 years in the future. The promise of a new clean energy source, Crystite, leads to the disastrous arrival of the Melding, a hostile energy storm that engulfs most of our home planet. Earth’s surviving humans must band together in the eye of the Melding storm to save our species. Unfortunately, a new danger emerges as a bloodthirsty race known as The Chosen threatens humanity’s survival. ”

There’s no word on when the beta will begin, but it looks like the game is well on its way into development.

I recieved a note from a troll yesterday, signalling the start of a series of events that’ll bring about a Cataclysm in the world’s biggest MMO, World of Warcraft.

The note invited me over to the Echo Isles off the coast of Durotar in Azeroth. It’s one of the ancestral homes of the Darkspear tribe of trolls, but the tribe was ousted from the islands by a traitorous witch doctor named Zalazane, who began enslaving the population. However, the Darkspears, led by their leader Vol’jin, are fighting back, and preparing to take back control of their land.

Over the other side of the world, the gnomes of the Alliance are preparing a similar push back into their irradiated hometown, Gnomeregan. High Tinker Mekkatorque is pushing back into the city, with the aim of recapturing the surface to provide a home for the gnomes exiled by the treachery of Mekkatorque’s chief advisor, Thermaplugg.

Both in-game events involve players of all levels, but only those between 75 and 80 will be able to take part in the final push to reclaim territory before World of Warcraft’s next expansion pack, Cataclysm, is released before the end of the year.

Cataclysm will tell the story of the return of Deathwing the Destroyer, a massive evil dragon who’s been hiding in a cave under the world since the events of Warcraft II. His return tears through dimensional barriers, ripping apart areas that have remained static since the game’s original release, releasing rivers of magma through some zones, and unleashing floods in others.

The expansion will also make significant changes to the game’s mechanics, introducing two new playable races — the Worgen (who are essentially werewolves) and Goblins. It’ll also simplify many aspects of the game’s mechanics, removing little-understood statistics like attack value, armour penetration and block value, raise the level cap to 85 and introduce around 3000 new quests.

While there’s no set release date for Cataclysm yet, it’s expected to arrive just before the Christmas holidays. World of Warcraft’s last expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, remains the the fastest selling videogame of all time, shifting 2.8 million copies in 24 hours. With 11.5 million players of the game across the world (more than the population of Greece), there’s no reason to believe that Cataclysm won’t perform similarly.

Today we’re covering the changes being made to Ashenvale in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm as the Warsong Outriders and the Silverwing Sentinels continue to vie for domination of the region. Quest designers Eric Maloof and Steve Burke sat down with us to discuss what it’s been like iterating on a familiar yet evolving Kalimdor territory.

Q. What was the original concept for the zone?

A. The concept for Ashenvale was to show the effects of the Cataclysm while taking the opportunity to streamline the zone’s level design. There were areas of Ashenvale that were pretty unfriendly in terms of accessibility and quest flow. The level designers and quest designers worked together to alleviate the problem areas and highlight the big changes.

Q. Who will be using this zone (what levels/factions)?

A.Both Horde and Alliance players, roughly from levels 20–25. We anticipate that this will be a well-traveled zone in terms of general player flow.

Q. Without giving up any spoilers, what’s the general storyline for this zone? How has it changed from the original design?

A. Among other catastrophes, an enormous volcano has erupted in central Ashenvale. As the night elves struggle to deal with the chaos caused by the Cataclysm, the Horde is seizing what it perceives to be a golden opportunity. Garrosh Hellscream’s forces are now bearing down upon the night elves and have overtaken several key positions that once served as Alliance strongholds. There is a definite feeling that the balance of power in this region now teeters on a goblin tripwire….
These changes also mean that Horde players will have much more to do in Ashenvale.

Q. What do you think is the most exciting new feature of the zone?

A.Visually, it has to be the volcano. It’s stunning, and it provides a great landmark in a place otherwise known for its dense forest. Thematically, the tension present in the zone gives it a whole new feel. The Horde is barricaded inside the walls of Splintertree Post under a massive assault by the night elves and their allies. Meanwhile, Astranaar is desperately fighting off waves of Hellscream’s forces. Practically everywhere you go in Ashenvale, it’s impossible to escape the fact that it has become a warzone.

Q.What goes into redesigning a zone like this?

A.A bit more than meets the eye, we think. Ashenvale is deceptively large, and previously there were many issues in terms of quest flow and Horde/Alliance content balance. Soon after we rolled up our sleeves and broke ground, we realized that our work was cut out for us. There were numerous quests we wanted to keep, but there were also a great many that no longer fit or didn’t play out efficiently. We also needed to create a variety of new quests, especially ones “For the Horde”™.

Q. What was the most challenging aspect about implementing these changes?

A. It can actually be a bit tougher to come in and “do surgery” to an existing zone than it is to completely gut it and start from scratch. Given our ambitious time constraints, trying to determine what stays, what goes, and what other changes to make is certainly a challenge.

Q. What should players do or go see first?

A.Horde players should visit the Mor’shan Rampart first. There’s a new Horde contingent there who is fighting hard to make sure that no night elves escape Hellscream’s onslaught — not that they’d make it far into the Northern Barrens! Alliance players who come down from Darkshore will want to help defend Maestra’s Post and Astranaar as both settlements struggle to keep from falling under Hellscream’s control.

Q. Who seems to have the upper hand in the zone: the Horde, the Alliance, or the elementals?

A.The Horde and the Alliance are throwing themselves at each other on many fronts; neither has a clear upper hand here. The elementals in Ashenvale are a minor nuisance in comparison to the faction struggle.

Q. Should we expect any changes within Blackfathom Deeps?

A.There are no significant changes planned for Blackfathom Deeps at this time.

Q.What has happened to Silverwind Refuge?

A.The Horde has happened!

Q. What has changed the most: the storyline or the terrain?

A.The amount of change has been pretty equal between storyline and terrain. The terrain is much less frustrating than before, and the visual results of the Cataclysm tell the story as much as the quests do. Story-wise, the theme hasn’t changed so much as its intensity has.

Getting tickets to BlizzCon is tough. Having frantically attempted to get into the ticket queue in past years (with the assistance of six different browser windows), I understand the woes of putting everything you’ve got into getting your hands on a ticket to one of the most coveted gaming conventions in existence.
However, know that you’ve still got a chance to snag a pair of tickets! Those of us with the World of Warcraft Official Magazine are holding a contest with a grand prize of two tickets to BlizzCon 2010, and we’ll even cover your hotel stay and airfare.
So how do you enter? Simple — either send us a short essay (100 words or less) on why you want to go to BlizzCon, or subscribe to the magazine! That’s it! For additional information, head on over to our website at www.worldofwarcraftthemagazine.com. (If you don’t see the splash screen giving you all of the contest info, here’s a direct link to the contest rules in English.)
Good luck, and I look forward to reading all of your essays!

Blizzard has released a sneak peek at the Troll and Worgen druid feral forms in what appear to be their (mostly) finalized versions! Blue bears and neckbeard bears, ho! I’ll be perfectly honest, the troll druids are enough to make me consider race changing.We’ve applied some finishing touches to the new cat and bear forms available to troll and worgen druids in World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. We’re excited to share them with you today.

Troll Bear

Troll Cat

Worgen Bear

Worgen Cat