Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning

It's not a massive shock considering all of the previous announcements (release date, open beta release date, etc) but today the official word came in from Mythic Entertainment and Electronic Arts. Their long awaited fantasy MMO Warhammer Online has "gone gold" meaning that the game's software is being duplicated into disks and being prepared to ship to stores.

It's been a long hard road for the game's release to this point. A lot of people don't remember that this MMO adaptation of Games Workshop's war game was actually being developed by the UK company Climax before they pulled the plug in 2004. In 2005, Mythic Entertainment won the rights to develop the MMO game license and a year later EA came in and bought Mythic as a quick way to get the rights to a MMO. The title suffered many development delays before today's announcement. Warhammer Online is now due for release on September 18.

While the game industry is beginning to understand that they can sell high profile games any time of the year the truth is that the time period between the first of September and the first week of December remains the biggest time of the year for new games to be released. 2008 seems to be no exception to this rule as PC gamers have a ton of new and promising titles to choose from this year.

So which games are we most looking forward to playing this fall? Well it so happens that we have created a feature gallery that has our picks for the PC game titles we most want to play in the next few months. That list include a long awaited MMO, a new expansion pack to the biggest MMO, an alternate history RTS game, a number of great looking first person shooters, a post-apocalyse RPG and a title that some are already declaring "the greatest game ever made." (in fact you can get a clue as to one of the games on our list from this custom case mode we saw at QuakeCon).

Our list of games is ordered by their scheduled release dates. Keep in mind while checking our picks that release dates can and do change at the last minute. Our picks represent the best info on these dates at the time of the posting of this article but if any changes are announced afterward we will report on them on the news site.

Click on the image above to continue reading "Most Anticipated Fall 2008 PC Games"

Earlier this week we reported that an anonymous former member of Mythic Entertainment complained to Shacknews that their name would not appear on the final credits of the upcoming MMO Warhammer Online, despite this person's claims he worked on the game for three years (nearly the entire time the game was in development). We mentioned at the time that it was unknown if this person was fired from Mythic or not. Now the founder and vice-president of the developer, Mark Jacobs, is calling out this anonymous person.

MTV Multiplayer quotes Jacobs as saying, "If you really think that we're doing something wrong, at least have the balls to stand up and go 'Hi, my name is so-and-so,'". He added that perhaps leaving this person out of the credits for the game could be a mistake on his part but that he can't know for sure until he knows who is complaining about it. Jacobs basically wants this person to come clean, saying, "So come out, stop hiding behind the anonymity of the internet and the legal shield of 'I'm going to sue EA.'"

Later on in the article Jacobs states that in his opinion the people who are currently at Mythic Entertainment and worked on Warhammer Online when it was completed should be the only people credited with "some exceptions into the 'Special Thanks' for certain people who have left under difficult circumstances." He did say that if the industry ever does come together to agree on how credits should be given for games he would follow it.

MMO players who love PvP are already anxiously awaiting Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, and this new trailer keeps that hype going. If you like the Warhammer lore, want some more background on the Age of Reckoning world, or just want to see brutal swords and sorcery combat - this trailer has it all. Plus, there's a special reveal at the end. Hopefully, players will be able to smite their enemies with one of those things too.

Download the Warhammer Online HD Cinematic Trailer (175 MB)

Mythic Entertainment's development of the long awaited MMO Warhammer Online has been going on for almost three years now and as one might expect some people who worked on the team have left Mythic before the planned release of the game on September 18. Now Shacknews is reporting that an anonymous former member of Mythic is complaining that their name won't be featured in the final credits

It's currently unknown if this person left on good or bad terms with Mythic but regardless the person is now stating that they are considering legal action against Mythic for these actions. The person is quoted as saying, "I was told they made SURE to not include anyone in the list who was not at the office the day of the credit list creation.This is wrong on many levels and should not go unnoticed." Mythic founder and general manager Mark Jacobs confirmed that, "...only current employees that have continued until the end will be credited in the final game." He did not comment on the former employee's reaction to being left out of the game.

Can you say, "Too much information?" For fans of the long awaited MMO Warhammer Online that phrase doesn't register and today the NDA for talking about the closed beta test for the Mythic Entertainment developed game finally came to an end. That means anyone who participated in the closed beta can chat about their experiences to their heart's content.

Our sister site Massively has a ton of hands-on info on the game ready to check out. Look for info on Destruction tanks, ranged DPS classes for Order, and the Elves of the game. Indeed, look for a ton of info on the game at Massively in the weeks leading to the game's September 18 launch. Big Download will also have our own hands-on preview of the game as well in the near future.

If you been waiting to try out Mythic Entertainment's long awaited MMO Warhammer Online you shouldn't have to wait for much longer. A new press release from the game's publisher Electronic Arts has announced that the open beta for the game will begin on September 7, 11 days before the official retail launch of the game on September 18.

Basically anyone who has participated in the current closed beta and anyone who pre-ordered Warhammer Online will be able to play in the free open beta test. EA and Mythic are predicting that hundreds of thousands of people will be playing in the open beta which should give them an idea if their game is destined to be a huge hit or not. In the meantime you can check out some pre-NDA preview of some of the game's content at our sister site Massively.

Video Gaming 247 recently caught up with Mythic Entertainment's Paul Barnett, creative director for the upcoming Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning MMO. The main topic of discussion was Barnett's current job duty, which he described as "Endless optimism through daily disappointment." The current reason to remain optimistic through disappointment: needing to downsize the possible careers in WAR from 250 to 20.

Barnett's focus is to keep the WAR project on track. "It's about getting the concepts and condensing them into soundbites [sic]," he said. Rather than let concepts spin grow too ambitious and spin wildly out of control, Barnett keeps things manageable in order to keep his employees focused.

A perfect example: WAR career possibilities. "We went down a terrible path where we had too many careers," said Barnett. We have 250-odd at one point and we boiled it right back down to 20."

Whether 250 careers or 20, any number is good enough for players eagerly anticipating the launch of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, which will be available on September 18.

Warhammer fans rejoyed when the word came down that Electronic Arts and Mythic Entertainment had finally settled on a September 18 launch date for the long awaited fantasy MMO Warhammer Online. Now Mythic's founder Mark Jacobs is talking more about their preparations for the launch and their plans leading up to Sept. 18.

In a message board post on the fan site Warhammer Vault, Jacobs states that people who pre-ordered the Collector's Edition of the game will gain access to a special "Preview Weekend" in addition to playing in the beta test before the game's actual launch. According to Jacobs, "Once the CE buyers have had their chance to register and download the client, we will allow our Closed Beta testers into the PW as well." Collector's Edition pre-orders will also gain access to the closed beta next week and will get an extra day into the Head Start period just before the beta before the regular edition owners.

The NDA for the closed beta will be lifted next week so expect lots of hands-on previews to hit the Internet tubes when that happens. Jacobs said there is still no word yet on when the open beta will begin, saying, "As the history of MMOs has shown, a bad OB can hurt both the long-term and the short-term the success of a game just as surely as a great OB can help the game succeed and we need to make sure that we are ready for OB on the day it begins."

The speculation can finally end for players waiting to play the long awaited fantasy MMO Warhammer Online. The game's publisher Electronic Arts has now confirmed via a press release that the Mythic Entertainment developed title will officially launch in about six week on Sept. 18.

Along with the launch date comes the game's prices for monthly play beyond buying the game in stores. Per month the game will cost $14.99 with a 3-month subscription costing $41.97 and a 6-month subscription costing $77.94. EA plans to have 30 day and 60 day pre-paid cards for the game in retail stores as well. You can still pre-order the game which gets you into the open beta along with being able to play the final game a few days before its official launch. Pre-orders also get some unique in-game items and the Universal Fighting System Battle Deck collectible card game.

As preparations are made for the fall 2008 launch of the long awaited Warhammer Online MMO, developer Mythic Entertainment has recently launched a new web site called. Road-to-WAR.com. This site is being designed to get players involved in the game's battle between the two in-game Realms, Order and Destruction.

The web site uses Google Maps to chart which players will join which Realm in the game as well as which race they intend to play in Warhammer Online. Each day you log into the site you get 50 pieces of gold and you get even more if you recruit friends to join your Realm.Each week you fight in "battles". In the end, the winning Realm will get a "Never Ending Bowl of Custard and a special in-game title" when Warhammer Online launches.

EA Mythic has released the minimum system requirements for Warhammer Online, and the bar to entry, while not egregiously high, is certainly going to give folks due for an upgrade ample excuse to do so. To get your WAR on, you're going to need some decent hardware, especially to cope with that rather, shall we say, robust hard drive space they're looking to take up.

It's been a long time in coming but now it looks like Electronic Arts is aiming for a very specific release date for Warhammer Online, the long-in-development MMO from the now re-re-named Mythic Entertainment. According to a post on EA's online store the game is due out on September 23.

Of course, even having a specific release date doesn't mean things can't change between now and then. For example, EA actually sent out review copies of its console shooter Army of Two to the media in the fall on 2007 then pushed back the release date to March 2008 after issues with the review build were found. However it does look like players will finally be able to enter the Games Workshop created fantasy world in the very near future

[Via Massively]

MMORPG.com has posted part two of their interview with Mythic Entertainment's Mark Jacobs, VP and General Manager of the development studio. In the interview, Jacobs reveals that Mythic has partnered with Punkbuster to crack down on the cheaters expected to inhabit Warhammer Online's servers.

"We think this is a huge win for the players," Jacobs said in regards to the partnership. "We are an RvR-centric game and anything that gives a player an advantage over another player in an RvR-centric game is a very bad thing. We take this stuff incredibly seriously, our history shows that. We wanted, by doing this deal with Punkbuster, to show the players that we're willing to go an extra step for them."

Jacobs also confessed that Warhammer Online's reported six capital cities has been downsized to two in the interest of fun gameplay. "We decided to focus our energies on two capital cities; one for Order and one for Destruction, and make them fabulous, said Jacobs. "Not good, not great, but fabulous. We wanted to make our Capital Cities the best cities in any MMO. We think we're doing that, but it came at a price and that price is that the other cities aren't going in the game right now."

Visit MMORPG.com to read the full interview.

Mythic Entertainment, formerly EA Mythic (and originally Mythic Entertainment), has announced the start of the next phase of their beta for MMO Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Titled the Guild Beta, this newest phase is another way to stress test Warhammer Online's servers before the game's debut this fall.

"WAR's Guild Beta is here and some of the world's most experienced MMO players will now get a chance to play one of the most anticipated MMOs of all time," said Mark Jacobs, vice president and general manager of Mythic Entertainment. "We look forward to seeing them beat, bash and burn their way through the world that we have created for their enjoyment. It's going to be a lot of fun and it's going to be glorious!"

Mythic reports that over 10,000 guilds applied for WAR's Guild Beta phase. Approved applicants will assist Mythic in testing Guild and Heraldry features, one of the most notable being WAR's "revolutionary Realm vs. Realm™ (RvR) gameplay that immerses players in a world of perpetual conflict," according to the official Guild Beta press release.