Sir Ian McKellen as Gandalf

A small update from Sir Ian McKellen on his website this morning. He revealed that Guillermo del Toro‘s 2 films based on J. R. R. Tolkien’s ‘The Hobbit‘ start filming in June, and he’ll once again be donning the grey beard and pointy hat to play Gandalf.

Both movies will be shot in New Zealand and are expected to take over a year to complete (so probably heading for a Christmas 2011 release for the 1st one.)

Casting is currently taking place in Los Angeles, New York and London, although it is already know that Andy Serkis (Gollum) and Hugo Weaving (Elrond) will be joining Sir Ian in reprising their Lord of the Rings roles. Still no news on who’s taking the lead role of Bilbo Baggins though.

Del Toro has already moved over to New Zealand in preparation of the epic filming schedule, and has taken a home close to Lord of the Rings director and Hobbit producer Peter Jackson.

While in New Zealand, Sir Ian will be filling his filming downtime by appear in Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot at the St James Theatre in Wellington (starting June 30 2010).

Yes, it’s that time of year again! Time to take a look into our crystal ball and see what are our most anticipated upcoming MMORPGs are, and see how games from the 2009 MMO list fared. What’s been released, what’s been building up a fan base, and what’s now buried 6 feet under…

Last Year in MMORPGs

2009 saw a number of high profile MMOs take a long walk off a short pier, starting with Richard Garriott’s fun but flawed Tabula Rasa in Feb, and The Matrix Online was turned off in March.

Star Trek Online

Over the last 12 months only 2 of last years MMO list made it out into the world, and they both came from Cryptic Studios. First Cryptic released Champions Online in September 09 to a chorus of indifference. They followed that up by reskinning the Champions Online engine with some shiny Star Trek outfits, and released Star Trek Online in Feb 2010 (more fun than Champions, but still no where near as good as it should have been.)

Other MMO releases last year that weren’t on the ‘Most Anticipated’ list included Fallen Earth (post-apocalyptic MMOFPS), Aion (NCSoft’s fantasy epic developed for Western and Korean markets), and Darkfall (harsh, old school fantasy gameworld, complete with unrestricted PvP and looting). None of them jumped out at us and said ‘buy me’, but if any readers out there have strong opinions on them, and are interested in sending in a review, get in touch.

This years notable exception award goes to…

Just wanted to mention the notable exception of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer MMO and Firefly MMO from this years list. Although i’d still love to see either (or both of them), I’ve left them off the list due to Multiverse’s inability to produce even a single screenshot of a game that’s been in development since 2008… I did speak to a Multiverse rep about both games who told me that their deal with Fox stops gags them from talking about Firefly, and totally sidestepped the issue with Buffy. I rather suspect both games at this point are staked through the heart…

Top 6 Most Anticipated MMORPGs List 2010

6. Blizzard’s New MMO (position last yr – 6th)

What has Blizzard got up it's sleeve

Still not a lot know about Blizzards ‘next big thing’. We were hearing rumours last year that they might be developing WoW2, although I rather suspect that was the Catacysm update that our source saw. The Blizzard guys have since stated that it will be a brand new IP, which makes sense. Blizzard is unlikely to want to license something, and whatever they do produce, they aren’t going to want it to be something that’s upsets the cash taurean that is World of Warcraft. A number of rumours have it as being an MMOFPS, which would be an interesting shift for the developer. An FPS would be easier to push onto a console, and less likely to cannibalise the WoW player base. All we can do for the moment is wait and speculate. The chances are though, if Blizzard are making it, it’s going to be awesome.

Blizzard’s Website | Release Date: TBA

Warhammer 40k MMORPG

5. Warhammer 40K MMO (new entry)

2007 – Vigil Games announced they were making a Warhammer 40k. Woohoo! Post 2007 – *tumbleweed* *howling wind* i.e. nothing… However at a recent investors call, publisher THQ made reference to the W40k MMO, saying it was still in development, and due to be shown at this years E3. Final release is still a while off (2012), but as old school W40k tabletop gamers, it’ll be one GeekTown will be keeping an eye on.

Vigil Games Website | Release Date: 2012

4. LEGO Universe (new entry)

Lego Universe

We at GeekTown love LEGO. It really is one of the greatest toys ever invented. So the chance to combine our love of LEGO and our love of MMOs has to be jumped at. It’s the first MMO to be solidly aimed at children and parents alike. Although LEGO Universe is made by NetDevil, it’s designed to feel a lot like Traveller’s Tales LEGO Star Wars series. More of an MMO-Platformer than an RPG, it makes an interesting proposition to gamers looking for something new in their MMO. Lots of jumping. smashing and collecting items!

Along with the ‘auto-build’ option that’s utilised in the Traveller’s Tales games that builds pre-defined LEGO models, there also options at various points for the player to ‘free build’ with the LEGO pieces you’ve collected. Any free-build items are then turned into in-game models which can be places around your virtual house. There has also been talk of you being able to order the physical LEGO models of items build in game.

LEGO Universe Website | Release Date: Winter 2010

3. DC Universe Online (position last yr – 4th)

Robin, Batman, Batgirl

With the disappointing Champions Online released, Marvel Universe Online canned, then revived, but stuck in development hell, and the fun but ageing City of Heroes/Villans being the only other kid on the block, the market is wide open for a new superhero MMO. And what better Universe to set it in than DC’s world of Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, et al.

I’ve always been more of a DC than a Marvel kid, and a massive Batman fan, so the chance to take on missions from the Dark Knight himself really cannot be missed! Release date is currently set for May 2010, and I really can’t wait. My only real misgiving about this game is it’s being published and developed by $ony Online Entertainment… Yes, your correct, i still haven’t forgiven them for the whole Star Wars Galaxies fiasco…

DC Universe Online Website | Release Date: May 2010

2. Stargate Worlds (position last yr – 1st)

Stargate Worlds

Things were worryingly quiet over at Cheyenne Mountain. Stargate Worlds was originally scheduled for a 2008 release… Then 2009… Then in Feb 2010 they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, although they claimed development on SGW would continue… Then they announced Stargate: Resistance – A third-person shooter. Okay… not exactly what we were expecting, but hopefully it’ll help keep the lights on at Cheyenne Mountain while SGW continues it’s ever delayed development.

It’s such a shame SGW is struggling, as it seems like the perfect setting for an MMO. Lot’s of worlds to visit. Combat focused story environment. Lots of factions and archetypes to pick from. As massive Stargate fans we live in hope that SGW will ride through the rough patch it’s in at the moment, and live to see the light of day.

Stargate Worlds Website | Release Date: UPDATE: Cancelled!

1. Star Wars : The Old Republic (position last yr – 3rd)

SW:tOR

We loved KotOR. Despite it’s missing story lines, we loved KotOR 2. And of course we love Star Wars. We also love Bioware’s games. If you believe the hype, Star Wars: The Old Republic will be the ultimate MMORPG to end all other MMORPGs.

Every class has it’s own unique plot lines. Ever character is fully voiced by real actors (making it the largest voice over project in the history of gaming, radio, tv or cinema). You can be Jedi, Sith, bounty hunter, smuggler, or a number of other Star Warsy archetypes. Each class will support on-the-fly customisation, rather than the tradional MMO tank, healer, Damage dealer etc… making grouping much easier, as your no longer stuck looking for that one specific class to fill the hole in your team.

You’ll have NPC companions (like in KotOR) that stick with you as you level through the game. Some may even become love interests. And NPC interactions won’t be your usual one-way ‘go here, do this’ instructions or just a bunch of text. SW:tOR will utilse a system more akin to Bioware’s Mass Effect/Dragon Age engine, where it’s more of a conversation, and the answers influence your narative.

I think the thing that excites me most about SW:tOR is that Bioware have hit on something that most current developers miss or choose to ignore because it’s hard to do. Just letting a bunch of people play together does not make an MMORPG. An MMO, sure, but not an RPG. Bioware seem determined to put the focus firmly back on the RPG elements. It’s a massive task with some huge hurdles to overcome, but if anyone can pull it off, it’s Bioware.

Star Wars : The Old Republic Website | Release Date: Spring 2011.

What do you think?

So that’s our list. What are the MMOs your most looking forward to? Are there any games you feel should really be on the list.

We’d like to know, so just leave your thoughts in the comments, or contact us here!

We’re back after an extended Christmas break! Partly due to the UK going through a new ice age (click for the rather impressive Nasa satalite image of the UK snow!), and partly due to one of the games in this list…

There are some noticeable exceptions in this Games of 2009 list as i’m only covering games I’ve personally played. Hence no Left 4 Dead, Borderlands or Modern Warfare 2. All good games so i’m told, but i just haven’t got round to playing them yet so i didn’t feel it was right to include them.

What No MMORPGs?

Regular readers may also notice the distinct lack of MMORPGs in the list this year, which is rare for GeekTown given we’re traditionally big MMO players. Problem is, there really hasn’t been anything on the MMO front that’s grabbed us. We played a bit of WoW (which is as good as ever). Dropped into the Shire in LotRO (which just gets better every update), and tried a few new MMOs such as Champions Online (which was okay, but not great). 2009 was not a strong year for new MMOs. I am expecting that to change in 2010 though, what with Star Trek Online due soon, the potentially genre altering Star Wars: The Old Republic possibly appearing before the end of the year, and the arrival of WoW:Cataclysm, things are really looking up for MMOs future.

GeekTown’s Top 5 Games Of Year 2009

5. Ghostbusters: The Video Game (PC, PS3, XBox)

Who ya gonna call?

As someone old enough to remember the original Spectrum Ghostbusters game, I was over the moon to hear they’d finally got round to making a new game based on the franchise. You take on the role of ‘Rookie’, a new recruit to the Ghostbusters team, helping trap ghosts around New York city. As an 80′s kid and Ghostbuster fan, really what’s not to love about a game that let’s you strap on a proton pack and fight paranormal activity with all 4 of the original Ghostbusters team, voiced by the original actors. It also looks like the renewed interest in the franchise from the game could help spur on a genuine Ghostbusters 3 movie.

Braaainnnns

4. Plants vs. Zombies (PC)

This was another great little game from the guys over at PopCap. Like their other runaway hit Peggle, PvZ kept me entertained far longer than any ‘casual game’ should. It’s essentially a tower defence game, where your house is being invaded by zombies, and your only defence is your wide variety of exploding/shooting/energy giving plants. By placing the plants strategically, you fight off wave after wave of the zombie horde to stop them coming to eat your brains. Simple, funny, and horribly addictive.

3. Batman: Arkham Asylum (PC, PS3, XBox)

Joker (Mark Hamill)

I’ve always wondered why it took someone so long to make a decent Batman game. It seems like such an obvious pick as a franchise, its just surprising it took till 2009 for someone to actually make a decent go of it. But what a superb job they did. Not only did it have some of the best hand to hand combat seen in any video game, it had a great, engaging story, and brilliant voice acting (bringing in the Animated Series cast in to voice the lead characters was a stroke of genius). The sequel is currently in development, and it’s really going to be one to watch out for.

2. Uncharted 2: Among Thieves (PS3)

Uncharted 2

Uncharted 2 follows on from the events of the first game, with you once again taking control of Nathan Drake, this time on the search for Marco Polo’s lost Treasure. Like it’s predecessor, Uncharted 2 has great storytelling and character development, with a wonderfully twisty turny plot that keeps you wanting to play ‘just till the next checkpoint’ (and then find yourself still be playing at 2a.m.) It takes you through some beautifully rendered environments and tests you with some great inventive puzzles, and really is a great example of what developers can do with the the action/adventure/shooter if they put their minds to it.

1. Dragon Age Origins (PC, PS3, XBox)

Dragon Age: Origins

This is the game that’s responsible for the lack of posts recently… Dragon Age is set in the a fantasy world of Dwarves, Elves, and of course, Dragons. The initial character creation process has more in common with an MMO than an RPG. Rather than you just picking a race and class, and then being dumped into the world, each introduction section (taking a few hours each to play through), is totally unique. So if you play a dwarven noble, you’ll have a totally different starting experience to playing as a Dalish Elf. This also effects people and plot throughout your game, giving a huge possibility of variations, and encouraging you to play through multiple times. And with over 100 hours of gameplay, that’s a lot of game playing time. Dragon Age really is the pinicale of the RPG genre. Hummm… i wonder what it’s like to play through as a Dalish Mage… see you in a bit…

LotRO, AoC, and WAR

It’s another year on (plus a month or 2), and it’s time to update the Top 6 Most Anticipated MMORPGs list. But before we do that, we thought we’d do a review of last years Most Anticipated MMORPGs list, and other MMO releases that have appeared in the last 12 months. What worked, what didn’t, whats still to come…

MMO Expansions

Were you prepared?

There have been some great updates to MMOs over the past year. The biggest of course being Warcraft‘s Wraith of the Lich King. I’ll be honest, i didn’t want to like this. I really didn’t want to get dragged back to Azeroth. But, in a moment of weakness whilst near a GAME store, i found myself at the till, expansion in one hand and money in the other. And damn it, Blizzard had done it again. Lich King really had everything you could want in an expansion. More levels. More varied gameplay. Vehicles. New mounts. Even motorbikes! Same great WoW feel and humour. *sigh* damn you Blizzard, i’m playing WoW again…

LotRO also had a great expansion in Mines of Moria. They’re also kept up their awesome release schedule of free updates, expanding Middle Earth towards Moria. As we’ve mentioned before, both D and I have lifetime accounts on LotRO so it’s a game we pop back to on and off. We’ve not had a chance to play properly through all the new content yet, but we are planning a trip back to the Shire later in the year. Yes, the gameplay is a bit of a WoW clone, but it’s still by far one of the nicest looking MMO on the market at the moment.

EVE Online also had a massive expansion in Apocrypha adding new quests, tech, and wormholes. I can’t comment too much on how much this has changed EVE, since i’d only had a brief tinker with it a few years ago. However, I have been playing a bit of EVE recently, and the update does seem to softened the previously rather vertical learning ‘curve’ for new players.

Some Most Anticipated MMORPGs 2008 List Updates:

Last Years No. 5 – The Firefly MMO

Has got ‘put on a back burner’ by developers Multiverse… As much as i want it to happen, i’m not convinced it will... Multiverse are also allegedly developing a Buffy MMO, which would also be awesome, but i’ve kinda lost faith in Multiverse producing anything but vaporware, so i’m not pinning my hopes on that appearing anytime soon (if at all). If your reading this Multiverse, we want proof your actually working on something!

Last Years No. 3 – Age of Conan

AoC - A game of 2 halves

D in particular is a huge Conan fan, so there was no question that we were going to try out AoC. It pitched itself as a ‘next-gen’ MMOs. One that tries to do something different than being a ‘WoW clone’… And in some areas it suceeded. Those areas mainly the first 20 levels… They then seem to forgot about the rest of the game, which was a real shame, as those first 20 levels had some great ideas. Wonderful intertwining story, decent voice acting, and an entertaining, different combat system. Unfortunately after the first 20 levels, the NPCs lost their voices, the story became less engaging, and you found yourself in a half finished game… So much potential wasted. You can read our full review here.

Last Years No. 2 – Warhammer Online

As an old tabletop Warhammer player, i was really looking forward to WAR’s release. We jumped in pretty much on the day of release, and were really impressed.

This is WAR... on a flyng disc...

From the first starting area, you really get the feeling of being in a war zone. It’s also got a superb PvP system, teasing you into player combat slowly, before ending in full on group player bashing. The biggest dissapointment for me was the very half hearted crafting system. On paper it looked great. It sounded like you needed to collect unique elements to make a myriad of different trinkets and items. The reality was somewhat lacklustre, confusing mess. I know in a game that’s based around combat (this is WAR after all), crafting might that important, but i’d have rather they’d have left it out totally and added it in later, rather than running with the system they had. WAR is something I can see us going back to at some point in the future, once it’s had a few more updates.

The Others…

Obviously, there are other MMOs out there which we haven’t had chance to play (yet), or haven’t covered. Pirates of the Burning Sea i did play (10 word review – ‘Sid Meier’s Pirates’ online… but much worse… much much worse).

Pirates of the Burning Sea

We also spent the early part of 08 in the now departed Tabula Rasa. TR was initally pretty fun to play, but turned into a massive grind in later levels. However, the innovative combat system was a refreshing change to the normal MMO style button mashing. Darkfall Online looks really interesting as it’s the first real sandbox MMO since Star Wars Galaxies (pre SOEs messing about with it…), but we’ve just not had time to look at it yet, so we’d be interested in hearing people opinions.

If there’s any other MMOs out there you’d like to see us covering, let us know!
Geektown’s Most Anticipated MMORPGs 2009 List Coming Soon!

The Children of Húrin Deluxe Limited Edition

The nice people at tolkien.co.uk, the official J.R.R. Tolkien Bookstore have just relaunched their site, and to celebrate they’ve given us a truly awesome competition prize to giveaway.

We have a limited deluxe edition of The Children of Húrin to giveaway (worth £350.00)!

Here’s what you get in the limited
Deluxe Edition of The Children of Húrin:

• It contains nine colour plates.
• It’s hand-bound in full goat-skin with marbled endpapers and raised spine ribs, and the pages are edged in gold!
• It’s housed in a matching leather tray case lined in real suede and protected in its own shipping carton.
• It’s limited to 500 copies worldwide.
• And if that weren’t enough, it’s signed by Christopher Tolkien and Alan Lee!

To Win, Just Answer This Question…

What were the names of the bat and the wolf whose forms Beren and Lúthien took as disguises?

This competition is now closed.

The Rules

The competition closes on 19th December 2008 and is open to UK residents aged 18 or over. Winner will be drawn at random in December soon after the closing date. Winners will be notified by email. Employees of the promoter, its agents or anyone professionally connected with the promotion, and their families, are excluded from entering this competition. The editor’s decision is final and no discussion will be entered into. Only one entry per person. No multiple, bulk or third party entries accepted.

Apologies for the lack of updated this week. Kinda buried under work… and has nothing to do with the arrival of GTA IV yesterday… no no no… nothing whatsoever…

Sir Ian McKellen is to don the grey beard and head back to the Shire (aka New Zealand) as Gandalf under the direction Guillermo del Toro for The Hobbit (plus 2nd film filling the gap between The Hobbit and The Fellowship of the Ring).