The Secret World

[Tach Deneva]

Yup, tanks are big fun. That's why I have more Tankers than any other Archetype in City of Heroes.



I played my chaos/fists tank in TSW a little bit this weekend, but I rerolled my blades/ele DPS toon in order to check out the new faces in the character creator (and to switch factions) and wound up going shotgun/ele - and liking it! BOOM! ZAP! Zombies roasting on an open fire...

Both male and female toons can be bald now, btw.

[Tach Deneva]

I wasn't sleepy anyway, but dayum...



A cutscene featuring the voice of Jeffrey Combs --

Warning! This video clip contains Naughty Words. Proceed with due diligence.

[Tach Deneva]

Ragnar says:

Hi all,

A lot of you are planning ahead to Friday's early access launch, and have asked for dimension (server) names in order to decide where to play together.

To make that job a bit easier, I've put together an exclusive list of the first batch of dimension names we've got lined up for launch. There will be more, of course, but I'm sure you guys can find a permanent home on one of these dimensions -- as long as you show up early for early access!

Dimensions are global and you can play anywhere you want without any regional restrictions. We've marked some dimensions as French- and German-speaking, and though you can still play the English language version of the game on those dimensions, people will probably be chatting and communicating in French or German.

Here is the list of the first five English dimensions, along with the first four French-and-German dimensions:

* Cerberus
* Daemon
* Faerie (RP dimension)
* Grim
* Huldra
* Drac (French dimension)
* Mandrake (French dimension)
* Kobold (German dimension)
* Poltergeist (German dimension)

Again, this is by no means a complete list, and we'll be announcing more dimensions as soon as these fill up.

[Tach Deneva]

Heh, finally somebody posted a clip of the NPCs at Innsmouth Academy (even if they did cut off the first sentence).

Oh, my god, have you EVER heard of a white lie?

[Softball]

Secret World is now LIVE for Pre-order "early access." DLing updates now, weeeeee!

[Tach Deneva]

I've been playing since around noonish EST! Whee!

[Tach Deneva]

Here be the Secret World Launch Trailer.

[Tach Deneva]

This game takes no prisoners.

[Softball]

I know what you mean, I still say that housekeeper is a B*tch!!! Lol.

[Tach Deneva]

Who's going to believe a talking head? Get a job in a sideshow!

[Tach Deneva]

My assessment of the Secret World zones thus far:

Solomon Island -

Kingsmouth: Ooh, what is all this? Fun, fun!
Savage Coast: Ooh, crazy and spooky! Fun, fun!
Blue Mountain: OMGWTF happened?!?

Egypt -

The Scorched Desert: Ooh, it's like a beach... without an ocean! Fun, fun!
The City of the Sun God: A few speed bumps but overall fun, fun!

Transylvania -

Besieged Farmlands: Was worried Transylvania was going to be another Blue Mountain, but so far... fun, fun!

[Tach Deneva]

First Monthly Update - Issue #1: Unleashed

Yay, there's a mission from Carter!

[CougarMech]

Used a friends buddy pass to play for 24 hours...couldn't get into it, went back to TERA>

[Tach Deneva]

While it's definitely NOT a game for everyone, here's your chance to try it out:

The Official We've been Live for a Month Free Weekend.

Warning! Warning!

Rating: Mature 17+

Blood - It's just a flesh wound!

Partial Nudity - I guess in Hell it's difficult to NOT burn your bra. Demon boobies on display! Also, if you have an old outdated PC like me and you run through an area faster than the PC can keep up, sometimes you might see the player characters before you see the player characters' clothes. In which case you learn that everybody has black undies and the womenfolk all have smiley face pasties. Scandalous!

Sexual Content - Well, if you play a Dragon, anyway. Then again, maybe it really is just a foot massage in that cutscene...

Strong Language - They <bleepity bleep!> aren't <bleep bleepity bleep!> kidding.

Use of Drugs - If you play as an Illuminati, you get dosed pretty good right off the proverbial bat. "Is it safe?" No, not a vampire bat. Well... maybe.

Violence - Well, yeah. Unloading a shotgun into a werewolf's face is pretty violent.

Beyond all that, this game can be <bleep-o-rama!> HARD. I mean, do YOU know Morse Code? Heh, some of you guys might! But even so, if, like Hondo, you don't go for that "Sherlock Holmes <bleep!>", you probably shouldn't bother with this game.

[Tach Deneva]

Hey Softball -

Special event thingee going on this weekend - complete 30 missions and get 1200 funcom points and some kinda special shirt. Got my 30 missions done already. Also finished the main storyline. Whee.

The Secret Click

[Softball]

Thanks for the heads up Tach, but I was not able to login that weekend. Too much going on in RL. I'm hoping to get some game time in this week. We'll see.

[Tach Deneva]

Did the Pandora's Box dungeon (aka The Ankh) in the Scorched Desert tonight. Some darned tough boss fights in that one. One boss throws these wacky mote thingees at you that will shut off your abilities and kill you if your team mates don't get them off you in time. You can dodge left or right to avoid them, but you're fighting on a narrow bridge and if you dodge a little too far... splat.

Then there was the HUGE monster on that other bridge that couldn't be defeated. You had to clear a path through smaller monsters to the other side of the bridge before the HUGE monster could catch up with you. If you didn't get across fast enough... splat.

Then there was the other HUGE monster at the end, and then the end boss with his magical bowling balls of doom...

[Tach Deneva]

Second Issue update coming:

http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/the_ ... ing_deeper

Not sure how I feel about the addition of auxiliary weapons like the Rocket Launcher.

Also - we'll be able to change our characters' looks, which is great, but...

If you want to change your face, you must go to New York.
If you want to change your hair, you must go to London.

[Tach Deneva]

Fan-made promo using both cinematics and gameplay video.

CLICK

Sadly, the game isn't doing all that well and Funcom is having some financial problems as a result. Truly a shame. This game is excellent - at least, up to a point. The story, the voice acting, the missions - and the different types of missions - heck, even the insane difficulty of some parts - Funcom delivered. This has been the most fun PVE gameplay I've experienced in years. Sure, there have been some bugs - what game doesn't have bugs? - and some design choices are questionable, and once you complete the main storyline and finish up the missions in the Carpathian Fangs there's currently not much else to do but run (and rerun) 'Nightmare' dungeons and/or engage in PVP (not the greatest, admittedly). My biggest complaint: the game is not alt-friendly, and if you know me, you know I love my alts.

But from the opening cutscene to the end of the main storyline - excellent. Well done, Funcom. Well done. Well worth the price of admission.

[Softball]

Cool video, great song too. Where did you hear Funcom isn't doing so well? Sucks to hear that news, they have been pretty solid when it comes to MMOs.