GameAmp’s 2006 E3 MMORPG Full Review List |
This year GameAmp scrambled to visit every MMORPG on the floor and find out enough information on the games to satisfy even the most hungry of gamers.
Around and around E3 we went in search of this and next years titles. At the same time we were busy deciding who we should be giving away our coveted
E3 Awards to. If you're wondering who landed themselves the GameAmp Awards, check THIS PAGE RIGHT HERE. If you've already
given them a gander and you’re here for the gritty details then good on ya! Below you will find a complete list of the titles available on the E3 Show Floor in
various stages of development.
Rather than just provide you with a couple of sentences on the game and regurgitated information available in every press kit that went out to any media
who visited the booth, we tried to ask some meaningful questions about what the game is and will be like. As gamers ourselves we want to know the details!
We’ve done our best to compile the finest source of first look information from E3 available anywhere.
Each game review is broken into multiple sections to make them a bit easier to digest. Below you will find just the introduction to each game.
Clicking on that game’s name will bring you to the full review for that game. There you will find the full E3 Review broken down into; Graphics,
Questing, Gameplay, Character Progression, Gear, and Overall. Enjoy the reads and drop us some feedback to tell us what you think!
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| Enjoy the awards & reviews and don’t forget to drop us a line in the forums with a few comments! |
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Developer: Mythic Entertainment
This year Mythic Entertainment gave us a first hand look at Warhammer Online. If you had a chance to check out our E3 Awards, you would know that Warhammer Online got this year’s Best of Show award from GameAmp. This title is truly impressive from every aspect of what we believe makes a fun and highly addictive game. We’ve broken our review into a few different pieces to make things a bit easier to digest, just as you’ll see in all of our First Looks Reviews…. <FULL REVIEW>
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Developer: WEBZEN
WEBZEN was difficult to lock down this year, with tons of hype around their games. Messages were left, emails were sent, and we made a last stand effort to arrange an appointment with a WEBZEN rep but all was for not. We did however get a chance to check out SUN as it was being demoed on quite a few machines in their booth. Here’s what we discovered… <FULL REVIEW>
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Developer: WEBZEN
Much like our SUN experience WEBZEN proved to be extremely busy and we were unable to lock down an appointment even after a barrage of emails, phone calls, and a face to face visit at their booth. We were instead left to experience the game ourselves but sometimes, that’s the best way to determine how well new gamers will respond to a title the first time they have a chance to play. You can read all about everything we found in Huxley below… <FULL REVIEW>
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Developer: Simutronics
This year we caught up with the folks at Simutronics who were kind enough to give us not one, but two walkthroughs when I returned with a few questions before awarding them the GameAmp Most Original title of E3 Award. This game has so many new features that have never before been seen in a game that it’s really hard to find a place to begin! <FULL REVIEW>
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Developer: NCsoft
The winner of GameAmp’s 2006 Best Sound Award; may we present one of the coolest games we have ever played. This game immediately sucks you in right from the start. The demo NCsoft had running was a ton of fun. You sit down at the keyboard and put on the headset to find a GM / Dev on the other end guiding you through the demo. I often found myself engrossed so much in the combat I forgot I was on a mission. It plays exactly how I would want an MMOFPS to play. Tons of combat which is aim based not skill based. That’s not to say there aren’t a ton of skills it just isn’t a game where you target a mob and then press 1, 4, 3, 1, 4, 1, 4… This is a game where you are always actively strafing and moving around your target, dodging fire, launching grenades into the fray. This is a title really worth looking forward to. <FULL REVIEW>
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Developer: NCsoft
While standing around the Aion portion of the NCsoft booth I continually heard the same expression uttered by almost every person who took their first glance at Aion; WOW! I think this entire review can pretty much be summed up in that single word. Pronounced ion, this is NCsofts heavy hitter in the making. A joint effort between a South Korean and U.S. team this title was completely unexpected. If you came here from GameAmp’s E3 Awards page you would know this was the Best Graphics winner; hands down. Nothing I have ever seen holds a candle to Aion’s graphics. Visually stunning, highly addictive, and we only got to see a fraction of the game. The story takes us to an Angels vs Demons theme. Only the Angel's side was playable and viewable but that’s all you need to see to know this title is going to be huge. <FULL REVIEW>
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Developer: NCsoft
Dungeon Runners is a completely new take on MMORPGs as we, as a collective group of gamers, know it… yet at the same time it holds onto such an addictive Diablo-esque feel you can’t help but want to keep playing. Dungeon Runners combined with Exteel (another up coming NCsoft title) represent a new business model for MMORPGs.
Guildwars entered the scene experimenting with the no subscription rate model. Dungeon Runners and Exteel will enter representing the next step in NCsoft’s experimental ever evolving business model. Dungeon Runners and Exteel are completely free to download and completely free to play. There is absolutely no cost involved in being able to play a complete version of this game. Instead, later in the games release, NCsoft will open up expansions to the content; armor, weapons, dungeons, skills etc… Expansions will be the only thing about Dungeon Runners that you will need to pay for. Add content as quickly as they can make it or pick and choose to get exactly what you want. Even as a paying customer you will still be able to play with all the gamers who are non-paying. This may not include new explore-able areas and dungeons but you can at least revisit the originals that everyone is playing on and make them drool over all your crazy gear. <FULL REVIEW>
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Developer: Perpetual Entertainment
Gods & Heroes came as a huge surprise this year to E3. Perpetual Entertainment has done an outstanding job at keeping this award winning title under wraps. When I first walked by the monitors displaying this title, I thought it was a console game. When I had a chance to get up close and get a walk through demo from Stieg, the lead game designer, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. The gameplay in this title is mind boggling and shows that there is a new style of skills and spell the world has never seen from an MMORPG. <FULL REVIEW>
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Developer: Turbine
Although coming from the same developers as Dungeons & Dragons Online, you would be hard pressed to find a title more opposite in structure. Lord of the Rings features an open seamless expansive world named of course, Middle Earth. This year the team at Turbine was awarded GameAmp’s Best Theme of 2006 E3 Award and for a damn good reason. Every developer I talked to on the project was extremely knowledgeable about Tolkien’s Middle Earth. I’m not talking about they-watched-the-movie-a-dozen-times type of knowledgeable, I’m talking about someone-at-Turbine-forced-them-all-to-read-The-Hobbitt,-The-Lord-of-the-Rings,-and-the-Silmarillion-twenty-times-each-and-ensured-that-somehow-they-all-had-the-books-on-tape-playing-in-their-cars,-at-home,-and-on-a-continuous-loop-while-working type of knowledgeable and anything with that many hyphens is not to be take lightly.
The developers for other games which include the Lord of the Rings title only need a limited amount of knowledge about the original books because they are following a specific, planned out, prewritten, and pre-approved storyline that can only end one way. The dev team over at Turbine is not nearly as fortunate. Just to say you’ll take on the project means you’ve gotta’ have enough cohones to stand up and say, “we can make an MMO that will keep the Tolkien fanboys happy”. That, my fellow gamers, is one of the roughest bunch of geeks you ever didn’t want to mess with. Get the slightest detail wrong and you might very well have a small army of Legolas clad geeks showing up at your office brandishing real bows and opening fire at you window. While it may be humorous at first, an arrow in the eye could be quite painful. Now that we’re in agreement, on to the rest of the review! <FULL REVIEW>
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Developer: Funcom
Coming Soon! <FULL REVIEW>
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Developer: NCsoft
Coming Soon! <FULL REVIEW>
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Developer: Disney Online
Coming Soon! <FULL REVIEW>
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Developer: Sigil Games (SOE)
Coming Soon! <FULL REVIEW>
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