Every night that I spend wandering the lands of Norrath, I look to the skies and the heavens, and wonder, in utter awe and fear, what new adventure or horror the God-Known-Only-As-V will next drop upon us, its poor and ill-prepared champions. Now, I will fear no more when I look up to that night sky, and revel in the glory that is the moon of Norrath…
For the Shadows of Luclin are coming, and bringing with it everything I love and hate about Norrath, and Everquest. The official press release confused me right off:
An area of great mystery, magic, and perplexity, Luclin is divided into a land of light, ruled by Discord, and a land of shadow, ruled by Order.
Pardon? Light is run by the chaotic side? And Dark is run by the good and pure side? Well will wonders never cease! And will Verant ever cease from messing up our views of how gaming and roleplay should be!
Youre in Our world now!(trademarked as The Vision)
Indeed! We can look forward to 25 “brand new adventure zones”, a NEW starting city, enhanced player-character models and texture maps, a new race to play, and a new class to pick!
A new race? Which of the many did you always want to be? A pixie, faerie or brownie, perhaps? We already got to play lizards *peers at Skald*, and they will never let me truly be a goblin or orc *sobs weakly*. So what can we be now? Something new or something old?
Actually? KERRANS! The Cat People! I knew it! I bounced when I saw that! I have been to Kerra Ridge, I saw the vendors, they even have a banker! I just KNEW we would be able to play them some day! And that day comes in the fourth quarter of 2001!
A new class…hmm hmm hmmmmm…Beastlord? What ever will that be? I highly encourage everyone who reads to give their thoughts or share information on this.
Jeff Butler, Verants producer for this project, interviewed by Gamespot, stated that Velious and Kunark were both very successful. I would have to beg to differ, because Velious wasnt that successful, people didnt flock there like they did to Kunark. They are slowly migrating, I think. And Kunark may have had a big entry, but the dungeons there have rarely been packed by mid level players. Droga and Nurga are almost always empty, but filled to the brim with excellent opportunities for loot and adventure.
Another thing stated by Mr. Butler was that this new expansion will seemingly focus on one of Everquests best assets.
Eyecandy, my friends, Eyecandy!
This new expansion will reportedly be good enough to keep EQ up and in the running with the new MMORPGs coming out. Because Everquest surpassed other games visually, it set a kind of staging ground for what an online game could be, graphics-wise. You dont have graphics like that in Asherons Call, where your polygons fly apart every time you jump, and where you end up looking like a burnt frenchfry if you go with short sleeves or a balloon animal if you wear a robe. No, Everquest has always run the gauntlet for graphics, even incorporating the dreaded Directx patch, which ruined the game for so many, but increased its worth for so many others. Now, other games are following suit, and are going to offer what Everquest offered first. So to compete, I suppose its only fitting EQ and its new expansion will go back to the basics, back to their one most outstanding feature.
Heres to Eye Candy! And lets all raise our glasses of Dragons Brogart to the new Kerrans with their furry bodies and hopefully luscious and titillating curves! And heres to living on the moon and the new starting city!
To check out two neat screenshots from Shadows of Luclin, and read the actual interview between Gamespot and Jeff Butler, click here.