We were swept away by the previews and our characters were automatically given level 75 status (among other things) on the Public Test Server. Now, the latest expansion of NCSoft's Lineage II, Chronicle 5: Oath of Blood, finally gets a release date. If everything goes according to plan, Chronicle 5 will be seeing the light of day on September 6. As such, the 10th Lineage II server (called Franz) will open to serve the many loyal fans of the MMO. Franz, like the Teon server, will be designated as a European server. Of course, players are free to choose the server they desire, but not that Franz will be used for castle sieges and other game systems.

Server downtime is expected prior to the launch and the following event items will be removed:

• Bead Ornament (Deck the Halls)
• Star Ornament (Deck the Halls)
• Fir Tree Branch (Deck the Halls)
• Flower Pot (Deck the Halls)
• All alphabet letters (L2 Day)
• Gunpowder (Playing With Fire)
• Magnesium (Playing With Fire)
• Squash Seed (Summer Squash)
• Large Squash Seed (Summer Squash)
• Pollen (Summer Squash)

Unfortunately, the replays created in Chronicle 4: Scions of Destiny, will not be compatible with Chronicle 5. Also, the maximum number of clans in an alliance will be reduced from 12 to 3. Clans are encouraged to re-group their alliances, otherwise they will be forcibly disbanded after the time of launch.

Numbers are a very reliable source of data because they have a fixed value. Like how the number one can never be the number two and vice versa. Using numbers, we can immediately tell how the Games Convention at Leipzig is going.

This year there are 32% more exhibitors; 13% more exhibition space; 200 World, European and German premieres; 150, 000 expected visitors and over 2,500 journalists from 30 countries. Needless to say,  Europe’s leading exhibition devoted to interactive entertainment, infotainment and edutainment is opening with some record-breaking figures. "Over the next four days we expect to welcome far more than 150,000 visitors from all over Europe." says Josef Rahmen, CEO of the Leipzig Fair.

In August 2005, 136,000 visitors came to Leipzig to size up 189 European and German premi?s presented by 280 exhibitors from 15 countries. GC 2005 certainly hit the headlines with some 2,000 journalists from 28 countries (up from 1,700 journalists from 21 countries in 2004) reporting from Europe’s leading public exhibition and trade show focusing on interactive entertainment.

The full article awaits after the jump!

Guild Wars, which have been making us swoon over the upcoming Nightfall expansion (not due out for another month - sorry, folks!) will give a "sneak preview" at the Leipzig Games Convention next week, taking place 23-27 August 2006. According to their recent press release on the subject, GWNF takes place on the continent of Elona, "Land of The Golden Sun." 

There are three provinces: Istan, inhabited by a "vibrant people who live among the monuments of an ancient empire;" Kourna, a militaristic land commanded by a Warmarshal named Varesh, and a northern mountain province controlled by the wealthy Princes of Vabbi. Elona is under protection by the Order of Sunspears, but is threatened by a malevolent god who has been cast out by his fellow deities. Those Elonans are going to need more than a hero to deal with this guy and his legions...

Guild Wars was an instant hit when it was released in April of 2005, and with its Factions expansion, took the number one spot among North American and European gamers earlier this year.

Dirk Metzger, who is NCSoft's European Marketing director, said: “Guild Wars is a hugely popular title in Germany and both the German press and consumers have always been very supportive. Leipzig is the perfect place for us to showcase Guild Wars Nightfall and the buzz at the convention makes it the ideal place to host the final of the Guild Wars Factions World Championship.”

Guild Wars and its expansions are published by Arena Net, a Bellevue Washington subsidiary of Korean company NCSoft.

Now is the time to get those creative juices working to whisk up a great emblem for the next campaign in the Guild Wars saga—Guild Wars Nightfall! Up to 12 of the best symbols will be placed permanently into the Guild Wars emblem catalogue and will appear in Guild Wars Nightfall upon release or in an update soon after release. When added to the game, the emblems will be available for use by players around the world. Winners will receive a full set of the eight collectible Guild Wars Skill Pins. How cool is that?

The guild graphic design must be printed on a sheet of paper no larger than 8.5 by 11 inches or 210?97 mm. The native resolution of these images must be 128 x 128 pixels. Designs should be original creation of the contestant and cannot be taken from any other source.

Eligibilty for North American contestants must be 13 years of age or older. as for European contestants, you must be 18 years old up, or have a parent or guardian enter in the minor's name.

Entries must be postmarked by Friday, August 25, 2006, and must be received by September 8, 2006 so hurry and get those creative minds working!

For more details on the contest, click on the 'Read' link below.

It may seem like old news, but some time ago, we brought you a story about a new breed of "Christian" MMORPGs. As far as we can tell, no other faith practiced in the real world has its own MMORPG, although some aspects of Buddhism are included in  9 Dragons, while Dark Age of Camelot seems to have some elements of Wicca and Asatru (the old Norse religion, still practiced in Iceland).

From this writer's understanding, Christianity grew out of the teachings of a Jewish sect known as the Essenes, and a rabbi from Nazareth named Yeshua ben-Yossef, or Jesus as he came to be known in Greek. It was an unusual philosophy for any time in that its highest values were those of love, universal siblinghood, charity, compassion, peace and tolerance. (Incidentally, the prophet Mohammed also preached these same values about six centuries later - just thought you'd all like to know that.)

The upcoming "Christian" MMORPG, Left Behind: Eternal Forces, seems a bit at odds with those Christian values. In this game, one plays a footsoldier in a paramilitary group, armed with state-of-the-art weaponry. Your mission: turn the United States of America into a theocratic "Kingdom of God" (can you say Taliban?). The ultimate objective is to establish the "dominon of Christ" over all aspects of every individual's life. Those who disagree or resist conversion are to be elimated with "extreme prejudice": Catholics, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, Pagans, Unitarians, and especially Christians who are seen to be "tolerant" or liberal. And oh yes - gays, fornicators, and non-believers.


Read the full article and deliberate more on this Christian MMO after the jump!

Finally! Light at the end of the tunnel, and it's not New Jersey - it's the long awaited release of Codemaster's MMORPG, ArchLord. No, it hasn't actually come out yet, but the publisher has announced that Pre-Order Packs are now available at GameStop and EB Games. This preorder pack can be purchased and downloaded online at  the GameStop website.

Those of you who demonstrate an early interest in the game will be rewarded. The preorder pack contains a number of exclusive and very cool game-related items, which include a special key for obtaining one of four exclusive in-game objects, stickers, cool art postcards and an exclusive soundtrack CD of music from the game.

This offer is available in North America only, at the moment.  However, European gamers should not despair; details of the European pre-order campaign are currently in the process of being finalized, so hopefully, it will just be matter of a few days.

Codemaster's ArchLord takes place on the mythical world of Chantra where humans, Moon-Elves and Orcs vie for dominance. Three races and eight classes promises a great deal of variety. The graphics are described as "lush," and the game features a  "soft, sensual soundtrack brilliantly scored by the London Symphony Orchestra" (which by itself be reason enough to pick this one up). The game will accommodate both PvP fans and solo players.

Although the game - still in beta - has yet to be officially released anywhere, Spellborn Interactive Ltd. has already taken on a European partner for distribution of its greatly anticipated MMORPG, The Chronicles of Spellborn. Frogster Interactive Pictures AG, a Berlin-based publisher of computer games, will have exclusive marketing and distribution rights of the game for Germany, Austria, Switzerland and France.

Dirk Weyel, Frogster Interactive CMO, issued the following statement:  “In the last months, we have been involved intensively with a lot of MMOGs and are most pleased that we now have a project with such a huge potential in our pipeline as ‘The Chronicles of Spellborn.' The development team works highly professional and shares our vision of a long term co-operation regarding marketing and operation of a MMOG. For this, we’ll support the launch of TCoS with the yet largest marketing campaign in Frogster history.”

Barry Hoffman, Spellborn's Marketing Manager added:  “We are very proud to achieve our publishing goals by signing the publishing contract for ‘The Chronicles of Spellborn’ with Frogster. Their regional presence and extensive knowledge of the local markets ensures the high quality of store availability and support that we aim to achieve with TCoS.”

Spellborn assured the gaming community that its planned release date of October 2006 remains unchanged.