Weekly MMO news round-up E3 edition: Torchlight, LotRO, Warhammer, SWTOR

By Stephany Nunneley

E3 was a very busy week for all involved whether they were at the show or not. Loads of games were unveiled, peripherals, and tons more stuff happened.

MMOs were there too though, and while the majority didn’t make the front page, loads of stuff pertaining to the genre happened or is going to happen.

Find out exactly what after the jump.

• The developers of Fallen Earth started an E3 diary on the official website. If the game interests you, what you find on the blog will too.

• Frogster sent us a lovely press announcement regarding Chapter II for Runes of Magic. Called The Elven Prophecy, the update will launch in September and include new classes, content, a graphics overhaul, level cap increases, pet-system, and the elven race. More through the link.

• Warhammer Online updated its lore this week with The Origin of the Elves, elaborating on the part the race played in history up to The Sundering. It’s a rather interesting read if you are a fan of the Warhammer Universe.

• Heroes of Telara was on hand at E3 and 1UP got up close and personal with it. Seems every decision you make effects the lives of the inhabitants of the land of Telara. Sounds like an interesting concept. We may have to try this one out.

• World of Warcraft got patched during the week and with the usual fixes came some class changes. Hunters will notice an additional power attack bonus for Hunter’s Mark and a cost cut on Aimed Shot and Chimera Shot. Death Knights and Warlocks were nerf’d, Warriors and Druids broke even and the Rogue Overkill Talent was redesigned. Full thing over on Gaming Today.

• Destructoid were on hand at E3 to check out some MMO titles, and Jade Dynasty was one of ’em. One of the things the site noticed was the ease with leveling. “Use the meditate feature for when you are playing the game and go off to get a sandwich and your character will gain experience just standing there. Or, when you log off after a nice 6 hour raid session, you can click the Dream feature. You character will gain experience while you go do important things, like eating sandwiches.” Hmmm. You can get in on the beta here.

• NK Interactive’s Rohan: Blood Feud will get a crafting update on June 16. It basically works like most crafting in MMOs. Gather. Extract. Create. More on the official website.

• Free Realms may have over 2 million registered users, but no matter how many people are in a game, things can still get a bit stale. Sony plans to keep this from happening though, and are in the process of implementing the soccer job class and other new jobs, player housing will be coming either this year or next, and racing will be upgraded along with demolition derby sections. More on Kotaku.

• Torchlight will “morph from single-player to mmo” within a year of release, according to a piece on Massively. The game is currently being created by some of the folks who brought you Diablo, Mythos, Mythos II and Fate, so this Diabloesque 2D hack-and-slash has gamers holding high expectations. The town in the game, Torchlight is a town with another world underneath it – which sounds awesome. Plus, it looks rather damn good at the moment. Hit the link for more.

• Reality Gap has announced Monato Esprit that will go live in July and is currently in final beta.The fantasy-RPG MMO had players assume the role of winged Archons whose mission is to rid the Dreamworld of an invasion by nightmares. Players also control the game’s economy by having the exclusive right to sell items in the stores, commanding NPCs to charge tolls, and performing alchemy to create custom magic items. Cool.

• Vanguard’s upcoming patch has been designed for the players by the players. The “Player’s Choice” update, focuses on updates decided by the community, and what did the community choose? While “big squashing” of course. Nothing is more annoying than a game full of bugs that just won’t get fixed.

• Book 8 will arrive to Lord of the Rings Online soon, and one of the new additions is another festival, which are always fun. This time around though, you will be able to bet on certain races using tokens earned in game. For example: In the Shire, you can bet on which Hobbit will win the pie-eating contest. Most of us are just interested in what the horse will be though, and if this time around Turbine has fixed the issue that kept us from getting one last time. Full thing on MMORPG.

• Star Wars: The Old Republic has had the Trooper class detailed in a video. You should go watch. He has a big gun.

• Mortal Online’s beta is going good according to the devs. Shame we didn’t get picked for it yet, but that’s the way things go sometimes. At any rate, more players from the community are being invited each week and the test phases have been getting loads of feedback. Looking forward to this one as well.

That’s that.