Dan O'Halloran
- http://www.massively.com
Dan O'Halloran is the Features Editor at Massively and the Managing Editor at WoW.com. He's been playing MMORPG's nightly for 10 years now. In LotRO he can be found playing his Lore-master and his four alts on Nimrodel.
by Dan O'Halloran 
Jun 7th 2011 (11 months ago)
Star Wars: The Old Republic
E3 officially kicked off today in Los Angeles, and I was lucky to be one of the first in line for the latest hands-on demo of
Star Wars: The Old Republic at the enormous
Electronic Arts booth. There were two different types of demo stations awaiting us: level 1 Galactic Republic characters for those who were new to the game and level 26 Sith Empire characters for those of us who were more comfortable with MMOs. I was hot to play the mid-level Sith characters, but first we had to watch a 10-minute instructional video on how to play each advanced class.
by Dan O'Halloran Aug 1st 2010 (1 year ago)
DC Universe Online
SOE
Today we have more from the question-and-answer portion of the
DC Universe Online panel at the
San Diego Comic-Con last week. (
Part one of the panel was posted earlier this week.) Panelists included Creative Director Jens Andersen, Game Director Chris Cao, legendary comic book writer Marv Wolfman, Jim Lee, and the voice of the Joker, Mark Hamill.
Will there be a mechanic for switching from hero to villain or vice versa?
No. You make the choice of hero or villain at character creation, and it can't be changed after that. This is so it is clear to other players in PvP who is on what team.
Will current storylines in the DC comic universe affect the MMO?
The game will launch "pristine"; that is, the DC Universe in the game will be the popular, well-known one. Wonder Woman will be in her classic costume; Bruce Wayne will be Batman; etc. From there, storylines from the comics may start altering the MMO universe, but at least from the get-go, the game will start with a clean slate.
DCUO will be getting its own bi-weekly comic as well.
by Dan O'Halloran Aug 1st 2010 (1 year ago)
Among the insanity that is the exhibitor floor of the
San Diego Comic-Con was the demo booth of the upcoming, free-to-play action MMORPG from Nexon,
Vindictus. Though sandwiched on one side by the Warner Bros' booth (where the stars of
True Blood were generating enormous crowds) and on the other by G4's two-story monstrosity (which was blaring live broadcasts from the second floor of the booth), you still couldn't miss the
Vindictus staff members wearing their
signature red gnoll chief spirit hood.
After
our hands-on with the game at E3 in June, we were eager to speak to Chris Gyselinck, Assistant Producer for
Vindictus about the highly anticipated game. Yes, he was wearing the gnoll spirit hood. No, he wouldn't let me try it. But he did give me the scoop on the game, including upcoming beta plans. Check it out after the jump.
by Dan O'Halloran Jun 24th 2010 (1 year ago)
Since launch, the free-to-play
Allods Online has had
a very unpopular death mechanic. When a player is killed in the game, Fear of Death is applied to their character. This debuff is a 25% hit to offensive stats for a duration based on level up to 51 minutes. And it stacks, so if the player dies again, they get a 50% debuff. Players must use a special item (incense) to remove the effect early. They can buy incense using the cash shop or in the auction house from other players who have already paid for it with real money.
With the launch of
Patch 1.1: Revelations of Gipat on July 7th, Fear of Death will be going away, replaced instead with a different kind of penalty. But will it be what players have been asking for all along?
by Dan O'Halloran Jun 20th 2010 (1 year ago)
WoW
Every two weeks, Massively Mobile brings you the latest news, guides and analysis about MMOs on mobile devices. Covering iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad and Android platforms, we're on the lookout for the next generation of MMOs.
Today I am going to cover mobile apps for
World of Warcraft for the iPod Touch, iPhone, and iPad. If you own a mobile device that runs a different OS, fear not! I will be covering
WoW apps running on Google's Android OS and for the Blackberry in the next column.
It must be noted that the official
WoW iPhone app is one of the best MMO-related apps out there with the recent addition of in-game auction house access through the app. It has set the bar for other MMO apps that are mere character and/or server look-up services. Seriously, it blows
other MMO-related apps out of the water.
by Dan O'Halloran Jun 19th 2010 (1 year ago)
SOE
Arriving at the SOE booth at
E3, one is assaulted with the shininess of their latest upcoming titles,
DC Universe Online and
The Agency. But scattered about the booth were demo stations for many of their other upcoming games including the recently announced
Clone Wars Adventures. We haven't heard much about this game since
it was announced (and
our subsequent interview with the lead designer), but we got to sit down at E3 and find out what's involved.
As a quick refresher,
CWA is less a traditional MMORPG and more a virtual lobby where players can access a number of minigames. There's no leveling or quests or equipment with stats. It's more
Free Realms and less
EverQuest. It will be free-to-play as a Flash-based browser title when it arrives this fall. But how does all this actually play? Click past the jump for more info.
by Dan O'Halloran Jun 17th 2010 (1 year ago)
DC Universe Online
SOE
We've seen SOE's superhero MMO
DC Universe Online. We saw it
two years ago at the San Diego Comic Con where its physics-based badassery allowed us to pick up cars, lampposts and anything else we could get our costumed hands on, and use them to knock our foes across three city blocks. Two years later we expected to see something substantially new and excited and we were not disappointed.
Creative Director Jens Anderson took us through a walkthrough of the latest build of the game and we saw boss fights, PvP gameplay and endgame armor sets themed to declare your allegiance to the most popular superheroes in the game. Read on for the latest details!
by Dan O'Halloran Jun 16th 2010 (1 year ago)
LotRO
Massively sat down today with the Turbine team at
E3 in Los Angeles to take a look at the new
Lord of the Rings Online free-to-play content that
went into closed beta earlier today. Along with the new cash shop, we got a look at the new playable area Enedwaith that will go live with the Volume 2, Book 3 launch this Fall. The blurred version of the new land map is for those of you who don't like spoilers. Full map and all the details about the next patch after the jump!
by Dan O'Halloran Jun 6th 2010 (1 year ago)
Every two weeks, Facebook MMOgraphy brings you the latest news, guides and analysis about MMOs on Facebook and Facebook apps associated with MMOs.
In my last column I took
a look at the Facebook vampire MMO, City of Eternals. One of the commenters on the piece turned me on to another Facebook MMO, the free-to-play, browser-based
Faunasphere. This game is more like
Free Realms than traditional combat-oriented MMOs. It is generally aimed at a younger demographic, one that wants to collect cute animal avatars and customize their virtual living spaces with an endless array of decorations and themes. Using both in-game cash and real-life money, players can create an oasis for their animal avatars to live in.
There is no combat or PvP, no raids or skirmishes. The goals of this game is to clean up a toxic world with your animal avatar and transform it into an oasis for all life. If that's your cup of MMO-steeped tea, read on!
by Dan O'Halloran May 30th 2010 (1 year ago)
LotRO
SL
Turbine
Every two weeks, Massively Mobile brings you the latest news, guides and analysis about MMOs on mobile devices. Covering iPhone, iPad and Android platforms, we're on the lookout for the next generation of MMOs.
In the last column, I covered
a number of iPhone apps for MMOs. Some kept you connected to the game world, others offered you information at your fingertips, while still others were entire games unto themselves. Today I continue with the second half of the list starting with
Final Fantasy XI all the way through
Wizard101. In the next Massively Mobile column, I will focus specifically on
World of Warcraft mobile apps for both the iPhone and the Android.
I have to admit that in the process of researching this column, I became obsessed with one particular app,
Warrior Epic: Sagas. I don't even play the MMO, but I found the app to be one I returned to again and again throughout the week. It's very addictive, has an engaging storyline and is a dream come true for equipment micromanagers like myself. Check it out along with the rest of the apps after the jump.
