Posted by: rollie | Time: 1:54 pm (PST) | Category: World of Warcraft
In an out of the blue post, Tigole posted that you will no longer be required to do the attunement quests to enter Tempest Keep or Serpent Shrine.
After a lot of thought and deliberation, we've decided to remove the attunement requirements to enter Serpentshrine Cavern and Tempest Keep: The Eye. While many of our attunements in the Burning Crusade have been good progression checks, a few of the attunements have turned out to cause unnecessary stress on guilds either doing the content or attempting to do the content. With Black Temple and Battle for Mount Hyjal thriving, we want to encourage (rather than prevent) new guilds and raid groups to attempt Serpentshrine and TK. We are going to leave the current attunement quests in the game so that players can still engage in the challenge and the lore of those quests should they choose to. At a later point, we are considering adding a final reward step to those quests as well (that way those who have already completed them would not miss out on a *new* reward).
This is pretty big news and fairly shocking news at that. Discuss the impact here
Volon and Dalgar started the Azzor Network in January 2005. Arising from the great communities we had at wow-news.net and wow.warcraftstrategy.com, the goal with Azzor was to further our excellence within the WoW community and expand into new games the community was interested in. From events like WoW Idol to our many exclusives (the BlizzCon coverage and China coverage to name a few), Azzor has smashed any goals for what we hoped it would achieve. With the help of an amazing staff and community, we have made great strides on our flagship WoW site and expanded the Azzor network into 7 other games.
Beyond Azzor, this community has worked together to start the first and largest World of Warcraft streaming video service in WarcraftCinema.com. We have played an integral role in the anti-gold-selling effort through the creation of NoGold.org.
Unfortunately, due to real life commitments, we (Volon and Dalgar) have not kept up with the expectations of this community over the past few months. We feel we have been letting down staff members and everyone else by not doing what is necessary on our part to retain Azzor's excellence and promising future.
We don't see ourselves being able to commit what is necessary for this community in the near future. We both love Azzor, but it is with mixed feelings that we announce new leadership today.
Rollie, from warcraftrealms.com, has purchased the Azzor Network and has working plans to move forward with the site consistent with what we all expect from this community. We (Volon and Dalgar) really feel that bringing Rollie on board is the best way to continue the Azzor tradition we have grown to love.
We will allow him to introduce himself, but please give him your full support as we all work together in Azzor's newest chapter. We (Volon and Dalgar) could never leave this community, and we'll be sticking around as well to help make the latest chapter in this site's history the best yet. We hope you will too.
So, the big surprise is here: StarCraft II got announced by Blizzard in South Korea. The place was the Olympic Gymnastics Arena in Seoul where lots of people went crazy when they saw this CGI-trailer and a gameplay demonstration by the developers.
A release date has not been announced though, the official site has just gone live.
Thats right! Patch 1.1 has been released. To download it, click here.
The patch notes are below:
5. Update 1.1 Notes
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue with falling through collision in Fort Wooden Hand.
Fixed issue with remapping controls in French, German, Italian and Spanish versions.
Fixed issue with some shadows not lining up.
Going to jail while equipped with bound armor or weapons no longer crashes the game.
Fixed issue with bound weapons not dispelling properly after dismounting a horse.
Fixed issue with player shadow being delayed after fast travel.
Fixed infinite gold issue on some dead NPCs.
Fixed issue with disease resistences that made it impossible to contract vampirism under certain circumstances.
Fixed an issue where occasionally skills would not increase properly after you received an increase in a way other than skill uses like as a quest reward.
Fixed issue where spells, powers and lesser powers were being improperly resisted when the player cast them on themselves.
Fixed an issue where creatures and NPCs would not go into combat properly after being hit by a projectile.
Fixed an issue with duplicating items and unequiping the bow.
Fixed an exploit that allowed you to sell equipped items to a vendor more than once while on a horse.
Fixed an issue with items reappearing in dead bodies after saving and reloading.
Fixed crash when NPC with active light spell on them unloaded from memory.
New Very Low Quality graphic setting available under Launcher options with improved support for low end FX cards (5700 and lower). To use this setting, go to the Launcher, select Options and click Reset to Defaults to allow the auto detect to check your system.
Implemented SLI-mode optimizations on Nvidia cards, and Crossfire optimizations for ATI cards.
Fixed a crash issue where loading a save would crash if the player had extra data on them.
Fixed an issue for LOD art for city was not unloading quickly enough when exiting an interior.
Fixed an issue where Aylied doors would not open when activated in Miscarcand.
Quest Fixes
If you are permanently expelled from Mages Guild, you can now go back into the Mages Guild buildings.
In The Siren's Deception, the door to Gweden farmhouse is prevented from locking too soon if player exits too quickly.
In the Light the Dragonfires quest, player controls are prevented from being locked if player accidentally hits Ocato during the final battle in the Imperial Palace.
In the Confront the King quest, fixed an issue where Mannimarco would occasionally stop fighting the player while the player's controls are locked.
In Corruption and Conscience, fixed an issue if player got to Llevana's house earlier than expected and she would initiate trespass behavior rather than move the quest forward.
In Theranis' Mistake, it is no longer possible to get multiple copies of Ahdarji's ring. Also, fixed an issue with player receiving Blood Price topic too early in the quest.
In the Leyawiin Recommendation quest, it is no longer possible to bypass Kalthar in Fort Blueblood.
In Revenge Served Cold, Corrick will now recognize when player had the jade amulet in their inventory if No Stone Unturned quest had been previously completed.
In Infiltration, player can no longer kill Blackwood Company members and stop progress in Fighter's Guild.
In Dark Brotherhood, if you kill fellow members and get kicked out of the guild, you can no longer continue to progress in the questline until you redeem yourself and get back in.
In The Master's Son, the player now properly receives their reward when completing the quest.
In Caught in the Hunt, fixed an issue where NPCs would not go into combat properly.
In the Cheydinhal Recommendation quest, fixed an issue where Vidkun's body would disappear if you left the well.
Getting disqualified from the first Arena match no longer blocks you from further matches.
In Till Death Do They Part, the Count no longer rewards player with gold more than once. Fixed an issue with not receiving the Vampire Ashes topic if the player picked up vampire ashes before getting the quest. Fixed issue where Bloodgrass topic was not added if player finished the Main Quest before starting quest. Hal-Liurz will now follow player properly when asked about the cure.
In Mystery and Harlun's Watch, the dead body you are supposed to find will no longer disappear from Swampy Cave if you cleared out the dungeon before starting the quest.
In Blood of the Daedra, Martin will now recognize Spellbreaker as a Daedric artifact.
In When the Vow Breaks, additional instance of Rockshatter are now prevented from appearing on Bjalfi's dead corpse after saving and reloading.
In Paranoia, game no longer crashes when Bernadette Peneles exits the city while you are following her.
For Clavicus Vile quest, fixed crash with giving or refusing to give Umbra to Clavicus Vile.
Plugin Fixes
Fixed issue with saving your game while an actor is in a new interior cell created in a plugin, and re-loading the save game without the plugin.
Fixed issue with loading previous saves with plugin that contains new base objects that are containers, NPCs and creatures.
Fixed issue with linked pathpoints scripted to switch on/off that are modified by a plugin.
NPC's companions no longer disappear when they fast travel with player to an exterior cell that is modified by a plugin.
New scripted spell effects created in a plugin now work properly.
A Z E R O T H ___ A D ___ C O N T E S T - A WarcraftCinema Contest -
We are pleased to announce WarcraftCinema's first WoW Machinima contest: Azeroth Ad Contest! Over $700 in prizes to be given away!
The Challenge:
Create a 30 second video advertisment related to Warcraft, using WoW footage. Your commercial should advertise a WoW product, event, or organization. Some ideas:
Horde Enlistment Bonuses, Join Today!. "An Army of One."
Take a taste of "Auntie" Bernice Stonefield's mouth-watering Pork Belly Pie. "Now with zero calories!"
Enjoy delicious, soothing Noggenfogger. "Because you only live once."
Visit Lion’s Pride Inn. "Where swords, polearms, and beer coexist."
Take a vacation in scenic Dun Morogh. Tour working mines, visit historic Ironforge, and ride in an authentic Dwarven Steam Engine! "Paid for by the Ironforge Chamber of Commerce. We are not liable for any torture, maiming, or death you may experience."
Elect your fellow Tauren, Chief Hawkwind, to the Hordish Parliment on August 7th! "Because despite what they tell you, size actually does matter..."
The Prize:
Who needs a prize? Smile Just participating and being a part of your community is a ton of fun! For those of you driven to aquire more worldly possessions, we aim to please. Over $700 in prizes are to be given away, including such items as ZBOARD™ World of Warcraft® keyset, Razer Krait™, and World of WarCraft Atlas Gift Pack (Hardcover)
Sources from the neoGAF discussion forums tell of Oblivion's release on the PS3 and PSP. The original poster, snatches, states that the information came from a Bethesda release list. There has been no official announcement regarding this matter from Bethesda.
PS2 AMF Extreme Bowling 2006 (Mud Duck) 9-May-06
XBX AMF Extreme Bowling 2006 (Mud Duck) 9-May-06
PS2 IHRA Sportsman Edition 9-May-06
XBX IHRA Sportsman Edition 9-May-06
PS2 Pirates Of The Caribbean:Legend of Jack Sparrow 1-Jun-06
PS2 Star Trek - Battlestations 6-Oct-06
360 Star Trek - Legacy 6-Oct-06
DS Star Trek - Tactical Assault 6-Oct-06
PSP Star Trek - Tactical Assault 6-Oct-06 PS3 Oblivion 6-Nov-06
PSP Oblivion 6-Nov-06
Our very own staff member MaTT has provided us with his first impression of Oblivion, after playing it for 1hour and 20mins. Here's a little excerpt:
When the game started I found myself already in adventure, the king himself needs to use my cell to access a secret tunnel and I've been brought along to help. As per usual the first thing I was able to engage in combat with was, you guessed it, a giant rat. Sorry Bethesda, but come on…..RPG cliché's for 600, Alex. As I massacred a healthy population of rats I made my way through a series of cave passages, occasionally encountering a goblin and ending their miserable lives with a katana to the face, then I steal from their lifeless corpses, stripping them of their designer stone washed jeans and leaving naked goblin corpses in my wake….its all about class here folks. Items are literally everywhere, if you see it you can probably take it. The game designers did a good job of providing all and any resources you need to get going, no more wearing lame armor with bad textures until you can find something less embarrassing to wear. Whilst Gathering these items and weapons I found that I had quickly gathered a varied arsenal of very decent and usable items to help me kill more stuff, so this makes MaTT happy.