Warhammer Online: 750,000 Strong and Growing

a quick gaming update from Renzie Baluyut.

No doubt about it: the whole gaming community's tuned in to the latest on what Blizzard has to offer on BlizzCon this weekend. But Mythic reveals the latest figures on its own MMORPG title- Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning- which hit shelves just last September 18.

At the 2008 Tokyo Game Show, Turbine CEO James Crowley delivered a keynote address, and announced that EA Mythic now pegs the registered player total for the fantasy MMO title at 750,000. That's a full quarter-million up from when Warhammer Online came out just less than a month ago.

Already, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning may be "the fastest-selling new MMO of all-time," as EA Mythic claims. But can it sustain its subscribers after a couple of months?

Funcom's Age of Conan- another MMORPG- racked up a fairly impressive 400,000 subscribers in its first week upon dropping in stores. Three months after launching however, while Funcom may have sold some 800,000 copies of the game, only 415,000 subscribers stuck around.

Both Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and Age of Conan will be up against some pretty stiff competition in a few weeks. World of Warcraft's latest expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, comes out on November 13. WoW already has at least 11 million subscribers to its name- and those numbers are expected to shoot up once WotLK hits shelves next month.

Cheers, everyone!

Waiting For Fallout 3

Just a little over a month more before Bethesda Software's take on the venerated role-playing classic hits stores. I gotta admit- I can't wait to get my grubby little fingers on my very own copy of Fallout 3.

For those unfamiliar with the title, the Fallout series of role-playing games was set in a post-apocalyptic, alternate reality. Remember the Cold War in the 50's? What if we actually went straight to World War 3 from there? In the Fallout universe, the survivors have been living in underground Vaults for several years, only to come out and find a desolate, wasteland of a world. And that pretty much sets the stage for Fallout.

Usually, you start out as a Vault-dweller, or as a descendant of vault-dwellers, and as you do some exploring and go about your business, you'd probably discover a greater evil on the rise, and you, as the reluctant hero, end up being mankind's last hope.

I'll probably go into the details of the first few games (Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout Tactics, and the XBox's Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel) in my future posts. For now, it's enough to know that Bethesda Software- the dudes from the hugely successful Elder Scroll series of role-playing games, have so far done a great job in bringing back Fallout from the dead.

Here's the latest Fallout 3 video trailer from GameSpot. Enjoy.

Here's the very first trailer that came out earlier this year, if you missed it:

Fallout 3 comes out on October 28. Not just for the PC, but for the XBox 360 and the Playstation 3 as well. Can't wait!

Cheers, everyone!

Dead Space Out This Month

If you're a fan of sci-fi horror games like last year's BioShock, the X-box's Fatal Frame 2, the under-appreciated Clive Barker's Undying and the more classic System Shock 2 , then Dead Space is probably a game you should look out for.

A hands-on preview by Ricardo Torres is out on Gamespot. It's borderline spoiler-free, and gives you a good idea of what you'll be up to when you leap into the game.

You may have already figured it out: something goes terribly awry in some huge space vessel. A dear lady-friend is on board, so you're here to rescue her, and here you are trying to make heads-and-tails of the dismembered corpses you see all over. Yes, you also get to upgrade your gear- weapons, armor, and even special abilities- anything you can do to help you get to the bottom of this mess.

Ah, you can expect a lot of nasty beasties as well. And you know they get progressively more ornery as you make your way through the game. Monster bosses that await you at the end of each level? Likely so. But before we all get ahead of ourselves, why not go ahead and read the rest of the preview on Gamespot here.

Dead Space by Electronic Arts hits the shelves on October 20.

Cheers, everyone!

Must-play Games: Grand Theft Auto IV

It's probably the biggest game this year. The hype has been incredible, and the results are in. According to a news report on the Internet Movie Database, the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV has taken in US$500 million on its first week on the shelves, more than any movie in history has made in its first week. The amount translates to an opening week mark of 3.6 million game units sold.

The April 29 opening day sales alone were phenomenal- tracked at US$310 million- beating the US$300 million record set by Microsoft's Halo 3 for the Xbox 360 last year. Read the rest of this article on my other blog, "Renzie's Rants and Raves."

Check out Adam Sessler's review of Grand Theft Auto IV on this G4TV clip taken from their signature gaming show, X-Play.

Here's a game you should be playing right frackin' NOW. Grand Theft Auto IV is only available on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 (for now at least), so if you don't have either console, now's a good time to get yourself one. Sell an internal organ if you have to. Then sell another body part to get Grand Theft Auto IV.

I've already raved about how much I've loved its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. And by all indications, it seems GTA IV holds true to its promise to deliver a game just as kick-ass as the last one.

Gotta have this game. Period.

Cheers, everyone!