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THE DEMO
Two machines were set up to demonstrate the Ruins of Kunark expansion, which were using a modem to communicate with the specialized server back in California, and were running for most of the day. In the early going it was nearly impossible to get a decent view of the monitors, as everyone crowded around, trying to catch a glimpse of the new goodies. Throughout the day, however, we managed to get up close and check it out.
"El Phisto (shiny green shirt) tries to get a glimpse of Ruins of Kunark."
The graphic enhancements were the first thing we noticed, and while not making it a whole new game, they're pretty impressive. Screenshots can reveal the increased poly-counts and texture sizes, but once you actually see the game in real-time, you get a full understanding of the enhanced graphic features. New animation effects are evident in objects such as trees that sway in the wind, or the shuffling of the Forest Giant's vest as he moves about. Some of the other new creatures we saw were giant badgers, scorpions, a "puddle with tentacles", and the Iksar lizardmen, which are the new playable race. The twisted humor of the Verant development team rears as well, with lizardman skeletons that remove and re-attach their own skulls.
The Verant folks would explain the different features and locations as they gave a tour of the new continent of Kunark. A city of Forest Giants, a City of Froglocks, and an absolutely ENORMOUS statue of a dragon were among the many locations shown. Although there are only 20 or so new zones, the size of many of these zones is quite large. There were cheers and laughter from the crowd on a couple of occasions when the Verant folks would get the "you've been disconnected" screen or an in-game death. One particular rep even managed to lose an experience level!
"Brad McQuaid demonstrates the expansion pack."
REAL-LFE QUEST and the TRIVIA CHALLENGE
After lunch, attendees were asked to split up into groups based on the server their primary character plays on. These became the teams in the Real-Life Quest, a scavenger hunt to collect a list of items based on actual EQ in-game items. This turned out to be quite difficult, and was actually more of a pain than an enjoyable experience, especially at the end when we were waiting in line to have our collection verified.
Later in the evening we were asked to group once again, this time by our primary character class. What followed was the Trivia Challenge, where each team raced to complete a lengthy EQ trivia pack in a very short amount of time. This worked out much better than the Real-Life Quest. No, us Clerics did not win… we were robbed… yeah that's it.
next>> Q/A with Verant
Table of Contents:
Introduction | The Demo | Q/A with Verant
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