After weeks of strife we speared through, deep within the Black Temple as we stand before Malfurion’s lost twin brother. Illidan Stormrage became a transformed demon hunter after consuming the powers of the skull of Gul'dan. It is this very decrepit relic he now grips in his hand, seeming lost in thoughts as we walk up to the high terrace. What could such a being of immense power dwell upon? The many years spent as an outcast undoubtedly left their mark, like a wound that will never heal. In the times of the War of the Ancients, Illidan's lust for magical power and jealousy of his brother's lover caused betrayal. His kin was abandoned in favor of the Burning Legion, a choice which ultimately led to Illidan’s 10,000 years imprisonment following the Night Elf victory. Too late has Tyrande Whisperwind freed him from the long captivity, in Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, so there is no room for regret. Vengeance! There can be no other feeling in the heart of one such as Illidan. They all must pay for the injustice inflicted on one such as him. Akama lead us to face the great tyrant and now we came to end yet another cause for a painful effect.

The long struggle

Illidan was defeated by Arthas while attempting to kill the Lich King in Northrend; although assumed dead, he was not actually slain. Twisted by his lust for arcane magic, he now commands a great army of Naga, Blood Elves, and Draenei from his encampment in Outland, in the fallen Temple of Karabor now suitably called the Black Temple. He has also closed off all the local portals to protect himself from both the armies of Azeroth and the wrath of the Burning Legion. None can tempt the anger of Kil'jaeden the Deceiver, but Illidan swore himself to the great Eredar and then failed him in the line of duty.

<-250x250 Square - left->We too have gone to great lengths in order to meet the ruler of Outland face to face. Naj’entus’ hard shell was cracked first; we chipped Supremus piece by piece until there was nothing left from the great infernal. Entering the temple courtyard and into the sanctuary, Akama was released from Illidan’s grip when we killed his shade. We’ve met plenty of fel orcs while advancing to Teron Gorefiend and his fiendish existence was put to a stop. Down below the Reliquary of souls waited for peace, which was well worth it in death. Gurtogg cast his last Bloodboil on us, while his rage diminished into a quiet sleep of the ages. The way was cleared to the perfume scented halls where Mother Shahraz reigns over the pleasure dome, a small stop before the ruling Illidari Council. It was a tough fight but we prevailed, confident in out power to overcome even the greatest of tasks. Here we stand now before Illidan, firmly believing that after six months of playing the Burning Crusade we are finally prepared.

Phase One

Needless to say, full buff options are needed, in a raid setup complete with all classes. The main tank needs a shield block proficiency of 100% while two offtanks max out fire resistance and a third warlock offtank needs at least 250 shadow resistance. As long as no-one dies to stupid mistakes DPS should be fine, so get at least eight healers if not more. The fight itself lasts for more than 15 minutes, with Illidan having an enrage timer at 25, so make sure your healing can last that much. Talk to Akama once everyone is ready and he will go confront Illidan for a conclusion in the fight for the freedom of all Draenei in Outland. As any master villain, Illidan engages in a small discussion with his prey before yelling in confidence: “You are not prepared!”

The main tank shouldn’t have any difficulties grabbing him as ranged dps and healers stay on the grate, and melee dps rush right in. Just go all out once agro has been firmly established since there are no threat issues for the time being. Illidan hits for an average of 7k on plate and also has shear, an ability which damages the tank for 60% of his maximum hit points. Every once in a while he will jump high into the air and leave a flame trail below which ticks for 5k damage and lasts for 2 minutes. The main tank is to move immediately a few steps in a direction he’ll be keeping for the rest of phase one to avoid damaging the melee. Ranged don’t have it easy either, because Illidan throws a parasite randomly into the raid, a debuff which deals damage over time spawns two parasites after an incubation period. When the 10 seconds are gone, the victim must be out of the raid, at a position one of the hunters left a freezing trap to slow the parasites down. Do not try to damage them as they’ll retaliate and will only lead to another parasite incubating within your system. Instead, one hunter can deal with them relatively easy (take two for the extra margin of error). Phase one is the tank and spank part of the encounter we came to love, a way of topping the damage meters and showing off to your friends while claiming Illidan is not that hard. But all dreams come to and end as phase one lasts roughly until Illidan reaches 65%.

Phase Two

Slightly annoyed by your persistence, Illidan once again jumps high into the air but keeps floating for a while. Casting spells is always a nuisance while wielding the dual Warglaves of Azzinoth so he throws them away, to much effect. One can think it’s a good thing, until they see the horror of the two Embers of Azzinoth emerging from the blades. The twin fire elemental spawns are huge and take ages to kill. The good news is that we successfully used a paladin and a druid to tank the embers, even a warrior with mixed epic, blue and green fire resistance gear. Hit points and armor are of paramount importance if you have the right healing power, as long as fire resistance is capped (read 365). The bad news is tanks get severely punished for every little mistake they make and slipups usually result in a wipes.

All raid members get on the grate, into a cross-like position with four groups of up to six persons each. Just stay immobile, on top of each other as one. If someone moves too far away from either of the embers, then it gets charged by an ember and agro control won’t be established, resulting in a wipe. Illidan also throws big fireballs from the sky and hurts everyone in an area. Shamans do wonders here with chain heal, along with priest circle of healing, so each group must have a designated and dedicated healer. Tanks need to dance around the outer edge of the grate in a semi circular movement to avoid the flame trail left by embers. Once you’ve reached the “end of the line” you’ll have to turn, always facing the ember, otherwise there’s a good chance you’ll get dazed and later killed by the residue flames. Phase two is entirely dependant ok the way tanks deal with the situation, so expect a lot of hate from guildies if you can’t rise to the occasion fast enough. It’s a good idea to damage both elementals at first, to avoid agro pulling, and then focus until one’s dead. Besides the ember flames, there is another raid killer, namely Illidan’s gaze. It’s usually called in Ventrilo by the raid leader and tanks need to be extra careful to dodge it. Yes, I do mean the blue laser beam from the sky that barely strikes the outer edge of the grate circle. Avoid it or take 20k fire damage and additional 2k every tick. Illidan likes to randomly do Dark Barrage every two minutes once phase two started, dealing 30k shadow damage on a selected party member over 10 seconds. If you though this was hard, then Illidan enters phase three to prove you wrong once the Embers of Azzinoth die.

Auran developers supposedly gave in to the massive fan pressure and released a 10-day free trial to their Fury online player versus player title. Whenever a new MMORPG launches publishers ride the tide of the great hype and for marketing reasons forget to allow players sneak peeks at the very content they’re praising. I can’t tell you why that is, but it’s been the unwritten rule of every major release from the past five years. Free trials eventually become available once a sizeable period of time has passed since release, but Fury seems to be of a different breed. The trial applies to newly created accounts as well as old ones, so if you played Fury in the past, including beta, this is the proper way to see what has changed in the mean time.

Considering the huge success of the open beta Fury challenge, this new offer is bound to draw some attention. Players all over the world tried out the game and engaged in team contests for undisputed domination and over one million dollars in prizes, and that was before the game was officially released. “We've had a lot of requests for a free trial, and previously we've said we were planning to have a free trial available for Fury,” they said on the official website.

Let’s take a look at the major changes since beta. We have performance tweaks for lower end computers, new game maps and the Bloodbath training ground complete with bots and human opponents. The ranking system is now determined by your battle skill and not by the number of trials completed or time played. To avoid imbalance in the arranged matching system, pre-made teams will now enter a different battle group, while new players even receive a bonus in offense and defense to properly compete against veterans. Some changes have been made to create a faster database response, directly reflected in faster loading times, mail and vendor response during prime time.

Fury has three game types offering individual and team competition, with team sizes varying from 4 to 16. Vortex is a capture the flag variant. Each team has to capture Vortex Crystals and return them to their base while preventing them from being captured, in as tactical team based endeavor. Elimination is a 4v4 death match arena where rounds are scored in a best out of five series. Bloodbath is the free for all battle and you can collect blood tokens from the fallen to increase score.

The trial code waits for you here, so don't hesitate to join the frenzy.

After spending two months in the Black Temple halls, its walls begin to have a familiar feel, not unlike a second home. It is when you let your guard down that the most difficult of times arise to challenge your peace, as we will soon find out while battling Mother Shahraz. We are so close to fulfilling our ultimate goal that we can almost taste victory’s sweet wine, yet the Illidari Council is still standing. We have yet to overcome the great Betrayer himself, Lord Illidan, bane of all banes and destroyer of countless armies, but our hearts hold strong. With these thoughts in mind we breach through the gates to the upper chambers, now unlocked. It must end soon.

Evil breeds decadence

<-250x250 Square - left->Looking back to past transgressions it became apparent that all masterminds have a soft spot for the delicate pleasures of life. In Karazhan, Medivh ordered a great theatre to be built; a place of emotional contemplation to alleviate the long hours spent studying the mysteries of the arcane. He was a great wizard, with might few could muster, yet he too became corrupt and fell to the dark. We have come a long way from the Karazhan skirmishes, yet we witness similar decadence. The Temple of Karabor used to be a splendor to behold, a shrine of light and a beacon of hope dedicated to the Naaru divine. But now, instead of Draenei monks fulfilling their daily rites we advance through the intimate chambers of the pleasure dome.

Human, blood elf and night elf females are here to entertain the ranks in ways most imaginative. While fighting such large packs of beautiful yet fallen creatures we found out the offensive powers of charm and seduce. Friendly fire would often enough kill a healer because AoE is the way to burn them down. Yet again paladin tanks proved their prowess, far superior to any warrior or druid endeavor. While some find it funny, bluntly put, tanking makes the difference between life and death. It’s only suitable to find succubus roaming this area and you should tank them out of line of sight because they heal each other on occasion. Should you get careless, their damage reflecting shield will most likely kill you and it’s still a mystery if it can be dispelled. Going up the stairs to the main platform, several tall six armed demons crossed our path. Raid members stay spread here to avoid the whirlwind damage from the Priestess of Dementia. Ready your screenshot finger as well, because chances are you’re going to randomly grow in size up to a size comparable to the priestess. The Priestess of delight will polarize the raid. You get electrical charges and depending in the nearby comrades, the combination results in an amplification or reduction of damage; prime agro pulling material. When they are all dead, the beautiful gardens are ready for the big fight.

Mother Shahraz

Mother Shahraz is matron of this establishment and a superior breed of the six armed warrior women we’ve met in Arcatraz. You could consider her a warrior poet, although her secondary weapons don’t lie in wits, but temptation. Don’t let her sensual voice fool you for that will be the last mistake you ever made. “I’m all yours,” she said, but in the end “You play, you pay.” The encounter is a severe gear check and everybody must have their shadow resistance capped (375 shadow resistance buffed). For this reason alone it’s hard to progress further in the Black Temple so be sure to buy green shadow resistance rings, shadow resistance enchants and every other green resistance item you can find. The main idea is to get three to four pieces of craft able epic shadow resistance gear on everybody, but it requires about two months of Black Temple and Hyjal farming for the needed amount of heart of darkness. I’ve heard about guilds killing Mother Shahraz just with green shadow resistance gear so it should be doable even with 275 shadow resistance, if you fancy tiresome head banging against a wall for a lucky shot.

Mother Shahraz needs to be tanked in the middle of the terrace, far away from her starting position, just past the water fountains. It’s the kind of encounter where every man counts so simply run away to reset her when one or two raid members are dead. Melee must be stacked on top of each other, just like the ranged guys. Further away from the raid you’ll find two healers whose only job is to heal fatal attraction targets, ability which randomly teleports two or three raid members to her location. As long as the teleported players are within 30 yards of each other, they will do increasingly more damage to everyone around them. What starts off as 900 shadow damage through full shadow resistance gear will eventually go much higher. That’s the part when everyone runs in a different direction. That can be attained by simply having the beam come straight to your back (meaning you run away from someone and not towards him). It’s not that hard, but with all that graphical action going around, spells being thrown left and right, the teleport will cause moderate lag and you may not be aware of the situation without a slight delay. Three tanks also stay on top of each other to soak saber lash, an ability dealing 80k physical damage distributed evenly to everyone close to the highest agro target. She also casts all sort of nasty shadow damage based beams at the raid, but that’s just a minor detail left unsaid, handled by healing and resistance gear. Every 15 seconds or so Mother Shahraz takes one quarter additional damage from a magic type while taking reduced damage from another school, something like frost coupled with fire.

Unfortunately luck does play a significant factor in the fight. Once Mother Shahraz teleports three raid members unable to sprint, blink or intervene out of the situation, chances are high you’re looking at a wipe. It’s really hard for three individuals to perfectly run away from one another in due time, so healers have to get the rabbit out of the hat and pull off a greater heal when their targets are at maximum range for a last second save. “Stop toying with my emotions” is your cue for enrage so blow all cooldowns to get the job done. In the end, the hard truth hits you in the face as she falls: “I wasn’t finished.” It looks like all that extra protection takes the fun out of such intimate encounters, blade to blade, flesh to steel.

The Illidari Council

With the pleasure halls left behind, we feel light hearted and ready for more, because beyond this last stretch lies the Illidari Council. We still have to go through some annoying packs that require concentration in marking, crowd control and pretty much everything. It’s still a bit hard to focus after the Shahraz fight and the Promenade sentinels aren’t making our lives easier either. The huge constructs cast a moonfire kind of spells randomly throughout the raid and also casts L4 and L5 arcane charges. While you might survive the lower tiered blast if you have enough hit points, the L5 charge deals no less than your full hp worth in damage. Since it’s not interruptible, a quick heal and power word shield are life savers, but don’t put too much stock in healers and quietly wait for resurrection. It won’t take more than twenty minutes and you will be reaching the four blood elves.

Veras Darkshadow is the rogue, Gathios the Shatterer the paladin, Lady Malande the healer and High Nethermancer Zerevor the mage. They all share the same health pool so the fight is all about a successful pull and afterwards, control, definitely not a DPS race. Basically you need two offtanks to take the priest and the rogue, while a mage keeps the nethermancer occupied and your main tanks holds the paladin in check. The pull is one of the most difficult things to master because the beloved council mage hurls 17k damage arcane bolts. Hunters can’t misdirect the tank as he goes in, due to the insane agro range of the council so we’re talking about a dirty body pull. While the paladin and the rogue can be misdirected or simply picked up fast, the two casters are far harder to control.

As Lady Malande’s tank goes in, one mage must go in and counterspell her holy smite because she needs to be moved downstairs. The nethermancer won’t move at all during this fight and gets picked up by the mage tank, which needs more than 10k life and a decent amount of spell hit. The nethermancer casts a special kind of dampen magic which needs to be spell-stolen because it lowers magical damage taken by 75%. When the mage tank’s spell steal gets resisted you just know it’s a wipe so be sure to pack 18% spell hit altogether. Other than that, stay clear of his melee range because arcane explosion will one-shot you and move out of his occasional flamestrikes. The rogue vanishes every thirty seconds just like Moroes and does a garrote on a random target upon reappearing. His tank must be fast to get him under control but other than that it’s ok. The priest is far harder to subdue. Her circle of healing must be constantly interrupted and her holy smites aren’t to be ignore either, thus the warrior tank must pummel and a rogue should kick, on a steady rotation. With few exceptions, all DPS goes to the right, near the stairs and patiently awaits Gathios’ arrival. This paladin is amazing in his damage soaking capabilities. He does have huge armor, but most magic damage you deal gets halved by the chromatic resistance aura. The battle lasts for more than 10 minutes so it will be hard to manage your mana and still deal damage. Truth be told, the raid damage output is pretty much based on melee damage this time. Gathios the Shatterer can spike his tank for massive damage, thus 4 healers must always watch over him. Needless to say that you’re not allowed to run out of mana as a healer so pack each and every mp5 item at your disposal. Each of the other tanks needs a personal healer which will follow him. If you get the pull right, without unnecessary death due to arcane bolts, the rest is pretty easy to handle after a few tries since it’s all about the right setup: 3 tanks, 1 mage tank, 7-9 healers and the rest DPS, physical damage based if possible.

Only one remains

The Illidari Council boredom ends in either your raid disbanding due to the late hour of the night and the inherent concentration issues or after the first successful pull. There isn’t much room for anything in between due to the very straight forward nature of the fight. In the end, they will always die. Once again Akama makes an appearance. Follow him and his two Ashtongue martyrs (they’re spirits) up the stairs, to the highest reaches of the Black Temple. The gate you see here bears the last seal, the only locked area in the whole instance. Beyond lays your final challenge, a riddle for vultures, littered with the bones of those who failed. Behold Lord Illidan, he who ponders on darkness holding the depleted skull of Gul’dan in his hands. Are … you … prepared?

Developer Fireglow Games just set release dates for the next installment of its famed World War II inspired real time strategy series. Sudden Strike 3: Arms for Victory will be available in localized versions as early as November 23^rd in French speaking territories. German-speaking lands will follow on November 30^th, with UK and Ireland on ready for invasion on December 5th. Sudden Strike always followed the line of historical accuracy, to the point where campaigns became long battles of attrition with no definite winner in sight. You can expect nothing less from Sudden Strike: Arms for Victory, real time tactics at its finest.

The most notable update is the reworked graphical engine. You can launch coordinated land, sea and air attacks with a more realistic feel due to the massive eye candy improvements and new war sounds. As seen in the screenshots, the dynamic lighting implemented in this third installment really does the job well. Sudden Strike releases are mind blowing in terms of historical accuracy but 2007 quality graphics only add to the overall authenticity. Fireglow developers are true to the legacy. There’s no problem in blowing everything in between your combat lines and the enemy’s, as tanks, fortified positions, trees and many hostile troops litter the battleground like misfortunate debris.

You will be given the choice of playing as British, Soviet, American, German or Japanese forces, each with hundreds of tanks, ships, planes, artillery and soldiers true to its World War II counterparts. Up to seven armies can fight it out on the long kilometers of the front lines, in online battles. The wait is almost over but if you’re too anxious, you can take a look at the multiplayer test version while waiting for the final release.

Following the Electronic Arts second quarter reports, executives revealed that Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is being delayed again. Once EA acquired Mythic in 2006, this became one of the biggest projects in development, yet the road to MMORPG success proves to be rougher than anticipated. The game was supposed to be out not even half a year from now in March 2008, but the release has been pushed back into the next EA fiscal year. Thus you can expect to start playing Warhammer Online next year, anywhere between April 1^st and September 30^th.

Warhammer was designed as a tabletop game by UK based Games Workshop more that twenty five years ago. The generous fantasy setting evolved and it was only a question of time before Warhammer entered the computer gaming world. Developer Climax came up with the idea in 2000 but the project was shut down when Microsoft ceased its financial support, after four years. That’s when independent developer Mythic Entertainment came in and took the license in 2005, but things changed yet again once EA bought Mythic one year later. News of yet another delay is troubling, especially when it comes from a newly acquired department.

Gamespot had the chance to talk to EA CEO John Riccitiello who reassured everyone that the EA Mythic studios in Virginia aren’t going to be shut down as some rumors say. In fact they will get extended. As to why Warhammer Online was delayed, he said: “Our game is going to live and die by two things. One is realm-versus-realm (RvR) gameplay. The second is overall quality. This is not 1999, 1997, or even 2001. This is 2007. We have to be able to release a game that, in terms of quality, without even going into game systems or RvR, is top-notch. We've seen too many games in this industry, and in this space, release without that, and we're not going to do that.”

It’s refreshing to see such a relevant EA figure speak about the game in comparison to current MMORPG titles. John Riccitiello stressed that he’s fully aware of the competition and the quality standards that need to be upheld in order to beat giants like World of Warcraft. I’m not the only one looking forward to yet another go at realm versus realm tactics. Dark Age of Camelot was Mythic’s first take at the concept. While it turned out well, time left its mark on the title and maybe Warhammer Online will take its strengths further.