Q: What's included with the US pre-order for Hellgate: London?

A: If you pre-order Hellgate: London from one of the participating US retailers (EB Games/Gamestop, Best Buy, and Wal-Mart), you will receive a special code that features three benefits:

* An exclusive in-game Dye Kit - This item will give you an exclusive color scheme for any and all armor you find in the game. Each retailer is associated with a different color Dye Kit, so if you have a preference, make sure you check them out before you pre-order.
* A Beta invite - You'll be invited to participate in the Hellgate: London Beta Program which will start in the coming weeks.
* Eligibility for the Founders Offer - This offer lets you pay a one-time fee of $149.99 for a lifetime membership to the game.

Hey Mythos Testers! We are going to be updating the Mythos build again today, with some database changes and upgrades that will make your experience smoother and allow us to expand our player base. The way characters are saved will be changing slightly so please let us know if you have any problems with your characters saving properly, including skills, items, etc. Happy adventuring to everyone, and please be aware that we are preparing a large content patch for you coming up soon.

Just in time for Halloween, it's easily the most intriguing RPG of the year: Hellgate: London. Created by Flagship Studios, helmed by ex-Blizzard Bill Roper, it's a game with a ton of questions surrounding it: is it a true RPG? Is it part FPS? Is it part MMORPG? Or all of the above?

Set in a London that's been overrun with demons, Hellgate has often been described as a "first-person Diablo," although you can play in both first-person or an over-the-shoulder third-person perspective.[.....]

In Hellgate: London you play as six different classes based on three fractions. You have the Templars, temple knights that serves as the warrior class. Their two classes are Guardian and Blademaster, respectively. The first is based on defence, whereas the other is focused on fast paced combat with a sword. After that, you find the Hunters with Marksman and Engineer. Last, but not least, you have the Cabbalists that have two magic classes, Summoner and Evoker. Each of the classes can be developed in different directions to make about four variations of each class. Here, weapons with different abilities helps to define how your playing style turns out. For instance, a Summoner can create small daemons to help him fight by using fire bullets against your enemies. If you evolve in the right direction, the little buggers won't just help you fight. They can be detonated like small, living bombs and harm more enemies at a time.

Well, the guiding philosophy was what's gonna be the best for the game and for our players. We knew that players wanted the ability to go online and play for free. That was very, very evident. That was an expectation. And so even as a startup with our first game, we had to figure out a way to make that happen. We knew that that was gonna be a big selling point in terms of reaching out to all the Diablo players around the world. That was their, you know, expectations. They wanted to be able to have that same experience. But then we also knew that there was a big outcry and a need for continuing content and so, for us it really is "How do we accomplish these goals? How do we make sure there's free multiplayer? And then, how do we also support ongoing, continuing content and the things that are encompassed in that?" We talked about all kinds of things.[.....]

Last Saturday, on the 8th September 2007, from 3 to 7 p.m. (GMT +8) IAHGames hosted a Hellgate: London community event for gamers to try out an Alpha version of Hellgate: London on IAHGames locally hosted server: The Resistance.

The event was held at Virtualand cyber cafe in Singapore, and over 80 gamers turned up for four hours of game play, community interaction, refreshments and of course, tons of fun!

Q: Was sind die minimalen PC Anforderungen für Hellgate: London? Sollte ich einen neuen PC kaufen?

Die minimalen PC Anforderungen für Nordamerika und Europa sind wie folgt:

* Betriebssystem: Windows XP mit SP2 oder Windows Vista
* Prozessor: 1 .8GHz oder schneller (2.4GHz für Vista)
* RAM: 1GB oder mehr (2GB für Vista)
* Grafik: DirectX 9.0c/10 kompatibles Gerät mit 128MB RAM oder besser und Pixel Shader 2.0 Unterstützung; benötigt NVIDIA GeForce 6200/ATI Radeon 9000 Chipsatz oder besser
* Sound: DirectX 9.0c kompatibles Gerät
* DVD-Laufwerk: 8x DVD oder schneller
* Festplatte: 6 GB oder mehr freier Speicherplatz
* Eingabe: Tastatur und Maus
* Internet: benötigt für Multiplayer

GT: Right - plate armor, that kind of thing.

BR: The Blademaster more kinda dances in an out of combat around the fringes, has these surges they can power their blades up with so the more that they killing the better and better they get at it. Really kind of more of an acrobatic style, and they can of course dual wield swords. Male and female of either character class.

With the Cabalist we have the Summoner which uses demons she can summon like the carnivore that is kinda hiding back here, and also the ability to shape the elements of these little summoned creature elementals to fight for her, kinda using the power of the demons against them by controlling them and summoning them. And then there is the Evoker, they kinda channel the dark powers of the demons to use against them, also the raw elements themselves. Also, one of the big things we wanted to do with the Evoker is to give a kind of really meaningful weapon game to a spellcasting class. Traditionally when you are playing a spellcaster, the higher and higher level you get of spells you get are what is determining your damage, so like if I’m level 35 then “Megablast” spell and that is doing ton of fire damage. Here, with the Evoker class when you get higher and higher level spells you are really getting is the ability to shape magic differently and tap into different types of magic, but there are focus items that they wear that actually provide the power and punch behind that. So you have this item game that you don’t normally get for spellcasters to get better and better and bigger focus items.

Between Resistance: Fall of Man, Hellgate: London, "28 Days Later" and "Children of Men," what is it about London and the apocalypse?

You know, one of the reasons we chose London, there's actually a couple of reasons. One, it's always been this epicenter of huge struggle. It was founded by druids originally when it was Londinium. Then I mean it's been taken over by the Vikings; by the Romans. There was the Blitz in World War II. It always seems to be this center for people wanting to take it. And for huge apocalyptic events happening. The Great Fire of 1666; the plague; the fact that it was just pummeled in World War II. When we were talking about where to set the game, that was really one of the big draws for us. We wanted a city that had a really good history to it, that had a foundation in mythology, and had a more mystical setting, which it does. I mean there's the fact that it was founded by druids. It's you know, built on lay lines, magical lay lines, and there's so many things about London that in reality, lend itself to being this kind of focal point for building stories. It just drew us there.

HELLGATE: LONDON There are single-player games (like Mass Effect). There are persistent online games (like Tabula Rasa). And then there is the hybrid action role-playing genre pioneered by the fabulously popular Diablo series. Many, many contenders have tried to exceed, or even just match, Diablo’s addictive combination of randomized levels, easy yet deep combat and, of course, “slot machine”-style loot, where every monster just might drop that superpowerful item you’ve been hoping for. All have failed to approach the polish of the Diablo series. Hellgate, on the other hand, just might, and not least because many of the game’s senior designers defected from Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo team to strike out on their own. Once again, this new game shuns fantasy themes for more of a science fiction feel (notice a trend here?). You can play offline, but the real depth in the game comes from joining friends in cyberspace. The demons have invaded London, and naturally your job is to clear them out. Publishers: Electronic Arts, HanbitSoft and Namco, for PC. To be released Oct. 31.

5. Do you like your job? What are the essential personal characteristics to be a successful CM?

I absolutely love my job! Prior to working at IAHGames, I only managed to view things from the gamer perspective but being a Community Manager has taught me a lot about being on the other side of the fence. It's a lot of hard work to prepare for a game and though work does get stressful at times; there isn't a day that goes by that I do not love my work. I think to be a successful CM, you need to be able to identify with the gamers and be a gamer yourself.

Community Managers act as the bridge between the game and the company so it's important to understand the perspectives from both sides of the fence in order to be a successful CM. The Community is what makes a game successful and their feedback and input matters a lot so it's important for a CM to be able to relate to the gamers and understand where they are coming from. For me, the best part of my job is the opportunity for me to meet and interact with the Community from all around the world. That is really the best aspect of my job that I love.