Hi Guys!

I apologise for my loooooooong lapse in updates. :(

Contrary to popular belief, I haven't disappeared off the face of the earth and neither have I been spending all my time killing demon scum in Hellgate: London (though I'd very much like to!)

Instead, I've been hopping around like a mad Kung Fu Bunny whilst preparing for the Hellgate: London launch which took place on 31st October 2007 @ Funan in Singapore.
It's been a long and sometimes difficult experience these past few months in bringing Hellgate: London to the SEA community but when I saw the enthusiasm and passion etched on the faces of thousands of HGL fans at the October 31st Funan launch event, it made me realise that how very worth it all the hard work was.

I've included a few of my own personal pics from the event over here (my camera battery died after I took around 3 pics and I had charged the battery for over 4 hrs! Booo....) but for fans wanting to see a more pictures, do head over to this link for the official photo gallery on the IAHGames' website[......]

Howdy everyone! We will be taking the EU forums* down for maintenance tonight at 9pm PST for additional database work. The outage should last no longer than a couple of hours. We'll also be performing the same maintenance on the US forums at 7am PST this coming Saturday, November 10th.


*Note: Currently the EU forums only contain announcement posts that can be reached by clicking the "Talk About This Story!" link found at the bottom of every news post.

We realize many of you are experiencing a variety of problems. We at Flagship and Ping0 are working hard to address these issues.Our current top priorities are:

* Resolving any remaining problems related to billing and subscriptions.
* Fixing two known bugs which cause players to sometimes lose items (one related to dual focus/dual melee, and one related to loading issues).
* Making improvements to memory usage in order to reduce “Memory Exhausted” crashes.
* Fixing a known issue with the user interface which causes the application to lock up intermittently.
* An issue which occasionally prevents characters from being able to load or switch instances.
* General chat interface improvements. (Many improvements are in the works).
* Random disconnects and lag.
* Allowing higher resolution textures and models for other players.
* Various known problems with being able to continue interrupted side quests.
* Remnant quest items not getting destroyed and “clogging” up inventory.
* Continued problems with saving / loading Engineer Drone items.
* Invisible party members.
* The nanoforge not correctly improving rare and better armors.
* Getting stuck on collision.

Some of these are issues which will be fixed as soon as possible and go live in upcoming patches, some will be in our upcoming content patch, and others are issues on which we will make gradual improvements to on a continuous basis.

Of course we also have a more extensive bug list as well as lot of general improvements and new content in the works. Everyone here is working full-time to support Hellgate. We appreciate your patience.

Each class has their own weapons and armor. Even the beginning armor will make you look badass as opposed to many other games where the beginning armor makes you look about as tough as a little girl. This game is like an MMO because the entire single player world can be played online with thousands of other players. As in Diablo 2, each level, other than the 'safe points,' is randomly generated for each group, making each level a new experience. Despite the fact that there is a group feature, every level can be soloed by any class. Hellgate: London is what every MMO should be like and isn't full of all the needless grinding.

This game is a lot of fun and I recommend it highly. So go out to your local video game store and pick it up.

On November 8 at approximately 8:00am PST, we'll be releasing a new single player update for Hellgate: London. This update will not impact our online game servers. There is, however, a chance you will not immediately see the update tomorrow morning as we'll be throttling delivery to ensure a smooth release.

* Fixed: Multiplayer starting on a black screen for a very small percentage of users that applied the 1.40 single player patch.
* Fixed: Incomplete downloads for the single player and launcher patches.


Please Note: This update is not a single player version of the Guy Fawkes patch, what we typically refer to as Patch 0.1.


Thanks again for playing!

How To Get On The Forums
So you live in the EU, have created an EU account, and are now wondering, "How do I get on the forums?"


First thing: Currently, all forums are located on the US version of the site (www.hellgatelondon.com). Eventually there will be some sort of forum locally on the EU site, but this date is still TBA.


Second thing: To access the US forums, you'll need to create a game account on the US site as well. This is because we have separate account databases for US and EU players. It's free to create, doesn't take long, and you can use the same account name as your EU one if you wish (assuming it's available).


Sorry if there's been any confusion on this, and thanks!

Please note, if you are in the Hellgate: London beta, the grace period for playing the game without entering a retail registration key is almost up. As of Wednesday, November 14, 2007, we will require that all accounts have a registration code in order to play.


To continue playing, you need to enter the registration key from your purchased copy of Hellgate: London into your existing account management page. You do not need to make a new account, however. You also do not need to be a subscriber to continue playing from where your characters are in-game. Simply log into your account and enter the retail registration key into the registration key field on your account management page...


# Account Management – [LINK]


Thanks for the continued support and feedback. We encourage everyone to check out what’s in the works whenever we promote patches to the Test Center servers by joining us there.


Again, no beta players without registration codes will be able to login and play after November 14, 2007.


See you online!

Popular figures site, Figures.com has posted several interviews with the sculptors at Weta. These are great personal interviews with the folks who created the awesome Hellgate: London figures. Click the links below to check them out.


Eden Small (Male Templar sculptor)


David Meng (Cabalist sculptor)


Brigitte Wuest (Female Templar sculptor)


Also, in case you forgot, Weta is holding a contest where the winner gets their head sculpted onto a custom Hellgate: London figure! Check out all the details right here.

GP: Here's another popular complaint: In Hellgate, weapons are far more useful than skills -- my Marksman mostly used his gun, not his skills and abilities. Will you further tweak skills to make them more useful? Would you ever consider totally re-doing the current skills?

Bill Roper: We will never completely re-do skills, but we will always look at them. The final version has a seen many skill changes. What we wanted to do in Hellgate was to make the weapons into spell-delivery systems. Skills in Hellgate alter the way you use your primary weapon, such as the Marksman's grenades.

The other thing is, players have had a long time in Diablo 2 to figure out all the different character builds. Honestly, players haven't had much time to [experiment] in Hellgate with different skills and builds. In Diablo 2, a lot of the skills outright sucked. It's also very different in Hellgate, because skills grow with you as you level. In Hellgate, we didn't want people to regret putting points into early-level skills. Obviously we'll continue to tweak and balance the skills, but Hellgate uses a very different skill system from D2 and people will figure it out.

[Conclusion]
Disappointing on nearly all levels, Hellgate: London barely avoids total failure and shows once again that a lineup of C.V. and ideas is not enough to make a hit. Even if it gathered all the expectations of hack’n slash fans, tired of waiting for Diablo III, they are in for a sad moment, due to a series of aberrations. Repetitive action, redundant environments, inexisting A.I., bugs by the hundreds, not-so-shiny graphics and partly pay2play multiplayer, Flagship Studios’ game’s flaws list is long and harsh. But some aspects of the game are above average, for instance universe, generous loot, varied classes, weapon customization system, or its really “beat’em all” personality. We really expected more from the creators of the cult Diablo games.

Successes:
* Six classes with varied skills * Thousands of items * Weapon evolution system * Very long game
* The universe, even if it is poorly used

Failures
* Failed Level design and way too redundant environments * Repetitive action * Still very bugged * A very demanding 3D engine with average graphics * A.I * Multiplayer chat * Partly pay2play multiplayer

5.0/10

Assuming you don't care as much about things like story, then you're likely to appreciate the high level of action that Hellgate constantly throws your way. There is no shortage of combat in Hellgate: London, so from the instant you step into your first level, you'll be fighting against a range of zombies, flying brains, gun-toting demons and pale ladies with electric tentacles. Every place you go is packed full of enemies who have nothing better to do that to sit around all day waiting for you to show up and kill them. In fact, you can barely walk twenty feet through London without being confronted with some sort of hellspawn that you can hone your skills on.