Mythos, still in closed beta, has completely relaunched. No more beta codes to give out (sorry), but if you have been a beta tester, you will have to uninstall your current client and download the new one. I did this this morning; things look shinier. Expect a new look at Mythos soon.

Bristlebane’s Day (apparently) goes live today. The revelers are in North Qeynos at the Claymore, and West Freeport outside the Executioner’s Pit. I have no idea if there are quests associated with them; I couldn’t get a word out of them on the Test server.

Sins of the Solar Empire, the game, is harder than Sins of the Solar Empire, the demo. I’ve had to restart twice. First time I expanded too slow, the second time, too fast.

I’ve been very, very bad with EQ2 news. I promise to be better! There’s been some lower level stuff I’ve been doing that I really do need to write about.

WAR has been kicked back to the fall. This means that people who were trying to decide between AoC and WAR need worry no longer; they can get AoC and play it until WotLK or WAR come out, then move on. This gives AoC a good four-five month window, which is more than I expected for it. So: WAR moving, good for AoC, bad for WAR, since now it has to compete with Wrath of the Lich King, and I think we all know who will win that battle.

No news on the EQ2 or EQ1 expansion front. SOE did a DevDiary chat with Thomas Sincinch, an EQ2 character artist, and he said the next expansion was still early in production. However, the Shard of Hate will be live soon – it’s on Test now, and I hope to take a look inside it soon.

Rock Band solo project – since I got a mic stand for Rock Band, I’ve been working on a solo-duo – me singing and playing guitar at the same time, guitar on hard, singing on medium. It is VERY DIFFICULT to play songs you have never played on the guitar controller on hard, while singing songs somewhat on time and in key. I’m singing now in Amsterdam for something, I forget which. My last battle was for Dan, Dan the Super Sound Man in Stockholm, where I finished Highway Star with five stars – but I knew the song and the words. Hardest has been when Metallica’s “… And Justice for All” came up in a random song set. I’m sorry. Just wasn’t up to speed. Just a couple of songs from completing Rock Band drums on Hard – Police’s “Next to You” and “Run to the Hills”. I’ve been working on how I sit when I play and can get the double kicks fairly well (they tend to “bounce” when you’re in the groove). I’ve also been dipping back into online dueling, this time on Hard. So I guess, I’ve officially graduated from a skilled Medium player to a fairly confident Hard player. Boston’s album makes me crave more albums from 70s rockers. My pick would be Blue Oyster Cult’s “Imaginos”, but that’s a dream that will never come true. Perhaps “Fire of Unknown Origin”? That contains a lot of their hits. Of course, the obvious pick would be Phish.

Working at Massively really is work. It doesn’t leave me as much time for gaming as I would like, but I know I will get faster with the articles as I do them. Right now it is taking me an hour or two for each post. I want to get that down to half an hour per.

It’s not so much that it takes me a long time to write – heck, I can sit down and write pages without pause – it’s making the Massively style my own. It’s incredibly easy to write in my own ‘voice’ – I’ve had so much experience with it, after all – harder to write in someone else’s. And my own particular writing style is long and rambling; Massively wants tight, focused articles that get right to their target, deliver their payload of news and information, then fly quickly off – without sounding forced or boring. It’s a real education. Every article I write has to be trimmed down substantially – especially if it’s about something I’m really interested in, like Spellborn.

Anyway, the weekend is here soon. Hoping for three Massively articles each day, time spent in both Vanguard and EverQuest 1, and I’ll be taking my Bloodletter into some new parts of Mythos to see what’s new.

I might sleep, too, but I’ll have to check my schedule first.