|
Jan. 30, 2006 As most of you already know, the News Suppression Pact has been lifted. I apologize for the delay of re-activating my site today, but I just finished working a 14 hour shift today, so this is my first chance to post the update. But anyway, enough about me. :O) Here's what Fabrice posted on the official Ubisoft forums early today. Our voices HAVE been heard, and Ubisoft is proving that they are NOT another 3do. Thanks goodness. *grin*
So, know hopefully things can get back to normal. :O) Sir Charles
Jan. 29, 2006 As of 2pm GMT today (Sunday 29th) administrators of the major Heroes of Might and Magic fan sites around the world have signed a News Suppression Pact in protest to a premature release of Heroes of Might and Magic 5. The pact was signed by Age of Heroes (International), Archangel Castle (France), Behemoth's Lair (Poland), Castle Gobs (International), Celestial Heavens (International), Drachenwald (Germany), The Genie's Lamp (International), Guardian's Grove (International), Heroic Corner (Russia), La Torre de Marfil (Spain) and The Oracle League (International). All other HOMM websites are also invited to join this pact. As representatives of the online HOMM Community, we, the pact members, strongly believe that Heroes of Might and Magic 5 will not be of sufficient standard and quality if the release is rushed for March 2006. As admirers of HOMM series and supporters of the current Heroes 5 potential, we will not tolerate a blow delivered by the release of an incomplete and unbalanced game. As an action of protest, following this announcement, no news or updates will be posted on our web sites. Additionally, Heroes of Might and Magic 5 information will be removed from our web sites. We request that Ubisoft officially confirms that the release date of Heroes of Might and Magic 5 will be delayed past March 2006, for a period of time sufficient to develop a balanced and fully functional game. We do not regard the announcement made on Gamespot as true until Ubisoft issues official confirmation. As an indication of support for our protest, the SaveHeroes.org Petition has been signed by over 1500 people in less than three days and received 30000 unique visitors. During the last week our web sites received more than 150000 visits. We encourage all Heroes of Might and Magic fans to join our cause by signing the SaveHeroes.Org Petition and to stop posting on the official Ubisoft forums and to use our forums instead. Additionally, you can help our cause by inviting your friends to sign the petition, by e-mailing Ubisoft and by notifying the media and game retailers about this situation. For more ways to help, see SaveHeroes.Org. Sir Charles
Jan. 27, 2006 Thanks to a hard-working tester, McSnake, I've got all the images for the skills, abilities, specializations, and artifacts. I've updated the Heroes V Skills page to include the images and updated information. I've also re-done the Heroes V Heroes page to include the individual specializations for each hero and the racial abilities. And one more update, I've redone the Heroes V Spells page to include all the spells, descriptions, spell costs and schools. I'm still working on some of the icons however. Artifacts...coming soon. Troop abilities...coming soon. :O) That's all for now folks. And thanks again to McSnake. Great job! And lastly, don't forget to sign the petition over at SaveHeroes.org if you haven't already done so. We WILL get this done folks. *places his blue hand on a stack of bibles* :O) Sir Charles
Jan. 25, 2006 We've got a rather important news item today......
Please, take some time today and register and sign the petition. Let your voice be heard and let's help make this the game that we all hope is CAN be. I've redone 2 pages today. Heroes V Troops page, and the Heroes V Skills/Abilities page. These are both updated with the current Open Beta stats. Enjoy.Sir Charles
Jan. 24, 2006 Today could very well become known as a day of infamy in the history of the Might and Magic franchise. Today on the Age of Heroes site, Valeriy (site administrator) states his anxiety about the current state of Heroes V and the rapidly looming deadline for release. As a tester since the beginning of the Beta Test (closed) I can assure you that his worries are not without merit. With just a few weeks left until the game's release, there are NUMEROUS problems that still need to be addressed (as many can attest to now that the Open Beta test has begun). I personally do not see any way possible for the game to be finished by the current release date. There is simply still too much to be done in regards to balancing, sound issues, tactical issues and even graphical ones. So I also throw my hat in the ring and urge you fans to do the same. Let your voice be heard (link to Heroes Community petition) and let the people at Ubisoft know that we do NOT want to see a Heroes game shipped that's half finished. You (Ubisoft) made a huge investment in purchasing the rights to the franchise, and another one in developing the game up to this point, don't flush it all down the drain just because you want to meet a deadline. Look at 3do, and what this mentality brought THEM. These series' (HoMM AND M & M) have a HUGE fan-base that is very demanding. But they're also VERY loyal. If you give them a quality product...they WILL come back. Again and again. But they were burnt with M&M 9, Heroes IV and the subsequent expansion packs, then burnt again by the folding of the series/company. I highly doubt that they'll accept another disappointment on a scale such as appears to be happening. So please, as a fan of this series for over 20 years, I'm begging you to give the game developers the time that is necessary to complete what could be the best TBS game ever made. Sir Charles
Jan. 23, 2006 Several important items of note for today. First off, we've got 10 new screenshots today, including our first glimpse of a siege...which you can see on the Heroes V Screenshot page. ~edit~ Make that 17 new screenshots. Another Russian review was posted today and it included 7 new screenshots. I've added them to the screenshot page. They're nice ones too. *drools* Gamespot.com has posted a new video and several new Screenshots today. You can see all the new ones on the Heroes V Screenshot page. The video does show some new footage of combat, but it's nothing that we haven't really seen before. But it's certainly worth a look. Of note in the new screenshots is your first glimpse of the Ghost Mode. Next, I'm still working on fixing the posting problem over at The Genie's Tavern. Hopefully I'll have that fixed later today. *crosses fingers* Lastly, and most importantly, the Open Beta officially kicked off today. You can visit the Beta forums on Forum Planet here. And you can register to join the Beta Test here. But please, remember, this is a BETA test...not a DEMO. There are still bugs in the game, balance issues and such. It is NOT a polished and finished product. So jump on in and help make this the best Heroes game ever! As usual, good luck and happy gaming! Sir Charles
Jan. 20, 2006 I'm pleased to announce the GRAND OPENING of our very own forums here at The Genie's Lamp. Drop on over to The Genie's Tavern and let me know what you think. The Open Beta test will begin on Monday, Jan. 23rd at 6pm GMT. And Fabrice did post a bit of information about what to expect in the upcoming Open Beta.... "The open beta will be multiplayer only, with most game modes and all factions. However, this will NOT be polished : this is a beta and not a demo. The idea is to gather more opinions after the closed beta, which is just not possible to do with a demo, as a demo is basically the final game with no more possible changes." Also, 2 new screenshots were released by Nival today. While still small, they're not too shabby. :O) You can see them on the Heroes V Screenshots page. Sir Charles
Jan. 19, 2006 The Open Beta test was scheduled to begin today, but due to some unforeseen problems, it will be delayed a few days. Once I hear the new starting date...I'll post it here. Also, I've begun moving The Genie's Lamp to it's own domain name and a new server. I've currently got all the Heroes V pages set up and working properly as well as the 5 pages linked to the right of the news page. So for now, please be patient with me...I'll start working on the Heroes 1, 2, 3, and 4 pages next. One last note, with the move to the Lamp's new home we've got a LOT more space. This means that there's a great possibility of adding some forums and other features. If there's something you'd like to see added, send me an e-mail (below the news page). Sir Charles
Jan. 18, 2006 Nival Interactive released 2 small screenshots today. See them on the Heroes V Screenshots page. Sir Charles
Jan. 17, 2006 I overlooked one site for the Links page. Heroes-Centrum. This is the first Czech Republic site on the net that I'm aware of. Best of luck to you guys. Sir Charles
Jan. 16, 2006 ThE HyDrA from the Age of Heroes fan site stumbled upon another Russian review of Heroes V, this one from Reborn.ru. It also included 8 new screenshots. I've added these and updated several other pages accordingly. Updated pages include Heroes V Screenshot page, Town page, Artifact page, Misc. page. We're still waiting on a decent translation of the Russian article however. So hopefully I'll be able to post that soon. The Ubisoft official German forums posted some new Concept Art today. 2 nice pictures of Agrael and 2 of Isabel. After the proposed limited edition collection that they're releasing in Poland, THIS doesn't surprise me much. Yikes! That must be a gold-plated DVD or something. Sheesh! One last note for tonight, I've added several missing sites to my Links page. Sites include the Heroes Community and Guardian's Grove forums, Heroes-fr (a French Heroes site), Might & Magic World (a German M&M and Heroes site), and Heroes League (a Russian Heroes tournament site). Welcome to the Lamp, one and all. And sorry for the oversight. This genie's getting a tad senile in his old age. :O) Sir Charles
Jan. 15, 2006 A big thanks goes out to JetJedi and CaRoSh from the Ubisoft forums for translating the 3 articles/reviews (2 Russian, 1 Polish) that were released this week. You can read the clear and comprehensible articles on the Heroes 5 Reviews page. Thanks for your hard work JetJedi and CaRoSh. Sir Charles
Jan. 14, 2006 I've added some new information to the Heroes V Spells page. Including the spell schools and a bit more info as well. I have also added a better image of the First Aid tent and a newly found Trebuchet to the Artifact page. I'm still waiting on a decent version of a translation for the CRPG.ru Russian article posted 2 days ago. The translation that I made was a VERY rough Bable-fish version. There is also a new article out in a Polish gaming magazine with some interesting info as well. The forum thread about it can be found here. If anyone can make a full translation of that as well, it would be much appreciated by the Heroes community. Sir Charles
Jan. 13, 2006 The much anticipated Open Beta Test for Heroes V was announced today on the Ubisoft forums. While not much info was released, the anticipated start date is January 19th. You can see the forum thread here. 3 more new screenshots today. Including our first glimpse inside the SYLVAN town. They can be seen on the Heroes V Screenshot page. Correction....4 new screenshots. :O) Yikes....a double correction in one day. Make that 11 new ones for today. Wow. 22 new screenshots in 2 days. That's GOT to be a record or something. *grin* And lastly for today, I've added the dwellings to the Town page that I spied in the newest screenshots and also a new item to the Artifact page. And the biggie, for me at least, is the re-design of the main Genie's Lamp page. Hope you like it. That's all folks. This genie's exhausted. *whew* Sir Charles
Jan. 12, 2006 Russian internet gaming magazine CRPG.ru posted a review of Heroes V today and it included 11 new screenshots including our first glimpse of the DUNGEON town. You can see all the new images on the Heroes V Screenshot page. I've posted a very basic Bable-fish translation of the article on the Heroes V Reviews page. I'll try to refine it and clean it up shortly. Also of note is the mention of the missing spell schools. Light, Dark, Destructive, Summoning, Nature. Seeing as how we have only seen 4 icons on the official site and on the spell book screenshots, I'll assume that Summoning and Nature are the same school. But that part is an assumption of course. Thanks to Sarsis from the Ubisoft forums for the heads up! :O) One last note. I've also added the missing Academy faction History timeline. Sorry folks...I overlooked that one. :O) Sir Charles
Jan. 11, 2006 I've found and added some more images that I'd overlooked. I added all 3 war machines to the Artifacts page. A few new dwellings and several adventure map locations to the Misc. page. I also added 8 pieces of concept art that came included with the new version of H4 complete. You can see them all on the H5 Concept art page. Hopefully we'll have some more substantial updates in the next few days. One last thing. The British version of the official Ubisoft M&M page has spotted a video from a Swedish TV show called Kontroll that has a short spot about Heroes V. The video itself is rather long, but the part you're interested in is between 18:35 and 18:57. There's not much new there, but I did manage to make 2 new video captures that are of interest. You can see those on the Video Capture page. And you can see the entire video here. Sir Charles
Jan. 10, 2006 Well, I finally got the thumbs up from Fabrice concerning the screenshots I mentioned yesterday. You can see them all on the Heroes V Screenshot page. The first 7 screenshots listed there are directly from Nival Interactive, while the following 5 are from the interview that Nival did with the Russian fan-site Heroic Corner. I've finished digging around the screenshots and a few other things and I've updated (and re-organized) the Heroes V Towns, Troops, Artifacts, and Misc pages. You should see some nice new goodies in there. Enjoy! Sir Charles
Jan. 9, 2006 It's come to my attention that I haven't updated the site in a week or so...time to get off my misty blue butt. :O) Truthfully, there's a good reason for the lack of updates....a lack of news. With the Beta-test in full swing and heading towards wrapping up, Ubisoft is putting all of their significant resources towards streamlining the game and heading to the "gone gold" finish line. The Age of Heroes fan-site has recently published 14 screenshots (page 1) (page 2) that were leaked to the Heroes Community forums. Until I get the go-ahead from Fabrice (Heroes 5 producer), I'm waiting to add these screenshots to the Lamp. Also of interest, Ubisoft has added a rather interesting page to their website. Some of you might enjoy it quite a bit. :O) You can see it here. Sir Charles |
This was clearly useful and I'm extending a thanks to you.