Hmm smells like butter in my cozy, super secret hideaway.

(THEY CAN’T TAKE ME AWAY!!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHAH!)

Anyway, back to the butter. The reason for the bakery-like ambience is the freshly-baked, newly-stolen screenshots of the pastry capital of the world, Paris!

This area will be available once Open Beta reaches ground zero. Wewt! I can smell it wafting in the air…. not the scent of butter but the excitement

*Kbzzzzt!*

Ouch, the electricity in the air jolted me a bit….

Metaphor fail.

Oooooh man I can feel it! Open Beta is juusssst around the corner!

Now, where’s that Moulin Rouge DVD?

Mwahahaha! Success! I have turned another agent of Sanrio Digital to my cause. Neverender - 2, Sanrio Digital - 0. Hahaha! If you remember (I sincerely hope you do), London is one of the key cities that will be released with the Open Beta and now, we get to see more of it.

So grab a platter of crumpets and a cup o’ tea, fry up some fish and chips and brush up on ye olde English language ‘coz eeeeeeeere’s London!

Greetings! Neverender here transmitting from an undisclosed location. I’ll bet my left nostril that you totally adored my previous, adrenaline-filled post.

Yeah. You lika (pronounced “layka”) tha juice.

With that said, here’s a new batch of screenies I was able to grab during my daring break-in

Oh oh!! I almost forgot… As I was making my daring escape last week, I came upon a very cryptic inscription written under a header “TBD”. I don’t really know what it means but I’ll bet my right nostril that it’s going to be something HUGE.

“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free…”

Thoughts?

I don’t have much time. I’m risking my life just by doing this…

*looks around*

Okay, you MAY have noticed that I haven’t been around as of late to grace you people with the words that drip from my tongue like golden nectar. In case you HAVEN’T, well then… you suck. hahaha anyway, THE REASON I was absent was because I was neck-deep in the deepest, most protected, highly secretive tech lab where they were testing the new HKO client. Yes, I was THERE!

*looks around while wiping sweat the size of melons off my brow*

With my trusty, bite-size camera, I was able to take screenshots of the game! And I must say, it took me a good 47 seconds to pull myself together after seeing the vast improvement the game underwent. Wow

*Shrugs off the drool on collar*

But alas, I cannt post everything right away because if I did, they will most definitely be able to trace it and they will eventually take me down like Nixon. See you next week!

July 24 is Gamer Christmas. Don’t ask. Don’t research it on wiki. Just take my geeky word for it

Who created it, you ask?

ME!

Why?

BECAUSE I CAN!

GC Claus has come to grace us with one question:

“Ho ho ho! What would you want to happen in HKO?”

 
Yep, simple as that.

What’s all this talk about PvP? I’ve been patrolling the forums and encounter this. As much as anyone would like to deny it or not, PvP is such a HUGE, HUGE, HUGE aspect of any aspiring MMO since it fosters competition and the basest instinct of the human psyche: COMBAT.

Sure, MMOs like World of Warcraft, Guild Wars or… Flyff have some sort of PvP be it bashing each other’s face in or… yeah… bashing face.

Anyway, HKO is an MMO albeit a wholly different one, it’s still an MMO nonetheless. Although we cannot have “hundreds of identical mouthless kitties in a pit fight to the death” we would still have some form of competition for high scores. People love high scores, right? Well, the minigames is platform enough for people to compete in. I must admit, during the CB, we only had a teaspoonful of minigames to play. For the OB, on the other hand, we have around 20 (give or take) minigames. That’s a lot.

We may not have an option to thwak each other with small brooms until kingdom come but this form of “PvP’ is suited for the kind of game HKO wants to be.

I come here hat in hand to ask you people what kind of PvP you want for this game? I must admit that the system (minigames) cannot be changed and it’s already etched in stone. You can help me with thinking of how to reward players who hold the top scores for the minigames. In-game buffs, perhaps? Exclusive and premium items? You tell me.

Oh, and another favor, spread the word.

I’m going to take a break off speculating for a bit. You know, skulking here and thinking about all the goodness that could come out of the Open Beta of HKO can put a epicly huge strain on my wee, little brain that could leave the uninitiated ALL.BURNED.OUT.

Aaaanywho, there ar two things in this oh so adorable planet that makes my boat float:

1. Magic: The Gathering

2. The Simpsons (although, I’m not a fan of the latest Simpsons episodes because theyre devastatingly DROLL)

So yeah, I was idling inside the forums of mtgsalvation (inside the rumor mill, of course) and found this yummy little picture:

That, my friends is the Belligerent Hatchling. Sure, great art and all but it’s not exactly “blowing my skirt”.

“But, but Mr. Neverender, whatever do you mean!? How is this related to the Simpsons?”

If you look closely at the picture, you will notice a swarm of bees coming out of the weird, six-legged octopus-dog thingie that reminded me of a delightful little scene in the Simpsons where Bart was adopted by Mr. Burns to be his heir. Homer, determined to get his son back, charges Mr. Burns’ home. He gets stopped at the door by Smithers and Burns and the truant boy. Bart shrugs off his father’s pleas and says that he’d rather stay with the withering, old man.

Mr Burns: I suggest you leave immediately.
Homer: Or what? You’ll release the dogs, or the bees, or the dogs with bees in their mouths and when they bark they shoot bees at you? Well, go ahead—do your worst!

Do I sense Simpsons fans amongst the great minds behind Magic: The Gathering? I hope so.

So… what happens when you put a diverse set of monsters in a secluded forest with nothing but rage and animosity towards each other?

PET BATTLE ROYALE

That’s right. Tooth and nail, horn and claw, wing and talon. In the end, there can only be two:

With the last two standing, the ground unfolds and molten rock shoot out. It’s epic, I tell ya. This setting will make Dante’s Inferno look like a ski resort.

Gasp! Will there be pet battles in HKO? Oh no! That would be so sweet! Wouldn’t you want your pets to duke it out with the monsters of other players? Of course, no one dies.

But I think the ultimate noodle-scratcher is WILL THERE BE PET BATTLES?! Only time… will tell.

Ok so we all know that HKO Open Beta is still a long time comin’ but that doesn’t mean we can’t speculate on things that will happen once Open Beta graces us with its presence, right?

Right.

With farming taking the forefront (one of many forefronts… as weird as that sounds) in HKO, one can’t help to wonder what other real-life plants/crops deserve a digital make-over in HKO.

Here are a few:

Star Apple:

It’s gooky, it’s sweet, it’s YUMMY! When you grow these in-game, you can sell it or use it as a weapon that slows monsters in an area.

Durian

It’s big, it’s HEAVY, and it STINKKKS. You could scare other players with it or wallop unsuspecting monsters with it. Mwahahahaha!

Dates

They’re gooey, chewy and looks clogs up your throat good. You can feed these to your pet for that needed energy boost

Del Monte Fruit Cup

It’s all fruits in one! Have you ever eaten a succulent piece of fruit and have the experience ruined by a renegade seed. You feel that bitter sensation coursing through your body and your first reaction is to wretch. Ugh. We may not have a cure for cancer but technology has blessed us with fruit cups. In HKO, fruit cups are the ultimate health potion. Plus it sells for a lot too.

The only way to grow it is to put all seeds in one plot of land and HOPE that it grows. hahaha

And last… but most certainly not the least… is… the… HOT DOG TREE. It is the only tree that bears fruit that’s not healthy for you! It clogs up arteries but it is oh so yummy. Everyone in HKO will be so jealous of you when they stumble upon your farm and find the sight of a glorious hot dog tree ever so stunning.

I want one…. in real life.

In case you didn’t know, I’m GM - Neverender - the most rockingest GM in HKO. Mwahahahaha!

Ehermm… yeah.

Anyway, it’ll be a while until OB comes out… so…. what do we do until then?  We could:

1. Solve world hunger

2. Discover a cure for cancer

3. Sing

4. Play Magic Cards (I’m sorta partial to this)

5. Eat

and lastly,

6. Create hype for the impending arrival of the HKO Open Beta.

Well, I can do 4, 5 and 6 at the same time. However, 6 requires a little more creativity, spunk and initiative. Lemme tell you, I gots me some spunk, foo!

One good way of making fantastic hype is to read articles such as this

Cool, huh?

New pets!

New maps!

New features!

I can’t wait!

Just keep your eyes peeled and your ears unshut