Status: Maintenance complete!

On Thursday 01/08/09 at 7:00 AM EST all North American servers will be coming down for an update to the servers with Oceanic servers following shortly after at 9:00 AM EST. We anticipate that North American Servers will be back online before 11:00 AM EST (1:00 AM WDT) and Oceanic before 12:00 PM EST (4:00 AM WDT). This update is part of our continuing efforts to improve server stability.

More Tier 4 changes coming to help resolve stability issues in these higher level areas:

The epic battle between the forces of Order and Destruction rages on across the lands. Dark Elf against High Elf, Dwarfs pitted against their age old enemy the Greenskins, and the upstart Humans of Order wage a bitter battle against the Forces of Chaos.

The Hearld gives us an interesting article today about favorite places in WAR.

Enjoy! The Warhammer World is a vast and varied place filled with dark dungeons, lofty peaks, grim fortresses, blood-soaked plains and dense forests. From the staggering natural beauty of Ulthuan to the ordered symmetry of Dwarf mines and the riotously haphazard Orcish warcamps, every zone is unique. No doubt you have your own favorite places. Perhaps you saw it unfold before you for the first time and your jaw dropped, perhaps it was the site of your favorite battle or you just really, really liked the way things were laid out. Everyone has their own reasons for liking a place.

We thought we'd share ours with you. Maybe you'll see familiar places in a new way or maybe you'll be tempted to put your wandering boots on and savor the scenery in a place you've never been to before. So now, in no particular order, here are a handful of places in-game that are special to our staff. We'd love to hear yours.

Check out the full article after the jump or tell us about your favorite places in the forum !

Another round of characters transfers is in process. Players on Hochland have a way out to either Praag or Dark Crag now!:

North American - Open RvR Ruleset

Hochland > Dark Crag and Praag

Visit the Herald for a full list of all servers currently offering Free Character Transfers !

Where do you put your prisoners of war, criminals, and other persons of society that have done nasty deeds? Into the dungeons of course!

Classic dungeons do not exist in our own real society (in most countries anyway), but they are certainly alive in our games. Warhammer Online has a few good ones that have been written about recently.

Check out our dungeons wiki article that organizes and briefly summarizes the dungeon articles we've seen from the WAR Herald the past few days. You can view the entire dungeon wiki category here.

Another round of creepy, crawly, dark and damp dungeon walkthroughs. Actually, it is the dungeons that are dark and damp, not the walkthroughs. You get the creepy and crawly idea, so check out the latest in the final installment, Part 3!

"I'd lost most of my breakfast and all of my lunch to the rocking waves by the time the lookout called down that he could see land. Straining my eyes into the mist ahead, I wondered for a moment if the spray from the waves had deceived him.

"Then I saw it! A shoreline as green as emerald and as idyllic as a painting. The Gaen Vale, at last. Soon my eyes will be gifted with the sight of the Everqueen. Let us hope that I do not lose my heart to her High Elf beauty."
-- Becker Hess, Envoy of Karl Franz

Do you have any New Year's resolutions? Forum member "Doug" set a goal for finishing off 2008 with a bang by coming in 8th place in the Scenario rankings. Congratulations Doug !

Iron Rock server status: Available!

Now that 2008 has come to an end we thought it might be fun to do a recap on some of the major news and features that you may have missed. Overall, 2008 was a great year for the gaming industry as a whole, with some amazing advancements in the MMO space. So sit back, nurse that coffee and take one final look at Allakhazam in 2008.

January

• Allakhazam visited the Consumer Electronics Show. The fun began on Jan. 7 as Tovin reported on the first day of activities, which included Sony’s announcement that the PSP would support Voice Over Internet Protocol (VoIP) provider Skype and new rigs from Voodoo PC and Alienware.

• At CES, EverQuest and World of Warcraft were honored with Emmy Awards and AutumnKiss talked to Curt Schilling of 38 Studios about their upcoming MMO code-named Copernicus, which includes names like R.A. Salvatore and Todd McFarlane.

• Day two of the event was just as crazy, and AutumnKiss got a ton of information on a pirate's life in both Pirates of the Caribbean Online and Pirates of the Burning Sea. Of course, the team also focused on the then-upcoming Age of Conan and delved into Legends of Norrath. Tovin also got a glimpse of all the tech gadgets, such as a wallet-sized USB flash drive.

Another round of creepy, crawly, dark and damp dungeon walkthroughs. Actually, it is the dungeons that are dark and damp, not the walkthroughs. You get the creepy and crawly idea, so check out the latest in Part 2!

Gunbad Tunnels

"I's gots betta fings ta do den go ta Gunbad 'n scrap wif a buncha Gobbos! Youse tell Grumlok dat he can come down 'ere and kill me 'imself if 'e wants to. I ain't budgin'! "

-- The final words of Warlord Heava Sixtoes, as overheard by Grumlok