The Game Musketeers chat with Funcom's Morten Byom and Craig Morrison about Lost Eden, the latest expansion pack for Anarchy Online.

Anarchy Online has overcome many obstacles to have a long and successful run in the MMO world. What do you believe Lost Eden will have to offer new users to the Anarchy Online Game?

Lost Eden makes several areas of the game much more accessible to players. Previously players really had to be a member of an established organisation (what we call guilds in AO) to be able to access alien content. Now they are able to join pick up teams and take the new alien mothership missions on their own schedule whenever they want. Likewise with the addition of the new vehicles and PVP options even if players don’t have a ‘perfect’ build for PVP they can now choose to use a vehicle instead and really feel like they are contributing to a battle!

Anarchy Online: Lost Eden has been reviewed at Games Radar, with a resulting score of 7/10:

While the graphics and interface make the world hard to interact with, the story and complexity of Anarchy make it worthwhile to put in the time - with pillow-punching breaks to release the frustration. Anarchy Online has always had one of the friendliest and most social communities of all MMORPGs, and Lost Eden invigorates that aspect of the game, allowing old fans and new players to forgive the occasional disconnects and hokey-pokeys. Available from Funcom as a download only, Lost Eden is $24.99, making it easy on the wallet even if it is sometimes hard on the eyes.

Funcom has announced that Lost Eden, the latest expansion pack for Anarchy Online has shipped.

Durham, USA – December 14, 2006 - Funcom announces the launch of ‘Anarchy Online – Lost Eden’, the new quality expansion pack for the hugely successful sci-fi MMO. ‘Anarchy Online – Lost Eden’ brings an awesome range of new features for all level ranges, offering countless more hours of action and fun for all Rubi-Ka citizens.

”’Anarchy Online’ has evolved tremendously through the years, and there are few, if any, MMO games which offer a better sci-fi experience. As we launch another great expansion we hope both new, existing and returning ‘Anarchy Online’ players will fully enjoy our creation,” said Trond Arne Aas, CEO of Funcom.

 “The feedback from the Beta has been excellent and the battle-mech pre-order program has exceeded all of our expectations. Now we simply can’t wait to see how it pans out as all the players are digging into a vast range of fun new content.”

The new expansion is only available digitally and costs 29.95 USD / EUR. When purchasing ‘Anarchy Online – Lost Eden’ you automatically receive the multi award-winning expansion packs ‘Notum Wars’ ‘Shadowlands’ and ‘Alien Invasion’, as well as the classic version of ‘Anarchy Online’!

Funcom's Product Manager Erling Ellingsen speaks with ComputerGames.ro about Lost Eden, the latest expansion pack for Anarchy Online.

Q: You’ve already released the Shadowlands and Alien Invasion expansions for Anarchy Online and now you’re releasing Lost Eden. What’s new this time around?

A: In Shadowlands we introduced a whole new world where players could adventure through some truly epic environments consisting of multiple dimensions and the breathtaking city of Jobe.

In Alien Invasion invading aliens attacked the planet of Rubi-ka, and players could construct their own cities and then defend them from these hostile attackers.

There were really two things we wanted to achieve with Lost Eden, firstly to make the PVP experience in Anarchy online much more engaging and exciting. Secondly we wanted to expand on the alien theme we had established with the previous expansion and allow the players to take the fight back to the Invading aliens!

With the introduction of impressive mech vehicles, orbital battlestations and massive alien mothership encounters we are really think we are adding not just some pretty epic visuals but also a really interesting gameplay experience for our players

With the launch of Lost Eden imminent, the official Anarchy Online site reminds us that the pre-order window is rapidly closing.

As we ready for the launch of the Lost Eden expansion next week time is running out for you to take advantage of the great pre-order bonus!

You can find all the details here and if you still have any questions about the expansion don't forget to check out our comprehensive Lost Eden FAQ.

Funcom's Mortem Byom has been interviewed at GameZone about the long-delayed Lost Eden expansion for Anarchy Online:

Q: What are the major changes or innovations being introduced with this expansion?

Morten: Lost Eden takes all the elements from our previous expansions and adds in a huge extra helping of Sci-Fi. This expansion focuses on battle options in direct response to what players have asked for. Battle Stations, missile launchers, new massive PvP battlefields in space and on land, new menacing aliens, missions and areas inside the Mothership. There’s an entire new arsenal of mass destruction weapons and powerful armor; plus kick-ass mech vehicles that really make you say “ah.” Lost Eden takes an already incredible world and injects it with a big shot of futuristic battle elements to make it the most robust sci-fi MMO in existence.

Funcom is now taking pre-orders for Lost Eden, the upcoming expansion pack for Anarchy Online.

GamersInfo.net send word that they've posted a preview of Lost Eden, the forthcoming expansion pack for Anarchy Online.

Yes, Anarchy Online is going into space. Lost Eden will give new vehicles to Anarchy Online, as well as mechs a yes, the crowd-pleasing walking tanks that everyone loves a and artillery. Youa'll need the mechs in order to damage towers in land based battles and you'll be able to use them on the orbital battlestations, too.

Battlestations are open for fully open PvP based on faction. When one team conquers one, their whole side will gain benefits such as orbital laser strikes.

You'll also be able to board alien motherships, in smaller teams. They wona't be intended for full org raids, but instead for single teams.

More...

The Lost Eden expansion is now being tested internally by our Quality Assurance (QA) team, and we will soon be starting external closed beta testing.

This means that members of the community will be invited to participate in the beta. With this in mind we'd like to ask all players to ensure that the email address associated with their play account is up to date.

Sometime over the next few weeks we will announce the start of these external beta stages and start to send out invitations to the beta process to selected subscribers.

So make sure those email addresses are up to date and keep your eyes out for the announcement soon!

How will the battlestations actually work gameplay wise, what will we be fighting over?

The battlestations allow players to fight for control over them in battles until one side meets the victory conditions. The battlestation is composed of a central hub area with three wings leading off from that central area. The hub and each of these wings each contain a control point. Holding these control points adds a number of victory points to your sides total until a pre-defined victory total is reached.

These points tick up every few minutes (we will balance the speed of these ticks during beta testing). The first side to reach the victory total win the battle and recieve their reward.