During our first day at GamesCom in Cologne, Germany -- we had the opportunity to talk with Age of Conan Executive Producer, Craig Morrison and Lead Expansion Designer, Joel Bylos. During the interview we went into detail about the first expansion for Age of Conan, Rise of the Godslayer. In addition to new mounts, an alternate advancement system and a handful of different NPC factions to sway, players can also look forward to zones with as much as 30 percent more playable space. Check out our full interview and stay tuned for our first look at Rise of the Godslayer.

ZAM: What were the biggest goals with the first Age of Conan expansion?

Craig Morrison: I think the key goals are two-fold. One is to add a lot more content and story-driven, dynamic content that the players can really invest in and have a lot of fun playing through. It's a content-driven expansion. The second is the system-side; adding the additional character depth that we discussed in the presentation of the 'alternate advancement system,' and giving players the ability to further specialize and train their characters and make them more powerful [via] the alternate advancement system.

ZAM: Let's talk about the alternate advancement system. Is it more of an advancement system or a specialization system, in which players would choose different paths?

After chatting with Hiromichi Tanaka over a lively round of puk extermination, Famitsu sat down with Sage Sundi, who returns to Final Fantasy XIV to once again offer global user support.

Read on for the interview and discuss this in the ZAM forums.

More and more goodies seem to be coming out of GamesCom, and just a short while ago they released a bunch of new screenshots for you all to check out. Just follow along to here to see our gallery of freshly updated images. Personally speaking, I like this one the best. Also, if you haven't heard, Runewaker and Frogster, the team that is currently developing and publishing Runes of Magic, have also signed a contract at GamesCom confirming the release of a brand new MMORPG for the end of 2013.

As Hiromichi Tanaka, producer of Final Fantasy XIV, hacked his way through a demonstration of a "Puk Extermination" Guildleve quest, Famitsu flanked him with some questions about their presentation and what it says about the state of the upcoming MMO.

Read on to see the full story and discuss it in the ZAM forums.

It seems as though Frogster and Runewaker, publishers and developers of the critically acclaimed MMO 'Runes of Magic,' are teaming up once again to develop another new MMO scheduled to be released near the end of 2013. In fact, it was just today at GamesCom that the duo announced the contract being signed. After the success of Runes of Magic, Runewaker has increased their team to over 100 staff members, and an additional 100 members will be hired to develop their latest MMO title. In addition to this, Runewaker plans to continue to work on regular expansions for Runes of Magic, as they've managed to garner over 1.6 million registered and over 300,000 active users - only a few months after their official launch! John and Tony Tang of Runewaker Entertainment noted that the partnership formed "because of the very positive and successful collaboration in publishing, producing and game design for Runes of Magic." Although they (understandably) point out the fact that they "can’t really reveal much about [their] new online role-playing world now," they do confidently state that "it will surpass current game worlds in many aspects."

Age of Conan fans will definitely have something to look forward to this year (or perhaps next) as FunCom has announced an expansion for their struggling MMO: Rise of the Godslayer. This new expansion, however, will not see a raise in the level cap; instead, FunCom will be releasing a new Asian-themed continent, Khitai, along with a a new playable race, the Khitan. The new expansion will see a nice increase to the pre-existing game, as there will be low-level content for levels 20 and up, as well as an alternate advancement system that will allow players to broaden the range of their abilities and diversify their powers. In other words, this expansion will definitely put a lot of meat onto what most considered to be an MMORPG that was fairly sparse at launch: is this a sign that Age of Conan will be coming back? EuroGamer has also posted a preview of the expansion on their website, although a date of release has not yet been established.

At GamesCom today, BioWare has officially confirmed that the Sith they showed off at E3 is, in fact, their latest class for SW:TOR - the Sith Warrior! Creative Director James Ohlen has stated that the Sith Warrior was inspired by Darth Vader, and that the class will focus more upon martial prowess rather than overwhelming opponents with their force powers (although he notes that they do use some 'iconic' powers, like Force Choke). In other words, the Sith Warrior - who starts out on the planet Korriban - is the 'Dark Side' opposite of the Jedi Guardian and, speaking in MMORPG archetypes, will probably be something of a 'Warrior' class in SW:TOR.

In other unrelated SW:TOR news, BioWare has also confirmed that the game will be fully voiced in three languages: English, French and German.

To the delight of Gamescom attendees, it appears our speculation of a playable demo for Final Fantasy XIV was right on the money!  Here's a video of some gameplay courtesy of 1UP.com.  The convention will run until August 23rd, so expect more information to pour in as the event opens to the public tomorrow.

More and more videos are beginning to surface, so read on to check them all out!

Frogster recently announced the final content for "Chapter II — The Elven Prophecy" will launch on Sept. 15, while some parts of the expansion are actually set to go live this month. Well, the team has decided that the GamesCom trade fair, which kicks off in Germany tomorrow, is the perfect time to premiere the official launch trailer for the game's second chapter.

You can view the full trailer after the jump. The expansion will introduce elves as a playable race, add two new character classes, raise the level cap to 55, integrate a new pet system, and include a completely new soundtrack.

UPDATE: The official press release can now be found after the jump. Also, check out two screenshots of DUST 514 in our gallery.

Our very own Andrew "Tamat" Beegle is currently at the Game Developers Conference Europe in Cologne, Germany, and CCP CEO Hilmar Petursson just announced the company's new project is DUST 514, a hybrid MMO FPS/RTS set in the EVE Online universe.

The primary features of DUST 514 include real ground combat on the surface of planets. Tamat was able to watch a trailer of the new game during the announcement, and he said it looks like a stunningly beautiful, adrenaline-fueled experience with amazing physics.

Perhaps the most exciting news surrounding DUST 514 is that gameplay on the planets in the MMOFPS can actually affect EVE Online.  This will truly give the sense that you're playing in one massive universe.

Dust 514 is being developed at the Shanghai CCP studio. Peterrsson made mention that some EVE players will understand the meaning of the 514 in the name. We'll continue to bring more DUST 514 news to you as it develops, so stay tuned.