IGN is the latest site to show up with a preview for The Secret World. In their preview they confirm that there are other videos which have not been seen by the public yet. There is a longer version of the HD trailer that was released today, which we will have to wait to see.

“The gist of the videos goes something like this: a normal human in the real world is going about everyday tasks when they suddenly encounter something completely supernatural or paranormal. Then the gloves come off. This is a game that’s going to be centered heavily on combat. It’s also interesting because it’s an MMO that will not have rigid classes or even experience levels. Instead, you can amass different abilities into you character and, if you want, you can respec your character at any time. Instead of creating a new character from scratch, just take your existing character and modify abilities as needed.”

Here’s another little bit on budget and voice actors:

“This is also a big budget project. Ragnar said that the game currently has a voice cast of more than 100 actors, and that they’ve recorded in cities around the globe, including New York and London. This sounds similar to Funcom’s adventure game Dreamfall, which had a stellar voice cast that was also assembled from around the globe.”

MMO Hub takes their first look at The Secret World, along with the rest of the GDC 2009 press. Here’s a snip on the subject of platforms.

Right now, “The Secret World” is planned for 360 and PC, and both versions will remain unique; so no playing on a PC with your 360 pals. The developers are trying to keep the games basically the same, but obviously issues of control, chat, etc. will differ. One thing that they did make clear is that, since some people will prefer to use controllers given the realtime, skill-oriented combat, the PC version will offer full Xbox 360 controller support, and settings to make it play just fine with one.

As for a PS3 or Mac version? Those are in the air until they see how other titles do with their launches on the two consoles.

Head over to Eurogamer.net for a look at their GDC 2009 experience with The Secret World. Over the course of three pages they bring us what they got out of the presentation. Curious about loot? Here’s a tiny snip:

It’s not going to be loot in a traditional sense, but there will be a lot of really cool items you can use to enhance your character. It’s going to be a lot about the skills you get, but it’s also going to be a lot about the weapons.

Massively features their preview of The Secret World from GDC 2009, and an interview with Funcom’s Ragnar Tørnquist. Here’s a little chunk on gameplay and travel.

I want to emphasize that this won’t be something like Grand Theft Auto with magic, with a focus on huge, huge open cities. They are reasonably small places where you will start out and take the adventure from there. But one very important thing to note is that this sounds like a very fragmented world. London, New York, Seoul, those cities are a long way away from each other. But we are creating, or at least trying to create, a pretty seamless world. This means there are ways of getting from London to New York very quickly, and we are focusing on that. You won’t be just walking up to a plane, clicking on it, and getting a red line that quickly points to where you’re going and boom, you’re there. You will be moving in real-time from London to New York, just a lot quicker.

IGN Vault did a bang-up job on their preview and interview for The Secret World, from GDC 2009. Staci Krause and Charlene Sheridan quizzed the TSW developers to score as much information for fans as possible. Read up!

“No Classes, No Levels. We don’t want a game where the purpose of the game is to get to level 56 or 70 and then that is where the game starts… there is nothing like that. It is a skill based game. The whole point of the game is discovering new skills, basically like putting together a deck of cards that you can play any way you want to play.”