General Gaming Article

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• AMD Catalyst 14.4 Release Candidate Adds Support for Radeon R9 295X2
• NZXT Phantom 240 Case Floats an Affordable $70 Price Tag
• Benq Starts Shipping XL-Z Series Monitors Aimed at FPS Gamers
• Netflix Posts $1 Billion in Quarterly Streaming, Subscription Price Hike is Coming
• Heads Up: EVGA Now Offers Individually Sleeved Cables for G2 and P2 Power Supply Series
• Newegg Daily Deals: Cooler Master HAF 922 Case, Intel Core i5 3570, and More!

AMD Catalyst 14.4 Release Candidate Adds Support for Radeon R9 295X2 Posted: 22 Apr 2014 02:33 PM PDT Say goodbye to flickering in Titanfall when running CrossFire AMD this week made available to download its Catalyst 14.4 driver in Release Candidate (RC) form. The release follows the launch of AMD's dual-GPU Radeon R9 295X2 graphics card, which the Catalyst 14.4 RC drivers support. It also boasts full support for OpenGL 4.4, Mantle beta driver improvements, CrossFire fixes and enhancements, and a spattering of bug fixes, including the resolution of game flickering in Titanfall when CrossFire is enabled. According to the release notes, the latest RC offers frame racing improvements in Crysis 3, better performance in Far Cry when running three or four GPUs at high quality settings and high resolution, improved CrossFire scaling in Anno 2070 by up to 34 percent, improved CrossFire scaling in Metro Last Light by up to 10 percent, improved Eyefinity 3x1 support with three 4K panels, and a few other odds and ends. You can check out the full list of fixes and download the RC drivers here. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

NZXT Phantom 240 Case Floats an Affordable $70 Price Tag Posted: 22 Apr 2014 01:46 PM PDT The least expensive Phantom to date If you're a fan of NZXT's Phantom case line but tend to gravitate towards less expensive enclosures, you might be interested in the company's newest offering, the Phantom 240. NZXT's newly released Phantom 240 carries a $70 MSRP, making it the most affordable Phantom yet. It also sports a new design with a full-view window while maintaining its asymmetrical shape and comes with two FN V2 120mm case fans. Need more cooling? There's room for an additional 120mm fan up front, another on the bottom, and two more on top (or you can opt for 140mm fans on top). Once you've got your airflow scheme figured out, you can route cables out of the way using the 17mm of cable management space behind the right-side panel that NZXT provides. You'll also find seven routing holes and over 20 zip tie points to help with cable management. There's a removable drive cage to make room for extra long graphics cards (up to 400mm without the cage, versus 290mm with the cage). All tallied, the Phantom 240 features three optical bays, six 2.5-inch drive bays, and six 3.5-inc drive bays. On the outside, the I/O panel features audio inputs and two USB 3.0 ports. The Phantom 240 will be available soon. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Benq Starts Shipping XL-Z Series Monitors Aimed at FPS Gamers Posted: 22 Apr 2014 09:59 AM PDT Benq's XL-Z monitors are specifically intended for FPS gamers Holy buzzwords, Batman -- Benq is pulling out all kinds of fancy pants terms to describe its new XL-Z series of first-person shooter (FPS) purpose-built gaming monitors. Benq says its XL-Z series monitors have begun shipping, and if you're a gamer -- particularly an FPS gamer -- the company has several reasons why you might be interested in one of its displays, starting with RevolutionEyes technology. What exactly is it? Good question, so we looked it up. Revolution Eyes is essentially what Benq is calling its collection of technologies that makes its XL-Z series the bees knees. Things like Motion Blur Reduction, Low Blue Light, ZeroFlicker, gaming refresh rate optimization management (GROM), and a 1ms GTG response time are among them. Here, have yourself a look at Benq's YouTube video for a bit more detail: "The design of our gaming monitors reflects our overall philosophy of delivering market-first features that give gamers an opportunity to conquer the game. That's why we design all of our gaming products in close collaboration with professional gamers," said Bob Wudeck, Associate Vice President, Strategy and Business Development at BenQ America Corp. "With the latest release of our XL-Z series, we've pushed the limits of performance once again by becoming the first major brand to provide Motion Blur Reduction technology for smoother game play. Add in our other exclusive features, and the XL-Z series gives players fully loaded monitors made to turn opponents on their heads." There are three XL-Z series monitors too choose from. They include the XL2720Z ($529), XL2420Z ($500), and $XL2411Z ($329). Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Netflix Posts $1 Billion in Quarterly Streaming, Subscription Price Hike is Coming Posted: 22 Apr 2014 08:22 AM PDT Netflix is planning to bump up its subscription price by up to $2 for new subscribers On hindsight, going nearly all-in with streaming was definitely the right choice for Netflix. While the company's DVD-by-mail generated $98 million during the first quarter of 2014, Netflix's streaming revenue topped $1 billion. That's a pretty big disparity and Netflix expects the gap to widen even more each quarter. At the same time, the cost of doing business isn't getting cheaper these days, and if you're thinking about joining Netflix, do it before the price goes up. In a letter to shareholders (PDF), Netflix CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells announced that a price hike is likely to occur later this quarter, however it will only apply to new members initially. "In the U.S. we have greatly improved our content selection since we introduced our streaming plan in 2010 at $7.99 per month. Our current view is to do a one or two dollar increase, depending on the country, later this quarter for new members only," Hastings and Wells said. As for existing subscribers, they'll stay at their current pricing, which will remain in effect "for a generous time period." The money generated from raising the price for new subscribers will help Netflix acquire more content and improve its streaming service. Though Hastings and Wells don't come right out and say it, another reason for the price hike could be to cover costs associated with ensuring its traffic is delivered to subscribers unabated. Netflix recently inked a multi-year agreement with Comcast that guarantees the ISP won't throttle its traffic, which means far less buffering and higher quality feeds, especially during peak hours. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Heads Up: EVGA Now Offers Individually Sleeved Cables for G2 and P2 Power Supply Series Posted: 22 Apr 2014 07:53 AM PDT No visible heat shrink tubing There are at least a million and one different ways to trick out your PC. One of those ways is to individually sleeve all the wiring for your power supply. The end result looks pretty sweet, assuming you don't drive yourself insane before completing the tedious task. Like most anything else, there's an alternate path to the same end -- toss money at it. If you're willing to pay for the luxury, EVGA will now sell you individually sleeved cable sets that support all SuperNova G2 and P2 power supply series. The cable sets are available in red, black, white, and blue. Each kit consists of individually sleeved cables with no visible heat shrink tubing. They come with: 1 x 24-pin ATX cable 2 x 4+4 pin EPS12V CPU cable 4 x 6+2 pin PCI-E VGA cables 2 x 6+2 pin + 6-pin PCI E VGA cables 4 x 3 SATA cables 1 x 3 Molex cable 1 x 2 Molex cable + 1 floppy connector Each sleeved cable set runs $90; they're available to purchase now direct from EVGA. Follow Paul on Google+, Twitter, and Facebook

Newegg Daily Deals: Cooler Master HAF 922 Case, Intel Core i5 3570, and More! Posted: 22 Apr 2014 06:23 AM PDT Top Deal: Every year, millions of computer components go homeless. These are good working parts that could otherwise be running distributed computing projects looking for cures to diseases or alien signals. Some of the components are even capable game players. Won't you do your part and give them shelter? We've made it easy -- just click through to today's top deal for a Cooler Master HAF 922 Mid-Tower Chassis for $80 with free shipping (normally $90; additional $10 mail-in-rebate). This fancy abode comes with an assortment of modern amenities, such as USB 3.0 connectivity, plenty of air flow, transparent side window, and more. Other Deals: G.Skill Ripjaws X Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1866 (PC3 14900) Desktop Memory Model for $70 with free shipping (normally $80 - use coupon code: [EMCPFWB23]) Intel Core i5-3570 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 77W Desktop Processor for $200 with free shipping (normally $210 - use coupon code: [EMCPFWB33]) WD Black Series 2TB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5-inch Internal Hard Drive for $140 with free shipping (normally $160 - use coupon code: [EMCPFWB24]) XFX Black Edition Double R9-290A-EDBD Radeon R9 290 4GB 512-Bit GDDR5 Video Card for $440 with free shipping (normally $460; additional $20 Mail-in rebate)

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MMO Updates

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• Day-long player carnival slated for May 17 in Lord of the Rings Online
• Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's post-feature pack experience
• Darkfall getting armor dyes
• Marvel Heroes prepping for big patch, Big Ten weekend
• SOE's All Access transition now slated for April 29
• The Daily Grind: What's your ideal MMO group size?
• Not So Massively: Hearthstone's iPad launch, HEX's closed beta, and HOTS' Brightwing reveal
• Destiny digs in for the final pre-launch stretch
• World of Warcraft kicks off Noblegarden
• Phantasy Star Online 2's beta ends in Southeast Asia
• City of Steam getting new US and EU servers
• Perfect World buys into Shanda Games for $100 million

Day-long player carnival slated for May 17 in Lord of the Rings Online Posted: 22 Apr 2014 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Lord of the Rings Online, Events (In-Game), MMO Industry, News Items, Free-to-Play, Player-Generated Content Do you play Lord of the Rings Online? Do you play on Landroval? If so, you'll want to mark May 17th on your calendar and plan to stop by The Lonely Mountain Band's day-long Spring Racing Carnival. SRC is a player-run event which includes "nine horse races, a horse parade, a mounted fashion contest, barrel racing, rodeo clown comedy acts, a demonstration by the formation riding team, name-that-breed and name-that-song contests, eight musical performances, and a final concert and fireworks show." [Thanks Chris!] Day-long player carnival slated for May 17 in Lord of the Rings Online originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Forum thread

Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's post-feature pack experience Posted: 22 Apr 2014 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Patches, PvE, Opinion, Guild Wars 2, Flameseeker Chronicles, Buy-to-Play On April 15th Guild Wars 2 got its first feature pack, as packed with features as advertised. After the first day or so of trying to figure out where our town clothes disappeared to, it's becoming clear how much has changed: There's a lot more to take in and adjust to than might be immediately apparent. The experience for new GW2 characters has changed so much that I rolled up yet another alt post-patch to try it out. That was my plan all along, and I didn't do it because I just bought another character slot and didn't have an Asura yet. I chose a profession that's known for being less fun without traits, so I could see what it's like to not have them before level 30. It was not because I wanted another Engineer and already have two Necromancers, two Guardians, and two Mesmers. It was also necessary to use a total makeover kit for legitimate data-gathering purposes. Aww, look how cute he is! I can use all of my unlocked dyes on him, and dress him up in outfits, and -- right, down to business. Continue reading Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's post-feature pack experience Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's post-feature pack experience originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Darkfall getting armor dyes Posted: 22 Apr 2014 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Darkfall, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, News Items, Sandbox, Subscription Darkfall players are no strangers to dying, but now at least they'll get to look good doing it. Aventurine is adding armor dyes to its fantasy PvP MMO, and while we don't know a lot of specifics just yet, we do know that green and gold are both options thanks to a couple of newly released screenshots. Will some dye colors be rarer than others? Will dyes be craftable and applicable to existing armor pieces? Will someone make a Mahirim-only Pink Panther clan with matching uniform requirements? Time will tell. [Thanks Dengar!] Darkfall getting armor dyes originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Forum announcement

Marvel Heroes prepping for big patch, Big Ten weekend Posted: 22 Apr 2014 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Super-hero, Events (In-Game), Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Patches, News Items, PvE, Free-to-Play, Marvel Heroes Gazillion has collected player votes regarding Marvel Heroes' top 10 game events from the last 10 months and is bringing back all of them this weekend. Whether you're partial to the game's Christmas, Easter, or Valentine's events or you prefer the Buy-One, Get-One promotion for heroes, they'll each be available starting Friday morning. Marvel Heroes' latest patch will also be debuting at that time. It's bringing with it a new hero -- Invisible Woman -- as well as Squirrel Girl and Black Widow updates and a complete powers pass. Read all about it on the official MH forums. [Thanks Steve!] Marvel Heroes prepping for big patch, Big Ten weekend originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Announcement

SOE's All Access transition now slated for April 29 Posted: 22 Apr 2014 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Super-hero, EverQuest, EverQuest II, Business Models, MMO Industry, News Items, Free-to-Play, MMOFPS, DC Universe Online, PlanetSide 2 SOE has again postponed its transition from Gold individual game subscriptions to a single All Access pass. Community guru Colette "Dexella" Murphy posted the following announcement on SOE's forums. In an effort to ensure that the transition to the new All Access membership plan is as seamless as possible, we are going to be taking a little more time to test. So, we will be pushing the launch date of All Access to Tuesday, April 29th. Because of the portfolio-wide nature of this plan, this may prevent us from doing any individual game updates in EverQuest, EverQuest II, Planetside 2, and DC Universe Online. These updates will resume normally after the All Access launch. We appreciate your patience and you'll agree that our new membership offering is worth the wait. SOE's All Access transition now slated for April 29 originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: SOE forums Via: EQ2Wire

The Daily Grind: What's your ideal MMO group size? Posted: 22 Apr 2014 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous, Dungeons Massively's commenters got me thinking on MMO group size after an article a few weeks ago about socially soloing in games. Even though I like and support the option to solo in MMOs, my favorite games have actually had very large group sizes, far larger than the now-standard World of Warcraft five. Some newer games cut that down to four! But I really loved classic Star Wars Galaxies' 20-person groups and even City of Heroes' and Guild Wars 1's eight-member parties. Something about throwing a huge swarm of people into a group and going out and just Doing Something really appealed to me in a "the more, the merrier" way, especially when the game scaled to meet our needs rather than tried to mash us into a mold for prefab content. And nothing seems worse than having six guildies online and being forced to leave one behind because parties cap at five bodies. What do you think -- what's your ideal MMO group size? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind! The Daily Grind: What's your ideal MMO group size? originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 22 Apr 2014 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Not So Massively: Hearthstone's iPad launch, HEX's closed beta, and HOTS' Brightwing reveal Posted: 21 Apr 2014 05:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Super-hero, Trailers, Video, Game Mechanics, MMO Industry, Patches, Previews, PvP, News Items, PvE, Mobile, Trading Card Games, MMOFPS, Community Q&A, Not So Massively, MOBA, Infinite Crisis, HEX, Hearthstone, Virtual Reality Welcome back to No So Massively, where every Monday we round up the highlights from the past week in the world of MOBAs, roguelikes, MMOTCGs, and other games that aren't quite MMOs. Hearthstone landed on the iPad, and we gave our first impressions. Star Citizen broke the $42-million-dollar barrier and celebrated with -- what else? -- towels. Richard Garriot announced a contest to remake his first game. Sony talked up Project Morpheus, its VR toy. Upsilon Circuit made its bid to redefine MMOs. We gave upcoming sandbox Windborne a detailed first look. HEX is set to begin its closed beta on April 23rd! Starbound explained its update slowdowns. Infinite Crisis introduced a new character: Blue Beetle. The video is after the cut! Continue reading Not So Massively: Hearthstone's iPad launch, HEX's closed beta, and HOTS' Brightwing reveal Not So Massively: Hearthstone's iPad launch, HEX's closed beta, and HOTS' Brightwing reveal originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 Apr 2014 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Destiny digs in for the final pre-launch stretch Posted: 21 Apr 2014 03:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, MMOFPS, Destiny Commenting that it is on "final approach" for Destiny's September 9th launch, Bungie posted an article last Friday articulating the mood of the team at this time. "This week at Bungie, our inboxes were flaring up with status emails about every facet of the experience," the team posted. "According to the big green font at the top of each page, we are ON TRACK. Those two simple words in repetition are packed with emotion, and even a tiny bit of relief." The post goes on to say that press thoughts on pre-alpha builds will be shared with the public soon, and from there Destiny will progress into serious alpha and beta testing runs. Destiny digs in for the final pre-launch stretch originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 Apr 2014 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Bungie weekly update Via: Polygon

World of Warcraft kicks off Noblegarden Posted: 21 Apr 2014 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Culture, Events (In-Game), News Items, Subscription Maybe you're a little burnt out after eight months of raiding World of Warcraft's last content patch. Do you know what you need? You need to cuddle some bunny rabbits. It's time for Noblegarden once again, and that means hunting for eggs, putting on bunny ears, getting a seasonal mount, and generally traipsing around in the woods for colorful treats. And if you've already gotten the rewards in previous years, well... the treats are still nice, yes? The official event page serves as a good top-level overview of player activities during the event. In short, players will be collecting eggs, doing daily quests directly related to collecting eggs, and giving chocolate (found in eggs) to vendors for egg-related prizes. Players have a week to collect their eggs, as the event runs from today until April 28th, more than enough time for all the Azerothian egg-hunting you could want. (Hopefully.) World of Warcraft kicks off Noblegarden originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 Apr 2014 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Noblegarden is here!

Phantasy Star Online 2's beta ends in Southeast Asia Posted: 21 Apr 2014 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Interviews, Launches, News Items, Consoles While Phantasy Star Online 2 is unreleased here in North America, the residents of Southeast Asia will soon get to experience the game in English. The servers for this version of the game are region-locked, but it's still as close as the game has gotten to a local release thus far. Curious about how it went? The team working for local publisher Asiasoft shared thoughts regarding the beta experience in a recent interview. The team states that while the game already has new race/class options available in Japan (as it has been out for some time), releasing these options in the localized version will depend partly on player progress. Tie-in events such as those found in the Japanese version are also nixed, as most of those cross-promotional events are strictly for Japanese marketing and wouldn't make much sense to the audience. For more details, take a look at the full interview. Phantasy Star Online 2's beta ends in Southeast Asia originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 Apr 2014 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: MMOCulture

City of Steam getting new US and EU servers Posted: 21 Apr 2014 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: MMO Industry, News Items, Free-to-Play, Browser, City of Steam, Steampunk Mechanist Games has announced that its steampunk browser MMO City of Steam is on the cusp of delivering a long-awaited European server. There's no firm launch date just yet, and Mechanist also notes that EU players who have been biding their time on the existing US servers will not be able to transfer their characters to the new EU shard. Electrum will be transferable, though, so there's that. The devs also said that a new east coast US server is in the works. City of Steam getting new US and EU servers originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 Apr 2014 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Announcement Via: ZAM

Perfect World buys into Shanda Games for $100 million Posted: 21 Apr 2014 11:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, MMO Industry, Free-to-Play Perfect World Entertainment announced today that it will enter into a share purchase agreement with rival Chinese MMO company Shanda Games Limited for 30 million shares valued at $100 million. The purchase is expected to finalize in 30 days. Shanda Games publishes over 20 MMOs for the Chinese market, including Aion, Luvinia Online, and Final Fantasy XIV. This proposed agreement, as well as agreements with other top companies, would put the total value of Shanda at around $1.9 billion. Perfect World buys into Shanda Games for $100 million originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 21 Apr 2014 13:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Shanda Games Announcement Via: GamesIndustry.biz

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MMORPG News

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• The Secret World: What is TSW?
• Dragon Age: Inquisition: Bioware Reveals the Inquisitor
• General: Avalon Lords: Animus Interactive & Alliance Games Merge
• WildStar: Next Bonus Beta Weekend Announced
• General: MMOs Discover Collaboration's the Key to Success
• General: Boothill Heroes: A Quick Dip into the Wild West
• Phantasy Star Online 2: Closed Beta Phase 2 Ends
• Guild Wars 2: Once You Go Charr, You'll Never Stray Far
• Destiny: On Track for September 9th
• City of Steam: New Servers Incoming
• General: Age of Ascent: Tactical Map Detailed
• General: Perfect World Scoops Up 30M Shares of Shanda Games
• Star Citizen: Say Hello to Arena Commander
• World of Warcraft: New Models and Adventures

The Secret World: What is TSW? Posted: 21 Apr 2014 04:54 PM PDT Hot off the back of the mankini-gate scandal a discussion has been born asking what the IP of The Secret World actually is. How do you define something with such broad reaching strangeness? The discussion on the official forums has been going on for 19 pages now with everyone from fan to developer chiming in. Can there really be one solid definition of what The Secret World is? And do outfits like the Mankini and Sight for Sore Eyes really detract from the intellectual property?

Dragon Age: Inquisition: Bioware Reveals the Inquisitor Posted: 20 Apr 2014 06:45 PM PDT Bioware's Dragon Age: Inquisition is one of the games that sits squarely in the sights of any true RPG fan. DA:I has been shrouded in a lot of mystery with only scant information being released over the last six or so months. However, with the approach of fall 2014 and Inquisition's launch, Bioware is taking the wraps off the game. We had the opportunity to interview Creative Director Mike Laidlaw to find out more about the game's protagonist, the Inquisitor.

General: Avalon Lords: Animus Interactive & Alliance Games Merge Posted: 22 Apr 2014 06:56 AM PDT Alliance Games and Animus Interactive have announced a merger agreement to bring the latter's MMORTS, Avalon Lords, to fruition. In addition, the combined teams will work on Alliance Games' Resurgent Empires.

WildStar: Next Bonus Beta Weekend Announced Posted: 22 Apr 2014 06:50 AM PDT The WildStar team has announced another surprise beta event for the upcoming weekend. If you've got a beta key, you'll be able to log into the game from Friday, April 25th throughout the weekend.

General: MMOs Discover Collaboration's the Key to Success Posted: 18 Apr 2014 06:54 PM PDT Time was, game developers created games in a vacuum, following no guidelines but the ones they invented. Many of them even had a kind of superiority complex they used to create games with obscure, maddening mechanics that made us bang our collective head on the wall. Fortunately, those dark days are over, and today's developers seem to have realized the antagonistic approach is no longer viable.

General: Boothill Heroes: A Quick Dip into the Wild West Posted: 19 Apr 2014 06:07 PM PDT I'll admit it, when I hear about a realtime turn-based RPG, I tend to think in terms of the fantasy RPGs such as the Final Fantasy series or the old NES Dragon Warrior series. Boot Hill Heroes from Experimental Gamer bills itself as a spaghetti western fantasy, and in terms of nailing it on the head, they got it right in one. It has all the classic Western tropes in there, and it plays similarly to other turn-based RPGs out there.

Phantasy Star Online 2: Closed Beta Phase 2 Ends Posted: 21 Apr 2014 02:49 PM PDT Asiasoft's English language version of Phantasy Star Online 2 has ended its second beta phase of development and the team will spend the next month plus working on polishing the game and preparing it for the May 29th release date. MMOCulture.com has a neat little interview with PSO2 developers that adds a few details about that process.

Guild Wars 2: Once You Go Charr, You'll Never Stray Far Posted: 20 Apr 2014 12:36 PM PDT "Guild Wars 2 will change the way we play MMOs forever!" That was a common claim we heard, both from ArenaNet and from idyllic fans, while the game was in development. While much of what the game did wasn't brand new in the MMO space, the way it was all implemented and brought together made it so that I now have trouble playing a game that doesn't implement those systems.

Destiny: On Track for September 9th Posted: 21 Apr 2014 12:21 PM PDT In this era of often disappointing delays in the games we're dying to play, Bungie has posted a heartening developer diary that indicates that the development of Destiny is "on track" for the announced September 9th release date. In fact, it is said to be "hurtling" to the date at epic speed.

City of Steam: New Servers Incoming Posted: 21 Apr 2014 12:15 PM PDT In what is surely a good sign for City of Steam: Arkadia, the team has announced that a new US server will be added and that the first EU server will be opening soon. EU players who have been gaming on the US server will be allowed to transfer all characters and currency to the new EU server when it goes live.

General: Age of Ascent: Tactical Map Detailed Posted: 21 Apr 2014 12:10 PM PDT The Age of Ascent site has been updated with a new developer diary and video diary to lay out the details on the tactical map that the game will feature.

General: Perfect World Scoops Up 30M Shares of Shanda Games Posted: 21 Apr 2014 12:05 PM PDT Shanda Games and Perfect World Entertainment have entered into a share purchase agreement that allows PWE to purchase over 30M in "class A ordinary shares". The purchase price for the 30M shares is $100M USD.

Star Citizen: Say Hello to Arena Commander Posted: 20 Apr 2014 12:30 PM PDT At PAX East we got to see the dogfight module from Star Citizen, now officially titled "Arena Commander". Robert's Space Industries was kind enough to invite us to the premiere party. At $42 million and still growing, Chris Roberts has made crowdfunding history. Finally, after months of waiting, we got to see some real results from all that money.

World of Warcraft: New Models and Adventures Posted: 20 Apr 2014 12:16 PM PDT This week in the WoW Factor we look at two new player character models and get our first look at Curse of Naxxramas: A Hearthstone Adventure!

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