Global Agenda developers have announced that players will be able to fly in Dome City with the arrival of the next patch. The move is in celebration of the game's move to free-to-play. The latest update is scheduled to go live later today.
Outspark has announced that it is accepting closed beta applications for the latest MMO to be added to its stable of games, Luvinia Online. Luvinia Online is a fully featured MMO featuring orcs, dwarfs, gnomes and humans. The date for the closed beta has not been announced but the Outspark team promises more information about the game will be released over the next several weeks.
G4TV's Uncle Casey is at it again with his pithy commentary on this week's MMO news. In the latest version of the MMO Report, Casey talks Cryptic's sale to Perfect World, Age of Conan going free-mium and more. Check it out!
EA has announced that it has launched a new games download service called "Origin". Origin will feature all of EA's current titles and will prominently and exclusively feature the digital version of Star Wars: The Old Republic when it launches.
MMORPG.com Industry Relations Manager Garrett Fuller has a treat for fans of Star Wars: The Old Republic in the form of our exclusive interview with Principle Lead Combat Designer Georg Zoeller. Advanced Classes are the topic of the discussion and it's certainly one you will not want to miss! Keep reading!
MMOs based around some of culture's most enduring properties are less-rare than they used to be. Whether it's Lord of the Rings Online or LEGO Universe, MMOs based on our favorite iconic TV shows, comics, cartoons and movies are flourishing. But is this trend a good thing? Have those MMOs flourished? In today's Grinds My Gears, MMORPG.com Managing Editor Jon Wood takes a look at just that. Read on!
In today's Player Perspectives column, readers get a rare inside look at the MMOs that have shaped those perspectives for MMORPG.com columnist Isabelle Parsley. They've winked and snuggled and finally drawn her into their ever-lovin' arms. Read on to see which MMOs have captured Iz's attention and heart over the years and then let us know what you think!
MMORPG.com has been given closed beta keys for the latest MMO offering from Aeria Games - Eden Eternal. This anime-style MMORPG allows you explore exotic realms and boasts features such as player created towns and epic quests. Get your key now!
Iceberg Interactive has announced that it has inked a deal with Masthead Studios to distribute Earthrise worldwide. In addition, the price has been reduced to 29.99 Euros or about $43 USD and the upcoming "Territorial Warfare" expansion will be free to all players. Territorial Warfare is expected to be released later in June for both boxed and digital versions of the game.
There's a lot coming to RuneScape in June if the latest 'Behind the Scenes' newsletter is correct. Not only will a new and imposing sea monster be unleashed on the world but players will also have new wearable buff auras. If that isn't enough, the team has a Troll invasion waiting in the wings to test players' skills in battle.
Jagex has announced that the upcoming Transformers Universe MMO currently in development will get its first outing at Botcon 2011 in Boston, Massachusetts from June 3-5. During the event, players will be able to design their own Transformer and meet the team behind the highly anticipated game.
British site, Electronic Theatre, has confirmed that Vindictus is scheduled to launch in Europe sometime during Quarter 4 2011. SungJin Kim, CEO of Nexon Europe apologized to EU fans for the game's delay but indicated that things are 'back on track' for a Q4 release.
Bigpoint has announced the debut of its newest site, The Mummy Online. The Mummy Online is based on the popular movie series and is considered an action-adventure MMOG. To celebrate the site's launch, Bigpoint has released a new trailer.
gPotato has announced that its "cinematic" MMORPG, Prius Online, has officially entered its open beta stage of development. Players are encouraged to log into the game beginning today to experience a level cap increase, a new playable race, the ability to take a second class for all races and much more.
The Hellgate closed beta will officially launch on June 3rd. According to devs, there are still closed beta keys available on several North American and European sites for access to the game from T3 Entertainment.
The Divine Souls site has been updated with new information and a trailer featuring the Priest class. The Priest has just been added to the game as a healing specialist.
Aeria Games has announced that the Eden Eternal closed beta has officially started. Eden Eternal features anime-style graphics with core MMORPG elements. Closed beta applications are still being accepted.
It isn't often that Funcom's Ragnar Tørnquist can be cornered for a long and 'meaty' chat about The Secret World but MMORPG.com Lead Writer Bill Murphy managed to do just that. The pair discussed topics as wide ranging as "Everything Is True" campaign to PvP in The Secret World. Check out our exclusive Ragnar Tørnquist interview and then let us know what you think!
There seems to be a new battle emerging in today's MMOs. In the inimitable words of MMORPG.com Lead Writer Bill Murphy in today's column, the battle rages between "well-groomed but less innovative products" and "smaller companies pushing the envelope in the MMO world". See what Bill has to say about the issue and then leave us your thoughts.
(Source) Back in March, Jagex and Hasbro announced that they had joined forces to create a Transformers MMO. Today, they revealed the game's name: Transformers Universe. Players can how head over to the Transformers Universe site to register for the newsletter to receive more information about the upcoming browser-based game. The site is sparse at this point, but the image hints that players will be able to choose between joining the Autobots and Decepticons in 2012.
Jagex will be unveiling more Transformers Universe details at BotCon this weekend. Fans who attend the official Transformers convention will get to meet members of the development team and watch exclusive video footage of how a character is developed in-game. They will also get to create their own character from in-game assets. According to the press release, "The ability to design and customize your own Transformers character will be a key feature in the game."
Penny Arcade began as a comic but has expanded into many different areas -- there are the videogames, the charity, the merchandise, and the conventions. You can now add "the film" to that list.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Paramount is producing an animated movie based on Penny Arcade's "The New Kid" comic strip. The comic was published this past October and focuses on a young boy who is constantly switching schools because his father's job takes him to different planets.
Gary Whitta, the former editor-in-chief of PC Gamer magazine and writer of The Book of Eli and a number of games (including Gears of War), will write the movie's script.
With an NGP, you'll be able to play every PlayStation Portable game ever released on the PlayStation Network through software emulation. That's nice for anyone who owns any PSP games on PSN as well as those who may have never owned a PSP. Better yet, you'll also find the NGP offers a superior experience for playing PSP games.
A Sony embargo ended earlier today, opening the flood gates on a great deal of NGP-related info. (Check out 1UP's rundown for details on some of the early games from first-party developers.) Among the most tantalizing bits is the system's ability to smooth and upscale the graphics of PSP games. This can be turned off if you don't happen to like the job it's doing or want to see the game as it originally looked.
Even better than that is added support for the NGP's second analog stick -- third-person shooter Resistance Retribution was shown to the press demonstrating this. Sony Bend originally got around the solo analog stick problem by offering a lock-on system and sticking camera controls on the face buttons. When played on NGP, the right analog stick takes care of the camera, a much more ideal solution than what was possible on PSP.
Electronic Arts plans to launch a new online service through which it will both sell digital games and offer a greater level of connectivity between its titles.
EA is calling Origin, as it's known, a cornerstone of its business. Officially launching tomorrow, the Wall Street Journal has some early details on what it's all about. The image above makes it simply look like a renamed EA Store, which already sells digital titles through EA's website. It's apparently much more than that, with the WSJ saying it will have an iTunes-like application that allows users to download PC games, of which there will be 150 available at launch.
It'll be home to a variety of social networking features, though none of them sound particularly unique. You'll be able to send messages to friends "on a variety of devices," which were not specified; set up a profile to track your progress in EA games; and befriend other users on the service. There will also be a way to "brag" to friends in a way that's compared to FarmVille's old notification system on Facebook. Users won't be required to buy games through Origin in order to actually take advantage of any of this -- a smart move if EA is serious about getting users to begin using Origin's social components.
We've seen and manhandled the Sony NGP before, but we didn't see much in the way of actual games at the time. With E3 around the corner, Sony CEA recently hosted an event for media to check out the first-party lineup for the system. Some of these games are targeted for launch, while others have a more nebulous date. We'll probably see some more titles, from both SCEA and third-party developers at E3 next week, but for now, here's our rundown (with help from our colleagues at IGN) and quick impressions of the NGP lineup to date (contrast that with our own imaginary lineup of what we wanted yesterday):
Imagine the PS3 version of this pool table simulator, but now in portable form. That, and you can use the touch pad (either front or back) to pull back the cue and release. What's probably the most interesting feature is asynchronous play, where you and your NGP-owning can take turns on your own time. As noted by our colleagues at IGN, Hustle Kings lets you take a shot, and then your buddy gets a push notification on his or her NGP indicating that you've taken your turn. Then s/he goes, and you get a little notification (we're assuming this works best with the 3G-enabled NGP), and so on.
Besides that, Hustle Kings also supports NGP and PS3 versions playing together -- in case both of you are in the same place, and one player wants to sit on the couch with a DualShock3 and the other wants to sit on that same couch with an NGP. We're hoping that the push-notification/asynchronous multiplayer makes its way to other NGP titles.
When a system boasts multiple hardware features like a gyroscope, multitouch pad, cameras, and the like, then you should expect at least one launch game to be little more than a tech demo for said features. Little Deviants seems to be the closest to said title, as it's a collection of 30 minigames -- each featuring one-to-three uses of the NGP's hardware features.
We've previously touched upon how one of the minigames involves manipulating terrain via the back touchscreen, and played a few more in that vein. There's a version of Whack-A-Mole that uses both the front and back touchscreen -- you simply need to tap the face of the critter you're smacking, and some of them face away from you. Or one where you're falling down a crazy cavern (think Mega Man), and use the sixaxis to tilt the level around your falling deviant. The most complicated minigame involved an Augmented-Reality shooter, where you move the system around to find critters to blast at on-screen (similar to Face Raiders for the Nintendo 3DS) -- with the added element of using the touchscreen to wipe goop away from your viewscreen. We'll see if any of the games become more than gimmicks as we get closer to launch.
Our first impression of this little fighting game is "Photo Dojo HD." While that DSi game converts players into little sprites for a simple and free/low-cost fighting game, Reality Fighter uses Augmented Reality to generate characters and backdrops for your bouts. After capturing your face, you can then outfit your character with goofy accessories before choosing a fighting style.
Like Photo Dojo, the actual gameplay is pretty straightforward: hit buttons until someone else falls. The producer on-hand that was demoing the title remarked that the team aims to have about as much depth to the fighting mechanics as Street Fighter, but that wasn't evident in our short playsession. The use of Augmented Reality stood out most -- when it worked. Having fighters on a glass table seemed to confuse the game a bit, as it had a hard time figuring out the difference between table and ground, and the characters would bounce around as a result. Somewhat like Little Deviants, this seemed to be more tech gimmick showcase rather than actual game.
A new Contra game was teased at Konami's pre-E3 event today. However, virtually nothing is known about it at this point -- except that we have heard that Konami aims to do with Contra what they did with Castlevania last year in Lords of Shadow (in other words, make it a full-on, big budget 3D game).
The reveal came at the end of the show -- a trailer with flames shot around a black background for a few seconds before they came together to form the Contra "C."
Alongside the Metal Gear Solid and Zone of the Enders HD Collections announced during Konami's pre-E3 show today was word that two Silent Hill games will also be getting the HD treatment.
Strangely, as was the case with MGS, the first game won't be included -- the Silent Hill HD Collection will include only Silent Hill 2 and 3 (pictured above). Both games will be released in HD, although which systems they'll be available on wasn't mentioned, nor was a release date. Like the other two collections, the safe bet seems to be that it'll come to Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, but we'll have to wait for official word from Konami on that.
Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima recently said on Twitter that he would not be attending E3 this year. Instead, he sat down for a video interview with former 1UP editor and current 8-4 employee Mark MacDonald for a chat. That video was released today as a part of Konami's pre-E3 event today.
The subject of Metal Gear Solid: Rising was covered briefly. There won't be any big announcements regarding it at E3 this year and it's still on track for release in 2012. The game has had a prominent showing for the past two years at E3.
After years of fans clamoring for a new game, Konami today announced that it would be bringing the first two Zone of the Enders titles to both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 with Zone of the Enders HD Collection.
The title was announced at Konami's pre-E3 show today. It will be in 1080p and, in order to fit the new resolution, the games' 2D assets are being redone. And, of course, the requisite addition of Achievements and Trophies will be included in either version of the collection.
One other noteworthy new feature is it being "transfarring enabled." Transfarring is Kojima Production's new PS3/PSP save game connectivity feature which will also be seen in the Metal Gear HD Collection. We're unsure about the exact details of what this entails; it's possibly PSP- or NGP-related.
Konami and Kojima productions are bringing Metal Gear Solid 2, 3, and Peace Walker to the PS3 and 360 in an all new compilation titled, Metal Gear Solid HD Collection. All three games will be playable in 1080p, many of the 2D assets in the game are also being reworked to match the new resolution. Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker will be the first game to feature PS3/PSP save game interoperability, a feature that Kojima calls "Transfarring." Once a player transfers a save to their PSP or PS3, the save is locked in order to prevent accidentally overwriting progress or version conflicts -- so you'll only be able to play on one device at a time. If you want to change devices you have to hook your PSP to your PS3 again and transfer your save.
360 owners won't be able to take advantage of "Transfarring," but they'll still get all three games in HD, along with the improvements and achievements present in the PS3 version. Peace Walker's controls will be redone in order to take advantage of the dual-stick configuration on both systems. The multiplayer options in Metal Gear Solid 3 or Peace Walker were not discussed in the show.
The collection is set for release on both platforms this November.
Almost like clockwork, another attack on Sony has taken place. Following up on its threat from late last month, hacker group LulzSec has once again hacked Sony, and this time the damage could be more serious than its previous attack on Sony BMG. In a press release, the group claims it broke into SonyPictures.com and, among other things, compromised the personal data of more than one million users', including home addresses, e-mail addresses, passwords, and more.
The group has not taken responsibility for the attack on the PlayStation Network in April. The exact target of its recent threat was unclear, although it has since stated on its Twitter account several times that it wasn't going after gaming services. The group recently made headlines by hacking PBS and posting a spurious story about rapper Tupac Shakur being found alive.
LulzSec says it did not steal all of the personal information hosted on Sony Pictures' website due to a lack of resources. Regardless, that's not a very reassuring statement, and it's incredibly alarming that Sony continues to be targeted by hackers with repeated success. In this case, a SQL injection -- a very simple type of attack -- was successfully used to gain access to "everything." Worse yet, users' passwords were allegedly stored in plaintext, meaning they were not encrypted as one would expect them to be.
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Electronic Arts Inc., one of the world's biggest makers of videogames, is pushing strongly onwards with its initiative to embrace digital by launching 'Origin'. BioWare's upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic will be sold though the the service.
It seems that PWE will catch a lot of eyes in the upcoming E3 2011. The fast expanding MMO publisher had announced Rusty Hearts and RaiderZ for E3 before, and they just unveiled another one, Blacklight Retribution.
Nexon is heading to the year's most significant video game industry event, the E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo), with an arsenal of exciting new content, spectacle and surprises for both Dragon Nest and Vindictus to showcase to the hordes of attending media and players.
Nexon Europe announced live from Gamescom in Cologne, Germany that Vindictus is the newest title to be added to the catalogue of free-to-play games published by Nexon in the European market. Lately, Nexon Europe announced that Vindictus is now confirmed for release in quarter four of 2011.
In you haven't heard, Ra's Al Ghul, a nemesis of the Caped Crusader, has dug his talons into DC Universe Online, and it's up to you to stop him from killing millions of innocent people by joining other heroes in this 4-man alert and defeat Ra's and his lethal minions deep in his mountain stronghold. Jens Andersen, the creative director for DCUO, shares the latest visuals in a walkthrough video released and presents a guided tour of the inner sanctum of Ra's al Ghul's League of Assassins. Each member of the league has his or her own mystic power you must overcome before you face off against Ra's al Ghul himself. This 4-man alert is just part of the new additions to DC Universe Online in Update 3.
The Big Day has arrived! Eden Eternal has finally opened its Closed Beta servers to masses of eager players. Want in? You must obtain a highly coveted closed beta key! Check out our Redemption Page for where you can get your key.
The Closed Beta for T3 Entertainment's highly anticipated MMO Hellgate launches tomorrow in Europe and North America, running from June 3rd, 7:30 PM (EDT) to June 5th, 7:30 PM (EDT). Beta Key holders will have the exclusive opportunity to preview this free-to-play game and submit valuable feedback as it prepares for launch, experiencing first-hand its pulse-pounding fusion of action and role-playing.
Bloody fight and real hot minion, this is the scene that Blood Rites try to push to you. Today developer brings out nice picture of elf together with the hint on how to possess your own perfect lady.
Eden Eternal provides you 15 classes from warrior to healer, but that's not what Aeria Games really wants to give you. The game won't restrict your characters' classes, on the contrary, it allows you to switch between different classes, and all you need to do is to unlock as many classes as you can.
Closed Beta is just around the corner! June 2nd, in fact! What better way to come back from BBQing with your family for Memorial Day than to immerse yourself into an epic MMORPG?
Nexon's subsidiary Neople, the developer of Dungeon Fighter Online, has recently announced that its newest 3D action MMORPG Cyphers that has been developed for 5 years is set to kick off the OBT on June 7th.
Japan-based Gamepot has recently revealed some latest information about its new MMORPG Wizardry Online, including the first dungeon maze, and the special AC defense system. Let's dive into it.
Official Annnouncement is out. Lv50 cap, along with other new updates such as farm system, new crafting system, horse racing and new disassembling systemwill be up dated at 9th of June 2011.
Character creation is getting better and better and players have now come to expect more and more options from each new game. And with so many devs delivering on that I was wondering how far char creation could and should go.
I havent played so much MMO's but liked WoKF and forgot it since it god boring for me. Now want to play Bounty Hounders Online :D Because i like their games, like The-West (still play and like this game.