9
Jan

MMOGaming News

MMOGaming News

Age of Wulin - NA, EU, SEA Servers Explained

Posted:

Age of Wulin - NA, EU, SEA Servers Explained


This is just to clear up the confusion some people may have with the three different English servers for Age of Wulin, the martial arts game that so many people are looking forward to in 2012.

Should We Take SWTOR's Torture and Slavery Content Seriously?

Posted:

Should We Take SWTOR's Torture and Slavery Content Seriously?


In BioWare's new mmorpg Star Wars: The Old Republic, you can torture and enslave your companion Vette if you play the Dark side.

Diablo 3 Release Date Leaked by Best Buy?

Posted:

Diablo 3 Release Date Leaked by Best Buy?


Right on the heels of Blizzard's celebrating of the 15th anniversary of the Diablo series, Blizzard's Jay Wilson said the dev has "almost done" with the eagerly-anticipated Diablo 3. According to Best Buy, America's big box electronics retailer, the "almost done" means Diablo 3 will hit shelves on February 1st.

WoW Patch 4.3.2: 64-bit PTR client is available

Posted:

WoW Patch 4.3.2: 64-bit PTR client is available


A 64-bit client is now available for use with the 4.3.2 PTR. You can download it at the link below, unzip it into your PTR directory, and then run the executable to test it.

Hunt or be Hunted, Dominus Reveals Bounty Hunting System

Posted:

Hunt or be Hunted, Dominus Reveals Bounty Hunting System


Have you ever thought of hiring someone for wetwork or simply to teach someone a lesson (of course I mean in MMOs)?

WoW PTR Patch 4.3.2 Notes

Posted:

WoW PTR Patch 4.3.2 Notes


The first World of Warcraft: Cataclysm patch of the year is in development and now available for testing on the Public Test Realms.

Continue reading WoW PTR Patch 4.3.2 Notes.

WoW 4.3: Darkmoon Faire Known Issues

Posted:

WoW 4.3: Darkmoon Faire Known Issues


We've identified a number of issues with the Darkmoon Faire this month, and they should be resolved for the February faire. Specifically, we found problems with

Snail Games Unveils Background Story for Its Steampunk Title Black Glod

Posted:

Snail Games Unveils Background Story for Its Steampunk Title Black Glod


Snail Game, the developer behind the highly anticipated martial arts MMO Age of Wulin, joined hands with Russian developer Mental Games on a steampunk MMORPG Black Gold recently. The first gameplay video was unveiled last Friday. Today, we will take a first look at the background story of this steampunk world.

WoW Patch 4.3.2: Cross-Realm Raids

Posted:

WoW Patch 4.3.2: Cross-Realm Raids


Blizzard previously introduced the ability to form cross-realm parties with Real ID friends, and now with Patch 4.3.2, Blizzard is adding the ability for players to use that same functionality to form raids to run older normal or heroic raids, or participate in Battlegrounds!

Undead Labs Zombie MMO First In-game Footage Revealed

Posted:

Undead Labs Zombie MMO First In-game Footage Revealed


The latest blog update posted by Undead Labs shows off some some early-alpha Class3 gameplay goodness.

Awesome Battlefield 3 Helicopter Gameplay

Posted:

Awesome Battlefield 3 Helicopter Gameplay


This multiplayer gameplay video features Battlefield 3 PC action on one of the game's multiplayer maps known as Kharg Island. Within this video you can see a POV of both Gunner and Pilot while driving Viper helicopter ( US Chopper ).
Posted by Shri Krishna
8
Jan

General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Acer Claims Aspire S5 Ultrabook is World's Thinnest, Has Thunderbolt to Boot

Posted: 08 Jan 2012 06:27 PM PST

Acer might be splitting hairs over a few millimeters here, but the company claims its new Aspire S5 Ultrabook is the thinnest the world has ever seen. The S5 is a 13.3-inch hunk of notebook that measures a scant 15mm at its thickest point and weighs less than 3 pounds. It has a magnesium-aluminum alloy cover and palmrest with a brushed metallic motif. Acer put considerable thought into the S5's appearance, molding it with "clean and ultra-fluid contours" that can be seen from all angles.

Aesthetics aside, the Aspire S5 packs an Intel Core i processor inside, SSD storage, professionally tuned Dobly Home Theater v4, long battery life via the PowerSmart battery pack (with a 3x longer life cycle that's able to hold up to 80 percent of its original capacity after as many as 1,000 recharges, according to Acer), and a trio of high performance ports hidden behind a "MagicFlip" I/O port panel. These include an HDMI-out port, USB 3.0, and a 20Gbps Thunderbolt port, which finally makes an appearance on a Windows-based PC.

"The Ultrabook is much more than just a product segment," said Jim Wong, president of Acer Inc. "It's a new trend that will become the mainstream for mobile PCs, and customers will see the unique features gradually extended across Acer's notebook family."

Acer's S5 also includes a couple of quick-use technologies, including Acer Green Instant On (instant-resume functionality in 1.5 seconds), and Acer Always Connect, which continuously fetches Facebook, Twitter, and Outlook email updates when accounts are left open so users can see updates instantly upon resuming.

The Aspire S5 will start shipping in the second quarter of 2012 for an as-yet unannounced price. In the meantime, check out our photo gallery below.

Image Credit: Acer

Lenovo Launches New Lineup of IdeaPad Laptops and Desktops

Posted: 08 Jan 2012 04:06 PM PST

It's a new year and Lenovo is wasting no time making the most of it. Like so many others, Lenovo's using CES as a springboard to launch several new and refreshed products, and on tap for 2012 are new laptops in the IdeaPad U Series, Y Series, S Series, and Z Series, plus new K Series desktops and space-saving B Series all-in-one (AIO) PCs.

"Our new lineup of consumer laptops and desktops for 2012 reflects our commitment to deliver bold products that set the standard for innovation and style in consumer technology," said Peter Hortensius, senior vice president, Product Group, Lenovo. "But as technically innovative as these products are, we are more than ever focused on fun. With improved sound and entertainment capabilities on the inside and unexpected candy-colors on the outside, we believe that these new consumer devices will help deliver the complete computing experience that individual customers are seeking."

Lenovo's new lineup includes two new Ultrabook models, the U310 (13.3-inch) and U410 (14-inch). Both are built around Intel's second generation Core processor family and include up to 4GB of DDR3-1600 memory, up to 500GB (U310) or 1TB (U410) of HDD storage, 720p HD webcam, 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, GbE LAN, USB 3.0 and 2.0 ports, HDMI, 2-in-1 media card reader, and other technological knickknacks. These will be available in May starting at $699.

The OEM also announced a pair of so-called "mini laptops" -- S200 and S206 -- that for whatever reason it's refusing to call netbooks, though it's clear that's what they are. The S200 sports an Intel Atom N2800 processor, 11.6-inch screen, up to 2GB of DDR3 memory, up to 500GB of hard drive storage (32GB SSD optional), 0.3MP webcam, and Windows 7 Home Premium. The S206 is essentially the same machine in AMD trim (AMD C60 dual-core processor). These will be available in June starting at $349.

Moving down the list, Lenovo introduced a pair of Y Series laptops (14-inch Y480 and 15-inch Y580 available in April starting at $899) featuring Intel Core processors and up to Nvidia GeForce GTX660M graphics with 2GB of GDDR5 memory, along with three Z Series notebooks (13.3-inch Z380, 14-inch Z480, and 15.6-inch Z580 available in April starting at $599) in a variety of color options, such as Amber Orange, Apple Green, Cherry Red, Coral Blue, Graphite Grey, and Peony Pink. Lenovo also rolled out three G Series notebooks (14-inch G480, 15.6-inch G580, and 17.3-inch G780 available in June starting at $399) with Veriface facial recognition technology and durable build quality.

Rounding out the product announcements (of which there are many) are:

  • Two B Series AIO desktops, B340 (21.5-inch display) and B540 (23-inch display). These sport frameless screens, Intel Core processors, up to Nvidia GT 650M graphics, and plenty of touch options. Availability begins in June starting from $699.
  • IdeaCentre K480 tower desktop with up to 32GB of DDR3 memory, Nvidia SLI and AMD CrossFireX support, RAID 0 configurations, up to 4TB of hard drive space, and Intel Core processor options. Availability is in May starting at $599.
  • H520s slim desktop that's half the size of a standard desktop PC. It supports Intel Core processor, up to 8GB of DDR3 memory, up to AMD Radeon HD 7570 or Nvidia GeForce GTX 630 graphics, up to 2TB of storage, and Windows 7. This will be available in June starting at $499.

Image Credit: Lenovo

Hate Apple’s iCloud? Hop on Acer’s Instead

Posted: 08 Jan 2012 03:41 PM PST

acer cloudIf imitation is the highest form of flattery, than Acer has a serious case of Apple envy. At the company's pre-CES conference in Las Vegas, Acer introduced a brand new Ultrabook tablet powered by a new set of cloud services that seem more than a little familiar. AcerCloud, not to be confused with iCloud offers photo, document, and media sharing between your PC or other Android devices.

Of course you might say cloud services weren't invented by Apple, however the similarities on the functionality and naming front make this "me to" offering more than a bit obvious. Photo sharing comes courtesy of "PicStream" (not "Photo Stream"), which automatically uploads your most recent photos for sync on other devices, and retains them for a period of 30 days. AcerCloud Doc's like iCloud offers document sync, and the icing on the cake is the new "clear.fi" media app that lets you upload your music files to the cloud for streaming later. 

It's great to see more choices, but would it have killed them to be a bit more subtle about the whole thing?

(Image Source = BI)

Microsoft Brings back Drive Extender Features with Raid Style Performance in Windows 8

Posted: 08 Jan 2012 12:51 PM PST

Storage PoolWhen Microsoft announced that drive extender was being stripped out of the final version of its new Windows Home Server line, the full wrath of the Internet literally fell upon them. The comments on the on the announcement were less than kind, and even though they had a workaround of sorts to keep your data duplicated, nothing really matched the allure of a single protected pool of storage. 

For those unfamiliar with it the concept, drive extender is fairly simple to understand. Take any number of disks, add them to a storage pool, and files copied to it can optionally be duplicated across multiple disks to safe guard against individual failure and are presented as one large volume to the user. Fast forward to 2012 and they are ready to make amends by bringing the feature back, however this time they are going to reach a much wider audience by packing it in with Windows 8.

From a feature perspective Windows 8's "storage spaces" operate in much the same way storage pools did in older versions of Home Server, however Microsoft has clarified that the technology behind it is very different and not backwards compatible. Users can continue to manage disks independently of course, but if they choose to use storage spaces an unlimited number of disks can be added using any combination of USB, serial ATA or SCSI. Users will also need to pick either "mirrored" or "parity" for the entire pool, though both offer file redundancy. Parity is described as superior choice for large sequential files or less frequently-accessed content since it has higher random I/O overhead. 

Of course storage is one thing, but this is Maximum PC, what about performance vs. Raid? Well, according to Microsoft storage spaces also makes use of data stripping giving it performance characteristics similar to raid 0 or raid 10. You no doubt still have questions, but rather than try to address them all here head on over to the Windows 8 blog and check out the FAQ. If you can't find the answer there, we probably don't know either.

storage
Posted by Shri Krishna

MMO News

MMO News

MMOHut Weekly Recap #68 Jan 8 – Mabinogi, Wakfu, & More

Posted: 08 Jan 2012 11:35 AM PST

MMO Weekly News #68 -Mabinogi, Wakfu, & More

Weekly MMO News summary for the week ended January 8 (Jan 1 – Jan 8). A quick look and discussion for every major announcement and update during the week! This week we discussed updates from the following games: Mabinogi, Fiesta Online, Star Trek Online, Aeria Games / ijji acquisition, World of Tanks, Age of Wushu, Repulse, Bright Shadow, Dragona and Wakfu. The biggest news this week is the open beta launch of the highly anticipated Wakfu MMORPG from Ankama, the same studio behind Dofus. Another big piece of news was Aeria Games buying the ijji portal from NHN. This will give Aeria Games control of the ijji Reactor service and all of ijji’s titles. I suspect the two portals (Aeria Games and ijji) will still be run fairly independently though. You can view all the individual news articles mention over at the MMOHut.com News section.
Posted by Shri Krishna

MMO Updates

MMO Updates

Undead Labs' Jeff Strain takes players behind-the-scenes of Class3

Posted: 08 Jan 2012 09:00 AM PST

Filed under: Horror, Video, Previews, News items, Consoles, Post-Apocalyptic, Miscellaneous, Sandbox

Zombie Apocalypse Survival 101: Don't set off car alarms
If you're as big of a zombie fan as we are, we're sure you're anxiously awaiting Undead Labs' Class3 project as well as its massively multiplayer counterpart, Class4. The studio's founder, Jeff Strain, stopped by the official Undead Labs site today to post the first dev blog entry of 2012, and in celebration of the new year, he's offering fans a behind-the-scenes glimpse at Class3 in action.

Strain notes that the team is "not quite ready to post official trailers" of Class3 at this juncture, but that didn't stop him from prowling the offices with his iPhone in order to catch some footage of the in-development title. The spy-cam footage gives players a look at various facets of the game's development, including. but not necessarily limited to, zombies (duh), a guy running alongside a giant rolling buzzsaw blade, concept art, the studio's wall-o'-fan-love, and two players defending their encampment from a zombie siege. Strain closes on a high note, stating that "Class3 is on-schedule and looking great. We're excited to show it to you and the rest of the world officially." For the full, zed-tastic video, just click on past the cut.

Continue reading Undead Labs' Jeff Strain takes players behind-the-scenes of Class3

MassivelyUndead Labs' Jeff Strain takes players behind-the-scenes of Class3 originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 08 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

Global Chat: January 1-7, 2012

Posted: 08 Jan 2012 07:00 AM PST

Filed under: Opinion, Massively Meta, Global Chat, Miscellaneous

Livestreaming!
We love hearing what the Massively community has to say. What better way to salute the smartest reader opinions and posts than by sharing them in a weekly column? Join us every Sunday morning for Global Chat, where we do just that!

This week we've got a poke at the lighter side of game bugs, some thoughts on development costs and how they affect us in the end, and some compliments (we always love those). Ready to see what they are? Click past the cut and let's get started!

Continue reading Global Chat: January 1-7, 2012

MassivelyGlobal Chat: January 1-7, 2012 originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 08 Jan 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | Email this | Comments

    The Daily Grind: What would you pay for a fancy ride?

    Posted: 08 Jan 2012 05:00 AM PST

    Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Daily Grind, Miscellaneous

    My carpet brings all the girls to the yard. Darn right it's better than yours.
    World of Warcraft set the bar at $25 for a shiny horse. EverQuest II followed suit. You can imitate Marty McFly or Aladdin in City of Heroes for about $7.50. And for various amounts of cash in Star Trek Online, you can pimp out your spaceship with all sorts of shiny new nacelles -- or you can ride in a ship with some famous modifications. It's certainly cheaper than a sports car in the real world, but it's still part of a trend of real-world cash buying you a new vehicle. (Or carpet.)

    So the question should be obvious -- what would you pay for a fancy in-game ride? Are you willing to drop sparklepony money? Would you not pay more than a dollar for something that doesn't have any functional benefit over other in-game options? Or would you drop even more money on something sufficiently shiny, perhaps a horse-car that could be seen from orbit?

    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!

    MassivelyThe Daily Grind: What would you pay for a fancy ride? originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 08 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

    Permalink | Email this | Comments

      The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XI classes, round 3

      Posted: 07 Jan 2012 03:00 PM PST

      Filed under: Fantasy, Final Fantasy XI, Classes, Game mechanics, Lore, Opinion, Consoles, The Mog Log

      The Mog Log header by A. Fienemann
      There's a certain brilliance to the fact that the first six classes in Final Fantasy XI mirror your selections back in the first Final Fantasy game. Once you hit 30, you can start transferring into the more iconic and frequently bonus-laden advanced jobs, but your initial selection is meant to call back to the start of the game. Those are the classes that I've already covered in this column, first with a column on the three physical classes, then the three caster classes. But that's barely the tip of the iceberg.

      The core game only offered six advanced choices: Paladin, Dark Knight, Ranger, Beastmaster, Bard, and Summoner. Today, I'm going to be taking a look at the somewhat more physical side of the group, using criteria established way back when I started talking about class design philosophy. Bear in mind that this isn't meant to discuss strict power levels; that's the sort of thing that gets fiddled with easily enough and frequently enough that a unique mechanical identity matters more than who's on top at any given week. On with the first batch of advanced jobs!

      Continue reading The Mog Log: Final Fantasy XI classes, round 3

      MassivelyThe Mog Log: Final Fantasy XI classes, round 3 originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 07 Jan 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

      Permalink | Email this | Comments

        The Tattered Notebook: The problem with leaderboards

        Posted: 07 Jan 2012 01:00 PM PST

        Filed under: Fantasy, EverQuest II, Opinion, Free-to-play, The Tattered Notebook, Dungeons

        EQII dungeon
        If there's one thing you can say about EverQuest II, it's that it has a community that's as varied as cogs in a Gnomish do-hickey. There's a substantial and long-time community of hardcore players, made up of people who must also be math majors because the number crunching that's involved is impressive. There's also a good-sized portion of the playerbase that prefers the non-combat features, like crafting, decorating, and more recently, dungeon designing. (Some players have made a fortune hiring themselves out to decorate others' homes, for example.) In a previous column, I talked about whether there will be a strain on the team to continue making quality content for the broad spectrum of players, but this week, I'd like to look at it from a different perspective.

        Two of EverQuest II's newest features, the housing leaderboards and the dungeon maker leaderboards, are both designed similarly, with rankings, a hall of fame, and a voting system for various categories. But the leaderboard listings for each system look very different, and while the housing directory tends to be a good representation of EQII players' creative genius, the dungeon maker boards haven't reflected that as much. Read on to see why, and to look at what, if anything, should be done about it.

        Continue reading The Tattered Notebook: The problem with leaderboards

        MassivelyThe Tattered Notebook: The problem with leaderboards originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

        Permalink | Email this | Comments

          Captain's Log: Will two cloud bursts cure a drought?

          Posted: 07 Jan 2012 11:00 AM PST

          Filed under: Sci-fi, Launches, PvP, Endgame, PvE, Opinion, Star Trek Online, Free-to-play, Captain's Log, Crafting

          USS Taranis NX Class
          After the most tumultuous year in Star Trek Online's history, we stand on the cusp of the game's second anniversary and full-blown evolution to free-to-play. Early F2P entrance for former subscribers was opened last Thursday. And now, unfortunately, loyal subscribers have been informed that the anticipated flood of new story-based content might more accurately be described as a trickle.

          In his most recent Dev Diary #11, STO's acting Executive Producer Stephen D'Angelo outlined his future hopes for the game in 2012. As players are wont to do, we read between the lines and noticed not what was contained in the blog but rather what was blatantly missing: a detailed outline of future playable content.

          Continue reading Captain's Log: Will two cloud bursts cure a drought?

          MassivelyCaptain's Log: Will two cloud bursts cure a drought? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 07 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

          Permalink | Email this | Comments
            Posted by Shri Krishna

            General gaming

            General gaming

            Diablo III Releasing on February 1, Says Best Buy

            Posted: 07 Jan 2012 08:39 PM PST

            Diablo III

            In typical Blizzard fashion, the company has given no solid indication of exactly when Diablo III will be coming out beyond "early 2012." According to Best Buy, the game's release is just a few weeks away.

            The image below was discovered on Twitter by Joystiq; it shows a Diablo III display from a Best Buy located in Rochester, Minnesota. If the poster is to be believed, the game will be out on February 1 in the United States, and Best Buy (or at least this one particular location) will be opening at midnight to sell the game.

            Posted by Shri Krishna

            MMOGaming News

            MMOGaming News

            Lee Reherman & Crystal Graziano Make Firefall Heroes Come to Real Life

            Posted:

            Lee Reherman & Crystal Graziano Make Firefall Heroes Come to Real Life


            Red 5 Studios™ announces it has cast Lee "Hawk" Reherman to take on the role of Firefall's hardened war hero, "Typhon", at future events. Red 5 is unveiling Lee, and Crystal Graziano - recently chosen to play "Mourningstar" - in their newly completed "battleframes" with a new trailer
            Posted by Shri Krishna
            Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)

            Total Pageviews

            1,627,298

            statcounter

            View My Stats