| The Secret World unleashing Guardians of Gaia anniversary event July 3rd Posted: 01 Jul 2013 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Horror, Real-Life, Events (In-Game), Patches, News Items, The Secret World, Promotions, Dev Diaries, Buy-to-Play Tomorrow marks the one year anniversary of the horror- and conspiracy-laced The Secret World, and Funcom is hosting a week-long bash to celebrate the milestone. Joel Bylos introduced this latest event in his June Game Director's letter: Dubbed Guardians of Gaia, the event involves the awakening of massive guardians formed of the primal elements and meant as another line of defense against the Filth. Just like in the End of Days event, players will have to band together to rein in these guardians. The luckiest of players will come away from the fight with a Guardian of their very own. But that's not all. With free gifts for all players, a 30% discount on almost everything in the store, and daily bonuses (either double XP, double AP, or double SP) all week, it's a good time for players to jump into the game. As an added bonus, anyone who has ever played any Funcom title -- whether currently active or not -- will be able to log in and play TSW for free for the duration of this event, no purchase required. The Guardians of Gaia will end when Issue #7 A Dream to Kill releases July 8th. Need a fix before then? Check out the update's comic after the break, and look for Massively's tribute to the game's first year in a special Tuesday edition of Chaos Theory tomorrow. Continue reading The Secret World unleashing Guardians of Gaia anniversary event July 3rd  The Secret World unleashing Guardians of Gaia anniversary event July 3rd originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 01 Jul 2013 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments |
| Player review offers in-depth look at ArcheAge Posted: 01 Jul 2013 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Betas, Fantasy, Game Mechanics, New Titles, News Items, ArcheAge, Sandbox What's the next best thing to getting your hands on ArcheAge and checking everything out for yourself? Getting ahold of someone who is in playing the game and picking his or her brains about the experience! Well thanks to the efforts of a current player and community member who compiled a fairly hefty review, you can do just that. Although a self-professed non-expert, KeksX's review covers the gamut of systems, from ships and vehicles to housing to PvP to the economy to the UI... and the list goes on. KeksX also offers plenty of screenshots to demonstrate the visuals of the world, including the one seen above, as well as videos. In another post, the same reviewer offers a translation of the comparisons between the Japanese and the Korean versions of ArcheAge, noting that the Japanese version made quite a few modifications. If you've got a hankering for more details about this upcoming sandbox and a good chunk of time, settle in and check these posts out. [Thanks to Dengar for the tips!] Player review offers in-depth look at ArcheAge originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 01 Jul 2013 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments |
| Jagex 'scales back' Transformers Universe team with layoffs Posted: 01 Jul 2013 08:05 AM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, MMO Industry, News Items, Free-to-Play, Browser, Transformers Universe The development history of Transformers Universe has not been a smooth one, with the game going silent for long stretches of time and having changed focus once already. The latest news from the studio is not good, either; Jagex has laid off 13 employees from the game's development team. The reports indicate that there are internal concerns being raised about the title's overall quality, as the studio is under pressure from Hasbro to release before the end of the year. According to the developer, the game is in no danger and is progressing marvelously, but sources within the company claim that its position is "precarious," citing the switch to unfamiliar technology and the need for faster development. Jagex stressed that the changes in staff should not adversely impact the title, which was originally tracked for a release back in 2012. Our best wishes go out to those designers personally affected by these layoffs. Jagex 'scales back' Transformers Universe team with layoffs originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 01 Jul 2013 10:05:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments |
| Base jump into The Secret World's Issue #7 on July 8th Posted: 01 Jul 2013 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: Horror, Real-Life, Patches, News Items, The Secret World, Buy-to-Play Strap on your 'chutes folks: The Secret World is letting you jump into Issue #7 A Dream to Kill next week! Funcom has announced that this next DLC -- with its mountable snowmobiles, base jumping, flamethrower, and more -- will be released on July 8th. Can't wait? You can get a sneak peek of what's to come in the teaser trailer after the break. Players have been enjoying all the tweaks and bug fixes of Issue #7 since June 26th, but the new content was not included in that patch. Once deployed to servers, the new missions and story arc will be played out mainly in Transylvania and culminate with the infiltration of Agartha by filth through the Tokyo entrance. The Agartha incident is, in turn, the beginning of a multi-patch event that will lead players all the way to the release of the Tokyo expansion. [Source: Funcom press release] Continue reading Base jump into The Secret World's Issue #7 on July 8th Base jump into The Secret World's Issue #7 on July 8th originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 01 Jul 2013 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments |
| The Stream Team: Freedom edition, July 1 - 7, 2013 Posted: 01 Jul 2013 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Massively Meta, Livestream, Miscellaneous, The Stream Team Freedom stream! Find the freedom stream. Come on, sing it with me! Wait, what do you mean you've never heard this one? It's one of the first pieces I ever sang in a choir way back in those grade-school years. OK, so maybe the song was really about a tree, and maybe even Google can't find that old arrangement... but none of that matters. The important thing is that we focus on what really does matter: celebrating freedom! Now, freedom from what you can choose for yourself -- maybe freedom from debt, freedom from tyranny (bosses included!), or freedom from dial-up! All freedoms are worth celebrating and honoring. In fact, you can revel in freedom from boredom with The Stream Team in this week's shows on Massively TV. Continue reading The Stream Team: Freedom edition, July 1 - 7, 2013 The Stream Team: Freedom edition, July 1 - 7, 2013 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 01 Jul 2013 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments |
| The Daily Grind: Does double XP give you altitis? Posted: 01 Jul 2013 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, MMO Industry, Opinion, Free-to-Play, The Daily Grind, Star Wars: The Old Republic My poor Gunslinger. He's been hovering around level 50 for weeks, and I planned on using last weekend's Star Wars: The Old Republic double XP event to finally get him moving toward Makeb. Alas, I opted to get a few more alts off the starter planets and past Coruscant instead. I did this because double XP in SWTOR really ought to be on all the time. See, the accelerated advancement is tuned almost perfectly if your aim is to level up doing nothing but your class story quests and a couple of flashpoint dungeons. There's no need to grind through all the repetitive filler in between the story missions, and so I wanted to get as many alts as possible off of the newbie planets so that I can get on with the business of finishing their story arcs. What about you, Massively readers? Do double experience events give you altitis, or do you normally stick with a main character?  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: Does double XP give you altitis? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 01 Jul 2013 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments |
| MMO Week in Review: Aion's turn in the spotlight Posted: 30 Jun 2013 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Massively Meta, Week in Review, Miscellaneous At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO or WoW Insider story last week, you've come to the right post. Aion is one of those big-budget free-to-play MMOs that enjoys wild popularity in Korea while flying under the radar in the West. But this week, after lengthy downtime involving " missing client files," the game's North American version received the colossal 4.0 update, which included new classes, a level cap hike, and new territory. Massively's MJ Guthrie scouted out the new content to bring us her first impressions, and our Jukebox Heroes column explored the game's brand-new soundtrack. Read on for a peek at the rest of this week's top MMO stories. Continue reading MMO Week in Review: Aion's turn in the spotlight MMO Week in Review: Aion's turn in the spotlight originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 30 Jun 2013 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments |
| EVE Evolved: A guide to roles in fleet PvP Posted: 30 Jun 2013 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, EVE Online, Classes, Game Mechanics, PvP, Opinion, Hands-On, EVE Evolved, Guides, Sandbox It seems as if every time the topic of PvP comes up in an EVE Online news post or article, a few people will chime in with stories of their horrible experiences with it. This seems almost baffling to me, as I would say EVE offers the best PvP experience in the entire MMO genre. It soon becomes apparent that we aren't playing the same game and that their experience is one of helpless newbies being ganked by evil blobs of bad guys. If that describes your first few days in the depths of space, you may well have missed out on some incredible fights. For me, PvP in EVE means fleet warfare; it's all about co-ordinated groups of players hunting around the map for other fleets they can probably defeat while avoiding all the larger fish that will swallow them whole. The players on PvP ops are always itching for action, but a good fleet commander will carefully weigh enemy fleets and be sure to engage only when he thinks he has the upper hand. Figuring out ways to fight above your weight or look weaker than you are play an important role in the PvP metagame, turning EVE into a kind of intergalactic game of poker played by fleet commanders using their pilots as betting chips. In this week's EVE Evolved, I look at all the different roles that make a successful fleet and what you'll need to fill that role. Continue reading EVE Evolved: A guide to roles in fleet PvP EVE Evolved: A guide to roles in fleet PvP originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 30 Jun 2013 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments |
| Total Recall Online trades publishers, launches in China Posted: 30 Jun 2013 02:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-Fi, Launches, MMO Industry, Browser We've followed the strange journey of Total Recall Online over the past few years. The IP was first obtained by SEE Virtual Worlds in 2011. The company announced that it was turning the franchise into a browser-based MMO in time for the movie remake. Well, this didn't happen, and at some point Total Recall Online changed hands to a new developer, UCJOY. UCJOY released it as a browser title in China, where it currently remains exclusive to the region. If you're curious, you can check out the old trailer for the game and think about the halcyon days of Johnny Cab and Kuato. [Thanks to Dengar for the tip!] Total Recall Online trades publishers, launches in China originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 30 Jun 2013 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments |
| Transformers Universe launch window narrowed to fall 2013 Posted: 30 Jun 2013 01:00 PM PDT Filed under: Betas, Sci-Fi, New Titles, News Items, Free-to-Play, Browser, Transformers Universe Love MMOs but disappointed your wizard or elf or whatever can't turn into a car or tank? If your answer is, "Yes, I am absolutely tired of my characters not turning into vehicles," Transformers Universe might be the game you've been waiting for. The browser-based title, developed by Jagex with a little help from Hasbro Gaming, is currently slated for release in 2013. And while we still have no official launch date, comments by the Hasbro brand team at this year's Botcon 2013 have narrowed the release window down just a touch, confirming that the game is due this fall. Jagex has kept the game mostly under lock and key, but you can catch a glimpse of it by registering for closed beta and hoping the key-gods show you favor. [Thanks to Max for the tip!] Transformers Universe launch window narrowed to fall 2013 originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 30 Jun 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments |
| Rise and Shiny: Farm Fortress Posted: 30 Jun 2013 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Screenshots, Video, Game Mechanics, New Titles, PvP, Opinion, War, Free-to-Play, Browser, Hands-On, Casual, Humor, Rise and Shiny, Livestream Farm Fortress is a pseudo-MMO or social game that concentrates on pitting players against waves of enemies and even other players by utilizing protective barriers, weapons, and traps that are paid for with cash stolen from enemies. It might sound a little strange at first. I didn't really even enjoy the game until the lightbulb went off and I started to really plan out my strategy for defending my farm fortress. Farming is one way to make money, but in my experience so far, the best way to get cash is to invite waves of monsters to attack your farm or to attack other players. Both activities can be surprisingly simple at first but quickly grow into a challenging job. But that's the fun of it! Over the week my farm grew into a pretty formidable fort, complete with turrets and indestructible walls. Continue reading Rise and Shiny: Farm Fortress Rise and Shiny: Farm Fortress originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 30 Jun 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Permalink | Email this | Comments |
Vista is now in Windows 8's rear view mirror
The world's first consumer 4K monitor
Boutique builder tries hands at selling peripherals
Smartphone sector isn't appealing to AMD right now
