Gamigo has announced to add a brand new class of elves to its free-to-play anime fantasy MMORPG Fiesta Online. The Crusader is supposed to be arriving this week. Having mysteriously disappeared from Isya long ago, Crusaders now return triumphantly as legendary fighters on floating ships, together with their fearless leader Tiros.These swift and agile masters of [...]
Jagex has just announced the global launch of the next seminal chapter of its MMO RuneScape 3, which is available in five languages and played in 190 countries around the world. “The simultaneous launch of RuneScape 3 around the world has been made possible by the hard work and dedication of our team over the last [...]
Webzen‘s adrenaline-pumping 3D Action RPG Continent of the Ninth Seal (C9) will receive a brand new class. Starting tomorrow, July 24, 2013 (Global Server Time), C9 players will be able to play as Demonisher, the newest advanced class for the Shaman. In order to celebrate this addition as well as the game’s first anniversary, the [...]
Maximum PC Editor Jimmy Thang talks about his experience walking the show floor as a zombie
I've been to many costume-friendly conventions like FanimeCon and Pax Prime, but have never cosplayed before. I don't have anything against dressing up, but I simply never felt compelled to do it. I was always the guy on the other end of the camera…until this past weekend.
Because our Comic Con booth was sponsored by Hyundai and the Walking Dead, we were fortunate enough to have a "zombification booth" where makeup artists would turn ordinary civilians into the undead. Considering the makeover was free and professionally done, I figured I would give it a go on the last day of the convention. …The results were far more shocking than I could have ever expected.
Zombie Jimmy
The amazing Liza Macawili Ramos was my makeup artist and spent time making me look as ugly and scary as possible – which was about 30 minutes...
As I sat in the makeup chair in front of our booth on the convention show floor, people would walk by and drop their jaws during the transformation process. Visitors began taking pictures of me as Liza began applying all manner of plaster and blood to my rotting face. Considering there were no mirrors, I had no idea how it was shaping up. I would ask onlookers, "Is it looking good?" And people would just stare at me with eyes wide open and nod their heads.
With the makeup process completed, Liza took a picture of me with her phone (the image seen above) and showed it to me. "Holy hell," I thought to myself. "This is amazing!"
I quickly ran to the restroom to get a look at it in the mirror and couldn't believe my eyes. It blew away my expectations.
Zombie selfie: Look at the gashes on my face and neck. No, LOOK AT THEM.
Now I knew it was time to roam the show floor.
Let the fun begin!
Everywhere I walked, people were either telling me there was something wrong with my face or asking for pictures (To see some of these pictures, scroll to the gallery at the bottom of the page). Those that didn't want to take a picture with me would jeer, "Whoa…that's one messed up face." I used my newfound hideousness to harmlessly scare women and children. It was a blast!
It wasn't all fun and games, however, as I still had some articles to finish and ultimately a plane to catch later that day. As I finished writing my stories on my laptop with zombie makeup still intact, I headed to the convention center's restroom to wash my face (I didn't want to get patted down by airport security because of my looks). However, as I headed off to the bathroom, a young bright-eyed kid approached me and said in the cutest voice ever, "He mister! Your face looks awesome!" I thanked the kid and said to myself, "You know what? I'm just going to wash off my face when I get back to the hotel!" This, as it turns out, may not have been the greatest idea…
Walt and Jessie from Breaking Bad tell me that I'm infected.
My original plan was to get to the airport at least an hour early to catch my flight, but I totally underestimated how long it would take to get out of the crowded convention center. A process that I thought would take 15 minutes ended up taking over an hour (it was super crowded!). This meant that I would have to rush to the airport and forego washing my face.
As I got back to my hotel, I quickly grabbed my bags and boarded the shuttle to the airport. People on the shuttle exclaimed, "I don't think security is going to let you on the plane looking like that." I started to panic, thinking that I would miss my flight. The shuttle arrived at the airport just 20 minutes before my plane was supposed to take off. I printed out my boarding pass and waited anxiously in the baggage-check line. People started taking pictures of me and I nervously laughed for them. I started to think about how all the other flights back into San Francisco would be booked because of Comic Con and that I would be stranded in San Diego. At that moment, I was the most worried-looking zombie in the world.
As I made my way through to the security line, I knew that I had to remove the zombie makeup lest I run the risk of getting pat down and missing my flight. I quickly ran to the airport bathroom and shimmied my way to the sink. Considering I was wearing tons of make-up, the plan was to turn the faucet on full blast and wash it all away, but it was the worst.sink.ever. The sinks were sensor-activated and would sprinkle for three seconds before shutting off. To make matters worse, the sinks all had horrible sensors! So there I was trying to scrub off a bucket load of paint and plaster off my face with the equivalent of a little kid's water pistol. It also didn't help that the ink was dang near permanent and the sticky plaster was in love with my face.
In the end, I scrubbed it all off to the best of my ability and ended up boarding the plane just as it was about to take off. It was certainly a dramatic affair, but one that was all worth it in the end.
Jimmy Thang is Maximum PC's Online Managing Editor and often hears his face looks scary (with or without zombie makeup).
Canon on Tuesday added a couple of new members to its Pixma printer family, namely the MG3520 Wireless Photo and the MG2420 All-in-One (AIO). Both are billed as being "easy-to-use models" and targeted at users in need of "superb quality and functionality at an affordable price." While we can't speak of the quality without having any samples on hand to play with, we do like that they're both priced less than a C-note.
The Pixma MG2420 sports a compact body and prints at a clip of 8 pages per minute in black-and-white and 4 pages per minute in color. It has a built-in 600x1200 dpi scanner, 4 color cartridge system, and "improved print, copy, and scan features" compared to previous models.
Canon's Pizma MG3520 cuts the cord and goes wireless. It features built-in automatic duplex printing, a FastFront feature for easy changing of ink and paper from the front the printer, and the ability to print or scan documents, photos, and other items from virtually anywhere in the home.
The MG3520 is available in black, red, or a mirror-finished white for $80, and the MG2420 AIO in white for $70.
Now that we have reasonably fast dual-core and quad-core processors powering our mobile devices, attention is starting to shift to the GPU to drive gaming and advanced graphics technology. Enter Samsung's Exynos 5420, the newest addition to the company's Exynos 5 Octa family of eight-core processors, though that bit needs a little bit of explaining before we dive into the GPU side.
Though Samsung markets the Exynos 5 Octa family as being eight-core processors, they're broken up into two quad-core segments using ARM's big.LITTLE architecture. In this particular case, what you have are four ARM Cortex A15 cores clocked at 1.8GHz and four Cortex A7 cores clocked at 1.3GHz. You never have access to all four cores at once, and instead tap into the faster A15 cores during heavy workloads, and the slower A7 cores for less intensive tasks. It's a battery saving measure that gives you a boost in performance when you need it.
That said, the real story here is the six-core ARM Mali T628 GPU processor. According to Samsung, this is the GPU's first appearance, the upside being that it boasts 3D graphic processing capabilities over two times that of the previous generation Exynos 5 Octa processor.
"Demand for richer graphic experiences is growing rapidly nowadays," said Taehoon Kim, vice president of System LSI marketing, Samsung Electronics. "In order to meet that demand from both OEMs and end users, we developed this processor which enables superb graphical performance without compromising power consumption."
Outside of raw graphics performance, the Exynos 5420 boasts memory bandwidth of 14.9GB/s paired with a dual-channel LPDDR3 at 933MHz, delivering support for Full HD Wi-Fi displays.
The new chip is currently sampling to customers and will go into mass production in August. With any luck, we could see new mobile devices built around the Exynos 5420 by the end of the year.
Apple recently pulled the plug on its developer portal after an "intruder attempted to secure personal information" from the site, the Cupertino company indicated in an email and in a message on its website. The company went on to say that while sensitive information was encrypted and cannot be accessed, it couldn't rule out the possibility that some developers' names, mailing addresses, and/or email addresses may have been accessed, and indeed they were.
Ibrahim Balic, a security researcher based in London, claimed responsibility for the breach, saying it was done in the name of research and not with any malicious intent.
"This is definitely not a hack attack, I have reported all the bugs," Balic posted to his Twitter account. In another tweet, he reiterated that his actions were not intended to be a hack attack, adding "I am not a hacker, I do security research."
Be that as it may, Balic got the attention of the Apple, which has now been in contact with him about the security vulnerabilities he discovered. In addition, Apple said it's overhauling its developer portal to prevent something like this from happening again.
"We're completely overhauling our developer systems, updating our server software, and rebuilding our entire database," Apple said in an email. "We apologize for the significant inconvenience that our downtime has caused you and we expect to have the developer website up again soon."
You can now access the main page of Apple's developer site, though the members area is still offline.
Seagate on Tuesday said it has begun shipping what it claims to be the world's speediest enterprise-class hard drive, the Seagate Enterprise Turbo SSHD. In addition to being the fastest enterprise HDD around, supposedly it's also the first enterprise-class solid state hybrid drive (SSHD), which combines the low cost and high capacity of traditional HDD storage with the speed and performance of solid state flash.
According to Seagate, its Enterprise Turbo SSHD offers up to a 3X increase in random performance over today's 15,000 RPM drives. It does this by using specialized algorithms to jettison frequently accessed data to the solid state portion of the drive for quick access.
"Typically the most demanding mission critical applications for 15,000 RPM drives have improved performance by compromising on capacity and cost per GB," said Rocky Pimentel, Seagate executive vice president and chief sales and marketing officer. "With the Enterprise Turbo SSHD, we deliver a no compromise drive that provides high-speed performance while enabling customers to leverage all of Turbo's capacity. The result, a combination of performance and capacity that we believe represents a new paradigm shift for mission critical, enterprise storage— a real game changer in storage solutions now and for generations to come."
Is it reliable? Seagate says it's been working with major OEMs to put the drive through its paces, and after months of testing and partner labs, the drive has been shown to improve overall system performance for servers running mission critical applications without issue.
The new drive is offered in capacities up to 600GB. No word yet on price or availability.
You might not know it from all the Haswell hype, but Intel isn't the only chipmaker that caters to enthusiasts. Today's top deal happens to come from the other camp and is for an AMD Sabertooth 990FX $2.0 AM3+ motherboard for $162 with free shipping (normally $180 - use coupon code COMPNTSAL26). This is a high-end board with overclocking-friendly components and quad-GPU support.
I don't like Guild Wars 2'sAscended gear. I've never liked it. My initial response to the controversy surrounding it was "wait and see," but after the details came out and the first pieces were implemented, my opinion of it settled somewhere between frustrated disappointment and apathy and has lived there ever since.
While I didn't have much of a problem giving ArenaNet the benefit of the doubt where its desire to avoid a never-ending gear treadmill was concerned, what did bother me was how reactionary and rushed Ascended's inclusion seemed. When I thought of all the cool things the developers could have done to provide players with ways to continue progressing our characters after level 80, a new tier of gear with slightly higher stats and largely time-gated acquisition was not even on the list. I'm sure it was on the very top of some people's lists, because I remember reading several of their comments and thinking, "Wow, I could not be less excited for this, but at least somebody likes it."
In a move that apparently doesn't surprise some players, RaiderZ Europe is shutting down for good. Gameforge announced the closure today and posted a brief FAQ covering the the when, why, and what's next for players.
The game is being shuttered because, "The success of RaiderZ did not meet our expectations and as we saw no other potential alternatives to the discontinuation of the services, unfortunately we were left with no other alternative than to take this step." In response to the announcement, players noted a lack of updates and content surely had some bearing on the lack of interest in the game.
The servers will remain open until August 30th, at which time any players who wish to continue to play the game will have to move to a different publisher (i.e. Perfect World) and start from scratch.
Take our love, take our land, take us where we cannot stand... but you can't take the sky from Bree. Between discussing the official Firefly MMO and a Make-a-Wish tale, it's a week of emotional twists and turns for the hosts of Massively Speaking. Bree's being replaced by her stunt double, Shawn, who will do his darndest to talk in a California valley girl accent.
Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot an email to podcast@massively.com. We may just read your email on the air!
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Wondering what's going on with ArcheAge and when-oh-when will we ever see it in North America and Europe? While Trion Worlds is still being cagey with its time frame, CM James Nicholsgave a progress report to give us some info as to what the team is doing.
Nichols reported that the team is tackling several hurdles, including connecting the game to Trion's billing system, setting up the server architecture, and translating over a million words for those of us that don't speak Korean. He said that players should expect any changes to the Korean version to be "very minimal," so players shouldn't expect huge new features or differences.
He urged patience for those looking to beta test ArcheAge: "We're just as excited to get to the point where we can invite external testers, but expect the closed testing period to last at least a few months."
You spent a bunch of money on Steam's summer sale. It's all right; you don't have to deny it. We did too. The real question isn't whether you spent the money; it's what you spent all that money on. EVE Online and The Secret World both made compelling cases for spending your money, offering steep discounts for anyone in the market for a new MMO. And who wouldn't be tempted?
Well, maybe you wouldn't be. Maybe you're completely satisfied with your current lineup of MMOs and saved all of your money for one of the millions of other titles on sale this summer. So with the annual money drain finally out of the way, we have to ask you -- did you buy any MMOs on Steam this year? Or did you spend your rent money on a vast array of single-player titles instead?
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!
Star Citizen asked backers to stop reselling exclusive ship models with lifetime insurance via the forum and warned buyers that these purchases are at their own risk. Chris Roberts also removed personal meeting options from several high-price pledge tiers due to his time being stretched very thin, but he took the time out to chat with Massively's Jef Reahard on plans for the game's future. Meanwhile, David Braben defended his company's recent £10 million public share release and assured fans of Elite: Dangerous that he retains full creative control over the title.
Diablo III developer Wyatt Cheng revealed on the game's forums that a sizeable nerf may be incoming to lifesteal, life on hit, and life regeneration as part of an ongoing effort to reduce the spikiness of incoming damage. Path of Exile embraced its livestreaming popularity with the release of full in-game Twitch integration that includes Twitch chat in game chat. Massively sat down with Firefall developer Red 5 Studios this week to discuss its open beta and fan concerns on keeping pay-to-win items out of the cash shop.
League of Legends gave players a second chance to transfer to the new Russian server for free and introduced a great new change to Baron coming in the next patch. Dota 2 prepared for its $2.6 million US world championship tournament with new features added to the tournament's digital compendium. Heroes of Newerth released a new devblog on upcoming Patch 3.2 and its plans to completely revamp underused Djinn hero Saloman. Russian MOBA Prime World announced that its western open beta will kick off this week on July 26th. And after rebranding the game as a MOBA, End of Nations' developers argued that the game hasn't actually changed much at all.
If there's one thing we know about the games industry, it's that no success goes uncopied. World of Warcraft breaks a million subscribers, everyone starts building WoW-like MMOs. Minecraft showers its creator with enough money to buy his home country, voxel-based crafting games fall like rain. It's just how things go.
It should come as no surprise, then, that some studio somewhere would attempt to piggyback on the success of DayZ, Dean Hall's ridiculously popular mod for Arma II. The title, which drops players into a dangerous, zombie-filled open world and challenges them to survive, resonated so immensely with gamers that a clone wasn't so much probable as it was inevitable.
But Infestation: Survivor Stories, formerly known as The War Z, is more than just a clone of DayZ. It is a charmless, cynical, and craven rip-off packaged with one of the most sinister microtransaction models ever implemented into a game, and it's developed by a company that has on multiple occasions proven itself to be only shades away from a dedicated fraud factory.
This week I continue the series of interviews I conducted with Star Trek Online personnel during my recent trip to Cryptic Studios. Star Trek Online Executive Producer Daniel Stahl and I sat down to discuss the game's past and future as well as the business challenges of making an MMO in today's market. Join me past the jump as I reveal what Stahl had to say!
I have a confession to make. I once registered as a Marvel Heroes user. This was before I confirmed my initial suspicion that the game wasn't my cup of tea, and it was motivated in large part by the fact that I cover many games that aren't my cup of tea for a living.
My reason for telling you that I'm a registered Marvel Heroes user is because Gazillion is also telling you something about registered users in its latest press release. Specifically, the company is crowing about the fact that its game has 1.5 million of them. What it's not saying is how many of those users, like me, have never spent and will never spend a) any money on the product and b) any time playing it.
But, hey, 1.5 million is a big number!
Gazillion also announced that the game's new Asgard zone will release this Fall. Finally, a series of planned summer updates will include PvP and endgame additions, a new tier of "ultimate" items, and a new currency.
I look forward to a new issue in The Secret World as I do any much-anticipated book release. I can't wait to dive right into it, experience a great story, and come out of it changed somehow. We've been waiting months for a new story arc in this game, and now it's finally here. Warning, massive spoilers ahead!
While MJ got an advance tour of the issue, I purposefully remained ignorant of it so that I could experience it for the first time on the live servers. The whole affair begins with Who Horrifies the Horrors? in the Besieged Farmlands in Transylvania. The one-eyed Carmen told me that something's agitating the local werewolves, and when the scary beasties that you know are terrified, then it's probably not good all around.
It turns out that the werewolves aren't being agitated; they're being hunted, ripped apart, and slaughtered. The alive ones practically trample over me trying to escape the area, but I'm not going to give them a free pass just because they're scared. A little cleanup with my trusty shotgun and those mongrels won't need to worry about fear any more.
It's that time again, Mabinogi fans! Grab your popcorn and settle in for the continuation of the Iria Saga in chapter four, titled Mystic Training: The Ritual. The first,second, and third episodes have brought the story to the point where Millia needs training to use her powers. So next stop: the holy land of shamans.
But wait -- only this missing Akule has the strength to train Millia? Not to worry, the crazed ex-shaman Lelach has a plan. But even as Shamala, Millia, and the player gain the help of the Elves and Giants to complete Akula's charm, dark forces gather together to thwart the ritual and plot to destroy the shamans.
Do you think you've got what it takes to be a champion? Guild Wars 2 is hosting its first Invitational Tournament and invites all players to take part in the matchup. With $7500 for the winning team and a studio tour for every qualifying team, there's plenty of reason for experienced players to gather allies and fight for the right to be the best team across North America and Europe.
The rules are fairly simple. Each team of five must register on the official site to take part in the Regional Qualifiers, which are July 27th and 28th for European players and August 3rd and 4th for North American players. The actual tournament is on August 31st in Seattle. Both tournaments are single match elimination, with the qualifiers playing for best two out of three and the invitational playing for best three out of five. If you've got a team ready to go, head on over to the official site and get ready to play for the prize.
Want to join the new Rootless Clan that's coming to the Chinese version of Age of Wushu? You'll need to lose your virtual junk first, as the evil-aligned sect is basically an order of eunuchs that forcibly castrate initiates.
And yes, it's in the game.
MMO Culture has all the details, including a gameplay video if you're so inclined. In a nutshell, prospective Rootless monks must obtain a special daily quest and then undergo the castration process, which features a dedicated health bar. "After around two minutes, the process will end," the site says. "However, the success rate of castration is still considered low at this time. If it is unsuccessful, the victim will still sustain significant damage." Click past the cut to see a snippet of castration gameplay for yourself.
Excitement is building for RIFT 3.0, the unnamed second expansion for the game. While we've known that it will include a combat pet system, new souls, and better item advancement, today we have gotten official confirmation of two additional key features: a level cap increase and PvP dimensions.
Rift Junkies translated a video from buffed.de in which Trion Worlds Senior Design Director Simon Ffinch dished out the juicy details. He confirmed that players will have five new levels to add, increasing the level cap to 65. He also revealed that the team is working on PvP player dimensions, although it's not clear whether this will be finished in time for 3.0. These will allow players to customize and operate their dimensions for PvP deathmatches.
Ffinch said that while RIFT 3.0 is an expansion, it will only be offered digitally. It will also be free except for the new souls which, as with Storm Legion's souls, will be sold through the in-game store.
RuneScape 3 isn't just about a graphical overhaul, although it would be sad to dismiss its visual improvements. The new version includes a customizable interface, six hours of new music, and lots of technical improvements.
Jagex is kicking off RuneScape 3 with the Battle of Lumbridge and the Sixth Age, so get in and start kicking butt from minute one! This event will take place over the span of two months, during which players can ally with a faction and collect divine tears to contribute to their side's ranking. The studio recommends that players experience it with the Java client and not the still-in-testing HTML5 version.
The team's also posted a comprehensive FAQ if you have any specific questions about the changes.
Printing made affordable
It's a GPU thing
Security researcher steps forward
World's fastest enterprise hard drive
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 
