Warcraft demo unlimited

Some sites are claiming WoW has gone free to play but all that has happened is the demo cap is now 20 and it doesn't expire.

Also the burning crusade is now included in the 19.95 bundle.

Blizzard are missing the point again. You still need wotlk a dead expansion and cata.

They need to have a fixed single fee to join wow and drop expansion pack upgrade costs. This will get more people playing.

Unless the next wow exansipn offers something that's not raiding. This means I will get behind expansions and the reason to return will fade completely if it hasn't already.

Update: Some sites have been saying 30 others have been saying 20. I thnk it hasn't changed and you can still only level to 20. I was thinking they may have bummped it up because it only takes a day to get to level 20 unlike a weekend in the past.

Team fortress 2 is Free to play

That is, you can now just download the game for free and play. Just fire up steam and download. Hats aren't free, but hats don't cost $20 - $69 and its just hats.

Also finally, the meet the medic video is out:



I always play the medic.

The end of Starwars Galaxies

Sony annouced today that SWG will be shutdown on the 15th of dec of this year.

SWG was never a good game but it was a good example of the open world sand box mmo. It had some great ideas and they pushed the concept of what a open world should be.

Then the World of Warcraft came along.

It looks like the shutdown is due to The Old Republic and lucasarts. I guess this is the risk you run when using someone elses IP. Lord of the rings online also has this hanging over their heads as it wasn't too long ago the contract was renewed for a few more years.

I do feel sorry for the long term fans of the game, some have stuck by for the entire 8 years of the games life. It always sucks when something like this happens and the risks of playing mmos.

Terraria 1.0.5 is out

Massive list of changes:

http://www.terrariaonline.com/threads/1-0-5-changelog.33191/

New Monsters and 50 new items.

Gabe on The Old Republic

He seems to enjoy it, you can read his impressions here:

http://www.penny-arcade.com/2011/6/22/ - Second post down.

I like what he says about how he played his Bounty Hunter:

At first I intended to play him as a real asshole but some of the moral quagmires these quests put you in just aren’t that black and white. Do I do what gets me the most credits? Do I stay loyal to the person who gave me the job even it means hurting Innocent people? As a result of all this I have a character that is a hard ass bounty hunter who has a soft spot for people in trouble and children. The only thing I could tell you about my WOW character Dudefella is that he was a mage and a hell of a good dancer.

Still, from what I learned in bioware games, you choices aren't always what you expect. Still it will be interesting to play a MMO where you stop and think about how your character will responce, instead of, Complete / Next Quest.

That dress cost HOW MUCH !?!?!

I was set, credit card in hand, ready to resubscribe to EvE Online.

Thankfully I waited because something happened that made me rethink ever going back to EvE. People logged in and found out how much the micotransactions were for the costumes.

Turns out a Dress in EvE Online costs the same as a dress in the real world.

I don't know what CCP are thinking but this is not how you do Microtransactions. Theres a Video from blizzard where Samwise starts going on about Macrotransactions which thankfully the video is a bit of fun. It seems that CCP thought it was a good idea.

Shirts cost $25 and the eye implant is $68.

$25 for Blizzards sparkle horse or retarded lion was bad enough but at least people can see those and go ' Ooooo look at that moron. ' With EvE no one can see it because they haven't made multiplayer hotel rooms yet. 

Now people have found out that they are planning to sell ammo for real money as well as faction rep and other things.

I guess World of Darkness will be a second life that you pay to play with real world prices on clothing.

So yeah, I am no longer interested in going back to EvE online. This is problery a good thing.

City of Hero's Freedom

As I am short on time here is the link:

http://www.cityofheroes.com/news/freedom/freedom_overview.html

Sounds like City of Hero's is going free to play. Haven't had time to check up on all the details.

That's How I Play: DRAGON AGE

Possably NSWF, but its only minor. Content may offened, but its no worse than the game itself:



And if you haven't already, look up Beatdownboogie's Modern Gear 2 seriers.

Rift - The game with no rifts

I got rift at launch and found the beginning stages of the game to be one of the most enjoyable experiences in a MMO for a long time. There was a real sense of war between the planes.

Fast forward to today and I have re-subscribed and re-rolled defiant.

Before you hit the guts of the post, I was excited to play again and looked forward to it. I really did think Rift was still a good, freash and new MMO. Turns out I was being to hopeful. It is still better than the state that Warcraft is in but only just. 

Star Trek Online - New Engineering Report

This months engineering report is out and its a good one. It mainly covers the features of the next session of Star Trek Online.

A few of these new features have caught my eye:

# KDF access to most sectors
# DS9 Featured Episode
# KDF Patrol Missions in most sectors – featuring FvK OPEN PVP
# New female skirt and boot costume options

This is a klingon patch, they are getting a load of new content. The DS9 featured episode means Klingons will get to visit there soon.

The full report can be read here:

http://forums.startrekonline.com/showthread.php?t=220124

Quake Reboot and Game desgin

ID Software have announced that they are thinking of re-making Quake.

This has me excited but worried all at the same time.

Duke nukem Forever came out last week and its not the same game I enjoyed back in the mid 90's, Gone is the sense of exploration, action and fun. Instead we have the call of duty scripted, regen heath and halo weapon systems.

If they did this to Quake, I will skip over it much like I have with Duke.

I think this could turn out to be a long post, better put in a jump:

Planetside Next - Announcement at Sony Fanfeast

Finally some solid details are coming soon about Planetside Next, the reboot of the Planetside seriers.

I have my fingers crossed for Free 2 play model but still the epic awesomeness that made planetside what it was.

I'll post more details as they appear.

Darf Punk - Harder fast better stronger around the world

I am a Daft Punk fan, its was the discovery album + the video that hooked me. On you tube there are mixs of their songs but they have always been poor. Until I found this:



But then its mixed by Daft Punk, so how can it suck =P

Fallen Earth is going free to play

The post apoclitpic MMO is going free to play, this makes sense as its one of the double dipping MMOS ( Monthly Fee / Cash store ). Going Free to play makes it more attactive, it sounds like there is going to still be a subscription fee for full content but this is the best way to do a MMO theses days.

When I have the time and the bandwidth I'll check it out.

FYI: I don't think its gone free to play yet.

New Star Trek Online screenshots

A bunch of new shots from Session 4 have appeared since it came up on the tribble test server.

I have linked them after the jump so not to clutter the main page:

Peoples hands on impressions of The Old Republic

Massively has some impressions of hands on gameplay of The Old Republic.

http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/06/13/e3-2011-hands-on-impressions-of-star-wars-the-old-republic/#continued

It seems that the combat is Warcraft cloned meh but the conversation system is neat. The impression I get from reading what they say is that you only get this conversation system poping up at major plot points. The rest of the quests are FedEx or kill quests.

I am not sure what to think, on one had its whats made Warcraft popular on the other I was hoping for something new to expereance.

Guess I have to wait for guildwars 2.

MMO Drive

Years ago and I am talking early 90's, I first read about a MMO. I think it charged by the hour, was a text only game and it supported 1000's of players. They had terminals setup around the UK where you pay and use much like a Internet cafe.

More after the jump:

Terraria 1.0.4

Its here and its big. New hats and other items.

Patch notes after the jump

Sword of the Stars 2 - Trailer

I loved the first game. It had just enough features to make a interesting turn based game with a cool tactical real time mini game.

Here is the latest trailer showing off some of the new ship parts and graphics:

More on Why Dust is on the PS3

CCP Halldor Fannar had this to say while at E3 which confirms that it was Microsoft that held back Dust on the Xbox:

Let's just say that with Sony at least they have policies that allow us to build the game the way we want. - Source 

If Dust514 is hugely popular this might bring a change to the way Microsoft look at 3rd parties using live but I feel Dust will be gone 3 months after release. Such is the nature of the console gamers attention span.

Neverwinter

Not sure why the Atari logo's are still there but still a first look at the Neverwinter MMO by Cryptic.



I am still interested in this as Cryptic do things differently. I hope they follow the D&D Rules closer than D&D Online.

Terraria 1.0.4 Soon

How soon ?

Could be tomorrow or the weekend. They are promising a huge update with new bosses and many new items ..... Yay.

Skyrim - Consoles first PC last

Skyrim is once again is being developed on the consoles first then ported back to the PC. I have a feeling that every one of their games has been like this since Morrowind.

I am fine with this so long as:

a) PC gets mod tools.
b) PC gets higher textures.
c) PC gets its own menu system desgined for a mouse.

What worries me is this quote from the same guy saying that its all about ' accessibility ' which means dumbing things down.

I am not going to really judge the game until its released. Oblivion was more dumbed down than Morrowind but it had enough new stuff to make it stand apart. Oblivion would have been awesome if they had all the complexity of Morrorwind but they cut it out.

As we were saying last night in chat:

' Whats the bet that Skyrim only has one armor slot. '

Battlefield 3

I know this is oldish and theres way more coming out of E3 but it shows why you should be excited about the game.



In the past people would ask me if I was going to get x shooter ( modern warfare ) and I would respond, na, I have Arma who needs anything else but even with Arma 3 looming, I am more exctied about playing Battlefield 3.

EA Origin

This is EA's second try at doing steam, this time it looks ok but there is no incentive to use it over getting a boxed retail game.

Example is Battlefield 3, which is priced as $89 NZD ( 73 USD ), this is the same as boxed retail but more than what it would be if I got it via steam.

EA are cunning though and it doesn't look like Battlefield 3 is coming to steam it will only be on Origin.

Still its better than Activision who inisit on charging console prices for their PC games $119 NZD ( 97 USD ) for call of duty at retail.

Dust 514 - PS3 Excuslive

The rumors from yesterday are true, Dust is only coming to the PS3.

I still rather get a PC version but at least its now something I will look at.

This is supprising as I thought for sure it would be on both or only on the Xbox and not the otherway around.

Rage Trailer

I was supposed to link this up 3 days ago but completely forgot.



Rage has changed alot and I am not sure what kind of game it is now but it still looks cool.

Appearance costume slots coming to Terraria

Version 1.0.4 of Terraria will feature costume slots. This allows you to change the look of your armor but not its stats.

Something that Blizzard refuses to do in Warcraft.

Terraria 1.0.3 is out

This release has added dedcated servers and the ablitiy to resize the window in window mode.

Full patch details after the jump.

Clear Skies 3 on You Tube

Grab the popcorn, your in for a nearly a hour and a half of awesome. Makes me want to play EvE Online again, except then I remember how nothing like this ever happens in game.



Still this is awesome and the best in the series. This is part 1 of six, the rest should link up inside of you tube.

Terraria 1.0.3 next week

Major update to Terraria next week which features improved dedcated servers and online options. The biggest change is the player cap removed allowing up to 255 players on a single server.

Terraria just became a mini MMO.

Also options for PvP servers where everyone is flagged for pvp.

Sounds good, no word on a server browser yet.

But wait theres more

Subscribe to Call of Duty Elite and get Call of Duty TV.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2011/jun/01/call-of-duty-elite-web-tv-series

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Elite subscription

I really don't know what to think about this, except I am glad I never got into these games.