For those of you – like me – that have pre-ordered Aion and have been anxiously awaiting this game for like – oh, I don’t know – years, the approaching launch of the MMO is high on our list of things to cheer over. Soon, my friends. Soon. In the meantime, there’s the open beta, which is well underway, and also whatever other news trickles down from the NCSoft offices. So, how about some server names?
Those of you looking for an Oceanic realm will not see one listed below. Oceanic players will get a chance to vote on an “unofficial” Oceanic realm to be agreed upon and then promptly ignored as everyone sort of scatters and does whatever they want to do anyway.
Server names are as follows:
[West] Siel GMT-8/ PST
[West] Israphel GMT-8 / PST
[West] Nezekan GMT-8 / PST
[West] Triniel GMT-8 / PST
[West] Vaizel GMT-8 / PST
[West] Zikel GMT-8 / PST
[East] Ariel GMT-5 / EST
[East] Azphel GMT-5 / EST
[East] Kaisinel GMT-5 / EST
[East] Lumiel GMT-5 / EST
[East] Marchutan GMT-5 / EST
[East] Yustiel GMT-5 / EST
Aion: The Tower of Eternity is finally finally - almost – here. And if you’ve taken advantage of the beta weekends then you know why so many people are excited about this game. With the release date on the horizon and open beta at our fingertips, Producer Brian Knox has published a letter to the fans, detailing many of the features players can look forward to enjoying. The letter covers the release as well as new areas and patch information.
You can expect a couple of new areas in the game, as well as new instances, 40 new face options in the character creation screen, more rewards for PvE and PvP, UI alterations, new quests (”tons”), new chat channels, items, and a plethora of other goodies.
So if you’d like to full-on lowdown of details, be sure to read the letter over at the Aion website.
Will you partaking in Aion’s Open Beta? I’ve already put in a pre-order.
In keeping with their long-standing philosophy of listening to their player base, Blizzard has delivered on their promise to offer faction changes for World of Warcraft characters –for a fee. Now you can log into your WoW account and access the brand spankin’ new Faction Change Service and switch your Alliance character to Horde or vice versa. Keep in mind that you are only able to switch to a class supported by the race of the character you’re choosing. For example: You would not be able to switch your Night Elf Druid to a Blood Elf Druid.
If you’re interested in the new service, but remain uncertain on the details, you can read up on it all at Blizzard’s Faction Change FAQ or if you’re ready to go, head over to the Faction Change page directly.
In a further attempt to meet their customers’ needs, Blizzard has announced the decision to offer a race change service in the future. The race change will be limited to your class and faction, and will undoubtedly come attached to a fee. When this particular service will be made available remains unsaid, but one can guess that it will likely arrive sometime around or before the release of the World of Warcraft: Cataclysm expansion.
As far as unsurprising news goes, this is up there. But for those of you that were holding out hope that Final Fantasy XIV would be served fresh and free of a monthly fee: sorry! Ain’t happening. A subscription fee has been made official by Hiromichi Tanaka himself at GamesCon, who stated that the game would require the usual exchange of real-world money for 30 days of game play. So, what everyone expected, basically.
Those of you that just perked up at the mention of FFXIV, the wait is almost over, relatively speaking. The game is set for a 2010 release, which means it’s finally there in the horizon. Once released, you’ll be able to pick it up for both the PS3 and the PC. But don’t despair, my Xbox 360-loving friends, Tanaka revealed that talks of bringing it to the Microsoft console are simply held up due to the Xbox Live policies.
So come launch time, the PS3 has a special console exclusive hold over the title. So even if the Xbox 360 version were ready to go, it won’t launch simultaneously. So, you can pick it up for the PC or you can wait a bit longer. Or, you can play it on your PS3.
So, if you missed it: Here’s what happened. The other day Cryptic announced that it would be offering six-month and lifetime subscription plans for their fans. Essentially, these offers would grant anxious Champions Online players some exclusive goodies such as: 8 new character slots, special costumes, and (probably most exciting of all) guaranteed access to the Star Trek Online beta.
So, what happened? Well, in a blink of an eye, all of these subscriptions were “sold out” and lots of angry/disappointed players were left out in the rain.
What happened next you can well imagine: Forum tantrums, emails, phone calls, the works. And so Cryptic was forced to go, “Whoa, whoa, we didn’t realize you’d want to give us money that badly. You win!” And now they’re reinstated the whole thing without supply limits.
That means that if you missed out during the first wave of offers, you can still get right on in there and claim your Star Trek Online beta key, your vanity pet, and your special costume.
Here’s the offer details and pricing:
Discounted Lifetime Subscription:
Guaranteed Star Trek Online Closed Beta Access
Eight Additional Character Slots
Foxbat Vanity Pet
Art Deco Costume Set
Retro Future Costume Set
STO Mirror Universe Costume Set
Discounted Six-month Subscription:
Guaranteed Star Trek Online closed beta access
Retro Future Costume Set
Prices:
Discounted Lifetime Subscription
$199.99 USD
$219.99 CAN
£119.99 GBP W/OUT VAT
€147.99 EUR W/OUT VAT
Discounted Six-month Subscription
$59.99 USD
$65.99 CAN
£35.99 GBP W/OUT VAT
€44.99 EUR W/OUT VAT
So if all of that sounds pretty nifty to you, you have until August 31 to put in your preferred order.
If you’ve been enjoying the Fallen Earth open beta, then congrats! The Fallen Earth team would like to cordially invite to their apocalyptic-style end-of-beta party. When? Saturday, August 29, from 3PM to 6PM EDT. No need to bring anything besides your love of parties. And maybe a toga. The team will be happy to provide everything else: in-game food, drinks, entertainment, and special tokens that will give you an XP bonus.
Wait what’s that about xp bonuses, you say?
Well, during the party, you’ll have a chance at one of these Beta Clone Psychoactive Shots (tokens) that will grant you a +15% xp bonus per hour. You can earn one per half hour. And yes, these awesome little things will carry on over to the live servers. So they’re both nifty and useful.
Though the event is on Saturday, you don’t have to pack your weapons quite yet. The beta is scheduled to go on until midnight on Tuesday. So you can keep on keeping on until then. After that, well, then you’ll have to do without the game for 9-15 days depending on whether or not you jumped on a pre-order or not.
It’s hard to be on the Internet these days and remain unaware of Felicia Day’s genius webseries The Guild, whose season three premieres web-wide on August 25. The cast of the series got together with Joss Whedon’s brother, Jed Whedon to create the following music video entitled “Do You Want to Date My Avatar.” It’s one of those things that you really don’t want to miss and that you’ll likely spend an hour or two forwarding to everyone you know (like me).
So without further ado, here’s Felicia Day and the rest of The Guild:
If you’ve been looking around for a different MMORPG to try but don’t feel like shelling out a monthly fee, then perhaps you’d like to check out Gates of Andaron which opened to the general public yesterday. The game features the usual arsenal of fantastical races and classes which wield the usual fare of magic in its many shades of color (black and white).
The game does feature some realm versus realm fighting, including large scale battles of up to 49 players. So if fighting in large numbers is your bag of chips, then this game might satisfy you to some degree or another.
The two nations of Iberia have splintered into two factions: Derion and Valorian. Fight for disputed territory, besiege castles, and wage all-out warfare against your enemies – or in their defense. Duel your opponent and celebrate your victory. If the battlefield is not your calling, administer the conquered territories… The fate of the Gates of Andaron lies in your hands.
I’ve not tried the game yet so I’m not sure where it falls in the lame to awesome scale. It does seem promising, though, and it’s always nice to try something new.
If you’ve tried Gates of Andaron what are your impressions so far? If you haven’t, well you can do so over the Gates of Andaron website.
Even MMORPGs eventually come to an end, a fact that The Matrix Online is in the process of reminding us. The game is still active, though within the realms players will find the world around them disintegrating before their very eyes. Ashes are now raining down from the sky, while characters will find themselves battling the likes of angels, demons, agents and zombies.
For those players that have stuck with the game since the beginning, it’s likely a bittersweet parting. For those that gave up on it long ago, it’s probably a good time to head back, just to see what the developers are doing to bring the game to its final end.
Today is the last day for The Matrix Online so if you haven’t already logged in, you should hurry to do so!
Players anxiously awaiting the fifth beta weekend event for Aion should be well pleased to learn that the developers have finalized NPC voices and will be adding them in time for the weekend. The event starts off tomorrow (Friday) and those of you with access to the beta should have a nice sized patch waiting to be downloaded so you might want to get on that as soon as possible.
NPCs in the game will greet your character and some quests will feature cinematic cutscenes with voiceovers. No more silent treatment! In addition, when creating a character, you now have voice choices as actual, workable selections, just to add a bit more uniqueness to your in-game self.
The patch will also include in-game tutorials, system voices, and race prologues for the Elyos and the Asmodians.
So if you haven’t yet tried to get in on the fun, or have been slacking off on the beta-ing, or if you simply can’t wait to get another chance to play, this next patch should definitely make your weekend gameplay more enjoyable.
