Firefall's launch-day roundup

Firefall brings multiple raids to launch
If you live and breathe big battles with lots of friends in MMOs, then you're going to be delighted when Firefall launches next week. The retuned sci-fi shooter will feature not one, not two, not four, but definitely three 20-person raids from the beginning.

Firefall reintroduces its open-world PvP
Formal PvP takes place in a separate zone called Broken Peninsula, where players are divided into corporate teams to beat the crap out of each other over resources, territorial bases, and a series of outposts and watchtowers that grant their holders special bonuses.

Firefall introduces personalized missions-on-demand
With Firefall's official launch approaching, the devs are in a frenzy proclaiming the new features and systems that players will be seeing when that day arrives.

Firefall outlines progression on the path to launch
As Firefall approaches an official launch at long last, the game's design team is taking a look at the game as a whole and trimming up parts of the game that can be made better than they are.

Firefall patch takes us to the kingdom of the Crystal Skull Pirates
A small update for Firefall is now live on the servers and with it comes a slew of small adjustments and additions including faster melee combat.

Red 5 removing Firefall PvP tiers, adding 'regulation' battleframes
Big changes are coming to Firefall's battleframes (the bulky suits of super-armor that serve as the game's class analogue, if you're wondering).

Massively Exclusive: Red 5 talks pay-to-win and Firefall's open beta
The sci-fi shooter saw an extended closed beta period marked by major overhauls to core systems and a slow-but-steady trickle of new content, and last week's open beta launch is the next big step in pushing Firefall toward its eventual release.

Firefall's Kern: 'I look at WoW and think what have we done... We killed a genre'
Firefall head honcho and former World of Warcraft dev Mark Kern asks if MMOs have become too easy in a guest blog at MMORPG.com. It's basically a rhetorical question, since he goes on to outline "the creeping casualness" that defines the genre in 2013.

Red 5 CEO details Firefall fixes, apologizes for open beta issues
Firefall jet-booted into open beta on July 9th, 2013, but the transition ended up being a bit trickier than Red 5 expected. Tutorials broke, crafting crashed, abilities vanished from hotbars, and logins were jammed.

Firefall disabling PvP for retooling
The current iteration of Firefall's PvP mode is not long for this world. Red 5 Studios CEO Mark Kern wrote a letter to the community stating that the studio is displeased with the current PvP state in the game and wants to "regroup, rethink, and deliver the best PvP system [it] can.

Firefall's Red 5 Studios lays off 10% of staff in 'pre-launch reorganization'
The Twitterscape is abuzz tonight about fresh layoffs at Firefall's Red 5 Studios as current and former Red 5 employees have announced that they're now on the market.

Mark Kern removed as CEO of Red 5 Studios
According to a recent report from Gamefront, Red 5 Studios CEO Mark Kern has been terminated by the company's board of directors, effective immediately.

Mark Kern addresses his departure from Red 5 Studios
Using a mixture of geek culture references, former Red 5 Studios CEO Mark Kern posted a brief statement on MMORPG.com to address his departure from the Firefall studio.

Ex-Red 5 staffers blast Mark Kern's 'destructive' behavior
If you wondered what was going on behind the scenes of Red 5 Studios turbulent past year, then a new exposé on Game Front might illuminate you.

Firefall developer secures $23 million in funding
Bright skies might be ahead for Red 5 Studios: the Firefall developer announced today that it secured $23 million in additional funding. Red 5 said that it entered into share purchase agreements for the funding from Shanghai Oriental Pearl Culture Development Co.

Firefall to launch July 29, 2014
Firefall's extended beta will soon be over as Red 5 Studios has announced that the MMO shooter will be launching on July 29th.The free-to-play game has been gearing up for this launch with a series of dev blogs entitled Path to Launch that each spotlight a particular game feature that MMO shooter fans -- and general MMO fans -- may enjoy.

Firefall's open beta trailer highlights dynamic events
If you happen to be in Cologne, Germany next month, you can stop by Firefall's booth at Gamescom to check out the inbound improvements and new content because Red 5 Studios announced that it is returning to the convention this year.

Red 5 celebrates Firefall open beta with live-action trailer
It's official: Firefall, which has been in closed beta for what seems like forever, has taken one tiny step toward an actual release by entering open beta.

Firefall debuts its Chosen War trailer
Firefall may still be in testing, but that doesn't mean it can't get groovy updates. The game's latest patch promises progression improvements, new world and instanced content, and a shiny trailer.

Firefall's latest video explores the joy of flying combat
If you watch Firefall's most recent video, you would be forgiven for assuming that this game single-handedly pioneered aviation. That's OK, we suppose, because what Firefall offers in the way of in-flight service does look awfully enjoyable.

Jukebox Heroes: Firefall's soundtrack
There's something about militaristic science-fiction shooters that brings out the piano in the composer, isn't there? That's what I was thinking when I first heard one of the Firefall themes.

Free for All: The confused state of Firefall's first few hours
As part of my research for an upcoming article about MMO shooters, I have been playing a lot of Firefall. There are definitely worse assignments in the world.

Bugs, minerals, and jet boots: Hands-on with Firefall's PvE
As any fan of my streams can tell you, I am not awesome at video games. So when Massively asked me to take a look at Firefall, a twitch-heavy, free-to-play shooter developed by Red 5 Studios, it was only with trepidation that I accepted.

Choose My Adventure: Firefalling
Well folks, it was an epic battle. The communities of Firefall and Fallen Earth rolled out in force to support their favorite game in last week's Choose My Adventure poll, and the contest came right down to the wire with thousands of votes pouring in from both sides.

Choose My Adventure: Earning my Firefall rocket boots
The votes are in. The people have spoken. Now, it's time to play. Last week's Choose My Adventure column, the first one centered on Firefall, presented a couple of choices related to the very basics of creating our character and giving him or her reason to fight.

Choose My Adventure: Next stop in Firefall, whirling death tornado
In last week's Choose My Adventure poll, I asked three simple questions of the Massively community: What should I do, how should I do it, and how pretty should I look whilst doing so?

Choose My Adventure: Firefall's content bomb and a missed invasion
In last week's Choose My Adventure poll, I asked the Firefall community one simple question: What, exactly, is there to do in Firefall besides run around and hook up with random thumping squads?

Choose My Adventure: Saying goodbye to Firefall's New Eden
For the last five weeks, I've plasma-rifled, jet-booted, and resource-thumped my way through the exotic world of Firefall's New Eden. I've killed many bugs.