mark-tuttle
Latest
SOE's revamped All-Access membership plan is finally live
After a brief delay this month, SOE's Mark Tuttle announced today that the refreshed All Access membership plan is now live across all of the studio's core games (and some of its future titles), including EverQuest, EverQuest II, DC Universe Online, Landmark, PlanetSide 2, and eventually, EverQuest Next and H1Z1. For $14.99 per month (or less if you purchase multiple months at a time), players can now have top tier access to all participating SOE games. This means if you want to take a break from sneaking around Auraxis in your Stalker Cloak and test your mettle against the dragon, Nagafen, or The Joker in DCUO, you can do so with all member benefits. And since your Station Cash wallet is good in all SOE games, you can drop some coin on a snazzy new outfit in EQII to announce, "Yes, I have arrived!" To continue the awesome, as a member players get 10% off the Marketplace price of that item! Go ahead, splurge for the spikey hat and the bunny mount! Tuttle reminds players that station cash must be manually redeemed via the claim button within a game's marketplace and that a discounted package deal (12 months for $99.99) is also available. Addendum: Tipster Joshua points out that PlanetSide 1 will also be partly supported by the new plan. SOE explained, "We will offer PlanetSide 1 as free to play game for everyone when the new program rolls out, on or about April 29th, 2014 (or sooner!). Please note that PS1 has no Marketplace and will not see further game development. We know that a large number of people have played it in the past, and we hope you'll enjoy it again, on us."
Rise and Shiny recap: Free Realms
This week I decided to revisit a game that has been covered and played by me (and this site) quite a bit before. In hindsight, Free Realms was a bit of a big deal when it was released. I have to admit that I thought it was going to be something different than it was, but I was pleasantly surprised at how it played and looked. It wasn't so long ago, but my, how things have changed in the game. Critics have said that Sony Online Entertainment ruined certain systems while loyal fans have collected pets, decorated their houses, and had a pretty darn good time. Where do I fall along the spectrum? Well, I simply have not made as much time for the game as I would have liked lately, so I couldn't tell you. Early on, I was obsessed enough over the game to host a brief podcast about it and to level up several jobs. Fastforward to now, when I decided to take a week and revisit the game. Click past the cut and I'll let you know what I found.
