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Age of Conan update talks streaking, crafting, and more
Hearken to me, Hyborian faithful, for I've an Age of Conan update to share. Actually, hearken to game director Joel Bylos, who has posted an August update letter that talks about raiding updates and tier 5 gear as well as the new PvP minigame streak system (no, not that kind of streaking, you naughty Barbarian). AoC is also getting a version of The Secret World's achievement and lore system, and the loooooong-delayed crafting revamp is still in process.
Guild Wars 2 adds in collections achievements
Pack rats, completionists, and oddballs of the gaming world, Guild Wars 2's upcoming features pack will celebrate you and your lifestyle. One of the new additions coming with the update is the collections achievements category, which is pretty much as it sounds. Following the update, players will be able to fill out collections in the achievements tab by finding, equipping, or consuming certain items. If you collect all of a collection set, then you'll get a reward chest for your trouble. Some collections will be visible from the start, while others will need to be discovered or triggered during the course of gameplay. When the patch goes live, the game will attempt to fill out collections retroactively, although it will not be able to identify every item looted in the past. Due to this new category, ArenaNet is making some minor organizational changes to the achievement UI and will be renaming the bank collections tab "material storage."
Did you miss in Pandaria?: The broken burner
Not long ago, Blizzard unveiled the action-packed Warlords of Draenor cinematic, a worthy follow-up to the one for Mists of Pandaria. But did you know there's an achievement that ties in to the Mists trailer? Restore Balance sounds like it's just for druids, but anyone can earn it. The achievement asks you to "Visit the Shrine of Fellowship in the Jade Forest and follow in the footsteps of Chen Stormstout." What these cryptic instructions really mean is to find the in-game location where the Mists trailer happened. Head northeast from Grookin Hill toward the mountain on your map. When you see Shrine of Fellowship pop up on your screen, you're in the right place. It's a flat, misty plateau with a prominent jade bell (it was featured in the cinematic). Look for the Broken Incense Burner. You'll notice it's a bit crooked, just like in the trailer before Chen straightens it. Click on it to "restore balance" and you'll earn the achievement. I wonder if there will be a similar achievement for the Warlords trailer...
Take Forza Horizon 2 out for a test drive next month
The demo for Forza Horizon 2 will be available for players to download on September 16. Playground Games' open-world racer will launch in full on September 30 for Xbox One, and will feature over 200 cars at launch. Microsoft also disclosed the game's achievements list, which can be found at Xbox Wire. The developer did not reveal which vehicles will be available to drive in the demo, just that the selection is limited to a "handful" of cars that have been picked to "give you a brief taste of what to expect" when the full version of the racing game rolls to retail. Forza Horizon 2 will debut without microtransactions and will feature a Kinect-enabled assistant known as "ANNA." [Image: Microsoft]
Warlords of Draenor: Highmaul Coliseum offers free-for-all PvP
Warlords of Draenor certainly seems to be mixing it up on the PvP front, offering a lot of new options for players that enjoy PvP. Oddly enough, one of the coolest opportunities for PvP I've seen so far comes not in a battleground or even on the fairly addictive isle of Ashran, but from your garrison. While leveling through Gorgrond, players can choose to make one of two outposts, that will unlock the plans for one of two medium buildings -- the Lumber Mill, or the Gladiator's Sanctum. If you choose the Gladiator's Sanctum, you get a few nice perks for Gorgrond -- and you also get to build the Sanctum itself. Level 3 of the Gladiator's Sanctum unlocks the Highmaul Coliseum, shown in the video above. A solo scenario, the Coliseum places you in a pit with other players. Once the event starts, it's a free-for-all brawl, and the last person standing wins the spoils. What kind of spoils? PvP gear, of course! To unlock the level 3 blueprint for the Gladiator's Sanctum, players must first complete The Bone Collector, an achievement that requires players to collect 4,000 Broken Bones from PvP combat in Draenor -- any kill that awards honor also awards 3-6 bones. Once you've built the level 3 Sanctum, you gain access to Highmaul Coliseum, as well as a buff that reduces all damage in outdoor Draenor zones by 50% if you fall below 35% health. Take a look at the video for more of the Coliseum in action -- I particularly like how dead players are teleported up into the stands to watch the rest of the brawl play out, spectator style.
Warlords of Draenor: An evening as a treessassin
I really wasn't planning on doing anything in particular when I logged on the beta the other night -- just some exploring and some garrison work as well as hunting down fishing gear for a needy troll death knight. But while wandering around Nagrand, I happened upon an unfortunate scene -- a Petrified Ancient standing on top of what appeared to be a handful of orc peon and human lumberjack corpses. Upon further investigation, this wasn't a mob I could just attack and kill. It was, however, a mob I could ask my Lumber Mill crew to cut down. Maybe this was a bad decision. But hey, I'm the commander of this Alliance force on Draenor and they have to do what I say, so why not? I found out why immediately after the poor sap I asked to chop the tree tried to complete my order and was promptly confronted by a very angry and not-quite-as-petrified-as-you'd-think Ancient. It wasn't until I'd killed the incredibly angry tree that I discovered not only was this Ancient more than he appeared to be, but I was about to embark on what just might be the weirdest quest I've ever done in WoW.
Meet PlanetSide 2's new producer, Directive achievements
It's important to know the development team of your game of choice, isn't it? SOE's David Carey recently took on the role of producer for PlanetSide 2, and he hopped on the forums to introduce himself, explaining to fans who he is, what he hopes to accomplish in the game, and what he hopes to receive from the community. Carey reveals that he has spent a long time working with Matt Higby and has plenty of experience working on other titles. His primary goal is to have an informed playerbase with a clear picture of why changes are being made, even in the event that the players and devs disagree. He also stresses the importance of constructive criticism over personal attacks and the team's need for open communication with the fans. If you're a regular PlanetSide 2 player, you owe it to yourself to check out the full letter. In other PS2 news, SOE has implemented a new achievement system called Directives. You can view the full press release after the break.
Warlords of Draenor: Forget looting the hounds, we can ride them
The latest beta build of Warlords brought with it several new Battle Pets as well as the mount pictured above. Yes, that is a Core Hound, and yes, you will be able to ride it by obtaining the Core Hound Chain. Although it's not directly stated where this mount will be obtained on the mount tab, it's safe to say we'll likely see it dropping in the newly-revamped Upper Blackrock Spire. After all, what's Blackrock Spire without The Beast? In addition to the Core Hound mount, several Ravager Wasp battle pets were added, along with a Runtish Gronnling, and a pet named Sky-bo that appears to be a miniature version of the Sky Golem mount. At the moment, there's no indication whether Sky-bo is an engineer crafted pet. To check out 3D models of the new Core Hound mount, as well as other new items added to the beta, head over to Wowhead.
Warlords of Draenor: Garrison achievements
The latest Warlords of Draenor build, meticulously datamined as always by the fine folks at Wowhead, reveals a ton in the way of Garrison achievements. Seriously, there are oodles of points to be earned in and around your Garrison. You can get achievements for Garrison buildings, Garrison Followers, Garrison levels, Garrison missions, and Garrison invasions. The glut of ways to earn achievement points should have dedicated achievement hunters licking their chops in anticipation. The 700 skill point profession achievements are also listed with Garrison achievements, which doesn't come as much of a surprise. The majority of the achievements focus on Followers, missions, and invasions, but there are also plenty associated with constructing and upgrading the buildings themselves. The complete list of datamined Garrison achievements is after the break.
Warlords of Draenor: New Ashran achievements
Wowhead has datamined a whole bunch of new achievements, and the ones for Ashran interested me greatly - since I did some level 100 PvP recently (I didn't do very well at it, but I think at least part of that is my sheer unfamiliarity with it at this point) I'm definitely interested in how Ashran turns out. I assume one of those two Take Them Out achievements will eventually be switched to Alliance, and hopefully captain will be spelled correctly. (The achievements have different ID's.) It seems the Alliance gets to summon something called Fangraal (presumably this fellow), and there's something called The Everbloom where Kirin-Tor Battle Mages can die while fighting something called Yalnu (since there's an achievement for them not dying, I assume it's fairly easy for that to happen) - these are pretty tantalizing hints for what we're going to see once we get in there. I'm wondering if there's a Horde equivalent to Fangraal - possibly this Lifeless Ancient Protector, or this Ancient Protector (both are relatively close in ID and come up on a search for 'Horde Guardian')? Time will tell. Ashran Victory: Kill the opposing faction Commander while controlling all points on the Road of Glory. Bounty Hunter: Loot all the following off Alliance player corpses: Bounty Hunter: Loot all the following off Horde player corpses: Tour Of Duty: Complete each Event at the following areas listed below. Just For Me: Activate a Class Specific Book Epic Item found within Ashran. High-value Targets: Defeat all of the creatures within Ashran listed below. Opperation Counterattack: Defeat Fangraal within 5 minutes of it being summoned by the Alliance. Grand Theft, 1st Degree: Loot 100 Artifact Fragments from an enemy Player, and turn them in Grand Theft, 2nd Degree: Loot 500 Artifact Fragments from an enemy Player, and turn them in Grand Theft, 3rd Degree: Loot 1000 Artifact Fragments from an enemy Player, and turn them in Divide And Conquer: Kill 5000 enemy Players anywhere outside the Road of Glory within Ashran. Weed Wacker: Defeat Yalnu without any Kirin Tor Battle-Mages dying in The Everbloom on Heroic Difficulty. Take Them Out: Defeat all of the Horde Captians within The Road of Glory listed below. Take Them Out: Defeat all of the Horde Captians within The Road of Glory listed below.
Xbox One July update brings Achievement tweaks and improved voice control
After almost a month of testing, the July update for Xbox One is here. Committed to a rapid pace of improvements, Microsoft has delivered a number of new features, including a new Snap mode for Achievements, improved voice functionality and the ability to 'Like' your favorite recorded clips through the SmartGlass remote app. The new Achievement tweaks are designed to provide instant feedback while you play games, letting you track your progress and search for online solutions to help you unlock the more difficult challenges. If you've recently invested in a Kinect-less Xbox One, today's update lets pull up the Snap menu with a double-tap of the home button (because you can't issue voice commands without Kinect). That button combination lets switch back and forth between apps too, so you'll now have more control over your multi-tasking flow. With the choice to select a spoken language, your Xbox One can also differentiate between your accent and where you live -- perfect if you're an Englishman in New York struggling to turn your console on.
Achievements Snap update rolls onto Xbox One in 'coming days'
Microsoft announced it's rolling out the July Xbox One update in the "coming days," which sounds a bit vague but the timing suggests it could begin this week. The update's biggest addition is Achievements Snap, allowing players to view their GamerScore progress on the right-hand window while they hunt down more Gs on the main side. The July update also introduces a Get Help web search option for individual Achievements, and the option to launch the Snap Center by double-tapping the Xbox button. Check out a fuller rundown of the update's new features here. [Image: Microsoft]
Breakfast Topic: What achievements have you finished?
The one positive thing about an ongoing lack of new content is the opportunity it provides to finish up any old projects that you might have lying around gathering virtual dust. At least, this is what I tell myself as my guild dwindles and I sigh longingly at screenshots of Shadowmoon Valley. The truth is, I've got a swath of old, half-finished achievements that I now have all the time in the world to tackle, so I've been using all my free time in WoW to do just that. So far I've knocked off 60 exalted reputations for my "the Beloved" title, and I've been running Magister's Terrace daily in the hope of finally snagging Kael'thas's white chocobo. I'm three mobs away from "Glorious!" and I'm finally settling into the hard part of "Insane in the Membrane." We'll see how far I actually get in that. In addition, I've been working with a few guildmates to round out some guild-level achievements we've been lacking. Nobody had done a guild run of Dire Maul, Maraudon, Sunken Temple, or Stratholme, so we blitzed through those the other day for a guild achievement. I'm also leveling a pandaren priest because we're missing that race/class combo. It's a good way to keep myself occupied while new content seems forever just over the horizon. How about you all? What accomplishments have you checked off your list while you wait?
Xbox.com to support Xbox One gameplay clips, Achievements
An incoming Xbox.com update should make being away from your Xbox One a little more bearable – starting next week, you can use the site to check Xbox One data in the form of player activity, Achievements and gameplay clips, presumably when you're definitely not supposed to be working. The above demonstration video gives us a pretty good sense of what to expect from the update, though it probably won't help us match Larry "Major Nelson" Hyrb's friend count. Whether its a personal profile or a friend's, users will be able to scroll through and play gameplay clips on a general profile, or pull up a user's entire library of clips to look through. Comparing Achievements will function similarly to how it worked with Xbox 360 records, though drilling down to a game's specific Achievement list will let users grab a large version of any Achievement's artwork. Yay, options! Major Nelson describes the impending update as "the beginning of a number of community-requested features on Xbox.com," with more news coming in the summer and fall. Considering this update reflects the highest-voted request on the Xbox forums, it sounds like rallying support for the features you'd most like to see wouldn't necessarily be a waste of time. [Image: Xbox]
Guide to the Midsummer Fire Festival 2014
The Midsummer Fire Festival will run from Saturday, June 21 to Saturday, July 5 this year. As always, check your ingame calendar to determine the exact start and stop times for your server. While there aren't actually a lot of achievements associated with the Festival (the meta consists of only six), three of them require serious travel time, and one also requires a set of dangerous trips to enemy capitals. For the trouble, Alliance players are awarded the Flame Warden title, and Horde players Flame Keeper. If you're starting from scratch, this is definitely one of the more work-intensive holidays necessary for the completion of What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been. However, even a fresh character can afford to get all the rewards from holiday vendors if you're diligent about hitting all the holiday's fires, quests, and dailies. The basics of the holiday involve "honoring" or "desecrating" a series of fires across Azeroth and Outland. For convenience, we've listed all of the fires on each continent in a specific direction so you can reach them as efficiently as possible.
Check out your sweet Xbox One achievements online
Xbox has updated its site to include achievement listings for Xbox One games you've played. You'll need to log in, but all of your wonderful Xbox One accomplishments should be on display right here.
Super Hero Squad Online brings out achievements
The achievements are coming! Hear ye, hear he! The achievements are coming! Sorry, we're trying a new type of news dispersal technique at Massively that involves riding around on horses and shouting at townfolk. In any case, Super Hero Squad Online is prepping a "doozy" of an update for the game, and one of the big additions that will be in it is an achievement system. According to the team, achievements "range from simple things like destroying a Troublebot to silly things like farting in the Asgard throne room to really hard things like getting an Adamantium score 1,000 times." There will be over 5,000 achievements added to the game including destiny achievement sets that earn special rewards.
Diablo III: Reaper of Souls' first update bringing seasonal play
Diablo III has begun testing its first big update for Reaper of Souls, which will add an updated version of Diablo II's ladder system and more. Patch 2.1.0 will also add "seasons" to the game. These are a new type of play that requires players to start a fresh character to level up. Why would someone want to do something so obviously crazy? Why, for the exclusive rewards and the chance to climb the leaderboards! There will also be season-only achievements called conquests that will be awarded to the first 1,000 players to get each one. Once a season is over, the exclusive legendaries will be added to the rest of the game. Patch 2.1.0 will also impliment cesspool levels, combat balance changes, and greater rifts. The latter will have players racing against the clock to kill monsters and try to beat the end boss before time runs out.
Chase Achievements with Xbox One's snappy July update
Most of us have fallen for the allure of Xbox Achievements at some point since their arrival with the Xbox 360. If you're still incessantly bumping your Gamerscore, the Xbox One July update's inclusion of Achievement Snap should be up your alley – rather than stopping your game to check progress, you'll soon be able to track real-time achievement progression with a quick glance to the right side of your screen. Conquering overly-vague achievement descriptions or challenging feats will also be a bit easier, thanks to a "Get Help" option that will be offered under whichever challenge a user has highlighted. Once clicked, the prompt searches the web for helpful links and videos. You can pin the Achievements they're focusing on at the top of the snapped app, too. The update will also allow you to launch Snap Center by double-tapping a button. Unfortunately, the Xbox Wire announcement doesn't specify which button that is, and only suggests to "double-tap the button on your controller." If you've already got an app attached, the same double tap will switch between controlling the app and whichever game you're playing. Language options for players in New Zealand, Ireland and Austria will be another addition, with players in those regions soon being able to use the English and German voice models from other countries if they better suit their style of speech. Users will also be able to "Like" Game DVR clips and posts in their SmartGlass activity feeds, but more interestingly, the update's description mentions support for future digital bundles and compilation discs. This is described as something to grant publishers "options for great digital bundle and disc compilation offerings," with the post suggesting that we'll see "more flexible combinations of game titles and game content" as the feature is tested. Sounds like something that could be used to bundle pieces of DLC or base games together, hopefully with the inclusion of a reasonable price tag. [Image: Microsoft]
Xbox One July update brings help for Achievements and 'Likes' on recordings
Microsoft gave viewers a peek at the continuing evolution of the Xbox One just ahead of its E3 press conference, but everyone should get to try out the new Snap mode for Achievements next month. That's because the feature is a part of the July update about to start testing, along with a few other tweaks. In case you missed the E3 preview, there's a video demo of the multitasking-ready new Achievements mode after the break, showing how it lets players track their progress while staying in the game, and even search for help on how to reach their goals.
