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Firefall update 1.2 goes live today, makes facial customizations free for all
Firefall fans are eagerly anticipating the release of new content patch Together Toward Victory later today. Along with more open-world encounters and improvements to the Broken Peninsula PvP continent, this free update includes the shooter's first five-man instance, Operation: Miru. Set in a molten cavern, the operation tasks players with putting a stop to the Chosen's plan to release a colossal monstrosity on the Accord. The open world encounters include battling to protect the supply lines at Accord Skydock and repelling multi-stage enemy assaults on the watchtowers. Broken Peninsula now offers missions via the new job boards so players can contribute to their faction. Need something to help set the mood for battle? Check out the propaganda-style clip below. What's more, Red 5 Studios is changing up basic cosmetics by making all hair, facial hair, and head cosmetic choices available to all players for free. And that's permanently, folks, not just for a limited time. Anyone who's bought any of those cosmetics within the last three months will receive a full Red Bean refund for the purchase price. In addition to all this, players will be able to try out the Rhino Dreadnaught frame -- with its increased mobility and firepower -- for free from Friday, November 21st, at 7:00 p.m. EST until Monday, November 24th, at the same time.
The Daily Grind: Do you spend time on facial customization?
ArcheAge has a lot of options for avatar facial customization. This is cool, but I wonder how many people actually use it. My guess is that few players look at their avatar's face after character creation, and fewer still notice the fine details on other avatar faces. Maybe it's just me, though. How about it, Massively readers? Do you spend any time on facial customization in the MMOs that offer it? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Crew's customization trailer puts giant offroad tires on a Mustang
If you've ever wanted to see how a late model Mustang looks when fitted with giant offroad tires, Ubisoft's latest The Crew trailer is for you. It takes you through two minutes of visual and equipment changes on Ford's venerable pony car, including Performance, Dirt, Raid, and Circuit specs. The trailer also serves as a window into The Crew's sprawling game world, which includes cityscapes, rural highways, and race tracks across the United States. Click past the cut to have a look.
Here is every watch face shown during the Apple Watch announcement
With all the attention given to the Apple Watch's functionality during this week's announcement event, it's little wonder that the device's customizable watch face was barely reported on. However, the sheer number of options demonstrated during the event gave us a brief idea of what's to come. We're looking forward to the day where Apple adds a "watch face section" to the iTunes Store, allowing you to put any animated face on your device. Akira? Steam Boat Willy? Active images of national parks? GIFs? Only the future holds the answer. Until then, here is every watch face Apple displayed during the announcement. The faces featuring images are animated so when you see them on your device every butterfly wing will flap, jellyfish will sway, Mickey Mouse will dance, flowers will bloom, and the world will turn.
Apple decal sellers saw a tremendous spike in sales following 'Stickers' ad
Your worst fear, confirmed: Engadget's staff laptop of choice is the MacBook Air. Other than the massive checks we each personally receive from Apple (har har), it's our go-to laptop because it's light, fast, and great for the kind of work we do. It doesn't hurt that it looks sweet with stickers as well, of course. And after Apple highlighted users' proclivity for decking out their MBAs in a recent video (seen below), the world of laptop decal sellers was suddenly cast in the spotlight. That spotlight resulted in a lot of new buyers, according to a report on MacStories. Quite a few more, actually. One of the vendors MacStories spoke with saw orders increase by 400 percent since the ad aired, and page views jumped from a typical 500 per day all the way up to a peak of some 4,500 last week. If you dug any of those stickers, well, our sister site TUAW searched out links for where to buy those 74 decals. And while a majority of those depicted are easily found online, for those that aren't, the site scoured Etsy and other places for suitable stand-ins. Now for the hard part: picking out the perfect decal. Ben Gilbert contributed to this report
Leaderboard: How much time do you spend customizing avatar outfits?
OK, I'm spending entirely too much time customizing my avatar outfits in Star Wars: The Old Republic. I originally re-upped my sub in order to polish off my last couple of class stories, but now I've gotten sucked into crafting and, by extension, the substantial outfit collection minigame. Which is bizarre because in meatspace my fashion sense boils down to the first pair of jeans and corresponding t-shirt/sweatshirt that tumbles out of my closet. What about you, Leaderboard readers? How much time do you spend customizing your MMO avatar outfits? Vote after the cut! Ever wish that you could put to rest a long-standing MMO debate once and for all? Then welcome to the battle royal of Massively's Leaderboard, where two sides enter the pit o' judgment -- and only one leaves. Vote to make your opinion known, and see whether your choice tops the Leaderboard!
Let's all dye our armor black in The Elder Scrolls Online
When The Elder Scrolls Online's third patch arrives next month, players will be bombarded with customization options, says a new developer blog on the official website. ZeniMax outlines its plans for armor dyes, which come in over 200 colors in accordance with the "artistic scheme" of the game, including rare iridescent shades. Just wanna dye everything black to show what a badass you are? You're in luck; in ESO, unlike many other MMOs, black will be a snap to obtain. In fact, dyes unlock as players complete specific achievements in a variety of gameplay modes from PvP to questing to crafting. The studio will also shower guild leaders with new guild ranks to play with, new heraldry for use on guild tabards, and new traders that guilds can rent to vend guild goods to the public.
WoW's Warlords of Draenor beta: The disappointment of garrisons
Once a player finishes the introductory quests for Warlords of Draenor, the Horde and Alliance gangs go in separate directions, and I had slightly higher hopes for the rest of my beta experience. The introduction was kind of a wash, a climactic third act delivered we'd been left out of the first two acts unless we'd read novels and participated in an event that's not yet live. But Shadowmoon Valley was where I could start seeing the pure promise of this expansion realized, the beautiful idea of a Draenor still filled with Draenei before the corruption and assault of the Horde, an alien landscape far from what was familiar on Azeroth. Not too far, of course, but just far enough to feel like we'd really come to a strange new place. And, of course, the first thing you do is unlock your Garrison. If my first impression of the WoD beta, which I posted last week, was negative, then this is where it took a sharp nosedive into something resembling rage. But let me start off with a statement that might seem to make no sense, in this context: I've always been fine with housing never being a part of World of Warcraft.
The Nexus Telegraph: The basics of crafting a WildStar build
There are few things I love so much as writing a column for June 30th only to find out on the 30th that the patch I'm discussing is going live on July 1st. You know, when it's too late to change anything. I really would have been happy to have found that out before the day. But, hey, WildStar's first patch came out, and now I've had a couple of weeks to explore it a bit. Am I happy with it? Sufficiently, yes, although I haven't yet digested it in full. For one month out from launch, I can't complain much. Of course, that's not the first thing that I want to talk about today. I want to talk about builds. Rather than giving you the absolute best-of-the-best builds for tanking and DPS and so forth, which I can't quite do, I want to help you figure out how to make a build that works. It's a satisfyingly interactive, and there are lots of very functional options however you choose to build your character.
Pull off combos, mashes with the Razer Atrox for Xbox One
With details of Killer Instinct's second season coming in, it'd make sense if you've considered picking up a fight stick for the Xbox One. Lucky for you, Razer just revealed the Razer Atrox at EvO 2014, a $199.99 build that uses buttons and joysticks manufactured by Sanwa. The Atrox comes with a detachable 13-foot USB cable, a screwdriver and an alternate, bat-shaped top for its joystick, all of which can be stored in an internal storage space. You won't be stuck looking at the Razer logo while pouring hours into your favorite fighter either – the Atrox's top plate can be swapped out for art of your preference, and the bottom of its internal compartment uses honeycomb plating, meaning you can mount screws wherever you want. You can read up on the Atrox's specs on its listing page, and if customizing artwork appeals to you, there's a template linked in the "Fully mod capable construction" section that should make planning that a bit easier. The Atrox isn't yet available, but you can register for the chance to buy one from Razer's first production run. [Image: Razer]
Blizzard's vision and player choice
This past Thursday, Cory Stockton (aka Mumper) answered a simple question on Twitter. He told players that the faction hubs would no longer be located in the Temple of Karabor and Bladespire Fortress, but on the island of Ashran. The firestorm of controversy that followed seemed to take Blizzard by surprise. Lore took to the forums to explain the change. He gave Blizzard's reasoning, including the lore explanation for the new hubs. Far from mollifying the player base, it only served to inflame those who disagreed with the shift in locale. My response is this: Why not both? Why must one city or the other be the One Hub to Rule Them All? Why can't we, the players, choose which city to bind our hearthstone to -- without being punished for it? Why does there have to be one "right" answer on such a basic quality of life issue? Let us choose and use phasing so we only see our own choice as a hub. Although I don't condone the extremely negative way that some reacted to the announcement, the anger didn't surprise me at all. It points to a problem that has loomed over WoW for a long time: lack of player options and personalization.
Elder Scrolls Online begins testing Update 2
Elder Scrolls Online's Update 2 is currently on the public test server, and any interested subscriber can now check it out. ZeniMax announced today that its test server is now open to all active account holders and gave details for the game's second update. Update 2, which is scheduled for June 23rd, will contain a new veteran dungeon (Crypt of Hearts), a field of view slider, more object interactions, and plenty of bug fixes and balance tweaks. In the team's "Road Ahead" letter, ZeniMax informed the community that it's working to carefully balance the classes, get the EU megaserver online, create additional player customization systems, rework quests, and improve the veteran system.
WAR40K: Eternal Crusade creates entire planet from scratch
While nobody can claim that the Warhammer 40,000 universe is lacking in locations, the team over at Behaviour Interactive thought it was important enough to create a new planet specifically for Eternal Crusade's setting. Art Director Ghislain Barbe talks about the planet Arkhona in his latest dev diary, saying that it lies smack dab "in the dead center of a void of systems." Arkhona used to be home to the Xenos, but now is ground zero for a five-way tug-of-war when it's not trying to tear itself apart with natural disasters. Or as Barbe puts it, "Death has come to Arkhona and it is ready for a second service." The look of the planet is replete with abandoned structures, shattered chasms, and diverse environments. Barbe also mentioned that one of the priorities of the art team is to support tons of customization. "Lots of research was done to see how far we could push what we offer without harming game performance," he said.
Darkfall Unholy Wars unveils the new custom roles
You want to do your own thing in Darkfall Unholy Wars, but how are you going to do that? Simple -- you're going to make use of the game's upcoming custom roles to build exactly your sort of character. This represents a fundamental shift to the game's mechanics, and the latest development post on the official site stresses that this first iteration is going to be modified over time. But it's still something novel, and it's a chance to have more control over your character's development. Players will be able to pick out any 9 school skills (with 1 Ultimate skill) and several common skills for a given build, with a grand total of 16 skills from school skills and common skills. Players will also be able to mix and match armor types to create just the right sort of playstyle. Builds can be altered at any point if a character has been out of combat mode for 15 minutes, so you're not locked into one configuration. Check out the official post for more details on the mechanical shift.
Firefox gets a big redesign that's all about customization
Firefox has had a tough time standing out among browsers -- Chrome gives you Google's ecosystem, while both Internet Explorer and Safari have the luxury of being system defaults. Why would you choose Mozilla's software over the others? As of today, customization may be the answer. The organization has just released the finished version of Firefox 29, a major overhaul that makes personalization easy on the desktop. Its new customization mode lets you put any feature or service in the toolbar or menu bar; if you just have to keep a Pinterest add-on available at all times, you can make it happen. It's quicker to customize your bookmarks, too.
Minecraft video demonstrates world customization update
Minecraft developer Mojang showed off one piece of the forthcoming update for the PC game in a new video today, which offers more options for world customization in the game. The video shows the game's 16 new terrain-modifying sliders, allowing players to manually set the foundation of their Minecraft worlds down to its "depth base size" and "upper limit scale." Additionally, the update will include other customization functions, such as the ability to decide which structures are generated by the game like caves, villages, temples and strongholds. Players will also have the option to set the number of dungeons and the height of their world's sea level in the game. If all that sounds too complex, Mojang included seven preset worlds and their slider settings to get players acquainted with the building tools. There's no word on when the Minecraft update is scheduled to arrive. [Image: Mojang]
Check out WildStar's new body customization options
Earlier this month we discovered that Carbine was planning to add additional (as in "more than one") body types for each race and gender in WildStar. The changes are in with this weekend's beta test update, and YouTube sensation and friend of Massively Richie "BogOtter" Procopio made a 21-minute video looking at all of the new options for characters. He's got the video broken down into sub-sections, so if you want to skip to a certain race/gender combo, you can do so. He also includes the new hairstyles that went in with the patch. Give the video a watch after the break and let us know whether Carbine did a good job with these additions or not!
WildStar's beta patch expands character customization, balances classes
Carbine has just released WildStar's UI 2.0 patch notes, and while most relate to bug fixes and modest game enhancements, there are some real gems casually included in the list. Like these two: Added new character hair options in Character Creation. Character Creation now offers various body types for all races and genders. Oh, you care more about gameplay than about customization? Fine, fine: The patch notes have that too. All the classes got a hefty balance pass with plenty of bug fixes to boot. So did tradeskills. And the UI. And pretty much everything else. "Promise me no one's going to freak out about balance changes until you've had a chance to play with the new patch. Deal? Deal," the game's Community Lead David Bass implored on Twitter. If you're recovered from reading the Warlords of Draenor alpha patch notes, then enjoy another helping courtesy of WildStar's over on the official forums.
Star Trek Online shows off a revamp to player kits
Kits are your main method for grabbing ground combat abilities in Star Trek Online. You equip a kit and you're good to go. Despite that, they're also rather limited, as there are a limited number of different kit types and each kit of a given type contains a very set number of abilities. Season 9 is thus deploying an extensive overhaul of the kit system, allowing players to build the sorts of kits that they want to use in a more flexible framework. The core of the system is simple. Abilities are split into two categories for each profession: Assault and Strategic for Tactical, Medical and Research for Science, and Fabrication and Mechanic for Engineering. Kits will become frameworks that contain skill bonuses as well as slots to equip abilities, with each slot allowing any skill within a given category. For more details on how the new kits can be acquired and how the flexibility will benefit players, take a look at the full development blog.
Albion Online's alpha begins today, updates highlighted in video
Are you interested in diving into Albion Online's closed alpha that launched today? If so, zip on over to the official site; the cross-platform sandbox offered a limited number of keys for this test run, and you can still sign up for a chance at a testing spot even if you missed out on the giveaway. Testers will see new updates that include customizable player housing which can affect player stats, new guild functionality including customizable coats of arms and searching for guild tools, a local marketplace for trade, and an in-game mail system. Players can also choose from more male avatars as well as the new female avatars. Get a glimpse of house building as well as the other updates in the video below. [Source: Sandbox Interactive press release]
