expansion-launch
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Star Trek Online: Delta Rising is live today
It's time to start boldly going all over again. Star Trek Online's second expansion, Delta Rising, is live today. That means that players can find their way into the Delta Quadrant, explore an expanded level cap, and take flight in a new set of starships as they take on familiar and yet novel enemies. The expansion also brings in several veteran Star Trek actors to reprise their roles: Robert Picardo (The Doctor), Garrett Wang (Harry Kim), Jeri Ryan (Seven of Nine), Tim Russ (Tuvok), and Ethan Phillips (Neelix). Delta Rising introduces captain specializations for leveling past the previous cap of 50, allowing players to reach the ranks of Fleet Admiral and Dahar Master while exploring new specialization trees and unlocking passive and active benefits. But there's no need to take our word for it, as the expansion is live now. Log in, patch up, and head out into the Delta Quadrant.
Dragons take flight in EQII's Tears of Veeshan today
It's all about the dragons. You just can't get more quintessential fantasy than dragons, and EverQuest II's newest expansion is all about dragons. Sure, there are goblins and bow-wielding healers as well, but you can't miss that the focus of Tears of Veeshan is on those massive fire-breathing beasts. From dragons attacking Qeynos and Freeport to the evil dragon arch-enemy bent on destroying all time and space to the dragon afterlife, it is all about the dragons. Heck, even the new AAs are from dragons! So it's safe to say if you aren't a really a fan of wyverns in all their forms (be they live or dead!), you might want to skip this expansion. If, however, you love them in all their scaly glory, you've got plenty to look forward to. While waiting for ToV to take flight on live servers, I got to tour the highlights of the expansion with Producer Holly Longdale, Creative Director Akil Hooper, and Game Designer Carlos Mora. And from them I learned a few interesting new tidbits about EQII's 10th expansion. Want to know how you, too, can get Qho killed? I thought that might get your attention.
Age of Wushu's Ultimate Scrolls expansion launches November 13
Grab your parkas (or sunblock, if you live in the southwest) because winter is right around the corner! Age of Wushu's Ultimate Scrolls winter expansion is coming in less than two weeks. On November 13th, players will be able to enter Ancient China's forbidden grounds and test themselves in new school-specific instances. Other incoming features include secret scripts (in the form of teachings of the treasured Helianthus Codex and Star Vortex), a new tier of martial art skills with ultimate scrolls, and the new marriage system. You can read more about the expansion in Massively's behind-the-scenes interview. And to help tide you over (or just tease you some more), Snail Games also offers the following expansion trailer.
The Daily Grind: What was your most memorable launch day?
The day World of Warcraft launched its first expansion, my wife and I stayed up for the midnight launch. We rushed home, installed the game, made our characters, and slept for a few fitful hours before getting back up and playing until we could play no more. Pizza was ordered, soda was drunk, and the entire day was a celebration of The Burning Crusade. We don't play any longer, but all I need to do to bring a smile to both of our faces is to just mention that launch. Considering how important MMOs are to many of us, I'd bet it's almost certain that you've had a launch day that meant the world to you, a day when you broke from your normal routine and did something really neat and out of the box. So we want to know about it today. What was your most memorable launch day? And was it a game you still play or one you've left behind? 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!
Forsaken World kicks off its latest expansion, War of Shadows
If you're a stalwart fan of Forsaken World, your winter holiday of choice came early this year. The game's latest expansion, War of Shadows, has just gone live, bringing with it an entirely new race for players. Lycans can transform from their normal humanoid state into hulking wolf-creatures, providing a variety of new abilities and upgrades while they remain transformed. Other races have also seen several adjustments to bring them in line with the new kids on the block. Even if you're not interested in new races or balancing old ones, the expansion features a new zone (Eclipse Hollow) and new dungeons (Ancient's Battleground and Hell Road), which provide new quests and challenges for players. Take a look at some screenshots of the expansion in our gallery, look at the full trailer for the expansion just past the break, and then get on in and start running around with your new wolfman. [Source: Perfect World Entertainment press release] %Gallery-107517%
EverQuest Rain of Fear round up and launch-day video
Grab your umbrellas, folks, because the Rain of Fear is finally here! Yes, EverQuest's 19th expansion is live on servers now, and all the Erudites, Dwarves, Frogloks, Iksar, Ogres, Humans, and 10 other races can dive in and sink their teeth into all the new content. With new zones, a new collection systems, offline selling, and more, there is bound to be something for everyone. Have a question about one of these new features? Or maybe you are stuck in the real-life office grind and can't log in yet? Either way, you can get the scoop on the new expansion in the many opinion pieces, videos, hands-on experiences, and reveals after the break. And as an added bonus, watch the brand-spanking-new launch-day trailer! Then, if that still isn't enough, listen to the EQ soundtrack until you can get home and get in-game.
EverQuest II delays expansion launch overnight [Updated]
While today was supposed to be an exciting day for EverQuest II -- the launching of both its latest expansion Age of Discovery and game-wide free-to-play -- it has turned into a technical nightmare for the SOE crew. The game and website were pulled offline for maintenance in preparation for the launch, but what was supposed to be merely extended downtime grew longer and longer until EQII players had been waiting most of the day just to log in. Then, late tonight, EQII's Brasse posted the following on Facebook, informing the community that the expansion and F2P launch would have to wait until December 7th at the earliest: Ladies and Gentlemen, Friends and Trolls... We have just evaluated the status of the current update and have come to the conclusion that we can either unlock servers and risk broken content, or ensure that we provide the best experience possible and delay the update to tomorrow morning. We have to do it RIGHT. For all of you and for all of us. So please, bear with us, relax overnight, and let us sortie into the new day together. Community will be in office at 7:00am PST and will immediately review status and give you all an update. We are aiming for morning and working as hard as we possibly can. [Update] A little later, she posted this: A final update this evening... Smed would like us to share that with the Platform Team working all night to complete the maintenance, we expect to be up at 10:00am PST. [Update 2] SOE's CTO posted another bit of info on the downtime. [Update 3] And it appears that EverQuest II's servers are back online!
Coming back for the Cataclysm
Tomorrow sees the launch of the third expansion to World of Warcraft... but odds are you already knew that. It's been hard to miss the lead-up, even if you weren't playing the game and thereby missed out on seeing the entire planet get blown apart. And it's probably been equally difficult to fight back the siren song of the game, taunting you to come back and play again... or play for the first time if you've never tried it. If you've been proud of yourself for resisting, you might want to look away, because there are many reasons to start playing again or start up for the first time. The expansion has brought with it a number of improvements and boosts to the game, some obvious and some not. If you've been considering coming back or trying the game out, there's never been a better occasion than right this moment -- whatever your reason for leaving might have been.
Pirates of the Burning Sea expansion launches tomorrow
Flying Lab Software has announced the new live date for Power & Prestige, the first expansion for their Pirates of the Burning Sea MMORPG. The update, originally scheduled to sail in August, is bringing quite a few new features to the high seas title, including ship revamps, port governance, and new mission content. Community manager Tom "Rhaegar" Atkinson-Edwards checks in on the official website to give us the low-down on what to expect with the patch. Due to the expansion's extensive content and complexity, the folks at Flying Lab are estimating a 12-hour downtime tomorrow as they work their magic. You can view the full update notes for the expansion on the official Pirates of the Burning Sea support website.
