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Lord of the Rings Online lets you add a game wallet by lightening your real wallet
If you're a Lord of the Rings Online veteran, you've probably accumulated a large number of different barter items for various upgrades. Skirmish tokens, regional tokens, festival tokens... all vital to getting various gumballs, all clogging up inventory space that could go toward other items. The development team has heard your cries for a solution, and thus, the improved barter wallet has come into existence. Unfortunately, this upgrade comes at a price -- just about $10, specifically. Needless to say, some players and subscribers will be rather galled by the fact that this feature is being sold. On the other hand, player testimonials indicate that the upgrade works wonderfully, and it's a single account-wide purchase for all of your past, present, and future characters. Whether or not you prefer to grab the account-wide upgrade or wish to abstain on matters of principle is a personal decision, but there's no denying that the freed inventory spaces are certainly appealing.
Famous poetry responsible for Cataclysm item names?
The incredible Perculia (content manager over at Wowhead) has just put up one of my favorite posts about World of Warcraft ever -- Cataclysm starter epics, justice point gear, blue drops from instances, and more are all named after or refer to famous lines and fragments from poetry by T.S. Eliot and John Keats. Truth be told, I want to know the story of the moment when all of this snapped into place for Perculia and it became about finding an item for almost every stanza from these poems. It's a spectacular effort. As I read her post and clicked on items, it became abundantly clear that this is far from coincidence. For instance, from the blog, Perculia has analyzed this particular stanza from Keat's Ode to a Nightingale: 'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, But being too happy in thine happiness, That thou, light-wingèd Dryad of the trees, In some melodious plot Of beechen green, and shadows numberless, Singest of summer in full-throated ease. From Perculia's finding, we see that Keats' poems are used mostly for justice point gear at ilevel 359, with most of the dungeon 346 blues owing their monikers to his work. Eliot's poems are the source of many reputation rewards. Check out the full post on the Flavor Text blog.
Fallen Earth's newest patch aimed at improving a life of crafting
Crafting has always been one of the major elements of Fallen Earth, and with good cause, really: you're in a post-apocalyptic wasteland and you can't just buy all your supplies down at the S-Mart. But that doesn't mean crafting is all roses and happy thoughts; some items are far rarer than necessary and others present in useless abundance. It's ripe for some revisions, and that's exactly what the game's newest patch, set for release on October 4th, is meant to address. Several recipes have been streamlined, with unnecessary parts removed from the equation to make a crafter's life easier. At the same time, craftable items are being removed from merchant inventories, encouraging players to seek out other players or assemble the items themselves. If you're feeling a bit leery of the changes, though, fret not -- you still have a couple of days left to stock up on materials.
Battlefield Heroes go Savage in new content pack
Thoughts we had while watching this Battlefield Heroes trailer for the new Savage Heroes content pack coming out this summer: Whoa, EA is really changing around the ol' Battlefield formula with this one, eh? Axes? "Cold North"? Is it possible they're turning the free-to-play persistent online shooter into a free-to-play hack-and-slash deathmatch? That would be pretty rad! Oh, no wait. It's actually some new savage-styled skins and costumes for the Battlefield Heroes fighters. Oh well -- that's pretty rad, too. As the trailer says, the new pack is available in the game's online store right now.
Crash the Rusty Hearts beta with style with enhanced keys from Massively!
Rusty Hearts is heading into closed beta on July 27th, something that participants in our last giveaway of beta keys have no doubt zeroed in on. But we've got another batch of keys to give away just before the beta launches, and this time they're coming with a little something extra. Actually, several extras. Players who use one of the Rusty Hearts beta keys from Massively will be entitled to a special costume on the first character created -- the Night Witch costume for Angela, the Bright Uniform for Tude, or the Dark Seal outfit for Frantz. You'll also be granted a seven-day Gold Pass and a smattering of items, which should be enough to kick-start your beta experience nicely. What's that? You already took an entry from our first giveaway? Well, not to worry -- if you grabbed a previous key to the game from us, you'll still get all of the bonuses. But if you haven't yet nabbed a spot in the beta and the latest Perfect World outing interests you, maybe now would be the time to grab a code?
Valve relaunching Team Fortress 2 as free-to-play title
Develop has posted an interview with Team Fortress 2 developer Robin Walker in which he says that the company has decided to make the popular class-based shooter completely free-to-play, supported only by microtransactions. Walker says the game has experimented with multiple price points over its long history (including allowing players to play for free during temporary periods) and that making this transition now "feels like a fairly straightforward next step along the 'Games as Services' path we've been walking down for a while now." Walker also says that this is a model that specifically fits the multiplayer game at this moment in the product's life, when Valve is trying to reach as many players as it possibly can. The permanent price drop won't affect development on the game at all, but monetization will only go through the game's item shop. You can read more in the interview, live now over at Develop. There's no official word on any of this from Valve yet, on either the Steam blog or the official Team Fortress 2 site. We are scheduled to hear about the next update today (and even see a "Meet the Medic" video) and the game was set to go free for just a week, but this is obviously a more permanent direction. We've contacted Valve and will post more here when we get it. Update: Valve's Doug Lombardi has responded to us with a simple confirmation: "Yep." Enjoy your free TF2, kids! Update: The site has been updated as well. The game's completely free to play, forever!
Infinity Blade: Arena coming out May 19
The long-awaited multiplayer update to Epic Games' iOS hit Infinity Blade has finally been revealed, and it will be landing on the App Store later on this week. The update is called Infinity Blade: Arena, and it allows players to play as a Titan or a Knight, battling against their friends. The mechanics aren't completely clear yet, but as you can see above, the battles will have players hacking and slashing against each other, which is close enough to the game's standard format. The update also includes an Arena mode, where players can take on a continuous stream of enemies to see how long they can last. It also includes a ton of new items, including Holiday helmets, as well as lots of other rings, swords, shields and armor to pick up and master with the game's XP system. Facebook integration is also new and will let players show off characters right on their Facebook pages. Sounds great. The update is free to owners of Infinity Blade (which we should all be at this point), but if you don't have the game yet, you can grab it for US$5.99 on the App Store. If that's too much, just stay tuned -- odds are we'll see a sale to celebrate this update sooner or later.
APB Reloaded open beta coming May 18th
Mark your calendars, APB fans. May 18th is a big day in the history of the resurrected title since it marks the official start of open beta. Bjorn Book-Larsson broke the good news yesterday on the APB Reloaded blog, and he had a few other interesting nuggets to discuss as well. GamersFirst's character restoration service should make its first appearance today around 4:00 p.m. PDT, and APB veterans from the Realtime Worlds days will be able to reclaim their old avatars and customizations. If you're unsure if you qualify, check your inbox as GamersFirst will be sending out email notices to everyone with an available reclaim. Book-Larsson also talks briefly about some of the company's plans for dealing with cheaters. No details are given, of course, but GamersFirst is apparently very aware of all the attempted aimbotting going on thus far in the beta. Finally, there's a blurb concerning new item rollouts in the coming days, as well as some info relating to the game's payment interface. Head to the official APB Reloaded blog for more.
Final Fantasy XIV launches another notorious preview
We're not sure exactly when Final Fantasy XIV's large December update will be going live, but we do know that one of its major inclusions will be the addition of notorious monsters. The first of these powerful beasts has already been previewed, but a new one is now being shown for all to see... not that it would be easy to miss the enormous Tarbh Uisge. One of the last great buffalo, his mind has been eaten away through years of suppressive magics, leaving him as a bundle of violent rage. Tarbh Uisge appears to be in the same category as the previously demonstrated Deadeyes in more ways than one. This great beast is linked to a levequest as well, but he also drops the same set of runestones as his contemporary. The Templar armor previewed alongside the buffalo, therefore, can be obtained by players slaying either beast and accumulating drops, which frees players to pursue both or neither as they see fit. Final Fantasy XIV should be releasing this newest opponent in the near future, which should yield a notable boon to everyone not trampled underfoot.
The Mog Log: Patching holes
Due to a general case of it's-the-blasted-holiday-season, I didn't get nearly as much playtime with Final Fantasy XIV following the November patch as I would have liked. I had to wait a couple days to really sit down and engage in a nice play session to really get a feel for all of the changes that had been wrought on the game by the update. And in a way, I'm glad I knew that I would need some time and thus focused on the community piece last Saturday, because it's meant more time to really appreciate the improvements. The short version, if you're allergic to page breaks, is that this patch solves a huge number of issues, to the point that I imagine many players who couldn't see past those issues to the core game will be better able to see what's at the root. But there's a lot of unpacking to do, so I'd still recommend hopping past the cut for a breakdown of the patch as a whole as well as a brief look for what the December update still has to do for Final Fantasy XIV.
The Tattered Notebook: Never leave home without it
This week, I decided it's time to dump the bag. My characters often accumulate items at such a rapid rate that my bags quickly resemble those of a typical teenager at the mall. Any time I resign myself to plunking down at the bank to sort my inventory, I end up shocked at some of the stuff I bring home. However, there are some items in EverQuest II that are lifesavers, and others that can really be handy in a pinch. Let's take a look at a few items that you should never leave home without.
Icarus publishes latest Fallen Earth State of the Game
Fallen Earth fans have had a rough couple of weeks (to say nothing of the staff at Icarus Studios). The post-apocalyptic sci-fi MMORPG was recently hit with a round of layoffs that impacted several key people and likely left subscribers wondering as to the future of everyone's favorite digital wasteland. Happily, Icarus senior game designer Marie Croall is here with a lengthy State of the Game letter that puts a few of our fears to rest and outlines a path forward. Though Croall doesn't directly address the recent layoffs, preferring instead to focus on the upcoming development schedule, it's clear that there are a lot of improvements incoming, which bodes well for Fallen Earth's fans and future. Croall talks about Sector 4, a level cap increase, and new gear, consumables, and recipes that will soon see the light of day. Graphical upgrades and physical combat changes are also on the way, with the latter being pushed to the test server before the end of the month. The Fallen Earth team will also be improving high-end group content, tweaking the serendipity system, and continuing to balance Progress Towns throughout December. Finally, look for long-awaited additional character slots to be available in the Fallen Earth store as early as next week. Check out the full letter on the official forums, and also look for the Fallen Earth devs on next week's Massively Speaking podcast with Shawn and Rubi.
Warhammer Online drops 1.3.6 today
The odds weren't in favor of us seeing the newest patch for Warhammer Online so soon... but that works just fine, since the patch itself is Against All Odds. Even if you're not using it to set up a lame joke, however, patch 1.3.6 is going live today after slightly extended server maintenance, bringing with it several updates and improvements to the game. The eponymous Against All Odds mechanic is one of the central changes, giving a side without sufficient numbers in an RvR lake bonus rewards for persistence. 1.3.6 also brings two major changes to items in the game. The first is the addition of an appearance system, allowing players to make their armor look like whatever set they want without losing the benefits of high-end rewards. The second is equally significant, splitting the high-end Sovereign armor into two sets to celebrate alternate playstyles for each class. As always, there are a number of adjustments and bug fixes listed in the full patch notes, but Warhammer Online players should be happy enough knowing that the game's latest patch is live and ready to enjoy.
Earthrise offers new insights into weaponry
Weapons are useful. Nearly any MMO player will be happy to expound on the virtues of them, and so it's no surprise that Earthrise will be featuring its own selection. The development team recently released information and a few renders of the weapons that will be coming out for the post-apocalyptic game, detailing shotguns, assault rifles, and precision rifles. the forum post also details that each skill line is tied to a specific item -- meaning that shotguns don't simply encompass firing shells, but an entire suite of abilities based around using a shotgun. Assault rifles are flexible, with both burst fire and sustained fire possible, as well as grenade launchers to give them area-of-effect attacks. Shotguns, meanwhile, specialize in close-range brutality, allowing for crowd control and quick dispatching of targets. Precision rifles take the "sniper" role, allowing players to hit single targets with extreme force over long distances. The full rundown can be found on the post on the official forums, which should be welcome news for players eager to hear more on the slightly-delayed science fiction MMO.
Breakfast Topic: A few of your favorite things
This article has been brought to you by Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. Every once in a while, Blizzard truly raises the bar in designing a raid. My personal favorite is Ulduar from patch 3.1. The boss encounters required strategy, while still remaining unique, and the graphics in the zone are some of the coolest things in the game. However, one of the only things that a character can permanently keep from a raid is the loot.The legendary mace Val'anyr, Hammer of Ancient Kings and the Starshard Edge off Algalon the Observer are by far some of the coolest item graphics I've seen in this expansion. Even in Icecrown Citadel, few items can measure up to the epicness of these stellar designs. After all, one can only see so many bone-spiked maces before they begin to get old. While a few items like Bryntroll the Bone Arbiter are pretty exciting and unique, Blizzard didn't even create new item models for the climactic boss in the Lich King: only two of the 28 weapons (excluding heroic versions) that the final boss drops are unique, and one of those is repeated between 10- and 25-man. In my opinion, Blizzard could have taken a few more days to design some really exciting and unique weapon designs before releasing the Lich King. While I'm no hardcore raider, I would really love to sit in Dalaran exhibiting a one-of-a-kind weapon from the hardest boss in the expansion, just as the Ulduar raiders could back in 3.1. What do you think? Is there an item that sets the bar in graphic design? Do you think Blizzard should spend more time on item graphics so there aren't as many repeats for end-game encounters, or does a simple recoloring make the item cool enough for you? Have you ever wanted to write for WoW.com? Your chance may be right around the corner. Watch for our next call for submissions for articles via Seed, the Aol guest writer program that brings your words to WoW.com. The next byline you see here may be yours!
MyTown 4.0 adds item creation, location tips
Booyah has released MyTown 4.0 for the iPhone, the latest update to their extremely popular check-in game, and it adds a whole new round of social functions to the system. Properties that you own (which you get by checking-in at real-life properties) can now create items of their own, and different categories, like shopping or dining, will create different types of items. Additionally, items can now be traded with friends in the game, and all of this adds a new level to the gameplay -- not only are you earning points for checking-in, but you're collecting items, and those items can give you extra boosts or otherwise mix up the game. Plus, actual virtual items helps out Booyah's in-app sales, and I'm sure they will eventually put some of their branding agreements to work by making some of those created items brand-name products. Version 4.0 also adds "location tips," which allow users to leave comments at certain locations (to enable Yelp-style discussions), and check-ins now recharge over time, while max level players can check-in as much as they want. MyTown's growth has been phenomenal, and with the amount of work going into the app, that growth likely won't slow down any time soon. The app is free and on the App Store right now.
TUAW's Daily App: Call of Atlantis
I am really looking forward to Puzzle Quest 2, since I was such a fan of the first game on XBLA. But until that comes out, Call of Atlantis is a polished gem-matcher that combines match-3 gameplay with a little bit of story and adventure. I believe it started out as a PC game, but you wouldn't be able to tell -- the graphics look like they were designed for the iPhone, and the gameplay fits perfectly on a mobile device. If you've played any match-3 games, you already know the score here -- switch icons on a board to match up three of the same kind, and those will disappear, bringing more into play. But Call of Atlantis mixes things up a bit by providing items to grab -- the idea on each stage is to get certain parts of a larger item (or special powerup items) to the bottom of the screen, and off the board. Complete all the pieces of the main item and the level is over. Matching four or five of a kind will power up a meter that will help clear the board out, and collecting powerup items like Bombs will clear out part of a board for you as well. It's simple gameplay, but a strategy quickly unfolds -- do you clear that enticing five of a kind, or go for the quick three right below the item you need to collect? And while there is an overarching story of Gods and Atlantis, complete with art and voiceover, it's just icing on the cake of sweet, sweet gameplay. Call of Atlantis is a steal at 99 cents -- it's a budget title that feels and plays like a much more expensive game.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: We're all in this together
Community can be a funny thing. We pick the community we're in -- in this case, City of Heroes -- but we don't pick any of the other members. Sometimes they're all really stand-out folks, and sometimes... well, sometimes your choices are between Flower Power, Slug-fest, and Hammer Time. Lucky for us, the community that's formed itself around our favorite superhero MMO is pretty darn good at its worst and outright awesome most of the time. (And a proper shout-out to our community for the game right here, while I'm at it.) To be fair, we're a bit on the lean side at the moment. After all, we're not getting another update for a couple of months and we almost all know it. Issue 17 is pretty awesome, but we also know that Going Rogue is just around the corner, and so most of us are focused a bit more on the future. But we've still got a lot to talk about in our day-to-day adventures. That both helps everyone to feel that much more welcome, and it helps facilitate this week's look at some of the noteworthy community threads that have been cropping up lately.
The Daily Grind: Taking inventory
One of the great points of commonality for MMOs is the time-honored tradition of inventory management. Specifically, the minigame wherein you have to decide what to keep, sell, throw away, or hold on to with a limited amount of space. One of the major contentions regarding the Allods Online cash shop at launch (aside from the huge debuff only removable via cash shop items) was how much it used to cost just to make a minor upgrade to your inventory storage. The prices have since changed, of course, but the irritation at inventory management was obvious. Nearly every game has to decide how much of a management aspect should be involved and the right amount of space for a given character in any stage of their career. Moreover, these aspects usually change with time, as stack sizes increase and decrease with patches. Some players see space management as a relic of games like Dungeons and Dragons, which used it to try and maintain realism in broad strokes. Others see it as an obnoxious limitation on gameplay that's long ceased to have any connection with its original purpose. So what do you think? Is inventory management a good thing, or is it one of those gameplay elements you'd like to see go the way of the dodo?
It's coming... FarmVille heading to iPhone and iPad
Some will cheer, others will groan, but it seems that the love-it-or-hate-it Facebook game, FarmVille, is on its way to iPhone and iPad. A recent search of domains has uncovered both farmvilleiphone.com and farmvilleipad.com, both reserved by the same company currently overseeing Zynga's official FarmVille website. This means that sooner or later, we'll probably be seeing official clients for Apple's mobile devices. I've played FarmVille, and I find it to be not so much a game as a "social engine" -- it's basically a bunch of hooks to keep you "playing" and keep you passing gifts and virtual items between your friends. But it's definitely popular, and having official apps for the iPhone (or perhaps even just sites made to access on the iPhone -- the main game is currently done up in Flash) will likely only increase that popularity. It'll be interesting to see if Zynga makes its way over to these platforms. Ngmoco has already usurped part of the FarmVille mindshare with its popular We Rule game, but if the real thing shows up, it's unclear whether people will go back to the original, stick with the new, or even play (and spend money on) both. We'll have to see. [via Joystiq]
