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Swordsman launches July 29th
Are you excited for Swordsman but not willing to jump into an open beta test without a launch date? Then all we can tell you is that it's time to get jumping because Swordsman will fully launch on July 29th. The launch will bring along the Demon Pit event, pitting players against demons underground in exchange for the most powerful equipment in the game. Launch will also apparently bring "streamlining" to the player experience, although we don't know the details just yet. If you're not even sure what Swordsman is, the short version is that it's a wuxia action MMO based on the novels of Louis Cha. The long version can be found in the producer's trailer just past the break or in our recent stream of the game. The even longer version... well, the game is in open beta, so you can always just download it and try it out for yourself. That would work. [Source: Perfect World Entertainment press release]
Path of Exile patches in guilds, classes, and balance changes for launch
It's not fair to call Path of Exile's pre-launch patch a kitchen sink patch; this is big enough to include the sink, dishwasher, fridge, and probably a good chunk of the dining room besides. It's a big patch, and when it goes fully live tomorrow, you'll have a chance to play around with the enormous list of features, starting with the addition of an entire system for guilds that didn't exist before. Yes, the patch includes a guild system. And that's not even the biggest part of the patch. It includes a new character class for players who have cleared the game on Normal difficulty, six new world areas, achievements, new skills, new items, and an assortment of balance tweaks and improvements. That's not even touching upon new challenge leagues and the like. The point is that even if you know the game inside and out, you might want to hop in tomorrow and try out the huge array of new options available to you because... really. There's lots of stuff here.
Final Fantasy XIV's open beta has an announced conclusion
Love it or hate it, Final Fantasy XIV's open beta has given players a fair idea of what to expect when the game goes live near the end of the month. But all good things must draw to a close (or bad things if you're in the other camp), and so too must the game's beta testing. Today, Square-Enix announced that the open beta will close on September 19th, a mere three days before the launch of the collector's edition with its headstart. Although the beta will be fully closed at 5:00 p.m. PDT on the 19th, the beta tester site will remain open until the following day at 12:00 a.m. PDT. While there's only a bit more than a week left of the testing, the steady pace of patches makes it clear that the game will likely be updating straight through to launch. So if you haven't gotten enough of Final Fantasy XIV testing to sate your interest, positive or negative, now would be the time to get to playing.
