territory-wars
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Hands-on with Albion Online's alpha
Ever miss the old MMO days when crafting had meaning? When your friend could join up with you and on day one you could both go somewhere pretty cool, and just having that extra person could make things a smidge easier? Wish you could go back to those days without dealing with mindless grinds? Sandbox Interactive's Albion Online is perhaps something you should look into. In fact, those are the very reasons I signed up for the alpha back when I first heard about it. And now that I've played around with it a bit, I've been pleasantly surprised with my experience, though there are a few things newcomers will want to watch out for. For starters, Albion's alpha is an actual alpha, not a retitled beta for marketing purposes. If you're going to play any future alpha phases, know that they'll be rough, unfinished, and non-functional in some areas. There's no actual character creation at the moment. Heck, there isn't even a female option (sorry ladies!). You can change your portrait, but that doesn't change the way your character looks. Because it's an alpha, I'm going to only lightly cover what I couldn't play and focus more heavily on those I could.
E3 2013: Dragon's Prophet's PvP, raids, and housing
Los Angeles is certainly swarming with a variety of citizenry this week, from zombies to superheroes to martial artists. Even dragons have been spotted! Yes, Dragon's Prophet landed in in the City of Angels for E3 2013, and Massively's Jasmine Hruschak captured Senior Producer Todd Carson to learn more about the the dragon-centric title from Runewaker. (Don't worry folks, we practice catch and release here at Massively.) In open beta for less than a month, Dragon's Prophet still has many systems and areas to roll out during testing, and Carson expounded on some of those. He introduced the new zone of Wintertide as well as offered details about raiding. And we certainly couldn't let him go without more information about the frontier system, which encompasses both housing and PvP.
CrimeCraft expansion to feature persistent territory control, quickplay options
Remember CrimeCraft? We do, and the tragically titled actioner is still alive and kicking (or shooting, perhaps). We bring this up because Vogster is readying its second major expansion, GangWars, which is scheduled to launch on December 5th. The update adds more of a traditional MMO feel to what is otherwise a lobby-based game. New territory wars mechanics are the culprit, and they allow gangs to own and control sections of the game's persistent Sunrise City environment. Curiously, Vogster is also implementing a new quickplay system which offers access to CrimeCraft's "core gameplay features through a simplified interface that lets you shortcut RPG gameplay and get right to the action." CrimeCraft boasts 20 unique maps and 11 gameplay modes. Learn more about the game, and sign up for free, at the official website. Before you go, though, check out the territory wars trailer after the break. [Source: Vogster press release]
Eden Eternal update features Territory Wars, new content
'Tis the season for free-to-play content updates, and Eden Eternal is next on our list. The fantasy title from Aeria Games just added a new class, a level cap increase, and a new PvP territorial war system to its feature list as of this morning. The new class takes the form of the Warlock, a practitioner of the dark arts who specializes in spawning parasites on his targets and manipulating said targets with an array of spells. The content update also brings the Delphi Forest and Blackflame Peak adventuring regions to Eden Eternal players, and the game's southwestern continent now features the Sunset Desert and Skyreach Jungle areas for high-level characters. New quests and dungeons are also in the offing, as is a loyalty shop that rewards players with Aeria Points for completing standard gameplay tasks. Finally, the Territory Wars system takes a bow, and guilds can go for the jugular in free-for-all brawls that Aeria's press release says will "push the limits of teamwork." More info is available in the patch notes located on the official Eden Eternal website.
Masthead releases first Earthrise expansion, reactivates old accounts
Today marks a significant milestone for Earthrise, the indie sci-fi sandbox from Masthead Studios. A rather large patch has made its way to the live servers, and the changes are so numerous that Masthead's press release labels the update as Earthrise's first expansion. The big kahuna in terms of new content is the Territorial Wars functionality, and the patch notes mention new zones with bases ripe for the capturing as well as the ability for guilds to construct various economic and military structures. Speaking of guilds, leaders can now make use of a new ranking and permission system, and Earthrise now sports both friend and ignore lists in addition to improved client performance. The patch also brings a laundry list of weapon effect changes, combat re-balancing, and bug fixes, all of which are viewable via the patch notes on the official Earthrise forums. If all that's not enough to whet your appetite, consider that Masthead has reduced the initial client cost by 40% as well as gifted all previous account holders with 10 days of free play.
Jade Dynasty expands with a Vengeance
Sadly, there's no Bruce Willis, but there is a lot of martial arts action (which we feel is a fair compromise). Jade Dynasty, the free-to-play MMORPG from Perfect World Entertainment, is releasing Vengeance on August 25th, and the update looks to bring plenty of additional content to new players and veterans alike. If it's faction choice you want, Vengeance has it in the form of the manipulative Celan or the dangerous Rayan assassins. Also new to Jade Dynasty is the Territory Wars system, featuring alliance vs. alliance warfare that varies from server to server depending on player actions. If PvE is more your style, check out the new daily events and daily quests, as well as ten new world bosses designed to test your martial arts and magical mettle. Finally, the Vengeance expansion introduces a cross-server partying system to ease the pain of finding a group, as well as a unique take on auction houses that rewards players based on their bids. For more details, be sure and visit the official website.
