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Warframe soft-launches open beta, celebrates with Update 7
Digital Extremes has soft-launched Warframe into open beta. This most historic occasion has been marked with the launch of Update 7, which brings with it a host of fixes, updates, and new features. Two new warframes, the poisonous Saryn and sonic Banshee, have been added to the game along with a few new weapons and melee stealth attacks. A new training challenge and endless defense mission have been thrown in as well. The game's mod system has undergone pretty significant changes. Weapons have see tuning and balance updates, and a large list of fixes have been added. Check out the forums for a full list of changes in Update 7. Thanks to intrepid internetter Ken for the tip.
Firefall devs talk about dynamic events
Just how dynamic is Firefall? Not dynamic enough, according to Red 5 Studios. In an effort to up the dynamism of the game, the development team is introducing some changes -- specifically, dynamic world events are going to be added to the world. They're so dynamical, it's even part of the name. These new events come in two big categories: local and global. Both the local and global flavors can be world events, which are automagically activated by the game, or on-demand events, which are triggered by players. Global dynamic events are meant to reinforce the large themes of Firefall, while local events are all about what's going on in a specific region. The team is developing events to be engaging, varied, accessible, cooperative, and connected to the story of the world and regions in a meaningful way. For a look at the type of events the team is working on, hit up the official blog post.
EA joins Iron Monkey and Firemint mobile studios to create Firemonkeys
EA has announced that it's consolidating its two biggest mobile studios. Firemint is the developer behind Flight Control and Spy Mouse (and was acquired by EA last year), and Iron Monkey is the developer behind EA's iOS hits like Mass Effect Infiltrator and Dead Space. Those two Melbourne, Australia-based studios are now joining up to become FireMonkeys, serving as a big internal mobile studio for EA. Between the two studios, Firemonkeys now claims over 85 million downloads on the App Store, as well as 15 number one hits between them. EA says the teams will now be collaborating on current projects, as well as creating some new ones out of the new combined studio as well. As a Firemint fan, this has me a little more worried about that company's popular properties. Rob Murray, Firemint's CEO, and a few original team members still remain working on the company's products. But Flight Control Rocket was a very different game than the high quality Flight Control, released before EA's takeover, and EA doesn't say what has happened to Infinite Interactive's properties, including the popular Puzzle Quest series. An interview with MCV says the restructuring was "more of a formality" than anything else, and that the number of employees will generally be split and may even grown in the next few months. But still, I haven't seen the same quality or polish come out of Firemint since it was independent, and it seems unlikely that combining it together with Iron Monkey will do much to change that. Show full PR text EA is Proud to Announce the Merger of Two Renowned Mobile Studios IronMonkey and Firemint become Firemonkeys EA is bringing together two of the world's leading mobile development studios - IronMonkey and Firemint - to form Firemonkeys. These two studios have entertained over 50 million players in 2012 alone with stellar titles including Flight Control, SPY mouse and Real Racing from Firemint, and Mass Effect Infiltrator, Dead Space and The Sims FreePlay from IronMonkey. Based in Melbourne, Australia, both studios have been developing mobile games for over a decade and combining the two teams makes Firemonkeys Australia's largest game development studio. Both teams look forward to the unification with Rob Murray, Executive Producer of Firemint commenting, "IronMonkey and Firemint have solid reputations for producing well-known games and we are excited to have the opportunity to share best practices, technology and resources." By aligning the strategy of IronMonkey and Firemint, EA is able to create an even more focused team of passionate individuals who are dedicated to developing high-quality mobile game experiences. This merge in the mobile space is resulting in positive overall growth for the Firemonkeys team, as the studio is now hiring for several positions. Fans should expect to see progressive development efforts with upcoming launch and project announcements in 2012. "Both of these studios have produced award-winning games and we believe combining the incredible talent pool in Melbourne, as well as leveraging the EA brand, sets us up for further success in the mobile arena," adds Tony Lay, GM of IronMonkey. Firemonkeys will continue to work on separate products in addition to collaborating on new ones out of the EA Melbourne office. With the added synergy this partnership creates, fans can expect unique features and new experiences in the brands they have come to know and love.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Dynomatic
After the first mostly-open beta weekend event, reaction to the dynamic event system of Guild Wars 2 is mixed. Some people see it as the revolution of gameplay that was promised, others think it's a refreshing and solid system, and others feel that it falls short. All of those are fair, although it mightn't be hard to guess that I don't share all of those opinions. Some people expecting the dynamic event system to be the trumpet that would herald the arrival of the salvation of the MMO world were rather let down. There've been a couple of bits of confusion about the nature and scope of dynamic events, so let's look into them.
Insider Trader: The trick to farmable Maelstrom Crystals
Insider Trader is a column about professions by Basil "Euripides" Berntsen, who also writes Gold Capped about how to make money using the auction house. Email Basil your questions at his new email address, basil@wowinsider.com. All the coolest enchants take Maelstrom Crystals. Why do most guilds not send raiders back home with a note to their parents when they show up with the second-best enchants on their gear? Because these crystals can be pretty darned hard to get. Even when they are available, they are very pricey. You can't even buy the recipes for some of the cooler weapon enchants until you can get your hands on five of these. So what's the best way to get them? If your answer is to wait until your guild starts getting raid drops it doesn't need, then click through for a pleasant surprise.
WoW Rookie: Sharding etiquette
New around here? WoW Rookie points WoW's newest players to the basics of a good start in the World of Warcraft. Send us a note to suggest a WoW Rookie topic, and be sure to visit the WoW Rookie Guide for links to all our tips, tricks and how-to's. UPDATE: Most groups use the automatic Disenchant option available in the loot roll box as of Patch 3.3. This week, we're going to help you understand a practice that varies wildly from group to group, server to server and even expansion to expansion. "In the past few months, I've run into a situation with people who are (or who I think are) new players who happen to be 80," reader Sarabande writes to WoW Rookie. "To them, the idea of DEing BoP items for shards is completely alien (and to at least one, he just rolled greed on everything 'just to see if he could get it')." Should your group roll for unwanted or unneeded drops when an enchanter is on hand to disenchant them? What's accepted in one situation might be scorned in another. Because there's no single way to handle the situation, it's important for new players to be aware of the options. It's also important to understand the reasons why players feel so strongly one way or another about this issue. Because there's no single "correct" method, the savvy player respects the group consensus.
Time is Money: Selling vs. Disenchanting
Kebina Trudough here, offering you the best gold making secrets they don't want you to know about! I was like you once, poor and homely, before I discovered my patented system. Now you too can fill your pockets with the good stuff without ever breaking a sweat! Why spend all your time toiling when you could be vacationing in the Hot Springs? I'm not offering these tips for 100 gold, or 90 gold, or even 50 gold! No, not even 20 gold! My system is yours for FREE! Satisfaction guaranteed or I'll give you a full refund (handling charges may apply).Today we'll be discussing the benefits of disenchanting items, and weigh them against your other options, such as vendoring and auctioning. For the purposes of this discussion, I am going to assume that you aren't using the materials to level, but rather, are interested in making the most gold possible.
Insider Trader: A disenchanted profession
Insider Trader is your inside line on making, selling, buying and using player-made products.Back in the early days of the Azerothian economy, enchanters performed enchants with their own mats. You didn't sell anything you didn't have all the mats for, with the exception of special items such as Righteous Orbs for exclusive, high-end enchants like Crusader. When you were out of mats, you closed up shop for the day. Players laughed in your face if you asked them to provide their own mats, and anything for sale on the Auction House was overpriced to the nth degree. Enchanters developed relationships with crafters in other professions to create items that disenchanted into useful components. Players who leveled enchanting purely to disenchant items and sell the resulting reagents were frowned upon and hid their identities behind banker alts and mules.Today, it's a disenchanter's market. Disenchanting has become a profitable "gathering" profession in and of itself. Groups expect enchanters to "shard" items on the spot during instance runs so that members can choose a more valuable shard instead of an undesirable BoP drop. Disenchanting is a whole new "profession"! Read on for Insider Trader's look at disenchanting as a money-making venture in its own right.
Panel de Pon presents a pleasant puzzler
Plenty of pictures of Panel de Pon have been posted for perusal, at, um... Pgame Pwatch ... yeah, okay, we're done. We kind of like the look of the new Tetris Attack here-- the blocks are colorful and Meteos-esque, while the backgrounds are all rave-like and evoke Lumines. We could roll our eyes at the fact that Intelligent Systems is cribbing so heavily from Q? Entertainment in their visuals, but we honestly don't mind because it looks cool and because Panel de Pon couldn't not be awesome.Please peruse the pretty panel pictures past the post partition.
Panel de Pon coming to DS
We have great news for puzzle fans! Panel de Pon, aka Tetris Attack, aka Pokémon Puzzle League, aka Puzzle League is going to get a DS release in Japan in April, according to some rumor-hounds at NeoGAF. This marks the first time we can think of that the same game has appeared on both the Game Boy Advance and the DS.We can think of one thing in particular that could elevate this new version over its predecessors: delicious online multiplayer. We're dreaming of future Game Nights already.
