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MapleStory goes Greek: New island coming to the game April 6th
It's no April Fools' joke: Nexon is adding a Greek-themed island to MapleStory on April 6th, ancient columns and all. Chyrse is a floating island -- thanks to a mysterious power -- that's long since left the world and has been in isolation because of its distance. Now things have changed, and Chyrse is open for business and for war. Xerxes, a fearsome baddie, has declared war against the friendly giants of the isle, and it's up to you to stop him. MapleStory players between the levels of 55 and 75 are encouraged to team up with friends to take on Xerxes and his forces. If players are victorious, Nexon promises to reward them with new, unique weapons and gear. While you wait for the 6th, you can check out the first images of Chyrse in the gallery below! %Gallery-16709%
Blizzard's April fools introduce you to Crabby the dungeon helper and more
In traditional fashion, Blizzard has delivered up some pretty funny April Fools' Day gags for fans today, including personal favorite Crabby the Dungeon Helper. This year's jokes are great, and Blizzard always knows how to spend the day poking at fans and having a good time. Check out all the info on the new Tomb of Immortal Darkness, StarCraft Motion Experience, Crabby the Dungeon Helper, and the new Horadric Cube smartphone app. More after the break.
April Fools: Blizzard nails it, as always
For like, the hundredth year running, Blizzard has kicked off this most dishonest of days with an overwhelming salvo of fake additions to its current and pending titles. Take, for instance, the Diablo 3 "Horadic Cube" app, which possesses the power to combine your phone's applications into super applications. Or how about the new Kinect functionality for StarCraft 2? Not since Dance Central: The Krump Imperative have we seen such feverish flailing. The best of the bunch is clearly the World of Warcraft update, which not only adds a new, pitch-black dungeon, but also a "Dungeon Helper" named Crabby, who assists you in navigating the game's instances. Go get acquainted with your new crustacean cohort -- but we wouldn't suggest letting Clippy find out. That dude's jealous as all get-out.
April Fools: Minecraft update adds megatransaction store
And so it begins. Today is the annual celebration fraught with clever (and not-so-clever) gags -- the day of fools and fooling, as it were -- and Minecraft dev Mojang is clearly taking the event very seriously. Beyond adding actual stuff in the game's beta update 1.4, the developer has launched the new (totally fake) "Minecraft Store," which features a collection of in-game items for purchase. If the outrageous prices weren't enough of a tip-off -- $494 for the "Response from Support" item? -- the screaming Velociraptor from Mojang's match-three classic, BeDino Quest, which runs across the screen when you attempt to check out, should serve as enough of a heads-up. Unfortunately, a few sad sacks may still end up clicking away in an effort to snap up a $155 "Secret Griefer Identity" or what have you -- and to those folks, we wish you luck with the rest of today.
WoW Insider Show Episode 134: On that genocidal note...
Every week, we present you with the WoW Insider Show podcast -- an hour's worth of WoW community discussion, covering everything from the week's top stories here on WoW.com to emails from our readers to what's been going on with our particular characters in Azeroth. Along with your hosts, WoW.com editor Michael Sacco and contributing editor Matthew Rossi, we also feature rotating guest hosts, whether regular WoW.com contributors or personalities from other sites. Want to have your question answered on the air? Email theshow@wow.com! Today's show features: Guest host: WoW.com AddOn/UI columnist Mat McCurley April Fool's Day roundup Rage normalization for warriors and druids Know Your Lore mini-extravaganza Reader emails And more! Get the podcast: [iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes. [RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator. [MP3] Download the MP3 directly. Listen here on the page:
April Fools EPEEN meter now a reality
We all saw this coming. When April Fools jokes and pranks have any basis in the real world, someone, somewhere is going to make it a reality. This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone -- E.P.E.E.N. meters are becoming a reality. Addon developer suicidalkatt has created a theme for TidyPlates that mirrors Blizzard's own April Fools creation, the Equipment Potency EquivalencE Number addon. You can pick it up here at WoWInterface. The addon requires Gearscore to run, as it uses the player's value from Gearscore to scale your bar. Just make sure to select the EPEEN theme on TidyPlates after you download and install the theme. stolenlegacy over at WowAce has also begun work on his very own E.P.E.E.N. meter. The addon is in its very early stages of inception, but I can't imagine it will be anything less than amazing. Personally, I am very excited. My number will most likely be gigantic (and not compensating for anything, whatsoever). With a true E.P.E.E.N. system in place, maybe we can finally kill GearScore once and for all. Rather than be judged by a number cobbled together from disparate item values, we can be judged by the size of a bar cobbled together from disparate item values. All kidding aside, I am happy that World of Warcraft's user interface allows for fun stuff like this to become realized and that Blizzard has a good sense of humor when it comes to the addons the community could potentially come up with. While we're on the subject of bringing April Fools jokes to life, can we get another petition going for two-headed ogres?
[1.Local]: Yo, it's April, fools!
Reader comments -- ahh, yes, the juicy goodness following a meaty post. [1.Local] ducks past the swinging doors to see what readers have been chatting about in the back room over the past week. April Fool's Day around WoW.com usually means bracing for impact with emails and comments from nerd-raging readers who haven't ... quite ... caught on that there's something special going on. This year, though, you all really outdid yourselves. You played along! You danced, you sang, you /fishslapped, you showed us your sunflowery sunny dispositions, you popped back in every two hours like clockwork to see what new havoc was going on. Special thanks go to Kelly Aarons and Zach Yonzon for oudoing themselves on the fabulous artwork, and three cheers to Justin Glow for helping us change out the site header every two hours. Gather 'round for a group hug, everybody -- ya'll are an awesome bunch. Sedirex: All 5 iterations had their own logo, top stories, and hot topics (on the right). The evil part of this joke is that if you're like me, you felt obligated to check every 2 hours to see them, as, unlike the posts, they don't remain after the site changes focus again. Jayfitty: That was actually a pretty awesome routine. I'm not sure how I feel about so much turmoil happening here at WoW.com. Hopefully we can just settle on one type of Insider and commit to that. Every time the website changes I have to update my wardrope, Facebook page, Twitter and haircut to reflect said changes. And to go from Edward hair to Gaga hair in one day isn't easy.
The Daily Grind: What attitudes can you not stand?
Blizzard has always been known by the fans for going all-out with their jokes on April 1st, and this year was no exception. The entire Equipment Potency Equivalence Number was funny in its own right, but especially as an attitude prevalent not only among World of Warcraft players. No matter what game you play, you know people whose sense of ego and importance at in-game achievements drives you up the wall. For some people it's a minor irritation; for others, it's the sort of thing that is so insufferable it's not worth even trying to work with them. There are no shortage of helpful and friendly players in games, but there's also an abundance of arrogant gear worshippers, socially inept trolls, die-hard PvP grognards, ineffectual PvE carebears... you get the idea. Almost everyone agrees the extreme cases are bad, but we all think some are worse than others. So what about you? What sort of outlook makes you just quit a group in frustration no matter how the player performs? Is it something hugely removed from your own playstyle and approach, or something that's close to how you normally run and becomes more obnoxious as a result?
WoW.com's April Fools Round-up
April Fools! Or at least it was yesterday. Some love the pranks, some find the pranks boring, some wish to see the pranks fall down a dark, dark hole, never to return, possibly to be eaten by a grue. Regardless of your personal feelings on the matter, we've gathered a short list of Blizzard and WoW-related pranks across the web: Blizzard Pranks World of Warcraft EPEEN: New from Blizzard, the Equipment Potency EquivalencE Number system! WoW Armory Tuskarr Invasion: Folks checking out the armory may have noticed their characters transformed to tuskarr, their achievements reported as 'cheesed,' and a whole lot of gear ninjaed and summarily vendored Battle.net Matchmaking Service: Battle.net decides to play eHarmony and place lonely gamers with suitable partners Battle.net Neural Interface: New from the Blizzard Store, the Neural Interface promises a lifelike gaming experience Blizzard Mobile Games: Up for 2010 from Blizzard Mobile Games are Blackthorne 2: Thorne Harder, and Queen's Quest! Diablo Gamer Blanket and Body Pillow: Wave goodbye to the cold as best as you can while swaddled in this Diablo 'gamer blanket!' Diablo Deckard Cain GPS System: Now you can listen to Deckard drone while you drive! Other WoW-related sites El's Extreme Anglin': El reports on the latest Cataclysm feature: Aquariums! MMO-Champion/Paragon/Premonition: MMO-Champion breaks the news that Paragon will be moving to US servers come Cataclysm and merging with the US Guild Premonition. Sponsored by AXE! Nihilum: Nihilum breaks some rules and brings us screens and video from the Cataclysm alpha Wowhead: Wowhead, er, TACOhead brings news of a new in-game item, the Hellfire Kickin' Taco Supreme! Tankspot: Tankspot announces their change to Farmspot Warcraft Pets: Breanni fills us in on some new non-combat pet... er... features coming out in Cataclysm World of Raids: World of Raids reports on the new Observation Deck and Spectate features coming in Cataclysm The Guild: The Guild proudly announces its new foray into the world of animation! Curse.com: Curse.com fills us in on Cataclysm -- exclusively available for the IPad WoW.com: And of course, there's us. Our day was filled with takeover after takeover, from Twilight to Muscle March to Saturn Six -- we've decided to return to WoW news. For now... Love them or hate them, at least they're done for the year, right? Now we can all breathe a sigh of relief and start believing what we see again. Did you laugh? Did you see a clever prank we missed? Or did you hide indoors all day and fervently wait for it to all be over? Let us know -- and check out the gallery below for screenshots from the various sites listed above! %Gallery-89602%
April Fools: Use Razer Venom for those extended play sessions
Peripheral manufacturer Razer is taking on the brave new world of "gaming grade stimulant and nutritional supplement." Razer's new product, Venom, can keep gamers awake and going for over 100 hours -- however, if you do "yawn," just refuel with more and you'll be good to do. If you're into mainlining your stimulants, a three-pack of Venom costs $40 and comes with a gold-plated needle -- apparently, it's reusable and classy. If you're not into needles, there's the wussy option of purchasing for $100 a Venom nebulizer to inhale the product. Not sure if Venom is right for you? Well, listen to what one beta tester said, "If an energy drink gives you wings, then this gives you a scram-jet!" That's endorsement!
April Fools: 'AaaAAAaaa' dev announces '14. Drunken Robot Pornography'
Dejobaan Games is giving into the financial realities of being an indie developer and has announced its next project: 14. Drunken Robot Pornography. The developer of AaaaaAAaaaAAAaaAAAAaAAAAA!!! -- A Reckless Disregard for Gravity will have 14DRP revolve around an idea that gamers can really support, thus, making the small studio buckets of moolah. Players take control of a giant robot designed to destroy humanity, but, because this is an indie title, you know there has to be some academically-pretentious niche twist. Sure, you destroy buildings and kill people, but the idea is to ruin the life of Penelope Raindance, "a young girl who wants to grow up to be a neurosurgeon. She's a promising young first grader, now -- but if you do things right, you can do away with her nuclear family, leaving her homeless and starving. Don't crush her. Crush her dreams. ... You win!" The game will release in the third quarter of 2015 on PC and requires Windows 2K/XP/Vista; a 3.5GHz processor; 6GB system memory; a 3D card with 16MB video memory; and Microsoft DirectX 12.0.
April Fools: Alan Wake Wars
Throw another gag on the April Fools' Day fire, Remedy has entered the fray. Up for offer is Alan Wake Wars, a game that takes the taut, suspenseful bent of Alan Wake and tosses on a layer of real-time strategy. The game contains 17 maps, 24 unit types and a staggering 18 tech trees. Lots of different units are showcased in the video, including local militia, trucks and, our favorite, deadly lumberjacks. Honestly, as "real time psychological film noir action love story" games go, Alan Wake Wars looks to be on top of the pack. Check out the trailer after the break.
April Fools: Romancing an elcor in Mass Effect 2
[INVITINGLY INQUISITIVE] Did you enjoy playing through Mass Effect 2 and participating in its mature, emotional story? [SMILINGLY CLANDESTINE] If so, you might like to hear about a secret love scene that can only be accessed as a female Commander Shepard. [PROVOCATIVELY JOURNALISTIC] We have obtained a video of this secret sex scene that takes place between Shepard and a devilishly handsome elcor. [ALARMINGLY CHEERFUL] The video can be seen after the break. We hope you enjoy it. [DISTURBINGLY TITILLATED] We certainly did. [PRANKISHLY TRIUMPHANT] This was all a sham. It is only an April Fools' Joke. We totally got you. Ha ha. Ha ha. [APOLOGETICALLY SOLEMN] But seriously, enjoy the video.
April Fools! A roundup of the best pranks in the MMO world today
digg_url = 'http://digg.com/gaming_news/April_Fools_A_roundup_of_the_best_pranks_in_the_MMO_world'; April Fools! So did you get taken in by some clever pranks today, or did you wake up and decide that until the calendar rolled over to April 2nd, the entire world was full of it? In either case, everyone had some fun whether they were creating pranks or reading through them. We all enjoyed the chance to let our silly sides take the reins for the day. Just in case you missed a few pranks, we've rounded up some of the best from today around the MMO community. Follow along after the jump for shenanigans, tomfoolery, and monkeyshines!
April Fools: BlizzCon already sold out ... before tickets go on sale
In a surprise announcement this morning via IncGamers, Blizzard has revealed that tickets to the just-announced BlizzCon 2010 sold out earlier than ever before -- before the tickets even went on sale, in fact. Apparently, due to a high rate of calls on Blizzard's tech support line suffering from "3 - 4 hour wait times," the company released early tickets to some customers. "We didn't intend to sell all of them already, but I guess the vast, password-losing World of Warcraft community spread the word, and one thing led to another," CEO Mike Morhaime said. He added that he's "looking forward to another great show, with some of our most passionate, patient, credit card-possessing fans," speaking from a recently purchased yacht, allegedly. You can check out the full press release right here, which you might have realized by this point is not legit.
April Fools: Smell your PS3 games with PlayStation Scent
Move over Move, Sony's taking gaming into an all-new dimension: scent. Remember Smell-O-Vision? Of course you don't -- you're not that old. Well friends, the crack technology featured in the 1960 film Scent of Mystery is the future again, as Sony has announced "PlayStation Scent" with OXYtracking -- head past the break for the video press conference. Just affix the PlayStation Scent to your nose and start playing. At key moments, scent information embedded in the Blu-ray game disc will be transmitted to your nose! The "Odorama" begins with a re-issue of Naughty Dog's Uncharted 2. Finally, you can smell the tucked in part of Drake's half-tuck. Then, experience all the sweet nose candy of upcoming releases Gran Turismo 5 (burning rubber) and SOCOM 4 (burning flesh!) -- now with PlayStation Scent support. Order yours today from Webhallen.com!
April Fools: Civilization V to feature 'Extreme Diplomacy'
Firaxis and 2K Games today announced "Extreme Diplomacy," a new feature for Civilization V, the upcoming installment of the tired strategy series. In an attempt to get the masses playing the turn-based snore fest, the series will add a fighting game death match arena: "two world leaders enter" ... "one world leader leaves." The victor is said to gain control of the defeated's empire. The publisher has also announced an Über Edition of Civ V, which includes an 8-button joystick "to bring the classic fighting arcade game feel to these Extreme Diplomacy battles." Each faction leader will also have a super move, and we've listed the first six moves to be revealed after the break. Finally, Civilization will have some action!
April Fools: Ace Attorney Saga for Wii
The hardest April Fools' gags to handle are the ones that trick our hearts, but not our brains. Intellectually, we know that the trailer for Ace Attorney Saga from Brazilian site Hadouken is a gag. Of course it is. But somewhere deep deep down in the secret part of our heart where wishes are stored, we need it to be real. So, how about, just for today, we all just watch the video after the break and pretend it's real? That won't hurt anybody, right? There wouldn't be any ... objections to that, would there?
April Fools: Blizzard announces Blackthorne 2, Queen's Quest, Snuggie
There's really no point in writing up other April Fools' Day jokes after this one -- Blizzard pretty regularly knocks this holiday out of the park. For instance, the company's recently added mobile page has announced two new titles for cell phones: Blackthorne 2: Thorne Harder, which will feature an "epic hard rock soundtrack" and "some sort of arbitrary Twitter and Facebook integration," and Queen's Quest, an old-school text adventure starring Starcraft's Queen of Blades, which plays host to a "revolutionary Digital Rights Management (DRM) scheme." That's not all -- three new items will soon (not) be added to the Blizzard storefront: a Deckard Cain Snuggie, a Diablo 3 body pillow and a Deckard Cain GPS voice module. Also, World of Warcraft announced a new "Equipment Potency EquivalencE Number" (E-PEEN) for comparing players' weapons and armor, and a $15,000 "Battle.net Neural Interface" peripheral. See, other companies? Don't try to roll up here with your fake expansions and announcements of romance novels based on your game's protagonist. Blizzard's putting you to shame.
April Fools: Virtua Fighter parodies Street Fighter/Tekken
Have you ever pondered what it would be like to blend Sega's super technical Virtua Fighter series with Street Fighter or Tekken? Well, ponder no more, as Sega has provided us with an answer. The end result would look something like the video embedded after the break, in which the company unveils the super fictional fighter, Virtua Fighter 5: Final Showdown. The simple, precise combos of the series have gone out the window, replaced with massive damage, fireballs and even Ultra Combo finishers. Alas, as fun (blasphemous?) as it looks, it's only an April Fools' joke (for now). Which reminds us: You're going to see a lot of April Fools' jokes in the next 24 to 48 hours. We'll do our best to catalogue them here on Joystiq. [Via @jaredr]
