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Shroud of the Avatar introduces the desert with Release 13
Release 13 is prepped and raring to hit Shroud of the Avatar's servers on Thursday, December 18th. One of the new additions that will be coming to the game is the inclusion of desert biomes for the sandbox title. Release 13 will also allow players to see part of their hair while still wearing hats, which is more of a big deal than one might expect. It will also contain a new "grand tour" quest that will dish out an exclusive reward to those who complete it before the next release. Shroud of the Avatar recently launched on Steam Early Access, and keys for this version of the game are available to all backers.
Camelot Unchained moves on to its third pre-alpha test
The bad news of the most recent Camelot Unchained update is placed front and center of the latest development update: Some of the features once slated for inclusion in the second pre-alpha test have been kicked back to the third pre-alpha test. This also counts as good news, though; because of the small number of features remaining on that particular checklist and the progress already made on the third checklist, the team decided to just go ahead and shift the items to the new checklist whilst moving on to the third test. Got all that? Good. Pre-alpha test #3 will contain the first pass of the game's building system, among other updates. While it has yet to be fully fleshed out, the core building blocks are working. So if you're a big enough backer to take part in these initial rounds of testing, you'll have the chance to start trying your hand at making new things when the test dates roll around.
Black Desert rolls into open beta on December 17th
We still don't know hard details on when Black Desert will be coming to the US, but it's not going to happen before the game launches in its native Korea. The game is entering open beta testing in Korea on December 17th, so it means we're that much closer to any launch date information. It will be free-to-play with a cash shop, and it appears to be launching with just four playable gender-locked classes; adding additional classes this late in testing seems unlikely. Steparu also has a preview of suspected cash shop items, which include cosmetic armor sets, dyes, skill point reset items for both players and their mounts, and similar fare. It's about what you would expect, in other words. You can get a sense of the game by checking out the trailer just past the break, showing off some of the variety in the character creator as well as the game's fast-paced combat.
Living and dying in the Elite: Dangerous gamma build
When we last looked at Elite: Dangerous during August's Choose My Adventure, the game was in a barebones beta format with just a few of its promised eventual features. Frontier Developments' crowdfunded space-sim certainly brought a lot to the table with its pretty graphics, realistic flight physics, and down-to-the-details sim structure, but anyone not interested in running courier missions or blowing up other ships was probably left wanting. Now, however, Elite is a different beast. Just two weeks from final official launch, Elite is in what Frontier Developments is calling the "gamma" stage. It's as close to the finished version of the game anyone is going to get until launch on December 16th. So naturally, I took another dive in Elite to see what exactly has changed.
Bless Online offers combat peek in latest trailer
Bless Online's second closed beta is coming up soon, with testing beginning on December 16th and going on until the 22nd. But hopeful testers don't have to wait until then to get a glimpse of the game's combat; Neowiz has released a brief combat trailer that shows off various fighting styles and their accompanying skills. Unlike the official trailer, this one is filled with in-game footage, complete with a peek at the UI. Check out a bow, sword and board, mace, and two-handed axe in action in the video below.
Descendants Kickstarter promises 'real freedom of choice'
One thing you can say about Descendants, a new space sandbox that's asking for fan donations via Kickstarter, is that it's certainly not lacking in ambition. This creators of this sci-fi title promise that players really will make a difference: "Our main goal is to create exciting game mechanics with real freedom of choice." The rundown of Descendants' proposed feature list is staggering: The game will have 20 playable races, 50 base classes, 20 prestige classes, crafting, land ownership, and a full-fledged political system. Cities can be built and spaceships designed from the inside-out. Of course, this sort of ambition doesn't come cheaply; Descendants is asking for $900,000 to get this game cooking. The team created a 40-minute overview video of the project that you can watch after the jump to see if this is a game worthy of your interest -- and your dollar.
Secure a Skyforge beta key through a gems minigame
Wanna win a beta key for Skyforge, the upcoming sci-fantasy MMORPG from My.com/Allods Team? I hope you like minigames, then, because Skyforge is going to make you play a minigame to earn that video game beta key. From today to December 23rd, players can log into the game's website to play a daily round of the minigame, called Aelion's Treasure. There's more at stake than just keys, though: In the mini-game, players have seven attempts daily to find as many blue gems as possible on a board of 21 gems. To win a closed beta key one should collect 5 blue gems. Along the way they'll find several surprises, and a special leaderboard will keep track of players' progress. The top 20 players on the leaderboard each week will also receive an invitation to Skyforge closed beta. Additionally, the player who places in first in the leaderboard rankings each week will receive a Sound Blaster EVO ZXR Headset. Other prizes include an exclusive Skyforge Souvenir Gift Set, an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 770 graphics card. Hey, at least it's novel, right? The game's first technical beta ran earlier in November. We don't yet know exactly when the beta will begin, though given the duration of this promotion, we can hazard a guess.
Chinese MMO Revelation Online entering open beta January 15th
Want to combine the free flight of Aion with action combat and an open skill progression system? That's a quick gloss of how testers report Revelation Online plays. But you don't have to take anyone else's word for it, as the game will be entering open beta on January 15th... in China. So you will have to muddle through not speaking the language of the game to test it. Alternately, you can start studying now and hope you have a natural gift for learning it in two months. Steparu reports that setting up an account will work even for international players, although there is the possibility that the game will require a cell phone or some other region-lock method. Players who don't want to fuss with that can rest somewhat easier knowing that the development team is looking into US publishing deals as well, but if all goes well, you can still try the game out early next year.
Lost Ark is a full-featured MMO; check out the new trailer
Lost Ark made quite a splash in our community here when we got a first look at the game last week. Despite its isometric hack-and-slash facade, Lost Ark is now revealing that it will have a range of features to put it firmly in the MMO camp. Steparu has a great writeup on the new information surfacing about this game, including some of Lost Ark's class lineup. Players will be able to roll as a Battle Master (monk), Devil Hunter (ranged guns), Arcana (gambling skills), Warlord (rifle tank), Infighter (melee attacker), Summoner (pet master), and Berserker (AoE attacks). Lost Ark will also feature an open world with hidden quests and locations, drinking minigames, raids, PvP arenas, and even ship sailing. Don't believe that this could be an MMO? Check out the new 20-minute gameplay trailer after the jump and let us know what you think.
Gloria Victis implements dialogues and other improvements
The Gloria Victis pre-alpha is getting a bit more chatty today with the implementation of the dialogue system in the most recent update. Said update also contains the first implementation of bow-wielding NPCs defending cities, the addition of buff and debuff descriptions, and various bugfixes and improvements -- all good things unless you try to open a dialogue with a bow-wielding NPC and get an arrow in response. The design team promises that this is just the beginning of major changes, however, with the next patch slated to add the first pass of the questing system into the game. Territory capture mechanics are also coming, allowing an entire nation to benefit from captured lands. So onlookers can enjoy a more robust rollout in the coming weeks as the game adds more features in.
Civilization Online closed beta trailer features building, battles, and drumming
There's something about a good Civilization trailer that always makes me feel downright nostalgic, and I think that factor is the world music being sung. We've got another trailer in this grand tradition for you to watch today, this one from G-Star covering the upcoming Civilization Online. Civilization Online is currently in Korean closed beta, but from the looks of this video, it's coming along nicely. The trailer shows players working together to construct a bridge over a chasm, build cities, assemble armies, and engage on that most sacred of pre-fight rituals, happy drumming. Check it out after the break!
Master X Master MOBA getting a mobile version as well
It might just be the theme of this year's G-Star: online PC games announcing mobile versions. It's at least true for NCsoft's Master X Master, which should be coming some time after the MOBA's launch. Master X Master is NCsoft's first internally developed MOBA and is being planned for multiple platforms. The mega-publisher is utilizing cloud technology to create a global platform that will run Master X Master and other titles. We've got the new Master X Master G-Star trailer for you to check out after the break!
PlanetSide 2's PS4 beta is expected by the end of the year
The PlayStation 4 version of PlanetSide 2 is still on track for beta before the end of this year, SOE says. SOE's Matt Higby told Eurogamer that the nearly-two-year-old MMOFPS sandbox has been slow to arrive on the PS4 because SOE didn't want it to feel like just another cruddy console port. "As much as it sounds like we're blowing smoke, we're working hard to release a game that feels like a full-on console experience and not just like a port. So it's taken us quite a long time to re-jigger our user interface and our controls. There's a lot that needs to get done." The PS4 edition will also sport a slightly different business model in that microtransactions will be purchased with Marketplace Cash (as in DC Universe Online) in place of Station Cash. More details, Eurogamer reports, are expected in December at the PlayStation Experience event.
Lost Ark is an isometric action MMO built in Unreal Engine 3
One thing that you can say about a lot of Korean MMOs is that they are a visual feast for the eyes, and new title Lost Ark promises to rival them all. This upcoming game by developer Smilegate is using the Unreal Engine 3 and a top-down isometric view to create a hack-and-slasher. Steparu.com has a nice preview of Lost Ark, saying that it is a potential rival to Lineage Eternal. It has mounted combat and 18 playable characters, some of which are gender-locked. Lost Ark is planning on a 2015 beta, and sign-ups are on the Korean site. If you can't wait that long, you can get a video preview of it after the break.
Shards Online teases second Kickstarter campaign
Shards Online isn't about to let a flopped crowdfunding campaign get it down, as the mod-heavy sandbox is preparing to launch a second Kickstarter run. According to a development roadmap posted earlier this summer, Shards Online is currently transitioning from pre-alpha to alpha testing, where it will reside for the bulk of 2015. As part of those preparations, Shards Online has released a quick half-minute video to promote the upcoming November fundraiser. Check it out after the break and see if it's enough to tempt you into coughing up some cash when Shards Online passes around the plate.
Skyforge's first technical beta weekend begins November 13th
The conglomerate of companies building Skyforge -- Allods Team, Obsidian Entertainment, and My.com -- have announced that the MMORPG's first technical beta weekend will kick off on Thursday, November 13th. What's a technical beta? The technical beta weekend is a "technical test" in that the purpose of the beta will be to test Skyforge's core systems such as server infrastructure, client distribution system, login services and more. Therefore, we are only inviting a relatively small number of players to participate in this phase of testing to ensure that our core systems are operational, fully functional and able to withstand the stress of many players all logging into the game simultaneously. The developers are also hoping to provoke feedback about core gameplay systems such as classes, quests, combat, and character progression. This weekend's beta winds down on November 16th, but more tests with more invitees are planned.
Trove enters open beta, ArcheAge deploys Auroria in the EU
Have you been looking for another pixel-polygon building game to call your home? After being in the test phase for so long that you could be forgiven for speculating that it would never be released, Trove has hit open beta, letting everyone log in and try the game for both bugs and just for the heck of it. There will be no more wipes of the database, so you could easily regard this as something of a soft launch for the game. If you're not feeling that particular sort of building and you're over in the EU, you can instead try your hand with the latest update for of ArcheAge, which mirrors the patch deployed earlier this week on the US servers. Hopefully the EU rollout will not include the same login issues that hit the US servers as well. The patch is scheduled to go live today at 5:00 p.m. GMT. [Source: Trion Worlds press release]
The Repopulation lowers its alpha access pledge prices
Crowdfunded sci-fi sandbox The Repopulation has today announced a change to its pledge packages that should increase the number of backers -- and testers. The new packages cost $50 and $25; the $50 version grants immediate test access, while the $25 edition will sweep buyers into the alpha starting on November 21st. Above and Beyond says it will be altering its packages at that time to remove perks like housing plots and NPC naming, but the $25 buy-in will still "be the cheapest for awhile." During the ongoing testing, the studio has vowed to keep the servers up around the clock outside of patch downtime, and it will avoid region locking, though the servers are located in North America. As the test is an alpha, a strict NDA is in place and pre-release wipes are still expected. [Thanks, dirtyklingon!]
H1Z1's audio is a key part of its immersion
When done right, you hardly ever consciously acknowledge a game's sound, but when it's missing or done poorly, it can jar a player out of desired immersion. In a dev diary posted today, H1Z1 Technical Architect Greg Spence talks about the sound of the game and demonstrates a few tests. "So much goes into making these sounds seem realistic beyond just choosing an audio file to play," Spence explains. "Taking into account your surroundings, whether you are inside or outside, what type of ground you are on, time of day, and even weather can play a big part in the final thing you hear." Spence discusses sound effects, environment sounds, and, of course, music. You can check out the audio test videos after the break!
Trove plans open beta for November 5th
Step by blocky step, Trove is working its way toward release. Next week, the colorful sandbox will reach another milestone as it goes into open beta on Wednesday, November 5th. Trion Worlds announced the upcoming transition today along with one happy fact: There will be no wipes from closed beta. The studio also mentioned that the game's sixth class, the Candy Barbarian (seriously), will be coming "soon." Trove transitioned from alpha to beta testing late in September.
