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Aika Online opens its doors to Europe
European players rejoice! Aika Online is officially throwing open its doors to the old world with today's "Europe, We're Up" celebratory kickoff. The week-long festivities include double experience and a contest that gives players the opportunity to snag $10,000 in prizes. Logging into Aika also makes you eligible to receive powerful premium items like 3x and 4x experience scrolls. Today's update also sees a new dungeon introduced to the game. The Prison Despero will test the mettle of Aika's elite players and offers a chance to earn a new level 70 armor set. Aika is a fantasy MMORPG from the creators of Neo Steam. The game features five warring nations vying for control over the world of Arcan and its massive castles, priceless relics, and various battlegrounds.
PSA: Black Ops serving up double XP all weekend
That's right, your time spent perusing the internet is all for naught -- you could be greedily lapping from a Call of Duty: Black Ops chalice filled to the brim with crisp, cool experience points. The gist of the intel is this: Treyarch's hosting a double experience multiplayer event until February 7 at 8am PST, across all platforms. The event was set in motion to celebrate the launch of "First Strike" on the Xbox 360 -- oh, you left? You're not even reading this anymore? Gotcha.
NCsoft offers Aion double XP olive branch over server outages
The thunderous roar you just heard was the sound of thousands of Daevas clapping their hands, stamping their feet, and beating the air with their wings in unison. You may have even heard a few huzzahs and hell-yeahs tossed in for good measure. Why all the fuss? Double XP is returning to Aion. In fact, it's already here, as NCsoft turned on the firehose this morning at server restart. The bonus runs through next Wednesday, and instance timer lockouts have also been reset (i.e., if you ran Taloc's Hollow last night, feel free to run it again today rather than 46 hours hence). The sudden rash of goodwill stems from the server outages this past Wednesday, many of which occurred during prime time and forced Daevas to seek their entertainment elsewhere. You can read the official announcement on the Aion website.
Item-swap controversy hits MapleStory Europe
To celebrate the new year, MapleStory Europe recently launched a sale on various cash shop items. Among the discounted items was a series of double experience cards lasting for varying durations, each marked at 15% off the usual price. It wasn't long before players noticed that Nexon had listed the 24-hour double experience card with an expiry time of 90 days instead of of 24 hours. Players flocked to the item shop in droves to take advantage of this amazing deal, many suspecting that the item must have been a mistake. Sure enough, Nexon noticed the mistake after a week and removed the item from the sale. What followed next has had players in outrage on the MapleStory Europe forums. Nexon removed all of the 90-day double experience cards players had bought in the sale and replaced them with 24-hour versions set to expire the following day. Some players have been voicing their support for the decision, saying that it was obvious that the item had been mis-priced. Others have been less forgiving, pointing out that they wouldn't have bought the item had it not been such a fantastically good deal, and suggesting that Nexon has done this kind of thing before. The game's terms of use agreement has even been cited as an argument that items bought must be honoured up to their purchased due date. Nexon issued an official apology earlier today for the incident but has stood by its decision to remove the offending cards from the game and has not yet issued any refunds for the replaced items.
Producer's letter for City of Heroes hints at the future and promises big improvements
It's the start of a new year, one that already promises to be an exciting one for fans of superheroic MMOs. DC Universe Online is launching tomorrow, Champions Online will be going free-to-play early this year, and City of Heroes is not sitting down either. In what we hope might be a new monthly tradition, fans have been treated to a brand-new producer's letter that looks back at the year before and begins peering ahead to the next 12 months while also hinting at some of the more interesting new additions to the game. Among the more interesting revelations are the promise of a double XP weekend this month, as well as more information regarding Praetoria's Hamidon when PAX East rolls around. The development team is also hoping to step up its communication this year, both from well-known members of the team and from some of the newer talent with less public exposure. While another expansion might not be in the works for City of Heroes in the near future, fans can take a look at the full letter on the site and rest easy -- it promises to be a very interesting year.
Red Dead Redemption doubling XP until 2011
Who needs a double XP weekend, when you can have a double XP week? Rockstar is giving fans of Red Dead Redemption's multiplayer modes ten days to start raking in twice as many experience points than normal. Starting today and going all the way until January 3rd, you'll get double XP for all activity in any online mode. The promotion is happening on both Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, so jump online and shoot some zombie bears or something.
NCsoft hypes Aion double crafting XP and holiday events
Happy Solorius Festival, Daevas! Yes, the Atreian equivalent of Christmas is back, and you can join the ongoing Aion celebration through January 5th. You'll find new quests in both Sanctum and Pandaemonium, as well as rewards that include decorative hats, gift bundles, and buff consumables. Mid-winter and New Year's marks the Year of the Ribbit celebration, and festivities include even more quests and rewards (including new ribbit outfit pieces). The party starts December 22nd and lasts through January 12th. Finally, NCsoft is turning on the double XP spigot again, this time in honor of Atreia's crafters. Friday, December 17th through Monday, December 20th is a prime time for catching up on any artisan activities you may have been neglecting, as double XP for crafting, essence-tapping, and aether-tapping will be in full effect.
NCsoft reactivating Aion accounts, doubling XP
Time to dust off your wings, former Daevas, as you're invited back to the world of Atreia on NCsoft's dime. If your account was inactive as of December 1st (and you've got a retail code applied and haven't been banned), you're eligible to play Aion for free through 8:00 a.m. PST on December 13th. NCsoft has also extended the double XP period for the entire duration of the reactivation event (as opposed to two weekend periods). Soul healing discounts of 99% will still happen on the weekend as originally announced. Finally, instance timers have been considerably reduced. For example, Kromede's Trial now features a four-hour lockout timer (in place of the usual 22). Check your timers with the /checkentry command for more details.
Redeem double XP in Red Dead Redemption this weekend
We really wanted to tie the double XP offer in Red Dead Redemption to Thanksgiving in a thematic way, but there's little in common between the two things. They celebrate different periods of American history, and shooting a bunch of banditos and varmints is pretty far away from ... not dying of starvation. Actually, there is one nice way to connect the two -- the "gluttony" theme, but Rockstar done already used it in its announcement of the event, which runs from Thursday through Sunday. "Stuff Yourself with 4 Days of Red Dead Redemption Double XP." So clever! That leaves us with, like, "this deal is no turkey!" We're going to go cry into a pecan pie now. Enjoy some RDR this weekend.
Double your pleasure with Aion double XP
Thinking of dusting off one of your Daevas? If you've got a long-neglected alt, if your main has stalled on the cusp of level 55, or if you've just been away from the world of Atreia altogether, you'll probably want to take advantage of Aion's upcoming double experience weekends. From December 3rd through December 6th (beginning and ending at 12:00 p.m. PST on both days), you can double your pleasure with double XP on both mobs and quests. If that's not enough, you can also enjoy 99% off soul healing costs from December 4th to December 5th (12:00 a.m. PST - 11:59 p.m. PST) as well as December 11th to December 12th (at the same time slot). Check out the official Aion site for all the details.
Perfect World is back to the Kung Foo! dojo
Back in February (yes, we know it's hard to remember that far back) Perfect World Entertainment announced that it was pulling the highly anticipated martial-arts MMO Kung Foo! out of beta. The game's developers believed the game needed some rehabilitation to recover from some devastating injuries inflicted by the opinions of the beta testers. Today, the game zen masters have announced the free-to-play RPG has re-centered its qi and is now known as Legend of Martial Arts. The game now features an all-new look and feel, not to mention a variety of new quests and content. LOMA is also pleased to announce a new race called the Reavers, who, of course, have a brand new starting zone. Closed beta for the new design starts on November 24th. Each player who who helped out in the Kung Foo! beta will receive not only an automagic invitation to the closed beta but also a Gold Prize -- an item that grants one day of double XP -- for his or her first character created in open beta. For more detail check out the official Legend of Martial Arts website.
Craft of Gods patch adds quests, dungeon, recurring events
It's been a while since we've checked in with Craft of Gods, a free-to-play MMORPG based on Slavic mythology and produced by the Russian game studio known as Cyberdemons. We figured post-patch day is as good a time as any, and the latest update to the Kalicanthus Entertainment title has brought about a slew of changes including new quests, new dungeons, and revamped newbie areas. Cyberdemons has also added recurring in-game events that include a special PvP cave featuring boss key drops and loot chests, named events featuring special named mobs at various locations in the game world, and a weekly mob-focused double experience event. Take a look at the official patch notes for the full list of fixes, tweaks, and additions.
The Tattered Notebook: The dual nature of double experience
Once upon a time I used to write about a grindy game. That game was called Aion. Eventually I dumped... er, gracefully handed off coverage of said game to the lovely and talented MJ. It wasn't that it was a bad game; I actually played it for over six months and enjoyed most of my time there, so much so that I still log in every few weeks. The grind did me in though, and it was only on those occasions when the double XP fairy left her intoxicating present under my pillow that I was ever really happy in the world of Atreia. Fast forward a few months to EverQuest II, and the first double XP weekend on my watch has just concluded, leaving me bleary-eyed and wasted due to chasing those dings all Labor Day weekend long. Once upon a time I wrote a column praising the virtues of double XP in that other game, but now I'm here to tell you that in the world of Norrath, it's not all it's cracked up to be.
Wings Over Atreia: Going for the gold -- crafting
Last week, we first dipped into the realm of max-level gold armor in Aion by exploring Anuhart and PvP armor sets. This week, we will look at what is available on the crafted market, as well as prepare to begin the journey of the Miragent quest line (sorry folks, but it will be quite a while before my new little Asmodian can follow along and chronicle the Fenris quest line). If you have the (mis)fortune to need or want one of these two sets more than anything – and we really do mean anything -- you could be in for a long, arduous, and expensive journey. But no pain, no gain... right? Trust me, now is the time to take advantage of any extremely wealthy and generous friends who are begging you to take their kinah. Or, find and cultivate a kinah tree somewhere in Atreia. Short of that -- save, save, and save! Then save some more, and cross your fingers for some good drops to sell. Hold on to your kinah while you can, then join me past the break to see where it will soon be going should you desire crafted gold gear.
MAG patch 1.07 due out next week
MAG's next patch, due out next week, will bring some very welcome free updates to players. While the full patch notes aren't available yet, the MAG team has provided a short list of updates to hold fans over for a bit. MAG v1.07 will bring a number of fixes, content changes, and additions to the game, including a new happy hour feature. Happy hour is a double XP bonus that's applied to the first hour of every player's gaming session in a 24-hour period, giving you a little boost to start off with. You'll also find better lighting, redesigned maps, a new faction neutral Supression gameplay mode, and new code that allows for faster patching. Check out the current patch notes on the MAG site, and keep an eye out for the complete notes, available nearer the time of the update.
Aion free account reactivations, double XP incoming
Dust off your wings and brush up on your flying technique, as NCsoft is picking up the tab for your return to the world of Atreia (at least for a weekend). Beginning Friday, July 30th at 11:00 a.m. EDT, all inactive Aion accounts will be reactivated free of charge. If that's not enough to excite the daeva in you, double XP will be in effect as well. Both promotions conclude Monday, August 2nd at 6:00 p.m. EDT. Whether you're coming back to check out the game revisions included in the 1.9 patch, grabbing a few levels in preparation for 2.0, or just looking to kill time and catch up with some old friends, it's hard to beat the price and faster advancement to boot. Read the full announcement at the official Aion website.
Need For Speed World takes off July 27th
Fast cars. Expensive gas. Gaudy spinners. Fuzzy dice. A lead foot. Radar detectors. EA is set to provide all of these and more when Need for Speed World launches next week. A release date of July 27 has been announced, and will be available via digital download for all hot rod enthusiasts. Of course, if you can't wait to settle into the driver's seat, you can get into the game today by pre-ordering the Need for Speed World Starter Pack. Apart from the benefit of early access, pre-orders will get their hands on exclusive cars, be fueled with double XP, and have the ever-so-elite "VIP" tag added to their driver profile from now on. The Starter Pack also includes an allowance of NFSW's in-game currency for a shopping trip if one so desires. A trial of the game will become available next week as well, offering a free sample of NFSW up through level 10 to any and all who mosey by. EA is obviously crossing its fingers that NFSW will go the distance and not break down on the side of the road like Motor City Online, but so far, things are looking up for this title.
Gears of War 2 XP bonus driven by Twitter
Epic is planning an extra XP event for Gears of War 2 that will coincide with next week's San Diego Comic-Con, tied to producer Rod Fergusson's Twitter account -- and designed to promote it, of course. The more followers he gets, the more XP gamers can earn during the upcoming event. It's the second massive XP handout the game has received over the last few weeks, the previous being the title's big July 4 promotion event. It's no surprise: with the game's flagging community, online woes and stiff competition, Epic's needed to come up with something to get players back. [Thanks, Chris]
Uncharted 2 celebrates independence with double cash
Odds are you were already planning to play some Uncharted 2 this weekend -- it's a great game and with the extra time off due to the holiday, why not? Well, Naughty Dog informs us that this weekend will yield players double the cash, upping the per-match ceiling for earnings to $150,000. Whoever said money can't buy you happiness clearly never played Uncharted 2. The cash faucet was turned on this morning and will flow until Wednesday, July 7 at 10am PDT. Now get out there and earn some ducats!
More double XP on tap for Aion
Remember how NCsoft said prior to the 1.9 patch that there wouldn't be any more of their patented Aion double XP weekends for awhile? Well forget all that as this Friday, June 11th, marks the beginning of yet another scrumptious smorgasbord of sweet, sweet experience for your level-hungry Daevas. We're not sure what changed their minds (and frankly we don't care as long as the spice keeps flowing), but one thing we are sure of is that the event has caused us to rethink our weekend gaming plans. When combined with the hefty repeatable quest XP rewards littering the landscape around Heiron post-patch, we'd be remiss for not scarfing up as much as humanly possible. We might even, gasp, approach max level. All that aside, you can check out the press release over on the official Aion website.
