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A new kingdom awaits in Vindictus patch 1.23
There's more to Vindictus than just hacking and slashing everything into a bloody red mist, and with the game's latest update, that statement is more true than ever. Patch 1.23 has just arrived, bringing with it a variety of new content for the free-to-play action title, starting with the brand-new kingdom of Rocheste. Players at level 22 or higher will be able to travel to the new area filled with new vendors and quest NPCs as well as enjoy the start of the brand-new Expertise system for crafting items. But maybe you're not too concerned about all of that fluff and want to cut things to ribbons. The update is catering to you as well with the level cap bump to 70 and the addition of two new transformations for your character. Along with an increased AP cap, new armors, and a new dueling system, there's plenty of opportunity for Vindictus veterans to enjoy the game's signature gameplay. Take a look at the full patch notes and get ready to enjoy all of the new additions, along with several upcoming events for the game.
New Ryzom patch enhancing PvP and other social functions
PvP is a tricky matter to balance in a game with players in all sorts of different gear levels, not to mention accounting for different player skills. Ryzom has tackled the age-old bugbear with its latest patch, attempting to extend and expand the PvP system in the game to everyone. The system has modified the rules for attacking, flagging, and supporting other players, with a small chart in the patch notes explaining who is allowed to do what to whom and when. In case skewering other players isn't your thing, however, you can invite them into your personal apartment now as well as take advantage of the newly added variable tags for the chat system. There are also enhancements to the apartment customization focusing on getting involved with the community team and as usual a smattering of bugfixes and general performance improvements. If you're part of Ryzom's dedicated audience, take a look at the patch notes to see what 1.10 brings to the game.
Final Fantasy XI walks the Walk of Echoes
Amidst all the changes coming with the June version update for Final Fantasy XI, players will finally be able to explore some of the Walk of Echoes. One of the most iconic and surreal parts of the Wings of the Goddess expansion, this region has only been visited in cutscenes up until now. This would be welcome in and of itself, but the implementation of the area is unique, a mixture of special battlefields and the Campaign battles. To start, players must be at least level 70 and have progressed to the "Cait Sith" mission in Wings of the Goddess. A moogle takes on the role of your transport to the timeless region, wherein adventurers will find several portals to battlefields. Once within a battlefield, players will be subject to a time limit to face off against several enemies, with no limitations on new players entering the battlefield and engaging the monsters. The loot system is poised to work similarly to Warhammer Online's Public Quests, with all participants having a shot at rewards and the highest contributors getting bonuses. Final Fantasy XI players only have a couple days left before they can take part in the new content, but there's still time to familiarize yourself with this strange new region.
Fallen Earth launches the new achievement system
While they're not universally loved, achievements in a game add a sense of accomplishment to almost everything, even if it's just as simple as being one step closer to the "Kill 1000 rats" benchmark. Fallen Earth didn't suffer from lack of an achievement system at launch, but it certainly stands to benefit from the addition of one. And with the system now live, if the other elements of the recent patch 1.4 aren't enough for you, you can start hunting down the most obscure accomplishments the game cares to list. As further detailed on Curse, the system is split into five general categories. Crafter and Explorer both are self-evident in terms of how they're earned. Mercenary achievements require players to get into the hard reality of the PvP scene and take down some opponents, Survivalist achievements measure use of abilities and reputation with factions, and Wastelander achievements come with exploring the plotline of the game. There are more details available, but we're betting that most Fallen Earth players are already well on their way to getting their new marks of survival in the wasteland.
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: The endgame oddity
As long as I'm exhorting our new lead designer and hoping she brings a swift death to the warehouse map, it seems only fitting to take a look at the promised new "endgame system" that Matt "Positron" Miller is supposedly developing. I say this in quotes because, really, that's all we've been told. It is a system and it will involve the endgame, and presumably some sort of rewards in exchange for effort. For all we know it's going to be an interactive kitten-petting simulator. Regardless, I think that Miller is exactly the right person for the job. (I'm sure Paragon Studios has been waiting for my approval.) We've seen some spectacular system launches during his tenure, but the content problem extends through to the endgame, and is an issue that City of Heroes needs to deal with. And the oddity is that the game simultaneously has the most populated endgame possible, with huge amounts of things to do... yet not nearly as many interesting things to do when you hit max level as other games. It's a bit of design strangeness, one that serves the game well up until the last level and will take some clever work to overcome. How can the endgame be so sparse when it's so rich?
