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Snail Games (officially) announces wuxia MMO, Age of Wushu
Have you ever been sitting around with your buddies and watching Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon while thinking to yourself, "Meh, I could do that"? If so, you're probably making a killing in martial arts tournaments and not reading Massively. But don't worry, there's still hope for the rest of us: Snail Games' upcoming free-to-play, wuxia-centric title, Age of Wushu is now officially announced. For the uninitiated, wuxia is a genre of literature, movies, and games which generally includes high-flying, acrobatic ass-kicking. The game will allow players to train under eight different martial art schools, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. The press release boasts that the game features no levels or classes, warning players that "that beggar on the street may be a traveling Grand Master." Combat, unsurprisingly, is based on wuxia-style martial arts, and will feature what the team calls a "counter combat system," which makes it sound like combat could be based around a system of attacks, counters, reversals, and so forth, just like in true martial arts. Of course, no martial-arts combat system would be complete without Crouching-Tiger-Hidden-Dragon-style aerial fights, which Snail Games has certainly included. To top it off, random NPC events, 17 different professions, and 30 offline activities should help ensure that players have something to do no matter the circumstances. To get your martial arts fix, remember to watch the game's official launch trailer we revealed yesterday, and keep an eye on Massively for more from Age of Wushu in the future. [Source: Snail Games press release]
Age of Conan unveils offline leveling
Funcom has announced their new Age of Conan offline leveling mechanic, introduced in the 1.07.2 patch that hit the live servers today. Senior Community Manager Oliver 'Tarib' Kunz details the system in a post on the game's official forums. The new feature kicks off by giving each active account four levels which can distributed to any characters above level 30. Every four days, an additional level will be added to your offline leveling pool, again enabling you to bump up one of your post-30 avatars. The levels accrue regardless of whether you actually log into Age of Conan every four days provided you maintain an active subscription. if you've got a gaggle of level 80 characters sitting on your select screen, the additional levels will be waiting for any new character that you create and advance to 30 or higher. Finally, Tarib notes that levels are permanent once assigned, so choose wisely. "Customer Support would not be able to take that level away from your character and add it back to your pool. So please be careful when assigning these levels," he says. Check out the official announcement and stay with Massively for more details as well as Rise of the Godslayer info. [Thanks Inthracus!]
