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Das Tal gets the Greenlight, sells supporter packs
The indie sandbox Das Tal is feeling a little more vindicated today, as the title announced that the community voted to Greenlight it on Steam following a three-month campaign. The studio said that it will now be figuring out "how best to use Steam's platform" as the alpha MMO moves forward. Riding high off of the announcement, the Das Tal team announced that it will not be looking for further funding through a Kickstarter but will be selling development supporter packages instead. These packs go from $30 to $200 and include trial keys, alpha access, name reservations, and concept art.
Final Fantasy XIV opens up a free login weekend, Steam demo
Have you been taking a break from Final Fantasy XIV recently? Do you want to see what the game's most recent patch brings to the table before deciding to resubscribe or not? Then go ahead and log in over the weekend because everyone with a registered copy of the game will be eligible to log in and check out the game for free. It might not be enough time to check out everything in the patch, but it's enough time to see some of it, at least. If you don't already have the game, you can play the free 14-day trial demo on Steam, where the game is on sale for $12 for the next week. The free reactivation starts 3 a.m. EST on November 7th and runs until 3 a.m. EST on November 10th. This latest patch adds the new Rogue class, three new dungeons, a new battle against the primal Shiva, and several other quests and quality of life improvements. But you don't have to take our word for it; you can dive back in and give it a shot for yourself.
See Stormthrone's first gameplay teaser
Hearing is one thing, seeing is another. Today we're no longer just hearing about R2Games' Stormthrone but getting our very first glimpse at actual gameplay (as measured in nanoseconds of video). The studio released a teaser trailer that highlights the game's PvP battles, co-op mode, and loot system. Currently the game is accepting alpha signups, although the official site has some minigames for fans to earn in-game goodies for their future characters. You can check out the teaser after the break! [Source: R2Games press release]
Star Trek Online introduces playable Talaxians, discounts lifetime sub
Big things are afoot in the Delta Quadrant, as Star Trek Online has not only added the Talaxians as a playable race but thrown them into the lifetime subscription package and then discounted that sub by $100 for a limited time. From now through November 20th, the Star Trek Online lifetime sub can be bought for $199. This marks the player as an eternal gold member, with the Talaxian race, a ship upgrade token for Delta Rising, a monthly ZEN allowance, and other veteran rewards. As for the Talaxians, players who pick one as a captain will not only have the honor of looking like Voyager's resident space hedgehog but also get access to two unique traits: salvage specialist and loyalty.
Path of Exile now accepting Karma Koins
Do you need an alternate way to make purchases in Path of Exile? Yesterday, Grinding Gear Games declared to the world at large that it would also be accepting Karma Koins as payment. These are basically point cards that you can pick up from a variety of retailers for $10 to $50 each. As an incentive for players to try out the Karma Koin system, Path of Exile will give out a Voidgate Portal effect for everyone who uses a card. Karma Koin claims to donate 1% of sales to charities, including one that brings drinking water to families in Cambodia. [Thanks to Ville Uusitalo for the tip!]
World of Warcraft gives a week of free game time to lapsed players
If you're a former World of Warcraft player who's been away from the game for a while, you might want to check your account for a nice surprise. Blizzard has activated a free seven-day pass to the game for all lapsed players. This pass includes all of the content up through Mists of Pandaria. World of Warcraft is also throwing a 25% off sale for its extra services, including character transfers, faction changes, guild transfers, and (you guessed it) guild faction changes.
World of Warcraft moves toward Warlords of Draenor with Patch 6.0.2
You won't need to wait until next month to start experiencing Warlords of Draenor, as the expansion's preparation patch released today with several new features. Patch 6.0.2: The Iron Tide will destroy World of Warcraft's famous Dark Portal landmark, prune away some class abilities, enact the talked-about "stat squish," update most of the racial models with better visuals, put in a toybox, include a special revised version of the Upper Blackrock Spire dungeon, and add prologue quests in the Blasted Lands against the Iron Horde. With the patch also comes a change in the game's retail package. The Mists of Pandaria expansion is now bundled with with the rest of World of Warcraft and is on sale for $20. You can get an overview of Patch 6.0.2 in the video after the jump.
Diablo III on sale this weekend
If you're one of the few holdouts on this here planet Earth who hasn't picked up a copy of Diablo III or its expansion, Blizzard is prepared to make you one tempting offer. From now through Monday, October 6th, Diablo III and the Reaper of Souls expansion is 50% off through the Blizzard store. This puts the core game and the basic expansion at $20 apiece, with the digital deluxe edition of Reaper of Souls marked down to $40. Diablo III recently patched up to 2.1.1 and announced a month ago that it has sold 20 million units.
Twitch seeks transparency for promotional broadcasts
Twitch will begin instituting new policies that clearly label sponsored broadcasts on its channels, the video streaming platform announced on its blog. "We want complete transparency and unwavering authenticity with all content and promotions that have a sponsor relationship," Twitch wrote. Copy and graphics for future Twitch-driven campaigns will now have labels to indicate that they are promotional in nature. For instance, the front-page video carousel will include a new "sponsored" graphic when applicable, and Twitch will add sponsored labels to its content newsletters as well. Future tweets from the streaming platform's official accounts will also include language that indicates if the broadcast is promotional as well. Twitch isn't the only company opting for more transparency in how sponsored content is listed; Valve introduced new policies for Steam Curators to openly disclose paid recommendations this week as well. [Image: Twitch]
Spend $100 on PSN in October, get $15 back
Sony's latest promotion is dishing cash back to those that buy goods on PSN this month. As of October 1, players that spend at least $100 using their Sony Entertainment Network wallets will receive $15 in credit. The credit will be delivered to those taking advantage of the offer "on or before November 7" via email or PS4, PS3 or Vita system notification in redemption code form. The promotion runs through Tuesday, October 28. Players will have until December 5 to redeem their $15 credit codes. Now the question is: What ever shall you spend that $100 on? PS4 players may consider the recently-launched and excellent Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, or may choose to pre-order Alien: Isolation via PSN. Or you could just blow it all on repeated rentals of Hocus Pocus. Your call. [Image: Sony]
AT&T's latest promo doubles your data on shared phone plans
Given the avalanche of new smartphones this fall, there's a good chance that your data use is about to spike as you put that fresh hardware through its paces. If so, AT&T might just have you covered. It's running a promo between September 28th and October 31st that doubles the amount of data you get with its Mobile Share Value plans, whether or not you're a new customer. Signing up for the special rates nets you up to a hefty 100GB per month of shared data at the high end. However, the starter offer is arguably the best -- $130 per month (plus line fees) gets you 30GB to play with, which should hopefully accommodate your family's Netflix viewing habits. AT&T's deal isn't necessarily as sweet as what you'll get with Sprint or T-Mobile, which start at a respective $100 and $140 per month for roughly the same service. However, it's competitive enough that it could keep you on Big Blue's network for a little while longer.
Amazon's latest free Android app bundle includes a $59 dictionary
Amazon sure loves giving away free apps, and today sees the start of its third Appstore promotion in almost as many months. If you're not following, Amazon's Android Appstore already offers a different piece of paid software for free each day. Lately, though, it's been discounting collections of apps for a limited time, like with the new "work, play & watch" bundle. In total, there are 27 apps worth around $135/£100 up for grabs until September 27th (this Saturday). It's not the most attractive buffet, but Riptide GP2, SketchBook Pro and the Swype keyboard are notable inclusions, with the most expensive being OfficeSuite Professional 7 (usually $14.99/£9.36) and the latest edition Merriam-Webster dictionary (normally $59/£34.44). Anyway, you may as well check out the full selection in case you spot anything you like; and remember, Amazon's Appstore isn't just available on its own hardware, but to anyone with an Android device and a few spare minutes.
Guild Wars 2 launches new WvW meta-contests
Most PvP contests require you to actually be good at PvP. That seems fair, really, just as cooking contests generally work best when they feature people who are at least passingly familiar with cooking. But the two new Guild Wars 2 WvW contests don't actually require you to be any good at WvW, just good at showing the feature off. ArenaNet has partnered with Overwolf to kick off two WvW contests that are all about promoting and celebrating WvW, even if you aren't much of a player. The first contest is looking for the players who use the Overwolf application while streaming, aiming for the highest number of concurrent viewers on Twitch. Whoever wins gets some SteelSeries peripherals as well as 8,000 gems. Meanwhile, if that's not your thing, you can also create a WvW War Report, share it via YouTube, and be eligible to win 5,000 gems if your offering is the best. So it's not about your PvP skill here, just about your ability to entertain people via that skill (or lack thereof).
Destiny unlocks its first raid and goes on sale
Destiny hasn't been out for every long now, but if you've been power-leveling along, you might very well be level 26 or above. And that's a good thing if you want to take on the game's first raid, which has just been unlocked for players. The Vault of Glass can now be entered, with hardcore enthusiasts already rushing to be the first one to clear its challenges. As with all of Destiny's raid content, a fire team must be assembled out of members of your friend list, as there is no matchmaking option for Vault of Glass. Haven't yet picked up the game? Well, you can do so now at a discount; despite the short amount of time Destiny has been out, retailer BrandsMart is reportedly offering the game for $30, which larger retailers such as Target and Wal-Mart may or may not price match. (Reports are conflicting.) While you likely won't be ready for the Vault of Glass if you take the offer, you will be able to get in on the ground floor a fair bit cheaper, so it's still a win. Kotaku argues that as of this morning, Destiny has "resoundingly mediocre review scores" with "76.29% on GameRankings and a 77 on Metacritic." Our sister site Joystiq reviewed the game this morning, giving it four out of five stars.
Line of Defense targets September 16th for early access
Line of Defense is just a few short days from beginning its early access program, which will begin on Tuesday, September 16th. Fans of the game can go ahead and buy their way into it with one of three early access packages. However, from now until the 16th, the early access packs are half-off on Steam. So instead of costing between $40 and $100, they currently range from $20 to $50 for this limited time. What will Line of Defense's early access content look like? It will mostly be sight-seeing, as we understand it. According to a dev post on Steam, players will be able to check out the Heatwave starbase and poke around a nearby orbiting Starguard carrier. "Since this is a world testing build, no weapons, vehicles, aircrafts, inventory items, etc. are player usable. You will be able to explore both of these massive areas and carry out various actions," the early access FAQ states.
Final Fantasy XI welcomes back old players with a free week
If you once walked the fields of Vana'diel in Final Fantasy XI but haven't been back in some time, you've missed a lot of updates. The game's run for 13 years now, after all; whenever you stopped playing, it's likely a lot of new content awaits you. And if you've got the hankering to check back in and see if it's how you remember, you can do so for a week. Completely free. Until September 17th, former players can log in for free and explore all of the content available in the game. Players will need to transfer their old PlayOnline IDs to Square-Enix IDs if they have not done so already. A promotional video has also been released, detailing some of the changes made to the game for its current incarnation. So if you've got a hankering to step back into the world of Vana'diel, now might be the time to do so.
Ragnarok Online 2 shutting down in Southeast Asia
Ragnarok Online 2 isn't exactly taking the world by storm as of late. Following the title's closure in Korea last year, Ragnarok Online 2 is closing its doors in Singapore and Malaysia on October 9th. There is a pretty bright spot to this story, however, as Asiasoft's version of the game will accept account transfers from affected players. "Following the opening of Ragnarok 2's Odin Server to Philippine players last month, we are thrilled to be continuing the global expansion of Warpportal's Ragnarok Online 2 by welcoming all players from Southeast Asia regions!" Asiasoft posted. Southeast Asian players will not be able to access their characters until October 9th, and none of their Kafra Points will make the leap over to the new server.
Xbox One promo lets you pick a free game to go with your console
Games bundled with consoles are normally a take-it-or-leave-it affair. Not with Microsoft's upcoming promo, though. If you buy an Xbox One between September 7th and 13th, you'll get any regularly-priced game you want for free. Yes, you can snag a gratis copy of Destiny the day it's available. This stacks on top of existing bundles, to boot, so you can get a second title alongside pack-ins like Forza or Madden. Microsoft isn't being altruistic here; this is no doubt meant to counter the Destiny PlayStation 4 and boost the Xbox One's modest sales. Even so, it's hard to knock a deal that gives you exactly what you want.
RIFT sells digital editions of Nightmare Tide
Excitement is bubbling up from the deeps for RIFT's Nightmare Tide, and while the expansion is free for all, Trion Worlds is selling a trio of digital editions with extra goodies. The Typhoon Edition is $24.99 and features benefits such as dual earring slots, a new bag slot, and planewalker: water attunement (which allows you to equip special gear). The Infusion Edition is $49.99 and includes one instant level 60 character, housing items, a second minion slot, an extra bank vault slot, and a jellyfish pet. And if you want to shell out (no pun intended) $149.99, you'll get all of the above plus a cobalt thresher mount, a 36-slot bag, a Shadow Scion dimension, nightmare cosmetic weapons, an Abyssal Crab combat crab skin, and more. Trion is also tossing in extra loyalty for those who purchase one of these editions. If you have additional questions about the digital editions, there's a collector's edition FAQ put up just for you! [Thanks to Bill for the tip!]
DCUO sells base item packs
If you're the type of person who would rather hop on the express lane to interior decorating in a superhero setting, then DC Universe Online is rolling out the welcome mat for you. The MMO is now selling theme base item packs in its marketplace. These packs all contain housing items that can be obtained in the game, so it's a trade-off between spending time and effort to get them or to pay for the privilege of snatching them up all at once. Two of the item packs revealed are the Dynasty Starter and Greek Statues collections. [Thanks to Demonxaphan for the tip!]
