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PAX Prime 2013: Hands-on with The Crew
I originally learned about The Crew from friends rather than from gaming hype. "Ask them if we can walk around on foot!" they hounded me. They're all anticipating The Crew, and when I showed up to Ubisoft's PAX Prime booth earlier today, I realized they aren't alone: Hordes of people were lined up to play Ubisoft's MMO racer. Naturally, I decided to try my luck. But sorry, guys -- you can't walk around on foot.
Ngmoco releases We Farm in the US, celebrates three million We Rulers with free mojo
Ngmoco's free to play strategy is spooling right along -- not only is its We Farm title now available on the US App Store (it arrived late last week after a short beta in Canada), but the company is also celebrating three million We Rule players by awarding everybody 20 free mojo. New players can get their mojo by downloading the app and logging in, or old players can just say hi, even if you've been away for a while (and all of your crops have withered up). Ngmoco also shared some fun stats about those three million kingdoms: players have played for 2.2 billion minutes collectively so far, and have built 70 times the number of buildings in New York City, with enough roads to go around the Earth three times over. Pretty wild. Still, as big as three million is, it's still not quite a breakaway hit -- Zynga's Street Racing Facebook game once claimed three million players, and it was recently shut down in favor of Zynga's other more popular title. I would definitely call We Rule a hit, and given that Ngmoco's plan has always been to push for a large free audience to try and claim a percentage of those folks for microtransactions, I think Neil Young's company is pulling off what it set out to do. But even with numbers this big, the App Store's not quite scratching the surface of what the most popular Facebook games are achieving.
Zynga shutting down Street Racing game, offering credit for in-game purchases
Casual giant Zynga is shutting down its Street Racing game on August 2, immediately rendering void all the in-game items players bought with real money. Zynga offered no explanation in the announcement, simply suggesting that players try other Zynga games. Naturally, people whose fake worlds have crashed around them are upset, starting a petition in Zynga's forum to stop the game from disappearing. Zynga told Develop that it wouldn't be offering refunds on the money spent in-game, opting instead to give credits equivalent to the cost of any purchase made in the last 90 days, plus an extra 100 units of virtual currency, all usable in other Zynga games. Which is really going to satisfy the people planning to stop playing Zynga games when Street Racing goes away.
WoW Insider Show Episode 102: Stupid big-tongues
We had a terrific time (as always) on the live podcast last Saturday afternoon, as Zach Yonzon, Mike "Belfaire" Sacco, and Turpster and I sat down to talk about the most popular stories in the World of Warcraft. Of course patch 3.2 was at the forefront of our minds, and we chatted about what each of us was most interested in, from the new BG to the 5-man Trial instance. And we got a little bit of discussion in about the various classes and roles they play in instances.Of course we answered your emails as well -- we talked with Michael Sacco about the "Additional instances can't be launched" issue that's going around (that I got hit with for the first time yesterday, actually), and a reader emailed us about BRK's gun -- so awesome to see our friend get recognized, and deservedly so. It was an excellent show, in my humble opinion, and a great way to squeeze a week's worth of WoW news into just one hour.This week, the podcast will be at a special time -- we'll be going live on Thursday at 1pm Eastern. That's a little earlier than we usually do it, but it should give our friends overseas a chance to tune in when they might not have been able to before (and if you can't make it live, don't worry, the recording will be in iTunes soon after). See you then!Get the podcast:[iTunes] Subscribe to the WoW Insider Show directly in iTunes.[RSS] Add the WoW Insider Show to your RSS aggregator.[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.Listen here on the page:
Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights announced
THQ recently unveiled that they have a sequel to last generation's Juiced street racing title slated for a September release this year. Juiced 2: Hot Import Nights is being developed for the 360, PS3 and PSP. It will have 93 licensed vehicles, tracks in Sydney, Paris, London, Rome, and San Francisco, and over licensed 10,000 components to be added to your car. Drifting races have apparently replaced the drag racing and showdown modes found in the original. We expect the ability to form car clubs, race for pink slips, and other features that made Juiced unique to remain intact for the new gen sequel. Were you a fan of the original, and would you want to play it on current generation consoles?
