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Pick up a SWTOR stronghold for practically nothing
If you haven't planted roots in Star Wars: The Old Republic's strongholds or are on a quest to collect them all, then BioWare has a nice surprise for you. Buried in the patch notes for this week's Shadows of Revan expansion is an announcement that the studio is selling two of its strongholds for a pittance. "To celebrate our impending 3rd anniversary, the Dromund Kaas and Coruscant Strongholds are now available for three credits!" BioWare posted. Typically, these strongholds go for 5,000 credits or 50 cartel coins.
Wasteland Diaries: Exploring the Citadel
Normally, I prefer to PvP in Fallen Earth. It gives me the biggest sense of accomplishment and it's a handy way to gain tons of faction rep. But, while I'm leveling up my PvP clones and getting used to the new combat system, I've been doing mostly PvE. I went to Alpha County and ran some missions, but I'll go into more detail on that later in this post. I also got a chance to check out the progress towns. I have to admit, they are fun, and rewarding too! I actually had more fun messing around in the progress towns back in Deadfall than I did roaming around in Sector 4. Sure, I didn't do every mission in Alpha -- I probably didn't even do half of them. After a while, I decided to put my time to use in the progress towns. After the cut, I'll tell you why I left Sector 4 and came back to Deadfall.
A sneak peek at Fallen Earth's Progress Towns
Coming soon to a public test server near Fallen Earth is one of the more exciting pieces of content the game has seen: Progress Towns! Icarus Studios wanted to take the concept of a player-built town and make it something truly special. Progress Towns are the next iteration of Fallen Earth's attempt to include player housing, which started with patch 1.2's camps. With the this new system, players will be able to build up their own towns from the ruins of old ones. Three such towns will be in place for testing: Progress in Sector 2, Stronghold in Sector 3, and Citadel in Deadfall. Before players can move in and start performing stunning makeovers, they'll have to fight enemy mobs who've declared squatter's rights. Once the battle is won, the area becomes player-controlled and can be improved upon by using the construction skillset. Progress Towns can be built up to house many useful features, such as merchants, mailboxes, and defensive structures. Once enough construction takes place, special merchants will appear and offer unique crafting components in exchange for a new form of currency. Don't get too comfortable, however. These towns will always be under the threat of enemy raiders looking to take back what once was theirs! This slice of player-generated content will appear on the test servers next week, but you can get a sneak peek at Progress Towns in the gallery below right now! %Gallery-48606%
Stronghold 3 delayed until late summer
Firefly Studios, the team behind Stronghold 3, has learned some important lessons in all its years of simulated castle building. For one, constructing spiral staircases counter-clockwise makes them easier to defend against right-handed swordsmen. But more practically, Firefly has learned that taking your time is key. The studio's putting that second lesson to good use today, announcing that Stronghold 3 has been moved from an "early 2011" to a "late summer 2011" release window. Apparently, the delay will allow Firefly to implement "a host of great new features" so, needless to say, we're bracing ourselves for the best looking moat physics in the biz.
Have a look at the dirty brutes of Might & Magic Heroes 6
Ubisoft has released a few screens showing off the Stronghold faction in the upcoming Might & Magic Heroes 6 from Black Hole Entertainment. Traditionally in the long-running fantasy strategy series, the "Stronghold" town is a wild group of degenerate races that embraces the "Might" side of the equation rather than the Magic side, and in H6, the tale is no different. Goblins, Harpies and Maulers make up the Stronghold's forces, usually preferring melee or brute force to the more arcane arts. As you can see from the screenshots, Stronghold troops are rough and tribal -- perfect for smashing some smarmy Mage's head in with a spiky club. There are a few pieces of concept art on the game's Facebook page to check out as well. M&MH6 is due out sometime next year.%Gallery-111547%
Direct2Drive lights a fire sale on 2K titles this week
Direct2Drive has launched a promotion in which it designates a "Publisher of the Week," and then takes a different game from said publisher and cuts its price in twain (or more) each weekday. This week, it's 2K's turn, resulting in mad price cuts on gems like Borderlands and BioShock 2.
Castle simulation goes MMO with Stronghold Kingdoms
Being a king will soon be as easy as logging into a game and doing what needs to get done, as Firefly Studios has announced Stronghold Kingdoms, a 2010 dated castle and kingdom MMO. Although they don't currently have a publisher, the Stronghold series is well, for lack of a better term, strong -- we have no doubt it'll find a happy publishing deal in the coming months.The game itself will be very familiar to fans of Firefly's previous works, with lots of besieging, battling and pillaging -- after the proper bankrolling of course. We'll warn the faint of heart now: delve into the official website at your own risk, this is not a casual game of "Let's build castles and play armies!" that Firefly creates. On the contrary, this looks to be a game with enough depth to drown a giraffe twice over.
Champions Online: Hands-on gameplay impressions
During their most recent Media Day, Cryptic Studios gave journalists a look at the current state of development of Champions Online. After several interesting presentations, including a talk about the IP by Jack Emmert, we were allowed a sit-down with the game, playing through two zones: Stronghold Prison and Snake Gulch.While both sessions were somewhat managed, the experience was still exciting and rich, owing in no small part to the action-based gameplay -- a deliberate decision on Cryptic's part. Directly below, new screenshots for the gallery, and our impressions of what we played follow, after the jump. %Gallery-17946%
New Champions Online location info: Stronghold
Now that the cat's outta the bag, more information about Champions Online is starting to trickle out. The developers are starting to present great background information like hero and villain profiles, game features, and world history, like this page on CO's mega-security prison, Stronghold.Man, if you'd told me in the 80s that I'd be playing my hero alongside my buddies on the computer against the villains that, up until now, existed only as a picture on the page, I'd have said you were a neo maxi zoom dweebie. Or some other 80s reference. Whatever, I can't even think straight anymore, I'm so excited.
Metareview - CivCity: Rome
What do you get when you combine the Roman Empire building of Caesar, the city planning of SimCity, and the wonders and tech trees of the ever popular Civilization? It would probably look something like CivCity: Rome, developed by Firefly Studios (Stronghold, Space Colony), where your task is to create and manage the economy of ancient Rome, collect taxes, and keep your citizens happy. The critics have been all over the map so far, but there is an alternative right around the corner for aspiring urban planners. VU Games plans to release the long-awaited Caesar IV in September, which should provide a basis for comparison -- and give Firefly some time to patch the buggy CivCity. IGN (82/100) appreciates the attention to detail: "CivCity: Rome is definitely full of Roman flavor. Not only are the structures and commodities designed to heighten your appreciation and understanding of Roman life, but even your citizens will give you insight into topics as diverse as makeup and warfare. If you crave more information, the Civilopedia and the manual offer some interesting commentaries on the buildings and activities of a Roman's daily life." GameSpot (66/100) has issues with CivCity's look and feel: "For starters, the game is ugly. Although it is nifty how roofs peel back to show you citizens going about their daily lives, and how clicking on homes and businesses create arrows connecting them to their wandering citizens, the jagged visuals are three years out of date." 1UP (50/100) isn't bullish on the game's combat system: "Once you've struggled with troop facing, watched them surround and ignore an invader, and shrieked as enemies walk right through closed city gates, you'll convert entirely to the boring (but less troublesome) map-level warfare. You can also opt to entirely skip this disappointing tradeoff by sticking to the peaceful game, though at a cost of about one-third of the game's content."
