Square Enix has announced that three new expansions priced at $10 each will be coming to the eight year-old MMORPG Final Fantasy XI in 2010, with each expansion set to release simultaneously in all markets for all platforms. Square Enix announced three Final Fantasy XI scenario add-ons set to release throughout 2010, at $10 each. The three packs will release in all territories simultaneously, and will be available on all three FFXI platforms--PC, PS2, and Xbox 360. The three expansions will be named Vision of Abyssea, Scars of Abyssea, and Heroes of Abyssea, with the first expansion (Vision) due this summer. Players will need to have acquired two previous expansion packs--Rise of the Zilart and Wings of the Goddess--to access these three new add-ons.
Erebus Travia is slowly getting closer to its closed-beta testing and OutSpark has released new info on the four classes available in the game. The game will be free-to-play and is currently still in preparation to be showcased at this year’s GDC, but you can still learn a little bit about the game before it hits closed beta. The four main classes in Erebus Travia include the Warrior, Archer, Cleric and Mage. Gauntlet fans will probably be right at home with the character classes. However, there are also sub-classes in the game for high-level players. Warriors can either become Blade Masters or Paladins; Archers can evolve into a Huntress or a Summoner; Clerics can become Bishops or Necromancers and Mages can become Archmages with several sub-class elemental specialties.
Erebus Travia features fast-paced, real-time action-oriented combat, complete with dungeon crawling quests and plenty of mobs to grind. In other words, if Diablo was an MMO it would be a little something like Erebus Travia.
The official Erebus: Travia Reborn site with information on the four primary player classes: The Warrior, The Archer, The Cleric and The Mage. Find out a bit about each
The Warrior - Long before humans discovered magic, they were masters of armed warfare. This rich combat legacy ensures that no other class can dish out or take physical damage like a Warrior. With his superior strength, a Warrior like General Karvion can wield massive two-handed blades and wear the heaviest armor in Travia, but with fewer ranged options, he will need that armor to survive. Veteran Warriors can choose to follow the path of warfare, becoming dreaded Blade Masters, or they can swear service to their god, becoming Paladins.
The Archer - The Elven Archers are unrivaled masters of ranged combat. Elves such as Lady Vestora use their bows and crossbows to pick off targets with deadly accuracy. These defenders of the forest forgo heavy armor, preferring to keep their foes at a distance. Masters of survival, Archers use traps and cunning to keep the battle on favorable terms. As Archers advance through the ranks, they can choose to focus on improving their weapon skills, becoming a Huntress, or they can deepen their bonds with the forest as a Summoner.
The Cleric - When humans were exiled to Travia, many turned to Andara, the Goddess of Light, for guidance and power. Over the years, the devout have deepened their connection to the goddess, gaining the ability to unleash holy magic from afar or heal allies with a touch. Some clerics use mighty staves to smite their foes, while others use cudgels and shields to engage the unrighteous in melee combat. When a Cleric is ready, she can renew her commitment to Andara, ascending to the role of Bishop, or she can turn from the light to Devu, Goddess of Shadows, and become a Necromancer.
The Mage - For a race that only recently discovered magic, humanity has quickly mastered the secrets of the arcane. Now, the Mages of Bitrah are the ultimate damage dealers, with focused spells that can annihilate a single target and magical storms that can devastate foes within a wide area of attack. With this great power comes great risk, for Mages are the most vulnerable of all classes. As Mages grow advanced in their studies,they can rise to the rank of Archmage and specialize in the arts of Fire, Ice or Lightning.
Kingdom Heroes (KH) is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that introduces a variety of new, revolutionary features to the MMO genre.
In KH, players will be able to...
* Recruit and customize NPC soldiers to form their own personal armies. * Organize a crew of players and take to the seas in exciting ship battles. * Work together to establish, develop, and defend player-controlled cities. * Conquer enemy strongholds using an impressive arsenal of troops, mounts, ships, and powerful siege engines.
Aeria Games & Entertainment today unveiled Kingdom Heroes, a new MMORPG due to launch in North America and Europe in Spring 2010.
Starting today, players can sign up for the closed beta testing of Kingdom Heroes, a new free-to-play massive multiplayer RPG.
The press release states that Kingdom Heroes introduces a number of new features to the MMORPG genre. The revolutionary features mentioned are:
- Recruit and customize NPC soldiers to form armies
- Organize a crew of players and take to the seas in exciting ship battles
- Establish, develop, and defend player-controlled cities
- Conquer strongholds using troops, mounts, ships, and siege engines
- Thousands of quests
Players can sign up for the beta at Aeria’s website. Aeria Games publishes free-to-play online games to a growing community of over 10 million members. Here is the official trailer for Kingdom Heroes.
Closed beta for Star Trek Online officially began when it was announced on October 22, 2009.Cryptic Studios offered guaranteed beta access to users who bought 6-month and lifetime subscriptions to Champions Online. However, the offer did not explicitly state how early in the beta process the access will be granted.
On November 19, 2009 Cryptic announced that Star Trek Online would exit Closed Beta and begin Open Beta from January 12 to 26, 2010.
Cryptic Studios partnered with several retailers for distribution of preorder copies. Each retailer had a version with unique and exclusive content, such as a Borg Bridge Officer (Amazon), a classic Constitution Class starship (Gamestop), Chromodynamic Armor (Steam), 500 bonus skill points (WalMart) or a Tribble/Targ pet (Bestbuy). All versions of the game came with access to the Open Beta and Head Start launch date.These are on a limited basis, but may still be found after launch, depending on stock.
In addition, the code for a "Wrath of Khan" Admiral's uniform is included in the DVD release of "The Best of Star Trek: The Next Generation Volume 2" and the Blu-ray release of "Star Trek: The Original Series -- Season 3."
Also, Cryptic partnered with Del Taco to offer codes with collectible cups (Macho size drinks) that come with a Type 8 Shuttlecraft non-combat "pet", as well as two days of trial time per code that allow a total of 10 days of trial play time when a player uses all four available codes.
On Feb 25th, less than a month after the game's initial release, Cryptic announced that they would be reducing the cost of Star Trek Online by $10 and including an extra sixty days of free game time, as a limited time offer that expires on March 3rd, 2010 . This lead to outrage by players who had pre-ordered, forcing Star Trek Online to cancel the promotion early.
Star Wars: The Old Republic (TOR) is an upcoming massively multiplayer online role-playing game based in the Star Wars universe. The story takes place in the Star Wars fictional universe shortly after the establishment of a tenuous peace between the re-emergent Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic, 300 years after the events of the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games and more than 3,500 years before the events in the Star Wars films. The Jedi are held responsible for the success of the Sith and choose to relocate from Coruscant to Tython, where the Jedi order had been initially founded, to seek guidance from the Force. The Sith control Korriban, where they re-established a Sith Academy. The game begins as new conflicts arise.
A collaborative effort between Bioware, Lucasarts and Dark Horse Comics has resulted in a webcomic entitled "Star Wars: The Old Republic: Threat of Peace", the purpose of which is to set up the story as the game opens.
The Galactic Republic stood for generations as a bastion of peace in a galaxy of warring star systems. Protected by its stalwart Jedi guardians, the Republic held the greatest hope for the progress of civilization and galactic unity. Deep in unknown space, however, a mighty Sith Empire was forged, led by dark Sith Lords who dreamt of galactic domination and vengeance against their ancient Jedi enemies. After centuries of preparation, the time came for the Sith to make their return. With a massive fleet and an awe-inspiring army of fearless troops, the Sith Emperor launched a surprise assault, quickly capturing dozens of worlds in the Outer Rim, and sparking a war unlike any other in the galaxy’s history. From the frozen wastes of Ilum to the desert plains of Dathomir, violent battles killed untold millions. Despite its avowed neutrality, surface structures on the water-covered world of Manaan were completely destroyed, forcing the Selkath to retreat to their ocean underworld. Other star systems fared worse—some destroyed, others left uninhabitable. The carnage concluded with the Sith Empire sacking the Republic's capital planet of Coruscant and forcing the Republic Senate into the controversial Treaty of Coruscant. In the years since the treaty, fear and uncertainty have gripped the galaxy, enabling the Sith Emperor to pursue his own mysterious purposes while the Republic has made efforts to rebuild its infrastructure and adjust military priorities to the new galactic landscape. Now, tensions between the Republic and the Empire are running high, and a series of border skirmishes and proxy wars have broken out, even on planets as historically peaceful as Alderaan. The uneasy truce established by the Treaty of Coruscant is quickly tearing apart at the seams, and a return to all-out war has begun in all but official terms. A new generation of heroes, both light and dark, emerges to face the difficulties of these chaotic times, and fight for the fate of the galaxy in this most desperate age.
Members of the two main factions—the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire—will have different moralities; the project's key focus is to differentiate between the player's faction and morality. Each faction will contain different classes, each with a distinct backstory and a branching storyline affected by players' moral choices. Classes will also be exclusive to one faction or the other. All eight of the classes have been confirmed: the Bounty Hunter,Sith Warrior,Imperial Agent, and Sith Inquisitor for the Sith Empire; and the Trooper, Smuggler,Jedi Knight, and Jedi Consular for the Galactic Republic. Although each class will have a distinct storyline, they will be integrated with the game's overall arc.
Unlike traditional MMORPGs, classes in the Old Republic are not limited to the typical archetypes (healer, tank, dps, etc...). Bioware has stated that each class will support on-the-fly customization that will allow any class to fill any role within a party, eliminating the need to spam channels in search of a specific class needed to fill a role within a group, which can delay or outright stop parties from completing group quests. While the classes in The Old Republic will still be guilded toward a certain play style (be it ranged, melee, or otherwise), customization combined with companion characters will make for having a class be able to tackle many different situations, with or without the support of other player characters, and without requiring specific other classes in order to move forward.
Players' choices will permanently open or close storylines and affect players' non-player character (NPC) companions. The game's developers believe that the game will provide more context for characters' missions and quests than other MMORPGs offer. Every character in the game, including the player character, will feature full voice dialog to enhance gameplay, and interactions with those characters will feature a dialogue system similar to that used in the Mass Effect series. Players will be able to choose from a variety of NPCs, although spending time with a single companion will help more in developing story and content than dividing time among several, and may even develop a love interest. It is possible for players to "blow it big time" if they fail to meet NPCs' expectation. Players will also have access to dozens of planets, including Korriban, Ord Mantell, Nal Hutta, Tython, Coruscant,Balmorra,Alderaan,Tatooine,Dromund Kaas,and Taris.
The Old Republic marks BioWare's first entry into the MMORPG market, and it will be the second Star Wars MMORPG after Star Wars Galaxies. BioWare had long been interested in working on a MMORPG, but waited until they had "the right partners, the right team, and the right I.P." A major focus in the game is on developing characters' individual stories and, in October 2008, BioWare considered this game to have more story content than all of their other games combined. The writing team, which has been working on the game longer than any other developers,includes 12 full-time writers, some of whom have worked on the project for more than two years. The game's first cinematic trailer, "Deceived," was shown at the Electronic Arts 2009 E3 Press Conference on June 1, 2009. A public live demo was shown for the first time at the Gamescom. On September 29, 2009, Bioware announced that they would be accepting applications for testers from the game community. Within minutes, the official website was down due to traffic, and Bioware announced shortly after that the site was being changed in order to accommodate the increase in visitors. No date was given in regard to when the selected testers would be allowed to test the game. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars:_The_Old_Republic
Although no competitor has been able to garner a subscription base to rival World of Warcraft, there are some promising games in development. Aion: The Tower of Eternity, developed by NCsoft, has gathered a respectable subscription base in Korea and China ahead of its release in North America and Europe. NCSoft's previous titles include Guild Wars and Lineage II. Upcoming AAA ("triple-A")[clarification needed] titles also include; Star Wars: The Old Republic, an un-named MMORPG in development by Bioware, Final Fantasy XIV, the spiritual successor to SquareEnix's Final Fantasy XI, and Warhammer 40,000 Online.
Finally, there are games such as World of Darkness Online being designed by CCP hf (Crowd Control Productions) which present a close working with the license designers; in the case presented this is due to acquisition of the corporate license owner. Others of this ilk can be foreseen as coming, based on corporate action such as Rebellion Developments purchasing Mongoose Publishing and Smith & Tinker acquiring Shadowrun. With the rise of seventh generation super consoles such as PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 both of which designed to be a Personal Computer alternative, has brought the rumour that the future of mmorpg gaming lies in consoles as such.
