Author: Admin

Anarchy Online Releases On Steam


Funcom has announced that its science fiction MMO Anarchy Online is now available on Steam. The game is free to play and can be downloaded here.

“Anarchy Online is one of the longest living online games in the world and millions of players have made the planet of Rubi-ka their home,” said Funcom CEO Rui Casais. “Bringing the game to Steam is something we have wanted to do for a while and we hope this will bring in new players as well as inspire veterans to come back now that it is easier than ever to travel to Rubi-ka again.”

Anarchy Online originally launched in June 2001. Funcom recently stated in a quarterly report that active development on the title had ceased.

The Secret World Legends Hits In June


Funcom’s reboot of The Secret World, dubbed Secret World Legends, has been confirmed for a June 26 release date. The title is making the transition from buy-to-play fully fledged MMO to a free to play shared world experience with revamped combat, upgraded visuals, and more.

Secret World Legends plunges players into a shadowy war against the supernatural in an adventure that crosses our world with the realms of ancient myth and legend. As players traverse the globe unraveling complex investigations into the unknown, they’ll need to uncover clues and use their own wits as much as their characters’ abilities. A highly extensive and customizable arsenal of firearms, weapons, gear and otherworldly powers will give players the strength to battle the forces of darkness as they dig deeper into these vast and mysterious lands. Players can go at it alone and enjoy the over 100 hours of story at their own pace, or team up with others as they explore the world and unravel its mysteries.

Characters from the current The Secret World incarnation will not transfer over to the new game when it launches in June. For more information, check out the video below or head over to the official website.

Jagex Lifts Lid On ‘The Shifting Tombs,’ For Menaphos


RuneScape’s first expansion Menaphos: The Golden City doesn’t come out for another month, and Jagex has revealed the first mini-game coming along with the desert city: The Shifting Tombs. Playable alone or with a group, The Shifting Tombs is a fast-paced skilling activity for mid to high level players launching alongside the expansion. Adventurers will navigate through procedurally generated catacombs with the goal of gathering as much loot as humanly possible and cleaning the corruption that has spread through the city.

Access to the tombs requires a minimum of level 50 in Agility, Construction, Crafting, Divination, Dungeoneering, Prayer, Runecrafting, Thieving, with better rates unlocked at levels 70 and 90.

(Source: Jagex Press Release)

 

Grind For Charity, RuneScape Mental Health Awareness Week


Jagex has partnered with CPSL Mind, The Prince’s Trust, and YMCA Right Here to spread awareness of Mental Health Week with the Gielinorian Giving Event. Beginning now and running for two weeks, players can gather charity tokens to turn in for pieces of a cosmetic Defender of the Mind outfit, plus a shield and pet. In addition to the outfit, it is also possible to purchase a Defender of the Mind cosmetic cape from Solomon’s Store.

All throughout this week, we’ll be co-running a Get Started in Games Design course with our partners at the Prince’s Trust & Cambridge Regional College. On Thursday & Friday, the group of young adults will spend time at Jagex HQ, working alongside our game developers to build their own games, with an awards ceremony planned for Friday evening.

The nature of the event should be rather familiar to anyone who has played previous events. All you have to do to participate is play the game and you’ll earn charity points through regular skilling and combat. 1000 points can be earned per day, with that number resetting at midnight and also extendable via Runecoin purchases. Those of you with more money to burn than time can purchase charity points straight up.

All proceeds from sales of the cape and Runecoins spent will go toward the three charities.

(Source: RuneScape)

Turbine’s Renewal of the Asheron’s Call Domain Is Probably Nothing


The internet is buzzing, or at least a small section is, over the news that Turbine has renewed the Asheron’s Call domain through 2022. While the revelation has naturally caused speculation on whether or not Turbine has plans for the property, the real answer is fairly likely to not exactly be what the community wants to hear. In practice, domain renewals are cheap and easy and done simply to protect a company’s IP. After all, while Turbine may have no interest in further work on the series, they don’t want the domains dropping into less scrupulous hands.

Domains generally only get pushed over to the public when the company goes fully bankrupt. Games like Hellgate: London for instance have had their hosting servers taken over by fan sites and revival projects, while games like the 2D Half Life 2 fan title Codename: Gordon link to a domain that has since been taken over by a porn website distributing malware, forcing Valve to remove the game from Steam. In either case, Turbine probably doesn’t want its domain linking to private servers or porn.

So don’t read too far into this domain renewal.

Darkfall Returns: Rise of Agon Is Live


Darkfall is back! Rise of Agon, a revival of the original Darkfall MMORPG, has officially launched. Darkfall originally launched under now-defunct developer Aventurine in 2009 only to shut down and be revived as Darkfall: Unholy Wars in 2012. Unholy Wars was subsequently shut down alongside Aventurine due to poor economic conditions in Greece. Aventurine, while they were in business, had originally planned a revival of Darkfall 1.0 (as some have referred to it) only to cancel those plans later on.

Rise of Agon is one of two Darkfall revivals that are coming out, as Aventurine sold the rights to two developers. Curious players can join in on the action by buying into the game’s $10 subscription fee.

(Source: Rise of Agon)

Trion Worlds Makes Glyph Great Again: Speeds Performance


Who doesn’t want a faster game browser? Don’t answer that. Trion Worlds has announced that its game platform Glyph should be running much smoother following an update aimed at improving client performance. Chiefly, the update removes the browser which was not only a hog of system resources but required a lot of maintenance in stability and security. According to the announcement on the Glyph website, usage has dropped from a previous 200mb when in the background to around 50mb.

There are other updates coming that should continue the trend of lightening the load.

(Source: Trion Worlds)

Prey Developer: Consider Steam’s Refund Policy Your Demo


Prey launches on PC and consoles this week, and while gamers on Xbox and Playstation were able to gauge their interest thanks to a pre-release demo, PC gamers haven’t been afforded the same luxury. Thankfully, Co-Creative Director Raphael Colantonio has a solution: Buy the game anyway, and just make use of Steam’s refund policy. Steam, for those out of the know, allows automatic refunds for games within two weeks or two hours of gameplay, whichever comes first.

“It’s just a resource assignment thing. We couldn’t do a demo on both the console and on the PC, we had to choose. And besides, PC has Steam. Steam players can just return the game [prior to playing] 2 hours so it’s like a demo already.

There are a few important notes to keep in mind that if you’re using Colantonio’s suggestion, foremost being that you have to buy the game through Steam. Registering a third party key will invalidate your eligibility for a refund. Furthermore, the two hour gameplay cutoff isn’t a hard line, but you’ll be dealing with Steam’s customer support and the good will of whoever you happen to be sent to. Finally, there are no guidelines for what constitutes refund abuse, so if you’ve been refunding a lot of games Valve may cut you off.

Otherwise, just think of Prey on PC requiring a $60-80 deposit, depending on your region.

(Source: Aus Gamer)

Nexon Acquires Unannounced Game


Nexon has acquired the worldwide publishing rights for the first born video game of First Strike, which may lead to some MMO Fallout readers asking “well what’s the game?” Patience, my children, as the game hasn’t been announced yet. Formed last year, First Strike is a new on the scene developer composed of developers from 343 Industries, EA, and more.

More details will be announced later this year.

“We are super focused on competitive multiplayer games at First Strike,” said Kevin Franklin, CEO, First Strike Games.  “In Nexon, we found a partner who has truly understood the gameplay we are exploring, has embraced our company vision and has contributed great ideas and expertise. We are looking forward to making amazing games together.”

(Source: Nexon press release)

[Video] “No Vagina Losses,” Streamer Before Losing To Female Team


The above video, provided for your viewing pleasure, involves a Halo 5 streamer who enters into a capture the flag match with his team only to discover that his group has been matched with four female players. “We’re not losing to vaginas,” he says, before promptly losing to said team. “Bro, oh my god bro, we just lost to girls, bro.” If you want to watch a man’s ego die slowly, watch the video from the beginning. If you want to skip to the post-game tantrum, start at around the seven minute marker.

Outside of an assumption based on the screen names, we don’t know if the streamer was actually playing against an entire team of women, but we’re willing to go along with it if he is.