Something big is coming to Origin today, at least that’s what Electronic Arts would like us to think. The message above was posted on Origin’s Twitter account yesterday, at 5pm. What could it be? If it’s explosive, we’re going to guess something related to Battlefield and On the House. Just saying.
(Source: Origin)
RuneScape’s Well of Goodwill has become a regular force in the fantasy MMO, opening every so often and allowing players to donate their coins, items, and bonds to notable charities. For every ten million gold donated to the well, Jagex donates $2 to the charity flavor of the month with $4.70 for each bond donated. Previous fundraising drives have offered aid to Hart, SpecialEffect, GamesAid, The Internet Watch Foundation, among other charities.
The latest charity run, which saw the Well of Goodwill open for the month of November, has ended and the results are in. More than 70,000 players donated in excess of 512 billion gold worth of coins, items, and bonds to raise a total of $160,158 for charity. The donations will be split to AbleGamers, Donategames, and Youngminds.
Over the course of December, players can donate bonds to Oxfam in return for presents.
(Source: RuneScape)
There is a metric ton of content to play through once you hit level 50 in Final Fantasy XIV, and figuring out exactly what you can do might be a daunting task. Thankfully, user Crabcommander on Reddit has compiled a post detailing the content that becomes available at level 50 as well as the prerequisites required to actually participate in said content.
The list is a pretty big read. If you are currently leveling your way up in FFXIV, or have an interest in what the game’s end-game is all about, I suggest you give it a once-over.
(Source: Reddit)
It’s charity time, folks. Between December 3rd and the 31st, Blizzard will donate 100% of the proceeds from sales of the Argi pet in World of Warcraft. Donations are in support of the Red Cross and go towards Ebola relief efforts in Africa. Argi can also be purchased in a $30 bundle with the Grinning Reaver mount, with $10 of that bundle donated.
*For every Argi pet and Grinning Reaver mount bundle purchased between December 3 and December 31, Blizzard will donate $10 ($10 in the US; pricing varies by region) in support of the American Red Cross to assist in Ebola relief efforts in Africa.
(Source: Blizzard)
Crytek has announced that it is sunsetting Warface on the Xbox 360 this February, less than a year after the servers went live last April. Registration for new players has already been disabled, while current players can continue playing but will be unable to purchase more currency. Xbox players are encouraged to continue playing on PC.
(Source: Eurogamer)
CCP Games has posted an announcement on their forums that, beginning in January, input broadcasting and input multiplexing will be policed under a two-strike policy. While multi-boxing, running multiple instances of the game at the same time, will remain a perfectly acceptable venture in Eve Online, using macros to control multiple ships at the same time with one button press will be punished under the developer’s two strike system.
Based on the discussion in this area and our will to be more clear and concise with the community regarding this part of our rules, we have decided to also apply this two-strike policy to prohibited forms of Input Broadcasting and Input Multiplexing as of January 1st 2015.
The new policy goes live January 1st and will not be applied retroactively. Creators of input broadcasting software are encouraged to contact CCP to come to an amicable solution.
(Source: Eve Online)
RuneScape’s Premiere Club has returned once again for the 2014 holiday season. Premiere Club membership is a subscription package that can be purchased in three, six, or twelve month increments with bonuses increasing based on the length of the subscription. This year, Jagex has partnered with Paypal and is offering an exclusive samurai outfit and a pet to players who either buy their membership through Paypal or buy a lower tier membership and then upgrade to gold through Paypal.
The bonus list for this year is pretty extensive. All tiers receive bonus loyalty points (scaling), a lava hood, and a tier-5 aura Dwarven Instinct that can be used to find hidden treasures. Silver and up receives an additional daily treasure hunter key as well as a grey skin cosmetic. Gold tier members will receive an onyx skin override, lava wings, a lava bird pet, access to VIP servers, a premiere-club forum, an in-game badge, a forum badge, and exclusive Q&A with developers. All tiers have access to the Paypal exclusive if purchased through Paypal.
Premiere Club will only be available through the end of January.
(Source: RuneScape)
December is upon us, and Jagex has marked the occasion by releasing a list of updates planned for the next few weeks.
First on the list is the Tirannwn Task Set, RuneScape’s answer to achievements, comprising of 54 tasks set in and around the elf lands. The task set rewards players with a farming patch, upgrades for crystal weapons, and various other goodies including an ammo slot item called the Tirannwn Quiver. Following that update, the Dominion Tower is set to receive an update. The boss-mode mini-game will be updated with new bosses, a rumble mode, and new rewards.
Also returning this month is the RuneScape Premiere Club. Only on sale for a limited time, the Premiere Club is a one-year subscription that includes a variety of rewards, from cosmetics to pets, access to VIP worlds, and extra bonuses. Also returning is the festive aura, an item which grants double experience daily for 30 minutes. Over the course of December, there will also be weekend bonuses that vary from week to week.
The Christmas event takes place over four weeks, with players engaging in a different event each week.
(Source: RuneScape)
(Note: This review contains spoilers for Borderlands 2.)
Telltale Games is easily one of my favorite game developers, proving the viability of AAA point and click adventure games in a world that had long since left the genre behind. The company spearheaded and successfully proved the viability of monthly episodic games, allowing players to buy the entire season with the added bonus of getting it all on dvd at the end for simply paying the shipping cost.
The idea of an episodic, intelligent, narrative take on the Borderlands universe is one that excited me greatly when it was announced earlier this year. I have a fondness for the Borderlands series, and while the series has progressed quite a bit since the first title, the games have never delved deep into the world in which your vault hunters live. All Borderlands needs to bring out its underbelly is a capable set of hands.
Tales From The Borderlands is set after the events of Borderlands 2. Handsome Jack is dead and the Hyperion Corporation is going through a bit of a power vacuum. Vault Hunters are on the prowl looking for the newly discovered vaults, and Hyperion wants a piece of the pie. The story is told by two narrators. Rhys, a Hyperion employee, finds himself demoted to janitor and heads down to Pandora in an effort to screw over his boss and secure a vault key (and hopefully cement his real promotion). Fiona, a con artist, works on Pandora with her sister and adoptive mentor who absolutely won’t betray them, Felix.
As far as narrators go, you won’t find a pair less reliable than Rhys and Fiona, a factor that the game makes readily apparent from the start. The story shifts between perspectives, often going back and retelling the same story from the other character’s point of view, with both sides regularly contradicting each other. Who is telling the truth? Did Rhys really stand up to that group of psychos or did he wet himself and cry while the machine gun wielding robot did all of the work? That’s up to you to decide.
In their travels, the characters meet a variety of insane locals including my current favorite: Shade. The characters in this version are a lot more tame than their Borderlands counterparts, a more subtle comedy to match the slower pace of the game. As with previous games in Telltale’s lineup, Tales From The Borderlands has more in common with an interactive movie than a full-fledged action title. There are a few actiony moments here and there, mostly fed through quick time events, but anyone familiar with the Telltale Games series knows that these games are all about strong characters, powerful dialogue, and (more recently) giving the player choice to shape their game.
The best part is that the episodic nature allows Telltale to shape future episodes based on features players didn’t like or suggest. I can’t wait for episode 2 of Tales From The Borderlands, not to mention the upcoming Game of Thrones. Check it out on just about any device. Episode one is available now, with new episodes coming in the next few months.
RuneScape is going to be a regular game for the Diaries From column, published on the last Thursday of each month and covering the entire month’s worth of updates.
1. Prifddinas Part 2 – 9/10
The elven city of Prifddinas has quickly become one of my favorite updates of 2014, and not just because I’ve been waiting for this update ever since it was teased way back in 2004. I went through high school and ended up one semester away from my bachelor’s degree in the time Jagex took to put this update out. There are kids playing RuneScape today who were still in diapers when the city was first teased. It was a really long time ago.
Prifddinas is a giant skilling hub, a place where high level players can theoretically go and virtually never have a reason to leave. There is a ton of content, from pickpocketing elves to finding hidden titles, unlocking pets and other rewards, and I have only managed to scratch the surface.
2. Treasure Trail & Community Tools – 8/10
Treasure trails are RuneScape’s treasure hunting mini-game, scrolls found from monsters and through other activities that offer puzzles and clues that must be followed to find rewards. If you’re lucky, you can find insanely expensive equipment/cosmetics. Otherwise you are 99% of the community and find a few low level items for a half hour or so of hunting. I don’t have the logistics to figure out if the rewards are statistically dropping at a better rate, but I like the idea of introducing new and better stuff while removing less desirable rewards.
I’ve found that the majority of players fall into two categories for the player examine feature: those who haven’t touched it and are at the default settings or those who have set their account to private.
3. Heart of Stone Quest – 6/10
I didn’t enjoy this month’s quest. RuneScape’s quest system has been rough ever since Jagex brought the world into the sixth age and made it so each quest set before then is a flashback or a memory or something. Heart of Stone is supposed to be an introductory quest to the elder gods, a topic that if you’ve been keeping up with the quests will seem out of place since your character has marinated in the topic for years. Every once in a while Jagex will go back and bring in a quest to introduce players to a certain idea, throwing consistency into the wind when your character who has known about these topics for years suddenly has no idea what they are.
As an introductory quest, it feels like everyone else is doing the fun stuff. You show up in the quest after all of this interesting stuff happens, and the quest is over before the really interesting stuff will happen, and knowing Jagex the sequel is at least six months away, if not a full year or more.
The first and second batches for Prifddinas are going to keep myself, and many other players, busy for a long time to come. By giving a more tolerable way to train the most intolerable skills, hitting end-game content is looking a lot more realistic.
MMO Fallout 
