Author: Admin

Tribes Ascend: Now With More Experience


Tribes: Ascend, the free to play shooter, is great for the very idea that any weapon or upgrade that can be bought with cash can also be purchased by simply playing the game. Granted, by the time you play Tribes: Ascend long enough to unlock every weapon and upgrade, you might be cashing in your retirement check and playing on virtual reality machines.

As part of the June update, Hi-Rez Studios is greatly increasing the rate at which unlocks are obtained. The new system will operate in a manner familiar to sandbox MMO fans: Each piece of equipment has its own experience bar which increases as you use it. To speed up the process even more, you still obtain experience and GP that can be spent on unlocking further upgrades even faster.

Now that Tribes Ascend can (reasonably) be played for free, there is no reason not to jump in and start killing the deserving Sandrakers.

Bought Craft of Gods After It Shut Down? Read Me


Yesterday I mentioned that Craft of Gods mysteriously shut down with no notice from the outside world, apparently including Gamestop’s Impulse Driven download service. Complaints on the Craft of Gods Facebook page showed players who had purchased the game on Impulse only to find that the servers are down, the website does not work, and the keys have no use. Additionally, Kalicanthus Entertainment’s website shows a shut down notice that has been up since March.

 If anyone purchased too late email downloadsupport@gamestop.com

If you do need a refund for Craft of Gods, send an email to the above address. It may be a while before Craft of Gods is actually removed from sale, so I am posting this in case anyone is searching for a solution.

Craft of Gods Disappeared: No Idea Where It Went


Craft of Gods is gone. Dead. Kaput. Gamestop’s Impulse Driven digital distributor is still selling the software, but the website is offline, the servers are apparently not working, and Kalicanthus Entertainment’s website is gone with a shutdown notice. The Craft of Gods Twitter account has not been updated since December 20th, and the Craft of Gods Facebook page has users complaining that the service has been offline and keys nonredeemable since March.

I have reached out to Gamestop to see if the title will be pulled, but as of this publishing the game is still for sale even though there is nowhere to redeem the keys and the game is apparently unplayable as the servers are offline and the game has been abandoned.

Until then, I recommend that you do not purchase Craft of Gods, unless you really like wasting your money.

Activison Blizzard Up For Sale? For $13.2 Billion


Can someone loan me $13 billion? According to Bloomberg, executives from Vivendi SA will meet later this month to determine if the company will sell off its majority 61% share in Activision Blizzard. The report came from anonymous sources, noting that the meeting is secret and the details of what is discussed may or may not be shared with the public.

With Activision’s sales of $4.6 billion, and the launches of Diablo III and World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria this year, I can see why Vivendi may not be interested in the company anymore. After all, there are only so many places to store the massive amounts of dough that Blizzard alone brings in on a yearly basis, let alone including Activision with the Call of Duty franchise.

Of course, I jest. Bloomberg notes that this would be another move to distance Vivendi from the spend-happy disaster that was CEO Jean-Marie Messier, who was booted out of the company in 2002 after a $77 billion spending spree that left the company nearly bankrupt. As for what Vivendi would do with the $13 billion that their share of Activision is worth, well I believe this picture provides one alternative:

(Source: Bloomberg)

DUST 514 Not Impeded By Sony Certification, Says CCP


Being an MMOFPS, the idea that CCP is releasing DUST 514 on the Playstation 3 understandably has some users worried. How would an ever-expanding and changing world react on a console where updates are notoriously held up in Sony’s certification system? CCP Senior Producer Jon Lander wants you to know that Sony’s certification will not be a problem. In fact, the developer plans on bypassing it entirely.

In an interview with Eurogamer, Jon Lander points out that the game is built with multiple systems in place to allow the addition of new items, or swapping servers around without requiring a client update.

“But if we want to do major client updates to the PS3, then we go through Sony’s usual submission process. But we do have ways of just being able to change other parts of the infrastructure as we need to.”

Additionally, this means that while DUST 514 and Eve Online may exist in the same universe (and servers), Eve Online’s updates also will not affect DUST 514 users.

DUST 514 launches (hopefully) sometime in 2012, although CCP has noted that the game will not launch until the team is satisfied.

(Source: Eurogamer)

Phantasy Star Universe Sunsetting For Good In September


While Playstation and PC users already had their experience cut short two years ago, 360 gamers who enjoy a bit of Phantasy Star Universe will be sorely disappointed to hear that the game will be shutting its last doors later this year. In an announcement on the Sega forums, Edward@Sega detailed that servers will come down September 7th, 2012, and that while “network mode” will no longer be available, Phantasy Star Universe will still be playable in single player.

This was not an easy decision but there comes a time when we must consider the level of service and support we can provide for an ongoing game, and balance those concerns against preparing for the future, and providing you with new opportunities and new experiences.

Players with subscriptions extending past September will be refunded by Microsoft on a pro-rated basis. You can read Edward’s notes and his eulogy at the link below. Phantasy Star Online 2 is due for release in Summer 2012 as a free to play title for PC, with versions out for the iOS and Android devices by the end of 2012, and a version for Playstation Vita coming in early 2013.

(Source: SCEA Forums)

Raptr 50% Off TERA Coming Soon


Raptr is a gaming service similar to Xfire, that tracks time played, achievements, and occasionally offers some great reward coupons including in-game items and coupons for peripherals and other game items. To obtain the rewards, players simply have to reach certain levels of play on a set list of games.

Last week, I mentioned that Raptr was giving away 10,000 copies of Rift as well as digital upgrades to the collector’s edition and other items. Raptr would like to remind everyone this week that a current coupon is ending soon and to get on board before it does.

If you haven’t yet picked up TERA, you can do so with a 50% coupon for the standard or collector’s edition with Raptr. To qualify, you simply need to obtain “Amateur” rating on one of the following games with the Raptr desktop client:

  • Dungeons and Dragons Online
  • Eve Online
  • Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
  • Aion
  • Everquest 2
  • Diablo III
  • World of Tanks
  • Guild Wars 2
  • World of Warcraft
  • The Witcher 2
  • League of Legends
  • Starcraft II
  • Everquest
  • Rift
  • The Secret World
  • The Old Republic
  • Perfect World International
  • Lord of the Rings Online

The offer is only for players in Canada and the US. The codes will only be available until June 21st, after which any claimed code must be used before June 30th. Head over to Raptr.com to get more information:

(Source: Raptr Press Release)

Allods Online Merges To One Server


When Allods Online was running through its beta period back in 2009/2010, it was praised for the amazingly high quality of gameplay, stability, wealth of content, and prospects for future expansion. Many of us in the press were referring to it as the free to play World of Warcraft, standing high above its brethren. When the game was in beta, there was nothing short of praise from themepark fans of the game’s high quality and deep prospects for success.

Unfortunately, gPotato shot themselves in the foot early on with poor decisions in cash shop items that required players to spend money (and a considerable amount) in order to play the game properly or be able to stay competitive later on in PvP or participating in raid content.

The perfume was later removed and replaced with another, equally unpopular cash shop item which was later made free. Judging by the latest news out of Allods Online, the community has not been so forgiving. gPotato announced the merger of the last two remaining servers in North America, to one.

With one server left in North America, the future presence of Allods Online on the continent is in question. gPotato will need nothing short of a miracle (or perhaps a marketing campaign) to bring this title back from the ditch.

(Source: Allods Online)

ROBLOX Continues To Impress, Water Physics


Roblox is a game that never ends, because the community continues to find new games to create and the developers over at Roblox Corp continue to add new toys for them to play with. Roblox’s world creator allows players to create their own game types, enhanced by lua scripting and an ever-increasing number of tools.

In itself, this is more than impressive, even more so considering that the game is free. The folks at Roblox Corp sent over a press release detailing the latest tool to add to the arsenal: Water.

Roblox’s physics teram focused its implementation of water physics on clean architecture. By unifying all the relevant forces- buoyancy, water viscosity, water-flow, gravity, and other external forces – the behavior of objects and characters in water looks and feels like a natural extension of Roblox’s existing physics system.

For a kid’s game, Roblox offers a very complex and enjoyable experience.

If you would like to see our latest gallery of Roblox creations, check them out here.