More Details About Survarium Revealed


Survarium is not S.T.A.L.K.E.R, let’s get that straight. It is, however, being developed by Vostok Games, a team made up of ex-S.T.A.L.K.E.R creators. Survarium is an upcoming free to play MMO shooter set in a world that has been taken over by flora. In an effort to combat the growing forest, a powerful herbicide is deployed and, you guessed it, kills the vast majority of the world’s population. As in S.T.A.L.K.E.R the world has become filled with anomalies, and players will find themselves taking on missions for one of several factions, shooting it out in this session-based multiplayer game.

So the game is closer to Crimecraft than it is Planetside, but the developers at Vostok want to make this as unique as possible. Team combat is not what you’d expect: rival teams work against one another to scavenge parts and build a device to protect themselves from a massive storm, and both teams can fail at this objective. Cooperative missions delve into the world’s artifacts. Finally, of the three modes revealed recently, free play drops players in a massive map with 30 other players to move and do as they please.

You can view the entirety of the latest developer diary below. Survarium does not yet have a release date.

Getting A Beta Perspective: Evolution of Combat [RuneScape]


Assuming you aren’t already in the beta, I’ve thrown together a quick video showcasing some of the new combat abilities in the Evolution of Combat beta. If you are a current member, you can beta test the Evolution of Combat update by logging in on the appropriate weekend. Otherwise, if you were sent a beta invitation by Jagex, you can log in regardless of the weekend events.

I will have a full written preview in the next couple of days.

50,000 Guild Wars 2 Beta Keys From Curse.com


Guild Wars 2 releases at the end of next month, meaning the opportunities for beta testing are winding down. Luckily, Curse.com has your back. Both general members and premium subscribers will be able to grab one of over 50,000 beta keys to the upcoming weekend event. The beta event lasts from July 20th to the 22nd, and the keys are being doled out on a first come, first serve basis. Ten thousand are Curse.com premium subscriber only, while the rest require just a general Curse.com account.

Make sure you read the rules clearly, especially for European users. The giveaway may not be applicable in your country.

North American Giveaway

European Giveaway

 

Get Some DLC On Steam For Cheap


Steam’s Summer Sale has yet to begin, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t get on with some DLC price drops early.

Update: Corrected the Dungeons and Dragons pack. It ends July 9th, not July 7th.

Funcom’s Shares Tank After The Secret World Launch


This week has certainly been interesting for Funcom. The Secret World launched earlier this week to be met with mostly positive reviews by critics.  On the eve of the game’s launch, however, Funcom’s CEO Trond Arne Aas resigned his role while staying on as a strategic adviser.

“The company’s financial position is strong and the foundation of the company’s long-term product and technology strategy is in place. It feels like a very natural point in time for me to make the transition to a new and freer role in the company, but I will remain committed to the Company both as a major shareholder and as an employee.”

In the past week, Funcom’s stock has dropped nearly 40%. Shares started the week out at $2.85 and since dropped to $1.73.

(Source: Gamespot)

Funcom's Shares Tank After The Secret World Launch


This week has certainly been interesting for Funcom. The Secret World launched earlier this week to be met with mostly positive reviews by critics.  On the eve of the game’s launch, however, Funcom’s CEO Trond Arne Aas resigned his role while staying on as a strategic adviser.

“The company’s financial position is strong and the foundation of the company’s long-term product and technology strategy is in place. It feels like a very natural point in time for me to make the transition to a new and freer role in the company, but I will remain committed to the Company both as a major shareholder and as an employee.”

In the past week, Funcom’s stock has dropped nearly 40%. Shares started the week out at $2.85 and since dropped to $1.73.

(Source: Gamespot)

Reloaded Games Absorbed Into Gamersfirst Hive Mind


Gamersfirst has quite a record of their library being filled with one of the two: dying MMORPGs and Korean MMORPGs, or any combination of the two. In May, Gamersfirst announced that the company was restructuring to focus more on in-house developed games rather than the usual library of Korean cookie-cutter titles. As a result, War Rock and Knight Online were spun off to new publishers, and Fallen Earth was brought in to be developed by G1 rather than outside contractors.

Reloaded Games, best known for reviving the All Points Bulletin MMO shooter, has merged with Gamersfirst as a subsidiary of K2 Networks. It will continue to be known as Reloaded Games.

(Source: Games Industry)

Cryptic Introduces Account Guard


Since the days when people began storing things in secret locations, there have been others waiting to pick the lock, steal the combination, and steal whatever was being hidden. In the age of the internet, keeping your personal data hidden becomes more difficult as the days go on, and developers have been on the assault against account thieves.

Cryptic is beefing up their security with Account Guard. When the user attempts to log in from an unidentified computer, the system will send a key to the email address associated with the account. The key must be entered, otherwise the user will be unable to log in. If there is a failed attempt at logging in, the user will be notified by email.

The system can be opted out of if the user prefers not to enroll.

(Source: FAQ)

Vanguard Free To Play Matrix Revealed


After a long hiatus of development, Sony Online Entertainment’s MMO Vanguard finally goes live this year. So what can free players expect to find when they log in? Today, SOE released the usual Free to Play Matrix, detailing exactly what will be available when the game makes its transition. Players can expect limited access to races, classes, character slots, and more. Additionally, free players do not have access to the housing system and limited access to the broker.

Unlike SOE’s other titles, Vanguard does not offer the “premium”  or middle-ground level of membership obtained for a single transaction. Generally other Sony MMOs offer a less restricted membership for returning subscribers or for a one time fee in the cash shop.

Vanguard Free to Play comes this summer.

(Source: Vanguard)

Sony Buys Gaikai For $380 Million


Gaikai is a revolutionary streaming service that allows players to demo popular games over their browser, without the wait or bandwidth of downloading the increasingly growing games. Currently demos are very limited both in time and size, with most games only offering a few levels and up to an hour of gameplay.

Games Industry is reporting that Sony has acquired Gaikai to the tune of $380 million. Sony Computer Entertainment President Andrew House had the following to say:

“By combining Gaikai’s resources including its technological strength and engineering talent with SCE’s extensive game platform knowledge and experience, SCE will provide users with unparalleled cloud entertainment experiences,”

There are numerous competing developers currently using Gaikai’s services to stream their games. What does this mean for competing products on Gaikai? Only time will tell.

(Source: Gamesindustry.biz)