Mark your calendars, cancel your weekend appointments, and tell that significant other that you need some alone time, because it’s that time again. No, not half price appetizers, you can get that just about every Wednesday. I’m talking about double experience in RuneScape.
But this year it’s not just about getting you in on the weekend and telling everyone else to go shove off. The actual event runs from Friday February 17th through Monday February 20th. Afterward, you’ll still be able to get your hands on some extra experience over the course of the week, with the bonus decreasing every fifty thousand experience.
Atlas Reactor, Trion Worlds’ turn-based battle arena PC game currently in Closed Beta, is hosting a free event for all players from now until Sunday, July 17. The event will see the introduction of two new freelancers as well as the preliminary implementation of Ranked Mode! During the free event, anyone can jump into Atlas Reactor and get a taste for the game’s fast-paced, simultaneous turn-based action.
To help new and current players get the most out of Atlas Reactor’s unique, turn-based team PvP mechanic, Trion has just published a gloriously illustrated, annoyingly thorough User Guide!
Trion has also released “Atlas’ Most Wanted,” a 15-second clip from its upcoming cinematic CG trailer produced by Blur Studio.
A brand new freelancer, Celeste, has also been unveiled and will be available throughout the free event. Celeste is a roguish firepower freelancer who will steal your heart – or at least, any valuables you may have. Players looking to try their hand at mastering Celeste can use the “Three Tips for Playing Celeste” below, compiled by the Atlas Reactor team to give players a better understanding of the new Freelancer and her play style.
Be mindful of where enemies are in relation to Celeste’s Smoke Bombs, good placement means that you can see your enemies while they can’t see you.
Celeste’s ultimate ability, Safecracker, can do immense damage but requires good positioning for maximum effect; try to catch enemies by surprise by using Smoke Bombs.
Celeste’s dash ability, “On The Run,” can be useful for getting around corners and positioning yourself onto power-ups appearing next turn.
Another new Freelancer will join the lineup of Atlas’ Most Wanted during the Free Event. This mechanised hero for hire will be revealed on Trion’s weekly Atlas Reactor livestream at 10:30 PM BST today, and will be available to players on July 12.
It’s only November and yet it already feels like Christmas. City of Steam is heading into closed beta! What is City of Steam, you ask? City of Steam is an upcoming MMO by Mechanist Games, based in the Unity3D engine and set in a steam powered, industrial world. Players are able to choose from ten races with four classes (with more on the way), with a branching story that lets you decide what path you take. I had a chance to play City of Steam during its beta-phase, and I enjoyed the game so much that I leaped at the opportunity to get some of my readers in-tune with the game.
There will be four beta phases for City of Steam, and any key you use will be good for all beta weekends.
[keys id=9257]
How to redeem your key:
After getting your Beta key, head to the City of Steam website here .
Register an account (or sign in if you already have one), copy/paste your Beta Key, click the register/sign-in button, then click on the ‘Play Now’ button and test out City of Steam’s Closed Beta release (or if the test is not yet up, your key will be safely activated and ready for when the game goes live).
Enjoy!
Key Features Include:
Character and Weapon Customization – Weapon appearance changes when modded
Branching Storylines – Choose the path your story will take
Lightweight – No massive download or install required
Full Featured – Content you’d expect from a AAA MMO, but all easily accessed from a browser
Consider this a serendipitous moment. Jagex’s latest bonus experience weekend has come and gone, and it was certainly an eye opening event for the developer. While previous weekends ran as members only events with the experience bonus degrading over time, this weekend the event was open to everyone, at a flat rate all weekend. In fact, as Jagex points out in the weekend wrap-up, over 4.4 million hours were played collectively. Unfortunately for the players, the weekend of fighting, looting, farming, fishing, and cooking was held back by an uninvited guest. Players experienced great difficulty logging in over the weekend, and those who were able to log in were hindered by severe lag which lasted the entire weekend.
This level of activity was unprecedented, and at peak times some worlds experienced notable lag. The log-in servers also felt the strain, meaning that some users had difficulty logging in or switching worlds. While we kept everything running over the course of the 48 hours, we’re aware that this was frustrating to those of you who were affected.
Luckily, Jagex is treating this as a learning experience. As a result, the team is working hard to upgrade the game’s infrastructure and optimize the engine. And hopefully the next event will not face the same issues.
Consider this a serendipitous moment. Jagex’s latest bonus experience weekend has come and gone, and it was certainly an eye opening event for the developer. While previous weekends ran as members only events with the experience bonus degrading over time, this weekend the event was open to everyone, at a flat rate all weekend. In fact, as Jagex points out in the weekend wrap-up, over 4.4 million hours were played collectively. Unfortunately for the players, the weekend of fighting, looting, farming, fishing, and cooking was held back by an uninvited guest. Players experienced great difficulty logging in over the weekend, and those who were able to log in were hindered by severe lag which lasted the entire weekend.
This level of activity was unprecedented, and at peak times some worlds experienced notable lag. The log-in servers also felt the strain, meaning that some users had difficulty logging in or switching worlds. While we kept everything running over the course of the 48 hours, we’re aware that this was frustrating to those of you who were affected.
Luckily, Jagex is treating this as a learning experience. As a result, the team is working hard to upgrade the game’s infrastructure and optimize the engine. And hopefully the next event will not face the same issues.
Back in July, Jagex announced that they were through with double experience weekends. According to Mod Mark, the bonus experience weekends carried a negative effect on the game’s overall economy by encouraging players to hoard large quantities of raw materials, and the subsequent dump of finished goods on the market that followed. Since then, Jagex has supplemented double experience with items from Squeal of Fortune and quest rewards that grant double experience. Still, holding Jagex’s long term corporate policy to the post of a staff member may not be the most trustworthy source, since Jagex has a long habit of moving in the opposite direction of their statements.
Beginning the 27th until the 29th, members in RuneScape will enjoy a double experience weekend, with some heavy alterations to the formula. Unlike previous weekends, where the multiplier began at 2.7x and would slowly tick down over ten hours to 1.1x, the bonus experience starts at 2x and does not tick down over time. Additionally, non-members will also be able to get into the action, but will only receive a 20% bonus to their experience gain.
Additional double experience weekends are likely to come in the future.
Dear everyone who quit Aion (and those who left after the server merge debacle),
If the latest information from MMODATA.net is to be believed, Aion’s subscription numbers may be down but the worldwide subscription count is still estimated at slightly below three and a half million (making it indeed second to World of Warcraft). Regardless, the folks at Aion would love to see your smiling faces again, grinding your way to the end game, where you might do some PvP and punch a few gold farmers in the face for good measure. So this Friday, July 30th, NCsoft is activating all of the old accounts for the weekend, so that they may partake in the delight of double experience. Just pay no attention to your mangled username.
As startled as some of you may be, I will remind you that whatever issues I take with a company, I always continue to promote new ways to get into MMOs for as little as possible (if anything).
MMO Fallout 