The MMO Times: 100 FTW!!!

100th-post
Issue 100: The 100th MMO Times Post! Wow, I didn’t think I would be writing this many posts and what a week to land on as E3 is June 10th – June 12th. I am excited to see what will be unveiled at E3 not only from a PC and MMO perspective but from all gaming mediums. I have played many a console games in the past and may even be hooking the ole Wii back up. I was reading some posts folks had written about what they expect from E3 this year and I have to agree with one blogger. It would be great to see some cross-platform love, i.e. let’s keep the PC in mind when publishing new console games this year. Microsoft is the biggest offender of excluding the PC with their titles. Considering the handicaps of the XBox One, Microsoft needs to do something to show some love for the PC gamers.

I’m sure E3 will have a few exciting headlines to read about but there are also non-E3 related headlines that might be of interest to you. For example, there is some new content news in regards to The Secret World. Defiance has some new mechanics for folks to check out if you have been interested in the game. Age of Wushu has some promises on the horizon to polish up the eye candy. WildStar is getting a lot of impressive feedback despite what I was hearing from the beta. If anyone has been playing WildStar I’m certainly interested in your feedback. There is also some news about the next SWTOR content patch.

Just as an FYI, a lot of the news coming out of E3 seems to be more related to non-MMO titles so I will prefix all E3 titles with “E3” so if its not something that will interest you, it should be easier for you to scan and skip if you so choose. Read on and game on, friends!!

The Secret World Issue 9 Live

Posted 6.4.14 – Issue 9 in The Secret World went live and now players can venture out to Tokyo which basically takes players back to the same subway station they saw at the beginning of the game. I didn’t see anything else regarding what else is in the new issue other then the obvious new monsters, new missions, etc. I’m sure there were bugs and such fixed that are probably seamless to the user. If you want to know more about the Tokyo playfield then follow some of the links in the article to check out a tour.
Massively post

Defiance Officially F2P

Posted 6.4.14 – There had been rumors earlier that Defiance would become Free-2-Play and with the 2.0 patch that has become a reality. However, this will only apply to the PC version of the game. The console versions of the game will be receiving that feature in a future update (allegedly next month). There are also a the usual array of bug fixes with this patch and there are patch notes so users can see what else has changed. If anyone has tried out this game I’m curious what your impressions are. When anything goes F2P, I often get an inkling to try it out but if you are trying it out, feel free to leave your comments.
Massively post

Age of Wushu Getting Polished

Posted 6.8.14 – I haven’t launched AoW since its launch but I do remember thinking that its graphics needed some polishing. Apparently Snail Games CEO agrees as he has promised that an update to the games graphics is “in the works”. In fact he even alludes that the rumors of utilizing the Unreal 3 engine may be true. There are some additional details regarding the intended changes for the games but keep in mind that Shi Hai is Chinese so some details may literally be “lost in translation”.
Massively post

E3: Halo Master Chief Collection

Posted 6.9.14 – Everyone was expecting Microsoft to unveil the release date of Halo 5 to be this year, but they are still saying 2015. However they did make an interesting offer to the fans of the Halo franchise, the Master Chief Collection. The collection includes all four Halo games (Combat Evolved, 2, 3, 4) and the purpose is to folks can play through all the content in preparation for Halo 5. The set is scheduled to launch November 11th and cost about $59.99. The negative here is that it appears this will only be available for the XBox One which is a really awful idea.
Joystiq post

SWTOR Adding Casinos

Posted 6.9.14 – In the upcoming 2.8 content patch, SWTOR players will not only receive some group finder tweaks but also new starfighter variants and a casino. The next patch, entitled “Spoils of War” will have players flocking to Nar Shaddaa where they can use slot machines that will award a variety of buffs, weapons, gear and even a possible mount! I’m pretty much sold already because the mount … ready for this … is a ridable rancor! If you thought I was excited for Tauntauns, I probably just “filled-the-cup” thinking about a rancor mount! This doesn’t seem to be a temporary mechanic; I’m gathering that as long as you make the trip to Nar Shaddaa then you can keep renewing these buffs which I assume will help with your leveling/dailies/instances. I think that’s a pretty neat concept. [Update 6.10.14 – This patch has gone live!]
Massively post

E3: Destiny Preview Appears MMO-ish

Posted 6.10.14 – There was a rumor for a while of a game called Destiny that was suppose to be a First Person Shooter with MMO qualities. It was all just talk and teasing for a while until E3 this year when Bungie finally unveiled an alpha preview of the game. There is a 4 minute trailer to watch that shows some footage of the game and the graphics are the first thing that stands out, its prettyamazing. They don’t elaborate much on exactly how the controls of the game work. It’s essentially a first person shooter with an “open world” map where you can find quests through exploration that will improve your stats and unlock new abilities. The video is more of a trailer meaning you won’t see the games HUD and the game still requires quite a bit of class balancing (but it is just an alpha). It will be interesting to see where this goes.
ars technica article

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