City of Heroes Fall Screenies: New screenshots for City of Heroes over on GameSpy. Summer is over, the leaves are turning, and the cold of winter is just around the corner. We’ve got just the frosty preview for you with these chilling images of heroes executing their icy powers. Check out the latest City of Heroes screenshots, and don’t forget to bundle up! Posted October 29 2003 by Div Devlin

Trials of Atlantis Ships: Mythic has shipped "Trials of Atlantis" their expansion pack for Dark Age of Camelot to retail stores. Mythic Entertainment, developer and publisher of the award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game "Dark Age of Camelot," announced today that the game's latest expansion pack, "Trials of Atlantis," is available in stores. In "Trials of Atlantis," players will journey to the mysterious underwater world of Atlantis, and experience the trials designed to protect the legendary civilization's secrets. Intense group play, three all-new races, and amazing next generation graphics that update the entire "Dark Age of Camelot" world make this expansion a must-have for all fans of the game. As a bonus, the "Trials of Atlantis" retail box also includes a separate disc with the original "Dark Age of Camelot" game. Be sure to check us tommorrow as we toss up an "Adveture Journal" from within beta. Posted October 29 2003 by Div Devlin

Final Fantasy Online Ships: Final Fantasy XI from Square Enix is on it's way to stores for the holiday season and has shipped to retail stores here in North America. Square Enix U.S.A., Inc. (“Square Enix U.S.A.”), the publisher of Square Enix™ products in North America, announced that FINAL FANTASY® XI for Windows®, the first online title in the world-renowned series, ships to North American retailers today. FINAL FANTASY XI for Windows will include the “Rise of the Zilart™” expansion pack and other applications on five CD-ROM discs, and carry a suggested retail price of $49.99 (USD). FINAL FANTASY XI for the PlayStation®2 computer entertainment system is scheduled for release in March 2004. The first cross-platform, cross-continent massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), FINAL FANTASY XI allows gamers to connect to the same exact world regardless of whether they are playing on a personal computer (PC) or PlayStation 2 and whether they are playing in North America or Japan. Check the game features on Playnet. FINAL FANTASY XI subscribers will receive their first 30 days of access without charge, After 30 days, players can continue to play FINAL FANTASY XI by paying a monthly fee of $12.95 (USD) for one FINAL FANTASY XI character, and can create up to 15 additional characters for an additional charge of $1.00 (USD) per character, per month. Posted October 29 2003 by Div Devlin

PlaneShift Breaks 100k Accounts: PlaneShift, the open source code MMO being developed over in Italy, announced that they have exceeded over 100,000 unique registered accounts during the pre-alpha stage for their game. This is a first? Turin, Italy (October 28, 2003) – The PlaneShift Development Team announced today that their pre-alpha technology preview of the MMORPG, PlaneShift, has exceeded 100,000 unique player accounts in less than six months. PlaneShift is unique among the wave of upcoming Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) because it is being built by a volunteer team of programmers, artists, musicians and gaming experts from around the world that share the same passion: building an RPG game with no boundaries. While commercial MMORPGs have constraints based on budgets and schedules, the PlaneShift team relies on a worldwide community of talented developers to expand their game endlessly. The current technology preview, codenamed “Molecular Blue” was released to test the base networking infrastructure and to give the community an indication of what is to come. PlaneShift has a fantasy wizards and warrior's type seting. Posted October 29 2003 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane Patch & News: Ubi has a important patch people should know about going live today for Shadowbane. With the patch, the servers Scorn and Treachery will be retired to allow for the server migration code to be enabled. Of note within the patch is a change to way walls, which will now require a weekly mainteance fee. Last up, invites for the "Rise of Chaos" expansion were sent out. Of the 2000 invites, only the first 500 people who apply will be accepted, the others remaining on a waitng list. Invites were only sent out to current subscribers in good standing. Does this mean Shadowbane only has 200 subscribers total? They were pretty religous with banning folks. Posted October 29 2003 by Div Devlin

AO 7 Day Trial w/Shadowlands: Funcom announces that a free 7 day trial to Anarchy Online will also include their latest expansion "Shadowlands" which was recently released. The critically acclaimed and award-winning Shadowlands expansion pack is now available as a part of Funcom’s Free 7 Day Trial for Anarchy Online. Now players from all over the world can download the entire Anarchy Online universe and try it without any commitment for seven full days. "Funcom was the company that started the free trial movement within the online RPG genre, and once again we are offering fans of online games something extra. Shadowlands is now included in our program, and all newcomers have free unlimited access to Anarchy Online, Notum Wars and Shadowlands for an entire week. It’s an unmatchable offer for fans of Online RPG’s" said CEO Trond Aas, and continued "Anarchy Online has become the title of choice for the sophisticated MMOG gamer due to it’s fun and challenging gameplay. This offer removes the financial commitment of trying the best online world on the market according to several leading media outlets, and allows everyone to try this heralded masterpiece for themselves." You can't go wrong with this. Posted October 27 2003 by Div Devlin

Anarchy Online Team Expands: Funcom sends word that they have new Assistant Game Director for Anarchy Online! The Press Release: Marius Enge has been appointed to the role as Assistant Game Director for Anarchy Online. Marius is one of the most experienced developers of Anarchy Online, and has previously served as Game Designer, Customer Service Manager and Lead GM. His exemplary experience and diverse skills made him the ideal candidate for the role as Assistant Game Director. Initially Marius Enge will overlap Gaute Godager, the current Game Director. Once Funcom goes full force into production of the next Anarchy Online addition, Marius will assume the role of Game Director. "It’s too early to go into specifics on the next AO project" said Marius Enge, "but one of my main visions for Anarchy Online is to further emphasize non-stop fast paced action, while continuing to strengthen what we are known for; fun and creative gameplay in a detailed and immersive sci-fi world." Gaute Godager will move over to a new, as of yet unannounced high-profile MMOG title. Congrats to Marius, and Gaute, we look forward to the next game! Posted October 27 2003 by Div Devlin

AC 2 Teaser: Asheron's Call 2 has their new teaser up for October titled "Revolt" to go with the next scenario within game. The bitter, cold wind roared down the jagged peaks of the mountains surrounding the entrance to the Mage Academy. As that wind violently whipped the edges of Aerfalle's gown, she paused, listening to what it had to say. The screaming wind told of bare rock and pristine, untouched ice. It spoke of beautiful, unchanging cold. Once again, she saw why he had built the Academy here. The location seemed similar to one where his original Mage Academy had been built. You have to admit, reading the teasers is like reading a good novel you enjoy. Posted October 27 2003 by Div Devlin

As the Market Turns: Awards, New Companies, New Technology, and all kinds of news which was to large to list on the front page, so select "Full Story" from below. - BioWare Corp. is recognized as one of Canada's Top 100 Employers - FLAGSHIP STUDIOS LAUNCHES WITH A SPLASH - GTA and Voidsoft develop NetBlaster 3D MMORPG Engine - Tira Wireless and Babel Media Join Forces - Vodafone Dials Up Mobile Games and Applications From Tira Wireless Full Story Posted October 27 2003 by Div Devlin

News from City of Heroes: City of Heroes has given their first walk-through for one of the five Archtypes that will appear withing game. They kick it with Flashfire, a Mutant Blaster, and watch as he goes from imagination, through the creation process and onto the streets of Paragon City! You can tell the game must be getting close to release when they begin hiring. NCSoft announced they are looking for a Web Content Editor position for the City of Heroes website. The Web Content Editor will be responsible for creation, editing and/or implementation of dynamic and compelling content on the City of Heroes website. Responsibilities include working closely with the Marketing, Community Relations, and Development teams to generate written promotional, community, and documentation content as needed. The ideal candidate will have prior professional experience writing and/or editing in a creative field. Anyone interested should send their resume to jobs@ncinteractive.com and be willing to relocate. The City of Heroes fansite over on WarCry is hosting a fan contest. Write a short story explaining the image of a group of Villains in their lair, and you can win a personalized graphic image designed and drawn by Baron von Shrike detailing a scene from the short story and including a costume design for Your Hero! Check it. Posted October 27 2003 by Div Devlin

Community News: GameTable Gets Vampire Game Vampire from Dr. Reiner Knizia is coming to the Internet thanks to GameTable Online. Vampire is a card game for 3 - 5 players. Each player takes the roll of a vampire hunter. In this roll your mission is to capture as many night dwellers as you can. Set in Transylvania: a land where vampires rule the night, the only thing that can save you is your bravery and pure heart. Collect and destroy the most blood-sucking beasts and the night will be yours! Mythica Realms Chats with Matt Wilson Fansite Mythica Realms chats with Matt Wilson from Mircosoft about, Mythica their upcoming MMO Game based on Norse legends. This is the first part of a three part installment. The Trouble With MMORPG's Ferrago has an interesting article which ends up turning into a worship article on Blizzard's upcoming World of Warcraft game. It's starts out good though harping on why so many of us quit playing MMO Games after the first few months pointing at what Sony did wrong with Star Wars: Galaxies. Posted October 27 2003 by Div Devlin

DAoC News To Use: Dark Age of Camelot news roundup begins with, No NDA for the "Trials of Atlantis" expansion. Release date set for October 28th. Questions and Answers revealed about ToA in the Friday Grab Bag of Trials. Mythic's very own overview of Trials of Atlantis. This makes everyone drool. It's a huge read and worth it. Wondering what Technology is behind the Trials of Atlantis expansion? Well, Gambyro announced they are the fire behind the water in Mythic's expansion pack! NDL, a leading developer of 3D graphics technology for the computer and video game industry, announced today that its Gamebryo technology is being used in Mythic Entertainment's highly anticipated Dark Age of Camelot: Trials of Atlantis. NDL has been assisting Mythic with innovative 3D graphics software and tools since 1999. Trials of Atlantis brings many graphic upgrades to the Dark Age of Camelot series and provides players with the ability to realistically experience the underwater area of the Atlantis civilization. With the updated Gamebryo engine and toolkit, Mythic's development team has improved all landscapes in Dark Age of Camelot, further enhanced ground texturing with more realistic trees and vegetation, and created a visually advanced underwater environment. It looks good, and thats all that matters! Posted October 27 2003 by Div Devlin

Dark and Light Beta News: Dark and Light from NPCube announces they have opened beta to 500 new testers to begin stability checks. We are pleased to announce that we have opened up Stability Test to a greater number of testers.These are thus offered the exclusive opportunity to explore every nook and cranny of Ganareth, and according to them, they are not the least disappointed. We aim at opening this stage to an even larger number, so that you could test the Dark and Light engine's amazing capabilities. To keep you waiting, you may have a look at the last chapter of the Ganheptameron, before you could throw yourself into the-coming soon- fascinating Legend of Al-Drifa. Posted October 27 2003 by Div Devlin

Darkfall Online Gallery Updates: Razorwax has done some house cleaning to their gallery section on the Darkfall Online site releasing screenshots, renderings, and animations. Some are new, others you may have seen before, but not on their site. The also warn that the animations might take a while loading before they run properly. All of it is worth the wait. Posted October 27 2003 by Div Devlin

Dragon Empires, Art, Lore, and More: Dragon Empires released even more concept art on the monsters within game, as well as new lore based on the Ma-Pi in their story titled 'The Exhibition' in their literature section. Be sure to check out the latest Beta Tester Diary from players within game. Posted October 27 2003 by Div Devlin

Lords of EverQuest Beta Starts: Sony Online announced that closed beta testing for their RTS/MMO based on the EverQuest lore has begun. "Lords of EverQuest" opened it's doors to 500 fortunate testers getting the first hands-on time with the game. Over the course of beta, up to 15,000 testers will be allowed into the beta program to test and help with balancing the online multiplayer gameplay. Lords of EverQuest is expected to ship to U.S. and Canadian retail stores this fall and carries a suggested retail price of $49.99. As a bonus, Sony Online Entertainment has arranged for Ziff Davis Media to offer those chosen to participate in the Lords of EverQuest beta program a one-year subscription to Computer Gaming World magazine at no cost. If you want to get into beta, then you must apply. Posted October 27 2003 by Div Devlin

Horizons Release Date: After losing interest awaiting this game after years, not to mention being snubbed off (as if we really care), Artifact and Atari have officially announced their release date for Horizons. It's December 9th. From the Press Release: Atari and Artifact Entertainment announced that Horizons: Empire of Istaria will ship to retail outlets nationwide on December 9th. The highly anticipated massively multiplayer online (MMO) role-playing game was previously scheduled to release in November. The extra time will allow Artifact Entertainment to continue to make optimizations and improvements to the game in order to provide one of the most compelling MMO experiences this holiday season. Available for PC CD-ROM, Horizons: Empire of Istaria will allow players to experience online gaming like never before in a single massive online world primed for exploration, brimming with adventure and rife with danger. So, do you still want to play a Dragon? Posted October 27 2003 by Div Devlin

Not MMO Gaming News: News Releases that look pretty intersting and are not MMO Games. Auran’s Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 Goes Gold Computer game developer and publisher Auran Games (www.auran.com) today announced their latest PC title, Trainz(TM) Railroad Simulator 2004, published by Oteeva, has gone Gold. Copies can be purchased online at www.railroadsimulator.com and will be available at retail stores beginning this week. "The Trainz team is excited about the anticipated reception that TRS2004 will receive," said Tony Hilliam, Auran Marketing Director. "We're sure everyone will enjoy the new industry resource system, the steam locos, the driver command system and all the new content. Even better than that, what is in the box is really just the beginning. The amount of custom content that users can download and install with a few mouse clicks will ensure that the experience continues to expand every day." About Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 Trainz Railroad Simulator 2004 is more than driving trains -- it is a total railroad experience. TRS2004 lets players operate their choice of locomotives, from the golden age of steam through to modern high-speed electrics, under a variety of challenging conditions in real world scenarios. In addition, players coordinate the movement of passengers and freight as their busy industrial world springs to life. Users can also create their own realistic environments, sculpting mountains and valleys, placing scenery objects, laying track and connecting a variety of trackside industries and towns. CDV SOFTWARE SHIPS "NO MAN'S LAND" FOR PC Historical Real-Time Strategy Game Explores Uncharted Territory CDV Software Entertainment, one of Germany's leading publishers and distributors of gaming software, has announced that "No Man's Land" for the PC is now available in retail stores. Set in the rugged, unclaimed expanse of North America from 1600 to 1900, "No Man's Land" is a historical real-time strategy game that is sure to engender a revolutionary spirit among all who play it. "With its historical setting and thrilling game play, we have been able to achieve the perfect balance between strategic action and atmosphere," said Robert Pickens, chief executive officer of CDV. "From building railroads to fighting off a horde of settlers, 'No Man's Land' offers a diverse experience that is sure to please even the most jaded real-time strategy veteran." About "No Man's Land" Spanning three centuries, "No Man's Land" allows gamers to reshape the history of North America's most exciting era. Lush environments, accurately detailed units and heart pounding battle sequences await all willing to brave the frontiers. Posted October 27 2003 by Div Devlin

Legend of Mir Costume Contest: Legend of Mir is holding a Costume Contest which is open to EVERYONE regardless if they nolonger play or still play the game. Dress up as either as a Mir monster, your character, an NPC, or Familiar. Then, get someone to take a picture of you in your disguise and E-mail it to gamemaster@legendofmir.net along with an amusing caption if you can think of one. First place winner will get six months of free game time! What is there to lose? Posted October 27 2003 by Div Devlin

MEO & War of the Rings: Middle Earth Online has new info up and running detailing the Kinships and Fellowships within game from Turbine. With the holiday season coming up and the next installment to the movie trilogy, one game we here at GameRifts has been awaiting is the "The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring" RTS game, which is now due to ship to stores this November 4th as it went gold last week. You can see why we have been waiting for it in these eleven screenshots released last week by VUGames. Sweet. Posted October 27 2003 by Div Devlin

Rubies of Eventide Improves CS: Rubies of Eventide already has great Customer Support which set's them apart from other Mass Market MMO Games, but the folks over at CyberWarrior continue to improve what works so well. Cyber Warrior announced that it had licensed Fuze software to affordably bring customer support to the next level for their Massive Multiplayer Online Game "Rubies ofEventide." ... "We had over 20,000 hits to our knowledge base when we released our MMO game title," said Julia Howe, Product Manager for Cyber Warrior. "The Fuze suite of software allowed us to easily handle this initial surge in support requests, and the amount of redundant questions being posted on our message boards and in email dropped by 90% as a result." Coolness. Posted October 27 2003 by Div Devlin

Second Life Expands World! Linden Lab introduces Second Life v1.1, an updated version of the acclaimed online world created by and for its residents. Second Life v1.1 includes more detailed and realistic 3D landscapes, an improved mapping and navigation system, an economic system that allows groups of residents to jointly own and govern land, and the ability to create and drive a variety of vehicles. Publicly launched in June 2003, Second Life now stretches over nearly 1,000 acres of land containing more than 200,000 user-created objects, including clothing and accessories to buy, nightclubs to visit, and an amusement park owned and operated by residents with more than 30 exciting rides. Second Life residents typically spend 13,000 hours a week in-world, socializing, building and conducting over 17,000 transactions of goods and services. The Second Life v1.1 upgrade is available today to current residents. New residents can experience Second Life through a free 7-day trial by registering at www.SecondLife.com. Be sure to check out the latest when it comes to the game with the first Amusement Park and Spook House! Just when the Six Flags theme parks have cut back to "weekend-only" hours, or worse yet, closed for the season, Second Life (www.secondlife.com), the online world where you can be and do "virtually" anything, has opened its first amusement park, Linden World. Over three dozen Second Life residents were granted land, free from taxation, with the only requirement being that they create rides and attractions that would survive based on their popularity. On opening night, thrill seekers flocked to Linden World to ride one of the two roller coasters, splash friends on the log ride, and marvel at the freak show. Those residents feeling nostalgic for Disneyland, but leery of mouse ears, strollers and family meltdowns, can ride on "The Pirates of Shipley" ride, the "Expedition to Mars" or perhaps visit Second Life's own version of the Haunted Mansion, "Sinatra's Spook House." Linden World is open around the clock, rain or shine, all year. Come on over and enjoy the rides, no matter how tall you are. Just keep your lunch to yourself. This actually sounds pretty fun for a virtual world. Posted October 27 2003 by Div Devlin

Shadowbane World Map: The Chronicle of Strife by Ubi has the new map titled "Dalgoth" up and running on the test servers for Shadowbane. The new strategic world map planned for the Vengeance and Corruption servers next week will begin external testing this morning on our test server. The new test server with the "Dalgoth" world map will be called Revelation. Folks are already heading back in. Meanwhile over in Asia, Shadowbane players there were hit with server outages and roll-backs. In a top class move, En-Tranz reimbursed affected players in their choice of either experiance gains, or buildings replaced if they were lost. In addition to that all players get an experience boost as En-Tranz doubled rates on certain weekends. Posted October 27 2003 by Div Devlin

Toontown GameCards: Disney announced Toontown Online subscription cards are now available at Wal-Mart stores nationwide. The cards are supported by AT&T PrePaid Web Cents(R) technology, which provides a new secure payment alternative for consumer purchases of online digital content. These cards enable consumers to easily purchase a subscription to Disney's Toontown Online (www.toontown.com), the first massively multiplayer 3D online game for kids and families, and Disney's Blast (www.disneyblast.com), an advertising-free online service that offers more than 100 fun and educational games and activities in a secure, parent-trusted environment. The Disney specialty cards can be purchased for $9.94 for a one month subscription, with longer membership packages available at reduced rates. Toontown cards will be packaged with a CD-Rom of the game assets. Wal-Mart will activate the cards at the point of sale, and they will be ready for use. To use the card, a consumer will log on to Disney Online directly, or through the AT&T PrePaid Web Cents site (www.webcents.att.com). The consumer will be prompted to enter the serial number and PIN printed on the back of the card to activate their subscription. Posted October 27 2003 by Div Devlin

WoW, Quests! World of Warcraft has a new update on the official site for thier upcoming MMO Game by Blizzard detailing quests within game, showcasing how quests can be started and finsished with easy to follow pictures from a sample quest. Posted October 27 2003 by Div Devlin

UX:O Item Intelligence! The Ultima X: Odyssey site has a new featured article up and running based on Item Intelligence. A Snippet: Every warrior knows a sharp sword and battle-tested armor gives him the best chance at winning a battle, and Ultima X:Odyssey will provide plenty of opportunities to discover unique equipment for your character. In addition to dealing or preventing damage in combat, many items will offer additional benefits, such as increasing resistance to various attacks, reducing power costs for other abilities, increasing attack speed, and more. Of course, the more powerful items will usually require a higher character level to use those items, so finding the best item for your character's level will sometimes be a challenge. That's where the advantage of intelligent items comes in! Be sure to check the full read. Posted October 27 2003 by Div Devlin

So We Were Wrong... So last Monday we announced that we were back up and running and apologized for being down for two weeks as we moved our operations center into our bright new, shiney state of the art building. Boy, was I wrong. So, the last week has been nothing but problems. None of our furniture arrived. Our PC's needed to be re-imaged. Our Network interface was down, and our e-mail was unavailable to us, as it was on an alternate internal server which we could not connect to. It's now 6:30pm Central and it looks like we really are back up and running now. Expect my smarmy self to be bringing you daily gaming news once more, starting with a recap of everything we missed last week below. Don't ya love corporate America? Posted October 20 2003 by Div Devlin

Warhammer Online Updates: This is a bit late, but we just got the press release for it. If you want to take a look at some of the technology behind the trees and grass in Warhammer Online by Climax, IDV (Who also does DAoC and the upcoming UMMO, WISH) has released a dowbloadable demo of "The Valley" using their SpeedTree Software. And what would a Monday be without two exclusive screenshots of Warhammer Online. As always click the pictures for a larger view.   Posted October 20 2003 by Div Devlin

As The Market Turns: EA Buys New Studio EA has aquired a new Game Design Studio to thier house, as they picked up Studio 33 based in the U.K. and known for racing games. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. E3Expo Going for the Benjamins If you were expecting to see massive marketing campaigns this holiday season, well don't worry about getting blasted by adverts for games. Rumor has it developers and publishers just lost their marketing funds for this holiday season as the folks behind the E3Expo tripled their price for floor-space for 2004. Developers and Publishers were caught off gaurd and to lock into te desires spots have to have their reservations in before end-of-year. PayPal Sues Bank One PayPal has filed a lawsuit against Bank One Corp., the third-largest U.S. issuer of credit cards, claiming infringment of a patent for conducting financial transactions over the Internet. PayPal seeks a jury trial and unspecified damages in its lawsuit in Delaware Court. The Rise, Fall and Rise of Comdex Comdex is the annual Technology convention held evach year in Las Vegas. At one time it used to be the convention to go to. Now, it's making a return with Business 2.0 covering how Comdex went bankrupt in their "What Doesnt Work" articles. Worth a Read. VU Games Won't Sell GameSpot has the story that an un-named suitor from the game sector offered Vivendi between $700 and $900 million in cash for VU Games, but was turned down, showing extreme faith in the Games Unit. Posted October 20 2003 by Div Devlin

Community News: Professor says, "No More Stupid People!" COPENHAGEN - A leading Danish psychologist has caused outrage by calling for the state to encourage the selective reproduction of children from intelligent parents and seek to stop less gifted groups having children. "Intelligence is hereditary," said Professor Helmuth Nyborg the dean of the Psychology Institute at Aarus University. Nyborg said he was raising the issue becuase average intelligence was falling in Denmark and the problem needed to be addressed. Professor Nyborg was denied and was told that his suggestion was unacceptable. Romania probes marriage of 12-year-old Gypsy girl BUCHAREST - Responding to pressure from the European Union, Romanian authroities opened an investigation into the recent forced marriage of a 12-year-old Gypsy girl in Transylvania. Ana Maria Cioba was married off to a 15-year-old Gypsy boy after storming out of the church during the service and telling reporters she did not want to marry. She was married 15 minutes later, her face sullen while her father, a self-proclaimed Gypsy king officiated. Romania generally tolerates the tradion of arranged child marriages among Roma - as Gypsies are known. D&D Online Q&A Someone recently asked me if Warcry is owned by Turbine. Dunno the answer to that, but Warcry has an interview with the Turbine Team working on Dungeons and Dragons Online. No names mentioned. Final Fantasy XI Beta Review Warcry sent a couple eager volunteers into the final days of beta for FFXI and have a review up from within game. XGR Does HardWare Reviews XGR has a new feature which made it's debut last Saturday and will appear every Saturday from now on. Each week they will review Hardware for Gamers. The first review is with a look at Nyko’s AirFlo Mouse for the PC. Posted October 20 2003 by Div Devlin

DAoC: Trials of Atlantis Ship Date! Mythic has announced the official release date for thier underwater expansion to Dark Age of Camelot that a ton of us are waiting for. "Trials of Atlantis" as announced last week is due to ship on October 28th according to Matt Frior on the Camelot Herald. Congratulations also to Mythic Entertainment who was ranked 112th on the 2003 Deloitte Technology Fast 500, a ranking of the 500 fastest growing technology companies in North America. Rankings are based on average percentage revenue growth over five years, from 1998-2002. Mythic Entertainment grew 3,198 percent during this period. Posted October 20 2003 by Div Devlin

Dragon Empires Beta News: In case ya missed this one, last weeks newsletter for Dragon Empires announced that they are preparing to add another 3,200 accounts into Beta which is going strong. In our next phase we will add 3,200 more people to the test, a significant jump in numbers, as well as a lot of great features like quests, monsters, cities and the economy. We expect the next phase to happen later on this winter and we're quite excited by the prospect of seeing the game develop and grow so much. Also released in the newsletter is a new "Letter from Gadsolme" in which he writes about an exhibiton he has been holding. And three new screenshots of concept art added to the gallery showing off the "The Ma-Pi, Insect Wolf hybrids, and the Native Hyena." Check em. Posted October 20 2003 by Div Devlin

PotB Developer Log: Pirates of the Burning Sea posted up a new developer log from Rusty, talking about their next milestone, the current delay, graphics, buying servers and problems with firewalls. It's a good read to see what is going on behind the scenes. Posted October 20 2003 by Div Devlin

Rubies of Eventide Contest's: CyberWarrior is holding some contests this month for players in "Rubies of Eventide" where one lucky winner can have a hosted LanParty as well as winning hardware upgrades, a giftcard, and shotglasses for the LanParty guests. The contest is for RoE subscribers only in North America. Check it. Posted October 20 2003 by Div Devlin

Return to Shadowbane! Ubi wants you to come back and check out Shadowbane now that it has improved, for free for thirty days. With no hidden charges! If you left, and your account was in good standing. Check this: To commemorate the dramatic improvements to Shadowbane over the past several months, Ubisoft is announcing the "Return to Shadowbane" promotion which will allow all former subscribers in good standing to experience Aerynth again for 30 days free of charge. The Return to Shadowbane program will run from October 14 through November 13, 2003. The Return to Shadowbane promotion will reactivate all accounts that have expired during the past six months and set them to cancelled. This means that most of our previous subscribers will be able to play Shadowbane for another 30 days without any account obligations. After the 30 days of free time has passed, all re-activated Shadowbane accounts will immediately expire again so users will not have to re-cancel. Additionally, anyone who has already cancelled their accounts and were set to expire prior to November 13, those accounts will now not expire until November 13. The full details can be found on the Chronicle of Strife. Posted October 20 2003 by Div Devlin

Shattered Galaxy Advances to 1.57! Nexon sends word that their game Shattered Galaxy has advanced to version 1.57! Improvements and innovations in game play cover the majority of the changes in Shattered Galaxy 1.57: - The new PowerRating system is where each player is assigned a numerical rating based on their attributes, which in turn influences how each battle is waged. - New War System, which assigns the territories values that add up with every successful defense of them. The total value of the factions cyclically will be added up and the factions governing the most "valuable" territories will receive special resources and items. - New gold items added to item inventory. - New rankings for commanders who surpass level 60. - Many other game play changes and improvements have been added as well. Set in deep space in the distant future where the remnant of humanity fights for survival and glory with cybernetic armies, Shattered Galaxy is a unique massive multiplayer online real-time strategy game for PC/Windows. Players can download and try the game for free with unlimited play time; players who register ($9.95 per month) experience Shattered Galaxy at its fullest. Numerous awards and editorial accolades reflect the acclaim for Shattered Galaxy's high quality. Posted October 20 2003 by Div Devlin

SWG Novel Announced: Sony Online and Lucas Arts announced their plans to release the novel "Ruins of Dantooine" from Del Rey books this December based on events from within Star Wars: Galaxies. The novel is being written by Voronica Whitney-Robinson. More info can be found on the official Star Wars site. Posted October 20 2003 by Div Devlin

Tons of UX:O Updates! EA has unleashed a ton of new updates last week for Ultima X: Odyssey. Starting out is new a peice of fiction based on Pixies. Four new screenshots and two team interviews with Rebekah "Kirreia" Stone and Karina "Teckla" Simons. Posted October 20 2003 by Div Devlin

Uru Goes Gold: GamersHell has the rumor reposted from fansite Uru Obsession that URU: Ages Beyond Myst (Myst Online) has gone gold and is expected in stores Novemeber 11th. No official press release has been sent from Ubi or Cyan Worlds to confirm or deny the rumor. Building hype, but not saying anything in case of a delay? Posted October 20 2003 by Div Devlin

Were Back Online: Apologies to our readers with the interrupted service the past two weeks as we have been relocating our operation's center (Read: We Moved!). Were now in our new state of the art building and back to presenting news on a regular schedule (Read: As We Can). Were recapping everything which we missed over the past week again, items you may of also missed. Thanks for understanding and accepting our apology. Posted October 13 2003 by Div Devlin

AC Letter To The Players: Asheron's Call has released a "Letter to The Players" from the Turbine Team for October with a number of updates to the game. Of note also is plans to revamp the Official AC:DM website and the message boards. We're planning a number of changes for the Turbine AC:DM website, including a total revamp of the AC:DM forums. We mention it here because we may need to take the entire site down for a week or more as we make these updates. Current plans have this downtime happening just after the October event, but it may be shifted earlier or later as necessary. We'll be posting more information on the site and on the forums as it becomes available. Three Cheers for Change! Posted October 13 2003 by Div Devlin

As The Market Turns: GE Buys Vivendi Universal General Electic inked the deal to bring Vivendi Universal into their NBC Enterainment division forging a $43 Billion Dollar Media Firm according to this article via Reuters. Vivendi Games not originally part of the deal will remain part of the Vivendi Universal family. Prima Games Dominates Strategy Guide Market Prima Games, a division of Random House Inc., today announced it has achieved an astonishing 91.6% unit market share, according to The NPD Group, Inc. Gaming Guide Report. The 91.6% unit market share comes in the "Both" category which tracks strategy guides for games available on console and PC platforms. Leading the way in August for Prima Games was Madden NFL 2004: Prima's Official Strategy Guide. Prima's guide to Madden was the best selling guide of the month, with over 100,000 guides sold. Prima Games also had the best selling PC strategy guide with Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided -- Prima's Official Strategy Guide. Top Ten PC Games NPD/Tech World released thier figures for the top ten selling PC Games ending for the week of September 27th. 1 Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault 2 Command & Conquer: Generals Zero Hour 3 Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy 4 Homeworld 2 5 Temple Of Elemental Evil 6 MS Flight Simulator 2004: Century Of Flight 7 Sim City 4: Rush Hour 8 The Sims: Superstar 9 The Sims Deluxe 10 Command & Conquer: General As we predicted last week, Sony is off the lists with thier expansion "Lost Dungeons of Norrath" which had fallen to 7th. Posted October 13 2003 by Div Devlin

City Of Heroes Updates: Even Heroes Need Rewards! City of Heroes the upcoming SuperHero MMO/RPG by Cryptic has released their Rewards Section for heroes within game. Even heroes need a boost once in a while. Whether a temporary increase or a permanent upgrade, Inspirations, Enhancements and Influence are the keys to improved performance and overall success. Learn more about it in the Rewards Section. Job Openings are still available as the continue to line up staff, this time looking for a "Lead Game Master" which has experience. The Lead GM will be responsible for direct customer support, supervising on-site and off-site support staff, and interfacing with all departments responsible for the production and support of a live MMOG. The ideal candidate for this position has prior experience as a full-time Lead or Senior Game Master for an MMOG, is very well organized, and has excellent communication and customer service skills. Requirement is that you relocate if you are not in Austin. Send resumes to jobs@ncinteractive.com Finally, for those who entered the contest to name one of the zones in Paragon City, the winning entry has been announced! Over 800 entries were submitted with the new zone being named "Crey's Folly." Posted October 13 2003 by Div Devlin

Community News: DarkFall Chat Warcry has a chat with Eric Johansen one of the network programmers from DarkFall Online. Making MMOG's For The Masses GameSpy has an article up and running about "Making an MMOG for the Masses" in which they quote some of the developers from the industry. Top 10 Worst Ideas For Massively Multiplayer Games JCal on HomeLand has put together his list for the "Top 10 Worst Ideas For Massively Multiplayer Games" we hope some developer or publsiher is not wrking on with this public service announcment. Wish Official Boards Mutable Realms and Vault Network have come to an agreement that Wish Vault will host the Official WISH boards for the community for Mutable Realms upcoming Ultra MMO Game. Posted October 13 2003 by Div Devlin

DAOC: Trials of Atlantis Golden! Mythic's second retail expansion to the Dark Age of Camelot game has gone gold. "Trials of Atlantis" is expected in stores by the end of the month. From the Pres Release: Mythic Entertainment, developer and publisher of the award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game "Dark Age of Camelot," today announced that "Dark Age of Camelot: Trials of Atlantis" has gone gold. The second expansion to the critically acclaimed "Dark Age of Camelot," "Trials of Atlantis" features new races, lands, and improved graphics that render the lost continent of Atlantis in stunning detail. Many are looking forward to this expansion, myself included. Posted October 13 2003 by Div Devlin

Dark and Light Cable Cars: Dark and Light the upcoming MMO Game in development by NPCube announces another first in persistant worlds. Exclusive to the world of Dark and Light will be Cable Cars, which are fully fonctional and allow you to climb high mountains easier. Also, the games fiction has had an update with the newest chapter of the Ganheptameron with "Restored Harmony." Posted October 13 2003 by Div Devlin

Dark Space Free Trial: Dark Space announced Friday that they have a promo running which ends today! If you have yet to check out this space themed MMO Game by PaleStar, jump in now and get two months of game time for the total prices of $13.99 after which rpicing defaults to the $9.99 plan. DarkSpace is available for free download! Posted October 13 2003 by Div Devlin

Dragon Empires Dev Diary: Dragon Empires has new Dev Diary posted up. This is from their six foot tall modeller Rich Hammond, a senior artist working on monsters and dragons. Included are two new concept screenshots. Posted October 13 2003 by Div Devlin

Dransik Server Woes: Dransik is having sever problems with Primordia. Due to a server hardware (raid controller) malfunction on Primordia Thursday night, the last save game was corrupted. AsylyumSoft, the developers of Dransik, have been attempting to recover this save game without any luck and had to revert back to the previous save that has good data (Oct 8,2003 at 12:40pm). The hardware has been replaced, and they are considering replacing the entire server in the very near future. Posted October 13 2003 by Div Devlin

Eve Online Expands Storyline: The Eve Online website has a news post pointing to an expanded story line to their game. Links point to how a new Emperor is chosen every five hundred years by a select group dubbed the Five Heirs, who chose the new Emperor through a Championship that players can participate in to direct the games story-line. Posted October 13 2003 by Div Devlin

GenCon SoCal Gen Con is getting ready to start in South Calirfornia and they have an All Star Celeberity Line-Up ready. Guests include: William Shatner (Star Trek), Dirk Benedict (Battlestar Galactica, The A-Team), Herbert Jefferson, Jr. (Battlestar Galactica), Richard Hatch (Battlestar Galactica) Jerry Doyle (Babylon 5), Virgina Hey (Farscape), Jason Carter (Babylon 5), Richard Biggs (Babylon 5) and Robin Atkin-Downes (Babylon 5, Star Wars: Bounty Hunter). Gaming industry guests of honor include Steve Long, Kenneth Hite, Chris Pramas, Rick Loomis, James Ernest, Tracy Hickman, Skaff Elias, Dave Williams, Owen Seyler, Christian Moore, John Kovalic, and artist guest of honor April Lee. This looks like it's going to rock. Be sure to Pre-Register on the GenCon Site. Posted October 13 2003 by Div Devlin

Lineage II Fiction Update: Lineage II has added a new update to the games back fiction. Who will rule after the fall of the Elmoreden kingdom? To find out, you have to read the "Battle for the Continent" Tale. Posted October 13 2003 by Div Devlin

Middle Earth Online Team Letter: Middle Earth Online has a new team letter up on the official website talking about plans they hope to see with the community and teasing about how updates later this month will reveal plans for Kinships and Fellowships. Check it. Posted October 13 2003 by Div Devlin

URU: Myst Online Bonus! Ubi made an announcment saying that anyone who does a pre-order for "URU: Ages Beyond Myst" their upcoming MMO game will also receive a free copy of the Myst 10th Anniversary DVD Edition that includes the first three Myst titles on individual DVDs and an exclusive interview with Rand Miller, co-creator of the franchise. Peter Gabriel has also been signed to do a tune for the game. Gabriel will provide the song, "Burn You Up, Burn You Down" for the November release of Uru: Ages Beyond Myst and the world-renowned artist will also provide an original composition for the next game in the series. He's the guy that did that "Shock The Monkey" song? Posted October 13 2003 by Div Devlin

Mythica News Round Up: GameSpy goes inside Mythica with Hal Miltion in an interview about specifics in the Realm of Midgard. Ever wish you had a quick and easy way to find out what Hal Milton said about this feature or what Chris Lye hinted at in his last interview so you can quote him? Mythica Stratics has a fix with their new site feature in the "Mythica Team Quotes Database!" This database is filled with quotes, question responses and information taken from many sources on the web from forums to interviews to previews where information has been provided about Mythica. Also on Mythica Stratics is a "Caption Contest" in which a winner can attain a "Only You Can Prevent Ragnorak" T-Shirt. Posted October 13 2003 by Div Devlin

PlanetSide Updates: A couple of updates from Sony on PlanetSide's upcoming expansion "Core Combat." First is you have until tonight to sign up for Beta if you were hoping to jump in. Also the Station now has Core Combat available for pre-order if you want to get it direct from Sony. Last up is a new Core Combat: Combat Journal dealing with Urban style fighting which include five all new screenshots. Posted October 13 2003 by Div Devlin

Bad Times For Star Wars: Galaxies? Wednesday, October 8th will be a day long remembered for fans of Star Wars Galaxies, as Sony announced a patch that was to be applied at 4am Pacific in which all servers were to be brought down for four hours. That ended up being more that was planned as after 18+ hours huge bugs affected service with the patch. As was posted on the Official boards (Registerd Account Needed) Q-3PO had posted: In a nutshell we are experiencing some significant crashes on some major systems such as the Customer Service server and the commodities market. We have fixes for both of these, but it takes time to get them done. Additionally we are having some factory issues that are causing crashes. We are still analyzing the data to find out the cause of that (and why it didn’t occur on Test Center). The servers were eventally fixed and a Post Mortem was to follow with what exactly went wrong. We never saw it. He later said in the same message thread that big publishes like the one released often have complications and luckliy for players these will only occur once a month? I dunno, I don't want to have a game down once a month where we can't play, and still be charged. I've yet to read anyplace that players were given a credit for that down day. Following the extended problems, the LA Times (Registration Required/Thanks Blues News) has it that Simon Jeffery, President of LucasArts abruptly resigned. Warcry has an interview with Kevin "Q-3PO" O'Hara the Community Relations Manager with an update on the games direction. Also on Warcy is how the have a hacked report of games client to get the inside scoop on a complete list of creatures, two to five new planet names, three to five new holo crystals and some Jedi Info, which remains as rumor. The Friday Feature last week also revealed the full line of player mounts and vehicles that will be adeed to the game, "shortly" as opposed to using the word "soon," as Q-3PO posted to the forums (Need Account to Read) that Jedi's were making their way into the game soon. When it comes to information about Jedi, we’re generally going to keep a closed lip. There have been a lot of rumors in the past few months. Some have been true, most haven’t. Here is what I will tell you though: I expect to see our first Jedi within the next couple of weeks. We’ll let you know when that happens. If someone tells you they have already become a Jedi, they probably aren’t being truthful or are playing a different Star Wars game. We have been making some tweaks to the Jedi system from internal testing (little stuff like final death=loss of all skills, not deletion of character. Effectively it is the same thing, except you don’t have to keep hunting for a new name with your force sensitive slot - unless you want to that is) The one rumor I will confirm, this upcoming publish will introduce the Dark Jedi. Currently on the Jedi FAQ we say that it is a future feature. I want to let you know that the future has come. Dark Jedi is one of those features we’ve been working on behind the scenes and it is finally just about through internal testing. Looks like it is just in time. But, When? Posted October 13 2003 by Div Devlin

UXO News To Use: Ultima X: Odyessy has updated their Bestiary page with part one with a look at some of the mobs that will inhabit the game with concept art. Mongbats Live! There is also hidden promise of how people can sign up for beta in a Team Update by Jon "Oaks" LeCraft as he introduces himself in an internal interview. If ya really can't wait, and want to make sure you have the game upon release, GameStop has UX:O up for preorder with a release date of 02/10/04 at the price of $49.99 with box art. Posted October 13 2003 by Div Devlin

WoW, Classes Updated: World of Warcraft has updated their class pages with updates and new info on the Paladin, Rogue, and Priest classes. Also GUComics has more funnies based on the World of Warcraft with three added comics. Comic One. Comic Two. Comic Three. Posted October 13 2003 by Div Devlin

Atriarch Dev Update: World Fusion has updated the Atriarch site regarding updates from the dev's on bandwidth load balancing and enabling partial downloads. When you only have a few internal people testing a game, bandwidth is not really an issue. Every player can take up almost as much of the pipeline as they can handle, because there is plenty to go around. However, as more and more players are added to the mix, bandwidth allocation needs special attention. It is not feasible for a company to match every single player bit for bit, particularly during times of large patch downloads and updates. Check the full writes. Posted October 6 2003 by Div Devlin

Blizzard Massive Banning's: We mean massive too! Blizzard announced on Battle.Net that they have banned over 400,000 accounts from StarCraft, Diablo II and Warcraft III that were tied to the use of a hack or cheat program as they continue their agressive campaign against cheating. A number of additional accounts and CD Keys have been tied to the use of a hack or cheat program while playing StarCraft, Diablo II, or Warcraft III on Battle.net. In keeping with our aggressive stance against cheating, we have permanently closed 276,000 StarCraft accounts, 86,000 Diablo II accounts, and 41,000 Warcraft III accounts. We have documented all of the CD Keys that were used with these accounts. It's good they get into practice now, before the launch of thier MMO game "World of Warcraft," as long as they do so justly. Posted October 6 2003 by Div Devlin

Are You Dead Sexy? Gamer.Tv want's to know! If you are in the UK or USA they are running a competition to find the sexiest gamer. Our mission is to prove to the world that gamers are not joystick jockeys, glued to their keyboards. Our search for the Sexiest Gamer gives all you male and female gamers the opportunity to send in your hottest gaming related pic. Visitors to the site will be able to rate the hotness of each entrant. We all know that being a babe means different things to different people, you don't need to be a supermodel, anyone can enter. Time to get on down. Winners will win a holiday trip to London (If they are From the USA) or to California (If they are from the UK)! All you have to be, is a gamer! Go enter or if you are a gal vote for me! Posted October 6 2003 by Div Devlin

DAoC Price Reduction: Mythic sends out the press release telling the world that Dark Age of Camelot is now on sale at a new price of $9.99 from participating retailers. Mythic Entertainment, developer and publisher of the award-winning massively multiplayer online role-playing game "Dark Age of Camelot," announced today that "Dark Age of Camelot" is available at retail stores for the low price of $9.99. This "Best Seller" re-release includes all patches for "Dark Age of Camelot" from the last two years, including "Foundations," the expansion that added player and guild housing. Never been to Camelot, you can't go wrong with that. Posted October 6 2003 by Div Devlin

Darkfall Online Updates: RazorWax gives an update on the status to beta for their highly anticipated game, "DarkFall Online" in which they start by telling us the state of the game: We've been in a tech beta since September 2nd, testing, working on bugs, tuning and tweaking, adding content, and building the world. We're slightly behind schedule in some areas of development, ahead of schedule in others, and we're always working on new things, the latest being an optional third person perspective that can fit in with our gameplay design. Overall we're very happy with the progress, we don't have any serious problems, and we believe that we'll be able to deliver an advanced beta build for playtesting before long. Claus Grovdal, the games Producer and Lead Designer, followed up with an added update to clarify questions which arose regarding the "Third Pary Perspective" and that the game is currently in beta, now. When it comes to PK'ing the place to be is over on PK-HQ which has an interview up and running with Claus in which he address' questions that the Karas-Hur community had regarding the game, taken from various forumn posts. Posted October 6 2003 by Div Devlin

Earth and Beyond Expansion: The old rumor mill has been running full force, and word has been going around that Earth and Beyond has an expansion on the works. Quelling that rumor and putting an end to it is David "Shadow Dave" Yee the producer for Earth and Beyond as he makes the following announcment on the news section of the game's website: We are not currently working on an expansion pack. We have discussed internally what an expansion could include, and have completed some designs for potential expansion pack features, but we have not initiated production on any of these concepts. So much for that, eh? Posted Octobe