You can get hold of the demo now from Fileplanet ahead of the game’s release tomorrow. If you were to pause the demo mid-battle, zoom your face right up to your soldiers and take a few pictures, they could well look similar to the new screenshots below. They show men being exploded by magic, fighting through a forest of ice spikes, and doing battle in a dark forest.

Four arms are better than two when you’re being assaulted by a city of gangsters. The Darkness 2 demo, now available on Steam, will gradually give you use of all your arms, just as soon as you’ve made it through the intro cutscenes, and the on-rails shooter bit, and a few more cutscenes. Thankfully the demo has been put together to give us an overview of some of Jackie’s more powerful abilities, so it’s worth persisting to get to the gorier bits. The pseudo-cell shaded look is a nice homage to The Darkness’ comic book roots, too. Give it a whirl and let us know what you think. The Darkness 2 is out on February 7 in the US, and February 10 in Europe.

AVSEQ stands for Audio Visual Sequencer. It’s a puzzle game in which you must draw links between descending orbs to vapourise them and unlock new notes on an audio sequencer cycling through the background. The idea is to build up massive chains to gain mega-points and unlock new notes for the gradually building musical score. You have to collect every note before the time runs out to beat the stage. It’s join-the-dots against the clock with the added satisfaction of a swelling musical accompaniment.

There’s a catch, though. If those orbs touch the bottom of the screen, they evaporate and break any chain they’re hooked into. Each level becomes a frantic but absorbing game of risk vs reward as you try to sketch more and more ambitious webs over an increasingly kaleidoscopic backdrop. A two-mission demo is available now on the AVSEQ page of the Big-Robot site. If its musical tendrils manage to snare your attention, you can grab the full game here for a mere $5.

The Mass Effect 3 demo won’t bring you true love on February 14, but it will unlock extra armour pieces in Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, which is almost as good. The full game will be released across the milky way on March 6.

We’ll all get to find out in a couple of weeks. Hooray for demos! If you’re already certain you’ll like it, you can pre-order The Darkness 2 to get 10% off.

To snag your new swag, just head to the counterpart post at GamesRadar and follow the instructions there. You’ll have a leg-up over the competition when you net your 5-slot Adventurer’s Bag, extra storage, HP and MP potions, and some resurrection scrolls—the perfect set of items to get your heroic journey started.

Do you fancy yourself a born leader? What if you could prove it, without the fake photo smiles, baby-kissing, or mud-slinging of real world politics? With TERA’s upcoming political system, you can set out on a campaign for control from the comfort of your butt-contoured chair. In this exclusive video, hear from TERA producer Chris Hager as he explains the ins-and-outs of taking office in an MMO. Whether you attain leadership through brute force or popularity, you’ll have a heck of a time working to please the people and get the server population on your side. But hey—isn’t that what politics are all about?

Supergiant made the announcement on the Bastion site, where they also mention “some more Bastion-related news tomorrow.” Intriguing. If you’re curious about Bastion, it’s well worth checking out. We gave it a score of 92 in our Bastion review. Even if you already own the game, it’s worth booting up the app to see how well it all works. It’s a colourful glimpse into the exciting future of browser-based gaming.

Even on a 2D plane, seeing objects when other objects are nearby can be tough. Bad news. The challenge of finding things in piles of other things is about to get harder. Elementary my Dear Majesty is adding the Z(omg)-axis to the equation, claiming to become “the first 3D hidden object adventure game for PC.”

Now things won’t just be right there in front of you. They may be behind other things. They may even be inside larger things. But hey, a princes has morphed into a monster and a cure needs to be found. It was never going to be easy.

Developers Alawar Entertainment are going to make the most out of the new dimension. “Rotating and zooming in on a scene using the mouse are sometimes necessary, as objects are oftentimes very well hidden,” they say.

Elementary My Dear Majesty features 20 levels across 14 locations with over 100 puzzles to play through, and you probably should play through it, because I like my neck right where it is. “This original 3-D hidden object adventure will royally please the masses – or it’s off with their heads!” say Alawar.

If you’d like a taste, a demo is now available from the Elementary My Dear Majesty site. It offers an hour long trial after which you’ll be able to face the fridge with confidence, knowing that bottle of ketchup will never evade you again.

Once you’ve signed up for a free account and downloaded the client simply search for Arkham City in the games list and launch the free trial. It’s limited to 30 minutes, but that’ll give you chance to take control of Catwoman and thrash some burly men with Arkham City’s super slick combat system. Hold down the crouch button while moving for some comedy cat-crawling.

It’s great news, then, to see more Lego Harry Potter heading our way. In fact, RPS mention that a small chunk of the upcoming Lego Harry Potter: Years 5-7 is already available in magically shrunken demo form. Grab it now from Gamershell. Years 5-7 covers the events of the last three books, and the final four films, culminating in the big magical show down with He Who Must Not Be Named, aka Voldemort.

Nobody likes a mindless grind in their MMOs, following in the footsteps of the countless players who have already optimized all the content. One upcoming MMO hoping to shatter the mold is Core Blaze, the Unreal 3-powered hack-’n'-slash from Gamania. We asked Jacky Chu, chief operating officer at developer RedGate Studios, how Core Blaze will differentiate itself from the pack. Check out his responses, translated into English.

PC Gamer: What sets Core Blaze apart from other action-MMOs?
Jacky Chu: A good action game should allow the player to perform combos, dodge, and block enemy attacks. While Core Blaze also has these elements, it’s much more than a mindless adrenaline rush. It’s also very cerebral, in the sense that players must figure out ways to work with each other to carry out a plan. The key element in this type of game is not only character design, but also the enemy AI. Each boss monster can be seen as a puzzle that can be solved in multiple ways. We didn’t design the game to rely purely on button-mashing or twitch mechanics (though we believe this should be viable on some levels). If you can make use of elements in the environment and your items, you’ll receive better rewards.

PCG: How much depth will there be to character customization? Talent trees, gear, etc.
JC: We can’t yet tell you how many skill trees or weapon types there will be in the game, but we can tell you that the players decide how they want to advance their character because there are no pre-determined paths for character advancement. Other than character stats, we came up with many statistics that are specific to action games, such as the length of combo attacks, attack range, movement speed, rolling distance, double jumps, or weapon-specific attacks.

Sup dude. Just wanted to let you know that my bow is 20 times cooler than your dinky cane.

PCG: What are the mechanics behind each of the four weapon styles?
JC: Each style must be played at a different rhythm. For example, a player using the dual blade style may mash the combo button as soon as he can, and dodge whenever the enemies attack. But a great sword user will have to play very differently to be effective. Due to the weight of the weapon, a great sword user can’t dodge freely while he’s attacking; he’ll have to find the optimal moment to strike instead of mashing buttons blindly. Conversely, when facing larger enemies, a dual blade user, while fast, can’t do as much damage compared to the great sword, which has more power and longer range. Also, for all of the weapon styles, we’ve designed at least one special mode: the shield and sword user can perform crippling shield attacks, dual blade players can enter a berserk mode, great swords can store up power to perform one devastating attack, and longbow users can utilize a special aim mode.

PCG: How will Core Blaze’s itemization work?
JC: All of the weapons and equipment in Core Blaze are crafted by the players and not dropped by monsters. This means that players can decide for themselves what equipment they want to make. All items have different properties, and players will be able to level up a weapon in specific ways, such as increasing damage or enhancing a stat. For players who don’t want to spend time crafting, they’ll be able to purchase basic weapons from the in-game store. However, they’ll be somewhat weaker than crafted weapons.

In Core Blaze, spiky armor isn't a fashion statement—it's the law.

PCG: Is four people the party limit? What happens if two people in a group want to use the same weapon style?
JC: Core Blaze is designed to encourage players to make use of all game mechanics to come up with the best experience that’s specific for them. Except for in rare cases, players can solve any stage however they see fit. The key to doing well in the game is not only the quality of the equipment or class choice, but also the players’ skill and teamwork. Therefore, there are no optimal builds, just builds that are suitable for you and your party.

PCG: Will players be casting spells, or are the attacks purely weapon-based?
JC: Other than weapons, characters in Core Blaze can also perform Oriental magic, or “Tao.” They involve items, traps, and magical weapons. Players will have to perform the Tao by using magical items or runes, such as Qi Men Dun Jia (Chinese metaphysical arts), fengshui, and chi.

PCG: Will there be any platforming-type segments to the levels? What kinds of items, like the hookshot, can the player use to access new areas?
JC: In Core Blaze, the stages are designed like a platformer. The players will have to use tools (such as a hookshot), jump, or climb in order to proceed. We want the players to look like an action hero. After getting past an obstacle, the player may find a hidden location with a key NPC or a treasure chest. What we want to do is design levels so that when a player meets a new obstacle, they’ll be able to find a solution intuitively. And the most important thing is that the players will be able to choose freely among multiple solutions.

PCG: What’s usually in these hidden areas, besides new bosses? Will they be accessible to anyone, provided they know how to reach them?
JC: Exploration is an important element in Core Blaze. Exploration can open up many possibilities in the game, such as a hidden quest, hidden NPC (maybe a hidden trainer that can grant players new abilities), a secret monster, or a secret group of mobs. And during the exploration process, the game will provide the players with many hints. For example, you may find a hidden path, or obtain information on a secret location from an NPC in town. The key elements in the exploration process are hints and information sharing, with a bit of random chance thrown in (for instance, some locations may not be accessible unless it’s raining). Most importantly, the world should be fun to explore.

Stabbing a guy in his peg-leg is just plain disrespectful.

PCG: What can we expect from boss fights? For instance, Liang Qu can have parts of his body, like his teeth, destroyed for bonus damage. Will all boss fights have these kinds of unique mechanics?
JC: The destruction of body parts will be presented in a very clear manner, with each destructible body part having a unique look. With one swing of the blade, a player might hack off a huge limb of a monster, and that monster will react accordingly (like doubling over in pain). This kind of gameplay mechanic can be very satisfying and we’re incredibly happy with it so far. We want to ensure that players have to do more than just hacking at the monster to destroy key body parts. In some cases, players must wait for the best moment to strike. Or in other cases, players will have to use special items or objects. The key is that every boss monster can be dealt with in a variety of ways. Our AI design forces players to stay aware of subtle cues and changes to the monster’s body and behavior. Even if its outside appearance seems the same, its behavior can still change drastically. How players deal with and adapt to these changes when killing a monster affects their bonus.

PCG: Thanks so much for your time! Anything else you’d like to add?
JC: Core Blaze has a very high degree of freedom. We want the players to decide on their own how to solve the problems they encounter and create entirely unique gameplay experiences. The last thing we want is a fixed and restricted path for all players.

“The demo includes the biggest leagues in the world and allows you to put your managerial skills to the test on a global stage,” reads the Steam blurb, which explains why it weighs in at just over 2.7 GB. That’s 2.7 GB of pure, sweet footballing data. Yum.

EA’s link doesn’t seem to work, but we managed to launch the demo from the Gakai front page, the service providing the streaming tech behind the trial. The demo is time limited to 20 minutes. You’ll be able to create a sim and lead them to their a gruesome death in an Egyptian pyramid, a haunted house and a vampire lair. Or you could keep them safe and watch them live long, happy fulfilled lives, but where’s the fun in that?

Andrew Kuhar: When making the posters, I knew that Bosses like C’Thun and Ragnaros are so visually recog­nizable that I didn’t want to stray too far from what most players probably remember about them. I remember seeing server-first Ragnaros-kill anno­uncements all the time, with guilds posing for a picture around the fallen Hand of Sulfuras.

At the same time, C’Thun’s giant eye was, and still is, absolutely terrifying. I had some conceptual fun in the C’Thun poster by making the text (comprised of various phrases he whispers to you as you descend underground) look like a vision test. That sort of juxtaposition—a sentiment against an image—also allowed me some liberties to acknowledge both the old and new worlds in the other two posters.

In the case of Shadowfang Keep and Deadmines, the spotlight fell on Lord Godfrey and Vanessa VanCleef. Both are new characters, but are busy filling in the shoes of two old-world veterans: Archmage Arugal and Edwin VanCleef.

The SFK poster is an image of the keep’s silhouette at a distance. Godfrey’s words are quite true: he replaced the only human character that was left in the instance.

The in-game flashback of a young Vanessa seeing her father assassinated is very moving, and I decided to tie that into who she becomes later in life: a radical movement leader in the Deadmines dungeon. The poster is definitely the most abstract of the bunch. The only thing drawing the scene is Edwin’s blood: in a pool beneath him, smeared from the battle, across his sword, and on Vanessa’s hands. As a small homage and foreshadowing, I drew in the red bandanna worn by Defias members, which is now worn around Vanessa’s face.

If you’d like to see more of Kuhar’s art, you’re in luck. His portfolio/website is readily available at http://andrewkuhar.com, and you can read his various game design musings at his blog Digitalchemy. You can also follow him on Twitter here.

PC Gamer: A big part of Patch 4.3 is Void Storage. Is this designed to be—from a utilitarian perspective—the new money-sink?

Tom Chilton: I would say the money-sink, in some ways, is a convenient side effect—well, convenient for us, not convenient for the player—of the fact that, we want to make sure that there’s a distinction between Void Storage and the bank. Otherwise, Void Storage would just feel like a slightly-nerfed bank, because it doesn’t retain things like Gems and Enchants and stuff like that. If we could have, we would’ve just increased everyone’s bank spaces significantly, but for data storage reasons that isn’t really viable for us. So we want to make sure that it somehow makes sense to players that the Void Storage functions differently than a bank. And part of that deposit cost helps do that, and it also happens to be a gold-sink, which are always nice, design-wise, to have when an opportunity for them comes along.

This is where the magic happens.

PCG: What’s the limit to how many items you can have in the Void Storage?

TC: It’s currently 80 slots. If you had about 8 pieces in a set of the usual stuff, that would be like 10 sets of stuff.

PCG: Another big feature in 4.3 is the Darkmoon Faire. It seems, with all the changes being made, that you’re trying to make it a place where people will actually hang out, rather than just visiting because they need something then taking off. Is the idea to make it more of an event, like Brewfest, where everybody’s hanging out?

TC: It may lead to that; we aren’t designing it with the deliberate intent that it becomes that, because it’s always very difficult to predict when those things will actually happen the way you imagine they might happen. I think part of what leads to Brewfest working out like that is the physical location, if you consider that it’s right outside of Orgrimmar or wherever—it’s very convenient, and a lot of players are around there anyways. It’s hard to know whether or not, with Darkmoon Faire Island, whether that will play out the same way. It might, but it might not, and we’re not hedging our bets on it. If it does, that’s cool; I definitely think that a large percentage of players will, at the very least, get a lot of entertainment out of going there and doing the different activities.

A freezeframe from the latest Real Steel trailer.

PCG: Day one of Patch 4.3: what are you going to do first?

TC: I think that I’m probably going to still be farming for some of the gear that I want for transmogrification [laughs]. The first I’m going to do is run out there and trans some of the stuff that I have for some of my characters, stuff that I’ve had for years now. That’s probably going to be my main focus right away.

PCG: I’ll be there right alongside you farming that gear. Thanks for your time!

PC Gamer: The big new content in Patch 4.3 is the Deathwing fight. We’ve had a lot of dragon fights before in the past; what makes Deathwing different?

Tom Chilton: Deathwing’s the first fight we’ve ever done that spans multiple locations—any other bossfight that we’ve ever done has essentially been a one-room kind of fight. This fight is broken up into multiple stages; obviously we’ve done multi-phase fights before, where it’s like, oh, you fight Onyxia on the ground, then she gets up in the air, that kind of thing. But in this one, it’s actually more extensive than that. You fight Deathwing in multiple locations—for example, the fight with Deathwing begins at Wyrmrest Temple; that leads to Thrall using the Dragon Soul to damage Deathwing, at which point he attempts to escape. You catch up to him in a gunship and basically para-drop onto his back, then you fight on his back, peeling off armor plates and stuff like that. You eventually wrestle him to the ground near the Maelstrom, for the grand finale: taking on the corrupted version of Deathwing at the Maelstrom, and that’s the final big part of the encounter.

See how cool Alexstrasza looks? We imagine Deathwing will be 10x cooler (provided he's not actively killing us).

PCG: So are you using vehicle mechanics in that fight? Like when you’re on his back, do you have different abilities that you’re using, or are you still your character and using your own abilities?

TC: You’re just your character, freely running around on his back (your whole raid is), and you’re fighting stuff that’s acting as his corrupted bodily defenses, like corrupted tentacles that come out through his armor plates, or these different fire and lava beasts that seep through his plates, stuff like that. You’re having to try to peel his plates off.

PCG: When you’re on his back, is there still going to be the traditional tanking role; is someone trying to keep his attention, or is it all about the adds that are coming out of him?

TC: It’s mostly about the adds, but the adds include things that need to be tanked, stuff like that.

When Thrall looks this pissed, you know it's ON.

PCG: Is it because Deathwing is so powerful that you guys decided to make this a multi-part fight? I mean, Arthas is the most famous villain, but is Deathwing the most powerful one that we’ve faced so far?

TC: I would say so. Conceptually, he’s probably the most significant being that people have ever taken on. He’s absolutely massive; he’s certainly much bigger size- or scale-wise than any other boss we’ve ever done. His character model that we built for him is actually big enough for you to run around on his back and use it as a boss location [laughs].

PCG: And Thrall’s with you the whole time. That’s probably (lore-wise) why you’re able to take Deathwing out–without Thrall we wouldn’t stand a chance.

TC: Yeah, exactly. The three new dungeons, story-wise, lead up to the raid, and we’ve been talking recently about how that plays out. Essentially, you start off by convincing Nozdormu that the future of the world is going to be in terrible shape (there essentially is no future) if Deathwing and the Twilight’s Hammer win. So you start off by going into the future to demonstrate and experience what the world is going to be like, and it’s like this horrible, grim version of the future if the Twilight’s Hammer wins. At that point, Nozdormu agrees to send you back to the past, to the battle of the Well of Eternity, and that’s where you get the Demon Soul for Thrall. Then, the third instance is, you’re essentially doing an escort mission to lead Thrall with the Demon Soul to Wyrmrest Temple where the raid takes place.

The future looks awfully bleak if the Twilight's Hammer cult wins.

PCG: When you’re transitioning between these different locations, will Thrall create a portal and you’ll run through it, or are you actually going to have to move around the world to these different areas in between phases?

TC: Yeah, those three different segments are different instances, so for some you go to Caverns of Time, and for the escort mission for Thrall, that takes place at Wyrmrest Temple. They’re all different instances that you either queue for or walk through the portal, that kind of thing.

PCG: One of my favorite parts about the old dragon raid bosses was how you used to be able to take their heads to the city, your faction leader shouts about how awesome you are, and the head gets put on a pike for all to see. Are we going to get that same sort of thing with Deathwing?

TC: We are planning to do that kind of thing. We’re still in the process of deciding how that’s going to work.

PCG: Does Deathwing have any specific powers that use new fight mechanics? Or is it more about the location-changing that’s the new twist?

TC: Certainly Deathwing has a large number of new combat mechanics and all that kind of stuff that you’d see from any new raid boss. I would say each individual segment of that fight is reasonably traditional, in terms of the standard types of raid mechanics that we use. There isn’t any funky vehicle stuff or whatever.

Core Blaze reminds me of some of my favorite Sony games of the past, with combat reminiscent of Mark of Kri and intense bossfights against titanic monsters ala Monster Hunter. You’ve got four dynamic weaponsets to choose from: sword and shield (tank), great sword (slow-but-hefty DPS), dual blade (lightning-fast DPS), and long bow (ranged DPS). What’s nice is that you can switch between these styles whenever you want (provided you’re not in combat), meaning you’re never locked into a role that won’t benefit your party. Combat emphasizes twitch reflexes, with evasive maneuvers keeping you healthy and combos being a necessary part of maximizing your damage-per-second. A gamepad is recommended, but know that button-mashing won’t get you very far in CB’s cooperative battles.

Ah, my favorite pasttime: slicing off scarecrow legs.

As you’ll see in the above trailer, bossfights don’t pull any punches, demanding quick thinking and even quicker sword-slashing. That blue panther-monster is Liang Qu, the ice-empowered guardian of the Hunter’s Cave instance. Fighting him will be about reacting to his lunges and dodging properly when he bounces off the walls, claws bared. You can also damage various parts of his body, granting a boon that could turn the tide of a fight. For instance, if a player shatters Liang Qu’s fangs with a great sword, he’ll unleash a super-charged berserk mode for extra damage.

Here, kitty kitt-AIEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Besides battling against feline monstrosities, Core Blaze sounds like it could offer interesting discoveries for those players who prefer to explore the world. Depending on what time of day it is, and what the weather’s like, you may be able to access side-quests on previously-unreachable paths. For instance, while trekking through the Forest of Meditation, rainy weather will raise the water levels in a nearby river will allow adventurers to access a hidden encounter in a seemingly-inaccessible cave. Other items, like a hook shot (Legend of Zelda, anyone?), will bolster your beast-hunting ability.

The tank just remembered that he left the stove on.

Core Blaze is preparing for a Q2 2012 release in Asia, with a North American release date not yet determined. We’ll be keeping an eye out on this one, and be sure to check out our upcoming exclusive interview with the developers (as soon as it’s translated!).

Check inside for details of how to enter.

Hedone is set 2020, where the technology to clone yourself a new body has become widespread, so death is no longer a big deal. Yes, unlike most ‘televised blood sport’ concepts, this one actually makes sense!

To get you beta key simply go to our competition site and fill in your details. At the end of the week beta keys will wing their way to the first 1,000 people to sign up. You must be in Europe to qualify. Sorry Americans, the Hedone US beta hasn’t started yet.

Check out the official Hedone website for more info.

Spurs, Bayern Munich, Inter Milan, Rangers, Club America and Internacional are all playable in this version of the demo, which features a number of tweaks inspired by feedback from the first PES 2012 demo released several weeks ago. It’s now harder to score, keepers have been improved and defenders are smarter, to the extent that defenders can become smart. The full release will put PES head to head with Fifa in North America on September 27, but Europeans will have to wait until October 14 to test those defenders properly.

It’s pretty, too. The PC exclusive shooter is built on Flying Wild Hog’s own Road Hog engine, designed from the ground up to render Hard Reset’s glistening urban cityscapes. While you’re waiting for the download to finish, have a read more about the devs’ design philosophy in our Hard Reset interview.

It’s out on September 13 and will cost just £22.99 / $29.99. You can pre-order now from Steam to get a 10% discount.

It’s a fact that if you create a kaleidoscopic shooter and call it “Scoregasm” a certain number of people will click on it in principle. I know, because I am one of those people. If you’re not too busy being hypnotised by the blaze of colours and explosions in the trailer above, you might be interested in the brand new Scoregasm demo, which you can download right now from the Rock Paper Shotgun. It provides 30 to 60 minutes of explodey action for a 48 megabyte download.

The trailer above shows off a few new features, like active AI that will make more aggressive runs into open space, and improved off-the-ball control that let you exploit flaws in opponents’ formations during set pieces. The AI is so improved that referees will even play advantage. If you’re not keen on how this trial plays, it might be worth another shot when the second one is released next month. It’s a demo of two halves, after all.

It’s unclear why Space Marine has vanished, but it reminds us of Brink’s recent disappearance. That game didn’t turn up until weeks after launch. Hopefully Space Marine won’t suffer the same fate.

If the demo isn’t enough to tide you over until Space Marine’s release on September 6 in the US (September 9 in Europe), then check out the video interview with Space Marine’s lead voice actor above. He offers various arguments supporting his decision to voice a Space Marine, though we all know the real reason. His name is MARK STRONG.

Assault packs are essentially jetpacks, but because this is Warhammer 40,000 they’re twice the size you’d expect and can be used to kill. In Space Marine you can blast yourself over a horde of enemies and then use your jets to fire yourself at the ground. Anything you hit explodes with the impact. Whoosh-BANG. Check out the latest Space Marine trailer for more.

If you fancy a spot of in-depth warmongering over the weekend, you might want to check out the new Supreme Ruler: Cold War demo, spotted by RPS. The demo is available to download from the Supreme Ruler site now and the Paradox Youtube channel has a selection of tutorial videos to get you started. The full game will let you take control of the Russians or the Americans in campaign mode, or almost any European country in sandbox mode.

Whichever side you choose to take, you’ll have to use espionage, trade, research and lots of tanks to expand your influence. The full game is out now, and available to buy on GamersGate, Direct2Drive and Impulse. Read our Supreme Ruler preview for more.

Sid Meier’s social take on Civilization is now live for all to play on Facebook. 2K have been running an invite-only closed beta for a short while, which has been sending Owen slightly mad with power. “Look at all my little men!” he would cry as his city slowly grew “look at them!”

Not only can you look at your little men, you can give them jobs and instruct them to build an empire. As the video above explains, the aim of the game is to earn fame, through economic or military victories. You can form groups with your friends and work together to achieve co-operative victories as well. It also offers the rare opportunity for you to become king of all your friends. Head to the Civ World Facebook page to start your reign of terror.

4X galaxy conquering game Star Ruler now has a demo available ahead of its upcoming September retail release. Star Ruler has a procedurally generated 3D galaxy that can spawn up to 10,000 star systems into your game. With numerous research and diplomatic routes at your disposal, there are nearly limitless possibilites to explore. Just be careful not to go space-mad.

Upon the release of the retail version, Blind Mind are planning a massive update that will add new features for owners of the digital version of the game. You can grab the demo from the here. The game’s currently available on Steam, too, and is currently on sale at 66% off.

The demo features the prologue and parts of the first chapter of the game. The point and click adventure game picked up three trophies at the German Developer Awards, including Best Story and Best Soundtrack. You can download the demo from Strategy Informer or Worth Playing.

Whoever said games can’t teach us anything about the environment clearly hasn’t played this.

The video above is a trailer for Vertex Dispenser, a new indie puzzle game in which you must surround segments of a shape to capture it, and then the colours of your captured vertices to gain power for special abilities. You don’t just fight for control of doughnuts, there are hundreds of shapes and maps to master. It’s an RTS/puzzle game that seems to be designed to melt your brain from within. RPS have word that there’s a demo out right now on Steam. Go forth and conquer those doughnuts, in the name of PC Gamer.

To enter, simply email contests@pcgamer.com with the subject line “I love arcade action and I’m not afraid to admit it” We’ll randomly choose 100 lucky winners by this Friday, May 27th. If you love combat that’s based more on twitch-reflexes and cool combos than random number generators, Rusty Hearts will be right up your alley. And who doesn’t love cel-shaded graphics? If you answered “Me,” I command you to go play Jet Grind Radio right this instant. RIGHT. THIS. INSTANT.

UPDATE: Winners have been selected and the codes have been sent out! Thanks to everyone that entered.

Dungeon Siege’s central strategic conceit has players changing stances to access different skills, but the game is very flexible with its definition of a “stance.” Close combat warrior Lucas shifts his footing and raises his sword to access his alternative move set, while female mage Anjali turns blue and naked, and catches fire. It’s never the men who turn blue and naked, is it?

For more of an idea of what to expect, get to grips with our Dungeon Siege 3 hands on, or check out the official Dungeon Siege 3 site.

The DOTA-style multiplayer game has enjoyed plenty of success over the last twelve months, and now has more than 50,000 players a day. With dozens of unique heroes, and more being added all the time, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to see everything Heroes of Newerth has to offer in a few days, but for the magnificent price of nothing, it’s certainly worth a look.

You can sign up for a free Hereos of Newerth account now on the Heroes of Newerth site. The account will remain active until the free trial’s closing date on Sunday May 22.

The launch of the free trial coincides with an update that revamps the item shop and adds tooltips to help new players get into the game. A new hero guides feature has been added as well, creating strategy guides created and voted for by players.

You’ll find full details in the latest Heroes of Newerth newsletter, and much more on the official Heroes of Newerth site. For an overview of some of the most recent additions to the enormous hero roster, check out our Heroes of Newerth news feed.

If you’ve been waiting for a chance to dive into the game, you’re in luck. Seven day free trials are now available from the Rift site. If you’re playing already, there are also a number of recruitment rewards for getting friends to sign up, including loyal canine pets and a flaming steed.

The free trial is part of the Rift 1.2 Spoils of War update, which adds new daily quests to collect treasure raining down onto the world of Telara. Some of this treasure can be used to bore holes through space-time to access a new ten man raid. There’s news on the improved group finding tools PvP improvements and the new Facebook integration on the Rift Spoils of War page.

AttilaTheHun

The code phrase will admit the first 50,000 people who use it. For more on the game, check out our 8Realms preview, and our interview with the game’s developers.

Proun is an abstract indie racing game in which your craft is attached to a long, looping cable. In order to gain speed you have to rotate around the pole, avoiding the abstract objects hurtling towards you. The new video above gives us a quick look at some of the beautiful environments you can race through. The full version is due out this spring, but there’s a beta available now to download and play for free. For more info, check out the Proun development blog. To see the game at full speed, check out an older trailer for the game, embedded below.

The only hitch is that you have to go to a very specific URL to redeem the code (both are listed below). So if you share the code with your friends (or tattoo it on your body), be sure to include the URL as well.

Explosions > facebook crawling for your lunch-break entertainment.

Beta code: c9p3hmwgg79o
URL: http://www.gunshine.net/?utm_source=pcgamer&utm_medium=weblinks&utm_campaign=week15

I jumped into the beta this morning, played for about an hour and had a good time. I went with a doctor character, and have been tag-teaming with some bruiser freedom fighters to lay down the law of liberty on the oppressive guards trying to control us. I don’t think so, freedom-haters!

Gunshine.net has an awesome feature that lets you recruit AI versions of your friends’ characters even while they’re offline, so if you find yourself in need of some healing, add “Nereus” as a friend and we’ll team up! We recently featured Gunshine.net in our 15 multiplayer browser games article–head on over there to read more about the game, and look for a full preview in an upcoming issue of the magazine!

A bare-chested man with that creepy of a mustache deserves whatever beatings he gets.

Playing on the US RP server Feathermoon, this player achieved what most thought impossible (while still maintaining one’s sanity): grinding through 85 grueling levels via gathering Professions alone. Think it’s all a hoax? The proof is in the profile pudding—Everbloom’s character profile plainly shows that he/she/it has reached the level cap without killing a single enemy. But what’s this? One completed quest?! Not exactly—this was an unfortunate misstep, where a quest was completed simply by opening a letter from an NPC (which Blizzard couldn’t redact). Nonetheless, this is an imposing achievement, especially considering that the character was created around last November.

Kneel. Gather. Repeat 99999999 times.

For the players who think they’ve seen and done it all in Azeroth, this seems like the ultimate challenge and test of will, akin to old Diablo II challenges of pacifist Hell completions. Everbloom highly recommends the experience, saying:

“Being on the ground and sneaking around mining and herbing and eventually archaeology, going everywhere to get every single point of discovery xp that you can, really gives you a chance to see an amazing world up close and personal. I spent hours swimming around reefs and flying to the farthest reaches of the maps… I have been playing since day 1 on other characters and I even have an original Loremaster (you know, back when it was hard) and I saw so MANY new things with Everbloom that it really made it worthwhile for me to continue on with this character, and each level was a major achievement!”

Not exactly epic loots.

Everbloom even implies that they’ll be starting over to accomplish their goal proper, proclaiming “I shall stick to my 0 kills 0 quests attempt yet again! Come join the … fun? ;)” Whether you respect this kind of determination or you think someone needs to get a life, there’s no denying that Everbloom’s accomplished an impressive feat. What’ll they think of next? Getting to level 85 solely through fishing? It seems resourceful WoW-addicts can still find ways to enjoy the beloved MMO in alternative and amusing ways.

“There is one special place where everything works. That’s the laboratory, where you don’t have enough traffic from users to really stress the system. It confirms our worst suspicions of technical support; we are trapped by the reality that the users will always be able to take down the system.”

For more information on EVE online, visit the official site, or join the PC Gamer Eve Online Corp.

You can read the full list of patch notes on Blizzard’s official blog.

Do you embrace patches or fear change? Let us know in the comments.

Update: looks like the login servers are down at the moment, meaning you can’t create an account in-game. Some of the mirrors for the demo don’t go up until 12.00AM PST / 8PM GMT, so that may be when the servers will wake up.

Update 2: the problem is a server overload. It’s not affecting everyone and Crytek are working to resolve it, but have no ETA yet.

Update 3: all working our end now, try again if you had problems. Anyone still having issues, let us know in the comments.

The demo features two game modes and two maps: Skyline is a fight across rooftops, and Pier 17 is a wide open, smashed up version of the real location on the southern tip of Manhattan. Which, before the alien invasion at least, had a great fish market. There’s a guide to the tactical nuances of Pier 17 here, and one for Skyline here. Neither provides a practical guide to negotiating a fair price for hake.

Once you’ve tried it out, let us know how it runs on your rig – Crytek have made a big deal of the CryEngine 3 being more efficient than the one they built for the infamously demanding Crysis 1.

Let us know your impressions in the comments. We love it when you talk to us, even if you end up arguing with eachother.

Recently, Bioware announced that they would give even more bonus items to everyone who plays the demo, as long as it receives one million downloads. You can find our Dragon Age 2 review in the latest issues of PC Gamer US and PC Gamer UK, which is out now.

A demo has just been released for transport sim, Cities in Motion. The game lets you plan and build transport networks for a selection of major cities. Using a fleet of trams, helicopters and even water buses, you must create the perfect metropolis, in which nothing is ever late.

The demo contains the game’s tutorial, which covers one year of development, giving you a taste of the management skills you’ll need to create your clockwork utopia when the game’s released on February 22. For more on the game, check out the Cities in Motion site, or watch the trailer below.

We’ve been playing in Rift’s recent closed beta events. Find out what we think of the game so far in our Rift preview. Head over to the official Rift site for more information. Pre-ordering the game will get you access to the head start period on February 24. The game’s due out on March 1. Check out the trailer below for some Rift warfare.

UPDATE: We’ve selected all of the winners and will be sending out the beta codes this afternoon! We’ll be giving away thousands of more codes over the course of the beta period, so if you didn’t get one this time, stay tuned!

Falconnnn...PAWNCH!

The beta events will occur on:

• Friday, Feb. 11th from 6pm PT until 11:59pm PT Saturday, Feb 12th
• Friday, Feb. 18th from 6pm PT until 11:59pm PT Saturday, Feb 19th
• Friday, Feb. 25th from 6pm PT until 11:59pm PT Sunday, Feb 27th
• Friday, March 4th from 6pm PT until 11:59pm PT Sunday, March 6th
• Friday, March 11th from 6pm PT until 11:59pm PT Sunday, March 13th

Beta access includes both the campaign and multiplayer, where you can play as countless creatures and swap between a set of three on the fly. We’ll have a large preview of the game online next week, but for now, you can see for yourself what you think of the game. You know you want to see it before everyone else does…e-mail us now!

I've doubled back once. Can I go round the middle and do it again?

You create your line by placing hexagonal tiles. Each tile has a number of routes carved into it, and you can to rotate the tiles to guide your line down new paths. Here’s where it gets really addictive. You get bonus points for doubling back and sending your route through tiles you’ve previously placed. Just when you think you’ve reached a dead end, you can place a crafty U-turn that sends your red line snaking back through ten or more tiles and then – Blammo! 100 points and an enormous sense of satisfaction.

Pretty soon I realised that it’s possible to plan ahead and position the unused routes on each tile to set up a secondary path that can hopefully be used to double back later on. There’s also a backup tile that you can swap in at will. This allows you to snatch a tile with a convenient U-turn to use later on.

Yes, twice! Kapow! Massive points.

Once you’ve earned yourself a respectable score, you can upload it to the global leaderboard, which means picking suitably Zen name for yourself. This is how I came to be known as Daring Aromatic Hedgehog. Click here to play the game. Give it a whirl, and tell us your high score and Zen name in the comments.

The demo will let you do all of the same activities as those with access to the full game, but you’ll be restricted to one sector of space. The demo can be downloaded now from GamersHell

Miner Wars is still in early stages of development, but the team behind the game have many exciting plans for future releases. The engine the game uses can handle huge space fights with up to three hundred players. The plan is to let players pilot much larger vessels to encourage huge space scraps. Check out the official Miner Wars page for more information.

[via RPS]

This bout of fisticuffs has been tarnished!

Featuring iconic heroes such as Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and infamous villains such as the Joker, Poison Ivy, and Mr. Freeze, DCUO lets players create their own characters to help their evil idols in dastardly deeds or foil the villains’ mischief. With a heavy emphasis on action combat, you can expect plenty of fisticuffs as heroes and villains use their powers to freeze, shock, burn, and kick their opponents away.

Read more about DC Universe in the PC Gamer February issue (US) hitting newsstands January 4th.

Contest: Tell us what hero or villain you plan to create in DC Universe Online and list what powers they’ll have. The first 100 valid entries will receive a beta key. The beta keys will only work in North America.

Update: Keep posting those replies! We’ve received more than 100 comments, but only those that included powers with their hero/villain concept (per instructions) are eligible, so we still have more to give!
Update #2: Thanks for all of your entries! The winners have been noted and the codes will be emailed out first thing tomorrow morning!

World of Warcraft is the world’s most successful subscription MMO. Orcs and humans, fighting dragons. It’s four games welded into one vast whole: a multiplayer cooperative RPG in which you quest. A competitive fantasy team battleground game. A three-versus-three arena competitive ladder. And a 10- or 25-man dragon bashing cooperative raiding thing.

Together, those elements make for a deep and terrifyingly compulsive mix. The trouble was that to get anywhere in the latter three games, you had to go through the former.

80 levels of questing in WoW translates to around a month of fairly solid play. And pre-Cataclysm, that was a month of trawling through some of PC gaming’s most mindnumbingly boring tasks. Ferrying packages across continents. Crawling through shit to find excreted seeds. Massacring leopards en route to killing more leopards.

She's friendly. But you'll want her to be exalted

Yes, Cataclysm is an extension of that. Five new levels taking the cap to 85, a bunch of new dungeons, extra professions, new races, blah blah. But it’s also a rescue package. The story of Cataclysm – that of an angry dragon bursting out of the ground – is an excuse. An excuse to rebuild the world.

There were flashes of what WoW could be back in 2004: defending a robot monkey in the jungle. Tracking down crims in the back alleys of Stormwind. Getting a party together to kill a giant yeti. But it was mired in grind. WoW has an incredible sense of place, and you want to explore it. Its fantasy combat mechanics – a mix of spellcasting, avoiding damage and healing, while holding an enemy’s attention with an armoured warrior/magic paladin/ angry bear – are fundamentally fun. Assassinating gnome mages in player versus player combat is hilarious. Defeating ancient guardians in abandoned temples in teams of 10 or 25 is brilliant. It’s just a shame you had to play for a month to get there.

That’s the point of Cataclysm: to deliver entertainment where there was filler between levels 1-60. Designers often talk about game interaction in terms of sentences. Actions are verbs, nouns are items. In old WoW, the only two verbs the engine could cope with were ‘kill’ or ‘collect’. With the previous expansion pack, Wrath of the Lich King, WoW got a new verb: ‘use’. It turns out, you can do a lot with that verb. Use ‘explosives’ on ‘mammoth’ to collect ‘meat’. Use ‘hot poker’ on ‘captive alliance prisoner’ to get ‘information’. Use ‘robot suit’ on ‘harpy infested forest’ to collect ‘essential goblin supplies’. Use ‘fireextinguisher’ on ‘burning forest’ to ‘save the orchard’.

Quests on speed

Quests introduced in Cataclysm are brisk, fun, and over in the blink of an eye. Quest hubs have five, maybe ten quests max, and can be burned through in ten minutes. Giant arrows on your map show you where to go. Any objects you need to collect are marked with a twinkle. Any monsters that need to die are highlighted with red text. Hover your cursor over them, and the game will tell you how many need to die, and why. The flow never stops moving you around, never lets up. And if the game ever does resort to asking you to kill ten of something – it’s fine. Because it’ll pair that objective with something to do along the way. Burn bales of hay, or rescue peons, or activate machines, or douse fires, or [verb] [noun].

I miss Arthas already. Bring back the Lich King!

At the back of your mind will be a nagging thought. “I’ll just find this thing then go to bed,” or “let me finish this questline, and I’ll do some work.” I’ve got some bad news. So expertly are you breadcrumbed around the world, teased with new objectives, that you’re not going anywhere. Not for a month, at least.

You might think that WoW is for hardcore lore nerds, a kind of cartoon Lord of the Rings thing. Serious.Po-faced. It’s really not. Blizzard aren’t working with heavily controlled intellectual property like Warhammer, Star Trek, or Batman. They don’t have to get their game and ideas approved. They’re also pop-culture magpies. If they want to have spacefaring alien goats, they can. If they want to introduce vampires and werewolves, they can. What matters is the entertainment. Zones aren’t places to explore: they’re stories. Uldum is an Egyptian Indiana Jones movie with giant cat people. Gilneas is a Victorian era Twilight. Kezan is GTA: Goblin City. Westfall is CSI: Azeroth. Duskwood is a vampire story. Ashenvale is orcs versus elves in the woods.

In WoW today, entertainment trumps everything.

Nice face, baldy. Shame about the teeth

Redridge Mountains is a relatively low level zone. It’s a valley surrounded by Orc camps, with one tiny Alliance village under constant threat in the far west. The story says the people of Redridge can’t expect help from the vast Alliance armies of Stormwind. They’re on their own. They need adventurers, stat.

But you’re not good enough. What you really need to do is convince the local cage-fighter to help. He used to be in the special forces. He’s in the backroom, fighting for kicks and cash. All his old mates have been captured or tortured. He’s a ball of rage, with no outlet. He’s Rambo.

Stage one: infiltrate the orc camps, put the fighter’s team of five back together. Some are in cages. Others are strung up, hanging from cave walls. Stage two: gather the forces, and stake out a new camp. The mage turns himself into an rocket motor, and we zip across the shark infested lake. Stage three: we infiltrate. We cover ourselves in horse dung and plant satchel charges. Stage four: assassination – the leaders of the Orc camp are quietly released. Any further prisoners of war are set free. Stage five: detonation and escape: a gnome heli-drops a tank into the zone. Rambo jumps onto the gun, and proceeds to gib about a billion orcs. Stage six: the final showdown and heroic last stand with a very, very big, and very, very bad, boss.

Patchy

Cataclysm does have some dead patches. Often, the size of the old zones isn’t compatible with WoW’s new designs. New WoW puts the questgivers and monsters right next to each other. Old WoW would spread them about. New WoW favours tight, compact zones. Old WoW rambles. There’s still too much flat open space in zones such as Durotar (Orc starting area) and the Barrens (the clue is in the name). And something has been lost with the new quest approach: one of the thrills of old WoW was exploring, discovering the world at your own pace. New WoW is a conveyor belt in which you input time, and output a level 85 Goblin mage.

95 percent of Westfall's content has been revamped

But it’s captivating. New players will think this is what all MMOs are like. The old players, once they’ve recovered from exploring the new, very top tier zones, will be thrilled with the changes.

Let’s look at that top tier in detail.

The new zones are, mostly, very good. Uldum, mentioned earlier, is the standout: a comedy interpretation of Egyptian legend that plays out brilliantly. Deepholm is a vast underground cavern that seems to stretch on forever, and despite the claustrophobia, it’s remarkably fun. Vash’jir, once you get over the fact you’re underwater the entire time, is smart, although it seems to drag on. Being given a seahorse to swim around on helps. Twilight Highlands, the very last zone you enter, is ferociously story focused; it isn’t as heavily themed as the other zones, but it does introduce you to a new Orc clan, and provide background to the baddie of the expansion: the dragon Deathwing.

It's surprising how focused the storytelling is in new WoW

Which leaves Mount Hyjal, which is a disappointment. The idea is that you’re defending, and eventually repairing, a giant tree, on the site of the culminating battle of Warcraft III. It doesn’t work, partly, I think, because you never get a sense of the location – you hop between caverns, portals, and points of interest too quickly to really stop and look around. Partly, the zone feels upside-down. The quest flow directs you down the mountain. Ascending for a final battle would make more narrative sense. Finally, the story isn’t focused enough: it’s got a giant turtle, a passable interpretation of the arcade game Joust, elementals, Twilight Council, this and that. Everything is thrown at you to hold interest, but nothing sticks, nor is there a memorable character. Compare that with the excellent questline in Twilight Highlands, which covers some of the same story beats, but does it with a funky new Orc War Lady-person.

The new dungeons are excellent. Dungeons have always been the place that first tests your class as you level, and the place to get the best loot. The new 80-85 dungeons, and their matching heroic (hard) modes are universally the best Blizzard have made. They’re funny: it’s hard not to laugh as you fight a squid that bounces from head to head, turning each player into an infected waterspewing tyrant. They’re challenging: every class needs to use the full range of control abilities and interrupts – not just burn down the target as quickly as possible. And they’re entertaining: nothing can quite match the thrill of riding into battle with a giant skeletal demon on the back of a camel.

Health and efficiency

The new dungeons also introduce WoW’s new combat model – and it’s a shock. The core concepts of WoW are relatively simple. Players do damage to monsters, and they fall over. Monsters do damage to players, and that damage must be avoided, or it must be healed. Over the last expansion packs to WoW, the damage output on all sides has rapidly increased, but the health pools of players haven’t. That’s sped the game up – and reduced the complexity. Healers play whack-amole with health bars, using their fastest spell to bring a target up to full health, while damage-dealing classes and tanks saw little reason to use their crowd control abilities to minimise the damage coming in. It was a heal or die, zero sum, game. You use flash heal, or your class’s equivalent, or everyone died.

Paladins have new mechanics to cope with

Now, health pools of players are vast. Consider a newly minted tank a level 80 (Wrath of the Lich King’s level cap reached around 25,000/ 30,000 health points). That’s following the health pool inflation of two expansion packs, and five years of patches and new gear. In Cataclysm, newly minted level 85 players have health pools of around 100,000 points. Damage is slower to occur, but the power of a healer’s spells hasn’t risen by the same factor of three, nor have their mana pools expanded to cope with more spells cast. The healing game now isn’t whack-a-mole: it’s triage. Healers are expected to pick their targets, and the spells they use, according to priority. Low cost heal-over-time spells for those who just need topping off. Big heals landing at the point of impact for tanks taking mega-hits. Flash heals for DPS classes that stand in fire or take unexpected damage. Group heals for panic stations. To help, all classes need to reduce the damage coming in – by being aware of their situation, interrupting abilities where possible, and by crowd controlling dangerous enemies in packs.

Smart groups of friends, playing over voice chat or with their guild, will be, and appear to be, fine. But for the random groups I’ve played in since Cataclysm launched, this new combat reality is taking time to sink in, and tempers are flaring. It’s a better, more fun game for the change. But it’s also a far harder game, and there’s no easy ride. A dungeon-finder tool, introduced late in the Wrath of the Lich King expansion, makes finding a group easier, from a pool of players countrywide. But it doesn’t automatically make players better, or better able to cope with the change from easy-mode care-bear questing to hard-mode face-palming.

Getting personal

Where the new combat model definitely improves WoW is in the player versus player modes, battlegrounds and arenas. Stretching combat out, rather than letting players gib each other in an instant, makes face-offs more interesting and more dynamic. There’s more chance to save each other, more chance to fire off a cooldown or improvise an escape. The two new battlegrounds are very, very good: they’re remixes of traditional capture the flag and capture-and-hold favourites, but the change of scenery is welcome. What doesn’t work is the new open world combat zone: Tol Barad, a prison that can be captured by horde or alliance, for a chance to raid the bosses held within. Right now, it vastly favours the defenders, and rarely flips. It’s a shame – open world PvP is when WoW feels most at war.

Healers face real pain in Cataclysm

But it’s still good. Good, and vast.

It was always obvious that I was going to enjoy Cataclysm: it’s an extension of what I really like. What surprised me was just how much I enjoyed the new old world – perhaps more than levelling through the new stuff, and gearing for the raids to follow. Before, I used to warn people off them. Too much grind. Too boring. No one to play with. Now I recommend to my friends that they pick up WoW and try levelling a Goblin, or a Worgen (the two new races), just because it’s such fun. Deathwing’s ascent hasn’t destroyed Azeroth: it’s saved it from decline. In wreaking so much destruction, he’s sowed the seeds of WoW’s dominance of PC gaming for another six years.

Contest: See how you can win one of three Vindictus Polar Bear hoodies below!

Here’s the patch notes for today’s update:

Level Cap:

The level cap for all characters has been increased to 44.

Two new dungeons:

Ruins of Sancity
The Ruins of Sanctity is overgrown with vegetation thanks to the frequent rain. Even the strongest warriors will feel a sense of dread from the perpetual gloom that haunts the ruins.

The Prairie Entrance
Wide-open spaces and dangerous traps fill the arid landscape of Prairie Entrance.

Fire enchantments aren't as rare as they use to be.

Skills:

• Large Shield Mastery – Allows you to equip large shields. Large shields are heavy but have very high defense. Smash attacks can be blocked by using Heavy Stander while equipped with a large shield. You cannot counterattack while equipped with a large shield.
• Lightning Fury – Destroys nearby enemies with an additional attack after Gliding Fury.
• Alchemy: Create Golem – Uses Alchemy to create Golems. Golems attack enemies for a fixed period of time. You take damage when your Golem is attacked. If you become incapacitated, your golem dies.

Enemies:

New enemies featuring:

• A new clan of Gnolls
• Deadly new spiders
• Giant toads

The new boss monsters are named:

• Goliath
• Dim Gray
• Warchief Black Scar

We wish this was the headgear we were giving away.

Weapons:

The weapons system has been updated. All weapons now have 3 additional stats Balance, Critical, and ATK Speed.

• Balance – This new attribute will determine the range of damage the weapon inflicts. In other words each weapon’s damage will vary based on the Balance of it. For example, if a weapon’s balance is 80, it will have a chance to inflict between 80% – 100% of total damage.
• Critical – Determines the chance for a critical hit. Critical rates for weapons will add to the existing critical rates characters have. Please note that critical rates can be increased by various means such as the “Critical Hit” skill and the character’s “WIL”.
• Attack Speed – Weapons speeds will vary from Slow, Normal, and Fast.

Armor

Two of these will protect you. Two will not.

New armors and under-armors gives players a new way to outfit their characters.

Chat Spam Prevention
A new chat system has been implemented. This system will temporarily block the chat of those trying to spam in the general chat window.

Vindictus Giveaway: We have three Polar Bear Vindictus hoodies to give away. They are quite warm, fluffy, and makes a bold fashion statement to everyone around you. Read below for how to win.

In the comments below, detail which monster and what part of their body you would wear in real life. Where would you show off your new glamorous atire? The best responses by 3pm PST, December 2, 2010 will be selected and notified by email.
This contest is open to U.S. residents only.

Thanks to Gamesradar.com for modeling Vindictus' unique apparel.

"See, being a furry isn't so bad. Join us!"

Contest: Fifty beta keys are up for grabs; details at the end of the post.

On the flip side, if players are efficient at ripping through rifts, they’ll incur the wrath of that dimension, which will launch a massive invasion in that region (rewarding players with additional drops from the dimension they’re hunting most).

Lava waterfall right in the middle? No, no, the Feng shui is all off.

On this constantly-changing battlefield, you won’t want to rely on set-in-stone strategies. Luckily, Rift has a tremendous class system that allows you to constantly change your character’s abilities. At creation, characters choose between Warrior, Cleric, Rogue and Mage, which are divided further into eight souls (talent trees) each. As characters gain more experience, they will be able to add on additional souls to a maximum of three.

These “soul” talent trees provide all of your abilities and talents—there are no innate archetype abilities—and often play very differently. For example, the ranged-weapon specialist and the stealthy assassin both fall under Rogue. Mixing and matching between your archetype’s souls to create new hybrid classes is incredibly empowering and offers more replayability than my math-lazy brain cares to calculate.

Eeek! He's powering up!

Contest Details: We’re giving away fifty VIP beta keys to the Rift. How VI do they make your P? Well, while most beta keys only give testers a chance to be selected for any given beta test event, these VIP keys will give you guaranteed access to every single beta event that Trion hosts before the game launches.

To enter, create your own dimensional plane that would invade Telera and tell us about it in the comments below: how your plane will alter the landscape and what monsters will be your foot soldiers once the invasion begins. The official Rift website has a list of currently available planes and a description of how each plane affects the world.

The best comments will be selected on Monday, November 29th, 2010 12pm PST.

Update 2: The contest is over. Stop emailing us.
Update: Wow. I knew PC Gamer readers love tanks, but that was insane! Four minutes after posting this article, we’d already received 50 emails. So we’re going to give away more! In addition to the first 50 recipients, we’ll give away beta codes (with the tank) to 50 random people who email us before noon PST tomorrow.

To receive your beta key, email contests@pcgamer.com with “WoT Valentine giveaway” in the subject line and get a beta key while supplies last!

Normally a premium item in the in-game store, the players who win the closed beta key for World of Tanks will also be given the Valentine tank which will remain with the player through the entire beta period and into the release.

To redeem your closed beta key and the Valentine tank, head over to http://game.worldoftanks.com/registration/beta and register for an account. Fill in your code and enjoy your new tank.

The demo is available right now on, check it out on Steam. If you’re still not sure it’s worth a download, there’s some footage below of the madness in motion.

The trial version consists of three levels, each of which are packed full of classic Sonic sights. It’s a stunningly beautiful recreation of the Sonic universe, made using the free Unity game development tools.

It’s fast, too. The themed levels have been designed to give you those out of control pinball moments when Sonic plunges head first into a springboard at full speed, and is catapulted across the level, pinging from spring to spring, collecting rings and ploughing through enemies. You’ll be conquering loop-the-loops, dodging killer whales and smashing through checkpoints at barely controllable speeds. In many ways, it’s an experience closer to the original Sonic games than many of the recent official sequels, a retro rollercoaster steeped in modern graphical polish.

Also, it’s a rare chance to play Sonic on your PC. You can download the trial and play it for yourself at Sonic Fan Remix.

You can rent games for a few days rather than pay full price for an unlimited PlayPass.

Naturally, you’ll still have to pay for OnLive games to play the full versions, but you can check out the trial program here to give the service a whirl risk-free.

The game’s set in a mysterious mine full of 80s synth music and men in orange boiler suits who want to kill you. A woman called Kat needs your help, you can do this by clicking ‘HELP KAT’ at every opportunity. As a hint, try not to click any options that don’t involve helping Kat. Clicking on ‘DO NOTHING’, for example, will likely result in failure. In a similar vein, when Kat screams “help me!”, try not to click ‘NO’. Other non-Kat-helping options such as ‘FLEE’, ‘LAUGH’ or ‘TAP DANCE’ should also be avoided. You can begin your adventure by clicking on ‘START GAME’ below, but I recommend watching the intro video first for some top class cheese.

Giveaway: Tell us in the comments what food, decorations, or random debris in a dungeon that you want to kill kobolds with and why. 50 winners will receive open beta keys for Vindictus. Winners will be selected tomorrow (September 30). Only residents in North America (see ‘Contest rules’ below) are eligible for this contest.


Contest rules

• Activate your keys at: http://vindictus.nexon.net/Key/AccessInfo.aspx
• Keys are only valid for the open beta period and will expire Ocotober 6th, 2010.
• The servers are located in the United States, one on the West coast, and one on the East coast and only IPs from North America will be able to connect. Sorry, Europe, you’ll have to wait until the European beta is ready in a few months.

I’ve been playing Vindictus for the past week and been having a blast. The game feels more like an single-player role playing game that has co-op instead of a large MMO. You won’t find large monumental cities or hundreds of people gathering around in an auction house. All quests are instanced with the party leader hosting for up to three other members as they quest through a dungeon.

Instead of the chat box filled with people looking for groups or people declaring their classes and levels, players just go to the dock and look at a sign post showing which groups are available to join, the difficulty, and the quests or any bonus missions attached to it.

Pants acquired.

What grabbed my interest in the game is the absurd and crazy interactions that adds a little bit of humor to the atmosphere. There are pigs who run the auction board, dogs running and barking everywhere, and the shopkeepers are cats and owls!

In one mission, my party and I were tasked with defeating a kobold in an ice cave. It sounds like a boring mission at first, but what makes this mission memorable is that he must be killed using an object found in the cave in order to get bonus points at the end of the dungeon. What object did I choose to use? A thighbone from a rotting carcass in the cave. It wasn’t my only option, but I think you’ll agree after looking at the screenshot below that it was the best option.

The kobold’s tough, though, and I can’t go it alone, so it’s a good thing I have three other party members to help me gang up on him. One member hooks the kobold’s legs with chains which causes it to flop onto the ground, flailing its arms around in an attempt to escape, as we move in to cobble him to death.

Teamwork is the key to victory, just like in other MMOs.

Every time your party kills a boss in the dungeons, the game goes into a slow motion mode. The hud is removed and you get to watch as the now dead boss flops around from different angles–which can lead to some unintentionally hilarious moments when the body soars across the room.

I think that Gnoll is trolling

There’s even a little preparation area before you start the dungeons aboard a ship. You can practice your combo moves here, practice tossing fruits, barrels, and large dice around. There’s even a little wood target practice duck that quacks every time you hit it.

Once again I roll poorly and start last, just like in Mario Party.

Give Vindictus a try. If you get a beta key, once you sign up, you’ll also receive two more beta keys that you can give to your friends. Your friends will also receive two keys of their own when the keys are activated. It’s a giant pyramid of keys being given away!

Free Game #1 – LOVE

How free? Free to play this weekend only
The one-man MMO that we’ve been big fans of since we first played it and met its creator, Eskil Esteenberg is finally letting players taste the game for free this weekend. At its most basic level, this is a game about players working together to create a settlement on a dangerous, yet resource-rish world. But it’s really about so much more–this is a charming, abstract world of procedurally-generated terrain (that can be edited by players on the fly) that’s as much about exploring the world around you as it is discovering the different, complex ways your character can interact with it. There’s no hand-holding here, but for players looking for a sandbox world to explore and forge their own path in, this is a great chance to try out the game for free!
Link: http://www.quelsolaar.com/love/index.html

Free Game #2 – Champions Online

How free? Free to play for one week
Cryptic’s superhero MMO is turning one year old this week and they’re celebrating by letting everyone play their game for free for an entire week. From today until September 7th, whether you’ve purchased the game and stopped playing or never touched it before, you can jump in and create an alter ego to bash some baddies with. Even if you hate MMOs, I highly reccommend signing up for the free week, downloading the client and playing around with the character creator tool. Nobody does robust character creation better than Cryptic, and the tool is pretty much a game unto itself. Come up with some witty puns and model some superheroes off of it!
Link: http://www.champions-online.com/play_free

Free Game #3 – Final Fantasy XIV

How free? Open Beta
The launch of the open beta was delayed earlier this week due to the last-minute finding of critical bugs, but it looks poised to finally launch tonight at 6 PM PST. The game’s a true descedent of the last FF MMO, XI, focusing on multiple professions (classes) on each character, slow combat and an emphasis on group play. If you’re looking for a change from WoW, this might be just what you’re looking for, but it’s worth trying before you buy. Get in the open beta to give the game a test drive over the next few weeks to see if it’s right from you.
Link: http://entry.ffxiv.com/na/index.html

Free Game #4 – Clone Wars Adventures

How free? Open beta; free to play
If minigames are your forte, Clone Wars Adventures is the best choice for you on this list. 3D social lobbies let you chat with friends and show off your droid companions or outfits, but the real meat of the game is hopping into the minigames–ranging from tower defense, shooting galleries, flash game knock-offs, and a space combat game that plays remarkably similar to how TOR’s has been described so far. The rest of the mini-games are of surprisingly high quality as well. It’s target audience is likely younger than your age, so the first few stages of each minigame will be a bit simple for you, but challenge modes and achievements raise the challenge bar as high as you want to take it later on.
Link: http://www.clonewarsadventures.com/

Free Game #5 – Might & Magic: Heroes Kingdom

How free? Live; Free to play
Ubisoft’s Might & Magic browser strategy MMO launched in North America last week without a lot of fanfare. With hero management, city building, political alliances, and addictive upgrading, this is my personal favorite browser game at the moment. It strikes a good balance between giving you things to do each day without rewarding you for logging in every hour, so it doesn’t consume too much of your time. There is an optional subscription, but I’ve been playing for months without running into any limitations on my free account (subscription allows you to control more cities and more heroes later in the game, among other things), so get in there and have some fun for free!
Link: http://mm-hk.com/referral/ffeedd69440634cbf642e2ce4c22041d5951565e (this will place your kingdom near my own. Message “Nereus” to get an invite into the official PCG alliance on the realm!)

Of course, if you need more free games, be sure to click our “Free Games” tab along the top of our site to read all of our free games coverage.

You can sign up here. As well as the level cap, there are limits on the kinds of missions you can run, you won’t be able to discover the best items or join Agencies (Global Agenda’s equivalent of Guilds), but the rest of Global Agenda is yours to explore, and by explore, I mean “shoot in the face”.

Most of the game revolves around 10 v 10 multiplayer skirmishes, with kills and successfully completed objectives netting you experience points that can be used to level up and boost your class skills. If you like the game enough a one off payment will get you access to the game proper, removing the level cap and giving you access to the full suite of PvE missions. The level cap will disappear, too, of course. If you want more you can pay a monthly subscription fee to access the ’Conquest’ meta game. This is a larger PvP territory war that sees Agencies, in a traditional PC gaming fashion, waging war for control of sexy hexes that can earn the controlling Agency vehicles, money and fame.

Did I mention the jetpacks? It has jetpacks! And a hilarious melee system where you can hold up a shield to reflect all melee damage back at your opponent, thus causing him to punch himself to death.

EDIT: We made a boo-boo. Global Agenda does not require a subscription for the Campaign mode. We apologise for any confusion.

These guides were put together with the help of Aion’s PowerWiki team: Jennifer “Gennwu” Randall, Scott “Hammer” Hannus, and Sean “Knite” Orlikowski. Read more of their awesome work at The Aion PowerWiki.

The Canyon

Silentera Canyon is an underground corridor that links Inggison and Gelkmaros. Here you’ll find the Beshmundir Temple’s entrance and also access to the other faction’s zone in Balaurea. Both races use this space so there are always fierce battles occurring.

To access the corridor, you’ll need to secure both of the fortresses in your own territory. The Elyos must control both the Altar of Avarice and the Temple of Scales in Inggison. The Asmodians must control both the Vorgaltem Citadel and the Crimson Temple in Gelkmaros. Controlling the fortress only affects whether you can access the Canyon or not. If your race fails to defend a fortress while you are inside the Canyon, you will not be removed from it.

How to get to Silentera Canyon

The Silentera Canyon is a corridor between Inggison and Gelkmaros that links the two zones to each other.
When a race occupies both fortresses in their own zone, their entrance to Silentera Canyon becomes available. If either of those fortresses are recaptured, the route will close and you will lose access to the Canyon until the fortresses are under your control once again.

Elyos entrance to Silentera Canyon

Asmodian entrance to Silentera Canyon

Path to the Elyos entrance to Silentera Canyon

• 1. Take the Air Line from Ingisson Illusion Fortress to Soteria Sanctuary Village.
• 2-A. Move from Soteria Sanctuary Village to The Temple of Scales using the Air Line.
• 2-B. Alternatively, you can use the Windstream in front of Soteria Sanctuary Village.
• 3. Walk to the Silentera Canyon entrance.

Path to the Asmodian entrance to Silentera Canyon

• 1. Take the Air Line from Gelkmaros Fortress to Rhonnam Refugee Village.
• 2-A. Move from Rhonnam Refugee Village to Vorgaltem Citadel using the Air Line.
• 2-B. Alternatively, use the Windstream in front of Rhonnam Refugee Village.
• 3. Walk to the Silentera Canyon entrance.

These guides were put together with the help of Aion’s PowerWiki team: Jennifer “Gennwu” Randall, Scott “Hammer” Hannus, and Sean “Knite” Orlikowski. Read more of their awesome work at The Aion PowerWiki.

What’s going on?

At this point, you’re no noob to either Aion or this guide, so here’s an overview of what we’ll cover today. You’ll unlock the last Greater Stigma slot in Beshmundir Temple, follow a quest chain for extendable weaponry, and defeat Yamennes of the Abyssal Splinter.

The guides

As always, Duddlinerk is here to cool the mustard, and Pinky has returned to freak-out around every corner.

The final Greater Stigma slot

Duddlinerk: Why must Daevas work so hard for just one Stigma Slot?!

Pinky: Patience, Duddlinerk! Stigmas are a Daeva’s true source of power!

When you complete the repeatable quests in Beshmundir Temple the required number of times, you will open your last Greater Stigma Slot. Beshmundir Temple is located within Silentera Canyon, which cannot be entered unless the Elyos conquer all fortresses in the Inggison region. The completion of this takes a little bit of luck and a lot of effort.

Fabled Grade Armor Rewards

Duddlinerk: No loot from Named Monsters, but can still acquire Fabled item?! Duddlinerk think deal like this almost too good to be true!

When you complete the repeatable quests within the Abyssal Splinter, Fabled Grade Shoes are rewarded. To start this quest, meet Craftsman NPC Laum in front of Teminon Fortress. Completion is fairly easy and involves killing monsters inside of the Abyssal Splinter. The only difficulty is that these quests are only available for completion when the Elyos have control of the Divine Fortress. To give you something to look forward to, here are the Fabled Armor Rewards available once you hit level 50:

• Rosarea’s shoes restoration [Shoes reward when repeated 8 times]
• Rosarea’s gloves restoration [Gloves reward when repeated 8 times]
• Rosarea’s shoulder restoration [Shoulder reward when repeated 8 times]
• Rosarea’s gaiters restoration [Pants reward when repeated 12 times]
• Rosarea’s breastplate restoration [Breastplate reward when repeated 12 times]

At level 52, you can take two quests simultaneously from the list above, but you must complete the Rosarea’s gaiters restoration quest to receive the breastplate quest.

Rich with Items: Beshmundir Temple

Duddlinerk: Fabled items can easily be obtained if Daeva completes quests, nyerk! Duddlinerk is worried Shugo business may suffer from such good deals!

Intended for a Group, the Beshmundir Temple is located deep inside Silentera Canyon and is only accessible for those Daevas who are level 55. In the deepest reaches of the temple, a huge dragon, Stormwing (that used to be a rival of Tiamat), is imprisoned. There is also a Petralith Energy Source and related structures hidden within. Defeat the ultimate boss, Stormwing, for a chance at some amazing items!

To acquire a Fabled grade item, collect Decrees of Valor (given when the temple quests are completed) and exchange them at the designated NPC. Without a doubt, this is the place for those seeking fat loot.

Extendable Weapon Quests

Duddlinerk: Quest is too hard! Duddlinerk doesn’t care about extendable weapons, nyerk! Doubts they would give such weapons to Shugo anyway!

Pinky: Stop whining like a shade cursed Asmodian! A strong will is a must if you want a good weapon!

The quest offers good EXP and a Fabled Weapon with good performance. Later, you can proceed with an upgrade quest (related to the weapon) to drastically improve the performance and make a lasting weapon. In case you’re interested, here’s the weapon upgrade path.

Step | Classification | Quest Name

• 1st | Fabled Weapon reward when repeated 30 times | Blessing to the Agent
• 2nd | N/A | Fate [weapon type]
• 3rd | Expansible Fabled Weapon reward when repeated 30 times | For a Better [weapon type]

These guides were put together with the help of Aion’s PowerWiki team: Jennifer “Gennwu” Randall, Scott “Hammer” Hannus, and Sean “Knite” Orlikowski. Read more of their awesome work at The Aion PowerWiki.

Welcome back

Congratulations on reaching level 53! You’re not level 53? Then see the level 51-52 Asmodian Jr. guide–this area’s for the grown-folks. Here you’ll further extend your arsenal, slay ravenous beasts in the Abyssal Splinter, and unlock the final Greater Stigma Slot at Beshmundir Temple.

Our trusty guides

Still nyerking along, Duddlinerk is here to demystify mystery and get offended at everything Bluebeard says. Speaking of which, he’s back too–wrathful as ever.

Unlock the final Greater Stigma slot

Duddlinerk: What is one more Stigma slot, Daeva? Does it help much? Duddlinerk thinks one more cube slot would be nice, but not help business.

Bluebeard: One more, ONE MORE?! Greater Stigmas are a Daeva’s true source of power, not to mention the knowledge, skill, and soul of our ancestors, and I crave souls, Shugo–MOAR SOULS! Omnomnom!

Duddlinerk: Duddlinerk is scared, nyerk!

By completing repeatable quests in Beshmundir Temple, Daevas can unlock their final Greater Stigma slot. In order to access Beshmundir Temple, the Asmodians must first own all the Fortresses in the Gelkmaros region. When the Asmodians own all the Fortresses in Gelkmaros, the path to Silentera Canyon will open, inside of which is the Beshmundir Temple.

Fabled Grade Armor rewards

Duddlinerk: Even Duddlinerk knows that Named Monsters can be stingy with loot, nyerk! But Daevas can now earn Fabled items through repeatable quests!

New repeatable quests involving the Instanced Dungeons in the Lower Abyss and the Abyssal Splinter are available from Darkhum at Primum Landing. By completing these quests a certain number of times, Daevas will receive Fabled armor pieces as a reward, and Daevas level 52 and up can fulfill the requirements for two quests simultaneously.
To complete these quests, the Asmodians must hold the Lower Abyss Fortresses, so there is some amount of luck involved in completion. To help even the playing field, we’ve listed the Fabled armor quests below:

Reward | Level Quest | Name and Description

• Fabled Shoes | 50 | Restoration of Laize’s Shoes [Complete the quest 8 times to receive Fabled shoes as a reward]
• Fabled Gloves | 50 | Restoration of Laize’s Gloves [Complete the quest 8 times to receive Fabled gloves as a reward]
• Fabled Shoulders | 50 | Restoration of Laize’s Pauldrons [Complete the quest 8 times to receive Fabled pauldrons as a reward]
• Fabled Pants | 50 | Restoration of Laize’s Gaiters [Complete the quest 12 times to receive Fabled pants as a reward]
• Fabled Chestpiece | 50 | Restoration of Laize’s Breastplate [Complete the quest 12 times to receive a Fabled chestpiece as a reward]

**To receive the Restoration of Laize’s Chestpiece quest, it is first necessary to complete the Restoration of Laize’s Gaiters quest.

Upgrading to an extendable weapon

At level 55, a new quest to create an extendable weapon becomes available

Bluebeard: This is taking too long—I want my extendable weapon now! You lied to me Shugo, I don’t believe this extendable weapon quest even exists!

Duddlinerk: Daeva accuses Duddlinerk of lie?! Duddlinerk never lies, nyerk! Well, was one time Duddlinerk passed off Common weapon as Fabled weapon with gold paint, but was different circumstances!

At level 55, Daevas can upgrade the Fabled weapon reward from the To Stand Against the Elyos quest. To extend the weapon, complete the For a Better [insert weapon type here] quest. Follow this quest order and you’ll be Inspector Gadget in no time:

Quest Chain | Description | Quest Name

• 1st | Complete the quest 30 times to receive a Fabled grade weapon as a reward | To Stand Against the Elyos
• 2nd | N/A | Fatebound [weapon type]
• 3rd | Complete the quest 30 times to upgrade the Fabled weapon from the To Stand Against the Elyos quest | For a Better [weapon type]

These guides were put together with the help of Aion’s PowerWiki team: Jennifer “Gennwu” Randall, Scott “Hammer” Hannus, and Sean “Knite” Orlikowski. Read more of their awesome work at The Aion PowerWiki.

Where to begin

The most likely place to start would be at the beginning, but sometimes, that’s easier said than done. The skinny of it: enter Balaurea and head to the solo instanced Taloc’s Hollow for level 51. For level 52 do the group instances in Udas Temple and Lower Udas Temple, then the Greater Stigma expansion quest. Oh, and be careful, I heard someone mention something about brainwashed minions and a dragon lord.

Your Guides

He was so helpful and well, we just liked him so darn much, Duddlinerk the Shugo is back to lead the way in all things Balaurean. At his side this time is the quirky, if not loud, Pinky the Elyos. Once you’re past level 50, hitch your wagon to these guys and enjoy the ride through level 52.

Assault on Balaurea Introduces Pets

Pinky: Where’s my Pet? I will name him George… and I will hug him, and squeeze him, and pet him…

Duddlinerk: Daeva can have Pets!? Duddlinerk thought he was pet. Duddlinerk doesn’t care for Pet Merchants in Capitol cities. Too many strange creatures on four legs. Shugo only needs two legs, and is smarter than pet!

The Rotund Ayas is to dye for

Assault on Balaurea is bringing cute and cuddly pets to Atreia. Buy a Pet egg from Unos, the Pet Merchant in Sanctum, and then visit Amis to hatch your egg, name your pet, and even add custom accessories. Some pets are purely for decoration, while others offer practical uses and can give you additional storage, alert you when enemies are near, or turn your rags into riches!
**Several pets are also only available in exchange for Daily Quest Tokens, as drops from high level bosses, or through retail purchase of Aion: Assault on Balaurea.

Balaurea: Entry Mission

Pinky: Shards! I’m level 51 and ready to enjoy Assault on Balaurea, but I don’t know what to do first.

Duddlinerk: The first thing Daeva should complete is entry mission for Inggison. When Daeva opens quest window, Daeva will find mission named Lavirintos’s Call. It is simple two step quest for blessed Daeva, so get started immediately, nyerk!

Dudds is right, if you wanna get to the good stuff, you’ve got to answer Lavirintos’ Call (not so bad itself) which puts you Inggison bound. If that’s not spelled out enough, here are some shots of the endeavor:

Inggison is in peril and faces a fierce attack from the Chantra Dredgion

Watch as the story of Inggison’s rescue unfolds

May the speed and swiftness of Aion be with you

Welcome to the jungle

Pinky: Holy Aether Aircraft, what is this place?! I’m so scared and lost in this strange world.

Duddlinerk: Daeva is level 51! How come Daeva shows such weakness?! Daeva must stop brooding like self-loathing Asmodian. First mission introduces Daeva to new geographic features and hunting areas. Keep wits and remember to grab the entry quest for Taloc’s Hollow. Don’t disappoint Duddlinerk!

When you complete Secret of Inggison and Proving Yourself to Outremus, you can take the Taloc’s Hollow’s entry mission, Friends for Life. There are a plethora of quests in Taloc’s Hollow, as well as new Collection items and Greater Stigmas.

New Quest Search Feature

Pinky: Shinyrific! The Assault on Balaurea update adds a new feature allowing you to see the locations of NPCs with available quests on your map.

This new feature can be configured in your Options menu

When you enable this feature in Options, the locations of quest NPCs will be visible on the map. The feature can be useful when you want to confirm what quests that you can receive or plan to complete multiple quests more efficiently. It’s especially useful while advancing in Balaurea.

Level 60 Manastones

Pinky: Hah! Assault on Balaurea now has level 60 Manastones. All Attack Manastones need to be changed to level 60 immediately. Off to Manastone Remover. GO GO!

Duddlinerk: Stop! Garrr! We now have a variety of level 60 Manastones, but there are no level 60 Attack Manastones. Daevas must check what’s available before visiting the Manastone Remover.

Equipment level 41 and higher can be socketed with level 60 Manastones. To give you an idea of what’s on the way, this list shows Normal | Superior level 60 Manastones:

• Critical Strike +14 | Critical Strike +17
• Magic Boost +22 | Magic Boost +27
• HP +70 | HP +95
• Accuracy +22 | Accuracy +27
• Block +22 | Block +27
• MP +70 | MP +95
• Evasion +14 | Evasion +17
• Parry +22 | Parry +27
• none | Magic Resist +14
• none | Magical Accuracy +14
• none | Maximum Flight Time +7

New Skills and Stigmas

Duddlinerk: Level 51 Daevas can learn new Skills and Stigmas, Nyerk! Matters not if Daeva is hunting or entrenched in ferocious battle, new skills are must haves. Learn new skills first, nyerk!

Pinky: New Skills can be purchased from class specific Preceptor NPCs and Normal Stigmas can be purchased from the Stigma Tuner, Clymene.

Duddlinerk: Now level 51 Daeva has expanded knowledge! Daevas level 51 and higher can also purchase Greater Stigmas using Abyss Points (AP). Enjoy utilizing stronger skills, nyerk!

Skill Manuals and Greater Stigmas are available for Daevas level 51 and above in the Cloister of Kaisinel in Sanctum. When Kaisinel’s Teleport Statue is activated, you will teleport to the Cloister of Kaisinel.
**You can purchase Normal Stigmas in the Protectors Hall from Clymene, but Greater Stigmas are only sold in Cloister of Kaisinel.

Level-up in Balaurea

Duddlinerk: Daevas should move on to hunting in fields of Inggison. Inggison full of vicious monsters level 51 and above. Vicious is good, Daeva! This means loads of sweet EXP, level 60 Manastones, Special Greater Fluxes, and new items, nyerk!

See those red circles? That means things only want to normal kill you. If you’re in a zone marked with purple, things will want to kill you epically, meaning your brains are extra drippy in these areas.

If you’re already one of us but you’re not sure if you’re signed up to the newsletter, here’s your user control panel so you can check. Scroll to the bottom to see your newsletter preference, and change it if necessary.

Once you’re ready, you can start downloading the game now, ready to create your account if and when you get a key.

Struck by a smooth criminal.

You’ve got ten minutes to do whatever you like in a small section of the city. There’s a mission to complete (which I didn’t bother with), and a few streets of pristine suburbia to make your mark on.

Initially, I’m impressed with the cops. They arrest anyone who breaks a crime, they write you tickets for speeding, and their little hats bounce along the road when you send them tumbling over your hood.

I’m also impressed with the smashing into other cars and running people over. I have this game I like to play, “How long can you keep the mailbox sitting on your hood?”

Go grab it on Steam and find out.

As we mentioned, Heroes of Newerth is 100% free to play right now all the way through next Monday afternoon (1PM EST), so if you like what you see in this video and enjoy a competitive environment, give Heroes of Newerth a shot this weekend to see if its right for you. Head on over to their site to create a free account.

Sunglasses at night? Some folk have no class.

Dog Days is the sequel to Eidos’ lukewarm 2007 pyscho-em-up Kane & Lynch, to which 47 out of 10 people said they preferred that other Eidos game with a bald killer in. Not to be deterred, they’ve tried to make the sequel better, including the welcome removal of Games for Windows Live. The game’s out on the 20th of August – grab the demo on Steam now, and let us know if it’s convinced you.

Edward Fenning

While the content will be free, some races, classes, and spell tiers will be locked to Extended edition players and need to be purchased separately. In addition, the usual potions, items, and boosts will also be available in the cash shop. In addition, New Halas, the newly refined starting zone will also be available to players who choose the free-to-play route.

The most unique aspect of this jump to free-to-play, that really separates it from LOTRO and DDO’s optional subscription models is that the two versions of the game (live subscription and Extended edition) will be housed on completely separate servers. For all intents and purposes, they can be considered two unique games. Existing subscribers will be given the option to “copy” their character to the new realms, but there will be some limitations on what gear/item will be copied with it to ensure there isn’t massive inflation on the new free-to-play servers. Players that do copy will keep their existing character on the live servers and the two characters will level up completely separately. The beta is scheduled to go live August 17, so free-to-play servers will be up then. There are several types of payment options on the Extended servers, click the image below to see a full-sized breakdown of how all the different account types will work.

In an exclusive interview this morning, Producer Dave Georgeson told me that he’s very exited about the potential for the free-to-play version of the game to grow the player base rapidly and told me that the existing subscription players have been clamoring for it for a while. But the same players also insisted that these players be kept entirely separate from existing players who want to pay a subscription and level up their characters in a completely cash shop-free environment, which fueled the decision to launch new servers for the Extended version of the game. He expects both versions of the game to exist side-by-side indefinitely, and while not opposed to merging the two types of servers sometime in the distant future if players demanded it, the current plan is to keep them separate forever. While he wasn’t sure if this sort of business model is the future of the entire MMO industry–he told me that if he was launching a new MMO, he’d probably try a subscription model first–he knew it was right for EQII at this time, calling it a “giant trial version” that removes any barriers for players who were on the fence about giving EQII a try.

We couldn’t agree more. With so many quality MMOs on the market, its tough for gamers to try them all out without throwing down a massive wad of cash. Every gamer wants something different out of their MMO, and the more MMOs that offer a free-to-play version to let gamers find out which MMO is the right one for them, the happier everyone will be!

For full details, read SOE’s press release and the FAQ page.

You can grab it here. It’s 3GB of supreme value for your no-money. It contains:

• A singleplayer mission from the main campaign
• 2 singleplayer scenarios
• Basic, driving and helicopter tutorials
• 2 multiplayer missions: Hike In The Hills, and One Shot One Kill
• Team Deathmatch
• Mission Editor with save/load option
• Mission Editor with save/load option ffs

It doesn’t mention anything about unlockable hats though, so you’ll probably have to buy the full game for those.

You can read our review here.

The demo lets you play as the Humans (pfft), Elves (pfffffff), or Demons (yay!) through a big tutorial and the early stages of each race’s campaign mode. It’s 3.7GB, though, so you might want to go for a quick cuppa as it drinks your download cap.

Download it here. Man, I wonder what the Demon’s campaign mode is like? “I WAS A SIMPLE TORTURER, BEFORE THE HUMANS STOLE MY TORTURE VICTIMS. WE SHOULD REALLY KILL THOSE GUYS.”

If you hop over to the site and sign up for the beta, they’re about to start their first season. What’s really cool is how they’re generating their questions – they use live football updates to create trivia on the fly. So, every day, they’ll have new questions based on what happened in the latest matches – and they’re aiming to be just a couple of hours behind the results.

The game will, as is everything else these days, be free-to-play. It’s got to be worth a punt? Anyway – here’s their latest trailer. Go, sign up, have a play, and let us and them know what you think.

You compete with other players to win matches, impress fans, and earn “Smackers”, the in game currency. Fans help you climb the leagues, money helps you hire players and upgrade your stadiums. No word on whether or not headshots are instant kills, but you can buy hot dog stands to boost fan approval.

It’ll likely be a case of managing your players, both in terms of stamina and how much money they need to get out of bed in the morning, then plunging into a match to play a turn-based football match, before answering a trivia question every time you want to do something that might possibly get ballsed up. You know, because of the pitch and the referee and the poor quality of the ball and everything.

We're not sure how you equip and armour your players yet.

You can even keep your trophies in a big cabinet afterwards. It’s got quite a bright, cartoon style that should lend itself well to fans of all ages, except people who are afraid of cartoons who’ll probably end up with shocks of white in their hair and a chronic irrational fear of free-to-play football trivia manager games.

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• Developer: Supermassive games
• Publisher: In-house
• Release: August 2010
• Website: BigMatchOnline.com

[via Voodoo Extreme]

Update: The beta has now ended.

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The car’s your avatar in EA’s new driving MMO. You illegally race around the vast cities, challenging people to races and dodge the cops – see our full Need for Speed World preview for more info. You’ll have three days to tune your ride to perfection and show off your skills to your fellow beta-key getters. We’ll send them out on Monday afternoon to our first 5,000 members, so the sooner you sign up the better. While you wait for the beta key to drop in your inbox, chillax at the official website.

Players could previously play without a subscription, but wouldn’t have access to some features, including the highest level of PvP conflict, unless they were a subscriber. This business model seems much more poised for success in a genre historically resistant to subscription models. Head over to Global Agenda’s site to start playing the free trial, and check out our hands-on impressions of Sandstorm, the first paid expansion set to be released soon, at E3 last week.

But those are all existing genres with some MMO features mixed in–although many of them were  incredible (and almost got my pick for Best of Show), none of them felt as inspired as the brick-by-brick playground of LEGO Universe. It’s tough to nail down exactly what genre LEGO Universe is. It’s surely part RPG–you run, you accept quests, you smash enemies—but you also climb rock stages, assemble guitars and wail on your brick axe for a roaring audience. You build cars to race against your friends, you build rocket ships to fly around the world, you build a fort and fill it with chickens that moo at any of your friends that show up.

The focus of NetDevil’s presentation at the show was on the free-build areas of the game. You’re given a completely blank slate to build whatever your imagination wants—it’s like having every single LEGO set you’ve ever envied on TV fall out of the sky onto your lap (and none of those annoying these-two-bricks-feel-like-they’re-stuck-together-with-invisible-super-glue moments). The characters’ resource in-game is “imagination”, but you’re going to need it as well. The editing tools are incredibly robust, allowing you to quickly build with themed sets, tweak it brick by brick, or build the entire thing manually. Controls are intuitive and here’s the kicker-you can tweak the AI of anything you build.

One demo I watched (and you can too here) shows the developers adding a knock-knock joke to their fort’s gate, allowing only friends who know the joke to get in; making chickens moo and run around when a player says “release the hounds”; a T-Rex that chases anything that moos and sections of the fort wall collapse when touched. If these were simply drop-down menu selections, I wouldn’t be very impressed. It would be limited; it would be disappointing—but its not! The AI is handled through a drag-and-drop programming-based logic that leaves it ripe for creative players to invent advanced actions and events.

More than anything, LEGO Universe is my pick for the Best of Show because it reignited in me a feeling that video games have left dormant in me for so very, very long: imagination. I can’t wait to create a whole new set of memories of playing with digital LEGOs for hours, creating huge worlds out of bricks and bringing them to life.

Hyur

AKA: Humans

• Diverse cultures
• Restless travelers
• A modest physique–the nice way of saying “kind of weaklings”

Elezen

AKA: Elves

• Very religious society
• Used to be the only race in the realm way-back-when
• Two different variants that live in different terrains: forest and cave/subterranean
• Reclusive from global society

Lalafell

AKA: Gnomes

• Short, round bodies and pointy ears
• Very nimble
• Generally amicable
• Invested in agriculture

Miqo’te

AKA: Cat-people

• Almost exclusively females
• Feline ears and tails, keen smell
• Live solitary lives of hunting, very territorial instincts

Roegadyn

AKA: Half-giants

• “Brawny builds and piercing eyes” (think child of Fezzik and Dread Pirate Roberts from Princess Bride)
• The largest and most rugged race, also has compelling good looks apparently
• Usually sea-faring, often find work as bodyguards and fishermen