Definitely a rarity in the MMOG universe, Eve Online is set to release there latest content upgrade in the form of a free expansion, Empyrean Age. The most anticipated addition in this expansion is the new PVP system, Factional Warfare. This allows for all out war between rival factions and encourages players to form militias to help their factions war effort. Whether directly involved in the battle for control of a system or the trader supplying the war effort from the fringes of space, the new expansion brings great oppurtunities for everyone to advance or make a profit.
The expansion will introduce new factional based ranks as well as the militia system. There is also a new level of system control, occupancy. This allows factions to capture and control enemy solar systems by winning a number of battles within the system and then successfully assaulting and capturing a system control bunker located near the core of the system.
There is also a new area of space being added in the expansion known as the “Black Rise”. This region of space contains 49 new star systems and nearly 40 stations, most of whom are already sworn to one faction or another. New or even trial players will be able to participate in the expansion when it goes live on June 10th, 2008. If you haven’t already, signup for the 14 day free trial and get your accounty ready for when the expansion goes live! You’ll want to get some skills up so you can control larger, more powerful ships when the PVP action goes live!
Cursed.com has launched a beta of the Age of Conan Armory. The beta version of the Armory currently supports a functional feat calculator as well as community driven feat builds for players to show off their PVP feat setup. The beta site also features a feat commenting and rating system for players to chime in on what they think the best build is for their class.
The site is currently in the beta phase but will soon have multi-language support as well as item, NPC and Quest databases, character profiles and a variety of tools to enhance your experience in Hyboria. Go checkout the beta Armory!
If you’re like me, you probably get bored playing the same game day in and day out. You don’t necessarily want to abandon your favorite game but you want to break the cycle a bit and find a few others to play when that favorite MMO starts feeling more like work than play! That’s how I started to feel when in mid-grind in WoW. I needed a break, at first my break consisted of switching to another tune to grind but that didn’t last long either.
That’s when a friend of mine told me about Shot Online. It’s a Massively Multiplayer Golf game, complete with everything you’d expect from an MMO and it’s free to play! You create characters from pre-set choices based on beginning stats and the only way to level is to play golf, so it doesn’t feel like much of a grind. There aren’t any real options for customizing your characters appearance itself, this is a free game after all, but there are different clothes you can buy to help mix things up after your character is made.
Along with your choice of clothes, as you level you will gain access to better and better clubs to help improve your game. The higher level clubs come complete with stat modifiers, some good some bad. To purchase clubs in game, you simply use NG, this MMO’s version of gold. You acquire NG by, you guessed it, playing golf! Not to shabby for something relaxing and still giving you that hooked on feel that most MMO’s are popular for. Your character is persistant and grows and so does your value in the character as you get higher levels and better gear. You can play solo or with a group of up to three other players for a foursome.
You never ever have to spend a dime to play this game. However, there are optional enhancements you can purchase via the game campus website to help increase the speed at which you level or gain NG. You can also purchase special gear on the website that is not available from the in-game vendors. But just about any gear you can purchase with real cash on the website can usually be found in the auction house in-game for a hefty amount of NG, so if you see some nice clubs on the site but don’t want to spend the cash, spend some NG instead and pick it up for play money.
To play, simply go to Shot Online and register for a free account. Then download the client and swing away! If you jump in, add me to your friends list and we’ll shoot a few holes. My in-game name is ‘B-Dub’ if you want to look me up.
