Another bites the dust

Black Prophecy, one of the few MMO games based on space fighting is about to close doors, on 26 September. Can read it here.

I haven't played it more then a couple of hours when it first came out, but i always had issues with the game with constant disconnects so i end up leaving it. And i always wanted to have one mmorpg game based on space, with space exploration, battles and trade. Mind that this game only was based on fighting, lacked content, from what I've heard.

Maybe next time...

The roads to Mist of Pandaria are open!

Today went live on euro servers the last patch for World of Warcraft, 5.0.4, which sets scene for the changes coming with the imminent expansion, Mist of Pandaria. This update makes lots of changes, notably to the talent trees which were completely removed  and replaced by a much more simple talent system (dare i say, bad?), shared achievements, pets and mounts, cross-realm zones and other improvements and/or changes.

On a personal opinion, i find the change on the talents to be quite a letdown. I really don't see it being any fun, having just a new talent choice every 15 levels... Besides that, players will only get new spells per level, no more new talents. The only thing i like, is the ability to use, otherwise specific talents, independently of what gear you want to use (example, wielding two two-handed swords as dual wield and do bladestorm).

In any case, more details about this update can be read here.

World of Warcraft promotion prices

I never posted anything about the mmorpg beast World of Warcraft, since basically I've stopped playing it for nearly 2 years now. I did played a month or two in between, but nothing to make me glue back into the game.

In any case, I'm posting something about a long time complain i had about WoW. I had some friends that for one or other reason never got into the game, because when they finally decided they wanted to give the game a go, the prior investment on the game became a tad expensive. In example, a friend of mine who wanted to try the game, around the time Wrath of the Lich King was on, but he then started doing the math about how much he needed to pay, and the initial investment for a game that was around for some years then, would be over 75 euros. That was a bit expensive considering other titles were starting to come every now and then, and for someone who wasn't sure how long he would be playing it, 75 euros or more would be a no for an investment.

Now, Blizzard came with a new promotion for all the World of Warcraft content (base game + expansion) for a total of 20 euros. Players will still have to buy the next expansion coming out next month, Mists of Pandaria, but with this all together, the game would be around 55 euros, a more reasonable price but still a tad expensive for a game that is now almost 8 years old. 

The funny thing about, is that this is only a promotion that will be available for a full week until August 27,2012. Bad idea Blizzard. You wont be getting many more new players keeping this prices... Unless you don't care about getting new players, then i would assume prices are ok...

For instance, if you look at the example set by EQ or EQ2, the game is free for players, prior the last expansion, so if players want to play the full game, they would only buy the last expansion and be done. I agree games are f2p, so something must be given but still it's an idea you could look about.

In the case of World of Warcraft, keeping the price at about 20/25 euros, without the last expansion, would probably sell a few more copies. But who am i to know anything about this?

For more info you can check it here.

Paragon system for Diablo 3

The latest "surprise" for Diablo 3 came yesterday with the new Paragon system. I was going to swear someone at Blizzard reads me, and adapted my ideas i gave on my last post about the game.

So, this Paragon system basically will add 100 more levels to the game, that players will be able to gain after reaching the normal level cap at 60. Each level will give the character the normal stats as it would when the player levels up, plus 3% magic and gold find. 

I'm expecting that this new levels to be quite hard to get, since the first level players will already be asked to get around 7.000.000 exp and the final level will require the nice amount of 322.000.000. I think, if I'm not mistaken to level from 59 to 60, it's needed around 2.400.000, so you can have an idea the amount of experience and time needed to reach the cap.

Can read more about it here.

I think this will "hide" a bit the usual boring hunt for items with some extra purpose for players. Will it bring more players to the game? Doubt it. Will it bring old players back? Some. It's not about what's wrong with Diablo 3. The thing is that there is too many games to play online, and not many players are willing to take their time to grind constantly for items.

This system is going live tomorrow, 22-08-2012, on 1.04, in Europe, along with the legendary items fix (the new legendary items seem really cool). The update is already live at US. Can read about it here.

Rift - Pay a year, get free expansion

Yep from what I've seen on the expansion site, subscribe the game for a full year and you get yourself a free copy of the expansion. Could be a nice deal for some people.

This expansion will bring additional zones, 4 new souls one for each class, and.. housing? I still don't know about this. Build your own sliver makes me think it is.

For more information about it, just go here.

SWTOR new live event up

The new world event called Grand Acquisitions Race is now live on SWTOR servers. From what I've seen of this event, it doesn't look as interesting as the first one, but time will tell.

The story about it, is that Chevin Conglomerate declared the  Grand Acquisitions Race, which is basically a treasure race/hunt. Players are invited to look for traces over 2 of the planets. The first one, Nar Shadda is shared for both faction, and the second is the home world for each side, Dromund Kaas and Coruscant.

Rewards are the usual, a pet, a mount, some appearance gear, titles and achievement and a new design weapon, bowcaster (like the weapon that Chewbacca uses).

A full detailed guide can be followed here.

Vanguard f2p comes one week earlier

Well seems SOE decided to anticipate the f2p release of Vanguard by one week, so for anyone who wants to give this title a go, it's live now! You can read about the release info here.
I think this is more of a quick peak over the game and not a full release but i will give it a look.

This trailer is quite oldie, need to get a new one:

To download the game just go to the official site here, and start downloading the client. 

I would say this is a title to try if you want harder, complex mmorpg games. And also if you have an explorer vein like me.