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The Secret World DLC Content Pricing Clarified

February 7, 2013 by

The Secret World DLCThe TSW dev team have posted an update on how the pricing of future downloadable content will work.

For what it’s worth, I quite like the approach and if you’re a Member or Grandmaster you’ll want to read about how to set up an auto upgrade to the new content.

Read on:

The current price of the Issue #5 DLC (The Vanishing of Tyler Freeborn) has been adjusted to 750 points for non-members, 675 for members (after 10% member discount), and will remain at 600 (after 20% Grandmaster discount) for Grandmasters. This pricing change was meant to further reward Members and Grandmasters because the 10% Member and 20% Grandmaster discounts for shop purchases are now also applied to DLC.

Note that it is now possible for Members and Grandmasters to select to automatically upgrade to the DLC once it is available! This option is called “Set up DLC Autobuy“ and is available from your account page (http://register.thesecretworld.com). Note that this setting is set to “off” by default, so you must actively change it if you want this functionality.

We are also instating a cap on the DLC price for Grandmasters and Members. Regardless of the base (non-member) cost of a DLC, even if it starts at above 1200 points, the price for Grandmasters and Members will not be above 1200 points. This is also an additional bonus for Grandmaster and Member accounts, since it means they will always get enough points in a given month to purchase the newest DLC package.

For future DLCs Members and Grandmasters get access to the content 48 hours before non-members. This will be live with DLC #6.

Prices in the shop are always subject to change (up or down); prices for future DLC will vary based on the amount of content included and may be more expensive than this first DLC.

We hope this announcement sheds some light on recent DLC pricing changes and we thank you for your patience as we continue to adjust and improve the Grandmaster and Member experience.

What’s your take – do you like how things are now set up?

Filed Under: General News, The Secret World Tagged With:

Standalone Star Wars Spinoff Movies Confirmed

February 6, 2013 by

Well this is just a little bit exciting. Disney CEO Bob Iger has confirmed that there may be a ‘few’ spinoff Star Wars movies released alongside the much hyped Episodes 7-9 due for release over the next few years.

The comments were made in an interview to CNBC, which you can watch right here:

There’s rumours one of the first spinoff movies will be a Yoda one, but I’d just about kill for Splinter of the Mind’s Eye movie myself. What about you?

[via Bleeding Cool]

Filed Under: Game-Related, General News, Movies Tagged With:

StarCraft II: Heart Of The Swarm Melbourne Launch Event

February 5, 2013 by

Heart of the Swarm Melbourne Launch EventTo coincide with the 12th March launch of SC2’s first expansion, Heart of the Swarm, Blizzard Entertainment have announced a local launch event.

Melbourne scores the guernsey, with some fun planned for Federation Square on the evening of March 11th. The details:

MELBOURNE – FEDERATION SQUARE
MARCH 11TH – 8 PM TO MIDNIGHT (AEDT)

Cnr. Swanston Street & Flinders Street
Melbourne VIC 3000View map

EVENT DETAILS

The Swarm’s global invasion begins in Australia! Join the Zerg rush to Federation Square in the heart of the city of Melbourne, Victoria. From 8 PM AEDT on Monday, March 11, you can be part of the excitement in person or via the live stream!

ACTIVITIES

  • Heart of the Swarm matches featuring top pro-gamers
  • Q&A with members of the StarCraft II development team
  • Cosplay Competition

EVENT SCHEDULE

  • 8:00 P.M.

    • Event kicks off at Federation Square

  • MIDNIGHT

    • Stage activities end

    • StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm available for pick up (final EB Games sales receipt required)

    • Blizzard autograph table opensNOTE: One copy of StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm autographed per person

So there you have it: will you be going? If you are and would like to snap some pics or cover the event more fully, drop us a line. You can check out the official launch website here.

Filed Under: General News, Other Games, Starcraft 2 Tagged With:

GW2: Dynamic Leveling Changes

February 3, 2013 by

caledon2Isaiah Cartwright from ArenaNet has posted an update detailing changes made in the last patch to dynamic leveling in the game:

We had a few issues with this system that we made adjustments to. When high-level characters played in lower level zones, they were a bit too powerful, so the content was not as challenging as it could be. As a result of this, we also scaled down the rewards a bit too much.

As of the January 28 build, we made some changes to the dynamic scaling system to address these issues:

1.) We changed the formula for how attributes are calculated when the dynamic leveling adjustment system scales you down. This makes returning to lower level zones more fun and better balanced.
2.) We changed the formula for how rewards are calculated when scaled down to make it more rewarding for high-level players to visit lower level areas.

The goal is to more accurately reflect the attributes you should have at that level for a similarly geared character. While this will make some areas harder, our goal is to make all areas of Guild Wars 2 exciting and fun for players of any level. We also want players of all levels to feel like their time is well spent and rewarding in any map they go to.

You can read the full post here – is the change something you’ve already noticed, and/or is it something you think that will improve gameplay?

Filed Under: General News, Guild Wars 2

SWTOR Heroic Space Missions: Schedule

February 1, 2013 by

SWTOR Heroic Space Mission unlock scheduleFor those who love a heroic space mission, BioWare have provided some clarification on when each mission unlocks so it can be re-played:

We have confirmed that the following is the current schedule for Heroic Space Combat missions:

 

  • Tuesday – Far Cradle Strike (Imp) / Regnant Station (Rep)
  • Wednesday – Kabal Station Defense (Imp) / Ardis Outpost Fortification (Rep)
  • Thursday – Kanz Minefield (Imp) / New Covar Ice Field (Rep)
  • Friday – Duma Strike (Imp) / Baros Ambush (Rep)
  • Saturday – Lorta Escort (Imp) / Hypori Escort (Rep)
  • Sunday – Cha Raaba Assault (Imp) / Thanium Disruption (Rep)
  • Sunday – Operation Foe Smasher (Imp) / Operation Clean Sweep (Rep)

For balance, we have decided to move one of the Sunday unlocks to Monday in a future patch.

So there you have it – and note the plans for a shift to a Monday unlock for either Cha Raaba Assault / Thanium Disruption or Operation Foe Smasher / Clean Sweep in a future patch.

Filed Under: General News, SWTOR Tagged With:

Queensland Floods: Bond University Turns To Minecraft

February 1, 2013 by

Faceroll_in_the_Level_up_LabIf you live in Australia you’ll have definitely seen the impact the weather has had in Queensland over the last week or more, with lots more people looking at being affected as the flood waters move down the river system.

There’s no real good news stories in such a situation but here’s a great yarn on how a Bond University academic worked around the weather to provide a scheduled class in Minecraft.

Have a read of the full story here – and tell us your stories of using games in ways that you otherwise thought you would have!

Filed Under: General News, Minecraft, Other Games

Through The Mist: WoW Patch 5.2 Thoughts

January 30, 2013 by

wow-through-the-mist-new

Through the Mist is a regular column from Luke Le Page covering everything World of Warcraft. If you’d like something covered in a future column, drop us a line!

Well it’s that time again: patch 5.2 is just around the corner and it’s a big one. I can’t hope to list everything that’s on its way in the patch but I will take a bit of a look at the bigger content that is being included.

First, we have the new Daily Quest Hub: The Isle of the Thunder King. This new area opens up a whole new chain of daily quests for players to undertake. Players will join the assault on Emperor Lei Shen’s island stronghold and offers players the chance to participate in special events. It will progress much like the Isle of Quel’Danas, where players unlock additional quests and areas as they progress through the island. There is great news for Blacksmiths as they will eventually be able to craft raid worthy weapons and more enticingly (in my opinion) classic weapons from the past.

This area also includes the new raid The Throne of Thunder which will drop tier 15 armour sets. This raid will consist of 12 new bosses, which will be split into 4 wings for the raid finder.

As expected, we see the Wrathion legendary quest line continue and offer players the chance at a legendary metagem.

More world bosses have been added to the game; these include Nalak, the Storm Lord and Oondasta. This leads me directly into a massive change coming for many players – World bosses will be tagged to faction. Meaning that multiple groups of the same faction can tackle these new bosses (as well as the old ones) and receive loot.

It looks like we will also finally see the introduction of the Warlock quest to change their fire spells to green.

In addition to these major content additions, we are going to see a lot of class changes – far too many to list in a column such as this but the outlook for the majority of the changes that I have seen is relatively positive.

Whilst this is nowhere near to covering the content of patch 5.2 (a much more comprehensive list can be seen on just about any of the wow community sites) it does include some of the major changes and I have to say some of the new mounts coming look amazing and will likely encourage me to explore this new content.  One of the more exciting changes revolves around the content we have already seen. With the addition of Thunderforged weapons to existing raid bosses, Blizzard are making a concerted effort to encourage players to return to cleared content. More importantly to the more casual players and LFR raiders is that these new high ilvl items being added to current content offers us a way to catch up gear wise in an effort to move into the new content.

Anyone who read my last piece knows where I currently am with the game and I have to say that 5.2 has me excited again. Having looked fairly closely at the new content and (more importantly) its rewards, I am really looking forward to this patch. Excited enough to contemplate active progression raiding once again.

How about you?

Filed Under: General News, Opinion, WoW Tagged With:

GW2 Achievements and Rewards System Update

January 29, 2013 by

GW2 Achievements and Rewards SystemMatt Wuerffel from ArenaNet has posted on the official blog and update about some revamping they are doing for rewards and achievements in GW2. If you’re not an achievement junkie like me, you may not find this stuff that relevant, but otherwise have a look at the details.

Aside from stuff occurring in the near term, Wuerffel has also hinted at what’s happening further down the track:

Down the road, we’ll also be adding a reward structure to total achievement points, and we’ll be looking at revamping portions of existing UI to help players understand all the different kinds of content they can play and the types of rewards available. Once we have that framework in place, we’ll be able to really expand on the content accessible through the achievements system and provide you with even more new and exciting ways to play the game.

 

Let’s hear from you: do achievements matter to you in GW2 and if so, do you like what’s planned?

Filed Under: General News, Guild Wars 2 Tagged With:

Flash Point 50: Did We Really Make It This Far?

January 28, 2013 by

flashpoint-podcastWe get a little bit retrospective this episode given it’s our 50th one. March 12th, 2011 was when Episode 1 went live, and since then we’ve been plugging away roughly every 2 weeks, talking Star Wars The Old Republic and then MMOs more broadly.

To coincide with this significant anniversary, Simon, Kristy and regular guest Matthew ‘Scope’ Pearce take a look back but also at the current MMO news as always. A MYSTERY GUEST also makes an appearance two-thirds of the way through the show.

Points of discussion:

50th Episode
– Looking back at highlights of first 49 episodes
– Some thank-yous
– Looking back at MMOs more broadly since March 2011 when the podcast started

SWTOR
– Patch 1.6.3
– Character copying to PTS
– Rise of the Hutt Cartel first look
– Darth Hater changes
– Shout out for Ye Olde Republic podcast

TSW
– Kristy hits her completionist goal
– Game Director’s update

Other
– Marvel Heroes – discussion of closed beta (within boundaries of NDA)
– World of Tanks 8.3
– War Thunder overview
– Elder Scrolls Online: we need you!
– a discussion with Ed on SWTOR

– Shout outs for our forums, Facebook page, Twitter account, Simon’s Twitter account and Please review or rate the podcast on iTunes if you can – it makes a huge difference!

Listen via iTunes or right here:

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:24:15 — 38.6MB)

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Filed Under: General News, Podcast

Rise Of The Hutt Cartel: First Look Trailer

January 27, 2013 by

A combination of factors means I totally missed the release of a ‘first look’ trailer for SWTOR’s initial expansion, Rise of the Hutt Cartel. At one minute and fourteen seconds it’s certainly no more than a first look but there’s some great scenic shots plus a decent storyline hint.

Have a look for yourself:

So, what’s your take? Anything in there that’s particularly piqued your interest?

Filed Under: General News, SWTOR Tagged With:

Oceanic Soap Box: What’s Got You Excited?

January 25, 2013 by

oceanic-soap-box

Most people are back into the swing of day-to-day activities after the Xmas / New Year period, and that well and truly includes games developers. There’s been some great announcements already this year, not least of which is the release of the opening cinematic for Starcraft 2’s first expansion, Heart of the Swarm. If you haven’t seen it already, here it is:

Here’s where you come in: what games have you excited for this year? For me Heart of the Swarm is one, Marvel Heroes another and the upcoming Sim City release has me drooling as well. What about you?

Filed Under: General News, Other Games, Starcraft 2 Tagged With:

Through The Mist: WoW and Me Right Now

January 22, 2013 by

wow-through-the-mist-new

Through the Mist is a regular column from Luke Le Page covering everything World of Warcraft. If you’d like something covered in a future column, drop us a line!

Many apologies for the long delay between columns, as some of you were aware I was away for the entirety of December. I was hoping to do a review of the year for WoW by New Year’s Day but unfortunately I have been unexpectedly busy since my return organising my engagement party and by organising I mean nodding a lot in agreement with my fiancé. (It’s good practice for the many years of nodding ahead – Ed.)

Looking back at the year, I’m not entirely sure that it deserves a year in review. Certainly we saw the release of Mists Of Pandaria; which has already been reviewed by myself and many others so it seems pointless to do so. The only other big thing I can think of is the subscription numbers. The most recent figure I can find is a rather general 10 million. While up from the recent dip to 9.1 million I am sure Blizzard were expecting a higher number with the launch of another expansion. The positive trend though still shows that WoW isn’t going anywhere in the near future unless you count upwards.

Instead I think I will write a little bit about how the game has me feeling at the moment – it’s been several months since the launch of MoP and for many the shininess is beginning to, or has already worn off. Many of the long-time wow players that I game with (including several Vanilla guildmates) have been slowly drifting away from the game again. Many citing the daily grind as the reason, saying that they feel as if they have to complete daily after daily to progress in the game.

Feeling a bit jaded...

Feeling a bit jaded…

I can certainly feel their pain and I share it to a certain extent. Of late however I have found myself lacking the motivation to even do the dailies once, let alone repeatedly. Many times since I returned from my vacation I have logged in, wandered around aimlessly and logged out. I feel as if there is little for me to do within the game. On analysis this seems like a silly, impossible thing. There are dailies, scenarios, heroics and raids to do ( I am not much of a PvP’er ). Indeed, I still try to run my LFR runs on a weekly basis but I feel as if I am doing it because I have nothing else to do in the game.

In the past I would have levelled alts – in most expansions I have had a minimum of 5  (usually more) characters at maximum level but so far in MoP I have a solitary 90, an 87 and a smattering of 86’s of various classes.

I’m not entirely sure what it is currently – I am tempted to blame my holiday but I have to confess to feeling this way prior to going away. I still like the game, that much is certain but am I enjoying it? I don’t think that I am. Hopefully 5.2 will offer me something, I have always enjoyed Troll content and it will be interesting to see how it ties in with the Mogu.

How are you feeling about the current state of the game?

Filed Under: General News, Opinion, WoW
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