I’ve been keeping up with some developments in Star Trek Online over the past couple of years, but I never got back to playing it. While I am keeping myself fairly busy with League of Legends still, a couple of my friends are about to try out STO and I might just join them.

I’ve never considered STO to be a bad game, but I could never justify paying a monthly subscription since I played it very, very casually. Now, that barrier is gone so there’s really no reason not to fire it up occasionally. I’m guessing with some (hopefully) proper marketing Star Trek will gain a ton of new players by going freemium, something we’ve seen happen with several other games as well (DC Universe springs to mind as the prime example, Age of Conan as another).

Unless you’re still keeping yourself busy with SWTOR, be sure to head over to the official website and register for and download Star Trek Online. If you never tried it before, it’s a great way to kill some time, and you don’t have to pay for a thing. Who knows, you might even like the game.

Star Trek Online Launch Trailer:

Star Trek Online Now Free to Play is a post from: Trolr

You’ve probably already seen the Modern Warfare 3 launch trailer, and if you read my post you’ll notice I’m not very impressed by the trailer, nor the game itself lately. MW3 will get released in a week or so, and this is probably going to be one Call of Duty title that I won’t try.

I’ve never actually tried playing Battlefield before, but it does look promising. I’m not of course judging the game just with this launch trailer, but with a ton of other gameplay videos I’ve seen. It looks as if it might provide some much-needed change, and multiplayer seems to be worth a try as well.

Anyways, here’s the BF3 launch trailer:

Definitely looks better than Call of Duty right now.

Battlefield 3 Launch Trailer is a post from: Trolr

It’s questionable whether the Call of Duty franchise even has anything new to offer at this point: a few different weapon attachments and a couple of other features is hardly considered groundbreaking. The last few titles have a borderline science fiction story and extremely short single-player campaign. For me definitely not worth $60, but as always I’m sure it’ll again break sales records.

In either case, you can watch this uninspiring launch trailer below:

Your thoughts?

CoD Modern Warfare 3 Launch Trailer is a post from: Trolr

If you attempted to visit mmo-champion or similar World of Warcraft news-sites in the past few hours no doubt you’ll notice most of them are offline. The reason is this year’s Blizzcon: there’s a lot of new information posted about some of our favorite games, and below you’ll find a recap of what was announced so far.

Diablo III

It appears that there still are some things about Diablo III that Blizzard kept from us. Wait actually, no there’s pretty much nothing we don’t know already. In fear of The Old Republic Blizzard already revealed more than plenty of details. As we recently learned D3 won’t come out this year, just as I predicted, and instead we’ll be able to play it in March 2012. The demand for beta keys is still insane though, so if you still haven’t tried the game don’t worry, many didn’t.

Anyway, Blizzard revealed this previously unseen Diablo III trailer: Black Soulstone, in which we find out about a new villain, Azmodan, the Lord of Sin, who like any self-respecting villain wants no less than to destroy the world.

Another high-quality cinematic, much like we expected.

But is seems Blizzard is really, really afraid of SWTOR, because now they offered a free copy of Diablo III for everyone who subscribes to World of Warcraft for 12 months! That’s definitely unprecedented and clearly goes to show that they will do anything to keep WoW subscriptions from falling. Nevertheless, it’s great news for everyone who still enjoys this game, and plans to do so for the next year.

Blizzard DOTA

Apparently this isn’t a new announcement, but I have no clue how I missed it. I had no idea Blizzard was making their own DOTA, especially since I thought Valve trademarked the name and started working on their own DotA 2. We’ve seen plenty of stuff concerning the MOBA genre recently: Heroes of Newerth went free-to-play, League of Legends continues to grow (and I continue to enjoy it), and there’s even been some new titles released: Rise of Immortals and Realm of the Titans, neither of which had much success unfortunately.

Back to the topic. We have a cinematic trailer showcasing some of the stuff and heroes we’ll get to see in Blizzard DOTA, and you can watch it below:

While story really isn’t important in MOBA games, I still think Blizzard DOTA’s story is really lame and Blizz could certainly do better. As you can see from the cinematic, we’ll be summoning heroes from other Blizzard titles, so hopefully it’ll turn out well. Judging by the trailer I’m not really sure whether Blizzard is really trying to make a serious game here or what, but in either case I’ll be sure to keep an eye on it in the future.

World of Warcraft – Mists of Pandaria

The name of the 4th expansion for World of Warcraft has been known for some time now, but finally it’s been officially confirmed:

This next expansion is set in a place that’s been lost to time for 10,000 years. A land of balance, harmony, beauty and hope until WE arrive.

The real enemy, the true villain of the franchise is going to be war itself.

Players will finally be able to play Pandaren, a long-awaited race, and we’ll have access to a new class as well, the Monk. Below is a recap of the announced features and changes:

• Level cap increase to 90
• Pet Battle system with Panda-like creatures
• Monk class added
• New Pandaren race
• New continent: Pandaria
• PvE Scenarios
• New Talent System
• Focus on Alliance vs. Horde war, rather than a villain
• Pandaren will be playable by both factions
• Challenge mode dungeons

Initial impressions from players are mostly disappointing. More details will surely follow and hopefully the general impressions will improve. If nothing else, we’ll always have Star Wars: The Old Republic

Blizzcon 2011: Blizzard DOTA, Free Diablo III, Mists of Pandaria is a post from: Trolr

Over the past couple of days we’ve had an unusual number of news regarding Diablo 3. The game will have an auction house where players will be able to sell items for real money, some new info on Runestones has surfaced, some new screenshots and leveling info as well. Blizzard also announced that playing Diablo III will require an active internet connection, meaning you will always have to be connected to Battle.net in order to play.

Of course when considering the auction house that’s a necessary move, but many players have expressed their disappointment about it. In any case, that’s not what this post is about. One other thing that we heard even before but seems to make even more sense now is that Blizzard is pushing for the release of D3 this year, and I can think of no other reason than Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Bioware recently got us access to preorders for SWTOR and announced beta weekends in September. They are no doubt working extremely hard to get this game out this year as their targeted window is this year’s holiday season, most likely meaning December. One thing SWTOR has going for it and it was already mentioned on some blogs is that the game might take a huge chunk of World of Warcraft‘s player base since Blizzard has nothing to give to players to keep them engaged at this time: no expansion or game coming out soon.

But things have just turned as Diablo III, a game that has been years in development and wasn’t expected to come out this year is apparently being pushed out as soon as possible in order to compete with SWTOR, as ridiculous as it may sound. Blizzard is notorious for not releasing games which aren’t “ready”, but Star Wars is no doubt pressuring them to finish it in the coming months. Rob Pardo, executive producer for D3 explained:

“We always do the standard answer, ‘when it’s ready.’ When we actually announce a release date, that’s because we know we can hit it. Typically nowadays we announce release dates around three or four months before the game comes out. We’ve already said that we’re working hard to get to this year, but it’s going to be tough.”

Even if Blizzard doesn’t think Diablo is ready for this year, we will no doubt have a torrent of information about it and access to beta this year. After all, something has to keep us from trying out this new Bioware’s MMORPG, right?

Is Diablo 3 Blizzard’s Answer to SWTOR? is a post from: Trolr

And I was pleasantly surprised. When the game first came out a year ago it got some pretty bad reviews, from 2.0 to 6.0 on average. This goes to show that I shouldn’t blindly trust reviews, and neither should anyone else I suppose. Sniper: Ghost Warrior is a pretty decent game in my opinion, an while I don’t usually rate them on a scale I’d give it a solid 7.5/10, if not more.

Much like a lot of other games a lot depends on your expectations. It’s especially true with all these new MMORPGs coming out every few months, but I digress. If you expect an FPS on the same level as Call of Duty, Sniper: Ghost Warrior isn’t one, but it isn’t very far either. In fact I think it comes pretty close to the same relatively boring, linear single player gameplay as CoD has so if you’re into that sort of thing I don’t see why you wouldn’t like this game. At least Sniper’s story doesn’t border with science fiction.

Basically you take on a role of a sniper and run around, or sneak around, and kill stuff. It’s nothing fancy but surprisingly not any more boring than doing the same in Call of Duty. I played the game on easy difficulty and you can pretty much just run around and kill whatever’s in your sight, but I’m guessing harder difficulties require some more sneaking and inevitably loading save games. You can do the single player campaign in about 5 hours, which is like an hour more than CoD has. Certain missions also involve shooting from a vehicle and climbing cliffs, and I’d hate to make yet another comparison with a certain popular FPS game. There’s also a bit more dynamic to some missions when you take on a role of different characters: you first blast your way through enemies with one carrying an M4, then you take over the sniper and provide cover for those guys. And/or in reverse. It’s cool.

From what I’ve read the game is full of glitches and bugs, but I haven’t seen any to be honest. Yeah, enemies are sometimes incredibly stupid and other times they see you from weird places or distances, but it’s not that common or frustrating as it sounds. Graphics are alright, unless you’re expecting something revolutionary. The only illogical thing in the game for me is the fact that enemies are more likely to notice you in stealth while you’re laying still rather than moving; it doesn’t really make any sense to me. But for 5 hours of gameplay, I can live with that.

Overall Sniper: Ghost Warrior should be a decent game for anyone who likes Call with Duty or whatever that other popular game is called. If you especially liked the sniper mission in the original Modern Warfare, strap a ghillie suit on and give Sniper: Ghost Warrior a try.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior Review is a post from: Trolr

I’ve been following the development and progress of Star Wars: The Old Republic for quite some time now, and even tried snagging a beta key. I must admit that from all the news and stuff nothing has got me as excited for the game as this trailer. It’s incredibly well done, and if it doesn’t make you want to play the game then you’re a lost cause. Watch it below!

SWTOR is a very anticipated game that hopefully won’t disappoint millions of fans that will surely buy it, regardless of reviews. We don’t know the exact release date yet: there’s a lot of speculation and random bits of info but nothing concrete yet. Hopefully it’ll be announced soon, and with any luck we’ll be playing The Old Republic this year. Keep your fingers crossed!

Amazing SWTOR Return Trailer Revealed is a post from: Trolr

Personally I hate consoles. I’ve always been a PC gamer and I’ve never had a reason to switch to anything else. But what bothers me with consoles (much like Apple) is the fanboys which would cut their wrists for these game developers, publishers and whatnot. I hate the crappy console games later released for PC that have the same shitty interface and tons of bugs, just because consoles make more money. I hate their stance on piracy and the way they treat their customers, which most people for some reason fail to see. But I’m getting off topic here, and there is something good that may come out of this hack.

First, customers may now be more aware about the risks of giving away their credit card details to gaming companies. If it happened to Sony, it might just as easily (if not easier) happen to any other company. Use Paypal folks. Even though not all credit card info was stolen and most of that info will probably be unusable, there’s still a risk, not including potential identity theft issues that may arrise from all of this.

Another good part of this debacle is that some of these console players might go back to PC gaming, hopefully making gaming companies realize that PC gamers do in fact still exist.

There is however a clear winner in all of this, and it’s Microsoft. They just released their quarterly earnings a couple of days ago which are really impressive. When Microsoft releases it’s Q4 earnings on July 21st, I’m sure we’ll see a significant increase in revenue from Xbox sales.

Why PSN Network Hack is Good is a post from: Trolr

From what I’ve been able to gather TERA Online brings absolutely nothing new to the genre and you might as well just go play Aion, it’s probably a lot better now than Tera will be in quite awhile. ArcheAge however suffers from different issues. I do in fact think the game will be decent (not good, just decent), but whether it can be a serious hit depends on a lot of things. Let’s look at ArcheAge’s features first:

• Huge world map
• Dynamic environment
• Mass PvP (100+ people)
• Player housing
• Crafting & production
• Adjustable interface
• Mounts (eg. horses)
• Naval warfare
• Persistent World

Naval warfare: Darkfall. Mounts: no need to go there. Crafting: what game doesn’t have crafting (in one form or another. Mass PvP = huge lag and FPS issues. Dynamic environment & persistent world: yeah sure, every game says that. Player housing: completely useless. Adjustable interface: wow that’s a new one. Huge world map: alright, as long as it’s not just copy/pasted terrain.

Can you really now tell me this game is revolutionary as many claim it to be? I didn’t think so. The good thing is that it runs on CryEngine 3, which has ridiculously good graphics, but on the other hand tons of players probably won’t even be able to play this game above 30 FPS, and it will be pretty much unplayable in PvP. Age of Conan had great graphics too, and look where it got them: maybe 10,000 subscribers. Rift doesn’t seem to have farted yet and is in fact doing quite well even one month after the release.

It’s still early to even tell how Rift is going to turn out, much less about TERA or ArcheAge, but I simply think all these new upcoming games need to offer a bit more than good voiceovers and fancy graphics.

ArcheAge: Another Fail MMORPG? is a post from: Trolr

In case you don’t know let me explain in short what the Foundry system is. Basically it enables players like you and me to relatively easily create missions, test them and share them with others. These missions are then rated and reviewed by other players. It’s a map editor on steroids, and I think it’s exactly what every MMORPG should aim for from now on. If you think about it, the games we play for years mostly have some sort of map editors and user-generated content: a prime example for me is Warcraft III. Not only do you have an endless supply of maps to try out but also amazing arenas and different game modes like DotA, which spawned an entire new genre of games.

User generated content has often been overlooked over the years but in my opinion it’s the way to go for every game that comes out. Simply put no developers will ever be able to make as much content as the overall community can, plus they typically do it for free thus bringing in even more revenue for the developers and publishers. Both sides here benefit greatly from these systems, and it keeps the players engaged with something new to try at all times.

While it is relatively simple to make a map editor for an RTS or FPS games it’s much harder to make one for MMORPGs. But it seems that Cryptic managed to get it right with the Foundry and we’ll no doubt start seeing a lot of amazingly well done missions to try out. Of course there will always be those that try to exploit the system and provide themselves with easy leveling and whatnot, but I’m sure the player-based review process will take care of that.

Overall more and more MMORPGs should definitely embrace this concept and I’m sure many of the games coming out these days wouldn’t be half as bad or lack in content if they only gave the community the option to build the game themselves.

Star Trek Online’s Foundry Goes Live: The Future of MMORPGs? is a post from: Trolr