Cryptic Studios has temporarily slashed almost $60 on the Lifetime subscription prices for Star Trek Online and Champions Online, as both MMOs prepare for pretty important milestones.

Star Trek Online turns a year old on February 2, and the discount should nudge devoted fans to plunk down $240 for Lifetime access to the space MMO. It helps Star Trek Online’s cause that its recent content additions like the Weekly Episodes have been a hit with current players, as our own Tim Williams attests. But newer recruits who may be biding their time until Star Wars: The Old Republic arrives may let the discount pass.

Meanwhile, Champions Online is ready to go free-to-play on January 25 with its Free for All update. While we’re upbeat that some Trekkers will bite the Lifetime discount promo, we’re less upbeat with Champions Online. It’s hard to convince a gamer to shell out the same $240 when he can just as easily be satisfied with paying $0 and still get to play the game, even though it’s only up to level 40 and with limited gameplay options. Couple that with the strong buzz around DC Universe Online these days, and it’s clear Cryptic will lower their Lifetime sub prices a lot more if they want to tie down players to their superhero MMO.

The introduction to every Fallout game wouldn’t be complete without the phrase, “War. War never changes.” Fallout is a great franchise, but those guys never locked and loaded in a World of Warcraft battleground. Last week we gave a quick overview of battleground dos and don’ts, along with a good look at the Warsong Gulch battleground. This week we’re going to take a hard look at the other battleground available to new gladiators in WoW Battlegrounds: Arathi Basin.

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If you’re the type who lines up his expansion boxes to look like those game displays in Best Buy, then you might be interested in adding a rather provocative one to your collection.

Masthead Studios unveiled today the official box art for Earthrise featuring a dual-pistol babe wearing a skin-tight battle suit. Whether you’re offended or enticed by this buxom beauty in a box, it’s obvious that the main assets on display are hard to miss.

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Have you ever wondered how a guild grows in level? Are you one of those who, maybe, believes it impossible to grow a small guild? Then allow me to contradict you. Oh yes, things have changed since launch, and even though some might complain that it is unfair to lower certain requirements, the truth is, building up a guild city and raising the level of a guild could both use a good thorough revision.

Hello again and welcome back to Hyrkanian Insight, where you’ll find all sorts of thoughts and facts concerning the game Age of Conan, which we love (and sometimes hate) with a passion. As you may have guessed we will be talking about renown in its various forms and how to acquire it. Come with me, stranger or friend, to see about work and fun…

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This week, Masthead Studios has shed some more light upon the in-game experience of its upcoming sci fi-themed sandbox MMO, Earthrise. The details come in the form of a beta gameplay video, which depicts the recently updated beta client as well as some brand new in-game locations.

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The first massive expansion for Luna Online is named Luna Plus and will bring lots of new features to the game. From next January 19^th, all its players will enjoy 60 combat pets, a cool feature, as everyone loves pets, right?

Have a look at some of them, after the jump.

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Land of Chaos Online, the burda:ic action MMO, is a bit different from what we are used to. Its creators, say that LOCO is a TPS (Third Person Shooter) that adds a tactical aspect to the action of the game.

You can choose  from many different heroes, depending on the style you like, as you can see in the Book of Heroes, allowing you to approach the LOCO experience from different ways.

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Still fresh from the fighting that its fourth beta event “Warfronts” saw last week, Rift: Planes of Telara already has the fifth installment planned out. “Battle of the Ascended” opens to closed beta testers starting January 25 until January 28.

If you’ve registered for the closed beta or got a guaranteed seat (an additional perk with each Rift pre-order), then look forward to reaching the new level cap of 30. Additional locations will also be unlocked during the “Battle of the Ascended” beta event such as the Scarlet Gorge zone, which was revealed last October as a hot zone both in literal temperature and faction conflict. There is also the Foul Cascade dungeon, that provides some mystery for long-time Rift fans since the said dungeon was not previewed before.

But if the next Rift beta event arrives by Jan. 25 and you still haven’t shaken off the bloodlust from doing “Warfronts”, you’ll be glad to know that the Black Garden and Codex will remain open for non-stop PvP. Trion must be emulating the concept of a TV lead-in, where the popular “Warfronts” event tries rub off its popularity –we hear it gained a million hours of playtime in the three days it was on– to the upcoming “Battle of the Ascended” event. We’ll see if it works.

Next January 19^th, the Blood Lord will come to Vindictus, the action MMO of Nexon. This free-to-play game, will feature what is been called “The most challenging raid boss to come to Vindictus, so far” and will be the main enemy in the mission “Shadowed by Darkness”.

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Coinciding with the LEGO group’s Ninjago product line, LEGO Universe will launch a huge ninja-themed content update, named Crux Prime. This is a new adventure zone for this family-friend MMO, featuring great stylized graphics with a an awesome treatment of light and color.

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