The next patch update for League of Legends is on its way and yesterday Riot Games released the below patch preview video detailing some of the upcoming changes.

Looks like champions Gangplank and Corki are getting nerfed, while Galio, Tryndamere, Kayle and a few others are getting significant updates. The video doesn’t include all the patch info just a few highlights that are also listed below.

• Tryndamere has been re-worked and will now use the Fury system instead of Bloodlust stacks.
• Twisted Fate and Pantheon’s infinite range on their ultimates are getting nerfed due to global teleport range.
• Galio is receiving a significant set of buffs to his durability, but is losing a bit of his damage.

It seems that just about every MMO blog you read these days, with the exception of a few, is announcing which version of Star Wars: The Old Republic they pre-ordered. I’ve never been big on pre-orders, I think I’ve only pre-ordered two or three games in my life-time and only did because they came at a discounted price.

For SWTOR I was tempted to join in and pre-order a copy, but I decided against it for various reasons. The main reason being I don’t want to be part of the massive flood of gamers all downloading, patching and logging in on launch day. MMOs rarely have a smooth launch and considering the amount of players flocking to SWTOR, there’s bound to be some launch day issues. So my plan is to avoid the launch all together and save myself some frustration.

Since I’ll be avoiding the launch, that also means the only bonus I’ll receive from the pre-order is the color stone, which is most likely purely cosmetic, so I don’t mind missing out on that.

Back when Star Wars Galaxies launch I was there from day one and while I don’t remember any major launch issues, I do remember the massive amount of lag in the cities.  For the first week or two I just avoided them or tried logging in during off-peak hours.

Now don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a post saying I’m not going to buy SWTOR, just not pre-ordering it. I will definitely be picking up a copy of SWTOR, but I’ll probably wait 2-3 weeks before I do, that is unless I hear how smooth and awesome the launch was, then I’ll run to the store and get a copy

Originally planned for June 30th, version 1.5.2 or Open Beta 2 was delayed due to lag and memory issues, but has now gone live on server this morning. Open beta 2 contains major changes and adjustments to many of All Points Bulletin systems including missions, matchmaking, skill rating and district recommendations.

Due to these major changes, GamersFirst also stated that over the next week they expect many small patches will be required so testers should expect random downtime.

it’s very difficult to simulate some of the effects of these changes in QA or even in the smaller “Test World” – so for the next week we will be watching all the data coming in from these changes very closely, so everyone should expect there to be rather frequent patches over the next week.

In other words – YES – between now and next Friday I expected daily occurrences of “15 minute warnings” to take districts down for patching. If you see one of those, then please just log in after the patch and continue testing.

Also announced was that support for Nvidia SLI graphics cards is on its way in the form of a driver update, which is expected in about 2 weeks.

The appropriately titled “Join the Fight” trailer from San Diego Comic-Con 2011 was released today on the Star Wars: The Old Republic site.  For those of you that have not yet joined the fight and pre-ordered your copy of STWOR you can do so by visiting the EA Store.

The uneasy peace established by the Treaty of Coruscant is broken and both the Galactic Republic and Sith Empire build their armies. As both sides prepare for open war, a new generation of heroes must rise up to meet the challenges of a volatile age, declaring their allegiances and fighting for what they believe in.

Today Aventurine announced that the new Siege System for Darkfall Online has been completed and is “going through final testing“.  Now that all the pieces are in place, details as to how the new siege system will work have finally been revealed.

The start of a siege remains the same, two clans need to be at war and the attackers must use a clan shard near the clan stone it intends to capture.  Most everything else will be different.

Below is a rundown of the new siege system.  To read the full details, head over to the Darkfall blog.

• Size Matters – A siege against a city will require more members than a siege against a hamlet.  Trial accounts do not count.
• War ain’t cheap – Once a shard is activated, a wager must be placed to begin.  Gold will be taken straight from the clan bank and all attackers will need to pay a wager as well to initiate the challenge.
  • The wager amount is affected by the defenders holding’s power level.
    • The holding power level is determined by how many standing buildins the clan has.
  • The wage is also affected by how many attackers are part of the challenge.
    • The first challenging clan is not affected, however the second challanger and onwards will have to pay a higher wager fee. There is not cap to how many challenging clans there are, but it will get expensive
  • Joining a challenge late will result in a higher wagers.
  • Joining multiple challenges will result in a higher wagers.
• Once a challenge has been declared, the attackers will have a specific amount of time to place at least one siege stone.
• Anyone can declare siege against anyone else at any time.
  • This means if you are sieging a holding and also own your own, you can be sieged while your are sieging someone else.
  • If a clan drops a siege, the defenders may benefit from a wager reduction  if they decide to pay you back in kind while your offensive action against them is active.
• Preparations – Once a stone is placed, siege preparations begin.
• A certain percentage of walls will need to be destroyed before the clan stone goes vulnerable
• If any stones are destroyed by any of the other attackers that are participating in that specific challenge (or defender), then the destroyer’s clan will be getting a percentage of the wager paid by the siege-stone owner, right there and then.
  • Attackers that have all their siege stones destroyed, while the clan stone still stands, are removed from the challenge and are not entitled to any of the wager money.
• If the clan stone is destroyed before the challenge times out, holding ownership will pass on to whichever of the clans that had issued a challenge did the most damage.
  • The wager money will be divided between all attackers that still had an active challenge against the holding when the clan stone got destroyed.
  • Damage dealt to the clan stone will affect the percentage of the wager each attacker will get.
• If all the attackers’ siege stones are destroyed or the challenge times out while the clan stone still stands then the defenders have won and they will be receiving all the wager money.

The next Lord of the Rings Online expansion Rise of Isengard is set to launch in about two months and today Turbine announced the launch date for its beta program. The invite only beta program will launch next week on July 27th and will be open to all players who pre-ordered their copy of Rise of Isengard.

There are three different versions of the expansion, Base, Heroic and Legendary Edition, all three will grant access to the beta.  Aside from beta access, each come with its own in-game bonuses which are listed below

• Rise of Isengard Base Edition – Includes the full Rise of Isengard expansion plus:
  • Steed of the Gap, a new in-game mount with matching red cosmetic cloak for every character on your account
  • In-game title – Guard of the Isen
  • 25% XP boost for all characters on an account up to level 65

• Rise of Isengard Heroic Edition – Includes the full Rise of Isengard expansion plus:
  • 1,000 Turbine Points for use in the LOTRO Store
  • Steed of the Gap, a new in-game mount with choice of matching cosmetic cloak and armor in your choice of red, white or green for every character on your account
  • In-game title – Guard of the Isen
  • 25% XP boost for all characters on an account up to level 65

• Rise of Isengard Legendary Edition –  Includes the full Rise of Isengard expansion plus:
  • 1,000 Turbine Points for use in the LOTRO Store
  • All three Steeds of the Gap, new in-game mounts with matching cosmetic cloak and armor in all three colors for every character on your account
  • In-game title – Guard of the Isen
  • 25% XP boost for all characters on an account up to level 65
  • Access to the Path of the Fellowship Quest Packs including Trollshaws, Eregion, Moria, Lothlorien and Mirkwood

It seems the $150 price tag wasn’t too expensive as EA sold out of its Star Wars: The Old Republic Collectors Editions a few hours after announcing the pre-order. EA’s Origin store isn’t also the only place sold out, Amazon as well is sold out, but some nice sellers offered their pre-orders for $400.  Collectors editions are also on Ebay starting at $250.

However checking BestBuy, GameStop and Walmart, all three still have collectors editions available for pre-order at the normal $149.99 price.

Do these sellers really think someone will shell out $400 for a collectors edition game?  I remember when Nintendo Wii’s were on Ebay for over $1000 and I just went to Toys R Us the day after launch and they have a pile sitting there. Seriously if EA sells out, they’ll make some more, this is a Collectors Edition, not Limited Edition.

Blizzard released a press release yesterday announcing that a fully localized Brazilian Portuguese version of World of Warcraft would be launching in Brazil later this year. The Brazillian version will be the ninth officially supported language and launch with its own community website and customer support.

“One of our top priorities is ensuring that our games are easily accessible to players all around the world. By offering a fully localized version of World of Warcraft along with customer service in Brazilian Portuguese, we’re able to deliver an experience that meets our standards and the expectations of our players in Brazil,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO of Blizzard Entertainment. “We look forward to welcoming Brazilian gamers to the global World of Warcraft community, and we hope they have a great time in Azeroth.“

You can read the full press release on the Blizzard site.

A new video was released today previewing the upcoming Yssam dungeon in Darkfall 2.0.  While the dungeon and lighting systems have already been seen in previous screenshots, the video shows a new monster and some shiny new, actually not so shiny, armor.

The video is pretty short, a bit over a minute long, so it won’t waste too much of your time.

It seems Earth Eternal really is eternal, as the failed MMORPG is on its way back to beta for a second time. Earth Eternal closed down last year due to a lack of funding, but has since been purchased by Outblaze and Turnout Ventures.

Earth Eternal has being revamped and reborn and is getting ready for open beta once again, but only for US players it seems.

It’s been a long time since we last explored the exciting world of Earth Eternal but we are proud to announce the return of the US Earth Eternal service this Summer! Currently we are putting the finishing touches on the US server and we plan to open the game into Open Beta very soon.

No information has been given as to what changes have been implemented from last year, which seems a bit strange especially since they’re going straight into open beta. When APB Reloaded re-launched they couldn’t stop talking about the changes they made.  I think they might need a better PR team.