Today Undead Labs, the developers who are bringing zombie survival to the MMORPG genre, released some information about how their game will work, not as a list of features, but rather through the telling of a story.

The zombie apocalypse is coming. You want to know how everything works. How dangerous is it? How can you protect yourself? We have the answers, but how much can we really say?… So today, we’ll share what we can. It’s not a catalogue of spoilers from the dev team. Instead, what follows are the thoughts and observations of a fellow survivor in McMillanville.

However I’ve taken the liberty of taking the story and creating a list of features out of it. Keep in mind these are taken based on the story, so they many or many not be actual features in the game.

• When a player dies in the game, they come back as a zombie. Permanent Death
  • Players will receive warnings before becoming a zombie
  • Players can be saved from turning into a zombie up to a certain point
• To kill a zombie you have to destroy the brains
• You can shoot off legs or arms, but the zombie will still advance
• Melee attacks, such as boot stomp to head can kill zombies also
• Played can build defense structures, ie towers
• Players will need to gather medical supplies in order to survive
• Players can drag downed players to safety to rescue them
  • Players can only carry so much, so you might have to drop items in order to drag someone.
  • Downed player might lose items also
• Players will have stamina.
  • Stimpacks will be available to give players a boost
  • The more you carry, the faster your stamina will run out, making you slower
• Zombies are attracted by loud sounds
• Players will be able to drive vehicles?
• Doctor will be a playable class?

I love everything about it so far, can’t wait.

Today at NY Comic-Con, Bioware announced that the launch date for Star Wars: The Old Republic will now be Dec 20th globally. This doesn’t change anything for players in North America, but pushes it two days up for players in Europe.

Along with the change in release date a new trailer was also release called Sign of War which shows some more gameplay and cinematic scenes. Also update today is the Operations page on the SWTOR website laying out exactly what Operations are, although no new info was revealed in the update.

You can view the Signs of War trailer below.

Continued…

After the horrific launch of Final Fantasy XIV about a year ago, Square Enix stopped all billing and allowed players to game for free while they worked on fixing it. It seems that FFXIV has reached a point where Square Enix believes it has been fixed, so its free-to-play run is coming to an end. Today Square Enix announced that billing will resume starting in late November or early December.

However this does not signal the end of development for FFXIV as version 2.0 has also been announced. FFXIV 2.0 will see a complete rebuilding of main main features including Level/Map design, the graphics engine, server system design, a completely new UI and many new community features.

Below Square Enix has outlined some of the major patches coming to FFXIV over the next year and below that is the rundown for when FFXIV version 2.0 will launch. You can also check out the Lodestone for the full road maps and more information about 2.0.

Continued…

Over the last week or so, we’ve been teased with screenshots and trailers for the upcoming Storms of War expansion for Forsaken World. Today we have all the juicy details as what this storm is bringing.

Up first is the long awaited Guild vs Guild PvP system. Guild Wars will take place once per week and will be split up into three tiers, 30 vs 30, 60 vs 60 and 100 vs 100. The higher the tier the larger the rewards. For guild to participate in Guild Wars, they must first construct a specific structure in the guild base which will unlock the feature.

Two guilds will battle it out on a battlefield and fight for control over 4 resource nodes. As these nodes are held it will charge the guilds base cannon where once fully charged it will fire on the enemy guild base and once destroyed, that guild wins.

The nodes are controlled by simply standing on them and throughout the week additional random resource nodes will spawn that will be worth extra points.

The second big addition is the new Aeon Spire dungeon for players level 75 and above. Groups entering the dungeon will immediately face the first boss Kluer. Once defeated, groups will be faced with another big fight and more bosses as the Aeon Spire has no wimpy mobs to slow groups down.

The second boss fight will be against a huge armored centaur inside a huge protective field which once entered, players cannot leave. Once defeated players will meet the next boss, a gigantic spider, followed by a huge tree sort of monster. Finally players will enter the Aeon Spire and meet the final end boss The Mistress of Malice.

First of all, the Guild vs Guild system sounds awesome, similar to what Guild Wars 2 is doing with their two week World vs World PvP wars. Second The Aeon spire sounds like a fun dungeon, no crappy mobs to waste your time and 5 boss battles, sign me up to that.

Blizzard is auctioning off its original server blades, which were used during the early days of World of Warcraft, in order to raise money for the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

These original server blades, which once help host thousands of players online, are now becoming part of World of Warcraft history and will become unique collector’s pieces for fans.

The auctions begin on Oct 17th and run until Nov 14th with hundreds of server blades going up for auction. Below is the are end dates for each round of auctions.

• Round 1 Realms – Oct 24
• Round 2 Realms – Oct 31
• Round 3 Realms – Nov 7
• Round 4 Realms – Nov 14

You can check out Blizzard official Ebay page for more information.

UPDATE: THQ has responded stating the details listed below are pure speculation.

It has come to THQ’s attention that some media are reporting that we’ve announced game details and a release date for our upcoming Massively Multiplayer Online project, Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online.  At this time THQ has not officially announced a release date and any reported features are pure speculation.  THQ will announce confirmed game features and an official release date at a later time.

Warhammer fans will be happy to hear that Mythic has finally released some information, and when I mean some I mean a crap load, about Warhammer 40K: Dark Millennium Online, their latest MMORPG project.

Some of the big reveals are there will only be two factions, Order and Disorder/Chaos and the level cap will be 60. The game will be an open world, however will also include instances for both PvE and PvP.

The gamestyle will be similar to what Star Trek Online has now, sort of a shooter/RPG and will be in third-person. The biggest reveal is that War40K: DMO could be cross platform. Obviously one will be PC and if I’d had to guess I’d say PS3 since they seem to be on a MMO kick these days.

Below you can find the full list of details for Warhammer 40K: Dark Millennium.

Continued…

BioWare Mythic VP Eugene Evans stated yesterday in an interview with PCGamer that Warhammer Online is in fact not going the route of Free-to-Play stating,

Right now, we’re focused on [arena-based spin-off] Wrath of Heroes as our free-to-play offering in the Warhammer universe. We believe in the community of players who are playing Age of Reckoning. Yes, we could have attracted a lot of players to it [with free-to-play], but it’s unclear how long you’ll keep them. We wanted to support our game as it currently exists.

Evans also stated that subscriptions have actually risen recently due to all the buzz surrounding Warhammer Online: Wrath of Heroes.

Well that sucks, I was hoping that Mythic was going to jump on the F2P bandwagon since I wanted to get back into the game. I still have no doubt eventually it will make the switch, but I was hoping for sooner than later before my interest completely fades.

Ever wish you could play video games to help someone in need? Now you can! On Saturday, October 15th, join charity-minded gamers across the globe in a gaming marathon for charity. It’s a 24-hour video game playing marathon to benefit the Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Much like the walk-a-thon charity events where walkers earn for their charity of choice for every mile they walk, gamers are asked to find sponsors who will pay $1 for every hour they stay awake and in game. I’m really late to the party on this one – I wish that I’d heard about it sooner!

You can start your own team, or join existing ones. Trion Worlds has one (their free weekend this weekend is dedicated to this charity event), as does Funcom, and both companies will be having giveaways during the 24 hour run. You could earn in game items and titles in RIFT, or beta access to the upcoming MMORPG The Secret World, Funcom points and more playing Anarchy Online or Age of Conan. I just spotted Team Razer, G4 Tv, Activision, and Wizards of the Coast, and I’m sure there are plenty of other recognizable names as well. All you need to do is turn on your computer (or your console, or even pull out boardgames – any game will do) and start playing!

Sign up for Extra Life and play games to help children in need!

Everquest, game that brought the MMORPG genre out from the far corners of the internet into the forfront, has been inducted into the Game Developers Choice Online Awards Hall of Fame joining Ultima Online as only the second inductee.

EverQuest (EQ) is being recognized for its contribution to the long-term advancement of online gaming, pioneering major shifts in the medium’s development and video games as a whole. EverQuest is credited for introducing the concepts of guilds and raiding within an online world, and is often cited as an inspiration for nearly every subsequent MMORPG.

Everquest has had 17 expansions since launching in 1999 with an 18th on the way.  There are more than 16,000 virtual square miles of dungeons, mountains, valleys, cities and forest to explore and since the launch more than 12 million characters have been created.  Everquest has more than 380,000 NPCs, over 100,000 unique items that have been discovered and nearly 3,000 that haven’t been.

Having never played EQ, I’m baffled at the fact that almost 3,000 items still haven’t been discovered. I guess that just goes to show you the type of depth Everquest has and why it was the original MMORPG addiction.

So it seems someone at THQ thought it would be funny to post up a release date for Warhammer 40K: Dark Millennium about 18 months before the supposed launch.  The “official” release date is currently set for March 31st, 2013, but don’t get your hopes up, with a release date that far into the future, there’s really no chance it will be met. In fact I bet there’s a bigger chance it will get delayed into 2014.

Anyway we hoped you enjoyed this fake news break