Though we had learned that DC Universe Online was to be hitting sometime in November of this year, we had not yet heard an official DCUO release date. Now we have, and it’s November 2nd, 2010, for both the PC and PS3. It was announced at Comic-Con after the “Who Do You Trust?” CG trailer, along with the news that the PS3 version will not require PlayStation Plus to play. This is a welcome relief, as the idea of requiring layered subscriptions is something that some fans might have been concerned about.

Finally, a little bit of teaser information was leaked by game director Chris Cao, regarding players joining the Green Lantern Corps. Apparently, much like the original Jedi system in Star Wars Galaxies, this will be affect only a very small number of players, as the developers don’t want thousands of Green Lanterns running around, and will be a “very special thing.” That’s all the information regarding the apparently cross-promotional Green Lantern theme with next years film that we’re getting for now.

If there are two things that deliver in this world, they are BioWare and Comic-Con. It was natural to expect, then, that when BioWare went to Comic-Con, something great might happen. It just did. If you’ve been following Star Wars: The Old Republic, chances are you’ve heard that players of SWTOR will all be getting their own ships. After this news, it was theorised that there was now the chance that there would be space combat in the Old Republic. However, an argument was put forward that such a major feature surely would have been announced by now, and that furthermore it would probably be far too great in scope to be implemented along with the already massive feature list upon launch. Both sound and logical points that thankfully turned out to be completely wrong.

BioWare has instead taken the opportunity of the SWTOR panel at Comic-Con to announce that the game will indeed include ship combat. This will apparently take the form of “an alternate gameplay experience” to that of the primary, traditional structure of questing planetside. Players will be able to fly to “hot spots” on the galactic map, using their personal spacecraft to zap everything from asteroids to enemy frigates, with the goal of the system being to “evoke memories of some of the great Star Wars space battles.” While this leaves the question of exactly how much depth will be present, and to what extent space combat will be linked to the story and character progression, I can’t help but be excited about the prospect of experiencing an even greater breadth of the Star Wars universe.

Sony Online Entertainment has unveiled three of the leading voice actors of DC Universe Online, including two “fan-favourites” topping the billing. The announcement leads with the confirmation of two of the most iconic Batman and Joker voice actors, Kevin Conroy and Mark Hamill, reprising their roles as the famous enemies. Fans of the dark knight may remember both of these actors from the Batman animated series and the recent Batman: Arkham Asylum video game.

Interestingly, the voice actor coming to DC Universe Online who is probably the biggest current star comes a distant third in the press release. Adam Baldwin, known for playing Jayne Cobb in the sci-fi cult series Firefly as well as John Casey in currently popular geek-themed show Chuck, will be voicing Superman in the game.  He is also no stranger to video game voicework, having been involved in both Mass Effect 2 and Halo 3: ODST, and he has voiced Superman before to boot.

With these popular and experienced voice actors on the roster for DCUO, my hopes for the atmosphere and storytelling present in the game are significantly lifted. For more information or to sign up for the beta, visit the official site.

The video above is the latest developer dispatch from BioWare, creators of Star Wars: The Old Republic, entitled “the Music of the Old Republic”. It features a number of the contributing composers, musicians and audio designers talking about how the music of SWTOR has come together, and the experiences they are trying to convey to the players. In between those people chattering,  there is a fair amount of simply excellent Star Wars music included as well. I could describe it to you, but my recommendation is that you simply sit back and enjoy it for yourselves.

At the same time Orion Kellogg (great name), Audio Producer at LucasArts, has posted on the SWTOR developer blog discussing all the myriad sounds of the Old Republic. The post touches on not only the aforementioned music, but also goes into detail on the challenges of voice acting in the Star Wars universe, designing the acoustics of new languages and how different weapons and abilities should sound during a player’s progression through the game.

Continued…

NCSoft has announced the release date for the upcoming free expansion Aion: Assault on Balaurea; September 7th, 2010. The expansion will be released digitally on that date, but it will also be possible to purchase boxed copies of the full game in North America, and from September 10th in Europe as well. There will apparently be “exclusive in-game pets” for those that choose to do so.

The older “preview” trailer above shows off a number of the new features coming in the wake of this expansion, but as some of you probably know, the biggest new addition to Aion will be flight mechanics. NCSoft claims that flight will offer “much more than just a way to gracefully explore the landscape - it is a strategic and integral part of combat, quests, and exploration.” I’m sure current players will appreciate the increased level cap too… and maybe the relentlessly cute pets, although I felt myself heading towards a sugar overdose just watching them.

For more information on Aion or the upcoming expansion, visit the official site.

A Tale in the Desert is an MMO game or game series, depending on perspective, in which players take on the role of ancient Egyptians striving to build an economy and society in the desert. There is no combat and very little conflict of any sort in ATITD, but I have always found the game(s) strangely engaging. Currently in its fourth incarnation, called “tellings” by the developer, eGenesis, a Tale in the Desert 5‘s release date has now been announced as August 7th, 2010.

It includes a number of new additions and also redesigns of previous features, including a completely new fishing system. Also changed is the mining system, an area of constant redesign for the ATITD series. In addition, as mentioned in a recent post, the tests players face will be replaced in ATITD5 by those chosen by the players in the fourth telling. Perhaps the most important and far-reaching change, however, comes in the form of the chance for players to own their very own cat! What Egyptian could ask for more?

Though there’s no way yet to get hands on with the fifth telling, if you’re interested in trying out the current generation of a Tale in the Desert, a free trial is available at the official site.

We’ve all seen giveaways before, but the Allods Online Quest for Chests competition goes above and beyond in terms of what’s possibly on offer. Check the flyer below for the complete list of prizes, but you can likely see at a glance that the they go all the way up to TVs, consoles and even Alienware PCs, supposedly totalling a value of $50,000. There are also a number of premium in-game items available to win, and all you have to do is play Allods Online. The concept is that by being online for a certain number of hours, players will receive keys to chests containing the aforementioned premium in-game items and also entering said player into drawings for the real life prizes.

Click below to view the flyer larger.

Continued…

Atari announced today the release of a browser game by the name of Star Trek Online Architect. This is, of course, attached to the MMORPG Star Trek Online by Cryptic Studios. Architect has been developed by the Game Agency, and features a simple “build your ship” menu-based design mode in which players can mix and match parts to create the ship of their dreams before it sharing it with their friends. In addition to this, there is actually a mini-game mode called Ship Shaper (note the terrible pun) in which you can take the role of a Shipyard Engineer who has apparently been left completely alone with the entirety of Starfleet’s ship orders sitting on their desk. You are tasked with assembling ships correctly as quickly as you can, and can then post the score on Facebook.

As a final temptation to check STO Architect out, Intel is sponsoring a sweepstakes giveaway, in which it is possible to win copies of STO, Intel Core i7 processors and even a Star Trek: The Original Series Classic Captain’s Chair Replica. If you want your shot at getting your hands on Kirk’s chair, make your way to the STO Architect site, sign up and maybe even build some ships.

The video above represents the first look we’ve had at the Guild Wars 2 Ranger class, and as ever it looks awesome. Shown are examples of the ranger skills Barrage, Hunter’s Call, Spread Shot, Serpent Strike and Whirling Defense in that order. While much of the video is no doubt staged to some extent for dramatic demonstration purposes, much like in the GW2 Warrior reveal, a few key moments definitely stand out to me.

The first is the vicious hilarity of Hunter’s Call – I’m not a huge fan of birds flying near my head in real life, but the concept of turning the tables to treat my enemies to a flock of them pecking them to death fills me with a deep and terrible joy. Spread Shot’s clip is also quite intriguing, not so much for the named ability itself, which seems to do pretty much what it says on the tin, but for the preparatory action the character is shown taking beforehand – lighting an area on fire in order to create on-the-fly fire arrows. Finally, the Whirling Defense section is almost too cool for words, I’m so impressed by it that I’m wondering if it’s too good to be true – is this simply an incredibly well-staged clip or will the reality measure up?

Continued…