In the early centuries of recorded time, there was scarce a time as turbulent as the rise of the Three Kingdoms. The term “three” kingdoms is somewhat misleading, as each ruler believed he was the true heir to the seat of the Emperor, and therefore ruler of all of China. Though brief in duration, this period has been greatly romanticized by modern scholars and writers. The disunification of China, and the pride of each Kingdom left the country feeling desperate and hopeless, though wartime culture had never been better. The Kingdoms, known as Wei, Shu, and Wu, sought to ascertain control of the country through whatever means necessary.

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Germany publishers, Burda:ic, the minds behind such free-to-play MMOs Avalon Heroes and S4League, have recently announced a new addition to their line up – the RTSMMO Land of Chaos Online, or simply, LOCO.

LOCOs open beta will begin August 3^rd and they are looking for testers to help develop the game.

We’re really looking forward to opening the floodgates to players who have yet to experience the pandemonium that is the Land of Chaos,” said Achim Kaspers, Managing Director of Burda:ic. “With this final test run, we’ll be working around the clock to collect feedback and valuable info as we prepare for the official launch!

LOCO lets you take control of over 30 characters spanning two factions as you struggle for control of the gaming world and boasts high-end graphics and a unique combination of RTS, Action and RPG elements.

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Soul Master is an MMO from publishers GamesCampus and developers NPLUTO that mixes RPG elements with RTS elements.  Players create avatars that, like in all other MMORPGs, walk around towns, talk to other players, and can dish out a major punishment to its enemies. The game changes when the player gets to certain missions, in that the player not only controls their character but they can also make a base and pump out units that they can control.

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Nowadays in the MMORPG market it’s very common to see games emulate other more successful games, and why not right? As the popular saying goes “If it’s not broken don’t fix it.” Because of this, it is very rare to find a game whose feel is very distinct and players can sometimes find themselves feeling like they’ve played the same game over and over again.

Enter Mytheon, Petroglyph’s new MMORPG based in the very rich universe of Greek mythology, which has been garnering attention due to it’s “unique” gameplay style. In Mytheon, players are thrown into the worlds of such epic stories like Hercules, Jason and the Argonauts, the Spartans and much more in this MMO with a multi-genre feel.

Mytheon of course has the MMO aspect, whereby players are immersed in this ancient Greek universe with hundreds of other adventure-seekers. The game also has a Diablo-esque action RPG quality to its gameplay where players fight, level get gear all in a click to move environment. However, the most surprising quality of Mytheon, is in its battle/combat style system, which has been cleverly harmonized into Mytheon’s storyline. Continued…

City of Heroes creators NC Soft and Paragon Studios just released a statement about its latest expansion – Going Rogue – offering up a release date of August 17th 2010. Here’s to hoping it has nothing to do with Sarah Palin.

The update will allow players to walk the line between the two factions of heroes and villains in the game. This second paid expansion will have the players’ moral choices effect game play for the first time. “Heroes can fall from grace to become Villains, while Villains can redeem themselves to become Heroes.”

In addition to this game play mechanic, players can now enter the alternative game universe of Praetoria. New missions, zones, costumes, enemies and power sets including: Demon Summoning, Dual Pistols, Electric Control and Kinetic Melee will be available.

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Matthew Medina describes his position at ArenaNet as content designer of Guild Wars 2 as one of the people that “creates cool stuff for players to do.” Not a bad job. Medina recently wrote an article describing all him and his team are doing to give players this “cool stuff.”

Medina’s article focused on the written languages of Tyria (GW2’s game world) and how they will be used in-game. Medina took on this venture because he feels that the deep implementation of lore and storytelling that has gone into GW2 is something that deserved to be singled out.

“The writing systems in Guild Wars 2 have deep roots in the original Guild Wars and its subsequent campaigns,” writes Medina. Looking back at one neat aspect he placed in GW’s – Medina crafted a simple “runic cipher script” for a map he created for the post-searing Ascalon. To his surprise, dedicated gamers found the map and translated the runes (based on ancient Phoenician) and “discovered” the alphabet. Inspired by this, Medina started hiding other alphabets in the game that fans took to immediately.

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Another E3 MMO that has touched down is Marvel Super Hero Squad Online(MSHSO)-  a kid-centric browser-based MMO published by Gazillion Entertainment.

Marvel Super Hero Squad Online will feature dozens of all your favorite Marvel characters including Spiderman, The Thing, Iron Man, Storm, Hulk and Wolverine. There are villains galore as well like Dr. Doom, Green Goblin and Dr. Octopus.

Questions have been asked whether the popular Deadpool will be a playable character. The official response was, “I can neither confirm nor deny whether or not Deadpool will be in the game.”

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Older, but still popular MMO Lineage is revving up for a special 4^th of July in-game event entitled The Dwarves Fight For Freedom! Trust me, you do not want to get in-between a Dwarf and his freedom – bad move.

An evil wizard is trying to set up a base in Fire Valley, ever-nearing the Dwarf Cave. Using his demonic powers to enslave an army of Black Ents, the wizard hopes to push the Dwarves from their home. Where can you step in? Some of the Black Ents disguised themselves (these are very clever trees!) as Dwarves running amok on the Mainland. Kill these imposters on sight!

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Final Fantasy XI Online has recently announced that with its upcoming update and subsequent level cap raise, an accompanying “arsenal” of new job abilities, traits and magic spells will also be available.

The following Job abilities are scheduled to be added:

Restraint (WAR Lv.77 Ability Delay: 10 min. Effect Duration: 5 min.)
Enhances your weapon skill power with each normal attack you land, but prevents you from dealing critical hits.

Perfect Counter (MNK Lv.79 Ability Delay: 1 min. Effect Duration: 30 sec.)
Allows you to counter the next attack directed at you.

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Aion Online’s refer a friend program has been in-place ever since the game launched. With the recent update in patch 1.9, the Aion team has decided to give the refer a friend program a “hefty refresh, brimming with new rewards!”

Inviting a friend to join Aion Online will now give you 3 Major Ancient Crowns and one month of free game time. Added to this, your buddy will also get an item pack to help him or her get started. The friend pack comes with 25 Lodas Amulets, 100 Lesser Running Scrolls, 100 Lesser Courage Scrolls and 100 Greater Recovery Serums.

For more information on the new Aion recruit a friend program, check out Aion’s website here and get ready to bring some buddies into the game starting June 23^rd.