Developer purchases by publishers are always interesting. When the publisher is a public company the news is almost immediate and often tips the hand of the company doing the purchasing. Of course, that’s if the company hasn’t made it perfectly clear, already and that’s exactly what Perfect World International has done. It is looking to expand into the Western market aggressively.

The parent company of Perfect World Entertainment, the US arm in charge of Forsaken World, Star Trek Online and Neverwinter, the latter two being developed by wholly-owned developer Cryptic Studios, has returned to the US market grabbing the maker behind the third-person F2P shooter Warframe. Although unconfirmed by either branch, the purchase of Digital Extremes will give Perfect World another genre that’s key to the domestic market; shooters. Read more…

This review of the World of Warcraft: Pearl of Pandaria novel by Micky Neilson is of the spoiler-free variety. Check out the entire Blizzard catalog in our Extensive Extended Universe post.

You may think that a comic released alongside Mists of Pandaria would revolve around the newly-discovered island in World of Warcraft but you’d be mostly incorrect. Nelson, who said the comic originated when The Burning Crusade was all the rage, wrote it figuring the Pandaria would never see its own expansion. The tale was to explore the (original April Fool’s Day) lore and culture of the Pandarian people and the famous brewmaster and wanderer Chen Stormstout. Instead the tale was opened up to span Azeroth, from Shen-zin Su to Stormwind that, at parts, almost feels like a travel agency’s pitch to why you should be interested in the universe.

Interspersed to the lush visuals and descriptions of various locations that have been masterfully drawn by Sean Galloway is a cute coming of age and generational story of Li Li Stormstout chasing after her uncle Chen that has gone missing and presumed dead by many on the Wandering Isle. And yet the story is filled with references to the famed beer cultures of the Pandaren and Dwarven people. A bit odd with a coming of age story. Throughout the tale Li Li maintains an upbeat and unflappable outlook on life, the world and its many people, which consistently annoys Stongbo, her protective companion and a former friend of Chen. Read more…

I’m not quite sure how I missed the recent update from David Brevik on the state of Marvel Heroes but I did. Release last week, the new blog post comes with an infographic solely focused on explaining exactly how far the game has come. From listening to the community to delivering on its own intended features, Gazillion Entertainment has changed, overhauled and fine-tuned nearly every aspect of the dungeon crawler. And that’s on top of adding new features, end game content and storylines.

The infographic takes a crack at encapsulating all the developer has done to rechristen the title as Marvel Heroes 2015 but as Brevik himself states it simply falls short. No knock on the designer, but the title has simply changed that much. Heck, we spoke about it with the man himself and Ryan Collins for over 90 minutes and could have continued!

I love infographics mainly because I’m a numbers junkie. Other aspects I would have loved to see would have been the number of lines of code added and altered, registered player details, amount of humanity spent in-game, amount of damage done including biggest crits, times the original storyline had been completed and so much more.

Above is simply the game as it was in pre-beta. Hit the cut for the full infographic. Read more…

[UPDATE] We’ve secure a second round of keys for the community. Grab your key and sign-up quickly because open beta testing begins July 3. If you wait until then you won’t receive the exclusive closed beta testing items detailed below!

[END UPDATE]

Are you looking for something a bit different? A massive multiplayer online game that leaves the tropes of fantasy or science fiction? Something with a little bit of style to its combat? Swordsman may be what you’re looking for. Based upon the universe of Louis Cha the free-to-play title will engross players in the Ming Dynasty as they fight for one of the ten wuxia classes against rival schools and the Ming government.

Originally announced in mid-March, the Perfect World has rolled the beautifully animated game into its Closed Beta phase. Interested in joining the ranks? We thought you might be so we’ve secured a grand collection of beta keys for the community. No need to wait for the latest round of keys to be email blasted. Grab one immediately at the title’s giveaway page.

These keys aren’t solely beta access. They will also grant the account creator the Black Mountain pack, which includes a special Black Mountain cloak and the exclusive “Lone Wolf” title.

Don’t fret, the key won’t even require a sign up.