iTZKooPA chats up producer Mark Hill about Rusty Hearts, one of two titles coming this year from Perfect World Entertainment. The interview discusses the title’s tight narrative, content plans, balance, style and much more.

Wargaming.net places players in tier-based battles for WoT. 1930s craft will not often fight superior 1950s craft, if WoW, as expected, follows the same formula.

Wargaming.net, creator of the recently launched and quite successful F2P World of Tanks MMOG, revealed that it plans on taking the winning formula to the sky. World of Warplanes will not only add a second WoW moniker to the MMOG players lexicon, but allow them to tear across the sky in scenarios from the 1930s to 1950s in era planes. The timeframe will not be lost on aviation fanatics, as the era was driven by rapid technological innovation thanks to numerous wars. Just like the timeframe used for WoT.

Other than the title being team-based, Wargaming.net hasn’t released many details at this point. It’s likely that WoW will feature a near-perfect balance of war simulation with traditional MMOG gameplay (thus, be nothing like the other WoW). Customizing vehicles with upgrades and technological skilltrees should make a return, as well as the ability to speed progress through RMT.

I am reservedly excited. Given the fact that maps will not be a major draw – terrain doesn’t affect strategy like it does for tanks – how will WoW reel us in? Unique capture-the-flag or defend-this-target scenarios? Driving, even a tank, is second nature to many people, will the additional of a third dimension relegate WoW to an even more niche status?

This blogger will be polishing his joystick, waiting for additional details, including a release date.

Who’s up for coining the moniker WoWp with me?

At what point can we consider this a concrete industry trend. It seems if a title isn’t holding a healthy amount of subscribers, a number which depends on the title, the game will make its way to the free-to-play model (Could Fallen Earth be next?). Dungeons & Dragons did it, Champions Online followed and EverQuest II has special servers to accommodate that part of its fanbase. Heck, Lord of the Rings Online, a title that was doing fine by all accounts, transformed because Turbine made gobs of money from DDO: EU’s transition. That company struck gold twice.

Hi-Rez Studios announced today that its third-person sci-fi shooter Global Agenda will be joining the freemium ranks when the Free Agent content patch releases in mid-April. To date, the company hasn’t charged a single subscription fee, modifying from a subscription model to the Guild Wars style ‘pay for expansions’ model when Sandstorm, the previous large content patch, was released in June. Hi-Rez Studios refused to charged subscription fees until it felt the game was of adequate polish.

I did mention that Patch v1.4 is a content patch, right? The aptly titled Free Agent will include new high level content in the form of a Dome Defense mission, a Capture The Flag-style Mercenary map with pilotable robots and revamps to all specialization trees (FINALLY!). Additional content and tweaks weren’t detailed, but are promised.

Obviously, F2P titles make their money off of cash shops, and Hi-Rez is already promoting a premiere item, Elite Agent status. The one-time purchase ($19.99) gives players all sorts of perks including increased XP, credits and Elite loot, selectable Mercenary maps and more. Standard boosters will continue to be made available for all players.

Gamers that currently own Global Agenda will be upgraded to Elite Agent status upon relaunch for free.

F2P customers really do get full access to the game. Hit the jump to see all the perks to Elite Agents and the guarantees to F2P gamers. Continue Reading

It's a flippin' ninja!

It’s no secret that I didn’t have a good experience with Champions Online. So poor was my time with the game that I abandoned it well before my 6-month timeshare was up and shrugged away from Star Trek Online. The title didn’t…resonate with me, to put it politely.

A couple of months ago, Cryptic Studios announced the no-brainer transition to the popular free-to-play model. Like DDO and LotRO before it, the re-launched Champions Online would support itself on the freemium model. Players would jump in the game for free, only having to pay for addition content. While I still believe Cyptic is shooting itself in the foot (which may be in its mouth) by relegating the customization, the game’s best, features to the pay-for category, I expect the “new” game to make bank.

The re-launch, dubbed Champions Online: Free for All is now live (currently, login servers are being hammered).

In fact, there’s a very good chance I’ll dip my toes back in the pool. After numerous balance and content patches, months of beta testing, new opening areas and “reordered, rescripted and augmented” zones, the game is probably a radically different experience. Just look at the insanely long patch notes.

Seriously, I’ve never seen that many documented changes for a game before.

You can sign up here and check out the Free for All trailer after the jump. Continue Reading