Talk about a beta weekend. Between the first beta of Defiance, the third beta of Transformers Universe and now the free-to-play AAA shooter Warface, gamers are going to have a busy weekend. No matter what your favored time sink may be, as long as it involves killing other animate objects, this weekend has it for you, for free!

The announcement came late last night, revealing that the graphical gem has moved to its Closed Beta phase. Neither Crytek nor Trion Worlds has given a definitive launch date. Rather the companies are expecting the community to shape the game ahead of launch, allowing for a flexible schedule.

Well, here’s what Dirk Metzger, the GM of Publishing for Crytek had to say on the matter:

“We look forward to making the experience even more engaging as waves of pre-registered players are invited to join the closed beta and play their part in shaping Warface ahead of its final launch.”

Currently, FPSers can salivate over a Spring 2013 window. Beta applicants are still being accepted.

By now the die-hard Final Fantasy fans are logging in to servers around the world for their first look at the release version of FFXIV Online. In this final of our videos celebrating the release of Final Fantasy XIV Collectors Edition today, I finally get in some good gameplay. The video picks up at the opening cinematic for Gridania, then I play around with the UI and basic commands a bit before engaging in combat and seeing more pretty cut scenes. Lots of good stuff in this one. After the video, continue onward for my critiques of the game based on what I experienced in the Open Beta.

As promised, now I lay into the game itself. As I previously ranted, the Open Beta seemed to be very poorly organized. I had to jump through so, so many hoops just to get the client installed, patched and running properly that part of me was no longer even interested in playing the game. Another part thought, “After going through all that, this BETTER be good.”

And in some ways, it was. The character creation process itself is quite detailed and allows for some relatively in-depth customization. Of course, your character will still look like the race that you choose, but with many, many options for skin tone, facial expressions, voice, eyes and nose, hair, etc. That part was fun.

And I loved the transition of my character from the version I created in the first and second videos I posted to one appearing so vividly in-game. In the cut scenes, I was especially impressed with the graphics. Even during gameplay, the look of the characters and environments is gorgeous.

The class system also seems really interesting, although I didn’t progress very far, and the questing from what I played through seemed decent. I enjoyed the switch back and forth between gameplay and cut scenes, too, and think that overall I would be a fan of the storyline. But, for me, that wasn’t enough to suck me in. Continue Reading

Most of these refer to in-game mechanics, inside jokes, or pop culture surrounding World of Warcraft inside jokes. You can add to, agree with, disagree with, or remove any of these as you see fit. I sat with a group of friends and jokingly brainstormed these up. Hope you get a kick out of them as much as I did.

Rule I:

You can eat and drink at the same time.

This just blows everyone’s minds when they first log in and start playing the game. It’s just something that goes against nature. Seriously, when was the last time you tried to eat and drink at the same time without, you know, choking? I’ve had problems doing just one without choking!

Rule II:

You can create fire under water.

Despite being once again against the laws of nature and physics, it is possible for fire to exist underwater. Many times I’ve laughed while playing a Mage and realizing that when casting Fireball underwater, it flies toward the mob without sizzling out.

Rule III:

You can run through walls.

With all games you’ll find some graphical and clipping errors, the ones where your mount’s head is sticking through a wall or your gun is inside some other person’s body (without blasting a hole through them). Some even use this to their advantage in PvP, such as when they stand on the upper platform in the AH of Stormwind.

Click through for the remaining rules.

Continue Reading

One of the most profitable businesses in the video games industry today is not a developer, designer, publisher, or even console manufacturer. Not to say all of the aforementioned are unsuccessful, but certainly they have not yet achieved the same kind of success as this one. In today’s video gaming world, GameStop reigns supreme as the most successful video game retailer in the world.

You’d think, by looking at the store from outside, that selling the new games is where they get all their money. You’d be wrong. The main reason for GameStop’s profitability lies in its business to buy and resell used games. It’s an incredibly profitably business and one that GameStop has mastered. Unfortunately, there are still games that consumers are unable to sell: MMORPGs.

When you are done with that shiny new Xbox 360, or PS3 game what do you typically do with it? Well, if your anything like me, you start shopping around to trade it in towards your next victim purchase. This can be done with a few PC games as well (provided they don’t have any pesky online copy right protection). Unfortunately, you can’t do the same with your ever growing MMORPG collection. Due to having an account linked to the actual disc it makes it virtually impossible to sell the actual disc when you do finally get bored of the game. A shady practice by the MMO gaming industry, but one that is quite often overlooked.

So why is this even happening? After all, developers and publishers allow you to sell console games. The music industry allows you to sell your long forgotten CDs. Even the movie industry allows you to sell movies to your friends. This is all a common practice amongst out economy and it’s something that these organizations know is happening.

Well, to be honest, I can’t even begin to tell you what the motivation for each company might be. Some people claim that the CD can’t be used for another account to keep thefts in line. After all, if your account is automatically linked to the CD then selling it could cause your account to be opened up for theft. However, the whole problem would be avoided if your account was never linked in the first place. Perhaps there is a missing piece in the equation that I can’t see, but from my perspective the entire thing wreaks of greed.

Thoughts? Comments? Flames? Let’a rip!