Latest Misadventures in Ark Survival Evolved

It's been a while since I've last written about "Ark Survival Evolved" as my friends who were playing it moved on to other frontiers. But they recently returned, and have found there have been many changes over time, and a few that just happened. These changes include some new dangers, including new deadly beasts. But with the dangers come new opportunities. And the Ark veterans along with some players new to the island are once again taking on the dinosaurs.

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Game Review: War Thunder

When it comes to multiplayer WW2 combat vehicle games, most will probably think of "World of Tanks" or "World of Warships." But there are others out there. One that's gotten some attention is "War Thunder." Starting off as an air combat game, it's been expanded over time to cover ground, and more recently sea battles. But even if one sticks to the tanks, there are a number of differences from it's more famous counterpart.

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games

SL Universe in Ark

When it comes to games and Second Lifers, there's no shortage of them inworld, as "Tiny Empires" demonstrates. Outside of the grid, "Ark Survival Evolved" continues to be the favorite among the "Furry Gamers," the group of Second Life residents whom love playing games. But as it turns out, they haven't been the only ones in the Ark game lately. Another group of Second Lifers has given it a try: the Second Life Universe Forums.

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Further Adventures in Ark Survival Evolved

It's been about a month since the Newser did a review on "Ark: Survival Evolved," the survival game on an island filled with dinosaurs. Since then, Bixyl Shuftan and some of his friends have continued playing the game, in both public and private servers. Here, he writes about some of the adventures, and misadventures, he and his fellow survivors have gone through, as well as a few more helpful hints and observations about the game.

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Game Review: Ark - Survival Evolved

With "Jurrasic World" in the theaters in recent weeks, it's no real surprise a dinosaur game would be released to the public around this time. And on Steam, the latest wilderness survival game available, "Ark: Survival Evolved," takes place on an island full of dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts. While some are strict plant eaters, and a few are completely harmless to even the clumsiest players, anyone who knows anything about dinos realizes any encounter with a meat eater bigger than you can end very badly. So does this game offer a T-Rex sized bite, or is it as dead as a dodo?

Read the review in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Elder Scrolls Online to Drop Subscription Fees

Almost a year ago, we reviewed the "Elder Scrolls Online" MMO, based on the story universe of "Skyrim." A year later, they will be dropping the requirement to pay subscription fees every month or so. It won't be a true "Free to Play," as like games such as Guild Wars 2, you need to buy it. But once you make the initial purchase, that's all you need. The change will be part of their upcoming expansion, "Tamriel Unlimited," on March 17. Unlike many MMOs, the game will also be available for Apple computers. In June, the game will also be out for the XBox and Playstation.

Players with subscriptions beyond March 17 will find their memberships changed to a Premium account, or "ESO Plus." Such accounts will have access to zones and quests regular ones do not, as well as "character progression bonuses," plus an income of "crowns," an in-game currency to spend at the game store on items like mounts.

The change to a pay-once-to-play MMO did not come as a surprise to Andy Chalk of PC Gamer, "this is an entirely unsurprising outcome. There are plenty of quality free-to-play MMO options already on the market. ... I don't think The Elder Scrolls Online was ever able to shed its reputation for being over-hyped and under-delivered, and generic fantasy MMO experiences just aren't enough to justify 15 bucks a month in this era." It was also noted that the game's price of $60 will be unchanged, "Add on the cost of future game packs, mounts, and whatever else catches your fancy, and I can't help but wonder if even the sub-free version of the game might be a little too pricey for its own good." Nydia's review of last year's beta stated that some of the bugs had yet to be worked out. In the opinion of this writer, it appears other gamers concluded the same and the game got off to a bad start, or it continued to underwhelm gamers whom had high expectations from the makers of Skyrim. 

Sources: PC Gamer, elderscrollsonline.com 

Bixyl Shuftan

Meanwhile, Back in Azeroth

After a break that's lastesd for months, I finally made the decision to give World of Warcraft another try, signing up just in time to get the Horde chopper. So what's going on Azeroth besides trick or treats and trying to clobber the Headless Horseman? The recent update preceding the upcoming expansion in a few weeks gives players a taste of what they'll be facing. The Iron Horde is marching into the Blasted Lands where the Dark Portal is, and both Horde and Alliance are in it's path.

For players whom have already clobbered Hellscream, the rewards won't match the gear they've likely gotten. But those whom haven't quite reached the gear level needed to take on the Siege of Ogrimmar will get a boost that should allow them to skip a couple raid instances. And thanks to the update, finally Ogrimmar no longer looks like Hellscream is still in charge.

So is yours truly back in Azeroth to stay? We'll see. The upcoming expansion isn't exactly getting lots of chatter among my circle of friends.

Bixyl Shuftan

Game Review: The Elder Scrolls Online

Earlier this month, the makers of  "The Elder Scrolls Online," based in the same story world as the game "Skyrim," allowed people to give their game a try for free one weekend. Both Nydia Tungsten and Bixyl Shuftan gave it a play. Today, we offer Nydia's review of the multiplayer online game. So is this a worthy game for the money you'll need to pay when it's available later this year?

Read Nydia's review in Other Grids and MMOs.

World of Warcraft To Test Using Real Money to Buy Experience Buffs

With people in Second Life complaining about how Linden Lab does things, it isn't just on the Grid that people are wondering what's up with the people behind the scenes. This month, it's been revealed that the makers of World of Warcraft have been testing an option once thought of as something only smaller games would use - paying more for player buffs. This comes on the heels of other news: the number of subscribers has been getting smaller.

Read more in Extra.

SL Video: "Frootcake Tutorial"

Remember DrFran's article on the Frootcake Diner? If you want to learn more about the game, here's a video from Rifkin Habsburg, "At the Frootcake Diner, we serve nothing but fruitcake, all day, every day! Learn to play Frootcake, the game, and you can extort and spite with everyone else."

Review of World of Warcraft's "Mists of Pandaria," Part Two

Last week, we had the first half of our review of the latest expansion of World of Warcraft, "Mists of Pandaria," in which we described the new player race and continent. Today, we look at other features in the game, such as the new Pet Battle System. We also look at the response the expansion is getting and how well it's been doing for Blizzard in it's first few days.

Read the second part of the review in Extra.

Review of World of Warcraft's "Mists of Pandaria," Part One

It's been a couple weeks since the "Mists of Pandaria" expansion came out for World of Warcraft, the most popular multiplayer online game. Bixyl Shuftan had something of a late start due to technical difficulties, but eventually getting in and seeing what was new.

Read more in Extra.

"Star Wars The Old Republic" Dropping in Numbers

It wasn't that long ago in which the "Star Wars: The Old Republic" Massive Multiplayer Online Game was making the news. Developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts and LucasArts, the game was released in December 2011, and quickly gained a huge following. Within a week, it was believed to have hosted about a million players. By March, their numbers were at 1.7 million. While not really as much as World of Warcraft, it did look like the game had given new life to the Multiplayer Online Games genre.

But this level of success was not to last. By May, numbers were down to 1.3 million subscribers. The result was that there were layoffs in the game's development team, even though the company officially expressed confidence their numbers would rebound. One analyst commented that after SWTOR's plateauing and fall, "No one is buying MMOs … there is just no demand for game assets right now."

SWTOR did set one interesting record, "At over 200,000 lines of recorded dialogue, the game has scored a record for having the largest amount of voice acting not only for a video game, but for any entertainment project." Also in what seems like a nod to the noted incident in WoW in which a plague struck the game, SWTOR had it's own "Rakghoul Plauge" outbreak.

The "Old Republic" hasn't emerged as a "WoW killer." Still, thanks to numbers of Star Wars fans, it won't be going away anytime soon.

Source: Massively

Bixyl Shuftan

A Look at Minecraft

Xymbers is back after taking a look at a game that's gotten a bit of attention among some blogs and newsletters: Minecraft. So what's so special about Minecraft, some might ask. One might think all you do is just go around diging and diging about in a eight-bit world. As it turns out, there is more to it that that for this game. One needs to build a few things to get far, there are monsters to clobber, and sometimes other players to loot from (or get looted by).

Read more in Design.

Eve Online’s Veteran Players Revolt Over “Monoclegate” Controversy

An old friend I ran into recently told me a little news concerning a game she had been playing: "Eve Online." She told me about some recent developments concerning recent updates in the game that included the sale of some highly expensive vanity items. But researching the popular online multiplayer sci-fi game, there was more going on. Much more.

Read more in Extra.