SWTOR's 1.1 patch adds anti-aliasing, level 50 Flashpoint

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Star Wars: The Old Republic - Smuggler freighter, which has little to do with this article other than being cool

Star Wars: The Old Republic's next big update is live on the game's public test shard. BioWare says that the 1.1 patch is chock full of bug fixes and is "the first of many content updates" for the sci-fi MMO.

New stuff includes a level 50 Flashpoint (Kaon Under Siege) and four new bosses for Operation: Karagga's Palace. Also of note is an anti-aliasing option in the preferences menu and a correction for the problems plaguing Kira Carsen's affection conversations. The full patch notes are viewable on the official SWTOR website.

MassivelySWTOR's 1.1 patch adds anti-aliasing, level 50 Flashpoint originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 06 Jan 2012 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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Permanent price cuts to WoW expansions in the EU

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Blizzard has just announced permanent price cuts to the Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm expansions in the EU for 2012. What seems to be a push for easier accessibility to WoW, Wrath now costs only €19.99, down from €34.99 and Cataclysm is now €29.99, down from €34.99. Whether or not these deals are coming to the United States is not known at this time, but I can't really understand why they wouldn't. Getting your WoW account up to date has never been cheaper, and Blizzard is making sure the barrier to entry is as low as possible for new players.

 

 

Permanent price cuts for WoW expansions in 2012
Great news for all Blizzard fans! From today, our latest games are available at retail and on the Blizzard Store at new, permanently low prices. You can now get Wrath of the Lich King for a mere €19.99 and Cataclysm for just €29.99. There's never been a better time to grab the games you might have missed out on before. Just click here and celebrate the New Year by taking advantage of our new reduced prices. Still don´t have World of Warcraft? Now you can get the full game and all expansions for cheaper than ever before.

 

Want to check out StarCraft II? If you haven't yet taken advantage of our great new price for StarCraft II, you can click here to get yours right away!

 


 

Brace yourselves for what could be some of most exciting updates to the game recently with patch 4.3. Review the official patch notes, and then dig into what's ahead: new item storage options, cross-realm raiding, cosmetic armor skinning and your chance to battle the mighty Deathwing -- from astride his back!

 

WoW InsiderPermanent price cuts to WoW expansions in the EU originally appeared on WoW Insider on Fri, 06 Jan 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

 

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Totem Talk: 4 ways to increase your Shaman DPS

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Every week, WoW Insider brings you Totem Talk for elemental, enhancement, and restoration shaman. Josh Myers once only tackled the hard questions about enhancement but has recently expanded his sphere of responsibility to all shaman DPS specs. (And no, two-handed enhancement is still never coming back.)

DPS is an art. It's not art in the sense that the Mona Lisa or Friday by Rebecca Black are art, but it's art. It requires practice, knowledge, and dedication to make work, and judging by the Battle.net forums, Twitter, and various other social media outlets, it's an art form that a lot of people still have trouble getting right. As a DPS shaman (really, as any class), there are a few basic rules every player should follow to enhance their DPS.

1. Use addons that make up for what the default UI lacks. I know that there's a set of players out there who totally swear by using the default UI. In reality, I can understand that sentiment. I didn't realize it until I found myself with a sprained hamstring and only able to raid my borrowing my boyfriend's laptop and downloading an addon-less WoW onto it this week, but I actually thought the default UI looked really cool.

Unfortunately, despite how cool it looks, default isn't optimal. Doing the Raid Finder as elemental, I realized a couple of things -- that of my 30-plus-addon suite, I really only missed six or seven of them, and those six or seven I missed were ridiculously important. I was lacking OmniCC for watching my cooldown timers, and I didn't have Power Auras to watch Fulmination stacks or ForteXorcist for tracking my DoT timers (important for both ele and enhance). I know that I played sloppily as a result. I missed Lava Surge procs like crazy, I Fulminationed as Flame Shock ran off, and I made other small mistakes that I would normally not make because I have addons to help me keep track of the fight.

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WoW InsiderTotem Talk: 4 ways to increase your Shaman DPS originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 28 Jan 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Let's get everyone tanking

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Every week, WoW Insider brings you The Care and Feeding of Warriors, the column dedicated to arms, fury and protection warriors. Despite repeated blows to the head from dragons, demons, Old Gods and whatever that thing over there was, Matthew Rossi will be your host.

Now for whatever reason, I've been tanking lately, usually due to a connection issue or what have you. It's one of those confluences of my gear's being just good enough and my no longer being burned out on the role. While I still define myself as a DPS warrior and raid with that as my main spec, I was surprised to find tanking wasn't that hard to pick back up. In fact, it may be a little too easy.

I hesitate to make this statement because, in part, I know I'm not a typical player. I main tanked for years. I tanked in vanilla, in The Burning Crusade, in Wrath, and for the opening of Cataclysm. I was the undergeared tank trying to do heroics in greens when the expansion came out. I was the guy tanking heroic LK. I've tanked in all sorts of situations and gear and specs. I tanked when TC only hit four mobs and did not work in Defensive Stance. What I'm saying is, I've been tanking for so long there's almost no way for me to evaluate how difficult tanking is for other players. I have years of muscle memory. I've kited. I've done adds; I've done bosses. I've picked up murlocs and traded adds on Yogg.

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WoW InsiderThe Care and Feeding of Warriors: Let's get everyone tanking originally appeared on WoW Insider on Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Five phantastic videos from the Phantasy Star Online 2 alpha test

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A decade ago, Phantasy Star Online brought the special multiplayer magic of the emerging MMO genre to console gamers around the world. Sega celebrated the game's 10-year anniversary with the announcement of a sequel due to hit the shelves in Japan this year. No word has been given on whether there will be a US or EU release, but that hasn't stopped international fans of the game from getting excited. PSO2 officially launched its second alpha phase yesterday, and foreign game review website Steparu managed to get itself an invite.

Fans of the original game's online play will be pleased to know that party gameplay has been given some much-needed improvements. There's no more need to make sure everyone is on the same quest; instead, the party leader picks a mission and the whole party gets it automatically. Mini-quests can pop up randomly during a dungeon, and completing them grants bonus experience. Boss fights are just as deadly and hectic as in the original, with fast-paced action and team members dying repeatedly throughout the fight. Steparu has published a comprehensive review of the early alpha, with videos of everything from dungeons and boss kills to furniture arranging. We've embedded a few of those videos after the cut.

Continue reading Five phantastic videos from the Phantasy Star Online 2 alpha test

MassivelyFive phantastic videos from the Phantasy Star Online 2 alpha test originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 28 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Road to Mordor: Riders of Whoa-han!

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LotRO
This past week we heard from Turbine about its general plans for Lord of the Rings Online in 2012, and while it may not have hit everything on my personal wish list for the year, it was a good start.

I was mulling over the question of whether it's better for MMOs to show all of their big cards up front like Turbine or to parcel them out over the course of the year. Both have advantages, of course. Front-loading the year with a broad overview like this gives players long-term reasons to stick with the game, but it also can steal the exciting thunder from these events down the road. On the other hand, measuring the big news out during the year would probably give Turbine more publicity, but it could frustrate players who might feel "in the dark" about the company's plans.

In any case, we got what we got, and there's a lot to chew over for this week's column: unbound skirmish soldiers, Riders of Rohan, the Great River, and the fifth anniversary. So let's get started!

Continue reading The Road to Mordor: Riders of Whoa-han!

MassivelyThe Road to Mordor: Riders of Whoa-han! originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 28 Jan 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Daily Grind: Should MMO companies reveal server loads?

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SWTOR
As long as I've been playing MMOs, game companies have been obfuscating server loads. Oh, sure, you can make a pretty good guess as to how many players are playing on your server. You can look at one of the MMO charting sites, use a tool to parse how many people are in various zones at set times, or wave a calculator at the fine print in quarterly earnings reports, but those methods are admittedly imperfect. We're usually left with vague categories like low-, medium-, and high-population, terms that aren't comparable from game to game. High-pop for EVE Online doesn't mean the same as high-pop for Warhammer Online, after all.

I can understand why studios want to hide the numbers. Players are bitterly cruel when it comes to data like these, and a small reduction in population one night could lead to a snowball effect of self-fulfilling doom-and-gloom prophecies. Still, players like to know how many other people they can expect to encounter on their server since that helps them plan which server (and which MMO) might be right for them. What do you think -- should MMO companies reveal the precise numbers behind their server loads?

Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!

MassivelyThe Daily Grind: Should MMO companies reveal server loads? originally appeared on Massively on Sat, 28 Jan 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WAKFU releasing February 29th, stress test coming this weekend

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WAKFU - lots of players
It's a big weekend for WAKFU fans. The free-to-play fantasy sandbox from Ankama has announced the worldwide release date (February 29th) in a posting on the game's official website. The team picked the leap year date on purpose as a way of cementing WAKFU's reputation for doing things "that little bit differently."

The devs have also released a new video diary focusing on the game's monsters and PvE gameplay.

Finally, there's a stress test going on this weekend to help Ankama prepare for the upcoming launch. Make sure you log in on Saturday and Sunday to help out (and to get your apprentice cloak bonus item)!

Continue reading WAKFU releasing February 29th, stress test coming this weekend

MassivelyWAKFU releasing February 29th, stress test coming this weekend originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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