Message from the team confirms servers to close early next year.

To the Tabula Rasa Community,

Last November we launched what we hoped would be a ground breaking sci-fi MMO. In many ways, we think we've achieved that goal. Tabula Rasa has some unique features that make it fun and very different from every other MMO out there. Unfortunately, the fact is that the game hasn't performed as expected. The development team has worked hard to improve the game since launch, but the game never achieved the player population we hoped for.

So it is with regret that we must announce that Tabula Rasa will end live service on February 28, 2009.

Before we end the service, we'll make Tabula Rasa servers free to play starting on January 10, 2009.

We can assure you that through the next couple of months we'll be doing some really fun things in Tabula Rasa, and we plan to make staying on a little longer worth your while. For more details about what we are doing for Tabula Rasa players, please click here.

Stay tuned for more information. We thank you for your loyal support of the game and encourage you to take us up on the benefits we're offering Tabula Rasa players.

The Tabula Rasa Team

The release date for Chronicles of Spellborn in North and South America, UK and Australia has been announced:

Acclaim Games Announces New North American Release Date for “The Chronicles of Spellborn”

Acclaim plans Closed Beta for end of November with an official release in January 2009

Los Angeles, CA (November 18, 2008) – Acclaim Games officially updates the release schedule for The Chronicles of Spellborn MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). With additional testing and ongoing game improvements, Acclaim’s release schedule has been updated with Closed Beta testing to begin on November 27 and a new release date scheduled for January 2009. Acclaim’s licensed territories for Spellborn will include North America, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and South America.

When the European countries go live on November 27, Acclaim will simultaneously start Close Beta testing in its territories and then go live in January 2009. Both launches will have the exact same product versions featuring identical Freemium models but with a different release date to accommodate additional testing for a smooth official release. Extensive testing of the game will ensure players receive the highest quality gaming experience at launch.

With players around the world eagerly anticipating the launch of Spellborn, the game has undergone some key upgrades to allow more players to participate and enjoy the various features of the online game. In all regions, Spellborn will be a “Freemium” game, with a Free to Play zone and a required premium subscription service in order to access the full game past the Free to Play zone.

The Spellborn game client will be completely free to download and install, and will feature the special Free to Play zone with no time restrictions (only level limit). Key features of this Free to Play zone include the following:

• Free players are limited to the starting zones Hawksmouth and Aldenvault.

• A gameplay limit occurs at Fame level 7, when free players have progressed approximately 90% towards Fame level 8.

• Upon reaching this limit, all character progression is blocked and the player will receive a pop-up informing them of this block and what is obtainable beyond this with a premium subscription.

The following elements will be explicitly blocked:

• Players will be unable to gain Fame in any way or form, frozen at a fixed amount.

• The player will be able to accept quests, but not able to complete any objectives/quests.

• Able to kill mobs, but the player will receive no kill credit. This means, no fame reward, no pep reward and no item reward.

• Unable to travel beyond the zones Hakwsmouth and Aldenvault.

Players who want the full game experience and wish to go past the zone restrictions must purchase a premium subscription option priced at $15 per month to open all game content. This Freemium model will allow many more players to experience the gameplay before choosing the premium subscription to access the full array of game features and content.

Initial feedback from the MMORPG player community has been excellent, and the development team is taking this feedback to make various improvements to the game.

The registration for the open beta for Chronicles of Spellborn has started today. It is however limited to players from a few European countries.

The Closed Beta is coming to an end, and it's time for the European Open Beta test to kick in!
Starting today, Thursday the 20th of November, you can register on the Spellborn Player-Site at https://eu-players.tcos.com for an Open Beta spot and download the game client.
The European Open Beta test of Spellborn will start on Saturday the 22nd and will end on Monday the 24th of November. This Open Beta test is only available to European Players from the following European countries:

•    Germany
•    Austria
•    Switzerland
•    France
•    The Netherlands
•    Belgium
•    Luxembourg
•    Sweden
•    Norway
•    Denmark
•    Finland

Current European Closed Beta testers of The Chronicles of Spellborn will be automatically granted access for the Open Beta test and will not need to download a new game client nor sign up for Open Beta. The Closed Beta test will officially stop today, Thursday the 20st of November at 10pm CET.  A Closed Beta Closure event will take place from 8pm CET to 10pm CET. The characters created during Closed Beta test will be wiped in preparation of the Open Beta.
 
The Open Beta test will start on Saturday the 22nd of November at 12pm CET and end on Monday the 24th of November at 10pm CET.  After the Open Beta, all characters will be wiped to prepare the game servers for the official launch of The Chronicles of Spellborn.

Please note that the Player-Site will be taken down tomorrow Friday the 21st of November for a hardware maintenance and upgrade in preparation of the Open Beta. This downtime is scheduled from 11:30am CET until 2:30pm CET.

Rob Fahey updates on AoC's PvP.

Of course, Conan is a game where equipment doesn't have a particularly huge impact on your character (unlike the hugely gear-dependent World of Warcraft, for instance), so it's not that PVP-geared characters are incredibly imbalanced. However, the message is clear - if you want the best stuff, you'd better be prepared to start lopping off other players' heads for it.

The second thing to note is a consequence of what we just mentioned regarding gear. Conan, arguably more than any other mainstream MMORPG right now, is a skill game. You need to target your foes, keep them in front of you, master movement and dodging, and manage button-combo skills and a varied cooldown cycle in order to be an effective PVP player. It's fast, very frantic and in many ways closer to an action game than a conventional RPG.

Sometimes, this action-focused ambition bites Age of Conan in the backside - such as when your network connection, the game's network code, or a combination of both causes a lag spike or temporary connection drop. In a game like WOW, you'll often come back and find little damage has been done; it's designed to handle some bumpy network conditions. In Conan, you're probably dead in the water - your cooldown cycle is shot, you've just missed a key combo, and your opponent is standing behind you using your back as a pincushion. These things happen; Conan's vocal band of fans would argue that it's a reasonable price to pay for such intense PVP battles.

Blizzard announce that WotLK has sold 2.8 million copies in it's first 24 hours of release.

Also out today is LotRO latest - Mines of Moria.

Grab a drink and a snack, get comfortable, and delve into the release notes for The Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria! The development team has been hard at work making new systems, updating old systems, revamping the UI and monster play, and creating the mother of all dungeons: Moria! Click here for the release notes!

EQ2 latest expansion is out today and a trailer is available on the offical web-site.

The not unexpected 10/10 review from Eurogamer's Oli Welsh is up.

Wrath of the Lich King ought to be stale - but it inspires wonder. It ought to feel dated - but it makes WOW's newest rivals look clumsy. It ought to seem derivative and formulaic, one step behind the curve - instead, it takes the bar WOW set for quality in MMOs and casually lifts it far out of reach.

Blizzard hasn't repeated the excitable, haphazard and slightly barmy revisionism of first expansion The Burning Crusade. Instead, it has brought to bear every ounce of its legendary perfectionism, craftsmanship and attention to detail. It has made the world's best MMO better, and - here's the remarkable thing - it has done so in a way that works for almost everybody, in almost every situation.

Funcom announce AoC's new level 50+ zone is live.

Durham, USA – November 14th, 2008 – This week Funcom updated the ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’ live servers with the largest gameplay content addition since launch. By visiting the vast, new outdoor area of Ymir’s Pass players will now be able to find new quests to solve, new characters to meet, new monsters to slay and a dramatic new storyline to unravel. The update also includes a new dungeon – The Amphitheater – that holds one of the most epic and memorable monster encounters ever created for the game.

“This is an important update that opens up a lot of new gameplay content for players who have already passed the level fifty mark,” says Game Director Craig Morrison. “In the months ahead we will introduce even more new content, and coming up soon are two exciting new high-level dungeons intended for players who have reached the maximum level. At this stage adding more content and keeping people entertained is very important to us!”

John Funk writes a highly positive review of Blizzard's WotLK.

Wrath of the Lich King is a tremendously more ambitious - and tremendously more successful - expansion pack than Burning Crusade was, and feels like a return to the roots of Warcraft. It's more WoW, but it's a better WoW in essentially every way imaginable. No game is flawless of course, but Lich King is a title worthy of the Blizzard name and reputation. It might just remind people why exactly there are eleven million people around the world playing the game today. The Kool-Aid has never tasted so good.

Long live the King.

WotLK is live on servers, there's a few reports from the successful London launch event around the web. Blues' News has a nice round up of these here.

For years, the heroes of the Alliance and Horde have fought against the evils in Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, against the demons of the Burning Legion in Outland, and against each other -- all the while unaware that a threat more dangerous than any they had yet encountered was preparing to make its move in the icy continent of Northrend. Now the Lich King, Arthas Menethil, has emerged from Icecrown Citadel to claim the world as his own. Heroes of the Alliance and Horde gather in Northrend to make a stand against the malevolent being that dares to declare himself Azeroth’s one true king... and seeks to scour all life from the world.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is now live and available at a store near you. Featuring a massive new continent, the brand-new death knight Hero class, unique dungeons, an open-world PvP zone with siege vehicles and destructible buildings, and hundreds of brand-new quests, Wrath of the Lich King provides a huge variety of content for solo and group players. The expansion is available in both a standard and Collector's Edition; find out more about the latter in our Wrath of the Lich King Collector's Edition Preview. To learn more about what awaits you in Northrend, visit our Wrath of the Lich King Features Page and check out the primer to get you started.

During installation of the expansion, you'll be able to upgrade the World of Warcraft account you play to allow access to Wrath of the Lich King. You can click here to upgrade as well.

Has new interests apparently;

Fellow Soldiers of the AFS,

I am happy to finally be able to write the players and community of Tabula Rasa. We've been on quite a journey together. First in creating a game unlike any other on the MMO market, then growing a loyal community and finally launching the game and its players into space with Operation Immortality. It has been quite an unforgettable journey, one that I will treasure for the rest of my life.

I am very grateful to you loyal players for sticking around through what I think we can all honestly say was a rough launch. I thank the development team for pushing hard to get polish, updates and new content out every month since launch...a feat that I think is unusual in MMO development. They have a lot to be proud of.

Many of you probably wonder what my plans are, now that I have achieved the lifelong dream of going to space. Well, that unforgettable experience has sparked some new interests that I would like to devote my time and resources to. As such, I am leaving NCsoft to pursue those interests.

This news is difficult for me to deliver. I am honored to have worked with the team I've had and I'm grateful to the community who makes this game so unique and fun.

Thank you and farewell.

Richard "General British" Garriott

Blue's has prepared the table. The dinner is two Mines of Moria trailers:

Two new fly-through trailers from Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria show off two of the new areas being added by the upcoming first expansion for Turbine's Middle-earth MMORPG. There is a clip showing off Nud-Melek on AtomicGamer, FileFront, and Gamer's Hell. The other clip is a fly-through of Silvertine Lodes, available on AtomicGamer, FileFront, and Gamer's Hell. Lord of the Rings Online: Mines of Moria is set to launch one week from today on November 18.

The October newsletter for APB (All Points Bulletin) brings news that different inventory items have been added, mini-games and leisure activities will be added post-release and bullet time combat have been scrapped entirely from the game.

Read the October newsletter here.

The chronicles of Spellborn will be available in two versions from the 27th of November.

Regular version:

• DVD box
• A world map in A3 format
• One month playing time
• Manual on the DVD

Premium edition:

• Flap-box
• 3 months playing time
• 84 pages printed manual
• 152 pages artbook
• A world map in A3 format
• An (at this time unknown) ingame item

At this point in time we are only aware of a release in Germany, where amazon.de has the two games listed for 16.99 and 39.99 Euros.

Images of the boxes and the artbook can be found in our gallery. There you can also find an image of the map.

After the release the client software will also be available as a trial version that is restricted to the start region of the game and stops functioning after the character reaches its seventh level.

The monthly fees are 12.99 Euro, 11.99 Euro for a 3 month period and 10.99 for 6 months. Besides that game cards can be purchased for 25.99 Euro with which it is possible to play for 60 days.

CVG have made PC Zone's revelation of BioWare's MMORPG Star Wars: The Old Republic in its 200th and 201st issues available for online reading.

• Part One:

Space will exist in some fashion too (rather than being a mere swooshy loading screen between locations), but again BioWare aren't keen to lift the lid on exactly how it will be implemented. One thing is certain, and that is that there'll be times when you'll be flying in space. If that's not enough information for you, well I honestly don't know what to say.
You'll be visiting all of Star Wars' most iconic worlds, in care-free Han Solo-esque romps across the galaxy. 

• Part Two:

If you think this is sounding more like a single player RPG than a persistent online game, that's because it really does, The Old Republic is deeply rooted in BioWare's experience in offline adventuring. Even the company's morality system has survived the genre transition, pegging you as a light or dark character based on your actions, regardless of your chosen faction. Even in the first few hours of the game the quests will have multiple outcomes based on player choice. Those outcomes will impact on the story, something no popular MMO has ever attempted.

RPG Vault has the second in their series on MMOG studio startups, this time looking at BioWare's Austin studio with Rich Vogel and Gordon Walton:

We also made the decision that if we were to build a BioWare game, we needed design leadership from the mother ship. James Ohlen, the studio creative director agreed to move to Austin, and brought along a few key design leads. We also ended up with several other strong veterans in important positions. They veterans were invaluable as our cultural touchstones, and were an excellent reality check on how well we were doing in staying aligned.

We immediately started evaluating available middleware, as we wanted to be in a position to be building and playing our game, not spending a year or two creating technology first. We were fortunate to find some that matched most of our needs, though we knew we would end up doing a lot of additions and changes to get exactly where we were looking to end up. We also had to integrate some of BioWare's knowledge in this area into our project.

CCP join up with Atari to distribute EVE in a boxed form.

Reykjavik, Iceland and Lyon, France - 10 November 2008: Atari and CCP, one of the world’s leading independent game developers, today announced a partnership which will see Atari exclusively distribute boxed versions of CCP's award winning PC MMOG, EVE Online. The game will be available in retail outlets in North America, Europe and Asia Pacific regions beginning March 2009. In addition, Atari will provide trade marketing services to augment CCP's consumer marketing initiatives for EVE Online. This venture will enable CCP to reach a wider audience and increase the visibility and awareness of the wildly popular franchise, which has grown steadily year-on-year since its release in 2003.

Oli Welsh gets to look at the station upgrade coming to EVE sometime in the future.

Walking in Stations will also make EVE the first game to take advantage of a new lighting technology called Enlighten from Cambridge's Geomerics. In technical terms this means real-time radiosity - the bouncing of light from surfaces to other surfaces. In practical terms, it's supposed to allow games to take advantage of the kind of dynamic mood lighting of film, and especially film noir. A Geomerics representative showed clips of Alien and Blade Runner as well as a deeply impressive tech demo. Enlighten wasn't built into the demo shown, but regardless, there were some stunningly subtle lighting and shadowing effects on display already - ambient occlusion (softer darkening of obscured areas, as opposed to hard shadows) was spectacular.

The conclusion hints that this update maybe related to the WIP World of Darkness MMO.

Walking in Stations' presentation at Fanfest was impressive - but limited and transparently far from finished. It hasn't even reached alpha testing yet, and the chances of it making the first of the next year's two expansions look pretty remote. But the project has implications beyond EVE - it's surely a technology testbed for CCP's second game, the mysterious, vampiric horror-fantasy World of Darkness. As such, it's reassuring that the developer is investing in cutting-edge technology, and developing realistic, worldly content with the same intellectual thoroughness and dedication to player freedom that it has brought to the abstract reaches of space.

Guilds and clans planning on establishing themselves in the post-apocalyptic world of Fallen Earth can now apply for guild/clan registration as part of the game's alpha testing. Click the link for full details concerning applying.

Rob Fahey from Eurogamer previews The Chronicles of Spellborn. Something on AI:

It's also worth mentioning the game's AI. After a few hours of play you notice that Spellborn's foes don't behave like anything else you've seen in an MMORPG. For a start, they dodge and weave to avoid your attacks, which is understandable given the game's decision not to have any dice-roll based avoidance. And there are other, subtler things going on here too. We noticed this first when a wolf started running away even though we'd only hit it a couple of times. Suspecting a bug, we ran after it. We blundered through a bush after the wolf - only to discover ourselves surrounded by four more wolves, to whom the original target had deliberately led us. Clever girl.

FileFront has a couple of new screenshots for the Lord of the Rings Online expansion pack, Mines of Moria.

The website massivegamer.com has uploaded some photographs from this year's EVE Online Fanfest in Reykjavik, Iceland. The fanfest runs from 6-8th of November.

The official subsite for the Fanfest '08.

Icelandic CCP has sent out the following press release announcing that the ninth expansion for EVE Online - Quantum Rise - will launch November the 11th free for subscribers:

CCP announces final features in free winter expansion

Reykjavik, Iceland, November 4th, 2008 - CCP, one of the world's leading independent game developers, announced November 11th as the launch date for the final deployment in the two-part staged release of EVE Online: Quantum Rise, the ninth free expansion for EVE Online. EVE Online players have already begun to enjoy the performance-enhancing improvements of the StacklessIO and EVE64 initiatives which were introduced in an earlier phase of the expansion's release, and both of which have set the stage for truly limitless combat. Several times in recent weeks, over 1,000 players have participated in single-system battles with extremely minimal lag thanks to these new industry-leading advancements.

These previously unannounced features will debut in EVE Online: Quantum Rise:

" The introduction of In-game Subscription Services. You can now convert your 60-day EVE Time Codes (ETCs) into two 30-day items in game. These "30-Day Pilot's Licenses" can be traded freely through all regular means (via market or contract or directly between players) and can be activated at any time. This feature will be available on November 11th or shortly thereafter
" Assembly Array upgrades for those wanting to produce on a grand scale
" Alchemy allows moon materials to shift the whole landscape of Tech 2 production
" UI changes include a moveable HUD, module recharge timers and weapon grouping
" More efficient bomb production. Producers get more boom for their materials.
" Upgrades to the Trinity Premium graphics content for the ubiquitous stargates of New Eden
" A rebalancing of ship speeds for vessels of all sizes to rediscover their combat viability, making player vs. player strategy and tactics more important than ever
" 10 new beautifully haunting music tracks by EVE soundtrack composer RealX

Already revealed features of Quantum Rise include the ability for corporations to create and distribute their own custom medals for whatever accomplishments they see fit to bestow on their members. Pilots will find a newly-designed certificate system provides a quick and verifiable way to prove their worth in gunnery, trading or countless other professions. The shipyards of New Eden have been busy rebalancing industrial ships and are almost ready to undergo production of the mighty capital ship, the Orca. For easier navigation, all ships will feature autopilot avoidance options and a few new routes will open up in New Eden.

The full list of all deployed and upcoming features of EVE Online: Quantum Rise can be found here: http://www.eveonline.com/features/quantumrise

Those curious about what is planned for EVE Online past Quantum Rise will not want to miss the announcements at Fanfest this year. Held in Reykjavik, Iceland on Nov 6-8-a few days before the expansion hits the live servers-this celebration of EVE and its players will have many surprises in addition to the myriad talks, presentations and combat it always hosts. More about the Fifth Annual Party at the Top of the World can be found on the EVE website:http://www.eveonline.com/fanfest/2008/ and we have plans to cover every aspect of our favourite yearly event.

Availability:

EVE Online: Quantum Rise will be available for subscribers as a free download at www.eveonline.com/download/. Non-subscribers should visit the EVE website to sign up for a free 14-day trial account.

Ten Ton Hammer does a review of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning awarding it 4/5 hammers:

Overall the sieges could use more diversity. Mythic should use a variety of mechanics, such as ladders to scale the walls, but they could also be destroyed or knocked down by defenders. More intelligent AI would be a welcome addition because an undefended keep can fall within minutes of the first attack, often motivating enemy warbands (raid groups) to move from unguarded keep to unguarded keep for quick renown experience. Other, more trite requests, would include the ability to launch goblins with catapults, x-ray glasses to see through walls (and witch elf "armor"), air raids, and the entire cast of Apocalypse Now singing "We Are the Champions" upon victory.