World of Battles is a free, massively multiplayer strategy game. In the medieval universe of World of Battles, nine races fight a terrible war for world domination. Choose your side, recruit, train and equip units in order to create a powerful army able to face opposing armies created by other players. Take part in huge battles in order to establish yourself as a warlord and progress in the online World of Battles’ ranks. Players will be free to connect for quick play or to participate in one of the many official tournaments of World of Battles.

In the game, you will discover a unique system for customizing your units and soldiers. You’ll be able to personalize the appearance of each one of your soldiers with a very high level of detail. Before launching into your first battles, you’ll need to prepare your fighting troops, because if you don’t, your army will surely take a beating. Once you’re ready to fight, gameplay switches to real time strategy mode. Take command of your armies and show everyone who’s the greatest warlord in the war-torn battlefields of World of Battles. You can also join friends to confront other clans in titanic guild wars in which tactics and teamwork will be essential to become the most powerful army of all.

This is the latest client for World of Battles, the free, online strategy game from Frogwares set in a medieval universe.

Get the client here

Next week, True Games Interactive will be releasing its free MMO-action title, Warrior Epic. In an effort to bring you a behind-the-scenes look at the upcoming title, I took some time to participate in the recent closed beta test.

I have to admit, it isn’t what I expected going in. Warrior Epic isn’t your typical MMO. You won’t spend hours running around obtaining quests and crafting. Instead, it follows in the footsteps of games like Diablo and Dungeon Siege. Players can play for free, with the option of purchasing things like double XP potions, exclusive clothes, and other things. However, True Games says that only convenience items will be available for purchase, and that, “anything along the lines of “broadsword of one-hit kills” would never be available for purchase through micro-transactions.”

You’ll start with control of one warrior, who has a few abilities. Obviously, those powers vary depending on the type of hero you select. After you finish the tutorial level, you gain access to your warrior hall. From this central hub, you can recruit new types of heroes, browse and equip new items, and find new quests to take on. You can also see the spirits of fallen warriors, who can be called back to life under certain circumstances.

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The world of Paragon City is getting a bit darker as the lines are blurred between good and evil. City of Heroes/City of Villains is promising to muddy up the ethical water in the near future thanks to its “Going Rogue” expansion. The new content is designed to allow players to run the gamut of alignment between Superman-good to Apocalypse-Evil with all the morally shady places in between.

Brian Clayton, general manager and executive producer at Paragon Studios, explains in the press release that the team behind the game is looking to expand the game  into the four-colored jumpsuit world with the new content.

“For Years, players could choose between playing as a hero or a villain. Now we will present a third, malleable path where players can be affected by the results of their actions, enabling them to further develop, unveil new perspectives, and overcome new challenges.”

At the same time the game will introduce that time honored comic book convention – the mirror universe – where the normally heroic Statesman becomes the evil dictator of the world known as Praetoria in the guise of Tyrant. In the core universe the new alignment system also finally allows players to freely cross between Paragon City and the Villain haven of the Rogue Isles. Missions in all locations will now reflect their moral compass as well, allowing players to shape their character’s outlook and just where they fall in the good guy – anti-hero – bad guy range.

Along with the new alignment system and mirror universe zones two new archetypal storyline characters – Maelstrom and Desdemona will make their appearance to typify the good/bad paradigm.

I applaud the concept of making an MMO more responsive to the choice of the players and recent additions to City of Heroes/Villains like the Architect mission creation tools go a long way to extending the lifespan of this elder MMO even as Champions and DC Universe Online wait in the wings to give players more superhero MMO choices. I just find the claims hard to believe after all good/bad the missions are all still basically the same and nothing ever changes in Paragon City.

Full details after the jump.

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Frogster has announced that over 100,000 characters were created in the first 24 hours during the start of Runes of Magic open beta. Due to the high number of players, Frogster has opened an additional game which will now spread the community over seven servers.

In the first few hours Frogster also noted a significant increase in registration numbers and out of the total number of 220,000 registrations, more than 20,000 Accounts were created on Monday alone and immediately entered the game world: more than 2 million quests were completed in over 200,000 hours of combined playing time in the game world of Taborea.

If you are interested in Runes of Magic, check out the game page on FileFront where you can download the beta client, and after the jump game details are listed as well.
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December 15th is the kickoff for the first of the holiday events NCSoft has planned for its MMORPGs. Players can expect traditional events with fresh content as well.

City of Heroes leads off with its Winter Event 2008. City of Villains is also included because naughty players like gifts too. A festival atmosphere has already taken over Paragon City and the Rogue Isles, and will linger December 15th until January 4th, 2009. You can look forward to lots of goodies this year although you may still have to take your lumps of coal.

The Lineage II Saving Santa Event is next up running December 16th to December 30th. Players will face the nefarious Thomas D. Turkey to save Santa and Christmas.

Guild Wars‘ Wintersday 2008 event begins December 19th. The Eye of the North will be decked out for the Wintersday for the first time, and that’s only the beginning of new content planned for this event. Players will receive a special gift for attending the Wintersday Finale January 5th.

Get the full scoop on these winter holiday events after the break.
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Guild Wars is kicking off the holiday season with its Wintersday Art Contest 2008. Players are invited to express their love of Guild Wars in any creative outlet they choose.

Contestants submit a scanned or photographed JPGS of their illustrations, costumes, or even ice sculptures which would be particularly appropriate for the season. It’s legal to use any and all screenshots, renders, concept art, icons, photographs, or any other Guild Wars images as part of your creation. Winners will be featured on the Guild Wars Community website.

Here comes the incentive:

• Grand Prize Winner (1 awarded): Grand Prize Winner (1 awarded): One Razor Guild Wars Death Adder Mouse; one VisionTek Radeon HD3650 graphics card, a full set of four Guild Wars Limited Edition Signed Art Prints; one randomly selected Guild Wars Penny Arcade Expo 2008 Signed Art Print (Approximate total retail value of package: $450.00 US.)
• Second Place Winner (1 Awarded): One Razor Guild Wars Death Adder Mouse; a full set of four Guild Wars Limited Edition Signed Art Prints; one randomly selected Guild Wars Penny Arcade Expo 2008 Signed Art Print    (Approximate total retail value of package: $250.00 US.)
• Third Place Winner (1 Awarded): One Razor Guild Wars Death Adder Mouse; one randomly selected Guild Wars Limited Edition Signed Art Print; one randomly selected Guild Wars Penny Arcade Expo 2008 Signed Art Print  (Approximate total retail value of package: $130.00 US.)
• Fourth Place Winners (7 Awarded): One randomly selected Guild Wars Limited Edition Signed Art Print; one randomly selected Guild Wars Penny Arcade Expo 2008 Signed Art Print  (Approximate total retail value of package: $60.00 US.)
• Honorable Mentions (10 awarded): One randomly selected Guild Wars Penny Arcade Expo 2008 Signed Art Print  (Approximate total retail value of package: $20 US.)

You have until 12:00 Noon PST on Monday, January 5, 2009 to get your entry in so get those ideas flowing. For complete contest rules and submission instructions visit the Guild Wars Community website.

MMO Portal is offering up the MMO Calendar 2009 to raise money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. The third calendar comes with art from some of the most played MMOs out there. As an extra incentive, MMO Portal will be giving away prizes including boxed copies, premium accounts, 30-day passes, 60-day passes and closed beta accounts for the participating MMOs. Each calendar you purchase nets you one entry.

MMO Calendar 2009 proudly includes:

• Age of Conan
• DC Universe Online
• Dofus
• Eve Online
• EverQuest II
• Free Realms
• Guild Wars
• Pirates of the Burning Sea
• RuneScape
• The Agency
• Warhammer Online
• World of Warcraft

To get your copy of the MMO Calendar 2009 and do your part for St. Jude visit the MMO Calendar website. Don’t forget to check with your accountant to see if it’s tax deductible.

There’s a debate on Video Gamer Examiner on whether Diablo III can persevere where its spiritual successor Hellgate: London failed. The author starts off by saying he found Guild Wars and Hellgate, both products of various branches of former Diablo designers, disappointing.

The author cites replaybility as the key to Diablo’s popularity and Diablo III’s success.

In fact, the developers hinted that not only would we get our random dungeons, but we also might be seeing some random quests and/or events. This is way overdue! Dynamic quests are something I’ve been wanting to see for a long time and could really add a whole new level to the idea of replayability.

What a week it has been! More accusations of GTA related crime sprees sweeping the globe, sadly losing the hilariously astute Bernie Mac, the Olympics starting off with a huge bang and a stabbing in China, Clay Aiken’s record producer giving birth to his child, and rumors of a curse surrounding “The Dark Knight” were flying across the internet like a banshee. What awaits us next week in the world of gaming and other things not as important (I jest) who knows.

What I DO know, is that only five demos hit FileFront this week and while that is a paltry sum, a couple of them seem to be pretty popular believe it or not.

So, without further ado, here they are:

• Ironclads: American Civil War: Playable demo of the historical naval simulator Ironclads: American Civil War

• Drakensang: The Dark Eye German: DTP Entertainment has released a playable demo of Drakensang: The Dark Eye, allowing you to try out this PC adaptation of Germany’s most popular pen & paper RPG.

• Lights of Dreams: The Angelical Blade 2.30: Xilvan (Xylvan) Design has released an updated demo of Lights of Dreams: The Angelical Blade.

• Candy World The Golden Bones Tome II v1.30: Xilvan Design has released a new demo for Candy World: The Golden Bones Tome II.

• Birth of America II : Wars in America: Birth of America II: Wars in America 1750-1815 follows the successful historical strategy videogame Birth of America, AGEOD’s American Civil War and Napoleon’s Campaigns.

The patches were aplenty as usual, and I have listed the most downloaded ones below. There were 17 in all, so check the full list on FileFront to see if one is available for your game.

• The Guild 2 Patch 1.4 – Protected
• Myth War II Online v1.0.4.23 Client Patch
• Halo Custom Edition 1.0.8.616
• Halo 2 v1.01 Revised Patch
• Atlantica Online Beta Patch

As always, for the full list of both demos and patches, click here and here. See you next week.

Sony has announced that starting next month Star Wars Galaxies and EverQuest II players will have access to Vivox’s Station Voice. This in-game chat program will be free with paid subscriptions. SOE has plans to integrate Station Voice into it’s other MMOs including The Agency in the future.

The initial launch of Station Voice will allow players to:

• Talk person-to-person in game with any microphone and headset combo
• Chat with their party, guild or any other group in game
• Play and communicate without worry of a significant increase in game lag
• Manage group/user participation with moderator controls
• Individually mute and set volume per user
• Set up easily without the need for separate software, accounts or registration

SOE plans to integrate more features into Station Voice later this year including voice fonts and the ability to connect to games from Station Launcher. Anyone who uses the Station Launcher, whether they subscribe to a SOE MMO or not will be able to use Station Voice.

For MMO players that like to keep in touch with voice chat, this will be great. Running a seperate chat program like Skype can bog down your system in some cases. If Station Voice works as well as advertised that is.

via Press Release