Star Wars: Galaxies, an MMORPG set in the Star Wars universe, has been set to be shut down on December 15, 2011. This is an obvious decision seeing as how there is a newer and far better looking MMO game coming very soon from the awesome game designers at Bioware: Star Wars: The Old Republic.
The Old Republic is an MMO set a few thousand years before the Star Wars movies; it is technically a sequel to the games Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KotoR) and KotoR2. These two games were well received, but the second one had quite a few more flaws than the first and it was rushed out the door by its publisher, so the multiple endings that the game was supposed to have were never created.
Anyway, I can't wait until this awesome looking game is released, but it's still sad that Star Wars: Galaxies is going to be shut down because of it; not that I've played it or know anything about it, but it's sad for the people who play it and love it.
Electronic Arts' company, Bioware, is responsible for making Dragon Age, Mass Effect and Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic series'. Now, Bioware is working on an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) that has already cost EA $80 million dollars to make!
Electronic Arts has also said that it will only take 350,000 subscribers to the game to make it profitable - however, with how amazing this game looks, I would expect it to garner far more subscribers than that. I really hope this game does well, someone needs to finally beat WoW!
Here are some images from Star Wars: The Old Republic posted on GameSpot on April 27, 2011! These make the game look freaking awesome! GameSpot has a bunch of info on hands on stuff of the game, so head on over there to figure out the information accompanying these images.
Electronic Arts (EA) has announced that Bioware's new game, Star Wars: The Old Republic, will be profitable with only 500,000 subscribers; however, they actually think they will reach about double that number - 1,000,000!
One-million is a lot of people, Evil Arts... I mean EA. I really hope it does well, but still - it is EA, which I don't like (they ruin games...). Anyway, I still hope for the best in Bioware's efforts to make an awesome MMO.
There is a new Wizard of Oz app for the Ipad that is called 'The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.' This is an interactive story that changes based on the shaking and pushing of buttons done to the Ipad; however, is this truly worth any hype at all? Video games have been able to branch in storyline for years now.
Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2 are some of the first true innovators in the RPG genre, unlike this generic app. This is only getting attention because it's for the Ipad, but in all reality it is just controlled in a new way; Mass Effect's story branches in thousands of small ways, which in the end will change everything in Mass Effect 3. Okay, I think this app is kind of cool, but it's just not worth any hype that some people around the net are giving it. I don't claim to have played it, but from other reviews... it's just not that amazing.
Blind Mind Studios, an indie game developer, pulled their game their strategy game Star Ruler from a digital distribution site that is about to be acquired by GameStop. Blind Mind Studios' representative said a few words (down below) and basically told us that GameStop has no business being part of the PC digital distribution industry.
I have to agree with Blind Mind Studios; GameStop is too big and too powerful, and they are trying to survive when they should simply go die like any console-game seller; a console-game seller that has yet to truly embrace the digital age and continues to think that there's a place for physical stores in the world.
GameStop also overcharges for most of their video games; Amazon.com and the wonderful Steam (the biggest digital distributor of video games) will easily beat them if they continue to embrace the digital age and rid of their stores. Amazon.com always has cheap prices and Steam always has amazing sales! There is no way for GameStop to compete, when even their sales are rip-offs.
"On March 31st, Stardock Systems announced that Impulse will be purchased by GameStop, likely some time in May. Due to a rather large list of things we detest about GameStop, Star Ruler will no longer be available for purchase on Impulse after the takeover." -Representative of Blind Mind Studios
“We are ending sales through Impulse due to GameStop's long, negative behavior toward the PC platform and independent games. We would never have signed onto distribution through GameStop, and being forced into this situation has only made it worse for us. We feel GameStop cannot serve as the leader of a true competitor in the digital distribution market.“ -Representative of Blind Mind Studios
Blizzard has released an update with new achievements and avatars for Starcraft II! You can unlock them by playing the scenarios that Blizzard released a while back: Aiur Chef, Left 2 Die, Starjeweled.