We’ve heard much promising news about Guild Wars 2: no monthly subscription, and an emphasis on reinventing the MMO and throwing out the grind and quest style we’re used to. I for one am intending to venture into my first fully committed fantasy MMORPG with this title so hopefully they can turn out a finished product ready to duel with Blizzard’s MMO archetype.

Via [Now Gamer]

Check it out, and meanwhile, I’ll be gathering some phat loots.

Menace of the Underdark boasts new features including the Forgotten Realms, the subterranean expanse of the Underdark, and the extra 5 epic levels to 25. Perhaps the most exciting addition is the new Druid class hopefully with all the joy of animal transformation that makes the tabletop RPG so hilarious.

D&D has never transferred very successfully to the video game world, probably because video games can never allow quite the same freedom that the original tabletop RPG offers. Having said that it’s great to see the online version steadily gaining fans, and hopefully this release will help further that progress.

And the bad news? Well, if today is anything to go by, Bioware will have no subscribers by the end of the month.

In the open PvP world of Ilum, many users are exploiting a glitch that allows them to rack up insane amounts of valor points through spawn camping and turret farming. This wouldn’t be such a problem, but considering that Sith already outnumber Republic on almost every server by a fair margin, it means that the Sith Empire now have a user base with a disproportionate amount of top end PvP gear.

For an accurate visual representation of just how bad this issue is, please see the below video.

The issue was first noticed by Bioware on their official forums, which they told customers they were looking into the “potential issues” that 1.1 had caused. After a 282 page outcry, Bioware issued an official response – albeit one that was met with almost as much anger as the initial thread. There will be an emergency patch in the coming hours in order to try and ease the problem, but it may well be too little, too late – phrases like “tortanic” and “execute order 66″ are already destined for memes as soon as Reddit resumes normal operation.

Many issues need to be addressed here – how the patch was allowed to be rushed through without this exploit being noticed, despite a week on test servers and a 24 hour delay is a serious cause of concern. More importantly though: how are Bioware going to rebalance the game, let alone make it up to Republic players? A faction that was already disadvantaged numerically will soon be barren, thanks to a series of subscription cancellations by (primarily) Republic players.

As an final, accurate summary of today’s events, here’s a quote from Goshee on the SWTOR forums: “This whole experience has been worse than watching Scar let go of Mufasa’s paw in the Lion King. QQ.”

We’ll be bringing you the latest as it happens.

The content takes place under dim spot lights, with surprise encounters and undead enemies littering the morphed corridors. The content is billed at those players who’ve already hit the maximum level of 50, although the patch brings other changes to the table.

Patch 1.1 also addresses the more serious gameplay bugs that have blighted the initial progress of players – most notably, bugs that prevented Jedi Knights from advancing with both their own quest line and the companion conversations that open up other quests. The world of Ilum has already been rebalanced, with some new anti-griefing measures being implemented near taxi ranks as well as the correct amount of valour being issued to those who kill enemy players.

The update also sees the welcome addition of anti-aliasing options, allowing those with higher system specifications to take advantage of better, smoother visuals.

You can take a peek at the full patch notes here, courtesy of Bioware’s forums. You can also witness the full trailer for the new flashpoint below. The patch goes live tomorrow, ie the 17th of January, at an undisclosed time.

Apparently, immediately after the settlement with Interplay, Bethesda sent it’s Enclave lawyers in full Tesla armor to beat down Masthead Studios, who had been licensed by Interplay to develop the contentious MMO. Masthead crumpled faster than a sick molerat and they quickly settled with Bethesda. No cash changed hands there, just the agreement from Masthead that they would not be using any Bethesda intellectual property (i.e. Fallout) in their future development.

For all the gory details, here is the full press release:

ZeniMax® Media Inc. today announced that a settlement had been reached in the lawsuit filed by its subsidiary, Bethesda Softworks®, against Interplay Entertainment Corporation in 2009, Bethesda Softworks LLC v Interplay Entertainment Corp., seeking cancellation of the license granted to Interplay to develop a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) based on the Fallout brand. Bethesda maintained in its complaint that Interplay had failed to meet the conditions for the license and the license was therefore of no continuing validity.

Under the terms of the settlement, the license granted to Interplay to develop the Fallout MMO is null and void, and all rights granted to Interplay to develop a Fallout MMO revert back to Bethesda, effective immediately. Interplay has no ongoing right to use the Fallout brand or any Fallout intellectual property for any game development. ZeniMax will pay Interplay $2 million as consideration in the settlement, each party will bear its own costs of the litigation, and Bethesda will continue to own all Fallout intellectual property rights. Interplay will be permitted to continue to sell the original Fallout ®Tactics, Fallout® and Fallout® 2 PC games through December 2013, after which time all rights to market those games revert to and become the sole property of Bethesda. Under the original agreement pursuant to which Bethesda had acquired the Fallout property, Interplay was granted certain merchandising rights to sell those original Fallout games, but those merchandising rights will now expire on December 31, 2013.

The lawsuit against Interplay arose after Bethesda Softworks acquired all Fallout intellectual property rights from Interplay in April 2007, and conditionally licensed back to Interplay certain trademark rights to make a Fallout MMO, provided Interplay secured $30 million in financing for the MMO and commenced full scale development of the game by April 2009. Bethesda alleged in its complaint that Interplay failed to meet either condition of the license back agreement but refused to relinquish its license and insisted it would develop a Fallout MMO. Bethesda filed suit to declare the license void.

In a separate but related matter, Bethesda commenced a second action against a purported developer of the Fallout MMO, Masthead Studios, Bethesda Softworks LLC v Masthead Studios Ltd. In the course of the original lawsuit against Interplay, Interplay had claimed that it had engaged Masthead Studios to develop the Fallout MMO under its license, and contended that Masthead was engaged in full scale development of that game. Bethesda filed its separate lawsuit against Masthead to assert copyright infringement and other violations of Bethesda’s intellectual property rights. Under the MMO license granted to Interplay, Interplay was not permitted to sublicense any rights granted without the prior approval of Bethesda, approval which had never been requested or granted. In responding to Bethesda’s lawsuit, Masthead denied that it had been using any of Bethesda’s intellectual property in developing an MMO. Masthead and Bethesda settled that second lawsuit on December 29, 2011. In the settlement, Masthead acknowledges it has no legal right to use any Fallout intellectual property, and agrees it will not use any such intellectual property of Bethesda in the future. No payments were made by either party as part of this settlement. The two settlements resolve all pending litigation over the Fallout intellectual property owned by Bethesda.

Robert Altman, Chairman and CEO of ZeniMax, expressed satisfaction on behalf of the Company with the resolution of the two lawsuits saying, “While we strongly believe in the merits of our suits, we are pleased to avoid the distraction and expense of litigation while completely resolving all claims to the Fallout IP. Fallout is an important property of ZeniMax and we are now able to develop future Fallout titles for our fans without third party involvement or the overhang of others’ legal claims.”

Following the purchase of the property, Bethesda Game Studios, the 2011 ‘Studio of the Year’ and the development team behind the 2011 ‘Game of the Year’, The Elder Scrolls® V: Skyrim™, developed Fallout® 3. ZeniMax Media’s publishing subsidiary, Bethesda Softworks, published Fallout® 3, a highly acclaimed sequel which won ‘Game of the Year’ honors in 2008, for Xbox 360® video game and entertainment system from Microsoft, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, and Games for Windows. Bethesda also published the popular title, Fallout: New Vegas®, in 2010 for the same platforms. Fallout: New Vegas® Ultimate Edition, which will include the original game and the award-winning downloadable content in one special package, is planned for release by Bethesda in early 2012.

This concept along with a unique art style has me intrigued with the game, but since it is an MMORPG, I am a bit on the fence with it, but for those curious, head over to the official website to check the game out.

Currently, they have no evidence that full credit card information was accessed, but they are continuing to investigate. Obviously, if anyone has a Rift account, it’s a good idea to change your passwords regardless, and keep a close eye on your bank and credit card statements.

Anyone else feel like this sort of story is getting a bit tiresome? I think this is the third time this year I’ve had to change passwords for this kind of garbage.

Here is the full text of Trion Worlds’ notice:

We recently discovered that unauthorized intruders gained access to a Trion Worlds account database. The database in question contained information including user names, encrypted passwords, dates of birth, email addresses, billing addresses, and the first and last four digits and expiration dates of customer credit cards.

There is no evidence, and we have no reason to believe, that full credit card information was accessed or compromised in any way. We have already taken further action to strengthen our systems, even as we, with external security experts, continue to research the extent of the unauthorized access.

You will notice on your next log in to our website that you will be required to change your password, and existing Mobile Authenticator users will also need to reconnect their Authenticator. When you log in, you will be prompted to provide a new password, security questions and answers, and be given the option to connect your account to our Mobile Authenticator to enhance your account’s security.

If you have used your username and password for other accounts, especially financial accounts or accounts with personal information, we suggest you change your passwords on those accounts as well. We recommend that you carefully review your statements, account activity, and credit reports to help protect the security of those accounts. If you need information on how to obtain your credit report or believe any such accounts have been breached, please visit www.trionworlds.com/AccountNotification for more information.

You should have continued, uninterrupted access to RIFT, and we do not anticipate any disruptions to your playing time.

Nevertheless, if you own the RIFT game, you will be granted three (3) days of complimentary RIFT game time once you update your password and security questions.

Additionally, once you update your account and set a new password, your account will be granted a Moneybags’ Purse, which increases your looted coin by 10%, even if you have not yet purchased RIFT.

Please log in to https://rift.trionworlds.com (and we recommend that you copy and paste this link into your browser to access the site) to update your password, security questions and Authenticator.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. If you have further questions, please visit our website, www.trionworlds.com/AccountNotificationFAQ.

– The Trion Worlds Team

[via Rock, paper, shotgun]

If you’re excited for Guild Wars 2, then definitely check it out. If you’re NOT excited about Guild Wars 2, and you enjoy MMO gameplay, then you need to take a look at Guild Wars 2, as it takes a lot of the good parts of the MMORPG genre, and leaves out the bad parts laying on the cement like the steaming turd it is.