Frogster America, Inc. today announced the start of the open beta for Runes of Magic, its highly anticipated free-to-play Massively-Multiplayer Online (MMO) game being created by Runewaker Entertainment. With more than 190,000 players already registered, Runes of Magic is ready to put the final tests in place to ensure the game is ready for release to the public later this year.
In the coming weeks, Frogster will activate all of the content currently implemented, including the item-shop, where players can buy items to support their questing, adventuring and battles within the game. Since all player accounts were reset at the end of the closed beta, everyone will be able to create new characters and begin their adventures at level one. Read more
Burda:ic, a publisher of online games worldwide, today released a major update for the free-to-play, maritime MMORPG Florensia. The update includes a number of smaller changes, from land quest balancing to slight modifications to the user interface, but the biggest addition comes in the form of elemental resistances and attributes. These additions permeate the structure of the entire game so players both new and old will find the fantasy world of Florensia an exciting and dangerous place to adventure.
Each skill in the game has been assigned an elemental aspect like Fire, Ice, or Holy. In addition, monsters and characters now carry resistances to the various elements. Thus, players in Florensia should be wary in choosing their foes, as they might find they just aren’t doing as much damage as expected. Parties no longer simply mean strength in numbers; they mean a wider range of damage across the elemental spectrum. Read more
New Free to Play Online Hunting Game Merges Realistic Hunting Action With Social Network Functionality
Emote Games, an online games publisher, and Avalanche Studios, a game developer specializing in state of the art, real-life landscape technology, have formed a best of breed partnership to launch The Hunter, a free to play online hunting game that artfully combines the most realistic hunting action, with the community and functionality of a social networking site.
Entering its beta testing phase next month, The Hunter features an incredibly realistic and visually detailed hunting environment with true to life animal behaviors. Uniquely, the game gives players the social network tools and web interface to build an online community of hunters, all of whom experience the thrill of the hunt within a connected environment.
Hot on the heels of last week’s announcement that Richard Garriott was leaving NCSoft comes the news that Tabula Rasa will shut down in February of 2009. The sci-fi-themed MMO launched one year ago this month, promising a blend of action and roleplaying in a futuristic setting that was unique to the space. From the official website:
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.
