Firefall

Firefall's eternal beta continues, and Red 5 Studios has just announced the launch of new European servers for its sci-fi MMO shooter. The firm has been hosting 48-hour beta weekend events designed to stress test its hardware, and the latest such is slated for December 7th through December 9th.

Last weekend's test featured "a successful dark launch" of the new Euro shards, which are now fully functional and stable for the upcoming event. Red 5 says that there is plenty of new open-world content for testers to poke and prod, including new bosses, new encounters, areas, and missions, and the Chosen Warfront.

You can learn more about the game and sign up for the beta weekends at the official Firefall website.

[Source: Red 5 press release]

League of Legends introduced its upcoming third competitive season with an article explaining how European teams can qualify to enter next year's championship and compete for massive cash prizes. Dota 2 temporarily turned MMO this week with its Diretide Halloween map that turns the game into a collection quest and then a 10-man raid.

SMITE revealed its new god Loki, adding a deadly backstabbing assassin to the game's growing roster of characters. Guardians of Middle-Earth also released its first two real hard carries this week with a Battle Profile on Ori and Agandaûr, two characters whose ability power scales up with each use. Heroes of Newerth's inclusive competitive league HoNTour got off to a great start this week despite early setbacks.

Upcoming action RPG Path of Exile spruced up its website this week and released its anticipated PvP arena patch. Diablo III players have reported that monsters with the Reflect Damage affix are almost impossible to kill in higher Monster Power levels. Finally, the first Firefall Fest saw special guests Athene, Felicia Day, and Wil Wheaton trying the game for the first time, and Blacklight: Retribution released its Evacuation update.

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You can't beat getting some Halloween treats without having to go out in the rain knocking on doors. It's no trick -- Red 5 Studios is giving out plenty of goodies to FireFall fans this week. First up is hours of video featuring famous gamer stars checking out the upcoming shooter.

Last week, the studio livestreamed FireFall Fest, an event depicting a number of celebrities -- Nathan Fillion, Wil Wheaton, and Felicia Day, to name just a few -- playing FireFall along with the community. But even if you missed an episode or two, Red 5 has saved the recordings for your viewing pleasure. Check out the highlight reels of day one and day six after the break, then head to the official site for links to watch the full two-plus-hour videos for each day.

FireFall is also offering fans a special Halloween patch. Along with spooky masks and other appropriate decor, beta players will find new monsters to kill and new abilities to use. For a full list of all of the Halloween goodies, head to the patch notes.

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If you're missing one of your favorite celebrities next week, you might want to check with Red 5 Studios. The makers of Firefall have kidnapped, er, enticed several popular stars to check out the game via an interactive livestreaming event called Firefall Fest. Among the celebs participating are Wil Wheaton, Felicia Day, and Nathan Fillion.

Red 5 has posted the schedule for the livestreams, which start on October 22nd and continue through the 27th. In addition to letting you hear what your favorite star or group has to say about the game and seeing said game in action, Red 5 is handing out daily prizes to viewers.

The studio also announced that any player who purchases a Firefall Founders Pack during this week will get immediate beta access, and all founders get snag additional in-game items just by watching.

Last week, Red 5 Studios discussed changing Firefall's progression system. In the newest developer blog, attention turns to the upcoming Chosen Warfront feature ("warfront" being the moniker given the ongoing war between the Chosen and the Accord factions). The Chosen Warfront dynamic aims to create a deeper metagame, giving players the chance to take the fight to the Chosen solo or in groups to keep the lands safe.

Designer Clancy Powell explains the feature by telling folks to think of the Chosen Warfront as a Real-Time Strategy (RTS) game, where the Chosen and the Accord will be working to control territories and resources and build up military forces by implementing different strategies for both offensive and defensive goals.

Developers are currently working on a number of events, including Chosen Thumpers and Chosen Drop Pods, as well as reworking the watchtowers from the ground up. The changes won't stop here; over time, devs want to add multiple types of objectives to add more variety to the warfront dynamic. More details can be found in the full developer blog.

Williams explains that players generally pick a battleframe based on their individual playstyles. With the skill trees, a player can break that playstyle down even further. He gives the example of a Mammoth Dreadnaught vs. a Rhino Dreadnaught. The Mammoth builds heavier defenses, whereas the Rhino packs a heavier punch.

MMOs and other online games are trending away from the linear progression style to a more horizontal progression style. Firefall is heading in that direction, too. Will this be enough push Firefall toward being the next great online shooter? Red 5 hopes so.

This week Riot Games revealed details of the League of Legends $2,000,000 World Championship that's just two weeks away. Dota 2 celebrated its own world champions with a new blog post dedicated to the Aegis of Champions plaque given to this year's winners of The International. Upcoming console MOBA Guardians of Middle-earth showed off its PAX 2012 recap video this week, and Heroes of Newerth revealed its new hero, Solstice, who transforms during the night.

Torchlight II continues to dominate the game charts this week with impressive sales on Steam and even more impressive Metacritic scores. Upcoming free-to-play action RPG Path of Exile took another big step toward release this week with the addition of voice acting to quests. And Blizzard revealed details on Diablo III's next big patch, discussing increased legendary drop rates and the new Monster Power system that will let players customise their own difficulty levels.

Upcoming FPS Firefall revealed its impressive plans for Dynamic Events this week, with both local events and global invasions on the menu. Finally, Blacklight: Retribution followed last week's sniper montage contest with details of a new sniper-focused map and a new sniper rifle that would make Counterstrike players cry.

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It's been a long time coming, but Torchlight II is finally here, and you can play a demo version of it completely free. Diablo III fansite Diablofans has been digging around in the test realm patch files to find out how the game's new Uber bosses works and what awesome rewards can be found by fighting them. Path of Exile celebrates its fourth successful public stress test weekend and looks at an interesting character build that lets players kills monsters by setting themselves on fire.

League of Legends released details of its next champion this week, the stealthy insectoid Kha'Zix, who can evolve his abilities in the middle of a game. Dota 2 officially released classic champion Meepo The Geomancer this week, and upcoming MOBA Prime World announced an odd new "PvEvP" game mode. Upcoming FPS Firefall came under fire from some beta testers this week for the unpolished state of its current beta client, and Blacklight: Retribution released the winning video of its bolt-action rifle montage contest.

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The Massively tip line is a curious creature. It's cantankerous, unpredictable, and just as likely to bite your leg as it is to rub itself against your shins and let loose with a rumble of contentment. Despite the low signal-to-noise ratio, we do get useful info from our tipsters, often in the form of breaking news, obscure and interesting tidbits, and ideas for further coverage.

This week's Firing Line falls under that last category, as we received word from one tipster that something is rotten in the state of Firefall.

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This week Firefall gave fans an inside look at what each of its development teams is up to for the next development cycle, revealing a strong focus on PvE content. Path of Exile ran another public stress test this weekend to see how the servers would cope with a full-scale deployment, and Blacklight: Retribution's $30,000 US 30 days of fight contest has officially ended.

Diablo III developers gave a sneak peek of the upcoming patch 1.0.5 update, which aims to reduce monster damage, rebalance defensive abilities, and introduce "uber" versions of several bosses. Players also found a way to farm treasure goblins this week with an odd quirk of the Puzzle Ring legendary.

Upcoming MOBA SMITE revealed details of Thor, god of thunder, in a new video. League of Legends officially released its devestating new dark mage Syndra this week and started a new video series that asks professional players about their favourite champions. Finally, Wrath of Heroes introduced new Dark Elf assassin Zathis and detailed its new Alchemy system, which lets players convert their old tactics and masteries into something useful.

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Red 5 has posted a new announcement on its website concerning Firefall's latest project milestone, and this one features a laser focus on PvE content.

The posting details a bit of Red 5's internal structure before going on to talk up what exactly each team is doing. The Chosen Warfront group is working on "new, dynamic encounters with the Chosen to make the war a part of the daily life of New Eden's residents." Translation: They're expanding on patrols and incursions to give PvE battles more of a random, life-like feel.

There are also specific teams devoted to creatures, player rewards, core combat, exploration, matchmaking, and more. Check it out on the Firefall website.

The League of Legends North American regional tournament concluded this week with Team Solo Mid, Team Dignitas, and Counter Logic Gaming securing spots in October's World Championship games. Riot Games also revealed its new livestream portal this week; it supports popular livestreamers with news coverage and even prizes to give away to viewers. Wrath of Heroes released its new ranged Dwarven Engineer hero Durrig, and we heard that upcoming Korean free-for-all MOBA Core Masters Online may be getting an English-language release.

As game developers around the world recover from PAX 2012, videos are starting to surface showing highlights from the event. Firefall developer Red 5 Studios laid the whole PAX experience bare in a three-part video series covering the tense week of preparation for the event and its final execution. Torchlight II developer Runic Games posted its own PAX wrap-up video and its official release trailer this week, pre-empting the game's launch in just under two weeks time.

Upcoming free-to-play action RPG Path of Exile released its 10th video in the popular Build of the Week series. Diablo III celebrates its first player to reach paragon level 100, and developers published a new journal entry on upcoming changes to the game's crowd control mechanics.

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MOBA Rise of Immortals revealed details of its massive Battle For Graxia relaunch this week and made all immortals free to play until the patch arrives. The finals of Dota 2's world championship tournament The International took place this weekend, with last year's winner Na'Vi facing off against Chinese team Invictus Gaming in the final to fight over the $1,000,000 US grand prize. League of Legends' incredible $5,000,000 US competitive season is now just over a month from completion, with regional championships leading up to a spectacular $2,000,000 grand final in October.

Torchlight II fans were treated to hands-on gameplay demos and a final release date this week at PAX 2012 while Firefall used the event to announce its pre-purchase founder packs. Upcoming action RPG Path of Exile released details of patch 0.9.12 and showed off a hilarious unarmed fighter build nicknamed "Mike Tyson." Diablo III developers weighed in on a puzzling stat discrepancy this week, and Blacklight: Retribution launched a new video podcast series digging into all the game's new updates, maps, and items. Finally, upcoming console MOBA Guardians of Middle-earth revealed four new characters this week: Sauron, Hildifons, Arathon, and Runsig.

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