The first major content update for Mercenary Wars, an upcoming online modern warfare first-person-shooter, has officially hit the servers. The new content includes an all-new character, four new weapons, new items and a new clan match system that includes "Quick Matches."  For more information and to check out the game, players can visit http://mercenarywars.uforia.com   

The first major content update for Mercenary Wars features a brand-new character, F.N.A.L, a former Freedom Fighter, and four new weapons including a Dragunov sniper rifle, and two more rifles.  Also included is a new system that features "Clan Matches" where new channels are added where clans can challenge each other in clan matches. Players can also do "Quick Matches" to instantly be paired against other clans waiting to battle, search for clans, create clan announcements, and much more!  In addition, players are now able to purchase numerous experience bonus items, stat reset items, fast respawn items, and more with real money.

To kick off the major content update, Mercenary Wars will host an event now through February14th where three clans with the top rankings at the end of the event period will win fabulous prizes!  Prizes include exclusive access to new characters before they are released, hundreds of dollars worth UFOs, and much more!

Dragonica is getting a brand new dungeon that will be launched specifically for low level players – The Temple of Water.  On February 4th 2010, the our friends over in Europe will launch the brand new Temple of Water, accessible to all players and aimed at levels 26 – 30. In addition to the Temple of Water, Gala-Net will reopen the Drakos Dungeon, aimed at characters between levels 58 – 65 just a few weeks after this update.

The Temple of Water has been well known to the inhabitants of the great city of Port of the Winds for many centuries. Recently, the once benevolent Water Spirit “Endairon” cut all communication with the diplomatic leaders of the Dragon Fellowship, and strange aquatic creatures have been spotted emerging from the great Water Temple. The concerned Lord Steven has requested that all hardy and adventurous players should investigate the strange goings on and help the citizens of Port of the Winds to cleanse the temple of evil.

It is not yet known if the events that led to the disappearance of the Drakos Dungeon caused the Water Spirits in the Temple of Water to go mad, and soon players will again need to investigate the Drakos Dungeon to find out what has happened to its already strange inhabitants.

Existing players of Dragonica are invited to log back in to check out these new zones and to visit the official European website at http://dragonica.gpotato.eu.

New players can download the game directly from http://en.dragonica.gpotato.eu/Download/Client.aspx or legally from Bittorrent.

g4box Event Lineup

G4BOX Inc., a North American publisher and distributor of interactive entertainment media, announced today an their line-up of events for Valentine's Day and the Chinese New Year for its popular action-MMORPG, Metin2.  Players can participate in all the fun by downloading the game for free at:  http://metin2.z8games.com. 

Event Line-up

Event 1: Lunar New Year (Feb. 2-15)
New Year Cakes are extremely potent and can fully restore HP, MP, or Stamina!  Players will visit the "Old Lady" where she will give her secret recipe, so they can gather up ingredients and whip up their own love cake for that special someone.  All of the needed materials can be acquired through monsters. 

Event 2: Lunar Greeting (Feb. 6-8) 
To mark the year of the Golden Tiger, Metin2 is giving all of its players Lucky Red Pockets to celebrate the Lunar New Year.  Red
Pockets are traditionally given out during celebrations such as the Chinese New Year.  The color red is chosen for its lucky properties and the pocket usually contains money or gifts.  Players can get their Red Pocket by talking to the Old Lady.  All players need to do is right-click the Red Pocket given by the Old Lady and enjoy the LunarNew Year!

Event 3:  20% off on all Couple Items (Feb. 12-19)
There is nothing sweeter than dressing up and showing your love on Valentine's Day.  All items in the Couple's Shop will be 20% off! Players shouldn't miss this chance to acquire their favorite couple items at a discount price.

Event 4: Show Your Love! (Feb. 12-18)
What's better than presenting chocolate or red roses to the person you love?  Players can just simply kill monsters and they will drop Valentine's Day chocolates or red roses full of love!

Event 5: Share Your Love with GMs (Feb. 22-24)
Once Valentine's Day is over -- and players are left with roses and chocolates in their inventory -- for a little added fun they can give GM's the extra roses and chocolates as gifts!  Time and gifts will be announced.  Each country can get only 50 gifts per day.

10 Roses/Chocolates= gift #1
20 Roses/Chocolates= gift #2

Event 6: Purifier of souls Sage Basil (Feb.26-Mar.12)
Only those purified souls are able to come back to Metin2.  Sage Basil will only bless souls that passed between August 1st and December 31st, 2009.  With his powers slowly returning to him, he will begin his purification soon. Players won't want to miss this opportunity to find out if their lost soul will be among the ones to receive his blessing!

"Our extensive series of New Year and Valentine's events brings Metin2 to another level of fun," said Howard He, Chief Executive Officer of G4BOX.  "2010 has started off as a great new year for the Metin community and now we are kicking off a full month of events, specials and fun for an action-packed February."

Visit http://metin2.z8games.com for full details and rules.
 

In the wake of the 2 Billion WON (about $1.7 million USD) civil judgment against Blue Hole Studio, the developer of the mmorpg TERA, and the criminal conviction of it’s Chief Producer, Yong-Hyun Park, two questions remain.  Will the game that has built a strong following of anticipated gamers actually make it to launch as planned, and should it?

You see a few years ago NCsoft set out to create Lineage 3 using the Unreal Game Engine.  Everything was going smoothly until it was leaked that the code had been stolen and sold to another developer.   What NCsoft didn’t really reveal is that while it agreed that several employees left the company and took the code, it was actually the main creator of Lineage 3, who also was the creator of Lineage 2.  They didn’t sell the code, they started their own studio to continue the development.  This is a major problem for any company. 

What are you supposed to do?  Do you continue your Lineage 3 plans without its main producer knowing that they are going to build a clone of it and risk tens of millions of dollars on its development?  Of course not, so Aion was born.  That’s right, Aion is the direct result of the theft of the Lineage 3 code.  This may have been a good thing for NCsoft since it allowed them to take a new direction and not be locked into the lineage 2 storyline, but it certainly was not what they would have preferred.

For Lineage 2 players, it gives them two options now.  Try Aion and then try Terra, then just go back to Lineage or another game if they are not your liking.  Terra without a doubt will be much more like lineage 2, and based on the fact that there are not as many previous Blizzard staff on the team as compared to Aion, you can certainly expect it to be targeted to more hardcore gamers. 

With this major PR issue, and the loss of its leader (assuming he does not win his appeal) it certainly puts a question mark on exactly how successful this game can be.   Since part of the suit gives NCsoft a percentage of future earnings, the game is expected by at least some to get to market.  However, investors will certainly not be jumping on board Blue Hole’s investment plan, further jeopardizing continued development of the game that will still cost millions of dollars. 

With a fitting first chapter title 'Exiled Realm of Arborea', will players forgive the gross lack of morals that caused the game to built as an elaborate theft or will it be exiled into obscurity?  These may not be the only issues the game faces.  It is possible it could get smacked with other suits which could delay the release in the states for years, or even prevent it completely.  And honestly what standard does this set for the game industry if the game, which was proven in a Korean court to be stolen , is allowed to go to market after such an act by its developers?

While Blue Hole will assure everyone that things are ok on the launch and it will be launched as planned, can you really trust anything from that camp?  However, we do not want to accuse Blue Hole of any future wrong doings and we admit that they may end up winning on appeal.  But the doubt is already on the mind of gamers.  We may not ever see what TERA was meant to be.