Independent game developers Spacetime Studios out of Austin, TX created a game in 2010 called Pocket Legends. This was boasted as the world’s first cross-platform, 3D, persistent mobile MMO. Last year, they became the first 3D publisher in history to give people the ability to play the same game on their smartphones, tablets, and desktop.

Seeing as they aren’t the types who would sit around twiddling their thumbs, another game is on the rise called Dark Legends. This game takes you into the secret societies of vampires, and puts you up against zombies, demons, and humans who will be after your hide. The combat system is supposed to be a lot faster, with a lot of content for solo and multiplayer alike.

If this sounds like something that will tickle your fancy, you can expect it sometime within the first quarter of this year. It will be available on Android, iOS, and Chrome, that way most everyone has the chance to get their hands on it. You can expect more information on the game when the Game Developer’s Conference happens in early March.

We are approaching the fifth anniversary of Lord Of The Rings Online, and to celebrate, they will be releasing an expansion called the Riders Of Rohan. Last September, this free-to-play title saw its best expansion, named the Rise of Isengard. This newer addition to the game is supposed to blow that one out of the water by being twice as big.

Expect higher level caps, newer areas, and much more. In the beginning of all these updates, you will be allowed to leave Isengard, and go back to the Great River area between Lothlorien and Sanghorn Forest, where the path to Rohan will begin. It is here that you will have your first taste of easterling blood.

In the Spring, Turbine will give you you a “solofication” feature that will give players without pets the ability to summon a soldier who will help you fight. Hooray for companions, and thank goodness it’s not Lydia. Patches will be coming out all the while, trying to fix bugs, have festival updates, and new rewards.

When Fall hits, you will be able to check out the Eastern part of Rohan. I know you want the whole thing right away, but it’s pretty expansive, so Turbine is going to release it in bits. Riding over these giant plains would be a pain if done on foot, so it only makes sense that you would need a horse. However, your horse can’t just be some regular horse, so you will have the options of customizable armor, and they can level their skills so that they can fight alongside you. You can show the baddies that your horse is amazing, right before you slaughter them.

There will also be two smaller regions added, which are Fanghorn Forest Edge, and Amon Hen. The level cap is looking like it will be 85, but you can start off in Rohan at 75. The expansion will be coming to us in the fall, so ready yourselves.

If you’d like a bit of community, and a place to share your stories of LOTRO, then check out MyMiddle-Earth. Awesome people who are honestly excited about all things Lord of the Rings.

It seems that the recent closed beta test for Guild Wars 2 was a success. Mike O’Brien, President and Founder of development for ArenaNet posted on their blog yesterday, stating that there would be progressively larger beta testing events throughout the coming months. However, if you’re not a member of the press, you’ll have to wait until March or April to get in on the action.

Guild Wars 2 is going to bring you a whole new way to quest, and give you a lot more cooperative play with other gamers. It’s looking as though there won’t be a monthly subscription fee, which is great for those of us who are addicted to The Old Republic and WoW. If you’re interested in being a part of the upcoming beta events, check out their blog for more information.

Everyone seemed to speculate that the game would be out this year, and right they were! However, even if it is confirmed that the game will be coming out this year, we don’t know which quarter. Although, with the beta events being in the spring, I would say fall for polishing up the game, and a winter launch. Sounds lovely doesn’t it?

According to a recent job posting on Blizzard Entertainment’s website, they might be looking to place in-game advertising into their next big MMO, currently known as Titan. In the job posting, they said that the potential employee must “(w)ork with major consumer brands to facilitate product placement and licensing within the world of Blizzard Entertainment’s next-gen MMO that enhances the gameplay experience.”

Titan is a project that Blizzard has kept under wraps since at least 2007. Very few details are known about it, although it was made known by CEO Mike Morhaime in a 2008 interview with Wired magazine that it would not be a sequel to any current Blizzard games.

If Blizzard is looking to add in-game ads to Titan, it might shed some light on what kind of a game that it is. Since it would be off-putting to see an ad for Doritos or Mountain Dew in a world like Azeroth, this might indicate that Titan may be in a more modern day setting. Of course, it’s possible that when Titan is released, it might not have any ads in it. This could just be Blizzard covering all their bases and seeing what may or may not work.

Good news for video game fans playing with a disability! Citing features such as “full subtitles, queue-able actions, multiple action bars, area looting, auto looting, and built-in mouse sensitivity,” AbleGamers, an advocacy publication for disabled video game players, has named Star Wars: The Old Republic as its Mainstream Game of the Year.

AbleGamers also listed the games use of companion characters as a good, albeit “unintentional” form of accessibility, as “(t)hese NPC characters which accompany the player though most of the game provide support to those who need it without forcing them to request help from other players.” As somebody who doesn’t always like to bug other players to help with a quest, I can say without a doubt that having a companion character has helped save my butt so many times.

It’s nice to see that BioWare took the time to add in so many accessibility options, including colorblind-friendly minimaps and a control scheme that can be used with just a mouse or a keyboard. Many companies might not want to take the time from their already hectic schedules to design such features, but in this day and age, people are becoming increasingly aware that there are individuals who live with a disability of some sort. To just ignore them completely and exclude them from enjoying your product is wrong. While I may not live with a disability, I know there are many people out there who will benefit greatly from these additions.

Earlier this week we were happy to hear that the beta signups for the new MMO TERA were now open. More good news came when the official release date for the game was announced, letting players know that they could finally jump in starting May 1st of this year. Now that the great announcements are out of the way, it’s time to take a closer look at what the game is, and what we’re to expect with The Exiled Realm of Arborea.

Just released is a special video that takes a look at one of the game’s more aesthetic races – the Castanics. The Castanics can be described as the “pretty ones with horns,” like many would say. The race does hold a lot of beauty, but with it will certainly come a lot of bite. In the video we see as the male Castanics are thrown into battle as beserkers while the females take aim with bows and magic spells.

I personally like the Castanics, and I’ll most likely roll one when the game comes out. I can’t wait to explore this new MMO in May, and it’ll be a long wait. It could be worse, though, so I’ll count my blessings. Take a look at the video below. What do you think of the Castanics and the new MMO TERA?

There’s something about the bragging rights you get when you’re among the first to do something. Even if it’s something as trivial as being one of the first people to play a game. If play The Old Republic and want future players to know that you were there on day 1, then you’ll be happy to know that you’re going to get a way to do just that.

Bioware has announced that those who purchase the game and either redeem a game card or are billed for a subscription by March 19th will receive a Founder’s Medal. What exactly does this special medal do? When used by your character, it will grant the title of Founder to them.

For those who already own the game, you simply have to wait until your original 30 days are up, and then within 7 days you should receive an in-game message with the medal. Future characters that you create on the account will also receive the medal as well. This might not be much, but it’s nice to see them rewarding early subscribers in this small way.

When it came out, Star Wars: The Old Republic had an extremely successful launch. It was even the fastest MMO to reach a million subscribers. As we know, a great launch is swell and all, but companies need to keep on putting out updates to keep things interesting. Thankfully, we’re in good hands and will have patch 1.1 coming up tomorrow.

It’s called Rise of the Rakghouls, and takes place on the outer rim planet called Taris. There are two big updates for players; a Flashpoint for level 50 players called Kaon Under Seige, and a new Operation called Karagga’s Palace. They’re both going to affect the game in a big way, as the operation starts a big story arc, and the flashpoint is not like anything else in the game thus far.

This is quite different than what players are used to, with things like going around in the dark with flashlights, and monsters jumping out at you. Basically giving you a survival horror genre within the game. It will be interesting to see how players react to this  new gameplay.

When it came out, Star Wars: The Old Republic had an extremely successful launch. It was even the fastest MMO to reach a million subscribers. As we know, a great launch is swell and all, but companies need to keep on putting out updates to keep things interesting. Thankfully, we’re in good hands and will have patch 1.1 coming up tomorrow.

It’s called Rise of the Rakghouls, and takes place on the outer rim planet called Taris. There are two big updates for players; a Flashpoint for level 50 players called Kaon Under Seige, and a new Operation called Karagga’s Palace. They’re both going to affect the game in a big way, as the operation starts a big story arc, and the flashpoint is not like anything else in the game thus far.

This is quite different than what players are used to, with things like going around in the dark with flashlights, and monsters jumping out at you. Basically giving you a survival horror genre within the game. It will be interesting to see how players react to this new gameplay.

Last week there was a rumor hitting the net that the legal battle over the Fallout MMO was done for.  We have now learned that this rumor is true, and Bethesda’s battle with Interplay over the destiny of the Fallout MMO has officially come to an end. As reported, it ended in a settlement and Bethesda has come out on the winnind end of the deal.

After the suit had ended, Bethesda came out with all of the intellectual property rights in hand. In case you don’t know, this legal battle has been going on for quite a while now. You see, Bethesda picked up the license to the Fallout series back in 2007, leaving the original owner Interplay with the rights to create an MMO based on the series. Interplay had two conditions: raise $30 million in financing for the project and all of the development had to be complete by 2009. Both of these goals, Interplay failed to meet. In response, Bethesda sought out to have their parent company Zenimax take the property permissions back, and now they finally have them.

The terms of the settlement are simple. First off, Interplay no longer has the permission to develop a Fallout MMO. They’re still able to sell copies of Fallout Tactics, Fallout, and Fallout 2, but even these permissions will end on December 31, 2013. In return, Zenimax agreed to pay Interplay $2 million in consideration, while both sides are responsible for their legal fees. This means that if a Fallout MMO were to come, Bethesda would have to hit it head-on. We don’t really know if the developer plans on making any moves, as right now they have their hands full with Skyrim. If they decide to get jumpy, however, we’ll let you know.

World of Warcraft’s latest patch, 4.3 The Hour of Twilight, has already released, and now there are some hotfixes that have rolled out for it. When patches come out for games, especially PC games, they often need some tweaking of their own to help balance the game out. With the tampering and addition of features to the game, there’s a lot of room for mishaps.

Here’s a snippet of what was hammered out with the new hotfix update:

• Killing bosses while using the Heroic Dungeon Finder should now award guild reputation and experience
• Players should now be able to complete the quests “The Captured Journal” and “The Enemy’s Insignia” at the Darkmoon Faire after having completed them in a previous month
• Pelturas Whitemoon should no longer becomes unresponsive after a player completes the quest “All’s Well”

Tons of class updates have been rolled out, including improved Serpent Sting spread for Hunters, Bladestorm will now always trigger invincibility for the Warrior, and Paladins’ Holy Radiance should now stack properly with the spells cast by other Paladins. To see the full list of hotfixes (it’s a pretty big one), head on over to the World of Warcraft hotfix post. Hopefully these fixes will help get the game back to normal and straighten out a lot of the bugs and glitches players were facing.