WEBZEN have announced that the Age of Wulin will release a new expansion on 25th August, named “Chapter 7: Awakening”.

Among the features of Chapter 7: Awakening are the coveted 5th Internal Skills, a level cap increase for combat and internal skills, and new special instances to tackle.

The ancient capital of Luoyang will be the stage of dramatic events, with a mysterious plague threatening to wipe out the population. It will be up to the adventurers to coordinate themselves and accomplish important missions to save the city and its inhabitants, while uncovering the truth behind these troubles. Players will be rewarded for their efforts while unlocking access to the 5th internal skills and the new challenging zones: Jinling Incident and Qiandeng Crisis. These two zones will require players to thwart plans against the Emperor and other Great Xias. These missions will offer precious items, helping characters to reach the 5th internal skills.

Along with the release of the 5th internal skills for existing Sects, Jianghu Factions will benefit from a boost to their own internal skills.

More information about “Chapter 7: Awakening” will be revealed on the Age of Wulin website.

Jagex Games Studio creators and custodians of the fantasy MMORPG, RuneScape have announced that tickets for this year’s RuneFest fan convention have now sold out! Tickets for the event, which takes place on Saturday 3rd October at Tobacco Dock in London, were released just four weeks ago and have been snapped up by RuneScape players from countries across the world. In 2014, the same number of tickets were sold in six weeks.

Approximately 50 percent of tickets were purchased using RuneScape Bonds, rather than real-world currency, compared to 40 percent in 2014. Which if you ask me, is really, really cool.

As with last year’s event, players who have been unable to secure their tickets in time will be able to watch the proceedings live via RuneScape’s Twitch page. RuneFest 2015 is shaping up to be another exceptional showcase. This autumn’s event will be an Invention-themed steampunk spectacular with undertones of vampyric darkness, and will include exclusive reveals, Q&A panels, the legendary ‘Golden Gnome’ awards that celebrates fan-made videos about RuneScape, and other celebrations of all things RuneScape.

Up-to-date information about RuneFest 2015 can be found on the official web page.

Today, NCSOFT and Carbine Studios announced WildStar’s closed beta launch. Players granted access to the closed beta will be able to experience all of the new and improved features available in the action MMO’s biggest content update yet. See the all-new teaser video below.

“We can’t wait to have players get into beta and check out all the new content”, said Mike Donatelli, product director, Carbine Studios. “Inviting players to test all these systems is key to our success. We’re looking to them to provide critical feedback that will enable us to launch free-to-play this fall”.

The WildStar closed beta is accessible to all current subscribers to WildStar as well as non-subscribers who have received a closed beta key. Anyone can sign up for a closed beta key by visiting the WildStar site and clicking the “Sign Up For Beta” button.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTksRlLzHp0

Some of the new content and features coming in the free-to-play transition includes:

The Alpha Sanctum – A new instance that brings players into WildStar’s world storyline much earlier in the game than ever before. Featuring creative gameplay, a unique environment, and a compelling narrative, the Alpha Sanctum introduces players to the mysteries of Nexus in an unforgettable way.

Madame Fay’s Fortunes – Discover all-new treasures with Madame Fay’s Fortunes, an exciting, randomized reward system that can turn a tiny investment into big, big shinies with the help of everyone’s favorite Lopp fortune-teller, Madame Fay.

New Player Experience – A revamped Arkship and arrival sequence welcomes newcomers to WildStar and offers everyone the option of choosing where to start their Nexus adventure based on their level of MMO experience. Character creation has also been overhauled, giving players a better understanding of the choices they’re making and the customization options available.

Loyalty Program – Any player who has ever invested money in WildStar by subscribing to the game, redeeming C.R.E.D.D., or purchasing MTX items will now earn points in the game’s Loyalty Program. These reward points, which are also earned retroactively, give players access to additional gear, items, pets, mounts and more.

Quality-of-Life – A multitude of quality-of-life improvements have been added, including a revamped sprint function, navpoints to help players keep track of their next objective, daily player login rewards, and much more.

Obsidian Entertainment and Paradox Interactive have announced that “The White March – Part I,” the first expansion to Pillars of Eternity, will be released on August 25, 2015. “The White March – Part I,” revealed during E3 2015, adds a tremendous amount of new content to the Pillars of Eternity universe, and can be played alongside the original game whether players have completed the core game or not. The expansion offers a higher level cap, artifacts, new companions, new abilities, and a new realm to explore along with an expertly crafted story from Carrie Patel, author of the Recoletta series and writer on the original Pillars of Eternity, and Eric Fenstermaker, lead writer on Pillars of Eternity and one of the co-writers of South Park: The Stick of Truth alongside show creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone.

Take a peek at what waits in The White March – Part I with the reveal trailer.

Pillars of Eternity now ventures into new parts of Eora in its first expansion, “The White March – Part I,” including a selection of snow themed environments inspired by Icewind Dale. The White March – Part I offers new features for first-time players and veterans alike, including new rogue and monk companions, a party-based AI system, multi-class abilities, and many new challenges to conquer.

Redeye is the latest addition to Dirty Bomb’s roster of killer Mercs.

The dossier on Redeye’s lengthy service in the Australian SAS is a thick one. Time after time he earned field promotions for outstanding bravery, until being busted back down to Trooper for insubordination, or refusal to follow orders, or both. By the time of his discharge for “knowing too much about everyone in the regiment”, he had an average rank of corporal, but no pension. Now that he’s taken to the private sector he’s his own boss for a change. Too bad his sole employee is a total buffoon who hates his waste-of-space boss.

Redeye is a mid to long-range specialist, with team-playing abilities that can seriously hinder the enemy’s ability to attack and defend, and make his own team more efficient in battle as well.

Redeye’s Smoke Grenade is the pinnacle of non-lethal battlefield control, pure elegance in simplicity. When thrown, it creates a large cloud of smoke, completely blocking vision in the area. While anyone can walk through it, they’ll have no idea what violent end awaits them on the other side.

While the cloud of smoke will slowly dissipate over time, there’s another way to get rid of it beyond waiting patiently. Explosive damage in the area of the smoke cloud will disperse it, clearing the way and restoring the sight lines on your terms. And you’ll want to take care of it quickly, because there’s only one way to see through the smoke…

By activating his IR Goggles, Redeye can see the world based on the heat given off by objects Mercs, lighting them up easily against their surroundings. Better yet, any enemies near the center of Redeye’s vision will be Spotted, including invisible Phantoms. Spotted Mercs will have their location displayed on the HUD of all of Redeye’s allies, just like if they were seen by Vassili’s Heartbeat Sensor, making them easy pickings for your team.

What makes this ability truly lethal is that, while normal sight is completely blocked by a Smoke Grenade’s cloud, Redeye’s IR Goggles work just fine. This allows Redeye to peer through the cloud, spotting anyone standing out in the open and letting all of his allies know exactly where they need to shoot.

More details and patch notes on the Dirty Bomb website.

Webzen have announced the release of the latest expansion for Rappelz, their dark fantasy themed mmorpg.

The latest update introduces a new raid dungeon, a party matching system, class re-balancing, skills available for pets, and continued improvements to the game balance.

Adventurers can put their skills to the test in the new raid dungeon. Available through a quest and a special ticket, players will venture to the Parallel World dungeon in order to stop nefarious monsters from wreaking havoc on Gaia. This dungeon will be populated by phantoms and challenging bosses, which can be defeated to amass rewards in the form of a new set of equipment for players, and new soul creatures to add to their collection.

Finding a party has never been easy than with this update, whether for newcomers looking to explore Rappelz’s dungeons for the first time, or veterans seeking another party member for a tough instance. The party leader can create a party and register it on the party list of the interface with the name, level area, and number of members. If players are interested, they can apply and wait for the leader’s approval to be teamed up with the other members.

The pet owners will enjoy a new addition in Epic IX Part 2, as creatures will now have their own skills depending on their specialty.

Many more improvements are included with a rebalance of the classes, the addition of new quests, enchanting weapons effect modification, and much more.

To celebrate the release of the expansion, the Rappelz Team is organizing several events in-game, including login events and EXP boosts. More information about this expansion is available on the Rappelz official website.

Webzen have announced the release of the latest update for their PvP-focused MMORPG Archlord 2. It’s claiming to be the most challenging to date.

This new update introduces a new dungeon for seasoned adventurers, a world raid boss and new sets of legendary gear.

Evil never sleeps with Galia and his henchmen awakening an ancient monster to unleash hell on Chantra and opening the “Dark Stronghold”, a new dungeon available only in “Hell” difficulty. Only the toughest and most cunning heroes from level 55 onwards can enter this instance. Then hope to take down all the challenging bosses who should put up quite a fight. Vanquishing the enemies in the “Dark Stronghold” will reward the adventurers with exclusive level 60 legendary gear.

In Stardust Land, a new world raid boss has appeared, the most challenging monster that ever walked the realm of Chantra: Stein. Stein won’t be overcome by displays of sheer power; players will have to employ team-work and strategy to slay him. However, should they manage this feat, they will be rewarded with all new level 60 legendary weapons. Heroes should be careful during their raids, as both factions may attack this mighty boss simultaneously.

The content update introduces several new features and upgrades, with the addition of new PvP gear, the possibility to further combine Wings to strengthen players’ stats, bug fixes and more.

Official Archlord website.

Two big additions this week for Call of Combat: the new map Jardin proved to be good enough to release a test version of it, even if there are currently plans to heavily modify it. The reinforcement / respawn mode has been updated with a proper capture and scoring system. It’s more about immediate action than strategy, so it should be a more welcoming mode for new players. Playing the reinforcement mode will earn you promotion points, but it will not affect your efficiency.

Reinforcements game mode?

Here is how the scoring works: Both teams start with a predefined number of points (e.g. 200 points on WW3). Every time one soldier dies, the team loses a point. When the fourth soldier of a player dies, and respawn, its team loses 7 points (so a total of 10 points for wiping out a full player’s squad). When a team owns less victory areas than the other, their points start depleting. The more victory areas the other team captures, the quicker the depletion. For example, in WW3, if a team owns all three victory areas, the other team will lose 2 points every 3 seconds.

More details and updates on the official Call of Combat website.

Compared to a few of the more recent champion updates, Riot has launched Fiora pretty recently. Still, she’s one of them tricksy melee marksmen/fighter types who was supposed to be a fleet-footed fencing duelist, but who, once she had a few items, could just lunge up to the other team’s squishies and smack ‘em for a quick and easy – and unstoppable – kill. That was her single gear, really, and because Fiora was only good at killing, when she didn’t have the damage to do her single job, she couldn’t do much of anything.

Changes were needed, so Riot have added in non-damaging tools to help Fiora and her team, then balanced that out by reducing some of the undodgeable killing power in her kit. She’s still all about outplaying her opponents, but now has the tools she needs to play from behind or help her team out in ways that don’t involve straight up slaughter. Voila, or whatever.

Her new abilities:

Passive: Duelist’s Dance

Fiora identifies the weak spots – or vitals – in the defenses of all enemy champions she comes close to. If she manages to attack her enemy’s weak spot, Fiora deals extra true damage for that attack while gaining a small heal and short boost of speed. Fiora reveals a new weak spot whenever she attacks one, or when a moderate period of time passes without it being attacked.

Q: Lunge

Fiora lunges in a target direction before striking a nearby enemy, dealing damage and applying on-hit effects. Lunge prioritizes enemy champions, and tries to hit enemy weak spots. Finally, some of Lunge’s cooldown is refreshed when the ability strikes an enemy.

W: Riposte

Fiora enters a defensive stance, parrying all damage and hard crowd control abilities for a fraction of a second. After she’s done parrying, Fiora attacks in a target direction, damaging and briefly slowing the first enemy champion she strikes. If she parries any hard crowd control abilities, Riposte stuns instead of slows.

E: Bladework

Fiora gains increased attack speed on her next two basic attacks. The first cannot crit but slows her target, while the second is guaranteed to crit.

R: Grand Challenge

Fiora targets an enemy champion, gaining speed and full knowledge of their vitals. Each time she destroys a weak spot, she deals percent max health true damage. If she’s able to destroy all four weak spots, or if she destroys at least one before her target dies, Fiora creates a large and long-lasting zone under her enemy that heals Fiora and her allied champions.

League of Legends Official Website.