SWTOR To Go Free To Play

SWTOR Free to Play

SWTOR will be going free-to-play this coming fall. Players who opt to go the F2P route will have access to each class’s full storyline all the way up to Level 50, options such as race, warzones (PVP arenas), flashpoints (group dungeons), and space missions will be restricted – although not unavailable (not quite clear yet as to what this means). There still remains the $15 a month subscription that now comes with added benefits (actually not much added, basically remaining the same as they are now).  Check this chart out for a comparison. They will also be adding something called the Cartel Market that will allow people to buy vanity and convenience items with Cartel Coins – which will be purchasable with real life cash. The heads at Bioware are hoping that dropping the $15 a month it takes to play SWTOR might entice and hook new players to journey through the galaxy. Thanks to Morgan in the forums for the tip, more info about what exactly “limited access” means will be coming out soon, until then check the Press Release.

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Preorder Borderlands 2

Borderlands 2

You can now Preorder Borderlands 2 on Steam. Grab a copy of the anticipated sequel to the award winning cell-shaded space western FPS RPG. The original game has sold over 6 million units and the sequel is expected to one-up it. Among graphics improvements are 4 all new classes including the Siren, the Commando, the Gunzerker and the Assassin. In addition to new guns and classes, you can drool over procedurally generated shields, grenades, Relics, class mods and a bunch more. If you’ve never played the original Borderlands, now’s the time to so because Borderlands is free to play this weekend on Steam!

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Ouya Console

Ouya Console

So the Ouya (pronounced wee-uh) Console is currently just a Kickstarter project, but it’s already broken Kickstarter records. It is the 8th Kickstarter to raise over a million dollars but has been the fastest ever to do so – in just 8 hours and 22 minutes. What is it?

It’s an Android powered open gaming console. They advertise “hackers welcome” and state that it will be easy to root and is held together with standard screws – not square, star, or torx screws. It will have a Tegra 3 CPU, 1gb of RAM, HDMI, Wifi, Bluetooth, a USB port, and Ethernet. While this might not sound like a powerhouse of a gaming console, the thing’s only going to cost $99. This puts it at the same price as an Apple TV – but one that is totally open to being able to do anything you want it to. Apple TV’s can be hacked to display other sources of videos but can’t play games or surf the internet. You’ll be able to watch gamers play on Twitch.tv or even play Human Element – the first confirmed console exclusive.

Just the other day, Fez developer issued a fix for their game that fixed framerate issues and various other bugs. One issue though is that this new patch might corrupt your gamesave rendering it unplayable. Phil Fish, the lead developer, said that he’s not going to issue another patch to correct this patch because Microsoft wants to charge him tens of thousands of dollars to have it recertified. This type of issue might plague consoles and be a roadblock in allowing indie developers to develop for the console market, but the Ouya’s open-sourced platform hopes to change that.

The Ouya has already raised $5.5 million with only a $950,000 goal so it looks like they’ve met it more than five times over. Check out their Kickstarter for more information or follow them on Twitter.

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