Game News

The "biggest expansion yet" to PoxNora has gone live (a couple weeks ago, sorry). Here's the skinny:

Turn-based strategy gem PoxNora boasts a variety of new features in its latest expansion launching today. The Drums of War introduces premium user accounts, two new gameplay modes, three new maps, a spectator mode, 80 new runes (10 per faction) and a faction ranking system where players influence the game's future storyline.

In the world of Pox, the land is divided into eight factions that players can join. With this expansion, points are now awarded to their respective factions as players win battles. PoxNora's storyline will change over time depending on these faction rankings. The Sundered Lands faction are the winners of the first battle.

Catching on to the game's mechanics is easier with the launch of spectator mode. This allows users to watch current matches so they can better grasp how to play before battling it out against experienced PoxNora fans.

Players can also watch PoxNora's new game modes "King of the Hill" and "Capture the Flag" in all their glory. In "King of the Hill," players must capture a strategic point on the map and hold it for a set period of time to triumph. For "Capture the Flag" players fight to reach a flag on the battlefield and bring it back to their shrine to score points.

Premium members will receive a special edition warbanner relic that will greatly enhance their faction-based battlegroup. When the warbanner is in play, all deployed champions for the player's specified faction receive +5 hit points, +2 attack and +2 defense. Premium members also gain access to the individual rune store, giving them an alternate way to complete their collection.

Just a quick note to send you out for some fun play... Dungeon Runners has launched and it's quite a lot of fun! I haven't gotten time to play it much yet (darn worky gunk!) but what I've seen got me really giddy inside. The humor in the voice-overs and the world in general is a ton of fun that had an interesting effect on my level of acceptance/enjoyment, I think. The art is really nice, the gameplay is generally solid and... well, fun! Fun. Good word, that.

So, I'll leave you to go try the free version of the game instead of reading me say little of consequence about it. Actually "free version" isn't quite right, since you can download the game and play for free... you just don't get all the bells & whistles unless you stoke the fires with a paid membership . Even then, the membership is only $4.99/month which is downright refreshing in its own right.

There really appears to be a ton of fun wrapped up in this puppy... but you risk nothing to find out for yourself. I'll get deeper into it as soon as I can, and not because I have to -- because I want to. That's a Good Thing. The loot system alone makes me want to collect stuff just to see what wacky mad loot I'll find... and then there's Karl. I laughed pretty good at Karl... at first he seemed a bit "off" for inclusion in the game, but soon I was happy to have him as a companion. I realize you have no idea what I'm talking about, so I'll let you go find out. Have fun!

Quick note about the open beta available for the online soccer/football (whichever term gets you in the right game), United Football . It's not really "massive" in terms of the number of players playing at once, but let's face it, football is huge... and this is an online game, so there's my reasoning for calling this a "massive multiplayer online game". :P Here's a blurb:

United Football is a free to play 5-a-side multiplayer football game where each player on the pitch is controlled by a gamer located anywhere around the world. United Football also includes in-game AI controlled “bots” for those times when there are not enough players around to make up full teams, as well as in-game chatrooms, messaging and a buddy list to keep track of your friends. The game is now in open Beta and Staggan’s ethos is “Release early, update often and be led by the community, since after all, they play the game!”

Many new features are planned including leagues, tournaments, additional game modes and much more.

If you are interested in trying out your soccer skills go to unitedfootball.staggan.com, register and play.

This game looks freakin' sweet, honestly. Now mind you, I haven't played it yet, so that's just a "hey, cool concept and neat look/feel! I hope it's fun!" -kind of statement. Hopefully some folks will give it a whirl and write in to tell me about it. I'll get into it as soon as I can, but hey.. work to do this week and all. Blah, blah.

Anyway, Aggressive Game Designs has announced they hit the 1,000 registered users mark in their pet-raising MassMOG called Avelia Pet Adventures . You can design your own pet and customize it a lot, or start with another person's pet design and tweak it from there. Pretty interesting. I'll just post the press release below in my usual, lazy fashion. It's a free download, so go try it and let me know what you think, eh?

(This time, I'm going to post the full release AFTER the jump, so hit "read more" to get the rest.)