Fists of Fu: 2nd Closed Beta Test starting from July 30th to August 6th

Outspark has officially announced that Fists of Fu 2nd CBT starts from 07.30.2010 12:00PM ~ 08.06.2010 3:00PM PDT. Beta keys is not required in 2nd CBT, and the download link is now live! Prepare yourself for the CBT NOW, and sign up to download the game.

You should notice that the CBT2 Client is using a different launcher (Sharp Launcher) than the one used during CBT1 (O+ Launcher). You will need to uninstall the old CBT1 client. Some highlights include:

- 2x iPod Nanos and an iPod Touch!
- Double XP Days!
- In-game items giveaways!

Just take a look at the Events for the 2nd Closed Beta, and check out the website for more information.

About Fists of Fu

Fists of FU is Outspark’s new free-to-play, hilarious Arcade-Action MMORPG featuring a beat-em-up multiplayer storyline, anime style graphics, and an immersive 3-D environment. Join your friends to take on the evil Monster King and his armies. Master dozens of skills as you learn the martial arts of the Fighter, Magician, and Archer classers. Use your deadly combos and special moves to beat up your friends in awesome Player vs. Player battles, and challenge PKers for rare items. Follow your destiny…

World of Tanks: Medium Tanks Gameplay

World of Tanks has shown off the next group in the latest video produced by Wargaming.net. The new trailer for the World of Tanks panzer MMO depicts gameplay features for jacks of all trades – medium tanks.

According to Nick Katselapov, producer of the game: "Tanks like T-44 or Panther are jacks-of-all-trades in the game. They are fast, maneuverable and have decent firepower what makes them ideal for performing both defensive and offensive objectives."

(Click the image to view the medium tanks trailer. )

World of Tanks is currently in closed beta testing. Visit the website to sign up for the closed beta to have a glimpse of medium tanks in battlefield, including  T-44, Panther and VK 3002 (DB) units.

Martial Empires Declares War on Spammers and Troublemakers

It’s time for bots and chat spammers to say farewell, gamigo has declared. A slew of anti-bot measures will be implemented into its popular new MMORPG Martial Empires to ensure undisturbed gameplay.

A special highlight of this new security package is a new kind of opponent: the Suricat Police. This new kind of vigilante patrols different areas in the game and warns players against attacking them. Players that heed their warning have nothing to worry about. A bot that ignores their warning, though, will be turned into a ghost and unable to play.

As an added measure of security, players will be prompted at set intervals to type in a code. Entering the right code will be rewarded with a buff. To protect against spammers, the global chat channels will only be open to characters who have reached level 15 and troublemakers can be ignored permanently.

FreeJack: Closed Beta underway!

The FreeJack closed beta starts July 22nd. Below are the times when the closed beta servers will be online for play:

• Monday – Friday from 13:00 EDT to 23:00 EDT (18:00 BST to 04:00 BST)
• Saturday and Sunday, 24 hours a day, starting Saturday at 00:00 EDT (05:00 BST)

FreeJack is totally free to play, all you need is a free GamerKraft account! You can register a free GamerKraft account quickly and easily by clicking here. Start downloading the FreeJack game client by clicking here.

About FreeJack

FreeJack is a free-to-play parkour racing game for Windows PCs supporting Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7. Players race head-to-head across the urban metropolis of New Jack City as one of four hip characters, bustin’ stylish flips and tricks to increase their speed and gain access to hidden pathways and shortcuts.

Players can personalize their character with fresh outfits and running gear and even customize their own unique in-game living space with cool furniture and accessories to show off to friends! FreeJack also supports online leaderboards, a club/clan system, in-game friends lists, and more!

Black Prophecy: Gamigo’s improvement for a free-to-play title

Black Prophecy, which is planned to bring to market later this year, has been revealed that it will have cost over €10 million to develop – a significant level of investment for a free-to-play title by the German online publisher Gamigo. Gamigo’s Ralph Frefat explains the investment.

“But compare it with retail – if you have a big game there, you have a time frame of let’s say 8-10 weeks when the game is hot, before it drops. The lifecycle of a normal free-to-play online game is 3-5 years, so I don’t care if it’s not that successful in the first six months – it might be in the next four."

"If you summarise the revenues that we did with certain games, even if you just make €100,000 per month, add all that up over a lifetime and it’s much more than some retail games make."

"You have a completely different approach to your customers, compared to retail. But let me go back one step – when we’re looking at whether or not we’ll make back that €10 million, we can do that because of our portfolio."

"It’s a mix of opportunities and risks – we also have browser games that don’t even cost €1 million, just a few hundred thousand, and we’ll make that money back in the short term. It’s a mixed calculation."

Black Prophecy is a fast-paced 3D real-time combat space MMO with state of the art visuals. Both the Player-versus-Players combat and an exciting storyline in a rich universe are important aspects of the game. It is the first Sci-Fi Space MMOG that dares the step towards action-oriented gameplay from a third-person and first person perspective.

Now players are available to sign up the upcoming Closed Beta in April at the official website.

Grand Fantasia: Portuguese Beta starting on August 11th

Aeria Games has announced that Portuguese beta for Grand Fantasia will be starting on August 11, 2010, and the localized version can be downloaded and installed prior to the closed beta start. You can check out more information at the Portuguese page.

About Grand Fantasia

Grand Fantasia is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) set in an expansive and carefully crafted fantasy world. Grand Fantasia offers players a variety of innovative and engaging features, including: character and sprite customization, a branching class system, sprite crafting, an incredible menagerie of mounts, player-versus-player (PvP) combat, team-based battlefields, challenging dungeons, epic region and world bosses, a player statue feature, in-game bulletin boards, auction houses, a player romance system, robust guild management and communication tools, and a host of quests (solo, party, and guild) that will entertain gamers of all play styles.

EverQuest II Extended: free adventures in mid-August

Sony Online Entertainment today announced EverQuest II Extended is going free to play in mid-August. EverQuest II Producer, Dave "Smokejumper" Georgeson posted a Producer’s Letter to announce the exciting new service for EverQuest II in the forum.

“Many of you are aware of the free-to-play model that’s being embraced by many of the big game developers out there. We’re not the first folks to entertain the idea for an MMO, but we do have the biggest and best virtual world to offer in such a model and we firmly believe that we can expose thousands and thousands of new players to the world of Norrath if we embrace that concept.”

The Extended service is still being tested at the moment, which is an optional service that is not associated with current EQII live game play experience. SOE provides EQII players with a choice of either a subscription-based or free-to-play business model – two distinct experiences operating in parallel. The free adventure service allows new players to experience more quality content and increased participation than the previously offered 14-day trial.

Check out EQII Extended – FAQ and Dave Georgeson’s Letter for more details on the service.

Red Stone: 3rd open beta event underway

Having difficulties getting rare items? Well here’s your chance to go on a search for these rare items! Red Stone is currently under 3rd open beta event, starting from July 22nd to August 5th. Participants with GM/GS who will have high stats on "Luck" will have priority to receive the rare items dropped by the mobs.

According to the announcement from the website, from now through Thursday on August 4th, there is a 50% item discount on selected items. Starting from August 4th, there will be a permanent discount on selected items, from 20-30% off. For example: Portal Spheres will be 20% discounted permanently, and other selected items such as Dragon Heart will have 30%discount. For those who have made purchases already, the discounted amount will be refunded to you.

Red Stone is a unique 2-D fantasy MMORPG in which players adventure to recover the lost shards of a powerful jewel in order to restore peace to their ravaged world. This title features an amazing and compelling story and beautiful musics and eight character classes that can transform into alternative classes to learn new skills and weapons. In Red Stone, you will explore dangerous lands, fight powerful monsters, complete exciting quests, and battle other guilds for superiority and glory.

Read more information at Red Stone website.

ChangYou.com (US) Announces Blade Wars Token Shop Variety of New and Exciting Items!

ChangYou.com (US) Inc., today announced that they will be celebrating the grand opening of the Blade Wars "Token Shop" on Aug 6th. The token shop aims to offer Blade Wars players a variety of items to trick out their characters and boost their game play.

"The grand opening of the Blade Wars Shop is finally upon us," says Angie Canary, Blade Wars Associate Producer. "As a special thank you, players who helped out in closed beta will get a special surprise when our token shop goes live."

Blade Wars is an innovative free-to-play (F2P) MMORPG set in ancient China. Players can expect to dive into fierce battles and plunge through a myriad of unique, story-driven quests set in the Kung Fu world. Play as one of the five classes – Warrior, Knight, Assassin, Shura, or Warlock and explore a visually stunning world of beauty with otherworldly inhabitants, mysterious enemies, and ancient secrets. Blade Wars allow players to strategize with more than 398,000 kung fu moves and 99 customizable combat styles.

Players can look forward to new and exciting items like the Solar Jade, Holy Dragon, and a super cool Tiger mount. The Token Shop is focused to provide players with unique fun accessories, consumable, and rare mounts.

Token Shop:

Solar Jade – A magic stone that gives you double Exp for 1 hour
Holy Dragon – Summons a dragon that grants an extra 255 carrying capacity
Tiger – A mount usable by all classes. Increases movement speed by 80%

To see more items in the Token Shop, please visit: Blade Wars Token Shop.

To learn more about Blade Wars, visit BladeWarsMMO.com or visit the Fan page on Facebook.

Pirates of the Burning Sea Power & Prestige: free expansion arriving in August

Sony Online Entertainment and Flying Lab have officially announced that Power & Prestige, the first free expansion for Pirates of the Burning Sea, will launch this summer on August 24, 2010. The expansion will be released free of charge to existing subscribers.

Power & Prestige is currently in open beta on the public test server, and is going to be using a new server for the beta test: Sandbox. In order to access Sandbox you’ll need a Power & Prestige beta key, which will only work if you have an active Pirates of the Burning Sea subscription. You can apply for the beta by clicking here.

Click here to find out how to make a PTS account, and check out more in the Power & Prestige Feature List.