Midway has released for free Area 51, allowing you to enjoy the PC version of this sci-fi FPS developed by Inevitable Entertainment. Area 51 features the voice talent of David Duchovny as Specialist Ethan Cole of the Hazardous Materials Division, Powers Boothe as Major Bridges, and recording artist Marilyn Manson as Edgar, the gray alien. As Cole, players,will delve into massive levels within the confines of Area 51, discovering a deadly mutagenic side effect of the virus that controls the minds of those infected, as well as an ancient alien colony buried beneath the facility. With a multitude of human and alien weapons, players must explore chilling conspiracies such as the extraterrestrial crash at Roswell and the faked lunar landing, in order to solve the enigma of Area 51 before the viral mutagen is released and irrevocably mutates all life on Earth.
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Get Area 51 Free
LOTRO wins PC Game of the Year
Lord of the Rings Online has won the Golden Joystick PC Game of the Year Award (sponsored by PC Gamer). What does this mean? Well, basically that more gamers who play LOTRO voted in the Golden Joystick awards than gamers from other games. Not to mention the fact that these awards are a little confusing with WoW: Burning Crusade winning "Online Game of the Year" (difference?). One strange thing to me was the fact that they not only promoted the story on the home page, but also asked you to digg it. This is something I've always thought the smaller MMORPG's should do, but just never do. I guess they are trying to look professional, but Digg can be a powerful way to get the message out.
LOTRO has had a lot of updates lately, and I think it's gaining steam. A lot of MMO's do after about a year, because that's the point where most work out a lot of the bugs. Before then, it's hit and miss, but don't be suprised if you log in one day and something is missing from your inventory because of a "bug". Anyway, LOTRO just added over 100 new quests, a new 12-player raid, two new areas in Middle-earth and introduced the player housing system. Before that, book 10 added new reputation and bartering systems, playing as monsters, and enhanced the user interface.
Right now, you can play The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar for 7 days for free and if you refer a friend, you can get 30 days free added to your account through their referral program.
Duels comes to Facebook
Limax (forum name) on Duels.com has created a Facebook application so that now you can challenge all your friends directly from the popular social media site. From his Facebook application site, here are a few features, and more about upcoming features to this application:
- Stats are automatically updated every 30min, you don't need to go to the application page to update your stats anymore.
- You can now add several characters to your profile (up to 5).
- I added a 'Invite friends' page, so that you can invite your friends (please do :))Next updates I'll try to do:
- Display more stats (like badges)
- Display top 10 players on the application page
- Display list of items and link to buy them ingame
These updates will probably need Duels' team to update their widgets. I hope they'll agree to do this.
Hopefully, Duels will work with him on making this application better. Thanks for taking the iniative to create this Limax.
Duels forum discussion about the app
Gamecron's Duels Walkthrough and Tips
Archlord patch
I don't report all MMORPG updates, but this happens to be one I recommend in my free alternatives to WoW article. The major change that I see is minimum PvP level is now 30. You automatically are PvP enabled at this level and are basically playing on a PvP server at that point. It used to be 15. I think this is a good change, because it gives players more time to get used to the game. Here's the rest of the changes:
-Option Window updated
(For Effect Advanced, skill effect changed to have On/Off instead of High/Med/Low)
(New option added "Loot Item" which turns on Monster loot item names when dropped)
-New Launcher updated (Window Vista compatibility)
-Emotes for German/French version fixed
-Numerous localisation updates
-Archlord skills for German/French version now working
-Catapult deadspots fixed
-PK level restriction changed from 15 to 30
-Items not in game but in AH removed
(Shield items above level 71, Armour set above level 83)
-Rensphere map data changed
-Packet and login process changed
-Level up message changed for PvP
-Guild window text changed (Guild/Guild member information)
-Various collision issues resolved
-Change text on Chantra passport from 'Prohibited Mine’ to 'Forbidden Mine’
-Guild Npcs restored (players will be able to use the various npc features again)
Insurgency: Modern Infantry Combat
Done with with Portal and Episode 2? Looking for something to play? Insurgency: Modern Infantry Combat is a total conversion mod for Half-Life 2 built on the source engine. According to my research and Steam stats, it is the most popular third-party mod for Half-Life 2 with 213 servers and 5.6 million minutes played per month. Beta 2 is being released hopefully in the early days of November and a video has been released showing some of what you'll get in this new release. Here's some notes:
- New Commander Promotion System*
- New Weapon: M4A1 Assault Rifle with Front Grip (USMC)
- New Weapon: AKS74U (Insurgents)
- New Weapon: Al-Kadesiah Sniper Rifle (Insurgents)
- New Weapon: SKS Simonov Self-Loading Carbine (Insurgents)
- New Map: Ins_Samawah
- New Player Customization and Weapon's Selection Systems
- New Navigation Indicators**
- New Overhead Map
*The New Commander Promotion System gives the best player in each team the chance of becoming Commander. He will be able to accept or deny the promotion. If he doesn't accept it, the next best player will get its chance to command its team.
**The New In-game Navigation Indicators will help you a great deal in navigating through the maps, finding objectives and following your commander's orders. You can see the new system in most of the following screenshots.
And here's the video:
