Free PC Gaming Blog

I just finished playing Free Realms for the past 45 minutes and I had to log off to post on this. The quality of this free to play game from SOE is amazing.

Check out the Free Realms press realse:

MAKE FRIENDS, RACE KARTS, BATTLE FOES AND RAISE PETS IN FREE REALMSTM - AVAILABLE NOW!

Sony Online Entertainment’s Whimsical, Family-Friendly Virtual World Is Now Live

SAN DIEGO, Calif. – April 29, 2009 – Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) today announced that the free, family-friendly online video game Free Realms™ is now available for everyone to play at www.FreeRealms.com. Free Realms is a whimsical virtual world, loaded with fun for gamers of all ages. Whether you want to race karts, raise a pet, explore mystical forests or chat with friends, in Free Realms, you can do it all.

“We’ve designed Free Realms to be a fun, safe place for gamers of all ages to play online and are excited to finally open the doors to our adventure-packed world,” said Andy Sites, senior producer, Sony Online Entertainment. “Free Realms is free to play and truly lets you do what you want, when you want. Every member of the family will find something fun to do in Free Realms!”

In Free Realms, players can customize their characters and play a wide variety of minigames in a safe, online environment, packed with stunning visuals, distinctive environments, and social networking capabilities. Players are free to do or be anything: Become a ninja, cook a yummy meal, battle goblins, set out on epic quests or connect with friends through a safe, social networking page. The Free Realms Trading Card Game is a full-featured trading card game playable both digitally within the Free Realms online game and through a physical game available wherever you buy trading cards!

Free Realms offers a variety of features, including:

Free Gameplay: Free Realms is free to play; however, additional content can be accessed through a Membership or micro-transactions.

Rich Character Creation: With thousands of customizations and combinations, you can blend fantasy and reality to create your perfect avatar.

Be Whoever You Want: Characters aren’t locked into classes or jobs – you can be a ninja one minute and a race kart driver the next.

Kid Safe: Free Realms is designed with kids’ safety in mind and has pre-canned chat, reporting, filters and Parental Controls that allow for the customization of security options, for younger players.

Something for Everyone: Players can take care of pets, sort mail, race go-karts, battle goblins or cook meals for their friends.

Vibrant, Deep Environment: Adventurous gamers can spend hours exploring towns, bustling cities, beaches, forests, snowy mountaintops and more.

Connect with Friends: Whether you’re meeting up with old friends or finding new ones, Free Realms allows players to stay connected through its social networking page. Just log in, see what your friends have been up to, click their avatars and join them in Free Realms.

Everyone Can Access: Free Realms is designed to run on nearly all PCs. The game will stream to your PC as you play, so Free Realms will not take up a lot of memory and will download quickly.

Trading Card Game: The Free Realms Trading Card Game will let players pit fun characters like dragons and goblins against one another in fun, fast-paced combat. Half the game is collecting new cards so you are armed with the best lineup of attacks and defenses to prove your might in online tournaments.

Station Access subscribers will receive a Free Realms Membership with their all-in-one subscription. Free Realms is rated E10+ for Everyone 10 and up with content descriptors of Crude Humor and Fantasy Violence. To play Free Realms, visit: http://www.FreeRealms.com.

Aeria Games Announces Acquisition of DragonSky Closed Beta Signups Now Open

Santa Clara, Calif. (April 24, 2009) - Aeria Games is pleased to announce its newest acquisition DragonSky from SonoV Entertainment, developer of the highly popular Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing game (MMORPG) Shaiya, for release in the United States MMORPG market.

DragonSky is an action-packed MMORPG based on the martial arts of ancient China. Body, mind, and spirit are key elements for success in the constantly evolving world. The Soul of the Dragon and Heart of the Tiger are two factions in a constant battle for supremacy. Explore the vibrant world and delve into the realm versus realm combat, sect wars, an evolving storyline, martial arts dueling, player bounties, crafting, treasure raids, costumes and more!

Set to be released in May 2009, DragonSky will surely challenge the warrior in everyone. DragonSky is Aeria Games’ second acquisition from SonoV Entertainment, the first acquisition being Shaiya, one of the most successful free to play MMORPGs on the market. DragonSky joins the ranks of many other free-to-play MMOs published by Aeria Games including Shaiya, Last Chaos, Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online, Hello Kitty Online, and Twelve Sky 2.

Closed Beta signups have already begun! Sign up now at http://dragonsky.aeriagames.com/signup.

GET READY TO TAKE ON THE GREEN AND TEE OFF! NTREEV USA RE-LAUNCHES PANGYA IN NORTH AMERICA

The Open Beta Is Now Live For The Popular Online Casual Golf Game At http://Pangya.ntreev.net/

Irvine, Calif., April 23, 2009 - Ntreev USA, a leading online game developer and publisher, announced today that it has re-launched Pangya, its popular, online casual golf game in North America. The game, previously known as Albatross 18 in the U.S. is now in beta at http://Pangya.ntreev.net/.

The newly launched beta includes full game play content from Pangya’s Season 3. Before summer, Ntreev USA will introduce Season 4 with new characters, locations, all-new customization features and more. Members who previously had accounts for Albatross 18 will be able to transfer their accounts over to Pangya. All accounts setup during this beta phase will transfer over when the game launches commercially next month.

“Pangya has enjoyed worldwide success and popularity, including its tremendous mainstream popularity in the U.S. market,” said Chris Lee, CEO at Ntreev USA. “Pangya offers a unique golf experience that is easy to pick-up-and-play, and appeals to a wide variety of skilled and casual players alike. We are excited that we could bring it back to the North American players who love it.”

Pangya is a casual golf game that takes the difficult rules of golf and transforms it into an easy to pick-up -and-play casual golf experience that a player of any skill level can enjoy. Featuring simple and intuitive controls, Pangya allows anyone who has used Windows to easily play with other gamers and unlike other online games; players in Pangya are friends, not enemies!

In Pangya, players are taken to 14 gorgeous locations where they can choose one of 8 unique playable characters. Pangya offers players an extensive customization experience with thousands of possible combinations of costumes, accessories, equipment, golf clubs, power boosts and more that help them to become a pro out on the green.

Pangya is free for players to download and play, while some items in the game including certain characters, clothing sets, new equipment and accessories will be available to purchase via micro-transaction.

The in-game currency in Pangya, called Pang, allows players to purchase items from the game’s shop that will upgrade a character, provide new inventory and equipment, allows them to send gifts to other players and more. Gamers can earn Pang by finishing a hole at par or better, and by showcasing powerful shots.

The beta for Pangya is now available, with a full commercial launch in May.

For more information about Ntreev USA visit www.ntreev.net. For more information on Pangya, please visit http://Pangya.ntreev.net/.

G4BOX and Wicked Interactive Partner with IGA Worldwide

G4BOX Inc. and Wicked Interactive Ltd. Announce Partnership with IGA Worldwide to Support the Popular Free-to-Play Shooter, Cross Fire

Toronto, Ontario – April XX, 2009 – G4BOX Inc. and Wicked Interactive Ltd. announced an exclusive agreement with IGA Worldwide to support in-game advertising within their hit game, Cross Fire, a free multiplayer first-person shooter available at: http://crossfire.subagames.com.

“The Cross Fire beta launch has proven to be a tremendous success. The scale of the community building around the game has been astonishing and is still growing rapidly,” said Howard He, CEO of G4BOX Inc. “We are delighted to partner with G4BOX on Cross Fire. Its success has allowed us to partner with in-game advertising pioneer, IGA Worldwide, to pursue opportunities in this exciting and ground-breaking advertising environment,” added Garvin Yeung, CEO of Wicked Interactive Ltd.

Cross Fire is a free-to-play, multiplayer first-person shooter available on the PC platform. It allows up to 16-players to battle online simultaneously, completing objective-based missions and scenarios across a range of realistic locations and arenas. Cross Fire also offers an array of features, such as: four modes of gameplay including the exclusive “Ghost Match” mode, a persistent stat-tracking and ranking system, in-game friend lists, an integrated clan system, customizable characters, realistic military weaponry and much more.

Through its integration of IGA Worldwide’s proprietary Radial 4.0 advertising SDK, Cross Fire now offers brands and agencies the opportunity to dynamically display, update and geo-target their advertisements to a highly engaged, tech-savvy audience within the elusive 18-34 male demographic.

Ed Bartlett, Vice President Europe for IGA Worldwide, said “Having pioneered ad-supported free-to-play premium games over the last three years, we are very excited to extend this model to Cross Fire, which has all of the necessary features for another huge success story in this category. IGA prides itself on a qualitative approach to ad inventory, and alongside contextual in-game billboards, users can also expect a sponsored tournament and leaderboards as well as subsidised branded content including new levels and arenas.”

IGA’s network has generated in excess of 25 billion full impressions, delivering over 60 million hours of content to nearly 40 million users in total, with an average view duration of 9 seconds of exposure per ad.

Outspark to Launch FREE Game Expansion for Fiesta

Level 105 release includes new gear, skills, monsters and maps!

San Francisco, Calif. – April 17, 2009 – Outspark, a rapidly growing virtual playground combining free to play games with personalized social experiences, today announced the newest free expansion for its hit online role-playing game, Fiesta. Available to all players on April 22, 2009, the Level 105 release features new maps to explore, deadly monsters to fight and powerful gear and skills for all character classes. Complete details are available now at www.fiesta.outspark.com.

With the Level 105 release, Outspark continues to deliver on its promise to provide gamers with engaging social online entertainment. Players of all ages and skill levels are encouraged to join the millions already experiencing thrilling adventures inside the world of Fiesta and begin their own quest to reach Level 105.

Additional Level 105 Fiesta Features Include:
• Maximum character level raised from 89 to 105
• New weapons and more powerful skills
• Diverse new regions to explore including Alberstol Ruins, Temple of Spirit, Swamp of Dawn and Tear’s Marsh
• Intense plaver-vs-player battles in Abyss Marsh
• Fierce new foes including Black Bears, Caiman, Fire Taitan, Living Stone, Living Statues and many more
Fiesta is a free multiplayer online RPG set in the colorful land of Isya. Inside the game’s vibrant and immersive environments players can socialize, make friends and experience endless adventures. With hundreds of quests, player-versus-player content, item crafting and much more, Fiesta is a full-featured MMORPG that creates infinite hours of entertainment. Fiesta also features an in-game store, which offers hundreds of premium items for sale including new outfits, character mounts, pets and other items designed to make each experience unique.

For more information about the free Level 105 Fiesta expansion, please visit http://events.outspark.com/2009/fiesta/level-105/. To sign up for a free Outspark account or learn more about Outspark please visit www.outspark.com.

Rumble Fighter Goes ‘Under Construction’

Hazardous New Stage Tests Players’ Skills

El Segundo, Calif.-April 9, 2009- OGPlanet, an innovative provider of multiplayer online games, today announced the addition of a brand-new stage in Rumble Fighter, its MMO fighting game.

The new Rumble Fighter stage, called “Under Construction,” is set in a gritty urban construction site. Players can run up and down wooden ramps in the shadow of a massive billboard, but they are going to have to be quick and careful to keep from falling or getting knocked off.

Falling is not the only hazard on this work zone. As the stage is an unfinished construction site, some sections of the scaffolding are weak enough that a few hits can dislodge them, sending everyone on that section of the stage plummeting. This can be a useful tool to a skilled strategist or a fatal mistake by a careless brawler.

“Rumble Fighter players are going to love the challenge of ‘Under Construction,’” said Yeonji Lee, Rumble Fighter producer. “Between fending off opponents, keeping your feet on stable ground and making sure not to tear the whole site apart, the new stage really puts your brawling skills to the test.”

About Rumble Fighter
One of the most unique fighting games around, Rumble Fighter allows up to 8 players to battle it out online in simultaneous melee action. Featuring an advanced combo attack skill system with multitudes of real fighting styles to choose from, Rumble Fighter allows players to build the fighter they’ve always wanted to be.

Update expands Runes of Magic game world

New zone ‘Ravenfell’ open as of now

Berlin, 09.04.2009: Just three weeks after the launch of Runes of Magic Frogster is expanding the game world with new content. The newly launched update makes fresh features immediately available: The high level zone ‘Ravenfell’ now offers exciting adventures and challenges to level of 45 - 50 players in a Caribbean setting, bringing Runes of Magic’s total quest-count up to over 1,600 quests. Additionally the ‘Ruins of the Ice Dwarf Kingdom’ dungeon challenges mid-level players, despatching them to the forgotten fortress of the Ice Dwarves. Offering something of a change from levelling and collecting equipment, the ‘Wind-Runner Races’ is already the second mini-game in the fantasy world of Taborea. Heroes from level 35 can look forward to the new Elite skills which will further expand their dual class abilities.

However, new players aren’t being short-changed either. A completely reworked tutorial eases the path for budding heroes in their entry into the online role-play game. In addition, the patch optimises the localisation of areas, items and quest texts. “This content update meets the wishes of our players by further expanding the high level area.” commented Runes of Magic PR Manager, Philipp Senkbeil on the new features being built-in so shortly after the game launch. These seamlessly join up with the content that was already implemented at the launch, such as the difficult instance, the ‘Kalin Shrine’. There is also a new dungeon, ‘Treasure Trove’ which is set to appear in the near future.

You can read further information about the current content as well as comprehensive patch notes, on the official Runes of Magic forum:
http://forum.runesofmagic.com/showthread.php?t=52932.

Runes of Magic – a world full of wizardry and adventure
Runes of Magic was commercially released on 19th March 2009. All interested fantasy fans can continue to download the online role playing game for free at www.runesofmagic.com and can plunge into the game world after a short registration process.

With an extensive range of features Runes of Magic prepares to redefine the standard of free to play massively online role playing games. Runes of Magic conveys an absorbing story through more than 1.600 quests embedded in an atmospheric fantasy world. Players can choose between six main classes and combined with a secondary class they present 30 individual combinations of character classes over all. All characters possess unique skills with impressive combo attacks and can use mounts like war horses and more. A particularly attractive feature for guilds and players is the possibility to arrange their own virtual homes with individual furnishing. Thanks to an extensive crafting and reputation system, thrilling PvP, as well as demanding dungeons and boss-monsters, no wishes remain unsatisfied. The Taiwanese developer Runewaker has developed Runes of Magic according to western MMO standards within a time frame of three years. The studio will provide new challenges for players every four to five months with free add-ons and updates. MMO fans can find more information, pictures and videos on the official website www.runesofmagic.com.

Features
- Free to play: no monthly fees, free download
- Extensive dual class system (six primary and secondary classes)
- Versatile spell- and attack-combinations
- Enthralling background story
- More than 1.600 quests and quest series
- No zone boundaries thanks to seamless architecture
- Dungeons: Instanced and tile based as well as persistent
- Individually developable skills and spells
- Armour sets with special bonuses
- Dynamic item system with hundreds of runes for upgrading
- Optional PvP system with arena battles
- Ranking system with player-ranking lists
- Multitude of unique mounts
- Epic crafting system with the chance to improve existing items
- Personalization of player houses through individual furnishing
- Reputation system
- Customisable user interface with the option to use Add-Ons
- Map and radar system to find dealers, resources and quests easily
- In-game auction houses for trading items
- Teleport-Runes for instant travel
- Mouse and keyboard controls for movement
- Regular updates with new content
- Guild castles in special zones
- Cross-server fights in three-server-battle and guild wars in development

Joymax Launches Easter Event in Leading Free-to-Play MMORPG Silkroad Online

Players Hunt for Easter Eggs and Earn Extra EXP Throughout the Holiday Celebration

IRVINE, Calif. - April 8, 2009

Joymax, an independent developer and publisher of interactive entertainment for the global market, today announced the launch of an Easter celebration in fantasy MMORPG Silkroad Online. From April 8 through April 28, players will receive extra EXP and have the opportunity to win valuable in-game items by collecting rare Easter eggs.

Players can hunt and slay monsters in Silkroad Online for a chance to receive randomly-dropped eggs, which may be traded in for reward items including Grade-B Devil’s Spirits, Berserker Regeneration Potions, Alchemic Stones, and Subscription Cards. In addition, players will receive 20 percent bonus experience throughout the Easter event.

To find out more about the Silkroad Online Easter event, visit the official website at www.joymax.com/silkroad.

About Silkroad Online
Silkroad Online is a massively multiplayer online RPG that puts the player deep into historical fantasy, joining the Chinese and European civilizations along the Silk Road trade route. Traveling across Jangan, from China to Constantinople, players can make their fortunes as merchants, prey on the rich as thieves, or be protection-for-hire as hunters. The most recent expansion, Legend III Roc Mountain, added new territory, quests, weapons, and an increased level cap for adventurers. With over 18 million registered users and 170,000 concurrent players worldwide, the triangular conflict of Silkroad Online has never been more exciting. More information about Silkroad Online is available at www.joymax.com/silkroad.