EVE Online is a big game, famous for being one of the most player-driven ones today. It’s also quite well-known for being somewhat hard to get started in. Because of this CCP have decided to make that introduction a bit easier to gain traction with.

Talking on the EVE Forums, CCP wrote: “Nothing is set in stone yet but it seems likely that we will try and move new players towards starting with significantly more SP. Maybe between 1 and 2 million.” with the skill points being set to be sunk into the ‘core’ skills of the game as opposed to specialisations.

The core skills are the ones that are useful for all ships, meaning that new characters will be able to have a foundation off of which to build their specialisations – one that would previously have come from around 2 months worth of play. Things like ship armour, shields and targeting range will be affected by this.

Of course, there are some players who are opposed to this system but it seems that generally most current EVE players are in favour of this boost, acknowledging that the start-up has always been one of the biggest barriers to getting new players into the game and having the stay for a long time.

World of Warcraft has now been around for about ten years. In that time a lot of accounts have been created and with it, a lot of characters too. That means a lot of names so creating new ones must see some difficulties in getting a unique name on your character.

However Blizzard are planning to fix this by reclaiming character names from accounts that have been inactive for a period. The reclaim will come with the implementation of patch 6.2.

The accounts will be ones that haven’t been accessed since December 7th 2010, so if you’ve any names you’d want to keep on an old account make sure you log in before June 24th to be able to keep them.

“Our goal with this great name liberation is to make sure new and returning players have a large and varied pool of names available to choose from,” Blizzard wrote on the World of Warcraft blog. “So log in now if you wish to preserve your unused characters’ names for your ongoing journey through Draenor.”

More early bean-spilling has occurred, this time on the part of EA and Bioware.

A leaked post, which has since been taken down revealed the details of the new expansion coming soon for Star Wars: The Old Republic, which will be called Knights of the Fallen Empire. Details are still sparse but we now know that you’ll be able to create a Level 60 character instantly, recruit new and existing companions and be able to play through a new “continuous story” which will be release on a regular basis. Also it’ll be free to all subscribers and launch October 27th.

“A man can have anything… If he’s willing to sacrifice everything. Step into an epic story-driven adventure as your character becomes The Outlander, a veteran of the Great Galactic War. A third faction threatens the galaxy as we know it, and your choices will determine the fate of both the Sith Empire and Galactic Republic. Knights of the Fallen Empire includes the first nine chapters, fueled by BioWare-style cinematic storytelling, that kicks off a new player-driven story arc that puts you at the center of a conflict where your choices have impact on outcomes including unexpected twists and betrayals. Choose your path…join or betray companions, old and new…and shape the future of the entire galaxy as well as your own. Best of all, this is only the beginning…”

E3 is waiting on the doorstep right now, so expect more details to emerge during EA’s spot in the press conferences.

The next Legend for Revenants has been revealed and along with it, a new weapon!

A lot of us have been saying for awhile how cool it would be for a profession to get Staff as a melee weapon, and now we got our wish. The newest weapon for Revenants is the Staff and it is used as a melee weapon.

As Roy Cronacher explains in today’s blog post they wanted to turn the normal use of staff on its head the same way they changed up how Revenants use Hammer skills. Their Staff skills will use a mix of martial and magical abilities.

Additionally some of the specifics of how channeling Ventari will work for Revenants was also revealed. All of Ventari’s skills will be powered through his tablet, in fact when you first switch to Legendary Centaur stance you’ll only have the ability to summon the tablet available. After you do that the skill slots will fill out with the rest of the abilities.

The skill Protective Solace forms a barrier around the tablet which destroys enemy projectiles. In the same way as the Hammer skill which keeps two hammers spinning around the Revenant, Protective Solace is the upkeep skill for Staff. Additionally the tablet (and thus the barrier itself) can be moved while it is active.

Just as it might be true that for smartphones, if you can imagine it, “there’s an app for that”, when it comes to modern videogames, often if you can imagine it, “there’s a mod for that” – be it from flooding the majority of the world in Grand Theft Auto 5, to making Thomas the Tank Engine rain from the sky in Skyrim. World of Warcraft is no exception – but perhaps the most interesting mod yet is not an actual game mod, but one modder’s interpretation of a new look for the game.

Recently, a modder named Daniel Luchau decided to give one of the game’s most famous environments – and the hometown of newly created Human characters – a visual facelift through the use of Unreal Engine 4. In order to recreate The Elwynn Forest, Luchau took standard assets as seen in Unreal Engine 4 Tech Demos and combine them with actual models imported from World of Warcraft, though some of the latter’s textures were retouched for better visual splendour. While Luchau is keen to express that his video of the work so far is “an early build” – this only touches the surface of what Unreal Engine 4 can offer and many details and textures still look rough – there are many impressive moments even in the two short minutes of this preview. Outside of Elwynn Forest, players will recognize Goldshire, the second quest town in the area; as well as Westbrook Garrison, with the infamous wanted poster for Hogger outside…

Enough talk, take a look for yourself:

Feel free to head on over to the Forum to let us know what you think 🙂