Many people game to do something that for a little while doesn’t involve real-life. It’s understandable, we all need to put aside our worries and just have fun for a few hours. It’s healthy. However, recently there’s been a spate of a real-life issue spilling over into a game, namely as the conflict in Eastern Ukraine heats up players who have chosen to adorn their plane’s wings with either the Ukrainian or Russian flags have often found themselves as victims of being shot down by their own teammates.

This spate of politically motivated team-killing has become such an issue that the developers, Gaijin Entertainment have made the decision to place the flag decals behind a paywall to stop it being so widespread.

“We know many of you love your flags as decals. Unfortunately, we are seeing too many players using them in ways that instigate national argument […]  we decided to implement a procedure that will require more responsibility from a player who wants to make use of them. From today, the 10th February, all National Flags listed in the flags directory of your decals will be re-set and removed from your inventory in game, they will be available from now on in a similar way as the rest of the decals via purchasing using GE.” they wrote in an announcement covering the decision and the reasons behind it. They also said that some players had protested about historical accuracy given that some flags didn’t even exist during the time the game was set.

Each flag decal now costs 500 GE (Golden Eagles, the in-game currency) to purchase, which is the equivalent of about €3.

Now you can get drunk with you favorite Dwarf and sing along with the songs you heard in Dragon Age: Inquisition. Bioware created a place on its website where you can download the tavern songs for free.

The songs include “I Am The One,” “Grey Warden,” and “Empress of Fire” among others, and you have until February 9th to download the MP3s.

Players pretty much guessed it but Guild Wars 2 Heart of Thorns being an expansion is confirmed! At the “Beyond The Point of No Return” panel at PAX South, ArenaNet president Mike O’Brien told players the good news and Guild Wars 2 Game Director Colin Johanson went over the major features coming in the expansion. Players will be heading into The Heart of Maguuma where players can fight Mordrem minions and discover allies from ancient civilizations. From the announcement trailer, it looks like the Mursaat (or whatever those spectral beings are) are probably a new ally. There will be challenging group content, open world jungle maps, new events, a new story line, and new boss battles.

Max level and gear stats are not changing but progression shall be done using the Mastery System. The Mastery System is available at max level and is account based so you only need to apply points once if you have many characters. This system is used in order to adapt and survive in the Maguuma Jungle. Points for this system are earned by doing Heart of Maguuma jungle content. There are abilities such as hang gliding and combat abilities such as tearing bark off a heavily armored Mordrem. Also, precursors can be earned from the Mastery System via building and completing new collections. Speaking of precursors, Johanson confirmed new legendaries and new legendary precursors in Heart of Thorns.

Specializations are another form of progression being introduced in the expansion. Players will be able to gain access to a new weapon that was unavailable to their character. There will also be new traits, skills and unique mechanics. Some specializations described in the panel for Rangers is the ability to use a staff and Druid Form which provides new skills and mechanics; Necromancers will be able to use greatswords. From the trailer, it seems that Engineers will be able to wield hammers.

The expansion introduces a new heavy armor class: Revenant. Destiny’s Edge member Rytlock Brimstone was confirmed to be a Revenant when he returns from the Mists by Johanson at the panel. Revenants are able to channel the powers of the Mists as well as powers from past Guild Wars great legends such as Jalis Ironhammer (from Guild Wars Prophecies and Eye of the North) and Mallyx the Unyielding (from Guild Wars: Nightfall).

The PvP side is receiving new things as well! For WvW, there will be a new borderland in the borderland rotation where keeps have distinct themes. Certain abilities can be obtained when in control of objectives around a keep. For example, Johanson said the Earth Keep will raise up parts of the ground to defend itself when attacked if players control the shrines around the keep. Core changes to WvW will also be made in order to promote holding objectives. For sPvP, there will be a new mode called Stronghold which is a throwback to Guild Wars 1. Players will be able to hire troops with supply in order to assault the enemy team’s keep in order to defeat the enemy guild lord for the win. Guild teams will be available for this mode in order to see who makes it to the top of the leaderboards.

Finally, there will be Guild Halls. Guild Halls can be upgraded and can be a centralized place where guilds can organize and head out for guild missions and Heart of Maguuma jungle content.

In a post interview by Twitch, Mike O’Brien said that the first (public) playable version of Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns will be available at PAX East. If you missed the panel and want to see it for yourself, you can check it out on Guild Wars 2’s Twitch channel!

After speculation about whether Bethesda’s MMO The Elder Scrolls Online was due to move to a free-to-play model due to the removal of some subscription options and other actions that fitted with the pattern other MMOs have taken before changing to a similar model. Now Bethesda have confirmed that yes, they are changing it. To a single-payment model similar to Guild Wars 2.

The director of ESO, Matt Finor said that they were listening to fan feedback with the changes. “We know that Elder Scrolls fans want choice when it comes to how they play and how they pay, and that is what they will get.”

The game is scheduled for release on the new-gen consoles on June 9th, but the game will go single-payment a little under three months before that on March 17th. Zenimax have confirmed that the single-payment system will give players access to the full launched game along with all existing updates and future Justice and Champion systems.

All existing accounts will be updated to reflect the new payment model and subscribers updated to Premium memberships – able to gain in-game bonuses as well as having access to DLC and a monthly allotment of Crowns all for a monthly fee. Crowns are going to be the paid-for currency for a new in-game store also arriving in March. TESO will now make money via purchasable cosmetic and convinience items from this store, although regular players will get new toys via the updates that come along.

It might not be f2p, but does the idea of paying just once for the game make you want to try TESO again, especiallu with recent updates bringing in a justice system?

Elite’s’s a really good game, at least if you ask our station manager. He loves Elite: Dangerous. It still has a few kinks to be worked out though, and the ghost ship bug is just the latest one that the developers are working to address.

The bug is that players who have their commanders in supercruise are being interdicted – that is forcefully yanked out of supercruise to engage with the other ship. Only, these ships never appear… at least I guess they’re non-hostile ghost vessels? Either way, the reports are mounting up and lead designer Sandro Sammarco took to the game’s forum to discuss the bug among other things.

“Interdiction ending with no other vessels present – this sounds very much like a bug, so please ticket. In general, if an interdiction completes (either because of submission or the interdictor winning) then both ships should be pushed into the same space. I can’t really think of any circumstance where this should not be the case.”

There’s also some considerations on how to better make use of bounties, including making them a “special, non-expiring fine” for the perpetrator so that they’ll have to pay for their crime at some point (Sammarco did point out that bounties are a green light for other players to attack you – which is part of the punishment in their eyes) and potentially setting higher bounties for those long-time players who target new players. As someone who generally swears off PvP games because I’m fed up of being a newbie punching bag for older players, I like this idea.

There should be even more to talk about when the first big update hits the game too.