Wildstar developer Carbine has announced that the MMORPG will be going free to play on September 29th. In a stream today, they talked about the ongoing beta tests of the new version of the game, including streamlined starter areas and some quality of life improvements such as improved tutorials. Wildstar has been around for just about a year, and the subscriber base never quite took off the way Carbine might have liked. Now, with the switch to free to play, one of the things they have been talking most about is how to make sure that players who purchased the game originally are properly rewarded. While much of that remains to be ironed out in the second phase of testing that will occupy the rest of the month before the official launch, the developers have maintained that loyal players will find plenty of rewards waiting for them.

Of interesting note is the teams emphasis on testing their new real money currency, Ncoin. They have asked existing testers to spend real money to help them test the new currency, promising that the real money will be returned once the tests are concluded. I’ve put several hundred hours into Wildstar and I remain optimistic about the new free to play model.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

Frontier Developments is set to launch their newest expansion, CQC soon. The beta is currently under way, and I got a chance to jump in. As a brief refresher, CQC stands for Close Quarters Combat Championship. In it, up to 8 players take part in Team Deathmatch, Free For All or Capture The Flag Matches in arenas as they pilot a selection of the iconic ships from the larger game. The Condor, Sidewinder and Eagle are all included, putting a premium on speed and maneuverability.

As you complete matches, you earn experience which can then be used to unlock upgrades for the various ships. Switching your pulse lasers out for beam lasers; swapping your chaff launcher for silent running and more. These custom loadouts add a nice bit of flavor to the matches, as you never know quite what the enemy is going to have equipped.  The arenas are varied, or at least as varied as space can be. One has you fighting amidst a frozen asteroid field, another sees you swooping between the struts of a space station as you chase down the flag carrier, and another has a hulking central hub with a tunnel through it that makes for nail biting high speed chases.

Theres no doubt that CQC is fun. It flies like Elite, ships are squishy yet powerful, the arenas and powerups scattered about make things diverse and interesting, and all in all it feels well thought out. I had some team balance issues, but this is a beta with a limited player pool. If all goes well, CQC should release next week. Team Sanitarium will dive right in. If we can convince PredictedCyborg to step aside from her role as dictator supreme of her faction….

Since it’s launch, Guild Wars 2 has been a rather successful MMO, and one that didn’t boast the standard monthly subscription fee. Instead, you simply purchased a serial code for the game and that was it. Of course, there were in game cosmetics you could spend money on, but the game never asked you for more money simply to play. Now, however, ArenaNet has embraced the Free To Play model. The announcement was made at the Guild Wars 2 PAX Panel, and is effective as of today.

Of course, with an MMORPG that already has an established player base (and one that shelled out cash for the game to boot) things aren’t as simple as just flipping a switch that turns off the price of admission. Instead, free accounts will be limited in ways that existing and new paid accounts will not be. Free Players will be limited to two character slots and 5 bag slots. They will also be unable to access the Revenant profession and the Heart of Thorns content. The core world of the game will be more segmented, with free players only being allowed to starter maps until they reach level 10 and the major city of Lion’s Arch being locked out until level 35.

Perhaps the most interesting restrictions however deal with communications and the Trading Post. The Trading Post is a huge part of Guild Wars 2. Wihle I was levelling up my Mesmer and looking for the top gear I needed, the pages of Black Lion were seared into my retinas. Free players will still ahve access to the Trading Post, but only to a select lists of items to buy and sell.

Lastly, communications will be severely limited for free players, presumably so the unpaying masses don’t disturb their serial number holding betters. Whisper chat will be restricted to only the same map and only to one new person every 30 seconds except for mutual friends. Map chat will be totally unavailable, and squad chat will only unlock at level 30.

Oh, and ArenaNet also announced that Heart of Thorns will be released on October 23rd and that it will include raid content.

After teasing us earlier this week, the details of the the Thief’s elite specialization has finally been revealed, and it’s called the Daredevil.

The daredevil is a mobile damage dealer who can bring the pain to multiple enemies at once and also has enhanced dodge-roll abilities. To read all about the new abilities check out Karl McLain’s blog post over on the GW2 website.

For anyone who would like to get a chance to see the daredevil in action before they get to try it in the next beta weekend event, be sure to watch the next Points of Interest show on Friday 8/28 at noon PDT on the official GW2 Twitch channel.

The second Beta Weekend Event will be taking place starting at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7) on Friday, September 4, and running until 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-7) on Sunday, September 6.

Beta weekend events are a large milestone in the development of our expansion, and we can’t wait to play the game with you over the weekend and to continue down the path that brings Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns to release! And while we count down to our second beta weekend, make sure to join us for our massive announcement about Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns live from PAX Prime on Saturday, 29 August, at 5:30 p.m. UTC (10:30 a.m. Pacific Time), broadcast live on the official Guild Wars 2 Twitch channel, or join us in person if you’re attending PAX!

The Rockstar Editor was one of those editions to the game of GTA V with the PC release and one I was most interested in. I need to just find the time to play the game…

However, the Rockstar Editor has been supplemented with player-made mods since it released, mainly because it didn’t do everything that people needed it to (although people were still able to make great videos without modding the Editor). Rockstar seem to be paying attention because they’ve decided to upgrade the tools available in the upcoming months to make the video creation even better, along with porting Rockstar Editor to the console versions as well.

Here’s the list of changes coming:

• Ambient Audio and Sound Effects Library: Add ambient and atmospheric sound design with a library of audio tracks to help bring your scenes to life or add sound effects from a collection of Foley and other sfx.
• Snapmatic Integration: Now you can export any still frame at a marker point straight to Snapmatic, giving you ultimate freedom when searching for that perfect camera angle.
• Director Mode Updates: An enlarged minimap with location blips to highlight preset locations, the power to freeze chosen time of day settings and the ability to spawn air and water vehicles.
• Copy and Paste Marker Properties: Easily copy and paste your audio settings from any marker to another marker in the clip – adding invaluable efficiency to your go-to editing techniques.
• New Fonts: You’ll now have more style options than ever for your titles and credits — we’re tripling the library of available fonts with new styles.

Are you excited for these changes?