Today Riot Games has announced a limited open beta testing of its new game format "Dominion".

Summoners!

Last week we announced that Dominion would be available for limited periods of time leading up to its official release as part of a limited beta test . Well, we’re pleased to announce that the limited beta is under way!

Over the coming days, we’ll be opening testing windows on our platforms during off-peak hours, each of which will be prefaced by a forum announcement to let you know you can and participate. And if you miss one of the testing windows, remember that there will be plenty more opportunities to help test Dominion as we speed toward launch!

We’re entering the home stretch, summoners! The dawn of League of Legends: Dominion is almost upon us!

Save the world without spending a dime.

If the proposition of buying DC Universe Online and then paying a monthly fee has been keeping you away from Sony Online Entertainment's MMO, prepare to enter Gotham City next month. In October, DC Universe Online goes free to play.

Both PlayStation 3 and PC players will be able to download and play the game for free. Three tiered levels will act as the game's revenue source from there along with in-game microtransactions. Here's the official breakdown from SOE

Free
New players will now have access to the current gameplay in DC Universe Online (including Gotham City, Metropolis, and all current raids and alerts), with the ability to create two characters, join a league and many other benefits. Free level players will be able to purchase downloadable game packs/updates, additional character slots, powers and more through microtransactions.

Premium
Any player who has spent at least $5 (including former paid subscribers and new players who have purchased $5 of in-game items) will qualify for the Premium access level. Premium level players will have more benefits available to them than the Free level player, including additional character slots, additional inventory slots, and higher cash limits. Downloadable adventure packs, additional character slots, and more can be purchased in-game.

Legendary
Maximum features and benefits are included at this level. Loaded with enhanced additional features, Legendary access will be available for a $14.99 monthly fee and includes all DLC packs at no cost, more than 15 character slots, more than 80 inventory slots, the ability to form unrestricted-sized leagues, and many other benefits.

If you've already paid for a PC lifetime subscription or a PS3 plan, that deal still stands when this switch happens in late October. This event also marks the end of DCUO's auto-renew feature. In the past, the game would automatically resubscribe you when your subscription lapsed. That's over now – a result of the more than 40 percent of people who quit EverQuest II and complained about the auto-renew in a SOE survey.

"We decided 'Let's listen to them'," said Lorin Jameson, SOE executive producer. "I don't know about you, but my credit card statement every month is this amalgam of s*** of MMOs that I'm too lazy to cancel. What we want is to offer people a way to not worry about that."

The announcement of the free to play move comes just seven months after SOE released DC Universe Online. SOE wouldn't go into the exact number of subscribers currently playing the game, but Jameson said numbers are up since the move to megaservers and that free to play was not in response to subscriber numbers.

"In terms of 'Is it a result in a drop in subs' – absolutely not," he said. "This is the right business model. If I can be honest, the game ended up costing a lot more than we thought it would, and this was our preferred business model from day one."

If you're a stickler for fair play, SOE said you don't have to worry about microtransactions breaking the game. Super-powerful items such as Superman's raid suit will not be purchasable and experience won't be for sale in October. The experience will be similar to Free Realms' free to play model, SOE said, and you can expect to see it in games that are out now and future releases.

"We are really seeing the benefits of free to play, and we're really liking it," Jameson said. "Needless to say we're paying close attention to it and maybe looking to make some surprise moves a little later."

Here's the patch notes, enjoy 😀

• Labels for items will be added.[1]
• User-placed leaf blocks won't decay.[2]
• Clouds won't go through buildings anymore.[3][4]
• Pressing F3 will no longer show numbers above the mobs heads.
• Rain and snow will now render faster.[5]
• Cloud movement syncs with the time.[6]
• Ghast attack sounds will be fixed in SMP.[7]
• Skeletons now hold full-size bows.[8] (found at 7:00)
  • Skeleton arrows originate from about their eyes to the bow, instead of above the head.
• The snout on pigs will protrude from their head.[9]
• Pressing F+F3 will now alter render distance/fog.[10]
• Passive mobs will randomly flee if attacked by the player or other mobs (such as Wolves). [11]
• More Mob-To-Mob interactions. [12]
• Armor bar moved to above hearts, due to food bar.[13]
• Clay is now commonly found under shallow Water.
• Player to mob damage decreased by half a heart.

Features:

• Right clicking with a sword lets you parry.
• At least 9 new crafting recipes.[14]
  • Stone Brick.[15]
    • Stone Brick Slabs.[16]
    • Stone Brick Stairs.[17][18]
  • Brick Slabs.[16]
  • Brick Stairs.[17][18]
  • Fence Gates.[19] [20] (around 0:52)
  • Glass Panes
  • Iron Bars
  • Melons
  • Melon Seeds
• The ability to place pressure plates on fences.[6] (around 19:55 in)
• Different game modes.[21]
  • Creative mode.[6] (around 3:10 in)
    • Flying in Creative mode.[6][22]
    • Able to change time quickly and easily.[6] (around 6:00 in) Note:Notch is in debug mode[6] (around 5:36 in)
    • You will get unlimited resources in Creative mode.[6] (around 11:20 in)
      • A new screen, the Unlimited Item Selection screen.[23]
• At least three new mobs.
  • New Enderman mob.[24][25]
    • They take damage from water.[6] (around 32:10 in)[22]
    • They emit black smoke particles.[22]
    • They will drop Ender Pearls.
    • They open their mouth when hostile/looked at.
  • New Silverfish mob.[6] (around 13:10 in)
    • Very rare.[6] (around 13:10 in)
    • Will spawn rarely when mining a block.
  • New Cave Spider mob.[26]
    • They spawn in Abandoned Mine Shafts.[27]
    • Their attacks are venomous, and turn the player's health yellow upon being poisoned(will not kill you but will make you lose 4 health bars, if you are below 4 health bars then it will bring you down to heart).[28]
    • Have a unique mob spawner.
    • They are smaller than regular spiders.[26]
• Zombies drop a new item instead of feathers,[29][30] Rotten Flesh.[6] (around 11:40 in)
• New features in the terrain generator; things which will only appear in new worlds/chunks.[31]
  • Optional[32] NPC Villages[33] with farms[34] and "town borders".[35][36]
    • Possibility of players to "claim" land in villages.[37]
    • Wells for villages.[38]
    • Made of: Cobblestone, Mossy Cobblestone, Wooden Planks, Wood, Torches, Cobblestone Stairs, Gravel, Fence, Glass and/or Glass Panes, Ladders, Wooden Doors, Crops, Farmland, Water, Lava, Furnaces, Iron Bars, Black Wool, and Pressure Plates.[6] (around 3:50 – 4:30; 19:30 – 20:00)
    • Contain "Smithies".[39]
    • Will spawn only on flat areas.[40]
  • Underground Ravines including canyons on the surface and ledges to walk on.[41][42][43] (about 24:00 in)
  • Strongholds,[44] consisting of 4 new blocks: Stone Brick, Mossy Stone Brick, Cracked Stone Brick, and Iron Bars.[45]
  • Abandoned Mine Shafts.[6] (around 13:55 in)[43] (about 25:55 in)
  • Naturally found Cobweb.[6] (around 13:55 in)
• Totally new, fractal-based[46] biome code.[47]
  • 7 new biomes.[6] (around 24:25)
    • New "Mushroom biome".[48] which will include Huge Mushrooms, both brown and red.[49]
    • Rivers flowing through/in between biomes.[50]
    • Ocean Biomes, that are deeper and larger than before.[51]
    • Mountain biomes.[6] (around 29:15)
    • Swamp biome.[52]
  • Possibly new rainforest biomes.
  • Possible Volcanoes.[6] (around 22:00)
  • Larger Biomes.[53]
• New combat Mechanics.[33]
  • Hold-to-charge bows.[54]
    • 3 different charged states; takes less than 1 second to fully charge.[6] (around 5:05 in)
    • Fully charged bows causes the player to walk slower.[8] (around 5:40 in)
  • Critical hits.[55]
    • When the player hits a mob while jumping.
    • When the bow is fully charged.
  • Player blocking attack animation and hostile mob attack animations, possibly more player animations.[56][57]
    • Block "stance".[22]
• New farming options, more interesting farming.[55][58][59]
  • The Cocoa Bean tree Jeb was talking about could be implemented.[33]
  • Plantable pumpkins and melons, each with a central stem that grows to max size and spawns a fruit next to it.[60]
  • Melon Seeds.
  • Pumpkin Seeds.
• New Food System.
  • There is now a food meter.[61][62]
    • Food no longer heals directly but indirectly.[61]
    • If the food meter is above 80%, heals about every 5 seconds.[6] (around 31:00)
  • Food will be stackable.[63][64][65]
  • Food takes 1.6 seconds to consume.[61]
  • There is now a food eating animation.[6][61][66] (around 5:30 in)
  • 5 new food items.[67]
    • Cooked Chicken.[68]
    • Raw Chicken.[69]
      • Has a chance to "give you a disease".[70][71]
    • Raw Beef.[65][72][73]
    • Steak.[65][72][73]
    • Melon Slices.[74]
  • Cooked Porkchops have a different texture.[65]
• New achievements.
  • Kill a skeleton with an arrow at 50 meters.[75]
  • Possibly attempting Shoot the Moon with an arrow.[76]
• Sprinting: By double pressing the forward button, the player will move faster.[77]
  • Sprinting will be limitless, but will deplete your food bar.[78]
  • Hitting a mob while sprinting sends them flying[79] about 8 blocks.[6] (around 7:50 in)
  • Jumping while sprinting boosts the jump to a length of 4 blocks.[78][80]
  • Sprinting makes particles come up from the ground.[81]
  • While sprinting, The field of view will slightly increase.
• Glass Panes.[82]
  • Can be mined and picked up without breaking.[83] (about 1:45 in)
• Possibly Spike blocks, Jeb initially considered Spike Pistons, but then pondered making a Spike block that can be pushed by the Sticky Piston.[84]
• Arrows will get stuck on mobs when they hit.[85]
• Vine blocks.[86]
  • They will not be climbable.[87]
  • Player can walk through them.[88]
• Improved chest model with a 3D lock and an open state/animation.[89]
  • They are now slightly smaller than one full block.
• The ability to convert Creative worlds to Survival worlds ingame.[90]
• New uses of shears.
  • Vine
  • Tall Grass

Graphics / UI / Audio:

• C418 mentioned new Minecraft music.[91]
• HD Texture pack support (found in the pre-release)
• New improved lighting — day/night cycles will not require chunk updates.[92] Lighting will be updated via a texture, whose coordinates are the block's sky light and block light levels.[93]
• Warmer light from torches.[94]
• Moonlight is blue.[6]
• New texture for Moss Stone.[95]
• Sliders for field of view and Brightness in video options.[96][97][98]
• Redesigned HUD, including two new features, food and experience bars.[99]
  • Killing a mob gives you tiny flashing Experience Orbs that add to your experience.[6] (around 19:35)
• New launcher.[100][101]
  • Possibly a web Applet launcher.[102]
• A lot of new sounds and some changes, such as minecart sounds and shear sounds, also a change in the sound of rain.[103][104]
  • New bow sounds (including hits), new door sounds, big slimes sound, and walking skeletons sound more skeletony.[105]
• New particle effects.
  • Performing a critical hit on any mob will cause 'sparks' to fly.
  • Explosion particles are now shockwaves instead of smoke.
• The ability to see the world seed when pressing F3.
• New animated main menu background.
• The version in the main menu is in the lower left, instead of the upper left.
• Tiny stationary bubble particles can be seen when underwater.
• Fog is now thicker and darker deep underground.
• The void is now black and gives off particles.
• Multiplayer server list.[106][107]
• Improved server join screen: The server join screen features a list of servers.[108]
• Player List – Press tab in multiplayer and player list comes up.[78][109]
• The ability to allow moderators to enter creative mode in SMP.[110]

• Modding Support.
  • Easier changing of the max level (map) height.
  • The terrain generation code is tidier.
• Added Endermen
• Added Silverfish
• Added Strongholds
• Added NPC Villages
• Toggle Fog is now F3 + F
• May already be in place (?); Brown and Red Mushrooms spawn frequently under trees in the swamp biome
• Shift-Clicking items will craft the maximum possible amount of what you are trying to craft with the limit at 64. (e.g. You have 16 coal above 16 sticks and you shift click the torches, a stack of torches (64) will appear in your bottom usage bar)

Bug Fixes:

• Shift+Click on items now work correctly.
• Fixed Redstone circuits not working after /time set x glitch going to be fixed in SMP.
• Destroying boats and minecarts now creates particles.

Metro-style UI to span across all computing devices.

At their BUILD Conference, Microsoft has launched the developer preview for the next version of their operating system, tentatively titled Windows 8.

As initially revealed at D9 earlier this year, Windows 8 takes large cues from the Metro UI seen on their Windows Phone 7 devices. The "tile" system continues to play a major role, ultimately replacing the use of icons or a traditional app launcher.
 

If the Metro UI isn't to your liking, you can hop between it and a Windows 7-style interface at the simple push of a button; a handy tool considering that the only way to currently completely close an open Metro app is through the Task Manager, accessible through the traditional Windows portion of the OS.

Developers will be able to download the Windows Developer Preview in the near future. For a complete guide about what Windows 8 has to offer, feel free to take a look at the Windows 8 Developers Guide.

Microsoft aims to combine its entertainment platforms.

At the BUILD conference today, Microsoft announced it will bring Xbox Live to Windows 8.

While details are scarce, they claim the move "is part of [their] vision to bring you all the entertainment you want, shared with the people you care about, made easy."

No details on price were mentioned. Games for Windows Live has gained a notorious reputation amongst gamers, so it appears Microsoft are taking a step back from the service. Microsoft has not announced a release date for their new operating system.

What do you want to see from this new use of Xbox Live? Minesweeper achievements, anyone?