Battle Galactus in Marvel Puzzle Quests' 2-Year Anniversary

Marvel Puzzle Quest, a free-to-play casual match-three game, is celebrating its second birthday this weekend! How would you celebrate this awesome day? Well, by battling one of the strongest villains in Marvel's history, Galactus!

Beginning this Thursday, Oct. 8, Marvel Puzzle Quest players will be able to take part in a boss battle event against Galactus. Just like with the Ultron boss fight event from this summer, players will need to work together to chip away at Galactus' health and eventually take him down.

The game will also feature two new multiplayer tournaments during the birthday celebrations: one focused on Devil Dinosaur and one focused on "the class of 2015" — all the playable heroes and villains introduced to the game throughout the last year. Red Hulk and a new classic version of Cyclops will join the game during the festivities.

Even if you're not planning to jump into the new events, D3 will also be giving away some nice gifts to players. Anyone logging in during the event will receive a special recruit token for free, and anniversary character packs will be available to purchase at a special reduced price. Players will also receive double ISO rewards for taking part in versus and story events during the birthday.

"I'm a PC" Guy Starring in Minecraft: Story Mode

Parents, you may know who I'm talking about - "I'm a Mac, I'm a PC." Yeah, there you go - the commercial series that had the dude that was once in Jeepers Creepers (kids, don't watch that...it scared me as an adult) who was also at one point Drew Berrymore's boyfriend.

Memory sparked? Well, it's not that guy, it's the other dude, the PC man. Check it:

Comedian John Hodgman, famous for his role as a PC user in the long running series of Apple commercials, was announced today as part of the cast of Minecraft: Story Mode.

The upcoming adventure title from Telltale Games will launch digitally for a myriad of platforms — including Linux, Mac, Windows PC, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One as well as iOS and Android — on Oct. 13. A boxed season pass will be available at retail on Oct. 21. The title is also planned for Wii U and PlayStation Vita.

Telltale and Mojang also announced a special world premier launch event at Hollywood's ArcLight Cinerama Dome. Ticket information is available by mailing minecraftpremiere@telltalegames.com.

In case you're concerned about Hodgman's knowledge of Minecraft, do not be alarmed. He seems well enough aware of the genre.

Telltale Games has been known to produce more mature rated games, however the age range for Minecraft players has got to play a role in making this game. I would not be surprised if Telltale makes this game for everyone, to make the moola.

Fable Legends Will Be Free to Play!

Free-to-Play Models are getting popular!

The Fable franchise has been very successful in the gaming industry. The newest installment, Legends, unites the classic gameplay that players have come to love from the series with next-generation gaming capabilities. For the first time, players can grab your friends and go on adventures together. Heroes can cooperatively discover the quests and stories of Albion. Or, play the villain and mastermind the game in real time.

This sounds incredibly intriguing, especially for those veterans of Fable lore. But you know what the best part of all this is? The game will be available as a free-to-play title on the Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs, as confirmed by Microsoft.

Lionhead, the creators, has been inspired by the PC game League of Legends, with the heroes available rotated over time or able to purchase for permanent use with in-game currency or real cash.

Four heroes will initially be available for free. After a couple of weeks, all four will become unavailable and be replaced by a new quartet. This will continue, eventually looping round and starting again. In-game silver, earned through quests, can be used to add a hero to your stable permanently or you can use real money. Thankfully your hero and equipment progress won't be reset each time they get taken off rotation, so you can start where you left off each time your favorite character returns.

The 4-on-1 will make for interesting multiplayer.

So that's the heroes, but what about the villains? On that front, Microsoft reveals those of a more dastardly inclination will have their own story to play through, during which you'll be able to buy additional creatures to use in maps that wouldn't normally support them. Additionally traps and gates will also be up for grabs, along with magical standing stones.

This, sounds amazing! I don't even care if I have only played Fable 2...this has my attention, as do most free-to-play modeled games do. Albion, here I come!

Some Fable games have been rated M in the past, while some were T. The style of this game may determine what it's final esrb rating will be...I'd probably recommend this game to 15+ for now, just to be safe, until more news comes out about the game. 

Final Fantasy XIV Free to Play Week

Massively Multiple Online (MMO) games are great, Final Fantasy is great...however, I've never tried Final Fantasy's MMO: XIV. If you have tried it in the past though, and your account is lapsed...you can get back in there and check out the newly included Golden Saucer DLC (and the rest of the game) for FREE! That's right! FREE!

If you are like me and haven't tried the game before...they offer at free 14-day trial...but...nothing special for us.

Lapsed players though...BOOM! Merry Christmas!

Final Fantasy XIV is rated T, definitely would only recommend this game for 13+.

Here are the details on the free to play weekend from their official website:

≪Free Login Campaign Overview≫

Users meeting the following conditions will be able to play FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn free of charge during the upcoming Campaign:

Eligibility

Users who have previously purchased and registered FINAL FANTASY XIV and whose service account is set as inactive during the campaign period. 

*Please visit the FINAL FANTASY XIV: Mog Station to confirm the status of your service account.

Event Schedule

From Friday, February 27, 2015 at 12:00 a.m. (PST) to Monday, March 9, 2015 at 1:00 a.m. (PDT) 

* Please note that a subscription to FFXIV: ARR is required to continue playing after the event period.

Client Download

If you have yet to install the game, please download the official client software.
(http://sqex.to/ffxiv_client_en)

Don't miss out on this chance to experience Eorzea in all her glory!

My Journey Back into World of Warcraft

In the mid-2000s, WoW Dominated Video Games

Well, it’s been a long time since I entered the virtual portal to Azeroth, sucking myself into one of the most successful video games ever created. Earlier this year I picked up my mage staff and re-activated my account and played for about a month before the interested died out quicker than I could cast my frost bolt. I had no idea what I was doing…so much was different from the time I had played in college. 

Ah…college…those were the days. I had three worries in my life my 2nd year of college. One, when did my classes start each day? Two, when do I need to get into the Garden Center at Walmart to work? Three, how late can I stay up running Molten Core to get some sort of drop that would help me?! Those aren’t in any particular order…Seriously, my 2nd year, my free time consisted of World of Warcraft and the occasional Socom 3 battle…not much else…yes. I was a loser. 

Back to current day, after years of not setting foot into the gaming world of WoW, I felt lost. I had a high level character that I put a TON of time and energy into, and I didn’t know him anymore. Spells were different, gear was obsolete…new zones…new raids…new…everything. AH! What do I do?!

Screenshot of Gameplay in WoW

Yep…that’s right…create a new character! Who needs that character that I invested so much into, I can get attached to a new character! So, I rolled a monk, because that was the new class at the time. 

That month, I played that monk exclusively and he almost reached the same level as my mage, who I had abandoned, thrown aside like a broken toy to live a lonely life on my character select screen. I miss you Emberrayne…I miss you…So, I jumped back into the high end stuff with my mage. BOOM! I’m back baby, I missed you! 

Then…two days later…my subscription ran out and I moved onto another game.

This month, Warlords of Draenor released. Yeah, so what? Another WoW expansion that does the SAME thing that every other expansion did…blah blah blah…the magic will be there for a few days but it will run out quick. Right? Oh…it is getting good reviews? Oh, interesting, you are going back in time to an area you’ve explored years ago in the franchise? Hm, graphic improvements? Garrisons? Automatic boost to level 90?! 

Garrosh, the main baddie in the recent expansions, Roar!

My account is reactivated. 

I haven’t purchased Warlords of Draenor yet, but it is on my Christmas list…and I have been able to play it a bit on Micah’s account (Micah’s birthday was earlier this month, he got his own account and Warlords as a present…I was instantly jealous). I have however, gone back to my characters that I gave the cold shoulder to earlier this year. The best thing they did with recent patches and updates? They SIMPLIFIED EVERYTHING! 

Yeah, that could be a bad thing for those who have constantly played since vanilla WoW (for those who don’t play WoW, that means the original game that released in 2004), this change is probably an annoyance. They’ve taken away spells and changed the talent trees to become more accommodating to players like me, who haven’t played in years but can jump back into the game without much of a learning curve on characters they have known for so long. Basically, it feels like riding a bicycle now…it takes a minute to get back into the groove, but when you do…it isn’t overwhelming. 

Emberrayne, my mage that felt like a completely different person when I tried playing him in March, was the old Ember from back in the day. I felt comfortable with him. I enjoyed getting back into the groove and getting him up to level 90. 

Resemblance to Emberrayne...BOOM!

I’m only a couple weeks into playing WoW again, but I’m highly anticipating snagging Warlords of Draenor (hopefully Santa brings it) to try out some of the newer perks with the expansion. I applaud Blizzard for getting me back into the swing of things with the late game content AND allowing a player to boost a character straight to 90, so they can experience the magic they created in that late game atmosphere. 

Look for Emberrayne on Frostmane, he will be spreadin’ ice like Elza in Frozen this winter. Any old school WoW players thinking of jumping back into Azeroth? I’d highly recommend trying it out!

I’ll try to get an official review of World of Warcraft (as of 2014/2015) soon!