Companion apps were, for a while, all the rage for major AAA game releases, before they sort of… faded away. But the good companion apps genuinely ended up contributing to the games they were made for, so the concept itself isn’t flawed- as long as the actual app has some legitimate utility, companion apps are perfectly fine.

Blizzard’s World of Warcraft: Legion is getting a companion app that appears to be one of those actually useful ones. The new app allows players to track their followers and issue orders to them, and to alter your abilities at your Order Hall, and also to send party members on quests. Once you hit level 110, you will also get the power to browse World Quests.

The World of Warcraft: Legion companion app is going to be made available on iOS and Android smartphones. You can check out the launch trailer for it for yourself below.

In a genre dominated by World of Warcraft, which is a complete and total behemoth of the arena, any MMORPG that actually manages to attract monthly subscriptions to it is laudable and incredibly resilient- it means that the MMO is offering a viable niche, or alternative, to World of Warcraft, that people are willing to pay for.

One of the games that has survived in a WoW dominated world all this time has been popular space MMO EVE Online, which still requires a monthly subscription for you to be able to play it. However, that will now be changing- this November, with the release of the new expansion, EVE Online will become free to play.

There will be caveats, naturally- free players will be able to play the game indefinitely, but they will find a lot of skills locked from them. Since skills determine what all you can do in the game, including what all ships you can fly, they will generally find themselves playing a more limited game than paying subscribers, who will continue to have full access to everything that the game has to offer.

Developer CCP are emphasizing that in spite of all of the restrictions, free players will be able to mine, explore, run missions and take part in the game’s huge fleet fights- so the bulk of the game’s baseline content will be available to them. Subscribers who stop paying will find access to higher abilities locked, and free players who start paying will find all abilities unlocked.

Given that EVE‘s world, and everything within it, is entirely based on player agency and action, making EVE a truly emergent game, it remains to be seen how a potentially larger player base, which this move will doubtless attract to the game, will change what happens in EVE. One thing is for sure, it will be an exciting time to be an EVE player in the coming months.

For the newcomer, this can be daunting- World of Warcraft has over 10 years of history, over 10 years of legacy. Where is someone new to the game, or returning to it after years of absence, to begin? Fortunately, that’s exactly the question that we will help answer for you with this guide. This guide covers everything and everything that there is to World of Warcraft: Legion, including preparing for the expansion, basic tips and tricks, a guide to leveling up faster, a guide to the game’s classes, as well as the best leveling spec for each class, a section explaining the best spot to farm some leather gold, a guide to artifacts, legendary items, and a guide to PvP.

Preparing For Legion:

Before you play World of Warcraft: Legion, you’d best be advised to collect some Heirloom trinkets. These are obtained by beating Mythic dungeons, and are going to be extremely useful in taking on the Legion invasion. These are five in total, with high chance of a drop each time you kill any boss in a Mythic dungeon, and no chances of duplicates. You are advised to stock up on as many of these as possible.

Get your professions ready- it is heavily recommended that you pick up both a gathering and a crafting profession, especially because Blood of Sargeras drops are rare in Legion.

Complete your Legendary Ring Questline. You can’t start the questline now if you haven’t already, but if you have started it, it is highly recommended that you finish it before moving on to Legion.

Read up on the lore! While you don’t need to be invested in the game’s backstory, it’s always more awesome when you understand the context for what it is that you are doing.

Tips and Tricks:

World of Warcraft is a daunting game, and it gets new layers of complexity with each new expansion. Legion is no different- there’s a whole lot going on here, such that any player, new or veteran, could probably do with some help. Happily enough, the video below will walk you through some beginner tips and tricks:

Leveling Up Faster:

Most World of Warcraft players know that the fun begins only after you have hit the level cap- but it’s hitting the level cap that can be a big pain, especially given how slow leveling can be in the first place. That’s where we come in- the video below will show you how to level faster.

Class Guide:

Classes are the bread and butter of any RPG, and especially MMORPGs- and World of Warcraft has a lot of them. Legion introduces new classes, as well as a lot of changes to the existing class system- these videos below walks you through all of that.

Best Leveling Spec For Each Class:

Curious about which leveling spec is the best for each class in World of Warcraft: Legion? We’ve got you covered- the video below shows you just those.

Best Leather Gold Farming Spot:

Farm some resources, and farm them fast. The video below shows the best leather gold farming spot in the game.

Artifacts:

Artifacts are extremely powerful weapons that you really can’t do without- each Artifact Weapon has its own Talent tree in which you can unlock new abilities within your weapon, giving it more damage and more effects, making it even more powerful.

Artifacts are earned in game via a variety of activities, including:

• Completion of any major quest line
• Completion of class/spec specific quests
• Killing bosses, including:
  • Dungeons bosses
  • Raid bosses
• From Rare drops
• Any other major activity in the game

Legendary Items:

Legendary items in are random world drops that have very powerful effects and can modify abilities- you can get these by completing a variety of activities, including:

• World Quests
• Dungeon Bosses
• Raid Bosses
• PvP Strongboxes

PvP Guide:

PvP is a major, and enduring, part of World of Warcraft, and that hasn’t changed in Legion either. This video below goes over the best talents, honor talents, macros and rotations for feral druid PvP (arena, duels, battlegrounds) in World of Warcraft: Legion.

The latest expansion for World of Warcraft, Legion, is almost here- and Blizzard are trying their very best to get the legion (har har) of players jaded and burnt out on the MMO due to the disappointment that was Warlords of Draenor, the last expansion, excited for the new one.

Which is what this new trailer seems to be built specifically to do- the trailer shows off all of the new features the MMO will have, as well as the locations that will be featured in the expansion and its story. I am not sure how the new expansion will be featured, but it does seem like Blizzard are trying to address all the big weaknesses that Warlords had, at least.

You can check out the trailer for yourself below. Legion launches on PC and Mac at the end of August. Let us know what you think of the trailer, as well as whether or not you intend to purchase the expansion, in the comments section below.

The next expansion for Blizzard’s eternal, undying, genre straddling behemoth World of Warcraft, Legion, will launch on August 30, the publisher announced today. This should be good news for the players, who have been starved for good end game content ever since Warlords of Draenor, the last expansion, released almost two years ago now.

World of Warcraft: Legion can be pre-ordered starting now. Players who pre-purchase the digital version from Blizzard directly will receive an instant level-100 character boost. They will also unlock early access to the new Demon Hunter hero class before the expansion releases (players otherwise will have to wait till the expansion is actually out to be able to play as the Demon Hunter).

World of Warcraft is available now for PC and Mac. More than ten years since its release, it remains the most successful game of all time, and still the most successful subscription based MMORPG ever.

The next expansion for World of Warcraft, Legion, will be launching in Summer of 2016, or nearly two years after the launch of last year’s Warlords of Draenor. This, in spite of Blizzard’s earlier assertions that expansion packs for World of Warcraft would be released at a far faster pace from now on.

Unfortunately, this makes Legion’s release date far too late- World of Warcraft is bleeding subscribers (it was down to its lowest subscriber count ever last quarter), and Warlords of Draenor lacks any sort of meaningful endgame content to keep players engaged. A new expansion is desperately needed, and it is needed now- but that’s not what is happening.

Those who pre-order Legion digitally can immediately boost one character to level 100, and will also get early access to Legion’s new Demon Hunter class, for which timing will be announced at a later date.

Check out the cinematic trailer for the expansion below.

World of Warcraft’s incredible subscriber bleed, after almost approaching its peak high last year following the launch of the Warlords of Draenor expansion, continues. As of September 30, the subscriber count stands at just 5.5 million people worldwide, down another 100,000 subscriptions from the previous quarter, and the lowest amount the game has had in a decade, since the launch of its very first expansion pack, The Burning Crusade.

Of course, some perspective is needed before players jump on the doom and gloom train- this is a ten year old game, still seeing over 5 million people playing it regularly, and it is still far and away the single most successful MMORPG.

Blizzard is doubtless hoping that the upcoming expansion, Legion, will help World of Warcraft regain some of that lost subscriber base, however. Even if it does, what will be important will be that Blizzard can retain those subscribers, as opposed to the launch giving them just a temporary bump.

A group of former developers from BioWare, who were instrumental in the creation of Star Wars: The Old Republic, the Star Wars themed MMORPG from EA, have announced that they have formed a new studio today, and that they will be working on a new multiplayer game.

The studio is called QC Games, and it is based out of Austin, Texas. The studio is comprised of BioWare veterans who worked on games such as Shadow Realms, Rock Band, Dragon Age, Fable, and of course, Star Wars: The Old Republic. They will be working with Nexon for their new title.

“This agreement marks another milestone in growing our business in key markets, leveraging both the talents of our developer partners and our own knowledge of online games to provide AAA experiences that are customized for global tastes and audiences,” Nexon president and CEO Owen Mahoney said in a statement. “Dallas and the team of veterans he’s building at QC Games have played a part in creating some of the world’s most successful games, and we’re looking forward to helping them bring another hit title to market.”

“Having the freedom to bring our vision to life is paramount to me and my team, and working with Nexon America provides us creative control as well as deep support from a partner who understands the online market better than anyone else,” QC Games head Dallad Dickinson said. “Our goal as a studio is to create the highest quality games possible, and I feel this partnership, along with the first-class team who has joined me so far at QC Games, will make that a reality.”

As to what QC games created, we will keep you posted. Stay tuned.

With the upcoming first expansion of Guild Wars 2, Heart of Thorns, the game will be getting a brand new Adventures mode, a new mode that developer ArenaNet hopes will acclimatize players to their full range of skills, while also exposing them to continuously new, potentially unpredictable kinds of content.

“Adventures are small, fast-paced, single-adventurer events that challenge you to master a wide variety of skills in a race against the clock. What’s more, adventures are custom-built with leaderboards that allow you to compete against your friends and guildmates for bragging rights,” the developer said.

Adventures will apparently be an evolution of the Heart Challenges, and will be tailored uniquely to each player, as well as their present location when they start one; the Adventures will also all be instanced, meaning that you shouldn’t run into another player trying to slay the same monsters or gather the same resources as you.

Stay tuned to GamingBolt for more coverage on Guild Wars 2.

Blizzard Entertainment have announced that their decade old and genre defining pioneering MMORPG, World of Warcraft, will soon be getting a ‘Mercenary Mode’ for its player versus player combat, which will let players switch factions.

“Whenever your faction is experiencing a long wait time to get into Ashran or unrated Battlegrounds, agents of the enemy faction will appear in your base in Ashran (Stormshield for the Alliance, Warspear for the Horde). These agents will allow you to enter Ashran or Battlegrounds disguised as an enemy player, and actually fight as the opposite faction,” Blizzard said, slyly pointing out that one should “keep [their] friends close, and [their] enemies closer.”

Mercenary Mode will be out for limited testing soon, and Blizzard plans on making it widely available to its entire playerbase shortly afterwards. Stay tuned to GamingBolt for information on exactly when that might happen, as well as information on the dynamics of rewards and faction alignments under this mode.