Dungeon Runners, the heavily satirical hack-'n-slash free-to-play MMO, has gotten even more chunky and delicious with the release of the third "Chunk". The chunk, which is a major content update (in the same fashion that NCSoft's own City of Heroes does Issues) includes all sorts of improvements and benefits for free members and paying members alike. There's a balancing of the PvP system, added membership benefits, new quests and NPCs (of course), and a variety of quality of life enhancements. Overall, it's a very solid addition to the game, and if you play Dungeon Runners, you'll be delighted with all the new stuff.

The game is due for release on May 28 but today we have some new gameplay videos from the PC port of Mass Effect, the acclaimed sci-fi RPG from developer BioWare. You will be able to see how the game looks in comparison to the previously released Xbox 360 version. If you are not familiar with Mass Effect these movies will give you a taste of the gameplay goodness that will soon be available on your PC's hard drive.

Download the Mass Effect PC gameplay movies from Big Download now
Gameplay video 1
Gameplay video 2
Gameplay video 3
Gameplay video 4

Deadly Rooms of Death is a great indie dungeon crawler/puzzler which, unfortunately, doesn't receive the attention it really deserves. The latest entry, The City Beneath, expanded upon the already magnificent puzzle-based gameplay in a myriad of ways. It was also released last year (in April) to little fanfare except in the indie community. Thankfully, though, there is now an official trailer that shows off some of the excellent gameplay elements. You can check out the embedded video after the break. If it interests you, check out the main site for a demo and ways to get the full version.

[Via TIGSource]

Comic fans and gamers often overlap. We've seen a lot of game-related comics over the years, from Halo to World of Warcraft, and now we can add Warhammer to the mix. BOOM! Studios, who tend to make quite a lot of comics based on nerdy IP like Blood Bowl and Gears of Wars, have released issue 1 of their Warhammer comic. While this is news for any comic fan, the real deal is that it comes with a beta key to Warhammer Online. You heard us correctly. Buying this comic will give you access to the WAR beta. You can pick it up off their website or at your local comic store (hopefully).

Earlier today we reported that Microsoft is still keeping us guessing on the fate of Alan Wake, a game that was first announced back in 2005 at E3. Well believe it or not the wait has been even longer for Dragon Age, a fantasy RPG from developer BioWare. It announced the game and showed off a brief in-game demo behind closed doors at E3 in 2004. Yep, that's four years ago. Since then little info on the game has been revealed with one notable exception; it was a cover story for the first issue of the now shut down Games for Windows magazine in the fall of 2006 (1Up.com still has that story posted on their web site).

Well unlike Microsoft and Alan Wake it looks like we will be getting at least some info on Dragon Age in the near future. BioWare's new owner Electronic Arts has the game scheduled to be released in their 2009 fiscal year (which ends on March 31, 2009). And at at EA press event this week, BioWare co-founder Ray Muzyka was quoted by MTV's Multiplayer site as saying the game is "Looking really sweet." We hope to finally get a glimpse at this long awaited game at E3 in July; we have our fingers crossed.

Vivendi Games, owners of the World of Warcraft franchise, have released their earnings statement for the first quarter of 2008, stating it was a 'Very Good First Quarter'. Specific financial information follows, including the admission of €5.3 billion in revenue, an increase of 5.2% compared to the same time last year.

However, in an almost casually-mentioned fashion, the press release states "Blizzard Entertainment's second expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, is scheduled to be released in the second half of 2008." This appears before Blizzard has made any official announcement of the expansion's release date.

The Vivendi-Activision merger is still scheduled to be completed by the end of June.

In much the same vein as the Megami Tensei RPG series, Requiem: Bloodymare is meant to be a horror-fueled post-apocalyptic look at demons and technology. With its massive amounts of gore and giblet physics, Bloodymare definitely sets itself apart, at least graphically, from the horde of World of Warcraft lookalikes.

For those antsy to dip their hands into the gallons of blood present in Bloodymare, good news for you. The game has entered open beta, allowing anyone to sign up and play the full game for free. While the game will be free later on, it won't have all content available to those playing it for free once it hits the release version. So give it a whirl now! You can sign up for and download the beta at the official site.

World of Warcraft is a cultural phenomenon like no other. The continued patches from Blizzard, many of which add new content and improve the game overall, have only reaffirmed it each time as the king of MMOs. While the two-digit patches don't come all that often, the three digit patches do arrive with decent regularity, which is where 2.4.2 comes in.

Featuring a host of balancing changes and bugfixes that accompany any patch, 2.4.2 also changes how arena ratings work and changes profession cooldowns. The full patch notes, as always, can be found on Blizzard's site. You can snag the patch through our downloads section. But, of course, you already knew that.

World of Warcraft's Arena Tournament launched on March 31, 2008, letting players immediately create level 70 characters and equip them with high level skills and epic armor. Competitors from around the world battle for up to $200,000 in cash prizes. At the same time, the Arena Tournament underscores Blizzard's intentions of using WoW's PvP gameplay as a type of eSport. WoW rose to become the most popular MMO in the world primarily because of its PvE content, and using its PvP for eSports marked a sharp turn in the game's focus. We catch up with WoW's Lead Designer, Tom Chilton, Paul Della Bitta (Senior Manager, Global Community and eSports) and Joong Kim (eSports Manager) to get the inside story about balancing PvP and PvE gameplay and what players can expect to from the future of Azeroth.

You'd think most, if not all, critics would decry the (former) draconian DRM from Mass Effect. Apparently not so. In a piece that is best described as comparing apples to oranges, critic Mike Doolittle manages to wow and astound with statements such as this (which don't even matter anymore, thanks to the DRM removal):

"So let's look again at Mass Effect. Is it really draconian to expect gamers to be connected to the internet? Sure, some people may want to play offline for some arbitrary reason, but is that really going to comprise a significant percentage of players? And what about the three-activation limit? How many times do you plan on re-installing the game? How many friends are you going to 'loan' it to?"

What is he comparing? Well, he's connecting iTunes DRM, which allows for unlimited transfers to iPods and is easily circumvented, to the former Mass Effect DRM, which required you to connect online every 10 days and only allowed 3 installs in total. Maybe he's just a bleary-eyed, out-of-touch dinosaur in regards to the PC gaming scene, but it's very possible to upgrade 3 times within two months, which would indeed require reinstallation. Or maybe he doesn't realize the social nature of gaming because he spends most of his time holed up in an apartment, furiously critiquing single-player games. Either way, if you feel like checking out an article noticeable devoid of logic, check it out.

So little has changed in recent months -- The Sims 2 and World of Warcraft still completely dominate PC game sales. Sure, now and then something usurps them for a short time, but they always come back. The top 10 PC games in the NPD sales report released this past week:

1. The Sims 2 Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff Expansion Pack
2. The Sims 2 Double Deluxe
3. The Sims 2 FreeTime Expansion Pack
4. World Of Warcraft: Battle Chest
5. World Of Warcraft
6. Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
7. Sins Of A Solar Empire
8. World Of Warcraft: Burning Crusade Expansion Pack
9. Assassin's Creed: Director's Cut Edition
10. Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

That makes four years that The Sims 2 and World of Warcraft have been fairly consistently pwning the industry. The only other PC exclusive on the list is Ironclad/Stardock's runaway 4X RTS hit Sins of a Solar Empire. The others -- Call of Duty 4, Assassin's Creed, and Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 -- are multi-platform titles. WoW's position is no surprise, given the NPD's research with regards to online game revenues. The Sims 2's domination of the charts, however, speaks to a vast, silent market of gamers to whom hardcore games like Rainbow Six don't appeal.

Well that didn't take long did it? Following a massive public outcry earlier this week, BioWare and Electronic Arts have caved in and eliminated the need for people who purchase the upcoming PC version of Mass Effect to validate their copy via a Internet connection every 10 day. The official announcement came, as usual, from BioWare's official forums.

The developer's community manager Jay Watamaniuk stated that after listening to the many messages on their forums protesting this move, they decided to change their minds "to ensure we are delivering the best possible experience" for their fans. The game will only ask for an Internet connection if the user chooses to download any patches or additional content such as the free Bring Down The Sky expansion. Hopefully this will be a good compromise for people who were concerned about this type of copy protection.

If you're a PC gamer then you've probably been subject to the news that both Mass Effect and Spore are going to require an online activation and subsequent re-activations every ten days. This piece of news has caused quite a bit of internet buzz over the discussion of whether or not these games should even have anti-piracy protection or not. Some say yes, some say no and others are somewhere in-between.

The guys over at Opposable Thumbs have created one of their "The Showdown" articles wherein two of their writers flip a coin to decide which side of the argument they'll represent.