With over 40 years of history behind, Star Trek is one of those TV series that turned into a huge cult phenomena, spawning an incredible number of pop culture references. Entire generations have been influenced by the story in the TV series, and there's plenty to remember about Star Trek, since what started with a 3 year science fiction series slowly became a huge media franchise, and it's a real mystery how did they hold back from entering the online gaming realm so far. Now, Star Trek has finally managed to go where it hasn't gone before, so we have the Star Trek online game right around the corner!

According to Cryptic Studios' Chief Creative Officer, Jack Emmert, and actor Leonard Nimoy, we're going to get "the ultimate Star Trek experience," the only problem remaining the fact that the release date and additional details are still unknown.<-125x125 Button - right->

"I spent many, many Saturday afternoons watching reruns of Star Trek and dreaming of its worlds. Leonard Nimoy helped inspire my imagination of what mysteries the universe might in fact hold," said Emmert. "I’d like to think that very same imagination is what fuels my desire and drive as a game designer, pushing toward creating an MMO that is the ultimate Star Trek experience," he concluded.

The Star Trek online game will have its action placed in the year 2408, allowing players to wonder in "strange new worlds," while commanding a Federation or Klingon star ship, train new recruits, and engage in various missions in space, but also on the planets' surface. For now, this is all we can say about it, since no word about platforms, system requirements or pricing has been heard, so if you're one of those many Star Trek fans, prepare for the Star Trek online game - sooner or later, I am sure it's going to be an experience to remember!

If you didn't find it out until now, then please let me tell you that Warhammer
Online: Age of Reckoning, officially abbreviated as WAR, is a MMORPG based on Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy setting, under development by Mythic Entertainment and with a mysterious release date...until now, and since I just found out the answer to the "when" and "where" questions, here you have them...

...as things are looking now, the official statements are saying that Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is scheduled to be simultaneously released in North America, Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand about 5 weeks from now, on the 18th of September, 2008.

For now, the system requirements are the following(hooray, they are not insane at all, although you need a bit more than a computer called "fast" 5 years ago):

Windows XP
2.5 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
1 Gigabyte RAM
A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
At least 15 GB of hard drive space<-180x150 Small Rectangle - right->

Windows Vista
2.5 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
2 Gigabyte RAM
A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
At least 15 GB of hard drive space

According to Mark Jacobs, Mythic's founder and general manager, "For the last three years, the entire team at Mythic has poured their hearts into making Warhammer Online the next great MMORPG. We are so excited to open up this world and share it with the fans that will live in it, quest in it, go to war in it and make it come alive."

Now, I have no idea how great will prove Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning to be in the long run, but a RRP of £39.99 for the game and a monthly fee of around £10 don't seem too cheap for me...

Tired of the MMOs available for English speakers? Asia seems to have an endless source of MMOs, and slowly, but surely, they all end up translated into English, as it happened with the one I want to tell you about today. Its name is World of Kung Fu, and comes from VestGame Entertainment. Since this is something new to me, let's see what the official page says about the game(if you didn't click the link above, then read below;))...

"The World of Kung Fu is a 3D MMORPG for the PC. Based on traditional Chinese culture, the game takes place in a mythical land founded on the ancient Kung Fu moral values of justice and heroism.
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Rooted in the soil of Chinese traditional society and mythology, the game is designed to provide an authentic cultural experience in which the player will be exposed to the depth of its ancient philosophy while enjoying the amazing quests and adventures. The 3D graphics are inspired by the beautiful landscapes of the pristine countryside portrayed in traditional Chinese paintings."

If you want to know more about this interesting game(looks great, but it's not quite my type, if you ask me), then you should visit the official World of Kung Fu MMO page, because there's plenty of information to be discovered, but if you want a very short description about the "how free this is" part, it's enough to say "download for free, play for free, buy gold with real cash to rise in the virtual world of the game." If this is worth your money or not, in the end, it's only your decision. Good luck!

Also known as    Avatar: The Legend of Aang in several countries, Avatar: The Last Airbender is an Emmy-awarded American animated TV series created by Michael Dante DiMartino, Bryan Konietzko and written by a large team, including the two creators, John O'Bryan, and Nick Malis. The interesting part is that this American production is set in an Asian-influenced world, as we all have seen at least once in one of those many Manga series - you get a lot of martial arts and elemental manipulation, all action being channeled towards the goal of saving the world, of course. In our case, it's Aang and his friends, trying to defeat the Fire Nation, but if we leave the animated series behind, there's something even more interesting - a game based on the series, currently in the making...


At the end of the week, Nickelodeon announced the Avatar opening the MMORPG world to the TV series fans. To be more precise, we're talking about Avatar: Legends of the Arena, a completely new MMORPG game expected to act as a prequel to the Avatar: The Last Airbender TV series.<-125x125 Button - right->

According to Jason Root, Nickelodeon's Senior Vice President, "The launch of this multiplayer online game gives Avatar fans the opportunity to immerse themselves in the storylines during and beyond its tenure on-air. This property has always had a deep online connection with its audience and the game offers a natural extension of the franchise to keep fans engaged with the property indefinitely."

Currently, the game is still in the Beta stage, which is being revealed at Comic-Con 2008. While the final version will be available on AvatarLegends, for now this is just an empty domain, so we have no accurate details, and now precise release date, but only the promise of an Avatar opening into the MMORPG chess game, if I can call it this way...

For almost two years after I got a decent computer and a fast Internet connection, I didn't have the courage at least to try a MMORPG. Why? Well, something in my head was saying these games could make me an addict, and I've been there with Panzer General 2, but now I was involved in a lot of projects requiring time, so... Anyway, first tries made me become bored pretty easy, although I didn't pick games with low ratings, but that's me - MMORPGs are not my type of games, although I enjoyed single player RPGs like Neverwinter Nights (a lot!!). Since it's not about me, today I just found about a new MMORPG that reached "Open Beta," and since it's free...

...I am sure you won't mind if I tell you more, so here we go... Today, Burda:ic, a publisher of online games worldwide, announced the Open Beta version of Florensia, a free-to-play MMORPG from the Japanese developers at NETTS. Having four starting classes, and the usual variety of weapons and spells you'll encounter in most games of the genre,  Florensia blends nice 3D graphics with accessible MMORPG gameplay.

According to Achim Kaspers, managing director of Burda:ic, "Our top priority is providing subscription MMO quality in a free-to-play format. We received a lot of good feedback from our closed beta, so we're throwing open the doors as we prepare new features like second classes, expanded PvP gameplay, and additional creature updates."<-180x150 Small Rectangle - right->

Going through the features of Florensia, I spotted the following highlights:

-Four entirely unique character classes: the Explorer, the Noble, the Mercenary, and the Elementalist
-An large variety of frightening monsters to battle
-Uncharted islands, dungeons, and treasures waiting to be discovered by daring captains
-Well-balanced solo and party-based gameplay
-Immersive PvP with everything from one-on-one fights to massive fleet battles
-Five basic ship classes, each one completely customizable

Interesting enough? Go ahead and download the Florensia client and get in the game NOW! Good luck! ;)