The PC version of Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures (the Xbox 360 version hasn't been released yet) was just patched a few days ago and yet we see another update from the developers at Funcom. Want to find out what this update contains? Head on over to the full article by clicking on the "read more" link below.

It's an endless debate when talking about girls playing the same video games guys play. They say girls only like MMORPGs, then follow up with "there are no girls on internet." Others believe female gamers stick to casual games, but Mario and Pokemon titles have more fanboys than fangirls.

No matter what your stand is, here's a list of non-girly games that aren't Barbie, Bratz, or any of those glamorous stuff.

It's a one-two hit combo for Western Australia as the Asia Pacific region celebrates gaming over at Perth. The GO3 Electronic Entertainment Expo, or GO3 Expo for short, was launched by the Minister for Industry and Enterprise Francis Logan at the Perth Convention Exhibition Center, as detailed from an official press release.

 

With the Asian, Europe, and Oceanic game industry's gaming icons to participate in the event as guest speakers, the three day affair will showcase the industry's games, game hobbyists' leisurely activities, network communication and computer technology. So from March 30 to April 1, expect attendees to be able to try out games from the promotional demonstrations sported by game developers.

Not just focusing on computers, consoles will also be making a scheduled arrival at the event, with Xbox 360, Wii and PlayStation 3 demo booths to be available to excited Aussie gamers. So you could expect their little handheld cousins aren't far behind either. The region's industry celebrities, government officials, and high profile media, including but not limited to MTV and Famitsu, will be joining gaming giants in making this uniquely positioned event a great success. Guest speakers include:

• Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid)
• Tetsuya Mizuguchi (Sega Rally Championship and Rez)
• Masaya Matsuura (Parappa the Rapper)
• Goichi Suda (Killer 7)
• Feargus Carroll (LucasArts)
• Nicklas "Cece" Cederström (World in Conflict)

Aside from the Fury MMORPG PvP showcase, guests can also expect other events to tiptoe their way in the busy weekend. First up is the Electronic Sports World Cup (ESWC) 2007 qualifiers showcase, who will be representing Aussies from the world over in the Grand Finals at Paris later this year.

The GO3 LAN Party will also take place at the event. For 30 hours, over 600 attendees can relive the glory LAN party days and boast their talent against their seatmates' hand-and-eye-coordination skills. This is probably one of the largest network gaming setups ever attempted in Australia.

Also making a peep show is the GO3 Cos-Play Competition just to showcase the huge subculture phenomenon in the Asian region. The competition will allow the best game-character to win an all-expense paid trip to the 2007 Tokyo Game Show. Next up is the Nullarbor Game Development Competition, where budding game dev enthusiasts and serious students around Australia can present their work to a large crowd.

Visitors interested will be able to demo the games and vote for their favorite ones, allowing the best ones to bring home cash and prizes. And last but not least is the Dance Dance Revolution Competition, where Australia's best footwork masters duel it out to win more cash and prizes, plus get immortalized as the GO3 "DDR Champion 2007."

I bet it would be cool to have a god as a parent. It gives a whole new dimension to the whole "My daddy can kick your daddy's ass" dialogue. Plus, you won't ever have to go to church again, since you've pretty much memorized every single word and litany that's ever come out of your parent's mouth.

Enough of the prattle and on to Perpetual Entertainment's Gods and Heroes: Rome Rising. In the game, players become a classic hero of the ancient world, born of immortal blood (and hopefully not because some overly-experimental god decided to shower some shrine maiden with some golden, uh, showers).

As an heir of the gods, you get to do a lot of standard Herculean stuff like pursuing your destiny, getting your Godly Powers, getting some cool mythical weapons and treasure, and... well, just check out the screenshots below. You'll get the idea.

   

More screenshots after the jump!

Now that you've seen the screens for the vast expanse that is Telon, we're sure you're all psyched to see even more nooks and crannies of the places you'll get to explore in Sigil Games' Vanguard: Saga of Heroes.

Well sure, we've given you videos of the game, like the one that shows the Pegasus and Wyrm in flight and the video of undead giants (that's undead AND giants). But like most hardcore Vanguard fanatics, we're pretty sure those aren't enough to satisfy your appetites. Like every video and batch of screens we churn out are like appetizers? So even though we know that there's still nothing like seeing these goodies on your screens once the game comes out later this month, we're still gonna take a crack at satisfying your seemingly unsatiable appetites.

So with that, we'll leave you with this video called Companions of Telon made by Leonard Gullo II, with Todd Masten pitching in his melodies for the background music. Enjoy!

 

The whole of MMO universe does not revolve around World of Warcraft. There are a lot of games out there in fact. Aside from being older, they are not about raiding and leveling so you can't brand them as copycats. One such example is Jumpgate. Some of you may not be aware but this flight simulation MMO title has been around for five years already.

Anyway, developer NetDevil mentioned earlier that the game will be soon overhauled big time. This is quite exciting as Jumpgate is something we could refer to as a survivor. FYI, the game isn't getting much publicity and its fan base is now reduced to just 1,000. The point is, despite those things, Jumpgate is still here. Hey, it even outlived its original developer 3DO.

More interestingly, the said announcement coincided with the breaking news that NetDevil entered into a new MMO deal with a major U.S. toy company. The company wouldn't divulge anything on that matter. Going back, NetDevil official Scott Brown disclosed that they are not sure yet what changes they are going to implement to Jumpgate. He mentioned however, that they were thinking somewhere along the lines of new look and new classes.

Furthermore, Brown highlighted that they are not just concerned with MMO giants. According to him, "The game is a niche title. It's no WoW killer but it doesn't need to be." It is in this light, finally, that Brown promised to reward players who have been with them ever since.

This next article is about prestige games. While we were quite sure already what point we would like to drive at, we wanted to be sure. So we went to our mini library, picked up a Webster's and looked up the meaning of the word.

Prestige: reputation or influence arising from success, achievement, rank, or other favorable attributes; distinction or reputation attaching to a person or thing and thus possessing a cachet for others or for the public.

Before we proceed, pardon us first this bit of explanation: In the movie industry, prestige films are those that are not expected to do blockbuster numbers but brings pride to those who are part of it. They are funded by various studios and actors are asked to accept lower rates. Book publishers likewise, also support books that are award-worthy but not necessarily top sellers. Both of these art forms gained prestige, so to speak, because of their favorable attributes (read: content).

Now, here comes the serious question: Why are there no prestige titles? The problem, unfortunately, lies in the big companies' metric of success. For them, a game is successful whenever it brings high revenues.

Reviews are important only before and during a game's first weeks in the market. In the event that sales wouldn't pick up, they abandon the title. Abandon, in the sense that they try to distance themselves from it. You don't believe us? Look at these:

• Capcom dissolves Clover Studios because of disappointing sales for their last project. The latter's last project happened to be Okami, a title that received high reviews and commendations across the industry.
• Last year, Microsoft dropped Psychonauts because of being unpopular. The game was then picked up by a much smaller company, Majesco.
• UbiSoft released Beyond Good and Evil. It was supposed to be a series. But because of disappointing sales, the planned series was dropped all together.

These are just the recent things that readily comes to mind. Given the time, we are sure we'll be able to find a lot of other similar cases out there. A good number of excellent titles but because of economic reasons, are lying at the bottom of the heap, dusty and forgotten.

The solution, as easy and as naive as it sounds, lies in inner values. Until the day publishers and developers take pride in content rather than revenues, things wouldn't change. And until the day the triumvirate (giants Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft ) takes the industry into this direction, it would remain an unpaved and crooked road for prestige titles.

It is no question that Sigil Studios' Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is bound to amaze gamers when it hits store shelves, which is now said to be in the first quarter of 2007. Well, we don't mind the long wait as long as the end product is really gonna be awesome, but for some, we know that waiting could sometimes be a pain in the behind. So here are some of the MMO's environment images which aims to not only accompany you while waiting, but also wants gamers to be more intimate with Thestra.

In case you didn't read our article on Thestra and you don't know what it is, well, let's take a trip down memory lane shall we? Thestra is one of the continents of Telon-- a fantasy world which is also the setting of the game. The continent is compared to European terrains as it is  peppered with mountains, wetlands, and forests.  Among its residents are the Thestrans, High Elves, Dwarves, Lesser Giants, Varanjar, Halflings, and Vulmane.

Now that we've refreshed your memories, you are now ready to gaze at more Thestra pictures. You be the judge if the place look like most European lands or not.

More screenshots await after the jump!

Keith Baker is D&D fan who wanted to go beyond the Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk. But since there's no place else to go he decided to create his own world and called it Eberron. It was so good Eberron became the official gameworld for Dungeons & Dragons' 3rd Edition and Dungeons & Dragon Online by winning the 2002 Wizards of the Coast contest.

That alone should tell you that when Baker picks up his pen (or boots his PC) and writes a story he ain't wasting ink and reading it won't be a waste of your time. As you know he was commissioned to do another D&D story called Stormreach and he just released Chapter six. Here are excerpts from that chapter:

Petra said the tunnel had been built by giants, and Shadow could see why. Even a team of ogres would have trouble working with the massive blocks of stone used in the ancient walls. And then there were the lightstones-orbs of cold fire much like those found in Sharn or Stormreach itself, but easily three times the size of the usual streetlamp. How many thousands of years have these been shining in the depths? she wondered.

Shadow could feel the creature's outrage, a crushing pressure in her mind. Its anger swept over her, a terrible barrage of alien thoughts, and it was all she could do to stay on her feet. Shadow staggered back a step, the voices mocking her, hinting at the terrible fate that awaited her. She tried to find the strength to signal her friends, to call them, but all strength had left her.

Read:[Shadows of Stormreach Chapter 6]

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade will include a whole new world and many new dungeons.  These unexplored lands of Azeroth are inhabited by numerous creatures, both strange and wondrous as well as horrifying. The Outland is home to everything from Thieves Arcane and "savage demigods" to nightmarish remnants of an ancient time, half-remembered, and beasts of great beauty and magnificence.

The very latest additions to the WoW Bestiary are the Fungal Giants and the Ogre Lords.

Fungal Giants are not mushrooms as you might expect, but like their mycological relatives, have been nurtured by the rich soil of Zangarmarsh. Despite their startling and terrifying appearance, these huge wetland beasts are  relatively non-aggressive. When threatened, however, they can be merciless killers. They feed on other native swamp creatures, as well as any Lost Ones who - through accident or design - trespass on their hideaways.

Ogres are thought to be descended from the overgrown, monocular abominations known as Gronn. If this is true, the Ogre Lords of Outland are the only creatures known to retain the physical traits of their gronn ancestors, such as the bony, calcified protrusions on their head and back - not to mention their physical stature and power. They are also highly intelligent and logical creatures, far more so than their ogre cousins. This is a combination worthy of both respect... and fear.

Check out the WoW Website for more on the strange and fearsome inhabitants of Azeroth.