Yeah, another great MMO for the Mac is coming as NCSoft has announced they are bringing City of Heroes to OS X, joining EVE Online and World of Warcraft. Unfortunately, NC Soft also announced they’ll be using Cider by Transgaming to port the game. Now, the idea behind Cider is brilliant, unfortunately the execution fails in many ways. First, the software is unreliable, with performance issues abound and don’t even get me started about the SecurROM DRM which is attached.

But let’s focus on the positive! NCSoft is releasing this as a special edition, digital only release, which will include special in-game items, like a teleporter, as well as a Valkyrie costume usable on your in-game character.

Then again, many die hard fans of the game are already running it via Boot Camp, so will the in-game items really be enough to attract them away?

Via: Gay Gamer

So the big news this past week was undoubtedly the announcement of Star Wars: The Old Republic, the upcoming MMO based on the Knights of the Old Republic franchise, developed by Bioware and LucasArts. SWtOR takes place a few hundreds years after the end of Knights of the Old Republic, but continues the Stars Wars storyline in no doubt great ways, considering Bioware’s talents at developing massive storylines with quality gameplay, we can only imagine where they could take such huge possibilities as an ever-expanding world based on the Star Wars backstory.

But with the forthcoming release comes some big questions. First, what about that other Stars Wars MMO? What was it again….oh yeah….Star Wars Galaxies. Is it sticking around? Yes states LucasArts exec Tom Nichols, who sees no reason the two games can’t exist together. It seems they still have big plans for Galaxies, plans they wish to pursue aggressively should The Old Republic be a big enough hit to revive the original Sony-backed Star Wars MMO.

But then comes the whopper of a question. Can SWtOR really take on World of Warcraft? EA games president Frank Gibeau believes so and we certainly think World of Warcraft will be in a run for it’s money.

“Just look at the base of Star Wars fans, plus what BioWare can do. Trust me: we want to win. EA’s reputation is for wanting to win. This is going to be a powerful category and there’s lots of ways to compete in this category. [Blizzard] created a much larger opportunity for everybody else, but that doesn’t mean it’s going to stay that way.”

The ESA announced yesterday that the E3 Expo is returning to its old self for 2009 as well as to the Los Angeles Convention Center. After a few years of trying to restrict E3 to a tradeshow-style event, the organizers it seems finally realized that E3 is what it is. Though, attendance still appears restricted to the elites, with the general public not being welcome, many assume admission will be just as lax as previous years.

Why the ESA doesn’t follow a Leipzig-style schedule, with exclusive industry-only days followed by free for all consumer madness, is beyond me. No word on attendees, though I’m assuming Nintendo, Microsoft and Sony are signed on, also nothing on booth babes returning next year, which is the announcement many in the gaming world I’m sure are waiting anxiously for.

Yeah! Finally, the Star Wars MMO which should have been made (let’s ignore that whole Galaxies thing for the time being) has finally been confirmed. Though not much information has leaked, we do know it’s being developed in Austin, and will be connected to Knights of the Old Republic, which happens to be a Playthrough favorite.

In addition to the announcement, LucasArts and Bioware launched the official site for Star Wars: The Old Republic, including an FAQ, which gives some exciting information and insight into what this game can and will become. Some gems are quoted below!

Will I be able to play on the Light or Dark side of the Force?

Yes, during character selection you will align with the Republic or the Sith Empire. In addition, throughout the game you will also be faced with many decisions which can change your path down the Light or Dark side of the Force.

When does Star Wars: The Old Republic take place in relation to the movies?

Star Wars: The Old Republic takes place more than 3,500 years before the rise of Darth Vader. The most powerful Sith Empire in history has emerged from deep space to attack the Republic and its legendary Jedi guardians. After decades of war, a tenuous truce has been established between the Sith Empire and the Republic, but events occurring in the game are leading the galaxy back to an all-out war.

How does Star Wars: The Old Republic relate to Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic?

Star Wars: The Old Republic takes place approximately three hundred years after the events of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR). At the conclusion of the Jedi Civil War in KOTOR, Revan disappeared into unknown space in search of a great threat to the Republic, an expanding Sith Empire led by a mysterious Emperor who planned vengeance for his ancient Jedi enemies. Revan never returned from unknown space, but the Sith Empire did, kicking off a war with the Republic that lasted for decades. Now, despite the uneasy truce created by the Treaty of Coruscant, the tension among the divided star systems is threatening to once again tear the galaxy apart.

Well that wasn’t very exciting now was it? As we wrote about over a year ago, Vienna, Austria-based Bplus was working on Plaettchen, one of the first Wiiware titles for the Nintendo Wii’s virtual console. Well, seems a few weeks ago the game was released, to little press or fanfare whatsoever.

PLÄTTCHEN – twist ’n’ paint is a puzzle shooter with more than 100 hours and over 300 levels of gameplay for up to 8 players and available for around 1400 points via the Nintendo Wii virtual console shop.

It’s being reported that Fallout 3, the blockbuster post-nuclear action adventure title from Bethesda which only yesterday went gold has already been leaked and pirated, a full 20 days before it’s slated release. Ouch. P2P services internet-wide are blazing with torrents of ripped copies for the Xbox 360 floating freely around. Neoseeker is speculating that this must be an early review copy, leaked by a scrupulous games reviewer, which we tend to agree with, unless someone from the duplication facility overseas really worked their piracy network into overdrive.

Bad news for those of you with the free, Silver-level Xbox Live account who actually wanted to give money to Microsoft and Netflix for their upcoming streaming movie service launching soon on the platform. You won’t have access to it. Why not? Simply put, on top of the Netflix subscription, you’ll also have to subscribe to an Xbox Live Gold subscription, pretty much limiting the service to those who care enough to pay to be verbally abused by 13 year olds while playing multi-player games.

When MTV’s Multiplayer asked Microsoft why at E3, there was no clear answer. Now there is, courtesy of Xbox Marketing Director Albert Penello. In Short: Making back bandwidth and licensing costs, and oh, helping add more value to Xbox Live’s subscription service.

“I think it’s about adding value to the gold membership,” said Xbox director of marketing Albert Penello. “I mean, obviously, the partnership there — it’s a lot of bandwidth. Obviously, there’s the cost of the licensing on the Netflix side, so…you’re not really paying for the movie. On silver, you have to pay for the TV show or movie that you download. Here, you don’t, so the relationship in gold kind of takes care of that funny business.”

Though only a moderate success for the Wii, having sold in the area of 350,000 copies worldwide, No More Heroes has grown to become a cult classic for the Nintendo Wii, giving Westerner’s a look at how talented Japanese developers view the mature action market over here, dominated by GTA.

The crazy folks behind Mana Energy Potion wanted to know what it would be like to the same distance in the real world, as they do in World of Warcraft, so they did what any self-respecting geek would, they hooked up treadmills to their computers and thus WoW. Lots of duct tape, computers, custom scripts, sore legs and wacky costumes later, they blessed us with their video documentary, following their trip through Azeroth.