DC Universe Online screenshot

Because it’s what all the cool kids are doing, Sony Online Entertainment says that DC Universe Online (FG Review: 5 out of 5 stars) is adding a freebie game mode come late October. There will be three tiers of service, in fact, from free up to $15/month, and here’s what you’ll get with each.

All three game modes will give players access to the open worlds of Metropolis and Gotham City, all raids (aka dungeons) and alerts, with standard gameplay, missions, and character leveling, along with periodic updates and patches. But from there, things diverge.

Free players will get the option to create 2 characters, 28 inventory slots, 12 bank slots, and the ability to join a league. Pretty much everything else of value, like DLC expansion packs, must be purchased in-game. This tier is aimed primarily at noobs.

Premium players — defined as anyone who spends at least $5 in-game — will be rewarded with this tier. It bumps you up to 6 character slots, 42 inventory slots, 24 bank slots, and 5 auction slots.

Legendary players — those willing to pay $14.99 a month for top-tier access — get every DLC pack at no extra cost, 16 character slots, 63 inventory slots, 48 bank slots, 12 auction slots, unlimited in-game currency and chat, the ability to create leagues, and more.

More information about DCUO‘s new plans is available here.

DC Universe Online screenshot

DC Universe Online screenshot

There have been plenty of video games set in space, and a not-small portion of MMOs are set in space, too. But you’ve never played one where space exploration and travel are simulated with absolute realism, in the shoes of a NASA astronaut. Until now.

Now that NASA’s funding has been cut and the Space Shuttle program ended — with no replacement program planned for American space exploration — what’s a government science agency to do? Crowdsource, that’s what. The project was recently put on Kickstarter to raise the needed funds for a proper beta, and it warms my heart to say that to date, the project has received 132% of its minimum required funding. So it’s happening, baby.

Astronaut: Moon, Mars, and Beyond for iPad

Originally titled Moonbase Alpha, the MMO has been renamed Astronaut: Moon, Mars, and Beyond. Under development at studio Project Whitecard in special cooperation with NASA Learning Technology, the idea is to create a fun, exciting, creative game that’s themed around realistic space exploration and colonization. Set in the year 2035, the game starts when you’re taken to the Arthur C. Clarke Astronaut Academy Station, which Project Whitecard describes as “a sort of Hogwarts in space.”

That got your attention, didn’t it?

Once you graduate, you’ll be sent off on episodic, “fanciful” NASA missions in accurate depictions of the Moon, Mars, the asteroid belt, and more of our solar system. Game modes will include team vs. team and player vs. environment challenges. For the first time ever, there will be an authentic recreation of our solar system, using NASA resources, allowing players to have fun while learning more about science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Astronaut: Moon, Mars, and Beyond is being made for PC, iOS devices, and undisclosed home consoles, with a planned debut sometime in 2012.

There is a world beneath our own, a hidden world where secret societies pull the strings of world leaders, and where myths, legends, and conspiracies are all true. In April of 2012, you’ll get to explore this Secret World yourself, in an MMO that breaks all the rules.

The Secret World ditches character classes, levels, grinding, and other classic MMO/RPG tropes in favor of exploring real-world locations colored by peeled-back layers of secret societies, and an engrossing, original storyline that will unfold over time. Written by Ragnar Tørnquist, creator of the acclaimed adventure The Longest Journey, the game’s story will have you battling legendary monsters while working alongside your fellow secret society members to fight for control of mythologically important locations all over the world, which will be found in familiar modern-day settings like Egypt, New England, London, New York, Seoul, Transylvania, and many more.

After signing on with one of three secret societies — the Illuminati, the Dragon, or the Templars — you’ll be completely free to create and progress your character however you choose. You’ll have access to hundreds of character options like clothing, weapons, and even powers of magic. A number of clothing options will be available when you start out, but you’ll find more during missions, and you can buy more in in-game shops. Powers are available across a huge assortment of specialties that factor in both firearms and magic, which can be mixed and matched any way you like. Unlike traditional MMOs, none of these choices will ever put you at an unfair advantage or disadvantage.

There will be a master plot that finds all three secret societies fighting against some sort of rising darkness, but the three societies will never work together. Separated by differing ideologies, the three will fight for ever more control and power over the world. You’ll interact with hundreds of voiced characters, too.

The Secret World is set to arrive for PC in April of next year. No word yet on whether Funcom hopes to port it to consoles. Check out screens from the game below.

Bethesda just announced that they’re dropping Brink on the gaming public one week earlier than planned. So if you’re scratching your head, wondering just what Brink is and why you should care (and I assure you, you should), we’ve got the goods right here.

Developed by game studio Splash Damage, Brink is a new breed of MMO for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC. Others have attempted to make a first-person shooter that works as a multiplayer online world, but no one’s really succeeded. Brink brings some new ideas to the formula, with a single player campaign and a multiplayer campaign that are interchangeable. You can play through the campaign by yourself, or take it online anytime you want to play alongside your friends. Go back and forth, playing the game any way you want.

The setup for Brink is thus: Earth’s oceans have risen to such levels that every land mass is now underwater (which is where its similarities to the movie Waterworld begin and thankfully, end). Years before the oceans rose, a man-made floating city was constructed off the coast of San Francisco called the Ark. The Ark was planned as a self-sufficient, green habitat for its 5,000 forward-thinking inhabitants. But this supposedly utopian society (BioShock, we’re looking at you) is disrupted when the ocean disaster strikes, causing thousands of refugees to rush to its artificial shores and magnifying its occupancy to above 50,000.

With too little food, water, and clothing to support so many, two social classes quickly emerge: the eco-friendly, high-minded founders of the Ark, and the lower-class society that forms around the refugees. The Ark’s Security forces are constantly fending off offensives by the Resistance, who mostly inhabit the shanty town that’s been cobbled together on the outskirts of the floating city. Security deems the Resistance to be terrorists, while the Resistance believe they’re fighting for their very survival under the boot of their cruel overlords.

(Personally, I’m curious about what calamity caused the oceans to rise so fast. That’s a big mystery that jumps out at me. But I have no idea if the game plans to address this.)

Brink allows you to choose which side you want to play on: Security or Resistance. You begin developing your character immediately in the single player campaign, but that development continues as you play alongside friends in co-op and/or multiplayer. The customization options are nearly endless, with more options unlocking the longer you play.

One of Brink‘s key selling points is its “interpretive movement system” called SMART, whereby characters use fancy parkour moves to navigate any environment they’re in automatically. SMART stands for “smooth movement across random terrain,” and it determines whatever movement you need to undertake, be it vaulting, climbing, sliding, seeking cover, and more, and with a single button press, makes it happen fluidly, using some sweet character animations. Here’s a video that demonstrates the SMART movement system:

Check out the screenshots below, and then get ready for a true FPS/MMO when Brink arrives on May 10th.

PAX East kicked off this morning in Boston, bringing gamers together with high profile game developers, so that the public can get its first exposure to hot upcoming titles. Among the game media being debuted this weekend is a brand new trailer for Star Wars: The Old Republic, BioWare’s MMO that’s set a thousand years before the events of the film series.

The trailer is titled “Fate of the Galaxy,” and unlike past videos, this one is made up entirely of game footage, using no fancy CGI animation. I think it gives potential fans the best look yet at what playing the game will be like. Be sure to watch for all the different character class types, the many vehicles, and the multiple worlds available to explore. BioWare describes the trailer (and the game) this way:

Tension between the Republic and the Empire is running high. The uneasy truce established by the Treaty of Coruscant is quickly tearing apart at the seams, and a return to all-out war has begun in all but official terms. A new generation of heroes, both light and dark, emerges to face the difficulties of these chaotic times, and fight for the fate of the galaxy in this most desperate age.

Also just announced: a new online Guild Headquarters for players who want to start organizing guilds in advance of the game’s release. Follow the link to register your own guild and reserve the name you’d like to use. Or you can search for existing guilds to join, if you don’t want to create one of your own. Every guild gets its own mini-site at starwarstheoldrepublic.com, which will display bio info about the guild, its membership numbers, and forums both public and private.

This game looks better and better every time I see it, but it’s been in development for eons. Are you planning to play The Old Republic when it finally arrives? What kind of character will you play as? Will you join the heroes or the villains?

By all indications, DC Universe Online looks downright awesome. I’ve always been more of a Marvel man myself, but as infrequently as good comic book games are made, I’m hopeful that maybe they’ll get this one right. Sony Online Entertainment has a solid track record, so the odds are good for DC Comics.

You’ll have to judge for yourself if this news is good or bad: SOE just announced that DC Universe Online is being delayed from its planned November 2nd release date to Q1 2011. DCUO is set to be the first-of-its-kind MMO on the PlayStation 3, and the first-ever MMO set in the DC Universe. The game is moving into beta testing, and Sony has decided to take extra time to fine-tune the game, based on beta-player feedback.

Access to the beta game will start being rolled out next week to players with VIP key cards or players who have registered at the game’s site. Pre-order the game by November 15th, and you’ll be guaranteed beta access by November 30th.

A PS3 Collector’s Edition has also been announced, which will include a DCUO Batman statue, an Art of DC Universe Online book, a DCUO Legends issue #0 comic book with a variant cover by Jim Lee, a limited edition poster of Lee’s variant cover, and a Prestige comic book that details the DCUO backstory.

Hm. Is this exciting news, or just another oddity to add to the life of Michael Jackson?

In less than a year, we’ve now heard news of two officially-licensed Michael Jackson video games in development. The first was The Michael Jackson Experience, a dancing game in the works from Ubisoft, as announced at E3. Today, an MMO has been announced called Planet Michael, that’s effectively a free online virtual world for Jackson’s fans.

Developed by SEE Virtual Worlds, a newcomer to the video game world, Planet Michael will launch in late 2011. SEE says that a full world is being crafted for the game, including “entire continents” based around visuals from his music, his videos and concerts, and global humanitarian issues that Jackson worked with. So as the first screenshots attest, you’ll be able to wander around levels based on Jackson’s videos, such as the stylized cityscape from “Billy Jean” and the graveyard from “Thriller.”

It’s not clear what players will be able to do there, though SEE mentions in its press release that players will be able to take jobs that pay virtual money that can be used for various in-game items. You’ll also be able to contribute to in-world representations of humanitarian organizations and efforts that Jackson supported.

EA Games has come up with a rather unique promotion to celebrate the release of their new MMO, APB: All Points Bulletin. They’re slowly transforming a human man into an in-game avatar.

After a suitable guinea pig was selected, fans of the game at thehumanavatar.com are now voting for how they want this new game avatar to look. The “lucky” man in question, a 25-year-old British freerunner known only by his first name, Josh, is undergoing changes to his appearance based on what the fans vote for. First up was his haircut, which has been altered into a blue tri-mohawk thing (pictured above), and that’s only the beginning. In coming weeks, fans will select how they want him pierced, tattooed, and dressed. (Which as we all know means the poor guy will likely be tortured and then stripped.)

Once his appearance is finalized, he’ll be scanned or modeled or something by the game’s producers, and the resulting avatar inserted into the game. More than ten thousand people have reportedly voted thus far on how Josh will be mutilated for their entertainment. One can only hope that he’s being handsomely compensated for it.

Raise your hand if you’ve ever spoken to Tricia Helfer, Six from Battlestar Galactica, for more than 10 minutes. Anybody? Oh, I guess it’s just me then. Back in September, I interviewed her for a magazine I was working for at the time. 30 minutes later, I had the best interview I ever did on MP3, and I couldn’t wait to write it. Then the magazine shut down, and I had no outlet for it. I even had exclusive pics, too. Bummer.

Six was just one of the great things about that show. The interaction between humans and cylons, the constant drama and action – it was all worth every minute. Well, except for the half-assed ending, anyways. If only there were some kind of way for me to play as a BSG character …

Oh wait, there is. NBC Universal and Bigpoint has just announced an MMO based on BSG. From the official fancy press release:

Players will be able to choose to play as cylons or humans in a constant struggle to control the universe or just survive its perils. A blend of tactical space combat, exploration, and mission-based gameplay will provide a diverse experience. The dramatic missions will define the game’s overall storyline, enabling the player to delve into mysteries of the Battlestar universe. Battlestar Galactica Online will create a new standard for web games, with beautiful 3d graphics and innovative game mechanics bringing a new level of game play to browser based MMOG. Assets from the television production will be integrated into the game to deliver an even more authentic experience.

There’s not much to their teaser site yet, but feel free to check it out and sign up for updates as they come. No word yet on a release date, but as soon as we know, we’ll let you know.

Parabellum - a free MMO FPS

Parabellum combines the best elements of FPS (First Person Shooter) and MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) games to create an extremely unique and fully customizable gaming experience. Parabellum introduces the first interactive non-linear multiplayer campaigns in addition to an advanced character & weapon development system and realistic and engaging game-play.

‘Parabellum will set the standard of what to expect from Free2Play games,‘ said David Demers, Associate Producer of Parabellum. ‘Bringing quality Triple-A titles to the Free-to-Play market raises the bar for all and sets GamersFirst apart from the rest.‘

Set in a world in a not too distant future, the privatization of global military forces has created highly profitable opportunities for ex-soldiers, mercenaries and adventurers. Gamers must choose their alignments carefully to survive. You must join forces with one of the two foremost covert reconnaissance organizations in the world. The CTF; an organization avowed to keeping anarchy at bay, or the Syndicate; a legion of bloodthirsty rebels bent on destruction and chaos. Each of them are solicited by the C.I.N. a Global Mercenary Network that provides contract missions to each of these factions who vie against one another with the fate of the World as the ultimate prize.

‘GamersFirst is a pioneer and market leader of the free-to-play model in Europe and North America.‘ Says Frank Trigub, Director/Founding Partner, Acony Games. ‘We are happy to have such an ideal partner in GamersFirst for Parabellum.’