Tera Release Date Revealed!

En Masse has announced that Tera will be released in North America on May 1st! The MMO that has been live in South Korea for almost a year now will be released in Europe 2 days later on May 3rd. Now it's a little later than I had it on my countdown, but I much prefer a date that is set in stone over one that vaguely refers to a season (spring 2012). A release in May will also put students, like myself, closer to the end of classes. This is good. Now I'll just have to wait and see how it coincides with the other games I'm looking forward to, most importantly D3 and Guild Wars 2.

For those of you that are unfamiliar with Tera I'll give you real quick rundown of why it has my attention. The game has 7 playable races that each have a choice of being one of 8 unique classes. I am really looking forward to this game because of its most unique aspect (in my opinion), which is the "true action" play style. What true action refers to is that the player has more control over their character than in typical MMOs. This is because combat involves actual aiming of one's abilities, with the help of the cross hairs on your screen, which decides whether your Berserker will successfully land his killing blow on the opponent or whether your Priest's life-saving heal connects with the groups tank (typically a Lancer or Warrior). Timing and strategy become much more important in a game where I can't just spam one heal while standing safely in my little corner, not worrying about where the rest of my party is positioned because well, I just don't need to. And that idea more than intrigues me.

Sign up for the Beta!!! Why? Because...
 • Invitations to TERA's open beta test will be distributed to everyone who signs up to be a TERA beta tester.

Also enter the Tera Beta Retweetstakes for your chance to win an all-access invite to every closed beta session! Good luck!

SOPA - The End of the World?

Almost.The Stop Online Pirating Act (or SOPA) builds on to the Protect IP Act (PIPA), and it sounds like something that's perfectly reasonable right? I mean, we all know pirates are bad, especially ones that are online! Unfortunately, all the fine print that follows this seemingly harmless bill's name is anything but that to the internet's regular users like you and I. Feel free to watch the video and read more in the links below to decide for yourself...

**Correction** - In the video's description, its creator says that he mistakenly labeled Activision as supporters of SOPA when they in fact are NOT. It was actually EA (Electronic Arts) who support it.
Watch it on YouTube

And if you somehow managed the impossible task of making your way to my blog before visiting Google then you need to see where they stand on the issue...

If you're feeling strongly opposed to these bills then be sure to sign the petition and share it with your friends.

Skyrim: Werewolf Rage in Riften

Watch on YouTube

So there I was, just doing one of the entry quests to become a member of the Thieves Guild in Riften. At the time I was getting kinda bored just going through the motions. That was, until I got an idea from an image on a loading screen and decided to try a different method of subduing my targets. Unfortunately, I forgot one small condition. Oh well that's why you can save and load the game at any time I suppose.

1 minute in, just another reason why I love this game

Back to the Blog Again

Luckily I was able to enjoy a superb holiday with my family to finish off the interesting year that was 2011. Hopefully everyone else was able to enjoy any time off they had from the norm as well! Now that 2012 is unfolding with each passing day I can honestly say I've never been more excited for a new year and its gaming potential. With so many highly anticipated games on the horizon I can only wish that they would all wait for the end of my spring classes before being released. Seeing as how that has no chance of happening however, I'll likely end up in a situation where I'll need to come up with some clever excuse like, "Sorry I missed the last six sessions of class, but Diablo 3 came out, surely you understand why I still deserve an 'A', right professor?" And all will be forgiven. Oh yes that's right, 2012 will be the year where all educators will finally realize and accept the importance of video games, I'm sure of it!

And if not, well... maybe next year?

Happy New Year everyone! :)