ALT+F4: Turncoats, Asshats, and War

Square Enix is about to release a WW2 RTS, Order of War, there’s some details on that inside and a demo available. It’s not a too shabby, either. Valve is about lay down the law to those cheating in Team Fortress 2 to obtain the dropped items, looks like they’re going to be able to kiss all of their ill gotten goods farewell. Lastly but not least, Blizzard has instituted a new service that allows you to change the faction your character belongs to, for a fee.

Check it all out in further detail, after the jump.

World of Warcraft Provides Turncoat Option

Much to the chagrin of many, and delight of probably just as many others, Faction Changing Service is now available for the Blizzard MMO, World of Warcraft. This means that you’re now able to convert your character from Alliance to Horde, and the other way around. They explain how all your hard earned reputation would transfer, gear, achievements and pretty much anything else that you might wonder about. They also mention that there will be a service that allows you to change your race, if you aren’t interested in hopping to the other side altogether.

This service isn’t free, partly to prevent people from abusing it, and the fact that companies enjoy making money. If you decide to go through with an elaborate escape to the opposing faction, it’s going to cost you $30, which is $5 more than a normal server transfer (which is not included in this). I can’t really think of anything bad to say about this, it’s always been annoying to find a new group of friends and you’d like to play with in any MMO, but you can’t due to faction or server. Blizzard has just taken one more step in making this the most accessible MMO to come along as of yet, as long as you’ve got the pocket change.

Take a gander at the full story at the WoW homepage, right here.

Square Enix Orders up Some War, September 22

A new entry into the fairly crowded WW2 RTS crows is coming from a source you might not expect, unless you read the headline, Square Enix. Order of War is slated for a concrete sounding September 22^nd, 2009. The game was developed through a couple of different partnerships, including Gas Powered Games, and Double Helix.

The game is going to take place in the summer of 1944, at the peak of the war. The game is going a route that not everyone does, in providing you a fancy Nazi uniform, and letting you attempt to fend off the Ruskies. There’s a list of features on would expect form a WW2 RTS below.

• Experience WWII warfare on an epic, cinematic stage; that truly captures the intensity and scale of the battlefield
• Take command of an entire armed force consisting of up to 1,000 soldiers, tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and airplanes
• Players can choose between two different campaign modes offering completely different storylines, missions, objectives and environments
• Experience the unique dynamic camera that allows players to command troops over huge geographical scale whilst maintaining movie-like vistas and detail
• In-depth gameplay modes: two different campaign modes, multi-player, Deathmatch and Skirmish

Additionally, there is a demo available to anyone who wants to give it a go before plunking down cash money on the product. Having run through the demo myself, the first thing I really noticed was the graphics, which are pretty detailed for an RTS. There’s explosions everywhere, soldiers being graphically dismembered by tanks, there’s a lot to look at here. The gaming presents mission goals in a cinematic style, the voice acting struck me as pretty bad, which was soon overshadowed by the writing, which is far worse. I’m by no means RTS literate, but everything felt how it should. There was no resource management, unless you look at the lives of your troops as a resource, I seemed to be able to summon up a new batch of guys, tanks, anti-tank guns and the like to throw into the fray of battle. It played pretty well, nowhere near as personal as Company of Heroes, and not quite as epic and sprawling as the Total War series, it fit somewhere between the two.

If RTS is your thing, then I feel safe saying that you’ll probably find something to hold your interest in here; you just might want to throw in some earplugs when the characters start to talk.

Grab the demo right here.

Cheaters Receive Asshats

Valve has made a post on the official Team Fortress 2 blog indicating that some people are about to get their comeuppance. Anyone who has been taking advantage of “external idling applications” is going to have all the items they received taken away from their filthy cheating hands. According to the blog a whopping 4.5% of the player population is going to have this smackdown directly impact them. It’s a pretty generous response considering they could have put on their evil pants and doled out some real punishment. I personally know at least two or three people that’ll be stripped of their items, haha!

Oh the flipside, if you’ve avoided the temptation of obtaining items through less than honest means, you’re going to be rewarded with a totally awesome hat. Who doesn’t want a hat? I know in the hours and hours I’ve put into the game I haven’t gotten a hat, so I’m all about getting a hat. They also indicate that the drop rate for hats will increase in the future.

Haha, you cheating jerks!

Check it out right here.