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TOY STORY 3 OFFICIAL TRAILER

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Star Trek Online Endgame Content REVEALED!

Posted by Jason Triplett



Cryptic has finally lifted the veil on their upcoming STF raid-i-sodes for Star Trek Online. Below is the outline of all the content that you can look forward to in the next couple of months. All I can say is the last few days of communication from Cryptic to us, the playerbase, has saved my subscription. I hope this game can eventually give us all what we truly want out of a Star Trek MMO. From the looks of the below content, they are well on track!






STF: Infected

Starfleet has lost contact with one of its star bases. More than 400 officers could be lost, including a key member of Starfleet's Borg Task Force. Infiltrate the base and take the fight to the Borg!

• Retake the Sibiran system and shut down a transwarp conduit being used by the Borg to establish a foothold in the Gamma Orionis Sector Block.
• Investigate the strange new nanovirus the Borg are using to assimilate entire worlds at alarming speeds.
• Retake Starbase 89 before its fully taken over by the Borg, and save what is left of the Starfleet personnel that are still there.
• Locate Captain Ogen's Strike Team and Rebecca Simmons, the lead Borg Task Force researcher working on a cure for the nanovirus. Both went deep into the Borg infected starbase and haven't reported back in quite some time.
• It's a five-man mission. Players will not be able to complete it without teaming up with other players.
• The mission spans space and ground gameplay.
• Applies to level 43 +
• Encounters are daunting. Lots of enemies. Designed to be challenging.
• Releases this month.


STF: The Cure

The Klingon Defense Force has been conducting its own investigation into the Borg advance, and they believe that the Collective's next target is the Vorn system. Enemies may have to unite when confronted by a greater foe.

• Assist the I.K.S. Kang in a desperate battle with the Borg.
• Explore a planet that has been completely assimilated. Can you rescue the warriors before they are taken over by the Borg?
• Fight at the side of Ja'rod, son of Lursa.
• Free Klingon ships from Borg control, and gain their assistance in a final battle with a Borg fleet.


STF: Khitomer Accord

Finally, the mysteries of the Borg attack on Vega Colony are revealed! Why did the Borg attack there, and how was an unprepared Starfleet able to defeat them?

• Confront the Borg before they can use temporal anomalies to change the past of the Federation.
• Warp back into your own past, in the hours before the attack on Vega Colony.
• Discover a base where thousands of Borg drones are being held in stasis. What are the Borg's plans for this hidden army?
• Starfleet's not ready for the Borg. A defeat here could mean that the entire Alpha Quadrant falls. Balance the scales and fight the Borg for the preservation of the quadrant.
• Learn the fate of a missing Romulan empress.


STF: Into the Hive

The fate of the Alpha Quadrant hangs in the balance. Enter a unicomplex and confront the Borg Queen herself.

• Rescue civilians trapped on an assimilated world.
• Follow the trail to a unicomplex, and penetrate deep into the Borg stronghold.
• Confront the Borg Queen, and fight for the fate of the galaxy.


STF: Children of Khan
Amar Singh escapes from Federation custody, and he and an underground group of Augments steal the U.S.S. Asgard and race toward the remains of the Mutara Nebula. Can you stop them before they start a new Eugenics War?

• Fight a fleet assembled by Princep Khan and his followers.
• Beam onto the Asgard, and battle through its corridors to save civilians and crew.
• Confront the Princep. Can you deal with his transporter tricks?
• Save the divided Asgard and give the saucer section a chance to escape!

Star Trek Online State of the Game 2/25/10

Posted by Jason Triplett


In the first of two big STO stories today, we bring you the newest "state of the game" address from the devs. It simply must be read, as it should address any and all concerns with the immediate future of the game.

Pay close attention to all the acknowledgments of the community's concerns at large, and what they intend to do about it. It may be lip service at this point to counter-act all the forum trolling this game recieves. However, I believe CBS/Paramount will keep these guys on task no matter what.




STATE OF THE GAME ADDRESS 02/26/10

Welcome, you noble purveyors of Federation policy and fierce warlords of the Empire! Welcome one and all!

Wait now... Let's just take a moment to de-cloak, disarm and drop our shields, shall we? This State of the Game is of interest to you all.



So very, very much has happened over the last few weeks! It feels like every single time I began to write a new State of the Game, we'd have to quickly douse live shard fires, juggle major play tests and push critical late night patches. By the time the dousing, juggling and pushing was done, the outline of my State of the Game would be hopelessly out of date.

Given how tirelessly we've been working, if some ethereal, omnipotent resident from the Denorios belt hadn't stepped in and considerately put the breaks on space-time with a bit of temporal wizardry, I might have found myself eternally rewriting this single State of the Game.

Thanks to you, oh great wormhole-y one!



Support:
We. Are. Live. And so, supporting you -- yes, you, specifically -- is an effort that consumes us night and day.




Ask any bedraggled MMO developer about launch and they will inevitably assure you that it never, ever gets any easier. Crunch all you like, friend, it only gets harder after the game actually ships. STO is certainly no exception. Supporting a user base as large as ours requires dedication -- no, devotion! Our crew is, thankfully, more than up to the task. We are pushing the workplace warp core to maximum in an effort to better address any and every bug and issue that comes up in-game.



Our objective: Implement as many of the stability and gameplay adjustments you asked for as soon as humanoidly possible (as safe practices allow, of course). To this end, Community has put more effort into moderating the boards and CS has recently staffed up in order to get through your tickets quicker. The idea being, "we can hardly fix what we can't see."



We've also thrown a metric ton of hardware and man hours at getting the server capacity up. Our Network Operations crew has been performing admirably, to say the least. I won't begin to count the times I've heard, "Sorry, Captain! I'm giving it all she's got," come out of their work area, only to be quickly followed by a confident, Scotty-like, "It's done." Beautiful. Almost makes me want to demand them to, "fly her apart, then!" I might just because I know those boys and girls will hold it together in the end, whatever I say.



Bottom line: When -- if -- you see Queues, they should be much shorter and stability will be much better.



Game Adjustments:
Now that the game is out and in your loving hands, we're taking long, hard looks at everything each and every one of you is interested in seeing changed. Cruiser turn rates? Death penalties? More open auto-fire? All those topics and more are being scrutinized by the all-seeing eye of... um, us!




Some of the few things on the way:



Respec


Death Penalty


Difficulty Slider


More open auto-fire


Replayable missions


Improving Memory Alpha


Fixing those Commodity missions


And there are a bunch more. We’ve heard you and are working on all these issues, but we want to make sure that they come out clean and finished. We hate rushing out features – it inevitably leads to us accidentally breaking things we didn’t have time to test. I dunno – like the Red Matter Capacitor or something…

Tribble Coming

In order to better accommodate our players during the Head Start weekend, we merged the physical machines dedicated to our Public Test Shard (Tribble) into the live Shard (Holodeck). It has since been difficult to find viable hardware to test new patches on before pushing them out to you.


Well, we've got more hardware now and Tribble will be up pretty soon. Problem solved.

Once Tribble’s up and running (insert whatever tribble joke you’d like to here) – we’ll be able to start releasing those core game adjustments to you guys for deeper testing and feedback.



Special Task Force: Infected

We're in the final stages of testing the first STF (the five-man raids we internally referred to as "Raidisodes"). STF: Infected is just about ready to release.




You know, I might actually record one of our internal play sessions. The excited cries for more shielding and healing get the blood pumping. Although, once our testers reach the end room and the action really heats up... Well, it's not exactly "family friendly" in there. Definitely going to be an exciting, thrilling mission for our players, though.



After Infected, we'll roll out more STFs. "The Cure", "The Khitomer Accord" and "Into the Hive" are all coming along nicely. We look forward to regularly releasing these and seeing what everyone thinks.



Update 1: Classy Marketable Name Coming Soon

The first major update is receiving a final coat of paint, too.




There's quite a lot of genuinely cool stuff in Update 1: Classy Marketable Name Coming Soon. Expect to see it pushed to the newly revived Tribble Public Test Shard over the next couple weeks.



New Klingon ships? Oh, my yes. And they look...awesome. Re-specs are also coming, of course. All of Cryptic can't wait to see that particular feature out the door. New PvP maps and Fleet Actions are rather nice, too.



Beyond Update 1?

Right now, we're planning it. We haven't set the future of STO's content into stone because so much of it will be determined by you, but we're laying out what we'd like to focus on for the next 6 to 12 months.




Who are the Undine and what drives them?


How can we better exploit the Genesis System to create even more compelling content?


Where can we boldly go next? Where shall we take exploratory missions, as there's so much potential there?


Which faction should be playable next? Romulan? Cardassian? Pakled? Dominion? Horta? Okay, not so much the Pakleds.


And that’s not even the start of it! Ship interiors, more bridges, crew quarters, First Officers, Fleet advancement... You have subscribed to a service that delivers a universe unending, and we shall see that universe populated with compelling content or, by the Prophets, we will die trying.



Some people get that. Some people don't. We're here for those that do.



Throughout development, we guessed Star Trek Online might be polarizing. Some people don't get it and some people simply don't like it... But, others fall in love with their ships and captains and bridge officers. Those are the ones who can't live without beaming down to strange, new planets and participating in lively stories.



We guessed this and still we made a conscious decision to not water things down and go "mass market". Frankly, I think that's perfectly OK. Because, no matter what, there will be one single thing, now and forever, that drives everything we do: you.



We have a very healthy -- and healthily testy -- core community that gets it. And there's nothing we look forward to more than working together to make STO better.



Sad part is, you may not even know it. Far as I can tell, there're no hidden cameras and mics scattered about Cryptic's office. So, how would you know that we refer to our community almost as if it were an absent developer?



"Well, The Users think that we need to do more non-combat."



"Guys, I'm sorry to interrupt, but The Players really want ground auto-attack back. Drop what we're doing."

"We already know what you think about a death penalty, Craig – but The Community really thinks it's a good idea and their opinion is more valid than yours because they probably don't own goats."



It’s a little unnerving -- sometimes feels like we work with a giant multi-headed feedback monster that simultaneously loves and hates us. It whips even as it hugs! It rages even as it cries! And it fumes even when it's happy. It's unnerving, yes, but pretty freakin' rad, too.



What you guys post and say and do in-game and on the forums is the biggest factor we consider when making our decisions.



I am sorry if it ever appears that we're not listening to you or trying to make the game better. Because that is pretty much all we ever do.

Actor Andrew Koenig found dead.

Posted by Jason Triplett


Actor Andrew Koenig has been found dead today in a Vancouver park. The cause is apparent suicide. He had previously gone missing, leaving behind a grim note.

Koenig played "Boner" Stabone on Growing Pains, and he is the son of Walter Koenig, Who played Chekov on the original Star Trek series.

Rest in peace Andrew.

Deftones give away their newest song!

Posted by Jason Triplett


The Deftones are back folks, and in good form. Their latest single "Rocket Skates" has just debuted, and to top it all off, the band is giving it away free of charge! Anyhow, check out the song below, and if you like it, pick it up for yourself! The album, "Diamond Eyes, releases May 18th!

We Are The Fallen debuts their first single!

Posted by Jason Triplett



Former members of Evanescence teamed up with American Idol's Carly Smithson to create the awesome band We Are The Fallen. Of course, they controversially sound a lot like Evanescence. But seriously, did anyone not expect that anyhow? Anyways, they have released their first single "Bury Me Alive", and I think you should check it out!

Evanescence debuts their new single!

Posted by Jason Triplett


Evanescence has unveiled their newest single, "Together Again", on their official Myspace. The song, an unreleased track from "The Open Door", is soft and haunting, and a reminder to us all that Evanescence will never be the same again...



How will the new stuff really sound? Will the original band members joining We Are The Fallen (with American Idol's Carly Smithson) give us the true Evanescence sound once again? Who knows. What is certain is that Amy is not giving up. As troubled as the band has been, she always seems to come out on top.

Cryptic's STO survey gives player 240 Cryptic Points!

Posted by Jason Triplett

Today, Cryptic launched a new feature on it's website, asking players what they though of the game as it stands, what they'd like to see in the future, and how long they plan on sticking around. In addition to the couple of pages of multiple-choice questions typical to a survey, Cryptic rewards each player 240 Cryptic Points (for their in game real money store) just for taking the time to finish it.

There is a catch. You need to be a curent subscriber in good standing with Cryptic to complete the survey and qualify for the free 240 CP.

Head on over to the SURVEY PAGE for more info!

Blog Archive

Spider-Man reboot gets a date...and 3-D!

Posted by Jason Triplett
02-10-10

Toy Story 3 gets a full trailer!

Posted by Jason Triplett
02-11-10

New shots from the set of Predators!

Posted by Jason Triplett
02-11-10

Tyrese to Transform once more!

Posted by Jason Triplett
02-11-10

Star Trek Online gets HUGE endgame update!

Posted by Jason Triplett
02-11-10