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Champions Online had a Free Play Weekend for the Serpent Lantern Adventure Pack. Adventure Packs are Free to Gold Members but they are Buy-To-Play for Silver or Free Members. This weekend, Silver Members were able to play the Serpent Lantern Adventure Pack for FREE and I missed it because I wasn’t paying too much attention to my e-mails. Yup, I got the notice about the Serpent Lantern Free Play Weekend in my e-mail but I only noticed it yesterday which was already too late. Technically, I can still play it for FREE because there is still time (when I noticed it) but, unfortunately, I had to disconnect from the internet for a few hours.

(The Serpent Lantern Adventure Pack)

After this Free Play Weekend, the Serpent Lantern Adventure Pack will still be available to Silver Members but it will no longer be FREE. Silver Members will have to Buy it from the C-Store if they wish to play it or continue playing it. Of course, Gold Members will not have this problem because Adventure Packs are FREE to Gold Members. Silver Members can become Gold Members by paying a monthly subscription fee of $14.99 a month or they can pay $299 USD for a Lifetime Subscription.

For a better picture of what you can enjoy as a Gold Member, you can view the Features Matrix to see the difference between a Gold Member and a Silver or Free Member. Feature Matrix, Click Here. Currently, I am a Silver Member and I’m enjoying it a lot. I also want to become a Gold Member but I don’t think I can invest enough time playing to justify the cost of paying $14.99 monthly.

The Serpent Lantern is an Adventure Pack that centers around a legendary magical artifact that could be used to unify the warring factions of VIPER, an organization bent in taking over the world. The Serpent Lantern Adventure Pack will take you from the streets of Millenium City to a hidden jungle VIPER base. Your mission is to stop the Supreme Serpent from getting his scaly hands on the Serpent Lantern and to stop him from uniting VIPER into one strong faction.

Below is a list of what you can expect from the Serpent Lantern Adventure Pack:

• Fun for all ages: The Serpent Lantern can played by any level from 11-40 and any team size from 1-5, with challenges scaling to match. Team up with your friends and take on greater challenges!
• New VIPER adversaries: Meet and battle new VIPER agents, including Draconis, Viperia and the mysterious Serpent Mages.
• Dens of snakes: Explore VIPER’s network of Project Scavenger bases, the Serpent Caves and the ancient Temple of Nama.
• Snakecharming never paid so good: Earn UNTIL Merits from Project Snakecharmer to buy special costume pieces, action figures, devices and more.

Judging from the list above, I can see that the Serpent Lantern Adventure Pack is a very interesting addition to Champions Online and I’m somewhat disappointed that I wasn’t able to play it on this Free Play Weekend but I’m not worried because I’m sure there will be more events like this in the future.

Anyway, if you haven’t tried playing Champions Online yet then you can start by creating a new account and by downloading and installing the game client. If you are worried about payment or subscription fees then don’t be because Champions Online is 100% Free-To-Play.

© 2011, Kabalyero. All rights reserved.

This time around Apple is releasing its newly launched iPad 2 in India sooner than expected by most, and surprisingly within 2 days you will be able to get your hands on the extremely popular device….



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The Canadian telecommunication and wireless device manufacturer Research In Motion has introduced its latest offering in smartphones, Blackberry Style 9670. Justifying its name, this clamshell from…



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It’s been nearly a month since I signed up and bought Trion’s Rift. I’m happy to report that I am still having fun, and despite rumours to the contrary see no sign that Rift is in decline.

This last weekend was pretty special, actually it was literally a once in a lifetime five day long weekend. Easter is normally a four day weekend, with Good Friday and Easter Monday both being federally scheduled public holidays. ANZAC day occurs each year on April 25th, and this year fell on Easter Monday. (ANZAC standing for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, and the 25th of April 1915 is the day the ANZACs landed on the beach at Gallipoli. ANZAC day is essentially Australia’s veterans day with dawn services, RSL marches, and like activities.) The good people at Public Holidays Limited decided to make Tuesday a public holiday too. Yippee!

As I said, this is once in a lifetime. The next time these public holidays converge is in 2095. I’ll certainly enjoy that when I’m 130 years old, and think back fondly on this particular weekend spent playing copious amounts of Rift, at least when I wasn’t preparing for, and enjoying a BBQ with friends.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been leveling up a mage (yes, another alt) called Vroomfondel and having a blast doing so. I started her off as an Elementalist\Stormcaller\Chloromancer combo which did pretty well. Around 20 I changed roles to Pyromancer\Elementalist\Chloromancer. This works a treat. I worked my way up to level 27 from there.

While the Pyro combo isn’t indestructable, having the Earth elemental pet as a tank and dishing out massive damage with the Pyro abilities makes Vroomfondel a formidable opponent to any NPC monsters in her way. I can generally take down any mob in five shots or less. The only trouble comes if adds join in, and if there is one thing about Rift as opposed to WoW, adds come in to fight far more often. This makes having a good strategy important.

However, I’ve found running to be effectively useless. Where in WoW when you hit 30 percent and ran, you had a good chance of the mob turning back before it brought you down. In Rift, they do a lot more damage. I never ever get far when running, even if I start when I have a lot of health remaining.

Vroomfondel also picked up a new title, The Heartless.

You get this when you collect the tears of 20 squirrels, and of course you make squirrels cry by killing them. Many squirrels sacrificed their tiny squirrelly lives to provide the tears for the Cry Me A River achievement, and for that I thank them. Now I have to collect the tears of many other critters: cats, snakes, and the like to get the major achievement for cruelty. So much fun!

At this one month point I will definitely be resubscribing. I originally signed up with the idea of just checking the game out for a month, but I am having a lot of fun with Rift, and want to see where Trion will be taking this game.

That of course doesn’t mean I’ll be playing Rift forever, or even for the medium term. I’m not much of a Raider, and that still seems to be the emphasis with Rift. Although if they spice up the rifts that might be a motivator for keeping on. But, with both The Secret World, and The Old Republic both looming on the horizon, I have to be realistic. My lifestyle no longer supports the time needed for more than one MMORPG at a time, so choices will have to be made. It’s just great there are plenty of choices to choose from.

Making Squirrels Cry

A new version of VLC Player v1.1.9 became available earlier this month, however this is not a major update but it does fix the security issues found in the earlier 1.1.8 release. Other changes were…



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Predictions of doom. Every game has them, and bloggers love to give them.

Keen just asked:

I’m anticipating the game to start fizzling out sometime in the next few weeks.  Friends of mine and some people whose blogs/websites I follow have already reported a decline in the overall number of people on servers and actively doing things.  Anyone else notice this?

The short answer is no.

The longer answer is that any noticable differences in population is more likely to be due to players spreading out across zones rather than deserting the game.

Consider that at this stage (6 to 8 weeks) with Warhammer Online, during Australian primetime, I could run across some of the lower level zones and not see a single player. In Rift at 6 to 8 weeks, it’s rare not to see other players. Meridian always has players, and yesterday in Stonefield there had to be at least 30 players battling a major rift invasion.

Sure, Rift will have lost some players. There will always be new players who try out the game, not like it, and leave. That’s not fizzle, that’s just the way it works.

Aside from the fuss over the World Event, it looks like Rift is doing just fine.

It is certainly doing better than Warhammer Online, and that game is still running and under active development.

Is Rift Starting To Fizzle?

Predictions of doom. Every game has them, and bloggers love to give them.

Keen just asked:

I’m anticipating the game to start fizzling out sometime in the next few weeks.  Friends of mine and some people whose blogs/websites I follow have already reported a decline in the overall number of people on servers and actively doing things.  Anyone else notice this?

The short answer is no.

The longer answer is that any noticable differences in population is more likely to be due to players spreading out across zones rather than deserting the game.

Consider that at this stage (6 to 8 weeks) with Warhammer Online, during Australian primetime, I could run across some of the lower level zones and not see a single player. In Rift at 6 to 8 weeks, it’s rare not to see other players. Meridian always has players, and yesterday in Stonefield there had to be at least 30 players battling a major rift invasion.

Sure, Rift will have lost some players. There will always be new players who try out the game, not like it, and leave. That’s not fizzle, that’s just the way it works.

Aside from the fuss over the World Event, it looks like Rift is doing just fine.

It is certainly doing better than Warhammer Online, and that game is still running and under active development.

Is Rift Starting To Fizzle?

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Yesterday, I played Pandora Saga for a few hours. I downloaded the game client from Level Up Games but registered a new account with Atlus Online. At first, I thought Level Up Games was the publisher of Pandora Saga but I was wrong because they were only like an affiliate. I don’t know how…



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Warning Will Robinson, Danger Approaching!

You might have received an email from Blizzard this morning. It has a big WoWish image promising 7 days free game time if you return to WoW by clicking on the big button. This is what it looks like, at least what the top half looks like.

This scam is capitalising on the recent free game time offers made by companies like SOE for Everquest and Everquest 2. However the link doesn’t go to Blizzard, but to some .net address I won’t repeat here.

As always, if you get an email like this, no matter how convincing do not use the link, even if it looks legitimate. There are many ways to make a link look real. Instead type the address into your browser manually.

Also be aware that companies like Blizzard and SOE know about these scams and do not usually require the player to do anything to claim the free time. Instead any free time is automatically credited and available to the player logging in to the game.

Yet Another WoW Scam – Return To Azeroth With 7 Days Free