eve-online posts

Today is the second day for Steam's Thanksgiving daily sales event and PC game download site has a nice selection of titles and price cuts for the next 22 hours. Look for games like Defense Grid The Awakening for $2,50, EVE Online for $5, Deathspank for $10.04, AudioSurf for $2.50, Kane and Lynch 2 for $5, Batman Arkham Asylum Game of the Year Edition for $10.20 and Cities XL 2011 for $29.99.

There's also a bundle of five indie games (And Yet It Moves, Gish, Puzzle Agent, Jolly Roger and Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale) for just $4.99. You can get gift pack deals for Defense Grid ($14.99 for 10 copies) AudioSurf ($19.99 for 12 copies), Left 4 Dead 2 ($24.99 for 6 copies) and Puzzle Quest 2 ($34.99 for 10 copies)

EVE Online is known for two things: its complicated free-market system and its grandiose science fiction plotline. This trailer for the upcoming Incursion expansion falls solidly into the latter. It depicts the attacks of Sasha's Nation, intent on revenge against the forces which hunted the creations of the mad scientist Sasha centuries before. It's purely CG, but that doesn't make it any less beautiful to behold. As for the expansion itself, it apparently includes a slew of fixes, some new ships and missions, and an entirely new pirate faction to contend with.

Download HD EVE Online Incursion Trailer
Check out all EVE Online downloads

Earlier this year CCP Games announced plans to release Incursion in November as the latest in a long line of free content expansions for its long running space-based MMO EVE Online. Now CCP plans to release the expansion in three separate parts with the first planned for release on November 30.

That first patch will include a number of player suggested improvements for the main game. The second part of the Incursion update will be coming to subscribers in December but CCP is keeping detals on what it contains to itself for now. The third and final part of the Incursion expansion is due in January and will have the biggest features including the avatar character creator that will be used for the forthcoming "Walking in Stations" expansion that's due out in summer 2011.

Download the EVE Online install client
Download the EVE Online Mac install client

Tomorrow Microsoft is scheduled to relaunch their Games For Windows Marketplace as a web-based online store. There might also be some other announcements on Monday that might be of interest. Stay tuned.

• Sign ups have begun for the annual EVE Online Fan Fest on March 24-26 in Iceland.
• While it is not mentioned on Steam's web site a new patch update for Shank is now available for download via Steam.
• The new Xbox 360 Controller with the transforming D-Pad can work with a Windows PC. Here's how it can be done.
• This one is a no-brainer. It's Super Meat Boy in claymation.

If you have always wanted to get into EVE Online but didn't want to bother with downloading a massive MMO game client, the folks at Atari have you covered. The publisher has announced details on a new retail release of the CCP Games space-based MMO game called EVE Online: Commissioned Officer Edition.

Due to be released to US retail stores on October 19, this edition of the game will have 30 days of free play time. It will also include an exclusive in-game item called the Cerebral Accelerator. This item will "significantly increases a new pilot's skill development" in the game but will only boost those skills for a player's first 30 days. CCP Games says this new retail version will allow new players to get a "running start" in playing the game.

[via email press release]

A long awaited expansion for EVE Online is still in development and will be released sometime in summer 2011, according to Eurogamer. Chatting with CCP Games' creative director Torfi Frans Olafsson he is quoted as saying that Incarna, also known as Walking In Stations, will be released for the space-based MMO "next summer".

The expansion will allow the game's players to finally have and control human 3D avatars in space stations in addition to controlling space ships. This November's free expansion, Incursion, will give players a way to create the character avatars and Olafsson states, " .... the goal is that the first implementation of Incarna will becoming in the next expansion." And even when the summer 2011 expansion comes out it will be just the first step in making EVE Online a much larger game when Olafsson stating, "Essentially, it's the transition from EVE being 'the space game' to EVE becoming 'the ultimate sci-fi world."

The long running space-based MMO EVE Online is known for its semi-annual free content expansions. In November subscribers for the game will be rewarded with the latest such free expansion, Incursion. As the title suggest, the expansion will introduce the threat of the Sansha's Nation who are attacking the game's universe.

Players will be able to fight off the Sansha's Nation incursion in the new expansion and get big bounties for their efforts. The expansion will also feature both hardware and software improvements, updating the game's character creator and improvements to the game's EVE Gate social networking system. EVE Online Incursion is due to be made available to the game's subscribers in November.

We know a bunch of you will be unlocking Civilization V tomorrow via Steam. We will have our full review of Fraxis Games' latest release in the near future.

• Steam has new bug patches available for Patrician IV, Flotilla, and Source Engine games.
• MMO publisher Frogster has decided to give some of its execs their walking papers including the CEO of Frogster America.
• Fan site Planet Battlefield noticed some new URLs that have been claimed by EA, including BattlefieldAssault.com.
• EVE Online is letting its players donate their in-game money to donate real funds to help the victims of the recent floods in Pakistan.

Wow. Today was a fairly slow day for news. We didn't even mention StarCraft II. Oh, wait ...

• What is the Dragon Age Origins Ultimate Edition? We don't know for sure but we are betting it collects the original game, the Awakening expansion and all of the DLC in one package. But that's just us.
• A new Booster Trooper update on Steam adds two new maps, bot AI support for CTF and DTV gameplay modes and more.
• An EVE Online player loses over $1,000 of game time via an in-game ship explosion. We hate when that happens ...
• Check out the cool QuakeCon 2010 tournament trophies.
• Also the massive set up for QuakeCon 2010 begins.
• Closed beta testing for the browser-based strategy game Iron Grip Marauders begins.

For a game that's over seven years old EVE Online is still growing its user base. The space-based MMO reached another milestone on Sunday as the game's developer CCP Games announced that EVE Online had 60,453 players in the game at one time on EVE Online's one server.

It's the first time that the game has had over 60,000 people playing online at one time and blows away the previous record set just last January of 56,021 players. Part of the reason behind the new record amount is the recent launch of the game's latest free expansion, Tyrannis.

[Via Massively]