A few days ago we reported that NCsoft had revealed some new projects at a Korean press event. One of those projects is a title called Blade and Soul. Now our sister site Massively has some more info on the title which is apparently an Unreal Engine 3 powered title that combines elements of a traditional fantasy MMO with a fighting game.As one might expect from a game developed by a Korean dev company. Blade and Soul will have a lot of Asian fantasy and myth influences and will incorporate martial arts as well. A trailer showcasing gameplay from the title has been released and can be seen above but at the moment it's looks like Blade and Soul is being made solely for the Korean market; there have been no announcements of a US release....

Early this year Austin based game developer Spacetime Studios announced it was cutting its staff down by 12 members following the decision by NCsoft not to publish their sci-fi MMO title Blackstar. While Spacetime reacquired the Blackstar IP from NCsoft in May they have since had problems finding a publisher for their long-in-development title.Now the company's official web site has posted up word that they are cutting staff yet again, from 32 to 16 team members, as they continue their search for a Blackstar publisher. Simply put, the company could not continue to afford spending money at their current rate without a deal. The statement reads, "We will be letting some very good folks go. They will receive extended benefits and we will be doing everything we can to help them land on their feet again."[Via Massively]...

Remember when NCsoft said it wouldn't be attending E3 this year because it would have nothing new to show at the event? Well it's only been a few weeks since E3 2008 ended but NCsoft has gone ahead and announced not one but three new titles at a press event in its home country of Korea.TotalVideoGames states (via a translated Japanese media story) that two new MMOs were announced at the press event, Metal Black: Alternative and Blade & Soul, but no details beyond the titles and genre were revealed. The other new game is titled Steel Dog and is described as a combat driving game. NCsoft launched a car combat MMO AutoAssault from developer NetDevil in 2006 but poor sales caused the game to shut down 18 months later....

MMO operators have been finding more and more ways to get revenue beyond the typical monthly fee via in-game transactions, advertising and others. NCsoft's super hero MMO City of Heroes has found a way to do just that with a new program that allows players to pay for a Character Respec, which basically means they will be allowed to "re-select their powers from their chosen primary and secondary powers, along with any other pools of powers they have access to."While there are other ways to handle a Character Respec for free in the game NCsoft states that players have always wanted an option to purchase such a feature. So if you are a City of Heroes player and want to re-select your powers anytime you want you can spend $9.99 to purchase a Character Respec from the in-game store....

As some of you may know, Richard "Lord British" Garriott is currently in training to go up in space in October aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket to go to the International Space Station (he paid $30 million for the privilege via the Space Adventures company). However he isn't leaving Earth without remembering the last game he helped to create, the NCsoft MMO Tabula Rasa.Today NCsoft announced that all players of Tabula Rasa during August will have their in-game character's data uploaded to the "Immortality Drive", a drive that will be sent into space with Garriott in October. In addition 8 players per week will be picked to have their actual DNA to be sampled and then stored into the Immortality Drive as well. More info on this program can be found on the Operation Immorality web site....

Buying a PC game at Rite-Aid? With a new program via publisher NCSoft that's exactly what you will be able to do soon. The MMO publisher announced plans to ship special game cards for City of Heroes, Tabula Rasa and Exteel to Rite-Aid stores along with Target and Best Buy locations.According to an email press release, NCSoft's new game card system will allow people to purchase games in stores without the need for a CD box. They buy the card, take it home, stratch off the unique serial number and activiate their game at the NCsoft web site.They then download the game client from the site. The City of Heroes game card comes with 30 days of play for $20 with a unique in game item. Tabula Rasa's card costs $14.95 for 30 days of gameplay with their own in-game item. The Exteel card costs $10 and allows players to upgrade their mechs in the free-to-play action game with additional items. The City of Heroes cards will be available at all three retailers listed above while the Exteel cards will be shiped to Target and Rite-Aid stores. The Tabula Rasa card will only be at Best Buy stores....

NCSoft's sci-fi MMO Tabula Rasa may not be the sales powerhouse it was predicted to be when it launched last fall but the subcribers to the game seem to have fun with playing it. One of the community driven events is Friday Night Fights where player characters duke it out in hand-to-hand combat.Now the creator of the game, legendary game designer Richard "Lord British" Garriott, has decided to join in the fun and is bringing in a special guest. Tonight at 7 pm ET, Garriott will be in the game at the C.E.L.L.A.R (Coalition of Enlistees Likely Looking for Aggressive Retaliation) arena fighting against real two time featherweight boxing champ Jesus Chavez. Our sister site Massively has all the details including a funny promo video for the event....

While the two games have basically been linked for a while now, NCSoft has made it official today. Their super hero MMOs City of Heroes and City of Villains are now merged into one game product. People who own one of the two games can now access all of the content of the game they didn't already own and all copies of both games sold at retails stores and online will gain access to both games.One of the more interesting features in this merge is that people who play as heroes can now have access to base building, which is something only City of Villains players had access to until now. It also will lead into future updates and projects for City of Heroes that will be announced later this year.[via email press release]...

NCsoft will be spanning the globe this summer to show off their ever expanding MMO lineup. As we mentioned last week, they will be at the San Diego Comic Con (July 23-27, booth #5209) with stations up and running so that attendees can play the superhero themed City of Heroes, Richard Garriott's sci-fic epic Tabula Rasa and mech-mashing Exteel. Fanzine artist Dave Hamann will also be on hand to draw City of Heroes' character sketches for players.A few days later, July 29 - 31 in Brighton, England, NCsoft Europe will be showing the media its highly anticipated fantasy, wing-sprouting MMO, Aion: The Tower of Eternity. This will be the first time western journalists will have seen Aion since the summer of 2007, and things have changed. Three weeks later (August 20 - 24) Aion will be on display again at the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany (Hall 3, Booth B20). The last stop on the NCsoft bus ride will be at the Penny Arcade Expo (booth #642) in Seattle, August 29 - 31. PAX has become a pretty significant gaming con, and for NCsoft to show up with many of the their games (Aion, Exteel, Dungeon Runners, CoX, Guild Wars, and Richard Garriott's Tabula Rasa) says a lot. What's more, Guild Wars' fans will be treated to a special player tournament while Exteel and Dungeon Runners' teams will get play sessions in the special LAN area. There will also be speaking sessions in the auditorium for fans to learn more about their many MMOs....

If you were looking forward to perhaps beta testing ArenaNet's upcoming action RPG MMO Guild Wars 2 this year, you are out of luck. According to a revised version of FAQ on the game's web site the beta test won't be happening this year.Here's the official word: "Although we publically alpha- and beta-tested the original Guild Wars while it was still in early development, with Guild Wars 2 we will commence beta testing closer to the game's release. With that in mind, we will not start beta testing in 2008 as we had originally planned. Guild Wars 2 is a very large and ambitious game, and Guild Wars players rightfully have very high expectations of its quality. We want players to be absolutely blown away by the game the first time they experience it."...

E3 may get more attention from the gaming press in mid-July but only a week after E3 ends, the pop culture world's attention will go to the annual San Diego Comic Con. Over 125,000 people are expected to attend the event and game developers and publishers are a growing part of the convention's activities.Indeed at least one major game that isn't scheduled to be at E3 will be at Comic Con. That would be Stargate Worlds, the upcoming MMO based on the sci-fi movie and TV series franchise. Publisher Firesky will showcase the game at the Stargate booth during the convention. NCsoft, who is also skipping E3, will also be at Comic Con (most likely to promote their City of Heroes MMO). A quick look at the exhibitors on the con's official web site has Sony, Sony Online, Activision, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, THQ, Namco Bandai,and Vivendi Games attending the show as well....

When we reported on NCsoft's latest financial results a few weeks ago we noted that their most recent title, the sci-fi MMO Tabula Rasa, wasn't even mentioned on the list of games that had contributed sales to the company. We noted at the time that sales of the game must not have been strong enough to register on the publisher's numbers. However, NCsoft is claiming the game is not as bad as the numbers might seem. According to a quote in a Eurogamer article from a company spokesperson, "Tabula Rasa has a dedicated player base, which is growing month on month." The spokesperson added that a recent promotion of the game in Europe " . . . was met with great demand; we will be doing a similar promotion later in the year." The game's original creator, Richard "Lord British" Garriott, is currently training for a trip to Earth orbit later this year but is reportedly in daily contact with the development team....

Kotaku recently caught up with Michael Gallagher, CEO of the Entertainment Software Association. Given the recent departures of noteworthy studios such as id Software, LucasArts, Activision, and Vivendi, many believe that there is concern over the ESA's future, but Gallagher doesn't think so. "The membership of any association fluctuates over time," Gallagher pointed out. "For example, though it didn't receive much attention by the gamer press, in the past nine months we added four new members-Epic Games, MTV Games, NCSoft, and Codemasters."Gallagher went on to clarify that each of the departing companies "gave the ESA ample notice. In discussions, they expressed gratitude for our work and continued support for the mission of the ESA. The public comments from all involved reflect that."Many have speculated that the reason for the collective departure might be related to the increased cost of ESA membership dues. Gallagher explained that originally, "E3 was a revenue-generating entity. As such, approximately 85% of the ESA's operating funds resulted from that event." With the formation of the E3 Media & Business Summit, the ESA board of directors found it necessary to increase membership dues. Gallagher said that "Without getting into specifics, which are private and specific to individual ESA members, each company pays a certain amount based on North American sales."When asked if the membership dues played a factor in the companies' decision to leave the ESA, Gallagher asserted his belief that the decision was probably "tough ... for those few companies, but I would encourage you to contact them."...

Your daily wrap-up of the hottest stories in PC gaming in the last 24 hours. In-Depth: GRIDGRID sets up a great mood for racing from the moment you set up your profile and put in an audio name. From that point on, the game greets you by name each time you load it up and refers to you personally with race updates. It seems like a minor addition, but it provides a strong sense of engagement with the game world as you build up your racing reputation, rake in the prize money, and race go on racing tours across the USA, Europe and Japan. The PC version sports great performance and fantastic graphics, but it's worthwhile to purchase a gamepad to play this one in order to get the best experience. More after the jump. Big Versus: GRIDThis week in Big Versus we're tackling Codemasters' latest entry in the Race Driver series, GRID, which hits retail for the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 today. Shying away from its more realistic racers like other TOCA racing games and the recently released Dirt, Codemasters hopes to capture some of the underground scene with their latest arcade style racing title. Two very different Alone in the Dark trailers emergeWe have two new trailers for Eden Games and Atari's upcoming reboot of the Alone in the Dark franchise. The videos couldn't be more different. One features gameplay footage and commentary by producer Nora Paloni about the various enemies, weapons, and combat strategies in the game. It's a continuation of an earlier video that focused on fire. LEGO Indiana Jones now available in storesAs of today, you can go out, buy LEGO Indiana Jones, and re-experience the original trilogy, thereby pushing Crystal Skull's awfulness out of your mind. According to a LucasArts press release Big Download received earlier today via email, "LEGO Indiana Jones presents a tongue-in-cheek take on the first three cinematic adventures of pop culture's most iconic archaeologist." Unreal Tournament III 1.3 patch detailsThe 1.3 patch for Unreal Tournament III hasn't been released quite yet, but that didn't stop PlanetUnreal from digging for concrete details. Among the substantial list of fixes and additions are numerous bot improvements, several mod-specific collision detection issues, increased Aegia support, and cut/copy/paste functionality for the game's console. Fallout 3 Collector's Edition finally visualizedWe have reported in the past on Bethesda Softworks' plans to release a collector's edition of their highly anticipated RPG Fallout 3 but today the developer's official blog site has finally given us a visual of what that special edition of the game will actually look like. As promised the Collector's Edition will be housed in a metal Vault TEC lunch box with some great looking artwork (we would love to see the reaction if a kid took that lunch box to school). ...

NCsoft has been developing their online mech action game Exteel for some time now. Technically the game is still in open beta testing but you can go ahead and start playing the game right now by downloading the client at the game's official web site. This week NCsoft released some new screenshots from the game showing off the Trooper Mechanaught vehicle which is one of the more powerful mechs you can drive in the game.NCsoft also revealed the new Last Stand mode which has your player going up against waves of AI controlled enemies who are trying to capture two "Aerogates" in the arena. While Exteel is a free-to-play game, this is one of NCsoft's games that supports the recently revealed NCcoin feature that lets players use real money to pay for in-game items....