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Bloodline Champions officially launched this past January and since then the online action-RTS game from developer Stunlock Studios has issues a number of minor updates. However this week players of the game got its first major content update since launch with an new Champion and other additions.

The new Champion is the Reaver, a melee-based character with a big sword and lots of kung-fun action. In addition the update adds two new maps to the game; the arena map Altar of Dorn Zweig and the large conquest map Ruins of Razmorg. There's also an emote system for player characters and the first official "season" of the game's tournament system has launched.

Finally the in-game story has a special Charitable Champions Pack which if purchased gives the player an exclusive avatar and a title. Stunlock says 100 percent of the proceeds of the pack will go to the Red Cross to assist in its Japan earthquake relief efforts.

Bloodline Champions strips the defense out of Defense of the Ancients, and the result is a fast-paced combat arena that brutalizes players and leaves them gasping in the wake of adrenaline. It has also finally launched, which means that it is time for a delightfully vague, but stylistically cool launch trailer! It's the trailer above. You can't miss it. Beyond that, there's nothing special about it. Sorry, no champion spotlights here!

Download Bloodline Champions Launch Trailer
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After several weeks in open beta testing, the multiplayer free-to-play fantasy action-RTS game Bloodline Champions has now dumped the "beta" part, officially launching as of today. The game from developer Stunlock Studios and publisher Funcom is just the latest stand alone game that has gotten a lot of inspiration from the popular Warcraft III mod Defense of the Ancients.

Funcom has announced that over 200,000 people tried out the game while it was in its open beta mode. While the game can be played totally for free there is content in the game that can only be accessed if players purchase either the $29.99 Champions Edition or the $89.99 Elite Edition. The Champion Edition will also be made available for purchase at a number of PC game download sites. Finally the pre-order special content will still be available for people who purchase either edition until February 1.

Ahead of Bloodline Champions' official launch later in January, developer Stunlock Studios and publisher Funcom have announced some changes for the pricing model of the multiplayer action-RTS game, based on player feedback from the current open beta of the game. The biggest change is the elimination of the VIP membership option.

Some elements of the VIP membership will be moved into all the previous pricing levels for the game. For example the advanced stats feature will be available for the free-to-play players as well as the Champion and Titan customers. VIP tournaments will also be merged with the regular tournaments. You can check out all of the changes at the game's official web site. The Champion Edition will still cost $29.99 (plus another $9.99 to add four more Bloodlust Bloodline champions) and the Titan Edition will still cost $89.99.

Defense of the Ancients was first thought of as just a popular mod for Warcraft 3. Now things are different with the success of games like League of Legends and Heroes of Newerth. The action-RTS genre is now in full swing with new games being announced on a regular basis.

A games that's been in beta form for the past several months has been Bloodline Champions from developer Stunlock Studios. The free-to-play online only game is due for its official launch in January with Age of Conan developer Funcom serving as its publisher. Big Download got a chance to ask the head of Stunlock, Tau Petersson, some questions about the game and its plans for the future of Bloodline Champions.

The latest game to enter the more and more crowded fantasy action-RTS genre has just moved into the open beta stage. Publisher Funcom has announced that Bloodline Champions is now open to anyone who wants to play the game after 150,000 people tried it out in closed beta.

The open beta for the Stunlock Studios-developed game includes the four new Bloodlines (i.e. Champions) that people who have already pre-ordered the game can now access. It also adds support for collecting Blood Coins that can be used later to purchase in-game items when the game's Marketplace goes live. Just a reminder: You can purchase a $29.99 version of the game that contains 16 bloodlines plus you can also get four additional bloodlines for an extra $9.99. There's also the $89.99 version which can access all 20 bloodlines, a lifetime VIP membership and a lifetime discount to purchase items from the in-game store.

More Bloodline Champions videos are coming down the wire from Funcom, and they are class videos as usual. In this particular instance, the class is the Blood Priest, a damage-dealer and healer who focuses on debuffing enemies and sustaining teammates at the cost of his own hit points. He's got a number of cool moves, such as a teleportation move, an area-of-effect fear, and a screen-darkening debuff, but for the most part there's nothing too wildly different about him. Naturally, as with all the class videos, this one ends with a bot match that shows all the abilities in action.

Download HD Bloodline Champions 'Blood Priest' Trailer
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The more we see coming from Bloodline Champions, the more we are getting excited for it. Two new trailers are floating around the internet now, and they are about two new classes: the Guardian and Stalker. Must like previous class videos, these two go into the inner workings of both classes, then demonstrates their abilities in a 3v3 bot match. The Guardian is a tank with crowd control and healing abilities, while the Stalker is mostly a damage dealer with some evasion. The classes aren't really that unique, but the fact that the developers are revealing this much about the game is very appealing.

Download HD Bloodline Champions Class 'Guardian' Trailer
Download HD Bloodline Champions 'Stalker' Class Trailer
Check out all Bloodline Champions downloads

Bloodline Champions aims to be the next big action-RTS game and today its publisher Funcom announced that the game from developer Stunlock Studios will enter its open beta test on December 16. In addition pre-orders for the game are now being accepted.

There will actually be two pre-order versions of the game. One will cost $29.99 and will contain 16 bloodlines (the game's term for classes. You can also get four additional bloodlines for an extra $9.99. Then there's the $89.99 version which can access all 20 bloodlines, a lifetime VIP membership and a lifetime discount to purchase items from thein-game store. Bloodline Champions will also have a free version with "a limited number of bloodlines available in rotation."

The Christmas-New Years period is normally a quiet one for new game releases but that apparently won't be the case this year. A new press release reports that the online action-RTS game Bloodline Champions, now in closed beta, will officially launch sometime in late 2010 or early 2011.

The game, developed by Stunlock Studios, was picked up for publishing earlier this year by Funcom in a bit of a change for the company's normal MMO game lineup. Today, Funcom stated that the game currently has 150,000 players participating in its closed beta test. While Bloodline Champions is designed to be free-to-play there will be optional paid memberships and an in-game item store