Ultima Online: Return to Britannia Campaign

While EA will never get me to return to Ultima Online (I got away and i’m never going back!), maybe it can entice you with the “Return to Britannia Campaign.” Honoring twelve years of service as an MMORPG, the new campaign will allow former players to re-activate accounts for unlimited free play starting today and ending on October 16.

Closed accounts in good standing have been already been re-activated allowing former players can log back into the game using their original user name and passwords, though your houses and all the contents therein are probably gone by now. I had close to 2 million dollars in the bank when I left - I wonder if it is still there.

New content available to returning players through the Return to Britannia Campaign includes Mondain’s Legacy, the 7th UO expansion which introduced the playable Elven race and dangerous, new dungeons to explore. Mondain’s Legacy was made available at no charge in August 2009 to existing subscribers and to new players as part of the Ultima Online 14-day free trial.

Players returning to Ultima Online through the Return to Britannia Campaign can download and install the UO client for free at www.uoherald.com/trial/. Players who no longer have access to their Ultima Online username and password can retrieve their account information at: support.ea.com.

Ultima Online: Stygian Abyss, the 8th expansion was released earlier this month and revolves around the introduction of the playable Gargoyle race. Players will also find new areas including Ter Mur, the Gargoyle homeland, and the Stygian Abyss – the largest dungeon area ever introduced to Ultima Online. Ultima Online: Stygian Abyss is available at UOGamesCodes.com and the EA STORE for $29.99. This expansion will not be available as part of the campaign.

WAR Forged in Chaos novel in the works

Mythic Entertainment and The Black Library, a division of Games Workshop, today announced FORGED IN CHAOS, an original novel based on Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. The third in a series of WAR novels, FORGED IN CHAOS will be available in all major bookstores and on the Black Library website in the fall of 2009.

FORGED IN CHAOS, by Black Library author C.L. Werner, provides an account of Destruction’s incursion into the Bastion Stair in search of the legendary Spear of Myrmidia. C. L. Werner is a veteran Black Library author, and his credits include Mathias Thulmann: Witch Hunter, the Chaos Wastes books Palace of the Plague Lord and Blood for the Blood God, Runefang and the Brunner the Bounty Hunter trilogy. Currently living in the American south-west, he continues to write stories of mayhem and madness set in the Warhammer World.

Warhammer Online invades Ace of Cakes tonight

Tonight (August 27) on Food Networks Ace of Cake’s Chef Duff will be showing off a pretty amazing cake he and his team helped create for Mythic’s popular MMORPG, Warhammer Online. The cake, shown below, is modeled after a familiar Warhammer Online creature - the Squig. The cake was part of Warhammer Online’s Baltimore Games Day booth earlier this year and was well received by everyone that saw it first hand - as you’ll see in tonight’s episode. Interestingly, Duff calls the Squig the best cake he’s made on the show. In a recent interview with USA Today Chef Duff said as much:

“It’s coming up. We made a cake of a monster called Squig from a video game called Warhammer for a video-game convention. This thing was about the size of large sheepdog. It was gigantic. It was a humongous cake balanced on two legs.”

The show will debut tonight at 10 PM EST on Food Network. Click on the pciture below to see it now:

DAoC expansions for free

Mythic Entertainment wants you to know that its now classic MMORPG, Dark Age of Camelot, is still going strong and that it is giving subscribers the last two expansion free of charge. Dark Age of Camelot: Darkness Rising and Labyrinth of the Minotaur, the fourth and fifth retail expansions to the fantasy MMORPG, are now available at no charge to all subscribers. Originally launched in 2001, Dark Age of Camelot remains a popular destination for MMORPGs fans.

Current subscribers will receive the expansions as part of an automatic update to their existing game client. For players that are new to Dark Age of Camelot, or for those interested in returning to the game world, they can download the new 14-day free trial which now features all five retail expansions, including Darkness Rising and Labyrinth of the Minotaur. New players can download the Dark Age of Camelot 14-Day free trial at www.darkageofcamelot.com/trial.

In addition to these expansions, veteran players who may have left to play World of Warcraft can now return to Midgard, Hibernia and Albion and play free for a limited time. The Come Back To Camelot campaign allows former players with closed accounts for 90 days or more to play for 10 days.

Ultima Online: Mondain’s Legacy for free

EA’s MMO studio, Mythic Entertainment, announced that Ultima Online: Mondain’s Legacy is now available at no charge to subscribers of Ultima Online. Launched in the summer of 2005, the 7th expansion to the legendary MMORPG Ultima Online (UO) introduces the Elven race and several sprawling dungeons to the game world. For current Ultima Online subscribers that do not have Mondain’s Legacy, the game client will be automatically updated with the expansion content.

For players that are new to Ultima Online or for those interested in returning to the world, they can download the 14-day free trial which now features all seven expansions, including Mondain’s Legacy.

The next new expansion to the long running MMO is Ultima Online™: Stygian Abyss, scheduled for release this summer. The game’s 8th expansion revolves around the introduction of the playable Gargoyle race. Players will have new areas to explore, including Ter Mur, the Gargoyle homeland, and the Stygian Abyss – the largest dungeon area ever introduced to Ultima Online, according to Mythic. This dungeon will contain new boss monsters including the Medusa, Primeval Lich and the Stygian Dragon, as well as Player vs. Player zones.

Learn more about the game and all of the expansions by visiting www.uo.com.

The Land of the Dead opens in Warhammer Online

Mythic Entertainment has launched a new dungeon zone called The Land of the Dead for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning this week. Part of its Call to Arms live expansion, The Land of the Dead dungeon zone opens the treacherous deserts of Nehekhara to players with the addition of a new RvR-gated zone filled with dozens of new Public Quests, instanced lairs, and a massive new dungeon to search for the Casket of Souls.

Depending on a realm’s performance across each individual server during last week’s Rise of the Tomb Kings live event, either the Armies of Order or Destruction were the first to enter the new Tomb Kings themed zone. ‘The Land of the Dead’ launched yesterday to all Warhammer players after the winning realm in each server received exclusive 24-hour advanced access to The Land of the Dead to explore its many lairs, battle its menagerie of new monsters, and discover the unimaginable wealth it contains.

Find out more at www.warhammeronline.com.

Warhammer Online invades Taiwan

GigaMedia Ltd and Mythic Entertainment have teamed up to bring the fantasy MMORPG Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning (WAR) to Taiwan. WAR will launch in Taiwan on June 25th. The game will be available on GigaMedia’s game platform, FunTown, in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. Launched in North America, Europe and Oceania in September of 2008 and in Russia in February of 2009, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning is an epic fantasy MMORPG based on the popular tabletop game from Games Workshop.

The game will cost 450 NTD a month, while an hour of the game at places like cyber cafes will cost 5 NTD. For more information about the Taiwanese launch of WAR visit www.warhammeronline.com.tw.