Grinding Gear Games, developer of the critically-acclaimed action RPG Path of Exile, today proudly unveiled Path of Exile: Forsaken Masters, an entirely new and upcoming content expansion, which will arrive August 20, 2014 as a free update. Path of Exile: Forsaken Masters will introduce a slew of new and meaningful content based on the plight of the Forsaken Masters of Wraeclast — seven men and women, masters of their trade, who were exiled by Dominus, a powerful entity of corruption and tyranny.

As per the expansion’s title, players will cross paths with the seven Forsaken Masters, each offering separate and unique quests, training, mission variations, item crafting and modification options, secret and customizable towns known as Hideouts, tiers of Hideout decorations, and more in exchange for an Exile’s help. Also featuring Rampage and Beyond Challenge Leagues, revamped boss fights, new lore, new Unique items, new support and skill gems, a PvP Spectator Mode, and dozens of other additions, Path of Exile: Forsaken Masters will offer players a robust augmentation to the game’s already highly replayable experience.

Below is a brief synopsis of the many new features announced for Path of Exile: Forsaken Masters:

Train with the Masters

As players roam the wilderness of Wraeclast, they will sometimes encounter a Forsaken Master. All seven Masters have their own unique missions that they either need help with, or are willing to train Exiles to handle. For example, Haku asks players to cleanse an ancestral area and recover a lost Karui spirit. Vorici provides training in the art of assassination. As players progress through the eight levels of reputation with each Master, more of what these Masters can offer will be unlocked.

The seven Masters each have their own style of mission and each mission has many potential circumstances. As players delve deeper into the realm of Wraeclast, the pool of available mission variations increases, offering players new and unexpected challenges — all of which can occur anywhere in the game.

Hideouts: Customizable Towns

In their extensive travels throughout Wraeclast, the seven Masters have discovered ideal locations for an Exile to use as their own secret Hideout. Once a Master’s trust is gained, the player will be able to create their own personal and customizable town. Masters residing in a player’s Hideout will offer them daily Missions and training as well as advanced crafting options. Players are also able to expand their Hideouts to use as personalized Guild Halls.

Craft and Upgrade Items

Each master specializes in crafting different types of items. As a player gains reputation with a chosen Master, they will gain access to more of that Master’s unique crafting options and abilities, such as manipulating an item’s sockets or crafting special modifications. Masters also function as vendors that sell items ranging from Skill Gems to Unique items. At higher levels, each Master also sells Magic items with a specific, new, build-defining modification. These can be used as-is or crafted further with either the new Hideout Crafting Benches or the traditional Orb system to create powerful items.

The expansion also includes 16 new Unique Items, some of which are exclusive and may only be found in one or the other of the new Challenge Leagues.

New Challenge Leagues: Rampage and Beyond

With the release of Path of Exile: Forsaken Masters, two new three-month Challenge Leagues will begin, providing players with an opportunity to demonstrate their mastery of Path of Exile. Like the Challenge Leagues before them, these new leagues have a set of extremely difficult challenges to complete. Players who complete five of the eight total challenges will be rewarded with an exclusive microtransaction effect. Finishing all of the eight challenges will unlock another, different, exclusive microtransaction effect. The first 50 players to complete all of the challenges will receive a Rampage/Beyond t-shirt.

Full details regarding Rampage, the upcoming standard Challenge League, and Beyond, the upcoming hardcore Challenge League, will be unveiled in news updates on the Path of Exile website on August 8 and 15 respectively.

Revamped Existing Content

To make for more intense and surprising battles, many of the existing boss encounters in Path of Exile have been revamped. More lore has also been added for players to discover, with snippets of Wraeclast’s history scattered throughout the existing acts. Additionally, large portions of the Passive Skill Tree have been redesigned, particularly in the Witch, Shadow, and outer Ranger class areas. Extensive balance improvements supported by these changes have been made to the core game.

Further information about Path of Exile: Forsaken Masters can be found on the Path of Exile website at http://www.pathofexile.com/poefm. Stay tuned for additional updates!

Perfect World Entertainment has announced that it will be shutting down service for Rusty Hearts on September 15, 2014. Rusty Hearts has been in service since 2011 in North America.

Starting today, Rusty Hearts will no longer be downloadable and will not accept ZEN deposits. Existing players will still be able to play up through September 15, and players who have been active in the last month will have their past six months of ZEN purchases/transfers credited into their Wallet for use elsewhere on the Arc platform.

PWE invites its community to say farewell to the game in this forum discussion.

Starting today, players can try out the critically acclaimed FINAL FANTASY XIV®: A Realm Reborn™ online adventure for free. The 14-day free trial program allows new players an opportunity to join over 2 million adventurers worldwide who have already begun their journey throughout the realm of Eorzea®.

By downloading and installing the free trial software, which is available at www.ffxiv-freetrial.com, players can play for free for up to 14 days from account creation to a maximum level of twenty. Free trial players will have certain limitations on available in-game activities. More details are available on “The Lodestone,” the official FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn community page:  http://na.finalfantasyxiv.com/lodestone/.

The online game offers a wealth of playable content updates, including the recently released, Defenders of Eorzea, the Patch 2.3 update. It features Frontline, the three-faction PVP where up to 72 players can go head-to-head in direct combat; Chocobo® Raising, where players can train their favorite feathered companion to reach its full potential.

Today Carbine Studios released their next epic drop for WildStar, Sabotage, featuring a new 15vs15 explosive battleground known as Daggerstone Pass.

Available for players above level 30, Daggerstone Pass introduces the new Sabotage gameplay mode in which players must escort ticking timebombs to destroy enemy bases (or whatever they blow up next to in reality). All the excitement of suiciding into a group of enemy players, guarding a base for a time limit, and stealth infiltration are combined in this mode for all out chaotic hilarity.

Carbine Studios is now teasing that the next content drop will focus on the PvE gameplay. Players can learn more details about Sabotage here.