The HoN Team today announced plans to implement two new in-game features for its popular multiplayer online brawler, Heroes of Newerth. The War Effort, a quest system designed to reward players for completing daily objectives ; and Blitz, a mode that encourages an onslaught of offensive action with gameplay mechanics such as reduced hero cool down timers and lower mana costs. Both features go live Jan. 28.

To participate in the War Effort, players must complete quests presented in Heroes of Newerth’s in-game user interface (UI). Two quests will remain active concurrently, until an objective is fulfilled. Once completed, another quest will appear and players will earn reputation points for their efforts.

Reputation points earned can be used to unlock satchels and chests, which contain a variety of in-game products ranging from gold and silver coins that can be used to purchase avatars, voice packs, and more, to exclusive event goodies. The 14^th and final unlockable container houses the Treasure of Champions – a chest with the War Effort’s most prestigious prizes.

To adhere to Heroes of Newerth’s competitive nature, The War Effort will also feature a leaderboard that can be climbed by completing quests. At the end of each cycle – typically cycles will last 28 days – players who have finished the most quests will receive additional in-game compensation, including the coveted Trophy Avatar, a gold plated avatar only given to the War Effort’s top 25 questers.

“A big goal for The War Effort is to incentivize players to step outside of their comfort zone with awesome content,” said Brent Wiedmer, Director of Design for Heroes of Newerth. “We’ve found that, even with HoN’s massive catalog of heroes, new and veteran players alike tend to pick from a small pool of heroes.”

“In many instances a player selects heroes based on what HoN’s ‘current meta’ is, or what they are familiar with, reducing match diversity,” said Wiedmer. “The expectation is that, once an incentive to check out previously unexplored content is established, it will greatly improve a player’s HoN experience by ensuring that each game is unique and approached differently from the last.”

War Effort quests are not limited to accomplishing objectives with heroes . Many will require participants to enlist their services on battlefields across Newerth such as on flagship 5v5 map, Forests of Caldavar, or Blitz Mode, amongst others.

”Blitz mode is Heroes of Newerth on steroids ,” said Sam Braithwaite, Marketing Director for Heroes of Newerth. “The beautiful thing about Blitz Mode is that anybody can jump in, veterans and new players alike, and start kicking ass right away.”

In addition to reduced cool down times and mana cost, Blitz Mode, unleashes chaos on the battlefield with:

• Increased hero attack damage and movement speeds
• 40% reduction in stun and debuff durations; and
•  Double damage auto attacks.

Visit heroesofnewerth.com/thewareffort to learn more about The War Effort.

GameSamba today announced new details regarding the second closed beta test of the new free-to-play online strategy game, Star Trek: Alien Domain™, which is set to begin today, January 22, at 6PM PST.

Taking place many years after the events of Star Trek: Voyager™, Star Trek: Alien Domain™ follows players as they take on the role of a new Federation or Klingon captain trapped in the unexplored realm of fluidic space. Players will face a variety of threats – including Species 8472 – encounter new hostile creatures and species, and be forced to contend with a war that has erupted between the trapped Klingon and Federation forces.

The second closed beta test will include several features that have been added or improved based on player feedback from the first closed beta, including officer progression, a new weapon upgrade system, and earlier unlocks in the gameplay cycle for more features. Anyone who creates a free GameSamba account will be able to participate, as no closed beta key is required for this test period.

Following its launch on January 22, the second closed beta test is scheduled to run until February 6, 2015. A series of beta events are scheduled to begin coinciding with the launch of the new test, and players can obtain rewards that can be used both in CBT2, and in the future full release.

Team Grey Box is super excited for the launch of Grey Goo this Friday.  It’s been a long time coming, but now it’s your turn to join the battle. Beta, Human, Goo – which faction will you choose?
Grey Box is proud that its first game is an RTS. Complete with basebuilding, LAN support, competitive multiplayer, campaign, skirmish, and a map editor, Grey Goo is the RTS we’ve all been waiting to play.

They’re also giving out special soundtracks, details on PAX South and more. For more info, visit https://www.greybox.com/greygoo/en/

BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment announces that its free-to-play action game, Rise of Incarnates, will go live on Steam Early Access on February 4. Offering players the unique opportunity to experience a highly rewarding cooperative experience, Rise of Incarnates is packed with a rich library of characters and customization.
Set in an era of unending catastrophe, players in Rise of Incarnates find themselves in a time where society lives in perpetual fear of what will become of the planet. Among the people of this universe, certain humans with extraordinary abilities have emerged. These humans are known as “incarnates,” and their powers are drawn from daimones, or spiritual manifestations of the gods, demons and monsters of all the world’s mythology.
Rise of Incarnates will debut with eight unique and playable characters that offer a plethora of customization options. These diverse character types and roles — each with a unique set of skills and powers — appeal to a variety of play-styles while accommodating expansive team dynamics and strategy.
In Rise of Incarnates, players battle in a 2 vs. 2 arena set in New York City or Paris maps, using a variety of different modes, including Versus matches, Arcade mode and Bot matches. During these battles, players must employ sharp reflexes, mental resolve and strategic insight as they run, jump, and fly through these 3D arenas, engaging in both close-quarters combat and long-range assaults. Many more characters, maps and other features will continue to be added throughout Early Access as well.

For more info, visit http://www.riseofincarnates.com

Stardock released a major update to Galactic Civilizations III today, letting players witness the terrible might of their starfleets with the new battle viewer. Galactic Civilizations III Beta 4 also adds extreme worlds with hostile environments that require advanced research to colonize, reworks the ideology system to give incredible bonuses to malevolent, pragmatic, and benevolent leaders, and enables the Gigantic and Immense map sizes.

Galactic Civilizations III is the next installment in one of the highest-rated strategy series of all time, created by the original developers at Stardock. Players expand their space empires across galaxies that range up to enormous maps only possible thanks to Galactic Civilizations III’s 64-bit engine, which allows both Stardock and modders to put an effectively unlimited amount of content in the game. Unique tech trees for each of the game’s eight races and multiple victory conditions give a huge number of ways to play – not even counting custom races, ships, maps, and franchise-first online multiplayer.

The battle viewer marks the first time players can see their starships in real-time action. Lasers pierce the void at long range until ships can close the distance and unleash deadly missile barrages and finally open fire with banks upon banks of direct-fire kinetic weaponry. All ships designed in the incredibly powerful Galactic Civilizations III ship designer are supported in the battle viewer, so players can enjoy the full destructive potential of their hand-crafted starships.

The revamped ideology system gives amazing boosts to players as they choose between diving deep into one branch of an ethos, going wide across multiple branches, or even exploring additional ideologies. Discover hidden planets, give all your fleets free fighter escorts, and more as you unlock your civilization’s true potential.

This update also scatters valuable extreme worlds across the galaxy, which require advanced technologies to even land on. The keys to these rich new frontiers join the many existing paths on the sprawling Galactic Civilizations III tech tree – choosing between new worlds, advanced deflector shields for your starships, diplomatic gambits to sway the United Planets, or starbase facilities to broadcast your culture ever deeper into rival empires is difficult, but such is the lot of any space emperor.

Galactic Civilizations III is available now through Steam Early Access for $49.99 and is on track for full release this spring. Learn more at http://www.galciv3.com