Welcome to Beyond Co-Op, the weekly feature where we look at gaming news around the industry. Here are this week's stories for August 16th, 2009 through August 22nd 2009.
- Blizzcon kicks off with a ton off news
- BF1943 delayed on PC, No DLC currently planned
- Alan Wake is 'Done'
- Eve Online's Unholy Rage Unleashed on Gold Farmers
Blizzcon Kicks Off
Blizzard's annual festival to celebrate their game's kicked off yesterday, and with it we had a ton of new announcements. The biggest news was a brand new World of Warcraft expansion called Cataclysm. It would totally change the face of the WoW world, as well as adding new classes and races. A whole bunch of the new Battle.net features were also unveiled, and it looks to be another solid online service - though only available for a few games.
Battlefield 1943 Delayed on PC, No DLC Currently Planned
Because the engine Battlefield runs on, the game is currently delayed until early next year on the PC. DICE is still in the process of porting the game over and expects it to be ready in 2010. The good news is PC players should see improved graphics, a higher player count and more when it does finally launch.
Console gamers hoping to get their hands on new maps might be waiting a while as the game's producer told Joystiq they currently have no plans for DLC - and are waiting on community feedback.
Source: G4TV
Alan Wake is Done, In Polishing Stages
It's been forever in the making, but according to Remedy entertainment Alan Wake is "done." The game is set for an early 2010 release (along with a bazillion other titles) and is currently undergoing bug fixing and other polishing. Ok, so done doesn't mean what it used to mean.
Source: Joystiq
Eve Online Unleashes Unholy Rage on Gold Farmers
Eve Online is one of the biggest MMORPGs for gold farmers. Gold farmers are players who utilize scripting or other methods to gain as much in-game money as possible and then sell it in the real world for real money. An interesting stat with Eve Online is the fact that Gold Farmers were using almost 30% of the total server resources, despite being less than 2% of the active population. To counter these CCP unleashed "unholy rage" on the servers mega-banning over 6000 accounts.
Source: Arstechnica