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I hope you don't play both, that would be a tough choice.

Both City of Heroes and Everquest 2 this weekend are having double experience weekends. So saddle up, and kill those monsters! If you haven't played either in a while, this is a great time to do so again, especially EQ2, where are subscriptions are still free until July 25th.

For more information, please check here for Everquest 2 and here for City of Heroes.

What Batman really wanted to be.

Women want him, men want to be near him, with crimes of comic proportions! Meet the Foxbat, Batman's evil, and seemingly less scary alter ego. Like Bruce Wayne, the Foxbat was originally a trust fund baby who suffered a tragedy of epic proportions. In his own words:

Apparently Dadders' business was going belly up, and the comics cash was gone. It was a tragedy of epic proportions – the worst thing to ever happen in the history of the planet. And I was emo, let me tell you, until I realized something. Great destinies are forged in the flames of despair.

For the full story of the Foxbat, please check the Champions Online main site.

IGG announces new opportunities for Zu Online and Myth War II.

Earn extra XP, real money and IGG credits for playing and promoting some of IGG's online games.

Zu Online is offering up to 400% increase to experience points through the end of the month. Not only can you improve your character, you can improve your cash position with the "Draw 777 Dollars" event that offers players a chance at real money.

Myth War II started a guide-referral program called the Promotor System. This system is a way for players to earn credits with IGG as well as act as an ambassador for Myth II.

As always, you can go to IGG.com to review their whole compliment of games.

World of Warcraft expands to Latin America.

Blizzard has announced the next expansion of World of Warcraft, no not that expansion, the expansion of the current game to Latin America, namely Mexico, Chile and Argentina. Starting next Friday (July 25th) the original game and first expansion (the Burning Crusade) will be available for purchase and play on dedicated Spanish-language servers (with Spanish language customer support as well).

Read the rest of the announcement on Blizzard.com.

Also, if you speak Spanish and want to be part of Blizzard's U.S. based Spanish-language team, ir más de aquí.

EA/WAR Team show of the E3 Warhammer Online video.

The Warhammer Online team has posted a new video showing footage with the sights and sounds for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning. Even though you may have seen some of the video in previous interations, the siege weapons and squigs shown up to steal the later part of the show. As always the spell effects and animations look great, see the whole two+ minute clip on EA's Media Player.

Frogster announces a multitude of releases for the fall and winter.

In a press release today, developer/publisher Frogster has confirmed that three of its titles will launch prior to the end of 2008.

Runes of Magic, which has been rolling out new content previews on its website, is showing off the regions and dungeons and mines, that characters will inhabit and explore. Pre-registration for the beta is now open.

The highly anticipated Chronicles of Spellborn is also well on its way to launch apparently:

" The Chronicles of Spellborn, which has passed performance and stress tests last week very successfully following an essential development milestone. After the integration of some remaining content components and final balancing and polishing work, Frogster will release the long awaited fantasy online role playing game this year as planned."

Beta registrations is also underway at the Spellborn website.

Last but not least, recently announced Stoneage 2 is already heading into closed beta and will make its launch date this fall. The registration for beta is available on their website at Stoneage 2.

And be sure to stay tuned, Frogster will introduce a new game Kikster next week, a free to play soccer community (can you spell community without the letters M-M-O?

Wrath of the Lich King Beta invites are on their way!

Nethaera, a Blizzard poster (Blue), has stated affirmatively that Lich King beta invites are in the pipe:

" The Wrath of the Lich King invitations have started to go out, and we have officially begun the beta test. As with The Burning Crusade, the beta-test process for Wrath of the Lich King will occur in phases, during which we will be inviting players who have opted-in to participate."

The directions for applying to the beta and creating a temporary beta account (for those lucky enough to be invited already) can be found in the World of Warcraft forums. Apparently the beta has no NDA in place, so expect a flood of information from the testing.

E3, KOTOR the MMO, and now this, what a week!

KOTOR MMO in the works!

From the worst kept secret department; in an interview with Portfolio.com, John Riccitiello of Electronic Arts, "may" have spilled the beans on the new Bioware MMO being published by EA as Knights of the Old Republic. The interview dances around the topic a bit, but does appear to affirm that the MMO in the works is KOTOR. More information in the interview describes why EA likes skipping consoles and going straight to the customer via PC. But really, nobody is reading that with any care, the real meat is that KOTOR is being made, and it will be the new MMO from Bioware.

"We've got two of the most compelling MMOs in the industry in development," said Riccitiello. The first title, based on the Warhammer property, will launch soon. "And the one that people are dying for us to talk to them about -- in partnership with Lucas, coming out of BioWare, which is, I think, quite possibly the most anticipated game, full stop, for the industry at the point when we get closer to telling you about it."

Does Riccitiello mean the oft rumored Knights of the Old Republic Online? "Yes," he said.

TenTonHammer.com contacted the Bioware Austin Office who had no comment on the statements made by EA's John Riccitiello.

I guess we'll just have to wait for an official announcement.

Read the rest of the interview on Conde Nast's Portfolio.com. Does this surprise you? Discuss your reactions on our forums.

WoW shows off the new Player Achievements for Lich King.

Vowing to stear clear of the rep-grind, World of Warcraft describes one of the new features for it's upcoming expansion Wrath of the Lich King:

"World of Warcraft’s achievements system will launch with more than 500 individual achievements covering every aspect of gameplay, including world exploration, PvE, PvP, professions, and character development; from the purely whimsical to the truly epic, there will be something for everyone. Some achievements come with in-game rewards such as tabards, vanity pets, and titles. All of these rewards are purely cosmetic and just for fun, but you’ll certainly stand out when you proudly display them."

Acquiring achievements does not appear to make people stray too far from their normal gameplay routine (i.e. win 10 ranked arena games, which for the record is something I do on a daily basis, yeah right!). These awards are designed tol enhance your character, while giving you some incentive to try out all of the other aspects of the game.

There will be achievements for world exploration, questing, raiding, PvP, etc. There should be a little something for everyone! The rewards themselves will include items to display on your characters which will let you pimp your player even more than just season5+ gear. All of the 500+ achievements are purely cosmetic which means all of you completionists out there should worry, but the gear-grinders and rest of us can dabble in only those achievements of interest.

I'm certain that comparisons between this achievement system and City Heroes Badges, Lord of the Rings Online Deeds, and WAR's Tome of Knowledge will be hotly debated at some future time. In the meantime, read the rest of the preview on the Wrath of the Lich King section of the World of Warcraft site.

Earthrise interview at E3 and preview in Thirteen1.

Earthrise is starting to rev its PR engines as it reaches out to online magazines and schedules its fall conferences. In an interview with MMOABC, Atanas Atanasov of Masthead Studios disclosed some bits and pieces about the game, but the only real nugget of new information is that Earthrise will be on location at Leipzig GC and Austin GDC. Maybe then we can really put the thumb screws to these guys for more information!

A brief preview of this post apocalyptic, pvp-centric game is also available in the latest edition of Thirteen1, an online magazine. If you want to read the FAQ or see the latest concept art, go straight to Earthrise.