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Time to take down Braniac: exclusive reveal of DC Universe Online’s next big update

That intergalactic jerk Braniac has been bottling the cities in DC Universe Online and stealing Earth’s citizens for too long. His attempted take-over for Earth has been the primary storyline in DC Universe Online for the past year, since the game’s launch in January 2011. A year and a few raids later, we’re finally going to be able to go toe-to-toe with Mr. smarty-pants when the next content pack takes us to Wonder Woman’s native island of Themyscira. We’ve got the exclusive scoop on what players will find there, and where DCUO is headed after its big, bad villain is down for the count.

The Old Republic chart shows you the path to 50, every planet and Flashpoint included

Today is a day of maps, apparently. OldRepublic.net just released an awesome galaxy guide that maps out the suggested path to progress through all of The Old Republic’s Flashpoints and planets.

It looks like I’ve already missed two Flashpoints on my new Sniper—whoops! Well, at least I shouldn’t have a problem beating them now that I’m 10 levels higher than the enemies there. I’ll be keeping this guide handy as I continue leveling up this weekend, and you can use it to avoid my same foolish mistakes.

Never get lost in DCUO’s Watchtower again with this detailed fan-made map

DC Universe does a lot of things really well, but building easily-navigable hangout spots is not one of them. The Justice League Watchtower and Hall of Doom serve as the primary meeting points for all Hero and Villain characters, respectively. Both house a ton of useful objects—like the Phase Shifter, which allows you to swap between PvE and PvP phases of the server at will—but not all of them are easy to find.

The cryptically-named RedDragon74 over at DCUO Life has done heroes a great service by putting together an all-encompassing map that labels the locations of everything you’ll need in the Watchtower and also provides a full list of bounty locations and a complete breakdown of how to earn the different PvE currencies at endgame. It’s not the prettiest map ever made, but all the info is here.

The Old Republic is “the fastest growing subscription MMO in history,” has 1.7 million subscribers

EA just held their quarterly earnings call and released some juicy factoids about TOR’s launch during it. Specifically, over 2 million copies of the game has been sold and 85% of players have subscribed or are still in their trial period (for a total of 1.7 million “active subscribers”). And those gamers are getting their money’s worth: the average session time in the first month was FOUR HOURS, and over 1 million players were logged in simultaneously at one point.

In the Q&A portion, EA addressed concerns about the game’s profitability by saying, “At 500,000 subscribers, we’d break even. At a million, we’d be making a profit but nothing worth writing home about. As it scales up from there, we’re talking about a nice profit. At this point with the successful launch, we can take the worst case scenarios off the table.”

You can read more long-form quotes here.

DCUO offers a creative solution to the age-old “Where’s the healer?” problem

I’ve always liked DC Universe Online’s twist on the classic tank-healer-DPS trinity that defines most MMORPG’s group roles. DCUO gives everyone access to two roles—DPS and then either tank, healer, or control (CC and power-restoration), based on their power selection—and lets them swap between them whenever they want.

It’s a hybrid system that lets players specialize, while limiting the usual problem of there being too few healers or tanks because most people want to be able to level and solo efficiently. As a result, the queue times in DCUO are much shorter than they are in many other MMOs. And with the Role-Optional Alerts SOE’s adding in the game’s next update, which use specialized buffs to make any combination of players an effective group, players should be able to form groups almost instantly.

A glimpse into what LEGO Universe could’ve been

On the eve of LEGO Universe’s closure, we sit down with one of the game’s concept artists, Mike Rayhawk, who shows off some of the game’s gorgeous concept art. Along the way, we ask him questions about the game’s development process, what it was like to build, and why he was so excited about where the game was going before it was shut down.

If nothing else, enjoy the awesome LEGO artwork and click any of them to view higher-res versions.

What do you want from your MMO’s holiday events?

DC Universe Online’s Creative Director, Jens Andersen, announced yesterday that they’re undertaking a large overhaul of DCUO’s holiday content. Thankfully, they’re cutting the uncomfortably weird Valentine’s Day event from last year, and building a new one from scratch. Their goal is to have four major events that each host open-world content, collections, and a boss encounter.

Most MMOs have at least a few holiday events, but BioWare has yet to reveal any of its plans for holiday content for The Old Republic. What’s the best holiday content you’ve ever played in a game, and what do you want to see from holiday events in TOR, DCUO, or any other MMOs you’re playing?

Hutts in mechs and other reasons to play The Old Republic’s new Operation

Earlier today, we showed off the new survival-horror Flashpoint being added to The Old Republic in next week’s content update, but what’s in that patch 1.1 goodie bundle for raiders, like the heroes of the PCG US guild running weekly raid nights? How about a revamped Rancor, an homage to Bauldur’s Gate, and the best Hutt battle you’ve ever seen in your life? Lead Flashpoint, Operation and PvP Designer Gabe Amatangelo dished the dirt on the new raid content coming next week.

The Old Republic’s Legacy system will let you pick your sister and play your father

BioWare’s been teasing details about The Old Republic’s Legacy system for awhile now, but they released the first solid details about the game today in their interview with GameSpot. You’ll be able to use the system to create specific relationships between all of your characters, turning the jumbled pile of characters on your login screen into an organized family tree of fathers, daughters, wives, and brothers.

You might think twice about ogling that hot new Smuggler alt running around in the skimpy Leia slave girl outfit when you know that she’s the daughter of a terrible Sith Lord with a bad temper.

U.S. Congressman joins League of Legends developer in urging fans to oppose SOPA/PIPA

This morning, Riot Games joined Google, Reddit, Amazon, Twitter, and Facebook on the growing list of internet-based companies to publicly oppose the two extreme anti-piracy bills circling in the U.S. Congress, and asked its fans to do the same. Riot CEO and co-founder Brandon “Ryze” Beck outlined his company’s objections to the two bills, the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA), on League of Legends’ official forums and gave several examples of how the bills would harm League of Legends’ gameplay and community if they passed. Among them, he warns that it could mean the death of livestreaming and other community-generated content websites like DeviantArt and Reddit.

Why LEGO Universe is shutting down in January, and why it deserves a second chance

There haven’t been enough genuinely unique MMOs released after World of Warcraft saw its huge success and publishers started chasing its profit margin, but LEGO Universe is one of the rare exceptions that offered something truly different. That’s why I’m so sad to see the LEGO Group announce that, just barely one year after the launch of LEGO Universe, they’ll be shutting down the imaginative, kid-friendly MMORPG on January 31st of next year.