[FREE] One Weekend In The Old Republic

On tap for free MMO play this weekend: Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Starting Thursday, May 17 at 1:01 a.m. EST and ending Monday, May 21 at 3 a.m. EST, the Weekend Pass Free Trial allows previously unsubscribed players can play for free up to level 15.

From the SW:ToR website:

• No credit card is required to take part in the Weekend Pass Free Trial.
• You can play for up to four full days free.
• Characters you create during the trial will be saved to your account, so allowing you to continue on your journeys once you've purchased the game and redeemed the Game Product Registration Code at the Code Redemption Center.
• You'll be able to experience the first fifteen (15) levels of the game, allowing you to explore the Origin Worlds for each character class, as well as possibly seeing your faction’s Capital World.
• You will also be able to join other players take part in Player-vs-Player Warzones, or group with friends to take on one of the numerous Flashpoints in the game.

Perfect for the padawan on your Nubian cruiser!

SOURCE: Rock, Paper Shotgun via Bioware

Electronic Arts Named Consumerist's 'Worst Company in America'

The Consumerist's infamous 'Golden Poo' award, given each year to their 'Worst Company in America' winner

The picture you see above is a physical manifestation of the collective contempt for publishing giant Electronic Arts shared by hundreds of thousands of their customers. It's The Consumerist's 'Golden Poo' award and it only honors a select breed of scumbag companies - this year, EA triumphed over them all.

Between the launch of Origin, EA's new digital distro service (see: drunkenly stumbling PR disaster), day-one DLC that uses assets already in the release code and the Star Wars: The Old Republic fallout, distressed fans have plenty to fling gilded feces over.

A look back at the best and worst (... mostly worst) of EA's customer "service" after the jump...

Notch's New Game Provoking Another "Scrolls" Fiasco

So, Notch has a new game in the works - this time it's set in space. No word yet on if it's space made up of like, 2x2 blocks. The interesting part is the name: Mars Effect. Apparently, Notch has learned nothing from his legal tussle with Bethesda over his previous title, Scrolls. 

Alternatively, he's learned that messing with corporate publishers is fun, albeit a little risky. But if I had to choose to meet Bethesda or EA in court, I think I'd pick Bethesda. 

Details on Mass Effect Mine Effect Mars Effect after the jump...

Bioware to expand ME3 ending

Here's a new one - I've been playing the vidya game tapes for 20+ years but I've never seen a video game ending get a rewrite.

Ok, not an actual rewrite per sé, but let's call it an "expanded epilogue."

Recently, Bioware acknowledged the hobbled and unsatisfying ending that capped the Mass Effect 3 experience and today, GM Ray Muzyka announced a set of "content initiatives" that will revamp the current ME3 endings.

[OMG] Is the Baldur's Gate series getting an HD reboot?

Strange rumblings out of the PCRPG realms today...


Kotaku reported that after 11 years of inactivity, the official Baldur's Gate series site has creaked and moaned back to life. It now sports a cryptic message:

"The Lord of Murder shall perish, but in his doom he shall spawn a score of mortal progeny, chaos will be sown by their passage.

So sayeth the wise Alaundo" 

Trent Oster, former BioWare developer and founder of Beamdog has accepted responsibility for this shameless fanboy-pandering. The line is an obvious reference to the BGII expansion pack, "Throne of Bhaal." What's even more curious is the hidden message inside the source code of the BG site. 

Hit the jump to read what it says and engage the Speculatron-9000.

[WATCH] New Mass Effect 3 trailer brings the fight home

Don't watch AMC's Walking Dead?


That's OK. Neither do I.   :-/


But we probably should. Last night, a brand-new trailer for the final installment in Bioware's Mass Effect trilogy made the surrounding commercials that much crappier.


Read more to watch the Reapers (in true Covenant fashion) give our blue planet a loud, glassy "hello."