Previews

Well, the time has finally come, in a little less than a week, the Aion Open Beta will commence, this will last one week, from September 6th to September 13th. Open Beta will require a key to access, keys can be obtained two ways, you can pre-order the game, or you can subscribe to FilePlanet.

NC Soft will be making an announcement sometime this week about Aion moving into Open Beta before it's Sept 22nd release date. NC Soft recently wrapped up it's closed beta with their 6th Beta Event from August 14th - 17th.

Aion is an English port of the incredibly popular Korean MMO of the same name. The American developers have also done a lot to make the game more suited to a western audience, things like increased customization, turning "click to move" off by default and giving the keyboard layout the standard western treatment are just a few of the changes.

Steve Long, of Hero Games, creators of the Champions Pen & Paper RPG will be attending SpoCon 2009 this year in Spokane, Washington July 31st to August 2nd. Steve has been working very closely with the Champions Online team to ensure that the MMO lives up to it's Pen & Paper counterpart. This is an excellent opportunity to learn more about Champions and Champions Online from the man who knows more about Champions than anyone!

Cryptic just released a video demoing avatar creation in their upcoming Star Trek MMO and I have to say, it looks pretty sweet. In addition to the announced races that are available in the game, they allow you to mix and match attributes to create unique alien hybrids, a la B'Elanna Torres of Voyager or Tora Ziyal of Deep Space Nine.