Since the final death of CCP’s World Of Darkness MMO, whenever the Eve Online studio go quiet about other in-development games I start to suspect they’ve smothered them too. They had been slipping into a similar pattern with Project Nova, the multiplayer first-person shooter set in the world of Eve, but now say “we’re looking forward to unveiling the game properly” later this year – “in months, not years.” That’s the word today from CCP CEO Hilmar Veigar P tursson at the annual Eve Fanfest. (more…)

Sometimes you need to take a step back to take two forward, and sometimes your server infrastructure is such a colossal mess of interconnected software systems that you just have to hack out a bloody great chunk of it before anything can be improved.

In order to upgrade their server software to 64-bit standard, EVE Online studio CCP are officially saying goodbye to Eve Voice, their integrated voice comms client, and moving their regular text-chat system outside of their gameplay server infrastructure.

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Like a lot of online games, EVE Online has a problem with botters – players who create automated bots to slave away in the asteroid mines. That problem only got worse since the MMO introduced its free-to-play ‘Alpha Clone’ accounts. Pressure from fans has led to this recent update on the EVE Online blog, in which creators CCP outline the state of the botting problem, and what they’re doing about it. Short version: they’re getting harsher.

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The game trailer is a sly creature. It wants to entertain you, to excite you, to embolden you with curiousity. But it also wants to sell you a bunch of code wrapped up in some 3D shapes. Some trailers turn out to be more artful than the game they re hawking, others plant sneaky emotions in your head with music. However, some are better than others. Here are the best conflagrations of light and noise in PC gaming.

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Sometimes, a single job posting can tell you a lot about the future of a studio. In the case of CCP’s latest position listing, it’s quite explicit. They’re looking to hire an experienced lead designer to head up production in London on an as-yet-announced MMO. While thin on fine details, we can at least infer some interesting details about the Eve Online studio’s short-term plans, and it paints an interesting picture.

According to the job posting, CCP hope to establish a ‘small, tight-knit’ team in London, headed up by someone with extensive industry experience, including ‘fantastic knowledge’ of MMOs both classic and contemporary.

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EVE Online s Alpha Clone accounts have gotten a major upgrade today, bringing the sprawling space sandbox one step closer to free-to-play. Alpha accounts are essentially trial accounts, letting players experience EVE Online forever, but with some strict limitations in terms of ships, weapons and skills. The Arms Race update pulls back some of these limitations, letting free players finally flit about in higher tier ships and learn more skills.

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There are more wonderful games being released on PC each month than ever before. In such a time of plenty, it’s important that you spend your time as wisely as possible. Thankfully, we’re here to help. What follows are our picks for the best PC games ever made. (more…)

CCP, creators of one of our favourite VR games, EVE Valkyrie, are ceasing all VR development, according to a report on Icelandic business site mbl.is. The Reykjav k-based studio is best-known for its fantastically complex MMO EVE Online but has invested heavily in VR games. Sci-fi dogfighting sim Valkyrie is its flagship goggle-game, but one-on-one ball-lobbing sport Sparc (currently PSVR only) is a bit of a cracker as well. I see this as a blow to the viability of VR as a major gaming platform not only because Valkyrie is one of the few games that makes the tech tempting to me, despite being available in non-VR form as well, but also because CCP have sounded so bullish about the field in the past.

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Spacegit MMO EVE Online [official site] is expanding its ‘Alpha Clone’ trial accounts. Alphas can play free forever but only with low-level ships and a limited number of basic skills. They’re not useless but, as a returning EVE player with my own account lost to the sands of time and dead e-mail providers, I had fun with an Alpha for a few weeks then grew bored and stopped. Huzzah, then, that CCP are giving Alphas more to do. Later this year, Alphas will become able to fly Battlecruisers and Battleships too, as well as arm themselves with Tech II weapons. This should make Alphas able to join in at most levels of play. (more…)

It seems every time sci-fi MMO EVE Online [official site] is in the news, it’s because someone has been screwed over in the most spectacular way imaginable. From record-breaking heists and scams to public assassinations and spy infiltrations, New Eden has been home to some incredible tales of espionage, theft, and political intrigue. This month another chapter in EVE’s long and bloody history came to an abrupt end as two players conspired to pull off the biggest political betrayal and theft of assets in the game’s history.

But the real story began over a year earlier, with clandestine discussions between a thief and his spymaster at a restaurant in the capital of Iceland, and it finishes far outside the game world, with threats of real life violence. Depending on who you ask, this is the story of a greedy individual who robbed his friends and ran away, or the spy handler who manipulated his enemy into destroying an alliance, or even the tale of a player trapped with an abusive leader and finally finding a way out. (more…)