The latest Dragon Age 2 trailer gives us the first look at the rogue class, with her mean looking knife and fast combo attacks. There's also plenty of mysterious talk about "the Champion", otherwise known as Hawke, the character you play in Dragon Age 2. The Empire is said to be "on the brink of war", but judging by the footage of Hawke dicing Darkspawn into a bloody puddle, things have already gone way over the edge. Also, a dragon pukes fire over everything and a mage makes someone explode. If this trailer is anything to go by, Dragon Age 2 is going to be violent.

We also get a quick peek at a new area, the interior of the huge harbour city of Kirkwall, and lots more of the Dawkspawn invasion. For loads more information, check out our in depth Dragon Age 2 preview. The game is set to be released March 8th 2011.

Halloween is fast approaching, the spirits are getting restless and trick or treaters are preparing to walk the earth in search of sweets. It doesn't matter how good their costumes are, they're not going to be able to compete with some of the Halloween events happening in the gaming world. Guild Wars, Aion, City of Heroes and Global Agenda are all running special Halloween events. Read on for an overview of the horrors that lie in store.

Guild Wars - The Return of the Mad King of Thorns


The Mad King is preparing to visit the kingdom of Tyria, and his spirits are already at large. Head to Lion's Arch or Kamadan and search for the Mad King's steward, he'll be the one dressed in candy. You'll hear news that the Mad King's Lunatic Court are hatching a plan to release the seals that keep their pumpkin headed leader confined for most of the year, turning the world into an everlasting Halloween party. It might sound like a good idea, but with special Halloween items on offer for completing these special quests, you'll probably want to put a stop to their mischief for the loot.

Come October 31st the Mad King of Thorns will make several appearances at the Lion's Arch and Kamadan, launching a series of ridiculous and deadly games. If you win, you get a special Halloween hat, if you lose, you suffer instant death (until you respawn, of course). If you're especially eager to get into the halloween spirit, a couple of ghoulish new Halloween costumes will be on sale at a reduced price until November 21st. For the full run down of Guild Wars Halloween events, check out the Guild Wars Halloween page.
Aion - The Harvest Revel


It's Halloween and someone has stolen all of the sugary treats. Even the winged immortals of Aion need sugary treats, so it's time to get them back, by beating the sugary crap out of some nearby wildlife. The Shulacks who were entrusted with watching the sweets instead ran off with them, and started gifting them to local animals. As a sugar obsessed member of the immortal race of Daeva, it's up to you to get them back. Retrieve enough goodies and you'll be rewarded with Revel Chocolate and the Pumpkin King's blessing, both of which grant powerful buffs to your character. You'll also get mystery boxes which could contain anything from potions from scrolls to enchantment stones. The event will kick off on October 27th. For more information on where to find the Halloween quests, check out the Aion Harvest Revel wiki.
City of Heroes - Monster Invasion


Zombies are invading all cities and dimensions in City of Heroes, spewing onto the streets, milling around, eating passers by and generally stinking up the place. Smite them with lasers, riddle them bullets or immobilise them with firm and repeated facepunches for special Halloween rewards. Look out for the circles of power that are appearing all over the place, these will summon much larger monsters into the world. You'll need a team of superheroes to take them down.

You'll also be able to do a bit of your own trick or treating, going door to door in Paragon city. If you're lucky the occupants of the home you pester might just give you a rare costume set. If you're really lucky you might get your very own slightly rubbish inanimate rock, which can then be thrown at enemies for very little damage. If you get a trick, you could find yourself fighting a horde of enemies, defeat enough of these and you'll be able to combine Halloween salvage to gain an additional costume slot for your character.

If you get your hands on one of the classic costumes, go door knocking while wearing it, and you might get a tip off for a special new quest, a mission to find the mysterious Malleus Mundi artefact. There are a ton of badges and awards to be earned in the event, which will last until October 31st. Check out the full list of rewards on the City of Heroes Halloween 2010 event page.
Global Agenda - Oasis Checkpoint of Doom


A crate load of new masks are up for grabs in Global Agenda's Halloween event. If you're over level 30, you'll be able to boot up the game between October 27th and October 31st play a new Defence map in the Raid list called the Oasis Checkpoint of Doom. This map will pit you and nine others against waves and waves of incoming enemies. Defeat them and you could win yourself one of thirteen new masks. If you defend well enough and take down the final boss, you'll get a guaranteed mask and along with a slew of other rewards.

For more information on the Oasis Checkpoint of Doom check out the Global Agenda site. If you fancy getting involved you can join the PC Gamer US editors for some epic base defence action in the Play With PC Gamer event later today.

The eagerly awaited first major patch for F1 2010 is imminent. Codemasters have posted a list of the fixes included in the next update, and they look to be addressing almost all of the concerns raised by fans when the game was released. Read on for details on the major alterations.

Those who have experienced corrupted saved games will be pleased to hear that this issue should be fixed with the next patch, thanks to the discovery of "an over-zealous anti cheating check". Codies say that this should allow people to load previously corrupted saves. The game has also been optimised for multi-core machines and if you have a DirectX 11 card, F1 2010 will now be able to take advantage of the extra juice with it's 'ultra' graphics settings.

The centrepiece of the update is an AI overhaul. AI cars will now always pit on dry courses where previously they'd just keep racing. The AI will now take damage properly as well, and damage will affect them more, causing them to slow down and pit when repairs are needed. The damage modelling has also been tweaked to make even minor damage more visible.



On release the racing AI in F1 2010 was so erratic that many questioned whether the cars on the track were even racing at all. A lack of split times and unpredictable finishing positions were the reasons for these suspicions. The good news is that after the update, split times will be included in F1 2010. Codemasters also say that they've "addressed some issues in driver behaviour balancing that were causing occasionally unrealistic finishing positions".

For the full patch list head over to this Codemasters forum post. Codies report that the patch has been cleared and is ready to go, so we can expect the fixes to be with us shortly. For our verdict on F1 2010, check out our F1 2010 review.

Elemental: War of Magic was released earlier this year and was troubled by shocking bugs and AI issues. Stardock have since been working hard to bring the game up to scratch, and are preparing for the release of patch 1.1 for the game. To reward early buyers, they're offering the first two expansions for free to anyone who buys the game before October 31st.

The offer applies retroactively as well, so if you already own Elemental then you'll get the first two expansions automatically when they're eventually released. Stardock have also mentioned that a beta for the 1.1 edition of the game will be starting next week, and current players will be able to join and play with the new features. For an overview of what's new in the 1.1 patch there are details on Stardock's forum.

For our thoughts on this troubled but incredibly promising game, check out our Elemental review. The game is available to buy in Stardock's Impulse service for £31 ($49).

Are you ready for Wednesday Night's Global Agenda Event? This is your less-than-24-hours reminder. As mentioned earlier, PC Gamer will be having an event in-game trying our hands on Oasis Checkpoint of Doom. We can't wait to blast some spooky ghouls with you in our finely crafted PC Gamer brand power suits, and hope you'll join us in-game tomorrow!

The details:

Wednesday, October 27, at 4PM PST
Players must be level 30 to be able to join in the raid.
Raids will occur every 30 minutes

Giveaway:
Make up a battle cry that PC Gamer should use in tonight's raid and post in the comments below. Battle cry should be family friendly and non-offensive. The first fifteen entries with a valid battle cry will win a copy of Global Agenda.

This contest is open to everyone.



Global Agenda is currently on sale at 30% off and can be bought here or on Steam for $21. See you on the battlefield!

Update: Winners have been selected and codes have been mailed out. See you in game.

With towering stone hotels, floating islands, and lava flowing freely from our very bedrooms, the brave PC Gamer Republic is being colonized at an incredible pace. Re-entering PCG Republic with an expedition force, I've scoured the land to make contact with local citizens. Below is a photograph we took during our flyover this morning and a documentation of our exploration.


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The PC Gamer Minecraft server is found at 207.210.252.12:25566. Our land is open to the public: erect your castle, fortress, or Logan-honoring statue at your earliest convenience. Or, just pop in to mine cobblestone for someone else's giant pyramid. Send us screenshots of your creations to letters@pcgamer.com or visit the “Play with PC Gamer” section of our forum and post your screenshots in our Minecraft thread, PCG US Minecraft Server

Rules of the Republic:
Don’t destroy or alter other people’s creations without their permission
This is a family-friendly server, please nothing over PG-13
We’re here to have fun with other players and help each other, don’t be a jerk.
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On the mainland, we couldn't miss this massive structure. The water flowing from its the corners makes it appear as if the structure was being supported by river-pillars. Based on how exterior of the building was designed, our field scientists agree that the creator is someone named _cntrl.


To the north of the _cntrl building, we find a mile-deep pit with towers rising out from the bedrock below. A floating, upside-down pyramid hangs in the sky nearby.


Along the coast we discovered some sort of theatre. The roof was made out of dirt and never-ending water flowed off the top. A sign by the entrance labeled it as the “PCG Grand Theatre” by eLZyBee. We suspect it is an arena or a there is a sacrificial pit within. So far, we've only discovered dressing rooms.





Near the center of the city, we found what seems to be the oldest standing structure in the Republic. It’s called the @Gamer mansion and the valuables within looted ages ago. All that’s left is the exterior, which remains in excellent condition despite the years (okay, weeks) of neglect. A partial tablet was found saying the creators were Andy Salisbury and Evan Lahti.



Castle Vostrevosk, we read as we approached the massive stone steps. Built upon a floating island, the castle casts a long shadow over the valley below. Walkways connect the other floating islands to the main castle and there is observation deck on the top.





We ended the day near a cactus fort built by Tom Francis, which has a stone warrior guarding it. The locals continue to flee as our team approaches, but we will eventually get one on camera and have them explain the structures to us.



We hope to report back in the coming weeks of our findings in this strange new land. We'd encourage you to come visit and and help us accomplish our goal: harnessing your raw enthusiasm for Minecraft to create stunning arrangements of blocks.

Earlier we mentioned that Telltale's episodic Back to the Future was coming in December. Savygamer has spotted a chance to get the first episode for free. Simply head to the Telltale offer page and click the gigantic 'redeem' button, then create a free Telltale account. You'll need to give it your home address, but that's it: you're now the proud owner of BttF Episode 1. You might want to hurry, though, as there's no indication as to how long this offer will last.

If the police actually drove ridiculously sleek supercars of the kind shown in the latest trailer for Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, then I would probably be a policeman right now. But Hot Pursuit isn't the real world, it's set in Seacrest County. In Seacrest County they don't have 'squad cars', they have 'Interceptors'. In Seacrest County, when the tough get going, they go really, really fast. The latest, stupidly exciting Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit trailer is embedded below, showing Seacrest County's finest in action.

The rousing music and the sight of a group of squad cars cruising down the road in formation like a four wheeled fleet of justice almost makes me want to be one of the good guys. Those evil street racers are having too much fun and they need to be stopped, preferably by ramming them off the road in a screaming shower of sparks and crushed iron. The smell of scorched rubber? That's justice in Seacrest County. The game's out on November 19th.

Cryptic's superhero MMO Champions Online will be free to play as of early next year. You'll be able to download the client, create a hero and jump into Millenium City without having to worry about buying the game or paying any subscription fees.

Champions Online is the follow up to the fantastic City of Heroes, and lets you create your own caped (or horned, or beaked, or robotic) crusader and take on evildoers wherever they can be found, which is mostly in condensed groups near quest givers. This will probably be worth a download for the character creator alone, which contains so many body parts and accessories that it's almost impossible not to make something weird and unique. Once you reach a certain level, you can even design your own nemesis and the minions they control.

While the game will be free to play, additional costume pieces, powers, and questlines will be available for purchase from the C-store, an in game and web based item shop. You'll still be able to pay a subscription fee for the game to become a 'Gold member'.



There are also going to be some significant changes to the character creation process in the form of 'archetypes'. You can select an archetype when you create a new hero, giving you a themed character with a structured progression of powers. Cryptic say that many players are overwhelmed when they are confronted with the ability to mix and match from hundreds of powers, so have created archetypes as a way for those players to get into the game more easily. Here's the rub, if you're playing for free (ie. you're a Silver member) you will have to choose an archetype from the start, and as a result won't have the same freedom to pick and choose your powers that subscribers will. There's a summary of the differences between Gold and Silver members on the Champions Online features matrix.

If you're already playing Champions, there will be a restricted beta starting early in November, and Cryptic say that there may be opportunities for other players to get in on the beta at a later date. Meanwhile, if you can't wait till next year, there's a demo over on the official Cryptic site. For more information here's Cryptic's infosplurge, which includes a Q&A on their decision to make Champions Online free.

Hexen is back! A group of modders have resurrected the classic 1996 first person demon thrasher in the form of an unofficial sequel, made entirely in the Doom 3 engine. The project is called Hexen: Edge of Chaos, and it's taken the team over five years to make. Now, it's almost finished, and it's looking fantastic.

The three classes of the original game will all feature in the mod, letting you play as the melee obsessed Fighter, the mace wielding Cleric and the fragile fireball lobber, the Mage. Hexen broke from the norm in 1996 by having big levels tied together by hub locations, allowing for puzzles that could span wide areas. Hexen: Edge of Chaos will do the same, but will take advantage of Doom 3's advanced engine to recreate the hellish atmosphere of the original in even greater detail.



The game takes place after Hexen 2, and will have a story that ties in with both Hexen games and the Deathkings of the Dark Citadel expansion pack. Though the story and most of the areas are new, the mod will be revisiting some locations from the original game. Familiar enemies will also make a return, including the double headed Ettin demons and the ever irritating flying Afrit monsters. The pixelly old creatures of the original Hexen are now fully fleshed out 3D beasts, and have been superbly realised by the team's modelers and artists.



Most of the images released so far have concentrated on the Cleric, showing perfect recreations of the Serpent staff, his trusty mace and the devastating Wraithverge, which in the original game would summon ghosts to suck the life out of your enemies and then make them explode. It's weapons like the Wraithverge staff that makes us so excited about the prospect of a new Hexen game.

It's worth blowing the dust off your copy of Doom 3, because a demo release of the mod is imminent. It will focus on a single hub, with more planned for the future if the project is successful. Head over to the Hexen: Edge of Chaos site for more information.