Massively week in review

by Shawn Schuster on Oct 9th 2009 4:00AM

When it comes to MMO news and special features, Joystiq sister site, Massively.com, has you covered. Whether you're looking for info on the hottest new MMO, or you're just curious about an old favorite, you'll find it at Massively. Check out our biggest news of the week:

Join Massively for new exclusive Star Trek Online screenshots every Monday
We've got five new screens from Cryptic Studio's upcoming Star Trek Online to share with you today. Of particular note is the above shot of a Borg drone about to vaporize someone or something into stardust. However, there are also plenty of tantalizing new space images in this batch. For instance, this aft shot of what appears to be a Prometheus variant has an interesting hull design.

Choose my Adventure: There and Back Again
At this end of our second trip through the Choose my Adventure series, it's time to say goodbye to Lord of the Rings Online, reflect on what we've accomplished and of course, vote for the next game. With last week's vote, I had you comment on what my final step should be, instead of leaving it up to a poll of choices by me. After reading a comment by Gamer52, I decided that was a wonderfully fitting end, and proceeded to plan Gibbi's retirement.

	EVE Online devs show us what Icelandic hip hop is all about Now normally when we talk about EVE Online, it's about a scandal, or some theft, or just the general talk on how to pilot your virtual spaceship better. This, however, is certainly not one of those EVE Online stories. So what is this story about? Well it's a story about what happens when you add rap to CCP. And what would happen if CCP made a rap video and got many members of their staff to star in it... because they did.
	Aion to offer free server transfers soon Sunday we told you about the open letter to the Aion community from NCsoft West executive producer Lance Stites. Stites addressed the ongoing problem of seemingly endless queues for players trying to access the more popular servers. This has been a frustrating issue for everyone involved, with the crew at NCSoft West "engaged in multiple discussions each day" on the topic and players queueing for hours a day, attempting to play.
	Guild Wars 2 blending RTS with PvP Essentially, world PvP will be mimicking the RTS model. Resources such as stone mines can be conquered by players and will deliver stone to catapults by caravan. These deliveries can be intercepted by enemy players unless manned watchtowers are defending your roads and scouts are keeping track of enemy forces. Or, as ArenaNet put it, players can simply look for lost PvPers and smack them around a bit.
	A first look at the Love alpha Ever since I first heard about Love at GDC, I've been hoping to get a chance to check it out. The graphical style floats somewhere between impressionist and Abstract, with only the suggestions of people and things. Gone are the "customize your character heavily" moments of an MMO. You simply log in and your character is immediately created - an amorphous entity ready to take part in all that Love has to offer.
	Massively Speaking Podcast Episode 71: Breaking games with Gary Gannon Massively Speaking Episode 71 is a special early edition which features Gary Gannon this week, formerly of GAX Online and the Massively Online Gamer podcast. He joins Shawn to discuss everything from CrimeCraft's F2P news, APB's rumored beta, Age of Conan's patch plans and much more!
	EVE Fanfest 2009 highlights The biggest player gathering of the year for EVE Online fans is EVE Fanfest, held annually in the CCP Games hometown of Reykjavik. Some interesting announcements of what's to come have been made over the past few days, as well as more details or clarification on previously announced aspects of both EVE Online and DUST 514.
	Embracing the Sith in Star Wars: The Old Republic Everyone is worried about the Jedi player population when it comes to Star Wars: The Old Republic, but the Sith are in every way a likely -- if not moreso -- threat. With franchise analogs like Vader and Maul, there's going to be a lot of people auto-running around the game to the tune of Imperial March.
	Are we ready for an iMMO? TibiaME, the MMO for mobile phones from German developer CipSoft, has announced plans for an iPhone client release in Q1 2010. TibiaME has been around since 2003, and is said to be the first MMO for mobile phones worldwide.
	Betawatch: September 25th - October 2nd, 2009 Another exciting week in beta news this week as Star Wars: The Old Republic has finally graced the Betawatch list with its presence. Although it's not in the closed beta stage yet, they are accepting beta signups at this time. All Points Bulletin has also let it out that their closed beta will begin sometime next week, while Eskil Steenburg's one-man project Love has hit the "open alpha" stage.