Over the past few weeks, the developers at Cryptic Studios have been walking readers through the various powers that will be available to Champions Online players, from Energy Projectors to Martial Arts, as well as Power Replacers. Now they're giving us a look at the game's Mystic power sets -- Sorcery and Supernatural -- for those players who want to dabble in the dark arts.

Do you know your Circles of Power from your Circles of Summoning? When should you use a Sigil instead of an Invocation? The Champions Online devs explain all matters arcane in this latest, and final, "All About Powers", and discuss their intent to create subsets of Mystic powers that better fit a given character's concept. Whether you're looking to create a Primal Shaman, a Necromancer, or a pure Arcane-type, you might enjoy this latest dev blog on the official Champions Online site.

One of the most common questions asked regarding Star Wars: The Old Republic and the easily accessible Jedi is, "Who's going to take on an army of Jedi?" We've long since had the answer tucked away here at Massively, but now BioWare has been kind enough to illustrate it for us in their latest timeline update, which features the fearsome Mandalorians.

The nomadic Mandalorians are strikingly unique and much like the Jedi and Sith in that sense they're not an actual species; yet war is their singular goal in life. Their mantra is that strength is not merely good, it is great, it brings honor through battle. Thus, it's no surprise that Mandalorians are generally opposed to the Jedi and get along better with the power hungry Sith. At this point, the Republic Trooper's coutnerpart is pretty obvious. That powerful Jedi army doesn't seem so intimidating against legions of Sith, Bounty Hunters and bred-for-war Mandies, now does it?

We highly recommend you check out the timeline video. It's not only informative, but quite entertaining if you've got even the slightest amount of interest in Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Ether Saga Online is now officially live, and as we found out last month at E3 from the game's developers Perfect World, this event has gone hand in hand with a large update. We already knew about the introduction of an "Easy" setting for instances, a new world boss, and the reduction of "kill X number of monsters" quests, but there was also an increase to the level cap. In this patch the maximum level has gone from 90 to 105, and getting through these levels will grant the player lots of brand new class skills.

The launched ESO is a free-to-play title, and the client can be found here. Check after the break for the full launch patch information.

As the shooter-MMO hybrid Global Agenda enters closed beta this month, the team at Hi-Rez Studios has begun to release more videos showing off gameplay footage. John Walker over at Rock, Paper, Shotgun hunted down and rounded up the new videos from Gametrailers, which give us a good look at how the game is shaping up. The first video shows off the character creation process, with a cut scene explaining your introduction to the world, trapped and floating in a cloning tank monitored by machines, then rescued by armored human allies. That's followed up by footage of other character creation options in Global Agenda, from the look of your agent's body to armor customization, as well as showing how large and open the game's social hubs will be.

Even better, there are two more videos that show off Global Agenda's combat, demonstrating both co-op gameplay and PvP. We've got video embeds of the combat footage after the jump:

"Sick of ogres, elves and pixies? So are we. Lose the tights. Bury your crystals. Quit playing with your wand. Come get the real deal. This ain't daddy's MMO. Fallen Earth." These words fill the newest Fallen Earth trailer, which is accompanied by lots of fast camera zooms and punctuated with extreme hard rock. To be fair, we're sure there are many of you out there who're definitely tired of at least some of these things. However, this trailer is low on reality and high on, well, something.

It's almost like the marketing team wasn't aware of the videos and information released to this point, which showed a slower, more laid back MMO. Sure, you shoot things and there's lots of mature, post-apocalyptic content, but it seems like this trailer is aimed at creating a false assumption with players wanting a fast, twitchy run-and-gun, simple MMO that Fallen Earth just isn't.

We think the game could definitely find its audience, which is why this trailer seems incredibly counter-productive. Being genuine is supremely important. Players who figure out you aren't will resent it, and those who don't will become embittered after purchasing something with false expectations. Catch the full -- yet short -- video after the break.

The first July 2009 State of the Game for Champions Online is out and it sure came with an interesting surprise. Namely, the addition of Twitter to the in-game feature set. Now we're sure some of you will scoff at this idea, but sit there for a moment while we paint you a mental picture.

You're inside a rather challenging instance, only moments away from the big fight. Your party is getting ready, resting up, etc and so you take a moment to hammer out a short message to your friends on Twitter. "Oh man, about to take on my Nemesis, Big Bad Boss Man, wish us luck!" you say, netting you a few encouraging replies. Then you engage and the ensuing carnage is nigh legendary. The party just takes a serious beating and is torn limb from heroic limb by your Nemesis. You decide to share this with the world, only to see your buddies instantly share their empathetic thoughts on your embarrassing defeat.

We think it's got some substantially fun possibilities. Plus, if Cryptic can work in Twitter support to their games, what else could they do? Facebook seems like the next step, but there's also Pandora and Last.FM support to consider, too.

Do you plan on participating in the Aion beta this weekend? If not, you may want to reconsider, because NCsoft is offering a pretty amazing contest for those of you who decide to play. Here's the rub: North American players who log into the Aion closed beta this weekend (July 2nd to July 6th) and obtain level 3 are entered to win a trip to Seattle for themselves and a friend. This trip culminates at the Aion launch party at the Seattle Space Needle, where they'll also get to attend the PAX 2009 expo.

Pretty cool, right? We're sure that many of you would kill to get a chance to play Aion at all, let alone be entered into this contest. So make sure you get to at least level 3 if you're playing this weekend. You may as well if you're already going to play at all, right? And if you really want that beta key now -- but haven't had the luck to nab one -- preorder customers are given access to every beta event. You can find the page for preordering yourself a copy right here.

Dual-wielding guns at pointblank, screen distorting spells and clawed uppercuts are all in supply this week in Champions Online land. Either Cryptic put someone new in charge of grabbing screens, or these powers were just finally ready for their Hollywood closeup -- either way, we're happy to have them.

If you're curious about all of these powers, Cryptic's been doing quite a few mini-guides discussing each of the groups like energy or martial powers. Something tells us that these screens are only making those of you not in beta all the more impatient, but since open beta is literally two months away now, at least you won't have to wait much longer.

You may remember back during our coverage of PAX 08 last year when we reported on ArenaNet's announcement of a Guild Wars book trilogy, set up to explain the lore between Guild Wars 1 and Guild Wars 2. Recently, Ravious at Kill Ten Rats wrote a great post compiling the information we have now, combined with some brand new info on what looks to be the first novel in that trilogy.

Guild Wars: Fall of Ascalon by Matt Forbeck is set to release on or around February 23, 2010. What's even more interesting is some speculation from a GW fan concerning what may be the second book, possibly being penned by J. Robert King, also for release in 2010. Of course this begs the question of timeline. Are these three books all being written at the same time, to be released around the same time, or will they be written and released well into 2011? As far as we know, Guild Wars 2 won't come out until these books have all been released, so with the first book coming out in February of next year, we probably won't hear anything new about Guild Wars 2 until then, at least.

Ys Online has entered its open beta phase of testing, but for now, the game is still only available to European countries (The full list can be found here. Countries not found on the list are IP blocked). This open beta is a little different to most in that there won't be a character wipe when testing comes to a close, meaning that characters will carry over to the game's launch. Those interested in playing just need to create a Key to Play account, download the client, and log in -- no special key necessary, despite any confusion caused by the name of the game's portal.

According to the Ys Online forums, Key to Play is working on opening up access for more countries to play. Perhaps another publisher will come to the rescue and bring the game to the rest of the Ys-starved world?

As the Cities XL closed beta continues to run strong, we got word that the beta's NDA has lifted [Edit: for press] and we can spill the beans on our first impressions of the game so far. Now, two very important points to be made here include the fact that this is not a review (MMO reviews are bad, mmkay), and this is still in early closed beta stage.

With that in mind, we're here to give you some facts on how the game stands now, with a bit of healthy opinion thrown in for good measure. If you're at all curious about how this city-builder MMO can possibly work, follow along below.

With Sparkplay Media's first game, Earth Eternal, going into beta, we got the chance to sit down with the CEO of the company, Matt Mihaly, and pick his mind on a variety of things related to setting up shop in the free to play genre.

Matt's no stranger to the massively multiplayer space, holding a strong background as the CEO and founder of Iron Realms Entertainment, a company dedicated to creating multi-user dungeons (MUDs) including Imperian, Aetola, Achaea, and Lusternia. If that wasn't enough, Achaea was one of the first games to introduce the sales of virtual goods, making him one of the pioneers of the base that free-to-play games now stand on.

So what's his thought process behind Earth Eternal? What are some of the things we can expect from the MMO that's sporting over 22 races? Hit the continue reading link, and find out!

How have the launches of FusionFall and Free Realms affected Earth Eternal? Have you changed your development or goals in any way because of the success of those two games, or have you stayed the course and continued to build things your way, disregarding those two games?

Not really, no. Games like Runescape and Habbo have had more influence on our plans than either of those two games, simply because they're so much bigger. FusionFall and Free Realms have gotten a lot of press in the last year, but neither of them have achieved the level of success that games like Runescape and Habbo have.

Actually, nobody really knows how Free Realms is doing outside of SOE. Three million registrations doesn't tell you much about how many active players they have as you don't know how quickly players are churning out of the experience. With the massive dollars they spent on marketing too, it'd be surprising if they couldn't get a few million registrations. The challenge for them (and everyone else in this space, including us) is to convert that fleeting attention into long-term, loyal players.

"We're more in the vein of a classic fantasy MMO than a collection of minigames."

How will Earth Eternal separate itself from the growing free-to-play genre in America? What will make this game stand out?

We're a different kind of experience from FusionFall or Free Realms. We're more in the vein of a classic fantasy MMO than a collection of minigames. I think where we stand out is by offering the best browser-based fantasy MMO out there. We've made the decision to have no humans, elves, or dwarves (or gnomes, hobbits, or anything else too close to human), preferring instead to offer everything from humanoid lizards and falcons to the Clockwork and Yeti. We're definitely fantasy but we want to stay away from the pack, almost all of whom have the humans/elves/dwarves thing going on. We've also got an enormous number of races for players (unlike the two games you mentioned) – 22 at launch.

Considering all of Earth Eternal's development, what part of the game are you the most proud of? What is that one feature you can't wait to show off?

The number one thing I'm proud of is how much our team has managed to do on relatively little funding for an open world 3D MMO (about five million dollars.) As far as game features go the biggest feature I'm looking forward to showing off is our Groves system, which will be introduced at final launch, a few months after we go into open beta.

Thanks so much for your time, Matt!

Moogles. A rich, noble race that's been around for ages. Sure, their contributions to society are overlooked -- such as their dedication to keeping your house clean, changing your jobs, and acting like a save point in oh so many Final Fantasy worlds. But that doesn't mean that this race has many more things to share with society.

Things like haunted mog houses, engagement rings, and... um... mogfia bosses? What's going on here?

It's a Moogle Kupo d'Etat, the next add-on expansion pack for Final Fantasy XI! Just like the first pack, A Crystalline Prophecy, this expansion will once again provide a short storyline and an augmentable item at the end, all for the low price of 10 bucks.

This time around, it's the headpiece for the sets! The Champion's Galea, Anwig Salade, and Selenian Cap are all up for grabs once the mini-expansion is completed.

The add-on pack will be available for pre-order on July 5th, and will most likely roll out with the next version update later in July. Check out our gallery of some of the scenes from the upcoming pack, as well as our look at the new items!

We announced some details about the Mortal Online pre-order which was slated to kick off today in the game's online store. However the Mortal Online developers, Star Vault, announced there will be a two-week delay with the launch of the Mortal Online online store.

Star Vault CEO Henrik Nystrom announced: "On the 25th of June we brought you some good stuff, but today we have to bring you bad news. We have been working very hard to get the shop up and for it to accept different methods of payment, however it's not obvious we have been too optimistic this time as we have encountered several last-minute problems.

More information and a new schedule will be announced on the Mortal Online game store soon."

(Thanks for the tip, Rhys)