Electronic Arts Brings Back Ultima RPG Franchise

Electronic Arts has recently introduced a new game for its Ultima franchise lineup. The company’s newest creation will be a free-to-play browser-based game titled Lords of Ultima and the company describes it as “an online strategy game where you build your own unique city and play with thousands of other players.”

More specifically, the game’s development is being handled by EA Phemomic, which has been responsible for creating the free-to-play MMORTS/MMORPG game BattleForge.

Lords of Ultima is currently in closed beta testing and running only on one server. If you’re interested in testing out the game and if there’s still room on the server, you can try it out at its official website, www.lordofultima.com.

Via ShackNews.

Open Beta for Aeria Games’ Fragoria Now Available

Lately, it seems like online gaming companies are just on a roll with releases of open betas for upcoming games.

The Fragoria browser-based MMO game, which has been widely popular in Europe (including in Russia), is now being developed for a North American audience.

Aeria Games is in charge of the game’s production and just yesterday, the company released the open beta for this browser-based product. To celebrate the launch of the open beta, Aeria Games will be giving 400 AP to the first 250 players of the game who reach level 15 and post a screenshot of their progress in the forums area of the Aeria website.

According to the official press release, here’s some info about what players can look forward to when playing the game. In Fragoria, “Players can create and customize their heroes with incredible weapons and armor; enhance their equipment; control pets and lead other players into battle; explore dungeons, the deepest depths of the ocean, snow capped mountains; and embark on a variety of exciting quests.”

If you’re interested in testing Fragoria out for yourself, you can visit the game’s official website at fragoria.aeriagames.com.

Via Examiner.

OGame MMO Boasts Over Two Million Accounts

That’s right. 2+ million players on this unique-sounding real-time strategy browser-based game.

Created in 2000 by Gameforge AG, OGame is a resource management and space war-themed MMO browser-based game. It’s available in multiple languages and features communities for different nationalities. There are also in-game forums, through which players are notified of updates to the game as well as changes to the game’s existing rules.

In the intergalactic conquest RTS game, players start on a planet and their mission is to turn it into an invincible empire. To do this, players create economic and military infrastructure, wage war, negotiate, and collect valuable resources. Each players’ planet is located in a random system and galaxy. Within the game, there are nine galaxies. Each galaxy has 499 systems and each system has 15 planets.

This game is free to play so if you’re interested, click here and get to it! Good luck.

Crown of Byzantus Browser-Based Game Challenges Leading MMO Games

With the creation of the Crown of Byzantus browser-based game, the Finnish Casual Continent aims to provide some competition for existing massively multiplayer online (MMO) games on the market.

In Crown of Byzantus, players begin as a knight errant and rise to the top by building armies and waging war against other gamers. The game is set in medieval times. Sound familiar?

Casual Continent’s newest browser-based game is available in closed beta starting today, and will be available to the public later this year — the current rumor on the street is that this latter version will be available to the public this spring.

ArcticStartup had 40 invites for the game earlier in the day, starting at 12:00 p.m., but these are probably all gone by now. The code you would’ve used at signup to snag a closed beta account was “arcticstartup.”

Via ArcticStartup.

iTGC Online Beta Testing Begins January 20

Beta testing for Nexon America’s newest online card-based game will be starting tomorrow, January 20th. Play hours are currently set from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time.

iTCG Online is Nexon America’s first browser-based game and it’s based on the MMO game MapleStory. In iTCG, players will be able to choose whether they want their character to take on the role of a Warrior, a Magician, a Bowman, or a Thief.

Within the game, players will have both attacking (battling monsters) and non-attacking abilities (healing and participating in quests). The starter deck of cards is free and players can purchase booster card packs while playing. There will also be a lobby area within the game where players can trade any cards that they have or post messages requesting specific cards.

If you’re interested in checking out the game for yourself, you can visit the original website by clicking here.

Via GamersDailyNews.

Jagex War of Legends MMO is Based on Chinese Mythology, Launches Today

Following the trend of creating games based on ancient Chinese culture and civilization, Jagex has just developed a new game called War of Legends, which is inspired by China set in the time period around 1000 BC. Within the game, players either have the choice to help continue the cruel regime of an existing dynasty or fight against the forces of evil.

Unlike previous games by Jagex, War of Legends will employ micro-transactions within the game. Essentially, this allows players that don’t have all day and all night to spend playing the game to speed up the development of the empire that they’d be building.

Generally, real-time strategy (RTS) games have been focused on a single player instead of on multiple players, but that’s not the case with the War of Legends MMO game.

According to Adam Tuckwell, an employee of Jagex, “Across all of our games we have developed wide community of multiplayer facilities. As a community-conscious developer, that is something that our users have come to expect. On War of Legends, we have worked very closely with the developer to make sure that players aren’t playing alone.”

If you’re interested in testing out this free game for yourself, you can check it out at the official website.

Via PlayTM.

Pandimus Browser-Based Game Launches Open Beta

Barcelona-based browser-based game and mobile device developer Bitroit S.C.P. has just announced that they have launched the open beta for Pandimus, the company’s first browser-based MMORPG.

Pandimus is based on a medieval epic world and includes features like total character customization, quests, and working systems. In the game, players are able to increase the stats on their characters by training, exploring, completing missions, and defeating bosses. There are also in-game chat functions as well as tournaments for players.

According to the co-founder and CEO of Pandimus, “Browser MMORPG has become increasingly popular than ever before, but we are very confident the new-generation browser MMORPG Padimus will usher in a new era and lead the trends. This online browser game is even more remarkable because we have three much experienced programmers who spent two years making Pandimus possible.” We’ll be expecting good things from the game.

Designed and developed since 2008, this browser-based game is intended for an audience of casual gamers. Gamers can even play while they’re at work (though this is not generally recommended). Pandimus is free to play as long as you have an account. If you’re interested, click here to visit the game’s official website and sign up.

Via Mpogd.

Allods Online Closed Beta Test Available for 10 Days

Developed by Astrum Nival and published by Gala Networks Europe, Allods Online is a fantasy space opera MMORPG — sounds like a mouthful already, right? This browser-based game is currently running the closed beta test and available in English, French, and German.

This is actually the third closed beta test session for the Allods Online game. The game’s servers were patched this afternoon and the maximum level that players/testers can now achieve in the game has been upped to level 34.

The second half of January will give players a taste for the complete game. “Slaughter Week” begins on Monday, January 18th, and it’’s then when gamers are invited to log in and “stress” the game. A variety of add-ons will be included in the game by then as well.

The fourth phase of Allods Online will feature access to Astral ships. This phase is not yet available, but is rumored to be soon. We’ll keep you posted on any developments.

In the meanwhile, if you’re interested in partaking in all the action, make sure to sign up by January 22nd, at the latest. Click here to register for an account and start playing today!

Via MMONews.

Fragoria Browser-Based Game Begins Beta Testing in North America

Aeria Games, the creator of Fragoria, has recently announced the beginning of beta testing for the company’s first browser-based game. This MMORPG has been successful in Russia and Germany so far and will hopefully achieve the same levels (or better) of success in North America.

The Fragoria browser-based game allows players to create and customize heroes with various weapons and armor, control pets and lead other players into battle, explore various environments including dungeons, oceans, and mountains, and embark on quests.

To get new players excited for the game, Aeria Games is awarding 400 Aeria Points to the first 250 players that reach level 15 in the game. The cumulative worth of the Fragoria prizes will total $1,000. To be eligible for the prize, players must take a screenshot of their final character’s level and display it in the game’s event forum.

Via Ve3d.

Earth Eternal Browser-Based MMO Game Features New Content

The CEO of Sparkplay Media, Matt Mihaly, has recently  revealed some new content that’s coming to the free-to-play browser-based MMO game Earth Eternal, which features anthropomorphic (possessing human characteristics) animals.

In 2010, the Earth Eternal browser-based game will feature more quests and new types of quests, improved AI for boss encounters, pets that will start off functionless but later help in combat, greater clan capabilities and purposes, PvP arenas (which will be released in stages), and Groves (customizable environments for players and clans). In addition to new features, the game’s overall technical performance is said to be improved for 2010.

According to Mihaly, “there are a bunch of other surprises that we’re going to keep quiet about until they’re ready, and even we don’t know everything we’ll work on in 2010 yet,” so be sure to stay tuned. All the new releases aren’t going to be rolled out at the same time, but we’ll keep you posted if we hear anything new.

Via ZAM.