Aion 2.0 brings Daevas to the Balaurean homeland with both sides setting up camp for a major push against their beastly foes. Inggison has an Elyos stronghold while Gelkmaros has one for the Asmodians, and both seem to be connected via the Silentera Canyon. Passage from Inggison to Gelkmaros and vice versa are unlocked through the capture of two fortresses found in each zone.

Inggison hosts the Wisplight Legion who, in the auspices of Lord of Illusion Kaisiniel, is aiding the Elyos in their mission. The Inggison walkthrough trailer shows off the zone: its fertile valleys, mushroom trees, and the dangerous wildlife inhabiting it.

Meanwhile, the savage Reian Tribe enter into a truce with the Asmodians to ensure both races survive the onslaught of not only the Balaur, but also of the sinister Dragonbound. The Gelkmaros flythrough trailer shows a more battered landscape shaped from countless battles and natural upheavals.

NCSoft producers have said that controlling both fortresses in each map is required to gain access to their rival faction’s zone. So after the initial ousting of Balaur from the fortresses, both sides must defend or risk being locked out to either Inggison or Gelkmaros.

We just hope that the server balance measures taken up recently by the company is enough to restore faction competitiveness, particularly in lopsided servers, and ensure Aion 2.0 doesn’t devolve into a one-sided gankfest.

It seems convenience and entitlement are the name of the loyalty game. Dual-subscribing fans can claim a pair of speed-increasing Hermes’ Shoes. While the gold-tipped clog design is a far cry from the Greek god’s classic winged sandals, the movement speed boost will be a boon for early level questing.

Playing both games will also be made more affordable. Once players link their FFXI and FFXIV accounts to the Square Enix Account page, the subscription rate for the older game will be lowered from $12.95 to $7.00 per month–or almost halving the rate. But there won’t be a chance to bundle the discount given the strict 1:1 correlation rule:

The discount applies to one FFXI account for each FFXIV account. For example, if you have two FFXI accounts and 3 FFXIV accounts, you will receive two of the discounts. This offer will remain in effect until January 2011.

Lastly, fans will be able to transfer their FFXI character name to FFXIV under the format [Character Name] [FFXI World Name]. As an example, a character named “Finalfan” on Carbuncle server in FFXI will be known as “Finalfan Carbuncle” in FFXIV.

The prospect of having a server surname is far from appealing even to non-roleplayers, but at least it ensures a higher chance of name availability. Nothing breaks the gaming mood more than having to settle a name dispute while the rest of Hydaelyn explores the breath-taking content uninterrupted.

Speculation has been building on whether or not Cataclysm, the anticipated World of Warcraft expansion, will be released in 2010 owing to the lack of a confirmed launch date.

But Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime told investors the expansion is expected to go live this year and will come in the heels of the smash summer hit StarCraft II, saying:

StarCraft is one of the highest quality, and it’s further confirmation of the unique talent that is embedded in Blizzard. This will again become clear with the launch of Cataclysm later this year… Although an exact release date has not yet been announced, we are on track to launch the expansion by the end of the year. As with all Blizzard games though, we won’t release until it’s ready.

The reassurance came during the Activision Blizzard second quarter earnings call where the company highlighted their performance expectations for the second half of 2010. But note the caveat inserted at the end in case the expansion hits a rough patch and gets delayed to 2011.

Luckily for us, Cataclysm seems to be hitting its development stride. Mr. Morhaime expressed satisfaction at the progress of Cataclysm beta testing, which began last June, and is set to blow up as it participates in high-profile gaming conventions:

There are currently tens of thousands of players participating in the beta test, and we’re planning to add more in the coming months. Additionally, more than 200,000 gamers and media will have the opportunity to play Cataclysm later this month at GamesCom’s in Germany.

Now if we can only get our hands on those elusive beta keys, we can see first-hand how ready Cataclysm is for public consumption.

Star Trek Online is giving full promotional back-up to its newest free expansion “Season Two: Ancient Enemies” to encourage more captains to sign up  and explore the brand-new content on offer.

The Star Trek Online client can now be purchased for a low $19.99 through online retailers like Steam, GameStop, D2D and Stardock, and will provide access to both Federation and Klingon play for newbies to the Final Frontier.

A special Welcome Back Weekend is also underway starting last Aug. 4 until Aug.9 to woo back inactive captains who have stopped logging in to their accounts. For several days, these MIA pilots can log on to the game, patch up Season 2, and return to their galactic adventures without the need to re-sub.

Of course, once the Welcome Back Weekend is over, players will need to pay the full sub amount to continue logging in. There’s a good chance of this happening with all the additional episodes and ships in Season 2.

Not only has the level cap been raised from 45 to 51, Federation and Klingon pilots alike will gain access to new Tier 5 ships plus ranks.

Story-wise, Klingons get eight additional Episodes and will have to defend their capital city against a historical nemesis, the Fek’ihri. Add to this mayhem the continuing struggle against the Undine, Borg and other alien races and you have a recipe for diplomatic disaster just waiting to explode. It’s up to you to work it all out and, as a reward, you might just earn special ranks and loot for handling First Contact missions with ambassadorial grace.

The Tinkerfest holiday returns to Norrath for a second round of gnomish tomfoolery from July 23 to August 2.

New doodads are up for sale at the merchants and EverQuest II adventurers are urged to hop on the Unstable Tinkered Portals to join the main festivities at the Gnomeland Security Headquarters in Steamfront Mountains. There are also concurrent celebrations in other gnomish conclaves like Temple Street in Freeport and Baubleshire in Qeynos.

While Gnomish speakers hold a special advantage in conversing with the racial hosts, Tinkerfest promises doodads for adventurers from all languages and alignments. A couple of new quests have been added as well as blueprints, gears and gizmos. Some of these will be available via merchants but rarer rewards such as the Cloak of Clockwork Dreams and the Left-Handed Sonic Wrench will require more patience than plat.

For more extensive instruction on the Tinkerfest holiday, just chat with any Celebrations Coordinator NPC who can set you in the right monkey wrenching path.

It’s been a couple of days after Aion went through with its Sever Merge, and the converged communities are busy sorting through name change disputes.

With the 32 original servers merging to 13 consolidated ones, NCSoft added server abbreviations at the end of all character names to avoid name duplication. But obviously, many players wouldn’t want to get stuck with toon names like PatriciaAZ (Patricia on Azphel server).

To remedy the situation, players have been given a Name Change Ticket in their inventories. NCSoft has even opened up their customer support for name change appeals that request for their old names to be given back after it was snatched up by another character.

The same solution has been presented to Legion names, with the Legion Brigade General receiving a free Legion name change coupon in his or her inventory.

All of these information plus other helpful hints are listed on the Server Merge FAQ page.

Star Trek Online players lost some and gained some this week as they mourned the stepping down of executive producer Craig Zinkievich while celebrating the Fourth of July sale at the C-Store.

Mr. Zinkievich called it quits after serving two and half years on Star Trek Online as executive producer. He said in a statement posted at the website that he wished to “take a break” from his gaming duties at Cryptic Studios after a seven-year tenure. His role as STO grand captain will be taken up by “production superstar” Daniel Stahl, whom he recommends quite enthusiastically:

“With Dan in the Captain’s chair, I’m confident that this team will be true to Star Trek’s vision and continue to expand STO to its fullest potential,” Mr. Zinkievich said but it was the Kirk photo anecdote that sealed the deal.

Mr. Stahl will probably oversee the final development touches on Season 2, and browse through the questions Cryptic has been soliciting since last week via the official forums.

The mood has lightened a bit though recently with the Fourth of July weekend sale at the C-Store. Ship variants will enjoy a 20% discount starting July 2 to July 6. This includes the super new and drool-worthy Dreadnought Galaxy seen in the Next Generation series finale episode. Its pop culture legacy aside, the Dreadnought Galaxy boasts of a Spinal Phaser Lance and a cloaking device, and the distinction of being the only Federation cruiser that can equip dual cannons.

How’s that for blasting away your glumness?

Kupo kupo, it’s finally here! The June version update has arrived in Final Fantasy XI, encouraging all moogle housekeepers to leave their duties behind and celebrate on the streets instead. OK, so there wasn’t really a mass security breach in Vana’diel, but players just have loads of new content to explore that they probably won’t be going home in awhile to check if the houses are being kept in order.

Foremost among these new features is the raising of the job level cap from 75 to 80, the first time the game has done so in a long time. The long-term plan is to gradually raise the level cap up to 99–a nod to the series’ console roots–over several version updates this year. Players hoping to gain these five additional levels ASAP should make a dash for the Ru’Lude Gardens and finish the new limit break quest “New Worlds Await.”

Today’s version update also activates the rest of the Wings of the Goddess nation quests which, according to Square Enix, are set to “reach their climactic conclusions.” And if these are still not enough to fill those long gaming hours, then maybe the new trial sequences for relic and mythic weapons will prove a worthy diversion.

To top it all off, battle-hungry adventurers can either explore the fabled Walk of Echoes area (the first part of which has been opened to level 70+) or prove their might via the Vision of Abyssea battle add-on. Powerful monsters roam both forbidden realms and would should be great testing grounds for the dozens of new job abilities, traits and spells packed with the June update.

Want to be one of the first World of Warcraft players to test the upcoming Cataclysm expansion? Well, channel your inner scribe now! Blizzard is giving away 5,000 Cataclysm beta test keys starting this week, and all you have to do to grab one is write a convincing essay why you and nine of your guild members deserve it more than everybody else.

That’s right, 500 guilds will win in the Cataclysm Beta-Guild Contest so make sure your short essay (50-250 words) is memorable enough to avoid the junk pile. Use the small word count wisely. Get straight to the point and highlight how quirky your guild is. Essays with a personality also make a good impression so be funny, cocky, or even cheeky when you need to be.

You should also spend a paragraph or two explaining what your guild can bring to the beta test experience. Highlight your reputation as a fun role-playing guild or a world-ranked raiding team, because in the words of Blizzard:

“If it’s a World of Warcraft beta test, you can bet that we’ll be searching for a large and diverse crowd of enthusiastic players to help us develop the best gameplay experience possible.”

Once you’ve crafted this short masterpiece, just send it via email to blizzardcontest@blizzard.com before the five-week contest ends on July 12. Soon after, you just might find yourself with a new worgen or goblin toon and roaming a revamped Azeroth with nine of your closest buddies. Now that’s an experience well worth slaving a few paragraphs for. So start writing today!

Eager Aion fans who want to avoid the patch day rush can preload the 1.9 update before it hits the live servers on June 2. Just log on and activate the NCSoft Launcher to begin downloading the patch over the next couple of days.

Aion 1.9 just arrived at the public test servers a few days ago, and those who have started testing the anticipated update say it is working just as advertised via the 1.9 update patch notes.

Well received changes include the addition of a Mist system, which rents out weapons for a limited time for leveling purposes. Despite the limited functionality of Mist weapons (they can’t be modified or strengthened and can’t be stored in any warehouse), its availability sidesteps the need for expensive gear purchases before the end game.

Meanwhile, hardcore Abyss fighters will have greater success socketing their arsenal with the best enchantments and Manastones. A new socketing supplement, which increases the enchantment stone and Manastone-socketing success rate, has been introduced. Only the lesser socketing suplement is available now, NCSoft said, but promised the regular and greater types will come at a later patch.

In terms of gameplay conveniences, a new Looking For Group function will facilitate group formation and questing. Additional paths and Obelisks for both factions installed across Atreia will also improve regional travel.

With all these improvements, the arrival of 1.9 update is set to bring a fresh wave of enthusiasm for the game. Can you believe it’s finally here! So let’s celebrate–don one of those new brand-name outfits and party hard as a reward for your patience. Happy patching!