Chris Roberts’ return to game design has not gone unnoticed. Fully revealed only weeks ago, Star Citizen began crowdfunding on its own site before reaching out to the massive community of Kickstarter. The strength of Roberts’ pedigree enabled the space sim to breeze past its goal with an incredible 26 days remaining. Now that far removed, Star Citizen has piled on the dollars New England vs Indianapolis style, raking in over $6 million across all campaigns. Kickstarter contributed over $2 million to that sum, with an original goal of a measly $500,000.

The incredible success of the campaigns gives Roberts the credibility to tell the “traditional PC publishers” that he was correct in assuming PC gamers A) exist in droves and B) still want space sims.

More important than gloating is what it means for the title. The massive accumulation of crowdsourced backing has allowed Cloud Imperium Games to extend its aspiration far beyond the original posted design for Star Citizen. Called Stretch Goals, the additions include a tablet companion app, celebrity voice acting, 100 star systems to explore at launch, new base types, ships and mod tools.

To celebrate the milestone, the company has released a new video of a work-in-progress spaceport. Hit the cut to put your peepers on it.

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As promised shortly after the god reveal of Bacchus, Hi-Rez Studios has put the lush online with today’s latest patch. Pushing to v0.1.1193.0, SMITE received a massive and much needed overhaul to its out-of-game user interface. The changes, which are a work in progress, point to the ambitions of Hi-Rez Studios hopes for SMITE, full adoption by the eSports community.

Included in the UI changes are the launch of Player Profiles, a completely new menu system, new party mechanics, modifications to the voice command system (VCS) and changes to social mechanics. Hi-Rez has once again revisited its matchmaking process, now adding a timer even the the (standard) Conquest mode in an effort to create a more enjoyable experience. The change will be monitored, analyzed and tweaked as required.

Abilities have received their second overhaul in as many patches. What began with Loki continues on. All Abilities now cost 600 gold, down from 700. They have all been made equal on the cooldown front, set to 90 seconds. Passives are now always active. Lastly, recently added Turn Minions and Reveal have been removed from active duty.

Hit the jump for the rest of the patch recap, including a look at god nerfs and buffs, a major change to jungling and two new skins. Read more…

Actually, Jagex is inviting you to put your name in a hate to be invited to experience Transformers Universe. Yes, folks, after countless weeks, neigh, months of no updates, Jagex has launched the Closed Beta sign-ups for its mech-based MMORPG. The process is standard, head to the official TU website, enter your email address, validate and pray to the Hasbro gods that you get selected to test an Autobot or Decepticon.

In case you’re wondering, destroying tends to be a lot easier than protecting.

Transformers Universe is to be a Java-powered F2P browser-based MMORPG from the creators of Ragnarok Online. The title will revolve around the team-based warfare with each faction fighting for its Earth-based goals before expanding beyond our realm.

As of press time, there’s no indication of when the beta process will begin. Need more information? Check out the latest trailer or the latest Lore Hound interview.

One advantage of development for massive multiplayer online games is that development can continue up until the very last moment. There’s no true “Gone Gold” here, folks. That’s good for gamers. Theoretically, it means our genre of choice should have the most polish possible, thanks to longer QA and the acceptance of Day 1 patches – for those few that still buy physical packages.

Sony Online Entertainment is doing just this with PlanetSide 2. Launching next week, the development squad is continuing to polish an important aspect of the game, progression, which we discussed with Tramell Isaac earlier this year. Creative Director Matt Higby announced late yesterday that progression to high-end weapons will be reduced by 30 percent for launch.

To elaborate, its the time investment that is being reduced, not the amount of Station Cash required. Higby wanted to make it clear that there’s no need to worry about pay-to-win with this change. Instead, players will earn cert points twice as fast. You can check out the math – spreadsheet included! – at the link above.

Teased yesterday before HiRezBart’s SMITE streaming session, Hi-Rez Studios has now fully unveiled the Roman god Bacchus. Only the second god to enter the battlefield from the Roman pantheon, Bacchus was worshipped as the God of Wine. Doing battle with his trusty thyrsus staff *cough* a leg of meat and jug of wine, the plump Bacchus is a melee magical tank.

His abilities rely on his state of intoxication. Each normal ability gains additional effects, including debuffs, disables or buffing himself. Given the art style, character design and combat effectiveness, I couldn’t have been more incorrect in my three lore-based design guesses.

Expect Bacchus to be playable soon, possibly as early as tomorrow, November 15, 2012. Hit the jump for the official God Reveal and ability details of Bacchus.

We’ll have a lore treatment for you next week. Odd that his namesake pine-cone-topped staff wasn’t used…

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Elf or Half-elf if I want to be a cleric. Ugh.

Leave it to the Internet to ruin a marketer’s plan. For Western audiences, Perfect World Entertainment and Perfect World Europe have been slow playing the reveals for Neverwinter. Details, from zones to lore to features, have been trickling out from the companies. The latest being the Control Wizard class reveal.

Perfect World’s homesquad in China was having none of that. MMOCulture revealed that Perfect World Beijing will be publishing two titles from the United States, Neverwinter and, a bit surprising, Dota 2. Not only would Dota 2 be the first MOBA and eSports-friendly title from Perfect World, but it’s a major victory considering its growing popularity. Neverwinter, being developed by PWE-owned Cryptic Studios, is more of a no brainer.

Perfect World Beijing instantly began marketing the title, revealing details we have not heard of yet. Hit the jump for the world map, and a gallery with the class and race mix, including one previously unannounced class. Read more…

Massively got the scoop from Perfect World Entertainment on RaiderZ. In Open Beta since October 24, developer MAIET Entertainment is preparing to push the monster hunting MMORPG to Live status on November 20.

Players that have been participating in the Open Beta phase do not have to worry. There will be no character wipe. Instead, players can likely expect a new patch for the world of Rendel, although this is unconfirmed as of press time.

Senior Producer Mark Hill wanted to thank everyone for their participation. “We’d like to thank fans for their continued support and also welcome new players to explore the Kingdom of Rendel. This is just the first part of our commitment to provide players with a great experience for years to come.”

If transforming into beasts, hunting down unique boss monsters and beating them with their own limbs or weapon shards is to your liking, then RaiderZ deserves a peak. Hit the jump for the launch trailer and a new batch of screenshots. Read more…

Just moments ago, HiRezBart, the eSports Manager for Hi-Rez Studios, teased the latest god heading to the fields of combat in SMITE, Bacchus. The adopted name by Romans for Dionysus, the Greek god of ritual madness and ecstasy, Bacchus could be developed multiple ways. It’ll be interesting to see which way Hi-Rez goes with the god of winemaking, wine and the grape harvest.

Based on his lore, Bacchus could easily be given three uniquely different roles. A generic support role featuring a multitude of disables, given his penchant for distracting others with his parties. A mind-control mage role that hasn’t been seen in SMITE yet. Or even more uncommon to the MOBA universe at large, a minion summoner, thanks to Bacchus commonly being followed by a procession (he brings his own party).

What’s your guess?

Regardless of who turns out to be correct, we won’t have to wait long. HiRezBart will be unveiling Bacchus as part of today’s 3:00 PM EST SMITE stream.

Stay tuned!