The Sims 3: World Adventures opens up three new remote locations your Sim can visit: China, France and Egypt. The purpose of visiting the exotic locations is to give your Sims the chance to complete adventures inside local tombs and temples. The gameplay in these sections is very much like old school point-and-click adventures where your Sim needs to explore nooks and crannies to find keys, treasure and secret locks to hidden doors. Completing these expeditions nets your Sim Visa Points so they can stay longer in foreign countries and eventually purchase vacation homes.

In addition to the gameplay, however, World Adventures also augments the Sims experience with a bunch of new skills, traits and Lifetime Rewards to update your ho-hum Riverside or Sunset Valley gameplay in the core game. But is it an adventure worth taking?

Loved
Adventuring: Taking your Sim into a temple or a tomb for some exploration turns out to be a pretty intimate and oftentimes hilarious experience. In tombs, Sims encounter all kinds of danger that they don't normally back at home — like mummies that can infect them with a fatal curse or traps that can burn them alive. This makes you anxious for your Sim in a way that encourages bonding — I totally reloaded a game once when my Tenzing Norgay got charred in an Egyptian pyramid puzzle. Aside from that aspect of gameplay, the Sims themselves entertain you with their own feelings on the adventures. If you've got a Sim with a good set of traits (Adventuring, Bravery, etc.), getting through the winding passages and around dangerous traps is a healthy challenge that sometimes really makes you think like a puzzle game. Sending a Sim in with bad traits, though (Cowardice, Loser, etc.), while frustrating for treasure-hunting definitely yields laughs when your Sim flees from a mummy.

New Skills: World Adventures adds Photography, Martial Arts and Nectar Making to the Sim skill set. I spent most of my time on Photography and Martial Arts — making Tenzing Norgay something of a photojournalist monk in the process. The Photography skill gives Sims access to different types of camera (crappy, decent and awesome) and lets them take pictures from the first person perspective pretty much anywhere in the game. Depending on the subject of the photo (and you can tell what you're capturing via little labels in first-person mode), your Sim can score major money by taking pictures of foreign landmarks. Martial Arts, meanwhile, is exactly what it sounds like. Your Sim can learn Sim Fu and compete against other Sims in karate tournaments or just sit around and meditate until they float in the air. Lastly, Nectar-Making builds off your Sims' gardening skills by letting you combine various fruits to create original nectars that you can sell for mad bank.

Elements of Multiculturalism: The native Sims in China, France and Egypt actually look like Chinese, French and Arab people. This alone is a big step for The Sims in terms of multiculturalism, but there's also a lot of little things about local Sims you start to notice that keep up the foreign facade. For example, every location has a set of songs that people sing to themselves in the markets or at their homes. There are also local books and recipes your Sim can pick up (like Dim Sum and Frogs Legs) to read or make at home. My all time favorite little touch, though, is still the part where children with at least one Asian parent eat with chopsticks. So cute!

Hated
It's A Little Bit Broken: There is a major gameplay bug I encountered that should never have made it to retail. Sometimes when sending your Sim abroad (and usually when they've got a child or a teenager Sim with them), the game makes your family vanish. Like, completely disappear both from the foreign location you were sending them to and from the home location. In my case, I sent Tenzing and his teenage son to China while his wife was laid up at home with twin girls. Mid-load into China, the game suddenly deposited the camera view into China — only there was no family there and no Sim in the control bar to keep track of. I could do thing — not even edit the town. So I quit out and went back to Sunset Valley expecting to find them there, but the same thing happened. The wife and babies were gone and in the family viewer, there was only a placeholder graphic of a dotted outline where the Norgays should have been. I was able to fix the problem after consulting a fan forum, but it wasn't a simple solution (having to move around backup files and save files) and I lost data.

Loss of Continuity: A big selling point of The Sims 3 was the persistent environment. Sims around your Sim grew old and died and the world moved within the same time frame. World Adventures wrecks the continuity by making China, France and Egypt into stagnant environments. It's like time stops when you go abroad and your Sim doesn't age and life back at home freezes until you come back. On the one hand, this is convenient when you want to dodge an age transition without just turning aging off. However, on the other hand, it also creates weird situations.

Take for example my French mistress's "abortion." I had invited her from France to stay with Tenzing and then Tried for Baby. She got pregnant and when the morning sickness started, she ended her vacation and went home early. I followed her to France the very next day, expecting to visit my pregnant mistress. However, when I got there, she was no longer pregnant and there wasn't a baby anywhere. I contacted the developer to make sure I hadn't encountered a bug and they told me that because infants and toddlers simply can't exist in the foreign environments (for all kinds of development issues), the child should have been "aged up" automatically to childhood when the mistress went back to France. What I should have seen was a child Sim in the mistress's household with her last name that the game would still recognize as Tenzing's kid and "the fiction" would be that a significant amount of time has passed between the time my mistress left Sunset Valley and the time Tenzing arrived in France. This kind of continuity is not only confusing, but also kind of against the persistent environment The Sims 3 is popular for.

The Sims 3: World Adventures is an experience that deserves the title "expansion." It adds a lot to the core experience of the game, it offers an alternative style of gameplay and it's pulled off in a way that blends pretty well with the game (with the exception of the hiccups mentioned above).

If you're a Sims fan, though, you've probably already guessed this having played the game for the last month solid. But if you're not really a Sims fan, or you were one of the skeptics who were holding back because the rampant expansions of the Sims 2 tired you out, don't hold back. There's a whole wide world out there for your Sim to explore (three of them, in fact) and you won't want to miss it.

The Sims 3: World Adventures was developed and published by EA for the PC. The game released November 17 for $40 USD. A copy of the game was given to Kotaku by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Created Tenzing Norgay as a young adult and raised his Visa level to at least eight days' worth of travel in each country. Maxed out the Photography and Martial Arts skills.

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EverQuest Underfoot, available today at EverQuest.com for $39.99, substantially adds to Norrathian real estate by going deeper underground than ever before. Players can expect to encounter plenty of new creatures as they venture forth, hunting for tradeskill recipes so they can make the powerful new items afforded by the addition of Master Tradeskilling.

Other new additions include an expanded target window, which lets players assign group members to specific roles for ease of targeting, and an achievement system, much like the one already implemented in World of Warcraft.

"Celebrating a decade of EverQuest throughout this year has reinvigorated our community and development team alike, and that passion is clearly on display with the latest expansion," said Thom Terrazas, Producer, Sony Online Entertainment. "Underfoot presents a world unlike anything you've experienced in Norrath, providing a deep and fun experience for all our players."

I've not played EverQuest for years, but there are times I miss my bard something terrible. Then I remember this, and the melancholy fades.

Possibly the purest Magic: The Gathering experience ever to grace a game console, Wizards of the Coast is keen to bring Duels of the Planeswalkers to the PlayStation 3 and PC audience, while continuing to show love to the Xbox 360 audience with a couple of new expansions. The PC version of Duels is scheduled for release in the Summer of 2010, featuring the same gameplay of the Xbox Live Arcade version with an "extra bonus." I'm guessing the extra bonus is some sort of card marketplace, but don't quote me on that.

The PlayStation Network version of the game won't be hitting until fall of 2010.

Meanwhile, Xbox Live players will enjoy the release of the 2nd and 3rd expansions for the game in Spring and Summer of next year respectively.

I've yet to download the first expansion, what with the fall review season in full swing, but I look forward to sitting down and getting my game on soon. Once a Magic addict; always a Magic addict.

Now the only way the good/evil thing is any fun for me is if there's a character around to whine at me when I'm doing bad, bad things. Luckily, developer Relic Entertainment thought of that, too and so I'd like you to meet Jonah, the Librarian. Because nothing is more reproaching than a librarian.

What Is It?
Chaos Rising is an expansion to Dawn of War II's singleplayer campaign. The seven new maps that come with the expansion will be patched for other players without the expansion to keep multiplayer balanced.

What We Saw
I played through an early mission in the expansion on the planet Meridian and part of a level on the new ice planet, Aurelia.

How Far Along Is It?
The expansion is out in spring 2010.

What Needs Improvement?
Slightly Overwrought Dialogue: The first time I chose to do a "corrupting" action (knocking down a gate instead of going around it), the Librarian whined, "This may cost us our souls." The first time he said it, it was funny. But subsequently, when I used corrupting abilities or items, he'd keep whining. It was very annoying.

The Whole Squad Is Affected By Evil: Even if you select one character and give him all the Corrupted gear and make him do Corrupted things independent of the rest of your squad, everybody deployed on that mission comes away with a little bit of Corruption. You could of course split your party so that half your team isn't deployed (and therefore stays pure) and the other half gets more and more corrupted. But that's just a tedious way to min-max around a gameplay element.

Ease Off On Smite: The game is still unbalanced in terms of weapons and attacks. Jonah's Smite ability can currently topple buildings – which is way overpowered.

What Should Stay The Same?
It's Not the Tyranids Anymore! Chaos is the new evil faction, now, and they're way more brutal than Tyranids – what with the being ex-Space Marines made evil by a warp to another dimension. The first leader character I saw from the faction had both human skulls on his headgear and the flesh of a Space Marine's face stretched out like a flag. So boss.

Steady Gameplay: For those of you who liked the way Dawn of War II changed things from Dawn of War (namely, losing the whole protect-and-build-the-base thing), it'll please you to know that Chaos Rising keeps it steady with no major changes to gameplay besides the corruption/purity dichotomy.

Librarian Class: Jonah might be whiny, but I liked the Librarian class. It's basically a mage class with spell books that unlock abilities. But the abilities are diverse enough to where you won't get stuck with a too-vulnerable White Mage or limited with a destruction-exclusive Red Mage.

Final Thoughts
Don't get me wrong, I liked the Tyranids. I just like having different races to hate on when playing a singleplayer mode that makes me be the Space Marine faction.

Well, technically it's not "wine," it's nectar. But the new nectar-making skill fits the France theme in World Adventures perfectly. Some other theme-appropriate features include cafes, scooters and a general air of snootiness among the local Sims of Sim France.

Oh, and don't forget about the tomb-exploring. That's the main thrust of the World Adventures expansion. In France, the tombs have a Celtic and Faerie theme to them. So tell your graphics card to expect lots of intricate carvings on walls and fountains.

However, I do have high standards. The Sims: Superstar was a revelation in college that nearly cost me my grade point average. Ever since, I've been consuming Sims expansions at a steady rate – always looking for that same sense of wonder and entertainment that makes me forget to eat.

Here's how World Adventures measures up.

What Is It?
The Sims 3: World Adventures is an expansion that gives your Sim the ability to visit three exotic locations on a travel visa: China, France and Egypt. Rather than just being a new place to shop and seduce the locals, each country features "tombs" – that is, dungeon-like locations your sim can explore, plunder and suffer odd and painful misfortunes within. The better you do at this, the higher your can raise your visa level – which lets you stay in the foreign locations longer, and also nets you the right to buy vacation homes.

What We Saw
I got to play through a dungeon in Egypt and was treated to a look at one of China's Zen gardens/karate dojos.

How Far Along Is It?
The expansion is out November 17.

What Needs Improvement?
Point-And-Click Adventure Much? I supposed when you break it down, the Sims games all play out like point and click adventures – except, it never feels that way normally because there's no "right" thing to click. World Adventures changes gameplay fundamentally by requiring gamers to jump through the typical point-and-click adventure hoops to disarm traps or find hidden doors. Some hardcore Sims fans may not like it.

But I Want To Move To France! I'm a little bummed you can't relocate to the exotic locations. You can, of course, bring pieces of it home with you. Artifacts you find in tombs can either be traded for special items or hung up in your boring old sim house. Also, there are special artifacts that you find in pieces and assemble over time back at your permanent pad. And, you could always marry a native and bring him or her home so you'll always have a bit of the country with you. Still not as good as actually moving to France, though.

Advocating Child Labor: Children (but not toddlers or infants) can go into tombs and do adventuring of their own. But, for obvious reasons (*cough* ESRB rating *cough*), they can't suffer the same dangers as the adults. This seems to me like the perfect set-up for some child exploitation. Yes, send the small child into the tomb for the expensive treasure – the mummy won't attack him.

What Should Stay The Same?

Now You Can Go Inside Stores: Finally! I hated sending my Sims off to shop and having to stare at the outsides of buildings for forever like I was playing a real-time strategy game and waiting for the battle to end. Naturally, the game also lets you build your own stores and fill it with whatever kind of junk you want to sell.

Now You Can Be a Real Hobo! The game introduces tents that you can pitch in tombs – or in public parks – and actually gain Energy from sleeping in. Oh, the possibilities.

Your Own Private IslandDungeon: Via a code entered in buy mode, World Adventures opens up the editing tools to include pretty much everything the developer can build in a tomb or a ruin site. You can build an entire deathtrap from the ground up just the same as you would a house (only, you know, filled with mummies and fire traps and stuff) and then upload it to the Sims 3 community site to inflict on others.

Yay, Karate! The game adds several new skills and traits to mix up your sims' personality. My favorite is probably the Discipline skill which helps with karate (called Martial Arts). The higher you level this skill, the more badass your sparring animation looks – at the highest level, you even get little speed lines along your arms and legs while punching and kicking. There's also the Adventurous trait which helps with tomb exploration, and the Photographer's Eye which builds out the new picture-taking activity. Oh, and if you do marry a foreigner and bring him or her home to have kids with, your children will have cultural traits from their foreign parent's country (like eating with chopsticks).

Tons Of New Things: World Adventures adds a ton of new furniture, ingredients, collectables, recipes and other things to the usual inventory of stuff you can get in buy mode or find in the world. It gives the diehard Sims fans something more to do now that they've discovered the Ambrosia recipe. In particular, photography will eat up the collection freaks because the game can recognize what you're taking pictures of and classify the photos in sets. For example, there's a nature set that gives you a special bonus for taking a picture of a Death Fish and a Life Fish in the same tank.

A Step Toward Multiculturalism: I think some people might claim the portrayals of France, China and Egypt are shallow and therefore insulting. However, based on what I've seen of the Sims from its earliest origins, World Adventures is a huge step toward a multiculturalism-aware game. That sounded horribly Californian of me, I know. But I've got two little cousins who are half Chinese – they are going to love that their Sims get to eat with chopsticks.

Final Thoughts
I've got to get a new graphics card. How can I properly appreciate my sim turning into a mummy if I can't make out his face in the mirror when he looks at himself?

Turbine takes players from the Mines of Moria to the Siege of Mirkwood on December 1st, when the digital expansion pack goes on sale for $19.99. As a special incentive to return to the game, lapsed players who reactivate their accounts using a multi-month plan between now and October 31st will get the expansion free of charge, which is perhaps Turbine's way of making loyal customers extremely angry.

Today Turbine also announces the LOTRO Adventurer's Pack, which adds two character slots to players' accounts, as well as two shared bank slots to facilitate item transfer between characters. The pack is now available for preorder, with those who do receiving an 8% increase to their run speed thanks to the Harbinger's Cloak and the Dusky Nimblefoot Goat mount to boot.

For more information, head over to the expansion website. Note that the special offers are only available for a limited time, after which you'll just have to suffer, and no one enjoys suffering.

Chaos Rises next spring, when THQ releases the next chapter in the Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War saga, Chaos Rising. The Chaos Space Marines, a dark mirror to the regular, non-chaotic but sometimes a bit untidy Space Marines, are a new playable army for Dawn of War. Battling the traitorous he traitorous Space Marines of the Black Legion is only the beginning, as THQ's vice president of global brand management Kevin Kraff explains.

"Chaos Rising delivers a tremendous amount of new content, including the powerful Chaos Space Marines, new multiplayer maps and units, a new level cap and a continuation of the Blood Ravens single player campaign. Relic's passion for the Warhammer 40,000 universe and talent in crafting innovative RTS games will ensure Chaos Rising is an engaging experience that will advance the franchise and genre."

Yes, there will be new units across all armies, and the level cap is being upped from 20 to 30. With that much more power on the battlefield, Chaos Rising couldn't be a more appropriate name. THQ is aiming for a spring 2010. Those of you interested in a sneak peek can check out the December issue of PC Gamer, due out in the middle of next month.

The new basement tool allows The Sims 3 players to create underground structures up to four levels deep, and EA has plenty of new tomb objects in store in order to help facilitate the joy of exploration. Objects like the Fogger, which hides unexplored areas from the player's view, or hidden stairways, which help facilitate secret passages. Other important objects include that old staple the floor switch, and traps that shoot fire, steam, electricity, or darts. This is going to be so much fun. Toss in a couple Saw-inspired face bear traps and I'll be in heaven.

Check out the rather large list of tomb objects EA released today below, and start planning out your tomb so you can get building when the expansion arrives on November 17th.

And yes, I am already planning my underground Sim torture chamber, but don't you dare judge me, or you'll be right there with them.

Here is some of the dozens of Tomb Objects and Object Updates:

Tomb Object (Fogger): The tomb object is the cornerstone of tomb building and will often be placed in every room of the tomb. The Tomb Object is what creates the "fog" that hides non-explored rooms from the player. This lets you create a sense of discovery and suspense as your Sims explore new tombs. The "fog" will recede from a room when a player enters the room through a door, descends stairs into the room, enters a room that is connected to a fogged room with an arch, or if a Sim "Looks Through" a window that looks into a fogged room. Adding or Removing fog is also a potential Activated Behavior.

Floor Switch: The floor switch is a classic adventure game object. It is a small, 1 tile floor object on which Sims can stand or push statues. Stepping On and Off the switch are both Triggers that can connect to Activated behaviors. Floor Switches can also be set to Appear or Disappear.

Wall and Floor Trap: The traps are two different objects that can be placed on the wall or floor. These can be set to shoot fire, darts, steam, or electricity on unsuspecting Sims. They can have a variety of states, including hidden and dormant, armed and visible, hidden and armed, or hidden and firing. Each of these states can be activated by Sims walking over them or as an Activated Behavior. Traps can light Sims on fire or knock them out. However, there are multiple ways to handle traps. Sims can disarm them by tinkering with them, or push statues upon them to disarm. Water will disarm a fire trap, which makes a great puzzle element when paired with the steam trap…which creates water! Sims can walk with immunity through a fire trap when soaked. Experiment and come up with your own puzzles!

Dive Well: Dive Wells are one of the most exciting Tomb Objects. Sims can use them to become Soaked, which makes them immune to fire, or to put themselves out when already on fire. A Hidden Switch can be set at the bottom of dive wells as a Trigger. You can always place treasures at the bottom. Another fun element is that you can set the color of the water in the dive well, so fire tombs can have blood red water, whereas a tomb with a poison theme can have murky green water. Dive Wells are most fun when they are set up as portals. Dive Wells set as Portals will connect to each other. Sims will go to the bottom, and then emerge from the closest dive well on the same floor. It's also possible to designate a Dive Well as an Uber Dive Well. Here, you designate a name so that you can define the precise point of origin and exit – even across multiple lots in the world. This lets you create one-of-a-kind entrances to island tombs and other inaccessible areas.

Treasure Chest: The biggest reason to explore anything is to find treasure at the end. Treasure Chests let you fill your tomb creations with various treasures, keys, garbage, or whatever you can imagine. Opening and Inserting a Keystone a treasure chest are also Triggers that can set Activated Behaviors.

Sarcophagus: The Sarcophagus can act as a large, ornate treasure chest, a place to hide, a place to sleep, and even a place to WooHoo. Most exciting, however, is its ability to spawn mummies. Mummies will patrol tombs in search of unsuspecting Sims to pummel and *gasp* curse! Mummies provide an element of danger and the unexpected to any tomb.

Torch Lever: The torch lever, like the Floor Switch, is an object for Sims to pull on to trigger Activated Behaviors. Some can be set to active, whereas others can be dummies, forcing players to carefully examine their surroundings. It's possible to define the colors of the torch light, which allows Tomb Designers to provide hints and clues on how to complete puzzles. Or, to simply set the ambience of a tomb!

Pushable Statues: Pushable Statues are another classic adventure game element. They can be pushed on top of traps to disarm them, or cleverly pushed through a maze to unveil a formerly blocked path. Their most common use is to be paired with a floor switch. Floor Switch triggers can be set so that they activate something when a Sim is on them, but deactivate as soon as a Sim steps off of them. This means a Sim must push a statue on top of them in order to keep the floor switch depressed. Pushable Statues can be set to be secretly pushable (they require inspection), visibly pushable (no inspection needed), or not pushable at all.

Hidden Stairways: Stairways from The Sims 3 can be set to Hidden now. This is an Activated Behavior, so that a Trigger can now Hide or Unhide the stairs. Hidden Stairways are a great way to surprise players. Just when it seems there's no way out, pulling a switch reveals a stairway!

The Elven Prophecy went live around 3AM Pacific, with players flocking in droves to get their hands on the first new playable race for Runes of Magic, the pointy-eared Elves. Those who weren't giving the new Druid and Warden classes a spin were busy exploring the strange new lands added in the expansion.

As if all of this content weren't enough, Frogster is planning a week filled with launch activities for Chapter II, including a Level Competition with 3,000 in-game diamonds set aside as prizes.

Visit www.runesofmagic.com and sign up for a free account to give the new additions a go.

Update: Turbine has clarified the pricing of the upcoming LOTRO expansion, writing: "Siege of Mirkwood will have a base price of $19.99. As with Moria last year, we're going to have a set of early upgrade offers that are very compelling. We're not quite ready to unveil those details yet, but we'll keep you posted."

The Siege of Mirkwood finishes what the Mines of Moria expansion for Lord of the Rings Online started, bringing an end to Volume II of the MMO's tale and opening up the lands East of the Misty Mountains. The free expansion pack ups the level cap for the game to 65, adds several new dungeons and raids, and introduces Skirmishes - randomized repeatable instances in which players train up their own armies to battle the forces of not-so-nice.

"2009 has been a year of unprecedented growth for The Lord of the Rings Online and the launch of Siege of Mirkwood will end the year with a bang," said Jeffrey Steefel, Executive Producer of The Lord of the Rings Online. "As the game expands east of the Misty Mountains, players will face the raging war and shadow that has spread across Middle-earth and the new Skirmish system will thrust players and their soldiers into the War of the Ring."

Check out the full list of announced features for the expansion below, and keep your eye out for screens and artwork from Siege of Mirkwood in the near future.

Siege of Mirkwood Features:

Ø The Epic Conclusion to Volume II: Mines of Moria™ – Under the command of Celeborn and Galadriel, players will fight through vast armies of Orcs alongside the Elves of Lórien in a battle that will take them to Dol Guldur, the fortress of the Ringwraiths. This update includes Book 9 and the Epilogue to the sweeping epic tale begun with the award-winning Mines of Moria expansion.

Ø Increased Level Cap - Players will be able advance their characters up to level 65, gaining access to new traits, virtues, skills and class quests.

Ø Answer the Call of War! – Jump into the heat of battle with the new Skirmishes feature. Skirmishes offer endless action in repeatable, randomized instances where players can create and lead customizable soldiers into battle, training them to greater skill as they earn victories against the forces of shadow. Answer the call of war wherever violence erupts with the new "World Join" function that lets players and their fellowships band together to fight in various locations throughout Middle-earth.

Ø Take up Arms! – Infiltrate the dark jails, deadly arenas and savage stables of Dol Guldur, the fortress of the Ringwraiths, and strike a blow against Sauron's forces in new 3 and 6-player instances. Call upon your fellows to adventure into the most deadly 12-player raid yet and face the ultimate challenge – the Nazgûl Lord!

Ø Major Gameplay Enhancements – Turbine continues to improve the award-winning experience of LOTRO with major improvements to the combat and Legendary Items systems. Players will experience improved responsiveness when in the heat of battle. Players will also be able to create and craft their own customized Second and Third Age Legendary Items from raw materials and grow their weapons' power to level 60. Achieve new Legacies, new titles, and a fourth Runic slot that will make Legendary Items even more unique and powerful.

The BattleForge Renegade Edition card set is an expansion of the Renegade Campaign introduced earlier this year, which added the Southern Wastes region of Nyn to the game. The expansion brings two new support factions in the Bandits and Stonekin, plus a whole mess of legendary creatures and buildings to help bolster your line as you advance through the ranks.

The Renegade Edition cards are now available in the BattleForge in-game store, purchasable for $2.50 or 250 BattleForge points. Check out the game's official website to download and play for free.

While work continues on the eagerly anticipated Walking in Stations update for EVE Online that will introduce avatars to the mix (recently renamed Incarna), EVE's 11th free update will be the newly announced Dominion. Dominion is all about the end game, or as CCP puts it, "Dominion is all about ownership-how you conquer and hold space, how you hold sway over fellow capsuleers and how you wage war against any who stand in your way. How do you make a name for yourself in a universe of 300,000 other players?"

The update will feature a more dynamic alliance combat system, allowing for more tactical strategy to be utilized in combat, a direct result of player feedback on the current state of the game.

Dominion will also bring enhanced social networking features to EVE Online to help foster social interaction, epic pirate mission arcs (arrrrr!), and more updates to the graphics engine, doing for planets what Apocrypha did for asteroids.

CCP promises to reveal much more about the expansion in the coming months. For now, keep your eyes on the official EVE Online: Dominion website.

The Sims 3 World Adventures introduces several exotic new locales for your little fake people to visit, all based off of real-world locations. China, France, and Egypt are represented in Shang Simla, Champs Les Sims, and Al Simhara respectively, allowing your Sims to explore strange new lands, hunt for treasure, meet new people, and discover new styles unique to each region, bringing foreign influence into your happy little town.

The expansion will bring with it exclusive online content, with the Mac and PC versions including 1,000 SimPoints that can be used to purchase said content. The expansion should be in stores the week of November 16th, with iPhone and mobile versions due out in early 2010.

I've never been a Sims fan, but I have to admit that The Sims 3 struck a chord in me. When I'm not playing it, the game isn't far from my mind. Thing is, it's the character interaction that keeps me occupied for hours, so I could care less whether I get to go to Sim-Egypt or Sim-China. I find the aspect of cultural exchange fascinating, however. It makes me want to send random Sims off on vacation, pay no attention to them, and then see how they've changed when they return.

Oh god. I've become one of them, haven't I?

The Elven Legacy free expansion for Runes of Magic adds several new areas to the Taborean map, from the Northeast's Weeping Coast to the Savage Lands, a rainforest area that serves as the naga-infested home of the elves. Frogster is adding the obligatory lava area, in the form of the Aotulia Volcano region, its ash-filled skies a stark contrast to the peaceful tranquility of the Elven Island, which I assume was named after Bob Elven or something.

I've included the game's previous world map so you can see just how much is being added to the game come September. I kind of like what they're doing with the place.

The Warden and the Druid join Runes of Magic's diverse cast of character classes when the second chapter, The Elven Prophecy, hits the game this September. The Warden is at one with the forest, travelling with a magical plant companion and casting beneficial spells on their allies. Meanwhile the Druid is a nature wizard, with a much more diverse catalog of spells, from healing to damage to support. According to the picture here, one of them wears tree bark, while the other one is a crazy near-naked plant lady.

Both of these new classes are being called Elf classes, meaning humans won't be able to play them until Frogster decides it would be a good idea. Considering the rate at which they add to the free-to-play game, that could be a matter of minutes.

While raising the level cap to 20 and adding in The Plane of Battle and Crime Syndicate Adventure Packs to Dungeons and Dragons online are nice features, players will probably find the most interesting update to be the new player class, Favored Soul. Despite the incredibly stupid name, the Favored Soul class seems like it'd be interesting to play. They are basically warrior priests who share the Warlock class' large number of spell points, as well as their inability to freely swap out spells. Nifty.

Along with those changes come changes to the game's combat system, updated visuals, and the return of the Stormreach Marketplace, which was destroyed during an in-game event last year. For those of you looking for a bit more detail, here's the list directly from the media alert:

The new upgrades to DDO Unlimited include:

Ø New Player Class: Players can now create characters using DDO Unlimited's newest class, Favored Soul. Favored souls draw on divine magic to both heal and destroy. Like clerics, favored souls have access to powerful healing spells, but they are also more skilled with weapons than any other spell caster. Like sorcerers, they get a larger number of spell points than other spell casters and cannot freely switch spells at taverns or rest shrines.

Ø Raised Level Cap: Players can now advance to 20th-level under the D&D® rules. This includes access to new arcane and divine spells, new character abilities, feats, and skills.

Ø New Adventure Packs:

o The Plane of Battle — Players can now travel to the Plane of Shavarath and explore a large wilderness area as they try to infiltrate several fortresses and upset the carefully laid plans of the Devils.

o The Crime Syndicate — Coin Lord Yorrick Amanatu, who controls the Stormreach Guard, wants players to help him eliminate the growing Sharn Syndicate presence in Stormreach.

Ø The Fiercest Combat – This update introduces some exciting enhancements to DDO's extraordinary combat experience including a new combat feedback and smart targeting system that gives players even more information and control that lets them fully engage in the battle by relying on their wits and reflexes in real time.

Ø Mind-blowing Visuals – Explore DDO's vivid and dangerous online world featuring some of the most advanced graphics in the industry with the fully deployed DX10 technology that brings the world to life.

Ø The Return of the Marketplace! – Last year, Turbine held a spectacular live in-game event that resulted in the complete destruction of the Stormreach Marketplace. The Coin Lords have completed their beautification project and the once desolated Market has been restored to its days as a center for trade, entertainment, and welcome to all who come to Stormreach!

Frogster has released a set of new Runes of Magic screenshots, showing off the elves and the green, leafy areas they will inhabit come September. They've been hidden away from the general population of Taborea up until now, but there's just something about your world becoming the setting for an online roleplaying game that makes you want to shimmy your highly intelligent and extremely agile bottom out of hiding.

I'm sure we can expect the usual sort of Elvish accoutrements to arrive with the expansion - elegant swords, powerful bows, and nearly-naked mailbox dancing. Finally.

The Stygian Abyss expansion gets its name from Ultima Underworld: The Stygian Abyss, the 1992 PC game that saw players exploring a vast dungeon in first-person view. Now that dungeon comes to Ultima Online, along with a new playable character race in the form of gargoyles. Gargoyles have long been a staple of the series, and now players will be able to take the flying stone creatures for a spin, with new skills such as imbuing, mysticism, and throwing. Oooo, throwing.

The expansion's existence was first revealed in 2007 accidentally on the Japanese Ultimate Online website, so EA's official announcement comes a bit late. Still, I suppose seeing a massively multiplayer online game soldier on after twelve years is cause enough for a press release. Ultima Online: Stygian Abyss is due out this summer.

Players take to the skies in the Gracia Final expansion for Lineage II, using the aerial transformation skills Aurabird Falcon, Aurabird Owl and the Kamael's special Final Flying Form to explore Gracia's new aerial and ground-based hunting grounds. As always, player versus player combat plays a large role in Lineage II, and Gracia Final brings new ways for the pretty players to kill each other. The Olympiad tournament expands to allow for 3-on-3 battles, and the new Aerial Cleft PvP arena allows players to sign up for random battles.

The expansion also introduces territory battles, which allows for both clans and un-allied players acting as mercenaries to participate in massive capture the flag style skirmishes.

NCsoft just dropped us a line to let us know that the expansion was now available on the public test server, so if you play, head over to FilePlanet to snag the test client. If not, enjoy the pretty new pictures of Gracia Final.