How do you beat the beta leakers and NDA breakers at their own game? According to the folks at Carbine it’s simple – release the patch notes before they do. Timed to coincide with the start of WildStar's Closed Beta Test 2, the team is being incredibly open about what the new wave of testers can look forward to.

In a mammoth WildStar Wednesday update fans can now dig into a stack of tradeskill information, theorycraft over the latest class changes and delve into new dungeon and battleground information. Milestone 31 contains over nineteen pages of patch notes (you can read them in full on the official site) covering every aspect of the game, from the new Mentoring and Rallying systems to the many UI enhancements.

The death of an MMO, while uncommon, is not unheard of. The death and rebirth of an MMO is another matter entirely.

Certainly, some MMOs have seen drastic overhauls over the course of their lifespan: perhaps most notably, World of Warcraft with its Cataclysm expansion, which sundered and reshaped the old world, but kept the core gameplay systems intact. The now-defunct Star Wars Galaxies is probably the closest an MMO has come to being completely remade, but the update that did so, dubbed the New Game Experience, was much-maligned and arguably sent the game into a death spiral.

Today, CCP pulls the shrink-wrap off its latest game. After running in open beta since January 22, DUST 514 is ready for prime time. Developed in Shanghai exclusively for the PlayStation 3, the MMOFPS represents a new window on EVE Online’s universe of New Eden.

More importantly, the Icelandic developer sees DUST 514 as the start of a new deal for console-bound FPS gamers. As Chief Marketing Officer David Reid put it, there are tens of millions of Battlefield and Call of Duty players waiting to be liberated from a prison that they don’t know they’re in.

In his latest letter, Yoshi P confirms that Beta Phase 3 will be starting in the beginning of June and that the game will launch on PC and PS3 this summer!  Discuss in the Zam Forums!

Movement is the oxygen of a video game. When the controls are perfect the keyboard and mouse become subconscious extensions of our self, translating commands to our avatars at the speed of thought. When they go wrong, playing becomes a frustrating battle that can leave you feeling locked out of the game. 

In an MMO, moving around is the single thing you’ll spend most of your time doing, as our own Bill "Lethality" Leonard discussed following his visit to WildStar's US Arkship event. Whether it’s dodging lasers from a crazed killer robot, chasing after a mining node that’s grown legs and is sprinting away, or just strolling around and enjoying the scenery, you’ll be constantly racking up the miles. Which is why, for a game like WildStar, movement is particularly important. So important, in fact, that they’ve devoted an entire DevSpeak video to the subject.

What does it feel like when a developer rolls out the red carpet? WildStar’s European fans were treated to their own Arkship-style fan gathering down in Brighton, UK recently, and I was incredibly lucky to snag an invite of my own. With the promise of plenty of hands-on playtime, some in-depth Q&A panels and a first look at both PvP arenas and instanced dungeons, I was drooling with anticipation from the moment it hit my inbox.

All servers will come down at 7am PDT on Tuesday, April 30, 2013 for the Scars of the Awakened patch. Estimated downtime is currently three hours. Part of this maintenance will occur at the same time as an SOE-wide maintenance. The patch notes are available on the official forums.

Your dedicated ZAM staff brings you our coverage of the GU66: Scars of the Awakened material to help guide you with the new content!

• Quest Series: Adventuring and Tradeskill
• Zone Gulde: Cobalt Scar
• Walkthrough: Siren's Grotto - Alluring Embrace (Advanced Solo)
• Gallery: Get a Glimpse of Scars!
• All Game Update 66 coverage

Game Update 66, Scars of the Awakened, launches on Tuesday, April 30, 2013. In this update players visit the vastly changed Velious land of Cobalt Scar and its dungeon, Siren's Grotto.

Adventurers over level 90 can speak to Joren Kalth in any major city or on the Thurgadin docks in the Great Divide to be sent on their way to Cobalt Scar. Players once again work with Osh, who is trying to save his brethern from a corruption that has twisted their native land. After the othmir problem is addressed, the famed Field Marshal Vishra sends word, and the work to assist the New Combine with their various minor issues begins.

Cobalt Scar offers players 45 new quests, four daily missions, and one weekly group mission. Missions will send players who have completed most of the Cobalt Scar quests into Siren's Grotto, but access to Siren's Grotto itself has no requirements. The Scar has several contested heroic and epic creatures, which may drop the Obol currency for adventurers who have completed the Chains of Eternity signature quest series. New collections can be found in both new zones.

While owning the Chains of Eternity expansion will ease the combat difficulty of GU66, it is not required (the Destiny of Velious expansion is required). We recommend that your adventurer at least be equipped in Withered Lands or Skyshrine armor before diving into this update.

EverQuest II's lastest game update, Scars of the Awakened, is right around the corner with new content for Norrathian crafters!  Be sure to take your artisan to Cobalt Scar where Acting Supplymaster Grant could use a hand. Along the way you'll help the Othmir, save the day at the main camp, and help a mysterious dark elf. Your reward is a nifty set of gloves handed down the Bayle line. Check out our Cobalt Scar Crafting Series guide and the shopping list so you're not shy on resources.

Level 95 crafters will find that their Apprentices have some new ideas and need new equipment to get the job done.  The new researched recipes will use Tier 10 resources and are set up so that while they require more reactants, those reactants aren't as hard to come by as they are in the level 80 recipes. 

Tier 10 recipe books are being renamed to be consistent with other tiers. With GU66 all volumes will be available on the usual merchants, although the Advanced once are quite expensive. It's important to note that you can still get these recipes adventuring and questing, and you don't have to buy them from an NPC to obtain them.

Game Update 66, Scars of the Awakened, is slated to hit live servers Tuesday April 30. Be sure to log in this weekend and get some of that bonus experience!

When building a sandbox-based MMO, getting the foundation right is crucial. It's a lesson that CCP learned when developing EVE Online, and has since continued into World of Darkness. But while the studio didn't present much gameplay, executive producer Chris McDonaugh shared a wealth of information about those pre-production steps.