Tuesday Geek News - 04/24/12 ~ TheInnerGeekZone.com

Today's Geek News brought to you by me putting off mowing the yard as long as possible, cause let's face it, I'd rather be playing games...

Everquest Sees F2P Success

So far, so good for Everquest. After switching to free-to-play, the thirteen year old MMO has seen a 150% login increase.

Recommended Kickstarter

The creators of Titan Quest have begun work on a new action-RPG, and with 24 days still left to go, Kickstarter backers have already pledged more than half of the $280,000 goal. The project is titled Grim Dawn, and promises to be an "old-school ARPG experience".

"Grim Dawn won’t hold your hand to ensure you never make a bad decision and it won’t feature a story on rails with linear level design to prevent you from ever getting lost. It will, however, offer you the chance to do things in your own way, have an experience that is unique from everyone else playing the game and explore off the beaten path to see and do things that not every player is likely to find."

Check out the official Kickstarter page for more info, and throw them a few bucks while you're at it.

Anno 2070 Expansion Announced

Ubisoft has announced an upcoming expansion for its RTS, Anno 2070, and it's called Deep Ocean. The game is due out later this fall, but Ubisoft dropped a list of features coming with the expansion:

New Civilization Level

For the first time in the history of the Anno series, an add-on brings a new civilization level: the Tech faction is expanded by the Genius population class.

A Deeper Game Experience

The new population class grants access to the new Tech Monument, new corresponding production chains and consumption goods. Furthermore, this new class features all-new vehicles and new items allowing players to develop industries, strengthen economies and exploit new resources.

Additional Content and Challenges

Players will also be able to:

- Acquire enemy territories without military force using the Hostile Takeover feature.

- Resolve energy problems by building the new underwater geothermal power plant.

- Optimize energy supply through Energy Transfer between islands.

- Face a new dangerous disaster: the Tsunami!

- Unlock new rewards for each faction’s career ladder.

- Take advantage of new underwater trading routes.

- Experience over 150 new challenging quests.

- Unlock over 30 new achievements.

- Access player comparison via new leaderboards.

Tribes: Ascend Raid & Pillage Update

Tribes: Ascend is quickly establishing itself as a top-notch shooter experience, and updates are already pouring out. The Raid & Pillage Update brings some new content for the Raider class, including:

Plasma Gun
NJ5-B SMG
Cluster Grenade
Griever skin
Mercenary skin

The cosmetic skins will be purchasable via real-money only (Tribes Gold). All new weapons can be unlocked with gameplay XP, or purchasable with Tribes Gold.