Non-EQ2: First-Timer’s Guide to Fan Faire, DC Universe Trailer & Beta, Monkey Island 2, FreeRealms Lifetime $29

I am really keeping these non-EQ2 posts to a minimum as per the request of readers during the spring Survey. But there’s a lot of news around the industry and in related games, and since Comic-Con is going on, well, we’re going to step out of EQ2 for a second for a few updates…

First-Timer’s Guide to Fan Faire

First up, Minerva, Community Relationships Manager for SOE Denver, has posted A First-Timer’s Guide to Fan Faire. It’s really an accounting of her experiences at last year’s Fan Faire event. A travel diary if you will, which may give you some ideas of what to expect, what to avoid, and how to have the best possible weekend.

Speaking from personal experience, it’s so easy to miss the chance to talk to more people, or focus too much attention on one thing and miss out on something else. I myself and struggling with the insane panel schedule this year trying to figure out how to catch everything I want to. There is one block where there are FOUR separate panels I wish I could be in. Aaarrghhhh!!

DC Universe Online Teaser and Trailer

DC Universe Online is finally on the march to a release this fall, and so it is time for a DC Universe Online Teaser (available now) with the full Trailer to follow tonight at 12:30am PDT. It will be interesting to see if SOE’s officially licensed game can unseat player favorite City of Heroes and its sister City of Villains.

DC Universe Online Beta is now open!

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge

If you read EQ2Wire or listened to my podcast with A View from the Top, you know that I am a fan of the Monkey Island series. With the July 7th, 2010 release of Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge Special Edition, all 5 Monkey Island games, from the original Secret of Monkey Island, and including the episodic series from Telltale Games are now available in High Definition and/or 3D graphics.

Secret of Monkey Island @ Steam ($8.99) | Monkey Island 2: LeChuck’s Revenge @ Steam ($9.99) | Tales of Monkey Island @ Telltale ($24.95). Curse of Monkey Island (game #3) and Escape from Monkey Island (game #4) are out-of-print and require some fiddling and special drivers/setup to get working, but they respectively have 640×480 cinematic graphics and 3D graphics, with full voiceover and orchestral music. If you Google the Monkey Island Saga bittorrent, you can get a hold of these games.

Ok, last you’ll hear from me about Monkey Island for a few months. My next games will probably be Portal 2 and the new Silent Hill game.

FreeRealms Lifetime Membership

Finally, if you’ve got kids and have been paying the $4.99 membership to unlock all of the sequestered content in FreeRealms (in a January update, almost the entire game went to a monthly subscription), you may be interested in the FreeRealms Lifetime Membership available for a limited time for just $29.99.

We are whipping up a cool little article about Adorning and hope to get that posted this weekend. Less than 2 weeks to Fan Faire — I’m excited, but already mentally preparing myself for what will be a very hectic weekend!