If you've not been reading the forum lately, you might have missed our very own BlueFlames giving his thoughts, opinions and analysis on the current state of Mechwarrior Online - even detailing some of his builds for you to read about!
As ever, BF gives plenty of detail and insight in his writings and they're well worth a read for anyone following or playing the game! If you're interested, take a look at his latest Thought of the Moment!
Incase you've missed - The STR Store has just been updated with a new design, used across a range of new & existing products. As Redbubble have introduced several new items (such as clocks) since my last store update, I am also in the process of updating a few of our older designs to be used on these too.
The new design (seen to the left) came about due to the release of Persona 5 and my love for its colour scheme & incredible sense of style. After spending a good few hours with the game I had the idea to create a new P5 inspired Shattered Star, and so I set to in Photoshop. This idea & design quickly stemmed to being used for a new STR wallpaper, 2 forum avatars and a STR Store update.
The new wallpaper & avatars can be found here, and more info on the store update can be found here. Comments are appreciated.
Hope you all like!
We're quiet, you say? Inactive, you say? Not really - you just need to know where to look. That's right. While our forums and our website are as important and awesome as ever, and still going to be using them for as long as we exist, we're also talking up a storm a lot of the time on Discord these days.
Not tried it before? Well for those of you who remember the IRC heydays, think IRC but with a permanently visible chat log, and built in voice chat, and a bunch of other features. Now that we're all old (even I can't deny that any more) and have jobs, it's become a pretty convenient solution for us. There's always some kind of conversation thread going on, and our usual E3/election/etc live watchalongs are still as fun as ever when it's event time.
So whether you're looking for information, wanting to join us, or just wanting good conversation, come join us! It's free, and only some of us bite. Hope to see you there!
If you haven't already seen on the forums (thanks Doc!) or social media, some of you may be interested to know that a revival project for Neocron 1 has been launched.
"We are the Neocron Classic Team and we are working to bring you the closest Neocron 1 experience possible.
With permission from Kirk Lenke, Noah 'Lykos' Dolph has taken over lead on a Neocron 1 Type Server Project.
Our focus on progressing the game is going retro, rather than the forward akin to the NST. We know for some players, BDoY was a difficult transition and the progression of those changes into Evo 2.2 have resulted in more seperation from the roots of Neocron. Items such as Nanites are not in this world, nor are Protector or Absorber.
We know the universe of Neocron is rich and compelling. We believe the demand for Neocron is still there. It is our hope and intent to deliver a complimentary experience in parallel to Titan. Our package can be installed along-side the Neocron Community Edition and we are honoring the player base and NST staff by ensuring that names are not inappropriately claimed.
But who are we and what do we do?
Lykos - Developer Server Admin Programmer Content Design World Design Jack of all trades
Therenall - Developer Server Admin Programmer Troubleshooting Network Administrator Tool Maker Expert on all things Neocron
Wizard - Developer Server Admin Programmer A real life wizard, beard and all
Juvens - Quality Assurance Gamemaster Forum Super Moderator
We all have a love for everything Neocron and wish to see the community come back together on the platform that started it all."
Even to this day and after all my years of gaming, I'd still consider NC1 to have offered one of the best online experiences I've ever had. It was also my first MMO and the game I discovered & joined the STR in too (then "SSC"), so I'll always have a soft spot for it for those reasons too!
For more information and to keep up-to-date on the team's developments, head on over to the Neocron Classic Community forums which can be found here. Good luck to them!
So another year passes us by, and with it another all-night E3 conference session for us! Followed by days of following the latest trailers and announcements of course - E3 is our favourite time of year, that's for sure!
A few of us have been writing up our thoughts, impressions and recommendations from this year's gaming spectacle. You can find them over in this forum thread if you're so inclined.
Come take a read and let us know what you think! We'd love to know what you thought of E3 this year, and maybe even get a recommendation that we might have overlooked!
With much gritting of teeth and feigned happiness, I must report that once again Isileth has shamed us all by taking the world famous STR Fantasy Premier League championship for yet another year. Speaking with much smugness after his triumph, the champion addressed his peons thusly:
"You know, the fact that year after year I have to present the trophy to myself really does make you guys look like a bunch of sore losers. Sure each year I already have the trophy so from a logistics perspective it is easier for me to just present it to myself but really you guys need to be putting together some sort of ceremony otherwise it just makes you look bad. But enough of that, this is a time for great celebration.
Few men are built of the stuff it takes to win the STR Fantasy Premier League, to lift the trophy is a reward saved for only those of great character and resolve, to be born of such ability along with the drive and motivation required for this immense achievement is truly a once in a generation gift. It just so happens that I was the one chosen for this gift.
To win once is a life defining event, to win twice is to be assured your place in sporting history, to win three times elevates you above all men who have come before, to win four times raises you above all yet to come, to win five times is surely beyond any mere mortals ability, to win six times is frankly just getting silly, but to win seven times...to win seven times in a row...who could even dream of such a thing?
The seventh FPL trophy is mine!"
Blizzard's fantastic online shooter Overwatch is now only a couple of days away from release. Excited? We are!
Like with the Open Beta, Overwatch is due to launch at the same time globally. Here are a few times to help you find out when it will be available in your region:
00:00 BST on May 24th (UK)
01:00 CEST on May 24th (Europe)
16:00 PDT on May 23rd (US West)
19:00 EDT on May 23rd (US East)
Pre-ordered your copy yet? If not, then why not come join us? - Hope to see you all ingame!
As some of you may have noticed, our Social Media panel to the right of your screen has just changed a little bit!
We've been thinking for a while now that we'd like to draw in more of the content that we're all creating on Social Media to the website, and so we've decided to replace our existing Twitter feed (which fed directly from our official Twitter account) with a feed from a list of all our members instead!
Our hope is that this will help personalise the site a bit more, generate more content, and have the added bonus of giving everyone some publicity for their own brand of insanity ;)
If you're not on the list and would like to be, please drop us a line and we'll get you added!
As you may be aware, Blizzard's upcoming shooter Overwatch entered open beta yesterday and is currently free to download & play - No beta key, previous sign-up or pre-order required.
In terms of content, the beta includes pretty much everything you'll be able to expect on launch day; including its full roster of heroes & maps. As such you'll be able to jump in there & get a feel for all the different heroes & their abilities before the game officially launches on May 24th.
- Matches are on the short side so if you have a limited amount of time, this shouldn't be an issue. Overwatch is really well suited for jumping in and out, as and when you want. Unlocks all consist of vanity items like skins & emotes so no other player will have a heads-up on you in terms of weapons or anything, just time played (though all progress from the beta will be wiped upon release anyhow!). The game is also very small (under 6GB) so you won't have a massive client to download just to try it!
- Due to the art direction & the fact that it is extremly well optimized, you don't need a monster rig to be able to play it either. The game runs beautifully.
There are a few of us already playing it but it would be lovely to see a few more people in there. Fancy giving it a try with us? Drop by our Discord channel and see if anyone's playing or up for some games - shatteredstar.org/discord
Beta ends on Monday (May 9th) at 6pm BST.
Just a quick update to let you guys know that we now have a more convenient link to give to people when inviting them to our Discord channel.
If you're looking to invite someone into Discord, rather than generating an instant invite link for them (like https://discord.gg/0iscxurX8fkWaodg which is set to not expire), you can simply give them shatteredstar.org/discord. This will redirect them to the exact same place, just with a link that is much easier to remember and pass out to people!
The Discord widget can also be found on our site via Community > Join us in Discord
Feel free to drop by!
![BF3 Beta Scoreboard #2 [30/09/11]](/images/screenshots/other/bigones/bf32011100103531278.jpg)
