New Eden Chronicles: Post-Firefall Fest

Firefall Fest. Say that puppy five times fast. It's actually pretty easy, so screw it. Red 5 Studios wrapped up Firefall Fest this past weekend and there was quite the line-up of guests who got to play the game with the community. And we all get to observe their shenanigans! On top of that, we became fans of Tony Rey and #TeamSweatRag. To cap the experience, Red 5 also released a brand new patch to give us beta testers more PvE content to chew on and/or abuse! Soon (TM) indeed. Between the new PvE content, new Halloween store items, and our push to create Friday Nigh Firefall, there's plenty to recap!

Read on, noble netizen.


The Fest

Six days of  live streams featuring all sorts of celebrities and internet personalities. We watched as much as we could given our daily lives with the whole "jobs" and "school" whatnot. If we weren't watching, we definitely kept track of stuff on the Twitters. History would show that EF helped create #TeamSweatRag for the hilarious,and moist, community host Tony Rey. He was rad and gave EF a swag bag. We were even luckier to get some shout-outs from FadedPez and Phobos!

We definitely enjoyed watching the guests wrassle with the game as they learned to jet around and, eventually, kill or execute in PvP and watch them rejoice. The teabagging coming from the veteran beta players was also pretty classy. The Extra Credits episode was definitely thought-provoking and James didn't... uhhh... hold back from the... uhhhh... hard questions. The conversation about eSports with Live On Three is also something that needs to happen more often. We hear a lot of good things about all the different games that make up eSports, but we also hear a lot of ways they can improve. Too much to get into at this point in time, but Red 5 is definitely moving in the right direction with the way they are designing the combat for eSports, as well as the features used to make the game fun to watch for spectators.

The Patch

PvE Content

The map itself hasn't changed all that much, but there are some new caves and watch towers worth noting. And sweet fancy moses! The Chosen are finally getting their act together and are taking over SiN points all over the map. Drop ships will spawn and any SiN points nearby are in danger of being overtaken. Once taken, Chosen will spawn in the area to defend their new foothold on human turf. This can be reversed, but it is wise to follow the buddy system cause we see a lot more of the powerful Chosen than we used to. It can take quite the firefight just to retake the SiN point, but the fun ain't over just then. Dropships will land in the area hell-bent on taking out the respawning SiN tower. And you're in their way. The combat is fast and furious and mmmboy does it feel good.

A whole variety of new mobs are out there now, lurking in the forests and beaches. If you're wandering certain areas, you will be able to spot a real gorgeous creatcha'. The wild Brontodon, just waiting to be poked into a rage. And we, like cavemen, will bring down the beast.

On top of that, each Tier 2 Battleframe has a unique ability to be unlocked and helps to further carve out the niches that each variant resides in. It will be interesting to see how these abilities change the landscape in PvP, if at all.

Halloween Store Items

The patch also rolled out a batch of holiday-specific cosmetic and usable items. Tired of your mere human head? Spice that puppy up with a Jason-esque hockey mask, a witch hat, a scarecrow mask, a skull face, or even a jack-o-lantern! Sweet. And there's also some quirky usable items that you can harass your friends with. Bat bombs has some lovely imagery associated with it. Want to troll your PvP victims? Grab the aptly named "Trollstone" to drop a headstone near your opponent right before you curb-stomp them into oblivion.

The Friday Night Firefall (#FNFF)

When the Fest was over, we picked up the entertainment side of things with our very first official Friday Night Firefall! We started out the night with some PvE action, getting two groups together led by Antilles and Cuculainn to attempt a meld thump, which has gotten significantly more difficult in recent weeks. Downright masochistic for the unprepared.

We ended the night with some PvP matched between Cuculainn's and Antilles' teams. After some switching up of players, we had fairly even matches. There was beer. And laughs. And Celine Dion impressions. And Bullwinkle impressions. And of course, tea. A Dane made fun of us for saying 1AM was a good time to call it quits for the night, when he was probably watching the sun rise. We salute you Vinkel, wherever you are.

While we get the highlights up and running,we will be hosting our next Friday Night Firefall tonight! We will be exploring more of the PvE content and once were good, tired, and/or loopy the PvP shenanigans will commence!