GamersFirst Launches Fallen Earth: Alpha County Expansion to Subscribers Free of Charge

IRVINE, Calif., July 6, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- A leading publisher of Free2Play® massively multiplayer online games, GamersFirst (www.gamersfirst.com) today announced the new expansion pack for the award-winning post -apocalyptic action MMO Fallen Earth: Alpha County, is now available and free to current and future game subscribers. The new game content will further explore the game universe though five levels of new missions, new crafted items and equipment, improved combat balance, six new Skill Lines, player-versus-player (PvP) objectives, improved mutation abilities and player-controlled Progress Towns.

"For as long as anyone in the world of Fallen Earth can remember, Alpha County has been quarantined from the rest of the game universe... until now," said Marie "Aro Sei" Croall, Fallen Earth lead designer for Reloaded Productions. "The New Alpha County expansion will empower end-game Fallen Earth wastelanders with new missions, intense PvP and a whole new zone to explore."

New Zone, New Objectives

The Grainway was home to some of GlobalTech's most radical experiments in bio-engineered crops, designed to grow faster, heartier and live longer than average produce, with the hope to effectively end world hunger. That is, until the Shiva virus hit, mutating the super plants into something horrific, aggressive and very hungry. After a failed attempt to settle Alpha County after the fall, the Wall was built in a desperate attempt to keep the mutation from spreading to Kaibab. A decade later, the clones have found a way to breach the wall in the search for new exploitable resources. Are you ready for the challenge that is Alpha County?

With over 75 square miles of area to explores, Alpha County extends the player level cap to 55 and provides new missions, exotic recipes, craft able gear, two completely new town events and a new conflict town, Blockade. In Blockade, players can fight for control of rare resources as well as the crucial southern access road. Alpha County will feature a new ecology, more dangerous critters and mysterious buildings to punctuate the tragedy and horror found behind the Wall.

New Armor, Weapons and Tools for the Wastelands

With a new zone and new challenges comes new and rediscovered technology. Alpha County is giving crafters, science enthusiasts and other enterprising entrepreneurs all new toys to create and sell. New beatsticks, guns and tailor-colored Hexweave and Mesoprene armored suits are now available for discovery, creation and sale. The new weapons will keep within the theme of the new sector, pulling heavily from Alpha County's feral plant life, newly found technology and colors that match the isolated wasteland. And for the player that needs both speed and offensive capability in their transportation, crafters have finally perfected mounting a machinegun platform onto the popular Interceptor vehicle, creating the new Security Model.

Improved Combat Balance and Skill Lines

Getting by in the hostile wastelands requires flexibility, and with the introduction of Alpha County, player skill and mutation lines have been further diversified. The new system allows for wider varieties of player builds and roles in combat. To further balance gameplay, skills no longer increase automatically with base statistics, so player teams no longer get each other's best abilities without some specialized investment. Alpha County also introduces a raise in Advancement Points given per level as well as the Advancement Point cap to compensate for the additional cost of skills.

Along with the new level cap and Advancement Point additions, players will now have access to six new Skill Lines: Power, Precision, Heavy Weapons, Dirty Tricks, Illumination and Escape Artist. The newly implemented Power and Precision Skill Lines complement the popular combat-heavy characters, providing a few activated abilities as well as base increases to damage and critical hit chance. Heavy Weapons lets clones use the big area of effect guns, like rocket and grenade launchers, now available in Alpha County. Dirty Tricks lets gamers debuf and trap or snare foes, making them easy targets. Illumination provides a way to power teammates' skills and mutations through increased stamina and gamma regeneration rates. And for the combat aficionado, Escape Artist offers a player short duration buffs to resist or remove offensive actions used by other players and NPCs, as well as increased radar stealth when stalking prey.

New scavengers will also benefit from the opening of Alpha County, as now all players will start with 30 Advancement Points at creation, and all of the mutation lines unlocked. Players can raise skills and mutations based on play style as they progress though the game. The days of holding Advancement Points in reserve, waiting for the early mutations lines are over. And since it can be rough starting out not knowing what everything does, Alpha County also introduces training abilities to showcase certain skill and mutation lines.

Progress Towns

As wastelanders head over the Wall into Alpha County, new opportunities rise up at home in the form of Progress Towns. These PvP-specific player-controlled towns are there for the taking, allowing controlling players to craft buildings and defenses, creating a different look depending on who controls the town, be they guard bunkers, growing poisonous plants, or mine fields. Paramount to success will be player cooperation and the use of player-created defenses to repel faction invasions.

"The player community for Fallen Earth has been instrumental in helping us create an end-game zone that will both engage our hard-core players and inspire new players to level so they can get their piece of Alpha County," said Joseph Willmon, associate game director for GamersFirst. "Marie and her team have outdone themselves with the overall craft and polish in Alpha County, and we are excited to see how the player community reacts to their hard work."

Fallen Earth is a post-apocalyptic MMO set near the Grand Canyon in 2156. A hybrid third-person shooter and role-playing game, Fallen Earth features real-time twitch-based combat, six factions, a classless advancement system and a powerful crafting system in which players can make 95 percent of in-game items. With 1000 square kilometers of territory to explore, Fallen Earth players can experience an unparalleled game world while completing more than 5,500 game missions, including the ability to capture towns and territory.

Once transitioned to Free2Play, Fallen Earth will give free players completely unrestricted permanent access to every zone and instance in the game. Several types of services, items and conveniences will continue being sold in the Fallen Earth store. Subscriptions will be replaced by a four-tiered membership system that caters to players of all levels of engagement, and each membership will include reward points that can be used to obtain store items for free on a monthly basis. Current subscribers maintaining their memberships throughout the transition will collect significant Veteran Rewards that will include perks such as lifetime upgrades to a premium tier membership for the price of an existing subscription, unique veteran-only items, and bonus quality-of-life services yet to be determined.

To get up-to-date information on GamersFirst and Fallen Earth's Community and Fan Pages, check out the following links:

Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/fallenearthgame
Development Blog – http://fallenearth.gamersfirst.com/
Website – http://www.gamersfirst.com/fallenearth or www.fallenearth.com
Twitter – @FallenEarth @GamersFirst

About Reloaded Productions

Reloaded Productions is the creative game development studio subsidiary of GamersFirst.com and K2 Network Inc with studio operations in Irvine, CA, Cary, NC and Edinburgh, UK. Reloaded Productions' roster of massively multiplayer online games includes APB Reloaded, Hailan Rising and Fallen Earth. For more information about Reloaded Productions, please visit http://www.reloadedproductions.net or follow us on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/reloadedproductions.

About GamersFirst

GamersFirst is the leading Free2Play® MMO game publisher in the Western hemisphere. GamersFirst.com serves more than 30 million players in over 160 countries with offices throughout the Americas, Europe and Asia. GamersFirst.com features the hit MMOG's Knight Online, Fallen Earth, Sword2, War Rock and 9Dragons and future hits APB Reloaded, Hailan Rising, Victory: Age of Racing and Taikodom: Living Universe. Read more about the company and its games at http://www.GamersFirst.com.

SOURCE GamersFirst