Funcom has regretfully announced a delay to The Secret World: Issue #2, the second of promised monthly content updates for the fledgling MMORPG. Previously scheduled for August 28, the update, titled Digging Deeper, has been pushed back to September 11. Before you throw an earth-shaking tanty do recall that Funcom laid off a number of staff this week; the developer attributes the delay to “readjusting the team and our internal development processes”. Digging Deeper’s going to introduce a rocket launcher so, you know, it’s probably worth a little extra wait.

Source: The Secret World

With The Secret World still bravely pursuing the subscription model while countless others head free-to-play, Patrick Vuleta examines the first of their monthly content updates to see if they’re really serious about providing value for money.

Confronted and confounded by ever-increasingly more complex skill trees in your RPG’s? Daniel Wilkes is as well, and he examines those of The Secret World and Path of Exile to see if there’s really a “skill tree sweet spot”.

To celebrate one month of being, well, launched, The Secret World will be having a free weekend next weekend. Anybody will be able to play the game for free the whole weekend, including people who created and used beta testing accounts but did not end up buying the full game. Special in-game events, rewards and firework-related explosions will also be on offer.

Source: Massively

With The Secret World coming under fire for censoring human nudity but not bizarre demonic nudity, our resident gaming lawyer Patrick Vuleta looks at nudity under the Australian ratings system: how far can game developers go, and what will the R18+ change mean for adult content like this? All the answers inside.

There is a new post up at The Secret World blog, from Mr. Tornquist himself, outlining all the new features and upcoming changes that will be coming with future updates. And there are a lot of them. You’re better off checking out the post yourself for the details, but here’s a taste of what’s coming: There will be monthly mission packs, featuring fully voiced cut-scenes that will be entirely free. There are raids in The Secret World‘s future, with information about the first coming in August. There will be PvP dungeons and a handy dungeon finder, for all your dungeon-finding needs. Entirely new adventure zones are being announced in August, as well. Pets are being updated and upgraded, and combat will be getting the ol’ spit shine. That’s the bare bones of it, guys, so hit up the forum post and see for yourself what else is in store. Also, over at a different announcement there has also been another ‘dimension’ added called Leviathan, which will be marked as a roleplaying dimension very shortly.

Source: TSW Forum, TSW Blog

Funcom’s story-driven MMO promises not only a dark tale of mystery and the occult, but a mechanical revolution as well – with no levels, no classes and no grind, The Secret World has set its sights high. But can it deliver? Patrick Vuleta has logged over a hundred hours in game, and came back with this report.

The launch trailer for The Secret World is out today, alongside the game itself. This reporter is not going to lie – it’s a little pretentious. But that’s okay! It’s what we’ve come to expect from our trailers. In any case, there is lots of slo-mo fighting, sweeping vistas, Dinah Washington crooning in the background and what is distinctly Cthulhu near the end there. Check it out below.

We spent last weekend neck-deep in the intrigue and occult sorcery of Funcom’s upcoming MMO, The Secret World. Now we return to you, slightly glassy-eyed and muttering of the darkness. Read on for our impressions.

At the recent EA Showcase event in London – home of the Templar – Toby McCasker got the chance to sit down with Funcom to chat about all things mysterious and forbidden. Oh, and screeching Norweigan black metal music.