The holiday weekend made gaming news a bit slow so we are doing a quick recap of the big gaming news of the past week:
- Tribes Ascent, the upcoming revival of the first person shooter series (shown above), will be a free-to-play game when it comes out this fall.
- Blizzard has announced that it is now offering an unlimited trial version of World of Warcraft, letting people play the original MMO game up to level 20.
- Activision will hold Call of Duty XP, a special event for fans of the Call of Duty shooter franchise, in Los Angeles on September 2-3.
- Bungie has announced plans for Bungie Aerospace, a new division that will assist smaller game developers with making mobile and social-based games.
- Disney Interactive has shut down its UK-based Black Rock game studio which made acclaimed racing games like 2010"s Split/Second.
- Red 5 Studios has filed a lawsuit against Webzen, claiming that the developer has not done enough to promote Red 5"s upcoming shooter Firefall.
- Speaking of Firefall, Red 5 also announced today that sci-fi writer Orson Scott Card will assist the developer in creating Firefall"s storyline.
- Funcom"s fantasy MMO Age of Conan has now made its previously announced switch to a free-to-play game.
- Open beta testing for the revival of the Hellgate franchise has now launched.
- Respawn Entertainment, formed by many former Call of Duty/Infinity Ward team members, has relaunched its official web site and posted a (blurry) first screenshot for its unannounced game.
- Valve has announced the winners of its Portal 2 mapping contest.