A brand new update for Minecraft has been released, bringing the version of the game up to 1.7.  The big deal with this patch?  It adds pistons to the game.  Not the Pistons, but you know...pistons.  As seen in the trailer below:

Hellgate: London fans rejoice, Hellgate is now entering into open beta.  Here is the full press release:

T3 Entertainment will be launching the Open Beta for its online action-RPG Hellgate today in Europe and North America, starting at 7:30pm Eastern Time. Those who missed the closed Beta finally get a chance to experience Hellgate’s pulse-pounding fusion of action and role-playing as they take on the demons of Hell. Players can access the Beta on the T3Fun site at http://hellgate.t3fun.com/.

Hellgate will celebrate the Open Beta launch with four special events to reward and entertain the growing Hellgate community - the Guild Reservoir event, the Daily Supplies event, the To Level in Hell event and the Level and Be Rewarded event, each awarding top players with valuable prizes. Additionally, the Open Beta will feature two new game modes – the PvP Duel Area and the zombie-infested Cow Room. Finally, there is a special prize waiting for everyone upon entering the Hellgate Open Beta today.

I never got a really good chance to play Hellgate: London.  I want to say I played it a bit during a beta test or something.  Maybe it was a demo.  Either way, it wasn't really good enough for me to buy.  Hopefully this resurrection of the game will be better.

The Crysis 2 patch v1.9 (and the DX11 Ultra Upgrade) have just been released. Here is the scoop:

The Crysis 2 PC 1.9 patch is also now available. Please ensure that you have the 1.9 patch installed before attempting to install the optional DX11 and Hi-Res Textures packages.

The following features will become available with the optional DX11 package installed:

- Tessellation + Displacement Mapping
- High Quality HDR Motion Blur
- Realistic Shadows with Variable Penumbra
- Sprite Based Bokeh Depth of Field
- Parallax Occlusion Mapping
- Particles Motion Blur, Shadows and Art Updates
- Water Rendering improvements and using Tessellation + Displacement Mapping
- Realtime Local Reflections (DX9)
- Contact Shadows (DX9)
- Improved Tone Mapping (DX9)

You can download it HERE.

Well...you really can't be surprised with this news as it was bound to happen sooner or later with BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic coming out probably before the end of the year.  SOE has announced that they will be closing down Star Wars Galaxies on December 15th, 2011.

I haven't played SWG in forever, but I did play it when it first came out and I played it a significant amount.  I remember staying up until 3am on a work night because I needed to run out to a harvester or whatever they were called.  I had fun with my guild, Twin Suns, while I played, but honestly, the game just wasn't very good in the end.  If you still want to play SWG, you can always look for a SWG emulator.  A couple out there now in dev that are running pre-CU.

Here is the official word from SOE.

We are extremely grateful to all of the SWG fans. We have had the rare opportunity to host one of the most dedicated and passionate online gaming communities and we truly appreciate the support we've received from each and every one of you over the course of the past eight years.

In recognition of your incredible loyalty, we are extending special Fan Appreciation offers to the current SWG community. We also plan to go out with a bang with a galaxy-ending in-game event in December and hope to see you all there. The details relating to these offers and events as well as the timeline and specifics regarding the discontinuation of the service, are provided below.

Again, we want to extend our heartfelt thanks to our player community for making SWG one of the best online communities in gaming history.