Things are starting to look grim at several of the magazines under Future Publishing’s masthead lately. A new circulation report reveals that several titles like PC Gamer and Edge have been hemorrhaging subscribers. It’s a shame, since they’re home to some of the finest writing in print on our gaming and gaming culture. If you have any doubt of that, just check out this hilarious recap of a recent PC Gamer US vs. PC Gamer UK Team Fortress grudge match.

Thanks to Game Informer, we now know what’s next for the original City of Heroes developer Cryptic Studios now that the long-troubled Marvel MMO is officially canned: another superhero MMO, this time based upon the classic pen-and-paper RPG, Champions. Their original superhero MMO still acclaimed for its deep character customization, so hopefully, they can keep that intact while also incorporating the power and ability customizations for which Hero Games’ Champions system is known.

The mech-RPG game Titans of Steel is now absolutely free to download. This time, that’s actually free, not “free” or free*. Ostensibly a gift from Matrix Games to celebrate Valentine’s Day, the game marks yet another step in game publishers opening up their back catalog once they’re no longer selling. Let’s hope this is a trend that continues to pick up. While I wouldn’t pay money for Two Worlds, I’d be happy to try it out, even if it meant my character was a walking, talking can of Mountain Dew.

Linden Labs has moved to ban “ad farms” from Second Life. Referring to the practice of taking small parcels of virtual real estate and cramming them to the gills with ads, Linden Labs head Jack Linden was deliberately vague with drawing the line on what constitutes too much ad abuse. Linden has traditionally been lax in enforcing the game rules, instead allowing content creators to resolve disputes over such things as item theft and duplication amongst themselves. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out, as even though the results can be hilarious in appearance, this is quite a serious issue to many Second Life residents.

- Scott Parker