I blame cable. I had a more angsty title, but this high school chick flick came on and it taught me that cheesiness is perfectly acceptable when things are going right. And when you read the Aion Update 2.0 patch notes, you’ll agree with me that brownie points are in order for NCSoft and its game. I didn’t expect to feel so warm and fuzzy reading the patch notes, which took NCSoft a week to translate after Update 2.0 went live in the Korean public test server. But when I checked the long “Yay” column in my content patch scoreboard–I review patch updates like an adolescent kid complete with Yay and Boo columns–I felt my wait rage over Update 1.9 come to pass.

Balaur homeland revealed. Balaurea opens up with two new regions: Inggison (Elyos) and Gelkmaros (Asmodians). Level 51 monsters roam both regions and contain two fortresses as well as four artifacts per faction. I’ve always liked to just fly around in Aion, taking snapshots of my toon while he’s pretending to be a wild hawk ready to swoop in on a helpless ground prey. These new areas give me new air space to do just that. Now I have more chances to tab-alt for five minutes, whether it’s to pick up my microwaved dinner or to take a tinkle break. The new windstreams which allow hands-off flight travel in the new Balaur regions are a godsend for any Aion gamer with real-life tasks to attend to. Plus these windstreams remind me of those invisible vehicle conveyor belts found in the Star Wars planet Coruscant.