GamesCampus Announes New Genre-Bending MMORTS, Soul Master
players and we took it!”

For more information on the game and to follow the latest updates, visit http://SoulMaster.GamesCampus.com.

GamesCampus Announes New Genre-Bending MMORTS, Soul Master


If you have a problem you can not solve on your own, Evoke it! Improve the world by playing a game!
See how you can play games to make the world a better place!
A first peek at genre-bending MMORTS vs MMORPG action MMO. Work with strategies, while keeping control of your hero character!
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GamepotUSA and Square Enix Issue Declaration of War
For Fantasy Earth Zero Beta
Gamepot (USA), Inc., the U.S. publishing division of Japanese gaming behemoth Gamepot, Inc., is pleased to announce the FANTASY EARTH ZEROTM Second Open Beta on March 17th, 2010. This Open Beta furthers the progression of our countdown to Day Zero, the launch of FANTASY EARTH ZERO.
To kick off the Opening Day festivities, Gamepot USA will be hosting a St. Patrick’s Day event. Players can visit the St. Patrick NPC in game to receive a four leaf clover with instant regenerative powers.
To find the location of St. Patrick in game, please visit: http://fez.gamepotusa.com. With the completion of the initial Open Beta, Fantasy Earth Zero will now feature permanent character progression, with no further character wipes.
“The uniqueness of FEZ has struck a chord with our players, we’re very happy with the results, and thank them for their support thus far” said Thomas Lee, Senior Director of Business Development. “Your kingdom will need more than the luck ‘o the Irish – Strategy, Skills and Superior teamwork is a blueprint for winning.”
In addition to the Opening Day event, Gamepot USA is hosting many events as they countdown to Day Zero.

Champions Online Review: Total Customization
By Gabriele Giorgi (Darak), OnRPG Journalist
The first thing that meets your eye in Champions Online is the complete customisation of your character. There are so many options that the image of your in-game avatar in your mind’s eye will surely become a reality, and even more items can be unlocked while playing the game. At first it might be overwhelming (providing you do not jump into the game with a “random” character, you will likely be spending at least an hour in the creation screen), but it’s undoubtedly one of the best editors in the present MMOs world. It’s not only about appearance either, even powers can be modified, both their hue and emanation point.
The skill choice is completely up to the player, of course you will find some predefined templates, but nothing prevents you from creating your own, mixing sorcery and martial arts, super-strength and electricity, etc.: as they say, the only limit is your imagination (but no stretching like Mr. Fantastic, they did not get that far yet). The powers can be tested inside the Powerhouse, a training facility, before you confirm them, but they can be changed later for a price, although it is quite expensive, therefore wise planning is advisable.
There are no classes in CO, you will have different builds instead, and you can assign to them different equipment and modify some powers in order to assume the usual roles (tank, healer, DPS) with but a click of the mouse.
Another interesting innovation is that you can get the travel power at level 6 as soon as you are out of the tutorial zone, so you can begin to fly around, run at hypersonic speed or burrow your way beneath the soil very quickly.
Like City of Heroes, Champions Online features fast-paced combat, where it’s better to act than to think. Of course, there are all the usual special effects (stun, root, damage over time, etc.), but the fights are solved in a few seconds, apart from bosses, well, super-villains, that is. There are two innovations compared to the “classic” fighting model, first, your primary method to recharge your energy bar is a power called “energy builder,” a fast attack that deals little damage, but it is necessary to give you that boost to continue, the second innovation involves powers that have a continuous effect if you keep the key pressed, the most important of these is, no doubt, the block skill, which is given to every character by default. This is essential since the bosses will often “call out” some powers, i.e. an icon will appear over their head to show that they are charging a particularly powerful blow (direct, area of effect, cone, etc.)… So you’d better brace yourself!
Overall, fighting requires just a few keys, this has been obviously influenced by the fact that this won’t only be a PC-title, but it’s also been developed for the Xbox 360. For stats lovers, in the description of every power there is a dedicated section with all the figures, pure damage, DPS, cooldown, assorted percentages and much more.
The character progression is divided in 40 levels and it’s accomplished mainly through missions. When completing them you are awarded many experience points (not to mention some useful stuff). While these are quite standard, there are also so-called “open missions” (much like the “public quests” in WAR); composed by various steps which can be performed by all the characters present in the area and upon completion (if successful) a point chart will appear, measuring the contribution of everyone to assign the rewards.
Another new interesting feature of CO consists of the Nemesis system, starting from level 25, you will have the opportunity to create the appearance, powers and behaviour of a recurring archenemy who will pop up every now and then to threaten you with his umpteenth devilish master plan.
So far so good… but the real problem is the challenge level of the missions, definitely inadequate. The on-level missions marked for a group of 2 or 3 people are often easy to solve even solo (with a bit of caution, of course) and in a few cases this will apply to “open missions” too. Also add the fact that there is no penalty for defeat, save for the occasional loss of one of the “stars” that grant you a bonus to your fighting abilities for a maximum of 5% (do you remember the XP debt of CoH, instead?).
The other notable flaw is in the level progression for each level it takes 2 or 3 hours at most. Surely this quickness doesn’t bode well for the longevity of the game, especially because PvP, which is limited to mini-arenas, practically does not exist (maybe a specific future expansion?).
By the way, in CoH you can migrate to another server and “roll” another character to test new powers and combinations; Champions, on the other hand, uses so-called “instance channels” instead of separate servers; the instance channels are macro-instances that can host up to 100 players, but this means that the character slots will always be 6, with no opportunity to experiment on other servers.
The graphics and sound of Champions is quite good, even if they do not reach peaks, there is something they manage to accomplish really well and that is a comic’s atmosphere, thanks to little details like the boss powers’ icons, a black and white hue when you reach the border of a map and fun cinematics. Also the different zones are few but very well realised, as well as the various enemies.
CO does not spur the players to group, and not even the sidekick system, obtains the desired effect. We all know that superheroes are solitary people, but this is a MMO, after all. Even the features for super groups are limited to the basics.
Another area that would benefit from a complete revamp is crafting: all the loot can be destroyed to be analysed and obtain the components; problem is you can do the same with crafted items. This allows you to advance quite easily, but it determines a new and more severe flaw, to get to the next tier, you need not only to gather the necessary points, but also to reach a certain experience level. As a result you will have to postpone all your crafting for at least 3 or 4 levels, putting it off until you have gained enough levels.
Champions Online is a game with merits and flaws in the same measure. Maybe it was due to a hasty launch, even considering that it was a title that had created much hype. In this period, however, the developers have released frequent (almost daily) patches and updates in order to correct and balance various elements of the game. CO has got potential, but only time will tell if it will manifest it to its fullest, much like its older brother City of Heroes.
Pro:
– Total customisation of every aspect of the character
– Fast-paced and dynamic combat
– Comic’s atmosphere
Con:
– Potentially short longevity
– PvP practically non-existent
– Disappointing crafting system.
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When creating your character, you’ll be able to pick your gender of either male or female and three different classes (and only three.) You can choose warriors, which are pretty straight forward attackers for close range fighting, scouts, whichcan use bows and daggers for a balance of weak close and long ranged attacks, and sorcerers,whichcan cast magic and status effects on enemies with moderate attack range. There are also five body types, seven face and hair styles with five color variations.
After you create your character, you must pick between one of five kings to pledge your allegianceto. While each king/country has a different background and story to tell, this doesn’t pose a major differences between each during combat, so it doesn’t matter too much which king you roll with. After your character is created, you’ll go through a tutorial that will take you around 10 to 20 minutes to complete. It does a decent job of getting you familiar with the controls and all aspects of the game play.
Even if you have the visuals set to maximum, FEZ’s graphics will look awfully dated. The textures on just about everything look very bland and lifeless. Faces on character models aren’t animated, so they have nothing but lifeless stares. Besides theplayer models, nothing in the game world seems to cast a proper shadow despite the fact that there are day and night cycles . Additionally, the animations for attacking do not flow naturally and look rather robotic.
FEZ’s musical score feels nice and original. FEZ’s soundtrack was composed by Hitoshi Sakimoto, same audio composer for such Square-Enix titles as Final Fantasy Tactics and Final Fantasy XII. With that, I feel as if music in FEZ was not created for FEZ. Rather, I feel as if the music was created for another Final Fantasy game. While FEZ’s presentation may be a bit off, it shouldn’t matter if it doesn’t have the looks as long as it has the moves, right?
FEZ’s game play certainly does make some moves, but stumbles a bit here and there. The controls for FEZ are your typical combination of keyboard and mouse. You move around using the WASD keys while looking/aiming with the mouse. You can also jump with spacebar and sidestep with Q and E. You’re completely invincible to physical attack while jumping and sidestepping, but you can’t attack during those actions, so only use it when the situation calls for it. Performing attacks and skills takes a bit of getting used to. Typically with MMORPGs, skills are performed by pressing hotkeys (F1-12,) but in FEZ, attacks and skills are selected using your mouse’s scroll wheel and performed with your left mouse button.
On maps that are controlled by your nation, you can battle some monsters here and there for gold, items and EXP. It’s nice that there is some basic Player vs. Environment content available, but doing only PvE in FEZ won’t get you anywhere. FEZ is all about the hectic Player vs. Player battles for up to 100 players on teams of two.
On the battlefield, there’s lots of mayhem going on, so strategy is key. Running in and trying to rambo your way through enemy lines is an easy way to get yourself killed, so you’ll have to stick with your teammates and plan ahead. Every class in FEZ has their role to play: Scouts can perform status effect attacks like disarming, move in and out of enemy lines undetected and pin enemies down with their bows. Sorcerers can also use status effect magic while attacking large groups of enemies for crowd control. And warriors serve as both tankers and brute force while crippling enemy morale.
Fantasy Earth Zero was certainly not my cup of tea, but it can certainly be yours if you have the right mindset. The execution of skill based action and visuals were off, but everything else about FEZ is fairly decent. For any MMORPG gamer that’s a PvP nut looking for a little change of pace, you may want to give Fantasy Earth Zero some consideration.