Yearly Archives: 2010

N.E.O. Online Closed Beta Starts February 8th

N.E.O. Online Closed Beta Starts February 8th


 

International online game publisher PlayOMG is officially announcing CBT date and events for its highly anticipated free fantasy MMORPG, N.E.O Online. Starting from February 8th, N.E.O Online closed beta test will continue for two weeks so that players can have abundant time to fully experience all the exciting game contents. Available content includes skills & battle systems, complete community & trading functions, and many more.
 

Gamplay in N.E.O Online Open Beta

 
N.E.O CBT events provide players not only useful in-game items, each player can even have free 500 test game points that can be used in item mall during closed beta. Community activities such as official poll and screenshot contest enable players to share their exclusive N.E.O experience. What’s more, players that participate in all CBT events will receive special gifts in N.E.O official release.
 

Unique Mounts N.E.O. Open Beta

 
Developed based on the concept of freedom and change, N.E.O Online provides various new MMO features and gaming experiences to players. Most notable features include class-free design and distinctive chaos map converting system.
Developer SONOV and publisher PlayOMG are both confident in N.E.O’s diverse game play and character developing possibilities.

Special Shield game NEO Online

4Story Unveils New Dungeons

4Story Unveils New Dungeons

 

4Story, a popular free-to-play MMORPG developed and published by Zemi Interactive, unveiled its newly designed two additional dungeons at Highland Map of the continent.
 
It has been brought with great and small in-game updates and has been waiting new MMO fans throughout the world. All due respect, one of the most amusing aspects of this MMORPG is the instant dungeon experience allowing players to enjoy space-time travels where they can gradually discover the secret of the continent.
 
“The response we’ve gotten for new dungeons at Highland has been great. We hope that more players will reach high level and enjoy abundant contents of 4Story. I am pretty sure this game makes you feel like you are gradually being a part of something huge.” said Hyunho Shin, a chief project manager of 4Story.
 
4Story also has a free game cash event on going and introduced one step registration in its new welcoming page. You can get more information on the new contents and the events at the 4Story global website.

4Story unveils new dungeon

GreedInc

 

In development for years, GreedInc is now released to the public. A very different sort of crime themed MMORPG, in GreedInc the real world is the game world. Start in your real hometown and travel around the globe building your empire. Drive or fly through every real world city and airport, choose to build your wealth by legal or illegal means. You can choose to build legit businesses like nightclubs and restaurants, or, build drug farms and brothels.
 
Create syndicates and band together with other players to takeover entire cities and states, rob stores, help people you meet, a very unique, super realistic, real world crime game, the first of its kind.
-100,000+ real world cities
-Every real world airport, flights
-Thousands of real cars & dealerships
-Millions of restaurants, shops & malls
-Play with thousands of other users

Mafia Review: Role-Playing Is Not Dead

Mafia Review: Role-Playing Is Not Dead
By Vincent Haoson (Vincenthaoson), OnRPG Journalist

 

Mafia is a text-based online game that is role-playing heavy. You are put into the shoes of a criminal starting off in the scene and it is through you efforts in doing crime that will skyrocket you from a lowly mugger into a respectable crime boss.

 

Similar Features

Mafia is like any other text-based game where you are given options on how to go around earning money and respect in the criminal community. The options you have range from doing petty crimes such as mugging, stealing, gambling and of course the occasional dirty job from some random big boss. The game has every staple action you would find in a game of this kind.

However, the things you can do in Mafia are limited, unlike other crime-based online games where you are given every criminal action done by man. At first glance the lack of criminal actions you can do would undermine the things you can do in the game, but the game is more than just your ordinary browser based game.

 

More Than Meets the Eye

Though it is quite true that the game’s actions are limited to the basic crimes one can commit, this is not the game’s main draw. Mafia is not just a browser based game where you only point and click a button and viola!  You’ve practically played the game, Mafia centers more using the creative juices of players in the form of role-playing.

 

Majority if not all of the loyal players of the game are into roleplaying rather than just being the “I’m the toughest Mafioso around!”   To earn the respect of people in the game you’d have to make sure you have a great hand in writing rather than being a good money earner.

 

Mafia Gazette

Mafia Gazette

 

They Even Have a Newspaper

As emphasis to the role-play as being the game’s major strength is the presence of a game newspaper which is named as The Mafia Gazette. The Maia Gazette serves as the game’s official in-game periodical. The paper reports in news style the various events that are happening in the game. This adds to the role-playing element the game already established by imprinting to its players that there is an alternate world where your character could eventually become a headline.

 

The Pitfalls of Mafia Role-Playing

One of the biggest problems you will be facing in Mafia is that you will read a LOT of things as you play the game. Mafia is not just a game that you can pick up right off the bat. You really need to take your time trying to pick the game up and see how you can jive to the existing structures that are already in place. This would also mean that you would have to follow a strict set of rules when it comes to the overall gameplay. The rules act more like as a mediating measure for the whole experience, this could in term be translated as a stifling measure for those players who abhor rules and regulations. Of course if you have been role-playing before, this wouldn’t be too much of a problem, however, it is those who are new to the whole roleplaying bit that needs to be more patient to the whole process.

 

You do not become a good roleplayer overnight and that you would really need to stumble first to get around playing Mafia. The thing is, it is truly a reward for you to get the hang of role-playing in Mafia. It’s like earning the respect of the majority of the players in the game.

 

Communication is Important

The game also emphasizes on the importance of players communicating with each other. Your profile is automatically your Mafia forum account therefore eliminating the inconvenient process of making a separate account just to join the forums. The game also has a chat system where you can get to talk to players in real-time, however as far as I’ve played the game there has yet to come to a time where you get to talk to a lot of players.

 

Competition is Not Dulled

Even if the game is centered around role-play, you cannot forget that Mafia is a game too. The competitiveness of players in Mafia is quite high. There is no “no kill” period in Mafia therefore once you are sucked into the game, your character can be killed. Being a meal ticket for higher characters is a big probability for newbies, and it is part of the whole gameplay. You can cry to the admin about it but it would only fall to deaf ears. Dealing with the ruthlessness of the Mafia world is part of the gameplay, deal with it or you better chicken out.

 

Conclusion

If you disregard the role-playing elements the game has carefully fostered and nurtured, Mafia is just like any other browser based game out there, a game a lot worse than most of the new criminal themed games out there. However, the whole Mafia experience relies heavily on the role-playing aspect of the game, this serves as the replayability factor for most players and that if you really get hooked into the whole roleplaying bit it will serve as your main reason to stay.

 

Also, there is already a strong fanbase from Mafia veterans who would welcome you into the game. Though the welcome would be more like a trial by fire, the tough welcome serves as its endearing quality, because you worked that hard to get to that point. If you are the type of player that likes action and nothing else in your browser games then Mafia is not for you. However if you want more depth to your browser games and you want a really immersing experience Mafia is just for you.

 

Pros:
– The forum and the website is interconnected, you won’t need a different account to join the forums
– A chatroom is available for real-time interaction
– The Mafia Gazette enhances the role-playing feel of the game .

 

Cons:
– The game is visually bland
– The color contrast can really hurt the eyes especially for computers with old monitors
– The roleplaying rules can be quite hefty specially for players who are looking for a “I-join-I-click-I-win” game. 

Browser Game Madness

Browser Game Madness
By Kei Beneza (dividelife), OnRPG Journalist

 

Browser games have been around for quite some time now. Increasing its audience by launching several methods of gameplay that caters to different gamers. Back then, I sort of remember these games as dull and a total waste of time, probably because it featured nothing but boxes where you must input numbers to avoid bot spammage. Image details were crappy as well, with loads of characters drawn from Microsoft Paint (and my god that sucked).

MUD

MUD: Multi-User Dungeon

 

I for one never understood what made these games special. One thing would probably be the fact that they don’t demand much from your PC and doesn’t require any form of installation for people to play. It’s basically a portable yet not so portable game that you can only play on your PC (or laptop). Browser games have been around long before MMORPGs (the application ones) were even born. If you think about it, these games are perhaps the grandfathers of MMOs as we know them.

 

Browser games actually started as huge role-playing adventure chat rooms called MUDs (Multi-User Dungeons) which let players play at the same time, in the same world. You can interact with everyone in the game just as you can read up on item and area descriptions like table-top RPGs.

 

And we go back further

This idea was similar to Dungeons & Dragons, an old school tabletop storytelling game made by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson in 1974. The game lets players create a world using their imagination through a story telling puppeteer known as the Dungeon Master. Much like the tabletop role-playing games, MUD players are entitled to read up scenarios as well as interact with PCs (player characters) and NPCs (non-player characters) throughout the game. Commands were issued by simply tapping the “/” sign followed by the method of action. Characters sheets were provided as well to help players see their level and stats. Modifiers were also displayed in this interface although the interface was similar to a mere Notepad application.

 

If you’re familiar with oldschool RPGs, then you’re probably familiar with the dice. The game uses its own virtual dice that takes a player’s action in the hands of the random dice. Whatever the dice rolls, it is final and cannot be undone unless specified by special modifiers. People can also purchase virtual items through the shop to optimize their character’s performance. This made the game more interactive as well as innovative for gamers back then. Now, these features are cherished by MMOs everywhere (ever saw an MMO without a shop? LOL). Awesome huh?

 

Dungeons Dragons RPG

Dungeons & Dragons, the first tabletop RPG 

 

Games like World of Warcraft and other RPGs seem to date back to this primordial spawning pit, so I guess we now know whom to thank for our MMOS!

 

Soon after the first browser game was launched, more and more web browser games were formed, constantly hooking players into their mindnumbing realms. I remember my days in the office when my coworkers would attend to their accounts once every 2 hours. Unlike today’s MMOs that demand more of your life than your time, these games were practically work-safe, allowing you to enjoy while at the same time not taking advantage of your life.

 

Today, browser games have reached a wide variety of players by launching new sub-categories like RockFree, the browser game clone of Guitar Hero. The game pretty much has everything that the console game had to offer: Online play, modifiers, a wide set of songs, and even a track market. Aside from the next-gen graphics, the game pretty much respects the same gameplay as its console predecessor.

 

Hello dividelife! You have 208 invitations to FarmVille!

Browser games have been evolving throughout time, giving birth to countless forms of upgrades thus evolving for the better. I was actually surprised how these games managed to create a spot inside social networks like Facebook. I remember being constantly spammed with invitations to games like FarmVille and Restaurant city. It was annoying at times, but it shows to prove how famous these games are in this era.

 

Farmville

FarmVille on Facebook

Community value

Although hard to believe, these web applications have a heftier community than those installed on your PC. After playing Vampire Wars in Facebook, I was shocked upon seeing my hit list. Again, this list was huge and contained more people than Orgrimmar (big city in World of Warcraft) on a hot summer day. Yes, I did specify Orgrimmar, but do know that the some browser games only limit you to seeing people whom you can take down (that’s a lot of players).

 

Almost everyone who owns a social networking account is familiar with browser games without even knowing it.

 

The evolution

What was then a chat room full of description, has now evolved into fully rendered elements that let players see everything without having to rely on the outdated power of imagination. After getting a hold of the Flash and Shockwave technology, its visuals were taken to a colossal extent, appealing to those who are craving for better graphics.

 

The same could be said for sounds as MUDs barely had “TWACKS! And BAMS!” to completely describe the impact of a certain hit. Most Browser games may offer you nothing but the epic sound of your MOUSE clicking (LOL) so I guess that’s something that needs improving.

 

It gets better

Even now browser based games are mass producing like never before. What was then just a small role playing chatroom has now branched out into different categories, most of which have nothing to do with its original genre but hell it’s not like you’re not enjoying it right? After seeing the new ones, I was thoroughly impressed at how much this type of game managed to LEVEL UP further. With a big healthy community supporting each game, you’re bound to experience MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER like never before. If you think that browser games are just another crappy genre for people who don’t have good PCs, daeeeem! You don’t know what you’re missing.

NCsoftÂ’s GSU Team Speaks About Account Security

NCsoft’s GSU Team Speaks About Account Security

 

Today we found this news post about Aion Online concerning the security of accounts. One of the biggest problems in the gaming industry is the illegal account-hacking, money trading and theft of personal information. Please continue reading below, because it touches upon these very sore subjects, and Scott Jennings (GM Luminary)’s advice.
 

GSU’s Message on Account Security

 
Greetings, all. I’m Scott Jennings, otherwise known as GM Luminary, working with NCsoft’s Game Surveillance Unit (GSU). I’ve been asked to take some time to speak for a bit on the fallout from the war that we’ve been fighting in our games against real money trading (RMT) companies and others trying to violate your account security, and how you can help in the fight.
 
 
Make no mistake—it is a war. One that you, our players, see the effects of whenever you play our games or visit forums related to our games. Many of you have noticed the decrease in bots, farmers, and gold spammers as a result of our efforts.
 
 
In the game industry, we have also seen an increase in attacks by third parties in an attempt to steal your account information by any means necessary, including phishing, obtaining passwords from third party sites/systems, and using account information provided by those engaged in power-leveling services and other prohibited activities. Recently, the number of these attacks has risen dramatically.
 
 
As a result, our game support queues have drastically increased, with thousands of support tickets from players who have lost access to their game accounts and are suffering extended wait times for help. Our game servers, account databases, and support sites are under constant attack and being probed for any vulnerability. It’s a war that by no means is over.
 
 
Our enemies are playing for high stakes—the estimated $2 billion dollars that RMT companies earn off the back of game developers and players like you. And we are playing for high stakes as well—the right that we believe we have as a company, and you as players, to play games that are free from the corruption of in-game currency sales and all that results from that.
 
 
It’s a war that we’re committed to winning, but one that we’ll need your help with to achieve a real victory. I’ll describe first our responsibility to you to provide a safe and secure gaming environment, and then what you can do in return to protect yourself.
 
 
 

Our job: Provide a secure environment for your game
 

With the increase in account compromises that we’ve been seeing in this past month, I think it’s worth taking a moment to review how seriously we here at NCsoft take your account security.
 
 
The news from Google regarding a serious, high-level attack by hackers on the most secure technology companies in the world is sobering. We continue to refine our systems to counter the various attacks that these RMT companies employ. We have a team of security professionals with years of experience in massively multiplayer games and online security in Seoul, Seattle, Austin, and Brighton that is striving to make our servers as secure as they can be. Any vulnerability that is discovered is addressed and fixed.
 
 
For example, a thread on a third-party Guild Wars forum this New Year’s attracted a good deal of attention. It detailed a list of security vulnerabilities that supposedly had been discovered on our account website, ending with the alarmist note that “the only responsible thing NCsoft can do is to shut off their website, as soon as possible.”
 
 
Despite the fact that this report occurred over the holidays, when the majority of NCsoft employees were home with their families, our security team responded immediately with a point-by-point testing and analysis of the erroneous concerns that were raised. As a result of the point-by-point testing and analysis, our security team concluded no critical vulnerabilities had been demonstrated or identified, but our security team continues to research, to monitor closely, and to implement security improvements to address any potential weaknesses raised.
 
 
We’ll continue to audit our systems, and you will see some dramatic changes in the next few months. NCsoft views account security as a very important matter.
 
 

Your task: Help protect yourself
 

So how you can protect yourself from the sort of constant attacks that we’ve been seeing?
 
 
Many of you reading this letter are experienced online game players. You’ve heard the “don’t do this” and “don’t click that” and “don’t run that thing” warnings over and again, you’re not dumb, you’d never get your account stolen simply because you know better.
 
 
You’re wrong. I know this because I know many people who thought they knew better—people who work in the gaming industry, and have done so for years, and still tried to log in one day and found their password changed and someone else logged into their account cleaning out their inventory.
 
 
(If you’re not an experienced online gamer and want the basics in account security, there’s no shame in that. We have a complete guide online.)
 
 
The following brief guide in self-protection is going to be a bit different than what you may be used to. It’s going to assume that you know the basic rules of how to protect your account, and it will detail how we’ve seen accounts stolen anyway. Think of it as an advanced class in account security. And don’t think that these guidelines apply to other people who don’t pay attention. If you do any of these, your account is at risk of being stolen.
 
 
Don’t share your password with anyone. Don’t let your friends log in to your game account. There are two simple reasons for this. The first, and one you may not want to particularly acknowledge, is that your guildmate or childhood friend or relative may do things on your account that can get you banned, such as using bots. Another is that once you share your account, your security is as vulnerable as theirs—and any mistake that they may make that allows for an account intrusion will compromise your account as well.
 
 
Don’t use bots. Ever. If you use “third party applications that control your game play”—which is the literal definition of “bots”—you will lose your account, and nothing you say will get it back. We can detect bots. We have multiple ways of detecting bots. We have banned thousands of accounts and will continue to ban such accounts due to bot usage. Bot usage is one of the key ways that RMT companies use to fund their operations, and removing bots from the game is one of our best attacks against them. The GSU “banhammers” against bot usage will not stop, and if you use a bot, you will be caught. You may not be caught immediately, but it will happen.
 
 
Don’t buy in-game money. Aside from the fact that you are funding the very people who are at war with our games—and thus at war with you—many RMT companies use web browser vulnerabilities to attempt to load Trojans onto your system. In some cases, they ask you to create website logins for their system and then check to see if that information is the same user name and password you use to log in to the game with. A few companies simply ask you for your user name and password. In any event, these are not companies that can be trusted. Because your accounts can be compromised as a result of RMT, we specifically prohibit this type of activity in our User Agreements.
 
 
Don’t use power-leveling services. Again, these services are run by the same people who are attacking our game, and by using their services, you are funding their attacks (and the money that they earn while power leveling goes to fund in-game currency sales). The same potential attacks that exist with in-game money sellers apply here as well (especially since, obviously, you have to supply your account information for them to log in to your account to level it), but with one important addition: Power-leveling services level your character quickly using bots. We can detect this. It will cause your account to be banned, quickly.
 
 
Don’t run programs designed by third parties for use with our games. Aside from the small matter of NCsoft banning you if you use a bot, using third party applications is asking for trouble. You are allowing code someone else wrote to run on your computer. Do you implicitly trust the creator of that program not to add a virus or Trojan horse that is used to steal your account?
 
 
Beware of phishing. One of the recent plagues that it is hard to miss of late is that of the “phish” (Wikipedia), or the attempt by RMT companies to get you to simply hand over your account information through crafting a copy of our website and placing it on a web server with an address that is similar, but not identical, to ours. Many of these phishing attempts are laughably obvious because they are created by people who are not fluent in English. However, there are others that are not so obvious. Regardless, NCsoft will never ask you, for any reason, for your password in game, to go to a website to reset your password, to add you to a beta, or to give you a free holiday gift. If we need your password reset, we can do so without asking you to go to a website. If there is a new beta, there will be instructions for how to enter on our official websites and forums. When entering your user name and password, you should always check the address bar of your web browser to ensure you are at https://secure.ncsoft.com/. And if you get an odd error message after logging in to what you think is an official NCsoft site, change your password at the correct NCsoft site immediately. Please carefully check the spelling of the address in your browser. Any misspelling may lead you to a phishing site.
 
 
Beware of keylogger links on forums. This is akin to the previous point on phishing. Keylogger links are created as forum spam to get you to go to a website loaded with attacks on your computer through web browser security holes. Some of them are very obvious, such as the recent “Wii sex toy” ads posted everywhere. Some of them appear very innocent, such as links to view a screenshot of someone’s character. Avoid the obvious ones. Protect your browser from the less obvious ones by ensuring that you are using the latest version of your web browser and that it is set to automatically update itself when new security holes are found.
 
 
Adobe Flash, a tool used for website animations that comes with every web browser, has historically been an attack vector for loading malware (hostile programs) on your computer. At minimum, be absolutely sure that your version of Flash is up to date by visiting http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/. If you run a browser that supports extensions such as Mozilla Firefox, consider running an add-on such as Flashblock, which only loads Flash movies if you click on them.
 
 
Protect your system. There are many viruses and Trojan horses, such as the recent “Aion2010.dll,” that target your account information for our games specifically. Hackers constantly strive to find new ways to load software on your system without your consent or knowledge. It is critical that you run virus protection software and a firewall to protect yourself from these attacks.
 
 
Free, effective virus protection software is available. Here are links to some of the more popular solutions. Note that we cannot endorse or recommend any specific program, but we recommend you run something and ensure that it remains updated.
 
 
Microsoft: Security Essentials
 
 
Having a firewall, or system which protects your computer from unauthorized access, is also important. If you have a router that provides broadband Internet access for your home, it’s likely that a firewall system is included with that. Every version of Windows also ships with a software solution, Windows Firewall. Ensure that one of these is active and protecting your home network.
 
 
Don’t use the same password for your game account that you use on Internet forums. There have been instances of forums that have had their security compromised and the user names and passwords from their system were then used to try to gain access to game accounts. To prevent the possibility of this happening, ensure that you use different passwords for each forum that you frequent. This can be managed easily through password managers, such as Lastpass or RoboForm.
 
 
This letter has been quite long, and I thank you for your attention, especially during the parts I’m sure you’ve heard many times before. Our fight for the security of the games that you play is neither an easy one, nor a short one. But it is one that we are committed to seeing through, and it is one that we very much appreciate your help with. Your continued patronage as a customer, and the enjoyment of the games that we provide, is what makes this all worthwhile.
 
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have another gold farmer cartel to ban.

Heroes of Newerth: Sure To Get Your Adrenaline Pumping!

Heroes of Newerth: Sure To Get Your Adrenaline Pumping!
By Nick Chua (Raiyne), OnRPG Moderator and Journalist

 

Hot on the heels of the popular Warcraft III custom map, Defense of the Ancients (DotA), is Heroes of Newerth. S2 Games has taken on the addictive DotA formula of a fast paced, action packed team death match with a light hint of RPG. With the green light from DotA creator, Icefrog, Heroes of Newerth has proven itself to be an intense gaming experience.

Great, now how do we get down to smashing faces?

First off, you enter a Battle.net styled screen with a chatroom and a list of games. Searchng for games is hassle free and players can join games within a minute of starting the client.

 

Due to the different options and modes of gameplay available, filters can also be set to find the game type you want to play.  There are 3 tiers of games at the moment, which basically acts as a filter for different classes of players. These tiers are Noobs Only, Noobs Allowed and Pros Only. The labelling is a little bit blunt, in my opinion.

 

When you join a game, you get to choose which side you join, either Legion or Hellbourne. The faction you choose will limit your choice of hero (the character you will control), as they are divided between the two factions, however, most games play out in the ‘All Hero’ mode, where every hero is up for grabs for players of both teams.

 

The game lobby screen can be rather confusing for a fresh face, with plenty of numbers all over the place. This is mainly due to the implemented PSR (Pub Skill Rating), but we shall get to that later.

 

Hero Selection Screen Newerth

The Hero Selection Screen

 

Once the game is started by the host, everyone goes to the character selection screen. There are currently only 49 heroes in total, paling in comparison to the 93 hero selection in DotA. However, this number is definitely growing and the Heroes of Newerth team intends on slowly adding more heroes (a planned roster of 60 at release), as a measure of balance. A few custom heroes not found in DotA have also been added. They are neatly categorised by faction and their primary statistic. Every hero is plays differently and has a unique set of skills, althoug players commonly classify them into different roles. Ultimately, it is up to the strategy of the team and each member’s skills that will lead the team to victory.

 

Get ready to fight!

The gameplay in Heroes of Newerth is fast, hectic and stays true to the nature of DotA. For those of us unfamiliar with DotA, everyone starts out in their base at level 1. There are three lanes where the cannon fodder units (more commonly referred to as creeps) of both teams will spawn and advance towards the enemy’s base. Killing these creeps garners gold and experience, which is used to buy items and improve your hero’s skills, respectively. The map is evenly divided and towers of the respective team guard each lane. The goal is to destroy the enemy’s key structure.

 

Attacking Enemy Tower

Attacking an Enemy Tower

 

Controlling your character is simple with just the use of the mouse and a couple of hotkeys and all this can be picked up within minutes, although there are more slightly challenging techniques to learn. The default key bindings are easily accessible and most players will be comfortable with them. For more demanding players, there is also an option to customise your controls.

 

The user interface is intuitive and gets the job done. Everything you need to know is just a quick glance away and there is no need to fumble with menus. However, for a new player, buying items might be rather overwhelming as there are many items and combinations to learn.

 

As with all online games, latency is important. With Heroes of Newerth’s infrastructure, the game runs on a server to client basis. With this, the player’s latency is reduced compared to the Battle.net or other peer to peer networking. Hence there is no need for the host to have extremely good bandwidth to host a lagless game. Other nifty features include the ability to rejoin a game when you have disconnected and should the need arise, voting to kick certain players or concede. I did not experience any lag in Heroes of Newerth, with around 100ms latency to their servers located in Japan. Even when playing with the occasional 200ms latency to a further server, the delay I had was very playable.

 

How does everything look?

 

The graphics of Heroes of Newerth are a good step up from the dated textures and models of Warcraft III. With everything on the highest settings, with 8x Anti-Aliasing and 16x Anisotropic Filtering, the game looks shiny, sharp and very colourful. The effects are also wonderful, from the blood splatter of a trivial creep, to the dazzling magical spells of a hero, they are all very well rendered and certainly a treat to the eye. Everything is very well animated and runs as smooth as silk.

 

Of course, with better graphics comes higher requirements. The minimum requirements are not high at all and is easily met by the today’s average computer, however, much older machines, although capable of running Warcraft III, will definitely struggle with Heroes of Newerth.

 

Music to my ears?

 

Heroes of Newerth has a small but adequate soundtrack with appropriate sound effects. The sound of each unit striking its target in the battlefield coupled with other sounds of spells and skills being activated, it can create quite a chaotic aural experience. Also, in the tradition of old deathmatch styled games, an announcer boldly proclaims kills streaks and other significant events throughout the game, adding insult to injury, or boosting morale. It certainly feels good to hear some sort of acknowledgement say, if you get the killing blow on 3 people and I feel it adds more fun factor to the game, well if you are winning at least.

 

Sinister Base Hellbourne Heroes Newerth

The Sinister Base of Hellbourne

 

How badly will I get owned in this game?

 

Heroes of Newerth is a relatively skilled based game, which requires lots of communication and teamwork. A player must be aware of the game and keep up with the pace. Timing is also essential, for example, you have to deal the killing blow to a creep or else you will not earn money from its death, and this is the most basic technique which is applied throughout the game. One must also be adaptable to the various situations as there are many hero line-ups one might come across and no two games are the same experience.

 

As it is now, Heroes of Newerth is not a very newbie friendly game. There is no tutorial, although there is a practice mode where the map becomes a sandbox. Newer players might struggle with the learning curve of this game and fellow players will not make it much easier. As with a competitive game such as this, tensions will run high and most players are not very forgiving towards newbies. This happens in “Noob Only” games as well, as not all players new to Heroes of Newerth are new to the gameplay style of DotA.

 

It is a valiant effort by S2 to try and balance public games with its PSR and tier system, but it is just too flawed at the moment. PSR is a system meant to measure the skill of a player through statistics. It sounds good, but in effect, it really just causes a whole lot of prejudice and unneeded misunderstanding. You might often find games with PSR limits, where the host would kick you if you didn’t have a high enough rating. Sometimes a game might also take really long to start because there is a group of friends in one team and their high rating scares off other players. This is exacerbated by percentages above each team, showing their chance of winning. It is not an entertaining experience for your perceived skill to drop, if your team is just uncooperative and loses as a result. In such a teamwork heavy game, where there are so many factors, a player’s skill alone simply cannot be measured by such statistics.

 

Yay or Nay?

All in all, as a DotA player myself, I find Heroes of Newerth to be a satisfying, well polished game, staying true to its origins. As it is built from scratch, it clearly shows up the potential in DotA and what can be expanded from this popular map. If you’re new and willing to brave the learning curve and potential flaming from team mates, or if you’re just looking for an alternative to DotA, Heroes of Newerth is a solid competitive game for you.

 

Pros:
– Sharp and vibrant graphics
– Adrenaline pumping gameplay true to the mechanics of DotA
– Well built engine and networking
– Dynamic gameplay gives a fresh new experience every game.

 

Cons:
– Steep learning curve
– Not newbie friendly
– Harsh community
– Lacklustre soundtrack
– Flawed PSR system.

Runes of Magic: Demon Lord Enters The Battlefield

Runes of Magic: Demon Lord Enters The Battlefield

 

New content patch implements Runes of Magic’s uber villain as the ultimate boss opponent.
 
Since the beginning of Runes of Magic Chapter I – Rise of the Demon Lord, the dark presence of the Demon Lord has hung like a shadow over Taborea. With the next content update, the terror now takes form. The new raid instance Demon Stronghold enables players to battle the Demon Lord Sirloth.

Demon Lord Sirloth On His Throne

Demon Lord Sirloth On His Throne

 

The raid dungeon is available for groups of twelve high level players, and is located in the Naga Acropolis. The path to the Demon Lord leads through dungeons, cells and torture chambers. The first boss opponent is the giant Naoth in the Chamber of Punishment. Only those who can skilfully wield their powers of runecraft will be able to overcome him and penetrate deeper into the stronghold. The way to the throne room leads players past three additional bosses and loyal servants of the demonic ruler, as well as past the birthplaces of new henchmen.
 
In the final battle with the Demon Lord, players will have to throw all of their abilities into the mix in order to be victorious against the winged demon. Groups have to survive four phases of battle, overcome sworn helpers of the evil lord and fend off flying swords. Only then will the arch villain of the first two chapters of Runes of Magic be vanquished. As a reward, players will be able to carry off the original weapons of the mighty Demon Lord.

Demon Weapons Runes of Magic Stronghold

 

The gates of the Demon Stronghold will open with the next content update. More information is available on the official Runes of Magic website
Check out more screenshots on the Runes of Magic Screenshot Gallery.

 

EVE Online Dominion 1.1 and EVE’s 2009

EVE Online Dominion 1.1 and EVE’s 2009

 

EVE Online: Dominion 1.1 will be available for free today to players after an extended downtime.
 
All Mothership-class vessels in New Eden have gone back to the shipyards to emerge as Supercarriers–redesigned behemoths of the frontlines of battle. At their command are the new and deadly fighter bombers, anti-capital scourges that fire compact citadel torpedoes against their targets and bring another level of strategy to the battlefields of EVE’s much-touted player conflicts.
A developer blog on the subject included a screenshot of the Minmatar fighter bombers. EVE’s roleplayers, saboteurs and people-who-wish-to-remain anonymous receive a fun tool in the addition of Voicefonts to EVE Voice, which allows for real time modulation of voice chat in the built in-EVE Voice tool for fleets. It allows you to raise or lower your voice, alter its quality and even switch genders to match your avatar! Undoubtedly there will be humorous and nefarious stories to come once EVE’s notoriously inventive pilots start fully exploring it.
In addition, Dominion 1.1 will bring a whole host of fixes and alterations, UI improvements and ship balances (especially in capital ships). Check the full list of patch notes.

More EVE News: 2010 couldn’t be going better for EVE

EVE Online has grown about 10% in about the past month, following on the improvements set by EVE Online: Dominion. In fact, they have about ten-thousand more pilots currently in EVE than are in the entire country of Iceland, the land of fire and ice where CCP is headquartered. It had been a standing internal goal and they’re very proud to reach it.
Therefore, in the first few weeks of 2010, they actually broke their PCU (Peak Concurrent User) record twice. It now stands at a staggering 56,021. In addition, they were able to sustain an impressive 1,400 pilots in the Jita system, one of the main market hubs of the game, thanks to a lot of work from their virtual worlds and programming teams.

Eve Online Dominon Expansion Growth