Monthly Archives: February 2011

FTL Drives Ready: Battlestar Galactica Enters Open Beta

FTL Drives Ready: Battlestar Galactica Enters Open Beta
Prepare FTL drives; it’s time for an emergency jump!

 

battlestar online mmorpg starbuck on your wing

 

Battlestar Galactica Online has now entered the orbit of planet Open Beta allowing citizens of the world to enter the free-to-play browser based MMORPG set in the universe of the widely successful Syfy tv show.

 

If you are looking to join the conflict between the ragtag fleet of Galactica and the merciless Cylon forces you only need to register at the games official website and hit the play button.

 

See you in-game for the end of the human race.

Metropolis Now: I’ll Get By With A Little Help From My (Super) Friends

Metropolis Now: I’ll Get By With A Little Help From My (Super) Friends

By Stephen Boyd, OnRPG Journalist

 

Sometimes, when the forces of evil are rallied against you, one hero is not enough. From the Justice Society of America and the Seven Soldiers of Victory in the 1940’s through to the Teen Titans of today, hero teams have been an institution in comics.

 

And DC Universe Online has not ignored this tradition.

 

Now, it may not come as a surprise, being that this is a Massively MULTIPLAYER Game that group content is a part of the DCUO experience, but how much fun is it? What is it all about? And, perhaps most importantly, how successful is it?

 

There are both PvE and PvP servers for DC Universe Online. As you would expect, PvP is one huge battle of Good versus Evil all the time, so I will be focusing on the Mutiplayer, both competitive and Cooperative available on the PvE servers in this feature.

 

From the very earliest levels in DCUO your character will be given multiple opportunities to team with allies against NPCs and enemy players. Let’s break it down to see what your options are.

 

Legends PvP

In Legends mode, you get to shed the skin of your character and fill some of the most recognisable boots in the DC Universe. Here you will team with up to 3 other players in King of the Hill type matches. Currently there are three locations available for these battles; The Batcave, Arkham Asylum and Ace Chemicals, birthplace of the Joker.

 

In these matches you get to play as Nightwing, Robin and the Huntress from the Hero side and the Joker, Bane and Harley Quinn from the villainous side of the fence.

DCUO Harely Quinn MMORPG Review

Batman is available to play as well, but unfortunately only to those that pre-ordered the game. This seems a trifle unfair to have one of DC’s most iconic characters permanently unavailable to new players, and I would hope that SOE rectify this situation in the future. All of the above mentioned characters are available to both factions, can have multiples in each match and are not exactly balanced. Bane, for instance, has a devastating AOE attack that will suck away half your health bar. So if you are in combat against two Banes? Well, you can see what I’m getting at.

 

In last week’s press release regarding the February Issue of new content, game director Chris Cao indicated that Catwoman would be made available as a playable character in this mode. While it is nice to see a new character, it would be even nicer to see the developers stray from the Batman Universe a little. A Superman or Doomsday in these matches would be fun, and may cure the problem of all Bane, all the time that seems to be taking over this mode.

 

Arena PvP

In the Arena you have straight up Death Matches and Capture the Flag style contests. In the Moonbase Arena, players score time bonuses for taking down opponents or capturing the Kryptonite samples in their enemy’s base. In my experience, the Capture the Flag element is pretty much ignored and this is basically Deathmatch Mode.

 

In the S.T.A.R Labs Arena, King of the Hill rules apply. Capture and hold one of the three nodes and points are removed from your opponents’ total. When the total hits zero, your team wins.

 

The rewards for both of these modes come in the form of Marks. These tokens can be used to by powerful Armour from the vendors in your respective faction’s safehouse. It takes a LOT of these Marks to purchase your gear, but the full sets do offer bonuses specific to your chosen class, and are themed upon the big guns of both the Justice League and their villainous counterparts in the Legion of Doom.

 

DCUO Legends PvP Review

The DC Universe Wiki lists the full explanation of these tokens here.

Alerts

Instances in DCUO are known as Alerts. In these four player missions, you and your team will go up against some of the biggest names in the DC Universe.

 

Area 51 is the first Alert unlocked by players. Here you will be tasked with stopping Braniac’s forces mining Kryptonite deposits in the Nevada desert. It is in these Alert missions that your class choice will really come into play. Teams that are made up of pure DPS characters will have a tough time getting through these. 

 

In the Gorilla Island Alert, you and your team will go up against the finest soldiers Gorilla City has to offer, leading up to your final confrontation with the mad scientist in the giant ape body, the Ultra Humanite.

 

Bludhaven Alert sees the city devastated after the Injustice Society dropped the walking chemical bomb, Chemo on it in the classic Infinite Crisis storyline. You and your team must rescue valuable emergency supplies, fight mutated citizens and ultimately guide a team of HazMat troops into a final confrontation with Chemo. As befits an instance set in his former hometown, the former Robin, Nightwing will show up to help you take out one of the mini bosses in this mission.

 

DCUO PvP Arenas Review

More alerts will be made available to you as you progress through the game. As soon as you hit the level cap at 30, all new instances will be opened up to you including Smallville, where your team will have to take down Kansas citizens infected with the Doomsday virus and Arkham Asylum, where the inmates are running loose and you will face off against the Scarecrow, Mr. Freeze and Poison Ivy amongst others.

DC Universe Review

All of the modes I have talked about are accessible through your communicator by pressing Y.

 

The only other PvP option currently in the game is the Ring War PvP mission accessed through the recruiters in the Midtown area of Metropolis. This mission requires you to face off against your enemies while collecting Power Batteries that are scattered around the area, Green Lanterns for Heroes and the Yellow Lanterns of the Sinestro Corps for the villains. You will, of course have to work as a team if you want to complete this mission and rewards will be given for taking out enemy players.

 

While none of these multiplayer modes is hugely innovative, they are rewarding if a trifle grindy. The main problem is that without a solid base of Realm versus Realm, and the bragging rights that go with that, the missions tend toward the repetitive and having to score 400 Marks, of which you get two per alert, to get your PvP Helm can lean toward the tedious.

 

With so many little twists on the standard MMO formula in this game, it would have been good to see a slightly different currency system set in place in DC Universe Online.

 

Next week I will give my overview of the entire game and my opinions and feelings off what DCUO needs to do to survive and thrive in the MMO marketplace.

Blood Rites launches in English speaking Territories

Blood Rites, Born With Fancy 3D Graphic This Valentine

Created by Chinese game developer Kongzhong Corporation (NASDAQ: KONG) elaborately, the 3D MMORPG – Blood Rites is officially announced to be coming soon for players in Europe, America and other English speaking territories. With innovative graphic performance and widely imaginative game experience given, Blood Rites will lead you to a most fantastic virtual world.

Amazing Game Quality Created by Top-level Developing Team

Developed under Kongzhong’s high standard, Blood Rites gathered the art designers from China, South Korea and US, using picturized skill, to prove you this great sensorial performance.

No matter in game technology, graphic quality or even the in-game playing, unique originalities can be seen everywhere in Blood Rites. The new 3D gaming method, top graphic render tech, fresh physics engine, 4 transferable occupations and a full-time company-elf; all these features will be opened to public one after another.

The Unique Elf World

Blood Rites creates a mysterious world of elf’s. Planet of Pandora, Illusion woods, snowland…. This entire beautiful scenes will attract your eye while your first time playing.

 

Hundreds of Elves to Fit Your Own Favor

Being a featured element of Blood Rites, elf system is the part you can never miss. Those lovely elf beauties can be your in-game company, follow you through quests or adventures. More than that, the elf cultivation system can allow you to cultivate your own divine elf, bring you an exciting experience.

Plenty of Game Features Will Be on Stage Soon

In order to provide our beta testers better experience, Blood Rites prepared a lot gaming contents, smooth PVP, massive wild battles, moving combat style, divine gear etc.  All these will be uncovered soon.

Want get the firsthand news of Blood Rites? Want to be the first line to experience all the game features? Our first Flash website for Blood Rites is coming soon! The battle can’t stay without you!

War of Angels Trailers

War of Angels is gamigo´s new free-to-play 3D online role-playing game (MMORPG). There are no monthly subscription fees and no purchase is necessary to play. Register now and explore an exciting new fantasy world with a unique look.

Transformers Universe

The Transformers MMO was announced in July of 2010 by Netdragon and is said to be a large scale 3D Combat MMO set in the Transformers Universe.

We can’t wait to see Autobots such as Bumblebee, Jazz, Ironhide, Sideswipe and of course Optimus Prime square off against the Decepticons suck as Megatron, Soundwave and Starscream!

A recent announcement made clear that the company had changed direction and will be converting the game into a MOBA rather than a standard scifi MMORPG.

RIFT Open Beta Event Scheduled To Start February 15th 2011

 

RIFT Open Beta Event Scheduled To Start February 15th 2011

 
Are you looking to to play in “Telara the Merciless” beta event?

 

RIFT Open Beta MMORPG

 
On February 15th Trion will lift the veil on their upcoming MMORPG Rift with a six-day open beta event, giving all would-be Defiants and Guardians the opportunity to preview the epic world of Telara before the game launches worldwide on March 1st. Servers are scheduled to be open from 6:00 PPM GMT on Tuesday, February 15th to 6:00 PM GMT on Monday, February 21st, giving users a taste of Telara, including two playable factions, the first 42 levels of play, three PvP warfronts, and several zones and dungeons to explore.

 

Head start begins on March 4th!

 

Don’t forget, OnRPG is giving away Closed BETA keys so you can get even earlier access right now if you are quick.

 
Sign up now for a guaranteed spot in the “Telara the Merciless” beta event, and secure your spot in the Rift head start period (February 24-March 1) by pre-ordering the game now..

League of Legends: Karma’s a Bitch, Ain’t it?

League of Legends: Karma’s a Bitch, Ain’t it?
Patch v1.0.0.110, Karma, AI revamps, and the greed of Doran
By Jason (Hhean) Harper, OnRPG Journalist

 

League of Legends MMO Karma

 

Greetings fellow summoners! This is the patch v1.0.0.110 article for League of Legends, the game containing the sexiest of Buddhas. This patch sees inflation hit Runeterra as Doran raises his prices, mages feel a bit less runic, but a bit more magical and Karma, The Enlightened One takes to the fields of justice.

 

Karma is a damage dealing support character, or a damage dealing mage with good support capabilities, depending on how you choose to build, level and play her. She is quite possibly the most unintuitive character in the game, best suited to using her defensive abilities to hurt the enemy and using her damaging abilities to aid her allies. She is highly adaptive, and more than any other character in game, should change her levelling order and item build depending on ally and enemy team composition.

 

Her passive, Inner Flame, gives her ability power as she loses health. While this is useful, don’t try to use it to maximise her damage output. It’s worth remembering that it does make her Soul Shield better though, which can save her from a gank on occasion.

 

Her Ultimate, Mantra [R], will allow her next ability to perform an additional effect, usually performing a reverse function to the original ability.

 

Mantra is unusual in that she receives it for free at level 1, and cannot level it further after that. To compensate for this, the rest of her abilities have 6 levels, rather than the usual 5. Most of her abilities are below par on their own, but when enhanced with Mantra, they perform very well. Mantra has an ammo system, allowing Karma to carry up to two stacks of Mantra at a time, which are indicated either in the buff bar or by the little red fans floating around her.

 

Before you think a fight is about to kick off, it’s a good idea to prime Mantra ahead of time, as the frustratingly long cooldown will be that little bit shorter if you have another stack building while Karma is holding onto a Mantra. This almost grants you a third stack if you get the timing down very precisely, and you have stacked a good deal of cooldown reduction later in the game. Mastery of Mantra management is the differences between an awful Karma and a great one.

 

A note to those playing against Karma – When she has none of those fans floating about, that’s a great time to attack without mercy.

 

League of Legends Geisha Karma

 

Heavenly Wave [Q], is a short range conical attack that can be enhanced by her mantra to also heal allies in the cone and herself for the same amount. It’s not quite as short range as it appears though, as the visual on her cone is slightly smaller than the ability’s actual range.

 

Heavenly Wave is her main support skill, though it requires some finesse to use, much like Lux’s Prismatic Barrier. Ideally, you want to be using this to both injure enemies, and heal allies, but in most circumstances this can be used to heal people when they’re not all running around like headless chickens somewhere safe. Using the enhanced version of this, alongside a normal Soul Shield is a very safe, sustainable means of farming, provided you have a means of keeping her mana up.

 

Pick up Heavenly Wave or Soul Shield early and max it first, depending on if you intend to go support or damage. This ability is the better choice for support and sustainability.

 

Spirit Bond [W], shoots out a tether to an ally or enemy near her. Any allies who are hit by the tether, or move through the tether will give them a movement speed increase. An enemy you target will be slowed, and any enemy moving through the tether (Whether its tied to friend or foe) will be damaged and slowed. Using Mantra on this ability will increase the slow or speed boost, which can be useful for moving between lanes or chasing. Generally though, try to avoid enhancing this in anything close to a real fight, as she only has two stacks available, and her other two abilities are more useful for aiding allies and killing enemies.

 

This can be used as a farming tool, as you can target a minion, then use the tether to damage anything nearby. The drawback to this trick though is it will usually leave you out of position, and her other two abilities can farm more effectively while leaving her less exposed.

 

Pick this up either when your enemies pick up boots in order to maintain a mobility advantage or when you feel the laning phase is coming to a close, and will need the added mobility to get you and your teammates around the map. Max it out last.

 

League of Legends Mayan Karama

 

Soul Shield [E], creates a protective shield on a friendly target, absorbing a set amount of damage. If you expend Mantra, the shield will explode the moment its cast, hurting everything in a large area around the target.

 

Soul Shield looks like a support ability, but is actually better suited as her primary nuke and harassing tool, since it can be used on minions as well as champions. As a champion moves in to last hit a minion, you shield it, stopping the hit, and then the following explosion does a significant amount of damage. Your tank rushing into an enemy team is its most obvious usage later in the game, the resulting explosion putting you in a life lead for any team fight. Following this with an enhanced Heavenly Wave for more damage and healing can secure a victory in your favour.

 

If you’re looking to pump out damage, and want to do some heavy harassment during the laning phase, this is a great early game pick. Max this first for a damage dealing Karma with a support ability on the side. This is my personal preference, since the shield and incredible range on the attack can keep your health up enough that the lower healing from her Heavenly Wave won’t be as much of a concern.

 

Item wise, you want to focus on ability power and cooldown reduction for her. Focusing more on cooldown early will allow her access to Mantra more frequently, which on a support focused Karma will allow for more healing. A damage dealing should think more about her ability power earlier on. On either build, Ionian boots are a good choice, netting her some early game cooldown at a low cost. Provided you aren’t being crowd controlled so heavily that Mercury Treads become a must, that is. Banksy’s Deathcap works very well on her, given its synergy with her passive. Due to the close range of many of her abilities, Abyssal Scepter makes a great defensive/offensive item when dealing with magic heavy teams. Soul Shroud is a great support item on her giving both her and her teammates her much needed cooldown. Despite the increased cost, a Doran’s Ring works fine on Karma to begin with, due to few of the cheaper items building into something optimal for her.

 

9/0/21 works fine on her for masteries. Cooldown runes on her are a must. Mp5 per level, and magic penetration on her are solid choices, along with ability power. Clarity is great for her lane sustainability, since she has no mana regeneration abilities, and can eat through her blue bar at speed if she chooses to. Ghost works very well alongside Spirit Bond for getting around the map.

 

League of Legends MMORPG

 

Karma benefits greatly from having an organized team, both from the very specific placement required in order to maximise Spirit Bond, needing a friendly target to perform her most damaging ability, and her allies needing to be standing in the correct position between her and her enemies in order to be healed. In solo queuing she suffers greatly because of this, but in a premade team she can do quite well. I’m finding her a hard champion to judge the overall power of because of this, and that’s after half a week of near constant play. My final verdict on her currently stands that she’s good, but not great. If you’re looking for a complicated, deep character with plenty of versatility, give her a go. Just remember to use all of her abilities backwards to what looks like their intended purpose at first glance.

 

The most significant change to the game overall though is the increase in the cost of Doran’s items. Expect to see much more conservative play from here on in, and an increase in people buying cheaper items so they can stock up on potions. Rejuvenation Beads, Sapphire Crystals and Meki Pendants are most likely going to be seen a lot more from here on out.

 

The gap between the haves and the have nots got shortened this patch, with mana regeneration overall being buffed, while mana regeneration runes got nerfed. The nerfing of health quintessences lets theory crafters debate which quintessences to pick up, and may now allow for a greater array of choices. I would guess that we will likely see a slight rise in the number of armour pen., magic pen., and movement speed quintessences.

 

The new AI are a fun diversion to engage in when testing out builds, but they’re incredibly stupid still. Rather hoping the upcoming intermediate difficulty for the co-op mode will break this trend.

 

To discuss some of the changes yourselves, visit the League of Legends section of our forums, or post in the massive League of Legends thread in the free to play MMOs section. If you haven’t tried League of Legends yet. Now is the perfect time.

Forsaken World Interview Forthesaken Time!

Forsaken World Interview Forthesaken Time!
Questions by Chen Fo Po (cinderboy), OnRPG Journalist
Answers by Jonathan Belliss, Director of Marketing, Perfect World Entertainment Inc.

 

Forsaken World is Perfect World Entertainment’s upcoming epic MMORPG, and I would like to stress that the word “epic” was not added just to make the game sound good. Forsaken World is arguably the company’s biggest MMORPG to date. The Chinese version even had a country-wide tour to promote the game! Without further ado, let’s get into the the second interview interview and find out even more about this gem.

 

OnRPG: Hello, my name is Chen Fo Po (cinderboy) from OnRPG. Can you please introduce yourself to our readers?

Hi. My name is Jonathan Belliss and I’m the Director of Marketing for Perfect World Entertainment. I oversee all of our games, including Forsaken World.

 

OnRPG: Let us cut straight to the main point first *serious mode*. What is the current status of the game? Is Forsaken World ready for OBT? And exactly when?

We are in the final stages of polishing the game for launch and with the help of all of our closed beta testers, we are quickly approaching launch. I think the game is definitely almost there in terms of quality and polish.  We’re going through a few more phases of testing, and then we’ll be good to go.  Forsaken World will be launched simultaneously in North American and Europe with French and German versions on March 23.

 

OnRPG: On behalf of the gamers eagerly waiting for the official OBT launch of the game, I will like to ask this: “What in the world is Perfect World Entertainment thinking, letting us wait for nearly a year!”

Forsaken World has been our longest game in development to date and we really wanted to make sure that we get every detail ofthis game right, which is part of the reason why we’ve been taking our time.. It is also one of the reasons why we had such a long closed beta with multiple phases.  We realize a lot of people were unhappy waiting for so long, but we simply didn’t want to release a game pre-maturely and unfinished.

 

OnRPG: Did the response for Forsaken World match the initial expectations set?

The player response has been tremendous. Not only has this been the longest closed beta, it has also been the biggest closed beta for us to date.  The feedback that we’ve gotten from our players has been overwhelmingly positive.  All of this support has simply fueled us even more and is driving us to launch the game.  To answer your question, initial expectations were set pretty high, and we’re glad that we’re meeting those expectations thus far.

 

Forsaken World MMORPG Castle

OnRPG: Numbers. Is it possible to share with us some numbers, like how many CBT accounts were given out, characters created, how many max level characters etc?

Unfortunately since we’re a public company, we’re not allowed to disclose any of those numbers without explicit permission.

 

OnRPG: I have encountered situations where high level players are “camping” outside towns waiting to PK (Player Kill) lower level characters. How is this situation viewed by the Forsaken World team?

We realize that players have been encountering this issue and that it’s been severely hindering gameplay for some.  Starting with Closed Beta Phase 4, more channels will be in place that will allow players to avoid common bottlenecks.  Also with Phase 4 and beyond, there will be PvE server options for players that don’t wish to play on a PvP oriented server.

 

OnRPG: Speaking of PvP (Player vs Player), in the previous interview OnRPG had, it was said that the PvP system will be going back to the drawing board. Any updates with regards to this?

We’ve been going back and forth with the development team on the subject of PvP.  In terms of recent developments, we’ve just confirmed that we’ll be having a PvP Arena System added to the game.  This system will allow players to get into groups and queue for an Arena Match.  Players will then battle and fight for points which can be used to attain gear or other rewards.  We expect to see more improvements in PvP as the year progresses.

 

OnRPG: Also, in the previous interview, the player-god system was apparently a god-forbidden topic to chat about. Perhaps some lights can be shed now? *comes up with a cute adoring face*

This is something that is currently still being worked on by China and balancing it has been the most challenging issue. We want it to be more than just a player recognition status symbol, but at the same time, we don’t want players abusing their powers and griefing other players with it.  More importantly, the revision of other core game systems has taken up more time than anticipated, leaving less time to work on the God System.  For example a majority of players have been asking for an Auction House System.  So we’ve been spending a lot of time on that and should have it out by Phase 4 of CB, if not by when the game goes live.

 

OnRPG: I understand that that there are worries about IP blocking once there are other English servers out in other regions. Care to comment on this?

We are publishing Forsaken World for North America and for most of Europe in both German and French. Perfect World is working with other publishers to ensure that Forsaken World is brought to as many players around the world as possible.

 

OnRPG: There were quite some technical errors during the CBT phase, with in-game lagging (causing the dreaded “rubber-ban effect”) as well affecting a significant amount of players. Are all the problems duly noted by the team and finding ways to solve them?, We’ve definitely taken note of these issues and have addressed them on the backend. Closed beta testing allows us to put the game through its paces in a live environment and discover these issues before launch.  We believe that the channel system will alleviate some of the congestion and frame rate issues that people see in town, but we’re also working on some other improvements that should help with the issues you’ve mentioned.

 

Forsaken World Classes MMORPG

OnRPG: Another concern for the community will be the cash shop, or Eyrda Boutique. How will the items and prices be structured to prevent imbalance for light or non-spending players?

In Closed Beta Phase 3, we gave out cash currency to our players for testing the cash shop. This allows us to gauge demand and we take in feedback from our players regarding prices. The cash shop is focused on convenience and cosmetic items and we are very sensitive to balancing the game for all players regardless of whether or not they spend. 

 

OnRPG: Are there any areas of the game which the Forsaken World team feel that need changing?

I think that the main things that need changing are being addressed right now, both in form of the new Auction House System and PvP Arenas.

 

OnRPG: Up till now, what are some of the major differences the North American server has from the original Chinese server?

The only major differences between the two are PvE servers here in North America.  At launch, we will have a distinct separation between PvE and PvP servers, where as in China, they are all PvP.

 

OnRPG: Will all features found in CBT be in the game at launch? Or will there be new features added?

Yes, as of now we don’t have any plans to take out any of the features in closed beta at launch. One of the features that wasn’t in the first closed beta phase, but has been added since then, is the auction house. Many players requested this and we thought it was a good feature to add into the game.  We’ll also be opening up more PvE content and unlocking progression.

 

OnRPG: Can you share with us some of the events planned for the game’s upcoming OBT launch?

We’ve been doing leveling events throughout closed beta that will grant rewards to players upon launch. We are definitely planning some events for open beta launch and a decision on the various events will be made soon.

 

OnRPG: Having played the Chinese server for some time, there are quite an amount of merchandise for the game. Any plans to bring any of them over as event prizes or for retailing?

Absolutely. We are  looking into bringing over as well as creating our own swag for contests and giveaways for Forsaken World. The best way to keep an eye out for swag is to frequently check the official Forsaken World website (http://fw.perfectworld.com/) for updates.

 

OnRPG: Thank you for your time! I can’t wait for OBT to finally start!