Monthly Archives: July 2011

Rise of Immortals

Rise of Immortals is a MOBA based sequal to Petroglyph’s previous fantasy MMO, Guardians of Graxia. It differs from most other MOBAs by putting a heavier emphasis on social aspects, such as a hub world and character modeling avatars to represent yourself instead of just being a faceless summoner of sorts. Also characters are strengthened and built up on an individual basis, giving you a much greater feeling of accomplishment for maxing out a single Immortal’s stat trees.

 

Features:

 

·  12 unique Immortals at launch with additional characters released monthly

·  Character-based progression through a diverse skill tree

·  Persistent artifacts for stat enhancements

·  Player versus Environment maps with unique achievements

·  Player versus Player maps from 1v1 up to 5v5 multiplayer

·  Gain persistent experience and levels through play in PvP and PvE maps

·  Collectible pets for combat and vanity

·  Account and Immortal statistics tracking

·  Avatar-based player hub for socialization

Rusty Hearts Anime Expo Coverage

Anime Expo Coverage of Rusty Hearts

By Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), OnRPG Editor-in-Chief

 

 

 

At Anime Expo last week, OnRPG got yet another first look at Perfect World’s stellar upcoming title, Rusty Hearts. Well today we are going to unveil what we learned through a character introduction article, and another interview video with Mark Hill!

 

 

The characters in Rusty Hearts have their own backgrounds, weapons, and skills that are as unique and vibrant as the game itself. Where they came from, how they got their special powers, and what motivates them in their quest against the evil armies of Lord Vlad are integral the Rusty Hearts story, and their arsenals of devastating weaponry will keep you happily hacking and slashing through dungeons for a long, long time.

 

Allow us to introduce two character from the Rusty Hearts team. Angela, an apprentice witch with a sharp tongue and an even sharper sword, and Tude, a reluctant hero with unmatched speed and ferocity.

 

Angela

 

Deep in the Fog Forest of Rumania lies a small village.  This village has survived for hundreds of years under the protection of the witches who are trained there.  Now, in these dark times, a young witch apprentice named Angela has been sent to the city of Bramunez to aid in the siege on Curtis Castle.  To gain the power she would need to survive the coming conflict, Angela fused her soul with that of Graestra, an ancient blade possessed by an evil spirit.  This turned her hair fiery red and spiky, as well as granted her the sorcerous abilities of a witch many times her age.

 

Angela is foul-mouthed and tough, but a bit naïve having been raised in a small village in the forest her entire life.  Still, no one can match her powerful spells.

 

Angela’s Arsenal:


Magic Sword

This wicked blade is Graestra’s original form, though it shifts and grows as Angela becomes more skilled with it.  The Magic Sword form is hard hitting but slow and has a short range.  Its real power is its effect on Angela’s own magic.  She can summon fire and orbs of arcane energy to blast all who stand in her way.  As Angela grows in power, she can master all the elements, heal her allies and even learn some abilities Lord Vlad’s own minions use against her.

 

 

 

Magic Scythe

It has been a long time since Graestra tasted blood and the thought of doing battle with the countless minions of Vlad within the halls of Curtis Castle has the spirit bound within the blade absolutely giddy.  If Angela will allow it, the spirit’s bloodlust will manifest in the weapon of death itself, a large and wicked scythe.  Slower even than the Magic Sword form, Graestra’s scythe form trades magical superiority for long range, brutal attacks.  The weapon seems to have a will of its own as it leaps from Angela’s hand to seek out new prey.  This weapon form makes Angela’s spells more violent, but less precise, and has fewer support or healing abilities.

 

 

 

 

Tude

 

Tude Macleod is a lifelong wanderer.  In his travels he was attacked by a wolf.  He managed to slay the beast, but not after it broke off one of its huge teeth inside his chest.  Strangely, the wound healed quickly, sealing the tooth within his body.  Before long, Tude discovered that the wolf’s bite and its tooth were having an effect on his body.  His arm turned into a wicked claw that he keeps hidden within a bulky gauntlet.   He was traveling from town to town to avoid arousing suspicion when he stumbled into Bramunez on a whim.  In a serious case of wrong place at the wrong time, Tude was sealed within Curtis Castle when the Golden Seal team erected the barriers to trap Vlad inside.  He joins up with Frantz and Angela once they enter the main levels of Curtis Castle (although you may play as Tude from the beginning of the adventure, he doesn’t make his storyline appearance until later levels).

 

Tude’s Arsenal:

 

Gauntlet

At a young age Tude learned that the only weapon you can trust completely is your own fist.  Except maybe  your foot, knee, elbow or any other part of you that can break a bone or bloody a nose.   Since his encounter with the ancient wolf, his style of in-your-face combat has only grown more vicious.  Tude’s gauntlet is the fastest weapon on the Golden Seal team, able to uppercut enemies into the air and kill them twice before they hit the ground.  It is an extremely short range weapon, and Tude wouldn’t have it any other way.  He never had the patience for all that magic stuff, anyway.  In combat, he is the perfect combination of man and beast; ducking and weaving like a boxer before pouncing like a ravenous wolf.

 

 

 

Claw

After seeing what Vlad’s minions are capable of, Tude has the option of choosing a weapon that more suits his animalistic tendencies.  His claw sacrifices the quick and precise strikes of the gauntlet in favor of wide, reaping arcs of razor-edged death.  Although slower and much bulkier than the gauntlet, the claw has the ability to charge up even its most basic attack in order to unleash a frenzy of strikes against all foes that stand in his way.  As with the gauntlet, the claw abilities favor close combat strikes and charging attacks over fancy spells.

 

 

Frantz

 

 

Although not much is revealed yet on Frantz, Mark Hill revealed at Anime Expo that he is a partially transformed vampire that carries one of the strongest grudges against Lord Vlad. Refusing to allow his thirst for blood to overwhelm his judgement, Frantz holds the initial blood from his first victim within his body to sustain himself.

 

Blade

Frantz Primary weapon is a long blade that he sheaths and unsheaths at a lightning pace. To say this is the source of his true power would be false. Combining his blade as a focal point, Frantz unleashes powerful blood magic to devastate enemies in a large circumference around his character.

 

 

 

Having played as Frantz at Anime Expo, I can best describe him as a rouge type character, bringing intense melee DPS damage at short bursts, and specializing in disabling his foes for the duration of powerful combos. We look forward to learning more about the back story of Frantz and other Rusty Hearts characters in the coming months!

Prius Online Ends IP Ban, Expands Content

Prius Online Ends IP Bans, Prepares New Content Expansion!

 

 

 

As Prius Online’s open beta progresses, Gala-Net has been receiving solid and insightful feedback from its players.  Now, the game team is thrilled to share the results of this valuable input with tremendous news:  Prius Online will end its IP restrictions and push forward with new game content!

 

 

Thousands of fans across the globe exclaimed their distress when Prius Online launched with IP blocks.  After seeing exactly how upsetting this was to the player base, Gala-Net went to work with the developer to confront the issue.   Several negotiations later, the team successfully bargained for the release of IP restrictions worldwide!  Beginning July 5th, Prius Online will now be opened to all regions not currently or in the process of publishing the game.

 

Gala-Net then pushed forward, seeking to address players’ issues over the lack of in-game content.   Once again, the team went to the developer expressing the community’s needs, and again fantastic agreements were reached.  As of July 5th, open beta players will be able to access 5 new dungeons scattered throughout the world of Prius!  Players won’t have to wait long for more though, as towards the end of July Gala-Net will be releasing its first major update.  This update will include 6 new dungeons, Guild Siege, Guild Championships, a level cap increase, and much more!

 

 

With the IP Block and the content issues addressed, Gala-Net is avidly researching the next most important community issues.

Runescape Prepares Guild Citadel Expansion

RuneScape Prepares to Release Clan Base Expansion

 

Jagex Games Studio today unveils the first details of the Clan Citadels expansion which launches in RuneScape on July 26. The expansion will fill RuneScape’s horizon with floating castles to offer in-game clans new, unique and fully customizable gameplay experiences.

 

The centrepiece of the expansion is the clan battlefields, a unique sandbox environment allowing clans to generate their own user-generated gameplay for the first time within RuneScape. Clans will have access to a full-blown Battleground Editor equipping them with all the tools needed to create and develop their own multiplayer games. Clans can create any gameplay they wish; ranging from simple capture the flag style games to full clan versus clan battles. Once created, clan members can save their games and even invite others to compete in their creation.

 

 

The Clan Citadels expansion breaks the mould for group gaming in MMO’s and will be open to all RuneScape members. Once signed up, clan leaders can select one of four Citadel layouts and propel their citadel into glorious sunshine or perpetual night. In addition to the clan battlefield, each citadel comes complete with portal grounds, meeting rooms, senates and party rooms. Players will have free reign to customise their castles and add banners and flags flying the colours of their clan.

 

The Clan Citadels is in place to support the vast number of clans now created within RuneScape and offers new and innovative functionality to those who enjoy playing in this group way. Clan Citadels will be able to offer MMO gamers a more fulfilling multiplayer experience than they may currently enjoy. With Clan Citadel’s unique mechanics, features and user-generated battle arenas, RuneScape will welcome all new players who seek more compelling clan gaming to come and see it for themselves.

 

 

Daniel Clough, VP of RuneScape, commented, “For over a decade RuneScape has pioneered MMO development and the launch of Clan Citadels will once again prove RuneScape’s commitment to creating truly unique and innovative content. Since our last clan update in April we have seen more than 1 million RuneScape players sign up to one of the 150,000+ in-game clans, so we felt it an important move to give them all something of this scale to support their clans and we know that they will be hugely looking forward to it.

 

This update has been designed to make RuneScape’s clan support the envy of the MMO world. We know that the functionality and gameplay offered will appeal to clans from other MMO’s who long for better group play experiences and we warmly invite new clans to check out the update and judge for themselves just what RuneScape has to offer.”

 

Be sure to check out the teaser trailer of this expansion right HERE at OnRPG.

ChinaJoy Convention 2011

OnRPG is proud to announce that we are the designated North American media outlet representing the ChinaJoy Convention 2011! Be sure to check back here regularly as we will be covering all major game announcements and more awesome cosplayers as the convention comes closer to its start date of July 27th!

Starcraft 2: Journey To Diamond League

My Journey to Diamond League: First Issue!

By Mohammad Abubakr, OnRPG Journalist

 

 

Be sure to check out Kluey’s Starcraft II Review if you’re not familiar with the game! http://www.onrpg.com/MMO/Starcraft-II/review/Starcraft-2-Wings-of-Liberty—RTS-Perfection

 

 

This is the beginning of a new series here at OnRPG, “My Journey to Diamond League”. These bi-weekly articles will record my matches and progress in Starcraft II. My goal is to advance from the bronze league to diamond. Due to the length of this article, the first column will be split into a 2 part series.

 

 

I believe that I am good at video games. I can rank high in various genres including FPS,MMO and MOBA. What makes Starcraft different from the other genres is that you must manage more than one unit at a time. My one gaming weakness is multitasking; hopefully I will improve by playing Starcraft II.

 

While it is true that I have not played a lot of Starcraft before, I did play a couple of hours of Starcraft II when I bought it a couple months ago. I did not find myself playing it a lot because I was not enjoying myself. After seeing the pros play at MLG with their incredible speed and unique play styles, I was tempted back to the league.

 

When I first did my placement matches I was surprisingly placed in silver league but due to my lack of knowledge, I got kicked down to bronze. That is the point at which I quit playing because I was busy with other games but frustration might have been a factor. I do not like losing.

 

After watching MLG, I hopped back on Starcraft and used some of the new tricks I learned from the players and streamers. Now I am rank 8 bronze in my division, this is where my journey will begin.

 

In simplest terms, Starcraft II is a game where the player must build up an army to take out his opponents buildings. Once all buildings have been destroyed the player loses. However, games will rarely get to the point where you are destroying all buildings. Players simply concede upon realizing the game is lost.

 

The ranking system is divided into seven leagues. These are bronze, silver, gold, platinum, diamond and masters. You might notice that I have only listed six; we will come to the seventh league later on. You may be promoted to these leagues based on your hidden matchmaking rating. This rating goes up or down depending on your matches. It does not increase by a set value so it is nearly impossible to calculate. A victory over a better opponent will award you with more points while a loss to a worse opponent will result in losing more points. When you begin the game, you must play five placement matches. Your initial rank will be decided based on your performance throughout these games.  You may not view your win to loss ratio until you achieve master’s league. Also, each league is divided into separate divisions which each include 100 players. The final league is called the grandmasters league and this league only includes the 200 top players on the server which are selected by Blizzard.

 

Now, let us dive right into the games.

 

Week 1

Games played: 4

Initial Rank: Bronze – 8

Final Rank: Bronze – 8

Win/Loss:  4/0

 

Being in bronze league means you will rarely play epic matches because they are often full of all-ins and cheese. This means they will pump out units very early and not focus on developing a good economy. I play as a Zerg who is not very aggressive early on and hopes to create longer macro oriented games. This means that I will quickly setup multiple expansions and develop many workers early on to maintain many bases. Army units are seldom built until later on unless necessary to counter an aggressive opponent.

 

If an opponent is aggressive early on and continues attacking the same base it is considered to be an all-in. If I am able to hold off these acts of aggression, I will be able to overrun him with high quality massed units produced by my stronger economy. Sometimes opponents are smart and continue to develop an economy while forcing you to build army units to hold off attacks. This results in them getting ahead of you economically while throwing you off your game. This seldom happens in Bronze league because this league consists of new and less skilled players.

 

I employed one of the key strategies in Starcraft II during my first game; build up a good economy.  My opponent was also a Zerg player but he did not want to develop his economy. His aim was to end the game quickly so he can move on to another match. Since bronze players often try to finish games quickly, I had setup static defense in the form of spine crawlers. His zerglings fell one by one to my superior defensive structures while my army of workers brought in huge hauls of crystal. I used this to my advantage and continued to enhance my own economy.

 

My opponent tried his best to delay his inevitable defeat by hiding buildings and setting up a lot of static defense. If he was really in such a hurry to progress to his next game, he should have surrendered sooner because the writing was on the wall early on.

 

So many spines!

 

My second game that same day was versus a Terran. While he did have a good plan to harass me with reapers it was not well executed on the micro level. He stood around with his reapers for too long to the point where I could easily fend off any harassment. Since he only focused on constructing one base and poked me ineffectual harassment, I continued to develop my economy. I achieved victory by destroying his main base with zerglings and banelings. I might have lost the game if he attacked me with his reapers because I was not building an army at that time. Keep in mind that reapers can jump over walls, so he could have easily harassed me multiple times without losing any units.

 

 

There goes his base!

 

Two days later I was put up against a Terran. I almost pulled an Idra (In case you did not get the reference, Idra is a professional player that left a won game because he thought he was behind.)

 

I was minding my own business mining on my three bases when the Terran decided to send some banshees my way. Keep in mind that unlike Terran and Protoss, Zerg have limited options to counter air early on. Air units appear frequently in bronze league so I built some evolution chambers early on just in case. These allow me to build spore crawlers which are the static air defense for the Zerg race.

 

 

Roaches do not help against banshees

 

I was sure I had lost the game because almost all my drones at my expansions were gone but thankfully he was still on one base. He did not quit coming at me with banshees and eventually Vikings, so I thought it was a good idea to build some mutalisks. This way I could harass his only base which would drastically reduce his income and kill off his air army.  With my ground and air army, I marched to his base, broke his wall and went right for the starports. I did not want to fight more air units, I hate them. He conceded after losing his starports.

 

My final game this week was against another Terran.  After learning that I should always scout with overlords and run up his ramp from time to time, I saw that he was just getting mass marines and marauders. I later found out he also had tanks. Since he was only on one base, I had a big economic advantage. He did not bother attacking early on, as most people do when on one base so I went ahead and setup four bases.

 

His marine, marauder and tank army was no match for my roaches and banelings. While he did hold steady through my first assault, I was able to reinforce my army because of my massive income from four bases. The second assault overwhelmed his remaining defenses.

 

I am not happy that I did not gain any ranks this week. I was busy with school exams so I did not have a lot of time to play Starcraft. In part 2 I will cover my second week and the beginning of my rise to Silver League! Look forward to seeing it early next week!

Karma Online Pre-OB Testing Has Begun

Karma Online Pre-Open Beta Test Has Begun

 

 

Joymax announced today that its upcoming World War II game, Karma Online: Prisoners of the Dead, has launched its pre-open beta test with much fanfare and bullets flying, which will run through Tuesday, July 19. This test is open to the public so don’t miss out!

 

“The sheer volume of players who signed up for this pre-open beta was flattering, but we were glad to be prepared for so much excitement and interest,” said Joymax CEO, Nam-chul Kim. “We have GMs in game regularly to take feedback, play games with our lucky testers, and they’ve reported how much fun everyone is having!”

The pre-open beta runs now through July 19th, so players will have the next couple of weeks to familiarize themselves with the game, learn how to build a character from the ground up and customize them with a variety of skills, use many of the diverse weapons available in the game while blasting their opposing faction’s players and zombies.

 

Developed in conjunction with Dragonfly, and published by Joymax, KARMA Online: Prisoners of the Dead is the newest installment in the KARMA Online series, the top online first-person shooter series in Korea. Players go back in time to World War II, where they must choose to side with the Axis or Allied powers and join the fight for global victory – with a zombie twist.  In this virtual and historical simulation, players will be up against enemy troops as well as hundreds of the walking dead from the remains of the catastrophic battle.