Monthly Archives: March 2012

BAFTA Video Games Awards 2012

BAFTA Video Games Awards 2012

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

 

In the UK the BAFTAs are most commonly known as the English equivalent of the Oscars. However a little less known of event held by BAFTA spotlights video games! The 8th annual Video Game Awards were just held, and though I didn’t get to go, I watched eagerly from the comfort of my computer chair. For the third year in a row they were hosted by Dara Ó Briain, an Irish stand-up comedian and host of panel show Mock the Week. He is also a very proud gamer which makes him perfect for hosting this award show. A total of nineteen awards were handed out to people from all across the industry and there were a few surprises. If you’re like many of us sitting around waiting for a major MMO to launch, the following games are probably good candidates to help pass the time.

 

 

Story: The first award handed out was for story. Sadly there were no MMOs nominated for this category even though I think it is safe to say everyone wishes Skyrim was multiplayer. In addition to Skyrim other nominess included Batman: Arkham City, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, L.A. Noire, Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception and Portal 2. The winner was Portal 2. This was the first surprise of the night as I don’t normally think of story when I think of Portal 2. Nonetheless it’s a well deserved honor for the goofy dialogue and wild setting created by this game.

 

 

Original Music: Music in games is vital. It sets the mood, tells you what sort of world you’re in and most importantly alerts you to danger. When I think of music and Assassin’s Creed: Revelations I think of that amazing E3 Trailer which featured Woodkid’s song Iron. This wasn’t what they were talking about but Assassin’s Creed was nominated along with; The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, Uncharted 3, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Batman Arkham City and L.A. Noire. L.A. Noire won the BAFTA for the amazing scene setting music played throughout the game.

 

 

Audio Achievement: Different to music audio is all those lovely sound effects. From the sound of gunfire in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 to the grunts of battle in Batman: Arkham city this category had it all. Also nominated were Dead Space 2, Uncharted 3, The Nightjar and Battlefield 3. Battlefield 3 won this Bafta for its amazingly realistic sounds of a battlefield, most likely made by clapping two coconuts together.

 

 

Design: This category is all about the design of the game. To me this category really should be called Most Fun. Because that is what they really mean. And with games like Super Mario 3D Land being nominated that is made clear. Nominated along with Mario was L.A. Noire, LittleBigPlanet 2, Skyrim, Batman: Arkham City and Portal 2. Winning their second Bafta of the night, Valve walked away the winners of this award for Portal 2.

 

 

Game Innovation: Innovation in the gaming community is what keeps competition alive. It drives developers to come out with bigger and more interesting ways of playing. The Legend of Zelda series has been innovating the gaming industry since 1986 and that tradition continues today with Skyward Sword. Nominated along with Skyward Sword were; From Dust, Child of Eden, Bastion, L.A. Noire and LittleBigPlanet 2. There really is no arguing that there are no other games out like LittleBigPlanet 2, except LittleBigPlanet. Both have changed the way people think about games and challenged players of all ages.

 

 

Strategy: This award was presented by Aaron Staton, famous for Mad Men and voicing Cole Phelps in L.A. Noire. The surprise nomination in this category was Football Manager 2012. Sports and strategy only go together for me in the real world. But nominated along with it was; Dark Souls, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, From Dust, Ghost Recon Shadow Wars, and Total War: SHOGUN 2. Shogun 2 won this Bafta and it is no surprise that a strategy game should win in this category. It has received nothing but very high marks from every major review.

 

 

Mobile & Handheld: There is no denying that mobile gaming has boomed. Once you had to have a handheld device specifically created for mobile gaming. But recent technology has made smart phones viable for doing just this as well! The graphics in Dead Space iOS are amazing, especially when you consider that it is a mobile game. But mostly mobile games are known for being cutesy and easy to play. This is true of the other games nominated; The Nightjar, Quarrel, Super Mario 3D Land, Magnetic Billards: Blueprint, and Peggle HD. Popcap, known for their casual games walked away with this Bafta for Peggle HD.

 

 

The GAME Award of 2011: This was the only award that was voted on by the public. And done in association with British video game retailer GAME. This category was by far the largest with 10 games up for it. They were Portal 2, Skyward Sword, Minecraft, FIFA 2012, Modern Warfare 3, Batman: Arkham City, L.A. Noire, Skyrim, Uncharted 3 and Battlefield 3. Battlefield 3 won this making it Dice’s second Bafta of the night for Battlefield 3.

 

 

Action: Action makes games. What fun is a game where you just stand there and do nothing? This category recognizes the best in action. Nominated were Portal 2, Dues Ex: Human Revolution, Uncharted 3, Modern Warfare 3, Assassin’s Creed Revelations, and Batman: Arkham City. Watching the video clips of all these games made it clear why Arkham City was the winner. The action never stopped and looked amazing at the same time.

 

 

BAFTA Ones To Watch: This category was done in association with Dare to be Digital and is rather unique compared to the others. In this category three of the brightest young developers were given only six short weeks to create a game. What came of it were three completely different and amazing games. Dreamweaver, Joust and Tick Tock Toys. The last walked away with the award, though it is safe to say all three have great potential and look awesome.

 

 

Online-Browser: Online browser based games have changed what it means to play games. This includes everything from social games like The Sims Social in Facebook to flash games on websites like I Am Playr. Four other games were nominated for this category along with them; Skylanders: Spyro’s Universe, Global Resistance, Gardens of Time and Monstermind. Bossa Studios won this category with their Facebook game Monstermind which looks amazingly adorable.

 

 

Artistic Achievement: The award for artistic achievement had a lot of big names nominated for it. Uncharted 3, Skyrim, L.A. Noire, LittleBigPlanet 2, and Batman: Arkham City. It also had one slightly less well known game nominated for it Rayman Origins. And Rayman Origins was the winner. It is an incredibly cute looking game where with the exception of LittleBigPlanet 2 the rest go for a more realistic style. This award was presented by Asher D from the So Solid Crew who said about the artistic quality of games: “Things have certainly moved on from Pacman.” This category really proved that true.

 

 

BAFTA Special Award: This award was given to someone who has really inspired people around the world and created an amazing world that on the surface looks outdated but is really so much more. I’m talking about Markus Persson, the programmer behind the insanely popular Minecraft. This amazing game manages to suck away hours of people’s days without them even realizing it and even has its own LEGO deal.

 

 

Sports/Fitness: Host Dara Ó Briain pointed out that sports games and fitness games are really on two completely different planets. This is made apparent when you look at the nominations; Your Shape Fitness Evolved 2012, FIFA 2012, Dance Central 2, F1 2011, DiRT 3, and Kinect Sports 2. Proving what a big industry there is in fitness games Kinect Sports 2 walked away with this Bafta. And it is well deserved as it is more than just one game but more a collection of games which get you up and active.

 

 

Online-Multiplayer: Sadly this category doesn’t include any MMOs. It does however include some very big titles and a lot of sequels. The only non sequel is Dark Souls, which itself is a spiritual successor to another game. The other games nominated were; LittleBigPlanet 2, Gears of War 3, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, and Battlefield 3. For the third time Dice was awarded for Battlefield 3 which is the eleventh installment in the Battlefield franchise.

 

 

Debut Game: This category was filled with surprises, cute charming games, and finally an MMO! It had L.A. Noire which had been nominated for several other games and Trion World’s big MMO Rift. Also included were a few lesser known games like Bastion, Eufloria, Monstermind, and Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet. Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet won the Bafta. This game seems to have a little bit of everything and being published by Microsoft doesn’t hurt either. For a debut game Shadow Planet Productions has really set the bar high for any future games they make.

 

 

Family: Families who slay together, stay together. And while there may not be any slaying going on in these games it really is an introduction to gaming that allows parents and kids to share a common bond. The games nominated for this category were; Mario Kart 7, LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars, Kinect Sports 2, LEGO Pirates of the Caribbean, Dance Central 2 and LittleBigPlanet 2. LittleBigPlanet 2 won this making it the second award of the night for the game. LittleBigPlanet 2 is light-hearted fun for the whole family; it is easy to see why it won.

 

 

Performer: Games often feature famous voices that sometimes can go completely unrecognized like Mark Hamill as The Joker in Batman: Arkham City. Or sometimes you recognize them as soon as they speak like Stephen Fry as the Narrator of LittleBigPlanet 2. As well as these two the following were nominated; Aaron Staton (Cole Phelps) in L.A. Noire, Togo Igawa (Diplomat, Advisor and Military General) in Shogun 2, Stephen Merchant (Wheatley) in Portal 2, and Nolan North (Nathan Drake) in Uncharted 3. The winner of this award was Mark Hamill who couldn’t make it to the awards which I thought was really a shame as it would go a long way to giving more credit to the industry while also being really cool.

 

 

Best Game: The final award of the night, the one everyone had been waiting all night to see was Best Game. This category was filled with big names from several genres. The award was presented by Jonathan Ross, a well known English TV and radio presenter who is also a gamer. In reality all of the games nominated for this category deserved to win. They were FIFA 2012, Skyrim, Skyward Sword, L.A. Noire, Batman: Arkham City and Portal 2. The winner, Portal 2 was a huge surprise even to the people accepting the award. It really is amazing to think that a puzzle game could win against giants like FIFA 2012 and Skyrim. This made a total of 3 awards for Valve tonight with Portal 2.

 

 

MMOs have largely been overlooked by BAFTA in these awards. Though in previous years World of Warcraft and Dungeons and Dragons Online both have been part of the ceremony. DDO actually won for the Multiplayer category in 2006 going up against Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Advanced Warfare, Battlefield 2: Modern Combat and 2006 Fifa World Cup, to name a few. World of Warcraft has gone up against huge names twice and sadly come away both times without an award. Hopefully in the future more MMOs will be nominated. A big congratulations to all the winners. Keep up the fantastic work! And I look forward to watching the award ceremony again next year.

Time to Fight the Black Panthers in RiotZone

Time to fight the “Black Panthers” in RiotZone

 

RiotZone

 

Mail.Ru Games, publisher of the successful browser games Legend: Legacy of the Dragons, Allods Online and Juggernaut, presents some fresh features for their free2play browser game RiotZone. In the daily mission “Picnic at the lakeside” commanders fight the dictator’s elite sniper unit “Black Panthers”. In addition, the clan interface has received some updates. From now on players have the opportunity to see what their fellow members did while they were away. Finally, Commanders who love shopping can take a look at the boots that have just arrived in the store.

 

 

Reconnaissance troops have spotted the dictator’s elite unit “Black Panthers” taking a rest at the lakeside of “El Lago”. This all-female squad may consist of beautiful and kind-looking women, but commanders are not easily fooled: these women know neither regret nor mercy. Rumor has it, that even the legendary members Clara and Rosa are taking part in the little picnic. For those successful in defeating the “Black Panthers” tokens promise new equipment.

 

 

With the quest “Picnic at the lakeside” all other daily special missions like “Dr. Valentino” and “Anniversary of the revolution” will end. Captured tokens from these quests can still be exchanged for gear.

GDC 2012 Final Article: Sevencore

GDC 2012 Final Article: Sevencore

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

 

 

 

Whew after a full week + of trying to write about all the amazing things I saw at GDC 2012, I’ve finally reached the end of the line. gPotato has one hell of a unique game prepping for launch in 2012 called Sevencore. Now describing Sevencore is difficulty as I have a hard time comparing it to any titles I’ve played before. They mentioned it being a type of Steampunk setting during the demo but this isn’t an entirely different beast entirely. Take city A for example. You enter the town and it feels like a 19th century European industrial center with 7 story apartment buildings, factories, and large city squares. But then the police ride by on stegosauruses as people on the backs of dragons fly inches over your head. You wonder outside of town only to see a massive Starcraft Terran carrier fly by transporting new arrivals from the other continent. Turns out the continent across the pond is filled with future technologies, battle bots, and everything you’d expect in a Star Trek flick. You try coming up with a label for this type of setting because I give up.

 

 

The Pets

It’s impossible to understand the core of Sevencore without understanding the intricate pet system. Pets serve as mounts, as offensive infantry, and as support characters, and not all pets are exclusively one or the other. For instance you could ride a dragon and, upon dismounting, the dragon will begin shooting fire at your foes on its own accord. I’ll have to double check but I believe they mentioned the game currently has 40 pets, each with their own character sheet with detailed stats befitting an actual player character. Pets grow overtime as they train alongside you, further unlocking their potential and even new skills.

 

 

As I mentioned before the pets are classified as movement, offensive, or support. Let’s break this down. Movement pets can be classified as mechanical or organic. Organic pets will actually automatically assist you in battle while mechanical movement pets are more along the line of your typical mounts. Furthermore there are sea, land, and air specialized mounts. Not that they are exclusive as land mounts can often doggy paddle and air mounts can sometimes walk around on land. However, for maximum efficiency you will want to ride a pet that is specialized for the environment you intend to face.

 

 

Speaking of which, Sevencore has no dedicated healing class. This is where the importance of support pets comes in. You can train them to heal, buff, and do all kinds of useful skills to keep your party in the action. In a sense it gives you a feeling of playing two classes as you can become an expert of your primary class as well as raise a pet specialized in a particular type of combat to complement you. Coordinating with your allies to bring a well balanced mix of pets is vital to victory, as is knowing what you will be facing ahead of time. For instance one pet may have the ability to cloak your party, while another pet may reveal all cloaked persons, and the two skills cancel each other out.

 

 

Classes and Customization

When building your character for the first time you will get the choice of the Sion, Bruters, and Nuuk. The Sion are your typical humanoid race while the Bruters are large beefy mountain looking people and the Nuuk look like a particularly rough cut group of elves. There is also a fourth race in the works but it wasn’t ready at the demo, though gPotato claims it will be by launch.

 

 

The classes currently in the game are warrior, gunner, magician, and assassin each filling the major MMO roles of tank, ranged physical, ranged magical, and rogue dps. After choosing all this you enter an incredibly fun and detailed body customizer, with sliders for every little thing you could want. We’re talking you have control of shoulder blades, waist length, thigh height, head size, and more. It’s pretty extreme, and you can even double the height of a normal NPC, particularly if you’re playing a Bruter.

 

 

As I mentioned earlier there is no healing class and so each member of the party is expected to take care of themselves. The stress of this system is somewhere alleviated by allowing players to set sliders below their HP and MP bar that allows your character to automatically pot with a designated pot when either bar reaches below a certain %.

 

 

At launch they are expecting a maximum character level of 100, but are ambitiously chasing after a goal of level 200 once the content has been created and tested. On your way to the top you will acquire a series of common skills and weapon specific skills. While everyone learns common skills, the weapon skills you choose to acquire are entirely up to you. However each class can wield two weapons so be prepared to carry one of each weapon if you intend to follow a hybrid build.

 

 

Two other random systems I’ll throw in a mention for are the Turn-System and the XP skill. The XP skill is pretty self explanatory. You build a bar while gaining experience and then can unleash a super charged attack to burn out the bar in one epic blow. Unlike most XP skills seen in other games though, these require a bit of skill to properly use, so it’s best to save it for that ideal moment when you’ve got a huge group of mobs gathered together. The Turn-System is a way to reward player activity. Players gain 1 point per hour up to a maximum of 12 points. You can wager these points in a slot machine that gives players random items and sometimes even cash shop goodies.

 

 

Crafting Professions will of course also be included in the game. Though I don’t have much detail on the system, I know the game will feature weapon makers, armor makers, consumables (aka potions) makers, and material crafters, as well as collecting masteries for each of the three types of material you can gather.

 

 

The World and the War

The world of Sevencore is currently massive, with likely 2 continents available at launch and 5 huge zones to explore filled with over 1500 quests and a few daily quests. After joining/creating a guild, one of your primary goals will be to gain control of one of these 5 zones. Being in control of a zone gives you power over taxation as well as the ability to put forth a candidate for the presidential vote. After 3 days of voting, the winner of the presidential vote will exercise control over all the territories, or so I inferred.

 

 

In terms of organized PvP competition, you can expect 20v20 guild matches to wet your appetite. Or if you are more of a lone wolf kind of player, you can wager items and cash on 1 on 1 duels with rivals. If open world combat is more of your forte then you can declare another faction as your official rival, allowing you to pk them anytime in the open world with no penalty associated.

GDC 2012 Day 2: Eternal Blade

GDC 2012 Day 2: Eternal Blade

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

 

 

Nestled away in a hotel suite quite a ways off the main drag of the GDC venue was gPotato’s line-up for 2012, including the very ambitious games of Eternal Blade and Sevencore. Both were thankfully in a playable state so I got to have hands on time with each game; first up was Eternal Blade.

 

 

Eternal Blade goes for the retro cutesy look and, thanks to some high quality animations, it pulls it off well. Two things stand out right away to the player upon picking up the controller or putting hands down on the keyboard. The first you will notice is you can’t click on enemy monsters to highlight them. This shouldn’t be that shocking nowadays with all the action genre online games being released but due to the setting of Eternal Blade, it definitely felt unusual. Rather than tab targeting foes, you hover your mouse over your desired target and then click your key to launch various strikes on them, similar to smart casting skills in League of Legends. It also felt much smoother to use the arrow for movement rather than WASD.

 

 

This control scheme seems strange until you activate the alternative camera setting, and the game turns from standard 3rd person MMO view to Isometric view. Now you realize you are playing a hack n’ slash style dungeon crawler but with the beautifully rendered scenery and detail of a game designed to be viewed from the floor level in third person.

 

 

Classes and Modifications

Eternal Blade is slated to have six classes at launch, including thief, archer, magician, berserker, knight, and soul summoner. I don’t know much specifically about the classes other than that each can evolve into two other classes such as thieves becoming assassins and archers becoming sentinels. The level cap at launch is 60 so I’m sure we can expect further level increases and class ups in future patches after launch. You can expect the usual type of skills to go along with each class, though I will say that some skills have some pretty interesting synergies that will reward players for smartly comboing their skills together. For instance the thief has a smoke bomb AoE that makes enemies far more susceptible to damage and a wind cutter AoE that can dish out some serious dps if you use it on a group confused by smoke bomb.

 

 

At any time players will be able to set up to 8 skills to hotkey assignments. However in the interest of class diversification, a sy stem called the Holy Animal System is in place to help differentiate the effects of your skills. After defeating various foes you can absorb their left over ether to form element orbs. After collecting 10 elements of any type you can forge them together to create a Holy Animal to equip on your character. Each Holy Animal is able to impact up to 3 of your abilities and you can use 3 Holy Animals at one time to really customize your class to your liking. If you’re interested in forging Holy Animals of a specific element, you can focus on collecting ether related only to that element in an attempt to purify your pet creation and maximize the odds of receiving your desired Holy Animal.

 

 

In addition to skill customization players will also be kept plenty busy pimping out their gear. Gear can be refined to +10 as well as socketed through a system in which players collect various jewels and forge them together to make socket items. Rare gear also has randomized bonus stats that can be rerandomized by certain NPCs for a price.

 

 

The World and Dungeons

Something I couldn’t help but mention is the amazing way they set up the World Map teleport screen in Eternal Blade. I wish I had a screenshot to display this but basically after clicking on a teleporter you enter a level select screen ala Super Mario Brothers 3. Different regions are broken up and labeled with colorful icons as cities, dungeons, fields, and points with teleport stones. It can be a long walk back from the field so luckily an item known as the Gate of Dimensions exists, acting as a 2 way door to and from town for your personal use only.

 

Trust me, this was the inspiration behind their world map design. You’ll see.

 

 

The dungeons themselves are numerous and each offers three difficulty modes depending on your situation and how good of loot you are aiming for. Normal mode is easy enough that most players can solo it at the proper level. Nightmare mode on the other hand will take some serious team coordination but offers some of the rarest gear in return.

 

 

From what I experienced the dungeons seemed pretty standard for the Isometric genre, but boss battles were pretty unique and actually required some coordination and timing. In one situation you face a mad scientist hiding behind a shield. He constantly summons opponents to whittle you down while lobbing AoE hitting potions that really mess you up if you fail to dodge them. The key is to destroy the mobs until they drop left over bombs that you must quickly pick up and throw at three generators to ultimately destroy his shield. But a slight misclick or taking damage while throwing can mess your character’s aim up, and result in a missed throw and a long boss battle.

 

 

Things to Come

While the combat and boss battles seemed good to go, launch is still quite a ways off. From what I gathered this is due to finalizing the PvP aspects of the game in time for summer. They claim both team battlegrounds with destroyable buildings and capturable points, as well as ranked dueling arenas will be featured in-game. Special titles will also be offered for those who prove their valor in PvP.

GDC 2012 Day 2: Arctic Combat

GDC 2012 Day 2: Arctic Combat

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

 

 

Remember the good ol’ days of FPS games on the N64? Games like Goldeneye that stressed chaos and hilarity over realism and balance. Well Webzen is taking a stab at recreating the past with a new FPS called Arctic Combat. Built on the Unreal Engine 2.5, this game packs some serious potential without losing sight of what made us all fall in love with FPS games to begin with. Let’s take a look at what it offers.

 

 

Modes and Options

Arctic Combat offers your basic expected modes, including deathmatch, search and destroy, and free-for-all for a true fragfest. Of course the real fun comes in by splicing in the sub modes into main mode matches such as pistol only rules, rocket only rules, and tons of other goofy options such as the immortal only knives that is so popular in most FPS games that offer it. In the current build of the game they have managed to get up to 16 people in a battle at once, but they are still experimenting to see if it’s viable to up that number.

 

 

The maps are really well designed to give a feeling of a middle ground that is too dangerous to cross unless you are carrying a significant advantage. Players can either station themselves in strong defensive positions to hold back advancing troops or go for the greater risk greater reward option. By this I mean there are some pretty hairy parts of the map that you’ll likely have to kill one or two people to reach alive, but they offer some spawn points for some of the strongest weapons in the game if you reach them. I’m talking about lasers to call in airstrikes, remote controlled UAVs, helicopter assistance, rocket launchers, and concussive flash grenades. If you have to be the star then I highly suggest taking the risk to acquire these items as you will get credit for any of the kills obtained via the aerial vehicles.

 

 

The Unreal Engine combined with a truly dedicated sound team have done an amazing job of setting the mood in each battle. Every map will really feel like you are apart of the Arctic World War III setting the game takes place in, with screams and gunfire echoing from the distance at all times. Distinguishing between back ground noise and actual combat can take some time to adjust to, and allows for sneaky players to get away with assassinating untrained foes far behind enemy lines.

 

 

Motion capture technology also allows for some truly realistic run and gun animations in this game. The high quality graphics combine with it to really add that feeling of umph when blowing your foes away with a rocket launcher. They’ve included the whole shebang with body parts falling off and incredible rag-doll physics, but the squeamish can feel free to shut this all off and enjoy a more vanilla experience.

 

 

Guns, Equipment, Skills, and More

In terms of gun selection, Webzen has done a superb job of creating a feeling of near future warfare. Expect your typical modern weaponry as well as a few tough to unlock futuristic weapons, each rated in the categories of damage, fire-rate, stability, firepower, mobility, range, ammo per clip, and total ammo to help you get a feel for the weapon prior to even using it in combat. You are able to carry two weapons with you at once so choose wisely to give yourself a balance of range and duelist guns to fit any situation.

 

 

In addition to choosing your weapon you can also choose your characters skills in an RPG style leveling system. Passives and actives that allow you to run fast, jump higher, instant lock-on aim, or instant reload are among some of the skills they had on display at GDC. Learning how to use your skills in combination of your weapons is what’s going to separate the casuals from the pros in this game.

 

 

A final feature I will mention before ending this write-up is gear. Players can acquire special suits that unlock more skills and alter the stats of your character a bit as well. These are mostly obtained through a trophy system that rewards players after each match with some nice goodies like weapons, costumes, or nifty bragging rights by marking their profile with a badge. For those worried that the gear might make players OP and ruin the fair FPS feel, Webzen claims that for every strength a suit offers, a counterbalancing weakness comes with it as well allowing players to become specialized based on their gear but never being pro at everything all at once.

 

 

My initial impressions of the game were good. Everything felt incredibly smooth and polished, and the map designs were very reminiscent of Goldeneye. The helicopter strike weapon was amazing and I was so glad I was on the team allied with it as it leveled the playing field and scored me 7 kills that I wouldn’t have even been aware of it not for the little pop-ups provided. Unfortunately I was playing against bots since PvP has not fully been implemented yet so a full review of how balanced the combat feels will have to wait till later this year. Luckily we won’t have to wait long as this game will be hitting stateside by the second half of 2012.

E-Sports @ OnRPG: March 17th Report

E-Sports@ OnRPG: March 17th Report

By Umar Farooq(Kluey), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

Orb Dismissed from Evil Geniuses

Orb, one of the upcoming casters in the scene was recently hired by Evil Genius to cast their EGMC tournament. I have tuned into one of his casts and I wasn’t all that impressed. He has a suboptimal understanding of the game itself and doesn’t possess a TotalBiscuit voice either. Nevertheless, he will make do.

 

 

The problem came when some screenshots were posted on /r/Starcraft regarding his racist and extremely bad mannered comments to opponents on the ladder. That in itself is bad yes but, it has been done before. Orb then went on to lie about it and say that it was not him. According to him, it wasn’t him and was one of his friends but regardless, he made a mistake. The folks at Reddit then went on to show more screenshots and unfortunately contact sponsors. Why is this unfortunate? E-Sports are not a huge industry yet. Contacting sponsors hurts the entire scene because money is blocked from the scene. Anyhow, the situation went on and Orb was dismissed expectedly. Evil Geniuses had no choice because they were under so much pressure from sponsors and fans alike.

 

 

If we can learn anything from this situation, it’s that problems in the industry should be solved locally. There is absolutely no need to contact sponsors and essentially let the sponsors know that E-Sports is an immature community which is absolutely wrong.

 

 

GSL Season 2

 

GSL is known for being the best competition in the world for Starcraft II and this line-up is evidence of that. 11 GSL championships are in this line-up. I cannot possibly predict the entire tournament but I can inform you on who to look out for from each race.

 

 

Terran : SlayerS_MMA, IM_Mvp, NSH_jjakji, MKP, oGsFin(ForGG), MaruPrime

MarineKingPrime just came off of a MLG victory and looked brilliant in that tournament. Although no one can predict MKP, he should be able to do well this season. ForGG has been practicing extremely hard. He streams multiple hours a day and without a doubt does custom games against practice partners. If that alone wasn’t enough, ForGG was a successful Broodwar professional and is an extremely talented RTS player. MaruPrime is 14 years old. Does more need to be said? Although he will not win this season, it will be interesting to see if he can snipe some fans.

 

 

Zerg: Zenio, Leenock, July

Zenio is a consistent Code S Zerg but has never been able to show a good result. Leenock had a little hump of fame but quickly fell back. This season will show his true skill and if he really is a top player. July is a Broodwar professional but hasn’t done anything super amazing in Starcraft II for a long time. He’s made a final early in the GSL but also fell off.

 

 

Protoss: StarTale_Parting, Liquid_HerO, Quantic_NaNiWa

Parting is in my opinion one of the best Protoss in the world. He’s consistent, smart and fast. Liquid_HerO is a huge fan favourite in the foreign scene. He is a player that is known to be extremely skilled but also nervous. On his Livestream, he can pull off some amazing plays but always chokes in tournaments. If he can make a Top 8 finish in the GSL, he will be a top player in the world.

 

 

IEM World Championships – Starcraft II

IEM had a great tournament. The production was great and the games were better. It seems like whenever a good tournament occurs; they luck out and get insane games. IEM was no exception. In the end, MC came over one of his many rivals, PuMa, to take the first place trophy along with a hefty amount of money.

 

 

Feast also had an amazing tournament run. Getting top foreigner spot over players like IdrA, DIMAGA, Kas, SeleCT and Grubby isn’t an easy task to accomplish. This tournament will be a career changing one for Feast as he has now established himself as a top foreigner.

 

Dota 2: The Defense Tournament

Recently, I have been playing a lot of Dota 2. The game itself is great. The skill is not overly capped like League of Legends. Valve is extremely wealthy unlike S2 Games and the graphics and interface are much better than Warcraft 3. Overall, the game is a must-try for any MOBA fan.

 

 

The Defense was the first Dota 2 tournament I watched. Apparently, Na’Vi is really good. And by really good, I mean by far the best. Their play was extremely solid, especially their team chemistry which many teams in the MOBA scene lack. Na’Vi took out EG and then Quantic to take first place in this event. Quantic had also beaten EG in the Lower Bracket finals.

Mead: RIFT Celebrates Week 3 of the Carnival

MEAD: RIFT Carnival Week 3

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

 

We’ve been partying for two whole weeks now! I don’t know about you but I’ve never partied this hard in my life! Telara is starting to see what happens when you do nothing but party. People are getting sick from drinking too much, some are getting injured. I can only imagine more than a few drunk Ascended have walked off the boats in Shimmersand by accident. All the drinks going around have lead to rowdy groups harassing carnival goers and even people just wandering around the main cities. To top it all off the Guardians (or Defiants) are ambushing parades! It really is starting to look like this party has gone on too long.

 

 

Games

All of the games that were in phase two are back again for phase three. This includes the roulette game which was removed early on in the last phase. ExcelsiorH (Daniel Steamer the Lead Content Designer for RIFT) explained on the forums that it was taken down because players had found a way to avoid losing their ticket when they didn’t win. This effectively meant they could pay to play once but keep playing until they won no matter how many times they lost. There was also a rumor going around that one number was unnaturally lucky but I never saw this confirmed.

 

 

Either way, it is fixed and back for us all to enjoy. Or lose our fortunes to. In just a few minutes I managed to plow through a whole plat worth of tickets, and I never won once. Of course all around me people were winning constantly! So I know it does work, I just have terrible luck. More good news on the game front is that the drinking game and fashion show now both count towards the daily quest to play three games.

 

 

Quests

This week there are a bunch of new quests. They even expand into another portion of the game that has until now been ignored in the event, PvP.  The PvP quest has you killing ten members of the opposing faction because they’re troublemakers. Speaking of troublemakers they seem to be everywhere. You can find people causing trouble on parade routes. Defeating them is a three man job and this week’s quest for the coveted doubloon. Not only are people making trouble they’re going around drunk all the time. In one quest you’ve been made a deputy and go around the main cities arresting any drunken citizens before they cause trouble.

 

 

The crafting quests this week involve making supplies to help a triage station that has been set up for those that have partied a bit too hard. The big number faction quest for this week is dealing with those pesky trouble makers around the main cities. There have been complaints that the smaller shards haven’t been able to complete these quests and thus aren’t getting the title unlocks. Several of the devs have addressed this on the forums. Elrar, the Community Manager has said that this is something they’re keeping a close eye on but not to expect them to just give out the titles without any effort. Also the titles will be available again next year if you don’t get them this year.

 

 

Changes and News

So as things have progressed there have been some changes and some announcements. Since I don’t go on the boards anywhere near often enough I am only learning about them now. And so I pass them on to you.

 

 

First off the boxes of artifacts that have been an insanely popular item have seen a price increase, a big one. They originally cost you a very small and worthwhile 10 tickets. But partly due to people farming tickets and partly due to them being so profitable (potentially) they have been raised in price to a shocking 100 tickets. Sure, this puts them in line price-wise with the balloon pets but the prospect of grinding tickets just to buy one or two boxes is daunting to say the least. That’s not to say I’m against the increase, I just think it may be a bit high. Especially for someone like me who doesn’t even have all her balloons yet.

 

 

Ultra thin hides now drop slightly less. To be honest I have no idea what this means or even why. All the other skills allow for a simple 1 for 1. Possibly it is because things that are butcherable tend to hang out together and thus make it a bit easier to complete? I’m not sure one way or another. I just know those hides are needed in the triage stat.

 

 

Bonuses

The last week has been a free week for returning and new players to try out the game. It was great to see some old faces. A huge thank you to @Groked who gave us control of our guild. We will take good care of her. I hope that many of the people who came back to give it a try will stick around for more. RIFT has changed a lot and there are more changes coming. I didn’t do nearly as much PvPing as I said I would last week. And only did one Port Scion, it just wasn’t popping for me.

 

 

This weekend, March 16th to March 18th, is the Dungeon Master’s weekend. (So hug your DM, you know they deserve it!) During Dungeon Master’s weekend there will be a 50% bonus to Plaques of Achievement and Marks of Ascension. I don’t do many dungeons so this will hopefully be the perfect chance for me to try out some of the ones I just haven’t managed to get to yet. That’s most of them so it’s a pretty safe bet I’ll manage it. After this weekend there will be only one bonus weekend left before we return to normal life. Not that life in Telara is normal in any sense. On top of it all RIFT is offering a sweet deal on subscriptions for the remainder of the month. Party hard Telarans, and if partying isn’t your thing at least you can dance.

 

GDC 2012 Day 1: The Secret World

GDC 2012 Day 1: The Secret World

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

 

 

It was a warm day in San Francisco just like any other California day. I had never been to the city before and felt lost, as if sitting in a city stuck between the past and the present. The taxi driver had unfortunately dropped me off in a weird alley that was no doubt the incorrect address, as much my fault as his I suppose. Strange spray paint marks were hidden on each wall surrounding me as if offering hints that the common man would never pay heed to in the day to day rush that is life in America. It was on this busy street in the St. Regis hotel that I stumbled in a daze through the bar and up the elevator to a poorly lit hallway with an open door waiting at the end. I walked into the room to find a massive meeting in progress filled with developers and press from around the world. I sat down, pulled out my notepad, and an hour later The Secret World no longer felt like a mystery.

 

 

Ragnar Tornquist Presentation

I knew Funcom meant business when Ragnar Tornquist, Creative Director of the game, came out from the back room to give the presentation. We were in for a treat to be among the first to see the opening sequence of The Dragon. Ironically it played out almost exactly the same way that I had arrived at the meeting. The girl they had created (and might I add, the character creator is amazingly detailed) was kidnapped in the wrong part of Seoul and throw into a strange and unfamiliar alleyway to fend for herself. It was a real trip when she turned around and saw nothing but an impossibly large brick wall standing where a busy street and her kidnappers’ car had just stood. Things took a dreaded turn towards Japanese horror films when a small gremlin like child started laughing and coaxing her to follow down the strange streets to an unknown destination.

 

 

I knew things were about to get serious when the girl began walking towards a dimly lit neon sign that read Kumiho Hotel. Those nasty foxes never mean well. Though the patrons of the hotel seemed normal enough, no one expressed concern towards the sudden entrance of the odd gremlin child who walked straight through the lobby and up the stairs. The child began to scurry faster and disappeared into an open door at the end of the 2nd floor. As the player attempted to catch up, they were interrupted by a massive Korean man who at first seemed to be wearing an elaborate tribal gown. After the immediate shock wore off I realized he was actually nearly naked, sporting only a traditional sumo thong; what I had perceived as a gown was actually a series of colorful tattoos covering nearly every inch of his body.

 

 

Just as things looked like they were going to get ugly a much softer featured woman appeared at the door to guide the bruiser away from the player and make her feel more comfortable. The player is invited in to sit down as the woman begins a long twisted spiel about the rule of chaos in the universe. As she becomes more serious in tone, she begins slipping in numerous innuendos that climax with her going down on the player. For those wondering, this is definitely a mature rated MMORPG!

 

 

The Mayan Experience

We’ve all seen enough of the trailers and cinematics to know that Funcom has a solid narrative going on. It’s the gameplay that feels like the real secret being kept from us so far. Well my fears were alleviated by a presentation in which the player is sent back in a hippy style time traveling mission to experience the invasion of the Mayans into North America. A bloody scene unfolded in which a native tribe was forced into an uneasy alliance with a Viking overlord to challenge the magic of the Mayans. The presentation skipped ahead to a final amazing boss battle in which the Mayans were summoning their nameless guardian to destroy their enemies.

 

 

The battle begins with a simple but effectively designed gauntlet in which continuously larger and larger groups of Mayans break away from their ritual to try to prevent your futuristic group from advancing any closer. As the final Mayans fall by your hand, you realize that their souls have been collecting just out of eyesight in an odd portal forming in a deep canyon. Before you have time to recover, the great nameless beast appears, a giant monstrosity that looks part lion, park wolf, and all mythology.

 

 

Action packed is the only way I could describe this battle. The boss kept even the experienced developers on their toes (at one point Tornquist showed legitimate concern that they might party wipe) as their hp bars continuously bounced back and forth in that way that makes experienced gamers cringe. It constantly spewed that nasty black ooze labeled as ‘the filth’ which immediately sprouted tentacles that seemed to grab out and CC the players. It also would pull all ranged fighters into melee distance and then charge for an ultimate aoe attack that would devastate any squishy players bogged down in the filth for too long. Overall it was apparent that this boss was out of their league and reminded me of fighting Vile for the first time in Mega Man X.

 

 

Just when a party wipe seemed certain, the Viking king arrived wielding none other than Excalibur! The holy glow of the blade forced the beast to retreat.. but the battle was far from over. The Mayans began to rise from the dead, more ferocious than before and magically charged to turn into suicide bombers should thinks go south for them. A blast of pure evil also shot forward from the depths of the portal straight into Excalibur as an epic battle of wills began between the Viking king and the darkness. The sword was giving the players a huge buff though and it became clear as the nameless beast returned that a quick decisive strike was the only path to victory in this situation. The dev team raced against time and managed to slay the beast before the Viking king fell, ending the amazing presentation.

 

 

Gameplay

The real treat of this event was that I got hands-on time with the game for the first time! I started off in a social area of the game that seemed to be London. It was a really strange experience being in a hub town that felt so reminiscent of the real world. The usual social hotspots were in place like banks, auction houses, dance clubs, and even a Fight Club that I believe was a type of PvP meet-up spot. I can only imagine how fun it will look with a large active player-base populating the world. It is fun exploring though as you will run into alien looking beings in back alleys and staff only sections that aren’t readily visible to the public.

 

 

Flipping through my menus and options it seemed that there were 9 types of weapons, setting up the archetypes of ranged guns, melee weapons, and magic. The ability wheel was complicated but seemed to run on a system of acquiring AP and SP to learn new skills and passives. The hotkey bar was fitted similar to an advanced version of the original Guild Wars with 7 active and 7 passive skills available at a time. When you break down each weapon type you will find a list of 7 abilities related to each, with the 7th ability labeled as elite. Players can only have one active and one passive elite skill active at a time so brace yourself for tons of varying build options.

 

 

Also for those who have trouble making final decisions, the ability to dual wield is very much a reality. This comes especially in handy when you start looking into the secondary roll each weapon fills. For instance the shotgun weapons offered a devastating AoE punch when in close range of your foe. The assault rifle on the other hand offered life leeching ability, which seems really twisted and right in line with the atmosphere of the game.

 

 

As you would expect there were plenty of achievements available in game to unlock as well. Some were focused around exploration while others PvP and quite a few were focused around things that I had no comprehension of. But unlike most games that offer achievements as a side bonus, The Secret World seems to give worthwhile rewards including experience, cash, special outfits, and more unlocks. As I mentioned earlier the customization in this game is pretty incredible. You can pretty much look however you want without impacting your stats so go wild with it! Though to get some of the really sweet gear you’ll have to work to unlock it.

 

 

Something that caught me off guard was the presence of a unique crafting system called Transcribing. It’s basically the game of Memory for adults. When disassembling useless gear you will learn various shapes related to the gear’s design. Collecting a variety of materials and memorizing a variety of shapes is key to mastering the crafting system. As an example say you wish to craft a superior hammer. The first step would be to disassemble a hammer and collect the metal as well as learn the shape. You would then collect the metal materials of your choice and place them in the transcribing menu in the shape of the hammer. After that you add a weapon assembly kit to improve the quality. This system is also used to create glyphs that empower your gear with special effects. It’s all pretty confusing and hard to explain after only getting a couple minutes interaction with the system but a future column from Ardua will help clear things up.

 

 

The combat itself is a strange beast. Thankfully I stopped to listen to a crazy hobo on the side of the road who’s vision of the end of days became my convoluted nightmare courtesy of passing out and hitting my head on the sidewalk. I was thrown into a world gone mad where Dragon, Illuminati, and Templar had united to prevent the darkness from overthrowing reality as we know it. The dungeons flow flawlessly with movie quality production values really drawing you in to the excitement (and fear!). Collapsing ceilings, zombie blitzes, and heated banter between NPCs kept my head swimming.

 

 

I can attest that the combat system takes some getting used to but really feels amazing once you get a feel for it (took me around 7 minutes to adjust). It feels like a first person shooter but with a bit more leeway on aiming. Skills activate when a target is in the right range and direction of your aim. However some have long cooldowns and your precise aim can make a huge difference in how effective your skill use is. For instance if you have 4 zombies racing at you and you panic fire an shotgun blast at the one on the far right, expect to lose some skin courtesy of the two zombies on the left. Get your aim right though and you can blast down all 4 with a single shot of your pump action skill.

 

 

The Secret World has some pretty unique mechanics as fans of the game are probably aware of. One in particular I came across was a hacking system that allows you to enter various PCs you come across to download html coded documents you can view to learn clues about what to do next. Another sweet system is the ability to switch out your skills/gear at specific parts of each mission to ensure maximum efficiency in your team. If the start of a mission seems simple then your entire party can enter heavy DPS builds to blow past it, and then readjust to a more balanced team for tougher boss battles or exploring unfamiliar territories.

 

 

I could go on for pages more about all I saw and heard about the game but I’ll cut myself short for now. After all what’s the fun ruining all that is secret in this fantastic world of lies. I will share this bit of insider knowledge though… If you’re ever invited to a Secret World party, the meatballs are delicious! OnRPG’s Ardua will be picking up a regular column on the game leading up to launch so keep an eye on our twitter and facebook page for regular updates as the game approaches its anticipated release in June.

Cabal Online: Too Much Style, Not Enough Game

Cabal Online Re-Review: Too Much Style, Not Enough Game

By Michael Sagoe (Mikedot), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

From the second generation of online gaming, MMORPGs featuring hack & slash action were very rare due to programming limitations. Among one of those rare gems was Cabal Online, created by South Korean developer ESTsoft. It was described as “The Revolution of Action”, claiming to contain a mix between MMORPG and hack & slash gameplay, along with dazzling graphics and challenging quests to keep players interested.

 

 

That was all back in 2006. In 2012 where action MMOs are more common, and with Cabal 2 on the way, it’s time to revisit Cabal Online and see if all the claims still hold true.

 

Customization

Initial customization is far too lacking. Players will only have a choice between seven hair styles, eight hair colors and 4 face shapes in total. There’s no other way to make your character stand out from other players unless you purchase new hair styles and outfits from the eShop.

 

 

At least Cabal features a decent amount of character classes to choose from: Warrior, Blader, Archer, Forcer Blader, Force Shielder and Wizard, all standard MMO archtypes mixed with a few hybrids.

 

 

Customizing your character after initial creation appears to have some depth, but comes off as simplistic. You can increase the stats for your equipment by directly upgrading them with upgrade cores or by using force cores on equipment with slots. Upgrading allows for some moderate personalization, as well as obtaining runes items for your character, but these can only be used from LV120+.

 

 

Gameplay

Cabal Online was released back in 2006, so many of its gameplay elements are very dated. Leveling up your character will have you engaging in lots of pointless kill and fetch quests that will take several minutes or hours to waddle through. Most of the time, you’ll be fighting mindless enemies along with recolors and slightly altered versions of mindless enemies. Same goes for the dungeons/instances which revolve around getting from point A to point B while killing all enemies in your path.

 

 

Gameplay doesn’t pick up until you reach level 30 where players earn their Combo Chain skill and even then the game only improvements by a marginal fraction.  The leveling pace has been improved; players must also deal with skill ranking. The only way to rank up your skills is from excessive use in combat, giving the gameplay a second layer of grinding, which is why there are training dummies available in each town, so most players can increase their skill ranks by spamming training dummies all day long.

 

 

Cabal Online attempts to give players something to look forward to by giving out rewards every ten levels, such as being able to unlock battle modes that make your character insanely powerful for a short amount of time, or being able to morph your weapon into a new weapon (warriors can unlock Scythes, Archers gain dual pistols, Bladers can use claws, etc.) which change up the feel of combat for each class, but the rewards after LV50 become meager and uninteresting.

 

 

Even for those that can deal with the repetitious gameplay they will not have much to look forward to, as the more “challenging” content is locked away for LV100+ players and endgame. It’s just another sad case of an MMORPG forcing players to grind their time away before they can get to the “fun” part.

 

Taking on a mob of angry gnolls isn’t as fun as it looks.

 

 

The PvP side of Cabal Online doesn’t fare much better, as many skills can stun, lock or knock down your opponent, coinciding with huge area of effects that make them nearly impossible to dodge. Coupled with the combo chain system, chances are if one of the two competitors can get a lock or stun skill in place, the match will be decided then and there, as the opponent that can get the first attack in usually wins.

 

Controls

Cabal Online uses very familiar MMORPG controls, including WSAD keys for movement and number keys for skills and potions.  Movement works very well when controlled by the keyboard, but players won’t be using it much during combat, as movement and position with the mouse works far better.

 

 

Using your combo chain skill will allow players to attack enemies with their skills at a much faster pace, just as long as they can time their key presses with the combo meter. There’s no depth to this combo system, as it feels more like a rhythm and timing mini-game rather than a complex hack & slash element. While this system may have passed for hack & slash style gameplay in the past, it certainly does not count as one today.

 

 

Graphics and Presentation

With MMORPGs: There are fantasy themes, sci-fi themes, steampunk themes, and then there’s Cabal Online’s theme of trying to blend all those themes together into one garbled mess. The art direction is all over the place; almost as if the designers had no idea over what kind of game world they were trying to create in the first place.

 

 

Besides the awkward presentation, Cabal Online has been known for its eye popping special effects that will make every attack look like a fireworks show, and they still look great today.

 

 

Despite having multiple areas to visit, the world of Cabal Online feels incredibly small due to areas being cut off and connected by a small portal room.  You can travel around and get to each of your destinations by foot within a matter of minutes. Combo this with map and “GPS” that tells you where you should be training and Cabal Online steals away any sense of exploration.

 

 

The game’s original soundtrack is generic, offering a mix between 90’s rock and alternative tunes, neither of which seem appropriate. Fortunately, Cabal comes with an in-game jukebox powered by .ogg music files which allows players to insert their own music.

 

 

Community

Cabal Online comes with all the expected community functions of an MMORPG (Friends List, Guilds, Mailbox, Etc.) and they all work as intended. The community is fairly active, but many of the players are very high level. New players that are looking to find party members will be fairly difficult. Other than that, there is nothing in regards to community functions in particular that stands out from the rest.

 

 

Overall

With many MMORPGs bringing true hack n’ slash action to the table, many will find very little reason to pick Cabal as their MMORPG of choice. It may have had some nice ideas for its time, but Cabal Online will only appeal to those with a sweet tooth for nostalgia.

 

 

Customization – 1

Gameplay – 3

Graphics and Presentation – 3

Controls – 3

Community – 3

EverQuest Makes Transition to Free-to-Play

EverQuest Makes Transition to Free-to-Play

 

EverQuest

 

Sony Online Entertainment LLC today announced that it is celebrating the 13th anniversary of its landmark MMORPG, EverQuest,  by transitioning the game to a free-to-play model. Recently inducted into the GDC Online Awards’ Hall of Fame, EverQuest now offers a variety of options that cater to players’ different needs and preferences so they can choose to play the game in a way that suits them best – such as recurring vs. non-recurring subscriptions and Free through Gold memberships.

 

 

“Through 18 successful expansions and countless other game updates, EverQuest has forged its place in history amongst the MMO and online game elite,” said Dave Georgeson, director of development of the EverQuest franchise. “With one of the most loyal player communities in the industry, we believe that after 13 years we need to provide them with a wide variety of ways to play the game on their terms. Players can now choose to play in a way that suits them best and continue to expand their game experience…until the next milestone birthday!”

 

EverQuest

 

To celebrate its 13th birthday and move to free-to-play, beginning today EverQuest players will be treated to a variety of amazing in-game activities and game updates, including:

 

Lucky 13 – Players can now embark on anniversary missions and quests, surrounded by anniversary décor in the “Plane of Knowledge,” that follows a special 13th anniversary theme:

-Players can experience 13 new quests
-A spectacular mission as some of the iconic villains of EverQuest
-A Raid to stop a familiar foe from gaining ultimate power.
-And over 40 events from past anniversaries

 

Hero’s Journey – A book to guide players through a series of achievements from level one to level 85. Utilizing and improving upon content that is already in the game, characters may begin this journey at any level.

Improved Navigation – An added zone guide, this window is a quick way to look up zones in the game by level, zone connections, and other data about the zone.

Zoning Path Finder – The zone path finder generates a path between any chosen zone and any other zone in the world. Additionally, zone connections have been added to the Find window.

Improved Find Tracking – Find tracking is now visible in the map window. Players will be able to see your ‘find wisp’ in the map window and it will auto center on the path and zoom in and out so you can see the whole path.

Maps – Improvements to the maps have been made to elevate players’ adventures. Maps now support custom map directories, have added map label searching, the ability to right click on any point on the map to attempt to bring up a visible path to it.

 

EverQuest

 

Since its launch in 1999, EverQuest players have adventured through Norrath and accomplished gaming feats that only a 13-year-old game could accomplish, including:

 

There are nearly as many NPCs in EverQuest as there are in the American Postal Union: The total population of Norrathian NPCs is 344,935

 

EverQuest’s Wealthiest Player is Nearly 16 Times Richer than Bill Gates! If the game’s Platinum pieces weigh an ounce, then in today’s market, EverQuest’s wealthiest player’s worth in the real world would be equivalent to

 

$893 billion – that’s nearly 16 times richer than Microsoft’s Bill Gates’ estimated worth!

 

More than twice the age of the oldest person to have lived: A day in EQ is 72 minutes; that said, a character that was created when the game launched on March 16, 1999, is 260 years old this year on March 16

 

It’s always OktoberFest in EQ: Since launch, EverQuest has brewed more than 330 brew varieties in Norrath, compared to 1,927 breweries in the U.S.

 

450 times the spells used in the Harry Potter series: 32,882 spells created in EverQuest

 

Almost one Dragon per square mile in Norrath: There have been 1,126 Dragons bred in EverQuest


It is the179th largest country in the world: There are 1,050 square miles of land in Norrath

 

Faster than a Cheetah! The fastest mount in Norrath clocks in at 88.8 mph!

 

 

Originally launched in 1999, EverQuest arrived as a brand new evolution within the respective MMO, RPG and online gaming genres, with continued recognitions over its epic 13-year history for pioneering major concepts such as guilds and raiding online. EverQuest now joins the ranks of fellow free-to-play favorites DC Universe™ Online and EverQuest® II – both of which successfully made the transition to free-to-play within the past year.

 

 

EverQuest‘s new free-to-play system is now available to all PC players worldwide, including options for Free, Silver ($5.00 USD) and Gold ($14.99 USD/month) memberships.

 

 

A matrix further detailing the three new EQ membership levels is available here.