Yearly Archives: 2012

SWTOR: Journey of a Sith Episode V

SWTOR: Journey of a Sith Episode 5 – Next stop, Tatooine!

By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

 

In the previous episode of Journey of the Sith, I managed to get to level 25 and got myself a tricked out ride which revolutionized the speed at which I could quest in Nar Shaddaa. Some of the worlds in SWTOR are mind blowingly large and the thought of continuing any further without a mount was out of the question. After speeding through my final mission there it was time to report to my master…

 

 

When arriving back at Dromund Kaas, and going to the capital city of the Sith to see my master I got some interesting quest line that I had to follow in the city itself. I am not going to spoil much but I must say it was quite fun to follow that quest line involving your master and helping her grow more power among the Sith. When I was done hunting certain people and playing errand boy for my master it was time to fly to my next destination, Tatooine! Star Wars fans that have followed the series or the game will know this planet is one of the popular planets in the Star Wars universe with a rich story involving the local citizens also known as the Jawa’s!

 

 

Hoping that I would see some Jawa’s I set the coordinates in my spaceship and flew into overdrive and arrived on this desert Planet. After I promised to help some of the locals with their personal problems and the ones involving the Sith, I sped into the endless desert. It didn’t take long before I found my first Jawa that tried to sell me crap and I was forced to end its life along with its pathetic clan. After wandering around for a while doing quests I noticed how beautiful the area was even though I was in the middle of a desert with no locals around me. All I could see was sand, rocks and the sky but even in this area BioWare managed to make the environment really amazing.

 

 

The Sand People are also residents of this fine planet, and like some of you may know, they aren’t kind to outsiders. In this point of Star Wars history they have been at war for a long time with the alien settlers residing on the planet gathering resources. After finishing the quests in the first zone I went ahead to the second one where I faced my first random attack by the Sand People. Further into the desert the Sand People will attack everyone that passes them and will randomly pop out in front of you and try to take your life. These little ruffians always attack you in packs so I had to stay vigilant while piloting my speeder. While I was worrying not to get any Sand People on my tail I saw my first ever Jedi walking by as she was doing some quests. As a real evil being I decided to hop off my vehicle and greet her with the edgy point of my lightsaber. When she saw me sprinting to her she was trying to get away but since I was very perceptive and strong in the force I managed to strike her down with a poisonous wound. It didn’t take me long to get my first ever Jedi kill and I felt very happy dealing with this evil threat being in the way of my goals on this planet.

 

 

Unfortunately my second encounter didn’t go as smoothly as my first encounter. When I was doing a quest beneath the surface in a cave I noticed a Jedi Guardian minding his own business but he felt like a threat in my eyes. Even though I have stealth and was able to strike wherever and whenever I wanted, I quickly became afraid at how little damage I inflicted with my opening attack. Unfortunately he was too strong for me so I decided to bail and vanish into the shadows while I licked my wounds. When I regained my health I saw my friend from the Warzones running by. When I spoke to him about the Jedi he agreed it was a 2-man job and we ventured it to overcomet his daunting foe. This time the odds were in our favor and we easily took him down without any trouble, proving the superiority of the Sith once again.

 

 

I also got a new companion that was willing to help me out find my target on Tatooine. He was willing to come along in my journey and I had to tell Khem Val goodbye for a little while. Adronikos Revel was my new companion while I stayed on Tatooine and he immediately drew out a plan to obtain my next Artifact. His plans were spot on and everything was accounted for when we confronted the current owner of the Artifact. A few minutes later we were drinking happily back at the bar, Artifact in hand. After a few drinks I decided to head back to my ship to introduce Adronikos Revel to the rest of the crew and he perfectly fit in.

Lego Universe: Farewell

Lego Universe: Farewell

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

 

For years now Lego games have been popular, beyond popular even. The revitalization of Lego games started with Lego Star Wars in 2005. Since then they have explored the seas with Pirates of the Caribbean, broken out a famous whip with Indy, Rocked out with Rock Band, entered the magical world of Harry Potter and the dark world that is Batman. But these were all single player games with multiplayer options as well. In 2010 they skipped genres going into the ever popular and profitable MMO world with Lego Universe.

 

 

In the Lego Universe all Minifigs (lego people) are in great danger from the Maelstrom. You must team up with people from all over the world to take on this dark force before it consumes all. From the start it was clear no expense was spared in the development. Commercials were aired on television, something few MMOs do. And perhaps coolest of all they got Patrick Stewart to be narrator. Sadly all good things must end. And on January 30th, 2012 Lego Universe did.

 

 

 

Why did it happen? Ultimately, like with so many things it came down to money. They just weren’t making enough to make it worth keeping the game running. But why weren’t they making the money? I have a couple of theories on this.

 

 

 

Marketed to the wrong people. MMO players tend to be older than any other group. This game wasn’t for them unless they’ve loved Lego their entire lives. They went out of their way to make it kid friendly and safe. I can only imagine kids loved it. The right people, the people they should have gone after are gamers with kids. It was family friendly, a great jumping in point for the children of MMO players. Like training wheels before getting into the “big boy” games. Most importantly it was a game you could play with your kids. But what family would be willing to pay for more than one subscription to a game? That brings me to my second theory.

 

 

 

Should have been Free to Play from the start. Evidence is showing that the free to play model attracts people by the bajillions. Everquest 2 saw a 300% increase in players after going Free to Play. F2P draws more people in, people who may not have originally played. It would have allowed more families to play together. If only the marketing were targeted to the right place.

 

 

So I’ve said it was awesome. And if I didn’t, it was awesome. From the very first moments I was giggling and it never stopped. But what made it so fantastic? From the moment the game started up and you started typing in your password the little minifig host covered his eyes. If you waited on the screen long enough you would see a minifig getting chased by a dragon. The personality the minifigs had were absolutely the number one best thing about Lego Universe. When you got to the character creation screen the minifig who was selected would give you the most adorable grin and start pointing at the button to go into the game. The others who weren’t selected would do their best to grab your attention. Sometimes even crying when they weren’t picked. It broke your heart and made you want to play all of them at once.

 

 

 

The personality didn’t stop there. It continued through the game in emotes and NPCs. Sure, Lego Universe didn’t have crafting like most MMOs. Instead it had something that was really perfect for what it was. Building your own home using lego bricks. Building was easy and fun. You got to use various pieces you found through your travels to build the home of your design. The efforts that they went through to make it safe for kids was honestly, jaw dropping. A scan of your ID was attached to your account, every name had to be approved. If you were an adult playing this game they knew who you were, where you lived and you really got the feeling like if anyone did do something to endanger kids it would be dealt with swiftly. Lego Universe had the amazing graphics you’ve come to expect from Lego games. And they wouldn’t hesitate to show them off. You could view certain areas through binoculars which would take you on a short visual tour of the local area. They also made things more interesting to kids (as if they needed to) by having minigames and leadership boards to create competition.

 

 

There were a few things, other than marketing that weren’t done so well. Well, to be honest it’s only one and a half things. The half is the security. The chat ability only allowed you to use words from a dictionary of words they deemed acceptable. While understandable for the safety of children I could see it being very annoying for adults, especially roleplayers. Despite that though I did find roleplayers on the message boards. The only true negative thing I could really say about Lego Universe was that it felt more like a single player game than an MMO. I never felt any pressing urge to play with other people. I was happy to go through everything on my own. With the exception of some of the minigames which required a bit of coordination with your teammates.

 

 

What can we learn from Lego Universe? After I logged off for the last time I found myself asking this question to my husband who reviewed the game back at the start. We came up with a few things.

 

 

Security can be both a blessing and a curse.

 

Marketing is important to get right.

 

The best games make you feel young, no matter how old you are.

 

And most importantly, make a game that makes people laugh.

 

 

 

Lego Universe is going to be missed by kids young and old. So many things were done right in this game it really is a shame to see it go. I hope that in the future there will be more games like it. Even though I only played it a short time I loved it. I can’t really find the right way to say it, so I will let my minifig say it for me.

 

Forge of Empires: The Importance of Peace in Times of War

Forge of Empires: The Importance of Peace in Times of War

 

Forge of Empires Happiness

 

Today InnoGames released a sneak peek into its upcoming browser game, Forge of Empires, with information regarding gameplay features. Various buildable structures increase citizens’ happiness, which is necessary for city prosperity and productivity. This greatly improves the ability to take over neighboring lands and expand empires.

 

 

As a city’s population grows in the game, the inhabitants develop an increasing demand for leisure activities. Players can choose from a number of buildings to meet that demand such as schools, theaters, public bath houses – and further in the title – embellished cathedrals and castles. Productivity quickly declines with an unhappy population, whereas happiness levels beyond the required amount boost the production of resources. Once this is fullfilled, leaders are prepared to obtain surrounding provinces.

 

Forge of Empires Tower

 

Conquering provinces grants a source for rare goods or other rewards, like city-expansions or treasure. As players advance in the campaign, they unlock PvP-Towers. The towers allow one to compete in the various Ages’ PvP-tournaments, which run over the course of 7 days. In the future, InnoGames plans additional PvP-features as well as a Co-Op Campaign.

Frogster Makes Good on Word After TERA EU Weekend Technical Failure

Frogster Makes Good on Word After TERA EU Weekend Technical Failure

 

 

 

Following an unfortunate error that brought down TERA EU for the duration of the weekend sneak peak event, Frogster has made good on its word by offering two separate tests this week, open for free to anyone who had a key to the weekend event! These tests limited players to only one character and didn’t last for long, but still offered the world a taste of things to come!

 

 

Players participating in the tests experienced the true action combat while engaging in the beginning questlines that occur on the Isle of Dawn. This included the ability to tamper with the incredibly diverse (but still modest.. you can’t make humans with green skin) character builder. I for one had a blast making a Popori and Elin bunny for an upcoming piece of art my friend Ajka is cooking up!

 

 

But the real story here is a member of the OnRPG forums, “Thekobe” playing on a five year old PC who experienced no gameplay issues on high graphics. For a game as beautiful as TERA to be coded so well that such an old PC could handle it this easily is truly a testament to the game’s excellent developers at Bluehole. Check out his screenshots below:

 

 

Be sure to check out OnRPG next week as Hhean and JamesBl0nde will both be bringing us first impressions on TERA Online and the Isle of Dawn!