Yearly Archives: 2012

League of Legends Presents Expanded Co-op VS AI

League of Legends Presents Expanded Co-op vs. AI

 

 

League of Legends New Bots

 

The latest update from Riot Games’ League of Legends will shortly be arriving and a vast horde of new bots will be making their debut on the Fields of Justice. Ouch!

 

 

From the previous total of 12, now over 40 revamped bots will be available for players to test their skill against. This, much wider variety of enemies are not only stronger in number but arrive boasting augmented map awareness, teamwork capabilities, a new flair for skillshots and, for the first time ever, the capacity to use activatable items.

 

League of Legends Better Bots

 

What’s more, players will be able to enjoy these spicier Co-op vs. AI matches on both Summoner’s Rift and Dominion’s Crystal Scar maps, giving players the chance to battle it out against a larger variety of enemy team compositions featuring more intelligent and more strategically competent bots than ever before. Dominion Mode will see the new bots upping the ante even further by seeking out speed shrines, collecting health relics and even acquiring storm shields!

 

 

By narrowing the gap between cooperative combat and true PvP against real players, League of Legends proves once again, that a players experience is paramount and that variety is indeed, the spice of life…

 

 

Also in League of Legends news this week, Riot has shown us a glimmer of the upcoming champion, and it’s a yordle!  Ziggs the Hexplosives Expert will be shaking things up in the League shortly, and we’ll have more information on this champion next week!

gPotato Announces Partnership with Bigpoint

gPotato Announces Partnership with Bigpoint

 

Battlestar Galactica Online

 

 

The gPotato Game Portal became fully multi-platform with the addition of six top browser games from leading developer Bigpoint. Players of gPotato can now enjoy strategy and action MMOs right in their browsers and explore the worlds of Battlestar Galactica Online, Farmerama, and more! The partnership brings new opportunities for both companies to reach a different market.

 

 

“We’re excited to partner with Bigpoint, a strong developer who shares our commitment to the free-to-play business model,” said Kenny Yan, Director of Operations at gPotato. “With this collaboration we have successfully increased our portfolio’s genre support, and more importantly, we have become a multi-platform gaming destination for our community thanks to Bigpoint’s quality browser games.”

 

 

”Key partnerships with leading game portals are vital to our continued global growth,” said Ed Kim, Director of Business Development at Bigpoint Inc. “With gPotato, we have found a great partner and are confident they will generate positive results that further bolster our community of players.”

 

 

 

 

To welcome the new browser games, gPotato will be giving away $900 worth of prizes to its players. Ten lucky Facebook fans will receive $50 worth of gPotato currency, which can be redeemed in any game on the portal, for explaining which browser game is their favorite. Five more players will win either a SUMO beanbag or a Razer mouse for editing a picture of the gPotato mascot into a screenshot from one of the browser games. More details can be found at the official rules.

 

 

The gPotato Game Portal has added many new games and features in recent months and is excited to create even more enjoyment for its community with Bigpoint as a partner. Every game on gPotato is always free-to-play, and the addition of great games from a like-minded partner brings rich new variety to the portal’s 11 million users.

SWTOR: Journey of a Sith Episode 3

SWTOR: Journey of a Sith Episode 3

By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

In the last article of my blog I told you I had found a group to play warzones with which I did frequently between the quests. In the end I ended up doing too many warzones which got me to a higher level than the area I was leveling in before the warzones. Nonetheless I made it up to level fifteen and it was time to finally test out my own spacecraft as I ventured out to explore new worlds…

 

 

There were a few planets my master insisted I investigate but in the end I decided to set my destination to Balmorra, a world torn asunder by war for many years. After my arrival I went to visit the locals to vendor some stuff and pick up some quests. After I had made the rounds introducing myself to the locals, I set off with a few quests to do some minor unimportant things. Unfortunately the Galactic Republic sent soldiers to aid the Balmorrans in their fight to preserve their independence, and I to face a much larger resistance force than I was prepared for.  But the Sith wouldn’t be Sith if they couldn’t wreak some havoc so that’s what I decided to do.

 

 

I chose to stick with my plan of pure evil actions despite my constant conversion into a Pink Sithlord. During my time on Balmorra I had some evil and weird quests that were really scary. I had to find troops that went missing and after searching for a while I found them in some factory in a really odd state. It turned out to be the perfect horror story and an evil professor decided to use the troops’ brains as controllers of a new set of experimental robots. Unfortunately the test wasn’t such a success and one of the robots talked to me and told me his story and the situation he was functioning in. It was a really sad story where he told me that he had done horrible acts against his will. He told me I could peacefully put them out of their misery by deactivating their power source. Or I could leave them be and use them as robots for the Sith Empire, which was a really a hard choice to make. I wanted to stay evil and get as many dark points as I could but… I refused to allow the nutty professor to get away with this atrocity any longer, and so I decided to deactivate them and let them peacefully die instead of functioning as robots for years. I just couldn’t bear the thought of sending them somewhere else to continually living out their cruel existence.

 

 

I also had to do a lot of group story quests in in Balmorra, which further brought me out of the single player bubble I had been living in. BioWare really forces the player to group up with others if you want to seek out the best loot for yourself. After doing all the group quests in Balmorra and all the other side quests I came across it was almost time to do the final part of my main quest storyline. But I first had to help a Sith Jedi that was the son of a local in the first town I visited. The weakling was captured and jailed while on a mission and his father bartered with me that he would provide an antidote needed to enter a poisonous cave in exchange for saving his son. Since my entire objective in visiting Balmorra was to enter said cave, I agreed to the rescue mission.

 

 

After I found this weakling I questioned him about what he was doing on Balmorra and quickly realized he was after the same artifact as me. I couldn’t have anyone messing with my plans, nor could I stand his cocky attitude. His miserable life was put to an end with almost no considerable effort on my part. Unfortunately when I returned to his father to report what I found out he was quite pissed and attacked me. Oddly enough I had more problems dealing with his dad who had absolutely no Sith training at all. After he cleaned the floor with my face a few times, I finally managed to effectively use my partner to take him down. The cave itself had a creepy atmosphere to it but the monsters within weren’t compared to the fallen father. I easily acquired my precious item and rushed back to my ship to leave the dreadful planet of Balmoora as soon as I could.

 

 

When I was walking to my spaceship a commander came to me and asked me to seek out a Sith Lord who was planning a final assault on Balmorra. I decided to help in any way I could and hunted down this great Sith Lord. Needless to say she was more than happy to see me and after flirting with her for a while I got my first quest to destroy some turrets that were preventing troops from landing. After killing a Jedi Lord and his padawan, I headed back to the Sith Lord to receive an unexpected reward. Seemingly my flirtatious ways had gotten to her and we ended up sharing a bed for one unforgettable night! After doing a couple more quests involving oversized pest control and putting on a laser light show (of doom!), it was time to leave Balmorra and continue my journey to the iconic desert world of Tatooine!

League of Legends: Freezing Saddles

League of Legends: Freezing Saddles

By Jason Harper (Hhean), OnRPG MOBA Reporter

 

 

Welcome summoners, to the patch v1.0.0.132 article for League of Legends, the game that’s just going outside, and may be some time. This patch includes the death of dodge, a (yet another) rework to Jax and the addition of Sejuani, The Winter’s Wrath.

 

 

Sejuani is a melee controller, focused not so much on taking damage, nor on dishing it out, but on locking down the enemy team. She’s a simple looking character with a surprising amount of nuance, and a very powerful ultimate that allows little room for error. While comparisons might be drawn to other melee crowd controllers like Amumu or Leona, she lacks any form of defensive steroid, so she makes me think more of a melee Ashe, who also shares her frost theme.

 

 

Her kit is tied together with the Frost mechanic, which is simply a 10% slow applied to enemies she either auto attacks or hits with two of the abilities at her disposal. The remaining two abilities are intended to be used on enemies already under the effects of Frost. This means that getting her ability orders correct, and knowing which chain to use in what situations is a very important part of her game.

 

 

It often might seem tempting to begin a gank with her gap closer, Arctic Assault [Q], and apply Frost to her foes as she charges forward. However, this will give the enemy an opportunity to escape if they have any form of movement steroid, blink or dash. The safest way to secure a kill is to simply run around behind your victim, hit them with an auto attack, and trigger Northern Winds [W] for more damage. The moment the enemy begins to move, slam them with Permafrost [E], hampering any targets with Frost on them with its truly brutal slow. As the slow wears off, or if the enemy makes use of some form of escape, slam them in the back with an Arctic Assault, and hit them again with Permafrost if it’s off cooldown. Bellowing “NO ESCAPE!” as they struggle to get away doesn’t help, but it’s certainly fun to do.

 

 

Her ultimate, Glacial Prison [R], becomes an invaluable tool in the larger fights that kick off in the mid to late game. This is an ultimate with nearly no downside; A long range skillshot that inflicts one of the longest stuns in the game on whoever it strikes, yet still inflicts a decent length stun and Frost on anyone nearby, leading into a massive Permafrost slow to large numbers of enemies all at once. The only downside is it has a very long cooldown, so you have to make sure that every shot counts. If you’re going against a Sejuani in a game, always try to abuse these gaps, as heading into a teamfight with a boar queen carrying this ultimate in her back pocket can be extremely dangerous.

 

 

There are two things to always bear in mind when throwing out her ultimate; The first is that it will detonate on the first target it hits, so watch for tanks moving around in the front of a group. Try to fire the shot in a place they can’t see you, ideally in the brush or from behind a wall. Following this up by surging through said wall with Arctic Assault can be a great way to catch enemies completely off guard, preventing the tanks from having any time to block the shot. The second thing to bear in mind is that the shot should only be fired from either near the maximum range, or at point blank. While the advantages of firing the ultimate at point blank are obvious, trading safety for a reliable hit, hitting at max range is a bit more tricky, and somewhat hard to pull off. Her ultimate always travels a set distance, so if someone gets out of the way, the shot will simply go past them when you fire it at medium range. So if you throw the ultimate at maximum distance, even if they move to avoid the hit, the ultimate will detonate in thin air and catch them in the blast. This trick works much better against groups of enemies rather than single targets though, where you’re much more likely to catch someone in the blast as they try to maneuver around one another.

 

 

Her most standard chain to use at the start of a team fight is Glacial Prison, Arctic Assault, Permafrost, Northern Winds. This isn’t a very efficient combination, but it is the fastest way to get as much crowd control down on the enemy team as quickly as possible.

 

 

Grab a level in Northern Winds when jungling as Sejauni, or Arctic Assault when laning. Pick up the other ability of this pair at level 2.  At level 3, you’re headed for her main trick, Permafrost. Max this first. Following Permafrost, max out Arctic Assault and finally Northern Winds. If you’re very farmed, and have managed to get a very large health pool early, then Northern Winds can be a situational pick. Grab her crazy ultimate every time you can.

 

 

For items, start with boots and health potions in a lane. On Dominion, I’ve been running with the unusual start of boots, two Doran’s Shields and potions, finding it surprisingly effective. Damage on Sejuani isn’t much of a priority, since even with heavy itemization in that area she still won’t compete with a true damage dealer, and doesn’t have much in base defenses. Instead, you should work on her resistances, allowing her to live long enough in team fights to shut down any threats. Philosopher’s Stone and Heart of Gold are great early game picks on her, both granting health for her Northern Winds, and getting some much needed sustain in addition to a steady gold stream. The only items I consider to be core on her are Shurelya’s Reverie and Aegis of the Legion. The former to help her with initiation, and the latter to assist with her already formidable team fight presence. Every other item on her should simply be defensive items against the main damage types of your enemies. I would say her go-to magic resistance item is Force of Nature, and her default armour item is Sunfire Cape.

 

 

Ideally Sejuani should act as a team’s jungler. When jungling, start with cloth armour and five health potions. This, I think, is the only real handicap Sejuani has compared to other junglers. Her clear times are good, but in order to stay alive she needs more armour. She has very low base health regeneration, with low base armour and a low attack speed, so she can’t even use a vampiric sceptre to compensate. This makes cloth armour her only option. Ultimately meaning she will be behind the curve on itemization compared to the game’s top junglers if she simply farms, so she must rely on invasion and ganking to try and close the gold deficit.

 

 

She really needs 21 points in defense to keep herself alive, and while I’d rather get a bit of damage from the offense tree, I think she benefits far more from the movement speed bonus found in the utility tree. So while I started using her with 9/21/0 I wound up using her as a 0/21/9 character. She allows for a broad range of rune set ups, but I would highly recommend sticking to movement speed quintessences and armour seals. I’ve been using armour marks and attack speed glyphs on her, but what you use in those slots really comes down to personal preference.

 

 

I think Sejuani is fairly middle of the road when it comes to power. She’s strong by design, but her low defensive stats and lack of any form of defensive steroid make her a poor tank choice for a team. Her jungling is good, but not the greatest, and her laning is mediocre, at best. I think she’s stronger in the jungle than in the lane, really, since at least in the jungle she can make use of the health packs on the creeps to keep herself going in the early game. Provided she doesn’t die too fast, her team fight presence can be devastating, which is really where she shines. Her ultimate alone is a good reason to pick her up, as it can be utterly devastating when backed up by some well timed assistance from her team. If you want to play a jungler that doesn’t kill everything they meet, and instead facilitates the kills of other, maybe she’s worth picking up.

 

 

The one thing that really turns me off the character though is that she is one of the goofiest looking characters Riot has put out in recent memory. A bikini clad ice woman that rides on a giant boar simply doesn’t work for me. Now, I’m not much of an expert on such things, but riding a creature used to temperate climes in summer beach wear doesn’t seem the best idea for a warrior of the frozen tundra.

 

 

The biggest change this patch is the newly reworked Jax. While I’m uncertain if he’s now a better or worse character, given my own lack of experience with him previously, I do think the new Jax is a far less unique character than before. His hybrid AP/AD nature was one of the more interesting things about the old Jax, and the thing that made him stand out from other similar characters. Now he’s simply another tanky AD, to be built in exactly the same way as his peers. The new counterstrike is also very limited in usage, with far too long a wind up time before his stun, and a very short range.

 

 

While the outright removal of dodge might cause a stir in some quarters, the slow phasing out of the stat has resulting in little fanfare now that it’s gone. The reworked Ninja Tabi is essentially unchanged, but now has the annoying random element removed.

 

 

To discuss some of the changes yourselves, post in the massive League of Legends thread in the free to play MMOs section. If you haven’t tried League of Legends yet, you’re missing out.

Pit of War Online

Blood stains the floors of the Arena, and lives are cheaply sold among the masters. Welcome to the Great Realm of Pit of War, where you don the mantle of a Master of slaves in a bloody arena where gladiators fight for glory and their lives. Buy, sell, equip, and train gladiators to rise in the rankings and dominate the violent world.

Features

Three Specializations: Train each gladiator in one of three schools – Rage, War, and Theatrics – and utilize these strengths in the arena through talent trees.

Gladiator Stable: Own several gladiators, and manage each one’s training and equipment individually. Upgrade your stable to unlock more features.

Rise to the Challenge: Several quest challenges await your gladiators, based on your strength. You may also seek to earn multiple achievements.

Dragon Saga Celebrates Lunar New Year

Dragon Saga Celebrates Lunar New Year With Exciting Line-Up Of Events

 

 

Dragon Saga Dragon Head

 

 

WarpPortal today announced an exciting line-up of events to celebrate Lunar New Year for its popular action MMORPG, Dragon Saga.

 

 

Dragon Saga New Years 2012

 

 

Event Line Up

1.      Find your Fortune (January 18th – January 31st)
Each day, all players over level 23 will be given a Fortune Gasha Box. The box contains one of six fortunes listed below:
·         Great! – EXP x 1.3 (1hr)
·         Good! – Atk speed +5% (1hr)
·         Nice! – Def + 10% (1hr)
·         Not Bad! – Def + 10% (1hr)
·         Bad! – Move speed -5% (1hr)
·         Too Bad – Aim rate -5% (1hr)

 

 

2.      Big Wheel Costumes and Dragon Costume Sale (January 18th – January 31st)

All new 2012 Hat, Glasses, and Balloons will be added to the Big Wheel.

The Item Mall will be offering “Year of the Dragon Costume Box” which contains Oriental Dragon Costume (Mas, Backpack, and Balloon) and 20x Year of the Dragon 2012 Firecrackers for just 375pts.

 

 

Dragon Saga New Years Glasses

 

 

3.      A Call to Arms (January 18th – February 14th)
Training or hunting on Channel 1 will give heroes level 1-40 a greater bonus than ever before!
·         Physical/Magical Defense +100%, HP +100%, MP +100%, EXP +100%
·         Upon Character Creation: 1x +10 [Normal] Darksoul weapon and +10 Underground Graveyard armors Helmet/Top.

 

 

4.      Tournament of Dragons [Team Edition]
Starting on January 20, 15 teams of 4 who register on a first-come, first-served basis on the official Tournament Registration thread will be able to compete for prizes including Samsung LCD computer monitors, Mini USB monitors, Razer Optical gaming Mouse, and free item mall points. The tournament will take place on February 4th, from 12:00 PM PST until 7:00 PM PST. Official tournament rules can be found at: http://forums.warpportal.com/index.php?/topic/66033-tournament-of-dragons-team-edition/. Build your Dragon Saga character for this “Tournament of Dragons” and register ASAP!

DarkEden: Chaos of Old Returns

DarkEden: Chaos of Old Returns

By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

We all have a game that introduced us into the serious side of the MMORPG genre, opening up a whole new world to discover. I started my adventure in Runescape but the content at the time wasn’t able to hold my interest for long. I ended up jumping to the original DarkEden. Now DarkEden stuck with me as one of the main reasons that I am still enjoying MMORPGs up to the present. Its unique style, a forgotten relic of the earlier years of MMORPGs, is hard to find in today’s market, which made me quite nostalgic when DizzyPW offered this assignment to me. I spent many hours with my cousins playing DarkEden and don’t regret one minute of it. But that was a long time ago and times have changed. Would I still find the joy and excitement I remember so fondly this time around?

 

 

A colleague of Dizzy’s got me set up with a high level account so I could quickly jump into the game and compare it directly to my original account. If you’re new to the MMORPG scene, DarkEden is a free-to-play online horror action MMORPG taking place in the fictional eastern European country of Eslania. A war rages between the Vampires, Slayers, and Ousters and each one of them competes to take control of the powerful Blood Bible.

 

 

In this apocalyptic world every race has to gather its experience differently which makes the approach to the MMO grind rather unusual. In this hack-and-slash game the Slayers only have to attack a monster or player to gain its experience points. However the Ouster and The Vampire need to drink blood from an unlucky foe to gain experience. Each character or class is specialized in different stats in which they gain various benefits from; you have Strength, Dexterity and Intelligence and your choices will have a noticeable impact on your playstyle. For instance, I was given a gunslinger purely specialized in dexterity allowing me to DPS like no one else’s business. Intelligence/dexterity combinations are used for almost every ranged skill and spell, except for a few melee type skills. Dexterity and Strength are best used for the melee type classes so they will have the most optimal defense along with the best offense. The ranking system can make a character stronger as well. In this ranking system each rank you achieve allows you to learn one of many rank skills. I went with a Heavy Shooter build to ensure I could finish off my foes before they ever inched close enough to harm me, allowing me to successfully utilize my glass cannon build.

 

 

If you’re unlucky enough to have never played DarkEden, then here are a few features you should be aware of before jumping into the game. It is mainly inspired by the Diablo series with some elements of Dungeons and Dragons thrown in. The game also has a day and night cycle which will affect your visibility so watch out for surprise attacks at night. The day and night cycle also has a different effect on the races. The Vampires are for example more powerful at night and the Slayers are relatively more powerful during the day.

 

 

Are you a real player versus player freak and like to backstab some players when they are not watching? Then DarkEden is really a game for you to test out. In DarkEden players are open to attack almost anyone anywhere in the realm except for a few safe zones. This makes the game more challenging while adding to the mood of a true horror game where you never truly feel safe, even if you ARE among the creatures that go bump in the night. But don’t let your bloodlust get the best of you as strong tactics and proper use of the night/day are key to ensuring you came out of battle satiated.. and breathing.

 

 

Mall

To keep the servers up and running there is a Mall in DarkEden as well that will bring in some cash for the developers so that they are able to provide enough support and updates for their precious game. The items in the mall are bought with iCash and consist of various equipment like weapons and armor. And if you think walking is too slow in DarkEden you are also able to buy your own Hell Bike so you are able to cruise to your destination like Ghost Rider. If you are not so happy with the chosen gender you can always choose to buy a Transgen set and chance the way you take a leak, oh and of course the gender model. And if you have too little space in your backpack you are always able to buy an inventory expansion.

 

 

 

Graphics

DarkEden is a game similar to Diablo and it is easily compared with such a great title. The graphical presentation could be compared to an isometric view of Fallout, with signs of the apocalypse around every corner. The graphics are simple but appropriate for the theme being used. To play this game you will need the following system requirements:

 

OS: Windows XP/Windows Vista and above

CPU: Pentium 3 600MHZ and above

RAM: 256 MB Above

Hard Drive: 800 MB and above

Video: 16mb Above/ DirectX 9 Above

 

 

Conclusion

DarkEden is a really special game that conquered my heart in the early days of gaming. When the game launched originally it had its flaws but gained a loyal following with its unique features and gameplay. I had a lot of fun back in the day but its current state is far more polished and a real pleasure to try out for a second time. If you are a big fan of this genre and you are a big fan of action hack and slash games with the general Diablo and Fallout feel then I would strongly advise you to test this game because it goes where most MMOs today fear. Just watch your back as I’ll be waiting for you!