Yearly Archives: 2012

Project Blackout Trains Players with Introduction of Knuckle Mode

Project Blackout Trains Players with Introduction of Knuckle Mode

 

Project Blackout

 

SG Interactive calls for Project Blackout players to enter the battleground in the most primal way possible with the introduction of Knuckle Mode. Now players from The Corps or Aegis Inc can battle mano-a-mano while perfecting their covert action skills in this new eight on eight deathmatch update.

 

 

In the world of First-Person Shooters (FPS), the art of unarmed combat is grossly ignored, but Project Blackout is looking to correct this. Without the support of mid-to-long range weapons,   players must rely on cunning, tactics and stealth in order to take out the opposing team.

 

 

“With Project Blackout we are constantly asking ourselves how we can interject new gameplay modes, much like last years’ Dino Mode,” said JT Hwang, Project Blackout producer for SG Interactive. “Knuckle Mode is the latest team deathmatch gameplay with a twist, allowing players to learn how to better stalk each other without the aid of short or long-range weaponry.”

 

 

In support or this creative and new combat mode, Project Blackout has introduced two new female character skins in the Outpost. The Corps faction players have a chance at winning Rica Lopez, a hard-as-nails former sniper turned block-ops operator. Gamers who prefer to align with Aegis Inc can take on the role of Judy Chou, a combination of tactician and scientist that makes her as deadly with a scalpel as she is with a sniper rifle.

OnRPG Shotgun News 7/3: Beta Test Bonanza!

OnRPG Shotgun News: Beta Bonanza!

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

Soul Captor


 

Closed beta testing has started for highly anticipated free to play MMO Soul Captor. Everyone who enters closed beta will be able to claim free prizes once the game goes live. These include a Goldenman Mount, a run with joy emote, and item enchantments. Throughout the closed beta there will be competitions, contests and events.

 

 

SEVENCORE

 

gPotato has announced that new game SEVENCORE for French and German markets will be going into closed beta in July. More information about the games features will be released throughout July.

 

 

Knight Age


 

3D Fantasy MMORPG Knight Age will open it’s very first English language closed beta test between July 10th and July 17th. Players can register to take part in the closed beta on Joymax’s website.

 

 

End of Nations

 

Trion Worlds has announced today the dates of the first of three closed beta events for its free to play real time strategy MMO End of Nations. The first weekend is scheduled to start on Friday July 20th at 12:01am EST and continue through the weekend until Sunday July 22nd at 11:59PM EST. The first closed beta event will be comprised of both large and small player maps with a variety of terrains and upgrade options. There are several ways to get beta access which include the official End of Nations Twitter and Facebook, signing up on the website or if you want guaranteed access to all three weekends the End of Nations Founders Edition pre-order is the way to go. As well as closed beta access anyone who pre-orders will also get a head start on the open beta and multiple in game bonuses.

Anime Expo 2012 OnRPG/MMOHuts Recap Part 3

Anime Expo 2012 OnRPG/MMOHuts Recap Part 3

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

 

Be sure not to miss out on part 2 here!

 

Now on to the finale. Hope you’re ready to see some professional cosplay jobs sponsored by Gamania for Koihime Musou and Kill3rCombo for Elsword! But first we continue the cosplay character guessing game with some off the wall outfits.

 

Who is this epic penguin couple masked couple?

 

What is this I don’t even…

 

This combo was drawing quite a bit of attention

 

The Final Fantasy lives on!

 

She seems so familiar but I can’t quite recall from where. Do you know?

 

Trigun Reporting in!

 

Someone must know who this is.

 

What has been seen cannot be unseen

 

Pyramid Head and company… no convention is complete without at least one

 

Maid + Pink Hair + Lollipop = Win

 

Unfortunately we caught Morgana with her wings down but you can expect to see them in their full glory in our Kitty Mach interview series coming soon!

 

By now it was nearly 1pm and Riven’s group had already had enough. We pushed on because we had to catch ’em all.

 

Mini-Miku

 

Finally at 1pm R2D2 informed us the Koihime Girls were ready and waiting.

 

While Kitty and I were busy with interviews.. Bowen had abandoned his position behind the camera.

 

Missing cameraman found! I expect nothing less of Bowen at this point.

 

The Koihime Musou group all lined up! We’re prioritizing this video set so expect to see it live very soon.

 

En Route to see the Elsword team we came across a Sona that was so shy she refused to speak on camera. But when her friends heard we were with MMOHuts they threw her into a hilarious interview with Kitty Mach. Look forward to seeing Sona in action soon as well.

 

It was now almost 3pm and the energy level and chaos within the convention center was reaching a boiling point. See how many characters you can identify!

 

We wrapped things up with Kitty Mach getting some hands on time with Elsword’s newest playable character, Chung, who also happened to be there in person with a cannon both wider and taller than Kitty. This is the second video we’re prioritizing so get ready to see just how tiny she is compared to Chung’s massive cannon in an upcoming video.

 

 

Kitty Mach Bonus Pics Part 3!

 

Dizzy and Graggy Get Crunk with the League of Legends Crew

 

Okami and Toothless Enforce Responsible Spending at Anime Expo

 

Real Life Anime Harems. You can’t make this stuff up.

Anime Expo 2012 OnRPG/MMOHuts Recap Part 2

Anime Expo 2012 OnRPG/MMOHuts Recap Part 2

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

 

Don’t miss part 1 here!

 

It was about 11am and time to meet up with Kitty Mach and NGMoco to look at some new MMO apps in the works. I swear every convention I visit more and more companies are going the way of the Ipad. I never thought there would be a direct competitor to the PC MMORPG but give technology another year and that’s the reality we’re going to see.

 

I think this unhappy looking fellow is Cloud but feel free to correct me or confirm it!

 

I’ve seen this combo plenty of times but can’t identify it. Who are they?

 

Name that duelist!

 

Kitty Mach finally appeared in full Tifa cosplay to interview the team at NGMoco. Keep an eye out for our upcoming video interview!

 

2 out of 3 bystanders approved

 

It isn’t an anime expo without Kingdom Hearts

 

Your guess is as good as ours but let’s see what you’ve got. Name her!

 

Toothless and Okami are an odd combo but mad props for pulling off the 4 limb standing set-up

 

Here’s an easy one for you guys. Name this crew!

 

Is this an Asian Abraham Lincoln Vampire Hunter or some kind of steampunk cosplay? I haven’t a clue.

 

Massive Props to whoever knows what this guy is going as

 

Name those bunny girls!

 

My first thought was this has a Legend of Zelda theme to it. If you know exactly who she is let us know.

 

 

My guess is Tekken but give your best shot naming Bowen’s mystery fighter girl!

 

On the way to Red 5 Studio’s new FireFall tour bus we tripped over a Left 4 Dead Witch. Thankfully zombie control was on the scene.

 

 

Around noon we hit up the Red 5 Studios Firefall tour bus and to say I was impressed would be a huge understatement. They have over 40 top of the line PC rigs set up inside with a dedicated server and shoutcasting booth all built into this massive metallic tour bus designed to take Firefall on the road around the US this summer. Keep an eye out for an upcoming video of Kitty Mach’s first experience with Firefall!

 

Next on the agenda we took Kitty on tour interviewing a ton of awesome cosplayers from around the convention

 

Firefall was completely outgunned by this epic cannon girl team

 

Kitty Mach nearly fell over trying to hold Thor girl’s epic hammer

 

From the freaky to the kawaii. I can’t name either of them so give it a shot!

 

Name these sexy witches!

 

Here’s an easy one to guess.

 

What the movie has only been out 2 weeks? No problem at Anime Expo.

 

That’s it for part 2! Check out part 3 for a preview of our Koihime Musou and Elsword professional cosplay team interviews as well as plenty more completely over the top cosplay costumes!

 

 

Kitty Mach Bonus Pics Part 2!

 

 

 

Kitty Mach brings all the Clouds to the Yard

 

It’s like she blocked the picture with her mind

 

 

Anime Expo 2012 OnRPG/MMOHuts Recap Part 1

Anime Expo 2012 OnRPG/MMOHuts Recap Part 1

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

 

 

Hey everyone! This is DizzyPW and I just finished up our coverage of Anime Expo 2012 alongside MMOHut’s Kitty Mach and our chief programmer (and playboy cameraman) Bowen! Anime Expo turned 21 years old this year (It’s hard to believe people in Los Angeles even knew about Anime that long ago! VHS for the win!) I’ve been teasing a lot of you on the forum and now it’s finally time to take you on a pictorial tour of the show! And for those that are more into the fancy moving pictures, rest assured we have a ton of video content on the editing table being prepared!

 

We had just barely gotten through the door when we came upon this strapping gentleman

 

Now I think of myself as a bit of an Anime watcher. But there was a ton of outfits that I just don’t recognize this year. Once our forums come back up feel free to comment in our article section and name off the mystery characters! I might hook you up with some prizes.. you know if I feel like it.

 

After catching a few shots we finally worked our way to the front of the line.. and no one looked happy to see us going in early.

 

In case you’re wondering…

 

We found Waldo

 

Excuse my awkward fusion pose. Thankfully…

 

Our E3 Goku Cosplayer showed up in the nick of time to show us how it’s done

 

We met up with the Game Samba group who told us about some upcoming changes to Remnant Knight. But more importantly they informed me of a new useless invention to come out of Japan…

 

Cat Ears that move in reaction to your subtle facial expression. No joke this is real. You’ll see for yourself in the videos we have on the way!

 

If you’ve never attended Anime Expo, just know the weirdest items ever are on sale and yes people buy them.

 

Next stop? The artist corner to meet one of my favorite commissioners, Alijca Chrena, and her fiancee.

 

Turns out the artist behind one of my favorite Ahri pictures.. is actually Dynasty Ahri. Who knew? After my ultimate geek out moment it was time to head to NGMoco’s booth to check out some new Ipad events. But Anime Expo tends to be ADD central as we stopped quite a few times on the way.

 

Our chief programmer Bowen and I got pulled in by the allure of the 18+ deviant cosplay group. Definitely a site I recommend!

 

 

Soul Eater fans still representing!

 

With some costumes.. masks are required

 

You Just can’t host a geeky convention like this and expect League of Legends fans to not show up! As usual about 2 hours after the doors opened, the cute girls started showing up.

 

Our next mystery character has arrived. Name that cosplayer!

 

Bowen is such a playa. Check back soon as we’re preparing part 2 of our Anime Expo Recap with a ton more cosplayers and games to show plus our reveal of Kitty Mach’s Tifa outfit!

 

Kitty Mach Bonus Pics!

 

 

OnRPG Shotgun News 7/2/12: Gaikai, THQ, Rise of Immortals, and More!

OnRPG Shotgun News 7/2/12: Gaikai, THQ, Rise of Immortals, and More!

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

 

Sony Acquires Cloud Gaming Company Gaikai

Sony has purchased cloud gaming company Gaikai for $380 million. Sony Computer Entertainment President Andrew House said the following on the deal;

 

“SCE will deliver a world-class cloud-streaming service that allows users to instantly enjoy a broad array of content ranging from immersive core games with rich graphics to casual content anytime, anywhere on a variety of internet-connected devices.”

 

Rumors of this purchase have been surfacing for over a month but both sides have denied it until now.

 

 

THQ Announces Reverse Stock Split

During a special meeting of stockholders approved an amendment to effect a reverse split of its stock which has been set at 1 for 10. This will reduce the number of stock from around 68.5 million to about 6.9 million. This is all in an attempt to get the required $1.00 per share minimum bid required by NASDAQ for listing.

 

 

Petroglyph Announces Licensing Partnership for Rise of Immortals

 

Petroglyph, the developer and publisher of Rise of Immortals has announced a new partnership with RISE GAMES. This is to bring Rise of Immortals to a Turkish audience. RISE GAMES is able to reach out to major internet cafes and game stores across Turkey giving them a bigger audience.

 

 

South Korean “Shutdown Law” Faces Legal Action

 

The legality of South Korea’s Shutdown Law has come into question by citizens and game companies. The law prevents anyone under the age of sixteen from playing games during a six hour block at night. This is meant to encourage studying. Two lawsuits have been filed against this law. One is from game publishers NCSoft, Nexon and Neowiz. The other is from a Korean organization which represents parents and children who say the law undermines parental rights. Both lawsuits were filed last fall and are now being heard in court.

ROSE Online Starts Off Summer with Full Month of Events

ROSE Online Starts Off Summer With A Full Month Of Special Events

 

ROSE Online

 

Gravity Interactive, a publisher of exciting MMORPGs), today announced that it has launched a series of summer events for its popular MMORPG, ROSE Online. “Roserians” can participate in the events all month long starting today, June 29th, and take their shot at winning cool in-game items and Visa gift cards.

 

 

All month long players will have a chance to win Item Mall Points and Visa Gift Cards in the “Login and Get Loot” event. All players have to do is log onto ROSE Online and they’re entered to win. It’s that easy! For every daily ROSE Online login, players will get another chance to win. This event is happening all month long, so players should grab their friends and start logging in today through July 31st!

 

ROSE Online

 

Summer is all about hanging with friends and so is the latest refer-a-friend event, “Playing with Friends Just Keeps on Getting Better!” During the entire month of July, players can invite friends to play their favorite game with them and be rewarded! For recruiting one friend, players will receive a Judy’s Box (1 box limited per WarpPortal account). In addition, players using the “Friends with Benefits” program can send friends a link or just share on their favorite social network site and let friends hook them up with bonus WP Energy! If a player, using “Friends with Benefits” recruits a friend from now until July 31st, and they make a payment, players will earn 30% of the WP Energy value they purchased instead of the regular 10% bonus.

 

 

Roserians can also participate in the GoCash promotion happening now through August 28th. Every Thursday following a GoCash game card redemption increment of $7 on the WarpPortal, players will receive a limited edition Drinking Hat (HP +250, MP +150), great for those hot summer days, in their game accounts event storage!

Faithless is He: Visit Sunny Kingsmouth

Faithless is He: Visit Sunny Kingsmouth

By Jonathan Doyle (Ardua), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

Hello one and all, hello from Kingsmouth. In case you missed it you’ll be happy, or worried, to hear that Dark Days are Here.

 

 

The Secret World has opened its gates for pre-order customers and the servers stand ready for everyone else tomorrow.

 

 

Let’s go over some things shall we?

 

A Funcom Launch

I’ll get this little bit of difficulty out of the way nice and early, as I am sure it is also the thing pressing down on most peoples’ minds if they haven’t already committed to the Secret World. How was the pre-order launch? Well… it was flawless. At least from my perspective. Oh I am sure you’ll find someone to quibble, but that’s the Internet and games. There’ve been no outages on the server; there have been no massive upheavals or anything.

 

I have experienced four little faults.

 

  1. On Friday night, the first night, so many people wanted their pre-order goods that it rather slowed the store. Eventually it was taken down for upgrades and by Saturday morning it was lightning quick. Fault? Popularity. Solved? Oh yes.
  2. A minor chat bug that on one occasion each across three people on three days affected us once each. Quitting group and rejoining fixed that.  More a minor passing irritant than a bug.
  3. One quest and only one for me, in the entirety of Kingsmouth is bugged. That was the case last night and well known to people. I imagine a fix is incoming soon.
  4. This one is entirely my own fault. I need more ram. Oh the game plays fine on what I have, but the occasional spike makes my system seize. That’s no fault of Funcom or EA, that’s me being behind the hardware curve.

 

 

So as far as launch worries about Funcom not being ready once again, I’d say they finally got their system worked out because the soft launch was near flawless! We’ll see how it goes with more people jumping aboard but personally I am saying that this has been a complete success. If you want to be cranky, let’s say third time is the charm. Ragnar and the team have been active on the boards and on twitter throughout the weekend and the only server maintenance downtime so far was placed on early GMT time and finished up faster than originally forecast.

 

 

With all of that, seriously, don’t let the name of the company and other peoples’ wrong opinions of it scare you into missing this gem.

 

 

We Have The Technology!

Launch covered; let’s talk about actually getting to grips with the game. Do you have friends already playing and are worried about meeting up with them? Don’t be!

 

 

Lead Designer Martin Bruusgaard covered the server set up they are using here, but let me break it down for you.

 

 

There is, like in EVE Online, a single server. On that server there are shards, here called dimensions. The only change to the dimensions has been the renaming of the Role Play dimension from Faerie to Arcadia after some people apparently took issue with the name. Still, no one can say the designers weren’t listening.

 

 

At character creation you have two options. First, you can link The Secret World with your Facebook account. This allows you to see where any of your Facebook friends might be playing. Second, pick a dimension, any dimension. It literally does not stop you from playing with anyone. Want to roll up on Cerberus but join me on Arcadia to battle zombies? Feel free. Players can and are teleported from Dimension to Dimension to team up. The only important provision is that should you play the Fusang Projects live battleground, you are playing the one tied to your home dimension. Stonehenge and El Dorado are cross dimension, Fusang is not.

 

 

(Just to put peoples’ minds at ease? I am on the Role play server and I can tell you, Fusang gets plenty of attention. Don’t let story telling make you think they aren’t also fighting.)

 

 

All the tools to play where and how you want to are given to you from the very start. All the tools necessary to get through the investigations and fights are provided within. Which leads me to my last thought..

 

 

Blurring The Lines

How often have you reached for a book while playing Guild Wars? Have you ever needed reference material for Champions Online? Does Team Fortress 2 leave you wishing you knew more about Morse code?

 

 

Ragnar and the team have long talked about blurring the lines between the real and the game. They are, in my small opinion, succeeding. Together with two firm faithful friends (even if they are bloody Dragons. “Templar for the Win!” As you are told in London) I have stomped and sprinted my way back and forth across Kingsmouth. I have fought demons, I have fought zombies and I have fought evil. That, admittedly, is pretty much the premise of any game with combat. You fight the things that need fighting. You kill the things that need killing. The Secret World though… sometimes it asks you to be sneaky… sometimes it asks you to be nosey.

 

 

Nosey is where it gets interesting.

 

 

Oh anyone can sing the praises of the story quests, in fact I may do that very thing myself when I see you next week. Plenty of people I know have found great humour and great acting in the cut scenes; I don’t mind saying I think I love Edgar from the Scrap yard. The story and the acting and the very scenes set by The Secret World, even in its first area, are magnificent.

 

 

Then along comes the investigation quests. Then comes the thinking. Oh, sure, you could ask help channel. You can check wikis or look up guides or check the boards. You will eventually be able to look up step by step walkthroughs that tell you everything to do, but leave out all the whys. Rewards are a great excuse, complete the mission, and get the xp.

 

 

But for me? Oh no. I am meeting these special challenges head on. I never have played a game that needed me to check a Bible, a real Bible not some in game interactive Bible that has the answers spelled out, to crack a code. I’ve never played a game before that makes me stop, think and try to puzzle things out with friends.  The Investigation quests are magnificent and I expect them only to get harder and more brain wracking and wrecking as time goes on.

 

 

Any game can make it hard to win, any game can throw walking bags of hit points at you and call it hard content. Any game can offer you fighting.

 

 

The Secret World is offering me a puzzle, daring me to work it all out. It has thrown down the gauntlet of a challenge in its fighting, in its sabotage and most of all in its investigation and storyline missions. I am going to take up that challenge. I am going to work it all out and live on those blurred lines between the real and the secret worlds.

 

 

Though first… I have Morse code to crack. See you in Kingsmouth my friends.

MEAD: The Evolution of RIFT’s Crafting

MEAD: The Evolution of RIFT’s Crafting

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

I don’t often get the chance to express my opinion on things in RIFT. Sure, there are little comments here and there. Squeeing over the newest and latest thing but I never get to just give the article of the week over to my thoughts, feelings and desires. There is of course a very simple reason for this. Trion releases too much awesomeness for me to talk about. But this time! This time I’m ahead of the game. I’ve already talked about all the major points of 1.9 which just came out this week. And there hasn’t been anything new about Storm Legion. So I’m going to talk about my favorite past time in RIFT, crafting.

 

RIFT Crafting

 

From the moment I started playing RIFT over a year ago I’ve been addicted to crafting. In theory you’re supposed to slowly level your skill as you level your character. With the resources you need being available at just the right time. It didn’t work that way for me though. I’d finish one crafting level then immediately move on to the next. Even when I didn’t have the supplies to do so. In that case I’d buy them. It was expensive. Took me more than a year to get my first 100 platinum. And that only happened because I stopped buying crafting supplies and started selling artifacts on a very regular basis. But I loved crafting. I spent hours in the Manufactory making things, breaking them down then making more things.

 

 

But eventually I hit a point. A point where crafting wasn’t important anymore. Sure, I did my daily crafting quests from time to time. And I’d join in on a Crafting Rift group maybe once a week. But crafting wasn’t important anymore. I got my things I wanted. I wasn’t making any money off it so why continue? And then, like the Trion devs on high heard my cries of sorrow, new recipes were released. And they were purple and people were asking for them. They even came with new, very expensive materials which could only be made on a timer. And for a while getting everything gathered was great. But once again, that rut was back. While crafted items have always been very good and second only to planar gear which is difficult to get, there would always come a time when crafting wasn’t needed anymore, for a short time at least. Then came fishing and survivalist. And while there isn’t any money to be made there, since everyone and their Tartagon is doing it there is still a ton of fun to be had.

 

RIFT Fishing

 

I don’t even mind sitting around in zones that I’ve outleveled already just to get that one last rare fish I need for the achievement. I could fish for days. It’s more of a lifestyle than an art. I’m taking my time with fishing. I haven’t levelled it very far yet and that’s ok. But that isn’t enough to make me feel like crafting is important and something that is included in all things. That’s where the new orange armor comes in. Players do a dungeon, get the materials for this new spiffy armor which can only be crafted by the people who have really put the time in. It creates a bit of a community between the raiders and the crafters. But that still left us out of touch with the pvpers. That’s changed now as well!

 

 

1.9 gave us Conquest. The three faction pvp has more than just stabbing the enemy and taking control points. Players can craft buffs for allies. If you want you never even have to raise a weapon to the enemy. You can just stand there making things for your side. Crafters are slowly being dragged out away from the forges and into the rest of the world. They’re no longer the redheaded stepchild who never sees the light of day and isn’t really all that important past a certain point.

 

RIFT More Crafting

 

Storm Legion will be the ultimate step in bringing crafting to the community. As we saw in the E3 live feed there are going to be areas in the new parts of the world which will only be accessible with the help of raids and tons of people. Instead of crafting rifts, which only really matter to other crafters, there will be colossi raids formed by crafters. And everyone will want to take part. Partly because its new and shiny. But also because it is fun and has a little something for everyone. When it has become old news though, crafters will still be forming those raids, they’ll still want access to those materials. And that will almost force them to become leaders. And that isn’t a bad thing. Not at all. We crafters have an important role to play in Telara. And as time goes on our role is becoming more and more important. A crafter’s job is never done. There will always be something new on the horizon. I love crafting just as much now as I ever have. Though I admit I love doing crafting rifts much more than doing any actual crafting anymore. I’m very excited for the future of crafting. As much as I am for the future of all of RIFT.