Yearly Archives: 2012

Arctic Combat – Closed Beta Impressions

Arctic Combat – Closed Beta Impressions

By Michael Sagoe (Mikedot), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

 

New to Webzen’s upcoming titles for 2012 comes Arctic Combat (also known as Battle Territory: Battery), a multiplayer online first person shooter. Set in the not-to-distant future, U.S.A. and Russia are fighting for resources in what is shaping up to be the beginning of World War III.

 

 

My initial reaction to the game was: “Oh great, another modern war shooter… Yawn.” I was expecting this game to be nothing more than a complete Call of Duty: Modern Warfare clone…

 

 

I was in for a big surprise.

 

 

When logging in for the first time, the game doesn’t start players off with a tutorial, but there is one available. Closed beta testers were given a hefty amount of in-game points to screw around with, so I decided to hit up the item shop before heading in. There were only a handful of items to choose from, including cosmetic items for custom made soldiers, pre-made soldiers, weapons, and passive and active perks. For my load-out, I went with the M4A1 Assault Rifle and a Desert Eagle, along with a C4 timed bomb as my active skill. For my passive skill, I had a hard time deciding between ‘quick reload’ or ‘extra stamina’. I ultimately decided that faster reloads would be more beneficial in a bind.

 

 

Ready to rock and roll, the first map I played on was a training zone called Boot Camp. The game mode was Bot Battle against AI bots set on Easy. With no particular strategy in mind, I blindly rushed in, expecting to get a few rush kills while examining the layout of the map. It turns out that rushing in was a huge mistake.

 

 

In Arctic Combat: Soldiers aren’t bullet sponges, so players can get picked off and killed easily if they’re not careful. Trying to run through the battlefield like Rambo is an easy way to get killed, and I had to learn this lesson the hard way. Once I finally started to get the hang of things, I was moving in and out of cover more frequently, checking around my corners and my back before moving.

 

 

Arctic Combat has a rather fast pacing like modern Call of Duty games, but at the same time, the feeling of having to watch your every step, I could say that it’s a mix between Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Counter-Strike.

 

 

As previously mentioned, the game has active and passive skills, which work exactly like the perks seen in COD:MW, but none of the skills here are completely abusive or overpowered like in recent MW games. Players at the moment can only carry one active skill, which is usually some kind of single use weapon, and one passive skill. Later on players will be able to earn or buy (hopefully earn) up to three more slots for passive skills.

 

 

One small feature that I found interesting was that Arctic Combat takes a nod from classic FPS conventions: Players when (initially) starting out will not have regenerating health. Players will have to pick up health packs (Yes, that’s right… Health packs! Remember these?!) These are dropped randomly from fallen players. This may seem pretty simple, but to me, this added a small layer of strategic thinking:  “should I pick it up now or later? Should I use it as bait while I wait for enemy players to try and take it? Is there any players around that could use it instead of me?”

 

 

(There IS a skill/perk that gives players some regenerating health, but it only fills up 50% and it only happens randomly, so picking up health packs are still very important.)

 

 

For a game being called “Arctic” combat, I felt it was strange that there was only one arctic map to play on, but this map was my absolute favorite. On this map, players are able to request helicopter support, a quick and effective way to eliminate enemy players that are running out in the open.  There was lots of different path ways and bunkers to take cover in case of air-strikes, and two machine gun nets to defend those bunkers with.

 

 

Enemy players were abusing the hell out of those chopper attacks. However, they weren’t too difficult to take down. While my teammates were distracting an enemy chopper from the front, I was able to shoot it down by emptying two of my magazines on it.

 

 

Overall, I was really taken by surprise with this one. Blending twitch action with tactical action is a very hard mixture, but I feel Webzen nailed it just right.

 

 

For more information on Arctic Combat, be sure to check out our Profile Page here at OnRPG. We’ll also be looking into livestreaming this game as soon as we work some kinks out on our end!

Pangya Global Cup Tournament Begins Friday

Pangya Global Cup Tournament Challenge Announced Following Season Six

 

Pangya

 

SG Interactive, a leading North American free-to-play game publisher today announced the sixth Pangya Global Cup Tournament Challenge will take place starting on Friday, June 22. Continuing the popular golf tournament series, gamers will face off in the intimidating Silvia Cannon course, famous for its seemingly insurmountable helicopter and cannon beam obstacles, all while celebrating the birthday of Cecilia, one of Pangya’s most beloved characters.

 

 

Commemorating the Pangya Tomahawk Season Six launch, the qualifier rounds will begin at 5:00 p.m. EDT/ 2:00 p.m. PDT on June 22. The first 594 players wearing the Cecilia Birthday title will have a chance to work their way up the competitive ladder to the final round, and a chance to win rare in-game items, Pangya’s in-game currency, “Pang,” and a rare Cecilia outfit normally only available through the game’s random box system.

 

Pangya

 

“We really wanted to give players a challenge for this Global Cup tournament, given that we just launched Tomahawk, and we thought what could be better than one of Pangya’s most challenging courses?” said Joan Kim , Pangya producer for SG Interactive. “Players can warm-up for the competition by taking a few shots at the Grand Zodiac hole-in-one course or plan in our newly revamped Practice Mode before starting their drive for the championship.”

 

 

The Pangya Global Cup Tournament Challenge comes hot off the heels of Pangya’s most recent Season Six update: Tomahawk. In Pangya Tomahawk, players are challenged with a new, limited-time hole-in-one floating island map entitled Grand Zodiac. Having no fairway, this floating island with small surrounding green will test the skills and abilities of even the most intrepid masters of the swinging irons. With new items to discover, UI improvements and the newly-launched Practice Mode, Pangya Tomahawk brings a new perspective to the anime-inspired fan-favorite golf game.

The Secret World Breaks Down PvP Modes

The Secret World Breaks Down PvP Modes

 

 

A new dev blog released by The Secret World’s Lead Designer, Martin Bruusgaard, reveals the various types and locations PvP exists in. I’ll go ahead and summarize the details.

 

 

Fight Clubs

One Fight Club exists in each of the factions’ hub cities. This small little clubs have no rules, which is just right for testing and tweaking builds, dueling your friends, or sneaking into a rival faction’s club to stick a knife in the back of your enemy. You can set up anything from 1v1 to 10v10 matches here.

 

 

Battlefields

This type of gameplay is for the more professional and organized PvP battles to occur. Faction against faction against faction exists here but objectives change depending on the location so expect to adjust your spec and tactics depending on what you are trying to take control of.

 

 

Stonehenge: King of the hill gameplay in which each team fight to keep the most players inside the central ring of Stonehenge while dispatching anyone from other factions. Teams will have to decide the right mix between burst damage and sustainability to capture and then maintain possession of the  central ring through this match.

 

 

El Dorado: This CTF mode offers a total of three twists from the standard CTF mechanics most games use today. The first twist? The relics all start neutral and are spread over a very large and diverse map. The next twist? The map is asymmetrical, allowing players the ability to use specific terrain to their defensive advantage. The final twist? If you carry a captured relic you receive no buff from it but there is a longer cooldown after the relic carrier is killed in which no opposing team can swipe the relic. However if you put the relic down your team will receive an area buff allowing you to have an easier time defending it from attackers.

 

 

El Dorado starts all teams in the middle of the map and chaos ensues from there. Each faction will need a ton of coordination to come out on top reliably in this map. Long range teams will likely want to defend relics from high points in the map with good unobstructed lines of sight. Meanwhile beefy bruiser teams would do well to set up in caverns and other small chokepoints where they can use body collision and hand to hand combat to overwhelm attacks. But don’t count out the importance of luck in The Secret World! Powerful buffs will be bestowed on the entire faction of the winning side so a lot is riding on you if you take on the El Dorado challenge.

 

 

Warzone

Although only one will be available at launch, The Warzone is The Secret World’s pinnacle of persistent 24/7 faction pvp. Although we covered The Fusang Project already at PAX Prime last year, we’ll go over it again for those just now catching up with the game.

 

 

Within the Chinese village of Fusang there are four capturable points guarded by massive Anima Giants as well as plenty of minions, walls, and anything the controlling faction throws in your way to prevent your capture of the base. Each faction is limited to how many they can have inside the Warzone at one time so zerging won’t be an issue… unless of course you create a temporary alliance with the other team to take out your opponent.

 

 

Also vital in the Fusang Project are the anima wells placed on the perimeter of each capture point. These provide a much closer respawn point for your team while you control them, providing your offensive attack a steady flow of reinforcements while also countering any turtle tactics the defending team might use because they will need to push you back to get you out of the anima well.

 

 

Those who fight for their faction will receive tokens you can trade in for goods. Also if you manage to capture one of the points you will provide a temporary buff to everyone in your faction for as long as you can hold onto it. Competition for these buffs will be fierce and the brave soldiers that capture and hold it will likely be lauded as heroes among their alliance.

 

 

Anyway that sums up the dev blog on The Secret World’s PvP!

Meta’s Verse: Issue 24 Blaster Changes

Meta’s Verse: Issue 24 Blaster Changes

By Meticulous Meta, OnRPG Paragon Reporter

 

 

 

Today’s Meta’s Verse is a bit late. This is because I was waiting for the very exciting live stream from Paragon Studios. Now, yes they have these things every week. And the topics tend to vary from having guest devs stop by to having an hour full of tangents where they talk about bronies. Today’s though was really quite exciting as we learned about upcoming changes being made to Blasters in Issue 24. As someone who really enjoys playing Blasters I wasn’t exactly sure what to expect. Though I figured it would be something along the lines of the recent Stalker changes. And I was right! There are some quite big changes coming that make Blasters friendlier to play. Jeff “Arbiter Hawk” Hamilton, a systems designer and all around awesome guy, stopped by the live stream to explain those changes.

 

 

Snipes

Snipes as they are now aren’t used often. They have a long cast time, are interruptible and are just kind of awkward all around. Well all that is going to change with Issue 24. Snipes will become instant cast. There’s a catch though, there’s always a catch. You have to get your to-hit up to 22%. This is doable a number of ways ranging from Aim to slotting Kismet IOs. Though Kismet only gets you about 6% of the way. Once you have that 22% though a familiar yellow ring will surround the snipe telling you that you can use it as an instant cast. That means you can use it in combat because it won’t interrupt. And you won’t get annoyed because that target you had originally picked was already dead by the time the attack finally finished animating. I’m a huge fan of my snipes so I’m really very excited to see this. I hate taking powers that I almost never use. This change is a lot like the Assassin’s Strike changes that were made to Stalkers in Issue 22. All of the snipe changes will also be seen in Defenders and Corruptors as the Blaster primary sets are used in those archetypes.

 

 

Dual Pistols won’t see any changes here simply because there are no snipes. They will however get some animation time changes in Issue 24.

 

 

Ranges

Powers with a range of 40-50 feet are having that extended to 80 feet. This is to make it so you don’t have to run into the fight for just a couple of powers and can stand in the same spot should you so desire. I love this personally. I tend to ignore the powers that I’m not in range to use if I’m in a safe spot. I have the feeling that my playstyle for Blasters is going to be changing completely coming i24.

 

 

Secondaries

Secondary Blaster sets aren’t being forgotten. They’re getting a new power to make them more survivable. This power will be replacing another power that already exists in the powerset but I think the extra survivability will be well worth it. This power will give you a bonus to regeneration and recovery. They will not stack and will be usable every sixty seconds. In addition a few of them have a few extra little surprises. Ice Manipulation for instance will get a power called Frigid Protection which will replace Chilling Embrace. It will have a range of 30ft which is up from the 10ft that it currently is. In addition it will have an absorb shield which will tick every 3 seconds and at level 50 absorb 110HP worth of damage. This applies to self only. There is no change for Mental Manipulation because Drain Psyche is already a pretty awesome power.

 

 

The wonderful thing about all these changes is that they will happen without you having to respect! Of course for the secondary changes to take you will have to have the original power that is being replaced. And if you don’t then you will need to do a respec to take advantage of the change. All of these changes are most likely going to result in a whole lot more people doing blappers instead of regular blasting. Excitingly the Issue 24 beta will be beginning Soon™. Also coming “soon” is the Water Blast set which is rumored to be coming “sometime in the summer to cool us down.” The changes to Blasters look very exciting and I can’t wait to see what else we will get in Issue 24.

Dragon Saga Launches Legendary Update

Dragon Saga Launches Legendary Update

 

 

Gravity Interactive announced today the start of a massive content update that will progress throughout the year for their mystical MMORPG, Dragon Saga. With the recent addition of a playable Dragonkin race, players have the ability to undertake any of 34 classes across 6 base jobs while enjoying an all new amazing graphics update!  Players who are ready to take on new challenges can jump straight into the side-scrolling action at http://playdragonsaga.com/

 

 

“Dragon Saga is a game with infinite amounts of untapped potential, and we’re excited to be unveiling the new Legendary update!” said Vince Kim, Dragon Saga Producer at Gravity Interactive. “Overall, players will see changes and improvements that will fall under a dozen different categories.  We’re revealing just four of them today, and you’ll hear more about the others in the future as the new content and updates continue throughout the summer.”

 

 

Here’s just a small sample of the many upgrades Dragon Saga will be receiving during the Legendary Update:

Updated Graphics

Since its launch in 2010, designers have worked hard to give the world of Dragon Saga a sleeker look without losing its anime-style charm.  Now their efforts are ready to be shared with the world, as improvements from backdrops to characters, weapon and armor detail and much more will allow players to be drawn deeper into a mystical world.

 

Chain Combo Skills

No more boring attack buttons! New Chain Combo skills bring Dragon Saga’s combat system closer, than ever before, to that of an arcade fighting game. Normal attack buttons can be chained into high damage skills. This new system offers a new way for players to show off their gaming skills.

 

Dungeon Drop Overhaul

In response to the feedback from our community, Dungeons and their item drops have been improved to provide a better play experience for everyone!  Players will immediately notice changes in their gear, such as level requirement changes, stat distribution corrected, or pre-requisites added or deleted.

 

Mini-Map Improvements

Finding what you need in towns has never been so easy!  Now important NPCs are marked with icons, so finding who you’ll need to speak to has never been so easy.  Map improvements will continue to be a focus for the Dragon Saga team.

 

 

Dragon Saga is a fast action 3D side-scroller MMORPG. Its server is located in US and services the North American gaming communities. Dragon Saga attracts casual gamers with quest based leveling system, while challenging the hardcore gamers with 6 different PVP modes and multi-level instance dungeons. Its combat system merges the traditional RPG spells with arcade fighting game style combos, resulting in a unique combat style that challenges the players’ poise and quickness at the same time. Also, the Partner, Friends, and Marriage systems in-game make it extremely easy for any gamer to make new friends.

Massive Final Beta Weekend for The Secret World Starts June 22

Massive Final Beta Weekend For The Secret World Starts June 22

 

The Secret World

 

The Secret World, the highly anticipated modern-day massively multiplayer online game of myths, legends and conspiracies, draws ever closer to its July 3rd release date. In preparation for launch, Funcom is excited to announce that the fourth and final Beta Weekend – titled ‘The Battle Begins’ – will be made open to all of the more than 1.3 million gamers who have signed up to beta test ‘The Secret World’. Guaranteed access to the final Beta Weekend will also be given to everyone registering via the game’s official website by June 22nd (use the beta sign-up form on the right).

 

 

‘The Secret World Beta Weekend #4: The Battle Begins’ starts at 9am PDT on June 22nd and runs for almost three entire days until 11.59pm PDT on June 24th. During that time players will be able to experience all the content that has been included in the three previous Beta Weekends, such as all three secret society starter experiences, the town of Kingsmouth, the Savage Coast and the Polaris and Hell Raised dungeons. Brand new this weekend is the inclusion of player vs. player gameplay, where the secret societies must duke it out in legendary locations such as Stonehenge and Eldorado. Participants will also get to experience the persistent player vs. player war zone of Fusang Projects, where over two hundred players clash together in a massive struggle for server-wide power. The outcome of these battles affects all players belonging to the victorious secret society, across the server.

 

The Secret World

 

The previous Beta Weekend – titled ‘Hell Raised’ – ran from June 15th to June 17th and saw the highest number of players yet participating and is undoubtedly the most successful event yet.

 

 

“The game is definitely living up to our expectations, and it appears this is a sentiment we share with our testers as well,” says Funcom SVP of Sales & Marketing Morten Larssen. “The playtime per participant during the last Beta Weekend was very impressive, shattering all records from previous Beta Weekends or even beta events from our previous games. This is a strong indication of the engagement and depth of the gameplay experience. Beta surveys have shown that four out of five players will recommend the game to their friends, something we find remarkably positive and a true testament to the quality of the game and the amazing work the team has done.”

WoW Wednesday Mists of Pandaria Dungeon Preview

WoW Wednesday: Mists of Pandaria Dungeon Preview

By Meredith Watson, OnRPG WoW Specialist

 

 

 

There will be three new raids and nine new dungeons in World of Warcraft’s Mists of Pandaria expansion. Of these new instances a total of six are located in the land of pandas. Stormstout Brewery and The Temple of the Jade Serpent are the first two of these new dungeons you will face in Mists of Pandaria and are meant for levels 85 to 87.

 

Stormstout Brewery

 

When Chen Stormstout arrived in the Valley of the Four Winds, he journeyed to the renowned brewery of his namesake, hoping to connect with his relatives. What he found was his ancestral home in disarray. Under the watch of the incompetent Uncle Gao, loathsome virmen and unruly hozen have infiltrated the brewery, sparking a destructive revel that will soon devastate the region’s supply of tasty beer.

 

 

Stormstout Brewery is full of partying hozen and virmen which are monkey and rabbit like creatures that have overtaken the brewery.  There are three bosses in this short and rather cute but gimmicky dungeon. The first boss is Ook-Ook a very large hozen with several abilities with the most notable being going Bananas. At 90%, 60%, and 30% health remaining, Ook-Ook increases his attack speed by 15% and his damage dealt by 15%. This ability can stack up to three times.  The kookiest part of Going Bananas is the wave of rolling barrels that do smart if hit by one but they can also be jumped on. Ground Pound, Rolling Barrel and Brew explosion (his other three abilities) all have to do with more barrels.  To say there are a lot of barrels in this fight is an understatement.  Overall it isn’t particularly challenging just mind the barrels.  After the fight, there is a bizarre monkey line dance that doesn’t seem to have any point.

 

 

Next boss is Hoptallus which can only be described as a deranged bunny on steroids.  On the way to him the players kill virmen which are carrying large mallets. This is the gauntlet section of the dungeon. Once those virmen die the player can pick up the mallet and bop subsequent virmen on the head.  It brings to mind Little Bunny Foo Foo.  This may or may not be intentional.  Hoptallus has a whirlwind effect which means move out of the way. There are also waves of virmen with mallets, again, that need to be picked up for more bunny bopping.  Another easy fight if you remember to move out of whirlwind and pick up mallets, so killing mallet holding virmen first is a good idea. There will be a large button on the screen which enables the bopping. Oh yeah and he spits carrot juice.

 

 

Finally, the last boss is Yhan-Zhu an alemental (get it? Brewery? Ale?) Anyway.  Yhan-Zhu has many different abilities and it is really down to luck as to which of his abilities the party will experience.  Brew bolts inflicts frost damage while Bloat inebriates the target causing brew to stream out of their ears, inflicting frost damage and knocking back targets on either side of the afflicted player. Blackout Brew puts the target to sleep (obviously).  Yhan-Zhu can become encased in bubbles with Bubble Shield causing 10% damage reduction. Carbonation, frost damage every second, means running into Fizzy Bubbles so that the player does not become asphyxiated which prevents any action from the player. Lastly, Yhan-Zhu may give the players Sudsy which allows them to jump really high.  Why? The Wall of Suds of course.

 

 

Temple of the Jade Serpent

 

Rising high above the east coast of Pandaria, the Temple of the Jade Serpent stands as a sacred monument to the legendary pandaren emperor Shao Hao’s victory over the Sha of Doubt thousands of years ago. Recently, a disastrous conflict in the Jade Forest unleashed the sha, and several of the entities have raided the temple’s most treasured stores of wisdom and knowledge.

 


The Temple of the Jade serpent has four bosses and is considerably more challenging than Stormstout Brewery.

 

 

Wise Mari is the first boss fight and has two phases. The first phase consists of several abilities. Corrupted Waters does 5000 shadow damage every 0.25 seconds. Wise Mari will also create a Water Bubble around him making him immune and knocking back players that touch the bubble. Hydrolance does 20,000 damage when it ripples and 28500 when it explodes. Wise Mari will also summon living water with Call Water and Corrupt Living Water.  Corrupt Droplet is the four corrupt droplets that are formed after a Corrupt living Water is defeated and they will attack nearby players. Also when a Corrupt Living Water is defeated it will create a puddle of Sha Residue at that spot which inflicts 10,000 frost damage every second to any player in the puddle.  You will want to avoid standing in it as with any WoW encounter.

 

 

After the Corrupted Living Water are defeated the second phase begins with Wise Mari bursting his bubble dealing frost damage and knockback. Lastly, Wise Mari will channel a stream of water knocking back players and dealing more frost damage.  There is a lot going on in this fight, but it isn’t too difficult if you mind the puddles on the floor.

 

 

Next is the library event which will spawn one of two encounters:  Zao Sunseeker or Yaungol.

 

 

In phase one of Zao Sunseeker the suns will cast Sunfire Rays. When they are killed they will Extract Sha. When all suns and Haunted Sha have been defeated phase two begins and Zao Sunseeker will become corrupted and quickly continue to fire Hellfire Arrows. The second event is the Trial of Yaungol which consists of two bosses Anger and Strife.  Strife will get a buff as he is DPS’d increasing his damage. He will become immune to all damage received when his buff reaches ten. Anger and Strife cast Agony which does a large amount of shadow damage.  This fight can be quite tricky the first time and really requires a good healer and the party’s ability to switch between the two mobs while the tank maintains aggro. The shadow damage is very nasty.

 

 

Liu Flameheart is an easy fight though she does have many abilities.  Her abilities are melee and fire based.  This is essentially just a tank and spank encounter.

 

 

Lastly is the Sha of Doubt, easily the hardest fight in The Temple of the Jade Serpent. The Sha of Doubt only uses four abilities but they are used very effectively making for a challenging fight.  The first thing that the player needs to know about this fight is that the doors shut so the entire party needs to run in including ranged or they will get left out.  Wither Will is the first of the Sha of Doubt’s abilities.  The Sha of Doubt will target to random players and wither their will causing 32,375 to 37,625 shadow damage.  Next the Sha of Doubt can employ Touch of Nothingness which periodically inflicts 32,375 to 37,625 Shadow damage to a nearby player every two seconds.  One of the hardest abilities to survive, especially for squishies, is the Figments of Doubt which forces the player to confront their own doubt in the form of their shadow self. Each Figment of Doubt siphons energy from the player. When completely infused with energy, the figment explodes and inflicts 73,125 to 76,875 shadow damage while healing the Sha of Doubt for 10% of its total health. These figments must be killed quickly and the tank will need to try to pick them all up to get them off the cloth wearers especially.

 

 

These two dungeons are still very much a work in progress. There are bugs and issues with loading screens and zoning back into Stormstout Brewery lands the player in a pit of bunnies.  Again that may or may not be intentional. One quest NPC is definitely bugged at this time. However, these dungeons are very much typical of WoW dungeons and are both fun and challenging if a bit quirky. There are some exciting changes happening with dungeons and raids in Mists of Pandaria. Stay tuned!