Core Blaze offers a look into the combat, skill system, and more in this epic E3 2012 demo!
Yearly Archives: 2012
League of Legends: Quoth the Draven
League of Legends: Quoth the Draven
By Jason Harper (Hhean), OnRPG LoL Reporter
Welcome summoners, to the patch v1.0.0.141 article for League of Legends, the most dangerous game. This patch includes the usual champion rebalancing and Draven, the Glorious Executioner.
Draven is a ranged carry, focusing on flashy, high damage steroids and Youtube worthy skillshots. He has virtually no utility to speak of, but makes up for it with high mobility and a staggeringly high damage output. In this regard he’s more similar to characters like Vayne or Sivir than Ashe or Varrus.
The defining ability of Draven is his Spinning Axe [Q]. This steroid will enhance his next hit for a percentage of his total attack damage. After Draven attacks, his axe will bounce off his target and be sent flying into the air. If he catches the axe, his next attack will also be enhanced. He can theoretically keep this up indefinitely, and maintain two Spinning Axes at a time.
Where the flying axes land is randomized, but you can control the rough area where they’ll head in. After bouncing off a target, the axe will always go in the direction you moved after throwing the axe, but before it hit the target. If you don’t move, the axe will either bounce straight back to Draven, or land somewhere close to him. Given that the important window for directing your axe is the time between the throw and the hit, you should always attack your enemy from the furthest possible range. That way, you have the longest amount of time to either sneak in extra attacks, or get yourself in position ahead of time.
While you’re hurling axes all over the place, using Blood Rush [W] will help you get those sweet catches. The extra burst of movement and attack speed will not only let you catch more easily, but also get more attacks in between catches. Since every catch refreshes the cooldown of the ability, spamming this thing will allow Draven to move like lightning, and spew out a volley of attacks for as long as you have the mana (and the skills) to keep his Spinning Axe/Blood Rush combo going.
If the added attack damage from Spinning Axes wasn’t nasty enough, the added bonus that they trigger Draven’s passive, Wicked Blades, is cruel and unusual. Unlike his brother, Darius, this passive doesn’t synergise with the rest of his kit outside of his Spinning Axe, but it does help with his itemization. Since it also works on critical hits, and can stack its effect, it allows Draven to have his damage output scale well in the late game when he’s not going to be concentrating so hard on catching axes. This passive just loves infinity edge and zeal.
It is worth noting that the catching of axes is more of an early game mechanic, as its easy to do during laning, but can be fatal during a team fight. If you happen to catch an axe, or it is going exactly where you need it, then grabbing it is great, but it shouldn’t be the focus of Draven’s game later on. The reason for this is the axes make his movement too predictable, allowing enemy teams to leap on top of him with ease, especially if they have some form of aimed dash. That, and there is often so much going on in a team fight that trying to keep track of the axes will often make you lose track of who to focus or where you need to be to avoid some big ultimate.
In the early game (or those rare occasions you’re fighting by your lonesome in the late game) the Spinning Axe, combined with the quick movements of Blood Rush, and his passive’s damage over time, make for a brutal harassment game. Every time he has a Spinning Axe ready, run at your opponent with Blood Rush, smack them with a Spinning Axe, run backwards while its in the air, and catch it a safe distance away from the enemy. You can repeat this whenever you wish, due to Blood Rush coming off cooldown with every catch, and Spinning Axes remaining in play provided you keep catching them. Draven wants to be aggressive in the laning phase, abusing these bonuses to drive his enemy from the lane and deny them farm.
Stand Aside [E] and Whirling Death [R] are skillshots that work exactly as you’d expect. Throw them at people to hurt them. Stand Aside can be used to pin people to walls, or shift enemies into your team, but don’t try to use it to save your own skin. Whirling Death is best used as a finisher, tagging enemies or monster objectives from across the map. However, if you think you can wrangle a shot to hit multiple people in a team fight, don’t hold back. Treat it like a combination of Sivir’s Boomerang Blade and Ezreal’s Trueshot barrage as it won’t do you wrong.
Take a level in Spinning Axe first, and max it out as soon as possible. Get Blood Rush at level two and max it out second. Stand Aside can be gained any time from level three to five, just in time to work with his ultimate, and should be leveled last.
As a pretty typical ranged carry, there’s not much out of the ordinary for his build. Start with boots and three health potions. Stack as many Doran’s Blades as necessary. Grabbing an early vampiric sceptre will help you stay in lane, especially if you don’t have a support who can keep healing you. From there, rush your infinity edge, grab a phantom dancer, last whisper and bloodthirster. If you get far enough for a sixth item, buy something defensive like a guardian angel or quicksilver sash if you’re having trouble, or grab another bloodthirster or phantom dancer if you feel like going nuts.
Run with 21/0/9 masteries. For his runes, the standard armour seals and magic resist glyphs remain good choices. Much like Varus (or indeed, any ranged carry), how you balance between his attack damage and armour penetration is dependent on if you want to strengthen his early or late game. For an early lane focused build, use full AD in both marks and quintessences, but for a more balanced build use three AD marks, six armour penetration marks and AD quintessences.
I’ve been having a lot of fun with Draven, and I don’t usually like ranged carries. Catching his axes makes his strategy a little bit more complicated than “Use steroid and right click” while still keeping his auto-attacks the core of his game. Unfortunately he isn’t the strongest character to grace Summoner’s Rift. While he has great laning presence, and a strong late game, his complete lack of any crowd control or dash means he really needs his team around him to keep him alive. In late game team fights it’s very easy for him to get melted without having any way to prevent his own death.
He’s certainly not a sure-fire purchase. If you’re into ranged carries, I’d advise giving him a go on his free week and see how you fare with him. If ranged carries aren’t your thing, he’s way too fiddly for the unfamiliar. I honestly don’t think he’s going to be seen a lot beyond his first few weeks after release, but I think he’ll still have a few fans.
Not much to talk about this patch, unfortunately. I don’t like talking about champion balance changes, because often to really get a grip on them you not only need to be playing the characters in question, but have a wider appreciation for how a stronger or weaker version of a character impacts the roster as a whole. The only change that I have personal experience with is the buffs made to my favourite mage, Swain, and the changes to him have been completely lacklustre. He really needs some survivability on his ultimate if his sustain is as low as it is right now. He still can’t survive using his own ability, as he needs to get close to the enemy team to use his ultimate effectively, but since it no longer helps him survive very well, he will just melt the moment he’s attacked.
Next patch will be bringing us ARAMs as a custom game mode though, so this is clearly just a minor patch between major feature implementations. I look forward to screwing around a fair bit when the 100th champion joins the league.
To discuss some of the changes yourselves, post in the massive League of Legends thread in the free to play MMOs section, or post in the comments section below. If you haven’t tried League of Legends yet, you’re missing out.
Bloody Hunter
Get your hands dirty!
In a parallel universe, SEED, an energy corporation, created a gigantic space explosion. The result is a dimensional rift that has forced time and space to overlap on the planet of Xanadu.
Bloody Hunter is the story of three hunters:
Cato the swordsman from B type time dimension,
Boram the fighter from 21st century Korea and Farrell the ranger from the year 2098. All three are fighting to uncover the truth and get back home.
SD Gundam Capsule Fighter Online Implements New Missions and Units
SD Gundam Capsule Fighter Online Implements New Missions and Units
OGPlanet announced today that they have released two new scenario missions, implemented two new S rank units, and updated the Custom Capsule Machine for their popular multiplayer third-person shooter game, SD Gundam Capsule Fighter Online.
On top of the exciting missions that SD Gundam Capsule Fighter Online currently offers, two new scenario missions have been added for players to enjoy. Additionally, players can now enjoy a whole new experience with units exclusive to the Custom Capsule Machine, including the brand new Gundam Age and Windam (CR Rank) Gundams! And if that wasn’t enough, two new S rank units have been released. Players can put their Newtype controls to the test and pilot both the Destiny Gundam and the F91 Gundam.
“Based on the overwhelmingly positive response we’ve received since the game’s launch, we have decided to continue with the trend of giving back to our users by implementing even more Gundam content,” said OGPlanet marketing manager, Eugene Choi. “We are working diligently to provide our players with the best online Gundam experience possible, which includes continuously adding new content and fine-tuning existing gameplay.”
Since the North American release of SD Gundam Capsule Fighter Online, OG Planet has been constantly releasing new content for the game, including new arenas, Gundam units, items, and even a free Gundam VoD service that has been integrated directly into the SD Gundam Capsule Fighter Online website.
Web Koihime Musou Cosplay Contest Report 3
Web Koihime Musou Cosplay Contest Report 3
We’ll be featuring two updates this week as the contest draws closer to a conclusion! It’s almost time to vote so get ready to support your favorites.
Vani

Sword progress

Sword progress

Jenny

underskirt and arm guard fabric – GET!

My wigs finally came! I need to add highlights and lowlights, sw in wefts, and start styling this thing

I’ll be going with the two on the right! Now if only that store would be open on my days off work…

Pattern progress! It was a pain to drape the bodice pattern (mostly because the boobs are so much larger than my own…), but I finally got it! I altered a dress pattern to make a high waisted “skirt” that will attach to the bodice pieces. It just needs a final tweak and I’ll be ready to cut out my main material and start sewing!
Sushi Monster

Cutting boots to prepare to make white bootcovers
Pattern for the collar

sewn collar! Needs gold trim and closure
sleeves with heat and bond details

sleeves minus upper and bottom trim

WIP teal vest

cutting out and glueing the sword
Manzi



Here’s my progress for this week:
The tabard dress is basically done, it just needs a zipper in the back but I won’t add that until I do the purple part with the coat tails that rests on top. The collar isn’t sewn to the dress yet because I need to add the gold trim first.
It looks really wonky on my dress form – please ignore that haha. Its fitted to me and not my form so it looks pretty awkward on there. It fits me perfectly though!
The skirt is totally finished, I put the zipper in the back. I think I’m going to get a petticoat for it actually so it looks a little more fluffy.
I think that’s it! I’ve started my mock up for the coat tails and the bolero. I didn’t take a picture of them though because they don’t look like anything but indiscriminate blobs of fabric right now, lol.
The bolero and tabard dress are done! Yayyy!
The sleeves are off to a good start and just need to be sewn up and elastic added to the top.
Sorry I didn’t take more detailed progress pictures, I was working my butt off and kind of forgot because I was just powering through this lol.
Again it looks a little weird on my dress form because it fits me and not the form.
Editor’s Note: Progress Report 4 should come in on Wednesday so swing by OnRPG again to check them out! Also feel free to comment on our forum discussion thread HERE.
Monarch
Rule The World!
They say power is claimed by the sword but no man has ever conquered alone. Monarchs rise and Monarchs fall so if you want to gain power – and keep it, you’d better find good soldiers. The siege is coming and you can’t face it alone.
Monarch is a new breed of MMO mixing elements of large-scale combat strategy in a massive environment. Utilizing its unique “Troop” system, players hire soldiers to fight with. Best of all, players can level up, equip, buy, sell and trade their soldiers to other players as they try and amass the best fighting force and reign supreme.
District 187: Sin Streets
At the end of 21st century, the world has fallen into a massive economic depression. In this brave new world, where money means everything and morality is up for sale to the highest bidder, wealth and power has naturally collected in the hands of the few.
These people use what is left of the government to protect their own interests, but there are those who want nothing more than freedom for the oppressed majority and will stop at nothing to get it. In cities all over the world the two factions are fighting…
Kartuga Online
Kartuga is a browser-based Action MMOG with a gritty pirate backdrop. The title, out to set a new standard of quality in browser games, is based on Unity 3D. Players assume the captain role of a mighty sailing ship. These adventurers fight with or against other players for honor, glory, and loot in a stylized fantasy setting featuring eclectic nautical elements from around the world. Sailing across seas scattered with Mediterranean and oriental influences, players can unite in mighty guilds, acting out the punk-like, rebellious nature of true pirates!
Features:
RPG Elements: As you battle and collect loot you can gain experience and purchase upgrades to improve your ships looks and responsiveness. A very free flowing skill tree for each of the three classes (destroyer, protector, and engineer) allows you to build your ship unique from those around you.
Vibrant and Diverse World: Explore the open seas at your leisure, discovering three unique cultures with their own missions, factions, and dangers.
Instanced and Open World PvP: Whether you prefer to take down fellow seadogs that are after your same treasure or go at it in organized battles on instanced maps with set objectives to capture, Kartuga has something that’s right for you.
E3 2012 Closer Look: Trion Worlds
E3 2012 Closer Look: Trion Worlds
By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist
Right now the internet is all abuzz with news from E3. And this year there has been some recognition that not everyone can go to E3. Trion especially has done a good job of that this year. With photos on Facebook and even a live video feed from inside E3. For someone like myself who is unfortunate enough to live on the other side of the world from sunny Southern California where E3 takes place, this makes us feel like we’re still important, even during this insanely busy week. Trion was out in full force this week representing not only Rift but also End of Nations, their upcoming RTS MMO and Defiance, which will have a corresponding TV show on Syfy.
End of Nations
This RTS MMO was one of the highest trending topics on twitter at E3. And its no wonder why. This game really goes outside the box of traditional MMOs to make something unique and fun which Trion is famous for. PvP battles for control of territory takes place all across the world on maps that can host up to 56 people. This is a two sided war each with two classes which define what units you have access to. There is no need to worry about building up a base like in traditional RTS games. End of Nations is all about slaying your foes. The big news coming from E3 about the game this year was that it would be entering beta in just a few weeks. Oh, and did I mention EoN would be free to play? There will be an in game shop but it will be for cosmetics and other small things. Most importantly they stress it will never be pay to win. As with most F2P MMOs there will also be a subscription option, though few details have been released on it so far. Your troops will be customizable with all sorts of different options through the armory. I just hope we don’t see many hot pink tanks running around.
Defiance
In yet another genre breaking MMO the world has been changed by alien horrors which leave Earth a lush apocalyptic world. Defiance is a third person shooter MMO coming to PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and cable/satellite tv in April of 2013. For the first time ever an MMO and a television show will take place, not only at the same time, in the same world, but what happens in one will have an affect on the other. Though both are due to take part in different parts of the United States, humanity has to stick together to stay alive. The forums for Defiance are brand new and there is little information about the game so far. It was just announced a few weeks ago that production of the pilot episode of Defiance has started. But despite the early stage everyone in there is showing a lot of excitement for both the game and the television show.
RIFT
For Rift E3 this year was all about the first expansion Storm Legion which was announced only a couple of weeks ago. And we got to see the trailer for it then. So instead we were treated to a 17 minute long in game/in E3 live feed. It featured a few scenes from inside one of the new dungeons being released, a fight with a gigantic colossi as well as a nice, though twisted indoor area. We also got a glimpse of a large city surrounded by sand which has areas that are only accessible for a short time after the colossi breaks down a massive wall. Behind the wall are said to be resources and sorts of things that make it exciting to explore. The fight against the colossi has more new features than anyone could have expected. Most notably is body area focused attacking. Instead of just aiming generally at the colossi you focus on areas like the knees or chest. As the fight goes on bits of these body parts will fall off and leave behind power ups which can be picked up by players for things like ridiculously awesome jumping skills. During the live presentation a question was asked about collectors editions of Storm Legion and it was announced then that there would be a digital collectors edition. Which I hope includes new mounts because I am so fond of them. There will be a new public test shard just for Storm Legion which there is no date on yet. There was a lot of awesomeness from Rift at E3 this year but they still managed to leave out so much! I can’t wait to hear more information about this “honkin” expansion.
All in all everything that has come from E3 this year has been amazing. Especially everything that Trion has given us. But in the case of all three games it seems like they have still left so much more to reveal. From a well established fantasy MMO expecting it’s first expansion sometime this year to a third person shooter with an associated television show that is still a year away Trion has a whole lot on its plate and is still kicking ass.
E3 2012 OnRPG/MMOHuts Day 3 Recap
E3 2012 OnRPG/MMOHuts Day 3 Recap
By Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), OnRPG Editor-in-Chief
My apologies for getting the day 3 summary out so late. We’ve been extremely busy since the show working out technical issues with our footage and driving all over LA returning our rented camera equipment. Nonetheless Day 3 was a fantastic day of coverage, and I hope you feel this was worth the wait.
Day 3 was by far the busiest day of the show for us. It was crunch time and Michael “Spunkify” Dunaway and I had plenty of publishers to meet with.
We started off at the loftSEVEN in downtown LA to be part of the first test group outside of the Gamania Game Show to try out Core Blaze. I have to say the game has come a long way since last year’s GGS and every bit of the armor and weapons has proper shading and light reflection now. We got to try our hand against a truly tough boss that almost killed each of us at some point during the long battle. Michael checked out the bow wielder, Jesse took up the giant two handed sword, and I went with the one handed sword and shield combo.
This build included a few new pieces that were promised at GGS but not quite functional. We witnessed a dynamic event in which a cursed rock appeared and began spreading a plague type status to nearby monsters, causing them to add poison damage over time to their melee attacks, as well as an increase in overall tankiness and aggressiveness. Combat in Core Blaze is more along the lines of TERA’s methodical hit and defend style rather than C9 or Dragon Nest’s heavily combo juggling based combat. However Core Blaze ups the difficulty to insane levels by forcing players to mostly rely on special item use and a variety of basic attacks (read attacks that don’t require spirit to use). A single group of mobs can and will easily surround a player and overwhelm them unless you bring a specific tactic like laying traps ahead of time and leading them into it.
The boss battle in particular nearly wiped us. We went up against a gigantic distorted ape type monster that summoned slow moving tanky zombies to spread poison around us. He was extremely aggressive and seemed to agro whoever was closest or most hurt so we never had a moment of peace during the battle. No healing class exists in Core Blaze so when someone is hurt their teammates must throw themselves in harms way while you clear distance from enemies to put your weapons away and pull a potion out that takes around 2 seconds to drink. One interesting bit to note about the controls is that Core Blaze is the first PC title I’ve played where it feels far more comfortable to play using a game controller instead of keyboard and mouse. This is due to the way skills and items are activated, in which you cycle through a scroll wheel and then click one of four items/skills to use on each wheel (shaped much like the Playstation controller buttons). While this is simple and intuitive to do with a game controller, it’s often an exercise in tedium and misclicks when using keyboard and mouse. Unless they intend to change their system of skills when using a keyboard and mouse, I’d say the game controller is currently mandatory to be competitive.
Elemental weaknesses are also a vital tactic that must be used to overcome tougher enemies. However most elemental attacks are based on spirit and you can only restore spirit by breaking from combat and drinking a potion or killing an enemy and absorbing their essence. As you can imagine boss battles go on quite a while and there is little to no essence to absorb so you’ll have to plan ahead and bring fire and lightning grenades, oil canisters and torches, bear traps, and more to cleverly overcome your opponent. Proper strategy can even result in breaking a piece of the boss off that you can use against them.
I also had a chance to see the basic alpha state of the crafting system and character development. Weapons in Core Blaze have a sharpness system based on colors ranging from white being useless to blue (probably further) being the best. As you use a weapon it will degrade across the bar towards the lower end of the spectrum, decreasing the effectiveness of the weapon over time until it finally becomes useless. Weapons can then be repaired but with the chance that your overall sharpness spectrum may be downgraded in the process. The higher quality the weapon, the more of the color spectrum you can expect to see on the weapon. I took this shaky image below to demonstrate what the weapon stats look like. I don’t have any more information confirmed but you can infer plenty from it.
The customization was what I’d describe as somewhere between basic and advanced. I say basic because I didn’t really see any toggles where you could adjust the nose angle or chin depth by marginal degrees. Most of the face features are based on presets. I however say advanced because you can customization about 14 different categories of your character with about 10+ different presets each. So thought it might not that super personal feel games like Perfect World offer, you’ll still probably feel pretty unique in the actual game world. Also you can customize your underwear and who doesn’t want that feature.
Following the Core Blaze event, Michael took off to get a second deeper look at Age of Wushu while I attended the Bethesda event. Bethesda forced a no camera and no audio recording rules on their demo so I have to go off memory but here’s what I saw.
Elder Scrolls Online has such a strong resemblance in my mind to Guild Wars 2. The mechanics and combat are definitely on par and I think it really will come down to how much players are in love with the Elder Scrolls world when deciding which game they will choose. And I know it might come as a surprise but I seriously feel some people may choose Elder Scrolls Online over GW2 because it offers a solid and fun package.
The basic concept of the title is you join into the world of Tamriel as one of three factions whose land makes up the three corners of the continent. So you’ll have your trader types ruling the day in the top left, your barbaric world-like tribes in the top right, and your high elves and other snooty empire builders in the bottom left. Each of the main races like Nords, Khajiit, Brentons, Argonians, and more will be playable and define which of the three factions you belong to. Your reason for joining forces? Why the throne in Cyrodiil of course! Guilds will take part in impressive 100 vs 100 battles where last man standing takes all to control the numerous forts surrounded the great central throne, as well as the throne itself. If you’re part of the group that still holds Dark Age of Camelot in high regard, this system will be just your style.
There is a lot going on with this game so I will be dedicating an entire article to it later today. But until then I’d just like to say that the silly rumors that this game is designed to be single player with multiplayer as a secondary option if you choose… is utter nonsense. Instanced dungeons are balanced around 4 players joining together and if you think you’re going to solo them, you better be ready to grind Final Fantasy 1 style in preparation for it.
Next up we hit up the team at InnoGames who have really been pushing the envelope in recent months. As soon as they said pirates and Unity engine in the same sentence I couldn’t get the smile off my face.
Kartuga offers a world of freedom and rpg growth with plenty of competitive action between players in real-time. Yes all this in a browser. How can you not love the Unity Engine! The basic premise is there are massive towns that act as quest hubs called demilitarized zones. Once you leave them you are open game for any randomly spawning pirate NPCs as well as other players in the area who may be going after the same treasure as you. At first you must choose from one of three ship types. Though the names may change the premise is one is a support, one is a tank, and one is an offensive type. From there you level up and can unlock new models to demonstrate your power through looks, as well as go down any of 3 skill trees to unlock new powers which you can set up on a 4 space hotkey bar.
The ships control flawlessly and the better your upgrades become, the more mobile and the sharper the turns you can take. Like real ships of the era Kartuga represents, you will need to line up the side of your boat with another ship to do damage. From powerful cannon blasts to cannon barrages to fire torches and even supernatural magic, you will see plenty of variety between ships. The best part of all is instead of locking you into one skill tree to get to the ultimate skills, you can pick and choose from any of the three trees at any time! As you level up your skills a progress bar behind the skills will slowly fill until you reach the next tier and all three skill trees become available.
In terms of organized PvP, Kartuga currently offers an instanced map in which two teams battle it out to capture towers set across various islands while sinking enemy ships that stand in your way. For a browser title, PvP is incredibly skill-based and I even managed to sink the producer’s level 29 offensive ship with my level 13 tank ship by out flanking him with a wake of water I could leave behind my ship that blocks incoming attacks, and then shooting fire through the wave until he burnt down. Kartuga’s launch isn’t far off and if you’re looking for a great title to kill a couple minutes on or play at work, not many titles currently hold a candle to it.
After my meeting with InnoGames I hit the Concourse business hall hard to scoop out what was going on behind the scenes. Frogster was first up and while they were touting Runes of Magic’s Chapter 5 with dark magical dwarves as their big story, it was their partnership with a cloud streaming service that really caught my attention. Soon players will be able to hop into game through a browser with no download required to experience Runes of Magic in its entirety. And what better time than now with Chapter 5 launching this coming week to try the new starting zone deep in the dwarven mines offering some of the most impressively designed towns and dungeons I’ve seen in the game.
Next up we met with a new starter development studio stationed out of Wuxia, China who are bringing to life the title Brahma Online. Brahma had rather a Sevencore feel to it with a fantasy world meshed flawlessly with mechanized weapons, jet packs, and giant low orbital cruisers. Although the game is just barely in a playable state, their promise of giant airborn battles to conquer player built islands using massive airships that act as cruisers to transport your guild’s infantry definitely sounds like fun. They’re also looking for publishers around the world so if you have the money and want to partner with them, don’t miss out!
After that I met up with an old associate, Miso Kwon, of CJ E&M who was very excited about the opening of their North American publishing studio. I finally got the full story of Prius Online from her who explained that they had licensed it to gPotato but now intended to republish it under their new house with an extra years worth of content never released under gPotato. It’ll likely have a new name and branding so I’ll keep you readers posted on how that story develops.
In addition they are also planning to expand their FPS titles with Sin Streets and Sudden Attack. Sin Streets seems to take place in a world where organized governments are collapsing and street gangs are replacing them as the local rulers of the land. Sudden Attack seemed more like a zombie apocalypse setting but the visuals are truly mind blowing to the point that I’d classify it as FPS horror. I really don’t have much info beyond that on either title so I’ll end the discussion on CJ E&M there.
The last stop on the Concourse Hall tour was Gamigo to see the progress of Otherlands and Grimlands. Grimlands is looking to be a powerful contender to Fallen Earth’s current monopoly on the online post-apocalyptic survival setting. Grimlands has fully functional day/night and weather systems that actually impact gameplay. Players will constantly have to monitor an orange and blue bar at the bottom of their screen representing how loud they are being and how hidden they are. Naturally hiding in dark corners or moving about at night will give you a sneak advantage which may buy you a few extra seconds to open fire on incoming foes before they take the fight to you. On the other hand if you fly through town in a custom rigged Humvee blaring your horn, you can expect every mutant and zombie in earshot to come running as your orange sound meter will be filled to the brink.
The crafting system is fantastically detailed as well, allowing you to place a set number of points into various stats when crafting a weapon to really make it feel like your own. Are you a bad shot? Increase the clip capacity on your pistol. Need something to take out lumbering mutant juggernauts? Force your points into the power stat. Need to take out a target in a heavily fortified area? Increase your accuracy to fire off a kill shot from a huge distance. The choices are totally yours and you’ll even be able to craft vehicles and other nifty items to help you in your journey to.. well I guess survive. That’s the only real goal in the game currently with quests just offering rewards to help you make whatever you feel like at the time. Controls are crisp and responsive currently and the graphics are improving rapidly. I can’t wait to get my hands on the game for a long duration to give it a full review.
Otherland on the other hand very much seems to be in an early alpha stage. The elements of something unique and different are there but it still needs a lot of work before it is going to compete on the open market. The setting though is astounding and from the little I’ve read, really matches the Otherland book series to a tee. It feels like how a Matrix MMO should have looked with data and coding swirling in the breeze in the trees and the current in the rivers. Player customization is key and you’ll never have to recreate a new character to change your look as it’s as simple as changing clothes. One day you can be a knight in shining armor and the next a crouching lizard man. You can also use the data you collect to build a personal studio complete with arcade minigames, a lounge, and who knows what else. For griefers you can learn to hack and steal data from players for your own, making for a tense atmosphere in which you can never really trust people. For those who highly value social elements in an MMO I’d suggest keep watching this title as they really are pushing the envelope on what a successful MMO can be.
Showgirls + DizzyPW= A.D.D.
In an information overload yet? Imagine how I felt as I scanned through the south hall on my way to chat with Dean “Rocket” Hall the developer of Arma II’s DayZ mod. I saw a Dragon Ball Z title that utilized the Xbox Kinect to force players to recreate the famous motions from the Anime to unleash their full power. Tekken and Dead or Alive were also faced off against each other, though Tekken completely outdid them in terms of promotion with cosplayers representing all their female characters working the booth. Though Dead or Alive’s gameplay looked fantastic. Which was better? I didn’t have time to find out.
I arrived at the Arma III booth for an impromptu meeting with Rocket about DayZ. He discussed his goals of someday making DayZ a stand alone mod, perhaps even with a F2P model if he gets his way. He also has plans to make a much larger world once the Arma III technology is at his disposal, with more weapon customization and dynamic events to shake up the norm. I don’t want to spoil too much as we have the entire interview in an upcoming video but it’s a good feeling to see a developer as passionate about his work as Hall is.
I rushed over to get some more playtime with Age of Wushu after this but was escorted out by some seriously aggressive cosplay girls who definitely knew how to use their equipment. We then closed out the day with a dinner with the International Gamania Team where my PR contact Yuwei promised to set us up with a studio tour once Core Blaze was closer to launch.
Thanks for following OnRPG/MMOHut’s E3 recap. I’ll be doing a couple more focused articles on some of the major titles of the convention so stay tuned for that, as well as our video interviews coming later next week!










































