Yearly Archives: 2007

Upshift StrikeRacer Interview with John Young

Questions by Brian Perry Jr.
Answered by John Young
, Upshift StrikeRacer

Onrpg: What is Upshift StrikeRacer?
Upshift StrikeRacer is a high-octane car combat 10-minute snack of adrenaline in the middle of your day. If the idea of bolting deadly weaponry onto sleek vehicles and blowing up your friends in a persistent world makes you salivate, then you owe it to yourself to download a free copy from the official website today and try – just one StrikeRace and you may be hooked.

Onrpg: How do players start the game?
You need a free gPotato account, and you’ll need to get the 312 Mb client from any of the major download services or from our website. You log in, create your Driver name, and start the carnage. Easy as running over a land mine.

Onrpg: Is this game all about head-to-head competition with other players?
Yes. If you could crystallize the game into one moment, it would be: you see a hulking SUV racing ahead of you. He’s got a skull and crossbones over his vehicle, showing that he has killed you before. You hit Turbo and let fly a tomahawk guided missile. You chase your own contrail and see the missile impact into his big, stinky rear. Your enemy is rocked, but still moves and skids evasively into an alley. You drift around the corner at full speed, braking deftly, and finish him off with your short-range Mauler gun. He explodes into the air and you drive under his flailing, flaming carcass. That feeling of speed, revenge, and abandon… that is Upshift StrikeRacer.

Onrpg: What are players fighting for in this game?
In the future, there is no war, no material want, and even death has been reduced to an automatic respawn on the spot. What would the average red-blooded guy do in such a Utopia? Strap ballistic ordinance on the fastest car you can find and blow up your friends, right? I mean, death is no more! People found that by focusing on the groove of high octane car combat, they can actually perceive the underlying fabric of reality. Do enough of this and you “upshift” to a higher plane of enlightenment. So you Upshift and transcend the mortal world by StrikeRacing your way to vehicular victory!


Onrpg: Can you explain the three different game modes for us?

Time Attack is the solo mode, where racers strip their weapons and focus only on the best time to complete one of the 22 maps. Every racer above Rank 4 contributes 50 Reputation (the currency you earn just for playing) to the common pool. The best time for that track at the end of the month wins the whole pool – which can be hundreds of thousands of Rep even in our open beta! Racing mode is where you race against up to seven other players who can bump you off your ideal performance, but here too there are no weapons. First player over the finish line wins. And full blown StrikeRacing is where you use your driving skills and your weaponry to blast, freeze, flame, and detonate your way to success. Both Racing mode and StrikeRacing mode can be played either as individuals (against 1-7 other drivers), or in team mode, where you group together with friends or your Club to beat an opposing team. It’s red versus blue… but watch out for friendly fire!

Onrpg: How do you balance out the skill levels so that those who have barely played can compete with those who have some or a lot of experience?
Skill ultimately determines who wins over the long-haul, but it is pretty unpredictable on the chaotic streets of Triumph City. Long-time players have more Reputation, which means they can unlock better vehicles and can afford to equip a body kit (adding steering and armor as well as a hot new look), or accessories (which can add acceleration, turbo, and speed), but most importantly, they know the tracks and how to use their vehicles. Against this, we have a variety of design techniques to make sure that a newcomer doesn’t feel “PK’ed.” The person last in the race recharges their turbo faster. One of the pickup weapons that you’ll find here and there is called Thor’s Hammer – a surface-to-surface guided mortar that seeks out the race leader and lays down some retribution. So in many ways, you’re always in the race and having a blast, but over time good players will earn more takedowns, more victories, and gain more Enlightenment. Most of the finishes are very close, however!


Onrpg: Was it difficult when designing the item mall to provide value for the players while not providing too much of an advantage?
It’s a real art to ensure that people can play for free and have a great gameplay experience while also allowing those who choose to pay to upgrade the experience get something valuable. We’re very happy with the balance now. If you buy Potato-based items (gPotatoes are Gala-Net’s currency, and in the futuristic world of Upshift StrikeRacer, a good potato is highly valued), you can do things like expand your garage, change your driver name, get team-based benefits that will help with friendly fire, and – possibly most helpfully – packages of Decoys that help trick those pesky Thor’s Hammers. Some very sleek sports cars and powerful trucks will be Potato-based items, so if you want that look you’ll be able to upgrade the free experience for a modest charge.

Onrpg: What sorts of content updates can we expect?
We will be adding new tracks, new vehicles, and new items all the time. We have plans for a secure and exciting marketplace for players to trade items. Watch for events that drive the evolving storyline of the game – there is a dread force watching Triumph City and planning their attack, and all heroes will be needed to repel these invaders. Most importantly, at commercial launch we will unveil the Clubs – a guild of up to 50 allied StrikeRacers. We will give the players customizable websites with tremendous tools – photo uploading and ranking, forums, polls, admin tools, and ways to declare war on enemy clubs, and ways to transcend the game itself into a social web of communities.

Onrpg: Are there any official plans to allow the use of game pads, or maybe even a release on a console?
We’re considering this now but have nothing to announce at present. One of the things many people note is how few keys it takes to give a satisfying gameplay experience, and this would map to a console controller easily, but the whole community aspect does really take a keyboard to live up to our players expectations. But stay tuned.

Onrpg: What is a typical day in the office like for those at Gala-Net?
There is no typical day, other than getting scared out of my wits regularly by the Upshift promo bungee rockets we had made. We recently moved to a new office in Sunnyvale – four times bigger to accommodate our fast growth. Those bungee rockets really fly far. When it hits a Venetian blind it sounds like a metallic explosion and really is not safe for those with weak hearts! Other than that, we are hard at work adding new features to our website, building and extending the Clubs, extending the storyline thru events, dreaming up new items and how to weave them into the game economy, running an event in-game, tweaking our servers for better performance, and interviewing new people rapid-fire to handle the growth! There is never a dull moment when there is so much to do.

Zu Online: Quest System & Instance System

With Zu Online (http://zu.igg.com), the designers set out to change the players approach to quests. Zu’s Quest system begins with a main story quest for every player from the first day the character is created. This main story quest carries the player through the intricate background of Zu Mountain and its problems. While players are completing their main story quest goals, they will still be able to engage in many lateral story quests which tie into the main story, but are directly related to it. What really makes this system unique is that every player is central to the story and has a direct impact on the fate of Zu Mountain as they work their way through the story. This huge quest system will deeply immerse players in a continuing storyline that like a great movie will always leave them wanting more.

The Instance System is another essential component for online games. When entering an instance zone in team mode, everyone is working together to achieve a shared goal. However, when a monster suddenly drops an epic piece of equipment the team spirit is broken with players arguing over who should rightfully possess it.

With Zu, the designers have come up with a different approach to instances and the gear that may be found there. When a party enters an instance, any gear that may be dropped by a monster is automatically transferred to whoever attacked the monster first and cannot be trade between players, so any member of the team has an equal opportunity at obtaining these items.

In addition to this unique approach there are secrets of the main story quest that can only be discovered by venturing into these instance zones, so all players will obtain something valuable to take back with them.
For more information, please check http://zu.igg.com/news/newscon.php?aid=154

New Armor DIY System Make You an Outstanding Armor

New Armor DIY System Make You an Outstanding Armor
Age of Armor Close Beta test has met more new friends, and to celebrate the succeeding CB test, we now provide a new armor DIY system–armor decorating system.

As the armor parts can be upgrade by reconfiguration system, and this system has already been successfully used by those armor DIYers, and it indeed help the players a lot, however, we found that the players are not satisfied with armors in the same color, they want to appear out of the ordinary, one’s armor should be unique, and can be easily tell apart from others. And for this purpose, we introduced the Dyestuff into the game, and players can decorate their armor with those dyestuffs, one can either paints one part with one color, or paints the whole armor with one color, and all is depend on the players’ favorites.

At present, the dyestuffs can be get from those monsters of the newly opened events—Commando Daybreak. Players can loot random dyestuffs by killing those invaders, and the reason for random dyestuffs is that we want to players to exchange their trophies. We do not want one to take all things at one time. And thus would enable people communicate in game more frequently.

[Patch] Ver. 0.42

Patch version 0.42 has been released!

Updated content below!

<Maps>
Mu Lung and Herb town! Ride Hak from Orbis to arrive in Mu Lung, or talk to the dolphin in Aqua Road to take a ride to Herb Town!

<Quests>
Many new quests have been added, including No Gongs teachings.

<Cash Shop>
Many new cash items!

Tales of Pirates Caribbean Spotlight: Mysterious Adventure Preview

*Grab free iPhone Touch, keep eyes on Triple Surprise event.
Background:
In Ascaron Calendar 2112, a group of archaeologists (http://top.igg.com.) accidentally found a shabby box wrapped tightly with algae while they were salvaging ancient wrecks in the Magical Ocean……. “Pandora’s Box” was opened. At that moment, black clouds began circling above, thunder rumbled and lightning flashed and a strong northeasterly began blowing with a vengeance. It seemed that doomsday was upon them. Until a few brave pirates took it upon themselves to capture that which was unleashed. The Mysterious Adventure, the Caribbean Chapters of TOP will bring you into a brand-new, fantastic world of pirates.

The expansion “Mysterious Adventure” has exploded onto the world with force-New Monsters, Bosses and Maps. With unlimited adventure and fortune waiting, new places, such as Treasure Bay ready, Voyagers, Adventurers and Pirates alike will think they have died and gone to heaven. Of course, there are new opponents to face as well. Robbers on the sea, Deathsouls, Skeletar Pirates and horrible Death Fleets will appear in this new expansion. It will be an all new playground of excitement fit for any pirate. In addition, you can see the Black Pearl , which appeared in the movie “Pirates of the Caribbean&#65306;The Curse of the Black Pearl”, in this expansion as well.
Content:
1. 8 new maps of the Caribbean and 20 new relevant monsters. Meanwhile, 4 more powerful Bosses are waiting for you.
2. Sightseeing Ticket of the Caribbean. You can directly go to the Caribbean Bay with it.
3. 29 new quests for the Caribbean series.
4. Players can exchange all new Level 75 sets and weapons.
5. 2 band-new sets for every character.
6. More Treasure Maps in the Caribbean.
7. 27 New NPCs in the Caribbean.
8. Upgrade the help system for new players.
When Pandora’s Box was opened, the world was shadowed by an ancient and powerful evil and a mysterious isle was covered by the Deathsouls’ power too. The leader of the archeologists found a huge emplacement with his telescope. However, the long-distance cannonball shot out the backstay of the sailboat. Archeologists on the sailboat can only pray for the appearance of the miracle. There are so many submerged rocks in that blue sea. Wrecks from the world over can be seen everywhere. In their view, groups of sharks tirelessly swim around the boats. It is hell for caitiffs but the paradise of adventurers everywhere.
For more about this game, pleas visit our official site: http://top.igg.com.

Myth War: New Item Debut and Promoting Experiences Roundtable

New Item Debut
The shopping mall in Myth War Online is preparing to release a series of new items. Below are some new items which will hit the shelves very soon:
Awesome Egg, Devil Egg, Miraculous Egg
Titan Flask, Intelligent Flask I, Intelligent Flask II
Saint Flask, Reborn Class Flask, Constellation Flask, Oceanic Stone Pack
Right now, the Awesome Egg, Titan Flask&#65292;Intelligent Flask I and Reborn Class Flask are already on sale. For more information on these new items please visit the official site at:
http://mw.igg.com/modules/news/displaynews.php?parent_id=1&url=/uploadfile/text/20070912/1189650318.htm

Promoting Experiences Roundtable
IGG has announced the official launch of Promoter System weeks ago. In order to introduce to all more aspects of Promoter System, here they are holding a special event to share ideas and experiences called “Promoting Experiences Roundtable”.
Time: Sep. 13—-Oct. 8 (EST)
Rewards Distributed: Oct. 9—-Oct. 10 (EST)
To read details on Qualification, Criterion and Rewards at the following URL:
http://mw.igg.com/modules/news/displaynews.php?parent_id=1&url=/uploadfile/text/20070913/1189677055.htm

Huxley Closed Beta Korea

            SEOUL, South Korea – Sept. 13, 2007 – Global online entertainment company WEBZEN Inc. (NASDAQ: WZEN) announced today that closed beta testing has started in Korea for Huxley™, the highly-anticipated twitch-action massively multiplayer online first-person shooting (MMOFPS) game.
            Beginning today and running for five days, Korean beta players will have access to Huxley for the first time daily from 2 p.m. until midnight. The 999 lucky beta testers were selected after a web-based sign up that took place from Aug. 28 to Sept. 6, 2007. For the first time ever, testers will get a chance to enter the city where the characters live and breathe. They will also be treated to a variety ofthrilling player-versus-player (PvP) battle modes such as team death match and radar domination, as well as the core systems, including Huxley’s unique quest mode, not seen before in standard online first-person shooter (FPS) games.
            Unlike the standard closed beta testing where gamers get limited gameplay starting at level 1, Huxley closed beta test allows the 999 testersto experience the game’s unmatched excitement by entering the game at level 19. Players can wield high-level weaponry and defense systems as well as obtain and use a variety of supplementary skills and licenses unique to an online first-person shooter.
            Additional details about the Korean closed beta test are available on the official Korean Huxley website (http://www.huxley.co.kr).

GALA-NETÂ’S UPSHIFT STRIKERACER NOW LIVE

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Sept. 13, 2007 – Lead foot and trigger happy gamers can now access all of the frenzied and explosive excitement of Gala-Net’s high-octane free-to-play online multiplayer game Upshift StrikeRacer as the service goes live today.  To sign up for and download Upshift StrikeRacer for free, head to the game’s official Web site at http://strikeracer.gpotato.com

Upshift StrikeRacer is a free-to-play multiplayer online game, where the client download is free and many of the vehicles, body kits, accessory kits, weapons, finishes and special items can be bought only with the Reputation you generate by StrikeRacing.  Players hit the road in explosive races where machine guns flare, rockets fly and a quick trigger finger is just as important as a lead foot and a steady steering wheel.

Extending the game to the Web, Upshift StrikeRacer now also offers Upshift StrikeRacer Clubs, the most robust community tools available in a free-to-play game.  Players can form Clubs, network with friends, upload and share photos, share blogs, run polls and forums and keep track of in-game rankings and points. Each individual Club can have up to 50 members, and Clubs can align with other Clubs to create a guild-like network of up to 250 players each.  In addition, Clubs and their allies can declare war on other Clubs.  More information on Upshift StrikeRacer Clubs, which can be created by any StrikeRacer who is at least Level 10, can be found at http://upshift.gpotato.com.

“Players across North America have enjoyed the content in Upshift StrikeRacer’s open beta, and we are excited to bring them the complete game as we launch the commercial service,” said John Young, vice president and producer, Gala-Net, Inc. “StrikeRacers now have unlimited free access to some of the slickest cars, most heinous weapons and trickiest maps available in an online racing and combat game.  They can also take that excitement out of the game and to the Web with the Club community services that are truly unmatched by any online game available today.”

In addition to the distinctive Club service, Gala-Net’s Upshift StrikeRacer’s live launch offers players:

  • 13 different vehicles – from hot sports cars to hulking SUVs to deft minis.  Customize and upgrade your ride with radical body kits, unique accessories, slick paint and crafty electronics packages.

 

  • Heinous bolt-on weaponry for explosive car-to-car combat, including the devastating Mauler gun, pyro-tastic Hellscorchers and Fireball cannons, hard-hitting Tomahawk and Sidewinder missiles and devious Freeze Mines — 16 ways to blast your way to victory.
  • A variety of race modes, including Time Attack for the solo racer, Racing mode for the speed demons and no-holds barred StrikeRacing for players to pit their driving skills and their arsenal against other drivers as they race and fight for individual or team victory.

 

  • More than 20 unique maps filled with short cuts, jumps, obstacles and road hazards.
  • Additional garage space, cars, weapons and special items and services available in the Upshift StrikeRacer item mall for gPotatoes, Gala-Net’s cash currency.

 

For more information on Upshift StrikeRacer, head to http://strikeracer.gpotato.com.

Zu Online Boss Introduction

IGG announce the feature of evil boss in Far-East Martial Arts MMORPG – ZU Online (zu.igg.com).

Shadow Taoist
We begin with this foul creature, as implied by the name, appears shadow-like, drifting from place to place, menacing and ruthless. When fighting against him, players will be deceived by the confusing array of shadows he produces. After taking up Sky Lake, He made use of the water in Sky Lake to realize his plot to control Holy City. The Shadow Taoist has killed numerous Players. If you want to challenge him, you have to make sure that your level is up to the requirement. Or both your body and your spirit are waiting to be ruthlessly destroyed.

Brute Marshal
He was once a loyal General. When escorting the Princess Minye who was the victim of a political marriage to his country, he was slandered by treacherous court officials and sentenced to death. Because of that, his spirit continues to linger in and around the mortal world. He just had no way to forget this virulent hatred and the Princess Minye whom he loved so much. The High Summoner of Desert City found his spirit, and then buried his spirit at Burial Hill of Miracleblade Peak. Can he forget his hatred and rest peacefully?

Flyer Lord
Being ruthless, sly, selfish and greedy, the Flyer Lord will reach his goals by fair means or foul. In his childhood, he even killed his brother and mother for food. After genocidal revenge killings loomed over his people, he escaped successfully, killed his savior to get his savior’s treasure, and then trained to become immortal. He was a genuine robber in Secondary World. Now you must have clearly realized that he is tough to fight against. With the Flyer Lord, one must always expect the unexpected and prepare for dirty tricks.

Widow Yee
Having dwelt in Death World for a long time, Widow Yee is gloomy, dissocial and changeable. Not that she seems to mind. She takes on an unusual form with a human-head and spider-body. Players may be tempted by her charming smile. But be alert to her poisonous blood. You will die if touched by it. Such a woman is terrible. Players at a low-level might as well keep away from her.

Flame Master
He is gifted but small-minded and arrogant. He killed the Chief of Wan Mountain, Lord Daluo with contemptible means, and became the new Chief of Wan Mountain. Because he will try to get rid of anyone in his way and has mastered superior fighting skills, he is one of the most formidable enemies in Secondary World.
Old Snow Demon
The Old Snow Demon is living in Mystic Ice Field. Because she has no actual body, she has to receive Yang Energy regularly to make sure her spirit will not disappear. The Old Snow Demon was a common person on the Jewelled Plain who was killed due to exposure during a cold snap. Then, she recovered her spirit by using evil forces. Therefore, she is not easy to handle. Bitter, cold, indifferent, and cruel, she is the epitome of a merger between natural energy and evil magic. When you are in the Mystic Ice Field, especially male players, you must be very careful.

Jintha Lord
Yuan-Ti, the leader of the Chess Trap, committed suicide in the third battle of Zin Palace. However the blood demon brought him to Secondary World from hell and given him the Chaotic Jintha Funnel to realize the desertification of the Swirling Path surrounding Zi palace. Yuan-Ti has made many traps inside the Golden Sand Well and can produce desert twisters. When he is furious, he will strike fatally any who challenge him.

To view pictures of these monsters please head over to the official site at
http://zu.igg.com/news/newscon.php?aid=153