Yearly Archives: 2008

Wicked Interactive Launches ACE Online Episode III, War of Pandea

Explore the new continent of Pandea in all-new ACE Online Expansion

Wicked Interactive Ltd. (www.wickedinteractiveltd.com), a North American MMO publisher, today announced that it has released Episode 3: War of Pandea for its role-playing space shooter, ACE Online. The game is being hosted now on Wicked Interactive’s game portal: www.subagames.com.
ACE Online Episode 3: War of Pandea is available through the ACE Online site at: http://ace.subagames.com, or as an automatic update for existing players.
In addition to the already extensive feature list in this popular action MMORPG, ACE Online Episode 3: War of Pandea includes the following updates and features:

  • Major overhaul of user interface
  • Over 50 new standalone and scenario missions
  • New missions specifically for high-level players
  • 11 brand new maps – Defend the newly-built bridge on
  • Gjert Road or Attack the evil Vatallus forces in
  • Sunshine Born (literally the birthplace of the sun!)
  • 4 new strategic points for each nation
  • Redesign of current world map
  • Over 50 new monsters and items
  • New social features – connect with friends and fellow brigade members easily, trade items and equipment, or battle online.

ACE Online is a 3D space shooter that combines action and MMORPG elements. Developed by MasangSoft, one of Korea’s most renowned game developers, ACE Online puts players in the role of fighter pilots and behind the controls of ships known as “Gears”. As the player battles in this intergalactic world at war, they will complete missions and engage other players in intense aerial dogfights.

ACE Online injects action and shooting elements into the traditional MMORPG formula. Players have complete control over their gear and must engage enemies directly in combat – relying on quick shooting and skillful maneuvering in order to survive. As players progress through the game, they acquire credits which can be used in the game’s item shop to purchase hundreds of customizable weapons and add-ons for their “gear”. Players can then fly their “gear” into immense online space battles as part of ACE Online’s “Nation Wars” PvP system. These RPG elements add a layer of personal customization and multiplayer strategy to ACE Online’s already action-packed gameplay. Through the blend of these two gameplay genres, ACE Online offers a fully unique and unrivaled MMO experience.

NCsoft and TransGaming Announce City of Heroes for the Mac

Battle of Good vs. Evil Now Available on Two Platforms

NCsoft®, the world’s premier publisher and developer of massively multiplayer online games (MMOs), today announced a partnership with TransGaming, Inc. (TSX-V: TNG) to bring their award-winning City of Heroes® franchise to the Apple® Macintosh®. The game has been enabled for the Mac by TransGaming, a leading developer of portability technologies for the electronic entertainment industry. City of Heroes for Mac will be available for public beta testing with the release of the game’s thirteenth expansion, Issue 13: Power and Responsibility later this fall. The official launch will occur pre-holiday this year with a special digital-only Mac edition of City of Heroes, available across all NCsoft West consumer territories.

“Players will soon be able to join the battle of good versus evil in the most popular comic book MMO on both the PC and Mac platforms…and in the same game world,” commented Brian Clayton, executive producer of City of Heroes for NCsoft West. “Given Mac’s fame as a platform for creative people and City of Heroes’ unprecedented character customization options, I think City of Heroes is a perfect fit for the Mac gaming community.”

In City of Heroes, the most popular comic book inspired MMO on the market, players craft their hero or villain identities and join millions of other player created characters in a constantly expanding universe. Unparalleled character customization is a hallmark of the City of Heroes franchise. Players can choose from hundreds of different powers and thousands of costume options, resulting in near limitless personalization. Players may go it alone or band together with others in super groups.

City of Heroes for Mac was made possible using TransGaming’s CiderTM Portability Engine, which acts as a “wrapper” around the game software, enabling it to run seamlessly on Intel-based Macs. The partnership with NCsoft to develop and publish City of Heroes for Mac offers the Mac gaming community its first opportunity to do battle in the streets of Paragon City™ and the Rogue Isles™ in a persistent universe with no differentiation between the PC and Mac. “NCsoft’s City of Heroes MMO is an incredible franchise and TransGaming is thrilled to provide Mac gamers the ability to demonstrate their creativity by building their own heroes and villains and immersing themselves in the battle between good and evil,” commented Vikas Gupta, CEO & president of TransGaming. “Through Cider, the Mac version will parallel the developments of the PC version, providing all game updates, new features, and storylines simultaneously on both platforms.”

The City of Heroes Mac Special Edition digital product will be sold at the PlayNC store and at GameTree Online. City of Heroes is rated “T” for Teen.

Wonderland Online Version 3.0

Cute video showing in advance the new look of Wonderland Online version 3.0: with ear-catching music, beautiful CG graphics, cute characters and mysterious human pets. WL 3.0 is certain to cater better to players with its new rebirth system, strong mercenaries, cool armor sets, splendid skills and more.

Hovorun Review

By Rick Charbs, Onrpg Writer

Hovorun was launched in open beta by GamersOxygen, on the 18th of September 2008. Basically, it is a 3D racing MMO, in which players race with hovercrafts rather than cars or planes. There are many hovercrafts to chose from when racing, allowing you to be more deadly and unique on the racetrack. You may also pick from various game modes such as item-based battles, the alphabet mode, in which you must guess a given word, or manual transmission races. Items include mines, “monkey-ball bombs”, shields, and rockets. You may also pick from various characters; buyable in the in-game shop with money you earn from winning races. Your “hovo” and character can be decorated to your liking and personality, with clothes, accessories, and more!

Hovorun can be played in races of up to 8 people at a time. You can race against or with these people, with a maximum of 4vs4. This is where the MMO elements of this game take action, though I did not find them very needed or apparent in this title. These elements include levels, guilds, and money. One gains experience and some in-game cash every time they place themselves in a race. The higher your experience level, the more items you will be able to unlock and purchase.

Other activities include tournaments, events, and just chatting with your friends or guild. My experience in the game was rather short-lived. I can’t find much that I enjoyed about this one, but I have a few positive thoughts on this title!

Gameplay
Well, first of all, this game is your average racer. Players can race in games of up to 8 and compete to reach first place, racing in hovercrafts. This unique turnaround doesn’t add much to the gameplay value, only funnier looking vehicles. There are various racing modes, but the one people play the most is undoubtedly the default three-lap-race. However, races can last up to 9 laps. You then race with basic controls, such as jumping, turning, and item-using. Obviously, the game is room-based, although in Hovorun, you’ll have many servers to choose from depending where you are from (in Europe). This allows you to be with a crowd of players that can speak your language! I picked the English speaking server, so all went well.

You can customize your own avatar with a few items, as well as customize your hovercraft, and then get ready to join a game or create one yourself. Once you’ve joined a game, all you have to do is wait for it to fill up and then get ready. Abruptly, the race will start and if your computer isn’t all that powerful, chances are that people will have passed you before you get to start. I personally played with a decently powerful machine, and had still experienced difficulties with the settings. Besides, so far you can only truly adjust sound options. That was a big letdown for me, because all of the races I played were extremely laggy. I couldn’t play the game effectively most of the time, and I experienced many, many bugs. Every five minutes or so, my character would just fall into the abyss- it was really odd. Of course the game is in a beta phase, but I would consider that a serious issue for a racing game!

The last thing I’d like to cover with basic gameplay is the camera view. I cannot express how much I hated it. I couldn’t find out how to tilt it in any way, so I assume the default camera angle is all one can have. The camera is almost in first person, but not quite there. In fact, you are zoomed in right up close to your character, making it block most of your screen, which made racing really confusing.

Graphics and Sound
I can’t really complain about the graphics in the game. They are really cute-styled, so that may not appeal to everyone, but I enjoyed them. The characters, environments, and hovercrafts were all very smooth, aside from the buggy racetracks. I particularly liked the menus of this game- some really nice graphic design going for them. The sound however, was obnoxious and unnecessary. I turned off my sound as soon as I could. The background music isn’t so horrible though; it’s only everything else. This is adjustable in-game, if you ever decide to mute one or the other. I highly recommend it.

Personal Recommendation
I’ll admit this title wasn’t so enjoyable. I didn’t have much fun racing with my… cute hovercraft. I cannot really judge it entirely though, since it is still in the process of fixing. All in all, it has potential, being a racing genre MMO. Hovorun has a good community going and a great website as well. Sadly, this game is absolutely loaded with flaws in terms of bugs and overall gameplay, but it surely has a lot of room to grow. The alphabet racing mode was actually fun and was something I had never seen in the racing MMO genre. The hovercrafts were really funky and interesting to drive, and the characters were limited, but humorous. However, I personally could not stand the sounds, the controls, or the camera angle. I really do hope some improvements in those fields are done by GamersOxygen in the near future, for the good of this game. They are highly required in order to incite a larger community. So far, the community is mostly inhabited by people from The Netherlands. If you are from there yourself, you will highly enjoy the community-no doubt, but there is also a good group of English players, with games open all the time, if you are interested. I figure I won’t be playing this one anytime soon; my expectations must have been way too high this time. You can probably find a better racing MMO out there than this one, folks, at least for now.

Pros
-Fun community
-Some fun gameplay modes
-Interesting graphics

Cons
-Very buggy
-Horrible camera angle
-Repulsive sound

Halloween-Event in Runes of Magic

Server-stress-test and ingame-event for fantasy-MMOG

Today Frogster will start the first big server stress test for Runes of Magic. For this event, the Berlin based publisher has invited around 30,000 interested players to the already running closed beta. After a server maintenance during the course of the afternoon, all players are called upon from 8pm to 3am to bring the server under as heavy load as possible. The second big stress test will follow next Saturday and is divided into several phases.

Simultaneously, the beta testers will get a first glimpse of the event system in Runes of Magic. Just in time for the Halloween weekend, they will be greeted by grim pumpkin heads, singing ghosts, monster parades and specially designed landscapes. Interested players can take part in special Halloween quests, fight together against the big pumpkin or turn into monsters themselves by drinking certain potions. Those so called “seasonal events” are not only a feast for the eyes, but a lot of Non Playing Characters (NPCs) are explaining, why the special activity is actually taking place. The next big event is already being planned for Christmas.

Runescape Hallowe’en Event

Maggie, a travelling witch, has come to southern Asgarnia for the holiday festivities, but she’s in a bit of a spot. She needs an enchanted broom to finish her potion but her ox has a cold and can’t be left alone. In Swept Away, you’ll need to visit several nearby witches on Maggie’s behalf – and solve a few puzzles along the way.

While you’re in the neighbourhood, why not try out the Holiday Event: a bit of trick-or-treating in Draynor, Rimmington and Port Sarim. The towns are decked out in holiday décor and the villagers have treats to distribute to those wearing a suitable costume. If you’re interested in some holiday garb, have a chat with Maggie: she’s on the look-out for someone who can do a bit of trick-or-treating on her behalf.

Swept Away can be started by talking to Maggie, who is located south of Falador and east of the Crafting Guild. The quest will be available to all players for two weeks; after this time, it will only be available to members. The Hallowe’en decorations and trick-or-treating will only be available during the same holiday period. Any treats remaining in your bank or inventory after this time will disappear after Hallowe’en.

Chronicles of Spellborn: Glorious High Houses and gorgeous 3D Shops

Final 3D buildings implemented into The Chronicles of Spellborn

Developer Spellborn NV has integrated the final design of important 3D buildings into the start region of The Chronicles of Spellborn with the last big content patch before the release of the game at the end of November. Additionally to High House Silver introduced last week, High House Rune, High House Shroud and High House Maul are now sitting enthroned in their final location in Hawksmouth and Aldenvault. Designed as fully three-dimensional objects, they will assume important functions for the five major factions in the fantasy online-roleplaying game. Although all five High Houses belong to the Enclave of Five Sacrifices they differ in their history, their main orientation and political conviction. Players can join one of them after reaching fame level 10 and will then experience The Chronicles of Spellborn from a slightly diverging perspective integrated in individual quest lines.

Besides the High Houses, also the 3D shops in Hawsmouth are now implemented in their final design and function. Spreaded over the start town, users can buy items and potions in the tavern, the rune shop, the soul shop and the spirit shop. Given the necessary fame level and ingame money, players can acquire new items for their gear or body slots by simply dragging them from a shop window to their inventory. In the forge, players are able to have a capable blacksmith craft recipes, which they have gained from completed quests or looted in fights with mobs before. The crafting recipes require resources that players find in the dangerous mines and outdoor zones of the shard realms.

To illustrate the new 3D buildings, publisher Frogster has now released a series of impressive screenshots from the current closed beta. The High Houses are explained on the brand new website in more detail. MMO fans can still register there to have an early look into the game. The Chronicles of Spellborn will be released on November 27th in Europe and North America.

Lineage II

A European portal of Lineage II now exists, published by Innova Co S.a. r.l.:

http://lineage2.eu/en/landing11/?pid=166

 

The world of Lineage II is a war-torn land spanning two continents, where trust and betrayal clash as three kingdoms vie for power. The young king Raoul has successfully quenched a civil war and established the newest kingdom, Aden. Elmore, the military superpower located in the northern part of the continent, boasts that it is a direct descendant of ancient Elmoreden kingdom. Gracia, located across the ocean on the west, is currently embroiled in a chaotic battle among blood relatives trying to take over the throne. These kingdoms share a delicate balance of power; however, within each kingdom they are vulnerable to internal strife, as each manor has strong desire for self-rule.

You have been thrown into this chaos. However, unlike the ordinary people who pray each day for safety, you have the power to protect yourself. In Lineage II, developing a character is not an end in itself. Rather, it is your instrument to obtain the power to enforce your will in this world. Seize your destiny! Your own hand will write the history of this world.

Combat System In Lineage II, what you see on the screen is in real time. Therefore, it is critical to make an appropriate decision quickly for every situation you get in. Lineage II pursues both strategic features and action-oriented features by offering client-server synchronization and production of a client’s battle at the same time.

You will battle monsters with superior AI, use skills that need to be selected according to each particular situation, overcome situations through teamwork with other clan members, and experience action that is always thrilling, even when you kill a single monster.

 

Heavy PvP Focus: Experience a  well-developed and balanced player vs. player system – choose one of 35 unique characters and join the epic fight. Experience massive battles – gather your friends under the banner of your own guild or join the forceful alliances to reshape the existing world. Discover the history of Lineage 2 through a chain of exciting quests, fight for your glory in raids and obtain armor famed in legends.

Beyond Protocol: Back Story 1

So, you’re the one I hear is fool enough to take the seat? Well, as long as you don’t get us all killed, I guess we’ll be better off than we are today. Look, I’m not saying you can’t do it, but I am saying this isn’t gonna be an easy role to fill. There’ll be so many choices and tough decisions, but remember, if you give up, we’re all doomed. We’re all countin on you now. But there’s one more thing before the ceremony… The elders have requested that you read a collection of journals from our clan’s archives. I know, I know, you learned all about things like Earth, the Galactic Wars, and the founding of the Galactic Senate in, what they pass off as an academy these days, but the elders believe these specific journals give the story a “human touch” and they think a leader needs a personal “connection” with the past. I think they’re all old whack jobs, but they might just have a point. Anyways, here’s the first one, I’ll go dig out the next one while you read that.

The last pages from the journal of Douglas Schaeffer:

April 22nd, 2147
Well it was a pretty dull day. Most of what I did today was to fix some bugs in the decryption algorithm we’re using to communicate with Solaris base. Even though it’s been 4 years in planning, I still can’t believe we managed to put a manned observation satellite in orbit around the sun!

April 23rd, 2147
Yesterday was dull but today was amazing! The Solaris crew was able to pull an enormous amount of data from a series of flares. If the world only knew how close we are to controlled fusion, maybe they’d stop all this infighting. Humanity could be so much more, united and exploring space… There was one odd moment today. When the flare activity died down and Solaris sent us the telemetry, we played it back from the beginning just to sit and watch, and I swear, just moments before the flares start, there’s something tiny impacting the site of the flares. The guys all told me I was crazy and that it’s just interference but I know what I saw. Matt, the guy from spectroscopy, told me they’d run a more detailed analysis once they got done with the “important stuff”. Matt’s a good guy, but when it comes to his job, he’s a pretty stuck up…

April 27th, 2147
I’ve been so busy, I haven’t had time for this, but I decided I had to make time to record it. The sun has begun a chain reaction which will cause it to go supernova. We lost Solaris station yesterday, but it’s hard to morn the loss of 20 scientists when 23 billion are probably going to die on Earth, and another billion on Mars base. We’re evacuating as fast as we can, like it’s going to help…>br />

They estimate we only have about a year before the planet becomes unlivable and maybe 5 before the supernova occurs. Even with our fastest shuttles at max capacity we might only be able to get 5% of the population to Pluto base. I talked briefly with one of the scientists doing these calculations, a German who’s been here maybe 4 years, first name Henrich. He’s a short, funny guy who still manages to keep a sense of humor. He says they think anything on the dark side of Pluto will survive, but that what’s left of the already tiny planet will loose its orbit. So those who can get there have a chance, but anything caught in space will almost certainly be obliterated. The other option is Neptune, but there’s no developed base there, and the winds have proved to make colonization troublesome. It would most likely be a haven at best, but some of the bigger, slower shuttles can make it there inside the given envelope.

After all this, there’s no way I can say “I told you so”, but when they reviewed the tape again, and took the new readings, Matt said there was definitely something that hit the site of the flares just prior. It was only there for a single frame before impact, and there was nothing on radar, so either it was traveling almost at the speed of light, or it was cloaked somehow. The only thing that could have caused this type of a reaction is an extremely heavy element. Who would do this, more importantly, who could do this? The nations of Earth may still be at each other’s throats, but no one seems prepared for this, at all, and I doubt they would sacrifice the earth to end this war… Mars is pretty peaceful and populated mostly with pacifists, so I couldn’t believe they would have anything to do with this, they might be closer to Pluto base, but they’re loosing just as much as we are. I’ve also been told that it would take several times our total stockpile of the heaviest man-made element. At the risk of sounding crazy, the thought has crossed my mind… We’ve always thought we were alone in the galaxy, maybe we were wrong…

December 26th, 2153
I haven’t had the heart to touch this book for nearly six years. Every time I look at it, all I feel is sadness for what’s been lost… I’ve decided to make one last entry for posterity. We didn’t make it to Pluto. One of our main thrusters overloaded and had to be jettisoned, so we took refuge on Neptune. It’s cold, windy, and barren, but for a while, it’ll have to be our home. Most of the 700 million survivors that made it here are mostly still getting over the loss of Earth, but those who have moved on are already talking about exploration of other systems. One thing’s for sure, we don’t have the resources we need yet, hopefully our new home can provide us with what we need.

Today we watched in horror as our scopes recorded the Earth burning away, I thought this as good a time as any to finish this journal. The shock wave will hit Neptune and then Pluto soon but what’s left of the old research crew, Matt, Ben, Henrich and myself, have concluded that the intensity will be diminished enough so that both planets will at least survive.

They tell me that yesterday would have been Christmas on Earth, but living through this tragedy for the past few years in space and now on this enormous planet, I just don’t know any more. For that reason, there’s talk of doing away with the old calendar, it’s nostalgic for those of us who survived, but the new generation isn’t going to understand it.

If we live through this, I’m going to need to put the past behind me and be strong for those now in my care. So, this is the final entry of Douglas Schaeffer. If you are reading this, then at least someone survived, good luck to you.