Monthly Archives: March 2009

Neosteam Europe enters closed beta

Leading European MMOG Publisher gamigo AG announces the closed beta start of the Free-To-Play Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game NeoSteam. From today, the first players will populate the server and take a glimpse at the all new English translation of the revamped European version. Everyone who registers at the official website www.neosteam.net has the chance to get one of the exclusive testing slots.


Join the Steam Wars Now!

In NeoSteam players take part in the epic battle between the Kingdom of Elerd and the
Republic of Rogwell. While the citizens of Elerd rely on magical spells, the republic uses
their technological advantage in battle. No matter which side of the conflict a hero stands
for, his most important resource will be the eponymous NeoSteam. This commodity
serves different applications such upgrading equipment, fueling transportation vehicles
and crafting mighty battle machines.

The user-created robots, tanks and other vehicles set NeoSteam apart from every other
free-to -play MMORPG. Players have complete freedom creating powerful machines and
taking them to battle in exciting PvP skirmishes. Of course NeoSteam offers all benefits
of other MMORPGs, such as multiple races and classes with unique skills, a huge world
full of exciting quests, monsters to fight and a extensive guild system.


Closed Beta Now Open!


“We are looking forward to reactions of the first EU NeoSteam players, beginners and
former testers from the US server alike”,
says Kerstin Bock, Product Manager of
NeoSteam. “We hope they will enjoy our completely revamped version and help us to put
the final touch on the all new translations.”

Perfect World International opens new servers

Perfect World Entertainment Inc today announced the launch of two new servers in order to accommodate their exponentially growing game population.

“Perfect World International,” an MMORPG rooted in Chinese Mythology and lore, has experienced such a large amount of growth that its game servers are brimming at capacity. In response to this demand, Perfect World Entertainment plans to open two new East Coast based servers in order to accommodate more players while also increasing connection speed for players not located on the West Coast.


“We are ecstatic to see such an immense response to Perfect World International,”
said Dr. Alan Chen, CEO of Perfect World Entertainment Inc. “Our expansion to the East Coast is just one step of many in our efforts to provide the highest level of customer satisfaction.”

“Perfect World International” is the English-based, international version of Perfect World II. With more than 50 million players worldwide, the game has been heralded as one of the most successful 3D MMORPGs in over 14 countries. “Perfect World International” offers an immersive online world with three unique races and six different classes; all the while maintaining its free-to-play business model. In addition, it boasts one of the most in-depth character creation interfaces known to date, numerous quests full of lore and depth, and an extensive selection of customizable fashion items.

The Warlords, a new MMO coming

In a time where bandits roamed freely ransacking and pillaging the countryside, where unrest and bloodshed was widespread, where peasants feared for their lives; a band of three stood in a pact sealed with blood to bring forth their own form of justice.
The Warlords is an innovative MMORPG that portrays an ancient Chinese theme and style. In this period of anarchy, players must seek to strengthen their own brotherhood or sisterhood to bring new life to the battlefields of Ancient China. In a world of distrust, your only allies are your sworn siblings, who would defend you with their lives.

To be released in April 2009.

Special Game Features:
Entourage System
Brotherhood & Sisterhood
Nobility System
Voyage Campaigns


System Requirements:

Operating System: Windows 98(SE), Windows2000, WindowsXP
CPU: PIII 800MHz or above
RAM: 128MB
Display Card: for 3D graphics 16MB or above
Sound Card: supports DirectSound or other 100% compatible sound card
Hard disk space: 2GB of available hard disk space or above
Internet connection with 56 Kbps or faster connection speed

Voyage Century: Treasure Hunter

One of the highlights of the “New Era of Conquest” is the 5 new professions available. Before this “New Era” begins, the VCO team has been giving previews of these new professions. Last time, Voyage Century introduced the elegant and well mannered Royal Military Officer’s cunning sea combat tactics, the Imperial Guardian’s unparalleled bravery on land, and the Armed Businessman’s great assistant abilities. Today, Voyage Century is going to introduce you to the Treasure Hunter, whose nickname is the Deadliest Shot.

They have the passion to explore every corner of the world to find treasure. However they also excel at long distance cannon attacks, mines, and ramming tactics. On the ground, they are sharpshooters with deadly aim and smart enough to deal with all kinds of situations.

During Sea Battles, Trajectory Research and Tossed Shot research can increase their shooting range by 50 meters. Cannon Attack Technique and Chain Canister Ball knowledge will have their enemies praying for mercy. While Rapid Mines, Enhanced Water Mines, Shock Wave, and Delayed Explosion are all strengths.

On land, she is a master with small arms. Longer shot distance and faster movement are the reasons why she is known as the Deadliest Shot.

Treasure Hunter is a profession that can cause a lot of damage to enemies. Look out for them in Voyage Century: New Era of Conquest!

Aion: Poeta zone tour

This new zone tour video for the MMORPG Aion: The Tower of Eternity takes us through an area called Poeta, a lush island in Elysea which is home to farmers and villagers who attempt to live in peace beside the beautiful Cliona Lake. Watch the video now!

Dungeon Party

Dungeon Party is a free online game that is played in teams. You are plunged into a totally crazy, heroic-fantasy world, where you compete in teams of heroes in dungeons full of deadly traps and awesome monsters to win the treasures they are trying so hard to hide.

In Dungeon Party, you create your character and customize him using a vast range of different outfits and items. From the enthusiastic wizard to the wise-guy thief, via the executioner who ain’t exactly a sweet old grandma, anything goes! Each player equips his character with various objects and weapons before sending him into battle against the different teams.

You will have to develop your character during the matches and select his spells and special abilities very carefully to maximize his efficiency in the team.

Legends of Qin

Legends of Qin is a new free to play 3D massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that is for the first time brought to western audiences. The game is set in a vast world that blends real Chinese history with chinese mythology. Follow the eternal conflict of “Good versus Evil” and witness the rise of one of the most powerful empires!

Legends of Qin provides a uniqe quest-driven experience and an atmospheric world such as you have never seen in any other fantasy-game. Solve thousands of story-based quests, learn new skills, find numerous friends and challenge other players in epic fights – this is a 3D MMORPG more complex and challenging than typical free to play games.

Features:
– Free to play massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG)
– Detailed 3D-Graphics
– Individual character development based on 4 classes
– Huge and fascinating game world that blends Chinese history and mythology
– Many different dungeons and instances
– PVE and PVP gameplay
– Complex guild-system
– More than 2,000 varying quests for groups and single characters based on the main storyline
– Great variety of mounts and pets
– Detailed crafting-system

Does WoW Really Deserve To Be Compared To Cocaine?

Does WoW Really Deserve To Be Compared To Cocaine?
Rick Charbs (Jammart), OnRPG Journalist

 

The computer game market has skyrocketed in popularity during the past few years. Quite specifically, the Blizzard Entertainment MMORPG: World of Warcraft, or more commonly known as WoW, has introduced millions to the MMORPG concept of computer gaming. Recent studies in Sweden promptly conclude WoW as the most addictive computer game on the market, and make remarks such as: “There is not a single case of game addiction that we have worked with in which World of Warcraft has not played a part,” (Sven Rollenhagen at the foundation to the newspaper Metro), and “The problem with computer game addiction is large in Sweden although there is currently no medical diagnosis of the condition” (Swedish National Institute of Public Health). Is World of Warcraft really an internet drug?

 

This may likely be true, but the concrete proof as of which we have been exposed to does not seem genuine enough— to me, the real issue lies in every individual player’s will and, ultimately, their ability to resist temptation towards this fabled MMORPG.

 

Online game addiction has been an ever-growing issue ever since the first large-scaled MMORPGS were released to the public dated to just about twelve years ago (for instance, Everquest, Ultima Online, Tibia, etc.). Looking over this scaling problem of game addiction, is WoW the true cause of this, or is it simply its mass population that augments the amount of MMORPG addicts?

 

Personally, I think the ratio of addicted gamers has been affected, but only a slight amount. This is due to the fact many additional features WoW has to offer are a real time-consumer on the player’s part. Otherwise, the sheer amount of players in WoW is the main factor in this addiction craze.

 

It is also known that this game reaches out to wide audiences, including some pretty young players new to the MMORPG scene: “The Local reported in November 2008 that a boy in Laholm, southern Sweden had been admitted to hospital after collapsing following a 20-hour World of Warcraft binge.” With this in mind, can we really blame a child for being addicted to a game? Where are his/her parents? Parents or guardians also take on an important role in this situation. Young teenagers, tweens, and children generally have a difficult time prioritizing. As an adult, controlling their gameplay time is the only sure way to limit their obsession towards the game, or at least keep it under strict control.

 

All in all, it all comes down to the way you deal with your free time, as well as your ability to prioritize. I strongly believe World of Warcraft is not the source of this sudden “game addiction era”. It is most definitely not “internet cocaine”. There have been many cases of game addiction before even the concept of this title was released. The only reason people are led to believe such things are because of the bold fact World of Warcraft is just so popular. There are many ways to prevent such an addiction—control yourselves!

 

Visit the article here.

Guild Wars Review: Factions

By Jeffrey Kerkdijk (Hyarume), Onrpg writer

Guild Wars Factions is an MMORPG developed by ArenaNet and published by NCsoft. It is the second game in the Guild Wars series. Factions introduces the Asian-styled continent of “Cantha” where two warring factions, the Luxons and the Kurzicks, are locked in a fierce war. Players are able to join in this conflict, assisting their chosen faction in claiming towns in the game world.

A new land, a new story

For those who are not familiar with Guild Wars:

Guild Wars is a different kind of MMORPG, most of the game is instanced which means that you get your own copy of the map and only you and your party members can play in. Only towns and outposts are non-instanced, online like the normal MMORPG.

That said, Guild Wars offers gameplay more like a normal RPG instead of grinding to level up to the max level you follow a storyline. The storyline has several Co-op missions that you have to face in order to progress.

PvP is on several maps and on several modes capture the flag for one example.

Cantha, a Asian styled land with its own story

During character creation you have two options to choose a ”Role-playing character” or “PvP character”. The first one lets you access the storyline and all of the PvE content within the game. The second option lets you create a PvP character one that is Instant the max level which in Guild Wars is twenty and with a few skills. There are eight classes in Guild wars Factions in total. First, there are six from the original Guild Wars and in the Factions campaign, two classes were added:

First there is the Warrior. Instead of the normal warrior, serving a role as a tank. Warriors in Guild Wars focus on dealing damage. The Ranger is a long-range combat specialist, they can have pets too. Next, Monk is a spell casting profession, which focuses on healing, and defensive spells. Elementalist allows you to cast spells, and focuses on the elements for their attacks. A Necromancer casts spells which are specialized in bringing the dead back to life. Finally, the Mesmer has the power to bring illusion and trickery to their enemies.

And the two new classes included in factions are the Assassin, a fast dagger wielding assassination specialist, good in stealth assassinations and able to do various combo’s; and the Ritualist, a living conduit to the spirit world, who can summon spirits to protect allies or attack enemies. They can summon ghost weapons for their allies to wield and connect with the power of their ancestors by doing rituals with ashes and urns.

Roleplaying in Cantha

About the PvE content of the game.

When you start with your role-playing character you start off with a short tutorial just to learn how to play the game, after that you can access the first town, there you can start quests and learn more about the story. You get to find out that the plague is spreading over Cantha and you learn about the history of that land and so you will get yourself in a rather interesting story. That will progress more during the co-op missions.

Quests are different from most MMORPG’s because outside the towns where everything is instanced, an NPC will often accompany you, or guide you through the quest. I haven’t noticed any real “grinding” quests. Sometimes you are supposed to collect a certain item, but you get them in just a few kills.

Co-op missions, in these missions you have to complete several tasks and objectives that are part of the storyline. These are repeatable at any time.

In town you can equip your skills eight being the maximum that you can equip, and get a party or some henchman(NPCs that you can party with). You can also learn skills, buy equipment, craft equipment in town like most MMORPGs.

Combat is done nicely, it is fun to play. I really like the combat in Guild Wars. Move with WASD or with the mouse the choice is up to you. Further most of the mechanics are like your normal MMORPG.

Player versus Player

PVP in Guild Wars is fun, but it feels more like you’re playing a room based game than a real MMORPG. Several maps and several modes are available. It works out great, its balanced and its fun.

The Looks and Sound of Guild Wars Factions

The graphics are good, overall the game runs great. Skills have nice animations and everything looks all right. Only thing that I don’t like is that cut scene’s look a lot worse than the game itself The music is good and really fits the style of Cantha. Cut scene’s have very poor voice acting, other than that the sound is fine.

Conclusion

Guild Wars factions is a nice addition to the Guild Wars family, the game plays pretty good and is more story driven than most MMORPGs out there. The game is almost fully instanced, Co-op missions are fun to do and quests are different from most other MMORPGs. The PvP is good but feels more like you are playing a room based game rather than an MMORPG. Several maps and several modes are available. I liked it at first but after a while playing it, I found it to be just a bit boring.

Pros

– Feels like a normal RPG

– Has nice variations of quests

– Co-op missions

– Runs smooth

– Nice variation of classes

Cons

– Feels like a normal RPG (too instanced)

– Cut scene’s look a lot worse than the rest of the game

– Poor voice acting