Monthly Archives: October 2009

Perfect World Europe Review: Really Perfect?

By Jeffrey Kerkdijk (Hyarume), OnRPG Journalist

Perfect World is an oriental-themed MMORPG developed by Beijing Perfect World. But is it really ‘perfect’? Like every other MMORPG out there, the first time you want to play you will have to create a character. Perfect World offers that feature too, but better.  Because in Perfect World you can create you’re character just like you want it to be.  Adjust the eyes, the nose, the shape of the face, the shape of the lips; the customization features are almost endless.

Perfect world sets place in a so called Perfect World which makes me wonder why we would need to battle anything in it. The game is fully based on Chinese mythology; the story is about a god of the universe named “Pan Gu” who wanted to create a world. His first attempt failed and went overrun with wraiths. Not a very pretty sight. The second time he chose to create a world filled with humans, wing elves and a feral race named the Untamed. After some more occurances along the way you come in when the three races have formed an alliance against the dark wraiths from the first world created by “Pan Gu”. It seems this blundering god needs a little hand.

Every race starts near the capital-city of their chosen race.  Humans start near the City of Etherblade, Wing elves start near the City of Plume, and the untamed near the City of Lost. The game world looks beautiful, there is a lot of detail and everything looks great. The game runs great on a low end pc, if you adjust the settings that is.

The game offers you WASD control, with the options to use an extremely overpowered jump (or even double jump) and the usual point and click method. Both work great.

The story is pretty bland and makes a good excuse for most of the main quests, which are kill X amount of (insert monster here) and talk to Y. Or the usual get X amount of (insert item that monster drops) and talk to Y. The game doesn’t have any variation when it comes to quests. The quests in Perfect world are extremely generic, but give you a lot of experience, and believe me you don’t want to grind in this game.

Perfect World feels like an extremely generic game, the game focuses around grinding your way to the top, (yeah, you did read that right, I did say grinding) killing mobs for quest and killing more mobs when you have no quests. There are a lot of quests in the game, but you do run out of them especially in the higher levels of the game.

Perfect World Phoenix

There are professions in the game; you can become a jeweler, or a craftsmen. Just to make items and sell them. They aren’t fun to train, they are pretty meaningless. Also there are about seventy billion item-selling shops (set up by players) for all these useless items which clutter up the main cities and cover up the pretty splendid Chinese design of the towns.

Currently there are two servers one for PvE and one for PvP. Unfortunately PvP isn’t a lot of fun in Perfect world due the fact that the game isn’t balanced and that some skills are still not translated. I would recommend staying away from the PvP server, for now. It is just not worth it right now.

The graphics in Perfect world really please the eye, the character models are great and the world is beautiful and detailed. The music of the game is amazing, every place you go you hear some music that gives you the feeling you are really there. That and the fact that the movement is pretty smoothe and landscapes keep changing, make it a fun experience regardless of the grind.

Personal experience

I started the game and fell in love with the character customization, the first things you do in the game aren’t that different from what you do in other MMORPGs you grab a quest and get going.

So I started some quests and all it went like this: I killed ten monsters and returned to the NPC, who gave me a new quest. The next quest was for me to go to the city, I walked a few minutes and went to the requested NPC in the city, he gave me another kill quest, so I went to kill some mobs again. Then I hit level three, I could get a new skill. And a few kill quests later I hit level 7. And there I was killing mobs at different places.

If there had been more spells or more difficult combinations then it would have been a matter of me perfecting my class bit by bit. But there are just too few to make it a real challenge. It was rather boring and repetitive. I had 3 skills: one healed me, and the other two just attack. It was pressing numbers all over again. F1 for attacking F2 for skill F4 to pick up loot, that’s about it.

Perfect World Elf

The game world was the only thing that kept me going, the world is pretty impressive. And to be honest that was about it. I didn’t like the game that much due to the lack of challenges that would interest more hardcore players. For casual players who want to immerse themselves and just enjoy the experience, this world is pretty perfect.

Summary

Perfect world is a beautiful game; the world is just perfect the rest of the game is not. The game is extremely generic there is to do is kill stuff and at a higher level you might be killing stuff in a party but that’s about how far the game goes. And the final note, the game is cash shop dependant. If you want to be good at your game. You will have to buy some things out of the cash shop.

Pros:
– Visual detail
– Sound and music

Cons:
-Grind (quest grind, kill grind)
-Professions
-Cash shop

Runes of Magic: In the Cave of the Water Dragon

In the course of the multi-staged release of the second chapter of Runes of Magic, “The Elven Prophecy”, Frogster will publish an additional content update next week. In conjunction with the ‘Aotulia Volcano’ zone, the publisher is adding the ‘Cave of the Water Dragon’ into the live version of the fantasy game world. The new dungeon offers groups of up to six players at the level cap of 55 to experience a fresh setting with new challenges and treasure.

Groups of adventurers will find access to the ‘Cave of the Water Dragon’ across the ‘Throne of the Water’ in the ‘Weeping Coast’ region. During their quest, the elemental being Polython will transport them into the throne room of Zanordoth, the old king of the Water Dragons. His demented son Lytfir has awoken from a lengthy slumber. With heavy heart, King Zanordoth banished the water dragon to the darkest corner of the cave after he turned against his alliance with the humans, forged long ago.

Now, player groups have the task of sending the quick-tempered dragon back to rest. To achieve this goal, they need to collect several soul essences from around the instance. But there are some powerful elemental beings that make life difficult. The essences will let players receive a crystal ball from Zanordoth, which they can use to recapture Lytfir, sending him back to sleep.

 

Cave of the Water Dragon. This guy will kick your butt

Bounty Bay Online: Round one – fight!

Thanks to a new tournament system Bounty Bay Online players will be able to go up against one another in various combat modes starting in Q4 2009.

Whether in a nail-biting one-on-one, or a thrilling group encounter in 2vs2 or 5vs5 mode, the coming ‘Beyond the Horizon’ expansion will let plucky players measure themselves against their peers in both land and sea combat. Two new arenas will be opening their gates as venues for the tournaments. The land combat arena with its Asiatic look and the deceptively picturesque bay which forms the new sea combat arena, will invite belligerent players from all over the seafarer world to take on all comers.

There will be four NPC’s at the harbour in Athens who will accept players’ registrations for the weekly tournaments within a defined signing up period. During the registration players will also select between individual or group combat and decide on either the land or sea combat arena as their tournament showplace. Respective opponents will be drawn on a random basis. The best participants will compete over three rounds towards a final where highly desirable in-game prizes beckon.

A detailed ranking system will provide continuous information about the outcomes of the conflicts; number of knockouts, match timings, listings of the best teams or individual combatants.

Frogster will be publishing ‘Beyond the Horizon’ in line with current plans in the course of the fourth quarter 2009. Together with the new PvP arenas and tournaments, the add-on will include lots of new features such as the new continent of South America, six new cities, five new character classes, new instances, new pet-system and new pets, new ranking systems and new mini-games. In keeping with its predecessors, ‘Beyond the Horizon’ will be available free of charge.

 

Bounty Bay Online - Beyond the Horizon expands PvP

Trickster Online releases Episode 5

Ntreev USA, Inc. announced today that it will launch Episode 5 of its popular MMORPG, Trickster Online:
A New Discovery on October 7.
The new installment, Episode 5 for Trickster Online: A New Discovery will include 11 maps and 28 new quests for players to discover, along with numerous secrets which will be unveiled through the progression of the game. Ntreev also revealed that the Hallow Twins, Nyxx and Noxx, have returned for a limited time starting October 7 through November 4. The popular but obscure twins were specifically created by Ntreev USA, and will return as Voice Pets, and special Halloween items will be available leading up to the holiday.
 
Episode 5 for Trickster Online: A New Discovery will launch players into the past of Don Danihen and young Rosaline, who spent their young childhood together. Rosaline, who never opened up to anyone before, opens up to Don Danihen, sharing a secret that only the two of them know. Gamers will also learn more about the past of Don Cavalier and Don Giuvanni.  Before now, no one has ever entered Don Cavalier’s room, much less known the location of it, but his room holds the key to the secrets of the Megalo Company. As players progress through the game, they will discover the mysterious sarcophagus hidden in a secret room.  Players will be left wondering if it holds the corpse of Don Cavalier and if it does, why did Don Cavalier hide his corpse at such a secluded place? Was he trying to cover something up? Or, perhaps, he was waiting for someone to come across it? These secrets and more will be revealed as players get a step closer to becoming a trickster while uncovering the secrets of Caballa Island.
 
“Trickster fans are very interested in the intrigue and secrets behind the Megalo Company and Caballa Island so we are excited to bring them Episode 5, which reveals more secrets and fun,” said Chris Lee, CEO of Ntreev USA.  “Episode 5 will answer some pressing questions that pique gamers’ curiosity as they race to discover the secrets lurking in Caballa Island.”
 
Coinciding with the launch of Episode 5, Ntreev is bringing back the Hallow Twins, Nyxx and Noxx, through November 4. The twins return as Voice Pets, and unique Halloween items will be added into the game’s content for a limited time. Players should also be on the lookout for cool and exciting Halloween events during the month of October, and can find out more details by playing Trickster Online: A New Discovery Trickster Online: A New Discovery can be downloaded for free right here on OnRPG!
 
Episode 5 for Trickster Online: A New Discovery will be available for download October 7.

Trickster - Episode 5]

Mana World

The Mana World (TMW) is a serious effort to create an innovative free and open source MMORPG. TMW uses 2D graphics and aims to create a large and diverse interactive world. It is licensed under the GPL, making sure this game can’t ever run away from you.

The project includes the development of both a client and a server, as well as the development of an online world. At the moment we’re making alpha releases of the client, while our server is in early development.

The eAthena free software Ragnarok Online server is used until our own server has matured enough to replace it. Once ready, we’ll be making releases of our server too so anybody will be free to set up their own server and start building their own online world.

Eastern Mob: GTA it Ain’t

By Vincent Haoson (Vincenthaoson), OnRPG Journalist

You are a beaten and bruised guy in an unknown land, your wallet was stolen and the hospital where you went for help hardly notices you because you have no money to pay them. So what do you do? You get a gang and own the place of course! This is Eastern Mob’s main storyline and your character is a struggling beggar left off to fend for yourself in this tough world. Your only means of escape is to build your gang and reputation from scratch and to finally earn the respect the underworld has to give for a guy like you.

zzT!! Error!!! zzT!

Eastern Mob BossOne of the first things you would notice as you play the game is the numerous misspelled words and the grammatical errors that have littered the home page. Sadly, this does not stop there because you get to see those errors within the game interface itself. Aside from this very obvious error, the game also has one major storyline flaw. According to the game’s storyline you are a beggar in an unknown country yet you have the option to become a business man and an agent. When a game has a lot of grammatical errors and the game storyline contradicts the character creation feature of the game, then it says a lot about the game you are going to play, and it seems that Eastern Mob has a lot to say about itself as you continue playing.

Click And You Shall Be Rewarded

The game’s basic premise is that you earn your money by getting more people to join your gang. To do that you would need people to click on your unique link and for every unique click you get a corresponding amount of Euro that you can use to expand and train your “gangsters”. There is a problem with this kind of system however and that people can abuse the clicking system to their own advantage. There are a lot of available software you can use to get this thing done and it may as well be the thing you use rather than convincing actual people to click the link. This poses a problem to the game’s balance and stability because this tips the scale in favor of the cheaters if they can get past the clicking protection the game has.

The Things You Can Do

As a way to give the game a little credit you can say that you can do a lot when you start the game. There are various ways where your character can earn for a living and that would mean that the game can properly offer something aside from a lot of errors. Another good thing about the game is that the game allows you to either become a criminal or a law-abiding police agent that tries to stem the evil that organized crime is unleashing. The ability to choose which side of the law you belong to gives players the sense of freedom on how they want their corresponding character lives in the game. This builds up the idea that you have something more to do in the game and that you must be able to grasp your character’s true essence to make your stay all the more interesting.

Club in Eastern MobThe game allows for your character to get married. Though this is highly irregular because getting married does not really have any use if you think about it because having a significant other does not really bring any bonus to anything you have. It seems that the marriage system is a foreign feature that does not really have any practical use and it seems that it was just hastily put into the game system just so the game can say it has a “marriage system” in its features.

Gang Wars

Of course what would any gang-themed game be without the inclusion of fights and of gang wars, the game’s war and battle system is the only redeemable feature that the game has, given that the game has a lot of problems to begin with. The battle system is a by the numbers kind of fight where whoever has the bigger gang would win. Thankfully those players who do not have that many men still have a fighting chance and as long as the defending gang has a bigger territory they can still turn the tides over the attacking gang. The inclusion of the land being part of the winning factor for gangs is a nice piece of work. This gives players who are not as zealous as those who maintain a steady amount of clicks for their accounts a way to win. Of course the land factor can only as much but the thing is, nobody goes anywhere may it be in games or in real-life if you are lazy.

Conclusion

Eastern Mob is a game that is like any other browser-based game with a twist. It has the same concept that majority of browser-based online games have which is if you want to win you would need to have more people.

The game looks drab and you may not really have the patience to go through a game that has this many errors in spelling and grammar. If you expect the game to deliver at least a decent experience in gaming then I must say you will be disappointed. Having high hopes on Eastern Mob would leave you aching for something more worthwhile of your time.


Pros:
– The game gives you the choice to be part of the law or not
– The game gives a 12-hour immunity for new players so they can get the ropes before going into play
– The game gives you a wide scope of things you can do to earn money which results to the game not being that boring.

Cons:
– The game’s font face can be an eyesore especially it does not mix well with the color
– There are a lot of misspelled words and grammatical mistakes in the interface
– Earning “gang mates” through clicking the invite link is open to various ways for players to abuse the system.

Eastern Mob Slogan