Yearly Archives: 2009

Hellgate: London, Future Updates are All About Stronger Community

HanbitSoft, Inc. announced today that Hellgate: London, an online action RPG developed by Redbana US Studio, will focus its future updates on strengthening community features. During Hellgate: London’s meeting with fan gamers on the 16th, producers and marketing managers revealed plans regarding the direction of future development and new features to be updated.

Maintaining the Speedy, Thrilling Action Game Elements and Strengthening the Community System
Hellgate: London’s future development direction will be focused on strengthening community features while maintaining the speedy and thrilling action game elements, as many users have wanted better community functionality for quite some time. HanbitSoft revealed the new content that is to be included in the next large-scale patch, which is expected to be released soon. In the upcoming update, HanbitSoft plans to combine the two game play modes, unifying the split two communities into one. Also planned are class balance improvements and differentiation of each of the 5 acts. Gamers who attended the conference applauded this announcement.

Hellgate: London Switches Over to a Free-to-Play Model
During the conference, HanbitSoft also announced that Hellgate: London will soon be serviced in a free-to-play model. This was the first time that any related official announcements had been made. HanbitSoft explained that by switching over to a free-to-play model, users will feel less burdened, opening the doors to a larger, more diverse gaming community. The date of the free-to-play switch over is undetermined at this point, but HanbitSoft stated that more news will be released through the official Hellgate: London website soon.

It remains unclear if the game will be available for EU and US players as well.

The Secret World pushed back by Funcom

According to a post in a blog by one of Funcom’s designers, Funcom’s upcoming MMO The Secret World is being pushed back. It seems the game is undergoing some major changes which may result in a delay in the release.

Changes include a gameplay redesign in order to make the game “to stand out and be remembered. To not be just another MMORPG, a WoW clone, of which there are already too many.

The game will feature an original setting created by Funcom, with contemporary elements as well as “magic, myths, conspiracies and dark horrors”. The game uses the same engine as Age of Conan and “takes place on Earth in the present day”.

Knight Online Forever Saga Begins

In Knight Online Forever the world of Carnac embarks upon a new chapter of chaos and turmoil as players struggle against the wills of manipulative gods. A plague of small dragons has descended upon the land. Though not as terrifying as their massive cousins, they nonetheless pose yet another threat in a land already rife with danger… and some believe them to be heralds of even darker evil to come. Where have these unwanted visitors come from? Why are they here? And most importantly, what do they plan on doing during their stay?

Knight Online Forever is a brand new eight-chapter saga of storyline events starting January 27th that charges players with solving the mystery and restoring order to the world. Chapter One kicks off with reports that small dragons have appeared to wreak havoc on the countryside. As players arrive to defeat them, however, it becomes clear that not everyone wants them to quell the menace. Prospective dragon hunters may visit the web site for clues behind the sudden appearances and find useful information on how to put a stop to them.

Chapter 1 Event begins January 27 and ends February 1, 2009

Wonderland Online: New Version 4.0-The Cursed Palace

The Wonderland Online Team recently announced that they have been working hard to prepare the launch of the new Version 4.0. The new version-The Cursed Palace, is crammed with tons of amazing new content. What does the new version bring? Find out soon! But for right now, they’re giving a peek at what’s available…

Everyone knows that one of the very unique features of WLO is that so many different civilizations from many different countries are open for players to enjoy and explore. In previous versions, the mysterious Pyramids of Egypt or the Mayan Jungles or other ancient and amazing maps could be explored. This time, the new version brings an even more amazing array of crumbling ruins, ancient monsters and archeological danger just waiting to be uncovered!

The new Wonderland Online 4.0-The Cursed Palace will even lead you into challenging strong bosses you’ve never met before in Ancient Greece!

WLO 3.0 is currently in Open Beta, and has a vibrant community of players just waiting for another partner to help them explore!

Apocalypse Board Online

You play an army of Angels or Demons fighting for the future of the human race in this game with a dark and mature atmosphere. You recruit units, make them grow, craft magic orbs, to become the most powerful fighter and crush your opponents.
You face opponents in tactical turn-based fights that make your brain and your nerves to the test. With more than 20 units, some hidden, with varied capabilities, the game offers multiple possibilities.
The presence of merchants makes the game even deeper. Among them, a blacksmith will show you how to make magic orbs from the gems that you will find in fights, the judge will give you the opportunity to recruit new units and the alchemist will be able to make you rich! The game also offers players the ability to create clans allowing them to group together to conquer different cities of a world that will unveil itself little by little when the game will be updated. These updates will be frequent and will often reinforce the interest of the game while adding new units, more merchants and even more capabilities.
This new version offers an interactive gaming experience in real time that only a few web games today can claim to offer their players. Designed to captivate the casual players, like the hardcore gamer, the game is accessible from any computer connected to the Internet, including from closed networks (companies, universities, schools) through the Bluebox technology.

Apocalypse Online Review: Linear Play

By Vincent Haoson

The Earth is shattered by senseless wars, its resources depleted. Humanity is at the brink of extinction that was caused by the senseless warmongering of the leaders of the different nations. You are one of the remnants of humanity that escaped the effects of war. You are now living in a world scarred forever by the past. All you can think about is to survive.

This bleak post-apocalyptic world that you see yourself in is the world of Apocalypse Online. As one of the remaining human survivors of the war that nearly destroyed the earth, you need to fend for yourself in a Mad Max like setting.

Character Customization

When you enter Apocalypse Online, you get to choose to be part of the four factions that rule supreme in this “scorched earth”. Be part of the Nomads, the faction where peace and unification is their primary goal. Join the Raiders, whose way of living is to take and pillage from the people who have anything worthwhile. Or be like the Techs whose society saved itself from the effects of war by hiding themselves in their protected vaults. Or choose to be part of the Enclave, a mysterious race of highly evolved humanoid insects.

Sadly, you can only choose to become part of two of the four factions in Apocalypse Online. In the character creation screen of the game you can only get to choose to be a Nomad or a Raider. The choice would hardly affect your overall experience though because the difference between the Nomads and the Raider is that you start at two different spawning points.

Speaking of character creation, another problem that you may face when playing Apocalypse Online is that there are a lot of customization features that are unavailable. When you’re creating your character you have the options to choose which faction you belong to, the gender of your character, its class, the hair, face beard and clothes design. Among the customization choices you can’t change the class, face and beard of your character. Though it is understandable that this is the current situation of the game now especially it’s already beta. It should really be bothersome that the game is already “released” in the market for about three years now and all you have is this much.

Graphics and Controls

The graphics of the game is not one of its strong parts too. It may be understandable that a graphics that is of this quality from games that were born in the 90s. Yet Apocalypse Online lacks the graphical advancements that most of the f2p MMOs use.

Another thing is that the controls are a problem. You can’t use the mouse to move your character because the movement is locked to the A,W,S,D keys. The space is used for jumping but I doubt you’ll be using that much because the character jump can be considered a hop with the height of the jump, plus it seems that there is still a bug with the jump sprite because when you do it your character would seem to jump twice. Though this is funny at the beginning, this may irritate eventually as you continue playing.

Game Audio

The audio seems to be lacking in Apocalypse Online as well. Whatever music I hear that comes from the game is either the environment music or the BGM when you enter the game servers and finish a quest. Though it goes without saying that the audio score fits well with the setting, the lack of musical accompaniment can get really unnerving especially when a tune starts plays without warning.

However, there is a redeeming characteristic Apocalypse Online has. The storyline is one of the most coherent I’ve ever seen in a while. Though the story telling could be improved so that it can do justice to the whole storyline, I can say that Apocalypse Online has a story to anchor itself to at least.

Camera Issues

For a game that is already more than a year old, Apocalypse Online sure lacks a lot of things that make MMOs a good game. For one I was surprised to find that you can’t customize your character even though the game system has that option of changing the face of your in-game character.

Another thing is that the camera controls are too sensitive and awkward. There are times when I try to change the camera to get the angle right. The game has an option that when you double-click, the camera immediately pans to where your character is facing. This may be convenient on occasions but this feature sometimes blocks your mouse pointer as you try to communicate with NPCs.

This problem would constantly haunt you as you continue and try the game out because as you begin the only characters you can communicate with in-game are NPCs. The game’s starting area for new characters is empty of any human life whatsoever. However things will at least look better when you do get out of your starting area. Though the population looks scarce, at least you can actually see people playing the game.

Conclusion

Things may improve as the game draws on. The question now is that are you willing to wait for things to change before you start playing? The game may or may not improve in the course of its operation. The game has outdated graphics and even the gameplay has a lot of down points too. Though the storyline seems to be a coherent one, which is rarely seen in games like this it may not be enough to get you hooked into playing the game.

Anarchy Online also has a linear feel to it. You can’t get outside of the town unless you take the first quest. This kills the free roaming feel of the game where you can just go on and explore the world of Duskland at your own leisure.

Pros

– A coherent storyline

– Still in Beta, improvements may come

– The faction system makes for great PVP

Cons

– Outdated Graphics engine

– Camera angles can be irritating

– Controls are awkward to use

Kicks Online International

Kicks Online has mixed real football with FUTSAL, so it maximizes the excitement of real football even with a small number of persons.

Team Play
Since absolute cooperation-play is required for each player, Football is teamwork!

Character position and growth
Character positions basically consist of FW (attack), MF (midfielder), DF (defender) and as the game goes on, players can grow to become a star player in a specific position. Each position will require special skills and training to hold the position correctly in a game with competition.

Control
You can become expert in tackling, centering, overhead shooting and individual skills, which you see in real Football.

Tales of Pirates: Lunar New Year Event

As the old saying goes, the early bird catches the worm! At the start of 2009 Tales of Pirates will greet many new players in the launch of the new version 2.0. In order to let the newbie players do some preparation in advance, they have specially arranged the cool Leveling Contest throughout all of the servers. If the players can reach the required level, they will obtain the big rewards that IGG has prepared for them!

Event Duration:
12:00a.m. January, 25th — 12:00a.m.February, 9th EST (GMT-5)

Event Location:
All Servers

Event Description:
Entrants should create an account during the period between January, 25th and January 31st and strive to level up quickly. Until 12:00am EST (GMT-5) February, 9th the TOP official will check the players’ levels in a ranking list. Entrants who have reached Level 60 and level 69 will obtain a Chest of Enigma as reward and those who are level 70 or above will obtain a Chaos Chest.

The challenge of the new map, the challenge of the new BOSSes, also the chance to make new friends in TOP version 2.0 ! We want to see what you can do!

Wonderland Online: Asian New Year Events

To celebrate the Asian New Year and to give thanks to our players for their continued support, The Wonderland Online Team will be holding a series of events.

1. 2X EXP Event in All Servers:
Event Duration: 1:00am-11:00pm, January 31st
Event Content: Players in all servers can enjoy 2X EXP during the event. They can also get more EXP if they use the EXP items.

2. Discounts in Item Mall
Event Duration: January 24th-January 31st
Event Content: Some items in the Item Mall will be sold at big discounts.

3. Who will be the Next Millionaire?
Event Duration: January 24th-January 31st
Event Content: During the event, players who purchase 500 or more WLO points in a single day can get the chance to win 1000,000 Gold. Officials will choose 1-2 players automatically and each of them will receive 1000,000 Gold. The Gold will be given out during maintenance on February 3rd. The winners also can claim the prize via Live Support everyday. We will also update the name list everyday.

4. Wheel of Fortune
Event Duration: January 24th-January 31st
Event Content: Who will get the Gold Suit in the Wheel of Fortune? Do you feel lucky?