Monthly Archives: July 2010

Medievia Review: Humility is out of the Question

Medievia Review: Humility is out of the Question

If you pay attention to game ads, you never see a game being promoted as second best. It’s always, “come and join us we’re number 1!” or “this is way better than this game”. The problem however is that the game that brags the loudest tends to disappoint the most.

 

Along those lines, I’ve never seen a game that brags more than Medievia. The game claims a lot of the usual stuff however, instead of naming a single game to beat, Medievia takes on the whole gaming industry and builds on the idea that most games nowadays only grow visually and not in gameplay.

What is Medievia?

Medievia is basically a text-based online game that centers around your adventures in the world of Medievia. It is a world of its own and I was quite surprised that for a game of its kind, it has a ton of features that you only find in P2P games.

 

Mediveia Map

MUD System

Normally, games of this kind rely on browsers as their primary medium of gameplay, however Medievia uses a MUD system which makes gameplay smoother and the game response time faster than browser based games of this kind.

The MUD system in Medievia is the main reason why the chosen mode of gameplay works so well. Usually, games that take the tabletop approach are chained to delays in-between actions due to the refresh rate of browsers. It’s these delays that make the game more unbearable for players who want a more dynamic role-playing adventure.

 

Medievia’s MUD system eliminates delays hereby lessening the time you have to spend waiting for your action to register in the game system and gives you more time to enjoy and explore the game.

Mediveia Interface

Gameplay

If you are familiar with tabletop games such as Dungeons and Dragons, you get the idea of how Medievia plays out. The game system is like the Dungeon Master narrating whatever you see hear, and smell. It is through text commands that you type that determines how your character moves within the game.

 

This is where it’s make or break for the game in terms of getting you hooked. Under normal circumstances players prefer a game that has easy controls, like using the mouse as the basic interaction tool in-game, but Medievia  is text based, the game requires you to type in the commands, something that is rarely done if you want your players to stay.

 

However, typing the commands is part of the overall Medievia experience. The whole Medievia experience is reliant to the player interacting with the game, in this case in the form of typing commands.

 

The game system narrows down the player base to the more patient, hardcore role players but it is in its own right a very immersing game to play.

Mediviea Kill

Want a human pet?

Medievia promises to bring very dynamic and constantly evolving gameplay. A part of the way the game show this is through the various game features it provides players.

 

Medievia is a world in itself. Your character has a lot of the same characteristics you would find in a normal human being. It needs to eat, drink, rest and take breaks as you travel in the world. Walk too fast and your character wheezes and needs to take a break, let your character suffer hunger and your character’s stats go crazy.

 

Playing Medievia is like having your own little human pet. The only thing your character can’t experience at the moment is getting sick, but I don’t think that would be impossible in the near future as the game updates on a regular basis.

 

The aspect of controlling almost everything about your character has been a proven formula for immersive  game play, my basis of which is the success of the Sim’s and Medievia has indeed used it to its advantage.

Replayability

The most important thing in a game, especially in terms of online games is its replayability. In reference to Medievia, the game does provide a lot of reasons for players to come back and log-in. One example is that the game allows you to multiclass. Such a game feature would really gives players value for time invested because it provides a reason to explore the different job classes available.

 

Another game feature that I can say really gives players the reason to go on playing is the bloodline feature. This game feature allows your character to either belong to an existing bloodline or create one of your own. However there is a level requirement before you can create a bloodline of your own.

 

The Bloodlines in Medievia is an example of a successful game feature because the bloodline system gives players a chance to leave their “mark” in the game in the form of their very own bloodline.

 

Also, speaking of bloodlines, you can also create your own home and acquire land in Medievia. Thus emphasizing the fact that Medievia isits own world, thus providing a very immersing experience that keeps you coming back for more.

Mediiviea Stats

Roleplaying

One of the things I liked about Medievia is the capacity for roleplay. With the MUD system in place roleplaying isn’t much of a chore unlike in other tabletop themed browser games. The game features are very much tuned to support roleplaying. The only thing that really matters is how your creativity flows.

 

The roleplaying-friendly aspect of Medievia online is another good reason for players to come back and enjoy the game, adding another replayability aspect that is often times overlooked by other browser games.

 

Conclusion

Overall, Medievia really seems to have delivered on its bragging and more. However the limitation of the game is the mechanic and of players it attracts. You don’t have to worry too much about the players you meet in the game because it is sure that majority of the players you meet in Medievia run on the same wavelength as you.

 

The game is a must try for those looking for a decent game that mixes roleplaying and a very immersing game system. If you have little to no patience for text based games  you might be better off trying a different game.

 

Pros

    * Immerse game system makes you come back for more
    * Gameplay is smooth and has a fast response time for a game like this
    * The game is roleplay friendly

 

Cons

    * You have to type in every action in-game
    * There is a lack of visuals
    * The text color in the interface may hurt your eyes

The Untamed Frontier: Net Neutrality

The Untamed Frontier: Net Neutrality
By Jonathan (Ardua ) Doyle OnRPG Journalist

 

If you’re reading this, you’re obviously on the internet. Each and every person who has come to the site is an internet user and each of you were given the same priority to get here. This then is a quick chat with you about that and about Net Neutrality. Net Neutrality is one of those topics that really has all sorts of people wrapped up in it. Any of you who get involved can be sure that I won’t be calling you liberal nuts or saying that you should go to North Korea. Honestly none of that helps.

 

So What Is Net Neutrality?

Net Neutrality NeutralNet Neutrality is what you are likely experiencing depending on where you are in the world. You log on, you get your internet and that internet is exactly what everyone around you can get. You do not get priority site loading, you don’t have a Skype AWESOME account for that much more quality and you can look at any site you want (assuming home and not business use). You have as much right to the available bandwidth as any other user, be they head of state or grandma checking her email. Provided you’re not trying to knock other people off line or otherwise hog the entire internet, you’re golden.

 

Why Does This Matter?

In America in 2007 it was discovered that Comcast, an ISP, was artificially throttling the speed on peer to peer sharing. The same sort of sharing that many MMOs use themselves to patch. This of course put any sort of legit peer sharing in danger. When the second biggest ISP in America decides to fiddle with how you get your internet and from where, people notice. So the FCC stepped in to correct the situation and stop the inequality. Comcast then sued the FCC and very recently won the case.

 

Thus there has been precedent set for a company to legally fiddle with traffic on the internet, that supposedly neutral environment where we work and play. This becomes an international concern for those of you not in the US when you consider that if one country gets away with milking customers for more money, others are bound to take notice if not outright emulate the behaviour.

 

What Is Going To Happen?

Well that depends… You see there are forces on both sides of the fight and to be honest making a full battle of it ends badly for us all. Well… maybe.

 

If ISPs continue the way that Net Neutrality proponents are claiming they will, it is possible that we will witness the birth of TV like content on the net. If you want fast access, you’ve got to pay more. If you want Hulu or YouTube, you’ve got to pay more. If you want, under this scenario, to download that nice MMO you’ve been meaning to play you may have to upgrade to the “MMO Package” your ISP offers to even be able to reach websites about MMO’s!

 

Neutrality Packages
Imagine similar MMO packages provided by your ISP

 

If they maintain Net Neutrality, there is the fear that in retaliation ISPs who build and maintain the data networks will bring in capped limits.

 

The International Perspective

Capped limits? Cry me a river. I, in Ireland, have always had capped download limits. My current ISP gives me 50gigs a month if I remember correctly. That’s more than enough to download anything that I might want, download my game patches and game clients and still play. Really the only time I start hitting the cap is when I suddenly want to watch an entire television series. If America or in fact any country ends up with the capped limits, let me tell you it isn’t all that bad.

 

The other side of the debate though, the throttled traffic, that’s where we as players should sit up and take notice. Do you enjoy your MMO? Is it pay to play or free to play? Is the item shop affordable? Hopefully whatever type of game you play and however much you spend you find it reasonable. However with so many of the games I play being based in America, the idea that ISPs could start charging the companies for their level internet access is scary. Add to that the amount of users that could be affected… it starts to look iffy for us MMO gamers.

 

Neutrality Shift
Intentionally lowering performance

 

Even if your game is free to play, you have to pay a bill to get online. Do you really like the idea of having to upgrade your internet to a more expensive package just to be able to play your free games?

 

A Series of Tubes

When checking people’s opinions on Net Neutrality, one thing was made apparent to me and this brings in a touch of politics. In a neutral network, we can all say and do as we please. If I want to learn more about any given political party, no matter how crazy they may be, I can. If net neutrality goes because others want to control how the network is used rather than trying to expand to fit us all, there is the possibility of censorship as well as network throttling. It’d start simple as in the case of a Spanish telecoms company. They plan to charge Yahoo, Bing and Google for use of their network. From there it’s a short trip to charging anyone they want for the right to go on Wiki or in the most extreme cases, the outright censoring of sites.

 

For us MMO gamers this could mean that you can still reach games run by big companies like Runes of Magic, Karos and World of Warcraft. But smaller companies might not be able to compete and their access to the internet could be cut off entirely!

 

Net Neutrality Tubes Pipes

 

As the meme goes, the internet is a series of tubes and no one wants to see them blocked off for any reason.

 

Look To The Future

Regardless of how this all plays out, as it stands the internet could change in the future for some of us. What this will mean for games companies remains to be seen. Without necessarily getting caught up in the politics of it all, this will affect you in some way in a time to come. Do keep an eye on what happens, do be prepared to get involved and do remember, the internet is ever changing.

 

Tomorrow online may not resemble today, hopefully it will be brighter.

Play Rappelz, win cool stuff!

Play Rappelz, win cool stuff!

Summer is here! To celebrate, Gpotato is giving away more than $10,000 worth of prizes to their loyal Rappelz players!

To win, all you have to do is log-in!

Log-in once a week and play for an hour and you’ll receive a special weekly in-game prize! The more you play, the more there is to win. Every 5 days you log-in you will receive an extra prize on top of the weekly prize!

To win, all you have to do is log-in!

Play for 35 days total, and you’ll be entered into a grand prize drawing for a chance to win premium in-game items, a stack of 5,000 gPotatoes, or a 32GB iPad!

 
CRAZY!

Dawn of Nations

Dawn of Nations is a real-time-strategy, free-to-play browser game. It will bring players back to the war-torn years of World War II.

Finding yourself in a battle-scarred world, you will assume the role of a military commander in charge of an occupied town as you strive to survive, develop, and ultimately establish yourself as a stable, powerful force. You will take control of building your city, researching new technologies, trading with other players, raising an army, navy, and air force, and positioning yourself within powerful Alliances.

Dawn of Nations also features real heroes and famous generals from World War II and will highlight their particular skills in combat. The game uses real troops from World War II, showcasing their strengths and weaknesses to create a balanced game. Dawn of Nations is designed to be an easily accessible, yet fun to play and stimulating game for everyone to enjoy.

Features:
– Free to play directly in your browser, no download
– Real World War 2 generals and troops for a true-to-life gameplay experience
– Alliance Tournaments featuring real-time community interaction
– Innovative Stratagem system providing countless possible battle scenarios
– Revolutionary graphics engine based on proprietary Gx5 platform

4Story, 2 years anniversary events

4Story, 2 years anniversary events

July 7th is the two year anniversary of 4Story. For the past years, Zemi Interactive has been chasing all MMO fans’ dreams and trying to make those dreams come true continuously.

This July, they are planning to take a short break on bringing new dungeons and new tales and distribute unique events and mini games.

July 7th is two year anniversary of 4Story

 

1. The Altair and the Vega event!
Collect the event drops (beads, paper, and silk thread) from all fields in Iveria and you can craft special buff items. Moreover, you have an opportunity to craft other kingdom’s armors and weapons, even 38 items.

2. Rock, Scissors, Paper event!
Rock, Scissors, Paper NPC will be applied in each village! Bet your game money and beat the event NPC to double your winnings! It’s not all~ you can aim for consecutive winnings to claim many fabulous premium items and even some cash points!

3. Transfer merit points event!
This is a secret event! You will be able to exchange your merit points to buy 4Story Premium points.

4. 38 weapon giveaway event!
For all of you who play 200 hours of 4Story and charge 200USD at premium shop of 4Story during the event period will be granted with one 38 performance level weapon of your choice.

CoH: Between Good & Evil Video Documentary

CoH: Between Good & Evil Video Documentary

Play the City of Heroes Between Good & Evil Video Documentary

NCSoft has released the “Between Good & Evil” Video Documentary and of course OnRPG is hosting it for your viewing pleasure!

The documentary offers an exclusive first look at the gripping moral decisions that heroes and villains will face on their journey down the path of good and evil, giving players a behind-the-scenes glimpse of what goes into creating an expansion for the world’s most popular super heroic MMO.

City of Heroes Video Documentary

Fans of the franchise and new players alike will learn from the developers why the alignment system and the new Praetoria content make the Going Rogue expansion the ideal time to join the game.

Cronous Review: Diablo it is Not

Cronous Review: Diablo it is Not
By Vincent Haoson (Vincenthaoson), OnRPG Journalist

 

In the world of MMOs, Diablo has been the usual basis for a lot of MMOs that uses the dungeon crawling experience because of the sheer simplicity yet addictive nature of the game’s overall design and concept.

 

Cronous is one such MMO where you would find a lot of Diablo-like elements infused into its core gameplay. However the game sets itself apart and stands on its own thus creating a gaming experience similar to Diablo yet totally different from it.

 

Dissecting The Game

To start things off Cronous is a 3D MMORPG that is set in a once beautiful and lush world that is now under chaos due to an alien god and his followers. Your role in this world is as its hero, the person who shall finally bring forth peace in the land of Cronous.

 

Cronous Combat
Bring peace, one mob at a time

 

The game’s overall concept can be seen as similar to Diablo’s. As the hero your task, regardless of how you go about it, is to be the savior of the world you are in according to the job class you chosen. This storyline has been quite overused and seeing how the game plays out does not really affect much of your gameplay except for the events and quests that you’d be doing.

 

Gameplay

Cronous plays like your typical 3D MMORPG save that the camera angles are restricted. The in game controls feels similar to Diablo with an addition of being able to zoom the camera and move it in a circular motion.

 

There’s nothing new or innovative with Cronous’ gameplay. In fact, the game plays like any other MMORPG out there. The game’s familiar gameplay is both its strength and weakness because this type of gameplay jives well with the game’s other game features, but this also brings about a boring game for those who are looking for something new.

 

Skill Tree-Where Similarities start to end

The Skill tree in Cronous is similar to the skill tree in Diablo, where every level up gives you a skill point that you can allocate to a certain skill area you want. However, this is where the similarities end because Cronous’ allows a more personalized way of allocating those skill points. The areas you can allocate points to are practically every aspect of your character.

 

 Cronous Area Map
Cronous area map

 

Aside from allocating to the usual offensive or defensive skills your character has, Cronous gives you the freedom to allocate skill points to the general attributes of your character. From one handed-weapon mastery to health regeneration, you have complete control if you want to allocate those points or not.

 

Cronous takes a different path by making your characters as customizable as possible. This kind of skill tree system allows a very varied character build where one character may have the same job but a different skill set.

 

The problem with this kind of system is that you have to really grind to get to the point where you are satisfied with your skills.

 

 Skill Tree
Learning skills

 

Grinding

This kind of skill tree system automatically labels Cronous as a grind fest. Undoubtedly it is. You have to really grind if you want to beef up your character. Thankfully, with the skill system as it is, grinding during the lower levels is a breeze and within half a day you can get to a decent level.

 

Cronous also has a lot of quests where you can not only earn experience but also items as well. Of course this should be expected from any MMORPG. However, they don’t really provide much in terms of experience points so it’s better to just grind.

 

This is where I think Cronous has problems because as we all know level grinding can be really boring. The game’s graphics and audio is not top notch so you’d really need to be patient if you’d want to play the game for a long time.

 

Growth Items

Even with the game being a grind fest, there are a lot of game features that make it a rather enjoyable experience, one example is  Growth Items that you can acquire if you’re lucky.

 

Growth Items are special items that your character can carry, and as you carry these items they also grow along with your character. You can allocate a portion of the experience you get from monsters and give it to your growth item. In time this item can eventually become a very powerful weapon that you can name.

 

Cronous Interface
Character fighting

 

Cronous’ Growth Items are one of the things you’ll love having as you play the game. It’s like your own small pet that you can nurture and eventually use to beef you up. Having one keeps you playing and it’s one of those things that you’d die to have.

 

Union Wars

Aside from the Growth Items, Cronous has its own siege warfare system called Union War. Union wars follow the format of siege wars in the different MMORPGs and give you a reason to be part of a guild and be active in leveling and strengthening your character.

 

Though the concept is only a rehash of the various siege systems in other games, you cannot deny the pull of such systems for players to keep on leveling. The Union War is what makes people come back to Cronous as the players have already established ties with their guild mates.

 

Conclusion

Cronous is a game that some systems that can really get your attention. However, the overall feel of the game really brings it down. There are other games that have are better overall that you can spend your time on.

 

If you’re someone who wants to get a little nostalgic and would like to see how Diablo may have turned out if it became an MMO, then Cronous is the game for that. However, if you are really looking for something better then I’d suggest you look for another game to play.

 

Pros:
– The skill system and skill tree enables you to create a unique character for your class
– The virtue system helps is a good equalizer for the rude players
– Growth Items adds an element of player “marking” actual in-game elements.

 

Cons:
– Dated game graphics
– The games feels to much like Diablo
– Grind fest.