Monthly Archives: July 2011

Guild Wars 2 Early Access Part 1

Guild Wars 2 Early Access – OnRPG Goes Hands-on With the ‘Different’ MMO

By Nic van’t Schip (Nilax), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

 

One of the sad things about no longer working on the same continent as the core OnRPG team is that I get to work and talk with them a lot less. They’re based in LA and I have recently returned to The Netherlands back in Europe. But there are advantages that come from this move as well! Like for example when NCSoft organizes a hands-on Guild Wars 2 press event in a hotel in Hamburg, Germany! With most of our other writers in the States and other parts of the world I was the designated man to take the trip.

When I got the invitation I was very excited, I hadn’t played Guild Wars 2 yet and the hand-on section of the event was going to give me ample opportunity to feel with my own fingers if the game plays as well as it looks and sounds!

Without jumping straight to the conclusion of this write-up I’ll reveal one thing: Guild Wars 2 TOTALLY feels as good as it looks and sounds!

 

Different, no really.

A couple of months ago I mentioned how the creators behind Rift, Trion Worlds, had taken the bold move to not innovate at all. Instead they took the (rather successful) path of copying and improving all the best features from a myriad of MMOs in the market. The result is a great game… but a very predictable and comfortable one. Rift just won’t surprise you very often and as I wrote back then, that’s fine.

Guild Wars 2, in this respect, is the polar opposite of Rift. The game and the entire driving force behind it is one giant soup of innovation and new, different game mechanics and challenges. In fact the basic premise of Guild Wars 2 almost seems to be “What is wrong in today’s MMOs and how are we going to fix it in Guild Wars 2?”

 

Cooperative mode is ON

The first example of how Guild Wars 2 is different is the game’s emphasis on cooperation. There is no penalty whatsoever for playing together with others, only rewards. So if you see someone else beating up an NPC you can join in at your leisure. You will not be stealing their xp nor will you be locked out of any loot. Loot is another fine example as there will be NO rolling for loot. If a monster drops an item EVERYBODY who helped kill the monster will get it. Ninjas need NOT apply!

 


A 3rd example of how Arena Net is poised to change the MMO landscape is how they handle crafting. There are no requirements for being able to pick up, harvest, mine, pick etc crafting materials and there will be no mad dash for the mining node to steal it from your fellow players as all resources are instances. In other words: everybody gets an equal amount of resources from every gathering point.

I can’t even remember the amount of times I have cleared a path through some dangerous monsters to get to a flower in World of Warcraft only to see someone else run off with the reward!

There are many other ways Guild Wars 2 is really trying to set its own standards and not stick to the current mold but I’ll get back to them in the full preview.

 

This IS your story

When you create your character you will of course get to customize its looks extensively but on top of that you also get presented with a series of choices about the background and the motivations of your character. These choices will then get used to determine the path your character goes on, and they will influence the story at key points. This kind of character creation strongly reminded me of the questions asked in the beginning of games such as Ultima and other RPGs.

 

The game opens with a beautifully stylized opening cinematic that is strongly reminiscent of the awesome cut scenes in InFamous.

As Arena Net has stated in some of the trailers as well, they wanted to get away from a situation where an NPC tells you they are under attack and you have to rescue them only to have the “attackers” stand around in a field behind the village waiting for you go kill them to complete the quest. In Guild Wars 2 an attack actually means that the NPC will be running for his life and buildings will be set on fire. You can then choose how to help the villages. You can try to kill the attackers or go about picking up buckets of water to douse the flames. Depending on how (and if) the attack gets repelled, the continuation of the quest may differ. You’re actually shaping the story and your experience and this is very different from the static MMO worlds that we’re used to.

World of Warcraft has tried to do a better job of this in their last expansions by introducing “phasing,” allowing you to see the world differently depending on the stage of a quest… but that feels like a bit of a cheat compared to how the game world reacts to your actions or inactions in GW2!

 

 

Newbie boss fight!

Something I hadn’t seen in other games is what Arena Net calls the Scout System. When entering a new zone there will be an NPC waiting for you that tells you what you can expect. It goes into map view and takes you on a virtual tour, marking some of the zones and NPCs you can visit to help.

 

When entering the game for the first time as a Norn, the scout told me about the great hunt I was about to join to prove my worth to my tribe. I helped some of the Shamans in the zone out in different ways and pretty soon found myself involved in a huge scale boss fight with a giant worm.  Several of my fellow journalists were in the same fight and when we got organized a bit we withered the monster down! The cheer when we defeated the beast echoed around Hamburg!

Being pulled into a multiplayer boss fight 20 minutes after starting a character isn’t entirely new (Rift did it) but Guild Wars 2 sure makes it feel epic!

In the next article I’ll tell you guys more about the Dungeons as well as the underwater experience in Guild Wars 2. We got to experience both at this event but putting so much awesome sauce in one article would probably blow your minds… and we don’t want that!

Be sure to check out the interview we had with Arena Net’s Jonathan Sharp as well!

Indomitus

Koramgame’s strategy epic, Indomitus, unfolds in a savage era of European history. Play as a barbarian warlord on a quest to conquer Europe and join thousands of heroes like Attila the Hun as they clash in epic battles. Join the war today!

 

Features

Manor System: Create Manors as the pinnacle of your civilization. New city and army options become available based on the path and upgrades produced through your manors.

 

Technology Tree: Push your nation down three different Technology Trees known as Basic Research, Unit Research, and Advanced Research. Basic Research provides additional bonuses from your manors and important upgrades to your Heroes. Unit Research allows you to specialize your generic army units to fit your playstyle. And Advanced Research gives you special bonuses to provide you a one up on your opponents come end-game.

 

Hero System: Experience a unique and deep hero system! Your heroes can gain experience, level up and learn customizable abilities, upgrade the stats you want them to upgrade, embark on quests and training missions, and equip/enhance 5 types of equipment. You will need to master the Hero System to succeed in Indomitus.

 

Deep Strategic Combat System: From forming squads, to choosing one of 12 formations, to building various city fortifications, Indomitus ensures that battles always feel unique and unpredictable.


Guilds and Tribes: Even the community is strategic in Indomitus. Join a faction and pool your resources to profit on the economic side while acquiring research advancements that only are attainable through guilds.

OnRPG at Anime Expo: Top 10 Cosplay Pics

Anime Expo 2011 Coverage!

 

 

Hey OnRPG viewers.

 

This is DizzyPW. I have just returned from the Los Angeles Anime Expo 2011 with writers NuttyKitten and Platypus!

 

Team OnRPG: Darren Dizzy Henderson, Jean Nutty Pan, and Thomas vonPlatypus

 

We were hard pressed to find stories related to MMOs at this convention but still managed to get a decent scoop on Rusty Hearts, Wakfu, and ElSword. We’ll be bringing you more interview footage with Mark Hill, Producer of Rusty Hearts, talking to us about the half-vampire new DPS class known as Frantz. He also gave us some hands on time with the PvP mode, which has great potential!

 

The North American managers of Wakfu gave us a look at real player interactions and how they can impact the politics and playstyle of players throughout the world. We are currently preparing a nice video covering the story of Lala and her eternal struggle to protect a field of wheat.

 

We also tried out ElSword for the first time since Mikedot’s initial impressions back in April. The game is really shaping up and seems to have almost caught up with its German counterpart in terms of development and content. We will be joining them on their test servers soon to get a first look at their upcoming class upgrade system.

 

So for now, enjoy your Fourth of July weekend with our top 10 Cosplayers of Anime Expo!

 

 

Transformers Tower Over Bunnies

 

The Ultimate Zelda Battle Begins, and Green Link Wants Nothing to do with It!

 

Rock Lee: Real Eyebrows Included

 

Ice Climbers Still Got Swagger

 

Nel is Here and Fully Transformed!

 

PenguGirl was the Happiest Person at the Event!

 

The PedoBear was not far Behind the PenguGirl. Beware!

 

Ero-Sensei Made PedoBear Seem Shy

 

This Couple Took Cosplay Accuracy to the Next Level

 

This Kitty Roadblock Stole The Show

 

Look forward to more pictures coming later this week! As well as our review of the Hatsune Miku Concert (We were disapointed)! Be sure to comment in the Anime Section of our Forum HERE!

 

 

Dragon Nest Closed Beta Impressions

Dragon Nest – Closed Beta Impressions

By Michael Sagoe (Mikedot), OnRPG Journalist

 

It’s time for some more arcade style goodness with Nexon’s latest action MMO title: Dragon Nest. Developed by Eyedentity Games (awesome name, by the way…), Dragon Nest takes arcade and console style gameplay and mixed with old fashion MMORPG features.

 

With two successful MMO hack n’ slash titles already under Nexon’s belt (Vindictus and Dungeon Fighter Online), Dragon Nest attempts to set itself apart by mixing fast action with an exciting story, all brought together in a bright and colorful world for gamers of all ages to enjoy.

 

I managed to get into the recent closed beta test, so I’m here to give you all a little taste of my experience!

 

I started out creating a warrior character and managed to get a nice, sort of elf-ish look going for it. Once I got in, cut scenes started rolling, showing a women and a little girl running in fear. Looks like it’s already time for me to save the day!

 

 

Or… just go through a quick tutorial. That’s fine too, I guess.

 

The game showed me how to control my warrior with a few quick diagrams and I was off on my first quest in no time. Upon entering the beginner town of Ironwood, I took in the sights and sounds of the village for a brief moment. After that, it was time to get back to business, but as I looked around, I noticed that there were no cleric or mage players anywhere.   I then found out that clerics and mages start out in a different town from all the warriors and archers, which kind of sucked since I was planning to group up with a few friends that were planning to roll with those classes, so I guess that would have to wait.

 

Looking for a party to group up with was nice, easy and had a good amount of options for filtering in which kind of party you’re looking for, such a party with players around the same level as you, or a party that’s looking to visit a particular dungeon. Once I had my party ready, we went off to beat the living crap out of some goblins.

 

 

Getting a better feel for the combat, Dragon Nest’s gameplay sort of felt like a cross between Nexon’s previous action MMO title, Vindictus, while putting its own spin on things: Hacking your way through enemies is very quick and fluid while being initiative and easy to perform. The skills that you perform in battle can be used to cancel out your basic and secondary attacks, giving you a decent amount of ways to string long combos.

 

The combat in Dragon Nest is also very juggle oriented, and even though I’m not too fond of long juggles, many skills have a set amount of cool down time, insuring that no infinite juggles can be pulled off. Nice to know getting juggled in PvP won’t be too much of a nightmare! And speaking of which: There were no PvP options available during closed beta. Not much of a big deal, but I really wanted to try out a few combo strings I learned. Hopefully, PvP will become available during the next beta phase.

 

 

While the combat was fast and satisfying, the pacing of the character’s movement however: not so much. My warrior’s movement speed felt as if he was running on a slow moving treadmill. Personally, this really clashes with the fast combat and made the treks from one enemy wave to the next a bit painful. Luckily around LV10, my warrior character gained the ability to dash after performing forward rolls, so I can only hope that the other character classes gain some sort of dash ability as well.

 

The quests I took in Dragon Nest contained your usual MMO fare: Kill these monsters for this guy, bring some items for this other guy, etc. There are also a couple of interesting quests here and there, such as escorting a freaky looking goblin around, which made me chuckle a bit when I saw it defending itself…

 

GOBLIN KNIFE FIGHT!

 

Once my warrior reached level 10, it was time to leave Ironwood and head for Carderock Pass, which is the main town in Dragon Nest (well, at least during closed beta, anyway.) The town was just a lively as Ironwood and with twice the energy.  There’s large apartment like buildings all around and a huge airship that’s supposed to lead to a place called “Saint’s Haven”, but was currently out of order. The place was really jumping, but I felt the need to take a rest for a bit and start a few conversations with random players.

 

 

While the conversations I had were a little weird, it was a nice distraction, none the less.

 

Awhile later, I joined up with a friend to help him out with a commission run at the Assassin’s Den. He kept telling me that his commission required him to complete Assassin’s Den on Abyss mode and it was really kicking his ass. I personally felt it wouldn’t be as hard as he made it sound, since the difficulty curves up to Master mode wasn’t completely jarring, but then I tried out Abyss mode with him for the first time…

 

ACTION!

 

Abyss mode is a difficulty mode that pulls the kid gloves off. Enemies don’t act like combo fodder here. Instead, they’re all incredibly aggressive and do ridiculous amounts of damage that really give your twitch skills a workout. It also makes you more mindful of the power ups that you pick up from enemies and whatnot. Oh, and don’t get me started on the bosses… It’s balls-to-the-wall hard and it felt great.

 

 

After reaching and defeating the boss (not after getting my ass handed twice, of course), a mysterious rabbit appeared and gave us some freebies like… MEAT PIE!

 

 

I’m not quite sure if this rabbit only appears after beating Abyss mode runs, but it was a pretty cool encounter.

 

Overall, my impression from Dragon Nest is that it’s certainly shaping up to be an exciting action MMO filled with lots of charm. Looks like Nexon might have another great title on their hands.

 

As always: Don’t forget to visit our Profile Page for Dragon Nest and check back for more previews.