Monthly Archives: October 2011

Troy Online: The Real War Begins Oct 15th!

Troy Online: The Real War Begins Oct 15th!

 

 

ALT1 Games has announced that there will be update with a large-scale war system for Troy Online on October 15th, 2011.

 

 

In this large-scale war system, users will be able to enjoy a new type of war, the invasion war, which allows users to invade the opponent’s capital city. It is a much different from the existing wars such as the Level War and the Temple War.

 

 

Troy Online has been updating their battlefields and war systems continuously since launching their commercial service. However this upcoming update is the largest update yet, and Troy Online users will be able to enjoy a truly brutal MMORPG experience with this update.

 

 

This large-scale war system allows all users to join the war at the same time through the Island of Dispute. The users can attack the opponent’s capital city to destroy their holy relics as well. Depending on the results of the war, the winning faction will receive buffs such as increased experience and better item drop rates.

League of Legends Reveals Graves, The Outlaw

League of Legends Reveals Graves, The Outlaw

 

 

With the season 2 preseason well on its way, Riot Games seems to be pushing towards a new wave of unique champions designed to break up the current meta and push Tanky DPS champions with intense ranged damage. First there was Xerath the artillery like caster, and now League of Legends is prepared to introduce Graves, the Outlaw. Graves wields a hextech shotgun he personally named Destiny as he seeks vengeance on his formal swindling partner, Twisted Fate. It’s not often League of Legends releases a male ranged dps character and when they do you can usually expect some meaty damage to go along with it.

 

 

Let’s take a look at his kit:

 

  • Buckshot: Graves fires three bullets in a cone damaging all enemies in the projectiles path. Enemies at close range can be hit by multiple projectiles, but each one beyond the first will deal reduced damage.
  • Smokescreen: Graves fires a smoke canister at the target area that deals damage and creates a cloud of smoke. Enemies inside the smoke cloud have reduced sight range and movement speed.
  • Quickdraw: Graves dashes forward gaining an attack speed boost for several seconds. Attacking enemies lowers the cooldown of this skill.
  • Collateral Damage (Ultimate): Graves fires an explosive shell dealing heavy damage to the first target it hits. After hitting a champion or reaching the end of its range the shell explodes dealing damage in a cone behind the target.
  • True Grit (Passive): Graves gains increasing armor and magic resistance the longer he remains in combat.

 

 

As you can see, Graves seems built around countering all the standard weaknesses ranged dps characters bring to the table. His buckshot brings the pain to melee fighters that try to pressure him. His smokescreen is amazing for both chasing squishier foes or escaping true threats. His quickdraw allows him to quickly pursue fleeing enemies for the kill. And his collateral damage allows him to be a threat in team fights without putting himself in harm’s way. True Grit rounds this all out by making him tanky enough to stand toe to toe with the bruiser champions dominating the current meta.

 

 

Look forward to our full review on Graves and new buffs/nerfs later this month when Jason Harper takes Graves out for a test drive on the fields of justice.

Bright Shadow EU Releases Halloween Update

Bright Shadow EU Releases Halloween Content Update

 

 

 

Gamania Digital Entertainment Europe is happy to announce that it’s popular free to play MMORPG Bright Shadow has become even greater this month with a massive content update featuring some spooky Halloween flavored dungeons. Furthermore, the Mentor and Apprentice system will be a big help to new players and will reward veterans handsomely for their efforts in leveling up their pupils.

 

New Content

The expansion enlarges the current world by nearly twofold with many new areas and dungeons to explore. During your travels you will be able to fight new monsters such as goblins, vampires and mummies. When lucky you will be able to collect their spirits and ‘imprint’ them on collectible ‘monster’ cards which will enable you to spawn that defeated creature as an ally. Also you will be able to differentiate your character into 8 new classes when you have reached level 40. Bright Shadow will also have numerous new quests to complete. Last but not least the level-cap will be raised from 39 to 69! If you’re more of a visual person be sure to check out the trailer showcasing all this new content.

 

 

Mentor and Apprentice System

Mentors can help new players getting acquainted in the world of Luciena. When mentors and pupils fight together they exchange familiarity points, which in turn can be used to buy in-game titles and capes that can have a wide arrange of benefits and/or buffs. When both pupil and mentor are fighting together, both will earn an experience boost. The strength of this boost depends on the rank of the mentor. The 5th (highest) rank can give a mentor 30% extra EXP for instance. The mentor attains his ranks through the leveling of his or her pupil. But there is more… mentors get access to exclusive mounts, such as the menacing Elemental Kirin and from rank 3, mentors get the ability to teleport directly to their apprentice.

 

 

HALLOWEEN EXPANSION KEY FEATURES:

 

• Over 50 new areas and dungeons to explore
• 8 new classes (Knight, Demon Slayer, Archer, Gunslinger, Mystic, Illusionist, Taoist, Exorcist)
• Raised level cap (from 39 to 69)
• Over 200 new monster cards to collect
• 1000+ new quests to complete
• Mentor & Apprentice System
• 50+ elemental titles and capes to collect

 

 

Alan Lan, Product Manager for Gamania Europe said: “We have one of the most loyal and welcoming communities in the world and we are very excited to see how they will react to our Halloween expansion. We are especially looking forward to the Mentor & Apprentice system as it rewards both veterans and newcomers alike and will further strengthen the strong bonds that exist throughout our playerbase.”

Silkroad Online: 6 Years Later

Silkroad Online: 6 Years Later

By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

Silkroad Online is an MMORPG that puts the player deep into ancient Chinese, Islamic, and European civilizations. The Silk Road was a major cultural and economic trading artery between Europe and China that stretched through a dangerous path of northern Eurasia. This is a ripe setting for an MMO all about combat and adventure!

 

 

The game has been out for almost 6 years now and I decided to check out what has been added since the game has been released. Silkroad Online has been updated a lot since 2005 and even released 4 expansions in the meanwhile. Everyone knows Silkroad Online had great success when it started back in the day. The game received great scores from multiple big sites and the beta was a big success. The first day when the game got into beta, the servers were overcrowded and most of the people trying to connect had no luck with getting in. In the first few days Joymax had to open extra servers that got full the minute they went online. After this successful launch Silkroad Online had a little trouble maintaining the servers so everyone could connect and enjoy the game they wanted.

 

 

When trying to connect to a server you would always disconnect and your game client would automatically close. I still remember that horrible situation where it actually took an hour to log into the game. Well that problem is long gone and the servers still remain overpopulated. Joymax has added 45 servers since 2005 and all these servers are highly populated. While you are waiting to connect to the server via the automatic login system you can now safely minimize without worrying about client crashes. This I would say is by far the biggest advancement Joymax has made towards improving my enjoyment of the game.

 

 

The Game

Silkroad Online is a free-to-play MMORPG that is set in the 7th century, along the silk road between China and Europe. Back in 2005 you could only chose to play as a Chinese character, however with the Legend I update the European race and western world were added, making the world map twice as large!

 

 

The other Legend expansions brought the level cap much higher which is currently level 110 where it was only 80 back in the old day. Also new areas got added where the players could level up and quest. There has been several updates concerning the PvP part of the game as well; in the Legend II expansion Joymax added a huge battleground and in the Legend V update people can visit the Job temple where hunters, traders and thieves can fight with each other.

 

 

To understand this game you first need to understand the job system. In Silkroad Online it is possible to select a Job, though only one is available per account so choose. There are currently two Jobs to choose from which are the following:

 

Jobs

The Hunter dedicates himself to protect caravan NPCs from the thieves who seek to disrupt their trading activities. It is the Hunter’s job to protect the trader and bring down the Thieves smuggling operations.

 

The Thieves are marauders who prey upon the merchant caravans who travel on the Silk Road. They try to rob these Traders on their trip and are the enemies of the Hunters. The Thief strives to gain wealth and honor through smuggling.

 

Apart from what Job you choose to play exists the typical MMO class system. Each of the races has its own advantages, disadvantages, cities, weapons, armor and classes so choose carefully if you want to play a specific class. Classes each specialize in a different weapon that will dictate your fighting style.

 

 

Classes

The Europeans have six classes to choose from which are the Warrior, Wizard, Warlock, Rogue, Bard and Cleric. The Chinese are masters of the mysterious energy of the martial force and are skillful with five different weapons: the sword, blade, spear, glaive and bow. They also use 4 types of Forces: Ice, Snow, Fire and Water. They can also practice Windwalk which makes them able to move faster.

 

 

Silkroad Online also has a Crafting System. With the Crafting System you can directly create the items that you need. The crafting procedure is so easy; anyone can easily use the Crafting System. You can find recipes from monsters and some recipes are automatically obtained upon achieving the required level. Recipes can also be obtained from the General Store NPCs and the required items, according to the character’s level. Each recipe lists the material required for the crafting of the item. Once you have gathered all the necessary materials you can create the item through the ‘Craft Item’ menu. If you have enough materials you can craft multiple items at once to save time.

 

Graphics

To play this quality game you are required to have at least a processor with 800 MHz. Along with a 32 MB 3D graphics card and 512 MB Ram plugged into your motherboard. If you have no idea what kind of computer you are running but you have bought your computer around the year of 2005 I am sure you are able to run it just fine.

 

 

Conclusion

Joymax has to be proud of their game; Silkroad Online is a wonderful game that had great success at launch and continued to expand on that success to create a really well defined game in 2011. They are also actively cracking down on botters that caused the community much grief over the years. Silkroad Online used to have a bad image concerning these ‘botters’ but have greatly reduced their numbers since 2008. Silkroad Online is a free-to-play game with a lot of fun gameplay elements to keep the player addicted and busy for quite a while. The game offers a lot of content for both PvP and PvE enthusiasts. I had a lot of fun playing this game back in the day, and I really enjoyed the game while testing it again. If you like a game with a lot of features and great support with updates and expansions from time to time I strongly advise you to try out Silkroad Online.

Elsword Introduces Gamepad Compatibility

Elsword Introduces Gaming Pad Compatibility

 

 

Classic console gaming meets massively multiplayer online (MMO) entertainment as Kill3rCombo introduces gamepad compatibility for its manga-inspired online beat-’em-up, Elsword. Players now have the option of navigating through thrilling dungeons and fierce bosses with either the gamepad or keyboard as they battle and complete quests.

 

 

An asset to players longing for a console-style gaming experience, Elsword offers fully customizable gamepad mapping, affording players the opportunity to program their preferences, a feature not many MMOs can boast. The addition of the gamepad also lends itself to the side-scrolling action and comic book animation of the game, allowing gamers to try new strategies and combos to maximize damage.

Cross Fire Review: Alert The Armory!

Cross Fire Review: Alert the Armory!

By Jerrico Tan (JetSet), OnRPG Journalist




Cross Fire is a free-to-play MMOFPS developed by South Korean based companies – SmileGate and NeoWiz. Players assume the role of either one of the two mercenary groups (Black List and Global Risk) and together with their squad, they must work together to complete objective based scenarios. It might similarly look like Counter-Strike but the game still has unique features that will keep you glued to the game for hours.

 

The Mercs

In every game room, players must choose a side from one of the two mercenary factions- Black List and Global Risk (I’ll be calling them BL and GR from this point). These two groups are quite similar to CStrike’s Terrorists and CTerrorists team. But nevertheless, the developers still did a good job of making their camo loadouts (Thumbs up for tattooed terrorists!).

 



Starting players are given a choice from three starting outfits. Your chosen outfit will be your very first camo in the game. Don’t worry too much about choosing which is best though, they are all just for looks and don’t offer any special perks or bonuses.

 



Also, players who purchase Cash have an opportunity to buy female player models, which is quite an amazing feat as it gives more variety in terms ofvisual flavor in the battlefield. Honestly, female models always confuse me when it comes to confirming targets at a distance, thanks to their fleshy revealing camo outfits (and mostly the reason why I get killed).

 

What makes this game special – GAME MODES



Cross Fire offers a wide range of game modes and the current update now offers 7 different types:

 

Search and Destroy/Destruction Mode (D.M.) – The usual Bomb-Defuse mode,BL must successfully bomb one of the map’s bomb sites while GR must defend and wipeout the opposing team. GR must defuse the bomb if it is already planted.

 

Ghost Mode (G.M.) G.M.’s rules are the same as D.M. but they added a fun twist to it. BL players are barely visible faded ghosts and cannot be seen when standing still. However, they can only carry knives/melee weapons.On the other hand, GR must defend the bomb sites or must eliminate all ghosts.

 

Free-For-All (F.F.A.) This is the classic deathmatch mode where players race to reach the most number of kills before the time runs out.

 

Team FFA (T.D.M.) The rules of the game are the same as FFA but players are split into two teams.

 

Elimination/Wipeout (W.O.) BL and GR must eliminate all players of their opposing team. Eliminated players will just wait for a new round.

 

Zombie Mode (Z.M.) This is actually one special soldier tag game. All players are given a short countdown and they need to prep up before the infection. A random soldier will become the initial zombie when the infection starts and the zombies must infect (tag) all soldiers in the game. Soldiers win the round when at least one soldier survived the whole round.

 

Escape (ESCAPE) – BL must rally and reach the escape point while GR must prevent BL from reaching it. BL wins the round when the required number of escapees is met.

 


My personal favorite is D.M. (Search and Destroy/Destruction Mode) because tactical planning and stealth skills are primarily essential especially when the round has only a few players left (Don’t you just love it when you get to ambush people because of their footsteps?). Also, Ghost Mode is the game mode that surely makes Cross Fire stand out. The others are also pretty good but they can be found in most FPS games out there. But despite some modes a bit lacking in originality, all modes offered in Cross Fire give a diverse FPS gameplay experience that could give you tons of mayhem with other players (Who doesn’t love pwning players anyway?).

 

Maps



Maps are very important in every FPS game. Most of the maps in Cross Fire are fairly balanced and well planned (especially Destruction Mode maps). Not all maps though are suitable for the same play style. Some maps have lots of stretches, which are convenient for snipers while others have narrow intersecting hallways that require a lot of breaching/assaulting. The map options in the game also offer weapon restrictions (like players can only carry pistols, knives or snipers). This gives additional spice to the game mode and would definitely not get a Cross Fire player bored.

 

Missions and Ranking System



Players are given three different missions every day. These are goals (like win 5 D.M. matches) that must be completed in exchange of rewards (they are mostly experience and cash rewards). I think this is mandatory since these daily missions are the only way to earn money (GP earned from matches is only enough to repair your main weapon). Also, the ranking feature of the game drives you to play even longer because you could have the chance to buy better stock guns in the item shop (bigger and better weapon options are unlocked every time you rank up). These two features would truly get players to log in to the game on a daily basis.

 

Guns and Item shop

The guns in Cross Fire vary from different snipers, SMGs, assault rifles, pistols and knives (they are also made by real gun manufacturers). Your starter guns of course are not that powerful as of yet and can’t kill a full health player in one shot whilebetter guns obviously have more accuracy and firepower (some can even penetrate wooden crates and walls). Players can also drop their current gun in the battlefield so it could pick up better guns on the ground (which is great for newbies who only carry m16s). Additionally, players can also set multiple main weapons to different bags and you can switch between those weapon sets for a few seconds during respawn.

 



Most stock guns can be bought in the item shop and won’t expire (although they require a certain rank and GP Cash before players can buy it) but they need constant repair for their firepower will gradually decrease after a few matches. On the other hand, players can buy Cash (Z8 points) so they could rent and buy exclusive weapons for a few days (the katana looks pretty sweet!). Most of them have superior firepower, ammo capacity and looks (gold plated SCARlite is badass). They also offer set items, which is great for players who want to have a good set of weapons for a sweet deal. I guess coughing up $9 worth of points is worth it for a full set of gears and would last for 90days.

 

The best things in life are free, including Cross Fire




The graphics in the game are not that revolutionary (it looks pretty old and looks a lot like CS 1.6), so you shouldn’t worry about its system requirements. With the game running on its Lithtech engine, any gaming computer made in the past 5 years could run this game smoothly on 1024×768 resolution with maximum effects.

 

 

The sound in the game is also commendable. Gunfire sounds are very close to the real counterpart and the voice commands would emphasize that you are really inside a battlefield. I also give this game a “thumbs up” for its footstep sounds (knowing where and when somebody is approaching is awesome for setting up ambushes).

 

 

Despite the fact that this game is highly noted as an exact clone of Counter Strike, Cross Fire is actually a pretty great and worthy game packaged with loads of fun factors. The entire gameplay and variety of modes would definitely keep this MMOFPS running for more years to come. Most importantly, rich or poor, with cash or no cash, all players can equally enjoy contending against each other without feeling inferior or superior. And that’s what we call fair business – a factor that makes Cross Fire an MMOFPS worthwhile.

 

Overall verdict 8.5/10


The Good:

*Real guns and realistic modern warfare

*Wide selection of balanced maps

*Vast choice of game modes

*Lots of players to pwn (and its community is also nice)

*Noob friendly


The Bad:

*Pretty old graphics (But who needs it when gameplay is at its best)

*Hard to earn GP

*Weapons not customizable

*Stock weapons need constant repair

*Some hackers

Diablo III Countdown: Skill Calculator

Countdown to Diablo III: Item Database and Skill Calculator

By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Journalist

 

 


In this article I’m going to discuss the recent renovation to the Diablo III website that allows players to view hundreds of gear items! Not only is it possible to look up weapons and equipment, Blizzard also released a skill calculator on the website so you can start making up builds! I love to see the artistic models for every piece of equipment because that next bit of shiny gear is what keeps me going towards end-game day in and day out.

 

 

Now let’s start off with the weapons, who doesn’t love a really sharp axe or a really long sword with different curves in their hands? I will start off with the sharpest tool in the shed, the axe!

 

 

The first one handed axe is just plain and simple and gives around 3.2-4.5 DPS and deals around 2-3 to 3-4 Damage. Now this axe is just looking plain and simple but hopefully you an intimidate mobs slightly better than just with your bear hands. Now this on the other hand:

 

 

It looks really awesome! You can see that the axe shows off quality and power and only a single step up the axe hierarchy of power! This really shows that Blizzard has a lot of designers that know what the community wants and can turn those general demands into eye-candy for the masses. Now to make every axe look really awesome would end up making no one feel special. So they also have added high level axes that look plain and simple like the first axe you will most likely start with. These items will most likely be NPC placeholder items that you might use temporarily while farming the good stuff. Some examples of good looking axes:

 

 

Now I am not going to show you every weapon because that will spoil the fun of searching through their website yourself. But I will show you some of my personal favorites for each weapon type. Before that though let’s discuss the established tiers of weapons in Diablo III. There are Common weapons that most likely will be found at every shop and will be easily found as random drops from the monsters. The second rank of weapons you can get are Crafted weapons; these items will most likely be crafted as the name suggests and so can be made by the player. The 3rd rank that Blizzard gives us a sneak peek of is the Legendary weapons. These weapons are really hard to get and will most likely only drop from the higher level bosses so expect to do a lot of farming or pay a pretty penny in the auction house to get your hands on one. This doesn’t mean there will be other ranks of levels, there will be Magic weapons, Rare weapons and Set weapons as well that people can find as a drop by killing monsters.

 

 

Now here are a few other low level weapons that are available in Diablo 3 and that people can get by killing monsters or visiting a weapon vendor.

 

 

These are available from the first level and look really simple, however after around 10 levels you can get these beauties:

 

 

As impressive as these are, they pale in comparison to Legendary weapons:

 

 

Now these weapons really make the player strong looking and if I would ever face someone with one of these weapons in PvP I would probably run for my life till there is no place I can go anymore.

 

In terms of armor I was worried the World of Warcraft designers were going to impact Diablo III, resulting in outlandish unrealistic looking gear. Luckily the Diablo 3 pauldrons are taken serious as armor and the designs aren’t going sky high with floating orbs and such.

 

 

Now let’s take a quick look at chest armor, the last armor piece that I will be showing you in this article. With chest armor the game shows you what kind of level you are. The chest armor is the most visible and really sets you apart from your surrounding peers. In Diablo III the power difference between each set seems quite apparent:

 

 

Skill Calculator

Blizzard recently put the skill calculator on their website. With this calculator you can have some fun in an interactive environment testing out various runes and skill combos. If you’re impatient like me for this game’s launch and want to try it out for yourself, then make sure to give it a try. http://us.battle.net/d3/en/calculator/

 

 

With the Skill calculator you can pick one of the five classes that are currently announced and available in the beta. After picking the skills you wish to use in your build you can also pick different runestones that will give your skill extra bonuses. These include but are not limited to dealing extra damage, a stunning effect or even a buffing effect such as healing when you sweep your first strike. With the announcement that launch has been pushed back to 2012, I’m sure quite a few bored players in waiting will be producing their ultimate theorycrafted PvP and PvE builds on the community forums for months to come.