Yearly Archives: 2011

DC Universe Cat Woman Inspired Update Announced

DC Universe Cat Woman Inspired Update Announced

 

After Michelle Pfeiffer, Halle Berry *shudder* and the recently announced Anne Hathaway, a new version of Gotham’s favourite cat burglar is coming, and she’s bringing Egyptian gods goodies with her!


In the first of Sony Online Entertainments promised monthly content ‘Issues’, DC’s ’ Feline Fatale’  is taking centre stage.  Catwoman brings with her cursed Egyptian artefacts and monsters. See kids? Robbing museums is bad!


DCUO Cat Woman Update

 

“Basically, roughly on a monthly basis we want to add more stuff to the game,” said Chris Cao, the game’s director. “For February we looked and saw that not everyone is max level, so we need some new stuff for people who are still climbing up and trying to become a legend. But we also need something for those players who have already maxed out.”


So this new content will span all levels and give some new items, enemies and armours In the Ancient Mayan Armour and Cat Burglar gear. Catwoman will also be opened up as a playable character in the Legends PvP Arena.


DCUO Mayan Armour Gear Set

DCUO Cat Burgler Gear Set

 

But Batman’s sometimes partner and sometimes foe is not alone as the season of romance will also see Wonder Woman and Circe fighting it out and upsetting the Goddess of Love. This leads to all manner of Valentine’s themed mayhem and adventures in the ‘cherub shadow realm’. Players will compete both with and against each other to earn hearts to use as ingame currency and will ultimately face off against the Goddess of love herself.


In addition, there will be a new Duos mission against Bane, a new Raid mission in the Batcave, races and Information investigations. Perhaps the biggest news for current players is that Item trading will be introduced, so perhaps the Broker Houses in the Watchtower and Hall of Doom will be active sooner than we thought.

Last Online

Be part of one race in the world of LAST Online, which omprises huge world outlook, mutiple classes and all sorts of quests. The story line bases on the psychic revolution which is similar with Industrial Revolution in Europe. The heroes fight against with daimons.The 100:100 mode will be full glory. The developer said they won’t reduce any contents to prevent players obtaining pleasure.

Metropolis Now: Get Your Feet Wet with DC Universe Online’s Opening Levels

Metropolis Now: Get Your Feet Wet with DC Universe Online’s Opening Levels
By Stephen Boyd, OnRPG Journalist

 

Once you have escaped from Braniac’s ship with the assistance of Superman or Lex Luthor (depending on your allegiance) you are thrust into the main game world.

 

For heroes you will either be sent to the east End of Gotham or, in this case, to Little Bohemia in Metropolis.

 

DC Universe Meto Police Station

 

Unfortunately for this usually peaceful area, it has become infested with giant gorillas. Superman tasks you with shutting down this invasion by defeating X number of gorilla soldiers and retrieving X number of information disks. And this sets the tone for the vast majority of the early missions in DC Universe Online. Killing and fetching will need to be done until you reach the boss at the end of the chain and so the early missions can tend a little to the grindy end of things.

 

DC Universe Fighting Monkeys for XP

 

Levelling up happens fairly quickly though at this early stage so you will be given a few new abilities during these early missions. As you reach Level 3 before leaving Braniac’s ship, you already have one of your abilities slotted, but now you get to decide on which direction you want to take your character. In the case of this character, The Mummy, I have chosen a Nature power set this gives me an option of taking a Plant Mastery or Shapeshifting path. I think a werewolf Mummy is something we would all like to see, so that’s the way we are going with this one!

 

DC Universe Powerset Loadouts

 

Each of these start missions will run around three chapters and, in a change from the MMO norm, you will gain mission progression if an ally is running the same quest in your vicinity, even if you are not grouped. This mechanic makes the game world seem cohesive and lets you complete your missions a little more quickly. In another little tweak on MMO standards, you will receive partial XP for every task as soon as you accomplish it. For instance, here I was tasked with taking out 20 gorillas and collecting 10 battle plans. Once I had collected the battle plans, I was granted XP and that got me to Level 4.

 

DC Universe Quest Text

 

Once the full mission was completed I then moved to the next step on the quest chain and was awarded with some snazzy new gloves.

 

The one thing that is a little overwhelming at this point is the sheer speed at which enemies respawn. In this first mission enemies were reappearing literally seconds after I had dispatched them. The mobs also have a tendency to swarm. If you try and aggro one, chances are you will pull half a dozen, and that makes for one dead, or in this game ‘Knocked Out’, hero. I have to assume the developers have these respawn rates ramped up for all the new players, so they don’t have to hang around too long to complete quests, but this is something they need to look at soon.

 

Along the way you will come across several citizens of Metropolis (or Gotham) that need your help. These little side quests are normally integrated into your main missions and provide a great way to level up faster. They can also provide new weapons, armour and health drinks for your character. They will also boost your renown with the varying factions in DC Universe Online which will enable you to purchase exclusive weapons from the vendors associated with those factions.

 

Also scattered around the world are Information nodes.

 

DC Universe Information Nodes

These come in three flavours; Green, Blue and Yellow.

 

Green denotes details and information relating to the backstory of the mission you are running and will fill in some of the lore of DC Comics.

 

The Blue information nodes provide items. As far as I have been able to see, these don’t scale with your character, so best to search an area while doing the mission rather than returning after the fact.

 

The Yellow nodes are for Collectibles. There will be six for each area and collecting all of them will result in a nice reward being sent via your in-game mail from your mentor or another DC hero.

 

Collecting these Info Nodes will also count towards Feats, DC Universe Online Achievement system. However, in a twist on the usual Achievement or Trophy system, these Feat points can actually be translated to Skill Points which you can use in game to build up your character.

 

All this leads us to our first Boss encounter, in this case the villainous psycho-ape, Gorilla Grodd. After running through his army of simian soldiers, we must free his arch nemesis, The Flash and assist the Scarlet Speedster in taking him down.

 

DC Universe Stasis

This battle involves just battering the damn dirty ape until he releases his mental attacks, then running and avoiding them. The Flash does most of the heavy lifting in this fight, so ranged attacks and using the explosive barrels scattered around the room are your best bets.

 

DC Universe Raid Boss Encounter

 

As with the majority of the boss battles in Dc Universe Online, tactics are really not necessary. Just getting in there and keeping yourself healed seem to be the best strategies.  Taking down Gorilla Grodd will bring on the first of the Motion Comics that follow these Boss Encounters.

DC Universe Cutscene

 

These vary in both artistic quality and content. Grodd’s is basically an insight into his Ape Rage. However the Motion Comics that follow the encounters with Harley Quinn and Raven later in the game give nice little insights into the characters and are artistically impressive. Completing these missions will raise you to Level 6 and this, along with giving you more Power points to spend, will open up The Vault for your character.

 

DC Universe Vault Instance

 

The Vault is a nice little daily ‘Bonus Round’ that sees you enter the Joker’s Funhouse and smash presents that contain cash and sweet loot. The loot drops seem to be random and can contain useful weapon Power Ups or cosmetic items. So far I have received Flash T-Shirts, Superboy Hoodies and other DC Hero themed merchandise. Not particularly useful in-game, but a nice little nod to the Fanboys out there.

This covers the earliest stages of DC Universe Online. In our next feature we will look in more depth at the Skill Trees, Character Development and the introductions of PvP.

 

Farmerama: The Snow Is Melting – Time to Plant Those New Crops!

Farmerama: The Snow Is Melting – Time to Plant Those New Crops!


Game publisher and developer Bigpoint has announced that since winter is soon to be ending, there will be new crops for the high-level players of their free-to-play simulation game, Farmerama. Get ready to expand your farm with several new crops and make some good money from the harvest!

 
Farmerama The publishers of Farmerama, Bigpoint have decided to introduce some new crops to plant. The “Help for Santa” quest will soon be coming to an end, and with it, the snow will be disappearing. That, of course, signals the end of winter.

As of today, higher-level players will be able to plant turnips, garlic, spinach, broccoli, red cabbage, sugar maple (tree), barley and leek. However, that was just the first announcement. Shortly after that they had announced additional crops that include: radishes, olive trees, chanterelle, onions and artichokes.

Start your spring off right with the new crops in the free-to-play farm simulation game Farmerama. Get the highest score and be the envy of all your friends as you try to get the most popular farm on the web.

The Wilderness Returns in RuneScape: Are you ready?

The Wilderness Returns in RuneScape: Are you ready?

Are you prepared for the ultimate risk verses reward MMO experience?

On February 1st ‘The Wilderness’, the most dangerous and high risk area of RuneScape, will be returning to the game. If you have little or no experience of RuneScape or of player-vs-player combat in the Wilderness then this is the guide for you.

 

RuneScape Free MMORPG

The Wilderness, for those who haven’t experienced RuneScape, is a barren landscape that dominates the north of the game world. It is an open player vs player (PvP) area where players can hunt down other players with the intention of killing them in PvP combat. The Wilderness can be explored by both members and non-members so everyone is free to put their combat skills to the test in the most dangerous area in RuneScape.

 

If you are a fan of PvP you will love the Wilderness but it isn’t for everyone, so it’s currently protected by a perimeter wall which acts as a warning to players of the dangers ahead. If you are brave enough to try, leap the Wilderness wall and prepare for battle.

 

Strategy and tactics are key to a successful wilderness campaign. If you want advice from seasoned players, then your best bet is to head over to Edgeville, just south of the Wilderness, where many players cluster and prepare before wandering into the Wilderness. You may even be able to find a PKing group of your own to back you up when you venture forth. Whatever your reason for entering the Wilderness, it is clear that you do so at your own risk. As it is an open PvP area you are in danger of being attacked and potentially dying at the hands of another player. Unlike other popular MMOs, dying in the Wilderness doesn’t just mean that you will re-spawn somewhere else. It will mean that upon death the items you are carrying and wearing will drop on the ground where they will be available for other players to pick up. Of course conversely, if you kill another player you get the immediate reward of gaining their items.

 

The Wilderness can be a thrilling, tempting risk; one that you could potentially reap great rewards from. You have to decide whether taking your expensive high level equipment will give you enough of an advantage to ensure that you are on the winning side of the “kill or be killed” mentality.

 

You might wonder why you would want to venture into the Wilderness at all, when high level players would clearly have the advantage but help is at hand. RuneScape has a number of things in place which are designed to stop low-level players from immediately dying at the hands of high-level players lying in wait at the borders of the Wilderness. There are three factors that affect who you can attack in the Wilderness: your combat level, your opponent’s combat level, and the depth of the Wilderness (which is indicated on your screen). The Wilderness stretches from a depth of level 1 to level 56, increasing as you head further north. P-king soon becomes the art of knowing which players to attack and who to leave well alone!

 

Eventually you may find yourself biting off more than you can chew with escape your only viable option. Although you might want to run away as fast as you can; things may not always be that simple. Teleport spells can get you out of a combat situation; however there is the danger that this will be countered by an opponent’s Teleblock spell, meaning your escape attempt will fail.

 

It isn’t all dangerous; there are some areas in the Wilderness which act as a safe haven, most notably the small area after the Wilderness wall and Daemonheim, the home of Dungeoneering. Reach these locations and your opponent will not be able to attack. Some of these areas do require that you are out of combat for ten seconds, however, so be aware that you may not be allowed in until that time has elapsed.

 

Now that you know the basics of the Wilderness do you think you are up to the challenge? Are you ready to tackle the epic wilderness? Why not create a free account at the official website. and jump in game. The Wilderness returns on February 1st so let battle commence.

Conquer Online Hits the Mac!

TQ Digital has recently confirmed the development of a Mac version for their Kung Fu MMORPG, Conquer Online. The game is one the 1st Chinese free to play 2.5D MMOs that has a standalone client for the Mac, which is released both in domestic & overseas markets!

 
Conquer Online is a free-to-play 2.5D MMORPG set in the style of ancient China. The game had its first debut back in 2003, and is one of the longer lasting MMOs still on the market. Currently it has 6 language versions and more than 20 million registered users from all around the world. Boasting a simple, yet interesting and addictive, open-environment PvP system, and a huge global player community, this game has attracted countless gamers from all over the world each year, and the number just keeps growing!

Generally speaking, Conquer Online has simple and straightforward combat-focused gameplay, incorporating the common elements of many MMORPGs such as wealth, fame, as well as item and character development. PvP is its core feature, with the combat being fast paced and fluid. It offers a myriad of fun quests & PvP options, including Arena battles, Guild Wars, and even cross server PK tournaments, that all provide players with an engaging battleground and numerous opponents.

The exact date for the official release of the Mac client is not yet confirmed. The only thing that can be sure is that the new Mac Conquer will also be free to play and will include all of the previous updates available for the Windows version. The port will be identical to the PC version, so hopefully Mac users will soon be able to get their hands on this exciting game!

Faxion Closed Beta Released – Hell Freezes Over

Did you know today is officially “Hell Freezes Over” day? You do now and UTV True Games, an international publisher of multi-player online games, announced today that on this, the Holiest of Hell days, it has launched the closed beta test for its upcoming combat driven MMORPG, Faxion Online.

Pre-registered Beta players will begin receiving invites today, Monday, January 31, and others  can obtain their beta keys by visiting www.FaxionOnline.com where the Faxion logo is currently frozen in honor of “Hell Freezes Over” day.

Upon entering the world of Faxion, players will find themselves in war-torn limbo as they start their journey in the afterlife.  The Seven Deadly Sins represent physical locations in the game, each with its own immoral theme, and players will have the opportunity to explore and discover the locations as they immerse themselves in intense battle for the armies of Heaven or Hell.  Through each manifestation of the Sins, players will encounter the people that represent them. From the Gluttonous enjoying an eternal feast, to the Prideful Atlans building their Tower into the skies, players must face off against other inhabitants of the afterlife, limbo and the deadly sins while vying for control of each deadly zone!   

Faxion - Hell Hath Frozen Over!

“When celebrating “Hell Freezes Over” day you are supposed to pull out a list of all the things you said you would do when Hell freezes over but screw that; why not just come and check out Faxion instead?” said Frank Lucero, Studio Head at UTV True Games.

Horns or halos, demonic or angelic, whatever the choice, players can side with Heaven or Hell in the relentless struggle for ultimate domination over the seven deadly sins.  With a comical twist, Faxion Online delivers aggressive and robust PVP game play and a unique territory control system that allows the different factions to battle for the fate of the seven deadly sins.  With a unique multi-classing system, players will have the freedom to play the way they want with achievement and glory through adventure and combat.

Faxion Online is being developed internally at UTV True Games’ Austin, Texas studio by a group of industry veterans with significant experience on titles such as Shadowbane, Ultima Online and many other popular MMORPG’s. Faxion Online players can expect to see a ground-breaking, competitive action game that strips away the typical experience and leveling grind observed in many MMORPG’s today.

Faxion Preview Tour – Heaven or Hell? LET’S ROCK!

Faxion Preview Tour – Heaven or Hell? LET’S ROCK!
By Michael Sagoe (mikedot), OnRPG Journalist

 

UTV True Games is working on an epic new online game that will pit the forces of Heaven and Hell in a war to settle the score once and for all. Faxion is a traditional MMORPG that focuses heavily on combat and will serve up tons of exciting experiences that will prove it’s not just another run of the mill MMO. The game is currently in an alpha testing phase and I got a chance to play first hand.

 

For starters, players will begin the game by choosing whether to side with Heaven or Hell. It may seem like a tough decision, but both sides are structured very similar to each other.  For this tour, I and several others joined up with the Heaven side to meet up with Ashen Temper, one of the Lead Developers for the game. Once gathered, we set off to see and learn more about world of Faxion.

 

 

Faxion Winged Champion Class

 

Ashen first explained to us about the game’s classes: Available for both heaven and hell are Crusaders/Reavers (warrior types), Diviner/Occultists which are range/DPS dealers and Guardian/Zealots which can heal and buff. While this all sounds like the same old stuff we’ve seen from other MMOs before, Faxion sets itself apart from the pack by introducing a multi-class system.  Basically, you can mix and match skills between the available classes to create a unique class you can call your own.

 

Want to create a ranged class with tanking abilities? No problem!

…Or how about a warrior that can heal and buff? Go for it!

 

Although you’re free to tweak your character with tons of different possibilities, the amount of multi-class skills you can earn are balanced out by the amount of skills points needed to unlock them. Gaining skills for your primary class will require the least amount of points, secondary class will have a moderately higher amount needed and your third class will require a ton of points. Plus: You’ll need considerable amounts of gold to gain those skills as well, so you won’t be able to create a character with every skill available.

 

Next up: We took a quick peak into a wild museum with exhibits on unicorns, creepy goatmen and even a giant wookiee!

 

 

After that, we ran off to the marketplace to see what UTV had planned for the game’s F2P aspect. Like with UTV other titles, Faxion will be a free-to-play title with micro-transactions.  Just about everything in Faxion’s game world can be earned from looting or purchased over at market with in-game gold. But what if you’d rather spend less time finding equipment and more time battling others? Well you have the option to purchase special coins with real currency to purchase items from the market as well.

 

 

Faxion Free MMO Dark vs Light

 

This gives you the choice to either enjoy the game with time and/or money spent, and will make sure that Faxion will never have a “pay-to-win” issue. Now this is an excellent decision from UTV that many free-to-play publishers and devs should take note from.

 

It was then time to get our heavenly hands dirty with a little combat. We strolled along the city looking for some suspicious looking characters and ran into this big ugly shmuck. We tried to take it down, but most of us got taken out pretty fast.  Dying in Faxion (currently) does not have any penalties whatsoever, so it becomes more of a pride and humiliation kind of thing.

 

 

Faxion Free MMORPG Spell

 

The world of Faxion proves to be one that isn’t for the weak, because you’re never too far from a fight around here. This game is completely geared for PvP in just about every way. Sure, there will be a few PvE opportunities here and there, but ultimately, you’re going to have to use your strengths to beat up someone in your opposing faction. For instance, both factions will be batting to control different areas to gain resources and special quests. When areas are controlled by Heaven, the sky will turn bright and blue, while areas controlled by Hell will turn dark and red. If you were on a quest in a particular area and it ends up getting taken over, you’ll be cut off from that quest and would have to fight the opposing faction to get it back.

 

Now it was time for us to visit one of the many fascinating worlds in Faxion: The realm of the seven deadly sins. Currently, the gluttony area known as “the fields of hunger” was available, but soon there will be a realm for every other sin (can’t wait to see what the lust realm looks like!) The fields of hunger had tons of trees bearing fruit and crops to be harvested. I saw several NPCs slaving over these crops while fat; disgusting dudes were having a feast. From there, the realm of Gluttony kept getting grosser at every turn.

 

I witness one of the most disgusting things ever in an MMO: This freakishly huge man surrounded by food and covered in slime stood in front of us. There was also tube above him that ran straight to his mouth so he could eat all day. The room he was in was also a huge mess, as there was tons of discarded and half-eaten food everywhere. When we first saw it, I and the others thought: LETS CLIMB MT. FATTY! We started jumping all over it to see if we could reach the top, but sadly, we couldn’t. L

 

 

Faxion Free MMORPG

 

Behind this huge blob of a man, there were hills upon hills of wasted, rotting food. As horrible as that was, Ashen tells us that these huge hills would be great places to jump off and glide to your next destination (if you have a pair of working wings.)

 

 

Faxion Free MMORPG

 

While there was several bugs and issues that occurred the experience, my preview tour of Faxion left me greatly impressed. The whole concept of Heaven vs. Hell is intriguing, and the constant struggle for supremacy will keep the excitement levels high.

 

 

Faxion Free MMORPG

 

Spending A Good Night In Neverwinter

Spending A Good Night In Neverwinter
A retrospective on the Neverwinter Nights series, filled to the brim with nostalgia and joy

By Jason (Hhean) Harper, OnRPG Journalist


Neverwinter Nights Two Handed

 

Neverwinter Nights 2, the Obsidian made sequel to BioWare’s ode to pen and paper RPGs has finally made it on to the Steam distribution platform, enjoying some good sales numbers for a game now over four years old. What’s made this series so enduring over the years, and why are both games still played by so many people, so long after their release?

 

Simply put, no other game on the market, nor any game currently in development, offers the diversity that Neverwinter Nights series provides, all without a single modification. No other set of games comes with a full single player campaign, a robust toolset for building your own content, and a powerful administrative client straight out of the box. Built with a comprehensive multiplayer component in mind, the Neverwinter Nights games were both game, and gaming platform.

 

Neverwinter Nights Bear

 

The first Neverwinter Nights was pitched as software to allow old Pen and Paper groups to play together online in dungeons made by, and run by their old Dungeon Master in days of yore. It was intended to be the successor to the critically acclaimed Baldur’s Gate series, while updating to the Dungeons and Dragons 3.0 ruleset, and moving from the aged infinity engine to a new 3D engine dubbed ‘Aurora’.

 

For many people, the single player alone was worth their time and money. If the original campaign and the expansions weren’t enough, even more content was available, crafted by the active community on Neverwinter Vault. This was made possible by the games’ powerful, yet surprisingly easy to use Aurora and Electron Toolsets, which came with Neverwinter Nights and its sequel, respectively.

 

With most games, the option to use its development kit really is only available to someone with some knowledge of 3D modelling and design before they could even begin understanding what they are looking at. It would take weeks, or months, to learn the basics of the Unreal Development Kit, the Valve Hammer Editor, or Morrowind’s Toolset (although the latter had a relatively painless learning curve by comparison). With the Aurora, or Electron Toolset (the former more than the latter), you really could learn it as you used it, jumping in without reading a single tutorial, though these helped greatly with some of the more sophisticated aspects of the toolsets, such as scripting. It was this ease of access that gave rise to the robust community surrounding the game; Builders and modders, storytellers and artists, coders and server admins all creating and hosting new content for others to enjoy.

 

Neverwinter Nights

 

There couldn’t have been such a strong community surrounding the game though if it had no multiplayer component, and indeed, the games were built from the ground up with multiplayer in mind. The first trailers for the original game heavily emphasized the multiplayer aspect of the game, and the advantages of interacting with someone on the Dungeon Master (DM) client.

 

That said, the majority of online usage for the game was simply people playing through the original campaigns co-operatively with their friends (A market the new Cryptic-made Neverwinter game hopes to tap into with its co-op focus). The smaller sessions in custom dungeons, created and run by a Dungeon Master (that were the game’s intended purpose) turned out to be in the minority when the game first came out.

 

The game’s multiplayer got its most interesting twist some time after the release of the original game when some of the players began to realize the potential of Neverwinter Nights as a platform. The persistent worlds began to appear, small scale MMORPGs (Or MORPGs) designed by small teams for specific purposes. Rather than the single digit numbers of a co-op campaign, or the numberless legions in an MMO, the persistent worlds fell in the area of two dozen to fifty individuals playing together at any given time, an area where few games seem to tread outside of the FPS genre.

 

The action and arena servers sprang up – fields of endless battle, a geeky Valhalla, where only the strongest of munchkins could survive. The social servers grew into bizarre realms where a floating eyeball would converse with a half vampire/dragon about the migration patterns of geese. This is unlike what the modern ‘Social’ servers are like though, which spread like herpes some time later, and are places entirely set up for some of the most bizarre cybersex outside of second life. The Roleplay servers set up their stages, upon which the players would act as the protagonists to a play with sets and props crafted by their Dungeon Masters, and penned by madmen.

 

Never Winter Nights Map

 

Each of these places grew to have their own rules and customs, and anyone joining Neverwinter Nights 2 now, picking it up as an impulse buy from a steam sale perhaps, is now treated to a plethora of ways to play, of different worlds and experiences ready to be explored.

 

Next week we’ll explore why, if all of these ideas were so great, why no other game went the direction that the Neverwinter Nights games took. The flaws of creating a game as a platform for large scale community development, and why there likely won’t be any games released in the near future that follow its business model.