Yearly Archives: 2011

War of the Immortals Enters OB Today

War of the Immortals Enters OB Today

 

 

 

Perfect World Entertainment today successfully launched open beta testing for its classic action MMORPG, War of the Immortals . In addition to interactive environments, and classic action-RPG gameplay, players worldwide are now exploring new content including two new zones with vivid landscapes, high-level instances, and new events.

 

In War of the Immortals’ open beta, two new servers – Gaia and Midgard – have been opened to accommodate an influx of players. On a quest to hit the level 115 cap, parties solve challenging puzzles, uncover valuable treasure and battle fierce monsters and bosses from the desolate underworld. As players level up, they may also fight alongside new pets, earn new upgradable skills, and access the most powerful gear available in the game — Soul and Golden Gear.

 

“We’d like to thank everyone, especially our players, who supported War of the Immortals during closed beta testing,” said Jonathan Belliss, Executive Producer, Perfect World Entertainment Inc. “Our players provided us with valuable feedback, which helped us balance and improve many in-game features. Although we still have a few tweaks left before we go live, we hope that players enjoy the exciting new features in open beta.”

 

To celebrate the open beta launch, Perfect World Entertainment is giving away more than $2,500 worth of prizes, including a computer, gaming hardware, War of the Immortals limited edition collectible items, and in-game currency. Various prizes will be available as players reach each of the three tiers beginning at Tier 1. All players who register for a free War of the Immortals account and login to play between now and December 31 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific will automatically be entered for a chance to win prizes at Tier 1.

 

 

Interested in trying it out but don’t know anyone to play with? Head over to OnRPG’s Forums and join the War of the Immortals discussion!

Dragon Nest Spreads the Holiday Cheer with Giveaways

Dragon Nest Spreads the Holiday Cheer with Giveaways

 

 

This year has been a fantastic success for Nexon America’s latest Action RPG, Dragon Nest! To celebrate, they are planning a slew of giveaways and events to reward the players that have made this all possible, as well as release a little trailer bragging about their accomplishments.

 

 

From now through December 14, players logged in to the game from 5:00 – 7:00 p.m. (PT) during the week, or from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. (PT) on the weekends, will receive a bevy of daily awards. Awards can include increased EXP, drop rates, party bonuses, crafting materials, jewels and even Dragon Vault items. A different item will be awarded each day.

 

 

Additionally, Nexon is calling for all Dragon Nest adventurers to assemble on Wednesday, Dec. 7 for an extra special one day log-in event. Players who log-in anytime on Dec. 7 will receive a king’s bounty of in-game rewards the following day, including:

 

A +12 Rare Weapon Enhancement

Small Blue Devil Wings (30 days)

30 Goddess Teardrops (I’m sold!)

A Scroll of Unlearning

 

 

Four lucky players per world will also be randomly selected to receive a +9 Epic Weapon Enhancement, one of the most valuable item enhancements in the game.

DFO: Side Scrolling Beat em’ Up

Dungeon Fighter Online: Side Scrolling Beat em’ Up

By Mohammad Abubakr, OnRPG Journalist

 

 

 

Nowadays a lot of the MMOs tend to be played simply by pointing and clicking. There is a lot of emphasis on skill towards combat as there is on time spent grinding and deriving optimal builds. Dungeon Fighter Online is different from other MMOs because you must be skilled in the art of combat or you will fail.

 

 

Dungeon Fighter which was developed by Neople and picked up by Nexon and brought to North America to offer MMO players alternatives to the simple point and click MMOs. I am not bashing on point and click games; I have had a lot of fun playing point and click MMOs. It is just nice to see twitch and skill based MMOs diversifying the market.

 

 

DFO plays like a 2D side scrolling beat em’ up game. The mouse is seldom used and the keyboard be will your weapon of war. While the game is a 2D side scroller, your character can still move in or out of the map which creates some depth to areas. Enemies can be upfront or behind and you must line up with them to land attacks. This can take some time to get used to but it is very easy to pickup.

 

Maintaining high ranks can be hard for inexperienced players


Although it is a 2D side scroller, the graphics are not very bad. They may not look very realistic but the art style is quite attractive. When playing in windowed mode the characters and spells look great but the very low resolution (640 x 480) causes the graphics to stretch a lot when playing in full screen. A future update offering higher resolutions would greatly improve the graphics of DFO.

 

 

Having low graphics does have its pros. Any computer unless very outdated will be able to run this game with ease. Some younger gamers do not have the blessing of playing on gaming computers but will be able to enjoy DFO without any lag.

 

Nexon loves their EXP events


When the game initially launched, there were many complaints about the fatigue system. This system limited the amount of dungeons players could run in a day and allowed casual players to keep up with avid gamers.

 

 

Nexon listened to the players and replaced this system with the new Blitz Points system. Instead of limiting the amount of dungeons you can run, this system rewards players for running more dungeons! As you run more dungeons you will gain an experience boost but will have to pay more to maintain your equips. As you spend more blitz points your equipment’s durability will decrease at a faster rate and repair costs will also go up.

 

 

DFO offers players the choice between many different classes. The NA version currently features the following classes: thief, female gunner, slayer, fighter, male gunner, mage and priest. A male fighter will be added in a coming update.

 

 

Every class has a different play style and performs better in certain situations. Every gamer has their own unique style of play; DFO’s variety of classes helps gamers play to their liking. The classes can be built and trained into various trees each focusing on different roles. Since skills are leveled using skill points that are obtained by gaining experience, players must plan out their skill trees as not all skills can be maxed.

 

 

While the characters’ skills and items can be customized to your liking, your appearance is unchangeable without the cash shop. The cash shop allows players to purchase cosmetic items to alter their character model. Normal equips will not change how your character looks. I was rather disappointed by not being able to visually show off my new equips but the game must have some restrictions on free to play players. The best thing about the cash shop is that it does not make its users overpowered. Free to play players can still compete with power users if they invest enough time. Since the game requires player skill and not just items, acquiring overpowered cash shop items will not allow players to simply mow down dungeons.

 

 

Cash shop items can also be purchased from players using the in game currency.

 

 

The dungeons are very fun to run through the first couple of times but tend to get repetitive after running them multiple times. There are multiple difficulty levels which feature different monsters and dungeons randomize their layouts every run, but you are still fighting the same types of enemies every run.

 

 

Alongside multiple dungeons, DFO offers a huge list of quests. During the early stages of the game completing every quest given to you is worthwhile but as you progress through the game the quests tend to get very repetitive and are no longer worth your time.

 

 

Fortunately quests are divided into general quests and epic quests. My experienced friends mentioned that later on you should only really worry about completing Epic Quests.

 

 

The questing system is very easy in DFO because you are told of all available quests and guided through the entire quest. It even goes as far as label the dungeons with icons that go towards completing your current quests. Even the map is marked to show a quest’s NPCs. The quests help prevent this game from feeling like too much of a grind fest.

 

Running dungeons at max level


My favourite feature of Dungeon Fighter Online besides the fact that it requires skill would be the PvP. Since every player’s combat abilities rely on their skill to combo abilities together, PvP can be a blast. You will never feel that you lost solely because of your newbie equips but because your opponent was the better player. This really makes the PvP competitive as you want to take revenge on your opponent and prove you are the better player.

 

 

To participate in PvP players must join a room in the arena. Rooms are hosted the same way as rooms in first person shooters and offer multiple game modes including brawl (free for all), team (1 v 1 to 4 v 4) and elimination mode (1 v 1).

 

 

The arena is not just to get your mind off of grinding dungeons. You gain PvP experience which goes towards raising your Arena rank and Victory points which can be redeemed for PvP items from vendors.

 

 

PvP can be frustrating for new players because one mistake and you will be locked in combos by experienced players. You never know what is going to happen in PvP because every player fights with their own style.

 

 

Like most MMOs, certain classes are stronger at PvP than others which means that to be a fully effective player killer you must build your character correctly. The same goes for the PvE part of Dungeon Fighter Online.

 

 

Conclusion

I really love games that require skill to play because you will always feel accomplished after finishing every task. It is great to see an MMO that offers combat not solely relying on equips and skill builds.

 

 

While DFO was very fun to play and review, I got tired of running repetitive dungeons one after another. I encounter this problem with all instanced action MMOs because I love games that are dynamic.

 

 

I can see myself playing DFO casually every now and then but it is not the type of game to play hours on end every day. I definitely recommend checking out DFO. Getting a friend to tag along will easily double your fun.

 

 

Graphics: 3.5/5

Controls: 4.5/5

Features: 3.5/5

Customization: 3.5/5

Community: 3.5/5

Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm Preview

Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm Preview

By Umar Farooq (Kluey), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

 

Starcraft 2: Heart of the Swarm is the second expansion pack of Starcraft 2 that debuted at Blizzcon 2011. The first expansion featured the race Terran. This second much anticipated expansion pack will feature the swarm race, Zerg. Along with many new units there will be improved multiplayer and single player features. In this article we will go over only the multiplayer features as there are more than enough single player features for its own article.

 

 

Balance

Balance is one of the most important if not the most difficult thing about Heart of the Swarm. The most balanced way to add a new expansion pack would be to not add anything obviously. The only problem with that is, it’s completely useless and no one would buy it. To avoid breaking the game, Blizzard has avoided many types of units such as the tier one units since they are easy to mass.  These units were being used as the dominant unit in almost every strategic composition. The Marine was used in every match up except for TvT mech. This caused the game to look a bit repetitive and dull. Blizzard also decided not to make more of these units because of how the previous meta-game worked. Attack command and macro (producing more units and spending all your resources) was the way to play. Because of this, Blizzard is introducing many spell casting units that benefit from micro (the art of controlling your units to make them more cost efficient).

 

New Units and Removed Units:


Protoss

Protoss is the race that is known for attack commanding, aka clicking, their massed army into the enemy army. Blizzard intends to change this by introducing many spell casters and positional units for Protoss. Another problem with Protoss was the early game. Early game, many players would die to a timing attack or all-in attack which is so much more powerful. I think that these units will help blend Protoss into a race that requires speed and agile fingers rather than just a sharp mind and a large map.

 

 

The Oracle helps Protoss harass as the warp prism was an unsuccessful unit until recently. Denying mineral patches for 45 seconds is absolutely huge as it nullifies the base almost entirely. The Replicator is good but has stirred up some controversy about the future of competitive Starcraft. In traditional Starcraft fashion, a strategy is beaten by good play not by making the proper unit. With the Replicator, any early push with a Siege Tank will require you to make a Replicator and you’re fine. While this is good for lower level players, it makes Starcraft less of the hundreds of actions per minute game and more into the chess-type game. The Tempest is kind of weird as it’s an anti-air unit but, besides Mutalisks, air isn’t really a problem for Protoss players. The Tempest does hit ground units too but does very little damage, making it extremely cost inefficient.

 

 

Now, the news that everyone has been sad about, the Carrier will be removed! The Carrier has been an all time favourite unit since Broodwar. Hundreds of interceptors being thrown out by a massive aircraft is just awesome in every way. The Carrier also added a lot of strategic gameplay as you can’t make a Carrier whenever you felt like. It took a long time and money to build so you had to fit that into your gameplan. In other news, the Mothership will be removed and replaced by spells on a Nexus. I don’t particularly like this as it rewards bad play in a sense. If you’re missing your chrono boosts you will have energy to recall. This seems a bit unlike Starcraft to me but I could see it working out fine.

 

Carriers releasing their Interceptors


Terran

The Terran is a human race that uses infantry and artillery to fight their enemies. In Wings of Liberty, the Terran race was considered the strongest race. Terran’s main problem was they were going with the same style of play in almost every game. In their mirror match-up, if the opponent Terran went for a mechanic type build, you would respond with the exact same build or go for a bionic build. Any mix of the two would put you slightly behind as you will have weak armies of both rather than one strong army. To counteract this, Blizzard has put some reactionary units in the Terran arsenal.

 

 

The Warhound will help against the mechanic style in Terran vs Terran and some Terran vs Protoss play as Stalkers and Sentries are both mechanical. The Battle Hellion is the anti-light unit but has some health. This will be extremely helpful against marines, zerglings and zealots as normal hellions were way too fragile. The Battle Hellion will also be slower to balance out the extra health it receives. The one unit that got everyone talking was the Shredder.

 

Shredders zoning out zerglings and banelings

 

The units that will be removed aren’t that huge for Terran. The Thor is being replaced by a ‘Super’ Thor that you can only have one of and does extreme amounts of damage. Apart from that, Reapers are losing their building attack bonus damage which is a bit weird as late game reapers were extremely effective because of how fast they were and how they could take out buildings really quickly. The Battle Cruiser is being ‘buffed’ and will be given a charge type spell that allows it to sprint quickly towards the enemy. This will be interesting to see because air units are typically supposed to stay close to their supporting units rather than charging in. It could be a good spell to get away from unwanted engagements but it still doesn’t fit the unit as the Battle Cruiser is pretty large.

 

 

Zerg

Zerg is the swarm race that is being put in the spotlight in this expansion. Zergs are usually considered to be the middle race. They aren’t the strongest but aren’t the weakest. They have a good balance between making decisions and playing fast whereas Protoss leans towards the mental game and Terran towards the physical game.

 

 

A unit that wasn’t a big problem amongst the players but was to the developers is the Overseer. The Overseer is a unit that gives detection but also gives supply. A unit that has a use but also gives supply is extremely hard to balance. For this reason, the Overseer will be replaced by the Viper which has the ability to give any one unit detection for the rest of the game. It also has a spell that can reduce the sight range of units to 1 and a spell that will pull a unit towards it. The spell that will pull a unit is hard to balance because the strong fragile units are always a target and pulling it into your army makes it so much easier to focus down. The second unit is the Swarm Host. The Swarm Host is a siege unit that sends out 2 mini-units that do not take supply. It will help Zerg to put constant pressure on its opponent.

 

 

Vipers reducing the range of marines to 1

 

Apart from the Overseer being removed, all Zerg units will stay. There will be upgrades for Hydralisk Speed, Burrow Baneling Movement, and Ultralisk Charge. Corruptors’ corrupt spell will be removed (sounds correct, yes?) and will gain a channelling spell that gives you money and does 1 dps.

 

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, Heart of the Swarm will bring many new things good and bad. One thing to keep in mind for this game and usually any preview is that things will be changed or even removed totally. Also, new things will be introduced which weren’t released at the time of this preview. At the current state all things will be imbalanced. It will be interesting to see how Blizzard ends up releasing this expansion without throwing things out of whack. When this eventually goes live I’ll see about looking into the game and writing up my impressions.

Firefall Releases New Wave of Beta Invites

Firefall Releases New Wave of Beta Invites

 

 

Phobos, Community Manager for Red 5 Studios, the development studio behind Firefall, today made a forum announcement that a new wave of beta invites have been sent out.

 

 

For those that have been closely following this game, rush to your spam folders now and see if you are among the lucky few hundreds to be sent access! Those invited today will not only gain access but have the golden key to let someone else into the game to play as well.

 

 

And for those of us (like myself!) that do not yet have access to Firefall, fear not. If the beta testing goes well over the next couple days, more invites are promised!