Yearly Archives: 2011

RaiderZ

RaiderZ EU Portal: http://www.raiderz-europe.com/en/

RaiderZ is among a new breed of MMOs including Dragon Nest and TERA Online that are setting out to redefine the MMORPG genre by including FPS elements and non-targeting combat systems. These games take elements from modern console actions games and incorporate them seamlessly into the online realm. Now Raiderz is looking to take it a step further with interactive environments and freedom of class building!

 

Features:

 

Exhilarating Combat: Enjoy a dynamic non-targeting combat system which will challenge even the most hardcore players. Try to stay out of your enemy’s range to avoid getting pulverized.
Gigantic Monsters: Fight against huge monsters, tear them to bits and use the pieces to your advantage in the next battle.

 

Counterattack: Collect parts from your enemies and turn their weapons against them. That could mean better gear for your character or even temporary buffs.

 

No Class Restrictions: No predefined character classes. Create a truly unique avatar by choosing your own special skill set from more than 350 talents.

 

Grappling System: Monsters don’t just smack you and deal damage in RaiderZ. They grip you, munch on you, and throw you around like you’ve never experienced in an MMO before!

 

True Physics: From the way an enemy’s spear breaks on your shield to the breeze ruffling your cloak, every element of RaiderZ reacts to true physics on a state of the art game engine.

The Chosen Online Victory Interview

The Chosen Online’s Latest Chosen Interview

 

 

As reported yesterday, The Chosen Online‘s latest contest to win a labtop by becoming the first Chosen on Rally Server has come to an end. FatalKil rose through the ranks of the Qin Dynasty and then conquered his enemies in an epic brawl against the Ming, Tang, Song and Han to claim the ultimate ingame title of Chosen as well as a laser-etched EON-17-S high performance gaming laptop from Origin PC. OnRPG has access to his victory interview with Snail Games.

 


Snail Games: Hey Fatal, thanks for taking the time to speak with us and congratulations on become The Chosen. To start, how long have you been playing?

 


Fatal: I think since Day 1. I think I was one of the first players on the first few days.  It’s been out for, what, 3 and a half or four months now?

 

 

Snail Games: Yep, so I think we can get away with calling you a veteran of the game. So there’s a lot of games out there, why play The Chosen? What hooked you in, and what has kept you such a dedicated player?

 

 

Fatal: I like the fact that you have to have friends to play the game, period. It’s not a game for one person to come in and basically take over a whole Dynasty. You see some Dynasties have one or two strong players, but 10 united people can actually unite and beat them. We’ve proven that. 

 

I also like the shop. You guys have a really nice shop, you really do. I like the element of surprise in opening eggs and platinum chests.  It’s sort of like going to the store and buying a lottery ticket and you never know if you’re going to hit $1 or if you’re going to hit $500.  I like the option of being able to have that, it’s a lot of fun.

 

 

Snail Games: Out of your current Alliance, how many of those did you know before you came into the game?

 

 

Fatal: Actually, I knew two of them before I came into the game. Now I have a network of probably 40 players from Chosen that are all in the same Alliance, whether it be on server 1 or server 2. We all have voice, and we talk all day long. We have a blast. It’s kind of hectic sometimes during war, you got 30 people yelling at each other, you know. But it’s a team oriented thing.  The Chosen cannot be accomplished without having trustworthy friends.

 

 

It’ s like any game, or just like the real world, if you have the King of a country the King is always looking over his back and having his right hand man test food. It’s kind of the same way in this game. You have to watch who your friends are. You have to build alliances. It’s definitely not a solo game for leveling; you have to have you friends. You can’t beat bosses solo, really. You have to have teamwork.  So in other words, nothing is accomplished in this game unless you have a team.  And that’s what makes the game fun.

 

 

Without friends, and without teams, a game becomes very boring.  For this game, some of these people I’ve met have given me their home phone numbers.  We call each other, we have plans to meet.  Not only have we made friends in game, but hopefully we’ve made lifelong friends playing it.

 

 

Snail Games: As a company full of gamers, we all love to hear that.  We’ve got plenty of our own stories, but do you have any others that stick out?

 

Fatal: It is really cool. The one person who was my enemy in Ming on server 1, well turns out he lives 30 minutes from me and is a bartender at one of the bars that we go to, and we ended up marrying in server 2. You know? One of my biggest hated enemies and rivals on server 1 ended up becoming real good friends. She talks to my wife, and it’s just become cool.

 

 

Snail Games: So what was it like becoming The Chosen? What was your gameplan, and what obstacles did you come across?

 

 

Fatal: When the contest came up, the bottom line was “would I be able to unite enough people from server 1 to join me and be on my side to actually win the contest?” That was the biggest hurdle right there, because as I said in step one:  without friends, you don’t become The Chosen. I don’t care how many people are in your realm, you’ve got to have a solid core group of people.

 

 

My biggest challenge was uniting my biggest enemies. And I took that challenge from day one, if you remember I messaged you on day one “I’m going to unite everybody, watch.”  I’m going to get all these people who were fighting and hating, and we’re all going to get together and accomplish this.  And we had a couple people say “uhhh I want the laptop, I’m going to go for it”, and we said alright, that’s cool.  You know what I mean?  My biggest opposition was Tidus.  Awesome player.  He just didn’t…he had the same shot we did, but he just didn’t have the same support that we did.  If he did, things would have been a lot more competitive. We kind of had the gameplan from Day 1, and I had the right group of people.

 

 

OnRPG congratulates Rally server’s newest Chosen and dares players to take up arms to see if they can rise up to become the next!

Meta’s Verse: CoH Halloween Review 2011

Meta’s Verse: City of Heroes Halloween Review 2011

By Meticulous Meta, OnRPG’s Paragon City Journalist

 

 

 

 

Halloween is a special time in the City of Heroes universe. First, you have two weeks of darkness thanks to the Unseelie Court. This makes it a perfect time to go hunting for those elusive Banished Pantheon Spirit Masks which only appear at night or the ghosts in Croatoa. But this isn’t what makes Halloween special. It’s nothing more than a lovely bonus side effect in fact. What makes Halloween special is the extra lengths the Paragon Studios team goes to. The giant pumpkin monster Eochai and the giant Jack in Irons who really needs to invest in some pants roam free in the city. At every door stands the chance of getting a treat or a trick in the form of vampires, witches and ghosts. When the sky goes red and the warnings blare you know there is about to be a zombie horde invading the part of the city you’re unfortunate enough to be in. As if all that isn’t enough the citizens of Paragon City and the Rogue Isles face invasions from iconic horrors. All of these things though are from the past.

 

 

 

New this year is Dr. Kane’s House of Horror, a haunted mansion with a deadly story. But before you get to hear more about the haunted mansion I want to talk about the residents of Paragon City. How insane do you have to be to want to live there? Sure, petty normal every day crime is low thanks to all the heroes. But you’ve got regular Rikti invasions from space, a meteor shower with giant goo aliens who want to destroy the world, zombie invasions, giant monsters roaming the city…the list can go on forever. Why would anyone in their right mind live in Paragon?

 

 

Anyway! Dr. Kane’s Haunted Mansion. First and foremost I have to say it looks beautiful. The art crew really went all out with it. It is a four man map using the trial technology. Though if I am completely honest I’m not sure why other than to show it off. You are really rewarded for talking to NPCs and exploring the map. You get to cut in line to see the haunted mansion thanks to your hero (or villain ) status. But as with anything in this world you soon discover things are not as they appear. The people who go in never come out. As you go through the house looking for Dr. Kane to question him you face wave after wave of zombies. But once you find him things don’t get any easier. You have to face off against his creations; abominable things where even his “failures” will give you a fight. After some epic battles, one of which takes place in a cemetery, a depressed Dr. Kane collapses in defeat. With the mystery torn open, the police on the way, and all of the patrons dead you’re left free to leave. It’s a great little distraction and a wonderful addition to the Halloween event.

 

 

It wouldn’t be a proper City of Heroes event with those well loved badges. And there are three new ones this year. All of them obtained in the Haunted Mansion. The easiest to get comes from just completing the Mansion. Its called ‘Is There a Doctor in the House?’ Another, called Tricked Out comes from defeating the final creation while wearing one of the costumes dropped during trick or treating. The final badge is called It’s Alive! And is earned by defeating the last of Dr. Kane’s creations and 99 zombies from the cemetery before the twelve minute timer runs out. It isn’t as easy as it sounds and that last badge is one I’m still working on trying to get. And with only one day left as of the time I’m writing this I really need to get on that before the Mansion closes for this year and maybe forever.

 

 

The only other thing that is really new this year for the Halloween event is that the bigger zombies during the zombie invasion are really, really, really big. Big to the point of being silly. A player character doesn’t even go up to the top of the ankle and when you zoom your camera all the way out if you’re fighting the zombie horde you can’t see anything above the knee. As far as I’ve read there has been no explanation for this change and feelings about it seem to not really exist. Initial reactions are things like “whoa” or “zomg” but that is all people say before they continue on with the fight. Personally, I hate them. I want to be able to actually look at what I’m fighting. But seeing as there haven’t been many complaints about it I think it is safe to say I am in the minority there.

 

 

So that’s the round up of Halloween 2011 in City of Heroes. With zombies, giant walking pumpkins, trick or treating, and haunted mansions, Paragon City is ripe for Halloween fans looking for a thrill. Sadly Halloween is ending on Tuesday November 2nd. So there really isn’t any time left this year for you to experience it. But don’t worry, next Halloween is only a year away!

 

 

 

I feel I should take this time to acknowledge the fact that I’ve been away for a few months due to person health issues. I’ve taken some time out to get myself back into peak physical health. Ok, as peak as you can be while being a gamer and sitting at a computer all day. I am quite glad to be back to writing and looking forward to sharing my thoughts and the latest City of Heroes news with you. If you are a first time reader come back to OnRPG every week to read a new article from me, Meticulous Meta.

 

 

The weekly strike targets for November 1st-November 7th are the level 24-33 respec trials in Terra Volta and the Tree of Thorns.

 

 

Editor’s Note: Meta’s Verse is written by Meticulous Meta who lives in Atlas park and is writing this from under her desk hiding from the zombies.

Perfect World International Reveals The Trials

Perfect World International Reveals The Trials

 

 

Perfect World Entertainment today announced the imminent launch of Perfect World International: The Trials, the latest free update to Perfect World International, now one of the most popular free-to-play MMORPGs on Earth with over 50 million players.

The Trials launches November 2, 2011. To prevent the Grand Demon Lord from utterly destroying Perfect World, players must survive and conquer nine deadly perilous trials.

“The Trials is another terrific free content update for Perfect World International and reaffirms our commitment to supporting our amazing, and amazingly large, community of players with new and unique gaming experiences,” said Derick Chan, Product Manager, Perfect World Entertainment Inc. “The Trials even brings with it the largest and most challenging player versus environment experience yet, which includes a spectacular 100-person raid.”

 

 

Additional features in The Trials include:

The Nine Ultimate Faction Trials: Band together with 99 others and undertake rescue missions, monster assaults, unique boss fights and tower defense challenges to stop the Grand Demon Lord’s evil schemes.

Travel to Exotic Places, Reach New Heights: Unravel the mystery of Elysium Village, complete high-level quests and experience a couple’s love – a power that could unite or destroy the entire world.

The Best Armor Gets Better:
Acquire new items to complete the perfect armor set, re-forge powerful gear with brand-new materials and access the latest Rank 9 gear for the Earthguard race.

 

 

Be sure to check out the Trailer as well as our screenshot section for a preview of some of the new armor, mounts, and trials!

The Chosen Online Chooses Its Chosen

The Chosen Online Chooses its Chosen

 

 

 

Snail Games USA today announced the conclusion of their contest, The Chosen Challenge, in their mythical free-to-play MMORPG, The Chosen Online. The contest, held to celebrate the launch of the new Rally server, invited players to vie for the game’s ultimate rank to win a one-of-a-kind Chosen laser-etched gaming laptop. FATALKIL conquered the new server, leading the Qin dynasty in an epic Tripod War against rivals Ming, Tang, Song and Han to become the first Chosen player on Rally and take home the exclusive prize.

 

 

FATALKIL joins the ranks of only two others, Baby and Danalis, the first two to overcome great in-game odds and become The Chosen. For completing this feat on new, unclaimed server territory, Snail Games USA has awarded FATALKIL with a super cool Chosen laser-etched EON-17-S high performance gaming laptop from Origin PC.

Luvinia Online: A Land of Fantasy and Squirrels

Luvinia Online: A Land of Fantasy and Squirrels

By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

Luvinia Online is a new free-to-play 3D fantasy MMORPG from Outspark, with unique subclasses for specialization, hundreds of maps to explore, variety of in-game events, and unlimited fun.

 

 

The world of Luvinia beckons players into a realm where humans, orcs, gnomes and dwarves once co-existed in peace; however, destiny never stands still. The stars that once shined brightly over the humans now fade as the hearts of the other races turn against them. With the help of the Victoria Institute, heroes from across the land will challenge fate to take up their weapons and fight for their land against treacherous invaders. Will you answer the call and make your destiny in the stars?

 

 

Character Creation

When creating your character the first choice the player gets to choose from is the Nationality. There are currently two alliances to choose from but each of these has three different countries. The Empire alliance has the choice between the nation of Moon, Wind and Sea. The Federal alliance has the choice between Cloud, Sky and Star, each carrying various backgrounds and stories. The choice is not an important matter from what I have seen and there is even a choice to pick something randomly. After picking your nation and country you will have to pick the gender of your character. There’s also the added bonus of picking your constellation. Furthermore you can even change your face, hairstyle, hair color, and even voice!

 

So many squirrels…

 

Gameplay

When I got into the world of Luvinia and talked with the first NPC I got the choice between three classes; each of these classes has their own unique abilities and purposes in the game. After a small introduction about these classes I went with the Magician, mostly because I’ve been using it in a lot of MMOs I reviewed lately and wanted a direct comparison.

 

 

After getting some equipment and a new spell it was time to do my first quest. I had to kill four slipper bunnies that were hopping around the academy, so I ventured off to the location and I found something really helpful. When you click on the red names or objects in the quest list you will automatically walk to the place where you can find the NPC or object that is required for the quest. After I killed all four slipper bunnies I got to level 2 and it was time to open up the first Gift Box. After an x amount of playing time a player gets to open a Gift Box. In these Gift Boxes you can find rewards that are very helpful in the game, and the first items gift to me were 2 elixirs that buffed my stats for half an hour.

 

 

After I took off to my second quest I went to look around and enjoy the sight of the beautiful environment. The environment really matches the fantasy genre and every place looks quite unique from its 3D MMO competitors. The visualizations of the spells are really good looking as well. When I was busy doing my second quest killing Grey Bats I also found out the quests are shown on the right side of the screen and it tracks your progress. Autopathing and instant quest tracking built into the UI? Good to know Luvinia is on par with the times.

 

 

While doing the second quest I also got a message from a fairy under the mini map; she told me that if I had some difficulty beating the monsters that I should head over to the skill tab. In the skill tab I found I could upgrade my skills on the fly and greatly bolster my damage without needing to trek back to town.

 

 

The downfall of the core gaming experience was looting. Sometimes I found just picking up coins on the ground was an irritating process in which I would repeatedly miss. I hope they will fix this in the future or make an action skill so it will pick up the nearby loot instead of clicking on it.

 

 

There is also a cash shop in Luvinia Online that will support the developers. The items that you can get in the cash shop aren’t really game changing items. There are mostly fashion clothes available for all races that make you look different than the rest. In terms of utility items there are gems used for crafting available in the cash shop. You can also expect to find the standard cash shop items like inventory expansion and world shouting items.

 

 

Graphics

Luvinia Online isn’t really bad looking considering it went for the anime cel-shaded style. The environment itself and spell animations actually look quite nice. The system requirements for Luvinia are the following:

 

Minimum

Operating System            Win98/2000/XP

CPU       P4 1.8GHz

Memory              512 MB

GPU       GeForce 4

Hard Drive Space              3 GB

 

Recommended

Operating System            Win98/2000/XP/VISTA/7

CPU       P4 2.4GHz

Memory              1 GB

GPU       GeForce 7600GT

Hard Drive Space              3 GB

 

 

If you have no clue whatsoever what kind of rig you´re running or simply have no idea what these speifications mean. I would say everyone that has bought a computer in the last 6-7 years which didn’t turn yellow because of its age is pretty much set to play this wonderful game!

 

 

Conclusion

Luvinia Online is yet another 3D game that tries to make its way in the MMORPG scene. The game tries to set its own style and their effort really shows in-game. The numerous customization options also make it stand out from the crowd and really is becoming a trademark of Shanda Games. Of course with how saturated the market is, it’s sometimes difficult for a company to produce something truly original without copying from what already exists in the fantasy genre.

 

 

Nonetheless Luvinia Online is a wonderful game that is only being held back by some easily patchable bugs. If you identify yourself as a hardcore fantasy fan and need a new fix for your addiction in 2011, look no further than Luvinia.

Aerrevan Hosts Halloween Event!

Don’t Miss the Aerrevan Halloween Event!

 

 

 

In celebration of the Halloween season, Aerrevan is hosting a special Halloween Event.  Over 50,000 CubeForce Points are available to be won.  Grab a pumpkin and Trick-or-Treat abroad in the vast world of Lurris.  The top 10 candy collectors will be rewarded with CubeForce Points to spend as they wish in the Aerrevan Store.  All items in the Aerrevan Store are priced 25% off for this event, further sweetening the deal. Many Ghoulish and mischievous adventures await you; so be sure to get into game today so you don’t miss your chance.

 

 

 

Aerrevan is an all new MMORPG developed by CubeForce Media. It takes place on the continent of Lurris in a world shattered by the onset of a magical force known as Aer. In correct balance, Aer supports life, but in imbalance Aer can cause anything from horrible mutations to death. The gameplay experience and story in Aerrevan is centralized around Aer and its effects on the world. Aerrevan features a unique PvE experience designed with the roleplayer in mind. Explore every cave, house, inn and castle with no loading screens; explore without boundaries in a world full of locations waiting to be found. Engage in epic battle with hundreds of unique mobs and bosses, all while advancing your characters within a completely classless levelling system. Expand and grow in your own way, without annoying limitations.

TERA Online Launches Evolution Update

Tera Launches Evolution Update in Korea

By Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), OnRPG Editor-in-Chief

 

 

Rebellious gamers rejoice! Our cries have been heard in Bluehole Studio’s Upcoming Action MMORPG TERA Online, which released one hell of an update this past week that not only addressed some of the issues the players in Korea had complained about, but also many of the concerns North American and European players-in-waiting have been crying foul against for some time. Let’s go over the changes:

 

 

PK Timer Abolished

Many hardcore PvP players (including myself) have voiced concerns over TERA’s previous system in which players would receive a 5s countdown before they could engage in player killing. This has been removed entirely in the Korean version in exchange for a PK Point system that punishes players who overzealously harass their fellow man.

 

 

Under the new system, you will receive a certain number of points for killing another player (how that is rewarded is still unknown to me, but it seems only the player who delivers the final blow receives those PK points).

 

 

At 1-99 points: You will receive penalties including slightly faster condition depletion, twice the chance of sharded crystals breaking, and unable to benefit from rest exp.

 

At 100-100 points: Your condition deteriorates even faster, three times the chance of sharded crystals breaking, attack power cut by 50%, movement speed reduced by 15%, unable to benefit from rest exp, and lose of the privilege of using the Pegasus Express to fast travel around the map.


At 1000+ points: Your condition deteriorates extremely fast, five times the chance of sharded crystals breaking, attack power cut by 90%, defense by 75%, movement speed reduced by 30%, unable to benefit from rest exp, and lose of the privilege of using the Pegasus Express to fast travel around the map.

 

 

As you can see removing the 5 second PK timer has resulted in some harsh penalties for those who abuse the system. Though speculation around the boards seems likely that these penalties will be much lower on the PvP specific servers in the western version of the game.

 

Pedobear Squad has Declared War on You!

 

GvG(vG) Battles

Guilds will now be able to earn ranking by destroying their rivals in open world 4 hour wars! By paying 3 million gold per guild you declare on (you can initiate 3 way battles for 6 million), guilds will be able to duke it out in open world combat for 4 hours or until one of the factions reaches 500 points. Once declared, guilds involved cannot back down, meaning if someone pays to fight you, you have no choice but to accept. Points are scored every time one of your guild members downs an enemy guild member. A special prize of 10 points is rewarded for downing an enemy guild leader.

 

 

For the duration of the war, there are no PK penalties incurred for killing members of the enemy guilds. They will also have red name plates to more easily identify enemies at a distance. Vanarch territory law that bans PK will be ignored for the duration of the war. Factions looking to surrender early can buy a scroll to surrender. A server wide notification is announced at both the beginning and conclusion of each war letting everyone know the outcome (as well as your words of challenge when initiating!).

 

Red Vs Blue Teams are Obvious on the Battlefield

 

Beyond the PvP

A few additional changes came with the patch including resting exp which is rewarded if you log out in town, for every hour you are offline. Many new glyphs were also introduced which can be used to bolster various skills to customize them to your liking. Also due to the massive outcry of role players the world over, TERA Online has implemented a /sit command which unique animations for every race/gender.

 

 

Of course this is only a few of the major changes occurring, but it’s good to see an eastern developer taking note of their western audience before even releasing the game in that region. Hopefully many more take note of this professionalism and test the waters of both markets before finalizing their features too much.