Yearly Archives: 2011

King of Kings 3 Announces Moon Goddess Expansion

King of Kings 3 Announces Moon Goddess Expansion

 

 

Gamigo’s clan war MMORPG King of Kings 3 is launching a new expansion called “Moon Goddess” with truly celestial content: Gamers are drawn into a conflict between good and evil angels. Almost 200 new skills have been unveiled to help prepare you for this new threat, and the top level cap has been raised from 140 to 180.

 

A whopping 24 new maps and over 200 missions offer plenty of opportunities to familiarize yourself with the new class skills. There are also four new dungeons awaiting daring adventurers. In the “Angel Arena” for example players battle against six of Gabriel’s henchmen before getting their chance to take down the master villain himself. Special daily dungeons offer big-time action without all the build-up skirmishes. You’ll get one boss fight after another, without having to grind out fights against lesser opponents.

 

Overview of New Features

-Over 180 new skills

-Level cap raised from 140 to 180

-24 new maps

-2 new regular dungeons

-2 new daily dungeons

-Enhancement stones for upgrading to Deadalus equipment

League of Legends: True Grit

League of Legends: True Grit

By Mohammad Abubakr, OnRPG Journalist

 

 

 

Jason (Hhean) is on vacation so I will be covering this week’s patch. Expect him back in time to review Shyvana! Now let’s get onto it!

 

 

League of Legends was recently patched to version 1.0.0.27 which offers various balance changes to champions and tweaks to Crystal Scar, the dominion map. The most important change in this patch was the addition of Graves, the Outlaw.

 

 

Graves should be played as a ranged carry focused on landing a lot of last hits and controlling his lane with his amazing ability to harass. His skill set allows him to burst down enemies and provide decent crowd control but Graves is forced to sacrifice positioning to output maximum damage.

 

 

His first and main skill, Buckshot [Q] , fires three bullets in a cone damaging all enemies in range. It functions similar to Ashe’s volley except that enemies can be hit by multiple projectiles each dealing lower damage than the last. The projectiles also pass through enemies allowing one bullet to hit multiple targets.

 

 

Dealing 240 base physical damage at max level, it is a great skill for harassing and farming due to its low mana cost and cool down. Use it as often as possible during the laning phase to maintain control against your opponent but be careful of hitting too many minions. A pushed lane can be hard to farm against decent opponents.

 

 

To deal maximum damage with Buckshot you are forced to sacrifice your position and get in the face of your opponent. This is not something a ranged carry would normally be seen doing but this is where your passive comes in.

 

 

True Grit rewards Graves with additional armor and magic resist the longer he remains in combat. At max level it provides Graves with 4 armor and magic resist per stack with a cap of 10 stacks. Graves will be treated as in combat if he attacks or takes damage in the last four seconds. This gives him an advantage over other ranged carries when it comes to survivability but keep in mind that you are not a tank. You will still die fairly quickly with only DPS items.

 

 

His second skill, Smoke Screen [W], features a new mechanic that limits vision outside of the smoke. He fires a smoke canister dealing magic damage and erupting into a smoke cloud lasting five seconds. Enemies cannot see outside the smoke cloud and are slowed.

 

 

This skill can be used both offensively and defensively. If you are on the verge of death the slow and lack of vision can prevent the enemy from landing that last hit or bait your opponent into traps. It can also allow your team to set up ganks. Your opponents will not see it coming!

 

 

Quickdraw [E] is Graves’ mobility skill. It allows Graves to dash forward gaining up to an 80% increase in attack speed. The skill does have a relatively long cool down but it is lowered by one second each time Graves attacks. The range is not long enough to easily get to safety but it can be used to dash through walls if positioned correctly.

 

 

Quick Draw will mostly be used to finish off fleeing enemies, provide increased DPS and stay in combat to make use of his passive. This nifty skill will make the difference between life and death in duelist showdowns.

 

 

Graves’ ultimate, Collateral Damage, fires an explosive shell dealing physical damage to the first enemy. After it explodes either by making contact with an enemy or reaching its maximum range, Collateral Damage deals additional physical damage in a cone behind the target. The cool down is not very high so do not be afraid of missing. It is better to gamble getting a kill than being afraid to miss and losing the chance to land a kill.

 

 

Keep in mind that this is a skill shot so you must be able to aim it correctly. Like all of Graves’ skills the range is not very large which makes it hard to use against fleeing enemies without sacrificing positioning. Since positioning is everything in MOBAs, this is a real hit to his utility. However Collateral Damage deals tons of damage and can be used alongside your other skills to quickly burst down squishy champions and teams. A tank may block the shot for his team, similar to countering Caitlyn’s ulti, but the lesser cone damage will still finish off a hurt squishy.

 

 

I prefer having a solo lane to allow for maximum farm but duo laning with a support character can work if the support champion does not take any of your last hits. If your team will not be taking part in a level one fight simply level up Buck Shot as your first skill. I like to hold on to leveling skills until the laning phase actually begins as you never know if you will need to use Smoke Screen to save a team mate or escape with Quick Draw.

 

 

You will want to max out Buck Shot as soon as possible but also get one level of Quick Draw and Smoke Screen early on. After Buck Shot I prefer to max out Quick Draw as the increased attack speed offers a significant increase in your DPS. Some summoners prefer to max Smoke Screen as their second skill but I do not feel that is the best option.

 

 

Smoke Screen’s main purpose will be to slow and decrease the vision of your opponent. While the slow percentage does increase with level up it makes a lot more sense to increase your DPS so you can fulfill your role as a ranged carry. Leave the crowd control to your team and focus on dishing out damage.

 

 

Collateral Damage should also be leveled whenever it is possible.

 

 

Graves’ items will focus on attack damage and should not be very different from other ranged carries. The recommended items tell players to build a Trinity Force but I do not think that is a very good choice on Graves. While it does give a lot of stats, it costs a lot and Graves does not make optimal use of all the stats.

 

 

It is impossible to have a set build for champions that you will follow every game. MOBA games are very situational and reaction based. However in an average game the following build will work quite well.

 

 

Start off the game with a Doran’s blade. This item offers attack damage, life steal and health which is great for Graves’ low health pool. The only con about this item is that it does not build into anything but it will serve its purpose during the laning phase.

 

 

Continue to farm until you have enough money for Berserker Greaves. It should not be very hard to land last hits with Graves’ attack animation and you should be done farming your boots quickly. Alternatively you may buy Boots and a B.F. Sword and then upgrade your boots into Berserker Greaves. It depends on how comfortable you are with level one boots and your farm. If you went straight for the Greaves, pick up a B.F Sword later on.

 

 

From here you can upgrade the B.F. Sword into a Blood Thirster or an Infinity Edge. You will be getting both by the end of the game so pick them up in the order you are comfortable with. Infinity’s will provide greater damage but less sustainability. Picking the Blood Thirster early on also allows you to farm its stacks if you’re playing smart and can avoid early game deaths.

 

 

Movement speed is great for ranged carries as it allows them to position themselves easily to land kills or flee to safety. Therefore a Phantom Dancer is not a bad choice. Pick up the Zeal first.

 

 

I hate building as a glass cannon unless you are dominating the opposing team so picking up a defensive item is important. Which item you pick up is dependent on the game. For example if you are constantly getting stunned at the beginning of the fights and die before dishing out any damage, a Banshee’s Veil is great.

 

 

The next two items are entirely situational but remember to focus on your role as a ranged carry. Items such as Frozen Mallet, Last Whisper, Madred’s Bloodrazor and The Black Cleaver are some suggestions.

 

 

For runes you will want to use flat armor penetration quintessences and marks, flat dodge seals and flat cooldown reduction glyphs. The armor penetration runes amplify your damage significantly in the early game and still help out during the late game while the CD reduction glyphs allows you to spam your skills. Being able to attack just a second earlier can decide the outcome of the entire game. Since Graves has low mana costs you do not need mana regeneration runes. Dodge runes may not seem to help too much but I have been saved countless times by lucky dodges. If you do not like to rely on chance they may be swapped out for flat armor seals.

 

 

As far as masteries I like to run a 0/9/21 build as it makes use of my dodge runes and further reduces cooldowns. A 9/0/21 build may also work but keep in mind that if you get the increased magic penetration it will only amplify the damage of your Smoke Screen, all other skills deal physical damage.

 

 

After playing around with Graves he seems to be a good pick. His skill set allows him to dominate his lane during the early game but still continue to deal good damage because of scaling ratios and attack speed buff.

 

 

However he must sacrifice survivability to maximize his damage output. This means that coordinated teams can lock him down if he gets too close. A good Graves player must be able to decide when it is wise to jump in to deal maximum damage or to stay back and still deal good damage.

 

 

I cannot say for sure if he will be a viable competitive pick as he is still very new. It takes time for players to fully understand new champions. If you seem to be dominating easily it could just be that other players are not familiar with his skill set.

 

 

As players begin to familiarize themselves with Graves we could see him being a top pick or simply dropping down to a rare pick. Nobody, even Riot, is able to determine how the game will be played in the future.

 

 

If you play the game just to have fun I definitely recommend picking up Graves. He is very fun to play because of his skill set and ability to dish out a lot of damage. When playing a game do not worry too much about a certain build or characters strengths, play to have fun.

 

 

To discuss some of the changes yourselves, post in the massive League of Legends thread in the free to play MMOs section. If you haven’t tried League of Legends yet, you’re missing out.

Golden Age Online: A New Style of Empire

Golden Age Online: A New Style of Empire

By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

Golden Age Online is a game published and developed by AeriaGames and like the name tells you it takes place in the medieval years of Europe. You can choose to play as a Knights Templar, a member of the Ibero Alliance and a Rhine from the commerce guild. Golden Age is a browser based role playing game and has different points of view. Like most games of its type, Golden Age is based around building your city and making a bigger army to defend yourself with. You will also need to buy other facilities to keep your upkeep the best and to attain more items that are needed. However RPG-esque side scrolling hub towns add an element of personality to the gaming community that most games of this genre fail to achieve.

 

The key to this game is upgrading your facilities so you acquire more resources and thus can build a bigger and more advanced army. These soldiers can be assigned to follow one of your hero characters to create squadrons for conquering new regions on the map. If you’re new to the strategy empire building genre, the hub city is filled with NPCs that can assign you simple tasks to teach you the basics of the game.

 

 

The picture above is the overview of my capital. In this overview you can quickly identify all of your constructs and their current level of upgrade. They greyed out facilities represent potential buildings you can place if you’re willing to spend your resources to acquire their features. The menu is much cleaner than most games in this genre and every button is properly labeled to help you navigate your governing menus.

 

If you’re in a hurry to build your empire quickly, you can always return to Sanctum City to find more quests. These quests will force you to utilize your military strength in order to crush foes and collect rewards such as gold and new equipment.

 

 

This equipment is vital for building up your hero units. Without powerful hero units, your armies will falter on the battlefields so be sure to pass out each piece of equipment you collect to your favorite heroes. As such micromanagement is a key skill to have as you will need to keep an eye on both the progression of your heroes and the construction of your empire.

 

Beyond equipment, you can also choose the direction your hero progresses as he gains experience. For example, the above hero can be specialized in strength, vitality, and/or intellect. Each one of these statistics have different advantages on the battlefield but early game it seemed like strength was the only stat I needed since enemy units never dealt enough damage nor was my hero particularly weighted towards an intellect build. It should be noted that various equipment can further bolster your hero’s stats, such as a knife I found early game that offered both vitality and intellect.

 

 

Conclusion

Golden Age brings the side scrolling style to the empire building MMO genre. It makes the game unique by offering players a way to interact and trade with each other with personalized avatars that I have never seen done for this type of game before. The UI is well designed and the tutorial is, if anything, overbearing so players new to the genre should have no issues adjusting to the game. My only real gripe was purely aesthetic.

 

 

Golden Age uses an almost identical map to the Northrend expansion by World of Warcraft. It drove me crazy as I felt I was playing the same gaming world in a different genre! Anyway at least there is plenty to explore in the world so your armies will never be at a loss of what to conquer next. Golden Age is currently in Closed Beta but should be entering open beta sometime this week. It’s not often we see something new in the strategy empire building genre so I definitely recommend checking this out.

Dragon Nest Releases the Hounds.. and Ghouls

Dragon Nest Releases Cerberus Nest and Ghoul Mode

 

 

Just in time for the frights and chills of the season, Nexon America’s Dragon Nest will receive its first post-launch content update next Wednesday, Oct. 26. A new end-game nest encounter will open up, along with a ghoulish new PvP mode and a variety of Halloween-themed in game events and items.

 

 

Cerberus, a monstrous three-headed canine and guardian of Hell, has been released from the Abyss. He now haunts the Black Mountain Path, and his presence is drawing adventurers from throughout the Northern Kingdom as they seek the beast’s massive treasure hoard. Cerberus is known to drop level 32 epic quality armor and weapons, as well as materials used to craft the epic Cerberus armor and clothing. Additionally, defeating Cerberus on the new “Hell” difficulty level will yield level 32 epic quality accessories. Adventures in search of fame, fortune, and some of the most challenging achievements need look no further than this monstrous nest encounter.

 

 

Players who enjoy PvP combat also have a great deal to look forward to this week with the addition of Ghoul Mode. Played on the new map Town of Silence, players will be split into two teams. The Ghoul team will try to kill and convert all of the untainted players into Ghouls, thereby assuring victory for the undead horde. The opposing team must try and survive the ghoulish onslaught, either by defeating all of the ghouls in combat or holding out long enough for the clock to tick down to zero. Played with a total of either four, eight, 12 or 16 players, Ghoul Mode offers up an entirely new type of PvP challenge for players wishing to test their combat prowess and tactics against their fellow adventurers.

 

 

Characters of all levels will also get to enjoy the events of the season coming to Dragon Nest next week. Players can earn Halloween coupons by hunting Pumpkin Ducks in dungeons, and then redeem them for a variety of wearable pumpkin helmets. In the Dragon Vault, players who want to get into the spirit of the Halloween season will have a wide variety of new costumes to choose from.

 

Be sure to check out the trailer for the Cerberus and Ghouls at OnRPG.

Dragon Saga: First In, Last Out

Dragon Saga: First In, Last Out

By Michael Sagoe (mikedot), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

 

Dragon Saga (also known as Dragonica) was one of the first original action MMOs to ever hit English speaking territories. Just recently, things got tuned up with an expansion called New Origins, featuring new story quests, a new race and many other goodies.  While this title may have turned heads in the day, many other action MMOs are now out and about in this ever increasing MMO market, so it’s time to take a closer look and see if there’s enough here to make gamers want to turn their heads back.

 

Customization

For those that are starting out: There’s two races in world of Dragon Saga: Human and Dragonkin, each with their own separate classes. For humans: You got your classic MMO class types: Warriors, Magicians, Archers and Thieves, while Dragonkin have access to Shamans and Twin Fighters. All well and good, but for any new players that want play as a Dragonkin, you will be out of luck, as players will have to play and level up a human character to LV20 first.

 

 

Initial character customization gives out a handful of hairstyles, hair colors and face types. The handful of customization options is adequate enough, but it would have been nice if a couple more choices were available.

 

 

There doesn’t seem to be much difference playing as a Dragonkin compared to humans, as shamans play similar to mages, and the ability to control two characters at a time with the Twin Fighter class becomes somewhat of an afterthought due to the game’s average core gameplay.

 

 

There are many different weapons, armors and outfits you can earn, all of which can be enhanced to suit your needs. You can also enhance your items even further with “soulcrafting”, which is similar to enchanting, but uses the souls of broken down weapons and armors instead of enchant items.

 

Controls

Dragon Saga’s basic control scheme uses arrow keys for movement and ZXC for basic attacks, charge attacks and jumping. The ASDF and QWER keys are used for performing skills and using items. All of this works out pretty well if you plan to stick with the keyboard, but using a gamepad will put you at a disadvantage, since players will have less buttons available for performing skills. Some arcade style inputs to perform skills could have alleviated this issue, but are unfortunately unavailable.

 

Visuals/Presentation

While the graphics for Dragon Saga are fairly dated, the visual aesthetic more than makes up for it, with a style that’s reminiscent of Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles. Character and monster models have a cute, chibi anime look to them, and a strong use of bright colors really makes the game world come alive.

 

 

There’s also a cartoon vibe that kids (and kids at hearts) will enjoy, including lots slapstick action like being able to whack enemies with giant hammers, summon karate chopping grizzly gears and being able to send enemies flying into your PC screen.

 

Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf…

 

Most of the music in Dragon Saga seems to be a bit out of place: While one area will have harmonious tunes to ease your mind, and in the next: Electronica and techno out of NOWHERE! The actual quality of the music isn’t too bad, but it’s not too good, either.

 

Gameplay/Features

Questing in Dragon Saga seems to pretend like it has some kind of grand adventure in store for those that choose to accept them, but in reality the questing is a ploy to mask the simple and generic missions behind them. Both hero quests and regular quests revolve around the usual “kill this, bring me that”, and players will have to swallow these quests over and over again, as they’re the only way to earn decent EXP, items and money. Just from the first tutorial mission alone, the story content doesn’t seem to be striving for anything other than generic J-RPG clichés.

 

Sure, buddy… everyone else playing gets to be the “chosen” hero… *Yawn*

 

The combat in Dragon Saga severely lacks depth. Most enemies do not put up much of a fight, and even in large groups they attack players with one or two different moves. These moves are simple and easily avoided once you see the pattern. Staying alive in dungeons is a matter of not getting surrounded by baddies, and if you can manage that and learn not to be greedy with your own attacks, you can pretty much solo everything.

 

 

The PvE aspect of Dragon Saga relies too heavily on avatar strength rather than player skill. With this being an action RPG, it’s a serious issue since end-game combat doesn’t actually become more challenging so much as takes longer to defeat the same repetitive enemies. On the upside: Environments in Dragon Saga make full use of 3D space, allowing for some light platforming that breaks up the tedious grinding for a little while.

 

 

PvP in Dragon Saga doesn’t fare much better, as core combat holds very little substance against live players due to range abuse and skill spamming that results in excessive juggling.

 

 

Community

Basic community features for an MMO, including party modes, guild functions and marketplaces are all here, but there’s nothing special about them. Even with the “marriage system” that allows players to couple up with another fellow player (of the opposite sex) to earn special skills and items, anyone with prior MMO experience will see that it’s all been done before.

 

 

The playerbase for Dragon Saga seems to be a bit on the light side, as finding players to party with (at least early on) may be difficult. When I did find people to party with, they were generally friendly and helpful as most smaller MMO player groups seem to be.

 

Overall

What worked for Dragon Saga back in the day is considered average by today’s standards, and while it may serve as a nice distraction for the kiddies, the shallow gameplay sure won’t be standing out in today’s generation.

 

Customization – 3

Controls – 2

Graphics/Presentation – 4

Gameplay /Features – 2

Community – 3

Battlefield 3 Proxzor Impressions

Battlefield 3 Proxzor Impressions

By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

As every year, the last few months are where the big guns come out blazing for sales dominance. This year’s competition betweeen Activistion and EA is really fierce and they are battling for the best sold first person shooter spot of 2011. EA decided to give everyone a quick sneak peak of their try for the throne and Battlefield 3 did not disappoint in open beta. The open beta ran from the 29th of September until October 10th. With such a monumental opportunity on my hands, I powered up my PC and Xbox360 and gave it a whirl.

 

 

Battlelog

Normally you install a game and you can open it easily with the shortcut that has been placed on your desktop. With Battlefield 3 however when you have finished installing or downloading you have to log in on your Origin client. After you have been logged in and try to run Battlefield 3 it will automatically open up your browser and visit the Battlelog site that EA made for easier access to quick information.

 

 

After you logged in on the Battlelog, you can look up every piece of information that you desire. For example you can look up what kind of rank you are, how many experience points you will need to rank up and what kind of weapons you have unlocked and have been using. You can also look up your detailed profile information such as accuracy rate, win/loss ratio, and Kill:Death ratio. The Battlelog is a really easy to access yet informative site that will help you look up everything that you have experienced in Battlefield 3 without even having to start up the game. If you are ready to hop on a server with your friends, you can make a party before starting up the game. Once you have made the party and everyone joined your party you can choose to join the voice channel or simply leave it. The Battlelog site supports voice channels for you and your party to use while playing Battlefield 3 and surprisingly enough they work great. I could hear everyone just fine and with minimal lag time too!

 

 

Gameplay

When starting up your game you get immediately thrown into a server before you could even change your options. I hope that they will fix this before the release of Battlefield 3 but it was somewhat annoying. I actually had to join a server which automatically puts you on a side to deploy to change my graphical options. This wasn’t too enjoyable as I got shot like 3 times while adjusting my graphics options. Once I fixed my settings I went about learning the differences between the 4 available classes.

 

 

The first class is the assault class; this class has been given the medical treatments the medic class in previous Battlefield versions had. They also are equipped with a basic power weapon such as the AK47 and M4 for heavy pressuring of enemy front line positions.

 

 

The Support class returns to its role it had in Battlefield 2; they are equipped with the Light Machine Gun to give the best possible cover for their teammates on the battlefield. They are also given ammunition kits to throw on the ground and supply teammates with extra ammunition.

 

 

The Engineer class is very similar to Bad Company 2; they are made to engage tanks and armored vehicles with their rocket launchers. They use carbine rifles to defend themselves and there are a wide variety of weapons to unlock for the Engineer class to make them effective on every possible map.

 

 

The sniper class in Battlefield 3 is called the Recon; the Recon carries a sniper rifle for long range engagements. After unlocking the ability, the Recon class can call in artillery strikes. They even pack C4 explosives to blow up enemy vehicles or map objectives.

 

 

 

Since I have always taken the role of sniping I really got into that class and unlocked several different rifles and scopes. The unlocking system is plain and simple; if you make kills with a weapon you unlock more equipment upgrades related to that weapon. Besides the scopes and rifles I also unlocked suppressors and even a laser guided scope. These add-ons assist you with strengthening your aim and lowering recoil.

 

 

I have tested Battlefield 3 both on the Xbox and PC, and it’s a completely different experience. Peaking around corners on the computer can be instant death while on the console you seem to have a bit more leeway. The graphics are also much nicer on the PC but that speaks for itself since the consoles are quite limited. After playing on the console for a while I really missed my mouse and keyboard because it felt like a much smoother control mechanism. I feel that the controls on the Xbox could be slightly better as there just aren’t enough button placements to compliment the actions you need to take in the heat of battle.

 

 

Graphics

To play this beautiful game that demands quite a machine you will need to have at least a CORE 2 DUO 2.4GHZ Processor with at least 2 Gigabytes of RAM. You will also need 20 Gigabytes of free space and a DirectX 10.1 supporting Graphics Card that is compatible with 512 MB RAM. The recommended system requirements are much higher demanding and actually ask for a QUAD-CORE CPU along with 4 Gigabytes of RAM and a DirectX 11 compatible Graphics Card that has at least 1024MB RAM.

 

 

If you have no idea whatsoever about computer specs and you might think what is he babbling about, if you have bought a computer in the last year or 2 you might be able to run it but Battlefield 3 is a very high demanding game.

 

 

Conclusion

The Beta still had a lot of glitches and bugs but luckily most did not seem game breaking. The game looks really stunning and it will only look even better once the game hits the shelves. Unfortunately the beta only gave us access to one map, but I really got a good look about the game and I am definitely running to the stores once this game is released. Every class in the game fulfills an important role and the squad play is really needed to capture objectives and win matches. I have unlocked a lot of weapons and am pleased to say every weapon handles unique and can be further differentiated with the various unlockable add-ons. DICE and EA can be really proud of their game and it will have no problem selling out through the holiday season because Battlefield 3 is truly a work of art.