Yearly Archives: 2011

Steam Begins Introducing Service for F2P MMOs

Steam Begins Introducing Service for F2P MMOs

 

 

Valve, a digital distribution outlet developed by Portal maker, Valve, has set up deals with popular F2P titles such as Spiral Knights, Forsaken World, and Global Agenda to begin hosting download, tracking, and achievement services. This marks the beginning of a new possibility to merge MMOs and Retail based gaming into a single serviceable tracking system. Convenience is king in the gaming world and Steam seems to be leading the way on this frontier.

 

 

As part of a promotion to build awareness of this new deal, Steam will be providing Steam days all week. Each day of the week, one of their F2P games will be featured and offer special rewards for logging into the game through Steam. It’s already too late to catch the Spiral Knights giveaway day, but be sure to take a look if you are an avid player of Forsaken World, Champions Online, Global Agenda, or Alliance of Valiant Arms to get your swag!

Eden Eternal Open Beta is Here

Eden Eternal Open Beta is Here

 

Aeria Games has successful launched their megahit of 2011, Eden Eternal into Open Beta Testing. Eden Eternal concluded its Closed Beta (CB) testing phase last Sunday night. Record-breaking participation during CB indicates that Eden Eternal is poised to become Aeria Games’ most popular title to date.

 

Experience Eden Eternal’s eye-catching, anime-inspired visuals while battling robust monsters, freely swapping classes, and building customized player towns. Discover the plethora of intricate in-game systems and innovative features that captured the imagination of closed beta players and OnRPG’s staff. Eden Eternal boasts a stunning, expansive world that exudes style and charm. Players must restore order to the citizens of a troubled region as they work to uncover their own mysterious origin.

 

 

New content in Open Beta:

 

  • Level Cap Increase  – We’ve increased the level cap from 40 to 50 for Open Beta! Further boost your skills and gear and take advantage of new quests and capabilities.

 

  • Two New Classes – The level cap increase brings a new Melee DPS class and a new Magic DPS class into the player’s reach. Meet the mystical Shaman and the mighty Blade Dancer!

 

 

  • Six New Dungeons – Take on level 41-48 dungeons, including new challenging instances for parties of 5! Explore the unpredictable depths where you will encounter new, ferocious bosses guarding exciting, rare treasures.

 

  • Win 1 Million AP – All players who reach level 30 before July 1 are eligible to win one million AP! For more details visit the Eden Eternal website.

 

 

More content is rapidly on its way to Eden Eternal, including new playable races, more classes and a host of other updates and expansions.

Super Dancer Online Review- Dancing Déjà Vu

Super Dancer Online Review – Dancing with Déjà vu

By Michael Sagoe (Mikedot), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

Have you ever played a game that was such a crude imitation or a complete copycat of another game that made you stop and wonder: Why did they bother making this? Well that’s how I felt when I played Super Dancer Online (SDO). Developed by foreign company named 9you, Super Dancer Online is a PC online music and rhythm game that “borrows” elements from other popular music and rhythm games out there, and when I mean borrow, I mean “completely taken” from. Regardless, SDO attempts to create an all-in-one music game, but does it add enough to these elements to keep it fresh?

 

Starting out, initial character creation options are limited with three skin types, two body types and a couple of hair and outfits, but even with these small options I managed to find a look that works… Once you have your starting look, you can choose to go through four different tutorial sessions that will teach you one of the more basic game modes available.

 

However, when I tried to play through the first tutorial, the game client kept crashing on me. I can’t give a definite say on how long it will take an average player to go through, but I’d have to guess that it wouldn’t take very long since it plays out very similar to another, more popular music game. Afterwards, you’ll pick which channel you’d like to play on and enter Modern City, a place that…

 

Wait a second…

 

 

This is strange…  Why does this place seem so awfully familiar? Oh yeah, that’s right…

 

 

As some of you may have noticed: Super Dancer Online looks and feels like a complete carbon copy of T3 Entertainment’s Audition Online, but that’s not the only thing Super Dancer Online tries to imitate (more on this later.)

 

From the main lobby, you have access to a ton of options: You can head straight to the dancing hall and challenge other players to a dance off, visit the FAM office (same exact name from Audition) to create a dancing guild, head to “MyHome “and hang out with other players in your own personal space, get some new digs at the Item Mall or even get married and start a family at the Wedding chapel.

 

Searching for a new look for your character may be a bit of a hassle, since a good chunk of outfits can only be purchased using M-points (real money) instead of G-points (in-game currency). It’s a good thing that these items are only there for vanity and have no stats or abilities. However, pets are also available in the game and these pets DO have abilities that can help your performance in-game.

 

From a visual standpoint: Super Dancer Online looks EXACTLY like Audition Online in every way, and it doesn’t even try to hide it, from the skinny character models to the soft texturing. Along with this copycat look, it also manages to take Audition’s dated feel along with it. The soft textures are only there to mask how dated the visuals really are. Even though you can turn off the soft texturing, the visuals still look very poor, especially since the only resolution available is 800×600.

 

If you have a thing for Malaysian pop music, then you might enjoy the music selection available in Super Dancer Online, because that’s pretty much all that’s in there. Very little music outside of Malaysia is available to dance to, and even some of those song choices are kind of average. The actually quality of the music is quite excellent, though, and I found myself humming to a few of the tunes even though I didn’t have much of a clue regarding the lyrics.

 

Getting right down to the actual gameplay, SDO features a multitude of play options and game modes, many of which were borrowed straight from other music and rhythm games. The primary game modes available (Battle mode, Reverse notes, Showtime) play exactly like one of Konami’s Dance Dance Revolution titles. You use the arrow keys on your keyboard and press each key corresponding to the arrows as they reach the top of the arrow bar.

 

Shake it, bake it, booty quake it!

 

If you’ve ever played a DDR game before, you’ll know exactly how to play, and probably you’ll also know that playing DDR on a keyboard or gamepad is boring and silly. These modes are obviously meant to be played on a dance mat, and fortunately enough, SDO has support for those.

 

I wanted to give the dance mat feature a try, so I borrowed one from a nearby friend and pulled it into my PC using a PS2 controller-to-USB connector. Despite my PC discovering the plugged in dance mat without problems, SDO could not locate the dance mat at all, so I had to “MacGyver” my dance mat to work with the game using JoytoKey. Once I finally got it working, I tried it out and it actually works pretty well.

 

The other available game modes are also taken straight from other music and rhythm games such as Drum Mode which resembles such games as Donkey Konga and Taiko Drum Master, Gallery Mode from games such as Beatmania & DJ Max and 4-key mode which is the default game mode straight from Audition Online.

 

 

Now don’t get me wrong: There’s nothing wrong with any of these game modes in terms of how they play out, because let’s face it: a lot of modern games simply “borrow” elements from other games these days. The main issue I have is that these modes don’t do much of anything to spice up or improve on these elements. The only difference between most of the original music titles and SDO is that you can play online with others. If this was completely offline instead of online, you would just feel a sense of “been there” and “done that”.

 

Super Dancer Online Solid Gold

 

Overall, Super Dancer Online offers a lot of content for a music & rhythm game, and it doesn’t particularly skimp on the quality of the gameplay, but with nothing there to spruce up the gameplay a little, it’s all just rich frosting that’s being poured over a hallow cake, but If there’s no possible way for you to play the titles where many of the game modes in SDO originated from, then by all means: give SDO a shot.

Jade Dynasty Celebrates 2 Years of North American Service!

Jade Dynasty Celebrates 2 Years of North American Service!

 

 

 

Perfect World Entertainment’s Jade Dynasty, a fast paced martial arts inspired MMO, is celebrating its two year anniversary today, June 15th. Based on Zhu Xian, one of Asia’s most popular novels, Jade Dynasty features a unique martial arts style of gameplay wrapped in a huge, evolving game world. Offering a multitude of features and systems not commonly found in free-to-play MMORPGs, Jade Dynasty does not require a monthly subscription, is free to download and is free-to-play. Since launching in 2009, Jade Dynasty has opened new servers in North America and Europe, providing service in English, German and French languages. To celebrate the millions of characters that have existed through Jade Dynasty’s history, Perfect World Entertainmentn is holding a weeklong series of anniversary events running from today until June 22!

 

 

 

“Jade Dynasty continues to grow around the world with recently released German and French versions. With the two year anniversary, we’d like to thank all of our players worldwide for their dedication and their help to make the game even better with age,” said Dean Sakurai, Product Manager for Jade Dynasty. “We look forward to continue making Jade Dynasty even better with feedback from our players. In celebration, we’ve partnered with media sites to give out limited numbers of the highly coveted lion-like Auspicon mount.”

 

 

As Dean Sakurai implied, OnRPG will be holding a key giveaway for our lucky viewers to get their hands on their very own Auspicon Lion mounts. Be sure to come back tomorrow to ensure you are among the few to receive the prized mount.

 

Edit: The event is live. Check it out HERE.

Outspark to Cease Operations for Fists of Fu

Outspark to Shut Down Fists of Fu

 

 

Outspark announced earlier today their plans to cease publishing operations oftheir Fists of Fu servers effective July 13th. Discussion with COG, Fists of Fu’s developers, have thus far resulted in no clear migration plans to transfer the servers to another North American publishing company. OnRPG is always sad to see MMOs go this route, but in today’s competitive industry it has become all too common.

 

 

Outspark is offering compensation packages to those who made purchases in the cash shop during the last three months. These refunds will come in the form of Sparkcash and should arrive in players’ email by June 30th. Outspark apologizes for this turn of events and invites players to try out Luvinia Online’s upcoming closed beta.

 

 

Be sure to check out Luvinia’s Teaser Trailer and Game Profile for more information.

Luvinia World

Luvinia World is an anime styled Fantasy MMORPG that boasts one of the most enormous maps in recent gaming history. Though only 3 classes are available, 12 subclasses exist to ensure large amounts of customization between characters. Simple may be better in this case as the game is hinting at a large scale realm vs realm system, and less is better in terms of balance.

Features

Classes: 3 Class System with 12 Subclasses provide players a wide amount of customization while still remaining easy to balance in terms of PvP.

Kingdoms: Pledge your allegiance to one of 6 nations and fight for supremacy.

Living World: For time cycles to weather, Luvinia offers a world that feels like it’s alive.

Huge World: With over 130 maps available, stretching the depths of the ocean to the final frontier of space, you will never be short of places to explore.