Today marks the launch of Dragon Nest‘s most epic PvP battle yet, Guild Rumble!
Monthly Archives: May 2012
Aion EU 3.0 Update Preview
Gameforge has released a new preview of amazing things to come for AION EU in version 3.0!
DragonNest Launches Guild Rumble and Spirit Garden Update
DragonNest Launches Guild Rumble and Spirit Garden Update
Players who have been hungering to see exactly how their guild stacks up against others will get to experience the ultimate player versus player challenge with today’s DragonNest “Guild Rumble” content update.
Every month, the guilds of Altera will be called upon to fight monsters, earn achievements, and face off against each other in the arena to prove which guild is the best. Every player will be rewarded for their efforts as well as their performance, so everyone wins. The champion guild each month however will take home exclusive costumes, mounts, and all-important bragging rights.
In addition to the Guild Rumble event kicking off today, a new PvP map is also being added to “Dragon Nest.” Spirit Garden is a new medium sized PvP map themed to the River Ruins Path dungeons. Five PvP modes are playable in Spirit Garden, including: Respawn, Rounds, Protect, Free For All, and Domination.
Check out their new launch trailer to see guild battles in action!
AION Announces Major Update with 3.0
AION Announces Major Updates with 3.0
The AION development team is currently working on AION free-to-play’s most extensive update so far. Amongst countless new features, there will be two new areas and a mount system, which will allow players to explore the world of Atreia even more quickly and comfortably.
New areas for players from level 55
The update extends the world of AION by two new areas. The areas, called Sarpan and Tiamaranta, are aimed at advanced players of level 55 and above. With the introduction of these new regions and the associated challenges, the level limit will be increased to 60.
In a total of six new instances, players in Sarpan as well as in Tiamaranta can face new enemies and bosses, each of which drop high-level items, legendary armour and weapons.
Sarpan is activated via an individual campaign quest. It includes neutral territories as well as free PvP areas. Humans, Daevas and members of Siel’s Spear found a new home in Sarpan after the Cataclysm. Sarpan’s capital city, Kamar City, is surrounded by enemy territories. Adventurous players will certainly get more than they bargained for, as Sarpan is filled with strong opponents who drop lucrative rewards.
Tiamaranta can be reached through Kamar City. It is aimed at PvP enthusiasts between the levels of 58 and 60 and offers fortresses that can be seized by both factions. Dragon Lord Tiamat’s strongest and most important fortress is Tiamaranta’s Eye, which is activated for the corresponding faction as soon as a minimum of two of the fortresses in this zone have been conquered.
Get around more quickly with mounts
The upcoming update will also make travelling easier: tame mounts speed up the players’ movements on the ground and in the air. They also have an additional short speed increase thanks to the new sprint function. Mounts with differing skills and corresponding level requirements can be bought from NPC merchants. Players will also be able to produce their own mounts via crafting.
Player Housing
Get ready for some of the most beautiful looking player housing to hit the online market yet as AION offers functionality in addition to style. Players will be able to store goods in dressers, sit and interactive with furniture, farm items off their plants, and even teleport between residences to quickly visit friends.
A video preview can be viewed here to see all of this in action!
End of Nations: Shadow Revolution Forces Spotlight
End of Nations shows off the stealthy and agile Shadow Revolution Forces in their 2nd faction spotlight trailer.
The Secret World Registers 1 Million Players for Beta Testing
The Secret World Registers 1 Million Players for Beta Testing
Funcom is thrilled to announce that one million gamers are now registered for ‘The Secret World’ beta tests. This impressive number confirms the game’s position as one of the most highly anticipated MMO games in the world, and the number is also significantly higher than what Funcom’s previous MMO ‘Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures’ saw at the same time in its pre-launch development phase.
“Shattering our previous beta records gives us great hope for The Secret World’s launch and its future,” says Funcom SVP of Sales & Marketing, Morten Larssen. “Combining this positive number with the excellent feedback we have received from both beta testers and the press that have played the game, make us very optimistic for a successful launch of The Secret World.”
In addition to these impressive beta registration numbers, Funcom can also share that in just over a month nearly two million unique visitors have come to Funcom’s ‘The Secret World’ websites. Interest has also grown tremendously on the back of ‘The Secret War’ social media experience that has seen almost 250,000 users register to take active part in the interactive pre-launch community initiative, and the experience has been visited almost two million times in just three weeks.
This coming Friday, May 11th, Funcom will be kicking off the first of several Beta Weekends where gamers get to sample parts of the content and gameplay that will be featured in ‘The Secret World’ when it launches on June 19th this year. Everyone pre-ordering the game will get to play each of these Beta Weekends, and more content is added from one weekend to the next leading up to launch.
Funcom has also teamed up with world-leading gaming website GameSpot who are giving out 100,000 keys to gamers in the US, UK and Australia this week on this giveaway page. GameSpot has also posted a video preview of ‘The Secret World’ and will be following up with exclusive coverage later this week.
In the first Beta Weekend, named ‘Kingsmouth Calling’, players will get to join the Templar secret society starting out in London, before they get to visit parts of Solomon Island to investigate the mysterious events that have occurred there. Players will get to play around with the groundbreaking progression system that is free of restrictions such as classes and levels, and will have the chance to experience the unique storyline that ‘The Secret World’ offers. More details on the event can be found on our website.
Brick-Force Comic Launches Today
Brick-Force Comic Launches Today
Infernum has partnered with Stenarts and Marvin Clifford to release an online comic series on new FPS World Builder, Brick-Force. “It may not look like it but today is the best day of my life.” – These are the starting words of the new Brick-Force comic’s first episode which was launched today. Starting today, every two weeks, the official website will give Brick-Force fans updates on the adventures of special agent Cooper and his special-forces team during their deployment in the Brick-Universe.
The text and concepts in the new Brick-Force comic stem from Berlin’s creative think tank “Stenarts” a publisher and developer of interactive comic apps including “RIA – Lightclan-Chronicles” which has become a household name in the German comic scene. The artist and illustrator, Marvin Clifford, gave life to the square characters. Within the games sector, he is probably best known for co-creating the comic series and browser game “Shakes & Fidget”.
Pleased with the project, Marvin Clifford said: “The Brick-Force comic is my first partnership with Stenarts and Infernum. The Stenarts people have been longtime friends of mine so I was very happy to start working on the Brick-Force project, which has been challenging, inspiring and fun.”
Mission: Square
The Brick-People’s home world is doomed. Very soon, their life-giving, square sun will explode in a supernova. In order to evacuate the population, his Excellency, King Kubrick I, has given order to find a suitable uninhabited world and prepare it for population. This is the chance that renegade general Zapota and his followers have only been waiting for: the rise to power. As the first fights break out on one of the settlers’ planets, an elite team of 5 is sent out to take care of the situation.
Brick-Force is currently in “VIP” open beta stage and will soon be accessible for all fans.
Iron Grip: Marauders Releases Quests Galore
Iron Grip: Marauders Releases Quests Galore
Another update to Iron Grip: Marauders has been released, and it includes new missions of all kinds! Bold players can now choose to take on smuggling missions in Atelia, or maybe offer their services to the beautiful and mysterious Lady Heresh. Captain Kolo couldn’t stay behind, and has a bunch of unpredictable new missions for everyone too! On top of all this there’s a new level to reach, new units including the Fury Wrecker, and a whole load of other improvements large and small.
Five new quests are on offer from Lady Heresh, and once they are completed, she will join the player. Like Murtas, Lady Heresh is a support hero, except her talent lies with fast repairs rather than patching up squishy humans (or animals). Her area-effect repairs will keep any mechanized army running for longer – she also has a generous number of smuggling slots. This update also sees fresh Kolo content, with a number of intriguing new quests – players must try to guide Bomb Trucks through enemies to destroy buildings without getting them all blown up first, hunt an enormous Ironclad Walker, or destroy a tavern and risk the fury of a lot of angry patrons!
Allods Dev Diary: Game of Gods Approaches
Allods Dev Diary: Game of Gods Approaches
By PioPico, gPotato Representative
The next update for Allods Online: Game of Gods is fast approaching on May 30! There are a vast number of features to make the community’s experience that much more convenient – and intense. We will review how the changes impact the game and we’ll also give you an exclusive preview of what else is coming!
Quest Improvements
Allods Online continues to improve questing convenience so players spend less time trying to figure out what to do and more time enjoying content and progression. Patch 3.0.2 makes this even better with two key features – Quest Finder and Automove.
It’s no secret that zones spread throughout the game are massive. Players are encouraged to explore all zones to acquire quests from NPCs or scattered objects. However, it’s understandable if players miss a section of a zone that might contain an important quest. Sometimes an important quest gets skipped or lost somewhere along the quest chain. With the Quest Finder, players will automatically be given an important quest appropriate to their level without even having to find the NPC that gives the quest. This handy feature will be used by everyone, especially perfectionists who must complete everything!
Automove
Players will experience more enjoyable travels throughout Sarnaut with Automove. Once you have a quest, you can have your character automatically travel to the location the quest requirements need to be fulfilled with the click of a button – it’s that easy! However, it will still be possible for enemies to attack your character if you happen to cross paths with them while traveling in Automove. While your character travels to different locations, you’ll be able to focus on other tasks such as accessing your inventory, skill tree, or even chatting with your guild members!
New Skirmish – Deserted Farm
Another scripted PvP event will enter the playing field to give players more PvP options. The last major patch implemented the first skirmish that where the objective was to capture checkpoints. The raid that captures checkpoints the longest are the victors! In the Deserted Farm, players will still need to capture a checkpoint although there will be two cannons located on each end of the zone. Players who claim these cannons will have an upper hand in determining the victors of the match since players caught in the downfall of flaming meteors will receive massive AoE damage. Unlike the first skirmish, Deserted Farm will feature 6v6 instead of 12v12 combat between players. Besides having more personal fights with fewer individuals involved, 6v6 matches will naturally allow faster matches to occur since fewer people need to queue for the skirmish.
New Kingdom of Elements Boss – Gen’ul, Lord of the Volcano
Gen’ul, Lord of the Volcano breathes conflict and danger to any raids brave enough to challenge him. What makes this encounter unique is that it takes place in an open PvP zone where all players can fight against each other, regardless of faction. The real threat when facing Gen’ul comes from other enemy players. It’ll be in one’s best interest to form a trusting raid and battle off other enemy raids while not forgetting the boss. Once the boss is defeated, it will drop a chest that will force the different raids to engage in a savage brawl for Level 51 mythical gear and items to help guilds level up faster. It will be interesting to see how guilds interact, considering everyone is after the same grand prize.
Mentor System
This exciting new feature will allow both new and experienced players to benefit by helping each other. Players must first agree to participate in this feature and the game will automatically assign another player of the same faction and class. Depending on one’s level, you’ll be a Mentor or Apprentice.
How does the Apprentice benefit from the Mentor System?
The Apprentice will be helped by the mentor through messages of how to become better at their class as well as provide basic information to help them progress through the game. There will be a special interface for messages to be left by the mentor for the apprentice to read.
How does the Mentor benefit from the Mentor System?
In exchange for their information and assistance, the Mentor will receive bonus amounts of gold, Special Holiday Coins, and Marks of Diligence based on the amounts that their Apprentices loot of those items. The interesting spin on the rewards is that the more the Apprentice advances, the more bonus items will be awarded to the Mentor. Therefore, it’ll be in the Mentor’s best interest to be as helpful as possible to their Apprentice. In addition, the Apprentice can leave their Mentor at any time if they are not receiving sufficient help so Mentors will want to be actively helping their apprentice if they wish to receive more rewards.
Even though the Mentor system revolves around physical rewards to make Mentors help Apprentices, it’s a nice social feature that will help the community be more helpful as a whole, and will surely spark new friendships between new and veteran players.
What Else Can We Expect From Patch 3.0.2?
We’ve covered various features ranging from updated UI changes to questing, PvP, to improved social aspects. We would like to briefly share with you some more features to come in the next patch!
Alchemy Reworked!
Alchemy is being reworked to include new recipes and a new interface! Alchemy will also be combined with the herbalism profession to make potion creations easier.
Looter Companion Pets!
These pets can be obtained through the Item Shop and will allow players to loot items dropped from monsters without needing to click on them. Just activate your looter pet, kill any monster, and your pet will fly toward the monster’s loot and automatically place it in your bag!
Tep’s Curse Removed!
With Tep’s Curse removed, players’ gear will no longer be cursed upon death. This means you’ll never have to worry about equipping Holy Charms again!
New Mounts and Hair Styles!
For those who like to express themselves with a unique look, we have got you covered! Expect to see wicked-looking mounts especially rare ones that can only be obtained through in-game challenges. Besides mounts, the Hall of Changes will prepare you with all your red carpet appearances with a new assortment of fashionable hair styles.
We hope you’ve enjoyed our in-depth coverage of Patch 3.0.2’s main features and stay tuned for more exciting content coming with the new patch on May 30th!
Dark Legends: Blood, Gore, and a Whole Lot More
Dark Legends: Blood, Gore, and a Whole Lot More
By: Vincent Haoson, OnRPG Journalist
Vampires, vampires, vampires! The world seems to have this eerie fascination with the walking, blood-sucking creatures of the night. These mythical creatures have been seen on almost every media available and up till now the world (or at least I am and a few of my RL friends) is still reeling from the latest monstrosity that is Twilight.
Thankfully, we are spared of the highly romanticized vampires with Dark Legends. This multiplatform game from Spacetime Studios puts you in the shoes of a recently turned vampire, trying to live through a world where humanity are not just mere food, but a race that knows how to fight back against the vampire race.
Gameplay
Dark Legends plays along the lines of a mixed mobile game that adheres to a myriad of gameplay styles found in other mobile/browser and flash/text-based games. You have the repeatable actions where your character merely does one thing and you have the instanced maps where you get to control your character through NPC mobs. Also each action, may it be doing a quest or going through an instance requires you to spend action points, which are often found in other flash/text-based games.
The control scheme adheres to its mobile version where you have clickable buttons for skills and for normal attacks. If you’re playing on Chrome, the control scheme is still the same with the exception of character movement relegated to the A,W,S, and D keys since the mobile version’s controls are either through the touch screen or through the virtual joystick most games have.
You have the option of playing the game on your android device, Chrome browser or iOS device (which is in fact a recent update) the only difference in the platform is that there are limitations when you play the game while on your mobile device.
Skills and Sucking Down Blood
Dark Legends’ gore factor is surprisingly high. You see limbs, blood and brain matter fly everywhere whenever you go through an instance. However, you won’t get to enjoy it especially since the game’s 3D is chunky and pretty low-end considering the visual quality of games these days.
Your character progresses and grows stronger through leveling up. You get stat point increments per level while unlocking skills as you gain a notch. Major stats boosts are earned through equipment in the form of gems or gem-like items that are titled similarly to items from Diablo.
Your equipment and weapons can be acquired either by purchasing them through the in-game store or from mob drops that occasionally fall as you plow through the hordes.
Socialization
Dark Legends’ other major aspect is the socialization features ingrained in the game. You have the option of going through an instanced dungeon solo or you can invite or join in other people who are running through the game. The game also has a friend list system in place where you can save and contact other players through private messaging. The game even informs you when a friend goes online or not.
The game also has a “player hub” where you can mingle with other players in real time. This hub is also home to visual representation of the various in-game customizations the game allows you to do.
The game features a basic PvP system as well. You can either go head to head with another player in the hub itself or you can join in the arena matches where you are part of a team trying to dominate the opposing team in a free-for-all.
Conclusion
Overall, I must say that Dark Legends is a great time sink. While graphics-wise the game needs an overhaul, the simplistic gameplay added with tons of socialization features would make you come back to it time and time again. It doesn’t hurt that you can play the game on both your mobile device and PC but since I currently don’t own either an android or a iOS device I really can’t give my comment on the game on that perspective.
The other thing I appreciated with Dark Legends is that the game tries to balance the advantages those who buy premium items receive with those who just play the game for free. Similar to F2P games that have the micro transaction business model, most of the in-game “cash” items are vanity items with the exception of some weapons. However players who won’t spend a dime on the game can still acquire cash-based weapons as long as your luck holds out.
In a nutshell, while the game’s visuals would take time to stomach, Dark Legends is one of those Vampire-themed games made for those players looking for more blood than sparkle in their vampires.
Pros
Solid Gameplay
You can play on both your PC and your mobile device (android/iOS)
Cons
Dated visuals
“Glamouring” is something you need to get used to
Lag issues are very relevant if you have high ping, especially during PvP
Graphics – 1/5
Controls – 4/5
Features – 4/5
Customization – 2/5
Community – 3/5























