Monthly Archives: August 2012

D&D Neverwinter Reveals 2013 Launch; Upcoming Convention Appearances

D&D Neverwinter Reveals 2013 Launch; Upcoming Convention Appearances

 

 

Perfect World Entertainment Inc. today announced that its highly anticipated free-to-play action MMORPG based on the Dungeons & Dragons roleplaying game, Neverwinter, will make appearances at three of the largest summer gaming conventions:

• Gamescom — August 15 to 19, 2012, at the Koelnmesse in Cologne, Germany (booth D-015, hall 4.1)

• Gen Con Indy — August 16 to 19, 2012, at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, IN (Wizards of the Coast booth 1401)

• PAX Prime — August 31 to September 2, 2012, at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle, WA (booth 3603)

Throughout August, convention attendees can look forward to playing a newly built demo that unveils the never-before-seen Events feature and brand new Blackdagger Ruins zone in Neverwinter. This small taste of the massive, free MMORPG, Neverwinter, highlights one of the game’s many public events that are designed to offer players something new to do every single day.

 

 

Press members who schedule exclusive behind closed doors presentations at PAX Prime and Gamescom will also receive a detailed look at the Foundry, Neverwinter’s groundbreaking user-generated content creation tool.

 

 

Perfect World Entertainment is also pleased to confirm an early 2013 release date for Neverwinter, providing developer Cryptic Studios even more time to add additional content and extra features that the developer team would love to have at launch. Such content includes a robust PvP system. Details on that and other additions will be revealed as Neverwinter’s quest to become the biggest and best MMORPG of 2013 continues.

 

 

“After an extremely successful E3, the nominations, awards and accolades for Neverwinter continues to fuel us with great ideas for new game features,” said Yoon Im, Senior Vice President, Game Publishing, Perfect World Entertainment. “We and our partners at Wizards of the Coast are committed to connecting gamers with the best possible D&D gaming experiences. With Neverwinter, we will not just meet expectations, we will exceed them and that means supporting our developers at Cryptic with the time they need to make the action MMORPG to beat in 2013.”

 

 

Perfect World Entertainment is also pleased to continue its partnership with Wizards of the Coast by showcasing Neverwinter at Gen Con Indy. Fans in attendance can take control of three different deadly Drow characters in a hands-on demo packed with adventure. Fight the infamous pirate Lord Traven Blackdagger and his crew, or perhaps meet Cryptic CEO Jack Emmert, a gaming enthusiast and annual Gen Con attendee!

 

 

“Neverwinter will be the best product we’ve made yet,” said Craig Zinkievich, COO and Executive Producer, Cryptic Studios. “We’re very proud of all the games we’ve developed. We’ve been making MMOs and free MMOs for a decade. Neverwinter takes ten years of those successes and hard lessons to heart. It’s a game and a franchise we’re nothing but passionate about. And now, with the amazing continued support of our publishers and licensors at Perfect World and Wizards of the Coast, we’re ready to kick the MMO space wide open in 2013.”

The Secret World Announces Limited Trial and Issue 2 Details!

The Secret World Announces Limited Trial and Issue 2 Details!

 

 

Funcom is excited to announce that a limited time trial for the company’s recently launched MMORPG ‘The Secret World’ kicked off today. The trial coincides with this week’s GamesCom show that is taking place in Cologne, Germany, where Funcom is conducting press demos and showcasing exclusive new content that will be making its way into the MMO in the coming weeks and months.

 

 

The Secret World’ has struck a cord with the MMO crowd and is currently the highest rated recent PC game on MetaCritic by user score and is also the highest rated game on MMORPG.com by reader vote. Needless to say, the trial is a great way for everyone to see what all the fuss is about!

 

 

The trial offer is open until Sunday August 19th and to participate all you have to do is visit www.thesecretworld.com and register. Registering will allow you to play for three days for free (no matter when you sign up as long as you sign up by August 19th), and players who manage to complete at least thirty missions during that time will also be awarded with two extra days of playtime! Also, during GamesCom, secret society agents clad in their iconic red, blue and green uniforms will also be roaming the show floor giving away scratch cards that enable four day trials. 

 


Among the content being revealed for the very first time at GamesCom is the first raid that will be introduced to the game in a couple of months time. The raid, set in a devastated New York City, builds on the story focus in ‘The Secret World’ to create a truly unique raid experience. Starting out, players will be introduced to the story by listening to the accounts of characters that have taken refuge in the New York subway system, and eventually players will battle a monster that towers over the skyscrapers in the middle of Times Square.

 

 

Funcom announced in July that the company is committed to an ambitious update plan where new content is being introduced to the game on a monthly basis. The first of these updates, which are known as Issues, launched late July and introduced several new missions, a marketplace for players to buy and sell items, and hardcore mode to two dungeons. The second update — titled Issue #2: Digging Deeper — was revealed today and will introduce, among other things, the rocket launcher auxiliary weapon, several new missions, and the ability for players to seek out a plastic surgeon and barber in the game world to customize their looks.

World of Warplanes Takes Home the Glory at Gamescom

World of Warplanes Takes Home the Glory at Gamescom

 

 

Wargaming is proud to announce today that it has received two prestigious honors from the European Games Award 2012. The company was named the Best European Publisher, and its flight combat action MMO World of Warplanes was chosen Europe’s Most Wanted Online Game of 2012.

 

 

“We are excited to be honored by the European Games Award for the second year in a row,” said Wargaming CEO Victor Kislyi. “These awards celebrate the creative and commercial progress the company has made over the last year, and demonstrate the recognition and popularity our projects have earned all around Europe.”

 

 

The 2012 European Games Award took place yesterday evening at an official ceremony in Cologne, Germany. This year more than 100 games were eligible for awards in over 20 categories. The winners were decided by both industry professionals and gamers from all over Europe, who had the chance to support and vote for their favorite titles via a public vote.

 

 

The European Games Award is the top award for European video and computer game developers. Since 2010, the ceremony gathers European game development professionals and players to decide the best games, developers and publishers on the continent.

Win a Laptop for Knight Age OB Pre-Registration

Win An Amazing Laptop For Knight Age Open Beta Pre-Registration

 

Knight Age

 

Joymax today launches the start of their exciting Open Beta Contests for the upcoming free-to-play MMORPG, Knight Age. Players are counting down the last fourteen days before the fantasy MMORPG enters open beta on August 28th! With more than a dozen contests planned, now’s the best time to be a Joymax player. To pre-register for the open beta, players simply need to have a Joymax account.

 

 

Several pre-open beta contests open today, with a total of 17 different events planned between now and the as-of-yet unannounced end of open beta. Prizes include numerous in-game items, including a generous bundle of helpful goodies for players when they first log into the game, to Pupae (in game pets) which will carry over to the game’s launch later this year, and even physical prizes like a brand new fully loaded laptop!

 

 

“We wanted every players to have a chance to win something, while still retaining strong competition for the ultimate grand prize of an amazing gaming laptop.” said Nam-Chul Kim, CEO of Joymax. “Players can watch for all the contest starting dates on the official Knight Age Facebook and Twitter.”

 

Knight Age

 

With a total of 17 events and activities, players will have plenty of options to enter via the Joymax website, the Knight Age Facebook, and in-game once the open beta launches in just two short weeks. Knight Age’s official Open Beta is scheduled to begin August 28th, and excited players can already download the open beta client. Participants of the closed beta simply need to run their client on the day of Open Beta Test launch to get the latest patch.

 

 

Participants of the closed beta will be thrilled to see several popular events will be returning to Knight Age’s open beta. To celebrate over three thousand Facebook ‘Likes’, a double experience buff will be cast on all players during the first week, with additional buff extensions as more ‘Likes’ come. What will 10,000 ‘Likes’ bring? Only Joymax knows, but players will be thrilled to find out!

Blacklight Retribution Full Review

Blacklight: Retribution Full Review

By Isaac Sagoe (afromania), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

 

Blacklight: Retribution (BLR) is a multiplayer online FPS developed by Zombie Studios, as a retooled sequel to their previous title Blacklight: Tango Down. The game features a futuristic vibe which includes advanced weaponry, anime-influenced cyberpunk environments and giant mech suits.

 

 

Controls

The control system in BLR is very typical of what you would expect from an FPS game: WASD keys for movement, mouse for aiming and shooting, space bar to jump, etc. The feel of the controls are very responsive, and there’s plenty of ways to tweak the controls to find your total comfort zone. There’s even direct support for gamepads, but no auto aim features, so it’s not very recommended if you want to be at the top of your game.

 

 

Customization

The customization is very in-depth. Players have the choice to customize type of guns they bring into battle, including barrels, muzzles, scopes, handles, grips, stocks, you name it, and not only with guns, but there’s also different armors, helmets, boots and whatnot that players can select and tweak. On top of that, there are small perks including weapon tags and nodes that will give you a slight boost in different passive actions including weapon switching speed or reload speed. It’s a game that really tries to cater to every kind of FPS play style out there.

 

 

As players go through the game, they will level up and earn GP (in-game currency) to spend on new equipment. When players purchase items using GP, they can either buy items for 1-day, 7-days, or permanently. Now earning 1-day items isn’t much of a big deal, as you can play one or two matches and earn enough GP to obtain them, but unlocking permanent items using GP has some incredibly ridiculous  prices that requires you to play tons of matches for days in order to obtain. There’s also the issue of equipment being locked away due to level limits. Besides from using GP to unlock stuff, players can also use Zen (PWI’s cross title real money system) in order to buy items.

 

 

The issue here is that players can use Zen to unlock stuff early, since many items require players to achieve a certain level before they can be purchased with GP. This can give players the perception that players can “Pay-to-Win”, but it’s not so much of it being a case of paying to win, as it’s more of a case of just paying to unlock stuff early.

 

 

This is done through a clever balancing system between equipment where higher tier equipment isn’t necessarily better than lower end equipment, it just is split up to be really strong at certain functions at the cost of other category stats. For instance, if you decide to get that fancy new barrel that increases damage output, you’re going to deal with having more recoil, or if you want to get that armor set that increases you defense, you’re going to be sacrificing movement speed. What I’m trying to say here is that most of the items you can obtain are all sidegrades, and there are only a handful of items that I would consider to be direct upgrades of other items.

 

 

The default armor and weapon that players get when they start playing is the most balanced weapon available, and a decent player should be able to top themselves on the leaderboards with no problem. I sure have on many occasions and I’m usually in the top 3 in every match I’ve played, and I’ve never spent a dime on anything.

 

 

Gameplay

The core gameplay in BLR very much plays like a futuristic version of CoD: Modern Warfare. You run and gun while using iron sights for more accurate shots, earn points from killing enemies to use special equipment from supply depots and use that equipment to rack up more points and kills. One major feature of BLR is the HRV: Hyper Reality Visor, which lets you see the position of all friendlies, enemies, traps and supply depots on the map. Think of it as a legitimate wall hack, if you will. Since there’s no mini-map, players will have to use the HRV to get an idea of what’s going on and how to appreciate a situation. One major downside to the HRV is that you can’t fire at enemies while it’s activated, so you’ll have to be very careful while it’s in use. Getting caught with your HRV on is very much like getting caught with your pants down.

 

 

I believe the idea behind the HRV was that it’s supposed to crack down on player camping and promote active gameplay, but people still manage to camp anyway.

 

 

Other than the HRV, there’s nothing super or spectacular about BLR’s core gameplay, but it’s still very solid.

 

 

The amount of game modes that BLR has to offer is pretty respectable, including Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Domination, CTF, KotH, Kill Confirmed, and NetWar which is like a mix between Domination and CTF. While none of the game modes in particular except NetWar stand out, they’re tried and true options that any FPS shouldn’t go without and they definitely give the game some variety.

 

 

Graphics and Presentation

BLR has an excellent cyberpunk vibe going for it, with many of the environments looking like they were ripped straight from an episode of Ghost in the Shell. Visuals look great from a technical standpoint, with the power of Unreal Engine 3 tech; you get some delicious lighting effects, tessellation and many other DirectX11 features.

 

 

The weapons sound appropriate for the game’s futuristic vibe, but there isn’t much music to help create some atmosphere during battles. In the end it isn’t really needed as the maps are compact enough that constant gunfire and explosions would drown out the music anyway. The visuals were enough stimulation to keep me pumped. What little music there is available in the game is either simple digital electronic tunes and some dubstep.

 

 

Community

I would have to say that the community in BLR is very good, as most of the players are very cool with each other. The players I’ve dealt with were very polite at the end of a match, and there were only a few occasional bad eggs. The community features were pretty standard, which a basic friends list, clan support, and chatting lobbies. All standard stuff that you would expect from a multiplayer focused game, and they all work as intended.

 

 

Overall

As a F2P title, it’s all fair and balanced so trying to pin your losses on others that unlocked equipment early won’t hold much water here. The visuals are wonderful for any fans of cybperpunk anime and overall I’d have to say that it’s a pretty enjoyable experience for those that want a CoD: Modern Warfare-like FPS experience for those that don’t want to play an actual Modern Warfare game. The high levels of customization really help add a feeling of personalization to your character that you rarely get to experience in FPS titles these days.

 

Controls – 3

Customization – 4

Gameplay – 3

Graphics & Presentation – 4

Community – 4

Overall – 4

Grimlands – Beta Progress So Far

Grimlands – Beta Progress So Far

 

Grimlands

 

gamigo’s post-apocalyptic shooter MMO, Grimlands, has been in the closed beta phase since April 2012. In the meantime the game has done a lot. To the biggest expansions belong the eight new dungeons including an array of quests (over 70) and four completely new regions (Reville, Greenville, Hartfield, and Mutant Valley) which have been introduced into the game.

 

 

Great attention has been devoted to the game’s environment. Jagged ravines, massive shifts of earth, and diverse detail improvements make the landscape even more threatening. Changes in weather with particular phenomena like sandstorms make for a gloomier atmosphere. Two new models of vehicle have been integrated into the game which can be modified in every aspect- among others with armor, stronger engines, better chassis, and, of course, weaponry in the form of a heavy-caliber machine gun on the roof.

 

 

An intensive optimization of textures not only means that they are sharper than before, but they also use fewer resources at the same time. This means that Grimlands can also run smoothly on older systems. The character editor has loads of new options like gender, age, corpulence, and athleticism. Community functions like the clan system were developed further so that clans can now find a bank vault, to store their possessions, in at every banker.

DC Universe Online Launches High Level Gotham and Metropolis Content

Battle Across Gotham City And Metropolis In DC Universe Online

 

DC Universe Online

 

Sony Online Entertainment today announced that Hand of Fate, the fifth downloadable content (DLC) pack for DC Universe™ Online (DCUO), will be available for download on the PC and PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system this September. Hand of Fate will challenge players to return to Gotham City and Metropolis to experience high-level, team-focused Operations that span the iconic cityscapes. This DLC will also provide players with new Utility Belt Attachments and introduce magic-powered Legends PvP characters, as well as a multitude of exhilarating new side missions.

 

 

“Hand of Fate is serial in nature and features massive, team-oriented Operations,” said Jens Andersen, creative director on DC Universe Online. “We want to provide players with unique Hero and Villain experiences that immerse them in the most iconic DC Comics locations: Gotham City and Metropolis. What we hope players find in this DLC are emergent game play moments that challenge and reinvigorate them in the open world.”

 

DC Universe Online

 

Hand of Fate will throw players into hours of new adventures and content:

Utility Belt Attachments – Utility Belt Attachments will expand the trinket load-out from one to up to four slots, allowing players to equip multiple trinkets and consumables at once. All Utility Belt Attachments have at least two slots, while some also have upgradeable slots! Utility Belt Attachments give players more flexibility and options in the heat of combat without having to swap out items.

New Legends Characters – Hand of Fate will introduce the first arcane characters to Legends PvP. The Lord of Order, Doctor Fate and the treacherous sorcerer Felix Faust make their playable debut in Legends PvP as magic-wielding hand-blasters who conjure powerful spells and summon allies to their aid.

Operations – Six intense new episodes designed for group play – three Heroic and three Villainous – will be unleashed upon players under the direction of Doctor Fate and Felix Faust. Heroes will be called to help the Lords of Order protect innocent souls from the forces of darkness. Villains must complete perilous missions for Felix Faust to reap his rewards.

Side Missions – As players battle through the six Operations, numerous side missions will arise that take players all over Metropolis, Gotham City, and beyond, pitting them against previous adversaries and new dangers that have arisen.

 

 

DCUO’s Hand of Fate DLC pack will be a free download for the game’s Legendary members and will be available for purchase to Free and Premium players via the PlayStation®Network, the in-game Marketplace, or for PC players via the DCUniverseOnline.com website.

Dragon Eternity

Overview

 

Dragon Eternity is a browser-based MMORPG. Choose from either the Vaalor or Sadar kingdoms, and begin your path to glory. Find a variety of items and equipment to help you defeat NPCs. You can see what your character has equipped in the inventory screen, which is unique from many browser based games. Dragon Eternity is quest driven, and completing them rewards experience and gold. Combat is unique in that you choose a stance each round, which determines what types of attacks you will cause.

 

Features

Two factions: Both kingdoms are different, and have their own motivations. The quests you receive will depend on who you ally yourself with. This will also determine your opponents in PvP battles.

Reputation and collections: Raise your rapport with several factions in game, and collect rare items in the game. This will unlock some unique items and abilities for you to use!

Shop and auctions: Access items from any of the shops across the world. If you can’t find the item you need, you can check the auctions for it, to buy from other players. Or you can sell what you find, yourself!