WoW Wednesday-The Launch of Meh (5.0.4)

By Meredith Watson, OnRPG WoW Reporter

 

 

 

Patch 5.0.4 was released yesterday, August 28th, in the US and this morning, August 29th, in the EU to mixed reviews.  After waiting most of the day due to extended maintenance for the US ( Blizzard clearly found the problem and had EU up by around 11am) the overriding theme was one of “meh”. It seems as if everyone is just a bit blasé about the whole thing.  Even Blizzard couldn’t be bothered to name the patch. It is just 5.0.4. Meh.

 

 

The forums and even twitter are awash with comments on the patch and how classes are broken or classes are over powered. There seems to be a common feeling in that the new talents are meaningless and quite often PvP focused.   Normally though the official forums are all up in arms come any sort of messing about with the classes.  Not so today. It does feel as some are making a half-hearted attempt to stir up trouble but gone are the heated debates it seems.

 

 

It isn’t all bad though. One of the major changes is the account wide mounts, pets and achievements. I was personally looking forward to this as I have been playing since the beginning and have characters that have since retired but had acquired some nifty mounts or achievements. It is good to see those things now on characters I am currently playing.  It was a bit shocking to see how many pets I actually had given; I’ve never considered myself a collector.  It is interesting to note that duplicates of certain pets do show in the pet tab meaning you can fight with all of the duplicates.  Speaking of the Pet Battle system, it isn’t live but will be introduced with Mists of Pandaria.  I have already been building my teams in anticipation.

 

 

Feats of Strength are also account wide now.  I do like this if for no other reason than bragging rights.  Upon logging in this morning I was awarded two new Feats of Strength for pre-purchasing the digital deluxe edition of Mists of Pandaria with the Imperial Quilen Mount and Quilen pet.

 

 

There are quite a few class changes. Whether or not they are good or bad is up to the player to decide.  I didn’t like the fact that rogue off hands were normalized meaning it no longer matters if you have a fast offhand and slow main hand which used to be the old compensation.  It was a thing that rogues knew. Okay, it was a thing good rogues knew. I would like to say I do like the using of poisons now as a buff versus applying to the weapon. However, I will miss the green poison effect dripping off my blades.  Rogues, remember when we had to make our poisons? We’ve come a long way.

 

 

Gone are the days of the melee hunter much to everyone’s relief no doubt.  The ranged weapon slot has been removed so now the hunters bow or rifle will go in the main hand slot.  This goes for all classes. Casters will no longer be able to equip wands in the ranged slot but will be able to in their main hand.

 

 

The Battle of Theramore event is supposed to be live the week before Mists of Pandaria is and at this point I am not holding out much hope for anything particularly epic.  I want it so badly to feel like the Dark Portal opening event,  Ahn’Qiraj event, or the Sunwell event. I have a sneaky suspicion the Battle of Theramore will be equally as lacklustre as the Wrath of the Lich King event or the Cataclysm event.

 

 

Blizzard has always been rather unapologetic when it comes to their game. From downtime to nerfs, it has always been their way or the highway but it does feel as if they are ceasing to care about their game and to a degree, us, the community. Or maybe, like the rest of us, Blizzard just feels a bit “meh” about the Mists of Pandaria.

 

Gamescom 2012: C9 and Arctic Combat

By Shannon and Jonathan Doyle, OnRPG Journalists

 

 

 

While at Gamescom we got the chance to meet with a few people from Webzen. You may know them for games like Continent of the Ninth Seal (C9) which released earlier this year and Arctic Combat which is currently in beta. During our meeting we got to hear about upcoming plans, learn a bit more about both those games and we even got to play them for a bit. This was the first time I had played C9 and while I was playing it Ardua was trying out Arctic Combat for the first time.

 

Before I get into the plans coming up for C9 I feel like I should talk about it a little bit. It is a beautiful 3D fantasy, action MMORPG which was developed by Cloud 9 Studios and is published globally by Webzen (though it is also published by several other groups in Asia to allow for the best localization possible). There are 13 unique classes which fall under four base classes.

Fighter: Warrior, Blademaster, Guardian, Berserker
Hunter: Assassin, Scout, Ranger, Shadow
Shaman: Elementalist, Illusionist, Taoist
Witchblade: Warden, Slayer

It has both pve, which is what I tried out and pvp elements. In the pvp experience there are several modes to choose from. They include, Teammatch, Deathmatch, Relay and Ranking Matches. There are also competitive pvp tournaments. The EU championship was held at Gamescom. The tournament in North America will be coming up in October and the World Championship will be held at G-Star in Korea at the start of November.

 

Combat is very free compared to other games. You don’t have to have a target selected. There are combo skills which are a ton of fun to play with as well as being visually amazing. Speed is an important part of combat. And best of all if you find the keyboard/mouse combination to be a bit awkward C9 does support joypads.

 

So! I said there were some things upcoming! I didn’t lie. Scheduled for release on September 5th is the first major update to C9. It’s being called 4th Continent and will introduce the ancient city Okapia. The level cap is going to be raised from 50 to 57. New content includes a lottery system which gives you a chance to win unique items from killing monsters. There will also be a skill book which will allow you to upgrade skills. On September 19th comes a new class update. These dates are of course subject to change, but keep your eyes out for news on them in my daily news article Shotgun News.

 

I had a fantastic time trying out C9. And though I wouldn’t take part in the pvp aspects of the game because I’m just not competitive enough I could easily see myself playing the pve aspects of the game. Even if the critters are sometimes just too cute to kill. Keep an eye on OnRPG’s giveaway page as we’ll soon have access codes to get you into the 4th continent beta test.

 

At the same time as Leliah was coming to terms with killing cute things, I got to grips with Arctic Combat and killing not so cute things. Well unless grizzled soldiers are your sort of thing.

 

Based upon the Unreal Engine and set in, you guessed it, an arctic setting, Arctic Combat is a team based shooter aimed at pretty much everyone. Arctic Combat is free to play and has recently begun its closed beta in Europe inviting people in to the frozen tundra to do battle as either the Red Star Alliance or the Allied Forces.

 

 

Naturally enough in such a team and clan based game the focus is on player versus player but there are pve elements available for play against challenging AI opponents. I can say that with complete certainty because well… it actually took me a minute to realize I wasn’t playing against players. Maybe that’s why I actually managed to pull off some of my more noob antics…

 

Either way while Leliah slaughtered her way through fantasy, I took aim in Webzens realistic setting. Want to call down an airstrike? Want to bring in UAV support? Want to modify your weapons and have your pick of a skill system that’ll be sure to spice things up? You want to head north then, find your way into snowy wastes and grab your favourite skin from the cash shop. Of course OnRPG has keys to get you there as well so don’t miss out.

 

No matter if you are fighting on a fantastic distant continent or merely in a near future frozen wasteland, WEBZEN were more than happy to guide us through and let us play in some very engaging and very enjoyable games.

Gamescom 2012: Dust 514 – Immortality has a Price

 By Jonathan Doyle (Ardua), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

Not every massively multiplayer experience is limited to a PC. Consoles are playing a greater role in bringing people together in ways that typically would have been those limited to PC gamers.

 

 

Having brought us space to be conquered on the PC, CCP Games is branching into new territory. It is bringing a massive shooter experience to Playstation 3.

 

 

For those who do not know, this is DUST 514.

 

 

War Without End

The beauty of science fiction is that it can be used to explore a broad range of concepts. Morality, legality, the future, hope, fear. You can cover all of those in a spaceship and laser gun package and dissect them once a week to world acclaim.

 

 

The beauty of science fiction games is when they have a beautifully realized world, half of the work is done for you.

 

 

Worried about the amount of arenas available to you in your favourite shooter? The New Eden cluster has hundreds of stars and thousands of options.

 

 

Are you the type of person to demand a modicum of realism from your games? Being shot in the head by an advanced laser or futuristic shotgun is no longer an impediment to waging war seamlessly. The same rationale and technology behind the deep world of EVE Online has been applied to DUST 514 to not just explain the shooter but to give it meaning.

 

 

There is war amongst the stars, war without end and most importantly a war you can affect.

 

 

Two Methods, One World

Interested players already know that the worlds of DUST 514 and EVE Online are on in the same. Specifically while PC gamers spend their time warping around New Eden and laying waste to one another in losec space, Playstation 3 gamers will be fighting it out on the worlds dotted throughout those voids. There will be market links between the two allowing material to flow between players of either game. More importantly, as the wars wage and as players claw out territory, EVE players can support mercenaries on the ground with orbital bombardment.

 

 

Been turned into plasma and itching for payback? You can turn the tables and fire back at those spaceships hindering you and helping the opposing force.

 

 

My Experience

Admittedly, and sadly, my experiences with DUST 514 were limited. Not for any failing on the part of the game, there’s just so much to see and get done at Gamescom that both the time of interviewers and developers is limited. What I did play? Very engaging. Each instance is a 24vs24 battle that quickly turns brutal, or at least it did for me. There were reports of a clan of players so eager to get to grips with DUST 514 they kept lining back up to play together.

 

 

I fought tanks and fought with them. I had the pleasure of having my clone brains scattered around the landscape on more than one occasion and yearning to repay the favour. One thing that I rather enjoyed? In the lore of the game and in the actual gameplay, some vehicles are capable of spawning troops. That drop ship buzzing the complex? You better take it down quick or the guy you just sniped may well respawn on it even as it bobs and weaves through the air. Just to make your life worse, he’ll even be able to fire its guns if no one else is covering them.

 

 

I came away from the CCP booth a little disappointed honestly. Once again, not because of any failing on their part, but this time on mine. I don’t own a Playstation 3. I can’t jump into the mercenary war. Not right away anyway. I can’t get my hands on a Playstation Move and mount it on a rifle body (DUST 514 is move enabled and this is something that you could play with on the show floor) to mow down players. For now, I’ll have to content myself with EVE, with the knowledge that whenever I do get my hands on a Playstation that DUST 514 is free and waiting for me to jump into and finally with the work of one Tony Gonzales.

 

 

Templar One, like The Empyrean Age is CCPs reminder that their universe is out to suck you in. It’s on our PCs, it’s on our consoles and it’s in our books. The best part about a world like what they are offering?

 

 

You’re more than willing to be sucked in.

Gamescom 2012: World of Warplanes

By Jonathan Doyle (Ardua), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

The Wargaming.net booth in the Gamescom Business area is as brimming with interviewers as the booth is on the show floor, showing off what we’ve come to talk to them about.

 

 

It’s time to take to the skies and get airborne with World of Warplanes.

 

 

The Golden Age

I admit being a huge fan of the technology of World War II. The arms race of our world brought technological changes that can easily be felt the world over. I have heard about the battles in the air, the planes used and dreamed of. I have watched weathered old men recount the terror and glory of flying those glorious machines into danger time and time again.

 

 

Respect should and has been rightly heaped upon those who flew these missions across battlefields.

 

 

Obviously a video game can and in some cases does deal with moral questions, that isn’t why we’re here though. Wargaming.net has captured the glory of flight. The exhilaration of the chase in three dimensions and the chaos and confusion that is a dogfight.

 

 

What they’re offering you and I is nothing less than the golden age of aviation. The whole gamut of planes from rickety looking 1930s Red Baron-esque biplanes to early Korean War jet fighters. Not content to merely pick from what did fly, we’re also getting what may have flown. What would have flown, had the projects seen the light of day or their turn on the construction lines.

 

 

There is love apparent in every plane I am shown, every modification and variant sitting in a hanger. World of Tanks players are almost certainly nodding and smiling, knowing what I am talking about, but at the time I admit I was unprepared to see just how faithfully and fantastically the planes have been recreated.

 

 

Getting in the Cockpit

Eager to get into the air? Eager to get to grips with the enemy team and bring them down one at a time? Well everything I saw says that that will be quick, easy and entirely fulfilling.

 

 

During the presentation the preset system was shown to me for pilots who are ready to go right now. Want to switch out your engines and weapons? Just a click away. Want to get a nice rounded package to fit in? Push of a button.

 

 

For others though, there will be every chance and option for them to drill down into the bones of the game and really experiment with different engines, wing configurations, weaponry and so on.

 

 

Everything comes with a cost of course, one that may not be immediately apparent to you sitting pretty in the sky. Oh, didn’t we mention that? No tedious takeoff and landing. No long slogs to get to grips with the other guy. You will start in the air and ready to go once you’ve picked all your gear.

 

 

The cost though, the cost is very very real. Every plane was not created equal; if they were wars would have been fought by heavily armored, super nimble, bristling with guns and packed with bombs superfighters. Thankfully not here. The dream planes may have made it in, but what they can do, or what any plane can do for that matter, is still grounded in reality.

 

 

Bombing Runs!

Specifically, if you want a nimble dogfighter? Leave the bomb payloads at home. If you want to cover those nimble souls darting into knife fighting range in the air? Well there’s always ground targets to consider and for that you’ll need bombs. Heavy bombs, leading to a slower sluggish bomber. These are the decisions that await you and the team. Want those anti-air towers gone? Someone will have to do a bombing run. It’s this little pve component that adds something more to the battles in the air.

 

 

Ground is such an important feature, after all we all need scenery to admire and to make use of, not just endless blue expanses. To that end the combat ceiling has been lowered from where it would have been historically to mix in the added spice of ground targets and a nice dash of strategy.

 

 

They Came Outta The Sun

Wargaming.net really are very very good at their jobs. So are their consultants and historians. It’s not all just fly at the other guy and spam you know. Originally, in earlier builds of the game, there was an ammo count to avoid precisely that behaviour. After extensive CB testing they switched to admittedly unrealistic bottomless magazines. Instead of a hard limit they went with a heat system. Spam the guns too much wasting your shots chasing a guy when you should be leading the target? The guns will overheat and you’ll need to let them cool off a touch before you can bring the weight of fire again.

 

 

It’s not just guns though, the environment adds as much to the strategy of the game as a pilot’s configuration does.

 

 

You’ve seen exactly the moments they’ve thought of and provided. Want a little edge on that unsuspecting USSR fighter? Climb high and come out of the sun. Glare will hide you. Some tough as nails and damnably irritating Japanese dog fighter on your tail? Take him into the clouds and lose him. Think you’re a hot shot and the other guy isn’t? Drop to the floor and see who can hug the ground better. Just watch out for those towers that your friends really should have been bombing before you decided to duck under a bridge (entirely do-able in game) to get the other guy to crash.

 

 

Get Airborne.

I could go on and on about how fun it was to watch the dogfights. I could spend ages waxing lyrical about the glory of the visuals or the tense feeling I got every time we dived right down to the ground. I wish I could show you just how close you can get to the other guy before you clip his wings and send him down in flames. To be honest though, the proof of this pudding is in the eating. There’s no other way to really get it across to you what it’s like. So I implore you, fire up the engine, clear the tower. We’re all needed in the air, and may the ballsiest win.