Monthly Archives: December 2012

OnRPG Shotgun news 12/5: End of Nations, NCSoft, Path of Exile, and Much More!

OnRPG Shotgun news 12/5: End of Nations, NCSoft, Path of Exile, and Much More!

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

End of Nations Developer Announces Layoffs

Just a week after news broke that the beta for End of Nations has been postponed indefinitely and refunds were issued for those who pre purchased the game Petroglyph has announced 30 layoffs. Game Designer Adam Stevens broke the news on twitter saying, “Layoffs at Petroglyph. Looking like I’ll be Leaving Las Vegas.” But recently on the forums fans have been repeatedly assured that the title has not been cancelled.

 

 

Layoffs Reported as NCSoft Realigns

Less than a week after the closure of super hero MMO City of Heroes it has been revealed by an anonymous source to PC Gamer that NCSoft Seattle has been hit with layoffs. Confirmation was later made by the public relations director at NCSoft Seattle, Lincoln Davis though he would not confirm exactly how many jobs were lost. This all comes as part of a big realignment in NCSoft.

 

 

The War Z Enters Beta

The popular zombie apocalypse MMO The War Z has officially entered beta! With the transition comes 50% more map! That’s right the rest of the first map, Colorado, has been made available to the more than 500,000 players. New marketplace items have also been added along with new player characters.

 

Korea Times Addresses City of Heroes Closure

Korea Times, one of three English language newspapers in Korea has published an article which features an interview with author Mercedes Lackey, a representative of the #SaveCoH campaign. Most noteable in the article was a comment from NCSoft Korea spokesman Kim Yo-han which said that the closure was a “strategic decision” and added that “nothing had been decided on selling the game or other actions afterwards.” You can read the full article for yourself by going to the Korea Times website here. http://koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/biz/2012/12/602_126197.html

 

 

Wurm Online Announces Launch Date

Even though Wurm Online has been around for some time now it has only recently been announced that it would be launching on December 12. With the launch comes 1.0, a patch that will bring character customization, visable armor, and multi story buildings.

 

 

Path of Exile Open Beta Announced

Since entering closed beta in August of 2011 fans of Path of Exile have wondered when open beta would start. It has now been announced that day will be January 23, 2013. It will involve one last character wipe and the deployment of patch 0.10.0.

 

 

League of Legends Bans Professional Player

To help address abuse in League of Legends Riot Games has announced that they have banned Pro Gamer Christian Rivera, aka IWillDominate for in-game harassment, verbal abuse, offensive language and a negative attitude. Several developers and specialists have formed a special Tribunal to look at cases of unsportsman like behavior and IWillDominate may be only the first of many more cases to come. This sudden change coincides with the massive League of Legends update bringing in new masteries, huge balance changes, and item reworks across the board.

 

Kings and Legends Beta Announced; Get Early Access Through OnRPG Today!

Kings and Legends Beta Announced; Get Early Access Through OnRPG Today!

 

 

Just A Game today announced their iTCG Kings and Legends will be entering into beta testing this week! Kings and Legends is a card-based MMORPG that also features a kingdom building element to it. Players take the role of a ruler whose kingdom is being invaded by evil forces. You can build a deck full of creatures and heroes to drive them back, and use your kingdom’s resources to gain new, more powerful cards along the way. There are also three different arena modes for PvP play: 1v1, 2v2, and 4v4.

 

 

As an exclusive partnership with the MMOHuts/OnRPG network we have secured early access to beta for our viewers. All you have to do is visit THIS LINK and you’re all set to register and play!

Kings and Legends

Kings and Legends is a free to play, Gacha CCG with elements of Tower Defense/Attack, by GameSpree. Collect soldiers of varying strength and style, then pit them against your enemy’s forces in a 3 lane strategy attack.

Business Model: Free to Play

Microtransactions: Yes: Players may purchase “Gold” which allows a variety of services, including class changes, card packs, and others. Accumulated purchases of Gold count towards increased VIP statuses with cumulative bonuses.

Key Features:

Classes:

Warrior, Priest, Mage, Ranger

Gacha: Buy card packs with in game Silver, or use Gold purchased with real money for premium packs. Enchant, combine, and level up over 250 unique cards.

Tournaments and Events: There’s always something to do on Kings and Legends, be it PvP focused tournaments, or PvE adventures.

New MechWarrior Online Content Is Live with 8v8 Match Making and More

New MechWarrior Online Content Is Live with 8v8 Match Making and More

 

MechWarrior Online

 

Infinite Game Publishing and Piranha Games today launched key competitive gameplay advancements for the ultimate Mech simulator, MechWarrior Online with 8v8 custom group Match Making, Electronic Counter Measure Suite warfare as well as the next Hero Mech, Ilya Muromets. In addition, players can outfit their cockpit with holiday-themed cockpit items including a Santa bobblehead.

 

 

“With the new 8-player group vs. group action and ECM, the competitive element in the game has been upped in a major way,” said Bryan Ekman, creative director, Piranha Games. “Blending new content with the rich history of the BattleTech universe, we are excited to introduce Ilya Muramets CTF-IM Cataphract, the first PGI-crafted character, a resilient and balanced Hero Mech representing the Capellan Confederation.”

 

 

Phase two of Match Making marks the early stages of Community Warfare in the InnerSphere, allowing players to form 8-player groups and take them into battle. Prior to this content patch, players could form groups with a maximum of 4 players; matches will continue to support 8v8 player combat and will not be weight class restricted to enable quick match launches. Additional Match Making functionality will be added in Phase three, taking into the consideration the Merc Corp, competitive league players and additional requests made to date.

 

MechWarrior Online

 

Greatly adding to the roles of Scouts and defensive support is the new Electronic Counter Measure Suite (ECM), an advanced electronic warfare suite that can be used to reduce the range at which enemy units can detect opposing Mechs on radar. In “disrupt” mode missile locks can take twice as long, forcing enemies to move much closer to you on their radar, and help counter the extended range of the Beagle Active Probe.

 

 

Ilya Muramets CTF-IM Cataphract, the first heavy Hero Mech since the close of the Founder’s program offers great flexibility and battle longevity with the most even mix of energy and ballistic hardpoints of any Cataphract chassis. Named after the legendary knight of Slavic myths, Ilya Muramets has a pattern emblazoned with the noble Cameron Star of the Star League as a nod to his time with the Twelfth Star Guards and their connection to the SLDF. For the last 21 years he has been using Ilya Muramets to hunt down Federated Suns’ Cataphracts, meting out justice for their theft. Their salvaged remains have been used to repair and refit his own Mech to the point that it now operates with a unique loadout.

 

 

Rounding out this week’s content update, IGP and Piranha Games brings MechWarrior Online players eight new festive holiday cockpit items for purchase including: Bobblehead Santa, Christmas elf, a lump of coal and Christmas lights to further illuminate the player’s dashboard. All of the items add to the heated battle arena in the coldest season of the year.

Meta’s Verse: The City of Tomorrow is Yesterday

Meta’s Verse: The City of Tomorrow is Yesterday

By Meticulous Meta, OnRPG Paragon Reporter

 

 

It was 8am for me when the City of Heroes went dark. I’d stayed up all night just so I could see it out. Just like back when I did Extra Life I stayed in CoH for 24 hours. But this time I wouldn’t be logging back in. My home was on Virtue. We worked that poor server. We crashed several times. Including just minutes before the end. And that is why I ended my life in City of Heroes on Exalted, in a train station trying desperately to get to City Hall where my husband and friends were standing. I don’t blame anyone for not being able to finish on Virtue. We were pushing that poor server hard.

 

 

I’ve always admitted to being a complete altwhore. I finished with every slot on Virtue full, and dozens of retired characters moved to other servers. If you just count the characters I had on Virtue at the end they combined logged more than 5,000 hours worth of playtime, that’s almost 200 days. More than half of that time was spent on my main. And she was who I finished on. Well, she was the last thing I saw, even if it wasn’t actually her. It was a rough and panic filled few final hours. But knowing Quincy was the last character I saw made that better just a little.

This morning after it was over I logged into The Secret World to take part in a photo op with other City of Heroes refugees. When I arrived people hadn’t loaded yet. Only about six, I thought to myself, “really? This is it?” And then I turned the camera and they all loaded in. I’m not sure how many of them there were. The steps of the Kingsmouth church were filled. I got a little emotional then. But I still hadn’t cried. Oh no, that was saved until I woke up from my nap. I woke up, mentally celebrated the fact and thought to myself “Lets go play CoH!….oh.” That was the moment. I’d managed to hold back up until then but that…I cried. It wasn’t a big one, but the tears were there.

 

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Friends I hadn’t seen in forever were there for the end. We all said our goodbyes. Sure, we will keep in touch. But it will take some time for our new ways of doing so to become normal. The hardest goodbye though was to all the characters I knew and loved through the years. It won’t be the end for them by any means. My husband and I will continue to write stories to eachother, get art commissioned. They won’t ever make the leap to another game, but that’s my choice.

 

 

I wrote a post similar to what I’m about to do on the City of Heroes forums. Of course it’s gone now and I’d like to do a bit of expanding on it. So I’ve written my post again. Enjoy.

 

Thank you.

 

 

Thank you Paragon Studios for creating the most unique MMO experience I have ever had. No matter where you go you will always be your rednames to us. Thank you Positron, War Witch, Hit Streak, Zwillinger, Black Pebble, Synapse, Arbiter Hawk, Fireman, Noble Savage, Black Scorpion, Second Measure, Dink, Dr. Aeon…needless to say I could go on forever. But thank you, all of you, for giving me a world of tomorrow. Go forth knowing you have changed not only the MMO industry but you have really changed people’s lives.

 

 

Thank you to my readers. I’ve had the pleasure of writing about City of Heroes for OnRPG for 2 wonderful years. In that time I’ve interviewed community members and developers alike. But none of it would have been possible without having readers like you supporting me. Though I will continue writing Meta’s Verse through the end of the year it will never be the same again.

Thank you City of Heroes community. You made City of Heroes what it was. Be secure in the knowledge that you were part of something special. You couldn’t show me another MMO out there with the sort of dedicated fans that City of Heroes had. Though we may be spread throughout the world. We are a close family. Every time you go to a new game, meet a new group in a game remember to say a FREEM or a HOORB. You never know what City of Heroes community member may be watching.

 

 

Our community has been held together not only by Paragon Studios but also by the community members who have gone above and beyond. And so I say thank you to TonyV, Ransim, Samuraiko, Ascendant, Mr and Mrs Wentworth, Everyone at The Cape, and of course everyone who has been involved in their various projects. You have been a wonderful example to us all. Remember that you all played a huge part in making City of Heroes the success that it was.

 

 

Thank you to everyone who attended that first rally. We had 33 Atlas Parks on Virtue alone. Thousands of you flocked to Virtue and it was beautiful. I have never been more proud to be part of a group than I was then.

 

 

Thank you to everyone who helped with the campaign. From the organizers to the people who sent masks, capes, emails, and letters. You were part of the most amazing campaign to save a game ever. The campaign isn’t over yet.

I want to say a huge thank you to Virtue both the physical server and the residents. First, to the physical server; Thank you for giving so many of us a home. For working harder than perhaps any of the other servers. Thank you for only complaining about it on the rarest of occasions and never giving up when we stressed you. To the Virtue residents, Thank you. You were my little branch of the City of Heroes family. And though there were many of you I never met or never talked to I recognized you, you were familiar, you were part of my world. My world got a little bit smaller when I lost you.

 

 

To my global channels and super groups, all of them through the years. Thank you. You, more than anyone made an impact on my day to day life. Thank you Shield of Paragon, Brickhouse, RP Virtue and VirtueUnited. You were always there for me when I wanted nothing more than to play City of Chat. If ever I was lonely I was secure in the knowledge that I could log in and find someone to talk to. Thank you Children of Egypt, Justice Guard, Codex, and Statesman’s Watch. You were my super groups through the years. You brought together people who may have otherwise never met. You were my immediate family.

 

 

Thank you friends. There are so many of you I could go on for days. Thank you Fausty, for being there to offer me a smile (and a fishy) whenever I needed one most. Thank you Isawa Koi, for always helping me fill teams in a timely fashion so we could go on to do awesome. And we were awesome. Thank you Zombie Fryer for making Hami raids memorable and with 100% more nachos and Klondike bars. Thank you Sare, more for what you’ve given us outside the game than in. You’ve been our friend and someone we can always talk to. Thank you to Taffy for attending my wedding. So many of our friends from City of Heroes wanted to be there. You were the only one to make it but I’m grateful for the time we had. To Sephorus and Breyla who invited us to their wedding in Virginia though we’d never met in person, I say…..I love you guys! You were our closest friends through most of our City of Heroes careers and our friendship will remain. We will find the four of us in another game together soon.

 

 

But most of all, I need to thank one person. He is the most important person in my life, my husband. Thank you for introducing me to City of Heroes. Thank you for dating me long distance from Ireland to California for seven years. Thank you for helping make that distance feel a little smaller by being my constant companion in City of Heroes. We’ve taken on street gangs, and saved the world together. Because of you my characters are never alone. We spent our last day in City of Heroes logging out each of our characters side by side. Though we didn’t get to do some of the things we had hoped, our characters will live on.

 

I am @Maressa

I am the coleader of the #SaveCoH campaign

I am Meticulous Meta

I am a roleplayer

I am a Virtue player

I am going to miss my City of Heroes

 

 

My final words in City of Heroes were ones I never intended to be my last. Thanks to the crash it was a fight against the clock just to get logged back in. But the more I think about them the more I’m glad they were my last.

 

 

LvL 50 Scrapper LFT

eSports @OnRPG – IPL5 Las Vegas: No Gambling, Just Gaming

eSports @OnRPG – IPL5 Las Vegas: No Gambling, Just Gaming

By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG eSports Reporter

 

 

Last weekend was action packed in Vegas! No, there was no poker tournament or anything related to gambling, but rather the fifth IGN Pro League hosted at the Cosmopolitan. This weekend, both Starcraft 2’s and League of Legends’ best players traveled from all around the globe to come to this prominent event many players and teams practiced hard for. As this is the last big tournament left in 2012, I had my tray of red bull ready and enjoyed the free 720p streams.

 

 

Starcraft 2 All-Stars

Let’s kick things off with Starcraft 2 first; besides the main tournament there was also a special tournament hosted by both IGN and GOMTV where a team of all-stars from South Korea went head to head with an all-stars team from the rest of the world. The tournament consisted of three rounds making the series a best of three, besides the players each all-star team was also given a coach. The Korean team had Coach Won from StarTale and Bumblebee from Team Liquid coached the World all-stars representatives. The first round kicked off with a bang, with the lead jumping back and forth with Scarlett taking the game on Metropolis from the feared Korean zerg DongRaeGu. Unfortunately Nerchio, Naniwa and LucifroN weren’t so lucky, deciding the series in favor of the Koreans. The final game was the legendary Protoss player MC versus the foreigners last hope as many call him, Stephano. Fortunaly Stephano managed to win the game to bring the score to a three to two win for the Korean All-Stars.

 

 

In the second round Coach Won decided to set in the Korean zerg player, Life. Coach Won who is familiar with the player from StarTale fully trusted him with going into the first game of the series. The 15 year old talent that won the MLG Fall Championship last month and the notorious GSL Code S a month before had to face the strong Spanish terran, LucifroN. LucifroN has had a great run this year, placing in the top three of many tournaments and even taking the number one spot in a few. But now a tough match lay before him. Unfortunately, Life caught LucifroN off-guard with a less common tactic centered around Mutalisk instead of the more famous Infestors, showing LucifroN that these flying evil-beings are still a viable enough unit to decide a match.

 

 

After this game Life’s confidence was unmistakable as he plowed through Scarlett, VortiX, and Nerchio to up his win streak to 4 games. Some believed he would sweep the entire Foreign team until famous zerg player Stephano demonstrated the true power of the swarm. This time it was Stephano’s time to turn the tide. With everyone else on his team defeated already he was once again the foreigners’ last hope as Coach Won sent in MC to redeem himself after his loss to Stephano in the first series. Unfortunately for MC, Stephano is strongest in ZvP match-ups and demonstrated series 1 was no fluke as he once again put down MC. The third opponent, Seed, also was shown the door as Stephano’s momentum began to build.

 

 

Next up was arguably the best Korean Zerg, DongRaeGu, who has been in a slump lately but otherwise should be able to hold complete control over this tournament. This Zerg versus Zerg was a promising match for every Zerg fan to get to know this mirror matchup better. DongRaeGu tried to take the game early with some early aggression with a lot of zerglings but didn’t manage to break through Stephano’s strong defense. DongRaeGu kept throwing units at the French famous zerg player but each subsequent raid broke against Stephano’s defenses like water on the shoreline. In the end Stephano just snowballed from a massive resource advantage until he unleashed an unstoppable end-game force against a badly beaten DongRaeGu.

 

 

With Stephano extending his win streak beyond even Life’s, the second series all came down to one final match. With only one opponent left, the downtrodden foreigners saw a glimmer of hope that an epic comeback spearheaded solely by Stephano might be in the works. Pressure was on the Korean team’s Squirtle as his victory in this game was all that his team needed to crush these comeback hopes and prevent a third series. But could he manage a Protoss win over Stephano’s favored Zerg match-up after MC had already failed to do so twice? Squirtle believed he could outmaneuver his opponent by opening with a Stargate in the hopes of limiting Stephano’s progress towards end-game. As Squirtle has hoped this really caught Stephano off-guard and forced him into an impromptu counterattack that Squirtle predicted and fought off suffering minimal losses. But Stephano refused to let a minor early setback quench his victory chances and continued to turtle against Squirtle until a massive Zerg army was formed. Yet Squirtle met him with an equally large Protoss army, melting the underdeveloped zerg forces in a head to head battle.

 

 

With Squirtle becoming stronger and stronger every minute and snowballing further and further, Stephano had to watch his every move or risk defeat. Suddenly his fog of war exploded with Protoss units, wiping Stephano’s hive from the map and securing the expected Korean victory for Starcraft 2.

 

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IPL5

 


Now that the all-star national team event was over, fans shifted their focus to the main event. Unlike many other tournaments, IPL5 didn’t have a group phase at all and directly went into the bracket faze where it is do or die for many gamers. Koreans were overly represented in this tournament, placing intense pressure on the handful of big name foreign competitors looking to grab some prize money. Unfortunately only Stephano, VortiX, Scarlett, Snute, XiGua, and HuK were able to take a small piece of the prize back home with them, as Koreans dominated all 12 spots in the finals.

 

 

With names such as DongRaeGu, Sleep, Bomber, Symbol, Polt, violet, Sniper and Leenock still in the tournament in the last five rounds, explosive matches weren’t only possible but expected. In this tournament Winner’s Bracket status carried weight as both Violet and Leenock advanced into the Grand Finals. These two Korean Zerg players are known for their many tournament wins that they have achieved over the years and were an exciting series to look up to as a Zerg fan. Leenock had a decisive advantage having defeated violet previously, putting him one win ahead to start. Still with $40,000 on the line no one expected violet to hand over the grand prize quietly.

 

 

This mirror match-up is one of the weirdest and some might say boring match-ups that can be watched as a Starcraft 2 fan because it can be over in a split moment by one slight mistake from either player. With Leenock winning their first face-off three to one, many feared that this was going to be a quick final. The first game that was played started off in the famous and well known map for its meaning ‘Family,’ (Ohana) which is a relatively small map. Leenock continued his constant pressure aggression tactic that had brought him so far unscathed through the tournament while violet kept up his macro management aiming to make a big play late-game. All in all neither side suffered heavily as the match evolved to an explosive conclusion. With both of them expanding fast into a second base, there were no signs of either of the players trying to quickly finish off the other.

 

 

After establishing their second bases, both sides attempted some low risk zergling baneling battles resulting in Leenock landing some key damage to viOLet’s economy. While it might have seemed like a minor loss to the untrained eye, this small victory was all Leenock needed to snowball out of reach of viOLet’s future ventures. Once Leenock felt comfortable with his lead he launched a much larger zergling assault. Once again viOLet took a loss but minimized damage to stay in the game. Leenock effortlessly transitioned the initial assault with a follow-up baneling attack to keep viOLet on his toes. But this was no real threat for viOLet who showed some great micro to completely decimate this massive follow-up. Leenock had wasted his lead terribly at this point and viOLet proved more capable of utilizing an advantage, finishing him off in the late game to bring the series back to a tie.

 

 

After this game viOLet seemed to have Leenock’s tactics on lockdown as he went on to win the series three to two, meaning the championship would go on to the extended series. viOLet knew Leenock would be planning for a late game showdown and switched his plan to an early game aggressive strike. Leenock deftly defied giving up an easy win and showed viOLet the error of trying such a cheese tactic against him by taking an early win in game 1. viOLet now knew that a simple mistake could cost him the championship and decided to go outside the norm and rush Leenock with Mutalisks. This gave him the early lead he needed to narrowly defeat Leenock in a later battle to tie up the series 1-1.

 

 

The last game was now at hand. Both players decided to play it safe play, resulting in a slow early game demonstrating how important APM is in this intense RTS. Finally Leenock broke the silence and fully committed to some aggressive play. viOLet suffered a devastating blow and realized that without immediate aggression he would never catch up to Leenock, striking back full force to hinder his economy as well. This is when Leenock had enough and decided to take the fight to multiple places at once to test viOLet’s ability to multitask multiple battlefronts.  Even though viOLet managed to stop most incoming streams of units, Leenock proved his skill as IPL’s champion with this insane multifront strike that brought an end to the battle hardened viOLet’s night.

 

 

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League of Legends: Fnatic is Back

 


Riot Games flew in contenders from around the world of eSports for a truly international IPL5 this year. The tournament format was a bit unusual as every team was put into one of four groups. Instead of only two teams advancing every team advanced while the top two most winning teams stayed in the winners’ bracket. This meant that the third and fourth placed teams still had a last chance if they could defy the odds and win every match until the finals.

 

 

But anyone who has kept an eye on League of Legends lately can tell you that upsets aren’t terribly common against the top teams. Fnatic was the only notable exception, making a strong early showing after months of stagnant gameplay and underwhelming losses. They just haven’t had much synergy after some serious roster changes made early this year. Yet last week over at Dreamhack we saw some signs of a rebirth as they held it down for the first time in ages. Their showing as second in a truly competitive group proved this was no fluke. However it wasn’t until their first rematch in the tournament that I took notice.

 

 

 

 

They won a convincing 2-0 victory over Taipei Assassins, the Season 2 World Champions. Anything was possible for this Swedish based team now. Next up they had to face the surprise breakout of the tournament, North American team CLG Prime. They managed to win 2 to 1 over CLG Prime with some great teamplay, eliminating what many fans are arguing is the new top North American team. All that was left in their path of destruction was Team WE, arguably the top tier Chinese based team on the eSports scene. Unlike Fnatic’s ups and downs, Team WE has been consistently solid for as long as most people can remember. Could Fnatic keep it together and outclass such a consistent team?

 

 

In the first game it already was looking bright for the Swedish team. They managed to get a double kill in the first two minutes of the game, offering a devastating advantage given the current meta. Team WE recognized they were too far behind and bailed early. The second game really was a neck to neck game with kills all over the place and some really important group fights for both teams. Unfortunately Fnatic had some unlucky team fights, a consistent plague on their record throughout the tournament and Team WE took maximum advantage of each slip up. Both the second and third game was decided in Team WE’s favor as Fnatic simply jumped the gun and engaged in poor circumstances, throwing the game. Team WE tossed Fnatic into the loser’s bracket after this, surely thinking they would see the last of them as Taipei Assassins furiously devoured the losers in their path climbing back to the spotlight. Fnatic refused to call it quits though and resoundingly stomped the World Champions back into the dirt to advance 2-0. They had beaten the odds and returned to the spotlight for the final match with Team WE with $50,000 on the line.

 

 

Having faced them before, Fnatic knew what was coming for them and they knew they had a tough battle ahead of them. With the ‘Triforce’ Deman, Jatt and Joe Miller casting this was a promising final to look forward to. The first game Fnatic was looking strong again, fearlessly challenging Team WE at each tower, witling them down and picking off kills whenever the opportunity presented itself. After multiple face-offs Fnatic had gained such an advantage that Team WE could no longer oppose counter-pushes and fell 1-0. The second game the audience was fooled by Fnatic’s strong start and domination through the mid-game. Unfortunately Team WE reminded everyone why they won the first series by demonstrating their superior late game team fighting ability, tying up the series 1-1. The third game resulted in a decisive victory for Team WE as they played cautiously early on and didn’t allow Fnatic to claim their usual early game advantage. Fnatic was on the ropes and one loss away from losing the championship.

 

 

This match was the most intense match of the entire tournament. Unfortunately it was simply a higher level of the same systematic loss for Fnatic as they took an early lead and yet again failed to capitalize on it to convert it into a victory. A few back to back failed engagements initiated by Fnatic resulted in Team WE pushing to yet another late game win. Nonetheless, this was a fantastic tournament played by both teams, and I’m looking forward to the return of Swedish Fnatic in Season 3!

 

 

EVE Online: Retribution Now Available

EVE Online: Retribution Now Available

 

EVE Online

 

CCP Games, one of the world’s leading independent game studios and creator of the award-winning massively-multiplayer online game EVE Online, has deployed its 18th game expansion, free-of-charge, to hundreds of thousands of players worldwide.

 

 

EVE Online: Retribution brings visceral consequences to the massive sci-fi universe, empowering pilots to exact revenge on a much larger scale than ever before. A unique bounty hunting system allows players to exert pressure on adversaries at the Alliance, Corporation and individual levels and a new ability to openly sell kill rights means a lot more eye-for-an-eye justice will be had. A reworked “Crimewatch” system makes clear the outcomes of acts both legal and illegal while still leaving limitless choice up to the player who decides to commit them.

 

EVE Online

 

In a massive rebalancing effort, every frigate, destroyer and cruiser in EVE will be re-engineered to provide more gameplay options for new players and veterans alike, revitalizing some of the less frequently used hulls.

 

 

Each of EVE’s main factions will add a deadly new destroyer to the market with this latest expansion, alongside other new additions: a mining frigate, salvage drones and a micro-jump drive. Further, a situational music system will accompany dozens of revamped sounds in the game. There are also several major changes to the user interface, making EVE Online: Retribution more intuitive without sacrificing any of its intricacy and potential.

 

 

“The EVE Universe has always been alive, filled with the choices of the hundreds of thousands of pilots who’ve lived in it,” said Jon Lander, Executive Producer of EVE Online. “With Retribution we’ve made many far reaching changes and I believe that EVE will feel revitalized as we head into our second decade.”

OnRPG Shotgun News 12/4: FireFall EU, Arctic Combat, and RF Online

OnRPG Shotgun News 12/4: FireFall EU, Arctic Combat, and RF Online

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

Firefall Launches EU Servers

After a successful beta stress test last weekend Red 5 has announced they will launch EU servers for the upcoming December 7 beta weekend. New content will be introduced during this upcoming beta weekend. This includes a new boss fight, new areas and missions and much more.

 

 

Arctic Combat Announces Open Beta

Webzen has announced that Arctic Combat is going into open beta on Thursday, December 6th. It will also be available via Steam that same day. There will also be special Steam packs with contain weapons and items. Don’t miss out on grabbing a key to claim early access!

 

 

RF Online Comes to Europe

After success in Asia and Russia it is finally Europe’s turn to get their hands on the scifi action MMO RF Online. The first beta will offer a chance for European gamers to get a look at RF Online’s 1.5 patch which will be available elsewhere as well. To take part in the beta you can sign up on the RF websites.