Yearly Archives: 2012

Tyrian Times – Failure to Launch

Tyrian Times – Failure to Launch

The week in review

By Meredith Watson

 

 

After a considerable amount of hype, this last weekend saw the release of the November update for Guild Wars 2. The Lost Shores Event was shrouded in mystery from the onset. There were cryptic messages, new ships in the harbour, and washed up sea creatures.  The posters promised us fun in the sun.  We were excited.  Somewhere though it all went terribly wrong.

 

 

The first day of the event, the 16th, at 8am GMT we were introduced to the new baddie in Tyria. The karka were ushered in through a fairly short but impressive cut scene followed by an all-out assault on Lion’s Arch. The problem was the lag. At one point, there was at least a three minute delay between key press and action resulting in hot bars blinking like traffic lights.  It was fun in spite of the lag, the deaths, bugged NPCs and the inability to contribute for most of it. The new island, Southsun Cove, became available on the second night of the event and in true Guild Wars 2 style is gorgeous but as you would expect, full of karka. The final evening resulted in many players losing out on rewards due to disconnecting in the finale; however, ArenaNet has stated they are working on a fix.

 

“We have a team looking into disconnection problems that prevented some people from receiving their event rewards. We will implement a solution so that people who participated will get their rewards, but this takes work on our end, so it will not happen today. Keep an eye on our forums and social media channels, we will let you know once we have the solution in place.”

 

 

Overall, it was disappointing. Even if it had gone according to plan I am not sure it would have been anything more than what the current events offer.

 

 

While the one-time event was rife with problems, the Lost Shores update offers us some new content and items. There is a new PvP map: Temple of the Silent Storm, two new jumping puzzles, new events in the new area: Southsun Cove which is a level 80 zone. Ring and back Ascended items allowing the Infusion upgrade are now available with the complete set of Ascended coming with later content. Ascended items, on the scale of rarity, fall between Exotic and Legendary.  Infusions are upgrade components that can be fitted into Infusion only slots on gear. Currently Infusions slots are only found on Ascended gear but different types of Infusions are promised for later content releases. There is, however, some controversy about Ascended gear.  Players are complaining that another type of gear will make the game a “gear treadmill”.  ArenaNet has stated “Our goal is not to create a gear treadmill. Our goal is to ensure we have a proper progression for players from Exotic up to Legendary without a massive jump in reward between the two. We will not be adding a new tier of gear every 3 months that we expect everyone to chase after and then get the next set and so on.”


 

Fractals of the Mist is a new type of dungeon included with Lost Shores.  While it is designed for level 80s, any level can participate and will effectively become level 80.  Fractals of the Mist, a series of nine mini-dungeons, scale in difficulty as each round is completed. After level ten difficulty bosses begin inflicting Agony, which is a new ability also introduced with Lost Shores. Agony is a damage over time condition that cannot be removed. To alleviate the effects of Agony players will want to use Infusion upgrades.

 

 

The Consortium is a new faction of merchants in Lion’s Arch.  The Consortium wants to turn Southsun Cove into a vacation resort which has angered the karka. With the Consortium comes the new Consortium chest, a rare consumable that does not require a key. The chest can be purchased through the gem store or be made with the mystic forge using items from Southsun Cove. The chests can contain materials, armour and weapon skins, clothing and mini pets.

 

 

Guild Wars 2 is a great game and a lot of fun but ArenaNet totally missed the mark with Lost Shores according to a lot of players. All you have to do is read the multitude of Reddit threads or various forum topics that highlight how invested the players are in Guild Wars 2 and how they expect so much more from ArenNet.  But do they really have cause for complaint? The game is free after all.  We didn’t pay for the event and new content.  The price of the game has more than paid for itself in entertainment.  So, before you rage quit, why not give ArenaNet a chance to redeem themselves? We know they are capable of better. Let’s see if the December update will live up to the   expected hype before we all throw our toys out of the pram.

Ace of Spades Online Early Access

Ace of Spades Early Access

By Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), OnRPG Editor-in-Chief

 

 

Hello gamers with a knack for creativity and demolition. Look at Minecraft. Now back at Call of Duty. Look at your dusty Legos. Now Repulse’s Zombie Mode. Now name a title that combines all this goodness in a solid, fun, addicting package. Can’t? I can. It’s Ace of Spades, published by Jagex, and it’s coming to Steam to bring your Minecraft Shooter dreams to the next level.

 

 

So what differentiates this game from its peers? The class system was the first piece thrown in my face from the get-go that made me scratch my head. See they have four classes but two of them can be categorized as fighters while the other two are more akin to builders. While the immediate thought is to just run and gun with the physical prowess and firepower offered by the two fighter classes, the modes that give you a set period of time prior to the fighting starting to build very much favor the builder classes and their ability to quickly set-up/destroy structures to create defensive fortifications that may tip the scales in your favor. Of course there is also the tactic of starting off with all builders and then swapping to all fighters, but let’s break down what each class does so you have a better understanding of the potential strategies involved in Ace of Spades.

 

 

Classes

The Soldier is your tanky front-line teammate, packing a punch with powerful rifles, hardy armor, and high hp. When the only way in is through, this class will hold it down and pave a path of destruction through well-fortified enemy positions. They also carry potentially the most devastating weapon in the game, a mini-railgun that takes a few moments to warm up and then turns whatever it’s facing into swiss cheese.

 

 

The Scout offers the fastest movement and longest jumps, allowing them to specialize in recon and quickly identifying weaknesses in the enemy’s position. If you’re being pummeled by enemy snipers, scouts are your best bet to rush in and take them out faster than your enemy can react. However you’ll have to stay on your toes as they have low hp and limited digging capability. They specialize in a rapid fire SMG for run and gun gameplay.

 

 

The Engineer forms the brunt of your defensive line or tactical mastermind of any major fortress raid. Not only do they excel at digging quickly but can set up turrets in key positions to mow down large numbers of enemies in a flash. These turrets currently must be manned but they are considering making them automated before launch. They can also set up some wicked traps with proximity mines placed on seemingly open holes in your defenses (pro tip – you can dig a small hole, place the mine, then place a block on top of it so the enemy won’t know it’s there until it’s too late!). If using an engineer offensively, a few cleverly placed dynamite packs can level entire walls and bring your foes’ perfect sanctuary down on top of their heads. They are slow and lack some of the stronger weapons of their peers and should be escorted whenever leaving their base. Though if you get stuck in tight corridors with one watch out as their shotgun and grenades pack a punch.

 

 

The Miner is to utility what the soldier is to heavy combat. While the Engineer can dig 2 blocks at a time, the miner can dig 18, allowing for on the fly tunnel creation to take your enemies completely by surprise when their floor suddenly drops out from under them. These slow moving fighters only have a rifle at their command should combat arise, but are worth at least keeping one around on the field due to their tunneling gun. This bad boy flies a long distance taking out blocks in a 9 block diameter, ideal for taking out primary support pillars or cutting off enemy troops by destroying bridges when it simply isn’t an option to get an engineer’s dynamite in position. It can also provide some unique escape route tactics should you need to get your group out of a bad position asap.

 

 

Gameplay

Movement is incredibly fluid and characters feel quite balanced even in this early stage of beta testing. I really liked how far the characters could jump and how fast they could run as it really makes for some fast-paced action in a title that you might think is more focused on building. Though the building itself is incredibly fun and offers plenty of customization of block color and lighting effects to make some pieces of art. Hopefully not long after launch we will see an editor introduced to allow players to build their own maps, though the current maps are quite varied and fun.

 

 

Each class has specific premade structures that they can quickly place on the fly such as bunkers, walls, and platforms that adds a real-time element to building defensive structures in the middle of a gun fight. It was also incredibly entertaining messing with the game’s physics (and the hilarious impact it had on other players). Taking out the trunk of a tree that a sniper is hiding on to watch him fall from his perch was a crowd favorite. I also had the pleasure of building a sniper tower as high as a map would allow only to have a miner take out the base and watch me fall a good 12 seconds to my eventual death. Weapons are well balanced with the stronger weapons suffering from heavy recoil to ensure that any class can hold their own against each other. The ability to switch classes on the fly adds quite a bit of strategic value to the longer matches.

 

 

Some of the maps also have special features such as lower gravity on the moon level or capturable points for. Unfortunately the bomb the enemy’s base and king of the hill modes weren’t available for the demo but will be by launch. Though by far the most entertaining of the special modes was the haunted mansion zombie map in which one player starts as a zombie that can run faster and take more hits than normal players. They then attempt to convert the rest of the players to zombies as the time ticks down from 5 minutes. In our multiple playthroughs we saw everything from soldiers forming a pentagon formation and holding off zombies from all directions to miners digging deep into the ground to hide from the zombies until time ran out. Though the majority of the time the zombies would win out in the end, it was truly a great map to test not only your FPS skills but also your creative defense through environment alteration. The few times we had survives usually revolved around hiding in high towers and destroying the stairs/bridges leading to them. While the zombies can dig and find ways through the walls to overcome this tactic, it costs precious time that sometimes is all that’s required for the survivors to win.

 

 

Conclusion

With a Steam launch date of December, players looking to get their minecraft shooter fix won’t have to wait much longer. Promises of player ranking, constant dev updates, and a solid core game have me quite excited to share this title with my friends for some quick fun gameplay. Rumors of a possible persistent world that players can build, destroy, and fight for control over had me the most anxious for this game to launch. Honesty when your game looks like Legos it doesn’t take long to develop extremely fun new possibilities as Jagex has always successfully banked on in the past. Keep an eye out for our full review of Ace of Spades come its December launch!

OnRPG-MMOHuts Crew to Reveal New Smite Mode on Hi-Rez Stream

OnRPG-MMOHuts Crew to Reveal New Smite Mode on Hi-Rez Stream

 

 

Today at 1pm PST OnRPG’s DizzyPW will be facing off in a clash against MMOHut’s Bakerman Brad and JamesBl0nde in a never before seen Smite mode via Hi-Rez’s Twitch.tv feed. In addition a megapatch released this week will be on display with new UI, tons of new voice commands, and of course the amazing new god Bacchus. Catch all the action right here!

 

http://www.twitch.tv/hirezstudios/b/341664758

OnRPG Shotgun News 11/20: Planetside 2, Blizzard, RIFT, and District 187

OnRPG Shotgun News 11/20: Planetside 2, Blizzard, RIFT, and District 187

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

PlanetSide 2 Launches

A day more than three years in the making has finally arrived. After countless beta tests Sony Online Entertainment has released the highly anticipated sequel to MMOFPS Planetside. The free to play game uses SOE’s newly created Forgelight Engine which will also be used for Everquest Next. Right now the PlanetSide 2 website is nothing more than a countdown which shows down to the millisecond how much time remains until the game officially goes live.

 

 

World of Warcraft Celebrating 8 Years

One of the most successful MMOs of all time is turning 8 years old. And when an MMO has a birthday the players are the ones to get the gifts. This year is no different. Players who log in to World of Warcraft before December 1st will get treated to the Feat of Strength Achievement, a celebration package complete with fireworks, a tabard, and an 8% bonus to experience and reputation gains.

 

 

District 187: Sin Streets Launches

There’s more than one launch happening today. CJ Games Global’s free to play FPS District 187: Sin Streets has also thrust itself into the world. With it comes four new maps to enjoy, new weapons and the addition of the in game cash shop.

 

 

Rift Comes to PointMMO Platform

Trion’s hit MMORPG Rift is now available on the free to play platform PointMMO. PointMMO members also get a free pair of in game goggles for installing Rift from their platform.

 

 

Blizzard CEO Wins Entrepreneur of the Year award in Technology

Mike Morhaime, the CEO and co founder of Blizzard has been awarded the Entrepreneur of the Year award in Technology by Ernst & Young. This year he was the only MMO figure who was part of the finalists for the award.

 

Rappelz Launches Epic VIII: Onslaught

Rappelz Launches Epic VIII: Onslaught

 

Rappelz

 

Tame new monsters and awaken the best gear with Onslaught, the latest update for the classic MMORPG Rappelz.  Epic VIII: Onslaught brings in a new Battle Arena, five elite field bosses to tame, a tremendous new system to improve gear, and much more!

 

 

Clash against your brethren in the Battle Arena, a thrilling new PvP system featuring three modes and a variety of newly created maps.  Be the first to reach the maximum number of kills in Team Deathmatch, activate the most pillars to win Domination, and control the prized center in King of the Hill. Two teams of up to thirty-two players can battle against each other to win Arena Points, capable of buying empty pet cards that can capture this update’s five new boss monsters.

 

 

Ancient magic has awakened five elite field bosses with unusual new powers to tame.  Capture the Blight Ogre, who pummels his enemies by spending 50% of his health points to increase speed, intelligence, and strength.  Ensnare the Baphomet, a corrupt creature able to restore 28% health and 14% magic power to the entire party, including pets. The elusive Undine provides exceptional tanking ability when increasing vitality and max HP at the cost of movement speed, and the powerful Minotaurus destroys enemies with a passive skill that increases attack and defense per kill for up to 99 kills. Complete the collection with the versatile Drillbot, who utilizes one of three modes that provide a variety of buffs to nearby allies, making him highly adaptable to any situation.

 

Rappelz

 

Player equipment also receives a welcome update with the new Awakening system, offering an easy method to add additional stats to weapons.  Simply obtain an Awakening Stone from dismantling empty creature cards and use it on the preferred weapon to add five bonus stats to that item at random.  Be wary though, as this system has the potential to apply negative stats that can only be removed using the Sealing Scroll.

 

 

Always improving its gameplay and controls, Rappelz also adds many additional new features.  Players are invited to try out the new WASD based movement system as well as the new target outlining system, labeling friends from foe in simple to identify colors. Additionally, earn special buffs under the new title system, a simple tool that improves stats after defeating feats from across the world. Proudly displayed above a character’s head, one main title will provide 100% of its available buffs, while five undisplayed sub-titles each give 10%.

gPotato Reveals Portal-wide Black Friday Sales

gPotato Reveals Portal-wide Black Friday Sales

 

 

Today gPotato revealed Thanksgiving Black Friday sales across Aika Online, Sevencore, Flyff, and Rappelz to make your extended weekend a little bit brighter! Below are details for each:

 

 

Aika Online: This Black Friday Aika Online is selling a series of Chromatic Boxes, custom made for each class, for only 100 gPotatoes!  Each box will contain the chance at fantastic gear as well as restoration items and in-game currency. There’s also the chance to win the Chest of the Accomplished, which gives an account infinite double Experience Scrolls for life!

 

 

Sevencore: A new capsule arrives in Sevencore containing the brand new Nether Tendrils, a beautiful set of ethereal wings that increases max health by 3%.  Plus the odds of winning a Silver Drakan have been reduced by half!

 

 

Flyff:  Starting now and ending the 30th all fashion sets, pets, and mounts will be 30-50% off!  Additional sale events such as discounts on bundles, items for only 100 gPotatoes, and buy one get one free promotions will also kick off throughout the week!

 

 

Rappelz: Players now have the ability to change their character’s race with the Heart of Homunculus item, available for the first time this Black Friday! This spectacular item resets the race, class, and skill points of the character but keeps its level.

 

 

Now you must be thinking, ‘Wait, where is Allods Online on this list?” gPotato has a trick up their sleeves but you’ll have to stay tuned for more info later this week!

eSports @OnRPG – The Starcraft World Championship Series

eSports @OnRPG – The Starcraft World Championship Series

By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

While the League of Legends community finally gets some rest and the other e-sport scenes are waiting for something big to happen, the Starcraft 2 professionals show the meaning of hardcore with yet another round of matches. Having their third tournament in only three weeks, fatigue and jetlag is starting to visibly show on the faces of many competitors.  Despite this, Blizzard’s World Championship Series waits for no man. And with the best of the best from each country participating, fans were surely in for a treat.

 

 

When I say most, I don’t include the fans from Europe since well, Europe has a way of getting unfairly treated by many publishers. In the case of this particular tournament, it was scheduled based on a Chinese timezone, meaning I was in for a long night since the tournament was set to begin in the middle of the night in Holland. But thank god, I was happy that I stayed up because this tournament had some twists and turns!

 

 

With many fan favorites competing, and with my own national hero Grubby attending, I had a lot of people to cheer for when the games began. The tournament began with group stage qualifiers in which only 2 members from each group would move on to the brackets. It would take a lot of skill and a little luck to secure these much sought positions. And a lot of surprises were seen this weekend that were totally unexpected. Many of the fan favorites like Grubby, HuK, MajOr, and mOOnGLaDe all didn’t make it to the Bracket and fell short to advance into the tournament. Even the two best zergs in the foreigner scene Nercho and Stephano fell a win short of advancing. With these juggernauts eliminated, all preconceptions of how this tournament would unfold were thrown out the window and every remaining player was put on notice to not underestimate their new opponents. But from the pits of ‘slumbering hell’ we’ve seen an old fan favorite return to his formal strength; Greg ‘IdrA’ Fields with his famous jacket called the ‘Gracket’ made it into the Brackets with some absolutely amazing games in a group he should have certainly been eliminated by.

 

 

The forums exploded for this battle hardened hero’s return to the spotlight after such a long hiatus. He would be joined by the Spanish brothers VortiX and LucifroN that have become quite known in local EU tournaments. Greg’s lesser known teammate Suppy also denied expectations to grab a seat in the brackets along with the Canadian female zerg Scarlett. The remaining seats were rounded out by LoWeLy, Curious, TitaN, Sen, KiLLeR, Rain, BabyKnight, PartinG, Illusion and HerO amongst rampant speculation of possible outcomes and matches.

 

 

Since there was only a winner’s bracket, each match was a fight to the finish, leaving competitors and fans a wreck. Each matchup was played in a best of five series and obviously no one wants to go out in the first round. But unfortunately where champions rise, heroes must fall and so did Greg ‘IdrA’ Fields’ shot at the championship as his day ended 1-3 against the feared Korean player Rain. Rain has been a consistent terror in tournaments over the past month and even Greg admitted he was caught completely off-guard by a player with the talent to take the title for himself. Greg’s teammate had more success though and won his first match against LoWeLy with a three to one score. Another big match in the first round of the brackets was LucifroN versus VortiX match. The two brothers that are tearing up every European tournament had to face each other in the first round and unfortunately only one of them could advance to the quarterfinals. Both players are known for putting up wicked battles before being eliminated and so extreme tenacity was expected as these two hardcore competitors clashed. As if this wasn’t enough, Blizzard had a trick up their sleeves to create even more of a show. The Plott Brothers were brought in to do their first shoutcast together as LucifroN and Vortix fought. As expected the tournament came down to the final fifth match in which Vortix eliminated Lucifron. Despite LucifroN losing, this match-up was arguably one of the closest matched and most exciting to watch of the entire tournament. I wonder if he can take comfort knowing he lost to his brother rather than a stranger.

 

 

The players that managed to get to the Quarterfinals together with VortiX, Suppy and Rain were the Taiwanese player Sen, the Chile player KiLLeR and the Koreans PartinG, HerO and Creator. With only a few foreigners left in the tournament facing the strongest of the Koreans, they all had a strong match to prepare for and unfortunately none of them managed to break through these feared gods and thus the Semi Finals were the start of the war in the east. Despise falling, both Suppy and VortiX showed some great games and with a bit more luck may have found themselves sitting in the championships instead. Both PartinG and Creator managed to win their series in the Semi Finals and Sen and Rain had to fight for third place.

 

 

The finalists were no strangers to each other, having duked it out in the GSL tournament Code S multiple times. Both these players are very strong players and with a best of seven ahead of us we had a promising series for all the people still staying up for this amazing tournament. The first game was played on Ohana, a known map for its meaning of Family. Unfortunately since both players are Protoss players, the odds were big that this Series wouldn’t take as long as most matchups. Despite this the first game was a great series with many surprises and lead changes culminating in an overpowering late stage army giving Creator the win. In the next two games PartinG managed to make a comeback and went two on one over Creator. Creator then tied up the series on Shakuras Plateau in the fourth game in a fairly easy looking game for Creator. While both players adopted different build orders in the fifth game, they were unified in a fast expansion tactic that led to an action packed finale. With a lot of harass and micromanaged attacks on both sides, the tides finally turned mid-game when Creator took a large force directly into PartinG’s trap, resulting in a devastating counterattack that Creator couldn’t recover from.

 

 

Creator now was on thin ice as PartinG needed only one game to take home the $100,000 prize. The Sixth game PartinG decided to finish things quickly with a three gate stalker attack; luckily for Creator he managed to break off the attack with a last second immortal counter. PartinG then decided to macro it up and prepare for the later stages of the game, Creator however had other plans and wanted to tie up the series with a one base attack while he still had the advantage. Unfortunately with the constant harass of Blink Stalkers from PartinG, Creator didn’t manage to make it in time and he lost his small opportunity for an early victory. PartinG performed flawlessly from this point on and never revealed a single weakness for Creator to capitalize on. PartinG ended the series two to four, though I’m sure Creator wasn’t too upset walking away with $40,000 in prizes.

Gobblemania Strikes Outspark Titles

Gobblemania Strikes Outspark Titles

 

 

GOBBLEMANIA takes Outspark by storm this week with everyone’s beloved Game Masters cooking up a feast of epic gaming to get your turkey on.  Here’s just a sample of what’s in store for fans of the free-to-play anime fantasy MMORPGs, Fiesta and Luvinia, and the hit free-to-play hardcore arcade brawler, Dark Blood:

 

 

M 11/19 – W 11/21 2pm PT

Fiesta Turkey Derby

Get ready for pumpkin pie with a wacky race around the sparkling seaport town of Roumen.  Run alongside friends by foot, by horse and by supersonic speed, for glory of the season and valuable prizes.

 

 

M 11/19 – W 11/21 10am & 2pm PT

Luvinia Turkey Roasting

Hunt Ultra Mega Turkeys on a GM led expedition and rake in riches including gold, potion, and more.

 

 

Tu 11/20

Fiesta Turkey Trivia

Join in the fun on the Fiesta Facebook wall as Game Masters test wits on Best & Most Fowl Play.

 

 

M 11/19 – F 11/30

Dark Blood Thanksgiving Trout

Go fishing for the holidays in Dark Blood’s exciting new content update.  Players with the biggest catch in one sitting reel in rewards.