Yearly Archives: 2012

RiotZone Kicks off Month of Events

RiotZone Kicks off Month of Events

 

 

Mail.Ru Games, publisher of internationally successful online games such as Legend: Legacy of the Dragons, Allods Online and Gunblade Saga, is really turning up the heat on players of the action-packed online strategy game RiotZone. It all kicks off in the second week of October, with extra battle rewards. From the middle of October on, it’s one event after another, from PVP events, to epic confrontations. The glorious finale will be the eagerly-awaited opening of the Auction House.

 

 

The Face of the Enemy

From the middle of the month, mercenaries can look forward to a new daily mission and PVP battle. Here’s a highlight from the latter: The infamous faction leaders, who usually prefer to pull the strings from behind the scenes, will step out of the shadows and take command of their troops in person for this strategically important battle. What’s more, two other events promise exciting stories, extra rewards, and other high-tech upgrades for brand-new items that will be introduced to the game. Cunning commanders can also sell surplus munitions in the Auction House that will be opening soon, or get hold of the rare upgrades they need there themselves.

 

 

Fight for a Good Cause

In the MMO RiotZone, two competing organizations go up against the rule of the cruel Dictator. The fighters of the Scarlet Alliance, who want to establish the rule of the people, and the Crown Coalition, which stands for a cool-headed, rational approach. As commander of a mercenary squad, the player enters the service of one of these organizations. You’ll have to intercept convoys, set up ambushes, and target the Dictator’s entourage in order to weaken the regime. Alongside all that, the followers of the enemy faction need to be kept in check. After all, when the Dictator falls, the right people need to come to power. There’s no time to rest, not even between battles. Commanders have to build up the camp and train their units, keeping track of their finances, and making new munitions. From level 5, players have access to a wide range of exciting PvP features, such as gathering resources, group battle, or raids behind enemy lines. The outcome of the multi-player battle determines who will take control of the game zone.

Planetside 2 Prepares to Send Players to the Icy Tundra of Esamir

Planetside 2 Prepares to Send Players to the Icy Tundra of Esamir

 

 

This weekend, Sony Online Entertainment orders you to report to battle in PlanetSide 2 on the newly discovered Auraxian continent of Esamir. Members of the command are hereby directed to advance their troops to the nearest warpgate terminal and head out to claim the icy tundra of Esamir for their Empire.

 

 

On Esamir, base capture methods will be adjusted — strategize accordingly. Shield generators won’t be disabled as easily, so expect to run an overload process to secure victory. Additionally, soldiers will have new certifications to handle vehicles and weapons better, along with new sidegrades (LMGs, Carbines, Assault/Sniper Rifles) for each empire.

 

 

To prepare for Esamir’s rough, icy terrain, pack appropriately and watch the following video that will bring you and your squad up to speed:

 

 

Move out!

It Pays To Have Friends In Knight Age

It Pays To Have Friends In Knight Age

 

Knight Age

 

Joymax introduces a new game system to their wildly popular fantasy MMORPG, Knight Age. With a full month of service under its belt, there is much to explore in the world of Knight Age. Squires ready to train their first mount can sign up on the official website.

 

 

Playing with friends and family is already awesome, but did you know there’s more than just accepting a friend invitation in Knight Age? From sharing Hearts to performing Miracles, Joymax reveals details for their Social Network System in Knight Age!

 

 

So what is a Social Network System? Knight Age allows players to utilize their character’s connections to their friends and guild members in a new way. Every player now has their own Social Network Level, with its own “social EXP” bar. As a player adds new friends, joins a guild and more, the player’s Social Network experience increases – thus, the more social a player is, the more social EXP they will earn. Once every few hours, players can send a Heart to anyone in their Social Network. These hearts grant the recipient a major social EXP boost for both them and the sender. With more friends and guild members to share hearts with, the faster the player will be able to level up!

 

Knight Age

 

Why level up your character’s Social Network? For the abilities you can’t find anywhere else! As a player raises their Social Network Level players will unlock skills such as Auto-Warp, which allows players to teleport instantly to any of the Social Network connections. The ultimate goal is to knock the top tier Miracle skill. Performing a Miracle on one of your close allies resurrects them instantly with no penalties – removing the damage in armor and weapon durability and eliminating the status effect normally induced by resurrection. So, if the player parties with their best buddies, the player won’t need to worry about falling in battle and vice versa. It’s a win-win situation which players should definitely take advantage of.

 

 

With frequent double EXP events and goodie bags being rewarded to players for every 30 minutes they spend in-game, now’s the best time to not only join Knight Age, but to maximize your social potential. Who will be the first to perform the ultimate Miracle?

ArcheBlade – Closed Beta Impressions

ArcheBlade – Closed Beta Impressions

By Michael Sagoe (Mikedot), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

Fighting games have always had a very niche appeal in the F2P Gaming market, with many of them sticking to very traditional gameplay mechanics. One F2P fighting game, however, is attempting to break the mold by offering a multiplayer fighting in a fairly uncommon perspective.

 

 

The game is called ArcheBlade, a 3rd person fighting game developed by CodeBrush Games, a South Korean based developer group that has been working on the game for well past three years. The game is set to include 10 different characters, each with their own unique fighting styles, along with several beat ‘em up and FPS inspired game modes, all brought to you by Epic’s Unreal 3 Engine.

 

 

I’ve actually been tracking this game ever since I found it on YouTube a couple of months ago. Fighting games are right up my alley and I was more than willing to give this game a try. The developers were nice enough to lend me a beta key even though I missed the initial sign up period. With a quick download on Valve’s Steam platform, I hopped right in.

 

 

From the main menu, players can choose to join a random match by pressing the “Start Game” button, start a training session or join an active game server through the network play button. There’s also an options menu, but several features were locked away for some reason, and I couldn’t change any of my key bindings or raise my resolution above 1920×1080.

 

 

The first thing I tried out was the training mode and from there, all 10 characters were available to try out. The training mode was… very simplistic. The only thing that was available was a training dummy to try out different attack combos and that’s about it. You can press the H key to bring up your move list, but what’s here is surprisingly limited.

 

 

Rehiney Rich’Lich was the first I decided to try out in a live battle. She’s a magician fighter than uses martial arts, teleportation and ice attacks to deal out quick damage and heavy combos… Or at least that’s what it seemed from the gameplay demonstration videos. When getting a feel for her attacks I found her ranged attacks seemed very hard to aim, but when they connected they had a status effect that would slow down enemies for a short period of time, so I wanted to use this to my advantage when it was time to fight against other players.

 

 

First match in: I played on a map called Under Siege, which was also a team deathmatch map. On my team, I was set up with players that were using Dick the Megaton (yes, that’s his actual name) and Elrath Nazaruth, both have a balance between close and ranged attacks. My opponents, on the other hand, were two gunners named Elichea Bayer and Renoah Collintz. When the match started, I would quickly realize that these two were possibly the most overpowered characters available.

 

 

Elichea Bayer’s basic combo attack has so much range and does so much damage in a short amount of time, all while firing shots in random directions. All Elichea players need to do spam their left mouse button combo and they’ll have no trouble getting kills in. Renoah, on the other hand, is the only character that can aim their attacks in a third person shooter fashion. Her attacks have a moderate range and bullets need to be reloaded after several shots are fired. When she’s out of bullets, though, she can perform a quick melee attack to knock enemies back, allowing here to get in some reload time.

 

 

She ALSO can perform an attack that allows her to pull out a rifle and fire shots from a long distance. These attacks have a charge up time before being able to fire, but players can also perform an EX version of the attack to eliminate the charge up time. Both Elichea and Renoah were very frustrating to deal against (Renoah not so much as Elichea, since she had the whole reload mechanic to deal with.)

 

 

The gameplay mechanics in ArcheBlade take a few nods from modern fighting games, including elements such as hitstuns, juggles and EX-moves. What the game needs to go along with these mechanics, however, is a much bigger move list for all characters and more combo opportunities. At most, characters in ArcheBlade only have up to 5 different attack variations. There’s not much room for experimentation here, as the combos are very short and simple. For a game to call itself a multiplayer fighting game, and not have the main emphasis of modern fighting games is truly baffling.

 

 

After playing a few more matches on Under Siege, I tried out the 2nd map and game mode: NetherDale. This map and mode was set on an active volcano and the objective was capturing pylons and holding them in order to gain points, much like conquest modes that you would find in FPS titles.  I actually decided to play as Elichea myself, just to get my own feel for her and try to figure out if her attacks had any openings.

 

 

Most of the opponents I went up against didn’t have a clue of what was going on in this mode, but I did despite it being my first time playing. Walking up to pylons and capturing them was a breeze, because no one on the enemy team was around to defend them. Taking a moment to hunt down a few enemies, I did my best NOT to spam Elichea’s basic combo. I tried to experiment with her by performing some juggles, but in the end, the basic combo was the most effective. There’s some balance issues that need to be looked into, and Elichea needs to be the first one on the chopping table.

 

 

Other characters on the roster either feel somewhat underpowered or VERY underpowered, likes Cezanne La Gatal who’s a demon that can only attack with incredibly slow ranged attacks, and Gaspar la Velfanar who has a decent ranged attack that can be fired in the air, but has to be reloaded after every shot.

 

 

(These are some really weird character names, by the way… It kind of makes me wish that they should have gone with something more generic like Rick, or Brittney or something that’s easier to pronounce!)

 

 

To conclude: ArcheBlade is a bright new title with a lot of potential, but is way too rough around the edges. With very poor character balance, lack of modes and lack of… well… just about everything, there was very little replay value to be found in its current state, and it was very evident due to the lack of people playing in the closed beta.

 

 

The development team, however, is really looking to take a stand and address these issues before the game launches in March of 2013. They’ve already taken community feedback into heavy consideration and will be making changes for the second beta test planned for early next year.

 

 

For more information on ArcheBlade, check out our profile page here at OnRPG.com

ArcheBlade

‘ArcheBlade’ is a multi-player action fighting game in which users take sides and fight against one another. Archeblade is inspired by arcade fighting games and multi-player FPS games, and it provides both the special moves and combos found in an arcade fighting game and the team play and strategy found in an FPS game.

 

 

Features

 

Multiple Champions to Choose: Taking a queue from the MOBA genre, ArchBlade tries to keep each match fresh with a large selection of champions to choose from, each featuring starkly different abilities (5 total).

 

Varied Maps: From team deathmatch style maps to Capture the Point, ArchBlade attempts to keep the action strategic to prevent everyone from just clashing in one big brawl in the middle of the map.

 

Fighting Game Elements: While basic players can just spam attacks in any order to try to deal out damage, more advanced techniques including hitstuns, juggles, and EX-moves allow pro players to dominate their opponents once learning the nuance of each champions skills.

OnRPG Shotgun News 10/5: World of Tanks, FireFall, and Forge

OnRPG Shotgun News 10/5: World of Tanks, FireFall, and Forge

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Journalist

 

The British Invade World of Tanks

Wargaming has announced that in World of Tanks‘ update 8.1 the British army will arrive in force. 22 iconic tanks of all sizes will be added to World of Tanks. 8.1 will also introduce a new rendering and lighting system, 5 new battle arenas, and a few new premium machines.

 

 

Forge Launches Beta

The fantasy shooter Forge has announced that beta has begun. Players who signed up early for the Forge beta or have pre ordered the game will be able to access it right away. Registration is still available but it only gives 14 days of gameplay while pre ordering the game gives you full access to the beta.

 

Firefall Changes Progression System

Red 5 has announced that the entire progression system for Firefall has been changed. This is to change to a more horizontal progression system which is proving to be quite popular these days. This was announced recently in a dev blog post on the official website.

Kartuga Reveals Alpha Plans for November

Kartuga Reveals Alpha Plans for November

 

 

InnoGames unveils the 3D pirate browser game – Kartuga – for the first time, to a small selection of players, on November 24. The Kartuga Alpha, organized by the game’s developer will take place in Hamburg, at the company’s headquarters. Sixteen gamers will be invited to compete in a Kartuga high-seas battle with several rounds.  Three winners will be then chosen to receive prizes as such as iPads, iPhones and iPods.

 

 

By organizing the event, InnoGames plans to give exclusive insight into the game, which is currently still in alpha phase, for a lucky group of enthusiasts. Players will be given up to 250 EUR for travel expenses, making it possible for participants to jet off to the beautiful German city for a day of fun. Participants will also have the opportunity to meet and chat with the makers of Kartuga. To register for the upcoming lottery, players can apply until the 14th of October via the Kartuga blog.

 

 

Hamburg developer-studio Ticking bomb Games designed the action-packed MMOG. The game is based on Unity 3D and places a strong focus on cooperative PvP with various role-playing elements. In Kartuga, players choose one of three ship types to improve and expand through a series of quest and missions. The official launch is scheduled for the first quarter of 2013. The first graphic of a lead character, the Engineer, is now published on the Kartuga homepage.

Kill3rCombo Acquired by Elsword Developer KOG Games

Kill3rCombo Acquired by Elsword Developer KOG Games

 

 

Today, Kill3rCombo, Irvine-based publisher of online game Elsword, announced it is now fully owned by Korean game developer KOG, creator of the internationally acclaimed online games Grand Chase, Elsword and Fighters Club. KOG takes full acquisition of Kill3rCombo from Level Up Games, who previously shared a controlling stake in Kill3rCombo with KOG. Kill3rCombo has changed its corporate name to KOG Games to reflect its closer ties to KOG, but will continue to service games under the Kill3rCombo brand.

 

 

The acquisition further strengthens Kill3rCombo’s relationship with KOG, whose games are played by millions of gamers all around the world. In addition, Kill3rCombo will more fully adopt KOG’s core values of putting the player first by servicing fun games which bring joy to gamers.

 

 

President of KOG, Won Lee, will assume the role of CEO for KOG Games (Kill3rCombo), bringing with him more than twelve years of experience leading a highly successful studio and developing games played by millions of devoted fans worldwide.

 

 

“We welcome Kill3rCombo into the KOG family. Not only will they share KOG’s values of putting players first and making players happy, but this also makes us more in line with other successful international companies that develop and publish their own games,” said Won Lee, CEO of KOG Games.

 

 

Kill3rCombo is working hard to introduce players in North America to Elsword in all possible ways, such as mounting a campaign on Valve’s new Steam Greenlight service.

 

 

Kill3rCombo was founded in 2010 as a joint venture between developer KOG and publisher Level Up to bring KOG’s games to North America. In addition to Elsword, which launched in April 2011, Kill3rCombo is gearing up for its second title, Fighters Club.