Monthly Archives: February 2013

OnRPG Shotgun News 2/13: Kartuga, WildStar, FireFall, and SWTOR

OnRPG Shotgun News 2/13: Kartuga, WildStar, FireFall, and SWTOR

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Elder Scribe

 

 

Kartuga Reveals UI and Equipment Details

As the closed beta for Kartuga approaches more has been revealed about the UI, ship gear, ship crew members and weapons. Kartuga will feature cannons which can have special ammunitions which can be grabbed from consumables. They aren’t the only consumables though, there are offensive and defensive consumables. Crew members can give additional bonuses according to their role. Gunners improve weapon and skill properties and Carpenters make the ship more durable.

 

 

Firefall Intergrates Twitch Broadcasting

Firefall’s community has completed it’s Founders Rewards program which brings the intergrated Twitch broadcasting put into the game. This means players will be able to live broadcast straight to their own Twitch channels.

 

WildStar Introduces Dominion Faction and Stalker Class

After announcing last week that WildStar would be released in 2013 this week WildStar is back to talk about the Dominion Faction and Stalker Class. The Dominion Faction are an interstellar empire that rules the galaxy using military might, religious zealous, and some advanced technology. The races in the Dominion Faction are the Cassian, Mechari, and Draken. The Stalker class uses stealth and nanotech infusion to be a silent and deadly assassin.

 

 

 

Mobile Billing Comes to SWTOR

A new option for buying Cartel Coins has been made available to people living in a select few countries. If you’re lucky enough to live in Germany, France, Taiwan, South Korea, Brazil, Turkey, Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Czech Republic, Norway, Sweden, Belgium, Hungary, Spain, Australia, or The Netherlands you can take part. SMS billing is only available right now for the purchase of 450 Cartel Coins and carrier fees will apply.

Elsword Reveals Rena’s Trapping Ranger Transformation

Elsword Reveals Rena’s Trapping Ranger Transformation

 

 

Today Kill3rCombo, publisher of the hit free-to-play action MMORPG Elsword, revealed its newest class, Trapping Ranger, for the popular character, Rena.  As part of the on-going Elsword Transformation series, the Trapping Ranger class makes Rena a lethal assassin-style character; the first of its kind for Elsword.

 

With the Trapping Ranger’s deadly new abilities, Rena is a force to be reckoned with. Her new “fatality” assassination attack carries a random chance to do fatal damage making it one of the most feared moves in the game.  She also gains a variety of traps that can stun or incinerate opponents. Her new trapping abilities also introduce new strategies to the game’s PvP mode.  Her traps can control the lanes of attack in arenas giving your team the edge. Additionally, the traps can capitalize on chaotic “free-for-all” brawls as opponents often overlook them.  In Elsword’s vast PvE mode, Trapping Ranger proves to be among the most versatile classes, with a mastery of ranged and close-combat moves, in addition to her trapping skills.

 

 

Rena becomes a Trapping Ranger by allying with a unique band of elves who operate at night like an elite Special Forces team.  Specializing in infiltration and assassination, the elves teach Rena to wield the lethal assassin’s blade. They also introduce her to their patron, a holy tree named Eldrasil, who grants her the ability to lay cunning traps using nature magic.

 

 

To celebrate the first three new classes of the Elsword Transformation series, Kill3rCombo is launching a massive, blow-out sweepstakes.  Players will have a shot at winning real-world prizes including an Alienware gaming rig, gaming headphones and much more.  Players can enter the sweepstakes at the official Elsword Facebook page here.

WoW Wednesday – ValentineÂ’s Horoscopes

WoW Wednesday – Valentine’s Horoscopes*

By Merryquitecontrary, OnRPG Azeroth Reporter

 

 

Aries (March 21-April 19)

Things aren’t going well for your right now Aries, especially where romance is concerned so you might as well play WoW.  You are likely pinning for yesteryear when you were in the top guild on your server, top of the DPS metre and top of everyone’s ignore list. Why not grab a Virgo (he’ll be the one moaning about all the changes) and be useful instead of your usual incredibly selfish self and run heroics with some noobs this holiday? Who knows, you may get lucky.

 

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

This is your holiday Taurus. Romance and chocolate are two things you understand very well. However; this hasn’t been your best year. Jealousy is getting the better of you. You’ve been suspecting your partner of flirting with that cute blood elf healer (he/she probably is). Be careful though Taurus to not air your dirty laundry in guild chat. Pettiness doesn’t look good on you. Much like all that chocolate you’ve been eating.

 

Gemini (May 21-June 20)

Gemini you will be in high spirits (read: obnoxious) with that certain someone this week but be careful not to hurt feelings. Not everyone appreciates your jokes about how bad the tank tanks or the healer heals. If you aren’t careful you could start some major drama. Besides, the GM already thinks you are a jerk.

 

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

Cancer it isn’t smooth sailing for you this Valentine’s Day. You are feeling very emo  sentimental right now hoping for the perfect Valentine’s but someone has rained on your parade because of insensitive remarks they made. To be fair Cancer, nobody likes kill stealing. That Tauren was well within his rights to refer to your mother as an ogre. But if you are going to be a big baby about it, let him know how you feel because that is all the action you will be seeing this holiday.

 

Leo (July 23-Aug 22)

You just have to be the centre or attention, don’t you?  The first half of this holiday sees you full of jealously and resentment.  Maybe you were overlooked as the new raid leader or not everyone recognizes your prowess in the arena? Luckily, the latter half of your day gets better and someone will appreciate just how awesome you are. Sure, your admirer is a level 6 noob but why are you standing around in Goldshire anyway?

Virgo (Aug 23-Sep 22)

The best way for you to celebrate this holiday Virgo is to reconnect with someone from your past? That does not mean spy on them with an alt. You will want to kerb your voyeuristic ways Virgo and actually have a chat. A Gemini will annoy you at some point today but don’t worry, the vote to kick him from the group will pass and all will be well again.

 

Libra (Sep 23-Oct 22)

Libra you are naturally sweet, light and a bit airy fairy but today dark forces are at work. You are likely heading for a meltdown because that handsome hunter you’ve been flirting with is actually more interested in that undead trollop who has recently joined your guild. The good news is if you can actually decide to let him know how you feel, he may be responsive. Unless he isn’t of course.  

 

Scorpio (Oct 23-Nov 21)

As the realm’s resident horn-dog you’ve had your fair share of romantic entanglements but this holiday isn’t for light hearted flirting. You are feeling the need for solid relationships lately but beware Scorpio, jealousy and secrecy is in the cards. You are doomed. DOOMED!

 

Sagittarius (Nov 22-Dec 21)

Today is a bit of an off day for you Sagittarius. Normally you are quite fiery but you aren’t feeling very playful today. The best thing you can do in the first part of the day is hang out in your favourite farming spot. Your evening will brighten up a bit and you might feel like being social again. However, social doesn’t mean yelling at people in BGs because they aren’t doing things your way.

 

Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 19)

You are far too reasonable for the romantic notion of love today Capricorn.  Your day should likely be spent in the psychiatrist office but if that isn’t a possibility you may want to clean out your bank and bags in a pre-emptive spring cleaning strike.  Seriously though, you will want to see someone about those unresolved issues.

 

Aquarius (Jan 20-Feb 18)

Love is in the air, Aquarius. No, really, The Love is in the Air event has started. You will want to get those achievements done.  It’s not like you have anything better to do.

 

Pisces (Feb 19-March 20)

You are usually a very romantic type, Pisces, but today you are feeling ignored and possibly even disrespected. You are the DPS that has to sit out of tonight’s raid and you’ve gotten your knickers in a twist over it. You are the one who chose to play a subpar rogue after all.  One word Pisces: /gquit.

 

 

*for entertainment purposes only

Nexon Reveals Stats Behind Maplestory Marriages

Nexon Reveals Stats Behind Maplestory Marriages

 

 

To celebrate the romance surrounding Valentine’s Day, MapleStory is discounting in-game weddings 50 percent through Feb. 19 and each happy couple will receive a special gift. On Valentine’s Day, players who log in will receive a free heart balloon cape to show off their romantic spirit. But players should think twice and read some marriage (and divorce) related stats before tying the knot!

In MapleStory, the wedding system is one of the more popular features of the game, and during 2012, more than 15,000 of the 28,000 in-game couples who were engaged and married in-game broke up. Also, between 2010 and 2012, more than 70,000 couples were engaged and married in-game. By that same token, many couples have also broken up, with more than 33,000 engagements and marriages ending between 2010 and 2012.

 

Other marriage and divorce stats include:

·         The longest marriage in MapleStory is 1,100 days

·         The shortest marriage in MapleStory is 3 seconds.

·         The most number of marriages for a single user was 13

·         The average duration of a married couple in MapleStory is 518 days.

·         The day with the most marriages was January 7, 2012 with 115 total (January also had the most # of marriages total, October had the least).

·         The month with the most divorces/broken engagements in MapleStory was July, 2012.

·         The day with the most divorces/broken engagements in MapleStory was September 8, 2012 with 99 total.

GunSwords Announces Beta Bash Events

GunSwords Announces Beta Bash Events

 

 

Independent developer, One Button Studio, today announced GunSwords’ first “Beta Bash”, a series of weekly events for the turn-based PvP game’s Open Beta. Every Thursday and Sunday, GunSwords fans can look forward to new community-building activities and in-game rewards including double GP and Tin, a weekly “Dev Challenge” Twitch stream and live Q&A sessions. The first GunSwords Beta Bash will start at 6pm (Central European Time)/9am (Pacific) on Thursday, February 14th. Twitch stream and developers Q&A sessions will take place on Sundays from 12am-2am CEST/3pm-5pm Pacific. More information along with a full schedule can be found here.

“Now that GunSwords has hit Open Beta it’s important that we’re bringing the community together”, said Dmitry Mikhalev, CEO of One Button Studio. “These events provide everyone with a great opportunity to battle new players, give direct feedback or just get to know us as developers.”

 

February’s Beta Bash series can be broken up into the following weekly events:

Double GP + Tin: Everyone who plays GunSwords during the Beta Bash timeslots – Thursdays for 24 hours starting at 6pm CEST/9am CEST and Sundays 12am CEST/3pm Pacific to 2am CEST/5pm Pacific – will receive double Game Points and Tin.

Live Q&A + Dev Challenge Twitch Stream: Sundays from 12am-2am CEST/3pm-5pm Pacific players can join the official GunSwords Twitch channel – www.twitch.tv/gunswords – to challenge the developers in streamed matches and participate in a live Q&A session.

Marvel Heroes Announces Valentine’s Day Deal

Marvel Heroes Announces Valentine’s Day Deal

 

 

In honor of Valentine’s Day, Marvel Heroes are celebrating the most iconic couple in Marvel History – Jean Grey and Cyclops. Anyone who buys ANY Starter Pack or ANY Premium Pack* from the Marvel Heroes Founders Program will receive both Jean Grey (Phoenix costume) and Cyclops (Astonishing costume) as an exclusive Valentine’s Day bonus (in addition to the pack that was purchased). Just purchase your pack anytime between 12:01 AM and 11:59 PM PST on February 14th to receive your bonus at launch!

 

 

*If you choose to buy either the Cyclops or the Jean Grey Starter Pack, you will only receive either Jean Grey or Cyclops as a bonus (whichever one you did not purchase). This offer does not apply to the Uncanny X-Men or Marvel NOW! Premium Packs (as they both already contain Jean Grey and Cyclops). Happy Valentine’s Day!

DK Online Review – MMORPG Comfort Food

DK Online Review – MMORPG Comfort Food

By Jordan Hall (ApocaRUFF), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

DK Online is a traditional MMORPG set in a fantasy world that is facing an all-powerful evil. Easy gameplay mixed with fast leveling and combat are what make it appealing. The Guild versus Guild territory control gives PvP an exciting twist where you strive with your friends to crush your enemies and take one of the six available castles for your own. All this combined make for quite the exciting experience.

 

 

The World

The name of the world in DK Online is Latos. And let me tell you, it is beautiful. They fill each nook and cranny of the world with a special DK charm that give it an eye-pleasing graphic style. Latos is a large and interesting world filled with expansive cities. These cities are filled with amazing architecture. Packed to the brim with NPCs and players, you will always find something to do or buy. Unfortunately, this comes at a price. I found the game to be poorly optimized and my beast rig was struggling to keep up. I had to concede and lower my graphics settings to get a decent frames per second.

 

 

While I feel that there could have been more variety in the animations, what was available was superb. Combat is filled with awesome special effects that allow for a feeling of constant action. When you kill an enemy, loot will fly out of his corpse. That was particularly neat when it was a weapon, which would embed itself into the ground. I appreciated the sleek user interface, most of which could be moved around the screen freely.

 

 

 

Your Character

In DK Online, there are four races. Each race is gender locked and are limited to two classes each, one of which is shared with all the other races: Warrior. I have got to say I was disappointed with the lack of choice when it came to classes and races: specifically the class selection. There are only a total of four classes. I have heard rumors that another class will be released in the future, but I do not think this will make much of a difference.

 

 

Besides the class and race selection, you are given an OK amount of choices when it comes to actually deciding how your character looks. You can customize your face type, hair style, hair color, facial hair and even face decorations. You can also choose your initial armor color which you start in.

 

 

After your character is created, there is some customization but not much. Each time you level, you gain a point to spend in your stats and a skill point to spend in the skill trees. As far as I have been able to tell, there are two skill trees for each class. Which means there really is not much variety to choose from. I would have preferred it if we were given more choice and freedom in the customization of our character.

 

 

 

The Controls

There really is nothing new when it comes to the controls of DK Online. If you have played an MMORPG in the past ten years, you are inclined to be familiar with the controls instantly. There is both WASD and point-and-click movement. Holding the right mouse button allows you to move the camera around. Using the F key, along with the left mouse button is how you will interact with the world.

 

 

Everything did work, though there were a few problems I noticed. The biggest thing that takes getting used to, in my opinion, is the slight delay when using the movement keys. When you press W, it takes a moment for your character to start going. When you let go of the W key, it takes a bit for your character to stop. Other than that, the chat system spam protection was a bit annoying if you wanted to connect more than one sentence at a time. The only other thing worth mentioning is the jumping. Something about it made me feel like my character was hitting his head against an invisible ceiling. Luckily, the jumping animation is something trivial and does not take away from the functionality.

 

 

Playing the Game

I will start by re-iterating that DK Online is a traditional MMORPG. As such, it has your typical MMORPG combat that was made famous with games such as World of Warcraft. It also has the redundant quest system that is the bane of most MMOs. It is filled with kill quest. In fact, I can count on my hand how many quest I had that did not require killing ten or so of some mob. I recognize that they did their best to make questing as painless as possible by clearly marking all quest locations on the map.

 

 

And speaking of mobs, there are countless hordes of them. Everywhere you go, it is a sea of monsters. I guess I cannot be too disappointed about this. It is basically required due to how many people F2P games usually have playing them. The monsters were fairly unique. Some of the ones I came across were completely new to me. Others more familiar creature names, such as kobolds, did not resemble what I am used to from other games.

 

 

The ease of which I could slip in to the game made for a really enjoyable experience. The quick leveling mixed with fast-paced combat helped with that. There is a lot of high quality voice acting, which you are introduced to at character creation. Added with the epic music, this really helps with the immersion. One thing that had me really scratching my head was that a majority of the NPCs seemed to have the same catch phrase, “You must of heard of me…I am hero!”

 

 

Combat is quite satisfying. You almost feel your greatblade splitting your foe’s head in two. I was thankful that if you try to use an ability and are out of range, your character will automatically run closer to the enemy so that it can hit it. Other than the exceptional combat effects, it is the same system you would find in any other theme-park MMO. The biggest disappoint in combat, however, were the limited options in weapon choice. The class I tried only had two weapon types it could use. In total, I came across three different weapon types: Greatblade, Longsword, and Staff.

 

 

 

Conclusion

In conclusion, DK Online is an alright game. It has an interesting story centering on the struggle between the forces of good and the evil forces of the dragon Kharvag. Latos is a stunning world and I found myself stopping to take screenshots constantly. While I do wish that there were some new and innovative things thrown in to the mix, I appreciate the feeling of comfort I got from playing a game that I was accustomed to from the instant I logged in. It is like MMO comfort food.

 

 

Graphics: 4/5 – But they were poorly optimized during my time in the game

Customization: 2/5 – The fact that each race only had two classes was a huge downer

Community: 3/5 – It was OK for an MMORPG community

Controls: 4/5 – They were familiar and easy to learn

Features: 3/5 – Nothing new, but what was there was done well

Overall: 3/5 – It’s OK for an traditional MMORPG. Check out if you’re looking for decent graphics and familiar gameplay.