Monthly Archives: May 2013

Soldier Front 2 Plays Host To Alien Hordes With Co-Op Mode and More

Soldier Front 2

 

What could be more satisfying than pumping a hideous alien full of lead until it explodes in a fountain of green blood? Get your fill of alien carnage in Soldier Front 2 from Aeria Games, a leading global publisher of free-to-play online games. The highly anticipated First-Person Shooter (FPS) features several game modes with extra-terrestrial antagonists when players want a break from the highly realistic tactical combat in the rest of the game.

 

Soldier Front 2’s unique Hero mode throws players into a MOBA-style war between two teams, which continuously spawn alien troops that march against each other. The vicious aliens, known as Xanthids, form the backbone of the opposing armies, while players use their shooting skills to try and give their side the upper hand in the push toward the enemy base.

 

Soldier Front 2

 

Two more modes featuring Xanthid are scheduled to be released shortly after launch. In the co-op Defense mode, up to four soldiers can team up to obliterate waves of encroaching aliens in a ruined metropolis. Manhunt mode will let players get out of their own skin, as a team of soldiers squares off against a team of aliens. Xanthid players can choose between three types of aliens: stealthy melee-attacking Rippers, speedy suicide-bombing Stunners, and projectile-launching Libertines.

 

Soldier Front 2 will be free to download, and like all Aeria Games titles, will be free-to-play. Players can sign up for recruitment to closed beta now at soldierfront2.aeriagames.com. Stay on target with news, events, and updates at Soldier Front 2’s Facebook page.

 Want more co-op action? Check out the new trailer released today!

The Elder Scribe: May News Review

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG’s Elder Scribe

May has been flying by! And brought us another month closer to the launch of Elder Scrolls Online. Of course it is by anyone’s standards still a long ways off. But that doesn’t mean Zenimax is being tight lipped about anything. It has been another exciting month of reveals covering everything from picking locks to a glimpse of Coldharbour. Keep reading for the highlights from Elder Scrolls online for May.

Spider

AMA Variety Vol. 4

Another tossing together of questions submitted by fans asking all sorts of questions. Here are just a few of the best.

In previous Elder Scrolls games armor was divided into categories, with each category having multiple styles of armor. The styles were tiered so that there was a progression in the type of armor the player would wear from early game to late game. Does The Elder Scrolls Online use an armor progression similar to the one used in Skyrim? – By Philip Hahs
The Elder Scrolls Online features a very familiar armor system. Armor is divided into 3 categories: light, medium, and heavy. Light armor is generally good for magicka users. Medium armor is good for stamina users, and heavy armor is good for keeping yourself alive as long as possible. Within each category, there are many different types available; some are specific to a particular racial style (though you can wear any armor regardless of your race), and some are the iconic sets you might recognize from past Elder Scrollsgames such as Daedric, Dwemer, and more.

What is the social and legal opinion of slavery in Tamriel during this time period? – By Bill Mottola
It varies by jurisdiction. The Clans of the Reach, for example, certainly keep captured enemies as slaves – but they’re barbarians. In most civilized realms, slavery is illegal, with the obvious exception being Morrowind. Under the terms of the Ebonheart Pact the Dark Elves have had to liberate their Argonian slaves, but they still have slaves of other races, the most common of which are Khajiit.

Khajiit

Are we going to encounter Dragonborns in ESO or learn shouts ourselves? – By Hawk Bullmer
The line of Reman Cyrodiil of the Second Empire was certainly Dragonborn, but they died out at the end of the First Era, and between then and the date of ESO, no “legitimate” Dragonborn has been confirmed by being able to light the Dragonfires in the ImperialCity.
As for shouts (i.e., thu’ums), at the time of ESO, they are considered a legend out of the distant past.

Will there be some puzzles that require us to move around blocks to open up something? Will there be puzzles at all? – By Libor Held
Absolutely!

Books have always held an important place in the lore of The Elder Scrolls, and those that increase skills are my favorite. Will we be able to find these two types of books in ESO? Will there be a sequel to “The Lusty Argonian Maid”? – By Emmanuelle Mareuil

The current plan is to have both those kinds of books in ESO – and plenty of them. We have new lore books (by the scad) and old favorites from previous TES games – including both volumes of “The Lusty Argonian Maid.”

 

Gathering and Exploration

One thing I really loved while trying out Elder Scrolls Online at PAX East was how immersive the whole world was. They’ve only added to it with the way gathering happens. Who wouldn’t grab a sneaky handful of beans from a bag just left laying around? Or bread off a table that has been abandoned by the owner? Check out this short video that introduces everything from fishing to finding books. And below that are just a few

Which crafting professions will be in ESO and what do they allow me to create? – By Jara Schlemm

In The Elder Scrolls Online, you can choose from five crafting professions which allow you to make a variety of useful items, enhancements, and equipment. Each of the crafting professions are reminiscent of ones you’ve seen in previous Elder Scrolls games. They are:

Weaponsmith – Weapons of all types

Armorsmith – Armors of all types

Enchantments – Staffs, Jewelry and Glyphs (enchantments)

Alchemist – Potions

Provisioner – Food and Drink

Could you shed some light on the crafting and collecting systems for ESO? Will you need to go to a trainer to pick up new schematics/crafting plans? – By Conrad Furey

Much like in previous Elder Scrolls games, there are no recipes or schematics you must collect or learn from trainers in ESO; there are multiple ways to create every craftable item in the game.  Discovering the optimal mix of ingredients and additives to make that perfect item is all part of the challenge of being a crafter.

Are you going to stay with the old system of making your own gear or only allow one crafting skill so everyone becomes an expert in 1 or 2 fields eg. tailor/sword smith/weapon smith/alchemist/rune crafting ect. – By Marc Neveling

You can master up to two crafting fields. Our intention is for the specialists to trade with one another (I make you a sword, and you make me a breastplate).  That makes for a healthy economy, and gives every crafter the opportunity to find their specialized niche within the market.

To open a chest will I need lockpicks and do they still break (a lot)? How can I become better in lockpicking? – By James Lannger

Some chests do not require lockpicks, but most will; the difficultly of the locks will vary, depending on the quality of the lock itself. Lockpicks have a small chance to break each time you fail to put a pin in place, and this chance increases when you attempt to pick higher quality locks. Your lockpicking will automatically improve as you level, gradually making chests that were once very difficult to open a much easier prospect. Though your lockpicking skill will increase as you level, the chests you encounter in higher level areas will also be more difficult.

 

Coldharbour

In a new video the development team takes a dive into the story of Elder Scrolls Online. Specifically looking at the God of Schemes himself Molag Bal and his attempts to bring his Oblivion plane, Coldharbour to Tamriel. It is up to us the players to stop this from happening.

 

Alliances at War: PvP

Another AMA was done, this time on all things PvP, though a few nonPvP related questions made it in too. Have a look at what I think are the biggest questions asked.

It has been mentioned multiple times that players can invade areas surrounding enemy keeps in order to starve them of resources. What kinds of resources are these, and how will they affect gameplay? – By Eric Duey

The three resources around a keep (lumber mills, farms, and mines) fuel its upgrade process. Lumber mills help make keep doors stronger and allow them to repair themselves automatically. Farms make keep guards tougher and stronger, and mines help reinforce the walls, making them harder to destroy and allowing them to repair themselves over time as well. Taking control of resources around keeps also shuts off various patrols in the vicinity, so it’s always advantageous to take resources before laying siege to the keep itself.

 

Will there be a PvP ranking system? If so, will it grant titles, gear, skills, or additional stats? – By Kevin Kent

Yes, there will be a ranking system. You can earn Alliance Ranks, which grant titles and let you purchase weapons and armor. There’s also a PvP skill line that you can get new abilities from—we’ll have more details about that later.

 

Will I be able to level from 10 to 50 in Cyrodiil at a comparable pace to someone who levels doing PvE? – By Micah Hood

Leveling speed in PvP is not as consistent as leveling through PvE due to the nature of enemy player population. However, there are lots of activities in Cyrodiil that can supplement PvP combat, like questing and exploring. You can encounter players from the enemy Alliances throughout Cyrodiil, so there’s always potential for conflicts.

Lute

How will stealth/sneak be implemented into PvP and how will players detect a sneaking opponent? – By Cameron Neilson

There are a few different ways you can detect sneaking opponents. For example, a player who’s sneaking is revealed upon taking damage. There are spells that can detect opponents who are trying to sneak around. It’s also important to remember that sneaking uses stamina, and you really don’t want to be out of stamina going into a battle.

 

This has been a huge month and goes a long ways towards helping people plan out their first character. I’ll certainly be thinking about what kind of character I want to make, and what crafting skills she will have. I can’t wait to see what the next few months brings us. We’re coming up on convention season and I’m sure that will mean a ton more announcements. So keep your eyes open as we venture ever closer to the day when we can all venture to Tamriel.

Tyrian Times: Hate the Player, or the Game?

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG Tyrian Reporter

 

No one can argue that making a legendary weapon in Guild Wars 2 doesn’t take a bit of time. Ok, more than just a bit. It can take months. But thanks to some websites like gw2nodes, the various dragon timers, the GW2 Karma calculator and a ton of other tools, this time can be cut down slightly. But some people oppose their existence all together. I recently ran into someone during a resourcing run in Orr who wished no one would use them because in their opinion it kills the economy and takes away from the overall enjoyment of the game. And though I tried to offer my thoughts on the matter I was just shrugged off as another defender of cheapening the game experience.

 Guild Wars 2 Legendary Weapons

So why do I use them? I’ve been bit by the legendary bug. I’m currently working on getting The Juggernaut with the intention of getting at least 5 more over 12 characters. Basically I’m going to be at this the rest of my Guild Wars 2 life. Not that I’m complaining. But these things are time consuming.

 

Now, if I were to play the way the person from Orr suggested, I should only gather what I naturally come across in my normal day to day playing. Right now that would mean zero progress on my legendary. I’m not playing my 80 except for the living story, WvW, and doing my daily. But even my daily sees me jumping around the world to complete it. If I shouldn’t do that for gathering rare materials then should I do it to complete my daily? Ok, so now I can only gather and do my daily on my lower characters while I play normally. But I never play normally, I’m a roleplayer. If I’m playing then I’m walking through the world chatting with a number of people. So that automatically punishes me because I’m not going to see as much of the world so I’m not going to get as many resources.

 Guild Wars 2 Mesmer

Instead I like to dedicate an hour of my morning every day to completing the daily, work on the monthly if I need to before going to gw2node and making a quick run through the high level areas for the materials I need. The only way I have any impact on the game’s economy by doing so is that I’m not buying the materials, instead I get them myself. You never hear anyone say you shouldn’t plant a garden because it will harm your local grocery store. Anyway, here’s the way I see it. I get time to roleplay, play as I like to, do WvW, and still work on a legendary.

 Guild Wars 2 WvW

Oh sure, I could just save up the gold and buy one. But then I would end up farming. Which in my opinion is far worse for the game than using maps and other tools outside the game. At least this way I’m out in the world helping people who look like they’re in trouble. I help form a community by standing around waiting for Maw to start by chatting with people, sometimes about nothing at all.

 Guild Wars 2 Sylvari

In the end this is really all about the idea of there being a “right” way to play a game and a “wrong” way. Single player games run into this problem, not so much in MMOs. Especially an MMO like Guild Wars 2 which offers so many different ways to play. I personally hate PvP in nearly every game, including the SPvP in GW2. But I adore WvW. There is just something amazingly satisfying about joining a zerg. At the same time I can be a roleplayer who is after the best gear in the game and willing to grind out the dungeons to do so. The wonderful thing is that Guild Wars 2 let’s all those types of players co-exist, no matter what it is they’re into. No other MMO I play offers this. So maybe, just maybe there is a problem with the mentality of the player, not a problem with the game.

Warframe Review: Space Ninja Wizard

By Jason Harper (Hhean), OnRPG Journalist

 Warframe Review @OnRPG

Warframe, the game that could just as easily be called “NINJAS… IN…. SPAAAAAACE!” is a Third person shooter that focuses on co-op play. The moment to moment play is very similar to Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer, with a greater emphasis on mobility rather than cover, while the random maps, levelling and looting are more akin to Diablo. Its coop title isn’t simply ‘single player that can be played with others’ as it really is only worth playing online. Bring friends.

 

You take on the role of a Tenno, a group of space ninjas who wear technologically advanced super suits that give them wizard powers. Each suit gives the user three mundane abilities and a fourth super ability that will, more often than not, kill everything around them. While most of your time is spent blasting everything in sight with a small arsenal of sci-fi boomsticks, these space ninjas make liberal use of a variety of close combat weapons to smash, cut and punch their victims. The combat is at its best when all three of these systems are being juggled in a single combat, shooting bullets into electrified foes before quickly dispatching a charging enemy as it hurls itself around a corner.

 Warframe Martial Arts Combat

The game’s enemies play on the normal tropes found in other shooters. The game currently has three major enemy factions: The Grineer (Space marines), Corpus (Guns with legs) and Infested (Zombies). The most interesting of these are the Grineer, an army of cloned soldiers who bear more than a passing resemblance to Starcraft’s Terran marines. Having a chance to stab and shoot the marines rather than playing as the usual space grunt is an interesting change of pace. They’re also the most fun to fight due to their diverse set of units and weapons in the later levels. The other two are good fun for a change of pace, but the Infested’s AI is dumb as bricks, allowing you to kill them through methods that feel like cheating. One common trick, for example, is to simply stand on some crates while you gun them down, as they have no way to climb objects. The Corpus aren’t difficult or very interesting, and mostly get by on a load of cheap gimmicks like AoE knockdowns and traps.

 

While fighting these various foes, you can show off your sweet, sweet acrobatic moves. In keeping with your character being a flippin’ space ninja wizard, they can run along walls, do backflips, slide along the floor while shooting or slicing or do a Bruce Lee impression while they slam into enemies with a flying kick. While a number of the newer maps encourage the use of these tricks, they’re too impractical to use in a normal gunfight. It’s a real shame too, because it’s this sort of air-fu silliness that would kick the game into high gear. It needs to be injected with some Vanquish style jet-powered floor slides for maximum badassery.

 

This is a real problem with the game overall. While the game’s concept is completely insane, it isn’t pushed hard enough. The bosses are a good example of this. When you think of the sort of bosses that need to be tough enough to take on four space ninja wizards by themselves, what doesn’t come to mind is a normal guy with a shotgun with a recolour. The game needs more ludicrous death tanks packed with lasers, grotesque cthulhu abominations and stompy mechas with chainsaw lightsabers. The only notable boss is called The Jackal, a giant four legged robot that slams the ground while flying robots try to bomb you into submission. It’s a good start, but a single standout performance in a pack of otherwise unremarkable encounters.

 Warframe Epic Battles

The game has an unusual levelling system where the player’s account, their individual warframes and each piece of equipment can be levelled up. While an account’s level only allows a player to make use of a few additional pieces of equipment, levelling up weapons and frames allows them to be upgraded through the use of mods. These drop from the game’s enemies in the same way as a new bit of armour would in more traditional RPGs. This system means that rather than trying to find that exact Two Handed Sword of Murder +2, you simply go make or buy yourself a Two Handed Sword and then try to find a Mod of Murdering. So while you might not get a bit of gear tweaked exactly the way you want it right out the game, you at least get to make use of the weapons rather than having to constantly be on the lookout for that one bit of loot you need.

 

The game’s crafting system follows through with this same ideology, allowing you to make what you want through crafting components that are always found in particular levels. The problem is that often getting these items can be a bit of a grind, as you slowly accrue the various parts needed to assemble your own personal arsenal of death. I considered the grind to be less awful than in many similar titles since I at least knew that there was a clear goal in mind, and I would get exactly what I wanted rather than investing a good chunk of time to receive something that could be potentially useless.

 Warframe Grind

The game is, by its very nature, quite repetitive though, so if you don’t find its gameplay inherently rewarding, or can’t stand the length of its grind (which can be exceptionally long when trying to get certain Warframes) then it can be hard to maintain interest. The warframe grind can be especially painful, forcing you to repeatedly fight the exact same boss (which is likely an uninteresting palette swap of a normal enemy) over and over again to get the pieces that in turn must be crafted in order to fill out the requirements to get the frame built.

 

Something that reinforces both the strengths and weaknesses of the game’s repetitive nature is that each mission’s maps are randomly generated. This means you can replay the same thing over and over while still being presented with new challenges to overcome. It also means that when not playing the exact same level over and over you might sometimes feel like you are, even when you aren’t. This isn’t helped by the lack of tileset diversity in the game at the moment. There are only three, and one of which is used more than the other two put together. It is also the weakest of the tilesets, offering the least variety in its set pieces. The best of these levels, a snow themed tileset, shows real promise for the game’s future though, as it creates a number of difficult situations for the player, with a good mix of tight corridors and open clearings while also providing some differences in verticality.

 Warframe Snow Regions

The number of different mission types pump variety into a format that could become stale quickly without them. When you drop into a mission you could, for example, find yourself collecting a certain number of macguffins, blowing up a ship’s engine or holding a point against waves of enemies. The tasks you perform at a given location are always the same, but how you go about it can change dramatically based on your equipment, allies and the random map layout. You can even try to stealth your way through a level rather than head into an open gunfight, but it’s currently too flawed to bother with. Outside of the standard levels, there’s the Alert Missions, which are special tasks that last for limited periods of time that give special rewards. Special weekend events also add to the mix rewarding you with unique equipment exclusive to that event. The alerts and special events are a great way of adding some spice to the game’s progression, and also encourage you to keep logging in to check what’s available at a given time.

 

The game is visually impressive, especially considering how little stress it puts on even low to mid-range rigs. It’s also tiny for what it is, a fraction of what similar games in the genre require. Unfortunately, the graphical fidelity is rarely leveraged to good effect, as few environments provide visually impressive set pieces.

 Warframe Visuals

Audio is good, but not great. The noises the game’s various weapons make are satisfying, but its soundtrack leaves much to be desired. The game only has one voice, a woman who delivers various bits of exposition or gameplay tips. While her delivery is passable, you will be stuck hearing some lines repeatedly over the course of a single mission, which can turn even the best performance into an irritation.

 

The free to play model is one of the weaker parts of the game. Everything is very expensive, with new warframes costing somewhere in the region of $15. However, since everything in the game can be unlocked for free, and that unlocking all the equipment in the game is its only long term goal currently, paying for things with real money almost feels like undermining yourself. The only reason I can see for paying is if your friends all have varying amounts of time to spend on a video game, so those with less time could spend money to keep pace with those who have all the phat lootz.

 Warframe Potatoes

Unless you’re paying for power, that is. Orokin Catalysts (referred to by the community as ‘potatoes’), are an item you slot into your armour or weapons that doubles the worth of each level that item gains. If the game ever added in some form of pvp, this would be a nightmare, but it isn’t terrible as it stands purely due to the cooperative nature of the game. While these can be earned in alert missions, they’re incredibly rare compared to their low monetary cost.  A free user won’t feel like they’re lacking in power until the late game, where they will often feel under equipped against some of the game’s tougher foes if they haven’t scrounged up a few catalysts. If you do take a moral stance against any form of buying power, this could be a deal breaker.

 

The greatest strength of the game though is that it’s being constantly being updated. There’s a reason I have had to constantly use the word ‘currently’ throughout this article. While the weekly updates are rarely significant, adding a couple of new weapons or aesthetic options, the major updates (also known as the numbered updates) always bring dramatic change. These have been so significant that our previous coverage of the game is now almost entirely incorrect due to its ever shifting nature. I fully expect this article to be completely wrong about everything in the game the moment Update 8 deploys, bringing with it new maps and clan functionality.

  Warframe Teamwork

If you played Warframe in the past and were put off by anything except its grindy nature, then it’s certainly worth giving a new look. If you’ve never picked the game up, it’s a great way to spend some time with friends, especially considering there aren’t many co-op focused games that are free to play.

 

It’s also a game where you get to play as a ninja space wizard. If that idea alone doesn’t set your mind alight, then you may need to see a doctor. You may be at risk of not having a soul.

 Warframe Conclusion

Graphics 4/5: It’s a fantastic looking game, especially for a free to play title

Controls 4/5: Gunplay is impactful, melee weapons feel meaty. Acrobatics are fun but too situational.

Features 2/5: Has some out of game functions to keep players aware of in game alerts

Customization 3/5: Aesthetic customization is nearly nonexistent, but overall the game has great build variety.

Community 4/5: Built from the ground up as a co-op experience, with upcoming extras for clans.

MechWarrior Online Launches Canyon Network w/ Massive Update

 Mech Warrior Online Canyon Network Update

A new world of hurt was introduced today in MechWarrior Online as a massive new map, the Canyon Network, goes live along with several new Mechs, Paints and Patterns and other items to choose from in the MechLab.

Pilots can now bring the pain sniper-style as the Canyon Network map introduces dozens of strategic places to sabotage enemies as they try to navigate through vast arrays of slot canyons, small steep valleys and high plateaus. Bordered by a metropolis on one side and a drop ship base on the other, the Canyon Network is essentially a rare green space in an otherwise arid landscape that doubles as a landfill.  The maglev route that bisects the canyon is the most efficient means to transport supplies and personnel across the expanse and is therefore more valuable captured than destroyed.  The Canyon Network is primed for snipers, surprise attacks and quick getaways.

 

Helping Pilots get the most of six maps available, the Mech Lab has revealed a new Mech of the Month, Blackjack, and Champion Mech, Jenner JRC-F©, which offers a super-helpful 10 percent XP boost per match. The Blackjack sports a ballistic hardpoint on each arm and four energy hardpoints — ripe for close quarters combat. The BJ-1 has up to four jump jets and a 15 percent increased torso twist speed, which means you’ll see who’s over that ledge before the enemy even knows what hit them. The Champion Jenner weighs in at 35 tons and can reach a top speed of 138 kph while packing six energy hardpoints that’ll roast your enemies. Available now.

 

Rounding out the variety of items to hit the MechLab with this massive new update is the ultra-sweet Cobra Camo Patterns (which happen to look amazing in the new Canyon Network) as well as something to replace those fuzzy dice: hanging/swinging faction logo medallions for the cockpit!

Check out the full list of specs for the Blackjack Mech and Champion Jenner Mech.

 

Also coming on May 24th: Medium vs. The World challenge! Pilots should opt-in for a chance to win hard currency bundles of MC and plenty of prizes, details up with today’s patch at: www.mwomercs.com.

Artillery Revamped For World of Tanks Update 8.6

World of Tanks

 

 

Wargaming today announced details for Update 8.6 for World of Tanks. The new update will bring further changes and balance to the in-game economy, as well add new SPGs to push that armor line to tier X.

 

“Update 8.6 is a major step in game balance enhancement and is really going to make SPGs players happy,” said Mike Zhivets, producer on World of Tanks. “Artillery gameplay is going to feel a lot more balanced with a normal ten tier structure, making advancing through that class of armor more comfortable for players.”

 

 

World of Tanks

 

Current tier 8 SPGs will be promoted to tier X, while the newly introduced SPGs in Update 8.6 will take their place in the middle tiers. The American tech tree will be bolstered with M44 and M53/55 artillery units, while the Soviet line will be filled out with SU-122A and SU-14-1. The German tech line will be strengthened with three machines: 10.5 GW Mk.IV(e), Pz.Sfl.IVb, and G.W.Tiger (P). Lastly, the French will receive AMX Obusier automoteur de 105 and Bat.Chatillon155 (55) artilleries.

 

Update 8.6 will also introduce a new premium British medium tank, the A33 Excelsior, and will also introduce a new map based in Korea.