Monthly Archives: October 2013

Grand Theft Auto Online Review

By Jaime Skelton (MissyS)

 

When Grand Theft Auto III rocked the gaming world in 2001, gamers began to wonder what the open world gameplay of GTA would be like with friends. With the release of Grand Theft Auto V in September 2013, Rockstar laid the groundwork for just that: Grand Theft Auto Online. Does the game live up to people’s aspirations of what Grand Theft Auto would be like online? Or did we delude ourselves into thinking the formula would translate well to an MMO?

 

GTA Online Scenics

A scenic view, before we realized our vehicle was left downtown.

 

I Didn’t Choose the Thug Life …

Character creation in GTA Online takes a wide swing away from your standard MMO or RPG: you actually choose your heritage based on what your character’s parents and grandparents look like. There are 14 different preset options for grandparents, which in turn generates how your parents look, and then your character. You can tweak that even more with sliders that allow you to more closely resemble mom or dad, too.

The other unique facet of character creation is the Lifestyle selection. Here, you select how long your character spends sleeping, socializing with friends and family, playing sports and working out, doing either legal or illegal work (or both!), sitting around on the couch, and partying. These selections determine your initial statistics of Stamina, Shooting, Strength, Stealth, Flying, Driving, and Lung Capacity. Outside of needing a minimum of four hours in the sleep category, how you add up the rest of the points is up to you – we opted for a balance of them all, with less emphasis on doing illegal work. As a result, our stealth and shooting stats were slightly low, but we had increased driving and flying skills.

 

GTA Online Los Santos

And now, the weather. . .

 

Welcome to Los Santos

Once you’ve created your character, you’re given a nice cut-scene that not only gives you some details on how online mode works, but is also different if you’re male or female. In fact, it’s worth seeing the female opening if only to watch Lamar (one of the supporting characters in the single player game) get completely shut down, despite his best attempts to woo your character. At this point, the game launches into tutorial mode. You’re put into a race against other new characters plus Lamar. The car you select here becomes your first personal vehicle. The goal of the race is to finish, but in true Grand Theft Auto fashion, you can be as devious as you want. Ram cars into oncoming traffic. Shoot out their tires with your newly acquired pistol. Race clean if you want; we managed to come in second place with this method.

Lamar then sends you to hold up a convenience store with little more reason than, “Hey, you need money, right?” This not only teaches you how to hold up stores, but the basics of avoiding the police as well, if you manage to accrue a wanted level. Simply put, avoid the police conveniently marked on your radar until your wanted level fades. An added bonus to evading the cops is extra experience gain, so learn how, where, and when to hide out. The final tutorial mission sends you to retrieve a package from some drug dealers. We’re not saying the package is drugs, but it’s drugs: remember, this is the Grand Theft Auto universe. Once you’ve taken out the dealers and secured the package, you take it to the drop, and it’s mission complete.

 

GTA Online Ammunation

“I didn’t sell you this, right?”

 

A Whole New World

One last mission has you prove your combat skills in a team deathmatch style mission against others. Most players will only have a pistol at this point in the game. There is a convenient Ammu-nation (the game’s weapons and munitions store) right by the mission, though, and it pays to come equipped. We snagged a sawed-off shotgun, and headed in. Since the game offers an auto-aim feature, combat is less about skill, and more about taking proper cover and timing your attacks well. The urban battlefield also has a variety of health, armor, and weapon pickups on it, to help even the playing field, or completely topple it over into a biased advantage.

Once you’ve shown your prowess (or lack thereof) in combat, the world is yours to explore. There are dozens of missions right from the start you can take: from races, to solo and team-based deathmatch arenas, to cooperative missions with various objectives, the world is yours to corrupt. You are also free to start wandering around in the world, picking fights with other players, or helping them with other open world objectives like lifting an armored car, or stealing a rare car to sell.

 

GTA Online From Above

From up here, you can’t hear the sirens. Well, unless you brought them with you.

 

The Other Color Green

Each time you complete a mission in Grand Theft Auto Online, you earn money, and RP. RP is akin to experience points in other MMOs, and as you accumulate more, you gain in rank. Ranking up gives you access to more clothes for further customization, more weapons and equipment to help make your character more powerful, and more missions unlock to help you earn more money. Certain features of the game, such as flying and property purchasing can only be unlocked when you reach a certain rank.

Money is obviously also very important. You need it to customize vehicles, purchase upgrades and weapons, and to buy properties. Property gives you a safe place to store one or more of your vehicles, in addition to being a safe zone. See, unless you toggle an option in the menu to turn yourself passive (which, by the way, also costs you money), players can kill you indiscriminately. Passive mode makes you immune to gunfire. Unfortunately, knowing this, people will instead decide to just run you over in their car. You are not immune to being a hood ornament.

 

GTA Online Vinewood

The obligatory ‘selfie.’

 

The Grindhouse

As mentioned, doing jobs increases your rank, and that higher ranks mean more jobs are available. The main problem in GTA Online is that certain jobs are more profitable than others, and many players therefore only stick to those jobs. While this makes gaining rank relatively easy, it’s quickly monotonous when you realize that with all the jobs out there, very few people are actually participating. You see, the world you’re in consists of a total of 16 players, but each of the missions can pull from the other servers. Once you’ve completed a mission, you’re dumped off on a random server which might be the one you were on, might be one with the other people you were on the mission with, or a different one altogether.

Additionally, the game has a karma system to try and separate good players from the jerks. Finish a mission without leaving early, or without specifically trying to sabotage and you earn marks towards being a “good sport.” Conversely, destroying a person’s personal vehicle, leaving a mission early, and other assorted ill-spirited actions will push you towards being a “bad sport.” Drop low enough, and you will only be on servers with other “bad sports.” This does lead to a problem where people will intentionally grief others trying to grind out the missions for the sole purpose of being a jerk.

 

GTA Online My Bike

Not much can come between a girl and her bike. However, plenty of things can run over them both.

 

Final Verdict: Fair

Grand Theft Auto Online has a lot of potential. Unfortunately, it’s just that: potential. One particularly nice feature of the game is how seamless it is to transfer from an online session into a single player game, but saying that’s a positive for an MMO is up for debate. So far, the players generally fall into one of two categories: either they just want all out bedlam in the open world, or are more concerned with running the same mission repeatedly because it maximizes money and RP gain. Thus, for most players, it’s putting up with the bad sports, or dealing with the tedium of grinding to get better. Not to mention the fact that there is nothing that says players have to cooperate in cooperative missions – and sometimes, they just don’t.

Rockstar, for their part, has at least been trying to tackle player issues. They’ve dealt with connectivity and stability issues, rampant money cheats, and other assorted negativity surrounding the game. This hasn’t stopped people from finding ways around each and every change the company has implemented, however. If you have a group of friends that play, or a great crew to help you out, it may be worthwhile to check out Grand Theft Auto Online, but overall, the game’s tediousness will likely having you hopping back offline for the sanctity of Grand Theft Auto V’s single player experience.

Aura Kingdom NPC Naming Event – Win 1,000 AP!

Aura Kingdom NPC Naming Event

OnRPG and MMOHuts have partnered with Aeria Games for a special Aura Kingdom NPC naming event to get the community a chance to hold lasting impact in the world! Now is your chance to leave a personal mark on the game forever by deciding the names of these characters!

Aura Kingdom is a free-to-play, anime-style fantasy MMORPG. Featuring eight classes that each have expansive skill trees, with the ability to multi-class, the game returns to the roots of fun fantasy RPGs. At your side will be a faithful companion, a non-traditional pet that can join you in special attack combos, bond with you, and even share memories of past events.

Three Grand Prize Winners of this event will receive 1,000 AP and an Aura Kingdom poster signed by the Producer.

To Enter:

  • Visit our official forum thread where you will find three NPCs that will be in-game along with their backstory.
  • Post your best name for any NPCs (be sure to let us know which you are naming!). Deadline for posting names is Friday, October 25th at noon PDT.
  • On Friday we’ll pick out the best names and post them in a poll along with a special interview with the Aeria team!
  • Vote for your favorite names over the weekend. On Monday the top ranked names will be forwarded to Aeria to choose the final grand prize winners. Keep an eye on your forum inbox and email for a message from DizzyPW to get your contact info.
  • One entry per participant. Poster shipping is limited to the US and Canada. Inappropriate entries will not be considered.

Dogs of War Online

Dogs of War Online is an online turn-based strategy game, inspired by the Confrontation miniatures game. Build a group of mercenaries from the units of your choice, send them on missions, or fight against other players. Pool resource points together to further enhance your units – but be careful, because war can be serious, and even fatal.

Features:

Three Playable Factions: Create a company of mercenaries under the Light, Darkness, or Destiny banner.

Customizable Units: Over 24 customizable units are available to be collected, and regular updates will introduce more. Each unit also has its own scalable characteristics and skills.

Make Your Fortune: Send your warriors out on missions and make your way in the world through a unique system of quests; or fight enemies in various modes including Team Deathmatch and Kill the Commander.

Infinite Crisis Beta Key Giveaway

Been waiting for your chance to tackle Turbine’s stab at the MOBA genre? Love some DC Comic heroes? Now is your chance as we’ve partnered with them to give out a huge helping of beta keys for Infinite Crisis!

Infinite Crisis is a MOBA based off of the world of DC Comics, though drawing in all the alternate universes as well. This means you can play as a variety of different versions of Batman, Wonder Woman, The Joker, and Green Lantern, to name a few. The action is fast-paced, giving players a unique set of skills for every character in the game. Currently there are two modes on offer focusing heavily on capture and hold mechanics rather than the typical base destruction most MOBAs aim for.

 

To Redeem your Key:

  • Visit the beta sign-up page here.
  • Fill out the form including your CB key.
  • Submit your application and follow the instructions to gain access to the client and beta!

Dungeon Blitz Review – One Dungeon at a Time

Written by Ojogo

 

Dungeon Blitz is a free to play browser-based flash MMO. It was released last year by Blue Mammoth Games and is of the side-scroller genre. You take control of either a Paladin, Rogue or Mage and set-out to reclaim the land of Ellyria as decreed by your King. The game is pretty solid but also suffers a bit from being on the generic side. All in all though, it is worth taking a stab at. Let’s get down to it!

You are the dungeon crawler

Dungeon Blitz Review 1

Too bad this name was taken. I had to go with Miguelez.

For a free to play game, Dungeon Blitz offers their players a lot of options to customize their characters. Beyond the ability to change your looks at the start, the game also gives you eight character slots to work with. Once you’re done creating your character, you get to jump right in on the action.

Dungeon Blitz Review 3

The tutorial is very intuitive and is meshed-out quite well. You fight it out with Goblins and a Kraken on your way to the land of Ellyria. You get to see how battle works right from the get-go. You use the WASD or Arrow keys to move your character and you press the spacebar to jump. Your attacks are controlled by your mouse-clicks and they vary between ranged and melee depending on your proximity to the enemies. Skills are activated by pressing the corresponding numbers assigned to them as seen on the action bar on the right of your HP bubble.

Dungeon Blitz Review 4

Action here is actually fast and easy. Each dungeon can be finished in a group or by yourself and each instance can last from 5 to 10 minutes at most. The graphics are crisp, simple and are easy on the eyes. The sound is standard at best but at least it doesn’t grate the ears.

Friends?

I said at the start that this was an MMO. Dungeon Blitz was developed with the idea that players can just randomly team-up as they bump into each other as they progress into the game.

Dungeon Blitz Review 5

When I played the game, I did get invited into a party but the names of the characters were utterly… random. I also couldn’t trust the words popping-up in my chat box because they seemed to be quite nonsensical. I was plagued by rogues of different colors and with weird names and all throwing their ranged attacks at the air. Their behavior reminded me more of AI bots than actual players. Could they just have made bots to make it seem like the game is populated? I have no evidence but I do put forward this idea.

Since the game is so easy to get into, the quality of people you’d meet is that of a free-to-play game. The sheer randomness of the people you meet however breaks the monotony of dungeon grinding and adds a little “flavor” to your in-game misadventures.

Dungeon Blitz Review Verdict

Verdict: Good

Dungeon Blitz plays like a standard side-scroller RPG. You hack and slash your way through the world and quests. You get XP, loot and gear. You get to craft items and aim your sights at completing each and every quest the game throws at you. But unless all that sounds appealing to you, Dungeon Blitz may fall flat. The gameplay can get repetitive as each mission is only more of the same. There are aspects to the game that make it more fun such as trainers that can provide skills specific to the area your quest is in. Zone bonuses if you will. They cleaned up the system well in the sense that you will only get items specifically for use of your characters class. You are also given your own HQ in the game in the form of a keep that you can maintain.

Dungeon Blitz Review 6

A big boost to this game though is that it is not a “pay to win” kind of game. You will be able to access everything you need to play and progress in the game. You are also given the option to keep upgrading your equipment via the use of Dragonore which you grow in your HQ. The Mammoth Idols which is the virtual currency used in the game nets you accessories more than anything. It enhances your game experience yes but they aren’t necessary in playing or finishing the game.

On one hand, you have a game that’s riddled with tons of game-themed cliché and snappy dialogue that makes your adventures fun; on the other hand you have a grind fest action-adventure MMO that sometimes would make you ask why did you even bothered to play. However, Dungeon Blitz is great for literal blitz games. This isn’t the type of game that most people can get engrossed in for 10 hours per sitting. It is casual and welcoming but lacks a strong hook to keep people playing. Given everything though, Dungeon Blitz isn’t a bad game. I heartily recommend it to casual gamers everywhere who are looking for a simple side-scroller that is reminiscent of the old school Dungeons & Dragons games you may find in the arcades of old.

Casters of Kalderon

Casters of Kalderon is a 3D free-to-play online strategy game, including mini games and other social game features, and designed for a browser-based and mobile-platform experience.

The origin of the Casters lies in the history of the Kalderon, its game world, where they were originally formed in the magical experiments. In these experiments some people were successfully infused with a dragon’s essence and as a consequence became able to control and channel the magical forces of the dragons. As a player, you are one of the Casters, and you must find your power, take care of your dragon, build your realm, and strengthen your army.

Shotgun News 10/21: Archlord 2 and Mighty Quest

A New Customization Trailer for The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot

After what seems like forever the silence is broken! The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot has a new trailer, this time focusing on new customization features being introduced. I won’t bore you with the details, instead watch this handy commercial from Cornelius Richling.

Archlord 2 Launches in Korea

Over the weekend Webzen launched Archlord 2 in Korea. The most popular feature is the RvR which stretches across 40 battlefields. For those of us not in Korea we will have to wait until 2014 when Webzen plans to bring Archord 2 to North America, South America, and Europe.