Yearly Archives: 2013

E3 2013 Thursday MMO Recap

By Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), OnRPG/MMOHuts General Manager

Noei Girls E3 2013

By the final day of E3, all schedules have broken down and the show has turned into a free-for-all. Press and businessmen alike are rushing left and right in a mad panic to make all their meetings before the doors close at 5. Security begins to break down and you can pretty much muscle your way into any booth with enough confidence and smooth talking at your back. And it’s honestly a good thing because our promised coverage was only around 60% complete and I was determined to make sure we hit all the major titles we could before the doors closed.

Table of Contents

Nival – Prime World

InnoGames – The Mobile Revolution

Digital Extremes – Warframe

Square-Enix – Final Fantasy XIV

Skara Cosplay E3 2013

Continue to Prime World

 

E3 2013 Wednesday MMO Recap

By Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), OnRPG/MMOHuts General Manager

E3 2013 Wednesday MMO Recap

E3 is chaos. Between the South and West hall being a good 10 minute walk apart, countless hidden meeting rooms and escalators rivaling the confusion of Hogwarts, it’s almost expected to see people showing up late or not at all for meetings. So went Wednesday for us as I was delayed posting our Monday and Tuesday recap and had to send James and Garrett to meet up with Square for our look at Final Fantasy XIV. And they didn’t even get in! No worries we still got the coverage but that’s a little later in the tale of the hectic final two days of E3!

Table of Contents

Pearl Abyss – Black Desert

Sony Online Entertainment – Dragon’s Prophet

8 Bit Studio – Skara: The Blade Remains

Kill3rCombo – Elsword

Trion Worlds – ArcheAge

 

Continue to Black Desert

Conquer Online Prepares To Enter The Age of Jiang Hu!

Conquer Online

As you may have seen from Chinese martial arts movies, Jiang Hu is all about the world of fighters. The rules of Jiang Hu are simple… there are no rules! Once you have decided to enter the life of Jiang Hu, you are facing two destinies: become a respected Kung-Fu master and carry your martial arts forward, or become a stepping stone for other martial arts hopefuls!

With CO’s next expansion coming in June, Conquer Online is going to enter the Jiang Hu Age and will bring a new taste of battle! A new open world PvP gameplay will be added, encouraging players to challenge opponents of similar strength. Once you defeat an opponent, you will not only upgrade your status in Jiang Hu, but you can also gather spiritual energy from them and use it to enhance your own inner strength training!

 

Conquer Online

According to the legends, inner strength was first obtained by Chi You, a powerful but cruel clan leader in ancient China, in his war to conquer nine tribes. He stole the ancient teachings of these tribes, becoming the most powerful warrior the land had seen, and was worshiped as the God of War. There were 9 forms of power that Chi You gathered: Principle, Braveness, Filial Piety, Kindheartedness, Loyalty, Faith, Wisdom, and Endurance, each representing a rule of power in life. When one truly understands one of these beliefs, they will gain inner strength from that force.

The most exciting part of CO’s Age of Jiang Hu is that players will be able to create their own Kung Fu. This means, instead of learning the preset skills, you will be able to give birth to your own skills, making them exclusive in CO, and even in the mmo world!

CO’s Age of Jiang Hu will arrive in late June and more information about this expansion will be revealed on the CO Homepage!

Netmarble Offers Dice Venture Players the Chance to Win Big

Dice Venture
Netmarble.com, a leading worldwide online game portal, is inviting players to experience the fun of its online casual board game, Dice Venture, and win big prizes in the process. Until Tuesday, July 9, players will have a chance to win prizes that include a Dell laptop, an iPad, a Galaxy S4 and even $1,000 cash. Interested dice rollers can visit www.DiceVenture.com to play the game.

In Dice Venture, players roll dice to move around the game board to acquire property, constructing houses and other structures on the properties. The landmark is the ultimate building type, and prevents other players from being able to purchase the property from the owner. For each landmark built during the event period, players will receive a special coin, the Landmark Token, which can be redeemed to play a special mini-game. Lucky winners who land on prizes will receive them instantly in game.  Additionally, players now can sync their Netmarble account to Facebook and share in-game achievements with friends.

 

Dice Venture

Dice Venture is an online casual board game where players can join friends and family in a classic game with new twists. Players take turns buying and selling properties while traveling around the world for a chance to become billionaire tycoons. Games can be played in either four-player head-to-head mode or in two-on-two team matches, and take about 25 minutes to finish.

Soldier Front 2 – First Look Preview

By Michael Sagoe (mikedot), OnRPG Journalist

 

Another year, another military FPS title hits the F2P market this week. But this is not just any military FPS… it’s a sequel to Dragonfly’s 2007 title: Solider Front! Now being backed by the ever popular Unreal 3 Engine, Solider Front 2 is looking to take everything you know about military shooters of the past and turn them on their sides.

Of course, with so many shooters already on the market, most of which play virtually the same from each, my initial reaction was “Do we REALLY need ANOTHER one?!”

After a two-day long preview event with some of the game masters, my final reaction was complete and total: “Sure, why not.”

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The event first started off as I met up with the GMs in an open lobby room. Although, the match was already in progress, so took a bit of time to get suited up. I wanted to get in as soon as possible, so I just grabbed the good ol’ M4A1 that was already sitting in my inventory and took off.  My first match was a “Seizure” mission, where two teams try to either kill all members of the enemy team or try to capture a target or defend the target within a time limit.  Of course, I didn’t realize what mode it was until it was all over, so I just ran around trying to kill enemies on sight while my teammates were busy trying to capture the objective.

I got a feel for the controls very quickly, since it was standard FPS shooter fare, and I was nailing headshots with ease. Feeling like an old pro already, things started to turn sour for me when the enemies started growing wise to my hit & run tactics, so I ended up getting taken out quickly during the last few rounds. Fortunately for me, my teammates were able to pick up my slack and won the match easily. One neat thing that I witnessed at the end of the match was a cut-scene showing off my team’s victory.

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After the match, I was formerly introduced to the GM team before properly getting set up with some sweet preview equipment. I was given a VIP package that included special recolored weapons, SP boosters and unique player models such as Crimson Mamba.

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Nothing says “AMERICA!” more than babes and bullets.

However, I decided to go with the GROM solider skin for now, and saddled up with the SIG551 IronGun, a GLOCK 17 and one other special weapon: A composite bow!

 

The next match was a bombing mission at an abandon train yard, which reminded me of a particular map from Valve’s Counter-Strike. Regardless, bombing missions are pretty standard in military FPS games and they played out as one would expect: Lots of fire fights ensuing between two choke points near the two bomb sites, and rounds ending quickly with players dropping like flies. However, this was the perfect time for me to try out my composite bow. It threw me off at first, but using the bow requires you to hold the right mouse button down to pull back, and THEN press the left mouse button to release. It’s really hard to nail a target while fighting against enemies with automatic weapons, but when you do get a kill with it, it’s incredibly satisfying.

Moving on, after a few free-for-all and team deathmatches, the GMs insisted that we should try out their most valued game mode: HERO MODE!

Hero mode is unique MOBA style game mode where two teams attempt to destroy a target object in the enemy’s base with the assistance of creepy crawly aliens called Xanthids, which will serve as minions/creeps that attack enemy players, enemy turrets and enemy Xanthids. In true MOBA fashion, players will have to kill Xanthids and enemies to earn gold, which they can use to level up, boost stats, and buy new weapons or special items like Air-Strikes.

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Sounded like a neat idea, for sure, so we started the match up and got right to it. As expected, it played just like a MOBA game should, but only in a first person view. There were three different lanes to take and plenty of crossing paths between the lanes which included a cave with neutral Xanthids enemies to fight. There was also a lot of high grass to hide away in, making it easy to get the drop on enemy players. It took me awhile to get used to enemies having an excessive amount of HP, however. And while your weapons have unlimited ammo, they all felt fairly weak. After a couple of attack upgrades, however, my damage was a lot more noticeable.

While there wasn’t a lot of teamwork going on, I managed to take out the enemy turret in the middle lane, and tried to sneak up on enemy base. Sadly, there was another turret waiting for me that took me out fairly quickly. I had to use a combination of Xanthids and Air-Strikes to take the turret out, but the enemy team wasn’t having that. They sent a giant blue Xanthid after me, and I ended up taking a dirt nap.

The match ended with no destroyed base targets, but the enemy team won by getting just a teeny bit of damaged on my team’s base.

One game mode that was out of the ordinary was a party mode called “Shatter”. In this mode, two teams will try to destroy the glass under the enemy’s feet, causing them to drop to their death. It’s just as ridiculous as it sound.

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So both teams saddled up and started the match only using basic pistols. Me, being the fool that I was, I charged in, not knowing what to expect. Suddenly I found myself 6 feet under with the glass under my feet constantly being shot, and I was the first one to get taken out. Everyone else on my team, however were playing it cool by trying breaking all the glass on the opposite side of the room to limit the enemies’ movement, and they won the match with ease.

Now that I knew a little better, I decided to play it cool myself and instead tried to shoot glass spots from a corner of the map. Sadly, it wasn’t the best plan as well, with enemies being able to get a clear headshot on me, because apparently you can still defeat your opponent the old fashion way by making them eat lead.

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One of my teammates, on the other hand, got the glass shot under him and ended up falling down towards the spikes below, but lucky for him, a bounce pad came up under him, bouncing him back up and down for a good two minutes or so. Too bad my teammate couldn’t figure out how to get back up on the glass field, though. In the end, the enemy team finally picked him off.

Overall, the game ended with my team thrashing the enemy team by a pretty large amount of round wins. I would definitely have to say that Shatter was my favorite game mode. If Mario Party ever included a FPS mini game, it would probably be something like this.

Overall, my experience with Solider Front 2 was a good one. While it may not bring too many fresh ideas to the table, some of its unique game types like Party and Hero mode make it worthwhile. And at the very least: While it may look like many other military shooters out there, it doesn’t take itself too seriously.

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AlphaBeta Soup 6/13

Hello and welcome to this week’s AlphaBeta Soup! I know just like me many of you have been busy getting the latest news from E3 but the trouble with conventions like this is that its all about what is coming in the somewhat distant future. So what do you do when the weekend comes and E3 is over? We’ll we’ve got you covered. Rift is going to get a special mention this week as they just launched their F2P service. Right now is an awesome time to get into Rift as there are so many exciting new things going on. But, if you’re looking for something a little bit newer check out Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn is having a closed beta session, and Company of Heroes 2 will be having the final weekend of open beta. Just missing out this weekend is the launch of Age of Wulin’s closed beta. Some beta news we did get from E3 was that World of Warplanes would enter Open beta July 2nd. And the new Lego based MMO, Legends of Chima Online would be heading into open beta next month. As ever, you can read all about that and the many other Alpha and Beta events ongoing below.

We’ve highlighted the newest in orange to make them easier to see.

 

OnRPG Giveaways
These are all the beta giveaways currently running on OnRPG. There’s no guarantee that we won’t run out so grab them quick.

City of Steam Second Server Launch Pack Giveaway
Everlight Open Beta Privilege Pack Giveaway
Fishing Hero Closed Beta Key Giveaway
Seven Seas Saga Open Beta Starter Pack

Dates Announced:
Below are the MMOs who have announced upcoming beta events that haven’t started yet or are currently in progress for a limited time.

Company of Heroes 2 Open Beta June 4-18
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Closed Beta June 14 Includes PS3
Age of Wulin EU Closed Beta June 17
Lego Legends of Chima Online Open Beta July 2013
World of Warplanes Open Beta July 2
Firefall Open Beta July 9

 

Alpha:
These games are currently in Alpha. Signups are available via the link.

Gloria Victis Pre-Alpha
Lunaria Story
Onigiri Alpha (Japanese) Between Phases
The Repopulation
Xulu

 

Closed Beta:
MMOs which are in closed beta require application and often require approval before access can be gained.

Age of Wulin(EU, Asia) EU in Early 2013
Arcane Saga (Formerly known as Prius Online)
Ascension: Arenas of War Current Status Unknown
Black Prophecy Tactics: Nexus Conflict Current Status Unknown, Website No Longer Exsists
Born To Fire
Bounty Hounds Online Beta Testing Complete. No Launch Date Announced
ChronoBlade
Dice Venture
Dragon’s Prophet
Eldevin
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
Firefall
Infinite Crisis
JollyGrim
Kartuga
Loadout
MechWarrior Tactics
March of War
Patterns
Prime World
Strategoria
Transformers Universe Now accepting applications.
Warface
World of Warplanes

 

Open Beta:
Games in open beta require an application but often it is little more than signing up for an account.

Anno Online
City of Steam
DK Online Servers Closed Temporarily
Dominatron
Dragona Online Russian
Dragon Pals
Dragon’s Prophet
and Titans
Ecol Tactics
End of Nations Open Beta delayed until further notice, refunds have been issued.
Everlight
FoxLi Rush
Gunswords(English and Russian)
HeroDex
Heroes & Generals
Legend of Edda Vengeance
Neptune’s Pride 2
Neverwinter
Origins of Malu
Oversoul
Path of Exile
Raceroom Racing
Real World Racing
Samurai Taisen
Scarlet Blade
SmashMuck Champions
Tales of Laputa
Tata Blitz
The Aurora World
The Lost Titans
UFO Online
Universal Monsters Online
Warface South Korea
War Thunder
WorldAlpha
Yitien

E3 2013 Monday and Tuesday MMO Recap

By Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), OnRPG/MMOHuts General Manager

 E3 2013 Crave Island Girls

It’s the most wonderful time of the year! If you’re a real gamer that has been hankering for their next major fix, that statement couldn’t be truer. And since this year’s E3 has become a console war, the raw emotion and atmosphere in the LA convention center is downright electrifying. But while most gaming sites are busy wrapping their minds around the unbelievable next-gen console titles being revealed, we’re here to offer up a focused dose of recapping what to expect in the online MMO space just for you!

Table of Contents

Dream Squared – New Pal and Qin’s Moon

CJ Global – Arcane Saga, Dice Venture, ChaChaCha, and Pocket Pong Pong Pong

Sneaky Games – Arena of Heroes

Wargaming – World of Warships

Snail Games – Black Gold Online

Turbine – Infinite Crisis

Cryptozoic – Hex: Shards of Fate

Bethesda – Elder Scrolls Online

EA – Command & Conquer

 

 

Continue to Dream Squared