Yearly Archives: 2013

ArcheBlade – Early Access Review

By Michael Sagoe (Mikedot), OnRPG Journalist

 

With the MOBA genre becoming more and more popular every day, some game developers have attempted to stir the genre up by throwing in a handful of unique ideas. While some of those ideas have worked much better than expected, other titles, such as ArcheBlade, have shown that mixing MOBA with third-person action only sounds like a good idea on paper.

The developer behind the project, Codebrush Games, describes ArcheBlade as an action game that attempts to capture the thrill of skill-based combat found in fighting games like Street Fighter and Tekken, while combining team oriented gameplay found in MOBA titles such as League of Legends. A neat idea, for sure, but the execution falls short.

Customization

First off, Archeblade currently features 12 different champions for players to choose from, including cowgirl gunslinger, a money obsessed monk, a giant berserker and more (On the other hand, the list of characters could also be considered as only ten if you count Ice and Fire Renny, plus Gaspar and Dick the Megaton as the same character.) While only a handful these champions are available to free users, champions are rotated in and out each week, which is very similar League of Legend’s bi-weekly hero rotation. Players can also make their characters stand out with special re-colors and re-skins of existing champions. However, these skins can only be unlocked by opening up your wallets and plopping down some real cash.

Outside of re-colors and re-skins, no other customization options are available.

ArcheBlade Customization

Controls

ArcheBlade uses a control scheme that’s very similar to third-person shooter titles: WASD for movement, Spacebar to jump, left mouse button for primary attacks and right mouse button for secondary attacks. You can also guard attacks with the E key, perform special actions with shift key and use power attacks with alt key in conjunction with certain secondary attacks. The control scheme can feel somewhat un-responsive at times, and this is due to the fact that all the champions have the same exact movement speed and melee attacks having a slight delay after execution, making it difficult to get a solid hit on opponents.  With many characters having to get into point-blank range before attacking, the controls end up feeling flimsy due to the game’s slow pacing.

 

Gameplay and Features

ArcheBlade is regarded as a team-based action game with fighting game elements. When the thought of fighting games comes to mind, usually one would think of modern fighting games such as Super Street Fighter IV, Tekken 6 or BlazBlue. While the gameplay certainly has the basics of fighting game elements, the gameplay (to its core) comes off as simplistic due to a lack of variety with combo attacks and skill attacks. At most, characters in ArcheBlade only have up to 5 different attack variations, so there’s not much room for experimentation here, as the combos are very short and simple. Even though I have nothing against short and simple attacks, as many modern fighting games these days place too much emphasis on combos, ArcheBlade could actually benefit from having just a few of them, along with more combat options to make things more exciting from a spectator standpoint.

ArcheBlade Skills and Balance

Also similar to MOBA games comes active and passive skills: instead of having access to four skills in combat, you only have access to two, and these skills including panic attacks, buffs, de-buffs, healing and more. These skills can help assist or turn the tide of battle, but many of them are far too situational, and others are too powerful for their own good, such as Renny’s Deathless Armor skill which revives players on death, or Renoah’s “Bullet Storm of Wailing” skill that attacks all enemies with an un-blockable 80 HP damage shot, no matter where they are on the playing field.

Character balance is somewhat of an issue here. While the game is not focused on one-on-one confrontations, as some characters can hold their own better solo than others, a lot of attacks in the game require some very precise positioning in order to land hits on enemies. For instance, while using a close range fighter such as Ridika, juggling enemies such as Danmei or Cezanne is very easy due to their large sizes and character models, but juggling smaller enemies such as Renny requires players to position themselves just close enough for their attacks to connect. Along with all the other remarks made regarding balance of active skills, some team compositions simply work better than others.

ArcheBlade Combos

The game currently features four kinds of game modes: 3-on-3 Team Deathmatch, 2-on-2/3-on-3 “Last Man Standing” Team Deathmatch, Free-For-All and Capture-and-Hold mode. Free-For-All mode seems to be the most popular mode available, which is interesting considering how much the game prides itself on team based combat. Regardless, it’s definitely not a mode that should be played seriously. The biggest and most team focused game mode available is capture-and hold mode, where players have to capture and defend five pylons on the map in order to rack up points. Unfortunately, many players do not focus on teamwork and would rather treat this mode like another deathmatch mode.

ArcheBlade Game Modes

Graphics and Presentation

Archeblade makes use of Unreal Engine 3 technology in order to give the game some colorful and solid looking environments, but the character models, on the other hand, have this weird, plastic look to them, making them seem almost like they’re a bunch of living dolls and action figures, and it certainly does not help when each character model has a dull, non-animated and lifeless face that also make them seem doll-like. The original soundtrack has some decent battle tunes that appropriately fit each available map and game mode, but they’re not too memorable.

ArcheBlade Strike a Pose

Community

Since the game is distributed through Valve’s STEAM platform, players will have access to all of its grand features including friend lists, chat-rooms and community pages. But within the game itself, there’s a huge lack of matchmaking features or player balancing. There’s always a chance that experienced players will be pitted against newcomers, as well as no-auto sorting function when the teams become un-balanced, making battles even more unfair. As if balancing wasn’t bad enough, many players will rarely ever play by a gentleman’s agreement to have players sit out until the teams get balanced up again. Trying to find teammates that will actually play like a team is fairly difficult when playing public matches, so you’ll have to make some friends and perhaps grab a VoIP program like Mumble to coordinate strategies, because the game’s in-game chat function will certainly not be good enough.

 

Overall

Since my previous look at ArcheBlade during its closed beta phase, I had high hopes that the game would improve and expand, as the idea of mixing MOBA and fighting game action is an excellent concept. Alas, with flimsy combat, character balance issues and lack of matchmaking features, ArcheBlade fails to achieve its desired goals in its current state. The game is still considered to be in beta form, so things could possibly change in the future, but as it stands, it’s not the MOBA game I was hoping it would be for action gamers.

Customization – 2
Controls -3
Gameplay and Features – 3
Graphics and Presentation – 3
Community – 2

World of Tanks Hits the Mark at 60 Million Registered Users

Wargaming, the leading free-to-play massively multiplayer online developer and publisher, today announced that their flagship free-to-play action MMO, World of Tanks, has tallied more than 60 million registered players around the world.

At this year’s E3, World of Tanks will be prominently featured at Wargaming’s spacious 10,000 square feet booth (601 South Hall) with 10 high-end gaming stations running throughout the entirety of the show, allowing attendees to get more familiar with the game or prove their battlefield supremacy. In celebration of hitting the 60 million registered player milestone, Wargaming has also released a brand-new cinematic trailer for World of Tanks, featuring the trademark action and tactical team gameplay that has made the title a worldwide success.

OnRPG Shotgun News 6/7: Cryptic, World of Tanks, and Ragnarok Online

By Shannon Doyle (Leliah), OnRPG European News Editor

 

World of Tanks Reaches 60 Million Users!

In the run up to E3 Wargaming has announced that World of Tanks has 60 million registered users worldwide. And to celebrate the fact we’re rewarded with a new trailer!

 

Cryptic Opens New Studio in Seattle

Yesterday they were announcing the launch of their latest MMO, today they’re announcing a studio. Cryptic Studios is expanding! The new studio is made up mostly of former Flying Lab Software employees. Their current focus is on Champions Online, though they will also be working on Star Trek Online and Neverwinter. Which frees up time for the California studio to work on their secret project.

 

Ragnarok Online Celebrates 10 Years Festively!

RO

WarpPortal has launched the latest update, 14.2 Eclage as the celebrations for the 10 year anniversary kick into gear! New Maps, dungeons and tons more can be found. As for the festivities, there are minigames that celebrate everyone’s favorite mascot, the Poring!

Panzar: Forged by Chaos

In Panzar, players command their character, chosen from 8 different classes, in fierce and ruthless combat. Each battle pits two teams of players against each other, fighting for victory in a variety of game modes, such as Siege, Domination or King of the Hill.
In stunningly beautiful combat, powered by CryEngine 3, Orcs, Elves, Dwarves and Humans all gather up to fight it out to see which team is left victorious. After every battle, players spend their hard-earned gold and experience to develop and improve their characters, making them all the more deadly for the next encounter.

 

Features:

Unique Twists to Familiar Modes: Don’t let the names fool you, the CryEngine 3 has allowed Panzar to take wild takes on standard modes, including catapulting your own teammates into the enemy in King of the Hill, placing ramps to run up walls, and plenty more!

Crafting: Win fights to obtain materials and resources used to craft useful items and potions to supplement your power in future battles.

MMORPG Mentality: Find a character and stick to it! With a strong learning curve and RPG elements, you’ll benefit from mastering a specific class.

Beautiful Graphics: This isn’t your uncle’s MOBA! Witness fluid combat and impressive animations and effects in large intense battles without worry for having to lower your graphics settings.

Panzar Review: Forged By Chaos!

By Jordan Hall (ApocaRUFF), OnRPG Journalist

 

Panzar: Forged By Chaos is a new third-person action game with a large emphasis on team competitive play. You will choose from four different races, with two classes each, and do battle in beautifully designed arenas. The classes range from spell-casters, to tinkerer’s, to tanks, and more. It features a level progression system with skills trees, crafting, and tournaments to take part in. All-in-all, this should make for a very exciting gaming experience.

 

Customization

There is a decent amount of customization for the type of game Panzar: Forged By Chaos is. A lot more than one would expect. Unfortunately, a lot of the customization will require you to purchase crystals, which is the game’s cash shop money. If you are willing to pay the price, you can buy hair styles, taunts, and even color your armor. You can make yourself fairly unique.

Panzar Cash Customization

Other than cosmetic customization, you will also get to customize your character’s skills by using the talent tree. Unfortunately, I did not see many options in this tree. There’s enough to keep you occupied for a bit, but more talents to choose from wouldn’t hurt. These talents range from new skills, to upgrades for old ones. Like I said, it’s enough to keep you interested for a while, but for how long is the issue.

Panzar Talent Tree

 

Cash Shop

Usually I don’t mention the cash shop in my reviews. This time, however, I feel that I need to. While almost everything in the game can be accomplished via in-game methods, using money will allow you to get everything done a lot easier. Depending on your perspective of things, this could be a bad thing or a good thing. For me, I’m OK with it and do not have an issue with it.

Panzar Crystals

Crystals can be used for almost anything, including crafting.

 

You can do a lot with Crystals. Stuff like buy equipment or recipes. The good news is that you can buy recipes for a lot of stuff using the in-game gained Gold. I already mentioned that you will need to use Crystals to make your character look unique. Just about everything will have an option for using Crystals, you can even convert Crystals into gold. The good news, at least in my opinion, is that Crystals seem to be fairly cheap so you can probably buy five dollars’ worth and be set for a while.

 

Graphics

What really appealed to me when I was first reading up on Panzar: Forged By Chaos was how good the game looked in screenshots. I wasn’t disappointed when I actually got into the game, either. It looks great and I’m surprised by how well it ran on maximum settings. There was a constant frame-rate, even in the heat of battle. Because of these great graphics, you will feel immersed in the fight and your adrenaline will begin to pump immediately.

 

Panzar Fire Fight

Intense fire-fights like this make the Gunner class so much fun

 

It’s not just the graphics themselves, either. The physics are a blast, too. Watching the body of your enemy go flying right after you slam your club into the side of their face is so satisfying. And when your teammate accidentally pushes you into a pit of molten lava, you are sure to have a laugh. The only issue I’ve had is that sometimes I will have trouble getting on top of rocks or other raised surfaces, but a bit of ingenuity will often get me where I want to go.

Panzar Death

Behold my gravity defying beard!

 

Map sizes are generally pretty small. For some maps, this means you will feel very claustrophobic. Other maps, they are big enough for it to not be an issue. Either way, the maps are wonderfully crafted and are filled with neat surprises, such as the lava pit mentioned above. The only thing I could wish for in terms of maps is one or two that have a much larger size than what is currently available. But that’s just personal preference.

 

Controls

If you’ve played any other online multiplayer game in the past 2-4 years, you will probably be able to pick-up the controls in Panzar: Forged By Chaos very fast. It’s your typical, “WASD to move, left click to attack” type deal. There are some unique things you will need to get used to, but there is a nicely done tutorial mission that you can do that will teach you the basics and reward you handsomely. I had no issue with the default controls, and found them to be very smooth. There’s really nothing to complain about here, which is great because I love a game that puts effort into having smooth and easy to use controls.

 

Community

Right now, the community is kind of on the low side. However, I’ve noticed that new people have been flooding in each day. When you first start playing, you will not have an issue finding a match and it will only be a matter of seconds. When you get into the higher levels, you may have trouble finding a game and will sometimes have to wait over 5 minutes for a match. This will get better as more people get higher in level, but for now it is kind of annoying. Other than that, the community is pretty good and there is a healthy forum that you can participate in.

 

Gameplay

If you haven’t noticed yet, I really have enjoyed this game a lot. I like it so much because it’s beautiful and just plain fun to play. A lot of games of this type fail in some key areas which just ruins the experience completely. Panzar: Forged By Chaos is able to keep things simple to a point where things don’t become a tedious mess, yet is complex enough to keep things interesting. With team work and strategy you can turn a lost game into a win, even when it seems the odds are against you. It is because of those moments, where your heart it pumping in overdrive and the game hinges on your ability to work with your teammates, that make this game as great as it is.

 

Panzar Fighting

 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying this is the greatest game of all time. It’s far from that. There are definitely a lot of places where the game could use some polish, and a bit more content and variety wouldn’t hurt either. But what it has done so far, it has done very well. What the developers have accomplished so far is an inspiration for the future of games.

 

Panzar Blocking

Getting a good screenshot of myself blocking is surprisingly hard…

 

Enough praise, though. Let’s talk about exactly why I think Panzar is a good game. At its core it’s a great arena-based game that you can have a great load of fun. The combat is smooth and there are a lot of neat tricks and techniques you can learn for each class to give yourself an edge. When you get deeper into the game, there is a lot of planning and strategy involved in not only developing your character’s talents, but with individual battles as well.

 

Panzar Kill

 

Speaking of characters, rather than what a lot of games of this type do, you will be leveling up and developing individual characters that are stuck as whatever class you made them at creation. In other arena-action games, you can switch your character type on the fly if you find you’re not doing well with it. In Panzar, you can have multiple characters, but to be any good you will need to put a lot of effort into one class before you go off and start as another. I like this because it makes it feel like your pre-match decisions are actually impactful. MOBA players might find this restricting, but those more familiar with an MMORPG will find each match to be a lot more meaningful.

 

Panzar More Fighting

 

There are four races – human, dwarves, orcs, and elves. Each of those races has two classes. For example, dwarves can either be a Sapper or a Gunner (my personal favorite class). Generally, these classes provide two different sides of the same role. Both the Sapper and the Gunner can be considered a Tinkerer or Engineer, but the Gunner focuses more on DPS, while the Sapper is much more focused as a support character. The same for the orcs – You can either be the Tank and protect your team or you can be the Berserker and do your best to smash your foes. Both are melee-based classes, but they are about as different as they can get without becoming an entirely different archetype.

 

Current class archetypes can be summed up as: Priest, Assassin, Tinkerer, Support Tinkerer, Fire Mage, Ice Mage, Warrior, and Tank. The in-game name of each archetype are: Paladin, Inquisitor, Gunner, Sapper, Sister of Fire, Ice Witch, Berserker, and Tank. Perhaps in the future more will be added, but this is currently all that is available to you. All your corner-stones are covered, from killers to supports. And, from what I’ve tried, most classes seem to be pretty solid and fun to play.

 

Panzar Character Creation

 

Matches are your typical match types that you are probably used to from every other arena-based game. There’s capture the point, death match, advance the point, stuff like that. The game does have its own unique twist on things. For example, in the “advance the point” game mode I played, the enemy team had to build stuff like ramps or cannons to get past our gate. They also had catapults that they could use to launch themselves. So, even though you may be familiar with the concept of the match, you need to keep an open mind as there are a lot of new and interesting things thrown in to give it a twist.

 

Panzar Catapult

They said a Dwarf could never fly! I showed them!

 

Crafting is done as nicely as you can do it in a game like this. I’m honestly not the biggest fan of crafting when it’s really just a time waster and/or filler. In a game like Wurm Online – which is a hardcore sandbox MMO – you see immediately why crafting is important to the gameplay. In Panzar, I was left scratching my head wondering why it was even there. But then again, I know a lot of people love this type of crafting in a game.

 Panzar Crafting

Basically, at the end of each match you are rewarded with gold and resources. You can use the gold to buy recipes for items such as health and mana potions or some of the advanced armor. The resources are, obviously, used to craft these recipes. The system is actually quite fair, I think, as a lot of the stuff you can craft you can also just buy (often using Crystals, but also sometimes using gold). It’s a method for people to accomplish stuff in the game, a system for the devs to make a bit of extra money on crystal sales, and a system for completely free-to-play characters to get their hands on some of the good stuff without having to pay real money – all wrapped into one.

 Panzar End of Match

The only issue I had with the game, as I’ve already mentioned, is the physics. While they are great for fighting, and can be a great source of laughs, they can also be a headache. It is very easy to slide off a hill with their current iteration. Usually with a bit of effort you can get past it and even get into some pretty interesting places. But, overall, I hope they refine and polish it a lot more as I really hate not being able to walk up a two-foot high hill because it’s incredibly slippery for no apparent reason.

 

Conclusion

Panzar: Forged By Chaos is a breath of fresh air this year. While it certainly isn’t the only good game to come out, it is one of the few that have made an appearance so far in 2013. I know it still needs work, but I see a massive amount of promise for it in the future – it’s rapidly growing popularity is evidence of this. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time in the game so far and will continue to play it whenever I have a bit of spare time. If you want a fantastic arena experience, be sure to check out this free-to-play title.

 

Features: 4/5 – There are a lot of neat features, more than you would expect from this genre.

Customization: 3/5 – Nothing to spectacular, but what was available was done well. Hoping that this is expanded upon in the future.

Graphics: 4/5 – Simply beautiful.

Controls: 3.5/5 – Would be a four, but with the current state of the physics, they can be difficult to work with.

Community: 3.5/5 – Growing rapidly, and is filled with some good people. There are some bad apples, though.

 

Overall: 4/5 – An all-around great experience.

Soldier Front 2 Early Access Key Giveaway

OnRPG is partnered with Aeria Games to get a limited lucky group into Early Access for Soldier Front 2!

Soldier Front 2 seeks to build on its predecessor, Soldier Front, offering amazing graphics, a diversity of combat modes, realism, and an improved learning curve. Suit up and head out to war in competitive and cooperative scenarios, customize weapons, and earn achievements to prove your stuff on the battlefield.

 

To get your key you have to follow these instructions:

  • If you are not yet a member of OnRPG please sign up here.
  • Enter your OnRPG username and password below to get your key.
  • The key will appear at the bottom of the page. Copy & paste it to a safe place as you may not be able to retrieve it once closing your browser!

To Redeem your Key:

Dota TV: Tune Into eSports Without Logging Out

By Mohammad Abubakr, OnRPG Journalist

Almost all of my gaming time is currently being spent playing Dota 2. If you are unfamiliar with the game, please check out my first impressions. The game has changed quite a bit since my first impressions article was published, for the better, but the game is still in closed beta. A full review will be published upon full release.

Dota 2 is the successor to, you guessed it, Dota. As a Warcraft III map, the developers were unable to implement many features due to limitations in the Warcraft III engine. After moving over to Valve’s source engine, many new features such as the ability to reconnect to matches were added. Valve went further to implement a major feature to Dota 2, Dota TV.

Dota TV is the evolved form of the traditional spectator system seen in other games. Just like the Dota Store was first tested using Team Fortress, a similar viewing experience can be found in Team Fortress 2 with its Source TV. Valve really loves using Team Fortress 2 as its guinea pig.

Besides the features you would expect in all spectator views such as the ability to watch your friends and control the camera, Valve has added many more features allowing Dota TV to serve as a replacement to TwitchTV streams. Now you can watch competitive Dota 2 games for all major tournaments within the game client with no loss in video quality.

This is achieved by allowing broadcasters to share their microphone audio, screen location and even pointer location through the Dota client. When a tournament is live, the Watch tab will allow viewers to tune into ongoing tournament matches just like a live stream. After the game loads, viewers are presented with an option to choose between their favourite casters and even switch mid game without having to reload. It is just like watching a live stream!

Dota TV is a great method to tune into live games without using a lot of bandwidth. Due to the client only requiring information on hero, pointer and screen locations along with broadcaster audio, a lot of bandwidth can be saved. This is great for those unfortunate individuals facing bandwidth limits. However, audio quality does seem to be on a lower level than that offered by streaming services such as TwitchTV. Initially during its early stages, Dota TV’s audio quality was a huge turnoff but as of now it is by no means bad.

Tuning into live games can be troublesome due to our busy lifestyles and tournaments taking place in other time zones. Dota TV offers replays for all tournament matches with the same quality offered during live games. Currently the replays include audio for all broadcasters present during each tournament game and are fully downloaded before allowing them to be viewed.

 

Valve allows viewers to easily tune into active tournaments.

For those familiar with live streams, a problem with Dota TV may have come to mind. The majority of gaming tournaments are free to watch and rely on advertisements played during the stream for revenue. If there are no advertisements played during the tournament, how will the organizers be able to continue hosting tournaments? Instead of allowing viewers to tune in for free and face advertisements, Valve has allowed organizers to sell virtual tickets for their tournaments.

These tickets can cost as little as $0.99 and go up to $11.99. With these tickets purchased from the Dota 2 store, you are given access to the entire tournament for as long as Dota TV is available. You can even purchase tickets for tournaments that have already come to a conclusion.

The ticket costs do not only vary due to the size of the tournament. More and more major tournaments are beginning to include virtual items alongside their tickets. I personally tune into tournaments using TwitchTV but I have still purchased tournament tickets simply because they give out a limited edition courier.

Initially I believed that this ticket system would not be very profitable for organizers and would simply act as another way to make a little extra cash on the side. I was proven wrong when the GD Studio announced that they made thousands from ticket sales. While I was unable to locate the exact amount, it was able to compete with ad revenue from TwitchTV.

Ticket sales can also allow income to continue to flow even after the tournament has come to a conclusion.

 

Premier League offers an evolving QoP set with their ticket.

All of this sounds great but it still feels like something is missing. I still find myself preferring to tune into live streams when a major tournament is in progress. One of the main reasons is due to Dota TV lacking content during down time. Dota 2 matches often take time to setup and you are forced to wait before the games popup in Dota TV. Tournament organizers have fixed this issue by offering content in between matches such as game analysis and even simple banter between the crew.

In the Dota client, when the game has finished, you can either find something else to do while waiting for the game to start or tune into the live stream. The first option causes you to become less immersed in the Dota 2 tournament and can even cause you to miss parts of the game due to a lack of alerts from the Dota 2 client. Tuning into the live stream defeats the purpose of using Dota TV. You also have to manually load the next game unlike the automated experience found in live streams.

 

Riki has purchased Sange & Yasha.

Valve does seem to be improving Dota TV to allow for viewers to get more features offered in live streams such as overlays. I would hate to miss the Bruno stats during tournament games by tuning into Dota TV. With the latest patch to Dota TV, pop ups indicating big item pickups will help to improve viewing experience, as seen at Beyond the Summit. Broadcasters can now even add their own pop ups within Dota TV. You won’t be missing any Bruno stats by choosing Dota TV over TwitchTV.

In conclusion, Dota TV is showing other games how spectating should be done. It is a great alternative to live streams but still has a lot of room for improvement. As of now it does not serve as a replacement for live streams but maybe that will change in the future. The International is near, maybe we will see more updates to provide Dota TV users with the same experience as stream viewers.