Yearly Archives: 2013

World of Tanks Celebrates Update 8.8 with Live Stream and Giveaway

World of Tanks 8-8 Art

World of Tanks Update 8.8 just went live and to showcase these changes, Wargaming America will host a one hour live stream featuring World of Tanks Producer Josh Morris “Jinxx”, Community Manager Chris “Major Rampage” and PR Coordinator Jamie King to share insights into the key 8.8 updates, including:

 

  • USSR medium tanks
  • German medium tanks
  • Chinese premium tanks
  • After-battle statistics screen
  • UI and Balance Improvements
  • Tundra battle arena and shading improvements

 

Our hosts will also be engaging fans with a live Q&A during the stream and giving away gold codes. To join the conversation, you will need to be logged into an active World of Tanks account.

 

The one hour live stream will air on Twitch.tv (http://www.twitch.tv/wargaming) from 3pm PDT until 4pm PDT on Wednesday, September 18. Hosting the stream will be Wargaming Producer Josh Morris “Jinxx”, Community Manager Chris “Major Rampage,” and PR Coordinator Jamie King.

Dragon’s Prophet Available Today

Dragon's Prophet

The time to capture, train, ride, and fight hundreds of dragons has arrived! Infernum Productions and Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) today announced the launch of one of the largest dragon-based massively multiplayer online (MMO) games ever created in Europe and North America. In this free-to-play MMO, players fight alongside and against hundreds of unique dragons that roam the land, sea and air.

“At last the Day of the Prophet is finally here! Even though it’s always special to release a new game, MMORPGs play on a different level. Thanks to the help of our enthusiastic community as well as the tireless work of the developer, Auratia, the home of Dragon’s Prophet now shines brighter than ever before”, said Kristian Metzger, Director Product Management at Infernum. “Since the start of Open Beta in May, many thrilling features as well as new content packages have been added to the game while existing systems have been drastically improved. The 100+ pages full of patch notes are a testament of these efforts. Now Dragon’s Prophet offers everything an enthusiast of fantasy games could wish for. An engaging combat system, epic guild battles, challenging dungeons as well more than 300 mighty dragons; the best kind of companions you could imagine!”

“Dragon’s Prophet combines an insane variety of powerful and majestic dragons with an action-based combat and end-game siege system to create one of the most unique gaming experiences for fantasy MMO enthusiasts,” said Todd Carson, Senior Producer of Dragon’s Prophet. “We know players are eager and ready for action and launch brings many exciting developments from Open Beta, including new dungeons, a level cap increase, a revamped Starting Zone, World Boss and the much-anticipated Frontier System.”

 

 

Beginning today, players can participate in massive player versus player (PvP) battles, form alliances consisting of multiple guilds, and experience aerial and mounted combat. Aided by siege weaponry and Alliance Guardian Dragons, alliances will engage in large-scale PvP wars to assert their superiority and achieve the ultimate prize: Eventual control of different territories in the Auratian Sky Islands.

Aspiring Prophets can explore, fight new creatures, and battle through four new dungeons in Inartia. They can also take on a skeletal World Boss and new quests in Puretia. Live broadcast functionality has been integrated into Dragon’s Prophet, and players will be able to stream their dragon capturing and fighting experiences directly to the Twitch Platform.

“We want to ensure that the player experience only improves and becomes more dragon-filled as we move forward,” said Tony Tang, founder and vice president of business development at Runewaker Entertainment. “We are continuing to work closely with both Infernum and SOE to design exciting features to be implemented post-launch like dragon versus dragon arenas, a raid system and air-to-air combat.”

Tequatl Rising Update Live in Guild Wars 2

Now officially live, the Tequatl Rising update for Guild Wars 2 contains new events, features and rewards.

Events
– The Dragon Tequatl – Redefined! – This ancient dragon, scourge of the Splintered Coast, has become more formidable than ever, with an arsenal of new attacks and lethal tricks at its disposal.

 

Guild Wars 2

 

Features
– Coming Soon – “Looking for Group” Tool – We’ve added a new system to help players find others to join in on their adventures.
– New Ruins of Power in World vs. World – Each borderland map in WvW has been redesigned to include five new Ruins of Power.
– Bosses – Updated! – We’ve adjusted all of our bosses to make them more challenging and fun!
– New WvW Ability: Flame Ram Mastery – Prepare to knock some gates down and set stuff on fire!

Rewards
– Wings of the Sunless – Earn this ominous new animated back item by waging war against Tequatl the Sunless!

Ancient Summoner Opens New Server: Death Knight-A Bloody Showdown

The new card game Ancient Summoner, after three popular server launches, has announced the launch of its fourth server, Death Knight.

Ancient Summoner

Death Knight: Origin of Werewolf

The name of S4 is derived from the earliest legend of the werewolf, which traces back to 1216 when John Lakeland, King of England, was poisoned to death. It was said that the poison contained aconite, a plant that converted people into werewolves. Soon after, people heard howling from the king’s grave, and some even claimed they had seen the king turned into Death Knight on a normal night, but a Werewolf under full moon, wandering around in the forest.

Official Strategy: Werewolf’s Last Sprint

Ancient Summoner’s official site is offering the strategy for werewolf cards to help players manage their deck. As a bloodthirsty race, the instinctual feralness and agility makes the werewolf the most horrible killer in the continent. Fenris the Butcher, the most powerful one of the half-blood, certainly needs a more detailed description.

Ancient Summoner

Fenris the Butcher(Epic)has a relatively high initial attack value of 5. His 13 HP is also outstanding, and with its 3 CD, it’s surely a rare card. Sprint, the shared attribute of half-blood, grants it good mobility, and the attribute “Rage” makes it terrifying to face when injured. The card is balanced however by its weakness: when you summon Fenris, the attribute “Blood Price” causes you 3 damage.

Once you add the “sanctuary” attribute, or cards can recover HP to Fenris the Butcher to ensure it won’t die when injured, Fenris can become the nightmare of opponents. It’s fair to say that a priest and Fenris the Butcher is the perfect pair.

When you’re facing Fenris the Butcher, the recommended strategy is:

  1. Kill it with units or skills with high attack, as “rage” increases each time Fenris is attacked. If you use a low attack card, Fenris the Butcher will become unstoppable.
  2. Use a card that can fly over it to avoid direct confrontation.
  3. Use a wall to block it, or use the Mage’s attribute of petrify.
  4. Add the skill of “sanctuary” to his target and let him reap the consequences, when you are a priest.

The introduction of the death knight in Ancient Summoner is coming soon. What will happen when Death Knights land?

Aika Online – A New Look at an Old Game

By Jordan Hall (ApocaRUFF)

 

Aika Online is an MMORPG that features an RvR-centric game style. Because of its focus on realm versus realm, Aika attracts many players who enjoy PVP combat. Another feature that attracts players are the Prans, which are fairies that you raise from a fairy into a full-grown Pran – evolving based on your choices on how you treat them. While keeping the traditional MMORPG model, Aika has managed to create unique game features and that isn’t something we get to see often, unfortunately. Aika Online has been a staple in the F2P market for many years now, and it’s time that we give it a re-review to see how it stands up to the market today.

 

Customization

This is one of Aika’s weak points. There are gender locked classes, of which there are very few to choose from. As well as the gender locked classes, there are few customization options when designing your character. You get a small selection of hair styles, colors and face types and that’s it. Some people may not be bothered by this, but after having played modern F2P MMOs that have incredible character customization, I find it hard to be satisfied with what I found in Aika Online.

 

Aika Online Character Creation

 

Even after character customization, Aika manages to provide a stunning lack of customization in any form. Sure, you can dress up your Pran in cute costumes, but there is only a limited number of options and it is not uncommon to find Prans that look exactly like yours, or other players who are your exact clone. This goes for abilities and stats as well. Progression for one class will basically always be the same no matter what; you won’t be any different than any other warrior except in maybe gear quality. To me, this isn’t very fun as I like to be different – I like to forge my own destiny in a game. Not be constrained by lack of options because some development team or publisher found it not to be necessary to extract cash from a player’s pocket.

 

Aika Online Skill Buying

 

Graphics

I’m sure at one time, Aika Online was a beautiful game. However, by today’s standards, I don’t think anyone will be impressed. There is a shallowness to the design that gives everything a “thin” feeling, and it isn’t uncommon to find your camera to have clipped into a building or under terrain and thus ruining any tiny bit of immersion you might have gained. But this isn’t completely negative as this means those players who lack a powerful computer will be able to run Aika with ease. With the usual level of graphics used in most recent MMOs, a game that doesn’t require an expensive computer can be a valuable commodity to some people.

 

Aika Online Graphics

 

What I found the most disappointing about Aika’s graphics was the clipping – I just can’t stand it when I’m running down a mountain and then I suddenly find myself looking under the ground at an endless blue sea. I did enjoy the architecture of the buildings and the way that some of the objects were designed. Despite the overall poor quality of graphics, I found myself stopping to take in my surroundings which seemed to have a type of beauty that is hard to explain. Honestly, it was probably nostalgia more than anything. Playing Aika instills a feeling of, “I’ve been here before.” in you that is hard to match and it will help put things into perspective (in terms of gaming history).

 

Aika Online Graphics Glitch

 

Controls

Aika Online features two types of movement. You can either choose to use WASD, or you can use the point-and-click method. However, you likely won’t spend too much time getting around with these, as Aika (like most Asian F2P MMOs) features an auto-pathing option for questing. Combat wasn’t impressive either. There is no dodging or rolling, and you are even forced to stand still while attacking. You will use the 1-8 keys to activate your abilities. Basically, if you’ve played an MMO in the past decade, you will be extremely familiar with Aika Online – even all the key bindings are almost exactly the same as every other Asian F2P MMO.

 

Community

As I mentioned in the start of this review, Aika Online attracts PVPers thanks to its Realm Versus Realm PVP. As most people know, PVPers tend to be a bit harsh towards each other, so it is unlikely that you will find a warm welcome. There was near-constant arguing and shit-talking in world chat, and I even spent some time trying to figure out how to disable it just so I didn’t need to see it. I wish I could turn around and say that while world chat was a cesspool, actually interacting with individual people was better. But I can’t as I had absolutely zero luck talking to other players, and the few that responded seemed to be annoyed at me. I’m sure eventually I would find someone who is helpful and would do stuff with me, but it almost seems like it would take too much effort.

 

Gameplay

Like I mentioned, Aika Online doesn’t have the most unique gameplay. It’s a traditional F2P MMO to the core, and it’s something you’ll notice time and time again. Whether or not this will bother you is up to you as a person. Personally, I didn’t enjoy it as it’s the same mechanics that I’ve played literally hundreds of times before. Of course, the nostalgia factor, or just a plain liking to the way the game is played, along with the PVP may get you past Aika’s short-comings and allow you to enjoy the game a great deal.

 

One of the more unique and interesting features of Aika is the Pran system. With this system, you choose a Pran based on an element – fire, water, or air – and then raise it from a fairy until it becomes an adult. What makes the system interesting is that the decision you make when feeding and talking to the Pran, as well as other factors, will affect how its personality and looks develop. However, that’s not the only thing you can affect with the ways that you treat your Pran. If you treat her well enough she will gain the ability to use more powerful abilities and may even give you some rare items. It’s basically a Tamagotchi that you don’t have to clean the poop of, but will help you kick ass in a fight, and I personally loved this feature and I wish more MMOs would put effort into this sort of system and create something even more in-depth.

 

Aika Online Pran

 

Combat by itself isn’t the most fun I’ve ever had. It’s your typical point-and-click system where you use the 1-8 keys to activate spells and abilities. Fighting the monsters for quest and grind was quite repetitive. Luckily, they put your basic attack on an auto-cycle so you can, usually, start attacking and then alt-tab or something while you wait the 10-30 seconds for the monster to die. Of course, you can take a more active role and get the killing down faster, but the outcome is still the same. It is quite literally possible for you to macro a majority of the game thanks to the simple combat, easy monsters and quest auto-pathing.

 

Aika Online Combat

 

It is for this reason that the only thing that makes the combat fun, at least for me, is the PVP itself. It’s one of those situations where the game mechanics aren’t the greatest, but the meta of the PVP and the struggle against other players make it enjoyable to a point that it can be tolerated. However, as with most games, zerging seems to be an issue as people enjoy winning and I’ve noticed that certain nations – of which the game has five and you choose yours at character creation – have much higher populations than others. Luckily, it’s possible to change your nation so if you’re unhappy with where you started you can go somewhere else.

 

The questing is also standard. You go to NPCs who have issues (a lot of which seems to be repeatable), and solve them. Funny enough, most of these issues seem to be solved by mass-murder and looting the corpses of the fallen. Don’t get me wrong, killing hundreds of sentient creatures can be fun, but it gets a bit boring after a bit, you know? Luckily the auto-pathing feature helps alleviate some of the repetitiveness in the game, but not much. If I haven’t made it clear, I hated the questing in Aika Online.

 

Aika Online Auto Path

 

Conclusion

Aika Online has three things going for it – Prans, PVP and low-spec requirements so that just about anyone can play it. Unfortunately, the questing isn’t enjoyable and it has a lot of repetitive gameplay features that will make it a hassle to play if you don’t like that sort of stuff. Based on what I saw, a decent number of people seem to have struck a balance with the game that allows them to enjoy it quite a lot, so while I personally can’t enjoy the game enough to stick with it, others have been able to do so. Overall, Aika is a bit of good mixed with (from what I experienced) a lot of bad, but it’s a nice trip down memory lane and the PVP can be a lot of fun.

 

Features: 3/5 – Pran’s saved the day here.

Customization: 2.5/5 – the .5 is for the Pran customization options.

Graphics: 2.5/5 – Very old-school, but low-spec requirements is nice.

Controls: 3/5 – They were OK, but nothing spectacular.

Community: 3/5 – It’ll take some digging to find the good in this one, but it’s there.

 

Overall: 3/5 – It’s an OK gaming experience, or maybe a great one if you have a low-spec PC and your options are limited.

MechWarrior Online Officially Launches Today

MWO

 

MechWarrior Online developer and publisher Piranha Games and Infinite Game Publishing announced the official launch of MechWarrior Online today. Sporting a base of more than 1.3 million registered pilots, the free-to-play MechWarrior Online allows pilots to take control of the most powerful mechanical battle units the universe has ever seen.

 

“This is an extremely exciting day for everyone at Piranha,” said Russ Bullock, president of MechWarrior Online developer Piranha Games. “Our official launch comes on the heels of a successful Open Beta development period. Our passionate fans were with us every step of the way helping us create the most ambitious MechWarrior game yet!”

 

Set in the year 3050 during the early stages of a massive interstellar war, MechWarrior Online puts you in command of the most powerful war machine to ever walk the field of battle, the mighty BattleMech. Pilot your ‘Mech and customize it to suit your preferred battlefield role; upgrade systems, weapons, and armor with endless options giving you creative control over your battle strategy as you face your next opponent.  MechWarrior Online delivers a rich online experience, rewarding everything a player does with experience points, C-Bills, unlocks, and recognition.

 

 

Bullock continued, “Our official launch is a jumping off point for a continuous stream of meaningful content updates to the game. We are looking forward to implementing the next round of major features for our pilots, including an entire new interface, new pilot tutorials, new Mechs and Maps and the long-awaited Community Warfare pillar. This is only the beginning. There is no final product.”

 

“What an incredible journey from our initial announcement to our official launch,” said Kelly Zmak, president of MechWarrior Online publisher Infinite Game Publishing. “Today we are proud to bring the most anticipated MechWarrior game in the series to fans around the world. The official launch of MechWarrior Online is just the beginning and we are excited for what lies ahead.”

 

On Thursday Sept 26th, Infinite Game Publishing and Piranha Games will host the official MechWarrior Online Launch Event and Tournament at The Mezzanine in San Francisco. Registrations to compete in the launch event tournament are closed, but fans are encouraged to watch it live at www.twitch.com/mechwarrior from 2 p.m. PDT. Sponsored by Ultimate Game Card, GeForce and Razer – the event promises to be the ultimate robot-stomping celebration of 2013. Details can be found at www.mwomercs.com/events.

 

MWO

 

“We’re huge fans of MechWarrior Online,” says Min-Liang Tan, Razer co-founder, CEO and creative director. “The franchise has legions of diehard fans – many of which use our amazing products – and we’re thrilled to be supporting the launch of what should be the next amazing title in the series.”

 

The event will showcase upcoming new content plus award prizes, swag and will feature specialty food and cocktails imported directly from the Inner Sphere’s most exotic locations. Fans will also be treated to hands-on gameplay stations in an all-out party with the developers from Piranha celebrating the Inner Sphere’s finest pilots.

 

“MechWarrior Online is a tremendously popular title,” said Andre Machicao, general manager of PlaySpan, Inc. “PlaySpan is thrilled to work with Infinite Game Publishing to ensure a frictionless, in-game payment experience, so gamers can focus on conquering the battlefield.”

 

For fans unable to make the journey, the do-not-miss event will be livestreamed on the official MechWarrior Online Twitch channel, www.twitch.tv/mechwarrior.