SMITE reveals the first God developed in partnership with Tencent, Zhong Kui the Demon Queller. Offering a combination of tank and support skills, he’s sure to make his presence known in any team fight.
Yearly Archives: 2013
SMITE Chinese Gods Preview Trailer
SMITE is teaming up with Tencent to bring a new level of detail and authenticity to their SMITE gods starting with a Guan Yu rework and the release of Zhong Kui.
Silkroad Online Introduces Genie Themed Daily Quest
Leading online game developer and publisher, Joymax, today begins a new celebration for their new daily Genie’s Lamp quest in their MMORPGs, Silkroad Online. Your wish can only be granted if you find the missing Genie’s Lamp, so it’s time to get hunting!
A Genie has appeared in Silkroad Online, however the Genie can’t grant the players’ wishes because he has lost his lamp – wandering around the land of Silkroad homeless, the daily quest manager heard about the Genie’s pitiful circumstance and requested that Silkroad adventurers help him find the lamp; great rewards and surprises await the lucky players who find the lamp.
Visit the Daily Quest Manager located in any town to take the Genie’s Lamp quest. Then hunt monsters of the same level bracket and discover the spotted lamp. Then bring it back to Daily Quest Manager to have him polish it up; return the refurbished lamp to the Genie for your reward! This quest can be started by any character level 71 and over, in any city (Jangan, Donwhang, Constantinople, Samarkand and Hotan). Need more lamps? Additional Genie’s Lamps can be purchased in the cash shop beginning now.
Today also marks the start of the fifth wave of Limitless Avatars! Eleven new Avatars become permanent costumes beginning today, including the 2012’s New Arabia, 2012’s New Devil, 2012’s New Saint Warrior, Angel Powers Dress, Blue Soul Knight, Day Death Assassin, Ghost Captain, Noblesse, Phoenix Dress, Saytan Dress, and Viking avatars.
Astro Empires Prepares Overhaul in Update 1.5
The space strategy browser game Astro Empires is preparing the largest update in its history. Recently Cybertopia, the company behind Astro Empires, released full details of the upcoming new features and changes.
The update brings a fresh interface, better tutorial, lots of new media graphics, a new ingame technology, improvements to the game interactive map and several tweaks on the game mechanics.

“The changes are definitely the largest since Astro Empires was launched and the player’s initial feedback has been very positive. We hope they will enjoy the final product as much as we did developing it.” – Colin Palin, Community Manager at Astro Empires.
Astro Empires v1.5 updates are due to be released in October.
Nexon America to Publish New MOFPS, Extraction
Nexon America, the North American subsidiary of Tokyo-based NEXON Co., LTD., a worldwide leader in free-to-play online games, today announced its latest PC title, Extraction. Developed by award-winning multiplayer studio, Splash Damage, and published by Nexon America, Extraction is a Multiplayer Online First Person Shooter (MOFPS) which will be available in North America and Europe, as well as Australia and New Zealand.
Extraction combines tactical gameplay, fast-paced action and an ever-expanding roster of playable characters to create a highly competitive team-oriented shooter. Players can choose from dozens of unique roles with different playing styles and abilities, and fight in teams to defeat their opponents by defending or attacking key objectives. Set in evacuated London following a mysterious radiological attack, elite squads of mercenaries secretly unite in the city’s abandoned streets to extract the valuable information left behind. Extraction offers a fair and balanced playing field, achieved through ECHO, a powerful analytics and telemetry system.
“We are inspired by the passion of the developers at Splash Damage and have immense respect for their expertise in multiplayer game development,” said Min Kim, CEO of Nexon America. “Extraction’s refreshing blend of action and team-oriented strategy provides the depth PC shooter fans have been looking for. Through our partnership with Splash Damage, we hope to plant a massive win for online gamers.”
Based in London, Splash Damage began its rich history in independent game development as a mod team in the PC first person shooter genre before creating its breakout hit Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. After being called upon to create the multiplayer maps for Doom 3, the team used that game’s technology and design tools as building blocks for the acclaimed Enemy Territory: Quake Wars and its first multi-platform title, Brink, which further established Splash Damage as a Triple-A game developer.
“We spent a long time finding the right partner for us on Extraction. Nexon America’s vast experience and the fact that they’re a true trailblazer in the F2P PC game arena ultimately made the decision super easy for us,” said Paul Wedgwood, CEO of Splash Damage. “Extraction is a title we love making and playing, and hope that the collaborative nature of the game delivers a dynamic and fun experience for players.”
Battle Dragons
Raise an empire, build an army, farm a mountain full of sheep, and unleash your inner dragon in Battle Dragons, the latest title from Spacetime Games! Utilizing a variety of special dragon powers, you can build impenetrable fortresses, fortify them with friends in your tribe, chat with players from around the world, and declare war to raid resources and gold from your foes. All while on the game on Android and Iphone devices!
Battle Dragons Trailer
Battle Dragons combines the thrill of raising dragons with the tactics of empire construction and army building, all in a mobile form.
Battle Dragons Android Edition Review
By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor)
Dragons are back in style! While a popular topic of campfire conversations for eons, lately it seems like every other game I review has dragons at the core. As such it was no surprise to me to see my next assigned review was Spacetime Games latest mobile allowing you to unleash your inner dragon while battling along thousands of other tribes. Battle Dragons is a strategy title for the Android that also launched to the iOS just last week!
In Battle Dragons you will fight alongside the legendary flame spewing winged lizards. But beyond the typical red and fiery dragons, there are a wide variety of dragons carrying some pretty unique special attacks to further differentiate them. But before worrying about filling out your dragon pokedex, you’ll need to learn the ins and outs of maintaining a tribe. You will start out with a simple Dragon Hall and some surrounding buildings to create sheep and money. You must be thinking, sheep? What is he talking about? Well your dragons need to eat right? And since god gave us sheep, they are a delicious snack for your troops. Your tribe is the keystone to your dragon empire as you’ll need its help to establish a Fortress to protect the peaceful citizens working your gold mines and sheep ranches. These places can all be attacked by your rivals, so focus first and foremost on defending them with everything you have.
You can really see Battle Dragons shine while attacking a fortress or tribe. Here is where the strategy elements come into play. The dragons you breed and train to join your troops can be deployed anywhere around the map. And thus your fortress needs the most optimal defenses. You do not want to leave a ‘hole’ in your defense, because a smart player will abuse that. Likewise when you are attacking, you will be looking for this weak spot. Since you are able to let your troops attack from any direction, you can really trick the enemy‘s defenses and find his vulnerable spot. You cannot simply place defenses around your whole town; this results in being vulnerable to a focused direct attack at one section. Ideally you want to set up a trap that makes your foe think you’re weak in one segment, only to spring on them when they force their primary forces into said section. These mind games really help flesh out the gameplay. Sometimes before going into battle I spent several minutes planning and looking for the most vulnerable place to attack. And since every unit in your troop has different abilities and specialties, you can spend plenty of time playing around with your own formations and army set-ups prior to the actual attack.
But war costs a lot of money. A bit too much as you may find yourself hesitant to even declare war unless it’s a sure fire win. If you take serious losses, it can be quite a while before you’ve saved up enough money and troops to attack again. And since this game is made for the mobile phone, don’t go into it expecting to find a title meant to be played multiple hours a day. Both your sheep corral and gold mine will eventually acquire resources over time. And it is up to you to collect these resources before both buildings are full and cannot store more. Buildings can be upgraded however, and with the sheep that you breed, and the money you dig up in your gold mine, you can use these to purchase upgrades. As you can see, the game is made to play while you are travelling or simply something you do while at work. You’ll quickly burn yourself out watching estimated resource acquisition times if you try to play it for hours each day. Though if you do have this type of addictive behavior, you can speed up the entire process via the cash shop. As in many other strategy games, if you do not have the patience you can throw around real money. Pearls can be purchased primarily to speed up building upgrades or rush the training of troops.
If you like to socialize, the game also offers you to join or make tribes. Tribes are basically player made guilds where you can play together and help each other out. It is also a great way to socialize with other players. You can contact your fellow tribe mates or even discuss the game with other players from around the world. With as wide of an audience as mobile games tend to bring in, you can usually expect some pretty diverse people from around the world to be there to chat with. It never is fun to play alone, and it is always a lot more fun to play under a banner, and the tribes really enables that within Battle Dragons.
Conclusion: Good
I have always said it. Mobile phone games show a lot of potential and focus heavily on the fun factor since they don’t have the spare client space for bells and whistles. From what I’ve experienced so far, Battle Dragons matches up against any browser strategy games designed for the PC. Dragons are creatures we have seen before, yet Battle Dragons brings them to life as unique tools of war. It’s a simple touch and some might say a gimmick, but the purpose they serve for a tactician is enough to keep us strategy gamers interested in the siege combat. Bringing down a fortress is seriously a difficult task to do, and it requires some great planning. The payoff of finally managing it is worth the wait and frustration of all your prior losses. If you are a strategy fan just like me, you should give this game a look if you have an Android or iOS phone.
Splash Damage
Splash Damage
Smashmuck Champions PAX 2013 Design a Champ Panel Announcement
Heading to PAX and want to take a try at game design? Kiz Studios will be designing the next champion of Smashmuck Champions live at a panel!






