Monthly Archives: January 2014

Excalibur: KotK gains new planned features on Feb. 10th

Excalibur

R2Games and 337.com has just announced the addition of new features in an upcoming update for their mobile Action MMORPG – Excalibur: Knights of the King. After its first global release in October, the developers have been working on creating more content for the game.

Additions to the update will include:

  • Missions: Completing Missions grants players with accomplishments, which are similar to an “achievements” system.
  • Relics: Rare items called Relics can be acquired from Relic Hunt challenges; an additional reward called “anima” can also be collected and used to strengthen a player’s character in the new Ark system.
  • Border Escort: A mini-game event in which the player accompanies important figures on a perilous journey, helping them safely reach their destinations.

The new features are planned for release next month on 10th. For more information on this mobile title, visit: http://excalibur.r2games.com/

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn Announces PS4 Launch Date

FFXIVPS4

Square Enix, Inc., the publisher of SQUARE ENIX® interactive entertainment products in the Americas, today announced that the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system version of FINAL FANTASY® XIV: A Realm Reborn™ will be released on April 14, 2014 with official service beginning on the same day.

FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn on PlayStation®4 system will be available in either a Standard Edition or Collector’s Edition with pre-orders for both starting January 27. Pre-orders for either edition will include two in-game items (Mog Cap & Cait Sith Doll minion) and the ability to participate in Early Access starting on April 11. The limited Collector’s Edition comes packaged with an art book, music CD, art cards, a themed security token, and several special in-game bonus items.

Existing players who have registered a copy of the FINAL FANTASY XIV Collector’s Edition or FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Collector’s Edition, or who utilized the digital Collector’s Edition upgrade service, will automatically receive the two new in-game items (Fat Chocobo Mount & Wind-up Moogle minion) that are making their debut in the new PlayStation®4 system Collector’s Edition for free.

PS4CollectorEdition

FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn PlayStation®4 system Collector’s Edition Includes:

  •     Special box featuring artwork by Yoshitaka Amano
  •     Art Book – The Art of Eorzea: A Realm Reimagined
  •     Special Soundtrack -The Sounds of Eorzea-
  •     Seventh Umbral Era Special Movie Content Disc – The Waning of the Sixth Sun
  •     Art Card Set
  •     Themed Security Token
  •     In-Game Items – Coeurl Mount, Behemoth Barding, Baby Behemoth minion, Helm of Light, Fat Chocobo Mount and Wind-up Moogle minion

PlayStation®4 system owners will be able to join the FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn Beta Test at no charge starting on February 22. Players who own the PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system version of FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn will be able to transfer their accounts to the PlayStation®4 system version for free starting April 11. Once transferred, PlayStation®4 system players will no longer be able to access the PlayStation®3 system version. To play both versions, a player must purchase the PlayStation®4 system version separately. Additional account transfer details will be announced at a later date.

New Rogue and Scout skills revealed for The Repopulation

The Repopulation

Today, The Repopulation team is revealing many different skills and abilities that will be available for all Rogue and Scout users. The various lines dedicated specifically to these types of characters skills includes:

Acrobatics

“Acrobatics have often been associated with rogues or swashbucklers, and this skill serves various purposes in The Repopulation. These include reducing the amount of falling damage taken, regaining your balance, and a variety of defensive or movement related functions such as diving, rolling, and evading attacks.”

Hacking

“The hacking skill allows you to hack into security systems, create software, and to open locked devices. You can use this skill to open locked containers, both in inventory and in clickable objects. It also is used to open locked doors, and as a skill check for various missions. Last but not least it is used as a tradeskill to create software and components for trade lines, and portable hacking kits.”

Trap Knowledge

“The Trap Knowledge skill is used for the creation, placement and removal of traps. There are various types of traps in the game from typical snare traps, to mines, explosives, or alarms. Not only does this line allow you to create and set these traps, but it also allows you to remove them.”

Various other skills are revealed in the update, including Assassination, Intimidation and Stealth.

For more information, visit: https://therepopulation.com/

New racer customization available for Quantum Rush

Quantum Rush

Today, the GameArt Studio team has released a new video for fans and beta testers of the online future racer, Quantum Rush, that is currently in closed beta.

In the video, you see a customization feature that will soon make it into the closed beta: Racer skins. Players will be able to choose between a variety of different skins, and, on some of these skins, it will be possible to adjust the colors. They also point out that more and more skins will become available over time.

Apart from racer skins, the team currently plans the following additional customization options: Players will be able to replace their racer’s standard cockpit with a cockpit in their favorite color, there will be numerous decals to choose from and they will even introduce a variety of underbody lights. Taking all these options into account, there will be hundreds of possible configurations for each racer’s visual appearance.

For more information: visit http://www.quantum-rush.net/

Novus AEterno Funds on Kickstarter, Unlocking Multiple Stretch Goals

Novus AEterno Kickstarter Complete

Taitale Games’ Kickstarter for the epic science fiction MMORTS, Novus AEterno, comes to a close today having raised a whopping 360% of their goal (in addition to another $125k invested by an Angel Investor, this makes a grand total of $394,000).

So what does this mean for the future of the game? Well a plethora of features are now promised including individualized and impactful crafting systems, additional ship types, outpost and moon colonization and customization, fully 3D capital ships to immerse the player in the buzz of their empire, and two additional race options to further customize a player’s experience. All that on top of the promised core gameplay is sure to make for a mind blowing experience.

Founders wanting to celebrate this occasion should jump on the Kickstarter comments section now to let their voice be heard!

Skara: The Blade Remains Takes Steam by Storm

Skara Greenlit

This week SKARA, The Blade Remains joined the list of games available via Steam Greenlight, the worldwide distributor of videogames online. It took SKARA only eight days to gather the support necessary from the Steam Community.

 

“We couldn’t believe SKARA had over 240 votes in only two hours!” exclaimed Pablo Rodriguez, CEO and Creative Director in charge of SKARA. “The votes of support were really the best reward after so much work.”

 

SKARA plans on bringing massively multiplayer gaming to a new level, by creating a new gaming genre: MOV – Multiplayer Online Versus, where as many as 16 players enter arenas to engage in the kind of real-time combat fighting seen in versus games.

 

“Steam, in many ways the pioneer of online multiplayer gaming, is the ideal platform to launch SKARA” said Cesar Ortega, CFO of SKARA. “We are really glad and thankful to have a place there now going forward.”

 

For its part, the Steam Community seems happy too.

 

“These titles were selected on the same criteria we have been using in the past” said the Steam announcement regarding 2014 Greenlight games. “Votes in Greenlight give us a hugely valuable point of data in gauging community interest.”

 

From the beginning, members of the SKARA team realized one of the hardest things for a video game is to get any attention prior to release.

 

“What’s the most amazing in my opinion is that nobody has had the chance to play the game yet,” said Rodriguez. “They don’t know how good it is!”

 

For additional information about Skara—The Blade Remains, visit www.thebladeremains.com/skara.

Dragon Legion Review: Another Aeria Mobile eCCG Game

By Ojogo

 

Ah yes, Aeria Games, the company that seems to be consistently cashing out on a lot of MMORPGs right now. With the mobile platform as its newest source of revenue, we have another title out from the game publisher of the eCCG variety.

 Dragon Legion 1

So the company has now used the Dragon theme as its new setup for its latest mobile eCCG titled, Dragon Legion, moving on from their racy pirate title (Pirate Maidens, my review located here).

 

Gameplay

Dragon Legion uses the eCCG mechanic as its main gameplay element. With the emphasis on a “squad” like team setup which has been part of the usual eCCG gameplay setup. You control units/cards that have elemental affinities which you can level-up and evolve.

 

The game has a mission/quest type system in place that is called conquest; this serves as a reprieve from the Dragon Battles, the game’s main PvP/battle mechanic and would serve as another means for you to get more cards/units for your team.

 

Your Cards

So moving on to the game’s card system. Dragon Legion uses the four-element affinity system to classify the monster units you’d be getting. The elements are the expected Fire, Wind, Earth, and Water. Each element has its own strengths and weakness against other elements.

 DragonLegion8

Cards are further classified by rarity ranking from Normal, to Normal+, to Rare, to Rare+ to Super Rare+ and so on and so forth. Card packs are then acquired through the in-game store using legacy points and of course the in-game premium currency.
Similar to booster packs of actual CCG/TCG games, the cards you get have a random quality of rarity, with the more expensive “packs” providing you with higher rarity, and in essence, stronger cards than the cheaper variants. Aside from the rarities, the game also has an album system in place which pretty much covers the collecting part of the game.

DragonLegion9

You can also level up your cards in which does more than just increase their base stats, but also can unlock skills that you can then equip in your squad page. Leveling up your cards requires you to expend other units and the game also has a currency cost as you do it. The alternative of leveling on the other hand is “evolving” your cards to create a stronger (and higher rarity) version of the card. The card also gets an alternate art and will receive 5% of the stats of the card it was merged with, further increasing the possibility of having the same card types but having different stats in-game.

 
Dragon Battles

Dragon Legion’s battle system, tagged as Dragon Battles, are the game’s main gameplay mechanic. It has two versions which are namely the Free Battles and the Legion Battles. While the game has two types of battle systems in place, the process where they would happen are the same on both types. The only difference between these two are the people you battle with.

 DragonLegion7
As the name implies, Free Battles are PvPs that are composed of random people getting together and fighting one another. On the other hand the Legion Battles are battles where you fight against opposing legions for the honor of your legion.

 

Battles in Dragon Legion are basically a real-time exchange between a set of players in an arena. The game automatically puts you into three roles depending on your squads total damage output. The heavy hitters are put into the front lines as the Warriors. The remaining roles are archer and tamer classes, which typically have lower attack strength.

 DragonLegion2
Each team is represented with its own dragon, and each player has their own set of role-dependent moves that you can use. Each move (composed of three types) expends your MP which you would need to recover via the use of in-game items or waiting it out. You can in fact jump in or out of battles as you please, but you can’t join new battles till the one you are in is done.

 DragonLegion3
These battles’ win condition is based on the amount of Victory Points each team has at the end of the duration. The team with the highest VP at the end of the duration wins.

 

Critique

All in all, I can say that Dragon Legion is a good time-sink for anyone looking for a mobile CCG to sink their teeth into. However, the basis of me saying that is relying heavily on the game’s battle system. Take it away and the game is pretty much a generic CCG game with a consistent battle system in place.

 DragonLegion4
The quest system is a joke and is an obvious ploy for players to spend time on the game if they get bored PvPing. The game’s appeal banks heavily on its battle system which seems to be getting a lot of action regardless of the time you come in. Having lots of players battle at almost 24/7 is a good indication that the chances of you facing teams that are practically dead are less than likely.

 

Conclusion: Good
Aeria Games obviously knows Dragon Legion’s strength. I can say that if you’re looking for a CCG game that can make you keep on coming back then this one’s a good one. However, if you’re looking for something different, or at least a CCG that has a little more substance, stay away from Dragon Legion.

Elite Forces

Elite Forces is a multiplayer online FPS game developed by Kingworld Technology. The game takes place in the near future, in which the world has been plagued by depleting resources, worsening environment conditions and continuous military conflicts.

Features:

Three Faction PvP: Allowing auto-path, identifying target and changing attack strategies on the go.

Abundant Weapon Types: modeled using real world firearms, bullets, combat tools and equipment with maximized modification possibilities

Multiple Game Modes: Covering PvP, PvE and PvPE. Large selection of modes including competition, tower defense, survival, hunting, contention, turn-based, zombie and virus modes.

Strong Skills System: various special effects to increases the fun of the game.