Monthly Archives: January 2014

Camelot Unchained Announces Internal Testing and Builder Tiers

Camelot Unchained Arthurians

Today City State Entertainment revealed some tweaks to their working site for upcoming sandbox realm warfare MMORPG, Camelot Unchained. In addition, the long awaited Builders’ Tiers are now available for gamers looking to join the project that missed out on the Kickstarter deadline earlier in 2013.

BuildersTiers

While the builders tiers aren’t quite on par with the founders tiers (primarily lacking FP, a currency founders will use to customize their selection of awards at launch), they’re still quite comparable and will contribute towards unlocking additional stretch goals for the project. With only $90,000 missing before The Depths, a PvP heavy crafting mecha filled with all kinds of nasty underground keep battles, it’s expected this goal will be unlocked by the influx of new members to the community.

Another surprise was news that the first round of alpha testing is set to begin as early as next week. This will be the first playable test of the game since the engineering demo done during the Kickstarter. Those looking to plan out their character and faction can also check the site for a more complete list of race options including concept art, backstories, and video.

The Mighty Quest For Epic Loot: Open House Final Showdown This Weekend

Mighty Quest Showdown

It’s the Final Showdown in The Mighty Quest for Epic Loot, as the game heads into its last open house beta event before the game’s Open Beta starts.

This Open House, players are encouraged to try out the Mage for free, and earn points for your favorite hero in a battle that will include extra beta key rewards and more. The beta test will run until 3pm Eastern (noon Pacific) on January 27. This is also the last chance opportunity for interested players to become Founders.

Find out more about this weekend’s event here.

Sony Online Entertainment Announces Four-Fold Shut Down

SOE

Sony Online Entertainment has just announced the news that it will be shutting down four of its games in the next few months: Wizardry Online, Vanguard, Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures, and Free Realms.

Wizardry Online and Vanguard will be shut down on July 31, while Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures and Free Realms will shut down on March 31. Special activities, events, and compensations will be rolling for all four games, including transitions to the new All Access Program – which now offers a shared membership for most of SOE’s titles at a single $14.99 monthly rate. The new program is explained in this new FAQ.

While this news is in some ways expected, it might be a surprise to Wizardry Online players, who received a Producer’s letter only last week with plans to move forward into 2014.

Ocean Fishing

Ocean Fishing is a free-to-play sports fishing game set in the wide oceans of the world. Head out to catch giant fish including tuna, marlin, and sharks!

Features:

Saltwater Trolling: Experience the struggle of fishing up huge fish in trolling, an ocean sport where you drag bait through the water behind a moving boat.

Huge Variety of Fish: Explore the diversity of ocean life with plenty of fish to catch and record in a realistically illustrated guide.

Boundless Options: Compete alone or with a team, play a tour, go on missions, enter a championship – or just sit back and fish leisurely!

Dynamic Fishing: Prepare for any condition, as weather, location, time, and other factors come into play.

Stoic Announces Fan Art Contest for The Banner Saga

Art Contest

indie game development company Stoic, and publisher Versus Evil, today announced an art contest for fans based on their experience in the game, using runic inspired designs.

“The Banner Saga has been applauded by reviewers and fans alike for the art style, something we are incredibly proud of. We’ve seen such great fan art for the game that it made sense to ask our fans to assist us in designing a real life banner. We are looking for designs based on the traditional Viking runic art style as seen on the Godstones in the game,” said Stoic’s Art Director Arnie Jorgensen.

“One way of recording history in early Viking times was for each family to contribute (sew) their own ‘saga’ onto their clan’s banner. Similarly, we plan to include some of the best designs submitted in this contest to create a twelve foot banner depicting our fan’s experiences with the game, creating a community ‘saga’.”

The ‘Creating the Banner’ contest is now officially open for entrants to submit their original ‘Viking-style’ inspired designs at http://www.creatingthebanner.com . Winners will not only get their design included on the final life-sized banner, but they will also be sent a mini replica of the final banner for display. Full submission guidelines, rules and regulations can be found on the contest website. Submissions must be in by 11:59pm PT on Thursday March 13th, 2014.

For more info on Stoic, visit: http://www.stoicstudio.com

Albion Online Shakes Up Traditional Levels with Destiny Board

Albion Destiny Board News

Sandbox Interactive today unveils the new Destiny Board feature for their upcoming cross-platform Sandbox MMO, Albion Online.  Eschewing traditional level ups, players instead earn small perks and bonuses over a period of time by performing actions based on what their character is learning.  Players can learn more about the full Destiny Board and sign up for the upcoming closed beta test at http://albiononline.com/.

“The Destiny Board was designed to give players some direction in a world in which there are no levels,” said David Salz, Technical Director at Sandbox Interactive, “Though players are not relying on a traditional level-up system, they are still able to plan their own Destiny in the world of Albion, and become their own unique hero.”

Albion Online Destiny Board Preview

Via the Destiny Board, players themselves could decide how to focus the development of their character.  Depending on which of the three paths players choose (Crafting, PvE, and PvP), there will be various unlockable bonuses to acquire, which will help players design and support their own play style.  Missions on the Destiny Board will range from gathering a certain number of materials, taking or dealing damage, getting a certain number of kills, a certain level of fame, and other goals.

The Destiny Board is divided into three major areas:

The first consists of a number of missions and quests which will reward you with various vanity items as well as some small bonus stats. These missions are divided into 3 branches: PvP, PvE and Casual.

In the center of the Destiny Board can be found all of the items in the game. Here you can unlock both the skills to equip and wear these items as well as the ability to craft them.

In the lower part you’ll find everything relating to the buildings in Albion Online. Here you can unlock new and more powerful buildings to craft.

When objectives are completed, a reward in the form of an item or building recipe, or a permanent bonus to a character’s hit points, carry weight, armor rating, or damage when using a certain weapon is granted.  This will ensure players rise swiftly up the ranks in a way which complements their individual play style. The Destiny Board is a way of providing direction to players while avoiding classification and restriction.  Creating a mage with ranged weapons, or a tank with healing spells, any combination is possible in a classless system!

In addition to the full Destiny Board, which can be reached straight from the HUD, players are given a prompt for three or more current objectives at the bottom edge of the screen at login; with these reminders, you’ll be able to pick up from where you left off last time.

Albion Online is the first true cross-platform MMO, running on different devices including Windows, iOS and Android at the same time and in the same world!  Albion Online will go into beta in early 2014.

New crafting showcase for EverQuest Next Landmark

Recently, Sony Online Entertainment has revealed new details on their crafting systems for EverQuest Next Landmark. Michael Mann, the Lead System Designer, explains the basic of the crafting system, shares concept art and more.

Along with the new details, they’ve also revealed a new building blocks video, which introduces the Saw Table, which will be one of many different crafting stations available in the game.

For more information on Everquest Next / Landmark, as well as the upcoming alpha test, visit: https://www.eqnlandmark.com/