Monthly Archives: June 2014

Bounty Hounds Online 2014 Closed Beta Key Giveaway

OnRPG has partnered with Wicked Interactive to kick off the closed beta test of Bounty Hounds Online: Clear Sky Reborn, just in time for Independence Day weekend!

 

Bounty Hounds Online, is a Free-to-Play Sci-Fi MMO set in the BHO universe.  Bounty Hounds Offers:

  • Daily and weekly events, ranging from PvP on a lunar surface, to a T-Rex invasion, and large scale skirmishes.
  • Dual pet system, customize your combat pets and upgrade their abilities.  Watch scorpions transform into robots, or perhaps a wolf pet is more your speed.
  • Numerous environments from large cities, to wastelands, junkyards, and more.  Visit multiple planets!
  • Broad range of costumes, from typical warfare gear to a deer helmet, a steampunk warrior, and more!
  • Multiple dungeons and bosses to fight, with varied AI responses.

In addition to the above features, Suba Games’ Bounty Houds will further offer non-stop GM events and a balanced PvP environment.

Embark on galactic warfare and become the #1 Bounty Hunter!

 

 

To Redeem your Key:

  • Log into your Suba Games account.
  • If you do not have an account, you can sign up for an account here.
  • Visit the redemption page to enter your key.
  • Download and install the game client. Beta begins July 4th!

Sunset Overdrive

Sunset Overdrive is an Xbox One exclusive third person shooter. Welcome to a city overrun with mutants, post-apocalyptic possibilities, and irreverent humor.

Features:

Multiple Factions: Fight against or with various city factions, including the Fargarths and Troop Bushido, each with their own new twist on reality.

Weapons & Amps: Use crazy weapons to battle against the mutant horde, including guns that shoot bowling balls and teddy-bear dynamite. Then strap on some amps to give you special abilities with dozens of possibilities.

Multiplayer Chaos: Play in the 8-player cooperative mode Chaos Squad, where your team can vote on objectives to fight and survive for awesome rewards.

Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead Update 1.63 Released

Bohemia Interactive is pleased to announce the release of update 1.63 for Arma 2: Operation Arrowhead (changelog).

Besides the numerous fixes and optimizations which were introduced during the 1.63 beta program which covered almost a 2 year period for this iteration of the engine, the update focuses on the transition of the multiplayer from GameSpy matchmaking to Steam.

Arma 2 Tank

As you may have heard, GameSpy is discontinuing its services and it was therefore of paramount importance to offer an alternative for the passionate Operation Arrowhead players who have supported our game and our company for so many years.

Due to the fact that Steam based matchmaking requires Steam to work, this update is only available through Steam. If you have purchased a retail copy of the game, please do not despair. As announced previously all Arma 2 (including DLCs and Operation Arrowhead expansion) keys may now be activated on Steam. Just follow this walkthrough (link), take your Arma 2 CD key, use it as a Steam product key, and the game will be added to your library.

For our other games affected by the GameSpy shutdown, but not updated to work with Steam (Arma 1, Arma Cold War Assault, Take On Helicopters), and also for those players who wish to stick with the older non-Steam version of the game, we have implemented a system to help host and connect to servers even without a functioning GameSpy – http://master.bistudio.com/. Here server owners may add their servers and players may use the listed IP addresses to connect to them. Also to help players overcome difficulties we have added a number of articles for each game to our FAQ (link) and as always our technical support staff is ready to help via support@bistudio.com.

Divinity Original Sin: Now Available

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Divinity

After a successful million-dollar crowdfunding campaign and several months of rigorous play on Steam Early Access, Larian Studios is excited to officially launch its biggest and best role-playing game to date, Divinity: Original Sin. Available now for just $39.99, Divinity: Original Sin delivers just about everything you could ever want in an RPG, including co-operative play, turn-based combat, deep character creation, crafting, the ability to talk to animals, an extensive adventure editor and more.

Divinity: Original Sin goes back to the roots of memorable and beloved cRPGs, featuring isometric, party-based gameplay; turn-based combat; gripping dialogues; choice and consequence; enthralling story; profound character and party development; a big interactive world filled with characters and items; free exploration… There is one main goal, and how you get there is completely up to you. Of course, everything is more fun with a friend and so is Original Sin: drop-in, drop-out multiplayer takes care of that, both online and locally.

For more info, visit http://store.steampowered.com/app/230230

The Unique Game Experience of Viridis Unveiled

The digital arts association Oudeis, with the development team of VIRIDIS, are pleased to unveil the universe of VIRIDIS. The videogame and the spirulina farm management are now available for all on www.viridis.guru.

Warning! This is a live experience running from June to October 2014 do not miss it!

Follow the Guru character and get daily news of VIRIDIS on Twitter: @ViridisGame

Viridis

Universe
“Child of the world after listen to the story of the past. Forge your future with these words repeatedly iterated . Listen … ”

In a post-apocalyptic world, the generations of survivors owe their lives to the “green antidote” VIRIDIS. This food and energetics resource immunize them against the effects of the fog that spread after the catastrophe. For any help, “the child of the world after” will only have the presence of the Guru, a mystical and wise character who confers the knowledge and the advices which will allow him to prolong the life of the community thanks to VIRIDIS.

Game Description:
The player, incarnates a “child of the world after” whose mission is to establish a new farm for a future colony. Each stage of its establishment is crucial, and he should haste to protect and build the farm. He will have to go in exploration, to collect materials, assemble them and employ them in order to create the growth conditions of VIRIDIS, which formerly was known as spirulina.

Community experience:
The progression of the player in the game allows him to acquire experience points, which are reinvested in the management of the real farm established in the Cevennes, in France. With the help of monitoring systems, automation and referendum, the players are collectively in charge of the production of spirulina.
The farmer is always connected to guide him, like a mentor, also found in the universe of the game, under the traits of the Guru. The interdependence between game and reality makes it possible to merge the experiment between virtuality and materiality.

Sandra Bébié-Valérian, co-founder of Oudeis
“Viridis is a unique game experience, an artistic and solidarity project. It is a question of reappropriating knowledge, codes, manners of making, to propose new conditions of production and living together.”

God of Destiny: Wayi teams w/ Perfect World for China market

God of Destiny

On 26th of June 2014, a signing ceremony was held in Taiwan by Wayi and Perfect world for their cooperation of God of Destiny’s publishing in China market. God of Destiny has been added as the third MOBA under Perfect World, which features free-to-play mode and a rich selection of heroes derived from worldwide myths and legends.

G.O.D has already started its open beta test in Taiwan since 19th of June. The accumulated number of registered users has reached 150,000 while over 120,000 battles have been started. Wayi is also working on G.O.D’s English version and looking forward to spreading its self-produced MOBA to the whole world. There is no fixed timeline yet but it must be worth the wait.

For more info, visit http://www.godmoba.com

Orcs Must Die! Unchained Beta Preview

Orcs Must Die! Unchained:  Minion Waves from the Black Lagoon (Working Title: Closed Beta)

By Jason Parker (Ragachak)

 

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Tales from the Spawnpad

Orcs Must Die! is a humorous, interesting franchise.  Robot Entertainment is great about listening to what their fans want, and it shows in each game.  The series of strategy games began with Orcs Must Die!, a third person action strategy game.  The player defends magical entities called Rifts, using a variety of traps and tricks to stop wave after wave of Orcs, and other vile creatures.  The fans called out for multiplayer after the success of the first game.  The sequel gave multiplayer, with two players defending their keep against waves of evil.  Now, in Orcs Must Die! Unchained, the call for versus has been heard!  In this two teams (4 vs. 4 or 5 vs. 5) do battle, defending their keep while simultaneously attacking the enemy.  They hire minions using cards that they win by winning games, or purchased outside of game.  Each player has a deck of cards, which they can customize in whatever way they see fit, out of cards they own. As you level, you can have multiple decks, fitting whatever situation you might be in.

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Each player chooses a hero, and you can get them in a variety of ways. There are the ones that are free to play for that week; packs of cards might unlock them also (I unlocked Ball and Chain this way!).  Of course, there’s also purchasing them with in-game currency or with gold (which is used via real money). Each game starts with each side having 20 points.  Each time a minion makes it to the main base of the enemy side, past their gates and guardians, a point is lost.  The first to bring the other team to zero wins.  That sounds simple enough, but there is far more to it than that.  Picking the right minions for your deck, the right heroes to complement them, and the strategy to stop the other side is imperative. Simply going in with whatever feels good or looks cool may not be the best idea.  Communication and teamwork are paramount in this title, and the way the game is played ought to promote this ideal.

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The minions that are fighting are a part of a faction called “The Unchained.”  It is a host of orcs, gnolls, humans, and worse that all fight together for the pure purpose of destruction.  The plot of Orcs Must Die! Unchained feels a little thin, but it is a free-to-play multiplayer fortress siege, so I guess that is well enough.  It feels a little different from your average MOBA, in that there is not going to be just one popular meta.  Each team should, and likely will, come up with their own strategy and own way to win the game.

 

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Sun Tzu Says. . .

The name of the game is strategy. One does not simply zerg one lane over and over in Orcs Must Die! Unchained. At least, not if they want to win. Like most MOBA-style games, Unchained’s maps have three lanes; only one starts unlocked however.  I do not know how the other maps will be, as of yet I have only played one castle vs. castle map.  From this one choke point, your team can each place a minion card for a cost of points and every so often, at a set interval, a new wave will spawn from this point.  Each minion has its own strengths, weaknesses, and abilities.  Some rush straight for the enemy rift, some like to focus and kill.

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Each minion card has its own unique set of entities that come with it. Whether it is two massive Ogres, or a squad of eight Orcs, your waves will vary depending on what your team is using.   It is also important to note that some of the heroes have benefits depending on what minions are on the field. An example being Ball and Chain is a large Ogress with a ball and chain.  Her passive (constantly available) ability reads that if she is in combat and there are orcs available around her, they, in their infinite love of Ball and Chain, will take some of the damage for her. So it would stand to reason that a squad running her would have lots and lots of Orcs on the field at all times.  Several games I have been in someone has asked us to all run Orc decks so they could take advantage of a nearly-unkillable Ball and Chain.  It is sound reasoning and teamwork.

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The choke points go up to level four, and it requires your team to spend points on it to level it up, or to unlock another point.  Now sure, you could only level the Orange (the other two are purple/pink and yellow) point, get it to level four and push as hard as you can down the middle lane.  However, your opponents are no doubt going to see this, and level their outer points so they can keep a few people defending the mid with powerful traps and a tight defense, and decimate your other two lanes.  You cannot be everywhere at once, and the name of the game is action-reaction.  For every action you take, the other team can react and possibly outdo your own team.  So it is imperative to be aware of what is going on, and being capable of reacting, even if it means selling your traps and moving them to other lanes.

 

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Spikes, Chains, and Laser-Beams

There are tons of cards for you as the player to collect, and each card could be a different item.  Packs are won at certain points in your leveling, or you can purchase them using currency (in-game or real-money).  The packs are the same no matter what currency you use.  Of course, this being a free-to-play game, it would stand to reason Robot Entertainment would love for you to support their game with money, but it is not a requirement.  I have yet to see all there is to offer in this game, but there is quite the wide variety of items to enhance your gameplay and offer all new strategies for the benefit of not only you, but your team.  The higher your level, the more of these items you can have in your deck, so it behooves you to level, conquer, and customize!  Here is a list of just some of the cards you can expect to see:

 

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Traps:  You can lay them in a variety of areas and ways, and they have a coin cost.  You have only so many traps, and a limit of traps that can be placed per side. So if the limit is 20, your team can only have 20 total traps.  If your deck has your Magma trap, and you have 6 copies of it, it only takes up one slot in your deck, and you can use it six times at once; if you can afford it, that is.  There are far too many traps to list, and over time you will find some that are invaluable to you, while others are more situational.

 

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Minions:  Minions have a level, one through four.  Each minion card has a point cost, a level, and stats.  You can initially only have one of each level in your deck, but the higher your player profile level, the more you can add.  Some cards bring one or two minions to the field (Dumber and Dumbest = Two Ogres), or seven (Boom Goes the Dynamite = 3 heavy soldiers, 4 dwarf grenadiers)!

Gear:  Gear consists of wards, equipment, or other items that can enhance how you play.  They may or may not have a mana cost, which you activate on your skill bar (for me so far, they have been at the “1” key), such as the lightning ward, which gives a lightning resistance aura to players and minions nearby. Depending on what the opponent uses, this could be invaluable in dealing with traps and abilities of other players.

 

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Glyphs:  Glyphs are placed on the ground, generally right in the path of where minions will tread.  Minions who cross these gain a variety of buffs or boosts, such as attack damage or total health, but cannot be added to your deck until you hit level seven and a second glyph at level eighteen.

Weaver:  Weavers are very powerful, and can buff you and your party in a variety of interesting and useful ways.  You do not get the ability to have a weaver in your deck until level eight, and two more slots as you go on.  They add a host of abilities: Elspeth is a lightning weaver, and she gives powers such as granting your Rift a lightning attack every ten seconds, increasing lightning resistance and giving lightning elemental damage more power.  She’s also classified as Arcane and wears lightning armor.  The other important power she has is “Trickle Coin,” giving you a slow, but constant influx of coins.   Weavers should be employed when possible, and if your team is using a variety of them, a great deal of power can be bestowed upon your squad.

 

 

This game has such a wide variety of traps that I could probably write an entire article focused only on them.  From laserbeams, to collapsible plates on the ceilings, to magma traps, spike traps, electric spike traps, or even arcane spikes, the ways you can dismember and disintegrate your foes are endless.  You can shoot projectiles from the walls, or lay viscous pits of tar that slow enemies.  You can do so much with your deck that even in a Moba setting, the individuality of each player on the field can be felt. Synergy is not hard to create in Unchained, and I invite players to experiment and find what suits them, and what suits their teams.  There are no social options yet, but I assume you will be able to have friend lists and quite possibly teams, what with the “Rank-ed” Matches that will be available.

 

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Median, Mode, Meridian

What would a game like this be without modes of play?  Regrettably, there is no story mode like the other two games had, but the folks at Robot Entertainment made this for the community wanting player vs. player combat.  MOBA games are immensely popular right now, with League of Legends, Infinite Crisis, DOTA 2, Heroes of the Storm, and it is this author’s opinion that Orcs Must Die! Unchained will stand out from all of them with its more action-oriented system.  It is quite similar to SMITE in that regard, with basically every skill requiring a skill shot (Aim and hit, or don’t and miss) which requires players to be constantly paying attention.  All of the game modes play the same, the variance being in how many people, and if it is for rank and acclamation:

 

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Tutorial: This will show you how to play the game.  Thank goodness for it, because I was incredibly new to the franchise before this beta!  You play as the Sorceress, and will get the ins and outs of the game.

Unrank-ed Match:  Right now we just have the classic 5-on-5 match, where you can enter as a solo member or as a party.  However, the party system does not appear to work just yet.  The map is not picked, and I imagine it will be random, as more maps are added.

Custom:   You can make a casual match just for you and your friends, or to prove your skill against other players without the randomness of other people!  In this you can add people, pick your map, et cetera.  One could also use this to practice placement of traps and minions to see how they synergize together.

Ranked:  Ranked is currently not available, though I suspect it will be solo queue or with a partner, similar to League of Legends.  If I wind up with more information on this, I will certainly edit it in!

Cooperative:  This is the players vs. enemy bots mode, where you can practice with people, or simply just play for fun against bots to see how you fare.  I tried this on several occasions; I do not suppose many people are playing it right now. I hope more do though!

 

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Again, there is only one map right now, much to my chagrin; I’m certain there will be more and more coming. This title feels like Team Fortress 2 meets League of Legends in a wacky, violent, trap-filled smorgasbord of violence and chaos.  So much is going on at one time that it can be overwhelming, but exciting at the same time. Just because your team is down points does not mean it is over.  I will grant you that it can be incredibly hard to come back, but there is nothing more satisfying than the score being 3-20, then 3-0 mere moments later with the right teamwork.

 

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Gold, Bones, Glory

State of the Beta: 4/5 Great

The wait times are pretty lengthy right now, but that may be a result of how early the beta is. The game is still growing and should resolve this major issue soon.  Despite this being a closed beta, and seeing many of the same faces over and over, I feel this community is strong, and so are the developers.  Each and every time I queue, no matter who is there, the game is always different, even if it is the same map; each squad will react a different way to varying stimuli and that is what makes this game shine.  The heroes are interesting, the game modes, while straight forward, are always fun.  One of the big gripes I have right now though, is if for some reason you disconnect, or your power flickers, you are out of a match. You can’t reconnect to it at this point in time.  That has happened to me on a few occasions (including a game where I got paired with one of my co-workers, James Bl0nde), and I could not return to help them. It left a permanent handicap. In fact, I’ve only had one game so far where I had an entire team of five people. One went so far south as to have two on five.  Other than that, the game is very enjoyable, whether spending money on it or not, I think everyone can enjoy this kind of carnage.

 

Graphics: 4/5

The graphics are kind of cartoony and simple, but it fits the series; it’s not something that I feel should be taken seriously, but one can revel in the silly, almost cartoon-like violence that Unchained offers up.  The characters are well designed, as are the minions.  The traps when bunched up and going off all at once can feel overwhelming visually, but it is still all very appealing.

 

Controls: 4/5

The controls are tight and simple to use.  I think the one thing so far that has stood out as vexing to me is closing gates. It uses the “F” key, which is fine, but on shorter characters, having to angle up at it can be annoying if you are on the go and there is an emergency. I found myself running, jumping, opening the gate, and short-hopping to close it before running off again.  The movement and combat is pretty simple, with WASD and 1-7 for items/traps and Q through E for skills.  I was never big on skill-shots, so that proved to be a little difficult, but that is just for me personally.  I do not in any way rate something down based on my lack of skill.

 

Features/Gameplay: 4/5

While there are not lots of features as far as gameplay modes go, the sheer weight of customization that can be done is staggering. You can have several decks, each with different themes, or ideas behind them so that you can really do just about anything you need or want to do in a map.  That really says something to me. It’s so much different than “Runes and Masteries”, or leveling skills and buying new items. No, you prepare with everything you’ll need before the game, and that speaks to me.

 

Sound/Music: 3/5

The sounds and music are pretty fantastic, but it feels like the soundtrack got ripped straight out of Blizzards’ Warcraft 2: The Dark Portal.  The music that hits when a wave starts really feels to me like its 1995 and I’m playing Warcraft again. Not that that’s a bad thing, I love nostalgia, but it doesn’t feel original to me. The sounds and special effects of the traps going off are quite lovely.  I think this is all very good, but the music again does not feel inspired at all.  I was a little disappointed, despite liking the sound.