Monthly Archives: November 2014

FFXIV: A Realm Reborn – GOTY Edition Now Available

FFXIV

Square Enix Ltd., today celebrate the launch of the “Game of the Year” PC edition of FINAL FANTASY® XIV: A Realm Reborn™ across Europe and PAL territories. The “Game of the Year” edition comes packed with a host of bonus content, and serves as the perfect collector’s item for both FINAL FANTASY fans and MMORPG players alike.

Encased in a stunning, printed “Book of Diamonds” Grimoire box, the limited “Game of the Year” edition features five exclusive art cards and includes 30 days of playtime, as well as a digital timecard for an additional 60 free days of unforgettable adventures in the realm of Eorzea.

The limited, special edition also show-cases the high level of content this MMO has to offer, giving players access to the main game, as well as all additional update content, including – “A Realm Awoken”, “Through the Maelstrom”,Defenders of the Eorzea”, and the recently released “Dreams of Ice”.  With these updates, FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn offers a rich, epic and expanding story in the fascinating world of FINAL FANTASY!

FINAL FANTASY XIV: A Realm Reborn “Game of the Year” edition is available now for PC. To purchase your copy, please visit: https://store.eu.square-enix.com.

Ancestory summoned to Steam Greenlight with trailer premiere

Ancestory

A new kind of CCG has been announced recently and is looking to make its way on steam.

Ancestory is a 3D, grid-based card game for PC. You play as a mighty shaman who can summon powerful minions and cast mighty spells with a vast selection of cards. You must fight for control of totems spread across the battlefield in order to win. In between battles, you can build and customize your deck before challenging your friends in online or local multiplayer or fight against AI.

The game has been released on Steam Greenlight along with the first trailer for the game. The final game has been slated for release in Q3 2015.

For more info, visit http://ancestorygame.com/

SMITE Reveals Ao Kuang Rework

SMITE Ao Kuang Rework

Today, Hi-Rez has revealed SMITE’s reworked Ao Kuang, Dragon King of the Eastern Seas.

The rework, which has been teased for a while now, aims to bring a more lore-accurate god to the pantheon. Ao Kuang’s original character was previously transformed into the serpent Kukulkan.

Ao Kuang’s new skills as a melee mage are as follows:

  • King’s Sword: Ao Kuang’s sword can hold energy charges, and regenerates charges while out of combat. Each time Ao Kuang casts an ability, an energy charge will be consumed if available, increasing the damage of the ability. If Ao Kuang is out of mana, he will use Energy Charges to cast abilities instead.
  • Water Illusion: Ao Kuang teleports forward into stealth, leaving behind a watery form of himself. He remains in stealth until he attacks or takes damage. Ao Kuang may activate this ability again to detonate the watery form, dealing damage to nearby enemies.
  • Dragon Call: Ao Kuang summons dragons to his side. For every successful basic attack Ao Kuang makes, a dragon will dive to the target dealing additional damage. This ability ends after all dragons are used or time expires. Ao Kuang may activate this ability again to send forward any remaining dragons in a ranged attack. The dragons damage and slow the first enemy hit.
  • Wild Storm: Ao Kuang unleashes a storm of lightning from his sword, damaging all enemies in front of him. This hit is considered a basic attack, and will activate item effects.
  • King of the Eastern Seas: Ao Kuang selects a single target in melee range and grabs them, dealing damage and knocking them up into the air. If the target is under a health threshold, Ao Kuang will instead reveal his true form, becoming a Dragon and executing them. After transforming Ao Kuang remains in the air, and may then pick a new location to land, dealing damage to enemies and fully recharging his sword.

You can learn more about the rework here.

WoW – Warlords of Draenor: First Impressions

By Jason Parker (Ragachak)

 

Warlords of Draenor Datface

Feelings, Feelings

There have been a ton of mixed reactions to the Warlords of Draenor; I watched someone have an 1100 hour wait just to log into the game at peak hours. Personally, I did not have quite that problem, but I logged in at 4am to begin gathering my thoughts on this expansion for my article. Granted, later in the day I did have about a forty five minute wait on Bloodscalp, but that’s minor compared to other people. There have been talks about DDoSing the servers, to simply having tons of players come back to witness the new expansion to see what they like and do not like. In general it seems Blizzard underestimated the excitement and rush this expansion would bring back to the game, likely due to the millions of players that left during Cataclysm and Mists of Pandaria. So of course there were first day problems; that’s to be expected of any major title launched these days. Take a look at the fiasco that Assassin’s Creed: Unity endured. It’s still sorting itself out as of this writing.

Warlords of Draenor Deephold

However, I’m still very positive for this expansion, fan of the game aside and everything. Consider this before you complain about bugs on opening day: No matter how hard you work and no matter how much testing is done, there’s always going to be something that happens that didn’t happen in the Alpha or Beta. There will always be some jerk who finds a way to break or change the system, or simply a hacker group that is “upset” about the state of the game. DDoSing is going to happen as well. It happens to Riot (League of Legends) servers every couple of months or so it seems. They are working on stabilizing it, and the speed and quality of support a developer offers post-launch is the real way the expansion should be judged. As soon as game crippling bugs were found, they set out to fix. It did seem that the Horde (at least on Bloodscalp) experienced far more bugs than the Alliance did. This is not to say “Blizzard hates the Horde,” it’s more a statement of fact. I am looking forward to more of the expansion even after a marathon of playing this week.

 

Warlords of Draenor Victory

To PVP Or Not To PVP

While I was a little disappointed with no new Battlegrounds available on day one, it’s not all bad. December 2nd starts the new PVP season for arenas/rated battlegrounds, and that promises to be a whole bunch of fun. Plus, there is an entire zone dedicated to PVP in Ashran; I feel that Blizzard learned their lesson from Wintergrasp’s limited timed offering and the like. It is a level 100 ‘end-game” PVP area, a long overdue concept finally arriving in WoW. It is roughly 100 on 100, and has a Horde capital and an Alliance capital. Another fantastic thing about this is when it releases it too will be cross-realm, so you will not have to fear seeing the exact same players everytime. It will likely feel like an instanced area and should take place in a series of miniature battles, like the scenarios, with a pause between for sides to recoup and regroup. There is no end, and I love this; it is virtually non-stop PVP action!

They have also made PVP gear a bit easier to obtain with the “coin” system similar to the Celestial Bosses on Timeless Isle. Anytime you see a new or interesting mechanic like that, it is likely a test for later content. PVP will be easier to get into in this expansion, but it is not this player’s opinion that it will be “made” easier, simply that it is an effort to get more people PVPing and geared for it than before. Not quite to the level of Vanilla, when all of the rank restrictions were taken off PVP gear and suddenly anyone could have High Warlord/etc gear without any real work put in. It’s a delicate balance, but I do feel like Blizzard may have finally found it.

There is also the upcoming temporary 100 on 100 Tarren Mill battleground to celebrate the 10th year of World of Warcraft! From the many times I fought there in Vanilla/BC, I cannot adequately express my excitement for this.

 

Warlords of Draenor Bosses

LFG, Iron Docks, PST

The community as a whole has been positive in their reception of the expansion. While there is the unpleasable mass that instantly becomes bored upon their n+ return to WoW, most dedicated players seem to love the Garrison, which allows players to build their own fortress-town, with what buildings they feel like they need on that character. It is a fantastic way to gather resources on one’s own time without having to battle and struggle for hours on end without success. Now, it is not an overnight endeavor; it takes a lot of time and effort to really get the most out of your garrison, with level, resource and other requirements on building upgrades. The system is a great improvement over the Tillers of Pandaria since you can set up pretty much anything you need without having to go miles to fetch it.

Warlords of Draenor Starting-Follower

So far the story has been terrific! I know, Time Travel stories are generally bullshit. But that aside, I am appreciating the character interaction and how the zones are set up. The “Bonus Objectives” are a huge source of XP and also tell a story to boot; you would be wise to pay close attention to these, as they will help you level faster. There are a lot of things left to chance however; followers for your Garrison, and quest/loot rewards have a chance to upgrade on their own, having a higher rarity/item level. While I love this idea, I’m not known for being very lucky and as such, it shows with my followers. Though I have seen people get epic followers on their first try, and I have seen Rare (Blue) rewards go to Epic (Purple) with my Paladin. Drops like this will surely be a godsend when leveling secondary characters.

 

Warlords of Draenor Gate

Stay Awhile, And Listen: Still Hyped!

There will always be detractors to anyone’s success; but despite the DDoS and huge queue times, people aren’t quitting. Quite the contrary, fans are still lining up to get into the servers and enjoy this new expansion. There are always positives and negatives though. One of the big ones on PVP servers, are the main/starter zones for the Horde and Alliance are quite far away, and so starting off does not equal instant death on unbalanced sided servers. Once players get to Gorgrond (around 92-3), they will start to see other faction players. My experience comes from the PVP server Bloodscalp where roaming gank squads were a rare sight. In fact, Alliance players were helping Horde players kill rare enemies due to the change in target faction tagging to reserve loot and kill rewards. Named quest enemies and rare enemies can be tagged by one but credit given by many, which is a fantastic idea.

However, the wait times on some of these enemies were horrendous; I spent half hour waiting on one enemy to spawn with at least twenty other players. Blizzard has been very hard at work though, correcting errors when they occur. So at least they are paying attention and taking a very reactionary approach. I feel that anyone who is on the fence about the expansion should give it a whirl. There is so much to see and do! Your average (or even above average) player is not going to hit 100 overnight. And the people that try to glitch or cheat their way always get punished (Such as the person who was using Turtle Meat on Timeless Isle to try and hit 100 in a matter of hours). Plus it looks gorgeous; I’m very content, and despite setbacks, wait times, and other assorted issues, all around it has been a positive experience.

Blackwake: New navel FPS announced

Blackwake

Blackwake is a multiplayer team based shooter centered around naval battles for PC and Mac. Set during the Age of Sail, Blackwake focuses largely on team based tactics and overall cooperation. Organizing a ship broadside, assisting your captain in navigating various weather conditions, or just being part of the gun crew – there are many roles to be filled in this shooter.

Blackwake was created in August 2013 as a side project of Dakota’s. Development took a back seat until support began to grow and it was clear this was an idea worth risking. Tyler joined development in September after offering to help with art, and now does the majority of art assets for Blackwake. The goal of Blackwake is to make you feel as if the player is actually part of the crew rather than commanding AI or playing from an RTS perspective. The game aims to combine a strong crew experience with a strong sailing experience, bringing more layers of strategy to gameplay. Blackwake takes inspiration from Pirates of the Caribbean (the films), Pirate Ship Wars (Garry’s Mod) and even the old Battlefield Pirates mod.

Blackwake does not plan to do public steam-based early access. “We are against the idea of selling an incomplete game unless we are struggling financially to complete it.”

Release is aimed for Q4 2015-Q2 2016 on PC and OSX

For more info, visit https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2000479544/blackwake-multiplayer-pirate-fps-set-in-the-age-of

World War II D-Day: New miltary mobile game coming soon

WW2

Skytouch Technologies Limited is proud to announce its forthcoming free-to-play military strategy title, World War II: D-Day. Scheduled for release on iPhone and iPad in the UK later this month and Germany, France and Russia in December, World War II: D-Day is a simulation strategy card game that cleverly interweaves fictional elements with real world units and battles from the Second World War, to deliver intense and thrilling PvE and PvP action.

​This could be your finest hour…

World War II: D-Day puts you in the role of Commander-In-Chief of a multi-national force consisting of hundreds of real world vehicles, planes and artillery units that all played an active role in the skies and on the battlefields of World War II. In a first for military strategy card games, World War II: D-Day gives you control over the combined military might of Britain, America, Russia, Germany, France and Italy all under your control. This is your chance to create the ultimate army and embark on an exhilarating military campaign across Europe and North Africa.

​“Air superiority is the ultimate expression of military power.” Winston Churchill

​ Tactical planning is crucial for success, so ahead of each encounter you will need to determine the make up of your force, picking the aircraft, artillery and armoured vehicles from the varied units in your deck.  What will be the enemy’s weakness and will you select the right combination of units and their attack order to deliver the coveted three star victory?  The fate of your forces lies in your hands.

​Defend your land at any cost…

​ Having the best forces is no guarantee of victory; a great army needs a great frontline commander to lead it. You will need to strategically select the right commander card, matching their unique battlefield skills and special attacks with the units chosen for each battle. Get the balance right and crush the opposition. Get it wrong and only defeat awaits.

​To the victor go the spoils and in World War II: D-Day success in each battle is rewarded with new unit and commander cards – the greater your victory ranking the greater the rewards. All unit and commander cards can be upgraded, but resources are limited so you will need to think carefully before levelling up. Should the focus be building supremacy in the skies with a powerful air force or concentrating on improving your artillery units?

​If the heat of battle burns too fiercely, then World War II: D-Day lets you forge strategic alliances with other players and receive additional resources to increase your army’s capabilities before returning to the main campaign.

For more info, visit https://www.facebook.com/WWII.1939