Yearly Archives: 2014

Dofus: Kickroach’s Lair Now Available

Dofus

Ankama today announced the release of the new dungeon: Kickroach’s Lair. Miniaturized players will confront coachloads of insects which seemed insignificants to them before. This new dungeon is optimized for teams of players level 40 and up. It includes 5 new achievements, a new family of monsters, a new set and a new quest. This dungeon is available in Astrub (beginners’ area) and can be accessed by every player, even without subscription.

More details on the update page: www.dofus.com/en/mmorpg/news/patch-notes/425235-microkrosmoz

Camelot Unchained Reveals Surprise Alpha Announcement

After multiple weeks of quiet grinding at code, City State Entertainment’s Mark Jacobs appeared today on their Camelot Unchained Twitch.TV channel to announce that the alpha tester faction of backers and builders would have access to the prototype game as early as Wednesday.

alphaannouncement

He went on to explain the myriad of added features, physics, and customization present in this build that was not implemented in the pre-alpha tests separating it from what he described as a working engine test to a skeleton of what Camelot Unchained’s launch state will be.

The pool of roughly 8 to 9,000 backers can look forward to upcoming hour long tests throughout the coming weeks and a few stress tests going longer to determine server capacity and stability limitations. Boons and Banes will also be present to test and tweak as the earliest forms of the game’s PvP balancing. Each of the three realms can look forward to experiencing a unique set of 10 skills amidst three archetypes, namely mage, support and melee.

Tiers are still available for purchase to get included in this early test. For the full list of features, catch the official PATs guide on their website. Or catch the full livestream on their youtube playlist.

NYCC 2014 Day 3 – Interviews, Ahoy

By Michael Sagoe (Mikedot)

 

Missed our Day 2 recap? Catch it here!

Today was easily the roughest days I’ve had covering NYCC so far. From exhibit to exhibit, I and my team spent almost the entire day doing back-to-back interviews with a few toy vendors and game companies on various products. The biggest interviews on the list include details on the upcoming Dragonball Xenoverse, Brave Frontier and a personal interview with the devs behind the upcoming Killing Floor 2. So many interviews, so little time!

So first up was Dragonball Xenoverse, a new kind of DBZ fighting game with a unique online mode that will set it far apart from previous DBZ titles. Here, players will create a custom character to star as the main hero of game, and will be tasked by Trunks to fight against several evil doers that are attempting to take over the universe by altering many famous events in Dragonball history.

NYCC 2014 Dragonball Xenoverse

As mentioned by the preview trailers for this game, Dragonball Xenoverse claimed to be “The biggest online Dragonball experience to date”, and admittedly, I kinda decided to call the localization producer out on that claim by asking: “So does that mean that Dragonball Xenoverse’s online mode is even bigger than Dragonball Online, which was only released in Asia?”

NYCC 2014 Dragon Ball Online

Yes, it was a bit too much of a hardball question, but the localization producer answered honestly by saying that it’s the biggest online Dragonball game in western territories, as the game features an online hub world (PSO style) where players can meet up, form groups, grab quests and go on co-op or competitive missions together. Mix in the freeform tenkaichi-style combat, tons of custom character options and even 3-on-3 battles and Dragonball Xenoverse gives off the potential to be one of the best DBZ games to date, so it’s definitely on my watch list.

Next up was an interview with Gumi Corp and their ever-popular F2P mobile/tablet RPG: Brave Frontier. Despite this game having so much popularity in the F2P mobile gaming scene, their presence at NYCC was the first time I had ever heard of the game, but I wish I had heard of it sooner, because I really enjoyed the game’s visuals, since it reminded me of Valkyrie Profile and other old-school JRPGs. The main reason the game was being shown off at NYCC was to promote their new event dungeon, as well as a promotion for Hatsune Miku and Luka as playable characters in the game.

NYCC 2014 Brave Frontier Vocaloids

While I decided to do the interview with them, I felt like I could have asked a few more hard questions regarding how balanced it is from a F2P standpoint, but instead the meeting as a whole stayed very simple. Plus, I ended up saying “awesome” after every response the interviewee gave me, which made me feel pretty silly by the end of it.

Between this interview and the next, I had some time to rest up a bit and take a few more cosplay pictures…

NYCC 2014 Deku Kid Majora

NYCC 2014 Cosplay

NYCC 2014 Cosplay 2

Oh, but guess who I ran into once more? It’s the MK Scorpion cosplayer from last year’s comic-con, and this year, he’s brought some friends along with him!

NYCC 2014 Scorpian Cosplay

NYCC 2014 Mortal Kombat Cosplay

This guy is easily one of the most convincing Scorpion cosplay outfits right along with that Sub-zero outfit. Now if only I could see those two cosplayers together, it would have made my day.

Last up for interviews was an exclusive look at the upcoming action/horror FPS title: Killing Floor 2. NYCC 2014 was the first time they have ever shown live gameplay footage for it and despite the fact that it was being shown in an early alpha stage, the game looked incredibly polished. The footage shown off was under embargo, so no one was allowed to take pictures or shoot footage.

A lot of new systems were shown off such as the “meat system” which allows all zed bodies to be dismembered in various ways. There’s five dismemberment points in the head alone and up to 24 points in total. It’s so detailed that players will even be able to identify organs!

NYCC 2014 Kiling Floor 2

My friend was a huge, diehard Killing Floor fan, with well over 600+ hours logged into the game, so he took the reins on the interview and asked a lot of serious questions, such as game’s connection with the previous Killing Floor game, the new visuals, gameplay changes and more. Overall, the interview went really well, and at the end we were given some great parting gifts, including some DOSH.

NYCC 2014 Dosh Currency

Afterwards, I was pretty much free for the rest of the day, but with all of those back-to-back meetings, I was just about ready to keel over, so I needed to take a good hour or so to rest up. Sadly, after I woke up from my nap, there wasn’t much else going on for me to do, since the event day was almost over. I was thinking about attending a panel for the 3rd season of Video Game High School, but that panel managed to fill up FAST. Once again, I underestimated just how popular the series was and should have showed up a lot earlier…

One more day of NYCC to go! Keep an eye out for the final write-up soon.

NYCC 2014 Cosplay 3

Conquer Online Previews Lee-Long Skills

Conquer Online has been ramping up excitement for its upcoming Lee-Long character, based on Bruce Lee, and today they’ve released a set of skill demo videos to give players an insight into upcoming skills. All of these videos come with the caution that these skills are not yet finalized.

Dragon Punch

Dragon Swing

Dragon Fury

Dragon Kicks

Dragon Cyclone

Dragon Roar

Dragon Flow

Dragon Strides

Jagged Alliance: Flashback Gets Last Major Update

Jagged Alliance

Ahead of Jagged Alliance: Flashback’s October 21st launch, Full Control has today released the last major content update before launch. In addition to unlocking the Angetta and Secret Sectors, making the game now content complete, Full Control has implemented an Energy System, a Morale System, new weapons and a strategic map overhaul. Players can download the Early Access version of Jagged Alliance: Flashback already at its final retail price of $29.99, £24.99, €29.99: http://store.steampowered.com/app/256010/

New Jagged Alliance: Flashback Update Features:

  • Energy System: The energy system aims to create the feeling of exhaustion or vigoration at appropriate times. A unit will run low on energy after sprinting for several consecutive turns, simulating being out of breath, exhaustion or even unconsciousness.
  • Morale System: Every mercenary has their own morale rating. If a unit is shot the morale is reduced. This can cause both the enemy and the player to panic, run away or make deadly mistakes.
  • Drop & Loot system: has been substantially revised, containers are now accessible throughout the game.
  • New enemy spawn system: provides enemies with more varied equipment according to specific experience level and assigns them to unique squads.
  • Improved enemy AI: enemies will now go into cover, move or change stance and use their equipment to the best of their ability
  • 15 new iconic weapons: New handguns, SMGs, assault- and sniper rifles
  • All Sectors unlocked: All Sectors from the final game can now be accessed and explored!
  • Strategic Map UI Overhaul

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

Jagex announces Chronicle: Runescape Legends

Jagex

Jagex, the studio behind the multi-award winning fantasy MMORPG, RuneScape, is pleased to announce the development of a brand new game set in the world of Gielinor. Chronicle: RuneScape Legends (working title) is scheduled to launch in 2015 on PC/Mac, tablet, and mobile platforms, and is a collectible card game. Played out within the pages of a living book the game focuses on quest building, allowing players to craft their own miniature RPGs against enemies, including classic RuneScape boss monsters, before entering into tense PvP combat.

Chronicle: RuneScape Legends made its public debut at RuneFest, which took place on Saturday 11th October at London’s Tobacco Dock. James Sweatman, lead designer of Chronicle: RuneScape Legends, hosted the unveiling of the game at RuneFest, and afterwards commented: “We’ve been quietly developing Chronicle: RuneScape Legends since the start of the year to ensure that it’s not only a fun and compelling player experience, but one still very much interwoven into the rich lore of RuneScape. We’re looking forward to sharing more information on the game over the coming months, especially in regards to Chronicle’s debut on tablet and mobile!”

“RuneScape has been the foundation for Jagex’s success for more than 13 years, and it’s exciting to broaden the brand’s appeal with the compelling quest building gameplay offered by Chronicle,” said Phil Mansell, vice president of RuneScape. “Chronicle: RuneScape Legends represents an important step for Jagex as we add a new game into the RuneScape family. This announcement tops a strong 2014 where our flagship title has continued to thrive.”