Yearly Archives: 2014

Arena: Cyber Evolution Early Look

By Jordan Hall (ApocaRUFF)

 

 

Arena: Cyber Evolution is an Early Access game currently available on Steam, created for the sole purpose of facilitating intense e-sports action. It’s being developed by Spearhead Games and they’re putting all their love for e-sports into this title. The goal of Arena: Cyber Evolution is to cash-in on the growing popularity of competitive play by providing a fantastic team-based game that has a striking resemblance to a few of the world’s physical sports, combined with the action-packed gameplay we find in MOBAs. The result? The world’s first MOSA – Multiplayer Online Sports Arena. And let’s not forget the catchy acronym, ACE.

 

 

How’s It Played?

The goals are simple enough – you want to get the puck into the enemies’ net, while defending your own. With its teams of three, you generally get someone acting as “Goalie” with two others working on pushing the puck to the opposing side of the arena. What sets this apart is the MOBA-like characters that each come with their own special abilities. For example, one character has the ability to buff allies with a speedboost. Another can turn invisible for a duration and even teleport short distances.

Arena: Cyber Evolution Preview Stealth

To turn up the competitive notch, the developers have it so you are only capable of using your abilities a few times a match. Each character has two abilities to make use of. The first, activated with the right mouse button by default, is a useful utility in most cases, such as the speed buff I mentioned before. The second ability is known as the “ultimate” and is activated by spacebar. This move can be a complete game changer when used correctly. Yet you will only get a couple chances tops to use it in a game, so its activation can be a clear sign of your experience, or level of novice at the game.

Arena: Cyber Evolution Preview Ultimate

As I said, the game is played in teams of three, so a total of six people per match. I honestly would like it if more people were allowed to play. But the arena is the perfect size for that number of players. I’m hoping that later down the line there will be more gamemodes or changes that will allow for up to five people – especially considering that while I was playing with friends, we ran into the issue of not all of us being able to play on the same team. While we still had fun, it was a bit frustrating due to the small team sizes.

Arena: Cyber Evolution Preview Teams

The matches themselves tend to go by fast. Each match only lasts a few minutes, with the count-down starting whenever the puck is in play, and stopping when it’s not. Whoever has the highest score when the count-down of the match is over, wins. I like this because it keeps the matches short and sweet, rather than long and drawn-out affairs. It also makes it a lot easier to play when I’m lacking the thirty minutes to an hour necessary to be sure my match of SMITE, League of Legends, or DOTA 2 isn’t interrupted early.

 

 

The Characters

So far, character selection is fairly limited. I’m guessing they’ll end up adding more as time goes on. They all seem balanced and set up for one role or another. You do run into the typical MOBA ‘archetypes’ which I think are neat. For example, the big burly robot essentially fills the role of a tank in a typical MOBA, and is often left to be the goalie. I found it interesting that my friends who I play MOBAs with fell into similar roles as they would when playing something like Smite, while playing ACE.

Arena: Cyber Evolution Preview  Character Select

There is a bit of progression in the game. As you progress, you can unlock certain upgrades that can be applied to characters to give them some boosts in matches. If you’re willing to pay a bit of money, you can also get cosmetic items and skins for the characters. Setting up my Nitrogen Queen with the Red Queen skin and Top Hat was nice. I wish more of these types of games allowed for more customization than just the skins.

Arena: Cyber Evolution Preview  Nitrogen Queen

 

 

The Arena

You’ve noticed my mentioning of “the field” by now. The field in ACE is fairly special. Due to its cyber-nature, it isn’t bound to the same static changes that we have in reality. For example, it’s not uncommon to find strong winds blowing you about, or having the arena suddenly turn to ice to make movement a bit more slippery. I’m guessing these weather changes are to keep things interesting and provide an element of randomness, and they certainly accomplish that.

Arena: Cyber Evolution Preview  Arena Ice

Other than that, the arena is fairly standard. Walls around the edges, two goals, just enough room to allow for a bit of travel but small enough to keep things interesting. At times, though, I did feel a bit claustrophobic with the size of it all. I personally like a lot of room for movement and with the current map I feel it’s a bit too easy for players to cluster together and turn the game into a bumping/puck stealing fest. It’s a bit hilarious to see four players spinning around, losing and stealing the puck over and over until someone eventually manages to grab it and move enough to make a shot.

Arena: Cyber Evolution Preview Arena

 

 

The Graphics

The graphics aren’t super high-quality next-gen, but they can be pleasing to the eye. That being said, I do hope that the devs release some higher graphics settings. This is especially needed when it comes to the character models. During some portions of play, even at the highest resolution and settings, I noticed that some of the characters looked a bit pixel-y. And this is only an issue while in a match – at character selection, the models look fantastic. It’s not a major problem, but I don’t see why keeping the graphics low quality would be a need in this game, especially with the power of most modern machines. Anyone who plans to play a game competitively will have invested a few hundred dollars in their machine. Perhaps it’s just the nearly top-down perspective the game is played at and how zoomed out you are that creates this effect on the character models?

Arena: Cyber Evolution Preview Characters

The arena looked fantastic. It had a very nice futuristic feel that matches the “cyber” theme of the game. Again, though, when you look at something a bit close, you do notice a blocky/simplistic nature to it. I’m not sure if this was done on purpose of aesthetics (League of Legends in much the same way), to reduce on the system requirements, or if they’ve just not released the fully polished map skin into Early Access yet. All that said, as long as you’re looking at the whole (which is most of the time), there’s nothing to complain about.

Arena: Cyber Evolution Preview  Arena Graphics

 

 

Instant Replay

Whenever a score is made, the game immediately goes into an “instant reply” mode and displays the moments leading up to the score. I found this extremely helpful, as a lot of the time things go by so fast you don’t realize how you managed to lose the puck and have the enemy make a point. It also shows the reply from different angles and perspectives, which can be quite enlightening. I found myself improving rapidly thanks to this feature, although a couple of my friends did find it a bit annoying rather than a blessing.

Arena: Cyber Evolution Preview Replay

 

 

Conclusion: Great

Arena: Cyber Evolution, or ACE, is shaping up to be quite the fun game. There is some room for improvement, but that’s to be expected of an Early Access game. What’s surprising is all the things Spearhead Games is doing right. When I was first introduced to the title, I was a bit skeptical – I feared this would just be another attempt at re-hashing and cashing in on the MOBA craze. However, I was delighted to find my fears were unfound, and I was able to have a blast with the game. Definitely check it out if you’re looking for a new F2P competitive game. You can currently find ACE on Steam and hop into the game for free!

 

Want more ACE? Catch JamesBl0nde’s Refresher video!

FEAR Online: Launching on Steam October 17th

Fear Online

Aeria Games, a leading global publisher of free-to-play online games, today announced F.E.A.R. Online will launch on the Steam platform on October 17. The game will be available prior to the Steam release for open beta via the Aeria Games portal on October 8. Players can sign up now on the F.E.A.R. website.

Fans of the celebrated horror franchise will be able to engage in new, terrifying experiences within the F.E.A.R. universe. Following player feedback from the closed beta, an extensive redesign and gameplay adjustments make for a truly unique first-person shooter game. With the addition of new maps, a new scenario, and a redesigned crafting system which allows for making one-of-a-kind weapons, F.E.A.R. Online will deliver what fans have been asking for.

“We are excited to introduce F.E.A.R. Online to millions of PC gamers with the launch on the Steam platform,” said Dr. Pascal Zuta, CEO of Aeria Games. “Taking player feedback to heart, our team has redesigned elements of the game that are most important to players to deliver an experience that we hope will please the vast and dedicated fan base of the F.E.A.R. series.”

In F.E.A.R. Online, tensions reach a boiling point as the F.E.A.R. task force investigates Armacham Technology Corporation’s unsettling experiments.With several team combat modes spanning more than ten ominous maps, the game is packed with chilling details. The storyline continues in cooperative scenarios that detail the terrifying occurrences surrounding the F.E.A.R. team, in parallel to the events of F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin. Up to four players can team up and fight for their lives against both hostile Armacham personnel and hideous monsters lurking around every corner.

Beginning October 17, F.E.A.R. Online can be downloaded on Steam via the following link: http://store.steampowered.com/app/223650. Players can keep up-to-date on additional news about the game on the official Facebook page.

Moon Hunters: New details for Kickstarter rewards and more

Moon Hunters

Kitfox Games has recently revealed their plans for their upcoming co-op action game: Moon Hunters, as well as their planned schedule for any and all goods promoted from their Kickstarter campaign. The details are as follows.

  • Next week: Kitfox Games will send initial surveys for backers to get physical reward choices, mailing addresses, names for Special Thanks, and start working with backers who are contributing content to the game like villagers, animals, myth, boss fights, etc.
  • Next week part 2: They will open pre-orders of the game through a Humble widget on the moonhuntersgame.com website
  • October: Prototyping
  • November/December: Fulfilling physical rewards — t-shirts, posters, fabric prints, postcards
  • Spring(?): early beta testing, especially of online components, through Steam
  • In-between beta and launch, we send copies of the soundtrack and ask what kind of game key backers want (Steam, PS4, etc)
  • Summer(?): hopefully launch?

For more info, visit moonhuntersgame.com

Legend of Edda: Level cap raise to 40 starting Oct.1st

Legend of Edda

JC Planet reveals that [Legend of Edda: Global Edition]’s level cap will be raised on Oct. 1st. The cap will add 10 new levels. Along with the Level raises, first update brings several significant changes to the game including reveal of unknown territory and new dungeons. Edda team expects that pristine area and added dungeon would wake of your adventurous journey of Legend of Edda: Global Edition.

Moreover, Edda team opened item mall to maximize players’ convenience on Sep. 26th. Every player can customize their characters as they wish with tones of cute and sleek items from now on. If you conquer every quest of Edda, it’s time to challenge the new world of Legend of Edda: Global Edition.

For more info, visit https://edda.jcplanet.com/Event/OpenEvent

Worlds of Magic Early Access

By Andy Skelton, Guest Writer

 

Master of Magic is a beloved game for many.  Released in 1994, the game tasked you to dominate two linked worlds from humble beginnings.  Along the way, you gathered heroes, learned new and powerful spells, and laid waste to any enemy foolish enough to challenge your armies.  Worlds of Magic, by Lucid Dreamers Development, seeks to recreate that classic 4X (Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate) feeling, combining tried-and-true staples with newer, unique systems to elevate it.  As a fan of Master of Magic, I was excited to be able to get my hands on an early version of Worlds of Magic.  With such a lofty goal in mind, does the game feel like a worthy heir, or does it only fall short of that former glory?

 

World of Magic Preview Select Battleground

Many Are the Planes on Which We Live

Worlds of Magic lives up to the first word of its title when it comes to world generation.  You select the type for the three main planes of existence – Prime, Air, and Shadow.  Each plane can be 30, 50, or 70 percent of the overall world, and can be divided into Pangea, Two or Three Continents, or Islands.  With a world in mind, I selected a Prime plane of 50% land with three continents, a plane of Air with 30% land as islands, and a Pangea Shadow realm with 70% land mass.

World of Magic Preview World Planes

Another world generation option allows you to select the number of AI opponents to go up against, the overall world size (small, medium, large, et al), and whether to allow fast movement for the units on the map.  After having played the game a while without fast movement, I definitely feel the option should be on by default.

The game then has you choose one of four factions:  High Men, Unhallowed (think undead), Grey Elves, and Draconians.  Each race has their own feel to them, and the units available to each are quite different even with similar buildings.  Humans are decent all-around, but lack significant specialization.  Unhallowed don’t suffer from civil unrest, but need corrupted ground for their cities, and can never make allies with other Lords.  Grey Elves are incredibly mobile, but are physically weak.  Draconians have the advantage of flight, but develop very slowly and have the highest amount of unrest.

World of Magic Preview Unhallowed

 

Wizard’s First Rule(r)

After deciding to take the boring route of hum – high men, it was time to actually create my own Lord.  There are six default lords, each with their own traits, but where’s the fun in playing someone else when you can create yourself as a wizard?  Worlds of Magic offers 22 Disciplines, which offer various benefits, such as Cartographer providing a full world map right away, or Summoner reducing the cost of conjuring creatures for your army.  You start with 12 skill points to distribute between any of the disciplines and spell schools to create a Lord however you wish.

World of Magic Preview Create Lord

I chose to go with five ranks in Air, two in Augmentation, and three in Mentalism for my spell schools.  I also chose to take Cartographer, Lucky, Channeler, and Warlord as my disciplines.  The astute will realize, however, that’s more than 12 points spent!  Worlds of Magic also has six Negative Disciplines that you can take to gain additional skill points, but with the downside of significant drawbacks to one or more game systems.  In this case, I chose Opulent, which gave a 10% penalty to my gold, food, and production in cities (presumably so I could live the high life of the grand wizard or whatever I’d call myself).

World of Magic Preview Starting Spells

Once you’ve tinkered your Lord to perfection, you then get to select your starting spells based on the number of ranks you put in each of the spell schools.  Obviously, this meant five Air, two Augmentation, and three Mental spells for me.  One interesting thing I noted was each starting spell is shared across two of the schools of magic, which allows for a much more diverse starting pool, even if there aren’t terribly many starting spells to take currently.  You can also select a flag color to be displayed on your cities, and your character portrait – unfortunately, you’ve only the option of the six default Lords to choose from there.

 

World of Magic Preview Helper Tips

How to Train Your Magician

Like many games of the type, Worlds of Magic does not offer any sort of tutorial for new players.  Thankfully, it does offer some pretty comprehensive and helpful pop up hints for every aspect of gameplay.  These cover troop movement, city management, spell research, combat, and more.  In fact, the only downside I found to these hints is that they would come up every single time you took an action, unless the “Don’t show this hint again” box was selected.  A minor thing, but some players might get grumpy at having to see the same tooltips over and over again.

I stated before that I felt the faster movement option from world creation needed to be on by default, and that’s one of the major challenges the game faces currently.  The game feels very slow overall.  Cities take a long time to develop, and they focus on building population first, rather than production.  Couple that with a laughably weak starting army and you instantly feel the grind you’re in for.  It may not have helped that I took Opulence as a negative discipline, but 10% didn’t seem it would make much difference.

 

World of Magic Preview Combat

Pointy End Towards Opponent

One thing I absolutely found fascinating about Worlds of Magic was the fact it uses the D20 ruleset.  This is an easily recognized system for most players, and has the advantage of having been play-tested by millions, so it’s a sound basis for combat.  It plays very well with the tactical combat Worlds of Magic offers.  Combat takes place on a grid, and each unit can only move a certain number of spaces, each round.  Melee units can also only attack adjacent spaces.  This lead to being wiped out several times by ranged units, who can strike the entire field with their attacks.  Multiple ranged units currently seem like a death sentence to any army foolish enough not to bring their own.

“Wait!” you shout, “You’re a wizard though!”  That much is true; however, magic is currently rather on the weak side, and a lot of spells aren’t necessary worth the mana cost to use.  Thankfully, the developers are quite aware they need to put the magic back in Worlds of Magic, and will address this balance issue in the near future.

 

World of Magic Preview Power

I’ve Got That Magical Feeling

The game definitely lets you customize your character in some fairly subtle ways.  Your spell choices are linked to your starting magic schools, for instance, and you can only research spells from them.  You can also allocate Power (based on population, buildings, and your Lord) to Mana, Research, and Spellcraft.  Mana dictates your starting mana in battles, as well as how much is allocated each turn to cast spells and enchantments on the overworld.  Research determines how fast you research new spells.  Finally, Spellcraft is your overall spell casting ability, and a higher amount gives you better rolls when trying to attack monsters, cast debuffs, and other assorted tasks.

World of Magic Preview Magic to Gold

If you’re sitting on an excess of mana, you can also convert it to gold to help your empire grow, through Alchemy.  Gold will then allow you to build your cities faster and make your armies stronger, with little regard to actual production values.  The game also gives you an easy way to view any and all enchantments affecting the world, be it per unit, by ruler, or overall.

 

Conclusion

For fans of Master of Magic, Worlds of Magic will be very comforting.  The game is very much a spiritual successor, with new features to keep things fresh and interesting.  Certain features, such as heroes, are currently missing from the game, but are planned in the near future to give the game even more depth.  There’s a vibrant community on the forums that the developers are very engaged with, which also promises great things for the future of the game.

World of Magic Preview City

As it stands, though, the game does have its problems.  It feels very sluggish overall.  A lot of magic is incredibly weak, and ranged attacks are dominating.  Additionally, there’s very little in the way of multiplayer right now, with the only option being PvP arenas (and even then, there are only four maps to choose from).  Still, with what the developers seem to be promising, and what the community is providing in terms of feedback, Worlds of Magic will be worth checking out for any Master of Magic fans, as well as those who enjoy a good 4X style game with a magical twist.