DC Universe Online focuses on the adventures of Batman in part 2 of their 75th anniversary special.
DCUO Adventures with the Bat 75 Years Special
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Yearly Archives: 2014
DCUO Building Batman 75 Years Special
DC Universe Online focuses the spotlight on Batman’s 75th anniversary by looking at his rise.
League of Legends: Doom Bots now available
After weeks of tweaks and tests, the Doom Bots of Doom have been set loose onto live in a new update for Riot’s League of Legends. If you’re looking to test your abilities against League’s craziest challenge yet, then sign up and play today. What’s more, play a game against the Doom Bots and you’ll earn a unique summoner icon regardless of whether you win or lose.
The new doom bots will be available until July 27th, so participate today.
For more info, visit http://na.leagueoflegends.com/en/news/game-updates/features/doom-bots-doom-have-come
League of Legends DoomBots vs Shoutcasters
Can Riot Games’ top esports casters handle the insanity of the DoomBots?
Endless Legend Beta Impressions – Endless Strategy
By Jordan Hall (ApocaRUFF)
Endless Legend is a new turn-based strategy game from the creators of well-received Endless Space, Amplitude Studios. That game considers itself a 4X game. That is eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate. In Endless Legend, you will take control of one of the eight playable civilizations within the game, each with its own unique storyline and play-style. The game is currently in its beta stages and is available for early purchase through Steam’s Early Access program.
Explore
In keeping with the 4X theme of the game, I’ve decided to title each section of this early look with one of the X’s. This first section will center around the exploration part of the game. Early on, you will realize that exploration is a pretty big part of the game, like most 4X games. This means you’ll more than likely have one or more armies dedicated to simply exploring the map looking for ruins or potential city sites.
Ruins are fairly interesting in that you can send search parties into them to potentially find treasures, such as hidden or lost technologies. You can also find other sites which can provide bonuses to cities built around them, such as Wizard Stones or Earth Towers. Finding these sites aren’t hard, as the map is full of them. Chances are, you’ll run into a lot of them around your starting location and choosing to place your first city near one can give you a decent edge over the other civilizations playing.
One thing I liked immediately was the amount of customization you get when choosing the specs of your game world before you begin playing. From the size of the world, to the temperature/climate. You even get to choose the size of the various regions in the world, the shape of the world, or the size of the world as a whole. There are even more settings to choose from if you go into the “Advanced Settings” of each category. If you are a fan of these types of strategy games, you’re going to love the options here.
One interesting feature I came across was the seasons. Right now, there seems to be only two and I’m not sure if it’ll be diversified later on. The two seasons are summer and winter. Summer is your “normal” season, with no effects added on to you. Winter, however, is a completely different cookie and there are a number of negative modifiers attached to it. The effects aren’t so bad that you won’t be able to accomplish anything in winter, but you will do a bit more planning and perhaps a bit more sitting back while it is in effect.
Expand
Expansion is a pretty important part of Endless Legend. You won’t get anywhere if you stick with just one or two cities and never cross into enemy territory. City building is a bit more involved than you might find in a typical 4X. Sure, it has the usual stuff such as city upgrades, but there are other things involved such as population growth overtime, or upgrades to a city that will actually physically expand the limits of the city into other hexes.
As I mentioned, you can build cities near various types of sites in order to give them bonuses. For example, you could build a city near a destroyed city of one of the Minor Factions and gain the ability to expand that city into the ruins of the old one in order to build something like “Haunts.” Or you could build near an Emerald Deposit to get bonuses to moral and Dust from trade. What civilization you choose to play also gives you fairly unique options for upgrading your city as well – such as the Sewer System technology that the Wildwalkers start with that improves the happiness of your cities’ populations.
Minor Factions are scattered all around the map. These are factions that aren’t on the scale of the larger factions, but can provide a challenge. You can assimilate them into your own empire, gaining bonuses and the ability to make use of their unit types. You can also freely set up new cities within their territories (after you’ve conquered them, I suggest). Early on, along with roaming armies – which I will get into under “Exterminate” – they are a good source of early experience for heroes and other units.
Speaking of heroes, these are an interesting part of the game. They’re not anything new to the genre, but they are something fun. You can equip them with gear, level them up to make them stronger, and even make use of a skill tree that will not just improve the heroes’ abilities, but the abilities of your whole faction. And these improvements aren’t limited to combat, either. You could choose to make one of your heroes improve your production. So far, it seems like a hero can’t die, either. They just become disabled for a period of time.
Exploit
Diplomacy is a pretty important part of the game. Chances are, you’re going to be using it a decent amount in both single player and multiplayer games. The good thing is that Endless Legend’s diplomacy system is easy to grasp. Unfortunately, though, not all diplomacy features are enabled yet (remember, I’m playing a beta version of the game). So more advanced things like treaties are out of my grasp right now.
The technology research system in the game is interesting, yet simple. You can queue up several technologies to be researched (the highest I ever went up to is ten), which is nice. There are also several “tiers” of technologies, too. To unlock new tiers, you must meet certain requirements. In the beta, there are currently four tiers of technology, but there are two more (for a total of six) shown on the technology menu that have nothing on them yet.
There are certain “strategic resources” that can be used to give you an advantage. You can get these resources through quests, or from building special buildings on tiles with these strategic resources on them. You can choose to use the resources to buy more advanced gear for your heroes, or you can choose to sacrifice them to provide your empire with a boost.
Exterminate
I was honestly quite surprised by how much I enjoyed the combat in Endless Legend. Combat was far from my favorite part of Endless Space, so I wasn’t expecting much. The combat is a turn-based, Hex-based system that makes use of terrain and other factors. Or, if you don’t feel like manually running the battle, you can choose to have it done automatically. More often than not, I chose to do the battle manually as I found it fun figuring on the strategies that would keep my units from getting slaughtered.
I’m sure there is a lot of stuff to be added or polished when it comes to the combat system, but already there is more than meets the eye. There are a number of factors you will need to take into account if you don’t plan to lose a bunch of your units and disable your heroes. When you first start, you’ll probably feel like the odds are stacked against you and the AI is much stronger than it should be. Or at least, I did. But, after a couple of dozen battles you’ll start to learn the ins-and-outs of the various units from your faction and from others.
Beta State Conclusion: Great
Endless Legend is shaping up to be a very good game. It has the plethora of options and customization that made Endless Space so fun, and adds in a slew of its own unique features to set it apart. I enjoyed the combat a lot more than I thought I would, thanks in part to the unit leveling and customization of the heroes. There are even story-driven elements and plenty of mythical landscapes and beasts to take on, making the game’s fantasy theme come to life. If you’re looking for a new turn-based strategy game, I would say definitely keep an eye on Endless Legend, I personally cannot wait to try the game once it’s fully released and all features are enabled.
Kabam’s “Fast & Furious 6”: Now on Facebook
Kabam, the leader in the western world for free-to-play core games, today released its hit game Fast & Furious 6: The Game on Facebook. The move makes adrenaline-fueled street racing action available through a browser on Facebook’s global platform. The game was developed through a licensing agreement with Universal Partnerships & Licensing.
Based on the global blockbuster movie franchise, Fast & Furious 6: The Game has been available on mobile devices for more than one year. Releasing the game on Facebook opens a vast new global audience and marks the first fully cross-platform game from Kabam, allowing players to easily continue their same game from mobile devices to traditional browser-based computing environments via Facebook. The Fast & Furious franchise currently has the largest fan base of all active film franchises with more than 300 million fans and followers on official film and talent pages along with more than 1 billion friends of fans.
“Fast & Furious 6: The Game on mobile has been a breakthrough game for Kabam,” said Mike DeLaet, Senior Vice President of Worldwide Business Development at Kabam. “The game’s AAA quality, exciting racing action and real-life cars have been a hit with mobile players worldwide. Opening the game’s world on Facebook gives existing players more flexibility and introduces the game to new audiences around the world.”
Upon its launch in May 2013, Fast & Furious 6: The Game became an instant hit, zooming to the top of the app charts in more than 100 countries. Apple named the game as Editor’s Choice in more than 90 countries. Since then, the game has racked up more than 52 million installs globally.
“Fast & Furious 6: The Game is the perfect title to show how quickly companies can take their games cross platform with Facebook,” said Dan Morris, Director of Games Partnerships, Facebook. “This Unity-based game on Facebook allows players to enjoy high-fidelity play across mobile and web without losing any of their gameplay between platforms.”
For more info, visit https://www.kabam.com/
Total Domination: Remade for iOS mobile platforms
Plarium, a leading mobile and social game developer, has launched a host of updates for their flagship mobile RTS strategy game Total Domination: Reborn. The update includes the addition of Emitters, new characters and artillery units.
Total Domination™: Reborn has already been incredibly popular, with over 30 million installs on the web and has now reached the top 15 spot for strategy games on iTunes in the US.
To complement the addition of Emitters, which are fortresses located on the global map that Clans secure in order to maintain their ranking and prestige, Plarium is releasing a new Imperial Map, capable of zooming up to 3 times normal visibility for more precise scouting of the terrain.
The Imperial map is a new scale on the game map that displays Clans according to their political influence; along with the location of Emitters and their current upgrade levels. Captured Emitters will appear on the map with the occupying Clan’s logo. To view the Imperial Map, select one of the scale buttons in the upper left corner of the screen or pinch close to zoom out.
The Emitters may be heavily defended by Stalkers, Mutants, and the occupying forces of rival Clans – so attempting a successful attack will require careful planning and execution. Once a Clan has captured an Emitter, its members must pool their resources towards upgrading it. Upgrades and additional fuel will increase an Emitter’s Defensive Bonus during attacks, along with its overall output capacity.
As clans capture Emitters – they are shown on the new map view. The more Emitters the Clan captures – the bigger the area or range it controls on the Imperial Map. Emitters can be upgraded up to level 5 using resources. This also expands the range. Clans can capture any Emitter, even those that are occupied by a rival clan. Following these new updates, Clan rankings will be organized according to their range in the Wasteland.
Valerie Korzh, Lead Project coordinator for Plarium’s Mobile Gaming Department explained in further detail: “We are currently at the stage where we provide enough individual challenges within TD: Reborn, and now want to focus on the expansion of the MMO aspects of the game. We believe the players will rise to a whole new level of mobile MMO challenges and appreciate the new and enhanced capabilities that the imperial map brings in terms of co-operative play”.
For more info, visit https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/total-domination-reborn/id523660889?mt=8
Warframe: Update 14 Now Available For PC
Digital Extremes continues to lead the charge in driving AAA quality into the Free-to-Play market today with the release of a massive new update for its hit sci-fi action game, Warframe®. The new PC update titled – Update 14: The Mad Cephalon focuses on simplifying the new user experience and immersing the player further into the universe of Warframe. This includes a completely redesigned user-interface introducing players to their new player ship, The Liset; an exciting new Quest system starting with Vor’s Prize; arrival of the highly anticipated pet companions, The Kubrow; and, the unveiling of a new Warframe – Mirage, the master of illusion; plus, so much more.
“We’re putting the ‘B’ back in Beta with this update,” joked Steve Sinclair, creative director at Digital Extremes. “Seriously though, we need a new word for Beta. It just doesn’t fully encompass the evolutionary process that games like Warframe go through over their lifetime. Getting endless feedback from our players along with our own ambitions for the game makes us continually work to improve it. Sometimes that means re-working major foundational components to the game like the new-player experience. This entire experience has been a game changer for us — direct player connection — tap into it, nurture it, know what to take from it and a game can become more than you ever imagined it to be.”
The community-driven interactive approach to development has paid off for the team as Warframe has just reached 10 million registered users worldwide on PC and PS4™ in just over a year into its Open Beta. The Kickstarter-style development and community passion for the game has helped it become the most downloaded game on the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system and will release on Xbox One later this summer.
Primary highlights of this impressive update include:
- NEW PLAYER EXPERIENCE – Immerse yourself into the re-imagined user interface and menus aboard your personal spacecraft, The Liset. A meaningful Quest walks new players through Warframe, providing essential information on gameplay, lore, game modes and menus and introduces players to Ordis, the ship’s Cephalon, a guiding voice on The Liset.
- PET COMPANIONS – A new Quest unlocks a Genetic Foundry used for breeding biological specimens on your ship! Breed a Kubrow by collecting a Kubrow egg and incubating it in the Genetic Foundry. Different Kubrow personality types have different combat and non-combat abilities. Make your Kubrow more combat effective by caring for it and equipping powerful link mods. Create genetic imprints of your Kubrow that you can trade with fellow Tenno and combine to create your perfect pet!
- NEW WARFRAME – A master of illusion, Mirage confounds the enemy in a spectacle of style and power. MIRAGE’s powers include traps, clones and more.
- QUESTS – Explore re-playable Quests with unlockable difficulty selection. This new Warframe experience opens with the debut Quest, Vor’s Prize.
- NEW DARK SECTORS CONFLICTS – Introducing a new player-versus-player game mode to replace the existing Dark Sectors Solar Rails conflict game mode. Choose which Clan or Alliance you wish to support and play the role of Attacker or Defender on a multi-staged objective mission! Up to four human players per side, with empty player slots auto-filled by Spectres.
- NEW WEAPONS, including the AKZANI and SILVA AND AEGIS
- EXPANDED GAME MODES – The Infested have overtaken Eris. Hive Sabotage, Exterminate, and Survival Game Modes now available!
For more info, visit www.warframe.com
Heroes of the Storm Starcraft Master Skin Teaser
Heroes of the Storm reveals the ultimate skin buys for the Starcraft based heroes.
Warframe Mirage Reveal Trailer
Warframe introduces the newest character, Mirage, a tricky devil that packs plenty of light bending tricks to dazzle and destroy opponents.