DizzyPW tests out the newest character in Elsword at Kill3rCombo’s office to see what the master of the Grand Chase brings to the table.
Elsword Elesis and Yama Raja Closer Look
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Yearly Archives: 2014
LOTRO Update 13: The Breaking of Isengard Preview
By W.B. Wemyss (Tagspeech)
Turbine’s Lord of the Rings Online has been detailing an expansive, interactive chronicle of the iconic high fantasy series for roughly the past decade. They’ve taken players through the Mines of Moria, to the fires of Angmar, and even into the dungeons of Isengard, the white tower ruled over by the betrayer, Sarumon. If all of this is gibberish to you, then you’re not a Tolkien nerd like myself and most of LOTRO’s playerbase. That’s fine! The game itself has continued to be a well-crafted love letter to the setting, diverging strongly from the art direction of the mainstream films to maintain a classic, ‘by the books’ interpretation of the setting.
The next phase in that story is the end of Volume 3, heralded by the famous march of the Ents against Isengard. The tower that once loomed oppressively over the lands of Middle Earth will be torn down in the next content patch, though players will still be able to visit the upright and doom-bringing tower through phased content in older quests. But as of the update, Isengard will be a flooded ruin, and the Ents, a race of powerful and ancient tree-folk, will walk among the rubble directing adventurers on how to best assist them in reclaiming the woods and cleaning up the awful mess.
From the ruined tower above to the flooded dungeons below, for long-time players that enjoyed the Rise of Isengard content, seeing the dungeons that once trapped them in utter ruins might be a terribly vindicating experience. This sort of steady, consistent progression in world storytelling is what LOTRO is famous for, and as of this update, new players will be able to faithfully follow the progression of the trilogy up to the end of The Two Towers, more or less.
In this update, the developers hit a bit of a snag – their previous expansion, Helm’s Deep, details events that happen concurrently with the march of the Ents against Isengard in the trilogy. It would be difficult for players even remotely familiar with the landscape of Middle Earth to believe that their character could simultaneously fight alongside the Ents while fighting in Helm’s Deep. There’s also the fact that in the books, no adventurers were present among the Ents who marches on Isengard – it was an all-tree affair, with the exception of Merry and Pippin. So, what to do?
The answer was to allow players to play as an Ent through a storytelling flashback brought on by speaking with Merry and Pippin in the aftermath of the destruction of Isengard. In this tale the player takes on the role of Treebeard, chief among Ents, and serves up Ent draft to the Hobbits as guests – the magical tree water also very subtly increases the height of Merry and Pippin thereafter, something only the most perceptive of players would notice.
They’ll then attend to the Great Moot, or the meeting of all Ents, and discuss what to do about Saruman and Isengard in Ent speak. Of course, in the books, the language of the Ents is many times more ponderous than ours, and so throughout the course of the conversation players can see a time-lapsed world where Merry and Pippin skitter about, take naps, eat, and the sun moves across the sky rapidly. This sort of fastidious attention to detail in the game’s storytelling is once again the shine that sets LOTRO apart from the competition.
Cosmetic pets will be introduced in this content patch as quest rewards. There are no plans as of yet to make cosmetic pets something purchasable from the premium currency store. These pets are actually a new feature in the relatively conservative and slow-paced LOTRO, and players have hopes of seeing them expanded into a variety of companions. Immersion remains the name of the game, and to that end, incremental quests are being introduced. These are quests that involve steps with eighteen hours of waiting inbetween, to allow events to transpire. These quests can be anywhere from four, five, or six steps, and tell a story over the course of a week. A far less mind-numbing alternative to the daily quest grind, in my opinion.
Of course, all the usual perks and rewards will be included in this content patch. New gear, new recipes, new skirmishes, and new instanced dungeons for players to explore. There will be quests that take players through the deep woods of Fangorn with an Ent at their side, pointing out things to do, and dynamically assigning quests and tasks, cutting down on the monotony of “go to quest hub, gather quests, do quests, return.” The goal of this patch seems to be introducing new and fun ways to consume content, something most players of the PVE-centric title can no doubt get behind.
After this update, which marks the closing of Volume 3, players will be waiting patiently for announcements regarding the much-anticipated Volume 4. This will take players into the south of Middle Earth, to the massive and fabled white city of Gondor. The city is no doubt something the developers want to get right, and will pose a serious logistical challenge. Here’s hoping they nail it. There will also be a new class announced in the next three weeks. So far there have been no details given as to the nature of the class, and players can only speculate how it will fit into the game’s lore.
The update for the fall of Isengard and the March of the Ents will be landing on April 14th. LOTRO continues to be a well-oiled, story-driven PVE machine. For anyone who loves the Lord of the Rings and a solid MMORPG experience, it’s certainly one of the better choices available today. Of course, I’m biased, because I’m a Tolkien nerd and a big fan of meticulous storytelling. Take my recommendation with a grain of salt!
Tagspeech is the alias of author W.B. Wemyss, who was responsible for the bizarre cyberpunk fever dream called Children of Athena.
HAWKEN’s March Patch Now Available
Meteor Interactive has announced the availability of HAWKEN’s March patch on Steam, featuring gameplay improvements, Co-op Challenges, and Cockpit Customizations. Highlights of the update include-
Faster Mechs: Walk and boost speed is increased for all mechs by about 10%, making it easier to move around without boosting and getting back in the fight quicker.
Co-op Challenges: This new system lets you set challenge mods on Co-op Bot Destruction Matches to increase difficulty and rewards. Challenges include Speed Freaks, Glass Cannon, and Trust Your Eye.
Cockpit Customizations: Change HUD Colors, Reticles, and Decorations.
You can read the full release notes here.
First Phase of PlanetSide 2 Missions System Now Live
The first phase of the new Missions System in PlanetSide 2 is now live! Getting players into the action faster, the Missions System acts as a player guide for finding offensive or defensive objectives, and enables greater coordination between squads and platoons. Now, players will always have a mission to complete. With the next phases of the Missions System, players can expect to see player created missions, additional rewards, expansion of available mission types and more.
Additionally, today’s game update brings new membership benefits, including a Members-only double XP extended weekend. Also, this weekend is the Spring Splurge sales event. Starting today, players will have access to massive discounts in the marketplace on guns, camos, helmets, vehicle gear and more. Info on the extended sales weekend can be found here.
Lastly, in case you missed it, the PlanetSide 2 team also recently announced a brand new vehicle in development, the Valkyrie, set for release this summer. A fast-attack aircraft, the Valkyrie holds a small squad of four and acts as a quick response method for jumping around between battles.
For more information on the Missions System, Valkyrie and other future content, visit the PlanetSide 2 Roadmap.
Loadout Update 2.0: Domination is Now Live
Edge of Reality has announced the launch of Update 2.0 for Loadout! The new update includes a new map, Spires; a new game mode, Domination; Steam Achievements; and new weapon parts and equipment. In addition, there’s also new features, new character customization parts, and of course, balancing and bug fixes.
For a complete list of changes in Update 2.0 go here.
Planets³ Kickstarter Interview
Questions by Jordan Hall (ApocaRUFF)
Answers by Michel Thomazeau, Planets³ Project Director and Cubical Drift CEO
Planets³ is an up-and-coming voxel-based free-roam RPG, similar to titles like Starbound and Minecraft but with a stronger story-driven experience. It is being developed by Cubical Drift, a team made up of individuals with many years of game development experience. Planets³, pronounced Planets Cube, hopes to combine the story-driven experience of RPGs with the free-roam and building element of sandbox games. It uses a custom built voxel engine to provide infinite creativity. Luckily, I got to sit down with Michel Thomazeau, the Project Director of Planets³, and talk about the Kickstarter project.
ApocaRUFF:Hello and thank you for taking the time to answer our questions! Please introduce yourself to our readers and tell us about what you do within the Planets³ project.
Michel: My name is Michel Thomazeau, and I am the project director of Planets³ and the CEO of the Cubical Drift Company. My main focus with the Planets³ Project is the conception and design. I help on the development too.
ApocaRUFF:Can you give us a brief overview on the project itself?
Michel: Planets³ is all about bringing RPG over a voxel world.
ApocaRUFF:What influenced you and your team to want to create Planets³?
Michel: We chose a “space adventure” because we really like all games that bring players to space like Mass Effect or StarCraft. So players will travel from planet to planet to complete the storyline. The RPG side is inspired by others game like Zelda, Skyrim or old school RPG.
We play a lot with voxel based games like Minecraft, and we think that there are a lot of things to discover with voxels. And this is why planets³ is made of voxels.
ApocaRUFF: What will set Planets³ apart from other games with similar features?
Michel: First its art, the multiple block shapes allow real diversity of creation. As you can see in the concept art, it is really something else.
Second, our game is a RPG; you will have a complete story from the start of the game to the end of the story. There will be NPCs, with their own stories, which will follow you during all your adventure, helping you to progress. There will be a simple but deep crafting system. Construction will even take part in the story.
And third: space!
ApocaRUFF: The Kickstarter page gives the impression that the game is both free-roam, yet very story-driven. Can a player enjoy the game without having to do the story-quest? What about once the story quests are over? Can we continue to play without having to start a new game?
Michel: Yes but without completing the storyline players will not be able to progress in the game. Once the storyline is complete, the players will then have access to almost all items and then can freely roam in the universe.
You will have another mode, the creative one, that will allow players to focus mainly on construction.
ApocaRUFF: How come you’re going with the Ogre Engine? Does it offer any features that make it great for developing the sort of game Planets³ hopes to be?
Michel: We chose Ogre because our programmers have years of experience with this engine and because it is free. It offers some nice features, but a lot of things that you will see in Planets³ will be our custom work. For example our voxel engine is totally homemade.
ApocaRUFF: Are there any limitations to the universe in Planets³? Will it be like Minecraft where the universe is procedurally generated as you go, with no end? Or is there a point where you’ll cease to find new planets?
Michel: In the first opus players will be limited to one unique solar system. Planets are created using both random and manual generation because of its storyline needs.
In the second opus we will open the universe, and there should be no limits to finding new solar systems and planets.
ApocaRUFF: On the Kickstarter page, I read that in order to progress off the first planet, you will need to work with the natives. Will each planet have its own natives? Or is that something unique to the first planet you find yourself on? Or maybe just a select few planets?
Michel: Yes each planet will have their own natives, but not everyone will have their Job Masters. The first planets will have more natives than the others.
ApocaRUFF: I have to admit that I am impressed with the number of unique fighting styles you want to make available to the game. However, I am very interested in the exact type of combat you will be using. Will it be action-based? Or turn-based?
Michel: Action based. Planets³ is based on a first person view (like FPS games), and so you will be directly in the action.
ApocaRUFF: What are some of the dungeons you have in mind for the game? What will make them unique and fun, and what sorts of rewards can players hope to get from them?
Michel: The storyline will have its specific dungeons with specific bosses. These dungeons will be unique. Rewards will be mainly new items and resources.
ApocaRUFF: At a first glance, the release dates for the Race to Space and Space Enemies versions of the game are a bit heart breaking. Race to Space is planned for Fall of 2015, while Space Enemies is all the way in 2017. Can you tell us a bit about the two different versions of the game, what they offer, and why Space Enemies won’t be coming around until 2017?
Michel: We want to make a great game, and that takes a bit more than a few months. Space Enemies is the game we want to create but it was too much to ask for backers to wait 4 or 5 years before playing the game. So we choose to “cut” the game in 2 parts. Race to Space will be a complete and viable game, but the story will not end.
ApocaRUFF: Your Kickstarter campaign seems to be doing very well, with $178,000 of your $250,000 goal and nine days still left. However, does Cubical Drift have a plan in place just in case the Kickstarter goal isn’t met? Or will that be the end of Planets³?
Michel: A failed Kickstarter campaign will not induce the end of Planets³; it will just make things harder.
We need funds to continue the development. And I hope, if Kickstarter failed, that I will successfully convince investors.
ApocaRUFF: Once again, thank you for your time and for answering all of our questions. Is there anything else you would like to add? Any message for our readers?
Michel: Thanks you for this interview! Support us on Kickstarter, together we will make a great game.
Be sure to check out the Planets³ Kickstarter! They’re almost there but need support like yours to finish strong this week!
Also check out their Greenlight campaign!
Martial Arts MMO Age of Wushu Arrives on Steam Today
Snail Games announced today that its highly popular martial arts MMO, Age of Wushu, will be available for free on the Steam PC digital service starting at 4 p.m. PDT. Players who register for Age of Wushu through Steam will receive an exclusive in-game character title and several game-enhancing items, including the Life Extending Pill, Big Spirit Pill, Silver Coins, Palpitation Relieving and Vital Energy Regulating Pill, and the Dayuan Horse. All future content for the game, including the upcoming expansion -– Tempest of Strife — will be synchronized with Steam as well.
New Steam players can experience exploring real-world landmarks across a faithful recreation of ancient China, including the Wudang Mountain Gate, the Gobi Desert, the Shaolin Temple and much more. Players can enroll in one of eight schools and master various martial art disciplines with ever-evolving dynamic encounters against a world of hidden enemies, including the lawless ‘Jianghu’ warriors.
“The availability of Age of Wushu on Steam enables an even larger audience of passionate MMO and martial arts fans to experience the game’s action combat and exploration,” said Shi Hai, founder and CEO of Snail Games, “The release on Steam further highlights Age of Wushu as one of the world’s premier MMO titles.”
Players can visit the official Steam page for Age of Wushu here starting at 4pm Pacific.
Loadout Update 2.0 – Domination Launch Trailer
Loadout celebrates the launch of Update 2.0, Domination, adding tons of major changes to the game.
MapleStory Unveils Grand Athenaeum Dungeon And New Content
Nexon America has released an update for the most engaging and action-packed free MMORPG experience, MapleStory, which introduces all-new content including:
New theme dungeon, Grand Athenaeum (Level 100+): Play as a historical character in one of three books in this dimensional library to become an important part of the past. Choose from the origin story of the mysterious White Mage, a biographical tale of Cygnus in her youth or a plot involving Eleanor the Black Witch and an assassination attempt on Empress Cygnus.
- Episode 1, White Mage: This story takes place hundreds of years ago. Controlling a mercenary long forgotten by history, you have been hired by Hatsar, the mogul of Ariant, to find the powerful White Mage.
- Episode 2, How to Become an Empress: Even Empresses have doubts sometimes. In this episode, players will meet Cygnus as a young child, and must help her build up the traits she will need to confidently lead her people.
- Episode 3, Black Witch: In this would-be murder mystery, the Black Wings are planning to assassinate Empress Cygnus. Join the story by investigating the plot and stopping them before they succeed in changing history forever.
Cross-world content: This new MapleStory feature allows players from all worlds to join together to experience PvP content (Level 60+) and Party Quests (Level 50+).
- PvP Boss Arena: Allows each player to control a boss monster, choosing from Magnus, Ani, Arkarium, Dragonoir, Cygnus and Von Leon, to fight against the other heroes.
Special events: Celebrate Spring in MapleStory with numerous mini-games, quests and events, to earn scrolls, restorative items, and even a bunny suit!
For more information on the MapleStory update, including details on how to access the new content, please read here.
Warframe Celebrates One Year With Gift To Players
What a difference a year can make. Last year at this time, Warframe went Open Beta on PC and just over 300,000 registered players crafted 31 Warframes and 2,419 weapons.
Today, Warframe added PS4™ to the mix, has become the 2nd most downloaded app on PS4™ and is nearly 8 million registered Tenno strong! With 2,426,731 total Warframes built and 13,390,085 total weapons crafted, it has been a very productive year.
In celebration of Warframe’s First Year and to Thank all who have helped build Warframe into what it is today, The Lotus is gifting each Tenno with a First Anniversary Edition of the DEX FURIS. This dual-version features a Lotus-themed skin, high fire-rate and accuracy and low recoil. Plus, it comes with a weapon slot and is super-charged with a catalyst.
To claim this gift, PC players simply log in to Warframe before 11:59 EDT on April 2nd. Open the inbox message and the weapon will automatically be added to their Arsenal.
Also, marking this special occasion, the Excalibur Proto-Armor Skin has been unearthed. Where did it come from?! Available for a limited time only, this ancient skin is a reflection of Tenno past. Discovering the precise nature of this recently discovered armored prototype has proved elusive. Initial attempts at dating the relic point to ancient origins, perhaps even pre-dating the Orokin Empire. Visit the Market and add this Limited Time Skin to your Arsenal today. Available now through 11:59pm EDT, April 2nd.
Please note: PS4™ players will receive this gift and Proto-Armor in the next PS4™ update.