Monthly Archives: May 2015

Wildstar: Now coming to Steam (?)

While it may not have an official announcement, a random user over on Reddit’s official /r/Wildstar message board has posted a new finding, suggesting that the game will be on Valve’s Steam platform soon, as well as a possible F2P business model change.

The link suggesting this comes from SteamDB, which now has a listing for Wildstar as an accessible title on Steam: https://steamdb.info/sub/68224/

For more details and speculation, visit http://www.reddit.com/r/WildStar/comments/35vm11/wildstar_coming_to_steam/

More information will be updated if a confirmation on Wildstar’s Steam release is confirmed.

League of Legends Reveals Ekko, New Skin Sets

League of Legends 5.9 Update
 
Major news from Riot Games today as patch notes for League of Legends Update 5.9 arrive, along with the champion reveal for Ekko, The Boy Who Shattered Time, new skins, an Ashe rework and more! For the full Riot patch rundown don’t miss their latest video.

 

 

Ekko will be arriving shortly on the PBE but for those interested in his kit after being dazzled by the recent CGI trailer, here you go.

 

Passive: Z-Drive Resonance
Ekko’s damaging spells and attacks build up Resonance stacks on his enemies. Every third attack against the same target triggers Ekko’s passive, dealing bonus damage and slowing his enemy. If he triggers his passive on an enemy champion, Ekko also gains a strong movement speed buff.

 

Q: Timewinder
Ekko throws a device in a target direction, damaging all enemies along its path. Once it reaches max distance or hits an enemy champion, the device expands, creating a field that slows all enemy and neutral units. After a moment, the device contracts and rushes back to Ekko, dealing extra damage to all enemies in its path.

 

W: Parallel Convergence
Passive: Ekko’s basic attacks deal bonus damage to low health targets.
Active: Ekko opens a time rift, creating an alternate reality copy of him that tosses a device to a target location. After a delay, the device expands into a broad slowing zone. If Ekko enters the sphere, it detonates, granting him a shield while stunning all enemies inside.

E: Phase Dive
Ekko dashes a fixed distance towards a target area. Once his initial dash has ended, Ekko gains greatly increased range on his next basic attack, and blinks to his target to deal damage and apply on-hit and spell effects.

 

R: Chronobreak
Ekko rewinds time, briefly turning untargetable and invulnerable before reappearing wherever he was a few seconds ago. Once he reappears, Ekko recovers a portion of the health he lost over those few seconds while dealing tons of damage to all nearby enemies.

 

Ashe is also seeing a partial rework of her kit, further owning up to her slowing styled kit while giving her some downright dangerous sustain damage for extended duration by enabling her crits on targets slowed by her abilities. The following skins have also been teased:

 

League of Legends 5.9 Update League of Legends 5.9 Update League of Legends 5.9 Update

 

Catch Ekko full’s reveal here.

More than 5 million Heroes & Generals players worldwide

More than 5 million Heroes & Generals players worldwide

The independent developer Reto-Moto is proud to announce that there are now more than 5 million registered Heroes & Generals players worldwide in their popular WWII MMOFPS.
 
Heroes & Generals was one of the first 10 games to be greenlit by the community on Steam, and since the July 2014 release on Early Access, it has seen a steady growth in the player base. Of all 2014 releases on Steam, Heroes & Generals was the third most popular (Ars Technica, May 2015) and currently resides as one of the 10 most popular free-to-play games on Steam.
 
“Reaching 5 million players is a huge milestone for us, and we are very grateful for having such a large and engaged community from all parts of the world.” says Martin Munk Pollas, CEO at Reto-Moto. “We would like to thank all the Heroes and Generals, who makes this player-driven universe come to life and we promise we will continue to work hard adding new content and features to give the ultimate WWII gaming experience to our players.”
 
To celebrate the 5 million players milestone, Reto-Moto will give away free Gold voucher codes this weekend. Find more details about the voucher codes here.

Echo of Soul Founders Pack Giveaway Event

OnRPG has partnered with Aeria Games and Nvious to offer a small group of players the chance to enter closed beta testing for Echo of Soul, and obtain a Founder’s Pack in the process!

Echo of Soul is a free to play MMORPG from the same team that created Lineage II. Already released and popular in Korea, Echo of Soul will arrive in the west in Spring 2015 through Aeria Games. Echo of Soul promises thousands of hours of PvP and PvE content, including solo and party dungeons, and will come with a companion mobile app.

 

The Founders Pack Includes:

Echo of Soul Founders Pack Giveaway Echo of Soul Founders Pack Giveaway

Echo of Soul Founders Pack Giveaway

 

 

 

To Enter for your Chance to Claim a Key and Founders Pack:

  • Visit our forum event page and sign-up for a forum account here.
  • Log-in and vote for your favorite emote from our emote bonus page on our beta impressions article.
  • Monday afternoon (May 18th) we’ll announce the winners on the forums as well as the MMOHuts News Recap video!
  • Check your forum PM inbox if selected to claim your beta access key. Reply to our admin, DizzyPW, with your Aeria Games user name (account email) to claim your Founders Pack as well!

Echo of Soul Closed Beta Impressions

By Jason Parker (Ragachak)

 

Echo of Soul Beta Impressions

Action! Adventure! Fanservice!

At Pax East earlier this year, I attended a private party where I was made privy to some gameplay of “Echo of Soul,” a new title coming from Aeria Games. Echo of Soul is a fantasy-styled MMO from Korean developer Nvius, which will also be free-to-play. It will sport some pretty unique features that I ultimately feel will help it stand out in the current market, glutted with MMORPGs. I don’t style it a “WoW Killer,” or anything of the sort, but that is mostly due to me thinking that’s a ridiculous term. The classes are tied to a gender already, so there’s a little lost in customization, but there are several options to design the character in a way that you’d like, as well as equipment for style, which I always think is pretty cool.

Echo of Soul Beta Impressions

I have already had an opportunity to play Echo of Soul, and even had a shot at doing a higher-level dungeon with a couple of other press members, including my boss; and one of the things that really stands out, that makes Echo of Soul a title all its own is that there are no healers. That’s right: No dedicated healing class at all. Healing is the purview of the entire group, and if you are not paying attention and working together, your team is going to die when the tank is obliterated. Despite this change to take experienced players out of their element, most of the mechanics are very newbie friendly, and the in-game help includes voice overs to explain exactly what you need to do in the event you don’t care enough to do the reading. Echo of Soul is quite special, and is going to smash its way into the public eye!

 

Echo of Soul Beta Impressions

All The Worlds’ A Stage

The game takes place in a standard fantasy world, with evil armies, destruction around every corner, and you as the hero, trying to set things right again. There does not seem to be much in the way of technology, lending me to the thought it is high-fantasy, which is in no way a bad thing. While the world is beautiful, I have to say, the massive amount of loading times can be very annoying. Anytime you move to another part of an area, indicated by a swirling portal, you load into the next area instead of it being a more free-loading style of game (RE: World of Warcraft). While this is not really a bad thing, and is just time consuming if nothing else, there are smaller areas in between quest hubs, tiny maps with a few enemies and the occasional quest. These I found to be incredibly annoying as time passed, but at least you get a mount very early! The winged-llama mount that you acquire in an early quest was fantastic, and adorable. Not a huge speed boost, but it nonetheless makes up for that tedium.

Echo of Soul Beta Impressions

Oh the Quests You’ll See

Yes, this is a quest-based game; you will be doing a lot of quests on over 80 maps; it might seem like it gets boring fast, if you don’t care to quest, but fear not! There is another option. A pretty useful way to level is the “Infinite Hunting Grounds,” where you can enter small maps with a non-stop ability to quest and kill enemies, and gain rewards. I’ve passed through a few on my way to level, but I wanted to explore more of the game instead. There are of course dungeons, and solo dungeons which are much more challenging if you are ill-prepared. Take me for example, I joined one for a quest at level 12, not having taken a Path. Paths are alternate ways to build your character, and each class has one, with its own strengths, weaknesses and difficulty. Needless to say I was close to dead weight compared to my more prepared companions.

As a side note on being dead weight, one cannot simply stand still and pew pew in Echo of Soul. Each class has its own dodge ability, and to avoid taking tons of damage from enemy powers, one must be aware of unique mob animations and pop your dodge when necessary, keeping an eye on your surroundings to avoid being boxed in in the process. It’s not as gimmicky as it might be in other action-oriented MMOs, where you can dodge almost at will; no, it has a cooldown, but a fair one. It might be a little more rough on characters who are always in melee’, but practice will make perfect.

 

Echo of Soul Beta Impressions

Twister of Souls

Souls play a huge part of this game, it’s not just a catchy title! As you progress and kill things, you will notice you are acquiring “Souls.” These souls can be purified at a Soul Sanctum, which is located in pretty much every civilized portion of the game. They are divvied up amongst the four types of Souls in your “Soul Satchel.” Hope, Courage, Innocence, and Peace; these virtues are the types of Souls you can purify as you play. You can only purify them in town at a Sanctum, unless you have friends! There’s also “Co-op Purification” which will be taught with a quest; you don’t have to be in the same party or even on the friends lists of each other. Simply right-click them and it will prompt them to see if they wish to help you.

Echo of Soul Beta Impressions

Purifying via cooperation is cheaper (you gain more purified souls), but Soul Sanctums can be more convenient when you are alone/everyone around is idle. The cost is 2 chaos souls to do a normal purification, 1 in co-op. Now what do these do? Each of the above virtues has a benefit when you equip the soul. These are called “Soul Skills,” and have a fairly long cooldown. They are not passive, and must be activated, but the catch is that you use the souls you purified to activate the power. If you run out of Hope souls, you can no longer use “Guidance of Hope” which gives you an increase to Crit Acc, Piercing, Attack Speed, Casting Speed, and Experience! They are definitely worth using, but only at the right time, unless you simply have tons of souls just lying around. While I hope more of these skills get added or get made unique per class, as it stands, it is a very special system, and I feel like it will draw players in pretty easily. It is a very cool concept all told.

 

Echo of Soul Beta ImpressionsEcho of Soul Beta Impressions

Putting On The Shemp: Excited but Wary.

Yes, there is a cash shop. It’s a free-to-play game, so this is probably safe to assume even without playing the game. Most of the items are not available to be seen yet, so I do not know how “pertinent” it will be, whether it will be a requirement to play easily, or if it will simply be cosmetic. There is a “Leveling Aids” tab, so I imagine it will at the very least have boosts. Though there are Founders Packs that can be purchased before the game is released, I do not know if they will be around after.

Back to the gameplay though, one interesting change being done in Echo of Soul is a focus on manageable damage numbers. From the outset, the hp and damage dealt are incredibly small. At level 15 I was dropping 20-30 damage crits, and impressing those around me in the process! I don’t know how it will be at max level yet, but I have a feeling it will not scale to ridiculous Blizzard-Numbers.

 

Echo of Soul Beta Impressions

 

Now before I close out these impressions, I have to share an unusual favorite part of this game. While most MMOs involve running around following the back of your character’s head/ass, Echo of Soul has a great reason for flipping the camera front side. No it has nothing to do with helping your gameplay experience. Though one of the biggest, coolest, and most adorable things about Echo of Soul has nothing to do with actual gameplay! Attached to this article should be a small video that shows off some of these cool emotes, filled with anime flair, floating hearts, glowing auras, lots of expressive faces and waving! They’re so grand, that they had to absolutely be mentioned. It was one of the first things my boss stumbled on during the preview earlier this year, and seeing my powerful magic girl waving and smiling cutely just filled me with joy. They will look different for each character, but will always be a joy to see. It’s little things like this that can draw me into a game, seeing the small touches that make it unique and special. Look forward to Echo of Soul; it’s going to capture players and really change their perspective of a free-to-play game.

 

Echo of Soul Founders Pack Giveaway Event

Path of Exile: The Awakening Supporter Packs Achieve Record Sales

Path of Exile: The Awakening Supporter Packs Achieve Record Sales

Grinding Gear Games is pleased to announce it has seen unprecedented sales of its recently introduced Supporter Packs that provide early access to the closed beta of Path of Exile: The Awakening. Grinding Gear began selling access for early entrance into the beta of The Awakening on April 28th and sales have set multiple records within the Path of Exile community.  Proceeds from the Supporter Pack sales fund the continued development and expansion of the game.

 

Since the game’s release in October 2013, Path of Exile continues to be one of the most successful ‘ethical free to play’ games, with over 11.5 million players worldwide. The game continues to thrive due to the support of its player community, existing on micro-transaction sales for cosmetic in-game items that do not alter character performance.

 

In addition to offering access to The Awakening’s closed beta, Grinding Gear has also announced that it has introduced another new facet to the game.  Divination Cards are a new type of item that drops from monsters that players encounter while playing Path of Exile: The Awakening. Sets of cards can be traded later in the game for special items that are referenced on the cards. Additionally, Grinding Gear is offering the opportunity for players that contribute at the Highland Supporter level to design their very own Divination Cards, putting their personalized mark on Path of Exile. More details about the Divination Card system and various The Awakening supporter packs can be found at https://www.pathofexile.com/purchase.

Shadowrun Chronicles Announces First Update and Apology Goodies

Shadowrun Chronicles Announces First Update and Apology Goodies
Only two weeks after launch, Cliffhanger Productions has announced the first update containing a number of balancing changes for items and characters.
 
To make up for the first (bumpy) week after its release, Cliffhanger will provide every customer with a goodie-bag to make up for the inconvenience. Jan Wagner, Managing Director says “We have been quite open with our communication and we have fought day and night to solve the issues and our players have been hugely supportive and patient. We wanted to give something back as a way of saying thank you to our community for their understanding and encouragement.”
 
Players who had been active during the first week have received an additional character slot, two unique bioware items, which cannot be bought in-game, and three consumable flamethrowers (so they can flame enemies and think of the developers when they get angry).
 
Cliffhanger has also announced the first content update for Chronicles adding end game mode, new content, and gear for end of May. Patch notes for the update are available here.

Cabal II Closed Beta Key Giveaway

OnRPG has partnered with ESTSoft to welcome a small lucky batch of players into the third phase of closed beta testing for Cabal II!
 

 
With gorgeous graphics, skill-based combat and a focus on RPG elements, CABAL 2 offers the genuine MMO experience that made the genre so popular.
 
Evolving from the wildly-successful CABAL Online, which hosts nearly 30 million users from more than 60 countries around the world, CABAL 2 combines deep, immersive RPG elements with epic skill-based battles. This next iteration to CABAL has a unique, highly-detailed artstyle that harkens back to classic MMOs.

 

 

To Redeem your Key:

  • After claiming a closed beta key, visit the following link.
  • If you do not have an ESTgames account, please create one by clicking the “Continue” button on the right side of the page.
  • *Note, those with an account can proceed to log-in on the left hand side of the page.
  • Once you have created your account, please return to the link provided above, and fill out your log-in credentials on the left hand side and click “Log In.”
  • You will be brought to a page that will ask for your claimed closed beta key. Enter your key and click “Activate.”