Monthly Archives: August 2015

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is Live on Kickstarter

Divinity: Original Sin 2 is Live on Kickstarter news header

The Divinity: Original Sin 2 Kickstarter campaign is live, unveiling some of the most highly requested additions to the series. Full news below.

An epic RPG with turn-based combat, Divinity: Original Sin 2 can be played as both a single-player and multiplayer game for up to four players with both cooperative and competitive questing.

Switch seamlessly between cooperative and competitive play throughout the entire story. Work together with your companions as one, persuade NPCs to thwart your opponents, and beware of backstabbing allies. Or, put your own goals above that of the party, and plan the moment you’ll betray them all. It’s up to you.

With Divinity: Original Sin 2, Larian Studios aims to change the way we think about narrative in RPGs, creating a world in which your history and actions shape the story, and NPCs react differently to each character.

In addition to a powerful system of classless character development, your origins and deeds will shape NPCs’ behaviors and attitudes. Your race, birthplace, and greatest feats all play a role in your journey, but watch out, as a reputation as a Traitor or Swindler can be hard to shake.

Backers will have the opportunity claim Kickstarter-only rewards including multiplayer packs, a unique Kickstarter Collector’s Edition, custom artwork, and even a surprise pack that includes handpicked trinkets, mementos and other little things that inspired the team as they were developing the game. To ensure all backers can give feedback to the team, every backer at the $25 tier and higher will receive Alpha and Beta access!

These are just a few of the features announced for Divinity: Original Sin 2. You can learn about the story, the new crafting system, the enhanced combat and more here.

SMITE Indomitable Spirit Patch Notes – Xing Tian Revealed

SMITE Indomitable Spirit Patch Notes - Xing Tian Revealed news header

Hi-Rez has released their latest set of patch notes for third person MOBA, SMITE, leading into the release of the Chinese guardian Xing Tian!

Xing Tian is famous for having his head cut off, but being so hardcore that he made his nipples into eyes and stomach into a mouth to continue fighting. As you’d expect he’s a guardian. Check out a gallery of his kit and abilities below.

Key highlights of this patch include a nerf to Weakening Curse, dropping its healing reduction to only 65% from 100%. As such sustain and healing gods will be making a much stronger showing following this patch. On a related note, Mail of Renewal sees buffs to help with taking advantage of said sustain.

For full details of patch notes, including a sweet new Agni skin, Ragnarok Fenrir, and Ratatoskr’s gold/legendary skin, check the official post.

Dying Light Co-Op Demo Available Now

Dying Light Co-Op Demo Available Now news header

Techland announced today that a free demo of its critically-acclaimed zombie game Dying Light is now available to download on Xbox One and PC, with the PlayStation 4 demo out later today in North America. The demo lets players explore most of the Slums area and offers 3 hours of unique content, including one story quest chain and a number of side quests, challenges, and random encounters. It also features all the core gameplay mechanics of Dying Light, such as the day and night cycle, parkour-based Natural Movement system, creative brutality and crafting. Additionally, the demo supports online co-op mode for up to 4 players.

“With the demand for Dying Light still high after more than half a year on the market, we wondered what else we could do to help players decide which game to buy’,” says producer Tymon Smektała. “Then we thought: demoes were pretty much a standard in the previous generation, but suddenly they’ve become few and far between. So we decided to use some of our resources to release a demo now and let everyone experience our game first-hand.”

A video showcasing a collection of creative user reviews can also be viewed below.

S4 League Debuts Community-Designed Content

S4 League Debuts Community-Designed Content news header

Aeria Games has just released tons of new content for their hugely popular anime third-person shooter, S4 League!

The result of two recent community contests, this latest update features new content designed entirely by the enthusiastic S4 League community, including two new character costumes, the exciting new Virtual Shield weapon, the brand-new Virtual Wing skill, and the Unformed Flame pet.

These new pieces of content were designed by two S4 League community members, who managed to outdo over 500 other participants from English, German, French and Turkish country regions. Along with the new community-designed content, the developers have very carefully re-balanced some of the game’s ranged weapons so that all players experience smoother gameplay.

Echo of Soul’s August Update Opens Kranheim Raid

Echo of Soul's August Update Opens Kranheim Raid news header

Echo of Soul’s August update has arrived, bringing with it a new raid, new challenges, and more.

The Kranheim Raid is available for 10 and 20 players in Mount Odroerir. This raid features the strongest enemies yet to face players, and 20-man groups will be able to earn a special Soul Fragment to unlock a new Legendary weapon.

Also available in this content update are new levels for jobs and hobbies, new tiers for Infinity Dungeons, new sealed hunting ground areas, and a new Legendary mode for The Sanctuary and Blazing Peak dungeons.

You can read the full patch notes here.

Forsaken World Mobile – Will Mobile Make It Better?

By Jordan Hall (ApocaRUFF)

 

 

Introduction

Several years ago, Forsaken World was released. At the time, it was the latest offering by Perfect World Entertainment and held much promise. It received mix views – some loved the game, other claimed it was pay-to-win and therefore not worth the effort to play. What can’t be disputed, however, is that Forsaken World received some measure of success, while ushering in the first test of anti-gold selling mechanisms now common in the MMO industry. Now, in 2015, the game world from Forsaken World has been repackaged as a free-to-play mobile MMORPG.

 

 

Customization

Not really much, to be honest. If you’ve played any auto-play browser-based MMOs in the past, you know what to expect. You are presented with a few options to make yourself look slightly different from everyone else. After that, you’re going to end up following a very linear progression path in developing your character’s skills and gaining equipment. The skill tree still has some options for diversity, but even League of Legends’ masteries give a bit more options for diversity than you’re going to find here.

 

FW Mobile Review Customization

Kinda sparse, right?

 

 

Graphics

Graphics aren’t that great. You can’t expect much when you play a mobile MMORPG, especially one that is 3D. So, while I wasn’t quite pleased with the quality of the graphics in Forsaken World mobile, I won’t say I was disappointed. That all being said, the quality of all the graphics in the game is quite poor. Almost to the point where I would have preferred playing a 2D or 2.5D, where higher detail could be obtained without threatening performance. But, unfortunately, we’re stuck with these 2001-level 3D graphics which won’t be aweing you anytime soon.

 

FW Mobile Review

It’s just hard for me to get into.

 

 

Controls

There aren’t many places where you need to take direct control of your character in Forsaken World. However, in the few instances where you do need to make use of the game’s controls, they’ve proven to be mostly responsive. I came across some minor annoyances, but nothing game breaking. The biggest annoyance was manipulation of the camera but, like I keep on saying, because of the fact that you often don’t need to bother taking direct control of your character, you won’t find too many opportunities to manipulate the camera. The controls are passable.

 

 

Community

Forsaken World Mobile has the type of community that flocks to these sorts of games. You’ve got an interesting array of players from a lot of varying backgrounds. There are kids, adults, plenty of non-English speakers, and just about any other type of player you could imagine. Of course, there are also a plethora of so-called “Whales” around. That is, players who are willing to sink hundreds or thousands of dollars into the game to get an advantage against other players.

 

 

Gameplay

If you’ve ever read my reviews in the past (and you probably haven’t) you will know that I am not a fan of games that play for you. However, this is a rare case where I feel that the game playing itself fits with the medium. I can’t wrap my head around why you would want to sit at a computer and watch a game bot itself for you. But I can understand how this can be a convenient way to find entertainment on the mobile platform, where all interactions with the game must be done with a touchscreen. If you’re trying to do two things at once like watching some esports on your pc while playing, this can come in handy to keep your progression going without requiring your full concentration.

 

FW Mobile Review

One of the few games where auto-walking to quest objectives is much needed.

 

That all being said, Forsaken World Mobile takes on the template of the traditional Chinese browser-based MMO. 3D with poor graphics, repetitive gameplay, non-stop auto-pathing between quest NPCs, and a built-in botting feature. There are a lot of daily events that happen at certain times and plenty of enticement for spending cash on the game. Normally I wouldn’t be able to stand this format (for the reasons I’ve already mentioned), but Forsaken World Mobile has proven to be a fun time-waster while riding in a car or waiting at the doctor’s office. Playing this as a “main game” that you spend several hours a day in would result in immediate boredom, but if you play casually and don’t put much stock in your progress you will probably have a good time.

 

FW Mobile Review Auto-Combat

Don’t worry, you don’t play as a wolf the whole game.

 

Combat is simplified a great deal. You only have access to a few abilities at a time, which makes sense because of the limited amount of controls that can be present on the touchscreen at any one time. Honestly, though, you won’t be taking part in combat manually except in rare circumstances. Almost every combat encounter I had was done completely with the automated combat system. In short, if you’re wanting an awesome combat system you’ll need to look elsewhere.

 

FW Mobile Review

Most quests are simple and offer bland flavor text.

 

Questing isn’t that great. Boring at best, a complete waste of time at worst. This is partially because of the automated nature of the game, you won’t find much reason to follow along with the story. Perhaps if you’re into the Forsaken World lore (and I figure a vast majority of players don’t have much interest in it), you’ll just skip all quest text and let the game take you to the next quest objective without paying much attention. Unfortunately, this has become the norm for MMORPGs in the past decade or so.

 

 

Conclusion: Fair

If Forsaken World Mobile had been a client-based or browser-based MMO, I would have completely thrashed it. However, it’s a mobile game and the hands-off style of gameplay compliments this platform quite well. So, while under different circumstances I wouldn’t have been able to stand spending much time in Forsaken World, I was able to find myself enjoying the gameplay provided as a nice time-waster. If you’re looking for a F2P 3D MMORPG for mobile devices, this is definitely one you should take a look at.

 

Features: 3/5 – The expected feature list for this sort of game.

Customization: 2/5 – Not a lot and what is there feels very superficial.

Graphics: 2/5 – Poor.

Controls: 3/5 – Passable.

Community: 3/5 – Wide and varied.

 

Overall: 2/5 – The game can survive the competition in the mobile mmo market.