Monthly Archives: September 2015

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes

Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes is a turn-based mobile RPG by EA Games. Collect your favorite heroes across the Star Wars universe to form powerful teams, then upgrade each character’s unique abilities and strengths, devise the perfect strategy and dominate the competition.

Features:

Create the ultimate team: Choose characters from the path of light or darkness, then make strategic choices and pick characters with complimentary abilities to construct powerful squads.

Collect and select: Collect characters from the original trilogy and prequel films, plus animated TV shows like Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels – and more.

Train your champions: Make tactical decisions and equip your heroes with powerful gear to enhance their damage. Unlock special leader abilities to buff your team and unleash signature moves like Darth Sidious’s Force Lightning, Chewbacca’s Wookiee Rage, and more.

Legendary locations: Complete epic missions on Hoth, Bespin, Tatooine, Coruscant, and beyond.

Archlord 2 Shutting Down in November

Archlord 2 Shutting Down in November news header

Webzen has announced that Archlord 2 will be shutting down on November 24, 2015. No specific reason has been given for the game’s shut down.

In the weeks leading up to the server’s shutdown, Webzen will be hosting multiple events, enable several server buffs, and change the prices of all items in the in-game shop to 0 Wcoin. The El Dorado map, guild battles, and castle sieges will also be open more often to let players enjoy their last battles together.

An FAQ about the shut down is available here.

Kill Me Again: Infectors Mobile Review

By: Ojogo

 

Kill Me Again Infectors Review

Creating original material is hard. Doing it while limited to touch controls is even more challenging. Since we have played mostly everything, we gamers have come to a point in our lives that having a game that plays just the bare necessities of its genre can be dangerously short-lived and boring. So it comes to no surprise that developers have turned to mashing up things that work to create combinations that would hopefully catch on to keep things exotic, exciting, and refreshing. And true enough, though some have not survived the experimental phase, a lot of games have seen major success in combining features never seen together before.

One notable example is Dragon Ace, which combined eTCG, RPG, and poker elements into a unique massive multiplayer co-op game. The more recent concoctions may seem corny and downright weird at first, but hey, we’re always looking for something new, right? No shame in trying and enjoying something quirky if it’ll seem like you’ll end up liking the idea of it. Well, you might have to do a double take on this one.

Kill Me Again Infectors Review

Fresh from its successful soft-launch release in Singapore, Sweden, and Ireland, and mere days from its near global launch, Toast is releasing Kill Me Again: Infectors. The game is a creative mix of survival horror, action combat, and some tactics and strategy, all boiled up in – get this – match-3 puzzle gameplay. You heard that right. We’re talking Resident Evil: Bejeweled Edition here. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not really dissing the game. In fact, I find it quite addictive and challenging.

But just the thought of the player having to ward off hordes and waves of zombies by getting at least three similar gems to be adjacent to each other tickles me oddly. Not that it’s bad. In fact, in the two weeks I’ve been playing this game, I always find myself attentive and amused by the concept. Toast’s mobile games just seem to have a way of taking simple concepts, adding serious skill to the equation, and maintaining their levels of addictive gameplay for the long run.

 

Kill Me Again Infectors Review

Overview

As I was saying, Kill Me Again: Infectors is a mobile free-to-play tactical action match-3 puzzle set in a worldwide post zombie apocalypse. It starts off with you being able to create your own avatar from three mercenary classes: a strong melee fighter, a quick rogue type, and an item-tossing healer type. Each class has ratings according to their difficulty of use and, funnily enough, the usual strongman type is rated the most difficult to use.

From my experience, both male and female character classes are quite customizable. Though despite the difficulty warnings labeled on them, I’ve yet to see a real difference in challenge reflect in actual gameplay. After selecting your class, you can customize your character’s appearance from a considerably large range of selectable features, which is remarkable as if the basic game already holds so many possibilities, what more could unlockables and purchasables have in store?

Kill Me Again Infectors Review

You are then thrust into a world where you battle waves of undead through the match-gem system. The thing about the battle system is that it isn’t really turn-based, nor is it the type of game where you nonchalantly solve the Bejeweled portion while the “battle enactment” screen is merely an indicator of your progress with no bearing at all. The game screen is split into two – the above being the screen showing your avatar engaging in the field with the enemies, and the bottom half is the puzzle. Both screens are synchronized so whatever you do in the puzzle screen affects your progress in the field screen.

Matching three tiles enables skills your character will utilize to attack with and stay alive. The moment you make a match is also the same moment your character attacks, so if there happens to be an enemy onscreen when you match three tiles, your character will attack said enemy. And though like most puzzles of this genre you would have a quota of tiles matched, you would have to be prudent as to not complete matching lines while there is no enemy onscreen.

Balancing matching your score quota and surviving the infected is far harder than you might think. The game goes from friendly gem-swaps to a time attack tactical survival hellfest real quick.

You would have to take into account your character’s distance, power, recovery time, and such, all the while splitting your concentration to plan three steps ahead on your draggable matches. The game system also rewards you when achieving combos. Like most gem puzzles, the collapsing gems can automatically make new matches for super combos. This makes your character attack in quick succession allowing you to easily cut through hordes of enemies.

Kill Me Again Infectors Review

The bulk of the game is mainly played in battle as you do almost nothing else outside the match-3 game besides accept quests, endlessly tweak your character’s look and equipment, and proceed with the story, which is very well-written despite the hackneyed premise of surviving a zombie apocalypse. Though options are limited, the presentation and UI is polished well beyond similar mobile games.

Even if your eyes are mostly trained towards the puzzle part of the game, one could still appreciate the intricacy of the rendered details and character designs, almost as if Kill Me Again was meant for a full console release. Lots of effort was also put into the animations and cinematography and the dynamic camera angles; these features feel at odds contrasted with the whimsical façade of the tile puzzle below it, no matter how edgy and hardcore it tries to be.

 

Kill Me Again Infectors Review

Conclusion: Great

All in all, Kill Me Again: Infectors is an awesome game. Obviously it took a lot of effort in conceptualizing and developing it, and probably even more effort for the developer to push the idea in the first place.

Up till now, I still can’t get over the fact that something as casual and whimsical as a match-3 game can build into quite the decent mobile action concept, and I don’t think I will get used to it in while. And that’s a good thing. It keeps things fresh and exciting, and is a good example of how to keep the gaming scene innovative. Plus, it’s still young with only a few months under its belt and still growing. With all the development heading its way, I can’t wait to see how this game will surprise and entertain me even more.

Dark Era Closed Beta will Go Live Today

Dark Era Closed Beta will Go Live Today news header

Dark Era (http://darkera.game321.com/), a 3D hardcore ARPG, will begin closed beta testing at 8:00 (GMT) today. Players will have the opportunity to travel through a vast universe to explore different eras of time. Beta testing will continue until October 8, 8:00 (GMT). All game data will be reset after the closed beta.

Gameplay
Dark Era closed beta test gameplay features non-trivial quests not easily cleared. After completing the newbie guide, gamers travel through the Chrono Rift to come to Chrono City. Players will travel through six eras (Robin Hood, Emperor Li, King Arthur, Saladin, Caesar, Joan of Arc and the Mars Eras) in succession. Game features such as War Beast, Mount and Enhance will be unlocked as the character’s level increases. Berserker, Wizard and Assassin remain capped at level 99.

Breath-Taking Events
Players will never be bored in the game with five exciting events (Icefire Field, Mushroom, Unreal Maze, Phantom Siege and Secret Chrono), plus regular daily events (Double Rewards and Beast Den Hunt). The Double Rewards event lasts for 2 hours every day, speeding up player upgrades. The Beast Den Hunt opens more times a day.. Join events in time to net tons of rewards. There are more systems, including the Off-line Competition, Manhunt and Domination, coming soon.

The Dark Era Closed Beta will last for 7 days. In the depths of the time vortex ambush super powerful, yet extremely brutal enemies. Heroes, take up your weapons and fight against the evil Phantom Army!

Win Top-up Rebate Together
After Dark Era closed beta opens, players who top-up will receive full refund as well as gold ingots. Interesting events such as finding bugs to win rewards are also waiting for you! Please keep an eye on our official website (http://darkera.game321.com/) and fan page on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/DarkEraGame). There are more hot events coming up.

Frontier Developments announces SteamVR support for Elite Dangerous

Frontier Developments announces SteamVR support for Elite Dangerous news header

Frontier Developments plc (AIM: FDEV) today announced it will support SteamVR and the HTC Vive virtual reality headset in the PC version of its massively multiplayer space epic Elite Dangerous.

The HTC Vive will be the first virtual reality headset available to consumers, and Elite Dangerous will support Vive on PC from launch via a free update available Holiday 2015.

SteamVR support in Elite Dangerous marks the latest step in Frontier Developments’ ongoing commitment to immersive, high resolution virtual reality experiences.

‘We’re thrilled to announce SteamVR support as part of the ongoing expansion of Elite Dangerous,’ Frontier Developments Creative Director Jonny Watts said. ‘Back in December 2013 we were among the first to support virtual reality with a triple-A game, and for me, exploring, trading and fighting throughout Elite Dangerous’ 1:1 scale Milky Way remains an unequaled virtual reality experience. We have been working closely with Valve to bring Elite Dangerous to HTC Vive, and we are delighted with the quality we have been able to achieve.’

‘Frontier’s Elite Dangerous is an excellent example of a team leveraging the versatility of the Vive and Steam VR,’ Valve’s Chet Faliszek said. ‘Players take the helm of an amazing starship experience, and we look forward to showing it for the first time on Vive at EGX.’

Visitors to this week’s EGX 2015 gaming show can experience a preview of Elite Dangerous and HTC Vive at the Elite Dangerous and HTC booths. EGX 2015 takes place in Birmingham, UK from Thursday 24 September until Sunday 27 September.

Celebratory week-long sale
To celebrate the announcement, Frontier Developments is placing Elite Dangerous for PC and Mac on sale for one week only at FrontierStore.net and Steam. Until Monday 28 September, Elite Dangerous will be available for £17.99 ($26.99, €22.49, 1,349 Rubles) – 40 percent off its usual RRP of £29.99 ($44.99, €37.49, 2,249 Rubles).

All PC versions of Elite Dangerous will be updated to offer SteamVR support at no extra cost this Holiday season.

Announcing Mayhem
New Elite Dangerous players are invited to join existing players in the two-week Elite Dangerous Mayhem community event, beginning today.

All players will be granted early access to the ‘open gamma’ release of Elite Dangerous 1.4 CQC and invited to participate in a series of competitive and cooperative events across the pre-release test galaxy, to be livestreamed at Twitch.tv/EliteDangerous.

The free 1.4 CQC expansion launches in October for PC, Mac and Xbox One, introducing instant arena-based PVP action to the Elite Dangerous galaxy in Close Quarter Combat Championships (CQC). CQC launches with Capture The Flag, Deathmatch and Team Deathmatch modes, and headlines a list of other features and improvements affecting the open galaxy.