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Yearly Archives: 2015
Gazillion Reveals What’s in Store for Marvel Heroes 2016
Yesterday Gazillion treated a room full of gamers at New York Comic Con to a sneak preview, and today it’s official: Marvel Heroes 2015 – the super-powered free-to-play action-RPG for PC and Mac – will level up to Marvel Heroes 2016 this December. Whereas the rebrand to Marvel Heroes 2015 focused on turning things around (the game’s Metacritic rating skyrocketed from 58 to 81 after a number of key adjustments to content and pricing model), Marvel Heroes 2016 represents an initiative to continue this momentum with releases of new tent-pole additions on a regular basis.
Full details will be provided in the weeks to come – they’re far too many for one mere press release to handle – but highlights of some of the most notable features to be released include the following, beginning this December and throughout 2016:
- “Secret Invasion” Story Chapter: Battle alien Skrulls of all shapes and sizes, including the Super-Skrull himself, Kl’rt, who makes his long-awaited, much requested Marvel Heroes debut.
- Controller Support: One of the community’s most requested features.
- Visual Updates: Revamped looks for characters introduced during Marvel Heroes’ 2013 launch window.
- Leaderboards: Something new and interesting to do every night. Tournaments and Seasons will grow out of this eventually.
- Steam Achievements: Players loved the new in-game achievements added to Marvel Heroes 2015 – now, the feature extends to Steam with nearly 100 of them.
- Mac Out of Beta: The Mac version has been in beta for over a year now. Not anymore.
- “All-New All-Different” Material: Keeping things current with what is happening in the greater Marvel landscape to a greater degree than ever, such as the current “All-New All-Different” comics, while still also continuing to honor over 75 years of comic history.
- Meanwhile, other exciting material is planned for the months to follow the December launch:
- Savage Land Patrol Zone: A never-ending gauntlet of dinosaurs, sadistic mutates and more!
- Thanos Raid: The Mad Titan makes his Marvel Heroes debut.
- More! Stay tuned for further announcements.
In addition to this abundance of new content, players can expect the continuous flow of new playable characters (now numbering more than 50!), team-up heroes, pets and more to proceed as they’ve grown accustomed to over the past two years.
“I truly believe our game is better than ever now, and the rebrand to Marvel Heroes 2016 represents our never-ending initiative to continue improving for the next year and beyond,” says Gazillion Studio Director Jeff Lind. “As game developers, we’re privileged with the great power to create an action-RPG set in the Marvel Universe; with that comes our inherent responsibility to Marvel’s millions of fans to deliver an excellent product that only gets better with the more we add to it. ”
Castle Crashers Steam Update Coming October 14
Independent game developer and publisher The Behemoth is excited to announce a major update for Castle Crashers on Steam! The “Barbarian Makeover” update for Castle Crashers Steam has a planned release on October 14, 2015.
Barbarian Makeover update includes:
- New mini-game, Back Off Barbarian. Jump and hop across the level to avoid the enemies! This mini game will replace All You Can Quaff.
- New Ultra Mode allows for higher textures than before
- Uncapped framerate
- Updates to UI flow
- Russian language support added
Previous owners of Castle Crashers on Steam will be notified of the update when loading up the game after October 14, 2015. For new owners, the full game is available to purchase on the Steam Store for $14.99.
SMITE Nu Horizons Odyssey Skin Reveal
SMITE unleashes a space themed Odyssey skin for Nu Wa.
Rogue Rocket Games to Bring First Wonder to Consoles, Passes Steam Greenlight
Indie developer Rogue Rocket Games today announces a partnership with independent console developer and publisher GRIP Digital to bring their upcoming First Wonder – a hilarious, genre-bending spiritual successor to the beloved classics MDK and Giants: Citizen Kabuto – to consoles. Through this partnership with GRIP Digital, First Wonder will now also come to PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, once fully funded on PC. Rogue Rocket Games is also thrilled to announce that First Wonder took less than two weeks to receive Greenlight approval from the Steam community.
“The team at GRIP have such excellent console experience, there’s nobody better to help spread the madness of First Wonder to PlayStation and Xbox,” said Rogue Rocket Games co-founder Richard Sun. Jakub Mikyska of GRIP Digital added, “We are very excited about partnering with Rogue Rocket Games to bring First Wonder to consoles – because, believe us, there really is nothing like this on consoles right now, and gamers need this!”
In First Wonder, the people of the alien planet of Majorca are besieged by a colossal ancient creature known as Monstro, awoken from his sleep by a greedy corporation and intent on fulfilling a dark ancient prophecy. Only the Cargonauts – a down-on-their-luck deep space salvage crew – can halt Monstro’s path with all the blasting and jet-pack equipment they have to work with, hoping to best Monstro’s incredible natural abilities. Players will not only be able to join the Cargonauts, but also take charge of Monstro in intriguing, humorous alternating chapters of a gripping single player campaign, and online via asymmetric multiplayer.
NYCC 2015 – Day 3 – A Tenno’s Day Out
By Michael Sagoe (mikedot)
The third day of NYCC has come and gone, and this day was easily the most memorable day of the entire event, because this day was all about Warframe, the ever popular Sci-fi shooter created by Digital Extremes. They had so much planned for NYCC, including the Wikia Fantasy Foods truck, the Developer & Community Panel, and the VIP After Party for those lucky few that managed to get a ticket. My entire day was focused on this special game, so it’s only appropriate for me to call this daily entry: “Tenno’s Day Out”.
As I mentioned in my previous entry, the Wikia Fantasy Food’s truck was giving away free samples of various fantasy foods, including “Greedy Milk” from Warframe. Getting your hands on the free samples, however, was a bit of a challenge, as they were only giving them out in limited quantities. To ensure that I wouldn’t lose out on a sample, I showed up to the truck one hour before serving time so I could snag a ticket. Once they started serving and I was waiting on line, a familiar face from the Warframe team was seen handing out headbands.
Indeed, Rebecca Ford, Community Manager and the voice of The Lotus was meeting and greeting Warframe fans, encouraging everyone to check out the upcoming panel. After chatting with her for a bit, I reached the end of the line and ordered my Greedy Milk.
So with drink in hand, I went back to the lounge before giving it a try. Now prepare yourselves… for the first (and probably last) time in OnRPG/MMOhuts history, we’re going to have a little food review.
So as mentioned before, Greedy Milk isn’t so much an actual food item in Waframe, but rather a Grineer metaphor from General Sargas Ruk about crushing the blood from the skulls of their Corpus enemies. So how does that translate into a drink?
Apparently, the blood of Corpus enemies translates to a cookie & cream milkshake. Crazy.
As much as I love anything with cookies and cream, the taste of milkshake wasn’t very adequate, as the mixture of vanilla ice cream and chocolate cookie wafers were mixed together with too much cookie and not enough ice cream. Not only was the consistency of the ingredients off, but the preparation of the milkshake was also poorly handled. The temperature of the milkshake was over frozen to the point where chunky flakes were formed inside the drink, making it very hard to sip through a straw.
This greedy milk concoction could have been passable despite the over mixed ingredients, but the thick and flaky ice cream due to over-freezing really made the whole milkshake taste a bit fowl, so I honestly wouldn’t recommend this frozen dessert at all. If I would have to give this drink a score, with 1 being bad and 5 being great, I’d give it a definite 2 out of 5.
Now I’m not as disappointed that Greedy Milk ended up losing to Gravity Fall’s Mable Juice in the semi-final rounds.
Despite the unsatisfactory Greedy Milk, next up was the Warframe community panel. To make sure that I wouldn’t miss out on any good seats, I waited at the entrance line for two whole hours before getting in, and it was easily worth the wait, as more of the Warframe staff came around to chat with their fans, psyche the crowds up and take a few pictures.
Once the panel started, they jumped straight into a quick demonstration video that showcases what warframe is all about, such as combat, archwing and the warframes themselves, just to give some participants in the audience a clue if they’ve never played the game before. After that, they started things slow by telling everyone how much the game has grown since its initial release and how Warframe was literally the game that saved Digital Extremes from going under.
Which was all well and good, but it wasn’t all that exciting, until they revealed this:
(I apologize for the out-of-focus photos. Trying to take pictures and liveblog at the same time isn’t easy, apparently)
A mystery warframe appeared on the screen. The crowd and I was super excited to know what it was. Without further delay, the mystery warframe was revealed…
The next warframe in development is going to be an archer-based warframe who can summon a bow & arrow weapon in the same sense as Excalibur’s Exalted Blade or Mesa’s Peacemaker. She’ll also have the ability to manipulate enemy fire in midair and redirect those attacks towards enemies. While the concept seems neat, it sounds a bit like another version of the Mag warframe, but time will tell. After the new warframe reveal, concept art of the upcoming Orokin Moonbase was shown off. While it looked just as cool as ever, still no in-game footage of the tileset was shown. Next, a handful of community created warframe skins were shown off, along with a completed premium skin for Rhino and the previously announced Wukong warframe, which will be released sometime in November.
Speaking of Wukong, the Monkey King: the Digital Extremes team then hosted a quick Q&A, and a cosplayer dressed up as Son Wukong was there to ask a few questions.
As for the questions asked by the fans, most answers didn’t really give us more insight into the game’s current state or future, except one interesting question regarding Syndicates and their purpose in the game. It was suggested that Syndicates did not serve much of a purpose in the grand scheme of Warframe’s ongoing story (which I completely agreed with). A user asked if it would be possible to begin a storyline that involves the Syndicates going to war against each other, and Steve answered that question stating that it’s a good idea, but for now, they’re going to focus on the upcoming sentient faction which will be the center conflict for Update 18.
With all things said and done, the panel ended with much praise, except with one of the parting gifts that were left for us, which was a voucher for 75 free platinum. It would have been a nice gift for attending, but the code was only redeemable for PS4 users, and with most Warframe players in audience being a part of the glorious #PCMasterRace, the gift didn’t sit too well with them.
After the panel, the VIP After Party was up, and man, this was easily one of the best parts of my NYCC 2015 experience, as the entire place was rented out for fellow tenno to hang out, enjoy free food and beer and get some personal time with the Digital Extremes team. They also handed out MORE free gifts, including more headbands, PS4 platinum vouchers and even Excalibur symbiotes. Too cool.
After a long night of drinking, Scott proposed a toast along with a speech to all the Warframe fans out there. To give players one last treat, Scott ended up revealing the next primed warframe will be Sayrn. Of course, Rebecca then blares in stating that the next primed warframe isn’t revealed yet. Knowing DE’s track record, that probably won’t be the case, but who knows.
Overall it was an incredibly epic night, and one that makes me look forward to playing Warframe when I return home from New York.
Pocket MapleStory Available on Android in Select Countries
Fans of real-time online multi-player games can now rejoice as NEXON Co., Ltd. (“Nexon”) (3659.TO), a worldwide leader in free-to-play online and mobile games, through its Korean subsidiary, NEXON Korea Corporation, aggressively expands the soft launch rollout of the highly anticipated iOS and Android game, Pocket MapleStory. The side-scrolling action MobileRPG developed by Nexon’s internal studio gives Android players in Australia, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden the chance explore and experience epic battles through the lands of Maple World before the game’s worldwide launch.
Heralded as the definitive version of the original PC game, Pocket MapleStory allows players to craft the perfect hero squad and master each character’s skills and strengths to battle their way through a grand adventure like no other on their mobile device. Pocket MapleStory features:
- A complete MMORPG experience on a mobile device featuring more than 1,500 quests
- The first mobile version with real-time online multiplayer that enables network party play
- Three different heroes, Duel Blade, Angerlic Buster and Demon Slayer each with different skills and fighting styles
- Fun rivalry with the Dungeon and Guild system to compete with friends online
- Personalization of characters and items
- Bright and colorful graphics reminiscent of the original PC game
“Pocket MapleStory has enormous global appeal and recognition as a beloved game for fans of the original MapleStory PC online game and MMORPG titles, generally,” said Myoung Il Kim, the Director of Pocket MapleStory, NEXON Korea. “The continued rollout in new countries will give even more fans access to an unforgettable mobile experience they can take with them wherever they go.”
Pocket MapleStory is now available for download via mobile device from Google Play for Android in Australia, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden. Following the soft launch and testing of the game, Pocket MapleStory will release in markets around the world.
NYCC 2015 – Day 2 – Straight From Japan
By Michael Sagoe (mikedot)
The second day of NYCC has arrived, and today was a hectic run for interviews on some upcoming video game titles. A week before the convention started, I managed to get hooked up with both Bandai Namco and Gumi Inc. to talk about their newest titles for 2015 and 2016. The interviewees were all producers straight from Japan, and each of them brought along translators to make the interview process much smoother. This is the first time that I would ever get to interview a foreign speaker, so I was really looking forward to see how the event would go from start to finish.
First, I was set to up to meet the executive producer of Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth named Kazumasa Habu (Habu-San). We had a nice long discussion about the game’s 2016 release, as well as details such as Habu-san’s experience working with the long running Digimon franchise, the excitement that Namco Bandai America gained from western Digimon fans that showed their support for the game and other questions regarding its gameplay and features.
He also went into detail regarding the fan service they managed to cram into the game, which Habu-san claims has more than enough to satisfy even the most diehard Digimon fans, along with Habu-san’s favorite digimon (which is apparently Devimon due to his more “mature” style compared to many other mons in the series).
There were a handful of other questions that I wanted to answer, but sadly my camera was starting to give off the red light of impending death, so I only focused on the more exciting questions. Despite the limited questions, the interview went incredibly well. Despite our equipment being set-up in an awkward fashion, the whole set-up seemed to be played by ear so we felt a little less embarrassed. In the end, overcoming the technically difficulties to land a successful interview made for a memorable experience.
Next, I met up with Jun Imaizumi, Executive Producer for Phantom of the Kill, an upcoming Mobile RPG that will be released this winter for iOS and Android devices. As we went over the game’s details through an interview, they mention how they’re very excited to be releasing another quality mobile title to western territories and are hoping to continue this trend to become the leading mobile game publisher in the west. With already three popular mobile games under their belt such as Chain Chronicle and Brave Frontier, their goal doesn’t seem too far off.
Before attending the last interview for the day, I rushed over to the Wikia Foods Truck once again to see if I could get a taste of the Greedy Milk from Warframe. When I got there, I saw that there were still a few bottles of Greedy Milk being given out, but when I tried to get on line for one, I was almost instantly stopped in my tracks by food truck staff. Apparently since the food truck was giving out free food, they decided to give participants a ticket that they would need to collect in order to get in line and request a product.
Since I got their late and had no ticket, I was out of luck… again.
No matter, of course. With tomorrow’s convention day, I WILL get a taste of that milk if it’s the last thing I do!
…Okay, so maybe I would never make that the last thing I’d do with my life, but you know what I mean.
Despite not getting the food truck sample, I did get to snag some cool cosplay pictures as I went back for the interview offices.
Last up, I met with Yosuke Futami, Executive Producer for Sword Art Online: Lost Song, an upcoming JRPG set in the SAO universe. As the first SAO game in the series to feature custom character creation and online multiplayer, this was a huge milestone as the game was finally becoming true to the virtual reality MMORPG theme the anime is based around.
With that said, since the series was based around virtual reality, I simply had to ask Fatami’s thoughts on the emerging VR technologies that exist today or will exist in the future. With the Oculus Rift and Playstation VR on the horizon, the next logical step would be to make an SAO game compatible with VR. When I gave Futami this question, his reaction and response was absolutely priceless.
“To be fair: The world of Sword Art Online is set in 2022 and uses a special VR gear that taps into the player’s five senses, so we’re still years off from achieving that kind of technology! Still, the idea of making a VR headset compatible SAO is something that I would like to see very soon.”
Overall the interviews went without too much of a hitch and many laughs were had by me and the Bandai Namco team.
So with the second day done and gone, tomorrow is going to be a big one. All fans of Warframe: Prepare yourselves as I declare Saturday as “Tenno Day Out” as Digital Extremes will be hosting a live panel this year to answer questions from the community, show off some new content and more. Afterwards, they will be hosting a VIP party where fellow Tenno can mingle with the masterminds behind Warframe including Steve Sinclair, Sheldon Carter, Geoff Crookes and Scott McGregor and Rebecca Ford.
Plus: The world will get to see Rebecca Ford’s very own Mag cosplay, and I get to (hopefully) sample the Greedy Milk drink over at the Wikia Foods Truck; so there’s plenty for Warframe fans to look forward to. Buckle up and get ready!
CoD Black Ops III – Zombies Prologue
CoD Black Ops III announces a zombies co-op experience set Film Noir style. Because reasons.
RuneFest 2015 Panels: Video Compilation
Jagex has been gradually releasing recordings of its stage presentations at RuneFest 2015. Watch all of them below as they get released!






























