Yearly Archives: 2015

SWTOR: Knights of the Fallen Empire Quick Hands-On Preview

By Tyler Wood (zelus_craft)

 

SWTOR KOTFE Valkorion

San Francisco, CA – Another day of the endless California drought trudges onward, but thankfully, EA and Bioware kindly offered cool harbor within the W Hotel to show off some of the upcoming expansion for Star Wars: The Old Republic, Knights of the Fallen Empire.

 

Fans of SWTOR will be delighted to know that Knights of the Fallen Empire is part of Bioware’s much touted return to story telling form. Feedback from the previous expansion, Shadow of Revan, was heard loud and clear: More personal story development. Well fans, you’ll get what you want: Knights of the Fallen Empire will feature nine highly focused personal story chapters on release and then, starting in January, additional monthly chapters will be released. For SWTOR subscribers this expansion is free, and everyone will be able to jump into it with a new or existing level 60 character.

 

SWTOR KOTFE Fleet

“Speaking frankly, those are some bad odds.”

 

My hands-on time with Knights of the Fallen Empire began at the usual place: A character creation screen. I created a female Sith with the full intention of being as snarky as possible throughout the dialogue trees, and then watched the opening ‘Sacrifice’ cinematic (if you haven’t seen it already, it’s quite good). Shortly thereafter I was deciding who to help, making snide remarks at all parties, re-learning skills, and fighting small squads of boarding parties. If you start the expansion with a new character – like I did – there is a pseudo tutorial that grants you three to five of your skills after a set number of enemy encounters. This will probably be a great refresher for players who haven’t touched the game in a while. The quick and dicey choices I made while running around a burning mess of a ship felt like they had an immediate effect on which in-game cutscenes were played next. Only one dialogue tree in first chapter stood out as particularly important– but hey, it’s chapter one.

 

SWTOR KOTFE Outlander Marr

More story also means standing and talking.

 

Chapter one of the new expansion felt very, very similar the rest of SWTOR but with more memorable chit chats and a slight visual bump in quality. If you enjoy the existing combat-running-combat-cutscene rotation found in the rest of the game and are curious what the disappearance of the Sith Emperor signifies then you’ll probably enjoy how Knights of the Fallen Empire plays. Though brief, the first chapter of the expansion is an interesting entry point to more Star Wars Expanded Universe material.

 

SWTOR KOTFE Vaylin

Melisandre, what are you doing in this franchise?

 

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Knights of the Fallen Empire will be releasing this October 27th as a digital download and expansion to the Star Wars: The Old Republic base game. If you like SWTOR, get it.

 

Grand Ages: Medieval

Grand Ages: Medieval is a 3D strategy game developed by Gaming Minds Studios that is available for purchase on Steam for PC and Linux and can be purchased separately for the PS4. In Grand Ages: Medieval you will be able to rise from a humble mayor to the leader of a powerful empire. By producing and trading a whopping 20 different types of goods, waging strategic battles, defending your trade routes, and meeting your peoples’ demands you will be able to conquer the world as you know it. Wits and strategic foresight are just the beginning of what you’ll need to be successful in both the Campaign and Multiplayer matches that consist of up to 8 players.

Features:

Natural Disasters: Natural disasters like volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, violent storms and much more add an unpredictability to matches.

Massive World: Over 20 million square kilometers of land are ripe for the taking, from Scandinavia and North Africa; to Portugal, the Caucasus and the Middle East.

Technological Advancements: 50 major technological advancements like the longbow and low warp loom can be researched and help you achieve greatness!

Pirate Crusaders

Pirate Crusaders is a turn-based MMORPG by Crimson Games. Packed with fast paced pvp and pve action and tons of fun events, Pirate Crusaders lets players experience the pirate life online.

Features:

PvE Gameplay: Battle through rich dungeons filled with dangerous enemies and precious loot. Build different boats to sail across the seven seas.

PvP Gameplay: Compete against other pirates for territorial control. Participate in real-time guild wars.

Social Gameplay: Cooperate and compete with players and guild mates for loot and pirate titles.

Seven Knights Announced for Global Launch in 2015

Netmarble Games today announced that its hit RPG, Seven Knights, will launch globally for iOS and Android devices later this year. To celebrate the upcoming release, the company has launched a new Seven Knights website in four languages, including English, Traditional Chinese, Thai and Korean.

seven knights announcement

Seven Knights, which debuted in Korea last year and has consistently held a top five spot on the Google Play Store – reaching #1 in September 2014 and remaining in the top three for 48 consecutive weeks, currently ranks second in revenue in Korea on the Google Play Store. The game continues to amass legions of fans with more than seven million downloads and an active, growing global community. The visually striking mobile RPG has struck a chord with male and female players of all ages through its distinctive combination of intuitive commands, intense strategy and exciting adventure. With simple controls and lively turn-based combat, Seven Knights invites players to collect and upgrade hundreds of heroes, blaze through battles with a customized team and explore a number of dynamic game modes for variety and challenge.

“Following the highly successful launch of Seven Knights in Korea, where the game has attracted millions of passionate players, we are pleased to introduce the game to the world through its new global website,” said Seungwon Lee, President of Overseas at Netmarble Games. “As a global gaming company, Netmarble Games will continue to introduce and support high quality games like Seven Knights that combine the fun immersion of a true RPG with the accessibility of a casual mobile title.”

With over 230 characters in Seven Knights shown in high quality animations and dynamic skill effects, and each of the game’s uniquely designed heroes has his or her own distinct skills and scintillating backstory. The turn-based battles combine various skill effects and counter skills with tactical battle formations and the ability to customize team rosters for different enemies. Game modes include the single player Celestial Tower mode, a Battle Arena for fighting other players and Castle Rush mode where player guilds can fight for supremacy.

Learn more about the game at their new global website.