Monthly Archives: January 2016

New First Assault Character Revealed: Maven

New First Assault Character Revealed: Maven character art

Today, Neople has released its first major content update for First Assault, introducing a new character and new map.

Maven is the newest Section 9 operative, created in cooperation with the license-holders of “The Ghost in the Shell.” Previously in the South American military, Maven is an expert in guerrilla warfare and topography. Her cyberskll is a therm-optic barrier capable of obscuring sight. At Tier 2 of this ability, the size of the barrier increases. However, barriers can be destroyed by enemies.

The update also introduces the new Port map, an early version of the Ghost Screen stat tracking feature, new weapons and more.

Star Conflict Launches Age of Destroyers Update

Star Conflict Launches Age of Destroyers Update news header

StarGem Inc. and Gaijin Entertainment’s epic free-to-play MMO action game, Star Conflict, announces an exciting addition to ship classes today with the introduction of destroyers. Beginning January 14th Star Conflict players can add destroyers to their offensive capabilities.
Destroyers join Interceptors, fighters and frigates as the fourth ship class available to players. Destroyers may be a slower ship class, but what they lack in speed they make up for in firepower. Powerful guns adorn both sides of this giant, giving them all-round offensive and defensive capability.

In addition to their awesome firepower, destroyers have many special modules, each of which possesses a special skill. For example, the Black Hole generator can create ominous black holes that around the battlefield. The Destroyer uses the black hole to ‘hyper jump’ to different parts of the battlefield, creating distance, thereby gaining tactical advantages over much faster and highly maneuverable ships like interceptors and fighters.

On top of the introduction of the destroyer class, players will receive new types of maps – Leviathan is a giant space station where pilots can fight deep inside cavernous halls and navigate through narrow passages, as well as outside of it. Nordstar Crash is an asteroid with the remains of a Nordstar dreadnought in the center of it allowing players to fly above it, around it and set lethal ambushes on rival players. Ambrosia-VII Factory is an abandoned factory on an asteroid. It is a hostile environment of rivers of lava, factory tunnels and secret passages. All the maps provide a perfectly balanced PVP experience.

Also two new maps added to Open Space, Omega Station is set around an old abandoned space harbor and Depot 15 situated in a huge deep space mining operation long since evacuated by the crews mining rare materials there. In addition to that, three older maps previously available in Open Space are now available in PVP mode and includes Ice Pits, Warden Outpost Ruins and Research Centre.

To see a full rundown of the latest Star Conflict destroyer class content check out the following link: http://star-conflict.com/en/news/667-star-conflict-1-3-en

Winning Putt

Winning Putt is a MMO golf game developed by Webzen Onnet and published by Bandai Namco. Winning Putt is the ultimate multiplayer sport game that is ideal for both PC gamers and golf enthusiasts looking for a sporting experience that goes beyond the typical round of golf.

Features:

Specialize your golf game: Train your character to be prepared for more challenging holes, outfit your character with different outfits and gear, and customize your golf clubs for maximum performance

Improve your golf game: Level up with every swing, putt, and hole in one to enhance your character, compete in tournaments and dominate the competition to rise through the ranks of the leaderboards.

Empower your golf game: Bend the rules of reality as you equip various skills to turn the tide of a match and use items to give yourself an edge over the competition.

Challenge your golf game: Play for free and enjoy golf online with your friends and rivals, enjoy multiple game modes including 4-player rounds, betting mode and team battle, then join a guild to compete against the best, gain extra perks, and much more.

Winning Putt Press Preview Event – Hands-On Impressions

Author: Tyler Wood
Co-written by Mike Tang.

When was the last time you played a round of golf? Well, your answer may change since Bandai Namco & Webzen Onnet has just unveiled their upcoming Free to Play MMO: Winning Putt.

Winning Putt Preview Screenshot 15

A couple of days ago Bandai Namco and Webzen Onnet announced their new golfing MMO, Winning Putt, to the press at the Presidio Golf Club in San Francisco. The evening started out with a fast paced rundown about the tech, goals, and plans behind the game, which then followed-up with some hands-on time at various demo stations set up around the clubhouse. We got our hands-on demos that featured the main mechanics of the game, focusing on three aspects: Customization, MMO functionality, and the core golfing experience.

Customization – Wow.
Starting off, every player needs an avatar – and boy, you can really make an avatar. Winning Putt has a character creation suite that’s somewhere between the lines of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim and Black Desert. There’s a ton of freedom in the customization of the face and hair, and quite a few options for other characteristics like physique and body type. Presets, sliders, color palettes – if you want it, it’s probably there. If you want to recreate yourself within the game, or anyone else, then you’ll certainly be able to do so.

Winning Putt Preview Screenshot 11

True to real life, there are hundreds of pieces of golfing attire to choose from that will change how you look. Gloves, shoes, pants, vests, sunglasses, hats, jewelry… the list goes on. Additionally, there are caddy bags, club finishes, and even special effects for your ball and celebration emotes. Almost all of the customization relates to the business model and MMORPG aspects of the game – but more on that later.

MMO…ish? Huh? What?
There are guilds. There’s enchantments and crafting. There’s a skill tree and leveling system. There are consumable items and buffs. There’s PvP, betting, and leaderboards. Almost every piece of attire has stat modifiers attached to it. Quests and challenges are somewhere in there too. But most important of all: You can mindlessly jump around vendor NPCs in a plaza while you wait for another round to start. The only things that seems to be missing is an auction house and mounts (golf cart expansion anyone?). That said, Winning Putt really is an MMO, but it feels… weird.

Winning Putt Preview Screenshot 13

What we mean by that is Winning Putt has all of the features of a typical MMORPG, but they’re not really flushed out at the moment. Elements like crafting and guilds are paper-thin bare essentials of what they can be. For example, guilds don’t have private clubhouses, banners, or any other visual customizations and the crafting system doesn’t seem to have anything beyond adding power, range, or accuracy buffs to clubs or attire. Even the base run speed around the plaza is slow, and walking is super-duper slow, akin to what players experienced in the lobby of another recent Bandai game, Xenoverse. Right now, the MMO sections of this MMO are just not quite there yet… but I suppose that’s what open betas and iterative development cycles are for nowadays.

The Core Golfing Experience – Playing the Course
The primary modes of the game, inspired by over five centuries of play, is where Webzen has spent the most of their time and care. In our hands-on time we think it’s looking pretty good – mechanically speaking. The simple and effective combined power and accuracy bar provides excellent visual feedback for nailing shots, and hitting both with timed spacebar whacks feels great. Sound effects are spot on, and the aiming of shots against the wind, terrain, or other natural obstacles is well handled.

Winning Putt Preview Screenshot 10

Not everything here is perfect however – some pieces are missing like animations of characters moving between shots, an audience or any wildlife whatsoever. Various narrations like “Fairway” or “Nice approach” aren’t what we would describe as ‘crisp’ either. The act of playing golf is pretty faithfully recreated in the 3rd person; the fundamental gameplay is solid, course look good, but it just needs a little more.

Polish
At the live event it was heavily emphasized that the core experience of playing golf is the primary focus right now, and there are lots of plans to improve all of the other aspects of the game (ie. pretty much all of the MMO bits). On a technical level everything we saw and experienced was functional. Sound-wise things are pretty cohesive, except where wildlife and crowd ambience is lacking. Graphically it’s pretty to look at most of the time, and does so running on the powerhungry Cry Engine. Lots of environmental textures looked flat in the plaza area, but the lighting and detail on characters and terrain geometry is pretty impressive (especially the grass). Basically, Winning Putt is a little under Par, and hopefully will improve in time for the planned Q1 launch.

Winning Putt Preview Screenshot 16

Future Ideas – Far Reaching
Webzen Onnet is designing and building the game out with the core golf gameplay and theme in focus, but that’s not to say that they’re taking things too seriously. While at the event we previewed an alien planet themed course and saw lots of footage where special effects like lightning and fire were used to power up the range and accuracy of strokes. There are lots of cute, whacky, and highly unrealistic customizability options available to players in the form of avatars, attire, and special items too. Unique gameplay modes are coming soon like a feature titled “Speedrun Mode” that will allow up to four players to play a course simultaneously and race like madmen to the finish (as opposed to taking turns like normal people). These aspects, and many more, are on the way, and again, hopefully some of them will make it in time for the launch.

Winning Putt Preview Screenshot 17

Open Beta – Open for Business!
Like other Free to Play titles, Winning Putt features an in-game store where you can exchange real money for a premium currency – platinum. Some items, like founders packs, can only be purchased with platinum, but everything else can be bought by using the gold currency which can be earned by leveling up, completing challenges, and playing well. Of course, like with other games in beta, exchange rates and item prices are subject to change in the near-future.

With all that said, if you’re looking for a free golfing MMO that isn’t going on ten years of age, there isn’t much choice on the fairway. For more details or to sign up for beta, be sure to check out the official website that just went live this morning.