Monthly Archives: April 2016

Neverwinter Announced for Microsoft Windows Store

Neverwinter Announced for Microsoft Windows Store

Today, Perfect World Entertainment Inc., a leading publisher of free-to-play MMORPGs, and Cryptic Studios announced a Windows Store version of Neverwinter coming to Windows 10. Upon this release, adventurers will be able to visit the Windows Store to download and play the free-to-play action-MMORPG set in the Dungeons & Dragons’ Forgotten Realms universe from Wizards of the Coast.

Originally launching in 2013, Neverwinter is a free-to-play action MMORPG that features fast-paced combat and epic dungeons. Players explore the vast city of Neverwinter and its surrounding countryside, learning the vivid history of the iconic city in the Forgotten Realms and battling its many enemies. Neverwinter is currently available on PC and digitally for Xbox One, available free-to-play with Gold* from the Xbox Games Store.

Swordsman Lone Wanderer Expansion Announced

Swordsman Lone Wanderer Expansion Announced

Today, Perfect World Entertainment Inc., a leading publisher of widely-acclaimed free-to-play MMORPGs, announced Lone Wanderer, the newest expansion for the martial arts adventure Swordsman. This exciting update marks the debut of a powerful new Falconer class. Also included in this expansion is a host of new gameplay updates, including a new weapon system, an increased level cap of 99 and a new character improvement system.

Tragedy has fallen upon one of Swordsman’s infamous martial arts schools. The Infinity School, a legendary institution known for training masters of attrition, has been completely destroyed. From its ashes rises a new faction, the Falconers. Each elusive survivor is accompanied by an eagle, who never leaves its master’s side and attacks any oncoming enemies. Together they roam the earth without fear, striking down anyone who stands in their way. When Lone Wanderer is released, players can take advantage of this powerful new class for the very first time.

Besides adding a new faction to Swordsman, the game’s upcoming expansion also introduces Glass Weapons, a powerful new weapon system. This deadly form of weaponry can be forged by smelting Sun and Moon Shard weapons together. Once armed with these powerful new weapons, players will be unstoppable. Other updates include an increased level cap to 99, which unlocks new quests and maps for max-level characters, plus the ability to improve characters by equipping them with Scenery Stones, a new free-for-all PVP area and challenging three-player instance for rewards.

War Thunder Revisits WW2 Chronicles Event

War Thunder Revisits WW2 Chronicles Event

Gaijin Entertainment today announced that its award-winning MMO WWII online game, War Thunder, is currently running its WW2 event series.  Players can take part in the recreation of more than 70 World War 2 battles, which will be updated on a daily basis (at 13:00 GMT every day). The WW2 Chronicles will feature all the main theatres of operations, this year pilots and tankers will be able to receive a very special prize for completing a specific amount of daily tasks.

 

Players wishing to take part take part in the “WW2 Chronicles” event series can do so until May  9th. This week players can take part in battle events based on real WW2 campaigns such as the North Africa campaign, the battle for Stalingrad and the Siege of Malta. Players have the opportunity to win the following rare vehicles A34 Comet “Iron Duke” IV, a KV-2 mod. 1940, an MBR-2, Richard Bong’s P-38J and other prizes for completed challenges. Daily tasks for tankers and pilots will reward players with unique tanks and planes until the event finishes.

 

For more information on the WW2 Chronicles event series and for a full list of challenge requirements and prizes please visit the information page here.

World of Warcraft Legion Launch Date Announced

World of Warcraft Legion Launch Date Announced

The great enemy of Azeroth is back, and soon the kingdoms of the Horde and the Alliance will be consumed in a storm of fel fire. Starting August 30, realms will shatter, heroes will fall, and the world will stand on the brink of destruction with the launch of World of Warcraft®: Legion™, the sixth expansion for Blizzard Entertainment’s acclaimed massively multiplayer online role-playing game.

Defenders of the Alliance and the Horde can steel themselves for the return of the demonic armies of the Burning Legion by pre-purchasing World of Warcraft: Legion digitally at www.wowlegion.com. Players who pre-purchase will unlock an instant level-100 character boost, as well as early access to the Demon Hunter—Legion’s dextrous and deadly new hero class—prior to the expansion’s release.

Legion opens a dark and thrilling new chapter in one of the Warcraft series’ greatest conflicts, and things will never be the same for some of Azeroth’s most iconic heroes and villains,” said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. “This expansion is loaded with features and content that give players whole new ways to explore the world and customize their heroes. We’re looking forward to sending everyone into battle against the Burning Legion this August.”

In this expansion chronicling the events following Warlords of Draenor, all hellfire breaks loose when the warlock Gul’dan, betrayer of the orcs and twisted servant of the Burning Legion, unleashes a demonic invasion force upon Azeroth unlike any the Horde and the Alliance have ever faced. To save their world from annihilation, heroes must unlock the mysteries of the mythic Broken Isles, master powerful Artifact weapons, and strike a forbidden pact with the Demon Hunters of the Illidari—vengeful disciples of the dreaded Illidan Stormrage.

Pre-purchase Now and Prepare for the Invasion

World of Warcraft: Legion will be available in a Standard Edition (physical and digital versions available; SRP $49.99). Players also have the option to upgrade their pre-purchase to the Digital Deluxe Edition (SRP $69.99), which contains a hoard of in-game bonuses for a variety of Blizzard games, including an Illidari Felstalker mount and pet for World of Warcraft, a Felstalker mount for Heroes of the Storm®, a helm transmog and wings for Diablo® III, and a pair of fel-infused StarCraft® II portraits.

Players who pre-purchase either the digital Standard Edition or Digital Deluxe Edition of Legion through www.wowlegion.com will be able to immediately boost one character to level 100, allowing them to experience the latest World of Warcraft content alongside their friends.††

Pre-purchasing Legion will also grant early access to the Demon Hunter prior to the expansion’s release. During the pre-launch early-access period, players will be able to complete the Demon Hunter’s unique starting experience on the shattered, Legion-corrupted world of Mardum and achieve level 100, leaving them fully prepared to join their allies on the Broken Isles the moment the expansion launches. Further details on the upcoming Demon Hunter early-access period, including the timing and duration, will be announced at a later date.

World of Warcraft: Legion will also be available in a retail-only Collector’s Edition (SRP $89.99), which includes the digital bonuses from the Digital Deluxe Edition along with a full-color hardcover art book, a behind-the-scenes two-disc Blu-ray/DVD set, a CD soundtrack, and a Legion mouse pad. Supplies are limited; players should check with their local retailer for preorder details and availability.

World of Warcraft: Legion Features

World of Warcraft: Legion is filled with features and content that will transform Azeroth’s heroes into Legion-slaying avatars of vengeance, including:

  • New Hero Class: Demon Hunter—Unleash the demon within as an all-new melee hero class gifted with preternatural mobility—and the ability to metamorphose into hellish new forms.
  • New Feature: Artifact Weapons—Smite the Legion with class-specific weapons of lore. Unlock abilities and traits, and customize your weapon to suit your needs.
  • New Continent: The Broken Isles—Discover the fate of a lost night elf civilization, confront twisted fragments of the Emerald Nightmare, and hunt agents of the Legion in all-new zones. Forge your own path through the Broken Isles as you explore content that dynamically scales to your level.
  • Boost to Level 100—Come fully prepared to battle the Legion with a level-100 character boost, and fight alongside your friends in this epic new chapter of World of Warcraft—available immediately upon pre-purchase.
  • New Feature: Class Hall—Gather with fellow members of your class and unite followers of your order—including iconic characters from Warcraft lore—to carry out missions at your command.
  • New PvP Honor System—Fight for fame, glory, and a range of new PvP-specific powers as you face the opposing faction in Arenas and Battlegrounds.

Players upgrading from World of Warcraft Starter Edition must wait for trial restrictions to be removed (up to 72 hours) before using character boost. Demon Hunter early access timing will be announced at a later date. Only one Demon Hunter per realm (per account); requires at least one level-70 character on realm.

†† Corresponding World of Warcraft expansions required.

Goliath Announces Zander Cannon as Writer

Goliath Announces Zander Cannon as Writer

Octopus Tree, a new publisher focused on bringing exceptional indie titles to gamers worldwide, announced today that its premiere action-adventure title, Goliath, features the writing talents of award-winning comics creator Zander Cannon. Cannon worked closely with development team Whalebox Studio to craft the narrative and dialogue in Goliath, an open-world, action-adventure game with crafting and role-playing elements set in a universe where players build and customize massive robots to overcome the challenges they face.

Cannon is the celebrated writer and artist behind the recent hit comic book series Kaijumax, published by Oni Press. His other works include the acclaimed graphic novel Heck, which was nominated for an Eisner Award for Best Graphic Album – Reprint, and won the Lynd Ward Prize for Best Graphic Novel. Cannon also won two Eisner Awards for his work on Top 10 as part of a creative team that included Gene Ha and comics legend Alan Moore.

Zander Cannon’s many accolades include:

  • Two Eisner Awards for Top Ten: Best New Series and Best Continuing Series, 2001
  • One Eisner nomination for Heck: Best Graphic Novel of Previously Published Material, 2014
  • Harvey Award Nomination for Best New Cartoonist, 1996
  • Stumptown Comics Award for Heck: Best Cartoonist, 2014
  • Lynd Ward Graphic Novel Prize Honor Book, Heck, 2014

“We couldn’t be more thrilled to be working with Zander,” said Jeremy Zoss, Marketing Manager for Octopus Tree. “As a fan of his work for many years, I love the mix of gravity and levity in his stories, and he has brought that same unique blend to Goliath. The work he’s done on the game is exactly what we were hoping for, and we’re super pumped to introduce him to a new audience through the game.”

“I am so excited to be working on Goliath,” said Cannon. “I love video games and I’ve always wanted an opportunity to write one. Fortunately, the Whalebox Studio and Octopus Tree teams and I clicked right away, and I’m very happy with what we’ve produced together.”

Doom Multiplayer Open Beta

By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor)

 

Doom Beta Impressions 01

One of the most iconic games ever made is without a doubt the Doom franchise. If you started playing games back in the beginning of the PC era, you probably have played one of these games. Even if you’re a younger millenial, you no doubt have experienced a game inspired by Doom. And now Doom is back; will they breathe life to their Franchise? Will we once more experience the impact of what Doom and their other influential franchise Quake once brought to the industry? This weekend we all got to try the Multiplayer, and after only a couple hours the Steam reviews were already plagued with negative ratings. Are they justified or just trigger impulse reactions? Can fans doom Doom just with their salt? I decided to find out!

Doom Beta Impressions

For the youngsters out there, I can understand if you haven’t really heard that much about Doom or never played it. But back in the early 90s Doom built the foundation of modern shooters. Though built on simplistic ideals with a near complete lack of story, their dungeon design, semi-jump scares, and gameplay build around twitch skill and adrenaline fueled entertainment proved to be an addicting combination. It was a real challenge clearing rooms, and every minute felt like a bullethell as never before seen numbers of foes barraged you from all sides.

Doom Beta Impressions

Notice I haven’t talked much about the history of Doom’s multiplayer in my fond memories? Doom has always been about the single player, even though it pioneered the multiplayer death arena mode. Quake perfected that route. So as Doom 2016 approaches with a heavier than ever emphasis on the multiplayer experience, fans have begun to worry, especially with the development team for multiplayer outsourced to Certain Affinity. Obviously we cannot expect this new Doom to be such a ground breaker as its previous titles, as franchises like Call of Duty have built out nearly every variant imaginable in the genre. But we still expected an adequate experience on all accounts. Thus the immediate negative reaction has us gaming press scratching our heads at the whole affair.

Doom Beta Impressions

The first thing I noticed when getting into the game, is that they followed the trends of the last generation of successful FPS games. I felt like I just loaded up another Call of Duty, with gear customization you get by playing the game, perks that will help you out during the matches, and an online character that resembled Master Chief. And even though the Doom character always looked a little like this, it just felt a little strange to me seeing him in updated current gen graphics. In the multiplayer you can also play around with loadouts or make custom ones yourself. Its not much of a stretch to say the system is a direct copy from Call of Duty, combined together with a perk system that the actual competitive fans simply just hate. The more levels you gain, the more perks you get to unlock just like in Call of Duty. By leveling up you can unlock weaponry, loadouts, perks and other customizations for your character, and I personally can write a book about how disappointing I am to see this. But to each their own, and since there are plenty of people that seem to like this type of unlocking system, I would say its just a preference type of thing. Surely the wave of negativity isn’t the vast majority of shooter fans going from sheep to hipsters over night! Right now we only got to try out two different game modes. The good ol’ Team Deathmatch game mode and a game mode called ‘Warpath’ where you control a moving point to win.

Describing multiplayer gameplay in one word? Slow. Movement in particular is quite slow. Shootouts just lack the fast paced action you’d expect in a twitch shooter experience. However despite the pacing issues, the controls feel fluid and key presses are quite responsive. The ‘Doom Feeling’ is definitely still there, but its not as appealing as before.

Doom Beta Impressions

I played team deathmatch for a few hours straight and also experienced why the game right now in its current shape just feels like its halfway done. With gameplay as slow as it is, even if you’re the better player, there isn’t a skill ceiling high enough to differentiate yourself much. The tools to surprise your enemies simply aren’t there. It feels like a simple shooter, with the generic ammo boxes and health objects scattered around, and people using either the shotgun for close ranges or the sniper rifle for longer distances. Obviously I am not going to talk about the balance or diversity of the weapons, but it definitely felt lackluster and disappointing to not see as much innovation as I had hoped. Even the best elements of Quake weren’t brought over into this new Doom; its like they’ve gone back in time, and forgot what made their games so successful in the first place.

Doom Beta Impressions 01

As of now Doom is just another jump into game, join a team, and mindlessly blast away shooter on the market. Skill is marginalized for RPG progression perks, in lackluster maps offering little strategic opportunity. Despite plenty of height layers, the maps aren’t utilized in a way to keep players on their toes for potential surprise attacks. The inclusion of jumping even feels off as there isn’t any need or requirement to use it. Basically in a nutshell, the game doesn’t feel competitive in nature. As someone mentioned on the Steam reviews:

This isn’t Doom. This isn’t old school, and they aren’t going back to their roots (maybe they just forgot what it used to be about), so stop saying it is. It’s another generic, modern military shooter with a hellish look.”

And he hits the nail on the head. The multiplayer is simply disappointing, and I hope the single player has more to it than a pretty package for somewhat nostalgic Doom gameplay.

 

Vainglory Collegiate League Announced

Vainglory Collegiate League Announced

Today, Super Mega Evilcorp has announced that it has partnered with Collegiate StarLeague (CSL) to begin a new Vainglory Collegiate League.

CSL’s first Vainglory Exhibition will take place at PAX East and will feature teams from Boston University, UMass Amherst, UMass Lowell and Westfield State University. The schools will battle in a single elimination bracket on Sunday, April 24th, starting at 1:30pm on the Twitch Stage at PAX East, at the Boston Convention Center. Those who aren’t attending can watch live on twitch.tv/twitch.

CSL has awarded more than $250,000 in scholarship money to collegiate champions and community figures in the last six years. Vainglory is joining the ranks of a handful of massively popular games that CSL teams compete in, including League of Legends, Dota 2 and Hearthstone. Check out cstarleague.com for more information.