Yearly Archives: 2018

Ancestors Legacy Announces Their Release Date

Ancestors Legacy, the history-inspired, turn-based Real Time Strategy title comes closer to its launch date. It is scheduled for May 22nd, 2018 for both Windows PC and Xbox One. The Windows version will be distributed through digital outlets such as Steam, with a boxed retail version available in select countries. The Xbox version will hit online stores on the same day. The eager warriors do not need to wait for the way until the release in May, as the Open Multiplayer PC Beta is launched on Steam today! Ancestors Legacy is now open for everyone to try out the multiplayer on its own. All four nations represented in the game are playable within this beta version, on one of the three maps, from 2-6 players (1v1, 2v2, 3v3). Players can be accompanied by AI, or other players online (friends, or in the lobby).

Ancestors Legacy can also be pre-ordered as of today. Fans joining the pre-purchase may look forward to receiving a full digital Collector’s Edition of Ancestors Legacy, containing the original soundtrack composed by Adam Skorupa and Krzysztof Wierzynkiewicz, and a digital artbook put together by the art team at Destructive creations. This pre-order offer is topped by a 10% discount off its price, set at 39.99 EUR / 44.99 USD – the same price as for the final base game (without the DLC) in the PC digital version.

Conquer Online Runes Expansion Gift Pack Giveaway

Conquer Online Runes Expansion will be released in February, the power of mystic runes will bring tremendous change to CO world! To celebrate the release of new expansion. The Conquer Online (http://co.99.com/) team joins hands with OnRPG to provide wonderful gift packs for new players to challenge numerous martial artists in the world of Conquer!

Conquer Online Runes Giveaway

Conquer Online is a free PVP MMORPG which features Free to Play, Skill to Win. In Conquer Online, you can choose from 9 awesome classes and become a martial arts master. While exploring the ancient oriental fantasy world, you also can make friends with other players all over the world, organize a guild, and even get married. Complete quests, challenge fierce monsters, enhance gear and finally you’ll become the conqueror of the world of fighters. Since launch, Conquer Online has attracted over 10 million players worldwide. Join and prove yourself on the world-class stage now!


Players will get a set of level 15 super +3 equipment (B) to start the new journey, there will also be gifts including EXP Balls, Dragon Balls and + stones to support a new player.

New Reunion Box:

EXPBall x 10; EXPPotion x 10; PrayingStone(M) x 1; +3Stone x 7; +3SteedPack x 1; DragonBall x 5; 1000 CPs(B); 30 Day ImperialRobe(B); New Rebirth Box.

Novice Equipment Pack:

Open to get a set of level 15 Super +3 equipment (B) of your class.


How to Redeem Your Gift Code:

  1. Sign up for FREE on our Event Page (https://coevent.99.com/runesgiftpacks/)
  2. Download the game and login to create a new character. Click START TO PLAY CO on the event page to download client.
  3. Come back to the Event Page (https://coevent.99.com/runesgiftpacks/). Submit your character info and your gift code to claim your gift packs!
  4. Login to the game and claim your prizes from your in-game mailbox by clicking on the mailbox button on the top right corner of the game screen.

Note: Event takes place from February 6th to March 5th (PST). One gift code per account per IP. This code is only available for new players who have successfully registered during the event.

Note: Unfortunately ad blockers may interfere with our site. If you have any issues claiming a key, please disable them and try again.

First Person Brawler Sky Noon Coming to Steam Early Access

Independent game developer Lunar Rooster, partnered with Reverb Triple XP have announced today that their first-person multiplayer brawler Sky Noon will launch into Steam Early Access in Q2 2018. Set in the Wild West, Sky Noon promises to be a unique, refreshing first-person experience, taking the fight high into the sky. Taking place in a reinvented Wild West universe where the frontier floats among the clouds, powerful cartels crave to control the most precious resource in the west: water. Players take the role of hired gunslingers that battle opposing fighters across floating islands in the sky. The game does not feature health meters. Instead, players eliminate enemies using super-powered compressed air weapons, sending them flying far away! Grappling hooks and lassos must be used to prevent players from plummeting to their doom.

“What we love about Sky Noon is how it really feels like a first person brawler and that’s a refreshing take on the shooter genre,” states Ted Lange, Executive Producer for Reverb Triple XP. “Sky Noon really has that unique and elusive fun factor that’s hard to find in most multiplayer games and that’s a testament to the clear direction of fun design the Lunar Rooster development team has focused on when making Sky Noon.”

Regions of Ruin Review

By Andrew Skelton (Outfoxed)

Kingdom and Kingdom: New Lands are a special kind of game to me.  They’re beautifully simplistic by design, but massively complex by nature.  So when Regions of Ruin was announced as adding open world RPG content to the formula, as well as skill-based combat, you better believe I was intrigued and I was happy to review the game when the opportunity arose.  It’s actually taken me a while to do a cohesive preview, since the game has had a significant amount of polish between its first foray into Early Access to present day, so please, join me on a trek to reclaim the land in the name of the dwarves you lead.

Regions of Ruin Review Screenshot

My Kingdom for a Wagon

After learning about the horrible fate of the land, your lone dwarf runs across a caravan master with a broken wagon.  This is where the tutorial begins, and you’re guided towards learning how to interact with objects, how to equip yourself with weapons and armor, and how to dispatch enemies.  That’s right, unlike Kingdom, you are responsible for most of the combat that takes place.  You can also sneak attack monsters which does massive damage,

You’re also introduced to the second part of the game: resource collection and management.  In order to fix the wagon, you collect wood.  Once you return to the caravan, you’re off to your main encampment, which serves as the hub for most activity in the game.

Regions of Ruin Review Screenshot

Getting Perspective

The main camp starts with nothing more than a campfire.  A few NPCs are already there, and you’ll pick up your first quests of the game.  Most of the quests I encountered were either to rescue a fellow dwarf or drive off some sort of goblin/kobold/orc/troll mob terrorizing the countryside.  You can also develop the camp further with various upgrades such as storage, a smithy, a tavern, and more.  Each building has a variety of benefits, such as crafting new weapons and armor at the blacksmith, or getting coins and recruiting followers at the tavern.  All of the buildings can be upgraded for increased effect, too.

Once the handy townsfolk told me where to find some resources (after all, a camp needs things like lumber and stone to grow, right?) it was off to the map screen.  Initially, your sphere of travel is limited, but by spending food, you can increase where you can travel by scouting out the land.  The map didn’t seem like much to me, at first, until you realize how little you reveal with every search.  What seems like a small and simple game suddenly gets a whole lot more expansive when you get an idea of how large its world is.

Regions of Ruin Review Screenshot

Control-nan the Barbarian

While it can be played a variety of different ways, Regions of Ruin was very much designed for keyboard-only gameplay.  In fact, controller support is very rudimentary and may as well be non-existent.  That’s one of the major problems I have with the game currently — the game feels like it would play amazingly using a controller, but it’s simply just not feasible.  Still, the keyboard controls for movement and interaction and accessing the various menus like inventory or the map are intuitive enough.  Where it becomes a lot more muddy is when it comes to the combat controls.  If we’re going off of default schemes, left arrow is your basic attack, while right arrow is your power attack.  Up arrow is throwing weapons, and down arrow is block.

My problem with the scheme is likely just a mental thing, I’ll admit.  When I’m facing left, my brain wanted left arrow to be the basic attack, but when facing right, which you are for a lot of the game, I kept expecting right arrow to be such.  Using W for jump when most games use spacebar also took a lot of practice to get used to.  Thankfully, it doesn’t take long to get used to, but again, I really wish there was full-fledged controller support for this title.

Regions of Ruin Review Screenshot

Skills to Pay the Builds

As you slay enemies and complete quests, your head dwarf levels up.  Every level (that I found at least) gives you one stat point and one skill point to assign.  Your three stats are strength, dexterity, and constitution.  At the most simple level, these stats do exactly what you think: Strength increases your damage; Dexterity increases your critical hit rate; and Constitution increases your health.  Skills are much more diverse, because you have four different skill lines you can invest in, and they have a lot more skills in them than the simplicity of three stats.  For example, learning skills from the block tree will obviously help you block better, but you can also unlock the ability to shield bash enemies from it, for instance.  Some of the skills are quite game-changing too; triple strike from the Quick Attack tree, for example, was so good that it had to have its damage lowered in a later build.

You’ll also gain a variety of equipment as you play.  In addition to your weapon, you’ll also have armor, a helmet, a shield, a ring, and an amulet.  Even basic equipment can spawn with a variety of modifiers, like boosts to damage or defense.  Magical items are denoted by their color, familiar to most who have played most MMOs (green for uncommon, blue for rare, etc).  Weapons also have different effects depending on their type.  Swords tend to deal less damage, but have a higher critical hit rate and greater critical damage.  Hammers punch through enemy armor with ease, dealing more damage to those  types of foes.  While it can be useful to have multiple weapon types available, it’s nice there’s such a variety.

Regions of Ruin Review Screenshot

Kingdom Come

So, having said how much of a fan of Kingdom I am, does Regions of Ruin compare?  Well, yes and no.  It definitely captures the aesthetic, and thematically it’s very similar.  However, Kingdom’s strength was its simplicity.  Regions of Ruin definitely adds a lot to the formula, but falls short in several ways.  It may have just been the amount I played, but I never once had my encampment attacked by angry hordes of nightmare creatures.  Kingdom management meant paying coins to upgrade and letting the workers do their thing, rather than Region’s method of  gathering tons of materials and sending out workers to gather more.  You didn’t even do the fighting in Kingdom, instead relying on your archers to defend your walls.

That being said, I keep finding myself coming back to play Regions of Ruin because it has that certain addictive flavor.  I wanted to explore more, find more dungeons and camps and strange forests and caves.  I wanted to see if I could take down a troll with the limited, less-than-optimal equipment I had.  I wanted to learn the lore by finding the journal pages scattered across the land.  That’s one thing Regions of Ruin does very well, in fact:  it makes you want to play just a little longer.

Note: A game key was provided for review purposes.

Regions of Ruin Screenshots:

Dying Light Celebrates Third Anniversary with Giveaways and Surprises

Techland is happy to announce that it has been three years since the mobilization of their personal zombie infestation, known as Dying Light.  Over 500,000 unique players have been roaming the city of Harran, and they are still committed to their “10 free DLCs in 12 months” initiative. To thank their audience, they are announcing a series of promotions and even a few surprises, to give back to their community:

  • Free stuff giveaways on Steam and Gemly
  • Undying Love – Valentine’s Day community bounty
  • Content Drop #3 – free in-game content for all players and platforms
  • Discounts for the game and additional contents – up to 67% off

Dying Light’s longevity is a result of the studio’s hard work, combined with the efforts of our community, who have shown unparalleled love for the game and spent countless hours in Harran. We are nothing but thankful for this exceptional commitment and players’ eagerness to provide us with constructive feedback that helped us make a better game,” said Tymon Smektała, producer of Dying Light & Dying Light: The Following.

Ethics on Randomizers Discussion

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Ethics of Randomizers -1

Something special was had in this game.

Let’s talk about a “hot button” topic today: ROMs and Randomizers. To those who aren’t aware, Randomizers are a fresh, unique way to play a host of retro RPGs. One of the closest things to a comparison I can make in the retail gaming scene is “Super Mario Maker”. That or the absolute host of Roguelikes on the market. Though players make those stages, they are, for all intents and purposes, random Mario stages for people who are simply playing the game and not building. It’s a collection of randomized stages from various Super Mario Bros. games, and players can upload their own onto the Internet, be they easy or be they insane. The idea behind these Randomizers is that they take a game that is already out, and randomize as many elements as possible. One of the best examples is Final Fantasy VI Randomizer. FFVI is one of the most sprawling, epic RPGs on the Super Nintendo, and frankly, it’s been done to death. There’s nothing new to explore.

Ethics of Randomizers - 2

This is a South Figaro shop. Just look at it carefully.

So this version of the game randomizes the following elements: What each characters skillset is, what they come equipped with, what they can equip, what, if any starting magic they have, their name/color palette, what every chest in the game has, what each Esper can teach, and at what percentages. It also fixes a bunch of bugs (Vanish+Doom, fixed Defenses, so many more), and removed the stat bonuses you gain per level from Magicite.  Now the game is brand new! You have new challenges, use different characters, and are forced to approach the game in a way you did not before. Some of the exploits you once used are gone, characters that were considered “weak” may not be anymore. It also randomizes the lores that Strago (or whoever gets lore) starts with, as well as Gau. There are so many retro games that have had Randomizers made for them: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Final Fantasy 1, Dragon Warrior 1, Super Mario 3, Super Mario World, Final Fantasy IV, EarthBound (which is the worst one I’ve ever experienced), and so on and so forth.

Ethics of Randomizers - 3

This is a menu from setting up a Super Metroid randomizer.

The problem lies in that these are technically morally and legally wrong. Emulators are not illegal, they do nothing wrong. However, the ROM itself is a Copyright issue. Even if you own the game, there is no 24/48 hour rule (it used to be said that you can have the ROM for a 24 hour period and then you have to get rid of it), though different countries have different Copyright rules. On one hand, we should not support Software Piracy, but on the other hand, this really opens up so many games for incredible new adventures. So where do we go from here? Just stop having fun? Here’s where I think a lot of software developers/publishers are missing the boat. Especially for sidescrollers, Metroidvanias, and RPGs. Nintendo, Square-Enix, and companies in this group could be making quite a lot of money if they got on board and created randomizers for some of their biggest retro hits. It worked for Super Mario Maker. Super Mario Maker sold almost 4 million units on the Wii U ALONE. And many consider the Wii U to be a terrible, terrible failure. I don’t even have a 3DS anymore, and I still have my Mario Maker 3DS cart. Over 7 million units of this game sold across all platforms. What about games with hundreds of things to capture/tame, like Pokemon? Legit Pokemon Randomizers? I’d put my hard-earned money down for insane new ways to play Pokemon with none of the guilt attached to it.

Ethics of Randomizers - 4

Encounter any Pokemon in the wild? Random starters? Mmm.

How is that not a hint? These don’t have to be visual remakes (and should not be). All you have to do is get some code to randomize certain elements of the game, depending on what style of game it is. There is so much that can be done here. And I know that there are companies that are always looking to bring retro games out of retirement, to find new ways to market them. This is it, guys. I’m handing you actual gold. People will buy them. Most of these games that are randomized are played by sincere fans of the game, and a lot of them still own the original cartridges and just want new ways to challenge themselves, race their friends, or use them in charity events to help raise awareness/fight terrible diseases. And the best part of these? They would surely not require million dollar budgets. Sure, they’d probably be sold fairly cheap, but I imagine a lot of that would wind up as revenue/profit. You could offer copies to certain charity groups/high-profile streamers/press to show them off and why people need them. The marketing would be terribly simple. There are plenty of options to pick from, even if you just release a Lufia 2 “Ancient Cave” game. That’s 99 floors of random right there. Some of the ones on offer are wonderful. Some of them are a broken mess. But it’s a wonderful idea, and one I think larger companies ought to explore.

Where do you guys stand? Would you buy legit Randomizers made by the companies that produce them? I know I would!

Nantucket Review: Call Me Ishmael

by Jason Parker (Ragachak)

Nantucket Review - Ahab

“. . .Wilt thou not chase the white whale? Art not game for Moby Dick?”

This past weekend I took a voyage into the brave, deadly world of hunting whales in the PC game Nantucket. Whales, sharks, narwhals, men. If it swam in the sea or rode atop it, it was my quarry. I spent most of the time trying to figure out how to quantify exactly what Nantucket from Picaresque Studio was, and I think I’ve done it. It’s Oregon Trail mixed with the Total War event system, compiled in a digital board game. It’s a true amalgamation of systems, but it winds up working out very well. You play as one of the crewmen of Captain Ahab and The Pequod, who wound up aboard another vessel, the Rachel. Events unfold, and you wind up with your own ship and the goal of revenge. Of course, you seek out to destroy Ahab’s curse and sail through the golden age of seafaring. It’s challenging, frustrating, and you will probably die a lot if you do not spend time grinding and farming. Farming what, though? This was truly a weekend of farming. In Nantucket, I farmed Whale Blubber.

Nantucket Review - Blubber

Ah, yes, Blubber. Most valuable of all currencies.

Oh yes, Whale Blubber. Your ultimate goal is to unravel this story and chase down the White Whale, Moby Dick. You start off as a captain with barely a vessel to his name – a beat up, run-down piece of junk – and a few drunks from the bar to join you on your glorious quest. Though I wound up using that same boat for most of my adventures, just leveling it up over and over with repairs, expecting every adventure to be my last one. The RNG was very weird, and no matter how strong I thought I was, there was always that chance encounter that suddenly had a gigantic shark or whale, or fighting pirates, who dealt bonus damage on round one, made bleeding effects happen, or hit with devastating shots. So, a lot of this is left to chance, but at least that’s fitting. After all, the seas are cruel and unforgiving.

Nantucket Review - Hirelings

Whether you’re hiring people or buying water, ports are invaluable.

You gain your missions from the newspapers at various ports of call, which offer tidbits of interesting news, along with the “jobs” section which offers your tasks. Some of them have requirements, such as a character level, a ship with a certain amount of cargo hold, or abilities. They will almost always be far away, though the tasks are generally simple. Follow a rumor of a whale hunting grounds, follow the trail of a destroyed ship, defeat a named sea creature (these are the hardest ones in my estimation). You’ll have a little gold at the start at least, and most of the resources you need are inexpensive. The prices will vary from port to port, and these include Fresh Water, Wood to repair the ship, Grog (sailors need their booze), and Food. You’ll purchase it in amounts that equal days because that’s how time is measured when you’re traveling by sea. You’ll make some of your money off of these missions, but the majority of the money rolls in from farming whales.

Nantucket Review - Get Ready for Battle

You could be fighting Narwhals, Sharks, Whales .. Be brave!

Now, some of these “find a whale spawning ground” missions will just lead you to fighting sharks. That’s fine, at least it’s exp. When you’ve found a spawning ground, you’ll see on the map what type of whales spawn there, the frequency, and the times of the year that they will come to that spot on the map. You’ll want to make sure you’ve been to a nearby port of call because there will be times you need to retreat from battle, recover, resupply, and go back out again. When you get to one of these hunting grounds, you’ll wait in active mode (you can pause time to consider where to sail next, or if you need to step away) for whales to arrive. From there, you can either send out your crew to battle for you (auto battle), or you can get down in the trenches, as it were, and take command.

Nantucket Review - Combat

Fighting whales in a little boat? What’s the worst that could happen?

Your first ship only has one whaling boat, so you’ll only receive one attack per round. This can be devastating in certain missions where your goal is to survive 6-8 rounds and the enemy Sharks/Whales keep returning. When a battle begins, you’ll see your characters and the enemy, and each turn the weather changes, offering various effects. These can be amazing, such as stunning a random enemy, or bad, where certain class effects won’t work, or you have a random character stunned. The attacks come with a roll of the dice, and you’ll see several squares, some with icons in them. These are the abilities that your character has a shot at using. The more skills you have, the better chance you have of hitting one. They aren’t all attacks, though. Hunters only attack, but if you bring down your Sailor, he can do amazing things such as defensive moves that make someone immune to damage. The classes are:

Hunter: They are the damage dealers, in the early game I tend to bring down two to every battle, including the captain (who is primarily a hunter)
Sailor: They guide your ship, and are defensive units down in battle. Very handy to have around. You must have someone to steer the ship, and it’s best to have someone in this role who actually knows how.
Science: Your science officer is the healer, offering more exp for defeating sea creatures, emergency kits, increasing the healing restored in the Forecastle of your ship and more.
Craftsman: The craftsmen do all the physical work on the ship. They give you more out of your whale blubber, to chop wood in safe docks, and in general do the dirtiest of deeds. They are indispensable.

Nantucket Review - Traits

Impose your will, or leave them be. It’s your call, but there are consequences.

This is where the game starts to feel more like a Total War title than anything else. Each of these random characters starts off with positive and negative traits, including Lazy, Teetotal, Strong, Open Minded, Closed Minded, Gourmet, Slopeater, et cetera. These also come from “events”. As you sail, lots of time passes in the world, and random events happen on the ship. Sometimes a crewman wants to go visit home for some reason. I’ve seen them take their own lives after their parents pass, need to borrow money, have to beat up bandits/highwaymen. You might have to deal with someone eating too much, or potential bad water. I’ve found the more water I have, the greater chance that has of occurring. If you hover over the options, you’ll see the percentage chance of the results, and what the result will be. For example, if you keep the sedentary water, you’ll have characters gain dysentery. And you know what that means: you’re gonna poop yourself to death.

Nantucket Review - Death

Death is a part of life. In this world, so is drinking urine. Bring enough supplies.

The longer you’re at sea, the more supplies you’ll chew through, but fortunately, there are icons that show how much you have left of each, and will warn you if you’re running low. If you have a bad event and think maybe you won’t have enough? Turn around, sail back to a port and get more. It’s better to lose time than to have to choose between “drinking your own urine” and “praying to God for drinkable water”. This game is definitely rooted deeply in the era of Melville, for better and worse. Sometimes your choices are terrible. A lot of times, they are. You might lose two of your crew, and have to sail back to a port, only to find they have no one to hire. At least you don’t have to pay gold to hire them initially. They do, however, get a cut of whatever profits you might from selling whale parts. They don’t get a lot, as they aren’t the captain or owner of the ship. And buying new ships is insanely expensive, so you’re going to have to grind a lot if you want to get something new and shiny with more crew capacity, and better possible upgrades. Your first ship doesn’t have all the bells and whistles. Upgrading said ships takes gold and takes time, but you don’t have to sit in port and wait. You can resume your exploration, and come back when it’s done. The part I love about this the most, though, is that you keep these upgrades when you buy a new ship. So you can focus on your first ship, and keep those research parts when you move on.

Nantucket Review - Rating

Though not long, the story is certainly satisfying.

From Hell’s Heart, I Stab At Thee: 3.5/5

While Nantucket is charming, tells a hell of a story, offers a decent difficulty and length, the RNG, as mentioned earlier, is horrific. I highly recommend leaving on auto-save, at least on a monthly timer, because if you don’t and forget to save (like I tend to do) you’re going to be a miserable person. I’ve run through something like 12 to 15 crewmembers, and the captain of my ship has died to pirates, sharks, and whales around 3 to 5 times. Usually to ridiculous, foolish things I had no business dying to. You should definitely take your time with this game and not rush. Even in the early game, you can be obliterated by the weakest of the Narwhals. Despite how much grinding you will likely have to do, this is not a terribly long game, around 10-15 hours. It’s very open and allows you to travel and do as you wish. Plus, the sea shanties. How can I forget these? Occasionally, your crew will break out into song, singing classic sea shanties of the time. They are incredibly talented and lovely to hear.

While these are all terrific aspects, I don’t feel vested in my crew. When they died, I just picked up more chumps at the latest port of call. The whole tale of Moby Dick was a very intimate affair. The crew got to know each a lot better than I realized when I read the book in elementary school. But in Nantucket, despite the well-told story, delightful visuals, and well-designed gameplay, I’m torn out of the immersion by how little I get to know these sailors. It’s actually kind of frustrating having to sail port to port, potentially avoiding encounters, and not leveling up because I’m alone. This and the fact that the map does not wrap around were the biggest negatives to me. I also wish the game didn’t pause every time you alt-tab (because I alt-tab a lot). I enjoyed this game and will continue to explore every nook and cranny of this ancient Earth, and I don’t even feel bad about it. If you love seafaring games, grinding titles (a’la Darkest Dungeon), and want an excellent story well told? Then Nantucket is definitely for you. It’s part tactical RPG, part visual novel, and it’s absolutely worth the price point.

Note: A game key was provided for review purposes.