Category Archives: MMO MMORPG News

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Tree of Savior: ToS Wiki Database In Creation

Tree of Savior

The Tree of Savior Fansite is  currently building the largest Tree of Savior English Wiki out there for all the English TOS fans. Although some info is still in Korean, they are actively translating with the limited amount of Korean translators they have and constantly publishing new TOS information in TreeofSaviorGame.com

Currently, they have finalized the skills for all 28 classes in CBT1. You can view all here: http://toswiki.treeofsaviorgame.com/skill/introduction

Guild Wars 2: Stronghold PvP Game Mode Revealed

Guild Wars 2

ArenaNet has just released details about Stronghold, the all-new PvP game mode coming to Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns, the upcoming expansion to Guild Wars 2.  Stronghold is bringing a new competitive game experience to Guild Wars 2, introducing a PvP mode where players face off against one another in a fight to infiltrate enemy lines, break through defenses and kill the enemy lord.

Additionally,  ArenaNet  will give a tour of how the new game mode works on Ready Up, the official Guild Wars 2 competitive livestream airing this Friday, February 13 on Twitch.tv/GuildWars2. Norfolk will join host Joshua Davis to talk all about some of the game mechanics and game play intricacies that Stronghold has to offer when it comes out with  Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns.

For more info, visit https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/stronghold-the-battle-of-champions-dusk/

Offworld Trading Company: Early Access Now Available

OTC

Players are now able to begin colonizing Mars in Offworld Trading Company, the economic RTS from Mohawk Games, as the title is now available on Steam Early Access for a limited-time discount of $35.99 (http://store.steampowered.com/app/271240/). The title also remains discounted directly through publisher Stardock at http://offworldgame.com/store.

The Early Access version of Offworld Trading Company allows players to compete head to head or in free-for-all matches over the Internet, explore the dynamic single-player campaign that responds to your choices and the outcomes of the scenarios, and skirmish against the advanced AI that is already more than capable of wiping the floor with unsuspecting players.

Offworld Trading Company is a new direction for real-time strategy, where money is both your deadliest weapon and toughest defense. After the Earth is tapped out and the asteroids claimed by faceless megacorporations, the stark Martian surface is the final frontier on which dreamers and entrepreneurs can make something of themselves by staking their claim to the red planet’s abundant resources and building an economic engine capable of out-producing the competition.

The real-time, player-driven market is the foundation of the game, allowing players to buy and sell resources, materials, and even the food and water their colonists need to survive. Only by buying low and selling high – and perhaps engaging in a little more overt market manipulation with hacker arrays, black-market pirate raids, and more – can players build up enough capital to gain access to the incredibly lucrative offworld markets that bring in the cash they need to buy out their rivals and claim the Martian economy for themselves.

Tune in to http://www.twitch.tv/mohawkgames every Thursday at noon Pacific (3pm Eastern) to see the latest on Offworld Trading Company development.

For more on Offworld Trading Company, please visit http://offworldgame.com

Total War Rome II + CoH 2 Hosts Anti-Valentine’s Day Event

Total War Rome 2

SEGA® of America, Inc. and SEGA® Europe, Ltd present the rematch of the heavyweight strategy gaming contest they said could never happen, with Total War™: ROME II and Company of Heroes 2™ communities going head to head in the second annual ‘Make War Not Love’ competition. This Valentine’s Day weekend, the two communities will compete in consecutive three hour rounds. Every in-game victory will count towards that side’s tally for the round and the community that wins the most rounds will earn some free DLC for players of the respective game.

Battle commences at 18:00GMT/10:00PST today and blows will be traded until 18:00GMT/10:00PST on February 15. During this time, both games will be available to play for free via Steam! Get involved in the pre-match trash talking on Twitter by following @totalwar and @companyheroes using the hashtag – “#mwnl”.

If Company of Heroes 2 wins, an assortment of premium skins and commanders worth around $20 will become available to download for free from 18:00GMT/10:00PST on February 16 until 18:00GMT/10:00PST on February 18.

If Total War: ROME II lands the knockout blow, the Black Sea Colonies Culture Pack will be made available for free from 18:00GMT/10:00PST on February 15 until 18:00GMT/10:00PST on February 17. The previously unannounced Longbeards Culture Pack for Total War: ATTILA will also be free for a day when it launches in late February.

Total War Rome 2

To add some extra spice to proceedings, the winning team in each round will see their community manager take a shot on the ‘Make War Not Love’ Shooting Range, choosing from a selection of random historical weaponry and taking aim at offensive Valentine’s trinkets. Make sure you catch all the carnage in merciless slo-mo! There will even be exclusive Steam achievements to pick up throughout the promotion! Look out for “Company of Zeroes, more like…” and “Snore, snore, Total Bore!” along with several more.

“We beat them last year. We’ll beat them again,” said Cynthia Griffiths, Associate Community Manager for Company of Heroes 2, while picking bits of Centurion out of the tread of an M4 Sherman. “We’re confident that spears and shields will continue to be no match for our heavy artillery and automatic weapons. To arms! ”

“We’ve met in the war room and our plans for domination are almost complete,” said Craig Laycock, Lead Community Manager for Total War. “Our plans are dark and impenetrable as night, and when we move we will fall like a thunderbolt. We will show Relic the true Art of War.”

For more information regarding the ‘Make War Not Love’ promotion, including full details on the scoring system and how to get involved, log on to http://www.makewarnotlove.com/

Uncharted Waters: Gran Atlas Expansion Now Available

Uncharted Waters

OGPlanet is excited to announce that the newest expansion Gran Atlas for the MMORPG Uncharted Waters Online launches today. Uncharted Waters Online is the most complex historical MMORPG set in the Age of Exploration during the 16th to 19th Century. Players will make new discoveries, partake in international trade, and engage in naval warfare with hundreds of accurately and beautifully modelled sailing ships.

The latest installment, Gran Atlas, adds to an already colossal amount of content by opening up the entire world for player exploration, giving players more than 3 years of consistent game play. The newest content for the expansion includes:

  • World Map Creation system allows player to survey and complete the world map to gain access to the Northeast Passage, Russia, Mongolia and more.
  • Chrono-quest system allows players to utilize game content available in different historical periods
  • Various new ships and items
  • Updated dungeons and enemies

For more information on Uncharted Waters Online, visit http://uwo.ogplanet.com/en/main.og

War of the Ancients: New CCG Hits Kickstarter

War of the Ancients

A small group of indie developers going by Edge Softworks has  launched their Kickstarter campaign in hopes of raising funds for their new game.

War of the ancients is a strategy collectible card game by Edge Softworks, in which players play the role of mighty gods known as ancients. In war of the ancients players collect cards, customize their decks, and duel online against other players.

What makes War of the Ancients special and differ from other collectible card games is the added element of a board. Taking inspirations from popular games like Hearthstone and Magic: The Gathering and combining it with a bit of chess. Edge Softworks has created a fun new hybrid.

War of the Ancients is targeted for PC. You can visit their kickstarter campaign and support them at
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1899719803/war-of-the-ancients

Dying Light: Free Content Updates Coming Soon

Dying Light

As a part of its long-term support program for Dying Light, Techland today revealed the first details about upcoming new content for the game. Several free content updates will be released in the coming months to ensure that all Dying Light players can find new experiences to enjoy. The core highlight of the first update will be the frequently requested Hard Mode.

”A few gamers have already finished Dying Light and are asking for more. So we’re going to give our community a new challenge that will put everything they learnt in the game to the test. Hard Mode is exactly that. We’re aiming to have it out around the start of March, if not sooner. Depends on how brutal we wanna make this on people” – Tymon Smektała, Producer.

Hard Mode will feature various changes to the gameplay including:

  • Ramped up nighttime difficulty
  • Deadlier and more vicious foes
  • Increased need for stealth and silence
  • Scarce resources and supplies
  • … and plenty of other additions

The first content update will also bring many improvements to the gameplay and a number of new character outfits. The update will be available on all platforms in the near future.

For more info, visit http://dyinglightgame.com/

Brave Brigade Review: Great Potential, Greater Paywall

By: Ojogo, Mobile Guru

 

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When a game markets itself as an RPG, I always expect it to be one of those classic turn-based console style RPGs, like Pokemon or Final Fantasy. But more often than not, when mobile games advertise themselves as an RPG these days, you’d usually find a card collecting game wherein each unit has minimal preset battle actions, and they will randomly hit each other while the player just sits back and hopes for the best.

Thankfully, we’ve been seeing a lot of throwbacks to the beloved classic style of true RPG gaming in recent games. And though most still play with minimal control and thinking from players, there are some mobile games breaking from the mold. One such game is Brave Brigade.

 

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Overview

Brave Brigade is a 2D RPG by ZQGame Inc. You start off as one of the usual RPG classes: a knight, a healer, a mage, and what is supposed to be an archer but is now a spunky girl with a slingshot. With your typical premise of the character player being the chosen one tasked to fight off evil forces invading his or her land, your chosen hero travels far and wide recruiting, taming, leveling, and evolving creatures and units called “mercenaries” to fight alongside you.

The premise of the game is by the book Pokemon 101 at best, as catching and evolving your units is a big deal and mostly the key to your success in Brave Brigade. How it works is that each unit comes in varying rarities denoted by stars, and of course, the more stars a character has, the stronger it gets. And in this game, most units have access to this evolutionary setup – even your 1 star feeds and creeps.

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Reaching the next level is prevented by a leveling system. Once the max level for your star level, you must then fuse it with a corresponding number of same star level monsters, and voila! – your evolvee has been upgraded to the next rarity. Evolved units retain the old unit’s skills (plus new ones), experience, and any enhancements you have given it prior to evolving, which is nice compared to most other games wherein you start from scratch on evolution.

 

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Battles

In battle, you fight in a party with a maximum of six members – your sixth being an optional friend reinforcement. This is where the mobile gaming stigma begins, as you have no control over who you target or when you attack. But fortunately, that too is where it ends. Mostly. The battle system follows an active time battle format wherein characters take turns based on their base speed. The same active time also applies to how fast your SP (the meter required to use character skills) recharges.

And what’s awesome about this setup is that you can cast your skills and abilities as soon as the cooldown finishes, and the moves become available – enabling units to act out of their turn.

Another thing that adds more depth to the system is the placement of the units in your squad. In your 2×3 grid, front row characters are granted more power and more movement speed, so they get to normally attack more. Back row characters, on the other hand, get a recovery rate boost on their SP so they get to cast skills and abilities more often. The game also supports attacks that hits a column, or a row as well. The usual setting will be melee and defending units placed in the front, while ranged units and healers will be safely put in the back, but more advanced play would sometimes have you putting battle mages or aggressive rangers in the front, or knights in the back so they can setup their defensive skills faster. That said, Brave Brigade has a lot to offer in terms of tactical gameplay if the player wants to make the most out of the system, though it can be relatively enjoyed as well by one who just goes by with a basic strategy in mind.

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Of course, as a free-to-play game, there are some nuances non-paying players can’t escape, and one of those is the ever-limiting energy system. Most activities you do in Brave Brigade depletes a certain amount of stamina – single player quests, daily dungeons, boss raids – even normal PVP.

Some even require that you spend stamina AND a specific item for you to participate in, though it is relatively easy for you to wait for your energy to replenish as the stamina cool-down is actually relatively short and the medals you need can be gifted by friends. But the biggest gripe about Brave Brigade is that everything is dependent on your in-game cash. Leveling your characters require lots of cash.

 

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Paywall

Evolving heroes takes cash. You even need to buy your hero’s skills. And the price of these upgrades quickly rise into the thousands. And what makes this system absurd is that in most things you do, you only earn up to a measly 2-300 gold per battle. Even if you do get a perfect 3-star score in your battles, gold is still very much hard to earn, and your need for gold to improve your team and your units isn’t proportional to the rate you’re getting it.

It means that the only real way for you to keep up and be competitive in this game is through in-game purchases of gold. It’s evil, since the game is addicting, especially for an RPG enthusiast drunk on nostalgia, but we have to remember that this IS a freemium game, and though a subtle yet devious way to harass players to shell out cash is a sin, Brave Brigade is not actually the biggest offender.

 

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Aesthetics

But other than that, the game is solid and very much enjoyable. The art style and direction is very reminiscent of the classic and massively popular Suikoden 1 and 2 games, with their spirited units, pseudo-3D interactions, and a 2×3 grid setup. Character evolution is designed so that you actually look forward to the upgrade as your sprites get a complete physical overhaul. Any given evolution results in a ten times cooler looking character.

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There seems to be a plot as noted by the slideshow animation of CGs after every boss fight, but since it’s textless, that story isn’t really clear. I don’t think that matters much as the main point of the game is always in the battles. Each battle requires you to finish it within a certain amount of time. Finish the stage under any condition, you get one star. Finish it with your team intact, you get 2. Finish it with no one dying within the time limit and you get the perfect score of 3 stars.

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That coupled with the increasing difficulty in the game and the partial randomness of the battle system actually makes any RPG fan out there a hungry, bloodthirsty perfectionist.

 

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Conclusion: Great (4/5)

Brave Brigade, despite its weaknesses, is a worthwhile download and one of the more decent iterations of the RPG genre in recent history. The comfort curve is quite steep once you get far into the game, but it’s nothing a little dedication and maybe a few bucks to spare can’t compensate for.

On a side note, we have a decent giveaway live to help ease new players into the game, snagging some extra gold and characters to get you to your power house team that much sooner.

Daybreak Games Announces High Profile Layoffs

Barely a week after news of the purchase of Sony Online Entertainment arrived, Daybreak Games has revealed the layoff of key community figure Linda Carlson (Aka the SOE Live Dwarf) as well as Everquest Franchise lead Dave Georgeson as part of their realignment plans.

EverquestDayBreaklayoffs

The layoff confirmations continue to rise by the moment including Lead Content Designer for Everquest Next, Steve Danuser. As our Most Anticipated game two years running, this is deeply troubling news to learn of. We’ll be keeping a close eye out for further news possibly impacting game titles rather than just employees as the month goes on.

Reports from MassivelyOP (Their Kickstarter has funded!) and EQ2Wire.

A Druid’s Duel Tactics Game Announces February Steam Launch

Surprise Attack Games and ThoughtShelter Games are pleased to bring you A Druid’s Duel for Win, Mac and Linux. At its heart A Druid’s Duel consists of managing your mana and conquering the board by deploying a variety of druid warriors to the field. To achieve your goals you’ll have to create and destroy sections of the very board you fight on, opening new avenues of attack or cutting off your enemy’s retreat. It will take a sharp mind and a sharp spear to discover what is causing the seasons to change at random.

Welcome to the Realm of Six Seasons, where the predictable cycle of nature’s seasons has turned constantly since time began. But now, something is wrong. Something (or someone) is tampering with the precious Seasons, making a complete mess of the Realm.

The Druids of the Esoteric Orders have long fostered this fertile landscape and tended to this delicate mystical balance. And it is up to Warren, a young druid fresh from his Esoteric Training, to discover what is causing this disastrous mixing of Seasons.
A Druid’s Duel will launch on February 25th, 2015 on Windows, Mac, and Linux via Steam, Humble Store and other digital stores.  Find out more at http://www.druidsduel.com/.

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