MMO News |
- SMITE God of the Week – Ares Greek God of War
- Wizardry Online SOE Live Early Access Part 1
- Wizardry Online SOE Live Early Access Part 2
- SOE Live 2012 DC Universe Online DLC 6 Interview
- New Content and Sale for Silkroad Online
| SMITE God of the Week – Ares Greek God of War Posted: 20 Oct 2012 01:49 PM PDT SMITE God of the Week – Ares Greek God of War BakermanBrad summons the Gods once again, this time Ares, the Greek God of War, the first Anti-tank tank in SMITE. Ares is a true player on the battlefield and works well in all positions in the lane. |
| Wizardry Online SOE Live Early Access Part 1 Posted: 19 Oct 2012 09:19 PM PDT Wizardry Online SOE Live Early Access Part 1
Let's begin with the basics. The warrior, thief, priest and mage are your four classes to choose from the start. This may seem like an unoriginal and small pool to select from but it gets better.. if you can live long enough that is. As you advance your character you will gain the ability to go down one or multiple class trees. The warrior had two classes on display while the thief held three. But in a system akin to the original Guild Wars you are able to pull up to five abilities from any of the other classes to add unexpected trump cards to your character. Past this you can also select from multiple races, each with unique benefits that allow them to be strong in their respective fields. The races you will recognize are humans, elves, and dwarves (male only). The two that are distinctly Japanese and need a bit of further explanation are the Gnome (female only) and Porkul. Gnomes are mid-sized creatures that look similar to the elves (fair skin, austere) except they have distinct large ram horns. The Porkul are similar to the halflings and are best summed up as an unholy hybrid of Elins and Asura. While on the concept of races I'll go ahead and mention that graphics and combat look very similar to Vindictus. Though granted this title looks slightly better. A natural benefit of progressing technology. The musical score on the other hand has a distinct Japanese flair and nicely ramps up for big boss fights to get your adrenaline pumping.
Once you have your character made you will fast be introduced to your new overlord, the RNG. Just about everything in this game relies on RNG, including your beginning stats that feel like a more advanced version of creating a Maplestory character. As you progress through the game and gain experience, RNG will strike again in the leveling up process. Once you hit the threshold you can choose to stay at a hotel to gain your stat bonuses. But just like with real life hotels, you get what you pay for and better hotels not only restore more HP and MP, but also improve your chances with the RNG level up system. And trust me you'll want to get the best possible results as this game has a steep leveling curve, and it's possible to have your stats decrease on level up. I'll touch on more of this later in the article as it ties closely to the outlaw system, but not in the obvious way you might expect. Now that the basics of character progression are out of the way, let's address the elephant in the room: Permadeath. Wizardry Online takes a unique approach to this system by offering Permadeath with strategic and luck based ways of avoiding your inevitable demise in an MMORPG. Upon death you will become a ghost that can run to a system the devs addressed as scales. These scales will seek the great RNG god to decide who lives and who dies, but like any good gamble you can adjust your odds with proper bribery. By offering your items, equips, and other rares you will increase the odds that you can return to your body. However the more advanced your character, the harsher the RNG roll will be on you, and the more likely you will never return to your body again. Tactics and statistics come into play as you are offered a grand total of 2 chances before you're gone for good. So don't be a cheapskate as your gear won't matter if you're dead and looted. Pay up fool! And do it quickly because once you go down, even your so called best buddy is free to take the same loot you need to revive yourself. Let the survival paranoia begin! Oh Lady Luck didn't smile upon you? Time to rage quit and start a new game right? I'm sure there are plenty of online titles out there happy to take your money for the next two years, only to shut down prematurely forever erasing your character with a small recompense. Now if you're tired of this slow pathetic death and want to live for the moment I suggest you get back on the horse and use the transfer system provided by Wizardry Online. For every level you gain and every quest you complete you will gain potential power for your next character. Also anything you've stored in your bank (storage space limited by your Soul Rank) can be used by any of your characters. So as long as you weren't holding all of your items when you died, your newbie will be able to pick up their goods and not be a broke noob. Soul Rank is the wonderful system designed to cater to the ever present need of MMORPG progression. As you level any of your characters you gain Soul Rank that unlocks multiple effects such as the increased storage space. Each level offers new and more powerful benefits, though they shut me down before I could get a good grasp of them. "We can't show you everything before launch," they claimed. Sadness…
Be sure to check out part 2 of our Early Access coverage HERE!
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| Wizardry Online SOE Live Early Access Part 2 Posted: 19 Oct 2012 09:19 PM PDT Wizardry Online SOE Live Early Access Part 2
Hello and welcome to part 2 of our Early Look at Wizardry Online! For those that missed it be sure to check out Part 1 HERE!
Now while RNG holds strong sway over much of the game, the combat is where this title shines brightly and skill dominates. First to get into combat you will need to talk to an NPC to fast travel to your location akin to Vindictus' set-up. As soon as I engaged with my first monster I was in awe at how far they have departed from the normal whack-a-mole. For starters your control scheme completely changes between when your weapon is sheathed or out. While sheathed you can run faster, crouch and move around while crouched (yes this is useful, no not just for roleplayers), and jump over traps. With your weapon unleashed, you can do swift back-jumps (think TERA dodge), block, and access your varied attacks – each with unique strategic bonuses such as slows, enemy power debuffs, and so on along with the chance for your attack to miss if you misaim or your opponent gets out of the way in time. As masochistic as the devs are, they even decided to put in some platforming elements using this advanced movement system to test your ability to gauge distances. Welcome to Mario Hell Online! A small side note about the combat: This game has as many status types as a hardcore console JRPG. Petrify, disarm, and fear are just some of the unusual effects not often seen in the online realm. And trust me when a cockatrice petrifies you for 10 seconds in a game with permadeath, they are the longest 10 seconds of your MMO life. To say monsters in this game are vicious is a gross understatement. They are crafty, reactive, and will do whatever it takes to see your character buried once and for all. In my first encounter with an imp I got smacked around pretty harshly until I finally learned how to block. As soon as the imp smacked my shield he immediately ceased his assault and ran to flank around to my side to bypass my defense. Jumping, blocking, and effective use of skills is not just recommended, it's imperative to continuing your story. To up the skill curve a little beyond, you also have a resource system called OD that is used whenever you execute any physical abilities or defensive maneuvers. This can only be earned back by landing melee attacks, ensuring that no one can just sit there blocking throughout a fight as their friends deal damage. I highly suggest if you meet an enemy you are unfamiliar with to throw the annoying guy that always takes the guild's loot into the fray first to test the waters. After all trial and error methods of figuring out dungeons no longer apply in this realm. Now if you think that's tough enough, let me throw this phrase at you. Non-instanced full PvP dungeons. This isn't a unique challenge my friends. This is how you describe all dungeons in this game. And don't think a GM is going to save the loner player just because a group of four bandits roll through a dungeon and destroy him either. This game is designed for playing in groups so don't get caught with your pants down just because you're a loaner.
The third element to these dungeons that make them so fascinating and dangerous is the puzzles and story quests. The first time you enter a dungeon you will often be faced with a system that integrates the lore with puzzles inside the dungeon, forcing you to take notes and think to find a way to the end. You may find the knowledge provided at the start of the dungeon is required to disarm a trap or unlock a door blocking the final room of the dungeon. But not only that, there are plenty of lesser traps throughout such as poison arrows, pillars of flame, and just about anything you could imagine from the world of Skyrim brought back to life in the online world. Yet another reason to travel in pairs as characters don't automatically regenerate health or mana. The final piece of this elaborate puzzle I'm going to touch on is PKing and consequences. This is what I'm sure most potential players, both PvErs and Griefers alike, will be watching closely. If you kill a player you gain infamy that builds up over the life of your character. There was no mention of ways to remove the infamy once you have it so I'm assuming your personality grows more infamous the longer you stay alive. For the griefers the benefits are of course the full loot system they gain from their prey, unique titles that unlock labeling them for who they are, and, most obviously, the ability to attack other players anywhere you like. Yes if you're incredibly sneaky about it you can even pick someone off in town, though you'll have to contend with some seriously mean guards so it's not advised. For the PvE focused players, you'll be glad to know that players that overly engage in griefing will eventually be blacklisted by the guards. This means they won't be able to visit the 'rich' part of town where the high-end hotels and shops are. Instead they will slink into the darkside of town, surrounded by other rapscallions and murderers to fair for themselves among their own kind. This in turn will eventually hinder their power if they live long enough to level multiple times as the hotels in that part of town offer lower chances to gain beneficial stats on level up. However if your foe is the head of a local mafia and holds power and prestige you could never hope to exact revenge against, you can place a bounty on them. And your friend can place a bounty on them. And eventually that guy you know down the street will also place a bounty on them. Eventually enough bounties are going to get the attention of a true bounty hunter who will set up to seek revenge on your behalf. Just be sure you watch your back as these bounties will be public knowledge and you can't pay your bounty if you wind up dead before they do. That's about all I have to say on Wizardly Online at this time. The game enters into limited closed beta testing on the 29th and will slowly begin to allow more players in as time progresses. Think you have what it takes to survive? Think you can kill me? Laughable. But I'll tell you what. If you've read this far you are probably interested in doing just that. So head over to MMOFlag and click the MMOFlag like button on this article and we'll enter you in a drawing to win priority access to the game. 7 Lucky winners will be announced on Tuesday of next week. I look forward to crossing blades with you soon. Oh and be sure to check out this gameplay trailers! Huzzah!
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| SOE Live 2012 DC Universe Online DLC 6 Interview Posted: 19 Oct 2012 08:26 PM PDT SOE Live 2012 DC Universe Online DLC 6 Interview The new downloadable content for DC Universe Online is far different than their previous DLC to date. DLC 6, called Home Turf, features player housing on a level we haven’t seen. Players will be able to create their own lair! Their own bat cave style hideout that will feature all of the equipment that contributes to the various systems in the game. Players are able to completely customize the look of their lair but whats really crazy is the battles that can take place in them. |
| New Content and Sale for Silkroad Online Posted: 19 Oct 2012 06:26 PM PDT
Joymax, leading online game developer and publisher widely known for Digimon Masters and Knight Age, is rolling out a series of color updates in October for their anchor MMORPG, Silkroad Online! With newly added Fellows, POP card expansions, and next tier item upgrades for Silkroad-R starting next Tuesday, this month is bound to be a busy one for the world renowned game. In addition to the updates, several events begin this week that players would not want to miss; especially the exclusive half-priced sale on all avatars. This month’s avatar update is the “Skeleton Knight Outfit” which made its return after popular demands from fans. Along with the re-release of the fan-favorite avatar, Silkroad Online announces a major half-priced sale on all available avatars for a limited time only. Players must be swift to gain this rare event as the offer ends on October 23rd.
Avatar is an outfit which can be equipped on a character to change their outward appearance and is one of the sought out features in Silkroad Online. With over 50 different avatars to choose from-ranging from pirate look to a fierce Spartan soldier-these detailed clothing allows players to distinguish themselves from the crowd (and induce few turning heads). “Silkroad Online’s and Silkroad-R’s October updates are just the beginning of what is to come.” said Nam-Chul Kim, CEO of Joymax. “Much is planned for the following month, and players will be excited to see all the changes we’ll bring in these games.”
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