MMO News |
- Warlock 2
- WildStar Beta 2 Preview – Exiled Aurin
- Nightcrawler now available in Marvel Heroes
- Edge of Reality’s “Loadout” Now Available
- Infinite Crisis comes to Russia
- Novus AEterno Plans Saturday Night Livestream
- Strife – First Look
- Firefall Update on Patch v0.8
- War of the Vikings
- Tribal Wars 2 Preview
| Posted: 31 Jan 2014 12:57 PM PST Return to Ardania as a Great Mage bent on revenge in this fantasy hex-based strategy title. Note: This is a buy-to-play retail game.  Publisher: Paradox Interactive Pros: +Single and multiplayer modes. +Randomly generated maps. +Sandbox style mode. Cons: -Buy-to-play. -Limited information available.
Overview Warlock 2 OverviewWarlock 2: The Exiled is a turn-based, hex-based strategy game set in the fantasy world of Ardania. Continuing the tales from the original Warlock: Master of the Arcane, you must return to Ardania as an exile and conquer the worlds before you in revenge. Choose from one of over a dozen Great Mages (or create your own), raise an army from one of six races, recruit heroes, and battle for victory! The game features single and multi-player content, including a story-rich campaign mode and a sandbox-style game mode featuring randomized maps. Players can research over 170 spells, and customize their favorites with special glyphs. Warlock 2 Screenshots         Warlock 2 Featured Video
Full Review Warlock 2 ReviewComing Soon… Screenshots Warlock 2 ScreenshotsComing Soon… Videos Warlock 2 VideosWarlock 2: The Exiled Adventure Trailer System Requirements Warlock 2 System RequirementsComing Soon… |
| WildStar Beta 2 Preview – Exiled Aurin Posted: 31 Jan 2014 11:02 AM PST By Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), the Lucky Rabbit Aurin
Wednesday morning was an exciting day. Not only did I finally receive beta access to WildStar, but I gained permission to cover the first fifteen levels for a write-up. I figured I could easily play the first 15 on both factions and have a write-up ready by Friday morning with two all-nighters. But there was something I didn't expect. WildStar revived my inner child with its wonder, focus on exploration and discovery, and overall graphical appeal. Yet it kept my jaded veteran gamer side entertained with its fresh combat that meshes the realms of TERA's action, Guild Wars' skillbar building, and Dragon Nest's pacing. Good decisions are rewarded while bad decisions are horribly punished, ensuring you never fully lull into the 'grind' mentality, unless you're willing to shell out some currency to recover from your mistakes. But back to the coverage. Well for one, I only slept four hours the past two nights, ensuring all spare time not dedicated to work and my fiancé's demand for Chinese New Years' celebration was spent in the game. And despite this I managed to only see up to around the level 13 content for the Exiled faction. Why you might ask? WildStar is an ADD gamer's ultimate playground. Everywhere you look there's a subtle joke being told, an unusual monster/npc interaction occurring, a nook that seems oddly designed for climbing, and even a wave to catch! While the questing is streamlined to be as simple to follow as it gets short of a full out auto-path system, I spent hours ignoring it just to see what wild discoveries awaited me in the world of Nexus. They've essential brought the magic from the past age of platformers like Donkey Kong 64 and Banjo Kazooie and introduced it into an MMORPG landscape complete with all the mission related goals, sidequests, collecting, jumping, dodging, baddy smashing, and achievement hunting one would expect from the golden era of platforming games. Only now you can experience it in a glorious multiplayer setting.
The Purpose of Paths If you can't tell by now, I went with the Explorer path. I.E. out of the options of Settler, Warrior, Scientist, and Explorer, the concept of mapping every inch of every territory while performing death defying leaps appeals to me like nothing else can in an MMORPG. But that's what makes WildStar so special. These devs are OCD about the details and want more in their world than the standard gamer's mind can possibly grasp in one playthrough. Beyond that, there's certain activities some gamers never want to be a part of, often describing it as a chore more so than an engaging experience. My fiancé for instance never wants to touch a jump quest again after the hell Maplestory forced her through. Meanwhile I get bored to tears watching her catch butterflies mindlessly in Skyrim when she could be delving into dangerous caverns instead. And that's exactly why the Paths are here! She catches butterflies, I climb mountains, and we both have a good time. We then meet back up and show off our unique path related skills, such as my ability to dive off huge cliffs and suffer no damage. And occasionally she even opens up areas I couldn't otherwise explore, making the full experience even more joyous.
Character Customization This has come a long way since my initial tests of the game for sure. And given its graphical appeal, WildStar is interested in getting some girl gamers onboard. Yet the character customization still clearly has some ground to cover. The facial sliders are pretty impressive and offer a decent amount of options, and no race felt like it was ignored or given special treatment above the others. But beyond that it's pretty standard fare of choose from around eight hair styles, with a wide variety of colors (not surprisingly, the colors are plentiful and random. Actually this game's entire slogan could be "Random Plentifulness…ness."). Another note was that various jobs were race locked, though thankfully none were sex locked. And while at first it was frustrating that I couldn't make a lucky rabbit medic, I can see the value of this system helping to quickly identify an opponent’s strengths in weaknesses at a glance in PvP. Oh sure, the pregnant lady gets a body slider, but I don’t. To my surprise, though this might just say I've been in one too many Asian MMORPGs lately, but there wasn't even a breast or butt slider. Thankfully the devs appreciate the default one ghetto booty fits all approach, otherwise this might have been a serious complaint. All in all just a few more options across the board and a couple body sliders would go a long way for a lot of people. Hopefully the vocal minority don't push it further in the wrong direction by full launch.
Dat Ass
Combat and Leveling Given the nature of an MMORPG, combat is almost undoubtedly going to suck when analyzing only the early levels. WildStar seems to get this by making their tutorial painlessly short while making skill acquisition unusually rapid. But with their advanced action heavy combat system (and don't think it's easy peasy just because of the telegraphs), it's clear newer players to the genre could quickly be overwhelmed. As such they keep your hot key slots locked up tight, opening one at a time as you level through the early stages while teasing you with more skills than you can even equip to give veteran gamers plenty of variety to toy around with while their newer compatriots are still getting their feet wet. Around the time you unlock your sixth skill bar, combat begins to get serious. With an array of damage skills, channels, CC, jumps, and heals (give or take depending on your focus and class), most games would feel easier at this point. You know the old carrot on a stick in front of a super saiyan approach that most games give a player to let them feel invincible for a while so they can mindlessly power level to the non-existent end-game. WildStar prefers to slap a tuna in your mouth and send you crying home to mommy if you take on your enemies mindlessly. While you'll rarely have trouble if you play smart and fight one foe at a time (which can easily be done with the extended respawn times), that urge to sneak past your foes will eventually get to you. Maybe you're bored of fighting the same monster? Maybe you're pretending to roleplay a spy? Or maybe you're just that clueless of the massive blue man-eating gorilla coming up behind you? But sooner or later you'll find yourself caught in an oversized bear trap with a heaping helping of power attacks and CC slamming down on you faster than you can realize your false sense of confidence was your undoing. Keep those jerky sandwiches and stim packs on an easy to reach hotkey cupcake, because you're going to need them. In the end it's all worth it as an announcer straight out of a Monster Truck Rally explodes with mocking congratulations as a list of fantastic new options lets you know your time spent leveling was worth it.
Community Granted beta communities are always awesome. But Carbine Studios current community is some sort of freaky Twilight Zone level of awesome. I must have spent an hour just watching and learning all the little hidden stat passives, AMP explanations and recommendations, quest completion tips, class differences, and even lore explanations. Never in a hurried or holier than though manner. Always sincere. The only toxic experience I had was spending too much time in radioactive waste. Guild recruiting is alive and well and it wasn't uncommon to see a player rescue a foolish ally that had bitten off more than they could chew. While I never did much partying as it's not that needed this early on, I had plenty of exploration missions where other players would race me to the top or to the end of caves in a silent competition of twitch skills. Crossing my fingers it doesn't change much as I could literally make myself at home in my virtual WildStar home.
Critique As it stands the only area the game felt lacking in for the early stages was optimization. Occasionally I would get hit with random FPS drops which wouldn't normally be a big issue in other MMORPGs, but can mean missing a critical leap as a WildStar explorer. At this point in the beta all seems as it should be though. Well except for maybe the color overload combined with small oddly colored chat boxes that may have exploded a few blood vessels in my left eye. The questing variety was a tad bit on the low side, at least in the early levels. This seems to not be the case further into the game as my last couple of hours playing saw every odd questline from putting out a forest fire on a flying water sprinkler: to shrinking and following a white rabbit to a mystical tea party: At one point I was even bouncing on magical mushrooms to fly through the air as I scaled a waterfall. Try doing all that in one day elsewhere without suffering serious drug related side-effects!
Overall Experience: Excellent I've had more fun gaming the past two nights than I've had in years. WildStar just captures so many elements of humor, fun, platforming, and combat that aren't available in combination with each other anywhere else in the online sphere. And while I typically go for the dark and epic storylines, WildStar's 'srs bsns' storyline is so riddled with satire towards the faction war that I can't help but love the personality and races on both sides. WildStar will stand strong in the eyes of people who love to jump around, laugh at some lore notes, earn a gazillion achievements, shoot some cocky Chuas, and never accomplish the goal they signed on specifically to do. If that's your idea of a good time, get yourself into beta and enjoy the ride. Perhaps one day you too can be as mighty as Chesh. |
| Nightcrawler now available in Marvel Heroes Posted: 31 Jan 2014 10:46 AM PST Update 2.15 for Marvel Heroes has just be published, which adds famed X-Man “Nightcrawler to the massive roster of 29 playable superheroes. Players can now harness the swashbuckling and acrobatic abilities of everybody's favorite teleporting trickster to defeat the myriad villains. The estranged son of the evil mutant Mystique, Kurt Wagner was raised by a fortune teller and grew up as part of a travelling circus in Germany. Nightcrawler uses teleportation, expert swashbuckling and superhuman agility to defeat enemies quickly. For more information on Marvel Hereos, visit: http://www.marvelheroes.com |
| Edge of Reality’s “Loadout” Now Available Posted: 31 Jan 2014 10:45 AM PST Edge of Reality has announced their Free-to-Play online shooter Loadout will be available from 6pm GMT today on PC. After years of adjusting and perfecting Loadout's innovative and acrobatic gameplay style, the Austin-based studio's debut title is now officially available in the Steam Store. "With Loadout, we offer players a genuinely fresh and gratifying alternative to everyday shooters," said Rob Cohen, CEO of Edge of Reality. "Allowing players to define their own class and play style with weaponcrafting took us somewhere truly special, and we can't wait to see what players come up with." Loadout is a fast-paced shooter that distinguishes itself with an amazingly robust customisation system, super-fast action, and comedic violence. With over 44 billion possible combinations, players have the ability to assemble the weapon of their dreams. From Gatling guns to tesla bolts to remote-controlled missiles, if you can think it you can build it. To for more info, go to www.loadout.com. |
| Infinite Crisis comes to Russia Posted: 31 Jan 2014 10:36 AM PST Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment has announced that they’ll be working with Fabrika Online to launch Infinite Crisis in Russia, Ukraine, CIS countries and Georgia. Players can apply to participate in the Closed Beta of the Russian language version by visiting http://www.infinitecrisis.com, and once in, they will receive full Russian language support. "This marks the first step toward our goal of delivering a truly competitive experience to gamers around the world," said David Haddad, Senior Vice President of Digital Publishing at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. "We are very excited about the launch of Infinite Crisis in Russian and are especially thrilled to be working with Fabrika Online. The company has a huge footprint in the local online gaming market with the ability to activate the community and provide customer support." For more information, visit http://www.playinfinitecrisis. |
| Novus AEterno Plans Saturday Night Livestream Posted: 31 Jan 2014 09:36 AM PST Taitaile Studios has announced that it will livestream a question & answer session for Novus AEterno on Saturday, February 1. The team recently held a Reddit Ask Me Anything (AMA), and has decided to field community questions after its successful Kickstarter campaign. Players are encouraged to attend to ask about anything on their minds, as well as to see more gameplay from Novus AEterno. Taitale also plans on making livestreams part of their regular schedule to listen to community feedback. The livestream will begin on Saturday (Feb 1) at 5pm EST (2pm PST) at http://www.twitch.tv/novusaeterno. |
| Posted: 30 Jan 2014 08:02 PM PST Strife – First Look – The First, Second Generation Moba! Strife is a community-focused multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA). Featuring less heroes but more flexibility through systems such as pets and crafting, the game intends to be more welcoming to all levels of players. Maps will be designed differently, with more open elements and systems to work in players' favor, and a karma system will keep negative players from influencing the game. Strife is developed and published by S2 Games. The game is currently in closed beta and players do need a key to get in. Get plenty info, gameplay screenshots, links, videos, and impressions at the Strife game profile HERE! |
| Posted: 30 Jan 2014 05:37 PM PST
Big updates coming to Firefall including easier navigation of cosmetics, the long awaited campaign, and plenty more! |
| Posted: 30 Jan 2014 04:45 PM PST Prepare for realistic close-quarters combat on the soil of Briton in War of the Vikings, a historical action RPG.  Publisher: Paradox Interactive Pros: +Realistic setting & weaponry. +Deep customization options. Cons: -Limited information available.
Overview War of the Vikings OverviewWar of the Vikings is a close-quarters action RPG, built on the same engine that powers War of the Roses. Set in historical Europe, players will battle it out as Vikings and Saxons on the lands of Briton. A deep, realistic combat system uses historical weaponry and skill to allow you to master offensive and defensive techniques, while a perk system lets you perfect your play to your play style. War of the Vikings will feature a training mode, arena game mode, large-scale multi-player battles, and more. War of the Vikings Screenshots          War of the Vikings Featured Video
Full Review War of the Vikings ReviewComing Soon… Screenshots War of the Vikings ScreenshotsComing Soon… Videos War of the Vikings VideosWar of the Vikings Announcement Trailer System Requirements War of the Vikings System RequirementsComing Soon… |
| Posted: 30 Jan 2014 03:08 PM PST By Tagspeech
Recently I had the pleasure of sitting down to an interview and demo with one of the representatives of Innogames to talk about their latest browser-based RTS game, Tribal Wars 2. Innogames is a development studio based out of Germany (and so of course the man I spoke to had that usual delightful, affable German disposition), and they began with the development of the numbers-heavy, surprisingly popular Tribal Wars. With that game’s success, the creators decided to go legit and found a studio to push out even more titles, and they’ve been a contender in the mobile/browser space of game design ever since.
Since their inception, Innogames has been making moves to develop a number of cross-platform app games for tablets, browsers, and mobile devices. That market, while understated in the traditional gaming community, is booming among casual gamers and mainstream players. Some of the most popular among them are games like Tribal Wars; those that inevitably rise above are the ones with the cleanest interface and slickest art design.
Given the popularity of the original Tribal Wars, the sequel, which is slated for beta in the coming months, is highly anticipated by both fans of the founding title and browser-based RTS gamers in general. While titles like Dragons of Atlantis have been drawing huge numbers recently, I’ll admit that although I’m usually a huge fan of strategy games in general, this genre has never really drawn me in. The user-interfaces are usually quite clunky, the gameplay dull, and the time-commitment intense. Though Tribal Wars 2 shares many of the fundamental mechanics of the genre with its peers, there are some notable differences and advancements. The first thing I noticed was the smooth zoom from world map to city-level. The game’s graphical capability is exceptional (for its genre), and I found myself wondering for a moment if it was more than a simple app/browser-based game. It’s not! These games are advancing all the time, apparently. So the art direction is good, and certainly taking things to the next level. More importantly, the text/numbers-heavy Tribal Wars is getting a much-needed UI facelift, and is much more user-friendly in the sequel than it was in the original. Innogames says their intention is to retain the complexity and depth of the original while providing a much smoother gaming experience. Their goal is to make the game easy to get into, and difficult to master.
Apparently, Tribal Wars 2 is intended to be played over days, weeks, and months, as a ‘semi-AFK’ game that involves long queue times and building assignments for the development of the player’s city. Though this might seem boring to the more instant-gratification types, the quiet joy of seeing our city grow from sleepy hamlet to epic fortress over the course of weeks can be quite satisfying, and is no doubt what keeps people coming back to these games. Though the most compelling part, according to Innogames, is the feature that’s the game’s namesake: Tribal Wars. Players are intended to band together into tribes and declare war on one another. That’s the long-term appeal of the game to those that get deeply invested. Though the game doesn’t provide the option to create a player avatar or portrait (something I personally place a great deal of value on) they give plenty of other options to specialize and personalize their city through the specific upgrade paths chosen through development. For example, a player can choose in the late game which guild to specialize in within their city: the Knights Templar, Spy Guild, or Teutonic Knights. These choices are meaningful and distinguish the player from their neighbors or tribemates.
One of the most interesting aspects of the game, for those interested in meaningful investment and progression, is the game’s biggest feature: the fortress. The upgrading and enhancement of the player’s fortress in their city is what defines their dominance over their peers. The player with the biggest fortress in any given region gains the ability to grant special titles to other players, such as "Grand Master of Spies" which further enhance those players’ ability to specialize in specific activities and tactics. This ‘rock, paper, scissors’ approach to city development allows for serious coordination between cities and tribes, and will most certainly make for an interesting, long-term game for those with the desire to stick with it and build a reputation in their community. Though these types of games will never truly have the draw of big-budget, flashy titles, they’re almost always free. Innogames was unable to comment on any premium shop models they have in mind for release, but it can be safely assumed they’ll go with the genre standard and implement some form of premium currency players can use to purchase minor in-game benefits and advantages. So, if you’re looking for a new game to distract yourself with at work when you should be working, Tribal Wars 2 is shaping up to be a winner among its peers. Keep an eye out for open beta as we’ll be providing further coverage. Tagspeech is the alias of author W.B. Wemyss, who was responsible for the bizarre cyberpunk fever dream called Children of Athena. |
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