MMO News |
- Marvel Heroes: Update 2.2 “Forge of Asgard” now live
- New F2P car racing game “World of Speed” announced
- Gloria Victis Finds Success on Greenlight in First Weekend
- Prime World Announces the Glorious “Winter Revolution” with Massive Giveaway
- Bless: Embers in the Storm Korean Closed Beta Preview Trailers
- War Commander
- EverQuest Next Landmark Alpha Preview: Your First Isn’t Always Best
- Swords & Potions 2
- Monster Madness Online Starts Second Public Pre-Alpha
- Everquest Next Landmark Friday HutStream
| Marvel Heroes: Update 2.2 “Forge of Asgard” now live Posted: 10 Feb 2014 08:43 AM PST Gazillion Entertainment has just released a new update for Marvel Heroes called the “Forge of Asgard”. This update adds even more depth to item customization and character outfitting by delivering an all-new Asgardian-themed crafting system. Players can combine up to five Runes with Uru-Forged items to create more potent items that confer exceptional powers to their superhero of choice, including the ability to turn invisible, fully heal, grow to the size of a Frost Giant, and much more. This update also marks the annoucement of Marvel Heroes coming to Mac platform. “We’ve always wanted to release on Mac and we’re proud to announce our CBT,” said David Brevik, CEO, Gazillion. “Marvel Heroes continues to grow and improve at an astounding rate. Giving Mac players an opportunity to suit up and save the world is a good next step for us and one we’re happy to take.” Closed beta testing will begin late February. For more information, visit: https://www.marvelheroes.com/ |
| New F2P car racing game “World of Speed” announced Posted: 10 Feb 2014 08:41 AM PST Slighty Mad Studios, the developers behind the ‘Project CARS’ title is looking to start a new project called ‘World of Speed’, which promises a high-octane AAA car racing experience as a F2P title. In World of Speed, players will hop in the driver's seat of an endless garage of cars ranging from everyday city runners to the fastest super cars on the planet to the most iconic cars from throughout the storied history of auto racing. Players will be racing on true-to-life tracks spanning the globe, with cities including London and San Francisco. The game will also contain a social aspect called the ‘Airfield social hub’, where players can enjoy club and team gameplay, events and more. "At the heart of World of Speed lies a unique massive multiplayer online experience which incorporates a dynamic social elements and entirely new ways to compete in a racing video game – from an individual to a team level," said Ian Bell, Chief Executive Officer of Slightly Mad Studios. "World of Speed is an online game and will be continuously supported with innovative and fresh content to keep the competition furious well after its launch." World of Speed is set to launch into closed beta in Spring 2014. For more info, visit http://www.worldofspeed.com/ |
| Gloria Victis Finds Success on Greenlight in First Weekend Posted: 10 Feb 2014 08:16 AM PST Black Eye Games has pushed their indie sandbox fighter, Gloria Victis, onto the Steam Store’s Greenlight and landed in the top 100 in their first day live. Vitalized by the surge of player interest, the devs are promising yet another impactful patch, weekly update summaries, a new video showcasing the state of the gameplay, and the long awaited lift of their NDA a few weeks from now. We’ve been waiting to get our hands on this game for some time now and look forward to bringing you first impressions when that occurs. Until then be sure to put your vote behind them on greenlight to get Black Eye Games the recognition they deserve. |
| Prime World Announces the Glorious “Winter Revolution” with Massive Giveaway Posted: 10 Feb 2014 08:01 AM PST Nival, the Russian publisher behind the heavily RPG focused MOBA, Prime World, has something quite special in-store for players that have registered and played their game prior to 4pm EST today. Marking their largest giveaway to date, these accounts will receive 3,000 gold (the equivalent of $100 worth of cash shop currency), bringing the grand total to roughly $38,000,000 given out in total. Man that’s a lot of zeros! This coincides with the “Winter Revolution” that will join the Russian servers and English servers together, solving one of the primary complaints of the game: queue times. Due to the nature of accounts holding an individual elo and hero elo along with heroes that gain power through combat and evolve over time, it becomes increasingly difficult for Prime World to efficiently set up fair matches in a timely manner. By fusing these two player groups together, this should be thing of the past. Beyond this, English players will now be able to experience all content launched on the Russian servers including the Spaghetti Monster and Snowboard skin line. Players must register at http://en.playpw.com or through Steam before the deadline to get in on the giveaway |
| Bless: Embers in the Storm Korean Closed Beta Preview Trailers Posted: 10 Feb 2014 07:34 AM PST Catch the full set of new trailers below for Bless Online’s upcoming Korean closed beta test.
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| Posted: 07 Feb 2014 05:05 PM PST The world is in chaos – can you command your own military and win the war? War Commander is a strategy title made for web browsers from KIXEYE.  Publisher: KIXEYE Pros: +Limited information available. Cons: -Limited information available.
Overview War Commander OverviewWar Commander is a free-to-play strategy game playable from web browsers. Set in a future where governments have collapsed and chaos reigns, you must build and defend your base, form alliances, and use strategy to crush your enemies. The game includes 27 fully customizable units from 1980 through 2020, individual and group nit control, and over 400 lines of dialogue. War Commander Screenshots      War Commander Featured Video
Full Review War Commander ReviewComing Soon… Screenshots War Commander ScreenshotsComing Soon… Videos War Commander VideosWar Commander Trailer System Requirements War Commander System RequirementsComing Soon… |
| EverQuest Next Landmark Alpha Preview: Your First Isn’t Always Best Posted: 07 Feb 2014 02:58 PM PST By Jaime Skelton (MissyS)
There's no better time to lift an NDA than a Superbowl weekend – when thousands of disappointed sports fans turn their TVs off because their favorite team didn't make it to the big game. So it was this past weekend when Sony Online Entertainment lifted the NDA for EverQuest Next Landmark's alpha, giving the public a reason to rush the fields and fill the virtual stands of livestreams to get their first glimpse at the upcoming F2P world-building title. I've thrown on my own proverbial jersey and got in the game to give you a glimpse from its first week in the public view. One small disclaimer: EQN Landmark is in alpha, which is testing speak for "expect everything to be broken today and fixed sometime in the future." EverQuest Next Landmark is a sandbox-style MMO with world-building tools, and in its current state, is comparable to a multiplayer Minecraft on peaceful mode. There are no monsters, PvP, character equipment; all of these features (and many more) are on a long list of things planned for release by closed beta. What I was able to test is the skeleton of the game's resource, crafting, and building system. Everything else falls under the "not yet" category. To understand the way Landmark plays, you have to start at the basics of server structure. Each server is its own set of worlds, or "islands." At the center of each island is a hub that includes a basic crafting station, useable by the public, and a portal spire. From the portal, you can transfer to other "islands" on the server. Each island is named and ranked by Tier, indicating the kinds of resources that will be available on the land. Currently, island size is such that it takes approximately ten minutes to run across the map from one edge to another. Each island is also capable of supporting a moderate number of player "claims," which are territory grabs that mark an area specifically for your building needs. Each claim is then surrounded by a buffer zone in which other players cannot place their own claim. As such, most players' first order of business is searching the map for an area in which no buffer zone exists, traveling to it by foot, and then staking their claim to have their own personal hub and building area. Eventually, claims will require an upkeep fee, so owning multiple claims will be costly. The idea of having a limited number of claims per island – plus a buffer zone – is a great idea in theory. It keeps islands from being cluttered housing districts, where one can barely find a patch of resources between two fortresses, and it keeps both island and server populations balanced. Two glaring issues stand out in the current alpha phase, however: map interface and claim availability. As you can see from the screenshot, the map displays both player claims (small squares) and buffer zones (large squares). While player claims cannot be set up inside buffer zones, buffer zones can overlap – there is no defined grid upon which players must place their claim. Searching for claim spaces on an active island is a matter of tediously scanning through the map to look for places where there isn't an overlay square. On top of finding an open place, once you trek out to the spot – which may take a good five minutes of your time – you may even find that while the claim spot itself is useable, the island itself has reached its maximum number of claims. This means a trek back to the central island hub, another teleport, and another hunt through islands just to claim a small area all your own. Thankfully, this system will be changing to an easier to read color-coded map in the near future, although the issue of transportation remains up in the air. What the system is lacking is a way to naturally expand and create additional islands for players in response to player populations and land claims. Once a server has reached maximum capacity, there's no way to know, and no creation of new islands to accommodate for further claim needs. If the system is to work, it must automatically adapt to player populations, in similar ways to The Lord of the Rings Online's housing system: once islands fill up, new ones must be born to allow for new claims and claim rebalancing. If such a system isn't put in place for the game, the game will struggle between "haves" and "have-nots", because without a claim of your own (or a friend to share), progression is impossible. On the third day, and by the grace of a new server opening up, we were able to stake our own claim on the edge of a desert cliff. Before staking a claim, I was only able to wander the world and gather materials, but using these materials is limited to what the island hub's crafting station offers: picks, axes, and the ability to craft your own stations to carry with you to your eventual claim of land. Having a claim meant opening up the game's progression further, by being able to access a wider range of crafting items (in addition to being able to build cool stuff, like your own buildings). As mentioned earlier, the game's resources are split into tiers (Tier 1, Tier 2, etc.). In order to gather higher tiers of resources, you must craft tools that can gather them; for instance, in order to mine iron, you must craft and use a bronze pick (made of copper and tin). Rarer resources also allow you to craft more items for your homestead. Crafting progression, then, means gathering resources until you have enough to make the tool for the next tier, and then repeating each progressive tier. Of course, it's not quite that simple. Materials in each tier are sorted into common and rare types: for example, in addition to finding copper and tin (both common), you will also rarely obtain elemental copper and elemental tin. You cannot progress without obtaining rare materials — a resource you have no control over other than to simply mine or chop away and hope for your luck. On top of that, the material resources required are fairly steep, a thought that amused me while I chopped down over a dozen large trees just in order to make my next pickaxe. While grinding resources may be an issue, at least resource competition seems fair. Even on a busy island, there's plenty of resources to be found. For those of you transitioning from games like Terraria or Minecraft, you'll find the game's building system refreshing. Landmark's building tools seem more like Photoshop tools than world building magic: Add, Delete, Heal, Selection, Smooth, Paint, and Line. However, these tools are also a lot more powerful than you might be used to. Tools show as a 3D "brush" in the world, and can be scaled, tilted, and manipulated in ways that might make you feel like a real 3D artist. Material selection is simple, and both shapes and patterns are available in the game to make it even easier to lay down your creations or replicate complex work. The difference is like moving from LEGOs in the living room floor to red clay in a ceramics studio, and it can take a little getting used to for those of us who have spent years laying down block after block. That versatility is going to set new expectations, and it's also going to draw in new players – players like those in my own family, who put graphical realism at the top of their gaming experience. It's obvious to state that EverQuest Next Landmark has the potential to be something great: in its infancy, the game is as moldable as the terrain it offers players. There's plenty of criticism that I could throw at the game, including poor optimization and lack of meaningful content, that can be shrugged off with the "it's only alpha" excuse. At the same time, there are a few core gameplay mechanic choices currently made by SOE that are possibly preparing Landmark for a rough release. Island population mechanics are certainly a core issue that needs to be examined and tested as the playerbase grows throughout testing, or servers will struggle to keep land available for new players and veterans who want to open multiple claims. These issues may also result in a struggle for "prime" land, as players get frustrated that their only options are always on island edges. Transportation options also tie in with this: there is no magic teleport to one's claim or to the central hub, and all transportation must be done by foot. Amusingly, walking across an island is an easy feat; players are capable of scaling massive mountain peaks with all the grace of a steed in The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion (that is to say, there's no mountain you can't climb.) Moving from area to area is so mind-numbing that you can use auto-run to run from corner to corner, and only be stopped if you happen to get caught in the roots of a tree or in the corner of someone's building. And, of course, there's the resource grind: never say Burled Wood to an Alpha player. There's also plenty to like. For those looking for a more 3D, realistic world-building experience, Landmark's tools are far more powerful than other comparable games. Landmark's inventory is also beautifully designed, as resources shuffle into their own inventory area and can stack by the thousands, leaving the main inventory free for tools and other useful items. Population and resource balance is already under control, and the list of features to be added is making my hands itch despite the week of headaches I had in alpha. There's one last question I'm sure some of you will be asking: should I buy a founder's pack? Here's my honest answer: if you're really invested in EverQuest Next and EverQuest Next Landmark, and want a chance to make an impact in the game's design and watch it grow from the start, you've probably already bought the Founder's pack or are waiting for your next paycheck to do so. If you're simply looking for a good sandbox game, there are plenty of world builders and MMOs available for less than the price tag of Alpha; in fact, Starbound is in early access and has more content (and stability) than EQN Landmark for less than the cost of the Settler's Pack. That pack, by the way, is only $20 and guarantees you a slot in closed beta, and is probably the best option for those of you who, like me, are caught in the middle.
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| Posted: 07 Feb 2014 01:57 PM PST Become a mercantile hero in this free browser game, building your own shop and city as you sell equipment to adventurers!  Publisher: Kongregate Pros: +Can build player-run cities. Cons: -Limited information available.
Overview Swords & Potions 2 OverviewSwords & Potions 2 is a free-to-play RPG shopkeeper simulator! Craft equipment and items for adventurers, forming bonds with them and send them on quests. Use extra cash to hire crafters and build and develop your city, or go out and forge your own. Build your own mercantile empire! Swords & Potions 2 Screenshots         Swords & Potions 2 Featured VideoComing Soon… Full Review Swords & Potions 2 ReviewComing Soon… Screenshots Swords & Potions 2 ScreenshotsComing Soon… Videos Swords & Potions 2 VideosComing Soon… System Requirements Swords & Potions 2 System RequirementsComing Soon… |
| Monster Madness Online Starts Second Public Pre-Alpha Posted: 07 Feb 2014 01:09 PM PST Nom Nom Games, a newly formed indie subsidiary of Trendy Entertainment, today launched its second public pre-Alpha play session of Monster Madness Online. Players can jump into the fray now at www.MonsterMadness.com to experience the many thrilling updates such as a new story mission, enemies, items, play modes, and crafting abilities, among others. Set in the popular Monster Madness universe, this new action RPG shooter is in development by the masterminds behind the highly acclaimed Dungeon Defenders. "We are looking forward to players checking out the new content and providing us valuable feedback from this next phase," said Jeremy Stieglitz, director at Nom Nom Games. "Our development structure is designed to receive information from players and quickly implement it, providing a new level of transparency between our team and our fans. These early play sessions provide just a taste of many more exciting things to come." In development for seamless cross-platform gameplay across PC, Mac, Android, Linux, iOS and web browser, the Monster Madness Online pre-Alpha 2 release incorporates the following new content and features:
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| Everquest Next Landmark Friday HutStream Posted: 07 Feb 2014 12:24 PM PST Catch James all afternoon streaming EQNext Landmark! Watch live video from JamesBl0nde on www.twitch.tv And keep an eye out for MissyS’s write-up on her week long play session later this afternoon! |
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