MMO News |
- Rise of Incarnates – First Look
- Dungeon Hunter 5 Official First Look #2
- DCUO Amazon Fury Part II Official Trailer
- Skyforge Russian Beta Preview
- World of Tanks: Xbox 360 1-Year Anniversary Trailer
- Trials of Ascension Prepares For Kickstarter Campaign
- DC Universe Online’s Amazon Fury Part II Now Available
- ElHarmony: Find Your Perfect Match in Elsword Today
- Dying Light: Free Content Updates Coming Soon
- War of the Ancients: New CCG Hits Kickstarter
| Rise of Incarnates – First Look Posted: 12 Feb 2015 04:43 PM PST Rise of Incarnates – First Look Rise of Incarnates debuts its early access launch with eight playable characters and every character boasts a unique set of powers and skills that will appeal to the play-style of any gamer. Players battle in a 2 vs. 2 arena set in New York City or Paris maps, and can choose from a variety of different modes including Versus matches, Arcade mode and Bot matches. During these battles, players must employ sharp reflexes, mental resolve and strategic insight as they run, jump, and fly through these 3D arenas, engaging in both close-quarters combat and long-range assaults. |
| Dungeon Hunter 5 Official First Look #2 Posted: 12 Feb 2015 04:14 PM PST Continuing the developer’s adventures into Dungeon Hunter V.
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| DCUO Amazon Fury Part II Official Trailer Posted: 12 Feb 2015 03:57 PM PST Amazon Fury Part II continues the Amazon Fury trilogy deep into the Underworld, where the gods of war and death await.
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| Posted: 12 Feb 2015 03:55 PM PST By Jordan Hall (ApocaRUFF)
This past weekend was the Russian Open Beta Stress Test for Skyforge, and as there were no IP blocks in place, anyone from around the globe could participate. I was one of the (many) foreigners to take advantage of this stress test to try out the game before it is made available in English-speaking countries. Skyforge is known for allowing you to ascend to godhood, accumulating power and followers and perhaps eventually becoming the "top god." Because of this fairly unique setting and feature, it has garnered a lot of interest. So, let me introduce you to the game and tell you about my time in the beta.
Character Creation The character creation options in Skyforge are impressive. If you’re a fan of great looking characters with plenty of sliders, I can’t see how you wouldn’t enjoy making a character in Skyforge. Afterward, there’s also a lot of cosmetic options, plus the ability to change your appearance at almost any time. I got the impression during my short time in the game that costumes, and customization in general, play a pretty big role in the game. Also, boob physics.
Notice the boob slider.
Right off the bat I got the feeling that Skyforge would be the sort of game to put a lot of stock into the way characters look. Right now, in the Russian Beta, there may not be so many options available. But there are a LOT of signs of the framework for future customization options (mostly costume related) to be implemented. This kinda bodes well, as it seems like that may be the primary purpose of the cash shop. I can hope, at least… There’s an upgrade system in the game and we all know how upgrade systems in games with cash shops usually pan out.
My shirt is quite fitting for a powerful Immortal, right?
Graphics The graphics in Skyforge look fantastic. The art team did incredibly well, with everything Immortal or god related having a sort of "Shiny" filter over it. Meanwhile most enemy and evil locations have a dark and grimy feel. It helps set the mood by subconsciously supplanting the idea of a battle between gods and demonic foes without straight out throwing it in your face. Kudos for that.
A lot of themes in the game scream fantasy, but then you’re hit with stuff like a sci-fi shipping port.
The game design is something else, too. Sure, the sci-fi-meets-fantasy thing has been done before, but I can’t think of any games that have done it this well. The best way I can describe the way the game world is designed is the Roman Empire in the year 5,000. Everything is supremely high-tech, yet everything is designed with a romanticized Roman Empire-type setting in mind. All in all the theme works to further draw you in to believing the setting.
This particular area reminded me of something I would expect from a .Hack game.
Controls The controls in the game were fantastic as well. Initially, coming into the game, I thought there was supposed to be a full action-based combat system. Instead, though, the game uses a hybrid of point-and-click and "action." I’m fifty-fifty on how I feel about this. On the one hand, the combat was fantastic and I enjoyed it a great deal. On the other hand, though, I feel like the combat would have been a lot more fun if only it had used a true action system. So it’s good, but it could have been better. For the most part, the game uses a control scheme typical to these types of games. WASD movement, mouse to control where you’re looking, not the usual 1 to = key setup. Sure, some of the number keys are used, but the developers know that fighting can get intense so they’ve tried to keep all the hotkeys centered around WASD. This is to keep everything easily within reach, rather than spreading them along a line at the top of the keyboard and requiring a lot of finger stretching. Consumables are, by default, activated by Ctrl + Number keys.
At least early on, you don’t have much reason to use these as enemies will pop out glowing "heals" on the ground that will restore some HP.
Gameplay First off, I want to say that Skyforge reminds me of a lot of games. It’s like the developers took a lot of my favorite games, distilled them down to the essence of what made them great, and mixed them together to create Skyforge. It has a similar gameplay style as Path of Exile or Phantasy Star Online, yet the look and feel of the game reminds me a bit of Guild Wars 2 and even The Secret World at times. And at least the "Immortal" phase of the game, where you haven’t yet become a god, feels a lot like City of Heroes, Champions Online, or DC Universe Online in that you feel almost like a Super Hero. The game is mission-based. Players meet up and prepare in a sort of "hub world" that is the planet's capital city. From there, they can visit various "Sub-hubs" and take missions. This hub world looks astonishingly like Coroscant from Star Wars, by the way. The missions you partake in range in difficulty and style. Some of them will be meant for solo play, some for small groups, and others are larger in scale.
As you progress through the game, the amount of available missions increases by a lot.
In the first five or so hours of the game, every mission you come across can be done solo. Perhaps later on there will be more that require teamwork, but I didn’t really see any. Most of the missions you do will be fairly linear, with a lot of "trash" mobs to get through with a few bosses spread out. As you kill, loot will be dropped per usual. But it will usually just be credits, rarely actual equipment (unless it’s a boss, which guarantees an equipment drop). What’s interesting is the loot drops as a Pokeball-looking container.
They look like Pokeballs to me.
Other missions are larger in scale. For example, early on you’ll come across some floating ruins in the sky. This is one of the larger areas and resembles a zone in other MMOs. These larger maps are split up into smaller pieces, with each piece having its own set of missions that can be completed. What’s nice about these places is that other players are also present and can help you, and as long as you contribute to the fight in some way you’ll get credit. So there’s no mob-snatching or kill stealing.
This is one of the larger areas – the various "vortex" icons on the map are teleport points to help you get around.
Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to achieve godhood during my time in the beta weekend. I did get a small taste of the features that allow for you to gain followers and kick-start your own personal cult. If you’re more interested in those features, there’s a lot of great information on the Skyforge website. What I can tell you is that you don’t feel much like a god during the "Immortal" phase, you feel more like a Superhero (as I said). This gave me something to strive for and caused me to spend a bit more time playing the game than I probably should have in a single sitting.
Combat & Classes Combat, as I mentioned under "controls," is a mixture of point-and-click and action-style. The game is definitely action-packed, with lots of movement involved and a control scheme that feels very action-y. During my time in the beta, I spent a vast majority of my time playing as a Cryomancer. This is essentially the games ranged frost mage class.
This is the Cryomancer’s "execution" move – turning the enemy into a small ice mountain.
There are three "Starting" classes available from the beginning. The rest of the classes – such as the Berserker and Gunner – need to be unlocked via the Atlas (which I’ll get into later). One of the great things about Skyforge is that there are no restrictions on classes – you are only allowed one character but can switch between the classes whenever you feel like. It seemed like the classes were evenly divided between ranged and melee based. Later on you’ll probably end up "specializing" in one class, but earlier in your play time this feature provides a great way to try out every class quickly and without having to spam alt characters.
My favorite class out of the three available from the start was the Cryomancer.
Combat in the game is extremely flashy. Classes will often have combos to make use of, especially the melee classes. There’s also an energy system – much like you might expect. Most of the abilities you have will consume (or Impulse, as it was called) this energy, though your basic left-click attack wont. Each class also has a "Finisher" or "Execution" ability that can sometimes be activated when an enemy goes below a certain HP Threshold. Which brings me to bosses.
This is one of the more boring bosses. It’s also one of the first you’ll come against, unfortunately.
Most bosses get their difficulty simply by having "multiple" HP bars. For example, it’s not farfetched for bosses to have up to sixteen HP bars, which you'll have to cut through one after another to eventually defeat them. Each mission has a handful of these bosses – usually three or so "minor" bosses with a single "big" boss that must be defeated to complete the mission. A decent portion of the bosses usually have some gimmick to them – for example, early on you’ll come across a boss that will try to burrow underground if you do so much damage and then send up trash mobs to keep you busy. However, you can destroy his escape route before he gets a chance to run.
Ascension Atlas The Ascension Atlas is the method by which you’ll gather power and "ascend" into godhood. This thing is huge, almost on par with Path of Exile’s massive talent tree. To top off that already large size of the Atlas (Referred to as the "Upper Level"), each class has its own "mini Atlas" (Referred to as the "Lower Level") that is used to advance a specific class. There are a ton of nodes within the Atlas, granting you things like abilities, talents, stat boosts, and more. Needless to say, I wasn’t able to get very far into it in the short amount of time I had during the Weekend Beta.
The size of this thing is impressive.
Each node in the Atlas will take one of various different Resources. These Resources are gathered by completing missions, each having its own unique color. The colors are Orange, Green, and Blue. You can see what kind of resource a mission will give for completion before taking it, with the reward being "switched" every hour or so. So you may find that one particular mission is easy but gives a ton of resources, but not the resource you’re looking for. So you can wait until the switch happens and perhaps that easy mission will now give the resource you’re looking for.
Journey to Godhood I did not advance very far into the beta, unfortunately. I’m actually thinking of buying into the Russian beta so that I can continue playing. Anyways, a lot of what I know concerning the "Journey to Godhood" is what I’ve read on the website. I did get to a point where I was introduced into the concept of followers and those thankful for your good deeds in the world. This is the feature that will set Skyforge apart from all the other games it will remind you of. Gaining followers, ascending to godhood, building up your own "Order" (AKA your own personal cult), creating temples in the various regions of the world… That is the charm of this game, and the reason that I cannot wait for it to come to North America.
Conclusion Skyforge was spectacular! I loved the combat, though I thought there could be improvements, and the gameplay was fun. If you’re a fan of Path of Exile, Phantasy Star Online, or any of those mission-based "Action RPG" style games, you’ll more than likely be a perfect fit for this game. Especially if you like customization, as there is a decent amount here; mostly when it comes to the way your character looks. Definitely check this game out and keep a close eye on the up-coming English version of the game. Be sure to check out our Skyforge profile for more screenshots of my adventure through the beta! |
| World of Tanks: Xbox 360 1-Year Anniversary Trailer Posted: 12 Feb 2015 03:41 PM PST Happy 1-Year Anniversary World of Tanks: Xbox 360!
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| Trials of Ascension Prepares For Kickstarter Campaign Posted: 12 Feb 2015 03:06 PM PST Forged Chaos has announced that on February 19th at 3pm EST, it will launch a new Kickstarter page for Trials of Ascension, featuring new images, video, information, and rewards. The developers said in a newsletter:
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| DC Universe Online’s Amazon Fury Part II Now Available Posted: 12 Feb 2015 02:35 PM PST
Daybreak Game Company LLC today announced that the second act of DC Universe™ Online's (DCUO) Amazon Fury trilogy, Amazon Fury Part II, is now available for the PC, PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system and PlayStation®4 system. In DCUO's 13th downloadable content (DLC) pack, players face unparalleled challenges as they journey to the Underworld, face the Gods and tackle new missions, Operations and Raids. The Amazon War rages on and ventures from the mortal realm through the gates of the Underworld. Upon arrival, players will brave the depths and battle alongside Wonder Woman or Circe, as they come face to face with powerful Gods — Ares and Hades. Epic mythical beasts like Cerebus will test players' resolve as they unravel the mysteries behind the Amazon Queen, Hippolyta. HIGHLIGHTS:
DCUO's Amazon Fury Part II DLC is available as a free download for Members and for purchase by non-members via the PlayStation®Network, the in-game Marketplace, or for PC players via the DCUniverseOnline.com website. |
| ElHarmony: Find Your Perfect Match in Elsword Today Posted: 12 Feb 2015 02:22 PM PST Free to communicate?…Check. Are you an online gamer looking for love with a compatibility matching system?… Check and check… is it eHarmony? No it's ElHarmony! KOG Games, a leading developer and publisher of popular free-to-play action MMORPGs, brings you THE top gamer dating site to Elsword with ElHarmony. Players are invited to take a chance on love by creating their own free character dating profile that may lead to a match! ElHarmony along with a variety of Valentine's Day Events will feature awesome prizes that may leave you slathered in ElLove this Valentine season! ElHarmony has come to Elrios, and El Explorers can get creative and put together their own love struck character profile. Browsing other player created profiles may not only lead to a match but could also lead to a wedding! Three favorite profiles will be chosen to receive a special pro-angled screen shot with their selected couple that will be printed and signed by the GM team plus 2,500 in K-Ching for an in-game Elsword wedding! The ElHarmony dating profile voted "Most Hot" will also receive 2,500 K-Ching for in-game wedding expenses. ElHarmony isn't the only Valentine's celebration happening in Elsword. The game kicked off a variety of romantic and fun events happening now: The Elsword Love Quiz – Players can answer a series of questions using the dedicated Elsword Facebook App to see which character from Elsword they would best be matched with. Players can share their results on Facebook with friends and invite them to take the quiz too. Which character you would date on Elsword? – Participate in a simple poll on the Elsword Facebook page to cast your vote on which Elsword character you think is the most desirable. Couples Fan Art Contest – A creative ode to the matchmaker's fantasy: Create artwork to depict your own fantastic, love-struck, tasteful pairing of ANY *wink wink* 2 Elsword characters. Images are to be submitted on the Official Elsword forums. KOG Games will select their entries to win K-Ching prizes. Valentine's Fanfiction Contest – Calling all ElRomance novelists! It's 50 Shades of Elsword run amuck. Players can write a short love story depicting your favorite pairing of Elsword characters. Share your steamy story on the Official Elsword Forums. The most creative stories will win prizes Valentine's Day Livestream 02/13 @ 4 -6 PM PST – Join a short Couples PvP Tournament to win K-Ching plus other mini-games including Battle of the Hotties, Strip Poker and Fashion Couples Faceoff! |
| Dying Light: Free Content Updates Coming Soon Posted: 12 Feb 2015 12:54 PM PST 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:
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/ |
| War of the Ancients: New CCG Hits Kickstarter Posted: 12 Feb 2015 12:53 PM PST 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 |
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