MMO News

Ashes of the Singularity
RIFT 5 Year Anniversary Trailer
Mabinogi G20 Content Update Overview
Metro Conflict Shutting Down
Age of Conan Adds Pit Master’s Arena
Homefront: The Revolution Announces Merits System
Crowfall Pre-Alpha Testing for Castle Siege Begins
Das Tal Gets Increased Funding
RIFT Update 3.6 Press Event Walkthrough
Homefront: The Revolution – Hearts and Minds 101

Posted: 13 Apr 2016 04:53 PM PDT

Ashes of the Singularity is a science-fiction themed RTS (real-time strategy game) for PC. Players can take command of resources on a planetary scale to fight enormous battles across some of the largest maps seen in the genre.

There are two playable factions: the Post Human Coalition and the Substrate. Each faction has its own unique units, abilities, and available research, making them distinctly different in gameplay and warfare. Battles are strategy-based and involve fights on multiple fronts, making managing and monitoring the entire battlefield a key to victory.

Ashes of the Singularity features single-player scenarios and skirmishes with advanced “non-cheating” AI, and multiplayer featuring ranked and unranked matches along with cooperative play.

[See image gallery at mmohuts.com]

Status: Released
Release Date: Mar 31, 2016
Business Model: Retail
Developer: Oxide Games
Publisher: Stardock Entertainment
Category: Stand-alone
Genre(s): 3D, Sci-Fi, Strategy
Platforms: PC, Steam
Pros:
- +Large scale battles rival other RTS
- +Challenging but fair AI
- +Good variety of maps
Cons:
- -Only two factions
- -Slow campaign pace
- -Unbalanced matchmaking
Recommended System Requirements:
- OS: 64-bit Windows 10
- CPU: Intel Core i5 or Equivalent
- RAM: 16 GB
- GPU: 4 GB GDDR5 NVidia GTX 970 / AMD R9 390 or better
- HDD: 13 GB

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RIFT 5 Year Anniversary Trailer

Posted: 13 Apr 2016 03:34 PM PDT

Rift celebrates its 5 year anniversary with a call to arms against dragons in Update 3.6.

The post RIFT 5 Year Anniversary Trailer appeared first on MMOHuts.

Mabinogi G20 Content Update Overview

Posted: 13 Apr 2016 03:25 PM PDT

A breakdown of all the major features arriving with Mabinogi G20, arriving April 14.

The post Mabinogi G20 Content Update Overview appeared first on MMOHuts.

Metro Conflict Shutting Down

Posted: 13 Apr 2016 02:19 PM PDT

OG Planet announced last week that its MMOFPS, Metro Conflict, will be shut down. The servers will go offline on April 25, 2016.

Metro Conflict fans might be pleased to hear that its developer, Red Duck, does plan on bringing the game back (including restoring accounts) soon with a new publisher on Steam.

We were excited to have the opportunity to be the first to bring a fully launched version of Metro Conflict to North American and European players. But for the time being, OGP has decided to discontinue service, although Red Duck intends to bring Metro Conflict (along with all of your accounts) back to Steam in the near future with the help of another publisher.

Purchases have been disabled and refunds are being issued. Find out more here.

The post Metro Conflict Shutting Down appeared first on MMOHuts.

Age of Conan Adds Pit Master’s Arena

Posted: 13 Apr 2016 12:26 PM PDT

Funcom’s Age of Conan just got a big update with the introduction of The Pit Master’s Arena. The arena is located in the Field of the Dead and allows players to fight for supremacy and win a host of powerful new rewards.

Throughout the years Age of Conan has amassed a huge number of pets. Players can collect all sorts of pets, from cruel demons to mighty basilisks and even massive dragons! Now players can face off against over 200 of these pets in brutal battles inside the arena.

Players can also fight each other in The Pit Master’s Arena. They can enter player versus player duels to determine who is the most powerful, and at the same time win awesome loot. The all new rewards include mounts, epic necklaces and powerful runes which give incredible bonuses.

The Pit Master’s Arena is a free update for all Age of Conan players. Find out more here.

The post Age of Conan Adds Pit Master’s Arena appeared first on MMOHuts.

Homefront: The Revolution Announces Merits System

Posted: 13 Apr 2016 12:11 PM PDT

Deep Silver today unveiled the Homefront®: The Revolution Merits program, a reward plan for members of the Homefront community.

Anyone can simply go to Homefront-Game.com and begin earning Merits by completing missions on the site to dive deeper into the lore of the universe. Each Merit earned unlocks a corresponding piece of Combat Gear from the Red Rebel set, which can be used to customize your co-op character in Resistance Mode.

Once merits are achieved, players will see the associated in-game Combat Gear unlock by linking their Homefront profile to their Xbox LIVE, PSN or Steam account. Seven merits are currently available at the launch of this program, with more to come between now and when Homefront: The Revolution launches on May 17 in North America.

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Crowfall Pre-Alpha Testing for Castle Siege Begins

Posted: 13 Apr 2016 11:17 AM PDT

Independent game developer ArtCraft Entertainment, Inc. revealed today that external pre-alpha testing has started for the “Castle Siege” system of their flagship title, Crowfall®.

A Massively Multiplayer Online Game (MMORPG) that centers on political alliances and feudal conquest, Crowfall has been described as "a throne war simulator." With heavy focus on player versus player gameplay, opposing sides collide in the unending struggle for glory, wealth and power.

In this latest phase of testing, Pre-Alpha 2.0: Siege Perilous, participants split off as soldiers supporting Chaos or Order, either laying siege to or defending a castle. In addition, the castle destruction system is now online, allowing players to tear down walls and topple towers with real-time server side physics.

Five of Crowfall's eventual 13 archetypes will be available to players in this round of testing: Champion, Confessor, Knight, Legionnaire and the recently-added Ranger.

“This is an incredibly exciting milestone for us," said J. Todd Coleman, ArtCraft co-founder and Crowfall's creative director. "Our previous tests centered on PvP combat, which is obviously critical to our game but not unique to the market. Our physics-based castle siege system marks the point where Crowfall starts to separate from the other games available in the market.”

The post Crowfall Pre-Alpha Testing for Castle Siege Begins appeared first on MMOHuts.

Das Tal Gets Increased Funding

Posted: 13 Apr 2016 10:57 AM PDT

Game investment fund FFF Bayern just announced (in German) that they are increasing their investment in German independent MMORPG Das Tal by €100,000 to a total of €180,000. Together with a recently doubled angel investment and other funds raised by the development studio Fairytale Distillery the full production budget has now surpassed €300,000.

Alexander Zacherl, Managing Director of Fairytale Distillery says: “Thanks so much to the FFF Bayern, the country of Bavaria and our business angel, Christian. Without you we would have never made it as far as we’re now with the production of Das Tal. Now it’s time to give everything we have to get the game ready for a release on Windows, Mac and Linux. We’ve got a ton of work to do – I should actually get back to that …”

FFF Bayern had already supported the development of Das Tal in 2014 with a prototype budget of €80,000. Just as now, the rest of the game’s budget got supplied by a business angel (game producer Christian Dickert) and the founders of Fairytale Distillery.

Zacherl continues: “We’re currently focussed on two massive projects: Increasing long-term motivation for game veterans though the addition of a host of new events, city buildings options and a brand new achievement system. And for new players we’re working on a long overdue tutorial, a mentoring system and many new options that allow for a fast connection with the rest of the Das Tal community.

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RIFT Update 3.6 Press Event Walkthrough

Posted: 13 Apr 2016 10:53 AM PDT

I had the pleasure of sitting down with the developers behind RIFT a few days ago for a press feed that featured their newest content. I’ve played Rift before, and I always wanted to like it, but something about it just didn’t stick with me. The same can be said of most MMORPGs, so that may be a personal problem I have with the genre. There’s no denying that Rift’s class system and visuals are wholly unusual, and the changes being rolled out in their next patch were interesting enough to even get me to consider giving the game another try. A new soul for each class, a carnival, a gryphon called ‘the blueberry’, and a flaming snail mount? Okay, I’ll give it a look.

One of the biggest changes hitting the game in patch 3.6 is multicore support. For those of you like me who needed clarification as to why that’s a big deal, I can explain – multicore systems are common now, but weren’t at the time of Rift’s release, so they weren’t supported in the engine. Now the game has seen a 25-35% increase in overall performance for players using multicore systems (which is basically everyone). This is a serious quality-of-life upgrade and one that’s been a long time coming for the game.

Pictured: Multicore support represented by frogs.

Patch 3.6 is also going to be reintroducing the Carnival of the Ascended, which is an in-game fair that celebrates the players (the ascended) through quirky games and the redemption of prizes. It’s a fairly straightforward affair, with games like… balloon stomping! Roulette! A drinking game (which you don’t have to accompany with shots in real-life, but you could if you wanted)! Collect jumping frogs! Frog… artifacts? A fashion show! Yes, the game has a great costume archiving system, so players will be eager to show off their fine outfits for the judges.

I also saw a snail mount with flaming racing stripes. I can honestly say I’ve never seen one of those in an MMORPG before. Apparently the snail with the flaming racing stripes is awarded to players for doing community feeds, streaming, and websites. What a clever way to encourage community promotion and participation, you savvy developers. Kudos.

Twice the size, twice the gambling addiction!

They’ve added a new daily rewards calendar, which is standard fare for free-to-play games these days. You log in, you get a reward, and the rewards get better the more you log in. The rewards in Rift seem especially generous, offering in-game boosts, premium currencies, and more. On top of this, they’re working in an improved planar attunement system, which allows players to continue to progress at max level through filling out colorful attunements that give small stat bonuses that do add up.

And of course there are new souls for each calling in the game. These souls can be folded in with two other souls to make a unique class – Rift’s class system is a bit too complex for me to explain at length here, so just think of each soul I’m about to describe as its own class.

There’s the Shadeborn, which is a rogue soul. Single-target DPS with a twist – you can mark a target and then when you deal damage to a different target, that damage carries over to the marked target automatically. A neat way to murder two people at the same time; how about that?

Warchanter in action!

You’ve got the Warchanter, which is a warrior soul, and a healer, but a weird healer. It’s like… the rogue of healers. Warchanters have a shallow pool of energy that regenerates fast, and its heals are big, bursty blasts of shouting that can take a person from bleeding out the neck to fit-as-a-fiddle in half a second. But don’t overdo it, or you’ll blow your lungs out. This class can also deal damage to nearby enemies by healing friends, because shouts are loud, and demoralizing – Lord of the Rings Online taught us that lesson.

What’s a Runeshaper? It’s a Cleric soul, obviously. Single-target caster DPS, lots of secondary support utility mechanics, big and heavy cast-time spells, creates zones to speed up friends and slow down targets… blah blah blah. A super-neat battlefield shaping tactician sort of deal, with the buffs and the debuffs and the zones and the whatnot. And then after that there’s a Mage soul called the Frostkeeper, which is a frosty healer that uses barrier mechanics extensively. Everybody loves frost-themed classes, right? Those are always the most popular. Go Frostkeeper.

And finally there’s a new Primal soul called the Maelstrom. Primal souls are special high-level ultra FINAL FORM souls that I guess unlock at some point, I wasn’t super clear on that, but you know the drill. So the Maelstrom is kind of cool because it has these really, really, really huge cast times but hits like a nuclear freight train. More games should do that, and maybe throw in some Gandalf-esque chanting and other wizardly pageantry. Games don’t let you feel like an epic wizard enough. They also have a DoT that does double damage on each tick, so that gets a little crazy after ten seconds.

Unleash your inner sharknado.

They also threw out a slew of class tweaks, buffs, changes, etc. Chloromancers, warlocks, archons, beastmasters, wardens, rangers – beastmasters and rangers got new ranged DPS pets, which everybody knows are the best kind of pets. I forget which one the beastmaster got, because I was too distracted by "The Blueberry" which is a gigantic, mega-huge, bright blue gryphon that spits… blue stuff, I think? I can’t recall, I was too distracted by how MASSIVE this gryphon was, like it truly captured my imagination, and players in testing called it The Blueberry, and now I want one.

They said they’re going to scale the Blueberry down before they patch to live, though, which is a bit of a disappointment, and maybe even a dealbreaker for me. Sorry, Rift.

But they told me the reason to play Rift is because you can build the character you want in their nifty class system, and I have to admit, it is pretty cool-looking. If you’re into that sort of thing and all.