MMO News |
- War Thunder: Ground Forces
- Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft – First Look
- Clash of Clans
- PlanetSide 2 Asks What’s Next?
- Wakfu hits Southeast Asia and Singapore
- Dragon Nest Updated Review
- Legend of Edda Shutting Down (Again)
- Albion Online’s Community Asks For Answers – and Gets Them
- Yulgang 2 Sea Unleashes Martial Arts Madness as Open Beta Approaches
- Kickstarter Looks Back at 2013
| Posted: 09 Jan 2014 04:01 PM PST Control the ground in this game-changing expansion for War Thunder that introduces tank warfare.  Publisher: Gaijin Entertainment Pros: +Expands quality content in War Thunder. +Realistic Physics. Cons: -Limited information available.
Overview War Thunder: Ground Forces OverviewWar Thunder: Ground Forces is a ground-based expansion for the initially aerial-combat focused War Thunder. Players will have the chance to pilot tanks in an expanding war that brings combat to the ground (and mixes it with air combat), with a realistic damage model based on actual tank physics. Tanks will be modifiable in terms of modules, armor, damage, and even appearance, including camo, decals, and rust. War Thunder: Ground Forces Screenshots         War Thunder: Ground Forces Featured VideoComing Soon… Full Review War Thunder: Ground Forces ReviewComing Soon… Screenshots War Thunder: Ground Forces ScreenshotsComing Soon… Videos War Thunder: Ground Forces VideosComing Soon… System Requirements War Thunder: Ground Forces System RequirementsComing Soon… |
| Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft – First Look Posted: 09 Jan 2014 03:48 PM PST Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft – First Look Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is a a new TCG brought to you by Blizzard. You choose to craft a deck based off of one of the nine original classes in World of Warcraft. You can then challenge other players for fun, and for the chance to win powerful new cards, which can then be added to your arsenal. The game promises to be quick to learn, but difficult to master, and comes with a variety of heroes, equipment, spells and abilities, and more. The game is currently in Closed beta, sorta difficult to get into, but free to play. Stay tuned to MMOHuts.com for news and updates on Hearthstone! |
| Posted: 09 Jan 2014 03:31 PM PST Build your base, ally your clan, and prepare to raid for resources in a colorful and fun fantasy strategy world where glory is all that matters. Clans will clash in Clash of Clans.  Publisher: Supercell Pros: + Easy to learn. + Paywall is not felt, even at end-game. + Protection wall protects from attack spam. Cons: – PvE missions are actually so challenging they may turn off casual players. – Action is small and may be hard to follow on smaller devices.
Overview OverviewClash of Clans brings strategic base raiding RTS action to Facebook and mobile devices. Build your base, gather resources, and carefully plan your army as you prepare to tackle foes in an intense single player campaign or raid rival players' bases to speed up your resource acquisition. With real progression, fantastic graphics, and competitive clans and leagues, Clash of Clans changes the way we are looking at mobile gaming. Features: Base Customization: Space is limited and expansions are expensive. Choose carefully how much real estate you utilize on barracks, walls, defenses, and supplies. Diverse Units and Strengths: Clash of Clans takes a humorous approach to a mix of fantasy and Viking inspired units. With varying strengths, defenses, damage, and target priority, building the right force for each base takes real strategy. Leagues and Clans: Join a clan and utilize shared units to defend your base while offline. And climb the ranks by acquiring trophies from PvP base raiding to become a world champion. Battle Recap: Raided while on the go? Watch recaps to see how effective your base defenses are holding up and properly plan for future attacks. Single Player Campaign: PvP not your thing? Take part in an expansive single player system to acquire additional resources and troops. Screenshots         Featured Video
Full Review ReviewBy Ojogo, Mobile Guru If you had been under a rock, or at least, one of those rare people who do not have a Facebook account (yeah we still have those people), Clash of Clans is one of those titles that has invaded the Facebook and televised ad wagon.
Gameplay The game pretty much follows the usual simulation/strategy game that games like Junkyard Monsters has made famous. In Clash of Clans however, the game takes on a mixed setting somewhere between standard fantasy and Viking in theme. Most units consist of Viking-like grunts and some fantasy staples like trolls, giants and dragons to help dish out damage (and steal resources). True to form, every unit that you use in these attacks are automatically expended regardless if it died or not. This makes not just resource gathering a priority, but also making tactical troop drops a must in any kind of raid, whether PVE or PVP. Basically you are given a huge plot of land to work with. As you progress in-game, you will then clean up and create structures that will help bolster both your resources and units. As such, resources come in the form of Elixir and gold. However, in later levels, you'll be given access to "dark elixir," a special resource needed to create higher level units/creatures for late-game conquest.
Units Unit creation is done with the combination of the barracks (or dark barracks) and an army camp. The army camp serves as the rally point of your troops created by your barracks, dark barracks or spell factory. The amount of units you can create via the normal barracks is dependent on the size of the army camp you have. The higher level the army camp is, the higher amount of units you can create from your barracks. As for the game's unit count, they have at least 10 units created through the usual barracks/army camp process while there will be more units to be unlocked as you fulfill certain requirements. These then would provide "hero" level units to make the late game raids more epic. As for the units themselves, each unit has its own set of stats that you would have to look into as you create them. The game doesn't give you control on individual units during raids. Thus with that said, you are then reliant on the unit's favorite target attribute which would dictate the unit's attack priorities during raids.
Raids So moving along to the game's battle system, Clash of Clans adheres to the "throw and hope they kill something" approach akin to most titles in its genre. You have no control on what your units will attack, though planning ahead of time by mixing up your units into various sets with different "favorite targets" gives you some form of command. You can also control the timing of when each unit will be sent into battle to mix up your tactics on the killing fields. Raids come in two forms, the first one is the PVE-type of battles where you will be facing NPC controlled bases, and the other one is the PVP-type of battles where you will be given the opportunity to raid player controlled bases. NPC raids award you stars, aside from the usual loot, with a maximum of 3 stars per map. These stars would serve as requirements for your "quests" which would then be your means to get more resources for your base. On the other hand, PVP awards you with trophies that are both quest related prizes and are points for the global ranking. The game also allows creation of "clans" or guilds that would serve as not just a social tool, but a battle support group as well. Clan mates help you out in the form of reinforcements or can give you advice through the clan chat system in place.
Critique Clash of Clans is a great simulation/strategy game that can be a good time sink for those who are looking for a game to spend time on. The game opens up quite nicely to new players, offering vibrant colors, stats, and humor that will keep veterans of the genre from burning out too quickly. What I liked about the game is the steep difficulty curve the game has for the PVE maps. You'd normally expect at least the first few missions to be a cake walk. Well, Clash of Clans shoves that notion down your throat. While it was a frustrating start, the difficulty level didn't push me away. Rather it motivated me to want to build my base up more than ever. I also liked that the difficulty would push you to PVP earlier than you would normally do on other games of the same genre to speed up your resource acquisition. It goes without saying that the game is not just challenging and fun to play with, it's also visually appealing above most competitors. The other good thing about CoC is that the game's paywall is not pushed in your face as heavily as most in this genre, ensuring you can have a good time in the early stages of the game without spending. What clinches the game's replayability in the meantime is the restricted accessibility of the end-game goods. Smart play and dedication is repaid with justified rewards and new unit unlocks. This power curve allows veterans to feel like they've earned the right to stomp out new scrubs while still carrying that wow factor for new players seeing the mighty armies they might one day strive to achieve. The addition of a league system makes raiding feel more goal oriented, adding that extra fun of plotting between invasions on how you might do things slightly better the next time to spare a few resources. Well if you want to compete with the big dogs, anyway.
Conclusion: Excellent If you'd ask me if Clash of Clans is a good game to invest time on, I'd definitely say yes. Screenshots Screenshots Videos VideosOfficial Trailer
System Requirements System Requirements
|
| PlanetSide 2 Asks What’s Next? Posted: 09 Jan 2014 03:08 PM PST
SOE recaps the amazing year of huge achievements Planetside 2 reached and teases what’s coming next for this monumental MMOFPS. |
| Wakfu hits Southeast Asia and Singapore Posted: 09 Jan 2014 01:06 PM PST Ankama today announced the launch of WAKFU in several Asian countries, and the opening of its subsidiary in Singapore to increase the company's development in the region. This next strategic step for Ankama follows the opening of a new office in Montreal, Canada, in September 2013 and the appointment of Olivier Comte as the company's Chief Operating Officer and Group Managing Director in October 2013. The open beta began in December 2013 and the game has now been officially released in Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia, Brunei, Thailand, Vietnam, Australia, New Zealand, Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos. In China, the game will be distributed via Speedy Bird, with a closed beta starting on January 15th. For more information: Visit the official WAKFU website at www.WAKFU.com. |
| Posted: 09 Jan 2014 11:40 AM PST By Michael Sagoe (mikedot)
With action MORPGs becoming even more mainstream in the F2P market, it's now time to take a look back at one particular action MORPG that appeared on western shores several years ago, arguably starting the craze. Dragon Nest is developed by Eyedentity games and published by Nexon America. It now features six different class types, multiple sub-classes and a level 60 cap that will give players weeks of monsters to beat up along the way.
Customization Initial character creation comes with few options. Players will have the choice between a handful of face types, clothing and hair colors. Besides the six classes you can choose from, which are all gender locked, there are no other options available to make your player stand out from the get-go. The only way to make your character look unique is by obtaining avatar items from completing special quests and events, or by purchasing them from the Dragon Vault. The only issue with both these methods is that avatar items earned by events and quests are only temporary, and the ones from the Dragon Vault can only be obtained using real money or with "Dragon Scales", another form of currency that can be earned from events, but have a set expiration date. What may also raise concerns is that avatar items generally have extra stats tied to them. This could be seen as a form of buying power, but combat in Dragon Nest puts a fair emphasis on skill over stats and in some cases, players with those extra stats can be subjected to equalized PvP which will render those extra stats as meaningless. Of course, if a player still needs those extra stats in order to feel adequate, but doesn't have the time, money or scales to obtain them, they could always "beg" another player in order to get them. No seriously.. The Dragon Vault comes equipped with the option to beg other players for items from the shop. How convenient! Other forms of customization include enchantments and lustres that can be used to enhance and unlock extra stats or passive abilities for equipment. These items can be found just about everywhere, and players will always end up with at least one of these in their inventory by the end of a single dungeon run.
Controls The combat system uses a familiar TPS style control scheme, which means WASD is for movement, spacebar for jumping and mouse for aiming primary and secondary attacks. Getting a hang of the default control scheme will be easy enough if the player has ever tried an FPS or TPS game before, but later on, it may become a challenge in of its own. Around LV15 when sub-classes become available, players will gain access to several different skills that can be activated using the 1 through 0 keys. These skills can have multiple uses and can be activated several times before initiating cooldowns. Due to the game's fast-paced nature, it can be fairly difficult to execute the right move at the right time, because when every enemy on screen is gunning for the player's head, there may be times when the player will end up pressing the wrong skill at the right time, and getting used to a default control scheme like this almost feels like learning how to touch type for the first time in grade school. In short, the default control scheme for Dragon Nest is simply not up to the task, so players should re-configure their controls to better suit the gameplay.
Gameplay and Features Compared to many other action MORPGs, Dragon Nest has one of the fastest combat systems out there. Players can run, jump, batter, bruise and destroy everything at a breakneck pace. The game even rewards players with points for destroying as much as they can, as fast as they can, right before defeating the final boss of each instance. Another element that makes Dragon Nest's combat so enjoyable is that almost every attack can be cancelled on hit or after, allowing players to extend combos and juggles near endlessly. Since combat uses a TPS style control scheme, attacks (for the most part) will need to be on-point in order for them to connect. Even melee classes will have to aim and watch their distance between themselves and their enemies in order to play effectively. One downside with Dragon Nest's combat, however, is that skills have cooldown timers attached to them. While the intentions for these cooldowns are obviously to prevent exploits such as infinite combos (since nobody wants to watch helplessly as their character gets destroyed in a huge 100% to 0% HP juggle), this also prevents the gameplay from reaching heights of crazy combat that were made possible in games such as Devil May Cry 3 and 4, which would have really made Dragon Nest stand out even more, PvE wise. PvP modes are available as early as LV10, and it's a whole different ball game compared to PvE. Along with the insanely long juggle combos, PvP combat is just as hectic and fast-paced, but one major difference is that players now have to deal with a damage threshold meter during combat. This meter determines how long a player can combo an enemy before they become temporarily immune to damage, so players must figure out how to maximize damage and which moves work best to create the perfect combo sandwich. There are a handful of different game modes and options to choose from in PvP, such as objective based game modes similar to Capture the Flag, or classic modes like Free-For-Alls and Team Deathmatch. One feature that will help ease new players into PvP, as well as (attempt to) create a fair playing field is the equalized stat option. Players that are just starting out can have the same stats as a player who is already at max level. Of course, higher level players will still have a considerable advantage over low levels simply due to the fact that they'll have a much wider array of skills and abilities at their disposal. Interestingly enough, it seems that each class type in PvP could be considered a particular archetype in a fighting game. Since the warrior is the only class that can perform a running sprint on the ground, they could be considered a "rush down"-type character, the archer mainly uses ranged attacks which could count as a zoning-type, the mage who uses teleports could be seen as a dynamic "keep away"-type character, and so on. Killing wave after wave of enemies in Dragon Nest has a satisfying feel as every hit gives a real sense of impact. Despite this, repetition does set in early, as the game will send players off to revisit dungeons that they've already completed multiple times. Even as early as LV5, I was sent off to battle in a low-tier dungeon about four times in order to complete all main and sub-quests I had for it. As per usual, the best way to combat the repetition is by playing the game with some good friends, or just random folks in general since players will be able to breeze through at a much faster rate, but it only helps by a small amount as quests will continue to be piled on and on as players progress. The amount of quests that players will have access to are so plentiful that most players will be overleveled by the time the quest is completed. Now with these types of action MORPGs, I would usually say that skill can only get a player so far when stats are involved, but honestly, the challenges in Dragon Nest did not feel artificially overwhelming like in recent action MORPGs that I've played, in that a single player could handle almost any dungeon on any difficulty rating as long as they were skilled enough to go through. (Or at least that's how I felt before reaching Saint's Haven at LV24.)
Visuals and Presentation The visuals for Dragon Nest have this nostalgic look and feel to it, almost seemingly like an early Dreamcast game. It's certainly nice to have another F2P online game that's brimming with life and color, but the low quality of the textures and the low polygon count could have been bumped up a tad bit to make the game feel a little bit more presentable. Still, the benefit for having these kinds of visuals will mean that Dragon Nest should hold up well on many older PC builds. The sound design is also fairly decent, with voice acting that comes off as cheesy, but it also helps to give Dragon Nest a bit of personality. Music that plays during battles is engaging enough, but comes off as generic and ultimately forgettable.
Community Dragon Nest's community features come complete with friend lists, player guilds, custom chat channels and even a farming area for players to hang out and socialize in. Anyone that has a competitive side will also enjoy various guild vs. guild competitions, along with weekly/monthly ladder rankings. There's even a mentor system for players to learn and grow from others as they level up and earn extra goodies on the side. As for the actual community: There's a fair amount of friendly players that are willing to help newbies out. Occasionally, you may run into a few salty individuals, especially during PvP sessions, but these kinds of players are few and far between.
Overall: Great Besides from a few quirks, Dragon Nest provides an enjoyable experience with fast-paced gameplay that many other action MORPGs barely come close to reaching. Whether you're a casual or competitive gamer that wants a good action fix, Dragon Nest in the year of 2014 will do nicely to fit the bill. |
| Legend of Edda Shutting Down (Again) Posted: 09 Jan 2014 11:12 AM PST GGamesCampus has announced news that Legend of Edda: Vengeance will shut down later in January. Interestingly enough, the publisher stated that “hacking attempts, gold purchasing, and game crashing” has led to the decision to shut the game down, providing an unstable gaming experience that can’t be supported financially. GamesCampus will provide compensation to players who have been active in the past three months, although details were not available at the time of this posting. |
| Albion Online’s Community Asks For Answers – and Gets Them Posted: 09 Jan 2014 10:30 AM PST Sandbox Interactive continues to wow and delight players in its player-driven community with a new "You Ask, We Answer" feature for their upcoming cross-platform Sandbox MMO, Albion Online. With a player-driven economy and territorial-based PVP, gamers have been anxiously awaiting new details after the holiday break, and Sandbox hasn't disappointed. "The main reason that Albion Online is so highly anticipated is because we already have an extremely smart, loyal and involved community who want to help us to create the best game possible,"said Szymon Wilkosz, Community Manager of Sandbox Interactive. "Having an open discussion with our community, learning what they are most interested in and hearing their ideas and comments, is key to helping Albion Online be as great as possible when we launch." In the newly posted feature it was made clear that how characters are customized with equipment, and how inventory works were two of the major questions players want answered. All characters will begin with an equal 1,000 hitpoint pool; from there, what equipment they wear and what specialization their gear has, will determine a player’s final HP. Their speed will be determined by how much weight they carry; being in or out of combat won't change a player's speed – if a player is overburdened, they'll be progressively slower until they shuck some of those extra items. Bigger bags will allow a player to carry more without being burdened. Next, the Q&A focused on character actions: the team has acknowledged that tab targeting is a frequently requested feature, and is in the development backlog. As for the concept of "Aimed Shots," that work in a smaller single player RPG, Albion Online is a huge sandbox MMORPG; as a middle ground, there are plans to implement ground-based area of effect (AoE or AE) attacks. As with any competitive MMO, and especially one with a player-driven economy, how resources will be gathered is a critical focus; if there's no competitive pressures for these assets, their value won't hold up over the course of the game's life. To ensure the rarity and continued value of key resources, the only available materials in a safe zone will be from rank one to four. If players want to seek metals, plants, and more for ranks five to eight, they will need to venture into progressively competitive zones, culminating in full player versus player area. This ties directly into the game's crafting system; the Q&A revealed that all items will eventually break. Lastly, environments were a hot topic; Albion Online is planned to be an immersive world with a variety of weather conditions, land types, and zone configurations. Players can read the full "You Ask, We Answer" for January 2014 on the developer blog here. |
| Yulgang 2 Sea Unleashes Martial Arts Madness as Open Beta Approaches Posted: 09 Jan 2014 10:25 AM PST Players lucky enough to experience Cubizone’s closed beta test for Yulgang 2 last month will be glad to know that the wait for open beta won’t be a long way. Starting January 14th at 3pm (GMT+8), the servers will burst wide open with plenty of improvements garnered from CB feedback and plenty of opportunities for new players to test their might in its action martial arts combat system. Players from the closed beta test will have all their information wiped so all users will be on the same level when the servers open. Those that participated in the CB can still utilize the same client and account to hop into the game. Players can sign-up for open beta now by following this guide. |
| Kickstarter Looks Back at 2013 Posted: 09 Jan 2014 10:15 AM PST Kickstarter – that well known name that has revolutionized crowdfunding across all walks of life – has released a slideshow today looking back at the highlights of 2013. 3 million people have pledged $480 million this past year to projects – and we think that’s pretty cool. Among the highlighted projects in the web presentation are Oculus Rift, the virtual reality headset that is already making significant headway into the gaming world; and Ouya, the Android-based console which is already supporting over 500 titles. You can check out the full presentation here, which includes some other interesting and monumental Kickstarter projects outside the gaming world. |
| You are subscribed to email updates from MMOHuts To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google Inc., 20 West Kinzie, Chicago IL USA 60610 | |
Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's 
