Spotlight On – TERA: The Exiled Realm of Arborea
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/blogs/online-blog/909186734/index.html”>
It’s GDC 2010 in San Francisco, and that means lots of game companies showing off new and upcoming http://www.arcadewarfare.com like TERA: The Exiled Realm of Arborea. The name is a mouthful, and so are the names of the game’s playable fantasy races and its unusual fantasy monsters–it’s being developed with a ton of lore and back story written by developer Bluehole http://www.arcadewarfare.com (the original developer of the Asian smash-hit Lineage series).
<img class="thumb" src="http://image.com.com/http://www.arcadewarfare.compot/images/2010/071/reviews/978283_20100313_embed001.jpg” alt=”" />
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/images/6253575/spotlight-on-tera-the-exiled-realm-of-arborea/1/?path=2010%2F071%2Freviews%2F978283_20100313_embed001.jpg&caption=TERA%2Bwill%2Bhave%2Bsix%2Bplayable%2Braces%252C%2Band%2Bnot%2Ball%2Bof%2Bthem%2Bwill%2Bbe%2Bshy%2Babout%2Btheir%2Bwardrobe.&cvr=6l5%2F”>TERA will have six playable races, and not all of them will be shy about their wardrobe.
Surprisingly, even though everyone has a fancy name in the game, the actual gameplay itself will be simple enough to pick up and play, since it’ll essentially play out as either a third-person shooter or a third-person action game (depending on whether you decide to play a ranged character or a melee character), and can be played either with a mouse and keyboard, or with an Xbox 360 controller.
The game’s interface won’t even have a cursor–you can jump to your inventory by pulling it up with hotkeys and navigating it with simple arrow key or controller taps, and will have a radial menu for chat shortcuts. Producer Brian Knox suggests that the game is easy enough to play on a controller for combat and travel, while the keyboard and mouse come in handy in the game’s social hub towns, where in-depth chatting is more appropriate.
In any case, TERA will let you start the game as a character from one of six races, including humans, high elves, and four totally new races unique to the game; the demonic castanics; the savage aman; the hulking baraka; and the animal-like popori. Once you’ve chosen your race, you can choose to play as one of eight professions, which include four melee classes in the warrior, lancer, berserker, and slayer; and four ranged classes in the sorcerer, archer, priest, and mystic. While the game will have all the trappings of a traditional massively multiplayer game, such as quests, crafting, and competitive player-versus-player (PVP) battles, the actual combat will be about pointing and shooting (or swinging your weapon) in real time. While it’ll definitely help to wear the best armor available, your best defense will be to actively dodge incoming blows–many enemies will telegraph their attacks in advance, giving you a chance to duck out of the way or raise your shield if you have one.
<img class="thumb" src="http://image.com.com/http://www.arcadewarfare.compot/images/2010/071/reviews/978283_20100313_embed002.jpg” alt=”" />
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/images/6253575/spotlight-on-tera-the-exiled-realm-of-arborea/2/?path=2010%2F071%2Freviews%2F978283_20100313_embed002.jpg&caption=TERA%2Bwill%2Bmost%2Blikely%2Blaunch%2Bearly%2Bnext%2Byear.&cvr=QrO%2F”>TERA will most likely launch early next year.
While the game will take place in a huge, colorful world complete with larger hub towns for the game’s different races (the current plan is to launch with two or three, then add more over time), and while it will offer PVP, oddly enough, TERA’s focus will be on player-versus-environment (PVE) gameplay, such as fighting monsters and performing quests. This is surprising coming from a developer from Asia (a territory where competitive PVP tends to be most popular), but perhaps good news for massively multiplayer fans looking to play a game with the kind of colorful artwork and complex lore typical of http://www.arcadewarfare.com out of Asia, without the heavy focus on sieging some other player’s castle.
TERA is currently in a testing state in Asia, while the North American version is being subjected to numerous internal tests with several hundred people, and will likely launch early next year as a boxed retail product with a monthly subscription fee comparable to that of other premium subscription http://www.arcadewarfare.com.
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=”>Get the full article at http://www.arcadewarfare.compot
Spotlight On – Eve Online Progress Report, Dust 514 Discussion
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/blogs/online-blog/909186734/index.html”>
Let’s cut to the chase: It’s GDC 2010, and game studios like Eve Online developer CCP are here showing their wares. We sat down with a few representatives from the studio to discuss Eve’s present, and its future, and we did our best to get some more details on its other projects, which include Dust 514, a console shooter being developed in China, and an as-yet unannounced game being developed out of Atlanta, GA that may or may not have something to do with CCP’s acquisition of White Wolf http://www.arcadewarfare.com, the pen-and-paper game company that produces the tabletop game World of Darkness. What we came away with was a good amount of Eve, a little Dust 514, and absolutely zero on the third game.
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/images/6253573/spotlight-on-eve-online-progress-report-dust-514-discussion/1/?path=2010%2F070%2Freviews%2F430571_20100312_embed001.jpg&caption=Eve%2BOnline%2Bcontinues%2Bto%2Bgrow%2Beven%2Bafter%2Bseven%2Byears%2Bof%2Boperation.&cvr=TDb1″>Eve Online continues to grow even after seven years of operation.
In any case, CCP is extremely please with Eve’s continued growth from its relatively small community of a few thousand players to its recent highs of some 330,000 paid subscribers (to say nothing of the looky-loos who are playing the game’s free trial). The game has grown with CCP-developed expansions every six months and the studio is already working on the 13th expansion, Tyrannis, which will launch this summer, and will add new mechanics for mining and exploiting for their resources.
This planetary gameplay will directly tie into Dust 514, which will be a console shooter based in the same universe as Eve. Though the CCP staffers were hesitant to divulge any details, they did again confirm that the game will work directly with Eve in that Dust 514 players will be terrestrial mercenaries who will form up in strategic groups that may report to the player-built “corporations” (Eve’s version of guilds) from the original PC game.
In the meantime, CCP is also working an a separate expansion that will add an entirely new dimension–namely, one outside of your spaceship. The expansion, titled Incarna, will indeed let you finally step out of your starship and walk around on foot on space stations, which means your politically conniving pilot can finally go off the grid and engage in shady, underworld dealings. It also means that Eve will gain all-new character customization options that will require new artists and programmers to implement–in fact, the studio is looking to recruit some 150 new people to work on the three projects.
For the time being, while CCP remains dedicated to continuing to develop the game and add new dimensions to it over time while remaining open to discussion with the community, the studio is otherwise focusing on making day-to-day technical improvements to the game’s graphics, and more importantly, to its network stability. Although the game’s population has grown from a few thousand to a few hundred thousand, the studio refuses to split the population onto different servers in favor of keeping every single player on the same shard, so that everyone can interact with everyone. CCP reaffirms that this is core to the game’s philosophy and will never change.
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=”>Get the full article at http://www.arcadewarfare.compot
Spotlight On – Runes of Magic Progress Report
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/blogs/online-blog/909186734/index.html”>
We won’t lie to you. It’s GDC 2010. There are http://www.arcadewarfare.com. Like Runes of Magic, a free-to-play, fantasy-themed game with a mysterious resemblance to a world where war is crafted. Currently, Runes of Magic is entering its next phase of content, known as “chapter three,” after concluding its long-running second chapter, which is currently culminating with a high-level dungeon housing the ultimate villain of that chapter, a demon lord. Chapter three will introduce a new kind of variable-instance player-versus-player (PVP) battle called guild sieges, which are currently being beta-tested and will be migrated to the live game soon.
<img class="thumb" src="http://image.com.com/http://www.arcadewarfare.compot/images/2010/070/reviews/946792_20100312_embed001.jpg” alt=”" />
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/images/6253571/spotlight-on-runes-of-magic-progress-report/1/?path=2010%2F070%2Freviews%2F946792_20100312_embed001.jpg&caption=Have%2Bfun%2Bstormin%2527%2Bthe%2Bcastle%2521&cvr=i.j0″>Have fun stormin’ the castle!
Guild Siege lets guilds do battle with each other to see who really is the best of the best. This new PVP mode allows for up to 300 players at once (150 on either side) in and around the game’s guild keeps, which have also been revamped. Expanding your guild housing now has a more-strategic element to it, the since different improvements your guild decides to build within its walls may contribute directly to guild sieges. You’ll be faced with choices such as whether to use your limited space to build farms (which produce resources and make your guild wealthier), or stables which increase the speed of your guildmates and their riding mounts, or a library to research siege-related improvements. You can also make use of the guild throne, which was previously a vanity item, but now acts as a vending machine of sorts that will not only produce global bonuses for your guildmates, but also sells siege-related abilities and spells.
Once a siege begins, it becomes the defending guild’s job to repel the attackers, which will be easier said than done. Sieging guilds can commission multi-person mounts for fast travel in chapter three, and more importantly, they can commission multi-person siege vehicles, such as catapults and ballistae, which can be aimed either at guild walls (which can’t be destroyed, but when sufficiently damaged, can’t be fortified with defensive siege catapults of their own) or at the front gates, which must be smashed to allow for front entry. (Then again, the attacking guild may also commission sky platforms that can quietly sneak you up and over the fortress walls as well).
Once a guild keep is sieged, siege structures become activated, such as resource nodes which, when fully captured by one team, will fortify themselves with computer-controlled minions to help defend it. Likewise, keep defenders can purchase magical turrets from their guild throne to emplace at key areas to attack any nearby invaders. However, the most crucial part of a guild keep is its guild crystal, a giant glowing orb on a pedestal located deep within the keep. Once the crystal is destroyed, that’s it–the siege is over and the attackers win and receive various rewards for their successful assault.
In addition, developer Frogster is working with Mothership Interactive, a social networking game company to launch a Facebook version of its game, which will have various crossover functionality with the online game and is scheduled to launch in May.
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=”>Get the full article at http://www.arcadewarfare.compot
Spotlight On – War Rock Progress Report
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/blogs/online-blog/909186734/index.html”>
GDC 2010 is underway, which means no shortage of new and like-new http://www.arcadewarfare.com being shown in and around the Moscone Center in San Francisco. One such game is the ongoing free-to-play military shooter War Rock, which is celebrating its third year in operations. The game originally launched as a gritty desert combat game in a fictitious Middle Eastern country, but it has expanded beyond desert battles with loads of new maps (more than 50), hundreds of weapons, and a brand new team-based, objective-focused mode called “siege war.”
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/images/6253564/spotlight-on-war-rock-progress-report/1/?path=2010%2F070%2Freviews%2F931206_20100312_embed001.jpg&caption=War%2BRock%2527s%2Bcurrent%2Bfocus%2Bis%2Bteam-based%2Bsiege%2Bwar.&cvr=sna0″>War Rock’s current focus is team-based siege war.
Siege War is a team-based mode that takes place in destructible environments with three different attack objectives that eventually lead to a missile launch; the attacking team must complete the objectives to trigger the launch while the defenders try to prevent it. This mode also introduces drivable vehicles, such as tanks, jeeps, and jets, as well as new environments, such as mountain passes, rivers, and lakes.
Next month, War Rock will introduce a new “gear” system that will let players wear new types of armor that will show up on their character models, and add both advantages and disadvantages when worn (heavy body armor will provide good protection, but will make your character move more slowly, for instance). However, as before, the in-game cash shop which lets you buy in-game items for real money contains, and will continue to contain, all the game’s weapons and armor…some 90% of which can be obtained by spending in-game currency, rather than real money out-of-pocket. And later this year, the game is apparently planned to once again reappear in North American retail markets as War Rock: Clan Warfare.
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=”>Get the full article at http://www.arcadewarfare.compot
Spotlight On – Sword of the New World Progress Report
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/blogs/online-blog/909186734/index.html”>
Hey, look! It’s a bunch of http://www.arcadewarfare.com in San Francisco’s storied Moscone Convention Center. It must be the 2010 Game Developers Conference, where http://www.arcadewarfare.com like Sword of the New World are being shown to the press. The game was originally launched in the US back in 2007 as a free-to-play game that offered the unusual ability to create not only a single character to play, but rather, an actual adventuring party of three different characters to customize, train, and lead through the game’s classical era-fantasy world. Over time, the game has received regular updates by way of biannual expansion packs. As a matter of fact, the game was just updated with its 13th expansion, “Echoes of an Empire, volume 2,” which has made numerous additions to the basic game, including two new player character classes, two new pets, three new armor sets, a new raid instance, and a larger character roster (previously, you could have only 32 characters; now you can have 64).
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/images/6253557/spotlight-on-sword-of-the-new-world-progress-report/1/?path=2010%2F070%2Freviews%2F937956_20100312_embed001.jpg&caption=Sword%2Bof%2Bthe%2BNew%2BWorld%2Bcontinues%2Bto%2Blet%2Byou%2Bbuild%2Bup%2Ba%2Bcustomized%2Broster%2Bof%2Bcharacters%2Blike%2Bthis%2Byoung%2Blady%2Bhere.&cvr=FcJ0″>Sword of the New World continues to let you build up a customized roster of characters like this young lady here.
However, the big push in Sword of the New World is on a new system called “political PVP,” which will let you “run for office” by becoming the leader of one of the game’s factions. Since the game has 24 colonies that can be captured, the faction that conquers and controls the most colonies at one time is considered to be in control of the realm, and can make the almighty executive decision of levying realm-wide taxes.
In addition, the game is continuously being developed with new content, including the aforementioned new raid instance, which includes the mighty “Helena” as a boss character. Don’t let her glamorous blonde curls fool you–she’s a dangerous opponent, but if you defeat her, you’ll have the option to either finish her off, or to recruit her as one of your 64 characters, where she’ll offer her services as a fire-and-ice sorceress with a monstrous pet. In the meantime, the game continues to offer in-game items for purchase with real-world money that offer convenience (in the form of temporary enhanced experience gains and item drop rates) or character customization (in the form of clothing), rather than actual power.
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=”>Get the full article at http://www.arcadewarfare.compot
Spotlight On – Aion Progress Report
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/blogs/online-blog/909186734/index.html”>
The Game Developers Conference event in San Francisco is rolling right along and so is Aion, NCSoft’s 2009 massively multiplayer online game. If you recall, Aion is a game that let you play as a winged character belonging to one of two factions that inhabits a shattered world; a “light” faction and a “dark” faction. It also let you participate in competitive player-versus-player battles, as well as demon hunts in the void between the world’s halves. While Aion had some interesting ideas, many players found the game to be too severe of a “grind,” requiring many hours of slaughtering monsters to gain higher experience levels (which are required to access the game’s top-level areas) and the conquering of instanced areas multiple times to get a chance at the game’s best items.
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/images/6253495/spotlight-on-aion-progress-report/1/?path=2009%2F341%2Freviews%2F932526_20091208_embed001.jpg&caption=NCSoft%2Bfeels%2Bthat%2BAion%2Bwill%2Bcontinue%2Bto%2Bimprove%252C%2Bespecially%2Bwith%2Bthe%2Bupcoming%2B1.9%2Bupdate.&cvr=gEY.”>NCSoft feels that Aion will continue to improve, especially with the upcoming 1.9 update.
In response to player feedback, NCSoft has implemented additional ways of obtaining bonus experience, such as “energy of repose,” which, after you log out of the game, then later log back in, grants an experience bonus when you return that is similar to World of Warcraft’s “rest experience.” The studio has also recently implemented “energy of salvation,” which is an active experience point enhancer that gradually gives your character bonus experience for as long as you’re logged into the game. In addition, NCSoft has reduced the number of instances required to get to the better loot by increasing the “drop rates” of key items so that players are more likely to find them the first time around.
NCSoft is otherwise optimistic about how Aion has developed since launch, and representatives pointed out that there are still high-level instances that have not yet been conquered by players. This means the player base still has room to grow into the content. In addition, the studio feels that the upcoming 1.9 patch will help “lay a foundation” for a better game experience going forward by implementing such changes as letting two-handed weapon classes, such as the gladiator and templar, merge two two-handed weapons to create a more powerful item (to address a character balance issue), as well as a return of the game’s final instance to make it more fast paced and action packed.
The studio has no official launch date pegged for 1.9 but plans to continue dutifully bringing over and localizing content from the game’s Asian version as soon as is humanly possible, considering both translation to English, as well as modifying and adding content, to make it more comprehensible and more pleasing to Western audiences.
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=#post_comment”>Read and Post Comments (There are currently 5 other comments) | <a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=”>Get the full article at http://www.arcadewarfare.compot
Spotlight On – Aika Online
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/blogs/online-blog/909186734/index.html”>
If you’re at San Francisco’s GDC 2010 event, you just might be able to sneak peeks at upcoming http://www.arcadewarfare.com like Aika Online, gPotato’s free-to-play online fantasy role-playing game. gPotato’s representatives point out that the game will offer a strong amount of player-versus-environment (PVE) content in the form of monsters to slay, dungeons to loot, and quests to perform, but the primary focus of the game seems to overwhelmingly be on player-versus-player (PVP) competition, so much so that there are three entirely separate ways to engage in PVP at any given time.
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/images/6253492/spotlight-on-aika-online/1/?path=2010%2F070%2Freviews%2F955925_20100311_embed001.jpg&caption=Aika%2BOnline%2BGDC%2BPreview&cvr=8lR%2F”>Aika Online GDC Preview
Like many other fantasy-themed online http://www.arcadewarfare.com, Aika will let you create a character from various archetype professions, such as a warrior or wizard, and seek advancement by fighting monsters and performing quests (gPotato has purposely tuned character level advancement to move quickly so that players will be ready for PVP soon.) Likewise, you’ll be able to deck your character out with various accoutrements, such as fancy weapons and armor, and there will be animal mounts you can ride, though the game will have a somewhat playful side–for instance, one of the in-game mounts is a giant armored hamster (yes, a giant armored hamster). In addition, once any character reaches level seven, he or she may take on a pet called a “pran,” which is essentially an extremely young girl who will grow and develop into a young lady with various combat proficiencies depending on how you approach your relationship with her. Prans can use elemental powers, such as fire, water, and wind, and can be groomed to be intelligent wizards or fierce fighters.
Aika takes place in a land divided into six different nations, and you can swear allegiance to any one of them. These nations will at best have uneasy armistices among themselves and will at worst constantly be at each other’s throats. This is because Aika offers comprehensive PVP both across and within nations. The most basic form of PVP is the Battlegrounds mode, which takes place in an area removed from national borders and is basically a free-for-all mode that lets you earn “honor” points to purchase exceptionally good types of armor (not unlike a certain other world where war, and honorable armor, can be crafted from PVP battles). However, one of the primary focuses of Aika is Relic War, a PVP mode that focuses on rare and valuable relics that a nation can store in a temple structure to radiate out various global bonuses to any citizens of that nation (such as persistent attack, defense, and experience point bonuses). The controlling nation can actually invest money to upgrade the relic (which enhances its bonuses), but this action will also make that particular relic a much more attractive target to a jealous nation. However, unlike in Dark Age of Camelot, which featured a similar type of gameplay, relics are found randomly as loot in high-level dungeons and have a chance of being utterly destroyed in a raid.
The final type of PVP in Aika is the Fight for Power mode, which is essentially a civil war among the top guilds in your nation. This mode unfolds in a weekly capture-the-flag battle that lasts for an hour and determines which guild is the most powerful in that nation. The leader of the victorious guild becomes “lord marshal” of the nation and can make choices that affect all players from that faction, such as adjusting tax rates on all transactions and adding or withdrawing gold from the nation’s coffers once a week. While it may seem like a good idea to just plunder the treasury, it’s this same fund that is also used to upgrade relics (and the security around relic temples), so taking the money and running might not be the best choice in the long run.
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/images/6253492/spotlight-on-aika-online/2/?path=2010%2F070%2Freviews%2F955925_20100311_embed002.jpg&caption=Aika%2BOnline%2BGDC%2BPreview&cvr=8lR%2F”>Aika Online GDC Preview
Speaking of money, Aika will, like many free-to-play http://www.arcadewarfare.com, have a cash shop where you can exchange real money out-of-pocket for in-game items. The plan is to offer convenience items and various types of apparel, as well as actual powerful weapons and armor for sale. gPotato hopes that the ability to put these weapons and armors for sale in the game’s in-game auction house will mitigate any potential advantage that wealthy players have, since undercapitalized players who have enough in-game currency can snag these items in the auction house. Interestingly, the cash shop will also have a full line of pran-related items, including gifts you can give to your pet to improve your relationship.
Aika Online seems like it will offer a PVE experience that isn’t unlike other http://www.arcadewarfare.com on the market, but its strong focus on multiple flavors of PVP may set it apart from the pack. Though a final, official launch date hasn’t been confirmed, the game is scheduled to go into open beta next week, and its cash shop will likely open for business then as well.
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=#post_comment”>Read and Post Comments | <a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=”>Get the full article at http://www.arcadewarfare.compot
Spotlight On – Allods Online
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/blogs/online-blog/909186734/index.html”>
The Game Developers Conference 2010 is in full swing, and so are running press demonstrations of Allods Online, the upcoming free-to-play online role-playing game from gPotato. Those who find free-to-play http://www.arcadewarfare.com unfamiliar and scary will be in luck with Allods, since the game’s graphics, art style, and interface bear a striking resemblance to a certain world where war is crafted, and its story and factions are also not dissimilar to the setup in last year’s AION.
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/images/6253493/spotlight-on-allods-online/1/?path=2010%2F070%2Freviews%2F959703_20100311_embed001.jpg&caption=Allods%2BOnline%2BGDC%2BPreview&cvr=d33.”>Allods Online GDC Preview
Allods Online is an alternate fantasy game with World of Warcraft-like fantasy elements such as wizards, orcs, and bows and arrows, but it takes that game’s primitive clockwork technology to its logical extreme with interstellar travel on gigantic astral ships. The world of Allods has been rent asunder by a great cataclysm, leaving it in fragments (or “allods”) controlled by wizards of great power. Some wizards are worshipped by the League, the game’s “good” faction; others are worshipped by the Empire, the game’s “evil” (but not really evil) faction, while a third faction of astral demons prowls the intraplanetary space and is hostile to both player factions (hence the similarity to AION, which has a “light” and a “dark” faction fighting over a shattered world where demons live in between).
In any case, Allods will have the quests and player-versus-player gameplay you might expect from a large-scale online RPG but will attempt to distinguish itself with its endgame. The current plan is to launch the game in North America with a level cap of 40, at which point you can commission an astral ship of your own. Astral ships are enormous floating airships that currently carry up to six players but will eventually carry more. Astral ships have numerous moving parts, including engines, steering, and propulsion, and gPotato suggests that you’ll need a smart team connected via the real-time voice chat application Ventrilo to really get the most out of your ship’s speed and handling. Ships will also have jump pads that can be used to board other ships, though you’ll need to make sure you line up your jump properly or risk flinging yourself into the void.
Astral ships act as floating bases and also as the literal vessels for high-level gameplay, since you can use your ship to explore far-off allods that may house hidden treasures; you can get into astral ship PVP if you sight a ship belonging to a player of the opposing faction; and you can use your ship to go hunting for astral demons. We watched a demonstration of demon hunting, which is easier to get into than you might think, since demons can be tracked by your ship’s astral map. Once you’ve located a demon, which look like phantasmal blue monsters, you can attack it primarily using your ship’s deck cannons, which you must manually aim and fire. Unfortunately, demons fire back and will damage your cannons and your hull–you’ll need to commission your ship’s repair goblins (yes, repair goblins) to fix them by running belowdecks, picking one up by the scruff of its neck, and dragging it to the ship damage. Should you lose an astral battle with a rival ship or a demon to the extent that your ship suffers critical damage, everyone on board will die and need to respawn, while your ship will end up as a nonfunctional wreck in your hangar and will need expensive repairs.
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/images/6253493/spotlight-on-allods-online/2/?path=2010%2F070%2Freviews%2F959703_20100311_embed002.jpg&caption=Allods%2BOnline%2BGDC%2BPreview&cvr=d33.”>Allods Online GDC Preview
Allods will, like many free-to-play http://www.arcadewarfare.com, let you play for free, but it will also offer a cash shop where you can purchase in-game items for real money. The game recently went into open beta, and the most popular stuff currently includes convenience items, like a larger container and experience-point enhancers. The plan is to eventually also include powerful weapons and armor for sale. gPotato feels that the mitigating factor of letting players actually purchase powerful swords and shields will be that players can also take these cash shop items and sell them in the in-game auction house for the in-game currency of gold, so that players who don’t necessarily want to spend the cash (or don’t have the cash to spend) can acquire such items with in-game currency, as well as in various free quests.
Despite its more-than-passing similarity to other http://www.arcadewarfare.com on the market, Allods looks to distinguish itself with its unusual high-level gameplay. While the company has not yet confirmed an official, final launch date, the game has gone into open beta and is already available for anyone to try, complete with a functional cash shop.
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=#post_comment”>Read and Post Comments | <a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=”>Get the full article at http://www.arcadewarfare.compot
We Just Played Dragon Nest
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/blogs/online-blog/909186734/index.html”>
We find ourselves in a crowded San Francisco convention hall at the 2010 Game Developers Conference. What do we do? Rather than rolling the dice to see if we’re getting drunk, we try out the free-to-play hack-and-slash online role-playing game Dragon Nest from Nexon. This is a hybrid game that takes the brawling mechanics of a third-person action game and adds persistent RPG advancement and a colorful, cartoon-like decor, and it seems like something that could be fun for the whole family, assuming all your family members have their own computers.
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/images/6253491/we-just-played-dragon-nest/1/?path=2010%2F070%2Freviews%2F991387_20100311_embed001.jpg&caption=On%2Byour%2Bmark.%2BGet%2Bset.%2BStart%2Bbeating%2Bup%2Bmonsters.&cvr=vTJ.”>On your mark. Get set. Start beating up monsters.
Dragon Nest works like a lot of free-to-play hack-and-slash http://www.arcadewarfare.com. It lets you create a character from a specific class (such as warrior, wizard, archer, or priest) and then sally forth into instanced combat areas to beat the living heck out of various cutesy monsters by repeatedly clicking your mouse button to swing your weapon or occasionally using various hotkeyed abilities. Instanced areas are divided into short, combat-heavy segments bounded by doors that unlock only when all monsters are destroyed, but these shorter segments make it easier for impromptu parties to stick together until they can take on the boss and eventually complete the instance and either move on to the next instance or return to a shared-space town to socialize with other players or purchase items from the in-game cash-op (which lets you spend real money in microtransactions in exchange for in-game items).
In our session, we ended up playing as a warhammer-wielding warrior in a four-player party with a wizard, an archer, and a healer. We had to tackle an outdoor instance that appeared to be an abandoned temple overgrown by bright green jungle. We found the controls to be easy to pick up–you use W, A, S, and D to move, like in a first-person shooter, and your number keys to access any hotkeyed special abilities or items. You left-click to attack and right-click to perform a secondary attack (in the warrior’s case, a standing kick that has a chance of stunning an enemy). You can also double-tap your W, A, S, or D key to perform a quick evasive tuck-and-roll in that direction.
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/images/6253491/we-just-played-dragon-nest/2/?path=2010%2F070%2Freviews%2F991387_20100311_embed002.jpg&caption=It%2527s%2Bcolorful%252C%2Bfamily-friendly%252C%2Band%2Beasy%2Bto%2Bpick%2Bup.&cvr=x9P.”>It’s colorful, family-friendly, and easy to pick up.
Our warrior character’s special-ability hotkeys were loaded up with various additional melee attacks beyond our standard ones, such as an upward strike that set up a juggle attack and a shock-wave attack that stunned all enemies in front of us. The warrior seems like a very easy class to play (not much more involved then running up close and unloading on the nearest enemy), and none of the enemies that attacked us, such as roly-poly goblins and super-deformed dark elf girls in bikinis, lasted long against our ferocious, caffeine-fueled button-mashing. In each case, we dispatched the current group of enemies, then activated a pair of crystal panels in the world to open the next door until we found the boss, a large floating critter with glowing tentacles, who was flanked by goblins and elves. Since all four members of our party zeroed in on it, the boss didn’t last long, and before we knew it, we were done with the instance.
Dragon Nest seems like it’s an accessible hack-and-slash game with a colorful anime art style and very intuitive controls. It’s scheduled to launch in North America next year.
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=”>Get the full article at http://www.arcadewarfare.compot
Spotlight On – Vindictus
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/blogs/online-blog/909186734/index.html”>
With GDC 2010 in full swing, it only makes sense to sit down with Nexon’s free-to-play hybrid brawler role-playing game Vindictus. The game (originally known in Asia as Mabinogi Heroes) takes its lineage from Nexon’s Mabinogi, another free-to-play online RPG that has been up and running for some time. But Vindictus won’t be a cutesy game where bigheaded characters beat up roly-poly critters that disappear in a puff of smoke. This will be a much more mature game with graphic violence and plenty of blood…and more than a little skin bared.
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/images/6253481/spotlight-on-vindictus/1/?path=2010%2F069%2Freviews%2F991388_20100311_embed001.jpg&caption=Vindictus%2Bwill%2Blet%2Byou%2Bplay%2Bdress-up%2Bwith%2Ba%2Bcharacter%252C%2Bthen%2Buse%2Bit%2Bto%2Bbeat%2Bthe%2Bdaylights%2Bout%2Bof%2Ban%2Barmy%2Bof%2Bmonsters&cvr=OW9%2F”>Vindictus will let you play dress-up with a character, then use it to beat the daylights out of an army of monsters
Vindictus draws loosely upon Celtic legends that suggested that a mysterious goddess would reveal paradise to those who defeated the enemies of the state. In this case, the enemies in question are the “fomors”–a blanket term for a wide variety of monsters that will include undead monstrosities, giant polar bears, and helmet-wearing demons. The goddess in this case has remained eerily silent even though the weary characters of the world have been at war with the monsters for as long as they can remember. The people are starting to doubt, as are the monsters.
In Vindictus, you’ll play as a character who belongs to a specific character class, which is currently gender-limited; for instance, the heavy melee character that uses two-handed weapons is male, while one of the game’s spellcasters is a sorceress that uses a giant scythe-like weapon. While this may sound limiting, the game will have an extensive character customization system that will let you create characters with varying skin tones, facial features, tattoos (facial, full-body, and otherwise), and scars, along with hundreds of different clothing, armor, and weapon options. Interestingly, the game will have an ongoing armor damage system that will actually be shown on your character’s model–if you’ve been taking a pounding from a bunch of demons or skeletons, or what have you, your chain-mail suit will start to deteriorate, revealing the clothes you’re wearing underneath, and should you continue fighting, even your clothes will wear away. (Fortunately, all characters will be at least partially clothed at all times in their skivvies.) Even without apparel damage, many of Vindictus’ armor choices seem revealing enough on their own–for whatever reason, Nexon feels it’s important to push not only the game’s heavy character customization, but also the potential sex appeal of having young muscular characters wearing tight-fitting clothes.
What’s far more interesting than any shirt or clothes is the game’s combat system, which seems based on the brawling mechanics from classic side-scrolling beat-’em-ups like Final Fight and Double Dragon, taken a step further. While your character can perform various combination attacks with his or her equipped weapon, as well as use any magic spells or abilities he or she has access to, you can also manipulate your enemies and the environment. Vindictus is being built on Valve Software’s Source engine–the engine that made a name for itself with Half-Life 2’s then-impressive implementation of in-game physics.
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/images/6253481/spotlight-on-vindictus/2/?path=2010%2F069%2Freviews%2F991388_20100311_embed002.jpg&caption=Savage%2Bbeatings%252C%2Bscantily%2Bclad%2Bwomen%252C%2Band%2Bblood%2Beverywhere.%2BThis%2Bisn%2527t%2Blike%2Bother%2Bfree-to-play%2Bhttp://www.arcadewarfare.com.&cvr=onv%2F”>Savage beatings, scantily clad women, and blood everywhere. This isn’t like other free-to-play http://www.arcadewarfare.com.
In Vindictus, not only will you be able to whack your enemies senseless with your weapons, but you’ll also be able to grapple with them, lifting them and carrying them as living shields against oncoming attacks. You can also pummel them into environmental geometry (one portion of the demonstration showed a character pummeling a werewolf right through a stony wall that chipped away beneath the onslaught). In addition, your character can pick up environmental debris and use it as a melee or thrown weapon–pillars, small boulders, and shattered wooden trellises are all fair game. The Source engine’s physics can also be used to set up attacks, such as cutting down a rope bridge with enemies on it, or pulling loose a set of logs that’s restraining a boulder you can send crashing down on enemies below. The physics can even be used to solve puzzles, such as releasing the same boulder to splinter a filmy wooden barrier above a subterranean cave. And in addition to interesting physics, Vindictus will encourage group tactics with unusual mechanics like chain harpoons, which can be hurled at larger enemies (like the aforementioned giant polar bear) to drag them to the ground and restrain them so that your teammates can deliver a proper beating.
Vindictus’ interesting physics, high-quality graphics, and surprising violence definitely help it stand apart from other free-to-play http://www.arcadewarfare.com. It’s scheduled to launch later this year.
<a href="http://www.http://www.arcadewarfare.compot.com/news/show_blog_entry.php?topic_id=”>Get the full article at http://www.arcadewarfare.compot