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| Clone Wars Adventures celebrates first anniversary Posted: 15 Sep 2011 03:27 PM PDT Sony Online Entertainment has announced its family-friendly Star Wars: Clone Wars Adventures is celebrating both its first year anniversary and reaching an 8 million registered player milestone. To celebrate, Clone Wars Adventures is launching a new special mission, “Mission on Iceberg 3,” that will lead in to the first episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 4. A new mini game, Aquatic Assault, will also be introduced. Players can also earn two rewards: until September 16, and player who logs in will get a one-time gift of 5,000 Galactic Credits. In addition, players who log in on September 16 will earn “Vigilance” and “Negotiator,” Captain Rex’s chrome plated pistols. Sony Online Entertainment also publishes Free Realms and EverQuest 2.  Clone Wars Adventures Gameplay Screenshot Source:
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| Langrisser Schwarz Hands-On Preview Posted: 15 Sep 2011 02:22 PM PDT Langrisser Schwarz was the second game we previewed at the Gamania Game Show. An online twist to the famous Langrisser series, Langrisser Schwarz captivated us from the first goddess question to the last blow against a tentacle-swinging boss. This show-stealer promises to be a thrilling action MMORPG.  The Questions of Lushiris: Factions Entering the Langrisser Schwarz booth, we were greeted by the floating image of the goddess of light, Lushiris. This goddess serves in the game to help determine the destiny – that is, the faction and class – of the player. Like personality quizzes in days of gaming yore (such as the Ultima or Tactics Ogre), the goddess poses a few questions to help determine what attitude the player has toward the world. She then suggests a faction choice: Light, believing in peace and goodness; Dark, believing in chaos; and a new third faction introduced into Langrisser Schwarz: the Empire, believing in power and control.  These factions are highly different from each other, in more than just philosophies. Each faction has its own unique storyline, character appearance (meaning even players of identical classes will look completely different depending on their faction), quests, and characters. The short of it: your gaming experience will be completely different depending on which faction you choose. Trees and Branches: Class System Choosing a faction may not be hard, but choosing a class becomes a truly monumental feat. Initially, the goddess will send you along one of six paths, or "class trees": warrior (courage), ranger (honor), guardian (defense), archer (freedom), mage (wisdom), or priest (faith). Each class then branches out further into a total of 12 full classes among each tree, two of which are special "hidden" classes, totaling out to a massive number of 72 classes.  Like other class tree systems, players have to "earn" additional classes by gaining levels and training points (TP), as well as other conditions. Once unlocked, however, players can change between classes within the same tree while retaining the skills from their previous class. Players can also re-birth, after mastering a class tree, into another new class, allowing players to completely master all 72 classes on a single character. Enough Talking, More Fighting Our hands-on experience with Langrisser Schwarz put the press into three teams: one for each faction, with MMOHut representing the Dark. Our special demo instance, Ominous Eyes, put us face to face with some terrifying creatures in a dark forest. The demo offered small cut-scenes to introduce each boss to us as well, helping set the atmosphere. The first step was to summon our mercenaries. Mercenaries are part of the core system of Langrisser Schwarz; each class has access to a different number of mercenaries they can summon in battle. These are minor NPCs that can be controlled through three commands – follow, attack, or alert – and will accompany each player and assist them in battle. These mercenaries also obey the match-up system from Langrisser, in which soldiers beat spearmen, spearmen beat cavalry, and calvary beat soldiers.  Heading into battle, we face off against groups of enemies along with mini-bosses. Each character has access to a set of six skills (assigned before battle) as well as three cards, special summoning tools on a longer cooldown than regular skills. Players can also attack with basic attacks. Combat was incredibly smooth; mercenaries charged off into battle as we drew near a pack of enemies, followed by our group of players who alternated between basic attacks on weaker monsters, while using stronger attacks on larger monsters and major cooldowns (one of my characters was able to transform into a blue, Flash-like "Superman" mode) on mini-bosses. Each mini boss had its own small tactics to offer a minor challenge, while the final boss proved incredibly deadly with powerful eye-lasers that cut through our health in no time. Each class also played differently, illustrating strong differences between each class tree. May the Schwarz Be With Us: Final Impressions The Langrisser Schwarz experience was so smooth and exciting, we wanted more even after coming home from the show and taking time to reflect on the gameplay. The conceptual design of art, story, faction, and class is impressive and ambitious for a free-to-play MMORPG. Combat was exciting and challenging without being difficult, and the controls were smooth on either a gamepad or a keyboard. While there’s still much to be seen of Langrisser Schwarz, we’re confident at this stage that it may hold up to even the most demanding of gamers. The Gamania Game Show (GGS) took place this year on Sept 8 and Sept 9 in Taipei, Taiwan. Press from around the globe, including MMOHut, were invited to take a hands-on look at the game company’s four new games in development – Dream Drops, Langrisser Schwarz, Tiara Concerto, and Core Blaze – as well as other products. Screenshots of Langrisser Schwarz at the Gamania Game Show:          |
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