Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates

Power Rangers Online (KR)
Diablo 3 release date and price set
Heroic 3 Kingdoms (CN)
Elder Scrolls MMO Announcement Reportedly Coming Soon
Dungeon Keeper Online (CN)
Mercenary Ops (CN)
Blade & Soul (CN)

Posted: 19 Mar 2012 06:13 AM PDT

As an avid fan of the Toku series in Japan including Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, Garo, Gridman etc, I was just as surprised as anyone else when Power Rangers Online was announced 2 weeks ago (link). Already onfirmed to be a side-scroller MMO, the first few monster images released today are actually 3D character models, staying true to the original ones found in the live action series.

Can we safely declare the title to be a 3D action scroller? Under development with Toei being kept in loop since 2009, more information will be released soon.

Find similar article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2011/09/power-rangers-online-kr-first-monster_30.html

Diablo 3 release date and price set

Posted: 19 Mar 2012 03:24 AM PDT

Blizzard Entertainment has today announced that Diablo 3 will be 'unleashed from the Burning Hells' exactly two months from now, on May 15th.

Diablo 3 will be on sale in most regions around the world at retail and globally via via Blizzard's Battle.net website. A localised Russian version of the game will follow on the 7th June.

Blizzard also announced that global presales for Diablo 3 start today with a dedicated part of Blizzard's website officially open for business.

"After many years of hard work by our development team and months of beta testing by hundreds of thousands of dedicated players around the world, we're now in the homestretch," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We look forward to putting the final polish on Diablo III over the next two months and delivering the ultimate action-RPG experience to gamers worldwide starting on May 15."

It's going going to be cheap though. The suggested RRP for Diablo 3 on PC and Mac is £44.99 for the both boxed and digital copies.

The Collector's Edition has an RRP of £69.99 and will include the full game, a behind-the-scenes Blu-Ray and DVD set, a soundtrack CD, a 208-page Art of Diablo 3 book and a 4GB USB soulstone (loaded with full versions of Diablo II and Lord of Destruction) with corresponding Diablo skull base. There's more, but we've lost the will to live.

Let the madness commence…

Find similar article at: http://www.totalpcgaming.com/latest-pc-news/diablo-3-release-date-and-price-set/

Heroic 3 Kingdoms (CN)

Posted: 19 Mar 2012 03:24 AM PDT

As mentioned in my previous post about this game (link), Heroic 3 Kingdoms is the first MOBA title to be developed using Unreal Engine 3. MOBA means Multi-player Online Battle Arena, where games including Dota, Dota 2 and League of Legends fall into. The brainchild of NetEase’s founder and CEO, Heroic 3 Kingdoms differ from others having 3 opposing factions in a single game. Basically, it is 5 Vs 5 Vs 5 as the main feature. Below are some early screenshots, with the bottom 2 possibly showing off the spawn points for 2 of the 3 warring nations.

Find similar article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/03/heroic-3-kingdoms-cn-first-screenshots.html

Elder Scrolls MMO Announcement Reportedly Coming Soon

Posted: 18 Mar 2012 09:24 PM PDT

Skyrim

Since this is the week of the pipe dream, what with a sequel to Wasteland being funded and a release date for Diablo III finally being made official, now is as good a time as any for some juicy rumors to be floated. Aside from talk of HD re-releases of both Shenmue games and Skies of Arcadia (a subject for another article), it’s being reported than an Elder Scrolls MMO is not only in development, but it will also be getting an official announcement fairly soon.

The game, known as Elder Scrolls Online, will be announced at some point in May according to a report by Tom’s Guide. Sources provided very little information about the game except to say there will be three playable factions (represented by a lion, dragon, and either a phoenix or eagle) and that it is set approximately 1,000 years before Skyrim. That period would also predate the events of Morrowind and Oblivion.

This is not the first time there has been talk of an Elder Scrolls MMO. Even before Skyrim was announced, there was speculation that the next game in the series following Oblivion could take on the form of an MMO. On more than one occasion the concept was not entirely shot down by Bethesda. The company also owns a number of domain names that would be perfectly suited to an MMO, but of course simply acquiring domains means nothing.

What makes this much more believable is what was revealed in court filings in the case between Bethesda and Interplay over the rights to a Fallout MMO. (The case was settled earlier this year.) Bethesda was said to be working on a “World of Warcraft type MMO” since late 2006, and VG247 later reported it had been told it was, in fact, the long-rumored Elder Scrolls MMO. When the court documents became public knowledge Bethesda attempted to have them withdrawn, though it was obviously too late to avoid having news leak.

Skyrim

So while none of this is a confirmation, it’s looking more likely than ever that the franchise will not remain single-player-only. Considering what the reaction was to Mass Effect 3 adding an optional, cooperative multiplayer mode, this is going to incite fans even more than that did.

The two situations are different, as Mass Effect simply saw a multiplayer mode added onto a previously single-player franchise whereas the TES MMO would presumably be multiplayer-only after a long history of providing solo experiences. But given Bethesda did deliver Skyrim last year and is continuing to update it (including features seen in the Game Jam sizzle, like new kill cams), it’s not as if Bethesda decided to abandon its single-player game fans so it could release an MMO. (Just a thought: the MMO being in development could have helped fuel the decision not to integrate any sort of cooperative play in Skyrim, which some fans were hoping to see.)

Many fans are sure to be turned off by an MMO, just as many Mass Effect fans were by the addition of multiplayer, but I imagine not all of them will be. Using such a popular single-player RPG franchise as the basis for an MMO could be an effective way of luring in gamers who would otherwise never consider touching the genre. It may not be Call of Duty, but the Elder Scrolls is really big — in less than a month Skyrim shipped 10 million units and took the title of fastest-selling game in Steam history. And since launch it has continued to be among the best-selling games in the United States according to the NPD Group.

Bethesda is already quite accomplished at developing massive worlds for players to explore and interact with. Making an MMO won’t be as simple as increasing the size of the world and throwing a bunch of players into it all at once, but Bethesda has a strong built-in fan base and a lot of experience settings gamers loose in a wide-open world, two things that any company looking to release an MMO would love to have.

Dungeon Keeper Online (CN)

Posted: 18 Mar 2012 06:13 PM PDT

Back in May 2010 (link), I first posted about one of the biggest online game developer and publisher in China, NetDragon, working on Dungeon Keeper Online. The game is a joint production between NetDragon and Electronic Arts (EA), and there was quite a skeptical bunch of gamers since the developer is from China. Most didn’t know that the producer is actually a Westerner from EA! Having the chance to play the latest Elite Closed Beta phase, let us take a brief look at how true the game stayed to its predecessor!

For the races (below), there are currently 2 available: Humans and Demons. These 2 are further divided into male and female. The races missing from the roster includes the Loli (yes, that is the name of the race, not Dwarf , female only) and Demi-Demon (male only).

Next, there are the character classes. All races so far share the same 6 classes (all classes end with a “Lord” at the end): Dual Blade, Restoration, Giant Shield, Destruction, Giant Sword and Element. I am sure you guys can figure out what each class does. Character creation is quite limited in terms of editing features, but the choosing of horns and tails for the male Demon is certainly interesting. Cash shop horns and tails is a good idea!

As there is no full screen option to accommodate my monitor, I had to go for a windowed game mode. And surprisingly, the chat box is not within the game itself, but rather an additional panel to the left side of the game. Is this really such a good idea? Hmn… Anyway, I am playing as a Demon Destruction Lord in this first try of the game. Read the text before watching the videos!

Ok, the starting part of the game is actually the tutorial prologue, which is not really told to players adequately in advance. Here, the basic controls are being taught. I know, this looks like World of Warcraft, but as I mentioned in my previous posts about the game, there is both an open world element and dungeon keeping one in the game.

Back to standard combat, you will notice that some mobs can be “tortured” and beaten the crap out of even if their health reaches zero, causing more loots and experience points to gain. Pretty neat eh? An example of a fun quest in the tutorial is when I was asked to find 3 female NPCs and forcefully kiss them. I love being bad!

So, characters learn skills as normal when the appropriate level is reached although there are no stats to be added (Str, Con, Dex etc). Skills can also be upgraded to higher levels when the level requirement is met. For recovery, there are instant pots which takes 1min to cooldown and also food as well, where players have to be uninterrupted while being healed. Pretty a pain in the arse when meeting with aggro mobs.

Before going on to the part about dungeon, one more thing about combat. So, there are a total of 17 world bosses ranging from level 12 to 84 (you can see the level 12 one in the videos) and also instanced dungeons as well, which I never did enter during this brief game test. However, there are random times a portal will just appear and hint players to enter with a party. Well, I entered one alone and died tragically, which can be seen in one of the game videos. Sigh…

Ok, about dungeon now. See the big button at the lower part of the screen, right in the middle? That is where players can click to enter their dungeon. Materials needed to expand your dungeon are gathered from the open world map, where material drops can be clicked and prompting your minions to load them up and send to your dungeon inventory. Players must then deposit them from the inventory to the total material count. Talking about minions, you can attract more minions by building more living quarters. Players may also right click on any minions to “whack” those who have the “zzzz” sign and not making themselves useful

To build and upgrade structures, gold is needed too. Players can deposit gold gained from the open world into the dungeon. It is like a totally different game! Do note that both the open world and dungeon are developed using different game engines, a rarity in the industry now perhaps? Just when you thought the dungeon is just like a demonized The Sims, think again. Other players may attack your dungeon and loot everything away!

Other features not yet experienced or added into the game includes the PvP Arena, Player Vs Player (from the 2 different factions), Guild PvP battles, Castle Siege (with NPCs aiding),3 classes within one character and more! Gosh, are they going to add every element into this game?!

So, here is my verdict through this small preview. The game is an absolute hit for me! I am seen as a strict gamer who trashes almost every online titles nowadays, but Dungeon Keeper Online is just awesome! Note how much content there has been already right off the game’s start. I am in love with it, and seeing that Dungeon Keeper Online is listed on NetDragon’s English portal as an upcoming title (link), I can’t wait!

Find similar article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2011/09/dungeon-keeper-online-cn-exclusive.html

Mercenary Ops (CN)

Posted: 18 Mar 2012 03:19 PM PDT

First announced at GDC 2012 (link), Mercenary Ops is an online third person shooter developed by Epic Games China using the company’s own Unreal Engine 3. The China server officially launched a couple of months back, and here is an early look of what to expect from the game. Not really an avid online shooter player myself, do bear with my noobish play. And apologies for the lag spikes, this is the first time I have encountered in years.

I guess it is not really common to find a hugely successful Free to Play third person shooter in the online gaming world, and I can only think of a couple with not much success. For console gaming, there seems to be many success stories. Mercenary Ops utilize a couple of extra actions which are typically missing from first person shooter, including blind shot, leaping and really treating the environment as a tool.

See the number of primary weapons my character can hold? That is one of the few new things in my experience in the game. Playing in 2 AI PvE maps, the Shopping Mall is a rather stale mode, shooting enemies on sight and perhaps grab that cool flamethrower weapon as well. While the map is pretty restricted, the Hospital of the Dead map is really quite big.

Essentially a zombie mode map where the undead spawns like crazy in various rounds, there are many rooms to explore and zombies literally spawn from almost everywhere, in which my team was finally overwhelmed. Players can even repair window grills to stall the zombies from destroying them too quickly, but I think it is a rather useless feature given how the grills fall off faster than I can gobble down a burger.Some doors will require points to open for convenience, but I will suggest leaving that to the pros.

I will be back next week with more footage, other maps/ modes and a take on the current cash shop in the China server, which is pretty heavily-monetized from my point of view.

Find similar article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/03/mercenary-ops-cn-first-look-at-game.html

Blade & Soul (CN)

Posted: 18 Mar 2012 03:19 PM PDT

As I posted previously, Blade Soul will be published in China by the country’s biggest internet company, Tencent (link). While a secret registration process for selected gamers is going on for the China server and the Korean server preparing for its next Closed Beta phase, a Beijing-based developer released screenshots of its game earlier today.

With Tencent naming Blade Soul as 剑灵, the developer named their revealed game similarly as well, claiming there is no copyright issue as they registered the name even before Tencent announced the title.

Chinese game website, 17173.com, paid a visit to the developer and was informed the game is currently 60% complete, with characters each having 2500 different actions, over 1100 different action effects and 600 environmental special effects. Some of the actions mentioned include wall-running and climbing.

Players can even set the game’s camera view as a normal 3D game’s or switch it to a 2.5D view, which I presume it as isometric view, similar to Diablo III. The developer plans to enter its first public testing sometime in May this year.