Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates

[TG-UP 2012] Kritika officially announced for China
Ninja Gaiden 3 Review: American Ninja, the Video Game
Review: Guardian Heroes Storms Back From the Dead
[TG-UP 2012] Sura to be company’s first global title
Zenimax And Mojang Reach ‘Scrolls’ Settlement
RaiderZ (KR)
One Year Later: The Tragedy and Triumph of 3DS
DOTA Online (TW)
[TG-UP 2012] Metro Conflict goes to China
Win Alan Wake Collector’s Edition

[TG-UP 2012] Kritika officially announced for China

Posted: 22 Mar 2012 09:29 AM PDT

Less than 6 months after Tencent Games Carnival 2011 (link) ended, China’s biggest online gaming company (and biggest multimedia company) is back with its 2012 media event, Tencent Games UP 2012. This is the event where upcoming strategies and new games for the rest of the year is announced. First up, although posted previously as a sketchy piece of news (link), Tencent Games finally revealed Kritika for the China region.

If you remembered, Kritika was first announced at Hangame eX 2011 (link). With Hangame eX 2012 canceled (link), I am guessing this has got something to do with the promise of launching the China server in by this year. Back to the game itself, Kritika is touted as the fastest-paced action MMO ever, and marketed in China as the “playable manga”. There are currently 3 races revealed, the Warrior, Thief and Magic Gunner.

Find similar article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/03/tg-up-2012-kritika-officially-announced.html

Ninja Gaiden 3 Review: American Ninja, the Video Game

Posted: 22 Mar 2012 09:29 AM PDT

See the child. Hear her beckon forth, surrounded by the carcasses of men harboring murderous intent. Men you ended. Their last breath whispering about the sweetness of a child, or the satisfaction of killing the interloper that you are. Save the child, who you thought was yourn, but she reveals herself to be Mei lost in the world of dust, not the daughter you left behind twelve months ago. The voice in your pocket sputters forth. The man named Henry asks, take her, take the lost child Mei, take her to the mall. Give her medicine left behind by those who never set foot in Haventown, those who drop foodstuffs and medicines from above and never look back. Not since The Event. The Event that scraped the loam off the earth and turned it into the dust that hugs and holds and kills all who wander within. The dust that chips and gnaws at your very stamina. The Event that dominates I Am Alive.

So you go, ever pressing on to find wife and child. Gone a year, but now you return, to climb and cobble and carry on. You cannot ignore Mei’s bleat for aid, but other survivors of the Event not so much as settle but subsist their meager existences in the dust covered Haventown. A man yearns cigarettes to pass on. Another man in an amusement park needs medicine to heal the leg that’s been crushed by another uncivilized man. Haventown also starves for supplies. Bottles of water, cans of fruit cocktail, a single inhaler, a handful of painkillers, these all turn into precious manna from heaven through scarcity. Give the emergency kit to the woman with the ankle sprain? What these bemoaning folk have to give, besides gratitude and perhaps a precious shotgun, is the Retry. Haventown harbors death by trial, not saves. It does not yield to the checkpoint that others call for. It takes away a Retry from your knapsack for every fall, stab, or shot you suffer. Deplete your store of Retries, and your journey resumes at the beginning of your current episode. A practice that leeches away minutes of your life. A practice that mocks you by depleting Retries and then flings you back to 45 minutes ago. What is worth more, the rat meat that can heal you, or the Retry that you get for giving rat meat to the gurgling man below? Every survivor, like the woman bound by handcuff to a bench, pleads for help while you mind debates.

Find similar article at: http://www.1up.com/reviews?cId=3186894

Review: Guardian Heroes Storms Back From the Dead

Posted: 22 Mar 2012 06:13 AM PDT

Rage didn’t start out the way I thought it would. My idea of it was mostly based on its initial reveal some years ago: depicting a barren wasteland where people live, drive, and dress in whatever they can find. Just another Mad Max pastiche, right? So imagine my surprise when the game begins inside a cold, angled underground capsule (an “Ark”) from a forgotten time in the far-flung future. I guess post-apocalyptic worlds have to start somewhere.

It’s a harsh beginning, but Rage doesn’t let up from there. After emerging on the surface of the largely-destroyed Earth, you’re saved from certain death by a kind-hearted wasteland homesteader named Dan Hagar (voiced by John Goodman, who also played a “Dan” on Roseanne, which was more than enough to keep me from taking this character seriously). Hagar wastes no time in employing your “services” to wipe out a nearby influx of mutants, and perform a few odd jobs around his settlement and the neighbors’. You get the hang of shootin’, drivin’, and survivin’, and eventually learn more about your past as an enhanced human candidate of the “Eden” project, initiated by the oppressive powers of the Authority, who try to keep this crazy world in check… for their own gains, of course.

Find similar article at: http://www.1up.com/reviews?cId=3185957

[TG-UP 2012] Sura to be company’s first global title

Posted: 22 Mar 2012 03:28 AM PDT

In yet another news which was confirmed just a few hours ago prior to the leaked speculation, Tencent Games confirmed acquiring the global rights for new Korean studio NSE Entertainment’s debut action MMO, Sura.It will be the China powerhouse’s first true global title as it tries to break into overseas market. Tencent Games, despite all its wealth, was not able to do so for the past few years, with Perfect World Entertainment the leading light in this area.

There are currently 3 playable races/ classes featured, with the title supposedly instanced-based again. The skills and combat looks really awesome though, along with the touted mob AI and challenging dungeons. Below are some early videos of the game. Note that NSE Entertainment was previously called Tempest9.

Find similar article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/03/tg-up-2012-sura-to-be-companys-first.html

Zenimax And Mojang Reach ‘Scrolls’ Settlement

Posted: 22 Mar 2012 03:28 AM PDT

Zenimax Media, umbrella company for Bethesda Softworks and owner of the 'Elder Scrolls' trademark, has reached a settlement with Minecraft creator Mojang over the ownership of the 'Scrolls' trademark.

According to the agreement, 'Scrolls' will be owned solely by Zenimax Media while the 'Scrolls' trademark will be licensed to Mojang for exclusive use in it's existing digital card game.

"We are pleased to have settled this matter with Mojang amicably," said Robert Altman, Chairman and CEO of ZeniMax in an official press release. "The Elder Scrolls is an important brand to us, and with this settlement we were able to protect our valuable property rights while allowing Mojang to release their digital card game under the name they preferred."

Mojang meanwhile, seems equally upbeat about the amicable settlement," We have settled the lawsuit over Scrolls and Mojang and Bethesda are friends again… For us this was never about a trade mark but being able to use Scrolls as the name of our game which we can – Yey."

Find similar article at: http://www.totalpcgaming.com/latest-pc-news/zenimax-and-mojang-reach-scrolls-settlement/

RaiderZ (KR)

Posted: 21 Mar 2012 09:28 PM PDT

[English website] As you might have known now, the English server for RaiderZ is currently in Alpha test. Which means there will be glitches and some bugs, although quite a number swore not to have met any. The English server presumably is still not updated with the optimized graphics, which was added into the Korean server not too long ago (link).

As you can see in the new trailer above, there are quite a couple of new maps and epic bosses (otherwise known as BAMs, Big Ass Monsters) added into the Korean version. This is just the first step as publisher Neowiz Games prepare the title for Open Beta somewhere around summer. Read up my personal opinion of the game here (link)!

Find similar article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/03/raiderz-kr-preparing-for-open-beta.html

One Year Later: The Tragedy and Triumph of 3DS

Posted: 21 Mar 2012 09:28 PM PDT

A year ago next week, Nintendo’s fifth generation of portable hardware arrived in the U.S. The 3DS found itself born into a hostile world: The market for dedicated portables had slid into decline while the bloom had begun to fade from the rose of the 3D visualization trend. The system didn’t perform nearly to Nintendo’s expectations thanks in part to an unreasonably high price; about half a year later the company drastically reduced the cost of the machine and offered 20 free games to early adopters by way of apology. While these facts would not normally inspire confidence, the 3DS has made steady inroads since then and could even be said to have established itself as a strong platform with a positive future. It’s not all sunshine and roses for 3DS, but things are looking up. Let’s explore the highs and lows of the system… starting (much like the platform itself) with the lows.

The Lows

The Frankenstick
Nothing symbolizes 3DS’s most disastrous failings like the “Frankenstick,” more properly known as the Circle Pad Pro. Its mere existence is a frank admission that Nintendo horribly miscalculated the needs and expectations of its consumers at the most basic design level — and it’s a clumsy, inelegant admission at that. The Circle Pad Pro is one part cradle, one part peripheral; it doesn’t so much attach to the system as wrap around it, transforming the 3DS into an awkward goliath of a portable. On the plus side, it gives the 3DS much-needed dual stick controls, but at the price of making the entire device a chunky mess and likely splitting the market. Any eventual hardware redesign will need the Circle Pad Pro’s feature set built in lest it be laughed out of stores… but should Nintendo actually go ahead with a right-stick-equipped redesign, they’ll instantly divide gamers into haves and have-nots. It’s an unmitigated disaster of ill-considered hardware design, and the cure is almost as bad as the sickness.

Weak third-party support
3DS’s third-party support could best be described as “anemic.” We know, right? Poor publisher support? On a Nintendo console? Unprecedented. No, as usual, most of the best content for 3DS comes directly from Nintendo. While the system has seen a handful of interesting third-party titles, most of the external library has consisted of remakes and ports (Cave Story, Snake Eater 3D, Devil Survivor Overclocked)… heck, so has the first-party library, for that matter. The good news is that a fair amount of fresh material is waiting in the wings, including a gorgeous Kingdom Hearts game, the hardcore-as-ever Etrian Odyssey IV, and Monster Hunter 4. But U.S. publishers seem gun-shy about localizing most of the system’s (Japan-made) best content, which is why we’re still waiting on news of top-tier titles like Rocket Slime 3D and Monster Hunter Portable 3rd without much hope for relief in sight.

Virtual Console, 3D Classics, and Street Pass games remain under-utilized
Nintendo’s impressive back catalog of software remains one of its strongest assets. The company utilized it somewhat ineptly on Wii — how many Wii owners ever went online or realized that hundreds of great old games were available to download for a reasonable price? — but Wii’s Virtual Console was a glorious treasure trove compared to the pittance of software we’ve seen over the past year. Worse, Nintendo expects us to pay a second time for access to games already available on Wii Virtual Console. Meanwhile, the promise of Arika-developed 3D remakes of classic old games has yielded a whole six titles, with masterpieces like Kirby’s Adventure diminished by the mere presence of duds like Urban Champion. Even the excellent Street Pass games like Puzzle Swap and Find Mii are practically irrelevant to U.S. gamers, since — as demonstrated by Tag Mode games like Dragon Quest IX and Nintendogs — Americans don’t use their portable systems the same way as their Japanese counterparts. It feels like such a frustrating near-miss: So much potential yet to be realized.

3D
If you find yourself having trouble navigating the room, that’s because of the gigantic elephant taking up most of the floor space. With 3DS, Nintendo banked on beating its rivals to the punch to create a hands-on, glasses-free devices capable of producing stereoscopic graphics. They managed to accomplish precisely that, but once they arrived at their destination they realized no one really cared. Sometime between the system’s reveal at E3 2010 and its launch in early 2011, the 3D TV trend revealed itself as a mere fad met largely with disinterest or, at worst, outright scorn by most consumers. A neat trick it may be, but the 3DS’s graphical central feature proved not to be a system seller… and especially not at the original asking price of $249. Only a handful of titles have managed to make compelling use of the ability, and it comes at considerable cost to the system’s overall hardware power (both iPhone and Vita humble it) and rendering capabilities as well (turning on 3D halves the frame rate in certain titles). And then there are the complaints about headaches and usability. For many people, the best thing about 3D on the 3DS is that you can turn it off with a simple slider. In trying to get a leg up on the competition with “disruptive” hardware design, Nintendo nearly shot itself in the foot.

Sounds dire, right? Fortunately, 3DS has plenty going for it as well.

Find similar article at: http://www.1up.com/features/year-tragedy-triumph-3ds

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DOTA Online (TW)

Posted: 21 Mar 2012 06:13 PM PDT

Even if I am a Chinese myself (not from China though), I can’t help but to fume at MMO developers and publishers who have zero creativity when marketing their games. Game content duplicating is seen as a norm now, but why the game title as well? Introducing Dark Of Three Ancientkingdoms Online… get the drift? Even if my English ain’t perfect, I have the urge to hit my monitor screen now.

One of the many Defense of the Ancients clone in Asia, this game is developed in China and published in Taiwan/ Hongkong by Gameone. I mean, right, there are tons of similar games of the genre out there with basically the same maps, but why stoop so low that even the game title has to be imitated?

As the title suggests, 76 of the game’s 88-strong character list are from Romance of the Three Kingdoms. The only “new” thing in terms of game mode will be the ability to have 10 Vs 10 matches. Have a look at the game’s website in the pictures posted…

Find similar article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2011/10/dota-online-tw-stooping-to-new-low.html

[TG-UP 2012] Metro Conflict goes to China

Posted: 21 Mar 2012 03:28 PM PDT

I think this is the 6th or 7th online shooter currently in Tencent Games’ stable. And none of them are in commercial phase yet! These titles include Webzen’s BATTERY: Artic Wind (link) and Crytek’s Warface (link). Back to topic, Metro Conflict: Preston, developed by Korean studio Redduck, will be published in China by Tencent Games. Redduck shot to fame with its first title, the popular A.V.A (Alliance of Valiant Arms). What is so special about Metro Conflict?

Well, which other MMOFPS allows players to dual wield 2 different main guns? Not dual pistols mind you. The graphics of Metro Conflict (Unreal Engine 3) was also praised by many in my YouTube trailers, with some comparing it to big shot titles like Modern Warfare and Battlefield, except that Metro Conflict is Free to Play.

Find similar article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/03/tg-up-2012-metro-conflict-goes-to-china.html

Win Alan Wake Collector’s Edition

Posted: 21 Mar 2012 09:28 AM PDT