Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates

Cabal Online MMORPG Review
Bright Shadow MMORPG Review
Dragon Nest (KR)
Hollywood’s Video Game Invasion of the ’90s
Brawl Busters MMO Review
Path of Exile
Nexon Korea
Notorious Food-Based Games of the ’90s

Posted: 31 Mar 2012 08:23 AM PDT

Cabal Online is a 3D Fantasy MMORPG that takes place in the world of Nevareth. The game tries to have realistic graphics and has an interesting set of features and maps to explore.

Publisher: ESTsoft
Playerbase: Medium
Graphics: High Quality
Type: MMORPG
EXP Rate: Low
PvP: Realm Vs Realm /Duels
Filesize: ~ 2500 MB

Website: http://www.cabal.com/

Pros: +Unique dueling system with betting. +Unique 'skill' combo system. +Varied environments. +Good music. +Good content updates. +Beautifully animated skills.

Cons: -Unique and prolonging quest text. -Lots of 'spambots' in the game. -Most 'fun' features locked away until endgame.

Cabal Online is a 3D Fantasy MMORPG that used to be published by OGPlanet, but is now published by ESTsoft, the game's developer. The game was officially released in North America on February 28th and is known for it's unique set of features and solid gameplay. Start off your adventure in one of the game's three newbie towns and explore the large fantasy world of Cabal Online. The game's six playable classes are:

Warrior - As the name applies, the 'warrior' is the standard tank / melee character. The warrior relies entirely on his strength and uses the two handed sword as his main weapon.

Blader - Bladers are proficient at using dual swords and can deal damage very quickly but have incredibly low hit points. They are strong PvE characters, as they have high defense.

Wizard - The Wizard is the standard offensive spell caster archetype in Cabal. They can deal massive damage from a distance but are vulnerable to attacks in melee range. They have the lowest hit points in the game.

Force Blader – Force bladers are proficient with both spell casting and melee swords. They are quick and agile and can do a great deal of damage very quickly, but are unable to wear heavy armor. They are regarded as one of the best 'pvp' classes.

Force Shielder - Force Shielders are the standard 'tank' archetype in Cabal, they have the best defensive capabilities, but relatively weaker damage than the other melee classes in the game. They are capable of using both defensive and offensive magic and are considered strong 'PvE' characters.

Force Archer - As the name applies, the Force Archer is the generic 'archer' character in Cabal Online.

Cabal Online System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:
OS: Windows XP / Vista / ME
CPU: 800 MhZ Pentium 3 or Equivalent
RAM: 512 MB
HDD: 2.5 GB Free Space
Graphics Card: Any 3D Accelerator Card

Recommended Specification:
OS: Windows XP / Vista / ME
CPU: 1.4 GhZ Pentium 4 or Better
RAM: 2048 MB (2GB) RAM or Better
HDD: 2.5 GB Free Space
Graphics Card: Nvidia 6600GT or equivalent VGA Card

Bright Shadow MMORPG Review

Posted: 31 Mar 2012 06:13 AM PDT

Bright Shadow is a nicely animated, 3D, anime-inspired fantasy MMORPG published by Beanfun (The game used to be available through GamePot USA, but they shut it down and BeanFun picked up the service). The game is set in the fantasy world of Luciena and has a strong emphasis on item collection, community and exploration. Those looking for a simple, lighthearted MMORPG should find some substance in Bright Shadow.

Publisher: BeanFun
Playerbase: Medium
Graphics: Medium Quality
Type: MMORPG
EXP Rate: Medium
PvP: N/A
Filesize: ~1,550 MB

Website: http://www.brightshadowonline.com/

Pros: +Detailed card collection system. +Unique instance system. +Interesting soul power feature. +Crafting system. +High level cap 95+. +Great music.

Cons: -Looks very similar to other anime inspired games. -Interface could be better. -Clunky combat mechanics.

Bright Shadow is an anime-inspired MMORPG that both looks and feels a lot like Outspark's popular Fiesta Online title. Perhaps the game's most unique feature is its detailed card collection system. Players can find and collect over 500 special monster cards that can be obtained by defeating enemies. These cards have numerous uses, from being used as currency for items to unlocking special abilities. Bright Shadow does have numerous unique features and a lot of content which makes the game worth checking out. The game boasts over twenty playable classes, but there are only four starting ones. The game's four starting classes are:

Warrior – Warriors in Bright Shadow are masters of 'close quarters' combat. They can inflict a great deal of damage to their enemies in melee combat and also absorb quite a bit of hits due to their remarkably high defensive capabilities.

Machinist – The machinist is a fairly unique class, as it's only found in Bright Shadow and a handful of other titles. They are a mix between an archer and a merchant. They have a powerful long range attack with both bows and guns. They can also craft weapons and armor.

Shaman – With numerous healing and buffing spells, Shamans are the primary supportive class in Bright Shadow; think of them as a mix between a druid and a cleric. Even though shamans are primarily a support class, they still have some offensive magic.

Mage - Like nearly every other MMORPG, a Mage in Bright Shadow is the primary offensive spell casting class in the game. They have devastating area-of-effect and direct damage spells, but have extremely low physical attack and defense. They command the powers of both fire and ice.

Bright Shadow System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:
OS: Windows XP / Vista / 2000
CPU: Intel Pentium 3 1.0 Ghz
RAM: 256 MB
HDD: 4.0 GB Free
Graphics Card: Any nVidia GeForce3 series GPU / ATI Radeon 8500 or better

Recommended Specifications:
OS: Windows XP / Vista / 2000
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.0 Ghz
RAM: 1024 MB
HDD: 4.0 GB Free
Graphics Card: nVidia GeForce FX 5900 / ATI Radeon 9700 or better

Dragon Nest (KR)

Posted: 31 Mar 2012 03:46 AM PDT

On 1st April, which is tomorrow in Korean time, Eyedentity Games will be adding the latest dragon into their debut MMORPG, Dragon Nest. This is also part of the game’s 2nd anniversary in Korea, as well as to celebrate its global success so far. Have a look at the new trailer below.

Called the Transparency Dragon, the entrance to this dragon will be an invisible portal somewhere in towns. Cool eh?

Killing this invisible dragon will grant players drops of level 50 equipments, the Transparency set. Wearing the full set will grant players 70% less sense of existence/ presence and Academics will gain a 30% increase in loli ratings. Below are some details of the full Transparency set.

Other than the Transparency set, there will be a new Transparency horse mount added as well, as seen in the screenshot below.

Find similar article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/03/dragon-nest-kr-new-dragon-coming.html

Hollywood’s Video Game Invasion of the ’90s

Posted: 30 Mar 2012 09:44 PM PDT

Hollywood has always had its fingers on
the pulse of popular culture, so when video games began to blossom
during the ’80s, Tinseltown saw an opportunity to expand. Within a few
years, the gaming market was awash with titles featuring A-list actors,
iconic athletes, and all manner of celebrity in-between. It’s hard to
imagine a time when star-power had such sway in video games, especially
when you consider that the concept of celebrity has devolved over the
past decade into anyone who’s willing to share their messy existence of
a life in front of a Bravo TV camera. The number of actors, musicians
and athletes who lent their likenesses to video games throughout the
’90s is absolutely staggering. There’s no way we could go through all
the instances where the player could interact with a celebrity, so we
narrowed the list down to a select few games that represent the vast
scope of this strange trend.

Actors

Hollywoods Video Game Invasion of the 90s

Privateer
2: The Darkening
- PC
’96

In all honesty, this list
could’ve been populated purely by installments of Wing
Commander, but
for the sake of our collective sanity, I’ve pared it down to arguably
the most star-studded entry in the series. 1996′s Privateer 2: The
Darkening starred a fresh Clive Owen long before his fortune turned
around with roles in Sin City
and Children
of Men. It also featured the
talents of fabled thespian John Hurt, who won an Oscar for his work in
The
Elephant Man as well as the
my personal award for Best Cinematic Death in Alien.
While his role as a deranged bartender may have been slightly
below his pay grade, you can’t help but notice how much fun he was
having the whole time. But throughout the years, Privateer 2 has become
synonymous with one name in general. Christopher Walken lends his
strangely hypnotic talents to the game, and in typical Walken fashion,
seems very confused with his presence in the universe. Walken is one of
those actors who’s such an iconic figure, that his mere presence in a
role pulls the audience out of the experience and causes them to focus
on the strange and unnatural world that is his life.

Hollywoods Video Game Invasion of the 90s

Apocalypse
- PSX ’98

It really seems like Apocalypse
was originally conceived as a film, but ultimately transformed into a
piece of interactive entertainment. The 1998 PSX title famously
plastered Bruce Willis’ name and mug on every single piece of
promotional art imaginable. The action icon lent his voice and likeness
as Trey Kincaid, a wise-cracking meat-head who just so happens to be
the only thing that stands between us and armageddon. If you look past
the clunky action and dated visuals, you’ll find an interesting piece
of video game history that featured one of the strongest attempts by
Hollywood to create a game that was cinematic not from a mechanical
perspective, but rather in terms of how the product was marketed. The
phrase “Starring Bruce Willis” accompanied the title whenever it was
mentioned. While the game itself is sadly forgettable, its legacy lives
on in the fact that developer Neversoft’s next project would be the
immensely popular Tony
Hawk’s Pro Skater.

Musicians

Hollywoods Video Game Invasion of the 90s

Revolution
X – Arcade ’94

It might’ve taken them nearly
25 years to reach the peak of their popularity, but Aerosmith was smart
to capitalize outside the world of music while on this precipice. One
of these non-musical ventures was Revolution X, an arcade light gun
shooter that later got ported to most home consoles of the mid-’90s.
The game presented a dystopian future where the world government
declared war on this planet’s unfortunate youth. Lucky for us
youngins, Steven Tyler and friends were on hand to lend their support
during our uprising. Most of the band was nearing their 50s by the time
the game was released, which makes me question which side of this
conflict they would really support. The game culminated in a final
battle at London’s legendary Wembley Stadium — why the war ended here
was never quite explained, but many theorize that Aerosmith was still
bitter over being snubbed from 1985′s Live Aid. Still, no matter how
cheesy the idea of an aging rock band leading a Gen-X revolution is,
Aerosmith can still rest easy knowing that they were never subjected to
a Make
My Video title for Sega CD; Mark
Wahlberg is still trying to
live that one down.

Find similar article at: http://www.1up.com/news/hollywood-video-game-invasion-90s

Brawl Busters MMO Review

Posted: 30 Mar 2012 06:13 PM PDT

Brawl Busters is a 3D action fighting MMO that has the same graphic style as the popular shooter Team Fortress 2. Brawl Busters is a streamlined game with a small client size, and the ability to quickly jump into matches, yet it still manages to offer high quality graphics and plenty of customization options.

Publisher: Rock Hippo Productions & Weezor
Playerbase: Low
Graphics: High Quality
Type: MMO
EXP Rate: Low
PvP: N/A
Filesize: 243 MB

Website: http://planbaction.com/main/index.aspx

Pros: +Stylish animated graphics. +Fast paced gameplay. +Switch between 5 classes. +Streamlined registration and lobby, start playing right away.

Cons: -Limited map choices. -Suffers from technical issues; bugs and lag. -Repetitive gameplay

Brawl Busters is a fast paced fighting game that plays a lot like a third person shooter. The graphic style resembles Team Fortress 2, but is even more goofy. With a strong emphasis on pick up & play gameplay, anyone can start playing Brawl Busters within minutes. The client size is very small, and there's no need to register on the website. Players simply enter a username and password after launching the game and are good to go! All players have access to five classes in Brawl Busters and can switch between them either prior to starting a game or each time they die. The only game mode available is Team Deathmatch, and matches only last a few minutes each.

Classes:

Slugger – Smack opponents with your bat, or send three baseballs their way with one swing. Special Attack charges up and sends one powerful baseball.

Firefighter – Spray nearby opponents with flames, or shoot out grenades. Special attack creates a temporary barrier in front of the Firefighter.

Rocker - Slap opponents with your electric guitar, or shoot out lighting from its tip. Special Attack is point blank area of effect burst.

Boxer - Punch opponents or charge at them first-first. Special Attack shoots out 5 rays, hitting everything in front of the Boxer in a large arc.

Blitzer - Pummel opponents with your fists, or strike the ground immediately in front of you for heavy damage. Special Attack launches the Blitzer forward a fair distance where he strikes the ground dealing area of effect damage.

Minimum Requirements:
OS: Windows XP / Vista / 7
CPU: Pentium Duel Core
RAM: 512MB
HDD: 1GB
Graphics Card: Geforce 6 series
DirectX: 9.0c

Recommended Specification:
OS: Windows XP / Vista / 7
CPU: Pentium Duel Core or better
RAM: 1024 MB or more
HDD: 2 GB free
Graphics Card: GeForce 7 series of better
DirectX: 9.0c or better

Path of Exile

Posted: 30 Mar 2012 03:42 PM PDT

[Game website] A friendly reminder, Path of Exile will be entering its Public Stress Test in a couple of hours’ time. The game will be open to everyone this weekend, and that means you without a Closed Beta key. This is in preparation for Open Beta, and yes, this game will be Free to Play. Get everyone you know and prepare to crash the server!

A couple of things to take note, although the interface looks like a Diablo franchise’s, I can assure you the systems such as skills and in-game currency is totally different. Try it out for yourself! Or spoil yourself watching the 2 newbie footage here and see how the skill system really works.

Find similar article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/03/path-of-exile-reminder-to-crash-server.html

Nexon Korea

Posted: 30 Mar 2012 09:38 AM PDT

It seems like Nexon Korea is still taking its own sweet time solving the mass hack “event” which happened a few months back (link). On 23rd and 24th earlier this month, a number of high level MapleStory accounts were hacked with equipments and currency stripped. Although the numbers were small, players posted on various places on the Internet and warned fellow Maplers to take precaution and proceed to authenticate their accounts.What was Nexon doing?

Apparently, the incident happened near the weekend and after office hours. Yes, Nexon Korea’s customer service center is not a 24-hours one. I have worked as a GM in a much smaller MMO company, and even we have games covered for 24-hours.

After the weekend, Nexon claimed the hacked players’ computer might hae been infected with trojan and stuff, but admitted the supposedly on-going security upgrades in Nexon’s infrastructures might have caused irregularities, giving the hackers a chance to access MapleStory’s database. The affected players will be suitably reimbursed. Seems like Korea’s top gaming company is the bottom in terms of security.

Find similar article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/03/nexon-korea-maplestory-gets-hacked.html

Notorious Food-Based Games of the ’90s

Posted: 30 Mar 2012 09:38 AM PDT

06e75 TheDominosPizzaNoid Notorious Food Based Games of the 90s

Back in the halcyon days of the
early
’90s, food extended far beyond the hot
plate by frequently making its
way into our video games. Companies across the entire edible spectrum
saw this new fan-dangled medium of interactivity and thought it would
be
a great idea to allow gamers to violate the cardinal rule of the dinner
table and actually play with their food. Sadly, most of these efforts
resulted in less-than stellar results, as indicated by the following
examples of product placement games. Keep in mind that a lot of these
were full priced releases — this was long before the time when Sneak
King came alongside a BK Veggie
with cheese. Seth
Macy wrote a great feature about
Corporate
Schlock a while back, but this
time around the focus is going to be strictly on the Decade
That Clinton Built. Aside from
the monetary
joys that stem from product placement, the question still remains: Why
the ’90s were such a humid breeding ground for licensed games based on
food, the places that serve food, and the mascots who champion food?

Yo! Noid
- NES ’90

There’s going to be a very
distinct generational divide with this one, so prepare yourselves. The
Noid was a mid-’80s creation by Domino’s Pizza that used each of the
seven deadly sins in order to ruin your pizza experience. Delivery guy
got a flat tire? Noid. Cheese is burnt? Noid. Immediately regret that
you’re filling your body with the physical manifestation of shame?
Well, the Noid’s only partly responsible for that. Like all great
mascots of the era, the Noid got his fair share of video game titles,
but the one I want to focus on is the 1990 NES classic Yo! Noid.
Without a comma between the two words, one can only assume that the
title is yelling in order to get your attention. Misused punctuation
aside, Yo! Noid is actually a revolutionary entry into the pantheon of
gaming. Instead of being a delivery boy trying to avoid the Noid, the
game shook the very foundations of storytelling by placing us in
control of the trickster god; in many ways, Yo! Noid is the Paradise
Lost of video games. Sadly,
the game commits the cardinal sin of
platformers by switching the functions of the A and B buttons. Could
this have been the Noid’s plan all along?

M.C. Kids
- NES ’92

Ronald McDonald, the Pied Piper
of childhood obesity, has seen his fair share of video game adaptations
throughout the years, but none were as iconic as M.C. Kids on the NES.
Released fashionably late into the console’s lifespan, the game starts
off with ~~John Wayne Gacy~~
Ronald McDonald tasking a child to hunt down the Hamburglar, and though
it’s only implied, murder him. Along your whirlwind tour of revenge,
you’ll come across such horrifying mascots as Birdy and the unholy
abomination known as The Grimace. Aside from its motley crew of
nightmarish monstrosities, M.C. Kids had some really inventive ideas
for the time, such as the ability to walk on the underside of certain
platforms and carrying blocks to change your character’s weight and
inertia. It’s too bad that the rest of the game is a broken mess of a
platformer. We’ll just gloss over the fact that this grown man in
makeup and a yellow smock is enlisting the aid of a Cub Scout; maybe
that didn’t seem all too weird in the early 90s?

06e75 chester cheetah too cool to fool 02 Notorious Food Based Games of the 90s

Chester
Cheetah: Too Cool to
Fool – SNES ’92

So Chester Cheetah, you think
you’re too cool to fool? Well, challenge accepted. The titular conceit
teaches us that if you amass enough swagger, you’ll eventually become
impervious to any ruse the world may place in front of you. If only
this confidence could be harnessed and used to shield me from this
platforming debacle. The game is a crash course in masochism that
forces the player to endure shoddy controls, terrible hit-detection,
and power-ups that actually hinder your progress. One example of the
latter is an electric guitar that acts makes Chester temporarily
invincible, which would be great except for the fact that it also
causes you to lose control of the character and usually leads to
falling to your death. But there were ways around these traps –
instead of using a Game Genie, Too Cool to Fool allowed gamers to earn
extra lives by blowing asbestos-like Cheeto dust into the bottom of the
cartridge. While Chester has been absent in the gaming space as of
late, rumor has it that a platformer based on the Frito Bandito was
planned as a Wii launch title, but it was ultimately canceled after
focus testing revealed that audiences don’t want to play a game that
was, “horribly racist.”

Cool Spot
- Sega Genesis ’93

Spot is certainly one of the
stranger mascots of the ’90s. His origin story is shrouded in mystery,
but my theory is that 7 Up needed to find a way to make people forget
that their drink tasted like Pine-Sol, so they slapped some limbs onto
a red circle and called it a day. Much like Chester Cheetah, Spot
sports a pair of sunglasses that could only be described as gnarly,
tubular, and other assorted adjectives associated with the final map in
Super Mario World. I like to think that the shades were less about
looking cool and more having to do with protecting his eyes from
harmful UV rays. Ocular nonsense aside, Cools Spot is one of the few
games on this list that isn’t unbearable to play, so I feel bad about
mocking it. The character movement has a claymation quality to it that
resembles Vectorman, and unlike lot of licensed games, it feels like
the world was built with Spot in mind.

3e117 Screenshot Chex 20090816 110221 Notorious Food Based Games of the 90s

Chex
Quest – PC ’96

I’m happy to say that this
final entry to the list eschews from the platformer trend of its
predecessors and enters the crowded field of cereal-based FPS mods.
This promotional Ultimate
Doom mod was built upon an
oxymoron by
billing itself as a “non-violent first person shooter.” Initially the
game treads dangerously close to earning a dreaded AO rating by naming
its difficulty options things like Easy Does It,
Not
So Sticky, and
Gobs
of Goo, but it quickly
rectifies this gross little misstep by
providing a pretty neat FPS that tasks you with zapping aliens while
you wear a suit of armor made out of Chex. Not sure how well crispy
flakes of corn-based cereal would hold up in the heat of battle, but
that’s besides the point. Perhaps the most shocking thing about Chex
Quest is the fact that the game was actually a pretty huge success and
is attributed with causing a nearly 300% growth in sales of
Chex-related products. So I guess that’s
why product placement was so
rampant during the ’90s.

Find similar article at: http://www.1up.com/news/notorious-food-based-games-90s_2

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