Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates

Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates

The 1UP Community Cares About The Legend of Dragoon

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 09:17 AM PDT

dragoon

Last
week, we caused the internet to raise its collective pitchfork in
anger at us for stating that 1UP
doesn’t care about The Legend of Dragoon.
And while we haven’t changed our stance, you guys certainly provided a
plethora of arguments in favor of caring about LoD. Some of you
condemned us for stating our opinions, while others, like kingsharkboi,
appreciated the fact that we started a dialogue about a game that tends
to be overlooked by lovers and haters alike.

We’ve gathered a handful of the
best responses in defense of The
Legend of Dragoon from Facebook,
Twitter, and 1UP into a nice little companion piece to our original
article. 

dragoon


Michael Johnston: I think it’s
awesome. I still have my ps1 copy and
replayed it all over again a year ago and still think it’s one of my
favorite JRPG games ever.

Shawn
Goodman: This is one of my
all time favorite RPGs. Right up there with Earthbound
and Super
Mario
RPG! This game is amazing.

Darryl
Bethea Jr.: One of THE
most underrated RPG’s of all times in my opinion. It gave Final
Fantasy VII
competition
and had a very nice time based attack system. I still have
my original copy and would very much love to see a sequel on today’s
graphics

dragoon

dragoon

dragoon


cly5000: I’ve never beaten the
game before. It seemed as if every copy
I was able to get my grubby 14-year-old hands on had a scratch
practically in the same spot on disc 2. I was never able to finish it
because every disc 2 I found was roughed up so much. But with that
said, I thought the game was awesome. Finding new Dragoon powers (one
of
which was hidden I believe), an interactive battle system, and
an interesting story all made this game memorable to me. Sure, it’s
been nearly 12 years since I’ve played it, but after 12 years it has
left a lasting effect on me!

odomk:
Buddha Christ THANK YOU
for the remake! I was never actually able to finish the game until
recently (yes, a decade later). I remember when I first played it
back in the day, the game brought a new feel when it came to the RPG
battle system. At the time, there was no better feeling than landing a
“Gust of Wind Dance” or those darn Dragoon melee combo attacks. That
game gave me a sense of success. Did I mention the music in that
game? Yeah, it was pretty awesome. It’s kinda what made grinding in that
game not so bad.

EliteDarkMage:
I don’t see how
The Legend of the Dragoon is a Final Fantasy clone. It lacked everything
that makes up Final Fantasy, including deep customization options, tons of
sidequests and a complex story arc. That was exactly what I liked
about the game — it was a straightforward, more linear RPG,
with characters that fulfilled a set role, almost limiting the player.
In my opinion this made the game more challenging and more demanding strategically. The story was also cliche and predictable but never failed
to engage me as a player. The Power Ranger-esque transformations and
the overall cinematic feel of the game were a win for me. As for the
music, although no track sticks out as a memorable masterpiece, the
varied and upbeat score always got me pumped during battles, especially
during boss battles.

dragoon

Desertfox1613:
I played LoD
all the way through to the end which is rare for me and an rpg this
long. I have only completed this, Chrono
Trigger, FF 7, 8,
9,
10
and 12.
None of squares other RPG’s compared to this game at the time.
Vagrant
Story was released also very
closely to the release of this
game,
as was Chrono Cross which was mentioned in the article. But for some
reason these other two games could not captivate my interest to the
end. Legend of Dragoon’s production value was unparalleled in its day.
it had fully voiced FMVs which were almost unheard of for an RPG back
then. I’ve played it again on emulator on my PC but will play it again
on PSN on May 1. Hope this release means a sequel is planned!!

andrew_415:
The Legend of
Dragoon was Paper
Mario before Paper Mario, and
Final Fantasy X before
Final Fantasy X. That’s probably excessive. While not immensely complex
in and of itself, the Paper Mario famous timed button presses being
used to execute full powered attacks was a new and creative way to keep
gamers from falling into the grind-a-thon style “press X over and over
again” gameplay found in most other RPGs. That sounds like a
rose-colored glasses statement, but having played this game within the
past few months, I can assure you that it’s a mechanic that continues
to keep the player from subconscious play. Rewards were given for
frequent use of specific characters without making the others seem
useless by comparison, although a couple of later additions to the
roster may seem a bit tacked on.

Maybe the reason 1UP should
care about The Legend of Dragoon has nothing to do with the game
itself, but rather because you all seem to care about it so
much. Regardless, despite not enjoying the game when it released back
2000, you’ve convinced some of us here to give it another shot and download it
on May 1. Well done, you crafty minxes. Finally, we’ll leave you with
the most elegantly loquacious response of them all.

BananaJane:
You guys suck at
liking things


Similar article: http://www.1up.com/news/legend-dragoon-community

Diablo III Looks To Be Getting a Starter Edition, Too

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 09:17 AM PDT

Diablo III

For many developers and publishers, free-to-play is the way to go these days. Just recently we’ve seen quality games like Tribes Ascend and Super Monday Night Combat, two titles that would have no doubt come with a price tag attached in order to play in the past, released for free. Despite all the predictions that World of Warcraft will one day be forced to go free-to-play like so many other MMOs (Lord of the Rings Online, Dungeons Dragons Online, DC Universe Online, Star Trek Online, EverQuest, and so on), Blizzard has stuck by the more traditional methods of selling games. Starting last year, however, it did begin trying to lure in new players with the trappings of free-to-play, and it appears as though things will be no different with Diablo III. As reported by Ars Technica, a Starter Edition of Diablo III popped up sometime overnight, allowing even those without beta access to play a portion of the game ahead of its launch on May 15.

Last June, Blizzard announced any Battle.net user would be able to play World of Warcraft up to level 20 for free. Previous trial versions of the game limited players to a certain period of time before they would be asked to subscribe. The new trial placed no restrictions on play time, allowing potential subscribers to create an unlimited number of characters and play without feeling rushed. StarCraft II followed suit later in the year with a Starter Edition. Replacing the existing demo, it allowed for a good amount of content — the first four missions, first two challenges, and four multiplayer maps (playable with owners of the full game) — to be played without ever paying a dime, the idea being the sample would convince players to purchase the full version.

I wondered at the time if Diablo III would see something similar released, and whether or not it would be coming at launch or months down the line. Considering last night’s leak, it seems as though a Starter Edition may be available at launch, if not sooner.

Diablo III

Word began circulating earlier today that anyone with a free Battle.net account could download the Diablo III beta client and begin playing. Some of the initial speculation was that Blizzard might be opening up the beta to everyone to stress test its servers before the beta is shut down on May 1. It was quickly made clear this beta access was not by design; beta servers were taken offline for everyone this morning and remain down as of this writing. The reasoning for this, according to a forum post by Blizzard community manager Danielle Vanderlip, was incredibly vague — “The Diablo III beta is currently unavailable while we work to resolve an issue,” the post reads. A response to a question asking for more information later described the issue as “an accessibility error.”

Before the servers could be taken down, alleged screenshots were posted online which refer to players with a “starter edition.” The same (limited) content available to beta players was available to these starter edition players during the brief period that they could access the game; the only difference appears to have been various promotions for the full version of the game, as seen here.

Considering the way things work with both WoW and StarCraft, and seeing what features are advertised for the full version of Diablo III (level 60 cap; Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno modes) it looks like this Starter Edition will limit players not with play time, but with a level cap and content restrictions. Level 13 is the cap for beta players currently, and somewhere in the neighborhood of that would make sense for the Starter Edition. The trials in WoW and StarCraft allow for a taste of the game, not for the entire thing to be experienced sans certain features. Letting prospective buyers play up to level 13 or so with each of the five character classes but not letting them see the endgame content or higher difficulty settings sounds like the right balance of providing a taste and leaving a lot to be seen in the full game.

With this setup apparently already in existence, it’s possible this will be available at the game’s launch next month (in which case I wonder if it dissuades some people from buying the game if they can get their fix from the freebie version.) As the beta is closing in less than two weeks, Blizzard may, however, be interested in seeing how gamers react to things like the prompts encouraging a purchase of the full game. If that proves to be the case, it stands to reason this starter edition could be officially pushed out the door in the coming days, or possibly as soon as the beta servers are brought back online. Vanderlip gave no indication such a thing was coming on the way, though another update is expected to be coming today at 3PM Pacific. With word of the starter edition spreading, it shouldn’t be much longer before Blizzard at least acknowledges its existence.


Similar article: http://www.1up.com/news/diablo-iii-starter-edition

How Dead Space 3 Can Avoid Making Alien 3′s Mistakes

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 09:17 AM PDT

What’s so terrible about DmC? People sure were angry when Capcom revealed this Devil May Cry prequel/reboot last year. Not having particularly followed the series myself, I found the outcry a little baffling. Sure, it was being outsourced rather than being developed internally by Capcom, but the studio responsible for it is Ninja Theory, who have yet to make a poor game; on the contrary, their work — particularly the recent sleeper Enslaved: Journey to the West — have been quite nicely received by critics. In the end, the complaints mainly seem to boil down to the fact that protagonist Dante suddenly has dark hair and a coif that look an awful lot like that of Ninja Theory’s boss, Tameem Antoniades.

OK, so maybe it’s a little self-gratifying. But still, I have to ask: What’s so terrible about DmC? Now that I’ve had the opportunity to play DmC for myself, I have a hard time imagining that any fan of Devil May Cry fan wouldn’t enjoy Ninja Theory’s take on the franchise. Yeah, Dante has become something of a self-insertion character, and he’s a cocky twerp; but his brashness is offset by a delirious combination of over-the-top silliness and over-the-top action game excess. One moment, Dante is answering the door of his trailer home in the nude; the next, a massive demon is attacking and the hero dresses himself in slow-motion by free-falling through the air into his clothes. (Conveniently placed hovering free-fall objects such as slices of pizza manage to preserve his modesty to the viewer through an increasingly improbable sequence of events.) There’s a real sense of tongue-in-cheek absurdity to it all; were these events to simply flash past in a moment, they’d seem frivolous. Instead, they drag on just a little too long and become just a little too ridiculous, and that clearly deliberate excess amounts to a knowing wink at the audience. It works.

Similar article: http://www.1up.com/previews?cId=3187004

Game Music Thunderdome Round 2.1: The Mario Paint Face-Off

Posted: 19 Apr 2012 09:17 AM PDT

A few months ago, we pitted together 64 of our favorite pieces of game music ever and asked you to vote on them. Once you’d narrowed the picks down to 32, we… well, we got sidetracked a bit and forgot to advance things to the next round. Sorry. But better late than never, right?

We’re compacting our second round into two parts of 16 tunes apiece rather than running them each as daily one-vs-one contests. For this first set of face-offs, we’ve decided to pay tribute to the greatest 16-bit artistic tool of all time: Nintendo’s Mario Paint. These 16 tracks are presented below in fan-made Mario Paint renditions (or ersatz versions created in Mario Paint Composer. It’s the great equalizer! By stripping these tracks from their original context, the core melodies are freed from the shackles of technology and can face off on compositional merit alone. Also, mario Paint remixes are awesome.

Listen to and vote on all 16 tracks (which we’ve spread across several pages to keep your browser from barfing under the strain of too many YouTube embeds), and stay tuned for Round 2.2 — coming soon!

Vote One: All Final Fantasy, All the Time:

Final Fantasy VII, “J-E-N-O-V-A”: A bizarre, otherworldly battle theme that eschews the standard bombast of Final Fantasy battle themes to better fit the nature of the alien threat it accompanies.

Final Fantasy IV, “The Dreadful Battle”: The theme that defined the standard bombast of Final Fantasy battle themes, trotted out specifically for fights with the game’s four key plot bosses.

Vote Two: Rebel Yell

Metal Gear Solid 2, “Yell Dead Cell!”: A forceful beat propels this theme, but what makes it truly intense is the dissonant saxophone that punctuates the piece and shatters its otherwise understated melody.

Street Fighter II, “Guile’s Theme”: This theme goes with everything, not just cool Air Force pilots with improbable hair and extraordinary anti-aerial kicks.

Similar article: http://www.1up.com/features/game-music-thunderdome-21-mario
Posted by Shri Krishna

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