Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates

Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates


Codename X7 (CN)

Posted: 03 May 2012 09:16 AM PDT



As part of China MMO publisher and developer ChangYou’s confirmed titles for this and next year, “Codename X7″ is the latest game to have its debut trailer. Well, not exactly a debut trailer, but mor eof a teaser as it showcase more of the game engine, Dark Fire’s graphical prowess. Other than that, the only information known is that “Codename X7″ is a martial arts-themed online game.

Below are a couple of in-game screenshots to flaunt how close to reality the graphic is. Well, I still can’t comment much since this is currently all the information on hand, stay tuned to more when available. For more on ChangYou’s Game+ campaign, click here (link).

Black Ops 2 – 13 November

Posted: 03 May 2012 03:16 AM PDT

Black Ops 2 - 13 November

COD: Black Ops 2 has been given a 13 November release date – if a recent photo of in-store pre-order box art turns out to be real.

As the Kotaku article suggests though, there are plenty of indications that the photo is a fake, even thought it's appeared as an apparent Amazon listing, teaser poster and teaser website.

Expect more of these kind of Black Ops 2 teasers in the run-up to a potential 1 May reveal.

 

Similar Article can be found at: http://www.totalpcgaming.com/general/black-ops-2-13-november/

Hounds (KR)

Posted: 03 May 2012 03:15 AM PDT



CJ GameLab’s Hounds was actually revealed way back last year with a trailer (below), but as usual there will be a stagnant period where intensive development will be going on. Despite being scheduled for release last year as well, the game only got back into the spotlight yesterday with some new information and images about the storyline. Well, aliens invades Earth, players gotta slay em’ all before everyone becomes a zombified alien.

Hounds is played with a third person shooter (TPS) mode, and CJ GameLab is stressing the game is not just a typical online shooter. The game apparently focuses more on PvE with a core RPG element, hence coining the “new” genre as Role-playing shooter (RPS). Overall feel gives me a Resident Evil vibe, with folks getting infected by aliens and turning into hideous undead monsters.



Combat in Hounds is not just shooting, as players will ave to make use of various actions to avoid being alien food, such as dodging, strafing, evasive ground roll, blind firing and more. There is melee combat as well, typically with the short weapons such as daggers and knives.



Below is a low-res trailer China gaming website 17173.com somehow got their hands on, as it is apparently not in the Korean boards I visit yet. There is no Closed beta of sorts announced yet, so stay tuned for more info.

Similar Article can be found at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/05/hounds-kr-alien-zombies-galore.html

Lost Saga

Posted: 03 May 2012 03:15 AM PDT


So, like I mentioned, a new character list will be created after every 10 heroes. To start list number 5 off, No. 71 will be the one and only Iori Yagami from The King of Fighters! Due to a new partnership with SNK Playmore, Lost Saga players might see more KOF fighters in the game in the future. Enjoy~!

Help me click on the ad above 1 time a day if you like this list!

Similar Article can be found at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/05/lost-saga-character-list-5.html

Otherland

Posted: 02 May 2012 11:57 PM PDT



[Game website] I am sure a group of you readers have read about Otherland, an upcoming MMORPG based on Tad Williams’ Otherland novels. While the publisher has been confirmed to be Gamigo, the development studio Real-U (link) is actually located in Singapore and it is a subsidiary of German console game publisher dtp entertainment. I know, it sounds a little bit confusing, but here comes the bad news.

According to IGN (link), dtp entertainment has just filed for insolvency just a few hours ago. While the future of Otherland is not mentioned, it seems funding will be limited as insolvency means dtp entertainment is currently unable to repay business debts. Will Gamigo fund the project instead? For me, Otherland is looking really cool, and it will be a total waste if it is canned.

Similar Article can be found at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/05/otherland-game-future-in-jeopardy.html

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Is Cancelled

Posted: 02 May 2012 09:20 PM PDT

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2, the long anticipated sequel to the PC classic, has been cancelled, according to the official Twitter feed. "Money was the issue," goes the official Twitter feed of developer GSC Game World, "We were not able to secure the rights to continue development of the Stalker series."

"The reason we cannot continue with the development of Stalker 2," GSC continues on its Facebook page, "is we and our new investors we unable to come to an agreement with the IP rights [sic] onwer."

All is not lost however: "The entire team that was working on Stalker is now working on a new project called Survarium. We are so grateful for the support over the years and despite our best efforts we have to move on from Stalker which is as hard for us as it is for you. However, we feel that our new studio and project will be something unique and fill the void left by Stalker as well as add a lot more!"

Fans of the original S.T.A.L.K.E.R. will be pleased to hear that Survarium will be in the same apocalyptic fantasy vein. "The game focuses on a mass-scale ecological catastrophe on Earth, the reasons behind vaguely known. Impassable woods advance onto cities from every side, maddened animals and birds attack industrial complexes, military structures, warehouses and power plants.S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Is Cancelled

"Towns are cut off from each other, there are no water supplies, no electricity, gas, communication is lost. Countries collapse, anarchy spreads throughout the world. Now force dictates who to survive. In the meantime, new species of greenery and animals purposely destroy human civilization. Strange plants and mushrooms grow through concrete and steel. Scientists all over the world haplessly try to cope with the anomaly sprawling across the Earth with terrifying speed."

Survarium will use Vostok's proprietary engine and is slated to arrive on PC in time for Christmas 2013. Check out the Vostok developer diary below for more details:

YouTube Preview Image

Similar Article can be found at: http://www.totalpcgaming.com/latest-pc-news/s-t-a-l-k-e-r-2-is-cancelled/

TERA Japan

Posted: 02 May 2012 09:20 PM PDT



Talk about irony. In a week where TERA Europe removed the blood option 1 week from launch (link) and only to reinstate the effect after furious gamers hit out (link), TERA Japan released a new trailer showing a small, yet significant number of scenes with blood. This trailer is for the upcoming update, Queen of Argon: Part 1, which is currently in the Korean server now. And I doubt it will be used for the European server once the update hit…

Along with this update, almost all instance dungeons’ cool-down has been halved. In my opinion, giving a cool-down to dungeons is sort of like games such as Dragon Nest with the stamina bar, which kind of restricts how long players can actually game a day. I am quite shocked to see cool-downs of up to 6 hours before this patch was implemented though…


Similar Article can be found at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/04/tera-japan-blood-graces-new-trailer.html

Survarium (RU)

Posted: 02 May 2012 09:17 PM PDT



It is my very first time posting about a Russian (RU) online game, and it is special because I personally played S.T.A.L.K.E.R and this small blog apparently has many visitors from Russia as well. Ok, Survarium is not technically a Russian game since it is being developed in Ukraine, but Russian is still the main language there. If you have not played S.T.A.L.K.E.R, it is a single-player, post-apocalyptic FPS where players shoot down mutated stuff in a huge zone filled with radioactive gas.

Survarium is Vostok’s first title, a Free to Play MMOFPS with the similar post-apocalyptic design found in S.T.A.L.K.E.R games. And yes, it will apparently be an open world (Yes!) online shooter, not a room-based one. There is no news of an English server as of now, but seeing the official debut developer diary is subbed in English, one can only hope :) Special thanks to SkySkyss  for sending this information.

Similar Article can be found at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/04/survarium-ru-from-creators-of-stalker.html

Portal 2 Makes Designing Test Chambers Satisfying and Easy

Posted: 02 May 2012 09:15 PM PDT

When Valve first announced an in-game level editor would be coming to Portal 2, I was excited. Not because I am the type to ever mess around with such a feature — outside of TimeSplitters 2 I can’t think of an example of a map editor I have ever spent any extended period of time with — but because I’m intrigued to see what sort of test chambers others create. That functionality was already in place for those who are more technologically inclined, but the new in-game editor promised it would be “easy-to-use” and allow for levels to be shared with other players. Based on the few hours I’ve spent with the new Perpetual Testing Initiative DLC, both of those promises have been met and, much to my surprise, I now find myself more excited to see what others think of my level than I am to try out others’ creations.

Valve hasn’t included any new test chambers of its own in this release. It has provided more than a simple level editor, though: New Cave Johnson story content is wrapped around the levels players create. Following up on what’s laid out in the trailer above, the beginning of each test chamber features a new clip of the J.K. Simmons-voiced Aperture Science founder talking about alternate dimensions and passing along knowledge his new assistant has shared with him. Just as within Portal 2 proper, nearly everything he says is hilarious, and in GLaDOS’ absence his comments provide a welcome feeling of cohesion as you make your way through test chambers which otherwise lack any connection with each other.

The level editor is, as advertised, very easy to get the hang of. To start you’re presented with a basic room containing nothing more than an entrance and exit which you’re allowed to modify from there. I’m hardly a natural at this sort of thing and I was able to almost immediately begin manipulating the environment, moving walls around, adding objects and connecting them to one another (like a button to a cube dispenser), and manipulating turrets’ field of vision.

Portal 2 level editor

At least at this stage, there are no instructions within the editor itself on how to use it. This was initially off-putting as I hoped to be given some guidance, but it quickly becomes apparent it’s not needed. With very exceptions, everything should be self-explanatory to anyone who has played through Portal 2 and is familiar with all of its elements. A press of the tab key allows you to jump from the editor view to an in-game view, which can be handy when trying to get a better grasp on what the player will see. Unfortunately shifting between views like this doesn’t update the level with any changes you’ve made; no matter how minor the alteration, if you want to see the effect of something you’ve done from the in-game view the level has to “rebuild.” This sticks you back at the beginning and resets everything in the level. This means changes toward the end of a level will require you to run through the entire thing again, and after a while it can become an annoying chore to have to do so again and again to ensure a small change your make works as intended.

As I said, with this update I was primarily looking forward to playing others’ levels. I presumed I would only spend enough time in the editor to be able to pass on impressions of how easy I did or did not find it to use. I initially set out to make a simple level that would function — press a button, get a cube, weigh down a button and you’re done. Yet whenever I completed my goal, I consistently found myself wanting to add just one more layer of complexity to my test chamber. What if, to get the cube, you first have to press another button that drops Propulsion Gel and allows you to reach it? What if I incorporate a laser that needs to be used? What if the exit is open from the start but a turret guards it which is destroyed once everything else is completed? What if there are five turrets? What if I work in some Repulsion Gel? What about having to transport some of that Propulsion Gel to another part of the level so you can reach the exit once the turrets are destroyed?

By the time I was satisfied with the many additions I had made, I had spent almost three hours perfecting my creation. You could undoubtedly build a level in less time, but if you’re hoping to have much complexity and for things to work as you’d hope, you can expect to pour a serious amount of time into it. That becomes apparent as you begin to search for ways your level can be exploited; all those additional layers I went about implementing are worthless if the player can shoot a portal to the end and circumvent all of the challenges along the way. I chose to cheat to a degree by making it so most of the surfaces in my level could not have portals opened upon then, decreasing the likelihood that I have not found all of ways someone could make their way through in a manner I did not intend.

Portal 2 level editor

Searching for these loopholes may sound like a chore. In fact, it may have been the most fun I had creating my level. I found it challenging to determine how I would go about solving the chamber if I did not know every aspect of the way it functions. But what was even more difficult was forcing myself to look at solutions in different ways; how else might someone approach the challenges I’ve laid out? Whether players could cheat and knock over the turrets I had laid out without dying was a major concern for me, and it was immensely satisfying to identify workable strategies I had not anticipated and come up with ways to prevent them from working.

This has all caused me to have a much deeper appreciation for the thinking that went into the design of Portal and Portal 2. While you can search YouTube and find ways to go about things the game’s designers did not intend, it’s remarkable how they came up with so many different chambers that are comprehensible yet challenging and entertaining.

Once you’ve spent however much time creating a chamber, the process for sharing it is incredibly quick. Publishing a level requires little more than a click of a button; you assign a name, provide a description, and specify whether you want it available publicly or only to friends, and it becomes available for download. The Steam Workshop, which allows Steam users to navigate and download content for Team Fortress 2 and Skyrim, is used for distributing levels. It works well, allowing you to look at pictures or video of a level, see comments left by other players and the creator, and queue it up for download. This can be done from a browser, Steam, or in-game (in which case you’ll use Steam’s overlay browser) and, in the case of the latter, levels are brought into the game almost immediately. There does seem to be a bug that requires you subscribe to a map twice in order for it to pop up in game; it’s a simple problem to work around and I expect it will be fixed by the time of the official release on May 8, so I’m not concerned about that.

With the ease of downloading levels from the Steam Workshop, this free DLC should provide players with a great incentive to start playing again. The quality of the levels varies wildly at the moment, but once the editor is in the hands of all Portal 2 owners I expect there to be no shortage of quality content to check out. And, like I was, you might be surprised to discover how satisfying designing a functioning test chamber can be.

Similar Article can be found at: http://www.1up.com/news/portal-2-designing-test-chambers-satisfying-easy

Steam To Enable Remote Downloads Soon

Posted: 02 May 2012 03:15 PM PDT

Now you never need to miss out on a Steam deal again.

Currently in beta, this function will soon be carried over to all Steam users, enabling you to start a download on your PC over the internet. There's no news on when the feature will properly launch, but if it's currently in the beta you can expect it pretty soon.

But how does it work? Well, you will need the Steam client open on your PC, which is a compelling excuse to forgo environmentalists advice and leave your PC on at all times.

If the Steam client is open, however, all you need to do is access the Steam store-front through any browser at SteamPowered.com – and if you make a purchase, or even want to manage your downloads ahead of a scheduled night of gaming with a friend, then you can simply access your games list and install.

Once at your games list (found in community tab, for those not familiar with the web browser) simply tap install and it will begin miles away on your PC. Kind of like magic.

Whether this added function will be brought to the fancy Steam app or not it's hard to say, but Valve would be missing a trick if it didn't.

Similar Article can be found at: http://www.totalpcgaming.com/announcement/steam-to-enable-remote-downloads-soon/

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