Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates |
- Diablo III – Giving Blizzard the thumbs down
- Blade Wars MMORPG Review
- Musings from the Public Domain
- The Nintendo Play Station: A Retrospective
- Diablo III Sales Bode Well for PC Games, Poorly for Always-Online Haters
- Eve Online: Inferno out now
| Diablo III – Giving Blizzard the thumbs down Posted: 23 May 2012 10:14 PM PDT  I still remember around 11 to 12 years ago, me in my school uniform, skipping my choir lesson just to queue up for a box of Diablo II. Man, I had so much fun with the game, the items, the challenging buy possible Hell mode... Well, that was the past. Fast forward till today, the much anticipated sequel left a really bad taste in my mouth. Diablo III itself is a 7/10 for me, but let us look at the problems besieging the game which frustrated gamers from all over the world. This is a borderline rant post, and definitely not a "professional" paid-to-write article, so spare me your criticisms. 1. Server capacity, Error 37 Yes, Blizzard, with 10 years of experience hosting World of Warcraft, couldn't predict "near" accurately the number of gamers logging in on launch day. Seriously? The last I know, they ought to have numbers of how many physical copies were shipped out to stores and how many digital copies were already paid for. I am no analyst expert myself, but as a multimillion company with the resources, how could Error 37 even happen in the first place, and for a few days at that. Although I did not apply for annual leave, various of my gaming buddies did.  Over at the Asian server, the same thing happened. With Taiwan and Korea supposed to be under the Asian region, queues begun to form after the server capacity reached its limits. And Blizzard's comment? The maximum bandwidth has been hit, and players are encouraged to switch to either to The Americas or the Europe server, although characters are not able to go cross-servers. I mean, seriously? The good folks spent money, most probably just wanted to play LAN with their friends and offline single player modes, why must they, or rather, we, agree to this crap? Before you go "Blizzard did stated that the game was online only", people bought the game assuming the servers are stable and safe, which Blizzard touted. To add salt to the wound, Taiwanese gamers found out that once they change their own IP to a Korean one, they can log into the Asian server, located in South Korea, with ease. What kind of gamers does Blizzard think the modern day ones are? Tech green horns? Subsequently, Blizzard blocked Taiwanese IPs from the Asian server, although I am not sure of the situation now. All in all, this situation should never have had happened in the first place if proper estimations were made. Or did Blizzard even kept track of how many copies of Diablo III they sold? Finally, this just happened a few minutes ago. I got banned for 24 hours from the Blizzard forums for "advertising". Let me get this straight, everyone is so pissed about the auction house errors, the hacking and whatsoever, I thought posting something which I feel is a novelty might perhaps bring a smile to those wry faces. It is actually an image of a shirt from an online T-shirt store, which I mentioned the shop's name. The shop is actually a partner of IGN, a games website where Diablo III is heavily advertised. I would be happy if I get a warning, but no, the easy way out, like how Funcom almost got my YouTube account banned, is to just swing the axe. No wonder the community and customer service folks are always on the chopping block first when there is a retrenchment exercise.  2. Items and equipments I will have to admit, I was expecting a much improved Diablo II, something like a true sequel and not a total remake. Remake is fine, only if the changes are really convincing. What I got was instead a pile of ego lumped together in a much beloved franchise. Hear me out. First, set items. When I was playing Diablo II, me and my friends actually took the initiative to collect all the set items, equip them and took screenshots signalling our successful "farming". That took place even before we hit level 99, had tons of fun. Now, set items in Diablo III are so rare, I have only seen 2 or 3 different sets before the level 60 ones. There is a serious lack of set items in the game, why so? Is it another easy way out? End-act bosses, such as Azmodan and Diablo, will not drop as many yellow, rare goodies after the first time. It means the end of boss farming for drops. Blizzard argued that this is to prevent, well, boss farming continuously. So, at level 60, players who kill elite monsters and group mobs (which are often stronger than the final act bosses) will gain 1 buff, improving magic/rare items' drop rate. It can be stacked up 5 times. So now, players will have to run around maps finding these mobs to kill before teleporting straight to the final boss. From the looks of it, it sound pretty novel. But in actual game implementation, it makes no sense to me at all. While Blizzard touted there will be many builds players can switch to according to different situation, the buff actually cancels when players change skills. Certain gamers have a set of skills for mass mobs, another set for single target bosses, so where the hell is the link to what Blizzard said? Final note about the drop rate buff. Blizzard implemented this system to make sure players enjoy the full game content without traveling straight to the boss. If you happen to meet elite mobs which you are geared to kill, good for you. If you happen to meet those which are impossible to solo, such as enchanted with insane arcane lasers, walls, invulnerability minions etc, you will have to spend time finding others (buff ends in 30minutes, resets every time an elite mob is killed) or log out, which will cancel all buffs gathered. I understand this new system is implemented as a time sink in order not for players to rush through the game. But let's face it, this is 2012, gamers' mentality has changed, they want some fast, engaging action without having to repeat procedures too often. This only happens mainly in MMOs, yet Blizzard claim Diablo III is just an online game, not a MMO. What? 3. Game was not fully tested before shipping, game design based on "assumption" I was directed to this thread by another overseas Diablo fan, and was amazed to even read what was posted by Blizzard's community manager. He claimed that they, Blizzard, "purposely launched the game with Inferno being far more difficult than what we were able to progress in ourselves, assuming people would find it as difficult but with a few skilled players able to pull it off". In other words, the team was not able to clear the original Inferno difficulty themselves, yet shipped the game out with Inferno even harder and hope some skilled players are able to do so. What kind of excuse is this?  I understand that Blizzard wanted Inferno to be hard, but the least they could do is to ensure the right equipments drop time to time. I, having farmed Hell mode's Azmodan and Diablo a couple of nights with the drop rate buff at full, only found a couple of equipments which are a little better than what we were wearing, but no where near to ensure we will not be "1 hit KO" in Inferno's Act 2.The item stats are so random, we could be farming for the next 2 years to get something useful for Inferno. Yeah, the auction house. Don;t even get me started on that game breaking feature.  The thing is, gamers do want something challenging, not near impossible. I am looking at gradual scaling in terms of difficulty, not just bump up the mobs to ridiculous stats and say "go ahead and try it, even though we as developers couldn't complete it ourselves". What kind of game design philosophy is this? Based on assumption? Too many negatives overshadowing an otherwise great game I could just go on and on and on, but still, Diablo III is a good game, minus the non-stop technical hiccups since launch and flawed game design mechanics. The combat is fun, I love the fact Diablo is back, graphics is looking awesome and certainly unique classes such as the Witch Doctor. There are many issues to be solved right now, including a buggy auction house and accounts being hacked left and right. Given the promises of the game being safer, more stable etc in an online-only environment, it is not too much to say the game is a major letdown as well.   This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 23 May 2012 04:01 PM PDT Blade Wars is a Chinese MMORPG with 2D and 3D elements presented with an isometric camera view. Based on Asian mythology, the game has three races, the Abyssals, Humans, and Immortals who are locked in a battle for dominance. Plenty of PvE and PvP challenges await players in Blade Wars.
Publisher: ChangYou Website: http://bw.us.changyou.com/en/ Pros: +Fast paced combat. +Play musical instruments. +Guild battles and PvP arenas. +Earn extra experience & coins in groups. +Create custom Combos. Cons: -Dated visuals and interface. -Monsters provide no challenge. -Limited display options.
Blade Wars is the second MMORPG to hit Western shores by the Chinese studio ChangYou. Like Battle of the Immortals, it boasts '2.5D' graphics. This means the graphics and camera view are similar to many action-RPGs. Blade Wars has fast paced gameplay with a combo system and plenty of skills. Progression is fast paced and there are plenty of quests to complete. The five playable classes are broken down into three races. Classes: Assassin - Quick and deadly. The ultimate trained killers. Their skills are breathtaking to watch and their weapons of choice are the Twin Blades and Twin Rings. Knight - Skilled with Swords and Bladed weapons, Knights excel at dealing consistent damage. They are natural born leaders. Shura - Masters of fist weapons including Claws and Cestus, Shura distinguish themselves with their use of powerful Talisman. Warrior - Brute fighters with are well suited to use Axes and Hammers. They have high health and defense making them ideal front line soldier.s Warlock - The primary spell casters in Blade Wars. Warlocks possess long ranged elemental attacks. They also rely on fire and lightening abilities for defense. Their weapons of choice include Staffs, Wands, and Flails. Races - Abyssals, Humans, Immortals
Blade Wars System RequirementsMinimum Requirements: Recommended Specification: |
| Musings from the Public Domain Posted: 23 May 2012 03:47 PM PDT
Feature 1UP COVER STORY  1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF MAY 21 | WHAT IF? Musings from the Public DomainCover Story: A view from a world where the "Mickey Mouse" copyright extension act never became law.T he spring release season is now fully upon us, and with it comes the usual trickle of new IPs and a torrent of sequels to comparatively recent franchises. The biggest deal of the season, however, has to be the absolute flood of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King games and films. A&E's blockbuster LotR miniseries is finally moving on to its conclusion, and It's pretty much impossible to visit a flash game portal without tripping over a Minas Tirith tower defense game. Meanwhile, Rockstar's open world take on Rebel Without a Cause has emerged as the definitive reimagining of the flick even against all the major studio remakes, to say nothing of the glut of halfassed student films. Finally, Edmund McMillan's deeply unsettling take on Lolita as a dungeon crawler played from the point of view of the title character is still looking for a bold enough publisher despite sweeping this year's IGF awards. That's just a small sample of a motley assemblage of games that all have one thing in common: They're all based on properties that entered the public domain this year. The yearly rollout of old properties, both celebrated and obscure, has long since become something we've taken for granted. We even make a point of taking a annual look at what will be emerging from the copyright cage once we're done breaking all our new year's resolutions, and we barely bat an eye when we're treated to a glut of weird furry Lady and the Tramp dating sims. Geeks around the world are already anticipating next year's Superman revival, or dreading his inevitable crossover appearance in every other comic in existence. It's so much a part of the culture at this point that it's easy to overlook the fact that it can all be traced back to a single momentous decision. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| The Nintendo Play Station: A Retrospective Posted: 23 May 2012 02:52 PM PDT
Feature 1UP COVER STORY  1UP COVER STORY | WEEK OF MAY 21 | WHAT IF? The Nintendo Play Station: A RetrospectiveCover Story: As Nintendo and Sony prepare to announce the Play Station 4 at E3, we remember the console that set the stage for modern gaming.A s we gear up for E3 2012, the biggest announcement expected to come out of the L.A. Convention Center this year is the latest generation of gaming's console goliath, the Play Station 4. Based on early reports from trusted third-party developers and info leaks from Chinese parts suppliers, the PS4 seems a given -- and with its arrival, the continued dominance of the games industry by joint Sony/Nintendo venture Taido should be a lock as well. With the PS4 right around the corner, now is as good a time as any to look back at the history of the Play Station family and how two Japanese giants teamed up to put an entire medium in a 20-year hammerlock. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Diablo III Sales Bode Well for PC Games, Poorly for Always-Online Haters Posted: 23 May 2012 02:31 PM PDT Diablo III was expected to do well, but with so many factors to take into account -- competition from Torchlight II, an always-online requirement, and complaints about a supposedly dumbed-down skill system and colorful art style -- it was hard to say for sure exactly how well it would do. It turns out it did tremendously well; Blizzard has announced the long-awaited sequel has already broken sales records, something the folks over at Activision are pretty accustomed to thanks to Call of Duty. However, Diablo's success may have more far-reaching effects than simply ensuring Blizzard and company are flush with cash. More than 3.5 million copies of the game were sold in its first 24 hours of availability, according to Blizzard. This figure does not include the freebie digital versions handed out to those who signed up for the World of Warcraft Annual Pass. Over 1.2 million people took advantage of that offer, bringing the total number of gamers with a copy of the game on launch day up to 4.7 million, good enough to make it the "biggest PC game launch in history." After the first week, that figure now sits at 6.3 million. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Posted: 23 May 2012 12:00 PM PDT The 17th free expansion for subscribers to one of Iceland’s biggest exports, Eve Online, is now available. While Inferno includes updates as wide-ranging as graphical enhancements, usability tweaks and fixes, the expansion focusses on delivering new and improved means to wage war on your enemies. The ageing war declaration mechanism has been completely overhauled to remove exploitable loopholes and keep track of your ongoing battles be they for revenge, financial gain or simply for the hell of it. Factional warfare has also had considerable (not to mention long-overdue) attention paid to it making the enlisting of your player or corporation into Eve’s universe-wide game of conquest more rewarding than its ever been. Another brilliant addition to the mix is the Mercenary Marketplace, which allows players to pay for the best guns-for-hire or alternatively offer your PvP skills to the highest bidder. "If you've ever had dreams of piloting a spaceship into a full blown Sci-Fi war of thousands of ships, EVE is your game and Inferno your expansion. Or, if you've been skirting the edges of conflict for years, there are going to be some pretty compelling reasons to put your hull at risk," says Jon Lander, Senior Producer of EVE Online. The surprise star of the show, though, are the amazing new graphical effects for missiles and launchers, which is demonstrated rather nicely in the Inferno launch trailer. Eve Online recently celebrated its ninth birthday and its ninth consecutive year of growth by launching an eve ‘Pod’ containing the names of all it’s players into the stratosphere before sending it hurtling back to Earth. |
We certainly wouldn't be seeing so many films and TV shows based on Sherlock Holmes if the character were still the IP of a single publisher, and we sure as hell wouldn't be seeing him fight Dracula quite so often. 
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