Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates |
- Skyrim Patch 1.5 Zooms In For The Kill
- Star Wars: The Old Republic free to play this weekend
- TERA
- RaiderZ
- Shenmue HD Re-Releases Can Only Help Shenmue III’s Chances
- Unpopular Games We Can’t Help But Love
- DOTA Online (TW)
- Batman: Arkham City Reaffirms Itself as The Best Superhero Game
| Skyrim Patch 1.5 Zooms In For The Kill Posted: 18 Mar 2012 09:19 AM PDT
Bethesda has released a new patch for The Elder Scroll V: Skyrim. The 1.5 Skyrim update has been released as a beta on Steam and includes new kill moves for melee and a kill cam for ranged and magic. Other new features are: You can check out the full list of features and bug fixes on the official Skyrim website, and check out the Skyrim Update 1.5 video below: Find alternates article at: http://www.totalpcgaming.com/latest-pc-news/skyrim-patch-1-5-zooms-in-for-the-kill/ Data fetched from: Gameforumer.com: Latest Games News, MMORPG Reviews, Gaming Community |
| Star Wars: The Old Republic free to play this weekend Posted: 18 Mar 2012 09:19 AM PDT Star Wars: The Old Republic free to play weekend is already well under way and is set to end at 2am Monday 19th March. Launched in December to a good number of positive reviews, including ours, which came courtesy of NowGamer.com's Daniel Cairns, SWTOR has enjoyed a pretty good run so far. To keep the momentum going newcomers are being welcomed to the opening stages of the game and sample both PVE and PVP aspects of gameplay. You can sign up for the free to play weekend, which started in the small hours of last night, by paying a visit to BioWare's official Star Wars: The Old Republic website. Find alternates article at: http://www.totalpcgaming.com/latest-pc-news/star-wars-the-old-republic-free-to-play-this-weekend/ Data fetched from: Gameforumer.com: Latest Games News, MMORPG Reviews, Gaming Community |
| Posted: 18 Mar 2012 09:19 AM PDT
“True action combat”. I am not sure how Bluehole Studio, the Korean developer define this, but in my books, not having the ability to fire projectiles or swing weapons while moving/ strafing is not really “true” action combat. It is more like a “True Non-Point and Click” online title. Imagine you are a soldier on the battlefield with an assault rifle, but everytime you want to shoot, you have to stand still at a spot, fire a few rounds, and move again. The same thing applies for melee combat, you can’t swing your weapons while moving. I am getting the feeling I will be flamed for being so choosy and stuff, but seriously, this restriction pissed me off tremendously. The skill casting system is not “fun” or “action” at all as well. I find it hard to describe in words, but it has got something to do with a delay when casting continuous skills not caused by lag, but how the system is designed. Ok, so gamers wanted action combat, hence the developer gave “console style action combat”. Wait, is it really “console style”? What made console RPG action fun? Let me see… endless chain of combos, ever jumping damage numbers, bonuses for more attacks being chained together… Wait, none of these are in TERA! Yes, I am being picky again, but I hate it that all these things were apparently not thought of much during the production process.
Is TERA really all that bad? No at all. The graphics is one of the best I have ever encountered for an Unreal Engine 3 title. Most of the others I played felt somewhat clunky, perhaps due to the inexperienced developers working on the engine. In fact, TERA has perhaps the best graphics in MMOs I have ever played in my life, alongside ArcheAge. Since majority of Bluehole Studio’s staff defected from NCsoft, which use Unreal Engine for most of its games, this is the kind of quality and polished visuals which make gamers immerse in the detailed world. There is a small detail which gave me a pleasant surprise, which is getting random buffs just by gathering resources out in the open field. They range from healing you, increase max health points, increasing gathering skills and more. You see, it is all these simple things which gamers take for granted, and only will complain about if one day this function disappears. I guess that is all for now. My main point is, the “action combat” lacks the “action”, and combat itself does not make a complete game without the right features to complement this system. Hey, having massive server merges in just a couple of months in Korea and Japan didn’t happen for nothing after the initial craze. TERA is a good game to spend some time in now, but once Diablo III and Guild Wars 2 arrives, I fear the worst. Guild Wars 2 may not boast the “True action combat” tag, but with its dynamic world events, secret dungeons, PvP modes and more, it will definitely trounce TERA in terms of re-playability. And no monthly fee as well! Find alternates article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/03/tera-my-opinion-on-game.html Data fetched from: Gameforumer.com: Latest Games News, MMORPG Reviews, Gaming Community |
| Posted: 18 Mar 2012 09:19 AM PDT
From what I remember, RaiderZ was once touted as have “no classes” in foreign media. There are really no classes, but you still have to choose your weapon of choice when creating your character. These are call “styles”, for example a 2-handed melee will be called the “Berserker style”. It is possible to learn skills from all the styles available, given you know how to spend the limited amount of skill points.
At the crafters, they even show you which mobs drop the required item. Some may see it as simple, but I see it as convenient. Not having played Monster Hunter, I wonder if this is the same system in the franchise. While most of the items are really easy to acquire in the beginning, I wonder if subsequent materials will require drops from open world bosses, which will no doubt create conflicts. There are a couple of reasons why RaiderZ is a better play for me compared with my experience in TERA. There are little bits of gameplay which delighted me, including the cannon adventure seen in the video below. Although there is no combo meter, my character goes into berserk mode after some time to increase my attack. What’s more, RaiderZ boast similar BAMs (big ass monsters) in the game, with open world combat as well to boot. Minus that ridiculous crosshair. And if you see some of the videos, certain mobs actually drop their weapons for players to use temporarily. And the weather plus time of the day will affect when certain monsters spawn. Did you know there is no weather system in TERA, which is due to the game’s lore? Hmn… I am not really sure why, but earlier games like Dragon Nest at least have a couple of different starting zones and quests before players eventually meet in the same big town. While I understand TERA has a different city for each race, I wonder why don’t players start off there instead of the same newbie island. The same goes for RaiderZ, where everyone starts off at the same stone portal. Hmn… Graphics wise, RaiderZ is still a notch below TERA’s stunning visuals. But what about the long term prospects? While games like WoW and RIFT are giving out the first 20 or so levels free, Guild Wars 2 having no monthly fee after the initial purchase and RaiderZ being Free to Play, I have always foreseen a slow death for TERA. Well, we shall see. I will be back again after RaiderZ hits the next phase after bugs and translation errors are fixed, hopefully. Find alternates article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/03/raiderz-alpha-test-phase-first.html Data fetched from: Gameforumer.com: Latest Games News, MMORPG Reviews, Gaming Community |
| Shenmue HD Re-Releases Can Only Help Shenmue III’s Chances Posted: 18 Mar 2012 09:19 AM PDT Shenmue is one of those beloved franchises that, as much as they love it, many fans have accepted will never be seen again short of dusting off a Dreamcast. Yet there might be a chance for the series to be revived in some capacity through Sega’s HD classic game re-releases. If Jet Set Radio can get the treatment, why not Shenmue? Gamereactor (via NeoGAF) spoke with Sega associate brand manager Ben Harborne at GDC about the upcoming HD version of Jet Set Radio, and he briefly touched upon fan requests for other Dreamcast re-releases. He said Shenmue and Skies of Arcadia are among the most frequently asked for, adding with a smile, “I can’t say yes or no, but we may be working on them.” Following that GamerZines claimed a source has indicated Shenmue and Shenmue II are to receive the HD treatment. Not only that, but Shenmue HD has been “finished for well over a year.” The reason for the delay in releasing it, the source said, is because Sega has been evaluating what it will do with the franchise as a whole, including the fate of Shenmue III. It’s been nearly ten years since a new Shenmue was released in North America. The original, created with a massive budget (albeit an oft-exaggerated one), was released here in 2000 but was ahead of its time. Sales, which received no help by the game only being available on Dreamcast, were not as strong as the game deserved or needed in light of the investment Sega had made in it. The sequel was released on Dreamcast and Xbox (only the latter version made it to North America, where it came out in 2002) and also disappointed at retail. An MMO marketed at the Asian market, Shenmue Online, never panned out. Creator Yu Suzuki was able to get a new game made, albeit a mobile/social game for the Yahoo Mobage service in Japan. It was shut down after only about a year. Suzuki hadn’t lost his interest in a new Shenmue game as recently as last year’s GDC; during a panel he spoke about how Sega would allow him to make Shenmue III but that there was a “budget issue” standing in the way. Since then he has left his job at Sega for an advisory role with the company and become a producer at Premium Agency. Sega could likely get by with the HD re-releases without his assistance. It’s not as if the ones Sega has done to date have drastically altered the original games — in the case of Jet Set Radio some of the original’s music is gone due to licensing issues, and the right stick (which was not available on Dreamcast) can now be used to control the camera. But if Shenmue III were to happen, one would think Suzuki has to be at the helm. While the chances of the game happening remain slim, the HD re-releases present as good of a chance as any for fans to convince Sega to back it — petitions are one thing; money is quite another. Strong sales of the original games on Xbox Live Arcade and PlayStation Network could send a message, and I have no doubt there would be more than a few fans willing to buy the games on both platforms just to make sure that message is clear. Hell, with Kickstarter being shown as a potential avenue for funding a niche game with an ardent fan base, perhaps Sega could look there for some assistance in coming up with the money to make Shenmue III. Failing that, they could always ask Notch. Find alternates article at: http://www.1up.com/news/shenmue-hd-help-shenmue-iii-chances Data fetched from: Gameforumer.com: Latest Games News, MMORPG Reviews, Gaming Community |
| Unpopular Games We Can’t Help But Love Posted: 18 Mar 2012 09:19 AM PDT Not every game can be a winner; amid all the triple-A, must-play experiences, a great number of titles receive critical scorn and go on to comprise a sad chapter in The Great Book of Gaming History. Even so, whether it’s due to our own idiosyncrasies and/or undiagnosed brain disorders, each of us has our own favorite “bad” game we enjoy despite the head-shaking and constant judgment of those around us. It’s true that some of the following games might have received critical acclaim in their day, but the passing of years has given each of them a bad reputation that’s mostly deserved. Still, we can’t help but love these games, because — hey — someone has to. SimcopterI fully expect most of the people reading this to have absolutely no idea what SimCopter is; the game emerged within a strange PC gaming landscape where Maxis desperately tried to wring every last drop of life out of their tremendously popular SimCity 2000 with a series of add-on games that mostly functioned as complete embarrassments. As video games slowly lurched into the world of hideous polygons by the mid-nineties, SimCopter offered a tantalizing prospect: flying around your very own SimCities in mind-blowing threeeee-deeeee! As expected, the game looked like total butt — even for the time — but in a pre-Grand Theft Auto world, SimCopter felt like the good guy prototype for what would soon become Rockstar’s generation-defining series. As with GTA, SimCopter offered the player free reign of a city, and all the possible chaos this freedom would bring; sure, you could Life Flight unfortunate souls to hospital rooftops, use your megaphone to disperse riots, and dispense cops in the vicinity of dangerous criminals, but you could just as easily drop any number of people to their doom, or use your on-board water cannon to blast anyone unlucky enough to wander in front of your copter. To complete the GTA connection, SimCopter also featured in-game radio stations, which played a mix of light jazz, public domain selections, and charmingly amateurish commericals — seemingly voiced by the Maxis custodial staff. The game is also notable for introducing the world to Simlish, the charming pseudo-language which would soon become the lingua franca for Maxis’ Sims series. So why didn’t this game go over well with critics? To be fair, it’s incredibly creaky, and the development stories leaked by one programmer in particular indicate a somewhat hostile working environment (which is why said developer rebelled by infamously including smooching be-Speedo-ed men in the first run of the game). In 1996, though, no other game offered the relaxing freedom of SimCopter, which is why I still yearn to revisit it once again, despite its complete fugliness. — Bob Mackey SaGa FrontierSaGa Frontier — and the SaGa series in general — may be developed by RPG goliath Square-Enix (née Squaresoft), but inside the big-budget veneer beats the heart of a quirky indie game. The SaGa games defy console role-playing expectations, consistent only in their determination to play by their own rules. They’re games that aren’t afraid to experiment, to explore, to break convention, and even to fail gloriously. The problem that SaGa Frontier had to overcome is that even though it was Square’s seventh SaGa title, practically no one in America knew of its legacy. They didn’t realize Game Boy’s Final Fantasy Legend trilogy was “Makaitoushi SaGa” (and sequels) in Japan. They were unaware of the Romancing SaGa trilogy for Super NES, because it had never been localized. All they knew is that this was the next RPG from the company that created Final Fantasy VII, and by god it was going to be amazing. And it really was an amazing game! It was amazingly ambitious. Amazingly open. Amazingly abstract. But it was not very much like Final Fantasy VII, like… at all. SaGa Frontier operates according to its own rules, most of which are never properly explained. Why do your characters get up after they die, but if they die enough they’re gone for good? Ah, that’s the enigmatic “Life Points” system at work. Why do little light bulbs appear above my characters’ heads? Well, they’re learning new techniques… through methods the game never delineates nor visibly tracks. How come I saved in this one place early in the game and now I’m locked in with the final boss and can’t possibly win because I’m only level 5? Oops, sorry about that. Non-linear RPG design and all. Heh. Please consider starting over. Despite its flaws — its oblique game mechanics and really gross-looking mixture of low-resolution sprites on prerendered backgrounds — there’s a lot to like about SaGa Frontier if you give it the chance. The game consists of seven different scenarios featuring different protagonists, with lead characters ranging from a sentai superhero (who can’t use his powers in front of human allies lest he reveal his secret identity), to a woman unfairly accused of murdering her husband, to the first-ever half-human/half-mystic hybrid, and more. SaGa Frontier’s mechanics actually do make sense if you take the time to figure them out, and its settings and stories are far more original than the standard console RPG fare. Sure, you have to jump through some hoops to appreciate them; sure, the game seems unfinished (supposedly the team intended an eighth scenario to tie everything together); sure, it’s a little weird all around. But in an era of copy-and-paste game design, you can’t help but look back at the experimental SaGa Frontier as a daring way to follow up a blockbuster smash like Final Fantasy VII. — Jeremy Parish Find alternates article at: http://www.1up.com/features/unpopular-games-we-love Data fetched from: Gameforumer.com: Latest Games News, MMORPG Reviews, Gaming Community |
| Posted: 18 Mar 2012 02:26 AM PDT
Find alternates article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2011/10/dota-online-tw-stooping-to-new-low.html Data fetched from: Gameforumer.com: Latest Games News, MMORPG Reviews, Gaming Community |
| Batman: Arkham City Reaffirms Itself as The Best Superhero Game Posted: 17 Mar 2012 02:26 PM PDT If you’ve spent much time in the corporate, work-a-day world, you know that one of the big differences between a great employer and a lesser one is how they approach the concept of “human resources.” A good employer takes the term to mean they should provide resources for humans; a bad one takes it as carte blanche to treat humans as resources. As it happens, this is also the biggest fundamental difference between a Pokémon game and the latest Dragon Quest Monsters release, Joker 2. Both revolve around capturing creatures to send into battle, but where Pokémon is all about bonding with your team, Joker treats those monsters as disposable means to an end. Joker’s ultimate goal isn’t entirely alien to Pokémon fanatics — it’s all about having the biggest, baddest group of monsters on the battlefield — but the difference is in how you accomplish that objective. In Pokémon, you bond with your team, raise them up, evolve them, and make them stronger through the power of friendship. Here, your captive creatures are commodities to be exploited. Monsters don’t evolve on their own; rather, you fuse them together into new forms, destroying the original creatures in the process. It’s almost exactly like demon fusion in a Shin Megami Tensei game, and just as in MegaTen, Joker doesn’t even pretend to treat your battle minion as anything but tools to be used and discarded. It’s not insignificant that while Pokémon gives you enough PC box slots to keep one of every monster type, Joker offers only 100 slots total in your monster pen — less than a third of the overall bestiary. You’re supposed to use up your creatures in the process of making better ones. They’re forgettable. Disposable. Find alternates article at: http://www.1up.com/reviews?cId=3185943 Data fetched from: Gameforumer.com: Latest Games News, MMORPG Reviews, Gaming Community |
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![[Part2]Hands-on Review: Tera Is Not Terrible](https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/blogger_img_proxy/AEn0k_v2awfkMf1hvCNpXzVCBrzAyK1RVU4m7j2rX2BxYyGNuYGP5rqUFoeiwtQeeSd8-WrwtPP_N9Wb0EjwTAPY89lHQr7792LXaCt4ws0c66L3q-6tA6jAPQrMSQ3S4B2W0g=s0-d)
