MMOGaming News

MMOGaming News

Patch 1.3 What Do We Know

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Patch 1.3 What Do We Know


Hey everyone, there has being quite a lot of speculation over the contents and features coming with 1.3. We have received hints here and there from the development team via interviews, official podcasts and the Q&A.

Continue reading Patch 1.3 What Do We Know.

Dragon Nest to Launch Closed Beta in Indonesia in June

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Dragon Nest to Launch Closed Beta in Indonesia in June


The latest news of Dragon Nest Indonesia shows that the waiting is almost over and the game will begin the first closed beta in June 2012.

Guns of Icarus Online: First Round of Closed Beta End Up And The Next is Coming

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Guns of Icarus Online: First Round of Closed Beta End Up And The Next is Coming


Guns of Icarus Online has ended up its first two weekends of the closed beta and the closed beta . Most of the players were satisfy with the early footage, and many things are being improved, balanced, and created in the future.

WoW 5.0: PvP Set Preview - Death Knight, Shaman and Rogue

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WoW 5.0: PvP Set Preview - Death Knight, Shaman and Rogue


Death Knight, Shaman and Rogue PvP Set Preview from MoP Beta. The new picture preview should be fairly representative of the set you will see in the final version of the game!

Born to Fire Closed Beta Registration Begins

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Born to Fire Closed Beta Registration Begins


Born to Fire is a Korean MMOFPS that features character-driven gameplay. The game is published by Aeria Games in NA and EU and today you can register for closed beta.

WeMade Entertainment Annouced Its Exhibition Plans at E3 2012

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WeMade Entertainment Annouced Its Exhibition Plans at E3 2012


Lately, WeMade Entertainment announced its participation at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) at the Los Angeles Convention Center, June 5-7, 2012 as well as its exhibition plans to showcase social lineup of eight titles for the iOS/Android systems. For the details, let's move to the following press release.

Eyedentity Games license Unreal Engine 3 to Develop Its 3rd Large Scale MMORPG

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Eyedentity Games license Unreal Engine 3 to Develop Its 3rd Large Scale MMORPG


Given a excellent action MMORPG like Dragon Nest as example, the 3rd online title said to be the biggest and best product of Eyedentity is quite an ambitious project to look forward.

Runescape Largest Update: The Evolution of Combat to Launch on June 26

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Runescape Largest Update: The Evolution of Combat to Launch on June 26


The Evolution of Combat project will see the biggest change in any system in RuneScape's history. By bringing this eagerly anticipated update to life, Jagex will be completely redesigning RuneScape's combat system to offer players an even more immersive and involving experience. On release, the Evolution of Combat update will completely revolutionise the way players fight and interact in game.

Age of Empires Online Shifting to "True Free-to-play" This Summer

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Age of Empires Online Shifting to "True Free-to-play" This Summer


Age of Empires Online is currently a free-to-play MMORTS with purchasable content, and this kind of model isn't real free-to-play in many players' opinion.

First Trailer of Kingdoms of Amalur: Project Copernicus

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First Trailer of Kingdoms of Amalur: Project Copernicus


Developers of 38 Studios released a trailer that introduces us to their upcoming MMO game, Kingdoms of Amalur: Project Copernicus.

Diablo 3: The Butcher Kill Video World First

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Diablo 3: The Butcher Kill Video World First


We are going to record all the gameplay from level 1 and we expect to survive and being able to finish the campaign. For your information, playing hardcore mode, if your character dies, dies forever.

Gameforge Previewed AION 3.0 Housing and Weather System

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Gameforge Previewed AION 3.0 Housing and Weather System


There are two types of houses. One is the apartment which is available to every player that has completed the required quest from level 21.
Posted by Shri Krishna


General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Nvidia launches Fermi Based GeForce GT 610, GT 620, & GT 630

Posted: 20 May 2012 03:56 PM PDT

ThumbNvidia is a master of marketing, so when they "quietly" launched the GeForce GT 610, 620, and 630 into the retail channel late last week, we knew something was up. It turns out of the three new cards, none of these are actually based on the most recently released Kepler architecture behind the GTX 670, 680, and 690, and are in reality based on the last generation designs.  We knew Nvidia was already rebranding Fermi parts for use in OEM laptops and desktops, however it looks like the practice will again carry forward to the aftermarket parts as well. 

The GT 610 is a rebadged GT 520, which could mean we are looking at a GF119, or GF 108 GPU, featuring a pretty paltry 48 CUDE cores. The GT 610 is intended to be the entry level 600 series card, and is unlikely to even outpace integrated graphics found on modern Ivy Bridge chips. 

The GT 620 is a variant of the OEM-only GT 530, and features a slightly more respectable 96 CUDA cores. Twice the CUDA cores will help, but like the GT 610, the GT 620 only has a 64 bit memory bus which no doubt be a bottleneck. 

The GT 630 is defiantly saving the best for last, however it doesn't take much to stand out in this crowd. This card is a rebadged GT 440, and contains 96 CUDA cores, though with a slightly more respectable 128 bit memory bus.

We wish Nvidia would quit it with the rebadging as it only leads to confusion, but at least it will help them fill out the low end options faster than trying to scale down Kepler.

(Image Credit = AnandTech)

Nvidia Acknowledges Kepler V-Sync Stuttering Issues and Promises a Prompt Driver Fix

Posted: 20 May 2012 02:06 PM PDT

KerplerNvidia's new Kepler-based graphics cards are still fairly new on the scene, but a fairly serious new bug has emerged that started out as a forum rant, and has evolved into an official acknowledgement from the green team. The problem in question seems to be limited to GTX 670, 680, & 690 customers who enable v-sync though the Nvidia control panel, and by most accounts, is pretty infuriating. 

Multiple news outlets have requested a comment from NVidia on the issue, however a response to the forum thread has finally brought closure to the issue, which by the sound of it, will be resolved in next month's drive release. 

We have received reports of an intermittent v-sync stuttering issue from some of our customers. We've root caused the issue to a driver bug and identified a fix for it. The fix requires extensive testing though, and will not be available until our next major driver release targeted for June (post-R300). For users experiencing this issue, the interim workaround is to disable v-sync via the Nvidia Control Panel or in-game graphics settings menu.

Microsoft Plans to Kill the Aero UI Prior To Final Windows 8 Release

Posted: 20 May 2012 11:22 AM PDT

DesktopMicrosoft has made some huge changes to its desktop UI in Windows 8, however it looks like they aren't done yet. The Aero Glass UI first introduced in Windows Vista brought us translucent window borders, rounded corners, and an interface that was designed to blend into the background. These effects remained in the consumer preview, and will appear again in the release preview, however Microsoft today confirmed they would be axed from the final shipping version. 

Microsoft makes its case for killing off Aero in a nauseatingly long 10,000 + word blog post, but to save you time here are the approximately 200 words which are actually worth reading. 

"We want desktop windows to continue to feel light and airy, and we want a chrome style that doesn't distract from the content of the app … Aero was designed to help the app's content to be the center of attention, and for the Windows system UI to recede into the background. This is still relevant today, and while we are moving beyond Aero, we don't want to lose sight of these goals."

"We made a conscious effort to relate the visual appearance of the Windows 8 desktop to the visual appearance of the familiar Windows 7 desktop. This helps people who want to predominantly use the desktop feel comfortable and immediately at home in the new environment."

"We applied the principles of 'clean and crisp' when updating window and taskbar chrome. Gone are the glass and reflections. We squared off the edges of windows and the taskbar. We removed all the glows and gradients found on buttons within the chrome. We made the appearance of windows crisper by removing unnecessary shadows and transparency. The default window chrome is white, creating an airy and premium look. The taskbar continues to blend into the desktop wallpaper, but appears less complicated overall. To complete the story, we updated the appearance of most common controls, such as buttons, check boxes, sliders, and the Ribbon. We squared off the rounded edges, cleaned away gradients, and flattened the control backgrounds to align with our chrome changes. We also tweaked the colors to make them feel more modern and neutral."

Killing off Aero effects should help to improve battery life on laptops and tablets, though it looks like desktop users who prefer this look will be out of luck as well. White windows and square corners might not sound like a big deal, but to some it might be yet another unwelcome change. What do you think of the change? 

Desktop

Firefox 13 Will Have Reset Button

Posted: 20 May 2012 03:24 AM PDT

The latest Firefox beta contains a feature that has been on the Mozilla support team's to-do list for, well, "forever." The "Reset Firefox" option is intended to help users avoid troubleshooting headaches and will be particularly handy when nothing else seems to work. What's more, you can reset the browser without sacrificing your personal data with this one-click option. Hit the jump to find out how.

According to Mozilla's Michael Verdi, the realization that not everybody possesses the time and expertise necessary "to identify the exact cause of the problem and just fix that" is what  prompted the non-profit to develop this feature.

"So the support team worked with product and engineering to create the Reset Firefox feature," he wrote in a recent blog post. "The first implementation of this is a button on the Troubleshooting Information page (about:support). What is [sic] does is create a new profile and migrate your bookmarks, passwords, cookies and form data. Everything else gets set to the defaults."

However, please note that at the moment this feature only works with the default profile, and saves nothing else except the bookmarks, passwords, cookies and form data associated with that profile. If you're using a Nightly or an Aurora build of Firefox, the reset feature may not work for you.

Firefox 13 will graduate to the stable channel on June 5, 2012, as per Mozilla's (rapid) release schedule.
Posted by Shri Krishna

Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates

Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates

Power Rangers Online (KR)

Posted: 20 May 2012 04:02 AM PDT


As an avid fan of the Toku series in Japan including Super Sentai, Kamen Rider, Garo, Gridman etc, I was just as surprised as anyone else when Power Rangers Online was announced 2 weeks ago (link). Already onfirmed to be a side-scroller MMO, the first few monster images released today are actually 3D character models, staying true to the original ones found in the live action series.

Can we safely declare the title to be a 3D action scroller? Under development with Toei being kept in loop since 2009, more information will be released soon.

Dungeon Keeper Online (CN)

Posted: 19 May 2012 04:01 PM PDT


Back in May 2010 (link), I first posted about one of the biggest online game developer and publisher in China, NetDragon, working on Dungeon Keeper Online. The game is a joint production between NetDragon and Electronic Arts (EA), and there was quite a skeptical bunch of gamers since the developer is from China. Most didn’t know that the producer is actually a Westerner from EA! Having the chance to play the latest Elite Closed Beta phase, let us take a brief look at how true the game stayed to its predecessor!


For the races (below), there are currently 2 available: Humans and Demons. These 2 are further divided into male and female. The races missing from the roster includes the Loli (yes, that is the name of the race, not Dwarf , female only) and Demi-Demon (male only).


Next, there are the character classes. All races so far share the same 6 classes (all classes end with a “Lord” at the end): Dual Blade, Restoration, Giant Shield, Destruction, Giant Sword and Element. I am sure you guys can figure out what each class does. Character creation is quite limited in terms of editing features, but the choosing of horns and tails for the male Demon is certainly interesting. Cash shop horns and tails is a good idea!

As there is no full screen option to accommodate my monitor, I had to go for a windowed game mode. And surprisingly, the chat box is not within the game itself, but rather an additional panel to the left side of the game. Is this really such a good idea? Hmn… Anyway, I am playing as a Demon Destruction Lord in this first try of the game. Read the text before watching the videos!


Ok, the starting part of the game is actually the tutorial prologue, which is not really told to players adequately in advance. Here, the basic controls are being taught. I know, this looks like World of Warcraft, but as I mentioned in my previous posts about the game, there is both an open world element and dungeon keeping one in the game.

Back to standard combat, you will notice that some mobs can be “tortured” and beaten the crap out of even if their health reaches zero, causing more loots and experience points to gain. Pretty neat eh? An example of a fun quest in the tutorial is when I was asked to find 3 female NPCs and forcefully kiss them. I love being bad!

So, characters learn skills as normal when the appropriate level is reached although there are no stats to be added (Str, Con, Dex etc). Skills can also be upgraded to higher levels when the level requirement is met. For recovery, there are instant pots which takes 1min to cooldown and also food as well, where players have to be uninterrupted while being healed. Pretty a pain in the arse when meeting with aggro mobs.

Before going on to the part about dungeon, one more thing about combat. So, there are a total of 17 world bosses ranging from level 12 to 84 (you can see the level 12 one in the videos) and also instanced dungeons as well, which I never did enter during this brief game test. However, there are random times a portal will just appear and hint players to enter with a party. Well, I entered one alone and died tragically, which can be seen in one of the game videos. Sigh…

Ok, about dungeon now. See the big button at the lower part of the screen, right in the middle? That is where players can click to enter their dungeon. Materials needed to expand your dungeon are gathered from the open world map, where material drops can be clicked and prompting your minions to load them up and send to your dungeon inventory. Players must then deposit them from the inventory to the total material count. Talking about minions, you can attract more minions by building more living quarters. Players may also right click on any minions to “whack” those who have the “zzzz” sign and not making themselves useful

To build and upgrade structures, gold is needed too. Players can deposit gold gained from the open world into the dungeon. It is like a totally different game! Do note that both the open world and dungeon are developed using different game engines, a rarity in the industry now perhaps? Just when you thought the dungeon is just like a demonized The Sims, think again. Other players may attack your dungeon and loot everything away!

Other features not yet experienced or added into the game includes the PvP Arena, Player Vs Player (from the 2 different factions), Guild PvP battles, Castle Siege (with NPCs aiding),3 classes within one character and more! Gosh, are they going to add every element into this game?!

So, here is my verdict through this small preview. The game is an absolute hit for me! I am seen as a strict gamer who trashes almost every online titles nowadays, but Dungeon Keeper Online is just awesome! Note how much content there has been already right off the game’s start. I am in love with it, and seeing that Dungeon Keeper Online is listed on NetDragon’s English portal as an upcoming title (link), I can’t wait!

Posted by Shri Krishna
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