| Brawl Busters MMO Review Posted: 28 May 2012 04:02 AM PDT Brawl Busters is a 3D action fighting MMO that has the same graphic style as the popular shooter Team Fortress 2. Brawl Busters is a streamlined game with a small client size, and the ability to quickly jump into matches, yet it still manages to offer high quality graphics and plenty of customization options. 
Publisher: Rock Hippo Productions & Weezor
Playerbase: Low
Graphics: High Quality
Type: MMO
EXP Rate: Low
PvP: N/A
Filesize: 243 MB Website: http://planbaction.com/main/index.aspx Pros: +Stylish animated graphics. +Fast paced gameplay. +Switch between 5 classes. +Streamlined registration and lobby, start playing right away. Cons: -Limited map choices. -Suffers from technical issues; bugs and lag. -Repetitive gameplay Brawl Busters is a fast paced fighting game that plays a lot like a third person shooter. The graphic style resembles Team Fortress 2, but is even more goofy. With a strong emphasis on pick up & play gameplay, anyone can start playing Brawl Busters within minutes. The client size is very small, and there's no need to register on the website. Players simply enter a username and password after launching the game and are good to go! All players have access to five classes in Brawl Busters and can switch between them either prior to starting a game or each time they die. The only game mode available is Team Deathmatch, and matches only last a few minutes each. Classes: Slugger – Smack opponents with your bat, or send three baseballs their way with one swing. Special Attack charges up and sends one powerful baseball. Firefighter – Spray nearby opponents with flames, or shoot out grenades. Special attack creates a temporary barrier in front of the Firefighter. Rocker - Slap opponents with your electric guitar, or shoot out lighting from its tip. Special Attack is point blank area of effect burst. Boxer - Punch opponents or charge at them first-first. Special Attack shoots out 5 rays, hitting everything in front of the Boxer in a large arc. Blitzer - Pummel opponents with your fists, or strike the ground immediately in front of you for heavy damage. Special Attack launches the Blitzer forward a fair distance where he strikes the ground dealing area of effect damage.   
Minimum Requirements:
OS: Windows XP / Vista / 7
CPU: Pentium Duel Core
RAM: 512MB
HDD: 1GB
Graphics Card: Geforce 6 series
DirectX: 9.0c Recommended Specification:
OS: Windows XP / Vista / 7
CPU: Pentium Duel Core or better
RAM: 1024 MB or more
HDD: 2 GB free
Graphics Card: GeForce 7 series of better
DirectX: 9.0c or better |
| Bloodline Champions MMO Review Posted: 27 May 2012 04:01 PM PDT Bloodline Champions is a 2D fantasy arena based MMO where up to ten players per match can battle it out. Work together and defeat the opposing team in one of three game modes. Bloodline Champions is a fast paced, PvP oriented game that promises plenty of bonus features like a map editor. 
Publisher: Funcom
Playerbase: Medium
Graphics: Medium
Type: MMO
EXP Rate: Medium
PvP: Arena / CTF / Conquest
Filesize: ~ 230 mb Website: http://www.bloodlinechampions.com/ Pros: + Over 16 unique heroes. +Three game modes. +Fast paced, team oriented combat. +Original gameplay style. +Low system requirements and small client size. Cons: -Repetitive gameplay. -Access to full range of heroes and features requires payments & subscription. Bloodline Champions is a team based PvP MMO where two teams of up to five players on each side battle it out on various arenas. Gameplay in Bloodline Champions is fast paced and the controls are very similar to those found in a FPS. Besides being team oriented, the game is also highly skill based. There are no critical hits, minimum/maximum damage ranges, or other random elements. Each hero (called a champion) has its unique set of skills and victory is determined by proper teamwork and execution. While the game will be free to play, free users will only have access to 4 heroes at a time. Access to the full set of features and hero roster will require one-time purchases and a premium subscription. Healing Champions - Alchemist, Psychopomp, Herald, Astronomer Ranged Champions - Igniter, Gunner, Nomad, Engineer Tank Champions - Glutton, Vanguard, Inhibitor, Thorn Melee Champions - Harbinger, Spear Master, Ranid Assassin, Ravener   
Bloodline Champions Requirements Minimum: Intel Pentium 3.2 GHz CPU (or AMD equivalent) Nvidia or AMD/ATI video card with 128MB RAM and Shader Model 3 support (GeForce 6000 series or ATI HD2000 series) 1GB RAM on Windows XP, 2GB of RAM on Windows Vista/7 Windows XP Service Pack 3, Windows Vista or 7 Direct Sound audio device *ATI X1000 series has limited support Recommended: Dual Core CPU Nvidia or AMD/ATI video card with 256MB RAM and Shader Model 4 support (GeForce 8000 series or ATI HD2000 series)2GB RAM Windows XP, Vista, or 7 (with full service packs and updates) Direct Sound audio device |
| Warlock Skill Animations and Challenge Mode Armor, MoP Music, Blue Posts, MMO Report Posted: 27 May 2012 11:03 AM PDT  Diablo 3 - Development Post Monday, Info on Hacking, Diminishing Returns on Armor, Blue Posts, and Farming Spot Warlock Skill Animations Preview Today we continue looking at the new skill animations with the new Warlock animations! Warlock Challenge Mode Armor Preview Warlocks also got a nice challenge mode set to go along with those new spell animations. Mists of Pandaria Music Update One of the recent beta builds added several new pieces of music. Make sure you have annotations enabled if you want to skip through the different songs! Diablo III Blue Posts Many of the points brought up here are relevant to WoW Account security as well. Keep your plugins up to date and use an authenticator! You can get one for iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and Windows Phone 7 or even the physical one. Originally Posted by Blizzard Entertainment Account Compromises The "hacking" ("compromising" is probably a better word, since no real "hacking" is going on) being seen in D3 is no different than what World of Warcraft players have been seeing for five years or so. The sad thing is, if no one bought game currency (gold, credits, whatever) from these third-party companies, then essentially no account compromises would be occurring. Compromises not done by gold selling companies are very rare indeed. They strip one player to sell to another, because it's much more efficient than "farming" gold. They still farm some of course, but they do it purely with compromised accounts. Unfortunately, these compromisers make a lot of money off of the practice (because players buy gold) and so they have a lot of resources to use to try to get your password from you directly, or through your computer. Some of their poorly translated phishing e-mails may be laughable, but their trojans, infected websites, etc. are not funny at all. If you have the physical or mobile authenticator (both of which major banks use and charge $30+ for) the chances of you being compromised are very, very small. I've personally examined the MSInfo files of nearly all of the handful of WoW players who have actually been compromised through an authenticator, and the sheer number of backdoor programs and other malware on their systems has been mind boggling. Probably not coincidentally, these same people were also running a disturbing number of file-sharing and download programs, including ones which are commonly known to not be safe. Again, compromising game accounts is a big business in some countries. They have people on their payroll who spread false rumors of "hacked through my authenticator" just to try to discourage people from using them. We charge $6.50 for the physical authenticator, because that's exactly what it costs us to make them. The mobile one is free because we don't have to pay a factory to build them. Use them, and enjoy your gaming without someone mucking with your stuff. What is the concrete cause of the hackings? Well, the cause is people desiring a shortcut in their games by buying gold. If you mean the technical cause, as I mentioned previously the gold selling companies use a vast array of methods. A good friend of mine is a long time network admin (and a very good one at that), who had decided to not use an authenticator because he'd never had any security issues with his computer over the years. Well, an Adobe Flash vulnerability popped up a couple years ago, and he procrastinated applying the update by a whole week. As you can probably guess by the fact that I'm relating this anecdote, his WoW account was compromised and stripped because of that one week window. There's absolutely nothing shameful about getting compromised, these companies are good at what they do. Heck, the former head of Blizzard Customer Service had his account compromised. It's because of how devious and high-tech the gold-selling companies have gotten that we implemented the physical and mobile authenticators. We can't physically go to everyone's computer and make it safe, so we've provided a tool that does it for you. I've been a computer tech for a long time, and I've never had a single malicious security breach on any of my computers that I'm aware of, but I attached one of the very first batches of physical authenticators to my account. Why? Because no matter how good I am, sooner or later they were going to get me. But now, they can't. Are you claiming that I did not have both the dial in auth and the SMS auth? No, you had those. But neither of those are the physical or mobile authenticator, the main line of protection that is being referred to. The Dial-In and SMS are just nice additional layers of security to add to the physical or mobile. It's becoming pretty apparent that our naming scheme might be causing some confusion, and I apologize for that. I'll bring the subject up with my management, so can we review both how the devices are named and how they are presented. If you have only one authenticator on your account, you want it to be the physical or mobile, not the dial-in or SMS. ( Official Forums) Auction House Is this intended (To gear up solely through the AH) or will the drops at the end of Hell be better adjusted to help gear up for Inferno Act 1 and so on. The auction house obviously provides an incredible service to allow for very easy trades between characters, and essentially blows out the wide range of items you could have available to you at any one time. So, in fact, the AH has to be a factor in how we drop items. On one hand you have a huge benefit because you can buy and sell items very easily, as opposed to having to post up WTS threads in the old USEast trading forums, but on the other end it does impact the item pool economy with the inherent ease at which you can trade items. If the AH existed but wasn't a factor at all into how items dropped/rolled, the economy would be completely tanked within a matter of weeks. ( Blue Tracker / Official Forums) MMO-Report The MMO-Report is here with information about The Elder Scrolls Online factions, Defiance, and PlanetSide 2. |
| BioShock Vita Still Very Early, Development Could be Handled Externally Posted: 27 May 2012 04:01 AM PDT  Irrational Games’ Ken Levine had two surprises to share when he took to the stage during Sony’s E3 press conference in June. BioShock Infinite will support PlayStation Move and a new BioShock game is being developed for Vita. Although several months have passed since then, development on the Vita game hasn’t progressed far, and it’s not a guarantee that Irrational will even develop the entire game internally. Speaking with Joystiq, Levine described the game as being “in the paper design stage.” Confirming what he said in June, the idea is still to create a brand-new game for Vita as opposed to porting the original BioShock or Infinite to the handheld, although “things can change.” “I think for us, the idea we have is a really good expression on a platform like that [Vita],” he explained. “It’s a different goal. And it has to sort of have its own voice in the franchise. If it just feels like a quieter voice in the franchise, I don’t think that works. For us.” Because of the relatively small size of Irrational, it’s difficult to devote a large enough team to work on the new game with Infinite still in the works. It’s a possibility that Irrational could opt to allow a separate developer to handle development of the Vita game — discussions have taken place — but Levine wants to ensure the quality of the game is up to par with previous Irrational titles. In other words, don’t expect any decisions to be made that are, well, irrational. Incoming search terms: |
| I Played Skyrim Wrong, but It Felt So Right Posted: 26 May 2012 04:01 PM PDT Once upon a time, getting about in a Zelda game was such a clear-cut process. You had your dungeons (anywhere from four to 12, depending) and you had the overworld that linked them all together. Aside from the occasional spin-off (Four Swords Adventures was broken into levels, and Majora’s Mask centered around the hub of Clock Town), that’s how it always worked. You’d wander around, maybe poke into a cave for a Heart Piece, clear away some scrub, fight some bad guys, and eventually work your way to the next subterranean puzzle labyrinth. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is mixing things up, and — for the first eight hours of the game, at least — the results are pretty great. Skyward Sword’s design makes the distinction between overworld and underworld much muddier than in past games. Perhaps that’s appropriate, since this adventure divides its world into three layers rather than the usual two. Above the dungeons, you have the overworld; meanwhile, above it all is the realm of Skyloft, best described as an aerial take on Wind Waker’s sea. At the heart of Skyloft is a large city held aloft by (one assumes) ancient magic or technology or something, but the skies are littered with floating islands, and Link travels between them on the back of a huge red bird. |
| NYCC: Fortune Street is More Than Just Mario Party Posted: 26 May 2012 04:01 PM PDT Once upon a time, getting about in a Zelda game was such a clear-cut process. You had your dungeons (anywhere from four to 12, depending) and you had the overworld that linked them all together. Aside from the occasional spin-off (Four Swords Adventures was broken into levels, and Majora’s Mask centered around the hub of Clock Town), that’s how it always worked. You’d wander around, maybe poke into a cave for a Heart Piece, clear away some scrub, fight some bad guys, and eventually work your way to the next subterranean puzzle labyrinth. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is mixing things up, and — for the first eight hours of the game, at least — the results are pretty great. Skyward Sword’s design makes the distinction between overworld and underworld much muddier than in past games. Perhaps that’s appropriate, since this adventure divides its world into three layers rather than the usual two. Above the dungeons, you have the overworld; meanwhile, above it all is the realm of Skyloft, best described as an aerial take on Wind Waker’s sea. At the heart of Skyloft is a large city held aloft by (one assumes) ancient magic or technology or something, but the skies are littered with floating islands, and Link travels between them on the back of a huge red bird. |
| The Secret World now launching in July Posted: 26 May 2012 03:21 PM PDT Funcom’s Conan follow-up, The Secret World, has been delayed by two weeks. Though not a great deal of insight is available as to the reason why, Funcom has said it’s for ‘market reasons’ and that the small delay will benefit the launch of the game. The 15th June will see a new beta weekend called ‘Hell Raised’ and the 29th June will be the date for early access for those that pre-ordered the game. In ‘Raised Hell’ players will experience the Illuminati and Dragon opening areas, as well as the Templar one. According to The Secret World official website: “Players will also get to leave Kingsmouth and venture into the massive region known as Savage Coast, where they will soon find that the very gates of hell itself have opened up! This will allow players to experience the epic ‘Hell Raised’ dungeon where you will have to battle the demons of hell itself!” |
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Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's 
