MMOGaming News

MMOGaming News

Dragon Nest Open Beta FAQ (Updated)

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Found another good faq from dn official website forum, i decide to share it here.

Firefall: the Fourth Class Engineer First Announced at ChinaJoy

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Red 5 studioes announounced the fourth class for Firefall at ChinaJoy. Mark Kern mentioned how the game will receive players' feedback. Players' good feedback will be used in the game, even the story will be changed by players' suggestions.

RIFT World Event Waves of Madness - Phase 5 Guide

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Use the water bladder against abyssal targets to rack up 90 points. It's a quest with 40 Rune King's Seals rewards. You need skills to finish this quest.

New Firefall Trailer is Freakin' Awesome

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People like video games with guns. They're exciting and explodey, and are super popular for a reason. Firefall looks especially exciting and explodey and, well, really, really awesome. Check out the latest Firefall trailer.

Upcoming MMO Games in August

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Blade and Soul will rock you in August...oh well, only in KR. Whatever, surprise us again please! What's more, Digimon Masters Online English version finally enter closed beta in this month. Don't disappoint us, we all wait for it too long.

[Guide] Shaman guide of Eden Eternal

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The Shaman is the most heavy-handed class of the Healing and Support branch.

Object Software: Dou Shen with Breathtaking Group Killing Skill Debut

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ChinaJoy, which's crowned as a great carnival for countless players, made its ninth appearance grandly in the SNIEC (Shanghai New International Expo Centre) this year. Object Software is going to attend the expo in company with its self-developed online game Dou Shen characterized by breathtaking group killing.

War of Glory Online Featuring State Wars Interview

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We initially intended to endow War of Glory Online with a western style. The first reason is that our developers were confident that the Chinese could also make fine western-style fantasy games, and the second is that with advantageous strengthen in the overseas markets, we had high expectations of War of Glory Online's overseas influence.

[Hot Blog] Age of Conan Unchained First Impressions!

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In this video, Zach Sharpes and RabidPeng give there thoughts on Age Of Conan Unchained, Funcoms latest attempt to bring players back to Hyboria! This is a dual commentary, so you get two opinions in one video. One opinion from a MMO vet, and another opinion from a newbie to MMOs.

ChinaJoy 2011 - Firefall Hands-on Experence

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No doubt Firefall must be the most anticipated MMO shooter game of this year's ChinaJoy. Our MMOSite editors have the honour to participate in ChinaJoy and get us news from the scene.

Innovative Phantasy Star Online 2 to Kick off 1st CBT in August!

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Recently, Japan-based SEGA has held a press conference to unveil the basic content of its new online game Phantasy Star Online 2, which is going to kick off the first CBT in August. As introduced by the game's development director Sakai Satoshi, Phantasy Star Online 2 will carry out a CBT on a small scale in the middle of this August or so, and is scheduled to start its commercial service this year.
Posted by Shri Krishna

MMORPG Videos

MMORPG Videos

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Star Wars: The Old Republic The Esseles Flashpoint

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 11:18 AM PDT

Bioware and the Star Wars: The Old Republic Director of Production, Dallas Dixon team up to give fans an in-depth look at â??The Esseles,â?? one of the early Flashpoints in the game. Check it out!

Firefall: Firefall ChinaJoy Trailer

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 08:20 AM PDT

Red 5 has released a great new game play trailer from the 2011 ChinaJoy convention. The trailer shines the spotlight on the game features including customization, a massive open world and more.

ArcheAge: ArcheAge Trailer from China GDC

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 08:03 AM PDT

During this year's China Game Developer's Conference, President and CEO of XLGAMES Jake Song presented this new trailer showing off both a flythrough of ArcheAge and the new mobile tie-in app the team is creating.

Firefall: Firefall Dev Diary: Sound & Music Design

Posted: 28 Jul 2011 12:04 PM PDT

Red 5 has released a new video developer diary that focuses on the sound and music design that will be featured in Firefall. The video is hosted by Red 5's Michael Bross and Boon Sim.
Posted by Shri Krishna

MMORPG Reviews

MMORPG Reviews

Best July 2011 Free MMORPGs

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 07:00 AM PDT

These are our best July 2011 Free MMORPGs. Enjoy it and don't forget to comment. Do you agree with our list? 10 The Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) is the first massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) set in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings. LOTRO takes place in a [...]

Rusty Hearts exclusive preview

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 05:36 AM PDT

It seems that MMOs, especially those coming from the east, begin to offer an alternative to this based target system which has been very successful during these last years. In fact, this system, simple and intuitive, appears in most of the theme parks of the last 10 years. But now, from the east, a new [...]

Fiesta Online celebrates its third anniversary

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 03:39 AM PDT

Gamigo is throwing a number of special events and major contests, celebrating Fiesta Online's 3rd anniversary, that will bring together longtime members of the game's community and newer fans. From now through August 18th, players can take part in the celebration in a number of fun ways. The "Birthday Cooking Competition" and "Come Party With [...]

Outspark offers an extra 20% SparkCash in all its games until July 31st

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 03:00 AM PDT

Outspark offers from now until the 31st of July players will be able to receive an additional 20% when charging up on their SparkCash for their favorite Outspark games, like Fiesta Online, 7Dragons, Divine Souls and Luvinia. This 20% bonus will be calculated on all SparkCash purchases between 12:01am PDT on July 28th, 2011 and [...]

Rusty Hearts unveils a new launch trailer

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 02:47 AM PDT

Perfect World Entertainment has announced that Rusty Hearts Closed Beta Testing has begun. With thousands of new registrations on launch day itself and the need to scale up our servers, Rusty Hearts is now Perfect World Entertainment’s most popular closed beta launch turnout to date. All players with a registered beta key can now hack [...]

Conquer Online launches the mounted combat update

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 02:30 AM PDT

Conquer Online has launched its new Mounted Combat update, players will finally be able get their hands on the newest PK experience. New PK Mode – Mounted Combat No longer will you have to dismount to slay monsters, or to engage the hated enemies surrounding you. Just jump on your trusty steed and fight it [...]

Innogames announces the launch of Lagoonia

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 01:33 AM PDT

InnoGames has announced today the upcoming launch of its new browser game: Lagoonia, which blends the charm of a sandbox game with social interaction on a remote South Sea island. The focus of the browser game is on the relationships between characters and players. Moreover, players plan and create many things that make the island [...]
Posted by Shri Krishna


General Gaming Article

General Gaming Article

Google Music Users Receiving Two Invites Each

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 02:14 PM PDT

musicThere hasn't been a lot to report regarding Google's cloud music service in recent weeks, but Mountain View took a major step today. Google is in the process of rolling out an invite system to the beta Google Music service. Each user will have two invites to give to friends. It is still US-only, but this could be a sign the service is moving toward a real release.

Google Music allows users to upload as many as 20,000 tracks to Google's servers, then play those tracks back via the web or Android phones. Unlike Amazon's Cloud Player, there is no MP3 store integration with Google Music. A desktop helper program can watch folder to automatically upload tracks as they are added, but Amazon's system doesn't even require a download.

We aren't seeing invites attached to our account as of yet, so you may have to wait to dole yours out. Have you been using Google Music? How does it stack up in your eyes?

Cool Site of the Week: Newspaper Map

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 12:08 PM PDT

Traditional print publishing may have been in some choppy waters these past few years, but the ship's no where close to going down just yet. Ironically, the best proof of this out there comes to us from the interwebz. Thanks to a site called Newspaper Map, those of us who still love the smell and feel of newsprint with our morning coffee will always know where to find a newspaper, no matter where in the world we might be.

The website offers its visitors a map of the world, with markers indicating Cities and towns print newspapers where--as well as their online presence--are still published. Each of the markers is color-coded to coincide with the newspaper's printed language. This as it is, would be a throughly useful tool, but newspaper map does its users one better: Just click on any of the markers, and you'll be presented with the option to read that newspaper's online edition in a wide variety of languages, with the translation provided by Google.

Going to the extreme, we translated Moskovskiy Komsomolets, a newspaper published out of Surgut, Russia into Gaeilge and English, and found to our surprise that what we ended up with in both instances was surprisingly readable. For dedicated news hounds, expatriates or those that looking for a new window on world events, Newspaper Map is a must-visit site.

Be sure to check back every Friday for another edition of Cool Site of the Week.

NYPD Captures Criminal After He Taunts Police With His Location On Facebook

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 11:25 AM PDT

Hey bad guys, here's a news flash: unless you're Robin hood – and you're not – rubbing your fugitive status in the face of law enforcement doesn't make you cool, it only makes you stupid. Cracking jokes on social media networks may draw some traffic to your Twitter feed, but it also draws cops like white on rice. Victor Burgos is the newest member of the Dumbest Criminals club after using Facebook to taunt NYC police with his location.

Burgos, age 29, was wanted by Utica Police because he apparently was in the habit of beating and harassing one of his ex-girlfriends. Rather than doing time, the Brooklyn-born Burgos fled. Maybe the adrenaline got to his head: after seeing his face on the list of Utica's most wanted, Burgos posted "Catch me if you can, I'm in Brooklyn" on his Facebook account.

So, um, they did.

The NYPD quickly tracked down and arrested Burgos in an apartment the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood in Brooklyn. In a deliciously ironic turn of events, he was hunched over his computer and cruising Facebook when police kicked in the door.

Utica Police Sgt. Steve Hauck gets our award for straightforward explanation of the month: "He told us via Facebook to come and get him and we did," he told the Daily News.

Twitter's Changing Things Up With A New "Sensitive" Tag And Sponsored Tweets

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 10:51 AM PDT

Even if you're lucky enough to toil away in an enlightened work places that lets you Tweet away to your heart's content during the day, your boss might not be very understanding if your feed's full of porn links from your potty-minded pals. Your days over hovering over bit.ly links, paralyzed in fear may soon be over. Twitter's rolling out a new tweak to its API that will let you block your friends' linkbombs from even showing up.

"Beginning today you may notice a new boolean field in API responses & streams containing tweets: "possibly_sensitive," Taylor Singletary and the Twitter Platform team announced on its developer blog. "This new field will only surface when a tweet contains a link. The meaning of the field doesn't pertain to the tweet content itself, but instead it is an indicator that the URL contained in the tweet may contain content or media identified as sensitive content

So rather than having to point out a NSFW link manually, you'll be able to tag a post as "sensitive" at some point in the future. Yahoo News reports that you'll be able to choose to block any sensitive-tagged posts from entering your Twitter feed, and if a chucklehead buddy of yours passes along a NSFW link without tagging it, you can tag it yourself and Twitter will review it. It's not censorship; it's all optional.

Twitter's playing around with their posting structure a lot these days. The new sensitive feature comes just days after Twitter announced it was testing out sponsored "Promoted Tweets" on a limited basis. If you're following a brand that's paid for a Promoted Tweet, it will appear near the top of your timeline, MSNBC reports. As crappy as that sounds, it could be worse; you won't see ads from accounts that you aren't following, and you'll be able to banish them forever with one quick mouse click.

Purdue Researchers Inch One Step Closer To Quantum Computing

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 10:15 AM PDT

We've already covered a new ThinkGeek gadget today, so let's keep the "Think Geek" ball rolling and talk about a concept that keeps real-life geeks awake at night, jittering at the thought of its awesomeness: quantum computing. Even though Lockheed Martin signed up to buy an underperforming "Maybe it's a quantum computer" from D-Wave One a few months back, the face-melting power we think of when uttering the words "Quantum computer" is still a long ways off. A pair of researchers at Purdue University just inched it a little bit closer to reality, however.

Engadget pointed us towards the Purdue Newsroom, where a press release announced that professors Michael Manfra and Gabor Csathy created a "high-mobility gallium-arsenide molecular beam epitaxy system" that allows them to create ultrapure gallium arsenide semiconductor crystals. The cutting-edge machine outputs crystals that are a perfect lattice of gallium and arsenide atoms, precise down to the atomic level.

That's not a lollipop, it's ultrapure gallium arsenide made from the machine in the background.

This exacting precision lets the team eliminate the ability for electrons to travel on a third plane, restricting mobility to only move back and forth or side to side movements. After cooling the gallium arsenide to absolute zero – about -460 Fahrenheit – and applying a magnetic field to the material, the electrons inside break the laws of single-particle physics and enter a correlated state, in which changes to one electron reflect in the other electrons. The whole theory of quantum computing is based upon particles in correlated motion.

Don't expect to find quantum computers on the shelves of your local Best Buy anytime soon, though. There's still a lot of science left to figure out before correlated electrons help you keep track of your spreadsheets. "These exotic states are beyond the standard models of solid-state physics and are at the frontier of what we understand and what we don't understand," Manfra admitted in the press release.

ThinkGeek's New Electronic Rock Guitar Bag Melts Faces While Protecting Laptops

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 10:05 AM PDT

Face melting solos aren't quite as skin-peeling when you're rocking an air guitar. We know nothing feels more badass than simulating Angus Young's power chords in "Back in Black," but to everybody else, you just look silly. ThinkGeek strives to make wannabe strummers cool again. It just unveiled a new accessory that achieves the perfect blend of usefulness and awesomeness; the laptop-carrying Electronic Rock Guitar Bag.

This awesome little accessory uses the same basic design and premise as ThinkGeek's Electronic Rock Guitar Shirts, only you stuff computers inside of it rather than your pale, flabby stomach. It's capable of carrying a 17-inch laptop, a cellphone and "other necessities" simultaneously in addition to rocking your socks.

The fun part – the working drawing of an electric guitar on the bag's outer flap – is powered by 4 AAA batteries. Simply clip the supplied mini amp speaker to the outside of the bag, crank the volume (it goes all the way to 11. Eleven!) and blast out the grooves. Each button on the neck of the guitar corresponds to one of the major chords, and it plays in perfect tune every time. There's even a separate tone knob.

This $50 bad boy's only available for preorder right now: ThinkGeek promises to have it "just in time for back to school at the end of August." To us non-school types, that's approximately August 28th.

Thanks to SlashGear for pointing this out!

Avast: Windows XP Accounts for Nearly 75 Percent of Rootkit Infections

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 08:46 AM PDT

Users still clinging to Windows XP like that fast and gnarly Trans Am from yesteryear that's just too familiar to part with have yet another reason to consider a new ride. According to security firm Avast, XP is a fertile breeding ground for cyber infection, especially for rootkits, of which 74 percent of infections originated from in a recent six-month study cataloging over 630,000 samples.

Windows XP is the most common operating system among Avast users with nearly half sticking with the nearly decade old OS. It's also one of the easier OSes to pirate, and according to Avast, un-patched and pirated versions of XP make up the main vector for rootkit infections.

"One issue with Windows XP is the high number of pirated versions, especially as users are often unable to properly update them because the software can't be validated by the Microsoft update," said Przemyslaw Gmerek (PDF), the Avast expert on rootkis and lead researcher. "Because of the way they attack -- and stay connected -- deep in the operating system, rootkits are a perfect weapon for stealing private data."

Rootkit infections dropped off considerably for Windows Vista and Windows 7 in Avast's study, though the security outfit warns that more recent OSes aren't entirely immune.

"Cybercriminals are continuing to fine-tune their attack strategy with the Master Boot Record (MBR) remaining their favorite target for even the newest TDL4 rootkit variant," Avast stated in its report.

What operating system and security software are you rocking?

Phishing Ringleader Receives 12-Year Sentence, 38,000 Victims Rejoice

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 08:25 AM PDT

Thirty-four-year-old Tien Truong Nguyen is finding out the hard way that you shouldn't do the crime if you can't do the time. U.S. District Judge Morrison England Jr. ruled that Nguyen was in fact guilty of scamming more than 38,000 victims by designing copycat banking websites intended to dupe users into inputting their personal information, and ordered him to serve 12 years in prison.

According to DigitalTrends, Nguyen worked with Romanian scammers in a concerted effort to route victims through fraudulent websites through email phishing. He then sold the stolen data to Ryan Price and Stefani Ruland, two men who used the information to open lines of credit at GE Capital kiosks at Walmart in northern California. Credit lines usually ranged from $1,000 to $2,000 per individual. Overall, the scam resulted in about $200,000 of illegally obtained items from Walmart.

When police arrested Nguyen back in 2007, they found a whole bunch of incriminating evidence, including Web templates to build fake versions of banking sites, bank and credit card numbers from 38,500 victims, fraudulent credit cards, and a counterfeit driver's license, DigitalTrends says. Nguyen was also reportedly in possession of a Remington 870 Magnum Express shotgun and nearby ammunition, which violated a previous order resulting from convictions on three felonies, one of which included writing fraudulent checks.

Nguyen's lawyer unsuccessfully tried to blame his client's behavior on his methamphetamine addiction, for which he supposedly no longer suffers from. He was charged with conspiracy, aggravated identity theft, possession of a firearm, and access-device fraud.

Image Credit: thehackernews.com

Google Goes on an IBM Patent Spending Spree

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 08:03 AM PDT

Companies hoping to shield themselves from costly patent lawsuits have no choice but to play the patent game, which entails building up as big of a patent portfolio as possible. It's expensive, but still cheaper than going to court and risking high dollar verdicts. Some consider it a broken system, including Google, which has publicly called for patent reform. In the meantime, Google is forced to play the game, and according to reports, the search giant just purchased over 1,000 patents from IBM.

"Like many tech companies, at times we'll acquire patents that are relevant to our business," a Google spokesman said in a statement, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Google's newly acquired patents cover the "fabrication and architecture of memory and microprocessing chips," various computer architecture such as servers and routers, online search engines, and more.

Facing numerous patent lawsuits for its services, including Android, Google has the money -- some $40 billion in cash, WSJ says -- to go out and acquire patents, however it's not always as simple as making a buy. Earlier this month, Google bid on a portfolio of 6,000 patents owned by Nortel Networks Corp, but it's initial $900 million bid fell way short of the collective $4.5 billion Apple, EMC, Ericsson, Microsoft, RIM, and Sony paid.

MSI Builds Industrial System with Nettop Guts

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 07:37 AM PDT

Few things are as awesome as a custom painted full tower chassis loaded to the hilt with so much high-end hardware that most chiropractors would recommend enlisting the help of a friend when lugging it around. On the flip side, that's going way overboard if you're looking to setup a NAS box or VPN for your small business, which are two areas MSI's new MS-9A85 industrial system was built to handle.

The MS-9A58 is a compact and fanless embedded IPC powered by Intel's Atom D525 processor. It supports up to 4GB of DDR3 memory and features integrated Intel GMA 3150 graphics. Other features include two SATA ports, four 82574L Gb LAN ports (including one pair of single latch support auto-bypass function), one RS-232 and one RS-232/422/485 serial ports with auto-flow control, two COM ports, six USB 2.0 ports, 801.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, and expansion options via two PCI slots, one PCI-E x1 slot, and one mini PCI-E slot.

"With a compact mini-ITX size, MS-9A58 is designed with rich I/O functionality and has the new levels of performance and graphics for the demand in network security applications, such as small business VPN (Virtual Private Network ), VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol ), SAN (Storage Area Network) and NAS (Network Attached Storage )," MSI says.

No word yet on price or availability.

Image Credit: MSI
Posted by Shri Krishna

MMO News

MMO News

Wonderland’s Treasure and Trouble arriving August 2

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 05:38 PM PDT

August 2 is the date marked for the release of Wonderland Online 6.0, “Treasure and Trouble.”

The updatewill introduce several new quests, and a new level 120 instance with four legendary guardians facing adventurers. Along with the new content comes new weapons and armor, and a new pet, the Naughty Monkey.

A new server, Pisces, will also launch on August 2, with seven days of double experience for players who start there.

Wonderland Online is published by IGG, which also publishes Zu Online and Tales of Pirates II.

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Wonderland Online Gameplay Screenshot

Source:

Wonderland Online: Treasure and Trouble Ready for Release

It's been a long time coming, but now an official release date of August 2nd has been set for the new version 6.0 Plus of Wonderland Online (http://wl.igg.com), nicknamed Treasure and Trouble. As if that wasn't enough good news, coinciding with the release IGG will open a new server, Pisces. Best of all, everyone will get the chance to hit the ground running with 7 full days of Double Exp. Here's a sneak peek at some of the new content in Treasure and Trouble.

New Quests
There will be several new quests to try, including the Hot-Tempered Priest, Chinese Culture, Sato's Request and more! If you're looking for something truly epic, try the new Solomon's Treasure quest.

New Instances
If you're at the peak of your abilities and need a new challenge, then check out the new Level 120 instance. Beware! There are 4 unbelievably powerful holy beasts waiting inside who would love nothing better than to tear you limb from limb. Defeating these legendary guardians is worth a king's ransom in rewards.

New Items and Equipment
Adding to the already impressive selection of gears available in the game, the new version includes new weapons and armor that literally shine with power and prestige.

New TOP Pet: Naughty Monkey
One of the cutest additions to Treasure and Trouble has to be this naughty little primate. He's adorable, fun-loving and quite the troublemaker! So if you're the type of player who would love to take a nutty sidekick along on your adventures, this monkey will make you go bananas!

Visit the official Wonderland Online site at http://wl.igg.com for the latest on all the great content coming in Treasure and Trouble. Visit http://www.igg.com to learn more about IGG's growing family of games.

Navy Force coming to Game321

Posted: 29 Jul 2011 05:04 PM PDT

Navy Force, a browser-based strategy game, will be joining NGames (Game321) in August.

Navy Force is set in an alternate history where the world is mostly submerged by water, and countries must battle for trade and dominance across the seas while fighting back pirates. Players may choose from several countries, and must develop their land and cities with resources while building up a powerful fleet for battle.

Game321 also publishes Fairy Story Online and Pockie Ninja.

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Navy Force Gameplay Screenshot

Source:

NGames announce Navy Force – coming soon!

An upcoming browser-based MMO to blow the others out of the water

Publisher NGames have announced the imminent release of Navy Force, a free-to-play browser-based naval strategy MMO opening its closed beta phase this August.

NGames are readying their Game321 gaming portal for a thrilling new addition, confirming that new strategy MMO “Navy Force” will be launching this August. Based around a quest to obtain real-life book “The Influence of Sea Power Upon History”, Navy Force will excite and test the wits of any avid strategy gamer.

The naval-warfare game will be the fifth title available under the well established Game321 brand, joining a catalogue of popular MMO’s that includes Fairy Story Online, DD Tank, Caesary, and the well received Pockie Ninja.

Navy Force promises to deliver the same level of premium, visually stunning content that can already be seen across the Game321 portal. Players with a Game321 account will be automatically able to play the game with their free online passport, which grants access to all of the available titles under one central account.

Navy Force plunges players into the deep end of an alternate history; protracted wars have ravaged the planet and divided the population into separate independent cultures. 70% of the land is now submerged under the sea, thanks to abrupt changes in continental plates.
The wars destroyed the economies and resources of every country, making trading under proper protection vital to survival. As the dependency on the sea grew, countries with long coastlines captured advantageous positions for trading, pushing for economic development and dominance based on their positioning.

When the war ended, civilizations began to recover the world over, building houses and redeveloping land and economies. All was looking better, until a mysterious pirate super-power broke the peace, claiming to be a marine government.
The pirates plundered vessels, kidnapped entire crews and massacred innocent people, justifying their actions by saying there’s a fee for using the sea – and everybody must pay!

The pirate uprising prompted the world to join forces and work together to eliminate the common enemy, creating powerful marine weapons – including submarines, aircraft carriers and huge warships – in the name of the collective mop-up operation.

Inevitably, human natures lust for greed and self destruction was soon back. As economic and military development grew, so did the demands for more power and, soon, payback over enemies that humiliated them in the previous war.

As a result, every country accelerated military build-up for the purpose of its own interests. The world was suddenly at war again, locked in a three way battle between themselves and the pirate threat they had originally vowed to eliminate together.

According to the research of historians, anyone who secures the legendary treasure book, “The Influence of Sea Power upon History” by Alfred Thayer Mahan, would dominate the world and open the future as a strong maritime power.

Leaders dreaming of such power have shown strong commitment to own the book. With everyone fueled by a passion to find the legendary treasure and obtain rare resources, the world is again running into unforeseeable struggles.

Everything is at stake. This is more than a world war – this is ‘the’ world war.

NGames will release more information on Navy Force and it’s upcoming beta soon.

Shaiya

Posted: 12 Jan 2009 08:39 AM PST

Shaiya, another successful MMO game that combines some very interesting innovation with a very stock standard MMORPG styled engine. Slay terrible beasts, wield powerful weapons – just try not to die, as  in some modes of Shaiya, death is permanent.

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Publisher: Aeria Games
Playerbase: Medium
Graphics: High Quality
Type: MMORPG
EXP Rate: Medium
PvP: Duels / Faction based
Filesize: 955MB

Pros: +Good interface. +Easy to learn quest and battle systems. +Unique radar and map.  +Perma-Death system. +Innovative ‘Dueling / Wager’ system.

Cons: -Difficult to progress in the beginning.  -Slow experience gain on some difficulties.  -Limited character customization.

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Overview

Shaiya Overview

While Shaiya brings little innovation to the table in terms of gameplay, providing players with a simple and familiar MMORPG environment to discover and explore, its unique ‘Ultimate Mode’ – whereby a players character is deleted upon death, should attract elitist players from across the globe. With several race and class choices, an interesting backstory, and a beautiful world to enjoy, Shaiya should provide an enjoyable MMORPG experience to fans of the genre, but won’t be attracting many newcomers to the scene.

Shaiya Screenshots

Shaiya Featured Video

Click here to view the embedded video.

Full Review

Shaiya Review

By Cody 'Neramaar' Hargreaves

It seems that Aeria Games, a widely successful publisher of free-to-play MMO games these past few years, have their hand in more than one cookie jar nowadays. Chances are you've played one of their games by now yourself – hell, with Last Chaos, DOMO, Project Torque, Twelve Sky and the new Megaten acting as just a small few of the games under their over-sized belt, it's fast becoming hard not to have played at least one of them. Today we'll be taking a peek at one of their better known additions: Shaiya, a game of elves and dwarves, magic and fantasy, archers and… well, you probably already know the rest.

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TOO MUCH OF A GOOD THING
Yes, I'm taking a shot at the vast overpopulation our beloved fantasy MMORPG genre seems  to be experiencing so often these days. Every Tom, Dick, and Harry in the gaming business has been trying their hand at developing the next World of Warcraft for some time now. My problem with this? Well… I'm starting to get a little bored of it all to be completely honest. I mean really, how many fantasy RPGs modeled from the same concept do they think we gamers can put up with? We're going to get tired of it sooner or later… surely they must know this? They do know this… right?

To clarify, I'm not having a go at Shaiya. It does draw much of its style from the popular NCSoft title Lineage 2, but not nearly enough for me to be upset by it. No, I'm just ranting I suppose. I do that a lot, so you know. Shaiya is more or less your stock standard grinding style fantasy MMO, however, it does have one or two added flavors to spice up the soup. The most noticeable of which being the simple fact the before you begin playing Shaiya, you are asked to choose your difficulty.

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CHOOSE WISELY
You begin by creating a character as you normally would in an MMORPG.  You have several of the standard race and class archetypes available to you, such as Humans and Elves, Assassins and Priests – except once you have finished, you will need to decide just how 'hardcore' you really are. Easy Mode has been reserved for the newer players in the land of MMOs, and as such has been vastly limited. The experience gain has been doubled, but the level cap has been lowered to 30 – and no special skills are available at all.

Normal mode is the standard mode in Shaiya where most players will begin, as players must first achieve level 40 in this mode before they are eligible for Hard mode. Hard mode, while forcing players to level much slower than normal mode, gives access to much more powerful spell and ability upgrades. Ultimate mode, reserved for only the most hardcore of players, has no increase in difficulty over Hard mode, but provides players will all-new spells, abilities and equipment not found in the previous modes. The catch? What was it again? Oh. Right. If you die, your character is deleted.

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WAIT… DELETED? LIKE, FOREVER DELETED?
Yup, Shaiya Ultimate mode has perma-death enabled, and aside from its high level of violence and apparent depravity (I've seen no such thing as of this point in time), it's really the only thing Shaiya has going for it by way of innovation, or creativity. The remaining elements of the game, as mentioned above, are comprised of your stock standard MMORPG elements. There aren't really as many quests as I generally like, forcing players to spend a lot of time grinding their way up through the levels, but that's not always a bad thing. It's just a little boring really… and with today's growth in technology, many gamers – myself included – will probably be looking for something more.

Gameplay isn't everything though, I mean, I've played countless poorly constructed and repetitive RPGs in my time purely for the story, and given the half-decent back-story given in Shaiya I was really hoping to get sucked in. Naturally, I was sadly disappointed to learn that there was very little in the way of a consistent storyline too. See? Stock standard MMORPG. Amirite!?

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HEY, AT LEAST IT LOOKS GOOD
Shaiya does have one thing going for it; it looks, and sounds amazing. The graphics (while soon to be dated with the way things are going) are superb and really help bring the game to life. The musical scores and sound effects also help greatly with immersion… if of course immersion was another name for 'zoning out' and forgetting that you're grinding (I don't much like grinding, okay? Great.).

I'm probably being too hard on Shaiya, venting my anger toward the 'cloning' attitude the MMORPG scene is taking these days, and improperly taking it out on one game. As far as playable MMORPG experiences go, Shaiya is certainly a good choice. It has everything you could want in an MMO and more, and I like the path they've taken with the Ultimate mode – although I'm still not quite sure if a grinding game is a good candidate for a perma-death system or not. I mean, tell me you wouldn't be just a little upset if you were mob-ganked with a level 50 Ultimate character. I mean… damn. It's harsh – but it would make you think about your decisions a bit more I bet.

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Final Verdict: Good
Despite it's similarity to many other MMORPGs, and its lack of any truly compelling gameplay functions, Shaiya is a more than capable Fantasy MMORPG, and a standout contender in the field. Its innovation and creativity towards difficulty will not be forgotten quickly… particularly by those that die playing in Ultimate mode.

Videos

Shaiya Videos

Shaiya Gameplay Trailer

Click here to view the embedded video.

Shaiya PvP Footage

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Shaiya Cinematic Trailer

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Shaiya Character Creation

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Shaiya Boss Fight Trailer

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System Requirements

Shaiya System Requirements

Minimum Requirements:
OS: Windows XP or Vista 32
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 class processor or AMD Athlon XP, at 1.5 GHz or faster
RAM: 512MB of RAM or more
HDD: 5 GB Free Space
Graphics Card: GeForce FX class or ATI Radeon 9600 with 128MB of dedicated VRAM or better

Recommended Specification:
OS: Windows XP/ 2000 / Vista
CPU:Intel Pentium 4 Class Processor Dual Core at 2.0 GHz or faster
RAM: 1GB of RAM or more
HDD: 1.8 GB of HDD space, plus additional for new game content
Graphics Card: GeForce XT Class with 256MB of dedicated VRAM or better
Posted by Shri Krishna
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