Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates

Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates


Rhythm Heaven Fever Fixes Its DS Predecessor’s Missed Beats

Posted: 31 Jan 2012 06:33 AM PST

When I was in junior high school (centuries ago), I always found the metalhead clique at my school intimidating. Rangy boys with long, oily hair and a collective uniform consisting of boots, black-washed jeans, and black T-shirts imprinted with art from album covers by bands whose names bore gratuitous double consonants and lent themselves to harsh, angular logo designs, the metalheads always hung out together at the side of gym class, discussing their heroes’ latest wailing guitar concoctions and glowering at the rest of the world. They sported the shifty desperation unique to 14-year-olds jonesing for a drag on a stolen cigarette.

It was all kind of alarming for us clean-cut students whose main ambition for gym class was to avoid notice by the jocks and dropouts while hanging out on the sidelines discussing the latest Zelda strategies with each other (dude, if you just keep going up when you get to that one spot in the mountains, there’s a dungeon there!). In hindsight, though, I realize that the metalhead kids were harmless. They never picked on anyone; they never caused trouble outside of skipping class to hang out and listen to noisy music. They were as geeky as the video-game-fixated A-students; the only difference between us was that their obsessions were wrapped up in an affected antisocial style. Their music may have been about volume and screaming and satanic posturing, but it was just that: Posturing. Underneath it all, those guys just wanted to do their own thing, and they wore their ragged Dokken shirts with pride because they sincerely thought that airbrushed zombie warriors chained to naked, guitar-wielding sex slaves was, like, so awesome.



Posted by: admin in Gaming News
Find related article at: http://www.1up.com/previews?cId=3186637

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En Masse : Asians are hackers , hence IP blocked

Posted: 31 Jan 2012 06:33 AM PST


(Source) Another piece of bad news following the lawsuit between NCsoft and En Masse Entertainment, all Asian IPs will be blocked from the official North American servers. Yes, it means that even English-speaking nations such as my country will be blocked. Why does En Masse sees all Asian countries as hackers’ haven? Ain’t there hacking contests held in the Western world as well? I was actually going to get the game since the launch falls on my birthday, but I guess it is a good thing now. Asian players, time to look for another game!

To keep the quality of service high for players within North America we have decided to disable IP addresses from which fraudulent traffic originates. We encourage players in these regions to participate on servers specifically designated for their area.

En Masse will block IPs based on region. Asia, Africa, Russia, and the Middle East are included on the block list. While we appreciate that there are players in these regions who would enjoy playing on En Masse servers, it’s unfortunate that the vast majority of Internet traffic we see from these regions are from cyber-criminals relating to account theft, gold-farming and other hacking behavior.

Services that promise to improve your ping and decrease lag may sound promising, but they are frequently used by hackers and criminals who want to remain anonymous. Although we do not block them by default, a proxy or server host will be blocked if it becomes a popular tool for criminal behavior.

En Masse has a license to operate TERA game servers in North America. This means that if you are in North America, South America, Europe (excluding Russia), and Oceania (Australia, New Zealand, Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia) you can play on En Masse Servers.


Posted by: admin in Gaming News
Find related article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/01/en-masse-asians-are-hackers-hence-ip.html

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iCloud For Beginners Launches

Posted: 31 Jan 2012 06:33 AM PST

iCloud, Apple's new backup and sync service can prove a nebulous entity in more ways than one. Cloud storage might not be new iCloud For Beginners Launchestechnology but since we've been fiddling around with personal data drives for decades now, it's a concept that can take some getting used to.

A simple, functional guide can help turn your fraught and stuttering start into a seamless transition onto iCloud, which is where Imagine's iCloud For Beginners ebook comes in handy.

You can check out iCloud For Beginners on the iTunes store: it covers everything from setting up your iCloud account to sharing data across all your Apple devices in easy to follow, step-by-step tutorials. But best of all (in our opinion) are the funky Multi-Touch features, a veritable sweet shop of multimedia including slideshows, annotated images and scroll–pinch pages all designed by experts using Apple's spanking new iBooks Author software. Plus it's a bargain too, at $1.99. Don't ascend into the iCloud without it – get it here.


Posted by: admin in Gaming News
Find related article at: http://www.totalpcgaming.com/advertorial/icloud-for-beginners-launches/

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Primal Carnage

Posted: 31 Jan 2012 01:26 AM PST


(Official website) Once in awhile, there might be an indie online game which catches my eyes and I just can’t wait to share it with the folks. Primal Carnage is one example, developed by indie studio Lukewarm Media. As the title suggest, it is indeed Humans VS Dinosaurs as the game’s main theme. Players can choose to play as either a human hunting down dinosaurs or as a dinosaur looking for its next meal.

With that said, there are a number of classes for each side as well. You can view the human classes here (link) and the dinosaur classes here (link). From the looks of it, Primal Carnage will be quite a unique online PvP game, apparently much more logical than having penguins as the main focus (link). Each class will have specific skills to be utilized, and hopefully more will be added.


If you are lazy to read the information at the official website, humans play in a first person shooter (FPS) mode while dinosaurs play in a third person shooter (TPS) view. How many games can you play as a dinosaur mauling humans? Go signup for beta now!


Posted by: admin in Gaming News
Find related article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2011/09/primal-carnage-humans-vs-dinosaurs.html

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Nintendo’s DLC Strategy Appears to Put the Company on the Right Track

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 06:31 PM PST

Nintendo digital

Nintendo made headlines last week when it announced something many felt it should have had in place years ago: the Nintendo Network. The details remain sketchy at best and, like with details on the Wii U, it is likely we’ll be waiting until E3 in June before we’ve given a better idea of how the Network will actually come together. What little president Satoru Iwata did have to share about it was encouraging, and the same could be said for a lot of what Nintendo at least claims to be doing as it works to put this current disastrous financial year behind it.

Following Friday’s investors briefing, a QA session was conducted where Iwata and company provided many unspecific, but nonetheless promising answers about how the company plans to avoid suffering another money-losing year.

It doesn’t take an expert to identify one exceedingly obvious place Nintendo needs to improve: launch window software. I enjoyed Steel Diver and thought Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars was really good, but there wasn’t a whole lot else to enjoy at the launch of the 3DS or in the months afterward. (The first great game was The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, and that came months after launch and was not an original title.) Compare that with the Vita’s launch day lineup headlined by the likes of Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Super Stardust Delta, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, and Lumines: Electronic Symphony and you can see how the 3DS’ launch wasn’t at the level it needed to be. With the Wii U coming out by the end of the year, Nintendo doesn’t want a repeat of the 3DS’ poor performance out of the gate, which was due to not just a $250 price tag, but also a lack of must-have games.

“What we should reflect on is to keep the momentum in the market, and as I mentioned before, it is important to release software seamlessly,” Iwata said during Friday’s QA. “Specifically, a new platform is likely to have a gap between the launch titles, which many developers want to release, and the second wave of software. It is indispensable to avoid such a gap in our future business. In determining the launch date of the Wii U, we need to take into account not only what to release at the launch period but how to keep the sales momentum after then. In the past, I mentioned that having strong momentum is very important for game platform businesses, and as a matter of course, we are now more convinced of that and we need to have a backup plan ready.”

As is the case with many of his other comments last week, this sounds good and I hope it’s true but we can’t be sure it really means anything until we actually see a list of titles set to be available alongside the Wii U later this year. After the problems with 3DS, though, it’s perfectly sensible for Nintendo to seek to make the launch lineup as strong as possible. Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime talked last summer about lessons the company learned from the launch of 3DS and noted, “We needed to have key franchises and stronger first-party titles.” Even if we don’t get a new Mario or Zelda HD on Wii U’s Day One, Nintendo realizing gamers expect more than Pilotwings and Nintendogs is a positive sign.

Other areas needing improvement are the online and digital spaces, both of which are seemingly being addressed with the Nintendo Network. Downloadable content is one piece of that, and Nintendo sees two ways in which it can benefit. One of those is the revenue that will be brought in through the sale of DLC, whether that be a digital Wii Fit Plus-style add-on for a game like Wii Fit or additional levels in a Mario game, both of which were ideas Iwata mentioned.

Super Mario 3D Land

The other benefit it’s hoping the release of DLC will bring is for its games to remain current. Buying an older game isn’t always the most attractive option, but if that old game has been updated in a way that people continue to play it and talk about it, that could lead to sales of the game months or years down the line it might not have garnered otherwise. It’s a strategy Valve employed with free DLC for Team Fortress 2; the numerous updates it released over the years would bring back new players and get new ones to purchase the game (before it went free-to-play).

But as we’ve heard Nintendo and Iwata in particular insist time and again in recent months, the publisher doesn’t want to overdo DLC and upset fans who feel they aren’t getting the sort of value they’re used to. Asking gamers to pay to spend too much for DLC “might be good for short-term profit,” Iwata said, “but it will not serve our mid-term and long-term business developments.”

This doesn’t preclude other developers from adopting the sort of microtransactions seen in social games. “If third-party developers would like to adopt this form of micro-transaction, and if this kind of business relationship between the developers and consumers is commonly accepted in Japan, we have no intention to decline it,” Iwata said. Given that Nintendo needs all the third-party support it can get, that seems like a wise decision, as the company most certainly doesn’t want a situation like XCOM: Enemy Unknown being announced for PC, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 (but not Wii U) to become a trend. Whether Nintendo’s flexibility on how third parties handle microtransactions will have much impact is unclear, but it certainly can’t hurt.


Posted by: admin in Gaming News
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TGS: Photo Gallery – Up Close and Personal With Japan’s Exclusive Super Mario Converse All

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 01:27 PM PST

Forgive me, readers, for I have sinned. I traveled to Japan for Tokyo Game Show and only bought a single old video game. That almost seems like a crime for someone who used to host the Retronauts podcast and once swam through the retro shops of Akihabara like a fish in water. No, this year I spent all my free money on clothing, because shopping for fashion in Japan is perhaps the one time being a man on the short side of average with a slight build actually works to my advantage. I can buy off the rack in Japan and a shirt doesn’t hang off of me like drapery! It’s a nice change of pace from the billowing tents they call a “size small” at The Gap.

This goes for footwear, too. Converse recently teamed up with Nintendo to create a set of absolutely wonderful Super Mario-themed All-Stars — presumably inspired by the real Super Mario All-Stars — that are being sold in an extremely select number of shops here in Tokyo. Several of my peers in the press have expressed an interest in picking up their own pair of Super Mario Chucks, but they’ve been thwarted by the fact that they can’t find a pair in a size larger than 8.5, much too large for the gunboats the average American male calls his feet. Not me, though. I wear a size 8, and that’s on a hot day when I’ve been eating a lot of salt and I swell up a bit. So I decided to take advantage of my miniature size and have a friend grab a pair for me.

The Mario Chucks come in several styles, the most common being solid black or white shoes imprinted with tiny Mario sprites. Cute, but not very striking. (Sorry, I’d post photos, but all Japanese shopkeepers have two things in common: They shout “Irashaimase!” when you walk in, and they get angry when you take photos of their wares.) Then there are the more elaborate ones: A pair that depicts Mario taking on Bowser in World 8-4, and the pair I picked up, which shows Mario at the beginning of his quest in the blue skies of World 1-1. This is definitely the most striking of the quartet, and that’s only fitting — the thing that made Super Mario so eye-catching back then was its cerulean blue sky. So it goes, 26 years later.

The shoes are laden with fantastic details, from the way the standard Converse star is replaced with a Starman to the double-layered edges that fold away to reveal a specially imprinted inner lining: Luigi grabbing coins on the 1-1 shoes, goiter-faced Princess Peach thanking Mario for her rescue on the 8-4 shoes.

Rather than simply go on and on about these beautiful, nerdy shoes, I’ll just inundate you with photos. These were admittedly pricey — about $110 after exchange adjustments, which is far more than I’ve ever paid for sneakers — so I’ll only be wearing them for special occasions. Weddings, funerals, that sort of thing. Mario classes up any joint, you know?

Special thanks to fashion maven Kyle McClain for his help in tracking these down!


Posted by: admin in Gaming News
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Last Chaos (KR)

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 12:31 PM PST


Once touted as a direct competitor for NCsoft’s Lineage 2, Last Chaos (Korea) will be shutting its doors come 16th February for both game servers and website. Last Chaos lasted around 7 years, clocking 2,586 live days since it went into Open Beta in its native homeland on 28th December 2004. Overseas, Last Chaos has seen various different localized servers in 15 different languages. The North American server, under Aeria Games, is still running (link).


Posted by: admin in Gaming News
Find related article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/01/last-chaos-kr-signing-off-after-7-years.html

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General gaming

General gaming


Nintendo's DLC Strategy Appears to Put the Company on the Right Track

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 03:24 PM PST

Nintendo digital

Nintendo made headlines last week when it announced something many felt it should have had in place years ago: the Nintendo Network. The details remain sketchy at best and, like with details on the Wii U, it is likely we'll be waiting until E3 in June before we've given a better idea of how the Network will actually come together. What little president Satoru Iwata did have to share about it was encouraging, and the same could be said for a lot of what Nintendo at least claims to be doing as it works to put this current disastrous financial year behind it.

Following Friday's investors briefing, a Q&A session was conducted where Iwata and company provided many unspecific, but nonetheless promising answers about how the company plans to avoid suffering another money-losing year.

Rhythm Heaven Fever Fixes Its DS Predecessor's Missed Beats

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 02:30 PM PST

As I'm playing a cooperative game of Rhythm Heaven Fever with a Nintendo representative during a private demo last week, I can't help but get caught up in the beat of the music and the hilarity of our current objective. We each control a kung fu student in one of the modes titled "Endless Games" -- a set of rhythm challenges that continues infinitely until we exhaust our chances. Our pair of martial arts prodigies have to strike a training ball back and forth between them with punches and kicks; the goal is to keep it in the air until it breaks and needs a replacement. The core gameplay idea is simple, and reminds me of a similar (real life) game involving a basketball that I played as a kid -- minus all the light-hearted acrobatics and martial arts mastery. The ball travels back and forth between a flurry of punches, kicks, and other wacky moves -- one involving a volleyball-style spike that has a very small timing window -- as our pair of students alternate positions on four poles. The longest string of hits from the playthrough gets recorded, and trying to top it becomes your next goal.

Much like all the rhythm-based challenges in Rhythm Heaven, catchy music is the byproduct of your efforts, and similar to the past GBA (Japan-only) and DS installments, the light-hearted context makes each song entertaining and fun. On many levels, the playful tone connects with the most basic understanding of music -- requiring very little knowledge of actual instrumentation (like Rock Band), and emphasize keeping time with a beat instead. The basic controls almost always involve timed presses of the A button, or pushing both the A and B buttons of the Wii Remote together simultaneously. Specific audio cues or animations help sync your timing, and are covered up with other on-screen elements to see if you're really paying attention to the music.

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Video Review

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 01:03 PM PST

Chances are, you've arrived here in one of two ways. Either you read Jeremy's Final Fantasy XIII-2 text review and wanted to see him say those things out loud. Or, you're coming in fresh and want some opinions on the game in general.

Either way, leave that tarp on your ant farm because we've got you covered. Check out Jeremy and Marty picking the game apart above, and let us know what you think below!

Final Fantasy XIII-2 Review: A Series in the Throes of Awkward Adolescence

Posted: 28 Jan 2012 02:30 PM PST

Age 13 was a tough year for me. After making my way innocently through elementary school as a naive, good-natured, obedient, straight-A student, I found myself suddenly thrust into the world of junior high, where the traits that had helped me remain so admired among my family and teachers made me tragically uncool among my new peer group. Seeing old images of myself as I sorted through family photos not too long ago really drove home just how awkward I was at that age.

So I feel some sympathy for the Final Fantasy series. Age XIII was a tough time for it, too. With Final Fantasy XIII, it went from being the cool, cutting-edge RPG series that everyone in the world loved to a symbol of everything troubling the Japanese game development process in one fell swoop. No longer was it the bold, sweeping definition of refined console-based role-playing it had been in the 16-bit days. No longer was it the cutting-edge exercise in marrying technology and narrative that its 32-bit iterations represented. Even the quirky sense of self-reinvention that defined its PlayStation 2 entries was lost.

MMORPG News

MMORPG News


League of Legends: RTSGuru.com | Why Dominion Works So Well

Posted: 31 Jan 2012 07:10 AM PST

In a new feature at RTSGuru.com, Kassandra Khaw takes a look at League of Legends: Dominion and why she thinks it's a fine addition to the game.

Guild Wars 2: The Beta Wait is Almost Over

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 08:16 AM PST

Last week, Arena.Net announced that the beta for Guild Wars 2 would be coming in the near future. That's got us excited and we've got lots to say about it...if we can calm down long enough to write! Read on and then tell us why you're anticipating the GW2 beta in the comments.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: The Endgame Grind: PvE vs. PvP

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 10:56 PM PST

While many of us would like to see MMO developers try something different when it comes to the endgame, we're all familiar with 'the grind' by now. But does Star Wars: The Old Republic offer worthwhile progression in both PvE and PvP? Or is one area stronger than the other? Read on for our thoughts!

General: Game On: Episode 1 - The Relaunch

Posted: 31 Jan 2012 04:44 AM PST

In the relaunch of MMORPG.com's Game On Podcast, hosts Som Pourfarzeneh, Bill Murphy, and Hillary "Pokket" Nicole talk about the games that suck their lives away, the big stories in the MMO world, and invite listeners new and old to mail in their questions, comments, and more. Head to our official Game On page for a listen and then let us know what you think!

EVE Online: Corporation Forums Coming Soon

Posted: 31 Jan 2012 05:23 AM PST

A new blog post has cropped up on the EVE Online blog announcing that every corporation will be able to create its own forum on the official site. The reason for this, according to the team, is to create a "community enhancing tool which boosts communication and corp cohesion without all the hassle of starting their own external forum."

General: Naming Your MMO Baby

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 07:59 AM PST

There's no question that most of us identify with our online MMO characters. To that end, the name we choose generally -means- something to us. In a new editorial today, we take a look at how and why we name our 'babies' as we do. Read on!

DC Universe Online: Update 9: Assemble for Battle Detailed

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 12:59 PM PST

The DC Universe Online team has posted an outline of Update 9: Assemble for Battle. The date for the update's deployment is not available but it looks to bring some great new content and features into the game.

Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning: New Version Goes Live

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 12:20 PM PST

The Warhammer Online team has announced that v1.4.5 has been deployed. The Warhammer Herald has a highlights list that goes into detail about the most significant changes.

Rift: Big Changes to PvP with 1.7

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 11:39 AM PST

The Rift dev team has posted a new blog article outlining some of the most significant changes coming to PvP when v1.7 is deployed.

EverQuest: F2P Coming in March

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 10:20 AM PST

Sony Online Entertainment and the EverQuest team have announced that the game will be going free to play beginning in early March, just in time for its 13th anniversary.

TERA: Website Overhauled

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 09:44 AM PST

En Masse Entertainment has officially launched the reworked website for TERA Online. According to devs, the site has been retooled in order to "provide an easy and intuitive all-in-one system where users can create, access, and manage web and game features."

Luvinia Online: Zendo Area Tour

Posted: 29 Jan 2012 10:38 AM PST

Luvinia Online launched late in 2011 and has already seen a significant content expansion added to the game. Called "Zendo", the new area brings over a hundred new quests and much more into Luvinia. We recently went along on a GM-led tour of Zendo. See what we found out!

Xsyon Earth 2012: Prelude: Architecture Contest Announced

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 07:54 AM PST

Xsyon players with an architectural bent will want to check out and participate in the forthcoming contest. Beginning February 1st and running through March 1st, players are invited to overhaul their Tribes. Once finished, players submit their work to the dev team which will be looking for winners in originality, design, layout, beautification and uniqueness.

Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited: Screenshot of the Week: DDO Edition! Win 1,000 Turbine Pts!

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 07:17 AM PST

Everyone loves to take screenshots of their favorite games, and we want you to share them with us and the rest of the MMORPG.com community! To that end, we're back with our latest Screenshot of the Week feature this week, and we're looking to give out some cool swag. Some of our SOTWs will be themed to a specific game, and this week is one of 'em! This week, we'll be focusing on Dungeons & Dragons Online: Eberron Unlimited.

Star Trek Online: Second Anniversary Fete Around the Corner

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 07:19 AM PST

Star Trek Online will be celebrating its second anniversary beginning February 2nd. The team has four days of fun planned for all Trekkies starting the 2nd and continuing through the 6th. "Q" will be handing out special requests each day during the event so players should seek him out. Don't count on being sent on important tasks either as he loves to watch people run around.

Entropia Universe: MindArk Interview

Posted: 28 Jan 2012 08:31 AM PST

Entropia Universe is developed by MindArk and is a huge hit with many MMO players. We had the opportunity to chat with MindArk CEO David Simmonds about all things Entropia. Read on and then leave us your thoughts in the comments.

Age of Conan: Unchained: January Development Letter Arrives

Posted: 30 Jan 2012 07:03 AM PST

The latest edition of the Age of Conan: Unchained Development Update has arrived on the official site. The letter begins with a look back at the momentous year AoC had in 2011, particularly with regard to going "Unchained" or F2P/hybrid back in the summer. From there, the post springboards into 2012.

World of Warcraft: The WoW Killer Redux

Posted: 28 Jan 2012 08:21 AM PST

In the last edition of The WoW Factor, the discussion swirled around what exactly it is that constitutes a "WoW Killer". This week, we continue to examine the issue from the perspective of you, our loyal forumites. Check it out!

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