MMO Updates

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• Runes of Magic on its third anniversary
• Elsword Harmony Festival features time-limited bonus items
• All the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria previews you can shake an empty fist at
• World of Tanks has 20 million registered users, making double-digit million profits monthly
• MV Guide: March 19-25, 2012
• The Daily Grind: Should new expansions include old expansions?
• MMO Week in Review: TORsy and iconic
• EVE Evolved: Rebalancing EVE's ships
• League of Legends talks nerfs and reveals Lulu, the Fae Sorceress

Runes of Magic on its third anniversary Posted: 19 Mar 2012 10:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Classes, Events, real-world, Events, in-game, New titles, Opinion, Free-to-play, Rumors, Runes of Magic Runes of Magic's third anniversary is finally upon us. Frogster has been gearing up for the event by holding diamond sales and cash-shop specials. Each anniversary, you can also take part in multiple frog-related quests and events. Frog-bashing, frog disguises, and more frog-bashing have long been a staple. Frog-racing and frog etiquette have been added to the roster. What's frog etiquette? Why, it's either insulting or complimenting frogs, silly. During the festivities, various freebies are usually handed out to players who log in, as well. The real question is what's new in the land of Taborea, but if you wanted to know about new lands or dungeons, you'll have to wait a little bit longer. There's no official word, but given the time that's passed and the unofficial images and information that are floating around the Internet, we know Chapter 5 can't be too far off. There are still players out there who are far from making their way through the Chapter 4 content, but many guilds on the cutting edge are starting to trample Tomb of the Seven Heroes into a well-worn path. During this intermediary period, Runewaker added the random attribute extractor and the costume interface. This isn't a replacement to aggregating; it's more like an extension. Most recently, the team introduced a patch containing bug fixes and a sprinkling of changes to the user interface, guilds, pets, vendor NPCs, quests, crafting, and skills. Some of the most exciting information is sketchy but does point to two possible new classes. And what class (or race?) could possibly have skills with names like "forge" and "runecraft" in them? Hmm... Continue reading Runes of Magic on its third anniversary Runes of Magic on its third anniversary originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

Elsword Harmony Festival features time-limited bonus items Posted: 19 Mar 2012 09:00 AM PDT Filed under: Fantasy, Events, in-game, Game mechanics, MMO industry, News items, Free-to-play What is Elsword doing for spring break? He's going to the Harmony Festival, of course! Kill3rCombo is hosting a time-limited in-game event for its fantasy action title, and you'll want to get in on said action prior to April 4th in order to grab the bonuses and upgrades. The festival includes free costumes as well as festival pie (the latter of which is used in dungeons to recover half your hit points and remove negative status effects). The devs have also added a few new quests to the mix, and there are new thrown weapons available for use in dungeons as well. There's more of course, so head to the official Elsword site to get the full scoop. [Source: Kill3rCombo press release] Elsword Harmony Festival features time-limited bonus items originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

All the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria previews you can shake an empty fist at Posted: 19 Mar 2012 08:00 AM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Expansions, Previews, Hands-on, First Impressions In the wee hours of this morning the press NDA for World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria came tumbling down, and our sister site WoW Insider has a bounty of coverage to share. The much anticipated -- and much debated -- expansion is slated for release this year, and will include a new continent, the Monk hero class, the Pandaren race, pet battles, a level cap increase, and a massive overhaul of the game's talent system. World of Warcraft players are undoubtedly fixated on the expansion, as January's 4.3 patch was announced to be the last major update to the game before MoP arrives. You can check out all of the juicy info squeezed from the press beta groves after the jump, including hands-on impressions and insights you won't find anywhere else! Continue reading All the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria previews you can shake an empty fist at All the World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria previews you can shake an empty fist at originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

World of Tanks has 20 million registered users, making double-digit million profits monthly Posted: 19 Mar 2012 07:30 AM PDT Filed under: Historical, Business models, MMO industry, News items, War, Free-to-play, World of Tanks Wargaming.net is going through quite a growth spurt, and the company's CEO says it's not just about registered user numbers boosted by freeloading players. "We probably have one of the highest payment ratios in the industry, it's around 25 to 30 percent," Victor Kislyi recently told GamesIndustry.biz. Kislyi also offered up some impressive concurrent user numbers for World of Tanks, including 423,000 simultaneous Russian tankers that he said outstrips the entirety of EVE Online's playerbase. As for the "pay-to-win" rhetoric often found in World of Tanks internet discussions, Kislyi says it is what it is. "For casual gameplay, which most players do most of the time, people don't usually use gold or expendables. Of course if you want to win a tournament, if you're competitive, if you play clan wars, if you want to be at the top, we think it's appropriate to expect a little bit of money from you because you already spent hundreds of hours in our game and that's much more than the value of any $50 box." World of Tanks has 20 million registered users, making double-digit million profits monthly originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 09:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: GamesIndustry.biz

MV Guide: March 19-25, 2012 Posted: 19 Mar 2012 07:00 AM PDT Filed under: Livestream, Miscellaneous, MV Guide MV Guide is a weekly rundown of the MMO gaming events planned on Massively TV. Every week, the Massively staff logs in to play various MMOs live and in person, and we'd love for you to drop by the channel and visit. We have a combination of regular weekly games and new surprises, so you'll find a variety of titles to take a look at. During our streamed events, you can participate in the live chat, ask questions to learn about the game, and simply spend some time with Massively staff and readers. (Of course, streaming is subject to the whims of outside forces like server-side gremlins once in a while.) Follow along after the jump to see what's on this week's schedule! Continue reading MV Guide: March 19-25, 2012 MV Guide: March 19-25, 2012 originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 09:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

The Daily Grind: Should new expansions include old expansions? Posted: 19 Mar 2012 06:00 AM PDT Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Business models, Expansions, MMO industry, Opinion, The Daily Grind When Cataclysm launched, a friend of mine who hadn't played since the days of Vanilla World of Warcraft wanted to join in the fun, but when he saw the cost of catching up -- nearly full box prices for The Burning Crusade and Wrath of the Lich King, on top of Cataclysm itself -- he balked and decided to stick with cheaper games. Blizzard's policy on charging for full expansions long after they were new always did seem weird to me, since I grew up on Ultima Online and EverQuest, whose earlier expansions usually came bundled for free along with the newest one. Why keep barriers to entry (or re-entry) unnecessarily high? So I'm happy to see recent sales on WoW's earlier expansions and a free Cataclysm for returning players via the new scroll of resurrection deal, but I can't help but wonder whether it's too late. How many of you have skipped over a game because of the cost of "catching up"? Do you think new expansions should always include the previous ones gratis? 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 Daily Grind! The Daily Grind: Should new expansions include old expansions? originally appeared on Massively on Mon, 19 Mar 2012 08:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

MMO Week in Review: TORsy and iconic Posted: 18 Mar 2012 06:00 PM PDT Filed under: Massively Meta, Week in Review, Miscellaneous At the end of every week, we round up the best and most popular news stories, exclusive features, and insightful columns published on Massively and then present them all in one convenient place. If you missed a big MMO or WoW Insider story last week, you've come to the right post. This week, Massively met the crowds clamoring for more Star Wars: The Old Republic info with a slew of articles just in time for the guild summit embargo drop. We explored the upcoming Update 1.2 in a lengthy hands-on, examined the game's re-tinkered legacy system, and chatted with James Ohlen on the future of the game (wru, dungeon finder!). Were you one of the many gamers who took advantage of the free TOR pass over this past weekend? Sound off in the comments and enjoy the rest of this week's top MMO stories after the cut! Continue reading MMO Week in Review: TORsy and iconic MMO Week in Review: TORsy and iconic originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 18 Mar 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

EVE Evolved: Rebalancing EVE's ships Posted: 18 Mar 2012 04:00 PM PDT Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, Patches, PvP, Opinion, EVE Evolved, Sandbox Recently we heard the glorious news that CCP will be overhauling EVE Online's entire roster of tech 1 ships as part of the Inferno expansion. The overhaul will start with changes to the skill requirements for destroyers and battlecruisers and culminate in the complete removal of ship tiers and the introduction of new structured ship lines. Countless new ship types have been released since EVE launched in 2003, but there has never really been a unifying design policy on ship skills and combat roles. Now, eight years down the line, adding new ships has become a struggle in avoiding making older ones obsolete. Drastic change is needed, and when the Inferno expansion hits, that's exactly what we'll get. When a new EVE player is ready to get into something larger than a frigate, he's currently faced with the choice of training for a destroyer or skipping it and heading straight to cruisers. Similarly, players often skip from cruisers straight to slow, bulky battleships even though battlecruisers are probably the most effective ship class for new pilots. A new system is on the way this summer, one that aims to fix this problem by introducing new racial versions of the destroyer and battlecruiser skills that must be trained on the way to bigger ships. This change should make training progression much clearer for new pilots and is just the tip of the iceberg of awesome plans in the works for the summer expansion. In this week's EVE Evolved, I examine EVE Online's upcoming ship revamp and tell you how you may be able to get free skillpoints when the patch goes live. Continue reading EVE Evolved: Rebalancing EVE's ships EVE Evolved: Rebalancing EVE's ships originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 18 Mar 2012 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments

League of Legends talks nerfs and reveals Lulu, the Fae Sorceress Posted: 18 Mar 2012 12:00 PM PDT Filed under: Video, Game mechanics, Patches, PvP, News items, Free-to-play, Dev Diaries, MOBA, League of Legends If you can't quite get your daily dose of adorableness with Teemo or Annie, you'll definitely want to pick up League of Legends' next champion, Lulu, the Fae Sorceress. Riot Games revealed Lulu this week with a stunning art spotlight and followed up with a full gameplay reveal and a patch preview video. Lulu is the first true support champion that's been added in quite some time, with abilities that shield and buff allies while slowing enemies. All of Lulu's abilities center around her adorable little faerie companion, Pix, who fires energy bolts at the targets of all her attacks and can be commanded to shield allies or follow enemies to grant vision. Lulu's introduction patch will be arriving with a whole host of balance changes and gameplay tweaks. Ramus will have his effectiveness as a rapidly ganking jungler nerfed with a reduction in his base damage and armour. Shaco's early-game ganking potential has been found to be a bit too strong, while his late game potential is lacking. He'll be rebalanced to make him scale better into the late game. Jax was dying far too easily in teamfights, so developers have swapped the damage and ability power from the active part of his ultimate for additional armour and magic resist. Lifesteal items are also on the chopping block, with the goal of making damage harder to regenerate in a lane. Skip past the cut to watch the full patch preview video in HD. Continue reading League of Legends talks nerfs and reveals Lulu, the Fae Sorceress League of Legends talks nerfs and reveals Lulu, the Fae Sorceress originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 18 Mar 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink | Email this | Comments Source: Patch Preview, Lulu Art Spotlight, Lulu Gameplay Reveal

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Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates

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• Power Rangers Online (KR)
• Diablo 3 release date and price set
• Heroic 3 Kingdoms (CN)
• Elder Scrolls MMO Announcement Reportedly Coming Soon
• Dungeon Keeper Online (CN)
• Mercenary Ops (CN)
• Blade & Soul (CN)

Power Rangers Online (KR) Posted: 19 Mar 2012 06:13 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. Find similar article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2011/09/power-rangers-online-kr-first-monster_30.html

Diablo 3 release date and price set Posted: 19 Mar 2012 03:24 AM PDT Blizzard Entertainment has today announced that Diablo 3 will be 'unleashed from the Burning Hells' exactly two months from now, on May 15th. Diablo 3 will be on sale in most regions around the world at retail and globally via via Blizzard's Battle.net website. A localised Russian version of the game will follow on the 7th June. Blizzard also announced that global presales for Diablo 3 start today with a dedicated part of Blizzard's website officially open for business. "After many years of hard work by our development team and months of beta testing by hundreds of thousands of dedicated players around the world, we're now in the homestretch," said Mike Morhaime, CEO and cofounder of Blizzard Entertainment. "We look forward to putting the final polish on Diablo III over the next two months and delivering the ultimate action-RPG experience to gamers worldwide starting on May 15." It's going going to be cheap though. The suggested RRP for Diablo 3 on PC and Mac is £44.99 for the both boxed and digital copies. The Collector's Edition has an RRP of £69.99 and will include the full game, a behind-the-scenes Blu-Ray and DVD set, a soundtrack CD, a 208-page Art of Diablo 3 book and a 4GB USB soulstone (loaded with full versions of Diablo II and Lord of Destruction) with corresponding Diablo skull base. There's more, but we've lost the will to live. Let the madness commence… Find similar article at: http://www.totalpcgaming.com/latest-pc-news/diablo-3-release-date-and-price-set/

Heroic 3 Kingdoms (CN) Posted: 19 Mar 2012 03:24 AM PDT As mentioned in my previous post about this game (link), Heroic 3 Kingdoms is the first MOBA title to be developed using Unreal Engine 3. MOBA means Multi-player Online Battle Arena, where games including Dota, Dota 2 and League of Legends fall into. The brainchild of NetEase’s founder and CEO, Heroic 3 Kingdoms differ from others having 3 opposing factions in a single game. Basically, it is 5 Vs 5 Vs 5 as the main feature. Below are some early screenshots, with the bottom 2 possibly showing off the spawn points for 2 of the 3 warring nations. Find similar article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/03/heroic-3-kingdoms-cn-first-screenshots.html

Elder Scrolls MMO Announcement Reportedly Coming Soon Posted: 18 Mar 2012 09:24 PM PDT Since this is the week of the pipe dream, what with a sequel to Wasteland being funded and a release date for Diablo III finally being made official, now is as good a time as any for some juicy rumors to be floated. Aside from talk of HD re-releases of both Shenmue games and Skies of Arcadia (a subject for another article), it’s being reported than an Elder Scrolls MMO is not only in development, but it will also be getting an official announcement fairly soon. The game, known as Elder Scrolls Online, will be announced at some point in May according to a report by Tom’s Guide. Sources provided very little information about the game except to say there will be three playable factions (represented by a lion, dragon, and either a phoenix or eagle) and that it is set approximately 1,000 years before Skyrim. That period would also predate the events of Morrowind and Oblivion. This is not the first time there has been talk of an Elder Scrolls MMO. Even before Skyrim was announced, there was speculation that the next game in the series following Oblivion could take on the form of an MMO. On more than one occasion the concept was not entirely shot down by Bethesda. The company also owns a number of domain names that would be perfectly suited to an MMO, but of course simply acquiring domains means nothing. What makes this much more believable is what was revealed in court filings in the case between Bethesda and Interplay over the rights to a Fallout MMO. (The case was settled earlier this year.) Bethesda was said to be working on a “World of Warcraft type MMO” since late 2006, and VG247 later reported it had been told it was, in fact, the long-rumored Elder Scrolls MMO. When the court documents became public knowledge Bethesda attempted to have them withdrawn, though it was obviously too late to avoid having news leak. So while none of this is a confirmation, it’s looking more likely than ever that the franchise will not remain single-player-only. Considering what the reaction was to Mass Effect 3 adding an optional, cooperative multiplayer mode, this is going to incite fans even more than that did. The two situations are different, as Mass Effect simply saw a multiplayer mode added onto a previously single-player franchise whereas the TES MMO would presumably be multiplayer-only after a long history of providing solo experiences. But given Bethesda did deliver Skyrim last year and is continuing to update it (including features seen in the Game Jam sizzle, like new kill cams), it’s not as if Bethesda decided to abandon its single-player game fans so it could release an MMO. (Just a thought: the MMO being in development could have helped fuel the decision not to integrate any sort of cooperative play in Skyrim, which some fans were hoping to see.) Many fans are sure to be turned off by an MMO, just as many Mass Effect fans were by the addition of multiplayer, but I imagine not all of them will be. Using such a popular single-player RPG franchise as the basis for an MMO could be an effective way of luring in gamers who would otherwise never consider touching the genre. It may not be Call of Duty, but the Elder Scrolls is really big — in less than a month Skyrim shipped 10 million units and took the title of fastest-selling game in Steam history. And since launch it has continued to be among the best-selling games in the United States according to the NPD Group. Bethesda is already quite accomplished at developing massive worlds for players to explore and interact with. Making an MMO won’t be as simple as increasing the size of the world and throwing a bunch of players into it all at once, but Bethesda has a strong built-in fan base and a lot of experience settings gamers loose in a wide-open world, two things that any company looking to release an MMO would love to have.

Dungeon Keeper Online (CN) Posted: 18 Mar 2012 06:13 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! Find similar article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2011/09/dungeon-keeper-online-cn-exclusive.html

Mercenary Ops (CN) Posted: 18 Mar 2012 03:19 PM PDT First announced at GDC 2012 (link), Mercenary Ops is an online third person shooter developed by Epic Games China using the company’s own Unreal Engine 3. The China server officially launched a couple of months back, and here is an early look of what to expect from the game. Not really an avid online shooter player myself, do bear with my noobish play. And apologies for the lag spikes, this is the first time I have encountered in years. I guess it is not really common to find a hugely successful Free to Play third person shooter in the online gaming world, and I can only think of a couple with not much success. For console gaming, there seems to be many success stories. Mercenary Ops utilize a couple of extra actions which are typically missing from first person shooter, including blind shot, leaping and really treating the environment as a tool. See the number of primary weapons my character can hold? That is one of the few new things in my experience in the game. Playing in 2 AI PvE maps, the Shopping Mall is a rather stale mode, shooting enemies on sight and perhaps grab that cool flamethrower weapon as well. While the map is pretty restricted, the Hospital of the Dead map is really quite big. Essentially a zombie mode map where the undead spawns like crazy in various rounds, there are many rooms to explore and zombies literally spawn from almost everywhere, in which my team was finally overwhelmed. Players can even repair window grills to stall the zombies from destroying them too quickly, but I think it is a rather useless feature given how the grills fall off faster than I can gobble down a burger.Some doors will require points to open for convenience, but I will suggest leaving that to the pros. I will be back next week with more footage, other maps/ modes and a take on the current cash shop in the China server, which is pretty heavily-monetized from my point of view. Find similar article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/03/mercenary-ops-cn-first-look-at-game.html

Blade & Soul (CN) Posted: 18 Mar 2012 03:19 PM PDT As I posted previously, Blade Soul will be published in China by the country’s biggest internet company, Tencent (link). While a secret registration process for selected gamers is going on for the China server and the Korean server preparing for its next Closed Beta phase, a Beijing-based developer released screenshots of its game earlier today. With Tencent naming Blade Soul as 剑灵, the developer named their revealed game similarly as well, claiming there is no copyright issue as they registered the name even before Tencent announced the title. Chinese game website, 17173.com, paid a visit to the developer and was informed the game is currently 60% complete, with characters each having 2500 different actions, over 1100 different action effects and 600 environmental special effects. Some of the actions mentioned include wall-running and climbing. Players can even set the game’s camera view as a normal 3D game’s or switch it to a 2.5D view, which I presume it as isometric view, similar to Diablo III. The developer plans to enter its first public testing sometime in May this year. Find similar article at: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/03/blade-soul-clone-spotted-in-china.html

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General gaming

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Kid Icarus Uprising Review: Stunning Despite Stumbling Posted: 19 Mar 2012 05:05 AM PDT In an age where annual installments are a normality in gaming, waiting 20 years for a sequel seems preposterous. And yet the last time we guided the Pit on his own personal journey was in 1991's Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters on the original Game Boy. Since then, it seems like every Nintendo console and handheld has had its fair share of rumors regarding the return of the angelic warrior in some capacity. Though he had a brief stint on Captain N: The Game Master, along with a playable role in 2008's Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Pit hasn't been able to spread his wings in his own adventure until now. Kid Icarus Uprising for the 3DS shuns the series' platforming roots for a more action-heavy approach, but is it worth the wait? The story this time around is a pretty simple affair consisting of multiple parties each with their own motivations. Pit, the titular hero, wants to be able to fly on his own, a legion of goddesses want to restore their own versions of stability to the world, and various agents of chaos will stop at nothing to create a whole mess of mischief. Your time in the game is broken up into very distinct sections. Each mission begins with a five minute long flying sequence that introduces your environments as well as your ultimate goal. These soaring sorties play out as a mix of Star Fox 64 and Space Harrier with an extremely cinematic quality to them. Throughout these sections, you'll find yourself threading the needle through a lunar assault and diving deep below the surface of the ocean. The camera remains dynamic the whole time, never losing Pit amidst the chaos of the world. Great care is taken in choreographing the aerial action, such as how Pit will automatically begin sprinting along the surface of a structure if you steer him close to one. Sadly, the reason these segments only last five minutes ties in loosely to the Icarus myth -- his goddess companion Palutena uses magic to bestow Pit with the ability to fly, but only for a limited amount of time. After that, your wings "burn" up and you're forced to enter the on-foot portion of each mission. This is when things take a turn for the worse.

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MMORPG News

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• General: Copernicus: What It Won't Be
• World of Tanks: Double Digit Millions Per Month
• TERA: Temple of Temerity Shines
• Star Wars: The Old Republic: Lore Advancing in v1.2
• Guild Wars 2: Ask the Devs CBT Edition
• World of Warcraft: Ghostcrawler Talks Mists of Pandaria
• World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria: Five Great Things About Pandaria
• World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria: New Dungeons, Scenarios, & Pet Battles
• World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria: New Battlegrounds, the Monk & Talents
• World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria: The Zones & Tone of Pandaria

General: Copernicus: What It Won't Be Posted: 19 Mar 2012 07:32 AM PDT The Keene & Graev Game Blog has been updated with some interesting information posted by 38 Studios' Curt Schilling about what Copernicus will and won't be to MMO gamers. To start, Schilling disavows the notion that Copernicus will be a sandbox game and then moves on to vaguely discuss what the MMO will bring to the table.

World of Tanks: Double Digit Millions Per Month Posted: 19 Mar 2012 07:21 AM PDT Victor Kislyi, the CEO of Wargaming.net, has revealed that World of Tanks is making "double digit millions" per month. In addition, Kislyi reported that the team has grown to over 800 employees around the world and hinted at the WoT deployment in Vietnam, Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan and the Philippines. Further, Wargaming.net is considering South American and Middle Eastern releases as well.

TERA: Temple of Temerity Shines Posted: 19 Mar 2012 07:15 AM PDT The TERA site has been updated with the third installment of the dungeon profile series. This time, the Temple of Temerity sits in the spotlight. The Temple of Temerity is a timed instanced dungeon where players are charged with protecting a relic from increasingly numerous and difficult monsters trying to destroy it.

Star Wars: The Old Republic: Lore Advancing in v1.2 Posted: 19 Mar 2012 07:10 AM PDT Bioware's Charles Boyd has posted a new article on the Star Wars: The Old Republic blog discussing how the game's story will advance with the deployment of v1.2. The story, Boyd writes, is designed to "shed a bit more light on the state of the galaxy and the ongoing war between the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire" and will give players a peek at coming events.

Guild Wars 2: Ask the Devs CBT Edition Posted: 19 Mar 2012 07:01 AM PDT We know that the Guild Wars 2 closed beta event will kick off prior to the end of March. Being proactive, we are putting together a slate of questions to the Arena.Net GW2 team and need YOUR input. Please submit your questions in this thread and we'll pick out the best of the best to ask the team.

World of Warcraft: Ghostcrawler Talks Mists of Pandaria Posted: 17 Mar 2012 07:36 AM PDT While at Blizzard HQ in Irvine, California we talked to Greg "Ghostcrawler" Street about all the new features coming to Pandaria and what players can expect in this new expansion. Click through to hear the whole interview.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria: Five Great Things About Pandaria Posted: 18 Mar 2012 07:49 AM PDT Blizzard Entertainment and the World of Warcraft development team are ready to unleash the hounds of information for the recently announced Mists of Pandaria expansion. In our final article in today's suite, we present what we believe are five truly great things about Pandaria. Keep reading and then add your thoughts in the comments.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria: New Dungeons, Scenarios, & Pet Battles Posted: 18 Mar 2012 07:45 AM PDT Blizzard Entertainment and the World of Warcraft development team are ready to unleash the hounds of information for the recently announced Mists of Pandaria expansion. In a full suite of articles about Pandaria, we present new information about dungeons, the pet battle system and scenarios. Read on!

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria: New Battlegrounds, the Monk & Talents Posted: 18 Mar 2012 07:39 AM PDT Blizzard Entertainment and the World of Warcraft development team are ready to unleash the hounds of information for the recently announced Mists of Pandaria expansion. In a full suite of articles about Pandaria, we give you a closer look at some of the new features that will be included. Check it out before leaving your comments.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria: The Zones & Tone of Pandaria Posted: 18 Mar 2012 07:35 AM PDT Blizzard Entertainment and the World of Warcraft development team are ready to unleash the hounds of information for the recently announced Mists of Pandaria expansion. In a full suite of articles about Pandaria, we first present a general overview. Read on and then leave your comments.

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