Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates

Latest Gaming and MMORPG Updates


Skullgirls Review: Fluid, Competitive, and Full of Over-the-Top Fanservice

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 11:43 PM PDT

See the child. Hear her beckon forth, surrounded by the carcasses of men harboring murderous intent. Men you ended. Their last breath whispering about the sweetness of a child, or the satisfaction of killing the interloper that you are. Save the child, who you thought was yourn, but she reveals herself to be Mei lost in the world of dust, not the daughter you left behind twelve months ago. The voice in your pocket sputters forth. The man named Henry asks, take her, take the lost child Mei, take her to the mall. Give her medicine left behind by those who never set foot in Haventown, those who drop foodstuffs and medicines from above and never look back. Not since The Event. The Event that scraped the loam off the earth and turned it into the dust that hugs and holds and kills all who wander within. The dust that chips and gnaws at your very stamina. The Event that dominates I Am Alive.

So you go, ever pressing on to find wife and child. Gone a year, but now you return, to climb and cobble and carry on. You cannot ignore Mei’s bleat for aid, but other survivors of the Event not so much as settle but subsist their meager existences in the dust covered Haventown. A man yearns cigarettes to pass on. Another man in an amusement park needs medicine to heal the leg that’s been crushed by another uncivilized man. Haventown also starves for supplies. Bottles of water, cans of fruit cocktail, a single inhaler, a handful of painkillers, these all turn into precious manna from heaven through scarcity. Give the emergency kit to the woman with the ankle sprain? What these bemoaning folk have to give, besides gratitude and perhaps a precious shotgun, is the Retry. Haventown harbors death by trial, not saves. It does not yield to the checkpoint that others call for. It takes away a Retry from your knapsack for every fall, stab, or shot you suffer. Deplete your store of Retries, and your journey resumes at the beginning of your current episode. A practice that leeches away minutes of your life. A practice that mocks you by depleting Retries and then flings you back to 45 minutes ago. What is worth more, the rat meat that can heal you, or the Retry that you get for giving rat meat to the gurgling man below? Every survivor, like the woman bound by handcuff to a bench, pleads for help while you mind debates.

Similar Article: http://www.1up.com/reviews?cId=3186984

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Power Rangers Online (KR)

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 05:43 PM PDT

9c59d pr Power Rangers Online (KR)

I am sure most of you would have read about Power Rangers Online through my previous posts (link), which caused quite a wave in the Toku fraternity. As a long-time Super Sentai and Kamen Rider fan myself till today, I wouldn’t have even remotely thought about having an online game based on the series. I mean, how could the game be pulled off since the single-player ones on consoles are virtually bad to the core? Korean studio Ironnos and publisher Ntreev apparently found the equation according to ThisIsGame.

A: It is a Dungeon Fighter online-styled Free to Play action MMO. The design of the game is primarily based on the 29th Super Sentai series in Japan, Mahou Sentai Magiranger. The new “Striker” system is added in the currently on-going Closed Beta 2.

A: The feedback is generally good, but of course there are negative ones saying the game is too childish, but found the game really fun after trying it out. The players in Closed Beta 1 are mainly people in their 20s and 30s, which is a good sign. The only main negative issue was the operational convenience of the game (controls, UI) which we improved and polished for Closed Beta 2.

 Power Rangers Online (KR)

A: Basically, it is a skill which allows players to summon Rangers from the other series to aid them in their fight. For Closed Beta 2, there will only be Gaoranger (Power Rangers Wild Force) available. More teams will be added in due time. We also added a 2nd combination skill, which requires players to be in-sync in terms of timing to pull it off.

 Power Rangers Online (KR)

A: We are having a hard time deciding how to present this feature to the players, and also which player to control the mecha. We will absolutely be releasing this feature, perhaps as a major content update after the game goes live.

A: As the core of Power Rangers is focused on 5 players, we will be designing new features based on this number of players. Being an online game, it will be hard for players to be really coordinated and react at the same time. Hence, the current combination skills will just require a simple activation from all 5 players without having everyone to do so at the same time. In the future, we might have other new features.

 Power Rangers Online (KR)

A: Power Rangers is very famous in Korea as well, and it is part of many people’s childhood and even popular among the kids nowadays. With Super Sentai running in Japan for so many years, there is actually a huge pool of content to be brought into an online game.

A: Magiranger was aired on cable TV in Korea back in 2000, and it was the most popular series here. Those people who are in their late 10s and early 20s have mostly watched the show. We thought of using a newer series, Engine Sentai Go-onger (Power Rangers RPM), but the fan base of Magiranger is much wider. The settings of Magiranger’s storyline corresponds to the current age as well, hence it was chosen.

 Power Rangers Online (KR)

A: Toei was hands-on during the process, and the company was very active. Although the whole duration of development slowed down, it can’t be a bad thing as Toei is the series’ creator who came up with all of the content.

A: It will go into public beta testing later this year in Korea.

Similar Article: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/04/power-rangers-online-kr-brief-interview.html

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Dungeon Hero (KR)

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 05:42 PM PDT

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I know, Dragon Nest developer Eyedentity Games just announced Dungeon Striker (link) recently, which I think forced EyaSoft to reveal their rendition of a online dungeon crawler as well. EyaSoft, if you remember, developed some rather memorable titles including Luna Online, Legend of Edda and Iris Online.

After temporary ceasing all work on their previous games (link), EyaSoft is now back with its 2nd title, Dungeon Hero. The first title to be announced after the studio’s revival was the spiritual successor to Luna Online, Luna Story: ELs (link).

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Unlike Dungeon Striker which is a real time action slasher, Dungeon Hero still adopts the classic targeting system, which will no doubt draw in a different crowd of gamers who are still not used to action games. Combat is not really that slow, which I can attest with my experience in Legend of Edda and Luna Online.

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Featuring a “Heroes’ Arena” inspired by MOBA games such as Dota 2, Dungeon Hero is still very much focused on PvP despite EyaSoft’s trademark cute design. There is also a PvP map which accommodates guild wars, supporting 100 Vs 100 players at the same time. Dungeon Hero is expected to enter beta later this year.

95e15 d1 Dungeon Hero (KR)

Similar Article: http://www.mmoculture.com/2012/04/dungeon-hero-kr-eyasofts-dungeon.html

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Fus Roh Dah Trademark Application

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 05:42 PM PDT

Fus Ro Dah, Popular Intenet meme that  arose from the Dragon Shout in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, has had several patent applications.

Bethesda Softworks parent company Zenimax Media has applied for no less than 6 different trademarks on Fus Roh Da, filed at the US Patent Trademarks Office on 6 April. It's a canny move we've come to expect from the company, as the Fus Ro Da patents cover an immediately reconisable brand among gamers, for everything from a new gaming franchise to t-shirts, dolls and other merchandise.

90106 0 Fus Roh Dah Trademark Application

Similar Article: http://www.totalpcgaming.com/latest-pc-news/fus-roh-dah-trademark-application/

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Rare Breeds: Video Game Genres on the Verge of Extinction

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 11:42 AM PDT

The game industry has little room for failures. Like a vast and cruel wilderness, it’s rarely merciful to the games that can’t adapt to a changing environment. Yet it’s rare that an entire breed of game goes completely extinct; as long as there’s one small developer or semi-profitable fan following, a genre can survive. It’ll just be on the endangered list — that’s where you’ll find all of the following species, which were once healthy or prosperous in some way. But time and technology dulled their appeal, and faster, leaner, more appealing games took over.

Some genres have made comebacks in recent years. Between Telltale Games’ catalog and Double Fine’s newly funded project, the classic point-and-click adventure game isn’t doing so badly. But other kinds of games aren’t so lucky, as the current market finds these formerly proud creatures subsisting only through independent studios or cheap downloadable software. So let’s take a look at them, their history, and the many small ways they endure today.

6c167 091 Rare Breeds: Video Game Genres on the Verge of Extinction

INTERACTIVE MOVIES

First Classified: 1983

Primary Habitats: Arcade, Sega CD, TurboGrafx CD, anything with a CD or laserdisc drive

Distinguishing Features: Grainy footage, c-list actors, overwhelming awkwardness, possibly intentional comedy

Some will argue that interactive movies technically aren’t games at all. From their genesis, the genre was billed as a playable film, deliberately blurring the line between a traditional video game and cinema. They’re perhaps the ideal case of a game genre born simply from a rise in new technology.

That new technology was at first the laserdisc. Unwieldy and now obsolete, the new form of media was nonetheless a marvel in the early 1980s, when it allowed ample storage space and streaming video. Arcade developers took advantage of this and put all sorts of sharp-looking video footage in their laserdisc games, from the borrowed sci-fi pastiche of Sega’s Altron Belt to the original animation of Don Bluth’s Dragon’s Lair. While live-action footage was popular, it’s the animated offerings that are remembered most fondly today. In the eyes of history, Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace led the movement, supported by Japanese creations like Time Gal, Cliff Hanger, and the glorious cheese of Road Avenger.

ce668 090 Rare Breeds: Video Game Genres on the Verge of Extinction

All of these games followed the same idea: players watched video footage, looked for some quick visual cue, and then moved the joystick or buttons accordingly. It made for stiff trial-and-error gameplay, and the average arcade-goer had to sacrifice many quarters and watch Dirk the Daring or Reiko “Time Gal” Kirishima meet many comical deaths. Players essentially paid to watch a movie in fifteen-second bursts, and the appeal wore thin over time. The arcade boom ended and laserdisc games grew too expensive for many companies to justify, but interactive movies got a second chance — and became the most mocked games of an entire generation.

As CDs came into vogue in the late 1980s, consoles gradually adopted them. The TurboGrafx-16′s expensive CD-playing attachment launched shortly after the vanilla cartridge-based system, Sega pushed out its own CD add-on for the Genesis in 1993, and even Nintendo looked into a Super NES CD addition before discarding the idea. And with these CD peripherals there were interactive movies, also termed “full-motion video” games. The TurboGrafx-16 ventured into this new territory with It Came From the Desert and Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective, but these were mere flirtations compared to Sega, who made FMV the hallmark of the Sega CD. Fueled by their new development studio Digital Pictures, Sega’s creations ranged from music-video simulators to flight sims, all stitched together from grainy footage.

Similar Article: http://www.1up.com/features/rare-breeds-extinct-video-game-genres

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General gaming

General gaming


Skullgirls Review: Fluid, Competitive, and Full of Over-the-Top Fanservice

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 05:48 PM PDT

Any fan of fighting games knows that the genre offers a lot of options these days -- almost too many. With a new fighter poised to be the next competitive masterpiece coming out seemingly every month, each new contender needs to offer something to set it apart from the rest.

Skullgirls gives us plenty of reasons to pick it up, with Mike Z -- project lead, designer and long-time competitive fighting game player -- addressing many of the common problems that have plagued the genre for decades now. It's a very solid and fun fighter overall. At the same time, though, a few of the basic features we've come to expect in fighters are mysteriously absent, and the polarizing visual style can make it difficult to convince others to give the game a shot no matter how much you enjoy the game.

How Red Dead Redemption 2 Could Reinvent the Old West

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 05:38 PM PDT

Feature

Header

How Red Dead Redemption 2 Could Reinvent the Old West

In order to journey forward, Rockstar needs to look back.

By: Nickolai Adkins April 12, 2012

In the most classical Cowboys and Indians-kind of ways, the American frontier has been used as the canvas for literature and film since each has had breadth to embrace the era and its infinitely contested lands. But the dust-mottled landscape of violence, thieves, and legends that remain ever so familiar in other media has been implemented surprisingly little in the gaming medium. So when Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar's spur-saddled, 2010 magnum opus hit, it immediately impressed both the gaming press and consumers alike, garnering unanimous high praise and quickly becoming as viable in sales as Rockstar's flagship Grand Theft Auto series. RDR took the industry by storm with a well written, expertly paced, and massively open world. With such a high bar set by the first installment, how can a sequel possibly meet fans' expectations, let alone exceed them? Like the first game so cleverly ingested much of what has been utilized before, much can be gleaned from investigating the genre's storied past in celluloid, on page, and in real life.

John Ford and Caricatures of the Old West

OP-ED: Where Do Gamers Draw the Line Between Creator and Creation?

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 02:49 PM PDT

Nearly five years after its initial announcement, Polytron's Fez arrives on Xbox Live Arcade this week. It's a great game that delivers on its unique premise, proving well worth the wait. And yet, many gamers have expressed their intention to forego playing Fez despite having followed its development avidly for so long. Quality and anticipation be damned; to them, Fez is simply off the table.

OP-ED: Things Could Be Worse for THQ

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 02:41 PM PDT

Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine

THQ is not in the greatest position it's ever found itself, what with it facing a potential NASDAQ delisting and its lowest stock prices since the mid-90s. Earlier this year there were rumors the publisher had canceled its entire slate of 2014 games, including its MMO Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium Online. This was quickly denied, although the company has laid off a large number of employees since then in an attempt to restructure its business.

Part of that restructuring includes changing Dark Millennium Online from an MMO into a more standard style of game. As described in the press release late last month, it will now be developed as an "immersive single player and online multiplayer experience with robust digital content, and engaging community features." That sounds nice and all, but the idea of converting your typical World of Warcraft-style MMO into a game that can be enjoyed by a single player is a tall order. According to the company's executive vice president of core games, Danny Bilson, it won't be a difficult conversion due to the innovations developer Vigil Games (which lost 79 full-time employees last month) had come up with.

MMORPG News

MMORPG News


Drakensang Online: New Skills Added in Latest Update

Posted: 13 Apr 2012 07:26 AM PDT

New Skills Added in Latest Update

The Drakensang Online team has posted the latest update notes on the official forums. The last patch adds a host of bug fixes but, more compellingly, a bunch of new skills that players can access on reaching certain levels over time.

Final Fantasy XIV: New Contest Asks Players to Predict the Fall of Garuda

Posted: 13 Apr 2012 07:14 AM PDT

New Contest Asks Players to Predict the Fall of Garuda

As the Final Fantasy XIV v1.22 patch is being prepared for deployment, the dev team has announced a new contest for players. In it, players are being asked to predict how long they think it will take a group of intrepid characters to take down Garuda. Up to 20 winners will be chosen and will score some in game swag.

Firefall: Interview with Scott Youngblood

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 01:55 PM PDT

Interview with Scott Youngblood

MMORPG.com's Hillary "Pokket" Nicole caught up with Firefall's Lead Designer Scott Youngblood (also the original Tribes mastermind from the days of yore) to chat about Red 5's MMO shooter.

World of WarPlanes: PAX East Hands On Preview

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 12:40 PM PDT

PAX East Hands On Preview

During PAX East, our team had the opportunity to check out Wargaming.Net's next MMO, World of Warplanes. We've got a pair of impressions to share so keep reading!

TERA: Friend Codes for YOU!

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 03:58 PM PDT

Friend Codes for YOU!

The TERA open beta is scheduled to begin on April 19th (for pre-orders and the 20th for regular folk) and we here at MMORPG.com want to make sure our readers are squared away for the big day. To that end, we have a special beta code for you to use. Simply sign up on the TERA forums and plug "TERABETA" into the appropriate slot. Then get yourself ready to go for April 19th!

Dark Legends: Exclusive 'Downfall Blades' Promo Code Giveaway!

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 03:49 PM PDT

Exclusive

MMORPG.com and Spacetime Studios have partnered up to provide you with an exclusive promo code redeemable for a pair of awesome 'Downfall Blades' in Spacetime Studios' just launched vampiric mobile MMO, Dark Legends.

Continent of the Ninth Seal: Get Your Beta/Tournament Key Now!

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 11:52 AM PDT

Get Your Beta/Tournament Key Now!

MMORPG.com has been given some beta keys for Continent of the Ninth Seal! This key will let you participate in the C9 Championship Tournament. This event runs April 12 - May 5, 2012. Get your key and get playing now!

Dark Legends: Desktop & Mobile Versions Launched

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 11:43 AM PDT

Desktop & Mobile Versions Launched

Spacetime Studios has announced that Dark Legends has officially launched for Android mobile devices as well as on Google Play and Chrome web store. The game will be available on iOS devices in the near future. Dark Legends is a vampire based MMO.

City of Heroes: Issue 23: Where Shadows Lie

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 11:29 AM PDT

Issue 23: Where Shadows Lie

Paragon Studios is ramping up the PR machine with today's revelation of what will occur in Issue 23: Where Shadows Lie for City of Heroes players.

World of Tanks: 24 Million Reasons to Be Tankful

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 11:18 AM PDT

24 Million Reasons to Be Tankful

Wargaming.net has pulled out all the stops for the first anniversary of the release of World of Tanks. According to WG.net, World of Tanks has scored over 24M registered players and is considered one of the fastest growing free-to-play MMOs in the world.

General: FPSGuru.com | Tribes Ascend Interview With Todd Harris

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 11:07 AM PDT

FPSGuru.com | Tribes Ascend Interview With Todd Harris

Pokket interviews Todd Harris of Hi-Rez Studios on behalf of FPSGuru.com. The chat about why this isn't your average shooter. Tribes: Ascend launches on the PC on April 12, 2012 as a direct download. Check it out at FPSGuru.com.

Dungeon Overlord: RTSGuru.com | Defying Expectations & Staying Connected

Posted: 12 Apr 2012 11:04 AM PDT

RTSGuru.com | Defying Expectations & Staying Connected

The RTSGuru.com team had the chance to chat with Harlan Beverly of Night Owl Games about their new mobile app, the direction Dungeon Overlord has taken, getting past the idea of what a game on Facebook can be, and making community feedback work. Check it out at RTSGuru.com.

General: Soap Box: Mass Effect 3 Part 2 - The 5%

Posted: 10 Apr 2012 01:48 PM PDT

Soap Box: Mass Effect 3 Part 2 - The 5%

Yesterday, we took a look at the first 95% of Mass Effect 3, the part that BioWare did very well. In today's Soap Box, we look at the final 5% of Mass Effect 3 and at the controversy swirling about the last chapter of the last game in the astonishingly successful trilogy of games.

Sword Girls: Our Official Sword Girls Review

Posted: 11 Apr 2012 01:09 PM PDT

Our Official Sword Girls Review

Our team has been busy putting ChangYou's Sword Girls Online trading card game through its paces. See how it fare in our latest review. Played Sword Girls? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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