12 April 2013 | |
iTZKooPA
Cryptic Studios announced that there’d be one final closed beta session for Neverwinter as a thanks to all of the current testers. In some way, that’s true, as Jack Emmert said it was in the works during a recent video interview. But the message seems confused. Just days ahead of today beginning the final push and gamers are informed that there’s more work to be test!
How dare Cryptic Studios force early adopters to test the brand-spanking-new Power distribution system. Or the oft-talked-about, barely-played Great Weapon Fighter. Who’d want to guinea pig the Professions system? Test new content during the award weekend?! The audacity. The horror!
Why, I’ll show them. I’m going to finish patching this free-to-play action-oriented MMORPG and play the crap out it. That’ll show ‘em. Right?
Purchasing a Neverwinter Founder’s pack will guarantee immediate closed beta access, including this weekend’s beta. Neverwinter heads to open beta on April 30.
12 April 2013 | |
iTZKooPA
Launched successfully in Russia in 2011, the MOBA/RPG hybrid Prime World is nearly ready to descend on the English-speaking world. Nival announced that the game will enter closed beta testing shortly. Sign-ups are now live on the official website.
For those that haven’t heard of Prime World, there’s actually a bit more than what the headline described. To stop the headline from scrambling our beautiful layout we had to hold off on the third aspect of the hybrid title, castle building. Prime World attempts to cherry pick the best features of the MOBA genre – PvP, laneing and itemization – combine it with persistent RPG development and build a city-based economy to support future endeavors.
Beating SMITE to the punch, Prime World feature a wide variety of game modes. The typical laneing style is available, but as part of its six modes Prime World includes a mix of environments, gameplay pacing and team sizes.
Curious? Take a gander at the official English reveal trailer and screenshots featuring combat and city building after the cut. We’ll have more on the popular Prime World universe as the game approaches its testing phase.
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11 April 2013 | |
iTZKooPA
The latest Neverwinter Dev Blog revealed a tidbit that excites many a hardcore Dungeons and Dragons player. Cryptic Studios has listened to beta feedback and modified one of the core progression systems based upon player desire. In the near future players will have another aspect of character customization to enjoy; being able to select which powers to use.
Previously, customization was limited to which power to equip to the hotbar. Players had no choice in what power to accept. They were all unlocked as the character gained experience. Coming as part of Beta Weekend 4, players will receive additional customization in the form of power training. As a character gains experience it will earn power points, a currency to purchase powers or upgrades. At max level players will have earned around 60 power points, “roughly a dozen points shy of maxing out everything.”
Change is a good thing.
8 April 2013 | |
iTZKooPA
Competition, it drives us humans something fierce. The desire to reign supreme over one another. To flex physical or neurological muscle in an effort to show one’s prowess. Tapping into this human emotion is a major driving force behind the success of the multiplayer online battle arena genre as a whole. It tends to work pretty well.
Heroes of Newerth is one of the games that takes full advantage of this inspirable notion. It certainly hooked Sam Braithwaite, better known by his profession eSports name ‘MilkFat.’ Now the Commissioner of eSports for S2 Games, Braithwaite was happy to discuss the game that brought him so much notoriety during PAX East 2013.
With the season finals going on in the background, Braithwaite details the latest patch for HoN. Focused on quality-of-life changes, including an all-new new player initiative, S2 Games believes HoN 3.0 will be more accessible and enjoyable for all. As MilkFat details, it’s only going to get better from here.
Absorb the full interview after the jump. Continue Reading
4 April 2013 | |
iTZKooPA
Shortly after the successful transition to a freemium option, En Masse Entertainment is morphing its action-oriented MMORPG once again. The change isn’t as drastic, especially to current players, but speaks volumes to on-going attempts at instantaneous gaming. En Masse Entertainment announced that Happy Cloud will enable TERA: Rising to be streamed eliminating the pesky task of downloading and installation.
What better way to support your F2P initiative than to eliminate any delay in participation? Backed by Happy Cloud’s technology, players new and old can begin playing with only 10% of the game downloaded. That’s 2.2 GB of data instead of the previous 22 GB.
“Improving our user onboarding process for TERA: Rising is a priority for us, and using Happy Cloud’s system is an easy way for us to get more players into TERA’s immersive, 3D world,” said Soo Min Park, COO at En Masse Entertainment. “Taking a graphically rich, fast-paced game such as TERA: Rising, which contains hundreds of hours of gameplay, and delivering the bytes in the order they’re needed is no small task, but we’re confident this will provide an even better experience for our fast growing legion of fans.”
4 April 2013 | |
iTZKooPA
During our PAX East 2013 interview, Jack Emmert let us in on a secret. That Neverwinter, the company’s action-oriented MMORPG set in the Dungeon & Dragons universe, would be heading to open beta very soon. Unlike some other developers out there it appears that Cryptic Studios wasn’t leading on gamers. Cryptic Studios and Perfect World Entertainment announced early today that Neverwinter will move to its open beta testing phase on April 30.
But before gamers get full access with no fear of wipes, there’s one final hooray for those early adopters and lucky beta key winners. Next Friday, April 12 until Sunday, April 14 eligible players will receive 60 hours to hone their experience farming routine. Of most interest to some will be another topic discussed during the interview, a first crack at Neverwinter’s Profession system. Be it Leadership, Leatherworking, Mailsmithing or Platesmithing, all four profession will be available to those interested.
“We’ve never been in a better place launching a game,” said Jack Emmert, CEO, Cryptic Studios. “While the entire team is focused on launching Neverwinter’s Open Beta on April 30, we still wanted to thank those committed Founders who stuck with us. Since the beginning of Neverwinter’s Beta Weekends, our Founders have shown us that Neverwinter offers engaging game mechanics, unique features and a gameplay experience that is parallel to subscription or paid games. They have become our biggest supporters and we wanted to give them Beta Weekend 4 as a token of our appreciation.”
After the jump is the latest trailer, What is Neverwinter, and a collection of new screenshots. Time is running out to become a Founder and acquire guaranteed beta access and exclusive items.
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3 April 2013 | |
iTZKooPA
Perfect World Entertainment and Cryptic Studios gave the Lore Hound community a perfect opportunity to follow up on the recently-published exclusive interview with Cryptic Studios CEO Jack Emmert. The in-depth interview opened up nearly as many questions as it answered so Lore Hound bit at the chance to elaborate on select responses or dive into completely new topics.
Jack and iTZKooPA cover a wide variety of topics in the PAX East 2013 interview. R.A. Salvatore and his novels come into play. There’s prodding on what to expect the Neverwinter gameplay to be like. This led to further prodding revealing the first details on raiding and multiple-party events. Every time Jack zigged, iTZKooPA zagged for more. Guilds, the endgame PvP/PvE zone of Gauntlgrym, and premium classes are all on the docket after the cut.
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3 April 2013 | |
iTZKooPA
It’s unfortunate that Another One Bites The Dust exists, but necessary. This column chronicles the fateful announcements ahead of an MMOGs’ downfall, a company closure or, in some truly sad cases, both. Grab your Big Gulp and let some hit the floor for the fallen.
Nexon made an unfortunate call last night. After three years and a successful international operation the company has opted to close the North American version of Dungeon Fighter Online. One of the parent company’s most “unique” titles, DFO launched in 2009 helping diversify the F2P offerings from typical fantasy MMORPGs to a side-scrolling multiplayer beat-em up.
Launched in June 2010, the unique title was adopted by a hardcore community, which was provided with numerous content updates and milestones. Dwarfed by its international community and constantly under assault from hackers and farmers, Nexon CEO Min Kim has made the decision to ramp-down the game starting April 11, 2013. The North American server will cease to exist on June 13, 2013.
Select cash shop items from the past six months will be refunded dependent upon a few factors, discussed here.
