17 April 2013 | |
iTZKooPA
Snail Games announced earlier today that the western version of Age of Wushu (Wulin elsewhere) will be receiving new content just after last week’s successful launch that required a new server. The developer will be bringing the already-launched content from the Chinese servers. The upcoming patch will include new skills, competitions, and much more.
The Jet Li backed epic martial arts title will be receiving the Mount Hua PvP competition that’s currently running in China. The contest will award top players with special titles and costumes, with the ultimate winner receiving a Heaven Sword. Yanmen Pass will compliment the PvP addition by unveiling a new PvE instance with diverging storylines. Players can create their own adventure each time they enter the instance.
Two other important features are Rage skills that must be cultivated like nearly everything else in the sandbox game and the ability to put a ring on it. Yea, weddings are on the docket.
15 April 2013 | |
iTZKooPA
We’re all dealing with another senseless act of violence today. Certainly nothing to forget or diminish.
Earlier, Lore Hound covered Mark Jacob’s remarks on what he sees as a growing F2P bubble. Snail Games, maker of action MMORPG Age of Wushu, counters his argument with the successful, although delayed, launch of the martial arts.
The Wuxia-based sandbox title initially launched with just three servers. This past Saturday, April 13, the Red Phoenix server was adding to the cluster increasing the opening weekend total to a set of quadruplets. Snail Games fully expects another server to be required when the retail launch of Age of Wushu (Age of Wulin in other territories) drops on April 23.
Interested in the free-to-play sandbox title set during the Ming Dynasty? Hit the jump for our introductory interview with Producer Arash Amini.
Continue Reading
10 April 2013 | |
Mordil
I haven’t payed much attention to WildStar, but with Closed Beta starting, that might change.
If you haven’t signed up for Beta Access, you can do so by following this link:
http://www.wildstar-online.com/en/beta/
This Beta isn’t going to function like most “weekend” betas in which you can only play Friday night to Sunday night, as you’ll be able to log-in at your convenience for several weeks.
That should be plenty of time to check out all the factions, races, and classes that WildStar contains.
Read on to find our recent interview we had with WildStar at PAX East ’13. Continue Reading
5 April 2013 | |
iTZKooPA
Red 5 Studios has changed the core progression of FireFall not once, not twice but thrice. At first, the open-world shooter was your typical experience-based level grind. The game designers and the community saw such a trope odd in a shooter, causing the modification to a battleframe-based level system complete with skill trees. The battleframe system remains, but modified to be more customizable and easier to understand.
Lead Designer Scott Youngblood elaborates on the drastic changes, the impact the final one will have on players and the game’s future before touching upon other topics. Consumable experience, the possibility of a PvEvPvP map, crafting and customization, constraints, tiering and the massive amount of PvE content are fair game in the latest FireFall interview.
Check out the whole interview complete with gameplay and screenshots behind that fancy little button. Continue Reading
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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30 March 2013 | |
iTZKooPA
Game designers set out to make titles that captivate an audience. These creative professional do not have a single tool to use. They’ve a toolbox. A title’s design can captivate an audience through a multitude of ways. Gameplay, story, challenge, a breadth of content or depth of an experience, immersion, voice, agenda, these are just some of the mechanisms wielded by the creative brains behind the escapisms we enjoy.
For Wildstar, the upcoming MMORPG from Carbine Studios, there are four unique pillars. Steadfast features that the title has been built upon and around. The foundation to the title. Customization, including the incredibly deep player housing system, the Path system – not to be confused with professions, the tone of the title, such as the tongue-in-cheek re-reveal trailer and Carbine’s endgame content system known as the Elder Games.
Each pillar is discussed in great length in our first interview with Chad Moore, the Lead Narrative Designer for Wildstar. Check it out after the cut.
Also discussed, the planned business model behind Wildstar.
Continue Reading
27 March 2013 | |
iTZKooPA
Basically, are you of the Lannister mentality or the steadfast honor of a Stark?
Be forewarned, the interviewer of this video is an immense nerd. An avid reader of all literature and avid player of nearly any video game, platform agnostic, the nerd reached his maximum threshold at the combination of a video game meshing MMOG and strategy elements with the deep, character driven universe of the A Song of Fire and Ice series (Game of Thrones to the HBO nuts).
To say “That escalated quickly” would be an understatement of iTZKooPA’s unbridled excitement.
Upon a less-than-professional recovery, Product Manager Scott Triola begins the arduous task of selling a Facebook game to a serial MMO player. Diving into the connected story, deep RPG components including skill trees and moral choices and city-building aspects are sure to draw in gamers. While a deep connection to the on-going HBO series, including weekly updates as Season 3 progresses, should sell those purely interested in consuming everything and anything Game of Thrones.
Hit the jump for the full interview complete with in-game screens, concept art and a camera angle that makes the talking heads appear to be giants from beyond The Wall. Continue Reading
27 February 2013 | |
iTZKooPA
Alright, fine. We’re hijacking this bit of news in a self-serving interest. Wanna fight about it? You do? Crap…how about I buy you a drink instead? Now that my wallet’s lighter, back to the news. And it really is news!
Blizzard Entertainment has reportedly announced that the company will be attending Penny Arcade Expo East, the annual gathering of everything nerd in Boston. It’s noteworthy because the company rarely ventures outside of its own venue, BlizzCon, these days. Even routinely skipping E3. Perhaps skipping BlizzCon 2012 has given the company some motive. Or, as most people are assuming, Blizzard wants to begin putting Diablo III for PS3/4 into the hands of consumers!
The catch there is we already knew that’d be shown at PAX East. As GameFront pointed out, the email is more mysterious, referring to the “new Blizzard project” that isn’t an expansion, Project Titan or a sequel. Blizzard All-Stars mayhaps?
Whatever it is, the traveling Lore Hound crew will have it covered for you!
