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.
Continue Reading
1 April 2013 | |
iTZKooPA
There are independent companies and then there is Red 5 Studios. The developer behind the third-person MMO shooter FireFall has managed to gain hundreds of millions of dollars in funding while keeping to itself. After a third massive overhaul to the title, FireFall is nearly the big time. During PAX East, the company had a little more to showcase besides its freshman entry and its latest content. The new television-level production of gamer and nerd culture coming from Stage5TV.
FireFall’s Lead Designer Scott Youngblood hung around after the announcement to speak with Lore Hound and explain why now, what’s to be offered and how Red 5 Studios can benefit. The move to support independent developers and the gaming community speaks well to Red 5’s previous efforts, such as the founding of League for Gamers.
Hit the jump for the full interview. Stage 5 is live now. Continue Reading
20 March 2013 | |
iTZKooPA
Developer Carbine Studios has been pushing WildStar, its MMORPG slated for 2013 release, rather quietly for the past few months. That is seemingly all about to change. Publisher NCSoft and Carbine Studios released the first official trailer to explain to gamers exactly what the previously lightly detail title is all about.
To date, we pretty much knew that its a class-based title and a unique Path System feature that is a separate choice from Explorer, Soldier, Scientist or Settle. Followers of WildStar’s early blog posts also know that gamers will reside on the fringes of settled space, the fictional planet of Nexus. Why fictional? Well, we wouldn’t want the other planets to claim Carbine Studios was playing favorites.
The 4+ minute trailer explains all of this, adding in details on the paths, player-built housing, PvP and more on the story.
Lore Hound will be meeting with Carbine Studios at PAX East for our introductory interview. If you’ve a question you want asked leave it in the comments. Continue Reading
7 March 2013 | |
Mordil
Ahead of their scheduled departure for PAX East (which iTZkooPA will be covering the show), HiRez announced yesterday the $10,000 prize pool tournament they will be hosting in cooperation with Twitch.tv.
Seven teams out of a list of around 36 have been invited to play which include: ROOT Gaming, My Revenge EU, Curse.NA, Borderland Gaming NA, Reason Gaming, MyoElectric, and Vivacity E-Sports.
HiRez is also allowing for casuals to make the leap into professional gaming by competing for the 8th slot in the “Wildcard” event on Sunday. The rules for the Wildcard event for those interested are:
- March 10th
- Single Elimination, Best of 1
- Sign-up HERE - Deadline is Sunday, March 10th at 3 AM US Eastern
- All teams are able to enter, so long as the player’s accounts are in good standing. Players with suspended accounts are ineligible, and are not allowed to compete using smurfs or alternate accounts. Teams found using a player whose accounts are not all in good standing will result in forfeit.
- The winning team will earn a spot in the $10,000 Invitational, and the chance to compete in the most prestigious event that Smite has held to date!
- Top three teams will also earn gem packages!(Amounts TBA)
HiRez also continues to go on by thanking the community for helping them make such a tournament a reality.
Open beta is progressing extremely well, and it’s largely in part to the dedicated players and teams that have been grinding away since the start of closed beta. Because of these players, both the balance of the game and overall content generated has been greatly increased, which has allowed us to streamline our project directly to the masses, in a much cleaner fashion.
To our fans and players, we’re extremely excited to bring to you an event of this scale. It’s thanks to everyone who has played our game that we’ve been able to grow so quickly as a community. This event is the first of many to come, that will support our growing competitive scene. But for now, let’s talk about the event at hand, the WILDCARD event, and the invited teams!
Check out the full-page of details here.
Who’s looking forward to the Wildcard event this Sunday? Who’s backing which team on winning?
2 March 2013 | |
Pherephassa
Well I don’t seem to be very good at keeping up with this weekly Crier. Between Neverwinter excitement (I played Neverwinter all day the Friday I had access to it, and then spent ages writing my previews), a family emergency that kept me in the hospital all day the week after that, and a blizzard the week after that, it has been a while since I’ve been here to keep everyone updated on the weekly news. But we have lots and lots of snow outside! It’s cold and wet, and the perfect excuse to stay inside where it’s warm, drink hot cocoa and play video games.
On the game front, things seem to be somewhat quiet, although with PAX East on its way that is likely to change pretty quickly. I wish I could go! We have patch and update news for several games, PAX announcements, a giveaway, and the kind of news that always makes me a little sad – the shutdown of game servers. Hit the jump for links and details!
Continue Reading
1 March 2013 | |
iTZKooPA
It’s March and that can only mean one thing, the beginning of convention season! The annual Game Developer’s Conference may usher in the video game convention period. But Penny Arcade Expo East is where the realm truly shines, inviting consumer and creators alike to rub shoulders. Recently, Blizzard joined the official attendance roster of PAX East and now Perfect World Entertainment and Neverwinter will make another appearance.
Cryptic Studios will be displaying its action-oriented Dungeons & Dragons MMORPG on 18 stations during the show. This’ll allow hundreds of aspiring adventurers to experiences the most recent closed beta content. In conjunction, convention and beta testers alike will get their first crack at the Great Weapon Fighter, the title’s latest class. Convention goers can once again earn physical rewards for participating and even permanent in-game items.
Too excited? Cyrptic didn’t just drop this news and walk away. The company just unveiled its latest trailer focusing on exactly how the heroes of Neverwinter will travel the lands. Some methods of transportation come with their own risks as the screenshots and trailer after the cut will showcase.
Purchasing a Neverwinter Founder’s pack will guarantee immediate closed beta access. Continue Reading
