At one point, as shown above, you were able to select from a huge supply of Act 3 tickets on Hellgate: Global. Nowadays you’re lucky if there are even any on the marketplace, and the prices above are just a fraction of how much they’ll cost you.
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RuneScape’s Evolution of Combat has been in beta for five months, and is about to turn the eleven year old MMO on its head. While Jagex has made some small tweaks over the years to their combat system, the company announced earlier this year that they would be going back and completely overhauling how players fight monsters and each other. The new system trades in weapon-specific special attacks for a more familiar approach, gaining adrenaline during combat and using level-specific abilities. Just about every aspect of RuneScape’s combat system is being changed in this update.
When the update does go live, players will see immediately see a number of changes, from alterations to the game’s combat-level system to a dramatic shift in how the game calculates maximum HP. Instead of clicking and waiting, combat is being made more entertaining with the addition of hotbars, allowing for quick access to combat abilities, potions, and food via simple presses of the keyboard. Off-hand versions of weapons will allow for another brand new feature: dual wielding. Finally, every single NPC in the game has been altered to follow the new combat rules, including specific strengths and weaknesses, balancing the monster’s level to its power, and more.
(Source: RuneScape)
The folks at Arenanet and Team Bloodlust must be breaking open the champagne today, as NCSoft’s financial statements for the third quarter of 2012 reveal that Guild Wars 2 and Blade & Soul aren’t just bringing home the bacon, they are weaving it and frying it to perfection. Guild Wars 2 launched strong in the United States and Europe, while Blade & Soul ripped up the carpeting in Korea. Both games contributed to a massive 50% year over year gain in profits for NCSoft, pulling the developer up from its operating loss from last quarter that saw heavy corporate restructuring and the cancellation of City of Heroes. Both titles should receive a bump in revenue, as Guild Wars 2’s sales do not include Asia, and Blade & Soul has not launched in the West.
On the other hand, every rose has its thorn. As you have likely noticed, both Guild Wars and City of Heroes are no longer listed. Aion continued its free fall in sales while Lineage II continues its considerably slower downturn. The bump that Lineage received in the second quarter is clearly over and done with, as sales fell to below the fourth quarter sales trough in 2011.
The Krono is an item similar to PLEX in that it is purchased on the cash shop and can be traded between players for in-game currency, and then redeemed for a month of subscription. The idea behind the item is to undercut gold farmers and (in the case of Everquest II) to allow for the safe trade of platinum for subscription time (players trade platinum for SOE codes, which is incredibly risky for the buyer). While some of the community disagree with the item as a concept, the introduction has prompted an unexpected, but hardly unwelcome change to the way Sony limits accounts.
Under the current system, Krono is kind of self-defeating. The item is selling for hundreds (seven or eight hundred, approximately) of platinum on the trade broker, and the item is impossible to buy for anyone who isn’t already a subscriber due to the hard cash limits placed on accounts. However, in the patch notes for the public test realm for Everquest II, the following note popped up:
Memberships: There will no longer be coin limits on any account types.
Since Krono is coming to other titles in SOE’s library, it’s probably safe to assume that those games will lose their cash limits as well, if for no other reason than to open a larger market for people to buy Krono.
(Source: EQ2 Forums)
TERA may be partially free to play in Korea, but for now you Western gamers are just going to have to deal with limited trials. En Masse Entertainment has opened up the TERA free trial from the original seven day limitation to unlimited play. Players are able to level two characters per server up to a maximum of level 28, with limits on crafting and gathering skills, as well as limits on gold and chat access. As long as you have an account with En Masse Entertainment, you should be able to log in and get started. No purchase necessary.
The Discovery Edition is the new free trial available for players interested in giving TERA a try. We have improved our previous free trial by increasing the max level players can play up to, as well as removing the 7 day restriction so you can play on your own time and not worry about using up the free trial time!
(Source: TERA Website)
If you’re going to say goodbye to THQ before it dies, not might be the time to sign your farewell cards. THQ held its quarterly earnings call with investors and the news is not good. Earnings guidance has been suspended, games have been delayed, and the developer refused to take questions from investors, citing efforts to evaluate “strategic and financing alternatives intended to improve THQ’s overall liquidity.” For THQ, once a massive publisher and contender in the industry, the tidal wave of bad news has overshadowed the tiny light in the dark, that THQ had beat initial forecasts. Company of Heroes 2 and Metro: Last Light have been delayed by a couple of months, and it appears that they are putting a lot of stock in South Park: The Stick of Truth.
South Park: The Stick of Truth has been delayed until the first fiscal quarter of 2014, from the original March 2013 release. THQ’s Warhammer 40k MMO was cancelled earlier this year and downgraded to a standard multiplayer title.
(Source: Gamasutra)
Hello MMO fans. I’d like to take some time to point you to a new venture I have started with a friend, called Flying Ostrich Media. FOM is similar to MMO Fallout, except it will function as a general gaming news website rather than focusing on a specific genre like MMO Fallout does. We will be focusing on news, previews, reviews, and editorials, as well as (hopefully) videos and a podcast. to go along with. To be clear, nothing is happening to MMO Fallout. I will still be updating here just as much as I did before.
Check us out at: http://flyingostrichmedia.com/
Don’t you get tired of blocking people who are harassing you, only to later wonder if it is safe to remove them from your list? What about gold farmer accounts, how can you be sure that they haven’t been banned? They could be waiting just around the corner to surprise you with cheap gold at fast delivery speeds and customer satisfaction guaranteed. And no one needs that after a long day at the Pottery Barn picking out new bed sheets. Luckily, NCSoft has just the idea: Periodically sweeping banned accounts from everyone’s ignore list.
Starting with tomorrow’s maintenance, every week we will be clearing players’ block lists of permanently banned accounts! This means that banned accounts–including RMT spammers!–will no longer take up space in your block list! We will continue to perform this function every week.
(Source: NCSoft)
In thirteen days, Darkfall will shut down and make way for the launch of Darkfall: Unholy Wars on November 20th. As launch of Unholy Wars comes closer, Aventurine has been letting information trickle out via the Epic Blog, videos posted on Youtube, and through interviews with varying websites. In an interview with MMORPG.com, Aventurine discusses the new combat mechanics, boating, skill training, and a few other topics. At the end of the interview, the topic turns to the flagging system, detailing Aventurine’s new plans for red-flagged (criminal) players and the introduction of safe zones:
In reality we are keeping the whole turning red situation when you kill other players in place but turning red does no longer mean you get attacked by NPC guard towers. It is just there to indicate to other players you might not be someone they can trust. What they do with the information is up to them. However because this would make the entire world rather chaotic we felt we needed to create some areas where players can perform some basic activities in peace. All the racial capitals and satellite faction cities as well as surrounding areas where players will make their initial steps have all PvP actions disabled.
This change will no doubt annoy some of Darkfall’s more hardcore group. You can read the rest of the interview at the link below, it contains quite a bit of information.
(Source: MMORPG.com)
When we last saw Side Quest and Fractal Entertainment, the fledgling browser MMO was busy licking its wounds from a low turnout in its recent Kickstarter campaign. Of the ten thousand desired by Fractal Entertainment, the Kickstarter funding managed to bring in only two. However, not willing to give up, the folks at Fractal have released a playable version of Side Quest on the main website with the obvious hope that potential players put off by the “investor” phase will give the game a try and see its real potential. So over the past couple of weeks, I have dived into Side Quest, and I think it is about time to give my impressions on the game as a point of concept, not necessarily dealing with bugs (this is nowhere near completion, after all) and what not.
Side Quest is a goofy, self-parodying side scroller with an equally ridiculous crew that makes me pine for the days of Dungeon Runners and gathering quests at Pwnston so I can take my +2 hammer of seal clubbing and just beat the crap out of a bunch of mobs. Making good on its Kickstarter advertising, Side Quest features a whole lot of single player, from the random fields that you will run through to gather gold and experience, and the quest story line that actually gives a bit of diversity and challenge. At the beginning of the game, following a short tutorial, you will have to choose one of five characters as your “main” character. This person is directly controlled and cannot be removed from the party at any point. The other four can be mixed and matched to your pleasure, and fall into the RPG archetypes.
Side Quest is controlled Patapon style: Your party of three moves through the level on its own, attacking enemies as you see them. While your two NPCs will do their jobs by themselves, your main character is the one that levels up and gains new abilities and stats. If you want the game to be easier, I suggest taking Krug (the tank) as your main role. If you want the game to be incredibly difficult, take on the role of healer. Then understand why your healer curses you out in World of Warcraft. Abilities and potions are lined up in the hotbar and activated with the number keys.
The loot system derives from some Facebook games. Each level contains a progress bar that fills as you complete the level over and over again, unlocking new difficulty levels as you go. When an enemy mob dies, it explodes in a shower of gold and experience that must be picked up with a simple hovering of the mouse. Chests drop additional experience and gold and are activated with a simple click of the mouse. While there are plenty of “filler” levels that are good for gold and experience and equipment boosts, the actual story quests are where Fractal Entertainment are showing off their creativity.
There is one quest, for example, that has you traveling down a river with your party. You must steer away from hazards while simultaneously beating away the tentacles of a large octopus attacking your raft. Steering is easy as clicking on the correct button, but you must manage between beating back the tentacles, steering, and repairing damage. On another quest, you are tasked with moving forward in a mess of bushes. Whenever you attack the bushes, creatures come from behind and you must turn around in order to fight them (which slows your progress). This one took me a couple of times to beat, as your healer (who is normally in the back) is constantly exposed to danger. You have to balance forward movement with keeping yourself from being overwhelmed from behind.
There are plenty of other activities already in Side Quest. You can head over to the arena (pictured in the first shot) and battle other player’s crews for ranking and arena points which can be used on potions and equipment. There are a number of daily quests available as you travel around and gain access to new areas and quest hubs. Fractal has promised that more cooperative and competitive multiplayer features will be coming at some point, but for right now the arena square you off against another player’s team controlled by AI. The other player is not actually at the computer. You can also play a game of Card Slayers, an interesting card mini-game.
The problem that Side Quest has is that the very early portion of the game is hand holding to its greatest extent. In other games, players exaggerate by saying that the game can be played on auto-pilot mode. In Side Quest, apart from picking up loot and experience that drops on the ground, the very early levels actually are on auto-pilot. The characters move themselves, attack by themselves (until you start getting special abilities), and heal by themselves. And the initial areas are so easy that all I had to do for the first hour or so was to click to enter the level and wave the mouse around to pick up loot. It’s easy to misinterpret this as representative of the rest of the game and lose interest.
In short: Side Quest isn’t a half-assed indie World of Warcraft clone, nor is it an open world sandbox MMO. In fact it isn’t really much of an MMO at this juncture. But what Side Quest has shown is already becoming a fun, unique experience, and the development team is very passionate about their game. You can play Side Quest at http://www.side-quest.com/
MMO Fallout 