Winter is nearing, and Nexon is once again preparing for a major update for MapleStory. The scheduled release date for more information is on 6th December next month, and the teaser trailer shows what were some of the historic events which took place on that date.
According to MapleStory Korea’s website, there will be 2 new classes, which only show their silhouettes. Wasn’t there a new Draco swordsman added just recently? The lazer whip looks more suited for a female character… Let your imaginations run wild.
Guild Wars 2 publisher NCsoft has laid off several staff as part of a studio “realignment”, it has confirmed.
The firm’s PR director Lincoln Davis confirmed the news to PC Gamer, revealing that “several” staff had been cut at the Seattle-based studio, but stopped short of revealing specific numbers.”NCsoft is realigning internal publishing resources to better suit the needs of our game development studios,” said Davis. “As a result of the realignment, several employees and contract positions were affected. This was a very tough decision to make and wish the best for all NCsoft employees in their next ventures.”
The news comes one year after NCsoft issued redundancies across studios in Seattle, Austin and Brighton.
It’s unclear how the latest round of layoffs may impact Guild Wars 2 – if at all – which itself was the target of hacker attacks back in September 2012.
Hackers stole “lists of email addresses and passwords from other games and web sites and are systematically testing Guild Wars 2 looking for matching accounts,” said the developer at the time.
We’ve only dipped our toes in PVP, and have yet to experience any high level end-game content. So this review is based mostly on PVE. We’ve tested all eight classes and worked our way through a large portion of the human and norn story quests. So bear that in mind as you read on. There’s a score at the end, sure, but it’s subject to change. But what this review will do is tell you if Guild Wars 2 is worth buying, whether you’re an MMO virgin or a hardened veteran.
The freeform quest design is the game’s greatest strength. Not just in terms of gameplay, but in how it brings players together. You don’t have to collect quests from NPCs and turn them in; they automatically trigger when you enter an area. They’re made up of multiple objectives across a specific area of the map, and each one you complete fills up a progress bar. The quest is complete when the bar is filled, and the reward is delivered straight to your mailbox.
Having four or five things to do in each quest cleverly hides the grind and repetition that plagues most online RPGs. You’re still just killing and collecting things, but the typical MMO objectives are always mixed up with bizarre and entertaining mini-games to keep things interesting. This means you can alter your play style depending on your mood. If you don’t feel like fighting mobs, there’s always an alternative. You can finish most quests without even raising your weapon.
Better still, you never feel lonely. If another player is in the middle of killing an enemy, you can help and it’ll count towards both of your progress bars. It’s this collaboration that makes Guild Wars 2 an incredibly social experience, even if you aren’t playing with friends. The large amount of players currently invading the game’s servers is not unusual for an MMO at launch; but seeing them all working together is. You won’t spend all your time in the game silently grinding through quests on your own; you’ll be doing them alongside massive groups of other players.
World events continue this idea of player interaction by giving everyone taking part in the quest the same progress bar. These occur randomly, and when one is triggered you’ll see most players in the area run towards it. Some of these are huge in scale, and see you battling enormous bosses like the towering Shadow Behemoth in Queensdale. You don’t even have to worry about being too high level to take part; the game automatically scales your character down. You’ll frequently see players with top tier gear fighting alongside freshly spawned newbies.
Sometimes enemies will attack fast travel points and make them inactive, which gives players an extra incentive to band together and repel the invaders. In World of Warcraft you’d have to organise raids or wait in a queue to experience these big group boss fights; in Guild Wars 2 they’re everywhere, and anyone in the area can join in instantly. It’s a level of accessibility rarely seen in an MMO, and putting long-time players on a level playing field with fresh-faced newcomers gets rid of the elitism that’s usually rampant in games like this.
Cryptic games have always been known for its powerful character customization tools such as evident in Star Trek Online. Even greater will this ring true for Perfect World and Cryptic’s upcoming Dungeons & Dragons action MMORPG, Neverwinter. Today, I am pleased to reveal the developer journal about Neverwinter’s character customization when a player steps into the Forgotten Realms.
In Neverwinter, character creation begins with choosing a race, class, and gender combo. Each race comes with unique racial abilities, which grants some bonuses to core stats — strength, constitution, and more. These racial abilities allow players to fully customize their play style. Furthermore, stats are also customizable, both through your choice of race and through rolling.
Create a sharp looking avatar with a large scale of options to customize physical appearance. There will be an option to choose from several preset looks or individually fine-tune each facet of your character – slim or lengthen hands, change shape and complexion, add height, show battle scars or tattoos, and much more.
Fiesta Online, the legendary anime fantasy MMORPG from Outspark, surprised their massive community today with a highly sought after upgrade for the game’s wildly popular mount system. For the first time ever, Fiesta players will be able to take friends for a ride anywhere they want to go in the vast open world of Isya. With the super stylish two-person Buddy Bike, one now never needs to go solo again. Spontaneous road trips, exotic honeymoons, the possibilities for adventure are endless. The update also includes a Zip Board that’s sure to impress as it hovers and speeds around town doing tricks and flips. Available in a wide range of colors to match players’ moods.
“As one of the premiere party MMOs, we’re really psyched to be offering Fiesta fans these super fun ways to enjoy the holidays this season.. This upgrade to the mount system has been one of the most requested items for months now and player feedback since launch has been incredibly strong!” said Philip Yun, CEO, Outspark.
The Buddy Bike and Zip Board will be available this weekend and players are being invited to try the new mounts for FREE at GM-led preview events all this week. Event details here. PLAY FIESTA FOR FREE at the official site and JOIN THE FIESTA COMMUNITIES.
Joymax has revealed their December update for Knight Age will be largely focused on the Pupa system. Well known for its mounted combat, a knight’s trusty Pupa companion is always by the player’s side. These loyal pets are more than what meets the eye; from collecting to combining, Pupae are an exciting part of the Knight Age experience. With this month’s update coming close, Knight Age prepares players through easy-to-follow guides on everything there is to know about these wonderful companions.
These companion creatures have been collected and trained by Knights since time immemorial. Their eggs are collected in the field, or as a rare drop from boss monsters (who may even drop a Pupa that looks just like them)! Pupae (plural for Pupa) fight and gain experience at the side of their Knight master. Many may look adorable, but their power and skill is not to be underestimated. Only one Pupa can be active at any given time, Knights have been known to collect numerous Pupa, training them to use in a variety of roles and special events.
Each Pupa is associated with one of the four elements of the world: Fire, Water, Wind, and Earth, and which family they belong to will dictate their appearance and ability. A Pupa’s diet is filled with items, such as equipment, that knights no longer need. In exchange for this delicious food, Pupa will return to their owners a Panta – these rare gems are then used to enhance other equipment, such as armor and weapons.
Pupae can’t be bred, but instead new Pupa are created by merging two fully grown pets together. These mergers can create rare and powerful combinations, changing the Pupa’s elemental type and family. Merged Pupa have surprised their owners by changing to colors not found in nature, including green, blue, purple, silver, and even gold!
Pupae can even be based on non-original characters. For example, the globally known chubby white bunny, Mashimaro, is coming to Knight Age for this month’s update!With Knight Age’s recent massive update, including the pink hippo and triceratops mounts, there’s something for everyone from group PVE content to intense weekly PVP action. Knight Age bustles with activity and there’s no slowing this game down.
Was this the year that gaming grew up? GameIndustry ask their international staffs this question. Four persons bring us to the hard look at the industry’s growing pains. What’s your opinion?omething seems to have changed in the last year or so. We’re not sure when it started, but nearly all of us could point to a spot where we noticed it happening.You might have seen it on Twitter, arguments cast in 140 characters or less. It may have been the sudden, vicious turn of a comment thread or the undertone of dissatisfaction in a headline. You might even have felt like this all along. Things are being challenged, conventions called to account.
Gender imbalance, the lack of inclusivity, the corruption of journalists, issues of maturity, sex and violence, copycatting, the exploitation of the customer – all these issues have been pushed to the fore over the last twelve months. Turned over and inside out, vaunted or ridiculed – there seems to have been barely time to draw breath this year between long, hard looks in the mirror.
For some it’s been a welcome change, the relief of realising that there are other people who feel just as angry, marginalised or outright excluded. For others it’s been an unwelcome distraction, unnecessary navel gazing which only leads to a pointless stirring of the pot and no real progress – frenzies whipped up by the press for cheap hits and self-glorification.
Whatever you feel about them, many have been almost impossible to ignore. Whether it’s the storm of abuse endured by Anita Sarkeesian, the crisis of confidence ignited by Rab Florence or marketing tactics which are somewhere on a scale between condemnable and very clever, this has been a year in which our industry has been pulled from many ruts, asked to reassess and re-examine.
How much has actually changed is debatable, but what is clear is that it’s unlikely we’re going to see these issues swept back under the carpet. Like it or not, these debates aren’t going away. We’ve hosted and participated in all of these discussions, and more, but we rarely get to comment on them directly. So, read on as we ask our international staff – was this the year that gaming grew up?
Aeria Games is excited to announce the launch of several action-packed content updates and the multi-language client to its hit First-Person Shooter game Alliance of Valiant Arms (A.V.A.). The game’s loyal and dedicated fans can now play A.V.A. in German, French and Spanish, on five new maps, amongst other content updates.
The ever-expanding A.V.A. community has resulted in the release of A.V.A. in three new languages. Choosing a language is easy, with players able to select their language before launching the game. This change has no effect on players’ settings, and regardless of the language chosen, all gamers will still be hosted on the same server, meaning the action remains just as intense, just in time for new content updates.
Five new maps await players with the new content updates! Players must battle against NRF marines in order to secure research data in the E-Space escape map, while teams can fight for victory in the new Radar Demolition map. Gamers can also play as the exclusive new character Marek, taking to the field with the new AK200 rifle, as well as enjoy the new capsule guns and many new surprises in the Web item mall.
These new features come on top of the anti-hacking tool and new clan page announcements made recently by Aeria Games. A.V.A. is always striving to improve game play for its many fans, and of course it will always be free to download and free to play. Keep up to date with the news on the official site and watch the trailers for E-Space and Radar now!
It has announced by ArenaNet that players who joined connectivity issues during last month’s Guild Wars 2 Lost Shores event will receive a participation reward via in-game mail. Devs alsourge players to be patient as the script could take several hours to run.
As we mentioned last week, for those players who were not able to get the rewards for the final Lost Shores event because they were suffering connection issues, we will provide rewards for their participation in the event. Thanks for your patience while we worked to resolve this.We will hand out the rewards via In-game mail today – Quick FYI… it might take several hours to run the script, so do not panic if you do not immediately receive it. ~RB2
In addition, a fan make a Guild Wars 2 “Looking for Group” app which has been released. According to a thread on Reddit, “Arxae” has created a way for players to find groups across servers and to avoid the tiresome spamming of “LFG”.
Great way to find a group even across different home servers.
No need to stand in Lions Arch spamming chat for a group.
Quick way to advertise you are looking for a group.
Quick way to pick up that last needed member.
Guild Wars 2 is competing with other games in MMOsite Reader’s Choice event. Vote for it now!
For one week, both games’ players can vote for their favorite map and mode – and for each game, the map with the most votes will earn a bonus 100% bonus experience and in-game currency boost during the holiday event.
Starting on December 14, the Countdown to Christmas FPS Challenge really begins, granting players in both games daily holiday challenges, such as landing 12 head-shots or 11 close-range humiliation kills. Each daily will give players a unique reward that includes powerful long and short-range firearms, melee weapon and in-game vanity items.
“The holidays are always a great time of year for our audience and like a Christmas list to Santa Claus, we want to give them a voice in what they get this year,” said Jungsoo Lee, vice president of live development for SG Interactive. “By voting for their favorite map, our gaming community is directly affecting both their holiday gameplay and the development of future landscapes of both games.”
As an additional challenge, players can earn another double experience bonus map simply by recruiting friends to “like” the CrossFire and/or Project Blackout Facebook pages. Running concurrent with the Facebook voting campaign, should either game page secure 3,000 new “likes,” that game will earn a second map with the double experience bonus for the duration of the Countdown to Christmas event.
