Remember the fun times you had in Tortage that made you believe you were totally going to cancel your WoW subscription for this game? Well Funcom has answered your prayers to Crom (or that wind god the ranger prays to in the movie) with the new boxed retail expansion called “Rise of the Godslayer.” IGN conducted an interview with the director of AoC Craig Morrison that gave us a lot more information than was in the press release.
Announced at GamesCom, Rise of the Godslayer will be adding a much needed boost in content from levels twenty to eighty along with the fictions far eastern settlement – the Empire of Khitai – and the brand new race the Khitan. Choosing to play as the Khitan will still start you out on Tortage Island, but once finished you have the option to quest in their homeland of Khitai or in the old zones.
Khitai will be broken up into five large regions, and you will be able to travel to the empire via one or more major hubs in the game. The five regions are the Gateway to Khitai, the Northern Grasslands, Chosain Province, Kara Korum, and Paikang. Each zone will have its own set of instances with the final raid instance located in Paikang.
It’s great to see that Funcom hasn’t buried this game and the community haven’t allowed them to. I had a really fun time playing Age of Conan, but I just got bored with the leveling up in the game once you left Tortage. I could definitely see myself giving it another shot once the expansion comes out.
Out this week is the new 3rd Person Shooter from Playlogic, and we have the launch trailer for your eyes. Hopefully, I will be getting a copy soon for review.
We have taken a new direction and will soon have a “soft relaunch” which will make this a popular site among gamers.
Infernal: Hell’s Vengeance is a 3rd person shooter developed by Metropolis Games and is an Xbox 360 exclusive. You play as Ryan Lennox, a fallen angel now recruited by hell to fight the “Etherlight”, heaven’s own secret agency. In Infernal, the Etherlight have hunted down just about all of hell’s earthly agents and are deviously plotting the final blow against the armies of hell. Ryan is left to hunt down and take out the forces of good single-handedly with his vast arsenal of guns and supernatural powers.
It’s nice to see a game take on the heaven vs. hell concept which doesn’t happen very often in videogames. The use of guns and your supernatural powers could give the game a Mass Effect like experience which can never be a bad thing. Also, the press release had a few bullet points that you should know about…
Unique Atmosphere
State-Of-The-Art Graphics
Stunning Shooter Action Driven By A Deep And Gripping Storyline
Explore Brilliantly Designed Indoor And Outdoor Environments
Control A Variety Of Weapons And Paranormal Forces
Use Teleportation And Telekineses To Interact With Your Surroundings, Solve Puzzles And Overcome Obstacles And Enemies
Fight Intelligent Opponents That Will Use The Environments To Their Advantage
Absorb The Live Energy Of Your Enemies To Heal And Replenish Your Mana (Health)
As with any 360 game these days it is going to give you the chance to improve your gamerscore. Below is a list of all thirty-one achievements for a total of one thousand points. Infernal: Hell’s Vengeance is rated mature and you can find it on store shelves now for $39.99.
The Easy Way (100 points) Complete game in easy difficulty
The Normal Way (150 points) Complete game in medium difficulty
The Infernal Way (200 points) Complete game in hard difficulty
Infernal Power (10 points) Obtain Infernal power
Teleportation (10 points) Obtain Teleportation power
Multiple Teleportation (10 points) Obtain multiple Teleportation power
Mana Booster (30 points) Find 3 mana boosters to increase your mana
Health Booster (30 points) Find 3 health boosters to increase your health
Betrayal (20 points) Complete Prologue
The Dark Angel (20 points) Join the Abyss
The Cloister (20 points) Get inside the cloister
Cable Ride (20 points) Get to the upper cloister
The Acolytes (20 points) Survive the upper cloister
Walls of Pain (20 points) Complete mission 1
The Chase (20 points) Find Elena
Duel (20 points) Defeat Elena
Going Down (20 points) Find Wolf’s lab
Heaven’s Triumph (20 points) Complete mission 2
Steelworks (20 points) Enter the Steelworks
Running Man (20 points) Complete mission 3
Wings of Steel (20 points) Find the plane
Reflection (20 points) Find the device in the plane
The Resurrection (20 points) Find Barbara
Airstrike (20 points) Complete mission 4
The Island (20 points) Find the Observatory
The Saint (20 points) Complete Mission 5
The Cowboy Way (20 points) Find Dual Pistol
Fire Away (20 points) Fire rocket launcher 20 times
The Dark Force (20 points) Use infernal powers 100 times
Precision (20 points) Don’t activate the gas traps in the plane
The Collector (20 points) Retrieve energy from 100 enemies
Greeting everyone. Sorry I haven’t updated in a while, but life has been kicking my butt. I have a huge Fallout 3 post going up soon and just when I thought I was done they drag me back in. New Fallout 3 DLC named “Point Lookout” comes out this Tuesday.
Career update. I wrote a news article for Girlgamer.com. It came out really well thanks to some amazing editing. Trust me, it didn’t look that good when I sent it. Also, I should have a article going up at the UGO game blog if i’m still writing for those guys. I had a bad first impression due to losing my job the same day my article was due. Not my best work and I hope it didn’t ruin my chance to work for the awesome people at UGO.
Well, hope you enjoyed the update and expect to hear a lot about Fallout 3 sometime this week. Peace out.
Everyones favorite pointy haired alien is back for his second adventure on the Nintendo DS. This new game takes place during the Saiyan Saga, so players will get to battle fan favorite such a Piccolo, The Red Ribbon Army, Nappa, Vegeta, and those creepy green Saibamen. This game will also contain never before seen content in the manga or anime series. So far this game has only been announced for Europe and PAL regions, but I expect an American release date to pop up soon. Also, this game will be released in autumn 2009.
PRESS RELEASE
‘DRAGON BALL Z: ATTACK OF THE SAIYANS TO BRINGS ITS BRAND NEW DBZ ROLE-PLAYING EXPERIENCE TO DS
The Newest Exciting Instalment in the DBZ series of RPG Adventures Coming Exclusively to Nintendo DS in Europe and PAL Territories Autumn 2009
CERGY-PONTOISE, FRANCE – 25 May 2009 – NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe S.A.S. today announced the forthcoming launch of brand new role-playing title
Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans coming exclusively to Nintendo DS™ this autumn 2009 in Europe and the PAL regions.
The game follows the Saiyan Saga of the original DBZ story starting from the World Tournament and Goku’s triumphant defeat of Piccolo. Players will take the role of Goku and travel the DBZ universe from jungle to Snow Mountain on their quest to victory.
Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans features a host of original features which will be sure to thrill fans, such as brand new gameplay, unique game modes, fun side quests and content never before seen in either the anime or manga series.
More details about this exciting addition to the DBZ range of video games will be announced soon. Dragon Ball Z: Attack of the Saiyans is scheduled for launch across Europe and the PAL regions in autumn 2009.
About NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe:
NAMCO BANDAI Games Europe S.A.S., is a leading interactive entertainment software publisher based in Cergy-Pontoise, France. The company is a part of the NAMCO BANDAI group of companies known for creating and publishing many of the industry’s top video game franchises including the RidgeRacer™, Tekken™, SOULCALIBUR™, Tamagotchi™, Digimon™, Dragon Ball® and Naruto™ brands.
Hello there. Well, I started college back up in which I am about a month into and starting to think it was a mistake. I should of just saved the money and tried to get into San Francisco State. Oh well, hindsight is 20-20
Lately I have been in a gaming rut so to speak. I’ve been buying games even though nothing is sticking with me. If you haven’t heard Circuit City is going out of business. Last Sunday I passed by the retailer to check out their video game deals in which they had all games 40% off. I picked up Banjo Kazooie Nuts & Bolts and Warhawk for the PS3 and barely touched either of them. I don’t know what it is about the new Banjo game, but I just couldn’t get into it. Warhawk is something I will have to invest time into and at this point just can’t do it with my other responsibilities.
Hold Up
I started this post on my previous blog a few days after Flower was released on the PlayStation Network and never got around to finishing it. As previously foreseen going back to school in Louisiana was a mistake. I barely made it through half the semester before realizing my mistake and abandoning that establishment. As of 2:11 A.M. Tuesday, March 21, 2009 I have two goals. 1.) Move to San Francisco in the hopes of furthering my career as a games journalist . 2.) Enroll and receive my degree in journalism from San Francisco State.
In the coming weeks I will be posting impressions on a few games I have been playing, and a story I have been wanting to write for a while. I promise it will give you a side of the games industry you rarely see. Also, if you are reading this follow me on twitter. Twitter.com/JoshOneal.
It’s only February and we are already preparing for the trip to L.A. for this years Electronic Entertainment Expo. Today we are looking at what already announced games will go head to head at this years show for both the Xbox 360 and PS3. From the looks of it Microsoft better show something big at E3 or this might be the year Sony’s console could start outselling the 360. I’ll be honest; this year it’s already apparent that the Playstation 3 is bringing it’s A-game, especially with Killzone 2 launching next week. With titles like Heavy Rain, Infamous, and God of War 3 in development, Sony is definitely going for the core 17-30 age range that the 360 has dominated this generation. Let us not forget that Japan will see the release of Final Fantasy XIII exclusively for the PS3 while the rest of the world waits for Square-Enix to localize the game and then ship it the same time as the 360 version.
If you weren’t aware the developers of Heavy Rain are the same guys who put out Indigo Prophecy last-gen, Quantic Dream. The deal with these guys is that they are big into making not only a compelling story, but also one that will stick with you forever. Little is known about the game besides the fact that you will be playing as a yet unnamed female journalist and the controls in this game are…different. In a preview over at GamePro they describe the controls in-depth “When you need to walk forward, you hold R2; this reduces confusion when the camera direction changes and, like a racing game, should keep you on-track. The left analog stick controls your character’s head and influences your walking direction. When you want to interact with the environment – knocking on a door, for example – you move the right analog stick. And when you need to choose between several interactive options — knocking on a door versus ringing the doorbell, for example – you physically tilt the DualShock 3 controller to highlight your selection.” This is a game to look out for if you own or thinking about purchasing a PS3 in 2009.
The next big PS3 game this year is inFamous, from Sucker Punch, and shouldn’t be confused with Activision-Blizzards multi-platform title PROTOTYPE. inFamous stars Cole McGrath, a bike messenger and resident of Empire City, who develops the power to control electricity after a bomb goes off that was in one of his packages. Empire City seems to be a sandbox playground for McGrath to become the ultimate hero or anti-hero depending on how you choose to play. This will be Sucker Punch’s first new IP since the Sly Cooper series. The expected release date is Q2 of 2009, so look for it this summer sometime. A few months ago there was no news at all about God of War 3. Now, we have a teaser trailer and a Game Informer cover story in their March issue and I still really don’t have any idea what this game is about. Well, from what I can tell from the GI scans is that Kratos is pissed off. Zeus is trying to kill the ghost of Sparta by raising an undead army and then a Cyclops comes out of the trees in which Kratos easily dispatches him. So, it seems like more God of War if your into that sort of thing.
Microsoft, it is time to bring out the big guns. E3 is when all the hardcore gamers will be looking at you to carry the torch that Nintendo ceremoniously dropped. So far in 2009 we only know of one major exclusive title that will be at this years show which is the Bungie developed title Halo: ODST. Other titles that have yet to be confirmed for 2009, but I assume will come out is Forza 3 and Alan Wake. Not to sound repetitive, but little is known about the Halo expansion other than you will be plays as an ODST (Orbital Drop Shock Trooper) who is referred to as the “rookie.” The game is set during the events of Halo 2 after Master Chief leaves Earth and the city of New Mombasa. The rookie starts off alone and must search New Mombasa for his four teammates with the help of a city maintenance AI known as the Superintendent. ODST is a stand-alone expansion and will you won’t need Halo 3 in order to play it. This will also be Bungie’s last Master Chief based Halo game ever.
Forza has always been Microsoft’s Gran Turismo. Turn 10 was able to take a game (GT) developed in Japan and tailor it to western gamers and have a more enjoyable experience for beginners. Now in development for the third game in the series it is time for Turn 10 to make the masterpiece that everyone wants. Gran Turismo 5 is nowhere in sight so take advantage of this opportunity to be the only major racing title this year. In 2008 there was a ton of leaks coming from Intellisponse marketing concepts and some information about Forza 3 was part of the leak. The leak said that Forza 3 would have a Collector’s Edition, DLC, over 100 tracks and 400 cars and would come on two discs. A few days ago an unnamed source from Microsoft contacted VG24/7 and told them that Forza 3 will be one of its major 360 titles this holiday season. The second Forza game was released back in 2007, which makes it all the more likely, that we would see the next game in the franchise this year.
Alan Wake is the gaming industries groundhog that is afraid of his own shadow. You’ll hear from the big time gaming press that they have seen the game at various trade shows, but not game play and aren’t allowed near a controller. The game has it’s own website and twitter, but contains the same info we have known about since it was first shown. E3 2009 has to be the place to unveil this “psychological action thriller” that will obviously be competing with the Sony exclusive Heavy Rain. Your greatest weapon is light via your flashlight or traps you can set you weaken or kill your foes. Finland-based Remedy Entertainment who has taken up the Blizzard model of “it’s done when it’s done” is developing Alan Wake. Lets just hope they get it right.
Obviously both Sony and Microsoft are going to have to bring a lot more to the table at the 2009 Electronic Entertainment Expo than games already announced. Our inside sources have confirmed to us that both will have a number of new games (both original IPs and sequels) to announce during the press conferences.
Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars is the first ever Unreal Engine 3 powered physics based vehicle arena sports game and is possibly the longest game title ever, says Corey Davis developer for the game. Developed by Psyonix Studios — who helped Epic with the design of the Gears of War vehicle level “Burn’t Rubber” — the game could only be described as soccer with RC cars. Of course, the name and idea of the game seems like something that would be a cheap or free flash game but it’s the amount of polish and great controls that makes this game worth your time.
Battle-Cars Are Go!
It seems odd since soccer isn’t a huge sport in the U.S. that Psyonix would take an under appreciated sport and base their PSN game around it. The game lets you choose from seven cars to compete in a tournament mode that has thirteen events or twenty mini-games, and that isn’t including multi-player. The cars handle really well considering the speeds you are going at and the amount of rocket boosts you end up using. To fill up your rocket boost meter you can drive over boost platforms — think item boxes from the SNES Mario Kart — or pick up boost vials which tend to be scattered around the map.
The amount of depth the game has is practically insane. You can make your car jump to hit a ball in mid-air or double jump to give yourself a mini-boost. You can ride up the wall and even on the ceiling though I never really found a use for this. The game also features Trophy support, custom soundtracks, and Youtube support for uploading your match replays.
The online features in the game are just crazy for a download game. The game features full fledged online ranking/matching/party system support with leaderboards and different skill rankings for each bracket. The game offers four player split-screen both locally and online, so if you and three of your buddies want to take on the world with your own team, you can do that too! The best thing about this games split-screen is that you can toggle the split horizontal or vertical which is lacking in almost every game that has split-screen.
Now on to my favorite part the replay feature. The way it works is that at the end of each match it will ask you if you want to save a replay of the entire game. After saving, you go to the replay manager and choose from any match you have saved. Once selected, you can choose to upload it to Youtube, or transfer it to your XMB and then edit it the way you want with video editing software.
Graphics
It uses the Unreal Engine 3 so it has a really nice visual style. I believe this is the first game to actually introduce color while using the same engine as Gears of War, although I hear Gears 2 has plenty of color. The game looks impressive compared to other titles on PSN though not as good as something like Wipeout HD.
Sound
Don’t expect much from the sound department for this game but the ability to play custom soundtracks gives this game a thumbs up in my book. The default music in Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars could on be described as something you’d hear at Leipzig Games Convention which is hip electronica. If you are going to use the custom soundtrack feature then pick something up tempo like an AC/DC or Rush album.
Plasma Factor
At first, I had a tough time getting over the fact that this game is $14.99. Then I looked at the stuff this game offers and it just goes above and beyond any $9.99 game on the PSN store. When you take into account the Halo like replay and editing features, online tournaments/leaderboards/matchmaking/party system, and that the game is just down right fun to play this ends up being a well spent fifteen bucks. If you don’t believe me Psyonix made a demo — which is a rarity for a PS3 game much less PSN title — so check that out.
Conclusion
Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars is going to be an underappreciated game on the Playstation 3. Partly because of the wacky name but most PS3 owners are going to look at the price and not give the game a chance. Compare to games that are both $15 Braid and Supersonic Acrobatic Rocket-Powered Battle-Cars which do you think is the better value? A Mario Bros. style platformer with the ability to control time or a soccer game where you control rocket cars and has an extensive single and multi-player expereince. I think we both know the answer to that.
Duke Nukem was the epitome of the 1990’s and the Clinton years. An overconfident, womanizing, foul mouthed, beer swilling, ass kicker of alien species defines the character of the Duke. Duke Nukem was the last first-person shooter in which I only used the keyboard to play. Meaning I used the directional arrows to move and the ctrl key to shoot. When Duke Nuked 3D was released on XBLA it was good to see 3D Realms dig into their past and give a new generation of gamers a chance to experience the Duke.
Duke Nukem 3D plays exactly like I remembered it did back in 1996 and has eight-player deathmatch in the XBLA version. Another new feature for the game is user clips which can be shared or uploaded with friends to show where secret areas are or how to complete the level in the quickest time. The last new feature for this re-release is the painless death feature which allows you to either pick back up where you left off or at the very start of the level. This feature helped me tremendously on the last boss which I got stuck on. The final boss of the game is a battle underwater and I didn’t have any scuba gear left so I kept dying from the lack of air. Using the rewind feature allowed me to go back to an earlier part of the level and not use up all my gear.
There are four chapters in the game with 39 levels in total. Take the fight to the aliens who are reeking havoc in Los Angeles, a moon base, Hollywood, and their own mothership. All the original weapons are in the game which include pipe bombs, shrink ray, shotgun, and the RPG to name a few. Also, in Dukes arsenal is the holoduke (shows a projection of Duke like in the movie Total Recall), a jet pack, night vision goggles, and a first aid kit.
All your typical alien species are in the game including the mutated pig cop who works for the LARD police. Their are the foot soldiers that are easily dispatched with your boot or a pistol, the pig cops who carry shotguns, a dinosaur looking alien that sports a chain gun, the octobrain, and many more.
Sound
This game sounds like it is from 1996. The music sounds retro but on the 360 feels a little cleaner than I remember. What really catches your attention is all the “catchphrases” Duke Nukem says. I’m sure you’ve heard them on various message boards so no sense in repeating any here. The music and snazzy catchphrases will make your inner 12-year old self erupt in nerdgasm….that is if you were 12 when the game originally came out like I was.
Plasma Factor
In an economy in steady decline most people will be trying to save their hard earned paycheck to survive. We gamers don’t fear a crappy economy so for only 800 MS points this game is a steal. Of course, you could just steal the game off the Internet but that would make you a bad person and a pirate. Do you really want to be labeled as a pirate?
Conclusion
Duke Nukem 3D ends a very successful summer for Xbox Live Arcade. With online co-op, multiplayer deathmatch, and leaderboards this ends up being a better deal for you and your friends to play than Castle Crashers. Maybe not a better game overall but defiantly more affordable for what you get. A fun, nostalgia FPS title that took the formula of Doom and did more than most Doom clones even tried to do.
Atlantica Online Review
November 23, 2008 by Joshua O’Neal
Atlantica Online is a new MMO from the Korean developer Ndoors who also have a North American studio called Ndoors Interactive. Atlantica Online unlike most, if not all, massively multi player online role playing games takes a different route by using the turn-based battle system much like the Final Fantasy series. A lot of Korean MMO’s have come over to the states, but none have really caught on as much as the developers would like. It’s possible that Atlantica Online could break this mold with its ability to offer something different than World of Warcraft and its clones.
GamePlay
Once you’ve created your avatar in the game you start off in your dream where you find out you are a descendant of Atlantis and your blood has great power. In your dream you meet three sisters who represent logic, passion, and emotion. The dream world acts as a tutorial that teaches you how to move around the world, recruit mercenaries, and take part in battles. After the dream tutorial is over, you can then choose from four or five starter zones to begin your adventure.
The battle system, like I mentioned before, is turn based much like an old school Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest game. Each turn gives you a limited amount of time, which makes the battles go by quickly. The way you loot enemies in this game is a bit different from anything I have ever played. Instead of killing a mob and then looting his corpse after, the game gives you four turns to loot a dead body before it disappears. I also encountered some enemies that would revive the dead if you didn’t loot fast enough. If you die in Atlantica Online there aren’t any corpse runs, instead your resurrected where you died and penalized with the loss of gold and experience.
When questing out in the world you can use the mini-map to either run to find your next objective or press the auto-move button which will take control of your character and run them over to your next quest. This means if you’re having trouble finding a certain rat to kill eight times then hit the auto-move button and it the computer will take you to where you need to be. There is also a “help required” button on the mini-map that lets you ask a question to everyone in the game. For example, I had five health potions that I wanted to split between my party members but didn’t know how. I asked the question and a bit later got my answer via an instant message much like AIM or Yahoo Messenger. To give the player base an incentive to answer these questions you get a reward each time you answer a players question. Another way to get the word out about what you’re selling or that your guild is recruiting is to use the in-game forum that scrolls at the top of your screen. It cost 1000 gold to post on the in-game forum and it was mainly used to post the popular movie quote “Why so serious?”
Unlike WoW, in AO you can recruit mercenaries to fight alongside you in battles. Not only can you name your mercenaries, but they also gain experience and level up alongside you. When starting a new character you can choose from three different types of mercs like the Swordsman, the Spearman, and the Archer. These all have different roles such as the swordsman having more health and defense which is best suited on the front line. Just like in Final Fantasy, you can choose to have your party members in the front or back row.
AO takes the usual Korean MMO route by making the game free to play, but offers micro transactions for things such as potions, teleportation scrolls back to cities you’ve visited, or a license to increase the amount of mercenaries you can hire. You use Gcoins to buy items and $1=100Gcoins. Most if not all items cost range goes from $2 to $20 with various packages costing the most. These packages include things such as the teleportation license which you can also buy separately.
Graphics
This game has that Korean development style and I think it works well with the game. Colorful zones and intricate character detail makes up some of the best assets of this game visually. Honestly, I think this game looks better than some of the console role-playing games we have been seeing this generation. They aren’t many complaints I have about the graphics. The game could run on just about any machine and still pulls off the fantasy theme better than some top tier MMO games.
Sound
Ah, the familiar sound of a fantasy RPG. Don’t expect anything epic in music quality, but the good thing is that nothing is overly annoying or takes you out of the experience. The music in battles are a mixture between Blue Dragon and the N64 version of F-Zero. That’s right, expect more flailing guitar riffs and outlandish solos to infiltrate your turn-based battles.
Plasma Factor
There are two things I love about this game more than anything else. One is that real countries and cities are presented in the game. The starting zone I chose was in Japan so one of the first things I did was run to Tokyo. Upon reaching the gates to the city I was greeted with a message that said “Kon-nichi wa! Welcome to Tokyo ~ Please feel free to rest like home =).” Other cities in the game include Baghdad, London, Rome, and Hong Kong. The only continent not represented in the game is North America which is disappointing for someone who lives in the states. I found out that guilds can run towns so just imagine a Korean player owning Los Angeles or Seattle.
Another thing that I adore about the game is that I kept receiving gifts from random players. This isn’t odd in these types of games but usually you have to be a half naked Night Elf or Twi’lek dancing on a mailbox to get this type of attention.
Conclusion
Atlantica Online is free so there is no reason you should not give it a chance. It’s a casual friendly game and even caters to the console crowd with its turn-based combat and Final Fantasy aesthetic.If you miss the days where all RPG games were turn-based and character design wasn’t about spiky hair and emo personalities then you should give AO a shot. Atlantica Online has its faults, but compared to other MMOs it far exceeds expectations.
