Game news, reviews, cheats, fun

Rakion

2009-11-11T14:45:00.000+02:00

Site: http://rakion.softnyx.net/

Grand Fantasia

2009-11-09T09:06:00.002+02:00

Site: http://grandfantasia.aeriagames.com/

Grand Fantasia is a free-to-play, fantasy MMORPG licensed by Aeria Games. The games offers many innovative and cool features like customizable characters and spites, many different mounts, PVP combat, dungeons, bosses, romance system, guilds and so on.

The game is currently in a Closed Beta state of development and it accepts requests for it.

Grand Fantasia has four class trees and eight classes total. New players start as Novice and at level 5 they can select their specialization. The eight classes are Wizard, Necromancer, Sage, Cleric, Assassin, Warrior, Berserker and Ranger.

Dragon Oath

2009-11-07T21:47:00.000+02:00

European Site: http://tlbb.eu.changyou.com/
American Site: http://do.us.changyou.com/

Dragon Oath is a Chinese martial arts MMORPG developed by ChangYou.com and Sohu. It was first released in China and now its English version is in a pre-closed beta state of development. The game is free to play and download.

The game has nine classes Lotus Order, Minstrel, Royalty, Voodoo, Shaolin, Pyromancer, Assassin, Beggars Alliance and Taoist.

Dragon Oath offers constant running events in game. Players can participate in Lucky Bingo, Chess Challenge, Imperial Test and much more.

Players can form guilds and alliances, fight guild wars and build their own cities.
Dragon Oath offers many pets with different looks and abilities but obtaining a pet is not that easy. Players can travel to the Pet Island in order to capture a pet. The pets themselves can be strong and deadly and the Pet Island is guarded by powerful guardians.
There are man other promising features in the game – Wedding System, Master-Disciple Relation, Mounts and much more.

Warsow

2009-11-05T19:20:00.000+02:00

Site: http://www.warsow.net/
Status: Free

Warsow is an open-source, online FPS. The game is centered more at the gameplay and less at the graphics. The graphics are made intentionally plain and clear. The gameworld is the meeting point of the cartoon characters with the cyberpunk city.

Gameplay
Warsow is fast and when I say fast I mean really fast. New players may have difficulties at the beginning. Even veteran FPS players need some time to grasp the style and the speed. Despite that fact, the game is quite fun with many adrenaline bursts and hearth beat situations.
Online players tend to be way too good and merciless for newcomers like me. Combining series of movements and jumps with the fast speed of the game brings unique experience and excitement.

My rating: 9 from 10.
If you are Quake series fan, you will like this one too!

How-to play
Simply download the game from the official website - http://www.warsow.net/?page=download. It is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS X.

Warsow official trailer:

Screenshots:

Daimonin Review

2009-10-31T09:32:00.001+02:00

Site: http://www.daimonin.org/

Daimonin is an open-source, 2D, isometric MMORPG. Here is the project page at sourceforge - http://sourceforge.net/projects/daimonin/files/Experimental/.
You can try the game on a free public server at the official website or download the client and the server and run them.
Daimonin offers vast world with many quests, races and genders. The game features large number of quests.
You can download map editor and create your own maps.

Screenshots

Dragonica News

2009-10-22T16:13:00.005+03:00

Since 15 October 2009, Dragonica is announced fully live. Till then the game was Open Beta state. The live version is released with a new expansion – Tales of the Damned. It has several new features – new dungeons, new areas and of course - new bosses.
The new version comes with long waited pets – now players can have a pet like Husky the Dog, Felix the Cat and Griffon the Bird.

For more information visit http://en.dragonica.gpotato.eu/

Eternal Lands

2009-10-16T18:49:00.001+03:00

Site: http://www.eternal-lands.com/

Eternal Lands is a free MMORPG game under development. It is not so well-known mainly because it is not developed by some large and multinational game development company but a small team.

I really enjoy this type of games – they are not so perfectly working but you can touch part of the game development process. You can visit the developers page and the forum to learn more.

In EL characters are not bond to a profession, they can learn any skill they like and change it anytime. Players can choose between six playable races: humans, elves, dwarves, gnomes, orchans and draegoni. I didn’t find much visual difference between the races though.

Knight Online

2009-10-10T21:27:00.001+03:00

Site: http://knightonlineworld.gamersfirst.com/index.php

Knight Online is a popular MMORPG developed by MGame Corporation. The game is free to play and download, but with some premium services. The site here is the US official, there are also two other servers – the Korean and the Japanese.
Knight Online is set in a fantasy world of magic, knights and battles. Right at the beginning you are thrown in the conflict between two enemy nations and you must choose a side!

The game has four starting classes – Warrior, Rogue, Mage and Priest. The first job change is at level 10.

Gameplay
At the beginning every new player starts with a mission to defeat one big worm and save his future virtual friend – Seed (or Max). Your virtual friend will help you with information and tips about the game world.
Leveling up is similar to most other games – players obtain experience through killing mobs and doing quests, obtain stats points per each level and develop their character with great deal of individuality.
If you want to level up faster in Knight Online it is better to start some quests and fight mobs while doing the quests. Also you can improve your weapons and armor through crafting.
The in-game currency is called Noahs. Players can obtain Noahs through killing monsters, doing quests, trading and so on.

PvP
The game offers often wars, castle sieges and other events. Players can duel other players from their nation and fight for National Points and Ladder Points players from the enemy nation.

Quests
The game has many quests – very similar to many other MMORPGs – kill n mobs or collect m items.

Downloading the game.
I personally don’t like games without own client hosting. They redirect you to some big file sharing sites with a lot of ads and spam/scam content. On the official site you see that your download must be something like 900mb and on the file hosting servers you see 400mb exe. And all of them store an exe with different size. All file hosting servers listed in the official game site. So which is the correct one? I don’t know.
This is not very pleasant approach for a serious company and game. I am not sure I can trust such game. Maybe I haven’t seen the exe on the official site? I don’t like this part ruining otherwise marvelous impression.

Overall impression
Knight Online is a very good game with cool PVP system and fascinating gameplay. Very fast it became one of my favorite games.

This post in my blog - Game news, reviews, cheats, fun - http://godsector.blogspot.com/2009/10/knight-online.html

Star Trek Online (STO)

2009-10-03T17:40:00.000+03:00

Are you a Star Trek geek? Are you a MMORPG fan? Both?

Star Trek Online Closed Beta is available for new registrations. You can try and be accepted on the official site - http://www.startrekonline.com/.

In STO you can experience 25 century universe. You can face the vast space as a Federation Captain or a Klingon Warlord. According to the official site the player will have the opportunity to customize his own space ship to better represent his personality. Star Trek Online will feature space and ground combat.

Trailer:

Screenshots:

"Star Trek Online game content and materials are trademarks and copyrights of Cryptic Studios, Inc. and used with permission. All rights reserved. STAR TREK and related marks are trademarks of CBS Studios Inc. © 2008 Paramount Pictures Corp. All rights reserved."

Metin2

2009-09-27T11:08:00.002+03:00

Site: http://www.metin-2.com/
Wiki: http://wiki.metin-2.com/index.php/Main_Page

Metin2 is a MMORPG in an oriental style. It is a free to play and download game with Asian sceneries, cool warriors, powerful magicians and frightening martial artists.

Graphics and impression
The game features beautiful scenery graphics and the characters and mobs animations are relatively good. (There are some MMORPG with very poor animation of walking and fighting). The characters are not very customizable – you can’t choose anything but class and gender. The fighting animations are pretty cool – your character moves and fights making impression of a dance.

Gameplay
The game has a lot of missions. You can start doing quests right from the beginning. At level 5 you can choose your specialization for skills and weapons.

Mobs fight in groups, at high levels you will encounter aggressive mobs that attack you on sight. All classes can do area of effect (AoE) damage and the low levels are relatively easy. Leveling up is fast and fun. The quests give a lot of money, experience and bonuses so they worth their time.

PVP
You can join or create a guild and participate in Guild Fights. Any guild can take possession of one of the strongholds, hire and train NPCs to guard it.
Standard or non-standard PVP is available from level 15. You can ask people for Duel, fight players from another empire or select the "free" option from the PVP menu. The free option allows you to attack and to be attacked by any character in the game.

Classes

Warrior – melee character with heavy armor and a lot of strength. At level 5 they can specialize for better attack and speed or better deffence.
Ninja – high dexterity characters with light armor. Ninjas can specialize with bows or daggers. I am not sure why this class is called ninja not thief (it is like any other thief character in most of the MMORPGs.)
Sura – they combines long range magic with close range sword fight. At level 5 they can choose to specialize their long range spells or develop their close range fighting abilities.
Shaman – the magic users. A shaman can choose to be a support character with healing and buff spells or damage dealer with attack spells.

For more detailed view on the game classes read the Metin2 Wiki.

Empires
In Metin2 the player meets a conflict between tree empires: Chunjo Empire, Shinsoo Empire and Jinno Empire. They fight for the domination over the continent, honor, glory and in-game bonuses.

Mini Ninjas

2009-09-24T22:33:00.000+03:00

Have you dreamed to be a ninja? Do you want to experience adventure like never before? Do you like to watch animes like Naruto?

Site: http://www.minininjas.com/us
Mini Ninjas is a fun, action-adventure game developed by IO Interactive. In the role of Hiro or the other ninjas you will receive the mission to stop the Evil Samurai Warlord. Can you save the world from evil?

The game offers free movements through the world for better exploration and battles.

No killing. Mini Ninjas offers fun and battles without actual cruelty. Your enemies are transformed with evil magic innocent animals. Your role is to lift the curse from them and save them. So Mini Ninjas is game appropriate for kids - it is rated 10+ with Crude Humor and Cartoon Violence.

Characters:
Hiro – the youngest of all Mini Ninjas. He can use Kuji Magic to posses animals and cast fireballs. His main weapon in battle is the sword.

Futo - the biggest Mini Ninja with the giant hammer. Futo is Hiro’s best friend.

Suzume - she is the most fragile and swift of all the ninjas. Suzume uses her flute in battle. She has a special melody that makes her enemies dance in the middle of combat.

Suzume gameplay

Tora – he uses a pair of self-made tiger claws in battle.

Kunoichi – she is the youngest girl from the Mini Ninjas. She uses spear (Naginata).

Shun - he uses a bow as his main weapon.

Florensia – first impression

2009-09-14T10:28:00.001+03:00

Site: http://en.florensia-online.com/

Florensia is a fantasy, 3D, sea MMOG, free to play and download.

Explorer

The world of Florensia is consisted of islands and a huge ocean. You can fight land battles and grow your character on the land or go and fight sea battles, construct your ship and hire your crew.
Leveling up is available for sea and land battles separately. Your land level won’t affect your sea level.

Noble fighting.

At the beginning the game meets you with long tutorial screens but believe me you’ll need to know what you are doing. The land battles are somewhat alike many other MMORPGs but the sea battle is a way different. You need to know how to assemble a ship. You also need to know how to repair it and how to hire a crew. I recommend you to do all beginning quests and carefully read the tutorial.

To assemble a ship you need to talk to dockyard owner NPC.

Sea battles at the beginning feel a little strange. It is not your usual type of game. Sea navigation is somewhat hard but it is a great adventure. I don’t like the Torpedo ship anyway.

Torpedo Ship for apprentices.

You can use five different ship types - Armored Ship, Big Gun Ship, Assault Ship, Torpedo Ship or Maintenance Ship.

Florensia has four starting classes – Explorer, Mercenary, Noble and Saint. At level 40 you can start a class change quest.

Explorer – Uses mainly gun-type weapons. He can also use sword. Explorers have limited defense powers and can’t use heavy armors. At level 40 can become Snipers or Excavators.
Mercenary – mercenaries use swords (of course). They have high strength, high constitution and high defense powers. Mercenaries are weak against magical attack. At level 40 they can become Gladiators or Guardian Swordsmans.
Noble - nobles are the magic users in Florensia. They have AoE (area of effect) damage spells and weak defense. At level 40 they can become Magic Knights or Magicians.
Saint – The Saint is the game healer. At level 40 he or she can become Priest or Shaman.

You can make a choice – to be a pirate or to join the Royal army but I haven’t tried this yet.

She repairs your ship.

Mini Ninjas Video

2009-09-13T10:46:00.000+03:00

Very funny.

James Cameron's Avatar: The Game

2009-09-11T11:18:00.001+03:00

James Cameron's Avatar: The Game is an upcoming video game by Ubisoft. The game is an adaptation of James Cameron's film Avatar. Less is known about the game. I haven't met even what genre it would be. On the other hand Ubisoft announced that they are using the same 3D technology as the film. Some of the characters in the game would be voiced by the respective actors from the film. The game will be released for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii, PC(Windows) and PlayStation Portable.

The film: James Cameron's Avatar is an upcoming 3D fiction film.It's going to be released on 18 December this year.

Further reading:
http://avatargame.us.ubi.com/
Avatar, the film

ATI Eyefinity

2009-09-11T10:41:00.001+03:00

Expect the new monster from AMD - ATI Eyefinity.
Have you dreamed for unbelievable experience playing the next generation MMORPG? Newer, better, bigger virtual worlds and virtual reality.

Yesterday, AMD announced cool, new technology ATI Eyefinity. Powered by one DirectX 11 graphics card, ATI Eyfinity supports up to six ultra high definition displays for better gaming experience.

For more information:
http://www.amd.com
ATI Eyefinity’s Panoramic Future

Upcoming: Mortal Online

2009-09-09T17:10:00.006+03:00

Mortal Online teaser

WYD fast leveling guide and quests help

2009-09-06T18:33:00.000+03:00

The first and main part – choose your class and careful study its skills. You won’t receive enough "skill points" and "skill mastery points" to learn all of them so you must decide which are appropriate for your race. Any mistake here will make your efforts in vain.

For this tutorial I’ll use the hunter.

WYD Leveling – part 1

The first quest – “Training Camp” is good enough to level up you to 40 level very fast. You can find full quest description here - http://wyd.gamenetworks.com/intro/quest_256.asp or in your quest window in game. There is a strong monster before every gate and near the Trainers. Kill the monster, talk with the trainer and you will get the key for the next part. The last monster is Orc Warrior. Stay there and kill the spawning monster until you reach level 35. You will get multiple quest items and then you will receive many rewards. You can get you reward only if you are under or 40 level so be careful not to miss it.

At level 40 go to the next quest – Spirit Guardian. Level up there till level 115. At the beginning fight mobs for the quest item. Auto fight can be very useful, just leave your character to collect quest items and do something else. When you are strong enough - go for the quest experience. Leveling up with this quest is pretty fast. The mobs give a lot of experience and the quest award items give +7500 experience – this would be something like one quarter for your character at this time.

At level 40 you can start one more quest – Orc Castle. It is not hard and very useful – the reward is a magic pill that gives you 9 skill points.
The monsters around the Orc Castle drop more Grave Keeper’s Candle – the quest items for Spirit Garden.

Orc Castle Quest – you must fight near the gates for the keys. After receiving the key – enter the Castle gate. I receive pretty good drop there. Orc Guard drops Orc Castle Final S.G Key. ChiefOrc drops Orc Castle Final E.G Key. Orc Lord drops the pill.

This is the end of part 1.

Hello Kitty Online

2009-09-02T22:21:00.006+03:00

Site: http://en.hellokittyonline.eu/

Hello Kitty Online is cute, free-to-play, MMORPG. HKO combines gaming and social networks together, making the world of Sanrio Land unique place to make friends and have fun.

Gameplay and impression
Hello Kitty Online is relaxing and peaceful, maybe way too peaceful. It is centered on crafting and collecting resources rather than combat. Even leveling up is done through collecting resources and crafting. HKO has four types of recourse collection: woodcutting, gathering, planting and mining. Item crafting is also very important Players can obtain items through trading or through crafting. HKO has four skills for crafting – cooking, making tools and weapons, making clothes and making furniture.

Farming – players receive a farm upon entering HKO and it is the base source for in-game money.

Fighting
HKO don’t have typical monster killing. The fight with the monster ends with the monster defeat without actually killing the mob. The weapons are also a little too funny.

Pets
When you defeat monster in Hello Kitty Online – you have a chance to obtain a pet card. A pet card can be used to make a pet from the monster. Pets can be very helpful - even in collecting resources. If a pet is fed regularly it level up.

Home sweet home
Players in HKO can build a house. The first thing necessary for building a house is a land certificate. You can obtain this certificate from npc or quest.

Social Networking
Hello Kitty Online is a type of social network. It encourages its users to interact and communicate like other networks (twitter, facebook). Players can blog, watch videos and send e-mails from the game. The Adventurer’s Journal is a special feature that allows players to post in their blog from the game interface.

Minigames
HKO offers some cute and fun minigames and puzzles for its players.

LAN in Starcraft 2 petition - please read

2009-08-17T11:01:00.013+03:00

A petition - http://www.petitiononline.com/LANSC2/petition.html in response to Blizzard announcement that Starcraft II will not support lan and the only multiplayer will be through battle.net. Currently there are more than 105,000 signs and the count is increasing fast. Many fans got dissappointed by Blizzard’s announcement. Greed threatens one of the coolest games out there.

People tweet about the petition, starcraft and blizzard. You can get more information on what is going on from twitter channels - #Starcraft2, #BlizzCon or just search for the petition.

How to secure your game account - tips

2009-08-15T22:35:00.003+03:00

A friend of mine lost her account from a popular MMORPG. It is a tragedy because she spent more than six months playing this game. I make a short list of basic rules on how to prevent game account-stealing.

Create unique username and password combination for every game you play. Don’t ever use the same username/password for two or more online games. The game and site publishers claim they respect your privacy but don’t rely only on this.

Use strong passwords. Your password must be 8 symbols or more and it must contain both letters and digits.

Use personal emails to register game account. Many people share their emails with friends. Don’t use such email to create game account. Many game sites have an option to restore forgotten password. Somebody else can use this option to steal your account.

Don’t share your account. Don’t share it even with your best friend. You don’t know what will happen. It’s better not to risk hours of playing.

Don’t use somebody else’s computer to log into your account. Don’t play from internet cafe.

Don’t answer to any emails or chats from fake moderators or administrators that ask for your password. Any game staff won’t need your password or it would be very bad game.

Be careful and use your brain.

Fiesta music video

2009-08-14T15:25:00.007+03:00

Very cool fan made music video - Revenge and Salvation. The game is Fiesta, the music is Butterflies & Hurricanes by Muse.

Its one of my favorite game videos. Cool and epic.

Dragonica - Game Review

2009-07-26T20:16:00.019+03:00

Site: http://dragonica.iahgames.com

Dragonica is available in Europe since June, 2009 (Open Beta maybe). The European publishers are gPotato Europe - http://en.dragonica.gpotato.eu/ . In North America Dragonica’s publishers are THQ*ICE with official Dragonica site http://dragonica.thqice.com/web/ .

Dragonica is a free-to-play, 3D, side-scrolling, MMORPG. It sounds strange, isn’t it? 3D, side-scrolling MMORPG – my first idea was multiplayer, 3D Super Mario.

Gameplay - Arcade style battles

Dragonica features arcade style battles – with combos and keyboard controls. The basics of its gameplay are very easy but like the old arcade games there are many key and hit combinations, special combos and so on. The battles look very cool despite the fact that your first enemies are sheeps, bees and woods. You have a hit that throws the enemy at the camera and breaks your imaginary window/screen. I laughed a lot when I first saw it.

Quests – you have some bla-bla quests, for some time I started to accept all available quests without even reading what its all about. Maybe it is wrong, but the MMO games become more and more quest oriented. Or I got depressed from so many quests.

Missions/Mission Map
Dragonica offers special places for fighting or so called mission maps with stronger mobs, better experience and a boss at the end. The first mission map is relatively easy, any class can fight the mobs and the boss alone, but the higher level missions are very intense even for full party(four players).
Some bosses:

And the fun:

PVP

Dragonica Classes

Warriors – The Warriors are the melee characters. They first profession change is at level 20 – they can become Knights or Gladiators. If you select a warrior – you will swing a huge sword for some time. I won’t argue the animation of fighting warrior is very cool. Also they are pretty powerful at the beginning. A bit overpowered maybe.

Magician – they can become Monks or Battlemages.
The Monk is the party healer. Their next profession after reaching level 40 is Priest.
The Battlemage is a damage dealer with weak physical defense. The next profession change at level 40 – Warmage.

Archer – if you like long-range weapons – the Archer is your type. Archers can become Pathfinder (with bow) or Arbalist (with crossbow). The next profession for the Pathfinder is Ranger at level 40. The Arbalists can evolve to Grenadiers. (Yep, Grenadier, have you watched the anime? Cool … eyes)

Thief – your standard thief class with high agility. They can evolve to Jesters (weapon: claws) or Assassins (weapon: katar). I haven’t tried this one yet.

Graphics and overall impression

The in-game graphics and animations are cool and somehow original. I like the sense of humor and the light-weight atmosphere. You have not to engaging fantasy world which is easy to share with friends. I like the sounds, views, impression and the idea, maybe I am a way too childish.

Trailers
Dragonica Cinematic Trailer

Dragonica EU Gameplay Trailer

Plants vs Zombies

2009-06-18T01:18:00.021+03:00

Site: http://www.popcap.com/games/pvz

Plants vs Zombies is a tower defense action-strategy game by PopCap Games. This game occupied all my attention for some time - I played few nights and during the daylight I behave just like a zombie. (Brains, brains, coffee)

Gameplay
Plants vs Zombies develops around some hungry zombies and your anti-zombie plants. There are several types of battles - during the day, during the night, on the pool and on the house-roof. Away from the main game course players can enjoy some puzzle zombie games, mini-games, plant night and day gardens to receive money, grow a tree of wisdom.
Plants vs Zombies player faces a lot of humor - starting from game names like "I, zombie", through dancing zombies, fun face expressions and many more.
The game have 49(I think) different plants, each with its own skills. Players can pick out many different strategies. There are also many different zombie types, my favorite is the newspaper zombie - but I won't ruin your game explaining all the details here. From the plants I especially like the Chomper - zombie eating flower with BIG teeth.

Zen Garden seems boring at first glance but it is the place I spent most time. However, I don't know why. I don't water my real plants often.

Plants vs Zombies sure deserves its high ratings all over the net. It is a cool and entertaining game, with cheerful graphics and fun gameplay. My overall rating is 9.0 from 10, one of the best in this genre.

4Story

2009-05-18T14:46:00.012+03:00

Site: http://global.4story.com

4Story is a free2play, fantasy, 3D MMORPG. My personal opinion is that it looks too much like WOW. If you are fan of WOW feel free to try this MMO.

4Story has three playable races – human, werebeast and fairy. Here is short character creation video with all the races:

There are six available professions – Warrior, Assassin, Archer, Wizard, Priest and Summoner. Every race can select any of these. Every profession has three skill trees.

4Story gameplay is quest driven. Players can carry out quests right from the beginning. There are also some hidden secrets.

PvP
There are several PvP options – from fractions war, war for territory, dueling with friends from the same kingdom and PK players from the enemy kingdom.

GodsWar Online

2009-04-22T19:31:00.015+03:00

Site: http://gw.igg.com/
Free to play and download

This week I start to play new MMO – GodsWar Online. GWO is a cute-looking 3D MMORPG by IGG. It is based on ancient Greek mythology.

Classes
GodsWar Online has four classes – Warrior, Champion, Priest and Mage. Warriors use sword and shield. They are experts in the close fight. Champions use spear. They are attack oriented characters. Priests are the party’s healers. Mages – the standard mage character dealing large amount of damage.

Character creation video

Gameplay
The gameplay of GWO is a lot alike many other 3D mmorpg – it uses standard point and click for movements and fight. GodsWar Online is relatively fast and easy for leveling up.
GodsWar Online has auto attack mode(F12) so players can skip the boring leveling up or long quests. A character becomes a killing machine with the auto attack settings.
GWO has two factions – Sparta and Athens.

Quests
The game has many quests. Right from the beginning, the quests are the best way for earning experience and leveling up.

The beginning

What I don’t like
I don’t like the 45 degree visual angle. I prefer to have more freedom and I don’t like the 2D style that much.