Darksiders II – Zelda Meets DeathDarksiders II – Zelda Meets Death

Occasionally, we like to touch base on big non-MMOs that we feel our readers would enjoy. Darksiders II  from THQ and Vigil Games is one of those titles. Sequel to the vastly under-appreciated Darksiders, DS2 is looking like a masterpiece of the Action/Adventure RPG, and we’ve spent the past few days combing its depths.
If you’ve not played Darksiders, the basic gist of the series is that in the gameplay format, it’s an homage to the 3D Legend of Zelda series from Nintendo. Few games can compare to the house of Mario’s flagship adventure series, but Darksiders and its sequel are coming pretty damned close. Imagine if you will, a game that combines the dungeon-crawling and puzzle solving of the Zelda series, the RPG and loot aspects of something like Diablo, and the combat of God of War. Doesn’t that sound like a dream come true?

 

 

Golden Rules of GW2Golden Rules of GW2

 
Arena.Net’s Ben Miller has written an interesting new blog post called “The Golden Rules of Guild Wars 2” that outlines the design principles the team has put in place as the game has been developed.
Included principles are:

Make the world come alive
Cooperation is key
Play the game, not the UI
Take risks
Do it well or don’t do it at all
Respect the player
We respect you—as a player, as a human being. This game we’re making may end up competing with your real life. It might fight for your free time alongside your friends, your family, your work, and whatever else you might be doing. Because of that, we want to give you a meaningful experience, not one that is a vapid waste of your time. Whatever your reasons for spending time in Tyria, we don’t want to waste it by doing stuff that isn’t fun.

That’s why we make our content epic. That’s why we have giant nightmare demons to fight, global allegiances to form, immense keeps to siege, and giant catapults to fire. Tyria is a place that will foster relationships with new friends, and provide you a rich experience to share with old ones. It’s our version of a playground on the grandest of scales.

Read the full post on the Guild Wars 2 blog.

 

Seven Souls Online : Seven Souls OnlineSeven Souls Online : Seven Souls Online

 

On first impressions, Seven Souls Online (also known as Martial Empires Online) seems to be a game that should’ve been released in the US a couple years ago. Upon further inspection, this is the terrible truth. The game has an extremely eastern feel, and it follows the typical mantras of MMOs of the past few years. Coming in so late to the game here in the West, I can’t help but feel like this particular venture probably won’t see much attention. Seven Souls is not a buggy mess, and genuine work has been put into making the world. However, it was released in the shadow of many big titles, and I sincerely doubt it will break free from the shade over its head.

 

Foggernauts’ Steam Class Preview Foggernauts’ Steam Class Preview

DOFUS is one of those games that just keeps growing and getting better over time. We recently had the opportunity to check ou the Foggernauts’ Steam Class and have a full report for your reading pleasure. See what you think and then leave us a comment or two.

 

I got to take the new Foggernauts’ Steam class for a spin and check out its technomagical abilities and turret-based combat. Foggernauts are billed as being “technomagical tacticians,” and distinguish themselves by creating danger zones and defensive zones on the battlefield with their turrets. These zones work much as advertised, in that danger zones are areas in which a turret will do damage, whereas defensive zones allow for healing. Foggernauts utilize three types of turrets, namely, the “Harpooner,” “Lifesaver,” and “Tacturret,” but can also do direct damage themselves while pushing or pulling enemies around in combat. Additionally, the Foggernaut class sports a bunch of buff spells, and does best in melee combat when equipped with hammers or shovels.

 

 

The List : The Best MMO Business ModelsThe List : The Best MMO Business Models

 

 
It’s true; the MMORPG.com community is a decidedly subscription-based crowd. But with the advent of many different MMO business models appearing in mainstream titles these days, we thought it’d be prudent to round up some of the more prevalent types and break down our favorites in this week’s The List.
The classic tried-and-true subscription model is a great fire-and-forget model for most MMO players. If you’re enjoying what you’re playing you simply have to drop your monthly fee and you’re given full access to the game for the duration of your subscription. Great! This is my preferred method as it’s the most hassle-free and I don’t tend to agonize over my $15. There are far more expensive activities one can get involved with. $15 for a whole month of gameplay whenever I want it is almost always a great deal to me.

 

Read more of Michael Bitton’s The List: The Best MMO Business Models.

 

 

  

Open Beta Coming September 6thOpen Beta Coming September 6th

gPotato and the Sevencore development team have announced that the open beta will officially kick off on September 6th. Devs promise that new levels, regions, mounts and much more will be included, all based on player feedback during the closed beta phase of development.
Every player selects their first permanent mount after exiting the starting city and receives a companion who will complement their battle strategy in addition to cutting down travel time. Mounts in Sevencore can fight independently with their own skills and abilities, allowing a low defense character to soak damage with a tanky pet or speed through mobs faster with a high DPS mount. Increase your selection by defeating challenging world bosses and special dungeon quests to earn even more mounts in-game.
 

 

Free to Play Round Table Discussion Free to Play Round Table Discussion

Yesterday, one of Sony Online Entertainment’s venerable titles, Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, began utilizing a hybrid free to play-subscription model. We had the opportunity to sit down with Creative Director Salim Grant and Director of Development Andy Sites to talk about Vanguard and what the future holds for the game. Keep reading!

Since February, the team has been regularly updating Vanguard to, as Andy put it, “smooth out the rough edges”. Most of the current areas have been revamped and optimized to take advantage of the game engine. They even surprised players by bringing much of the F2P functionality into the game in stealth mode about a week ago. In addition, Andy mentioned that in the past, game updates had come along every four or five months. From today forward, however, the team has laid out an assertive update schedule that should see major updates on a monthly basis as well as smaller updates on a bi-weekly basis.

 

 
 

The WoW Factor : Is Monk Just the New Druid?The WoW Factor : Is Monk Just the New Druid?

With Mists of Pandaria on the edge of release, a lot of World of Warcraft players are looking to create a Monk, one of the most iconic of all character classes in the MMO-niverse. See what we think of the Monk and how it will fare against the other classes. Read on!
So my question stands, is the Monk the new Druid for the game? The reason I say this is because the class can truly spec three entirely different ways. Not a bad thing necessarily, but I have to call into questions a few WoW trends that people may or may not agree with. First is the diluting down of the game into a very base format, especially in regards to character format. Has the game been dumbed down from its 2004 roots? Some say yes, I think more than anything it has been streamlined to offer players the best choices for their characters in the easiest way possible. I don’t think the phrase dumbed down is fair. I do believe that the days of faction only classes like the Paladin and the Shaman are long gone, unless Blizzard suprises us with the next expansion which will hopefully take us to level 100 as well. But I sure miss those days.

Read more of Garrett Fuller’s The WoW Factor: Is Monk Just the New Druid?

 

 

New Continent & Integrated Twitch.TV ArriveNew Continent & Integrated Twitch.TV Arrive

 
PlanetSide 2 beta testers are being treated to a double cool set of new features with the latest game update. Included in the newest patch is a new continent and the Twitch.tv integration which allows players to stream without leaving the game.

SOE & Twitch Form Partnership:

Twitch, the world’s largest video platform and community for gamers, has partnered with SOE to integrate the Twitch Api into PlanetSide 2, thereby giving players the added ability to instantly broadcast gameplay directly from PlanetSide 2 with one-click.
PlanetSide 2 will be the first game to feature the ability to stream directly to Twitch with a single click.
Troops Deploy to Amerish

PlanetSide 2’s third continent, Amerish, was revealed during this year’s SOE Live and is now playable in beta.
The all-new continent’s terrain mimics the Scottish highlands and outfits should be aware that the Amerish’s lush, green hills and forests will force new battle tactics as they try to defend their outposts. 

Guild Wars 2 : Mac Version Enters BetaGuild Wars 2 : Mac Version Enters Beta

 

 

The Guild Wars 2 team has announced that the Mac version of the game is now ready for beta testing. Anyone who purchases the game will be included in the beta. The beta, however, unlike most testing phases, will connect Mac users to the live servers to interact with PC users.

 

From today, Guild Wars 2 will be available for Mac in a beta version to anyone who purchases Guild Wars 2. The Mac beta version of Guild Wars 2 is still being optimised and, unlike other betas, is connected to the live servers allowing everyone to play together on both Mac and Windows based computers. Users will be able to access the Mac beta client through the Guild Wars 2 account management website after activating their game code.

 

Mac users can check out the FAQ on the Guild Wars 2 site.