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CrimeCraft Dev Journals-The Triad Faction and Boss Screens

Oct 30, 2009 Articles Recommend|275views

For many years, the Bratva and the Dragons were engaged in conflict over numerous enterprises in Downtown, including smuggling, gambling and prostitution. Before the collapse, the organizations had engaged in numerous wars and blood feuds, and the previous leadership of the Dragons had sworn an eternal vendetta against all Bratva. This was the predominate thinking in the daily lives of members of the Dragons for many years, and even persisted in the early period after the collapse. However, as life became harder and harder for everyone, there were those among the Dragons who believed that something needed to change.

Chief among these individuals was Saicho Kazugai, leader of the Dragons. In the post-collapse world, he had come to believe that maintaining poor relations with the Bratva, even all the Families, would only ensure the demise of everyone and their organizations. When the opportunity arose to negotiate a partnership with the Families, he took it, ensuring his organization a place at the table and a way to keep the good life going.

Not all of Kazugai’s inner circle agreed with this, least of all the aged Zhou Ming-Tai, whose life with the Dragons began during a particularly bloody war with the Bratva. Mr. Zhou, also known as “The Tiger”, spent his many years looking for ways to finally defeat the Bratva, so the efforts of his much younger boss infuriated him. Charismatic and outspoken, Mr. Zhou appealed to the honor of many senior leaders in the Dragons and succeeded in winning converts to his perspective: that no matter the circumstance, the eternal vendetta against the Bratva must continue.

The current Triad organization is the outgrowth of this split within the Dragons. Disgusted by the Partnership between the Families and the Municipality, the Triads have cut themselves off from their Dragon brethren, designating them traitors to be eliminated along with all those with whom they cooperate. Taking on the mantle of the dismantled Triad organization, they operate as a feudal organization, holding honor and loyalty to the organization highest among all things.

The Triads operate in the shadows of the city, focused on one day taking over the Dragons organization and bringing all of Sunrise City to heel under their thumb. Better organized than the Rogues, they have also made use of contacts stolen from the Dragons to ensure that they remain well-supplied, even though they primarily operate outside the walls. In short, the Triads, well-supplied and well-trained, are making war upon Sunrise City and will not stop until everything within belongs to them, for that, as Mr. Zhou has said, is the only way to cleanse the stain of dishonor inflicted by Kazugai and the Dragons.

Tags: CrimeCraft

Tekken 6: Had to patiently wait,Was it worth it?

Oct 29, 2009 Articles Recommend|2,275views

One of the only fighting games I’ve ever bothered to try and deeply understand outside of Street Fighter is Tekken. There’s something about the mechanics, and ability to button tap control each limb, that I love.

Loved
Really, Really Long Campaign: If you’re a fan of playing through a single-player campaign in a fighting title, then Tekken 6 is the game for you. The single player experience is a seemingly never ending trip of branching choices, boss fights and low-level thug brawls.

Roster: With more than 40 characters to choose from, Tekken 6 offers gamers a virtual bounty of play styles to learn and try to master. The single player campaign even has a mech suit you get to ride around in for a bit. All of the characters, even the silly ones, are a delight to control.

Controls and Tweaks: Liquid-smooth controls and a design mechanic that relies more on rhythmic button tapping and stick slapping are some of the reasons that Tekken is my other favorite fighter. This iteration adds a few new touches to the core mechanic, like a low-life rage mode that boosts damage and the ability to bounce an enemy off the ground and prolong your chain of attacks. What it doesn’t do is mess with what already works.

Graphics: This time around you can play the game with motion blur, which does knock the resolution down to near-standard definition, but if you would rather skip the blur Tekken 6 plays at 720p, the same resolution as in arcades. Graphically, Tekken 6 is an artistically crafted game with fluid movements and an eclectic, colorful cast.

Online Options: The game offers both ranked and unranked matches online, but more interesting are its data options, which allow you to upload or download a player’s replay and ghost data which can be used to tweak the play style of enemy AI offline.

Hated
Slippery Slope: In the single-player campaign there will be times when you fight in areas with drops, drops that seem to want to pull you over the edge and kill you instantly. Worse still, sometimes performing a special move will make your character, apparently unaware of their location, flip, kick or punch right into a chasm. It’s incredibly frustrating.

Identity Crisis: If I’m going to spend the amount of time it takes to play through Tekken 6’s lengthy campaign the least Namco could do is make sure that the character I’m playing is the one who shows up in the many and lengthy cut scenes. I’m Law, not some other guy. It’s very off-putting.

Odd Save Points: The game saves at the end of every level. The problem is that later on in the games some of those levels have two, three, even four incredibly difficult bosses. If you die you can start right back up with the boss, but if you want to switch out your powerful items you need to start the entire level over again. It’s a fairly annoying issue tied to what amounts to a wardrobe change.

Online Play: I only played a half dozen matches or so online, but even in those I experienced a bit of lag in my battles. Games like Tekken 6, fighters, are all about the mutiplayer, more so then even shooters. If you can’t get your netcode right, don’t bother releasing your game.

Loading: Tekken 6 is lousy with loading screens. You load between levels, you load between battles, you load to go online, load to get offline. You even sometimes load going from one cut scene to the next. Seriously.

I’m a big fan of the Tekken franchise, but I really don’t care about the single player campaign. All I want is to be able to smack other people around online, at home or in AI-controlled arcade mode. So I can forgive almost all of the issues I pointed out. They’re almost entirely about what I think is a completely needless single-player campaign. What I can’t forgive, won’t endure, is online lag. Let’s hope Namco gets right on patching that, because until they do I won’t be risking my piddly ranking

Tekken 6 was developed and published by Namco Bandai for Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 on Oct. 27. Retails for $59.99 USD. A copy of the game was given to us by the publisher for reviewing purposes. Played through single player campaign mode and multiple matches off and online on the Xbox 360.

Tags: Tekken 6

Warhammer Online Mac Version Is Now Available

Oct 29, 2009 Warhammer Online|325views

Mythic Entertainment is pleased to announce that the Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Mac version is now available. Players on both PC and Mac platforms can now battle and quest together on the same servers - WAR is now truly everywhere!

New to WAR? you can Purchase the Mac version HERE or download the trial

Existing Players

Step 1:

Download the Mac Client via patcher

http://www.warhammeronline.com/mac/download.php

Step 2:

Log-in with your current account information and PLAY!

New Trial Users

Step 1:

Create your FREE trial account first here.

Step 2:

Download the Mac Client via patcher

http://www.warhammeronline.com/mac/download.php

Step 3:

Log-in with your account information and PLAY!

About WAR Mac Version

WAR for the Mac is made possible using the CiderTM Portability Engine from TransGaming (TSX-V: TNG) that acts as a “wrapper” around the game software, enabling it to run seamlessly on Intel-based Macs. TransGaming’s Cider technology allows Mythic Entertainment to rapidly enable and deploy WAR for the Mac, providing a new high quality gaming experience to the ever-growing Mac gaming community.

Tags: Warhammer Online

RAN online, Enjoy the soul of action with PvP Control!

Oct 26, 2009 Articles Recommend|311views

All of you must have played and enjoyed various action games. There are many action games which give you the electrifying and thrilling sense of the action. Battle between the users would be one of the unique attraction points of action games.

RAN online has various systems to enjoy other than just leveling up. Once a player’s character reaches certain level, it would be possible to enjoy all of the contents in RAN online. PvP is a popular system which let players to feel the action sensation. Introducing the RAN online’s unique console game like competition PvP battle system.

PvP is a challenge between characters regardless of leveling up. There are three types of PvP in RAN online; they are PK, Duel and Party Duel. As the skill casting and character control abilities, players can experience various types of PvP.

PK (Player Kill)
PK can be tried to all the characters which are level 20 or higher, except all the other protected characters. Conduct a skill attack to the target opponent to PK while pressing ‘Z’ button on your keyboard to start PK. This is a challenge without prior consent between the players and player who was attacked can have 60 Seconds to fight back as a self-defense since the opponent’s last attack.

Damage received would be reduced 50% than the normal attack power. EXP could be lost and one of the equipped items might be dropped, if you lose the PK challenge. Therefore, using potion is very important element to win the PK challenge. Efficient control of the skill usage and potion must be done at the same time, so shortcut key settings and one’s own know-how are required to win this.

Plus, character which tries to PK will lose the status attribute points and if he or she has succeeded to kill the target then more point would be lost. Once this status attribute points go lower than the certain level than there will be a penalty to limit the trading goods in the game.

Duel Challenge
Press and hold the ‘Shift’ button and click left mouse button on the target opponent to request Duel. Not like the PK, duel is conducted upon prior consent between the players. Also, the number of potions to use, HP increase rate, the limitation of dueling area and etc can be adjusted before the fight so the dueling does not have any penalty.

It is important to equip different item as what the opponent character’s class is and what type of weapon he or she has equipped. There are various Skills and weapon traits and types so it is important to choose the item which helps you to have proper resistance against the opponent.

As the Dueling begins, it is important to make the first attack successful and also to learn the opponent’s intention and weather to fight in melee type or use the long ranged skills while running around. Plus, do not use the skills in shortcut key in the order; be sure to use them as to properly go against the opponent’s attack.

Duel Challenge between the Parties
Party Duel has its own uniqueness other than the 1 on 1 duel, PK and Lead Club Battle. As the 1 on 1 duel, how it is conducted would be the same but the win or lose is decided by the character’s trait rather than the control. Potion use is limited and the challenge can be ended, makes it different from the PK and there is required number of players that distinguish it from the Lead Club Battle.

The most important thing in the party duel is the teamwork between the party members. Must understand each member’s pros and cons and build a strategy. Uniqueness of each class’ character traits can be really useful. For example, Archers to attack in the distance, Swordsmen for middle and long range attacks, Brawler to use the melee & cancel skills, Shaman can give buffs to party member.

Tags: Ran Online

Night of the Lost Souls Update

Oct 25, 2009 Articles Recommend|240views

Hey everyone I thought I would drop by and give everyone a preview of our seasonal content that will be coming in with the update 1.05.6 next week.

We have added in a few single player quests as well as a new team quest where players must hunt down three lost souls from Hyboria’s past. These quests will take players into areas they thought to be familiar but now have an eerie shadow cast over them.

Along with these new quests there will also be some unique rewards players can get such as the Unholy Backscratcher, Fermented Brain Juice or the skin altering void essence. Players will also have the opportunity to get their very own pet Soul Devourer!

Alongside our seasonal content we will be bringing out a few new programs to reward our long term players. As of today the 3 month subscription offers a 20% discount, 6 month subscription yields a 30% discount and 12 month offers a 45% discount vs. the regular one month plan. This is more than twice the discount than before. Keep in mind when you purchase these longer subscriptions you will get your veteran points up front so you can have access to all of our new veteran rewards too! Finally we are going to be starting a program rewarding players for recruiting their friends to play AoC, but we will have a little more information on that when it goes live with the update so keep an eye out for it!

Anyways, that’s all for now so make sure to come check out the new event next week as well as the Iron Tower and the new Veteran System.

Tags: Night of the Lost Souls

HolyBeast Online Having an Exciting Events and Additional Costume

Oct 23, 2009 Articles Recommend|329views

CyberStep is pleased to announce the beginning of an event this week-Rampage of Teddies and a cool costume update which should not miss this chance or you can never have it!

1.Rampage of Teddies

October 27 will be crazy Teddy Bear Day…

In Teddy Bear Day, Players will have a chance to get rare items as well as 2×EXP　by defeating those teddies that appear at both Stardust Beach and Windgrove Shrine gate. There are BOSS TEDDIES with high-level, so you probably need to form a group with your friends.
Below will be the detailed of “Rampage of Teddies”

This event will held from October 27th(Thu)7:00p.m.(PDT) at “Stardust Beach” and “Windgrove Shrine Gate” at channel 1.

Monsters at Stardust Beach, Players will see

Lv 41 Berserk Teddy
Lv 49 Enhanced Teddy
Lv 52 Tornado Teddy

Monster at Windgrove, Players will see…
Lv 52 Black Mist
Lv 55 Battle Teddy
Lv 72 Terrano Teddy

2.Item Additions

Also in Item Mall, Special limited costume will be added!

These fascinating costumes will bring some lovely feelings and a good motivation for adventure to all of players.

This will be a limited-offer from October 22nd to October 28th!!

You should not miss a big chance to get these lovely costumes during this campaign period.

There are 6 of different colors you can choose!

HolyBeast Management Team would hope players to enjoy their shopping this month, enjoying themselves in special unique costumes that have been released!

Tags: HolyBeast ONLINE

Should I really pug this? Is it worth it?

Oct 23, 2009 Articles Recommend|263views

Online games are a way for people to get together, have fun, and complete quests. If you have a close group of friends that play together or a good guild, grouping is easy and mostly painless. Unfortunately sometimes you can’t find a group or everyone is doing something else. Then you begin to ponder joining a pug (Pick up group). You begin to think, “Should I really pug this? Is it worth it?”

In World of Warcraft pugs can be good or bad, it is really a 50-50 chance. I have been lucky that most pugs I have been in (recently) have been pretty good. No nonsense, with a get it done attitude. In guild runs pugging a much needed tank or healer can yield mixed results.

A few weeks ago our guild had to pug a tank for a heroic toc run. We didn’t have any tanks in guild that could go so I suggested we pug one. After a small discussion and “shudders” in chat we found what appeared to be a tank. As soon as the instance started, the tank began running his mouth; “Wow you guys really suck. Why do I always end up with such losers?” No one had even started attacking anything at this point. We assumed he was joking, oh how wrong we were.

This continued the entire trial, up to the black knight. Finally one of our guildies had enough. One of the dpsers decided to quit and bring his tank so we can dump the mouth. We quit and reformed and were able to complete the run jerk free. All I could say is, some people’s kids.

The question that comes to mind is what was this anonymous stranger thinking? Did he think that berating people would make him seem cool or superior? Tips for all you guys joining pugs out there; be respectful of your team, do not belittle anyone regardless of how bad they do, and of course have fun.

Pugging can indeed yield mixed results, don’t let this prevent you from taking a chance. For every bad pug experience I have had, there are at least five good ones. I have been fortunate to have met some good people in the process of joining and pugging roles for a team. When you find a good player don’t be afraid to add them to your friends list, most of the time they will add you as well. Good luck and happy Pugging.

Tags: Online games

Fallen Earth: Early Crafting

Oct 22, 2009 Articles Recommend|525views

Fallen Earth is an exceptional example of how a player-driven economy can make a game great. All armor, weapons, mounts, vehicles, food and much more can be crafted by the players. Sure, you can get some gear from enemy NPCs and quests, but the best gear is made by the players.

Far too often in MMORPGs, we find ourselves stuck in a gear-grind. We bust our butts to get to the end-game, and for what? The end-game is often dependent on the player’s addiction to obtaining more attractive armor. This should not be the case for an online video game. An online video game should be about community, working together, and achieving goals as a team.

This is what I believe Fallen Earth is striving for. And the post-apocalyptic setting is perfect for this.

A world torn asunder by a devastating catastrophe, the last remaining peoples of the world become dependent on each other in order to restore humanity to its former glory. We are left with picking up the pieces, creating our own tools, food and clothing. We, essentially, have to craft the world.

At first, I was a bit overwhelmed by the freedom. There is absolutely no hand-holding in this game. I was born in a LifeNet spawn facility near Terance, with two NPCs to greet me, both with quests available. One NPC offered me some very basic training to get me started as a crafter. The other NPC offered me a quest to get me started on my adventure to put a stop to the evil Artificial Intelligence.

I put crafting aside until I became more familiar with my surroundings and my abilities as a combatant. I ventured around the town, spoke with some Conversers, received some additional quests, and found some rats right in town that I could take a few practice swings at. I explored further out of town, not really knowing what to expect. I found a band of rogue humanoids called the Gully Dogs right outside town, and decided to try my luck. My starter weapons were a crossbow, two zip guns, a wooden plank, a metal pipe, and a shiv. I was able to equip all of the weapons, and figured out how to switch between them quickly and easily.

I started with my crossbow. Took a few shots at some enemies, and quickly discovered that I’m not the sniper-type, my aim and patience just aren’t good enough. So I dual-wielded my zip guns (which are

essentially paintball guns that use ball bearings for projectiles), and found I was a little better with this type of combat. But I still wasn’t satisfied with my performance. So I tried out the melee weapons. This is my niche. I like charging right at my enemy and bashing them over the head with a wooden plank. That’s my style.

So, after figuring out what type of player I am, I made some decisions on how I would spend my life in Fallen Earth. I figured if I want to be a melee combatant, then I should probably be heavily armored. My first craft was Armorcraft. I searched around Terance for the different merchants and trainers, and found my Armorcraft trainer. I purchased some skill-books, opened up my recipe list, and started taking note of the different recipes, their skill levels, and of course, the components required for the recipes. Finding components was easy enough, all I had to do was look for the node icons on the mini-map. Before I knew it, I had already crafted a decent set of armor.

After some time spent exploring and completing quests in town, I decided it was time to upgrade my melee weapons. I purchased my skill-books from the Weaponcraft trainer, and away I went, gathering materials and crafting what I could.

One thing that is really intriguing to me is the fact that I can gather materials, and even fight enemies, while I’m crafting. The crafting mechanics work similarly to the skill mechanics of EVE Online. Each item that can be crafted requires a variable amount of time. The length of time it takes to craft an item is dependent on the item itself, and whether or not you are near a crafting workstation. For instance, if you are crafting a piece of armor, the length of time it takes to craft the armor will be less if you are within the vicinity of an Armorcraft workstation. Which means there is a benefit to staying at a crafting workstation, but by no means are you required to do so. You can still explore, fight, and gather while crafting. You can even log out of the game and your crafting queue will continue.

Since I started my life in Fallen Earth, I have learned many crafting skills. I am capable of crafting vehicles, weapons, armor, first aid equipment, mutations, and the list goes on. I can craft anything and everything I need. The true challenge in crafting is obtaining the components. Some components are very easy to find, while others are nearly impossible (scrap plastic in Sector 1).

Also, this type of player-driven economy offers more benefits than just the simple acquisition of armor and weapons. It also decreases the chances of gold farmers and sellers making an impact on the economy.

Fallen Earth has a lot to offer, but you have to be willing to take advantage of the freedom. There is a lot to learn in Fallen Earth, and I’m only just getting started.

Tags: Fallen Earth

Global Agenda: Two Ways To Pay

Oct 21, 2009 Articles Recommend|234views

Global Agenda is an online shooter that, on the surface, plays a great deal like many other online shooters. You gain experience, level up, gain new equipment, and fight side-by-side with your teammates through a variety of maps and game types. It’s also a massively-multiplayer persistent world game, in which rival agencies and alliances fight for territory, establish bases, craft, socialize, and participate in raids. It has the potential to appeal to two completely different audiences, so Hi-Rez has decided to cater to both.

When Global Agenda launches, a onetime purchase via retail or downloadable distribution will net you the full online multiplayer shooter, with no subscription fees ever required to play the core game. You still get to create and level a character, participate in co-operative missions against enemies and bosses, level your character, and join alliances. It functions much like a Call of Duty or Team Fortress does, only with inventory and enhanced social features.

Players craving something a bit more deeper, however, can opt to pay $12.99 a month ($11.99 for 3 months, $9.99 for 6) for the Global Agenda: Conquest subscription. Players who opt for Conquest again access to the more persistent part of the persistent-world game, Alliance versus Alliance World Domination gameplay. It’s a massive-scale war for territory, with rival agencies capturing land, forming alliances with other agencies, gathering resources, and basically maintaining a constant vigil on their things, lest a rival group take them away.

Subscribing also allows players to form their own Alliances and Agencies, send mail, use the auction house, and participate in some of the higher-end raid content. Subscribing customers will also enjoy frequent updates to the ongoing content, which those playing the core game won’t have access to.

We spoke with the game’s Executive Producer Todd Harris, who explained the core difference between the two ways to pay and play. “The main difference is for folks that want to play the game as a multiplayer online game with a little bit of persistence, that’s what the main package brings you. We looked at the feature set of other online games and made sure we had all of that and more. We’re putting all of that into a box an letting people get it for a one-time price.”

According to Todd, throughout the development of Global Agenda, testers were commenting on how enjoyable the combat system in the game is, saying they would gladly pay for it without any of the MMO features. Now they’ll have their chance.

While there are many differences between the two different payment types, Todd assured me that the portions of the game that overlap - the match made PVP battles - will never be unbalanced between those subscribed to the game and those that choose not to. Any items introduced to subscribers that can be used in regular PVP combat will be available to non-subscribers as well. There will be unique items for those who opt to pay a monthly fee, but those will only be useable in subscriber-only gameplay.

As an added bonus, everyone who purchases the full version of the game gets a free 30-day subscription, so if you aren’t sure what you want, it won’t cost anything to see how the other half lives.

It certainly sounds like Hi-Rez has all of its bases covered on this one. The shooter gameplay in Global Agenda is extremely solid, more than enough to carry off a standalone title. We’ll see how things work out for the game when it is released sometime in Q1 of 2010.

Tags: Global Agenda

AoC-Hyborian Adventures: The Iron Tower

Oct 20, 2009 Age of Conan|318views

The grim Iron Tower stood apart from the citadel, amid a maze of narrow streets and crowding houses where the meaner structures, appropriating a space from which the more fastidious shrank, had invaded a portion of the city ordinarily alien to them. The Tower was in reality a castle, an ancient, formidable pile of heavy stone and black iron, which had itself served as the citadel in an earlier, ruder century.
- Robert E. Howard, The Hour of the Dragon .

From the hands of Conan himself the Iron Tower was founded as a prison of civil confinement for the most malicious and vile criminals within Aquilonia. Murders, thieves and other deviant corrupted souls are here awaiting their unforseen judgement before the hands of Mitra.

The Iron Tower brings the final chapter from the epic story of Tarantia Common District. This closure introduces a vast amount of new and challenging game play including four new epic boss encounters, five mini-boss encounters, the chance of five rare boss encounters, and many new exciting rewards for levels 78 to 80.

Towering over the rooftops below, The Iron Tower can be seen from anywhere in the Tarantia Commons District. Previously inaccessible for players on the Age of Conan servers, the new dungeon is now opening up for adventurers with who dare to face the many challenges within.

A new challenge

The Iron Tower is a level 78 and up group dungeon that lies in the heart of the commons district and functions as the climax of the epic story from Tarantia Commons. Players pick up from where the story ended in the commons between the conflict with the Wharf Rats, Crows and Daughters. Much like the first chapter, the developers wanted to throw the players head first into the storyline and both offer some closure to the story as well some new challenges to indoor encounters.

The tower hosts some of Aquilonia’s most vile criminals while also entwining them into the plot. As you journey through the tower you will notice that the difficulties of the content scales depending on what level your currently at in the tower. In addition, you’ll also want to take notice our new approach to the content and how the AI uses their classes. As you go higher up the tower your opponents will use more abilities and reflect what type of classes they are in different ways. This will help add diversity and allow more utilization on what classes you should bring to the fight than what we’ve done before.

One of the key characters from the previous chapter that you’ll encounter will be Anoki the Scourge and leader of the Daughters. She is back and she has bribed the guards from the commons district to act as her personal guard If you try to follow her trail then you will have to fight corrupt guards and a sadistic Executioner with his power to force his will on others causing them to hurt themselves.

Higher up in the the tower you will encounter Anoki’s Officers who have freed prisoners and started a riot. Apparently Anoki is trying to free a mysterious Prisoner but she can’t get to him as he is guarded by a strange cult that have formed around a priest of Mitra who calls himself Desumo. Gossip has it that he is here on his own free will in order to see that no one even gets close to the prisoner. Not only is he personally guarding the only way to the prisoner but it seems he has set up various defense mechanisms that will pose an interesting challenge to all that enter

Exciting encounters

The Iron Tower dungeon is full of new and exciting experiences, and players can expect several dramatic new encounters such as:

Executioner

The executioner is a sick minded bastard with the power to impose his will to others and causing them to inflict pain on themselves. When battling the Executioner we basically tried to show this mental state of his while trying to sacrifice a few players with deadly torture instruments that we all know and love. Players will have to beware of these devices in order to survive and teamwork is imperative in order to survive the iron maiden as well other lovely torture methods

Anoki the Scourge

Anoki is back and she is not a push over as everyone thinks she is Besides being a deadly assassin and the abilities to charm her foes out of combat, she can also call down the gods for healing as she dances on your corpse. In the heat of battle Anoki will call upon her dead officers and beging a ritual to destroy all who oppose her Players will have a great challenge on their hands both finding ways to defeat Anoki while avoiding her charming and stunning ways.

Desumo

When word got back to Desumo that this mysterious Prisoner was incarcerated in the Iron Tower he gave up arms and volunteered to be a prisoner. Now put in place to guard this mysterious Prisoner, Desumo channels the power of his god into Pillars of Faith to strike down his enemies and prevent them from approaching his captive. But the long years have worn at his sanity and a single misstep could send him spiralling into madness.

All new rewards

Of course, facing the many challenges that the dungeon offers will definitely be rewarding should you manage to make it through alive. Most of the boss loot in the Iron Tower has brand-new and unique visuals that are distinguishable from what is already in the game. Here are some of the new rewards that players will find in the Iron Tower.

Plumed Helm of Divinity

51 wisdom, 25 constitution, 31 magic mana tap rating, 4.8 natural mana regenration, 166 mana

Grizzly Mask

135 combat rating, 56 strength, 42 constitution, 35 critical rating

Oraste’s Robe

49 intelligence, 20 generic magic damage, 48 critical damage bonus, 41 constitution, 39 hit rating, 4.8 natural mana regeneration

Helm of Idra

72 constitution, 38 strength, 24 evade rating

Club of Larsha

35 wisdom, 32 generic magic damage, 38 critical rating, 33 hit rating, 26 magic mana tap rating.

More Content On the Way

The Iron Tower is one of many new dungeons that the Age of Conan developers have added to the game since launch. In the previous months the developers have also added other high-level dungeons such as Xibaluku and The Amphitheatre. In coming updates developers will be adding even more content to high level players, such as introducing tier three raiding in Thoth Amon’s Stronghold - the lair of the ultimate Conan bad guy, Thoth Amon himself. This and more new content and features will be finding their way to Age of Conan soon.

Tags: Age of Conan, Hyborian Adventures

AoC-Hyborian Adventures: Veteran Rewards Explained

Oct 20, 2009 Age of Conan|379views

Sticking with the game over a longer period of time should yield rewards, right?

That is why the Age of Conan developers are now introducing Veteran Points to the game. This will give players who have subscribed to the game for a certain amount of time a wide choice of different rewards to choose from. From exciting new pets to useful new equipment, the rewards are many and you have the power to choose.

These rewards are available at new vendor NPCs in-game and will offer a wide range of items, options and services that will only be available to veteran players.

The idea behind the veteran items is not to create items that make characters more powerful, but to offer convenience and social items for veteran players to enjoy, either to offer things like better travel options for their characters or to make things a little easier when they start a new alt character.

How do you earn points?

This new system works with Veteran Points, points that players will acquire for every month that they subscribed to the game. The longer a player has had an active subscription, the more points will be gained.

The rewarded Veteran Points also increases after every six-month period so even more points are gained the longer a player has been loyal to the game.

• Month 1 to 5 - 6 points awarded per month
• Month 6-11 - 8 points awarded per month
• Month 12-17 - 10 points awarded per month
• Month 18-23 - 12 points awarded per month
• … and so on.

Points will be available for each character separately, so there is no need to ration points per character. All Veteran rewards are going to be character bound.

So, what do I get?

The different sorts of items that veterans will get access to vary from Social Items over Convenience Items to exclusive Veteran Equipment.

Convenience Items

• Basic Riding Training - 2 points
• Free Feat Reset potion - 2 points
• Basic Horse (8 different colors) - 3 points
• Straw Man (For target practice in certain playfields) - 5 points
• Path to Conarch Village - 8 points
• Path to Fire Beacon Lookout - 8 points
• Path to Hunting Lodge - 8 points
• Path to Iron Tower - 8 points
• Path to Khemi - 8 points
• Path to Kheshatta City - 8 points
• Path to Prison Colony - 8 points
• Path to Tarantia - 8 points
• Path to The Lair - 8 points
• Reset Feat Cost potion - 12 points
• Swift Horse (8 different colors) - 85 points

Veteran Items

• Veteran’s Bag (35 slots) - 8 points
• Veteran’s Boots (10 % out of combat movement speed) - 8 points
• Veteran’s Cape (+50 out of combat health/mana/stamina regen) - 8 points
• Veteran’s Path (Reduces the reuse time of your PoA/PoC by 10 minutes, permanently) - 10 points

Social Items

• Size Abilities (Abilities that allow you to grow in size for a period) - 2 points
• Arm Enlarging (Make your character a little more buff) - 3 points
• Breast Enlarging (Female only) - 3 points
• Fireworks - 2 points each
• Companion: Casilda (Will summon Casilda to cheer you on!) - 5 points
• Pet: Hyena - 5 points

Conclusion

And this will not be all the future holds for Age of Conan veterans! The system is designed so it can be easily expanded with future updates and to provide veteran players with even more rewards, services and options in the months to come! So stay tuned for more exciting rewards to be added through the Veteran system!

Tags: Age of Conan

Ran Online Developer Blog-Let’s Go Party!

Oct 19, 2009 Articles Recommend|507views

Well, everyone must have felt at least once that the repeated hunting and carrying out quests boring. Boring game? That is not a game!

Through our blog, we have introduced how to enjoy RAN online more before. Among them, let’s find out more about ‘Party Playing’ which is one of the most important and thrilling elements to have more compelling hunting experience in RAN online!

So, what is “Partying”?
All the RAN online users must feel the need to Party up to play RAN online. Party is a temporary group of various users to hunt monsters together more efficiently. With given option choices, dropped items and gold can be distributed fairly to more dominator or in orderly manner.

What’s the advantage for forming a party?
The obvious advantage of partying with other players is that hunting monsters becomes relatively easier. So, players can earn EXP points and items faster and also level up faster. Plus, players with different levels and classes will bring on all the variety of skills which would make the Party stronger in attacking and defending to make hunting easier.

The Advantage of partying is not only the easier hunting but also players can make variety of various new friends. Players will feel the bond which could never be felt when hunting alone. This bond will help new RAN online players to lose the inhibition fast and merge into the game more naturally.

How do you Party up?
Players can form a party everywhere in RAN online. Anyone can be in a party without any restriction of levels and classes but only maximum 8 players can be recruited in a party. It would be better to set or have a common goal when partying, such as hunting specific monsters in certain map.

Players should focus on ‘Drawing’ when hunting in a party. Well, some games forbid drawing monsters when hunting, due to “not enough hunting area”, but in RAN online, we encourage drawing because it is essential when hunting in a party. Draw massive number of monsters at once in an area and hunt them down all at once. Therefore, EXP gain speed and level up speed could get faster through this drawing method.

Plus, ‘Buff’ is another charm of party playing. Leveling up is a main purpose and fun of a game play so depending on how effectively the buffs are casted upon the party, level up speed can get even more faster. For example, when a Healer Shaman character is recruited in a party, depending on how well the healer gives the Haste (Moving Speed Increase) buff to its party members and how the other members use that speed well to hunt down the monsters faster can vary the level up speed.

Tags: Ran Online

Trial of the Crusader III-The Twin Val’kyr and Anub’arak

Oct 17, 2009 world of warcraft|459views

And it’s almost over. The fourth and fifth boss encounters are much more epic than the previous encounters, actually reaching the difficulty of some Ulduar bosses.

Boss Encounter 4: The Twin Val’kyr

Before the bosses enter, designate who will take the Dark Essence or Light Essence buff.

When you start the encounter, the Dark Val’kyr will move south and the Light Val’kyr will move north. They will stop close to the northwestern and southwestern points of the star design on the Coliseum’s floor. The essences will be on the northwestern, southwestern, southeastern, and southwestern.

You will need two tanks for these bosses. If you’re relying on a Paladin tank, have them tank the Dark Valkyr. Paladin tank skills will have very little effect on the Light Valkyr.

The tanks should pick the essence that is the same color as their target boss to reduce the amount of damage that they take. Classes with threat-directing skills will need to use those skills for the duration of the encounter.

This fight is healing-intensive, comparable to Ignis the Furnace Master in Ulduar. Surge of Light and Surge of Darkness will deal raid-wide damage every two seconds from the very start of the encounter. You can minimize the damage from one of the surges by picking an essence. The damage from the opposing element will increase, but the overall damage is lesser than not picking an essence at all.

Sphere Collection

As you go through the fight, light and dark spheres will appear at the edges of the arena. This happens before one of the Valkyr Twins casts a spell. Everyone in the raid should collect spheres that match their essence. They will take a little damage, but nothing compared to taking a sphere of the opposing element. If the bosses collect these spheres, it will add to their empowerment and once they’ve reached a certain number, will soft-enrage and deal considerable damage to the tanks for 15 seconds.

A popular tactic is to assign all ranged DPS to one essence and melee DPS with one healer to the other essence.

Ranged DPS should clump to the point that your character models overlap. During the sphere phase, the healer assigned to the melee DPS should filter any of the spheres that don’t match the ranged DPS’ essence. Melee DPS should do the same but to protect the tank in charge of their target boss. Ranged DPS will take in any matching spheres that are within 5-10 yards of their assigned position.

Once a player reaches 100 stacks of “Powering Up”, they will gain Empowering Light or Empowering Darkness, increasing damage dealt. Any threat-direction skills that they have should be used on the tanks before the massive surge of damage pulls the boss from the tank.

Post-Spheres: Boss Skills

After the Sphere Phase, one of the bosses will cast either a Vortex or Twins’ Pact. All players except the tanks should change their essence to match the boss casting the Vortex. Overheal the tank that doesn’t have a matching essence. Twins’ Pact is a 15-second cast that heals 20% of their total HP and cannot be interrupted until the boss casting it has their shield broken. Breaking the shield DOES NOT stop the cast, so give anyone who can interrupt the time to do so. If your DPS is good, you won’t need to change your essence to take down the shield while using the setup mentioned in Sphere Collection.

There is no set pattern for the spells, but the spells cast by the bosses will not repeat until the two Vortexes and two Twins’ Pacts have been cast.

Boss Encounter 5: Anub’arak

You can forget about the celebration for beating the first four bosses of the Trials. Just as everyone is about to get their mug of ale, the Lich King crashes the party and nerd rages at Tirion for not inviting him. As payback, he shatters the floor and sends you all plummeting into a pool of water while claiming the rights to your souls. He’d have done a better job if he hadn’t forgotten about WoW’s water physics.

At least the scenery beats the monotony of the Argent Coliseum. The frozen kingdom of Azjol-Nerub towers before you and at the far end of the frozen walls is Anub’arak, back to redeem himself after being such a mediocre five-man boss.

Designations

You’ll need two tanks, one for Anub’arak and one for the Nerubian Burrowers.

Assign one ranged DPS or one Death Knight to destroy the Frost Spheres floating above the raid for the duration of the encounter.

Phase 1: Tank-and-Spank

Your designated Sphere Breaker should take down at least 3 Frost Spheres during Phase One. These will create patches of Permafrost which will stop the Nerubian Burrowers from burrowing before the raid can kill them.

The main tank should tank Anub’arak near one of these patches. The off-tank should take the Nerubian Burrowers to the same patch used for Anub’arak.10-man encounters only see one Nerubian Burrower spawn every few seconds, so DPS should focus fire on every second Nerubian Burrower that spawns and then switch to area-of-effect skills to damage the Burrower and Anub’arak.

Anub’arak is a pushover to tank, dealing basic damage and stunning the tank every now and then. He also casts a damage-over-time spell on a few raiders, but it’s nothing that can’t be outhealed.

Nerubian Burrowers attack at a faster rate when they are near each other. One off-tank is often enough if the DPS can quickly kill those Burrowers.

If you have Deadly Boss Mods, the assigned Sphere Breaker should get to work 20 seconds before Anub’arak burrows.

And Anub’arak will burrow. No puny patch of ice will stop him.

Phase 2: Run, Period.

Once underground, the raid needs to get as far away from Anub’arak while keeping a patch of ice between them and him.

Anub’arak once again uses Impale, but he will chase a specified target this time. Players targeted by Anub’arak will have a mark similar to Hunter’s Mark above their heads. Anub’arak’ spikes speed up the longer they are uninterrupted by a patch of ice. This phase ends after a certain amount of time, not the number of times Anub’arak will have to crash into the ice patches. If you want to practice for hard mode, kite the spikes around.

Throughout this phase, Swarm Scarabs will spawn around the raid. Everyone should attack these adds even if they’re not a tank. Swarm Scarabs don’t hurt a lot, but they have a stacking damage-over-time effect that really hurts once you reach 3 or 4 stacks.

Once the timer is up, it’s back to Phase 1. Kill the Swarm Scarabs before going back to Anub’arak.

If you don’t want him to enrage, Anub’arak should only go into this phase twice.

Phase 3: They’ll Crawl All Over You

Once Anub’arak reaches 30%, he’ll cast Leeching Swarm. There will be no more Nerubian Burrowers for this phase so you won’t need the Frost Spheres.

Anub’arak will heal himself for 10% of the current health of each raid every second for this phase until his death, so DPS will need every skill they can muster. If your DPS can’t keep up with Anub’arak, let their health drop to 75-50% to reduce the health drained by Anub’arak.

And with Anub’arak down, the Heroic version of your raid is unlocked.

Tags: Trial of the Crusader, world of warcraft

BioWare Announces Browser-Based Dragon Age Prequel

Oct 17, 2009 Articles Recommend|415views

Calling it “a collaboration between EA 2D, BioWare, and some of the hottest indie talent from the flash developer community,” BioWare has announced the browser-based Dragon Age: Journeys, which will serve as a prequel to the upcoming Dragon Age: Origins.

EA 2D’s Ethan Levy unveiled the game in a post on Wednesday; he did not give any date of release, even ballpark. Levy did they’ve been working for nearly a year on a “three chapter, single player, tactical rpg delivered in Flash.

“Right now we’re hard at work finishing the first chapter, Dragon Age Journeys: The Deep Roads. The game will introduce you to the dwarven city of Orzammar and the Deep Roads surrounding it where the dwarves face a persistent threat from the darkspawn hordes,” Levy writes.

I know I’ve given Dragon Age a hard time, all in fun (at least I hope it’s been seen as such. And hey, I’ve preordered it.) Seriously, Dragon Age: Journeys is not just a great way to extend a game’s reach; it’s encouraging news to gamers to see work by serious developers, backed by big names, on deeper and longer-lasting browser games.

Dragon Age: Journeys

Tags: Dragon Age

HolyBeast ONLINE Having 2 Exciting Events and Additional Items

Oct 16, 2009 Articles Recommend|466views

Los Angeles – October 16th, 2009 – CyberStep Communications Inc. is pleased to announce the beginning of 2 events this week; Stamp Rally Campaign and Halloween Screen Shot Contest and an item update which should make Halloween season more memorable for all players.

1. Stamp Rally Campaign

In Stamp Rally Campaign, Players will have a chance to get decent items according to how many days they have signed in to the game during this campaign period. Below will be some of the items players will have the chance to earn from this campaign according to the signed-in days.

17 Days - P Intensive Spirit Powder
A strange and rare medicinal pellet. Raises EXP gained by 1.5 for a period of 4 hours.

19 Days - P Oblivion Dust
Allows user to forget skills they have acquired (although skills learned with Secret Scrolls can not be forgotten). Fully restores SP as well.

21 Days - P Moonlight Chest (3 Days)
Raises EXP gained by 1.5, drop rate by 1.5, and reduces the death penalty when a character dies by 4%, putting it at 6%. Revives a character at 60% HP. Also increases STA, STR, INT, AGI, SPI and TGH by 10. The effects last for 72 hours.

There are more prizes set for each number of days players have signed in. Management team wishes players to try signing in everyday and aim the best prize.

2. Halloween Screenshot Contest

Players will be asked to take pictures with “Halloween” season expressed by using Halloween goods, costumes, monsters, and other materials that can be found in Beastia. After taking the best shot and posting them to the special topic in social networking site for HolyBeast, players might get the beloved “Golden Clover” which adds 100% to the success rate of an enhancement.
This event will be held from October 15th 2009 through November 5th 2009. Players should not miss this chance to get the wonderful prize, just by having fun with your friends in Halloween mood.

3. Item Addition

Also in Item Mall, 3rd Halloween Special Item will be added. Pumpkin Orb +3 will be fascinating item which will give players a chance to earn a flight tool named “Ripe Pumpkin Head +3” or “Unripe Pumpkin Head +3” without any failure.

This item will multiplies movement speed by 2.6 and be usable only by Adult beasts. Attacks, magic and stores can not be used while flying and reduces Durability by 1 every time it is used. Though durability can be restored with “Flight Jewel Repair Solution”.

This will be a limited-offer from October 15th to November 5th.

Management Team will hope all players would not miss this chance to get Flight Tool by 100% ratio, and have fun tricking around on this interesting Flight Tool.

Additionally added to the Item Mall would be “More fun and gorgeous Costumes”.
To make trick-or-treating much more fun inside the game, GM’s costume will be specially be released for a discount, and also Captain Costumes, Cute Punk-Rock Costumes, Samurai Costumes and other costumes will be added in stores.

HolyBeast Management Team would hope players to enjoy their shopping this month, enjoying this peculiar season decorating their selves in special costumes that has been released.

Other information for HolyBeast can also be found at: http://hb.getamped.com/home

Tags: HolyBeast ONLINE