OMG n° 1

ja n ua ry 1 0 | W e b z i n e I s su e 1

o n l i n e M a s s i v e g ame s

special preview

World of Warcraft:

Cataclysm

Many Men Role Playing Girl Interviews: The Secret World – chatting with F u n c o m P r o d u c e r D i r e c t o r R a g n a r Tø r n q u i s t

Star Trek Online

– Craig Zinkievich, game producer tells us about the mixing aspects to create a brilliant game.

game Reviews: > > > > >

Age Conan Aion Empire Craft Hello Kitty Junk Battles

The origins of Sandbox

December 09 | Webzine Issue 1

Editorial: Our 1St Edition Wellcome Letter Many Men Role Playing Girl The Origins Of Sandbox

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Preview: World of Warcraft INTERVIEWs:

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The secret world

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Star Trek Online

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Online Massive Games (OMG) Published by Matchball Tennis (Pty) LTD

EDITOR & DIRECTOR Federico Coppini federico.coppini@matchballtennis.com

15 28 reviews: Empire Craft Hello Kitty AION junk battles Age conan

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COLLABORATORS Simone Robutti “Chobeat” Luca Braj “Venom” Alessio Zappalorti “Grig” BUSINESS DETAILS MatchballTennis (Pty) Ltd 85 Jonkershoek Road Stellenbosch, South Africa info@matchballtennis.com

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ADVERTISING advertising@matchballtennis.com MARKETING & PR Federico Coppini federico.coppini@matchballtennis.com DESIGN & LAYOUT Vispoep INTERNET www.gamesworldsa.com

our 1st edition This is our first encounter with OMG – Online Massi/v/e Games. This is a new kind of experience for both our team (born on a normal website dedicated to Mmorpgs), and for you as well, I hope, because this is the first WebZine fully focused on massive videogaming.

Why did we choose a WebZine? The first real reason is because there are already too many MMORPG and Browser Games websites out there, but also because, as we realized in the making of our first issue, with this format it will be much more simple to highlight the valuable contents, such as indepth reviews or exclusive interviews, which in other websites would normally tend to end up in the dark after a short time.

However, we won’t just make a difference with the form, but we will do so above all with the quality of the contents. Being able to focus our attention on a few assignments, we will aim to make them the non plus ultra, still trying to be clear to newcomers, but also achieving works that are full of opinions and significant ideas, as required by the users that have hung out in this sector for a long time.

Above all, ideas are the added value that we want to bring to the magazine: don’t be shocked if, while reading a review you will find a rating that is definitely far from the common opinion. We evaluate games for what they are, without distortions, without being influenced by hype and above all from the publisher’s money. We appreciate innovation, gameplay deepness, the originality both in the form and in the contents for games that are orientated towards a mature videogaming user base, and we appreciate the intuitiveness, immediacy of the fun factor and variety for kid or casual-oriented games.

If a game is linear, repetitive, dull, obvious, old, just don’t let us see it or we won’t have mercy on it. Hundreds of instances, dozens of classes, last gen graphics, these are all useless things if the game comes down to being only grind and farm. The Mmorpg market is in a crisis period, because of a twisted mechanism that pushes developers to create always more dull, repetitive,

obvious games. A part of the user base plays them anyway, believing that they are quality products, varied products, often perfect products, ignoring the real capability of Mmorpgs and Browser games. The trend is slowly changing, but we, in our own small way, want to accelerate the changes, also because we are fed up with giving low ratings.

Let me present myself and my team, since this magazine gives me the chance to do it.

My name is Simone Robutti, Editor in Chief of OMG and of Gamesource.it, an Italian website of which I control the Mmorpg and Browser Games section. Together with Luca Braj, Alessandro Zappalorti and Niccolo’ Bondi we took upon ourselves the responsibility and the honor to create this magazine of which we have great expectations. Our team will definitely grow during the release of the issues, involving new journalists both foreign and Italian.

In every issue you will find a mini-file card for each one of our staff members, and possibly the presentation of our new ones. As I said, ideas are fundamental when discussing videogaming, a concept that for many of you is not obvious. Therefore, if ideas are important, whoever thinks about them or writes them is also important. This is why we will try to keep our team the smallest and most compact possible, to give our readers the chance to know the various editors well.

So, let’s briefly introduce our members.

Luca “Venom” Braj is our specialist in Theme Park Mmorpgs and strategic or sport Browser Games. Since his strong point is that of great altruism, he’s the one that is regularly in charge of reviewing the less promising Mmorpgs or the more obvious Browser games.

So, if you always see low ratings in his reviews don’t think he’s a bad guy, it’s not his fault.

Alessio “Grig” Zappalorti is our Hardcore Specialist. He plays everything, even though he prefers sandbox Mmorpgs.

Nevertheless, he plays hard with whatever game he plays, like only real men can do. Forged by years of Ultima Online, he lives for pking, pvp and Drama-Bombs on forums.

Niccolo’ Bondi is our Free To Play Specialist.

He play most Coags and Grind-Based Mmorpgs, working hard due to the long times they require to be tested deeply.

Simone “Chobeat” Robutti, that’s me, is an ignorant fanatic who spends whole days flaming on forums when he should be writing or playing. Between one flame and another he dedicates himself to F2P Mmorpgs, Browser Games and various hybrid Mmos. Our advice is to have nothing to do with him. Besides reviewing, he also directs and oversees the works for OMG. We hope that you’ll enjoy the magazine.

We heartily invite you to send your ideas, criticisms and comments to the Email you’ll find on our website, or else, go directly to the forums where you can discuss our various articles. And now, let’s roll...

Simone “Chobeat” Robutti, Editor in Chief

wellcome

d here We are gathyeraell your beliefs on to destro ames. We are the New Massive wGe are here to stay.

Wave and

We

are here because the Web is full of people too old to talk about MMOs and we believe that there is need for change, a big change. We believe that MMOs are not just about video games because we feel that whatever they are something more, something more transcendental than just a level playing field with which they were created. There is something beyond the gameplay, as well as the polygons and textures, the levels and classes.

MMOs, especially MMORPGs Browser Games, and some try to play a portion of reality in a manner different from classic videogames. I'm not just talking about livellaggio, take new skills and grind points in PvP. Only by going beyond these things we can understand what it really is a Massive is the power of the Demiurge, the mere fact that you can play in a parallel world full of real people, their thoughts, their emotions, their needs and their ideals. These are the foundations on which rests a Massive game, the gameplay it is only a consequence. And pergiunta continues to evolve, trying to engage people in a better way than before, but people are always the same.

There are online games where they forget the goal and instead pursue dreams of easy money, ignoring the people, . . . offering only levels, arid skills, many monsters and too many areas to be completed to continue. Well it's still just a game and we are here to talk about something very different.

Of course, we will talk about everything that people look like a massive online game: from the casual sports coags the sandbox level hardcore MMORPG from Korean Mmorpg theme park based on the PvP grind in MMORPGs and most Western theme park based on the questgrind and PvE, the strategic management of addictive BG Mmorts to complex, from the extreme repetitiveness of the RPG via the browser immersive worlds BG. But we will not talk to muvee, we are not nerd enough.

MMORPGs in particular have deserved, in our opinion, a very special way of synthesizing these thoughts, these features are things that simply can not be described in a review. Would take too long to explain every feeling, every situation, every interaction had. For this we have designed a voting system to explain it to you, our readers, what is the value of a MMORPG being a MMORPG is not a traditional video game.

Technical Rating: This reassume all that is related to the implementation of the game: graphics, sound, stability and interface. This includes the support, cross-media content, events in-game or IRL events.

Findings of Lore: This opinion is related to the quality of the story (if there was one) and the background. Prize for originality, consistency and homogeneity with the game.

Findings on Growth: This opinion refers to both the quality of growth of the character that the depth of detail for its customization. For what concerns the first point, we reward quality livellaggio, the variety of ways that you can choose to do so and punish the grind, the farm and all that is repetitive, unless there are games specifically for lovers the grind. For the second point, we estimate the number of classes, races, skills, equipment, or anything that you can use to customize your character and the level of overall balance.

Findings on Interaction: This is what I mentioned earlier. Summarizes all interactions, gaming experiences, thoughts caused in the reviewer, but also the degree of freedom, the complexity and variety of tools the game provides to interact with other players. This includes PvP, trading, systems of guilds, and social and political aspects.

Findings of the World: In the end, this is the opinion that we use for the coherence of the world within the game, how it embeds itself in the background and logic that govern the context in which the game is set. If players still have the feeling that there is something odd every time I turn the corner, the vote will therefore be less.

Obviously there will be an overall evaluation, but do not see it as a yardstick for how the game is good, but because they really deserve to be played. You can play more games for consoles at the same time but you can not do the same for a MMORPG. Therefore if you purchased a bad game you could just stop playing As soon becomes tedious, but you could not do the same for a MMORPG, as it would mean to lose weeks or even months. A MMORPG should last for a long period of time, perhaps even years, so you should try to decide what you would spend well in your time. Our judgments are trying to suggest the order in which you should try the various games that reviews to find just what is right for you.

EDITORIAL

Many Men Role Playing Girl Author: Simone “Chobeat” Robutti

L

et’s now talk about Mmorpg cross-dressing, a really common practice since the beginning of massive videogaming. This phenomenon has developed in a pretty simple way, but the reasons behind it could be many and complex. It’s a matter of fact that lots of men, for one reason or another, can decide to create a female character, even sometimes acting and pretending to be girl in real life. Now let’s see some of the typical stereotypes of this phenomenon.

The “Frustrated Lamer” The unstoppable annoying activity of Lamers has been strengthened by this subtle weapon since ages ago, and it’s something that could easily trick the less experienced users. It may have occurred to you as well (especially playing a game that is crowded with many young users), to be contacted by fake girls that want to play with you, or maybe even give you their number. Even though it’s simple to spot these guys because they are dressed up in the most vulgar way, their most typical approach is via whisper/pm: “Hi, who are u? My name is Samantah, do u wanna xp with me? I feel very hot right now, I even have the cam, do u wanna add me on msn?” I want to believe that anyone with the base IQ to start a computer can avoid this kind of approach. Remember: “There are no Women on the internet” (Cit.)

The “Nice Ass” This is usually a pretty frustrated kind of guy, who chooses to play a female character only for aesthetic purposes.

Many times I heard people saying: “Since I have to play these many ours with my character, she should have at least a fine buttocks”. It’s a pretty frequent remark, especially between the most casual and less experienced players. The natural tendency is that to find this choice kind of frivolous, even though it is sometimes due to a real sexual frustration or maybe repressed desires at the unconscious level.

The “Lazy-bum frustrated Lamer” This is the Next level of the Lamer, he uses the same strategies used by his kind to gain in-game advantages. He often uses the gallantry of other male players (maybe we must say arousal) to his benefit managing to obtain presents, power leveling and other various favors. This kind is definitely more subtle because they act in a very believable way, in fact, they never rush the time and often succeed in tricking even the most veteran players. Once, a long time ago, I also helped a girl in a game by giving her a lot of stuff. The only thing was that her real name was John…

The “Role player” This sinister, rather rare figure, usually creates female characters to increase the difficulty of role playing to consequently improve his interpretative ability. To investigate the reasons why such people exist would mean to dig into the deepest roots of professional nerding, a world which sincerely speaking is not my field of expertise. Usually, when they are questioned regarding this, they state that they are men in real life. But remember to specify that you are in “RPG mode OFF” ore they will never understand what you mean by “real”.

The “Tomboy” As a consequence of what I just said, the inverse phenomenon could also take place, but this time with girls pretending to be boys. They do such a thing because they aim to elude the boys with the impersonation of male characters, with the goal being that of evading the sentence “You’re not a real woman I know it!, you’re only a fake/troll/lamer”. In this way they can finally play relaxed without discrimination. This phenomenon is particularly common in more competitive, less frequented by girls kind of games: on Dofus or Hello Kitty Online they will hardly ever have to resort to such means.

One final consideration: Men pretend to be women, women pretend to be men, kids are ill-mannered and parents don’t control them enough, you can’t figure out anymore who’s who and ambiguity reigns sovereign.

And just think, some people still say that virtual worlds don’t have anything to do with reality…

EDITORIAL

Sandbox

Sandbox, a word that we hear often nowadays, but of which many ingore its true significance and origins. Therefore, let’s try to clear things up and define more precisely what a sandbox is in the videogaming scene and particularly in Mmorpgs.

by Chobeat

The Origins This word was originally used to refer to the classic fenced-in area filled with sand where kids play with their mud pies and buckets.

Initially, in the computer field, a test enviroment was defined as a sandbox, where it could be possible to rapidly experiment all the different characteristics for an application, without having to pass through all of the interfaces and limitations imposed on the final users.

This working method existed also in the development of videogames, with free test environments in which the tester could imaginatively experiment and try different interactions of the character with the things that surround it, so as to check for possible problems. It was decided to include these special areas in the final game, just as it worked for map editors. The objective was to add some more longevity to the game and to give the player the opportunity to experiment things that otherwise would have been complicated to try out in a normal game session. The possible examples are many but let’s remember the sandbox level of Black and White, the Training sessions of many beat ‘em up games, or even special circuits for racing games, snowboard games, skate games etc., etc.

The last step was to start developing games with an open startup, free from plots and constrictions, already existent in the past, but that is now becoming little by little even more aware and predominant. A sandbox game is one that doesn’t just give you only the opportunity to choose from one or two choices like normal games do, instead, it gives you the freedom to create them from scratch. This is how, with time, all of the games of this kind started to be identified with the name “sandbox games” and to develop new ones with this mentality clear in mind. We must say though that they almost always resulted to be titles for connoisseurs, with the exception of rare cases such as the recently released Little Big Planet or Scribblenauts.

Sandbox in Mmorpg games In Mmorpg games, the sandbox concept is undoubtedly more complex, but at least its boundaries and features can be well defined, therefore it appears to be quite a vast subject. So, let’s try to underline the most important points and to give you a clear idea of what we are talking about.

First of all we must say that for many people, including myself, the idea of Mmorpg is related to the idea of sandbox. This genre is in fact made of pure interaction, and Mmorpgs should be created this way. Unfortunately, that’s not the way it is. To try to understand this name assignment conflict we must go back to the beginning of online rpg history and try to learn why these two different types of products were called like this.

Without going too much into details, so as not to re-awaken nostalgic feelings in the more elderly ones among you, we can say that between 1996 and 2000 a circumstance began to arise in which two types of games very different from each other claimed the title of Mmorpg, even if they really didn’t have almost anything in common. Presently, these two “branches” are called Sandbox Mmorpg and Theme Park Mmorpg and even if in reality their structural differences are many, in theory their distinction is traceable to one point only: the Sandbox ones aim at giving the players the right tools to interact with each other and with the world that surrounds them, while the Theme Park ones, as suggested by their name, want the game to lead the player carefully from start to finish, thus letting him see everything that the developers prepared for him along the way.

Sandbox characteristics Just in theory, the supreme idea of sandbox in a Mmorpg would be the one of MuVe, such as Second Life, There, Whirled or Metaplace, where everyone can simply do everything and the only restriction is one’s intellectual capability and knowledge. But it’s a shame that the many typical aspects of an online role playing game would be missing this way, especially those that are able to give us an immersive and coherent gaming experience.

In reality though, the few brave developers that choose the sandbox path have conceived many schemes to hit their objective of giving the players a complete interaction in a continuously better way, filled with a good dose of healthy amusement. Let’s take a look at which are the minimal requirements that define a sandbox type of Mmorpg.

Interaction freedom: There’s no freedom of action, if we can’t do what we want. To slay, rob, stun, kiss, take in your arms or crush other players is a fundamental thing to give life to the interactive chain reactions that render this Mmorpg genre so loved by players.

Territory control: it can be put into practice in many ways, more or less controlled by the game enviroment. It also concerns sieges, management mechanics and construction, bonuses and social structures.

The crafting: it’s important to create your own items, but to customize them is even more important. The climax of this can be reached in those games in which you can customize items that also change in their appearance, by choosing the right materials to make them and having the need to experiment in order to discover new combinations.

Personal belongings or Housing: The possibility to occupy a part of the game’s territory with something that is ours is priceless, it may be a house, a plantation, a shop or even a skyscraper, it doesn’t matter, the most important thing is to leave your mark.

Free builds/skill based builds: The chance to customize our character in every way is vital to be effective and to differentiate each other. The structure based on classes usually is not suited to belong in this category, unless you have a really vast choice to select from, that will make you forget about the structural limitations.

The sandbox today Although before 2004-2005 the games in production seemed balanced between Sandbox and Theme Park, with the release of WoW the efforts of the developers started pointing in a completely different direction, and games that could have given hope in this kind of way, have been greatly modified for commercial.

Today, whoever wants to play a Sandbox title, what should he choose? Apart from an essential: “Wait”, our best advice is: Ultima Online, evergreen for this category, Eve Online, unique in its own way, Shadowbane, as soon as the legal emulator goes live, or Saga of Ryzom if you have already tried out the former ones. For those who want a game that is not actually a sandbox one, but still has got lots of interaction and freedom: Atlantica Online, Goonzu/Luminary or Mabinogi, Haven and Hearth if you want something more “indie”.

What about the present and the future?

Actually, the only recent sandbox title is Darkfall: I don’t want to waste time explaining why you shouldn’t play it, I think it’s obvious. You should wait for Love, from Eskil Steenberg, a really cool game actually under Alpha Testing. You can wait also for Mortal Online, Earthrise or Black Prophecy: these games are surely promising but they are still far from the release date.

Preview: World of Warcraft Name

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

Developer

Blizzard

Release date

Q2/Q3/2010

by Niccolo’ Bondi

As accurate as a Swiss watch, the next expansion of World of Warcraft, called Cataclysm, was presented at Blizzcon 2009 (the annual event made in Blizzard that is used by this Californian company to promote their products). Let’s find out the interesting new changes that this expansion will bring.

It’s just the same old story…

Stay in the same continent, and the same areas so there are no unpleasant surprises.

Yeah this is because, in contrast with its other expansions (The Burning Crusade for the Outlands and Wrath of the Lich King for Northrend), Cataclysm won’t add any extra continent to those that already exist, but there will simply be a complete re-visitation of Azeroth which will be totally transformed by this imminent cataclysm.

The plot is simple: Deathwing, real name Neltharion, has woken up more irate than ever after that he was harbouring his hate and anger towards the world for thousands of years, and his power mixed with all the rage has a negative repercussion on the poor inhabitants of Kalimdor and those of the Eastern Kingdom as well, who can only watch powerlessly as their homeland is being overturned by the fury of the elements of nature.

In this way, Kalimdor will be soon split in two and our loved Barrens will be disarrayed, destroyed with cracks in the ground and lava everywhere, Ashenvale will undergo deforestation by the forces of the horde, Ogrimmar will be destroyed, Darkshore will be ruined and semi-submerged by the wrath of the sea, Stonetalon will be invaded by volcanoes and rivers of magma, and all this will affect every area of the two continents, with the consequence that they will be totally remade from scratch.

With regards to this, all the quests will be now reworked and some of the areas that were inaccessible before because of the high level request will now be decreased (for example Azshara will be 10-20), and this because the old continent will not fully utilize the phase system that has been introduced with “Lich King”, in fact it will be deeply changed, so all the new players that will start in the post-Cataclysm era will never be able to see what the continents looked like in the first place and will live their adventure directly in these newly revised continents (even though it’s not

totally clear yet if they will change for everyone or if it will be enough to stay with Vanilla installed on our pc to enjoy the “old” areas). In this apocalyptic scenario though, the horde and the alliance will have the opportunity to trust in new allies.

Wolf is money, my friend This cataclysm created by Deathwing will not affect only the two continents that we know well, but lots of little islands scattered in the Great Ocean as well, which consequently to the earthquakes and volcanic eruptions forced their Goblin inhabitants to flee and try to find shelter beyond the sea to evade certain death.

Unfortunately for them though, their trip

will not be that easy: the Goblins will find themselves in some unknown islands after a shipwreck, these islands being controlled by humans who aren’t very friendly with castaways, with the consequence that the humans will mass murder them. The only thing that will save them from an announced annihilation will be the The Horde, that in this way, will bring a new precious ally for the struggle against the Alliance and against the evils of the world: more precisely Goblins.

In the meanwhile in the Eastern Kingdoms, in the human nation of Gilneas, the Forsaken have announced an attack on Graymane Wall, the portal that has maintained peace for centuries within

the human territories. And if the invasion of zombies wasn’t enough, the poor inhabitants of Gilneas are also struggling against their personal problems. In fact, when the full moon rises, they have an awful habit of transforming themselves into blood thirsty werewolves. The night Elves though will try to help them, succeding in bringing the bestial Worgen to the side of the alliance. The addition of these two new races will not only bring aesthetic changes, but will also force the programmers to create new starting areas, this is why Gilneas and the Lost Isles are born, which will be part of the new 7 areas of the game, including Mount Hijal, Uldum, Isle of Kezan, The Sunken City of Vashj’ir and the Twilight Highlands.

Level Cap, PvE and other changes One other substantial change is the increase of the level cap, not consisting anymore only in the increase of 10 points as it already happened, but instead in half the points, now bringing the level cap to 85. From the PvE aspect of the game we can say that there will not be substantial changes as seen since now, but maybe just because great news is not yet confirmed: one thing that is sure is that there will be the usual presence of raids connected to the lore of the game, an almost certain presence of Azshara the Elf queen in the period of time regarding the explosion of Kalimdor and the consequent creation of the Maelstrom, the great return of Ragnaros (this time around he will not be at Molten Core, but instead in a new instance that takes place in the elemental plane of fire), Uldum, the heroic versions

of Shadowfang Keep and Deadmines.

Deathwing will also appear without a doubt, as it is his fault if all this uproar happened and he will pay for it somehow.

Another interesting change regarding the progression of our characters is the Path of the Titans, even though it’s not yet clear on how it works: it should be a sort of progression of the char connected to his in-game success, with a sort of subordinate talent tree, but at the time being it’s something that is not very clear on how it should really work. The Battleground Rated will finally be implemented thanks to the many fan requests, levels and achievements for the guild, flying mounts in Azeroth and also a new secondary profession: Archeology. All in all there are many new aspects of the game, the new ideas seem nice, we will just have to wait to see if Blizzard will maintain or not a high standard for all of its products.

review: empire craft genre

fantasy

Developer

Oak Pacific Interactive

official site

http://www.hithere.com/

by Simone “Chobeat” Robutti

The Chinese market of browser games is something that is disproportionate and incomprehensible for us Western observers. A boundless mass of players in which dozens of developers and publishers operate. It is, however, a closed market and the browser games that come to us from China are very few.

One of these is Empire Craft, a game of unparalleled quality and proportions, if compared with its Western competitors.

Empire Craft (EC hereafter) combines the mechanics of classic strategicmanagement games to the most typical characteristics of role playing games (though, still keeping their main flaws). The blending is undoubtedly successful and the characteristics of the two genres are mixed together in a homogenous and almost natural way.

Walclaft thlee The setting, the heroes, the races, the units and the story of the in-game world will remind us a little too much about the asset of Warcraft 3, in defiance of any law on copyright and intellectual properties.

Even its advertisements, found on many sites, don’t even vaguely try to hide the references to Blizzard’s game, which is still very famous, particularly in the Orient. For this reason, this title seems to start off on the wrong foot and seems to need devious ploys to attract users to the game. It would appear therefore natural to approach this title with serious doubts and little hope, surprisingly, just to find out that this game really is not the usual low budget crap designed to emulate the success of its predecessors, but that it’s a true gigantic work if compared to games of this genre.

To embroider on a cotton cloth Undoubtedly, Empire Craft has got one merit: to raise the gameplay of strategicmanagement games to a level where they have never arrived before, not even with its best representatives such as: FreeSky, Lords of Evil, nor The Pentacore. So, starting off from a substrate of components that are already well known to the average player, it manages to introduce new elements to enrich its gameplay and it does so in order to introduce quality and not simply by watering down the contents just to stretch out the game.

We will, therefore, have our classic city with our classic buildings to construct by following the classic Build Tree and we will

be able to recruit the usual troops. So far nothing new. Let’s start off right from the troops to speak of the many innovations introduced by Empire Craft. The units will be many and varied for each race, which will have lots of marked differences. The races will be: Humans, Dwarves and Orcs, each one having its unique units that will not be simple conversions of the ones from the other races, but totally exclusive and balanced. The units will be divided into: Infantry, Cavalry, and siege machines.

Every unit will have its own personal characteristics and stats, bonus and malus against other types of units and often special effects in very specific contexts.

It will be possible to send the units to battle only under the supervision of a Hero, a true fighter general under your control.

You will be able to have many heroes, and, consequently, many fleets, but these will still be in a limited number for each hero, thus placing a cap limit of total units you can have. This limit is very important for the gameplay, because it eliminates many

drawbacks that are very well known to all players of this genre. Both the heroes and individual units will have levels. If these unit levels will be decided at the moment of the creation of the troops (by increasing their cost, but also their quality), our hero will then progress over time, leveling up through battles, raids, quests and more.

Moreover, the hero could be equipped with items that will give him bonuses in battles, or even in duels and arenas. The item pieces will really be numerous, also, as will be numerous the potions and other items, which we will be able to obtain and entrust to our Hero.

The Heroes System is very well studied and varied: this is undoubtedly the foundation stone on which the quality of EC stands.

Each hero will have to be recruited in a Tavern that is to be built in a city, will have an engagement cost and abilities of his own. In the tavern there could happen to be many types of heroes and a list of new ones will be updated every day. To randomly choose one of them will hardly

ever be a good choice, while knowing how to wait will have its benefits. Every hero will also have a “class”, as in any well respected Rpg. The classes will correspond to the various racial ones and our Hero will then take on the characteristics of that class in an amplified way. Therefore, a Human Squire Hero will have much defense, as it happens for the ordinary Human Squires which you can recruit in your buildings.

Ten wolfskins We’re closing the Empire Craft news review by talking about the Quest System and the Event System. There will be a myriad of quests that you will able to face with all your troops, only with your hero, by building in your capital or with your entire Union. You will start off with a long series of tutorial quests that will show you basic functions of the game and of the item shop. Then, you will have the possibility to choose which quest to complete first, and in which field to devote more attention.

The quests will be a great diversion from the repetitiveness of the game, because they will give you several ways of earning, in addition to the classic Accumulate-BuildPillage kind of thing that most of these games fall into after a while.

Outside the city Another definitely polished aspect of Empire Craft is the in-game world map.

Obviously, it will be visual, and with many interesting things spread out here and there. First of all, we have cities of races controlled by the computer. This will be a good way to practice your hero and test the power of your troops. The further from your city, the more they will oppose resistance, but at the same time, if we win against NPC troops they will grant us higher earnings. This way, you will find many rare rewards and sometimes even equipment.

You will also find the Wild Mines, that is, resources scattered on the in-game map that could be occupied and defended militarily. Once they are under your control, you will obtain a large amount of resources and could spend your wealth to strengthen them, but beware: if you’ll lose control of the mine, your upgrades will then be under your opponent’s control. However, you could control a limited number of Wild Mines, although it will be difficult to succeed in controlling many of them at the same time, since they are highly desired by every player. There will be no limit level, nor protection to prevent the most powerful players to do what they want with these mines.

Obviously, you will also find other players on the world map. The map will always be densely populated, in any area you will begin to play, and it won’t be difficult to find someone that will beat the heck out of you. Besides the Wild Mines, it will be possible to attack and occupy other player’s cities. By pillaging them you will get bonus resources, while trying to occupy them you will be able to gain control of them, but only in the case that it isn’t a player’s capital city. Of course, this will require several attacks and to occupy an enemy’s city will always be a long and hard job.

You could also make deals with other players and form in-game alliances called Unions. Through the Unions you could coordinate yourself with other players, unlock additional quests or strengthen the Union itself, that may, in turn, occupy the crystal producing Wild Mines. These mines are essential for some technology and other activities, and without the Union you could not get them in any other way.

Also, by strengthening your Union you will strengthen the Union Shop as well, a store where you could buy equipment according to the help that you gave to the alliance.

This store will always have new things to sell, little by little, as you upgrade the Union.

Then, there will also be many events of various types that will mark the passing of the week and of the day. Some special quests, events, bonuses or complementary activities will be available in some particular days or times; they range from a simple wheel of fortune to very difficult quests for your hero to overcome.

In conclusion, we have no problems in saying that Empire Craft is one of the best titles in its genre, if not the best. It fails to totally eliminate problems such as repetitiveness and the need to constantly stay in front of your pc to reach higher levels, but it focuses greatly on the enhancement of other features. This is a game we would never have bet on, but that has proved to be a real pearl. It’s worth trying.

Final Rating

8.1

Pros: 1. Introduces many new things 2. Less repetitive than its competitors 3. Excellent strategic and management elements Cons: 1. Most of the features seem to have already been seen 2. Copies Warcraft 3 a little too much

review: hello kitty

Free to play

genre

fantasy

Developer

Typhoon Games

official site

EU: www.hellokittyonline.eu USA: http://hko.aeriagames.com/

by Simone “Chobeat” Robutti more detail.

Upon entering, we will be catapulted to the Sanrio Harbor, an area that is almost like a tutorial, where we can put to good use the basics that will be taught to us.

Since HKO is a game that aims at a totally inexperienced and often very young user base, its tutorials will often result to be too many and sometimes also redundant. A series of flash animations will be present on the website and in the game patcher, which will allow us to practice the mechanics of the game while we wait for the download to be finished. By giving us detailed explanations, we will have the chance to practice them, since these flash animations will reconstruct the game client. So, if your 8 year old daughter want to try out the game, be sure that she will encounter no difficulties at all.

O

ften, when reviewing a Mmorpg you can hear talk about WoWKiller, about who will snatch the throne of WoW and other similar nonsense, since 99% of the times they are erroneous statements and 100% of the times they are stated inappropriately.

For once though, it is my turn to say it, since the title I am going to talk about has the potential to become one of the most played Mmorpgs in the world, thanks to an immensely more relevant brand, if compared to the obvious Warcraft. Most of all, it has a gameplay which is very different from other Kawaii games (where “Kawaii” is an extremely technical terminology used to refer to those games that drastically increase the level of glucose in your blood stream).

Ultima Kitty Online Basically, HKO is a 2D sandbox Mmorpg with strong casual and social components.

The growth is skill-oriented, that is, because both levels and skills (crafting and harvesting) are present, and will grow together. Let me explain better: your level could increase by killing normal monsters such as it happens in all other Mmorpg games, for example, by

chopping down a tree or by crafting you will obtain experience both for the ability you used and also to level up the overall level. At the moment the skills are 8: Mining, Woodcutting, Gathering, Planting, Cooking, Carpentry, Tailoring and Forging.

Obviously, every one of these is quite selfexplanatory; but we’ll discuss them later in

Regarding the extreme simplicity of the game (which doesn’t mean lack of depth), there will be a series of gimmicks that will create a totally casual-friendly gaming experience suited for the youngest players, since the world of Hello Kitty is not suited for bloody massacres or any kind of ugly stuff. For example, we will never be able to kill a monster, but only to temporarily stun him in order to obtain items; also, by dying we will be given no penalties, except for being sent back to the closest city available, not forgetting, of course, that the Player Versus Player is not present and probably will never be, thus reducing

often require the collaboration of more than one player to complete it within an acceptable amount of time.

There will be a fairly simplified guild system that will allow us to keep in touch with our buddies and to organize ourselves in order to cooperate better. A shared farm will be present and in the future there will be guild quests as well, but they’re not available at the moment.

Let’s end by dedicating some words to the combat, which even if it’s a marginal aspect of the game, will still occupy a good part of the gaming sessions. You will not be able to kill monsters, but only to stun them temporarily, as expected from a game of this type, and the same thing will apply to you if you’ll be defeated, since you will be sent back to the nearest city without losses of any kind. You will not fight with violent weapons such as swords or spears, but with more kawaii ones, such as umbrellas, magic wands and lollipops. Instead of armors we could use definitely outlandish clothes and various kinds of accessories. the interaction among players to pure cooperation.

is present in the crafting of other games, or at least not in the beginning.

What makes HKO really special is, in fact, the series of complementary activities designed to adapt to the typical Hello Kitty fan, rather than its mild and quite marginal combat system. It will indeed be possible to manage you own field by cultivating it, besides the already mentioned collecting and crafting activities. We will be able to build our home, decorate it and personalize it. We can also play some minigames with a group of other people to fill up the downtime, as well as a dedicated lobby and a room system.

Let’s talk about farming now: when we enter our farm we will be able to dedicate ourselves to cultivating a large quantity of plants and trees with a very simple sowing system, waiting period and harvesting. In some ways it could remind us of the system used in Harvest Moon, but definitely in a faster and more simplified way. This activity, if compared to the other harvesting ones, will result to be definitely more boring and repetitive, as well as with a lack of originality and variety. Luckily though, the materials that these activities will give us as a reward will be less useful if compared, for example, to wood or minerals.

Besides the loveliness, the Sandbox Now, let’s go on by looking more carefully at the individual features that will make up the most part of the gameplay of HKO. So, let’s start by talking about crafting and harvesting, one of the first things we will deal with when we enter the game.

As already mentioned, there will be many abilities related to the production of items, and each one of these will go on independently from the others. However, we will not be able to max all of our skills, since we will have to choose from a primary one and a secondary one for both groups.

Therefore, the selected skills will grow faster and we could reach higher levels and thus, be more effective in harvesting or building. This is a device created to expand social interaction, since the players will be forced to trade with each other in order to obtain the various types of resources. More in general, the growth will not be that fast, but it will not force us to stay too long on the same kind of material or crafting item either. Resources and recipes are, in fact, very numerous and we will not feel the typical repetitiveness that

There will be different types of farms, which will be unlocked as the game goes on. Each one will give us more instanced cultivable space and different options, in addition to the possibility/obligation to build a new home that cannot be transferred from the former land. There is also a guild farm that will work in a similar way to the personal one, but precisely, will be free and belonging to the community.

Planting and Gathering are two distinct skills, so if a player will not be able to plant a certain type of plantation he could still help his guild by gathering fruits, thanks to his Gathering skill.

We have mentioned housing, that is, the possibility to build your own house.

Within the farm space we will have the chance to build our residence by means of a certificate, purchaseable from an NPC or obtainable with a quest, which will allow us to start building. We will need to accumulate a certain quantity of resources to construct the various pieces and this will require a lot of time that will be added to the time needed for the actual construction. The building of a house is neither a fast, nor trivial activity and it will

At the moment the PvE aspect is scant, but there will still be some bosses that are fairly difficult to kill by yourself and thus will require the cooperation of many players.

PvE instances are expected as well, but they lack at the moment also, even if no one misses them.

When fighting the various monsters, it may happen to obtain a card that is associated with that same monster which will permit us to evoke a pet of the same race that will start to follow us around. We will have to take care of him and feed him: we will obtain various bonuses in exchange. Some pets will expand our inventory, some others will boost our stats and other ones will be useful for harvesting activities. At higher levels we could have up to 3 pets at the same time.

It’s a matter of style I wanted to emphasize the gameplay to make you understand that HKO is not just another game with the label of some famous brand stuck on it and without a soul. It’s a game well studied to be perfectly suitable for casuals, kids and most of all for members of the female gender, by bringing a wave of innovation to this genre and proposing a sandbox gameplay, which is quite free if compared to the classic, linear and repetitive theme park. It certainly has huge deficiencies, since it will never attract a veteran of this genre, but if I had to choose a game for my daughter, I would prefer Hello Kitty Online to Free Realms or even to inferior products.

The user, either very young or adult, is encouraged to interact, dialogue and think about how to optimize his activities and improve cooperation. Obviously, this must be seen from the point of view of an inexperienced user, which could have trouble if faced with more complex games.

Therefore, HKO is a great step to introduce

maybe a little too limited at the moment, if we consider the nature and the target of the game.

Technical Rating It looks good, even if many animations are poorly developed. The side features on the game’s site are excellent, for example the game blog and other extras typical of social networks.

Worth mentioning is the constant presence of GMs in game chats.

Lore Rating It’s Hello Kitty, that’s all we can say. All hail the Queen.

Growth Rating It’s a system which is simple and not obvious at the same time, at least in this context. It could surely have been less repetitive, but for this type of game it’s not such a big flaw.

Interaction Rating you girlfriend or daughter to the world of sandbox Mmorpgs.

Apart from this, let’s now talk about what makes HKO the game with the great potential that I mentioned before. If it had been a “Lovely Kittens Online” or a “Cute Little Characters Online” it would probably have fallen into oblivion, but instead, the Hello Kitty brand is something huge, if compared to what has been proposed in Mmorpg games so far. Maybe only The Lord of the Rings could remotely come near to the amount of people that can be motivated by the Hello Kitty brand name.

An immense army of colored kittens, doggies and birdies capable of slaying elves, dwarves, orcs and any other thing that crosses their path.

So, now let’s take a look at how the universe of Hello Kitty was transposed into this videogame. I must say that I’m not a great Hello Kitty fan (even though, for years I carried around a gashapon of Hello Kitty dressed as a piggy hanging from my cell phone)and thus, I’m not really familiar with this world and the characters that give life to it. Anyway, I can understand that the job of transposition has been done in an excellent way, by developing all of its historical characters that will appear as NPCs and the corresponding environments as well.

Looking at it this way, the only race which you can belong to, at least in this first version of the game, will be the human race and of course you will not be able to portray the most famous characters that remain unique. Besides the characters of the series, we will encounter a large amount of more or less peculiar creatures and most importantly original locations, everything in a style that more than once made me exclaim from the heart “Ohhowcute”. According to me, from this point of view, HKO cannot be

criticized, although, the judgment of a HelloKittologist could surely be more analytic than mine.

If in one respect it completely lacks any form of competition, with the exception of mini-games, on the other hand there are forms of cooperation which are simple but immersive and intuitive.

In conclusion

World Rating

Hello Kitty Online is a game that is surely suggested to all the fans of the most famous kitten in the world, but can also be a very useful way to introduce little and big girls to the world of Mmorpgs.

It’s certainly not without flaws, first of all, the repetitiveness that could cause it to be unplayable for us long-time players, but also, for example the lack of particular protections for the younger ones. One aspect is that the lack of these protections will help to avoid many problems, such as some limitations present in games like Free Realms, but on the other hand, a game with this kind of background cannot allow itself to ignore certain types of problems. If you wanted to find young girls on internet, would you choose Age of Conan or Hello Kitty Online? The jokes about this subject are frequent in the forums, but this could be a real problem when the game will grow.

The world completely traces the pace of the world in which the general story is set. The instanced farms and houses are a negative factor, but as for the rest, it’s the world of Hello Kitty, for better or for worse.

To conclude, let’s dedicate some words to the item mall. We could purchase many unique clothes, special pets and other equipment here. You certainly can’t say that it’s balanced though, since the advantages for the paying players are evident, even if this unbalancing will probably leave you indifferent due to the almost total absence of competitive spirit within the game.

Otherwise the title appears to be varied, long-lived and most of all open to wide evolution possibilities, mainly in terms of quantity of items and skills which are

Features:

10

Lore Interaction

7

Growth

7

Tec. Compartment

8

World

7

Pros: 1. It’s Hello Kitty 2. It has a lot to say, for a casual game 3. Striking settings and NPCs Cons: 1. Many repetitive activities 2. The animation of the characters is poorly developed 3. It could sometimes stimulate homicidal instincts in the user System requirements OS Processor RAM DirectX\OpenGL

Windows XP Pentium IV 1.5 Ghz 512 Mb DirectX 8.0

Hard Drive space

2 Gb

Final Rating

7.5

review: AION Developer

NcSoft

official site

http://aiononline.com

Monthly Fee

14.95€/$

pay to play

by Luca “Venom” Braj A company in deep crisis, only one last game to bet on, to have a chance to rise or fall. NCSoft has chosen to put all her hope of twelve years of life in the videogaming industry in the hands of this title, and it’s now clear to everybody that they made the right choice. With its Asian release, Aion has restored the once lost stability of this Korean company and is now available in the West as well, the strong points being its hype and good technical sector. Unfortunately though, not all that glitters is gold. Let’s find out why.

Characters for all tastes The will to impress at first glance seems like one of the key elements on which Aion has based its commercial strategy. One of the most important points regarding this is without a doubt the character’s editor.

It’s a very powerful tool used to model and personalize the appearance of our main character in all the ways we see fit, and this is something very fresh in the Mmorpg industry.

In contrast with what you may think by watching the images, it will be possible to create very strange, funny characters, even super-small in size (with its consequent advantages in PvP). We will be able to play around with body proportions creating really comical creatures, and we will also have the possibility to simulate many aspects typical of the most classic fantasy races, such as dwarves or elves.

In the case in which we have repented about the choices we made when we created our character we could easily rework his physical traits at another time just by talking to an NPC situated in the main city, but only if you have the proper ticket. The physical differences between Elyos and Asmodians aren’t that many: the Asmodians have a bluish and purplish skin coloring, claws on their feet and a strange fuzz on their back, while the Elyos look much more similar to normal human beings.

Once we shaped the physical traits of our hero, we can choose his class, on the basis of which we can define his characteristics in a more specific way. In the beginning the selectable classes will be four and will consist of the usual archetypes: Warrior, Scout, Mage and Priest. This choice will not be able to be changed in the future, unless you don’t want to recreate one from scratch, so try to choose wisely.

Welcome to Atreia Being a “theme park” kind of Mmorpg, there will be a very well defined base storyline besides the background, even though it will not be fundamental to go through it in order to go on with the main game. We will start our adventure by awakening in an unknown grassland, without any memories from our past.

Only by going through the game and completing the main quests we will discover to be a not-so-ordinary person and that we really belong to the Daeva cast of semi-divine creatures, with the ability to fly and do lots of other cool stuff.

We don’t want to spoil too much of the plot by talking excessively about the lore, but it’s good enough to know that the plot will be composed of intervals in which our main character will talk and interact like a true protagonist.

A very noticeable aspect comes from the extra content which forms a frame around the in-game events, in full Ncsoft style.

First of all, the comic book that will be released in the near future, followed by various texts with the intent of creating hype or to deepen some of the storyline events of the world of Aion.

Let’s put on a pair of wings Once we have finished our long tutorial, we must choose a specialization for our class and then obtain the so-desired wings. Every character will then have two sub-classes to choose from, also being able to select from a range of more specific skills and abilities. We will decide our preferences by picking: Gladiator (DPS) and Templar (Tank) for the warrior class, Assassin (the usual invisible harassing pest) and Ranger (Bow) for the scout class, Sorcerer (the most classic mage) and Spirit Master (Summoner) for the Mage class, Cleric (Healer) and Enchanter(healer & buffer)for the Priest class.

One thing we should say about the characters of Aion, besides the physical looks, is that they turn out to be rather repetitive. In fact, we will not have the opportunity to directly differentiate our stats or modify our talents, but we will still be able to improve our equipment by the usage of Manastones and also our abilities via the Stigma System, which we will discuss later. The personalization of the build system is kind of limited, as for now, and it doesn’t excel for its originality.

As I said before, it will be possible to boost our weapons and armors with the use of Manastones and Enchantment Stones: the first ones are items that can be dropped by the enemies we kill and can be set into the right slots of our main equipment.

In the case that we would like to replace

them with better ones, we will simply have to go to the Manastone remover. The Enchantments Stones instead, will have to be removed with Extraction Tools from our old equipment, just to be used later to strengthen the new ones. Both of them will be used to boost various aspects of our equipment or more directly to boost our stats such as HP, MP, Dodge Rate etc..

Now let’s talk about one of the most waited for elements of Aion, I’m talking about the ability to fly, it’s one skill that could be used freely only in certain areas and in PvP or also to glide softly in any PvE area of the world. By playing around a little bit with our keyboard and dropping down from the right spots, we will be able to increase the duration of our glide and consequently speeding up our moves. Still, we must not forget that our flight time is limited: we could then find ourselves falling all of a sudden and maybe dying from the fall. So, except for the gliding mechanics, the flight

system will remind many of you of the one used in Perfect World, a famous Chinese game that Aion probably used as a startoff, and not only for this element.

Paradoxically, in the world of Aion we will not be able to swim; we will sink quickly in the deepest of lakes and will start losing life, even if the majority of the depths of the bodies of water won’t even come up to their knees. The lack of this ability is probably due to the fact that the water is definitely a scarce element in this game, indeed something normal in the NCSoft tradition. This has already been seen in Lineage as well which didn’t give this opportunity when it first came out either.

Quests The leveling aspect in Aion is based on the continuous interchanging of quests and grinding to level up. Actually, quests should be enough to level up in the majority of cases, but to find them or finish them alone will not always be a simple task. In addition, sometimes it may happen that quests will finish and you will be forced to look for spots where you can mob grind in peace.

We will happen to have many tasks: some of them will be simple, such as talking to an NPC, delivering an item, defeating a certain number of enemies or maybe confronting a boss, others instead will be more complex, such as infiltrating in aggressive mob outposts, activating devices, stealing items or talking to an NPC that pops up all of a sudden. This last type of quest has often resulted to be rather annoying: in fact the NPC or the item dropped from the mob is only one and for this reason it’s almost impossible to avoid player camping, so whoever doesn’t click fast enough will have to wait quite a long time before the process could be repeated. This flaw is surely not that relevant, but we must say that it could render the playing experience quite frustrating. The only thing we can do now is to hope in a future patch release that would improve the management of this kind of quests.

Plus, the quests will not always be so obvious. In fact, we’ll have to read them carefully and click on the key words, which will supply us with extra info regarding the data of the item and the character to search for, and will give us a more detailed overview, sometimes even pointing out to us its location on the map. Therefore, Aion doesn’t excel for the originality of its questing mechanism,to the contrary it appears to be antiquated. But, thanks to the interludes and a wide variety of objectives, it succeeds in maintaining an adequate standard for its setting.

The PvE is composed of a pretty linear structure; as a matter of fact, we will have the feeling of moving on pre-established tracks, without having that many alternative locations to explore. Sometimes there will be particularly interesting spots where we could grind, but anyhow there will be few of them. The majority of the quests can be handled alone, even though some little help by other players is anything but

regrettable, while a well assorted party will be compulsory for group quests where we will find elite enemies that will be very hard to defeat.

There will also be many instances, 23 at the moment, in which we will venture with our party to complete specific quests or to hope to get unique drops. The structure of these instances doesn’t shine for its originality, but it is undoubtedly solid. On top of that they will be well defined and different from each other, with different bosses for each one of them. One remarkable thing is the use of the video interlude parts that will give us a break from the exploration phases. We don’t feel like giving further judgements at the moment, since it’s quite a complex system and we will be able to evaluate this PvE aspect properly only on the long run, to better understand if it’s really valuable or not.

The Abyss AION’s PvP will give the opportunity to the Asmodian and Elyos sides to face each other in an arena called The Abyss.

Without wanting to spoil too much of the lore we can simply say that the world of Aion is literally split in half: the bright side called Elysea and the dark one called Asmodae. The two factions are involved in an open war and they often fight each other in the center of the planetary shift in this area that is in fact called the Abyss: this will be the place where we will be protagonists of epic battles among winged beings and mass sieges.

In this area we will be free to use our flying skill and will now have the chance to give a third dimension to PvP fights. The Abyss will be available from level 25 onwards; once we are there we could fight to earn big prizes for us and for our Legion (the guilds of Aion). It will then be possible to dispute for nine fortresses divided by levels: they are by default in the hands of a third NPC race called the Balaur, which we will have to defeat before obtaining control of the towers: this is why we are talking about PvPvE. During fights, we could get some help by gaining control over the Artifacts: 31 of them exist and can be acquired by defeating the patrolling Balaurs.

Once we conquered the first fortress our faction must continue to fight in order to defend it and to hope to expand to the remaining ones. The most valuable players will be acknowledged in the Top ten of PvP. Besides the Abyss, the possibility to go through portals called Rifts that will take us to areas of the opposing faction is also possible. One strange thing is that we won’t have any kind of advantage by killing the enemy players, on the contrary we will encounter possible penalties, without being able to access the Abyss for a certain period of time. This option will then be useful only to test your combat skills.

Fights The skills of Aion are based on a chain system that we have already seen in many Mmorpg games, we are talking about the skill chain: activating a skill we could enable the use of other ones, thus creating a combo. In a dedicated menu just for chains it will be possible to select which skill sub-group we would like to chain to the other, in the case in which there are more than one. The various possibilities offered will be predetermined, but we could create a macro system to associate more than one action to one key if desired.

Even chain skills aren’t a real innovation; we already saw them in Vanguard and other minor games, but they still are a pleasant feature that give a more dynamic cut to the fights. Another element that will give us liveliness is the possibility to affect damage, defense and evasion with our movements: we will have bonus damage if we walk forward, bonus defense if we walk backwards and bonus evasion if we walk sideways.

If we lose a PvE fight and as a result we die (this is something we must avoid at all costs here in Aion) we will lose experience points as well. We will only be able to regain these exp points by paying a certain amount of money that will increase accordingly with the growth of our level. Another drawback: a small part of experience anyway, will be lost forever.

It will be reasonably easy to resuscitate your comrade only if you fight in a party: the only thing you’ll need is a gem in your pocket to be able to raise him from the dead without resorting to the aid of a Cleric.

The Stigmas Although, as we already said, the customization of our character will be rather narrow, the Stigma System will improve things a bit, giving to our hero a certain predisposition, although still leaving us without a great variety of choices.

The Stigmas will be obtainable by fighting against high level enemies, by completing some quests or by buying them at very high prices from NPCs or from other players. By going to the Stigma Master we will be able to set one in our weapon, obtaining in this way a new skill to use in battle. To use the Stigmas it will be required to own a certain number of Stigma Shards (only earnable from the Abyss mobs); it will still be possible to remove or swap them at any time. The maximum number of Stigmas we could have simultaneously will increase with the growth of our level, up to a maximum capacity of five.

Thanks to this system we will have slightly more customized characters, but what will happen if, while time passes we will earn them all? Another small element that will influence our parameters will be the Title, which will be acquirable after completing certain quests. We will have the possibility to only have one of them at a time; it will modify some of our stats, just as it happens in many other Mmorpg games. We will be able to unlock a total of 50 titles, but we trust that others will be added.

Economy and crafting Buying and selling in Aion can be done through the usual little markets set up by characters, in our opinion this characteristic is something a little old right now and it will soon leave the market to Brokers, or more precisely, to the Auction House system of Aion. This way it will be much easier to find the items we are looking for: it will be enough to enter the name and see who’s got the best price. In general, we can say that the economy doesn’t seem very balanced, even if it seems more vital if compared to the total failure of some recent games, at least for now. Anyway, the simple model on which Aion’s economy is founded is justified, since it is not a title focused on commerce.

Technical Rating Finely developed and without smudges, excellent graphics, even better sound and music. One of the best Mmorpgs if considered in this point of view. A good support from NCSoft, the presence of queues is negative, but will eventually disappear with time.

Lore Rating Both the base storyline and the story of our character are well done and narrated with excellent interludes; you reach a point in which you want to always learn more about this story, which has even inspired a series of DC comic books.

Growth Rating

We will have the possibility to take up different crafting careers, without having to exclude any of them. The only limit will be imposed by the time we will decide to devote to the gathering of materials and to the consequent creation of items, and this is something that will force us to mainly focus on one or two skills. Looking at it this way, the innovation is practically inexistent: as a matter of fact the crafting will reduce itself merely to the classic pile up of raw material and then to the creation of the items in series.

The gathering of the materials will be simple and linear as well: it will be sufficient to get near a source, for example little plants or veins of iron, and our character will start the extraction with a simple gesture of his hand. Obviously, we will not able to take advantage of every resource from the beginning, or at least not without putting enough skill points on our extracting ability. It will be a separate matter regarding the Extraction Heather to be used for floating materials at a high altitude. The extraction mechanics will still be identical to those already seen in other theme park Mmorpgs, besides the success percentage of the gathering action.

Technical compartment The landscapes of AION are probably among the most majestic and wonderful that can be offered by a massive game: lakes with beautiful aquatic plants, enchanted forests and imposing fortresses will be the main backgrounds for our adventures. The design results to be quite original, thanks to a lore that provides locations that are reasonably distant from most classic forests and caves typical of fantasy.

The audio component of the game is absolutely top-notch: we will sometimes find ourselves just contemplating the landscape or listening to the audio track.

Despite its age, the Crytek Engine still

delivers a great job, but we still noticed some minor flaws which will be immediately recognizable by the most expert players, such as the huge textures used to cover whole hillsides, the movement of some of the characters that looks like they are skating, or even the not so well designed sky, accomplished with a low res Sky Box. These defective elements together with other ones more linked to logic such as the sudden transition from night to day, will spoil a little of the graphics sector in a game that otherwise would surely have reached higher standards. Unfortunately the rushing and incompetence have left an undeniable mark that just can’t be ignored.

The questing system is something that has already been seen many times but still delivers, grinding is present but not so excessive. The customization of characters is limited but fairly good.

Interaction Rating The fighting system is well developed. The Abyss will offer hours and hours of good PvP and the tools that the game offers for interaction are many. The economy and production are not that brilliant.

World Rating Atreia, even if fascinating and majestic it seems a bit skimpy, with the exception of some areas; underwater exploration is missing.

Features:

Beautiful but with no soul

Lore

8

The feeling that Aion gave us is that of a complete and well developed title, but at the same time it gives us a certain feeling of multiple dejavù. Almost all of the features have been taken and reworked from other games (mostly WoW, Lineage 2 and Perfect World) and, in some cases even improved. This means that Aion is a good game for newcomers, it’s capable of offering a bit of everything (without excelling in anything), but at the same time this also means that it’s almost totally unattractive for veterans.

Interaction

8

Growth

7

Tec. Compartment

8

This game certainly has the credentials to be a commercial success and the feedback that users are giving right now is already a proof of this. It certainly has been a good gaming experience and thus, it’s recommended to all those who want to take on the Mmorpg genre for the first time, but not to those that have already experimented with other theme park Mmorpgs. This title will surely be able to innovate itself even more on the long run, thus creating an attraction even for those who have had years of experience in the world of massive videogaming; at the moment this is only a good starting base to build a far more elaborate game.

6.5

World

Pros: 1. Excellent graphics and sound.

2. Well developed PvPvE system.

3. Fighting can be done while flying Cons: 1. It’s not possible to swim.

2. A little too grindy.

3. Some aspects of PvE should be improved.

System requirements OS Processor

Windows xp sp2 / Vista 2,8ghz cpu / dual core 2.0ghz

Ram Video card

1024 Mb nvidia 5900 ultra 128mb / ati radeon x700 128

DirectX\OpenGL Hard Drive space

Final Rating

DirectX 9.0c 15 Gb

7.5

gaMEsworld GAMEsWorld www.gameSworldSa.com • OctOber 2009 • Launch editiOn • r29.95 incl VAT

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i

review: junk battles Genre

TCG-RPG

Background

Angic Entertainment

Developer

NcSoft

official site

http://www.junkbattles.com/

by Luca “Venom” Braj

else but a virtual currency obtainable in a simple way,that is, by means of real money or by tormenting our friends with appropriate in-game links inviting them to register: in this way we will be rewarded for every new user that has registered on Junk Battles. The Oil will permit the access to the advantages of premium and to acquire more substantial and interesting booster packs, compared to the ones that are purchasable with only the use of metal (that will be obtainable by participating in challenges against other players or against the bots). The game seems to be fairly benevolent with losers, even giving the beaten players the opportunity to have a little amount of metal.

Exciting battles.

Thanks to Flash technology, browser games are starting to increasingly become a less static genre. Junk Battles (developed by ex members of DICE, that now changed their name to ANTIC), is a very fun game that reminds us of a mix between a card game and a car race. The main objective will be to challenge other players with racing cars (or we should say pieces of junk) capable of performing both defensive and offensive maneuvers, with which we must try to destroy the opponent’s vehicle.

Let’s assemble pieces of junk The game will welcome us with a clear tutorial that will explain how to assemble the pieces of our first vehicle step by step. We will initially begin with a starter pack containing all the essential pieces, such as the chassis, and a choice of the type of locomotion among wheels, tracks, or hovercraft. Moreover, some offensive additions are available, which are divided into four categories: ballistic, energy, elemental and melee. These particular items will have just as many types of consumption as well, respectively: projectiles, a simple cool-down, HP and energy. We will not be able to assemble a destructive super car right away, because we will need a certain amount of TP to put together the various pieces; every item assembled, in fact, will deduct from

this quantity according to its importance.

Therefore, it’s useless to say that more the stats will be good, the greater the number of the TP required will be.

Oil and metal.

The game offers, as well, the possibility to customize our avatar by several presets of faces and clothing of every kind, some of the accessories will be purchasable from the start without a fee, other ones will be acquirable only with Oil. This is nothing

The battles are carried out with a pretty singular system: we will have the possibility to align a certain number of actions according to our vehicle’s weapons and defenses. Once chosen, these will be performed in the order of selection; we will then see the name of our action slide through the action bar, until it reaches the point of execution where the damage or even missed attacks or malfunctions will be calculated. Then, we should repeat these actions until one of the two vehicles will be destroyed. It’s surely an interesting system, if compared to the usual textual BGs, where it’s enough to click on the challenge and then read the battle report a few seconds later. In Junk Battles, at the end of every battle we will be rewarded,

not only with an amount of metal, but also with experience points and once we raise our level we will have access to new abilities and will have more TP to improve our vehicle’s performance.

In conclusion Junk Battle has revealed itself to be partly original and well studied, but altogether it still remains to be an occasional pastime where the main goal is to climb the charts, even if, in a more interesting and fun way than usual. Finally, we can suggest a valuable alternative to Bitefight and company.

Final Rating Pros: 1. Well accomplished combat system.

2. Many parts to assemble.

3. Original setting.

Cons: 1. It is, however, directed toward a casual user base.

2. Tournaments and clan system are missing (at the moment).

7.4

pay to play

review: Age conan Developer

funcom

official site

http://www.ageofconan.com/

Monthly Fee

14.95€/$

by Simone “Chobeat” Robutti

Funcom is certainly not a newcomer in the field of videogames. The Longest Journey and its sequel, Dreamfall, as well as the futuristic Anarchy Online where produced by their hands. From the latter, this Norwegian developer has taken its foundations and has skillfully strengthened them to develop a game that goes all out. A year after its release, we decided to review it again to see if the initial difficulties have been overcome.

Oh prince, know that...

It’s a time of Gods and Demons, of men of tempered steel and immortal sorcerers, of heroism and depravity…

Your adventures begin with you in chains, in a Stygian galley, and here, in the lands created by R.E. Howard all your choices will shape your future. There are three races to choose from, and a good part of fantasy lovers will be disappointed here… because the available races, as in Howard’s tales, are just variations of the human race. No dwarves nor elves. So, to try to satisfy your tastes there will be the barbaric Cimmerians, the brave Aquilonians and the terrible Stygians. The choice does not involve any kind of special bonus or malus, but some classes will be precluded, depending on the decision you may take.

The classes available are 12: 3 tank classes, 3 rogues, 3 healers and 3 casters.

Therefore, you could excite your lust for war with: the Guardian, impregnable fortress, the Conqueror, a skilled warrior and excellent leader or the Dark Templar, a bloody and obscure fighter. If you don’t like the Heavy Armor, then you could

count on the Assassin, elusive and deadly, the Ranger, lord of the long distances or the Barbarian, master of the brawls. Do you love to fight and to be useful to your friends? Then you will go crazy for the Bear Shaman, brutal and efficient, the Tempest of Set, inviolable while surrounded by his thunderbolts, or the Priest of Mitra, protected from all evil, and the scourge of it, as well. If in the end you chose the path of dark magic, the Demonologist, with his mastery of fire or lightning, the

Necromancer, lord of death, and the Herald of Xotli, a battle mage, will do for you. Choose what best suits you, if you love your class you will become a frightful force in the game, no matter who you’re facing.

The system for creating your avatar is quite intuitive and detailed, there are many sliders that will give you the opportunity to change your voice, facial and physical traits, as well as distinguishing marks such as tattoos or scars. However, some choices

to evade enemies’ attacks, by effectively counterattacking or anticipating the moves of the less skilled fighters.

Regarding the magic aspect, you will not be disappointed! Despite the fact that melee fights are very enthralling, Funcom has provided the spell weavers with powerful and intriguing skills. Playing as a Necromancer, you will be able to surround your enemies with your undead servants, slowly taking away their lives. As a Demonologist you will crush armies with your infernal flames or lightning bolts from the skies. Lastly, when playing as a Herald of Xotli, you will invoke upon the power of abyssal creatures to become battle demons yourselves, giving you the chance to enjoy close combat, even if you can’t use armors. As a final touch, the masters

such as height or body fat don’t always seem to correspond exactly: whether you’ll want it or not, you’ll be tall and muscular like almost all the other players. Once you’ve decided a name, your destiny on Hyboria will be revealed.

An heroic path From the first moments spent in Tortage, you will be able to admire the care and attention devoted to the reproduction of a tropical island. The graphics are breathtaking. Crystal clear water, lush forests, and realistic animals.

Every little thing helps you to immerse deeply into this wonderful and brutal world. Many patches have been released to ensure that the system will be stable for 95% of the time you will spend in the game, and the scaling has been further improved. Of course, for making the most of this game it will require a powerful machine, possibly with Vista or Windows 7 and a last gen graphics card in order to fully appreciate the Directx 10.

To welcome you after your shipwreck there will be an old man, who reveals in poor words that your destiny is tied to a symbol that you bear on your chest: a symbol of slavery that has been woven on your skin by a sorcerer of the lost Acheron. The attempt to get rid of this mark will be the recurring subject that will follow you until you reach the maximum level. Therefore, the island of Tortage will work a bit like a tutorial, by slowly approaching the player to the innovations introduced by Funcom’s game.

Blood and dust The progression of the character in Age of Conan is very much linked to quests.

Many of these will require you to collect/ kill/find a greater or lesser number of items or creatures of various kinds, and the NPCs that will give you these quests will have an exclamation mark above their heads.

Up to here there’s nothing new, including the fact that your quests will be divided in

single player mode, group missions and actual raids. As regards to this, AoC indeed places itself in the standards of PvE Theme Park Mmorpgs, without especially positive nor negative notes.

The fighting system is the real innovation of Age of Conan. A smooth, fast-paced, exciting system! Static battles fought with strings of abilities all tied to a single button mash are no more. Fights are close to a very realistic, yet epic battle here in Age of Conan. The basic attacks correspond to the direction towards which your weapon will move, and once you will activate your combo, you will have to execute a particular sequence of hits to bring the final blow! All of this is topped off by a fighting system that is not based on enemy auto-targeting, but instead, on the real capability of the weapon to reach its target. This is made possible by a perfectly created player collision, which also means that you will not be able to pass through other character’s bodies as if they were ghosts or two-dimensional images. All of this contributes to increase the already high realism of the game. At higher levels, expert warriors will move swiftly

of magical arts will be able to enter a state called Spellweaving, a condition that will increase their power beyond any limit, until causing the death of their enemy… or maybe just bringing them to their graves.

Furthermore, Age of Conan enhances team play, and to emphasize this aspect, guilds of a certain size can dedicate themselves to constructing their own cities, which will be located in designated areas in one of the three nations. The building process requires no special engineering skills. On the ground, there are convenient “nodes” that once clicked on will let us build the desired building. Different buildings will offer different bonuses and the city itself, once completed, will be elevated to the next step, until reaching the third “tier”.

Unfortunately, the cities will not offer a real “housing system”, so the possibility of enriching the environment or making it more diverse is denied. In general, this system is appreciable, if inserted in the many things to do in AoC, but can’t be considered a driving force for the entertainment offered by the game.

appearance, but are also among the best items in the game, with further possibility of enhancement by adding the insertion of two gems. The lucky owners of these recipes will be rolling gold!

Blow the horns of battle, dogs!

The Golden Box Once you’ve passed Tortage, you will finally be free to explore Hyboria. But is there really all that freedom?

Unfortunately, the choice that Funcom has made to split the world into instances has proved to be unpopular. The attention to details is certainly implausible, and the number of cameos that Funcom has taken from the Hyberian Lore and has integrated in the game is incredible. On a downside, however, there is a constant feeling of living inside boxes. Beautiful boxes, that is, but still boxes. The wider areas of the game, like Conall’s valley, appear to be a few kilometers in size, surrounded everywhere sometimes by natural barriers and other times by invisible ones. And until our steps will move on the lands of the Cimmerians, we will have a feeling of continuity between one area and another, continuity that sadly is not perceived while in other nations, such as Stygia, where the transit from an area to another involves drastic changes in the landscape.

Despite the small size of the world, you will still have the feeling that you are walking a lot, and soon you will feel the need to speed up your travels in some way. To meet this need, the main cities: Old Tarantia, Khemi and Conarch will put to your service NPCs that will transport you instantaneously to different locations of that nation. If this still isn’t enough, you will be able to buy a horse from the local stables. Funcom wanted to distinguish itself from other fantasy Mmos, even in the choice of the mounts, by remaining faithful to the Howardian rules. No bizarre creatures with particular abilities then, but only simple horses, and with a high cost as well.

The design of the dungeons is very well done, and besides the more or less complex encounters, there are traps and particular strategies which can mean the difference between a prosperous expedition and a miserable death.

These areas are divided according to the adventurers needed to accomplish them,

in some cases you will be able to face them singularly and in others you will need to have a group, and in the end, you will need a raid (that is 24 persons) in higher level instances. And if the difficulty of an area isn’t enough for you, you could enter it in “epic mode” and try to survive against creatures that are hundreds of times stronger.

And then, Crom created steel Once you’ll reach level forty, you will be able to choose two working careers. There will be 5 at your disposal: Weaponsmith, Armorsmith, Alchemist, Gemcutter and Architect. In Age of Conan crafting is not particularly elaborated: once you have collected the materials you need, just buy some basic items from the merchant and select the recipe you want to follow. Up to here, it all sounds obvious and because of the large quantity of identical items, the in-game market has indeed become rather stagnant. To revive the destinies of these trades, Funcom has introduced hundreds of new recipes in the game. Rare recipes, hidden in the bodies of slain enemies.

To make them even juicier, there will be the super rare Culture recipes related to the area in which these armors belong.

These garments are not only special in

Finally, when you will finally be tired of searching for gold and ornaments, the time when you will have to prove yourself in battle will come, against opponents of your same caliber and intelligence. Depending on the server you will choose when creating your character, you can decide whether to have a free PvP or to limit it to border areas, mini-games and sieges. In the first case, the only areas where you will be safe will be the three major cities. In any other place, keep your weapons ready and your senses sharp, since the enemies are many, and all of them aspire to get your head...and to get the experience points that this implies! In fact, Funcom has implemented a level system related to player versus player. So far, the obtainable levels are 10 and at the moment you achieve any of these, it will be possible to buy special equipment that will help a lot in combat.

If you have chosen the security of a PvE server instead, you will still be able to vent your combat instincts with mini-games, that will be accessible through a queue system that will instantly teleport you in one of the 4 maps, in the 2 mini-game modes available. In these mini-games you will have to reach particular goals and if you’ll win, you will earn points for your guild, which you’ll need to acquire the right to attack a fortress.

If, in fact, you’ll be lucky enough to be part of a fairly populated guild, there will be a chance to conquer one of the 8 fortresses available. Being able to raise your flag on these grounds is the ultimate goal for a guild that seeks a significant advantage in combat. In the case in which during a hard clash between 48 attackers against 48 defenders, the attackers should prevail, and succeed in keeping the fortress for a month, the bonuses they will receive will fully reward their efforts. Not to mention that these epic battles are damn funny!

In my opinion, the only flaw in the PvP of Age of Conan is the almost total lack of consequences. Once dead, in fact, it will be enough to press a button and you will be revived in the nearest “awakening point”, with the only loss of your pride. To seek a remedy, the developers have recently introduced the murder system, through which those who enjoy slaughtering players with a much inferior level will be reported as criminals, and the most cruel ones as assassins. This new system provides a degree of safety for new players, but has also led to a new series of problems, with guards that murder with their axes players that are not guilty of these crimes.

Technical Rating The developers of the game have to be praised for the great work done on the graphics. Nevertheless, all these graphic works took a toll on the Funcom developers, who during the first few hellish months had to work out continuous bugs and instability problems. Now, the game is in good health, there are no exasperating bugs and any problem can be resolved in a short time.

The GM system is quite diligent in answering, even though it seems that very few GM have the real power to help or inform. The organization of events by GM or its developers is another story, since the great majority of these events are organized by the community of players that often demand the attention of the Funcom staff. In conclusion, the sound compartment deserves all the commendations that have been expressed until now about Funcom, the quality is superior even to that of a single player game, or perhaps even to that of the soundtracks of some films.

Lore Rating A point in favor of Funcom.

The game, in all of its aspects, is a faithful reproduction of the Hyborian material which is present in all of its forms…perhaps too many forms. In fact, the Howardian purists turn up their noses regarding certain cameos derived from post-Howardian films, comics or novels. The quest system is coherent with the world and besides the usual repetitive tasks, some “endeavours” appear well studied and elaborated. Fun as well!

Growth Rating The vast selection of classes guarantees longevity to the game and the possibility to create the character according to your own tastes, thanks to different features that allow two characters of the same class not to be necessarily similar. Stats and skills have proved, until now, to represent a marginal role in the capabilities of the character. The development of the character is very rapid for the first 40 levels, due to the abundance of quests. The pace of the following levels is much slower, until the 70th, but is, however, endurable because of the introduction of new areas and quests, even though, the last 10 levels become an unbearable grind. Anyway, many expert players take advantage of their inferior level to raise their pvp status, thanks to the increased experience points that are received by killing a character of superior level.

In conclusion Age of Conan is not a simple game, the combat requires a little practice, since it’s more similar to the structure of an FPS, than to that of a common MMO and the lack of contents that keeps you glued to the monitor for hours discourages the average player. Besides this, the product presents itself very well, and it has a high potential for improvement. Those who have played for about a year have by now found out which areas are fun for them, and wherever the casual player enters he plays a mini-game or a quick dungeon, while the tenacious player will dedicate

himself to an end-game raid, to an assault, or to the development of a new character (thanks to the 8 available slots). Therefore, it’s advisable to a wide range of users and proves to be one of the best choices for whoever wants to approach the world of mmorpgs for the first time. Moreover, if Funcom will do a good job by expanding the contents, the game will gain in longevity with the possibility to become a reference point for the Mmorpg scene.

Features:

9

Lore

7.5

Interaction

Interaction Rating Age of Conan has been created in a way to make you feel a part of this fantastic world, the interaction with the various NPCs will make you feel like a hero.

It’s a shame that not everybody wants to be a hero in Hyboria. So, once you have reached level 80 with a character, repeating everything from the beginning will make you feel less and less involved. Anyway, in FFA servers there is greater interaction, thanks to the fact that you will be the one who makes the rules, that is, if you’re strong enough to do it! Do you desire that no one should gallop with a horse in the streets of Khopshef? Then you must kill all the ones that try to do it and shout out your will loudly. Then the other players will have to decide whether to go along with it or not.

World Rating There’s not much to do about it, Age of Conan is true to itself and this choice limits its appeal. To render it less consistent would cause it to be a game like many others. The ambient design is true to Howard’s novels and the only imaginary creatures are actually infernal demons. The fact that weapons and armors “fall” from their bodies is not a very realistic choice, but on the other hand, it’s also too practical to be ignored.

The parallel instancing gives the setting a better credibility, but obviously destroys the idea of a “one game server”.

8

Growth Tec. Compartment

8.5

World

8.5

Pros: 1. Spectacular graphics 2. Violent PvP 3. Remains true to the setting created by Howard 4. Constant support on part of the programmer team Cons: 1. Unplayable with a medium-low level pc 2. Each area is separated by a loading screen 3. Balancing of the classes is far from being achieved 4. There are still many bugs System requirements OS Processor Ram Video card

Windows xp / Vista pentium IV 3 ghz 2048 Mb Shader Model 2.0 e 128MB RAM: NVIDIA GeForce 5800 or ATI 9800

DirectX\OpenGL Hard Drive space

Final Rating

DirectX 9.0 30 Gb

8

I N T E R V I EW

By Massimo “Nolvadex” Villa

The Secret World will introduce us to a dark and obscure world, filled with demons and secrets, but also o f p r o u d h e r o e s f i g h t i n g E v i l . O M G c h at t e d w i t h F u n c o m P r o d u c e r D i r e c t o r R a g n a r T ø r n q u i s t a b o u t t h i s b at t l e . . .

The dark feeling of the game remind me to a m i x be t w een M a r lo w e a n d H P L o v e c r a f t. C o u l d i t b e correct?

That’s not a bad comparison, although it’s less pulp and more pop. There are investigations in the game, definitely, and there are opportunities to dig deeper into a very intriguing storyline, but players can also pick up a shotgun and jump right into the battle between good and evil. The Lovecraft inspiration is definitely palpable throughout the game, both in terms of monsters and storyline.

Real places, real cities . . C o u l d y o u ta l k a b o u t the setting of the ga me and how the world will be s t r u c t ur ed i n t er m s of i n s ta n c e s a s C o n a n o r o p e n zones.

We’re making the world as open as possible, while still keeping players directed and focused. I’m not a big fan of instances in MMORPGs, although we’ll have those, too - dungeons - where teams get a more scripted and linear experience.

You can basically go anywhere you want from day one, explore this large, open world, although if you venture too far off the beaten path too early, chances are you’ll get your ass handed to you. By a demon. With some kind of ass-handing weapon.

No levels, no cl asses ... w h at w i l l b e t h e b a l a n c e be t w een s a n db ox a n d t h e m e pa r k ?

More theme park than sandbox, I reckon, though players can experiment freely with various combinations of powers and weapons. We have a world filled with content, and players can choose how to approach that content - and, to some extent, in which order. Having said that, we believe in direction, and there will be a clear path for players to embark on - as well as recommendations for character development based on what the player wants to achieve. The road is well lit, but you’re free to wander off into the darkness...

C o u l d y o u ta l k a b o u t t h e m a i n f e at u r e s o f t h e game?

What, all of them? What we’ve revealed so far is the combat, the PvP - which is going to be very interesting and very different - a little bit about missions, and the fact that players get to be powerful heroes with occult powers in a modern day setting. Our world, with monsters. Zombies, vampires, demons, gods, mythological creatures and creepy shit from modern pop culture.

G ui l d s w i l l be a s ort o f s e c r e t a s s o c i at i o n s o r t h i n g s l i k e t h at ?

Guilds are called cabals, and they’re basically secret societies that are allied with one of three factions: the Templars, the Illuminati or the Dragon. Cabals battle each other inside the Hollow Earth - a place called Agartha - for control over Anima, a precious resource, which is used for different kinds of buffs and upgrades.

S tat e o f t h e g a m e r i g h t n o w.

Right now I can log into the game from anywhere in the world and play, but key systems are still in development, like the RPG rule set and the combat.

W h at k i n d o f graphics engine will use TSW? We’re using an upgraded version of the Dreamworld engine, which powers Age of Conan. It’s state of the art and the game is going to look absolutely stunning.

W h at k i n d o f c o m b at can we expect ?

Think third-person action games. There’s a reticule. You have to aim. You have to keep moving, strafing, backing up - you can’t point and click and sit back and eat chips.

You’re in the action and while it’s still an RPG - and your character’s stats are vitally important - you also need fast reflexes.

There are firearms - from handguns to assault rifles - dark magic and voodoo, occult weapons like magical swords, mythical sceptres... It’s both very different from every other MMORPG on the market, and instantly familiar to PC gamers who’ve played action games before. We think it’s a very solid and fun mix.

Missions in T S W. W i l l t h e r e b e something different from the cl assic chain progressions ?

Absolutely. Our missions are as far from your standard ‘fetch me the hides of eight black beavers’ as you can get in an MMORPG. Players are heroes with amazing powers, and they’re fighting a terrible evil that rises from the dark places. Who has time to collect rat tails? Screw that. Also, there are no more text boxes with dry descriptions of what you have to do - all dialogue in this game is voiced. So yes, our missions will definitely be different from classic quests.

I N T E R V I EW

Star Trek Online will be the next big thing for Cryptic Studios. We had a brief chat with

Craig Zinkievich, game producer, about a mix of aspects.

By Massimo “Nolvadex” Villa

How many degrees of quality will have about items and materials?

Depending on the type of item – you can have up to 6 different “qualities.”

Could you introduce to us how the items will work in STO, in terms of statistics and gameplay influence?

There are so many different items in the game – and things that act sort of like items!

In space: There are weapons, shield emitters and impulse engines on your ships – have a pretty drastic affect on how your ship acts. There are multiple console slots on your ships too – mostly passive changes to how your ship behaves.

On ground: you have personal shields, armour, weapons as well as your “kit” – which is a career limited item that gives you 1-4 different powers on the ground.

Your ship: which could be considered an item; each different configuration has different numbers of seats, weapon slots, consoles and inherent attributes.

To some extent even your Bridge Officers could be considered items. Like I said – lots of items.

Will we be able to enhance our ship only by crafting or also with components dropped by enemies?

Enemies definitely drop items for you, your Bridge Officers and your ship.

Will there be the classic Auction Houses in Star Trek Online?

There will be marketplaces (you can put an item up for sale at a price, and buy items at a price) at launch. But not a true “auction” – where you can bid on items.

Items will be degradable?

The major ship items, Shield Emitters, Weapons, Impulse Engines have durability – they degrade as they get damaged during a battle. But they can be repaired by going back to a Star Fleet space dock.

The Exploration in STO will give to players some particular achievements? More in general, there will be an achievements system in STO? There will be an accolade system in STO. It’ll keep track of your achievements in exploration content, PvP, normal PvE gameplay – all sorts of different aspects of the game can be bragged about. : )

Don't wait, Take to the track!

TECHNICAL VIEW GAME NAME::

MotoManager

GAME GENRE:

Managerial motorcycle racing

GAME TYPE:

Online Game

PRICE:

Free

LANGUAGE:

Italian-English

ANNO DI NASCITA: 2005 SITO GIOCO:

www.MotoManager.com

MotoManager is a free online game that changes the design of motorcycle games, presenting a true career mode, where you do not take control of a single rider, but will play a Manager of a team racing that starts from zero and can savor the joys and pains of the results of their team.

The player must attend to sign contracts with sponsors and suppliers, select the technical staff, find and hire the rivers on the marketplace, organize workshops and tactics on the real race circuits of the MotoGP and Superbike

The goal is to finish as high as possible in the constructors' championship to earn a promotion to the higher category or winning the title of absolute champion of MotoManager.

The climb to the summit will be long and full of unexpected, because the opponents are real people and not computer-controlled teams, and when they reached the most prestigious category MotoGP and Superbike will not take anything for granted, because in case of bankruptcies will recede into the categories below.

The game leaves ample room for a customization of your team, the choice of colors of the bike, the uniform of the pilots, the faces and names of people on your team.

In addition to the races valid for the classification, there is a Category Cup where you can compare all the teams in group for win prizes and bonuses for the game.

So don't wait, take to the track on www.MotoManager.com!