This year, E3 was chock-full of new and interesting games, including quite a few MMOs. Games like MAG took the meaning of massively multiplayer to a whole new level. Final Fantasy XIV marked the return and reworking of a well known name. And then there was PWE's Torchlight.
Perfect World Entertainment introduced their MMORPG Perfect World last year. The game features beautiful Asian inspired graphics and stories. This year, Perfect World attended E3 and introduced a whole list of games that are already out, and some still in the works. Torchlight was one of the latter. Brought to you by Runic Games, the people behind Diablo and Fate, Torchlight will begin in Fall of 2009 as a single player RPG, then relocate online to become an MMORPG.
Torchlight was a calm and quiet village... until a powerful and dangerous magic ore is discovered, and the village is turned upside down. The village suddenly began to attract many people in pursuit of the power. Players explore various dungeons in search of treasure, magic, and power.
The release date for the single player is set for December 2009, with the MMO function scheduled to be added at a later point. Be on the lookout for this title.
Torchlight screenshot from IGN.
Visit the main site: (Click here)... although there is not much to look at here yet.
In the meantime, watch this trailer for Torchlight from E3.
Nexon America has announced that it has released an update to its Celtic-inspired MMORPG, Mabinogi. The content update adds new item sets, improvements to magic wands, cooking contests and giant dice.
The update, which is now live and available for players in North America, features the Emain Macha Cooking Contest where players can pit their cooking skills against each other. The cooking contest is a month long event with qualifying rounds held from the first Saturday of the month to the second-to-last Saturday of each month. The last Saturday of the month is where finalists square off in the final rounds. Winners are picked by several judges who have different tastes, giving different perspectives on how well the meal is prepared. Winners of the cooking contests may receive a unique title as well as a new chef's uniform.
Also added to Mabinogi is the ability for wizards to chain cast with improvements to wands with a spirit. Once a wand spirit has reached a certain social level, extra charges will be added to the charge pool. For example, a Spirit Ice Wand with a social level of six will produce one extra charge on the ice bolt. This allows magic practitioners to quickly accumulate charges of magic while in battle. The higher social level of a players spirit wand, the more charges players will get on a single cast.
A new feature now included in Mabinogi with the content update are giant dice. The giant dice are now available in general shops in the land of Erinn, and can be use to settle item disputes, for players to build their own life-sized board games or simply for having fun plopping down the giant cubes.
Also added in this update is a new sets of items that, combined with the pieces of a player's favorite armor, will result in a passive bonus being added their character. For example, equipping a full Dustin Armor set will provide added resistance to explosive effects. A Bone Marlin set will provide you with extra resistance against petrification.
Warrior Epic is an online, action RPG set in an original fantasy universe, where players assume command of a wide variety of Warriors through solo, PvP, and multiplayer dungeon raiding adventures. Warrior Epic is micro-transaction based; meaning there is no charge to download and no monthly fee required to play.
However, there are a variety of purchase options (such as double EXP potions, exclusive clothing, and much more) for those who wish to further enhance their player experience.
Players dive into Warrior Epic 300 years after the First Great War that shattered the old, tyrannical empire. In order to stop history from repeating itself, warriors must defend the Kingdom of Providence from the evil Overlords of the four regions.
Each of these regions has its own tragic background which helped spark the outbreak of the First Great War. Uncovering these mysteries is crucial for Warriors to take on the Overlords and vanquish the threats against their established peace and tranquility.
Warrior Epic’s unique spirit system is one of its key differentiators. Death is only the beginning in Warrior epic, allowing for strategy and skill to come into play. Players are faced with crucial decisions when their warriors have fallen. They can resurrect, infuse or utilize the spirit’s powers in battle.
The controls are easy in Stick RPG. The four cardinal directions are navigated using the Arrow Keys (located conveniently between the numpad and the keypad on your keyboard.) The rest of the game interaction is performed via mouse. Once you know the controls, the rest is history. Or perhaps I should say, YOUR story.
Here’s a small bit of news that could have a big effect on millions of gamers in the future – Blizzards hugely popular MMORPG game World of Warcraft could eventually become free to play, being supported by the same micro transactions that have made more casual online games so popular.
It wouldn’t be the first popular commercial game to go down that route. Anarchy Online changed over to a free to play service several years ago and the decision has been one that totally revived the games falling userbase and kept people playing for long after they would have done had subscriptions continued. You still need to pay for certain elements of the game, but removing the need for monthly subscriptions opens up the game to a much wider audience.
Dungeons and Dragons Online has also recently abandoned monthly subscription charges as well. Although it’s not going to happen tomorrow, Warcraft could eventually do a similar thing, supporting itself through micro transactions rather than a monthly fee. The idea was suggested by WOW’s lead designer Tom Chilton in an interview with VideoGamer:
“I certainly think it’s possible that we could do some kind of microtransaction stuff. Whether or not World of Warcraft ever goes the direction of, I guess like Anarchy Online has gone the direction of going free-to-play with microtransactions. Whether we ever shift to a free-to-play model is really too hard to say at this point.”
Although this method of billing does work well for older games that have a small userbase, the problem with the method is that it creates an uneven playing field – no longer are the most dedicated or skilled players the best. Instead, the people with the most amount of money become more powerful. At least with a monthly payment, everything else in the game remains unrelated with personal finances – buying of WoW gold from online sources not included.
There was no news on how this attitude might affect Blizzards upcoming top secret MMORPG project which is said to be ‘significantly different’ from World of Warcraft – so much so that Blizzard aren’t much worried about competing with themselves.
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