ChronoBlade - Beta Review

Facebook gaming is about to get a little brutal with this recent title created by developer and publisher group “nWay”. ChronoBlade is a 2.5D multiplayer online beat ‘em up that features fast-paced, arcade style action, mixed with multiplayer co-op mayhem, all made possible through the power of Adobe Flash 3D.

Now multiplayer beat ‘em ups are very rare in this day and age, and even rarer are the ones that can be played online. With the recent departure of Nexon’s Dungeon Fighter Online for North America, the itch of combo heavy combat started to linger on me. With a quick glance at what ChronoBlade had to offer, I was hoping it could scratch that itch.

Onigiri - Alpha Test Impressions

From the land of the rising sun comes a brand new F2P title that’s all about the land of the rising sun. Onigiri is an ancient Japanese themed MMORPG where players can battle against creatures based on Japanese myth and folklore, all while pulling in a diverse cast of characters to partner up with.

Recently, CyberStep hosted an alpha test that was solely focused on testing out the game’s party mode and latency issues. With only a few days to give the game a try, I jumped in on it from day one.

Just a thought - Too many MOBAs?

Okay, so I can't be the only one that's feels this way, but is anyone starting to think this MOBA trend is starting to get a LITTLE bit out of hand? Month after month, the market is just getting flooded with more and more MOBA titles, even more than the whole World of Warcraft  and Call of Duty trends.

With the success of League of Legends, and to a slightly lesser extent, DOTA 2, so many developers and publishers are blindly trying to cash in on their success, and chances are that they will fail miserably, but that's not going to stop them from trying, of course.

I mean, just the other week, Deep Sliver announced that they'll be making a Dead Island MOBA... I mean, just who in the hell was clamoring for a MOBA title based on Dead Island, the most over-hyped zombie action title of 2011?

And if that wasn't already a terrible enough idea for a MOBA title, just recently I saw THIS while I was poking around Cinderboy's blog the other day...

A King of Fighters MOBA? They're about to take a legendary 2-D fighting game series, and turn THAT into a MOBA? I can't even wrap my head around this concept. There's even some gameplay footage available and I still can't wrap my head around it.

Just like with all the publishers and developers that followed the WoW-like MMO trend and the CoD-like Military FPS trend: Unless you're working on the real deal, you're NEVER going to reach even one-third of its success. I also usually don't believe that new video games need to reinvent the wheel in order to be fun, but in this case, it should, otherwise why bother?

• You're never going to capture the success of World of Warcraft, because the audience you're after is too busy playing World of Warcraft.
• You're never going to capture the success of Call of Duty, because the audience you're after is too busy playing Call of Duty.
• You're never going to capture the success of League of Legends, because the audience you're after is too busy playing League of Legends.
• And so on.

This should be really simple logic, but so many companies just follow these trends like sheep and it just blows my mind.

Also: In all honesty, the MOBA genre doesn't seem like a genre that could ever truly evolve, since they're already an evolution, or rather a de-evolution of the RTS genre, and a whole lot of them are pretty "same-y" in terms of core gameplay. Sure, there's some subtle differences in mechanics for some of them, but overall, they all share the same elements: Control one unit, only have up to four abilities to use, and spend the whole match running and/or fleeing from enemies with PvP confrontations only lasting for a few seconds.

This post of mine is clearly just a rant, and it's not like I have anything deep or thought provoking to say on this matter, but it's getting to a point where these trends are less of being trends more like plagues against humanity. Simply put: This shit needs to stop.

TERA: Rising – Alliance Update Interview

Just a few days ago, En Masse Entertainment has released their biggest update for TERA: Rising yet. Known as the “Alliance” update, TERA players can now participate in faction-based PvPvE scenarios in order to gain power, fame and a new mysterious crystal energy known as “noctenium”. The new alliance system also introduces new PvP gear, new jewelry and plenty more.

While the update has been met with much praise, it has also been met with many concerns from the community. With that in mind, I felt it would be best to get some of their questions answered regarding this new update.

Ballistic - Beta Impressions

Oh boy, it’s time for yet another military FPS game! Aren't you excited, kids?! I sure am, as we certainly do not have enough of these in the market today. But wait a second…

This isn't just any military FPS game. It’s a military FPS game that you can play… in your internet browser?!

[/sarcasm]

Okay, so sarcasm aside, a development group named Rumble Entertainment is prompting their newest browser-based title on Facebook called “Ballistic”, and its set to make FPS action quick and accessible for anyone with a modern PC. Sounds interesting enough, but browser-based FPS shooters have already been done before, so how much is this game really bringing to the table?