Tag: Mmo »

I'll be honest: I think Pocket Legends is pretty darn cool. I reviewed the game back in its infancy, and since then it's continued to expand. If you haven't played it before, Pocket Legends is a true MMORPG, complete with PvP, boss fights, dungeons, and plenty of loot.

The newest update charges you with "preventing a disaster of galactic proportions" as aliens once again threaten the land of Pocket Legends. Of course, this is mostly pretense for giving players some welcome features: a higher level cap, boss-filled dungeons, two PvP maps, and more loot. Who doesn't love loot?

Here's the list of other recent updates:

Lost Expedition Base Camp: a new towne full of quests and loot
Leaderboards: compete for most kills, most deaths, K/D ratio, most gold
Loadouts that allow you to save and reload different configurations
Item sets (collections of items that give additional bonuses when equipped)
An additional inventory slot for wearing fancy helmets
UI updates including the ability to map all 12 of your skills at once
Exploding barrels to add to the carnage in PvP
Plus a whole lot more!

If you haven't tried Pocket Legends yet, now's as good a time as any; the game keeps growing, with updates pushed out almost every two days, and if you don't mind its simplicity and occasional UI annoyances, Pocket Legends can be a real blast. It's free to try (you don't even need to register anymore!), so what are you waiting for?

It's really quite amazing how powerful the iPhone has become since the original model came out. In many respects it is a more powerful handheld game device than the current generation of dedicated gaming handhelds, even outdoing the specs of Nintendo's latest incarnation, the DSi 3D (albeit not with the awesome 3D tech).

Spacetime Studios (Pocket Legends), realizing the vast gaming potential of the iOS, is expanding (and soon licensing) the Spacetime 3D MMO game engine to support different devices interacting on the same server. The devices aren't limited to the iPhone/Android sphere though - they plan to make it possible for mobile users to play simultaneously with PC users.

“The Spacetime Engine offers seamless global multiplayer gameplay to anyone with an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch over 3G, Edge, and wireless networks. We plan to add Android and PC users to the mix.” said Anthony L. Sommers, co-founder and CTO of Spacetime Studios. “In the near future, it will be possible to be on the bus in California with your iPhone, playing with someone in a park in France on their Android device, and both be playing in the same server set with someone in South Korea on their PC.”

The Spacetime 3D Engine should be available for developers sometime in 2011, and Pocket Legends should be getting the multi platform treatment soon. Beware though, the world is now one day closer to being able to play World of Warcraft-like games on the go. Our collective productivity is in trouble.

CipSoft, a German developer, recently announced that they're bringing their MMORPG, TibiaME, to the iPhone. On the surface, this isn't too interesting—TibiaME is an old-school 2D RPG, and it's not exactly mainstream...

However, TibiaME has quite the history: launched in 2003, it's been thriving on other mobile platforms like Symbian and Java. While its iPhone launch is in September, TibiaME can already tout 50,000 players. Nice! MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) thrive based in part on their player bases, and having a large one like that from the get-go is great.

As for TibiaME's other features, well, there are plenty. Firstly, it's free to play (though an in-app purchase will purportedly upgrade you to Premium). Secondly, it's persistent and real-time. To me, those are the most significant...but let's look at the (partial) list provided by the developer.

2 different character classes (warrior and wizard) with their own individual skills and powers
12 huge islands with different themes like ice, desert or jungle
Many cities with shops, depots, trade and guild halls
150+ fierce monsters like cyclops, orcs, trolls, dragons or even vampires
200+ challenging and funny quests like “Overcome the monster phobia” or “Stop the mad magician”
12 episodic and 2 major content updates per year featuring new areas, quests and monsters

Classic fantasy RPG, real-time, mobile, with plenty of content? Yes, please.

The iPhone has seen other MMO RPGs before, such as IMO: World of Magic and Pocket Legends, but none have had the advantage of an initial player base. Besides that, TibiaME looks like an interesting, classic-style RPG, and I'm looking forward to playing it when it comes out. Don't be put off by the screenshots; they're from the mobile phone versions of the game. Purportedly, the iPhone app will benefit from an overhauled client and graphics.

TibiaME makes its iPhone debut in September 2010.

Update 5/1/2010: gokbert is our winner -- check your email and respond and we'll send you the iTunes gift card code.

We Rule from ngmoco:) is one of the more popular community trading games. A genre of game most popularized by Farmville. This type of game revolves around building things and trading goods and services with other players. In We Rule one of the best ways to gain experience points and in-game currency is to sell and buy services with other players. Both buyers and sellers gain in these transactions.

To sell services, you just need to build buildings that sell goods and services. This is basically any of the buildings other than farms and homes. Users can then come to your kingdom and order from those buildings just by touching them. This is the same way that you can order services from other kingdoms. Visit other kingdoms and look for open signs to see what's available.

So let's use this post as a place to share each our Plus+ Network usernames so that we can start trading with each other. The idea being that we build a community within the We Rule community all trading with each other to build our XP as fast as possible. I'll start, I'm jeff148apps.

Add your Plus+ Network username below, in the comments. We can then all add each other as friends and start building up experience points and gold. To make it a little more enticing, we'll pick a random user from below for a $15 iTunes Gift card so you can buy more mojo in the game. We'll give away the gift card next weekend.

Also, make sure you have the latest version installed. Ngmoco recently fixed some bugs related to open businesses that should make things easier for us all.

A highly anticipated title, Com2us' Sniper Vs Sniper Online brings the massive multiplayer online concept to life. Based on a two player scenario, the game sees players trying to hunt down and eventually kill each other, with the help of snipers. Although the game has been hyped, you shouldn't be two quick to purchase. While the game is enjoyable for a short period of time, the way Sniper Vs Sniper Online is marketed it seems to imply I was in store for in-depth and lengthy gameplay, although in my personal experience playing the game, this wasn't the case.

The game centers around two or more players fighting to find, and eliminate each other. Opening Sniper Vs Sniper Online for the first time, the game will ask you to setup a handle (username), and a password - which will also be used in the event of you switching your device for another. It's sorta like an 'authorisation' system they've built into the game. This is a one time setup, and afterward you'll join the company's online servers. From there the game plays out in two modes: Single Mission and Online Play.

Choose Single Mission and you'll have a choice of six different 'areas' in which you can play. These include: Training Field, Building, Village, Forest, Temple and City. By default, Building, Village, Forest, Temple and City are locked until you complete the 'Training Field' stage. Selecting any one of the areas gives you a few further playing options. These include: Campaign, 1 vs 1 and Special Missions. In campaign mode you will be given a series of task to complete per area. For example, in the first area, your task is to shoot down five sets of five targets, with each future set of targets becoming smaller, and moving further and further away from you.

1 vs 1 is a little different. In this mode you'll be set a challenge which is timed. Basically, your against the clock. For example, In the first mission on the 'Training Field' area, you'll have to shoot down 10 targets, avoiding shooting anything other than the 10 targets in question, and all the while completing it within 5 minutes. Choosing the 'Special Mission' mode brings up 5 further missions to which you can complete, each offering a different task with a time limit attached.

Entering 'Online Play' mode sees you pitt yourself against players across the globe. Here, you can join a networked game, or if you like, an alliance attack. This involves you teaming up with someone already in the online lobby, to build a 'team'. Or maybe you just want to play with a family member who's already in the same room as you? A 1 vs 1 match which allows you to do just this.

Online matches consist of looking at a block of windows, and trying to spot and shoot your opponent. Controlled by accelerometer, online matches see you tilting your device to scour the playing field. While fun, I found doing this is somewhat limited, with your 'sniper sight' not being able to fully pan to the edge of the screen. It's like there's some kind of invisible limit - which is very noticeable.

In-game you have two objects which are there to assist you in making a successful kill. The first is your two-scope binoculars, which in turn allow you to pan a larger area of the screen. The second is of course, your sniper. These are toggled by hitting the appropriate symbolized buttons. As well as switching inventory items, you can also send 1 of 7 'audio' segments, which will convey how you feel about your opponents progress. Live chat is also available, allowing you to chat with opponents or members of your alliance.

After you've completed a match you'll have the option to share your score with the world, either via Facebook, or Twitter. One aspect I have to admit caught my eye with this is the game will actually put the gamer tag (handle) of whoever you were playing, in the tweet or status update. A little addition, but a nice one!

Overall, Sniper Vs Sniper: Online combines the use of tilt controlled gameplay, with satisfactory graphics. With realistic sound effects, and fluent animation in-game, the game holds up. While I enjoyed playing the game for a few minutes, it got boring - fast. The factor I put this down to is the game is centered around the 'visuals' rather than actual gameplay. There's no doubting the visuals of this game have been well thought out, but in my opinion, there isn't anything of real substance to actually involve the user, other than tilt and shoot, which for what should be an in-depth immersive title, doesn't cut it.

Fun for a few rounds with the mates - sure, but unfortunately didn't turn out as good as I was anticipating it was going to be.