| OBT Giveaway to Launch March 10-24, 2011 With Special Gifts for Players Marina Del Rey, CA – March 10, 2011 The realms collide in the highly anticipated free to play, browser based MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) ETERNAL DESTINY! Become a hero and right the turmoil and instability caused by the God of Chaos, regain control of the chaotic land and embrace your ETERNAL DESTINY! Interested players can register online for their free accounts today (Thursday; March 10, 2011) beginning at 6:00 pm PST March 24, 2011; 6:00 pm PST. No download or codes required! More information can be found at https://www.warpportal.com. Players who participate in the OBT will automatically receive items listed below at commercial launch:
Also, players that reach and exceed level 30 during the OBT will automatically receive:
To register for the ETERNAL DESTINY OBT, please register online at https://www.warpportal.com during the OBT period “We are excited to have ETERNAL DESTINY as the newest member of the Gravity Interactive family,” states Yoshinori Kitamura, Gravity Interactive, Inc. CEO, “players will be taken to a world of wonder and amazement with the visually stimulating art and the fast-paced-action-packed game play.” SYNOPSIS Unbeknownst to the various realms, a being called the God of Chaos, emerged to propagate his doctrine of the world where, “No rule cannot be broken, everything can be twisted.” This God of Chaos caused much turmoil with all the paths crossing through one another. This event caused the boundaries of the realms to suddenly close and the realms were unable to return to their original state. This broke the stability within the realms and an endless war ensued. The world nearly collapsed under this turmoil. The heroes from each realm began to ponder a solution to open the boundaries between each realm, in order to correct the problems that the God of Chaos created and to return the realms back to normal. However the strongest heroes of the realms were lost since the closing of the boundaries. Thus, the problem of how to find the boundaries of the realms and how to open About Eternal Destiny About WarpPortal About Gravity Interactive, Inc. |
We recently changed our review process. Read all about how we do our reviews now.
Day One: Initial Impressions
Outside of the traditional 2K online league functionality and ranked/custom matches, there isn’t a whole lot to discuss when it comes to MLB 2K11 — at least in terms of new elements. So consider this writeup more of a quick impressions piece about how the game plays online rather than an in-depth look at the online game modes and features.
That being said, in the five or so games I managed to play online, MLB 2K11 played a more stable game of baseball than it did offline. Gone were many of the graphical freezes when a ball was put into play, and lag was at a minimum aside from a very slight swing delay. As I found myself trying to mentally comprehend how this could be, I immediately realized that MLB 2K11 online is essentially MLB 2K11 offline minus the presentation.
Yes, there is no in-game presentation when playing the game online. No pregame introductions, no stat overlays when a player comes up to bat, no instant replays of big plays, no between innings highlights/box score, and worst of all, no in-game notification of what player is at bat.
I never would have thought the omission of a player at-bat graphic would have been that big of a deal until I found myself playing a hotly contested game against my OS colleague and editor Chase Becotte. We were both so confused about who was hitting on numerous occasions during our games that our only option was to pause the game multiple times in order to read our lineups in the pause screen.
And talk about a buzzkill when playing online, especially when you are trying to outsmart your opponent’s non-stop pitching changes with various pinch hitters. Simply put, you know things are bad when you leave Fausto Carmona in a game to bat during a critical situation because you think he’s Orlando Cabrera.)
And, sure, this may seem like a small gripe to many, but how does 2K expect anyone to be immersed in an online baseball game when you can’t even tell who is at the plate? Add in the omission of a batter’s plate appearances, and it’s downright impossible to even recognize a player who has been killing you all game long when you are pitching.
On that note, in a game against Chase, Oakland’s Josh Willingham was red hot by the time he came up to bat in the bottom of the ninth of a tie game. Since I had absolutely no idea that Willingham was already 3-4 in the game with two RBI, I decided to pitch to him, eventually yielding a walk-off three-run shot. It was not until after the very impressive walk-off celebration cut scene — the only presentation element in the entire game — that Chase and I both realized just how hot Willingham had been.
2K did, however, make sure to include the individual batter’s stats depending on the pitch count. I know I would rather want to know how my batter fares in 2-0 counts, rather than know who he is and how he’s performed at the plate during the game. (Yes, that was sarcasm.)
It’s design decisions like these that really have me scratching my head when it comes to this game. How was a presentation element this important to the game of baseball overlooked? I can pick up a baseball game on the NES to this day and see my player’s stats at the plate during a given game, yet this feature is too difficult to integrate into an online game mode in 2011?
After experiencing just how smooth the online play is in MLB 2K11, far removed from the choppy animations and graphical hiccups of the offline game, I quickly deduced that 2K may have been forced to strip out the offline presentation in order to get the game to run at a decent clip online. While this style has become the norm for MLB 2K baseball online in recent years, I just can not look past this being the only online option in the game, especially when the same development studio is responsible for the amazing (online and off) NBA 2K11.
(And, really, I’m not even criticizing the “fast play” system in the grand scheme of things. Yes, I should always know who is hitting, but I get that baseball games can take a long time and not everyone wants to sit and wait through various baseball minutiae. But when I play an unranked custom match, and I still don’t get any presentation until after the game ends, then that seems restrictive.)
While MLB 2K11 online plays well, the online portion of the game is so stripped down that it should be called MLB 2K11-lite. Let me reiterate, MLB 2K11 online plays a very fun game of baseball, and during my experiences so far, it actually seems more technically stable than the offline game. Unfortunately, those looking for a more complete online offering featuring the outstanding presentation values of the offline game are out of luck.
| Free-to-Play Massively Multiplayer Real-Time Strategy Game Begins New Era and Gives New Players 1,000 Ducats to Spend on In-Game Items to Begin Conquering the Lands! New York, NY – March 10, 2011 – Paradox Interactive today announced the launch of Dreamlords: Resurrection, a Free-to-Play fantasy based Massively Multiplayer Online Real-Time Strategy (MMORTS) game for the PC. The innovative online strategy game brings players into a world where great armies and allies work together to conquer an exciting, vibrant fantasy world. There are no fees to download or play the game, which can be found at: https://www.dreamlords.com.To celebrate the launch of Dreamlords: Resurrection, Paradox and the games developer, Lockpick, are offering all new players 1,000 Paradox Ducats valued at more than $10, just for signing up. The Ducats can be spent on in-game items and enhancements that youre your Dreamlord more powerful as you conquer your enemies faster. The promotion will last for a limited time, so players are encouraged to start a new character today. “Dreamlords: Resurrection perfectly melds the worlds of online gaming and real-time strategy in a new and unique way, said Tom Sderlund, Project Lead for Paradox Connect. With the Starter Pack, players will receive consumables that will accelerate their advancement through the game and enable them to build a powerful army and conquer land faster. Dreamlords: Resurrection is powered by Paradox Connect, a platform that adds community features, achievements and other features that enhance the gameplay experience, replayability and connection to the game. About Dreamlords: Resurrection The inclusion of Cooperative Player-vs-Environment (PvE) play, allows for even greater intensity as players team up with a friend to launch an assault on the nightmares that haunt your people or attempt to slay one of the world bosses. Features:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Dreamlordsgame |
Unreal Engine 3 – knockout technologyThe Unreal Engine 3 technology has powered many of this generation’s biggest games, including everything from Gears Of War to Batman: Arkham City and BioShock.
There’s still no sign of Unreal Engine 4, but at GDC last week Epic did have a, ‘proposal for what the next generation of gaming will look like’. It was initially shown only behind closed doors but has now been passed onto website IGN.
Before, you watch the video though, bear in mind that this is all running in real-time on Nvidia GeForce GTX 500 series graphics cards.
It looks amazing but we wouldn’t try and draw too much significance from what’s going on (a chain-smoking vigilante beating up some villains with a natty transforming body suit). There’s no indication that visuals relate to any actual game, it literally is just a tech demo.
That said Epic has hinted recently that their main team is considering creating a brand new title after Gears Of War 3 this autumn, so who knows… maybe this could be the sort of thing they’re thinking of.
Vendetta Online for Android [Motorola XOOM] [REVIEW] [VIDEO]
Behold a game that’s been out since 2004. I’m not kidding. Today while I was hanging out in the game, taking my final screenshots, a man told me he’d been playing the game for 6 years. Does that say something to you about the amount of gameplay you can potentially get out of this app? Quite a bit, yes. This is Vendetta Online, a game which has JUST this week come to Android for play on the Motorola XOOM which is of course running Android 3.0 Honeycomb. It’s a science fiction massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that you’ll now be interfacing with via your singular XOOM screen. It’s an entire universe – will our XOOM window into it survive with the rest of the ranks?