TERA is a new breed of Mass Multiplayer Online(MMO) that takes the fight beyond whack-a-mole monotony with modified aiming, dodging, and tactical timing to create intense and rewarding combat. It has several choices of control, let it be mouse, keyboard or PC-compatible console controller. It is also a faction-free world where all players can impact the community as well as the social, political and economic structures of TERA.
Picking a class in TERA as each class is unique and plays differently from any other class. All races can play any classes. The Lancer is considered as tanker in TERA due to its heavy armor and used lance and shield as their main weapon, They have the highest defense stat in the game. The downside of the Lancer is slow in combat, relies on charges to move more quickly while engaged in battle. A Lancer’s job is keep agro on monsters and actively blocking their attacks. It is considered as the easier tank compared to the other tank.
Warrior is another tanker in the game that plays its part in the game. They are the fastest in the movement speed compared to the other classes, it also has highest HP pool. The downside is they have fragile armor. They are evasion tank that actively utilize their flip, attacks with invincibility frames, and shout to avoid and interrupt bosses as they hold agro with cries and moderate damage output. Warriors are one of the most difficult classes in TERA as they need a lot of fleeing and voiding causing the player to have high movement in order to play this class well. They are able to run circles around enemies and avoiding all attacks.
Priest is a healing class with buffing abilities that falls under supports. They are the healers and focused on buffing allies and keep everyone at full health. They also have the ability to resurrect should things didn’t turn up well. No downtime when soloing makes them one of the easiest solo classes in game. They are the main character during boss fights or some other group activities, they can be quite difficult as they need to maintain health of a team of people.
Another support class would be The Mystic, which is hybrid class that performs things like buff, off-heal, resurrect, crowd control and can off tank by using their pets. The downside of Mystic is they have low HP pool and low defenses. They also have lowest damage output in the game. It is a very difficult character to play and be good at it. Their main job is to keep the group fighting shape by topping off HP and MP, buffing, and smoothing out fights by dispelling monsters buffs and crowd control. This is the most difficult class in game.
The Slayer is a damage class. They are the melee DPS class in TERA. The Slayer is deft in combat, and can move quickly through enemy formations by stringing together combo attacks and utilizing their roll. Their medium armor made them frail while engaged in combat. AoE damage is their main weapon, far reaching whirling arc attacks emphasizes that focus. They are not good in solo because lack of self-healing ability and low defenses.
Berserker is another melee DPS hero that involves pseudo crowd control. With many slow, heavy hitting attacks equipped, they can wreak havoc on large numbers of enemies and single monsters alike. The Berserker shares the distinction of being the slowest moving class in the game. They mainly focused on knocking enemies over and causing heavy damage to large number of monsters. Slow movement speed is the downside of Berserker.
The Archer is a single-target DPS class with limited crowd control abilities. They have very high damage output in a short periods of time. Medium armor with second highest defense stat in game made them a good choice. Archers mainly focus on doing high amounts of damage very quickly to monsters. Overall, they are easy to play in game both solo and group setting. They are able to keep their distance and put big damage on monsters with very little chance if harm coming to their low HP pool.
The Sorcerer is a glass cannon DPS class. High damage output spread out evenly among their skills makes them most consistent DPS class in game. The downside is they have the lowest defense rate. They have the ability to keep their distance and dealt damage from far therefore it is still not too difficult to play if you are not too aggressive.
Tera Online Classes Explanations, Trailer and more explanations (taken from youtube)
Scarlet Blade offered by Aeria Games has been infecting the world of Multiplayer Online game lately. It is a mature MMORPG that involved Sci-Fi Theme. This game takes place on the future version of Earth after humanity became extinct and annihilated by alien invader called Nurak. Mankind in the game are the last hope to regain their home through violently fighting against the devilish creatures from other planet.
The gameplay is combat action based, with different combos and skills that make it fluid and dynamic. It is not something that required you to read the manual. Moving your character around using the so called ”gamer’s direction” which is the WASD and the mouse to control the direction. It is also an intense PVP and battlegrounds, the fun is limitless on its Massive PVP. You will get to kill the opposite faction for fun and gain experience at the same time, either your kill or kill steal. The experience calculation is based on the damage dealt.
If you are a good kill-stealer, it will not be an advantage as you only get the portion of your damage dealt. It is teamwork that matters on the warzone, instead of damage counts on enemies, it also depends on how you heal on your fellow faction mates. This game focuses on huge and intense PVP that urges the players to go for faction killing as you will gain a lot of benefits from it.
There are also several sideline of the game such as pet system, puzzles, instance, enchantment and many more. Although it is not new, the club really takes the cake. It is a feature that you are able to enter an awesome room with techno music, whine your head and let your hair down after one hell of a killings. If you go to the dance floor, your character will dance automatically and plus your pet gain experience while your character is partying which means you are away from your keyboard.
A good feature to keep gamers logged in. The customization is very limited which is the downside as you will not be able to create male character to your liking. Even the size and height of the characters are preset, all of them look almost alike except you can change the face and also hairstyle.
The newest feature which is outfit customization which is also kind of boring as you can get that in almost every MMORPG. The weapon design is really outstanding as you can see classy blades, whips and many more. One thing I like about the game is almost every equipment you wear ends up almost naked. It is simply an excuse for playing MMORPG with combination of soft-core which aims to take the market of the mature audiences.
Overall, I think this will be quite a good game as its main feature is PVP and it will not be too boring to play like traditional RPG where you need to gain experience and level and bla bla bla. Another addictive add in as you will have good enjoyment of playing this game just by looking at the hotness and perfect curve of your character.
Scarlet Blade features many different mini-games and extra content that we weren’t able to see anything during our short time with the game. There were some things that I was able to experience and can tell you about here.
Lounge / Nightclub One of the more interesting parts of the game, and one that may cause a bit of a stir for some is the lounge/nightclub area. The purpose of this nightclub zone is to hang out and relax while showing off your Arkana’s lingerie. The club can be accessed once you are level 25 and costs a certain amount of in-game gold. The club features NPCs where you can buy any of the items and gear that you need as well as a dance floor where your character will perform a special dance while hanging out with other players without the fear of monsters taking you down. Players in the lounge will get extra EXP bonuses for their pets as well as show off their avatar’s lingerie while listening to an ever-changing selection of music. There is also a special VIP club that costs additional gold and has special added bonuses not found in the nightclub.
Puzzle Game
The puzzle system is a not so much of a mini-game but something worth mentioning here. When you gain levels through the game you are able to go to the puzzle section where there are about 15 or so different puzzles to unlock. Pieces are unlocked either via leveling up or paying some of your in-game gold for more pieces. The puzzles have 24 different pieces that when unlocked will reveal an often-times risque image that you can either use for your own viewing pleasure in-game or exporting it to your computer and using it as a background. A bit of a warning, or incentive, the puzzles do contain nudity.
Card Game
The cards mini-game is played by finding random cards throughout the world as loot or by trading with other players and matching them up using standards poker style hands. Once you’ve matched up a certain poker hand you can turn it in for prizes which may include rare items and/or consumables for use in-game or during PvP.
Call of Duty continues to march out a game every year, but has it managed to stay in line with what gamers expect from the series? How do you keep a game fresh, while keeping it the same? Is Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 a game you’ll want to buy or put on your wishlist? Find out in our full review below!
The Pros
Cinematic storyline with branching moments feels truly epic
Multiplayer has been kicked up several notches
New options add lots of replay value
The Cons
Was the zombie mode worth the hype?
Strike Force levels have atrocious AI
Gameplay video
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Review:
The Call of Duty franchise has continually steamrolled the competition, and as Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 releases this holiday season, it enters a field crowded with competition. Just the past few weeks alone have brought us Borderlands 2, Halo 4 and Medal of Honor: Warfighter, with two of those games dominating our free time, and the other one… not. And that’s just the recent FPS lineup. Suffice it to say, there are plenty of games to divert your attention right now.
But Activision’s powerhouse title wants all eyes trained on it at launch as it tries to beat the massive “biggest entertainment launch ever” already set by its predecessor, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3. So how does it stack up?
There’s a 2 on the Box For A Reason!
Black Ops 2 is a sequel in both title and story, although it does not pick up immediately where the first game left off. Instead, we’re years in the future, where the present time is now 2025. You’re still playing as Mason, although this time it’s David Mason, son of Alex Mason from the original Black Ops. He’s visiting Frank Woods, his father’s old (literally) partner who has information about Raul Menendez, and possibly a terrorist attack on the United States.
That’s where the train begins to pull out of the station in Black Ops 2, and it will take you on a wild ride around the world, and jump through multiple points in time. You’ll be back in the boots of Alex Mason, running missions again alongside Woods, and you’ll encounter historical figures in the game, like Oliver North and Manuel Noriega, who they casually nickname “Pineapple Face.”
You’ll see the bond between Woods and the elder Mason deepen, based on missions they carried out post Black Ops, and you’ll also find out just who Raul Menendez is, and why Treyarch considers him to be “the most dangerous terrorist since Bin Laden.” Although you’ve played through the campaign at least once, you’ll probably conclude that Menendez is much, much worse.
Zombie Trailer
But for the majority of the game, you’ll be doing duty as David Mason and often following directly in your father’s footsteps as you trail Menendez and try to stop a global terrorist event by his hands. During your time as David, you’ll be partnered up with fellow soldier Harper, voiced by and modeled after Michael Rooker who does a fantastic job throughout this game. We’re just glad he never went full Merle Dixon on us.
The team was extremely proud to be able to bring screenwriter David S. Goyer in as a story consultant on this title, and it shows in the plot. This is a massive story with some truly horrific moments embedded in it. It entwines a fantastic story into the plotlines of Black Ops, and does a commendable job of pushing us 13 years into the future. While the Rare Earth Elements storyline might seem farfetched at first, if you do a little digging into the science behind it, you’ll find that it is eerily on target.
Little things like the fact that some of the missions (and a multiplayer map) take place aboard an aircraft carrier named the USS Obama, and the usage of biometric identity bracelets that insert your image into advertisements aboard a luxurious floating city seem grounded in the reality of today. Then there’s all of the future tech you’ll get to play with, like wing suits and flechette guns with exploding rounds. Most of the really nifty toys aren’t available in multiplayer, giving the campaign another notch in its replayability belt.
Replay’s The Thing
Speaking of replay, while the game has a fairly epic campaign that should take about eight hours to complete in full, for the first time in a Call of Duty game, there are finally reasons to replay the campaign besides just upping the difficulty level. There are branching decisions throughout that will affect your story, and ultimately the ending of the game.
Some of these decisions will also trigger Strike Force levels, which are optional levels that will appear from time to time within the game. While you don’t have to take part in these at all, your decisions here will also affect the endgame. Plus, you can also fail these levels, although you can try to replay them if you have the resources. But they will only be available for a limited time, and once the window closes, they are gone forever.
The branching events in the campaign are where the story treads into the “interactive storytelling” realm. Sometimes these can be somewhat trivial and cosmetic, and at other times they can have a bearing on future campaign events and on Strike Force levels. You can easily identify these moments as they happen in the campaign with certain achievements, or you can see them in the level menus where your progress is marked.
Case in point on the trivial side: During a later mission to a luxurious floating city, Harper remarks that if he was on his own time, he would get some “hot chick” action. When I replayed the game, in an earlier mission, where we were fleeing the wrath of Menendez, I accidentally steered our car under a jet of flame, badly burning half of Harper’s face. When made our way to the floating city, and Harper makes his “hot chick” remark, one of the other characters quips, “Not with that face.” Ouch!
With these decisions and levels boil down to is a first for the franchise: multiple endings. While it isn’t a new idea in the video game industry, it’s a novel approach for Call of Duty, and it will make you want to replay the campaign more than once.
A Strike Against Strike Force
While we fully support branching storylines and welcome decisions that have a direct affect on the outcome of your game, unfortunately these Strike Force levels are a bit of a misstep. First of all, they are meant to be strategic. Offering the player a satellite level top-down view of the battlefield, you can issue rudimentary commands to your units like move and attack.
Unfortunately, the artificial intelligence in these units just isn’t enough to get the job done, and after much frustration you’ll find that it is often much easier to jump down into a single soldier unit to get the job done. A good example of this was in a level where we had to plant three beacons at different locations on at a cargo ship port. After issuing movie commands to our units, they would frequently get pinned down by enemy fire, or easily taken out by gunfire.
While part many Call of Duty multiplayer matches involves you lone-wolfing it, we didn’t expect to be leaving squads and units behind in the campaign in order to secure or complete objectives. Thankfully you can gain the ability to continue trying Strike Force levels as you complete campaign missions, but they vanish after you progress past a certain point so if you’re a completist you’ll have to act fast or forego that level forever.
Our advice: after beginning a Strike Force level, figure out the objective, and then issue rough move commands to your units before jumping into a single soldier and then go Rambo on the situation.
Loading Out
Another first for the Call of Duty series is the ability to change up your loadouts before missions, giving you variety to how you play the single player missions. You’ll encounter challenges in each mission that will require certain weapons, and besides just completing a missions, you can now stat-track each one as well to see what your “score” was. While this doesn’t create a massive different, it is nice to see some variety here, and to select your preferred weapon set before launching a mission.
The loadout changes carry over into multiplayer as well, where the biggest change to that mode comes in the form of the new “Pick 10” system. Now you can pick only ten different items: weapons, perks, attachments, wildcards, etc. to outfit yourself with before a match begins. As you progress through multiplayer, you can gain wildcards that allow you to carry two primary weapons, or have more than one Perk 1 and so one, but you continually have to juggle your ten so you don’t go over.
Multipass, No Leeloo Dallas Required
If you’ve ever glanced at the top of the online gaming charts for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3, then you know that Call of Duty titles frequently own the top slot. But this presents the developers with a unique problem where they need to innovate, while adhering to the adage ‘If it ain’t broke… don’t fix it.” So while they haven’t radically changed multiplayer, they have definitely kicked it up several notches.
First and foremost is through the Pick 10 system, which introduces arguably the largest change to single player since perks were first introduced. The one real effect that the system has is that it will cause you to constantly fiddle with your loadouts. In Black Ops, Modern Warfare 3, Modern Warfare 2 and so on, players tended to find a loadout they preferred, and would just stick with it.
With Pick 10, you’ll find yourself diving into the menus between matches to change something minor, or alter your loadout completely by equipping two primary weapons, or by equipping no weapons whatsoever (which equips your melee blade by default) and trying to rank up your knife. It’s a simple system, but one that provides a ton of variety. We just wish it had a giant slot machine handle built in that could dial up a random loadout at any time.
There are multiple new attachments in the game that are unlockable as you rank up your weapons, many of which are new to the game. These include millimeter-wave scanners that can show enemies through obstacles, and shock charge grenades that stun enemies that get near them. Taking a page from Gears of War, your assault shields can now be embedded in the ground as well, giving you portable cover that you can move and place at will.
Scorestreaks are now replacing Killstreaks, and those have been tweaked as you would expect and updated with “future” 2025 weaponry. Some of these changes are small, but extremely welcomed. Sentry Guns now fight autonomously, or you can jump into them at any time to take control. The same goes for the Autonomous Ground Robot drone that you can jump in and out of.
Easily the most useful and devious Scorestreak at our disposal was the Guardian. This sets up a microwave-based turret that can be aimed in one direction. It will cause an enemy to slow down, become disoriented, and if they don’t get out of the way of the beam fast enough it will kill them. In one of our Search & Destroy matches, a teammate planted the bomb and set up a Guardian on the bombsite. He was subsequently killed, but the lone remaining enemy could not get close enough to disarm the bomb without cooking himself. Ultimately, he sacrificed himself while trying, giving us the win.
A La Mode
Multiplayer has also shaken up the modes this time around, and thankfully gone is the CoD Cash/Points system from the original Black Ops. So instead of Wager Matches you just have Party Games, but they bring back Sharpshooter, Gun Game, One in the Chamber, and Stick & Stones. Combat Training is also more integral to multiplayer as well, with up to three live players and three bots being able to take part in Bootcamp, where you can also rank up from one to ten. You can also play Objective modes with bots beyond level ten, although you’ll only earn half XP.
Objective modes are now round-based, so for instance in Domination, players will now switch sides in the attack and defend back and forth. There are some new modes as well, including Hardpoint, which is basically King of the Hill with a constantly changing target. Or it might be more appropriate to call it Headquarters… without the Headquarters. Custom Games are back as well, with multiple options to tweak including bots in all game modes, and the ability to change Pick 10 to Pick 3 up to Pick 17.
Also new is League Play, where you can team up and rank up as a league. There’s a large, ladder-based tier system in play here, framed loosely after the Diamond etc. ladders inStarCraft 2. However in our brief time with the game, we weren’t able to see how accurately it rates your play here. Although like StarCraft, you do have to participate in a number of placement matches before you get an actual ranking, which is promising. Hardcore Clan players, this is probably where you’ll want to take your teams to play.
Another addition is Multi-Team play, which has up to 18 players and six teams competing with each other. It’s somewhat chaotic when multiple teams are on the map, sometimes forcing you to try and work with another team if one of the others starts to pull way ahead. At least, it forces you to do that as much as you can in CoD multiplayer, where kill first, ask for cooperation later is normally the rule of thumb.
The Theater mode has been tweaked as well, with players able to store 20 clips (which can all be merged into one big clip), and the ability to attach the camera to objects in the game, like the Dragonfire quad-copter scorestreak, or the RCDX remote control car. You can also now CoDcast recorded games, which
But easily our favorite addition was the ability to create an instant highlight reel. Simply pull up a match and select this option, and a reel of your best moments in the game will be created on the fly. You can play with the settings for the moments it captures, but right out of the box it does a fine job of making a brag reel to share without all of the video scrubbing and editing.
How Prestigious is Prestige?
Prestige has also been revamped here, with level 55 as the target number for Prestige, and at 10 levels deep. But this time hitting Prestige does not wipe your slate clean. It now continues your level progression, and your weapon XP and attachments are not reset, nor are the challenges. Your unlocks stay unlocked. You’ll be able to choose one of three rewards whenever you hit the magic number, allowing you to add a new Create a Class slot (up to 5), get a Refund of unlock tokens, or get a Fresh Start which actually does reset all of your stats and kicks you back to level one.
eSports Are eHarmony For Some, Not For Others
Treyarch has bent over backwards to satisfy the eSports community with Black Ops 2, which includes the aforementioned League Play and also encompasses shoutcasting and livestreaming as well. With CoDcasting (their version of shoutcasting), there are multiple controls in the game that allow a commentator to navigate through any game with a variety of tools including picture-in-picture, map view, a score panel, name plates, and the ability to drop in and out of player conversations.
During our review event, professional shoutcaster Hastro watched a match we played in, and then CoDcasted out the entire game in commentary mode, and we captured the video here for you to watch. While it might only be a very small group of gamers that take advantage of this mode, expect it to pop up frequently as people try it out. One thing we learned: it’s tough to make an entire Call of Duty multiplayer match sound exciting the whole time.
You can also livestream your matches out directly to the web, giving everyone the ability to become a YouTube superstar. Again, this is going to result in a ton of content, but it will be up to you to separate the good from the bad.
The Undead Just Keep On Coming
Much has been ballyhooed about the new Zombie mode in Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, and while it initially feels huge, it’s not quite what we were hoping for. Black Ops provided a rich undead experience with so much Zombie DLC for the game made available after launch, including the fan-favorite Call of the Dead, and the Rezurrection DLC which was only zombie maps.
We fully expect that trend to continue, as right now Zombies in this game feels like only part of a sprawling puzzle that has yet to be unlocked. That doesn’t mean that the zombies aren’t fun here, we just expected something bigger given that the mode now has it’s own menu screen and selection system. Although it’s a statement unto itself that we’ve come to expect to much from this game mode, which almost felt like an afterthought when it was included with Call of Duty: World at War.
The largest change to Zombies is the Tranzit system, which finds you and up to three other survivors struggling to stay alive at several different locations, which can be visited via an automated bus on a looping route. Starting out at a semi-destroyed bus depot, the animatronic bus driver (think Johnny Cab from Total Recall and voiced by Nolan North) will kindly honk before pulling out and taking the journey to the next stop. You can opt to stay on the bus (yes, it will get attacked by zombies on the way and while stopped), or stay at your locations. But as a warning: if you try to run from location to location without the bus, you’ll get attacked by these nightmare-inducing baby things that leap onto your skull. Don’t try it unless you have a death wish.
But Zombies is all about exploration, and to augment that fact the team has created “Buildables” in the world of Zombies now, giving players the chance to combine parts at workbenches in order to create useful items. For instance an electric fan and a dressmaker’s mannequin make a power turbine. Naturally, right? You can also find single-use items such as a ladder that can be attached to your bus to allow rooftop access, or a wedge for the front of the bus to shove zombies aside.
There are a wealth of secrets to unlock in here, just like any good zombies map, and while we like to think it will keep gamers busy for weeks, we have no doubt that there will be full unlock guides on YouTube by the end of launch day, augemented by the fact that Zombie games can now be loaded in the Theater. The development team definitely played coy with us here, and there’s still a lot to find even after our team managed to stay alive through 15 waves of zombies.
Zombies also adds a new grief mode where you can play another team of four (it’s always the FBI vs. the CDC, as an FYI) in humans vs. humans vs. zombies. The goal here is to outlast the other team, and thankfully there are some mechanics to aid you in that goal, like chucks of meat you can find and toss into the midst of the enemy team, bringing with it rabid hordes of the undead.
What we recommend: Jump into Survival which has up to four players trying to survive waves in the locations from Tranzit. The Buildables are still there, and it will give your team a chance to learn how they work without having to worry about multiple locations for now.
All On Accounta Pullin’ A Trigger
Honestly, the most impressive thing about Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 is that Treyarch and Activision didn’t just dump a few new maps and weapons in here and slap a “TWO” on the box. A ton of work has gone into this game from top to bottom, and it stands as a real testament to the developers who didn’t want to just coattail this one into the books. Nearly every system and aspect of the game has been tweaked or overhauled, and it certainly shows in the final product.
While the Strike Force levels are welcomed because of their eventual affect on the outcome of the game, the presentation and AI in them needs a serious overhaul. Call of Duty has always been about the first-person shooting experience, and attempting to add a strategic element to that could work at some point, but it doesn’t really come together here. Likewise, the Zombies mode feels slightly hobbled, and while that will probably be filled out via DLC, we would like a more complete package out of the box.
But despite the slight dings in Strike Missions and Zombies, the series continues to shine with its incredibly ambitious, globe-spanning, epic single player campaign, which is now augmented with an incredibly high replay factor. And it should come as no surprise that the multiplayer continues to shine, and will dominate the online game boards in the weeks and months to come. The series has come to be strongly identified by its online multiplayer, and the same holds true in this latest release. They’ve perfected the scratch to the itch you have when you feel the need to jump online and shoot things.
And as with most Call of Duty titles, stay tuned after the credits for something extra. Although this time, be prepared for the truly bizarre. Seriously. It still has us simultaneously scratching our heads and tapping our toes.
Recently, the Assassin’s Creed formula, tried and tested as it is, has begun to wear thin, beaten into the ground with an iterative yearly formula that many feel has become stale. Is a new location and a new time-span enough to reinvigorate the franchise, or is it time we finally unplugged ourselves from the Animus and moved on?
As you step into the shoes of Assassin’s Creed III‘s new hero Ratonhnhaké:ton (otherwise known as Connor Kenway), it’s hard not to be impressed by the new setting. Gone are the affluent, Baroque buildings culture of Rome and Venice, replaced with a more somber and relatable setting. And yet, it’s one far more intimate and diverse than anything we’ve seen in the franchise before. It’s the first of many welcome breaks.
New lead character Connor Kenway is the second. Although he lacks much of the charm and charisma of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, his fresh take on gameplay adds a lot more to the series than Ezio did during his time at the helm of the franchise. Where Ezio would cumbersomely climb large buildings, Connor can effortlessly climb cliff faces. Where Ezio would patiently wait to strike, Connor decimates enemies with a ferocity that is regularly intense and often gruesome. Connor brings a completely new level of immersion to the table, and nowhere is this more noticeable than in the Frontier.
Doing a bit more than just “hunting wabbits.”
The Frontier is where the most drastic shift in focus for the series occurs. Gone are the unending tiles of conveniently-placed square buildings, and in their place is an expansive wilderness that takes the free-running routes of old in an interesting and far less routine direction.
Although learning how to make your way through the branches and leaves and rivers and crevices can take a little getting used to at first, it quickly becomes a natural experience, and memories of traversing cities and tall buildings fade away as you get wrapped up in the expansive wilderness, and the many distractions it offers.
And boy does Assassin’s Creed 3 have a lot of distractions.
After the inane amount of repetition that plagued the first Assassin’s Creed game, Ubisoft made certain that would never be a problem again. Unfortunately, this seemed to carry an adverse effect of giving the games something new with each title; many of these additions were not always met with approval – few are going to miss the tower defense mini-game of Revelations, or the constant shop buying.
So how does the latest game avoid this, exactly? Diversity and purpose.
Hunting, for instance, quickly becomes one of your primary means of earning money. Connor is a man of the land, and having money thrown at him from rich nobility would make little sense in the context of the early American setting. It’s very easy to get lost in the Frontier for hours, tracking and hunting animals to obtain their pelts or meat, which can later be sold when you later return to civilization. It’s a drastic shift from previous games, but it works seamlessly as part of the overall experience.
Naval battles are another major shift from what we’ve seen before, and it’s also the one feature that had the highest chance of going wrong – this kind of side content does not have the greatest track record in this franchise. Thankfully, it’s an incredibly enjoyable and insanely immersive experience. It’s so well done in fact, that it’s a honest pity Ubisoft didn’t consider a multiplayer competitive mode for the naval warfare. Definitely a lost opportunity.
Hard to starboard to whoop some ass!
You’ll often find yourself so engrossed in these diversions, distractions and detours that the main thread of the story will end up taking a backseat to your own emergent experience, whether through intentional design or simply from the overwhelming amount of things you have to. This can hardly be labeled a complaint though, and it would be unfair to consider it one.
It’s a pity with all these things to invest your time into that the combat hasn’t seen an improvement. If anything, it’s taken something of a step back.
Direct combat has never been the series’ strong point, and this hasn’t changed in Assassin’s Creed. The fact that it doesn’t even exist in the multiplayer mode is telling enough, but the system has become so simplified this time around you can essentially win the majority of battles by spamming the counter button and pressing attack. Even the significantly larger size of battles can’t make up for the combat’s ultimate monotony, and it’s the one major failing in an otherwise incredibly robust package.
The direct approach has never been Assassin’s Creed way. It’s at its best when you take your time, and the slow, stealthy approach. Its a game of experiences over depth. With a new world, a new focus and a revitalized sense of identity, Assassin’s Creed 3 succeeds in finally breaking the series out of its iterative shell, and its all the better for it.
Assassin’s Creed III is currently available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii U, and PC platforms for $59.99. A Limited Edition version including extra physical content is available for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 for $105.00 on Amazon.com currently.
Disclaimer: An Xbox 360 version of this game was provided to The Gaming Vault by the publisher for review purposes.
A very beautifully done anime which converted from light novel, below will be some of the plot summary and images from the anime. I shed tears while watching a few episode maybe they plot its just too sad for me : (
(Wikipedia)
Novel Plot
In the year 2022, the Virtual Reality Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (VRMMORPG), Sword Art Online (SAO), is released. With the Nerve Gear, a virtual reality helmet that stimulates the user’s five senses via their brain, players can experience and control their in-game characters with their minds.
On November 6, 2022, all the players log in for the first time, and subsequently discover that they are unable to log out. They are then informed by Kayaba Akihiko, the creator of SAO, that if they wish to be free, they must reach the 100th floor of the game’s tower and defeat the final boss. However, if their avatars die in-game, their bodies will also die in the real world. The story follows Kirito, a skilled player who is determined to beat the game. As the game progresses, Kirito eventually befriends a female player named Asuna who becomes his partner and lover. After the duo discover the identity of Kayaba’s avatar in SAO, they confront and defeat him, freeing themselves and the other players from the game.
Upon returning to the real world, Kirito learns that Asuna and a small group of SAO players are trapped in another VRMMORPG called Alfheim Online (ALO). Their imprisonment in ALO is part of a plan devised by Nobuyuki Sugō to subdue Asuna and marry her, in an attempt to take over her family’s company. Helped by old dogs from SAO along with new allies, Kirito thwarts Nobuyuki’s plans and finally reunites with Asuna in the real world.
Soon after, Kirito plays another VRMMORPG called Gun Gale Online (GGO) to investigate the mysterious connection between the game and deaths occurring in the real world. He eventually discovers that the culprits are former members of a murderous guild he had previously encountered in SAO.
After solving the murders in GGO, Kirito is recruited to assist in the development of a state-of-the-art game, UnderWorld (UW), which has an interface that is far more realistic and complex than that of the previous games he had played. In UW, the flow of time proceeds thousands of times faster than in the real world. However, Kirito ends up falling for a trap and wakes up inside the game, unable to log out and he starts looking for a way back to reality.
Anime Review from iwriter88 on My animelist
Sword Art Online was one of the most hyped up animes of Summer 2012 and has probably the widest range of scores I’ve ever seen. Does it live up to the hype? Read on to find out! That being said, skip to the consensus (TLDR) if you don’t want to read blocks of text! 😀 Please do not send anything overly negative to me; polite and constructive criticism is always appreciated.
PLOT:
The Good: Man, they really went for a lot here. The light novels themselves were actually more action/adventure focused, something that doesn’t happen in the anime. I’m going to do my best not to give any spoilers, but essentially, the anime Sword Art Online aims to be a love story of epic proportions, where their relationship will experience highs and lows ranging from boundless joy to aching tragedy. Straight up, if you don’t like the main characters, you probably won’t like this anime. That’s how most love stories work. However, if you’re like me, and you absolutely adore the main characters, then this anime is definitely for you! Sword Art Online additionally does a brilliant job of easing us in to the massive, awe-inspiring frontier that is Aincrad. The concept of this anime — being trapped in a strange, exotic new world and living in it — is a dream that we all have had at one point, and it’s fascinating to see it being done before our eyes.
The Bad: At the same time, however, the execution has been done terribly. Lots of fans/first-time watchers – me included – felt that Kirito and Asuna were not given nearly enough character development. It’s hard to root for someone that you barely know or hate. Another problem lies in the pace. The side stories were rushed, no doubt about, which is bad because they offered interesting insights into Kirito and Asuna’s relationship and personality. At the same time, you can’t really justify having two episodes of precious anime time being given to the side stories, and they honestly aren’t as interesting as the main plot. Something else that irks me about Sword Art Online is how it suffers from deus ex machina. That is, it’ll solve really big situations with just dumb stuff like “it’s the power of love” or “strength of will trumps everything”. However, other amazing shows (Harry Potter, Clannad) have done similar things, so it’s whatever.
CONSENSUS: 7/10. Sword Art Online attempted to create a love story of epic proportions…something that they partially succeeded in. Although they eased us in beautifully in the start, undeveloped characters, a rushed storyline, and miracle syndrome make it lose quite a bit of its impact.
ARTWORK:
The artwork in this anime can be summed up into one word: inconsistent. The sceneries are drawn very well and have a wide variety (ranging from icy snowcaps to flowery meadows to beautiful cities…), and the characters are done beautifully (a nice contrast to the stupid body proportions in Code Geass or the crazy facial expressions in Fate/Zero), but it gets stupidly bad during the battles. For some strange reason, instead of treating us to a smooth action sequence, we instead constantly gaze at character still shots. It’s really frustrating when you know that the battle sequences could have been amazing!! Background animation is probably the most inconsistent part in that it gets really bad in towns but great in landscapes. I really don’t know what to think. I think the animation of this anime is something that really sets it back from some of the great animes, and I’m hoping it gets better in the future (especially the battle scenes, they can really make those a lot more enjoyable to wach).
CONSENSUS: 7/10. Battle scenes are very badly animated, and backgrounds sometimes are drawn very sloppily. However, the sheer scope of sceneries in this anime is a delight to see.
MUSIC:
The music is incredible. Yuki Kajiura is one of the biggest names in anime music, and her music is absolutely astounding. So far, the music’s been perfect and set each mood beautifully. In particular, the battle scene music. Oh my god. I found myself humming it when I was eating breakfast, just a testament to how well done it is. As for the OP/ED, they’re really generic. They’re being done by LiSa, who’s done so many OP/EDs by now, but they don’t really stand out…in a good or bad way. The OP is starting to grow on me, but the ED still feels a little out of place (not as much as Clannad AS, but a bit). 2nd ED is epic though!! I don’t know, I think Yuki Kajiura’s music makes up for any disparities here though.
CONSENSUS: 10/10, Music is great and going to be developed by Yuki Kajiura, the person who did Fate/Zero and Madoka Magica. OP/ED are generic, but that’s not a bad thing.
CHARACTERS:
The characters are ridiculously hit or miss. Kirito is pretty much your perfect, flawless teenager. That’s going to be a deal breaker for many of people upon knowing that. Many people like their protagonists to have flaws, to be more humanlike, more down to Earth, and having a character that’s flawless frankly drops a lot of the realism. I would like to argue that the alternative of having a whiny protagonist that doesn’t do anything is a lot worse though (Guilty Crown, I’m looking at you). The same lies for the female protagonist, Asuna, our main character’s love interest. Frankly, the relationship just came together too easily. Asuna also has the privilege of being practically perfect in every single way. No really: she can cook, she’s incredibly beautiful, she’s good at swordfighting, she’s dedicated, and she’s a tsundere (personally I love tsunderes). The side characters and the villains lack depth as well. Can anyone else picture how much more interesting this anime would have gotten if Sugou was initially some good guy that Asuna begins to fall for…only to be someone rotten in the inside? Instead, we’re treated to a generic villain who literally doesn’t have a single good quality.
CONSENSUS: 6/10, Main character Kirito isn’t absurdly annoying like A LOT of other main characters, but he does get what he wants a little too easily. Side characters are overly generic and get far too little time. Same with Kirito and Asuna, we needed more time for their development!
THE BREAKDOWN: It’s a great anime if you like Kirito and Asuna, but if you don’t, you might as well watch another anime. The anime itself suffers from various flaws — plot holes, shoddy animation, undeveloped characters — that prevent me from giving it a high score. Still worth a watch though, if only so that you can rant about how good or bad it is on the forums after each episode. 7/10!
(+) The light novel for this anime is incredibly well done (#1 rated light novel on MAL).
(+) Incredible nostalgia for any MMORPG gamers.
(+) Music is stellar, designed by the best.
(+) Anime gets a lot better after episode 8.
(+) The landscapes are absolutely beautiful…one of the benefits of making the anime set in a fantasy video game.
(+) Tons of people to discuss this anime with since it’s popular; since it’s polarizing, you get some very interesting arguments too.
(−) Characters not developed thoroughly enough.
(−) Anime may be rushed in first few episodes.
(−) Suffers from very poor animation in some the fight scenes and in the background (budgeting).
(−) Insertion of side stories before main plot may cause some viewers to lose interest.
(−) Anime suffers from miracle syndrome (occasionally will solve problems with a miracle).
(−) Causes you to waste time talking with people about the latest episode of SAO, whether you hate it or love it
You can watch the anime here – http://www.animehere.com/anime/sword-art-online.html
This is something that I’ll be waiting for to watch on time every week as it really attracts me, I personally fall in love with the plot and the way they express how one act in the game actually showing out his other personality as well.
Maybe because I’m a .Hack fans and really into these kinda trapped in online games stories but I ensure you that start watching the anime or reading the light novel will seriously made you think a lot more in your life : D
If you take nothing else from the release of Nintendo’s Wii U, you should be able to realize one simple truth: the company is never afraid of trying new things. Fortunately for them, the end result always seems to be a resounding success. “Hardcore” purists can debate on and off about what kind of success Nintendo has achieved, but we are not here to argue about semantics. We’re here to talk about a crispy out of the box, honest to god brand new console after the six to seven years of abuse we’ve given our current consoles.
Demi and I got a chance to pick up the Wii U Deluxe Edition, and here are our two cents on this year new release.
HARDWARE:
First thing you’ll notice when popping open the box is the console itself. It surprised me just how long the device was. I expected something a…
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