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Alliance of Valiant Arms

Lone — Mon, 09 May 2011 20:27:58 +0000

Being a long time Combat Arms player, I finally took the dive into A.V.A and have Been having a blast. I was immediately impressed with the expansive achievement system(took me a few hours to even finish the beginner challenges), the ability to swap between 3 classes in-match, and the various game modes. Not to mention this game has some excellent graphics, every other free to play MMOFPS pales in comparison here, which was a nice touch. Has more of a call of duty feel to it.

Back to the achievement system, it’s extremely well done for a free to play game. You have the following: Skills, Awards(Campaign Ribbon, Badge, Medal), Challenges(Beginner, Daily). Each category has their own achievements, so there’s plenty to keep you going if achievements are your thing. Immediately upon logging in for the first time, I was hooked on knocking out the Beginner Challenges. Did I mention the interface for A.V.A is awesome? I’ve ALWAYS found something to harp on when it comes to F2P UI, but nothing here has brought out that monster within. Hats off to the developers.

Like every MMOFPS, you have your standard death match(called Annihilation) and free for all modes. However, A.V.A also sports an ESCORT mode. Where one side works to protect and “escort” a tank through enemy lines. Meanwhile, the opposing side works to hinder their advancement until time runs out. The mode has 2 parts, where each side get a chance to escort their tank. They also recently added a DEMOLITION mode, which I’m sure most of you are familiar with. You either plant the C4 and protect the site, or kill all of the opposing players to win. And for you people who like NPC/AI matches, those are available as well. There’s even a “mix” that works like a death match, but with AI mixed in.

Right now, I won’t go into too much detail about the item mall/shop. I’ll revisit it down the road after I’ve played the game some more. I will tell you this however, it looks well stocked, but by no means a necessity. After a few gaming sessions.. I haven’t bought a single item, even with the normal game points.

As I mentioned before, I’m a huge Combat Arms fan and have played since the beginning. However.. I currently find myself neglecting my CA addiction and enjoying my time as a complete nub in Alliance of Valiant Arms.

APB Reloaded

Lone — Mon, 09 May 2011 20:22:48 +0000

The open beta date for APB Reloaded is finally set! May 18, 2011.

They also mentioned that they will be progressively adding players from now until May 18 to slowly gauge the servers to be ready for the open beta. So if you are looking to get a head start, make sure you create an account over GamersFirst, then make sure you use that same email to sign up for the APB newsletter at www.gamersfirst.com/apb.

You can get the full details over at the APB Reloaded Dev Blog.

Global Agenda

Lone — Mon, 09 May 2011 04:20:35 +0000

Tonight, I took my first steps into Hi-Rez Studio’s Global Agenda: Free Agent. It was first launched as pay-to-play back in February 2010, but recently switched over to the free-to-play model on April 14, 2011. This game is a Sci-Fi mmotps(Massive Multiplayer Third Person Shooter), it’s a hybrid that contains aspects of both the typical free-to-play hub-based shooter, as well as a large-scale persistent world online shooter MMO. As I mentioned it does feature a third person camera view, however there are weapons that allow you to scope in first-person view. The game is powered by the Unreal Engine 3, and the graphics look outstanding.

The only thing that bothered me initially was that the characters(male, anyways), run around like they have a corncob shoved up their ass. Reminded me of dem Lurikeen’s from Dark Age of Camelot.. thus, I immediately wanted to run a zerg over my character. The character customization however, is amazing. I’m not sure if it lets you skip the tutorial or not.. but I advise you not to! It’s a lot fun, and you’ll quickly pick up the basics of the game and get introduced to the story-line. Definitely a game work checking out, or revisiting the new f2p model.

Publisher: Hi-Rez Studios Playerbase: Medium Graphics: High Quality Type: MMO Shooter EXP Rate: Medium PvP: PvP Missions / Conquest Mode Filesize: ~15 GB

Minimum Requirements: OS: Windows XP / Vista / 7 CPU: 2.4 GhZ Dual Core Processor RAM: 2 GB HDD: 15 GB Free Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce 8 Series or ATI Radeon HD3000 Series video card

Recommended Specifications: OS: Windows XP / Vista / 7 CPU: 2.4 GHz Quad Core Processor RAM: 3 GB or more HDD: 20 GB Free Graphics Card: 512 MB Video Card with Shader Model 3.0