<-180x150 Small Rectangle - left->The multitude of games promoted under the banner of NCSoft never ceases to amaze me. At first I had troubles taking in the double account system, when you first need to setup one NCsoft mater account and then separate accounts for every game you play, but seeing how many they are, I am beginning to see some utility. We have Guild Wars with all its expansions, City of Heroes/Villains, the now defunct Auto Assault, Lineage, Lineage 2, and Tabula Rasa which will soon join them. Dungeon Runners is the one title I left out and today we’ll switch focus on this pretty much underrated action RPG which was released on May 24, 2007.

An inconvenient idea

Dungeon Runners is set in a medieval fantasy world, parody to every role playing game cliché known to man and the hack and slash game mechanics only add texture to the game concept. I still have to decide if this profane point of view to the world of role playing games is what I want, but the game has and overall casual feeling, enforced by the free to download and free to play policy. NCSoft has a premium package available for a monthly US 5$ which will nab you the right to wear the best armors in the game, along with epic swords, better healing potions and access to a larger character bank. So if you want to get in, bash some monsters, get the loot and log out, Dungeon Runners is the right choice, since you won’t be involved in intricate puzzle solving during your quests and the dialogues follow a strong satirical line.

Even NPCs are self explanatory, just like the Hermit you’ll meet in the starting area, always babbling and nagging you that he’s alone and doesn’t see many people. It’s definitely not an oversight that he’s the most talkative character in the whole game and incidentally, also a merchant. I wasn’t the least surprised when later on I entered the city of Townston and found a dark dungeon entrance to the Horrific Dungeon of Legend. I remember there being a whole wave of second rate computer RPGs in the ‘80s, filled with generic dungeon talk, lacking substance and continuity, but this time Dungeon Runners does it on purpose.

Character evolution revolves around getting better armor and improving stats. Strength gets more melee damage and armor, agility will increase range damage, just like endurance boosts your hit points and intellect changes spell damage. The interesting bit is that character surnames change according to your statistics disposition. A high intellect, low level mage using lightning spells mostly would hereby become Studious Noobie Obsidian Mage Five stat points can be distributed on each levelup. Should you get tired of the current playing style, you can always re-spec (re-specialize). In exchange for a paltry gold sum you can redistribute all your acquired stats points and turn into a massive warrior if the situation calls for it. I can see me now, playing a high profile mage, swore to fireballs, when the greatest bow in the game drops and I re-spec ranger at the blink of an eye.

Hack and Slash for your right to party

The initial choice boils down to either getting a mage, a ranger or a warrior. Dungeon Runners sports a classless system when your character evolves solely governed by the increase in attributes and the skills used. This starter pack rules the way your playing experience will be like in the lower levels. It’s a matter of preference if you want to hurl lightning bolts, swing axes or fly arrows at your opponents, because later on your character can learn each and every skill available to the game. Keep in mind that you can only use 10 skills at any given time, similar to the Guild Wars system. You just drag and drop skills to the quick cast bar and start spamming. I chose the caster type myself and found it to be a great power leveling choice. His area of effect damage spells coupled with good running speed made him a perfect killing tool by kiting two packs of creatures and then bursting them down in an instant.

As you enter the game world, three newbie NPCs wait in line to get the starting quest, as the quest giver himself tells you to get in line. Lusting for fame, fortune and ridiculously powerful loot, you get lured to this particular realm, where dungeons are ripe with monsters to kill. Be sure to get the two stating quests and head on to the dungeon represented by the reddish looking portal to the right. Remember when I praised the mage? Dungeon Runners monsters are usually grouped in packs of two to four, linked together even if they’re at a distance. I don’t really think there is a threat system thoroughly implemented, but you will get agro if you go straight in. It’s a “first seen – first attacked” system. With three assailants on your tail, the inability to kite can be a killer. Healing is handled by potions which stack up to 20 in one group and restore up to 40% of your maximum hit points over 5 seconds. Premium users get access to a more powerful version which heals 50%, and yes, this automatically implies there are only two types of healing potion in the game. The same goes for mana potions, but they are harder to come by and don’t stack up at all.

The regular inhabitants of these woods are wolves and rats, the kind that carry magic items in their pockets and vast sums of gold. The game uses item color coding, ranging from grey – for poor quality items, to green, blue, golden and finally purple. The best items in the game have some hilarious descriptions, randomized by the item creation tool; Nodnarb’s Battalion Splinter from the Unpopular Nether Region anyone? More-evil-than-evil item names are common place in the world of Dungeon Runners.

The scenario follows suit in the Diablo line. You first find the entrance to the dungeon, and then kill everything in sight before going down the stairs to the next level. Rinse and repeat from five to seven times, until reaching the final map where the big bad boss waits surrounded by large minion packs. Now it would be a good time to use a waypoint scroll (read town portal) and slide back to the last visited town. Get the quest to slay the beast, if you didn’t get it already and start the fight. You know a creature is tough when the bottom right mouse over tool tip no longer says it’s “Normal”. “Champion” is a good description, but there are many others. Champions are hard to solo and a whole pack of champions definitely require a group to tackle.

As the boss bites the dust, loot can be outlined by pressing Alt. Bosses usually have a chest or two stashed away from sight so be sure to check those too. Inventory space is an issue and you’ll thank the gods there is such a thing as waypoint scrolls all over the place. Just go back in and sell for a hefty profit since gold is needed to buy skills and many, many potions. I was about to talk about plot advancing quests but there aren’t any. Some important quests reward you with king’s coins, an alternative currency used at certain NPCs to attain class armor. Let’s presume you are a powerful marksman and require better armor specifically tailored for your needs. That would mean faster running speed, agility, some damage additions and endurance is required. In Townston and beyond, friendly men work for the King and would gladly commission you such items in exchange for king’s coins. It’s the NCSoft way of rewarding players for completing quests. I forgot to mention that completing quests gets you gold and the said coins, but never experience.

What you see and hear

The control scheme is somewhat troubling because mouse look is dependent on pressing the Shift key (we're not playing poker here). This implementation comes from the inane controls which bind left click to move and right click to attack (or spell attack) and the fact that your camera will not adjust to the terrain automatically. Since Dungeon Runners features a complete 3D-modeled environment, you’ll be spending one third of your actions just for camera repositioning, even in the heat of battle. In terms of gameplay it’s still possible to kite, but harder to perform. Graphics are not that flashy and tend to create a cartoon-like environment. While you can zoom out for a better overall view, the small corridors and tight forest spaces forces you to play at half distance, third person. From this point of view textures look half decent, with bright slightly unnatural color tones. For a 2007 release, I’d say graphics are too old, resembling a 3D mutation of Diablo 2, native to technology that’s already six years old. In the end, graphical quality reflects on the low system requirements. Sounds do the job in stereo without being exceptional and background music follows the same line. It’s somewhat the standard with hack&slash games, where you focus on your next target rather than ambiance.

The Multiplayer factor

Once logged in I was surprised to see only 180 players online across 6 servers. It wasn’t prime time though, but I find such numbers disappointing for a title which saw final release five months ago. Bearing this in mind, I join the most populated PvE server, hoping for better interaction with the 80-man player base (and prepared for long solo-play hours). There is also a PvP serve available, but having only three users online defeats the whole purpose or player killing.

All NCSoft games follow the pattern of instanced content, where cities are the only places to set up trade relations, chat and group for powerful bosses. While there won’t be anyone bothering you while slaying ten beasts at a time, I find this playing style lacking. We’re talking about fully fledged MMO games here, yet the “massive” factor is nowhere to be found. You can, however, group with other players and they will be able to join the same copy of game word you are currently using. One popular request is for Sissirat groups, since he’s the lowest level world boss, not counting the one in the Dew Glades. Since there are no dedicated healer classes, the warrior type must take the beating with his massive health pool and armor, while the others deal damage as fast as possible. Since we’re talking about a hack and slash game, don’t expect crowd control capabilities. Comparisons to Diablo 2 are unavoidable, thus you can expect the same single-player type gameplay with a multiplayer component, but if you are looking for 20-man raids, then Dungeon Runners is the wrong place to do it.

Gameplay

A stunning conclusion

Dungeon Runners suffered from a very long development cycle which started in 2001. After two intermediary names, and subsequent different development teams, a long silence ensued until NCSoft started developing the title in-house in 2005. Such perilous journey usually dooms a title to mediocrity doe to the rough development conditions and I dare say Dungeon Runners witnessed the same fate. Although it’s played exclusively online, the game is addictive enough if you aim at an experience on the single player side. Hack and slash never gets old and the advantage of having a low player base is that you can rise and be the best in not time. Casual players will appreciate Dungeon Runners and its lack of intricate designs, somewhat in the vein of old dungeon crawler games that went out of fashion lately. Since the game is free to download and free to play, be sure to take a look and try it on for yourselves.

NCSoft home - http://ncsoft.com
Official game site - http://www.dungeonrunners.com

Sometimes we need a little bit of adventure in our lives to make it more interesting or bring some color that would chase away the boredom. From the series of “play-fast-and-bang-each-level”, I will present now Advent Rising, another game coming from Majesco. The conflict between humans and various alien races has been the source of inspiration for many games and movies, and I was wondering if this game would bring anything new to the table. Well, just by using a modified version of the Unreal 2 Engine (one of the best I might add), the action appears to be more vivid, but the graphics (especially the water renderings) are simple and in many cases pretty modest. You will see many elements from other games, like the faces of the main male characters.

The game story begins when Gideon Wyeth arrives at Luriam, a small outpost in orbit around the planet Edumea, where a gigantic extraterrestrial spaceship has arrived. He meets up with his brother Ethan and does a little (re)training. While hanging out at the bar, a crazy marine, Bud threatens them but Ethan and Gideon give him some serious smacks. The player has the choice of either capturing or killing Bud and this will affect how marines see and help him later in the game.

Intro Movie

Gideon receives his orders and heads to the alien ship, escorting the ambassador diplomat to meet the aliens. They are told of the Seekers, an alien species bent on destroying humanity, which are to arrive at Edumea very soon and destroy it. But it does not take long, and the Seekers arrive in the system, and Gideon is forced to return to the outpost, carrying his wounded brother. After shooting down the Seeker armada and rescuing his fiancée, Olivia, Gideon is faced with choosing between helping Ethan or Olivia aboard an escape pod. This choice will decide which opponent the player will have to face in the end, because no matter which person he decides not to help is unable to make it to an escape pod themselves, and is captured by the Seekers. These Seekers look rather like some giant reptiles (I would call them “reptilians”) and they carry heavy weaponry. From this point on, any choice has from little to no impact of the outcome of the game ending.

First Encounter

The escape pod crashes on Edumea and Gideon gets medical attention for Ethan or Olivia (depending on the choice the player made). While finding out about a big disaster threat coming from the Seekers, Gideon goes with Ethan/Olivia to find a way off the planet. Meteorites begin raining down upon the planet (and damn they are many, almost impossible to dodge!) and Gideon finds Captain Marin Steel, who agrees to help them fly away from the planet. While getting out of the atmosphere, a series of asteroids hit and destroy Edumea. They try to find survivors and Gideon scans the radio waves for distress signals, though only to find an offering of assistance to any humans from the Aurelians, the friendly alien race they encountered earlier. After meeting the Aurelian leaders, Gideon learns that humans have divine properties, and asks to be taught how to master them.

the escape

the rescue

While Gideon discovers his mystical powers, the Aurelian ship is attacked by the Seekers. These guys don’t know when to quit, do they? With all the efforts to protect the ship, the whole place is destroyed and they are forced to “jump” on the Seeker ship, which would crash in the Aurelian Sea. The ship must be evacuated because it sinks, and Ethan/Olivia drowns with it. Ok, hold on there, this game seems to be both pointless and dramatic at the same time – so the upshot is that no matter what Gideon does, he loses his loved ones and he still dreams about them on the shore of the Aurelian Sea, after the crash. Gamers most of the times have this attitude of not getting involved into the story too much but they should think for a second – what if they were the characters in such a story as the one on the screen…

almost losing faith...

After retreating to the Aurelian capital of Arnis with Marin, Gideon and the surviving Aurelian leaders ask the government for assistance, though their effort is interrupted by the arrival of a Seeker who claims he knows nothing about the attack against the planet Edumea. Gideon attempts furiously to kill him, but he is able to escape. Marin is captured by the Seekers and Gideon sets out to rescue her. After destroying their bases (and again – they are many – these Seekers are ugly, evil and many, with lots of resources at their disposal – no wonder they have a reputation of conquerors). After the destruction of the final base, all the Seeker threat seems to be removed.

saving Marin

Gideon and Marin come to the galactic council to ask for help in punishing the Seekers for the killing of the human kind. The council believes the testimony and turns to the Seeker representatives for an explanation. While the representatives defend their race's innocence, and also start using their guns, Olivia/Ethan (depending on which one Gideon failed to save earlier) teleports into the council chamber as Koroem, a creature who claims to be a “true” human with godlike powers. Koroem takes credit for destroying the humans that were considered “imposters”.

Council Scene

Gideon has to use his demigod power to defeat the big alien being, and after the final blow he is attracted into a big portal towards an ice world, full of snow and cold temperatures, while Marin is left alone in the council chamber. Because of the decreased temperature, Gideon almost dies when a mysterious horned being appears and says: "Come with me human, there is much to be done" and that’s the ending of the game.

Only "Human"

The sound in the game didn’t bring anything special, but the music is really impressive, it shows the emotion of the moment in each instance of the game. It is one of best soundtracks I’ve encountered so far. The theme songs that are introduced in “official” meetings between the humans and the Aurelians give the aspect of continuity of the story. However, even if you will see “to be continued” at the end, you may never see a second and a third game as Majesco hasn’t given any sign of working on the project any longer. It could have been continued under the form of a game like “Lost Planet: Extreme Condition” – I was particularly impressed with the movie-like graphic effects there.

Digitainment Mark: 7 out of 10

Producer: Majesco

Buy: about $30

Website: http://www.adventtrilogy.com and at Majesco's website: http://www.majescoentertainment.com/catalog/works/adventrising_pc.php

Reprobates is a cool 3rd-person adventure developed by Future Games and published by Digital Tainment Pool.
Not all of you know German but in my opinion, the images from the trailer are enough to convince anyone that the game is worth playing.



AGDS III , the game’s engine is the same on which were built Black Mirror and Nibiru, and with Reprobates it captures again the attention with the superb graphics and high character 3D details.

The dark, thrilling story begins with the 23-years old Adam Raichl who was driving his car relaxed, until something happens suddenly.

With Windows operating system installed and Direct3D, you will enable special features of the AGDS engine, like face-play and emotions in faces, aging and cloth wear, and atmospheric effects.
You can watch all these in the demo.

Ubisoft partnered with Paramount pictures to provide a dual launch for the upcoming Beowulf motion picture, coupled with a Beowulf videogame title of their own. As we get closer to the November 16 premiere, Ubisoft just signed the original movie actors to supplement the in-game voice talent. You can expect to hear Anthony Hopkins and Ray Winstone to feature for the first time as voice actors in a video game. Brendan Gleeson and Sebastien Roche also lent their voices to Ubisoft for greater character authenticity. One question remains though, why didn’t Angelina Jolie join them, since she plays a definite role in the storyline as Grendel’s mother?

Let’s pretend for a moment that you’ve seen the movie and it’s a fast paced, exhilarating part of a grand destiny like Beowulf’s. While seeing our troll friend Grendel stomp humans for hours sounds like fun, the game would have been a severe disappointment hadn’t Ubisoft expanded the story into Beowulf’s 30 year reign. The day is saved ladies and gentlemen, because game trailers, screenshots and stories reveal a bloody and power hungry Beowulf which will put to the sword hordes of beasts and men alike.

In the tradition of northern warriors, Beowulf was berserker himself, overcame by apathy in real life, until the climax of battle was high. It was then his terrible power would be unleashed, thrown into a savage fury to strike foe after foe, relentless, unappeased. The game implements this in the form of carnal rage, a state attained by the use of certain mushrooms which bring the delusion of invulnerability. In fact, the game has already been rated M for Mature, due to the use of intense violence, blood and certain sexual themes.

The game lets you build up a small army of heroes, up to 12 of Beowulf’s trusted thanes being freed as you delve deeper into the plot and defeat powerful creatures like trolls. I felt slightly nostalgic when I saw the trailer, because gameplay reminded me of Rune, with the major 2007 head’s up. You can order troops to operate massive and complex mechanisms like rolling over a stone block which before a cave entrance or even rowing on a drakhar (the Viking ship). Graphics look exceptionally good and Ubisoft used Tom Clancy’s Advanced Warfighter engine. Thus you can climb structures and hold on to ropes, giving room to the classic gameplay tactics of adventure and role playing games.

The multiplatform release pretty much comes on premiere day so mark November 16 on your gaming calendar. Meanwhile, the game can be preordered directly from the official site for roughly US 55$.

I always find it hard to judge independent releases, knowing the huge amount of time, work and dedication needed to run such an enterprise. Indie developer Exotypos is already at its second racing title, after No Brakes: 4x4 Racing. More than three years in the making, their latest game is called X Motor Racing and went live on September 28, 2007. Unfortunately the gaming industry revolves around competition and money, thus the 19.99$ price tag on X Motor Racing demands an objective evaluation of the game.

You’ll find the game running in a native 1152x864 resolution which can’t be customized to fit your own needs. In fact, the lack of customization will haunt you for the rest of the X Motor Racing experience, with no controls to rebind or graphical and sound properties to alter. It all comes “as it is” and runs from the start in its tight specifications, not unlike a console port to PC.

Once X Motor Racing starts, a particularly interesting option got my attention and that’s the car physics tab. Where can I begin? One mouse click away lays the possibility of altering each and every aspect of the way your car responds to controls, pretty much like a real live simulation used within a car factory. You can manually change common car aesthetics, mass, aerodynamics, hydrodynamics, steering, brakes, engine, suspension, engine transmission and tire response, each in a separate tab with over 10 attributes to modify. It can get so complex that you’ll soon feel like running your own virtual garage and customizing the super car you never got the chance to buy in real life. If there’s one thing special about X Motor Racing, then these extra options are it.

It’s not all numbers though, because the time spent tweaking your race car will reflect in its street performance and the overall fun level when steering it on virtual roads. Exotypos developers modeled in game vehicles to resemble Fiat Palio, Skoda Octavia, Audi A2, Audi A4, Audi TT, Chrysler Viper, Mitsubishi 3000 GT, Porsche Doxster and Porsche 911 Turbo. Unfortunately, even with the help of such a developed customization tool, models do not respond to controls as the original counterparts as they’re similar in shape and form only.

As most recent racing games accustomed us to, the interface is quite simple and shows utility over eye candy or useless statistics. While playing the arcade mode you will be able to somewhat steer your car properly with a keyboard, yet the experience is not exactly fulfilling. It beats the purpose of X Motor Racing to try it on anything less than a driving wheel setup, thus the simulation mode is recommended. The game doesn’t show detailed backgrounds, nor does the car smash into little pieces on impact so the reality factor is poured somewhere else. It’s a bit frustrating to notice that every little obstacle along the road will not slow you down, but instead bring you to a full stop or send you flying into the grass. At some point the control selection tool tip lets us know that X Motor Racing was designed for the driving wheel and that’s where the game strong points are, as shown in the trailer. It’s a lot easier to maneuver the car that way and you can perform some pretty impressive tricks if you’ve got the skill.

There are three game modes and a training track available. The Highway Race is suitable for quick and blood pumping sessions, the perfect place to try greater speeds. It’s not a bad idea to try this when first getting acquainted with the way controls respond and try a few easy turns before going into the fray. Then we have an off-road mode which I find more challenging simply because the camera angles shift in relation to the road. If the road is bumpy, you’ll find yourself in the awkward position of not seeing exactly what’s ahead of you and driving by guessing which way the road will turn next; not exactly professional, but fun none the less. Driving blind has the advantage of a more realistic simulation, as off-road races usually are incredibly bumpy and drivers often enough find it difficult to keep steering the right way. You can improve your best lap time in the Hot Lap mode. As for training, that particular track is the standard square box where you can just roam freely and test what your newly customized model can dish out in terms of speed, mobility and control response, your very own sandbox testing unit.

I particularly enjoyed one aspect of the simulation part, namely when I was going up a hill and I stopped the car for whatever reason. To my dismay (and quickly ensuing panic) I found out that my racing car was steadily descending in reverse, under the influence of its own weight. It seems the gravitational pull is better than my driving skills as I had to pull off my car from the bush. In the end, you can press the insert key and reposition your race car back on the right track. Transmission is automatic or manual as you choose, and page up/down will up the gears or eventually get you in reverse to back away from unwanted positions. In the end, X Motor Racing is not exactly targeted at casual gaming due to its high customization eccentricity and highly demanding control scheme.

Graphics are a bit off for a 2007 title as I don’t see enough eye candy and detail, coupled game engine limitations when it comes to small obstacles and the invulnerable car model. Music is decent enough but you can import your own. The most important sound you hear in a racing game is, understandably, the sound of your engine. In X Motor Racing it’s a bit unrealistic and disturbing which cuts off a fair bit of gameplay pleasure.

As a conclusion, if you’re a racing games fan go try the demo before engaging in a purchase. X Motor Racing soundtrack set, graphics editor and tools are available for download on the official site so that you can create your own track or car and add them to the game. The price will be 19.99$ until the end of the year so I suggest you make up your mind fast, because you might find less value for you money when paying the full 39.99$ afterwards.