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Halloween is approaching fast and Blizzard was kind enough to throw some pumpkins our way with the Headless Horseman event in World of Warcraft. When you ride out of Undercity and see a huge pumpkin head in the king’s throne room, you just have a feeling something big is going down. And it’s true, preparations have begun and you can attend the seasonal events up until the end of the month. This won’t take long, so bear with me and be fast to join in the fun.

One major attraction is the new boss which can be found deep within the halls of the Scarlet Monastery, in the Graveyard part. Usually we’re talking about a certain Interrogator that goes by the name of Vishas and likes to yell “I’ll pry the secrets out of your flesh.” This time the regular horde of low level zombies and ghosts just won’t do. Outside the chapel, lies the Forlorn Cloister roughly in the middle of the instance you’ll see a new addition surrounded by candles. This tough pumpkin has a tale to tell and it all starts when you light another candle near the dirt mound. You just go there and take the quest and as with any regular quest you can complete it only once. Me, I went through the event six times in a row, with different group members, just for the hell of it cause it’s fun. The headless rider has a great laughter sequence, filled with evil echoes. Did I mention that his, erm, head drops as a plate helmet? Yes, warriors and paladins will be pleased to get it since all laughter emotes henceforth will have the same dubious echo attached to them, elite cool factor for pimping your character.

For this highly scripted fight you need a tank, a healer and one DPS to keep things simple, thus anything less than a tanking paladin and an affliction warlock won’t do. My first party managed to kill the Headless Horseman with just three people, but go ahead and charge in with five. The level 70 elite starts flying on his flaming mount once the candle has been lit, angry for disturbing his rest as he charges. Expect 3k hits on cloth and 1500 on plate. The first phase is spank and tank, with the occasional pumpkin being thrown at one random party member except the highest on the agro list. It disorients the target, deals impact damage and 600 each second for five seconds over an area. Never steal agro because the tank might get the pumpkin and you’ll wipe. Once you get him to 1-3% he’ll become immune to all attacks and spells as head pops off. We tried to slay him there and then but it’s just not possible. The rider will now use an area of effect ability not unlike whirlwind as he chases his dead around the graveyard. Be sure to stay out of his melee range as you deal damage to the pumpkin head. It has a timer so be fast, but otherwise, once the head reaches 60% hit points the rider will get it back and it’s phase one all over again.

The pumpkin head does not regenerate hit points when joined back with its owner. The second time you get the rider to 1%, the appearing head will be injured. Be sure to take it to its next phase at 30%. This last part is tricky as the rider begins to summon pumpkin patches all around. Four pumpkins will incubate over eight seconds or so and when the time is up, will spawn four adds that hit for 500 on cloth and need to be AoE down. If your damage output is good enough, ignore the adds and force the head out for the last time. Once the head reaches zero hit points, the rider dies, taking his minions to the next realm.

While it’s not exactly Black Temple loot, I came to appreciate its seasonal particularities. Three unique rings drop, Ring of Ghoulish Delights for melee, The Horseman's Signet Ring for caster dps and Witching Band for healers. Stats are the same as on the rings from heroic instances, but with way greater accessibility and a pumpkin look to boot. If you’re lucky you’ll get that plate helmet which seems to have a really low drop rate, otherwise another cloth helmet drop will do. It’s something along the lines of The Pumpkin Head, useable by anyone just for looks. A witching fest would not be complete without witches flying on brooms here and there. You want it, you got it. A normal broom mount can be used in Azeroth and an epic broom mount will allow you to fly in the Outlands. Although the tool tip says they can only be used once, there have been reports that they work indefinitely. At least until they expire and that’s 13 days from the time they dropped. The Headless Horseman has an abundance of these, as they drop each and every kill.

If you’re still not convinced, let me sweeten the deal. The Scarlet Monastery is situated in Tirisfal Glades, home of the undead and Horde Territory. This means you can’t initiate combat with a player unless he is flagged for PvP. Needless to say, both Horde and Alliance flock at the entrance, just waiting for a chance to see the Headless Horseman. After all, it won’t take more than 10 minutes to find out if your group has what it takes to defeat him. Blizzard has this instance reset limitation, thus you’ll find yourself in the position of waiting for your next soft reset. This leads to major number of both horde and Alliance waiting not too patiently before the instance entrance. This is the stuff wars are born from and the way inside is filled with endless skeletons from those passed away. Over and over again, they fight. At some point the Alliance had the upper hand, but then the Horde took over. I wonder who is camping who at the moment. It was a great feeling when numbers were growing and we all decided it was time to react. One fireball here and the next thing you know, the world goes up in flames. It’s like a bar fight without the bruises, going on right now in your friendly World of Warcraft realm neighborhood. If you held out thus far in reading this article, then you must be hungry for a piece of the pumpkin pie yourself. So get on to it and don’t stop until you have your treats!

The sequel of Shadowgrounds, Shadowgrounds Survivor, is a single-player action RPG for PC, ready to be launched until the end of this year.



The game is developed by Frozenbyte Inc., a Finnish company which has become famous after the creation of Shadowgrouds, and published by Meridian4, an interactive software publisher from Canada.

The game’s story is about 3 survivors who fight together against alien attacks.



We have here 3 characters each having unique tactics, an impressive weapons and characters upgrade system, new gameplay features like the powerful Mech and the Sentry Turret, the Campaign mode expanding to new environments like snow and ice, the Survival Mode where you have to destroy all the aliens in a race against time, new special effects such as snowstorms and weapon effects, and a perfect soundtrack created by Ari Pulkkinen who became famous for the surround from StarFight VI: Gatekeepers.

The War Rock project presented itself as bold and innovative project when trying to create a fully functional massive multiplayer online game of the first person shooter variety. Developed by Dream Execution on the Jindo 3D engine, the idea was fresh in 2004 when the game was first released on the Korean market by publisher Nexon. Battlefield type games were young to the scene. MMOFPS is a startling new concept that has only begun to show its potential and War Rock might very well be the first one of its kind to be released. After a long beta testing period which lasted almost seven months, K2 Network decided to release the title for Europe and the US on February 7 this year. Unlike most MMO games War Rock is free to download and play, sporting the Asian model of “pay for powerups”. While you will never be required to pay monthly fees in order to enjoy the official servers, should you decide to go pro, a premium membership is in order.

Story

Although not many things are known about what started the fighting, the consequences of war are ever present and peace is not an alternative in the skirmishes between the Derabaran Regulars and NIU Mercenaries. Come closer stranger, and take up arms steadily, for if you’re not with us, you’re against us. Sneak your way into the enemy territory and use bombs to blow up strategic targets, take the fighting to the streets and defend every wall and every crossing or simply ride the airborne death and hunt every one of them down. A handful of men will be your allies, with machines ready to carry you over ground, air and sea, towards victory!

Concept

Once connected to the server, players must choose one of the three game mods and are then directed to the lobby area, a good place to set off a game with your friends or clan mates. There is also a random game generator, where people just join in and are queued automatically, so when enough players come online, the game starts. Regardless of game type, you will be prompted pick one of five fighters, an engineer, medic, scout, combatant or heavy weapons unit. Each of them fares better in certain setups, depending on map layout and game type, so choose one who better suits current purposes. Don’t spend too much time thinking about it, since you can chose again after death. Unique items are available to each class, pretty much like it would be in a RPG. Engineers can use a spanner and repair vehicles, medics can heal themselves should need arise and the heavy weapon experts are the only one capable of wielding an M-60 or a rocket launcher.

Gameplay

The Mission Mode is based on a one round - one life small scale scenario where opponents battle it out until only one team remains standing. To spice things up, pretty much like a terrorists versus counterterrorists scenario, there are map objectives that can’t be ignored. You’ll have to either defend the bomb site or storm the building with your team in an attempt to disarm it. The four maps have a 16 player limit respawn occurs only once per round. Pretty much like a Counterstrike mod, War Rock is more than able to present its fans with new action filled scenarios where team play is more important than individual effort. Strategy and coordination are key elements in taking the enemy down, and nowhere else in the game will one find better use of their initial pick, be it an infantry man or a sniping scout. Maps are really small so you can’t successfully hide for long. Toe to toe fighting is the name of the game.

Infantry Combat is a deathmatch, so players respawn shortly after death. It is here vehicles will be available for the first time as you’ll be able to enjoy medium tanks, small anti air tanks, covered trucks, jeeps or motorcycles. The seven medium maps are designed in such a way that large vehicle movement is hindered by the environment, which in turn stimulates players to engage in a regular FPS frag hunt. In a realistic fashion, bullets and generally all projectiles take some time until they reach their intended targets. Characters can roll over, avoiding enemy fire and it’s generally a bad idea to hunt people with a rocket launcher, since chances are a well aimed gun shot will leave you dead on your tracks. In this respect, the deathmach is the proper mode for frenzied FPS fans looking for a fast kill.

Vehicle Combat is even more ferocious, because here, infantry wandering about aimlessly is nothing more than an easy mark. It will soon become clear, when you find yourself firing a sub machine gun at the approaching bomber. Have no fear though; there are plenty of ways to cut down to size such enemies, including your own airplanes, man-handled anti air guns or tanks. This time maps are large, allowing every member of the team to mount a vehicle and start the fight in what is a king of the hill scenario. Small camps are scattered across the map and ripe for conquering. Players have to spend some time on the premises, supposedly defending them against enemy attacks. When thirty seconds have passed, the base is captured and will start contributing to your team’s endeavors as the game ends when your opponents counter reaches zero.

Developers didn’t run short of ideas while implementing vehicle replicas. The additional head count is impressive: humvees, motorycles, covered trucks, Gepard, Wiesel and Lynx Tanks, the K1A1 tank, Mark V and LSSC boats, A10 Warthog and F15 Eagle planes as well as transport and gunship helicopters. Heavy metal has never been so easy to handle, but planes and choppers are a nuisance. I didn’t die as much from enemy fire as I did due to my ineptitude at flying the damned machines. Practice makes perfect though and, one day, that Blackhawk will be a deadly weapon in my hands. There’s nothing funnier than stomping around a large tank with one of your buddies operating its machine gun. The first player to enter the vehicle is the driver and also shoots the main cannon, while the others can join in for the ride with the additional benefit of freely aiming the Gatling fire. It opens up good team possibilities, although it’s twice as bad when a bomb kills us with one shot.

As far as the environment goes, War Rock is very flexible. In certain points across the map, supplies such as ammo crates, medical kits, engineering and ammo bases can be found and used. It is especially helpful to use find a med kit once you’ve been seriously injured as health decays in time and one can die from the loss of blood. As expected, map architecture allows for different play styles. It’s never a problem to sneak through buildings in order to strike the enemy from behind, or even find a good spot on a roof top and use the sniper rifle. Running through the rubble of a ruined city you’ll find plenty of places to camp, should you require one for retreat. There’s only one thing bothering me, and that is side movement. You can move perfectly fine as long as you walk forward, but once you move sideways, walk speed decreases significantly. When you’re under heavy fire, that same speed could have saved you the trouble of walking back after respawn.

The good thing about game continuity is the experience reward, hence level ups. Whenever the game ends and the map changes, you are prompted with a score table. On the basis of your in game performance, such as kills, deaths and the number of strategic points captured, you will be awarded a small experience bonus as well as some dinars for currency. In fact I’ve seen level being displayed for players, while waiting in the lobby. The rank system is exactly 100 ranks to acquire, ranging from Private to General. At higher levels, extra weapons are said to be unlocked, seeing that early within the game your equipment selection is limited to only one set of pistols, automatic guns and so forth. Basicly this is a very important feature for the developers. The game is supposed to be free to download and free for online play. One doesn’t have to pay the developers a dime, directly or indirectly, unless they want to. How so? The plan is to raise some money with the selling of in game content, such as new gear or special features. Exactly what will those be, it is unknown at this stage, though for the sake of game balance, the developer team desires to keep the bonus system within tolerable limits.

Sound and Video

While appropriate for a FPS, graphics lack massive eye candy, a good thing considering War Rock’s bend towards simulating real life situations. On the other hand, reality was not on Nexon’s mind when they created a bloodless game, specifically to reach the Teen markup on ESRB, but since action sees such a fast pace, I doubt players will have time to thoroughly study models, textures or effects. They look fine the way they are, considering the game runs well on older computers. One thing won’t go unnoticed though, and that’s the sound. Accurate and effective it’s catchy to such an extent, that only seconds into the game you’ll feel fully immersed in its gameplay, ready to fight.

Conclusion

War Rock has its share of detractors, but the truth is we have a solid title which simply delivers something else to the MMOFPS table through the innovative gameplay and marketing concept. Low system requirements allow players to enjoy it even on older computer systems. Strap on online interactivity, free to download, free to play and you’ll have a good idea of what this casual pastime may offer. War Rock brings forth fast paced and immersive action able to satisfy the FPS gamer’s appetite for destruction in a variety of combat situations. Massive vehicle battles are the strongest feature and will carry the player over ground, water and air. Since the February 7 release, developers fixed several balance and compatibility issues thus the game reached its top shape. There are also clan competitions hosted on the official server and you can check them out by downloading the game here.