Ascend: Hand of Kul Storms onto Steam

Earlier this week, the gods have unleahsed Caos onto the world of PC Gaming. Signal Studios is proud to announce Ascend: Hand of Kul is now live and available for free download over Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/233630.

Ascend: Hand of Kul thrusts players into a brutal world where they wage war for their God as a powerful Caos warrior on a unique journey to Ascension. Destroy the spawn of the Titan, Ascend Champions to invade other player’s games, and tip the balance in the Crusade between the three Gods. But the greatest rewards require the ultimate sacrifice—your character.

“In bringing Ascend: Hand of Kul to PC, our focus has been on making sure we deliver a really fun and high quality experience,” said DR Albright, President and Creative Director of Signal Studios. “Releasing on Steam means we are no longer constrained by lengthy approval processes and can now provide a much deeper level of support for the game. We see Ascend having a very long lifespan and stand committed to working with our loyal community to improve upon an already solid foundation of core gameplay.”

Ascend: Hand of Kul on PC features improved visuals and a number of new combat enhancements providing a much more fluid experience over its predecessor on the Xbox 360. In addition to supporting the Xbox Controller, the game will feature a newly designed mouse and keyboard interface and Big Picture Mode on Steam. Players can expect the game to run on a wide range of system specifications; minimizing the barrier to entry on the PC.

Free-to-Play: Ascend is a complete action RPG experience, free to play over Steam.

Seamless Single and Multiplayer Action: Play with AND against other gamers as you each journey through your own private yet parallel paths to Ascension. While your experiences are separate, you will still be able to impact each other by sending them a blessing or surprising them with a curse.

Ultimate Prestige: Pledge your loyalty to one of the Three Gods – the chaotic goddess of darkness, the zealous god of light or the manipulative lord of the void – and pillage the land on their behalf. As you crush your enemies and spread your deity’s influence, other players will kneel before your rule.

Ascend: The largest rewards require the ultimate sacrifice-your character! But all is not lost, as each life dedicated to your god brings new abilities that help shape you into the ultimate Caos warrior.

Evolving world: Behold the world as it changes dynamically beneath your feet, bowing to your growing power. As you discover the secret of defeating the Titans and secure your god’s dominion over the world, you’ll claim your place as a legend.

This game is definetly worth a shot if you have some extra time. Make sure you check it out now on steam for free, but make sure you don't get too hooked on killing peasants and taking over the world.

-FrozenPixelGaming

MMORPG: Maplestory 2 (In-game Footage)

Oh my how happy I am with this piece news I don't think I can contain myself from smiling at this video. I have waited for way too long for this moment and tonight I was treated with something that can put me at ease. They have finally revealed an in-game trailer and this game looks beautiful just like I imagined it would. After so much negativity I have been spouting about Maplestory 1 and its future I am now at a loss for words.

*Watch Video*

Also this new picture to end my night with. I hope you enjoy this peice of news as much as I did.
-FrozenPixelGaming   *Can't Sleep*

MMORPG: Fantasy Frontier (Aura Kingdom) Hansel & Gretel Eidolons

The Hansel & Gretel Eidolons will be a 2 in 1 package on the Taiwanese server and will be labeled as the "Storm Twins" with Hansel putting out damage and Gretel healing I'm sure this will be a team with a lot of potential.


The team is also wanting to revamp their production system which includes fishing, cooking and archeology. Whoever decides to take part in this event will be able to wear this new snazzy suit. I will be looking forward to testing this out on the NA release in Aura Kingdom.

MMORPG: Dungeon Fighter Global - Neople (Alpha Testing)

Here we are a week after the release of the global alpha testing for DFO and it seems like it has been a success. I had a feeling that they wanted to test the field to see who really demanded this game outside of asian countries. If that was the case im sure they got their answer and with little to no promotion besides from word of mouth they managed to have packed the servers for this alpha.

Let us all hope they succeed with whatever they were trying out and we see a healthy release for this beautiful game. I will leave some links for you guys to join the alpha and hopefully see you ingame!. Remember that even playing a little right now is showing support by letting them know we want to see this game out in the states.


Links:
Site - dnf.neople.com
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/dfoglobal

MMORPG: Aheron's Call F2P (This Summer)

As some of you may have heard this classic MMO will be going subscriptionless this summer not too much news has been announced besides there being a $10 fee. I guess you can call it a B2P (Buy to Play) in a way. The information posted below is from Turbine themselves posted here.

As of August 2014, Asheron’s Call and Asheron's Call 2 will no longer charge a subscription fee for players. The last payments will be processed on June 31st, making July the final “paid” month. Note that this means some players will technically receive some portion of July free as a result, as we have decided to absorb the cost and not run partial payments to cover it. Other important information for the transition:
~ After the transition, new accounts can be created with a one-time $10 purchase through our normal sign-up page
~ We will no longer be performing MSN Zone migrations after May 31st (click here for more information regarding MSN Zone Migrations) 
~ Any inactive subscriptions that players wish to access after the transition will require a one-time activation fee of $10 via the myaccount website
~ Note that after the transition, help requests will only be available regarding harassment issues or account assistance with the $10 one-time activation purchase.
~ The AC forums will remain up and available

I will be trying this game out this summer and hope to post an extensive review so please stick around and enjoy the ride until then.

-FrozenPixelGaming

MMORPG's: F2P Market Schemes

First and foremost I would like to say I love the idea of free to play because it allows us to test the waters but when we fall in love THAT is when it hits us hard. The word free to play scares me in many ways but also puts me at ease when it comes to upcoming games. I have noticed many games as of late lacking "magic" or "spark" as some would say. With games either being catagorized as "Pay to Wins" or carbon copies of the successful World of Warcraft its no wonder why old school gamers like myself have turned their heads. Enough of my ramble this is about schemes and tricks to fool the average player.

Scheme #1: DLC

Ahh this sounds all too familiar already am I right? with games such as DC Universe and The Secret World out its no wonder they went free to play...they have another way of doing business. As of today DC Universe has 11 DLC expanions at a whopping 10$ a piece. This might not seem like much right? but if any new player wanted to enjoy new powers or higher tier raiding or pvp they would need to drop a nice chunk of change on the spot. Not to mention that you find DLC only items ingame and it tells you that you cannot equip unless you go and spend 10$ until you find another item that points to another DLC. I figure there will be many who counter me by saying you pay more with a monthly plan blah blah blah BUT! ladies and gentlemen we are talking F2P here...please remember that. MMO players and console gamers now suffer from this horrid gameplan and it should be banished to all hell! raise your hand if you agree?...*cheering crowd*

Scheme #2: Micro Transactions

Ok ok most of us know about this evil and wish it would go somewhere and never return. Relax a little I feel it can work and also be misused to an extreme. Some game companies out there have a reputation for screwing over customers and I wont name the companies but I will name some games. Where do I begin? how about my old favorite? Maplestory. This game claims to offer a fully free to play enviornment and ect...but they are WRONG and very very far from this. Before you jump at my throat about my comment please stop and think back at the time you played and ask yourself "have I ever seen end game?" the answer will be ABSOLUTELY NOT!. That is because you need items and money to make the world go round and this world will not go round without cash. Let's take a closer look at what I mean about micro transactions done wrong. This game has a very complex crafting system in which the player purchases cubes to reforge and hammers to increase scroll amounts and scrolls cost a nice amount of money AND money is impossible to come by without merching AND merching is impossible to do well without a store which has to be purchased with real money *gasps for air*. That was a lot to take in so lets count $$$ Hammers, Cubes, Gold Sacks, Stores, and rinse and repeat. This game is like real life and only the top 1% will ever get to fully enjoy it but I will get into more detail later on that subject.

Maplestory's Future: Grim or Successful?

Hello all! and welcome to my very random rant about one of my childhood games in which I hold dear. I have never really thought the day would come where I feel I needed to express my anger with this game. As we all know the game has had many many classes put into it lately and it seems with every big patch there tends to be another around the corner. With every new class another loses it's place in this world.

Now about the future and where I believe the game is headed. This is all opinionated and you can shout all you want but this is what I believe is going to happen or already has depending on when you read this. I feel the game is at its last breath and the only thing Nexon has going for it is to stuff as much content (non satisfying content might I add) as possible to keep what little customers they have. We all know Maplestory2 is around the corner with even a possible beta in late 2014 but it doesn't give Nexon an excuse to ruin something that has already been arguably perfected.

Though I feel that Maplestory2 will be something worthwhile and most likely a head turner I just pray that Nexon doesn't turn it into a money grabbing pay to win. I know I probably sound like I have beef with the company or something but what can I really say about them?, are they really that great?, do they even care about the customer?. We will all have to see how things turn out in the long run and I hope they don't go down the same road as the original Maplestory.