There’s a new MMOG going into beta today: The Bible Online

No, I’m not making this up. Although I laughed out loud at one commenter who asked if the acronym stood for Massively Mormon Online Game.

The Bible Online is based on the first book of the Bible, Genesis. Players can meet and play the real heroes of Genesis, Abraham and his descendants. The game is designed for users to actually experience the Book of Genesis by fulfilling quests of Abraham, which is based on the true stories of the Genesis. As a MMORTS, players are to lead their tribe, build buildings, maintain resources and engage in warfare with other tribes. However, players do not stay in one place, but will go on a quest to go to the Promised Land.

The first chapter, Heroes, focuses on Abraham who needs to take his tribe to the promised land. You take on the role of Abraham and his descendants and work to grow your tribe through expansion and battle. You are given progressive quests which take the format of a biblical quote, a task, a hint and a reward. You will need to gather resources to build buildings to grow the tribe. A large tribe is important for recruiting soldiers for battle, including sling soldiers, spearmen, archers, cavalry and apparently St. Michael. I may have misunderstood that bit.

Your goal is not just growth though – you will need to gather your people to lead them to Ur and then lead them to Haran and then finally lead them to the Promised Land in Cana’an.

The Bible Online: Ch.1 The Heroes also offers additional elements of RPG. When Abraham dies, Isaac becomes the tribe leader and after Isaac dies, Jacob leads the tribe. There are also quests for users to experience Genesis according to the history of the Bible. For example, as it is written in Genesis 14:13~14, there is a quest for Abraham to lead 318 men to rescue his nephew Lot.

FIAA, who also developed Kalos War and Operation7 is a German company who is releasing the game into Open Beta today, the 6th of September. They’ll be giving away prizes to the most obsessive best players.

Unfortunately, their website seems to be fairly unstable and it took me a couple of tries to sign up for the beta test. Once I managed to register, log in and click the Join Beta button, I got a php error followed by a page which simply said “!!!IMPORTANT!!!” Not a great start for a browser-based MMO. Maybe they should have waited for the 7th day?

Let the “God Mode” jokes begin.

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

So I get an email from a friend telling me that Playboy Magazine is getting into video gaming and I should check out their MMO. Seriously, you all. Seriously?
Actually, it isn’t bad. Welcome to Poisonville is a “3D action MMORPG” developed by Bigpoint which went into Open Beta last month. It’s a GTA/APB style game with hot cars and gritty street scenes. I didn’t see any naked girls.

The story: After years of wandering, you’ve come back to your hometown to set things right. Now you’re an outlaw, trying to make your way in this thriving metropolis. Enjoy Poisonville’s impressive 3D graphics right in your browser as you explore the city, buy or steal cars, take on exciting missions or dress in cool gear and hit up the hottest nightclubs. The city is 100% interactive – everything’s possible. You play Poisonville with thousands of other real players, Join one of this online game’s four gangs and fight your way to the top of your ‘hood. Infinite gameplay possibilities make Poisonville a highlight for all online game fans.

There are four gangs in the city and you are assigned to one of them, making the other three your mortal enemies. The goal of the game is straightforward. “Find out who framed you ten years ago and pay them back – with interest. Get a gun and some cool new threads and get even.”

The trailer looks pretty interesting: [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

This week, we are looking at Might and Magic: Heroes Kingdoms, a browser MMO distributed by Ubisoft currently available in France, UK and Germany.

It is quite possible to do well playing Might and Magic without paying a subscription. If you play without a 5 euro per month subscription you are limited in the number of heroes and cities you can control but slow development can be stronger in the long run.

So how do you get started?

The first choice you make is what faction to play. There is not a huge variance so it will not affect the game much but the Necromancers and the Mages seem the most balanced which is good for slow play.

Heroes

Don’t hire your second hero straight away. [More...]

Posted by Aach on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

When looking at new games to make sure you get value for money, it can be useful to get an outside opinion but not everyone has the same taste. A group of reviews balanced against each other can be much more useful for making a decision than a single review without context from the reviewer. As a result, we’ve been running a series of reviews for games for the Xbox, Wii and PS3 to help you better know the pros and cons of the new releases.

Wukung has already rated a number of games this year, including Darksiders, Bayonetta, Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, Mass Effect 2, Dante’s Inferno, BioShock 2, Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth, Heavy Rain, Yakuza 3, Bad Company 2, Half Minute Hero, BlazBlue, Red Steel 2, Disgaea 2, FFXIII, Just Cause 2, Splinter Cell Conviction, Nier, Super Street Fighter IV and Iron Man 2 and Alan Wake, Red Dead Redemption, No More Heroes 2, God of War 3! Here is his latest set of reviews, exclusively available on MMORPG-Info.

These reviews have been sitting mostly finished for quite a while but I was planning on finishing Super Mario Galaxy 2. [More...]

Posted by Wukung on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

Dungeon Fighter Online is an online action game developed by Neople in Korea and published by Nexon, the people who brought us MapleStory. DFO is an arcade-style, side-scrolling game and is currently only available in the US and Canada. The game includes five base classes, each with three to four specializations. As our Allod’s quick reference guide to the classes has turned out to be very popular, I thought I would take Mike’s advice and offer the DFO class information in a similar style for fast comparison.

Slayer

[More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

Stargate Resistance is a small-scale TPS (Third Person Shooter) OSV (Over the Shoulder View) Multiplayer Deathmatch game. Stargate Resistance was originally developed and published by Firesky although since launch the development has moved to Dark Comet Games.

Last week, I posted about the Stargate Command classes. Today, we will be looking over the various strengths and tricks of the unique System Lord classes. So grab your staff weapon, sharpen your knives and prepare to fight in the service of your god!

Jaffa

• Your staff weapon has a special feature: around your cross-hair you will note a orange ring. Once you fire, that ring disappears only to return a few seconds later. This is its charging feature. You can simply fire off your staff weapon repeatedly but, after the first shot, there will be no blast damage and overall damage will be reduced. If you pace yourself then you can shoot off full-power blasts each time, dealing higher damage and blast damage. Remember that blast damage is useful when fighting in a corridor: if you’re finding it hard to hit your enemies, shooting at their feet will make it much harder for them to avoid the blast damage.
• Sometimes there are simply too many enemies. A group of soldiers all ganged up with their P90’s will drop you before you can say “Kree!” The Shock Grenade makes your life much easier on this count. When thrown, there is a short time after which it explodes, blinding anyone within range. This leaves them blundering and firing wildly, a ripe target for you or your Goa’uld lord.

[More...]

Posted by Conot on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

I’d forgotten all about Cursor * 10, a brilliant game from Nekogames which redefines the basic view of multi-player. To get ahead, you must co-operate … with yourself.

http://www.nekogames.jp/mt/2008/01/cursor10.html

It may appear simplistic but the Cursor * 10 gameplay had me enthralled through multiple plays, trying to work out the best way to make it to the top.

I’m pleased to see that there is now a new set of puzzles: Cursor * 10 2nd Session.

Although there is scoring, that’s the wrong thing to focus on – the goal is to make it to the 16th level. In order to solve the puzzle, you have to help future instances of yourself get up the stairs. I have to admit that the air turned blue on floor six when I cursed my past-self for snatching the key that I needed – how rude!

I still think that this is a very clever new look at basic gameplay and I’d love to see further twists on this concept. Now I just have to work out how my future-self can help the previous instances of myself to get that high score…

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

Stargate Resistance is a small-scale TPS (Third Person Shooter) OSV (Over the Shoulder View) Multiplayer Deathmatch originally developed and published by Firesky Studios, but which has recently had development switch to Dark Comet Games. It has multiple points of interest for the MMO crowd in general, especially in its relation to Stargate Worlds.

The game allows you to play as both factions from the original series (Stargate SG-1): Stargate Command and the System Lords. Each faction has three classes available. What makes Stargate Resistance special is its differences from most class-based games. Each class for either side has no comparable opposite number, every class is unique and has its own strengths and weaknesses. The Soldier has the fast firing P90, the Jaffa the powerful but slow Staff Weapon, the Commando the long ranged sniper rifle, the Goa’uld the short-ranged hand device. Thus, playing either side is a unique experience, with very different tactics and possibilities. [More...]

Posted by Conot on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

If you are an Elder Scrolls fan then you are sure to love this video by Sam Orchard and Max Mews. As one commenter mentioned, “That was perfect. You can make like a hundred of these and it would be funny as hell every time.”

Or maybe I’m just easily amused. See what you think:

“Don’t you hate it when you want to buy weed but your disposition with your dealer isn’t high enough? We do.”

[More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

Have you seen the great new sensation that everyone is talking about? Cow Clicker is a social game by Ian Bogost where you get to click your cow and watch your friends as they click theirs.

Cow Clicker is a Facebook app which encapsulates everything that is great about social games. The game accounts for all different playstyles and makes for riveting gameplay.

Ian Bogost, the developer, explains Cow Clicker in his blog.

You get a cow. You can click on it. In six hours, you can click it again. Clicking earns you clicks. You can buy custom “premium” cows through micropayments (the Cow Clicker currency is called “mooney”), and you can buy your way out of the time delay by spending it. You can publish feed stories about clicking your cow, and you can click friends’ cow clicks in their feed stories. Cow Clicker is Facebook games distilled to their essence.

You start with a single cow and a pasture. In your pasture, you can house your friend’s cow. When your cow moos, the other cows in your pasture moo. Clicking your cow earns them clicks and when they click you get credit. This is viral game sharing at its best. [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.