Entrance to the Black Talon Instance

Getting down to business

As you can see, I prefer to cut the chase. KILL THE JEDI!

Loot almost got ninja-ed. The game allows everyone to roll on items. Irregardless if your class is able to use or not.

PVP rewards XP and Credits very well. Compare this loss...

...to this win.

Had a positive experience while partying? The game allows easy adding of online friends. Check out the left window, bottom section.

Pre-order the Star Wars: The Old Republic with us now!

Contact the author of this post, Gerald Chan, at geraldchan@qisahn.com. Follow his tweets @changerald

I had the opportunity to try Star Wars: The Old Republic out over the weekend and it was the best beta experience that I had ever tried. There was close to non-existent lag in the game and apart from that, it looked as if the game was very much ready for release.

Why You Should Buy The Game

1. It is Star Wars. Enough said. And it is polished enough to the point that you won’t feel like your childhood is being destroyed.
2. Good latency. Unlike many other Western MMOs, Asians get the short end of the stick. Thankfully, the beta showed that the latency for myself was very playable even in PVP at < 300ms
3. Dialogue and immersion. If you love plenty of voice acting, SW:TOR has it on loads. What quest text? The game is full of fully voiced NPCs and plenty of options to be an angel or a pure asshole.
4. Familiar UI. If you played WoW, you will feel right at home with this game. Nice and clean.
5. Crafting. As far as I know, crafting in this game requires almost no action from the player and is purely based on the time. Send your companion to do the gathering and he would be back after the deed is done. Crafting powerlevelers will not approve.
6. Dungeons. Or Flashpoints as they are called in the game. I liked how you would be able to get in with as little as 2 players. I tried the same dungeon with different number of players and it was not the same experience twice. I won all the loot btw

Why You Should Not Buy This Game

1. It’s WoW all over again. Have something better to do in real life? Yup, you should probably do that, nothing big to be missed here.
2. Classes. While WoW has been trying it’s best to simplify the leveling process and skills. SW:TOR is back to the old school. Pick a sub class at level 10 and get locked into it. Forever. Plenty of skills to pump your points in adds to confusion.
3. Loot Ninjas. With no restrictions on loot based according to classes, players are pretty much at the mercy of selfish players who will need every piece of drops irregardless if they are able to use it or not.
4. Pay to Play. We are looking at USD$60 initially with a recurring sub.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is a good game in its own right. Inevitably, there will be comparisons to WoW. The game is similar in so many ways but it also has all the problems that plagued WoW for a good time. I’m pretty adverse to bottlenecking classes and lack of a dual spec. And of course loot ninjas.

Irregardless, I WILL still be getting this game and giving it a shot!

Pre-order the Star Wars: The Old Republic with us now!

Contact the author of this post, Gerald Chan, at geraldchan@qisahn.com. Follow his tweets @changerald

It has been six years since Maple Story first hit the MMO scene. Back then it was pretty much Everquest and Ultima Online and World of Warcraft was pretty much starting to get on its feet. Six years down the road, Maple Story is still going strong in an arena that has seen many subscription based MMOs turn into a freemium model that Maple Story is renowned for. Only recently, Maple Story SEA was able to hit 4 million registrations for Malaysia and Singapore combined. Impressive considering the MMO space these days.

The Maple Story that you would jump right into today is not the same one that I had played back in 2005. Back then it was DOTA and there was Maple Story. The UI largely remains pretty intact but the sheer amount of content to be found in this free-to-play MMO boggles the mind. Nexon had done a fine job packing content after content into the game that when I had down to give it a go, it was quite overwhelming. And it didn’t help with the fact that I was given a level cap character right from the very start.

Maple Story is a very retro 2D affair and the main controls of the game are handled exclusively with the keyboard. Players are able to bind a specific action to a key, which I felt was rather cumbersome as I had to remember which ability was bound to which key. The fact that there were so many skills to choose from compounded the experience. At one point of time, I commented to the player next to me that the best way to execute moves was to roll my face on the keyboard. He laughed in agreement (I think).

The main agenda for the night was to check out the new Chaos Player Versus Player patch for Maple Story. Six years in the making, PvP has always been a much sought after feature in the game and a staple mode in many others. The Chaos patch allows players to trounce each other in a myriad of game modes like free-for-all and capture the flag. Very basic PvP game modes. However, there is a specific game mode that I felt was rather interesting, the Ice Knight PvP mode. Unlike the other modes, in the Ice Knight arena, a player takes on the role of said Knight and attempts to outlast the onslaught by other players. Pity I didn’t get a chance to try it out but I’m pretty sure it would be fun.

With no less then 40 classes to tailor your character to be, Maple Story’s PvP mode may suffer an imbalance between the classes. Looking at how other games struggle to balance with lesser classes, balancing issues would be the biggest challenge that would face the developers of the game. After the night’s festivities, it appears that ranged characters have a clear edge over the melee counterparts. While low in health, it matters little as armed with high damage and burst, most characters would fall enroute trying to land the first blow. However, not all is lost, the mechanics of the PvP arena seems to calculate damage done overall as opposed to landing killing blows to rank characters. Hence, picking your fights wisely and backing away would be the name of the game.

With the new Chaos patch, players would be able to advance their character purely via PvP as well. In fact, I’ve been told that experience gain is even faster this way. Looks like the grind just got less monotonous. In order to hit the level cap of 200, however, it looks like it would require a small investment into the game’s cash shop to expedite the process. Some things just never change.

All in all, Maple Story is still one of the better ways to get one’s feet wet into the genre of MMOs. Grinding being a core experience in almost all games in the genre has been polished and refined in the realm of Maple Story. One would almost forget that apart from your character, MMOs offer a unique way of player interaction in the online space. Good way to learn Internet etiquette kids!

Do check out Maple Story at http://maple.asiasoftsea.com/index/

Contact the author of this post, Gerald Chan, at geraldchan@qisahn.com. Follow his tweets @changerald

Only slightly over a year ago, IAH Games was the sole distributor of Blizzard Entertainment titles in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand but now the account is back into the hands of the very first distributor, Asiasoft.

IAH Games relationship covered 2 titles, Starcraft II & World of Warcraft: Cataclysm. Reasons on why Blizzard chose to give back their account to Asiasoft can only be left to speculation and we’ll leave it at that.

The next anticipated title from Blizzard would be the upcoming Diablo III which is currently in a closed beta stage. Tentative release date would be sometime early 2012. But Blizzard being Blizzard, would only release it once its truly completed.

If all things remain the same, one can expect Diablo III to cost $109 locally in Singapore. Yup, Starcraft II commanded the same premium at release as well. After all those local servers are not going to pay for themselves. Thankfully, SEA copies of the game would also have access the North American servers too, so no real worry there.

But the real question here is, do boxed copies of a game really matter these days, apart from Collector’s Editions. This article way back in 2007 by Oo Gin Lee, predicted accurately the landscape of video game retail today. Starcraft II had a digital release and so did Cataclysm. Especially for World of Warcraft, the transition was especially smooth, Cataclysm opened up very nicely on release day. Hence, why as a consumer would I want to leave my home when I can start playing the minute the game unlocks.

Blizzard has all the architecture in place for a seamless and smooth transaction online effectively cutting out the middleman (retailers). While boxed sets would most definitely see huge sales right out the door, what would new customers choose to get a few months down the road, travel down to your favourite game store or just simply grab it off the Internet?

Contact the author of this post, Gerald Chan, at geraldchan@qisahn.com. Follow his tweets @changerald

I had the honor of checking Alliance of Valiant Arms or otherwise known as A.V.A out this evening and was surprised at how polished free-to-play(F2P) games can be these days.

Like many F2P games, microtransactions are the backbone of the business. Players either earn in game currency slow or choose to boost their characters with real life cash. However, the playing field is rather balanced as more affluent gamers do not actually have a distinct advantage unlike many of the similar F2P FPS games out there. If anything, A.V.A requires a degree of skill in order to excel in the game. So park your imbalances at the door and enjoy the ride!

From the short preview, each gun and class has a distinct advantage/disadvantage. For added depth, each gun can be further customized to buff the passive stats of the existing weapon. In order to fund your gun addiction, simply play and win more to gain more in game currency, Euros, and you would be on your path to owning every available weapon and upgrade in store.

A.V.A has pretty much packed every single possible FPS game mode into it. After all, having been released since 2007 in Korea, A.V.A has been subject to plenty of love from the developers with its constant patches and updates; a trait rarely seen in most F2P games.

The main highlight of the entire experience was how smooth the game was in terms of ping. In an FPS, your latency is what it all boils down to. While a skilled player will probably triumph over a novice consistently, but if handicapped with a poor ping, the advantage skews towards the other court.

Having game servers based in Thailand, A.V.A looks to deliver pretty much the low latency performance that should accompany any FPS game. Players would be able to host their own games on the fly without having to purchase dedicated servers, which was exactly what happened at the preview. A game was created for us to hop in and it felt as though we were gaming over LAN. The experience? Flawless.

You can try out this game right now as the game is live in Thailand at the moment. Head on down to http://www.playfps.com/en/index.html to grab the client and you would be all set.

Fair warning though, accounts would not be transferable to a Singaporean account once it is launched. So, you might want to hold back with the intense leveling for the time being.

Bookmark http://www.playfps.com/ to prepare yourself for A.V.A for Singaporean audiences in the next few weeks to come!

P.S This article has so many abbreviations I’m surprised I haven’t gone into a abbreviation induced catatonic shock.

Contact the author of this post, Gerald Chan, at geraldchan@qisahn.com. Follow his tweets @changerald

Touch screen LCD, customizable keys that adapt for specific games, this piece of hardware truly is built for the gamer in mind. But what worries me is the games that it would be able to run and at what extent?

So far, from all the product videos that I’ve viewed, the Razer Switchblade, seems to really hit home with DOTA. The same DOTA that you most probably could have played at some point in your life. After all, the game that the popular mod is based on is already entering its 10th year. Popular with Asians? This would definitely be the ‘console’ to jump on if DOTA is the game of your choice.

World of Warcraft is the other game that has been featured predominantly on the hardware trailers but I’m pretty sure when it comes down to raiding, with all the add-ons thrown in, the Switchblade would definitely display signs of strain. But to give it the benefit of the doubt, this product is still a prototype and knowing Razer, I’m sure that their engineers would be able to weave their magic to pull this off.

The Razer Switchblade really does have plenty of potential. In an age where portable gaming devices are dumbed down for the casual consumer, the Switchblade focuses its attention to the real gamers who thirst for proper gaming on the go.

Let’s hope for better product demos which do not feature the Switchblade running on autopilot mode and featuring real actual gameplay. Here’s one of the better videos I could find for this gem.

I sure would love to give this baby a test run, where do I sign up?

Contact the author of this post, Gerald Chan, at geraldchan@qisahn.com

It’s just that in the years since XI, the MMO gaming genre has moved on in a better direction but the developers of FFXIV did not get the memo of this anomaly.

Today, these said devs and company, Square Enix, formally apologized to fans for the poor showing of FFXIV. Apparently, the UI lag affects many other users as well, and I suddenly feel that my computer’s specs are adequate once again.

In a real honest and truthful manner, Square Enix fully accepted the blame for XIV and has extended the free play period until everything has been ironed out. The Playstation 3 version of the game has been pushed back indefinitely. It will come out someday but when is a totally different question altogether.

Oh well..

Dare to take the plunge?

Contact the author of this post, Gerald Chan, at geraldchan@qisahn.com

Unless, you’ve not been an active player these past few weeks, the world of Azeroth has already been ripped asunder by Deathwing! Today’s release breaks the level cap and introduces 2 more races to the World of Warcraft.

Like Wrath before this expansion, there would be plenty of rerollers for the new races and, sadly, there will be no Goblin Druid. Darn.

After July’s mega Starcraft launch event, Singapore won’t be getting a similar event of the scale. Has the mmo scene died down for World of Warcraft died not? Pre-order numbers seem to tell a different story all together. Nonetheless, queueing for a game only delays your power leveling process right?

And, just like Starcraft II, Singapore will be seeing very little for the Collector’s Edition. The horror! However, if you are willing to put of leveling for just a while, we will have more Collector’s Editons of the game coming in about a week from now.

I hear the whispers coming from the box to tell me to reactivate my account. The lure of the Forgotten Ones is strong but I shall be stronger!

Don’t forget, we have awesomely priced time cards as well! Check out our prices!

Contact the author of this post, Gerald Chan, at geraldchan@qisahn.com

Usually, I don’t really do ‘this-week-in-releases’ posts but this year, once again, the entire week belongs to the newest Call of Duty.

Made by Treyarch, their focus on the World War theatre was very much their bread and butter sub genre up to this point. Their more famous ‘co-developer’ (for lack of a better word) Infinity Ward, very much had the modern warfare genre (see what I did there) under its thumb and now we get see if Treyarch is able to step up to the plate.

I’ve always felt that Treyarch was a much better developer in the sense that they dared to go against the norm to try and introduce new concepts to the FPS multiplayer genre. Infinity Ward was able to nail a popular formula with perks and straightforward gameplay.

Check out this retrospective vid, something that is NOT a trailer, to whet your appetite before release day – Tomorrow!

I’ll be honest. This entire post is biased. I’m just extremely hyped and excited to get the game. My platform of choice? The PC. What’s yours?

Contact the author of this post, Gerald Chan, at geraldchan@qisahn.com

“Only $1.50?! What’s the catch?”

Well, you get to enjoy the game for a full 72 hours. And my guess would be it is counted in real world hours and not in game time.

Limited time subscriptions are nothing new to Starcraft II. Similar pricing plans were available in both South America and Russia since launch.

But that still raises the question, why is Starcraft II relatively pricier compared to other PC games in the market for Asia? The cost of setting up a localized server still does not sit well with few but, yet, the game has gone on to be a commercial success despite the price tag.

Still have not got your Zerg fix yet? The lowered, subscription based plans will kick in come November 18th 2010.

Or you can get the “Unlimited” version from us from the mainsite.

Full press release to follow.

Contact the author of this post, Gerald Chan, at geraldchan@qisahn.com

IRVINE, Calif. – Blizzard Entertainment, Inc. today announced that a range of prepaid game card options for the English version of its record-breaking real-time strategy game StarCraft^® II: Wings of Liberty^™ will be available to players in Hong Kong/Macau, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand beginning 18 November, 2010.

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty game cards provide an additional, flexible payment option alongside the existing boxed version of StarCraft II, which includes unlimited access for the life of the game. They are available in 3-day, 7-day, and 30-day pass versions, and can be used on the Southeast Asian Battle.net^® server for StarCraft II single-player and multiplayer play. A DVD starter kit will also be available, allowing players to install the game client quickly and conveniently without the need to download it. The DVD starter kit will contain a 7-day pass along with a guide to creating a Battle.net account and installing the client. Suggested retail prices for the game cards and starter kit in each region are listed below:

The prepaid game cards and DVD starter kit will be distributed across Southeast Asia in select Internet gaming cafes, convenience stores, and gaming retail shops. For more information about the StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty passes and where to buy them, visit the info page at http://blizzard.iahgames.com.

Launched globally on July 27, StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty achieved a day-one sales milestone of more than 1 million copies sold worldwide, making it the bestselling PC game of 2010 within its first 24 hours of availability. The game went on to sell a total of more than 1.5 million copies in its first 48 hours, setting the record for fastest-selling strategy game of all time, and more than 3 million copies in its first month.*

StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty is the sequel to Blizzard Entertainment’s 1998 hit StarCraft, which has been hailed by players and critics worldwide as one of the top real-time strategy games of all time. Sporting a vibrant 3D-graphics engine, StarCraft II once again centers on the clash between the protoss, terrans, and zerg, with each side deploying legions of veteran, upgraded, and new unit types. Unparalleled online play for StarCraft II is available through a new version of Battle.net, Blizzard Entertainment’s world-renowned gaming service. Battle.net has been redesigned from the ground up to be the premier online gaming destination for Blizzard gamers, with several enhancements and new features, such as voice communication, cloud file storage, leagues and ladders, achievements, stat-tracking, and more.

For more information on StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, visit the official website at http://sea.battle.net/sc2.

Contact the author of this post, Gerald Chan, at geraldchan@qisahn.com. Follow his tweets @changerald