Cyphers

Cyphers is a third person action game that I ran across quite randomly. I was looking for something else and this just happened to be on the front of Naver today. They seem to be in open beta right now. It looks to be running until June 12, and it's their third test, so I suspect this is gong to be going live soon. This is hosted on a standalone site and comes to us from Neople. They're also responsible for Dungeon Fighter which I've heard of and feel like it may be popular, I'll have to look into that one more. Sign-up for the site is pretty standard, but when you try to use the I-PIN option it states that they're still enabling that feature. Currently foreigners can't type their full name into the name field. The best I could do is 12 characters which leaves me far short. If you've got a really short name, it might work, but I can't test that. I used a Korean ID to create the account. I'll test the I-PIN sign-up when it's finished. Installation is also standard for a game of this type. Just click game start after you're logged in, install the active-x and follow along. Make sure to uncheck the boxes which offer to set the site as your homepage and all that fun stuff.

As to the game itself. It's a character based game. Meaning that there are a set number of characters and each has unique powers and abilities. You choose one at the start of each match, but there can be only one, if someone else chose it, I think it's random who gets to use it and who gets assigned a different one. When you start you'll be forced into a tutorial. Follow along, it's pretty obvious and you get some cash rewards for it. After each match you'll gain level XP, and character XP. You gain big XP for the one you used and a tiny amount for the rest of them. Once you get into the settings, set your resolution and set everything to the "고" level, that's the high level on this one. It seems to be named differently than the other games.

The game is a team-based game where the object is to destroy the other team's base. There are some twists to it. Each team has some soldiers that are sent automatically and fairly trivial to defeat, but left unchecked, they'll pile up and can cause some serious damage. As well each team has a massive guardian that protects the base. He'll destroy you easily if you don't go in as a team. The map is laid out with 3 paths going between the bases and some crossing lanes. Along the paths are also barriers that you have to bust through that have cannons and the like mounted on them. You can walk through your own, but you'll have to bust down the enemies to get past. Also this game has a unique twist in that the more you die the slower you respawn. It can get quite long, even by the third or fourth death you can go from a 15-20 second respawn to around 45 seconds.

Your character can attack with a regular attack, but also has several special attacks built in. Don't worry about remembering the keys for it because they're simple and part of an overlay. I'm not sure how to get rid of it, but you really don't notice it after awhile and it helps you keep track of your cooldowns. As you destroy enemies you'll gain gold. This isn't permanent gold so spend it. During the tutorial you will have had an opportunity to try the item system. Basically you just buy things from the menu below by pushing 1-8. These are clothing items that boost various things like attack and defence. It should be mostly obvious what each one does. You can hold down TAB to get a more detailed Korean view of everything. If you push CTRL it will change your menu to a potion menu. Use this to get health potions and other things. Health potions are #1. As you do this your level will increase. Not sure what effect that has on things beyond having better equipment. After you hit level 5 you get access to the dollar store to spend all that money you've been collecting from games. I haven't opened that yet, but I suspect it to be fairly standard. You'll be able to buy permanent bonuses and things I assume. I'll comment on that when I get it unlocked. Shortly I'll attach a gameplay video showing a bit. Ignore the stutter, if it shows up. I find recording in fraps to sometimes induce lag which isn't there otherwise.

The game is not bad. A good little action game, something different which is never a bad thing. I find that it's easy to stun-lock people. I'm not sure if I'm just playing against bad people or what, but my first few games I've done quite well. I'm sure that'll change when I leave the noob area or however it's done. There is no lobby system in this game. You just push F5 to quick join a game or hit F6 to create your own rooms.

Psychic Online Guerilla Test

The Psychic Online "Guerrilla Test" begins today. It runs until the 24th but it's only open from 5-7pm each day. Kind of a short window. I think I'll be able to take advantage of a few minutes today before I must head out. Tomorrow I think I can probably put in a couple hours and try and get some screenshots and a video. They don't seem to be letting us download the client ahead of time so that is only going to cause delay.

Undead Defense Champion

Undead Defense Champion is a bit of an oddity. Despite the website address this game isn't an online game. This is a free to download zombie defense game. Download and set-up is pretty easy. You don't even need an account. Head over to the site, click the link, wait for the main site to come up and choose "game download". Install, during which you can choose an English option, and you're done. The English choice seems to only be for the installer. The game itself is still in Korean, but it's pretty easy to figure out.

Controls are standard for a game of this kind. You can carry 4 weapons at once. A knife, grenades, a pistol and one main weapon. As you defend against the zombies different areas will open up and you can get additional weapons in those areas. Hit 'E' to swap weapons. The menu is fairly straight forward. Half in English. I just changed the resolution to 1920x1200 and set it to "high". According to fraps I was getting about 40~ frames per second. It's a decent looking game.

The game progresses in rounds. After you clear all the zombies in the round a new round will start. There does seem to be a time component as well. If you don't finish one fast enough and there is one or two stragglers it will start a new round. There are a few "boss" rounds where there are some very tough zombies. One of the most difficult I've found so far is round 20 where there are 3 or more chainsaw wielding zombies. They're very tough and the second time through I didn't pass them. The game can go on for up to an hour. I assume, I haven't gotten past about 30~ minutes so far. You have 2 extra lives to help you last. Some zombies will spawn with guns later on, and zombies will have various speeds and toughness mixed together. Sometimes they will be both fast and strong. you want to be fleeing and dropping grenades or shooting backwards at that point.

The pathing is a bit off in this game. There is a spot where you can stand, pictured below, where if you step through the doors most of the zombies will turn around and go back around the other way. If you're in a bad way it's a good spot to exploit the AI and pick off a couple and step back through causing them to turn around. This does not always work. I would say only about 70% of the time so far. If zombies are close to you they will follow you through and the odd one will charge through anyway, so don't completely rely on this trick. It's pictured right and you can see me exploit it at the end of the video. If your health is below 25 when the round ends you'll be bumped to 25. Zombies will drop ammo boxes and med-kits. Med-kits seem to heal around 50%. Other than that, there is another bug where zombies will just walk over stuff, including debris. There is fire on the stairs. Don't try to jump over it you won't make it and you'll die fast. You cannot use the fire extinguisher you find in one hallway near the trick corner either. Trying to open it does nothing and it's very explosive. After the 20th level you need to head upstairs or you'll catch on fire.

All in all it is a pretty fun game. A good time killer. I'm hoping to make it to the end sometime and see if there is anything special there or not. I just need a good strategy for the chainsaw zombies.

TK online Group Test

Awhile ago I commented on two seemingly defunct Korean RTS games. One of them, TK online, has come back to life. I was surprised to see an email for them in my inbox. They've announced a group test from October 15th to 25th. Running from 4 pm to midnight every night. Good news is that even though it is a stand-alone site, you don't even need an ID to make an account. It just verifies your e-mail address. So get signed up and try it out. It will start tomorrow night.

First head over to the official site and click the registration link under the login box on the left. If you are not familiar with what the registration link looks like, its on the left, black button labeled "회원가입". After doing so you will get this lovely pop-up to the right. The upper button just shows us the poster, the lower button starts the registration process. You will then get our standard ToS checkbox questions, click the left most check boxes after each one. I don't know what the right one does, but I expect its the "I don't agree boxes". On the next screen you'll input a name (use Korean, make anything up if you want), then you will have to enter your e-mail address on the next line. Then press the gray button. After pressing this, the site will send you an e-mail. Go check it and get the code, put that code on the last line and press the ever familiar and wonderful "확인" to continue. On the next page you're going to pick out a few miscellaneous details, like your user name, password, gender, age, and "Do you want to get our spam/updates" radio button. After setting all those obvious fields press "확인", and that is it, finished. Fantastically easy. You can log-in now if you want, but you can't download the client yet. It just generates that same pop-up about registering. Even though I'm logged in. Perhaps the client download will be available tomorrow night. If not, its going to be a very boring group test. So for now, I have no screenshots or videos that I can show. Not my own anyway, I found a couple random ones on the site. Though these shots make them look almost like different games. I think there is a persistent hero that levels up in all your games that you play. You can get items, etc for him.

Metal Rage

After a bit of a hiatus, I'm back with a new game. This is another shooter, but this one comes in the form of giant robot fighting. Metal Rage is run by a very small portal called GameHi. Unlike other portals they don't really have a main page. The site basically consists of three sub-sites for the three games they have a customer center if you try to go to the main GameHi website. They have an MMORPG and Sudden Attack, another FPS. This site will require you to have your Korean friend sign up for you using their ID. So I won't be walking through the sign-up. Even though the name field is very long, attempts to use my Foreign ID resulted in it telling me to choose "Under 14" when I had chosen adult, then after choosing "Under 14" I was met with an error that said there was a problem with the name.

The website is pretty easy to navigate. After you're logged in, click game start. It'll install a couple activex controls. After those are installed it'll direct you to the client download page. Click the download link and you will get a pop-up. Click "확인" and you will get the installer. Like many installers before it, you can change the folder if you really want or just hit "젼송시작" and let it do its thing. After it downloads 100% that button will change, and you can press it again to install. Once it's finished installing you might want to delete the setup file. This isn't done automatically and it's around 1.1 GB.

The menu is fairly simple and not much needs to be touched. I went to the options and maxed the resolution. Again on my laptop with max resolution the game ran and looked great. I didn't get any slow-ups except when I was taking my fraps video. The inventory/store button is the same. One useful choice is the game type sort/filter. This one presents a drop-down menu that lets you pick the game type and sorts based on that. Very handy for finding a specific type of game. All my photos and videos are from deathmatch. The cards are some kind of buyable/reward object. I haven't completely figured them out. I have 2, they look like weapons, but I can't find them in the store.
The store/inventory is fairly normal, except it also lets you choose which four mechs you want to take on a mission. You have many choices but you can only have four at a time in your bay. To swap them just select one that isn't in the bay and double click it and it'll be moved to the bay slot. From there you can buy new weapons, choose which ones you want to take, etc. There are a lot of choices here and you could probably spend quite some time setting mechs up. I might get into that later. I swapped out a couple mechs after a match or two just to try them and jumped into some games.

Gameplay is standard FPS fair. Move. Shoot. Die. No headshots though..so that was nice. The repair mech is also the turret builder, so you get a two for one deal here. There is a sniper mech, also a mech who can immobilize and turn into a giant cannon with a shield, and many other interesting abilities and guns. I quite liked this one, and I expect to play it quite a bit more. Currently its in open beta, so there is a chance some things might change.

Sting Part 2 - Gameplay

Sting gameplay can be summed up in one word: Headshot. This game seems to have the most headshots out of any of the FPS games I've played. My first few games seem to have been non-stop headshots and I would guess that in the first 5 matches I died about 70% of the time from headshots. Which is why there won't be an immediate video for this game. I'm trying to get up the gumption to go back in to it.

As with many games you gain some points as you play. You can use these points for guns, aesthetics, and skills. Skills are some abilities that you can have. One is healing, one is speed and one is respawn speed (I think, I didn't actually try that one). The abilities recharge over time. 3 levels total. The longer you let them charge the more benefit you get. Let the healing go to level 1, you get 10 health, level 2, 30 health and level 3 50 health. It takes time, so you better hope you're good at staying alive. I never got to use it for more than 50 and then 10 more before I got killed. The screenshot is a rare moment when I was not dead and near an enemy. The headshot hit box seems to start around mid ankle and run to about 5 feet above your head. The only time I didn't seem to die from a headshot was the rare time they killed me instantly with what appeared to be a heartshot. This is one of the roughest twitchiest shooters I've played. This is a shame because the graphics are nice, and the skill feature is very interesting. It adds a little strategy and depth.

The character classes are interesting, and as I said you can have 4. If you want to switch you actually have to exit the match and pick a different one. Each one progresses independently in terms of points, weapons, skills, etc. Each class is a different nationality. No Canadian, but there is an American. Gameplay modes are currently limited. The game is new and growing. Most of what I saw was team deathmatch. I don't know what else is currently there as I didn't really see anything else available. This game does have bots. Headshot loving bots. Some maps will let you play against a team of bots. You can even create private rooms with some bots if you want to play alone. Maybe just for practice. The bots are not pushovers. Everything is fairly intuitive, one thing to note is when your item expires, you can repurchase it for a discount. So don't go buy a new one. go to your inventory and buy it for a discount. I made this mistake and when I went to my inventory to equip stuff I found the old stuff still there but grayed out. Clicking it gave me an option to buy it again. Nice option and also unique.

In conclusion I personally won't be playing this one a lot. It has some nice features, but I find the headshot feature a total killer. I don't know if this is fully out of beta yet. I didn't really see any cash items so maybe not. In that case there is hope that they will shrink the headshot box down by about 90%. If you want to have a look at the new features it might be worth it for that reason. You might find the twitchiness okay. I'll tack the video on the end of this post perhaps tomorrow if I can get up the energy to go back in.

Sting Part 1 - Installation and Menus

I was going to do a different game today, but someone asked me about FPS games so I tried this out yesterday to see how it was. Sting is a FPS on an independent site. The game is made by YNK games who are responsible for a couple of mmorpgs and who also has a 2D flying game in pre-beta. From my searching on Naver this seems to be one of the newest FPS in Korea. So if you want to get in on the ground floor, you might want to try it out. It has several unique features will I discuss in gameplay. First off you'll need a Korean to sign up for you. It only takes 4 characters for name input.

Once you have an account, you'll have to click repeatedly on the gamestart link to install a couple of activex controls (at this point my computer is like a poster child for activex control addiction) and then launch the installer. This installer isn't a normal launcher so you won't see it again after you install it. Which means no screenshot, but it is relatively simple to navigate. You'll get the regular buttons letting you pick a folder to put the download in and then you can press go. It'll download and you can again hit go to launch the install. When the install finishes, the installer doesn't go away. You have to close it. After you close it you go back to the website and press game start again. Unlike other installers it doesn't auto-close or change in to a launch button.

Once you're in game you'll be prompted to pick a graphical settings level. Pick the right most to get the highest quality. I get decent performance on my machine at 1920x1200 on that setting. You need to manually adjust the resolution later. Next you'll be prompted to create a character. This is one of the ways this game differs from other games. You can't just change your class on the fly in this game. You can have up to 4 characters of different classes (or the same one..but why?) and if you want to change them you'll have to exit the current match. You build up their gear, points, ranking, etc independently. After you've created your first character you can jump in to the channel. The first screen is a general or clan select. Pick the top choice. It will auto-select a channel.

From the main screen you can do a lot of normal things. Inventory, manage your characters (and switch them), and get to the settings area. Exiting here will actually take you back to the channel select if you want to jump around the channels to find more games or different games. Items in the game are purchased on time again. You guy buy things for a set period of days. A note on hangul for this game. I mentioned in Pointblank how I had trouble using alt-shift to switch the input language. This game blocks it all. I have no idea why. The only way I could type in hangul in this game was to change my default input language to Korean and restart. You will still type in English letters by default, it just means the language bar will be sitting on Ko and not En when windows starts. You can use the right alt key to toggle between hangul and english letters. This solves the problems in all games. Tomorrow, gameplay!

Karma 2 - Gameplay

Karma 2 has a handful of gameplay modes, but as I stated earlier, most of the gameplay is focused in team deathmatch maps. The vast majority of maps you will see in channels are team deathmatch and the other types of maps are almost always empty. Which made it hard to play those ones to try them out.

Survivor is a gameplay mode that is basically team deathmatch but 1 death per round. I don't know exactly why people enjoy these maps. They're pretty boring to me, but then again a lot of people like counter strike. I just hate getting shot up early and having to sit around for 2 minutes before I can die again in under 10 seconds. Maybe the problem is I'm not good at those kinds of maps^^ I played a few games of it, some interesting maps, and it seems like there is the ability to get low and shoot out from under some things like vehicles which makes it interesting. On the right you can see me about to snipe a guy during a survivor level. I'm pretty sure I missed and some flying debris took me out.

Another map type if occupation. Occupation is 2 teams on a small map, with a control point. The longer you hold the point the more points you get. Reach a certain limit and you win. I died a lot in these games but it was fun. sometimes the games are over quick. I think the limit has to be higher, maybe 2-3x as long would be better. I had a couple games end in around 1 minute. The problem is the team which takes the control point first gets a major tactical advantage.

There is another map type which I didn't translate before. It is konglish and means "One Flag" its similar to occupation but takes place in a trench scenario. Not sure why it isn't just part of the same rotation.

Team deathmatch is fairly standard. What really sets this game apart is the control. The mouse feels very laggy when turning and there is no way to adjust the sensitivity of it. When I tried to turn to shoot at someone in this game, I felt like it was just too slow compared to AVA or Wolf Team. I'm not sure why. I got used to it after a few games and it wasn't too much of a big deal, but still a little noticeable. Perhaps its some kind of realism thing. I'm not sure. Team death match is pretty fun. Like AVA you get money when you level up and after every match you get some experience points. All items are done on in-game time so if you want to buy some new grenades, helmets, etc keep an eye on the time. If it expires you won't have that item. They're cheap and keeping them in stock is no big deal. The guns are expensive but every level you should be able to buy one or two guns. Those stay forever. There is no zooming on the guns except for the sniper rifles. Its possible to get mortars which is interesting.

Its a reasonable game. There are 4 classes to play, soldier, sniper, rocket launcher guy, and heavy soldier. The maps are interesting and varied. You die a lot and quickly. It seems everyone steps around the corner firing so don't expect to get the drop on anyone.

Karma 2 - Install and Menus

Karma 2 is a newer first person shooter in Korea. It is developed by Dragonfly studios. Dragonfly studios has a game on Pmang, but Karma 2 isn't on a game portal site. It is hosted on its own site. It also doesn't allow foreign registration. So if you'd like to check it out you'll have to ask one of your Korean friends to set up an account for you. Account creation is pretty fast and since they've got to do it, they can understand it. On the off chance they just give you their KSSN and say you can make an account it is pretty straight forward and many of the options are similar to the pmang account creation and you can follow that guide on making the account. Karma 2 also got a little western press for their recent promotion in which they had some Koreans dress up in Nazi uniforms and run around some parts of Seoul to advertise.

The install is fairly straightforward. This is another one where you'll have to click the left text link under the game start icon to kick it off. It is around 830MB. Once it is all installed you can go ahead and start the game. I had to do a brief update even though I just downloaded it, and there was of course an activex control on the page that I had to install the first time I pressed game start.

Once you have it up and running, I believe you have to choose a nickname on first run of the game. It will immediately auto-select a channel for you and present you with a list of games. You can change your channel later if you want. This game continues the trend of "resolution only effects the game and not the menu". Which means your menu is stuck at 1024x768. Not a big deal, but it doesn't look that sharp on a 1920x1200 resolution. As to performance, I've played several maps at 1920x1200 with maximum settings for overall, models and 2x AA and still pulled from 50-100 Frames per second depending on where I am standing. Korean games seem to run fairly well on mid-range systems. Mine is starting to even flirt with the lower-end of mid-range systems and I can still play games that look great.

This menu is really easy and basic. We have the familiar settings button, exit, an inventory/store, a few stats in the lower left a list of games, channel, and players in the channel. The inventory/store consists of first an inventory screen where you choose your load-out and then a store screen where you can buy the items. Items here are mixed purchases. Some are permanent, like weapons and some are time restricted like gear. The time restriction on gear is in-game minutes. A previous game we played had calendar day purchases and time, this one has it based on in game time. Which means if you take a break for a week you won't lose your items, but if you play a lot you'll have to buy stuff more often. If you want to buy something choose "구매". This means purchase. You can choose how long you want to buy the item for, usually you're given 3 choices of time length. After you've bought the item go back to your inventory and equip it again. When the time limit of an item is getting close to expiring it will begin flashing so you can be alerted of it between games.

Games can be sorted by type, people in the game, room name, etc. Enter one by double clicking. In the game room you can see your inventory items, choose your class for the game, pick a team, etc If you need to there are quick links to the settings (most require the game be restarted), inventory, and item management. There is often no start button unless the game has already started. They just assume everyone is ready, it is a little strange but at the same time it does get games going a little faster as people don't have to sit around going "Hey guy, hit ready so we can start!". This game keeps track of your global ranking and how it changed with the experience you got in the last game.

There is one game type I haven't quite been able to sort out. I don't know what the name means. It is konglish of some kind but not obvious. The game seems to be a kind of deathmatch in the trenches with objectives, but most people seem to ignore the objectives. It is the unlabeled game type in the first annotated menu. By far the most popular game type in this game is Team Deathmatch. I'll chat more about the game types and gameplay in the next post.