Visually stunning, action focused M.O.B.A Paragon will cease operations on April 26th developer Epic Games announced in a statement to the remaining players within the Paragon Community yesterday.
The Paragon Team thanked all of the players who have stuck with the game and, in what is probably the most honest / direct statement I’ve seen from a AAA developer in a long time, admitted that their vision for Paragon wasn’t sustainable. Despite their best effort the Paragon Team ‘failed’ their player base and were sorry to see Paragon shut down.
Refunds for the Paragon Game (originally priced at $19.99 USD for Early Access) and any in-game purchases can be requested directly from Epic Games themselves. Often when it comes time for the online portion of a particular title to be sunsetted, developers and publishers rarely offer any form of refund at all. This is not only a welcome change of pace from what we’ve become accustomed too from AAA publishers but should also foster some goodwill within the Paragon community, despite the bad news.
Below is the full statement announcing Paragon’s closing. Epic Game’s other Unreal 4 engine title, Fortnite, has been hugely popular – drawing in more than 40 million players thanks to its free Battle Royale mode.
“Hey Everyone,
It’s with heavy hearts we’ve decided to close down Paragon.
We truly appreciate everything you’ve put into Paragon. We received many passionate ideas for where to take the game; the outpouring of thoughtful suggestions is another testament to this incredible community.
After careful consideration, and many difficult internal debates, we feel there isn’t a clear path for us to grow Paragon into a MOBA that retains enough players to be sustainable.
We didn’t execute well enough to deliver on the promise of Paragon. We have failed you — despite the team’s incredibly hard work — and we’re sorry.
To try to make this right, Epic is offering a full refund to every Paragon player for every purchase on any platform. This refund will come directly from Epic rather than your platform provider.
If you play on PC, or have already linked your Epic account, you can request your refund here.
We’ll continue operating Paragon servers until April 26, 2018. As the player population continues to decrease, matchmaking times and quality will further degrade.
Thank you for joining us on this journey and for your dedication to Paragon.”
Popular mobile Multiplayer Online Battle Arena Arena of Valor was originally set to make its debut on the Nintendo Switch in North America last month, needless to say the scheduled beta Christmas time beta test never materialized.Outlet Comicbook.com got a chance to sit down wth reps from publisher TenCent and get an update on the upcoming Switch port, plans for North American beta testing and obviously quite a few questions about the licensed D.C Comics heroes.
It seems like TenCent will roll the beta version of Arena of Valor in European territories first with North America to follow sometime after. Just as the mobile version on iOS and Android was launched in European territories first, TenCent will start taking applications for Switch Beta testers very soon – with a later, unspecified date, in mind for North America.
“The Nintendo version of Arena of Valor is being handled by a different team at the moment. We’re supporting the Nintendo version with beta testing, branding, and everything company-side. We have the closed beta testing coming up for Europe, and after we have the results from that beta testing, we’ll have a more clear timetable for launches in different regions.”
Comicbook.com also asked a question that I hadn’t considered – would it be possible for mobile players of Arena of Valor to transfer their gold, talent shards and unlocked heroes to the Nintendo Switch version? TenCent says that this is certainly technically feasible but they do have to consider the imbalance that this would create for new players who are just starting out on Switch.From the sound of things there’s still some deliberation going on about the possibility of porting over account progress from one platform to another.
“We had that discussion earlier, internally. The answer is that the decision is still being made. It is technically possible, but having people on the mobile version and Switch version competing with each other may compromise the arena as a “fair” arena, if you see what I mean. Because they’re using different devices, when they compete with each other we feel it could generate complaints of unfair competition, so we’re still balancing it.”
Lastly, the topic of Monetization has of course came up. Naturally with many calling last year – “the year of the loot box” – it is understandable that potential players might be a little skeptical of a free to play title on Nintendo’s latest platform. From my own personal experience, Arena of Valor is filled with blind boxes (loot boxes)– both in the “free” daily variety and those paid for with real currency.
“We haven’t made a decision about that. Monetization has never been the “start.” It’s not the major concern early on, for any version of the game. We will have more information after the beta test in EU.”
Arena of Valor will launch sometime in 2018 in both North America and Europe. The free to play mobile version is currently available in most countries on both Google Android and Apple’s iOS platforms. I’ve played a couple hours here and there on my phone and found it to be a competent M.O.B.A experience, even if I don’t really recognize or resonate with many of the heroes on offer.
Review by our newest Reviwer, so new she doesnt even have an account: Kylie Trace
Sometime last summer I started hearing about Battleborn, a sci-fi/fantasy first person MOBA developed by Gearbox Software, the creators of Borderlands. Battleborn’s graphics are solid and have a cartoony feel that really adds to the colorful battlefield. The number of playable characters means that there’s something for everyone. I thought it looked fun, so I was excited to hear it was going to have an open beta which would give me the chance to check it out before its actual release.
The basic plot is that there’s only one star left in the galaxy and a whole slew of heroes from different backgrounds must come together to protect it from being destroyed. The heroes (known as Battleborn) come from 5 different factions, ranging from a crew of anarchists known as the Rogues to members of the LLC (Last Light Consortium) whose main focus is to continue to profit economically. Either way they all have to work together to stop the end of the galaxy, but you still get the feeling that everyone has a “this town ain’t big enough for the two of us” attitude when you read each of the characters back stories. These stories have to be unlocked and are pretty rewarding if you’re interested in the character, but it takes a bit of grinding. Sometimes a character’s lore is only unlocked if you get someone else to play one specific character with you 5 times. It’s just chance if someone else wants to play that character unless you can get someone you know to do it.
I was lucky enough to get in to the Beta test phase of Paragon from EPIC studios. The game is very ambitious Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game that is challenging many of the traditional MOBA elements, while still keeping to the genres roots. The first thing that anyone who plays this game is going to notice is how pretty it it. The game is rendered in Unreal engine 4, and everything looks amazing. Colors pop, champions animations are fluid and beautiful, and the map is alive with terrain that is anything but flat.
look at that map, look at how it undulates, and is alive
The second thing you are likely to notice is that this is an over the shoulder Third person style of game. Instead of League or DOTA’s top down perspective you get a single over the shoulder camera. Fans of Smite will be familiar with this perspective, and it serves well in Paragon, giving the game a more epic feel. One of the first things I noticed about the games perspective is that it makes ganking and surprising your enemy much easier. Its too easy to zero in on an ememy in front of you and forget to check left and right and even behind to make sure you arent goign to get ganked. This combined with the extreme variety of terrain made the game really refreshing. Paragon is also working on a fresh take of items and levels.
Most MOBA games have items and levels and talents, Paragon sets out to break this mold with its card system. It still has leveling, but EXP is not passively instead it drops from mobs that you kill. Each enemy or mob kill drops drops amber colored orbs which you pick up to earn CP(card points) and EXP. Last hitting is still very important, as the amber that drops from minions will be summoned to you (With a very fluid pretty animation) if you are the one to last hit the minions. You also get more EXP and CP from last hitting then you do from just killing minions. Card Points or CP are the currency of the game, and experience is how you level the games abilities. Paragon does not have items as you might traditionally think of a MOBA having, instead you make a deck of cards, consisting of three types of card. First you pick a primary strain card, this is like your passive and you always start with this card. Next you pick several active cards that you can buy and equip like items, these are bought with card points and some are passive stats and others are active abilities, most right now are pure stats but the game is still in its infancy with many more cards to come. A few exmples of active cards are potions (Which the game handles on a charge system 3 uses before refresh) and wards. The final card type is upgrade cards and these slot in to existing equipment cards (think of how MMOs let you slot weapons) to give the equipment card more stats. most equipment cards have three upgrade slots and its in these upgrades that you really get in to a champions build. I may chose to equip a card that has damage, but slot that card with some health to help me survive dishing that damage out, or perhaps armor pen to get that damage past a powerfull enemies defenses. All of the item cards that I have seen have three upgrade slots, and once you finish upgrading the card you receive an additional upgrade bonus. This system keeps the game adaptable and intresting, because while most items cost 3CP some upgrades and deployables cost as little as 1. Card points are awarded fairly frequently, but they max around 40 so keeping in mind what you are building is a good idea. Each time you use a card it is “consumed” and you can not use it again during that match, so keep that in mind when building decks.
see all of that on the left? those are cards that this STEEL has in their build right now.
Unfortunately this is a bit of double edged sword. Building wrong means your game is over, period. If you take a deck for crit chance for example and you end up against a team who is mobile with a lot of armor your going to have a really bad time. I found that since decks are limited to 40 cards you can really only build for one thing, with a tiny flavor of something else. For example I might build a crit chance deck, and mix in some armor and life, so that I can survive long enough to deliver that damage. Since cards are consumed on use, when building decks you need to make sure that you have enough diverse cards to slot all of your items to full and get their bonuses.
The playable roster for Paragon is currently quite small, but has a good variety of types of champions. Assasins, Rangers, Casters, Tanks, and fighters all currently exist in game and no two heroes really feel the same. A lot of this is due to the fact that there are basically 5 attacks per hero and none of them feel bland or the same. Some champions are melee, other are ranged, and some are able to mix the two together. Champions still have an “ultimate” and basic attack, but the difference is there is no auto attack. Instead you will be manually firing or slicing at your enemies, all be it with a basic attack that consumes no manna. As far as I can tell, most of the champions I have played have one buff and 4 active abilities. I like the mix of combat so far, and its pretty clear that traditional MOBA roles are here.
Character designs are mostly variation on metal and flesh
During the games that I played my team split off in to our lanes, just as anyone would, and our jungler took off in to the jungle. The jungle in this game is absolutely bonkers, its a maze of passages through the center of the map that spreads out and is surrounded on both sides by high canyon walls. What a cool feature this is, its one of my favorite things in the whole game. The map is just so pretty, everything is moving, or alive, or shiny. Its one of the best examples I have seen of the current gen unreal engine put to effect. I found myself pretty immersed in the game no matter what i was looking at.
Overall im looking forward to this game, I think with time and investment it can be a major part of my play rotation. I have been having so much fun streaming it, and just playing it in general. Right now I really want to take a deep dive in to decks and building but as of now thats pretty hard with the only option being vs AI on one level or people on a whole other level. I hope that EPIC can add some more difficulty to the AI or a more causal non-ranked PvP mode. Overall I say if you want to play a new refreshing MOBA spring the 20$ for the beta access for this game. If you cant wait it is coming to the masses sometime this summer for free on Playstaion and PC
Blizzards MOBA Heroes of the Storm is an awesome game. I still play it at least onece a week. I have several max level Hero’s and I have even dabbled in the ladder mode though I still have yet to get a placement since they upped the number of games you need to finish to be placed. Now HoTs is getting on the few things it has been missing to put it on the level of other major competitive MOBA’s like Riots League of Legends. Its getting draft bans! Draft ban’s arent all the next patch is bringing either, in a strong show of dedication to a game thats over a year old Blizzard is also bringing out an “epic visual overhaul” to the games lobbys including new background art, animated hero models and portraits, and updated selection animations, and hero bans in ranked play. Perhaps most exciting of all is that custom ranked games are also on the way
The redesign will more clearly indicate which heroes are being banned out, show you what map is going to be played, add favorite heroes, and loud, clear audio cues will be added to indicate maps, hero names, and bans. Perhaps the most anticipated and asked for change, hero bans, will be implements this patch as well. This will allow players in a ranked game to exclude some champions from choice in their games. Draft mode is a necessary piece of strategy for higher level games and should add a new level of depth to the games somewhat shallow meta.
This is what the new UI will look like, nothing is radically changing but there are a lot of small tweaks. Notice the large text at the top, denoting what map the game is to be played on, and the two top ban slots, as well as the bottom row of favorite heroes.
In the video (which we linked above) Dustin Browder says, “We’ve been doing this ban system in our esports for the last many months, going all the way back into last year, so you can watch our esports now and you can see how these bans affect your strategy in the game. So absolutely go check out our esports and see how the pros have been playtesting and using this ban system to create some really interesting strategies in our game.”
Are you looking forward to these changed? Tell us on Facebook or Twitter what you think of bans in HOTS
Battleborn, the new multiplayer shooter from Gearbox just got some new video content. Deande, and Ghalt are featured in new video content released today. Ghalt wields dual shotguns, has a gap closing hook, and can deploy traps. Deande appears to be much more stealth oriented with a melee attack and a cloak that makes her invisible.
There is a lot of footage in the two new trailers, players new to the game will notice that Gearbox’s trademark cell shaded look is also present in the new team based co-op shooter. The RPG style skill system is also shown, appearing to be a strand of DNA like choices which allow the player to “build” different ways. Mostly what I take away from these two trailers is that this is going to be a very combat oriented game, with fast paced shooting bolstered by objective based game play. Very little is currently know about Gearboxes co-op MOBA style shooter, but a beta earlier this year was well received by those who were able to play.
Battleborn will see a full release in May and there was a beta preview late last year, during which players got a very small taste of the new games world and characters. Hit the jump to see the videos and look out for our review of Battleborn when it releases in May.
Moba’s are really hot right now, the massive commercial sucess of League, Dota, and to a lesser extent their dozens of clones and imitators have spawned a wave of indie and AAA moba type games. I myself am a huge fan of Overwatch, Blizzards shooty moba, and Paladins, a similar game from Hi-Rez studios. So it comes as no real suprise when I see that the Epic games backed Paragon is actaully a MOBA and not an epic sci-fi shooter.
Now a new trailer is showing us what we can expect from its MOBA aspects. The new trailer, as Epic explained, features “Gadget and Feng Mao pushing down mid-lane, while Rampage rushes to defend, setting up a gank from the Assassin Kallari.” So it seems that Epic have decided to market the game as 100% MOBA, isntead of its more previous more mysterious tacit.
Most of the rest of Paragon remains a mystery, keep it tuned here for all your Paragon related new and a first look some time next week, and hit the jump for the new trailer
Paladins Champion of the Realm, the newest game from Hi-Rez studios (creators of SMITE, and publisher of Tribes). The game features (so far) a cast of 9 characters who fight over a single point to capture. After capturing the point players must then escort a cannon to three “doors” which the cannon destroys advancing the game. Most games last about 10 minutes and feature fast paced action that’s pretty close to nonstop. The game currently features 9 Champions each of whom have 3 special abilities that are activated by a key press. In this way its very MOBA like, but the similarities end there. Instead of towers, or turrets, the game has you capturing a point, for tickets. The more players on the point the more tickets you get. After 100 tickets, a “siege engine” spawns and you escort the engine to the enemies gate, where it fires at the gate and does damage. This all sounds pretty confusing but the game is honestly quite simple. Most of the game your directed directly to the objective that currently was needing to be achieved.
Paladins UI is very minimalist
The games major difference from other MOBAs comes in its card system. As you level up you are allowed to select a series of 5 cards which have unique effects on your three abilites. One might boost damage, one might boost duration, anotehr might cause a debuff on the enemy. This is how the game handles “builds” the cards are drawn at random from your stack as you level up, and you can earn more cards each time you level up, or you can purchase more cards for in game currency or buy cards. Yes the game has microtransactions, its not yet clear how all of them will work, but it does seem clear that at least you can earn everythign thats currently in game just by playing. You would have to play a lot, but you could earn it all.
this screen is what you get when you level up
I found the game to be a lot of fun, I streamed it for two hours, you can watch the VOD here on my twitch channel, but watching 20 minutes of it should give you enough of an idea of what the game is about to decide if you like it or not. Most matches last less than 10 minutes. Personally I love the games look, really reminded me of Wild Star. Its very cartoony and bring, something that I honestly love. The style is often made fun of for being too childish, but for me dark games are just too much, I really prefer the pretty colors and particle effects. The Beta is very much a Beta, with new content being added very quickly. It also has its fare share of bugs, but there is a full forum for reporting bugs and I have no doubt that Hi Rez will work diligently to iron out the bugs, while adding as much content as they can.
Currently in semi-open beta you can sign up on the site or purchase access (buy in for 20$ here) on the Hi-Rez site. The game is I think its worth the the small buy in to get on the ground floor. The game is (At least according to wikipedia) planned for multi console release, so getting in early on PC should give players an edge. Judge for yourself by checking out the youtube and twitter content that Hi-Rez is putting out.
Blizzard has flagged for a huge number of accounts for this weekend’s Overwatch Beta Test Weekend. Luckily, I have had access to the beta for the past few weeks and I wanted to share what you can look forward to.
League of Legends preseason for season 6 has hit, and it’s a doozy. We’ve got some heavy hitting changes, and one of the heaviest hitters is Graves. Graves has always had trouble finding his niche to fit, but now it’s even harder. Because he can go everywhere.
Graves is overpowered. You can argue people just haven’t learned him yet, but this is pretty empty considering he can burst people down faster than he can fire three shots. Top Laner, ADC bot lane, Jungle, you could probably even Mid Lane him, no position is safe from his long arm of the law. This man has had a few changes to make him work everywhere, and I’m gonna make a quick review of how to fight against, or as, this Cigar lacking powerhouse.
Graves is all about the burst, and that extends to even his auto attacks. He finally has a real shotgun now, and each shot is a spread of multiple bullets. The more bullets hit, the more damage dealt. When Graves gets a critical strike, he fires more bullets in the same spread area, for more damage. Graves uses an Ammo system, which can be seen by all players in the game. He has unlimited ammo, like everyone else, but only two shots can be used at a time, before a notable “reload” delay. Graves has to reload then, significantly reducing his fire rate. He automatically reloads when inactive, walking around, whenever he gets the chance. So you only need to worry about ammo when combat rolls around. Your auto attacks should be planned well, and interspersed with his powerful abilities. Before we continue, he has one more very important passive, although it is rather easy to ignore at first. Graves gains bonus armor and magic resist while in combat, including last hitting minions, jungle camp fighting, everything.
We here are Brokenjoysticks love Heros Of The Storm, so every time there is a set of patch notes or a major announcement we tend to get a bit excited. So when Blizzard community manager Trikslyr lays out upcoming changes on the forum we listen. In their most recent post in response to a thread about MMR Trikslyr said Blizzard is working on “a couple of bug fixes to help the matchmaker identify players that are closer in skill.” This should result in more evenly balanced matches.” Many players will be unhappy to hear that trisklyer also mentioned that this would increase wait times UP TO 10 MINUTS. No specifics were mentioned in the post, the however exact post says simple “system improvements” Additionally Trisklys announced that Blizzard has a set of priorities moving forward for HoTs which were laid out as
Improving matches at high skill levels
Improve the New User experience
Adjustments to make sure players in matches are close in experience, not just MMR
none of these are particularly new or exciting, but I for one am excited at the idea of not either rolling over my enemy or getting stomped every game. Now if blizzard could just stop crazy team comps in casual. Three healers anyone?
A Blizzard Russian community manager has revealed on their official forums which heroes which will be free this week. Long-time mainstays like Raynor and Muradin are free alongside Rexxar who makes his first appearance on the free line-up after being released last month.
Rexxar is a unique Hero due to the fact that players control two characters at one time, adding a bit more micromanagement to the game. He is also the first ranged warrior to make an appearance in Heroes of the Storm.
Here’s the full line-up for this week:
Raynor
Muradin
Tassadar
Jaina
Zagara
Nazebo (12)
Rexxar (15)
If you need the lowdown on how Rexxar works check out Blizzards official trailer for him and his companion Misha:
[youtube id=”7SDdVEFgczM”]
The next major hero is expected to be Artanis from the StarCraft series who can be had for free if you pre-order Star Craft II: Legacy of the Void.
Warner Bros and DC have announced a multiplayer online battle arena game based on the Infinite Crisis comics. It will be a free to play title from Turbine, the developer of The Lord of the Rings Online.
The Executive Producer at Turbine Jeffrey Steefel said, “We are utilizing years of experience in the online game space to deliver innovations to the MOBA genre with a game that features fast-paced action, a major story arc, destructible environments, catastrophic events and a deep roster of iconic DC Comics characters.” Due out for PC this year, we also have the announcement trailer after the break.Read More
Awesomenauts, a 2D 3-vs-3 side-scrolling MOBA variant, is set to launch on PSN on May 1 and XBLA on May 2. Developed by Ronimo Games, this downloadable title charges players with the task of assaulting their enemy’s Core while defending their own. Standing in their way, though, are three cartoon murderers (each possessing unique offensive and defensive abilities) and machine gun turrets ready to chew them to pieces.Read More
