TCOS: Acclaim Named as US Publisher

Well, I've been scarce as of late (wahahaha), but I've been busy busy busy with stuffs! (Plus, for some reason, I got addicted to Atlantica Online for a bit!)

At any rate, the folks at TCOS have been shopping around for a US publisher, and they've found one that's almost legit. And from what I read, there's even going to be a "free to play" beginning area to hook you. Yay!

Are we still excited?

Here is the official blurbage and a link to the official press release:

North American publisher for Spellborn revealed!

TUESDAY, 19TH OF AUGUST 2008 :: POSTED BY BANSHEE :: 19 COMMENTS

We are very proud and delighted to announce that our North American publisher is Acclaim!
Acclaim is impressed by the work and dedication that has been put into The Chronicles of Spellborn and is looking forward to releasing TCoS in North America! You can read the press release here.

Also, here's a link to the open letter from David Perry, Acclaim dude and the US Director of Spellborn:

OPEN LETTER FROM DAVID PERRY TO THE SPELLBORN COMMUNITY

Hi,
My name is David Perry, and I’m the Chief Creative Officer of Acclaim Games (the new Acclaim) that is now the #1 American publisher of Free-to-Play Online Games. Some of you “old school” gamers might remember me from the old Sinclair Spectrum/Amstrad CPC/Commodore 64/Amiga/Atari ST days, back before the MMO concept even existed!

The CEO of Acclaim (Howard Marks) was the Chairman of Activision Studios through their massive growth during the 1990’s, and together we travel the world in search of the best new games that we can possibly find. Right now we’re tracking over 400 MMO games (yes it’s insane!). My poor old gaming PC is literally peppered with games in every conceivable language, and I’ve just kept playing, patiently waiting for that WHOA! moment. The game that finally got us there is Spellborn. When we saw it running, our jaws literally dropped to the floor. “Who the heck made this? We need to talk!”

Two reasons why I knew this game was really cool:

REASON 1
I had been at the G-Star Game Conference in Korea, and I had a note in my notebook saying “Frogster �" Spellborn” with a big giant STAR beside it. From the zillion games at the show, it was this game that really stood out to me. I remember going back several times just to take another look.

REASON 2
My staff (who absolutely LIVE for these kinds of games) have been bugging me like crazy. “Have you heard of this ‘Spellborn’ game? Come on Dave, you know people, can’t you get us a developer account?” One of them just asked me again today!

So now the word is FINALLY out! I just want to officially say to the creators that we immensely appreciate the hard work that’s gone into this game, and I know, that they know, that I know just how tough that work is!

So congratulations to the entire Chronicles of Spellborn team for making this game. We will make you proud in the USA/Canada and will soon have tons of gamers eager to play with you all in this amazing new world. I also want to say thanks to the Closed Beta testers that are helping with balancing. At Acclaim, our players & testers are highly valued, and we form player advisory boards for each of our games so that the Gamers have a voice to Myself, the CEO, the Acclaim Team & the Developers of the game.

At the keynote speech of this year’s Leipzig Game Developers Conference, and I reminded everyone of the three golden rules of running an MMO like this:

(1) Community
(2) Community
(3) Community!

A game like this, using a cutting-edge engine (thanks to the talent over at Epic), is an incredible opportunity for us all to grow this world, to make it a success and to make new friends.

So I look forward to meeting many of you in the world of Spellborn!

David Perry.
USA Director - The Chronicles of Spellborn

Mail Call: Dance! Online Beta 2!!

Lookit what came in the mail for me!



If you wanna try it out for yourself visit:

http://dance.acclaim.com/

Mail Call!! 2Moon Promotional Mail August 2007

Well, the image itself was dated July 2007, but here's what came in the mail for me from "2Moons."

I wish I got email from real live, human beings, but beggers can't be choosers! But about 2Moons' maturity...it certainly doesn't apply to its community. WAHAAH.

In a couple days I can do my Week in Review of the game.

2Moons Open Beta: First Impressions

So, last night, a guildie and I downloaded the "2Moons" beta. The file itself is about 900 MBs and took an hour to download from Gamer's Hell with a crappy 250 K/S rate, with an extra few minutes to install and patch. I used my pre-existing Acclaim login and was thrown into the game, which starts out windowed (but you can change the options later), and into the horrifically bland customization area, by which I mean, the biggest customization choice you'll have to make is what server to play on. That's right, you want to be a guy? You play knight, warrior, or summoner. You want to be a girl? You play magician, segnale (rogue-ish class) or hunter.

Segnale the demon bitch it is!



And into the game we go. Now, remember, "2Moons" is based on "Dekaron" a successful Korean grinder (but which F2Ps aren't?) that Acclaim's re-structuring and translating. There is WASD movement (ZOMGZ!), but for the real Asian game feel, you can use the point to click mode if you want. As with most Asian F2Ps, jack up those graphics of yours for maximum effect...and don't forget to turn on the blood and screams:



The character graphics aren't anything special, but the music, the backgrounds (with full bloom) and screams ain't bad (especially since it's free). With movement type B, you click once to select a mob/target and twice to auto-attack/interact. For items and skill, it's F1-F3 to use items, and the 1-9 keys for special moves. There is an auto-pot function which you can select in the OTHER tab under options.

The interface is clean and the help function...is actually helpful. For the few hours I played it, it was pretty fun (especially since I haven't hit the grind), and here's why:

THE PROS:

1) Fishing. Lemme tell you something about this. You really need to be awake to fish because those fuckers fight back. And guess what, if you lose, the game tells you--and I quote: "The fish got away because it was stronger than you, YOU PUSSY." Shock!! Tear!! I also got called a fucker by the game because of my sorry fishing skills--but I persevered, and finally caught myself some fish (which act as potions so you don't have to pay for them.) Fishing is not for the faint hearted in this game. Or those who don't want to be called pussy fuckers. *cry*

2) Splatter. Grow stronger and your targets seem to blow up. At first, you might just take a chunk out of your creature when you kill it, but later on, the critter blows up into multiple chunks. *purr*

3) The ghetto booties. The guildie I played with was very impressed with the ass on the Segita Hunter. I mean, it's a metal thong. I thought "Rappelz" had some skimptastic armour, but these bitches got armour floss. I found some armour for his character and basically they took what little there was covering the ass and put it on the sides.

Now the uglies:

CONS:

1) I didn't get this, but my guildie had some problems with known bugs involving "unknown logins" or "wrong passwords." He sent a note into Acclaim Help and I guess this was fixed pretty quickly.

2) Lack of customization. As in, there's none. Armour, faces, hair, nothing. You get one choice. THE END. I don't know if this will be changed in release, but checking the Dekaron website, it doesn't look like they have any customization either.

3) You know the grind's coming up...not in the first few hours...but it sure is coming up...but really, my expectations weren't that high since it's an Asian F2P after all.

So, yeah, if you don't have any games you're playing now, give it a go. It's not revolutionary, but it's a mindless distraction in a "Dungeon Runners" sort of way, and thanks to Acclaim's involvement, it's so much better in terms of translation than "Silk Road Online," or "Voyage Century Online." Perhaps you'll get berated by the Fishing guy too, that dirty pussy.

p.s. For some reason, they censored the word, "piss" to "p*ss." Now, I don't know about you, but in a game proliferated with "fucks" "pussies" and "shit," that's a little...hypocritical?

2Moons Open Beta Begins! July 30th, 2007

Okay, so I'm a little slow. Anyhoo, to learn more, visit:

http://2moons.acclaim.com

You'll need to make an account (no caps), download the game (I recommend Gamer's Hell), and pway.

Per Wikipedia:

The game is an adaptation of Korean MMORPG Dekaron by Gamehi for the North American market, featuring a new story line by Henry Jones. The closed beta testing ended March 7th, 2007.

But don't worry! WASD has been implemented. I'm gonna give it a try since...well, since I'm a loser.

See you on there!