Misadventures in Rust Angels: The Base Defense Contest

 

As a survival MMO, Rust is among those most noted for it's competitive (or downright merciless in some places) PvP action. Wanting to avoid the "PvP kiddies," many players prefer the PvE servers such as the Angels server for Nydia Tungsten and some of her friends. But how do you keep things from getting too predictable and give something extra special for the players to do? For server moderator Umbra, the answer in August was a race. For September, he had another competition: who could design the best base in terms of resisting a raid.

 

Read the story in "Other Grids, MMOs, and Games."

 

Rust After Five Years

It's been over five years since the Newser first reported on the survival multiplayer game Rust. It became one of the more noted games of the genre, with it's starting off with just a rock to get everything you have afterwards, and it's sometimes notorious PvP action. Although Rust left "early access" a year and a half ago, there have still been some changes. In this article, yours truly briefly goes over the basics, but most of the article is about what has changed since our last article on the game.

Read the story in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Reader Submitted: Reporting From Terra

"Hello! TERA's very own news fox and the president of the TERA Bixyl News Fox Fan Club (and vice president... with no vices!) here! Big news tonight! Participants of the PvP Battleground "Kumas Royale" found their challenge tonight to not so much be a piece of cake... as the battle was to bake cakes! Not as easy as pie, it would seem! As the red team got creamed with pies, it seems! Consensual, being a battleground, of course! 

In the end, the strain proved to be too much for one Human as he ended up completely baked on his own brownies, which ironically did not score very high. In the end, it was a star player in another game who won and beat them all, eggs included. The one and only Naughty Nydia baked a cake so royale it became a total flush across the internet for the players in Kumas, their failed attempt becoming only a royale pain in the tail to clean up. 

Signing off, live from the local studio TERA Bull Puns and News, the one and only News Fox Malya, Bixyl News Fox Fan Club President! This message was brought to you by the following sponsor: Half-Baked Puns-R-Us, where the puns are so stale, they make DJ Snowy go 'BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!' 

 Malya Violetsong

Adventures in Tyria, A Look at Guild Wars 2 And Legendary Weapons

Besides Second Life, Grease Coakes has also been spending some time in Guild Wars 2. This MMO game has gotten some attention over time, such as the creativity involved with it's races including one of plant people. Grease has gotten quite good at the game, proud of his "Cat Mage" character. Lately he's made an accomplishment that he's made him a little more proud, acquiring Rodgort the Legendary Torch. So what's Rodgort and how does one go about getting a legendary wepaon? Grease had a few things to say.

Read Grease's story in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Rust Misdventures in Angel Island and Free Wood

A few months ago, I wrote about my return to the survival MMO "Rust," and how it's changed from when me and my Second Like friends last played it a couple years ago. Since then, we've been building, trying to avoid the bears and helicopter, dealing with the "PvP kiddies," and dusting ourselves off and rebuilding after "world killer" updates. A couple of us, including yours truly, also took a look at public servers, which had a different set of dangers than private ones.

Read the story in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Return to Rust

About two years ago, the Newser first took a look at the survival MMO game "Rust." Recently we decided to take a look again to see what's changed. And quite a bit has changed. While it still starts with you having nothing but a rock, there is the addition of new terrain, new enemies, new tools, and more things that make gameplay quite a bit different from before.

Read the review in Other Grids, MMOs and Games.

SL Universe in Ark

When it comes to games and Second Lifers, there's no shortage of them inworld, as "Tiny Empires" demonstrates. Outside of the grid, "Ark Survival Evolved" continues to be the favorite among the "Furry Gamers," the group of Second Life residents whom love playing games. But as it turns out, they haven't been the only ones in the Ark game lately. Another group of Second Lifers has given it a try: the Second Life Universe Forums.

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Further Adventures in Ark Survival Evolved

It's been about a month since the Newser did a review on "Ark: Survival Evolved," the survival game on an island filled with dinosaurs. Since then, Bixyl Shuftan and some of his friends have continued playing the game, in both public and private servers. Here, he writes about some of the adventures, and misadventures, he and his fellow survivors have gone through, as well as a few more helpful hints and observations about the game.

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Game Review: Ark - Survival Evolved

With "Jurrasic World" in the theaters in recent weeks, it's no real surprise a dinosaur game would be released to the public around this time. And on Steam, the latest wilderness survival game available, "Ark: Survival Evolved," takes place on an island full of dinosaurs and other prehistoric beasts. While some are strict plant eaters, and a few are completely harmless to even the clumsiest players, anyone who knows anything about dinos realizes any encounter with a meat eater bigger than you can end very badly. So does this game offer a T-Rex sized bite, or is it as dead as a dodo?

Read the review in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

JasX Games Part 4: Designing BARE

Locke Esgal continues his series about JasX Games. Here, he takes a look at Jasdac Stockholm's most popular game: BARE. A fighting game in which a player's clothes act as their armor, and are knocked down as the match goes on, the object is to strip your opponent completely. Locke asked Jasdac how the game came about, and the designer gave his story.

Read Locke's article in Design.

JasX Games Part 3

Locke Esgal continues his review of JasX games. In Part three, he looks at two games that represent different levels of success: jFish and Fright. Jasdac Stockholm had a few comments as to why one of the games succeeded and the other fell flat.

Read Locke's story in Design.

Gaming Review: A Look At Eve Online

You might have heard about "Eve Online" before, the space MORPG game noted for it's player versus player battles that at times can be extremely huge with many hundreds of participants. So what is the game *really* like? Bixyl Shuftan decided to give it a try.

Read more in Other Grids, MMOs, and Games.

Rust Update

 Remember the "Rust" game Nydia and I gave a try at (article)? Well, we went back for more, went to another server when somehow "Lost Island" was down, a few friends from the "Furry Gamers" joined us, and we ended up having some fun in the wilderness. We cracked jokes about hunting down the piggies, "Nuuuuuuuu! I don't wanna be bacon! Nuuuuuuuuuuu!!" The girls cracked jokes about having to go about in male avatars, some of which can't be mentioned here without editing. And it wasn't long before we had  a building set up for ourselves, complete with a tower. As we get more wood, we add to it. So far it's nine stories high. Wonder how tall we can get it?

The game has had an update since Nydia reviewed it. The wilderness and zombie survival MMO dropped the zombie part. They killed off the zombies (article by PC Gamer). In their place are bloody red wolves and bears. This had been a disappointment to some, Nydia included, but the gaming goes on.

So what happens next? What will replace the "zombie wildlife?" Stay tuned. In the meantime, here's a Youtube by Argyle Alligator when he tries to interview Rusties in a PvP server, of which he has some varried reactions from the locals (Click Here).

Bixyl Shuftan

Reader Submitted: Game Review - Rust

Nydia Tungsten is back with another game review: "Rust." Inspired by "Minecraft" and "Day Z," Rust is a survival game in which players avoid getting clobbered by nasties such as zombies and bears, while gathering resources to build weapons, shelters, and other items. It was recently released while still in an alpha stage. So was this the right decision? After some time playing it, Nydia had an answer.

Read Nydia's review, with a few words from her fellow player Bixyl Shuftan, in Other Grids and MMOs.

Reader Submitted: Game Review "World of Tanks"

Nydia Tungsten's a longtime friend and reader of the Newser. With all the article's she's read, she recently sent us a reader submission of her own. A lover of games, she sent us a game review: World of Tanks. This unique MMO stands out in a collection of "World of Warcraft" clones as they player controlling not a man, but a tank. So what is there to the game and what is there to expect?

Read Nydia's article in Extra.

A Look at Minecraft

Xymbers is back after taking a look at a game that's gotten a bit of attention among some blogs and newsletters: Minecraft. So what's so special about Minecraft, some might ask. One might think all you do is just go around diging and diging about in a eight-bit world. As it turns out, there is more to it that that for this game. One needs to build a few things to get far, there are monsters to clobber, and sometimes other players to loot from (or get looted by).

Read more in Design.