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Combat Arms, Dungeon Fighter Online, MapleStory and Mabinogi all offer discounts throughout Holiday weekend

(Press Release) – Gamers stuffed on turkey don’t have to leave their house to follow up their Thanksgiving Day feasts with Black Friday bargains. Nexon America’s millions of players will be rewarded with major discounts on Cash Shop items to celebrate the popular shopping holiday and throughout the entire Thanksgiving weekend.

Here are the games and dates for each holiday sale:

· Combat Arms – November 27-29

· Dungeon Fighter Online – November 25-December 1

· MapleStory – November 27-30

· Mabinogi – November 26-30

MapleStory
MapleStory extended its Black Friday sale all the way to Cyber Monday to steady the shopping fix. The annual sale features special discounts beginning each day at 8 a.m. PST. Items are discounted for three hours before a new batch are put on sale. Sales range from 30-65 percent and quantities are limited so make sure to check in at 8 a.m., 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. through the weekend and just 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. on Monday.

Combat Arms
Who needs a toy gun for the holidays when you can get a virtual weapon to take out your foes? Combat Arms is offering bundled sales, which deliver a 40 percent discount throughout the weekend, and allow players to acquire weapons, gear and more in one great package. The Black Market is also discounting grenades and some of its most popular weapons.

Mabinogi
Mabinogi is celebrating Turkey Day with a Thanksgiving Weekend Sale featuring items from the in-game cash shop discounted as much as 50 percent off original prices.

Dungeon Fighter Online
Dungeon Fighter Online celebrates its first Thanksgiving with a special Beginner’s Package, offering Life Tokens, health and magic potions and a storage upgrade for a 46 percent discount. Avatar Tokens are also on sale, as high as 30 percent off regular prices.

Players can acquire NX Cash, which is the universal in-game currency for Nexon America via the Nexon Game Cards or PayPal. Nexon Game Cards are available throughout the United States and Canada at thousands of locations, including a few new retailers such as GameStop, Blockbuster Video and Walgreen’s. Other authorized retailers include 7-Eleven, CVS, Rite Aid, and Toys R Us, among others.

For more details go to http://nexon.net.

K, who do I have to do to get a weapon upgrade?

Well, we have been back from Seattle a bit over a week now and I still haven’t completly landed. It was a great time up there, sure beats Texas weather, but I think we win on alcohol because we brew Shiner beer! And Shiner is one of many, many cool things that come from the Longhorn state. So since I’m talking about things I like, I’d like to talk about some of the highlights of the trip for me. These are totally one sided but that’s what makes them kick ass. Yes, crutch in the ass. Take it.

My top 5 Games at PAX09:

1. Mass Effect 2 by BioWare – This title is fantastic. The graphics and re-skins look even better than its predecessor. The addition of the heavier weapons is a nice boost to your arsenal. The look and feel is dark, very ‘Blade Runner’-esque. It appears there is still a lot of dialogue going on so if that was didn’t catch your fancy before, then maybe skip this one again. I’m not all about tons of lines of boring stuff but the story was great in ME 1 and we want to know what happens to our Shepard now. So let’s go and ruffle some feathers, maybe we get another sexy alien scene, who knows? I’m down.

Star Trek Online - it's whats chillin for dinner!

2. Star Trek Online by Atari – I’m a straight up pre-NGE Star Wars Galaxies fan and that’s what this Star Trek MMO reminded me of. The look of it may heat up your graphics card a bit but if you can run this baby (even on low res settings), I’m sure you will lose a large chunk of your life to it. It’s a hard choice choosing between Star Wars and the Trek but, considering what we have to work with in Sci-Fi MMO’s, I really want to give this one a go. You can combat on your ship (and with your ship), land on planets, team up with other players in co-op play (as with all MMO’s), pretty much all you expect in an online massive multiplayer. Play as a Klingon or other alien species, all in a very polished interface. Now I really couldn’t dig into an MMO in a 20 minute demo but this game is going to pack a solid punch. Sci-Fi nerds will play because of what it is and how it will immerse us in the Trek-Verse. The character design at the beginning is awesome. The screens literally gave me chills.

Brink - My outfit looks way tuffer than yours...Puss.

3. Brink by Bethesda – Guns. Chiseled tough guy soldiers. FPS. And more GUNS. Oh, plus some role-playing levelin’ up action. Bethesda really put on a spectacular demo for this game. Just their presentation had their booth filled and others standing watching from the back. I am such a sucker for stylized art and in depth character creation. And Brink has both. You can take on the role of a freedom fighter archetype or police riot trooper bad ass. Both with a varied assortment of weapons. With several types of classes available on both sides of the law, this game looks tough. You can co-op play online with friends through the missions and actually switch classes during gameplay via a command terminal (depending on what type of carnage the mission requires). My favorite is the unlockables. The outfits and customizing features change as you progress through the game. So online, you won’t look like every other mercenary mofo out there. Individuality and creativity are awesome in this game plus being a first person shooter/co-op make this a unique experience indeed.

Dungeon Fighter Online - Screw casting, I'm shooting!

4. Dungeon Fighter Online by Nexon – Arcade. Say it with me, arcade side scroller. Old skool. But let’s add a twist to it, RPG leveling system. You mean I can level up, walk away, come back and my character is still the same level and I can join in some dungeon pillaging with my friends? Yes. Several classes are available from summoner to brawler to priest, to specialty classes that open up as you progress through the game. Tough as iron this game looks and the system requirements look pretty sweet, too. During my demo they said any average laptop will run it fine. Up to four players online can rock this title out (co-op, player vs. player, and all out battle modes) with new dungeons being added, of course, after launch. Oh, and guess what? It’s free to play. Snap!

LNOE - Zombies, Prom Queens, Explosives. Nuff Said.

5. Last Night on Earth by Flying Frog – Did I say they all had to be video games? Well, Last Night on Earth is one helluva board game. Heroes vs Zombies bash it out or really try and outdo one another in this superbly done horror movie styled game. I demoed this game last year, and with the several new expansions that have been released since then, it makes a great way to spend your eve, Xmas or Halloween! Each unique character has its own perks and neat abilities. Whether it’s the Priest faith being able to cancel out a zombie’s effect cards or the Prom Queen’s hiding from all the action while the male characters around her gain pluses to their attack rolls (we all love that). Whatever your role is (ha roll, like dice), there is something for you in this game with cards, awesome sculpted pieces, the ever changing game board and multiple add-ons and game variations. Even being the zombies is great because there is pleasure in foiling the escape plans of the heroes and finishing the night off with a bucket of brains right? Yup.

So there you have it, I really could not go into the depth of what all these titles can offer, it’s just quick blast of my time in Seattle, and with all the alcohol we consumed during the trip (thank you Dead Space Extinction party, Eve Online and Hudson Soft for all the food and drinks we could down), I needed to write them down while I still remembered them.

Anyhow,
Crutchboy – Out

Dungeon Fighter Online makes your DPS bigger.

One of the our favorites at PAX ’09 was a game called Dungeon Fighter Online by Nexon America. And it wasn’t just because our friends from Coin-Op TV, Rob Welkner and Hailey Bright, were doing the presentations for the game. This is a relatively new concept for a game in North America and has the potential to be a new Busy Gamer favorite.

Dungeon Fighter Online is a side scrolling dungeon crawler with the flavor of an old school brawling game. Combining some of the favorite features of MMOs with the action of a brawler may not seem within the natural progression of online RPGs but DFO blends them together perfectly. Associate Producer Louis Reyes was kind enough to help us run through a dungeon and describe some of the key features of DFO that will set it apart from the existing MMOs.

The back story for DFO is simple and understated, allowing players to focus on the gameplay rather than the lore behind the adventures one will have in the world. An evil has come into the land called Arad, demons have taken residence in dungeons, and it’s up to you to help hold back the tide. There’s not going to be a whole lot here for people who like to learn the lore behind a game but plenty for those who want to play the game.

Gameplay is easy enough to pick up. Choose a character class, familiarize yourself with the controls, get into a dungeon and start kicking butt. For those who have been turned off by the complexity of learning an MMO but enjoy the RPG facets of a game, DFO may well be the place for you.

While the graphics may be 2D, there’s a very catching art style to them that are pleasing to the eye. Character models are well rendered, the beasties are appropriately intimidating, and the dungeon bosses can look downright scary.

The initial choices for character classes may seem limited at first (there’s 5 classes at first level) but as players level up their characters, they are offered the opportunity to choose from four sub-classes (three in the case of the priest, at least at the moment) which define their character as time goes on. An example would be the Slayer class. Using demonic powers and a sword to fight the baddies, at level 18 a Slayer can choose to become a Blade Master, a Soul Bender, a Berserker, or an Asura. Each of the subclasses offer a different set of abilities and powers to wreck the evil that’s come into the world and does so with flair.

Once you pick up the controls, you’ll find the means to start combos which can increase your “Style” rating as you travel through the dungeons of Arad. Aside from doing more damage to creatures, combos mean a higher style rating which in turn boosts the experience you gain from defeating a dungeon. Personally, I like the thought that defeating a boss in “style” means bigger rewards. Defeating a dungeon with a high enough rating may unlock a new difficulty for that dungeon so it’s in the players’ best interest to complete the dungeon with as high a rating as possible.

Play as a team or against one another. DFO doesn't care if you make your friends mad.

Dungeons can be explored in groups or solo. Running through a dungeon solo can be a bit dangerous and upon dying, players may have to restart the dungeon from scratch. Fortunately for those who want a bit of solo play, Nexon offers “tokens” which can be used to resurrect at the point of death allowing players to continue to hack their way through the dungeon.

Playing in groups allows for a mesh of character skills and powers and certain groupings may mean an easier means of defeating a dungeon. That isn’t to say that any particular combination of character classes is going to be a sure thing but as is true with any game, the more friends you have with you, the better your chances of survival.

And for those who want to engage in PvP, never fear, Nexon has you covered. Bouts can be set up among a group of friends or total strangers and in true brawler style, players duke it out old school. There’s a last man standing mode that’s sure to please the gamer looking to serve up some butt whoopings to his friend and family.

Dungeon Fighter Online will us the free to play model but will offer micro transactions which will allow players to purchase new outfits for their characters, additional resurrection tokens for those particularly rough dungeon runs, as well as other items of interest.

The Early Access Beta for DFO began yesterday, 9/15/09, and you can get a key at the Gamespot or at 1Up.com websites. So if you happen to see Gritskrieg the Slayer running around, say hi. I may even say hi back.

Gritskrieg – End of Line