China’s number 2 MMO company, NetEase, finally revealed Game-X’s name, which is Dragon Blade. Supposedly to be used to counter Tencent’s upcoming Blade & Soul, Dragon Blade is self-developed by NetEase using an in-house graphics engine, Next-B.
Touted as being much more advanced than most 3D engines, every detail down to direction of sunlight streaming in a dense forest is impeccably processed. Of course, other models such as buildings, characters etc are included as well.
The overall visuals is said to give players a near-CG feel. Another feature will be HDR, which means High Dynamic Range imaging (link). You can read more about this technology in the link provided, as it is really too technical for me to summarize.
NetEase has taken the unusual step of showcasing the game in all its in-game glory, and that really pleases me. Enough of lame CG trailers!
Combat will be non-target action (Yeah!!!) and movement combat is supported on a 360 degrees scale (screw TERA). According to the current development plan, mobs will have 6 different parts for players to attack, including the head, left body, right body, chest and back.
Each part when damaged to a certain level will cause that mob to have a specific negative effect. At the same time, players’ attack damage, distance, weapon type will cause different effects such as stunt, knock back and knock down.
Getting a tiny bit of inspiration from PlayStation 2′s hit game, Shadow of the Colossus, there will be HUGE boss monsters which will be a thousand times bigger than each player. Teams will have to scale up these monsters from their foot to attack their vital parts.
Other features include open PvP, castle siege, PvP arenas and more. Currently still in development phase, I can’t wait to see some BAM ass-kicking footage soon!
