Legends of Equestria News: Bronycon and Open Server Weekend

Legends of Equestria

How's everyone doing today? It's me, Enigma Sage, coming to you live from the swirling, primordial mists of the Equestria Gaming of yesteryear, and I'm here to bring you some fresh LoE news.

For those of you headed to Bronycon this weekend, the team behind the ever-popular MMO Legends of Equestria will be there to showcase the game's latest developments in their panel on August 7. In addition, the team will be hosting one of their trademark Open Server Weekends August 14-16 so you can test out these additions for yourself. For more info, head on over to their website, or check out their announcement after the break.

Legends of Equestria hosting yet another open server test

Legends of Equestria

 For those who haven't been following updates on the game's site, the Legends of Equestria team will be running an open server weekend this January, from the 24th to the 26th, to test a new server system. Just about any comment I could make about the game has already been said, so check out their news post on their site or below the break.

Shattered Kingdom

Shattered Kingdom

 There are a lot of story-based games circling around the pony fandom, but not many have the strong player-influenced dynamic that Shattered Kingdom aims to provide. The project, being developed by a group known as Alicorn Games, is a turn-based strategy RPG centered around an Equestrian civil war between the Celestial Empire and the New Lunar Republic. The game will be heavily story-oriented and non-linear, with the player's actions influencing various story elements throughout the course of the game.

 The game is still early in development, and no public demo exists (at least that I can find), but a recent video of their panel at Bronycon 2014 showcases some of the team's current progress. More information can be found on the team's official blog.

- RedEnchilada

Game: Unicorn Training

Unicorn Training
Demo | Full ($0.99)

 Adventures in Equica: Unicorn Training is a top-down shooter/RPG hybrid game developed by Yotes Games for mobile phones and tablets, which takes inspiration from the FiM universe but apparently manages to be distinct enough to get away with being a paid game. The game centers around a young unicorn named Clover, apprentice to Totally Not Starswirl the Bearded, as she trains in the ways of magical combat. While we posted about the project in its earlier days, when it was known as Unicorn Quest, the game finally released over the weekend for Android devices. The full version, which costs 99 cents, contains nine dungeons to explore, though only the first is available in the demo.

 While the game shows promise, my play session with the demo was disappointing; poor touch screen controls combined with tedious, monotonous fights and a dungeon that went on for too long to create an unsatisfying experience. Various bugs in movement and the interface served only to further dampen the fun. In addition, the boss at the end of the demo's dungeon simply vanished when I attempted to reload a save file, leaving me no other option but to exit without seeing whatever proper ending may have been there. An extra coat of polish and some more effort on dungeon design would greatly benefit this game; right now, I can't recommend much more than trying the demo out for a play session or two.

- RedEnchilada

Review: War of Harmony IV

War of Harmony IV

War of Harmony IV is an RPG created by Marshal Ruffy which has been under development for quite some time now. You may remember Tuxxy reviewing an earlier build of the game, so I'd like to begin by saying I will NOT take into account that review. I will be reviewing this as if it were an entirely new game. As always, check below the break for the review.

Legends of Equestria running an open server weekend

Legends of Equestria

 We already posted about this when the announcement was made, but Legends of Equestria, the most well known horse MMO in the fandom, is hosting an open server this weekend to live out all of your romping around and boundary-escaping fantasies in. They've now put the client up for download, and the servers will be going up soon if they aren't already. Check out their news post for more information, or read the important bits mirrored below the break (as their site servers always seem to go down often during open servers).

Pen and paper RPG: MLP: Saddle Arabian Nights

MLP: Saddle Arabian Nights

 TheTinean dropped this little oddity in our mailbox: a cross between a pen-and-paper RPG and a choose-your-own-adventure book. With character customization and the quintessential dice rollin', it's a good distraction if you're aching to play a pen-and-paper RPG but don't have the friends or GM nearby to do it.

 More details after the break.

Play Legends of Equestria in August

 Since I'm guessing that most of you people have already participated in one of Legends of Equestria's many open server weekends and pretty much know what to expect, there's not much for me to say aside from that it'll begin at 12:01 AM EST on August 8th and end at 11:59 PM on the 10th, and that you will need an account on their forums in order to participate in the usual mixture of general chat, roleplay, and enterprising young chaps finding increasingly convoluted ways to leave the confines of the map. Not the sort of thing that I usually enjoy, but it's not like I really have much for friends to play LoE with, so I usually just run around as a lowly mudpony and quit shortly after reaching that one really high spot just outside the lawyer-friendly city of Cantermore.

In case you wish to read the original announcement for whatever reason, you may do so at http://forum.legendsofequestria.com/index.php?topic=11989.0

- Tuxxy

Fallout Equestria: the Unblinking

The Overmare Studios

 Now that The Overmare Studios has released this new Fallout: Equestria preview, I can kind of understand why their previous videos used a first-person perspective: their current pony model looks surprisingly creepy when animated, especially with those large, unblinking eyes. Come to think of it, it feels like there's something a bit off with almost all of the animations, although I can't quite lay my finger on it. Perhaps it's just because the animations are incomplete, or maybe this is actually a surreal horror game and Littlepip is an android who happens to fall into the uncanny valley. It's already scarier than Dead Space, so why stop there when you can go all the way down?

 They're also recruiting, and since I don't feel like pasting their ad below the break this time you can read about their requirements at http://theovermare.com/blog/2014/04/flow-of-animations.