Filed under: Battle of the Immortals

There's something to be said for verisimilitude. Despite the fact that we've all accepted limitations in just how much a game can model at any given time, it's nice to be able to break things when you unleash whatever horrible ultimate spell your character of choice is packing. Battle of the Immortals recognizes this, and that's why one of the big features in their new teaser trailer is the addition of destructible environments to the game.

While the game's first major expansion update is ramping up for release, this trailer is for an addition not slated for arrival until spring of 2011. It's a bit of a wait, but the trailer already looks detailed and interesting, promising several graphical and environmental upgrades for the game. Take a look past the cut for the full trailer, and keep your eyes peeled for more news on the updates for Battle of the Immortals, as they seem to be coming fast and furious.

Perfect World Entertainment is enjoying the continuing success of Battle of the Immortals, and the development team is ready to give fans more to explore.

The game's first expansion is coming, and even though there's no date announced yet, PWE promises "more and more details" in the next few weeks. Our first peek is of the new Mount Olympus high-level map. It will bring new monsters and bosses as well as a welcome update for players: coin drops.

One of the strengths of BoI is that the dev team is willing to listen and respond to player concerns and complaints, and the lack of coin drops from mobs was definitely a concern. As a result of that feedback, mobs in the Mount Olympus zone will drop coins in addition to regular loot.

All of the current preview details can be seen on the Battle of the Immortals site.

What are you doing tonight? Playing some other MMO? Are you playing that MMO with the developers? No? Then you should come on over to party with Massively, as we host a play night of Battle of the Immortals with Perfect World Entertainment!

Join us on Battle of the Immortals, Poseidon Server, Realm 8, at 7 PM EST in Atlantis (116,189) for a run of the level 20 instance, Knight's Jail! If you don't have a Battle of the Immortals account, just grab one over at the game's official website and start leveling up! Level 20 only takes an hour or two of playtime, so you'll be ready to join us in no time at all!

Plus, a few players were gracious enough to offer us their invitation keys, so you can get awesome armor right away at level 1! Just input 5100107G090807088004511S3fcfb2 (Thanks Zsazsa!) or 8000168G020408001002501S1fb1fe (Thanks Talanx!) into the top most field of the game's character creation screen.

Need more information? Want to know who to look for and important stuff like that? Just check here for the answers to all of your burning questions. See you all tonight!

[Update: More information on how to join our Massively guild is after the break! Make sure to read this over!]

Battle of the Immortals, the newest free-to-play from Perfect World Entertainment, has seen great success in the two weeks since launch. The team at PWE received mixed reviews from the open beta, but gained quite a bit of player appreciation by listening to that feedback and making quick changes, a move that helped them retain a fair amount of players and gain many new ones.

That willingness to work with their fans combined with a game with improving reviews has earned a larger player base than the Battle of the Immortals team counted on, and they're moving to accommodate those players by launching yet another server. Jonathan Belliss, PWE's product manager, announced the Poseidon server yesterday: "Player response has been tremendous and within two weeks since open beta started, we are already launching our fourth server, Poseidon. Aptly named after the Greek god of the sea, the Poseidon server will help meet the flood of players."

The Poseidon server is located in the US East Coast -- set to GMT -4 -- and comes complete with a few handy bug fixes, so be sure to check them out.

It's a big day for Battle of the Immortals, as the open beta has finally started on the most recent Perfect World Entertainment game. Closed beta was quite successful, with the development team rolling out requested features like improved access to the high-end Soul Gear and improved keybinding (complete with standard WASD movement schemes). To celebrate the occasion, and to give players who haven't been following the game too closely an idea of why they might want to start, the game has released its fourth video developer diary today, this time focusing on the content found within the game.

Jon Belliss, Product Manager for the game, focuses on the game's dungeons, starting off with one dubbed Knight's Jail. Everything from gameplay to rewards gets covered, complete with a semi-snarky reference that "you can complete it in ten to fifteen minutes, as long as you have a group that isn't full of idiots." He goes on to discuss the later Dragon Emperor Catacombs, which can switch between a low-level "easy mode" and a more rewarding "normal mode," and Spectre Island even beyond that. Take a look past the cut for the full diary, and keep your eyes open for more news on the open beta for Battle of the Immortals.

One of the best things any MMO developer can do is listen and respond to their players, particularly during beta testing. Perfect World Entertainment seems to be fully aware of that, as last night an email was sent out to everyone who participated in the first round of closed beta testing for Battle of the Immortals: "We've been collecting a ton of feedback from our players and last night, we delivered!"

Beta testing in this case did exactly what it was supposed to: tracked down bugs and drew player feedback on what they did and did not like. The majority of the player base, for example, disliked things such as click-to-move only and the ability to bot in-game. The bot has now been removed, and WASD movement has been added.

That's just the beginning, however. Follow along after the jump for a peek at the email from the Battle of the Immortals team, and be ready for open beta on May 4th.

We've been hearing quite a bit from the guys over at Perfect World Entertainment in anticipation of the launch of Battle of the Immortals lately. The game has been given a fair amount of hype, thanks in large part to the promotion of innovative twists on standard game features such as mounts, pets, and gear.

Does the game live up to the buzz? Well, closed beta began on the 14th, and I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to check it out. Follow along after the jump for a look at Battle of the Immortals.

Perfect World Entertainment has unleashed the closed beta for their upcoming Battle of the Immortals MMORPG. To celebrate, PWE is offering up a pretty spiffy launch trailer, embedded below after the cut, as well as a couple of contests designed to show their appreciation for hard working beta testers.

The first is a leveling competition, wherein the highest level characters of each class will win 10,000 Zen for their account. Additionally, testers can participate in a survey contest by filling out various e-mail surveys. If you complete them all, your name will be entered into a pool from which five winners will be drawn, also culminating in a prize of 10,000 Zen.

Be sure to grab your beta key, and don't forget to hit the jump and check out the launch trailer.

We've been hearing quite a bit from Perfect World Entertainment's upcoming free-to-play MMO Battle of the Immortals over the past few months. The developers originally planned for a closed beta in early February, and wound up delaying it until April 13th to ensure a well-produced game. This move bodes well for Battle of the Immortals, considering some of the ambitious features added to the game.

Several of these features have been mentioned and described this year, such as Soul Gear, the intricate mount system, and a highly unusual pet system that allows you to potentially make a pet out of any enemy in the game.

Perfect World Entertainment has released a new video developer diary featuring Product Manager Jonathan Belliss, and he's got some more details on all of these features. If you're anxiously waiting to see how all of this is going to pan out in beta, you'll enjoy the video for both the information and the gameplay footage. Follow along after the jump to see for yourself!

Massively Speaking Episode 95 returns this week with Sera, Rubi and special guests Jason Varden and Jonathan Belliss of Perfect World Entertainment. Discussions include the upcoming Battle of the Immortals and the general state of free-to-play games. There will not be another episode for two weeks, so look for the next to drop on April 28th.

Have a comment for the podcasters? Shoot us an email to podcast AT massively DOT com. Maybe we'll read your letter on the air!

Get the podcast:
[iTunes] Subscribe to Massively Speaking directly in iTunes.
[Zune] Subscribe to Massively Speaking via the Zune service.
[RSS] Add Massively Speaking to your RSS aggregator.
[VW] Listen at VirginWorlds.com
[MP3] Download the MP3 directly.
Listen here on the page:



Read below the cut for the full show notes.

The crew over at Perfect World Entertainment have been hard at work localizing their upcoming action MMO, Battle of the Immortals. But as we find out from their Product Manager, Jonathan Belliss, this isn't just a question of localizing the story or converting the in-game text over from the original language to English -- the ramifications are far further-reaching.

In their most recent video developer update, we're not only treated to some in-game eye-candy, but Belliss informs us that the team at PWE has been really doing their homework on the differences between Eastern and Western gamers and what they enjoy in their games. One of the major things many were wondering about is how the cash shop will be utilized. In China, players expect a "pay for power" model, which Belliss clearly states that they know Western players "absolutely hate." As such, they've put in a lot of time doing a massive overhaul of the game, placing the power upgrades in as drops, and instead gearing the cash shop towards "convenience" -- something much more palatable to the Western gamer.

Add to that, we've now gotten word that the plans are to start up the Battle of the Immortals closed beta on April 14th for players to get a chance to start testing these new gameplay changes. So if you've been curious about getting your hands on this beautifully-detailed upcoming Diablo-esque action MMO, then you'll want to be sure to head over to the Perfect World Entertainment site and get signed up. If you're curious about everything Belliss had to say in the recent developer update, we've embedded that video behind the break for you to check out. We'll also be talking with Jon Belliss and Jason Varden from PWE on an upcoming edition of Massively Speaking, so you'll undoubtedly be hearing more about this game soon!

Perfect World Entertainment's upcoming PvP focused hack-n-slash MMO Battle of the Immortals now has a gameplay trailer showing off its goods. You're probably wondering whether or not this game is up your alley. Well, this video will probably help answer most of that question for you.

Did we mention the game will have demonic hot rod mounts as well as kung-fu pandas and ninja master turtles as pets? Don't get too worked up just yet, because the closed beta isn't coming until mid-April. We're sure to have more videos and information about Battle of the Immortals leading up to the beta process, though. So if your interest is piqued, at least you'll be able to maintain that insatiable lust for knowledge.

Find the rather lengthy gameplay trailer after the break.