Order & Chaos Online becomes the first Xbox MMORPG for Windows Phone 8

After a three week Xbox Windows Phone release drought, we certainly didn’t expect a new game this week. My bet had been on Halo: Spartan Assault being the one to break the drought, possibly next week. But it turns out that Microsoft and Gameloft had different, happier plans for us this week.
Yes, Order & Chaos Online, one of the 12 Gameloft games announced for Windows Phone 8 last year, is finally available! Finally, we have an Xbox-branded Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) to play on the go. So few of those exist even on Xbox 360!
Of course, the usual caveats with a big budget 3D game apply to Order & Chaos Online. It requires 1 GB of RAM and clocks in at 1012 MB file size, meaning you’ll need more than four gigabytes of space to actually download it.
Getting started
First off, Order & Chaos Online has a free demo that allows gamers to play until they reach experience level 8. So as long as you have a device that can run the game and the space needed to download, you might as well create a character and give it a go!
The first part of character creation is selecting a race and gender. The following five races are available:
- Human: These average Joes are allied with Order, the game’s heroic faction.
- Elf: The Orlando Bloom race lives in the forest and sides with Order as well.
- Mendel: This hideous, Ewok-like race was added to the iOS game later in its life. They are neutral and get access to unique mounts to ride.
- Orc: Created by elfish experimentation, the warlike Orcs side with Chaos, the game’s evil faction.
- Undead: The result of necromancy, undead characters follow Chaos.
You’ll find the gender buttons at the bottom of the screen. Swipe horizontally on your character to rotate him or her.
Class act
Next you’ll choose from four classes. Each class can develop in two distinct directions.
- Warrior: Can be a DPS (Damage Per Second - high damage infliction) or tank (high damage resistance) character.
- Mage: Ranged DPS class that can develop either Skyfire (fire) spells or Permafrost (ice) spells.
- Monk: Can be either a healer or a DPS/buff character.
- Ranger: Can be ranged DPS as an Archer or melee DPS as an Assassin.
Then you’ll customize your features and choose one of three servers: America (where I’ll be playing), Europe, or Asia.
Role playing on the go
After creating your character, you can finally start playing. You’ll likely see other human players starting out – the game will teach you to chat and interact with them soon enough. Talk to an NPC (Non-Player Character) with a scroll over his or her head in order to accept a quest. The first few quests basically serve as a tutorial, instructing you how to move, jump, attack, use the map, and more.
In my brief time with Order & Chaos Online, it actually looks like one of the best games yet to come to Windows Phone. The frame rate is higher than Gameloft’s previous open world games, and well in line with PC MMOs. With real online multiplayer and thousands of quests to complete, this one should keep RPG fans busy for a long while. Speaking of MMOs, if you dig Order & Chaos, you’re sure to love Bethesda’s The Elder Scrolls Online when it comes to Xbox One and PC next year.
Order & Chaos Online – Windows Phone 8 with 1 GB RAM – 1012 MB - $6.99 – Store Link
Thanks to Mark Tepper, Steve Frolleau, Marcel, Guilherme, and Sir Switch for the tip!
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Paul Acevedo is the Games Editor at Windows Central. A lifelong gamer, he has written about videogames for over 15 years and reviewed over 350 games for our site. Follow him on Twitter @PaulRAcevedo. Don’t hate. Appreciate!
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Nice! Wish they fixed the other storage issue first, because I am no where near 4gb of free storage on my 8x.
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Yeah, agreed on the other space.. Its getting quite annoying.. :-/
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Yeah. Here is a d/l tip: When I get the "clear space warning" I goto the web version of the windows phone. It will download without the check.
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What do you mean? Like, do I go to Windowsphone.com?
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Yes.
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Yes. But I forgot to mention go here from a PC, NOT via phone. It will "send" the app /game without the storage check.
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Thanks!
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Great cant download it, 1000m
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Finally!
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Good game but wish the 920 didn't turn into an oven when playing...
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+920 degrees F
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Looks like an awesome game! Kudos to Microsoft and Gameloft! Please fix other storage so more can enjoy. And make all future phones have 1 GB in memory minimum.
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Sweet.
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Don't think it'll well before they let us clear our 'other' storage.. I won't buy it, too, before they bring the update. Please MS, be fast..
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I hope this comes to Windows 8 so I can download it on my Surface and play on its beautiful screen. Any news on if that is coming?
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Sadly, Gameloft has yet to announce any more Windows 8 games after Shark Dash.
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I will have to purchase this again for my surface RT if i buy it on my phone. so i have stopped getting games on my phone. and only buy for my RT. When are we going to be able to use on any pc we are sighed into? Apple have had this feature for donkey years.
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I would prefer to play this on my Surface RT, however I'm forced to get it this way as well. Stupid storage problem. It infuriates me I literally can't install anything larger than a gig and have to shuffle between Asphalt 7 and Modern Combat, deleting my saves in the process.
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Its Gameloft, with the lack of support they gave Ice Age regarding the crashing at startup, I'm kinda hesitant about purchasing another game off them
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Bought it, nothing else than crashes and disconnects, but lots of other people online don't have that problem. Maybe it's because I am HTC?
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Why are all made just for lumia 1gb ram? What they do not know if the user lumia 512 ram also need a 3D game ONLINE!!!!??? This is my only complain is very supportive and success windowsphone
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There have been at least some games that get a 512MB ram version released a little while after the 1GB version.
So we can cross our fingers. The bigger issue seems to be storage. There really needs to be a solution to requiring FOUR TIMES the download size. Apps should at least be able to determine what their uncompressed size and other storage needs will be. -
I'm curious if u can take the demo character to level 8 and, at that point, buy the game and continue on...
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yes, just bought it at level 5 and everything kept moving right along
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Microsoft has just increased the amount of time WP8 devices are supported from 18 months to 36 months its on the WP blog
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I thought it was 458 months, I could be Wong. I've been Wong before. I even wrote it down. It was 1986
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Hey, a new game?
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Y U NO JUST MAKE IT FOR 512MB OF RAM?
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I don't care about "other". Just let me install apps on SD card. It can be locked down completely, I don't care. I just want to expand phone memory!
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Awesome! Downloading!
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Here's another 7 bucks of 928 monies thrown at Gameloft.
This is how we support more games for this thing, right? :) -
Precisely!
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Please tell me the next WP8 update is coming soon so I can finally play this game... Will Verizon update my 822?
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finally
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a MMORPG in wp8! yay!
but you know, some minutes playing it and Im sure battery will die fast fast, with nothing you can do more than close the game and hope it will last couple hours more.
still a good game, it would be nice to play it and all, but of course playing a mmorpg in a phone sounds like battery will die fast fast fast.
ok now im going back to play a real mmropg on my pc: Aion! still best mmorpg! ;D -
Plugging your phone in and then playing is also an option. ~ ~
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Basically the only way to play it. And having it plugged in doesn't negate the feeling that your phone will melt in your hands.
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Yeah, but if you want to play it in the car, or in any location not next to an outlet, you're in trouble.
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That's just the nature of playing graphically intensive or online games on a phone. It can't be avoided unless you buy an external battery like the NRGdeck or a similar solution.
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unless you have unlimited data this would destroy your plan. Probably better to leave those times in your car for games like halo unless your one of the lucky few with unlimited data
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if i wanted to play a mmorpg on a phone plugged in... then Im sure i will be able to also plug a laptop or a tablet x86 and do the same in my scenarios, it would be the same but better, since i would play aion in a bigger screen, with better controls, and Aion being the best mmorpg available today would be million times better than a phone mmorpg like this...
If you are already into mmorpgs, Im sure playing it on a phone for couple of minutes wasting your battery like crazy, isnt worth it, because again, i can always have Aion and i dont have to use a phone mmorpg.
But for someone who casually play games and wants to try this since its available in their phones, well its good I guess. -
It sounds like you're not crazy about playing games on your phone period. Which is a valid viewpoint, but let's not act like Order & Chaos does something weird by being a high quality phone game. Battery drain is unavoidable from any graphically intense phone game, but that doesn't mean all phone games should be casual games instead of taking advantage of the hardware's power.
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You are the one saying I dont think this is a good thing.... I said it was a good thing, but being mmorpg you have to be online, that means you cant turn anything off to save some battery even if its couple saved minutes. yeah i turn wifi and other stuff off when i play games and I know i wont be able to plug it when battery is low.
and now you are now assumming i dont play games in a phone? becuase yeah i play games on my phone, BUT this kind of genre is not good for a phone. I loved playing HydroThunder which is a good game with nice graphics, and its really fun to play. and controls dont feel awkward.
and taking into accont that this doesnt look any different than some other mmorpgs out there i have played/seen, games that are mostly free to play on pc. why would I want to pay/play this game if i can play a better game when i get to a windows x86 system?
because again... while this game looks nice for a PHONE and its nice WP has it..., it doesnt change its not the best genre for a phone, because you cant just plug a xbox controller to the phone (like you do with a windows tablet), so you are tied to touch controls. and in the end to play a game on a phone, waste my battery, be limited to a small screen, and NOT having confortable controls, I would rather play a better game in my phone, and wait (if im not close to a windows x86 device) to play Aion and play a good game with confortable controls.
but I NEVER said it was bad for WP, because having more games its better. BUT it doesnt change the fact that IF YOU ARE into mmorpgs and you mostly play them over the years in a pc, you wont spend money on this.
BUT of course its different if you are NOT into mmorpgs, and you only buy and play this because its not bad quality and is avaiable for Windows Phone. because welcome to the world where some players like to be competitive in games like mmorpgs that have alot of pvp and its about being fast and kite and smart, while using correct skills.
for example, do you remember Universe at War: Earth Assault?, it was available for PC and 360, and it even was cross-platform so you could play with more people. do you think that was a game meant for a console with a control? it SUCKED on 360. yeah it was nice to have but a serious RTS player, wouldnt have enjoyed or liked it. of course some people played it for the achivements or gamescore, others because it was crossplatform. but you should accept there are some genres that are not meant for some platforms, and a mmorpg in a phone, while nice to have, its not the great thing either. and again, not a great thing especially for someone who plays other mmorpgs on pc (not just me of course)
take care Paul. -
I played Aion years ago, and I hated it. Laggy, bad graphics, can run through fences/obstacles. That turned me off. Has it gotten better? I wanna get back into the mmorpg realm without caving in to Runescape (been there) or WoW (done that).
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Guild Wars 2 is pretty awesome. Fairly wide variety of activities in game, very solo friendly, but grouping is also easy. No real endgame to speak of, but also no monthly fee.
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Aion did not have bad graphics. There really isn't no two ways about that. You definitely needed a capable graphics card though. But it was grindy and not really innovative - hello, a Korean game. Agreed, GW2 is pretty solid and their pvp play/take is neat too. MMOs are in a holding pattern as the business is being hit hard. Can't wait to see new stuff.
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I've been spoiled by the FFXIV:ARR beta lately. Hands down, the most gorgeous mmo I've played. there is also a lot of depth in the game mechanics and is probably the only one tht allos you to play every class in the gme without having to switch characters.
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to answer your question with just 1 line: yeah its better and its 4.0 now which got even better, and if you didnt know its free to play now.
now the long answer:
Aion never had bad graphics, maybe you confused it with WoW? ;D Aion even has 2 engines, difference? one engine supports AA, while the new engine doesnt but give you good graphics but of course its heavier.
of course Aion doesnt have the best graphics anymore like when it was released, there are better looking mmorpgs, BUT that means nothing in mmorpg space as you should know. the features and classes it has, well they are nice :). and Aion also has graphics for the kind of low hardware that can run it. since it was developed using Cryengine 1 (modified to the extreme). but graphics are cool if you have a really good nice GPU and you set everything to max. or use the new engine if you dont mind about AA.
Also like i said before now Aion is free to play, with a mainly cosmetic store (sometimes they can release some stuff like they give you enchantment stones or they sell you keys so you can open boxes that give you bad or good stuff). so in theory, it doesnt affect most of the gameplay pve or pvp (in other words its not pay to win).
4.0 was just released and it got 2 new classes: gunner and bard. some classes have gotten worse i admit, being Cleric is worse and worse after 2.x, and SM is ok, but not great, not much dps, and some skills like fear has been nerfed, so while still useful not that useful anymore. but Bard is nice, Gunner too, and sorc OP as always, chanter has gotten nice as well. the other classes havent changed much, they are still good, gladiator, templar, sin and well ranger is still OP :P.
BUt it has the best PVP available today, sometimes it can make you angry. but sometimes its fun. being PvPvE thats the price you have to pay. of course its ruined by Zerg, but you can avoid it.
and its not that grindy anymore, of course you wont get to 65 in 3 hours. but in 2 weeks you can get almost there, I did it in 3.7, getting to 60 in 2 weeks. of course I know the quests so i know how to do it fast. but still people can level up fast, you only need to do worth exp quest, not like every single quest. and alwys look for the higher level quests. while doing high level campaigns.
it has now a non pvp server called Fast Track Server, you can move there if you want, so you can level up, dont be annoyed by other race attacking you, and you get double exp in haunt and gathering. and people from other servers move there too, so its easier to find parties and stuff.
the next big mmorpg comes from Ncsoft as well, Blade and Soul looks really really good! but it will take sometime to hit NA. and it will be probably pay to play. so still at the moment, Aion pvp is the best out there.
like you go pvp zones, you can rift, you can go to Arena/coliseum which is fun playing 3v3... (1v1 is boring as always)
oh also Arena is done in Fast track server, so you get to pvp with people in other servers. so there wont be anymore like you fighting your own race in your server in arena.
but yeah yeah, it has changed alot, its really good. and its free in EU and NA. so if you are from there, you should try it. of courser now we get gold sellers but you just block them ha! ;P
Also high level non pvp areas can become pvp sometimes during the night, so you can have fun with people in those zones if you wish. also you can go and get fortress, like in tiamaranta, if you owned 2 fortress, you could go to eye, but you can also block or get blocked from going to eye for alot of hours, so its more dynamic, sometimes annoying of course if you are not pvp geared. but i can be fun as well.
of course in 4.0 now we got a new pvp area, so more posibilities to go and pvp around aion world.
and also you get Dredgion, which is a pvp instance, something like that. and it happens 3 times a day, and you compete against the other race for points, so the more points you get, the better AP you get. but you can just AFK and wait some minutes and get "alot" of AP as well. but it can be fun, especially if there is good pvp involved for points. and sometimes you rush to win. not so bad.
but well I like you see, i like Aion, and its been my favorite mmorpg, especially since it became free to play. ;)
but yeah is its better, and so different than when it was released 4 years ago. if you wanna try a really nice mmorpg, go ahead and download it, anyway its free to play now :P nothing to lose, only time.
and talking about ajvanbreen GW2 suggestion. well its not that great in my opinion, GW1 was amazing, but not 2. and you got to buy the game, which is not that great if you just want to play casually which means you would choose a free to play over a buy to play or pay to play.
so in my opinion GW2 is not better than Aion. not only for not being free but for the features Aion has. too many instances, pvp zones, I wont say its the most balanced game... because i have played private servers like NotAion and everyone has the same gear and then you feel how unbalanced each class is, but in retail servers you wont feel that much. so it can be fun solo or with friends.
and 4.0 was just released it got new zones and classes, gear, wings, and skills/stigmas, etc etc so its even better than 1 year ago :)
anyway, thats all i got to say, now time to go and eat my lunch! take care :)
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Wow, thanks for sharing so many details with us. :)
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Being an MMORPG isnt going to the reason why battery life will be chomped! Any graphic intensive game is going to do this on its own. The network traffic is the least of the battery's concern hehe.
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So curious... maybe someone can answer this for me.
What is the goal and the point of this kind of game? Is there any kind of definite ending to the game? Can you "finish it"? Or are you constantly walking, fighting, and talking? Does it ever end? Is there ever even a main goal to the game, or is it just doing a whole bunch of mini quests over and over and over?
I've never gotten into the RPG realm and not sure if I want to even give it a shot. I don't think I can handle a game that you cannot defeat. -
Well, it's an Xbox game, so you could view getting all 20 Achievements as the goal. But there is an overarching storyline that you can participate in and a large but finite number of quests to complete. Games like this are very long and designed to be played for months as opposed to days. There's also a great social aspect since you can play and communicate with friends, party up, form guilds, etc. It's certainly worth trying to see how you like the experience.
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Yes, I do agree. You could play this game for a long, long time actually because of the 3 character slots, 5 different races, and 4 different classes. I have played in on my iPad. It's a fantastic game. I have been waiting for the day (or month) that great games come for wp8. This is looking like that month!
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No, mmos don't have endings, they are an endless grind with story elements thrown in, but no player is an important character in the story, it is simply a backdrop.
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If you download it on your PC, you don't have to deal with other storage issues.
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Hmm...not sure about this. I'm saving my Bing Rewards for Halo, but this might be one I purchase with my next Rewrds redemption. I'm not a huge MMORPG person (like WoW and Defiance, thoguh the latter's not much of an RPG), so I've at least grabbed the demo to try out.
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I'm saving for Halo too. What happened to the $5 WP store option though. Only have the $1.25 deal in the rewards now.
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They apparently took it out, for no stated reason. It means I'll either buy 3-4 of the $1.25 ones (I have $3.37 on my account right now), or I'll wait to see when the currency exchange with Microsoft Points occurs. They have the 400-Point cards on Bing Rewards still (equivalent to $5), and they're cheaper than the gift cards are.
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Would be great if we could use Xbox points. Have over 3k just sitting there.
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Yes yes yes, woo woo woo
Is there a way to import my android account to windows phone account, I have 3 level 60 toons -
Try it and let us know. It certainly accepted my existing Gameloft account login, though I created that on WP and have never played their Android games.
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I have logged in with my android account but it was empty, no existing toons. Maybe I should contact gameloft for them to transfer my toons to the WP account
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You can try, but it seems Gameloft is those guys never answering your call?
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i dont think they will do that because everyone in the server is newbie. it will be unfair.
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Funny because I just tweeted them asking if it wad coming today.
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So, If I downloaded this game last year on my old htc droid, and invested money in it already, then I have to pay for it again rather than recovering my account on my new phone?!
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I don't have an Android device to test that with. Have you tried using your same account?
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Video Review, please.
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Definitely coming in the next week or two!
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Thats cool. In MMORPGs I usually name my character Forthwind, and you named yours Eastwind. Nice.
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We're MMO brothers! Or at least cousins. :)
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Video Review, will be welcome.
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Are we all on the same servers? WP, Android, iOS. This game is WoW in your pocket and in great quality....for the first 30 min of playing.
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Finally on WP8! Used to play this on iOS and Android.
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just chillin with my bros in arcadian forest killin some wolves lol who was that guy i just spoke with who is writing a report about the game to wp central :)
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Yo Kubi! I'm our Xbox games guy. :)
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yay :D i know you. you are famous here lol
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Its amazing how we can now play these kinda games on our phones, its like having a games console in ur pocket! Just amazing when u really think about it, and yeah this game looks AWESOME! ✌✊
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I would love to play this game. Too bad I have a Lumia 822 and have 7 gigs in other storage. Yes, I have tried that storage app, it doesn't work. I've deleted offline maps, clearing 2 gigs of storage that way. I will not clean install; I would lose ALL of my game saves from all the other games I have. It says I have 4.1 gigs of apps however I've added the total and it doesn't even approach 2. If this sounds like whinning, I'm sorry, it is. Its my foremost gripe with WP8. Everyone with a L920 pat yourself on the back, your the only ones able to play this game unless you have a "lesser" Nokia and its the only app on your phone. Cheers
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Try queuing the purchase through the web store on a PC. It should allow you to install the game with less storage space.
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All the people saying 16gb is enough space on the Lumia 925 probably never download games this big.
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Yay! finally a mmorpg for WP! Downloading....
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Really thinking hard about giving my son my 8GB 8X and adding a line to pick up the 1020 for myself. Tired of not having enough space on my device. And with the Halo game coming out soon too. 8GB is NOT enough.
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So the game size is 1013 mb right?! So tell me why I have over 7gb free on my phone, but everytime I go to dl the game, it says I need to free up space?! -.- Is this because of the question I asked earlier or something?!
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I'm just bummed because I've been excited about this game being released on WP8 and when it finally is, it's too big to be played on the affordable phones. It's whatever though. I still have it installed on my droid with GTA vice city.
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Well wont let me log into the game says server issue... Anyone else having problems on 925 in uk?
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I created an account yesterday buy still saying username/password is incorrect. Side rant: why do these games insist on creating an account? If they are an Xbox game then it should tap into my Xbox account and use that as my username. Very annoying.
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MMOs always have their own account systems. Requiring a Gameloft account is a bit annoying in Asphalt 7, but it makes sense in Order & Chaos. Also, Microsoft didn't create the infrastructure for online WP games, so Gameloft had to develop their tool son their own.
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Looks like a pretty cool game. MMORPGs aren't really my thing, but hopefully we see a lot more quality titles like this one show up on WP8!
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Help me please, this game drains my battery flat even if I have it plugged in charging, even if my battery if full and I plug it in to play this game it still drains my battery down :/ dunno why, don't have other apps running while playin this. Very disappointed as I love playing this game :( please respond with some advise, wud be very grateful, thanks!
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Keep in mind that chargers come in different strengths, so you might consider a stronger charger such as a 2.1A one. That said, you can do a few things to cut down on power drain: Turn screen brightness to medium or low Turn off NFC in Settings Turn off Cellular data and Bluetooth Hope that helps!
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Oh ok I wasn't aware of that, I'm currently using the charger that was supplied with my Lumia 920 think its strength is only 1A Ill take it as I can get more powerful Nokia chargers online, thanks for that Ill look into getting a new charger. Was just wondering if its normal or if I should take my phone in to get looked at, ok thanks for the info, much appreciated!
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People complaining about 512 MB RAM devices needed this game need to remember that the OS also exists in RAM, and that means at lease 150MB of RAM.....this game is an open world MMORPG with textures and AI and lots of stuff happening in the background, even if it only uses 300MB of RAM it's still cutting it very close to the 512 MB Limit.
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Why are they releasing new games when nobody can install it because of the other storage issue/bug?
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Anyone know if this game will be ported to Windows 8. I would be cool if it sync with WP8 version.
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I can't find anyone while playing, can anyone add me? Ruan29 is my gamertag.