First off, let me tell you about Point Blank. It’s the newest First Person Shooter (FPS) game here in the Philippines, brought to us by IP e-Games, the company behind popular online games such as RAN Online, CABAL, Dragonica, Granado Espada and Runes of Magic.

If you’re not familiar with what an FPS game is, example titles of this genre are Counterstrike and Quake. Basically, you control an avatar and you get to use weapons (guns, knives, etc) to kill enemies. You navigate through maps and perform the mission for the game you joined in.

Point Blank was developed by a Korea-based gaming company Zepetto. This game is currently one of the top online games globally, most especially in Indonesia, Thailand and Russia.

Being a long-time player of Counterstrike and another FPS game, I got pretty excited when we were invited to the Point Blank bloggers meet-up where they announced upcoming updates in-game. It was our first time, Ken and I, to play the game. My bro’s pretty hooked on Crossfire, but was open to trying out this new FPS.

Well, guess what, he enjoyed playing it so much that we couldn’t even talk to him! When we got home, he got pretty excited and installed the game right off the bat. Here’s a photo of him playing past 2am. 😀

Now, how does this game compare with Crossfire? I actually had my customers at my shop test it out. I was only supposed to install the game on 2 computers first, but after some customers started playing, they all begged me to put it on all the computers. Fine! 😀

I asked their opinions about Point Blank and they were all unanimous. They enjoyed how smooth the game flow is, the game modes, the maps, the weapons. Heck, some of them even spent hours playing just punching on enemies using brass knuckles. They also liked the mission system ‘cause of how challenging they are.

For me, what I liked about the game is how realistic it felt when I was playing. Plus, it wasn’t as complicated as the other FPS games I’ve tried, as I’ve seen some first timers during the blogger meet-up were enjoying the game in no time. But, don’t get me wrong. It’s still a pretty challenging FPS.

All my FPS-addicted customers are still playing, now that Point Blank is on Open Beta Testing (OBT) phase. Here are the updates that were implemented:

• Game Modes:
  • Eliminate
  • Death Match
  • Shotgun Mode
  • A.I. mode
  • Bomb Mission
  • Sniper Mode
• New Maps were also introduced:
  • Saint’s Mansion
  • Midnight Zone
  • Outpost
  • Blow City
  • Downtown
• Weapons that were in CBT are also available now on OBT!
  • SG 550 S
  • Kriss S.V
  • P90 Ext
  • Spectre Ext
  • PSG1
  • M1897
  • P99&HAK
  • Mk 23 Ext
  • Mini Axe
  • C-5
• New avatars and protective gears like the White Mask is now available.
• New Mission Cards which will give you extra EXP (experience) and in-game points once you’ve accomplished the missions.
  • Tutorial Mission Card
  • Assault Mission Card
  • Scout Mission Card
  • Engineer Mission Card
  • Commando Mission Card
  • Defcon Mission Card
• No more character wipes. Yes, you can now enjoy unlimited play without worrying about all your hard work going down the drain once Point Blank’s officially launched.

Point Blank went on OBT last June 15th. I haven’t played for weeks now ‘cause of my busy schedule, so I just hover whenever some of my customers play the game at my shop.

New Bomb Mission map Lexville (Photo from their FB page)

My players, my bro and I are looking forward to the other upcoming updates in-game like helicopters, dinosaurs (whoa!), and the skills that we can actually use in the game, which intrigues me. Let’s wait and see.

If you’ve enjoyed other FPS games, trust me when I say that you gotta play Point Blank. You can now play it at your favorite Netopia tambayan (they have a promo where you can play for FREE until June 30th!) or download and install it on your computer. Here are the links:

• Point Blank Philippines’ official website
• Download Point Blank
• Facebook page – for real-time updates / announcements. You’d enjoy interacting with fellow gamers. It’s quite a buzz.