 | This article needs additional citations for verification .(September 2014) |
| Point Blank | |
|---|---|
 Point Blank Official Logo | |
| Developer(s) | Zepetto Co. |
| Publisher(s) |
|
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows |
| Release | |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Multiplayer |
Point Blank (also known as Piercing Blow) is a first-person shooter video game developed by the South Korean company Zepetto for Microsoft Windows.
Point Blank is a fast-paced online first-person shooter, and is similar in terms of gameplay to Counter-Strike . It also features destructible and dynamic environments, as well as deeper character and skill customisation options.
In Point Blank, players join either the Free Rebels or CT-Force team (the Free Rebels are based on the Terrorists from Counter-Strike, while CT-Force is based on the Counter-Terrorists). Each team attempts to complete their mission objective and/or eliminate the opposing team. Each round starts with the two teams spawning simultaneously, usually at opposite ends of the map from each other.
A player can choose to play as one of four different default character models (Acid and Keen Eyes for CT-Force, and Red Bull and Tarantula for the Free Rebels). There are four purchasable deluxe character models: Fennec and Pit Viper for CT-Force or Cheshire and Shadow for the Free Rebels. Players are generally given a few seconds before the round begins, or before respawning, to change weapons and/or equipment.
Game points and experience are awarded for winning a round, losing a round, killing enemies, and completing mini missions.
There are two background stories. Project Blackout is an alternate background used with the North American version of the game.
In the mid-20th century, the new nation of Koroga was a developing country. It grew rapidly and, in less than twenty years, became one of the most powerful nations in the world. During the rapid growth, the country had to face industrialization, growth in individualism and a dwindling population. When several national policies to increase the population failed, the government turned to immigration for the answer. The nation enjoyed the cheap labour and increase in population; however, conflicts arose between the natives and the new immigrants. The natives enjoy the prosperity the immigrants bring, but treat them as servants with few rights and no legal or political representation. The immigrants have tried to use passive means to express their grievances and gain influence with the more liberal-thinking natives, but government oppression has made it impossible. The heightened tensions have forced the natives to crack down on immigrant unrest and in turn has encouraged the immigrants to support the more radical political groups. The increasing conflict of interest caused to divide people between the native CT-Force (Blue Team) and the immigrant Free Rebels (Red Team).
The CT-Force's mission is to protect the native social order and its privileges. To this end, it has declared an all-out war against the militant Free Rebels. Meanwhile, the Free Rebels have been trying to overthrow the establishment. Some wish to force the government to recognise their demands, some want to replace it with a different form of government or a more diverse social order, while others just want to destroy it utterly.
The nation of Korogese is crumbling. Although a technologically advanced industrial world power, its government is weak, ineffective, corrupt and divided along sectarian lines. Its swelling, decaying cities are ruled by powerful criminal gangs. Its corporations have a great deal of influence over its democratically elected government and the gap between rich and poor is increasing. Prosperity and a recent era of global peace has made its citizens willing to trade their rights for comfort and security.
The corporations have the view that they know what is best. They hope to create a social utopia in which free market forces will control society and the political system will be reduced to figureheads. One part of this goal was to replace The Corps, Korogese's volunteer and conscript defense forces, with a corporate-trained-and-controlled paramilitary mercenary army called Aegis Incorporated. With the support of anti-military and anti-war activist groups financed by the corporations, the government disbanded The Corps and handed over its facilities and equipment to Aegis Inc. This was followed by a series of laws restricting personal freedoms. Supposedly enacted to combat the rising crime rate, they were really created to aid in controlling Korogese's citizenry.
A large faction within The Corps went underground and hopes to overthrow the corporate-run oligarchy that runs Korogese and replace it with a true democracy. Through support from civilian anti-corporation groups, funding from wealthy patrons, and black market connections in the criminal underworld, The Corps built up an impressive and well-armed underground army. They plan to wear down Aegis with a guerrilla war campaign, strike at the corporate leadership cabal that runs the oligarchy, and eliminate any civilian collaborators and traitors who support them.
The player will have to choose sides. Aegis Inc. (the Blue Team), supports law and order, but represents tyranny and oppression. The Corps (the Red Team), supports democracy and freedom, but represents indiscriminate violence and anarchy. The side that survives the conflict will impose their social views on the masses.
Point Blank was originally developed by South Korean software company Zepetto, who licensed the game to other companies. It was launched in South Korea (published by NCSoft in March 2008, closed July 2011 and re-released in 2014), Thailand (published by NCTrue in February 2009 and managed by Garena since January 2013), Indonesia (published by Gemscool in 2009 and managed by Garena since 2015 before being transferred to Zepetto themselves in January 2019), Russia (by INNOVA, December 2009), Brazil (published by OnGame, August 2010), China (by Shanda, 4th quarter 2010, closed October 2014), North America (in December 2010, transferred in 2014, shut down on September 21, 2018 [1] ), Turkey (by Nfinity games, August 2010) and Italy (by Accelon Italy in April 2011).
The latest version of the game brings about some gameplay changes as well as new features, including a new skill and avatar system. Point Blank 1.5 was released in Singapore and Malaysia in January 2014, published by Garena.
Each local edition has different weapons, skins and options to meet local tastes. For instance, the North American variant has a different backstory and is called Project Blackout. The available weapons lists are different for each version and developers add or drop weapons depending on popularity.
In January 2014, Garena released Point Blank Revolution, an improved version of the game with a new interface and character customizations. The game was initially available only in Singapore and Malaysia but was later released in Thailand. (with the name ‘Point Blank : Reloaded’) and Philippines (acquired from Level Up! Games).
On June 24, 2014, Project Blackout NA adopted the Point Blank Revolution (Point Blank Malaysia/Singapore) UI/Interface, becoming the first old-school Point Blank game to adopt the Revolution Look. [2] An update was released on April 22, 2015 changing the name of the game completely to go along with the Revolution UI/Interface. Project Blackout was renamed Piercing Blow in another major update. [3]
Two new servers were opened up under the Piercing Blow host for Europe and India in 2015. The server for India closed in 2017, and on September 21, 2018 Piercing Blow closed its servers completely for the N/A, and Europe Regions, due to very low General Population. Along with this, the Zepetto N.A. Offices also closed and moved back to CONCEPCION TARLAC.
In January 2021 a new server was opened with headquarters in Peru and servers in Canada, giving service to all areas of the world published by (Global).
Gunbound is a free-to-play, multiplayer, turn-based artillery game developed by South Korean developer Softnyx. It has been compared to the Worms series as it shares many common gameplay features.
Battlefield 2 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Digital Illusions CE and published by Electronic Arts for Microsoft Windows. It was released in June 2005 as the third game in the Battlefield franchise.
Tibia is a multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 1997, developed and published by CipSoft. It is one of the earliest and longest-running MMORPGs, reaching its peak popularity in 2007. The game is free to play but players may pay to upgrade to a premium account. Tibia is a two-dimensional tile-based game set in a fantasy world with pixel art graphics and a top-down perspective.
The .30-06 Springfield cartridge, 7.62×63mm in metric notation, and called the .30 Gov't '06 by Winchester, was introduced to the United States Army in 1906 and later standardized; it remained in military use until the late 1970s. In the cartridge's name, ".30" refers to the nominal caliber of the bullet in inches; "06" refers to the year the cartridge was adopted, 1906. It replaced the .30-03 Springfield, 6mm Lee Navy, and .30-40 Krag cartridges. The .30-06 remained the U.S. Army's primary rifle and machine gun cartridge for nearly 50 years before being replaced by the 7.62×51mm NATO and 5.56×45mm NATO, both of which remain in current U.S. and NATO service. The cartridge remains a very popular sporting round, with ammunition produced by all major manufacturers.
SOCOM II U.S. Navy SEALs is a tactical shooter video game developed by Zipper Interactive and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for PlayStation 2. It is the sequel to SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs.
Joint Operations: Typhoon Rising is a 2004 first-person shooter computer game from Novalogic that focuses almost entirely on its expansive online multiplayer mode. Set in Indonesia in the near future, Joint Operations takes the player to a country on the verge of disintegration. Regional independence movements have acquired advanced weaponry as the nation's military splits into competing factions. Escalating violence threatens innocent civilians and Western economic interests. Developed using the Black Hawk Down engine, Joint Operations promises superior rendering technology and an enhanced 3rd generation multiplayer experience.
Equus is a fictional comic book supervillain, a cyborg mercenary in the DC Comics universe who serves as an opponent of Superman. Created by writer Brian Azzarello and artist Jim Lee, he first appeared in Superman #206, which was published in June 2004 as part of the "For Tomorrow" storyline.
SOCOM U.S. Navy SEALs: Combined Assault is a tactical shooter video game developed by Zipper Interactive and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for PlayStation 2.
Arma 2 is a 2009 tactical shooter simulation video game developed and published by Bohemia Interactive for Microsoft Windows. It is the second main entry in the Arma series and the third installment in the series overall. The game is set in the fictional Eastern European country of Chernarus during a civil war between the Chernarussian government and communist revolutionaries, and follows escalating tensions when the United States Marine Corps is deployed to defeat the rebels.
List of abbreviations, acronyms and initials related to military subjects such as modern armour, artillery, infantry, and weapons, along with their definitions.
Garena is a Singaporean game developer and publisher of free online games. It is the digital entertainment arm of parent company Sea Ltd, which formerly used Garena as the parent company name.
Firefall was a science fiction free-to-play massive multiplayer online open world shooter video game developed and released by Red 5 Studios in 2014. Officially announced in 2010, the game entered closed beta in 2011 and open beta in 2013. It was the first and only game to be developed by Red 5 Studios, combining elements from both the shooter genre and some role-playing aspects from the massive multiplayer online genre. Firefall was shut down in 2017.
Alliance of Valiant Arms is a free-to-play online first-person shooter video game, developed by now-defunct Red Duck, Inc. using Unreal Engine 3. Since then, Neowiz has taken over the development and publishing of the game after acquiring its intellectual property.
Revolution is an American post-apocalyptic science fiction television series that ran from September 17, 2012, until May 21, 2014, when it was cancelled by NBC. The show takes place in the post-apocalyptic near-future of the year 2027, 15 years after the start of a worldwide, permanent electrical-power blackout in 2012. Created by Eric Kripke and produced by J. J. Abrams' Bad Robot for the NBC network, it originally aired on Mondays at 10:00 p.m. ET, and did well enough that NBC ordered a second season shortly after the first-season finale.
FIFA Online 3 was a free-to-play massively multiplayer online football game which was announced on 13 August 2012 and entered the 1st closed beta on 20 September 2012 to 23 September of that same year in South Korea. On December 18, 2012, it was released in South Korea.
Level Up! Inc., more commonly known by the trademark Level Up! Games, is a Philippine game publishing studio owned by Asiasoft since 2014. According to their website, they currently have operations in the Philippines, Brazil and Latin America.
Arena of Valor, formerly Strike of Kings, is an international adaptation of Honor of Kings, a multiplayer online battle arena developed by TiMi Studio Group and published by Level Infinite for Android, iOS and Nintendo Switch for markets outside Mainland China. As of September 2018, the game has grossed over $140 million outside China. Arena of Valor was one of the esports titles featured at the 2018 Asian Games, 2019 Southeast Asian Games, 2021 Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, and 2021 SEA Games as part of the competitive sport. Arena of Valor was published in other regions by Garena, DeNA, Actoz SG, and TiMi Studio Group.
Ring of Elysium was a free-to-play, multiplayer online battle royale game developed by Aurora Studio and published by TCH Scarlet Limited, each a subsidiary of Tencent Games, and is available to download for free on Steam, DMM & Garena. In North America, Europe and parts of Asia it was released on Steam on 19 September 2018 as a free-to-play early access game on the North American servers, and on 25 November 2018 on the European servers. The game servers were permanently shut down on December 1, 2023.
Free Fire is a free-to-play battle royale game developed and published by Garena for Android and iOS. It was released on 8 December 2017. It became the most downloaded mobile game globally in 2019 and has over 1 billion downloads on Google Play Store. In the first quarter of 2021 it was the highest grossing mobile game in the US. In November 2019, it surpassed $1 billion in lifetime revenue. As of 2021, Free Fire had surpassed 150 million daily active users.