General Gaming Article

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• Google Wants Celebrities on Google+
• World of Borecraft: 5 Reasons Why the World of Warcraft Will Implode
• How News of the World Hacked Everybody’s Phones
• Demand Progress Co-Founder Indicted For Stealing Over 4 Million Documents From MIT
• Arrested Pirate Claims He Was Charging For The Cases, Not The Burned DVDs
• China Hits 485 Million Internet Users -- Or Does It?
• Foxconn Has Eye on ECS, Mulls Acquisition
• Fast Forward: AMD and ARM - Get a Room!
• FBI Raids Homes of Three Suspected to Have Ties with Anonymous
• Intel Sandy Bridge-E Details Trickle Out

Google Wants Celebrities on Google+ Posted: 19 Jul 2011 02:36 PM PDT Twitter has made a lot of headway by having big-name celebrities use the service as a promotional tool. This is the verified account scheme that the social networking site rolled out last year. Although Twitter doesn't make a lot of use of it anymore, we're getting word that Google is looking to create a similar system for Google+. The impetus to get celebrities on a social networking service is simple: publicity. it might not mean a lot to our esteemed readership that Lady Gaga is tweeting her heart out on Twitter, but that will inevitably drive some more mainstream users to join up. Having verified Google+ accounts will allow the popular crowd to have confidence that they have control over their social presence.  Google has yet to decide how to do the verification. One possibility is that the celebrity in question will have to mail in a copy of his or her ID. But it's more likely that Google will just end up working with known talent agencies to verify accounts.  Until Google gets this sorted out, some high profile users might sit this one out. For instance, William Shatner found his Google+ account deactivated recently. Apparently a Googler flagged it as a fake profile. Do you think that celebrity uptake will help Google+?

World of Borecraft: 5 Reasons Why the World of Warcraft Will Implode Posted: 19 Jul 2011 01:29 PM PDT Congratulations. If you're one of the 12-million people worldwide who have sunk their lives into World of Warcraft—er, 11.4 million, I should say—then you've joined a giant, contingent of digital athletes that have done a few stretches, maneuvered into position, and taken a giant flying leap over a shark. I don't have the numbers in front of me, so I can't say that the game's recent drop from 12 million paying subscribers (paying up to $15 or so a month) to a mere 11.4 million is WoW's first such major subscriber loss.  But it is rather telling that we're just half a year out since the launch of the game's Earth-shaking expansion (literally) and WoW's total subscriber numbers have returned to their pre-Cataclysm levels. Is Warcraft a dud?  Hardly; Blizzard's still filling up its Scrooge McDuck-like vault down there in Irvine, California from the monthly contributions of its gigantic player base.  But that doesn't mean that World of Warcraft, as a whole, isn't giving off the complete and total impression that the game has given up its lease on life. Like an old, sputtering car, WoW just keeps slowly chugging its way toward Irrelevant City.  It might take a year; it might take five years.  But mark my words: WoW has passed its peak. The drop in subscriber numbers you're seeing right now is the first big chink in World of Warcraft's armor, and it's pretty easy to see why people are leaving. 1.  Microtransactions You know the old cooking trick where one dunks a frog into a lukewarm pot of water and then gradually turns up the heat to kill the frog without startling it?  Well, that's a complete and total myth.  But it could be true were the situation applied to WoW players' bank accounts. I commend Blizzard for offering up a number of account-specific customizations for its players: Changing your character's factions from alliance to horde or vice versa, changing your character's appearance and, now, even allowing characters from different servers to queue up in dungeon parties together. Unfortunately, these features come with a price: Yes, if the cellular industry has taught us anything, it's that bits and bytes carry high premiums in the modern era.  Want to move your character from one faction to another in WoW?  That'll be $30 (more than the cost of a boxed copy of WoW, I might add).  Want to play with people on a different server?  That'll be an undisclosed amount of money. There's a phrase for this in the non-Azerothian world: Nickel and diming. The more Blizzard charges premiums for features that should be part-and-parcel of the gaming experience (mobile access, anyone?), the more they start to look and feel like a reverse Robin Hood. 2.  Capping Out I know, I know.  You've heard this one before.  Again, to Blizzard's credit, the company has done much to try and up the ante against the good ol' "tank and spank," or the default strategy groups of players use to clear boss content within the game's dungeons.  We have raids!  We have raids of varying sizes!  We have raids and dungeons of varying difficulties!  We have actual strategies one has to employ during these fights in order to not wipe the entire party! But, still, that all goes out the window once you've run your 30th trip through the ever-long Halls of Origination.  Or even the newly refreshed Deadmines.  Or even (even) Blackwing Descent.  The problem that plagues WoW is the same problem it's had since its inception: The end-game might introduce new elements and landscapes but, at the end of the day, you're still playing the exact same content over, and over, and over, and over.  If you aren't in an active raid group, you might as well take up a drug addiction: It'll give you something to do while you play Warcraft's "numbers game" pursuit of slightly better loot, to borrow a phrase from Ben "Yahtzee" Crenshaw. And I'm not sure this is a problem that wants to be solved: A high percentage of WoW's average player base doesn't much care for a dungeon's quirky add-ons, achievement hunting, or other such fun.  They want to finish a run as fast as humanly (or elvenly) possible, grab the loot, and do it all again.  For a casual-to-average player, this isn't fun.  This is digital torture. 3.  Unique Faces in the Crowd One of the things I liked most about vanilla WoW was that the game offered a few interesting ways for a character to distinguish oneself.  Perhaps that came in the form of a special tabard that you sunk a ton of time into getting, or a zone-wide yell because you accomplished some crazy task (severed dragon heads included), or because you were that jackass who kept snowballs from Blizzard's winter event until summer in order to pitch up some freezing delights into the faces of your friends. Fast-forward years later: Warcraft is now a smorgasboard of uniqueness. I can't decide if I want WoW to have more content for players to slap onto their characters or less.  Here's why: Nowadays, a simple walk through town yields people wearing all sorts of indistinguishing armor, with all sorts of titles appended to their names, with all sorts of goodies that they're carrying with them, or throwing on the ground next to them, or petting as it walks alongside them.  Everyone's special, which makes everyone… refreshingly dull. I want to play in a world where others can appreciate my individual accomplishments and I, theirs, but not a world in which a wide pool of accomplishments muddies everyone's ability to stand out.  And perhaps this is just an unfortunate byproduct of WoW's longevity: At nearly seven years' existence, the game has given players ample time to accomplish just about… everything.  Maybe it's a graphical treatment; maybe it's a mechanics overhaul.  But in a digital city full of badass veterans, what's the point of tackling WoW's more esoteric content or non-combat features if you're not much different than everyone else at the end of the day? I mean, it says something when we're still playing variants of the same holiday events year, after year, after year.  Which leads me to… 4.  Muddy Content Waters One way to fix Warcraft's "stale" feeling would be for Blizzard to constantly refresh the game with new quests, new items… just constantly new things to do.  Even the game's daily quests can get old after a while, especially if you're on your who-knows-how-long-its-been fix for your Daily Quest Addiction—the process by which one loads into a zone, runs the same seven or eight quests over the course of an hour or so, then logs out before doing it all again the next day.  Rinse, wash, repeat.  Do this enough times and I don't care what the final loot reward is for your efforts: It's boring. Let's get to the meat of the issue: Blizzard sits on a mountain of cash.  A country of cash.  A freakin' digital world of cash.  Why they aren't spending their obscene amounts of monthly wealth on an army of producers, actors, or superfans who would be willing to produce heaps of unique and interesting content on an accelerated timeframe is a question that's beyond my predicative abilities to answer.  One of the largest MMOs in existence—or, at least, one of the biggest MMOs to have transcended from geek circles to mass-modern appeal–should have brand-new things to do going up on a daily basis.  There's simply no excuse for endless repetition in a game this big! 5. Palette swap You know what else feels stale about World of Warcraft?  Its fashion sense.  While pretty, the actual in-game assets of Azeroth and its inhabitants are starting to show signs of age—perhaps unavoidable, given just how much the game has to scale to meet all the system configurations its users log in with.  But even semi-new titles like poor Age of Conan, or really new titles like Rift, make World of Warcraft look ancient by comparison.  The graphics don't need any more crazy add-ons like rain effects or glowing raid targets: WoW needs a Cataclysm-sized update for its models, skins, rendering enging, effects… you name it! And the first thing WoW's graphical designers need to do before they start makin' swords all pretty again is sign a blood oath that they will never reuse the same character models for differently named (and differently colored) enemies.  Or to put it another way, no more Scorpion and Sub-Zero treatment.  When you're fighting a boss that suspiciously looks either like a boss you fought one expansion ago, or a normal mob that's just been magically resized to 30 times its original dimensions, come on.  Slapping a dress on a pig doesn't make a new raid boss, especially if you just killed the first pig in another dungeon a few hours ago. Try an experiment for me.  Stop playing WoW for however long it takes you to break the urge to log online and finish your daily quests: For some, that might be days.  For others, a full month.  Don't cancel your account.  Just stop playing.  Now once you've achieved this Zen-like state of clarity, think about everything you've been doing with your digital life.  Does it sound like this? You log online to your level 85 character.  You're on the Horde, because "Da Horde Rulez #1."  You load up in the capital city of Orgrimmar, immediately queue yourself up for your daily random instance, and start to think of things to do while you wait.  You could check the auction house, but the goods you need to level your latest secondary skill are obscenely expensive.  You could do some normal quests, but you're already outgeared for any of the rewards.  You're not really in the mood to grind reputation since the time/payoff ratio is scant, and your guild chat is full of people looking for 5 more offline members to finish out their newbie raid.  Your primary raid group is one you'll never see because, though you feel like you're at the top of your WoW game, you aren't anywhere near the item levels you need to play "real Warcraft." Your instance pops up.  You run the same dungeon you've been running the last 3 months. You alt-tab out during the boring parts or you run WoW in a window so you can just kind of half-ass your way through the dungeon while concentrating on your latest Reddit posts (or Maximum PC reviews).  The loot that drops throughout the dungeon is nothing you need, but the simple act of finishing it brings you 1/65 closer to a slightly better piece of gear that might, someday, help you raid with the big boys. And you, like many, ask yourself why you continue to play the "game." Blizzard's World of Warcraft is hardly a flawed creation.  And there are certainly parts of the game that are novel, fun, and downright hilarious.  But just as you can't beat an endgame boss without tweaked-out gear and strategy, Blizzard can't expect its followers to just play blindly, forever, without offering them the latest and greatest incentives to continue.  And right now, I don't see strategy in Blizzard's methods; I see content shoveling.

How News of the World Hacked Everybody’s Phones Posted: 19 Jul 2011 12:38 PM PDT For a while, leaving your cell unattended seemed like the biggest threat to phone security. But this recent business is a reminder that there are savvier ways someone can violate your phone—without even touching it. Details are still emerging as to how, exactly, News of the World reporters got into everybody's giblets. But here are the common—and shockingly simple—phone hacking techniques they likely used. Voicemail hacking, according to security experts, is not the worst of the things that could happen to you and your secret-spilling cell. These days, it is the least intrusive because voicemail as a message-delivering tool is fading out behind simple caller id, texting, and emailing. But it's still a massive invasion of privacy—even if the only one that still leaves messages is your dad. To access these messages, cell providers typically offer an external number you can call to get into your mailbox. The service recognizes the phone number calling, which is convenient for everyone—including people trying to get into your voicemail. Phone numbers—that unique identity that we assume belongs only to the object in our pocket—can be spoofed using Voice Over IP and some open source software. "The caller ID is a burst of data before the signal that tells the phone to ring," explains Chester Wisniewski, a Senior Security Advisor at Sophos. "If you're not using a commercial service provider, you can set your caller ID to anything." This means that that external number that you call to check your voicemail may interpret the falsified number as yours and act accordingly. Typically the service provider's external number still requires a password, even if you haven't set one. Bonus! But to get yourself equipped with something unique, each company has a well-known default (like the last 4 digits of your phone number, for instance) that gives users first time access. And how many of us actually change that pin? Uh oh. Spoof a number, enter the last 4 digits of that number, and presto: 10 identical voice mail messages from my dad on 10 consecutive Sundays. Spoofed numbers also allow another access point. Ever called your own phone number? "It automatically dumps you into voicemail and plays your messages," says Wisniewski. By now you see where I'm going with this: Would be evesdroppers can get there, too, using your number. To get forwarded to voicemail, someone might be tasked with intentionally occupying your line, while another with the forged number—your forged number—calls you as well. Bam: Voicemail. If not given direct access right then, pushing * during the outgoing message is a reliable way to gain entry. Passwords would be helpful here, but even strong passwords guarding voicemail are not 100-percent safe from determined snoopers, who have been known to call phone companies to ask for a password reset on a target's account. Security experts expect that some amount of this type of social engineering took place in the News of the World scandal. What this boils down to is someone tricking an employee at a cell carrier into giving up access. They'd need a few key details of the person's life to go from, of course, but security experts seem to treat this as a foregone conclusion. The thing about most voicemail intrusions is that there's no real way to know they've happened. If you've already listened to a message, someone playing it for a second time is not going to set off any alarm bells. Steven Rambam, an investigator and director of Pallorium, Inc. explains that that it can go even further. "I can save them as new after I've listened to each one so nobody will know." Alarming, to say the least. More alarming is the gamut of violations Rambam says are possible. Transgressions range from wriggling into someone's web portal to accessing call history to legal cell phone tracking (not the paying-off-cops stuff that was going on in the UK) to sending an email that will embed something on your phone to grab passwords. But 90 percent of the above voicemail-specific problems can be prevented if strong passwords are put into place, according to Rambam. That means no patterns on the keyboard (ahem, 2580) or digits repeated 4 times. "There's a balance between convenience and privacy," says Rambam, "and you have to decide if it's worth it for you." In other words: Put passwords on everything. Right now. Protect Yourself It would be nice to keep the things in your private life private. Here are a few easy things you can do to guard yourself against unwanted interlopers. Your voicemail should be password protected—even if you're dialing from your phone. Make your passwords stronger. 15-percent of iPhone owners unlock their phones with one of the 10 most common passcodes. Do not use them. Ever. Turns out 5683 may look tricky, but the sixth most common number sequence spells out love on a keypad—and the feeling is not unique. Add an intermediate step between the threat and your cell phone. Services like Google Voice and Skype will give you a number that forwards to your phone, so you don't have to betray your service provider-tied digits. Block your outgoing caller id. Your number can give up information about you, so don't let anyone on the other end of a conversation have it. Set up notifications for remote access to voice mail, an invalid PIN attempt, or a change of a voicemail pin so you'll at least be able to know about the intrusion before it hits the papers. Gizmodo is the world's most fun technology website, focused on gadgets and how they make our lives better, worse, and more absurd.

Demand Progress Co-Founder Indicted For Stealing Over 4 Million Documents From MIT Posted: 19 Jul 2011 11:44 AM PDT Sites like Reddit and Digg are based entirely on free-thought concepts like crowdsourcing, forums and fair use. So, what's a poor former Reddit team member supposed to do when someone doesn't want to share their ideas? Apparently, he steals them. That's what Boston police say, at least. Today, they indicted 24-year-old programmer and Demand Progress co-founder Aaron Swartz on multiple charges, claiming he pilfered over four million documents from MIT and the JSTOR academic archive. Carmen Ortiz, the US District Attorney for Massachusetts, says that Swartz – who didn't even attend MIT –  broke into an off-limits area at the school and tapped into the University's network in a wiring closet, the NY Times Bits blog reports. "Stealing is stealing whether you use a computer command or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data or dollars," Ortiz said. Swartz is up for wire fraud, computer fraud, unlawfully obtaining information from a protected computer, recklessly damaging a protected computer, aiding and abetting, and criminal forfeiture. If convicted, he faces up to 35 years in prison and a $1 millon fine. You can check out the indictment online. And yes, the Bits article is the top story on Reddit, in case you were wondering. Update: Demand Progress, the political organization co-founded by Swartz, offers their take on the situation on their blog. You can guess their slant by the name of the post alone: "Federal Government Indicts Former Demand Progress Executive Director For Downloading Too Many Journal Articles." Apparently, JSTOR didn't even want charges brought against Swartz. Update, round two: Apparently, the New York Times (and by extension, us) got it wrong the first time around. Aaron Swartz didn't co-found Reddit; he became part of the company when Reddit merged with Swartz's company, Infogami, six months into Reddit's lifespan. You can check out the clarification in a Google+ post by Alexis Ohanian, one of the, erm, actual co-founders. We've updated the article's text accordingly. Image credit: Boston.com

Arrested Pirate Claims He Was Charging For The Cases, Not The Burned DVDs Posted: 19 Jul 2011 11:07 AM PDT The best laughs in the country aren't found in comedy clubs or celebrity-filled roasts; if you want to really put the "L" in ROFL, you need to turn towards the court system. In today's humor-filled disposition, a store owner accused of selling illegal copies of DVDs says no, sir, he wasn't selling copyrighted DVDs – that's illegal, after all. He was actually giving the movies away for free, you see, and his customers were forking over $5 "donations" for the DVD cases. The business only lasted a few months before an MPAA investigator told the police about the place, Ars Technica reports, citing an Orlando Sentinel article. When the cops kicked in the door, they found two computers and over 1,200 DVDs. The door itself backed up the man's defense: the owner had tacked a huge sign on it saying the movies were gratis and for promotional use only. Any money that changed hands for the cases themselves was simply a kind-hearted donation to the store. Erm, too bad that doesn't fly. Even if the court somehow swallows the "Selling cases" BS, copying copyrighted movies isn't legal, no matter whether you sell them for profit or accept "donations" for the jewel cases you stuff them into. If convicted, then owner of the shop is facing up to five years and prison and a $5,000 fine. Rest safe, Floridians; the illegal copies of Cars 2 and Hangover 2 are now off the streets in your community.

China Hits 485 Million Internet Users -- Or Does It? Posted: 19 Jul 2011 10:34 AM PDT China talks big when it comes to the Internet. Not just big as in "Shutting down 1.3 million Chinese websites in 2010," but also big as in "Holy crap that's a lot of people on the Internet." A Chinese non-profit group with ties to the government says the country's population continues to jump on the Interwebs bandwagon in droves. Heck, they claim the number of Chinese people who use Internet-enabled cellphones now outnumber the entire US population. But some experts are little leery of the numbers being tossed around. The China Internet Network Information Center claims that 27 million Chinese natives signed up for this newfangled Internet thing since the first of the year, PC World reports. That brings the total number of Chinese Internet users to 485 million, by CINIC's count. Of those 485 million, it's claimed that 318 million access the Web with their mobile device (the US only has a total population of around 311 million). However, comScore and an IDG analyst disagree with the tally. ComScore, you see, keeps its own tabs on the net, and by their count, the total number of connected Chinese added up to just 304 million users as of May. When comScore chucked Internet cafes into the mix, that number leaped as high as 415 million. That's still a ton of people, but 70 million less than CINIC claims. PC World throws doubt on the way CINIC's total is even calculated: apparently, the group considers a Chinese person an Internet user if they are over six years old and connected to the Web just once in the previous six months. Even if CINIC's 485 million user claim turns out to be true, that still means that only about a third of all Chinese citizens connect to the Internet. CINIC says that an additional 815 million rural Chinese still don't have Internet access, and in fact, many don't even know how to operate a computer.

Foxconn Has Eye on ECS, Mulls Acquisition Posted: 19 Jul 2011 10:15 AM PDT As the primary supplier of iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad touch devices, as well as making products for high-profile companies like Acer, Asus, Dell, Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, and others, life is good for Foxconn (or Hon Hai Precision, if you prefer), which collected $59.3 billion in revenue in 2010. Foxconn can afford to go on a spending spree, and in addition to buying one of Cisco's manufacturing facilities in Mexico, the electronics maker is now setting its sights on Elitegroup Computer Systems (ECS). At least that's the buzz from news and rumor site DigiTimes, which readily admits that both Foxconn and ECS refute the rumor. If you roll your own systems, you might recognize ECS as a builder of budget motherboards. ECS also produces higher end mobos, as well as a whole host of other products, including OEM boards for system vendors. According to DigiTimes, the big draw for Foxconn is a buyout would give it access to ECS' China-based retail channel subsidiary Orbbit, which is headquartered in Beijing. On the flipside, ECS is one of the few subsidiaries of Tatung Group that isn't losing money, so Tatung might not be real motivated to sell. Image Credit: topnews.net.nz

Fast Forward: AMD and ARM - Get a Room! Posted: 19 Jul 2011 10:08 AM PDT "The enemy of my enemy is my friend." That reasoning has led to many strange alliances among nations, but it also makes for some interesting business partnerships. For example, at AMD's recent Fusion developers' conference, AMD and ARM were practically flaunting their PDAs—public displays of affection, not personal digital assistants. ARM is the world's leading supplier of 32-bit CPU cores for cell-phone processors, consumer electronics, and embedded systems. Lately, this relatively small British company has been irritating Intel, which is trying to muscle into ARM's low-power territory, so AMD and ARM share a common enemy. Their hugfest at AMD's conference has important implications. AMD is panting over heterogeneous microprocessors, which integrate multiple processor cores of different architectures on the same chip. AMD's Fusion processors are heterogeneous, because they combine AMD's x86 CPU cores with an AMD Radeon GPU core. More particularly, AMD is lusting for heterogeneous processing—sharing general-purpose workloads among different cores, instead of dedicating some cores to specialized tasks. Programmers are already using GPUs for general-purpose computing on AMD's ATI Stream and Nvidia's CUDA software platforms. Before Fusion, however, the GPU was a second-class citizen, relegated to the PCI Express bus. Fusion couples the GPU directly to the CPUs, making them peer processors. Now AMD is suggesting that ARM's CPU cores could make it a threesome. ARM cores could appear in PC processors or in future AMD embedded processors. They could work alongside the x86 CPUs and GPU, offloading some chores that require better power efficiency. Programming becomes more complex, but the chip could save power and cost less. This union could also save AMD the trouble of developing very-low-power x86 cores. If the flirting between AMD and ARM turns serious, maybe Intel will be the one who's hot and bothered. Tom Halfhill was formerly a senior editor for Byte magazine and is now an analyst for Microprocessor Report.

FBI Raids Homes of Three Suspected to Have Ties with Anonymous Posted: 19 Jul 2011 09:07 AM PDT What's ironic about the hacking group known as Anonymous is that it's virtually impossible to remain truly anonymous on the Internet. We're not saying hackers can't hide themselves really well, but throw enough time and resources into the hunt, and chances are they'll be tracked down. The FBI has done just that and raided the homes of three suspected Anonymous hackers living in New York. According to FoxNews.com, which claims an exclusive on the story, nearly a dozen FBI agents stormed through the Baldwin, New York home of Giordani Jordan with search warrant in hand. The agents confiscated at least one laptop from their 1-hour and 40-minute long raid. Meawhile, agents also searched a home in Long Island, and another in Brooklyn, both also in New York. It's unclear if anything was confiscated from those homes, though according to FoxNews.com, Jordan's system is one that authorities believe was used in a coordinated distributed denial of service attack against several companies. Remaining the defiant bunch, a user connected with Anonymous after learning of the raids tweeted, "It doesn't matter how many people the 'FBI' arrest.. whether they are core members or not.. #anonymous have started something unstoppable." LulzSec's recent reemergence notwithstanding, we used to hear similar war cries, right up until the organization abruptly called it quits as authorities began to close in on their inner circle.

Intel Sandy Bridge-E Details Trickle Out Posted: 19 Jul 2011 08:43 AM PDT We'd like to tell you we donned our ninja suits, infiltrated Intel's facilities, and made off with a bunch of secrets all without getting caught, but none of that actually happened. Lucky for us, we didn't have to take things that far, because a Turkish website -- the same one that reported AMD's delayed Bulldozer launch -- is serving up details on a trio of upcoming Sandy Bridge-E processors. First up is the Core i7 3960X. This will be a six-core chip clocked at 3.3GHz, and up to 3.9GHz via Turbo. This thing will pack a monstrous 15MB of cache, and expect an unlocked multiplier as it's an Extreme Edition part. Sitting one rung lower is the Core i7 3930, also of the Extreme Edition variety. This is another six-core processor, but clocked slightly slower at 3.2GHz (Turbo 3.8GHz) and will a little less cache at 12MB. Both this and the 3960X have TDPs rated at 130W. Finally there's the Core i7 3820, a regular quad-core processor with a locked multiplier and clocked at 3.6GHz (Turbo 3.9GHz). It will come with 10MB of cache and a 130W TDP.

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MMO News

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• Spiral Knights
• The Lord of the Rings Online
• Fiesta Online
• Runes of Magic
• Golfstar
• Faxion Online
• Iris Online
• Loong: The Power of the Dragon
• King of Kings 3
• World of Tanks

Spiral Knights Posted: 22 Jan 2010 08:19 PM PST Spiral Knights is a 3D Action MMO with bright animated graphics. Play cooperatively and clear dozens of stages, each with various monster and puzzles to solve. The look and feel of Spiral Knights is reminiscent of dungeon crawlers, particular games like Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventure. Publisher: Sega Playerbase: Medium Graphics: Medium Quality Type: MMO EXP Rate: Medium PvP: N/A Filesize: 300 MB Pros: +Cooperative gameplay. +Fast paced, action oriented. +Varied game modes, environments, and monsters. Cons: . -Dated graphic effects. -Repetitive gameplay. -Somewhat dependent on cash shop for steady progression. Overview Spiral Knights Overview Spiral Knights is an MMO that looks very interesting. As a co-op dungeon crawler, Spiral Knights offers fast paced gameplay through carried environments. The game will be stage based and players will be able to chose from various character types, customizing them as they go along. Not much is known about the game and the official site only offers some flavor text about the story. The teaser video released shows exciting gamepay and a graphic style that resembles the cartoony Zelda games popular on the Nintendo DS and GameCube, particularly the Zelda Four Swords series. Spiral Knights Screenshots 12► Spiral Knights Featured Video Click here to view the embedded video. Full Review Spiral Knights Review By, Jaime Skelton Spiral Knights Review Many games start with you crash landing on an unfamiliar planet, needing the help of new friends to survive. The struggle to exist in an unfamiliar land is a common trope in video games. Spiral Knights, developed by Three Rings (makers of Puzzle Pirates) and published by Sega, manages to pull it off with cute wit and style. Graphically similar to games such as Zodiac Online and Fairyland Online, Spiral Knights brings forth some interesting, unique game-play mechanics. These features set Spiral Knights above and beyond similar top-down MMORPGs. Keep It Simple; Jump Right In! Character creation may make the game seem fairly limited. There are only three helmet, three armor and five color schemes to choose from. There is no gender selection – one helmet does make you "female" by adding pigtail looking tufts. Outside of choosing a personal color and your name, that’s all you’re given. There are neither classes nor races to choose from in Spiral Knights. In fact, your character is defined solely by the equipment you use. Once you’ve created a character, you’ll find yourself near a crashed escape pod. The first few areas of the game teach you how to move, attack, change weapons, pick up objects, and how to handle certain enemy types. The controls are very simple to learn and understand. The game can be played with the mouse alone, as movement and combat are controlled with the left and right mouse buttons  respectively, in the direction the cursor faces. Into the Mist The user interface itself is clean and out of the way. The upper left contains various game menus, including the main menu, the social menu and the uplink menu (the game’s mail system). The top right hosts your mini-map, and also includes your character information, equipment arsenal, and crowns, the in-game currency. The bottom left houses the chat pane. At the bottom right of the screen, your energy is shown. There are two types of energy in Spiral Knights: Mist and Crystal energy. Mist energy is the standard energy bar, while Crystal energy is additional energy purchased through the cash shop. You start with a maximum of 100 Mist energy. Adventuring in the Clockworks uses Mist energy to go down floors, use gates, activate friendly NPCs, and more. Once at zero energy, you’ll be unable to advance, and must wait for your energy to replenish. It takes about 15 minutes to recharge one unit of energy, so expect to wait around 24 hours for energy to fully recharge. Going Spelunking After the tutorial quests that deliver you to Haven, the game’s hub, Spiral Knights becomes open- ended. This can be a jarring experience. Your gameplay goal is to reach the core of the planet by getting to the deepest level (called stratum). Going deeper into the dungeon involves activating gates, which is done using minerals found while exploring, plus a small crown cost to access later strata. The minerals you use along with the time of day determines the stratum’s theme, or the types of monsters you’ll find. This system ensures gameplay varies from day to day. Spiral Knights does require some social interaction. By default, entering the Clockworks will partner you with up to three other players. There are options for solo play, however, there are several advantages to traveling with other Knights. Minerals, Heat and crowns are all equally shared, not divided, across the party. There is also strategic value to multiple players in combat. Experience – How It Work? Spiral Knights does not feature a traditional character progression system. Characters do not level up; instead, a character’s equipment gains experience, called Heat. Each piece of equipment can gain up to ten levels through gathering Heat. The game includes swords, guns, bombs, armor, helmets, and shields. Some pieces of equipment can be upgraded to the next tier once they are level ten, using crafting components found in the dungeons. There are also trinkets to equip, with various stats and abilities, though these do not grow in level. Leveling is on a curve; early levels are easier to gain, while later levels require higher amounts of Heat. However, it’s never terribly daunting to get a piece of equipment to level ten, and unlike other MMOs, there is no risk of your equipment breaking through upgrades. As you explore, you’ll find crafting materials in addition to minerals. These materials can be used to create new equipment or upgrade existing pieces. Vendors sell random recipes throughout the day, and it can sometimes be difficult to obtain the recipe you need. The interface is fairly straightforward and intuitive, making it easy to make what you need and move on. It’s made easier due to Alchemy Machines being found almost everywhere. Friends and (future) Foes Players can join guilds, which are a great way to gather groups for various adventures. In addition to their own special chat channel, guilds have the benefit of a guild hall, where guild members can craft and socialize. It takes 500 energy and 1000 crowns to start a guild, so some purchase of Crystal energy will be required. PvP is currently disabled; however, there are plans to reintroduce it in the future – there is no known ETA when this will be. Battles will be four person free-for-all arenas with four tiers of combat. Each tier places various restrictions on equipment, except the top tier where anything goes. Each tier also will have progressively higher crowns cost to participate. Final Verdict: Great Spiral Knights is a whimsical, fun adventure into the unknown depths of a planet. The simple combat system, coupled with a vast array of equipment, is engaging enough to bring players back. The major downside of the game is the lack of in-game information, although the publisher maintains a wikia page. With the unique way dungeons are created with random elements ensures no two adventures are quite the same. With a positive grouping experience and friendly atmosphere, Spiral Knights offers a casual, drama-free gaming experience. Even hardcore gamers will find plenty of things they can do. Screenshots Spiral Knights Screenshots Videos Spiral Knights Videos Spiral Knights Gameplay Video Click here to view the embedded video. Links Spiral Knights Links Spiral Knights Official Site System Requirements Spiral Knights System Requirements Windows & Linux Windows XP, Vista or 7 Java 1.5 Display 1024×600 1.3 GHz processor Graphics: 64mb Video Memory. GeForce 5 series, ATI Radeon 8500. Latest video driver. Memory: 512mb for Windows XP or 1gb for Windows Vista/7 300MB Hard drive space Mac OSX 10.4 Java 1.5 Display 1024×600 1.3 GHz processor Graphics: 64MB Video Memory. GeForce 5 series, ATI 8500. Latest video driver. 1GB memory (1000MB) 300MB hard drive space

The Lord of the Rings Online Posted: 07 May 2009 11:36 PM PDT The Lord of the Rings Online is a 3D, fantasy MMORPG based on the now legendary LotR franchise. With characters from the movies and books, LotRO is sure to entice fans, but there’s plenty here for those unfamiliar with the story. A massive game world, an interesting PvP mode that allows gamers to play as monsters, and player housing are just some of the features this game has to offer. Publisher: Turbine Playerbase: High Graphics: High Quality Type: MMORPG EXP Rate: Medium PvP: Duels / Battlegrounds Filesize: 6.6 GB / 9.5 GB (high rez) Pros: +Well established backstory/lore. +Story-driven gameplay. +Player housing. +Rewarding quests. +Titles to earn and Hobbies to learn. Cons: -Huge download and slow install. -Feels like a single player game at times. -PvE offers no challenge during early levels. Overview The Lord of the Rings Online Overview Lord of the Rings Online is a formerly pay-to-play MMORPG that is now free-to-play!  The game places a heavy emphasis on story and lore. Right from the start, players are thrown into the thick of things with interactive quests. Players are only given the option of choosing between the ‘good’ or ‘free’ races which include Humans (referred to simply as ‘Man’), Dwarves, Elves, and Hobbits but can play as monsters in special PvP battles starting at level 10. There are a total of nine classes available, though not all are available to all races. PvP in LotRO is a bit different than most MMORPGs; players fight in large battles either as special level 50 monsters or as their normal characters. The 9 Classes Are: Burgler - The rogue-like class of LotRO. Buglers fight with daggers and excel at debuffing and crowd control. They can deal heavy DPS as well but have now defense and health. Races: Man, Hobbit. Captain - A class unique to the race of Man. Captains can use a large variety of armors and weapons. They control pets, have buffing abilities and are capable of tanking. Races: Man. Champion - A melee DPS class that has several area of effect (AoE) moves. Champions can dual-wield and tank when they need to but are mainly concerned with dishing out damage. Races: Man, Elf, Dwarf. Guardian - The main tanking class of Lord of the Rings Online. Guardians can use most weapon types and all armor types. They can deal moderate damage, but are most useful in absorbing damage for their allies. Races: Man, Elf, Dwarf, Hobbit. Hunter - The classic archer archetype. Hunters deal heavy damage from a distance using bows, but have lower defense and health than the melee-oriented classes. All races can play as hunters. Lore-Master - A multi-purpose spell casting class. Lore-Masters hurl spells from a safe distance, summon pets, and are capable of crowd control (CC.) Races: Man, Elf. Minstrel - Minstrels sooth their allies wounds with enchanting songs and boost their fighting potential with powerful chants. Since they are the main supportive class in he game, the Minstrel class is available to all classes. Rune-Keeper - The main offensive spell casters. They hurl powerful spells at their targets but are also capable of healing their allies. With low defense and health, they must be defended by their allies. Races: Elf, Dwarf. Warden - A jack-of-all-trades melee class that uses medium armor and several weapon types, including throwing javelins. Wardens are mainly concerned with dealing damage, but can serve as off-tanks. Races: Man, Elf, Hobbit. The Lord of the Rings Online Screenshots The Lord of the Rings Online Featured Video Click here to view the embedded video. Full Review The Lord of the Rings Online Review By Erhan Altay The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy brought J.R.R Tolkien's classic,  high-fantasy franchise back into the mainstream. Following the release of each movie, new editions of the books and licensed video game tie-ins quickly hit the shelves. Most of these games were short-lived and mediocre at best, but one lives on and continues to prosper. The Lord of the Rings Online was officially released in 2007 by Turbine, the same company behind the early MMORPG hit Asheron's Call and the now free-to-play Dungeons and Dragons Online. The game enjoyed modest success as a subscription-based game, but after Turbine's success with the free-to -play relaunch of DDO, it was announced that The Lord of the Rings Online would be converted to a free-to-play MMORPG. A Game of Epic Proportions LotrO is still a relatively new game, but it has already gone through several patch cycles and had two expansion packs released. Astonishingly, the client download is at least 6.6 GB. I say at least because a high res client is also available at over 9.5 GB. Even after the download, players have to go through a long installation and patching process so be sure to start it overnight. After getting all that settled and launching the game, players are welcomed by a fancy cinematic that outlines the game's lore. The Lord of the Rings Online takes place as the Fellowship are on their way to Mt. Doom. The Free People of Middle Earth are at war with the forces of Angmar, which is lead by the head of the Nazguls, the Witch King. Each of the four races (Men, Elves, Dwarves, and Hobbits) have a short intro video that players can watch during character creation. Each account has two free character slots though more can purchased via the cash shop. The game deviates from the movie/lore slightly by allowing caster classes (true magic users seem to be a rare and dying breed in the LotR canon) and making Hobbits powerful enough to compete with the other classes in combat. Players cannot chose 'evil' races, but can play as monsters in special PvP modes which we'll discuss later. The Free People Appearance customization is robust.  Each race has several variants; players can be a dwarf from the Misty Mountains or from the White Mounts. A human character can hail from the realms of Rohan, Gondor, or other famous locales. Members of the same race from different locations have different hair and eye color options, which gives the game extra depth. Besides the regional features, there are the standard compliment of hair, face, lip, and eye style customization. The total number of races is rather limited (four) but the nine available classes should make up for it. Not all races can play as all classes, so refer to the overview section for additional information. The Warden and Rune Keeper classes are not available to free players and must be unlocked through the premium shop.  After character creation, each race starts in a unique area where they are given the option of running a tutorial instance. I'd suggest accepting this tutorial only because it has story elements that help 'immerse' players in the game world. LotRO puts great emphasis on story-driven progression, as there are many 'drama events' where players watch as special events occur. Even the quest and NPC dialogue is well written, especially compared to most other free-to-play MMORPGs. Questing All the Way The first generation of MMORPGs had quests as optional side activities with only a few being required. Since the release and popularity of World of Warcraft, almost all games have adopted the quest-centric method. LotRO is no different, as players have a quest log which can hold up to forty quests; almost every NPC in town is likely to have an errand for you to run. Grinding is completely discouraged, as killing mobs yields little experience. It is by completing quests and handing them in that players have any chance of leveling. Questing is further encouraged by the 'deed' and 'title' features. By completing all available quests, players accomplish deeds, which grant special trait bonuses and titles. Some deeds are simple to complete while others take many hours to earn. The emphasis on quests and story mean you'll never be left wondering what to do next, but the trade off is that the game often feels like a single player venture. Training and Progression Each level, players can train new skills (active or passive) at their class specific trainers located throughout Middle Earth. There are six stats in LotRO, but they increase on their own without player input. Besides skills and stats, each player has certain traits. There are several types of traits: racial, class, virtue, and legendary. These are obtained in a variety of methods, by completing deeds, reaching certain levels, or participating in PvP.  The trait system helps differentiate members of the same class and ensures that no two characters are identical. The experience rate is generally fast-paced; it took me around forty-five minutes to hit level 6 on my first character while goofing off. Originally, the max level was 50, but with the most recent expansions, it has been raised to 65. Starting at level 10, players can create a monster character that begins at the max level and fights against regular characters of level 40 or higher. This Monsters vs Free People PvP mode is one of LotRO's more interesting and unique gameplay features. Tech Specs The Lord of the Rings Online is a very flexible game. As mentioned earlier, there are two available clients (standard and high resolution) as well as a multitude of graphic options to chose from. This means the game works on a wide range of machines and can look quite ugly or beautiful depending on the available computing power. If your machine can handle it, I highly recommend getting the high res client, as it really is a whole different experience. The game's soundtrack has also been hailed as a masterpiece. It received so much attention that Turbine has released a sixty-one track OST as a free download on their site. Fans can listen to all the tracks on RPGMusic.org You Shall Not Pay! Overall, LotRO is what you would expect from the granddaddy of all fantasy franchises. It's more story-driven than most MMORPGs, but still encourages grouping with dozens of high level instances. Groups are called 'fellowships', while guilds are referred to as 'kinships', which adds some unique flavor to the experience. Players can perform special moves while in groups, but it isn't enough to entice early level group activity. You'll likely play on your own until the very high levels. Players don't have to know anything about Lord of the Rings to enjoy the game; it might even help to not be familiar with the franchise since that will prevent you from comparing your mental image of Middle Earth with the one presented in the game. Lord of the Rings Online went free -to-play in September 2010, but still supports an optional subscription. Players are also free to purchase premium features piece meal. Permanent stat bonuses, additional inventory slots, and other goods are all available in the cash shop. The game can be enjoyed without dropping a dime, but some premium items do give players large advantages. This isn't much of concern in LotRO since it is mainly a cooperative, PvE experience. PvP plays a much smaller role than in most MMORPGs. Final Verdict: Great The Lord of the Rings Online holds true to the franchise and offers a very linear, story-driven experience. There are always plenty of quests to do, new areas to explore, and deeds to accomplish. The inability to play as the 'evil' races is somewhat made up for with the ability to play as monsters in special PvP zones. LOTRO is a full-feature MMORPG with high production value. Now that it's free-to-play, everyone should check it out. Screenshots The Lord of the Rings Online Screenshots 1234567► Videos The Lord of the Rings Online Videos The Lord of the Rings Online Free to Play Commercial Click here to view the embedded video. The Lord of the Rings Online Free to Play Trailer Click here to view the embedded video. The Lord of the Rings Online Gameplay – First Look Click here to view the embedded video. Links The Lord of the Rings Online Links The Lord of the Rings Online Official Site The Lord of the Rings Online Wikipedia Entry The Lord of the Rings Online Lorebook [Official Wiki] System Requirements The Lord of the Rings Online Requirements Minimum Requirements: OS: Windows  XP CPU: Pentium 4 1.8 GHz or AMD Equivalent RAM: 512 MB Free HDD: 7.0 GB Free Graphics Card: 64 MB GeForce 3 or ATI Radeon 8500 Recommended Specifications: OS: Windows XP / Vista CPU: Pentium 4 2.8 Ghz / AMD Equivalent RAM: 1024 MB or more HDD: 10.0 GB Free Graphics Card: 128MB Geforce 6800 / ATI Radeon X850 or better

Fiesta Online Posted: 03 Mar 2009 04:42 PM PST Fiesta Online (or just Fiesta for short) is a 3D fantasy MMORPG.  The game has cute, cell-shaded, anime inspired graphics and lively music.  The game’s entire world is vibrant and has an upbeat atmosphere. Publisher: Outspark Playerbase: High Graphics: Medium Quality Type: MMORPG EXP Rate: Low PvP: PvP Zones Filesize: ~1120 MB Pros: +Beautiful cel-shaded graphics. +Great interface. +Good skill progression system. +Solid Item crafting / resource gathering systems. +Easy to learn. Cons: -Only one stat point per level. -Repetitive combat. -Five starting classes. Overview Fiesta Online Overview Fiesta Online is another interesting MMORPG published by Outspark.  The game has three starting classes, each one of which has two job advancements; one at level 20 and the other at level 60.  The game’s most notable aspects are its attractive cel-shaded graphics and its solid item crafting system.  The game isn’t nearly as in-depth as some of the newer free MMORPGs, but Fiesta is still an all-around fun game well worth checking out.  The game’s four playable classes are: Fighter- Fighters are the generic ‘warrior’ archetype in Fiesta.  They are extremely capable in melee combat and have the most hit points and armor in the game.  They are proficient with both one-handed and two-handed weapons. Mage – Mages are the traditional offensive spell casting class in Fiesta. They can do a great deal of damage from a distance with their magic, but are extremely vulnerable in melee range.  They have low hit points and minimal defensive capabilities. Cleric - Clerics are experts at supporting party members in combat. They have a variety of healing and buff skills which make them incredibly valuable to a party.  They are the weakest class in the game but when they with a group they’re extremely useful. Archer – Archers are deadly with the bow.  They are fast and agile which allows them to deal damage rather quickly from a distance, but are vulnerable in melee combat. Trickster – A dual-wielding class that is capable of dealing large amounts of damage in short bursts. They are melee oriented and have decent HP. Fiesta Online Screenshots Fiesta Online Featured Video Click here to view the embedded video. Full Review Fiesta Online Review By Jaime Skelton Launched in 2007 in the United States by Outspark, Fiesta is a classic and well-known free-to-play anime-style MMORPG. Similar in ways to Fly For Fun, Asda Story, Dream of Mirror Online, and Mabinogi, Fiesta’s cel-shaded graphics and simple gameplay introduced many players to free-to-play MMOs. After a few years in the MMO market, Fiesta Online is still going strong, and there’s a few good reasons why. Choosing your Path Like any game, getting started in Fiesta Online requires going through character creation process. At the start of the game, you may choose only one of four classic classes – fighter, cleric, mage, or archer – and your gender. Character customization is extremely limited, offering only the chance to change your face, hair style, and hair color, each with only about three options each. For those concerned about the lack of classes, be reassured – each class becomes stronger with advanced classes at level 20, 60, and 100, the last of which offers a choice between two final specializations. Customization also comes in the ability to choose what extra stats are assigned each level in the "free stat" system. A Helping Bird Fiesta’s tutorial system is very limited and hands-on. For new players, a helpful NPC will offer a simple tip on picking up the first quests before sending them on their way. Tutorial tips come along instead with a bird-head alert in the upper right of the screen, offering explanations of each crucial game element, from combat and leveling to upgrading items and the mentor system. The alert also serves a dual purpose to let you know when new quests are available, and from whom. While the bird serves as a helper for those new to MMORPGs, many experienced players may find it aggravating, especially as it appears for each new character. The Classic Grind … Like many MMORPGs, Fiesta features a quest system to help players level as well as earn useful rewards. However, leveling takes the style of older MMOs, in which grinding is more crucial to gaining experience than questing. In fact, new players will discover this element before level 5; quests are given at a level before they can be reasonably completed by a new player with no assistance. For this reason, many players choose to grind out their early levels and skip quests entirely, as early level rewards are purchasable from vendors. … and the Value of Friendship The other option in starting off to the right foot, of course, is to have the help of friends, or at least, the kindness of passing strangers. A mentor-apprentice system exists for high level players to help out lowbies with bonuses for both, which can be one of the most efficient ways for a low level player to earn their experience. High level players may also choose to pass through and offer buffs or free potions and buff scrolls to low level players. Either of these ways can offer a powerful boost to players to make them strong enough to handle higher level mobs without being weak and risking death, or long rests after each enemy’s death. The final point to be made of this is that Fiesta is a game geared primarily for group efforts; solo players will struggle often without outside help or long grinds. Battling for Glory & Profit Like many classic MMOs, Fiesta utilizes a skill-on-use system, in which players may both auto-attack enemies and input skills used on an action bar, as they choose and are available. Special HP and SP stones are available to use to restore health and spell points, respectively. In between fights, players can also use "Home" to rest in their mini-house (a mushroom on default), and regenerate their stats. To earn money – used for buying gear and other useful items – players must sell what they find on the enemies they kill. While some "junk" is dropped, most of the items found are useful for the game’s crafting system, called Alchemy. Players can learn professions in this system as soon as they are created, and may choose two total professions from five – allowing them to produce enhancement stones, potions, scrolls, or change items into a higher or lower quality. Kingdom Quests & PvP There’s more to do than grind, quest, and craft in Fiesta, of course. For players who prefer PvE, Kingdom Quests become available every two hours. Designed for players anywhere from level 5 up and separated into level spans, they can be joined individually or with a party. Each quest has its own victory conditions that can be achieved by the players inside within a set time limit. Each player inside will earn a present box if they are successful, and may earn anything from materials, scrolls, and potions to enhanced and rare equipment. For PvP fans, once reaching level 20, several different zones become available for player versus player battling. Each city has its own battle zone, and several battlefields also become available. Guild wars are also available for those who are socially inclined to join a guild and participate in group PvP. The player versus player experience is only designed for showing off skill, and sometimes earning items and other perks like titles; experience is not rewarded. Final Verdict: Good Fiesta is easy to get into, with plenty for players to do in both PvE and PvP. It makes a particularly good introduction to free-to-play MMORPGs, with an active and helpful player base and plenty of regular maintenance from its publisher. What holds Fiesta back mostly is its grinding nature: any player who hates grinding is going to find Fiesta boring or frustrating. If you don’t mind a balance between grinding and quests, and enjoy a game that rewards cooperative gameplay, Fiesta has a lot to offer. Screenshots Fiesta Online Screenshots 1234► Videos Fiesta Online Videos Fiesta Online Character Creation Click here to view the embedded video. Fiesta Online High Level Video Click here to view the embedded video. Fiesta Online Official Trailer Click here to view the embedded video. Fiesta Online Boss Battle Click here to view the embedded video. Fiesta Online Gameplay Footage Click here to view the embedded video. Links Fiesta Online Links Fiesta Online Official Site FiestaFan Wiki Fiesta Online Wikia System Requirements Fiesta Online System Requirements Minimum Requirements: OS: Windows XP / Vista / 2000 CPU: 1.6 GHz Pentium 4 or equivalent AMD processor RAM: 512MB Free HDD: 3.0 GB Free Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce MX or equivalent Recommended Specifications: OS: Windows XP / Vista / 2000 CPU: 2.0 GHz Pentium 4 or equivalent AMD processor RAM: 1GB Free HDD: 3.0 GB Free Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce TI or Radeon 9200

Runes of Magic Posted: 10 Jan 2009 09:36 AM PST Drawing much of its inspiration from the mammoth MMORPG World of Warcraft, Runes of Magic brings to life the fantasy world of Taborea with beautiful 3D graphics, and with over 600 quests to complete offers players much in the way of content and features. With fully-realized dungeon encounters, unmatched character customization, a unique multi-class system, in-game player housing, and a growing community of over 2,000,000 – Runes of Magic guarantees something for everyone. Publisher: Frogster Interactive Playerbase: High Graphics: High Quality Type: MMORPG EXP Rate: Medium PvP: Open / Duels Filesize: 6.7 GB Pros: +Fantastic character customization. +Unique multi-class system.  +Player housing. +Heaps of different PvP options. +Huge game world. +Fun end-game raiding. Cons: -Cash shop can imbalance the game.  -Sensitive language filter. -Similarities to WoW may deter some players. Overview Runes of Magic Overview Runes of magic is a feature rich MMORPG that uses a graphic style very similar to WoW’s. The familiar interface and animations help new players and MMO veterans adjust to the world of Taborea. The game supports both individual player housing and guild controlled castles located in separate instances. But what really sets Runes of Magic apart is the dual-classing system whereby characters can pick a second class at level 10. With a total of eight classes and two races (Human, Elf) to chose from, players can create truly unique characters. Classes: Warrior – Masters of armed combat. Warriors can use any close combat weapon and any type of armor besides plate. They deliver special strikes and blows which have various effects on their targets. Scout - Adapt at long-ranged combat, Scouts use their bows or crossbows to deal heavy damage. They are vulnerable at close range and rely on a series of evasive and delaying skills to keep enemies from closing in. Rogue - Specialized at inflicting deadly blows at a fast rate, rogues use daggers which can cause heavy bleeding or be coated in poison. They are very capable at doding blows, but their speed comes at the expense of armor and health. Rogues can also lay traps, scout, and increase a group’s income generation. Mage - Commanding the elements of fire and lightning, Mages deal heavy damage from afar. They possess direct damage, and area of effect spells. Mages can also cast barrier spells and strength buffs, adding to their utility. Priest (Human Only) - While priests can cast water based spells to deal damage, they primarily play a supportive role. Priests can cast healing spells, boost their allies stats, and even bring fallen comrades back from the dead. They can equip shields which aid their defense, but are still frail. Knight (Human Only) - Heavily armored fighters, Knights are the only class that can wear plate armor. Knights go into battle head-first equipped with shields and light-based attacks. They are the tanks of RoM and have the ability to draw their foes attacks towards themselves. Druid (Elf Only) - Attuned to nature, Druids are a versatile class capable of healing allies, casting damage over time spells, and even mind controlling opponents. Druids possess a special ability that allows them to gather Nature’s Power and unleash it at anytime to cast powerful spells. Warden (Elf Only) - Close combat specialists. Wardens can use a diverse set of weapons and can wear chain armor. Wardens can summon powerful pets to fight alongside them, and have access to magical spells which strengthen themselves and weaken their opponents. Runes of Magic Screenshots Runes of Magic Feature Video Click here to view the embedded video. Full Review Runes of Magic Review By Cody 'Neramaar' Hargreaves To get it out of the way nice and early, and to give those that disagree with me a chance to respond without having to read the entire review, Runes of Magic is a WoW Clone. There, I said it. Have at me with your silver tongues and sharpened wits, exact your revenge upon my flesh, for I have gone where many have before, and branded a game a clone of World of Warcraft. The thing is, and this is where I might lose you, so pay close attention – I think that it's a good thing. I KNEW THIS LOOKED FAMILIAR… You see, throughout these past short years, years that have been particularly kind to the MMO industry, games have been cloning one another on an almost daily basis. Hell, if you wanna get real technical – any game portraying an open 3D world with a third-person perspective is a clone of the original Everquest – and although I can't think of it off the top of my head – Everquest is probably a clone of another, albeit less popular, MMO game. Cloning is simply part of the industry, and as much as I don't particularly like the idea – it's here to stay, and it's something we have to get used to. With Runes of Magic (henceforth referred to as RoM), it's different. They haven't simply cloned the gameplay style, or the character textures – they've pretty much cloned the entire damn game, right down the names of a large portion of the skills and spells. The biggest key difference between the two of them lies solely in the fact the RoM is free to play, and WoW is not. There is however a great many additions that have been added to the WoW formula in RoM, and therein lies salvation. FILLING IN THE BLANKS For the three of you reading this that have absolutely no idea what the WoW formula is, or any other standard MMORPG formula for that matter, it is simply the standard way that MMORPG games are played. You create a character, and spend a large quantity of your life making that character great, through killing monsters and gaining experience and equipment, thereby making your character stronger. Thanks to the countless content updates and additions to these games, this cycle is damn near never ending – and is the main contributor to the new 'MMO Addiction' craze that's taking the world by storm. This is the process that almost every MMORPG game takes – and is the same process that was perfected by Blizzard with WoW – hence the 11.5 Million active players. The reason I have never labeled any other game a WoW clone is because cloning this simple process of playing isn't really cloning WoW. Cloning the skills, environments, quests, and a plethora of other features however, is. There – only took me five paragraphs to explain why RoM is a WoW Clone, now on to why this is such a good thing. GO ON, FLAUNT IT The key here, and the thing that gives RoM so much of its undeniable charm, is in the improvements and additions that have been made to the formula – many of which are incredible additions that truly make the game. One such addition, also the one that I like the most, is in the character creation whereby players are able to choose the size of each of their individual body parts – giving each player their own individual look and style. Add to this over 30 different face and hair options, and you have a recipe for total character customization – a simple, yet highly appreciated addition to the game. MY HOME IS MY CASTLE Not enough customization you say? Then take a look at RoM's unique multi-class system that allows players to combine their main class (out of a possible Warrior, Knight, Rogue, Priest, Mage or Scout) with a second class – adopting all of their secondary skills and abilities. This allows for over 30 different class combinations in total and should be more than enough to help you stand out from the crowd. Hell – if you're really keen on appealing to your personal preferences, RoM even includes your very own house that you can use to store your loot and goodies, and decorate to your liking with furniture purchased through the in-game shop. Of course, to use the in-game shop, you'll need to get your credit card handy, and fork over some dough for a few diamonds. DIAMONDS ARE FOREVER Diamonds are the in-game currency used in RoM, and can only be obtained by spending real hard-earned dollars – well – future real hard-earned dollars, as you'll need to use a credit card to make a purchase. Diamonds can be used to purchase a number of different things in RoM, from furniture for your house or upgrades for your weapons, to additional bag space and mounts to travel faster across the world, and although you don't need to purchase diamonds – you'll definitely want to, as they make the playing experience a lot more fun when you do. One downside to the game’s cash shop is that the most powerful enchantment items are only available through the cash shop. CAUSE AND EFFECT Also thrown into the mix in RoM is an older style PvP system in which you have full access to attack any player you choose provided that you are both above level 15. Of course, doing so will net you some negative karma – causing you to turn red and drop your equipment if you're killed. I've been a massive fan of this style of PvP back since the days when Lineage 2 was a top game, because you really have to think about who you kill as the repercussions can be deadly. There's nothing more fun then losing your cool with a party member, ganking them out of pure frustration, then running for your life from a horde of greedy gamers drooling over the weapons they might get if they can kill you. Of course, for every good part of a game, there is surely a bad part to follow, and at present, RoM could still use a lot of work. There's nothing especially game breaking to mention, just a few little kinks that need ironing out here and there. Things like bad translations, and in some areas, no translation at all. Missing sounds, such as the hooves of your horse as it gallops across the countryside, or the always expected 'chink' your mining pick should make as it hit's the rock – missing sounds like this really draw from the immersion, and show a severe lack of polish. Runes of Magic is the gold standard of the free-to-play MMO experience. Since its release back in early 2009, Runes of Magic has enjoyed numerous major content updates, called “chapters”, which added enormous amounts of new content to the game. As is, Runes of Magic is one of the most content rich free to play MMORPGs out there. Final Verdict: Excellent Runes of Magic didn’t just raise the bar, it continues to push it higher. It is a stalwart example of the glorious free-to-play gaming era that we have only recently begun to experience, and although it currently still has a number of flaws, it's already one hell of a gaming experience, and a must play for any MMO gamer. Since the game’s original release back in 2009, the game has enjoyed numerous major expansions called “Chapters” which introduced a lot of new content to the game. Frogster has done and continues to do a stellar job with Runes of Magic – making it one of the best free to play MMORPGs ever. Screenshots Runes of Magic Screenshots 123456► Videos Runes of Magic Videos Runes of Magic Featured Video Click here to view the embedded video. Runes of Magic Gameplay Video Click here to view the embedded video. Runes of Magic Official Trailer Video Click here to view the embedded video. Runes of Magic Combat  Video Click here to view the embedded video. Runes of Magic Housing Video Click here to view the embedded video. Links Runes of Magic Links Runes of Magic Official Site Runes of Magic Forums Runes of Magic Wiki [Great Resource!] System Requirements Runes of Magic System Requirements Minimum Requirements: Intel Pentium 4 2.0 GHz or equivalent RAM: 512MB or more HDD: 7 GB DirectX 9.0c compatible with 128MB RAM Video Card Recommended Specification: Intel Pentium 4 Core Duo 2.0 GHz or equivalent RAM: 1GB or more HDD: 7GB or more DirectX 9.0c compatible with 256MB RAM Video Card

Golfstar Posted: 03 Oct 2010 01:01 AM PDT Golfstar is a 3D golfing MMO. Create a custom avatar using a variety of clothing and accessories and play a few holes alone or with up to 30 other players. Golftstar has anime inspired character designs and allows simultaneous play, making multiplayer games much faster paced. Publisher: Gamigo Playerbase: Medium Graphics: Medium Quality Type: MMO EXP Rate: Medium PvP: N/A Filesize: 975 MB Pros: +All players can play simultaneously in multiplayer. +Variety of clothes and accessories available. +Up to 30 players per match. +Great interface Cons: -Very Similar to other Golfing games. -Few playable characters. -Limited golf-course variety. Overview Golfstar Overview Golfstar is a Korean developed golfing MMO being published in North America and Europe by Gamigo. The game was developed by Com2uS and has anime styled characters. The golf courses and surrounding environments are well rendered. Golfstar supports multiplayer matches of up to 30 players, and allows them to all play at once. This speeds up gameplay tremendously and is an improvement over several older golfing games. Like other golfing MMOs, players can customize their avatars and explore persistent shopping areas. As players progress, they’ll be able to learn passive skills that improve their stamina and strength. Golfstar competes with games like Pangya, Shot Online, and Tiger Woods Online. Graphically speaking, Golfstar looks fantastic and is well worth checking out for those interesting in golfing games. Golfstar Screenshots Golfstar Featured Video Click here to view the embedded video. Full Review Golfstar Review Golfstar Review There are few sports that have as much international appeal as golf: the polite atmosphere, the calculated shots, and the athleticism required have inspired even video game players. In recent years, golf games have made their way into the online arena, hoping to capitalize on the multiplayer aspect of online gaming. One of these games, Golfstar, is published by gamigo. While similar to Shot Online, as well as other golf games like Pangya and Tiger Woods Online, Golfstar still has plenty to offer the online golf fanatic. Take Your Pick Golfstar’s character creation is very limited: there are two male and two female stock characters, complete with a name, age, and biography, to choose from. These characters can be customized a little: each has two hair styles and a few hair colors, plus two faces, to choose from. Still, you’ll have the look of looking like one out of every four players, with the only distinguishing feature being the clothing you equip in-game. Fashion items also offer bonuses, however, so you still may end up looking pretty similar to the player you’re putting against. Teeing Off While Golfstar aims for fair realism, the controls during play are relatively simple. Swings take place in two phases; the first has you hold down the space bar to fill your power meter and letting go when the power is to your liking, while the second phase has you tap the space bar within a small aiming reticule on the ball itself (the closer to the center of the ball, the better the shot). This mechanic works the same for both regular shots and putts, with putts showing their power meter on the green itself instead of as a swing bar. There are a few additional controls as well. Using the mouse will let you aim left or right. Camera controls are also managed by the mouse, and three views, allowing you to focus on either the hole, the projected landing area, or the golfer, can be switched between with the keyboard. Golfers can also learn skills, which can be added to an action bar and used with standard 1-0 hotkeys for easy access. While these controls are easy to master for a beginner, the mouse controls are on a reverse axis, which may slip up a player from time to time. How’s the Weather? While the graphics and controls of Golfstar are softly realistic, the challenges facing golfers on the holes are not. Like Shot Online, Golfstar impressively takes into consideration all the factors affecting a golf game, from wind and slope, to weather and humidity. Every condition you come across on the course can and will affect your shot, making it important to take a full scan of your situation on each shot – an impressive feat sometimes, as each shot is limited by a time of 30 to 90 seconds. Get a Grip Golfstar is not just a free-for-all golf game; equipment and player statistics play a major part. The game features a full set of fashion items for players to equip (purchased with both the game’s in-game currency and in the cash shop), many of which affect a player’s stats. Clubs are also a major necessity in game, as are various items that can help improve a player’s accuracy, power, stamina, or control. As you play on courses, you gain experience and money. Experience will help you gain levels, which in turn grants you a few points that you can allocate between the four stats mentioned above. This is where players can really customize their experience, putting points in the stats that they are weakest at, as well as those they feel will give them an edge on the courses. Players also get to learn skills, special abilities that can be activated while on the course to help give their shots an edge. Get on the Course Already There are only four courses available in Golfstar right now, and they all look generally similar to each other with the exception of White Cliff, which offers some beach-like obstacles and background noise. Thankfully, there are several game modes to make things more interesting. These modes are stroke (a standard golf match with the lowest score winning), match (head-to-head per hole, with one or two people per team), skins (where players bet per hole to win in-game currency), and both competition and team competition, which can feature up to 30 players golfing at the same time. Not only does Golfstar allow a large number of players on the course at once, it also makes sure that golf play goes quickly by making all players play simultaneously. While this does give a little illusion that you’re playing alone, it also significantly speeds up the golf game – a usual problem for most golf MMOs. The game also supports guilds, and hosts a regular guild day every Friday in which guilds get boosted experience and rewards as they play on the greens. Final Verdict: Good Golfstar is one of the better golf games available online; it’s realistic, it’s fast, and it supports its community through in-game lobbies and guilds, helping make it feel like a little less of a lobby and more like a golfing community. However, the game also has a very limited amount of content, and follows the same style of equipment rules that many FPS games do – permanent equipment is almost nowhere to be found (even your starter set has a thirty day limit.) While you can earn money in game to pay for clubs, you’ll have to keep a close eye on your inventory to make sure you don’t go broke and lose out on valuable stats. If you’re looking for a more realistic golf game, this might be your best bet – just watch your pocketbook. Screenshots Golfstar Screenshots 1234► Videos Golfstar Videos Golfstar Gameplay Teaser Trailer Click here to view the embedded video. Links Golfstar Links Golfstar Official Site System Requirements Golfstar Requirements Minimum Requirements: OS: Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 2000 CPU: 1.0 GhZ Pentium 3 or Equivalent AMD processor RAM: 512 MB Memory HDD: 3 GB Free Graphics Card: GeForce 5200 / Radeon 9200 or better Recommended Specifications: OS: Windows Vista / 7 / XP / 2000 CPU: 2 GHz Pentium 4 processor RAM: 1 GB Memory HDD: 5 GB Free Graphics Card: GeForce 6600/ Radeon 9600

Faxion Online Posted: 18 Sep 2010 07:28 PM PDT Faxion Online is a 3D fantasy MMORPG with combat driven gameplay and a heavy emphasis on PvP. Fight on the side of Heaven or Hell in the epic struggle between Good and Evil. Faxion Online has multiple methods of progression and promises to reward player skill rather than grinding. Publisher: UTV True Games Playerbase: Low Graphics: Medium Quality Type: MMORPG EXP Rate: Medium PvP: Battlegrounds / Duels Filesize: 1.4 GB Pros: +Competitive PvP system. +Fight for control of territory. +Action oriented gameplay. +Multi-classing. +Unique environments. Cons: -Combat feels a bit slow paced. Overview Faxion Online Overview Faxion Online pits the armies of Heaven and Hell against each other for control over Limbo, the territory that exists between them. Players will be able to join the side of Good or Evil in the struggle for control over various regions, each named after one of the seven deadly sins. Faxion Online promises action driven combat, and a heavy emphasis on PvP. The production team includes people who worked on Ultima Online and Shadowbane so expectations are high. Faxion is being developed as a full feature MMORPG, so expect ample PvE content, an expansive backstory and lore, and a wide range of environments to explore and monsters to slay. The game hopes to use a novel progression system which moves away from the typical grind based ‘stand and fight’ model. Offline advancement and multi-classing will help ensure the most skilled player comes out ahead, not the one that put in the most time. Faxion Online Screenshots Faxion Online Featured Video Click here to view the embedded video. Full Review Faxion Online Review Coming soon… Screenshots Faxion Online Screenshots Coming soon… Videos Faxion Online Videos Faxion Online Official Teaser Trailer Click here to view the embedded video. Links Faxion Online Links Faxion Online Official Site System Requirements Faxion Online Requirements Minimum Requirements: OS: Windows XP / Vista / 7 CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.0 Ghz RAM: 2 GB HDD: ~2.5 GB Free Graphics Card: GeForce 6600 (512 MB) Recommended Specifications: OS: Windows Vista / 7 CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.4 Ghz or better RAM: 3 GB HDD: ~2.5 GB Free Graphics Card: GeForce 7900 or better (1 GB)

Iris Online Posted: 17 Aug 2010 11:21 PM PDT Iris Online is 3D fantasy MMORPG with a gypsy theme. Players can chose between three races and can explore the anime-inspired world of Arcana. Experience a unique environment centered on 22 tarot cards, including The Fool, The Chariot, and Wheel of Fortune. Publisher: gPotato Playerbase: Medium Graphics: High Quality Type: MMORPG EXP Rate: Medium PvP: Duels / Colosseum Matches Filesize: ~ 2400 mb Pros: +3 playable races, 6 starting classes. +Unique tarot card feature. +Transform into monsters using cards. +Themed instanced dungeons. Cons: -Limited inventory space. -Familiar gameplay and character progression. -Visual style may not appeal to some players. Overview Iris Online Overview Iris Online is a free-to-play MMORPZG developed by Eyasoft, the same studio behind Luna Online. Like Luna, Iris boasts a cute, anime-inspired visual style. But don’t let the graphics fool you, Iris Online is a full-feature MMORPG with a unique gypsy theme. Tarot cards effect much of the world, including the twenty-two instanced dungeons, each of which have a different theme based off one of the cards. Players can collect monster cards off almost any enemy in the game and use them to transform into those monsters. PvP battle zones pit up to fifteen players near the same level against each other. Players progress by gaining experience and skill points. The game has a variety of races and classes to choose from. Human - Easily adaptable race that possess great strength and excels at technology. Fighter - Fighters rely on brute strength and large weapons to deal heavy damage at melee range. Mage - Arcane spellcasters who fight from a distance. They can buff allies, but are fragile in combat. Hybrid - Half-human, half-animal. Hybrids have high strength and stamina, though their knowledge of magic is limited. Warrior - Equipped with heavy armor, warriors are always at the forefront of battle where they can defend their allies. Rogue - Shrewd combatants that rely on speed and cunning. Rogues exploit vulnerabilities in their opponents. Elf - Elves are the oldest race in Arcana. They have unmatched knowledge and an affinity for nature Ranger - Trackers and outdoorsmen. Rangers are masters of stealthy movement and the gun. They can also use daggers. Shaman - Masters of fire, air, earth, and water magic. Shamans can summon elementals to aid them. Iris Online Screenshots Iris Online Featured Video Click here to view the embedded video. Full Review Iris Online Review By Erhan Altay Most anime-themed fantasy MMORPGs tend to be very similar, but once in a while a game like Iris Online comes along and adds a new twist to the genre. Iris Online is developed by the Korean studio Eyasoft and published in North America on Gala-Net's gPotato portal. Eyasoft is behind a number of anime styled games including Luna Online and the recent Legend of Edda, but Iris Online is different from those titles. It has a 'Gypsy' theme, which means the world is filled with tarot cards, carnivals, and circus themed areas and instances. Behind the brightly colored visual style is an in-depth MMORPG with varied races, classes, PvP options, and other features. Races of Arcana Iris Online entered beta testing in the middle of October in 2010, and with a 2.4 gb client size, its a fairly large game. Each account has five character slots per server, which is almost enough to cover the six starting classes. There are three playable races to chose from: Human, Hybrid, and Elf. Each of these has two distinct classes available, for a grand total of six. There are a few face, hair, and hair color options, but appearance customization is very limited overall. The character models themselves look great. After character creation, the game prompts players with an option to take part in the tutorial. It's short, and explains some of the original features found later in the game. There's also a reward for completing it, so new players should run through it at least once. Sign Up for the Circus The tutorial in Iris Online takes place in a circus-themed zone where players are introduced to a new aspect of gameplay in each room. The game supports both keyboard (W,A,S,D) and point-and-click controls which will please many gamers. Better still, the keyboard controls actually feel fluid. This is one of the few Asian developed free-to-play MMORPGs where I felt more comfortable using W,A,S,D over the mouse. Players can even jump by hitting the space bar, but this propels them far into the air and is rarely practical. After learning to move, the next quest explains a bit about the game's lore. Most gamers will skip past this, but just remember that the world is called Arcana, and the races had to work together to defeat some evil force long ago. Next, players can choose between three cat mounts. Mounts come in all shapes and sizes in Iris Online including giant cats, crabs, and so on. Newbies won't be able to keep their tutorial mount, it only serves to show them how to use one. The interface in Iris Online is simple, the map is opened by hitting 'M', the quest log opens with the 'L' key, and inventory with the 'I' key. The only major complaints with the interface are the limited inventory space of twenty-five slots that new players start with, and the inability to view maps beside the one a character is currently in. Fortune Telling One major feature that distinguishes Iris Online from other free-to-play games is its Gypsy theme. Tarots cards, which are still used by fortune tellers today, have perhaps the most well known aspect of Gypsy culture. These cards, and especially the twenty-two major ones, play an important role in Iris Online. Each of the original twenty-two instanced dungeons in the game are based off one of the twenty-two major Tarot cards. Veteran gamers may have come across these cards before in other games like the Persona or Ultima series. They include cards like 'The Fool', 'Judgment', and 'The Emperor.' The order that a person draws these cards is supposed to reveal something about their fortune, but in Iris they play a role in weapon customization, crafting, and monster summoning. The tutorial explains most of these features, but its important to note that besides the twenty-two major tarot cards, there are fifty-six minor ones. On top of that, nearly every monster in the game (including raid bosses) have a chance of dropping cards. The cards monsters drop come in two forms: one type can be attached to equipment Ragnarok Online style, while the other kind is used to temporarily transform into the particular monster that dropped it. Each monster has a unique set of skills, and buffs. Cards are also used in crafting and can be combined with other items to create completely new items. Character Growth Progression in Iris Online is fairly linear. Players gain experience by hunting and completing quests, but they also gain SXP (skill experience) independently of their base experience. When the SXP bar fills, players are rewarded with a skill point which can be distributed among the multple skill trees each class has. Each starting class has access to two or more weapon/spell types, and each is represented by its own skill tree. Rogues, for example, can use rifles or dual daggers. Shamans can specialize in divine or offensive magic. Fighters can specialize in two-handed swords, dual swords, or sword & shield skills. All classes have a passive skill tree which contains permanent boosts to health, damage output, or particular stats. It is possible to spread skill points across multiple specializations, but this is not recommended. Players can a free skill reset at level 30, when they can make their first job change, but must use a cash shop item if they mess up before or after that time. Base experience is a lot simpler. Players don't receive stat points as they level, they increase automatically and can be raised further with magic equipment and buffs. Besides skills, there is one extra layer of customization in the form of an elemental 'Force.' There are four forces to chose from: Helen (fire), Nero (water), Annes (wind), Dera (ground.) Why does Nero represent water? I'm not quite sure, but there are several translation quirks throughout the game and this may just be one of them. Point A to Point B Gameplay in Iris Online is heavily quest-based, and players are usually lead from one zone to the next in a linear path. New players start in the town of Terminus, which is in perpetual night and progress to hunting grounds that are at different times of the day. The assortment of quests should be familiar to MMORPG fans; kill quests, item gathering quests, and talk to NPC X quests. To auto-move to a location, players must bring up the map and click on a certain area. There's no quest objective to quest objective auto-navigation, which is actually a good thing since too much automation can make a game boring. Combat relies on actively using a variety of skills, as they usually have cool downs of a few seconds. Luckily, every class is equipped with an assortment of skills and mana regeneration is pretty high. Interestingly, spells and skills cost a percent of total mana, not just a set amount. This makes the MP recovery rate a very important stat for every class. The constant use of skills keeps combat exciting, and monsters in Iris Online start aggroing at an early level, which makes things more challenging. Early quests reward players with dozens of HP/MP potions, but these will run out eventually. There's no death penalty until level 10, and players are free to spawn right where they died. After level 10, death carries a small exp penalty, and resurrecting where you fell causes a debuff for several minutes. Carnival Games Iris Online has many small features that help round it out as a full-feature MMORPG. These include an auction house, the ability to open personal shop stalls, and a title system. Titles are earned in a variety of ways, the most common being consuming tokens dropped by monsters. Titles effect the stats of a character when equipped, and can have both positive and negative effects. A title geared towards casters may increase magic damage and intelligence, but may decrease strength. Iris Online also has several PvP modes on top of the standard duel. Every so often, players are prompted on whether they want to participate in a capture the flag or team deathmatch event. If enough players within a certain level range agree, everyone who chose to participate is teleported to an instanced Colosseum field where two sides (each with up to eighteen players) duke it out. The game keeps track of PvP stats, including total kills, deaths, and also rewards points towards the player's currently chosen 'Force.' Besides large-scale PvP events, players can also group up to clear instanced dungeons scattered across the world. You've Come a Long Way The visuals in Iris Online are very reminiscent of earlier anime-styled games, particularly Fiesta Online, Seal Online, and perhaps a bit of Rose Online thrown in. Being a newer game, it’s not much of a surprise that the graphics in Iris are better than those previous games. It’s a high quality title, and a slightly more mature alternative to Eyasoft's more chibi-oriented titles. Final Verdict: Great Iris Online may feel familiar at first glance, but it has a lot of depth and a unique theme. With three races and a large assortment of classes, Iris Online offers varied gameplay options but with a simple to understand progression system. Instanced dungeons, instanced PvP battlegrounds, and the multi-purpose card system all add up to make Iris Online a top-notch MMORPG. It doesn't breakthe mold enough to earn the top score, but it’s still a game well worth checking out. Screenshots Iris Online Screenshots 1234567► Videos Iris Online Videos Iris Online Cinematic Trailer Click here to view the embedded video. Iris Online Gameplay Trailer Click here to view the embedded video. Iris Online Gameplay – First Look Click here to view the embedded video. Links Iris Online Links Iris Online Official Site System Requirements Iris Online Requirements Minimum Requirements: OS: Windows  XP / Vista / Windows 7 CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2.0 Ghz RAM:  1 GB HDD: 3 GB Free Graphics Card: ATI Radeon 9500 / nVidia 5200 (128mb memory) Recommended Specification: OS: Windows Vista / 7 CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz or better RAM: 2 GB or more HDD: 4 GB Free Graphics Card: Geforce 6600 GT / 256 mb video memory or better

Loong: The Power of the Dragon Posted: 17 Mar 2010 06:00 PM PDT Loong: The Power of the Dragon is a 3D fantasy MMORPG set in ancient China. The game has an original art style, a classless progression system, and boasts over 1000 quests. Take part in epic PvP battles that support up to 500 players! Publisher: Gamigo Playerbase: Medium Graphics: High Quality Type: MMORPG EXP Rate: High PvP: Castle Siege / Duels Filesize: ~ 2270 mb Pros: +Quest driven progression. +Varied weapon types. +PvP combat supports up to 500 players. +High quality animations. -Fluid gameplay & interface. Cons: -Familiar setting. -Mobs offer little challenge. -Poor English translations. -Quests & combat feel repetitive. Overview Loong: The Power of the Dragon Overview Loong: The Power of the Dragon is set in ancient China, but sets it self apart from other oriental themed MMORPGs with its unique art style and classless progression system. Chose from several weapon types, and learn skills from eight unique talent trees. Progression is heavily quest driven in Loong, and an auto-navigation feature makes traveling between objectives simple. Players unlock several skills during the first few levels, and also earn their first mount and pet early on. The game has fluid gameplay and controls that allow for keyboard and point & click movement. Weapon Types - Sword, Sabre, Polearm, Bow, Totem, Glove, Zither Talent Trees - Sword, Sabre, Polearm, Bow, Battle, Yang, Yin, Healing, Zither, Magic Loong: The Power of the Dragon Screenshots Loong: The Power of the Dragon Featured Video Click here to view the embedded video. Full Review Loong: The Power of the Dragon Review By, Erhan Altay Loong: The Power of the Dragon is an Asian developed MMORPG set in ancient China. The German publisher Gamigo is bringing the game to both the European and North American region. Despite the familiar setting, Loong is a high quality title with an original art style, innovative class system, and other interesting features. Not a Loong Wait Despite being released in China earlier this year, Loong is already ready for beta testing in the West. The game is a big budget project that is estimated to have cost over $10 million dollars to develop. Traditionally, MMORPGs took several years to move from Asia to the West, but the pace is definitely starting to pick up. Unlike most games out of China, Loong is a high quality MMORPG with great 3D graphics, cool attack animations, and high production value all around. At around 2.7 gb, the client size is pretty large, but the download shouldn't take long. Loong isn't Gamigo's first Chinese MMORPG. Martial Empires is an earlier high quality title, but that game is only open to European gamers. Luckily, Loong more than makes up for what we've been missing. Pick a Weapon, but not a Class The login screen in Loong is highly stylized and sets a good mood for the rest of the game. The loading screens are a bit odd, they include animated backgrounds and real images of ladies in sexy outfits. The character creation process is very streamlined. There are five hair styles, six hair colors, five face styles, and three outfits per gender. Several 'detail' options are also available which represent things like tattoos and scars. There's also an option to preview several high level armor designs on your character before creating it. Overall, appearance customization is rather slim, especially compared to some older MMORPGs like Martial Empires or Perfect World. Like Heroes of Three Kingdoms, players don't select a class in Loong. Instead, they chose from seven weapons: Sword, Sabre, Polearm, Bow, Totem, Glove, or Zither. The initial weapon selection has no effect on character progression, players are free to switch between them freely. Eventually, players will have to select which weapons to specialize in by distributing talent points among specific skill trees. Dragon Village New players start in Dragon Village where a number of NPCs offer simple talk quests and describe some of the game's basics. Movement can be done with either W,A,S,D or point-and-click. While most Asian MMORPGs fail at pulling off fluid keyboard controls, Loong does it excellently. I found myself using keyboard controls throughout my whole experience. There's a very simple auto-navigation system that helps players get to and from quest objectives. This means travel very simple, and also ensures players won't have to read any of the quest flavor text. The rest of the interface is well organized, 'b' opens the inventory, 'q' opens the quest log, 'k' brings up the talent trees, and so on. It's not until around level 6 that players start earning talent points, but they will receive 2 stat points every level starting at level 2. Those who follow the beginner quest lines will find themselves leveling rapidly, even without having to kill more than a few monsters. At level 5, newbies quality to leave Dragon Village and enter the zone of Dragon Castle. This zone serves as the capital city, but the surrounding areas are also the primary hunting grounds for the first few dozen levels. One, Two, Three The early level quests do a great job giving players equipment and consumable items, but players must eventually decide which weapons to specialize in. There are a total of ten talent trees in Loong, and it is recommended to focus on one during the early levels. It is possible to reset talent point distribution quite easily, especially while under level 30. Each weapon has a primary and secondary stat, so be sure to distribute talent and stat points favorably. The six stats are: Physique, Strength, Qi, Spirit, Agility, and Skill. Simply hover the cursor over any of them to find out what they do. Before long, player will unlock several skills in their chosen talent tree and be off using them in combat. Even without skills, the monsters in Loong barely put up a fight. Difficulty seems to be something Chinese developers in particular seem to ignore. Simply spamming 2-3 skills is enough to fell any monster near your level range. You'll barely receive any damage in return. This means there's no need to rest between battles, and the fact that no mobs under level 20 seems to be aggressive add up to a low sense of challenge. Player will simply move from one hunting ground to the next, stopping long enough to kill a few defenseless critters before moving on. Ride a Pony Loong introduces players to the game's pet system early on. Pets are called 'spirit beasts' and come in a variety of rarities and skills. Some can be ridden, others can pick up loot for their master. Players can transfer, or 'pour', some of their experience towards their pets to help them level up, and pets can even be equipped with special items. Several stats track the potency of a pet including 'potential' which measures the amount of skills the pet can eventually learn and its growth rate. A pet may look cute and small, but when mounted it grows into a full size steed. This is but one of many interesting animations. If a player clicks on the ground to move there, a splat of ink appears and vanishes. The game's animations are realistic, but with an artistic touch. Jumping (space bar) also functions a bit differently. After jumping, players appear to glide down slowly. Like so many recent MMORPGs, Loong also has a title system where players can equip titles that they've unlocked by completing quests or performing other tasks. There are a ton of other small features which, added up, make Loong a much more in-depth game. Crafting skills are separate from the talent tree, and include both resource gathering skills (like mining) and production skills. Cramped Quarters The experience in Loong is well paced, handing it quests gives a burst of experience and there are always plenty of quests available. The quest log even lists available quests which players can auto-navigate towards. Some quests are repeatable, but the sense of grind doesn't kick in until mid level. The game encourages some player cooperation in the form of a mentor/apprentice system. Players have to be at least level 50 to be a mentor, but there's no real reason to even talk to another person during the early game since the PvE offers so little challenge. Before long, players will find themselves having to throw away items since their inventory fills up so fast. New characters start with 20 inventory slots, but can increase this by using 'auxiliary bags' obtained in the item mall. There are plenty of convenience items like this for sale in the cash shop, but nothing that dramatically effects balance. Like Soul Order Online and Forsaken World, there's an odd feature that rewards players with some freebie items every few minutes. It's called 'Dragon Blessing' and the small interface menu for it is located near the middle of the screen. Users playing Loong on a small resolution will want to turn all these extra menus off since it can cramp the gameplay area. Another box appears on the left of the screen every time a player earns new attribute or talent points. Speaking of resolutions, the graphic options in Loong can be a little confusing. I couldn't figure out how to play in windowed mode, but I did discover a new mode where the game is nearly full-screen but the taskbar is still visible and you can launch other programs with Loong remaining in the background. Final Verdict: Good Loong: The Power of the Dragon is a high quality MMORPG with a familiar oriental setting. The classless, talent tree driven progression helps set it apart from its competitors. There are also a lot of small features that, combined, give Loong a high production value. The only problem is that due to the lack of difficulty, much of the early level combat feels repetitive. Its definitely a game worth checking, just be ready for some grind. Screenshots Loong: The Power of the Dragon Screenshots 123456► Videos Loong: The Power of the Dragon Videos Loong: The Power of the Dragon Cinematic Trailer Click here to view the embedded video. Loong: The Power of the Dragon Gameplay Footage Click here to view the embedded video. Loong: The Power of the Dragon Gameplay Trailer Click here to view the embedded video. Links Loong: The Power of the Dragon Links Loong: The Power of the Dragon Official Site System Requirements Loong: The Power of the Dragon System Requirements Minimum Requirements: OS: Windows XP / Vista / 7 CPU: 2.4 Ghz Intel P4 or equivalent RAM: 512 MB HDD: 4 GB Free Graphics Card: GeForce 5200 / Radeon 9550 Recommended Specification: OS: Windows Vista / 7 CPU: Pentium Dual Core E2140 or better RAM: 2 GB RAM or more HDD: 5 GB Free Graphics Card: NVidia 7600 GT / ATI X1600 XT

King of Kings 3 Posted: 08 Mar 2010 11:51 PM PST King of Kings 3 is a 3D, fantasy MMORPG with a strong emphasis on large-scale PvP battles. One of the most prominent features in King of Kings 3 is the unique city building system offered to guilds as they fight for control over regions in the game. Publisher: Gamigo Playerbase: Medium Graphics: Medium Quality Type: MMORPG EXP Rate: High PvP: Open / Guild Battles / RvR Filesize: ~ 1570 mb Pros: +Unique housing and city building system. +Very high level cap. +Flying mounts. +Varied PvP options. +Massive RvR battles. Cons: -Interface feels old. -Generic fantasy theme. -Limited PvE content. Overview King of Kings 3 Overview King of Kings is a 3D Fantasy MMORPG published by Gamigo with a strong emphasis on PvP battles. Players can create their own guilds and fight for control over land in the game world. Guilds that control territory are free to build their own cities. Graphically speaking, the game looks a bit dated, but it has a very strong emphasis on PvP. PvE fans aren’t completely ignored though, as the game boasts thousands of quests and a high level cap. Auto navigation features make progression simple, but players will have to wait until level 50 to make their first job change. Warrior - The most physically powerful class, able to carry the heaviest armor and most powerful weapons. Berserker - All out offensive fighters that can deal heavy damage at close range. Berserkers can dual-wield. Ranger - Versatile fighters that are masters of the bow and blade. Knight - Mounted fighters equipped with a lance and bow. Mage - Fragile in body, but powerful in mind. Mages can cast devastating spells from a distance. Sword Mage - Armed with crystal infused blades, Sword Mages can deal heavy damage but are still fragile. Conjurer - Conjurers can harness the power of nature to deal heavy damage to their opponents. Wizard - Masters of elemental magic, Wizards have high damage potential but rely on allies to project them. Cleric - A supportive class that can heal and buff allies during battle. Clerics are devout and benevolent soldiers. Scholar - True believers who are granted enormous healing abilities and the power of resurrection. Bishop - Bishops have learned from Mages and are capable of offensive and defensive abilities. Priest - The devotion of the Priest allows them to discharge pure holy light and call on angels for aid during battle. King of Kings 3 Screenshots King of Kings 3 Featured Video Click here to view the embedded video. Full Review King of Kings 3 Review By Erhan Altay Tired of Grindfests? Looking for an MMORPG with an oldschool feel? King of Kings 3 may be what you've been waiting for. While it has a typical fantasy theme, the gameplay is geared towards PvP, and more precisely RvR (realm vs. realm) combat. Join one of seven warring realms and conquer the world of Tangramia. A Shattered Realm After centuries of warfare, the once united world of Tangramia split into seven rival realms: Germania, Lutetia, Britannia, Mediterrania, Anatolia, Polonia, and the New World. That last one aside, its obvious that the Roman Empire was the inspiration for Tangramia. Players can chose between any of the seven realms during character creation, but first they'll have to get through Gamigo's clunky account creation process. The German publisher Gamigo holds both the European and American licenses for Kings of Kings 3. Each account has three character slots per server, which is enough to create one of each of the three base classes: Warrior, Mage, and Cleric. There are a number of appearance customization options including around eleven hair colors and styles per gender. There are also several face styles and 'features' to chose from. Features covers things like tattoos, makeup, scars, and so forth. Players are asked to set a character password before finishing character creation as an added security precaution. The password must be at least eight characters, which makes it more bothersome than the four digit pin some games ask for these days. The character designs themselves aren't very detailed, but that's because the graphics quality in Kings of Kings 3 is dated. Familiar Beginnings After logging in for the first time, players are met with several screens of text that explain the backstory of Kings of Kings 3. It scrolls pretty fast, and I'm no speed reader so I missed about a quarter of it. It didn't seem to exciting, but it helps that there is some lore to the game. Each realm has its own starting area, but the newbie experience is pretty similar regardless of region. Being the good Turk that I am, I chose Anatolia as my realm. For those of you who slept during class, Anatolia is the geographic region where most of modern day Turkey lies. Like many other recent Asian MMORPGs, King of Kings has an auto-navigation feature that makes traveling and questing a breeze. Players start next to a quest NPC, and gain their first level simply by talking to him. A series of quests that involve talking to various NPCs around town, and eventually fighting nearby creatures come next. Players are rewarded with ample HP/MP potions along the way, along with a new weapon and pieces of equipment. It is highly recommend that players complete this beginner chain of quests, as it will take them to level eight or so in no time. It's much, much faster than grinding. Retro Look & Feel As I went about my newbie chores, I noticed that the interface and art style looked somewhat familiar to those in the now defunct Turf Battles. The visuals are much sharper than Turf Battle's, and the resolution options go all the way up to 1920×1980. But, the health and mana meters next to the avatar portrait on the top left, and the character and backpack screens all look like something from a classic action RPG. There are some nice visual touches such as swaying trees, and light waves breaking on the shore. Overall, the best that can be said of the graphics in KoK3 when compared to other recent, free-to-play MMORPG releases is that they are functional. Everything is brightly colored, easy to see, and thankfully there's none of that trendy bloom effect that makes everything unbearably bright. King of Kings 3 supports both keyboard (W,A,S,D) and mouse (point and click) controls. There are two hotkey bars, one activated by the function keys (F1-F12), and a smaller one activated by the number keys (1-0.) Besides skills, players can assign items such as health and mana potions to these slots. The Path to Glory The experience rate in King of Kings 3 is pretty high, but only if players stick to questing. Each level, players are rewarded with 2 stat point which they can distribute among six stats: Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, Willpower, Stamina, and Luck. Players can hover their cursor over each stat to see what it does. Besides stat points, players receive a single skill point every level. Each class has its own skill tree consisting of 10 skills. Players must purchase skill books before they can place points in a given skill, along with meeting its other prerequisite. As with other MMORPGs, I find the need to go back to town to pick up a skill book totally pointless, but it is what it is. At level 50, each class can make its first class advancement to one of three available first classes. Warriors can become Berserkers, Rangers, or Knights. Mages can become Sword Mages, Conjurers, or Wizards. Clerics can become Scholars, Bishops, or Priests. Players are accompanied on their adventures by an Imamu, which is basically a fairy. These can perform a number of helpful tasks. They accumulate experience which they can transfer over to the player, and when they are summoned they can repair the player's equipment. Imamu can also automatically sell items in your backpack when your inventory is full. Players can set which items they want sold ahead of time so as not to lose rare drops. Besides Imamu pets, players can also collect a variety of mounts. Some quests reward players with temporary mounts, but more permanent ones can be purchased at higher levels. Lone Wolf King of Kings 3 has very linear progression, monsters are found in clumps and defeating these monsters boils down to spamming a single skill over and over again. There's no cool down to consuming HP or MP potions, and after the first dozen levels players will have to chug them during every fight. Those who can put up with the repetitive nature of early level gameplay can look forward to some pretty interesting PvP features. First and foremost, players can freely attack members of rival realms that intrude on their territory. It is also possible to disable the default peace mode which will allow a player to attack anyone they like, including members of their realm. The game discourages same-realm PKing (player killing) by increasing the chances of dropping items upon death for those who indiscriminately attack others. The game also keeps track of PvP victories and losses, and uses them to publish various ranking lists which are updated daily. Players can access these rankings via a button near their mini map on the top right of the interface. Founding a Kingdom Solo PvP is just the bottom layer in King of Kings 3. Players can go on to found guilds and participate in guild activities, including guild quests which pit guilds against each other. Players must be level 20 or higher to join or found a guild, and there are five guild ranks which determine how many members a guild can have (maximum of 28.) Once a guild reaches rank 3, its guild master can found a Legion. Legions are also ranked from 1-5, but are made up of entire guilds, not individual players. A rank 5 Legion can have up to seven guilds in it. Legions can also construct buildings on their own plots of land which provide benefits to all of its members. The leader of a Legion can embark of a series of quests to found his or her own Kingdom. Any would-be monarch will require a vast amount of resources, including gold and rare materials to found their Kingdom. Legion members can donate these resources to their leader who, if successful, will be rewarded with a unique royal mount, a monthly in-game salary, and the ability to fortify towns. Leaders of Kingdoms will also be able to populate their towns with NPC defensive workers, temples, workshops, and much more. Even players who don't have the time or stamina to work their way up this ladder can own a personal home that can be upgraded and decorated with an assortment of furniture. Find Your Niche The simple, but functional graphics make King of Kings 3 an approachable MMORPG for gamers whose computers might not be on the cutting edge. There are plenty of bonus features like a crafting system, and the ability to equip mounts with gear like saddles and armor, but the core PvE gameplay still involves taking turns swinging at stupid AI monsters. Players looking for an organized PvP experience will appreciate the detailed guild system in King of Kings 3, but the large number of factions worries me a little. Each server will need a lot of players to make it seem active, and whether or not King of Kings 3 can attract those numbers remains to be seen. Final Verdict: Good Despite a dated interface and graphic style, Kings of Kings 3 is a very functional MMORPG. The PvE content is not spectacular, but the PvP features make it worth the effort. The ability to organize large masses of players and participate in massive battles is appealing. Added extras like customizable player housing, and the ability to build entire cities are added bonuses. Screenshots King of Kings 3 Screenshots 1234► Videos King of Kings 3 Videos King of Kings 3 Cinematic Trailer Click here to view the embedded video. King of Kings 3 Gameplay Footage Click here to view the embedded video. King of Kings 3 Official Gameplay Trailer Click here to view the embedded video. King of Kings 3 Gameplay – First Look Click here to view the embedded video. Links King of Kings 3 Links King of Kings 3 Official Site System Requirements King of Kings 3 System Requirements Minimum Requirements: OS: Windows XP/ 2000 / 98 / Vista CPU: 1.0 GHz Intel P3 or equivalent RAM: 512 MB RAM HDD: 2 GB Free Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce 5500 or better Recommended Specification: OS: Windows XP/ Vista CPU: 2.4 Ghz Intel P4 or equivalent RAM: 1024 MB (1GB)  RAM HDD: 2 GB Free Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce 6600 or better

World of Tanks Posted: 25 Feb 2010 06:44 PM PST World of Tanks is a 3D, team-based MMO shooter where players take control of World War 2 era tanks.  Gameplay in World of Tanks requires teamwork and strategy.  With over a hundred tanks to choose from and up to sixty players per battle, WoT offers conflicts of epic proportions! Publisher: Wargaming.net Playerbase: High Graphics: High Quality Type: MMO EXP Rate: High PvP: Team Based / Clan Wars Filesize: 1100 mb Pros: +Over 150 armored vehicles to command. +Historically accurate tanks of American, German, and Soviet design. +Up to 60 players per battle. +Unique gameplay. Cons: -No single player or PvE modes. -Steep learning curve. Overview World of Tanks Overview World of Tanks puts players in command of their very own World War 2 era battle tank.  WoT is a team-based game where two sides of up to thirty players each compete to destroy all opposing vehicles.  With 150 combat vehicles of American, German, and Soviet design, World of Tanks offers an in-depth gaming experience.  The publishers promise a historically accurate setting and action-oriented gameplay.  RPG elements also make an appearance, as players will be able to upgrade their tanks with new parts and crew members.  New recruits start with a light German or Soviet tank, but after accumulating experience and credits, they will be able to upgrade to heavier models.  Additionally, it will be possible to upgrade individual parts such as turrets, chassis, engines, guns, radios, and ammunition types. World of Tanks Screenshots World of Tanks Featured Video Click here to view the embedded video. Full Review World of Tanks Review By Erhan Altay World of Tanks was first commissioned in 2009 and put into service in the second half of 2010.  The tank-based shooter is developed by Wargaming.net, a Russian studio behind several other historically themed video games.  World of Tanks is their first free-to-play title, and they've come in swinging strong.  World of Tanks boasts great graphics, ease of play, and plenty of customization features. New Recruit World of Tanks is set during the World War 2 era but also encompasses the years preceding and following that infamous conflict.  All of the vehicles, equipment, and environments are historically accurate and are drawn from the 1930s-1950s period.  The client size comes in at a bit over 1 GB, but won't take long to download since multiple direct download links are provided.  Players sign in using their email address and don't have to worry about character creation.  All new players start with a Soviet MS-1 and a German Leichttraktor.  These are light tanks and won't put up much of a fight, but they are versatile and enough to learn the ropes.  There's no tutorial or trial round to worry about, either.  Players can simply click the large red 'Battle!' button towards the top of the screen and get started. The Armory While World of Tanks is proud of its historic accuracy, it doesn't let history get in the way of gameplay. The game is easy to pick up and play, but difficulty to master. All matches involve two opposing teams of up to 30 players, for a total of 60 players per round. The most common game mode is team deathmatch, where players are randomly assigned to a team before the round begins.  Other modes include capture the flag and clan deathmatch, but new players will generally find themselves in the standard random team deathmatch mode.  World of Tanks supports a range of resolutions and gives players four graphic settings.  There's also an option to play in either full screen or windowed mode.  This is very helpful, since new players will spend a lot of their time dead, waiting for the round to end.  Having World of Tanks open in a window will allow players to cruise the web during down time.  Like NavyField, another war-themed MMO, newbies will find themselves dying in one hit, often unexpectedly.  This can be frustrating, but remember that World of Tanks is striving for realism.  This means driving full speed ahead at the enemy base by yourself is not a viable strategy.  Instead, the game requires teamwork, making use of terrain, and ambushing opponents. Test Drive The gameplay in World of Tanks was inspired by the tank-based combat in World War 2 Online, a subscription-based MMORPG several years old.  Fans of the Battlefield series will see similarities.  Tanks played a large role in Battlefield 1942, and are present in the more recent Battlefield Heroes.  In the Battlefield games, tank mechanics were almost arcade-like, and WW2 Online was a bit too complicated.  World of Tanks strikes the middle ground between those extremes.  Tanks are easy to control, but there's a lot of depth to their customization and stats.  Players move their tanks with WASD and control the camera and their turret with the mouse.  The default view is third-person, but can easily be changed by using the mouse wheel.  The game utilizes an interesting aiming system where the crosshairs shrink or expand depending on the action of the player.  While moving, the crosshairs expand making it difficult to hit a target.  After entering a stationary positions, the crosshairs start to shrink making it much more practical to fire.  The beginner tanks tend to move slowly, so it may take a while to make your way around the map.  Maps themselves are large enough to allow depth of movement and ambush, but not so large that it becomes impractical to get from one end to another.  A match ends either when one side is wiped out or if one team manages to capture the other side's base.  There are no respawns in World of Tanks.  If a player's tank is destroyed, they must spectate until the round ends. Customize and Accessorize At the end of each round players are rewarded with experience and credits whether they win or lose.  Credits are the main in-game currency and can be used to purchase new tanks, NPC crew members, or new parts for your current tanks.  There are five types of vehicles including light, medium, heavy, tank destroyers, and SPGs (artillery).  Additionally, each individual vehicle has multiple slots including turret, chassis, engine, and gun ports.  There are 2-6 versions of each part for each vehicle.  Just purchasing these parts or vehicles isn't enough, as players must first use their accumulated experience points to research the appropriate technology.  Each faction has its own tech tree.  This means its best to focus on either the American, German, or Soviet tank lines.  Distributing points across the three trees will just make it take longer to access powerful tanks and parts.  Even after their first round, players will have enough to start upgrading their starter tank.  The best place to start is probably with engine and track upgrades since these effect movement speed. In The Army Besides purchasing tanks and parts, players must recruit crew members to populate their vehicles. Crew members come in four types, Commander, Loader, Radio Operator and Driver. They gain experience with use and become more effective at their roles.  The loader helps lower the cool down time between shots, the driver speeds up movement, radio operators increase the range at which the minimap displays enemy units, and the commander improves aiming.  Players start with a full crew for their starter tanks, but must hire new recruits to populate additional tanks.  Crew members are free to recruit at the lower tier, but premium ones cost either credits or gold, the game's premium currency.  There are also multiple types of ammunition such as armor piercing and high explosive.  Each type of ammo has multiple variants, some of which cost gold.  Ammo is not infinite in World of Tanks!  Players will have to replenish their stock after each round or risk running low during combat. Casualties of War Like in Battlefield Heroes, it can be difficult for friends to jump into the same game in World of Tanks.  Sure, players can add each other as friends and try to join the same game, but the trouble with this is how fast matches fill up in World of Tanks.  That's a testament to the game's popularity, but it can prove frustrating.  The lack of a traditional lobby system definitely streamlines the process of finding a game, but comes at its own cost.  Another small complaint concerns shooting.  It’s difficult to tell where a shot lands, and this may be realistic, but it makes aiming that much more difficult.  If I knew where my last hit landed, I could better calibrate for my next shot.  New players should expect to die a lot, and to die a lot without scoring very many kills.  Enemy artillery can prove especially frustrating since their range allows them to kill while remaining unseen by most other tanks.  It's great to see the three major nations represented in WoT, but it would have been nice to see some tanks from the side of the British, Italians, or others.  It remains to be seen how the Russian World of Tanks does against the similarly themed Korean Tank Ace.  The two games will see final release at around the same time.  What ever the outcome, 2010 will be a great year for free-to-play gamers who also happen to be WW2 buffs. Final Verdict: Good World of Tanks is an easy to approach, tank-based shooter that has layers of depth to unravel.  Quickly jump into massive 30v30 battles, or take the time to customize one of the hundreds of tanks available in World of Tanks.  The game can be enjoyed in short bursts, or more competitively as part of a clan. Screenshots World of Tanks Screenshots 1234► Videos World of Tanks Videos World of Tanks Light Tank Gameplay Trailer Click here to view the embedded video. World of Tanks Gameplay Trailer Click here to view the embedded video. Links World of Tanks Links World of Tanks Official Site World of Tanks Wikipedia Entry System Requirements World of Tanks System Requirements Minimum Requirements: OS: Windows 2000 / XP /Vista / 7 CPU: Pentium 4 2.0 Ghz RAM: 1 GB RAM HDD: 3 GB Free Graphics Card: nVIDIA GeForce 6800 series Recommended Specifications: OS: Windows 2000 / XP /Vista / 7 CPU: Pentium 4 3.0 Ghz or faster processor RAM: 2 GB RAM HDD: 3 GB Free Graphics Card: nVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT series / ATI Radeon X1600 series or better

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