Monthly Archives: December 2004

World of Warcraft

Before i begin I’m going to say i posted this in the wow section with actual paragraphs since this site can’t handle it in reviews. Read it there if 1 giant paragraph scares you. Graphics 9/10 – The graphics of this game are above average. They made it to be more of a fantasy setting, which they succeeded at. To some it may be bad or horrible, but it is in my opinion that a game doesn’t have to have graphics so good that you have to upgrade your computer just to view it decently. It just has to have a unique style, which most of the competition is lacking, the latest trend has been “whoever has the best graphics wins!!” instead of “hey lets make this game look unique, and set it apart from the competition”. World of Warcraft tried something new, and it succeeded.

Sound 8/10 – The music is nice, the attack sounds are good, nothing really to complain about. I am personally not a fan of in game music, so i listen to winamp. Nothing to complain about, but nothing to really rave about either.

Gameplay 9.5/10 – Combat is fast paced and enjoyable. Food/water isn’t killable enough to bankrupt your character, since your natural regen usually covers you. Unless your a mage, but you are given the ability to make food/water and that makes up for it. Warriors though are severely lacking. Rage is more of a handicap then a bonus. Since rogues start with 100 energy and are always “good to go” warriors have to start at 0 which makes holding aggro in the beginning a challenge. Other then that theres great gameplay.

PvP ??/10 – Untill battlegrounds comes out i can’t give this a true rating.

The grind 10/10 – IMHO the perfect speed, people complain about it being too fast, and about it being too hard. So i think it is pretty balanced. You can either grind or quest with no penalties for either. Quests are fun, some are unique(not too many im afraid, but theres only so many things you can do with a quest system). But there are fantastic ones, like collecting pages of a book, exploring ruins, etc. Just because some people hit 60 in 1 month- doesn’t mean everyone will. If your a casual player itll take you about 3 months if not longer depending on your actual in game time.

Server Stability 8/10 – It has some lag at times. And it has some downtime. But overall its up 90% of the time, and after the first day of retail its been nearly perfect in lag issues. Nothing to complain about here. But its not up 100% of the time so i can’t give a 10/10.

Overall 9.5/10 – It is a fun game, which almost anyone can enjoy. Alot of the bad reviews from people I’ve heard tend to be nothing more then eq2 fanbois who came into this game with the opinion that it was going to be a flop, and then as they played they pick out as many flaws as they can, and then they exaggerate them so many times in their mind that they eventually believe them to be true. This game is definately worth a shot, even if you only play it for the first month. It is a great game and lots of fun. As a side note, i did not take in customer service into this rating, because the review wouldn’t be fair, since the amount of time when you actually need them is slim to none.



I gave the rating a 10/10 on the actual review form, because at 9.5 i consider it to be closer to 10 then to 9.. but thats just imo

Maple Story (English Version)

Simple introduction: its a 2D platform side scroller, with a healthy dose of Anime and addictive gameplay.

Great game, really. Just think about it. Reminds you of when you wer playing Mario, except that now you get to choose between 4 Jobs, and you gottta have the right stats and stick to that class after the 2nd Job Advancement.

Pretty cool game, very interactive.

Downside is that the English Version is far from complete, and is still going through alot of patching to flush out hackers, as well as not all areas and monsters have been implemented. Quests as well. The Cash Shop is still not open.

However they do try to make up in several ways. Like the recent X’Mas Event. Pretty lame, but oh well. Quite repetitive as you fight, but somehow it isn’t as boring as you think it to be. Rarity of items may really be rare; the occasional appearing of one can renew that vigor in you to go on and fight some more.

Currency in MS in not inflated in any sense at all. And easy to earn too.

Skills and their effects are yet another plus point. You should try it today.

Star War Galaxies

Overview
Star Wars Galaxies is a fully 3D MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game). It is the first MMORPG to be based on Star Wars and you can take many paths in this game, you can become an Imperial Officer, in space or on ground. Or you can join the Rebel force and help bring the rebels to victory.

In Star Wars galaxies you can also do things that you can do in other MMORPGs including, fishing (not an actual skill though), cook, craft, fight.

Star Wars Galaxies has many skills to choose from and you can have fun for hours doing quests to get more experience.

There is even a skill for player towns (Politician) which the leader must have.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Star Wars Galaxies can never get boring, fighting on this game isn’t just click the monster and wait for it to kill them, on this game you can get special moves which allow you to deal a lot more damage, and watch your character do cool things! Crafting in this game is just as fun, you can even craft droids, starships, armor, weapons and many other things.

There is also a PVP System which I haven’t used yet so I cannot tell you how good it is or how bad it is.

In Star Wars Galaxies you don’t die, you get ‘incapped’ which is basically, you get knocked out for so long and then you wake up. Some people may see this as a bad thing but if you get ‘incapped’ 3 times within 10 minutes you will die and to the nearest cloning facility to you. You can insure your items and create clone data so you don’t loose anything :).

Also the Star Wars Galaxies community is amazing, when I first started playing I was shocked by how kind people are as I came from a game called “RuneScape” which everyone will agree with me when I say this, but it has the worst community ever.

Anyway, as I was saying, just about everyone is friendly and willing to help you, or just if you want a chat, people will chat with you. When I joined the guild I am in now (Magical Trevor Guild, MTreV = Abb) I was welcomed in, even though I was completely new they didn’t call me a “n00b” which you experience in many other games.

The only problem I really have with this game is that it can go slow when loading towns etc

Graphics

The graphics of this game are very good, this may sound cheesy as I haven’t really said anything bad about this game but to be honest it is one of the best MMORPG’s I have ever played.

The graphics again, are very good and in this game you can actually see the difference in sizes of animals, for example, a rat is small but a Krayt Dragon is HUGE.

Also, as for my characters avatar; if I do a special move you can actually see the avatar proforming it and not just some text saying Special Hit: 500 or so.

There are some pretty amazing sites in SWG and you can visit them and recieve badges for visiting them. They even put the escape pod of R2D2 and C3P0!

Sound

I’ll not go into much detail here as I don’t really pay attention to the sound and I don’t have my speakers on all the time.
SWG’s sound is reasonably good if you can’t play a game without having sound turned on :). There is also music and it will change depending on the area you are in.

The sound effects are very good I must say and these I have to have on. I must say one of the best sound effects I think is the rifles sound when firing as I like that sound and it reminds me of the movies.

Final Notes

You can play SWG for hours on end without getting bored, as I do. And if you ever consider joinng the game please play Europe – Farstar Server or if you enjoy roleplaying I recommend the Pheonix RP City on the Farstar Server. send a “tell” to me using /tell Becen .

If you enjoy roleplaying like I do, visit the Be Sarat Slarat (sorry if I spelt it wrong) town 3000m outside Mos Eisley!

Game Features (Taken from MMORPG.com)

Eight playable species with detailed character customizability

Entirely new 3D engine designed to portray the Star Wars galaxy in the greatest possible detail

A seamless universe spanning both familiar and never-before seen worlds from Star Wars

Vehicles for travel across worlds and through space

Extensive support for player run associations

In-depth skill-based system of advancement

Encounter and interact with famous Star Wars characters

Ally with the Rebel or Imperial sides of the Galactic Civil War, or remain neutral

Build and own houses, factories, and more

Define your own role in the galaxy; become bounty hunters, merchant, smugglers, Jedi and more!

Full team support with future expansions and updates

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**I still beleive this game could be improved A LOT but I wont add those as I want this review to be a good one.

My Characters Name: Becen Sodine
Server: FarStar.
My Skills:

Novice Brawler – 3,x,x,x
Master Medic – 4,4,4,4
Novice Doctor, x,x,x,x

-Becen Sodine

Xiah Online

This is a nice game. It consists of 4 characters, warrior, swordman, mage and ghost fighter. This game needs time for u to level up but if a game is easy to level up, the game won’t be nice to play will it?

The graphic is beautiful, amazing. U can adjust the graphic according to your computer specs. If u have a good com, u should put it to the max! If u just passed the requirement, it is better that u don’t adjust the graphic.

The BGM/sound/song of the game is nice, almost everything has sound, the background music is pleasing, and it plays it on a good basis.

Overall, it is quite a nice game, u shuold play it if u love games that has a lot of monsters. Quite a nice game, i can tell.

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft is a MMORPG that is p2p. Great game, but does have it’s problems.

Sound/background music I don’t really pay much attention, but its great. I love the sound affects when swinging a sword or when an enemy dies, no problems here. 9/10

Gameplay Very fun, even when you first log on. I am currently a level 9 shaman, on blackrock server. I got into a great guild, 60 members currently. We plan to do FvF (Faction vs faction) raids. The big focus on WoW is the PvP and FvF aspects of it. A lot of fun 🙂 When I was alliance (I’m Horde now) We had 25 Alliance against 50 horde…that turned out bad :P. I love all the skills too, shamans get totems, hunters can tame pets at level 10. Warlocks can summon demonic pets, etc…9.4/10

Problems/bugs Well, like all MMORPGs, there are bugs and problems. Currently, some classes are to powerful and people are leveling wayy to fast. One person already reached lvl 60 and game hasn’t been out long. Also macros and other programs are out, but Blizzard is stopping those cheaters, which is good 🙂 They haven’t fixed the stuch bug, I got stuck once, but luckily they have a unstuck option. Other then that (and besides graphic bugs), haven’t encountered any other problems/bugs. 6/10

Graphics http://www.flickr.com/photos/56871568@N00/ for a bunch of pictures. The graphics may not be up to date as other games and the cartoony stype turns some people away. I myself love them, I love echo island near the orc/troll starting place, beautiful place…a defenate have to visit (the monsters there are really tough so) But…there are graphics bugs. When running, sometimes you see your weapon go through you and low lvl capes aren’t that great looking eather. 7/10

Overall/other Great game, with some problems, usually like MMORPGs when they are first released. A defenate must have, not many classes/races…but they are very hard to choose which one to play. They all fit someones play style. The community overall is great, but maybe thats cause I’m in a good guild 😛 If you ever log on to Blackrock server, feel free to message Vendayn 🙂 8.3/10

Dungeon Master Pro 2

This Free Online Dungeons and Dragons Engine is awesome. Instead of having to meet up with a DM and other players in person, you can do it via the internet. The creator had an awesome idea to make this online. He now has about 10 more people playing because me and all my friends play now. If your a D&D or AD&D fan, you really need to check this out.

Apocalypse Beta

Apocalypse

This game has progressed in the period of 3 years to a booming game in 6 months of an implementation. I played Version 3.5 and the beginning of the fourth age. The 4th age came and went due to bugs but releasing in 4 days from this post, it should be good from what I saw. Testers now say it is completely stable. Due to rushing it was bad when players entered, with 4 bugs bogging down gameplay, but now it is fine. The admin is friendly and players are pretty competitive. They added trading, alliances, private messages, improved attacking and also a new system to keep track of a province.

This game lost score because of course it is a beta and can improve and also the ages are too short in my opinion. I know the admin wants to give a chance for newbs to join but a month and a half is kind of short.

The good part is that between ages theres like a 1-2 week break. And new features come in quite often because it is a beta.

It isn’t hard to learn, signup is easy, gameplay is fun and sometimes addicting, so overall its an 8.