Monthly Archives: October 2003

Battlefield

Battlefield
“Experience Battlefield’s Brave New Worlds. New Maps! New Features! Fuel up your tank and prepare for one of the web’s most dynamic multi-player games. You start out as a recruit, assign yourself to one of four teams and choose a combat scenario.”

When I read this while surfing around Bonus.com, I immediately checked it out to see what it was, and was suprised.

GAMEPLAY: ****
I have a lot of fun playing this game. Maybe it is just me. You roll around in a tank, shooting other tanks of opposite teams. There are tournaments to compete in, and medals to earn. There’s a good player base and everything so you have plenty of people to lay the smack down on 🙂

COMMUNITY: ***
When I was a new recruit — the community wasnt very nice to me 🙁 But it’s nothing to really whine about. Once you learn how to play and start blending in, people become very friendly.

GRAPHICS: ***
*Judging from a 2D-Scale
The graphics arent really that bad for a 2D Tank game. I like these kind of graphics 😛 But it is pretty much your basic graphic set.

SOUND: ** 1/2
The sound is nothing to get real hype over. All you really hear is your tank rolling around and stuff blowing up.

SKILLS/LEVELING UP: *****
I like the way they did this system. There are medals to be won, and ranks to be recieved. Watchout though, you can get demoted :-O. You can also recieve the Purple Heart, which is a rare medal people really look forward to recieving one day.

FEATURES: **** 1/2
The features of this game is excellent. There are 4 teams to choose from, Medals/Ranks, Bombs, tons of PvP, tournaments, top 25 listings, guilds, and various other stuff, like The Purple Heart.

OVERALL: *** 3/4
The game is fun — and that is all I look for in a game. I’m also deadly in love with PvP — which is what this game is all about. If you’re tired of all the hack and slash gain lvl new skills repeat games — try blowing some tanks up, it relieves some stress 😉

*The only thing required to play is a FREE registration at Bonus.com. Set up your account then click on ‘Games’ -> ‘Battlefield’, and scroll down to Battlefield and you’re all set. You may want to read the How To Play first.

Mu Online

Overview
Mu Online is a 3D MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Role-playing game) developed by Webzen. It is set in medevial times, and you may choose from three classes: Dark Knight, Dark Wizard, and Elf. You may also create a Magic Gladiator, a mix between a Dark Knight and a Dark Wizard, but you must get a character to level 220 before you can have access to him. There is no character creation system, every class member looks the same. You control your character with your mouse, and use the “Q”, “W”, and “E” keys for shortcuts in the use of items (health and mana potions, etc.). Now, on to the review…..

Graphics
Mu Online has excellent 3D graphics for a MMORPG of its kind. It has very detailed character models, and (for the most part) good background scenery. The buildings in Mu are well-textured and very solid looking up close. The backgrounds have some very cool ambient effects, such as grass swaying in the breeze. All the monsters are well animated, and some are breath-taking. The spell effects are excellent (especially the Dark Wizard’s lightning spell), usually very well animated and beautiful. Combat styles are usually very entertaining to watch, although some are pretty stupid. Overall, Mu’s graphics deserve 8/10, because although they are good for the most part, some of the smaller things (such as chairs) look kind of sloppy.

Sound
Mu’s sound is extremely annoying. I couldn’t get the BGMs (Background Music) to work, and even if I had I don’t think they would have helped much. The monster’s screechings and wailings are absolutely the most annoying stuff I’ve heard in a game. You try and play a whole day with budge dragons, hounds, and liches screaming at the top of their lungs. It almost drove me insane, so I rarely had the speakers on while I played Mu. The weapon sound effects are decen though, as are your footsteps. Mu’s sound gets a 5/10 because although the monster sound effects are loud and annoying, the rest is pretty decent.

Gameplay
Mu’s gameplay is somewhat of a mixed bag. The combat is pretty stale, I mean how excited can you get watching your character swinging stroke after stroke with you just sitting there staring. It’s completely non-interactive, just click on a monster and sit back and enjoy the show. You can make it “interactive” by making it so that you have to click on the monster every time you want your character to attack (a la Priston Tale), but your finger will hate you for it. Spell casting and archery are automatic as well, unless you make the finger-cramping change. You can PK (Player-Kill) in this game, only it’s not very rewarding. You can only PK once every 3 hours, unless you wish to branded as a murderer. If you are branded as a murderer, merchants will not sell you anything and you will have a greater chance of dropping one of your items if you get killed by another player. If another player attacks you, then self-defense will be set up against him. That is, you can kill them while you are defending yourself and you will not be penalized for it. The same goes for you if you attack, only vice-versa. However, if you become a murderer, will you NOT have the benefit of self-defense; if you attack back, it will set up self-defense against you(After 4-5 hours you will no longer be a murderer). If you decide to kill another player while you are still a murderer, you will become a Phonomaniac (I still don’t know where they got that word from). If you are a Phonomaniac(you must wait 9 hours before you become normal again), players will not be penalized in any way for killing you, and you have even greater chances of dropping one of your items. Socially speaking, besides being able to create parties and join a guild, there is nothing much besides the ordinary sell/trade/buy stuff usually going on in the main town. Mu’s Gameplay deserves a 6/10, because I dislike its PK system, and the combat system isn’t very engaging.

Final Comments
Mu could have been so much more, if the developers only had spent a little more time with it. They should have added a job system, or at least a skill system much like Runescape’s. They should have had staff-run events, where the winners could recieve special pieces of armor, etc. I gave Mu 7/10 overall, because it can be very addicting, just don’t expect too much out of it. But, don’t take my word for it, click the link below and download it for yourself (it’s only 60 megabytes).

Priston Tale

Overview
Priston Tale is a 3D MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game) that is developed by the Korean based company Triglow Pictures. It is currently in its open beta phase. There are many classes to choose from: Knight, Mechanician, Magician, Fighter, Pikeman, Archer, Atlanta, and Priestess. All have 4 different abilites/spells that can be learned at level 10, 12, 14, and 16. You control your character with your mouse, and you can use the 1,2, and 3 keys for item shortcuts. On to the review…

Graphics
Priston tale has, for the most part, very good graphics. The character models are very high-res and are fluidly animated. The models are cartoonish rather than realistic, and they fit in well with the games whole theme. Most of the spell and ability effects are top-notch, and all the weapons in the game are well textured and drawn. Scenery, however tends to be very bland and bleak. The trees are not good looking, and the enviroment is stark, with seemingly no life to it besides all the monsters walking around. Priston Tale’s graphics deserve an 8/10, and the only thing keeping them from 9 or a 10 would be the scenery.

Sound
The sound, suprisingly, is good quality and has a good variety. There are about 4-5 different weapon sound effects, and all the monsters have “voices” that fit them perfectly. None of the sound effects are overused, aside from the one your weapon makes. The music is also high-quality, and does not annoy but acutally adds to the whole experience. The sounds of Priston Tale definetely deserve a 9/10 for doing a masterful job of blending with the beautiful graphics and making Priston Tale an engaging experience.

Gameplay
After all that praise, here comes the negative part. Priston Tale’s combat system is alright, for the first few hundred kills. While having to click every time you want to attack is engaging, it also can get very annoying. They should have included an option to make attacking automatic as Mu Online did. The battles do indeed look impressive, and for a while, you won’t notice some of Priston Tale’s bigger problems which I will discuss. Priston Tale, is in fact, pointless. Fun, but pointless, let me explain. There I am, level 12 (and proud of it) and I realize that it takes a LONG time to level. I start to think, what’s gonna be so cool when I waste 2 more months and hit level 60? Nothing, really, besides getting new equipment. The game doesn’t even have a PK (Player-Killing) system. So, besides equipment there really isn’t any other reason to level. I guess if you just enjoy leveling for the fun of it, then you’ll love this game. But if you like to do other things beside kill monsters, monsters, and more monsters, then you’re gonna hate Priston Tale. Priston Tale’s gameplay gets a 6/10, merely because it looks so good and smooth…from a distance.

Final Comments
Priston tale brought me about 2 weeks of fun, then that was it. I realized there was no real point in leveling, because it wouldn’t get any bigger or better (only the monsters would). Don’t get me wrong, this game is fun, but just somewhat pointless. Another small gripe: The text runs out of the text box when people talk. Small, but still, you’d think that they would want to fix something like that. Priston Tale is no Dark Age of Camelot, but for a quick fix it’s fun. Just be warned, the download is around 400 megabytes so be sure you wanna play this game before you start downloading the behemoth. Priston Tale, overall, gets 6/10.

Shades of Darkness

By Onrpg

This game is quite interesting.. I play it myself. Basically, what it’s a text rpg that you play through AIM, ICQ, MSN. You play the game with your characters that you create on HTML, such as you can have someone from a video game, drawn on paint.

You have a few rules and stuff to follow, probaly the most important one would be godmoding. Which means (for nubs) you can’t say like “SWINGS AT YOU AT FULL SPEED AND SLICES YOUR NECK OFF” that would be avoiding two rules. One godmoding, two being gay. Another version of godmoding would be not being hit by 500 rounds of bullets, you cant just “teleport out the way and somehow the bullet jump back at the person that’s shooting them”.

Creating characters is quite easy. Here are a few rules: All Characters must have a maximum of 4 weapons, and 6 abilitys only. Anything higher will be considered a god character. The Maximum number of characters a player can have is five. Any more information visit http://www.sodrpg.tk and look at the game rules.. Go to the Join page if your interested.

Age of Mythology: The Titans

By Onrpg

This is a review for Age of Mythology’s expansion pack, the Titans. You will need the original game before playing this. Also, you will have to buy both of them at your store or whoever as games.

First, the story line rocks, this story is focused on the Atlantean. You start out rebuilding civilization on a snowy plain. Searching for a better land. Expanding your town is rather like Rise of Nations town expanding, except you have to find town settlements to build on. They come in handy. The architecture is really nice to on the buildings. You cant zoom in or out so. It would be useful for sure, but its not really needed.

The combat is nice to, certain units are weak to certain other units. Then you have your myth units, which are useful. And if im not mistaken, later on in the game you can get Titans. Also you have different god powers to cast on your opponent, or yourself. They are kinda like spells. They come in handy thats for sure. The music and sound are nice, the graphics are good to.

The expansion pack adds ALOT to the game. A whole new campaign, more god powers, new civilization to play. And other things. It was definitely worth 30 dollars. I give this a full 10