Monthly Archives: November 2003

PlaneShift Review: Early Quirks

PlaneShift Review: Early Quirks

 

Graphics: 8.5
The graphics are truly stunning. The texture work is phenomenal. The character animations are nice, but they could add some emotion to actions like jumping and strafing. When outside, sometimes the weather can get rainy. The rain is rendered nicely, giving the world a real world look.

 

Gameplay: 3.0
Really it is just a big chatroom were you can get crystals… this wil be around a 7.0 or more at the end of this year 2003 because combat system and lots of new features are comming in… The currency gets the lowest score because new players can’t get any crystals, higher players know where they all are and it take 500 to buy a basic weapon.

 

Guild System: 8.0
Really great i found myself starting the LEGENDS guild and in 3 hours got 20 other members.. Really fun system.. You can change rank names, change members ranks.. Change your guild symbol… Even you get your own chat system for your guild.

 

Performance: 6.5
Performance is ok considering the game is still in alpha phase. The lag is sometimes un bearable. My computer is top notch, but sometimes the amount of polygons on screen can slow performance considerably, since the alpha product is a memory hog. The game freezes up a lot.

 

Sound: 5
The music is nicely composed, but it can get a ltitle annoying after a while. I don’t really hear very many in-game sounds except when rain starts falling, otherwise, the sound is mediocre. Yea yea, it;s still in alpha phase, but it could use some more “cream with it’s coffee”.

Value: 10
Of course i’m going to give this game a 10 because first off — it’s FREE! No cost at all! Second, the developers have promised many things for this game; a great atmosphere, many ways to make a living, great quests and adventures, and a huge community to make friends in.

Overall: 7.5
So far, the game is slowly taking on what could be a revolutionary product in the MMORPG field. The graphics are already beautiful and still improving, realistic sound will certainly be added in future releases, The peformance will increase in organization and structure in the near future, and the production values are off the charts. Oodles of people are expecting an awesome, FREE MMORPG that can be enjoyed by all roleplaying types, and I believe that PlaneShift will deliver the goods one way or another.

Final Fantasy XI

First, its a MMORPG, so yes it requires pay to play

13 dollars per month +1 every extra char, first char free.

Now heres my review

User friendly The people are really friendly in this game, I was low on health and someone came running up and healed me, also I had one guy give me a shield, for free, I didn’t even ask for one. Right now so, no one talks alot, but its pretty user friendly I rate this 10/10

Events I havn’t been to any events, I missed the Halloween one, because I didn’t have the game yet, so I can’t rate this, but yes, it as events it looks like

Combat The combat is confusing at first, (always use Check on monsters to see if you can battle them or not) You have to double click monster, or use enter key to select them then press it again to attack. Theirs special moves you can do also for melees, I made a warrior for my first char, which gets a special ability when you first start that lets you do critical hits when you use it. Then for thief another char I made gets an ability to dodge melee attacks 100% of time for 30 seconds. Combat is pretty normal, oh, if you do special moves in a sequence with perfect timing you can do more damage then normal which is nice, so its all about timing. 9/10

Graphics The graphics are amazing, especially for the special attacks and spells, I havn’t played much to explore around so to different cities, but the cities look amazing. The water affects look great to 9/10

Controls Now this is where the lower score appears, although im getting used to it, its pretty confusing, you use the numpad to move, although you can change it somehow (havn’t figured it out yet) to the w a s and d key like a normal mmorpg would use. its better to select monster with the Enter key, as, if you use left click and you miss the monster it opens the annoying menu, so Im just using enter key mostly, although it sometimes selects a person instead of the monster. Like I said, you get used to it, alot of reviews are saying its annoying/hard or whatever. 5/10

Sound The sound is peaceful, but im not listening to it much, so I cant really review this but I like it so 8/10

Skills/Leveling Its level based/skill based, you raise a certain skill as you use it, like if you use swords or daggers, the more you use it, the higher it is, as that, the higher your level, the more special abilities/spells you get. Its an ok system, I dont really care about skills or leveling, so I wont rate this one

Overall So far the people are pretty friendly on my server (which I forgot to mention, your picked into a random server) I havn’t done any missions/quests yet so I didn’t review that part, so far im loving this game, minus the controls, I rate this 8/10

Zelda Online

Reminds you of Graal?
But this sweet little Game will stay in the Zelda Universe with a new World and other Players online.
This Game is in Beta Status allthough the Screenshots look great. Currently you can contribute your Work with 2 selfmade Tools from the ZeldaOnline-Team.
The Mapmaker
and the Tilesetmaker.
With a little bit skill and very much free time you can create your own World (with your own Tilesets;).
Its also said that there will be Minigames from the GameBoy-Games or completly new ones and other great Features. In the near future the Game will be downloadable. So check their websites and make some nice Maps or spend some of your Game-Ideas.

The sims Makin’ magic

It all started last Sunday…
I broke my Sims unleashed dish, so I go up town to get a replacement, what do I see ‘The Sims makin’ magic’ so I think that I don’t have it, so I buy it. 20 minutes later the game in my sweaty little hands. Installed.
The game is fantastic, apart from the usual more items (all +175 of them) and yet another area for your little Sims to explore, different NPC’s (including a pixie) and more skins, I noticed an interesting new feature: magic.
Basically what you do is buy the right equipment, a few ingredients, and viola, instant magic made easy!
I found the ingredients lists confusing at first, however a quick look at the handy spell book and I was soon making magic.
So far I’ve turned a neighbour into a frog, made a certain someone really like me a cheered up lots of unhappy folks, but there are many more spells I have yet to find (including putting out fires quick, teleportation, reanimating the dead and may more).
If by some miracle you only have the Sims and no add on packs, get this one first, I’ve got all the add-ons and this is by far, the best out of the lot (speaking of lots, be wary of any sim who has a lot of toads jumping round the house, you never know what dark arts they have dabbled in).
If this is not one of the best Sims add on’s yet, I’ll eat my hat (and wand, and spell book)