aaron's blog

Want to get a taste of Assassin's Creed, but can't wait till it comes out?  The Witcher is an RPG with the same free movement features, and comes out in a little under two weeks.  It was done by the same people that brought you one of the best RPG's made, Baldur's Gate.  The graphics look really good and the minimum requirements are only a 6600 (recommended 7900GTX).   The Witcher's features are pretty impressive with non-linear decisions and consequences (meaning you don't have to go one way), and an innovate real-time combat system.  Character development also looks good:

In any case, 250 skills and abilities should be more than enough to turn your own version of Geralt into a special playing character. To this end, however, we have forgone the classical, traditional number system encountered in numerous RPGs, and have decided to adopt a “what you see is what you get” approach. Thus, in choosing a character skill, you either have it or you don’t – no more scraping for that additional half point that essentially transforms the whole playing experience into the hoarding of digits.

I haven't seen this game get a whole lot of press in the United States, but on the surface, it looks very well done.  Here's a preview over at 1UP.com. 

Here's the latest video from GameVideos.com:

And here's a preview of the The Witcher's combat system, just put up today over at Gamespot:

Check out The Witcher at the official site.  It hits stores in 11 days. 

RF Online, the popular sci-fi fantasy MMORPG is now free.  Here's the release:

Codemasters Online is pleased to announce that RF Online is now a completely free-to-play MMORPG with the full game now available for download with no monthly subscription required.

RF Online is an epic mix of traditional fantasy and futuristic Sci-Fi set in the deep space galaxy of Novus where three races compete in an ultimate struggle for power and resource. Celebrating the games re-launch, new players can now also experience the all-new free expansion, Episode II: Pioneers of Novus available for free to all players of the game.

To download RF Online and get started in the world of Novus, please visit our Free to Play page here!

For more information on RF Online, visit the official community website at http://www.rf-onlinegame.com.

I also added it to our free multiplayer games list.  If this is anything like Archlord, expect player numbers to explode in this game.  They recently updated the game to Episode 2 which added:

- Level cap increase to level 55

- All new weapons, armours, skills and items

- All new monster AI system

- Enhanced guild and party features

- Brand new zones to explore

- Enhanced Chip War and PVP Systems

- Inclusion of an in-game cash shop (Click here for more info!)

For a full list of the new features, please check out the patch notes here.

CodeMasters is obviously hoping for the same success in RF Online that they had by taking Archlord free.  We hope for the same success, and hope that the free-2-play mmorpg model starts working for more companies. 

MMORPG.com and Aeria Games are giving away 10,000 beta keys that will get you a free in-game item in the just released open beta of Twelve Sky.   Twelve Sky is an oriental style, martial arts based free MMORPG that is centered around three warring factions in China.  It has faction-based PvP and level-based PvP zones.  We described the PvP a little more in detail when we first reported about Twelve Sky stress test.  They will also be launching a new world, Serenity, tomorrow along with a small patch around 11 AM PST.

There are lots more events, announcements, and information on the Twelve Sky official site.

There have been a lot of new demos that have come out in the past week.  In the storm of confusion about The Orange Box, COD4, and Unreal Tournament 3, you may have missed some great game demos that were released in the past few weeks.  

F.E.A.R. Perseus Mandate -- The newest update to the F.E.A.R. series.  This game has a great player experience. 

Age of Empires III: The Asian Dynasties -- One of the best real-time strategy games comes out with another expansion.

Enemy Territory: Quake Wars v1.1 -- This demo update brings the ETQW demo up to speed with the game release.

Time Shift -- I've heard great things about this game.  Unlike F.E.A.R. and Max Payne where you slow down time, you can actually stop time in this game to move around. 

Heroes of Might & Magic V Tribes of the East -- One of the best turn-based strategy games releases a new expansion. 

These are all linked to Filefront, so no registration is necessary to download.  

Future Media, the same company behind big name magazines like PC Gamer and Maximum PC, is starting up a media offering of another kind, a social media site.  The Mod Shop is a place where gamers can submit their PC mods and battle against other mods for a monthly prize of $2,000.  If you love to mod PC's, then this would be a great place to get some ideas, but even if you don't, some of the computers on display will really impress you with what can be done to a normal desktop box. 

Inside the Mod Shop, you can share and promote your own creations with photos, work logs, how-to articles, and more. Whether your modding hacks are simple or insane, performance-oriented or aesthetic, we invite you to contribute by chronicling your work-in-progress on your rig’s very own profile page. Thermodynamically impossible chip cooling? Body-shop-caliber case painting? Origami-like wiring jobs? Bring it on! But we’re just as interested in seeing more modest mod jobs and how they evolve month by month into works of creative genius. The site is about your machine, whoever you happen to be!

I'm sure at some point, if it becomes popular enough, this will be integrated into Maximum PC magazine.  Ohh, good luck to all the contestants entering this month, it looks like a tough competition!