MMORPG

Lot's happening this week in the world of PC gaming, I'll attempt to round-up what I thought were the most interesting stories so far this week.

War Rock is in it's final week of beta. This is a rather new concept in the realm of first-person shooters. You will be able to download the game for free, but paying members will have access to better weapons. The game has gotten pretty popular with over 70,000 downloads at Download.com, but will gamers pay the subscription fee to get the better weapons or be fine with dying to those who do? I've always surmised that the pay2play players would be made fun of in these games, so that the free2play gamers can insure that everything stays fair. We'll soon see.

Continuing on the FPS break-thoughs front, 1up.com is doing a story on The Crossing , which is a new FPS that aims to meld single-player and multi-player action called cross-play. How?

Skirmish maps have two contexts: either populated by skirmish players only -- the multiplayer people -- or populated by both skirmish players and story players, the "Elites." When there are no Elites around, the skirmish players play a team deathmatch game that can include various rules, such as land conquest or flag conquest. Meanwhile, the Elite players are playing their story maps -- in co-op, usually -- once they're supposed to join a skirmish map, as part of their story. Note that mercenaries can also invade their experience as part of the Agent Smith analogy. Once the story mission -- in a campaign's cycle of story and skirmish maps -- is complete, our servers select an appropriate match according to criteria including difficulty setting, ping, language preference, and so on, and place story players in the queue for applicable skirmish maps. Elites can't join a skirmish being currently played, although it's an option we're studying. Rounds are worked out so that cycles are very short -- a maximum of 10 to 15 minutes.

Lem has did a review of Rappelz, the free to play MMORPG that I talked about in my post on Multiplayer games you can play for free a couple of weeks ago. He's been playing the game and been very impressed with how well put together and thought-out the game is. Apparently it has one of the most active communities out of any of the MMORPGs in the free2play category, most likely because the game has been developed so well. Rappelz, like any MMORPG, needs improvement. That's where you come in. The devs seem to be listening on the forums and constantly improving the game. The Epic III patch was just released with tons of changes. Make sure and check it out.

Rappelz - A free MMORPG...and it doesn't suck

Well I have to tell you when I hear the phrase "free to play mmorpg" I think of bad graphics, dull gameplay, and just a poorly developed game. Rappelz though, is one of the best "free to play mmorpgs" I have ever seen. The fact that you don't have to pay to play the game is to me a huge draw for players that want a good quality mmorpg and don't want to pay a monthly subscription fee that all the normal mmorpgs charge. I have divided my review into three categories: Graphics, Gameplay, and Community. Enjoy.

Graphics (9 out of 10)

The graphics in this game are comparable to Lineage 2 or Archlord. It has a anime style to the design of the characters, weapons, armor, and quest dialog boxes. While I like this style of design it can be a bit over done. The graphics are smooth and the textures of the terrain seem to tie together nicely when you have the graphics mode turned up to maximum. The maximum setting has great shading but causes performance hickups if you don't a have a good videocard. The setting just below maximum is high. On the high setting the graphics are not blended quite as well but look crisp and are still pleasing to the eye. Performance also increases to where you can compentantly play the game even if you don't have the best graphics card out there. A very nice clean looking game. Below is a screenshot demonstrating the difference of maximum and high settings.

High Setting (1024x768)	Maximum Setting (1024x768)

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes will be released in 10 days at retailers everywhere. This game has the original creators of Everquest behind it and they are looking to take MMORPG's to the next level again. The sheer amount of classes and races available is astounding. The combat and democratic systems look to really break the mold in the MMORPG arena. If you order now, you can actually enter the game 3 days before it becomes available to the public. That means you have 7 days to order and have it shipped to you for the events happening next Friday.

More about the game:

* A vast and detailed world: Explore two large continents and an archipelago riddled with
dungeons and adventures.

* Create and customize your character: In a world of thousands, carve your own unique destiny and appearance choosing one of 19 different races from Orcs and Goblins to Dwarves and Elves.

* 15 professions to choose from: Choose from one of 15 exciting professions including Paladin, Ranger, Sorcerer, Psionicist, Bard, and Rogue.

* Dynamic reactive combat system: Build chains of special attacks and reactions with Openers, Bridges, and powerful Finishing moves.

* Dozens of unique mounts: With dozens of unique mounts to collect, you can race into battle on your warhorse, command the skies on the back of your dragon or join friends and embark on a sea-based adventure to discover faraway lands.

* Talk your way to the top: As a diplomat, cunning words are your most powerful weapon as you curry favor in centers of power.

* Interactive tradeskills: Collectessential materials and use skills such as blacksmithing, alchemy and ship building to create valuable and powerful items.

* Player houses: Make Telon feel like home by staking your claim on a piece of land and furnishing your own house with unique items.

The Burning Crusade patch for World of Warcraft is hitting PC's today. With over 8 million people playing World of Warcraft, news of this release is all over the internet. Here's some of the links I've rounded up:

World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade -The Week 1 Blog -- Gamespy starts off 10 days of blogging on the expansion.

Gear up your Imagination Sweepstakes -- Dell is doing a couple of WoW-related events today. One is a sweepstakes where you answer questions about the game and the other is an auction for two WoW-themed laptops that are going to charity.

Midnight launch in Australia -- IGN is doing a piece on the midnight launch that took place in Australia.