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Twelve Sky is an oriental style, martial arts based free MMORPG that is centered around three warring factions in China. Right now, the game is in closed beta, but they have recently opened the game up to all Aeria Games members (free to register) so they can stress test the servers before moving to open beta. After this weekend, they will be closing for a couple of weeks for maintenance, so now's the time to get some playing practice in.  Here's the announcement:

This Saturday we will be conducting a large stress test of the
Twelve Sky beta server. For this large event we would like to invite as
many players to participate as possible.

The stress test will take place on Saturday, September 29 from 12-3 PM PST. Prizes will be awarded to a few lucky participants. They will include..

Top Prize:
$75 gift certificate for Best Buy
2000 Aeria Points (AP)
Twelve Sky Poster

Two Other Winners Will Each Receive:
1000 Aeria Points (AP)
Twelve Sky Poster

Make sure to tell all your friends and guildmates to help too. We hope to see you there!

Note: Winners will be selected randomly among players logged into
Twelve Sky during the hours listed above. Winners will be announced on
the Twelve Sky website within 24 hours of the conclusion of the event.
Please do not ask members of our GM team about the list of winners
before the list has been posted because they will not have this
information.

 

Twelve Sky looks like Aeria Games answer to Acclaim's 9 Dragons. The oriental-style graphics look really nice and the artwork that you can download on the site look great. This game is also revolves around faction-based PvP like 9 Dragons, but instead of 12, you have 3 factions to choose from. It also has special level-based PvP zones, and I always liked the level-capped battlegrounds in WoW. From the FAQ:

What is faction based PvP?

Faction-based PvP, similar to RvR, is an advanced form of PVP that
combines large scale battles which encourage players to work together
as a team to compete against other teams.

What factions can I choose from?

The three races are: Guanyin (Good), Fujin (Bad), Jinong(Evil)

Are there special PvP Zones?

Yes. There are the following zones:

• Amhang Valley, Level 30-49
• Samji Island, Level 50-69
• Wargo Valley, Level 70-89
• Yanggok Valley, Level 70+

These zones feature a timed contest, with rewards for race of the winner.

I am downloading now, you can register, dowload, and be playing in a few minutes. Just hit the official Twelve Sky site.  Remember, that after this weekend, they will be closing to do maintenance till open beta begins on October 12th.

Archlord's move to free-to-play is proving to be a good one. They have increased their player-base by so much that within only a month, they are opening a new server. In the F2P arena, Archlord is one of the best there is, as detailed in our Archlord Review. Here's the announcement:

Codemasters Online is pleased to announce the opening of a new server
for the hugely popular free-to-play MMORPG ArchLord. The new world,
Evengarda is set to expand the world of Chantra to unprecedented levels
allowing players to create new characters on a fresh new world all from
the same starting level.

To celebrate the launch of Evengarda, Codemasters Online have announced
a one month treasure hunt taking place on the new world to reward new
players. During this event hundreds of Silver, Gold and Platinum chests
will be spread far and wide across the new world, as players come in
search of these hidden treasures.

I'm thinking about restarting on the new server myself. It's a good chance to try out a new class and it would be really easy to form groups when everyone is low-level. Archlord is huge and has plenty of good leveling grounds, so I doubt population will be a problem.

Ever heard of a MMORG? Notice the missing P, MMORG stands for Massive Multiplayer Racing Game, and Project Torque is the first that I've personally seen in this new genre. Basically, in Project Torque, you race for experience points. As you get more experience, you can buy upgrades for your car. I've been spending some time playing this game, and at first glance, I think it's a great game. The controls are customizable and you can set your own music tracks to play while racing. I found the handling to be fairly realistic, but the internal view seems to handle better than the external view. Thanks to tbreeden for helping me to understand how to gain experience in the game:

For Project Torque generally the experience is based on difficulty of
the map/race, number of laps (distance), clean sector (no hitting other
players or objects), car odds, and what place you finish in. Amateur
races are ghosted (no crashing other players) and only receive 80% of
the xp that you get from pro vs rooms. Then there are the fun modes,
which do give points but isnt really the best way to get them. Also you
only get the points if you complete the race/game, if you quit a race
you do not get any points.

Project Torque has several features, some of which are standard for a MMO and some which are obviously specific to this interesting new category in the massive multiplayer game genre.

Game Features:

• MMORG (Massively Multiplayer Online Racing Game)
• Cutting Edge 3D Graphics
• Several Types of Game Modes
• 8 Player Races (Expanding to 32 Players per Race)
• Advanced Experience and Licensing System
• Online Community features like Chat and Email within the Client
• Shop and Item Mall for Upgrades and Car Customization
• Online Rankings
• Tournaments

Below is some screenshots I took in game. Setting are on 1280x1024x32, everything on high.

Project Torque is entering open beta soon according to their site (all closed beta accounts will be wiped so now is the time to practice). Here's the announcement:

The last full day of Closed Beta is 9/30. We will be bringing down our
Closed Beta servers on 10/1. We will then bring the game servers back
online on 10/5 for our Open Beta!

This weekend we will be having bonus XP running with some MASSIVE RP
giveaway events. Join us for our end of Closed Beta/start of Open Beta
celebration!!

To see what's in store for you, check out our production notes here.

There will be several new updates and additions in the open beta phase, some of which are in testing now.

CB testing:

- Explorer Mode - casual, open driving environment

- New GUI

- New game mode & lobby selection options

- Newsbar

- New Stock Car

- New Fantasy Car

- Many Bug fixes

- Several New Tracks

- Stock Car Mode: Thunder Alley - larger game rooms, Stock-Car racing tracks, setting, and rules

- New US Track - this track is amazing

- Test Driving

- Reorganized game lobbies based on player feedback

- Bug Fixes

Internal Testing:

- Various Bug Fixes

Current Development Schedule:

- Licensed Manufacturer Vehicles (There were hints about a couple of these vehicles in the game previously)

- Sponsor Girls

- New Consumable Items

- Lap Time & Race Rankings

- RP and XP balancing for all modes and tracks

- Girls everywhere!!!

- Progression modifications

- Competitive Seasons

- Elo competitive rankings

- Challenge Mode

- More to come

There you have it. I didn't have much problem getting into closed beta, so feel free to register here. If you already have an account because you play Last Chaos, then it gets even easier. Remeber, open beta starts on October 5th, so see you on the track!

Project Torque Official Site

A really great blog post about the top Linux games of 2007 is up with 21 different games that you can download to play right now on your Linux box. We've listed several here before, but I saw several that weren't on our list that look very nice. Personally I think that Battle for Wesnoth, True Combat:Elite, and America's Army are three of the best games you can get on Linux for free. Open Arena (didn't make the list) and Nexuiz are a close fourth. Several of the games are pay to play, but if you have to pay, then doing it for a game developed on Linux has to be the best way to spend your money. If Linux turned into a viable gaming platform, then an open-source console/PC gaming system would come one step closer to fruition.

Top 21 Linux Games of 2007

ExtremeTech has an article up on Five PC Gaming Myths, that describe why PC gaming is very much alive. They debunk five myths about PC gaming that always tend to come up in the latest argument about PC vs. Console. Here they are:

Myth #1: PC Gaming is way too expensive.

Myth #2: PC gaming means nothing but broken
releases, updates, and patches.

Myth #3: PC games don't sell, and are falling
far behind console game sales.

Myth #4: Online gaming on the PC is a mess,
and no match for the likes of Xbox Live.

Myth #5: Copy protection on PC games is a
major headache.

There are some pretty valid points there and they do a good job of proving 4 out of 5 false (They concede that #5 is probably true), but it isn't as if consoles don't come without problems. First, when's the last time you got a free game for your console? We talk about free games for PC here all the time. Second, to go from PS2 to PS3 is $600. No exceptions (except for maybe the occasional sale). With that PC you bought, you can choose not to upgrade, to put $100 into an upgrade, or spend $600 on a great graphics card and new processor. Your choice. That's what a PC is about. Choice. You don't have to just play games on it. You can do many other things, and play games. The console wars just split things so that you have to have an XBox 360 to play Halo 3. Safe to say, I'm satisfied with my PC. I'm missing out on Halo 3 today, but so what. I've got Bioshock, Quakewars demo, an upcoming Crysis demo, and several MMORPG's being released this week. My gaming fix is doing fine on PC.