Reviews

Alien Arena 2007, which is a part of our free multiplayer games list has been reviewed by Linux.com.  Nexuiz, Alien Arena 2007, and Open Arena are the best open-source first-person shooters that you can download as far as I'm concerned.  Linux.com also adds Tremulous, which steps outside of the traditional FPS to me.  Version 6.10 was just released and here are some of the changes:

How does 7 brand new, gorgeous arenas to play in sound?  How about a more balanced and responsive weapon set?  Do you like to 1v1?  Well we now have a duel mode!  The gameplay of Alien Arena was the big focus this release, and you'll see the difference immediately.  Weapons now respawn in five seconds rather than twenty.  A Q3 style health and ammo system has been implemented, to help prevent weapon camping, as well as a random spawning quad.  Last but not least, version 6.10 presents a brand new weapon, the Violator!

Check out the Alien Arena 2007 official site.  Give it some time, it is being slashdotted today. 

Archlord is a fantasy MMORPG that has recently went to a free-to-play model, along with adding an expansion pack, Episode II: Season of Siege, which is also free. This offers an excellent opportunity for mmo gamers because it did this fairly soon after it's release, unlike Shadowbane, Anarchy Online, and some others. So, you get updated graphics and one of the few WASD-movement able games on the free market. According to CodeMasters, the amount of game dowloads is up over 500% and surpassed 500,000 downloads in just a week. Is it worth trying? Read through this article and you can decide. Also, let me say that there are plenty of other Archlord reviews out there. Most of them review episode 1 of the game, which came with a lot of bugs. It has been over a year since then though, and CodeMasters has made a lot of improvements to the game. This review will critique Episode 2 of the game. If you tried Archlord out during beta or even bought the game, here are some of the main changes of Episode II, the free expansion:

• Siege Warfare systems for Inflame, Traqua and Arthian castles
• Archlord System for Rensphere castle
• New Chantra Items • Additional level 78 Weapons
• Additional level 85 Weapons
• Additional level 79 Normal Armour
• Additional level 83 Rare/Unique/Elite Armour
• New monsters with level 75~85 in Silancium, Windrill and La Triah
• Attack damage of attacking skills to a single target increased for all classes.

The rest of the details, including the skill balancing lists can be found here.

9Dragons bills itself as the first authentic martial arts MMORPG. I found the game after it was nominated for the best PVP at MMOSite.com. Being a pvp fan, a martial arts fan for a long time and given that this game is free to play, I decided to give it a shot and see if it could really stand up to some of the better free 2 play MMORPG's I've been testing lately, like Silk Road Online and Last Chaos. All of these games have a recurring theme and that's "WoW-like' graphics and free. There are several good MMO's out there like Flyff and Ragnarok that have japanimation cartoonish graphics that I've never been able to get into. I like more realism in my characters. This game definitely obliges me in that field. Let's get on with the review.

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)