This week, I be mostly playing

[Anery]

Allods Online

The idea here is that each week I will try out a different F2P MMO and let you know what I think. If you want to see what a specific game is give me a shout and I will try it out.

As I said, this week is Allods Online week. So far it is not terrible, sure it is a tad generic as far as controls go but what do you expect from something that is free to play? There are two factions which comprise of three races each. On the League side you have the Elves (complete with faaabulous wings) Kanians (humans) and Gibberlings (a small dog like creature for you furries) on the bizarre side the Gibberlings are a pack animal so one character is actually three which you customise the way you want and name each one in the character creation screen, however the other two are more like passive observers with only the occasional input into what you do (firing a bow takes two for example)
On the Empire side you have Orcs, Xadaganians (humans) and Arisen (half robot half undead egyptian) Incidentally the Xadaganians can be made to look like Hitler - care to take bets on how long FascistFred lasts before the Mod Hammer comes down?
Anyhoo, having played both the familiarity areas through now I can safely say two things - Gibberlings are shit, and Empire has a better starting zone (sailboat in space, battles)
Graphically speaking the game isn't terrible either, it's not Rift but its not bad it has a very cartoony feel about it that some might not like - personally I quite like it.
Finally the gameplay, kill 10 rats? that quest actually exists. but so do other typical ones like "use object A on object B" You aquire skills as you level up and put points in improving these skills every other level, evey level up also grants you the choice of placing 1 more point directly onto your...there goes another Hitler...points directly onto your stats (which have boxes telling you what each does) ie +1 to your strength. These stats are pretty much what you would expect, int, str, luck...
So far, enjoyable. Gameplay isn't ground breaking but it's not broken either. I will let you know more later.

Results:
Allods: Not groundbreaking but not broken, WoW clone instantly familiar to many. Good for the price. Still on my HD
Atlantica: Nice concept, appallingly implemented, shit graphics, lots of spam. You couldn't pay me to play it. Uninstalled.
Battlestar Galactica Online: A mixture of Eve and Freelancer, controls take some getting used to, no install required all streamed through your browser. A bargain. Account still active.

[FatherJack]

Heh, what I couldn't be arsed to do, thanks for seizing the initiative. Good luck playing some of them for a whole week, though. I now have 35 MMOs installed, so was thinking more reviewing an hour's play of each to narrow it down a bit. I'd be happy to supply you with a list of potential games to consider.

Allods was one of the ones I've been most impressed with. When you pick your character you get to see a preview of them in epic gear, which is pretty damn fine looking. Also the tutorial section is probably the best-done and most awe-inspiring that I've seen, but the awe tailed off rather when I was dumped outside with a couple of gopher/badgerarse quests. Close to WoW in terms of design and polish, at least in the early stages. The game had a quite massive development budget.

"Allods" btw are allodia, (singular: allodium) - a plot of plots of land, not rented but owned outright, which I mention because it bugged me - the game seems to use them as reference to the game areas, in the first instance a floating castle on a rock. While perhaps not a strictly accurate use of the word, I guess they can be forgiven as the developers are Russian and the name goes back to the first game in the "series": Rage of Mages - a top-down RTS from 1998 which bears little resemblance to the current title.

[Dog Pants]

I also made a start on Allods (or AIDS as I call it) with my mechamummy, Bummra. It hasn't gripped me, but it certainly isn't offensive. Having said that I've only really logged onto Rift since I got home this weekend, so MMONGS are not my game de jour right now.

[Joose]

Ive been giving it a good go. Its certainly not up to paid MMO standards, but on the other hand, its free. Taking the fact it costs bum all, its actually not a bad little time waster. Its not got the normal F2P thing of shouting at you for your money all the time (in fact, I wasnt sure how I was supposed to give them money if I was so inclined untill I went looking for it out of interest), and it does have a couple of novel elements to it. Nothing as drastic as Rifts soul system, but little things like being able to prepare certain spells ahead of a fight.

Its not shit. I wouldnt pay for it, but then im not, so thats ok.

[Anery]

Final Verdict:
It is an unoffensive game that is a good way to waste a few hours. Its gameplay is generic and anybody familiar with MMOs will have no trouble with the controls. The graphics are basic but pleasing in a cartoon way.
Could be good to fly around in a space going sailboat crewed by 5punkers but that would require lvl 35 and the grind to get there.
Good but lacks staying power.

Any suggestions for next week?

[Dog Pants]

Atlantica Online? Don't know anything about it, but I've seen a few people playing on xfire.

[Anery]

Atlantica is downloading, promises to be, uh - different. Will announce server details when I have em

*EDIT*
Server: Sikyon
Character: Shurrup

[spoodie]

MMO turn-based combat.

[Anery]

Atlantica Online

Strange, very strange. It is as if somebody played Final Fantasy and Guild Wars and then decided to throw the two together and make an online game of it, using dumbed down mechanics an old graphics engine and controls that are, well, not standard.
In its defence the game does deliver something that I have yet to come across, turn based mmo combat one team against another. As you level up you unlock places on your team, initially there is only you, then at level two you can recruit a mercenary to work alongside you, at level three you can have two, and so on. Some of the end game stuff seems to be pitting teams of 20 or so against each other. This is where the game briefly shines, putting together your team of mercs and placing them in effective formations is oddly satisfying. Sadly this is the only bit that is any good. The combat itself is very one dimensional, very boring, perhaps later levels get more interesting but I doubt I will ever get anywhere near high enough to know.
There is one other thing that I like about this game, you can auto-path to your quest objective just by clicking a button. Need that in some bigger titles I think!

[Dr. kitteny berk]

There is one other thing that I like about this game, you can auto-path to your quest objective just by clicking a button. Need that in some bigger titles I think!

I wonder if this is because of the different nature of the games.

With subscription games, the aim is to make you play for as long as possible, to maximise profits, so stuff letting you afk while doing time consuming things aren't ideal, you just have to get the balance right (like flions in wow, get you to the general area, but you still have to spend time getting to the right spot) one of the big places AoC Failed was you had to cover a lot of ground manually, meaning it was often rather unpleasant to travel, and more appealing to log off.

In F2P games, the aim will be to let you get used to cutting corners and buying in game items. "oh, I press X, then run there" "this guy is too hard, 50p for an an NPC to help? of course" "ooh, pretty hat £2.50, can't hurt."

[friznit]

I was just reading up on GW2. Sounds like they have an entirely revolutionary approach: make getting somewhere actually interesting. Indeed, the plan is to make getting places so interesting it doesn't actually matter if you get there or not.

[Dog Pants]

Slightly hijacking this; This week I'll be giving Wurm another go. After a surprisingly short download last night I played the new tutorial and now, about an hour in, feel lots more endeared to it than last time I played when I spend hours poking bushes and wandering aimlessly with no real achievement. I'm on the Freedom (carebear) server at present, although I can't help but think a PvP server might be amusing for 5punky antics if there was interest.

[fabyak]

I will be giving Need For Speed World a bash personally

[Dog Pants]

Day 2 in Wyrm. My objective was to reach the PC Gamer village before I starved to death. I walked for probably two hours, but I got there in time. Just. It's abandoned though, there's nobody there. Maybe they're all out, or maybe they've all gone elsewhere. I don't know. All I know is I've been chased into the ironically named Grizzly Beer Inn by a grizzly bear, where I sit starving to death. I have a chunk of dog meat I found in the road, but nothing to cook it on. I also noticed some sort of scorpion jelly thing outside in the street, but the bear chased me away from it before I could investigate.

The journey was interesting. People have created some impressive settlements, but it all looks kind of plugged together albeit with a lot of different pieces. I also saw a couple of people riding horses, which they appear to do by standing on their backs.

[fabyak]

Having given Need for Speed World a quick go last night it seems to be a pretty pleasing game. Had a couple of multiplayer races and didn't do too badly as it matches cars (or car ranks) pretty well it seems so I managed to not come last (and even grabbed 3rd in an 8 man race). The upgrades thing seems quite straightforward if slightly clunky but that might just be an option I need to tick for it to show me what they do without having to hover over the item.
It's also very easy to spray your car magenta and having lots of wings and decals doesn't appear to make any difference to the car performance. This last point appeals to me greatly as I like pitching up in a seemingly harmless car and blazing round at daft speed.

I also gave their pursuit mode a go (basically you ram a police car and try to then get away) and it was most fun. It encourages you to cause havoc and ram things but the more you do that the more they want to catch you. Do too much and you'll struggle to get away in which case you get stung with a fine but it's quite nicely done

All in all I will continue playing this and recommend others doing the same!

My driver name is: FabDancingYak

[Joose]

NFSW has tickled my interest, so I shall be giving it a go too.

Its also just occured to me that they have named thier game in such a way that the acronym looks like a porn warning. Luls.

[eRabbit]

NFSW has tickled my interest, so I shall be giving it a go too.

Its also just occured to me that they have named thier game in such a way that the acronym looks like a porn warning. Luls.

NOT FOR SAFE WORKING!

[FatherJack]

I'm FatherJackZ and finding it quite fun, my car is even more magenta than fab's and I have about twenty decals and an awesome "street" body kit because fuck yeah.

Did three mulletplayer races, after the obligatory two SP ones, and it hasn't dispelled any of my previously conceived ideas that most online drivers are cockbags, but at least in this game cockbaggery is the poisson du jour as evidenced through the powerups.

First one I came second, some guy turned up in what looked like a Porsche and knew all the shortcuts, total munchkin - he kept dropping traffic magnet on me but I was actually too far behind for it to do anything. All the other drivers just crashed into each other at the start.

Second race I came last, was doing okay until some cupcake dropped a water tower on me and I got stuck for about 10 seconds.

While only being level 2 it was frequently matching me up with mostly level 5 and 6 players, along with the odd 9 or even 12, but it was quite late so I guess anyone still playing had been at it all night.

By the third I was sensing a pattern, that everyone tries furiously to crash into the pink car. Or they're all just atrocious drivers and crash into all their opponents constantly. I got clear and used my boost twice when I could see the little bastards behind me obviously trying to ram me. They had no answer for someone who drove round the circuit using their brakes instead of walls/other cars, and I triumphed, hurrah! Since all the other drivers were a higher level than me and my car was a lurid fuchsia, the other cars, clearly embarrased slunk away in what can only be desribed as a sheepish fashion, headlights downcast and wheels tucked-in while I roared off to the garage to see if they'd fit an air horn that plays the I Love Horses jingle.

[shot2bits]

Ive just given nfsw a quick bash and had a similar experience to fj, it reminds me of burnout paradise city crossed with porq, the driving PHISICS! leave something to be desired but they are fun none the less, could be a giggle for a few games with 5punkers at the price of free.

I just had a bit more of a play around and i find this seems to play better on a keyboard rather than a controller which is odd for racing games, the only other racing game i can think of that managed that was trackmania.

My driver is called shot2bits, surprisingly, if anyone fancies a piss about tonight.

[Dog Pants]

Signed up for NSFW, as Dogpants.