And the Other Obsession Is.......

My other obsession lately has been trying other games. I have tried a bunch of them lately....the free ones. I thought I would give you a short review of the ones I have tried. Ranking system of 1* to 5.

SilkRoad - (**) The graphics in this game are pretty nice, about the same as Perfect World or SWG. The character creation is non-existent, you chose from pre-made toons. The in-game tutorials were pretty good, on how to play the game. The major problem with this game (and why I would not play it) is the only type of character movement is point and click. I hate that !!!

Mabinogi - (*) I was all fired up about trying this game.....it has good reviews and from what I read, an extensive crafting system. You can even make originally designed clothing ! It sounded like heaven, to a crafter like me. Imaging my dismay when I logged in and found a game that looked like a Saturday morning cartoon from 1969. The graphics are worse than awful. The characters all look like 10 year old kids and only had point and click movement. (you know I hate that !) Ten minutes of playing this game and it was on the express train to uninstallville.

Anarchy Online - (*) The concept of this game was really cool......a sci fi theme with spaceships and aliens. Sounded like it was right up my alley. Another crashing disappointment awaited me, after going in. The graphics are pretty horrible, though better than Mabinogi (what isn't) they are blocky and dated. The character creation, while you don't have that many choices of race, you do have some customization in appearance, if you don't mind blurry, blocky heads. One saving grace is that they have a TON of professions, all of which sound pretty cool and interesting.....if the rest of the game was not so dismal. The character movement, while using W, S, D, A and the mouse, it's very hard to guide your character (literal hell for this carpel tunnel wrist of mine) and the only way to fire your weapon is by hitting Q. Q ?? This game sucked and was, as they say......gone in 60 seconds.

Hero Online - (****) Hero is pretty fun, and while it is no WoW, at least it is playable and has nice graphics. The character creation is garbage.....you have 3 women and 2 men to choose from and their appearance is pre-determined. (I felt like I was in Clone City whenever I was in town, with the same 5 faces everywhere...hehe) The character movement can be changed from point and click (you know how I feel about that!) to W, S, D, A and mouse in the key bindings. The armor and weapons and quest system is not hard to figure out. The worst thing about it is the lack of quests. You only get a few per level and the rest of the time you have to grind. There are many comical things in this game, not the least of which are the men's hairstyles. Since the game is Asian based, all the toons wear Japanese looking armor, and instead of helmets, you get hairpins for head armor. When a guy puts on a hairpin, it gives him a little bun on top of his head with this giant pin (it actually more resembles a knitting needle) stuck through it. The first time that we saw that, Sy and I almost fell out of our chairs laughing.....it is hilarious looking. The good news is, hairpins actually improve the hairstyle on female characters. Anyway, Hero isn't bad to play, for a free game. If you want something to do as an alternative to WoW, while you are waiting for WotLK to come out, you may want to try it.

I think I am done with other games for a while. After reading the hype on their sites, the reality is just too heartbreaking. :)

Till Next Time,

Jade