Freebies: MMO's for all

LINK:
http://fiesta.outspark.com/

Lets start out with one of the best Freebies out there at the moment in the form of Fiesta.
this is a deceptively deep somewhat cartoon/manga style MMO with more that a slight nod to the styling of Dragonball Z & Blue Dragon and other eastern animation.
The basic needs in terms of processing power and RAM of the game are on par with World of Warcraft and its basic interface take most of its nods from this hugely popular game.

Leveling and progression are on a relatively easy learning curve and the community is lively and vibrant with a fairly welcoming attitude to new gamers. More than worth the download and occasional laggy gameplay and login.

playability: 7/10
graphics: 7/10
community: 8/10


LINK:
http://en.maplestory.nexoneu.com/Maple.aspx?PART=/Main

Ok onto Maple story, if you dont know what this is by now you have no good reason being on the internet. If however i must describe this anime come to life MMO i would call it an early Zelda brought to the world of MMO's if Nintendo had a one night fling with the Mistwalker team and had raised there bastard son as a MMORPG.
All the classic genre specific mobs and classes are there and offers little in the way of surprises in any way to a seasoned RPG player. Worth the download if only for the music and dawwww.

playability: 5/10
graphics: 7/10
community: 6/10





LINK:
http://www.joymax.com/silkroad/

And now the big boy of the free MMO world. SRO has been established as one of the most adult and mature free MMORPG's of the last five years. Set in the 18th century almost entirely on the Chinese silk road you take one of several traditional roles after achieving the profession level requirements, this means you start off as a generic all rounder capable of pretty much anything you choose. Unlike most other free games SRO has a unique in game monetary system in the form of both traditional money and SILK. Silk is a unique way to negate gold farmers destroying the in game economy as the company itself submits to "gold buying" in an official capacity. By selling silk you gain the ability to acquire uniquely powerful items in game that even the most frantic of gold farmers would be hard pressed to find and impossible to sell on. All in game trade is done by the players themselves, at a set level you gain the ability to set up a stall anywhere you wish and sell your goods at whatever price you wish this results in a unique player based economic twist that can see some real bargains for smart shoppers.

playability: 8/10
graphics: 7/10
community: 9/10

How Too: Hook up your Xbox360 to a comp monitor

A very late how too this week but i had to confirm with Gamespot UK that these coolers were still available. The good news id they are and that they have a huge glut of these things.
The bad news is there still gonna cost you about £10 ($20 US) to buy something your basicly going to have to tear apart.

If however you have one of these things already or see one in the bargain bucket second hand feel free to grab it and slap it into your old VGA monitor for a dedicated HD screen to game on.

enjoy.

Daily Blogg: Rorschach plushie

Because it makes you all squweeee! i present a handmade Rorschach plushie by Usako-chan over at Deviant art. No its not for sale (i think) but this plush of the tiniest vigilante cant be that hard to make can it?

be warned if i can find a how too video i WILL be posting it.

Daily Blogg: Making Alan Moore Cry blood...again

Sorry guys, no really I am but this is too damn cute and im not going to pass on the opportunity to make my regular readership both rage and dawww at the same time.

with that in mind....more Watchbabies for all!


Aww come on its cute!

one more?....yea one more, final nail, no compromise...even in the face of annihilation



ok ok i'm done and i beg your forgiveness, just dont set the killer calamari on me Mr Moore!!!

Daily Blogg: Happy Excuse to be surly and drunk day

Happy excuse for drinking day one and all!

Its that time of year again where idiots of all nations attempt to pretend there Irish and instead only succeed in laying face down in a pool of emerald green vomit.
Last year I commented on my less than pleasant personal view on this most Irish of holidays and mocked the myriad millions for dressing in green and almost fatly poisoning themselves in a vapid and pointless attempt to emulate there Irish kin.

This year i say screw it, get drunk, enjoy your moment in the sun (or as your pretending to be Irish "your moment in the rain" would be more apt) in the full knowledge that some of us get to enjoy the reputation for being a "drunken fightin' midget" every day of our little green lives.

So drink up, fall down & have a fight!
Your Irish for the next 24 hours, make the most of it.

Movies Destroyed: Watchmen (2009)

Watchmen (2009)

As most of you know i'm a comics geek, a HUGE comics geek so when i say that the Watchmen movie had a lot to live up to i'm not kidding.
Alan Moor's vision of a world gone to hell ruled by a corrupt government with a sinister agenda pulling the strings of a man so powerful some believe him to be god was one of the foundations for my childhood reading comics, So as any hardcore geek i went into the cinema with one though in mind "This will suck".

I'll say it now and with a smile on my face I WAS WRONG!

From the opening scene's heavy hitting combat and the frankly majestic demise of The Comedian at the hands of our "unknown" assassin to the gruff aggressive tone of the worlds smallest vigilante to the flashbacks and frankly amazing storytelling i cannot remember the last time i had such a geekgasim over such a widely hyped and advertised film.
There were inevitably going to be changes and tweaks to the script to make it flow properly and fit in the two and a half hour limits imposed on the director and thus some things were cut and tweaked and in some cases removed completely from the end film, but the spirit was there, the characters were authentic and real and most of all faithfully human.

There are however two things that kinda annoyed me and despite my almost universal praise for Snyder's vision and translation of Alan Moore's master work i have to throw them out:

Rorschach's reduced background and mask origin:

I love this character, due to his background he becomes the downtrodden everyman with a REALLY bad attitude but despite that manages to hold onto the ideal that people despite being filth ridden diseased scum are basically capable of being better...until one killer crosses a boundary so perverse and disgusting that his mind shatters and Kovach's turns himself over to Rorschach in both body and tainted soul. This always struck me as an excellent counterpoint to the Batman mythos, what if Bruce Wayne had come across the Joker doing what the "butcher" killer had done and cracked utterly? what if he had turned himself over to the Bat completely? would he have become as uncompromising? so brutal? would he kill? personally i always though it was just a matter of time...pity DC killed him off before it happened, oh well theres always Jason Todd.

the second problem can be summed up in two words without (hopefully) spoiling the film:

NO SQUID!:

Say what you like, killer calamari in the comic was bloody funny and yes i understand why it was changed but the whole damn point of it was as an EXTERNAL threat, an ALIEN threat something that humanity as a whole could rise up as one people and fight against. How this was changed although understandable negates this almost completely and somewhat annoys me on a number of levels.

With this said i am somewhat surprised to say i not only enjoyed the film but will be buying the extended version on DVD (all three and a half hours of it!) with the cut scenes included as soon as humanly possible.

so its a hearty 9/10 for Watchmen (2009)
Watch it NOW!

Daily Blogg: I am Cow

Ok chill im NOT rolling a Tauren....yet...
This is a huge "why have you not signed up for the damn guild forum yet?" To my one and only meat shield Rak on the Suarfang server (eu).

Don't say i didnt warn you man, cross me at your peril. NOW GO SIGN UP DAMMIT!

http://totemteaparty.guildomatic.com/