Ten Ton Hammer
Featured Reviews

MMORPGs

• Archlord - The Ten Ton Hammer team was recently given the opportunity to review ArchLord, a fantasy-based MMO by Codemasters. In ArchLord, players focus on one goal: becoming the ruler of their world. Cody "Micajah" Bye takes a look at what it takes to become the Archlord and more in his review! - March 29, 2007


• Auto Assault - Instead of horses, swords, and dragons, Auto Assault gives us a post-apocalyptic earth with a very rich yet somewhat unsettling backstory, three playable races, and a generous dollop of destruction-by- armored-vehicle. Originally scheduled for launch in 2005, the Net Devil team avoided an AO-style blowout by taking an extra half-year to tune up art direction and game performance, as well as completely redesign of the game's intros. Find out how our editors like Auto Assault in the following review. - April 17, 2006


• City of Heroes - City of Heroes is every comic book kid's dream come true, the ability to jump into super hero tights and fly around a city. Our editors picked over the game with a fine-toothed come and came away with a verdict....find out what it was by following the link. - June 3, 2005


• City of Villains - Most MMOs release a large expansion every year or so. Not Cryptic Studios, the genius behind the superhero tights-fest MMOG City of Heroes (CoH) . When you're raison d'etre comes out of a comic book, I guess your expansion has to be larger than life. Enter City of Villains, the stand-alone (yes, stand-alone... no previous version, superhero pajamas, or action figurines required) sequel to CoH. - November 1, 2005


• Dreamlords - We brought home a copy of Dreamlords from GDC 2007 last month and had a lot of fun playing it for this review. Lockpick Entertainment set out to create the first truly hybrid MMORTS game with Dreamlords, and Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle and Cody "Micajah" Bye team up to evaluate the game in our latest review! - April 12, 2007


• Dungeon Runners - Often, laughter can help ease our tensions and relieve our spirits, and it's something that is quite lacking in most of today's MMOGs. NCsoft's free-to-play game, Dungeon Runners, has changed all that with its promise of fun and frivolity, but did it succeed in its ambitions? The Ten Ton Hammer team sent Cody "Micajah" Bye into the deepest dungeon, and he's returned with a review of Dungeon Runners! - June 13, 2007


• Everquest 2 - Everyone knew it would happen...a follow-up title to the original Everquest. As most of our editors played the original title, it was only logiical to put the new game through its paces and see what determination they could make on the game. Find out inside! - May 29, 2005


• Everquest 2: Echoes of Faydwer - Fae...people enjoy playing small fairy-like creatures about as much as they like to play humungous, onerous trolls. Ethec takes a spin as one of the Fae himself, creating a handsome male Fae with the character creation tools that the EQ2 devs gave him. Was he successful in this adventure? What did he think of the game? Find out more by reading his review. - December 13, 2006


• Guild Wars - Although it's been several years since the release of the original Guild Wars, the game remains one of the most popular MMOGs on the market today. To flesh out our list of reviewed games and as a precursor to the release of Guild Wars: Eye of the North, Ten Ton Hammer put Cody "Micajah" Bye on the task of reviewing ArenaNet's first foray into the MMOG marketplace. Even after all these years, does Guild Wars still deserve a place among the top MMOGs? Find out in Micajah's review! t> - August 13, 2007


• Hero Online - In the following review, Jeff "Ethec" Woleslagle explores the realms of Hero Online, a Korean-import MMO that has been enjoying success in the Korean marketplace. Read on to discover whether Ethec thought the game would find success in America. - August 6, 2006


• Last Chaos - As the third game to be reviewed in his free-to-play series of articles, Cody "Micajah" Bye takes a look at the fantasy-based MMOG, Last Chaos. With its easy-to-attain pet system and arcade-style combat, Last Chaos looked like an early candidate for one of the better free-to-play MMOGs thus far. But did it hold up in the end? Read Micajah's review and find out! - July 22, 2007


• The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar - As you read this, Tolkien fans everywhere will be racing to their closest retail outlet to snatch up an official copy of The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar. For those of you still waiting to see how the critics will react to the game, you no longer have to hold back. JP "AgonThalia" Sherman has provided Ten Ton Hammer a thorough review of LotRO, and Cody "Micajah" Bye adds another opinion to the mix for a solid one-two punch of reviewing. Read on to see what they both have to say! - April 24, 2007


• Rappelz - Continuing his series of free to play MMORPGs, Cody "Micajah" Bye takes on one of gPotato's long list of cross-Pacific transplants, Rappelz. Boasting beautiful anime-inspired character models and otherworldly settings, Rappelz is one of the best looking f2p fantasy MMOGs we've seen. But how does it play? Read Cody's review to find out! - July 8, 2007


• Roma Victor - Rome wasn't built in a day nor was Roma Victor, RedBedlam's historically-based MMORPG. Released after three years in development, Roma Victor now stands as one of the few MMORPGs that focuses on history as well as realism. Heady from the indie MMO game development conference, Cody "Micajah" Bye was eager to sink his teeth into this niche title by the indie studio. - April 27, 2007


• RuneScape - Cody "Micajah" Bye puts RuneScape, one of the world's biggest MMORPGs, through its paces in the latest Ten Ton Hammer review! - July 6, 2007


• Star Wars Galaxies: NGE - Many fans of the original Star Wars Galaxies were upset by the changes wrought in the NGE. To be fair, we at TenTonHammer wanted to give the new expansion a fair treatment and see what all the hub-bub was about. Please your inner Wookie and determine if the current face of Star Wars Galaxies is what you want to live with. - February 3, 2006

Hardware

• Sandio 3D Game 0' Mouse - Every gamer loves buttons and functions on their peripherals. Aside from a keyboard and/or a joystick, there are relatively few hardware devices that allow you to move freely in a 3D space without completely eliminating the functionality of the device. Sandio's 3D Game 0' gaming mouse changes that thought process by introducing "direction sticks" that give you the option of moving in 3D with only your mouse. Cody "Micajah" Bye puts the Sandio through its paces and determines whether the 16 different functions are worth it for the MMOG player. - July 16, 2007
  

Books

• Exploiting Online Games - Ten Ton Hammer hates cheaters, don't get us wrong. But when we received a copy of _Exploiting Online Games: Cheating Massively Distributed Systems_ to review, we were anxious to see what the nefarious black hat crowd is up to these days. Released on Friday, is this book a warchest for the game subverting legions, or would outing the tricks of the hacker trade be of greater benefit to developers? Read our review for the answer to this question, and to see why MMORPGs game integrity is under continuous threat despite better security techniques. - July 23, 2007