by Chris Ware on Feb 02, 2010
style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 204, 51);">Top
Ten
Free-to-Play Games
Week
of Jan 30 - Feb 6, 2010
1.
style="text-decoration: underline;">Allods Online
2.
style="text-decoration: underline;">Runes of Magic
href="http://allods.gpotato.com/" target="_blank">
style="text-decoration: underline;">
href="http://everquest2.station.sony.com/">
style="text-decoration: underline;">
style="text-decoration: underline;">
3. Dungeons
and Dragons
Online: Eberron Unlimited
href="http://us.runesofmagic.com/us/index.html">
style="text-decoration: underline;">
style="text-decoration: underline;">
4. 4Story
style="text-decoration: underline;">
href="http://www.freerealms.com/" target="_blank">
style="text-decoration: underline;">
href="http://allods.gpotato.com/" target="_blank">
style="text-decoration: underline;">
5.
href="http://atlantica.ndoorsgames.com/center/default.asp"
target="_blank">Atlantica
Online
href="http://cabal.ogplanet.com/Reloaded.html" target="_blank">
style="text-decoration: underline;">
6.
style="text-decoration: underline;">FreeRealms
href="http://rappelz.gpotato.com/" target="_blank">
style="text-decoration: underline;">
7.
target="_blank">Earth
Eternal.
href="http://heroesofgaia.gpotato.com/" target="_blank">
style="text-decoration: underline;">
8.
target="_blank">Cabal
Online
9. Dragonica
Online
target="_blank">
10.
style="text-decoration: underline;">Heroes of Gaia
I spent the majority of my play time last week making preparations to
captain my own starship, but my character(s) resembled tribbles more
than they did a Vulcan or a wise ass from Iowa. While the AAA space
faring title known as
Star Trek Online may be getting all the headlines this
week, I couldnt pull myself away from my Gibberlings long enough to
give it much of a trial run. And while I am sure that the final
frontier that STO players are voyaging off into this week is
compelling, I can't see giving up what precious little beta time there
is left in Allods Online
to give it more than a cursory session.
Normally I try not to play too much during a beta, but few games have
been as fun so far as Allods
Online has, and that's why it retains this weeks number
one spot. Continuing in the Allods
theme, this weeks feature will be the second part of our class
preview, featuring the cloth wearing classes of the game.
The top ten list didn't see too much movement this week, but expect DDO
to make a push back towards the top next week with update #3 set to go
live on February 3rd
style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 204, 51);">Microtransaction
Highlight of the Week
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/80160"
style="border: 0px solid ; width: 300px; height: 90px; float: left;"
alt="">Several
games answered the humanitarian call in the wake of the trageduy in
Hatii , donating proceeds raised from microtransactions to various
relief efforts.
Frogster Interactive, publisher of Runes of
Magic, also
href="http://us.runesofmagic.com/us/news,id746,rom_players_help_children_need.html"
target="_blank">donated over $55,000 dollars to
German charity - Save the
Children Deutschland. With so much negative press surrounding
the
video game industry in the past decade, it is always nice to see the
industry show its true colors.
A couple weeks ago, before we resurrected a recouring free-to-play
column, we brought you a the first in a series of class previews for
Allods Online where we focused on Melee damage and tanking classes. So
without further ado lets take a look at the next segment of
style="font-style: italic;">Allods archetypes
- ranged DPS.
Ranged DPS, the pure DPS classes at least, are split into two
archetypes - The Mage and the Psionicist, while not considered a hybrid
class, both have some utility in addition to being able to dish out the
pain.
Mage
The Mage archetype is similar in role and play style to many of the
more popular of todays fantasy-based MMOGs--deal maximum damage and
stay at maximum range. The Allods
mage can pick up some interesting utility abilities via quest which
allow them to become invisible, resurrect allies, and teleport their
parties out of combat (similar to the Call of the Heroes spell that
made EverQuest
mages so useful.)
While all Mage classes will play very similarly, the Elf
tends to get the most benefit from their racial abilty and
tends to be the most popular race for the archetype.
Psionicist
One of the most intriguing archetypes in the game, the
Psionicists are among most technically demanding classes to play. One
part DPS, two parts crowd control and a hundred parts annoying to
their opponents, Psionicists use powers of mental control to defeat
their opponents.
Both "caster" archetypes offer an interesting role to play in Allods
Online, for those who enjoy the complexity of keeping their enemies
incapacitated or the thrill of nuking them into oblivion.
Stay tuned for the next installment of the series where we will focus
on the healer class and the games remaining hybrids.
alt="" style="border: 0px solid ; width: 600px; height: 319px;"
src="http://www.tentonhammer.com/image/view/80169">
style="font-weight: bold; color: rgb(255, 204, 51);">Hot
off the Press!