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By Danny "Ralsu" Gourley

About
This List

Please refer to the Top
Ten
Free-to-Play Games Portal to find out how to get a game you
make or like on this list.

Month in Review

I made my way through three games this month. href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/129"> style="font-style: italic;">Archlord
did not impress me enough to play it more than a couple of hours. style="font-style: italic;">Red Stone href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/44803">wasn't much
better for me. By contrast, the Open Beta of style="font-style: italic;">Perfect World International
impressed
me quite a lot. It's always nice to see a company put in the
effort to deliver a solid translation for Western gamers. That is just
one of the many reasons href="http://www.tentonhammer.com/taxonomy/term/1303"> style="font-style: italic;">Atlantica Online
finishes its third consecutive month ranked as the best available
free-to-play game. Atlantica
just entered Open Beta, so now there is no excuse not to try it.

Runes of Magic
started its Closed Beta this month, so the excitement for that game
continues to build. Meanwhile, regular Ten Ton Hammer reader href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/member.php?u=19810">RipperMcGee
helped me get the latest response to the rumors that style="font-style: italic;">Dungeon Runners is
doomed. The development team may be smaller, but the game seems firmly
in place for now. This restores my faith in the game and allows it to
climb back into the top five.

Looking Ahead to
October

I feel that at least seven of the Top Ten are about as solid as a
person could get in the free-to-play market. I have reordered the list
to reflect those seven at the top while also giving preference to games
that are live or not under NDA.

My goal for the month of October is to replace at
least one of the bottom three games. I'm looking for solid
titles with replay value. I wouldn't mind finding something outside the
fantasy setting so long as it is not twitchy. At the end of the month,
though, I want to be closer to having a list of ten games that I would
be willing to play ten hours per week if I had time. Stay tuned for how
that search goes.

Meanwhile, I'd love to hear from readers about their worst ten
free-to-play games. I won't do any such ranking in this space because I
am dedicated to celebrating the best of the free-to-play around here.
But it would be interesting to see what readers say. Let me know your
worst experiences href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?t=35874">in
our forums.

Here are my Top Ten Free-to-Play Games for September 2008.

Disclaimer:
The opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed are those of the author
and do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints of
the Ten Ton Hammer network or staff.

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colspan="4" rowspan="1"> style="color: white; font-weight: bold;">Top Ten
Free-to-Play Games

September 2008 style="text-align: center; width: 75px; background-color: rgb(114, 105, 62); font-weight: bold; color: white;">Rank style="text-align: center; width: 75px; background-color: rgb(114, 105, 62); font-weight: bold; color: white;">Previous style="text-align: center; width: 105px; background-color: rgb(114, 105, 62); font-weight: bold; color: white;"> style="width: 334px; background-color: rgb(114, 105, 62); font-weight: bold; color: white;">Game

1