An interesting little announcement appeared on the Guild Wars 2 site yesterday revealing a move to make the core game free to own, along with the confirmation that raids are coming in the Heart of Thorns expansion. Two very big changes to the game, but what do they mean? Hit the break for some more details. …
The sickly sweetness beckoned me once again, promising that this time would be different. This time it wouldn’t taste just like all the others, this time it would last more than a fortnight… And like a mug I believed it, and bought Final Fantasy XIV for my PS3 and gave in once more to the hollow promises of that most seductive of genres. All the others had overpowered me with their sickly, over (or under-) cooked flavours that would inevitably fade with the morning dew. I expected little.
Oh. Hey, this is quite good actually. Wheee….
Nowadays it seems as if every man and his dog are creating free-to-play games, of which the MMO market certainly isn’t short of its share. Rift, Trion Worlds fantasy MMORPG has recently unveiled that it will be joining the popular movement from subscription based play to offer its existing and new players a free gaming experience. They promise “No trials, no tricks, no traps. From now on, you can log in to your current characters or create new characters without level or content restrictions.” As an added bonus Trion Worlds are offering all existing members bonus Loyalty depending on the previous subscription length. These additional benefits include extra bag and bank slots not granted to new free-to-play accounts.
If you’ve yet to try Rift now is as good as time as any with masses of content free to every player. For more information on the switch see this handy FAQ or better yet if you’ve already made your mind up download the game for free here.
A few days ago Square Enix took the brave step to re-brand and rebuild failing MMO Final Fantasy XIV with a new tag line ‘A Realm Reborn‘. Adding new gameplay, a whole new storyline and a new website to boot. Since then new screenshots, gameplay video and artwork has been published to show the new direction for the game. Having not tried Final Fantasy XIV before this reboot certainly peaked my interest, but with all the negative publicity already surrounding the game I don’t think it’s quite enough to make me actually pick up and play the game. I wonder if they have given any thought to attempting a free-to-play structure, it’s certainly helped other games such as Aion and Lord of The Rings Online bring in a larger player base in the past.
Have you tried FFXIV before? What do you think of the changes being made and will it be enough to bring new players to the game? Do you think Final Fantasy: A Realm Reborn could benefit from a free-to-play structure?
Below are a selection of the new screenshots and art released by Square Enix and the gameplay video for the new Limit Break abilities.
Welcome to the series of articles that is to hopefully become a record of The Best Of Free Online Gaming*. We here at The Reticule know that not everyone has the spare cash to spend on every AAA or indie release, or to sign up to monthly payments for all the latest MMO’s. Trouble is, if you’re looking for some free gaming there are literally hundreds of games taking up the free-to-play structure nowadays and trawling through them all to find ones that are worthwhile can take up a lot of time. I aim to bring you reviews on a variety of the best free-to-play games the internet has to offer, saving not just your money but your sanity too. Last time we took at look at the award-winning Aion, an MMORPG with it‘s own ideas about combat. Today we take a look at Star Trek Online, a game with probably one of the toughest fanbases around. …
Welcome to the fortnightly series of articles that is to hopefully become a record of The Best Of Free Online Gaming*. We here at The Reticule know that not everyone has the spare cash to spend on every AAA or indie release, or to sign up to monthly payments for all the latest MMOs. Trouble is, if your looking for some free gaming there are literally hundreds of games taking up the free-to-play structure nowadays and trawling through them all to find ones that are worthwhile can take up a lot of time. I aim to bring you some mini reviews on a variety of the best free-to-play games the internet has to offer, saving not just your money but your sanity too. Last time we took at look at League of Legends, an action RTS with over 32 million players and three years of release time. Today I bring you EverQuest II. …
Let’s open this with some candour. To review an MMO after 23 levels and suggest I have experienced everything the game has to offer would be false, that’s why we’re calling this ‘impressions’. My highest level character is level 23, but I’ve tried out different classes and both of the starting areas, dabbled with the PvP battleground equivalent and ventured into a couple of party dungeons. So what follows needs to be kept in the context of what I’ve played. There are no doubt some amazing sights I’ve yet to behold, or perhaps even brilliantly told story vignettes hidden away in the higher level zones. …
While free to play games are taking over the world, there is one which may perfected idea. I’m talking about Lord of the Rings Online, a MMORPG which has turned from the traditional pay-monthly model to a hybrid which has free to play at its heart.
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I’m going to be a bit angry for a bit, so strap yourself in for a nice rant from an opinionated person with no legitimate superiority over the developers of any game, let alone an MMO. I have no design experience, no business experience, but the one thing I do know is what the word “option” means.
The developers at Adventurine have decided, five days before it was scheduled to be released in Europe, to hold Darkfall Online back another month and instead release it on the 25th of February. In an attempt not to utterly fail at release day as so many MMORPGs do, the 22nd of January will instead be the release date of a free trial/beta. Not everyone will be allowed access on the first day, but apparently they will gradually increase the allowed number of people. This should hopefully allow for a relatively painless launch when the time comes. Due to the game’s relatively hardcore nature, its community is already close-knit and eagerly waiting to maul each other, so this can’t come as very pleasant news so few days before the promised release date.
I do hope they know how to take advantage of this: even juggernauts like Valve can fail to properly release a multiplayer game (remember the first week of L4D?), and MMORPGs have always been notoriously hard to open to the public.