Sony Online Entertainment has a new free MMORPG called Free Realms that just went live from Beta today. I've been checking it out. As expected, it's kind of focused more on a kid demographic, but it's still fun. It's kind of a mix between Runescape and Neopets... so far it looks like you can't talk to anyone that you haven't added as a friend, which is the main drawback I see so far, about as annoying as Nintendo's friend codes. Graphics are quite good, it's got a cool dreamy glow to it. And the music is awesome.
It seems really casual and laid back; it's the Endless Ocean of RPGs. You have the option to never fight if you don't want to. Basically you start off by making your character, usual character design... a good amount of options to start with, but not expansive or anything. Just changing your hair, eyes, face, clothes, etc. Oh, and human or faerie.
Then you get planted into a tutorial world where you have to help a guy chase off some "robgoblins" to get used to the basic WADS+Mouse controls. After that, you learn a few basic skills like fighting and cooking. There are others in the game, like ninja, mail delivery, pet trainer, go-kart racer, demolition derby, card duellist, etc. Each of them has their own little minigame associated with it (like when you are cooking something, it goes into a little Cooking Mama style thing where you have to chop and mix all the foods,) different outfits for each, and skills to level up. Once you're done with that, you get transported to what I assume is the "real world", where there are other players running around and more quests to do. That's where I'm at so far.
Being a cheapass with a lot of time on my hands, I'm going to be checking it out for at least a few hours over the next couple of days. If anyone wants to go exploring with me, do the tutorial and we can find a place to meet up and add each other (Edit: Friend menu is currently "COMING SOON".) It's not going to replace WoW or anything, but it's free and probably guaranteed to get at least a million players, even if they are an average age of 14.
It seems really casual and laid back; it's the Endless Ocean of RPGs. You have the option to never fight if you don't want to. Basically you start off by making your character, usual character design... a good amount of options to start with, but not expansive or anything. Just changing your hair, eyes, face, clothes, etc. Oh, and human or faerie.
Then you get planted into a tutorial world where you have to help a guy chase off some "robgoblins" to get used to the basic WADS+Mouse controls. After that, you learn a few basic skills like fighting and cooking. There are others in the game, like ninja, mail delivery, pet trainer, go-kart racer, demolition derby, card duellist, etc. Each of them has their own little minigame associated with it (like when you are cooking something, it goes into a little Cooking Mama style thing where you have to chop and mix all the foods,) different outfits for each, and skills to level up. Once you're done with that, you get transported to what I assume is the "real world", where there are other players running around and more quests to do. That's where I'm at so far.
Being a cheapass with a lot of time on my hands, I'm going to be checking it out for at least a few hours over the next couple of days. If anyone wants to go exploring with me, do the tutorial and we can find a place to meet up and add each other (Edit: Friend menu is currently "COMING SOON".) It's not going to replace WoW or anything, but it's free and probably guaranteed to get at least a million players, even if they are an average age of 14.
Recently Spotted:
*crickets*
When I'm not playing, I'm still usually whistling one of the songs
I'm also really amazed by their customer service. Whenever I submit a ticket for a question or a glitch, I get a response within about an hour. Like the glitch that reverted my username back to my temporary name, along with another 100 people apparently.
Edit to add: IT'S PEANUT BUTTER JELLAH TIME
I went ahead and gave it a try. I've signed up, and finished most of the tutorials (I think). It's a pretty cool game. Unfortunately, my graphics card (Intel Laptop crapola graphics card) doesn't run the game very smoothly. I had to turn down/off most of the graphics settings just to get a decent framerate. The game still looks good, though.
This game is surpisingly addictive! I played for what I thought was about an hour, but it turned out to be three!
I'm still waiting for my character's name to be accepted. I got a temporary name for the time being. I guess they want to make sure people aren't using inappropriate names, which makes sense. I hope it doesn't take too long, though. Not that it really matters, I suppose.
Some guy kept following me around, but didn't talk to me, so I gave up and teleported to another area.
The races are a nice feature. However, the Keyboard/mouse controls suck for racing. I don't think it's the game's fault, though. I'm always hitting the wrong buttons, so it's probably just me. I wish this game had gamepad support. That would be ideal. Let me use my 360 controller, Sony! Please?
I got a dog. I gave him a bath, feed him, and taught him a trick. Hmm, where have I seen this before? . . .
So far, the game is part WoW, Mario Kart, and Nintendogs. It's a neat game that I'm sure kids will especially enjoy. I'm not much for online gaming, but this is a neat--and free--experiment.
They finally accepted my character's name. W00t! Behold, Ravenprose!
Who or what is a Pinkfloyd?