Forum > Gaming Discussion > Free Realms - The Runescape of 2009
Free Realms - The Runescape of 2009
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Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:44:02
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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.









Edited: Wed, 29 Apr 2009 17:05:14

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Wed, 29 Apr 2009 19:08:13
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Game disconnected (I hope it autosaved, I just became a miner before it did) so time for an update...

So many quests. I always have like 5 or 6 quests on the go at once. You can't complete one without getting another along the way. There is an NPC pretty much every 20 feet that wants help with something... okay, maybe that is an exaggeration but you get the idea. Maybe it's only the start of the game that's like that.

Enemies start super easy but now they are getting to the point that it is a bit of a challenge, but no need to grind for experience so far. And like I said, all fights are optional so you can just walk past them anyway. There is a "duel" option with other players, but everyone I've walked up to so far has declined me.

And yay, my name got approved. So now I'm "Yarcofin" instead of "Duncan Platinummumbles" LOL

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Thu, 30 Apr 2009 02:08:40
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Correction from earlier... the lack of chat is just a temporary glitch, apparently.

Not that I think anyone is following this at all, but anyway here is a day's worth of progress:



Here are a few of my noteworthy rankings so far:




Really I spent about 4 hours actually playing and about an hour trying to challenge random people to duels, etc. After spending basically the whole afternoon on it, it still isn't boring, so I guess it's a pretty solid game. 
Edited: Thu, 30 Apr 2009 02:18:01

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Thu, 30 Apr 2009 05:24:43
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I'm not ashamed to admit that I used to play and like Runescape so I amy take a look at this. It reminds me of ROSE online, and if it's browser based looks pretty good!

Edit:

Which server are you usually on btw?

Edited: Thu, 30 Apr 2009 05:39:09

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Thu, 30 Apr 2009 12:17:07
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That looks nice, but my PC can't even run IE properly at the moment. 

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Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:23:58
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Foolz said:

I'm not ashamed to admit that I used to play and like Runescape so I amy take a look at this. It reminds me of ROSE online, and if it's browser based looks pretty good!

Edit:

Which server are you usually on btw?

 It's kind of browser-based, kind of not. You have to log in through the website, but then it launches a full-screen applet. The initial download is about 3MB, then you go online and while you are making your character it installs another 50 MB. The rest of the game it is downloading and streaming while you play and go to new areas. I assume it's downloading the map and all the textures to my hard drive. I can't find the folder, but I think it runs too smooth with too good of graphics to be just saving to a temporary folder. The downloading is pretty seamless. Aside from a load screen when you teleport or go into battle, the longest I've waited was about 10 - 20 seconds while it downloaded the Trading Card Game. Speaking of teleporting, it's free in FreeRealms which is pretty sweet so you don't have to walk for minutes at a time between cities. After you've been to a town you unlock a teleport stone, so you just press M to open the map and click on it.

I play on whatever server it suggests to me, lowest population one at the time. 

Edited: Thu, 30 Apr 2009 15:46:48

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Thu, 30 Apr 2009 16:33:10
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HELL YES!
Chat and friends list are working now.
And I just unlocked the Ninja job. FTW

The only thing I'm disappointed about is that I was accepted into the Beta program about 3 days before the game launched, and all the beta testers got sweet army helmets... but since I didn't make a character, I don't get one. Sad

Today the game is lagging slightly. Really it's only noticable that my run animation isn't completely smooth like it was before.



Also I found some guy and added him as a friend, and we partnered for quests... which makes them like half as hard. Didn't think the game had that option, GG Sony. And the thing is, you don't split either... both players get 100% of the EXP, coins, even items. Not just two people either, it looks like you can have whole parties of people do quests together. I dunno what the limit is yet, and I'll probably never be playing with enough people to find out.

VGPress Clan anyone? Although the time differences will make that idea pretty brutal.
Edited: Thu, 30 Apr 2009 18:25:08

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Fri, 01 May 2009 00:33:49
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Shoop de woop... time for more pictures.

What MMORPG would be complete without a GIANT FUCKING SPIDER?




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Fri, 01 May 2009 03:30:02
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Well, it murdered Opera, and then my internet was slowed.

So maybe in a few days I'll try again. Nyaa

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Fri, 01 May 2009 03:57:09
Giant cartoonish video game spiders, FTW!

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Fri, 01 May 2009 06:06:38
Seems interesting.

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Sat, 02 May 2009 04:22:10
I've played for 22 hours in the past 3 days. I guess you'd call that an obsession.
When I'm not playing, I'm still usually whistling one of the songs LOL


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Sun, 03 May 2009 05:03:16
Bump for defiantly trying to stand on things you shouldn't. 29 hours in 4 days.






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Mon, 04 May 2009 01:31:21
Found a referee today. They're basically the mods of Free Realms. We proceeded to play air guitar and jump. Then I met a giant hot dog man.

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.







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Mon, 04 May 2009 04:05:04
Climbing on stuff, volume two







Edit to add: IT'S PEANUT BUTTER JELLAH TIME

Edited: Mon, 04 May 2009 04:13:55

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Thu, 14 May 2009 06:54:26

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! GASP

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.

Edited: Sat, 16 May 2009 22:05:58

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Sat, 16 May 2009 19:30:08


They finally accepted my character's name. W00t! Behold, Ravenprose!

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Sun, 17 May 2009 05:52:43
You'd fit right in in Pinkfloyd.

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Mon, 18 May 2009 10:34:07

Foolz said:
You'd fit right in in Pinkfloyd.

 Who or what is a Pinkfloyd? Nyaa

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