Review - Civilization V

Risk Rating : B

 I have been off the Civilization bandwagon since Civ 2. I heard they made many improvements to the system and returned to a similar style of that of the earlier Civ games, so I decided to try it out. Overall the game is an enjoyable experience but honestly the only reason I am still playing it is cause I got nothing better to play. It's a fun game but like all things it has its flaws.

The first and most noticable flaw is that if you do not use advanced game settings on your game then you're more then likely going to find the game boring quickly. If you are a person who wants a more action packed game then you better make sure to change the settings as such. A suggestion would be starting in a more advanced time along with more players on the map and only able to win through conquest.

Another issue I ran into is when I aimed to win in another method other then through fighting I ended up winning without even attacking another nation before I finished building the Utopia Project. Kind of messed up that if all the other nations kill each other to where there are only 2 left that you win. It made me feel like I just wasted my time with that game, which took hours to do cause a game is looooonnnggg. I cannot even begin to imagine playing online, it would drive me crazy waiting for everyone AND having a game last at least 500 turns.

I suggest this game if you can get it from a friend but to go out and buy it then I suggest only doing so if your really bored. While it's a good game in general, it's long, boring and not for everyone. At least try it, if it fits then get it.

Review - Legend of Edda

Risk Rating : D-

Legend of Edda, a game recently entering English beta, is a highlight of things wrong with MMOs in general. At first it seems like a little enjoyable MMO with the cutesy graphics and simple overall design and then you get into the game it self. I wont comment on the PvPing system since that seems to be what a lot of people are into but PvP is something that is not for everyone and it shouldn't be the backbone of any MMO.

Right off the bat, you're forced to choose a faction with very little info to base it on. So, like most faction based MMOs it comes down to the "Sissy good guys" or the "Bad ass bad guys", which gets so tiresome. Again, like most free to play MMOs, the customization is terrible, very lacking. The graphics over all while nice looking are tarnished by the horrible design of the characters. Everyone looks like their heads are twice as big as they should be.

Now that your done making your character is where the real mess begins to show. Right away you find out there is no camera control. I am not joking, there is no way to move the camera ... and it doesn't move for you either. That is enough for anyone to shut down and uninstall but I decided to keep going. To get quests, you walk up to NPCs and talk to them by pressing ... space bar ... apparently jumping at NPCs is how you talk to people in this world. Now this is where all the problems pile up so going into detail will take forever so I will just list them.

On screen quest log goes off screen.
No way to change resolution in game. 
After completing quests and come back and the NPC beside them will tell you to hunt the same mob.
Faster to grind on rats then to do quests.
Forced to rely so much on map.
Weapons are overpriced.
Armor is ugly.

And I could go on but I suggest not to bother unless your extremely bored.

Review - Kitsu Saga

Risk Rating : C

Kitsu Saga, a new free to play game being published by Aeria Games. Anyone who has played a free to play MMO will not really find anything new here. Kitsu Saga while having a few unquie features still has the over all feel that most free to play MMOs have to offer. Over all, it's not a bad MMO, the graphics are a little out dated but the general control, combat and quest system are pretty smooth. There is a lack in customization which is where a lot of free to play MMOs falter. Though if your looking for something to do to just waste a few hours then Kitsu Saga might be up your alley.

Review - Vindictus Beta

Risk Rating : A

Vindictus, known as Mabinogi Heroes in Korea, is a new action based online game being brought out by Nexon. Vindictus will soon be entering Open Beta which gives everyone a chance to play the game without the worry of losing their characters. I got a chance to try the game out during the Closed Beta Test and it was definitely a breath of fresh air after playing a lot of other Korean games.

At first sight it is easy to tell that Vindictus is a good looking game like most Korean made MMOs. During the character creation the game seems very limited. The game only offers two classes which are both gender locked for lore purposes, this is something that can be seen as a bad point for the game. The options for characters looks seem to be greater then that of normal free to plays but is lacking compared to pay to play standards.

Once in the game, you can choose to go through a tutorial mode which normally I would skip over but I decided to try it out since Vindictus offers a different style of game play to other MMOs. The tutorial was pretty exciting, a good way to get you used to the controls and the options you have during combat. The tutorial even gives you a boss like battle to give you a feel for what the game as to offer as far as challenge without the risk.

After the tutorial, you are placed in a screen with 2D images as ways to speak with NPCs and to get quests. This is a disappointing aspect of the game and seems as though the creators were being lazy with the NPCs though on the good side it makes it easy if you need to find NPCs since they are always located in buildings which are labeled which NPCs are in them.

Once you have accepted the quests you can get it is time to experience the best aspect of the game and that is the combat. Once you're ready you head for the docks. The Docks is the central part of what leads you to the instances of the game. You travel to dungeons by launching a boat which leads you to the instance. You can choose to wait for more party members while on the boat or go solo. The action based style combat is where his game shines, giving lots of options to kill them with "smash" abilities which can be preformed after a string of attacks or throw abilities which do heavy damage but leave you open for attacks from other monsters. After ripping through waves of simple minions, you get to go against the boss battles which range from simply too easy to major problem depending if you can read their patterns. After playing the bosses many times you should get the attack patterns to make them easier but they still can be a problem on harder difficulties.

Playing this game for the entirety of the beta has given a nice idea that it will be a nice gem in the massive pile of coals that represent F2P games. If you have some free time I recommend trying the game out. It will be worth your time.

Review - M.A.T.

M.A.T. - Mission Against Terror

Risk Rating : Zero

What's there to say about this? Mission Against Terror claims to be a free to play first person shooter that can be for both the serious and casual gamer. As a casual FPS gamer, I didn't find this game the least bit enjoyable. With clunky controls and lag for even the simplest things like changing weapons or using your weapons scope it makes it very hard to enjoy this game. Even basic things like hit and collision detection were awful, if players were grouped together there is a high chance of getting stuck.

Team Deathmatch was worthless, a basic spray and pray kill method worked better then any kind of tactic that could be thought of. Mummy Mode is where a member turns into a mummy and then spreads the plague that turns everyone else into mummies. This mode was so unbalanced in favor of the mummy that the only way that humans can win is to hide in the corner and abuse the terrible collision detection. I did not try bomb mode but one game mode can't save the entire game.

This is definitely a title to overlook. There are better F2P FPS out there.

TERA : Removing the stigma of Korean games.

The first thing that most people will notice when looking at a new game is the art style. With just the art style of a game someone can form an opinion if they like it or not. From art style alone, one can see if a game is of eastern or western origin.  Eastern style known as being "Anime" and western being known as "Cartoony". When seeing the anime style for an MMO, people will form opinions on the game based on other games of similar style which can create stigmas that a game has to overcome before some will even consider the game worth playing. This holds true for even TERA, a new game being developed by Bluehole Studios and published by En Masse and Frogster in their respective regions. 

                When looking at videos or screen shots of TERA it is obvious that the game has a lot of Asian influence. Whether it's the well designed landscapes, the large designed weaponry or the very detailed skimpy armor, there is a lot that sticks out into being Asian influenced.  This can be good or bad depending on personal opinion. When looking at TERA it is easy to associate it with other Korean titles. A common comparison to TERA is the Korean title released by NCsoft, Aion. Even with a different studio and different game play it still is easy to associate the two games and because of this people have already formed opinions about TERA whether they be good or bad.

                A common question that is asked is if TERA will be free to play. Free to play MMOs already baring a stigma of not being as good as a pay to play titles, which in general is true. It shouldn't be too uncommon for this question to be asked since Korea is known for pumping out a lot of free to play games. People tend to avoid free to play games for various reasons. Due to this, it is good to knock out the question right away or why bother to keep looking into the game? Either it be for lack of updating or possible cash shop unbalancing, the free to play subscription model is a stigma that does not fit with TERA. It has been announced on many sites that TERA has been and will continue with the pay to play subscription model. It was rumored that TERA would adopt a cash shop on top of the pay to play model but this rumor was quickly debunked on the official forums.

                A stigma that a lot of people think about when it comes to Korean made MMOs is that Korean studios don't care about the opinions or feedback of the western audience. A stigma that was reinforced by the release of Aion. It seemed that no matter how much people told NCwest what needed to be changed, nothing was ever changed. This could be for many reasons but in general it is something that should be worried about when it comes to Korean made MMOs. If a company will not change a game to fit the audience then why should the audience keep paying for the game. There are plenty of western companies that are making MMOs that will listen to the audience and make changes accordingly. This is defiantly something that needs to be taken into consideration. This is where En Masse comes into the picture. En Masse, which is formed  with employees from many western companies like NCwest, Blizzard and Bioware, were given the job to make TERA a better game for the western audience.  As stated in multiple interviews and podcasts, En Masse intends to make TERA a better fit for the western audience even if it means changing the leveling curve or edit some of the coding, which was something that was not allowed by NCwest.

                Another common association with Korean games, which I believe is the most talked about, is monster grinding. This is a stigma that has also been reinforced by the release of Aion which in the early stages of testing with NCwest claimed that there would be hardly any grinding if at all. Even I fell for this when playing Aion and came to a cold realization that there was indeed a grind.  While the grind was not as bad as a lot of the more notorious grinding games, it still left a bitter taste to the western audience. Bluehole studios, which was formed by former NCsoft employees, came to the realization that the western audience needs things different.  En Masse knows that this is a big issue and claims that they are already working on adding more quests for the western version of TERA.  En Masse also states that there working on plenty of things to do in the game so that the game does not feel like a grind. This is the biggest stigma that En Masse needs to remove from TERA and hopefully they will back up their claims to make TERA more enjoyable for the western audience.  This is not something that should be overlooked and should be found out during the testing phases. Aion's testing phases only allowed players to level to 30 which is before a lot of the major grind started. All levels need to be tested during the testing phases to ensure a better game for all.

                In conclusion, TERA has some stigmas it needs to deal with, which gives the game an already uphill climb in becoming a popular game. There have been plenty of claims made by studios in the past about how their game is going to turn out after release and in recent years this has lead us to a lot of disappointment.  While Korean studios and games have made many mistakes in the past, it should be taken into consideration that not every game is going to turn out the same way. It's better to give a game a chance before associating it with other games that did not do so well in the past.