The Forgotten PC Games 07.17.08: The Best Things in Life are Free…Sometimes

Posted by Chris Vicari on 07.17.2008

The Forgotten PC Games column receives a content revamp and for this week discusses some free MMOs that are actually good for once.

Is it that time of the week again? Time flies. Welcome back to the weekly installment of The Forgotten PC Games column. As a present to myself for my 23rd birthday, I've decided to quell my laziness and completely revamp this column giving it more content and some extra fluff. Please enjoy the revitalized column as I took great pleasure in writing it for you. I've decided to do away with the old regurgitation style as it bored the ever-loving crap out of me and you can find most of that information on Wikipedia anyway. Let's keep things interesting shall we?



If you haven't heard already, the PC gaming realm was hit with very grim news this past weekend as Flagship Studios, makers of Hellgate: London and Mythos, received the boot. Flagship consisted mostly of Ex-Blizzard employees and it's a damn shame what happened to them. At release, HG: L didn't really wow much of anyone, as I am one of them, but it was a continuously developed product that got much better as time went on. Ironically, HG: L was just about to receive a major expansion/patch before this news broke so it'll be interesting to see what goes down. Mythos is the other game under Flagship's umbrella and that is still in its beta stages, but it's shaping up to be a very good game. Or at least it was.

What ticks me off the most about this is that HG:L could have been a phenomenal game, but bugs out the ass, shoddy development ideas (subscription only content didn't help) and a rushed release turned a potentially good game into a mediocre RPG/FPS/TPS hybrid of whatever. I followed HG: L when it was first announced about 2-3 years before it came out and the thought of a FPS/TPS version of Diablo would have rocked house. Unfortunately, the only thing this game rocked was a pair of Depends diapers so it would stop shitting all over itself.

I really feel bad for the people who paid 150 bucks for the Founder's Lifetime Subscription. Someone's ass must be sore.

In other news, there is a fairly extensive petition against Diablo 3's current graphics and art. The petition compares D3's graphics to WoW's and Warcraft 3 to some extent and calls for a grittier and darker color palette. My question is do these people remember playing Diablo at all? Here's a good example:

Diablo 2

Compared to...

Diablo 3!

Oh yea, I can totally see where these people are coming from... I think these guys watched the 20-minute gameplay video, saw a few green trees with leaves on them and assumed that the entire game will be a bright world with rainbows, bunnies, kittens and tolerable children. Uh huh.

To the games!

As the old adage goes, the best things in life are free, but when it comes to MMOs the word "best" is often interchanged with "worst". Countless games have fallen into oblivion because of their free-to-play status and these days any game that is free to anyone garners much cynicism from the general public. Quite often these baseless assumptions are surprisingly correct, but there are a few notable exceptions as well. While these games may not be as intuitive or better looking than their multi-million dollar budget counterparts, these games stand perfectly well on their own two feet. Don't sentence them to the firing squad just yet.

The Best of What's Out There



Just recently celebrating its seventh anniversary, Anarchy Online is a complicated yet fun MMO that now enjoys the free-to-play status. Originally a standard P2P MMO, AO is set far in the future on a planet called Rubi-Ka and in various other locales as expansions were released. It's also one of the few sci-fi online games around. Having played AO since it first came out, I'm happy to say that Funcom is still very dedicated to this game even though they just released Age of Conan and are currently working on another game called The Secret World. A graphics overhaul is currently in the works, new content has recently been added and a ton more is on the way. Compared to other games that came around during the same time, AO is supported by one of the most dedicated development teams for its age. Games such as Ultima Online, Everquest and Asheron's Call receive minimal treatment in comparison. This became even more apparent for UO when its 10-year anniversary came around which is a stunning achievement for any game and all players got was a stupid gift rehash. That's some dedication for ya.

AO is undoubtedly one of the best if not the best F2P MMO currently on the market and I'm itching to re-sub and play it again for old time's sake. Also, after perusing AO's website it turns out Funcom may be discontinuing its F2P status sometime this year. Originally it was supposed to get canned in the beginning of 08, but they opted to increase the services' lifespan. Get in while it's free folks!

Game Info

AO is like any other MMO out on the market in that you pick a class, go fight stuff, get money and level ad infinitum. What separates the game apart from most of its competition is all the other things it does well and some new stuff it brings to the table. AO features 14 distinctly different classes each filling a respective role be it healing, tanking or buffing, there's a lot of choices here. While AO has a leveling system, over 200 levels to be exact, it has no almost no bearing on how your character turns out since there are 85 skills that can be raised by any character. The only thing you get for leveling is more points to allocate. If you're at all familiar with Asheron's Call, AO's system is somewhat similar to that. I prefer games which handle levels and abilities in this fashion since it allows me to further customize my characters. It also makes the game a little more involving as some form of planning is required.

Guilds that are big enough can even build cities and then be subsequently invaded by aliens. Go figure.

One of my favorite things about AO is the dynamic mission system. Missions can be tailored in any fashion you choose and are private. You can change objectives, choose to fight humanoids or monsters and even alter the difficulty of your enemies potentially earning greater rewards. Each mission is completely randomized and no two are ever alike. Sometimes you get sent out into the wilderness for an assassination mission or you're ordered into the slums to hack a computer. The possibilities are really limitless. I haven't done much PVP in the game, but I heard that it is a lot of fun to partake in. You can even fight over an orbital battle-station, pretty cool if you ask me.

Despite my general praise for this game, there are certain things I dislike. Since this game is an old MMO, it has many aspects that most modern games have done away with for easier playability. The biggest on my list is the constant need to rebuff your character. While generally not a big deal, some classes require multiple buffs to function at peak efficiency. My main character, who was a Meta-Physicist, one of the game's pet classes, needed no less than a dozen buffs to function. Coupled with the fact that these buffs expire after a certain period of time, recasting them can be a damn hassle. Thankfully though most of the buffs have very long durations ranging from one hour to even a couple of hours so it does help if only a little. The other downside is grinding can be a little more pronounced here then other games, but leveling moves pretty quickly anyway.

Other than that, I give this game two thumbs up and wholeheartedly recommend it to anyone looking for an MMO that is a little different and more challenging than the rest.

To download the Anarchy Online client and play for free, head on over to their website here.

Remember that the only thing you get for free is the main client without the expansions but there is more than enough content to hold you over and it includes the first PVP-based expansion, The Notum Wars. The other expansions are none too expensive either and if you purchase the latest one, Lost Eden, it includes the others. Currently there is an offer that you can get all expansions for 7 bucks. It says the offer ended on the 6th, but I can still do it on my account. Give it a shot.

A Rare Find



Shattered Galaxy is probably my favorite online RTS out there, but then again these types of games aren't very common either. The MMORTS genre has a whole slew of issues such as proper unit pathfinding, offline base management and limited resources etc. and so on. Most of the current games out there are losing members, developers are dropping and some have even gone bankrupt. It's just not a popular genre. The only decent game out there, in my opinion of course, is Shattered Galaxy which came about sometime in 2001. I like the oldies I guess. It threw the typical RTS stuff such as base building and resource hogging out the window and put squad management in its place. It's nothing fancy though as the only orders you give to your units are move or shoot and there are no tactics adjustments either. All in all it's a simple, but enjoyable game that will keep you busy for a little bit. While a monthly fee is available for extra perks, you can still play the game just as well for free.

Game Info

After creating your avatar and starting out on the newbie planet, you can begin building your squads. You have a wide range of units and each are categorized by Infantry, Mobile, Aviation and Organics. Infantry are the Mechwarrior-esque bots with various armaments, Mobile are the tanks and artillery, Aviation are the planes and Organic are the native alien races which have been trained for war. Here Shattered Galaxy adopts various RPG-like systems as units gain experience to level and can be individually loaded out with various weapons and armor. As they level, they can be upgraded to more durable versions of themselves or into a totally different chassis. When your units gain levels, your avatar also gains experience and can eventually level giving you stat points which can be allocated into different skills giving them different advantages such as access to higher level equipment, ability to put more units in the field or upgrade your troops quicker etc.

A simple game, but it serves its purpose.

When first making your character you choose which faction you want to fight for and then just battle it out with the others. When you attacking a territory or defending it, the battlefield commander (the highest ranking player), can opt to open the game for everyone or limit it to acceptance only. Battles are visible on the world map and you can jump into the action from the get go. The objective of Shattered Galaxy is territory control and each map will have a certain amount of Points of Contention or POCs. The side who controls the most at the end of the time limit wins. All battles are fought in this fashion and it can get boring after a while if you decide to use the same units over and over again. Some are more fun than others such as the artillery, stealth infantry and planes, but most function just the same.

Shattered Galaxy is a decent game and can potentially hold your interest for a little while. The game's free and you've got nothing to lose. It's a good in-between game before something else rolls around.

Shattered Galaxy can be downloaded for free from its official website, www.shatteredgalaxy.com

Yarr



Yea, yea don't laugh. If you're bored at work, this game is a godsend as I spent many hours in my cubicle playing it rather than doing any actual work. Just as the name suggests, Puzzle Pirates is a collection of puzzles geared towards ships and of course pirates. Every puzzle is unique and some have you fix the ships up, sail them on the open seas, swordfight, fistfight and even get drunk. Puzzle Pirates also features games like Hearts, Spades and Texas hold ‘em poker which are played against others. Players can also set up shops to sell different goods and yes even crafting is puzzle-oriented. The better you perform the puzzle, higher quality items will be produced. Puzzle Pirates is obviously geared towards the puzzle junkie in all of us so anyone looking for blood, guts and fast-paced action is better off looking elsewhere. Puzzle Pirates is a game best played when you have a few minutes to spare or if you're in a place where you can be lazy and get away with it such as the office. I'm so getting fired if my boss reads this.

>Sure, why the hell not?

Like the other games listed here, you can pay the monthly subscription fee for extra perks such as clothing and the ability to play some of the games it really doesn't matter much. The clothing merely serves aesthetic purposes while the P2P games can be played at various times of the month for free. It's a simple game, an excellent time waster and I definitely recommend it. Get the Yarr out. Okay that was cheesy.

You can either play Puzzle Pirates through your browser if you use Javascript or you can simply download the client onto your computer. Head on over to www.puzzlepirates.com and have at it.

What I'm playing now
For those wondering what I typically play when I'm not working or writing, I currently enjoying the following games:

- EVE: Online
- Team Fortress 2 as a Soldier, Medic or Engineer
- Medieval 2: Total War
- Supreme Commander since my TA days are over
- Company of Heroes
- Majesty

The Hype Machine

Games on the horizon that I want to play now damnit!:

- Total War: Conquest
- Puzzle Quest: Galactrix
- Left 4 Dead
- Duke Nukem Forever (I must be insane)

Thanks for reading guys and stay tuned next week for more games you may never heard of.