Publisher: Square Enix
Developer: Square Enix
Genre: RPG
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

There are so many pieces to any well written story, usually with many different fragments of characters that end up colliding, making the incomplete tale whole. It’s Day 13 and you’re not sure what kind of stage is being laid out in front of you, just glimpses of passengers on a train, dressed in similar garb. An armed guard is patrolling. As the cameras weave in and out, you begin to see the opening act for what it’s unfolding to become. You’re watching prisoners, two in particular, who are planning to escape. With a whisper back and forth, a quickening of pace begins as one of these prisoners dispatches his captor, freeing himself and his companion. As more prisoners are freed and as seconds pass, a war of survival between captors and captives ensues, and then the monsters start appearing. The next moments are now in your control, the stage has now been set, and surviving The Purge is left in your hands. Interested yet? These are just the opening moments of the latest installment of Square Enix’s Final Fantasy series. This is Cocoon.

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Publisher: GamersFirst
Developer: Reloaded Studios
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 2.4 GHz Intel Core2 Quad or better CPU, 512 MB graphics card, 4 GB RAM, 6 GB hard-drive space, DirectX 9-compatible sound card, broadband or DSL Internet connection
Genre: MMO/Shooter
Release date: TBA 2011

I never got to play the original APB, but somewhere in the back of my mind after reading other players’ thoughts, it seemed like a bad idea. A part of me was glad I had ignored the urge to get involved. The other felt terrible for the players who had invested their time and money into it before it shut down. How does a game come back from an experience that left such a bad taste in players’ mouths, let alone countless forum posts filled with a rage most of us feel is understandable? The first step is to rethink your strategy as a publisher and developer. I had heard some time ago that GamersFirst was going to be picking up the game, re-branding it as APB: Reloaded. I wasn’t sure if I should be excited or terrified.

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Publisher: Lunar Workshop
Developer: Lunar Workshop
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 1.5 GHz or faster CPU, 1 GB RAM, 128 MB graphics card
Genre: Strategy
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

In my book, there are two kinds of night owls in the world: those who stay up playing games, and the others who are wide awake, dreaming about the games we enjoy. Lunar Workshop is the latter of these two, always crafting and constantly trying to improve their product, Digitanks. I didn’t get much time to play it after my review was published, maybe here and there at best to pass the time or to procrastinate from looking at MMOs. The first big addition, dubbed The Artillery Update, was recently released, and I was ready to blow some enemy tanks to digital hell.

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Publisher: Perfect World
Developer: Perfect World
System requirements: Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Win 7, 1 GHz Pentium IV or faster CPU, 1 GB RAM (2 GB for XP, 3 GB for Vista/Win 7), 8 GB hard-drive space, 256 MB GeForce 6200/Radeon 9550 or better graphics card with Shader Model 2.0 support, DirectX 9.0c-compatible sound card
Genre: MMORPG
ESRB rating: Not rated at press time
Release date: TBA

True story: I lost a friend to a Perfect World game about two years ago. I still have no idea where he is. Last I heard, a mutual friend of ours found him while playing the latest addition to the PWE lineup, Forsaken World. In a last-ditch effort to locate them again, I downloaded the game and entered the world before me. My goals were pretty clear: I had to find them and figure out what aspects of the game kept them sucked in. Fear not, my friends, I will find you. Maybe.

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Publisher: Soldak Entertainment
Developer: Soldak Entertainment
System requirements: Windows 98/ME/2000/XP/Vista/Win 7/Mac OS 10.4, 1.5 GHz Pentium IV or better CPU, 256 MB RAM, GeForce 2 series or better graphics card, 200 MB hard-drive space, DSL or better Internet connection for online multiplayer
Genre: RPG
Release date: Available now

When I look at MMOs, I often forget that there are in fact other genres that exist in the world; sometimes it’s a little tough for me to believe. Everything to me nowadays is either massively-this or shoot your best friend for a laugh-that. When I take a break from those sorts of games, I like to sprawl out on my office chair, grab my favorite pre-packaged snack cake and go back to my roots: dungeon crawlers. I admit it’s been a long time since this pastry-induced gaming euphoria has taken hold. Its previous appearance was during my time competing on the ladder while playing another dungeon-style game. I’m glad to have briefly encountered this feeling once more while checking out the Din’s Curse expansion, Demon War, brought to you by Soldak Entertainment.

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Publisher: Alaplaya
Developer: Burda:ic
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7, 2.4 GHz quad core or better CPU, 2 GB RAM, 256 MB graphics card, 3 GB hard-drive space, DirectX 9-compatible sound card, DirectX 9.0c
Genre: MMORTS
ESRB rating: Not rated
Release date: Available now

Games with leaderboards and ranking systems fascinate me; I’m not sure what it is about them that keeps me coming back. Is it the thrill of passing the person ahead of me in kills, or is it just taking a leader down a notch? I’ll never really know, but it’s likely you could tell me there’s a leaderboard for a non-existent Curious George MMO and I would be the guy slugging it out with the PBS Kids age bracket for glory. Land of Chaos, developed by Alaplaya, helps curb my competitive cravings with third-person shooter, RPG and RTS genres impressively blended together to keep up with my ever-shortening attention span.

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March 30 marks my birthday. This year I’ll be an age that’s relatively unimportant, but the milestone is 12 straight years of playing MMOs. I get asked by blokes in some circles what my utter fascination is with the genre, whether it be some of the horrid F2P games down to the more epic P2P ones, and the answer is pretty simple. Much like Brisco County Jr., I’ve been searching for the next big thing. I’ve been seeking this game for the past couple of years, but it has eluded me. Don’t get me wrong, World of Warcraft is a pretty amazing game. It did what a lot of previous MMOs failed to do. It augmented the genre as we know it, making it something more than massive. Every game that has followed has pretty much gone down the same road, some with their own spins and some complete copy cats.

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Finding the right members for a party in an MMORPG is a lot like figuring who you want to go to the bar with you. You have plenty of choices from your contacts, if you’re lucky enough, and these people are from different walks of life, a lot like the people you’re grouping up with in the game. Each member you find yourself inviting to the group has a special function you’ll need for an instance of pub crawling. This is my usual line-up:

The tank, as you might imagine, is someone who is the loudest, but not necessarily the largest, member of your group. They’ll be six pints in before you’re done with your second. They are machines with no equal when it comes to laughing loudly, spending most of their skill points on aggroing the bartender for more drinks for you and your party. The healer of your group is the one carrying aspirin in their pocket or purse, telling the tank they’ve had one too many and can’t keep up with the speed of the tank. They are a crucial member to help keep your party alive through a pub instance; they’re bossy but will always call a cab when they know the instance is over, making sure everyone gets out alright.

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Publisher: Trion Worlds
Developer: Trion Worlds
System requirements: Windows XP/Vista/Win 7; 2.0 GHz Dual Core or better CPU; 2 GB RAM; 15 GB hard-drive space; Nvidia GeForce FX 5900, ATI/AMD Radeon X300, Intel GMA X4500 or better graphics card; DirectX 8.1-compatible sound card; DirectX 9.0c with June 2010 update; broadband Internet connection
Genre: MMORPG
ESRB rating: Teen
Release date: Available now

I have a long-time love of the MMO genre as a whole. When I get the opportunity to review an MMO, I often find myself wondering if the game I’m looking at is going to be the one that ends up sapping all my willpower to engage in a social life. Often times I get pretty lucky and I get a nice time sink for a week or two; other times I find myself immersed in the world set before me. I can count on one hand how many times the latter has ever happened to me, and now I’m proud to say I can no longer use that reference in my gaming career. While following Rift during its development, I found myself intrigued by the art and the idea behind it all. After 10 days of playing, I found myself wondering if maybe this game was just a shiny new change from my usual haunts, but with every login I find some new quirk I enjoy that keeps me interested. For 19 days I’ve been wrapped up in Rift, the new MMORPG from developer Trion Worlds, exploring the world before me as a spoony Bard, finding something exciting every day.

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Weird – they gave golfers an MMO? I guess everyone wants to be Tiger (minus the alimony). Gamigo announced the commercial launch of Golf Star, just in time for all the golfers of the world who are tired of the snow to get a few rounds in, virtually, before the courses thaw out. The game has five different modes where you can compete with 30 of your peers for points to upgrade your threads and clubs.

Sequels are a tough gig. In a shoot first ask questions later gaming market, it’s difficult to keep your fan base excited for the next chapter. There are so many different factors involved, but the main one always is the same basic idea. Keep the title fresh while managing to retain the good qualities of the original title. As a reviewer, I never find myself completely satisfied with many ongoing game titles out there, and find myself wondering why the developers bother trying to top some plot twist or an awe-inspiring digital scene. Guerilla Games’ Killzone 3, however, aims to please and it does it well. All I can say is: “The madness begins.”

Killzone 3 immediately follows the events of the execution of Autarch Scolar Visari by Master Sergeant Rico Velasquez. Sergeant Tomas “Sev” Sevchenko sat, disillusioned by his comrade’s actions, on the steps of the Imperial Palace as the remaining fleet of the ISA is assaulted by a massive fleet of Helghast ships. With the almost requiem sound of violins, you find yourself as Sev, on a drop ship with a rag-tag group of ISA survivors, struggling to escape the now overwhelming Helghast forces. As your ship is shot down, you crash land into what looks like a refinery in an arctic tundra. As Sev scavenges for any useful weapons you find yourself already under attack. Slowly trudging through ice, snow and enemy fire; the game creates a tone of desperation, as you cling to a glimmering shred of hope in the enveloping darkness.

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A six-day Rift open beta event kicks off today at 10am PT with a tweet. When players log in to Trion’s upcoming MMORPG this week, they’ll find new functionality that allows in-game updates to their Twitter feeds straight from the besieged world of Telara. Share screenshots, boast your latest achievement, or simply send an update to your friends from the in-game chat window. After entering your Twitter login info into the settings menu, players can simply type “/tweet” into in-game chat and update their feed. Achievements are tweeted automatically by default, but the option can be switched off in the settings menu.

The open beta runs through February 21.

I think a getting-to-know-me blog is a little past due on my end, so I hope this helps you understand where I come from as a gamer. My father got an Atari a little after I was born. He and a good friend used to compete in those Asteroids and Galaga tournaments back when arcades actually had substance and the games were impressive. His friend was so good at these games that he could walk outside, have a smoke, and still have more than 50 lives remaining when he returned. Back then he was considered a lazy person who lacked passion, but if he had been born today he’d be considered a “cyberathlete” for his feats of video-game prowess. This brings me to an interesting realization: the world is a random place, and so am I.

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Publisher: Chillingo
Developer: Rovio Mobile
Genre: Puzzle
ESRB rating: Everyone
Release date: Available now

Like most gamers, I find myself angry about numerous things that I dare not discuss. I will, however, share one fact about myself: nothing in this world enrages me more than when a green pig with a moustache steals my eggs (or me Lucky Charms). Rovio’s Angry Birds strangely shares the same passion about eggs and rage towards pigs as I do, which makes me no longer feel alone in a world I don’t understand at times. With so many different reviews for this game out there, I wanted to step in and give you the take of an angry gamer.

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Publisher: Masthead Studios
Developer: Masthead Studios
System requirements: Windows XP SP2/Vista SP1/Win 7, 2.4+ GHz Single Core CPU, 2 GB RAM, 256 MB NVIDIA 7800GT+/ATI Radeon 9800 SE or better graphics card, 20 GB hard-drive space, high-bandwidth Internet connection (DSL, Cable)
ESRB rating: Not rated at press time
Release Date: February 4, 2011

Gamers have feeding frenzies on games with post-apocalyptic world settings; our imaginations love the idea of being a hero in a world that’s plummeted into despair. Television, film and games all manage to keep us sucked in, and most of us tend to love the genre, with the usual few haters who don’t. During the past few months, if you’ve been searching random sites about games, you found the Earthrise banner. If you’re anything like me, you’ll likely notice a woman in a seemingly tight leather outfit with a gun holstered, beckoning you to click the link and find out what Earthrise is. This only leaves two major questions in my mind: What is Masthead Studios’ new MMO all about, and how soon before I can kill something?

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