Saturday, December 11, 2010

Best MMORPGs of 2010

MMORPGs offer the most in-depth gaming experiences, and the year 2010 has seen the release of some truly spectacular games. Vindictus, by Nexon, is a highly polished MMORPG that makes great use of instanced stages, and persistent world cities. The Celtic theme adds to the immersion, and the fluid gameplay and graphics, powered by the Source engine all add up to give Vindictus high production value all around.

Players looking for a more traditional MMORPG experience can look towards either Legend of Edda or Iris Online. Both games are developed by the same Korean studio, buy published by different portals here in the US. Legend of Edda has a ‘chibi’ theme and is published by GamesCampus. Iris Online has a Gypsy theme and is published by gPotato. Both games have anime style graphics, and fairly traditional gameplay mechanics. Iris Online is a bit more original, and has a more complex class system. The game is also more fully 3D, allowing for more exploration. Legend of Edda is much simpler, and has a pretty linear progression path both in terms of class progression and world exploration. Play one, or try both since they’re free to play! Unfortunately Iris Online shut down, but Legend of Edda is still around through GamenGame.

Moving on, lets talk about Battle of the Immortals. It is published by Perfect World Entertainment and is perhaps their most original MMORPG. Many of their previous games look and play like one another, but Battle of the Immortals was built on a totally different engine. It plays more like an action RPG. It has an isometric camera angle, and point-and-click movement. The game is easy to get into, and great for casual players.

Another interesting MMORPG from 2010 is Allods Online. This game combines the familiar graphic style and interface found in the popular World of Warcraft, but adds plenty of new features. Like Neo Steam and ARGO, it has a steampunk MMO Theme. That means air ships, rifles, and other fancy technologies are present. Allods Online has a very steady pacing, similar to high quality MMORPGs rather than the grind based gameplay found in many Asian MMORPGs.

Now lets get to some of the previously pay to play MMORPGs that required a monthly subscription that have been converted to free to play this year. Let’s start with EverQuest 2. It is a very well known game by Sony Online Entertainment. SOE got their feet wet in this f2p market with Free Realms and Clone Wars Adventures, both of which were aimed at a younger audience. Now that they’ve learned a bit about free to play, they’ve released EverQuest 2: Extended. Its free to play with several restrictions. Players can purchase access to additional races and classes via a cash shop. SOE also converted Pirates of the Burning Sea to f2p this year. Pirates of the Burning Sea is now perhaps the most in depth free to play game available. It has deep economic features that make it ideal for players looking for a game they can spend months or even years with.

There they are, some of the best MMORPGs of 2010. There were plenty of others but this should be enough to keep you busy over the holiday break!

2 comments:

  1. I love Iris Online games they have great games features and cools graphics I don't knows about legend Of edda never try ! maybe this weekend I should try to play Legend Of Edda :) cools blogs you have ! thank you for sharing!

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  2. Wow.great games right.I wanted to introduce a game that very best.It is Travian.You can play the game at http://www.travian.com.It is MMORPg games.The game is the best game ever that I play. More information about the game you can visit my blog at http://gamesquadrant.blogspot.com/

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