Review: Age of Empires Online

Rating: E10+ Genre: MMO/RTS Publisher: Microsoft Game Studio Developer: Gas Powered Games Release Date: August 16, 2011 BUY I have been an Age of Empires fan since the Age of Empires II days. It was my first RTS that I’ve ever played and it cemented my love of the genre. So you can imagine when I heard that there was going to be an Age of Empires Online game, I was intrigued. I figured it would have a lot more PvP aspects to it, and ones that would hopefully be easier to find others to play with than the random matchmaking that had frequent disconnects that I remember from previous titles. Well I’ve spent approximately the last week playing Age of Empires Online and well, I liked it. Now there are some things that I didn’t really like or were a bit clunky, but overall I enjoyed myself and will

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Some of ‘LEGO Universe’ goes free-to-play

If you’re okay with messing around in the very limited free-to-play portion of LEGO Universe, you can start that today. Simply download the client here for PC or Mac and get started. You’ll be able to explore several portions of the online world, including The Venture Explorer and Avant Gardens. I’d argue that the best part of the experience would be the minifig creation process. Of course, you might get tired of that small area pretty quickly. If that happens, a subscription’s only $10 a month and you don’t have to buy the client anymore, either. Pretty affordable compared to other MMO experiences, right?

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Casual Connect – Are You a Whale or a Freeloader?

One of the most interesting things for me this year at Casual Connect was going to some of the discussions. Because Casual Connect is more for people in the industry, or people trying to work their way into the industry, I got a peek behind the curtain at what goes in to making casual and social games, some of the psychology, some of the business. This particular talk was given by Greg Mills from Digital Chocolate – makers of one of my favorite social games, “Zombie Lane.” Now, if you have ever played a social game – particularly on Facebook – you have noticed that they are largely free to play. However, when push comes to shove, it’s difficult to get very far very fast when you play with no paid content. There is a multitude of ways to spend Facebook credits within many games that help move things along

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‘World of Warcraft’ is sort of free-to-play, if you’re into restrictions

Once upon a time, you could get a trial World of Warcraft account and only play for 14 days. That’s not long enough to really get a feel for it, I think. If you wanted it to go on even longer, you had to pay $20 for a copy of the original game, which would include a 30-day trial period, as well. That helps, but you still have to shell out the cash. Not anymore, thanks to the new WoW free-to-play system. You can play any kind of character (minus those added in Cataclysm) up to level 20…for free. For as long as it takes. Did you get your character to this “max”? Create another. If you’re fine with going from 1-20 over and over, this could be fun for you. And if you decide that you’re willing to make the commitment, $19.99 gets you the original game as well

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E3 First Look: Lord of the Rings Online Rise of Isengard

This year at E3, I got an opportunity to meet with Turbine to take a first look at the latest Lord of the Rings Online expansion, Rise of Isengard. Only a year ago at E3, Turbine was unveiling the free-to-play model for LOTRO and since then it has become the third most played MMO in North America. Rise of Isengard is set to release on September 27 of this year and has a ton of new things coming for players at the top end of LOTRO. As with most MMO expansions, the level cap is being raised to 75 with all new epic quests and skills to go along with it. Updates and changes to existing skills are being made that will affect players of all levels as well. For players at top end, there will be a new 24 player raid in which you will face Draigoch. Another feature

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‘Team Fortress 2′ is Valve’s first free-to-play game

Yeah, Portal‘s been on sale for $0 in the past, but as far as games sustained by microtransactions, Valve’s never had one. Until last night. Popular online shooter Team Fortress 2 is now basically sustained only through hats. You heard me right. Hats. Because so many people in that game’s community are hat fanatics (you can buy them), the money from that is now what sustains the game. You now get it for free on both PC and Mac. What’s really great is that people who make popular digital objects for the game (like hats) can still have their items put in the game’s store once they become popular — and they’ll still make a percentage of each transaction. This announcement comes as part of the largest update made to the game since its release in 2007 — the Über Update. For more information about the free-to-play development, visit http://www.teamfortress.com/freetoplay.

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‘City of Heroes’ soon to be a city of freedom, since you don’t have to pay any more

Superheroes! Prepare for more freedom than you ever thought imaginable. NCsoft and Paragon Studios announced yesterday that their comic-inspired MMO is going free-to-play later this year as City of Heroes Freedom. “Freedom is about getting more content into the hands of our players, whether they are subscribing or playing for free,” said Brian Clayton, Executive Producer at Paragon Studios. “To do this, we’ve looked at City of Heroes from the ground up and focused on three ways to enhance the experience by giving our players more choices, greater rewards and the best content we’ve ever produced. And for the first time ever, players can choose to enjoy more than seven years of content for free.” You will, as these things usually go, be able to choose whether or not you’re willing to pay for content. Subscribers will be able to experience all of the game’s benefits as well as some

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E3 First Look: Star Trek Infinite Space

I’ll admit it. I’m a bit of a Trekkie. So I enjoyed getting to sit down with Gameforge and take a look at their new free-to-play, browser-based, tactical action MMO, Star Trek Infinite Space. The story in Infinite Space is set during the Deep Space 9 timeline in the Star Trek universe. It is written by Star Trek screenwriter Lee Sheldon, who hardcore fans will recognize from the TV series. When starting out the game you can choose to be a captain of the Federation or the Klingon Empire. Character creation allows you to customize your avatar from many races including human, Andorian, Bajoran and obviously, Klingon. You also get the opportunity to customize your outfits and equipment. While the majority of the game takes place flying your ship, you do get to use your avatar in social spaces and hubs to meet up with other players. But once you

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Steam adds multiple free-to-play titles

Valve Corp.’s digital distribution giant, Steam, is finally introducing a few games that you won’t have to pay for unless you’re really into that whole microtransaction thing. (However, if you didn’t grab Portal when it was free, I don’t know if we can be friends.) Several free-to-play titles, including Champions Online: Free for All and Spiral Knights, are now available as part of a listed “free-to-play” genre. There’s now a concise free-to-play FAQ available on Steam that answers every question you’d have about these games, as well. For instance, you won’t need to provide any payment upfront in order to play these games. That’s nice enough. But if there are components of the game you wish to pay for, those are easy enough to access, because your Steam Wallet now serves as the funding source for any microtransactions in-game. If you’re only playing free games, you’ll be a Limited User

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E3 First Look: Vindictus and Dragon Nest

This year at E3, I got to start out my week by visiting the booth of one of my personal favorite online game companies, Nexon. When people say that World of Warcraft is the largest MMO in the world or that free-to-play MMOs don’t make a profit, it is always fun to point to Nexon’s 350 million registered users and $45 million revenue. From what I understand, this is only their second year at E3 so while their booth wasn’t the biggest there, it was very nice and had a cozy lounge-like feel. The representatives from Nexon were also very accommodating and helpful. During my time spent at their booth I got to take a look at two games. The first thing I got to see was some updates coming to their already released action MMO, Vindictus. Vindictus is a game that, despite some issues, I’ve always really enjoyed. If

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