What Will YOU Kill This Summer?

So, DAWN was vaporware. What ever will we do with our roleplaying urges now???

Thankfully, Ive got ya covered! Being a member of the very unknown Sylvain Alliance, I had a chance to explore their website. And what I found was a small yet very helpful link to some new and upcoming MMORPGs you might want to check out…

The Sylvain Alliance was formed when Dawn, Glitchlesss highly touted and now thin-as-air RPG, was actively seeking beta testers. I met Aemyn via the Dawn forums. And along with some of the other more-outspoken visitors to those forums, I was invited to join the Sylvain Alliance officially.

I didnt expect much to come from it, but it looks like they are doing okay. Out of curiosity, I visited the site they had up, and happened to look under MMORPGs listings.

Well! I think my summer is set, game wise!

Lets see what I found…

Anarchy Online is ready for BETA! News has it that the CD Keys are being sent out to testers to help them create their accounts and get started. There was even a chance for those who signed up for beta but DIDNT get an acceptance letter to actually go ahead into the beta, as well. Anarchy Online is a sci-fi game based around a conflict between the citizens of a planet named Rubi-Ka, a planet ruled by a totalitarian society. You can ally up with either side…OR…just wander neutral, tourist-like, through the world, “going wherever fame and fortune might take you…”

Another sci-fi type of rpg coming out is Citizen Zero. For me, its all about eye candy. And the games screenshots, although beautiful, looked a bit stretched out. The outdoor shorts were truly glorious. The character models were smooth looking. BETA for this still looks like its open, friends! And that is set for Q4 of 2001. Open game will be released 3-6 months after beta closes. The story behind Citizen Zero is that on a penal colony planet affectionately named “Neo-Eden”, there has been an integral uprising – unbeknownst to the folks back on Earth who continue to send their chip-imbedded prisoners. As such a prisoner, you have no memories, and you have just overcome the programming of the movement restricting chip through your “..inner strength”. Your abilities and powers have awakened! And there is a whole new world for you to explore!

I will give a minor mention about a game called Heroes Journey, put out by SIMUTRONICS, who apparently have a LOT of games out there! Heroes Journey is not even supported by an official publisher yet, but has something interesting to offer. “Gesture based influence” is an…intriguing phrase, defining how the game engine will grow with you as you learn and play. Since this game is obviously pretty far from BETA, never mind public release, I didnt research it much but left it here for you to look at. I see dragons, but I also see isometric camera angles.

MIMESIS has big dreams of its own! BETA has been pushed back, but not too far, only July. I went to the STORY link, and had a brief moment of panic reading the introduction to the storyline. It was that realistic!- until the end, at which point I realized we are dealing with a sort of post-nuclear world scenario. Ill warn you now, the site takes a long time to load, for some of us. The story itself is a 17 page journal entry detailing how a forbidding new weapon changed the face of warfare on Earth forever, along with the lives of all its inhabitants. What comes next? Find out for yourself, pbbttt!

Reading the main page of the game Pernica, I was instantly intrigued.

“…if you are a “power gamer” or a “player killer” dont even bother to read further, just go find another game. Pernica is intended to be like a novel that you participate in, the writings of the great fantasy authors such as Tolkien, McCaffrey, Lieber, Kurtz, Goodkind and others serve as our inspiration.”

It has a good look and feel to it…but the subscription information was confusing. Someone out there paid $50 to play Everquest? Who?? And what an idiot! Pernica is saying it is comparative to EQ pricewise. But I saw $25 a month, and my mind reeled. Of course, you wont be purchasing the game itself. And the game producers feel it evens out. Pernica is scheduled for release on October 1rst. There was no information on BETA that I could find. The best information was found under KEY FEATURES, which has some very scratch-your-chin-in-thought infomation. This is a roleplaying fantasy game, including dwarves and elves, humans and orcs. Good vs. Evil. Screenshots left a LOT to be desired, but…I like it and if they can offer what they are saying, I might just sign up!

The last game I inspected was Underlight, a game a friend of mine actually heard about previously. He said that this game is truly about roleplay, and that made me immediately begin the download for the files. Prices for this game compare to Everquest, but there is also a “mare account” option. This offers you a chance to have an account you apparently pay for by minute! Very cool, that. The story…I…didnt get a grasp on. It seems very complicated, and there seem to be a few worlds or dimensions involved. The HISTORY involved more things than I wanted to know just yet, so I leave that for you to peruse. There wasnt a screenshot section that I could see. However, there were screenshots in the GAME MANUAL section, and speckled all over the site. Characters seem rather stiff and remniscient of SIMS.

Well, my download for the files for Underlight is complete. Im going to go see if I reeeallly want to do this all summer long. I hope I helped you learn about some new games. Feel free to correct any misinformation, and to comment on any of the games you have reviewed and feel I should have included. See ya!

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