Freeware PC

Netts introduces a nice concept for a MMORPG but really leaves out the "oomph" that makes me want to keep playing.

Florensia is very standard when it comes to MMORPG but has a very relaxing feeling to it. The one thing that is pretty cool about the game is the mix of land and sea combat. While the land combat is slow and sluggish, the sea combat can become very intense. You create your own ship with different techniques and such to combat enemies or to get to neighboring islands faster.

The sea combat is a whole different part of the game which is really nice because you really don't have to do land quests if you don't want to, you can just do sea quests if you feel the land quests are boring. Creating your ship is like having a second character, it's awesome to have a choice in a free MMO.



However, the land combat was I found to be rather boring. In the beginning there were a limited number of quests. I found myself grinding a lot just to activate a quest with a required level. As I said above, the combat was very slow, it may have helped to increase the speed just a little.

The controls work just fine and the detailed tutorials definitely helped, no major complaints here.

The graphics are great. The cute anime style graphics fit the game's feel and environment very well and not only that, the game engine was very scalable when I played. Playing with the bloom effects added a nice feeling to the game too.



The soundtrack I almost immediately turned off, it just didn't appeal to me. The sounds were pretty low volume, so I had to turn them up and very cartoonish but they I guess they had to fit the style of the game.

Overall the game is pretty average and I have no major complaints but the best part about the game without a doubt is the sea combat. Check out all the different classes you can choose from and any other things I didn't go into detail at the Wikipedia page, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florensia . Photos from mmosite.com and mmotaku.com

The Bottom Line: 7.5 out of 10

Your rhythm game craving can now be adequately fulfilled.

Straight from the Osu! website: "osu! is a rhythm game based on the gameplay of the popular Nintendo DS series Osu! Tatakae! Ouendan! and its overseas counterpart Elite Beat Agents. While trying to keep an authentic feel gameplay-wise, osu! has a wide range of online features, such as player rankings and replay exchange. Also available is a fully functional in-built editor allowing intuitive creation of your own beatmaps, and a quickly growing library of user-created content."

As mention in the above description, Osu! remains faithful to the DS rhythm game but brings it the PC and adds a lot of user created goodness. If you don't know what Elite Beat Agents is like, watch the video below for what the gameplay is like.



The greatest thing about Osu! is the community, there are thousands of songs to download from their website right off the bat but unfornutely none come with the program.

An editor comes with the game so you can make your own beatmaps as well as a great online component so you can challenge other players and your friends.

The menu system, interface, graphics and controls are really simple. My one and only complaint is the not so simple learning curve. Most of the songs I downloaded took a number tries to complete, even on the easiet difficulty.

Other than that, you've got a great rhythm game with limitless potential.

Download beatmaps and the game at http://osu.ppy.sh/ for free!

The Bottom Line: 9 out of 10
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Keep an eye out for the Florensia open beta impressions!

Free online FPS's are hard to come by and when they do, it's a hit or a miss. In Combat Arms, I would consider it a shot in the foot.

Right after downloading I felt like something was going to be wrong with this game. It wasn't the graphics, it was the controls and it wasn't the sound. It was just the feel of the game: the feeling that I just wasn't going to like it, at all.

Before I get down and dirty, let me tell you what CA does right, well sort of. It has the normal gameplay modes like deathmatch and CTF which are all fun if you aren't playing with people with bad Internet connections. The graphics are far from stellar for a free game but allows some cool effects like bloom.

The game controls and plays like a normal FPS but I found myself constantly adjusting the mouse sensitivity for the right type of gun. And in many firefights, this did not help one bit. You can't aim from the hip without a scope, which will cost you some in-game money.



The sound is rather forgettable, it has the normal bangs and explosion sounds but they really lackluster. Sometimes it seemed like the sounds didn't match the gun animation or reload animation at all. It was all very awkward but I just ignored it after a while.

Now to one of the most annoying this of all: THE IN-GAME LAG. Because of the way the game is designed, you can only get game money (used for buying weapons and equipment) and experience (for ranking up) at an end of a match. Now if you get disconnected from the server, you'll lose all your earned experience and money that you would get at the end of a match. So if you're in first place and lag out, good-bye EXP and money.

There's another frustrating aspect of the game. The guns you buy aren't permanent. They only last for a certain amount of time. The maximum amount of time is 90 days and that will cost you lots of in-game money. The same goes with the equipment and outfits you buy.



One other upside to the game is that it is completely free, just like most Nexon games but there are bonuses for those who want to pay in micro-transaction system. But having to keep paying for items you have already bought is just doesn't make any sense for an online FPS.

As I mentioned in the CA impression post, there are no assist kills and I can't get over the inconsistent lag and the damage it does to the gameplay experience. If you can get over that or if somehow Nexon improves the lag, you still only have a pretty terrible to mediocre experience in Combat Arms.

The Bottom Line: 5.5 out of 10

Screenshots from http://www.atomicgamer.com/gameScreenshots.php?id=4186

Nexon's new online FPS is actually fun...when you or the other players aren't lagging! Everything plays smoothly for the most part the only major problem that occurs is Internet connection issues which is a huge problem and really annoying if you get disconnected during the middle of game because your experience or in-game money won't be tallied (they won't get tallied until the end of the match).

Another annoying thing is that there is not assist kills. The person who gets the last shot gets the kill, so theoretically I could fill a player full of lead until he/she is about to die when out of nowhere a sniper on my team blows his face off with a kill shot. It's frusting....very frusting.

The TrackMania series has blessed with a second installment of it's free online racer: Trackmania Nations Forever. All the services offered by the game are free, now let me briefly explain the details.

If you're not familiar with TrackMania, than do some quick research off site, you'll be happy if you like speed. TMNF offers a wide variety of challenges to keep you coming back and really brings the term "track mastering" to life. A lot of the tracks are extremely difficult master.



That's just the single player, the multiplayer offers immense online competition from around the world, hence the "Nations" part. You can race others from France to China to wherever someone has an Internet connection. The track editor is great, easy to use and once you have completed your own masterpiece, you can share it with the thousands already playing TMNF ( http://tmnforever.tm-exchange.com/main.aspx ).

The graphics are great and the engine scales well with lower end PC's. Sound is pretty generic (typical engine buzzes...). Control wise...a keyboard can be cramped but yet they are simple enough not to have a game pad.



This game has a large appeal and it's hard not to like aside from it's difficulty level and learning curve. Give it a shot, what have you got to loose?

The Bottom Line: 8.5 out of 10

Download at: http://www.trackmania.com/en/index.php?lang=en&rub=nations

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Next up: Nexon's Combat Arms (Open Beta)