Blacklight: Retribution

Fast paced First Person Shooter with Hyper Reality Vision technology and Hardsuits (Mech suits). So yes this is a fps that is set slightly in the future, though not too far that it doesn't seem extravagant and completely sci-fi.  Customizable loadouts with a 1000 different gun combinations, Can also customize armor to reflect what you do, Gain experience, earn in game currency, unlock guns, armor, accessories, etc. 7 different modes to play and 9 different maps to play them on.


Combat is fast paced, shooting is easy but aiming can be difficult, especially because of recoil. The Hyper Reality Vision technology is an interesting way of letting you know where the enemies (and your own team) are without giving you a steady mini map up at the top. So instead of the mini map you hit v and your screen gets kind of x-ray/heat signature reader look about it. It lets you see through walls to see where everyone is located in relation to you.  It only lasts a lil while and then you have to wait for it to recharge so you can use it again.  So you cannot just roll around with it up...though even if you could it would be really hard to do. 

Mech suits! I mean Hardsuits are incredibly hard to kill, they have lots of armor and hit hard.  To be able to call one in though you have to have earned enough match credits to do so. (you earn these from killing other players and I believe from doing the objectives).  They aren't cheap and if you get killed when you are calling it in you lose it, or if you get killed after you've called it and before you get in it they can steal it >.>   There are other unlocks that you can get to put in the weapon depot, like airstrikes and flame throwers.  


There are different kinds of guns and it gives you the stats like how far they shoot, how fast, how much spread there is and how bad recoil is.  You can change all the parts of the gun, or if you would rather you can just use a premade gun.  Guns and armor are unlocked for a couple days, so its more like you are renting a gun and armor rather than you own it. though you can purchase a gun or armor or accessory for good if you'd like but they cost a lot more to do so. 


Their are 3 types of currency in the game. 2 of them you use at the marketplace when you are purchasing armor, weapons, etc. You can either use Zen (which is real money converted into Perfect World currency) or GP (game points which are earned in game). The 3rd type of currency is CP (Combat Points) which is the in match currency to purchase more ammo, health packs, hardsuits, etc. The items that can be purchased in a match are something that each agent can adjust for themselves before the match starts.

Most everything can be purchased with GP.  I do believe all items you can use either Zen or GP to purchase items, though there are a few things that are Zen only purchases. Creating a Clan is one of these such things that can only be purchased using Zen. At the moment though there doesn't seem to be that many benefits to actually being in a clan though.

My biggest problem right now with this game is that if you join a game your friend is in you are not necessarily going to be on their team.  I've been playing with a couple friends and in the beginning of the match ill try to switch to their side or they will try to switch to mine and it wont do it right away, and may not till like the middle of the game where you don't really care anymore. Even after that match itll re assign teams so you have to try and get on your buddies team every match. Kind of annoying. At first i thought maybe if i create a clan itll let us queue together and get on same teams but from what I have read in the forums this isnt even true...Still its a fun game though.


Game: Blacklight: Retribution
Released Date: April 3rd, 2012 and July 2nd, 2012 (on steam)
Price: Free-to-play
Developer: Zombie Inc.
Publisher: Perfect World Entertainment
Computer Requirements:
Minimum:


OS:Windows® XP / Vista / Windows 7 (32-bit)Processor:Dual-Core CPU
Memory:2 GB RAM
Graphics:256MB DX9 GPU (Geforce 8xxx or Radeon HD2xxx)
DirectX®:9.0c
Hard Drive:8 GB HD space
Sound:DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
Other Requirements:Broadband Internet connection

Recommended:

OS:Windows 7 (64-bit)
Processor:Quad-Core CPU
Memory:4 GB RAM
Graphics:1GB+ DX11 GPU
DirectX®:9.0c
Hard Drive:8 GB HD space
Sound:DirectX 9.0c compatible sound card
Other Requirements:Broadband Internet connection

PlanetSide 2

An MMOFPS with battles constantly raging all over the world at any given time.  There are 3 Factions or Empires as they are called.  These 3 Empires are constantly fighting it out for resources and territories. Certain territories may have specific resources, where resources fuel different kind of advantages. These battles are not some 10 minute match or till team 1 kills 40 people, matches can last days, weeks, etc. it all depends on how persistent each side is, and how badly they want or need that resource located there. There will be different types of classes that you can unlock and switch between. Not to mention there will be Vehicles.  Yes that is right...you can roll around in a tank.  

I have not tried this game out, as it is still in alpha; but it does look pretty awesome from the videos i have seen of it from E3.  Although it was still in a very controlled environment and only a small portion was available, the battle you could watch was pretty awesome.  my only concern is if there is a massive amount of people in one area how bad will it lag it out? will they have to section it off into different servers to help reduce lag of a magnitude of people? or will they have it be like a channel system where you can kind of switch through them without having to 'create a new character'.  or maybe they have figured out a way to work around this completely.

The 3 Empires are the Terran Republic, the New Conglomerate, and the Vanu Sovereignty. So yes in some territories there will be 3 different sides all fighting against each other.  

I think what I like about this the most is it isn't just a "lets see how many people i can kill" kind of game but there is an actual goal behind doing it. Your empire is trying to take control, and you have a direct affect on it.  You could help your empire take control of the territory that gives you ammo bonuses or whatever, therefore making your empire that much stronger and more able to try and take on the world.

There are skill trees that will help you unlock different types of classes.  Each class has its advantages and disadvantages but the best part is you can choose specific abilities that best suite you. 

Vehicles. This is something that i think is awesome, i think that it is a very realistic thing to have in it. Sure maybe your team wasn't expecting a tank to roll up and squish some of your squad mates but now that you know its there you can take counter measures to make sure it does not happen again.  Or maybe you were the one that is flying around annihilating everything  you see from above.  

Since I like to play fps games and even just from the alpha footage from E3 i can say I'm looking forward to trying this game out. If you want to see some of the Footage or get more info you can either go to their website: http://www.planetside2.com/  or go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLakXgelJGY for some footage, he has a few episodes up on youtube.

Game: PlanetSide 2

Release Date: TBA

Price: TBA

Computer Requirements: TBA (my guess is its going to have to be decent)

The Secret World

The Secret World is set in the real world, our world. Where the things that as a child you believed in are really there, covered up by 3 different societies: The Illuminati, The Templar, and The Dragon.  The game is set in the modern world with no classes so if you want to be a blade wielder using magic you can be. This is one thing I am looking forward to seeing how it works out. Another great thing is that there are no levels, however you do gain experience and from what I've heard you also gain reputation with your faction by doing quests. The crafting in this game is also different from most other MMOs out right now, whether that's a good thing or not I'm not sure.

Abilities:
First lets look at the fact that there is no set classes, no warrior, no mage, no priest, no preset class.  I do think this could make things interesting, though it also means that you really only ever need to level 1 character, unless of course you want a character in another faction.  Instead of classes they implemented what they call an Ability Wheel. From this wheel you will be able to pick between 3 main categories: Melee, Ranged, Magic. Then those 3 categories are split up into 3 subcategories.  If you decide to go melee you can pick between: Hammer, Blade, or Fist. If you go ranged you can pick between: Shotguns, Pistols, or Assault Rifle. And if you go Magic you can pick between: Chaos, Elemental, or Blood.

If you want you can essentially learn them all, as long as you keep questing and earning experience.  Because in order to obtain an ability you have to put points into it, which you get after you've earned x amount of experience. Although you can learn as many abilities as you want you have to have a weapon pertaining to what you are using equipped.  You can have 2 weapons equipped so you can use 2 types of abilities without having to switch weapons. You can also only have 7 abilities on your hotbar at 1 time, so you'll have to sift through what you have and decide on what you think you will use most.

Along with the Abilities you get other points to spend that will upgrade your Skill: how much damage or healing you do with a particular weapon. These you also acquire from doing quests and gaining experience. You will also have to upgrade your ability to use higher tiered talismans with these points.

Honestly I have my doubts about how this will work and how much "free to play as you like" game experience it really will be.  Sure you have lots to choose from, but once the game is out i feel that there really may become some "cookie cutter" designs that everyone will start to use.  This sort of thing happened with RIFT, They had lots of classes to choose from and you could be 3 at once but even still with all the possibilities people still found out what was the best and there became "cookie cutter" builds.  I'm currently in the closed beta and will be testing out to see how easy it is to work with.  The idea of it I love and I just hope it turns out to be good. *crosses fingers*  


Also the fact there are no classes but you still need a tank, a healer, and dps for dungeons makes me a lil sad but I'm not sure if there is a way to really steer away from that.


Levels:
So no levels, no needing to be level 10 to do pvp or level 30 to do a dungeon. However there are still questing and PvP and Dungeons. So what is the point of questing if there is no levels? Money, Fame, and Power.  After completing each quest you receive money (as it seems to be the reward for most quests in games). No matter what society you are from, whether it be Illuminati, Dragon, or Templar, you need to gain reputation so that they will trust you with more important work. Last of all by questing and gaining experience you gain points to spend in abilities and skills, which increases your power.

I'm not going to lie, I have wanted a game that did not have levels for a long time.  Though this is not exactly how I imagined it would be, I think it may work.  I am a bit curious to see how they balance out Player vs. Player combat, or perhaps it won't be balanced at all, I don't know, though once I have a chance to test it out I will. I'm curious as to how dungeons will be as well, I'm trying to wrap my head around how they would have done it so that if a group goes in they don't get their asses whooped easily or that they don't pwn the bosses easily. Another thing I guess we shall see.


Crafting:
There is no set tailoring, alchemy, or whatnot. Anyone can do any crafting as long as they have the materials.  There are no recipes to say you need 1 of this and 20 of that. You can make better weapons, you can make better potions, you can make better talismans. And you can dissemble items. You need a toolkit (specified for what you are making i.e weapon toolkit for weapons) to create items along with materials.  Materials you get from dissembling items you've found or bought. It doesn't cost anything to assemble or dissemble items so crafting is essentially free. To craft a hammer you create a the shape of a hammer in the crafting window along with a toolkit in its spot and boom you have a new hammer.  laying the materials out in the shape of what you want is how you craft.

I've watched the video of the developers kind of walking you through the crafting and it kind of made sense when they were doing it. Then I tried to do it myself and couldn't figure out what the hell I was doing wrong. >.<  Finally figured it out and realized it takes a good amount of dissembling to get all the materials you need for 1 item. So instead of selling any green items keep em and dissemble them for materials, cause if you don't need them, you may be able to sell them to someone else.




Overall I think this game could be fun, not to mention I think it will get a lot of people who love horror/thriller games since there really aren't very many MMOs out there that have done that, most are fantasy driven.  No elves here, just humans with a bit of some magic in them. If you want more in depth info http://www.thesecretworld.com/news/blog_lead_designer_martin_bruusgaard_explains_character_development  was written by the designer and goes into some finer details about some of the items I mentioned above. 


Game: The Secret World
Release Date: June 19th, 2012
Price: $49.99 + Monthly Subscription
Computer Requirements: 

REQUIRED	512 KBPS or faster Internet Connection	DVD-ROM	8X or faster DVD drive**
OS	Windows XP (SP 1)/Vista (SP 1)/Windows 7 (SP 1)	VIDEO CARD	nVidia 8800 series 512 VRAM or better/Radeon HD3850 512MB or better
PROCESSOR	2.6 GHZ Intel Core 2 Duo or equivalent AMD CPU	DIRECTX	DirectX 9.0c Compatible
MEMORY	At least 2GB RAM for Windows XP / 3GB RAM for Windows Vista and Windows 7 *	INPUT	Keyboard & Mouse
HARD DRIVE	At least 30GB of free space
*2GB RAM for Windows XP / 3GB RAM for Windows Vista and Windows 7 **DVD ROM required for installation only

Tera

Having tried out the beta for the soon to be released game Tera, I figured I would let you know how I felt about the game.  After having tried many different MMOs in the past few years I've been having trouble finding one I can really get into.  Tera provides some aspects that I think may make this game be interesting.

True Action Combat

Is what they are calling the combat system in Tera. In most MMOs you click your target and whatever ability you use will be auto aimed at your target.  In Tera you aim with your mouse (or joystick, if you are using a ps3 or xbox360 controller) and with each attack you have to be aiming towards the target.  Getting hit by monsters is also rather hurtful so dodging and blocking is a must....for everyone. At the very beginning every class is given either a dodge or block ability.  There is no auto attacking, so every time you want to attack you must either hit a hotkey or click your mouse.

I found this combat system to be intriguing, although getting used to the mouse being an aiming device like a fps was a little difficult at first it soon became a lot of fun. To add to that, the dodging was a lot of fun and made the game feel a lot more interactive than most MMOs where it doesn't really matter if you get hit or not. The first big monster I went up against I almost died several times because I didn't dodge his attacks, and had I not been a healing class I probably would have died: several times.  

Political System

When you reach endgame content players can run to become a Vanarch (leader) of a province. They can do so by either popular vote or by PvP.  If they are not all that popular (and they know it) they can opt to battle other Vanarchs (and their guilds) to battlegrounds.  If a player wants to be victorious in the popular vote they are encouraged to campaign in and out of game.  The Vanarch and their guild get special privileges and can either raise or lower taxes, host special events like parades, either offer services like teleportation or take them away,  and either share special vendors with the public or keep it for themselves and their guild. 

The idea of a political game could either be really awesome or end up being a total disaster.  I like the idea because it gives players a chance to do something else when they reach end game content. In a lot of games once you are there you have few options and if you focus too much on one it can become boring quickly.  This also is something that can be ever changing, so its not like once someone is Vanarch they are Vanarch forever. I see the problem of people abusing the power they gain and it could create an environment people become really unhappy with, thankfully though I don't believe every person that gains that power will be that way.  Or at least I hope not.




Customer support was also really really good. They have a live chat that you can connect to on their website, and from what I've heard, my experience was not a fluke. They were super nice, helpful, and able to fix our problem in no time. We were talking to someone in an instant, and beyond that they were willing to help. Its always seemed to me that that is how customer service should be. If you've ever had to call and wait on the phone for a long period of time, you know how annoying that can be, especially when they finally answer and they are either rude, or they don't seem to care whether they resolve the issue or not.