World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft is an MMORPG based on the best-selling game, Warcraft III and was made by Blizzard. This is Blizzard's first attempt in making a game in the MMORPG category and it revolutionized the way MMORPGs are made and played. It is one of the most popular MMORPGs with over 9 million subscribers worldwide. This is indeed a remarkable feat done by Blizzard which will forever change video gaming.For a monthly fee, you can have the chance to play this magnificent game. However, if you can't afford to play WoW, there is an option to play on private servers which I won't be talking about in my review.

World of Warcraft came out last November of 2004 but I only got a chance to play it recently because I didn't have a decent PC to play it with. The moment I got a decent PC, World of Warcraft immediately came to my mind and downloaded it right after. I'm still addicted to this game because of the new experience this game is giving me.

Gameplay:

World of Warcraft definitely excelled in this category. The game has a lot of features that you'll definitely like: 

Affinity and Race System - When creating a character, players get the privilege to choose between 2 Affinities, The Alliance and The Horde, among 10 races (5 races for each affinity). For the Alliance, there are the Humans, Dwarves, Night Elves, Gnomes and Draenei. For the Horde, Orc, Undead, Tauren, Troll and Blood Elf. Each race has their own innate bonuses, for example: a Night Elf can shadowmeld just like in Warcraft III. If you've been a fan of Warcraft for a long time, you'll have an idea of pretty much what the game has in store for you.

Talent System - Aside from acquiring/buying skills from class trainers, World of Warcraft allows you to customize your character's abilities according to your preferences through the talent system. Each level up after Lv.9 grants you 1 talent point to spend on the talent tree. There are endless combinations to how you want your character to grow in WoW.

Job Class System - You can choose from a wide range of job classes in World of Warcraft. Each of them are unique in their own way. One thing that is great about this game is that it constantly balances each job class in every patch that they make, thus, preventing some classes to be superior than the other ones. Here are the classes you can choose from:

Paladin

Druid

Warrior

Rogue

Warlock

Priest

Shaman

Hunter

Mage

*Some job class are only available to a certain race or affinity*

Profession System - Aside from the Job Classes, players can also choose their character's profession. Professions have their own advantage like in Blacksmithing, you get to make your own armor at a cheaper price. There are so many professions in World of Warcraft that I can't enumerate them all. You can also combine these professions to make money in WoW.

Graphics:

Another category that makes World of Warcraft one of the best games today. You would be astounded by the graphics of this game the first moment you see it. You could see everything to the last detail. Everything looks so fluid and great! It really makes you feel like you're inside the game itself. Blizzard did a great job on making a lot of environments in the game. From the enchanting forests of Teldrassil to the urban buildings of Storm Wind. I couldn't criticize the graphics of World of Warcraft even if I wanted to.

The only downside to the graphics part is that your computer must have high specifications just to support the insane graphics. But if you can afford a decent computer, then you can see and feel the way its meant to be played.

The interface is very neat and simple. It also looks great. The best part about WoW's interface is that you can customize your interface. You can find a lot of custom WoW interface in the web.

Sound:

The soundtrack of this game is pretty decent but not to a great extent. Maybe the background music in some places are pretty good but in some places, they're just plain boring. In general, I really like the background music and sound effects found in the game. It really suits the theme of this game, which is dungeons-and-dragons theme. I don't turn off the BGM and SFX for some reason.. Maybe I like the soundtrack secretly. ;)

Story:

Four years have passed since the aftermath of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, and a great tension now smolders throughout the ravaged world of Azeroth. As the battle-worn races begin to rebuild their shattered kingdoms, new threats, both ancient and ominous, arise to plague the world once again. World of Warcraft lets you assume the roles of Warcraft heroes as they explore, adventure, and quest across a vast world. Thousands of players can interact within the same world. Whether adventuring together or fighting against each other in epic battles, you'll form friendships, forge alliances, and compete with enemies for power and glory.

Quoted from gamefaqs.com

This is the best thing that World of Warcraft has to offer, the storyline. The story of World of Warcraft begins four years after the story of Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos. Azeroth was damaged from the whole incident caused by Arthas, who after falling to the curse of the runeblade Frostmourne killed his own father and terrorized all of Azeroth, and is struggling to restore the things that was lost.

The story of the whole series of Warcraft is one of the most solid and best storyline I have ever encountered. It has pretty much everything of what a fantasy story should have. This is one of the main reasons why Warcraft was such a hit, players crave for great fantasy-based stories.

Overall:

There will be a lot of features that you'll like in this game. The servers are great because there are over 90+ servers running just to support the millions of subscribers in the game.

The only downside to this game is the large hard disk space required to play the game which can be over 10GB. But that's a small price that you have to pay to play a great game.

This is definitely a must-add in your list of games. A word of warning though, you may become very addicted to this game.. I am!

Florensia Online

Florensia Online is a Free-to-Play MMORPG that came out last March 2008. Originally, the game was made in Japan and was translated and hosted by Europe as an international server. I got to play this game last October because a friend of mine told me to give this game a shot. I was really impressed by the overall of the game.

Gameplay:

Pretty much what gamers are looking for in every game, the gameplay. Unlike most MMORPGs we see today, Florensia offers a dual leveling system, Land Leveling and Sea Leveling. Players can battle monsters and grind at land or purchase a ship and sail at the vast ocean for a new experience. If you get tired from killing mobs at land, you can try to kill mobs at sea.

Florensia gives you the privilege to create and customize your own ship to your liking. You can choose from a variety of ships: A Scout ship, an Armor ship or whatever. You can also choose your type of arsenal. It can be a cannon or a torpedo.

The game has a unique fishing system which lets you acquire fish and use them to upgrade your gear and maybe in the future, other stuffs.

Florensia managed to balance out the Quest-Oriented and Grind-Oriented part of the game. Every player can play the game according to their preference, either questing, grinding or a mixture of both.

There are 4 basic classes to choose from:

The Mercenary or the swordsman-type class.

The Priest or the support-type class

The Noble or the mage-type class

The Explorer or the archer/thief-type class

Each basic class has their 2 own corresponding 2nd Jobs after Lv.40.

There are still a lot of issues about class and skill balancing. Some classes are superior than the others and some skills don't have any relevance for their corresponding class, which should be avoided in any game.

Graphics:

This is the part where Florensia shines the most. The graphics are superb and very detailed to the point that you can see smoke coming out of guns or cannons. If you have a computer with high graphics, you would be astounded by the graphics of this game. Even if your computer only has the minimum requirements for the game, You can still see and feel the way it's supposed to be seen and felt.

The game has an 3D-anime-ish type of graphics similar to FlyFF and ROSE, which are very cute. The graphics are very fluid and may be one the reasons that will make you want to play Florensia.

Florensia also has a nice interface. It's very simple, pleasing to the eye and is not confusing even at first use.

Story:

Learn about the tragic history of the ancestors. Every world, innocent as it may seem, has its own history carved into every stone, whispered by every breath of air and sealed in the heartbeat of every living creature.

Discover secret mysteries and be among the first to set foot on land that has greatly changed since the Great Upheaval caused Lux Plena to burst into several pieces.

The game isn't very story driven, nor has a very strong story line. The story is pretty much about you being an adventurer and exploring the world of Florensia to unlock its secrets and history on how it broke into several continents.

Sound:

Just like the insane graphics, the soundtrack is pretty awesome too. The background music really matches the theme of the game. There may be times that you'll find yourself humming the music unconsciously. Definitely a plus for every game.

Server:

The game may be fine, but the server running it is not. This is the only downside of the game right now. The International server of Florensia has high latency/ping to connections outside of Europe as of the moment, unfortunately. It may be bearable to some players but to the other bunch, lag may drive them insane. Thus, it can cause them to lose their interest in the game.

Overall:

Despite the bad connection outside of Europe and some bugs in the game. Florensia Online is definitely worth a try. It has a lot of potential and may be one of the greater games in the MMORPG category. The file size of the game, which is 2gb+, is pretty fair for a 3D MMORPG. What are you waiting for? Play now!

For the official site of Florensia, click Here!