Ralsu recaps the best of the free-to-play games he has played during the month of June 2008 in this week's Top Ten Free-to-Play Games. The biggest surprise is which game sits at number one:
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Readers might note that this is the first week since the Top Ten began that Mythos has not held the #1 slot.
Ralsu, have you tested the new overworld in Mythos? I'm curious as to how this influences your opinion of Mythos. Personally, I like the concept of the Overworld much more than the previous model. I've always thought the instanced world map paths were a little ridiculous. In an game that's so focused on instanced dungeons, I feel that there should either be a true map that players have to cross to reach their destination or portals straight into the dungeon. The instant map paths and one-time world map travel to unknown locations seemed very contrived.
Personally, I like the overworld concept better. It makes the game more 'fun' for me (and fun is the point, right?). Unfortunately, I still don't like WASD or camera choices, even though they've made a couple of passes at them. In order to get the most out of the game, I still feel like I need to use a mouse-driven isometric (Diabloesque) view, which means I might as well be playing Diablo or just wait for Diablo III. I really hope Flagship continues to improve on this.
Ralsu, have you tested the new overworld in Mythos? I'm curious as to how this influences your opinion of Mythos.
I love the overworld. What I dislike at this point is the fact that the overworld is not on the beta server for everyone to test. If the beta server is for beta, that tells me that the test server is for alpha. If the game is in alpha, we've regressed a little. In the end, I 100% believe it is for the right reason and will make the game great.
I had a beta key for Mabinogi, but never had a chance to try it during beta. Since it moved to #1 on your list, I thought "now's the time". I downloaded all 858MB, installed it, proceeded to launch it and then watched my PC magically reboot. After this happened the second time, coincidentally immediately after clicking a firewall alert for a GameGuard process, I theorized the problem was with GameGuard. The only other game I have that uses GameGuard is Exteel (which I haven't played in a while), so I decided to test that, too. Sure enough, it, too, caused my system to reboot.
As others have apparently already discovered, GameGuard uses rootkit like behavior, which my software firewall (Comodo) disallows. The conflict causes a reboot.
I cannot, in good faith, recommend any game that uses GameGuard, regardless how good the game is. GameGuard is much too intrusive, much too "sketchy"...
I cannot, in good faith, recommend any game that uses GameGuard, regardless how good the game is. GameGuard is much too intrusive, much too "sketchy"...
/sadface
I completely understand. If I were 100% honest with you, I might tell you that I would not have ever installed some of the games that use rootkit-like hack protection if it weren't part of my job here at Ten Ton Hammer. In the case of Mabinogi, that game is pretty cool. I would have missed one of the true gems of the F2P world. Same goes for Rohan. Most of the others that use it, though, aren't good enough to justify it.
...... I might tell you that I would not have ever installed some of the games that use rootkit-like hack protection .....
Bloodymare Requiem is not even better than those GameGuard games, Requiem creates a user with administrative rights on your system...most users wont even notice this account (the name is, HsUser_iyd5Sa7CdNK / Properties = HackShield Shadow User in your account management ).
lucky me, its my job to work with IT-security and I am a bit paranoid if it comes to such things.
Otherwise I would never have noticed this.
Whatever, this behavior is not acceptable and a Killer if I decide to play a game.
I dont speak about "Evil Eye" from Flagship Studios or the Warden within WoW...those are absolut different anti-hacker measures, they dont alter your system or create "special accounts"
Top Ten Free-to-Play Games June 2008
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