gPotato: Not So Hot

This week I was asked by a friend to try and review some of the gPotato games. After some consideration I tried Aika, Flyff, and Rappelz. These games have been described by friends as "easily running on low end systems" and "will probably run on anything" However, this was not my experience. All three games installed just fine, patched just fine, but were not playable. Aika actually offered a 1000x600 resolution and I was able to make a character but beyond that screen the game client would always freeze and crash. Rappelz would not even load and the game client would also freeze and crash. Flyff was the same. So maybe if you have your grandmother's old desktop, you might have success with these games, but a netbook not so much. I will post reviews of Mabinogi and Fiesta later this week, and if anyone has some recommendations for games to review please comment or message me.

Draiga Veritas
Rogue Paladin Venomancer Barbarian Necromancer Archer Extrodinaire

Forsaken World, Why Have You Forsaken Me?

I have mentioned in earlier posts that on October 27th, I was going to beta test the new game by Perfect World called Forsaken World. I received my beta key two weeks ago in an email saying that I would be able to login on the 27th. Well I just received another email telling me "so sorry, just kidding, you're not phase 1 of the beta. You must wait 3-4 weeks and maybe you will be in phase 2" Needless to say I am very disappointed. I'm not the only one, the comments on the Forsaken World page are being bombarded with angry and disappointed fans. Now, most of us rational gamers understand how a 'closed beta' works, and know that you can't just let everyone on all at one time. But Perfect World, you should have waited to email beta keys to people until it was their turn as to not set false hopes. I have not yet decided if I will participate when/if my phase of the beta comes around, but if I do I will post a review then, but expect at least 3-4 weeks for delivery.

Draiga Veritas
Rogue Paladin Venomancer Barbarian Necromancer Ranger

Netbook Game Quest 2: Fun Games and Games That Make Me Want To Punch a Juggalo

I tried a new batch of games these past few days and I found everything from surprise in a game I would normally not try, and the most frustrating install attempt ever. Games I tried: Kitsu Saga, Grand Fantasia, Shaiya, and Soul of Ultimate Nation Online.

Kitsu Saga/aeriagames.com

This game was a little too cute for my taste, but would probably appeal to younger gamers or those who really enjoy anime style games. This game like all of the other Aeria games installed quickly with no problems on my netbook. Also like the other Aeria games it demonstrated the same resolution issue and did not stretch to fit the screen even on the minimum settings. However, unlike the other Aeria games I tried it was barely playable..the fps surprisingly low. I was unable to determine if this was because I was on a netbook, or just general server load while trying to run around in town. Either way it was very difficult to play and overall just not that interesting to me.

Grand Fantasia/aeriagames.com

This game similar to Kitsu Saga also features a cute anime style game play, but was surprisingly fun. Think DDO meets Hello Kitty. I was able to install it with no trouble and although it did have resolution issues, after a few hours of playing I barely noticed. I was very pleased that unlike many anime or asian style mmorpg's the quest chains actually made sense. The game even prompts you to accept a quest if you miss it, and the map is easy to read. It was one of the best games I've tried so far, and I would definitely recommend it especially for novice gamers to learn general mmorpg concepts, as it is very intuitive.

Shaiya/aeriagames.com

As with all aeria games I've tried so far, it installed just fine. It played smoothly although did encounter the same resolution issues. This game played just fine, however it was just boring. It kind of felt like a bare bones or stripped down version of other mmorpgs only offering very basic functions. Over all, I would not really recommend it.

Soul of Ultimate Nation/actual website for direct US download unknown

I was shown a trailer for this game and it looked almost exactly like the type of game I have been looking for. It ended up being the game that made me want to punch a clown. I had numerous problems downloading this game..however most of them had nothing to do with the specs of my netbook. First of all I tracked down the Soul of Ultimate Nation website and went to download the game. There is not a direct download for it on the game's website, it instead directs you to a list of host sites where you can download the game. Well at least half of the sites do not offer the English/USA download, and the first English/USA download I tried failed. It said the file was broken, and gave me spyware. (Normally I don't download things from unknown sites, but I don't really have anything irreplaceable on this computer and I was so excited to try this game, I took the risk) So, I got rid of the spyware and tried one of the other host sites. This time it downloaded just fine, and the game opened to the login screen. I went to register a new account to login to the game, and to my frustration there is a 10 character restriction on the email address you can use. I have only one email account that was short enough, so I registered using this email and then never received the confirmation email. So then I had to go and create a new email account to be able to receive the confirmation email. Finally I had registered. I logged in with my new account info and got the message 'This game is not for USA, please download USA version" Now this was frustrating because this was labeled as the USA version on the host site I downloaded it from. Also the game's site does not really give much info at all about downloading and installing the game. Finally after some Googling I found a different site that had the American version of the game. I downloaded it. It took forever to download, and in the end didn't run on my computer due to compatibility issues. I would definitely not recommend this game, if nothing else just for the headache it takes to get it. If someone has successfully downloaded this game to a regular computer and played it, please let me know how it is. I am still curious and might try it again once I have my desktop system up.

So some of these games worked pretty well and others were a nightmare, but now I know. I really need you guys to send me some recommendations for free mmorpgs to try and review. Please message me! Also only 3 more days until I get to try the Forsaken World beta. I will post a review on that sometime shortly after.

Draiga Veritas

Rogue Paladin Venomancer Barbarian Necromancer Ranger Extraordinaire

Netbook Game Quest 1: Find 5 games that are playable on a netbook

Here are the games I installed and tried: Dungeons and Dragons Online, Guild Wars, Perfect World International, Battle of Immortals, Conquer Online, Dynasty Warriors Online, Requiem, Runes of Magic, and Warhammer Online.

Results:

Dungeons and Dragons Online/www.ddo.com

Game install did take a very long time, but the game works great! I did have to adjust the video settings to the minimum, but spent hours playing this game. Have also gone through several patches on the game now and none have affected playability.

Guild Wars/www.guildwars.com

This is the only game I tried that was not free. The normal price is about 30 USD for the game,and 20 USD for each of the expansion packs Factions, Nightfall, and Eye of the North. However, there are no monthly fees after this. I purchased the game by itself at a book store discounted to 6 USD to try first. Again the game install did take quite a while, but this game also ran very well on my netbook. I don't think I had to even adjust any settings for this one.

Guild Wars 2 is set to be released sometime in the near future and I will review this as soon as I get a chance to see if it also works on a netbook.

Perfect World International and Battle of Immortals/www.perfectworld.com

These games are created by a North American subsidiary of Perfect World Beijing, so they do have alot of Chinese game style influence. I have to hand it to PW, they have several different games available for free download from mmorpg to a single-player dungeon crawler style game. I tried these two games and was very impressed. The download was much faster than previous games I tried and both worked perfectly on my netbook.

I plan on trying all games available from this site, including Forsaken World which I recieved a beta key to try out Oct. 27th. I suspect that if past experience is any indicator, all of these games should work quite well on my netbook, but I will definitely post my findings.

Conquer Online/co.91.com

Conquer is another Asian style game featuring very simple gameplay and emphasis on PvP. It installed very quickly on my computer, and is playable but with some issues. Because this game supports a minimum resolution of 1000x768 and my netbook is 1000x600 the game does not stretch to fit the screen. It sits in the middle of my screen with a 1/2 inch of desktop on either side and the task bar often comes up over the Conquer screen. Because my netbook already has such a tiny screen, having an even smaller game screen does make gameplay difficult but not impossible. I still had fun playing this game for a few hours.

Dynasty Warriors Online/dynastywarriors.aeriagames.com

I did not expect this game to play at all on my netbook, as I was far below the minimum system requirements, but was asked by curious friends to try. The game installed fairly quickly and although I did experience a similar resolution problem to Conquer online, it was still very playable. The gaps on either side of the game screen were much smaller and the task bar did not interfere with game play. This game also ran much more smoothly. So although it does have some issues, is very playable on a netbook.

Runes of Magic, Requiem, and Warhammer Online

These are games that absolutely failed on my netbook. I was not surprised that Requiem failed, though I tried it anyway, however I was very disappointed by Runes of Magic and Warhammer Online, and here's why. I had read on other blogs/forums that Runes of Magic was one of the few games that would work on a netbook successfully. I was able to install it, but not able to load the game at all. Warhammer Online has minimal system requirements so I thought that would work in my favor for this game. It did, sort of. The game installed and loaded, but even at all minimal settings the graphics were so distorted that it was completely unplayable. Again this is just my experience, and if anyone else has been able to get these games to run on a netbook, please let me know!

I will post again soon, and again if anyone has suggestions on games to try please let me know!

Draiga Veritas
Rogue Paladin Venomancer Barbarian Necromancer Ranger Extraordinaire

Welcome!

For my birthday last year I received a netbook, specifically an emachine em250 series with a 1.6 Ghz processor and 1 G of RAM. I then started trying various games on my netbook and have run into the same problem as many netbook users, many games do not work due to either strange native resolutions, or the minimal system specs. Now I know that many of you system snobs out there are laughing at my attempt to game on a netbook, but like many people I can't afford a high end system and want to know what will work with what I've got. So, the purpose of this blog is to compile a list of games, primarily mmorpg's, that will work on a netbook. I have devised 3 categories: 1. Works no issues, 2. Works with some issues, 3. Does not work. I will try to review as many games as possible to help compile a good list, and if any of you out there have suggestions on games to try please comment or message me.

Draiga Veritas
Rogue Paladin Venomancer Barbarian Necromancer Ranger Extraordinaire