Action MMO games

Hi everyone,

today I want to give you a little overview of some so called action MMO games which either recently launched or are still in development.

The whole concept of games which feature most of the important MMORPG features, such as looting and equipping items, running through dungeons with larger groups of players, joining guilds, having relaxed chats etc. but still play like a 3^rd person action game such as Ninja Gaiden, Devil May Cry, God of War and the likes itself is fairly new. I know that I always wondered why noone made a game like that – console like action but as an MMO.

And suddenly here they are, and for some reason they come in a bunch. Korean and Japanese action MMOs all over the place. All of them feature real time combat, no more "turn based" fighting as in pretty much all other present MMORPGs, all of them have you slash at your opponent at the touch of a button and evade enemy attacks by actually dodging them, not by chance or having high stats.

So let me show you all of the action MMOs I know of so far.

Dynasty Warriors Online

There isn't really much to say here – it's Dynasty Warriors, it's online, it's awesome. The graphics as well as animations are kind of outdated as this game has been out in Japan for several years now, but gameplay wise it's an experience I encourage everyone who's a fan of 3^rd person action games to check out. The game is PVP only for the most part with no real PVE or open world traveling, but that's what Dynasty Warriors always was and everything else would have been strange. The English version of the game came out just recently and is completely free to play, so feel free to check it out.

Dragon Nest

Dragon Nest is another free to play action MMO which will release in NA in Summer 2011. It's already out in Korea, China and Japan. The game is instance based as well, so again no open world to explore. Dragon Nest has a very cartoony, anime style look, not exactly my taste, but each to their own. What really got my attention though were the PVP battles seen in many videos, they are full of action and quite fast paced. There's also a wide variety of classes to choose from, which is always a good thing.

Vindictus

This game, also known under the Korean version's name "Mabinogi Heroes", launched a couple of months ago. As of now only people located in North America are able to play it, an European version is set to come somewhen this year. Still, using a proxy I was able to take a sneak peak and play through the first 10 levels. What I found to be remarkable was that this game features a real storyline, complete with voiced cutscenes and whatnot. The graphics as well as animations are really good, the PVE boss battles were lots of fun. The PVP however was far from exciting - at least when I played it, all PVP content that was available was some kind of capture the flag mode which got boring real quick. Another downside in my book is that this game does not only lack an open world, but it's pretty much lobby based with only small areas to explore and even then players are split up in tons of channels. But then again, this game is completely free to play, so who am I to complain?

Tera Online

Actually being the only game in this list which is subscription based, Tera Online may have a hard time competing with the many other action MMO games which are coming out around these days. I personally think that MMO games which make you pay a monthly fee will always have the advantage of being way better balanced though, as they usually go without item shops etc. which can make people with too much money on their hands shine out from the crowd stat wise. Also, Tera Online is one of the few games which will definately feature an open world to explore. This game has gorgeous graphics and neat animations, and as another big plus there are tons of different classes / races to choose from, unlike most other action MMOs shown here. Tera Online is set to release in EU and NA somewhen later this year.

Continent of the Ninth

This game has only come out in Korea so far, and while an English version was announced ages ago there is no fixed date for it's arrival yet. It was actually the very first action MMO I ever spotted, and I have seen the first trailers for this game aproximately 2 years ago. The graphics and animations look really nice, especially when taking into consideration that this game is free to play as well. The PVP looks really really fun from what I've seen, whenever the archer/rogue class is comboing his opponents it looks like you are looking at some kind of online version of Devil May Cry. Sadly, this game will also not offer an open world to roam freely.

Divine Souls

Divine Souls has gone through 2 closed beta testing phases as of now, one of which I attended. The servers will go live again for the open beta (so free to check out for everyone) somewhen around the next days, so stay tuned if you want to play it. Divine Souls does not feature an open world, but lots of areas which connect the different PVE instances, so it doesn't feel all that lobby based. From what I've seen so far it still felt really unfinished, with lots of bugs, cut off animations, weird audio, really limited gamepad support and the finest engrish you've ever seen. The PVP would probably be more fun if there were more than 3 classes all of which are in no way customizable as far as skills, moves etc go. I personally don't think they will have fixed all of these issues until the game opens up for the wide public, but let's wait and see. It's free to play, so apart from your precious time you won't loose anything if you feel like giving it a try.

Blade & Soul

Imagine a beat'em up game mixed with an MMORPG, that's pretty much what the developers describe Blade & Soul like. The graphics look really really nice, the animations are utterly impressive – the game is based on the Unreal Engine 3 by the way. Sadly there is no fixed release date yet, and while we got to see tons of ingame trailers none of them feature *real* gameplay with interface and everything. All we get to see over and over again are - indeed very fine looking - clips of characters beating each other up. I think they should drop us some more real footage, after all this game has been announced for years now. From what I've read it is supposed to feature an open world and is also going to be free to play.

Core Blaze

This one is probably the one I'm looking forward to the most. Just as Blade & Soul, Core Blaze uses the Unreal Engine 3, and has really impressive graphics and animations. Once again no fixed date for this game's release yet, but from what I've seen this game looks pretty much like an online version of Monster Hunter. Which rocks. It is going to be completely free to play, and will, according to the trailers, feature an open world to travel in. I have not yet seen any videos of PVP action, but still, I am quite confident that this game will kick some serious ass. As most of these in here do anyway.

 Now these probably aren't all of the action MMOs there are out there, but pretty much all of them I know of. Do you happen to know any other one I didn't mention here? Be sure to drop me a comment!

Or maybe you just feel like telling me which one of these sounds the coolest to you :)

Maybe you've been waiting for one of them to release as well? Or you've even played one of them before? Tell me in the comments!

Greets,

Wesh

Really Real Samurai Swords

Hi everyone,

I always wanted to own a sword, I think I got the idea when I was 10 years old. There was some kind of gothic apparel / decorational shop just around the corner of our house, and everytime I went by that shop I fancied those wallhanger swords they displayed in their windows. Of course every try to convince my parents of the fact that I am unbelievbly reasonable for my 10 years and sure as heck wouldn't cut myself into pieces if they got me one of those only ended up in tears and frustration. So it stayed at window shopping for several years, until I eventually forgot about my deep desires of owning sharpened metal.

Now my financial situation is pretty alright at the moment, that plus the fact that I may have watched The Last Samurai one too many times lately, finally made me make my long forgotten childhood dream come true.

A couple of days ago I bought a samurai sword to hang on my wall and decorate the room.

And hell, it decorates the living shit out of my room.

Now it's a cheapo one, cost me around 50 bucks and is supposed to be a handmade carbon steel blade, but I guess by that they mean "put into the metal press by hand". Then again, from what I could figure it's made in China, and as we all know one man hour is way cheaper than one hour of machine run time over there, so that might actually be true. Who knows, and more importantly, who cares?

I for one do not, and I seem to be a little bit special in that regard. Pretty much everyone's first question when laying their eyes on this piece of metal was: "So... is it real...?"

And then there am I, standing in desperation trying to figure out what makes a sword which is supposed to color up your room real.

Thing is, in my oppinion every bladed something that is longer than my kitchen knifes and has a handle is a sword, and if it's even made out of some kind of steel, it's real. That's what defines a sword, right? And as for the second most popular question "Is it sharp?" I could only give the answer that it's probably not sharp enough to cut your arm off, but I wouldn't exactly call it blunt either.

Really real, really cool, really expensive

On the other hand some say that there are no "real" swords being made anymore, as, well, swords were real when they were practical in medieval times, and everything newly made therefore doesn't deserve the term "real". And that makes just as much sense to me. You can grab real real samurai swords all over the net from what I've seen, if you feel like spending from two grands upwards for some piece of metal that may be 300 years old and is as functional as a letter opener. A probably way cooler thing to have hanging on your wall though, and you can affirm the question about it's authenticity without feeling awkward about it.

I've also heard some other funky explanations about what makes a samurai sword real. One of it, it came from my stepfather, was that these things are only real when they've been folded like about a hundred times, because that's what makes them harder. Now while it may be true that originally swords (not just the asian ones) were folded, this process was only necessary to even out the carbon content in the steel, because the medieval iron ore was of pretty bad quality when put in comparison with modern industrial steel. Also, folding it does in no way make the metal harder, I have no idea where he grabbed that info. I could have told that even without the large chunks of metalworking I had to do for my electrical engeneering apprenticeship.

And then again, you can get cheap "folded" blades for around 100 euros, from what I've seen, which are made from damascus steel. Now if damascus steel counts as being folded you could just as well say that every industrial made steel is pre-folded thousands of times as they are pretty much homogeneous in their contents.

Damascus steel blades - In my oppinion this is as far off from being traditional as it gets

A buddy told me genuine samurai swords have to be from Japan. And that's it. Like, the japs are probably the only people in the entire world who know how to make them. And they vigorously refuse to tell anyone. Ha.

Look at this, it doesn't get much more real than that.

Other Kind of Informational fun fact: Japanese katana evolved from the Chinese tachi, which is basically the same thing only rebranded. So the design is actually Chinese. Now if the Chinamen feel like stealing their own design back by producing tons of replicas they should be free to do so, don't you think?

Yet another friend teached me some of the stuff he learned from watching his favourite anime. It had something to do with real swords having star-shaped hand guards, being unbreakable and being able to cut through metal without even using any effort. I forgot about the details, but it was painful to listen to and was loaded with more bollocks than I want you to read on a blog that's supposed to be at least kind of informational.

So have we learned today? Probably not much, to be honest I just needed an excuse to show you my new kick ass ninja accessory. So have another picture of it taken in a cheesy sideways angle here.

And I'm out.

Greets,

Wesh