9Dragons and Other Acclaim Games

Yesterday, I found the new Acclaim Games website and recognized a game I wasted hours trying to install last year. By wasting time, I mean the game installed eventually and I realized my PC couldn't handle the game. I also saw an interesting game titled Nine Dragons.

I downloaded the installer for 9Dragons, and it was a very quick download, but it had to download another installer, so I was annoyed and put it off until today. I let it download all morning while I did my yard work. Finally, at about 3pm, the installer was downloaded. Then, I had to download and install game updates for about a hour, but I kept myself busy during the wait, and it finished without any trouble.

I started the game and absolutely loved the opening animations for the start menu. 9Dragons is a very nice-looking game, and it even works with my crappy video card. I enjoy the look of the game, but it has some throwbacks.

The sound effects are annoying and, sometimes, downright obnoxious. The music is almost non-existent. The voices are off sync with the characters' mouths. All these problems are very apparent at the beginning of the game... if you participate in the tutorial.

The tutorial froze the game for about five minutes just to load some very distracting banner ads. There are advertisements all over this game! That's the main reason I'm never playing 9Dragons again. The other reason is I like CroNous more.

BlockCAD: Lego Buildings

I found this very interesting program called BlockCAD. I haven't tried it out, and I don't plan to, but it'll be great for anyone who likes Lego.

I found it while I was browsing a list of 3D modeling tools.

More Kid Friendly Games

I found a really awesome racing game for kids. It has the simplest of controls, just the arrow keys. There isn't a lot to it, either. You start the race, zoom past the other racers and try to collect little crystals to gain max speed. The game's called LudoRace, and you can download it from Graphit-X.

I also found a nice sandbox game (well, sort of) for the younger crowds. The game's called Freeride Earth, and, as the the name suggests, you ride all over the world in a sort of free-roaming environment. Really, you're on a hoverboard in a snowy area, and that's all there is to it. Even though the game is insanely simple, I enjoy its endless environment, and I suspect a young child would stay interested longer than I. The latest version can be found here.

If you have a fairly powerful video card, you could also try "That Cloud Game," an insanely popular internet phenomenon which allows you to fly through the air, collecting healthy clouds to dispatch them near unhealthy coulds to make more healthy clouds and collect those. The point of the game is to clear the sky of clouds, but I just have fun zooming through the sky as I listen to the beautiful soundtrack.

If you're feeling adventurous, you could also try out some of the nice-looking RPGs at Tomoshibi, but it's a Korean site, so you may have trouble finding your way around.

Lost Realms: Morrowind clone?

I found another interesting game in development. It's titled The Lost Realms, but the filenames suggest a different name, Legends. Anyway, this isn't much of a game yet, and I haven't bothered to try it yet.

Kid Friendly Games

This is my first kid-friendly post. I understand the need for non-violent games, and I did some extensive searching, but most of the games I found were obviously Flash-powered puzzle games. I decided not to bother reviewing those. If you think I should start posting good puzzle games, say so.

The first MMORPG that turned up when I searched for "kid friendly mmorpg" on Google was Toontown. Don't resort to playing that garbage. I have better options for you.

If you have to aim low, a browser-based game is your best bet. You could let your child fall victim to Runescape, and that's a very family-friendly game, but there are some alternatives. If your child wants a pet, NeoPets is probably the game you're looking for, but I would look at some NeoPets clones like PetNebula or KiroPets first, because the real NeoPets is too popular for its own good. One alternative I was actually creating as an offline game was Mythical Creature. If you like that game, say so, and I might start working on it again.

If you have a fairly powerful computer with a nice video card, you could give FlyFF a try. I actually played that game for about a week, when I was growing tired of Runescape. I quit playing only because my computer had problems playing it. I would play it again, but I really prefer the dungeon crawling games. If FlyFF works well for you, play it, because it really is a decent game.

On that note, you could also try Eudemons. One of my teenage cousins is currently addicted to that game, just like any MMORPG player. I don't get to try Eudemons, because it requires a somewhat powerful video card, but really, I suggest Runescape for low-end computers.

CroNous Update

I already posted about the free MMORPG called Cronous, but I had only played it a short time before posting about it, so I thought I'd tell you about my experiences with the game thus far.

After having a ton of issues with Runescape and MU Online, I resorted to playing Cronous. I wasn't looking forward to it, because the dialogue is very bad English, and I didn't really want to start anew with anything.

I enjoyed it for the first hour or so, and I posted about how it was better than MU. After a few more hours of leveling up and trying out both the Magician and Valkyrie character classes, I do not retract my previous statement. I do, however, retract a statement I made about MU. It is not like Darkstone. If anything, Cronous is closer to Darkstone than MU.

As I level up in Cronous, I continually save up items, and I eventually find some powerful stuff to help me survive in more dangerous areas, however, as time goes by, you are only truly fighting random monsters. Unlike Runescape, there is no alternative to the fighting mechanics. Want to own a house? Play Runescape. Want to train a crafting skill? Play Runescape. Want some awesome graphics and fast-paced gameplay? Play Cronous.

If you guys play Cronous and want a friend, my username (or rather my character name) is FJGamer. Hope to see you online! And good luck finding those rare items!

Dark Oberon

Strategy games have never been a good genre when it comes to freeware. There just aren't many free strategy games which are fun and look decent. I've found two fairly decent games to add to your selection.

Dark Oberon seems pretty good, but I never tried it. It has a portable edition, so that's all the more reason to download the game. What turns me off is the look of the game. It's two-dimensional, and the characters seem to be made of clay. Unique, yes, but I don't like it. Just my personal taste.

The better of the two is Glest. It looks great, and it runs on my computer, which has a crappy video card. It's also available for Mac, Linux, and Windows. If you need a nice, 3D strategy game for your very small collection of Linux games, pick this up!

Glest has reached version 3.1.2 and has a fairly large filesize of 51mb, so be sure you get the newest version. You select either a tech civilization or a magic civilization. There isn't much difference between the two. (Just the visuals.) You have free roam of a vast plane, you must raise troops and defend yourself from your enemies, and you will most likely have to set up a computer ally to help you if you want an easy time surviving. There is no save feature or scenario builder, like in most commercial strategy games, but really, this game can be a lot of fun to play, and it can be played single player or over the internet.