/\/\4P|_3 5T0RY? (Maplestory?)

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A game by Nexon and Wizet.

Is it a "leet" game? Is it not an elite game. Maybe, maybe not, but it has a HUUUUGGGE fan base. Some people say there are 5 million accounts, some say 7 million, 11 million, 20 million, 50 million, and 110 million. Hmm. Pretty big gap going on there. (The most consistent is 70 million accounts.) Anyway, anything over one million is impressive for any game, which is why Maplestory is notable. The most consistent is 70 million accounts.

Question number one: Is it good? Again, people disagree with each other. Some people love the idea and game play where you jump around, and it is not the usual kill this, go there, and watch your character slash the monster until it is dead. Some people hate it because of childish graphics, grinding, and the platforming. My opinion? It is fun when you start, but how you'll progress over time generally sets in when you hit level 30. Either you'll continue or you'll drop out.

Question two: Ehm, I can't really think of another question.

The game can be played over a really long period of time. However, it needs a Maplestory download as well as the Nexon Game Manager. This took a few hours to finish up, but then I finally got to play. If you can suck it up for that long, you're on your way.

Anyhoo, when you start up the game you'll be taken to the world screen, where you'll see a surprising number of worlds. Due to the recent Big Bang patch, the look and feel of the game, along with monster drops, experience rate and such were changed dramatically.

So, you pick your world, which will take you to channel selection. Again, lots to choose from. The most crowded will obviously be channel 1.

Pick your channel to go to the character selection. You don't have any, so let's create one. You have a choice of 6 major classes. Adventurers, the most common class, which start out as Beginners, but branch out into the 5 main subclasses: Warrior, Bowman, Magician, Thief, and Pirate. Each of those branch out into 2 or 3 sub-subclasses. They have a level cap of 200, and are generally the most familiar characters.

Dual-Bladed Adventurers. I don't really know much about them, other than they have dual blades. Go figure.

The Resistance. Oooh. These start as "citizens," and become Wild Hunters, Mechanics, or Battle Mages. They have a level cap of 200, and are interesting to play because of their completely unique skills. Wild Hunters have Jaguar Mounts, Mechanics have Mechs, Machine Guns, Flame Throwers and other weaponry, and Battle Mages have awesomeness. Yeah, I don't know.

Cygnus Knights, or the Noblesse. These guys progress incredibly quickly. They also separate into the same subclasses as adventurers (sorta.) However, their level is capped at 120, meaning that ordinary adventurers will overtake them in power a few levels above their cap.

Arans and Evans. "Heroes," with special abilities, they are the hardest to play, but become the most powerful. They have skills unique to their own class. They have a level cap of 200.

So, you've chosen your class, and you start play. You'll start in the beginner area, where you'll learn basic control, and then it's off to the whole wide world of Maplestory.

Timing your attacks is important, otherwise you won't hit anything, and the enemy will probably just ram into you. Which will hurt. Ouchie. Skills can be used to bolster your allies or harm your enemies.

You will pick up a lot of monster drops, mostly Usable Items and Etc. Items. Usable Items are, well, usable, but Etc. Items generally don't serve a purpose, unless you're Questing or need it for a magical recipe. Seriously.

Combat and Character Progression basically is the game, but if you get bored of that you could head on over to the Free Market, where all of the players of the world and channel converge to sell their virtual goods, if they didn't want to NPC it. This generally consists of elite items, and not newbie items. For example, you won't see someone spamming, "S>Tree Branch 2 Mesos @@@@@@@@!" Selling is "S>," buying is "B>."

In the portals to the right, you can see a large number of portals, each of these portals lead to about a dozen player shops each. Again, the items sold are very expensive because they are very high level. So, the Free Market is not really a place for newbies. Which brings us back to character building!

I'm assuming that since you read this far you're either laying or seriously considering it. You want me to give you a straight answer. I would say, "Yes, try it! I mean, what do you have to lose?"

So, for the players that have started, here are some good monsters to train on.

Slime: These are located near Ellinia, on Victoria Island. Any AoE spells or skills will work well here.
They can be killed in large numbers, because there are huge groups which clump up into one horde. They drop mainly Common and Magician equipment.

Experience: 10

Stump: These are found close to Perion. They are a little tough for beginners, but give OK experience. They also form clumps. They drop mainly Common and Warrior equipment.

Experience: 13

Pig: They are fast and jump occasionally. They drop a spread of equipment.

Experience: 12

And now, some higher level training.

Blue Ribbon Pig: These guys are fast, jump, and flock in huge groups. They are found near Nautilus. AoE attacks = Fast Training.

Experience: 23

Ligator: These guys are tougher and will put the pain on newer players. However, they stay in huge mobs and move slowly. Recommended to train on Blue Ribbons first.

Experience: 37

And that's it! So, finally...

If you can deal with repetition, 2D graphics, and any possible addiction, Maplestory is a great game.

Final Score: Great!

All monster info taken from global.hidden-street.net. Picures taken from BasilMarket and Hidden Street.

2 yy's...

2 yy's u r, 2 yy's u b, i think u r 2 yy's for me.

Syrnia Review

Syrnia. In other words, syrnia.com.  Click Here To Go To Site. The game which has it all. Mining, combat, smithing, fishing.  The game where you can fight ogres, team kill, cook food, chop wood, do magic, build houses and farms, and even steal from other players, all without a membership!You name it, Syrnia's got it. (Well, that's not actually the case, but whatever.) Let's take a closer look at this online game, shall we? (This is a first impressions review, as in, I have less than 25 hours of game experience)

(I crossed the player and chat box out for privacy reasons.)

If you are an RPG or MMORPG buff, you've probably, at some point in your gaming career, played Runescape. Basically the biggest browser-based game around, from Jagex Ltd. And now that you hear the words smithing, mining, farming, thieving, fighting and such, you may be thinking, "Huh. That sounds a lot like Runescape. It must be just like it." The answer, as the FAQ on site so aptly puts it, is NO. Syrnia is nothing like Runescape. Nothing like it at all.

The first thing you should know is that Syrnia is a text-based game. If you don't know what that is, it's a game with no animation and possibly (as is the case with this one) no sound. It does have illustrations, relax. Only the most hardcore text fans would seriously play a game with no pictures to get your imagination moving. Which isn't insulting text-based fans.

If you're still reading, the pics I put up piqued your interest. Either that, or you're really bored. Either way, you may want to continue reading.

Okay, the second thing I have to say may scare you away. Syrnia is, in addition to being text-based, is timer-based. Yep, every action that takes place in or around the game has an onscreen timer that counts down, and when it's down, you do the action. The timer can range from 15 seconds to 15 minutes, depending on what you're doing. In general, the timer will get higher as you do harder things. (Note that some theft crimes can rack up some pretty high timers. Like, a day or more.)

So, let's run down the skills:

Combat, for beating up monsters, getting their loot, as well as fighting other players in this game's manifestation of a barren wasteland, the Outlands. This is ticker based, and so does not feel like you're in combat. (But you probably figured that out already.)

Mining, which is fairly self explanatory, it allows you to gather ores and such to make items. From tine, to iron, to obsidian, mining offers a wide variety of ores. (it can take 60 seconds for tin or bronze to a full, freakin' 15 minutes for obsidian.)

Smithing. Also fairly self explanatory. Helmets, swords, bigger swords, cauldrons, "scimmies", shields, and so one. By the way, this skill is fairly tedious to level up in.

Fishing, the main source of food and thus healing. From shrimp to the massive groupers. use your bait, fishing rods and nets to catch the little guys.

Cooking, the main way of making said fish edible. (assuming you don't burn them...) This is the only way to get consistent healing material for combat. You need wood or coal to cook. (Usually wood.)

Thieving. Yep, you can steal from other players. And shops. This won't raise any popularity points with other players. Also, the AI will catch you often at low levels. of course, if you happen to steal from a filthy rich player successfully, well...first of all, they'll be pretty mad, and second, you're get some decent moola. Ehm.

Woodcutting. The way to get wood for houses, shops, farms, and, ehm, cooking. Yeah... that was obvious. (At the beginning, you'll only be able to get one or two logs, but after a few months, or longer, if you last that long, you'll be ripping through twenty logs in the same amount of time)

Let's see, what am I missing... there is magic, (no combat magic, from the looks of it) farming, trading, strength, hitpoints, and defense.

All of these things, (un)fortunately (take your pick) are done AFK, because of the counter. Tick, tick, tick, tick...

It may also interest people to know that apparently, there is no level cap. Which may be good or bad. Good, you don't have to stop in your pursuit of skill. Bad, there is no sense of achievement because there is no goal. 50/50.

Syrnia can be played for a really long time because of the lack of level caps. Do you want to play for a really long time? Probably not. 

The lack of mid to high level quests mean that there aren't any specific goals, only advancement of your many skills.

Syrnia is also somewhat popular with people looking for someone who want something different than Runescape. (or people whose Java program is messed up...)

Anyhow, whether you decide to play is your choice.

Syrnia may interest for a while, but for hardcore gamers (or even casual gamers ) will have difficulty really "clicking" to it. You'll be AFK most of the time anyway, with the occasional bot check. For people looking for a more immersive game, look somewhere else.

Final Score: Meh...