Reviews

Torchlight is the inaugural release from Runic Games and it has a lot riding on its virtual shoulders. Torchlight carries the dreams of all its developers and, quite possibly, the hope of redemption for Runic's founders, Max Schaefer and Travis Baldree. Have they succeeded? Keep reading for WarCry's official review!

WarCry sister site The Escapist has their review up of Cryptic Studios' latest superhero MMORPG, Champions Online - check it out after the cut!

WarCry contributor Jim Moreno delves into Turbine's Mines of Moria and lives to tell the tale and share his experiences.

The second expansion to the most popular MMORPG of all time is finally here, and after months of playing the beta, WarCry Senior Editor John "Can't Fake the" Funk can sum it up thusly: WoW has never been better.

WarCry Editor John Funk has his hands on a copy of Swords: An Artist's Devotion, a book of illustrations by Diablo II artist Ben Boos. Check out our thoughts - and some snazzy pictures - beneath the cut!

The Age of Reckoning has come, and WarCry Editor John "Can't Fake the" Funk sits down with the game to see how it's turned out.

WarCry's Suzie "Kalia" Ford parachutes into Gravity's "horror-based" MMOG, Requiem: Bloodymare and shares the experience!

WarCry's own John "Can't Fake the" Funk sits down and tries NCSoft's mecha-based online action game, Exteel. Read his thoughts below the cut!

Age of Conan has now been on home computers for three weeks now, and today WarCry gives you its verdict:

"While it certainly will not be a World of Warcraft killer (that's a Goliath that stomps over all of its Davids), Age of Conan will be a game that will retain its most dedicated of fans for many years, introduce many new players to the MMORPG genre, and without a doubt set the standard for MMORPGs for years to come."

This is a review of a different kind: a review from a member of the press and a subscriber to the game!

JR "Razor" Sutich has a full review of Pirates of the Burning Sea, the new MMORPG from developer Flying Lab Software and publisher Sony Online Entertainment. This game lets players take it out to the high-seas or one of the many islands of the Caribbean.

Pirates of the Burning Sea had me at "ahoy". As a big fan of PC games such as Seven Cities of Gold, Curse of Monkey Island, Sid Meier's Pirates! and tabletop gaming's Wooden Ships, Iron Men, I had been looking forward to this title since I heard of its development. Besides, pirates are iconic legends in their own right and this is another chance to immerse yourself in that romantic fantasy of sailing the Seven Seas, minus the scurvy.

Read more after the plunge.

Tabula Rasa is the sci-fi MMO developed by Destination Games and published by NCsoft. It launched close to two months ago on November 2nd and I've been playing it daily since the Pre-Order Head Start in October. That's part of the reason why it's taken me a bit to write this review.

Sound

The sound in this game is amazing. I actually left the music on, and for me that is a rarity. Audio in Tabula Rasa is used effectively to make it necessary to listen in order to maintain situational awareness. Several times while I was running around the battlefield I actually had chills when I heard a Bane Dropship coming in behind me. The screech of a Lightbender or the hissing speech of the Thrax will haunt you even when you aren't playing. Tabula Rasa does have in-game voice chat and the quality is quite good. While not absolutely necessary, voice chat does make Control Point battles and instances go much smoother.

Click Read More to see the entire review of Tabula Rasa.

JR "razor" Sutich reviews the new OTTO Digital Gaming Headset in our latest gaming hardware review. He used this with a variety of games, including MMOs like World of Warcraft.

The OTTO Digital Gaming Headset (Model OT-8) arrived at our offices last month and I have been using it almost exclusively when playing online games since then. At first I didn't think I was going to like it, but now I prefer to game with them on.

Read more after the jump.

It's been a few months since we took a peek at DDO and in that time, based on community feedback and the server merges Turbine are doing, we've decided it was time for a second look at Dungeons and Dragons Online. JR Sutich re-reviews the game in this new article.

First off, I stopped using Auto-Attack. I can see where taking a more active role in fighting improves results and makes it more interesting. The next step to making the game more fun was joining a guild. Having others online who are willing to do quests or answer questions made a lot of the difference. Getting run one time through Waterworks on Elite got me Level 3 and I had easy access to The Marketplace.

I had gotten to Level 4 when I noticed something interesting. That total Favor (not Faction, Favor) number that I had been obsessing over wasn't as big a problem as I had believed. Sure, I still think that the whole idea of making Drow and 32-point builds unlockables is a poor one, but I had managed to get 270 out of 400 necessary for the extra race without much trouble at all. I hadn't even completed all of the quests listed for Level 2. The only chain quests I had done were Catacombs and Tangleroot on Normal, and the Waterworks run on Elite. Getting 400 Favor is nothing to worry about. I should have it by the time I hit Level 6 or 7. Now, working on getting 1750 Favor might take a bit more effort, but I no longer see it as a horrible grind. It's still poor design, but not game breaking.

Read more after the click.

Harry Potter WarCry has released their reviews of the 7th and final book in the series: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Lumina offers us two versions, one that is free of spoilers and one that has quite a few.

This is the non-spoiler review.

Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers ahead.
Spoiler review, click at risk!

Since it launched on April 24th, we've had a writer on the ground exploring Lord of the Rings Online. MMORPGs are huge things and we believe it is important to give it much more time than say a single player before we release a review. Now, after several weeks of playing, JR Sutich has given us his opinion of the game.

Player characters can enter The Ettenmoors once they reach Level 40 and engage the monsters for control of several strongholds in the area. The more strongholds you control, the more quests are available, allowing you to gain even more Destiny Points. Player characters can use the Destiny Points to purchase enhancements that work like timed buffs. Gaining more armor, health, or even increased XP for periods of time can greatly improve chances of survival and rate of leveling. I plan to spend a majority of my time doing Monster Play on the side of the monsters. Evil is good.

Read more after the click.