My Gaming Life (free MMOs and this great year in games)

Hey kids. It's been a while. Why so long? Mostly because I've been playing Hellgate: London. It's essentially an action RPG, so it's not just a wham bam. I'm thinking I'll have to go play Episode 2 again once I'm done. I've been away from its goodness for too long now. (That reminds me, watch your Black Friday ads. I heard someone out there is selling The Orange Box for $25!)

Also, I did spend one day on a little gaming experiment. There was a thread on the Penny Arcade forums about free MMOs. I hate MMOs, but I figured for free I could take a look at a couple. I checked out Acclaim's Nine Dragons kung fu MMO. It's okay. The concept of hiding some of the grind behind the convention of kung fu training makes it a bit more palatable. The game also has some pretty fancy graphics (nice water) for a free game. I also tried out Lunia, a SNES style MMO. You zip through a level with random people of your level beating up bad guys. You could call it Secret of Mana MMO, or something similar. It didn't recognize my gamepad, though, and playing on the keyboard was frustrating.

In the news of the world, Super Mario Galaxy is out. I don't pay full price for consoles. But I wondered if I knew any solid way to get a Wii for about a minute when I listened to every podcast and web site heap the superlatives (and game of the year nominations) on SMG.

Let's quickly recap the highlights of the last three months in games:

BioShock
Metroid Prime 3
The Orange Box
Quake Wars
Call of Duty 4
Halo 3
Rachet & Clank Future

And this week:
Super Mario Galaxy
Assassin's Creed
Crysis

Even if I'm not personally hyped about every game on the list, it's still a huge year for games. And these are just the titles I follow. The last three months also saw the release of a lot of titles I respect (even if I don't play them).

Persona 3, Skate, Project Gotham Racing 4, and Guitar Hero 3 all hit in the last three months.

And guess what's coming out soon?

Unreal Tournament 3
Mass Effect
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Rock Band

Thank goodness Grand Theft Auto 4 and Metal Gear Solid 4 got pushed to next year, eh?

Anyway, back to Hellgate. I'm on the last chapter so I should have a review up by the end of the week.