As a result of the popularity of Starcraft and Starcraft2, many off-shoot sites and blogs have popped up – including a whole niche dedicated to Starcraft Artwork. Spaceage images, cool cutting edge designs and amazing modern drawings are now all over the web.

StarCraft II (SC2) is the ultimate competitive real-time strategy game, and the sequel to the hit original, StarCraft. The newest release from the Blizzard stable has 3 very distinct and evenly matched races, the protoss, terran, and zerg, which have been totally remodeled and re-imagined with several new units for the individual races, as well as new moves for some of the original units that are returning.

A new site that has popped up recently is www.starcraft2.pro which has a good blend of the newish starcraft artwork and some cool video / youtube trailers of the game.

One area that Starcraft has really excelled in, is the mods. Tower defences (similar to how mods took off for Warcraft3 – eg: DOTA (defence of the ancients) etc) have really become a powerful driving for the starcraft game.

Some of the most popular tower defences being:

Flash Tower Defence for SC2

Wings of Liberty TD

Multi-map plays for SC2

Spawning even further is the inter-clan battles for SC2. Its interesting to see that Blizzard really inherited the whole clan scene, as most of it came from third-party free mods. Blizzard may have designed SC2 and WC3 – but the free mods and interconnection of gamers through battlenet (battle.net) really saw the community and free mods take off.

Tower defences have become a hugely popular game in their own right. And most if not all internet cafes around the world (certainly gaming cafes) are filled with clans battling each other usually in a TD, DOTA or mod for one of the SC2 or WC3 games.

The other term you’ll hear constantly is the “Starcraft Zerg” a race (most common) in the game is chosen by the player. The other 2 races are protos and terran and its an ongoing in-game war as to which race will reign supreme.

You can also get a good view of some official starcraftII artwork at the following blizzard blog location:

http://kr.starcraft2.com/artwork.xml

Enjoy!

Starcraft 2 Art and TDs is a post from: Online Games Free RPG

Dungeon Game Promotion

One of the very first types of massively online multiplayer game – was called ‘Dungeon Game’ and was invented and brought to life by DEC (digital equipment corp)

Estimated to have been released around 1975, 1976, by a game designer called Don Daglow who was then studying at university – it was a basic game based loosely around Dungeons and Dragons and allowed various players (gamers) to walk through dungeons filled with monsters.

The gamer could elect to fight the monster, or simply move to another area in the dungeon.

Certainly a far cry from todays action packed, graphic and sound rich offerings! (Even from a browser based game!)

But some basics used in todays games such as World of Warcraft and Evony, such as ‘character experience points’ and learning new skills as well as increasing a hero’s level – were all inbuilt into even the earliest online dungeon style game.

The biggest difference with this very first dungeon game was that it was completely text based. Much like the earliest BBS (bulletin board system) games such as Legend of the Red Dragon, Baron Realms Elite and ‘Stroker’. (Although Stroker ended up being graphical!)

Another thing similar between todays massively multiplayer gaming strategy or builds compared to the very first MMORPG game was the use of races and classes. The likes of Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes etc as well as blacksmiths, warriors, hunters etc were used. (These can be seen right throughout the quest game era too, hero quest, knight quest and others from Commodore 64 through to XT, PC based games)

While a big limiter was the graphics cards capabilities of these early PCs, reducing the game graphics – but also the use of monochrome monitors which were very limiting. (Consider though, the C64, C128 and Amiga did connect to basic CRT televisions allowing some multi-color games.)

The earliest monitors also struggled to print even text quickly to the screen, but later models in the late 1970’s allowed faster refresh rates which made for better text-based-gaming.

The sound too was very basic. Small beeps or a ‘tit-tat’ sound could be heard from the earliest PC-speakers. This is a time well before the PCI based Adlib Sound Card, Soundblaster Card and Roland soundcards.

The earliest Dungeon Game was played between universities. Their ‘DECUS’ inter-university connections allowed them to compete across the earliest links between campuses. Prior to creating the dungeon game, the designer Dan Daglow had produced Star Trek the Game. This was churned out in 1971, very early in the piece. Using a whole chunk of RAM, 36k to be exact!

These games were intended to get the very first users of computers interested. Trying to bring the university students closer to the earliest machines around. At the same time, computer lecturers didn’t want the games to take up too much University study time. Instead preferring fast text based games, so more time could be had to work through maths software and other computer applications.

” Refer also to console gaming ‘dungeon game’ – from the earliest Atari console role-playing games right through to the latest Xbox and Playstation MMORPG these games and platforms too have come a long way quickly. In todays MMORPG, MMORTS and other online game categories – most are designed and coded in Asia, mostly Japan (however China is quickly catching up here), CRPGs are often referred to as Japanese role-playing games (JRPGs) however, these days there are many console based RPG’s that arent churned out from Japan.

An RPG on a PC may be labeled as a “console-based RPG” by gamers if its style and design is closely linked to the core console role-playing games. Take for example some popular RPGs such as Anachronox and Septerra Core.

The difference between console-based RPGs and computer role-playing games is virtually nothing in some cases (apart from the controls or joysticks) the port for example for Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (is identical from PC to all console types), or for games that are specifically transferred (ported) from one platform to another, such as the Ultima series, the Wizardry series, Eye of the Beholder or Final Fantasy. In the case of Final Fantasy however, since it is arguably the most popular (in terms of sales) Japanese RPG series, this should only include the MMO-inspired Final Fantasy XI.

Dungeon Game is a post from: Online Games Free RPG

Now back to the games, because we are such big lovers of all things horror – we decided to do a ‘Horror Games Online‘ theme today. You need to really look hard to find free horror games online – even harder to find them available right from your browser. Some are even offshoots from Horror Films websites offering more for their readers and web visitors. (Don’t forget that you need to be the right age to check out some of the Horror Gaming Titles – or mummy and daddy will get very mad, or your little sister will be frightened for the rest of her life!)

This happened to Darren, one of our lead writers – he showed his young relative the movie ‘The Sixth Sense’ – you know the one where the little kid says “I SEE DEAD PEOPLE!” and this movie freaked out his little relative and she has never been the same again! Ok, so behave yourself.

If you visit HorrorFilmMag.com you will find a ‘Horror Games Online’ section to check things out.  (They also have some cool 3D Horror Gaming stuff there)

A lot of the content in terms of gaming we found relating to horror, was all based on old Dos games. Still, at least many of the horror based games (even the DOS ones) are available to download from the web.

For those of you that don’t know, don’t forget DOS GAMES – at www.dosgames.com where they have 500 old school MS-DOS games ready for you to download right away. Its old school gaming heaven and we regularly visit the site to grab some gaming goodies.

(Some of the guys here at Online Games Free RPG do a lot of air travel, so a good idea is to load up on old DOS games for the laptop journey on the plane. Makes great sense and they don’t use a lot of processing power.)

(For DOS gaming, don’t forget to get a solid, stable DOS emulator. DOS-BOX seems to be the best and most gamers love the fact that it incorporates the audio, doing all things that Adlib audio card and Sound Blaster Pro did many years ago).

First Horror Games Online Title – Is Haunted Childhood.

Haunted Childhood II is a sequel to the old DOS InFluid classic, Haunted Childhood, which was a set of 4 two-player games.

Grab it from this link directly to download – http://www.downloadthat.com/windows/Games/Arcade/Haunted-Childhood-II.html

Horror Invaders – This is a title directly for Windows XP, so download and fire up.

Stop the onslaught of many menacing monsters from invading with the rocket ship.

Grab the download here – http://www.downloadthat.com/windows/Games/Arcade/Horror-Invaders.html

Now this post wouldn’t be complete without a full-on horror screen saver. We don’t usually mention much from the screen saver world, because they can sometimes be so pimped out and full of adverts’ that its not worth the download. But when you think full on scary movies, horror flicks and the like – it’s time to bring blood, guts and gore to your computer LCD monitor.

This screen saver is based on – Night of the Living Dead. (Horror Classic!)

Download it to scare friends, family and little kids! Link here – http://www.downloadthat.com/windows/Screen-Savers/Night-Of-The-Living-Dead-Screensaver.html

Now as we mentioned, we don’t have a massive amount of Horror Games Online content here, so we’d love to hear from you gamers. Please send us your links, ideas and details on all things horror gaming so we can add it up and edit this post with the details for other gamers.

In the mean time, as always – we wish you happy gaming!

Regards,

The Online Games Free RPG Team.

Horror Games Online is a post from: Online Games Free RPG

Are you looking for a new Quest Game?

We decided to look around for the best free quest game the internet has to offer; after some searching – we came up with:

Have you heard of Daimonin, quite possibly the best Quest Game?

It’s sort of a take on the old ‘Kings Quest’ adventure from many years ago, adventure based, MMORPG and well designed – its a free online quest game that many critics will like if you’re a fan of the old Sierra based titles.

Daimonin is a free software multiplayer online free RPG quest game that was developed on the open source code called Crossfire.

Join in with other gamers in a massive virtual fantasy realm Quest Game! Explore, fight, meet friends and enemies, become a master with sword and magic or be the best weapon smith around.

Using the SDL library, it provides cross-platform clients with 2D isometric tile graphics, sound effects, and background music.

Daimonin split from the Crossfire project in December 2001.

Daimonin is a graphical MMORPG for windows and linux. Its open source and free playable. It offers 2D isometric graphic, sound effects, background music and a complete editor for map making. Everyone can become a map wizards and create maps which can be uploaded to the game so other can play them.

Its probably more aimed at the ‘experienced’ gamer as opposed to the browsing newbie, but with game design elements able to be added, changed and modified – it really brings a new dimension to the keen gamer, keeping things new and fresh with plenty of feedback from users.

So for the latest choice; a top notch Quest Game – simply browse over to the following web address:

http://www.daimonin.org

Happy Gaming!

Quest Game is a post from: Online Games Free RPG

This online fighting game lets up to 8 fighters take each other on at the same time, full blown multiplayer battles. Basic attacking moves let the fighter make punching blows, body throws and defensive blocking.

More detailed moves and powerful attacks such as full blown combos and complete defence and counter attack can be done with a little more difficulty.

Rumble fighter is very cool!

Visit the main Rumble Fighter site here: http://rf.ogplanet.com/default.asp

or

Download the client directly here – http://rf.ogplanet.eu/downloads.og?op=client

Then start practising and develop your moves and combos to get things happening. Fight it out with your mates for the high score.

Theres an added extra in the game (newly added) called the “ExoCor” skill component. This lets the fighters experience much more explosive limits, they can now transform and morph into various positions during a battle.

There are various character types in Rumble Fighter -

Striker

The basic martial arts specialist, Strikers are strong in physical strength and close combat. This balance makes them ideal for beginners. When using overdrive mode equipment, their close combat skills are even further heightened.

Soul Fighter

Soul Fighters are aptly named because they have the ability to call upon other living souls for power. Strong in speed and jump, but weak in defense, their winning strategy is to hit-and-run, mking them better for experienced users. With their overdrive mode equipment, they can morph into beasts or take on other forms.

Elementalist

Elementalists have strong psychic powers which makes their special skill attacks quite powerful, while their offense and defense abilities are weak. Their winning strategy is fighting with their special skills from distance. Their overdrive mode equipment can summon various elemental spirits into battle.

Alchemist

Skilled in the arts of elemental transmutation, Alchemists have gear which offer great defense, but with speed being their obvious drawback. So their winning strategy always involves defense first, then strong attacks with their special skills second. Their overdrive equipment can make huge armor or mechs.
Now it’s time for Rumble Fighers in this online fighting game to fight off the spirit of the evil king.Many fighters fought hard in trying to defeat the evil king, but unfortunately some could not overcome the evil and became consumed by his power.

These consumed fighters were known as the Dark Guardians. The Shadow King was defeated when fighters captured his evil spirit with the Sacred Seals and placed it underground in a location known as “Resurrection”. After the defeat of the Shadow King, the Dark Guardians disappeared into the darkness as they waited for the perfect opportunity to strike again.

Rumble Fighter is officially only for the residents of Europe only and will update itself to the latest release.

Online Fighting Game is a post from: Online Games Free RPG

Most gamers will tell you, generally the porting of a popular movie on to the PC for gaming purposes generally fails. Now I don’t want to sound negative here, but honestly, this is usually the norm;

But in the case of harry potter and the chamber of secrets game, the game developers have certainly done a good job of bringing across the action of the big screen into an enjoyable ‘magical, mystery style fantasy PC game’ that has a decent storyline and will keep interest for an extended period.

Unlike other poor attempts at RPGs, this Harry Potter offering boasts the big game graphics, sound – but DOES have that story line thats needed.

Published by Electronic Arts, the harry potter and the chamber of secrets game was made available on Playstation2, XBOX, Gamecube, Gameboy and PC / MAC systems.

While some have argued the gameplay is  basic, it ties in well with the movie story line and requires the player to successfully navigate quests to completion.

For a more detailed view of the game, check out the YouTube video that gives an overview visually at the following address:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEgLvaMDT4E

Our only complaint was that EA didn’t make a free online version of the Harry Potter game where gamers could rock up and tackle a free harry potter web browser game.

Happy Gaming!

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets Game is a post from: Online Games Free RPG

When gamers asked us to look into Runescape2 we didn’t think this would be such a hard task.

The popular online game that is Runescape has been around for sometime and has a massive online following among the younger browser gaming crowd, just checkout any school with internet gaming PCs and you’ll find Runescape being played.

So you can understand the hype around the so called new release ‘Runescape2′

A quick check on the gaming term and there is slightly under a quarter of a million references to the term – but there just doesn’t seem any concrete info on it.

Is Runescape2 real? Well, there are so-called screenshots, but it seems the makers of the original online game Jagex Games Studio doesn’t have any reference to the new release.

There is plenty of forum talk, but the more you look into it – there more it seems like another ‘Half Life TFC 2′ the game that promised so much, but arrived years and years late and by the time it came, technology had advanced and gamers were already on to new projects. Sad, sad stuff!

Runescape (and maybe runescape2) are another of the large scale MMO (Massive Multiplayer Online) gaming release, this one in the fantasy mould with a medieval taste to it.

At any one time, there are usually 100-200,000 gamers locking into battle the runescape world. An impressive amount of simultaneous gamers in anyones terms.

Launched in 1999, runescape has had an impressive history. They started out as a basic offering and had the early launch, naturally getting a jump on some of the newer releases around such as Evony Free Forever, Habbo Hotel, 2moons and Travia online.

But while this free online browser game was launched early and was able to capture plenty of young gamers, they have had to continue to develop their graphics and gameplay to keep up with other competitors.

This is where it got hard.

Based on a basic engine, from the early days of the internet – the guys behind runescape and namely runscape2 must be commended to have kept developing the old engine, and managing to keep the game sharp and appealing to so many users.

Playing is free and to check things out, go to www.runescape.com

Overall, our team rate this game about 7/10 – we just hope runescape2 appears on official radars soon!

Runescape2 is a post from: Online Games Free RPG

Reviewing the popular online anime game with this ‘Fiesta Online Reviews‘ page was a difficult one. Quite simply, this game called Fiesta Online is probably aimed squarely at the youngest MMORPG crowd able to use a keyboard. So if you’re under maybe 10 years old, you might be a big fan of Fiesta Online if you’re willing to give it a try.

Spending time playing Fiesta was quite tricky, immediate frustrations came from poor movement and game control interface. Using the keyboard WSAD directional keys was simply too tough to master for even the most patient gamer, we were ready to torch our keyboard after only a few minutes.

One of our online games free RPG review team suggested that Fiesta Online may purely be aimed at the income earning online browser game market, but thats probably a too harsh a review. Certainly younger gamers will get something from this offering, certainly visually there are some good points to the game and anime fans will be happy with the whole layout and speech bubbles effects when a fight is happening.

The other frustrating point when reviewing Fiesta Online was the inability to climb hills in the game, it was a little bit like Linage 2 where getting on top of the hill or navigating the character / hero onto the hill was damn tough. Certainly with an archer class attack unit, this was so frustrating – archers are meant for hills as they shoot their arrows at the enemy in-game.

Because of this, its recommended to stick to fighters or mage classes within Fiesta Online.

Way too many quests was another concern about this online free browser game. It was just too time consuming when the control interface was so poor.

Final verdict from our Fiesta Online Reviews group, if you’re a young online game who enjoys free browser based action – then you might like this. The other class of player / gamer that may also step up and enjoy things at Fiesta, are the anime and japanese animation fans.

Fiesta Online Reviews is a post from: Online Games Free RPG

In this genre we put together a listing of ‘Online Fantasy Games’ that are highly popular in the free online gaming community

Fairy 14 Game – What’s not to love about fairies? They have the magic power that we dream for, the looks we envy and the wings that

Telepath RPG Version 2 – A great RPG game (Role Playing Game) totally free to play in the browser with heaps of competition. With 10 playable characters, dozens of NPCs and fun tactical battles, hundreds of lines of dialog, numerous hidden

Dragon Online Game – You as the hero must save the prince from the horrible Dragons in this entertaining online free action type game with good fantasy visuals.

Final Fantasy Barry -This game is a cross between an online fantasy game and an action shooter, Roam around the lands and fight different enemies along the way using your magic or your awesome physical

Final Fantasy SIM Date (RPG) – Another RPG / Fantasy cross with great cartoon graphics, a very funny and popular online game for the 10-15 age group. Enjoy hours of fun right from the web browser.

Online Fantasy Games is a post from: Online Games Free RPG