Today we’re looking at a game I really should have done as a “Browser-Based”, my first, and knee-jerked rebellious encounter with a PK game, and the first time a game I had a past with hit a Free-to-Play conversion that everyone just had to tell me about! If you’re not still wanting to stab me over yesterday’s entry, we can continue on.

Episode 13: Doctor Who: Worlds in Time
It’s kind of sad watching a game just kinda fizzle out. This game was definately light on content, and it shows in the fact this is my SHORTEST episode. I got more play out of Myst Online, FFS. This definitely ranks as one of my shortest episodes, and the only one I never did a stinger-esque thing for.(before I started doing end-cards, that is.)
This game was fun, and kind of amusing, capturing the 11th doctor’s spirit well at a time most people were still flipping out that he wasn’t Doctor 10. However puzzles became very repetitive, and Three Rings spent more time trying to revamp the progression, without ever adding more puzzles. It was cool, but its death surprised no one, and unlike the Doctor, this one didn’t bother to regenerate in any form… Of course, if you miss this style of gameplay there’s always Puzzle Pirates.
Recommended?: Before shutdown, YES.

Episode 14: Lineage II
I’ve… been wanting to get this out there for a while. I.. wasn’t being fair to Lineage 2. At all. This was seriously the first time I dealt with an Open PvP (a.k.a. PK) system and I was looking for petty revenge at the generally awful community. However, I was faulting the game for a touted mechanic, and that was on me. Yes, it sucks that newbies can get murdered in the very early training areas, but it’s easily avoided by something I completely missed. Yes, the players are trollish and self-centered, but the world is so vast that it’s pretty easy to avoid them if you know where to go. Regardless the click to move function and generally outdated mechanics make this a title I can’t endorse, but it’s not the nightmarish craphole I made it out to be. My bad, Lineage 2.
…NCSoft can still suck it, though.
Recommended?: NO

Episode 15: Star Trek Online
“Hey Jon, did you know Star Trek Online just went Free-to-Play?!”
This message adorned my inbox and comment section for days after the announcement, and my history of the title definitely had me wanting to go back… with caution.
Like LOTRO before it, STO was a game I bought because “everyone else was” but unlike LOTRO, I did NOT stick with it, and neither did anyone else. I played for for literally an hour when I bought it, and remember I bought the collector’s edition for 99 bucks. I was not very wise. Ground combat felt… weird… Space combat was really “Naval combat in space”, and it was FAR too easy to get destroyed by anything more than one opponent.
However the F2P turnaround fixed a lot of the problems I was having. Space-boat combat felt a lot more solid, and even the ground combat made more sense, working well as a reticle combat system well before TERA pretended they invented the idea. It was fun, but still not something I could imagine playing for long. It’s a nice looking well functioning sci-fi MMO however, and I think anyone who’s a fan should check it out.
Recommended?: YES