LGG Article: Which MMO Should I Play?

Are you in the mood for an MMO? Don’t know which one’s the right one for you?

Here’s our guide to picking the MMORPG that best fits your play-style and time.

Read the full article after the jump.

1. World of Warcraft:

What makes this MMO great is that it is quite flexible on how you want it to be played. The game is friendly to casuals, and caters to the hardcore quite well, especially at end-game and PvP (Player vs Player). Leveling up doesn’t take a very long time if you know what you’re doing, finding dungeon groups is a very easy procedure, simplified by clicking a single button, and questing allows you to explore the vast lands in the entire game. You may also play the game an hour a day and still enjoy one or two quick dungeon runs with random people, or maybe a quick battleground match here and there. You’ll have stuff to do all the time.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1dcRNdlPjI

2. DC Universe Online:

This is an MMO that is centered on a console brawler experience. The game was designed to be played “best” with a joypad in mind so you might want to look into investing in the PS3 version. The PC version doesn’t have joypad support apparently (please notify me if this isn’t true) and you can’t re-assign hotkeys on your keyboard. Another advantage for the PS3 version is that you may be able to pay for your monthly subscription using your PSN account wallet; a very awesome feature for those without a credit card: just buy a pre-paid card and redeem it on PSN, and you’re done. Once in-game, you can create a character with some cool customization options, pick a mentor to follow, get missions from and acquire goals to complete such as Batman, Superman and The Joker and selecting a traveling method such as flight, super speed and acrobatics.

We haven’t played it yet but it seems that the game is quite solo-friendly and has some nice PvP functionalities such as Arenas. We’ll give a nice summary of the game once we get some hands-on time.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mG-RzB3QUbU

3. Final Fantasy XI:

You read that right; this game never seems to die, nor will it anytime soon either. FFXI was always known to be a HUGE time-sink. You needed a LOT of time to get things done in this game, let alone level up your “job”. It took months for a casual player to get anywhere in the game, whether it be missions, leveling up your classes, raising your “fame” in the different cities, running from one city to another, etc. FFXI has changed quite dramatically from the past 2 years. Different ways to transport, leveling up was made “slightly” easier with Fields of Valor (a floating book found in fields that gives you a slaying quest once every real life hour, granting you a nice boost in EXP), adding items that gives temporary EXP boosts and lifting level cap restrictions from some of the toughest capped missions and many other changes.

FFXI truly shined, however, after the introduction of the Abyssea expansions. These expansions (three of them) gave the high level players a very nice experience, zoning them into dark-versions of several maps around the world of Vana’diel, that include new Artifact Armor sets, new weapons and weapon skills, doing insane damage in the events in Abyssea and much more.

Luckily, for those interested in starting anew, an update will be available tomorrow that would add some really cool features, such as doubling the current EXP rate from monsters outside of Abyssea (yes, people should get back to making normal EXP parties again), unifying the Auction House in Vana’diel, and more content for end-game play. More information can be found at their official site, here.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CBF-1gyTGtc

MMO’s you should check out:

1. Guild Wars 2, has yet to have a release date but should be out this year.
2. T.E.R.A (The Exiled Realm of Arborea), currently released in Korea with western localization on the way.
3. Rift
4. Star Wars: The Old Republic

My personal pick would be T.E.R.A Online for a new MMO, it seemed to me that it had the more interesting gameplay mechanics (being very close to an action game) than the competitors, while retaining the usual MMO feel of questing and grouping up.

httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al34N_vPS98

Which MMO are you looking forward to the most? Which MMO are you currently playing and why? Any stories you’d like to share, please let us know in the comments section below.