Pirates of the Burning Sea

We recently finished an open beta for Pirates of the Burning Sea, an upcoming MMO that will be pre-order released on January 7, and public released later in January. It seems like a promising game, although there's not much to do end game except for PvP, which seems to be the case for most MMO's these days.

At first you almost have to rely heavily on the questing system to get experience points. Not really much of a problem, since things stay pretty much low level in the quests. At some points it's very blahblahblah because you either go in and sail to a ship to kill it, or go in and walk along a beach to kill someone. There wasn't much of a break from this, except to sail along the "Open Sea" which led to more instances of sailing to kill things.

The customization side of things is pretty exciting. You can make your own sails and flags, which support transparency. During the beta you had to submit things to the forums for votes as to if it should be put into the game or not. I hope this isn't something they put into the live game as it drags things out - in my opinion. If they do put it like this, I hope they add in bits about requirements to vote on other people's items as well.

They have a very rich economic system, although it seems a bit much a first. The way it plays out is that you will have to buy things from the merchant system, as well as make your own no matter what you choose to do. They've limited how much you can be self-reliant. It's a shame they limit these sort of things, but I'm sure they have a great reason for it.

As will all beta tests I'm left feeling wildly dissapointed, and as if the game is not yet ready for release. I still can't wait for Darkfall.

Home Sweet Home

Here's an interesting game from shockwave.com.

Home Sweet Home

Design and build rooms based on customer desires. Most of these are riddles you have to figure out before you build. At the beginning there are very few design choices, a couple of floors, walls, etc. They slowly add on as you go--which helps keep the chaos low to start.

As you figure out the customer desire puzzle you pick items to decorate the room. It shows a sketch of the item where you place it. After you finish the room, you have a build crew that come along and build the room. They have a world of problems, from needing tool box items, to hurting themselves, to running out of energy. You have to work hard to keep them on task or you won't meet your construction deadline.

I enjoyed playing this game, it gives you a "house" to play with, so you can make any kind of room you want to. I played around with this a lot, each task you complete for the game gives you more money to play with in your own house.

This is a great way to kill time and work brain muscles. I don't think it's kid friendly because of it's complex play, but that may be because my kids have short attention spans. ;)

Spongebob Monopoly

YAY! A new twist on Monopoly. (Again!)

I really liked the minigames available in this. It's a fun play, especially if you have kids who like the cartoon. It has a lot to offer, including Spongebob rules, plain Monopoly rules, Squidward rules, and Plankton rules.

Spongebob rules - play the minigames for just about everything. Lower property prices, lower rent, raise rent, GO! Bonus money, etc. There's a minigame for getting out of jail too, which had me laughing so hard I almost cried. I got a kick out of this, and so did the kids.

Squidward rules - Haven't played this yet, but it says you can move any players piece you want to. Sounds like it could get pretty chaotic.

Plankton rules - Make as much money as possible before Plankton gets around the board one time. Sounds like a crunch, I guess it depends on how much he moves, and how quickly. I only enjoy playing Monopoly casually, so a race type scenario doesn't interest me at all.

Overall? I'd give this an 8/10 for the new-and-interesting factor. The kids enjoyed it a great deal, and that helps it's rating out a lot.