Following in the footsteps of many other MMOs EverQuest II will now feature a free to play version. EverQuest II Extended will not replace EverQuest II but run alongside it. If you enjoy paying $14.99 a month to play EQ II you can continue to do so, but if you want to get your feet wet in EverQuest II then feel free to play the Extended version. So do you have to go buy a copy of EverQuest II to get started with the free version? No, EverQuest II Extended will stream to you over the web. Now of course things aren’t just cut and dry and you don’t get all the features of EverQuest II by playing for free. You can upgrade your free membership to Silver, Gold, or Platinum status by spending….you guessed it, real money.

For 1000 station cash($10)you can upgrade your free membership to Silver. This will get you access to more bag slots, more quest slots, more spells, etc. Gold memberships are $14.99 a month and pretty much gets you access to everything a normal paying subscriber to EverQuest II would get. No big deal there, BUT for $200 a year you can get Platinum and this is where I assume the Extended branding comes in. Every month you get 500 station cash and even more access to EverQuest II then gold members. You get more character slots and the ability to fully level your characters. Yes, if you want to level up past certain points you have to pay money for it. I know it’s confusing. Luckily Sony Online Entertainment has made this handy chart for you to look over before you make your decision to play EverQuest II Extended. Just know this, if you get way into EverQuest II, playing EverQuest II could end up costing you more in the long run than playing just regular EverQuest II.

Free Realms the free to play unless you want to do everything the game has to offer MMO has made it easier for you to see everything the game has to offer. Starting now and ending August 2nd you can pay a measly $29.99 and get a lifetime subscription to the game. Your lifetime membership will get you housing, monthly rewards, access to all the jobs in the game and members only items, and a 10% discount on items you have to use real life monies to buy. I enjoyed my time with Free Realms and it’s SUPPOSEDLY still coming to the PS3 so I would say it’s worth checking out especially while this offer is going on.

A big part of the new expansion is that players will return to Erudin where the first EverQuest took place. Level 87-89 characters can vist the Library and while you might think that libraries are boring this one is anything but. A clue like murder mystery takes place in the library and players must find the murder weapon, and even find the body hidden somewhere in the library’s furniture. A very innovative little touch. However, that’s not even the coolest part of the library.

In the middle of the room is a magical spiral staircase made of bookshelves. It’s an impressive sight and a lot of fun to watch it rise up and form the staircase. There is also a cool effect where the books fly off the shelf and fly over to another bookcase.

For those players level 88 and above you are going to want to check out the Research Halls dungeon. In the Research Halls the Erudites are trying to perfect a teleportation technology, unfortunately like any good teleportation gone awry story they have accidentally unleashed a powerful enemy.

When you first enter this dungeon you’ll notice that the end boss is already RIGHT THERE! Don’t worry though, you don’t fight him yet. First he must be freed from the beams of energy that hold him in place. You do this, by, well playing through the dungeon. Puzzles must be solved in the appropriate order, because you don’t want to get killed by the beans of energy that stand in your way. Players must make sure they solve one puzzle at a time and not get ahead of themselves.

The hardest of Erudin’s three dungeons and recommended for players at level 90 is the Royal Palace. The palace is designed vertically and opens up into a grand space where players fight the final raid boss in one of the most impressive encounters in all of EverQuest II.

The Palace does away with the previous instances puzzle solving and murder mysteries and gets down to raid boss fighting. The fights are complex affairs that will determine the fate of Norrath.

I’ve personally never played EverQuest II, but I do know my way around an MMO or two and the content I saw seems very exciting. The group I was with had some hardcore EQII players in it and they were all very impressed with the visuals and many of the character models we saw including an impressive dragon. The dragon is a boss inside the Vasty Deep Conservatory which had some pretty impressive water effects including a working fountain that the dragon sat on top of.

It was easily the most beautiful of the environments that I saw on the tour. You can see the water in that middle strip in between the pillars. The screenshot doesn’t do it justice, but it’s really neat looking.

Another area of the tour that showed how the worlds of EverQuest and EverQuest II were merging was The Hole. We briefly walked through the city of Paineel and were told to jump off the edge of a building. It seemed like we were headed for certain death, but we landed (somewhat) safely in The Hole. The Hole as you may imagine is massive. Filled with bosses and quests. It’s so huge that it’s recommended for characters level 82-90. There are at least 80 quests to do in this area.

In The Hole you will find Tower of Serilis a massive structure that appears to be made of crystals. Inside the tower is the The Vault of Living Stone which apparently was keeping all the bad stuff out of EverQuest II. However, over in EverQuest 1 the seal was broken, which is causing evil to enter The Hole and begin twisting it. Needless to say it’s up to you to cleanse The Hole of evil.

It sounds like EverQuest II fans are going to be plenty busy with tons of new instances, quests, a raised level cap, and some of the most impressive visuals in this or any MMO. Thanks to the fine folks over at Sony Online Entertainment for showing me around. I had a good time.

Well you could just go with the behemoth, World of Warcraft. Odds are you know at least two people who play it, or you used to play it, and there is a level 60 Undead Warlock waiting for you on the server you used to play on before life came calling. It’s the biggest, and it’s the best. There’s a good chance that no MMO will ever top the subscriber count of World of Warcraft, definitely not one that is charging a monthly fee to play. The problem here is that World of Warcraft is the safe choice, everyone has played it, and everyone knows that experience. What about something licensed?

There are plenty of MMOs out there based on licensed properties. Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, and The Lord of the Rings Online, those are just the popular ones. Not to mention the ton that are under development. Some based on movies, some based on comic books, licensed MMOs will never go away. Choosing a licensed MMO is easy, if you’re into the license. If you have no interest in helping get the ring to Mordor or defending the Empire from a tidal wave of Orks, then these MMOs probably aren’t for you. To top it off most of the licensed games I mentioned all fall under the sword and shield variety. What about something different?

Well sure if you like Sci-Fi, you can play EVE Online or Anarchy Online. Honestly though, Sci-Fi MMOs are few and far between. Most of the ones that do exist are again, based on licensed properties. Star Wars Galaxies, and the forthcoming Star Trek Online while Sci-Fi require that you be a fan of one the properties to get the maximum enjoyment out of them. So what about Anarchy Online, well the community is small, but it’s rabid, so you might have some luck there. Meanwhile, EVE Online will scratch your Sci-Fi itch, but I hope you like micro-managing into the wee hours of the morning. The game features an actual banking system, run by actual people, are you sure you’re ready to tackle a space economy? Speaking of economies, ours isn’t doing so hot right now, so odds are the biggest hurdle to playing one of these MMOs is the monthly fee. Well, some games have you covered, some are free to play.

There are the Korean style freemium MMOs like Sony’s Free Realms or Nexon’s Maple Story which can be played for free, but if you want any kind of upgrades you have to spend real money on in game points to buy in game items. Some games like Dungeons and Dragons online and Guild Wars offer close to the full MMO experience for free, but unlocking new lands or classes are what cost you money. These free games are great and may scratch your MMO itch, but they definitely don’t offer the same kind of depth as their monthly fee charging brethren. So I ask you. Do you play an MMO? Which one? Why did you choose it? Leave your answers in the comments or send me an email and I’ll compile the answers for the entire world to see!

Lawsuits are nasty things, just ask Bethesda who has been fighting Interplay in court for quite a while now. Some recent court documents have apparently lifted the veil on the much rumored Elder Scrolls MMO. The documents suggest that a team of 100 has been working on the game for three years. This is apparently not the kind of information Bethesda wanted made public, because according to this article, they have been fighting to have the information removed from the court documents. Which can be found by doing some digging here. We can’t say this rumor is shocking, but we’re sure this is not how Bethesda wanted the game to be announced.

Personally, I still think Blizzard is making it, but the more I think about it, Blizzard/Activision is such a huge company they could easily swap people in and out, and slap a new studio name on it. We would never know. It would be pretty interesting to see Infinity Ward become an MMO studio though. For now were going to have to wait it out until we get some concrete details. In the meantime, speculate!

Jeff Strain has decided to open a new studio called Undead Labs, to make a console based Zombie MMO. Strain formerly worked for Blizzard where he kicked off production on World of Warcraft, he then left to form ArenaNet where they created Guild Wars. Personally, I’m already tired of zombies, and by the time this thing comes out, who knows how the rest of the world will feel, but you can’t deny this dude’s pedigree. I heard people like World of Warcraft, and despite being free to play, I guess Guild Wars is pretty popular. So if anyone can make an interesting Zombie MMO I guess it’s him. Also his last name is Strain so he has that going for him too. Good luck from all of us here at 4PC HQ Mr. Strain.

However, MMOs that do succeed are huge successes and it’s no wonder that even start up companies try to make an MMO their first game, cause if you can hit with an MMO you will be jumping through your vault of gold coins like Scrooge McDuck, but with PC gaming becoming a niche and console gaming becoming the norm(I can’t think of a house that doesn’t have a Wii or Xbox 360 in it)why hasn’t there been a successful MMO in the console space? Well if I have told you once, I have told you a thousand times, console gamers don’t want to pay monthly to play video games. MMOs work because they are addictive. Players love grinding out XP to level up, and making their character unique with a skill tree, they love finding better weapons, and armor. So maybe Hellgate: London was on to something, maybe what consoles need are faux-MMOs.

This week the game Borderlands was released and judging by the popularity on my friends list, and well….the fact that it appears to be sold out in several markets means we could be on to something. Borderlands plays EXACTLY like Hellgate: London or World of Warcraft for that matter. Pick up a quest from a quest giver, go out and do the quest, pick up loot that drops off of fallen enemies, turn in quest, bathe in XP, rinse, repeat. It’s fantastic and can be played with up to 3 friends online, or you can host a public game over PC, Xbox Live, or Playstation Network and have people just drop in and out of your game. It FELLS like an MMO even when you are playing by yourself! I’m sure many people who bought the game don’t even realize they are playing an MMO, cause they have never played one before.

Many people described Eldar Scrolls IV: Oblivion as an MMO without the Online part, Borderlands is the next step and if it does prove to be the success we think it is, we might be looking at a whole new genre on the consoles. Imagine if you bumped up the player count to 12 or 16, or 64. I mean….that’s kind of massive, right? What if these were MMOs-Mini Massive Online games? You know, not quite as massive as a World of Warcraft, but more massive than Fallout 3. How does a real MMO compete in the console space now that I’m getting a similar experience from a $60 Xbox 360 title? A game that I could see myself sinking just as much time into as an MMO character I pay monthly for.

And who says Borderlands couldn’t be monetized? DLC is coming and it’s going to be plentiful. New questlines are already confirmed, but what about more classes? What about new weapon types? There could be a pack of new Borderlands content every month. That’s like an optional monthly fee. Although……….optional monthly fees killed Hellgate: London. Maybe for now we should just be thankful that we are getting such an amazing experience out of Borderlands, then determine if we want more content. With the faux-MMO are we seeing the beginning of something new, or are console players going to want the true MMO experience? If a true MMO is ever successful on consoles, maybe then we would have something to compare it to, but in the meantime Borderlands is all we have.

Sony Online Entertainment makes a first person shooter MMO called PlanetSide. I know? I never heard of it either*, but apparently enough people are still playing it that Sony sent a survey to current players asking what they would want out of a game that would “expand the PlanetSide Universe” and “guide the development and direction of the next hit Massively Multiplayer Online First Person Shooter”. So that sounds like a sequel to us. We wish them luck, a good FPS MMO sounds on paper like a good idea, now someone just needs to make it work.

*That’s a lie, I’ve played it, it’s a joke, calm down.