Horizon 14 day trial

[Undead_Mercenary]

Not sure how long this MMORPG was been out, but you can try this game for 14 days free. Looks like another Everquest, but in this one, you can play as a Dragon! I think once my WoW time card runs out next week, I'll give it a shot.

http://www.istaria.com/

[XoR]

I can't imagine this game holding a candle to WoW. I could be wrong however, so let us know (or anyone else that's played) if it's a killer app or just another plastic world of fluff.

[DenKirson]

I played Horizons on it's beta release. The combat system is particularly unique, but it is rather plain at the beginning.

Combat exists in a series of stances (that increase certain traits like defense, attack speed, offense or chance of critical hits while in that stance, also with some detriment, usually the opposite effect, like more damage but take more as well, or more defense but attack 50% slower) and special moves you can execute while in a particular stance. In the beginning you only get one stance, so you can't really do much. But later on, there's dozens of stances. These stances make PvP a really deep form of combat.

I never tried magic, but stances were also involved in it as well, I believe. I only played a human fighter in the beta, and tried a Dragon for a short while. I remember in the short while, a dragon had a lot going for him, but he had a few really nasty backlashes for being a stout scaly beast. There were a lot of unique classes, and eight different races. More than just one mage or fighter, things like assassins and paladins... uh, I dunno, but there were a lot of doors in the class and school choice area.

Tradeskills like blacksmithing were really in-depth. Blacksmithing had a level of distinction in crafting similar to that in the crafting of Star Wars Galaxies. And there's a lot more than a few weapons and pieces of armor and magic scrolls.

While Horizons had a sweet battle system, the pace of the game was really slow and the graphics didn't look too good in most places; lots of flat land with low textures. I thought it was really good in means of combat and crafting stuff (not to mention it had very little bugs, very stable), but it was pretty slow, and that kinda killed it.

The game got borderline reviews (50/100) from just about all the western magazines, but did quite well over in Europe and Asia. It played a lot like Asheron's Call 2, except combat was a hundred times better with all the stance stuff. I only played for about two weeks since I was all alone in the game, then went back to SWG.

[Undead_Mercenary]

It might be a good alternative for those who don't want to play WoW or Guild Wars.

[BadAsh]

you not gonna try EVE at all merc?

[Undead_Mercenary]

I guess that depends on how much free time I have at college. Thankfully, I was able to get another time card for WoW (playing Alliance on RP was renewed my addiction ten fold). I know I won't have classes Mondays, so if I get sick of playing WoW all day (plus some BF2 on the side), I'll probably give it a shot. If it's anything like Freelancer, I'd probably like it.

EDIT: LOL misleading scheduel! I have next monday off (Labor Day), but I have 1 class on Monday. Damnit!

[BadAsh]

eh...it's not like freelancer control wise, more like homeworld in that respect.

but it is kind of like freelancer in that you can do anything from mining to trade to combat. It's pretty open ended that way.