Free Realms, Sony Online Entertainment's new MMO, ready to be unleashed onto the world! Just weeks of being in it's closed beta phase, the servers were taken down to get ready for the games big day! What better to have than our hands-on impression of Free Realms before you dive into it yourself!? Ok, Don't answer that....

When you load up Free Realms, the first thing you're probably going to notice is this, it's not geared towards the adult audience. It's a very intriguing MMO mind you, but it definitely won't attract the hardcore players of World of Warcraft.

Upon creating your human or fairy character, you, the player, are subjected to a name approval process. You will be stuck with a generic name until the gods of Free Realms deem your name worthy. You can create your own name, or pick from a rather large list of names to create something unique. My character was given the name of Zoey Starchaser. A human female, with desires to be the best ninja and cook she could be. My first intentions were to just make her a cook because she's a girl. However, times have changed. Women can now be more than just cooks. They can be ninja's, brawlers, kart racers or even pet trainers in the world of Free Realms and conveniently enough, those are just a few of the many jobs in Free Realms. Ever want to be a postman? Well Free Realms is giving you the opportunity. Some jobs however, are locked like the Wizard job, and we did not have access to this in the closed beta. And here I really wanted to cast a spell.

To level these jobs up, you can either complete quests and some gold, or play a mini game that is directly involved with that job. I found myself doing a lot of quests as a cook though... Also, I noticed that the game doesn't exactly punish you for failing the mini-games. When you're playing the fighting mini-game, you fail when you get KO'd three times and still rewarded with whatever you found during that mini-game and the experience you made it seems. While the graphics are rather pretty and the character models are nicely done, the environment occasionally gets in the way when you're feeling lazy and using the mouse to click and move. The camera may even go through objects, making your character pull a 180 and back track when you click on your desired destination.

Free Realms is fun MMO. I don't have a lot to complain about, other than the camera and movement issues, I was rather disappointed there was locked content in the closed beta. On the other hand, the map is rather large and there's a lot of places to explore, with more areas on the way. The game is of course, free, but, paid subscribers get access to all that locked content and jobs, like the wizard and more quests for only $4.95 a month. There's a ton of things to do in Free Realms, but as I've said before, it's more than likely to appeal to the younger audience and keep the hardcore crowd. If you're looking for a new, free and family-friendly MMO to play or a way to kill time, then Free Realms is for you.

--If anyone can tell me where the "wanna cast a spell" reference comes from, I'll send you a picture of a cookie.