Ever since I close my WOW subscription, 6 months ago,my former RPG friends and I haven't had the chance to play an online game together, mostly due to work and non game related issues.

When we decided to come back to our online lives, it was necessary to search for a game. Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Aion and the upcoming Secret World and Guild Wars 2 were suggested but we heard that DDO online had gone free to play. Well, it offered an unlimited amount of free play and no level limits whatsoever.

Free is a good price so we jumped in and started playing.

The game was surprisingly polished for a free experience and I was delighted to find out that most of game content from levels 1-4 was open to all accounts. We took our sweet time experiencing some of the races and cl4sses at the early levels before we moved from the starting area.

After we reached our second quest hub, one of the quest chains (from at least 10) was available only to subscribers. The subscription is the standard $15/month but there's also the option of buying that specific adventure (or quest chain if you will) for a given number of turbine points (bought with real life cash or in game achievements).

We ignored that quest and proceed with our free experience. Now at level 6, I'd say 33% of the quests require subscription but it's easy to play and level up without paying a penny. One of my friends decided to become a subscriber and offered us a guest pass that grants access to the closed contend for a limited amount of time.

The quality is definitely the same, the only difference being in variety. So, if you pay, you have access to different sets of dungeons, foes and rewards.

After almost two months playing the game on weekends, I've decided to fork US$38 in Turbine points and buy my first module. Becoming a subscriber is not in my plans as I'm only able to play on weekends and an adventure can last for a month and cost from US$4 to US$12 (depending on the time it takes to finish). Points can also be used to gain in game advantage in items, experience points, improved stats, inventory space and so on.

My point is, I've experienced a game for almost two months before buying. I've seen most of the the low level content, experienced the combat system, the dungeons and part of the world before opening my wallet. This system was a huge success as Turbine is opening another server due to the increase in population.

Also, it would be possible to keep playing with opened content and decide later if I would be willing to pay for the game.

Honestly, I'd have chosen a different game if DDO online was not free but being able to start right away and play a game before I decide if I want to keep playing without the 7 or 10 day limit was very nice. This is, imo, the best way to deal with micro transactions, which only suck if you're charged for costumes and chapters in games you've already paid full price for.

Last, but not least, I've reviewed Prince of Persia and have finished Alone in the Dark, wait for the review soon. Oh, Carnby helped me get my 6th platinum.

I know it's getting old to complain about the Wii, mainly about its controls but I help myself after playing Obscure 2.

I did enjoy the game, I think there's was improvement in graphics, character models, animation and on the interface for weapons and items (the absence of a map was a strange decision, though).

I liked how it kept true to its teen slasher horror inspirations. Plenty of gruesome deaths and punishment for teenagers who party hard, smoke pot and have casual sex.

But... it certainly would be a better game without the mandatory use of the wands. Seriously, using the wands on every single puzzle requiring special abilities, turning valves, rowing and even to swing a melee weapon ? The camera was good for exploration of the environment but combat was a mess. Unless I had spotted an enemy coming and had my sweet time to lock my aim, combat was a hectic and chaotic experience, precisely because it's impossible to use the wand to aim / swing and to move the camera. I wouldn't blame it on lack of precision or response, it's just not the right tool for the job.

I'll be sure to try it on the PC before writing my Wii review but I do have the feeling that it'll be a better experience.

I know some people think that waggling and waving the arms to mimic an in game action helps immersion but to me it just drags me away from the experience as I became more aware that I'm playing a game. I'll be sure to try to reach Hydravision and Playlogic and beg them to provide support for the cl4ssic controller on Obscure 3.

Should not be that hard to please both audiences.

Oh, I just got my 4th platinum with Dead Space. Definitely a great survival horror game. I'll resume my Street Fighter IV daily sessions and start the new Prince of Persia.

Well, not quite, but it was tough to finish Bioshock on survivor difficulty, with the vita chambers turned off.

Before entering in a few more details and even some minor spoilers, I should say that it's an awesome game. It's a heavily scripted open world first person shooter (talk about labels) that actually managed to hold my interest from the beginning to the end. It offers the right amount of plot and pre-defined events and leaves plenty of room for exploration and discovery.

I think it's really rare to find a game that satisfies those who wish to push the story forward and those who desire to linger on, exploring every corner and leaving no stone unturned.

The hardest difficulty, survivor, pushed me into trying different tactics and to employ plasmids and tonics I never cared for (For those who do not know, plasmids and tonics are genetic modifications that grant your character offensive and defensive powers). After some failures, I found myself actually afraid of Big Daddies, only taking them out when I could take advantage of the sentry bots, could turn an army of splicers (genetic modified and demented people) against it or had my own Big Daddy under control. In spite of the game's warnings, I one saved 6 little sisters for ADAM (it determines how much power and tonics one can have).

I've rated it 9.5 and not 10 only because I did not enjoy the muffled sounds of the audio logs and the fact that some of them were presented during intense firefights, not to mention the horrid and forced accent of some characters. The script was very good but the muffled effect and voice acting were really bad and kinda broke the spell on what had been chosen as the main way of explaining the game's background.

Even so, it's a terrific game and should not be missed by anyone, specially at it's current price range.

Oh, I've started Dracula: Origin. It's way better than expected. Nice scenarios, an easy way to cut through pixel hunting and really hard puzzles. The story is based on Bram Stoker's Dracula, with an extra dose of adventure. Helsing may be a tad too dramatic but it serves the game right. Might not be a stellar game but definitely worth the shot if you're a pixel hunting addict (*hint for Basia*).