Rob's top 3 Free to play, MMORPG games

Alright guys, I know that I'm a little obsessive, posting three different times (so far) in a single day, but I guess I'm just in the writing mood. So far everything has gone great today, took my sister out to lunch, came home and walked the dog (i'll be sure to show you guys a little bit of him later), and now am relaxing once again.

For anyone that has time to pass by, and enjoys playing online games, mainly of the MMORPG variety, I'm going to tell you a little about my top three, and give you the pros and cons, as well as listing one or two that didn't make the cut, but are still fun nonetheless.

Atlantica Online

The Good
This game deserves mention first, because it's completely different than any other free to play mmo that I have tried (and believe me, I've tried a lot. This game is a turn based MMO, in which the player has multiple characters (up to a total of 9); your main hero and 8 mercenaries to assist you in battle. For anyone that has played the Final Fantasy series, it will bring back memories, and for anyone that hasn't, it will create new ones. With almost 2 dozen different heroes//mercenaries, there are hundreds of ways you can outfit your party, and pvp in the game becomes a bit of a chess match. I say this because it is by far the most strategy based game I've ever ventured into (other than Warhammer 40k perhaps, but that's for another time). Dueling in the game is very simple, and you can even be sorted tto fight against layers of your level//skill due to their division system, which lowers your division when you win, and increases it when you lose (div 0 is the best).
They also have a unique crafting system in which higher a skilled crafter can teach lower levels, with mutually beneficially results, as those with high skills will gain experience for their teachings. There is also a guild system in the game, and guilds are able to take over the dozens of towns in the game, imposing a tax fee and earning their guild riches.

The Bad
The game definitely becomes a grind fest as one hits the higher levels, and a majority of the quests are essentially heavy grinding as well. Although its been a few months since I last played, a glitch in the game which was exploited for about a month before it got fixed, allowed for some players to earn hundreds of millions of gold in game, thus hyper inflating the economy when it came to higher level items.
In addition, the raiding system is somewhat of an annoyance. Players must kill every creature in the dungeon to descend to the next level. After 3-4 levels of this, you will eventually enter a boss room. This is essentially how all of the dungeons work, only the creatures get harder each time. What is a pain, is when there is one monster left hiding in a corner, and you end up running out of time trying to find him (yes all dungeons are timed in this game).
Not much else bad, unless you don't like the turn based style of game play, which in that case you should have skipped down to the next game a while ago.

Last Thoughts
Atlantica online is completely unique, and with no other MMO (especially one that's free) that I know of like it on the pc, it's definitely worth a try. Also, a cash shop in the game is able to 'enhance your experience', which means that if you pay enough, you can pimp your toon out in some awesome gear.

Rappelz
For our next game, we have a much more traditional Korean MMORPG; Rappelz. This game is your normal 3rd person MMO, however some of the features packed into this game make it a top three in my book.

The Good
The first thing that I enjoy about Rappelz is the pet system. Players are able to buy pets (or capture them later on), level them and teach them different skills. Some classes (such as beastmaster) rely solely on pets, and are even able to use two pets at once.
Another great part of the game is dungeon running. All dungeons are very unique, with different bosses, and different mini bosses along the way. Guilds are able to challenge each other in 'dungeon running', in which the guild with the fastest completion time for the week controls the guild, and is able to imposed a tax on all items and gold found by whomever ventures into the dungeon throughout the entire week.
The cash shop is also abundant with items (eve free games need to make money), however I noticed that there weren't many items which completely overpowered characters that possessed the items. In addition, the cash shop items were relatively easy to obtain with in game currency, as gold farmers were somewhat scarce.

The Bad
It's your typical grind fest. You will spend hours leveling, and although being grouped together makes it much faster, as well as cash shop items such as stamina savers (2 times experience for an hour) help you a lot, it will still take a long time, as the max level in this game is 120 (it may have increased since).

The Ugly
I wasn't planning on including a section like this, but although I loved this game, it was one of the more frustrating points of the year for me. My account was hacked (I know, I should have made a better password), and all of my items were removed off of my character. Although GM (game admins) are abundant, they refused to help me, and told me to post in the forums. I posted in the forums, and forum moderators locked my post, censored what I wrote and told me to talk to game admins. The loop continued, and in the end I eventually gave up and moved on.

Final Thoughts
If you like the classic MMORPG style games, and want one for free, this is a must.

Battlefield Heroes
For our final game, I'm going to wander a little, and introduce to you a game which is very unique; it's a MMOFPS (First Person Shooter). In battlefield heroes, you take the role of a Gunner (a lot of hp, can use bazookas), a soldier (medic), or a commando (sniper). You also choose which side your character is on; either National or Royal.
The objective is to take the enemy teams flags, and kill the enemies causing them to lose points. Each death results in a point taken away from your teams score (rounds start at 50 a side), and first team to 0 loses. The more flags you have, the more points are taken away for each death. Players are awarded experience based on healing, flag captures and damage dealt. These levels allow for players to unlock new abilities, or strengthen their existing abilities. Each class has 5 skills, and each skill has 5 upgrades. With a max level of 30, and skill points given out at every even level, there are many different options to outfit each hero, making your character unique. Also, you can outfit each class with nearly a dozen different weapons, ensuring that each fight will be awesome and unique.

Well, didn't even notice the time, and now I must go to my sisters volleyball scrimmage. Will be posting pictures of the event shortly, but until then, hope that my wall of text will keep you guys interested. Please comment and let me know if you prefer a lot of pictures, or what, I aim to please!

Rob signing out.