I'm new to blogging, but have been hounding this site for a while.

HAR HAR lets laugh at the new guy!!

To get intro out of the way...

I have an Xbox 360 and a Wii, and play most of the well known hits (halo 3, Bioshock, UR MR GAY). I have no problem with Sony consoles, however I do hate the company for other reasons which i may or may not elaborate on. I actually believe that the PS2 is an amazing console with a sick ass library, and if the PS3 was cheaper I'd probably pick one up too.

Although i play alot of console games, i fancy myself a PC gamer mainly because most of the games i enjoy i play on my PC. Games such as Orange Box (as in all the games on it) EVE Online (which im slowly getting bored of), Tabula Rasa (which i think is a lot of fun), every fallout game (what can i say?).

My name is Unpro, short for Unprogrammable, which is a name i came up with back when i read too many philosophy books about the same damn topic.

I have Xbox Live, however I'm not going to post my gamer tag at the moment, because i hate getting flooded with unknown friend invites.. its just weird.

NOW ONTO MY REVIEW, would be my first written one, so don't be harsh.

Tabula Rasa; Third person Action shooter MMO (although it says you can go into first person-mode which is more of an over the shoulder look)

Gameplay

I find this game to be similar to WOW, but fun. Instead of sitting still pressing; 1,3,5,3 REPEAT. You have to run around, aim (to an extent) and shoot while trying to keep distance from enemies, or put them in a more suitable place for you to do maximum damage. It is very engaging and keeps your attention on the game rather then on cool graphics, or general chatter to keep yourself amused.

Grinding

There is grinding in every MMO, you can't avoid it. It is the only thing that keeps people suscribed. However, some MMOs can give the player choice (like EVE, you really don't have to) while others force you into it for you to get anywhere (like WOW). Tabula falls close to WOW, but isnt as intensive. Most (almost all) of your experience is gained through completing missions.

A common monster may give you 200 XP, whereas a missions will give you 8000 XP. This creates a few issues, while solving some at the same time:
-makes grinding seemly pointless, when not required for a quest
-creates a very mission required world, where if theres no mission theres no game (so what happens when you are out of missions?)
HOWEVER
-doesn't force you to grind the same monsters to get somewhere
-creates the feel for the game, and helps deliver the story

Leveling

The level, attribute, and skill systems i find are very well thought out. Each level gives you just enough Attribute points and skill points to advance a little and get a bit better, but doesn't give you so much that one level makes a huge difference. This makes gaining levels not as important as finishing missions, or getting new gear. Which in my opinion makes the game a lot better.

The tier system in the game is the real divider, as of now there are 4 tiers. The first is the basic newbie, well roundedly crappy in all respects. Then when the play advances to the second tier a choice is given, which is very important. Two routes are offered, Specialist and Soldier, which pretty much decides what you will be doing. Soldiers and onward focus more on gear and weaponry, whereas Specialists and onward focus more on Powers and abilities.

A new feature, which i thought was cool, is you can clone your character and pretty much try out a different route. This solves that shitty first 5-10 levels problem that creating a second character can have, also allows for mistakes in your choices. IE: at level 5 you advance to tier two, when going to a trainer (the NPCs who upgrade your class) you are given the choice to clone yourself onto another character slot (i think theres 10). Your character can be changed to a female, and pretty much every other aspect as well. Cloning also resets your skill points, so that anything you may have thought was necessary for one class you arent stuck with when you feel like switching.

I'm going to have to cut this short, need to depart for work...

All in all i give this a 8.5/10, and strongly recommend trying it out for the 3 day trial period (which is surprisingly long)

Hope this helps anyone, for now i shall leave.

PS This is the first NCsoft game I've played, so if i mentioned new features that are just borrowed from other NCsoft games, forgive me.