Whose Orc Is It Anyway?

Confused. Trying to play two MMOs at once really divides a man's loyalties, not to mention totally messes with his ability to memorise hotkeys. My muscle memory is going haywire, tapping controls that do nothing or inadvertantly cause the usage of some precious potion I'd been saving for an emergency.

I'll have to be brief about both MMOs, as one I'm under NDA for, the other I'm writing about for other taskmasters. Both deserve a few words, however. The latter is Sword of the New World, aka Granado Espada, which usually sounds like Granny Spaniel when I try and speak it aloud. It's one of those Korean grind-centric MMOs even the most determined of games journos run a mile from. I was tricked into reviewing it by an editor pretending he thought it was an RTS. Actually, I've had fun, as it's really spectacularly silly despite the inherent repetition. You control a party of three soft-focus anime-fantasy characters - in fact with a well-realised Spanish colonial twist here - rather than the usual one, and to compensate on-screen enemies number in the dozens.You can kill a hundred beasts in five minutes.

But that's enough semi-critique - what I wanted to point out was that Gammy Spagetti can be played for free, right now, from here. Only for the first 20 character levels (though you can keep playing even after that, it's just you won't level any further), then you have to subscribe. I've a sneaking suspicion those 20 levels are all anyone really needs from this game, and at any rate there's a good 10 or so hours of happyfuntime there. It's more entertaining than these things possibly have any right to be - take a look.

The other is Mythos, currently in closed beta. Initially, I presumed this was a mere side-project for Flagship Studios, the ex-Blizzard crew working on Hellgate: London. Again, under NDA for now so have to be very, very vague, but I'm getting a funny feeling this might, in fact, turn out to be the main event. Just two things I'll say about it - 1) if you thought World of Warcraft was the natural child of Diablo and Warcraft III gettin' it on, think again. This would appear to be true bloodline. 2) My halfing-gunman character permanently chomps on a fat stogie. I'd happily have called him Colonel Fury if I wasn't afraid of being booted out of the beta for it.

In both, I'm currently being bothered by giant evil wolves. I don't know where I am anymore.