As the growth of Steam provides the ailing PC market with a chance to bring their games to a greater population of PC enthusiasts, another style of gaming rises like the Sun over the eastern horizon. Hoping to bring to us a brand new style of PC games.

     In the MMO market , especially overseas in the Asian market, the idea of paying to purchase items and new skins is not a new idea. Games like Maple Story, and certain private servers of Ragnorak Online tend to delve into this practice in order to make money and yet hold a strong user base. With the PC market seemingly always in absolute ruin (note the sarcasm) developers are always looking for a new way to atract gamers, and get their money without the gamer realizing what is hapening. Here comes the meat of this article. Recently I was privied to access three of the most highly anticipated FREE FPS games that are coming to the PC.  

      After a few months and careful waiting I have managed to gain access to Battlefield Heroes, Quake Live, and Parabellum. All are going to be free upon release, and plan on making their money based off of selling in game items, and through advertisements. Due to the fact that I am under some form of NDA for all three of them I cannot really give any details about them, so instead I will give my impressions of the three starting from my least favorite to my favorite of the three.

     My least favorite of the three so far is Battlefield Heroes. Personally I have not spent as much time with it as with the others, but for good reason. It isn't as fun. After initially getting into the beta and playing for a bit I don't think I have had the greatest desire to go back. Maybe in a few months I will, but for now I think I will enjoy the other two.

      Battlefield heroes is currently under development by EA Digital Illusions CE. The game is comepletely browser based and will be supported mainly by small micro transactions of weapons and other in-game based items. It will also feature ads on the site.

     The biggest problem I have with it, is that it just doesn't have that fun feel to it. For one thing trying to install it was a pain, but I tried to look past that but it was still too hard. The game is supposed to be a browser based game. In theory that sounds good. You can access your friends list and view servers and the game/map being played on them, but when put into practice with this game it did not turn out well. When launching the game it acts like a normal game. This is not how it should be. Maybe since they are on a second beta it may have worked out better, but with a lackluster gameplay I think anyone who is remotely interested will enjoy the other two better.

 Actually playing the game was reasonable, but it did not  feel like a real game at times. The weapons were so-so, and the moving was god awful.  Aiming at times was a pain, but the best thing about it was that you could actually survive a short fire-fight and still be able to handle another before actually having to heal or die. Luckily the graphics (although TF2 esque) managed to run well and didn't seem to actually hinder the game.

     Next up is Quake live. Quake live is nothing more than  a remake of Quake 3 and then put into a browser. Luckily this browser based game feels more like a a more serious flash game A.K.A. it works. Having not been able to try it on multiple browsers I can't say for certain that it is perfectly universal, but the features that it sets out with are implemented correctly, and well. It acts as though you can simply install and go on any PC you come across, and everything will work.

     Quake Live is currently under development by Id Software, and is based around the Tech 3 engine slightly modified. The game is completely browser based, and will be financially supported by in-game ads.

      This being the most recent game of the three I have played I still haven't gotten to much into it, but if you were a fan of the Quake style death-match system then you will love it. If you don't like that system then don't bother. With a very robust stat tracking system, and good in browser functionality the game will definitely be popular come time for launch. When I began to play the guns felt pretty solid with plenty of variation among them making it feel like each could be good per different situation. Movement was smooth and solid, although it felt like some kind of special jumping mechanic was needed to complete it. The graphics on the other hand are obviously the worst of the three games, but help make the game run on a better variety of machines, so if you are a graphics nut this game is not for you.

     Last and certainly not least, is Parabellum. Ever since a small PC gamer preview in an older issue I have been hotly anticipating this game. After finally getting into the beta I was surprised at the lack of server population. Obviously this is a problem of the developers ( more on that later), but surprisingly the game was pretty good. 

     Parabellum is currently under development by Acony Games, a small German developer working the game on the Unreal 3 engine. The game is a fully fledged game compared to the other two, but is based off of microtransactions in a similar fashion to Battlefield Heroes.

      Getting into the game and finally getting the settings right the game feels good. The gameplay is solid, and the guns just feel good. Movement moves a little too fast for the gameplay, but the developers seem to be working on that.  A number of glaring glitches mar the game, but overall there are a lot of things the game does right rather than wrong. After a while I discovered a certain feature (which I wish I could talk about) that really just made the game a thousand times better. The graphics of the game are also one of it's strengths.With the game still a great distance from out the graphics are in need of a little touch up, but for those that need there games to be super good looking this is the one for you.

     Overall being able to get into all of the games and being able to actually test them out before the main release has shown me something about the PC gaming industry. When somehting just isn't working out the market will find a way to thrive, and thank god, this time it is free.