In the long years that I've spent as a buyer, I managed to learn a very important rule - NEVER set your mind on a brand or retail chain! NEVER-EVER! There's no place where all products are great deals, and there's no such thing as "I love that store, I'll buy everything I need from it," even if you have to go to another location simply to pick the mouse you want.

Before moving on, there's one more thing to know - sometimes, you have to wait for a while to get the best out of your favorite retailer, and today the time has come to talk about the GameStop deals waiting around the corner...

... because the US retailer has big plans regarding small prices! No, we're not talking about games here, it's much better - cheap PlayStation 3 and Wii consoles, that's the deal! ;)
<-300x250 Medium Rectangle - center->
According to GameStop's CEO Daniel DeMatteo, the company's forecast of 33.5 million hardware unit sales has been done keeping in mind price cuts on the PS3 and Wii that should drive sales higher in third quarter. "That assumes that there will be price cuts on the PS3 and potentially one on the Wii. It’s hard to tell if we actually need a price cut on the Wii to get to our numbers. There are some price cuts built into that assumption, but not until the third quarter," he said.

Unfortunately, there's no additional info about the GameStop deals to come, so let's hope for severe price cuts, shall we? They will also arrive just in time for BioShock 2, Tekken 6, or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, so let's get ready for the best!

Today, our trip through the free online MMORPG land will end. Cry now, and be happy later. Why? Well, it's quite easy to figure out that we're trying to find the answer to a question without one. I said it before, and I say it again - there's no such thing as "best free online MMORPG," because the answer changes as time goes by, and sometimes it changes for the same gamer, as his demands evolve.

As I also previously mentioned, we won't get to cover all possible games you can play for free, and that's for two reasons. First and foremost, it's because some of them are not worth being mentioned here, some being pretty bad, and others, targeted towards a small audience(like Navy Field or Aces High, for example). Second, there are too many, and since things are changing pretty fast, keeping such a list updated would require a huge amount of time spent on simply checking out if what I wrote a month ago is still true...

These being said, let's light the fires and spin the tires, shall we?


1. Runes of Magic is considered by many to be a World of Warcraft clone, but even if this would be true, the best part of it all is that you get the game client as a free download, without any monthly subscription fee to pay, because the game service is funded with the help of real money transactions (RMT) via the Runes of Magic Item Shop.

In this game, there are six character classes, and all action is taking place in the fantasy world of Taborea. Currently, there are about 500,000 active accounts in Runes of Magic, so you can't go wrong with this one, especially since it also looks pretty good, and most people who at least tried it have a good opinion about the gaming experience they had.


2. Second Life is as notorious as possible, and I won't say anything else about it. Just... give it a try, if you're in the mood to escape into an alternate reality where things aren't that different as it happens with WoW and other fantasy-style online games.


3. Shaiya is a game coming from Aeria Games, and I won't tell you anything else about it. Give it a try, it's worth it!


4. Silkroad Online is set in the 7th century AD, along the Silk Road between China and Europe, and it got a rating of 8.4 from GameSpot back in 2005.
<-300x250 Medium Rectangle - center->
With a three-way player versus player system, berserker mode, and very well done character customization features, Silkroad Online has some problems when it comes to quests and storyline, but since it's completely free to play... why not give it a try? If you're really into spending some cash for the game you like, there are also premium items available, so...


5. Coming from Germany, Travian is a great browser-based game, but it's not quite a MMORPG. A city building, military RTS that can be enjoyed on every platform you can think of, as long as it can connect to the Internet, Travian is quite addictive, and pretty fun.

The only problem I see with Travian - as a former player - is that you have to be there on a daily basis to take care of sending troops, building stuff, and so on. In the beginning, it seems a few minutes per day are enough, but as you move on... you discover that the reality is quite different.


6. At last, we have Twelve Sky, another one coming from Aeria Games. This is another MMORPG that you must try, but if you're running Windows Vista, be sure to disable UAC before installing it and running the client... if you missed doing it already, of course.

This, my friends, is the end. On the other hand, I hope this little story in four parts opened your eyes and managed to show you that there's no really such a thing as "best free online MMORPG," but only a bunch of games you should try and decide for yourself which one's better!

France is a very nice country to visit, but that's about to change. I am not going through all the reasons that will make Paris less likely to be your next destination for a trip in a decade or two, because we're not into holiday trips here. Unfortunately, gamers and Internet users are already suffering, so while France is still a nice country to visit, it becomes harder and harder to live in it without breaking a sweat...

Back in mid-June of 1521, Francis I of France came up with the idea that all (religious) books must be read and approved by the Faculty of Theology of the University, while about two months later, the Parlement ordered that all Lutheran writings must be deposited in the next week. That was one of the first acts of censorship in France, but now it seems this Western democracy is trying to catch up with China... and I am not talking about population or economics here!
<-300x250 Medium Rectangle - center->
Since I am pretty shocked by what I have found out, let me sum it all up in a sentence or two. The French government is working on a new crime bill that will do a lot of bad things, including enforcing of ISP level Internet censorship, government spyware legalization, as well as the creation of a massive meta-database containing citizen information, called "Pericles."

This isn't about blacklisting child porn sites, this is clearly about taking away freedom. I only wonder why are they such in a hurry... couldn't they wait just a few more years, until we'll all have some sort of chip inside us, or hiding in the woods?

To be honest, this is simply insane. Considering what's happening there, I would rather go visit China instead of France. They surely have cheaper food, more interesting history, and about the same level of Internet censorship as the one France is headed to at full speed!