I love to play computer games. My dad bought me my first computer 20 years ago, a Timex Sinclair 2000. I spent hours typing on the membrane keyboard from this book that had a few games written in basic. I was hooked on the games I was able to play.

The emergence of several MMORPG’s (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games) on the market in recent years has been my gaming focus. I love the idea of playing a game with thousands of others online, whether it’s in a cooperative effort or fighting against each other.

You may have heard of games like this, such as EverQuest, Dark Age of Camelot or the recent Star Wars Galaxies. While I have enjoyed playing each of these games to some degree, none of these games was really able to capture my attention for months on end like most players. Star Wars Galaxies is enduring growing pains that ensures that the game is more frustrating than fun at the moment, and I will probably play that game again at some point in the future.

However, I really wanted to play a MMORPG now, so that I can escape from my world for a couple of hours a day and enjoy a different world entirely. I stumbled upon a game entitled Asheron’s Call 2. I had played the first version of Asheron’s Call, also an MMORPG, and found it to be the most enjoyable online experience that I had so far in this genre. Unfortunately, the game was plagued by massive cheating and the developers of the game didn’t do much to stop it. That’s really a show stopper for me in this genre, as I believe the games need to be fair considering how much time they ask of you.

Asheron’s Call 2 was released last year and was met with a very frustrated player community who felt the design of the game was flawed and that the product was released too early. While the design of the game isn’t fundamentally flawed (it’s just not anything like Asheron’s Call 1), the game did have a large helping of software bugs.

Today, Asheron’s Call 2 has lost many aggravated players, however the game is now stable. In fact, during prime time, there are only 1500 or so people playing Asheron’s Call 2, where Star Wars Galaxies has just reported that their subscription base is 275,000.

I decided that now would be the perfect time to give it a spin, and in fact, they are offering a completely free trial right now that requires no purchase of any software or even a credit card number.

I’ll be reporting on my experiences with this game in the coming weeks ahead, but if last night was any indication, this game is going to hold my attention for at least a few months. The game was designed and succeeds by letting brand spanking new players actually get into the game almost immediately. After only 2 hours of play, I had a real sense of accomplishment and enjoyed my time in their world. I can’t say that of any other MMORPG.

Here’s some highlights:

The first dungeon I found, I immediately became lost because there are no stereotypical right angles in the dungeon. It had a very natural feeling, almost like adventuring in an ant farm, and it was disorienting.

The game has been designed to eliminate down time and almost has a FPS (first person shooter) feel to it, although that may be an overstatement. It definitely doesn’t move as slow as traditional MMORPG’s.

The graphics are stunning and beautiful. In fact, they give you the option when installing to place very high resolution information on your computer. What a great idea! If you have a high speed computer, you can really press it’s capabilities and really enjoy your surroundings. If you don’t have a fast computer, you can install the normal detail graphics and ensure that you’re machine will keep up with everyone else. Neat! I was in awe of this little magical dagger I found that had a red glow infused within it. When I equipped the dagger, the red glow was actually a real 3 dimensional light source that acted just like any other light source in the environment. Swinging away at monster, you could see the shadows cast on the cave walls as the red glow swiped by the monster.

If you’re looking for something to play, for free in fact, you should definitely check out Asheron’s Call 2. Worst case, you’ll enjoy yourself for a few hours on someone else’s dime.