If you’re like majority of mankind, anything with a prefix of “free” attached to it becomes absolutely irresistible, especially in this day and age when nothing is given away without charge. This is the reason why Combat Arms, a free online FPS, has a lot going for it.

Forget the fact that free games are usually looked down upon since they’re not very good. Anyways, Joystiq said Combat Arms is “good,” so it must be, right? Because of this commendation, I knew I had to try the game.

The download and account creation was easy enough. What followed next was an exercise frustration. Whenever I tried logging in Combat Arms, I get the following message over and over again:

After a bit of digging, I learned that Combat Arms was launched officially last July 11 in North America, and that the online FPS would have a closed beta test in Europe next month. Apparently, a lot of complaints have been made by European players lately because they have been receiving the same error message.

Many have presumed that Nexon, the game’s developer, is restricting access to Combat Arms to U.S.-based players only. Apparently, it’s not so simple. Some Nexon forum users claim that they’ve been able to play the game even if they’re not based in the U.S., while some U.S.-based users have been having the same login problems.

So what is it really? We don’t know for sure. Even Nexon didn’t say anything about geographical limitations. As far as I’m concerned, I still can’t join the game’s North American servers. I don’t know if this is because I live in a different continent, or if my ISP isn’t fast enough for U.S. standards. One thing’s for sure: I’ll never know if Combat Arms is really as good as Joystiq says it is.

Image for Combat Arms is courtesy of Nexon.

Post from: EveryJoe

Login woes plague Combat Arms

CS Online is the Asian version of Condition Zero. The game is being developed by Nexon, a Korea-based company. This version would come with new weapons, maps, and player models that are tailored for the Asian audience.

New terrorist models are: Red Beret Condittiere, Asia Red Army, National Liberation Campaign, and Vigilante Corps. Likewise, there are new Counter-Terrorists, such as: South Korean 707, Taiwanese Police Special Forces, Chinese Devil Squad, and Japanese SAT.

Unlike the previous Valve games, CS Online doesn’t require you to have Steam.

According to MMOtaku, over 170,000 gamers participated in CS Online’s closed beta test. The game will be released in Korea (obviously), China, Japan, and Taiwan.

Aside from the obvious cosmetic modifications for the Asian audience, I don’t think there would be any major gameplay differences. So my question is: how would this game make Asian gamers stop playing their favorite treadmill MMOs? I don’t think the new models would be incentive enough.

Post from: EveryJoe

Counter-Strike Online recently holds beta test