Wizardry Online goes live, free to play your way.

I have to admit, I'm just a little bit giddy about getting to write a post about Wizardry Online. You see, I grew up in the era where games like Ultima ruled the pixels on my Apple //e 80-column screen. Long before I spent countless hours roaming dungeons in MMOs, I was doing it in Wizardry.

Now that Wizardry has become an MMO thanks to Sony Online Entertainment, it's a privilege for me to bring news to you on what is the rebirth of one of the most beloved video game franchises of all time!

And oh, how it was reborn. "Wizardry Online is the most hardcore fantasy MMORPG ever created," said Todd Carson, Senior Producer, Sony Online Entertainment. "The difficulty level is insane and delivers a challenging, immersive free-to-play experience that today's players want and demand, while also capturing the true essence and heritage of the Wizardry franchise that players and fans have come to know and love over the past 30 years."

So, Wizardry Online isn't your typical game with hand-holding, mamby-pamby corpse runs and pillow mechanics, no sir. Not only do you get intensely difficult combat, you get perma-death! That's right, once you die, you stay that way. Here are just a few of the other hardcore features players can expect:

• Massive Dungeons: The game's dungeons present a variety of traps and powerful monsters for those who dare to invade their territory.
• Skill Customization: Players can customize characters by combining skills from current or previous classes. With Wizardry Online's skill heredity system, players can create a fighter who can heal or a mage to steal items from monsters.
• Bounty Hunt System: In addition to monsters, players will try to kill and rob other players for rare items. Such players are deemed Criminals and may attack anywhere and at any time. Players may offer a bounty such as gold for the death of any criminal and other players will compete to bring that character down.

And as usual for Sony, it's Free To Play. Your Way.™ Which means you can jump into the game right now and start you quest for dominance!

Head over to wizardrythegame.com for more info and to download the game. See you in hell!

Bill "Lethality" Leonard