E for All 2008: Nexon.com Game Lineup

Nexon.com is a Korean-founded video game company with a mission: to provide high quality games, for free! They have a unique business model that earns their profits through selling character customization. Microtransactions do not provide godly weapons to the highest bidder, but simply offer more personalization and customization options to the user’s beloved character.

Upon approaching the Nexon booth at E for All, one can’t help but feel a sense of awe at their setup. They have around 20 HP Blackbirds decaled to show off their new FPS, Combat Arms. Considering these machines are about $6000+ each, being able to test on them was a dream come true.

Combat Arms has the same feel as all the war-based FPS. The graphics are not quite to the level of Call of Duty, but considering that it’s free, they are pretty amazing. Considering these were running on Blackbirds, one wonders what the performance would be like on a normal PC. The plus side is that if it doesn’t perform well, you would have only wasted a bit of bandwidth to download the game, and a few minutes of your life rather than dollars from your pocket. I would recommend FPS players to at least check out Combat Arms.

Nexon’s flagship game is MapleStory, a 2D side-scrolling MMORPG. Provided in numerous languages, this is an extremely popular and ever-growing MMORPG. In fact, Nexon has contracted with Nintendo to turn MapleStory into a DS game!

My most anticipated upcoming Nexon game is SugarRush. Everything is kept on the down-low, so not much can be said about it at this point. It is described as the Super Smash Brothers of FPS. The animation will be cute-ish style with a twist of morbid amounts of blood. Closed beta is available at the moment and no launch dates have been announced. SugarRush is designed for the North American market, and Nexon has promised that it offer loads of entertainment.