Clone Wars Adventures open beta begins

This isn't for me, but I'm curious to see if it really does capture a good-sized youth market.

Sure, Star Wars die-hards will play, regardless of age, but I would think that attracting a core of younger players is absolutely a part of the plan here.

I was looking for it to be along the lines of Free Realms or Wizard 101, but you can just tell they slopped this together in the past 6 months so they can release it just in time with the new season of the Clone Wars TV series. It's cute, but like said above there's really no reason to play it when there are far better Flash mini games out there that won't be slapping microtransactions in your face every time you play a game.

I have been eager to check this game out but I must say I am a bit confused by what I saw when I finally logged in. I expected the mini-game centric play but what is on display completely lacks exploration. I am hoping that in coming days they will open up areas that bring the environment up to par with Free Realms.

As it stands now, there really is no reason to do anything except play mini-games and hoard credits. The nearly 2D lobbies in the game no reason to glam out your avatar. So far, the most people I have been in a lobby area with is under ten. But I couldn't imagine having more than twenty or thirty avatars in each. That many people would clutter the screen. And with no way to manipulate the camera you'd be lost in the flat mass of people.

Of course, the shop with explode with hundreds of items in the near future. It is the sole cash-cow of the game. By the time the beta concludes I'd expect there to be no less than a thousand items for sale. But without an explorable area with quest rewards getting the desire for items started it all seems for naught.

The housing looks promising. As of right now, your free apartment is the largest explorable space. But without the explorable quest hubs that Free Realms sports, this game is just too shallow. At least I'll be hanging around during this month of beta access to see if it unfolds. Hopefully this very early beta is more akin other games releasing a character generator to get you a little excited rather than a glimpse into what they envision the virtual world as it will be.

I had the driver problem too. If I can play AOC and SWG without issue, I'm certainly not going to update my drivers for this.

Clonetroopers wielding lightsabers? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

FAIL

Eh, the kids'll like it. The man-kids maybe not, but the real little kids will. And now, back to Ben-10.

I was expecting SOE to raise the bar on this one and create an action packed game without having to resort to minigames but still have the minigames. I don't know if they'll improve on that later on. But, seeing how SOE is driven on cash shopping Free Realms (an example) with purchasable content, I don't expect anything like that to happen. It definitely could work out for the kids more so. In my personal opinion, Free Realms tops this one. I'll just keep an eye out on this one down the line to see what comes of it.

My 6 year old is a rabid fan of the Clone Wars cartoons. I installed the game and set him up, called him in to show it to him. He squealed with delight - literally. So I gave him a pat on the head and left the room to go hang out with my wife. Fifteen minutes later I hear his plaintive cry. "Daaaaaaad! This game sucks! Can I play Free Realms?"

He felt like there was nothing to explore. I did get him into the tower defense game, which he actually liked, but still the rest of the weekend he preferred to play Free Realms. And this is a kid who almost never stops saying "Anakin this" or "Captain Rex" that and who has daily lightsaber battles with his little sister (who looks so freakin' cute in her Yoda costume).

Tried to sign up for this and it kept rejecting my username... no bad words are permitted. WTF? Since when is cybersleuth a bad word? It it too much of a pain to be forced to make up (then remember) new usernames just bc they have quirky software. I am awaiting SWTOR anyway. I was hoping this one would be fun until SWTOR is released. {sigh}