An intriguing new trend in the world of online gaming is the “play for free, pay for upgrades” model, which appears on everything from Popcap to Puzzle Pirates to Shattered Galaxies. The idea is to offer you a full, playable game that you can download and play online for no charge, and then get you hooked enough to pay some money for bonus features—new costumes, new items, more privileges, and more content. You can play and enjoy the games without ever paying a cent, but if you want to access the full experience you need to pay. It’s a great system in many cases, sort of like a glorified demo. The newest entrant into this arena is a team-based shooter called War Rock, which really surprised me with the quality of its engine, graphics, and maps, and the options in its game types. It lacks some of the team features we’ve come to expect from games like Battlefield 2, but in most other respects it gives the world of PC shooters a run for its money.

This first episode of Sam and Max came out back in Novemeber 2006, marking the return of an adventure classic series from 1993. Originally a comic book, Sam and Max have returned to the adventure game venue all set to solve crime with a dark sense of humor and a gun...among other things. This is definitely not Humphrey Bogart, though nods to the tough guy detective genre are abundant.

Pox Nora is a hybrid game at its finest: an online tactical RPG that you play like a tabletop battle and build like a deck of collectible cards. Play it for a few minutes and you’ll spot a host of obvious inspirations—including Magic: The Gathering, Heroclix, Final Fantasy Tactics, and more—but they are handled so well, and combined so cleverly, that each one seems like an innovation instead of a throwback.

My waking hours have recently been consumed by a new game—one that combines CCG deckbuilding and tabletop miniature gameplay into an online turn-based RPG. It's like somebody slipped into my dreams, plucked out my favorite games, and combined them into a super-game against which I am powerless. There's even an undead army and—get this—a frog army. Add in the fact that it runs completely through a browser, so I can actually build armies while I'm at work, and I'm in turn-based strategy heaven.

Star Wars Galaxies was originally designed to be a “simulated world.” The whole goal with the game was to give you the environment and tools to form your own universe and then let the players develop as it was.