Station Access Collection (bundle) - PC Games

Planetside: Aftershock throws you into a futuristic all-out-war on the continents of Auraxis. View larger. Planetside: Aftershock
Planetside: Aftershock is itself a compilation that includes PlanetSide, with the Core Combat expansion pack and the new BattleFrame Robotics action pack included. This game throws you into a futuristic all-out-war on the planetary continents of Auraxis, where you must engage your enemies in large-scale battles or tactical base assaults. Players must decide upon their allegiance and enlist in the army of their choice amongst three unique empires fighting for total domination. As battles are fought and experience gained, characters can choose to advance in more than 30 different combat specialties, including infantry, sniper, stealth commando, engineer, hacker, medic, pilot, driver and more. And with the new BattleFrame Robotics pack, players are put in control of giant mechanized robots, each with multiple weapons systems at their command.

Star Wars: Galaxies is a role-playing game based on the popular movie series. View larger. Star Wars: Galaxies
Star Wars: Galaxies lets you create a character by choosing from male or female versions of eight different Star Wars races, including humans and wookiees, as well as the fish-faced mon calamari, the bug-eyed rodians, and more. The most important part of the character creation process is choosing your starting profession, whether is be as the artisan, brawler, entertainer, marksman, or scout. Then you must grow your character by gaining experience points, not simply by generically killing monsters or completing typical missions you'll find in other role-playing games, but rather by repeatedly using the specific skills that are most important to your character.

The basic starting professions actually branch off into more than 20 different advanced professions, which become available as you master the skill paths of your starting profession. It's easy to enter into combat in Star Wars: Galaxies, as characters need only venture a short distance from any of the various starting locations before they will run into myriads of creatures that can be killed for experience points. Star Wars: Galaxies' fighting characters have access to different special abilities that can cause more damage or hinder the abilities of their enemies in some way, and these characters will gain new abilities as they improve their skills. Thanks to its impressive visuals, authentic Star Wars music and sound effects, Star Wars: Galaxies will get you as close to living in the Star Wars universe as you'll ever be.

The Matrix Online is a turn-based combat game that puts you directly in the middle of Matrix itself. View larger. The Matrix Online
The Matrix Online puts you directly in the middle of Matrix itself, a place also known as the Metro World, and the story line picks up after the conclusion of The Matrix Revolutions. It is a time of uneasy truce between humans and machines, with a third group called the exiles -- self-aware programs that have their home in the Matrix -- that further complicates matters. You play as a newly awakened "redpill," a human freed from servitude and made recently conscious of the nature of the Matrix and the state of the real world. Being human, you start out in the service of Zion, who'll help train you to survive and even thrive in The Matrix. But for you rabble rousers, you'll soon have the option of choosing to align yourself with any of the three organizations vying for domination of the Matrix. One of the more compelling features of The Matrix Online is how it doesn't force you to lock yourself into a particular character profession; instead the game allows you to customize your character's proficiencies and make dramatic changes to your skill set on the fly. Also, each character's set of statistics, such as perception and belief, predispose them toward one style of play or another.

Gameplay is primarily turn-based combat that occurs during randomly generated missions in search of targets or objects. You earn currency, experience points, and loot (such as weapons and other items) from accomplishing missions and defeating opponents. Many missions have multiple stages, and while it's possible to finish them on your own, it's much more efficient to plow through them with a group of other players. The Matrix Online allows players to form groups of up to a dozen, called "crews," that are more permanent in nature, and multiple crews can come together to form a "faction." In addition to fighting foes using hand-to-hand combat, guns, and viruses, characters can create useful items by "compiling" them. One of the most enticing aspects of The Matrix Online is the promise of an evolving storyline that develops based on each players' actions, ensuring that you will keep coming back not just for the thrill of the game, but in order to see how the story turns out.

Both Everquest games -- Evolution and Everquest II -- take place in the world of Norrath. View larger. Everquest: Evolution and Everquest II
As the game that originally helped create the market for the massive multiplayer online role-playing genre, the Everquest line of role-playing games require little explanation. Both Everquest games -- Evolution and Everquest II -- take place in the world of Norrath, but in Everquest II Norrath has been stricken by a cataclysmic event that caused civilization to virtually collapse, leaving only two main metropolises intact. In both Evolution and Everquest II, you must choose your character's race, profession, and alignment before you head out in to the world to gain experience, win renown, and hopefully become rich and powerful beyond your wildest dreams. EverQuest: Evolution features the original game plus all of the expansion packs released so far, including The Ruins of Kunark, The Scars of Velious, The Shadows of Luclin, The Planes of Power, and The Legacy of Ykesha. Everquest II includes the new world order, a ton of original content, breathtaking new graphics, and several tweaks to gameplay, such as a purely player-versus-environment gameplay design that removes the original Everquest's option of attacking other players. As one of the most participated in and deeply developed massively-multiplayer online games ever created, both Everquest: Evolution and Everquest II will provide you with virtually endless entertainment and challenges.