MMORPG: Aion

[mpulliam]

Aion/NCSoft Homepage

Game Trailers Aion Vids

So yea, the wife and I are hooked.

Aion that is.

MMORPGS have always been our crack. WoW (4-5 years of play) had the "virtual, technicolor chat" down pat, with a good game in between, but it was always too cartoony for us. Age of Conan (less then a year of play) was beautiful, but lacked... soul, for lack of a better word. Warhammer (less then 3 months of play) was a ghost town that coulda, shoulda. And of course Dark Ages of Camelot (5 years of play) and the Everquest (3 years of play) franchise was stale. Lord of the Rings Online (1 year of play) was a good WoW clone/vitrual LotR Sim, but again, the graphics irked us. Vangard (1 year of play) had the best mmo graphics of all time, with major holes in its mechanics, including falling through the world a year after launch, lossing gear in those deaths AND experiance deaths.

I was about to sign up for Champions Online (City of Heroes (1 year of play) part two, with a lot of drama behind its making) when by chance, they closed their early order deal ($69 for 6 months of play, cheap in the mmo world). I missed it by hours. I was so mad, I went and looked up info on Aion and made my decision to try it.

The beta was great. Gave us both a feeling of EQ all over again. The Farcry/Crytek engine looks AMAZING in an mmo. Screenshots and videos do not do this game justice. This engine runs flawless on our hardware. My wife actually had a stick of ram go bad last week, so I ordered her 2x 2gb that will be in tomorrow, but she is playing FULL settings with only 1Gb ram in her box atm (Q6600, GTS8800/320, 1Gb DDR2/667).

Anyways, if you want a mmo with graphics "better" then WoW, but not system crushing; a game that has linear, story filled quests; pvp; pve; pvpve; A neat gimmick (no mounts, Wings, baby); and some very balanced crafting - I suggest looking into a month subscription.

Oh yea, the charactor creater is HUGE. Prepare to spend your first 2 hours building a toon that looks like you in Real Life. Or Sylvestor Stallone. Or Kate Moss, what ever floats your boat.

-=M=-

[leroy329]

Originally Posted by mpulliam

Aion/NCSoft Homepage

Game Trailers Aion Vids

So yea, the wife and I are hooked.

Aion that is.

MMORPGS have always been our crack. WoW (4-5 years of play) had the "virtual, technicolor chat" down pat, with a good game in between, but it was always too cartoony for us. Age of Conan (less then a year of play) was beautiful, but lacked... soul, for lack of a better word. Warhammer (less then 3 months of play) was a ghost town that coulda, shoulda. And of course Dark Ages of Camelot (5 years of play) and the Everquest (3 years of play) franchise was stale. Lord of the Rings Online (1 year of play) was a good WoW clone/vitrual LotR Sim, but again, the graphics irked us. Vangard (1 year of play) had the best mmo graphics of all time, with major holes in its mechanics, including falling through the world a year after launch, lossing gear in those deaths AND experiance deaths.

I was about to sign up for Champions Online (City of Heroes (1 year of play) part two, with a lot of drama behind its making) when by chance, they closed their early order deal ($69 for 6 months of play, cheap in the mmo world). I missed it by hours. I was so mad, I went and looked up info on Aion and made my decision to try it.

The beta was great. Gave us both a feeling of EQ all over again. The Farcry/Crytek engine looks AMAZING in an mmo. Screenshots and videos do not do this game justice. This engine runs flawless on our hardware. My wife actually had a stick of ram go bad last week, so I ordered her 2x 2gb that will be in tomorrow, but she is playing FULL settings with only 1Gb ram in her box atm (Q6600, GTS8800/320, 1Gb DDR2/667).

Anyways, if you want a mmo with graphics "better" then WoW, but not system crushing; a game that has linear, story filled quests; pvp; pve; pvpve; A neat gimmick (no mounts, Wings, baby); and some very balanced crafting - I suggest looking into a month subscription.

Oh yea, the charactor creater is HUGE. Prepare to spend your first 2 hours building a toon that looks like you in Real Life. Or Sylvestor Stallone. Or Kate Moss, what ever floats your boat.

-=M=-

how much is the monthes sub....?

[leroy329]

cause i was thinking about it also.

[Cereal_Killah]

Same as WoW, $15.00 a month.

I have to agree with mpulliam. I am hooked too. My character looks like a cross between Hellboy and Goliath from Gargoyles (in my opinion).

The game is beautiful and the gameplay, so far, has been great. In open-beta I just goofed off and explored. Now that the game has launched, it's level-busting time.

[Cereal_Killah]

[Yeah]

I thought about giving it a shot, but the price kinda asuaged me because I know Guild Wars 2 is just around the corner and will not have a monthly fee. Guildwars/Factions/Eye of the North etc.. addons were a great idea in my opinion. All good games lots of quests and good (linear) story line PVP PVE GVG... I am hoping GW 2 is everything GW 1 was and more.

Although It would be fun to try Aion, and if I were to pay a monthly fee it would probably be to try Aion or go back to Dark Ages of Camelot...

I will hold out for GW2

[Mccordrm]

I didn't really get into the Beta.
Don't get me wrong... the reviews you've read of the graphics are dead-on:
it's freakin' gorgeous. And flying around is pretty cool.

Gameplay-wise... meh. I just couldn't get into it. I may try again when I get
bored with Champions Online and gotten some feedback on end-game PvP.

[Bearded Frog]

Im really liking it so far but havent had much time to keep up with the leveling like my friends. Im only at 16 atm. I play Elyos on Zikel. Really a nice game though, if end game is proper I can see it being a pretty good WoW killer.

[Eldest_One]

Also you can lower the monthly cost by paying in three,six month or yearly payments the last one lowers it too $11.99.

[mpulliam]

We have posted a LOT of hours in this great game. Some opinions...

The Good:

• Good graphics. You can see forever when flying. A huge amount of ambient critters and mobs. This is the perfect transition from your favorite mmo to something with a bit more realism with out it being system crushing.
  
• The crafting is amazing - and yes, once you hit lvl 10 (the magic number to leave the newbie zone and "ascend" to your real class) you can craft exclusivly, gaining experiance. You get experiance picking berries or making plate, doesnt matter. Paid for your skills.
  
• Flying! It is a gimmick, sort of, but its addicting. Even in zones where flying isnt available, I cant count how many times I have found the highest point and I have glided off of it.

The Bad:

• The sounds in this game really miss their mark. The nukes and buffs are fine, and the music is award winning and epic - but when a porgus (pig) walks by, it sounds like he is on a tin roof, or tap dancing. When a wolf stops to dig or chase a rabbit, it sounds like a speaker hiss. Countless times I have had to hit the mute to do a speaker check.
  
• The cities are massive. Now a lot of people like this - in my experiance huge cities turn into ghost towns once the player base settles or levels and moves on. When the next generation of newbies levels through, they dont get the same feeling of population as the first generation, and sometimes they quit, thinking the game is dead, regardless of how many are at level cap pvping.

The Ugly:

• Log in waiting time. This game is making a dent in the WoW player base. Preliminary numbers are 400,000 pre-orders sold online, with another 400,000 sold in brick and morter, and a player base in Korea at 1million. I think they under estimated the draw of this game, my wife has had 3 hour log in waits. I have had to wait for over an hour.

This is one of those "ugly" things that show me the game is popular, but I think it also could have been avoided. The easiest way to is announce server merges on matched/mated servers after a month wait for the game to settle. Maybe at the 2 month mark. That way people know that after a certain period of "level up time" pre-determined matched/mated servers are going to be melded.

Well, I need to get back to smacking things. A couple cents worth of opinions for ya to chew on.

-=M=-

[Bearded Frog]

Originally Posted by mpulliam

The Ugly:

• Log in waiting time. This game is making a dent in the WoW player base. Preliminary numbers are 400,000 pre-orders sold online, with another 400,000 sold in brick and morter, and a player base in Korea at 1million. I think they under estimated the draw of this game, my wife has had 3 hour log in waits. I have had to wait for over an hour.

-=M=-

yeah wait time is pretty crazy. I log in before I go to work and setup a shop so I dont get kicked out of game. Then when I get home im ready to play rather then waiting for 4 hours.

[Cereal_Killah]

I have yet to see a queue longer than 45 minutes.

It will get bettah.

[xiz0r]

I've seen a 4h30 queue on zikel at launch (playing elyos) but zikel seems to be the biggest server so far.
Appart from that everything looks really great so far, juste have to see what the end game is like before knowing if I'll stick with Aion or not ...

[mpulliam]

Wifes Cleric and my Templar



Templar in a cinema cut scene..

[Cereal_Killah]

Lookin good!