Subject: Dragon Age: Origins Fri Oct 16, 2009 9:35 am
For anybody planning to buy this title, Bioware has released a character creator that lets you make your character before you even play and then import it. Pretty cool!
People who liked Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect will probably like DA:O. Has a lot of elements in common with Baldur's Gate/Neverwinter Nights too.
AND I GET TO PLAY A PROT WARRIOR IN IT... TECHNICALLY... WOOOO!
Orthedos
Posts : 146 Join date : 2009-05-14 Age : 62 Location : Hong Kong + China
Subject: Re: Dragon Age: Origins Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:05 am
Yay, now I will have to apply for /afk from WoW for months on ends, just to play another Bioware game.
Come to think of it, is there another MMO really worth switching from WoW, coming up soon? The new Bioware MMO? The new Blizz MMO?
I am looking at Champions online, I am now hesitant after hearing the negative reviews from friends.
Gallowyn Officer
Posts : 1296 Join date : 2008-04-13
Subject: Re: Dragon Age: Origins Fri Oct 16, 2009 11:31 am
Having played CO, it has no substance. Past the character creator screen, the gameplay has very little depth beyond the customisability of your "talent tree". Too many loading screens, too much repetitive killing, bad item naming (Yes Gallow, worse than Aion's skill names!).
Star Wars: The Old Republic, the new Final Fantasy and just maybe Secret World are the only MMO's coming out relativley soon which are interesting. TOR is due out October next year though. I sincerely doubt I'll pick up any MMO until then, unless Secret World comes out first, because I'm burned out beyond all measure on the grinding that comes with it.
Aion isn't bad. The bots aren't as terrible as Mayo made it out to be, and wasn't the reason I quit. It just has insane XP requirements and gold fees for training. The quest XP is getting sorted out in a patch in the relativley near future (500% increase in quest XP from what I hear). If i hadn't been pampered by WOTLK levelling, Aion wouldn't feel as much of a grind as it does.
Given that the new Blizz MMO is rumoured to be even more casual than WoW is, it depends on if you fit into that target audience of people who actually like experiencing something an infant could do blindfolded. Cataclysm is of some interest to me, but that's only if it actually tries to revolutionise more mechanics in the same way warlocks are being handled than just adding goblins, worgens and lava and calling it a night.
Having played CO, it has no substance. Past the character creator screen, the gameplay has very little depth beyond the customisability of your "talent tree". Too many loading screens, too much repetitive killing, bad item naming (Yes Gallow, worse than Aion's skill names!).
You hadn't even left the newbie areas! There's alot of content you've not seen!
I feel that the killing involved is less than WoW's, actually. There's no grind in the game.
For those who wanna know a little more about the game, there's a humorous take on Champions Online that you would enjoy reading, by Shamus Young. If you think the name sounds familiar, he is the creator of DM of the Ring
He's poked fun at alot of the game's background story, but he's just as addicted to the game as I am. He's admitted that he plays it every waking hour.
Subject: Re: Dragon Age: Origins Sat Oct 17, 2009 1:43 am
I think its a big problem if I can't even get out of the newbie areas because there's too much reptitive killing >.> See the fact I got to 28 in Aion before feeling I had had enough repetitive killing in that game.
Maybe it wasn't just the repetitive killing so much as the idea of power charging moves. It felt a lot like playing a hunter autoattacking with a few special moves thrown in but none which ever made it feel like I couldn't just afk it.
Arielyn
Posts : 174 Join date : 2008-04-16
Subject: Re: Dragon Age: Origins Sat Oct 17, 2009 6:52 pm
Symitri wrote:
I think its a big problem if I can't even get out of the newbie areas because there's too much reptitive killing >.> See the fact I got to 28 in Aion before feeling I had had enough repetitive killing in that game.
Maybe it wasn't just the repetitive killing so much as the idea of power charging moves. It felt a lot like playing a hunter autoattacking with a few special moves thrown in but none which ever made it feel like I couldn't just afk it.
Much has been written about the flaws of the game, but the complaint that there's too much repetitive killing has not been on the lists of the game's detractors. I've no idea why you feel you have to kill repetitively.
The PvE game being too easy has been a common complaint though.
Every pull in the game is a pull of two-three mobs, with the rare exception of the elite-type mobs. The time it takes to kill those mobs is the same as killing a single mob, but the psychology of it is that you are effectivley killing more. It just doesn't sit well with me.
If I didn't have complaint enough, they charge $12.50 for full character respecs and $15 so you can have additional character slots. That seems absolutely beyond ridicilous. That's more depraved than WoW!
Shiftstorm Officer
Posts : 293 Join date : 2009-06-07 Location : US west coast ;)
they charge $12.50 for full character respecs and $15 so you can have additional character slots. That seems absolutely beyond ridicilous.
Welcome to SWG before it became a completely different game.. back then.. you could only have 1 charecter per game account. delete it if you wanted something else. no customization paid or not after you make a charecter. however, if you were lucky enough to be the 1% of the population that could have their charecter suddenly become "force sensitive" you get a jedi slot to open up for you ! however dont die ! or you start off at "level 1" with him. lol good times
Every pull in the game is a pull of two-three mobs, with the rare exception of the elite-type mobs. The time it takes to kill those mobs is the same as killing a single mob, but the psychology of it is that you are effectivley killing more. It just doesn't sit well with me.
I guess superhero games aren't for you then. Superhero mmos are a niche market from the start. Having the ability to fight off multiple enemies is an essential element of the genre. Spiderman doesn't get clobbered when he tries to stop a gang of robbers. Even poor old Batman who lacks any superpowers would strike fear in the hearts of the criminals of Gotham City. He doesn't have to flee when the lone common criminal he is apprehending is suddenly aided by a backup team. Only supervillains like Dr Octopus or The Joker are their equals. It wouldn't feel superheroic if 2 common criminals could send your superhero to the hospital.
Symitri wrote:
If I didn't have complaint enough, they charge $12.50 for full character respecs and $15 so you can have additional character slots. That seems absolutely beyond ridicilous. That's more depraved than WoW!
The full retcon is optional. You can use in-game currency to pay for it as well. If WoW allows players to change their troll priests to orc warriors, it would definitely involve micro-transactions but without the benefit of using in-game currency as an alternative.
The character slot issue is problematic, I'd agree.
Don't get me wrong, I can see CO has its own target niche market. I rather enjoyed the open instances (I did two, one totally without your guidance !) moreso than what was offered in WoW (the Wrathgate one comes to mind) and even the closed instance in Aion. I also understand the concept of why they come in packs, it makes sense from the standpoint of both how mobs would act in real life and is true to the superhero genre. That doesn't make tab targetting between them any more fun
I'm just rather sick of these games targetting niche markets. Aion targetted the hardcore PVP crowd (taking the best of games like DaoC, Lineage and Warhammer) hardcore RPG crowd (at least until it increases the quest XP as it's said to be doing) and Age of Conan targetted the teens who love boobies crowd (I'm thinking of getting it because I do like boobies, even virtual ones!).
I'd rather somebody just try to directly tackle WoW.
Aion attracted more than enough users to be a good competitor, as levels 1-20 are easy as pie, but what I noticed is that a lot of players started dropping out of the game or botting beyond that point.
Hopefully this inspires future MMO makers to try and take on the market. I really am crossing my fingers and hoping to die if Star Wars: The Old Republic doesn't live up to the hype.
ON THE SUBJECT OF SUPERHEROS THOUGH, most awesome new Batman series cartoon ever...
!) moreso than what was offered in WoW (the Wrathgate one comes to mind) and even the closed instance in Aion. I also understand the concept of why they come in packs, it makes sense from the standpoint of both how mobs would act in real life and is true to the superhero genre. That doesn't make tab targetting between them any more fun 