Age of Conan Beta

[Hellboy]

I'm really pumped about AoC, but every thread I've seen so far had opinions ranging from fucking awful to fucking amazing, with a legitimate unbiased review the only thing missing. So has anyone that has played a large enough amount of the beta to give an unbiased review of the gameplay/graphics/class balance/recommended specs without the "WOW DOES THIS BETTER" part?

I dunno if it will have the broad appeal of WoW with it's high end graphics (compared to other mmos), male oriented source material, and M rating. I have my hopes though that the gameplay will make up for the smaller audience the game's aimed at.

[Plow]

I'm really pumped about AoC, but every thread I've seen so far had opinions ranging from fucking awful to fucking amazing, with a legitimate unbiased review the only thing missing. So has anyone that has played a large enough amount of the beta to give an unbiased review of the gameplay/graphics/class balance/recommended specs without the "WOW DOES THIS BETTER" part?

I dunno if it will have the broad appeal of WoW with it's high end graphics (compared to other mmos), male oriented source material, and M rating. I have my hopes though that the gameplay will make up for the smaller audience the game's aimed at.

The thing you have to realize is that the reason WoW is so successful is that while it has the same issues as most major mmo's (content, bugs, communication gap between players and devs, etc) it just does an insane amount of things better than every other game out there. Everything from basic menus and, well, the entire interface, to GM's actually being incredibly useful (wrong guy rolled on item that dropped and didn't realize he didn't need it until after? np! GM will send it to the right guy), to having pretty much every chat option that so many games are missing.

It's really amazing when you go back and forth between games just how much raw quantity of the "little" things are done better in WoW than anywhere else, it's totally what makes the game. If someone wants to compete, they're going to have to show that kind of mastery.

[MisterBob]

The release date still May 20th? I read internet rumors that WoW is going to release S4 on or around release date to try and keep some of the MMO drifters. Unfortunately WoW has had a pretty serious lack of content so I can see them loosing quite a few, at least till WoLK.

What? Do we play the same game? As far as I know, WoW has never had a lack of content, even for the most hardcore of players.

Personally I agree, but tell that to the guilds who were farming Illidan for 6 months.

Not to mention Molten Core being the only raid zone for ages. Was pretty content devoid at that stage of the game as well.

[Venture]

"At least I'm not sitting in Dragon's Aery for 3 hours; being forced to run FFXI Apps to actually progress in endgame."

[Kurp]

Is anyone going to play at launch? I think I'm going to give it a shot, but I don't really have anyone to play it with at the moment.

[Venga]

Just been looking at some trailers, it looks quite cool visual wise and fight system seems to be similar to wow. any ideas on what the end game, ptying stystem is going to be like. Im not looking for a hardcore mmo, where i have to spend hours in a pty.

On a side note, does anyone know anything about the new SE mmo? i know this isnt even close to coming out, and atm it's all about Warhammer and AoC, but still, if anyones got any links, would be appreciated.

But just thought i'd throw it out there, dont forget aion, that looks pretty cool.

[Stolin]

Crafting explained, Build your own Guild City
http://ve3dmovies.ign.com/videos/02/77/ ... sider3.wmv

getting more interested in this game

It looks like theres a lot of age of empires influence in this mmo. Which has me interested now, heh.

[Royal]

Might try this out because a lot of people from school I know want to try it and I would kind of like to play with people in my area code for once. Still waiting for a .hack mmo though.

[Katlan]

Just been looking at some trailers, it looks quite cool visual wise and fight system seems to be similar to wow. any ideas on what the end game, ptying stystem is going to be like. Im not looking for a hardcore mmo, where i have to spend hours in a pty.

On a side note, does anyone know anything about the new SE mmo? i know this isnt even close to coming out, and atm it's all about Warhammer and AoC, but still, if anyones got any links, would be appreciated.

But just thought i'd throw it out there, dont forget aion, that looks pretty cool.

How can you say the fighting system is similar to WoW? Have you even read up on the game at all... not trying to flame but the game is shooting for a unique battle system akin to what FFXI did (not the same system as FF, but they are doing something different like FF has done mmo wise). Though a game expanding on FF's battle system would be a great thing.....

On topic... waiting to see reviews before I pick up a game my 16 month old laptop might not be able to run well -.-

[Yangsing]

I'm downloading the pre-release of AoC at the moment. Going to give AoC a shot since I'm mmo-less right now. Being part of a guild and taking over battle keeps seems interesting.

I've heard good and bad things about this game. Just depends on who you ask. Fileplanet beta was supposedly a stress test which would account for the lag. But that could just be bs from funcom.

[Plow]

Just been looking at some trailers, it looks quite cool visual wise and fight system seems to be similar to wow. any ideas on what the end game, ptying stystem is going to be like. Im not looking for a hardcore mmo, where i have to spend hours in a pty.

On a side note, does anyone know anything about the new SE mmo? i know this isnt even close to coming out, and atm it's all about Warhammer and AoC, but still, if anyones got any links, would be appreciated.

But just thought i'd throw it out there, dont forget aion, that looks pretty cool.

How can you say the fighting system is similar to WoW? Have you even read up on the game at all... not trying to flame but the game is shooting for a unique battle system akin to what FFXI did (not the same system as FF, but they are doing something different like FF has done mmo wise). Though a game expanding on FF's battle system would be a great thing.....

On topic... waiting to see reviews before I pick up a game my 16 month old laptop might not be able to run well -.-

From what I understand the combat system is basically an improved version of Fury's, i.e. no auto-attack, but without the lame elemental charges an with some kind of a limit to how long you can sit there just spamming shit non-stop.

[Khamsin]

Just been looking at some trailers, it looks quite cool visual wise and fight system seems to be similar to wow. any ideas on what the end game, ptying stystem is going to be like. Im not looking for a hardcore mmo, where i have to spend hours in a pty.

On a side note, does anyone know anything about the new SE mmo? i know this isnt even close to coming out, and atm it's all about Warhammer and AoC, but still, if anyones got any links, would be appreciated.

But just thought i'd throw it out there, dont forget aion, that looks pretty cool.

How can you say the fighting system is similar to WoW? Have you even read up on the game at all... not trying to flame but the game is shooting for a unique battle system akin to what FFXI did (not the same system as FF, but they are doing something different like FF has done mmo wise). Though a game expanding on FF's battle system would be a great thing.....

On topic... waiting to see reviews before I pick up a game my 16 month old laptop might not be able to run well -.-

From what I understand the combat system is basically an improved version of Fury's, i.e. no auto-attack, but without the lame elemental charges an with some kind of a limit to how long you can sit there just spamming shit non-stop.

What about something like Oblivion's combat system? That could work well for an MMO.

[Gustfaint]

Just been looking at some trailers, it looks quite cool visual wise and fight system seems to be similar to wow. any ideas on what the end game, ptying stystem is going to be like. Im not looking for a hardcore mmo, where i have to spend hours in a pty.

On a side note, does anyone know anything about the new SE mmo? i know this isnt even close to coming out, and atm it's all about Warhammer and AoC, but still, if anyones got any links, would be appreciated.

But just thought i'd throw it out there, dont forget aion, that looks pretty cool.

How can you say the fighting system is similar to WoW? Have you even read up on the game at all... not trying to flame but the game is shooting for a unique battle system akin to what FFXI did (not the same system as FF, but they are doing something different like FF has done mmo wise). Though a game expanding on FF's battle system would be a great thing.....

On topic... waiting to see reviews before I pick up a game my 16 month old laptop might not be able to run well -.-

From what I understand the combat system is basically an improved version of Fury's, i.e. no auto-attack, but without the lame elemental charges an with some kind of a limit to how long you can sit there just spamming shit non-stop.

What about something like Oblivion's combat system? That could work well for an MMO.

Isn't there an Elder Scroll's MMO coming out eventually? Or am I remembering something wrong. Either way, early access for AoC is in a day or two depending where people live, pretty excited for it

edit: if anyone else is playing this game, what server are ya gonna be on? They just posted a list on their site:

US Servers (Early Access 17th of May)

PvE Servers

*
Set
*
Dagoth
*
Zug
*
Omm
*
Derketo
*
Thog
*
Wiccana
*
Gwahlur (recommended Oceanic)
*
Anu

PvP Servers

*
Tyranny
*
Bane
*
Deathwisper
*
Bloodspire (recommended Oceanic)
*
Doomsayer

RP-PvP Server

*
Cimmeria


European English Servers (Early Access 17th of May)

PvE Servers

*
Crom
*
Dagon
*
Ymir
*
Bori
*
Astoreth



PvP Servers

*
Fury
*
Wildsoul



RP-PvP Server

*
Aquilonia


French Servers (Early Access 17th of May)



PvE Server

*
Ishtar

PvP Server

*
Ferox



RP-PvP Server

*
Stygia


German Servers (Early Access 17th of May)

PvE Servers

*
Mitra
*
Asura



PvP Server

*
Aries



RP-PvP Server

*
Asgard


Spanish Server (Early Access 17th of May)

*
Zingara (PvE)

[Creeps]

The release date still May 20th? I read internet rumors that WoW is going to release S4 on or around release date to try and keep some of the MMO drifters. Unfortunately WoW has had a pretty serious lack of content so I can see them loosing quite a few, at least till WoLK.

What? Do we play the same game? As far as I know, WoW has never had a lack of content, even for the most hardcore of players.

Apparently the most hardcore of players you know aren't very hardcore, cuz the most hardcore players cleared ilidan 8+ months ago, cleared za in 2 hours the first night it came out, and had absolutely nothing else between then and 2.4.


And that's not even getting into the pvp system where we've now been expected to grind somewhere in the neighborhood of 400k honor in the same 4 bg's for the last year, of which many of us had literally run 3 of them thousands of times before that even as well.


Every major mmorpg has content issues, you just can't design as fast as the best can beat.

lol, these are true statements, I suppose. I guess I just know the biggest nerds of all who just roll a new class to 70 when they're done with a different 70. For example, some dude in my guild has every class to 70, including multiples of the same class with a different race, on 3 different servers...

[Katlan]

So anybody play it yet, since its been live, and want to give impressions? Want to hear some early impressions of how the game plays/feels.

[Yangsing]

I'm in early access and the general word is that it's very polished for a mmo release. I haven't run into many bugs/glitches so far. AoC is the first mmo that I've played that had a launch go smoothly. That could all change come Tuesday when more people flood the servers. Right now, I'm loving the game.

As for the gameplay, if you played WoW it'll be very similar. You're basically quest grinding, which can get annoying if you hate doing that. PvP, I haven't experienced it much aside from the random ganking when I'm fighting a mob (pieces of shit). Leveling isn't too tough so far, I'm level 25 at the moment. Some people in my guild are already level 40+ after two days. Max level in the game is 80. The combos in the game are ok, it's not really that innovative. It turns into button mashing after awhile. Herald of Xotli appears to be the broken class in the game at the moment. The real draw I guess is the guild cities and battle keeps but that's like end game stuff.

The music is good, something you would expect to hear from fantasy/adventure type game. Music similar to LotR and the older Conan movies.

Graphics wise, the game is beautiful. Combine it with some of the music, it was awe inspiring at times. I took a screen shot yesterday while I was playing. Here's the link

http://img234.imageshack.us/img234/4473/aocdj9.jpg

[Katlan]

Holy crap that looks stunning

I have a good enough comp to play at med-high... when I get it back from the shop.... Do you get the sense of combat progressions as you lv, or will the button mashing continue through end game? Not sure if a 20 minute fight is gonna be fun if you have to button mash the entire time

[Yangsing]

It's hard to tell at this point. A 20 minute fight of spamming my combo's would be really annoying. It's not really button mashing but it seems like it at times. You have to concentrate on what combos you are doing.

[Gulkeeva]

It's hard to tell at this point. A 20 minute fight of spamming my combo's would be really annoying. It's not really button mashing but it seems like it at times. You have to concentrate on what combos you are doing.

Would kind of suck if doing a raid instance and people are tired after reaching the first boss from 30min of nonstop trash button mashing direction pushing constantly, much less a "raid night" of what... 3 hours of that? O_o

Unless they make it where you go in and its like "Here's the boss kill it!"

[Plow]

If you guys are interested in high level (as in like excellent players) pvp, I played WoW arena at the very highest levels and a few dozen similar players I know are rolling/have rolled on Deathwhisper, and there's apparently a pretty high number of top notch guilds both from the pve and pvp scenes. Sounds like it's shaping up to be the AoC version of Tichondrius or whatever.

Anyway I'm not sure yet if I'm going to be playing, but if people want some names of some real good, real nice people there lemme know.