... through Steam (I <3 Steam). You get to download and play the BETA up until release, an extra 7 days, the obligatory ingame items (I don't know how I ever leveled in WAR for my 29 levels without my portable campfire).


But anyway my one day so far review is 'I like it'. Smooth frames, nice character creation, quests, inventory, everything is nice and very intuitive.


I remember having a sinking feeling about Warhammer (retail) after about the same amount of play, which was borne out. I feel pretty much the opposite about AION (which is in beta).


While not earth-shattering, the game seems like it has a lot going for it and could finally be (dare I hope) my DAOC replacement.


I don't think its going to suck.

 

-----signature-----

That seems to be the cry of the decnt games these days "It doesn't suck" Warhammer got stale for me about 5 minutes afte beta ended, same with Lord of the rings, I quit 2 days after launch.


I've also been playing Aion since Friday, it's not bad, but until I see what the real PvP is like I can't call it a success. As it is when I entered the arena today thinking my level 15 would be up against his own range, I got wiped by 2 level 25s , then another level 25. They don't bother pairing arena battles up by class or skill, just PvP rank. The economy is also hideous, similar to FFXI, there's only 1 denominatino of money, the Kinah, and it flows as from a fountain, so much so that level 15 items routinely cost upwards of 50k-100k Kinah, it worries me when I see items run for millions of a coin before beta is even done.

 

-----signature-----

I mildly enjoyed WAR until I got to rank 40 and saw what crap the actual end game was compared to DAOC. I'd probably try Aion if I hadn't gotten hooked back on DAOC. With the upcoming merger of every DAOC cluster into a new server called Ywain, it'll be more fun for me RvRing there than leveling from scratch in a new game. I'm worried that since Aion only has 2 player realms that it will quickly encounter the population balance problems that plagued WAR in its RvR endgame. I'm keeping a wait and see approach to Aion for the first 6 months or so.

 

-----signature-----

I'm with Meddy on this one... I learned my lesson to wait for a game to simmer down before jumping right into it. Anything looks great at the start - then it just slams into disaster.. like Lindsey Lohan.


As for DAOC, the super cluster really is making me unhappy. I wish they would allow us to copy our duplicate chars to the 'gaheris/mordred' server, but I still would be in a major bind with the trio's I'm going to have. I wish there was another way...


I still wish they would do either an old frontiers, or an inner realm invasion such as the one proposed long ago. There is a Freeshards server with the population to rival Killibury that switches from OF to NF every few weeks that I might hit up regularly now that my DAOC account is cancelled for the first time ever.


I been enjoying WoW lately, mostly cuz my sister and some rl friends are stuck on that game. Games are so fun when you have a group of people you actually phsyically know playing it next to you or you can all meet up and just jam out or something in a group. I miss that about DAOC, most my rl friends that played it went insane, or went to the military etc.


We will see how the new server goes.. sometimes the ship sunk too far to even bother keeping afloat. I doubt I'll ever have the feelings and fun for this game like I did before.

 

-----signature-----

I was on the fence with this game until I grouped up with some guild mates durring CB4, then the game became much more fun than anything I've played in recent years. The experience reminded me of old school DAoC and EQ dungeon crawls, a feeling I haven't felt in a long long time durring pre-end game level grinds. I also got to mess around with a couple hours of group vs group PvP, and it felt good as well. Real good. However, I'm still reserving judgement on RvR till we get to see it in the upcoming CB events.


I have to agree with what has already been said, the game isn't the next coming of christ - however it seems like they went back to the roots of MMOing and so far it just feels better than anything on the market today. Being that this impression comes from Beta, two months prior to release I've actually let myself get excited about this one.

 

-----signature-----

What are the rewards for pvp? Like anything in terms of RAs and RR's?

 

-----signature-----

ePeen, Guud. Massive quantities of ePeen.

 

-----signature-----

your wings change color and you can buy weapons / armor. It’s kinda like WoW’s reward system opposed to DAOCs.

 

-----signature-----

Ugh, what server? Incase I decide to be a moron and get suckered into another mmo.

 

-----signature-----

I’m not playing this game yet - personally.. I’m playing WoW because I joined a local Daytona Beach guild and it’s kinda fun playing with people living all over nearby. We all have dinner together sometimes and hit up like movies etc. It’s not bad – even though an extremely large part of it is emo kids. My sister got me in it because she plays this game religiously and knew a bunch of them. It was the best part of DAOC for me, playing with people I knew… so this kinda gives me a spark even tho for me, especially since all I did was grind, level, and quit WoW – not enjoying any ‘end game.’ I’ll stay here a bit and maybe – like Meddy said – try this one out after about 6 months to see how it is. A mistake I did was focus on Warhammer and that game just was crap as soon as you hit the end game. I’ll wait to hear what people say about this game first for a change.

 

-----signature-----