Top 1 gaming blog

Dofus Review

Nov 24, 2008 dofus|725views

Dofus has had a long life (it was released back in 2005) and stood very proud and tall against the backdrop of the depressing Free to Play market. This title stood as an example of how if you break conventions in a saturated genre, you can still achieve success. Dofus featured tactical battles, a wonderful art style and a lot of depth when it was first released. Does Dofus still hold up against much more developed MMORPGs, or has old age taken its toll against the title?
Dofus’s story is rather unique. Whilst there is not really much story in the game itself, the background to the game is interesting. The tale goes, there was an evil dragon, Balgrot, which came to Amakna. Rykke Errel stood up to the dragon, and because of this the dragon swore loyalty to him. Rykke then feel deeply in love with a young enchantress called Helsephine. Rykke showed the dragon his new found love, but then the dragon got mad and killed Helsephine.

Rykke swore revenge and tried to take down the mighty dragon and he succeeded. However, the battle left him with a very deep wound and he died shortly after the battle. After Rykke’s death the wise men gathered and found six eggs inside the dead dragon’s body, these eggs were called “Dofus”. The wise men tried to keep the eggs away from the rest of the world, however one day they found that the eggs had been stolen. News went out about the theft and everyone began searching for them. And that’s where you come in; you have got to find the six Dofus eggs. As you can tell the story is basic, however it does provide a nice reason to pay for players who feel that they need some sort of motivation in order to play the MMORPG.
Dofus is a 2D MMORPG, however this is definitely not a bad thing. Dofus’s hand drawn graphics are simply amazing to look at. You can see that a lot of effort and time has gone into the very artistic looking backgrounds which, whilst they may be still and unmoving, can be utterly jaw breaking when you get to certain places in the game. The avatars you control don’t really compare with the beautiful backgrounds, however they suit the game with their slightly anime feel and their fluent and entertaining animations. The sounds are also well done, despite being “midis”, most of them are chirpy and upbeat compositions however there isn’t any truly inspiration music in here but it does achieve its job and represents the game’s world very well.

Gameplay
Gameplay wise, Dofus is brilliant. There is a lot to do, with the crafting system being particularly fun. The battles are tactical and definitely one of the strongest points of the game. The battles are turn based grid battles, with each character taking turns to move and then attack. The battle system works well and suits the game. The only problem is that anyone can attack you during battles, which might become a bit of a problem if you do enjoy PVE and really do not like the PVP aspect of games.

Despite that though the game works well and is generally fun to play and with a whole host of classes available there is something for everyone and not only are there a lot of classes there are also plenty of skills for your character to learn. Quests do however seem a tad unrewarding at times and sometimes you can find yourself confused about what to do next (this could be due to the huge scale of things available , which can become a bit overwhelming), however when you do know where you are going the game is incredibly fun.

Dungeons are definitely the highlight of this game which of course is because of the fluid and original battle system. Nothing can beat joining a big party and taking down a hoard of enemies. Whilst the core gameplay is fun the community that plays beside you is less so and overall ruins the general experience. There are a lot of annoying idiots in this game, and that is polite vast understatement. Players will sometimes attack you during battle for no reason no matter what class you are, and yes even if you are a healer.

The community is particularly mean on the free server available and during the starter sections, and whilst there are some nice players among this mess of a community, the game is full up of people whom really do not have anything better to do than ruin your experience and unfortunately there is no way to ignore these people as they will pop up everywhere. The community can either make or break a game, and in this case it breaks the title. Never before have I seen such a bad gathering of players. I must warn you, be prepared for the worst when playing this game.
Dofus is unfortunate, it’s a title with a very strong core and features addictive gameplay, good design and artwork however the community makes this game experience less fun and more annoying as you’ll constantly be bombarded with wave upon wave of imbeciles who will vastly affect just how much fun with you have with this game. Despite its pitfall that is the populace, I definitely recommend that you try this title just so that you can evaluate your own stance on MMORPGs and because the core gameplay is so well glued together it would be a shame to miss out.

You will need to pay to play if you want to experience much of what this title has to offer, however there is a free to play section which allows you to decide whether or not this game is your cup of tea. No matter how you find it, playing this game is an experience (be it positive or negative) and can really put things in perspective for you.
A must play.

2Moons Review

Nov 24, 2008 2moons|829views

2Moons is a free-to-play MMORPG by Acclaim. It is based on the Korean game Dekaron. Instead of translating and directly porting Dekaron, Acclaim instead reworked the game to suit a US release. Originally announced for US release in 2006, 2Moons is currently still in open-beta phase, with an official launch date unknown. 2Moons tagline is “No mercy for the weak, no pity for the dying, no tears for the slain”. And it indeed lives up to this.

Gameplay:
2Moons is a free MMO to play. However, unlike similar free MMOs, Acclaim has decided to take the marketing model one step further. Aside from the 2Moons shop, where you can purchase game items such as coins for potions and costumes for your character, you have the option of turning off the in-game advertising at the cost of slower leveling speed.

New players can choose between six jobs; Azure Knight, Hunter, Incar Magician, Vicious Summoner, Segnale or Bagi Warrior. The controls were somewhat easy to use, though using the mouse initially annoyed me. Luckily there is easy customization of these controls as well as keyboard shortcuts to help navigate around the game.

2Moons is heavily focused on its violence aspect. PK (player killing) and PvP pretty much rule here, living up to its tagline of “No mercy for the weak, no pity for the dying.” Players may feel frustrated at the rampant PK that goes on while they are exploring or leveling up. Quests are also scarce, and players are met with cheerful profanity from the NPCs in town. The storyline is also lacking. The majority of the game’s plot is what is written on the 2Moons website. With the focus being heavily on violence and mass killings, it may be a turn-off for those that enjoy questing or otherwise leveling up without being bothered.

Bots have also made their way into this game, like so many other MMOs. The spam bots in the towns spam frequently enough to where you have to leave the main part of the town just to chat. The higher level bots are well equipped and PK players or otherwise grief them. This can be frustrating since it is very difficult to kill them and remove them from the area.

Graphics:
2Moon’s overall look is dark and foreboding, which fits the nature of this game well. Bright happy colors are rarely used. The graphics are also semi-dated, but that doesn’t take away from enjoying the visual fights.

There isn’t much in the way of character customization save for costumes, which can be purchased at the 2Moons shop. Without costumes, the characters look similar. You are also limited to a specific gender based on what job you choose to play.

Overall:
If you’re into mass killings and violence, then this game is definitely worth a try. If you’re the casual gamer type who is into questing and engaging storylines, it may not be as enjoyable.

Pros:
-Free to play
-Controls are easy to learn; keyboard shortcuts are also convenient
-Graphics are rich despite being semi-dated

Cons:
-PK may be frustrating to casual gamers who aren’t into that aspect of MMO gaming
-Characters tend to look the same without purchasing a costume
-Bots that grief players

Aion: Tower Of Eternity - Open Beta Experience

Nov 24, 2008 Articles Recommend|719views

 

 

‘I like the flute eheh x)’

Grinding and Quest System

  

 

Skill System & Divine Power

  About the skill system, I got to say it is the most inovating system i have ever seen, lets take in for example the Gladiator, it makes huge ammounts of damage, and the way that the MOBs react to strong skills, such has slide backwards, and the effects are really done carefully, not to mention the combo system, wich is also a great feature putten into the game, wich lets us make a skill chain however we like, and this skill combo also exists on Magicians, such has the Sorcerer, wich he can do various spell chains/combos.
  Now where the game really introduces a new featur, Divine Power or DP, it is gained in increments by defeating monsters, all of which possess a certain amount of Aether. When a Daeva successfully slays a monster, this energy is released and absorbed as Divine Power. You can collect, store it, and use it to bring an amazing finishing move, wich they mention as Celestial Brute Force, and you can also use it to create/refine, higher quality weapons or amors.

‘The mob dance –’ OMG it’s a WoW clone x’D (NOT!)’

 

[Currently being Updated/Written]

 

 

Since Tuesday’s launch of open beta testing in Korea, concurrent user numbers have already jumped to more than 170,000 players, making it the most popular beta event in Korean history. According to NCsoft officials, more than 11,000 people were logged into the game after only two minutes of open beta service. In less than an hour, that number had ballooned to 40,000. Currently the number of concurrent players has leapt up to more than 170,000.
To meet the unprecedented demand by gamers, NCsoft rapidly expanded to 25 servers over the first few hours of opening the beta.  Even with the increased number of servers, tens of thousands of people were waiting to enter the game. By the second day of open beta, the game reached the top spot in Korea’s Gametrics web site that rates games that are played in Korea’s PC Café industry.
Aion is an epic fantasy MMO that combines an eastern-style focus on visuals and design with western action-oriented gameplay. In Aion, players must fight to save a beautiful and vibrant world ripped asunder by a celestial war; during their adventures, players will ascend to divinity and earn the ability to fly. Flight adds a fun and strategic dimension to the gameplay of Aion and is integral to combat, exploration, harvesting and more.
“The response we’re seeing in Korea is incredibly exciting,” said David Reid, president of publishing for NCsoft West in Seattle. “Our Aion community in North America and Europe is also rapidly growing. We’ve got aggressive plans for the western launch in 2009”
Information provided by Aiononline.com

Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzUCUF_f48E - OBT ‘Best Mission’

Warhammer Online Review

Nov 24, 2008 Articles Recommend|340views

*Brushes off the dust from his keyboard and looks up at his beautiful MMOSite writer club banner*
*smiles softly*
It’s been a while.

 

Warhammer Online
Fantasy MMORPG

What is Warhammer?
If you ask this… I feel sorry for you mate. Warhammer Lore is so beautiful; it brings tears to my eyes. What started as a tabletop game by the gamesworkshop became what the franchise is today, PC games, Art, Hell; even books. Warhammer was another one of those tabletop games with complex systems and different rulesets; Very fun on its own however expensive. Then it went on to books describing more indepth details of the lore.
After the things that won’t interest too many, we move on to the PC games which started as unknown companies using the name to lure people… FireWarrior and a couple other small time games came to play but never really shone itself to the world. It disappointed even Warhammer fanatics.
Then came Dawn Of War, which dawned the new beauty of the Warhammer world; an RTS game that captures much of the original warhammer concepts…
But we’re talking Warhammer Online now. Created by Mythic and directed by TheGamesWorkshop; we are pretty much guaranteed that beautiful pvp-esque gameplay of Mythic’s renown status with the lore directory of TheGamesWorkshop; nothing can go wrong!… right?
Warhammer Online released on September 18th of 2008 with the weary low PC requirements making many people question the graphics portion of the game.
It was promised to be a total-PVP-esque game. WHAT?! A game devoted to PVP? You know this made me drool!!
Warhammer Online became one of the most anticipated games of the year. What it promised; and what information it gave us was simply beautiful…. and then Wrath Of the Lich King was also promised this year; you know a huge competition will start out…
Now for more in-depth details!

Graphics:
Let’s start with Graphics this time as everyone is concerned graphically of the world and what-not. The screenshots reign true mates; the graphics are no better no worse than the screenshots. To some it’s ugly and to some it’s not-bad. Some say WoW graphics beat the crap out of WarhammerOnline graphics; but that’s highly untrue.
I recently read a fellow mmosite blog explaining the difference of the two; yes. They both do suck. I have to admit. But they both suck equally; then why is Warhammer considered way more ugly?
Their different art styles. Warhammer has the more serious- bloodshed look to them with a dark aura amongst them while WoW has that happy-go-lucky look… Well maybe not that happy. But it’s more cartoonish (for lack of better word). WoW has the smooth-skins even on orcs while Warhammer has the orc’s natural ugliness. They are born and raised in filth; they have to look like filth!
To be honest; I personally don’t appreciate the Warhammer graphics either; it bothers me. However I don’t support WoW graphics either… The world wasn’t bad and amounted to any other average mmorpg out there; and there were some graphical glitch that Mythic is slowly fixing.
So will Graphics be redeemed and counterbalanced with the gameplay they so promised?

Gameplay
At first glance; you can easily pass it all off as a WoW clone. Gameplay, Looks, Style. Battlegrounds.Quests.
Upon further inspection though; you’ll find that many things are different… Some things good some things bad.
Like stated before; this game was promised as  a PVP-Esque game with leveling through PVP implemented, you can pvp endlessly and have nonstop joy and fun.
I have the perspective of both Order and Destruction; playing all the classes of each side and trying many things. So I’ll speak all this in a neutral standpoint.
So we have Order:
Empire- The classic empire under the name of the Emperor.
High Elves- The high elves of Asuryan
Dwarves- Dwarves of Gungir
Yeah I totally bull crapped that description; but its their gods so it’s still valid ;p

Now we have Destruction:
Chaos: Against the False Emperor!
Dark elves: Of Khaine!
GreenSkins: Goblins and orks!

Each side has their share of career(class) archetypes: Melee DPS, Melee Tank, Range DPS, Magic, Support.

 

(taken from warhammer wikipedia)
So every career has some sort of mirror to them. Iron Breaker:Black Guard, Witch Hunter:Witch Elf, Marauder:White Lion
However each carrer also has their own unique aspects to them. For example:
Iron Breaker specialty is their Oath; in which they gain per hit landed on him or his oath friend.
Black Guard however uses Hate, in which they gain every time they hit someone.

In this way; no two classes are the same providing a more versitile world of classes that you can join into.
I’m not going in depth with the classes; as that wouldn’t be reviewing the game but giving my own personal input on the classes; So onward we move.
Skills are similar to WoW talents. You have your Core skills, your general skills, and then your Tactics (which can be related to Talents). You gain one tactic point every odd level after 10 and it can be placed in either of three skills in every class (each tree focusing on something different, Offense, defense, Support).
Along with the active skills; we also have Tactic skills which are passive abilities you can equip. You may use one tactic at first, and gain one tactic slot every 10 levels.
Tactic passive.. what does that mean. Well; things such as “Monsters will do 25% less damage to you but you deal 10% less damage” and so forth. Their passive advantages that you don’t need to activate to use; not to be mistaken by buffs.
Yeah; the terms do mix alot.
Other than the core skills and whatnot; you are also offered Morale Skills. You gain morale per attack your group does against people. It’s pretty much your limit break from final fantasy, your musou from dynasty warriors. A special attack (no it’s not rigged, but it is far superior to your regular skills). This skill can give you the upper hand in a fight however it has a long cooldown.

Alright; so enough of the careers and skills right? Gameplay! RAHH!! What makes War different from any other game?! What makes it different from WoW that would steal it’s community?!?

Warhammer has the following to do:
Questing. Killing. Public Quests(explained later), Scenerios(Battleground equivilant), Keep wars, territory war.
Questing and killing, their your regular PVE aspect of the game.
Public Quests were introduced in Warhammer and are quite fun. You gain influence per public quest you complete in which you can gain special items from. Public quests are story-arc quests that occur every 5 minutes after the previous has been completed. Anyone can join in on the quest, you just have to walk into the quest area. don’t even have to be in a party.
Once the quest is completed. you are entitled to a grab bag; in which is determined by how much you contributed to the group that public quest and a lucky roll(which is totally bullshit because top contributors can get knocked down to the bottom because of luck) (this is also promised to be fixed later by Mythic)
There are gold Bags, blue Bags, Green Bags, giving better items at gold bags and crappy items on the green bags. This has no relation to the influence prize I spoke earlier; this is just a reward for finishing the public quest.
The influence reward is claimed at a rally master. Prizes varie in quality.

Scenerios need no introductions. Their queued up for; and entered. Each scenerio has their own objective (capture the flag, hold the territory etc) and are usually in groups of 15vs15. Brackets are every 10 levels or so (with the possibility of a low level entering the tier 2 zone.. so it is possible for a level 9 to go to a tier 2 game which is 11-20) (however it is not possible for a level 12 to goto a tier 1 (1-11). Games are fairly balanced. Yes some games but be outweighed in terms of who has the most healers and support and whos better; but generally; if assuming that everyone in that game is good; the game is fairly balanced out.

Keep wars; the famed Open Realm Vs Realm. This isn’t server vs server, just Order vs destruction. Scattered across the map are Keeps(castles) in which each side can claim. This keep war goes from storming the front, battering down the gate, to killing to the lord of the keep and capturing the keep.
Keep advantages? Well, you get a renown trainer and seller there. And you also do your country good overall (explained later)
(renown trainer and sellers explained later too)
Keep wars would be fun; but they are often deserted and also often deemed “musical keeps”. Lose one, Keep one. Just a circle that doesn’t seem to be getting anywhere. (also explained at the last part)
These are fun… Also your main source of renown leveling.

And last but not least; territory wars. This sums up everything basically. Order and Destruction are fighting over land in which you gain through everything you do. for every quest you finish, every public quest, every scenerio and every keep captured; this contributes to the global status of the territory of the map. If Destruction wins over a land, it will mark it on the map. The overall goal of this is to reach the opposing team’s main city to kill the Emperor/Chaos Lord. (which hasn’t been done yet so sorry, nothing on that =\ It’s pratically another keep war on a more massive scale apparently).

Alright so I summed up basically everything you do in warhammer online; quite different from WoW right? settles your uneasing minds and doubts.

Now let’s explain what I said I’ll explain.
Renown Training and sellers? Renown leveling? WTF?!
Alright guys; so there are 2 levels. Your rank (your general level you find in every game) and also your Renown rank (your PVP level basically). Both levels contribute to stats. Although there are 40 Ranks, there are 80 Renown ranks to obtain in which the grind is tremendous (but also fun since its through PVP)
Every level you get in your renown you also get a renown skill point in which you can invest at any Renown Trainer. For the first half of your levels also you get renown gear; in which you need to hit a particular renown and rank to get.
Renown rank is grinding pvp practically and is also the bane of everyone as it is also massively slow…

So will this end up being a good long-term game?
In my view; Yes. yes it will. I’ll explain it in the end in modern thoughts section.

Clans: It’s bloody alive! DEAR GOD!
Yes, even your clan has a level. But it’s fun. Everytime you contribute/pay for it, you get skills for your guild which is activated throguh a standard. There are about 3 standard in a guild in which someone holds a damned flag up and rush into battle with your guild (disabling their ability to use skills mind you). These skills in the standard range from increase healing to increased xp; it’s really useful when you find a sacrificial lamb willing to do it :P
Standards can also be plopped down on the ground and still have its aoe effect on your group; however it can also be stolen by the enemy player… it’s a pain to steal back, trust me… They don’t want you to have a flag. :P

Controls and Interface:
Ah the good ol control and interface. It’s not as flexible on all the interface as WoW; the addons are strictly tight-assed at the moment (Mythic plans to release a more open community to addons… but its only a thought)
There’s a built in UI interface modifier in which you can move your portrait, enemy portrait, etc to wherever you like. So yay; you dont need total dependency on addons. There are addons to change the way numbers fly out of the enemies and so forth though (since the warhammer default bothered me to hell; i loved it…)

Controls have full flexibility with keybindings. You have 5 bars that you can utilize and there are addons to make these bars vertical and so forth.

Morale skills (promised to be fixed) do have some major delay; sometimes even the animation would spark but you dont atually use the skills.
Modern Disturbing thoughts that personally pulled be away:Despite the long title; this is actually pretty short…
Alright.. Sigh. So I quit Warhammer I admit it. But why if It’s as fun as I make it sound?
Well. First of all. A good 25-50% of the community died from warhammer because of WrathOfTheLichKing(Damnit!!!)
This is also bad timing because Mythic has finally fixed the queue problems of getting in the server (had massive wait times).
Basically; The servers were cut in population due to pop fixing; and then cut again due to another popular game.
Queue times for scenerio’s went from FRIGGIN GREAT, to Alright 5 minute wait, to WTFISTHIS 30minutes ZOMGWTFBBQ?!?!?! ***K!!!!
It’s really bothersome, especially for a pvp freak like me. Others argue you can quest while you wait for the scenerio to pop. That doesn’t make me hot at all; I play War for the pvp; and they stole that away from me (unintentionally I think)
Well I can’t say completely unintentionally; they are now making a limiter to the scenerios to balance out the overall territory war. (Since each scenerio is specific to a map and only contributes to that map’s territory) which kills queue times more on specific scenerios (which is fixed by queueing on scenerios instead of just one specific one)

So great; the pop is gone. That’s one thought that pulled me away
Then there was the lack of cross-server interaction (that WoW featured in their bgs). I think everything would be alot faster if they just crossed the servers; yeah we might have to tweak some things so that it balances everything out but geez =\

There are currently many glitches yes; most of them are promised to be revised around december (the big patch). Honestly; noone knows how much they’ll fix nor how little… but much is promised in that month. I can’t say much else about that.

Additional Thought:
Well… Overall a good game. I quit because of my time restrictions and unability to pay for the darn game. It’s 45$ to buy and 15$ a month. There are obviously many glitches in the game; but they will all eventually be fixed. It’s the bane of all mmorpg’s, and if you think WoW is better just because it has less glitches; just think. When woW first started, they were just as glitchy as any other game you all might have played.

Overall!
Score
Graphics: 6 | Sound: 6 | Gameplay: 8 | Controls: 9 | Replay Value: 7
I would have loved to play this game… However, I couldn’t grasp the look at all. The lore is quite accurate (some tweaks in it but eh) and would make me stay just for the lore.
Gameplay is ’smooth’ to the sense that I love pvp, but there is still many flaws in it in terms of flow.

Three All-New FFXI Expansion Chapters in 2009!

Nov 24, 2008 FFXI|253views

 Vana’diel Festival 2008 was held today in Tokyo, with a multitude of spirited fans bringing the JCB Hall venue to life. None of those in attendance were able to hide their surprise and delight as the announcement was made for the confirmed development of three new expansion scenarios. In addition to this delicious piece of news, fans were treated to an appetite-whetting preview of the upcoming December version update, and much, much more. We have taken the liberty of preparing a detailed summary of all the exciting events that took place at this year’s festival for the benefit of those who were unable to attend.

A Moogle Kupo d’Etat                      A Crystalline Prophecy

 

A Shantotto Ascension

The Adventure Continues With Three All-New FINAL FANTASY XI Expansion Chapters!

*Available for online purchase only

http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/addon/
http://www.playonline.com/ff11fr/addon/
http://www.playonline.com/ff11de/addon/

Masato Kato, who oversaw the original plot conception on FINAL FANTASY XI from initial release up through the Rise of the Zilart expansion, will also play a key role in the creation of this new series of installments.

The first installment, A Crystalline Prophecy - Ode of Life Bestowing, is slated for release for all languages and platforms in Spring of next year. Subsequent installments will then follow, being released in intervals of every few months.

These expansions packages will only be available through online purchase via PlayOnline. The projected cost for each installment is around 10.00 USD.

 

Unlike its predecessors, such as Treasures of Aht Urghan and Wings of the Goddess, this original series of expansion packages will be distributed exclusively as online add-ons. Players may rest assured, however, that version updates for the Wings of the Goddess expansion will still continue for some time. Concurrent with the regular version updates, the new expansions are being developed as a with a “novelette” approach. Indeed, a separate development team has been established specifically for these new expansions.

Additional Scenarios?
Up until now, expansion packs have generally been developed from a perspective of “lateral expansion,” focusing namely on the introduction of new areas. These three new expansions, however, will deepen the storylines running through pre-existing areas by ushering in all-new plots and intrigues. While not necessarily containing as much content as traditional expansions, these episodic scenarios are designed to take anywhere from one to two months to complete.
Target Levels?
Though the quests can easily be started by a solo player somewhere in the vicinity of level 30, they will tend to become more difficult as the storyline progresses. By the end, completion of the quests will likely require a party of level 75 characters, with the rewards being geared towards high-level players as well.
Players can engage in these new storylines simultaneously with any of the missions from preceding expansions without conflict.

Graphics Of WoW And WAR: Quality Or Performance?

Nov 24, 2008 world of warcraft|297views

 This article is from MMOsite Blog by CalebG, who currently works as a Game Designer for a Singaporean game development studio.

The Importance of Looking Good

So it’s just a normal day, when checking your favorite game news site, you hear about a new game that is in the making that really gets you excited.

Only to let you down when it is released, due to a lack of polish.

No, I am not talking about the general state of completeness or how bug free the game is. ..

I am talking about the graphics.

“But CalebG,” you might ask, “you are a game designer, you should know that gameplay should be the deciding factor over graphics!” And I stand firm with that point that yes, indeed, game design should be the holding factor, not game art. But how does game design hook and keep the player playing, when the player isn’t even attracted to the graphics.

The game that I most recently exprienced this was Warhammer Online. I found the game great on many levels, with many small innovations, or deviations from the norm. Combat was rather fast paced, like City of Horoes on steroids, but yet keeping the “intellegent” factor of games like World of Warcraft. Mythic kept close to the Warhammer canon, and they have essentially created a world that would make any Warhammer fan squeal like a stereotype japanese school girl with pigtails who just saw a cute cat doing something… cute.

The art direction was great, however, the actual quality was lacking.

1. Low poly (polygon) counts of models.
2. Low resolution textures.
3. Low detail in said textures.
4. Poor Animations.
5. Color schemes almost seem like it wasn’t picked well.

I understand the dilemma that Mythic faced; quality or performance? However, as much as I hate to do so, let’s compare the quality between WAR and World of Warcraft.

 

Just as a refresher for those who might have forgot about WoW’s artstyle, and for those who have not played WoW, which is probably a total of 1 of you.

1. Low poly count of models and maps.
2. Mid level resolution textures.
3. Low detail textures.
4. Decent animations.
5. Well picked colors schemes.

Low Poly Count

As Blizzard has so expertly demonstrated in Warcraft 3 and WoW, it is possible to “cheat” and go the low polygon route, which takes up a significant portion of processing power (be it on the general processor, the graphic processor or both).  In fact, I believe that WoW might have a lower poly count then WAR even!

Texture Resolution and Detail

The “skin” for an otherwise blank model, this is what gives the character or that bit of architecture or doodad it’s graphical appeal. Blizzard decided to put more focus on this. The item or doodad in mind might not be overly detailed (i.e. Age of Conan), and in fact is generally simplified, but it looks good, because there are no jagged lines like in WAR (as in they accidentally used a “aliasing filter” instead of an “anti-aliasing filter”. Detail in the textures are always kept to a reasonable amount; even most of WoW’s tier armor sets are generally speaking, simple, compared to what some other games do.

Animation

I will admit now that I am an animation critic as I feel that if the model is the skeleton, the texture the skin, then animation is the soul of the character. WAR fails sorely in this point. Almost all animations are in dire need of polish. WoW managed to capture the essence of each animation well. So, while not overly eleborate, it feels… natural if you will, playing a WoW character.

Color Combinations

Now this is a sensitive topic for WAR, and is a point I am willing to overlook, since Mythic tried hard to keep to the original art of Warhammer.

Summery

So why did WAR end up the way it has, and WoW ended up on pretty much the otherside of the spectrum, even with same, or similiar details?

I believe it lies in the general art style. While WoW has specificially altered the art style to cater to the limitations, WAR has tried to stick to the art found in the many rulebooks in Warhammer. The good part is, current Warhammer players can identify with it. The bad part is, you suddenly find yourself very confined to the limits of what you can do.

Of course, this is just what I observe and believe to be; and strictly my own opinions. If you love WAR’s art style and graphic fidelity, please go on and enjoy that awesome game!

Are Death Knights Overpowered?

Nov 24, 2008 Articles Recommend|1,455views

Taking up a subject from the open Sunday thread, and with an obvious fit to today’s class balance post, I’d like to discuss whether Death Knights are overpowered. That is not an easy question. One problem is that if you only play a Death Knight to lets say level 60, you might well conclude that he is overpowered, but a good part his power at these levels comes from his starting gear. We instinctively compare the new class to something we know, how our previous classes played up to level 60. But of course *all* classes got boosted with patch 3.0.2., and when we reached level 60 back in the days before TBC, we didn’t have the uber gear the Death Knight receives as part of his starting quest line.

So before we can actually make a valid comparison, we would have to play a Death Knight to level 70, and see how he fares in Northrend, in comparison to our current level 70s+. There have been reports that even there the Death Knight deals more damage than any other class, dealing more damage while tanking in a group than other classes that are pure damage dealers.

Tanking is an art that consists of two parts: Damage mitigation and holding aggro. My Priest was healer in a group with a level 75 Death Knight tank, and they are clearly inferior in damage mitigation to the other tank classes. The problem of DK tanks is that they don’t have as many and as good taunting abilities as the Warrior has, they hold aggro mostly through damage dealing. But if you hold aggro by dealing damage, you need gear that gives bonuses to damage, and come up necessarily short on classic tank stats like defense. I haven’t seen a frost DK in tanking action yet, everybody is unholy or blood for better damage output. I could imagine that a frost DK with 490 defense, and high values in stats like dodge, parry, and shield block value, would be much better in damage mitigation, but I’m not quite sure yet how he would hold aggro when he deals less damage.

Of course when talking about “overpowered”, we will have to ask “overpowered compared to what?”. Up to now I don’t have the impression that Death Knights are overpowered compared to Warriors, in a tanking role. In my currently still limited experience as healer of Death Knights, if I had the choice of tanks, Death Knight would rank at the bottom, below Warrior, Druid, and Paladin. But apparently the people complaining most about Death Knights are the dps classes. Undoubtedly Death Knights have far better damage mitigation, and depending on spec also self-healing capabilities than lets say a Mage. So if the Death Knight deals more damage than the mage, I can understand why the Mage would be unhappy, even if the Mage remains king in aspects like crowd control or AoE damage. Maybe the better comparison would be with a Rogue. Are Death Knights making Rogues obsolete?

And then of course there is PvP. The arena is currently in suspension, and most people are busy leveling instead of doing PvP, so there hasn’t been all that much PvP involving Death Knights yet. But classes with a high damage output are potentially very powerful in PvP, especially if you add all the other goodies, like damage mitigation, self-healing, and pets to the mix.

So in summary I’d say it’s still a bit early to say for me whether Death Knights are truly overpowered. Feel free to post your experiences with Death Knights here. Do you think they are overpowered?

SplashiFighters official service has begun!

Nov 10, 2008 Articles Recommend|221views

Oct 2008
From: CyberStep Communications, Inc

CyberStep Communications, Inc. (Office: San Jose, CA USA; President: Yoshiyuki CHIBA; hereunder “CyberStep Communications”) which is a subsidiary of CyberStep, Inc. (HQ: Shibuya Tokyo; Representative Director and President: Rui SATO; hereunder “CyberStep”) is pleased to announce that we started the official service of SplashFighters (Japanese title: GetAmped) on October 16th, Thursday. SplashFighters is the first game service that CyberStep Communications launches as a publisher for North American market.

Free to play online 3D action game comes to North America!
- SplashFighters is the only successful online action game in the world. -

Whether you have five minutes or five hours, whether you’re a beginner or a master,
SplashFighters is an online no-holds-barred 3D action game for everyone!
With 26 million people in 12 territories already playing (as of Sep 2008),
what are you waiting for?!
There is no reason not to try and there is one BIG reason you should try!!
It’s just easy and fun!
Register Now!
http://www.splashfighters.com/other/register.php
———————————————————————————-
SplashFighters is…

3D Online action fighting game, with comical characters.
Attack from all directions! You’ll need lightning reflexes, for not only can you be
attacked from all sides, but from above as well!

Max 8 users can play at the same time in a game room.
Even if your opponents are strong, you still stand a chance if you make use of items!

Various fighting mode!
In addition to usual fighting mode, various modes are available including “soccer
mode”, “basketball mode”, “capture-the-flag”, and so on.

Attractive skin Edit tool – Customize your character!
This is very unique and cool Editor that you do not see it in other games.
You can change your character’s appearance at any time with the editor.
From top to toe, you have complete control over your character’s image!

You can find “something new” every week!
New weapons, game modes and features are added so that you never get bored with
SplashFighters. Try out new the weapons with other players!

A great variety of combat style.
Over 1.8 million combinations for weapons!
There are 350 accessories, 44 styles, 130 items and 2000 avatars, but this is not all
and more will come in the future!
Accessory: Non-consumable accessories add special abilities to fighting style. Each
style has different set of available accessories.
Style: Beginner users get 1 fighting style for free. Thereafter, users buy and add
fighting styles.
Item: Consumable items include weapons, and are available for all kinds of styles.
Avatar: You can buy parts, e.g. hair, face and clothes.

Choose your favorite music as a BGM.
There are already 9 BGM but you can add any music you want!
Enjoy SplashFighters with your favorite music.

Social networking service is available! Maybe, it’s a good place to seek guild
members for the game.
Upload some screenshots, write diary, make your own community, it’s up to you
how you want to use it. Why don’t you exchange some tips for game with your
friends?