Just came back home after having tried out the AoC Open Beta. To be quite frank with you, I wasn't very impressed.
For starters the GFX weren't as lovely as promised although it ran somewhat okay (on a high performance dx9 system). The textures are looking rather raw and crude, animations are quite choppy and there was quite a bit of visual glitches. For what it's worth I think there's more candy for the eye in games like WoW. I might add that I preferred the female animations since they were much smoother and flowing than their male counterparts', less time texturizing boobs and more work on the world visuals please.
Fortunately though there's more than GFX to a good MMO, the lore and world itself seemed refreshing and the little storyline that unfolds itself in the beginning is actually fairly decent.
It's too early to draw any conclusions about the classes but some did seem a little more akward to play than others, especially the Necromancer. I quickly became fond of the Assassin and Tempest of Set, I expect that I'll be playing one of thoose two come release. ToS is probably the most intriguing caster at low levels that I've ever come across.
Loading times are a pain, we were having maybe 10 seconds but it's still annoying, especially when just moving in and out of buildings. It also seems a bit 'unbecoming' of a supposed "next gen" mmo, the game doesn't feel that impressive but the need for another game than 'the one who shalt not be mentioned' will probably create the required demand for it to succeed. However, only hard work from the Dev team can keep that interest burning. Should they neglect the community early on I predict that the game will die, fast.
The combat system was well, underwhelming. I don't see why they have made so much fuzz about it since it's basically the same thing as autoattack, just alot more tirering on your fingers (thoose who played Bards in EQ1 will feel right at home though). Death and spell animations could use a bit more love, not to mention the awful jumping ones.
Conclusion,
Slightly underwhelming, it doesn't leave the impression that a 'next gen' mmo should. However it's some fresh air and there is definitively the potential for a great game. Assuming that we can expect the same class depth as you'd find in WoW, decent PvE instances and good Guild vs Guild PvP that's supported by a great community... .. I think we may have a real winner.
Alot of 'ifs'.. but I'm willing to gamble on it.
- Oh and for anyone saying "Oh it's beta blabalbla it'll get better!" really shouldn't be running their mouths, the game has gone gold. There won't be any major changes to performance at release, hopefully within a near future though. This was not an impressive display from the AoC team, I've seen much better betas where lag has been the only big issue.
I'm pretty confused about a lot of the complaints really, can't say a great deal but really havn't seen anything like most of this on the closed beta build.
First off, I am not in the open or closed beta for this game. I really hope to win one the keys, so I can see this first hand. I did pre-order the CE of the game though, but After Reading what a lot of people who are playing the open are saying, I am starting to think I made a mistake.
If it is true that they are using a pos client for open beta, this company is one screwed up company. I dont know what the truth is on the client, but I have never heard of any game doing anything like this before. The two games that I have played at release day were DAoC and EQ1. DAoC had a lot of missing content in the Hib when it came out, EQ1 had server crashes all day long for me when I played.
Is AoC open beta really that bad compared to other open betas? On release day are we going to see a much improved game over what people are playing now? That is the question we are all asking isnt it?
What is bothers me more than anything is the gameplay. I have heard a lot of people say the combat is not for them. A friend of mine posted on another site that the core mechanics of the game are enough to drive you crazy. I appauld them for trying to make somthing different, but if it is not fun to play, the game is not going to be the hit me and others thought it would be.
I honestly dont know what to make of all of this. I think Mythic is a much better company right now for waiting on their new game. Heck, I may just go back to DAoC and wait for WAR. What a let down!
To make one thing sure - this is not older client. This is the last client.
No it is the old client based on the cheetah 1.0 engine. The Cheetah 2.0 engine got pushed to the real beta testers (I think they call it 'tecnical beta') a weeks or two ago. Thats a pretty big worry. I Imagine the new engine is in a worse state than the current one otherwise they woulda released it that to the open beta.
I wonder why people just pluck 'facts' outta their arses
I'm not going to take sides on this debate, I will simply address one issue I found reading over this. 13 IS enough, because if a triple A MMO cannot steal my heart in 13 levels....it does not deserve to be pay to play. Its as simple as that. EQ, WoW, EQ2, UO.....ect...ect...ALL managed to hook their players early and hook them long. It is the pinnacle of bad design to have the first half of the game be dull and boring. So, to clarify, if the 13 levels presented to you here are not good...there is NO reason to continue playing the game. It would be beyond obvious that the design of the game is trash if they cannot make even the early levels fun...as THAT is what EVERY player will go through.
well admitedly i dont have a great gaming pc pentium duo 2.8 ghz nvidea 8600gt 3 gb ram still it lets me play most if not all games on high settiings very smoothly . unfortunatly this does nt appear to be the case with age of conan ( although to be fair the glitchyness im experancing and the freeze i get in the inns might be just beta issues ) . in fact i find it happens on the low settings . i actually like the look of the game and i think it is something i would like to play but i m not gonna upgrade my system just yet to play one game when it works perfectly well on all the others i play . so no i wont be playing the pc version . i think i ll proberbly wait untill its out on xbox360 . at least i know it ll play well on that .
Sorry, but 13 is not like Level 13 in other games.
For this reason: Level Cap is 80. NOT 60, or 50, like some other games.
That means, essentially, the first five levels are a gimme. You learn the basics of movement and combat (the tutorial type stuff) until 5. The game STARTS at level 6. But you don't leave newbie town until Level 20. Those 14 levels would be like Levels 3-10 in other games.
Were the first 3-10 levels in AC2 enough to get me hooked? Hell no. SWG? No. CoH? No. Dark and Light? No. Roma Victor? No. Vanguard? No. Lotro? No. Potbs? No...... WoW? Yep.
Very, very few games have enough content and wow-factor in the first 5-10 levels to hook you... at least, not when they're putting you through an intro/tutorial.
AoC probably ranks below WoW in starter areas, but what other game out there was that polished and easy to learn in open/late beta?
No. Instead, I pre-ordered. Yes, it has problems. Optimization for one, but I bought a brand new 9600GT and 1 gig of ram extra. I believe in Funcom to deliver, even though it's currently slightly unplayable for me.
I agree with the person who said they prefer auto attacking. I felt like that was what was happening when I used the directional attacks, I was autoattacking but with me clicking to auto attack in different directions on the mob. Rakion's combat system was far more intuitive when it came to directional hits and blocking. I think with a controller AoC would be better, or at least less boring. I'll probably try the 360 version when it comes out.
"Vaporware is a term used to describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge after having well exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar product."
Never got the chance to be in the beta, i can't tell. But if i was and did'nt like what i was seing i'd probably cancel my pre-order. It's foolish to think a game in beta can suddendly go from bad to good within a month. What we see now is pretty much what the game is going to be at launch.
"Vaporware is a term used to describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge after having well exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar product."
I don't listen to raving morons on forums for reviews of my games. I also don't read retarded pointless game sites for reviews on my games.
If the game sounds interesting then I'll buy it and see for my self.
Why do so many people need other peoples opinions to deside how to spend their money? Need someone to wipe your ass too while they're at it? Shesh...
Dang people need to stop acting like 50 bucks is a lot of money. Sure if you flip burgers for a living it is or don't know how to manage your finances and end up in debt up to your eyeballs. You love that credit card, eh?
Buy it. Try it. Love it. Hate it. That's how it goes... you like it or ya don't like it.. don't buy into hype and don't buy into "reviews" the only review worth reading is your own.
Nope I'm not canceling. I don't listen to raving morons on forums for reviews of my games. I also don't read retarded pointless game sites for reviews on my games. If the game sounds interesting then I'll buy it and see for my self. Why do so many people need other peoples opinions to deside how to spend their money? Need someone to wipe your ass too while they're at it? Shesh... Dang people need to stop acting like 50 bucks is a lot of money. Sure if you flip burgers for a living it is or don't know how to manage your finances and end up in debt up to your eyeballs. You love that credit card, eh?
Buy it. Try it. Love it. Hate it. That's how it goes... you like it or ya don't like it.. don't buy into hype and don't buy into "reviews" the only review worth reading is your own.
Yes FFS, I dont get it.
Tonns of people trying to pretend to be a PRO MMO player. But,........
- They cant even afford a Budget PC that will play the game Fine
I wanted to comment on this whole "open beta is an older client" thing. I will say this, the OB client probably was the latest client when it was uploaded to Fileplanet (which would have been at least a week or two, possibly longer, before the OB launched so that Fileplanet would have time to get ready for it), meaning it is already at least 3-4 patches behind the closed beta (and some of these are significant). Now, correct me if I am wrong, but the OB has not been patched since it went live?
I know as a closed beta tester that the last few patches I have listed have fixed a lot of the issues I see people describing. I can play for hours without crashes, or disconnects of any kind (although I get the very rare lag spike for about 10-15 seconds). I run the game at max settings/4xFSAA/4xAF, but the game is playable for me (30+ FPS) with 16xFSAA/16AF. No bloom though, as I think it makes a lot of things look to bright. I get 45-64FPS all the time. My PC is 4GB of RAM, e6750@3.64GHz, 8800GTX, WinXP 32bit.
Also, I can't go into as much depth as I would like to, but combat does become more involved at higher levels. At level 13 the classes might have one or two skills that differentiate them from other classes of their archetype. I am not denying some of the balancing issues and bugs with the classes, but I am saying that I don't believe they are as bad as a lot of the people here are making them out to be.
I up until about 3 weeks ago I was questioning my preorder, but these last few patches, and especially the last two have convinced me enough of this game that I want out and fully paid off my CE preorder.
Rising Arms. {{ Site | Forums | ">Recruitment }} Rethaul, Dark Templar and squad leader of Scions of War
Comments
I've been trying to play the game more to gather more thought of this game .... but I can't. The loading times are really pissing me the fuck off.
It's not like it's fast. It can go fast, but for the most part it takes like 8-10 minutes for me.
It could possibly be my computer.. Don't know.. I'm not too concerned about it.
Just came back home after having tried out the AoC Open Beta. To be quite frank with you, I wasn't very impressed.
For starters the GFX weren't as lovely as promised although it ran somewhat okay (on a high performance dx9 system). The textures are looking rather raw and crude, animations are quite choppy and there was quite a bit of visual glitches. For what it's worth I think there's more candy for the eye in games like WoW. I might add that I preferred the female animations since they were much smoother and flowing than their male counterparts', less time texturizing boobs and more work on the world visuals please.
Fortunately though there's more than GFX to a good MMO, the lore and world itself seemed refreshing and the little storyline that unfolds itself in the beginning is actually fairly decent.
It's too early to draw any conclusions about the classes but some did seem a little more akward to play than others, especially the Necromancer. I quickly became fond of the Assassin and Tempest of Set, I expect that I'll be playing one of thoose two come release. ToS is probably the most intriguing caster at low levels that I've ever come across.
Loading times are a pain, we were having maybe 10 seconds but it's still annoying, especially when just moving in and out of buildings. It also seems a bit 'unbecoming' of a supposed "next gen" mmo, the game doesn't feel that impressive but the need for another game than 'the one who shalt not be mentioned' will probably create the required demand for it to succeed. However, only hard work from the Dev team can keep that interest burning. Should they neglect the community early on I predict that the game will die, fast.
The combat system was well, underwhelming. I don't see why they have made so much fuzz about it since it's basically the same thing as autoattack, just alot more tirering on your fingers (thoose who played Bards in EQ1 will feel right at home though). Death and spell animations could use a bit more love, not to mention the awful jumping ones.
Conclusion,
Slightly underwhelming, it doesn't leave the impression that a 'next gen' mmo should. However it's some fresh air and there is definitively the potential for a great game. Assuming that we can expect the same class depth as you'd find in WoW, decent PvE instances and good Guild vs Guild PvP that's supported by a great community... .. I think we may have a real winner.
Alot of 'ifs'.. but I'm willing to gamble on it.
- Oh and for anyone saying "Oh it's beta blabalbla it'll get better!" really shouldn't be running their mouths, the game has gone gold. There won't be any major changes to performance at release, hopefully within a near future though. This was not an impressive display from the AoC team, I've seen much better betas where lag has been the only big issue.
I'm pretty confused about a lot of the complaints really, can't say a great deal but really havn't seen anything like most of this on the closed beta build.
First off, I am not in the open or closed beta for this game. I really hope to win one the keys, so I can see this first hand. I did pre-order the CE of the game though, but After Reading what a lot of people who are playing the open are saying, I am starting to think I made a mistake.
If it is true that they are using a pos client for open beta, this company is one screwed up company. I dont know what the truth is on the client, but I have never heard of any game doing anything like this before. The two games that I have played at release day were DAoC and EQ1. DAoC had a lot of missing content in the Hib when it came out, EQ1 had server crashes all day long for me when I played.
Is AoC open beta really that bad compared to other open betas? On release day are we going to see a much improved game over what people are playing now? That is the question we are all asking isnt it?
What is bothers me more than anything is the gameplay. I have heard a lot of people say the combat is not for them. A friend of mine posted on another site that the core mechanics of the game are enough to drive you crazy. I appauld them for trying to make somthing different, but if it is not fun to play, the game is not going to be the hit me and others thought it would be.
I honestly dont know what to make of all of this. I think Mythic is a much better company right now for waiting on their new game. Heck, I may just go back to DAoC and wait for WAR. What a let down!
I wonder why people just pluck 'facts' outta their arses
Agreed!
well admitedly i dont have a great gaming pc pentium duo 2.8 ghz nvidea 8600gt 3 gb ram still it lets me play most if not all games on high settiings very smoothly . unfortunatly this does nt appear to be the case with age of conan ( although to be fair the glitchyness im experancing and the freeze i get in the inns might be just beta issues ) . in fact i find it happens on the low settings . i actually like the look of the game and i think it is something i would like to play but i m not gonna upgrade my system just yet to play one game when it works perfectly well on all the others i play . so no i wont be playing the pc version . i think i ll proberbly wait untill its out on xbox360 . at least i know it ll play well on that .
Sorry, but 13 is not like Level 13 in other games.
For this reason: Level Cap is 80. NOT 60, or 50, like some other games.
That means, essentially, the first five levels are a gimme. You learn the basics of movement and combat (the tutorial type stuff) until 5. The game STARTS at level 6. But you don't leave newbie town until Level 20. Those 14 levels would be like Levels 3-10 in other games.
Were the first 3-10 levels in AC2 enough to get me hooked? Hell no. SWG? No. CoH? No. Dark and Light? No. Roma Victor? No. Vanguard? No. Lotro? No. Potbs? No...... WoW? Yep.
Very, very few games have enough content and wow-factor in the first 5-10 levels to hook you... at least, not when they're putting you through an intro/tutorial.
AoC probably ranks below WoW in starter areas, but what other game out there was that polished and easy to learn in open/late beta?
No. Instead, I pre-ordered. Yes, it has problems. Optimization for one, but I bought a brand new 9600GT and 1 gig of ram extra. I believe in Funcom to deliver, even though it's currently slightly unplayable for me.
Nope I'm hooked !!
I wont be pre ordering. I would like to get a buddy trial when the game comes out though. Aside from the technical problems the game may be decent.
I agree with the person who said they prefer auto attacking. I felt like that was what was happening when I used the directional attacks, I was autoattacking but with me clicking to auto attack in different directions on the mob. Rakion's combat system was far more intuitive when it came to directional hits and blocking. I think with a controller AoC would be better, or at least less boring. I'll probably try the 360 version when it comes out.
Almost 900 votes! If you have not, please vote.
Fear not fanbois, we are not trolls, let's take off your tin foil hat and learn what VAPORWARE is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware
"Vaporware is a term used to describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge after having well exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar product."
Some small issues that are annoyuing, but nothing that cant be fixed in a couple of months.
Pre-ordered, booked 2 days off work. arranged a couple of day trips for the missus to get her outta the way. C'mon!
Never got the chance to be in the beta, i can't tell. But if i was and did'nt like what i was seing i'd probably cancel my pre-order. It's foolish to think a game in beta can suddendly go from bad to good within a month. What we see now is pretty much what the game is going to be at launch.
Keep the voting up all.
Fear not fanbois, we are not trolls, let's take off your tin foil hat and learn what VAPORWARE is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware
"Vaporware is a term used to describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge after having well exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar product."
Just out of interest, can any of the fanboys quoting the above give me an example of a game that had a terrible beta and a good launch?
Hmm.... Well, I am not got cancel anything....
And this thread is Hilarius, lot of false information, like they are trying to invent stuff.... Why, some sort of childish war hammer fan or....
QFT
No, but I will be placing a pre-order.
Nope I'm not canceling.
I don't listen to raving morons on forums for reviews of my games. I also don't read retarded pointless game sites for reviews on my games.
If the game sounds interesting then I'll buy it and see for my self.
Why do so many people need other peoples opinions to deside how to spend their money? Need someone to wipe your ass too while they're at it? Shesh...
Dang people need to stop acting like 50 bucks is a lot of money. Sure if you flip burgers for a living it is or don't know how to manage your finances and end up in debt up to your eyeballs. You love that credit card, eh?
Buy it. Try it. Love it. Hate it. That's how it goes... you like it or ya don't like it.. don't buy into hype and don't buy into "reviews" the only review worth reading is your own.
Yes FFS, I dont get it.
Tonns of people trying to pretend to be a PRO MMO player. But,........
- They cant even afford a Budget PC that will play the game Fine
- Cant afford the money to get the game...
Bha
I wanted to comment on this whole "open beta is an older client" thing. I will say this, the OB client probably was the latest client when it was uploaded to Fileplanet (which would have been at least a week or two, possibly longer, before the OB launched so that Fileplanet would have time to get ready for it), meaning it is already at least 3-4 patches behind the closed beta (and some of these are significant). Now, correct me if I am wrong, but the OB has not been patched since it went live?
I know as a closed beta tester that the last few patches I have listed have fixed a lot of the issues I see people describing. I can play for hours without crashes, or disconnects of any kind (although I get the very rare lag spike for about 10-15 seconds). I run the game at max settings/4xFSAA/4xAF, but the game is playable for me (30+ FPS) with 16xFSAA/16AF. No bloom though, as I think it makes a lot of things look to bright. I get 45-64FPS all the time. My PC is 4GB of RAM, e6750@3.64GHz, 8800GTX, WinXP 32bit.
Also, I can't go into as much depth as I would like to, but combat does become more involved at higher levels. At level 13 the classes might have one or two skills that differentiate them from other classes of their archetype. I am not denying some of the balancing issues and bugs with the classes, but I am saying that I don't believe they are as bad as a lot of the people here are making them out to be.
I up until about 3 weeks ago I was questioning my preorder, but these last few patches, and especially the last two have convinced me enough of this game that I want out and fully paid off my CE preorder.
Rising Arms.
{{ Site | Forums | ">Recruitment }}
Rethaul, Dark Templar and squad leader of Scions of War
Can u name me a game thats had a good beta and good launch:)