I'll be the first to admit that it is very odd for me not to have any lag, but I haven't heh, I have 4 characters obviously, 2 on beta 1 and 2 on beta 2. I haven't had lag on either, especially not recently. The time of my review the lag was nonexistant and still is. The only lag I have ever noticed was when I was at a shopkeeper and had to wait about 1 second for the menu to pop up, but that was about it, all other instances aren't even worth mentioning, as I can't give negatives for lag so minimal.
Blah
Don't get excited about a tax cut. It's like a mugger giving you back fare for a taxi.
"I haven't had lag on either, especially not recently."
English is not my primary language, so there is a chance that I might be missing something. when you say you haven´t had lag earlier, you mean you have had very little lag? Personally, I would very much like to see an ingame movie made by you. However. fraps and tools similar to it may cause severe lag, so without a camcorder we might miss the point.
Personally, I am hoping for EQ 2 to become a good game because, frankly, I find WOWs graphics horrible (That is "I" as in "me" as in my opinion as in "not trying to persuade anyone else to dislike the game of their personal preference"). Howver, if EQ2 adds up to become a lagfest like, lets say Horizons or SQG, than there is no chance that I will be playing it.
lag usually doesnt bother me, unless its so bad you cant play. i had that sometimes in lineage 2 where it would lag and everything would stop for a minute or two, and thier servers were down quite often. but, i didnt like the game anyways, so i quit that one. crossing my fingers that it wont be like this upon release, or thereafter.
I did make an ingame movie, however, it was about 3gb in size, and I really dont want to take the time to chop it up. I used fraps, the hit to my performance was suprisingly minimal. But I had been told before that for some reason EQ2 and Fraps seem to get along quite well. If I ever get around to chopping that thing up ill post it.
The movie looked superb though, I had it on max setting, so maybe ill just cut the performance setting down a ways and see how much smaller I can make a movie.
Don't get excited about a tax cut. It's like a mugger giving you back fare for a taxi.
Originally posted by sliver Great review, Its nice to see an honest good review, and not biased garbage.
*Squirts Milk ou his nose with laughter* Actually i thought it was ok to mabey a little suspicious becuase nothing went below 5/10 and the original poster has a personality disorder.
Nice review. Having been a beta tester for the past 2-3 months I've played several characters.
I want to focus on a couple area's in the review that I disagree with and some areas that have some debate.
Let me start by saying this game is NOT eq. I see people playing it like EQ and seriously you can but you will miss out on sooooo much. What I'm really refering to are the class of people I'd call grinders. They want to find a group, find the best grind mobs in the game and grind like mad. Or conversely you have the solo grinders who like to solo grind. (why anyone would want to solo grind is beyond me but people do it).
So let me say not only do you miss a lot of the fun in the game with these approaches but you will find it frustrating because it seems that SOE designed the game to be pretty anti grind.
Questing is really what makes this game unique. It is full and powerful quest system that has all the features of a single player game. It is must better designed for a combination of grouping and solo play. There are lots of things you want to do solo to work off quests and there are also plenty of things you will want to group and do. I think you probably will need to balance both. Do so and flow with the game and how it is meant to be played and you will have an amazing adventure, imersed in lots of lore, amazing places to see, and entertaining fights.
Anyway LAG is probably the biggest issue. This is one however that may be somewhat artificial as SOE is packing people on beta1 to ensure that there is LAG so they can work on optimizing the server code. The lag is definitely related to the number of people in a zone. Now days it really starts to occur around 200 people in a zone and it also degrades over time. Even with higher numbers it will be good for awhile (30 minutes) then degrade and ultimately the zone crashes. This is a problem that will almost certainly not exist when the game is released or maybe only exist the first few weeks when there is a flood of newbies.
Class diversity this is another hot topic and just yesterday SOE announced that they will be launching the real class skills/abilities/spells in the next couple weeks. The beta classes have been for experiementation and balancing. They have also said there will be options to specialize, gain traits, racial abilities, and enemy mastery for customization. So I'm gonna say that until this is done it can't be evaluated but based on the new info it is looking like a 10 in my book.
One last comment on solo ability. I just soloed through most of lvl 21 so when people say you can't solo what they probably mean is that solo grinding is very slow. I like to run around and do quests and explore solo. Frankly I don't know how my xp bar keeps moving so much but it seems everytime I glance at it I'm going damn how did it get there....
I give the game a 10 rating overall. It is a must buy in my book. I'm sure it isn't going to be perfect but I really find it engrossing and satisfying. I've spoken to people in their 40s and everyone I've talked to says they love the game and it is good all the way up. The only issues they have at 40 relate to some broken things and some balance issues. IE raid mobs owning them badly
why would nothing going below 5 be suspicious? its a good game and he THINKS that it deserves what it got. also should all games have a rating below 5 somewhere? sorry man but your logic doesnt make any sence and considering that wow and eq2 and both huge MMORPGs they should get greta ratings.
Personality disorder? lmao - I will hardly ever give any game a rating of 5 or lower, quite simply, games nowadays "unless they were made by completely incompetent programmers" are relatively good in some areas atleast. Albeit, there are some games that are horrible and deserve something lower than a 5 in certain categories. If you want to disagree with my review go ahead, I could care less. But for anyone to imply that games like WOW and EQ2 deserve a rating of 5 or lower in ANY category, is appauling. The sheer scope and magnitude of work that has went into these games is unbelievable. The one thing that upsets me the most is when some 12 year old kid sitting in his bedroom with his britney spears posters says something like that, I doubt you could even write a halfway dimwitted design document, yet you seem to think that your parents 15$ a month makes your words gold.
On another note, I did make an ingame movie, its not very good quality as I had to keep the size of the movie below 20mb, its in Mpeg4 encoding as that is the best size/quality I could find to compress it.
Below is a definition, which is for anyone who seems to think that these reviews will include absolutely everything they will want to know about a game that is in closed BETA. The programmers that have been working on EQ2 have been superb, they have released information to us closed testers that I haven't seen released prior in any other mmorpg beta. They have listened and fixed a countless number of problems we have had with the game. The biggest that comes to mind, would be them doing a complete overhaul of the class system after everyone complained about the diversity of the classes. A COMPLETE overhaul, that is something I have never seen before. We all need to be a little more patient, as I for one am most convinced that they will not release this game until it is perfect in their minds.
beta
/bay't*/, /be't*/ or (Commonwealth) /bee't*/ n. 1. Mostly working, but still under test; usu. used with `in': `in beta'. In the Real World, systems (hardware or software) software often go through two stages of release testing: Alpha (in-house) and Beta (out-house). Beta releases are generally made to a group of lucky (or unlucky) trusted customers. 2. Anything that is new and experimental. "His girlfriend is in beta" means that he is still testing for compatibility and reserving judgment. 3. Flaky; dubious; suspect (since beta software is notoriously buggy).
Historical note: More formally, to beta-test is to test a pre-release (potentially unreliable) version of a piece of software by making it available to selected (or self-selected) customers and users. This term derives from early 1960s terminology for product cycle checkpoints, first used at IBM but later standard throughout the industry. `Alpha Test' was the unit, module, or component test phase; `Beta Test' was initial system test. These themselves came from earlier A- and B-tests for hardware. The A-test was a feasibility and manufacturability evaluation done before any commitment to design and development. The B-test was a demonstration that the engineering model functioned as specified. The C-test (corresponding to today's beta) was the B-test performed on early samples of the production design, and the D test was the C test repeated after the model had been in production a while.
Blah
Don't get excited about a tax cut. It's like a mugger giving you back fare for a taxi.
Originally posted by MrPunx why would nothing going below 5 be suspicious? its a good game and he THINKS that it deserves what it got. also should all games have a rating below 5 somewhere? sorry man but your logic doesnt make any sence and considering that wow and eq2 and both huge MMORPGs they should get greta ratings.
because every game has flaws and according to this reveiw the game is almost flawless but other than than that its pretty ok.
"Wow, and i thought i was being civil about it. But then u had to go and be an asshole. Any who from what i heard theres some things in there like server lag that desevre a 5. And i dont care how much work went into the game it can still suck (not saying EQ2 sucks but anyway). And appauling? you sound like your getting a little worked up over it mabey you need to sit down before you have an brain anyurism."
What you've heard doesn't apply to my review. I haven't gotten worked up at all, you are the one using bad language and horrible spelling.
Blah
Don't get excited about a tax cut. It's like a mugger giving you back fare for a taxi.
Originally posted by Aldreth "Wow, and i thought i was being civil about it. But then u had to go and be an asshole. Any who from what i heard theres some things in there like server lag that desevre a 5. And i dont care how much work went into the game it can still suck (not saying EQ2 sucks but anyway). And appauling? you sound like your getting a little worked up over it mabey you need to sit down before you have an brain anyurism."
What you've heard doesn't apply to my review. I haven't gotten worked up at all, you are the one using bad language and horrible spelling.
Blah
Theres what one typo in there? oooooooooh. And other review i think would have some bearing on this one even the ones done by people who liked the game dident gush over it and give it 10/10 10/10 9/10 and lots of the one sive seen have had bad reveiws for lag anyway im done talking about this
About the lag.. on beta 1 server I've gotten horrible lag in Commonlands and Antonica. But on beta 2 server I haven't gotten any really.
I would imagine the servers in other countries aren't as crowded as Beta 1, and probably have low lag, too.
See, maybe everyone is right.
Oh and J-monster after going through it quick I see about 4 typos, and that's not counting no capital letters, saying "u" and "i" and "theres" instead of "you" and "I" and "there is", etc. I think that's what he was talking about. :P
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"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." -- Ken Olson, chairman of Digital Equipment Corp, 1977
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"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home." -- Ken Olson, chairman of Digital Equipment Corp, 1977
My main character is on Beta 2, so that may actually be the cause. I haven't played on Beta 1 all that much. I have a sorcerer and brawler there in the teen levels. As far as lag, I will reinerate again, I haven't had any. As is stated in the title of my review, it is ONGOING, the scores will continue to change as I play the game. The scores I have given the game are truthful from my POV. They will change I am sure, but they will most likely never go below a 5. Rating a game a 5 is the equivalent of giving it an F, and I see no category that EQ2 would deserve an F in.
Blah
Don't get excited about a tax cut. It's like a mugger giving you back fare for a taxi.
I got another topic on what I think of EQ 2 in depth so I'll be very brief
Graphics 7.5/10
A little dated but not to shabby, they are decent for their time but other MMOs are very close to what EQ2 has in this way.
Combat 8/10
Big time improvement on EQ 1 hear, much more realistic and engaging, but still a little slow and dull compared to WoW, DAoC, and SWG
PvP 0/10
It doesnt exist
Crafting 8.5/10
Good, fairly innovative I was never the crafting type so i may be a little bias here but it was not a whole lot different then SWG
Solo 3/10
Still not nearly as good as other MMOs, very very group dependant which takes away from the fact that you can't really log on for a quick bit and get a lot accomplished, and it can be a bit of a drag if you don't get a group sometimes
Group 9.5/10
Same old, Same old, EQ1 grouping was great and so is this
World 1/10
Still very very dead, ambient sounds get repetitive and dull, and the world just seems dead in areas, compared to Dark Age, WoW and SWG, there aren't nice little things like overgrown grasses and twigs and logs on the ground to the same extent as other MMOs
Overall 7.0/10
A solid C+ not as good as other MMOs out there, but a definite buy if you really liked EQ1 and don't mind the slowness and non existent PvP, that can sometimes lead to a bit of dull play time, overall good though.
"Sony Customer Service is like Santa Clause, people say they've seen them but they don't really exist"
just a note on the grass/logs/twigs ect ect, you might wanna put your slider from 0 to 100 on the flora, there is so much grass and stuff that my gnome cant even see anything when sitting down anywhere in the game.
LoL - Yes, there is a TON of flora in the game on max settings! It looks great, but is really annoying when you play a shorter race and use First Person POV. Luckily you can turn it down or completely off if you so desire. Which is what I ended up doing with my ratonga.
Which do you like more?
Blah
Don't get excited about a tax cut. It's like a mugger giving you back fare for a taxi.
i only play in first person view (i dont even think games in 3rd person are rpg's lol, wheres the roleplaying if you can see everything around you and your own caracter, i wanna look through my caracters eyes, be frightend when i get jump on from behind, look around corners ectect, buts thats my personal opinion, so no point in debating this...everybody should play how they like). And indeed short races have trouble seeing through all the flora and when they sit they see absolutly nothing, so i turned it to 20-25% or so, else the world look a bit to clean and empty.
Are we playing the same beta here??? Everquest 2??? from Sony Online Entertainment???
The game is horrible. Once you get past your little Fanboy phase maybe we can get a REAL review because your game and mine really do not match up at all. Yes, it might be different taste, but those scores you gave are rediculous considering the amount of bugs, graphic lag insanity, clipping errors, etc etc etc...
Oh and my computer blows yours out of the water and I CANNOT play the game with all the settings maxed...
cool review ^_^ seriously doubt that a beta could get such high scores though ^^ i mean if the game is this good already, they should just release it right?
im sure EQ2 is gonna b a great game, but damn they should have included pvp =(
oh and aldreth u dont sound like a die hard WoW fanboi hehe if you would b, u would b writin like "KEEL EQ, GO WOW" hehe
im tryin to keep open to eq2, but the lack of pvp bothers me, the graphics r great from what ive seen, but graphics have never been that important for me in mmorpgs, if i want beautiful graphics id play doom 3 or far cry ^_^
Richijefe... level 61 Silver Ranger on Bartz... quit 4 months ago ^_^
"Are we playing the same beta here??? Everquest 2??? from Sony Online Entertainment??"
--I would hope so, otherwise, you would look rather sublime.
"The game is horrible. Once you get past your little Fanboy phase maybe we can get a REAL review because your game and mine really do not match up at all. Yes, it might be different taste, but those scores you gave are rediculous considering the amount of bugs, graphic lag insanity, clipping errors, etc etc etc..."
--The game is great. I am not in any phase nor am I a fanboy of EQ2. This is a REAL review from my perspective and from MY experiences in EQ2 beta. Obviously it is different taste, I would ask you if you have ever played an MMORPG before as you act as though you haven't. Scores are anything but ridiculous. They are truthful, if you add up my scores here is the outcome Mr. Nearsighted
The bugs you have all so intuitively brought to our attention have been around quite a while, and of course were deducted from my scores. However, I can't deduct graphic lag because that is user error which IE IS YOUR PROBLEM. Perhaps spend more than 1 minute adjusting the settings instead of just hitting the auto EXTREME button in the settings.
"Oh and my computer blows yours out of the water and I CANNOT play the game with all the settings maxed..."
--I really don't understand this statement, I never stated that I ran the game at max settings, quite the contrary actually. I stated that I spent countless hours adjusting the settings. Here is a pointer for you.
When the game states "Warning these settings won't even run on the highest end machines" maybe you should believe it.
Never say "OOPS!" always say "Ah, Interesting!"
Don't get excited about a tax cut. It's like a mugger giving you back fare for a taxi.
Hi all current beta tester here whom just found this site, heres my opinion of the game I hope it helps:
Positive
Graphics, are very nice and combat spells/arts animations look pretty cool as well.
Sound effects, are the best I've seen in any MMO thus far with the use of npc voices.
Trade skills, require you to pay attention while creating items with a system of abilties to counter negative effects like loss of consentration.
Death Penalty, I like that you do not lose levels when you die the debt/spirit system seems pretty good and not to hard to obtain what you lost. Although I dislike that when a party member dies the whole party is given debt as this will push people to simply kick people if they die.
Negative
Soloing isn't suggested, with what seems to be all chests enemies drop trapped, the difficulty of white or higher encounters seem to make the amount of kills to levels a very slow progress, lack of uncamped mobs, reduced treasure rewards for solo mobs then for group mobs, and the bonus experience for grouping I don't think I would ever solo
No class diversity, as you progress and choose your class to upgrade to you will porbably notice very little different spells/abilities between them untill you hit your final class in the game. I know there adding Stat and Racial traits but thats a future plan and its not like every mage isn't going to take Int as there choice as it is limited to what you get, plus the fact thats its something planned and not tested as they just came up with it.
Zones are easily overcrowded, with what seems like zones being about half the size of what was in the first EQ and with combat as fast as it is all groups are chain pulling groups and a single group can clear a pretty good sized area of a zone of mobs pretty easily, making it more difficult for others to obtain quest items from mobs in that area or to solo in general.
Trade skills, so far from what I've seen its like this, take a couple easily obtained components and make item A, then to make your next level of trade skill item you take item A and add some easily obtained items to make item B, and then continue this pattern using previous items for all your future crafted items. I heard a sword was over 6 steps and its takes a minute or two per step so trade skills are a very slow process for an item (Not verified I never bothered to get to high myself).
The combat wheel, I like the idea of the combat wheel a lot but battles are to fast to use it effectively in most groups. Most if not everyone alternates abilities/spells at a constant pace for added damage and the slow down of waiting for others to perform there part in the wheel is not worth the slow down in combat damage from your lost ability/spell use with the effects of the wheel being as weak as they are. But its quite useful for soloing.
Combat, With encounters as fast pace as they are and not much downtime between there is little to no communication in groups from all that I've seen. Plus with all groups thus far chain pullers it tends to make the grind feel a lot more noticeable to me and makes combat dull.
Quest Based, Some probably like this but its not my style the way it is. Most quests are very short and not very difficult to finish. But on the positive side I guess most are soloable.
Lag, yea there seems to be a good bit in certain places reminds me of walking around the bazaar in EQ at times.
Bugs, sure theres bugs its beta, big ones I see on the forums and have noticed are a lot of random crashes, problems logging in, and my favorite door ways to buildings and zone entrances not highlighting thus not allowing you to leave or enter certain zones as well as pet pathing is horrible.
No PvP, I like a good vs evil pvp system personally and I'm sure they will be adding something evenually the problem is since they didn't get it even started by release after all the additions to classes to make them different everyone will most likely be nerfed for balance as in every MMO. And the players will feel everyone of them as it could of been lessened in beta and nerfs seem to be what anger players the most.
The release date, this is what I dislike the most about the game, the beta forums have a good bit of problems listed on them that really need addressed before release in my opinion (it only takes one gold or experience exploit or to easily ruin the economy or game, for me atleast). I also read a topic a while back stating that WoW wasn't quite ready for release and would of held back if SOE agreed to as well (wasn't verified though) but a day or two after that is when they actually upped there release date so maybe they took this to there advantage which I wouln't be surprised as one of the guilds in WoW was offered beta accounts for there members if they would swich games (also wasn't verified but I dont think the company ever would on things like these the e-mail he posted looked real to me and had all the information my beta invite had but who knows it may have been doctored).
Overall opinion of the game is its not ready everything can be fixed if they would give it more time, at this point the game feels it will be worse off then SWG's release (although the first 10 levels seem to have very little bugs so it has a much better start up) I just wish it and WoW would of both held back to give us two good games to play rather then two incomplete ones. I for one will not be purchasing it for atleast the first month I would suggest holding back on purchasing it to see what people have to say when its released, chip in with friends on a copy to see it for yourself the first day and judge it yourself and not get stuck with a possible crappy game due to the keycode, or do what I plan to do pick yourself up a copy of Halo 2 to play until everything is fixed
Comments
I'll be the first to admit that it is very odd for me not to have any lag, but I haven't heh, I have 4 characters obviously, 2 on beta 1 and 2 on beta 2. I haven't had lag on either, especially not recently. The time of my review the lag was nonexistant and still is. The only lag I have ever noticed was when I was at a shopkeeper and had to wait about 1 second for the menu to pop up, but that was about it, all other instances aren't even worth mentioning, as I can't give negatives for lag so minimal.
Blah
Don't get excited about a tax cut. It's like a mugger giving you back fare for a taxi.
Would you care to explain the following:
"I haven't had lag on either, especially not recently."
English is not my primary language, so there is a chance that I might be missing something. when you say you haven´t had lag earlier, you mean you have had very little lag? Personally, I would very much like to see an ingame movie made by you. However. fraps and tools similar to it may cause severe lag, so without a camcorder we might miss the point.
Personally, I am hoping for EQ 2 to become a good game because, frankly, I find WOWs graphics horrible (That is "I" as in "me" as in my opinion as in "not trying to persuade anyone else to dislike the game of their personal preference"). Howver, if EQ2 adds up to become a lagfest like, lets say Horizons or SQG, than there is no chance that I will be playing it.
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1338 - One Step Above
I did make an ingame movie, however, it was about 3gb in size, and I really dont want to take the time to chop it up. I used fraps, the hit to my performance was suprisingly minimal. But I had been told before that for some reason EQ2 and Fraps seem to get along quite well. If I ever get around to chopping that thing up ill post it.
The movie looked superb though, I had it on max setting, so maybe ill just cut the performance setting down a ways and see how much smaller I can make a movie.
Don't get excited about a tax cut. It's like a mugger giving you back fare for a taxi.
Great review, Its nice to see an honest good review, and not biased garbage.
Nice review. Having been a beta tester for the past 2-3 months I've played several characters.
I want to focus on a couple area's in the review that I disagree with and some areas that have some debate.
Let me start by saying this game is NOT eq. I see people playing it like EQ and seriously you can but you will miss out on sooooo much. What I'm really refering to are the class of people I'd call grinders. They want to find a group, find the best grind mobs in the game and grind like mad. Or conversely you have the solo grinders who like to solo grind. (why anyone would want to solo grind is beyond me but people do it).
So let me say not only do you miss a lot of the fun in the game with these approaches but you will find it frustrating because it seems that SOE designed the game to be pretty anti grind.
Questing is really what makes this game unique. It is full and powerful quest system that has all the features of a single player game. It is must better designed for a combination of grouping and solo play. There are lots of things you want to do solo to work off quests and there are also plenty of things you will want to group and do. I think you probably will need to balance both. Do so and flow with the game and how it is meant to be played and you will have an amazing adventure, imersed in lots of lore, amazing places to see, and entertaining fights.
Anyway LAG is probably the biggest issue. This is one however that may be somewhat artificial as SOE is packing people on beta1 to ensure that there is LAG so they can work on optimizing the server code. The lag is definitely related to the number of people in a zone. Now days it really starts to occur around 200 people in a zone and it also degrades over time. Even with higher numbers it will be good for awhile (30 minutes) then degrade and ultimately the zone crashes. This is a problem that will almost certainly not exist when the game is released or maybe only exist the first few weeks when there is a flood of newbies.
Class diversity this is another hot topic and just yesterday SOE announced that they will be launching the real class skills/abilities/spells in the next couple weeks. The beta classes have been for experiementation and balancing. They have also said there will be options to specialize, gain traits, racial abilities, and enemy mastery for customization. So I'm gonna say that until this is done it can't be evaluated but based on the new info it is looking like a 10 in my book.
One last comment on solo ability. I just soloed through most of lvl 21 so when people say you can't solo what they probably mean is that solo grinding is very slow. I like to run around and do quests and explore solo. Frankly I don't know how my xp bar keeps moving so much but it seems everytime I glance at it I'm going damn how did it get there....
I give the game a 10 rating overall. It is a must buy in my book. I'm sure it isn't going to be perfect but I really find it engrossing and satisfying. I've spoken to people in their 40s and everyone I've talked to says they love the game and it is good all the way up. The only issues they have at 40 relate to some broken things and some balance issues. IE raid mobs owning them badly
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Ethion
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Ethion
Personality disorder? lmao - I will hardly ever give any game a rating of 5 or lower, quite simply, games nowadays "unless they were made by completely incompetent programmers" are relatively good in some areas atleast. Albeit, there are some games that are horrible and deserve something lower than a 5 in certain categories. If you want to disagree with my review go ahead, I could care less. But for anyone to imply that games like WOW and EQ2 deserve a rating of 5 or lower in ANY category, is appauling. The sheer scope and magnitude of work that has went into these games is unbelievable. The one thing that upsets me the most is when some 12 year old kid sitting in his bedroom with his britney spears posters says something like that, I doubt you could even write a halfway dimwitted design document, yet you seem to think that your parents 15$ a month makes your words gold.
On another note, I did make an ingame movie, its not very good quality as I had to keep the size of the movie below 20mb, its in Mpeg4 encoding as that is the best size/quality I could find to compress it.
http://home.comcast.net/~jumpa01/Mpeg4-2vid1.avi
Below is a definition, which is for anyone who seems to think that these reviews will include absolutely everything they will want to know about a game that is in closed BETA. The programmers that have been working on EQ2 have been superb, they have released information to us closed testers that I haven't seen released prior in any other mmorpg beta. They have listened and fixed a countless number of problems we have had with the game. The biggest that comes to mind, would be them doing a complete overhaul of the class system after everyone complained about the diversity of the classes. A COMPLETE overhaul, that is something I have never seen before. We all need to be a little more patient, as I for one am most convinced that they will not release this game until it is perfect in their minds.
beta
/bay't*/, /be't*/ or (Commonwealth) /bee't*/ n. 1. Mostly
working, but still under test; usu. used with `in': `in beta'. In
the Real World, systems (hardware or software) software often go
through two stages of release testing: Alpha (in-house) and Beta
(out-house). Beta releases are generally made to a group of lucky
(or unlucky) trusted customers. 2. Anything that is new and
experimental. "His girlfriend is in beta" means that he is still
testing for compatibility and reserving judgment. 3. Flaky;
dubious; suspect (since beta software is notoriously buggy).
Historical note: More formally, to beta-test is to test a
pre-release (potentially unreliable) version of a piece of software
by making it available to selected (or self-selected) customers and
users. This term derives from early 1960s terminology for product
cycle checkpoints, first used at IBM but later standard throughout
the industry. `Alpha Test' was the unit, module, or component test
phase; `Beta Test' was initial system test. These themselves came
from earlier A- and B-tests for hardware. The A-test was a
feasibility and manufacturability evaluation done before any
commitment to design and development. The B-test was a
demonstration that the engineering model functioned as specified.
The C-test (corresponding to today's beta) was the B-test performed
on early samples of the production design, and the D test was the C
test repeated after the model had been in production a while.
Blah
Don't get excited about a tax cut. It's like a mugger giving you back fare for a taxi.
"Wow, and i thought i was being civil about it. But then u had to go and be an asshole. Any who from what i heard theres some things in there like server lag that desevre a 5. And i dont care how much work went into the game it can still suck (not saying EQ2 sucks but anyway). And appauling? you sound like your getting a little worked up over it mabey you need to sit down before you have an brain anyurism."
What you've heard doesn't apply to my review. I haven't gotten worked up at all, you are the one using bad language and horrible spelling.
Blah
Don't get excited about a tax cut. It's like a mugger giving you back fare for a taxi.
About the lag.. on beta 1 server I've gotten horrible lag in Commonlands and Antonica. But on beta 2 server I haven't gotten any really.
I would imagine the servers in other countries aren't as crowded as Beta 1, and probably have low lag, too.
See, maybe everyone is right.
Oh and J-monster after going through it quick I see about 4 typos, and that's not counting no capital letters, saying "u" and "i" and "theres" instead of "you" and "I" and "there is", etc. I think that's what he was talking about. :P
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"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
-- Ken Olson, chairman of Digital Equipment Corp, 1977
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"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
-- Ken Olson, chairman of Digital Equipment Corp, 1977
My main character is on Beta 2, so that may actually be the cause. I haven't played on Beta 1 all that much. I have a sorcerer and brawler there in the teen levels. As far as lag, I will reinerate again, I haven't had any. As is stated in the title of my review, it is ONGOING, the scores will continue to change as I play the game. The scores I have given the game are truthful from my POV. They will change I am sure, but they will most likely never go below a 5. Rating a game a 5 is the equivalent of giving it an F, and I see no category that EQ2 would deserve an F in.
Blah
Don't get excited about a tax cut. It's like a mugger giving you back fare for a taxi.
I got another topic on what I think of EQ 2 in depth so I'll be very brief
Graphics 7.5/10
A little dated but not to shabby, they are decent for their time but other MMOs are very close to what EQ2 has in this way.
Combat 8/10
Big time improvement on EQ 1 hear, much more realistic and engaging, but still a little slow and dull compared to WoW, DAoC, and SWG
PvP 0/10
It doesnt exist
Crafting 8.5/10
Good, fairly innovative I was never the crafting type so i may be a little bias here but it was not a whole lot different then SWG
Solo 3/10
Still not nearly as good as other MMOs, very very group dependant which takes away from the fact that you can't really log on for a quick bit and get a lot accomplished, and it can be a bit of a drag if you don't get a group sometimes
Group 9.5/10
Same old, Same old, EQ1 grouping was great and so is this
World 1/10
Still very very dead, ambient sounds get repetitive and dull, and the world just seems dead in areas, compared to Dark Age, WoW and SWG, there aren't nice little things like overgrown grasses and twigs and logs on the ground to the same extent as other MMOs
Overall 7.0/10
A solid C+ not as good as other MMOs out there, but a definite buy if you really liked EQ1 and don't mind the slowness and non existent PvP, that can sometimes lead to a bit of dull play time, overall good though.
"Sony Customer Service is like Santa Clause, people say they've seen them but they don't really exist"
LoL - Yes, there is a TON of flora in the game on max settings! It looks great, but is really annoying when you play a shorter race and use First Person POV. Luckily you can turn it down or completely off if you so desire. Which is what I ended up doing with my ratonga.
Which do you like more?
Blah
Don't get excited about a tax cut. It's like a mugger giving you back fare for a taxi.
Are we playing the same beta here??? Everquest 2??? from Sony Online Entertainment???
The game is horrible. Once you get past your little Fanboy phase maybe we can get a REAL review because your game and mine really do not match up at all. Yes, it might be different taste, but those scores you gave are rediculous considering the amount of bugs, graphic lag insanity, clipping errors, etc etc etc...
Oh and my computer blows yours out of the water and I CANNOT play the game with all the settings maxed...
cool review ^_^ seriously doubt that a beta could get such high scores though ^^ i mean if the game is this good already, they should just release it right?
im sure EQ2 is gonna b a great game, but damn they should have included pvp =(
oh and aldreth u dont sound like a die hard WoW fanboi hehe if you would b, u would b writin like "KEEL EQ, GO WOW" hehe
im tryin to keep open to eq2, but the lack of pvp bothers me, the graphics r great from what ive seen, but graphics have never been that important for me in mmorpgs, if i want beautiful graphics id play doom 3 or far cry ^_^
Richijefe... level 61 Silver Ranger on Bartz... quit 4 months ago ^_^
Richijefe
"Are we playing the same beta here??? Everquest 2??? from Sony Online Entertainment??"
--I would hope so, otherwise, you would look rather sublime.
"The game is horrible. Once you get past your little Fanboy phase maybe we can get a REAL review because your game and mine really do not match up at all. Yes, it might be different taste, but those scores you gave are rediculous considering the amount of bugs, graphic lag insanity, clipping errors, etc etc etc..."
--The game is great. I am not in any phase nor am I a fanboy of EQ2. This is a REAL review from my perspective and from MY experiences in EQ2 beta. Obviously it is different taste, I would ask you if you have ever played an MMORPG before as you act as though you haven't. Scores are anything but ridiculous. They are truthful, if you add up my scores here is the outcome Mr. Nearsighted
10's - 3, 9's - 5, 8's - 3,6's - 2. Overall score = 85% A SOLID "B"
The bugs you have all so intuitively brought to our attention have been around quite a while, and of course were deducted from my scores. However, I can't deduct graphic lag because that is user error which IE IS YOUR PROBLEM. Perhaps spend more than 1 minute adjusting the settings instead of just hitting the auto EXTREME button in the settings.
"Oh and my computer blows yours out of the water and I CANNOT play the game with all the settings maxed..."
--I really don't understand this statement, I never stated that I ran the game at max settings, quite the contrary actually. I stated that I spent countless hours adjusting the settings. Here is a pointer for you.
When the game states "Warning these settings won't even run on the highest end machines" maybe you should believe it.
Never say "OOPS!" always say "Ah, Interesting!"
Don't get excited about a tax cut. It's like a mugger giving you back fare for a taxi.
Hi all current beta tester here whom just found this site, heres my opinion of the game I hope it helps:
Positive
Graphics, are very nice and combat spells/arts animations look pretty cool as well.
Sound effects, are the best I've seen in any MMO thus far with the use of npc voices.
Trade skills, require you to pay attention while creating items with a system of abilties to counter negative effects like loss of consentration.
Death Penalty, I like that you do not lose levels when you die the debt/spirit system seems pretty good and not to hard to obtain what you lost. Although I dislike that when a party member dies the whole party is given debt as this will push people to simply kick people if they die.
Negative
Soloing isn't suggested, with what seems to be all chests enemies drop trapped, the difficulty of white or higher encounters seem to make the amount of kills to levels a very slow progress, lack of uncamped mobs, reduced treasure rewards for solo mobs then for group mobs, and the bonus experience for grouping I don't think I would ever solo
No class diversity, as you progress and choose your class to upgrade to you will porbably notice very little different spells/abilities between them untill you hit your final class in the game. I know there adding Stat and Racial traits but thats a future plan and its not like every mage isn't going to take Int as there choice as it is limited to what you get, plus the fact thats its something planned and not tested as they just came up with it.
Zones are easily overcrowded, with what seems like zones being about half the size of what was in the first EQ and with combat as fast as it is all groups are chain pulling groups and a single group can clear a pretty good sized area of a zone of mobs pretty easily, making it more difficult for others to obtain quest items from mobs in that area or to solo in general.
Trade skills, so far from what I've seen its like this, take a couple easily obtained components and make item A, then to make your next level of trade skill item you take item A and add some easily obtained items to make item B, and then continue this pattern using previous items for all your future crafted items. I heard a sword was over 6 steps and its takes a minute or two per step so trade skills are a very slow process for an item (Not verified I never bothered to get to high myself).
The combat wheel, I like the idea of the combat wheel a lot but battles are to fast to use it effectively in most groups. Most if not everyone alternates abilities/spells at a constant pace for added damage and the slow down of waiting for others to perform there part in the wheel is not worth the slow down in combat damage from your lost ability/spell use with the effects of the wheel being as weak as they are. But its quite useful for soloing.
Combat, With encounters as fast pace as they are and not much downtime between there is little to no communication in groups from all that I've seen. Plus with all groups thus far chain pullers it tends to make the grind feel a lot more noticeable to me and makes combat dull.
Quest Based, Some probably like this but its not my style the way it is. Most quests are very short and not very difficult to finish. But on the positive side I guess most are soloable.
Lag, yea there seems to be a good bit in certain places reminds me of walking around the bazaar in EQ at times.
Bugs, sure theres bugs its beta, big ones I see on the forums and have noticed are a lot of random crashes, problems logging in, and my favorite door ways to buildings and zone entrances not highlighting thus not allowing you to leave or enter certain zones as well as pet pathing is horrible.
No PvP, I like a good vs evil pvp system personally and I'm sure they will be adding something evenually the problem is since they didn't get it even started by release after all the additions to classes to make them different everyone will most likely be nerfed for balance as in every MMO. And the players will feel everyone of them as it could of been lessened in beta and nerfs seem to be what anger players the most.
The release date, this is what I dislike the most about the game, the beta forums have a good bit of problems listed on them that really need addressed before release in my opinion (it only takes one gold or experience exploit or to easily ruin the economy or game, for me atleast). I also read a topic a while back stating that WoW wasn't quite ready for release and would of held back if SOE agreed to as well (wasn't verified though) but a day or two after that is when they actually upped there release date so maybe they took this to there advantage which I wouln't be surprised as one of the guilds in WoW was offered beta accounts for there members if they would swich games (also wasn't verified but I dont think the company ever would on things like these the e-mail he posted looked real to me and had all the information my beta invite had but who knows it may have been doctored).
Overall opinion of the game is its not ready everything can be fixed if they would give it more time, at this point the game feels it will be worse off then SWG's release (although the first 10 levels seem to have very little bugs so it has a much better start up) I just wish it and WoW would of both held back to give us two good games to play rather then two incomplete ones. I for one will not be purchasing it for atleast the first month I would suggest holding back on purchasing it to see what people have to say when its released, chip in with friends on a copy to see it for yourself the first day and judge it yourself and not get stuck with a possible crappy game due to the keycode, or do what I plan to do pick yourself up a copy of Halo 2 to play until everything is fixed
LOL - HI folks!
Every opinion has been expressed already, I think
See you in the game!
Have played: Everquest, Asheron's Call, Horizons, Everquest2, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, Warhammer, Age of Conan, Darkfall