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The Battle of Beauty
genesis885
Member Posts: 22
Hey Folks,
I would argue that two of the best looking MMOs on the market are Lord of the Rings Online and Age of Conan. With a new system I was looking to pick one of these back up. To me it seems that LOTR has kept a strong following through the years, but AoC has an expansion coming out next year that will bring people back. Where do you all weigh in on these games? Can Rise of a Godslayer save the game that almost was, or does the "think I can" attitude of LOTR keep it chugging along the tracks to success?
Cheers!
Comments
Don't be afraid to put in your two cents.
Two cents:
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
I played LOTR for a bit when it first came it. I don't know if this will make any sense - but I can't point at any one thing and say, "This is why I didn't like it".. the best I can say is it just didn't grab me and make me want to keep playing overall. I honestly haven't kept up with it since then. So I couldn't say if its better, worse, or the same.
I played AOC for a decent bit. I always thought it had great potential - but always managed to fall short of it or just plain goof up. Kind of like an athlete that could be really good but keeps making mistakes on the field or getting caught up to his neck in drugs and hookers.
Still, I know AOC did get a new game director - who, if I'm remembering right, was much-loved from one of Funcom's other games. From what I hear the game has been getting better lately under his lead.
AoC and LOTRO are both solid games
I tend to move towards AoC than LOTRO. HOwever, with the MMO market now so crowded, I doubt you will see substantial movement of players for expansions
Torrential: DAOC (Pendragon)
Awned: World of Warcraft (Lothar)
Torren: Warhammer Online (Praag)
I do honestly think that the new AOC expansion will bring back some players, but then again LOTRO just came out with Mirkwood. Frankly, there are many people who are waiting in the MMO market until Star Wars comes out. This is why you will see people trying expansions and Star Trek online. Now if only WAR could fix their issues, there would be even more competition.
AoC has the best graphics if you are going for realism, althout lots of games have graphics that are technically better but involve stylized art that comes down to personal taste. Two example of the latter are Aion and Champions Online.
Cryptic is trying a Customer Development approach to MMO creation.
Am I really the only one who absolutely loves the lotro character models?
If you stand VERY still, and close your eyes, after a minute you can actually FEEL the universe revolving around PvP.
I hated not so much the char models in Lotro itself (they are...uhm...average) but the animations were terrible done...and i did not like a single class and left the game eventually to never come back.
The world design of Lotro is very very good - can nearly compete with that of AoC...
AoC is the best looking MMO yet imho.
"Torquemada... do not implore him for compassion. Torquemada... do not beg him for forgiveness. Torquemada... do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it, you can't Torquemada anything!"
MWO Music Video - What does the Mech say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF6HYNqCDLI
Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0x2iwK0BKM
So AoC is bettering looking, but it seems like there is a little more of a following for LOTRO. Do you folks think it is the IP or the game?
I'm with you on that one, They seem more, realistic in my mind. Not many shoulders with magical lightning or glowing heads sticking out of it.
Make it so...
What about the general lasting power behind the games?
Both of these games come with a huge amount of lore behind them. Though they have been taylored to fit the MMO expectations, the content in both should appeal to diehard fans. With that being said, though most of my experience has been in AoC (thus I will mostly talk about the lasting power behind AoC), do I think AoC's numbers will rise after the expansion release? Yes. Is it a game that has lasting power? No.
The reason why I say no is because of several new MMOs that have been mentioned already in the thread. As said before, many people are looking forward to SWTOR and FFXIV. While AoC does have breath-takingly beautiful sights, so do other games such as Aion. I do/did enjoy the combat system and content in the game was fairly well done. But as I stated before, from personal experience, unless you are a fan of Conan, or, you find that the game mechanics of AoC are best suited for your tastes, there is no real other lasting power. But that is just my humble opinion.
I'm with you on that one, They seem more, realistic in my mind. Not many shoulders with magical lightning or glowing heads sticking out of it.
I don't think that's the issue.
"More realistic" is fine with me. But lotro's just seem to miss the mark.
The hair looks like clay on top of the head, the bodies are off, The faces do not look good.
Ever cycle through some of the noses you can have?
The one thing that I like about the asian devs is that they can do bodies and faces well. I'm not talking about the armor and the weapons or the particular "flavor" of their art design. That is a personal taste. But if you really look at how they sculpt their avatars they do "realistic" a whole lot better.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I would say that I like the avatars in AoC better but the worlds are a bit equal as far as art design. The more open feel of Middle Earth is better.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
I would say that I like the avatars in AoC better but the worlds are a bit equal as far as art design. The more open feel of Middle Earth is better.
I think AoC does a great job with the male avatars...
Played AoC only for 24hours (game time) but still I love the game much mroe than I did lotro. Loved every place in the game this far and there is enough players on all the time! In lotro I loved only 2 places, The Shire and the on with lots of Ice and Snow (lv 40-50?).
I'd go with AoC.. actually, I did.
Hands down AoC.
Some of the later AOC maps have some stunning views (granted you have the right rig and are running mox settings in dx10), i have yet to stop playing and actually admire the cliff view of a valley in any other game.
On top of that, some of the level 80 raid gear looks fantastic.
I remember trying out Aion and thinking what a huge step down this game was from AoC, and Aion was suppose to be graphically top notch (emphasis on suppose as its on par with f2p games in the graphics department)
Also AoC's combat system is so much more entertaining for pvp battles.
I think the real comparison would be vanguard vs AoC.
Agreed, most of the later AoC maps are stunning. I personally have not played Aion, it appeared to have nice visuals, that and fellow AoC players I knew who played it (Aion) found it holding a beauty of it's own that is different from AoC, which most liked more. AoC's combat system is indeed great for pvp battles, although, I am more of a pve type player, i did get to witness first hand just how "entertaining" it can be (especially for gankers
...) I suppose I need to check out vanguard, yet another MMO I haven't played. If you're saying it is at the level to compare to AoC, then it must be pretty good!
I personally do not think it is the IP's fault for the problems it is having. There was ALOT of buzz for this game pre launch and just looking at the evidence shows it was the game itself that drove its popularity down, not the world created by Robert E. Howard. It had such potential.
As for LOTRO, both the IP and the game will have difference of opinions as which is better. It didn't suffer the same 'letdown' that AoC saw.
AoC hands down. It has been out 18 months and no MMO can beat it for graphics, also I see no MMO on the horizon that can.
My view on Lotro and AoC:
Lotro is nowhere near to the success anyone imagined it would be as only from the great IP alone.
The biggest setback in Lotro is the bland look and animation of the chars together with crude classes at releasedate.
I played it some months but i had never a feeling to care about my Avi, combat was boring.
Despite this It is a great RP and PvE-Game with some monsterplay-pvp that only sounds good in theory.
AoC has the best Graphics and the best Combatsystem (fast-fluid-responsive) with great effects.
Generally the atmosphere of Conan is great but you need a good computer to enjoy all the candy.
It was overhyped at start and as any game that starts as FFA-PvP-Game it looses its crowd turbofast as the concept of an FFA-PvP-game does not work out over time.
Crafting is cheap and only the culture-sets of armor, culture weapons and some unique epic stuff is worthy to craft.
Harvesting is boring to me but that is personal opinion - it found it also boring in Lotro.
But it also has a good PvE-gameplay that gets a big boost with the expansion with more unique Locations/Lore to explore, Level-Cap stays you can only get some new Abilities.
Tortage is a dream of a starter-area, then you make you way through very different Zones with unique Lore while following your Destiny all the way til you encounter the "Grim Grey God".
You can either go solo or grouped in AoC to highest level but the really good stuff is then group content or raid.
After that you can level up another toon or go raiding - raiding soon gets its third tier-raids or you can enjoy the high level group-dungeons.
AoC offers 12 well defined Classes with a good and sometimes very different gameplay.
I still play AoC as i am a PvE-player and different to Lotro in AoC i really enjoy to play my class and care about my char.
AoC will stay around for long and the investment into a gamebox and some playtime is the opposite of costly nowadys.
"Torquemada... do not implore him for compassion. Torquemada... do not beg him for forgiveness. Torquemada... do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it, you can't Torquemada anything!"
MWO Music Video - What does the Mech say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF6HYNqCDLI
Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0x2iwK0BKM
What about Aion?
Aion has nice animations but fails on a grand scale when it comes to world design.
AoC has the most realistic world design of all titles I've seen. The mountains look like mountains, the ships look like ships, the sea looks like sea.
You pay for this with very limited exploration possibilities.
If I had to rank them by world design
AoC
LotRO
Vanguard
Aion has nice animations but fails on a grand scale when it comes to world design.
AoC has the most realistic world design of all titles I've seen. The mountains look like mountains, the ships look like ships, the sea looks like sea.
You pay for this with very limited exploration possibilities.
If I had to rank them by world design
AoC
LotRO
Vanguard
I agree with Meridion. I would place the best looking MMO's in the same order with Aion coming in fourth.
1. AoC truly is a beautiful game, it is also a game I enjoyed for a year of release as well as several months in closed beta. The thing that put me off AoC was patch 1.05 which made the game more gear dependant due to the incesant whining of WoW kiddies that only care about their 'uber lootz'... However, the majority seem to prefer these changes. The combat system in AoC is the best around and the quest content is actually worth reading and thats if its not a voiced quest of which there are more and more. The endgame is a bit lacking for raiding types and the PvP still needs balancing and generally more work put into it. Apart from that AoC is a very solid game and by a large margin also the best looking.
2. LotRO on the other hand I only lasted a couple of months in. The world itself is gorgeous, but the goofy looking character models and subpar animations make it look rather silly as a whole package imho. I found the combat and general gameplay to be pretty boring too. I got a few different classes into the 40's before quitting out of boredom. Again, this is only my personal opinion (before Jackdog jumps in and tells me I'm talking rubbish
).
3. Vanguard I played from open beta until 3 months after launch, and then again for a couple of months earlier this year. The world looks great and I love the fact that if you can see it, you can get there. An aspect that a lot of games are sadly lacking these days, far too many invisible walls for my liking in most MMO's these days. The world looks great as I said, but the character models let it down just like LotRO. The other major problem with Vanguard is its performance. I had just built a brand new PC for Vanguard when it came out and it still ran like shit. It was a pretty beefy system for that time too with a shiny new 8800 GTX 768 Mb, 4 Gb RAM etc, also still on XP Pro even though Vista was out by then (due to its early problems). Even in my return earlier this year, with the same system but upgraded for the times it still ran pretty badly. Now I hear that development of the game is shelved and that they will only be working on bug-fixes. Not long before this one goes the way of The Matrix Online, I fear.
4. On to Aion. I actually just resubbed to Aion over the holidays to play alongside EvE (which is my main MMO). Aion has a very pretty world (too cutesy for my liking really although I'm not a huge fan of eastern artstyles at all tbh). In fact due to the cutsey factor in Aion, all my characters are Asmodian and only one is male. You can make damn good looking female characters, but the guys (especially the elyos) tend to look like metrosexual nancy-boys, or totally emo. (Give me the AoC look for male characters any day of the week!). The game runs very well and looks pretty great. There is a grind factor to the game and the endgame is pretty non-existant at this time, but I have 6 characters to work on so I won't run out of things to do before they add more content.
Anyway, thats my take on the 4 best looking games in MMO-dom IMVPO.
MMORPG History:
Playing - EVE Online.
Played (Retired) - AO, SWG, MxO, WoW, RFO, SoR, CoX, EQ2, GW, L2, Vanguard, LotRO, AoC, TCoS, Aion.
Favourite MMO - Pre-CU SWG, 3 Years, 4 Accounts, 2 Pre-CU Jedi (1 Pre-9).
Awaiting - Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Secret World, Earthrise.
Both are pretty good games that should be around for a while.
As far as graphics go, I've played both games extensively with full dx10 on an i7 rig.
LotRO's landscapes are better. The tree leaves, grass, and bushes look more realistic. So does the sky and water. However, the characters (especially the faces) and animations are terrible. The building textures are also poor. Walking around Bree looks like WAR graphics, but then you step outside and crap your pants at the realism.
AoC has better ground and surface textures. Bricks and stone look amazingly real. Also has much better character looks and animations. Foliage looks a bit off at times, compared to LotRO's anyway.
I'm back playing AoC for now just because I'm really bored, but the visuals keep me entertained.