I agree that if the whole solo linear quest-hub thing disappeared tomorrow, I wouldn't miss it.
But just about every MMO has it. I don't like it but I've grown to accept the leveling process as one big tutorial. I'm sure something better could be done, but I'm not going to fault one MMO in particular for doing it when just about every other MMO does it too.
The rest I just generally disagree with even if I'm in the minority. I didn't find the story in SWTOR amazing and I hated Wildstar's combat and "unique personality". But those are opinions.
Mainly I don't find much difference between the leveling in SWTOR, Wildstar or Blade and Soul. The leveling in all of them, like almost all MMOs, pretty much sucks. But at least the combat in Blade and Soul is engaging. Time is flying for me way faster while leveling in Blade and Soul that it has in any MMO in recent memory.
Yeah, I can understand that sentiment. For me, being in a position where I can basically have my opinion put on a platform, I see the potential to no longer roll over and accept the status quo of what MMORPGs have become. It might be overly idealistic, but I think MMOs have become one of the biggest genres were people shrug and go "That's just the way it is!" when it doesn't need to be that way. I really believe we can have these beautiful virtual worlds where you aren't just some glorified slave, you know? MMORPGs rarely endeavor to engage us the same way other games aspire to, and I'd like to challenge them.
So I totally understand how me giving BNS a 52 seems like I'm being unfair and picking on the game, but in reality I'm trying to set a precedent where by the books boring MMOs aren't given 80s and a pat on the back, you know?
And at the end of the day, what people seem to be forgetting is that reviews are ultimately subjective. There seems to be this idea that because I didn't like BnS (and therefor PC Gamer adopts that opinion by virtue of publishing it) that somehow that makes the game bad. The quality of a game isn't determined merely by one voice, and I really resent the idea that because I don't like something other people are prevented from enjoying it too.
It's a big complicated issue, obviously. I just want to make sure people understand as best they can.
Well, I can't fault you for saying "enough is enough" with the solo-quest-hub-themepark thing, I just wish the critical community had done it long ago after the first of what seems like an infinite train of WoW clones, and it sucks that it has to be happening at a game I'm actually enjoying.
BTW, I think it's cool you're here responding to criticism.
There is one part of the review I agree with- I too think the e-sports aspect of the game is going to take off, and I think ultimately the game will thrive or die here based on how well that does.
I've been following e-sports for awhile and it just seems like it is going to fit in perfectly. With ESL picking it up for a tournament in February, it's off to a great start.
Ultimately, I look at the game as a PVP fighter with a big MMO attached to it, and for that reason I think it's new and innovative.
Believe me, I do too. If we did that years ago MMORPGs probably would be in the weird kinda mess they're in now, haha. Don't let it affect your opinion of the game. It's just as valid as mine and if you're enjoying it, I'm genuinely happy for you. My job as a reviewer isn't to make people hate games, and even I despise something someone loves, as long as someone somewhere is having fun I'm excited. Games are amazing.
And thanks! It's been a fun ride but I feel comfortable enough with this community to be able to talk about my experiences more openly.
And yup! I was the one MMORPG sent to check out the game in Korea and watch the world championships and it has all the makings of a great 1v1 PVP game. Despite how I feel about the game as a whole, I'll likely continue to keep an eye on the scene as it develops.
I like the way you look at it. I think its strength is that too, I just wish they did a better job of putting the PVP at the forefront and not the MMORPG aspect.
It does feel like B&S should go the GW1 route, and offer the "instant max lvl PvP character" on creation. But one that is locked to only doing Arena. Also fully normalize gear ofc across PvP (and make PvE gear not usable in PvP).
This is only because PvE and PvP feel soo different in terms of everything. Personally I would like to take my time doing the story/quests, but also have the option to instantly do proper Arena.
Pretty sure they didn't do the instant max level thing because they want to make money on the game. It is f2p and not b2p like GW.
Arena has equalized gear, so there's no way they can make money off people playing in it besides selling costumes which only goes so far.
The main money they will get is from players going through the leveling process or doing endgame PVE/world PVP.
I was one of those 1 million, not so much anymore. People need to understand those 1 million were just trying out the game when it first came out, pretty sure its not that number anymore.
Let's go ahead and be realistic here. 80% were in fact, gold farmers and 20% was real actual players.
Good guess, 350k actually play. The other 650k is gold farmers.
I have banned 50 a day for 8 days now and still doing it daily.
What's funny, they expanded the servers for gold farmers. NCSoft has a team of gold farmers on retainer for their games. Thats how they make 10x more money then actual revenue would show lol.
I'm not offended by bouncing boobs, I'm just embarrassed to play a game that uses it to attract virgins and creeps. It's just a cheesy way to try to add interest in a game that is otherwise lacking.
Yeah, which is partly why I went with my Lyn character, they're more realistic.
What's the point of reading a review when you have played the game already more than the reviewer? You aren't sure if you are having fun or not? I only read reviews to see if I should make the investment or not. I myself played it 30 hours or so and not going back. Only because I'm sure BDO is going to take over of my last MMO time slot and I don't do short term investment on mmos. But I could see myself playing it a lot of it was released 4 years ago.
Gaming Rocks next gen. community for last gen. gamers launching soon.
NCSOFT realising as the mmorpg.com article stated, the value in media is in twitch and youtube.
They are consistently adding new servers, marketing obviously forgot to pay the backhander to PC Gamer hence why other mmos got higher scores.
The viewer numbers are tanking on twitch.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
I'd like to add if you find combat too easy, master a kungfu master then tell me its easy.
level 22 Kung Fu Master here and I can tell you, it is VERY easy. It says hard but, it's not. Not at all. My 6 year old was killing shit and he never played before. It's a common sense class.
Not hard at all even at level 22. Will it get harder? Doubtful.
I'm not offended by bouncing boobs, I'm just embarrassed to play a game that uses it to attract virgins and creeps. It's just a cheesy way to try to add interest in a game that is otherwise lacking.
I'm willing to buy a GPU dedicated to boobs physics.
One problem I see is that the editor at PC Gamer should have had someone who is interested in playing this type of game review it, not someone looking for a "raid or die" game. That was poor judgement. A reviewer should at least be interested and prefer the type of game they're reviewing so they can highlight and criticize the points of interest that matter to that type of gamer.
I feel, ideally, they should average the scores of a few writers who could collaborate on the written review. I understand that's not exactly the most workable or efficient system, though.
However, depending upon those who go in biased towards the type of game they're playing is no small part of how we got to this inflated system in the first place. Reviewers playing games that they were already hyped about is still bias, just on the other side.
Incidentally, this is why I usually only use Metacritic review scores to judge a game at a glance. When you look at the average score a game gets based on 30-40 reviews, it's a much more revealing figure.
About what I expected. IMO just another mediocre MMO that doesn't live up to the hype. Though MMO fans will hype up pretty much anything new, regardless of quality.
I disagree with his whining about "breast physics"...boobs have physics in real life too. It's a shame he wastes a whole paragraph to show his insecurity about breasts.
Good, maybe it will keep away people who actually take the ad revenue biased opinion of a garbage game review site seriously - servers are full enough as is of people actually having fun with the game.
Really only a 52 out of 100? I'd give this game a score of no less than 80. And that would be a high score coming from me. I dunno what the writer was thinking but B&S is one of the best MMORPG's to come out in years. It is loads better than ESO, SWTOR and GW2. Look - for what it is - and make no mistake the creators of this game know what they were shooting for, "a good themepark game" - they hit their mark. It has no sandbox elements, but it nails everything else pretty damn good. People that say it doesn't have a good story - what? It's better than the lame ass attempt in fooling people that their choices matter in SWTOR's story. B&S's voice overs are as good as any in SWTOR as well. ESO's voice overs - we don't even want to go there. B&S's main story had way more "feels" than anything I experienced in any of the previous released MMO's that actually had a man story.
As for crafting - it is important, very important as you gain levels. Just like in WoW, there are things you'll need crafted by players if you expect to compete at the highest levels of play that this game offers.
Graphics, are on par if not better than 95% of the games that have come before it.
Music...this MMORPG is the first one I actually have it's music playing in the background because it is that good - especially the piece that plays when you enter Lycandi - just wow.
Combat - it just get's better as you get to higher levels and yes it becomes more complicated because pulling off some of the combos means hitting your opponent with certain moves in the right order to even get the combos to show up. No other MMO I've ever played had combat that was close to being as well thought out as this one.
As I said in an earlier post, I'm doing my own in-depth write up and I'll talk about everything and I mean everything - the good and the bad. One thing is certain though, I'll be more honest in my score than the writer of the review from PCGamer.
Really only a 52 out of 100? I'd give this game a score of no less than 80. And that would be a high score coming from me. I dunno what the writer was thinking but B&S is one of the best MMORPG's to come out in years. It is loads better than ESO, SWTOR and GW2.
And people stopped reading you're white knight post exactly right here.
ESO's voice overs - we don't even want to go there.
I guess you dont like Steve Blum, Jim Cummings, Michael Gambon, Kate Beckensale, Peter Stormare, Bill Nighey, Linda Carter, Malcom McDowell, John Cleese, Tara Strong, or Troy Baker?
Well, when they get AAA actors to voice there games, then you can make a compairson.
Same with SWTOR as well. Doug Bradley as the Emperor. Also played Pinhead in the Hellraiser movies.
Forgot to add Alfrid Molina(Doc Oc), Kevin Michael Richards(Cleveland jr), Jennifer Hale and Robin Atkin Downes and Tim Russ and Fred Tatasciore
I disagree with his whining about "breast physics"...boobs have physics in real life too. It's a shame he wastes a whole paragraph to show his insecurity about breasts.
I actually agree with him about breast physics. He's not saying that breasts don't have physics or a part of the body should not move in a realistic way but that the way they are moving is so unrealistic it's a joke.
What ultimately turned me off about the characters was the embarrassing breast physics that caused every woman's chest, big or small, to bounce around like two helium balloons on a windy day.
The avatars are hyper-sexualized and there is something to be said about how bad it looks that the breasts wobble around like overly filled water balloons supported by springs and bungie cords. There is nothing insecure about what he is saying, lol. Maybe you should look up the definition and then try to apply it to the context of the paragraph instead of looking for a buzzword in a poor attempt to make your point.
Or at least make them solid like a marble statue!!!
When they move they taunt me!!!
/s
I dunno man, it's an Asian thing. They also like to put anthropomorphic children in all their games.
Fine by me. Better than tired-ass elves, orcs, and dwarves I see in every single god-damn western RPG.
I really don't see the issue. My girlfriend played TERA and she made herself an impossibly thin, tall and big-busted woman. Obviously she didn't think it was sexist or anything, the same way a guy picking some huge hulking dude wouldn't think that was sexist.
These are role-playing games and you're not necessarily picking characters based on their realism.
I disagree with his whining about "breast physics"...boobs have physics in real life too. It's a shame he wastes a whole paragraph to show his insecurity about breasts.
Comments
They are consistently adding new servers, marketing obviously forgot to pay the backhander to PC Gamer hence why other mmos got higher scores.
And thanks! It's been a fun ride but I feel comfortable enough with this community to be able to talk about my experiences more openly.
And yup! I was the one MMORPG sent to check out the game in Korea and watch the world championships and it has all the makings of a great 1v1 PVP game. Despite how I feel about the game as a whole, I'll likely continue to keep an eye on the scene as it develops.
I like the way you look at it. I think its strength is that too, I just wish they did a better job of putting the PVP at the forefront and not the MMORPG aspect.
Arena has equalized gear, so there's no way they can make money off people playing in it besides selling costumes which only goes so far.
The main money they will get is from players going through the leveling process or doing endgame PVE/world PVP.
Good guess, 350k actually play. The other 650k is gold farmers.
I have banned 50 a day for 8 days now and still doing it daily.
What's funny, they expanded the servers for gold farmers. NCSoft has a team of gold farmers on retainer for their games. Thats how they make 10x more money then actual revenue would show lol.
I myself played it 30 hours or so and not going back. Only because I'm sure BDO is going to take over of my last MMO time slot and I don't do short term investment on mmos. But I could see myself playing it a lot of it was released 4 years ago.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
Not hard at all even at level 22. Will it get harder? Doubtful.
However, depending upon those who go in biased towards the type of game they're playing is no small part of how we got to this inflated system in the first place. Reviewers playing games that they were already hyped about is still bias, just on the other side.
Incidentally, this is why I usually only use Metacritic review scores to judge a game at a glance. When you look at the average score a game gets based on 30-40 reviews, it's a much more revealing figure.
PSO2 has 1 million players and only exists in Japan.
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phantasy_Star_Online_2
"open mouth, insert foot"
You are a constant source of entertainment for me. Just wanted you to know.
As for crafting - it is important, very important as you gain levels. Just like in WoW, there are things you'll need crafted by players if you expect to compete at the highest levels of play that this game offers.
Graphics, are on par if not better than 95% of the games that have come before it.
Music...this MMORPG is the first one I actually have it's music playing in the background because it is that good - especially the piece that plays when you enter Lycandi - just wow.
Combat - it just get's better as you get to higher levels and yes it becomes more complicated because pulling off some of the combos means hitting your opponent with certain moves in the right order to even get the combos to show up. No other MMO I've ever played had combat that was close to being as well thought out as this one.
As I said in an earlier post, I'm doing my own in-depth write up and I'll talk about everything and I mean everything - the good and the bad. One thing is certain though, I'll be more honest in my score than the writer of the review from PCGamer.
GG.
I'm a MUDder. I play MUDs.
Current: Dragonrealms
I guess you dont like Steve Blum, Jim Cummings, Michael Gambon, Kate Beckensale, Peter Stormare, Bill Nighey, Linda Carter, Malcom McDowell, John Cleese, Tara Strong, or Troy Baker?
Well, when they get AAA actors to voice there games, then you can make a compairson.
Same with SWTOR as well. Doug Bradley as the Emperor. Also played Pinhead in the Hellraiser movies.
Forgot to add Alfrid Molina(Doc Oc), Kevin Michael Richards(Cleveland jr), Jennifer Hale and Robin Atkin Downes and Tim Russ and Fred Tatasciore
The avatars are hyper-sexualized and there is something to be said about how bad it looks that the breasts wobble around like overly filled water balloons supported by springs and bungie cords. There is nothing insecure about what he is saying, lol. Maybe you should look up the definition and then try to apply it to the context of the paragraph instead of looking for a buzzword in a poor attempt to make your point.
Or at least make them solid like a marble statue!!!
When they move they taunt me!!!
/s
I dunno man, it's an Asian thing. They also like to put anthropomorphic children in all their games.
Fine by me. Better than tired-ass elves, orcs, and dwarves I see in every single god-damn western RPG.
I really don't see the issue. My girlfriend played TERA and she made herself an impossibly thin, tall and big-busted woman. Obviously she didn't think it was sexist or anything, the same way a guy picking some huge hulking dude wouldn't think that was sexist.
These are role-playing games and you're not necessarily picking characters based on their realism.
Bottomline: I really don't mind the boobs.
- Albert Einstein
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"