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All right, now that the inflammatory title that makes you look at my column is out of the way, let's get down to business. This week we got to see a 30-second teaser trailer from the folks at NCsoft about Blade & Soul, a game from NCsoft that has been stealthing in the background, waiting for the right time to strike and jump in front of Aion.
Blade & Soul isn't a brand new game though. In fact, the game's artwork has already made a guest appearance on our website. (With subsequent comments on how that woman's back is going to break in half if she should walk forward.) Plus, if you really want to see what the game has to offer, a quick YouTube search will bring you to the Blade & Soul HD gameplay video which looks, well, simply stunning.
So why am I dedicating my opinion column to a game that's nowhere close to being released? Well, because I think it has potential, and because it's my opinion column. So come along after the break, and let's look at Blade & Soul.
Always appreciated Unreal Engine 3
NCsoft seems big into licensing out other engines that don't normally do MMOs these days. Aion is already running on a modified version of the CryEngine, and Blade & Soul will be running in glorious detail on Unreal Engine 3. This is a bold, yet unsurprising move that shows another focus on graphical quality of the game in order to make sure it appeals to today's gamer.
" I want to see more to combat than my butt and my skill bar."
Unreal Engine 3 really seems to compliment this game's style nicely. Blade & Soul is taking more of a medieval/realistic approach to their environments with a flair of the theatrical. While sure, there are monsters and this is certainly a fantasy world, it's a bit more grounded than something like Aion, where the world is really a fantasy kaleidoscope.
But that's not to say that the game doesn't delve into more fantastic aspects, such as beating up fat lizard men, sprouting metal wings from your back, and having breasts as big as your head. It has all of that, but it's well complimented by the engine.
However, the graphics aren't really what light my fire when it comes to this title. No, it's a few more esoteric things.
Yay, camera angles that aren't your rear!
"If I'm going to be staring at someone's butt all day, it's going to be a woman." Yeah, yeah, we've all made that stupid joke at one point or another. But, that joke points out one of the areas that we never utilize in MMOs -- camera angles.
Very, very few games actually attempt to mix up their camera angles in order to compliment their gameplay. Most of the time it's because MMOs are so focused on real-time, button pushing combat that we don't want our camera flying around all over the place. Doing so could make us lose our target, which is never a good thing in the heat of battle when others are depending on you.
But, if a game was able to slow down combat yet still offer a cinematic experience -- such as Blade & Soul's "beatdown" skills -- we wouldn't have to worry about our camera jumping all over the place. In fact, I'd make a case and say we'd want our camera to move during that point, just so we can see all of the glory of our character laying the smack down on some monster or another player.
In any case, I'm really tired of just seeing what my character wears from the back all the time. I want to see more to combat than my butt and my skill bar. Hopefully, Blade & Soul can deliver on some really cinematic combat.
Would this be innovative? Amazingly enough, it wouldn't be. Say what you want about the ill-fated Matrix Online, but I don't know anyone who could say the combat in that game didn't look amazing in motion. Martial arts battles in MxO really did look great, as characters blocked, punched, grappled, and fought all with the camera zooming and darting around to catch the combat. Which, well, leads me to my third point...
Part 2: www.massively.com/2009/11/20/anti-aliased-blade-and-soul-aion-pt-2/
Comments
A few things put me off...
- Generic title of the game makes it hard to be interested in the Lore of the game.
- The generic Asian style art style makes it hard for me to care about exploring the game.
- The generic Asian character emo style makes me not care for my character.
The whole game just says to me "another Asian mmorpg" and I'm tired of them. Lineage 2 back in the day was all I could handle but these style of mmorpgs just don't speak to the Western World.
Like i mentioned in the original article at massively. It's apple and orange.
Blade&Soul is an action oriented in a very heavily instanced environment game. It's not your typical MMO. It's more like Guildwars and C9. It gears toward a totally different audience than traditional MMO players.
Seriously. Its even more sad people constantly buy into the hype. How many MMOs have come out that have sucked hardcore yet still get loads of hype? "AoC is going to be revolutionary!" "WAR is going to bring back meaningful PvP!" "AION is going to have the graphics and pvp of asian MMOs without the grind!" see where im going?
Please don't hype the game specially here, this site is fond for the asian racists.
Dont Hype MMORPGs, then they wont FAIL ...
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Did you seriously just copy/paste an article from massively? Come on...
I wonder how many sheeps will buy into the hype before realising that they don't like the game, quit and start bashing everything that moves.
I would have to agree with the above poster. While it looks like it may be interesting the graphics just don't do it for me ;/
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Yep... This says it all. Nothing new to see here. Move along...
I've already decided to not care about anything NCSoft is doing, graphics and game play aside, they will have a bad economy, bots will run all over the game, and NCSoft will give next to nothing in terms of customer support.
My Thoughts on Content Locust
I am looking forward to all the upcomming MMOs like Blade & Soul, C9, Mabinogi Heroes and Tera that are going for a more fast pace, real time combat system. I am done with these Western WoW Clones. People may not like the Korean art style but these games do have great graphics and hopefully they will have some great gameplay too. Cant wait to see more.
I hope the game does well, but for me I feel the CryEngine or the UT engine should NOT be used for MMORPG's, they are great in the genre they orginaly are developed for as then they utilize the full engine, they can not do this with MMORPG especialy if it''s fantsy based, to much shine in it. Woudl it be used for lets say a Sci-Fi or a present day or some future type of game I feel both engines would do justice to those games, just don't see them work in a MMORPG.
I am not saying they are wrong engine's to be used, just saying that if those engines are used it already to me something not to look forward to.
I rather see a game company develop their own engine that is fully build for MMORPG's where they fully make use of the engine and not cut it up to fit the MMORPG style.
But like I started I do hope the game does good for those intrested in them as I welcome any game to come out.
I dont consider this game Massivelly enough.
Well, you really and truly jinxed the game there. FAR too many games that are out now "have potential" and the phrase essentially means "well, yes it's a bit poor now, but it might well get better".
I wish people would stop hyping games that have barely made it into existence.
Oh, and this little gem..."This is a bold, yet unsurprising move that shows another focus on graphical quality of the game in order to make sure it appeals to today's gamer." That REALLY shows that you have no idea what gamers really want, which is an MMO that is both fresh and innovative and which actually has real depth of play and immersion. Eye-candy is used to paper over the flaws and the lazy, copy/paste content in today's piss-poor games, and it doesn't fool real gamers. Aion developers take note.