Warps Web

Just wanted to let people know that I am currently working on a new fansite for the upcoming game Hereos of Telara. You can find it at PortScion.com. I am still working on it but should have it ready to go soon! Make sure to stop by the site once it is completely up and running. Enjoy!

So now that the first month of CN retail Aion has passed, I find myself in the same place as with almost every other MMO I have played over the past few years.  Its boring… I log in and after 15-20 minutes im just bored to tears doing the same quests and grinding the same mobs over and over.  While I love the graphics and some of the features of Aion, such as flying, overall I find myself wanting to go play Day of Defeat: Source instead of logging in for a few more hours of grinding.

I played the original EQ for 5+ years, WoW for 2 years, EQ2 for 2+ years, and Lineage 2 off and on for 4 years. All of them were extremely enjoyable games, so when I started playing Aion I was expecting the same type of enjoyment. Unfortunately it just never came to be. What exactly was it that made it less enjoyable? I am not sure really what it is but I wish I knew.  In other Chinese/Korean games the language barrier is usually the biggest issue I have but since I have the English Aion client and am in a large English speaking guild that really isnt the case here.  It isnt really the lack of content either as there is a lot of stuff to do.

Perhaps I am just getting tired of MMO’s in general and just refuse to admit it. I have been playing them for over 10 years now.  I guess the only thing I can do is just take some time off and give it another try in 6 months or so and see if Aion or perhaps a new mmo can be enjoyable for more then a month or two. Only time will tell I guess.

So I had the opportunity to play the open beta version of Aion: The Tower of Eternity over the past week. Thanks to mmosite I was even able to play it in English which was a huge bonus. While I have played many other games in Chinese or English, its always easier if you understand exactly what is going on.  I know its still technically beta, but thought I would give my impressions anyways.

I decided to play the first 10 levels of various classes just to get the basic idea of what they had to offer and to see which class would suit me best once the NA/EU Aion gets released. Honestly, I still havent decided and I played each of the 4 starting classes for each race. There were all fun to play.  While I didnt get a chance to experience any of the high level content, I can say the starting levels were extremely enjoyable and I wouldnt see any reason why the remaining levels wouldnt be any less enjoyable.

They spared no expense on brinnging life to the world.  Even simply talking to an NPC feels like your actually interacting with them instead of just clicking and reading dialogue.  The environment is simply amazing and extremely detailed.  They definitely had the “Explorer” type of player in mind when creating this game.

I can really only think of a couple things that bothered me about the game. The first one being the back hair/tail thing on the Asmodians.  It just doesnt look right and it shouldnt be sticking through every article of clothing you’re wearing.  They need to remove it or make your gear cover it up. Other then that personal annoyance, the other issue  I can see is with the starting areas.  Since their are only 2 races with 1 starting area for each of the 2 races, the initial influx of players will lead to camping and fighting over mobs.  Hopefully NCSoft will work it all out so that it isn’t such a big problem. Since I didnt get to explore the high level areas, I cant really say if there will be any issues with zones, camping, etc..

Anyways, overall I have to say Aion will be a great mmo. Whether you are new to MMO’s or a veteran player, you will definately enjoy Aion.  It is definately not the usual grind fest we tend to see come out of the Korean/Asia mmo market.  Once we get details on US servers, I will be sure to post more information here.  Until then, enjoy!

It appears a company called OnLive is trying to capture a portion of the gaming market by offering streaming games that require no hardware upgrades on the players end in order to play.  Apparently they will have high end servers which will feed the video strait to your PC, Mac, or TV and you will have a wireless controller to use just like your standard console game. While the idea seems great, I will wait and see how well it does before I go and spend money on it. Latency, bandwidth caps by your ISP(Internet Service Provider), disconnects, and poor video quality are just some of the things that I could definitely see causing an issue. Anyways, their site is going to launch in about 7 hours so I will check it out and see if they can live up to the hype. Here is an article from CNet about this new service. Enjoy!

CNet OnLive Article

Guess I should include their official site as well. Dont forget to sign up for the beta!

OnLive

Amazon is now allowing you to trade in your used video games and receive an Amazon gift card in return. The games must be in good condition and you must trade in at least $10 worth of games. They also supply you with a shipping label so you pay nothing to ship those games in. Comparing prices, it looks like they are giving a little more trade in value then Gamestop/EB does. As someone who trades in a lot of games, this is definitely good news. It seems most of the time I go into my local gamestop there’s some idiot ahead of me in line arguing over the fact that they cant get a full refund on a game they bought 6 months ago or asking a million questions about every game on the shelf. From what I have seen so far, the only thing you cant trade in is the consoles themselves or the accessories such as controllers, memory cards, etc. That could all change though depending upon the demand. Click the link below for details. Enjoy!

Amazon.com video games trade-in