Warps Web

Just posting to say that I am currently in the process of making a new site. This one will be taken offline shortly. I am not sure yet if I will store these old posts in an archive or not. More then likely I will not. The new site will be at WarpCode.com. Have a day!

So champions online open beta was released Monday. After downloading it and having patch problems along with most everyone else, I was finally able to play it last night. While I am not usually inclined to play Super Hero games of any sort, with the fantasy mmo market being stagnant, I thought I would give it a try. Here are my first impressions of the game.

The first thing you have to do like with any new mmo is create your character. The character creator for CO is probably one of the best ones I have seen. With the multitude of color, clothing, and accessories, you can easily create a character that will look like no other character in game. My only real complaint is that tehre are some items you cant select currently because of a bug, but a message pops up telling you that they are aware of the issue and working on it. Its nice geting in game notices like that instead of reading through pages of pointless posts on a forum to find the information you are looking for.

Questing is very simple and easy to understand. In my opinion its a little too simple. I like quests where you get a general idea of where to go but you have to do some exploring on your own. With CO you get the quest and it puts a small or big green circle on the map to where you need to go. Most of early quests involve killing mobs to get specific items, freeing citizen the mobs have captured, or finding items within the rubble of the various buildings. Overall they were pretty bland but you get some good rewards and you get a good feeling for how to play the game.

PvE combat was pretty standard. Click a mob, shoot with range skills or run up and use close combat skills, and wait for you or the mob(s) to die. Mobs like to group so you were usually fighting 2-4 mobs at a time. They are pretty simple so there is no real worries of dying at the lower levels. The one exception is when a mob grabs you in some sort of hold. You have to hold you Z button and try to break their hold. If you fail, you die (or at least take a whole lot of damage). I didn’t get a chance to try PvP as every time I tried to join it just sat there stuck on updating. Hopefully I will get to try out PvP in the days ahead.

Overall I would have to say the game is fairly decent. While it wont be the game I play forever, I could definitely see myself getting a few months enjoyment out of it. There are some bugs and graphical glitches but those will get taken care of and the game will probably be even more enjoyable. I definitely recommend picking up Champions Online if you like Super Hero games or if you are like me and are looking for a break in the endless stream of boring fantasy MMO games that have been thrown at us over the last couple years. Enjoy!

*Update* – Unfortunately due to time constraints this site never saw the light of day and I have since canceled it all together.

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!