• 21Sep 09

  Aion: Tower of Eternity - Pre-Review Blog #1

  So, I just got home and my plans to jump right into Aion: Tower of Eternity have been temporarily put on hold while I wait in a queue to get into my chosen server. Right now the wait time is sitting at 22 minutes, but it said something similar about 10 minutes ago, and when the number changes it's not always moving in the right direction. Anyhow, since I can't play just yet I figured I'd post an early impressions-style reviews blog entry about the game. And, since I'm having some trouble accessing the reviews blog right now, it's gonna end up here instead - at least for the moment.

  In case you're unfamiliar with Aion, it's a new MMO from NCSoft that's been available in Korea for a while, but which officially goes live here in North America tomorrow. I preordered the game several weeks ago, so I was able to get in on the "headstart" launch that went live at noon yesterday. After seven or eight hours of play I'm still only level 12, but I'm starting to get a good feel for where the game is headed I think, and so far I'm liking it a lot. And here's why, in an easily-digestible bullet point format:

  • Character Creation
    Aion's character creation tools are extremely powerful - like, EA Sports powerful. Sure, you can just pick a head, a body, and a hairstyle if you don't really care for this stuff, but if you want to recreate Pygar from the movie Barbarella, you have the option to tinker with just about every facial feature imaginable. The flipside of the character editor is that it gives you the freedom to make unrealistically proportioned characters with, for example, heads that are far too small for their bodies, or with tree-trunk arms and legs bolted onto a puny torso. Save for some presumably PVP-minded players opting for the tiniest character they can come up with, though, most people appear to be opting for something that at least resembles a human being.
  • The Launch
    Perhaps it's not surprising given that the game is already out in Korea, but queues aside, Aion's launch has been an incredibly smooth one thus far. I was able to get into the game around 10 minutes after the announced midday start time, and although I was disconnected about 10 minutes later, I've experienced no problems since. With new players descending on the starter areas like a swarm of hungry locusts, content was getting devoured quicker than it could respawn, but getting quests completed was rarely a problem.
  • Combat
    So far the assassin that I've spent most of my time playing as is a lot of fun - somewhat similar to a rogue in World of Warcraft, but with less emphasis on stealth. There doesn't appear to be a combo system as such, at least not in the WoW-rogue sense, but you can chain attacks together and, rather than having to map every move to a different button, every move in a chain is mapped to the same button. So, for example, after I perform my "Swift Edge" attack, I then use the same button to perform a "Soul Slash" and, when I reach level 22, I'll be able to press it a third time for a Rune Slash. It's been done before, but after sinking so much time into WoW and into organizing dozens of different buttons, it's a feature that I very much appreciate.
  • The Visuals
    Even if I end up posting a dozen of these blogs before I'm ready to write a full review of Aion, I think I'll find it tricky to ever do so without mentioning how great it looks. The aesthetic is somewhat similar to that of Guild Wars, but with superior animation and the CryEngine under the hood. I posted some new screenshots, taken on my relatively modest home PC, to the gamespace today - definitely worth checking out.
  • Flying
    Perhaps the most unique thing about Aion is that, from level 10 onwards, your character has angel-like wings that you can use to fly. Initially, you can only sustain flight for one minute, but my understanding is that increases as you level up. Also, you can only fly in certain zones, which seems a little odd, but is necessary so that you don't just bypass enemies and stuff completely.
  • Gathering & Crafting
    Although I've trained as a weaponsmith, I've yet to spend much time crafting - there are a lot of materials that need to be purchased in order to work with metals it seems, and I came close to bankrupting myself long before I was able to craft a simple steel dagger. Gathering is interesting in that, rather than having to train in order to learn how to pick things up off the ground, everyone can do it. So, providing you take the time to pick flowers and fruit early on, you'll find that you're able to mine iron and gather other higher-level resources later on. Bag space is an ever-present concern, of course, but these things seemingly stack in massive numbers (I have 110 of one resource right now), you get big bags (known as "cubes" in-game), and there's a bank/warehouse system with both character-specific slots and account slots that can be accessed by all of your characters on the same server. I'm a pack-rat by nature, so bag space is always a "thing" for me, but right now it's not taking up nearly as much of my time in Aion as it always has in WoW.

  And, with that it looks like I'm ready to get back into the game. Be sure to go and check out those screenshots, and expect more Aion coverage from me in the near future.

  Cheers

  • Posted Sep 21, 2009 8:22 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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• 31Aug 09

  Azeroth Fishing

  I said I wouldn't, but I did. This weekend I started playing World of Warcraft again. Rather than get back into endgame stuff with one of my level 80 characters or push my 70-something death knight to 80, I opted to start a new character. I've never leveled a Horde character past level 30-something, but after just one weekend my new warlock is at 22 and, because Blizzard continues to make the game easier on new characters, he already has a mount.
  
  I'm not writing a blog to bemoan the current state of the game though, nor even to talk about my disappointment that Cataclysm is going to effectively destroy much of the original game's content for anyone who's five or six years late to the party. No, I felt compelled to write here because, while fishing for sagefish in the Hillsbrad Foothills, I was shocked to find that the river is now full of garbage. I'm not sure if it's the residents of Southshore or Tarren Mill that are to blame, but in the time it took me to catch just 6 raw sagefish I also filled my bags with the following:

  1x Rumsey Rum Dark
  1x Watertight Trunk (containing leather and woollen cloth)
  1x Empty Rum Bottle
  5x Sickly Fish
  9x Weeds
  10x Driftwood
  10x Tangled Fishing Line
  10x Tattered Cloth
  0x Other Fish
  
  That's just crazy.

  I could sit here and write more, but there are other games that I need to be writing about right now. Please though, next time you're out for a picnic, on a hike, or killing quest-givers in an enemy town, take your trash with you.
  
  
  

  • Posted Aug 31, 2009 12:03 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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• 7Aug 09

  Another GameStop Exclusive

  No, that's not a typo. GameStop, it seems, has become just as interested in offering its customers exclusive content as we at GameSpot have. Store-exclusive content is nothing new (Shaun White's "Target" mountain will forever be a favorite), but while shopping around for preorder deals earlier today I was amazed at the number of games that now offer additional content if you purchase them at GameStop. Among the games I preordered today, for example, were Forza Motorsport 3 and Tekken 3. Ordinarily I'd probably have ordered these from Amazon, or just swung by a Best Buy on my way home from work on the day of release, but on this occasion I caved and took the GameStop option so I don't miss out onbonus cars and a cardboard tube samurai skin for Yoshimitsu, among other things.
  
  Aion is another game that I preordered recently and, while shopping around for the best deal, I noticed that (slightly) different in-game bonuses are being offered depending on where you purchase the game. I opted for the Steam version in the end, but Amazon and GameStop also have preorder deals with in-game bonuses.
  
  Taking aquick look at GameStop's front page today, it's immediately apparent that these exclusive content deals are something that the retailer is really pushing this holiday season. Below is a list of games (I'm sure there must be more as well) that, if I end up preordering them, I'll probably end up getting from GameStop rather than anywhere else. Yeah, I know, I'm part of the problem...
  
  Champions Online -"Insectoid Airfoil" bonus in-game vanity item.
  Marvel UltimateAlliance 2 - Unlock "Juggernaut" character.
  Batman: Arkham Asylum - Bonus "DemBones" Scarecrow challenge map.
  Dragon Age: Origins - Bonus undisclosed "in-game items".
  Assassin's Creed 2 - Two bonus maps.
  
  I don't really care for free posters or t-shirts like those that GameStop are giving away with preorders of Metroid Prime Trilogy, so I can understand why GameStop wouldwant to offerfor more compelling bonuses. I'm not sure that I like this trend though, because (as with day one DLC) it often feels like regular content is being stripped out to serve this purpose. Was the Scarecrow challenge map really created exclusively for GameStop customers, or is it merely being removed from the game for everyone who chooses to shop elsewhere? Will the rest of us have an opportunity to download it at another date? And if so, how much will we be charged for the privilege?
  
  This blog entry isn't intended as a call to action or anything like that, how could it when I'm clearly voting the wrong way with my wallet? I guess I'm just curious to hear what the rest of you think about this stuff. I've always been a sucker for collector's editions and that sort of thing, and I have no problem with them whatsoever, I don't much like feeling like I can only purchase them from one retailer though--especially when in-game items that I definitely don't want to miss out on are involved.

  • Posted Aug 7, 2009 5:02 pm PT
  • Category: Games
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