Need list of current online multiplayer role playing games
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Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6944Members
Join Date: 2002-11-04 Member: 6944Members
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">Thinking of maybe geting one but which ?</div>I had been thinking of geting an online multiplayer role playing game for a while but didn't put much energy into thinking seriously about it. But I admit that after wathing .Hack//sign, the idea came back but this time, stronger. I don't know too much about today's kinds but I do remember seeing publicity for things like World of Warcraft, Oblivion, Guild Wars and such. But I have no idea what they look like and I know that just downloading a video of any of them will not be enough (videos can be enhanced by 3d software). I know a few months ago, that when I looked a bit, some of them didn't even have demos yet (or will never be).
So I though I would ask here a list of what's there with a description of each but mainly focusing on my preferences below. So can you guys list me what's available out there for PC and descrive it accordinly to my list below ? Thank you.
<b>p.s. : do not start any wars or flaming sabout anybody's comments !!! </b>
1) I do not like games where it is a top view a-la Starcraft. I like close view or at worst, player view a-la Diablo-II is ok.
2) I do not like games that force you to join a clan or party. I like having the option of joining or going solo
3) I hate wondering around with nothing to do. I do not like long periods of having nothing going on, unless its for buying/storing/healing
4) I like the idea of games where you have total freedom: you can be a good guy or an evil guy
5) I like choices in characters. I hate having like 2-4 choices only and be restricted to those. I know most games involving gathering points and experiences, but being able to customize your character from the start in every possible way to make it unique, would be the ideal game for me
6) I know most have missions that you have to go through, but I don't want it to be just that. Others things, objectives have to be there to do or acomplish, otherwise, it would start geting boring in the long run
7) of all the things to accomplish, I do not like those where you have like a fix amount and once you reached that amount, well, there's nothing else to do. I need unlimited acomplishments, unlimited things to do, unlimited places to go, unlimited monsters or evil (maybe I am asking to much). After all, if I want to play this, I don't want to stop after one year because I've been through all and having nothing to do after
8) I know most have a monthly payments and some don't. So specify how much per month and for how long. Are there different prices and if so why ? Customizations needed real money ? Do they make it kind of A MUST to spend money to do this or that, or put you in a situation where you are stuck and if you want to go further you have to pay them in real money ? Is the game restricted in what you can do only because of money ?
9) I want easy communications facilities between players, present or not.
10) I do not like turn base types of game, I want action like RIGHT NOW !
11) I hate having restrictions in any kind of games, so if there are, which ones are they and why
12) I hate poor quality graphic. If the game is supposed to mimic real live action combat, then the graphic has to go along with it
13) I whish for something where you can evolve in time. Not just gaining points, streinght or experience.
14) any demos available ?
15) PC minimal and recommanding configuration
So I though I would ask here a list of what's there with a description of each but mainly focusing on my preferences below. So can you guys list me what's available out there for PC and descrive it accordinly to my list below ? Thank you.
<b>p.s. : do not start any wars or flaming sabout anybody's comments !!! </b>
1) I do not like games where it is a top view a-la Starcraft. I like close view or at worst, player view a-la Diablo-II is ok.
2) I do not like games that force you to join a clan or party. I like having the option of joining or going solo
3) I hate wondering around with nothing to do. I do not like long periods of having nothing going on, unless its for buying/storing/healing
4) I like the idea of games where you have total freedom: you can be a good guy or an evil guy
5) I like choices in characters. I hate having like 2-4 choices only and be restricted to those. I know most games involving gathering points and experiences, but being able to customize your character from the start in every possible way to make it unique, would be the ideal game for me
6) I know most have missions that you have to go through, but I don't want it to be just that. Others things, objectives have to be there to do or acomplish, otherwise, it would start geting boring in the long run
7) of all the things to accomplish, I do not like those where you have like a fix amount and once you reached that amount, well, there's nothing else to do. I need unlimited acomplishments, unlimited things to do, unlimited places to go, unlimited monsters or evil (maybe I am asking to much). After all, if I want to play this, I don't want to stop after one year because I've been through all and having nothing to do after
8) I know most have a monthly payments and some don't. So specify how much per month and for how long. Are there different prices and if so why ? Customizations needed real money ? Do they make it kind of A MUST to spend money to do this or that, or put you in a situation where you are stuck and if you want to go further you have to pay them in real money ? Is the game restricted in what you can do only because of money ?
9) I want easy communications facilities between players, present or not.
10) I do not like turn base types of game, I want action like RIGHT NOW !
11) I hate having restrictions in any kind of games, so if there are, which ones are they and why
12) I hate poor quality graphic. If the game is supposed to mimic real live action combat, then the graphic has to go along with it
13) I whish for something where you can evolve in time. Not just gaining points, streinght or experience.
14) any demos available ?
15) PC minimal and recommanding configuration
Comments
Go pick up a copy of the <a href="http://www.gamestop.com/product.asp?product%5Fid=646959" target="_blank">Good Vs Evil edition</a>. You get both games for $30 (it is also available across the pond if you live over there), and there is only one monthly fee of $15.
The character creation and customization is outstanding. You will rarely run across 2 players that look alike (unless they are uncreative idiots, or are trying to make them look the same). Power customization is also rather vast.
Each archetype (class) have about 7 primary powersets and around 7 secondary powersets (this varies based on archetype). You pick one of each set, and then you also pick what powers you will learn. As you advance you will have access to powerpools, aka tertiary powersets that only have 4 powers in them. The powerpools provide you with travel powers (Flight, Speed, Leaping, Teleportation), as well as some other poweres to help you flesh out your character (Healing, party buffs, self buffs, etc). Once you get to a high enough level you also can open up ancillary power pools (aka more powers to customize your character).
You can go through almost all of the game solo (depending on build, a pure healer is gimped outside of groups). There are raid like instances (relatively small tbh), and you will need a group to do these.
Travel time is a joke. You will mostly be spending time in one zone at a time (level specific). The zones are connected by 2 trains/ferries (CohvsCoV), so getting to other zones is rather easy. Once you get your travel power, getting around in a zone is also easy. All of this leads to very little down time.
The game is mostly built around missions, however there are a good variety to them. If you want things to aim for outside of missions then there are a few hundred badges to get. Badges are awarded for different things (killing specific types of mobs, completing story arcs, exploring areas, and lots of other stuff). Also, the missions also lead you into great story arcs, and it is WORTH reading all the flavor text.
The graphics are good, not jaw dropping or anything, but good. The character graphics are the best.
Mkay, now for drawbacks:
The end game content is lacking.
However, the game has enough midgame content to make it worth making many different characters. Also, with the variety you can put into your characters it is also worth making new characters.
for 12, 13, and 15, I am not really sure what you want.
there is a demo, but you need to find some one who has an active account (and friend keys left), before you ask, I am out of friend keys, I gave them all to people on this forum. I would suggest asking, or poking around on forums like onrpg.
PS: Vanguard having a rough start is an understatement of the century.
I subscribed for about 1 1/2 years and really enjoyed it but at the higher levels it does become a little bit of a grind if you don't have regular players to team with. That's mostly based on my limited daily game time though. One of the biggest "problems" that I had was "Alt-itis" where creating new characters became more fun than leveling at the top. Having so many character slots made it easy to feed the habit too.
The good news is that you can choose to roam the streets fighting or you can follow the mission storylines if you want to be more driven. Missions vary a bit too. It's not just "Go kill X guy!". Often your clearing a building but you might also get ambushed (literally) while transporting an item. I hear they were implementing a crafting program but I don't know much about that.
Not to mention not all the powersets are balanced. But hey, all MMOG's have some imbalance.
It's fun for a while, but you may be turned off by the lack of players unless you go to the Freedom Server. When CoV came out, lots of people switched over to it, sadly, so be warned.
EDIT: The crafting (invention) system is currently on the test server, if I remember correctly. I don't have my game anymore, so I don't know how it goes. I MIGHT still have my free friend trial to give out, but since I don't have an account anymore, I'm not sure if I can give it. I'll take a look.
As for accomplishments, there's plenty. You can get "badges" for doing certain things, and when you get the right set of badges, you can get Accolades, which give you special bonuses. They also have incentives for long-time playing, such as new costume options, unique powers, etc. It's not bad, really, but my main beef is that the game tries to be casual, but doing much of the things besides traveling takes a lot of time.
But the missions are level specific, so you can miss some missions if you level up too far.
But hey, it's more flexible than most MMORPG out there. At least you know you got a chance to finish it eventually.
Also, on the note of missions, here is a quick run down:
Most of the missions are rather standard. However there are some special missions (generaly at the end of story arcs) where you get to do sometihng really awsome. There are also Rampage/Bank missions for villians, and the reverse for heroes.
Bank missions consist of goign into a bank, fighting your way through security, cracking the vault (as waves of security come after you) and then escaping with the loot. At harder levels you will have heroes thrown at you.
Rampage missions spawn you into a timed instanced location in one of the Hero areas where you go around busting everything up. there are some side missons to compleate, your ultimate goal is to rob a bank in the area and then escape (this is alot like a normal bank mission, exept once you are outside it keeps going). Breaking stuff and compleating mini objectives gain you time. And if you die in one of these missions, you spawn in jail in the same instance, from there you break yourself out <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
For heroes it is much the same, exept that you goal is to stop the bank job (pits you against a villain), stop vandals, and defend random property.
as Spooge pointed out, Altaholics are very common in CoX (how CoH/V is often reffered to), and TBH, I don't think it is a problem. CoX is a game where it isn't all about the endgame, it is abotu how you got there. Grinding is relatively silly. Sit back, read the story arcs, follow the ones you like, and enjoy the ride.
A few notes on the other MMOs mentioned:
1) WoW, hey, it is fun, it eventualy gets grindy, and the end game is all about grouping or pvp
2) Vanguard. Stay away for now tbh. It has alot of promise, but I still havn't seen anytihng that says the MASSIVE amounts of bugs in the game havn't been ironed out yet.
3) LotR:OL, it was kinda fun. I honestly just couldn't get into it, I am not sure why. I think it might have been to open ended for me. I like things to be open ended, but I like to also beable to easily follow a story, not runnign around doing 50 some odd quests at once, where none of them are realyl all that related.
1) WoW: Complete control, and with a certain mod, you can zoom out amazingly far. First person is a bit harder though.
GW: Same as WoW, but big emphasis on the first person thing, and you can't look straight up either.
FFXI: Decent control, but not much freedom.
EvE: Nearly complete control.
2) WoW is the best solo MMO done thus far. You can get to max level without ever even getting in a party. Past then, generally yes, you will need a group, unless you want to do non-arena(aka, tournament competition) PvP, which you'll still get pretty powerful with, and you can do solo(albiet with a ton of PvP grinding).
Guild Wars: Makes it easy to party, but requires you to, nearly. The first few stages can be done solo with henchmen, but it devolves quickly to "you need a group 'cause the henchmen are stupid'.
FFXI: No effin' way you're soloing past level 10. Heck, if you can get to 10, that is.
EvE: Its completely possible to do everything solo, but harder. Much harder. And its a lot easier to get lonely in space than anywhere else.
3) Some people get bored in WoW, but I don't see how. I've had 'something to do' every day since I got it. Right now for example, I need more instance runs to get my tank gear better for the 10 man raid, Karazhan.
GW: If you like its form of PvP, always something to do. PvE(player versus environment) wise though, eventually you will run out of content- there are 3 game versions now and the first(and last) true expansion pack coming, and those have loads of PvE content.
FFXI: You won't reach the end. But there is a lot of "waiting for group..." stuff, where you just gotta find a group.
EvE: Always something to do. With just 1 server with 20k+ people on it at a time, its just a matter of you finding it- mining can be done alone, missions generally can, pirating can too, but you do have to find another player for that.
4) Can't do this in anything other than RPing in any of the first 3. In EvE...well, you won't be evil to the game, just to the playerbase. But thats even better.
5) WoW is pretty good with this. The talent system is a ton of fun and really changes the way your character plays, completely. Beyond that though, the customization options are slim.
Guild Wars...well, customization just doesn't exist there.
Now, FFXI, true customization is difficult, but the options are frickin' endless with the subclass system. Genius system really- you have one primary class and one subclass, and the subclass is at maximum half the level of your main. And furthermore, any character can be any class, changing whenever you return back to your house!
EvE: Complete customization in every way but paint job. Your ship can have whatever weapons on it you can fit to it, and there are hundreds of ships. And there is a lot more customization than that, but it'd take a while to explain.
6) WoW always leaves you with something to accomplish, whether its beating a dungeon(and in +60 land, beating it's hard mode), finishing some awesome quest line, or getting the next great item in PvP/getting a higher Arena rank.
GW: If you run out of love for the PvP game, the PvE creek runs dry eventually.
FFXI: Must...get...next...level. There are lots of "missions"(in the true sense of the word, too- pretty difficult and involved), but they're spaced in between literally hundreds of hours of play just to get up another 5 levels.
EvE: Always something to accomplish, but you MUST have your own willpower to set your own goals. It doesn't set them for you except in mission running, which is just "do as this NPC says".
7) Some people will say WoW is limited, but they honestly haven't done it all. Naxxramas before the expansion was barely getting beaten by the top guilds on most servers, and now, not a single person has seen the Black Temple, or even Hyjal before it. The PvE game is nearly endless in things to do. The PvP game though is more like Counter-Strike, after a point- its just competing to get better, use more strats, etc.
GW: Well, PvE is dead eventually, but the PvP game is endless and incredibly competitive, and honestly, a ton of fun.
FFXI: You won't get to the end. Seriously. Getting max level with just 1 character class takes at least a year, if not more. <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":(" border="0" alt="sad-fix.gif" />
EvE: PvE wise, there is no end at all. PvP wise(which really, everything in EvE is PvP), winning both in war and business is as hard to do there as the real world. And once on top, only way to go is down...
8) WoW is very good, monetarily- $20 game, $15 a month, $30-40 for the expansion, and the only other money you could spend on it from there would be transferring characters to different servers, which is a really, really cheap price of $25(most MMOs that support this do it for $70+).
GW: Every version when it first came out costed as much as a full retail title- $50. The first and second have gone down to $20 or less now, but Nightfall, the newest, is $50. Then again, they're all standalone, no need to have anything else. No subscription at all for this.
FFXI: You could get the game and all the expansions for something like $30 or less, and from there its $14 a month for 1 character, and another $1 a month for each additional.
EvE: $20 initially, $15 per month afterwards. No money other than that has to be spent ever, as there is only one server.
9) WoW's text system is actually pretty expansive, and pretty easy.
GW too.
And FFXI. They all basically match, but WoW's has the added bonus of player channels, like your own IRC channel(with admin rights and everything!)
EvE though has a very, VERY developed text system, as good or better than any of the others, and soon enough, it will also have voice chat, which will essentially be your own ventrilo server with ALL THE OPTIONS AND MORE.
10) WoW is the fastest of the 3 in terms of real-time.
GW rivals it, but with your characters moving slowly, and casting slowly, its a *tad bit* slower. Negligible difference though.
FFXI is slow as butter. The only real "action" is trying to get the perfect weapon chain- which I must say, is great fun.
EvE is kinda turn based, but it masks it well. Its more about timing than pure hardcore action though. Its hard to explain til you try it.
11) WoW has a level cap of 70, but really, thats just a number.
You can get to being nearly twice as powerful as you were when you first hit 70, and thats just the first dungeon's stuff, Karazhan, or just regular PvP armor. Epic PvP armor and you'll be more, and similar for further dungeons.
GW has a really low level cap, though after that there is a ton of better armor to get.
In FFXI...well, you'll never reach the end. Really.
12) All 3 have impeccable art styles. WoW has the best style of them all though, hands down, and absolutely nothing looks low quality about it. Every screenshot is beautiful if your computer will help it along(hardware ASF/AA). GW is good but a few rough spots, small ones, but otherwise would beat WoW hands down. Complete awesomeness in graphics. FFXI has a great art style, but very blurry. Wonderful modeling though. EvE's graphics are amazing overall, only a few SLIGHTLY(read: barely noticeable at super high resolutions) blurry textures. And soon enough, its getting an upgrade in graphics for DX10.
13) Beyond Talent Points, WoW doesn't do much here. Or GW. Or FFXI, though FFXI does *kind of* grant it with it's class system. EvE's customization is endless, as said before.
14) WoW: Yes, one for regular and one for the expansion. Do the expansion one if you wanna try the new races.
GW: No.
FFXI: No.
EvE: Yes.
15) This is what I reccomend.
WoW: P4 1.8ghz minimum, 2.0 rec, video card newer than GeForce4(non-MX), 1gb RAM(anything less and life gets worse)
GW: The same, but 512 RAM. I reccomend a better card though, FeForce6 series at least, if you wanna get it lookin' real purty.
FFXI: Same as WoW, but 512 RAM.
EvE: Same as WoW, but just like WoW, the better your machine, the better it looks, with no limit.
Aren't there more games then this guys ? You make it sound like there are only 4 of them out there.
By the way what is FFXI ?
When encountering a building, do you actualy get inside it and it feels like a real building or like a mini-version or like you can't even enter it and your only choice is to destroy it ?
Isn't Eve like X3 ? I baught X3 last year but it is stretching my card's limit alot.
AMD Athlon 3000+
2Gb memory
lots of HD space
Win XP Pro SP2 (always updated) + Ubuntu 7.04
ATI Radeon 9600xt (starting to feel like I have to change but need the $$$)
If there is one thing I hate about games, its previews. For most of them, they say preview but its not even in-game footage but rather a 3d rendered movie to make you think it looks that good.
[added comments]
Is City of Heroes only based on modern cities environments ? If so, that kinda turns me off. I was more looking for mystical worlds.
Also, I'm downloading the 10 days WoW trial. Its gona take hours just to download it and I'm on high speed too. It keeps telling me its gona take 5-10 hours to do so but it is progressing. Cheee !!!
Your far too picky try ww2 online
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I am not picky. I am simply not the kind to buy a game to then find out after a few months/weeks that I find it boring or lost interest in it. At one time I had lots of games (lots for me that is) but then eventualy, when you have to many games, you start to leave some to play more on others. Therefore taking disk space and shelf space for nothing. I hate waste.
Usualy, nowadays, when I go out to buy a game, its because I know this game and been following its news/progress for months.
if nothing else, give it a shot with the <a href="https://secure.plaync.com/cgi-bin/free_trial.pl?partner=16" target="_blank">14 day free trial </a> the only thing you can loose is abit of time and bandwidth, but the character creation alone should make up for that ^^
Btw, I suggest downloading and fully patching the client before you try it out, as the patching can take some time.
If you do play, I play on Victory my self, and you can feel free to hit me up this weekend, as I will be taking advantage of free time.
Btw, I currently don't play b/c I am to busy IRL, and prefer to play games with my RL friends.
Conan
Warhammer online
ClicheQuest
Starcraft 2 <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />
<a href="http://www.mmorpg.com/" target="_blank">http://www.mmorpg.com/</a> big resource of fanboyism and critics, but you probably already found this.
EVE Online
1) The view is mostly close to your ship.
2) You can solo but for any big fleet battles you'll need to join a corp.
3) There is always stuff to do, but it's alot of travel where things dosnt happen, unless your in bandit space (security 0.0 , highest is 1.0).
4) Oh yes, help people out with hauling or miners under attack, or kill them.
5) The ships arnt customizable, but your character portrait is. You have only 2 form of faces in every race but their facial properties can be changed quite alot, along with background and clothes. The best thing is that you can warp the face however you want. For exampel, there is a box in which you move a cursor and each side is named after a expression. So if you drag it all the way right you get a big grin the other way a angry face etc. You can do anything inbetween, have a evil smile with sad eyes and so on.
6) Mining, hauling, killing rats (wanted npcs), manufactureing, research. And not to forget Mod made events happening every now and then.
7) The one playing EVE for the longest time isnt anywhere near having all the skills in the game, it's impossible to gain everything. You train skills over time, you dont get em by killing or whatever, just click one in and wait for it to finish (trains even offline). The best is to plan what you want and what skills you need to get it.
8) 20€ when starting new account, with 30 days included. The only pay to use options I know of is voice chat directly in game, all expansions are free.
9) Voice, chat, mail (in game mail), probably more.
10) Combat is pretty hectic when you get the hang of it, best when pvp.
11) Well, it's based on flat space, you can fly anywhere in dead space (empty random area in a star system) but not very far up or down. Well you can fly manually up and down in all eternity but you wont get anywhere, warp is only on flat space.
12) Pretty explosions and shiny ships along with varied star system background and dynamic lightning makes it pretty purteh. To be avaliable in DX10.
13) Corporations, gain ranks and finally own one yourself, make alliances or wage epic scale fleet warfare.
14) 14 day free trail on <a href="http://eve-online.com/" target="_blank">http://eve-online.com/</a> it may require a invitation but im not sure.
15) 7.1 What are the basic system requirements?
Minimum System Requirements:
OS: Windows® System 2000 SP2 /XP
CPU: Intel Pentium® III 800 MHz or AMD Athlon 800 MHz
RAM: 512 MB or more
HD space: 6.0 GB
Network: 56k modem or better Internet connection
Video: 32 MB 3D graphics card with Hardware Transform and Lighting such as NVIDIA® GeForce 2 class card or above
Drivers: DirectX® 9.0c (included) and latest video drivers
Recommended system configuration for running EVE-Online
OS: Windows® System 2000 SP2 / XP
CPU: Intel Pentium® IV 1.5 GHz or AMD XP 1500+ MHz
RAM: 1024 MB
HD space: 6.0 GB
Video: 128 MB GeForce 6200 class card or higher
Network: Broadband Internet connection
Drivers: DirectX® 9.0c (included) and latest video drivers
The minimum screen resolution for EVE is 1024x768.
Audio hardware must be Direct Sound compatible. For optimum performance, use latest drivers available.
Please note that Windows 95, Windows 98, ME, NT and 2000 below SP2 are not supported.
Other features:
Persistent worlds,
All games in the MMOG genre are created to be "persistent worlds." This means that unlike single player games - where the action screeches to a halt when the user has turned it off - the game world will keep evolving even when a player has gone offline, much the same way as the real world continues to evolve when you go to sleep. The game world, and anything the player may have left in it, such as undocked ships, will continue to exist and will be visible to (and possibly destroyed by) other players.
Player based market:
Everything is created, sold, bought, scrapped by players. The market value in certain items are sky high or bottom cheap. For example, normaly a shuttle is cheap to buy (fast, weak transport ship) and comes for around, lets say 15000 isk (the currency in eve) and in some parts it costs 2 million isk. All following the simple "supply and demand".
I ran my Mastermind through the craftign training. It is not all that interesting.
The nice new additions are:
1) Crafting can get you new costume pieces (CoX players tend to love them <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />)
2) Crafting can get you some really nice enhancements (crafted enhancments are considerably different then old enhancements)
3) Craftign is not something you will need to think about much. Materials and recepies are random drop from all baddies (yah, tuffer baddies give you better drops).
4) There are some new badges associated with crafting (basicly craft enough of something and you get a badge that lets you craft that item witho ut a recepie).
5) Open auction house amongst ALL the servers lets you easily sell/buy enhancemnts/insperations/salvage/recepies.
I have made a habit of buying a mess of CaBs for 1 inf (I don't know WHY peopel are selling them at that price) just so that I can bring out and buff all my bots faster (Bot Masterminds have alot of things to summon <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />)
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Hows EVE turn based? Its all real time combat.
Also, as far as WoW goes end game, its very repetitive. While its true that there are typically 'always dungeons to beat' (and by always, Blizzard is usually one dungeon ahead of the majority of the player base), going to the same dungeons over, and over, and over, and over, and <i>over</i> again - it gets old, and it gets old fast. For me, anyways - some people don't find it tiring. I couldn't stand it myself. I went through all of MC twice, all of BWL twice, and did ZG until my eyes bled. That was enough for me.
Saying that "there is always something to do" in terms of WoW is slightly misleading, as it typically ends up with you running the same instance again and again and again and again and again (this is no exaduration my friend) at end game, with nothing else in the world really worth your time to visit, aside from PvP. So you'll be staring at and doing the same thing every week, with that activity changing every month(s) to a new environment, just to repeat it again.
1-70 is fun, 70+ is fun for the first few days, then it gets boring. Unless you're willing to level up more characters (and if its fresh and new to you still, as the first few new characters are) then the game gets pretty stale.
Back to EVE though, it was the first game that jumped to my mind when I read your post. Its only downfall, however, is that there are sometimes brief periods of time where you <i>are</i> doing... nothing. Although its somewhat rare, there will be times where you need to travel half way across the galaxy and it takes fifteen minutes or so. Again, its rare, but it will happen once or twice.
As far as 'doing what you want' in EVE, its extremely open ended - become a dedicated trader, a miner, a crafter, a pirate, a bounty hunter, a 'soldier' for a corporation, and more. <b>Bear in mind,</b> these are not "classes" and <b>there is no button that you click that suddenly morphs and forces you to be a pirate.</b> All of your decisions lead up to a 'profession,' if you will - I have a hard time putting a name to these, because there is no name, its all earned by the playerbase. For example, if you see someone killing a lot of stuff in WoW, just to get the loot, you call them a farmer. There is no 'farmer' class that you click at the beginning of WoW, its a name earned by your habit of play. Thats probably the best analogy of what EVE's play is like, and why I'm so hesitant to readily place a name to such activities (like 'pirate') just because it makes the game seem more linear than it is.
Combat in EVE is pretty exciting, very satisfying, and pretty much as open to play style difference as the rest of the game is. First thing I want to address though: The explosions are probably the best I've seen out of any game I've ever played, because they simply have so much "umph" to them - they feel very solid. The combat mechanics itself are very different from all other games. There is no 'direct' control over your ship via WASD, ESDF, arrow keys, etc... your ship is piloted in a much more 'commanding' manner. You double click somewhere in space, your ship aligns itself to that direction, and begins to fly. You right click on an object, select "orbit" then select the distance you want to orbit at. You right click a station, select "dock", and your ship moves to dock. Combat wise, you have different "modules" on your ship that are activated via click or hotkey. Shield boosters, for example, replenish your shield's health. Missile launchers, hybrid turrets, etc... all fire when activated. Each module uses a set amount of energy, which you must regulate and watch for - you have to use each module in moderation and at the correct times, so you don't run out of energy and find yourself helpless. It adds another layer of strategy to the game. Also, different offensive modules have different stats about them - a civilian hybrid turret, for example (a crappy gun, by the way, the first one you'll see) has an optimum range of 625m, so I have to fly a bit closer to the enemy. If hes primarily long range, say, with rail guns, this could be to my advantage because his weapons will do less damage, since I am inside his optimal range. Theres just a lot of different stats aside from range, like ammo type or damage type (and many, many others), that also effect how combat can be proceeded with. Theres also a nice, extensive amount of electronic warfare in EVE, to disable different parts of your enemy's ships, or maybe you'd like to swarm the enemy vessel with thousands of drones - its up to you.
Here is a picture to better understand what EVE combat looks like: <a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a7/EVE_Combat.png" target="_blank">http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a7/EVE_Combat.png</a>
EVE is, well, its just extremely open ended, you only have to pay once (aside from the monthly fee) because all the 'expansion packs' are free, and its something you might find yourself playing for years to come. There really is no end to it.
My impressions :
- lots of room to walk around
- when given a quest, I didn't always get a clear clue as to where to look, therefore, I sometimes walked a LONG time or was in a place I thought it was the right one but after spending like a day, I found out it wasn't
- just like on Internet, 75% of the people I tried to talk to, didn't care or didn't even stoped
- tried night elf rogue first, was dying too often for my taste. Maybe race is to weak ?
- tried bull thingy warrior race second, got bored after 3rd mission
- tried undead warrior, liked this one, seamed like it is overpowered. I did only 2 times in 8 levls. Winded up in a mission where I needed to be lvl 12 when I was 7, therefore I couldn't kill the targeted spirit. I managed to get lots of money to get deacent weapons which helped alot
- tried humans warlock (female) and found it to be a bit overpowered. Lots of places where I couldn't even do business or buy stuffs because of warlock race but no indications in the first place. Some quests to get specific items in quantities were long to get even after killing lots of targeted ennemies
- I was surprised to see normal WOW players in seam realm as 10 day trial. Thought we were isolated from the rest.
- saw some cool pets (big ones and even a black cat !)
- liked the ability to create multiple characters but had to use different names <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/confused-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="???" border="0" alt="confused-fix.gif" />
Overall I liked the experience but man, this thing is long to play. I was initialy shocked when downloading the trial revealed a 3.5Gb file !!!! Had great performance at 1024X768 (higher was geting a bit slow) and average ping of 120 on all default setings. Graphic looks descent enough, a bit more then what I had expected (dont know if it would get better on a higher end card ?).
I had created my account on May2 but started downloading it on May4. Today starting it I was surprised to see my trial period had finished. I thought the period started when I first played !!!
I met someone yesterday, a guy playing his wife named female character at lvl 35 which was playing for 2 months on an average of 10 hours per weekend. If all those kind of games are this long to play, then the day I actualy get one will make me put aside all projects aside just to play it (I work 12 hours shifts). I asked him how does it find it now compared to when he first played. He said he loved it and that it keeps geting better. Somehow, meeting him in the same city (same environment) didn't feel like it would get different when reacing higher lvl compared to now (puting aside strenght, skills and weapons increses). Am I wrong ?
Based on my experience, I might be inclined to buy it. I wanted a fantasy/realm/explore type of game. I do not know about the other ones. I might try the COV 1 day trial but what turns me off about it is that it is in modern/today type of world. I am not found of sci-fi too.
Are there any other trial demos of the other similar games ?
all RPGs are the same, it comes down to you using automated skills given to you as a reward for playing x amount of hours to kill faceless AI. just a question of whether you're enough of a fanboy of a genre to overlook this. don't like fantasy setting so got tired of WoW quickly; im partial to the futuristic setting but my god eve is dull. if you like eve you should send me $20/month and i'll send you old Eurovision Song Contest DVDs.
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There's no AI in mmorpg.
The reason I am asking is because I just checked FutureShop and the game is $20 !!! Usualy for a game to get down to $20 is when its been out there for over 4 years. Looks like expansions are the same price ....
That makes me wonder about the lifespawn of the game itself. How long will an increase of player stop in WOW due to other more cooler games. If I buy this game, looks like I'm in for 1 year at least to explore everything. I would hate to wind up with something no longer supported/played before I go through it all without buying an expension ('cause $20 is cheap and my wallet is geting itchy ...)
<b>[added notes]</b>
Seeing that Guild Wars costs nothing more then the game itself and that the graphics seams a bit superior to WOW, I wonder .... To bad there are no demos. I would have loved trying it.
<a href="http://www.guildwars.com/support/gamecontents/trilogytrial.php" target="_blank">Looks like there is 14 day trial for Guild Wars (all 3 of them)</a>. ==>> <b>Crap ! Looks like all the listed stores in Canada don't even have it !!!!</b>
I'm still checking other games for additional infos and hopefully, demos.
<b>
[added notes-2]</b>
In LOTR, do you have to follow the story of the book ? I mean does everything you do has to contribute to the story of the book ? That kinda turns me off where you have to follow a certain path, removing a bit of freedom of play.
There's no AI in mmorpg.
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surely even those ***ing annoying frog-men things in WoW that zerg rush have AI? even though they don't do much, they aren't player-controlled = computer controlled = AI? unless you're getting arsey and you plan on showing me a wiki definition about AI being like stuff out of a sci-fi film?
Browser_ICE- for what's it worth I found GW to be the best MMO game. you have to choose a skillset (any combination of 8 skills from hundreds) giving genuine strengths/weaknesses to each build. so it's not like WoW where to go from lvl 1 to 70 you do teeny variations on the [tab] [3] [4] [5] [6] [2] [1] button combo. having said that, GW's biggest selling point is the PvP and it just goes by too fast for me and seems to lose its strategy/tactics. WoW does a better job of PvP in the battlegrounds- but at low levels you get trounced by twinked chars and I never had the paitience to try and get above level 20.
1) Aggro Radius (how far you are when it attacks, and how far he is from other NPCs when they are drawn into the fight)
2) Health value that the NPC does something (flee, call for help, use a certain spell, etc)
3) Timed spells (bash every 30 sec, etc)
Not much else. Although there isn't much else to put in AI for that type of game, really, so I can't complain.
In LOTR, do you have to follow the story of the book ? I mean does everything you do has to contribute to the story of the book ? That kinda turns me off where you have to follow a certain path, removing a bit of freedom of play.
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Can you seriously envision a world in which there are thousands of players simultaneously following the story of the books? Do you even understand the basic concept behind an MMORPG?
Can you seriously envision a world in which there are thousands of players simultaneously following the story of the books? Do you even understand the basic concept behind an MMORPG?
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I know. I was just wondering if your individual actions have to follow the story of the book (which I read 4 times in 20 years). I like choices and freedom.
side note
visiting Everquest II to catch up on it. I see they have a Demo. Game is kinda of old but they are up to update 34 and apparently try to update graphics, polygons, characters, ... at every patch. Too old to even look at ?
<a href="http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/sort/rating/gameID/0" target="_blank">Oh, I like this link to give me a summary of ratings <b>AND</b> costs !</a>
Hummm, <a href="http://www.guildwars.com/press/releases/pressrelease-2007-03-27.php" target="_blank">Guild Wars 2 coming later this year</a>... wonder if I should wait for it...