Warhammer vs AoC

[Cosyra]

I dont mind the GFX in wow and what ive seen of the GFX in war they are slightly better/sharper, the game play and UI in WoW is excellent - a little simple true but still well thought out.

Ive also played AoC and was in the TOG guild on Dagon (pve). The GFX are amazing, the game play is not and the UI is shocking. I just couldnt get into the game at all, usually having to restart the game every 45min to 1hr to fix some UI bug or loading screan issue. That game was no where near ready for launch and i object to being a paying beta tester.

GFX do impress me but a good game they do not make, i would rather have a fantasy cartoon GFX game with the playability and enjoyabilty of WoW with the really interesting RvR and involvement of WAR. Due to my shifts at work i find it extremely difficult to do end game raiding, so with the RvR of WAR actually helping towards your guild/realm standings im pretty much dangerously excited by this game, so much so i think i need to take another pill

[Reoh]

I'll give credit to WOW for hands down making the best UI of any mmorpg I've played, integrating modding so that people could make advancements to it (then incorporating the best by default over time) was insightful. The default UI still though, is better than any I've played elsewhere before mods.

WAR is supposed to look like the 'miniatures game', which I've never played but have seen a few in pictures online. Sort of a 'darker, grittier wow'.

I remember when If irst played Asheron's Call 2. It looked infreakingcredable. Charachter models even showed damage, it was beautiful. The game failed though, gameplay just wasn't there.

Blizzard waited, watched what everyone else had done and worked on their own. They took the best from other games and put it into one package. WAR I think is similar, they've taken the best of whats out there (including WoW) and then added their own twists to it. Like PQ's, RVR. They got rid of the guild dramas with raiding while still leaving PVE endgame for those that desire (or you know, raiding the city leaders). I don't know if I'd call WAR an entire new generation, espescially since my experience is all second hand for it but I would consider it at least 'half a generation' beyond (fromt he sounds of it and my friends in the beta).

[Mils]

yerp lets just hope it doesn't blow reoh

the ui will be a very very important point if its not easily extensible then watch people flock back to how they like their game to look etc etc.

[Hardz]

I play on two PC's; a decent "mid-range" PC (Dual-Core E6600, 2GB, 9600GT) at home and a "low-end" machine I have at work (3GHz P4, 1.5GB, 8600GT) to play on if I get into the office early...

One of the best things about WoW (and pretty much LOTRO) was the fact that I could max out the graphics at home and it also ran very well on the work PC.

AoC (which I'm playing now) on the other hand, is set on a tweaked medium at home and "extra" low at work - this is ridiculous for a massively multiplayer game.

I don't have a problem with cartoony graphics when they've got some style - I'd rather have a game than ran smoothly when there are more than three characters on the screen than watch a photo-realistic looking slideshow...

[Bunni]

I agree about AoC's combos and shields. It is an interesting mechanic but in my opinion quite clunky and I'm not sure if in the long run it was the best idea for a PvP centric (in theory anyway you know when they get around to adding more PvP content) game. Also I think it would have been better if they had forgotten about spellweaving and just given casters combos as well. Rename it to "incantations" or something and say they are parts of the chant instead of directional hits or whatever.

AoC is a beautiful game. Or at least it could be if they increased the variety in the armor a bit. I'm not asking for lightning hopping from my shoulders here, just something other than brown, plain and baggy once in a while please. Dying fabric and adding decorations to clothing isn't exactly a modern development in fashion. Unfortunately outside of the combo system they seem to have taken a step backwards in overall game design.

After 3 years of WoW the MMO market is just more demanding these days about what kind of features they expect in a game beyond pure move around and level. Funcom has failed spectacularly in that department. Fortunately for them it's something they can keep working on (much easier than great game, horrible graphics) but I think the state of the game was/is shocking for a lot of people that have only played WoW. Saying "Oh well WoW didn't have X in it at launch either" doesn't cut it, it has it NOW and that is because people liked it and they will now expect future games to include similar features.

[Reoh]

I thoroughly agree Bunni, that's an excellent point and honestly MMORPG's have the worst record for being released in unfinished states compared to any other genre of gaming or software in general. Frankly if they were operating systems or applications there isn't a chance in heck they would have launched at the state many MMORPG's are and it's a sad state of affairs they believe we should both accept but preorder in advance for games which are not yet tested. That's why I like getting into beta's, helps you slip the wool off yours eyes and test a game before hand, it's also the reason I never played Final Fantasy XI. No "trial period".

[brohawk]

As far as the UI goes, the default in AoC works fine for me, as every other game I have played which is plenty. I guess being adaptable (and left handed) has made the UI less of an issue in my case. I honestly don't see much difference in WOW's UI as in say Gothics UI, or Oblivions, or BF 2142, or COD4, or WAR or AoC for that matter. You learn it or you don't I guess is my take on it.

Again, I was just stating my opinion on WAR. To me it is like WOW in many ways as far as gameplay and combat. Granted I think WAR has more to offer with Public Quests and RVR and a host of other improvements. But I really like the combos in AoC. So you like to push one button and I like to push more. Tomatoes, tomatos. To each his own. I wanted to like WAR and I bought the CE if it and I'm keeping it. Will I play it when it goes live, probably, but at this point I just like AoC better. No one is right or wrong. If there was one single game to rule them all (LOTRO jk, and I played that plenty too), then TOG would only have one division not 20+. Heh, if you like WAR by all means play the shit out of it. I am just not that enthused and like AoC better. No worries, everyone will find their niche. :O Peace.

[Reoh]

Everyone does have their own personal preferences and your mileage obviously varies, agreed that's ok though because in the end whatever makes us happy is the game we should play.

[Gutte]

If I play a game with orcs and people with tentacles having it look something I can meet in the street is not a priority.

Having good animation, style and general flow of movement is more important than realistic graphics for me. With war you going to have the need to be able to have many people on the screen at the same time on top of everything else.

[Cosyra]

Dont get me wrong AoC has the potential to be a great game - problem is they have alienated most of the people who would have been there subscribers. Word of mouth goes along way to making these games great and i wont be recommending AoC to anyone, either now or in the future.

We all know games come with bugs, fact of life im afraid. But when the games starts and the devs have to shut down the trader for 5 days due to an exploit thats just bad beta testing - and that was just the start. Im not angry so much as very dissapointed in funcom. Hopefull mythic will take that lesson and learn from it, dropping the citys and the 4 classes is a little suprising but when you read the interview you can see their point.