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Time to MMO it up!

HallowedFaithHallowedFaith Call me Cloud.Registered User regular
edited February 2007 in MMO Extravaganza
Ok so here is the deal. I was running on 256 megs of DDR ram for the longest time. Yeah, I know. I suck. So for the most part.. yeah my gaming experiences really sucked. That is no problem anymore!

Thanks to uncle sam and a lucky lottery ticket ($1,000 bucks!) I totally upgraded my machine. That being said I'm ready to fly.

WoW - Already love it, my trial ended today. I'm ready to start paying for it tomorrow maybe.. just wanna decide if it's gonna be the one.

CoH/CoV - Downloading it now. What's this like grind wise? I remember playing it shortly sometime when it first came out but those memories consisted of lag-parties in the middle of uhm.... that main city where everyone danced around the giant statue. Paradigm? Something like that.

Eve - I like a game I can sink my teeth into, and at the same time allow for casual-type play, hence my love for WoW. Should I give this a shot, or is it time consuming and to much effort for me?

Guild Wars - Isn't it WoW, but free? I mean it's not WoW obviously, but I hear it's pretty much the same game. Worth the purchase?

Any other games you can recommend, I'm starting off on a fresh plate here.


P.S. Half Life 2 - OMG. I know i'm late to the party on this one, but since I can run the game decently now... hoolllyyy shit. Wtf game was I playing before this? lol.

I'm making video games. DesignBy.Cloud
HallowedFaith on

Posts

  • FalloutFallout GIRL'S DAY WAS PRETTY GOOD WHILE THEY LASTEDRegistered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Guild Wars is great and totally worth the purchase, i haven't played since before the expansions came out, but I could if I wanted to, because there are no subscription fees!

    Fallout on
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  • s3rial ones3rial one Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    CoH/CoV - Downloading it now. What's this like grind wise? I remember playing it shortly sometime when it first came out but those memories consisted of lag-parties in the middle of uhm.... that main city where everyone danced around the giant statue. Paradigm? Something like that.
    CoX really only has one thing: fighting. To that end, its combat system does well. The problem is that they don't introduce new and effective abilities at a fast enough pace to keep the fighting reasonably fresh. Thus, after about level 20 or so, the grind really kicks in. 20-40 isn't bad, as its the meat of the game, but 40+ is just painful and boring. And in what seems like a really backwards idea of character progression, the higher your level, the less useful your abilities (this is a generalization, obviously).

    The nerf bat-wielding devs have really savaged the game since launch, making each character feel decidedly less super, but it's still worth a look.

    Also, if you have an ATi card, be warned that your performance will absolutely suck.
    Eve - I like a game I can sink my teeth into, and at the same time allow for casual-type play, hence my love for WoW. Should I give this a shot, or is it time consuming and to much effort for me?
    EVE has no shortage of depth. Unfortunately, it basically plays like Excel with 3D graphics. And it is quite a major timesink.
    Guild Wars - Isn't it WoW, but free? I mean it's not WoW obviously, but I hear it's pretty much the same game. Worth the purchase?
    Eh, GW is so-so. The deal with GW is that the PvE portion of the game sucks terribly, but you almost have to go through it to get abilities for the PvP part of the game, which is fun... but PvP is largely going to be frustrating unless you get into an established and effective guild.

    It's not a bad game, but the multiplayer aspect is more Diablo 2 than bonafide MMO.

    s3rial one on
  • SlyeguySlyeguy Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    first of all, WoW and GW are NOTHING alike, they both have some good qualities (WoW has a lot more to it, and GW is free) but it really depends on what you are looking for. they have something for everyone these days. CoV/H is great, very addicting, had a lot of late nights playing a mastermind. i played WoW for about 2 years and its hard to play casually as it is SO fun, but in the end most mmo's become stale, its just how they are, thus why i have played so many =D. EQ2 isent on your list *gasp* with a decent rig its fantabulous, but thats just because ive just got into it. WoW is very user friendly and id highly suggest that as a first MMO to anyone. welcome to the great world of no social life =P

    Slyeguy on
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  • HarlonHarlon Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    WoW - Pretty much what climax of what games like Everquest, Ultima Online, and other predecessors built upto. It's very popular, and for good reason, Blizzard optimized the genre with this title. My only real complaints with this game are that the PvP is dull and if you fall behind in levels, there's little you can do with your friends. However, I haven't played since the release of the expansion so I'm not entirely sure how PvP in the arena is.

    CoX - You really feel like a superhero or villian and the combat is a lot of fun, but what ruins the game for me is that because the missions are instance based and you do so many throughout your leveling process, they all feel the same after a while. Still, a fun game and worth at least 3-6 months of fun on a casual gamer's playclock. Plus, with the sidekick system, you never have to worry about falling behind in levels.

    EvE - Fun for certain types of gamers, not fun for others. I like s3rial one's "Excel with 3D graphics" comment. That really sums it up, from my experience. The game felt too clastrophobic for me, as you never leave your spaceship and, besides for combat and mining, all you really deal with is a whole lot of numbers. However, your skills are raised as you sleep, so you and your friends never have to worry about outleveling eachother. Plus, it is quite an original title and is one of the few sci-fi titles out, if that's your bag.

    Guild Wars - Some of the best, most balanced PvP around. And although a little PvP is preferred to more easily find the skills you need, they can all be gained via PvP as well other unlockables. The PvE has come a long way with the most recent expansion, but I enjoyed the original so long as I had a competant group to play with. If you're playing with your friends, you have no worries there and should have a good time steamrolling through the content - though the first expansion is incredibly dull PvE wise. Also, as the title of the game states, the game is best played with a guild, and without an active one you won't experience the extent of fun offered. Another thing it has going for it is that levels, for the most part, mean nothing, as the game mostly revolves around you being level 20.

    Harlon on
    3DS FC 1048-9228-8841
  • CorvusCorvus . VancouverRegistered User regular
    edited February 2007
    s3rial one wrote:
    CoH/CoV - Downloading it now. What's this like grind wise? I remember playing it shortly sometime when it first came out but those memories consisted of lag-parties in the middle of uhm.... that main city where everyone danced around the giant statue. Paradigm? Something like that.
    CoX really only has one thing: fighting. To that end, its combat system does well. The problem is that they don't introduce new and effective abilities at a fast enough pace to keep the fighting reasonably fresh. Thus, after about level 20 or so, the grind really kicks in. 20-40 isn't bad, as its the meat of the game, but 40+ is just painful and boring. And in what seems like a really backwards idea of character progression, the higher your level, the less useful your abilities (this is a generalization, obviously).

    The next update is adding a crafting system to CoX, but you will still need to engage in combat to get the materials, which will be drops from mobs. There's not going to be any mining for capes or whatever.

    Corvus on
    :so_raven:
  • AccualtAccualt Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Other than the ATI thing I disagree with what s3rial said about CoX.
    The 40-50 powers make your character more versatile, Tanks with AoE Nukes, for instance. I like that better than more of the same abilities only stronger. 40-47 is a decent clip, personally 35-40 and 47-50 seem the slowest to me.
    There is a free trial now, though, so decide for yourself on CoX. To me it is the most FUN MMO on the market.

    Accualt on
  • HallowedFaithHallowedFaith Call me Cloud. Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Yeah, 36% finished on CoX trial. I am looking forward to it.

    My WoW trial just ended and I am really anxious to see what it looks and plays like like with all this new hardware, but I want to wait and see if I want to start paying for CoX or WoW lol. Sucks that my trial ended JUST before I got my new stuff installed.

    Tried Anarchy Online since I had the game downloaded already. What a waste of time that was. I'm gonna hit up the guild wars trial as soon as CoX finishes downloading and see what that is all about.

    The Jedi in me realllllly wants to try SWG. But I hear so much crap about how it used to be good and then Sony fucked themselves over with a ton of changes to it. I've seen that before.

    So someone answer me this: Will the Star Wars fan in me enjoy SWG? Does it feel like a good SWG or will it just make me cry when I see how bad my beloved universe has been raped?

    HallowedFaith on
    I'm making video games. DesignBy.Cloud
  • MonoxideMonoxide Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited February 2007
    EVE is only excel with graphics if you spend all your time carebearing. If you tend to not enjoy PvP or risk of losing your stuff, since death in EVE does mean your ship is destroyed, it's not the most exciting game in the world. However, there is a lot of depth there, since the economy is fully player run and there's an intricate crafting system, I just can't get into the PvE or crafting aspects as much as other people.

    PvP is a totally different story, however. You can do anything from harassing miners by blowing them up in belts and holding them ransom, to joining a two hundred man fleet to locking down star system to take over territory for your own alliances control. The risk of losing your ship adds a lot of excitement and satisfaction to it, and it is fucking hilarious when you blow up some idiot's 1+ billion isk ship with something that cost 1/10th of that, or make pubbies cry when you take everything that belongs to them including their conquerable stations. It's an absolute fucking blast and some of the most fun I've ever had in an MMO.

    Monoxide on
  • NocrenNocren Lt Futz, Back in Action North CarolinaRegistered User regular
    edited February 2007
    From my understanding Faith, SWG has raped the setting. Due to one reason and one reason only...

    Jedi. Seems like you can't swing a dead ysalimari without hitting one.
    And this is suppose to be during the Empire...

    Nocren on
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  • HallowedFaithHallowedFaith Call me Cloud. Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Nocren wrote:
    From my understanding Faith, SWG has raped the setting. Due to one reason and one reason only...

    Jedi. Seems like you can't swing a dead ysalimari without hitting one.
    And this is suppose to be during the Empire...

    After reading your response, I checked into it myself because I remember the way they were all about no Jedi at all when the game first launched. Now it looks like they destroyed it.

    Damn, that sucks shaved wookie testicles. The whole point of the game was to "live through" the time period was it not? Oh well, i've got 4% left to download this City of Heroes/Villians trial. Hopefully that will work it's magic for me.

    HallowedFaith on
    I'm making video games. DesignBy.Cloud
  • CripTonicCripTonic Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    CoH/V is fun for a while unless you're one of those people who min/maxes their character (least amount of time/effort for maximum gain). If you are, don't even play CoX, you will restart so many times it's pointless. Also, playing CoX with friends really makes it more fun, but then you run into the "oh, this abandoned warehouse again?" feeling doing missions. At least I did, your mileage may vary. I tried it 3 times, both CoV and CoH and I don't think I got a single character to level 30 because I found out way to late that "oh, your powerset is pretty worthless!"


    EVE is kinda fun, sometimes, but for the first 2-3 month it's not fun at all. At all. I recently started playing again with some friends and they all seem to play EVE because they committed the time to it and feel that quitting would be a waste of time/money. It's really not that fun and theres no way to accelerate character progression through actually playing the game (which is very disappointing, but you can thank bot users for that). I wouldn't advise playing EVE unless you know someone that will show you the ropes and drag you around. The skill point disparity between new and old players is just insurmountable.


    As for WoW, a lot of the bad that people associate with it comes strictly from the people that you play with. I've met some really cool people playing WoW, and some complete grab asses playing WoW. The stupidity of 24 other people in TBC raids will be the same Achilles heal as the stupidity of 9 other people in WSG. WoW was super fun when you have people who know how to play and work together but I couldn't bare playing it again without knowing I would be actually 'beating' the game opposed to power grinding through endgame dungeons for the five-hundredth time. So 1-69 WoW is fun, anything past that and it's a job or a waste of time.

    CripTonic on
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  • HallowedFaithHallowedFaith Call me Cloud. Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    I tried playing a bit of CoV for the past few hours. I am not that impressed. Granted the travel powers are pretty cool, but it seems like you can't really solo in this game.

    The content seems pretty... limited. You level up and... level up... and level up. The stuff to look forward to is.. capes... travel powers.. and uhm.. leveling up? It's a neat game I could probably get into if it wasn't a p2p because my casual style would not warrant the money. I will give it some more time, but I can see that it just doesn't offer a lot.

    WoW seems to be the only thing I'm really going to like. I can play at my own pace, I can solo any class.

    Oh well. Looks like Blizzard claimed another soul.

    *goes to roll a hunter*

    HallowedFaith on
    I'm making video games. DesignBy.Cloud
  • HullabalooHullabaloo Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    I tried playing a bit of CoV for the past few hours. I am not that impressed. Granted the travel powers are pretty cool, but it seems like you can't really solo in this game.

    The content seems pretty... limited. You level up and... level up... and level up. The stuff to look forward to is.. capes... travel powers.. and uhm.. leveling up? It's a neat game I could probably get into if it wasn't a p2p because my casual style would not warrant the money. I will give it some more time, but I can see that it just doesn't offer a lot.

    WoW seems to be the only thing I'm really going to like. I can play at my own pace, I can solo any class.

    Oh well. Looks like Blizzard claimed another soul.

    *goes to roll a hunter*

    If you wish to solo in CoV/H, i'd reccomend playing a Mastermind or a brute villan side or hero side: a scrapper, or to some extent blaster (some what harder, though very possible).

    I can reccomend powersets for you, but as long as you don't choose dark armour for you secondary (not saying it's bad, but it is a bit of an endurance draining monster) you can't really go that wrong.

    Anyone can solo though, it just depends on how fast you find tollerable. I used to solo my Ice/Energy and Plant/Thorns doms all the time (granted on the easiest to second easiest level) - however despite the slow exp the pace felt incredibly fast due to the amount of control I had to exert, whilst keeping up a steady stream of damage (freeze em' and squeeze em' as they say). Doms still stand as the most active and exciting class in an mmo to me, despite their downfalls (often seen as usless by some, and can often horrible to pvp with).

    Anyways i'm getting off track here, any of those at's above should solo very well and only get better at it with age. I will say that teaming increase the fun factor of this game by a factor of 10, but you can't team all the time (as much as I always wanted to).

    Hullabaloo on
    Xbox ID: Oggie Rock
  • DruhimDruhim Registered User, ClubPA regular
    edited February 2007
    I've had little problem soloing 2 different blasters and a controller at least up to level 8.

    Druhim on
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  • HullabalooHullabaloo Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Druhim wrote:
    I've had little problem soloing 2 different blasters and a controller at least up to level 8.

    It'll get harder later on. Well, unless you've researched and picked out some good powersets* (or lucked out).

    I might ammend and say blaster can in general be very good soloers 90% of the time, but later on they really are glass cannons.

    *However the best powersets are the ones you find fun.

    Hullabaloo on
    Xbox ID: Oggie Rock
  • s3rial ones3rial one Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Hullabaloo wrote:
    Druhim wrote:
    I've had little problem soloing 2 different blasters and a controller at least up to level 8.

    It'll get harder later on. Well, unless you've researched and picked out some good powersets* (or lucked out).

    I might ammend and say blaster can in general be very good soloers 90% of the time, but later on they really are glass cannons.

    *However the best powersets are the ones you find fun.
    The problem is that blasters used to be AoE soloing monsters. So they were nerfed - caps on the number of targets AoE attacks hit.

    Then they decided that hovering and sniping - a safe, yet painfully boring way to level - was too powerful. This, they actually didn't nerf. They just gave every mob in the game a ranged attack that outranged blasters' sniper attacks.

    Then tanks started herding. They were nerfed.

    Controllers controlling? Can't have that! Nerfed.

    People still gaining experience too fast? Global nerf. Call it the purple nerf, justify it based on a non-existent problem of people soloing single purple mobs. Completely neglect to mention that the diminishing returns on higher-level mobs' experience essentially made this totally impractical. Most people don't notice, because they never even try these mobs in a group, let alone solo.

    Have a power pool set that virtually everyone in the game has to take? "Fix" it by nerfing it, improving passive endurance regen, and creating a situation where virtually every still has to take it.

    Have a tank? You need shields to survive. Hope you don't mind spending the entirety of levels 4-22 taking travel power pre-reqs, stamina pre-reqs and shields, because that's all you'll be getting.

    Cryptic systematically nerfs anything that makes their game less of a chore to play. I'm honestly worried that Marvel Online might play like Lineage 2 with tights.

    s3rial one on
  • ScooterScooter Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Cryptic hasn't nerfed anything in almost a year and a half. You're coming off a bit bitter.

    Scooter on
  • LemmingLemming Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    I was a BLASTER and didn't think it was that bad.

    Lemming on
  • HallowedFaithHallowedFaith Call me Cloud. Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Yeah I still have some time on the CoX trial. I'm going to go ahead and make a hero next. Something about the Villians just bugs me...

    I have a level 13 mage in WoW now though.. heh I think I sold my soul to Blizzard.

    HallowedFaith on
    I'm making video games. DesignBy.Cloud
  • HarshLanguageHarshLanguage Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    WoW I haven't played, but it's WoW.

    CoH/CoV - Like Accualt said, to me this is the most straightforward fun MMO there is right now. Yeah, Cryptic hasn't managed the nerfs that well, and yes, there are parts where leveling gets slow. But you can be flinging fire, hurling dudes through the air, punching guys so hard there's a shockwave, or commanding a small army of pets in minutes. Soloing is enjoyable with most, not all, classes, and groups are easy to get and fun. While I agree with some of what s3rial said, there's nothing that's wrecked the game. I respect his opinion, but he makes it sound much worse than it was/is. We're not talking about SWG-style nerfage, here. Awesome PA community.

    EVE - Eve is great for some people. But it's VERY hit or miss. You really have to try it to know, and luckily there's always a 14-day trial. Personally, there are parts I love (lots of cool spaceships) and parts I used to hate which I know tolerate because they're integral to the larger game mechanics (forced PVP, costly to lose ships). Screenshots look beautiful but in-game you stop noticing quickly and things get repetitive. It's a very slow start, and while "leveling" continues when you're offline, you have to put in many hours to earn enough cash to do anything cool. Specializing and finding your niche is the key to success. The PA corporation is very active and is doing a bunch of new and exciting stuff.

    GW - Nothing like WoW, other than fantasy setting. I play primarily PVE, and I love it (it's my main game right now). Nightfall is by far the best PVE campaign, but there's nothing terrible about Prophecies or Factions. GW is like a multiplayer combat RPG, the storyline is linear but very replayable, and there's no grind unless you want fancy-looking weapons and armor. Beautiful environments. The PVE is about skill selection and strategy, not level, which is refreshing. PVP you can get into as much as you like, and it is indeed well-balanced and fun. And of course, totally free forever after you buy the box(es). PA guild has been a bit inactive but just started some new events and seems to be renewing itself.

    HarshLanguage on
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    > turn on light

    Good start to the day. Pity it's going to be the worst one of your life. The light is now on.
  • lowlylowlycooklowlylowlycook Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    Other have talked about the gameplay differences between WoW and CoH/V. Another thing is that in WoW, you are your equiptment, at least visually. CoH is much more diverse in that sense.

    lowlylowlycook on
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    (Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
  • Ramen NoodleRamen Noodle whoa, god has a picture of me! Registered User regular
    edited February 2007
    I've got a GW trial key if you want to take it for a spin.

    Ramen Noodle on
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