Monthly Archives: January 2012

Star Wars The Old Republic: Journey of a Sith

Star Wars The Old Republic: Journey of A Sith Inquisitor

By Remko Molenaar (Proxzor), OnRPG Journalist

 

(Editors Note: This column contains spoilers for the Sith Inquisitor storyline)

 

The Wait is Finally Over.


Finally the wait was over and early access was live, and since I preordered in the first few days I was hoping to get in on day 1. Unfortunately since I wasn’t the only one preordering SWTOR when it became available I got my access the second day of the early access which was still ahead of a lot of players. Since I have played the game in beta I knew what I wanted to make when the game was ready for launch. I started my first character as a Sith Inquisitor which ended up being one of the most popular classes. I made the character characteristics the same as I have been using in the beta which was basically very similar to Darth Maul, known from the Star Wars films. After landing my shuttle on the first planet Korriban I saw I wasn’t the only one with the idea of making the same looks as Darth Maul. I should have anticipated this, but rather than remake my character I just made a mental note to pick up a hoody and mask to cover my face later.

 

‘I was a slave’

 

Since I like playing the bad boy I decided to go for the cocky answers in conversations to build my character personality to my liking. I also decided to fully go for the Dark Side points because I liked the idea of characteristic detailed changes when going far into to the dark side (this however I soon came to regret when my Darth Maul turned pink themed…). As a slave I had to do everything that my new master Overseer Harkun required and wanted of me, unfortunately he already had a favorite student called Ffon Althe and he saw the rest of us pupils as useless scum and treated us like such. It didn’t take long to notice that my new Master liked to pick on me and tried everything to annoy me by sending me on stupid missions. Since I was a slave and still required much training with the force I decided to obey and do as my new master commanded. There were around 10 pupils there with me in the room when I got my first real mission, and we were told that our performance would determine who among us would be selected as the apprentice of the almighty Lord Zash.

 

 

After doing a couple of missions and growing more with the natural feel of the force I noticed my powers were becoming noticeably stronger. Meanwhile my fellow pupils had to stop the training or were simply killed by my new master as he pushed us to our limits to find the best among us. After a while only a small group of us was left, and unfortunately the teacher’s pet was still in the running. Thankfully my performance in a few near impossible missions had focused the eyes of Lord Zash solely on me. She quickly found out about the competition between me and Overseer Harkun’s favorite and began to take subtle steps to improve my odds.

 

 

Everyone should know that MMORPGs tend to have boring quests that require you to kill an x amount of monsters in order to complete the quest or to gather around some objects for the quest giver. In SWTOR however there are a lot of different quests that feel much more unique. For example I had been given a quest to interrogate a person and had to make him tell me who committed some crime the Inquisitors weren’t so fond off. I was instructed to squeeze this information from them at any cost and could use all my abilities if needed. So as evil as I decided to be I immediately decided to start off with a bang! After unleashing a lot of force lightning on my victim I got him to tell me the person who did the crime. Honestly intimidation tactics always work well for villains.

 

 

After completing all of the quests on Korriban it was time to do the final trial which was to retrieve an ancient map in a tomb untouched by civilization in a thousand of years. There could only be one winner… only one survivor. Since this was the battle between me and Ffon I felt pumped to defeat him. Unfortunately Overseer Harkun, as big of an ass he was, already sent Ffon on this mission ahead of me so I had no time to lose until… Lord Zash came in and gave me some precious advice that would benefit me greatly.

 

‘Success!’


After finishing the last trial, freeing a Dashade named Khem Val, and seeing Ffon Althe fall to the ground, I left the tomb with a satisfied grin on my face. I had progressed further than I ever imagined and was rewarded with Lord Vash’s old Lightsaber that she was given as an apprentice! She told me to meet her in her chambers in the capital of the Sith Empire in Kaas City which was located on Dromund Kaas. Oh, and I could keep Khem Val as my first companion which would help me a lot with crew skills and tanking monsters.

 

 

Upon arriving in Dromund Kaas I first had to take a shuttle to the Imperial Fleet where I could pick an advanced class. Since my goal was to get an assassin all along I didn’t hesitate when offering my decision. After equipping my new dual bladed lightsaber and skills I hopped on the next shuttle to Dromund Kaas. I had the choice to go with a normal shuttle or with the Black Talon. The only difference was that it would go faster with the Black Talon but it required a party since it was the first flashpoint that I could do. I decided to do my first flashpoint gathered around the entrance with a few other players ready to board the Black Talon…

 

 

Thanks for reading part 1 of my Star Wars the Old Republic column! Can’t handle the suspense? I’ll be back this time next week to continue the tale in the world of The Old Republic.

Abubakr’s Predictions for 2012

Abubakr’s Predictions for 2012

By Mohammad Abubakr, OnRPG Journalist

 

 

 

2011 has been a great year for the gaming world with MMO releases such as Dragon Nest and Star Wars: Knight of the Old Republic. As time goes on you can always expect to receive better content as consumers. Developers will continue to innovate and try to bring something new to the scene to attract customers.

 

 

The point and click model of MMOs works great but is starting to get overused. While this model may not completely disappear through 2012, I feel that more action oriented games not utilizing point and click will make their appearance.

 

 

The Pay to Play and Buy to Play models will also begin to be replaced by the Free to Play model. This is great for most gamers due to being able to play for free, but leads to the possible Pay to Win model.

 

Team Fortress 2


This would mean that cash users would gain significant advantages over free players. I feel it is ok to reward paying users but there has to be a limit. As stated by Mikedot last week, the ability to purchase all items using in-game currency is a must and the economy should not get inflated because of cash items. Publishers have proof on correctly done free to play models such as Team Fortress 2 so they do not need to overpower paying customers fearing that they will not be able to keep the game running.

 

 

I do not think the B2P (buy to play) model will die out for online games. I personally prefer B2P over F2P as once you paid the initial amount you do not need to worry about anything. On the other hand, F2P games will always tempt you to spend more. I personally end up spending more on F2P games than I would have on a standard $60 B2P game.

 

 

The biggest issue I have with newer games is difficulty. I am a very competitive player and enjoy playing games with high learning curves because of the sense of reward. The majority of the gaming community consists of casual gamers that do not play games for long hours. It would make sense for developers and publishers to target the majority of the audience.

 

 

Casual gamers want games that can be played without too much dedication, are easy to get into and are fun at all stages. The majority of MMORPG’s do not worry about difficulty because point and click is already easy to learn. To appeal to casual players, the ‘grind’ in MMOs has been and will continue to be cut down.  Lowering EXP required to level up and advance classes is alright with me because I know how time consuming leveling can be. However, I feel that obtaining rare items and equips should still be challenging.

 

 

Maplestory EXP


The change in difficulty affects MOBA, RTS and FPS games the most. More complex mechanics are slowly being eliminated to accommodate a wider range of players. For example, League of Legends has removed or simplified a lot of the gameplay mechanics from Dota such as denying, gold loss on death, low mana pools and activatable items (some are present in LoL but most are passive items).

 

 

These changes clearly show success to Riot Games as League of Legends is now huge but games such as HoN which kept the more complex mechanics are not as popular (keep in mind difficulty is not the only reason LoL is so big).

 

 

Gaming is becoming more and more popular in the world. As time goes on we may see E-Sports grow as big as physical sports like soccer. A lot of progress has been seen throughout 2011 with the main highlights being the massive growth of Starcraft II and the $1,600,000 Dota 2 tournament. Kluey went into great detail on this in his 2012 article so be sure to check it out.

 

 

To conclude, throughout 2012 games will begin to innovate and eventually ditch the point and click model, P2P will be replaced by F2P or B2P, overall difficulties of games will be reduced and E-Sports will continue to grow.

DC Universe Online Introduces R&D System

DC Universe Online Introduces Research & Development System

 

 

DC Universe Online R & D

 

 

WHAT: Every hero (and villain) needs a finely-tuned arsenal to succeed, and now DC Universe Online has just the right system! All DCUO players now have access to the all-new Research & Development (R&D) system. This new system allows players to create new and powerful items.

 

 

Research & Development brings Equipment Mods – a new type of item that will socket into players’ existing gear to give them a stat and combat rating increase. Players can use different Equipment Mods to increase various stats, allowing them to further customize their gear to suit their needs. In addition, players will be allowed to make superior consumables that not only restore health and power, but also provide a stat buff.

 

DC Universe Online Exobit Gathering

 

Upon reaching level 10, players will be directed to their respective faction’s R&D contact in the Watchtower or Hall of Doom for an introduction to the R&D system. R&D parts, Stations and Vendors can be found throughout the game so that no matter what players do, they will be able to make use of the new system.

 

There are four elements of this system, including:

Finding and Researching: Plans to create Equipment Mods to upgrade gear and consumables can be collected throughout the world.

Gathering: Throughout the open world (including Gotham City, Metropolis and Central City), players (1-30) can find exobytes and other items.

Salvaging: Players can turn unused, uncommon or rare items into crafting materials, and they can recover a rare item and create a useful piece of new equipment.

Collecting: Bosses will drop useful ingredients such as Focusing Elements and Plans throughout the game.

 

 

DC Universe Online Research & Development UI

 

 

More details about the R&D system can be found here: DC Universe Online Research & Development.

 

 

WHEN: The Research & Development game update is now available as a free download for players at all three access levels: Free, Premium and Legendary.

Kluey’s 2012 Predictions: A New Year in E-Sports

A New Year in E-Sports

By Umar Farooq (Kluey), OnRPG Journalist

 

For those uninformed on what E-Sports is, refer to this article: http://www.onrpg.com/MMO/Starcraft-II/review/What-is-E-Sports

 

 

 

2011 has been a great year for E-sports especially in the West. We’ve gone from two bleachers each being half empty and consisting of only men to small meet-ups organized on Twitter getting kicked out of malls because of the riot potential. We’ve gone from a 5,000 USD tournament hitting the front page of every gaming website to a million dollar tournament that was casually viewed. When you think about it, it’s hard to comprehend this massive change. Now that 2011 has come to an end, we think about this next year for E-Sports and the potential it has to change everything we know about sports. We might not have Monday night Football but rather, Saturday night Starcraft. We might not have the NBA lockout but rather the MLG lockout. Of course those are somewhat farfetched ideas to some but to others, it may seem like normal progression. Even if E-Sports doesn’t become so mainstream, 2012 will definitely change E-Sports.

 

 

Changing the Definition of a Gamer

Gaming in the West has always had a negative look to it. When an average bulky football fan pictured a gamer, the common stereotype was an overweight, socially excluded nerd with hygiene issues who spends 14 hours a day on his computer. In 2012, I expect that to change. A gamer should be known as a person with a favourite sport who loves to practice it. This is partially because of the revenue that is generated from gaming. In a recession, MLG generated some crazy numbers in terms of revenue. A crowd of 20,000 with most being from other countries/states showed up to fill the seats, much to the approval of nearby hotels. Many people will stay in a hotel for the 3 day period they are there and that’s some insane revenue generated from a branch of e-commerce. Of course don’t forget the local stadium food venders who are brimming with constant lines of 40 people during the 3 hour lunch period.

 

 

Before and After, Gamers do not disappoint.

 

The second reason for a change of the definition of a gamer in the West is simply the increased acceptance of technology in youthful circles. Everyone’s daughter or son will either play games or watch gamers play games. Even crazier than that, businesses will be afraid to criticize gamers as it will be similar to what happened to GoDaddy when they supported the SOPA bill. People will boycott them and destroy their business.

 

 

Games that will Become a Major E-Sport

 

Starcraft 2

Call me biased but, Starcraft 2 will be huge in 2012. The increase in sheer numbers from 2010 going into 2011 and now ending 2011 was insane and unpredictable. Prize money, crowd numbers, sponsorship money or even forum/blogger discussion posts related to tournaments have all shot up exponentially in this time period.

 

 

Although it is impossible to talk about all the reasons for this in one article (it would be more of a senior thesis), my primary guess is the rise of live streaming websites and star players utilizing them to build reputations outside of officially tournaments. I stumbled upon Starcraft 2 because of a stream and I know many other people have too. Any gaming stream website you go to, Starcraft 2 will most likely be on the front page. Streaming has also made the game much more enjoyable. I no longer think of Starcraft 2 as only what I have experienced from playing it but also by what the stream has shown me.

 

 

2012 for Starcraft 2 will be everything we have in 2011 minus the amateur mistakes caused by inexperienced organizers.

 

 

SlayerS’MMA being tossed into the air after winning Blizzard Cup 2011 in the best series of Starcraft 2


 

Counter Strike

Counter Strike is weird for me because it’s doing really good but, unless you play Counter Strike you most likely won’t be watching Counter Strike. I think with Counter Strike: Global Offensive being released, the community will get many new members. While they might be unskilled or not even play the game long-term, the tournaments will benefit greatly.

 

 

Like many games today, graphics matter. A parent looking for a game to buy as a gift will not look for how well made the game is. They will look for the popularity, shelf placement, and graphics. Counter Strike: Global Offensive fits both of these categories so theoretically, it should be the next big competitive FPS.

 

 

2012 for Counter Strike will be “make or break” in my opinion. If the game starts to decline in a business perspective, most likely there will be no future. If it starts to increase, we could see a new generation of FPS E-Sports.

 

 

League of Legends

I don’t know how or why but, this game just attracts such a huge crowd. This game is one of the prime success stories of E-Sports in the western hemisphere. Riot has promised 5 million dollars in tournaments for this next season and if that isn’t enough for you already, Korean’s have started playing this game too. The StarTale house has made a team (don’t know if this is public or not as of right now)

 

UpCloseGamers tour of the StarTale house in the League of Legends room.


Korean’s have been infamous for owning white dudes being the best at whichever game their country starts to play professionally. If League of Legends blows up in Korea, there will be no stopping it. The live crowds are always huge in Korea and the online EU and NA crowds are always ready.

 

 

DotA 2

A million dollar tournament was held before the game was even near release. I would be crazy to say that DotA 2 will not be a huge success with that type of support behind it. With Valve as the support, DotA 1 as the carry and League of Legends along with Heroes of Newerth as the feeders, DotA 2 will be a powerhouse in the 2012 E-Sports scene.  There isn’t much to say as this is one of those games that has been established already and can only go upwards.

 

 

Final Verdict

I could be very wrong about everything or spot on. If everything goes as planned, 2012 will be unpredictable. E-Sports’ growth in the West is what interests me most as gamers have always been rejected from the typical sporting scene. With the likes of ESPN and G4 hinting that we will see games on television soon, MLG hitting record high numbers, E-Sports getting talked about on the news and new gamers coming in from all directions, you cannot say that 2011 hasn’t set the stage for an E-Sports industry in 2012 that will be bigger, better and badder than ever before.

Mythos Global Open Beta Coming Soon; Now Available in EU.

Mythos Global Open Beta Coming Soon, Now Available for EU Players

 

 

Mythos Gremlin Fire

 

Hanbitsoft and T3Fun are happy to announce the open beta for their highly-anticipated online action RPG, Mythos Global. Beginning February 2, 2012, the fantasy world of Uld will be teeming with danger and adventure.

 

 

T3Fun has good news for European players. The OBT for Mythos Global will also be available to most of Europe. Mythos’ loyal supporters have been heard and now European fans will also be able to join in the action once the server opens for the open beta test.

 

Mythos Gadgeteer

 

To lead up to the launch of the open beta, the Mythos team has prepared a full month of activities for the fans. Every week in January, there will be new stories, exclusive interviews, mini-games, quizzes and more. Visit the Mythos Global website, forums, and fan page to take part in this month-long series of events. Keep checking back to discover what’s new each week before the open beta begins next month.

Final Fantasy XIV: Needs More Moomba

Final Fantasy XIV: Needs More Moomba

By Jake Winters (Kibeth), OnRPG Journalist

 

 

 

Final Fantasy has always been a strong gaming brand – selling more than a hundred million titles in the past twenty years – so the latest online venture had a big name to live up to. Its September 2010 release of Final Fantasy XIV, the second MMORPG in the series, brought harsh criticisms from fans and gaming websites worldwide: the controls were awful, the combat was sluggish, the game tested even the most powerful computers; the list of problems was endless. Despite this, one year on and the game is starting to become the epic that it should have been. Since the game was set to go P2P last Friday, I hopped into game during the last few free weeks to give it a proper review.

 

 

The game is set in the war-torn lands of Eorzea; recently struck by a colossal army from overseas, the cities of Eorzea have banded together to defend themselves from future attacks. As an adventurer, it is your job to aid the cities in any way you can from dancing with children to fighting off waves of monsters. Each starting zone has its own short storyline that converges into the main storyline.

 

Did I forget to mention the giant winged Leviathan?

 

Apart from the main storyline quest, players also earn quests called Guildleves. These can be collected from any main questing hub at a player’s leisure, and are based around either field work (combat or gathering) or local work (crafting for local NPCs). Guildleves are the principle source of earning experience early on, and the majority can be done without assistance of other players. That’s probably a good thing, though, as the game feels more like a single-player game with MMO elements. Regardless of server populations, a story-driven quest filled with cut-scenes and instanced areas (locked to other players) makes playing through the first part of the game a lonely experience. Even later on, quests do little to encourage team play, and the need to party only really becomes apparent at the very end of the game.

 

 

Character Overview

Character creation involves choosing one of five races, a gender, a plethora of appearance options, and the starting zone. Of all of the starting options, the character class is the least important (a shock, I know). Rather than picking a single class and being stuck with it for the rest of the game, a player’s class changes whenever they switch weapon. Want to be a Mage? Equip a staff. Want to be an Archer? Grab a bow.

 

 

Classes are split into four ‘disciplines’. The Disciplines of War are in-your-face classes like the brutish Marauder or the fist-fight Pugilist, while the Disciplines of Magic are the healing Conjurer or the damaging Thaumaturge.  Additionally, the game’s gathering and crafting professions are also considered ‘classes’; Disciplines of Land are able to fish, mine and log trees, while Disciplines of Hand can turn raw materials into any kind of weapon, armor or accessory.

 

 

This openness and ease of class change is one of the game’s best aspects. Players are free to change on a whim, meaning the game remains exciting for much longer. The only negative is that each class has its own level, and many hours of time are required to keep even a small number of classes on the go. Additionally, the game actively discourages the use of a single class (especially players who ignore the crafting classes), as many of the better items can only be crafted using a combination of different skills.

 

Here’s a picture of a chocobo, for nostalgic purposes and whatnot.


 

A Squall of Trouble

Final Fantasy puns aside, the two combat Disciplines (War and Magic) are fairly standard among MMOs. Players have a standard HP (life) bar, an MP (mana) bar, and an Action Point bar. Spells cost mana, physical abilities cost Action Points, and if you run out of life then you die; it’s all very simple, and the game’s lack of creativity really shows.

 

 

Combat feels a bit sluggish and dull, even after the numerous changes Square Enix has made to improve it in the past year. Lock onto target, use ability, enemy dies, rinse and repeat. Come to think of it, the combat does have a few ‘special perks’, but most seem to intentionally go out of their way to annoy, rather than help.

 

Combat is exciting, as long as you don’t mind the first six hours of nothing but mushrooms.


Rather than a simple ‘target’ system, the game has a soft target and a hard target system. In order to make the most of abilities, targets need to be ‘locked onto’ (hard targeting), but this zooms the camera in and disables camera panning for the most part, making combat incredibly irritating. While the options menu provides some alleviation to this, the problem persists on most Discipline of War classes, and seems to serve no actual purpose.

 

 

Disciplines of Magic have a different problem: while they don’t need to lock onto targets in order to fight, all spells require ‘confirmation’ before they’ll cast, meaning that instead of a single hotkey press, you’re required to also press Enter to confirm that you’ve selected the right target. In the middle of a heated battle where you can’t afford to take your hand away from WASD and the mouse, having to drift to press Enter can be incredibly distracting. On top of that, split second casts (especially for healers) lose their haste, leaving the targeting system causing more problems than it solves. While workarounds are possible using macros, it really shouldn’t be necessary for players to have to fix such obvious design flaws themselves. Sure, a locking camera and confirmation system might work on mainstream Final Fantasy games because they provide so called ‘immersion’, but in an MMO there’s simply no place for such inconveniences.

 

 

Combat isn’t all bad, mind. The polished graphics make spell textures look incredible (even on lower quality settings), and Final Fantasy fans will be excited to know that the game recycles many of the old favorites such as –aga spells, Protect, Shell, and numerous other combat centerpieces from games gone by. Ability combinations also provide a small amount of uniqueness to combat; using certain abilities or spells in the right order might confer a benefit such as increased attack power, reduced cast time, or various status effects.

 

 

Skills to Pay the Bills

Next to the music (which will be enthused about later), Final Fantasy XIV’s most unique feature is just how immersive the gathering and crafting professions are. Rather than following mini-map prompts to a generic resource node and clicking it for a reward, the game actively encourages players to work for their items. Chopping trees involves finding a suitable tree, picking which part of the tree to hack at, and then a guesswork mini-game to determine whether you get the item or not. Despite not being able to describe how interesting the system is in words alone, having to actually work for items makes the experience that little bit more rewarding, and one can easily lose hours of their evening just wandering around logging, mining or fishing. For the less hands-on gamer, Final Fantasy XIV also contains generic point-and-click nodes, though they usually offer different rewards and require gamers to pick and mix between the two systems.

 

 

Better than the gathering system is the crafting system. Again, rather than putting the materials in a box and pressing a button, players take a hands-on role in item creation. Players can pick just how to craft their item: do they sacrifice item quality for getting it built faster, or do they take a little longer to have a better quality item?

 

Recipe not yet in the game: Chocobo Skin Lingerie.


The gathering and crafting systems have formed a love-hate relationship with players. Some people prefer having a hands-on role in their creations, and find the whole system immersive and fun. Others find it frustrating (taking five minutes to craft one item, knowing you need to make another twenty) and would prefer a simple ‘press button receive item’ system.

 

 

User Interface and Macros

Final Fantasy XIV’s interface attracted considerable criticism shortly after release, and still remains one of the game’s biggest problems.  WASD controls feel a little clunky, and lock-ons during combat make it difficult for players to stay maneuverable in the heat of battle. Besides the camera and movement issues, the whole interface is governed by a single menu system; hotkeys to access skills, quests, the inventory, and every other function need to be manually assigned by players, and the constant reliance upon a single menu removes any immersion the game might have otherwise had.

 

 

Additionally, there is no simple way of changing classes that doesn’t involve going into the main menu, opening the character screen, picking a slot, picking a replacement slot, closing the character screen, and then closing the main menu. While veteran players might be able to create macros to alleviate this inconvenience, new players are at the mercy of the gruesome interface.

 

 

Simple improvements like making obviously needed buttons accessible via hotkey or on the main game screen could seriously improve the game’s navigation system, but Square Enix seems to have neglected this incredibly important task in lieu of whatever else they’ve been doing for a year. Of all of the issues still present in the game, the horrendous interface remains public enemy number one.

 

 

Gameplay Tech Specs

Apart from its iconic gameplay, characters and spell names, Final Fantasy has always, always been great with music, and Final Fantasy XIV is no different. The game’s musical score feels more than just background noise; being in a forest sounds like being in a forest, a relaxing jaunt around town sounds like a relaxing jaunt around town. Of all of the pieces, however, the combat music wins gold. The music that plays during timed quests feels frantic, the music that plays during epic battles with evil monsters (read: mushrooms) actually sounds like there’s something at stake if you lose. While the score is significantly smaller than mainstream Final Fantasy games, Nobuo Uematsu (the game’s lead composer) has once again pulled a stroke of genius out of the musical sack.

 

Final Fantasy XIV is a graphical masterpiece.


Equally noticeable is the graphics; the game blows most other MMOs out of the water with its clean, crisp environments and characters. Gone are the days of squares for hands (for anybody who has played Final Fantasy VII). Final Fantasy XIV’s graphics have struck gold. Unfortunately, this high benchmark means that Square Enix has alienated a considerable number of players with computers unable to run the game’s system requirements.

 

 

Lightning Shouldn’t Strike Twice

Square Enix has at least admitted that Final Fantasy XIV didn’t meet expectations, and recently announced plans to rebuild the game from (almost) ground-up as Final Fantasy XIV v2.0. With their honesty in mind, it seems a little unfair to give them as much flak as they’re getting. This year the game has improved tenfold, but some really glaring issues still remain. Still you can’t play it and not get the feeling of missed potential and as you battle and scavenge within the shell of an online game meant for greatness.

 

 

The torrent of bad press initially lead the game to become free to play temporarily (so long as you have the box set), and while this no doubt made players a little less willing to criticize, Square Enix’s move back to a pay to play model in early 2012 might become more of a problem than a profit. The general feeling is that the game is only as popular as it is because it is currently free to play, and that the game is still too poor quality to be able to sustain itself under a subscription model. Whether or not this is true will be shown in the coming months. With at least a year until Final Fantasy XIV v2.0, Square Enix has to contend with the next twelve months of problems, and hope that their band aids can try to fix the gaping wound that the initial release created. At the end of it all, one can only hope that v2.0 is as good as they say it is; surely the same game can’t fail twice in a row, can it?

 

 

Graphics – 5 (one of the best looking MMOs around.)
Controls – 2 (clunky camera, bad targeting system, inconvenience UI, and sluggish WASD.)
Features – 4 (generic combat, but the crafting and gathering systems are incredible.)
Customization – 4 (access to every class makes the game far more exciting.)
Community – 2 (plays like a single player game, there are no incentives to play as a group.)