Profile: galad2003
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| Username | galad2003  |
| Real Name | Robert Summers |
| Rank | Hard Core Member |
| Joined | November 13, 2005 |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | 31 |
| Location | Burlington, NC, United States |
| Last Visit | November 30, 2008 |
| Post Count | 114 |
| Biography | I spent six years in the Navy as a Nuclear Mechanic aboard a fast attack sub. Currently I am an environmental chemist and I go to school full time for software engineering. I also do some free lance writing on the side and work on my fantasy novel and game ideas. I hope to graduate and get a job in the interactive entertainment field as a progammer/game designer. |
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4 Most Recent Threads by galad2003 [more...]
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Legendary Weapons on 11/21/08 @ 12:52PM
Viewed 261 times, replied 11 times, last post was 11/21/08 -
PvP only game on 10/31/08 @ 10:44AM
Viewed 93 times, replied 3 times, last post was 11/9/08 -
Best game out there on 10/13/08 @ 2:25PM
Viewed 1157 times, replied 28 times, last post was 10/19/08 -
Is the game more than RVR? on 8/26/08 @ 12:43PM
Viewed 706 times, replied 20 times, last post was 8/26/08
Latest Blog Entry - Warhammer Online Open Beta Review Part 2 - Character Creation, UI, and Graphics
From my blog The Junkbox [galad2003]
First off let me say that I am a huge fan of the Warhammer franchise. I have played the tabletop game in one form or another for 15+ years. I started when I was in High School and still have my mini’s although I don’t play anymore. I have played fantasy battles, 40K, Necromunda, Mordheim, and even some of the smaller more obscure games. I have the following armies Bretonnian army, High Elf, vampire counts, Ork, Imperial Guard, Blood Angels, and Dark Elves(40K version). Plus assorted mini’s from the other games. Needless to say I am a fan
So with my fandom established I am all logged into Warhammer Online and ready to play. First thing I notice is the great art style and awesome looking characters we can choose from. The character creation screen is really well designed with a clean interface. I was a little confused for a few seconds as I was trying to select my race by clicking on the description at the top. I soon realized my error and proceeded to make my first character. There is a nice selection of features to choose from when customizing the look of your character which is very important to fans. While you don’t have the freedom to alter every detail like some games such as Vanguard or EQ2 you still get e wider range of choices than WoW.
I was a little surprised on Sunday that Destruction was full on every server. Sign of things to come? I don’t think so, the initial fan base might gravitate towards Destruction races but once the game hits shelves and the more casual player base moves in I suspect the numbers will favor Order. I give the character creation process an A.
So I pick my first character, a High Elf Swordmaster (since I don’t have the patience to wait in a queue for destruction). I play for five minutes and I crash hard. I got a message Windows had to shut down to protect itself from corruption or some such. When I restart my computer my character is gone. GRRRR!!!! That’s ok its beta right? So I try a dwarf Runpriest next.
First thing I notice is the ease of getting in there and playing the game. For anyone who has played a MMO there is no guessing in WAR about how to move or use the UI. The UI is well designed with just a little bit of difference to keep it fresh but still be familiar. There is plenty of ways to add hotkeys and change how your hot bars look. No annoying little graphics at the bottom of your screen cluttering it up with useless icons, like options, player data etc. It is all located at the top in a nice and utilitarian manner so as to maximize my view of the world. Chat is easy to figure out and customize to my liking. I can change text colors, opacity, and size right in beta. No waiting weeks for some annoying patch to fix something that is crucial to playing. With the ability for players to customize their UI I give the UI an A+.
Like I said I am really impressed with the art style. They hit the look and feel of the Warhammer universe dead on. Each race has a distinct look that is right out of the IP. Mythic choose to go with a bright colorful look to their art which some people refer to as cartoony. I can see how they would say that but it is nowhere near as cartoony as WoW. They chose this style as that is how Games Workshop paints their miniatures, bright and colorful. Another benefit is that this allows people to run the game on lower end machines. When we factor in the huge number of people that will be taking part of RvR, the ability for players to play on modest machines is crucial to keeping a large active player base. I could run the game on highest settings on my machine with a Geforce 7800. I was a little dispointed that the games graphics don’t scale up. On my high end rig (running a GeForce 8800GT) it looked only slightly better.
Overall I give the graphics a B+, they are good clean graphics with an excellent art style but they aren’t going to show off my hardware. The graphics already look out of date so what will it look like in 5 years? I would give it lower marks but factoring in that they want to have massive amounts of people in RvR, going for lower end graphics was probably a smart idea.
Next time I will get into the meat and potatoes of the game, going over pve and pvp gameplay.
Read more from my blog [galad2003]
Latest User Gallery Images [more...]
Recent Forum Posts [more...]
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- Legendary Weapons
No my sig wouldn't hold up in a sane court...but notice how similar it is to many MMORPG's EULA's?
Sarcasm is completely missed on some people
- Posted: 11/21/08 1:54 PM
General Discussion
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- Decisions. Decisions.
[quote]Originally posted by tastethegold
[b]regular pvm is a simple formula, though with this game theres a twist. normal game:talk to npc, get quest, look at map, go to location, do quest, return to npc. lotro:talk to npc (maybe even read it if you give a rats ass about plot) start spamming for help with said quest OR look it up online so you are not challenged by what might involve some thought, have someone (be it human or guide) hold your hand while you do the quest, return to npc. aside from that its "go kill # of slugs or whatever to get a trait". ofcourse there is the standard run around collecting nodes thing too (why doesnt that seem inventive anymore?) but mostly its a VERY VERY easy game.
that brings me to the main caveat: this game is dumb simple! if you are a lackidasical, slacker, knuckle dragger, somebodys grand parent, total "smoked to death" pot head, or semi-retarded this game is just the right speed for you (i left out total LOTR fanboy since if you were one you would already be playing). however if you want competitive gameplay, meaningful pvp, a challenging play experience, or a community that is more like a gunshow than a bake sale this game will let you down.
/b][/quote]What game's pve isn't like that? The pve in LoTRO is harder than AOC and WAR they show you exactly where to go for quests. LoTRO you actually have to read the quest and find it. WoW has add-ons that do the same thing. Oh wait is it "easy-mode" becasue you don't spend hours grinding in some elusive sandbox environment?
LoTRO is far from perfect but its probably the best game out their right now IMO. ESPECIALLY for people like the OP who are just tired of the same ol same ol in WoW but who don't want something completely different (not that there is anything different now).
- Posted: 11/21/08 1:52 PM
Lord of the Rings Online
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- Terrible expansion launch but fear not morons ruined it more than Turbine.
You were supposed to go to Moria first and get a few levels on you and your legendary before you started book 15. They also made changes to the combat system so a lot of people aren't used to them and have to relearn to use some skills and in some cases learn their class all over again.
Angmar is empty because everyone is in Moria!!!! My goodness the chat there is non-stop!!!
Best X-pac ever making this hands down the best game ever!!!
- Posted: 11/21/08 1:06 PM
Lord of the Rings Online
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- Legendary Weapons
The new legendary weapon system implemented in the Moria expansion pack in LoTRO is really awesome. Once you get a legendary weapon it earns XP just like your character that you can spend to improve your weapon. Plus you can add on gems, runes and settings to further customize your weapon. You can level up to 6 weapons at a time. You can also break down weapons to get pieces to add to your other weapons.
This adds a whole new dimension in gameplay that I have never experienced before in a MMORPG. The level of complexity and customization this affords is quite staggering and due to the nature of how this industry works I won't be surprised when other games start copying this feature.
I just want to give Turbine props for yet another innovative game feature they brought to the table. I am completely hooked on fiddling around with my weapons to get them to be better.
- Posted: 11/21/08 12:52 PM
General Discussion
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- Frustrating Not Knowing Where Quests are?
Sorry I think this is a major change and I am against it. A little arrow might not seem so big of a deal but it spooonfeeds you the content. I am not like many peopel on these forums who "harken" back to the good ol' days of MMO's that want "harder" games with more timesinks, death penalties etc. But I don't wanna be spoonfed either. It's not hard to read your quest log and figure out where to go. If your map is not revealed just run around and reveal it, oddds are you'll then see the landmark the quest description refers to and viola you found it. If you are still stuck ask in chat, get a good kinship that helps if no one is helping you. If you still can't find it look it up online.
Ok so you work a lot, so do I. If you are so busy you can't take the time to ask or look things up or if you are that lazy maybe MMORPG's aren't for you. Or maybe this game isn't for you. I hate to be harsh (wait - no I don't) but don't ask for major gameplay changes that will cheeze off the existing players because your too lazy to ask/look something up online.
A arrow doesn't break immersion any more than looking it up online and it doesn't seem that big of a difference, but it does make a HUGE difference. The pve aspect of them game becomes a run from point A to B excercise and things quickly turn boring. AOC and WAR implemented this and look how those games are doing....
- Posted: 11/17/08 11:27 AM
Lord of the Rings Online
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