My son reminded me that I promised a quick overview of my experience with Age of Conan on the PvP weekend! I’d like to reiterate that this was a cut-down version of the client and that we were limited to the tutorial (levels 1-5) and PvP instances (beta-buffed to 20). This means that I (and the others who took part in this PvP weekend) did not get a full view of the game.

Starting Up

Accepting that it was not the real game but simply a cut-down version, my initial response was good. The character creation process allowed for a fair amount of customisation - you could go for basic choices (tall broad woman with a “resolute” face) or you could dive into the advanced character creation and twiddle with the details, such as mouth width and eye angle. [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

I’ll write some preliminary comments about the weekend beta but it’s difficult to say a lot - the client was a cut-down version and apparently also out of date. PvE was limited to the tutorial. PvP involved insta-boosting to level 20 (so most people hadn’t a clue how to play their class) and you had to cope with a laggy PvP lobby and quick instances. It wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t enough for me to feel I can make sweeping statements about the game.

At least two balance-breaking issues were found so from that point of view it was a success. And I finally got off the fence and pre-ordered … and I know I’m not the only one. From the slice of the game that I saw, I think it has serious potential.

But do remember that it was just a slice, not the game. I’m amazed at some of the reviews out there and some of the conclusions they are drawing from a relatively minor view of the game - especially those judging the PvE aspect from a tutorial aimed at taking you through basic gameplay.

Meanwhile, I collected some screenshots so you can have a peek. :) [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.

Wednesday:

Two of my friends confirmed that they got into the weekend beta - I guess I would have heard by now if I was in. Oh well.

Friday Afternoon:

Just got home to find a mail saying I’m in! OH! It says in a few days but the beta has already started. I better grab the client quick.

Friday Evening:

Gamespot web page still says that I failed to get into the beta which means there’s no route to the client download. Looking at the beta forums, this is affecting a lot of people - I suspect all the people that got late keys on Friday. Someone else has posted a link to a set of four .rar files so I’m downloading the first two parts. It’s estimating 50 hours. This isn’t good. [More...]

Posted by Taymar on http://proof.mmorpg-info.org.