Warhammer Online: Week 2

So game sounds like WoW...again. I burned out on WoW a few months ago, but when lich king comes out... i'll probably quit sleeping for awhile.

Beard Traitor :(

Snide looks a little like Alex Navarro.

@aeterna

I've played almost every mmropg that's been released and it's likely my favorite genre next to turn based strategy RPGs. Of the ones that skew off the everquest model I've really only enjoyed EVE: online, which to this day I think to be one of the more inventive games ever released.

My favorites over the years have been WoW and Anarchy Online, both for their deep endgame. I also really enjoyed the CoH/CoV games (im a huge comic nerd) but they really left me lacking after a couple months. Lesser games which I still enjoyed were DAoC and the original AC.

Everything else in the genre has essentially been a dissapointment.

Imo the world feels kinda smalish.

Damn... Nobody ever correctly pronounces "magus." It's a Latin word, if that helps.  ... ... ... OK, so nobody really cares.

When did GiantBomb clone Alex Navarro?  I swear, he looks like Alex Navarro?  Am I the only one that thinks so or... am I just extremely late on old news?

This site is cool. Me likey. I haven't played WAR yet, but I always try and gove MMO's like 3-4 months after they come out before I play them. I would never be able to stand waiting 30 mins to play a game. Just ain't happenin'.

I played a bit of WAR at a friend's house yesterday. The squig herder is awesome! I did have some issues with glitches, like an enemy and my squig getting stuck on my guy, so I couldn't attack the monster from a certain range, only in close combat. Also, just like WoW's still suffering with, one enemy was glitched into place, so I couldn't attack it and it couldn't attack me.

Other than that, when my friend was showing me a PvP event, the capture the flag one, there was a glitch that made the visual effects for spells not dissipate after they ran through, like the frost trap thing and the bird over his head (no idea what that spell is for or means).

For the half or so hours I spent with the game, it seems pretty fun. I liked the look of it. Playing it is very similar to WoW, and that's good for me. PvP seemed a LOT more fun, though, people seemed to play more as a team than WoW, so the clashes with the enemy weren't as clumsy as the BGs like Alterac Valley in WarCraft. I also liked the fact that there is collision detection, so people can't just run by the fights, they have to help out and take part in it. I want to try out the game for myself, and if it runs here, I might stick with it for a while.

I just enjoy watching my black orc get hit by 7 guys and never die (naturally I have a healer somewhere or I'm getting lucky self heals).

Seriously, standing on the flag not letting the other team cap until my team comes in to reinforce is awesome...  Black Orc ftw.

**To clarify, I like the art style, but not the way animations work.

The bad thing about the game, for me, is the visuals.  Anything visual seems to have gaps in the animation or bugs that cause the animation to stutter, go off multiple times, stop in the middle, etc...  Animations are the worst, unless you are using an emote.  Watching someone ride a mount is painful.  It looks so terribly unnatural and incomplete.  Abilities do seem to have this weird feeling of not being in time with their cooldowns or cast time.  If I mash a button twice sometimes my animation is go off twice.  Movement seems to be separate from the world environment.  Animations from about 40 feet away look choppy.  If you see a fight going on from any decent distance the animations aren't fluid and look incomplete.  I like the game as a whole and I hope that I can stomach the visuals. 

I like the game but the animation flaws are the exact same flaws that DAoC had.  Naturally some things have improved but its tough to get past watching a mount run down steps or seeing someone's legs moving out of sync with the distance they are covering.  I dunno... thats my only complaint.  I know you don't want a game to be graphically intensive if you plan on having huge battles but animations can still look complete and the overall world should seem connected.  As it is, the environment, combat, and movement seem to lack cohesiveness.  It feels like they are seperate and obviously so.

for the record i like the beardless look

I currently have a Rank 26 / Renown Rank 19 Marauder main and a Rank 10 / Renown Rank 9 DoK alt.

I don't agree that melee is overpowered vs. ranged at all. Early on at tier 1 levels this might be true to some extent, but it balances out pretty quickly during tier 2, and seems to have stayed that way during tier 3 so far. Of course, 1v1 a melee dps should be able to squash a ranged dps pretty easily once they close the gap. In a situation with decent teamwork though, it balances out.

I'm playing on a high pop EN Euro server (Karak-Hirn) that had to be cloned due to queues of over 45min at peak times. Even still I've noticed that, other than early on in the tier 1 RvR lake in the Empire vs. Chaos pairing, the RvR lakes are pretty quiet. Which is a shame, because they can be more fun than scenarios for RvR with enough people in them.

Also, taking a keep can be total chaos... which I don't like...

The real story is, I PK'd Snide and looted his beard. Sorry guys :(

I like the comment "I'm liking Warhammer, but the only thing I'm not too fond of is the combat."  That's like saying you like Gears of War, except for the shooting.

Age of Conan had that whole map "stain" thing, it was quite nice actually, too bad the rest of the game stunk.  And while I was primed to rail on Jeff for talking about WoW and alt-tabbing to thottbot, he admitted that he figured WoW had possibly added something since his time in 2005.  WoW has built in via patches and mods the same quest help and thottbot connection that other MMOs have tried to include.  I'll admit the Tome of Knowledge keeps it more in-game rather than the arrows and lists of add-ons, but after a few weeks of questing, I'd rather just know where to go easily rather than trying to play detective.

The true test will come this November, shiny new expansion vs queues and questionable gameplay, I think I know who'll win.

The thing about combat in Warhammer is that there is a bit of a rock/paper/scissors with the character classes and combat.  This is definitely evident in 1v1 situations where if a mele dps character gets anywhere near a ranged dps character, the ranged dps character is going down.  That being said I play a ranged dps character and in 1v1 sutuations I can usually "root and run" but there's just no way you can stand toe to toe with a tank and take them down. 

I think this is due to the fact that Warhammer is meant to be played with others.

I also have notice the somewhat empy feel of a lot of the areas which doesn't make sense with huge server queues. I got a queue last night of over 45 min, so i watched some dvr tv and then logged on. 

I play on badlands and we didn't bother with the move. However, as order I have no Q time since they cloned it. Obviously everyone and their mom rolled destruction. It's really not mythic's fault. People just flocked to it. Was going to play skull throne originally, but heard it was going to be popular. I was surprised that badlands ended up as one. But a lively server is needed in this game.

never play the high population side and expect no Q's.

nerdsandwiches!

Wow, Jeff looks horrible in this video. Dude you gotta take care of yourself.

Darkened eye sockets
watery eyes
eye bags
general tired look.

Someones been doing an all nighter playing video games! (its actually 6am as I write this so I cant talk)

The game has many qualities but we'll if it's a game that I will play more than 2 or 3 months.

cool i bought my CE today and i love it

"Wow, Jeff looks horrible in this video. Dude you gotta take care of yourself.Darkened eye socketswatery eyeseye bagsgeneral tired look.Someones been doing an all nighter playing video games! (its actually 6am as I write this so I cant talk) "

Dont really know why, but WoW makes me going back to it.... make it stop, I <3 this game but still,
 WoW <333333333 ;( Make it stop x(

Looking forward to the Week 3 coverage.

@passivespiral: Ditto