davesf

Don't be diacouraged by the F2P moniker. Today games are all becoming shades of grey between cash/sub/f2p.

Overall, the monitization feels very similar to wow.. Because you want to buy the premium monthly sub if you like the game. Just like wow, they sell vanity items in the store, but IMO the in game costume drops are better. The shop costumes are kitchy out-of-lore things like a santa outfit. As a bonus, if your interest in the game fades, you can stop paying premium and still login occasionall.. Unlike subscription requires mmos.

As a former long term hardcore wow player, i find BnS really fun. Combat is really engaging and fun, in a totally different way than wow. Endgame instances are hard in a fun way.

The storyline is a single linear arc which feels alot like diablo. It also has *tons* of voiceover and cutscenes. I skippeed most of it, but if you are into that sort of thing, its there. Reaching levelcap is quicker than wow (fastest is 10 hours played).

Im in the beta... Is there a game there? So far it's been minutes of animated cutscenes which are too boring and long to sit through, followed by dropping me into situations where i have no idea what to do.

80ms is probably fine. I suspect OnLive will have two problems. (1) the display is 80% of the cost of an 'average' gaming rig. An xbox360 is only $300. It's hard to believe they will ship a hardware device at a low enough price to actually change the cost of gaming. (2) Their system will dramatically increase the cost-per-minute of play, because they must pay for the video stream for the entire time a user is playing. The Akamai-like end-point caching systems used for pre-recorded video streaming don't help here, because the streams are each unique. I wish them luck making these finances work out.