Portal 2 debunked

If you have an interest in gaming it’s likely you’ve heard of Portal 2. I was a bit unsure about this game, so decided to pick it up and test it out. After playing it from start to finish, these are my thoughts on the game. Portal 2 is a game made by Valve, and has a distinct Valve feel about it. If you’re familiar with the Half Life Series, then Portal 2 definitely feels related, but its not the same game.

Plot and gameplay

The game consists of a series of linear puzzles. Each puzzle is an arena consisting of obstacles, objects, and other futuristic stuff you interact with. The objective of each arena is to find the exit and escape to the next arena. In this game you do not have weapons that can do any damage, instead you have a portal gun so you can create portals, and move through them.

This isn’t your grandmas gravity gun

The gravity gun, making its first appearance later in the Half life series could be considered the parent of the portal gun, but while the gravity gun can attract objects from a distance and be used as a weapon, the portal gun can only be used to fire portals into walls. I think Valve realized they were onto something with the gravity gun, and around the time it was showcased, Valve were exploring more realistic game physics, hence the Portal series was born.

Lots of cool physics

I wouldn’t call the physics mind blowing or cutting edge. What the game does do is a lot of basic physics very well, and knits the basics nicely together to achieve a truly playable title. The presentation is solid and exudes quality. So what you end up with is a very tightly wrapped high quality end result.

Storyline

You’re trapped in a huge abandoned scientific research station with no humans in sight. As surreal as it sounds you only ever meet 2 robotic entities in the entire game but at least one of them is with you for most of the game play. The voice acting is not bad, and can be amusing at times, however the dialogs are slightly noobed up to cater for a younger audience.

Graphics

Don’t expect DX11 tessellation, the graphics are dx9 based. Crisp and run smooth, and extremely pleasing on the eye. The graphics do suit the environment you’re in, so no complaints there.

What I didn’t like

1. You always feel lost in the game, and don’t know where you are exactly. You know you’re in a research station, but you have no reference to its total size, or a birds eye view of the place, or a map. The game just pushes you from one arena to the next until you reach the end.

2. No guns, and nothing to shoot. I know the game isn’t a FPS, and I don’t expect it to be, but it would have been cool to be able to shoot a few more things or experience more real unrehearsed danger.

3. Not enough lure of the research center, not enough unfolding stories into the mysteries or origin of the place.

What I liked

1. Very good clean arena design. The puzzles are challenging and creative.

2. The feeling of accomplishment when you finish a puzzle.

3. The quality of the production.

Conclusion

Good game overall, certainly a classic, but because it is so linear, and without any enemies to shoot at. Once you’ve completed it, I think it has very little replay quality. Overall score 8/10

Playing chess drunk, its not a bad idea

Once in a while, every club player needs to drop his inhibitions. Here is an example why : http://www.screencast.com/t/8Yc6dlwF9

If you want to end up in bad positions, PLAY DRUNK!

If you want to test your skill at getting out of these positions – PLAY DRUNK…

enough said, enjoy the vid

Guildwars vs WoW

This post could also be called – “Guild wars from a WoW Players perspective”.

I know a lot of the videos you see “Guild wars vs WoW” start off with a 20 minute talk about character customization. If you haven’t watched those vids, you can grab them here and here.

I think its important to mention the following to any WoW player who is interested in purchasing a copy of Guildwars.

1. GUILD WARS IS NOTHING LIKE WOW

Before you say- “oh that’s a good thing”. Just be sure you know exactly what is different. In Guild Wars – You don’t get a fully explorable seamless game universe. In WoW you explore the world, and while you’re exploring you just never know who you are going to meet up with, or if you’re going to get ganked, etc. The whole WoW universe is seamless without long loading times. You and everyone else in WoW play in the same game universe. Guild Wars works differently. Most WoW players won’t understand unless it’s explained like this:  Imagine if Cities like Stormwind or Shattrath were the only places you could hookup with other players and chat in world. Imagine if every time you left a city, you did not enter into the world, but into an instance of the area you visited, and while there world chat didn’t work. For example the whole of “Goldshire” would be an instance. This is exactly what its like in Guild Wars. The explorable areas (in WoW: the world) are all instances in Guild Wars, and only You and your team can ever enter these areas.

As a WoW player its very important you understand this before you rush out and buy Guild Wars, it might not obvious, but it gets worse.

2. IN GUILD WARS IT’S IMPOSSIBLE TO GANK OR DUEL

Some guys have gone as far to say that PVP doesn’t exist in Guild Wars, this is not true. Guild wars does have PVP action, but you can only PVP in arenas. Its impossible to just meet someone in the wild and because of this, the game world feels more like a LAN party game, rather than a true MMORPG.

3. GUILD WARS HAS BETTER GRAPHICS

Its true the graphics are a lot better, I’ve never really liked the bubble gum WoW graphics. Just don’t confuse better graphics = better game play.

4. GUILD WARS HAS BETTER MOB AI

WoW mobs are pretty damn stupid, no doubt about this. In Guild Wars, the mobs have been better programmed. Its mainly to do with the way they patrol and group, but the overal PVE action is better in Guild Wars.

5. WOW HAS BETTER ITEMS AND ARMOUR AND SETS

Guild Wars has a max level of 20. In the time it takes to get to level 10 (thats 1/2 way through the game), you can get there with only upgrading your armor once, and weapon twice. This is because its unlikely anything good is going to drop from the environment during these levels, and so your best bet is just to buy from the vendors. You can craft, but you don’t get professions. In my experience the crafting is clunky.

6. WOW IS A BETTER GAME OVERALL

WoW might not be cutting edge, but it can be fun, and at least you know exactly what you’re getting with WoW. An epic, and long MMORPG with crafting, fighting, lore and items. Guild Wars on the other hand, is hard to explain, because I get the feeling even the game is confused. It’s a game that doesn’t know if its diablo or an MMORPG. But it tries to be both. The best way to describe Guild Wars would be like this: “Guild Wars is a game where you level up to a max level 20 by doing PVE Quests and exploring, once you get to level 20, you can then take part in Arena PVP Battles”.

7. Lastly, Blow for blow guild wars has better PVE combat action

Don’t think the PVE is revolutionary because its not, if anything its just average. The point is blow for blow, WoW action leaves a lot to be desired. In WoW, depending on your class,  it’s nearly impossible to retreat, if for example, you’ve gone with being a warrior. WoW combat is kinda boring too (No combos, no parry moves, strafing and moving around is almost a waste of time. Its best just to stand there and try do as much damage as quickly as possible, while at the same time monitoring your health. Guild Wars doesn’t do much better, except that for some reason the mob AI is better, and it feels more rewarding when you win.  Please don’t take this as a reason to go out and buy the game, I stress again we’re talking about an old game with an old combat system. If you want real action, try Assassins Creed 2 (not an MMORPG, just a single player action, but certainly gives you a lot of fun while involved in combat).

Conclusion

Most people who review Guild Wars tell you how great a game it is, and how it “Doesn’t have a monthly fee”. Every single GW player review I have seen starts off with a guy holding the CD, this is great I am happy these guys have a sense of permanent ownership over their game. But if cost is not an option there are better games out there, games better than either GW or WoW.

Some people might like the game, but I can’t help feeling a bit robbed by spending money on the game. It provides an average gaming experience. Its not bad, but I wouldn’t rush out and buy it. Having said that I am sure in the next 5 years someone is going to bring out a game that combines all the good MMORPG elements, with some decent PVP combat too, and PVE action. But sadly WoW is not that game either. If you’re tired of WoW and looking for something better, sorry it aint GW.

Why I love Steam

Steam is a good way to buy and keep your games. I know Steam is not for everyone, but I will tell you why I really like it.

Over the years, I’ve bought a few games. Mostly the original CD’s or DVD’s went missing, and I guess its questionable if I still have legal access to these games. I’ve also given away a lot of games I got tired of, only to think later on, “heh didn’t I used to own that game”. But the few games I purchased with Steam years ago, are still mine, still available to play and get game updates, and yes its fully legal.

Now I know that in the PC gaming world, a lot of people like getting games for free mainly because of the high pricing of games. I guess you can also contribute a lot of piracy to the fact that the culture of piracy was born long before the digital age and e-commerce. “Buy a cassette tape, here have a copy!” , things were just different in the 80’s and 90’s. Piracy only really caught on and started to rob from software and gaming profit margins in the late 90’s, but still the whole “why pay when you can get stuff for free” culture prevailed. Let’s not beat around the bush, most gamers who have at least 20 games in their collection more than likely paid for none of them, or just a few of them.

I’ve come to a point where I would rather have an ALL legal collection. Maybe its because I have a conscience, it has nothing to do with the law or being a “good citizen”. It has everything to do with living with myself, and at least trying to be a good person.

On the flip side, if you’re pirating, because you’re not paying any money, you can try and play any game you want for free. If the game sucked ass, you can uninstall it and move on, all you’ve lost is some bandwidth and time. If you walked into a shop and excitedly bought a game you thought would be cool, because the cover looked great, or the marketing hype said it would be great, and it sucks ass, you’re the loser. The worst case scenario is the game might not install, well then you still have to take it back to the shops, and beg for a refund.

That’s what I really like about Steam. Steam offer a lot of trial versions of the game, so you can try before you buy. Excellent variety too.

You will need a good solid internet connection to use Steam, no point in trying to download on a 56k modem.

I still wish the prices of games would come down. But I am sure that for legal gaming, steam is the way to go.

To the Funcom game design team

Firstly I would like to compliment you on bringing the first and only truly decent Sci-fi or futuristic MMORPG to the scene. Anyone who has ever played Anarchy Online knows exactly the level of detail this game has, even though its an old title now, it is still the most involved and complex MMORPG ever to be released.

Its kind of sad, that when gamers think MMORPG, they’re already thinking about World of Warcraft, or all the other games trying to be WoW (EQ,EQ2,WAR,Age of Conan, Age of Camelot, LOTR, etc). The actual MMORPG genre can encompass ANYTHING. Funcom was the first company to break the mold and bring us a futuristic MMORPG.

Anarchy Online starts off really interesting. You know you’re involved in a war, the sides of the conflict are explained, and you’re presented with a moral dilemma, either fight for freedom, or fight to maintain control and power. Its easy to tell, the game designers put a lot of effort into the initial game experience, but due to the scope of the game, it was impossible for them to keep up the same level of quality on such a grand scale.

Once on RK, the game does remain playable till around level 50-60. After this, you’ve pretty much seen the whole of the planet, and the gameplay turns into the endless grind problem that ALL MMORPGs face. Still in my experience WoW starts off feeling like a grind, right from level 1. At least AO only starts feeling grindy later. I guess this is because in WoW you start off questing, and don’t stop questing till you’re level 70, when you raid and do instances. In AO, you alternate between questing and instances. From subway to quest running to TOTW, back to questing. Another feature of AO which I like is that experience is not shared when you form teams, you get the same experience in a team or out of a team, so you have motivation to team for quests and instances. WoW and the clones despite what you might think actually discourage teaming because players quickly learn they earn 1/4 of the experience. MMOs are supposed to be social games.

After 60, its in your best interests to buy the SL and AI expansions, then you can continue getting the max enjoyment out of the game till around level 200, and this comes quicker than you might think! Especially in the SL region where sometimes killing 4 mobs gives you a ding. After level 200, the game again turns into that endless grind cycle.

What I really enjoyed about AO, is that its not a game for idiots. You have to think a bit harder than in other MMOs. Most items you want to equip won’t just slide on, twinking is hardcore, and the game has built in calc scripts to help you out with planning – yes it involves some maths. The game really eases you into twinking. In WoW you don’t twink, if you’re the right level or class, you can equip that item.

AO has lots of good futuristic game elements, like automatic weapons, personal space ship, player shops, implants. etc. Like I said before for a sci-fi experience no other game comes close.

But towards the end of the game planning you can see the development team heading off in a sidewards direction and starting to copy WoW.

the whole SL region, is not futuristic at all, suddenly you’re in some kind of spirit world, fighting well – evil stuff. In RK, the original game had you fighting mechanical robots, etc. I won’t talk much about the AI expansion, but I will say most players only enjoyed it because of the extra stats and drops. So the whole game just went sideways. SL had this dark, evil kind of feel to it, and although you were still using machine guns and modern equipment, the enemies got all WoW-ish, that WoW fantasy theme all over again.

Anyways. So you developed the foundation for a great sci fi- that could easily have come out with a brilliant sequel based on the original. Instead, you guys for what ever reasoned decided to release AoC, and as the word goes – You’ve released a WoW clone.

You had a great community of players in AO, most of them really into sci fi type games, because like I said, its the only sci-fi mmorpg of its kind on the market, and then you just yank that away from all these players by essentially leaving the game to rot and age.

Sure it’s a good game, it was in its time, but games do age, and need to be revamped, thats why games sequels come out. You’ve been promising a graphics update for so long most players don’t believe it will happen, and no one even talks about it anymore. But you’ve missed the point, graphics update would have been good in 2004, whats now needed is a new sci-fi, some variety to the MMO world again.

I am baffled why you decided to release a WoW clone, copying so many game elements from WoW. Instead of reusing your original sci-fi game elements, and creating a new futuristic sci-fi game instead, I believe it would have been a success, instead now you have AoC which I hear is a “flop” and gamers are not really playing it.

The unpublished guide to writing an RPG

1. Rule number 1: Before You read any further, know that WoW defines an MMORPG, if its not WoW then its not an MMORPG, period. Try to clone WoW, if you can’t copy every last detail, extract and use as much of the original game as possible.
2. Its really important you develop around all the stereo-typical races players have come to expect, never release a game without the usual suspects (Elves, Dwarfs, humans, etc)
3. Its equally as crucial that you continue to reuse all the old class types, Warriors, Paladins, Mages, Druids, etc. While we’re discussing classes make sure you limit each class to use only certain gear and weapons. It would be blasphemous if  a warrior somehow managed to learn a spell. Equally as blasphemous would be a mage that might have muscles and be able to wear plate armour. If you get stuck revert to what WoW did.
4. Have mounts in the game, always call them mounts, because mounts are mounts. Limit the player’s ability to climb on a mount until later, late enough for him/her to be crying out in frustration for the mount. Make prior mount walking speed as slow as you can possibly make it. Even if 3-4% of players leave the game due to this slow walk speed, most players love starting off gimp.
5. Include all the typical melee weapons for the warrior class (don’t even think about inventing new ones), and make sure all the spells in the game are based on the same tried and trusted elements (Earth, Fire , Wind and Water). Every other RPG does this, WoW did this, what makes you think you’re special?
6. Thinking of releasing a truly good and up to date RPG thats based in the future, something mindblowing? Retire from game design, what the world really needs is ANOTHER WOW CLONE, and don’t you forget it. Be like WoW, be like AoC, be like EverQuest 1 and 2. Be like Oblivion, Be like WAR, ALL the rest of em. Think Medieval, Swords and Magic, nothing else exists to you.
7. All NPC’s must always stand around looking dumb, if the NPC chops wood, let that NPC chop wood indefinately, never needing to break for food or drink. Remember NPCs are pixels and because of this can stand around for as long as it takes without ever needing to take a toilet break. just code NPC’s like they are in WoW.
8. Make the monster AI really stupid, every single monster of its kind should respond in exactly the same way every single time, they should also stand around looking stupid until directly attacked, they should stand around looking at the wall, until the player gets close enough to them, then they can run out and attack. Any mobs standing more than 10 yards away from an active fight should also just stand around picking their noses, waiting their turns to be killed.
9. Make all monsters carry stuff and gold. It makes perfect sense to players – crocodiles also need cash? Why not have them drop some silver. Good thing that wolf you just killed was holding some mana potion. And that Dino just dropped that Exceptionally rare blue sword.
10. Include an unparamounted number of mobs for the player to kill and grind through, make sure the mobs are all mindless idiots that drop stuff (maybe), make sure you include enough of these grindable mobs in the game to really give the player a good grind for his money, remember all players love senseless grinding, if you get stuck – refer to WoW.
11. Reuse the same questing mechanics as what you’ll find in WoW, either (a) walking from a->b (b) slaying a certain amount of mobs (c) slaying mobs to gather a certain amount of X (d) slaying some boss mob
12. Implement a really poor and unbalanced PVP system. Anything will suffice, players aren’t really expecting too much.
13. Include a complex crafting system, thats really taxing on players time. At the same time make sure all the very best gear drops from boss mobs. Make sure you include an auction house where the players can sell this rare gear. Include lots of hype about crafting in the marketing material for the game, so players will think. Crafting IS important, it is ESSENTIAL to reach a high level of my craft to make gold or items.
14. Make a lot of areas inaccessible, yet include them on the map giving the impression that the game world is larger than it is.  Remember if you get stuck think WoW.
15. Brainwash players into thinking they’re playing the ultimate game, give them lots of marketing material to swallow, they’ll play your game for 4-5 years before realising they’ve been dupped into playing just another WoW clone.

Lastly don’t call your game WoW, WaR or AoC, but your game must comply with the 3 letter acronym naming convention. WoW did this, so should you!

Is WoW worth playing?

WoW (World of Warcraft) is the most worlds most popular MMORPG. As a gamer I decided I would try WoW, this is what I experienced.

MMORPGs are stagnant

I’ll start off by saying that ALL MMORPGs are very similar and the genre is stagnant, has been for a long time. The mass continue to pay because there just isn’t anything better on the market at this time. Its this blend of mindless grinding and the same restated class and ability system that MMORPG fans have come to enjoy, and expect in an RPG. You’ll notice most MMORPGs on the market are really just WoW clones.

WoW is simplistic

I don’t really consider WoW to be that deep a game. No matter what Race or Profession you decide to play in WoW, and no matter what so called hard-core WoW gamers will tell you, the over game elements are so simplistic that its a bit laughable. Whats laughable is that people boldy talk about WoW with statements like – “Indepth fun and interactive quests”, “Unique Character Creation”, “Complex Game World”. If you’ve actually played WoW and if you have an IQ over 120, then you’ll agree with me, the challenges in WoW are so simplistic that the average 8 year old could easily master WoW.

The game breaks down into:

• Levelling – this essentially breaks down into (questing/grinding or just raw grinding).
• Exploring – WoW is huge, there is no doubt about that, but don’t confuse HUGE with complex, WoW areas are made up of Zones, and typically each zone has a level range (how convienient) of mobs. I will give credit to the designers of these Zones, they look good, but I always found the game world looks semi dead, sorry to say. Maybe its because the NPC/U’s just stand around looking stupid. Maybe its because the graphics are a bit old school. Maybe its because once you’ve been to a zone, you know exactly what to expect.
• Upgrading gear – Upgrading gear in WoW is pretty satisfying, the Auction house offers an easy way to get gear, and gold is easy enough to get hold of.
• Guild life – This is the usual story with any MMORPG, logging on and talking to guild mates mainly about : yup you guessed it WoW. I’ve played a few MMORPG’s and most people that you interact with in the game only want to talk about the game.
• Talent tree and upgrading spells, etc. Its nice when you upgrade your skills, because you can start fighting back with some pride, but then what happens? The mobs get harder and higher level, so you remain constantly uneffective until really late in the game. I found I was avoiding unnecessary fights just because of the sheer energy it took to take down a mob.
• Crafting, Fishing etc – a nice touch but boring and repetative as hell to upgrade these skills.

Despite all this WoW can be addictive

I noticed that a lot of people get addicted to WoW, and I wondered why this was. I mean lets face it the PVP system is kinda lame, and not balanced at all, the game could easily be mastered by 8 year olds, so why do full grown men/woman end up spending years of their life in this game, some players averaging 8-11 hours a day in the game? I think that the sheer size of the game is what gets people hooked initially. Most of the game play is boring, average, repetative and a grind, but every now and again the game administers a dose of fun to the user, and its this does that keeps the user hooked and keeps the user coming back for that little bit more. Most gamers new to WoW will put up with the repetition waiting to see when the “real fun” starts. Perhaps some people are just so lifeless that grinding is fun to them.

The varied characters are another main reason behind the addiction. Blizzard have constucted WoW in such a way that all the classes  have some good features and some really crap features. This means that not one choice of class is ideal, while you’re levelling your class to level 70-80, you’ll find a lot of other players in the game who will tell you they have the perfect class – Shamans can walk on water! Shamans don’t need a mount they have Ghost Wolf, etc. If you’re not careful you’ll want to try out that class too, because now you think you’re missing out on something. Thats the danger of WoW wasting your time, its a long way from level 1-80, and if you intend to become a WoW expert, you’re going to have to spend time playing each class till level 80, and that my friend is a lot of grinding.

Would I recommend WoW as a game? Short answer, No!

Long answer: Read a book, watch a documenary, go for a jog around the block, essentially do anything but waste your time playing WoW. Almost all the WoW players I know say that they enjoy the game, but see the time played as wasted, and if they could do it all again, would never have started playing WoW.

Will funcom charge players for their new Anarchy Online graphics engine update?

Its now 2009, and Funcom have been promising AO players a graphics update since…… astonishingly 2004. I am not sure if the graphic engine even exists, I’ve found no compelling evidence that confirms its real, and since FC have been promising this update for the last 5 years, its kinda hard to trust anything they tell you.

Lets give FC the benefit of the doubt  and pretend that the graphics update exists, it might still be a little too late for the AO community. 

The Legacy of Zan, to be released feb 2009, is a booster pack that may contain this graphics update, unfortunately its just not easy getting a defined list of whats included in the booster, no screen shots or product descriptions are available. The AO website does contain at least one dick weed interview – gee thanks FC.  If you login to your account section, you’ll be able to pre-order the booster pack, just don’t ask too many questions about what you get for that 20 euros.

Anarchy Online is a highly ambitious project, but it is old and stale, every dog has its day. If FC can’t maintain AO, they should at least make it more cost effective. Its still in the same price range of the latest leading titles. 

Most of the AO commnity has already left the game, possibly returning when AO gets updated or improved, but it seems the game is dying. I’m not sure if players who are now on titles like WoW or EQ2 would return because of a basic graphics upgrade, especially if this would cost them money just to preview.

Is Age of Conan boring?

Funcoms latest game, Age of Conan, sorry to say is a complete disappointment. I’ve been playing AoC for around 2 months now, and I’m so bored, I’m going to cancel my subscription. 

update: cancelled my subscription

Here are the reasons why AoC gets boring very quickly:

1. Its the loneliest MMORPG game you’ll ever play. 

In AoC you’ll spend the majority of the game running quests. Each kill you make while questing, gives you some xp, if you decide to team for a quest, you’ll have to share the xp. This really slows down your ability to level. AoC is best played as a single player for the first 50 levels. This is not why people sign up to play MMORPG’s. Another reason why the game feels so lonely is because the landscape is so badly designed, that its hard to meet up with people.

2. The travel system is boring

All  RPGs require walking and running, but some games have warps and quick run speed, not AoC. You’ll need to wait a full 40 levels before you can mount a horse, but then don’t expect the experience to be breath taking, the horse experience was a bitter disappointment. Often you’ll need to cross 2 full play fields to get to an area, You have to go from A then to C to get to B, this walking takes up lots of time.

3. The combat system is not relaxing. 

Funcom introduced the “real combat system” into the MMORPG genre, this is apparently what makes the game good. This might be true for the first 1-2 hours of gameplay but to kill tough mobs, you need to execute combos, and plenty of them, its likely you need around 10-15 combos for an enemy in your skill range. This means major keyboard gymnastics. This real combat engine is essentially you standing facing enemies pushing buttons. The combat lacks a lot, the combos are too simplified and all do pretty much the same thing. Moving around in combat doesn’t help a lot either, you cant really strafe and reposition yourself for a better shot.

If you play games to relax, after a while this button pressing can get annoying, so annoying you’ll want to go out and buy a programable keyboard, like the G11. Even with the G11, you still need to put in a lot of manual effort to kill mobs. 

4. The areas are so big, town names so confusing that its hard to meet people

The game takes a lot of getting used to, and even once you know the landscape, meeting people takes time, you can literally be on the other side of the world without a quick travel system requiring you to cross vast areas to meet with your friends, this really sucks. Guid cities are also miles away, and unlike in some games that contain a “warp to guild city”, in AoC you have to cross a vast wilderness each time you want to visit the city. Its way easier just to have Guild meetings in a town.

5. Hardly any upgrade options

Perhaps its just me, but when an RPG automatically starts controlling your characther attributes (str, agility, dex), you have to question the target audience. When you level you get points that can be spent on just a few skills, more related to your run speed and damage recovery.

All the armour in the game looks pretty much the same, and you just don’t get social attire, even though its supposed to be the “sexy” RPG, its not that sexy trust me. You get slots for armour and items, but its as basic as you could possibily get it. Anarchy Online and older game is still way better  in regard to character customization, appearance and skill growth.

6. Its extremely religious

Its really annoying that Funcom have to always introduce religion into their games. Not every gamer is a Satan worshipping, demon loving, blood spilling whore who wakes up in the morning and gives death a kiss. Most of the gamers I know are pretty respectable and normal people who don’t sacrifice to the Pagan gods at every given moment, and who just “put up” with the religion because its there, but don’t enjoy it being there. I understand these MMORPG’s need a good/bad system, but why, oh why do they have to make it so compellingly religious and just plain rotten to the core. The promotion of immorality and idol worship is offensive to Christians, who also enjoy a good RPG. AoC is so over loaded with pagan religion, its frankly annoying, and its a new question I ask before I buy a game lately, “is it full of the slimey kind of religion?”

6. Its a WoW clone.

The last thing the MMORPG world needs is another World of Warcraft, but thats exactly what Funcom has released, exactly why they were so compelled to do so, is beyond my understanding. After playing a bit of WoW, its pretty obvious to see that FC have copied WoW. In short AoC adds nothing new to the genre, its just a slightly better looking WoW, but I would have to say WoW is more playable.

Don’t say I didn’t warn you. 

Here is some info from other players. 

http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=119399

 

 

A site gamers will definitely want to bookmark

If you’re a gamer, you’re going to want to check out this site:
 http://www.systemrequirementslab.com/referrer/srtest

It has the means via a light weight browser based java applet, to detect if your computer is capable of running certain games. Most popular titles are selectable, and I did a few test runs, and was pleased with the quality of the results. It tells you exactly why your computer does not pass minimum specifications for a game.