Blog Posts from "WoW vs. WAR" - Gameriot.com

C9 Open Beta Preview

no.spam@gameriot.com (jflanden) — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 22:29:58 -0400

Here is a PvP video of Shaman vs. Warrior(Alpha footage):

While being limited to just a 1vs1 Arena, at the moment, the duels I have experienced have been extremely fun and make me look forward to the actual PvP content they are going to add to the end-game. Same thing applies in PvP with PvE, when you are hit, you get stunned for about 0.25 seconds.

My Duels mostly consisted of(This is PvP at level 10-12, in a game with 50 levels):
1. Starting off in stealth to close the distance, it's a VERY short duration.If not that, harassing from range with arrows.
2. Using Flying Lightning Kick to catch my enemy into a 4string Left Click attack, using Kick if I need to, into an Electric Stab attack(strongest ability).
3. Usually roll out immediately after to bait them into attacking nothing to then get back in Melee distance and use my grab attack(E) then using my Roundhouse kick off the bounce from the grab to get them even higher into the air.
4. Use my 3string attack combo into my arrow attack(L, L, L, R) while they are in the air(you can't just use your attacks as fast as possible, you need to delay each attack slightly to keep them juggled) which ends up with them on the ground and myself being launched backwards from the arrow attack.
5. Shoot an arrow at them while they are on the ground. Only a few abilities/attacks allow you to hit your enemy while they are on the ground, you cannot use your 4string attack on them while they are on the floor, for example.

That's about it, use Flying Lightning Kick or Jump(jump? read next paragraph) to close distance, Kick when having trouble starting attacks on enemy or countering attacks, use my enhanced dodge roll to get out of an attack combo, shoot arrows/use triple arrow attack/charge up arrow attack(mainly use this when they are getting up) when at range, make sure to roll away from target when they are on ground since everyone has an AoE attack(on about 10second cooldown) when getting up from a knockdown, and actively dodge their spells/attacks.

Also a good thing to note is that Jumping actually is a part of your playstyle, not something you just spam for the hell of it. Jumping forward is a pretty decent lunge, which you can do jump+Left Click for a lunge attack, and to balance this, when you jump you have about 0.25seconds of not being able to move after the jump when landing, you are vulnerable in the air, and you need to aim it correctly to be effective with it.

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I will probably end up buying the Koren Retail version of this game based on how my experience has been so far with the game. Hopefully, in the near future, someone creates an English crack(like they did with Aion) so I can further learn more about the game.

Koreans Are Pushing The MMO Genre Forward. New MMO: C9

no.spam@gameriot.com (jflanden) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 01:38:13 -0400

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UnItU4FLP4

Great, another game to endlessly wait for until you can actually get your hands on it yourself, right? Amazingly, I am lucky enough to be playing this game at this very moment through the Korean Open Beta which started yesterday.

I am absolutely stunned by how smooth this game runs while graphically looking better than Aion(Character Creator: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5eOPn25WcI ). The movement and combat gameplay in C9 is extremely fluid and fast paced to the point where I was VERY surprised just after doing my first quest. It's also a nice touch that items in the environment(like crates) are fully destructable or can be picked up and thrown. The game just overall has a well-polished Modern MMO feel to it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EtA1jSreK84

A New Type of MMO: Tera

no.spam@gameriot.com (jflanden) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 17:37:29 -0400

Friends and Family Beta Test - June 2009
Closed Beta Testing - Late Summer/Early Fall 2009
Open Beta Testing - Fall/Winter 2009/2010
Release - Q1/Q2 2010

They plan on releasing the game worldwide shortly after the Korean release.

Aion Open Beta Impressions

no.spam@gameriot.com (jflanden) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:31:58 -0400

I was quite skeptical about this game but I am surprised to say that I am really enjoying this game.

I was scared that Auto-Follow would ruin this game, but it is nothing like Guild Wars Auto-Follow, it is completely non-invasive on your movement. When you either Right Click an enemy(to actvate Auto-Attack) or use an ability, you will turn on Auto-Follow, but ANY movement at all on your part will completely cancel the auto-follow and it is not jittery/buggy at all, just like you were never auto-following in the first place, which means that controlling your character yourself is always the better solution.

You also gain movement bonuses in Aion, which encourages movement while in combat. Moving forward will put a forward arrow icon below your character which means your attack damage is increased. Strafing left to right will put a left/right arrow icon below your character which means your evasion is increased. Backpedaling(lol) will put a down arrow icon below your character which means your block is increased.

The combat in Aion is fluid, fast paced, and fun even at level 5 on a laggy Chinese server, as a scout(Which at level 10 chooses to become a rogue or a hunter), which is about 30minutes of gameplay. So far, I don't get locked into any of my instant attack animations.(Which is what I thought what happened in Aion, maybe with more powerful skills to balance them?) I also don't have access to any advanced skills that chain off of other abilities.

Warhammer Has Failed; What Else is There to Look Forward To?

no.spam@gameriot.com (jflanden) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 17:17:01 -0500

In a time where Gaming sales is at an all time high, even with the Economy in the ****ter, Mythic has been hit with 60-130 people laid off, with more planned in the future: http://www.joystiq.com/2009/02/04/rumor-more-layoffs-at-mythic-senior-designers-affected/

Even Senior Developers, who have been with the game from the very start, have been laid off because of WAR being a failure. I blame the combat being terrible . WAR has lost over 60% of their players in only 3 months which makes it as successful as Age of Conan!: http://www.massively.com/2009/02/03/breaking-300k-warhammer-online-subscribers-as-of-december-31-2/

There are only a few hopes left for a MMO game to be released that could actually provide good competition to WoW. If Star Wars, Dark Fall, and Aion all fail, you can expect no other company willing to pour millions into another MMO game.

Hope you all are looking forward to Blizzard's new MMO because that's all that there will be left.

Darkfall Online Beta Footage

no.spam@gameriot.com (jflanden) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:15:44 -0500

So this is what everyone is waiting for?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XX4jLw5oM1c

Most Under-Appreciated Games. Gameplay Videos Included.

no.spam@gameriot.com (jflanden) — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 20:52:29 -0400

Here are 2 great games that I enjoyed playing but are very under-appreciated due to lack of advertisement/hype. Feel free to post great games that you feel are under appreciated.

1.
Platform:
Youtube STREAM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcPlyFYXk8w

Anyone played any great games that you feel are under-appreciated? Post them with a video of gameplay.

Who's Raiding in WotLK? Epic WotLK Boss Fight Video Included.

no.spam@gameriot.com (jflanden) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 22:14:43 -0400

I'm sure many people know about the two huge changes to WoW Raiding.

1. No more Raid Stacking: Buffs and debuffs of the same type will no longer stack and most buffs/debuffs needed for a raid have been spread between many classes. Blizzard wants raids to "Bring the Player, not the Class." and has also made many other changes to make sure that is main mentality for raiding.

2. Every Raid can be 10-manned: From the first 25man raid dungeon to all the way up to Arthas, people will be able to 10man every single Raid dungeon. This makes raiding MUCH more accessable and I know for many this is their favorite change over anything else in WotLK.

Here is a short video I made of the Malygos boss fight and there is only one word that describes the fight: Epic.

Malygos Boss Fight
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBZOqpvgpgw

The original video can be found here: http://www.warcraftmovies.com/movieview.php?id=90555 My version made it into 5minutes instead of 12minutes because I know no one wants to sit and watch a 12minute fight. I also changed the music and added in the Boss's voice acting.

WotLK raiding is looking like a HUGE step up from Burning Crusade and looks like it will be extremely fun, even for those who never raided before.

So who plans on Raiding in WotLK? Did you not raid in Burning Crusade but plan on doing so in WotLK?

Blizzard vs Mythic: Mark Jacobs is 'angry'

no.spam@gameriot.com (jflanden) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 20:12:56 -0400

This all started with this interview: http://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/blizzard-wizard where Blizzard states that over half of people who left WoW for WAR have already returned.

Then add that interview with this even better interview: http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/10/16/world-of-warcraft-game-director-on-warhammer-online/ where Jeff Kaplan(Blizzard Game Director) talks about how Mythic wouldn't let Blizzard into WAR's Beta and about his experiences with WAR after playing it.

"Because I'm angry and given that his position at Blizzard, I think he should have showed more class. You can argue that I should have as well but I'm tired of this type of BS, especially coming from Blizzard. They have made billions off WoW and they really don't need Kaplan dissing, in any way, a competitive product. That's just wrong, period. I didn't diss EQ/AC/UO when we were developing DAoC and that's always been a standing rule of mine. If another developer doesn't want to play by the same rule, I reserve the right to respond, which I did. In Kaplan's case, talking about "his issues" with WAR during it's first 30 days is laughable especially since WoW had plenty of issues of their own at launch and considering that they spent 2x as long working on WoW as we did on WAR, some of their issues were just as bad or worse than ours. And his nonsense about our Beta is even more laughable considering Blizzard runs internal-only (NDAed by employment agreements) alphas at the same point where we would already be inviting thousands of regular people (under NDA) into our game.

I'm not normally a conspiracy kind of guy but within a few days of each other the COO and the Game Director of Blizzard both diss our game (though Paul did damn us with faint praise) does make me wonder."
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What do you all think about this?

WoW vs WAR: Combat Game Mechanics Video

no.spam@gameriot.com (jflanden) — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 15:59:28 -0400

With only a few days left on my account, this will probably be my last video about WAR.

What you will see being compared in this video:
Resource System
Collision
Kiting
Animations
Combat Gameplay from a TECHNICAL standpoint to see how each game handles a fight when using many abilties.(The reason I am fighting elites in the WoW part is because those are the only fights that last longer than 10seconds.)

"Click watch in high quality."
Youtube STREAM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFqBeEyJZfc

These are things that I think that WAR needs fixed/changed based on this video.

-Actions points should not have the GCD/Casting penalty and should be re-worked/balanced around that change. Right now, the current system allows slower thinkers to catch up to faster thinkers that are using abilities much faster.

-They need to fix the Collision Detection so people don't teleport on your screen after blocking them for 2-4seconds.

-They need to remove the Kiting restriction, the restriction only dumbs the game down much more.

-They need to fix WAR's animations. There is no reason my animation should go off when my ability isn't and my animations shouldn't be going off more than once when using an ability fast.

-They need to fix cast bars from being buggy and getting random pushback when you aren't taking any damage.

-Lastly, tweak the game more to be as responsive/fluid as WoW.

Funcom Defends â€˜Age of Conan,â€™ Unfurls Plans To Improve Game

no.spam@gameriot.com (jflanden) — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 23:55:32 -0400

Found this interesting interview with Funcom. When compared to WAR, AoC's combat plays much better from a technical standpoint and was pretty fun. I personally think AoC had the potential, the game just lacked content, good ideas, and balance(lol oneshotting people.).

http://multiplayerblog.mtv.com/2008/10/07/funcom-defends-age-of-conan/

Here are some quotes:

"We did add new servers shortly after launch, but in our eagerness to please I think we also rushed the deployment of too many servers too fast. So what we are looking at now is actually merging servers, since this will make the game better for our players."

"First of all, for the non-siege PvP we are now adding many of the features we envisioned during pre-launch development, like PvP levels, PvP items and a PvP consequence system, and all of that is happening this autumn."

"when the time is right, we will naturally , and I guess that the â€œproof will be in the puddingâ€ when that time comes."

What do you all think about this? Anyone see themselves ever going back to play AoC? After experiencing WAR, if Funcom actually fixes up the game and adds much more to it, I could maybe see myself giving the game another chance.

WAR: Is the Collision Detection Bad Game Design?(Video Included.)

no.spam@gameriot.com (jflanden) — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:52:55 -0400

Decided to play out the free month of WAR because of the new change to Scenario queues(allowing to queue for all 3 while in any zone) then that mixed with how easy it is to exploit AFKing Scenarios to level(The game does NOT kick you out of a Scenario for AFKing the entire time without moving at all.) and macros/addons auto queuing/joining so you don't even have to be near your computer to level.

Click "watch in high quality"
Youtube STREAM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MtpSyhDgjYs

What do you all think about this?

WAR: What a Grind.

no.spam@gameriot.com (jflanden) — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 23:16:22 -0400

Not sure how everyone else is doing in WAR right now, personally I stopped playing after 1-11 because of the horrible Scenario Queue System which makes waiting times painful.

While browsing the forums, I found this: http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=112132

WAR, What a grind.
"Just got 32 before and all I can say is am I in Hyboria? I've done every chapters quests from T2 to T4 chapter 16, grind every single influence reward from chapter 10 onwards, yet still have to meat grind random mobs for hours to get levels. I have been trying to get scenarios to pop, good luck that happening. Cleared Gunbad a few times, good luck getting any XP there.

I can forgive any sort of CTD, bugs etc, but grinding for hours is just /facefalm.

Fixs: increase quest xp, increase mob xp and bring back killing sprees. Not that I don't enjoy getting LESS xp from some quests in T4 then quests in T2, it always brings a smile to me when you get 3000xp for a quest in T4. Lets not go into the fact that mob xp doesn't increase at all.

I hope people are aware that are levelling lower, it gets much much worse, get your grind on Hyborians, because November 13 is coming."

Here's another poster: http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/showthread.php?t=112465&page=2
"Notice how no one who's mid-tier 3 or higher is agreeing with this thread. That should tell you something. Leveling in tier 2 and below is fine. Once you hit mid-tier 3 it literally grinds to a halt. I'm doing everything the game has to offer: quests, public quests, scenarios (tons R26RR24), open rvr, everything... and leveling for all practical purposes has stopped. It's now just a grind... public quest mobs or scenarios take your pick. Either way you basically have to do it all day to get one level. If they don't fix this by the time the masses hit mid tier 3, people will be leaving in droves."

This makes me even happier that I am not wasting anymore time in WAR, the combat is horrible enough. Mythic trying to make sure it takes till WotLK's release to hit 40 or what? They already just recently increased EXP needed to level.

This looks like AoC all over again, probably delaying as much as possible to work on the End-Game, have fun grinding till then.

I wonder what Funcom thinks about this.

Level 80 Death Knight/Siege PvP

no.spam@gameriot.com (jflanden) — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 20:53:35 -0400

Here's a Level 80 Deathknight PvP video I made with Siege Vehicles from the new Battleground and from Lake Wintergrasp.

Part1: Lake Wintergrasp
Part2: New Battleground
Part3: New Arenas(2vs2 Skirmish)
Part4: Dueling

Filefront SREAM/DOWNLOAD: http://files.filefront.com/LEVEL80DKwmv/;11865963;/fileinfo.html

Youtube STREAM:(click "watch in high quality") http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LpiuM6Vw2JU

The new Battleground is extremely fun and refreshing from the other BGs and Lake Wintergrasp is really fun too even though it's a work in progress at the moment, it has A LOT of potential to be amazingly fun as they work more and more on it.

Blood/Frost/Unholy Death Knight PvP Video.

no.spam@gameriot.com (jflanden) — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:28:39 -0400

Made a quick video showing off most of the Death Knight spells/animations and have footage of PvPing as 51/0/0 Blood, 0/51/0 Frost, and 0/0/51 Unholy.

0:14 Death Knight Spells/Animations
0:43 Blood Spec PvP
2:20 Frost Spec PvP
3:08 Unholy Spec PvP

Filefront STREAM/DOWNLOAD: http://files.filefront.com/Death+Knight+PvPwmv/;11818728;/fileinfo.html

Click "watch in high quality".
Youtube STREAM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8BW4tOMazY

-Talent Spec Summaries-

Blood: High Melee DPS/Great Self-Healing.

Frost: Great CC/Defensive Cooldowns.

Unholy: Lots of DoTs/Gargoyle summon and being able to control your Ghoul.

WoW vs WAR: Combat Video

no.spam@gameriot.com (jflanden) — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 22:12:05 -0400

Friend recently got into WotLK Beta and let me play for a day so I made a Death Knight.

Here's a Death Knight World PvP video at level 58 with WAR Combat/PvP footage as the second part of the video that I made.

(Click "watch in high quality" in the link for best quality.)
Youtube STREAM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s10rk_wAYMY

Death Knight is a fun class to play, while I won't be maining a Death Knight, I will definitely be messing around with one in WotLK.

WAR: Combat Review, Video Included(Updated.)

no.spam@gameriot.com (jflanden) — Thu, 11 Sep 2008 23:10:07 -0400

New patch today: http://herald.warhammeronline.com/warherald/NewsArticle.war?id=247

"Ability Not Ready Yetâ€

We've recently improved ability responsiveness which will reduce the chance of you receiving the "Ability Not Ready Yet" message erroneously. This should help combat feel more natural!

Did it fix the Combat? Watch the latest video I just recorded and you decide:

Youtube STREAM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmhC7OoD_YM

The patch did give you an option to toggle off smart camera and it now shows your "Combustion" number over the skull which are both nice changes, sadly the combat is still really bad.

Click for my Last entry about this problem that includes a much longer video that even has RvR gameplay in it.

WAR: Combat Review, Video Included.

no.spam@gameriot.com (jflanden) — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 21:44:07 -0400

Well, it's one week from Release now and the Combat is still horrible.

I will let the Video do all the talking.

My level 10 Bright Wizard and level 8 Black Orc in Open Beta. This was all recorded on American Servers with an average FPS of 30-40. No Music, only In-Game Sound.

0:04 Bright Wizard Combat
0:56 Black Orc Combat
1:57 Black Orc PvP
4:37 Bright Wizard PvP

Filefront STREAM/DOWNLOAD: http://files.filefront.com/WAR+Combatwmv/;11755241;/fileinfo.html

Youtube STREAM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUQxm_3eqh4

In this video you will see:
*Buggy Cast Bar.

*Animations happening more than once for a move that only fires off once.

*Buggy/Twitchy Animation transitions between other abilities when chain casting abilities after another.

*Animations happening when the ability isn't even firing off.

*Overall Sluggish/Unresponsive Combat.

I really wanted to enjoy this game as it would have been a good break from WoW till WotLK but I just can't play a game with horrible Combat like this.

Combat is the Core of the Game, something that should be fully tweaked/fixed months before the game releases yet many will say "It's Mythic guys! They will fix it! Don't worry!", come on... was DAoC known for it's fluid/responsive combat?

New MMOs will have bugs and that's fine, but there is ZERO excuse to have horrible combat like this on release. Really seems like Mythic basically said "@%$# it, our game engine sucks and this is the best we can do, lets release the game.".

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Well, I hope Aion delivers on satisfying combat when it releases.

Aion will have Free Movement(WASD Keys), a Jump Button, Fast Paced Combat, and even Aerial Combat(Your characters learn how to fly at level 10.). The game is supposed to be released in Korea next month and the English Version will be sold in early 2009. Aion will be a Subscription Based MMO, not a ****ty F2P MMO with an item shop.

Yeah, I said "Korea"(OMG GRINDFEST), it is not a grind fest though, at least that is what the Developer promises in this August 19 2008 Interview: http://www.warcry.com/articles/view/interviews/5155-WarCry-Talks-Aion

"WC: How do you answer the thought that Aion is "just another grind fest"?

That is another misconception based on where the development team is creating the game. Aion players will be able to participate in a number of activities to advance their characters and not just killing NPC after NPC in a mind-numbing fashion. The missions and quests available are more than sufficient to keep players engaged and leveling up without resorting to repeats or grinding endless mobs for experience."

Anyway, Aion's Combat looks amazing right now, here is Closed Beta footage of an Assassin(Click "watch in high quality."):

Youtube STREAM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd6WGwlvKHI

WAR's End-Game Lacking, Game's Longevity Not Looking Good.

no.spam@gameriot.com (jflanden) — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 13:02:33 -0400

This is a Review from a Beta Tester that has extensive experience with WAR's End-Game.

It is very LONG so I will be trimming it, here are things that I won't be including in order to focus more on what is supposed the main selling point for this game: his Review on Combat, PvE Questing, PvE Dungeons, and Crafting. You can read all of it here

Iâ€™ve gone on long enough, Iâ€™m sure youâ€™ll agree. Essentially, WAR has great potential. Assuming the combat is sorted out before release, there is a lot of interesting PvE quest content to go through, and a decent World RvR situation and sets of Scenarios to play. But once you get to Tier 4 the amount of content open to you drastically decreases, and I think many will quickly tire of whatâ€™s on offer.

The fundamental flaws in the reward structure for Open RvR, the problems with City Sieges, and the over-importance of Scenarios will leave a bitter taste in the mouth for many. I will certainly buy the game to play through the PvE content, to enjoy the inspired Tome, to soak in the Lore etc. But I cant see too many spending too long recapturing the same old Keeps, the same old BOs, and redoing to Capital Siege over and over again. Some serious thought has to go into how all the game elements mesh together before the majority of players reach CR31, or I fear WAR may begin to empty out.

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Looks like the game will only be keeping many busy till WotLK since most will already get the sense of "Beating the game" within only the first few months of playtime with not much replayability for the game beyond that.

Only time will tell though, I'm sure it's obvious to most why they are doing everything they can to release the game in September no matter how un-ready WAR may be for the masses. I hope they can at least fix their combat before release to make those few months much more enjoyable.

Warhammer: RvR make up for the Horrible Combat?

no.spam@gameriot.com (jflanden) — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:13:40 -0400

PvP video included in entry.

Here is how I feel about WAR's combat if you haven't read: http://wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/WoW-vs-WAR/Warhammer-Combat-is-Amazingly

Combat sucks at the moment, maybe World RvR and Scenarios can make up for horrible combat?

My experience with World RvR:
I am trying to take over a castle that is controlled by Order, it is guarded by Many NPCs and you also need to break down the door to get in and kill all the NPCs within the castle to take it over.

This was the most buggiest @^%$ ever, the sentries infront of the castle would bug out to be invincible and still attack you, and once we finally broke down the door of the castle to get in, the Champions/Hero(Elites/Boss) are impossible to kill because every 10 seconds they keep reseting to full health from bugging out. So my experience with World RvR was really frustrating. Also the Siege weapons are really lame, they don't move and just put you into First person Shooter mode, WoW's siege vehicles in WotLK is what I am really excited to try out.

After that, I decided to stop playing World RvR and check out Scenarios.

My Experience in Scenarios:
Â First of all, it is such a pain in the ass to queue for these things. There are Three different Scenarios(level 12-20) and if you don't want to wait 20+minutes for a Queue to pop then you must Queue for all three Scenarios.

You can Only queue for the Scenario of the Area you are in, so in order to queue for all three you must use the Flight Master at the War Camp to get to each different area and your queues reset after every Scenario game, this gets VERY annoying to do after every single scenario to have to refly to each different area to Queue for the Scenarios all over again. I thought they were trying to make it easier to Quest/Scenario PvP at the same time...

Now when actually playing the Scenarios, no matter what Scenario it is with it's different objectives every single one of them felt the same just different environment which felt like mindless zerg fests. The Scenarios just doesn't have a tactical feel in my opinion for example in a WSG game: grabbing the flag in WSG, defending the flag carrier, guarding your flag's base, getting your flag back, etc. just feels like a lot more is going on in a WSG(for example) compared to a WAR Scenario.

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So not only is Combat bad, but RvR from my experience in it's current state is buggy as hell, Scenarios are all boring mindless zerg fests, and queueing for Scenarios is a complete pain in the ass...

I am sure that the end-game may be much better than what I experienced at low levels but they really need to fix the Combat before I even consider putting that much time into this game to get to Level 40.

Download for best quality.
Filefront STREAM/DOWNLOAD: http://files.filefront.com/VIDDD+0001avi/;11607357;/fileinfo.html

Click "watch in high quality" under "Views"
Youtube STREAM: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhkm9L-J9rg

WAR's Combat just isn't fun enough at the moment for me to throw down 50bucks and to put the effort/time into it that MMOs need in order to get to the "good stuff".

But there is hope for this game! Mark Jacobs recently posted this about Preview Weekend: http://vnboards.ign.com/warhammer_online_age_of_reckoning_general_board/b22997/108341444/p1/?87

If they do everything he is saying by the time of release, which if they do I will be very surprised, I just may give the game another chance at launch, if not then I may check back in a couple months.

Looks like Blizzard plans on releasing WotLK Content patch around WAR's Release date so Mythic definitely has a fire burning under their ass to get @%$# fixed: http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.html?topicId=9236465192&sid=1
"In preparation for the expansion, we will be issuing a new content patch in the coming weeks."

Also, here is a list of small complaints about the game that bug me, not including things I have already mentioned in this entry or about combat from my last entry, feel free to add to this if you want incase I forgot something:

[u]-When using Offensive abilities it auto turns your character to face your target, @%$#in retarded.

-No option to turn off "Smart Camera" that repositions it behind your character when you move.

-When highlighting my mouse over other players, even my teammates, it does not tell me what Class they are playing.

-No way in options to make it so you can actually see how much energy you have in numbers instead of just the yellow bar.

-When targeting people it does not show the player's face in the portrait.

-When targeting people it does not show how much energy the player has.

-No enemy cast bar

-Your debuffs and buffs on your character are mixed together under your character's portrait.(They don't even have a separate row for them)

-The scrolling combat text next to your character when doing damage is very small.

-No target of your target.

-The double targeting system is just really wacky.(This game's way of trying to have a Focus target?)

-When trying click on something infront of yourself you will most likely click on your character by mistake instead becuase your character is clickable.

-I wish there was a way to turn off the "click" noise or for it to be changed to something a lot less annoying.

-Chat system really sucks(Small things like this you really take for granted in WoW.)

-No Duels in WAR.

-No option to put Larger Health Bars over enemies' characters and be able to click on that to target them.

-Time remaining on buffs/debuffs doesn't show if they are stacked. Example: I put a poison on my enemy and it says 9s left under it, now if I stack it the duration number will go away and it will only show how many times it is stacked instead.

Warhammer: Combat is Amazingly...

no.spam@gameriot.com (jflanden) — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 06:35:14 -0400

Horrible. I managed to get into the Preview Weekend for WAR to get a first hand look at WAR's Combat and I am very disappointed.

War's combat is Sluggish, Clunky, Unresponsive, Stiff, Slow, and Overall just not very good at all when compared to WoW's combat.

Also, the Combat Animations/Sounds are TERRIBLE. Not only are the animations very stiff but most of the time you can't even tell if you are firing off your abilities or not because the horrible ability animations blend in with your auto attacks so MOST of the time the only way you know you fired off your abilities is to read the tiny yellow damage number from their crappy scrolling combat damage text on the right of your character.

WAR fanboys are hilarious when defending this game, even with the combat being so horrible they are still blinded by the hype of the endgame RvR being the best thing ever, but if the combat is so horrible then how the hell are you supposed to even enjoy that???

"I am in the beta as well. And while the RvR and the public quests are awesome.... the poor quality of the animations and the lack being able to tell if your latest attack command went off in PvP is very offsetting. I have always #%%!%ed that there is not enough randomness and variance in wow toons actions, but WAR is a huge step backwards. This is not the game I was hoping for =/

The writing is excellent. Decent quests. Nice story feel. But honestly, having animations that look like my old Nintendo is not good. It gets repetitive and old real fast. "

It seems like anyone defending WAR right now is purely based on Blind Hope or they either have really low standards for what they consider to be a good MMO game.

Here you go for the people that don't believe I am in Beta: http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj164/jflanden/WAR2008-08-2315-58-54-12.jpg

Here is YOUTUBE video I uploaded of my level 11 Witch Elf for those that think the screenshot isn't enough: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnvkbtBJgC4

You can read my previous entry about WAR's Beta Testers' opinions about WAR HERE.

WAR: Sluggish, Clunky, and Slow Combat Worth the Switch from WoW?

no.spam@gameriot.com (jflanden) — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 01:02:11 -0400

I have been reading as much as I can about Warhammer Combat since NDA lift and A LOT of what I read is that the Combat is very Sluggish, Clunky, and Slow.

This is a Great place to read many Warhammer Reviews: http://www.warhammeralliance.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=109

Here are quotes from people about overall WAR Combat(ALL of these quotes are about the CURRENT State of BETA, so this is AFTER the "Combat Responsiveness Code" they patched in a while ago that was supposed to fix all this):

"The very first thing players will notice when they start playing is the â€œsluggishnessâ€ and general lack of tactical feel the game has. It is hard to explain, but as soon as you play, youâ€™ll know exactly what Iâ€™m talking about. It doesnâ€™t have the snappy response and quick gameplay mechanic that WoW has."

"I can best describe it as the game just feels "off" and clunky. I was a huge WoW PvP player and I 100% rely on the speed and responsiveness of my UI. If youâ€™ve ever played WoW, then gone back and tried DAoC again, itâ€™s very similar to that. I really hoped Mythic would have improved on that system in the 7 years DAoC has been out. Say what you will about WoWâ€™s endgame/story/graphics/player base/economy/etc, but the technical engine and UI are spot on."

"The sluggishness combined with the 2 second GCD and the fact that no abilities are off of the GCD make for a very clunky PvP experience. I often feel like Iâ€™m fighting the game more than the actual player."

"There is simply a delay from when you execute an ability to when it fires to character animation to seeing damage onscreen and finally to when your hotbar clears and is ready for the next input. Spells with a cast time are even worse. Not only is there 1-2 second delay for the cast bar to show, after the bar has filled, the animation has to finish. The animation should finish and the spell should fire as soon as the cast bar finished. These issues easily turn a "3 second" spell into a 5 second spell."

"Want a shot rotation on your SH or SW? Sorry, but from the amount of delay between autoshots firing after special attacks to the cast bar simply disappearing to animations never syncing to damage or sound effects it will be a very challenging road."

"Dislikes:
Â -Combat is wonky and clunky"

"Is combat fun? Meh.
Sorry guys, but I WILL agree with some of the haters in that even after the patch, combat feels alittle slow (largely due to the global CD being on EVERY ability and I believe it is too long) and because as I said before, the combat isnâ€™t distinct in sound and presentation as it needs to be."

"It is alittle tedious when you have 3 people hitting a tank and you know that tank is going down, and he knows he is going down, but everyone just kind of sits there, bored, spamming damage attacks on the guy till he drops. There is no excitement to moments like these."

"The speed of combat needs to increase, and the abilities need to be made flashier."

"Combat- melee combat and targeting is still a little off and so is the casting. Melee I cannot explain this one but it is just off very hard to get it right."

"While collision detection for enemies is fantastic, collision detection for friendly players is AWFUL. Trying to maneuver in a heated battle only to be stopped by a tiny little gobby while playing a BO or Chosen or breaking down a keep door at watching 50 people try to cram through a little tiny gap or simply trying to get to a location and having some asshats block your path is not my idea of fun. Collision detection is implemented as a cylinder around your character that is normalized for all players."

"For anyone who enjoys playing real games, WAR will feel like ****** to you, the skill cap is far lower than WoW. I estimate a 30 apm max, and with the movement being far more restricted, a blind old lady wouldn't find the mechanics of WAR PvP difficult. "

"There aren't even distinctive effects for abilities. You won't know of someone being counterspelled, or shielded, or gouged, even the player who did it will just see a delayed autoattack animation and a number appearing over the target's head."

"The PvP system is even designed for slooooow fights, it almost feels like they intend for the most terrible of WoW players to be able to keep track of it. A heal can keep someone with 5 nukers on him up indefinitely, the game is just slowly grinding against people, mostly a tank "ok tanks being useful sounds cool but seriously its just retarded when you see it in action" that won't ******* die, on the same hill as th last 15 minutes of combat"

That's all just from the first page of Reviews and remember this is a Warhammer Fansite so MOST on the site are really biased towards wanting the game to be great that they will ignore the many flaws in the game.

Based off all these since combat is a HUGE thing for me, I don't think I will be playing the game and the combat in the many videos I have seen for WAR really do look like what all these people are saying about the Combat.Â What do you all think?