Fury: Day One

So far it's looking like Fury is at least partially named for the emotional state of many beta players. The concept is almost exactly what I want in a competitive MMO, but the software definitely needs some work.



My initial attempt at playing dragged me through about 20 minutes of loading screen, 0.00005 FPS gameplay, and various crashes before I gave up and started scrambling for driver updates, dual core performance hotfixes, and whatever else I could come up with on Google. After five or six different patches and restarts, I finally got to where it looked like I might be able to get something done. I finished the opening tutorial, killed some dude in the training room, selected my archetype (like a class in WoW but easily reversible), and prepared for combat.



zzzzzzzzzzz



By the time I loaded into Fury's take on capture the flag, the game was almost over and I crashed as soon as I tried to go anywhere. OK.... apparently I still have some messing around to do. After a bit more thought, the only real option was to revert the graphics settings to those optimized for an "older card" (my system is actually far above the requirements for this game and runs WoW at 60+ FPS) and play with graphics that looked like they might have been at home on a Nintento 64. This didn't really improve my loading times, but it at least let me check out the instanced PvP a little bit. I never completely got rid of the lag, but I'll keep looking for fixes (and please let me know if any of you find one)



While the current hardware compatibility leaves much to be desired (I understand that it is being looked into), there are a ton of great things about this game. Nearly every chat channel was full of people with similar complaints to this one (ZOMG WTF MY COMPUTOR IZ PWNAGE BUT I CAN'T PLAY GUD), yet the gameplay I saw definitely has a lot of potential. Note: Not everyone has these fps/loading problems, but there are definitely plenty who do.



The competition between Flow Gaming's FPS crew and Pandemic's WoW team was actually a really fitting exhibition for the upcoming release of Fury, because it definitely pulls major elements from these two unique genres. I remember thinking a long time ago that I would kill for a game that took the storyline and environment of an MMORPG combined with the skill-intensive PvP action of an FPS game, and Fury looks to do exactly that.



From the looks of things, you can probably develop a character almost entirely in about a week, assuming that you don't spend a bunch of time switching classes. Traditional MMORPGs like WoW will probably retain the portion of the playerbase that is addicted to character advancement (leveling, gear acquisition, PvE progression), but there's a damn fine chance that Fury will become THE MMO for competitive PvPers.



The skill cap in Fury should be tremendously high. Power ups and environmental strategy will introduce MMORPG players to the type of geographical/positioning battles that you see in Quake 4. A ridiculous number of available abilities provide limitless character customization (you can only bring a certain number of skills into each battle, so that choice alone will define players), and the emphasis on instant-cast abilities with basically no Global Cooldown is going to be huge.



The spell resource system is a genius way to allow top players almost unlimited potential. Instead of a reasonably constant Rage/Mana/Energy system, you get a polar system of elemental charges that puts a huge emphasis on planning ahead, using the right abilities, and reading your opponents. A lot of abilities focus on the manipulation of other players' resources, so knowing what magic schools they're using (and thus which to screw with) is going to be a huge part of the game.



And the most telling sign of Fury's potential? Logging in once last night and twice today, I saw Afgar, Shuckx, Swifty, and Xecks in about 10 minutes of running around town. If that many big name players are spending their free time on Fury, there's definitely something going down.



P.S. I got absolutely rocked in PvP today, but if I ever figure out how to stop lagging all over the place I will definitely get setup up for the Fury Challenge.