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Everquest 2 Launches
Though it's being drowned out by the Halo 2 news, Everquest 2 officially launches today. RPG Vault has a review available for perusal, GamerFeed has a hands on look, and if you're looking for crunchy, low fat coverage Gamespy has an interview with Heather Graham about her role in the game. If you're already tripping the light fantastic in Qeynos check out GamerGod's Qeynos Quest feature, or just cut out the middle man and look forward to the first content on Allakhazam. Finally, F13 provides usefully cynical commentary about the beta and launch of the game.
Suddenly drops 72%.
Let me warn most of you who were not in the Beta that this game is far from ready. They rushed it to market to beat out WoW.
I've been telling most people to wait till the beginning of next year to play it after a few patches...
This live launch will basically be like a "paid beta". Expect to see alot of server downtime for a few months as they fix the things they didn't get to in time to beat WoW.
On the other hand I just shutdown my EQ1 account after the announcement that despite Beta tester's please they decided to rush it out the door. And decided to not follow through with my preorder of EQ2.
4 years... time to go see what the outside world looks like I guess.
"why don't you just slip into something more comfortable...like a coma!"
Despite the obligatory misleading text in the Slashdot header (patent pending)... The RPG vault article is NOT a review. Heck, they aren't even willing to call it a preview. Its a "first first impression piece" and very low on content.
I think I will wait till sony has the bugs and all the nerfing worked out for the 'game balance'. But even then I will likely stay with EQ1 as they are supposed to compete against each other as separate business units of SONY. -Zazerzing Wizard 50 seasons, Bertoxxolus
The Everquest 2 website says there are still 17 hours left.
Though if I lived in Japan it would be available today, but it won't launch there until later, so I'd have to travel to the US to pick up the game, but then it would no longer be today it would be yesterday.
Time travel is so confusing.
D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
There will be a mass almost RTFA as all the geeks hit the link to perv, I mean study the Heather Graham pics.
Do not try to read the dupe, thats impossible. Instead, only try to realize the truth
What truth?
There is no dupe
By a coincedence, Ive been looking at the warcraft game today, dreaming about playing it. Probably dont have the time or money at the moment, but it looks pretty shiny.
But answer me this: Everquest 2 will, one would assume, appeal to all the EQ addicts already out there. But the EQ addicts are already playing EQ: so whats this trying to achieve? Why should I play this over, say, world of warcraft or city of heros (which ive heard is meant to be excellent)
I have no doubt that this will be massively popular, but honestly whos the intended audience? Do old EQ players get to transfer their characters over, or is it start again from scratch for all?
It seems the progressquest authors were to first to streamline the gameplay enough to remove the tedious parts and remove the tedium from the user that cames in this category suffer from.
I found out last weekend that WoW will run pretty well on my two year old laptop with rather unspectacular video hardware. The integrated video hardware has some 3D accelleration and 32 MB of memory on it. That machine can't run Star Wars Galaxies, and no way will it run EQ2.
Fun with Anagarams! LADS HOST, SHALT DOS. HAS DOLTS. AD SLOTHS, HATS SOLD. ASS HO, LTD.
I was in the Everquest 2 beta, and I have to say this: Its not ready !
The graphics are fine, the gameplay oddly like World of Warcraft, and some of the quests are quite nice (I was particularly fond of the reference to '8-bit-theaters' sword chucks in a quest in Freeport...) Yet the zones are to big for the servers, the lag too familar, and the stability - not so good. My opinion: The game cannot currently support the great numbers it is sure to attract.
If your fond of the pain of lag, the bitter load-time, and being overly clunky, go right ahead and buy EQ2. If you like a smooth, sweet, and overally tasty mmorpg, wait a few more weeks and get WOW.
3 degrees of separation from Vladimir Putin
No it doesn't. I had to install a windows machine just to beta test it... and tried frantically to get it working under cedega. the directx 9c req. kills it currently.
"why don't you just slip into something more comfortable...like a coma!"
I already warned my future ex-girlfriend that this was coming out. I was there on week one of Everquest. Sold my account 18 months later for $2,250. You gotta get there early to get the good stuff before they turn off the overpowered items drops.
Will this "Everquest" help me in getting an Open Beta CD-Key for WoW from the duct-taped together webserver that is FilePlanet.com? Or perhaps assist me in my perilous presuit of refreshing "signup.worldofwarcraft.com" every 5 seconds in hopes of grasping -- ever so quickly -- that final bliss-filled orgamsmic joy of actually getting to play?
/Already got CD-Key suckers
Part of the fun of online games is doing things for the first time. If you wait a year, yes you may avoid a few bugs but you will be missing out on the most interesting time of the game when everything is new and exciting.
I think we all know why they wanted Heather Graham *NSFW* involved with EQ2. People are tired with elves. I wonder how long until the nude patch is leaked.
For those of us who don't pre-order EQ2, our chances of surviving and reproducing just went way up.
Sadly however, ongoing interest in online RPG is doomed in the face of the Halo onslaught. Why are people so keen to use guns rather than brains in a game?
Move your system clock ahead 17 hours and refresh the page
Sorry.. but World of Warcraft is simply going to destroy EQ2.
EQ2 only took almost 6 years to be released after the original - way too long, imo. I hear it isn't ready, and they rushed it to compete with WoW. Sony is probably nervous.. and for a good reason.
Blizzard is poised to win big with this game. They've had HUGE success with Warcraft, an extensive fanbase, and the MMO really does immerse you. I was part of the limited beta(s) and it's been quite a trip.
The graphical stylings of WoW (and the sheer attention to detail) really make it a contender. Sorry to come across sounding like a fanboy, I probably won't play due to the fact that i'm broke and i've got other things on my plate. But if I had the time & money, i'd be on my troll shaman right now.
I urge any MMO fan to give Blizzard's new project a shot, it's worth your cash. Oh, and play on Sargeras, cause I said so.
And while EQ1 may have been they game that ruled them all (for a while) EQ2 is hopefully going to be a major failure for SoE.
Why? Well in game play terms its a massive step backwards...locked encounters, limited number of classes (basically 4 with a bit of flavouring to make it look like more),poor options for solo play, no pvp etc. etc.
I couldnt help but feel that the game was designed by SoEs accounts and customer service departments with the sole purpose of minimising the main reasons for CS calls....Oh but it IS visually STUNNING and almost up there with morrowwind in the audio department, but even so I couldnt help but feel it was the most shallow gameplay experience I had in many years.
I can hear the paperwork of divorces and welfare being shuffled across the desks of america already.
WoW started their open beta test today. Play WoW for free. The signups are down tonight, but should be up tomorrow.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com
occultae nullus est respectus musicae - originally a Greek proverb
... Duke Nukem Forever has announced that they "would like to rescind the comment about DNF being released before EQ2."
Food for thought:
"Duke Nukem Forever is a 1999 game and we think that timeframe matches very well with what we have planned for the game." - George Broussard, 1998
"Trust us, Duke Nukem Forever will rock when it comes out next year." -Joe Siegler, 1999
"When it's done in 2001." -2000 Christmas card
"DNF will come out before Unreal 2." -George Broussard, 2001
"If DNF is not out in 2001, something's very wrong." -George Broussard, 2001
"DNF will come out before Doom 3." -George Broussard, 2002
The Voyager 1 spacecraft has travelled approximately 2.5 billion miles since the announcement of Duke Nukem Forever.
The rovers Spirit and Opportunity were proposed, authorized, announced, designed, launched and successfully landed upon Mars within the timeframe of Duke Nukem Forever's development.
The majority of the children who were entering high school the school year following Duke Nukem Forever's announcement are now eligible to drink.
And last but not least:
"We're confident that DNF will be one of the greatest, if not the greatest, game of 1998. And this confidence is not misplaced." -Scott Miller, 1997
Indeed, I would have to agree. When DNF finally does come out I'm sure it will blow the games of 1998 away. Or, at least, I sure as hell hope it does.
(Sources were from all over the net, mostly the DNF forums)
I've been playing FFXI since the US PS2 release, and it's very solid. Very solid economy, connections, etc. The only real issue I can remember is the report of people having trouble connecting during an update, and that was supposedly fixed. Of course you have the occasional lag-disconnect, or lag in areas with a lot of action, but that's the nature of the network.
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
I have to say that this game just isn't ready for prime time.
I found the CD to be dry and tasteless. There wasn't even any salt on it. If Sony is going to ship CDs that are so completely devoid of flavour they should at least ship it with a nice salsa or a cheese sauce.
And one other thing. I serious doubt that CD was biodegradeable. Don't ask me how I know. I'd rather not talk about it.
Loading is a big thing to look at when compairing the 2 games.
... they give you good exp in WoW, they are fun, and there are *TONS* of them. Many more then EQ. Funny, another game beats EverQuest with it.
EQ - Takes about 10 mins to get logged in, typical zoning which takes forever. Just like EQ1.
WoW - Takes about 1 min from loading the game, to actually play the game. There is no zoning, unless you take a large leap across the map, which still only takes 3 secs to load.
Not talking about char creation. Talking about going from the desktop, to getting into the game with an already made char.
All in all, WoW totally beats EQ2. Heres why:
- Can play WoW on older machines without much trouble.
- WoW has PVP. Not something as an after though, the game was designed with it in mind. Something Sony has never done with there games.
- Graphics wise, EQ2 has crazy requirements. Even with the best computers, putting more then 30 people in the same place at the same time will bog down BAD. WoW still looks very nice, the graphics are a little simpler which makes playing much more reasonable.
- Quests
- EQ is a grind game, spend tons and tons of hours doing nothing but killing the same mobs over and over again. In WoW, you can grind it out, or you can do quests, or both. There is no limit.
- Customer service at Sony blows, this will NEVER change. They simply don't care.
- Sony still doesn't understand the purpose of beta. They rather nerf everything bad after release and totally change the game. Blizzard at least has the common sense to make those changes durring beta.
- Sony tends to just rip ideas rather then create there own.
- The interface in WoW is MUCH easier to use and more complete. Not to mention, they actually give you an entire langauge to create the interface. Sony gives you access to simple XML files to move things around, not change how it works differently.
- Sony has a long habbit of not fixing things. I mean come on, there are thigns in EQ1 that STILL haven't been fixed in *3* years!
- EQ2 zerg vs WoW strategy is an interesting one. - EQ2 has tons of downtime, just like EQ1. WoW they removed that by adding things like drinks and fast respawns to get you moving faster.
There are tons more, just don't wanna type them all. Plan and simple, Sony isn't getting another dime from me. Not after all the shit they put me through for 4 years.
Try WoW, you will be suprised.
until (succeed) try { again(); }
Where it takes a real time year to get from level 1 to 50? (As opposed to a the month it should take)
;-) and I'm level 25 (almost 26!) which seems about right to me. If I get a solid block of a few hours and a good group, and I have a lot of rested exp saved up, I can get a level or so in one sitting... that feels about right. I make enough progress to feel like I got somewhere even when I can't dedicate a whole lot of time, but it's not so quick as to feel trivial when I get a new level. The pacing is really quite good as far as I'm concerned.
"Should" according to...?
A year is probably too long, but a month is way too short, for my satisfaction. I've been playing WoW for a couple months, very casually, because I have a four-month-old baby to take care of
Now, if you have no life, and play 40 hours a week in long uninterrupted blocks, you might make 50 in a month. But I wouldn't want to be you, if that was the case.
Don't you wish your girlfriend was a geek like me?
uh ya like totally cool, NOT!
Did anyone else waste 10 seconds of their life and read that sorry misuse of internet bandwidth? I was expecting at least one good question or answer, Heather reads like a 10 year old girl, GameSpy shouldn't of posted that tripe.
"...Though it's being drowned out by the Halo 2 news, Everquest 2 officially launches today...."
Personally, Halo 2 doesn't excite me at all -- There are already too many 1st person shooter games out there, and not enough true RPGs.
I remember playing EverQuest back when it use to be called Dragon Warrior -- the memories. I even managed to download copies of the versions only released in Japan, and Emulate them on my PC with a translator.
PS: EverQuest 2? EverQuest 2 was released in Japan for the SNES a long time ago -- What gives?
I was in EQ2 Beta, and I've been in WoW beta for.. forever it seems.
WoW is a much more polished game. Six months ago, WoW was more stable, playable, and finished then EQ2 was at the end of the beta this past Friday.
However, I just couldn't get into WoW. I tried. I've played for many long nights and I still find the game lacking. Some of it has to do with the graphics; the towns are too cookie-cutter, the NPC's are fairly generic, and the overall graphics engine just doesn't come close to EQ2. Of course, it doesn't crash as much as EQ2, and it runs much better - EQ2 looks great but the game engine is slow.
I roamed around. I found some quests and did them. I grouped with some people, explored around. Killed a few more mobs. Killed a few more.
With EQ2 you're immediately confronted with small quests, things to do, and places to see. The game puts you on the track from the beginning. In WoW, you'd dumped off in town and that's that. Both approaches have merit, but the EQ2 approach of pulling you into the game from the start seems more immersive.
EQ2 is very similar to EQ. Don't let anyone try to say otherwise. It's really almost exactly the same when it comes to a LOT of things. Group dynamics are identical, the classes are the same although there's this illusion that they are very different from EQ. But this doesn't signify a bad thing - EQ2 expands on EQ'2 successful grouping tactics and makes each class more valuable to the group then they were before with new special abilities, buffs, and offensive capabilities.
Unfortunately, I do believe they spent too much time trying to avoid all the problems in EQ. While I've always thought that Complete Heal was a mistake and I'm glad to see it gone, but they've really gone far and wide to stop twinking, muling, power leveling, and buffing non-grouped players. Fortunately though it doesn't get too much in the way of normal gameplay, but it is there.
Then there's the age group thing. WoW has and will attract a much younger crowd. If you like that, then it's perfect for you. But if you like an older crowd, you'll probably find it in EQ2. There's a ton of folks that have played EQ for years, and that generally means they've grown up a bit. The average EQ player is in the mid-20's or older. The biggest initial group of people to play EQ2 will be many of these same players. This isn't to say that there's not a fair share of 13 year old kiddies in EQ, but from what I've seen it's a lot less then WoW.
EQ2 isn't ready for release, but they will release it anyways. It's not like $50 is a huge investment, and neither is the monthly fee for a few months to decide whether you wish to continue to play it or not. It will be "ready" enough to play the game and do 95% of the things there is to do. I don't like it, but it's the way things go with computer games sometimes. You have a choice of whether you want to play now, or in four months when many of the bugs will be fixed.
We've all spent a lot more then that on completely stupid crap, so I don't see why one can't try both games and decide which they like more for themselves.
- It's not the Macs I hate. It's Digg users. -
Getting to level 50 isn't the point of the game.
Everquest 2, Halo 2, Firefox 1.0.... it's like christmas a month and a half early!
--You will rephrase your request for me to go to hell. Goto statements are not acceptable programming constructs
you should be ashamed of yourself. the parent post is simply trying to drive people to amazon using his referall ID to earn money from any potential sales.
use the following instead if you don't wanna halp out this creep:
Everquest II DVD
Everquest II Collectors Edition
Game Guide
role
n 1: the actions and activities assigned to or required or expected of a person or group; "the function of a teacher"; "the government must do its part"; "play its role" [syn: function, office, part]
2: an actor's portrayal of someone in a play; "she played the part of Desdemona" [syn: character, theatrical role, part, persona]
3: what something is used for; "the function of an auger is to bore holes"; "ballet is beautiful but what use is it?" [syn: function, purpose, use]
4: normal or customary activity of a person in a particular social setting; "what is your role on the team?"
I ordered two copies of the Collector's Edition (one for me, one for spouse) from Sony at $90 a pop and paid for next day delivery.
Not only will I be getting it after the folks at EB Games (which is okay), but I probably won't be getting it tomorrow, either. And probably not even Wednesday. As far as I can tell, Sony haven't shipped it yet. All they can offer me is an email address to apply for a refund on the shipping charges.
What a nice way to treat your loyal customer base, Sony!
I'd like to cancel the order right now, but they won't let me.
See, this is what I don't get. If it took a real time year to get from level 1 to 50, but I was going on real adventures, doing real quests, affecting the gaming world, etc, I wouldn't mind... because I was having fun doing it.
If the game isn't going to be fun unless you're leveling, why waste so much of your time?
I've had a chance to play both EQ2 and WoW.
IMHO EQ2, while it still has some bugs in it, is a good overall game.
SoE made alot of interesting decisions this time around.
First off, the graphic engine is designed to be flexible and able to be upgraded as time and new developments in video come along. They say that EQ2 will still look top of the line in five years.
Secondly, the game itself is supposed to be able to scale up to Level 200 (only the first 50 levels are in now, and more will be added as expansions are made). This gives them a chance to really expand the mobs, gear, and abilities if they really have thought that far out. EQLive has just reached Level 70 with its latest expanion "Omens of War", and it just seems like a serious case of mudflation in the type and amount of items that are coming off of "yard trash" (ie the common mobs that spawn all over the zone).
Every Online Game can and should be considered a "Paid Beta", since from Day One they will be patching, fixing exploits (no team of beta testers, even fanbois, will find every exploit -- they will come), adding new features and features that should of really been there at launch but were put on the back burner, and more content (quests, mobs, zones, etc) which may or may not break code somewhere else and will need even more patching.
EQ2 is not perfect, but I'm looking forward to their overall story arc.
When I had a chance to beta test WoW, I was impressed with what Blizzard has done. I was never a real-time strat game fan, but I have played some Warcraft and I enjoyed Diablo I and II. I know that Blizzard can write a good story and does have a long history of good games as well as support (both patches and new content) that is second to none outside of the Online Game Industry.
WoW has gone a completely different way with its graphics. It went for more of a cartoony look than EQ2, and it is a freshing change of pace. The graphics are sharp and clean as well as being able to perform well on older machines.
The play is just what you would expect from any MMORPG -- make character, get quests (can be optional), fight mobs, loot mobs, get more powerful. But WoW makes it alot easier to find out who has quests for you -- there is a glowing question mark above their heads. I find it nice to be able to see who has quests as compared to having to talk to every NPC in the zone to find them.
Both games will appeal to a different crowd. To those who are long time fans of Warcraft, while WoW may not scratch the itch of RTS'ing, it will keep them in the story line and I can see tie-ins to new Warcraft games easily coming out of WoW. EQ2 has alot more depth in my opinion. It was made for those who really want to explore a world and delve deeper into its mysteries. I really feel that it was designed for the long haul and will not really come into its own until further down the road when the major story arcs start to play out. But even until then it will be an interesting experience.
T
The last guy said:
Insert some boring technical details about tweaks to EQ's basic level for the sake of leveling gameplay here.
Here is the problem with MMORPGs. They are currently about leveling. Period. They are the types of games where if you told someone that today your level will be frozen, they would quit their account on the spot. The entire point of the game is to get more levels. Obviously some people love this dumb crap and are more then happy to shell out 15 a month for it. Good for them. That said, the market for this kind of OCD game play is limited. You will never get me to play a game where the point of the game is to gain levels, get more spells and shits... so that you can gain more levels. That sounds like some sort of sick test you perform on rats, not humans. The fact that people can not conceive of a world without levels is utterly scary, and I hope that developers have equally as limited imaginations.
How do you build a world without levels? Simple, build a world based upon player skill, and offer a variety of player skill sets to pick from. Hell, just make a list of player skills and make it so that the game has games to accommodate them.
Twitch skills - Simple enough, make some combat based upon twitch skills. Acrobatic classes in particular would be very well suited for a 'twitchy' game play.
Tactical skills - Make it so that magic or some other element of combat is based upon tactics. Creating a complex magic system would go a long way to do this. Imagine if when a mage casts, every spell they cast results in good and bad side effects for many other spells.
Example: A mage starts by casting a spell that makes cold spells more likely to catastrophically fumble, and also has the side effect of making fire spells more powerful. He then starts to cast a fire spell that does damage to his opponent, but also leaves him weaker to cold spells. His opponent realizes what tactic is being used and so casts a spell that drastically delays the effect of fire spells from kicking in, giving him time to try and alter the effect into something more pleasant. Rinse and repeat. Instead of making it so that every spell is a boring +10 fire damage, all spells have massive draw backs. Two or three minutes of fighting like this and there could be a few dozen effects that both mages need to consider before spam casting at each other. They might even slow down, stop and think a little before casting. The game becomes far more tactical then just nuking the shit out of the other guy as fast as possible.
Puzzle Skills - Make the crafting system based on something like puzzle pirates or some other type of puzzle.
Social Skills - Create a complex political and leadership system. Throw in some sulk and dagger stuff in to give the twitch and tactical people some fun.
Strategic Skills - Have it so that leaders need to make complex overall decisions about resources and strategic defense and fighting. A person might rise through the social ranks to gain some grand strategic position. Hell, offer lower level strategic positions so that one guy can operate a local mine or what not. Make it so that there is actual depth to decisions, like a financial sim. Let people create trade guilds or other organizations of that nature.
Role playing skills - Throw the role players a bone and let them participate in a moderate in character senate or public debate.
PvP - Give the PvP people an outlet. Have actual wars. No, not those stupid free for alls of WoW and DAoC. Make it so that people can form marching lines. Combine strategy, tactics, and good old fashion twitching once the lines break apart.
Sneaking skills - Create a Thief life game to give the sneakers something to do.
My point? Levels are far from needed. You could build an action oriented MMORPG with all the fillings of a normal MMORPG, and do it completely without boring as shit levels. It doesn't have to be ATID, it could be exciting in wa
The game servers themselves are just fine. The web server and the game servers are not related.
I'd be more concerned if they were to put all their efforts into the webserver, rather than keep the game working right.
He's VERY casual. It's not a challenge to hit 25 in a week if you don't have anything else to do. Hitting level ten, the point at which you really get into the game, takes about 6 hours, I'd say. Past that it depends on play style. You can max level (60) in a month, if you really want to. And they're working hard to make sure that character will still have plenty to do afterwards.
THe nice thing about the game is that it makes an attempt to cater to everybody. It doesn't succeed fully, of course, because that's just impossible, but it comes much closer than I expected.
A friend of mine sent me this excellent criticism of EverQuest 2 written by an EverQuest MVP Beta Tester. The thread is long but the writer is well spoken and she goes into great depth about all aspects of game play, their strengths, and their [numerous, critical] flaws:
http://eq2.forums.thedruidsgrove.org/showthread.ph p?t=7973&page=1&pp=15
This is a must-read thread for anyone even remotely thinking of dropping money on this game.
We pushed it to the last minute, but we're up now. http://eq2.allakhazam.com