f13.net

So I basically bought  a new pc and I want to play around with it. I really don't have any plans to play long term  (except maybe WoW with my old EQ buddies). I've tried WAR and LOTRO and they look kinda bland to me (direct x 11 isn't working properly with LOTRO for some reason, so that may be an issue).

so what game will test my system (in a good way :p)? I'm thinking Vanguard but it's been years since I've played an mmo (outside the past couple of weeks).

eta: I take back what I said about LOTRO. I had it on low settings. On ultra high it really looks good.

None of them will push your system. But EVE and LotRO are the only unambiguously good looking mmogs imo.

I might be forgetting some mmogs far too shitty to justify consideration.

Some of the Asian or Asian inspired games are quite attractive looking (Lineage 2? GW if you are being generous ) but not sure if the westernised ones have trials. Most of them have fairly repulsive gameplay though.

WoW still has crappy models but excellent animations and a strong style, and they've been upgrading the engine to allow more demanding settings but it's still nothing compared to the FPS games.

Vanguard is just terrible coding.

Age of Conan?

http://www.ageofconan.com/trial/

Real Life.

Vindicus is nice looking.

Aion is pretty, but you need to find an active subscriber if you want to try it free; the only trial is a recruit a friend.

This is probably your best bet.

And only lasts like 20 minutes and doesn't let you see any of the things that would test your system/are cool.

Conan or Vindictus are the best options for a free test right now.  I'd lean towards Vindictus simply because it's completely free and Conan will make you depressed that the post-20 game isn't like the pre-20.

Why do you want to use an MMO for this? Isn't this what Crysis was made for?

I never even heard of Crysis tbh  :oops:

I asked for an mmo partly for the open world, and partly because I wanted to remind myself why I stopped playing them  :grin:

My plan has backfired. I played an mmo and I liked it. WTF :/

What mmmo did you try?

Well I tried LoTRO, WOW, Vanguard, and Vincictus to  level 3ish.

Vindictus is kinda cool, but it's not really for me. Vanguard was just meh. (Vanguard btw stands out as the world that seemed dead. I don't just mean in player pop either. All the other ones had npcs about, doing stuff. I don't think I saw a npc actually engaged in anything) LoTRO was fun, even though I think my char is bugged (I can't complete a pair of noob quests for some reason. possibly user error).

What I'm most surprised about is that I actually liked WoW. I couldn't stand it the first time around (I think I got to level 5 before quitting in disgust). TBH though this is the first time I've ever played an mmo with a machine at or above recommended specs, and with a steady internet connection. I know it sounds stupid now, but I really didn't expect an upgrade to make that much of a difference.

It's amazing isn't it? Who would have suspected that the most popular MMO in the universe would actually have some good points?

WoW just de-assified its low-level experience to a moderate extent. Even at level 1, casters have less downtime, hunters get pets, etc. Your computer hasn't alleviated the soul-crushing; it's just waiting until level 10 to kick in now.

LOL yeah, there's almost no downtime. I keep looting food/drinks and thinking there's no use for them.

The one thing that may get me to ragequit is the lack of bag space. Since there's no dt, I  end up trashing a lot of stuff (while playing my hunter). For some reason my druid keeps looting bags almost every time she dings so I may just run with her.  :-P

From what I've read the new expansion due out December 7 will completely redo the pre-60 experience.  In fact I think it'll actually happen before Dec 7.  When the Cataclysm hits all the zones will change and that may happen as soon as Tuesday of next week. You don't actually have to buy the expansion to benefit from it unless you want to play the new races or level from 80 to 85 in the new zones.

They realized that no bag space was punishing and stupid in this day and age, so they upped the bag drop rate back when they redid things for newbs.

If you actually end up buying* WoW and are on a server that any of us play on, I'm sure someone would hook you up with bags. I know I would if you're on Andorhal Horde side.


*You've gotta buy it because trial accounts cannot engage in trades.

thanks for the offer; my friends are on Runetotem/Alliance so that's probably where I'll spend most of my time.

Level 13 seems to be my limit on the hunter :p.

If you can stand to grind out another two levels you can start queuing for group dungeons, which in my opinion is where the game gets interesting (I hate soloing, and you sound like you may be like me in that regard). Also maybe queue for PvP, though you'll be rogue food at levels that don't end in 7, 8, or 9.

I really don't know how you guys can feel its a grind at that low of level.  You can blow through the first 60 levels of WoW at lighting speed.  I rarely felt like I was grinding in vanilla, and they've only made it even easier since then.

Your tolerance is higher.  To me it usually gets grindy around 25-30 in the post WotLK.  I solo heavily though.  The group I did with friends felt a lot better because we'd goof off and do enough dungeons that it kept things fresh.  Mostly.

Well it's true I have a very low tolerance, but right now it's not really so much how long it takes to level and more of what I'm doing in combat.  The hunter isn't a bad class, just boring. 

It's really fast to level, and so I now have a bunch of chars around 9ish and IMO the hunter is in some sense the most powerful but it's also the least fun. Charge + victory surge or whatever it's called, means there's practically no dt to speak of with my warrior. (As a side note: I've never played a game where I had more fun playing a non hybrid class). With the priest I can pull then laugh as the monster tries to beat through my shield spell (which, btw, is PERFECTLY BALANCED at this level). With the druid I can pull with dd, hot, then switch to cat form to mow through mobs.

With the hunter, all I do is shoot it with the bow and then watch my pet eat it.

It's a "grind" because it's neither challenging nor engaging; leveling speed is mostly irrelevant if all you're doing is brainlessly mashing one or two buttons. I was able to get a prot warrior into the 40s in dungeons recently because soloing them was actually a challenge and I felt like I learned something nearly every run through (also turns out prot is just fun), and here I'll partially take back something I said earlier - once you're familiar with the dungeons, grouping is actually less interesting now because low level characters are outrageously overpowered compared to what the content was designed for.

Interestingly enough, this has actually taken the game closer to my personal CoXian ideal of being able to go through the dungeons with any group composition - a tank specced character certainly isn't necessary, and any old off-healer would probably suffice as well. Makes me wonder what would happen if they took the group comp requirements off the dungeon finder and just started throwing the first five people to queue into an instance together. Now that would make things interesting.

I'm not sure you can have a "My new hardware is awesome" thread with out some screen shots of the various games you tried on it.

In other words, lets see some settings cranked?  :grin:

(http://www.gamesandgeeks.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/quake-modetext-002.gif)

Hawt!

Is that an ASCII Start level from Quake?

 :ye_gods:

LOL I didn't mean to come across like an ass. I was just tired of my pc crashing all the time while playing FfH, so I upgraded.

I have no idea how to shrink these images, so hopefully they aren't too big.

Vindictus:
(http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/24131/1001440.jpg)

WoW:
(http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/24131/1001443.jpg)

Vanguard:
(http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/24131/1001446.jpg)

eta: same area (and in the day) with different settings:
(http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/24131/1015482.jpg)

LoTRO:
(http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/24131/1001447.jpg)

You didn't! Just some friendly ribbing by me is all.

That doesn't look like DX10 LotRO.

If he just downloaded the f2p client after setting it up, it does not give you the option to dl the high res texture client (though I guess you can if you download it directly). Though DX10 maxed out looks like what he shows above on my machine as well (standard textures).

Wow you created "What does the end of the all things mean to me"  :grin:

Irfan View is a handy picture viewer with simple graphics manipulation.  I almost always prefer its output over Photoshop when resizing pictures.  (Which is a simple Ctrl-R, and instant even with the best filters.)

Anyone need some DX11 LotRO shots?  Because that one is not fantastic.  Makes me wonder about Vindictus, though.

Vindictus' biggest advantage is the combat system.  (Try all the characters through the first section if you do play it.  Each handles differently.)  That's about all it has going for it, unfortunately.

Did Vindictus release mages yet?

Maybe you couldn't be bothered just to take a couple of screenshots for the thread, but why do you run in all sorts of aspect ratios and resolutions? Vindictus is wide-screen, LotRO 4:3 and all in really low resolution. You also need to turn on 8xAA and 16xAF! :-)

Also, LotRO never looks as good in screenshots as it's perceived in-game. Screenshots emphasize the distance pruning, while playing the game keeps your attention to distances where it looks good.

I played LotRO for five minutes and started to feel seasick from the weird camera movement while moving.

Player models are amazing too, and hate to say it, but it feels more like a FF game than FF14.

Yes.  I haven't played her far enough to decide if I really like her or not.  One huge downside to her is that she can't grab and smash enemies like the other two.

Did I mention I'm also a Luddite? lol I just set the video options to high/ultra high and was done tbh. Ill play around a bit after I whine some more about how my low level WoW chars are no longer incredibly overpowered.  :awesome_for_real:

Well, I checked and game options shows that it's running directx 11. I don't know if that changes anything.
(http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/24131/1002480.jpg)


eta: ok it's 16:9 now

DX11 makes a difference in subtle things like shadows and transparency.  I have a DX10 shot from Lake Evendim, looking at Annuminas (sp?):
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/85916/lotro/ScreenShot00006.jpg)

Turns out that Fraps avis of LotRO that look decent are huge.  So nevermind. :grin:

In case anyone cares, I finally dl'd the HQ client for LoTRO. I can't really tell the difference, other than some slow down in certain areas (eta: I have to change my mind after looking at the earlier pics. This one is better)

(http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/24131/1015481.jpg)



I also adjusted some settings on Vanguard:
(http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/24131/1015483.jpg)


eta: I'm not going to bump this thread again, but I just dl'd AoC. I can't decide if it or Vindictus look the best on my pc
(http://www.bluemelon.com/photo/24131/1025755.jpg)

You are tainting this message board with Vanguard. :(

Are you not running all the games at the same resolution?

(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/85916/not_good_with_computer1.png)

I am not good with notice thread has a second page, apparently.