teh shiney

[El Gallo]

Vanguard released some screenshots: http://www.vanguardsoh.com/screenshots.php

Look decent from here, but my computer at work sucks so many of them come out way too dark.

[SirBruce]

Most... maybe all... of those screenshots appear to be stills from the video.

Bruce

[HaemishM]

Pretty...


barren.

[stray]

Pretty...


barren.

Pretty dope, I'd say. Bereft of NPC's/character models maybe, but the environments look nice. I like it. I find it funny that they're proud enough to show off the giant rock cocks NiX was talking about though. At least that's what I think those are.

Kind of the same look and feel as Warhammer or Darkfall, but both of whose screenshots are much more sparse. At least I can probably count on Vanguard getting released too.

[Nebu]

If you use high resolution you can just BARELY see it in the background.















You know... the treadmill.

[Kenrick]

I would join the trash-talking bandwagon, but Vanguard is the only mmog I'm actually following with interest right now.

These screenshots don't seem to be anything new, but I do look forward to watching things progress.

[HRose]

I'll probably hate this game but I love Brom.
And I see clearly his touch here.

[Merusk]

I'll probably hate this game but I love Brom.
And I see clearly his touch here.

They hired Brom AND Parkinson is the Art Director?  Wow, at least the art will be decent. I can't judge at the moment since the page won't load up.

[SirBruce]

If you haven't seen the video trailer from E3, try one of these sites:

http://www.fileplanet.com/files/140000/140918.shtml
http://media.pc.ign.com/media/666/666602/vids_1.html
http://www.3dgamers.com/news/more/1085145125/

Bruce

[HaemishM]

If you use high resolution you can just BARELY see it in the background.

You know... the treadmill.

You don't need high resolution. It's got King of the Treadmill's name all over it.

I like how the Troll's look EXACTLY like the Cave trolls in the LotR movies.

[ahoythematey]

Nothing better to bring the players mood to that "EPIC BREAKTHROUGH FANTASY" level with cheesy-metal music.  I mean, fuck, AC2 sucked and all, but at the very least their trailer had some good music, goddammit.

[El Gallo]

Eh, none of the major competitors has a completely satisfying record going into the next round.

We have Blizzard, strong in detail and fun, weak in putting out content at even a snail's pace, and a name that attracts morons like shit attracts flies.

We have SoE, who took a lot of the un-fun mechanics out of EQ, but whose major offerings are the SoL/PoP/GoD EQ expansions and SWG, each of which were buggy, not remotely finished piles of crap, and have all the soul, artistic vision, and character of a Northern Virginia strip mall

and

We have Sigil, who put a lot of the un-fun mechanics into EQ in the first place, but also all the character and atmosphere that made EQ memorable even for most haters.

My bet: WoW will rule until we run out of content in a year.  Vanguard will be better than EQ2 because it is easier to learn to cut down on treadmills than it is to learn how to create art or release a game that actually functions out of the box.  Of course I am a bitch and will buy them all.

[SirBruce]

You're leaving out a whole bunch of MMOGs in this next round... EQ II, Matrix Online, Tabula Rasa, Face of Mankind, Dragon Empires, Wish...

Bruce

[Nebu]

You're leaving out a whole bunch of MMOGs in this next round... EQ II, Matrix Online, Tabula Rasa, Face of Mankind, Dragon Empires, Wish...

He said "major competitors".  I'll give you that EQ2 should have been given comment.

[Alkiera]

So, both of you managed to miss:

We have SoE, who took a lot of the un-fun mechanics out of EQ, but whose major offerings are the SoL/PoP/GoD EQ expansions and SWG, each of which were buggy, not remotely finished piles of crap, and have all the soul, artistic vision, and character of a Northern Virginia strip mall

At least, I thought he was talking about EQ2 there.

--
Alkiera

[Nebu]

So, both of you managed to miss:

We have SoE, who took a lot of the un-fun mechanics out of EQ, but whose major offerings are the SoL/PoP/GoD EQ expansions and SWG, each of which were buggy, not remotely finished piles of crap, and have all the soul, artistic vision, and character of a Northern Virginia strip mall

At least, I thought he was talking about EQ2 there.

Reading comprehension... I knew I forgot something.

[SirBruce]

So, both of you managed to miss:

We have SoE, who took a lot of the un-fun mechanics out of EQ, but whose major offerings are the SoL/PoP/GoD EQ expansions and SWG, each of which were buggy, not remotely finished piles of crap, and have all the soul, artistic vision, and character of a Northern Virginia strip mall

At least, I thought he was talking about EQ2 there.

--
Alkiera

So, you obviously failed reading comprehension:

but whose major offerings are the SoL/PoP/GoD EQ expansions and SWG

He's talking about EQ1 expansions, and SWG.  No EQ2 there.

Bruce

[Nebu]

I think he was pointing us in the direction of EQ2 being little more than a shinier version of the expansions/games in the past.  Perhaps we both read it too literally.

[SirBruce]

Perhaps, and perhaps he has the same feeling about EQ2 as he does about the EQ1 and SWG.

Anyway, I certainly think Tabula Rasa will be a major competitor, and either Matrix Online or Face of Mankind will emerge as well.  The others are probably not going to be as popular, but it is possible.

Bruce

[Merusk]

Perhaps, and perhaps he has the same feeling about EQ2 as he does about the EQ1 and SWG.

He does.   You've missed the conversations between he and I, obviously.  His contention is that EQ2 will be uninsipired because the expansions SOE has had sole reign on (SoL/PoP/GoD) were uninspired and lacked a feeling of a cohesive world that those expansions the Sigil (ex-Verant) team had. (EQ release, Kunark, Velious)

[SirBruce]

Perhaps, and perhaps he has the same feeling about EQ2 as he does about the EQ1 and SWG.

He does.   You've missed the conversations between he and I, obviously.

Obviously, since there's no conversation in this thread between you and he that dicusses EQ2.

Bruce

[schild]

Perhaps, and perhaps he has the same feeling about EQ2 as he does about the EQ1 and SWG.

He does.   You've missed the conversations between he and I, obviously.

Obviously, since there's no conversation in this thread between you and he that dicusses EQ2.

Jesus, comeon, don't be a lazy bastard and stop with the snide remarks. Here, look at this thread: http://www.f13.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=1010&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=35 .

[Sky]

Main Entry: al·lu·sion
Pronunciation: &-'lü-zh&n
Function: noun
Etymology: Late Latin allusion-, allusio, from Latin alludere
1 : an implied or indirect reference especially in literature; also : the use of such references
2 : the act of alluding or hinting at

[schild]

Main Entry: al·lu·sion
Pronunciation: &-'lü-zh&n
Function: noun
Etymology: Late Latin allusion-, allusio, from Latin alludere
1 : an implied or indirect reference especially in literature; also : the use of such references
2 : the act of alluding or hinting at

That goes double for you. {>^_^{>

But you did catch my hand in the cookie jar. I didn't catch the words 'this thread' in Bruce's piss.

[Sky]

Matrix Online has a chance to do well, if the last couple movies didn't kill off the fanbase. It certainly looks interesting, but the combat system I don't understand and sounds too quirky.

[Sky]

That goes double for you. {>^_^{>

Sowwy! =^.^=

[daveNYC]

$20 says The Matrix Online never gets released.

[El Gallo]

Wow, that was flattering.  I feel like an O'Connor opinion, nobody quite knows what I said.

Anyway, I was assessing the chances of the 3 games I consider major competitors (WoW, Vanguard, and EQ2) and a rather flip way.  I was evaluating their prospects based on the evidence available to me, and for EQ2 and Vanguard, some of the best evidence I have available are the makers' past efforts.

The fact that all of SoEs releases have been unfinished, buggy, and utterly lacking in artistic soul does not compel the conclusion that EQ2 will suffer those same shortcomings.  I hope it doesn't.  But it is at least some evidence that it might.

I don't think anyone would need a link to that other thread to understand that, but I have been guilty of overestimating SB before.

[Sky]

$20 says The Matrix Online never gets released.

I won't take your money. It's in full beta swing. It could be crap in a box, but it will be on shelves.

[Disco Stu]

$20 says The Matrix Online never gets released.

I won't take your money. It's in full beta swing. It could be crap in a box, but it will be on shelves.

Thats begging for FIFY but to put it another way. Could?

[Sky]

Have you played the beta, do you have an informed opinion? I don't, so I said "could". It looks nice, and has some interesting features, and it's almost done. Don't read too much into what I said.

[Kenrick]

/bump for new screenies

http://www.vanguardsoh.com/screenshots.php

I wish this game weren't so far away, but I'm willing to wait if it means a swords&sorcery mmog done right.

Here's an interesting journal report from someone at gamergod who got to sit down in the Sigil office and play around a bit with the client.

http://www.gamergod.com/article_display.cfm?article_id=98

Am I the only one who thinks this game is going to kick ass?  I know some of the dev team has EQ background, but they really seem to be taking this game in the right direction.

[Merusk]

Am I the only one who thinks this game is going to kick ass?

Catass maybe.  I know ElGallo is jazzed about it, but I'm not interested in playing "Early EQ, But SHINIER!"

I know some of the dev team has EQ background, but they really seem to be taking this game in the right direction.

SOME of the dev team?  Try ALL of the dev team and lead designers ARE the EQ team.  And which direction is that right way?  The one with corpse runs, Risk vs Reward as justification casual players not experiencing content, or the smell of "no downtime sucks, catass 4 teh win" that comes off the FAQ?

With all the cries in EQ2 and WoW about how easy the games are and how it's stupid that "death has no sting!" it will have it's audience, to be sure. I won't expect a large part of that audience to be hanging around here, though.

18.4.11 Should there be some compensation that would benefit players that are not able to invest as many hours in a game?

I'm against anything that, in effect, punishes a player for wanting to play the game more. The whole point of making a compelling game, book, movie, etc. is to bring players into that immersive setting they never want to leave... isn't a good book one that you don't want to put down, and you suddenly realize it's 3am in the morning?

That's entertainment.

Allowing (or even encouraging) a player to enter into a situation where he is disincentivized to play more (or, worse yet, incentivized to figure out a way around it... the hard core powergamer, I imagine, would have multiple characters and/or accounts and just make sure he was playing whichever character who was in his 'power hour') seems like the antithesis of good entertainment.

Oh yeah... I'm completly jazzed. Really.

This game is being designed for the powergamer.  Really, with all the games being designed for the "non-exsistant" (well that's what all the MMO boards say!) casual gamer it's an audience waiting for a product, so I can only be so hard on them.

[ajax34i]

I don't know, I'd guess most around here aren't really following it much since it's being made by Brad McQuaid, EQ1's Mr. Vision, Aradune, etc. and they really hate him.

To me it looks like just the standard MMORPG, ok screenshots, not mindblowing, and at least they don't have the stupid Guildwars Glow (TM) that TES:4 Oblivion seems to now be intent on including.  I really hate that glow thing, it hurts my eyes, since it seems to have brightness on a geometric scale (dark spots are semi-dark, but bright spots are like the damn sun).

Anyway, we're way past judging a MMOG by the shiney, and at this point the only thing you can see with VSOH is the shiney, since anything released about actual gameplay I'm sure looks good on paper but probably won't result in fun when actually implemented.

It's too early to judge.

[stray]

Am I the only one who thinks this game is going to kick ass?

Catass maybe.  I know ElGallo is jazzed about it, but I'm not interested in playing "Early EQ, But SHINIER!"

I'm interested. Mainly because of the X-Box. It's much easier to catass if I'm kickin' back on the couch. I usually prefer PvP games, but if there's enough to achieve and explore, I could find myself passing the time in this.