DCUO- will be out November 2. Can apply for beta on main site now.

[Daeven]

The gameplay is kinda fun. It's a nice change - but then I haven't played an MMO in years so... *shrug*

The UI on the other hand, clearly suffers from 'This Was ported from a console!' itus. Not just bad, but WTF were you thinking? bad.  If I don't last for more than the first month it will be the UI that does me in, not the gameplay.

*shrug*

[Lantyssa]

The chat filter is brain dead. It will turn “You have to hit its head” into “You have to hi####s head”, because it thinks you said “tits”. It will turn “petition” into “pe###ion”. And it will turn “Oh hush its not that bad” into “Oh hu#####s not that bad” because it thinks you said “shit”. You can’t disable the filter. The “tits” ones comes up often, and makes a mess of the chat window.

Sounds like they used the same stupid filter from Free Realms and Clones Wars.  Ostensibly to protect the children, but they're the worst fucking filters in existence.  It's impossible to hold a conversation in those games.

[Khaldun]

I think he nails a lot in that run-down--the UI is actively at war with the fairly good visual design and play mechanics. And a lot of the time, the UI wins.

[UnSub]

I like acrobatics.. I started with a flight character, but this is more involved, I guess.. Plus, it's not all spider-man-ish. My favorite part is that you can glide like Batman and kind of substitute for flight, depending on how high you are.

Rocket glide is even better.

As far as endgame, I'm only level 11, but there are a bunch of things you can do.  Hard mode alerts.  Gear tokens, that sort of thing.

You can turn rocket glide into pseudo flight.

1) Have rocket glide on, so you are flying forward. At some point you'll start to dip in your travel path.
2) Jump (because you can jump during a rocket glide).
3) Turn off rocket glide.
4) Jump again, using acrobatic's double jump mechanic.
5) Turn rocket glide on again. You'll start to go up again.

You can't hover, but it is quicker than running along the ground. Worked in beta, at least.

[stray]

Lucky for me, I do play on the console. It's partly why I even gave it a shot. I don't really need anything but buttons and triggers.

Although it does suffer in the reverse, where there are some PC-like things that are difficult to control without having a keyboard. It's not really a UI issue, but there isn't much going on in chat, for one. That could be a good or bad thing. Like I said earlier, I just play solo or with friends, but I could see how that kind of subtracts from a "true" MMO experience.

[stray]

The comparison to CO is very strong in that once you've done the content, I don't see anything at all that's going to keep this interesting, and I don't see how on earth they're going to provide content at anything but a glacial pace. Hopefully they can at least avoid Cryptic's tendency to hopelessly fuck up a newly launched product with bizarrely incompetent changes to gameplay.

Well, they are already working on a Green Lantern themed expansion apparently.. I think it's planned to come out by the time that movie does.

I have to say that could be awesome. Silver Surfer is my intergalactic hero of choice, but Lantern works.

Same goes for Namor vs Aquaman, but an ocean based expansion would be pretty sweet..

[Xanthippe]

Quick question (I haven't read this entire thread).

Does DCUO have crafting of any kind?

[ghost]

No crafting.  

The comparison to CO is very strong in that once you've done the content, I don't see anything at all that's going to keep this interesting

It will depend a lot on how the PvP works out for DCUO.  So far it has been fairly engaging. 

[SnakeCharmer]

Gah.  So tempted to try this.  Even if it's just good for 30 hrs of content, that's still better than most single player games these days where 10 hrs seems to be the norm.

[Malakili]

Gah.  So tempted to try this.  Even if it's just good for 30 hrs of content, that's still better than most single player games these days where 10 hrs seems to be the norm.

Its on Steam, so wait for a Steam sale if that is allyou want out of it, over the summer it'll probably be 15 bucks or something silly.

[squirrel]

Well I picked it up out of boredom. Combat's pretty fun actually. UI is horribad. A PC game where I can't have a mouse cursor? Is that right?

Still, seems worth the first 30 days.

[Ingmar]

What, seriously, no cursor?

[kaid]

You get a cursor when in windows when you open things like your inventory. But by default its mouse look on so camera always follows mouse movement. It feels a bit like planet sides interface kinda clunkyish but meh works well enough for me.

[jakonovski]

I got a piece of the Antifreeze set. Suits my ice powers perfectly.

[squirrel]

What, seriously, no cursor?

Yeah as kaid says, you do get a cursor occasionally - when a window is open. But in general gameplay I haven't figured out how to get a cursor. Mouselook is always on - so if you want to switch from General Chat Tab to Combat Chat Tab instead of just clicking on the tab (because there's no cursor) you have to hit Enter, then Tab, then you have the other tab.

Dunno, it's not critical, but it's clunky as hell. I'm thinking of borrowing a 360 wired controller because the game is so obviously designed for that input method.

[Daeven]

Yeah, the problems with the UI are just silly.

You can't exit Mouselook - which means you can't right click on another avatar to interact with them.
The chat space is maybe 250 characters. On a good day.
it looses what chat channel you are in, so you drop out of /group to /say (for example).
There is no way to *walk* for PC users.
You can't 'preset' costume flavors. You get one. That's it. (in spite of the ability to make zillions of piece and color combos).
Enter doesn't always start chat mode, so you need to pay attention, lets you start opening random menus or jumping all over the place.
The reply keyset doesn't always work. (/r) And so the only safe way to talk to people is /t "Char Name". Always.

....

You could keep going, but I think that starts to define 'horribad'.

And yet, the combat is so much fun I don't think I could go back to CoH.

Anyhow. It'll tide me over until Dragon Age 2 and Deus Ex 3 at the least.

[stray]

Do any of you play on a gamepad? I'm just curious if that improves it. I remember when I first played FFXI on PC, that's what helped. At least navigation-wise.. I know that won't fix the chat issues. /shrug

[squirrel]

Do any of you play on a gamepad? I'm just curious if that improves it. I remember when I first played FFXI on PC, that's what helped. At least navigation-wise.. I know that won't fix the chat issues. /shrug

Funnily enough I stopped at a friends and borrowed a pad and just played for an hour, it's much better. The UI is still craptastic but it makes the fun combat even more action focussed and helps with travel (I was hating WASD/Mouse with flight).

So yes, for me a big improvement.

[veredus]

I'm glad someone asked that since was just wondering how it plays on like a 360 controller. I may have to try this out since I love being able to play games with a controller, it's nice to be lazy sometimes.

[jakonovski]

You just plug in the 360 controller and tick the appropriate box in the settings menu. It works pretty well, but I prefer kbm anyway.

[stray]

So does anyone play this on the PS3? I'm on the Birthright server (PVE.. unofficial RP, but I haven't seen much of it). I've been dabbling with a few characters at once. My friends play villain, so my name there is Ripper Jack. Hero side is Lorelei and ... ahem.. Meridian. The name always stuck with me (from the loremaster of Shadowbane).

[Cyrrex]

You just plug in the 360 controller and tick the appropriate box in the settings menu. It works pretty well, but I prefer kbm anyway.

Awesome.  The thing bugging me most about KB/M is the button mashing on the mouse.  Whole thing seems better suited to a pad.

[Morfiend]

I was wondering if anyone has a spare buddy key I could have for a friend. I guess the physical copies of the game came with them. Not the digital copies.

[jakonovski]

Ok, one thing this game seriously needs is savable gear setups. That and fixing the bug where you have to equip an item multiple times until it "takes".

[shiznitz]

Ok, one thing this game seriously needs is savable gear setups. That and fixing the bug where you have to equip an item multiple times until it "takes".

That sounds like a server communication issue.

[squirrel]

Ok, one thing this game seriously needs is savable gear setups. That and fixing the bug where you have to equip an item multiple times until it "takes".

Yeah I'm still low level but I've heard that at later levels not having gear presets for different loadouts (pvp, dps, role stance) means a lot of inventory hassle. I can see that already happening. Perhaps they'll fix it? Who knows.

[squirrel]

You just plug in the 360 controller and tick the appropriate box in the settings menu. It works pretty well, but I prefer kbm anyway.

Awesome.  The thing bugging me most about KB/M is the button mashing on the mouse.  Whole thing seems better suited to a pad.

Forgive the double post, but yeah it's transparent plug and play. It even switches to highlighting the appropriate controller buttons for combos etc. Instead of the kb/m equivalents.

[SnakeCharmer]

Bought it.  Played it.  Combat is pretty fun but OH MY GOD THE CLICKING.  I swear my mouse is going to explode or I'm going to have the worst case of carpal tunnel syndrome in the history of man.  I figure it's a toss up as to which happens first - or they may happen at the same time.

[ghost]

This one's going to need a gamepad. 

[SnakeCharmer]

Yeah, figured that out last night as my hand begged for mercy.  Isn't there an adapter I can buy to use my existing wireless 360 controller?

[Sky]

Need to buy a receiver.

Software/instructions

[SnakeCharmer]

Thank ya sir

[eldaec]

an ocean based expansion would be pretty sweet..

SHUT YOUR FILTHY MOUTH

There never has been and never will be a good underwater/ocean expansion or level for any game anywhere ever.

[Morfiend]

an ocean based expansion would be pretty sweet..

SHUT YOUR FILTHY MOUTH

There never has been and never will be a good underwater/ocean expansion or level for any game anywhere ever.

Although I tend to agree, Cataclysm begs to differ.

[UnSub]

Sales are out.

150k to the PS3, 45k to the PC. Pretty sure the PC doesn't include digital downloads. So let's say 300k all up in the launch week.

Makes it interesting to look at those numbers and then at SOE's claims the title had sold out - looks like they didn't ship a ton of boxes to start off with.