Dark Days Are Coming - New Funcom Project

[Maledict]

O absolutely love this game, which I never expected. It's the first MMO I've played which actually would be good enough as a single player game with the storyline and atmosphere. (which TOR never managed).

Understand it won't be for some, but the storyline, voice acting, atmosphere, puzzles, character design, skill system and modern setting really make this game something special. Most fun MMO for me since WoW released, and anyone who wants to try something new in an MMO should give it a whirl.

[brellium]

Just bought this with the 25% GMG discount.  I've thrown $37.50 at worse, I'm sure.  This is one of the first MMOs I'm coming into without knowing much at all, so maybe this will be interesting.

Why did you have to point out that sale?  I was doing so well with self control over impulse purchases.  I just have to keep reminding myself that my wife will murder me.

Or she'll steal your account.

[brellium]

O absolutely love this game, which I never expected. It's the first MMO I've played which actually would be good enough as a single player game with the storyline and atmosphere. (which TOR never managed).

Understand it won't be for some, but the storyline, voice acting, atmosphere, puzzles, character design, skill system and modern setting really make this game something special. Most fun MMO for me since WoW released, and anyone who wants to try something new in an MMO should give it a whirl.

Funny, I was thinking the same thing too, the combat system wouldn't be good for a single player game, but the story line is awesome.

[Lantyssa]

Why did you have to point out that sale?  I was doing so well with self control over impulse purchases.  I just have to keep reminding myself that my wife will murder me.

Make her some chocolate and maybe she'll only maim you.

[Ard]

Well, I suppose I should qualify my statement.  She's going to murder me because she doesn't want me MMO hopping when she's not mentally done with Tera yet.  I did just build a new computer tonight though, which you'd think is enough money flushed down the drain as is for one week.  The chocolates however are in the fridge (and not mailed out yet to people like they were supposed to be due to having to wait on the UPS guy all day).

[Seraphim]

In case anyone missed it before the TSW forum revamp Dakirn posted the preliminary patch notes for 1.01 that'll supposedly fix a whole bunch of quest issues like Something Wickeds raven, chat crashes and bring in the Trade Post system.

[cironian]

You got me. Bought this despite Funcom. First few hours were fun though, at least once I switched from AR/Elemental to AR/Blade. Much better with a weapon that can do fast AOE spam.

[Maledict]

Yeah - I switched to blade / blood because the synergies are ridiculous, but all blood spells have a casting time. Even with being able to move whilst casting it just feel every sluggish compared to the instant cast ability of ranged / melee / chaos magic.

[Lantyssa]

I think Blood is supposed to be more of a traditional caster/healer that stands back.  (I have to agree with the feel though.  Chaos is so much more responsive.)

It took me a while to get used to it.  Now that I've gotten it to the outer ring though, some of the combinations are pretty impressive.  +penetrate rating upon applying affliction, +damage on applying affliction, +AoE damage on applying...

I'm almost all Blood right now.  Two single-target, two group skills, two heal/barriers for different purposes, and a Claw resource consumer.

[Numtini]

Open vein (aoe damage) is a nice instant Blood builder. It makes the spec feel a lot more responsive.

[Lantyssa]

Yeah, it does.  I think I'm going to be able to make it my main resource builder soon.  I forget the combo that'd let me drop Boiling Blood, but it was something that'd let me compensate for losing Boiling Blood's affliction.

[Ginaz]

FYI, mmorpg.com is having a contest for the best screenshot wearing the mmorpg.com in game T-shirt, with the prize being a lifetime sub to TSW.  They offered a code for the shirt awhile ago but I don't know if you can still get one.

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/356675/page/1

[Falconeer]

To be quite honest that t-shirt is pretty ugly, and I can't see a single reason to endorse or advertise for mmorpg.com.

[Seraphim]

Yeah, it does.  I think I'm going to be able to make it my main resource builder soon.  I forget the combo that'd let me drop Boiling Blood, but it was something that'd let me compensate for losing Boiling Blood's affliction.

If you spend some AP on the Fist tree you can get Bloodsport passive (3rd ability in Outback) that causes affliction with all your attacks.

[Ginaz]

To be quite honest that t-shirt is pretty ugly, and I can't see a single reason to endorse or advertise for mmorpg.com.

Free Lifteime sub?  The shirt is ugly but I'm a sucker for free giveaways. 

[Lantyssa]

Yeah, it does.  I think I'm going to be able to make it my main resource builder soon.  I forget the combo that'd let me drop Boiling Blood, but it was something that'd let me compensate for losing Boiling Blood's affliction.

If you spend some AP on the Fist tree you can get Bloodsport passive (3rd ability in Outback) that causes affliction with all your attacks.

That was it!  I'm Blood/Fist, so it was a natural fit.  Thanks.

[Sky]

That's really handy to know for another build I'm mulling for my femalt.

[HaemishM]

I may have to take Fist just to get that afflicted thing. I've got a decent blade resource builder that exploits afflicted.

[Hawkbit]

I'm playing this very casually, but this might be my favorite MMO experience since WoW.  (not counting GW2). 

It bleeds lore and story, and the stealth/investigation missions mix it up.  Getting things like IDs off bodies and passwords to use somewhere is awesome.  Some of the more obscure stuff is harder to find, like MiBV and that could use tweaking.  But overall very cool game.  I'll sub for a few months I'll bet.

I have to admit that I'm surprised Funcom did a good.

[HaemishM]

I think I'm more surprised Funcom did an MMOG without their servers melting than anything else. 

[calapine]

I am surprised at the apparent disparity between player opinion and professional reviews. I am beginning to wonder if our collective image of game journalism as impartial arbiter of quality still lives up to closer scrutiny?

Food for thought...

[Numtini]

I am beginning to wonder if our collective image of game journalism as impartial arbiter of quality still lives up to closer scrutiny?

I've never once entertained the notion that mainstream game journalism was anything other than hype.

[Falconeer]

So many reviews were apparently based on beta or early betas, and then there's a Quarter to Three review  rating the game 4 out of 10 killing their metascore. It's sad to know that companies like EA give (or not give) bonuses to their employees based on shit like that.

Gaming journalism is like "Tradition in Revolution, Democratic Oligarchy, Parmenidean Dynamics, Heraclitean Statics, Spartan Sybaritics, Tautological Dialectics, Boolean Eristic". Oxymoronic.

[calapine]

I am beginning to wonder if our collective image of game journalism as impartial arbiter of quality still lives up to closer scrutiny?

I've never once entertained the notion that mainstream game journalism was anything other than hype.

Obviously Americans don't do irony!

[Lantyssa]

We need green to detect sarcasm.

[UnSub]

I am surprised at the apparent disparity between player opinion and professional reviews. I am beginning to wonder if our collective image of game journalism as impartial arbiter of quality still lives up to closer scrutiny?

Food for thought...

Given the number of MMOs that get good reviews at launch only to tank, perhaps game reviewers have finally become gunshy.

[Quinton]

I am really enjoying this so far.  The art is a little clunky at times (character animation wonkiness, weird elbow bends, low res textures), but the characters, dialogue, quest design, etc massively makes up for it.  I'm pretty burnt out on stock MMO fantasy settings, and it's nice to see stuff that messes with the "traditional" design a bit.  I think they struck a decent balance between showing you where to go with map markers and arrows, but not going too nuts with giant glowing !s and ?s all over the place -- have a quest to find missing scraps of a medical report and the map circles take me to areas to search, but within those areas I'm hunting for scraps of paper.  I like it.

[Maledict]

So many reviews were apparently based on beta or early betas, and then there's a Quarter to Three review  rating the game 4 out of 10 killing their metascore. It's sad to know that companies like EA give (or not give) bonuses to their employees based on shit like that.

Gaming journalism is like "Tradition in Revolution, Democratic Oligarchy, Parmenidean Dynamics, Heraclitean Statics, Spartan Sybaritics, Tautological Dialectics, Boolean Eristic". Oxymoronic.

How the hell did quarter to three give it 4 out of 10? That's utterly beyond me.

*Checks site.*

Oh for fucks sake it's Tom Chick. That guy should be blacklisted from sites like Meta-critic. His shock jockey reviews tinged with corruptions and a desire to get attention really sicken me. I honestly don't know why anyone pays him any attention at all anymore. He's a one trick pony and it's really depressing to see him downrate games like 'Secret World' whilst building a statue proclaiming the glory of Bioshock 2.

[palmer_eldritch]

I felt really sorry for Funcom at times during the beta. It's as if people don't believe in the idea of a beta test any more and imagine they are somehow playing the finished product, a couple of months before release. It's perfectly reasonable to predict that a game won't change much before release but that can't be the end of the argument - you do then need to wait for release to find out whether your prediction comes true (in this case, the game continued improving up to launch day).

[palmer_eldritch]

So many reviews were apparently based on beta or early betas, and then there's a Quarter to Three review  rating the game 4 out of 10 killing their metascore. It's sad to know that companies like EA give (or not give) bonuses to their employees based on shit like that.

Gaming journalism is like "Tradition in Revolution, Democratic Oligarchy, Parmenidean Dynamics, Heraclitean Statics, Spartan Sybaritics, Tautological Dialectics, Boolean Eristic". Oxymoronic.

How the hell did quarter to three give it 4 out of 10? That's utterly beyond me.

*Checks site.*

Oh for fucks sake it's Tom Chick. That guy should be blacklisted from sites like Meta-critic. His shock jockey reviews tinged with corruptions and a desire to get attention really sicken me. I honestly don't know why anyone pays him any attention at all anymore. He's a one trick pony and it's really depressing to see him downrate games like 'Secret World' whilst building a statue proclaiming the glory of Bioshock 2.

Slates game
Racks up four whole days /played in just 21 days real time
Is Tom Chick

How anal would he get about a game he admitted to liking?

[Maledict]

I can understand not liking the game, andi can understand bugs driving the score down (they should do!), but this is not a 4/10 game. It's simple not.

It does sadden me that SWTOR gets better scores than this despite being worse in every area. Hell, I even had hat bugs in that game and often couldn't hear or see party chat/ chat channels! That's the power of advertising budgets I guess...

[Falconeer]

What is ridiculous is that imbeciles like that can somehow mean more or less money, funding and support for a company and all its workers.

[Ghambit]

What is ridiculous is that imbeciles like that can somehow mean more or less money, funding and support for a company and all its workers.

I brought this up in a similar post in defense of a D3 modder that Blizz trashed publicly in the forum.  People really need to be careful what they post in highly visible forums directly related to marketing.  One 'thread submit' can mean foodstamps for someone undeservedly.

Anyways, prior to today's patch I'd say SWTOR was the better game.  But now that the UI, chat, and marketplace are up that's no longer the case.  My only remaining gripe is lack of any real 'feel' to the faction cities making it a bland world to simply hangout in.  And the game still has a bit of a Rift approach to gaming moreso than AoC.  That is, minmax to death, get in/out, and kickass.  Logoff.

[Ingmar]

The dude is just a nut, he shouldn't have a place in their formula.

[Dark_MadMax]

I dunnh who the hell the guy is but TSW is not a 4/10 game. It has/had some very annoying bugs (most of which are fixed by now) but it was always playable and stable game .  And it being actual fresh , new and original in a sea of stale ponds called MMOs .And actually being good game after all that as well! .Heck on MMO scale that should be 9/10 at very least