Honestly I was not hyped all about Aion after hearing and reading news articles on it last year. It looked like every other MMORPG like Perfect World. So I decided to give the Chinese Open Beta which can be fully translated into English easily with about 10 mouse clicks. I wasn't planning on playing the English version of Aion when it came out but after playing the Chinese OB so much I think I will need my North American Aion release fix soon or I will go crazy.

My sweet little angel... I mean devil.
I know all of you want to hear how grinding in this game is like so let me get into detail with that. Leveling isn't that hard in this game at least for the lower levels of the game. Questing and Grinding levels your character almost the same but there are some quests that you should just skip and grind instead. Some quests will require you to gather/collect/harvest materials on the ground on air. I think these quests are quite time consuming. I would say you can get to level 25 in a week or less for the casual players and two-three days for the hardcore players. The game changes a lot after you reach level 25 first you will probably let off a big relief of finally hitting that level. You also learn 10-15 skills for your character of your class which will make them more PvP efficient. The best part of all after reachign 25 is the ability to enter the world of Abyss after completing special mission requirements of course. When you are in the world of the Abyss you can participate in Open battlefield PvP sieges, easier to get gank by the opposing realm, purchase special armor from your hard earned PvP points.
Siege Tutorials very useful if you are planning to play Aion
As you progress through higher levels of the game you will start to noticing that there are just some missions that are simply impossible to solo. I didn't like the idea of how you have to party to do some of the story line missions since for some people finding a party is would be wasting most of their time and not everyone of us have a lot of time on our hands! The mission below video will show you why this mission can not be solo'ed.
Aion Online Hard Mission
A lot of people think that you can fly anywhere and anytime in Aion Online but let me tell you this now you can not fly anywhere and anytime. The only place where you can fly around anywhere are mostly areas near towns and the Abyss realm. Huh that sucks!? Yeah, but you can still "glide" around areas which is good enough for some players. Most of the terrain in Aion Online go down and you can glide on roads with the right gliding skills! There are also cliffs where you can leap to your doom or glide away from to travel to other areas faster. Another one of the biggest Aion misconception is people think you can fly for an unlimited amount of time. This is true in way if you stock up on a lot flight potions or exploit the flight recharge portals that you can find on the Abyss map. Even so your flight time is only 1-1.5 minutes under level 29. This will probably most likely change as you get through your higher levels and earn your self a new set of wings at level 30 and 40.
Flying and Gliding is totally different!
There are random rift portals that open around in the zone that you are playing. It is usually announced in the general tab of your chat if there are open rift portals in your area. There are two kinds of rift portals once is going to their enemy area and the other is the enemy portal coming to your area. The messages say which portal is which and that you should be on your guard because you never know when there is a group of enemy players deciding to gank everyone. In my case I decided to call a few guild members and jump in the rift portal to the enemy leveling zone.
Guild Rampage
Random Open PvP
My favorite type of PvP is living more in the dangerous side and mean side to other players. I prefer to go in higher level areas with lots of aggro and pick off players in the Abyss. The Abyss is place where everyone is level 25+ or higher and you can fly anytime and anywhere to their grind spots. Leveling in the Abyss yields good experience points but if you don't keep your guard up you may be a victim of an evil assassin like Steparu. Even though I got ganked while trying to gank by a couple players in the video below I still managed to survive by always carrying HP Potion, Remedy Potion, and Flight Potions. They are the key to managing a safe get away! The biggest thing you have to watch out for while trying to kill someone is they can call for reinforcements. Aion implemented a system where you can use /shout and tell players to come to this area if there player/players trying to kill you.
Unexpected Guest
The game has very nice controls WASD to move around and fully customizable macro's in game. The graphics didn't really shock me as much. Everything was a nice if you looked up in the sky but I felt that the ground terrains needed a bit more work in some areas it felt as if it was not complete. I was able to set everything setting on high and enjoy the game smoothly so that is a big plus in this game for me. The desert area was a bit stunning, they implemented a feature that makes your screen all wavy and giving it a very hot burning feeling when you are in the desert or other hot areas like volcanoes.
Like I said above after playing Aion Open Beta I am pretty convinced in paying and playing the official English release of Aion Online when it comes out as my other alternative MMORPG. There are still a lot of features I have not experience in the official Chinese Aion Open Beta like siege warfares because players need to be at least lvl 40-50 to participate in taking over enemy/npc castles. Overall Aion Online is a pretty good game that will probably have me hooked for half-year or two when it comes out in English version.
Game Score: 9.0
Developer: NCSoft
Game Publisher: NCSoft
Game Site: http://aion.sdo.com/web3/home/index.html

Guardangel111
said:
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... how much do you think the English release of aion will be cause im only 15 and i dont think imma be able to use a credit card to get it XD and Nice pvp your awesome |
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Armando
said:
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... There will be game cards you can use instead of paying by credit card so don't get panicked! It's how I pay WoW by the way. I hope this game comes out soon...!!! I am sick of this WoW "trip". It's time it ended I think. |
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Guardangel111
said:
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... XD yea i did loolz and Awesome i gues i shouldnt get to worked up abuot it also they have those prepaid visa gift cards that work exactly like credit cards so i think that might buy me some time hopefully ^^ |
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Sen
said:
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... glasscannon gooooOOO~~~ just you wait till spiritmaster gets buffed in ariel combat =_= |
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Lorine
said:
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... Early estimates is that aion will probably be about 15$ a month. But as someone posted, you can purchase gamecards to help pay for this game. I played open beta as well, and I really enjoyed it. I only got to lvl 10 sorc, but it was very fun XD. I've been dying to play china beta since kr beta ended. Only thing I would like to add to step review is that, if you think this game is just lvl up and pvp in abyss. There is more to it. There is somewhat of a story as you level, and there are life skills (Called Crafting on aion I believe) as well. I didn't get a chance to get into them on aion china, but probably will on Japanese beta. As with mabi life skills though, they allow you to make amours, clothes, etc from manuals. You also get stats for doing them. Btw step, Japanese beta should be sometime in June I think, I may play that. You are welcome to join me :3. I'll let you know when it's about time. |
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rendermax
said:
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... can u tell me please the infilitration fisure from morheim to elyos map? i cant do those infiltration quest cause i cannot find that portal/fisure thx in advance |
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WarKhat
said:
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... Hey Steparu this is a very nice read I have been looking at this game and am waiting for the english beta release. I need your opinion however on how you think this will game will fair in the U.S. as well as Europe. I as well as many gamers have been playing World of Warcraft for years as it is the king of MMO's and I can say that I am very bored and am looking for a fresh and new exciting game. Judging by what you have played do you think this game will be really popular in North America and Europe and do you think this game can give Blizzard a run for there money? Do you think this game could be worthy of the title of "Next Big MMO"? Does it have the qualities that can be expected of today's top MMO's? Such as good PvP play and good PvE content as well as a good story. I want to know these questions because I have lost faith in the MMO world because Blizzard seems to be the only company that can make a good MMORPG game. But i may be changing my mind cause this game is really appealing to me. |
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Polly
said:
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... It looks to me that Aion is really focused on pvp (which I like!) and they have a pretty solid leveling system. The thing with WoW was to get to end level content and then raid instances forever. To me, WoW had its pvp perks however it didn't do the whole "get involved with pvp at each level bracket" and those who did so were only twinks. Aion looks good no doubt however I am only worried that it will be a disappointment to me. I had played WoW for 4 years and finally quit due to the screw up in Arenas and imbalance of classes. I don't mind forking over $15/mo but I dont want to get sick of it after a month (which happened with Wrath of the Lich King) |
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jrizz
said:
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... Definatly will be a good game to go to till final fantasy 14 comes out... and now that 14 is going to be more solo based and easier to level i see that becoming the dominate game for hardcore MMO players.... nothing wrong with Final fantasy 11 but the flaw was to be good you had to devote 8 hours a day to that game . |
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Chrysalis
said:
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... Just finished the NA Closed Beta this weekend. In a nutshell, Aion is the even more attractive offspring of Lineage ][, and WoW. (Think WoW Interface (soulbound items, auction houses, etc., with L2 graphics..then add in some cool things like flight and combo moves.) I played L2 for about 4 years, and WoW for the last 8 mos...and I'll be moving to Aion when it goes live. Incidentally, if you want to participate in the beta events (and there are about 4 more scheduled before the release later this year), pre-ordering the game (I went to GameStop) gives you access to all of the beta events. Just make sure when you pre-order, you , you get the pre-order "kit" that comes with the key! |
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Kalakai
said:
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... If you read some of the WoW forums a lot of people playing WoW are excited for this games NA release and will most likely switch over when this game goes live. |
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DarkDvr
said:
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... Nice videos, but holy crap dude... PROOF-READ what you write.. It's an article for god's sake. |
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Vameq
said:
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... I greatly agree with you analysis of the game...I'm currently playing chinese aion live and have preordered the game and have a legion ready to conquer, so my plans are prettymuch set on playing this game and kicking some ass and owning every fortress and artifact in the abyss Step you should come join my legion when/if you play english |
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Casiroll
said:
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... Hi, im playing the english version as we speak and i just wanted to know what free server you are playing, i LOVE this game and i want to keep playing it. |
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Jikokuten
said:
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... Err, why didn't my entire comment show...Oh well. I'll retype it here. I played Guild Wars, and I loved it! I'm currently a lv66 Ranger/Elementalist, and it's wayy too hard to level :/. I might try this game out :3 |
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Venym
said:
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... I would like to know if their will be a set pvp system as in wow. Capture the flag, territories, even 2 on 2 combat with rating and such, not just world pvp? |
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Balihai
said:
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... Thanks for the review, have to disagree with you on the group content, I LOVE when MMO make you find a group / party because it shows they have put thought into the group dynamic and how each class will work with each other. I don't understand paying $15 bucks a month to a play a solo game, just confusing to me. |
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Vayda
said:
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... I agree with Balihai completely. I played the Chinese Beta for quite about a month, and there is not nearly enough options for leveling. In games like Everquest, you have the choice to solo grind, do solo quests, or go to 3 or 4 dungeons per tier. In Aion you don't have options like that. You have to grind, and in most cases it's more efficient to solo or be with 1 other person. The group dungeons are few and far between. I might play the American game, but I definitely hope they add more content, because it's definitely not worth it in its present state. |
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Vayda
said:
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... Also, I should have added that the castle sieges aren't that great. When my friends and I were playing it, we learned that the different guilds would take a castle, and then give it up to the next people so that they could take it again. Every time you take a castle you get more points to use for gear and stuff like that, so it's not efficient to defend your castle because you won't get anymore points for it. Another thing that was horrible about the game was the crafting. Worst crafting system in any MMO. Picture WoW's crafting system but worse. It's not interactive at all. Click craft all and afk for 20 minutes. Boring has no place in a video game. At least in WoW's boring crafting system, you make gear right away that is useful or that you can profit from. In Aion, you don't make anything useful for a long long time, and it's pretty much just a time/money sink. |
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kgptzac
said:
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... I didn't expect a 9.0 score after reading the whole review on this graphically enhanced lineage 2 clone game :p i don't know why NCSoft wouldn't broaden their line of production and keep pumping games like this. Games like L2 are a thing of the past now... |
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ZInkster
said:
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... Hey you said you translated the Chinese version to English right?? HOW!? please tell. |
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winterbourne
said:
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... I have been playing mmo's for a long time, Everquest since beta, anarchy online, WOW, etc. I notice a lot of people compare Aion to L2 which kind of concerns me, I did try L2 and played it for about a month. I probably would have played it a lot longer however the major thing that drove me away from the game was the rampant occurance of bots and gold farmer/resellers. I would log on at any time of the day if I was lucky 1 out of every 100 people were actualy "REAL" people. It was as if the only purpose of the game was to support gold reseller opperations around the world. I liekd wow and like many are extremely bored with it for a number of reasons and as blizzard keeps expanding it they get worse and worse at keeping the game fun, anymore now its just a raid gind session since pvp is all but dead. I will try aion I'm sure but if they dont meet certain criteria then it will jsut be another fling of the month game that I will cancel soon after. My criteria is, fun game, very minimal grind weatehr it level grinding or gold grinding, class balance meaing no one has unfair advantages, no gold reseller or bots, I want to play a game not be bombarded by bots wanting my real mony just for some fake online gold. keep servers seperate I am in the americas and I dont think any play experience would be enjoyable if most the people I play with spoke a language that I dont understand. I guess the biggest worry is I realy dont want it to be another L2 gold farm. make a policy and enforce it strictly to minimalize the fools selling gold. THAT is the one thing that keeps WOW playable and what realy makes them dominate all other morpgs. |
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christynemarie
said:
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... Wow, I was psyched until I watched a video. I hope they change the sounds for English release. It sounds like a very bad Pokemon episode. That high pitched female squeal was killing me. Great for 8-13 year olds but not if the game designers plan to try to start stealing the more savvy (and money making) WoW people. |
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Adrian
said:
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... I had posted this else where but, I don't know if many of you played EQlive when it was the first big MMO? i myself played for many years on a PvP server (Rallos Zek) but anyway, when WoW was in its beta phases it gained the same anti-hype from EQ players that Aion now has from the WOW player base. People were saying the exact same things about WoW in general and its end game content. Things such as "Oh the PVP is great and the game is fun! but there's probably not enough PVE/End game content to keep us long term players interested" 8 years later WoW continues strongly..albeit not on a scale it once was, at least not in my opinion as an "ex beta" on/off again player for over 5 years since release. So anyway, the point im trying to make here is..doe's anyone that can remember that far back see a pattern here? Personally i have'nt been this excited about a new MMO since WoW and i think Aion could potentially be the next big fantasy MMORPG. |
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Nanashi Ronin
said:
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... hello, just to share for those who didn't know the collecters edition costs 59 US$, standard costs 49 US$. and btw i like this site |
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Zync
said:
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... Adrian / i remember when EQ first came out, i was a beta tester for that game. it will ALWAYS hold the number one spot in my heart as far as MMO's go simply for being the "godfather" of MMO's. I do remember the hype around WoW and all the naysayers AND people screaming it's the next big thing. WoW always felt a bit "cartoonish" to me though(although i've played it for 5 years). This game feels and looks much more "grown up" in my opinion. As for it's comparison to other MMO's... well the fight style feels a lot like DAoC (which i thought was awesome with the chain attacks and PvP) and the rest of it feels much like lineage/final fantasy/Wow/and EQ all rolled into one. I've recently beta tested and played Warhammer, that lasted 3 months and i was done with it, although that was the "next big MMO" if anyone remembers, they rushed it and we were screaming about it being rushed and all kinds of problems all through beta. Aion has been good to listen for the most part and the same issues that have plagued other games that I've beta tested have been ironed out in this one. I personally can't wait until headstart to actually play my finalized character. *Sidenote: To all those that want to Beta test, please let me offer this advice... NEVER get attached to those characters and never go "hardcore" with them, you'll burn out and start thinking less of the game before it comes out, just test it, report bugs, and have fun with it... that's all we are there for, to help make a polished game upon release. Hope to see all of you in game, whether foe or friend. |
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Bayne
said:
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... I just got done trying out Beta #6, and I have to say this game is great. I have just finished playing wow for 4 years and i can't wait for this to go live. The graphix are great. No more of that cartoony crap. The dynamic fight system is great. Combo attacks are great. Flight/glide are a blast (nothing like running off a cliff to get to your next quest area in 1/3 the time it would have taken to run) Only one beef. Why is there NO option for a bald or shaved head for the male. One would think with over 25 hair style those two would be a given. haha. One question though, does anyone have any clue when the open beta or headstart is supposed to begin? I can't find it anywhere. Thanks. |
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Mark
said:
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... Bayne.... as i understand it, there will be no more beta weekends (closed or open) until pre-release. i've researched this as well and came up with little to no information, but the info that i did find stated that we are basically just waiting for headstart now if we pre-ordered. game release is the 22nd in US and 25th in EU (official release) however headstart will begin at the same time for both, on the 20th of Sept. (maybe the 19th, it's still in the air but i know it's 2 days minimum headstart). i hope that helped, sucks to be "gameless" for 4 weeks waiting for the bloody thing to start though. i feel lost, don't want to waste my time with other games and such so... i guess i'll just do housework and crap that i've needed to do forever now... ahaha. maybe actually even spend time with my wife out of game!!! go figure! |
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Aeolus
said:
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... Honestly, at first I thought this game would be an avarage MMO as well. Some members of a guild I'm in kept talking about how great it was, so I figured I'd give it a shot, expecting to play an avarage MMO. Boy, was I wrong >_> |
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kesoapa
said:
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... Thanks for the review of the game. I've played WoW for some years. Had a shitty lifesituation back then though and got addicted to it. Stopped playing it when I got the shakes due to server downtime. After some years of detox, haha, I ventured into WAR, but the endgame there wasn't really satisfying. I really love the concept of MMO-games, but I don't want to need to put in over two hours a day to "keep up" with the game. IMO no game should really need more time than that to keep you "in it" and getting the most out of it. After all people have families and work/school. It's a shame that much of the gaming-industry has become something only the workless and single can enjoy to its full extent. Been having my eyes on Aion and Jumpgate: Evolution lately. Both look very much fun. Anyways. Thanks for the vids and the words about the game. Can anyone fill me in on how big a timesink it is? Best regards kesoapa |
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koreanplayer
said:
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... I will give you a hint. Play assassin, that's the strongest character. It has a skill called invasion and you can kill others in 3 sec if you are set up with best items. Also, you can run away and invade again if you are losing. Unlike Wow, this game is really focused on PVP and getting good items. When you are reached up to the highest level, basically you don't have anything to do but go to other world or Ubbis(not sure what is called in English) and kill other races. From this time, a lot of classes are being ignored, y? The pvp balance among characters is terrible! That's the worst part of NC, those suckers make game to intend users to hunt monsters forever to get good items. I hope it won't happen in this version, all I want to say is don't play archer, magician, and the one recalls spirit. Don't ask but u will thank me later for not choosing those classes. I was lv 50 user in korea. |
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koreanplayer
said:
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... if you are not interested in pvp but only hunting. Then ignore what I said, but don't choose archer and spirit recaller. Those two will never welcomed because their skills are maded to play on your own not group play in dungeon. It means you can actually kill a strong monster at a time. But it will kill your finger, takes time, and never can't kill boss monster which means you can't not proceed quest. However, those two classes are pretty strong as lv goes up. Tip)I mentioned those two will be strong later but it only applies to Ubbis. That's the world where two races meet. If you played you will no. The place you can fly because those two are so weak on defense. Basically u have to hit n run like losers but u will win |
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Dissapointed
said:
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... Don't be in a big hurry to buy Aion. Right now the betas are unplayable. Stress test I get but a 300k ms on a good day? Give it a few months to see if they ever get their act together |
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arkin
said:
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... I played the open beta a bit today but honestly it is not as good as expect. I saw some wow-things in the game but they are not as good as wow. |
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Dakis
said:
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... I used to play L2 since c3 till few months ago when the last update came out.I was playing in private server simply because i hate killing mobs 24/7.NCsoft has the GREATEST pvp among all MMO's out there and thats why so many ppl kept playing l2 although many bots etc.On the other hand WOW bothered me for about 2 years.Bad graphics (Worst ive ever seen in MMO) but great gameplay,nice plot,easy to lvl and pretty interesting (at least for me ) when reaching top lvl.But pvp was always the most important to me. What i hope from Aion is to keep its good from NC and that is the pvp which satisfies me pretty enough (apart from some shildish sounds) and great graphics and of course gather and evolve all the good things previous MMOs have (WOw,Guild Wars,Warhammer,EQ etc). I expect sth great ,if not excellent, and cant w8 to start.I have read many reviews,seen many videos,played korean beta......Seems like the times when WOW was in beta and EQ players were expecting sth really good...that arrived and they were right. I'll give Aion some time (around 6 months) to see some first impressions and then i'll join to do my tests.Hope for the best.Maybe the end of WOW is near |
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Akis
said:
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... I'm playing video games since the high end machine was spectrum ZX, with the rubber buttons and with games loading from a cassette, however my first ever MMO was WOW in 2004. That said, i love MMO's and have tried every major one that has come out since WOW (AOC, WAR). WoW was my first love, thus i'm a bit close minded and thinking wow when i try something else. AOC and WAR were huge dissapointments, they had the worst kind of bugs and graphic engines that had some serious problems. WoW had a lot of problems as well at the beginning and no pvp system whatsoever (only open world pvp), but it was my first love. After the dissapointments of AOC and WAR (and being terribly bored of wow) i started thinking that i got burned with MMO's and that they dont got anything to offer me any more. Boy was i wrong!!! AION came in the picture (EU open beta, LVL 25 spiritmaster) and made me feel like i was playing MMO for the first time, i TOTALLY LOVED IT. At last i got to wake up every morning with high anticipation of playing a video game, something i had lost a long time now. And the best part is, its the first MMO launch i remember that has absolutely no bugs, no lag, nothing to annoy you, it is simply excellent, so polished i just cant believe it, and we dont even got to worry about content, even though at low lvls there arent instances, NCSOFT is smart and gave us 90% of its content for end game. (at least that's what korean's say that have been playing it for a year now, maybe thats why its so polished). AION has amazing graphics, chars are a wonder to watch (some combat movements are like breakdancing,, epic), quest system and npc locator will make thottbot and the likes obsolete, flying system is vert smart and realistic, it makes combat a lot more spicy, i love how i can fly away from a "rogue" (for the understanding of our young wow fellas) or how i can glide big portions of the path i got to take. You gotta see the sight of a guild gliding all together, truly EPIC. Everything in this game mad eme fall in love with it, and to think that i used to be hardcore of the hardcore wow player. |
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Akis
said:
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... AION is here to stay i say, and to every1 who keeps playing wow but is bored of it....dont think twice, AION is your game, it will refresh you beyond belief. It gives you everything you loved in Wow but in a much better version of it, but it also gives you SO MUCH MORE. |
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Xjems
said:
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... I love what Akris says - see above-- as a long time girl WoWer I think you just tipped the scales in favor of me buying Aion: (and if I was the rogue that pummeled you in BG in WoW, please dont take out your vengeance on me when you see me in game.) Great site, ty! |
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Rinx
said:
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... yeah im pretty pumped for this game as i sold my wow account last week and have been going through major MMO withdrawls! it is definatly time for a change in games wow just gets burnt out after 5 years... i havent played beta for this game but from what i have seen it looks amazing and if nothing else i hope its good enough to keep me playing until Star Wars : The Old Republic comes out (Asuming that it will be any good) they have had some pretty baddass games like KOTOR and FU its about time they came out with an MMO i think itll be a big hit and im not even a starwars fan. but anyway like i said im extreamly pumped about AION and i hope they have a tonne of end game raiding etc because thats what hooked me on wow for so long. getting a tonne of people together to accompish something extreamly hard to accomplish and rocking the gear thats the envy of 3/4 of the server FTW |
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zazu
said:
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... u only fly for 1-1.5 mins?!?! thats pethetic! why have the wings thingy if cant fly non stop and i was so syched up after hearing my friend talking me about the game but now im very dissapointed. back to warhammer for me (atleast u can pvp at lvl 1 in WAR ) |
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Mike
said:
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... Do you have to pay to play or just pay to download the game with no subscription fees? |
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Zambookee
said:
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... Amggg, great PvP Steparu! Anyways, What server do you play on in the US. If you do still play that is. |
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PSP Systems
said:
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... thanks disappointment it's nice that new version is coming ... i am waiting for that.... |
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oyun
said:
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... ... Honestly, at first I thought this game would be an avarage MMO as well. Some members of a guild I'm in kept talking about how great it was, so I figured I'd give it a shot, expecting to play an avarage MMO. Boy, was I wrong >_> oyun |
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Strip That Fat
said:
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... I just stumbled upon your blog and required to say that I have genuinely enjoyed studying your web site posts. Any way I'll be subscribing to your feed and I hope you submit once more quickly. |
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Strip That Fat
said:
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... This game is so fun. When I found this site I couldnt believe that there were so many grow games! I thank the maker of these games for many hours of growing fun! |
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Fast Track Cash
said:
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... I really like this game but its hard to figure out and it gets kinda annoying, but its a good game i would play it every day but if I did it would get boring, so really I'd play it every now and then. |
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Grow Taller 4 Idiots
said:
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... I enjoyed playing this game a lot and I would also like to share it with my friends. Thanks for sharing this game. |
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