Aion (PC)

Since the last beta is due to commence tonight, it's pretty likely that this is just going to be testing localisation-inherent bugfixes and such. Therefore, I can give my genuine opinion on the game.Having never played WoW (due to the sheer amount of updates the game expects me to make just to do a 10 day trial), I can't judge it against that yardstick, and the most recent game I played was CABAL, which was a long time ago.This game will run on any half-decent PC at a good resolution. My £329 tower that I bought at a sale runs it at a minimum 20fps, with the furthest drawing distance on a 512Mb ati radeon at 1280x1024 resolution. It uses the FarCry engine, and looks awesome because of it.The combat is solid, and the community that appears to be surrounding it will help you if you shout for them. Just make sure to extend the same helping hand in the situations you come across. There's very little grind, and the grind that is required feels like it's warranted, and doesn't leave you feeling like you haven't accomplished something.For those that want to know, the planned price is £8.99 a month, although of course it will be cheaper if you buy in blocks. There is also a £10 upgrade available from NCSoft's store that includes the Collector's Edition items; this includes wings, an earring, a few emotes, and a special title that only collector's editions will have.The game itself comes with 30 days playtime, although if you're uncertain, I would suggest waiting until the game is released, and downloading whatever trial they put up on the main Aion site.If you're interested in MMOs as a whole, buy it. Everyone is touting 'WoW-killer', and so far, I can't fault it. I just don't have WoW as a yardstick

Being obsessed with MMORPGs since ultima online i have tried most MMOs out there in the market whether its asian made or western made, and few have the quality to keep me hooked for more than 3 months except this game.The graphics is very beautiful for a MMO with a very user-friendly UI and and questing system. I have played this game since launch and i am still playing it!Graphics: 9/10 - if your system is within the recommended specs, the new graphics engine with the recent 2.5 update made this game the best looking MMO.Sound: 8/10 - Beautiful orchestral sound track! The english voice overs in the game however can be a bit lame at times.Gameplay: 8/10 - The core and major part of MMO. Leveling is much easier since patches and updates and there are alot of places to explore! PvP is alot of fun although zerging still happens in mass pvp but then again thats what mass pvp is all about right? ;p The cooldowns for the instances have decreased giving you alot more to do in game.In short summary i'd recommend it to a potential buyer!

As far as all the comparisons people seem to be making go, this is nothing even remotely like WoW.This is a PvP orientated game, but having said that, it doesn't push that marketing point until you hit level 20. Before that, it's all PvE which is good, it starts gentle.The cap is level 50 so far, so it's a fair sized start before you meet the factor which decides, for a lot of people, whether they will stay or leave. Unlike other MMORPGs that I've played, built solely around massive PvP (by that I mean over 100 people in a single fight), Aion gives plenty of quests and makes the whole leveling experience a lot less of a grind than your average Korean MMO. It's a lovely thing to have, and gives it much more of an appeal to me at least.Being PvP based, you will find that sometimes it's hard to quest because you're being killed by enemy players. But fortunately that doesn't happen too often so far, so your introduction to the higher level community is quite gentle at 20. Without meaning to sound elitist, it does take a little perserverance to keep going through all the ganking and quest distractions and work you way up, until you can be one of those people who can take the fight back to them, or come to the aid of the lower levels that are getting ganked while they're leveling.Personally I prefer the PvP based model, I find it bonds the community better, even if you do still get the stupid squabbling on the main chat channels, but in the heat of it, people will pull together to repel the enemy. But I also know plenty of people who don't like this type of MMO, and that's fine too. If you've never tried a PvP orientated MMORPG, I'd say this would be a good chance to give it a shot, especially seeing as Aion is an absolutely beautiful game, but that's hardly surprising being that it is run on the Crytek engine.One final note is that, it's not solely a PvP game, it's technically PvPvE, and as far as I've seen this means that while you're battling it out with opposing players, it also means you have NPCs to contend with. So while you're fighting off players, you're also fighting mobs at the same time, keep in mind that the mobs will attack both sides, so your enemy is going through the same troubles as you.