enterhavoc

Been looking forward to this game for a while, but am hesitant about forking out cash in case its just trying to live off the back of the tf2 train.

ouuuu lovely!

Haven't purchased an Activision game since they shunned the PC crowd with MW2 (Although I did purchase Starcraft 2 and will purchase Cataclysm). Pretty much everyone I know did the same. I'll put up with the greediness on the Blizzard side of things because of their love for video games. They never rush things and never milk their cash cows with yearly sequels. Sure they charge sometimes ludicrous prices for things, but you really do get what you pay for.

However, with Bobby Kotick in the picture, I see the future where the kids are paying for features that we rightfully should get for the base price, or paying for features that are normally done by the community (but of course, will be locked out of doing so).

How about we spend less development time making games locked down from allowing the community to flourish, and more time on innovation. As Valve prove time and time again, you can still make a ton of money without being greedy, and by utilising the community.

What about Valve-OH WAIT, there was that whole lawsuit thing. Still angry about that Kotick? bawww.

If Bungie are high quality, it would be nice of them to show it. Haven't seen anything remotely innovative since it changed the way gamers thought about Xbox Live with Halo 2. And like, the first half of the Halo 1 campaign.

It is nice to see Bungie are getting all cosy with Activision. At least I can avoid all the terrible cash cows by a single publisher name :D

Hell yes!

Well, they certainly are made for each other aren't they?

I guess now Bungie will just use Activision as their scapegoat for releasing trash games now.

With Halo done (once Reach is out) maybe they could publish something pretty mindblowing, or even REMOTELY innovative or original? You know, kind of like how Halo 1 was a big deal for consoles (and, in some respects, shooters in general), and Halo 2's multiplayer was a massive leap in console online gaming? Not like the trash they've recently pumped out, the unoriginal, reskinned crap they actually charge people for (and the stupid console fanboys drool over).

But since they're signed to the most anti-innovation publisher going round, I doubt it. Let's see if they can't ruin Marathon.

Can't watch the video (capped) but it sounds like a game thats focusing so hard on community has now dropped (albeit arguably) one of the best community builders in the game; party dungeons and raids?

That's more than a bit worrying, as I can't imagine this being even remotely PvE orientated when you've taken away the main aspect of end game PvE (unless someone wishes to correct me).

I'm all for PvP, but when you are aiming at the stars for subs numbers you would certainly want to cater to the PvE players would you not? I mean, you aren't going to pull good subs numbers in the long term from the WoW fund with an end game focused entirely on PvP.

But as I said, I can't watch the video, but based on the article my lifetime sub is now up in the air.

I still hear the "SER-I-OUS SAAAAAAAAAMM" screamed in that crazy voice at random intervals in my life, and feel the need to immediately say it out loud. Needless to say, the boss wasn't impressed.

The game is great for the first 15 levels, tediously grindy for the next 10, and then absolutely awesome once you reach 25 and the Abyss.

The wars (i say wars because of the sheer size and coordination of the groups involved) in the Abyss make up for any previous grind you might rage at. Last night a little Elyos hunting by me and 2 mates turned into a war involving hundreds of players from both factions. At first it is hard to adapt, but once you get settled in there is a real group strategy involved and as the legions coordinated their raid parties with each other, it started to feel like an RTS. As a person who played wow a few years back and just wished for proper open world pvp (note: I am actually a heavy PVE person), i finally found my game.

For the most part, the general feeling i get from people who play with me is "well, it's not revolutionary or anything, but it sure as hell is a welcome change from wow".

Also, I disagree on the paragraph about the sound and graphics. Graphics are one of those "beautiful zoomed out, awful closer up" but I've found they scale amazingly well to very low end computers. As for the sound, i think the immersion it creates it beautiful. Yes the battle music is pretty tacky, but the regular background music (and the general sounds from the game) is fantastic.

Yes there is a grind. Yes, IN ITS CURRENT STATE, there is a lack of instances (although, to anyone wondering, my experience of the instances so far has been that it feels like a good PVE MMO, and not like some other korean MMO instances I've done) but that will most likely change in time as the developers move to satisfy the western audience. Yes the combat system is pretty generic. But this is one of those games that can't be measured by the sum of its parts. It comes together so beautifully to create this world that will leave you jaw-dropping at some aspects.

You will either love it or hate it. I personally love it. However, I do understand why people can hate it, and there are perfectly valid points for that. It's a nice game that will get you through until the next MMO that you're waiting for is released, anyway.

65 megs? my download (i got it almost immediately after he posted, random chance rss update) was 4.5MB