I think, Bill, you need to let those NCsoft scales fall from your eyes as Aion is DirectX 9 so for 2011 it isn't visually amazing. What I think is that you may be gaming on a mid-range PC as it is favourable to WoW Cataclysm in terms of visuals, but WoW is a very old game.
Anyway, I think we all know that Aion wasn't a game to Western tastes on launch, and while it may have improved it still offers quite a dated mmo game to players, and gimmicks such as wings on the player gets tiresome fast.
Just a comment on dx9. I'm still using it, i don't feel there is much of a justifiable difference in going to dx10, in fact most of the visials for dx10 i would turn off anyway. DX9 still has plenty of bang. I turn off Bloom and HD lighting in my games still, i don't think it looks that great.
Aion is a much different game then it was at launch. For those who didn't like the grindy feel at launch may very well think it is a completely different game at this point. It is worth a try if you are bored with other MMOs.
Agree with Bill on most points the music and general sound effects where decent the pets and combat grunts where downright annoying.
I suppose for a first time player and not knowing ways and means the grind can still seem lengthy but with a bit of chat to players or a forum post or 2 you could easily make 55 in under 2 month with fairly casual play.
Not sure what Bill refers to with regards to tedious travel though aside 1 or 2 dungeons Lepharists and Lannok which are a bit of a trek from the nearest flight transporter then nothing is tedious sure some areas take 1 or 2 flights to get to but where is the problem with this flights are a great way to take in the stunning world of atreia from above.
Aion is still visually stunning from a character perspective although some areas general world textures dont look quite as glossy as they did in 09.
As others have mentioned its major let down certainly for me is replayability not only does it only have 1 journey per race but that journey the starter areas are near identical and then every bit of content is shared dont go to play another race expecting different dungeons and a different journey as its practically a carbon copy of each other.
Far too much emphasis is placed on gear > skill and it has been dumbed down considerably to a PVE fest losing much of its original appeal, if Aion had stuck to its guns as a PVPVE game and removed some of the gear > skill then I have no doubt it would be thriving as the modern day players DAOC sadly that potential was lost within its first 12 months when it chose to focus on PVE and the care bears rather than simply balance out PVP a bit so all could enjoy it including those without the time to grind gear for months.
Aion was always an amazing game but had many carebears. I personally grew up playing EQ and Silkroad, Silkroad Online being my first MMORPG, and this game isnt a grind compared to those two. I personally like grinding, thats what a vast music library/podcasts are for. Hitting 50 wasnt to bad, just played when I got home from college and hit 50 in a months time. Great PVP, Great PVP Rewards, Awesome Instances, and full fledged DX11 ellegance... this game was a remarkable one... and one I still gladly sub to.
Great Re Review... the game deserves it for all the devs hard work.
By slow progression in Cons u mean grind the hell of yuor ass? meh didnt know that aion needs re-review cuz its solid like every other korean grinder... to kill your ass grinding.... if you are not a bot ofc.
Did they ever fix the lag/crashes in large PvP encounters? like sieges. It was one of the reasons i left, plus the grind after 40 was unbearable and boring. These are the the two main issues i had.
Did they ever fix the lag/crashes in large PvP encounters? like sieges. It was one of the reasons i left, plus the grind after 40 was unbearable and boring. These are the the two main issues i had.
The game is still unplayable for me with any large number of players on my screen. This was evident during a recent GM event where we had to save Juliet from some Balaur guy. The chat was filled with "OMG LAG" so it wasn't just me. I have to shift-f12 (reduce all characters to nameplates only) to even play. This is sad because in other games I haven't had that issue. Even in RIFT open beta, I've had over a hundrered players on my screen without one bit of lag.
Also, there is still a ton of rubberbanding. I'm running and *blink*...I'm back 10 feet. Or I'll jump off a hill and start to glide and instantly be back on the hill. I can't jump and glide again because it set off my wing cooldown. This happens alot.
Aion is still the best looking game I've played. Once they implement player housing/mounts I'll resub and give it another go, tech problems aside.
Oh, and leveling: it's less grindy, but still a bit of a chore. http://na.aiononline.com/livestatus/server/?serverID=2 As you can see, on my server, Israphel, only 3% of the overall characters are actually over level 46. I could be wrong, but I don't think this is typical for a game that's been out as long as Aion has.
Originally posted by Ozmodan Originally posted by Illyssia I think, Bill, you need to let those NCsoft scales fall from your eyes as Aion is DirectX 9 so for 2011 it isn't visually amazing. What I think is that you may be gaming on a mid-range PC as it is favourable to WoW Cataclysm in terms of visuals, but WoW is a very old game.
Anyway, I think we all know that Aion wasn't a game to Western tastes on launch, and while it may have improved it still offers quite a dated mmo game to players, and gimmicks such as wings on the player gets tiresome fast.
I really get tired of this DX9 criticism, when you get down to it, even DX11 is not that much of a change. Sure you can spice up the effects somewhat, but most of the games that claim to use DX10 & DX11 rarely use them to the full effect. So yeah, compared to the competition the graphics effects are still really good. Anyway graphics are a minor point for most of us, gameplay is what sells games.
Probably you are also tired of that old PC you are in actuality playing games with DirectX 9. Actually there are huge advatages to using X11 in state-of--the-art games. Not too just is poor development in 2011, for example Bioware have let it be kown they plan to patch it into SW:TOR...and it is in their 2011 major titles apart from that, many leading developers use this for superb graphics in games, not too is subpar...
I am not getting into an argument over technical details, Bill simply judges games relative to Cataclysm and I guess as a lot of others in this thread do too.
For a judgment of the possibilities see the link below...it really is better...
I played Aion to about level 25 with several characters . To experience the RVR. That WAS what this game was supposed to be all about.The RVR I experienced was some of the worst I have ever seen.So I left and I have heard nothing that suggests it's signifigantly improved.Aion is just another "pretty face" in a universe of "pretty faces".
Thank you for the re-review! I had been wondering how Aion was faring since its launch when I participated in the beta and could not run the game cause of some anti hacking thingy that would boot me from the game after roughly 5 minutes. A couple months later I played a trial after learning they completely removed the program that would not let me play only to find the trial was for 5 or so hours max so i got about lvl 5 i think and then right in the middle of poking some creature BAM i was booted. So while brief my time in the game was decent but with no friends playing the game IRL which is typically the case when I sub to an MMO I really never gave it a second look. (also many months later I found out an ex of mine and her current lover was playing Aion and that didn't really make me want to play either LOL). Now upon learning from your article as well as hearing from other sources that the game is slightly more approachable and solo friendly I just might give it another chance!!!!
Thank you for the re-review! I had been wondering how Aion was faring since its launch when I participated in the beta and could not run the game cause of some anti hacking thingy that would boot me from the game after roughly 5 minutes. A couple months later I played a trial after learning they completely removed the program that would not let me play only to find the trial was for 5 or so hours max so i got about lvl 5 i think and then right in the middle of poking some creature BAM i was booted. So while brief my time in the game was decent but with no friends playing the game IRL which is typically the case when I sub to an MMO I really never gave it a second look. (also many months later I found out an ex of mine and her current lover was playing Aion and that didn't really make me want to play either LOL). Now upon learning from your article as well as hearing from other sources that the game is slightly more approachable and solo friendly I just might give it another chance!!!!
It would take a heck of a lot more than slightly for me to even consider going back to that game, especially in light of TOR and GW2 coming out.
What is it with the Re-Review's and Post Mortem's? Are we going to get these just after GW2 and SWTOR comes out as well?
When an MMO changes, matures, ages enough they deserve to be re-reviewed. So when GW2 is old enough it'll see the same treatment, and SWTOR as well. If you mean, will we be doing SWG or GW1 re-reviews? That all depends. SWG was reviewed in 2009, and I'm not sure it needs another pass just yet. GW1 was different, because we basically had several different games under the same branding. So in short: yes, when necessary.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
Can someone answer a quick question for a release players that didn't last long:
Is Aether gathering still a matter of "Fly up, gather for a bit, fly down, sit and wait a tedious amount of time for flight charge to refill, repeat....?"
Played this game for a while got to say its a great game, its a good WOW alternative. i do hope they will not ruin it by others making some private servers.
Can someone answer a quick question for a release players that didn't last long:
Is Aether gathering still a matter of "Fly up, gather for a bit, fly down, sit and wait a tedious amount of time for flight charge to refill, repeat....?"
Just reactivated my account last week and the answer to you question is yes. Kind of makes sence though when you consider the only reason you are allowed to fly in a particular area is due to the presence of aether.
Well the game was just alright when I was playing it. Now that I started playing WoW though I seem to be progressing much faster and getting more out of my very limited playtime with wow. Also there seems to be a lot more variety and things to do in that game...
So for me Aion was awesome looking but I am so busy in grad school that unless I can get a lot done in 6-8 hours a week of playtime that mmo just won't fit my schedule. I wish I had the time of a high school or Jr college student again.
Aion was/is a good game for the post part. Graphics, combat and customization, they have done a lot of interesting things with it. Even with it being grindier than other games I still thought it was alright. The problem was that it didn't pull off its features well. The game has a big focus on PvP but the system, like most others of the time, couldn't actually support the player population getting involved in Abyss PvP. You had to lower your graphics down all the way and turn of player graphics so all you'd see are floating name tags just so you could eek out some decent FPS to play in Sieges. On the other hand, there wasn't a lot of PvE towards the top of the game to keep you going since it was a game focusing a lot on the PvP aspect. Things seem like their pretty much the same still, though lower populations have helped in one way but that doesn't make a good game, and some new duengons are nice.
Well, after reading this I might just play Aion again. Even though Aion has left a bad taste in my mouth from their other games that I use to play, I still always think about Aion and get this urge to play it again. I always liked the visuals and the character models and animations are some of the best I have seen in MMOs.
So thank you for doing this review, I just might take a look at the game again when I get home from work today. And I have not played since Beta, lol.
Games playing: Lotro,Fallen Earth,Star Trek Online. Games playing casually: CoX,Guild Wars,FFXIV,Champions Online,DDO. Games Played: WoW,DR,L2,RoM,FFXI,Earthrise,EQ2,DAoC,WAR,Rift,Alganon,EVE,G&H Rome Rising. Waiting for: Guild Wars 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic. PC Specs: Intel i7 990x 3.5ghz, 6gb ddr3 Ram,EVGA GTX 570 SC FTW,EVGA x58 Classified 4-way SLI MB, 2TB HDD 7200rpm, 60GB Intel SSD: OS Drive, Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit, Westinghouse 21 in. 1680x1050.
Every time this thread resurfaces on Recent Forum posts, I read the title as "Auto Assault blah blah blah" and, for a brief moment, I get excited. Then I realize it really says Aion and isn't followed by "New PvE Only Servers" and I get unhappy in the pants.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein "Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Okay, I have a MAJOR pet peeve with your re-review. You said in your introduction "By and large Aion of today is a much better game than it was at launch"
Note that your final re-review score is 8.0, whereas the initial review of the game was 8.7. WTF? Either your current score is incorrect or the previous score was too generous. I'm going to assume the previous score was way too generous.
I'll tell you what the problem is....go and look at the review scores you give almost all MMOs on this website, they are mostly 7.5-8.5, with a rare MMO coming in lower than 7.5. In essence, 8.0 would be "average" if scored on a curve. I know I've posted on other threads about the poor scoring of MMO ratings, and I think you guys/gals need to re-think how you do ratings. I mean, your first paragraph saying it's better than it was at launch and then giving it a lower score than you did at launch review pretty much summarizes the issues. And please, don't tell me the standards are now different just one year later. I will admit the difficulty in getting a "full" review done in an MMO in a relatively short period of time (and the need to move on to review the next big MMO), as end-game content tends to be very important for MMOs. Still, as a paid professional, that's par for the course in the job.
On the other hand, I do applaud you going back and reviewing a somewhat popular MMO game. I just wish the review scores had a greater variance so I could truly tell what MMO you like and what MMO you don't. Right now with all the scores bunched together, it is hard to tell.
Finally, I did play AION at launch and it was a good game, but the grindfest was unbelievable and like a lot of PvP end-games with just 2 factions (NPCs don't count, regardless of what NCSoft says) the losing side eventually quit and the server population dropped dramatically. I have since sworn off MMO games with 2-faction PvP for end-game content. Waiting on GW2 for 3-way server fights.
Okay, I have a MAJOR pet peeve with your re-review. You said in your introduction "By and large Aion of today is a much better game than it was at launch"
Note that your final re-review score is 8.0, whereas the initial review of the game was 8.7. WTF? Either your current score is incorrect or the previous score was too generous. I'm going to assume the previous score was way too generous.
It may not make up for the disparity, but I did not write the first review. I understand why you're like, "wait, what the hell?" But to be honest, I do think the previous score was way too generous. The other goal of these re-reviews, and reviews in general, isn't about the score. It's about taking a look at how the game's changed. And Aion, whether or not it's the game for you or anyone else, has changed and improved enough to deserve the "B" grade it received here.
For future reference on how I review things, I tend to rate them based on a mix of their technical accuity combined with the actual fun of the game. Hence while DCUO is a more flawed technical game, it still ranked an 8 with me due to its inherent fun factor. Make sense?
I do understand your confusion, but it's not a matter of us trying to be too centrist. It's just a matter of opinion. I personally hate numerical scores for reviews. I'd much prefer a "buy it, try it, avoid it" type of system, but by and large the public love scores so we do what we can within that system and we can't please everyone. I look at it like school grade scales. 7 is a C, 8 is a B, and 9+ is an A. Anything below that is very close to a fail or worse.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
Been at start ... wanted to post something ... but then realized is not worth. Word "Aion" is no longer in my vocabulary and never will be again, even if they change name, company, ... whatever.
Comments
Just a comment on dx9. I'm still using it, i don't feel there is much of a justifiable difference in going to dx10, in fact most of the visials for dx10 i would turn off anyway. DX9 still has plenty of bang. I turn off Bloom and HD lighting in my games still, i don't think it looks that great.
Aion is a much different game then it was at launch. For those who didn't like the grindy feel at launch may very well think it is a completely different game at this point. It is worth a try if you are bored with other MMOs.
Agree with Bill on most points the music and general sound effects where decent the pets and combat grunts where downright annoying.
I suppose for a first time player and not knowing ways and means the grind can still seem lengthy but with a bit of chat to players or a forum post or 2 you could easily make 55 in under 2 month with fairly casual play.
Not sure what Bill refers to with regards to tedious travel though aside 1 or 2 dungeons Lepharists and Lannok which are a bit of a trek from the nearest flight transporter then nothing is tedious sure some areas take 1 or 2 flights to get to but where is the problem with this flights are a great way to take in the stunning world of atreia from above.
Aion is still visually stunning from a character perspective although some areas general world textures dont look quite as glossy as they did in 09.
As others have mentioned its major let down certainly for me is replayability not only does it only have 1 journey per race but that journey the starter areas are near identical and then every bit of content is shared dont go to play another race expecting different dungeons and a different journey as its practically a carbon copy of each other.
Far too much emphasis is placed on gear > skill and it has been dumbed down considerably to a PVE fest losing much of its original appeal, if Aion had stuck to its guns as a PVPVE game and removed some of the gear > skill then I have no doubt it would be thriving as the modern day players DAOC sadly that potential was lost within its first 12 months when it chose to focus on PVE and the care bears rather than simply balance out PVP a bit so all could enjoy it including those without the time to grind gear for months.
Aion was always an amazing game but had many carebears. I personally grew up playing EQ and Silkroad, Silkroad Online being my first MMORPG, and this game isnt a grind compared to those two. I personally like grinding, thats what a vast music library/podcasts are for. Hitting 50 wasnt to bad, just played when I got home from college and hit 50 in a months time. Great PVP, Great PVP Rewards, Awesome Instances, and full fledged DX11 ellegance... this game was a remarkable one... and one I still gladly sub to.
Great Re Review... the game deserves it for all the devs hard work.
By slow progression in Cons u mean grind the hell of yuor ass? meh didnt know that aion needs re-review cuz its solid like every other korean grinder... to kill your ass grinding.... if you are not a bot ofc.
Did they ever fix the lag/crashes in large PvP encounters? like sieges. It was one of the reasons i left, plus the grind after 40 was unbearable and boring. These are the the two main issues i had.
GW2 the future of MMO gaming
The game is still unplayable for me with any large number of players on my screen. This was evident during a recent GM event where we had to save Juliet from some Balaur guy. The chat was filled with "OMG LAG" so it wasn't just me. I have to shift-f12 (reduce all characters to nameplates only) to even play. This is sad because in other games I haven't had that issue. Even in RIFT open beta, I've had over a hundrered players on my screen without one bit of lag.
Also, there is still a ton of rubberbanding. I'm running and *blink*...I'm back 10 feet. Or I'll jump off a hill and start to glide and instantly be back on the hill. I can't jump and glide again because it set off my wing cooldown. This happens alot.
Aion is still the best looking game I've played. Once they implement player housing/mounts I'll resub and give it another go, tech problems aside.
Oh, and leveling: it's less grindy, but still a bit of a chore. http://na.aiononline.com/livestatus/server/?serverID=2 As you can see, on my server, Israphel, only 3% of the overall characters are actually over level 46. I could be wrong, but I don't think this is typical for a game that's been out as long as Aion has.
I liked Aion a lot, but the grind made me cry. It would have been nice to be able to fly a bit longer too.
I played Aion to about level 25 with several characters . To experience the RVR. That WAS what this game was supposed to be all about.The RVR I experienced was some of the worst I have ever seen.So I left and I have heard nothing that suggests it's signifigantly improved.Aion is just another "pretty face" in a universe of "pretty faces".
Thank you for the re-review! I had been wondering how Aion was faring since its launch when I participated in the beta and could not run the game cause of some anti hacking thingy that would boot me from the game after roughly 5 minutes. A couple months later I played a trial after learning they completely removed the program that would not let me play only to find the trial was for 5 or so hours max so i got about lvl 5 i think and then right in the middle of poking some creature BAM i was booted. So while brief my time in the game was decent but with no friends playing the game IRL which is typically the case when I sub to an MMO I really never gave it a second look. (also many months later I found out an ex of mine and her current lover was playing Aion and that didn't really make me want to play either LOL). Now upon learning from your article as well as hearing from other sources that the game is slightly more approachable and solo friendly I just might give it another chance!!!!
sooooo the only thing new here is simply the vanity pet system that other games have had for years before this one was launched?
is flying still limited to certain areas?
is flying still limited by fatigue?
do you still have to go to an all pvp area to get ganked over and over while trying to progress in both level and item badge grinding?
is every fight with every mob still an epic fight ie lasting more then 30 seconds?
are abilities on say the monk class still not monk-like?
if the answer is yes to any of these questions and you love pvp, i'd suggest you save your money for GW2.
It would take a heck of a lot more than slightly for me to even consider going back to that game, especially in light of TOR and GW2 coming out.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
What is it with the Re-Review's and Post Mortem's? Are we going to get these just after GW2 and SWTOR comes out as well?
When an MMO changes, matures, ages enough they deserve to be re-reviewed. So when GW2 is old enough it'll see the same treatment, and SWTOR as well. If you mean, will we be doing SWG or GW1 re-reviews? That all depends. SWG was reviewed in 2009, and I'm not sure it needs another pass just yet. GW1 was different, because we basically had several different games under the same branding. So in short: yes, when necessary.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
My Review Manifesto
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Can someone answer a quick question for a release players that didn't last long:
Is Aether gathering still a matter of "Fly up, gather for a bit, fly down, sit and wait a tedious amount of time for flight charge to refill, repeat....?"
Played this game for a while got to say its a great game, its a good WOW alternative. i do hope they will not ruin it by others making some private servers.
Just reactivated my account last week and the answer to you question is yes. Kind of makes sence though when you consider the only reason you are allowed to fly in a particular area is due to the presence of aether.
Well the game was just alright when I was playing it. Now that I started playing WoW though I seem to be progressing much faster and getting more out of my very limited playtime with wow. Also there seems to be a lot more variety and things to do in that game...
So for me Aion was awesome looking but I am so busy in grad school that unless I can get a lot done in 6-8 hours a week of playtime that mmo just won't fit my schedule. I wish I had the time of a high school or Jr college student again.
Aion was/is a good game for the post part. Graphics, combat and customization, they have done a lot of interesting things with it. Even with it being grindier than other games I still thought it was alright. The problem was that it didn't pull off its features well. The game has a big focus on PvP but the system, like most others of the time, couldn't actually support the player population getting involved in Abyss PvP. You had to lower your graphics down all the way and turn of player graphics so all you'd see are floating name tags just so you could eek out some decent FPS to play in Sieges. On the other hand, there wasn't a lot of PvE towards the top of the game to keep you going since it was a game focusing a lot on the PvP aspect. Things seem like their pretty much the same still, though lower populations have helped in one way but that doesn't make a good game, and some new duengons are nice.
Well, after reading this I might just play Aion again. Even though Aion has left a bad taste in my mouth from their other games that I use to play, I still always think about Aion and get this urge to play it again. I always liked the visuals and the character models and animations are some of the best I have seen in MMOs.
So thank you for doing this review, I just might take a look at the game again when I get home from work today. And I have not played since Beta, lol.
Games playing: Lotro,Fallen Earth,Star Trek Online.
Games playing casually: CoX,Guild Wars,FFXIV,Champions Online,DDO.
Games Played: WoW,DR,L2,RoM,FFXI,Earthrise,EQ2,DAoC,WAR,Rift,Alganon,EVE,G&H Rome Rising.
Waiting for: Guild Wars 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic.
PC Specs: Intel i7 990x 3.5ghz, 6gb ddr3 Ram,EVGA GTX 570 SC FTW,EVGA x58 Classified 4-way SLI MB, 2TB HDD 7200rpm, 60GB Intel SSD: OS Drive, Windows 7 Ultimate 64 bit, Westinghouse 21 in. 1680x1050.
Every time this thread resurfaces on Recent Forum posts, I read the title as "Auto Assault blah blah blah" and, for a brief moment, I get excited. Then I realize it really says Aion and isn't followed by "New PvE Only Servers" and I get unhappy in the pants.
There isn't a "right" or "wrong" way to play, if you want to use a screwdriver to put nails into wood, have at it, simply don't complain when the guy next to you with the hammer is doing it much better and easier. - Allein
"Graphics are often supplied by Engines that (some) MMORPG's are built in" - Spuffyre
Okay, I have a MAJOR pet peeve with your re-review. You said in your introduction "By and large Aion of today is a much better game than it was at launch"
Note that your final re-review score is 8.0, whereas the initial review of the game was 8.7. WTF? Either your current score is incorrect or the previous score was too generous. I'm going to assume the previous score was way too generous.
I'll tell you what the problem is....go and look at the review scores you give almost all MMOs on this website, they are mostly 7.5-8.5, with a rare MMO coming in lower than 7.5. In essence, 8.0 would be "average" if scored on a curve. I know I've posted on other threads about the poor scoring of MMO ratings, and I think you guys/gals need to re-think how you do ratings. I mean, your first paragraph saying it's better than it was at launch and then giving it a lower score than you did at launch review pretty much summarizes the issues. And please, don't tell me the standards are now different just one year later. I will admit the difficulty in getting a "full" review done in an MMO in a relatively short period of time (and the need to move on to review the next big MMO), as end-game content tends to be very important for MMOs. Still, as a paid professional, that's par for the course in the job.
On the other hand, I do applaud you going back and reviewing a somewhat popular MMO game. I just wish the review scores had a greater variance so I could truly tell what MMO you like and what MMO you don't. Right now with all the scores bunched together, it is hard to tell.
Finally, I did play AION at launch and it was a good game, but the grindfest was unbelievable and like a lot of PvP end-games with just 2 factions (NPCs don't count, regardless of what NCSoft says) the losing side eventually quit and the server population dropped dramatically. I have since sworn off MMO games with 2-faction PvP for end-game content. Waiting on GW2 for 3-way server fights.
It may not make up for the disparity, but I did not write the first review. I understand why you're like, "wait, what the hell?" But to be honest, I do think the previous score was way too generous. The other goal of these re-reviews, and reviews in general, isn't about the score. It's about taking a look at how the game's changed. And Aion, whether or not it's the game for you or anyone else, has changed and improved enough to deserve the "B" grade it received here.
For future reference on how I review things, I tend to rate them based on a mix of their technical accuity combined with the actual fun of the game. Hence while DCUO is a more flawed technical game, it still ranked an 8 with me due to its inherent fun factor. Make sense?
I do understand your confusion, but it's not a matter of us trying to be too centrist. It's just a matter of opinion. I personally hate numerical scores for reviews. I'd much prefer a "buy it, try it, avoid it" type of system, but by and large the public love scores so we do what we can within that system and we can't please everyone. I look at it like school grade scales. 7 is a C, 8 is a B, and 9+ is an A. Anything below that is very close to a fail or worse.
Try to be excellent to everyone you meet. You never know what someone else has seen or endured.
My Review Manifesto
Follow me on Twitter if you dare.
Been at start ... wanted to post something ... but then realized is not worth. Word "Aion" is no longer in my vocabulary and never will be again, even if they change name, company, ... whatever.