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[General Article] The Secret World: The Story So Far
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
With yesterday's huge announcement about The Secret World going "buy to play", we decided to take a walk down the past few months of the game's life to see just how much has changed since launch. You might just be surprised. Keep reading and then let us know what you think in the comments.
With news about The Secret World’s transition to a Buy-to-Play model, I thought it might be interesting to look at all the game’s added or changed since it launched. TSW is one of MMORPG.com’s most highly rated games, and yet I always found it strange how it didn’t quite reach mass acceptance. For sure, it has some foreign ideas and a setting that players don’t quite jive with (if it had involved swords and shields, would TSW have sold better?). But man, I still can’t quite grasp why more folks didn’t give the title a try. Despite (for me), lackluster combat, The Secret World’s more solo-oriented adventure through the zones and group-oriented dungeons are some of the best in recent memory. In any case, now that TSW has gone “buy to play”, I thought I’d remind myself about all of the great changes since the game launched last summer.
Read more of Bill Murphy's The Secret World: So Far.
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Comments
I picked it up for £15 yesterday and have had a quick play today, suffers from the same problems as Age of Conan in that the engine is terribly optimised and the only way to get decent framerates is to turn all of the eye candy down. I have a 3960X and a GeForce 680 and still can't play AoC in it's full DX10 glory, the engine is that bad! It's carried over to TSW unfortunately.
Also, apparently there is a problem with the framerates on Windows 8, and Funcom conveniently "aren't supporting" Windows 8. Considering AoC still runs like a dog after all of these years I don't hold up much hope of resolution, it;s just a dog of an engine.
Nice summary, it's good that I have only send one link to buddies if I want to promote the game now with the b2p.
"TSW is one of MMORPG.com’s most highly rated games, and yet I always found it strange how it didn’t quite reach mass acceptance." Simply it's not aiming for the masses, Ragnar always had a fanbase 'only' average in numbers but are really devoted
http://forums.thesecretworld.com/showthread.php?t=60719
the problem is only in DX11, which I know sucks but in DX9 it still looks beautiful and better than many MMO's
So just run it in DX9 until or if they optimize the DX11 mode
I have an I7 with a 680GTX and can run the game maxed with no problems at 50-60fps (adaptive V-scync on or it would be higher), same goes for AOC. I'm not sure why you're having an issue with nearly the same setup. I actually think the game runs pretty well considering the graphics.
for me this is the only MMO I can say about "I love it".
Feeling a little downgraded as a lifetimer though since the B2P change but I heard they think about more rewards for their early supporters.
Absolutely happy to play an MMO which is not about swords, archery and other medieval stuff.
Graphically, this is most tasty with a good graphics card and tesselation on in DX11.
Don't know of any other MMO with is technically so much advanced.
what the first poster is rambling about is a mystery, I only have gtx 580 and get 60 frames with everything on max.
the engine is most amazing and smooth for me.
Secrets of Dragon?s Spine Trailer.. !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwT9cFVQCMw
Best MMOs ever played: Ultima, EvE, SW Galaxies, Age of Conan, The Secret World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2X_SbZCHpc&t=21s
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The Return of ELITE !
do you run on windows 8?
I had no problem either in dx11 until I upgraded to windows 8
I'm definitely rooting for ya, FromHell, and other Lifetimers to see more bang for their lifetimer bucks.
I'm with kevjards (and a bit with FromHell), gtx560ti here, fluent gameplay in 1920x1200. True, on win7 and not on 8.
And with AoC I also never had any problems, and it ran perfectly even on my 9800gt 3 years ago...
Just tried with DX9 on Windows 8 - it's fine, doesn't look much worse either since I can use ultra preset with FXAA HQ in DX9 mode. Just a co-incidence I guess that AoC DX10 was often more trouble than it was worth and I try TSW on Windows 8 and find the same thing with DX11
For a themepark, this is probably one of the best ones out there, and was certainly my pick for 2012. This is coming from a guy who really enjoyed Guild Wars 1 and had high hopes for GW2 to be a really good themepark. At the end of the day, TSW is much, much more interesting and fun for me.
I"m actually back playing it now unless I can get into the DF:UW beta, which seems fairly unlikely.
If anyone is wondering, Arcadia seems to be the most populated server, which players and Funcom say "doesn't matter" except for PvP due to their single-server / multiple dimension technology. However, if you are on a low-pop dimension you won't see many other players running around unless you get invited to a different dimension via grouping. I prefer to start off in a more populated dimension when I log in.
A sure sign that you are in an old, dying paradigm/mindset, is when you are scared of new ideas and new technology. Don't feel bad. The world is moving on without you, and you are welcome to yell "Get Off My Lawn!" all you want while it happens. You cannot, however, stop an idea whose time has come.
Windows 7 is the way to go for gamers, 8 is a serious mistep by microsoft, I play on what I would class as an average gaming rig 8gb intel 2500k windows 7 nvidia 470 and pretty smooth.
Love this game:)
I run a 480 and a bloomfield 2.4. i can run AOC max and tsw pretty much max.
Slagging off its optimization because you cant put a rig together is unfair.
No I´m running Win7 64 Bit..
I never jump on a new OS on release. Although it can´t be that much different, the core is basically the same as Win7
Secrets of Dragon?s Spine Trailer.. !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fwT9cFVQCMw
Best MMOs ever played: Ultima, EvE, SW Galaxies, Age of Conan, The Secret World
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T2X_SbZCHpc&t=21s
.
.
The Return of ELITE !
Running a Radeon HD 6870/Phenom II X4 and 8GB DDR3 RAM with Windows 8 as my OS. Got most everything at medium/high and still getting 30fps+.
If in 1982 we played with the current mentality, we would have burned down all the pac man games since the red ghost was clearly OP. Instead we just got better at the game.
As was said in the article, the combat was lackluster and failed to entertain me for long. The story however, was pretty cool, and I won't lie, the first dungeon with the Cthulu-esque end boss was pretty awesome. That fight was amazing, atmospheric and incredibly well-done.
The game in general had an incredible atmosphere actually. But atmosphere isn't enough, unfortunately. The PvP was horrendous, the character customization and combat were subpar, and to go along with that, I wasn't a huge fan of the weapon selection. For a game like this, weapon variety and character customization seemed key, and they just didn't deliver on that aspect.
Maybe it's changed a ton since launch, however.
Maybe now that I don't have to pay a sub, I'll re-install and log in again sometime. But I doubt it.
If you can't "grasp" why not that many tried nor bought it, take a look at the mark AoC left. It's pretty simple, people remember bad things much, much longer than good things.
I also happen to think it's great, that failures are not so easily forgiven. I like the new model and frankly I'm glad they were forced to adopt it. Perhaps some other companies, that like to produce games, that just don't deliver what they promise will take a lesson.
Your entire article seems ackward, because you don't even seem to know (or simply refuse to acknowledge, for whatever reason), why people are hesitant about Funcom. There's not even a single comment about that. I'm actually surprised, that you thought it'd sell well.
They released it right before GW2, WoW:MoP, and other grand games, they have a VERY questionable reputation, they launch with a box price+sub+cash shop. Gee, it's a small wonder they sold even that many.