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Warhammer Online : Age of Reckoning: Preview
Dana
Member Posts: 2,415
Recently, we had a chance to visit the Mythic offices in Fairfax, VA. Based on what we saw, we've filed this extensive preview of Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning.
;) Mythic Entertainments trailer for Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning set the tone. In it, an orc runs into battle looking evil as arrows whiz by his head. Its much like many fantasy trailers. Then, the orc jumps into a catapult and is shot forward. Fantastic? Yes, but surely this will be followed by some ridiculous fight sequence.
Smack. The orc hits a stone wall and falls onto a pile of comrades. He clearly was not the first. From the get-go, we knew this MMORPG would be just a bit different from Dark Age of Camelot. |
You can read the full article here.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Comments
And ... i am not surprised about Paul Barnett - his style was to be expected after his cellphone-recorded video reports on the warhammeronline.com site.
Ye Olde German Fansite
est. 2004
Great Preview. It dispels some of the rumors on many of the WAR forums, and adds a lot of interesting information. Of course I expect much of it to change again before release, but it's a very good blueprint. I am truly looking forward to this title.
Now, for a couple of questions. It seems from your review that WAR is borrowing some of the mechanics of GuildWars and GuildWars Factions. I am talking about the combat system which sounds a bit like the skill bar in GuildWars where you choose a "deck" of skills before a mission/combat. I am also referring to some of the PvP scenarios you werer mentioning involving siege weapons/etc. that can be interacted with, as in Factions competitive missions. Sounds good, and please correct me if I misunderstood anything.
No women among the Greenskins -- now that will be interesting, I guess it's true that few women play MMORPGs
-- by the way, which such fun lore, did they say anything about their plans for Roleplayers?
-As to combat like GW: I am not terribly familiar with GW. However, the pre-load tactics are buffs, they are completely seperate from the skills you use in combat. For example, you could pre-load a leadership ability that buffs everyone in your group. The rest, I have no idea to be honest.
-Women in Greenskins: The reason they gave is simple. That's what the IP says. It's nothing to do with excluding women, its just the way it was invented. Orcs coming from mushrooms... very 70s
-RPers: No word.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Not only did it shed some light on the game, but it was an entertaining read as well. Paul Barnett is indeed an interesting fellow.
While comparisons to Warcraft are inevitable, it would have been nice to see some background as to why. As a decade-long fan of Warhammer, I'm a big proponent of letting younger gamers know the lineage of the 'big shoulderpads' exaggerated style Games Workshop created and inspired Blizzard with. More gamers need to know that orcs weren't green until Warhammer made them that way.
Old gamer grumblings aside, well written!
Excellent read, have been playing p&p GW ip games for over 15 years and this just seems like the pinacle of it for me.
Basically, we hit that in an op. ed. a few weeks ago.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
Still, a great read!
WAR has fully controllable moods/facial expressions for the characters. Sounds like something a roleplayer would find useful...
Ye Olde German Fansite
est. 2004
I have to admit this article has raised my hype level by a tun. I really love the idea of custamizable bling. It's always been an idea I said I'd incorperate into a game should I definently walk down that path someday. The character visual advancement is a welcomed sight. I like the idea of seeing something big and nasty coming your way without having to con it. Though in my case, usualy when anything is coming my way it's something I should be afraid of:-P
I hope they will be able to keep the colition in the game, I realise it can add aditional lag, etc, but it would add that extra level of emirsion into a battle that I've been looking for. If there's a fleet of soldiers in front of you, you shouldn't be able to walk through them like a goast and sprint away, you should have to find a hole in their line.
Though as of now the combat system sounds pretty much the same as EverQuset II in many forms I'm sure it will have it's own feel. I just hope it doesn't have an extream identical feel like DAoC first had with EQ 1 (as far is it came to PvE. Not to put DAoC down I enjoyed it a lot, I still love the way their archery works compared to any other MMO).
I can deal with the 'likeness to WOW." So long as it has enough goar to satisfy my sadistic side. WOW never was really bad artisticly wise though, on ocation I would find a few things that I'd personaly have aproached from another angle (took me a while to get useto human's having hands bigger than their heads). WAR does hoever seem to have it's own unique feel to it, expesualy with their progresive visual character advancement, byond that of simple upgrading armor.
Top Ten Most Misused Words/Phrases in MMO Industry...
Top Ten Most Misused Words/Phrases in MMO Industry...
Seriously great preview. Makes me want to play this NOW.
I did have one little comment. Seems small and I'm sure I'll get flamed for this. But using the word Bling in a preview? lol Seems kind of silly.
Also, what the heck are you talking about in this sentence?
Call me stupid or whatever but huh? I usually get the pop culture references and I'm not a moron but how does a buff Bling.
No offense meant to the author. So don't take it that way. I guess I'm just a little put off (for lack of a better word) with the usage and wording.
Call me stupid or whatever but huh? I usually get the pop culture references and I'm not a moron but how does a buff Bling.
No offense meant to the author. So don't take it that way. I guess I'm just a little put off (for lack of a better word) with the usage and wording.
No offense taken.
In this case, I meant spell effects. In a lot of games, you cast a buff and the person in envoloped by lights, sounds and all sorts of insane effects. Aka: bling! This will be subdued in Warhammer.
Dana Massey
Formerly of MMORPG.com
Currently Lead Designer for Bit Trap Studios
sign me up.
i also like the fact that you can adorn yourself with the body parts of the foes youve killed. a musclebound orc thats 7' tall with many stundie skulls hanging about? hell yeah.
i also liked how players progression changes their outward appearance. start off as a 4' orc and grow from there. awsome.
i know the game is still early, but so far mythic has only impressed.
I see. Thanks for the clarification. I honestly didn't get what was meant by the reference.
Thank god the spell effects are going to be subdued. I had always thought that it was getting a little out of hand with thousands of particle effects and whatever else going off.
Again, great fracking preview write up! I read the ones on IGN (bleh) 1UP and uh.. somewhere else and yours is THE best. No suck up there. Anyone who doubts me can go read them yourself. (Bluesnews has the links I ain't gonna put them here).
Excellent preview! Lots of cool information, well done, Dana.
I just hope they won't keep that collision detection. It just doesn't feel right, people blocking eachother. One of the reasons I don't play Guild Wars
Can't wait for WAR, my MMO hunger has been craving for a game like this ever since I quit DAoC.
http://kompaniet.mine.nu :+: #kompaniet @ QuakeNet
excellent article all around.
Very informative as well, now our level of info about the game has been increased tenfolds and i like most that i see.
Only thing that worries me is the class system. we were led to believe it would be more open-ended with many different professions/careers. Mark Jacobs himself posted about that, saying that, for example, a human that choose the "warrior" path, could become a ranger, soldier, archer, knight etc etc, or take little from many of them.
So, do i understand correctly that this has been scrapped? Or is just that the demo was pretty limited in that respect? also 4 classes per race sounds awfully limited, i hope there is space for expansion on it.
Finally, where Slayers went?????
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
mmm, no player looting, class system... this game is not for me. but it looks very nice. i like to be able to advance the character with pvp also, not just questing. it is a shame they didnt go all the way with pvp.
about classes, it is just my personal taste, but i prefere skill based advancement, even on a racial based game like warhammer
I hope Mythic cares a bit more bout their customers, if so we might be looking at the new best seller..
I myself will however spend my time with Age of Conan bu that's another story..
GL Mythic.
Take my word for it, do not trust me!
Great read bro!! I have no doubt this game will be great! I can honestly say that my Warcraft acct. has a short lifespan now....no matter what the expansion brings.
WAR is Coming!
Thanks again for the long write up!
Great read and good info, I just hope they stick to what they have started and not change it to much.
I really like there idea of Character Customization, and that race and pvp will mean something in this game and not just filler like in a lot of games. What I mean by this is that in most MMO's right now a warrior is the same across all races and same goes for all the classes, but here them seem to want to make them different and I really hope they stick to that.
Love the read, and the way things are going. Been playing WoW since release and have been waiting for another MMO to come out to satisfy my craving... I will still play WoW, but not as much when this WAR is released... It will be a back and forth match between the two!!!