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EverQuest II: A Look at The Shadow Odyssey
Stradden
Managing EditorMember CommonPosts: 6,696
MMORPG.com's Donna Desborough has been playing EverQuest II's new expansion Shadow Odyssey which launched yesterday. Today, she gives us her impressions of the latest installment of the EQw franchise.
The developers at Sony Online Entertainment have done it again. The Shadow Odyssey is the 5th expansion for Everquest 2 and is once again packed with lush environments and new fights to be won.
The graphics in EQ2 aren't to everyone's liking, but one cannot deny the beauty of the new lands that come with TSO expansion. With 20 plus new areas to explore there is something for everyone here. Some areas may seem familiar, but then you can only make a zone look so different before it starts feeling familiar in places. Still they have done a good job with the new zones and each has its own ambience and character. Several of the original Everquest dungeons have been re-created. Even though these are inside locations it doesn't stop them from being vast in size. Of the re-done dungeons, my favourite was Mistmoore Evernight Abbey. It has a good ambiance and there are details to be found in many places. The Mistmoore dungeons felt like somewhere you'd find a vampire lord living. I think they have done justice to the original.
Cheers,
Jon Wood
Managing Editor
MMORPG.com
Comments
More quests!! ))
I like the sound of this new expansion I may just download a digital version and give EQ another go. Not really playing anything at the moment and it would be nice to have something to pass the time during the winter months. SOE certainly doesn't waste time with getting their expansions out though.
-Manaia
It's been a year since the last expansion, I'd hardly call that rushed or anything, unless you're used to Blizzard's "once every three years is good, right?" release schedule.
I guess most of you are satisfied with one expansion that raises level caps every 2 years so you are bored out of your skull with the game by the time the levle caps come around. The last 2 expansions that did not raise level caps were great...for about 3 months...So after 3 months you were relagated to playing alts or playing another game. It would be great if SOE could keep it's word and release a new expansion about once evey 4 months....
show me where it has ever said that
show me where it has ever said that
Or better yet. Give me a Developer that can push out an expansion of the magnitude of RoK or TSO in just 4 months!
Everyone with more then 1 braincell in their head knows that's downright impossible!
Cheers
The original plan as I recall from the forums was to have several adventure packs a year, which were like mini-expansions, followed by 1-2 expansions a year.
They did indeed follow that pattern...there were adventure packs in Q1 and Q2 of 2005 followed by an expansion in Q3 of 2005. There was another expansion in Q1 of 2006 followed by a third adventure pack in Q2 of 2006. So during the first two years of the game there were two full expansions and three adventure packs.
Then EOF fell into the present pattern of an annual expansion in November, and there has been no adventure pack since the Fallen Dynasty in 6/06.
So in terms of the lifespan of the game, it was:
Do you have any rational argument about what you call "crap expansions" beside the invalid point "x game sold more copies'?
I would like to read the details that make you think EQ2 expansions are crap and if you really experienced them.
People that actually play EQ2 had a lot of good moments from DOF to this new expansion, can you explain why they are useless? If you dont play EQ2, it is pretty obvious they are useless to you, but in that case, your opinion without any rational argument is totally useless aswell.
Shadow Odyssey in my point of view if much more impressive than ROK, it is good to see such a good MMO as EQ2 going into the right direction.
...
Wow, your problem is simple. In your head, SOE = crap. Sure, they made a lot of mistakes as a big company; but that does not make their individual efforts crap. EA is the same monster. A lot of people do an EA = Horrible Game and its not true. Sure, if you had to judge a game without playing it based solely off the parent developer, then yeah, more times than not you would be right. But you don't!
EQ2 has always been a good game; ever since beta. It had its ups and downs, but dude, to say it was a total failure is crap. It makes money, it has a stable player base. I have had a lot of fun with EQ2, most recently for RoK. As a group oriented PvE game, it is tough to beat. Only LotRO comes to mind.
I would love to see them redo the graphics engine. If they did that, I would probably return and try it out. Until then, I'm content in WAR. Either way, the expansion looks great, and I hope they keep moving EQ2 in the right direction.
An expansion that provides entertainment for about 3 months? That sounds pretty amazing to me actually......considering I never play any mmo for longer than a few months before the boredom causes me to go and play something else.....pretty much like any single player game actually. How do people play these brain dead games for years anyway?
SOE said when they released EoF that future expansions would be on one year cycles and adventure packs would just be free content. They did this because their old schedule meant they released small expansion filled with lackluster content.
As an old EQ player and someone who played shortly after retail and also played at EoF and RoK launches... they were right.
Unfortunately TSO though great from a content point of view is terrible from an appeal point of view. I left EQ2 because no other classes interested me, I was out of casual content on my mains and raids in EQ2 are just plain painful to play through. TSO in announced and I think great... finally scalable dungeons ala CoX... not so much. Get an outdoor zone to grind AA and loads of dungeons that require ideal group makeups to enjoy.
Meanwhile WoW, which I cannot bring myself to play anymore, release another everything for everyone expansion that breaks down even more barriers in people getting to the content. Giving AoC a little more growth time, bored in WAR, guess its back to LotRO and Champions Online beta
Can anyone tell me where the lvl 50 content is? I haven't found any as yet for my lvl 58 Berserker.
Do you have any rational argument about what you call "crap expansions" beside the invalid point "x game sold more copies'?
I would like to read the details that make you think EQ2 expansions are crap and if you really experienced them.
People that actually play EQ2 had a lot of good moments from DOF to this new expansion, can you explain why they are useless? If you dont play EQ2, it is pretty obvious they are useless to you, but in that case, your opinion without any rational argument is totally useless aswell.
Shadow Odyssey in my point of view if much more impressive than ROK, it is good to see such a good MMO as EQ2 going into the right direction.
...
Actually the point of "x sells more copies then Y" is very much valid. I mean, what other objective way to define which product is better? Certainly not by asking someone like you who likes EQ2 or someone who hates it - their opinions would be biased. SO, the only objective way to define how good of a product is - how many people actualy play it. So, if 10 people play a game, I guess the game is crap. If new expansion does not bring in hordes of new and/or old players, well, then I guess it is mediocre at best, crap at the worst. Im sorry I had to break your bubble there buddy.
While you and other people may enjoy EQ2 and may or may not consider it to be the messiah of the MMORPG genre, to the rest of the world it is just a mediocre product. Thinking that a few thousand of people's opinion outweight a million more is just irrational. Thought id point that flaw in your logic there.
I am the type of player where I like to do everything and anything from time to time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor - pre-WW2 genocide.
No Jimmyman, it is not valid, especially among games.
I will show you why using some examples:
Shadow of Colossus-fantastic game.
Disciples serie- fantastic rpg/strategy serie.
Riddick - pretty good FPS.
Silent Hill serie, deeper, more complex and very impressive horror serie but Resivent Evil is much more popular even with the fact that it is a cheesy horror serie if you compare to Silent Hill.
Legacy of Kain series.
See, examples of fantastic games but less sucessful than The Sims, Fifa and Brain Age...
Same happens with quality MMOs like Everquest2, Eve, Guild Wars, they are less popular than Runescape, Ragnarok and Tibia.
Outside games, in musical and cinematography industry the logic of "numbers are not equal to quality/expressiveness is even stronger.
If you belive that only the popular and common opinion of the masses is valid, it would be good for you if you reevaluate your ideas, the sheep behavior will always limit you.
The only thing mediocre and unoriginal here are the values you expressed, and Im sorry to say, you didnt burst any bubble.
By your incredible logic, soap operas and self help books are better than Victor Hugo´s and Nietzsche´s works.
By your logic, you should only watch mainstream silly action movies, read the bible and self help books, play only wow, gta and the sims etc... sad, dont you think? I will not even say anything about music, sexual behavior, clothes etc.
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I don't know most of the games you listed. In any case, the only objective definition of which product is better is going by numbers. Anything you say about you liking the product is subjective and does not count. It doesn't matter how much you like EQ2 or anything else, if everybody else hates it then it sucks. Plain and simple.
If you think that your opinion is better then "the masses" then, well, you have a narcissism complex. Everyone here has the same rights you have.
And yes, soap operas are better books then Hugo or Nietzsche. Better philosophical book? No. But better books in general. And no, I do not watch ONLY mainstream movies or listen to mainstream songs. I listen to what I like, not what everyone else likes. However, I do not have the audacity to claim that songs I listen or movies I like are the best in the world if only I and maybe a few others enjoy them.
That's the whole point of my original post. X sells more then Y. Which makes X a better product. I may hate X, or may love it. I don't care. Its not about what I like, its about which product is better. Same with EQ2, I don't hate it, I don't love it. I kinda like it. But my liking it does not make it best in the world. It takes 50% of world population plus 1 to say definitely and without a doubt that that specific product is the best in the world. Its all about statistics, and not about opinions - yours or mine.
I am the type of player where I like to do everything and anything from time to time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor - pre-WW2 genocide.
Do you have any rational argument about what you call "crap expansions" beside the invalid point "x game sold more copies'?
I would like to read the details that make you think EQ2 expansions are crap and if you really experienced them.
People that actually play EQ2 had a lot of good moments from DOF to this new expansion, can you explain why they are useless? If you dont play EQ2, it is pretty obvious they are useless to you, but in that case, your opinion without any rational argument is totally useless aswell.
Shadow Odyssey in my point of view if much more impressive than ROK, it is good to see such a good MMO as EQ2 going into the right direction.
...
Actually the point of "x sells more copies then Y" is very much valid. I mean, what other objective way to define which product is better? Certainly not by asking someone like you who likes EQ2 or someone who hates it - their opinions would be biased. SO, the only objective way to define how good of a product is - how many people actualy play it. So, if 10 people play a game, I guess the game is crap. If new expansion does not bring in hordes of new and/or old players, well, then I guess it is mediocre at best, crap at the worst. Im sorry I had to break your bubble there buddy.
While you and other people may enjoy EQ2 and may or may not consider it to be the messiah of the MMORPG genre, to the rest of the world it is just a mediocre product. Thinking that a few thousand of people's opinion outweight a million more is just irrational. Thought id point that flaw in your logic there.
No, your wrong.
The X sells more then Y, so X is better argument is the utterly worst way to measure success.
It is not a good way to judge what games you play, what music you listen to, or what movies you watch. Populariity has rarely been a good indicator of quality.
Objective measures of success according to others? nah.. don't need 'em tbh.
I wil stick with looking for what connects to ME, appeals to ME, inspires ME.
You, in the meantime, can be measuring a games 'success' by units sold, while watching High School Musical 3, listening to Britney, and playing WoW.
That would also say that the music on the charts are better than the one that is not. It. And Mozart and Shakespear wasn't that popular while they were alive either.
Good is a very tough term, believing good is only based on comercial succes is ignorant. Also you should coun't in that many other MMOs actually are stealing the ideas from EQ2, it do have many good ideas that have later shown up in other MMOs (like Wow).
UO never sold that many copies but it have still affected the genre a lot. And if you wan't to look how good something is you really need some kind of formula. Just saying that Coke is better than Dr Pepper just because it sells more is not right, there are other things that matter, like commercials, for how much a something sells.
I sure ain't saying that EQ2 is better than Wow but saying that something is better than something else just because more people buy it is stupid, Cow meat ain't better than moose meat.
I am the type of player where I like to do everything and anything from time to time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor - pre-WW2 genocide.
I am the type of player where I like to do everything and anything from time to time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor - pre-WW2 genocide.
I already answered about "rational observation" above.
I am the type of player where I like to do everything and anything from time to time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor - pre-WW2 genocide.
Here is why your pseudo statistic point of view is wrong.
You cant formulate an statistic with such simplistic values, you need to put marketing and acessibility and more variations to the equation.
Just to be clear, you are the one using the "best x" term.
Just an idiotic example, a movie company use 3.000.000 bananas ( a large part of bananas were used to pay for marketing and publicity) to produce movie X, this movie is very "popular" and sell 10.000.000 copies, then the same company made a small cult movie with almost no publicity with 20.000 bananas, this movie sells 1.000.000... you see, in your eyes, you will just scream, movie x "is so popular, it is a sucess", but in the end the small movie without publicity is more sucessful even with less popularity.
There is not ONE way to identify the "best" product, a product is not "the best" in all circumstances, it is even more relative when we talk about entertainment products that have personal experiences and artistic aspects in it...really I dont think you are serious, if you are joking with such simplistic arguments I think I just fell in it.
Your comments about culture are tottaly not accurate, but I prefer stay silent about it.
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About this expansion, I hope the end game Dungeons are as good as EOF Dungeons, I still think MMCastle is one of the most challenging and interesting Dungeons I ever saw in a MMORPG.
..
Here is why your pseudo statistic point of view is wrong.
You cant formulate an statistic with such simplistic values, you need to put marketing and acessibility and more variations to the equation.
Just to be clear, you are the one using the "best x" term.
Just an idiotic example, a movie company use 3.000.000 bananas ( a large part of bananas were used to pay for marketing and publicity) to produce movie X, this movie is very "popular" and sell 10.000.000 copies, then the same company made a small cult movie with almost no publicity with 20.000 bananas, this movie sells 1.000.000... you see, in your eyes, you will just scream, movie x "is so popular, it is a sucess", but in the end the small movie without publicity is more sucessful even with less popularity.
There is not ONE way to identify the "best" product, a product is not "the best" in all circumstances, it is even more relative when we talk about entertainment products that have personal experiences and artistic aspects in it...really I dont think you are serious, if you are joking with such simplistic arguments I think I just fell in it.
Your comments about culture are tottaly not accurate, but I prefer stay silent about it.
-----
About this expansion, I hope the end game Dungeons are as good as EOF Dungeons, I still think MMCastle is one of the most challenging and interesting Dungeons I ever saw in a MMORPG.
..
I already quoted you, but ill do it again ""Do you have any rational argument about what you call "crap expansions" beside the invalid point "x game sold more copies'? When I was saying "best" I meant beast between X and Y. It is obvious that you were replying to a post where someone compared 2 products (or any other number, X, Y , Z, whatever) and you applied your opinion (yes, rational reasoning is still an opinion) to counter his objective argument. In other words, you used a subjective argument to coutner his objective argument.
"There is not ONE way to identify the "best" product, a product is not "the best" in all circumstances"
Now you are getting it! What other objective way is to compare 2 products? If the average of ALL the "best"s of product A is greater then that of the product B.
Look at the movie categories, lets say you only had 3 types of awards: "best male actor", "best female actor" and "best child actor". how would you define which movie is better if only 2 movies are competing? Obviously the one with 2 awards. THATS objective. That was the WHOLE point of my post. Not what I like, not what you like, not whether EQ2 is a good game or has good expansions. In fact, my point does not even concern EQ2. It was pure statistics, if X sells more then Y, that means that, objectively speaking product X is better then Y. Thats the ONLY objective way that I know to compare 2 or more products.
I am the type of player where I like to do everything and anything from time to time.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holodomor - pre-WW2 genocide.
You are wrong again if you take popularity in this circustance.
See
• Venice Film Festival 2003 Won 'CinemAvvenire' Award Best First Film; Golden Lion; Luigi De Laurentiis Award; SIGNIS Award; Sergio Trasatti Award / Cottbus Film Festival of Young East European Cinema 2003 Won Award of the Ecumenical Jury; Special Prize Feature Film Competition For best direction
• César Awards, France 2004 Nominated César Best Foreign Film (Meilleur film étranger)
• European Film Awards 2003 Won European Discovery of the Year
• Fajr Film Festival 2004 Won Crystal Simorgh International Competition: Best Film
• Gijón International Film Festival 2003 Won Best Actor: Ivan Dobronravov, Tied with Vladimir Garin for Vozvrashcheniye (2003) and Konstantin Lavronenko; Best Screenplay; Special Jury Award
• Ljubljana International Film Festival 2003 Won Kingfisher Award
• Nika Awards 2004 Won Nika Best Cinematographer; Best Film
• Palm Springs International Film Festival 2004 Won FIPRESCI Prize
• Russian Guild of Film Critics 2003 Won Golden Aries Best Cinematography; Best Debut; Best Film
• Thessaloniki Film Festival 2003 Won FIPRESCI Prize - Special Mention
• Tromsø International Film Festival 2004 Won Audience Award
These are the awards of the movie Vosvrashchenie.
You and probably most of people from US here doesnt know this movie.(it is a great movie by the way).
But Titanic a very popular movie won 11 oscars, an oscar is a very propular (or you can call for the masses) award.
So wich one will be the best to you? The popular Titanic? Or the expressive and unique Vosvrashchenie?
Using your so called logic, you would say Titanic, then you would say, because no one here knows Vosvrashchenie, but no one knows not only because it is not american, but because they had more than 50 times less money to use into publicity.
Me? I would not say wich one is better, I would only say Vosvrashchenie is a great great movie.
And by the record, I asked in my first reply for that person to explain why EQ2 expansions were useless and then said the "numbers" argument would not cut it, for some reason you introduced the "what is the best and what is good and what is not".