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Aion: Tower of Eternity Vs Champions Online Comparison (long read)
xover33
Member Posts: 70
I would post the whole comparison directly on here, but quite frankly it might be too big so unfortunately you have to go to my blogspot page to check it out.
Now this is not to promote my blog page being that this is the only thing I have on here. Just my honest opinion and not meant to be taken as a professional review.
Warning it is quite long
editted to add a hyperling you can click on
Comments
Not a bad read. I agree with you that it's kind of strange to compare these two games, but being the new big titles coming out in Sept, people like me are deciding which one to spend the money on.
I've played in both of the betas, fairly extensively in the Aion one, only a short while in CO's. To me the major difference between these two games is last-ability.
CO is fun for the right here, right now, sit down and kill some bad guys. Aion is fun for getting immersed into a game world and making friends, progressing through a challenging game environment, and killing some people on the way.
I like both games, but Aion will be getting my $15. This is just personal opinion, I need a game that promotes group play and the social aspect of MMORPGs as well as immersing you in the lush environments, and for me that game is Aion.
Does that mean that people that like CO more are stupid? Nope, it just means they enjoy a different playstyle.
Nice little write up. I think its fine to compare the two games since like you said, they are two of the bigger MMOs coming out around the same time. I had to make this decision too since I only play one MMO at a time. I'm going with Aion as well. Champions, I do enjoy but like you, I just see Aion having more lastibility with better end game content and PvP.
Thanks for the write up. Overall, I agree with you. I don't know how well either game will hold up for me long term since I only reached 20 during Aion's beta and 13 in CO so far.
One thing I should point out is that while Aion is gorgeous, it's not without its graphical flaws. There have been many places where I have spotted really crappy low-res textures in Aion. This is usually on hillsides. For example, in the Elyos starting area as you're moving in toward where all the mushrooms are (I forget the name of the quest giver who stands right there). Go only a few feet up any of those hillsides and you'll see the horrible texturing. With Champions I really hated the art style in the screen shots. But now that I've been playing it I've come to really like it. Neither game is without flaws in this department. Which is better really comes to personal preference. Overall, though, it's like comparing apples to oranges since the styles are so radically different.
Regarding your review, I would like to make a suggestion. Please pay close attention when writing to your use of the word "now". You used that word to start 19 sentences in this very short review; sometimes more than once in the same paragraph. Not only is it poor grammar to use the word in that particular manner, but it grows extremely tiresome for the reader. I started getting to a point where I was being distracted from the content of what you were writing thanks to the style in which you wrote it. Please don't take this the wrong way. I'm pointing it out simply as constructive criticism.
I noticed the overuse of 'now' right away too. It's a strange habit, especially because it's completely unnecessary. I don't think I've ever seen it before.
Anyways...
I agree with some of your points, but there is a major factor you should consider.
The fact that Aion has been out for so long in Asia provides a lot of benefits. Many of the reasons why you picked Aion is primarily due to the fact that it's a more mature game. Give CO some time to mature and you might change your mind.
For example, you mentioned stability. I'm sure that stability is something that Cryptic is working hard to fix. Stability is a common problem for new MMO's.
Why do you hate CO PvP? I think it's a lot of fun. Do you hate it because of the imbalances? Cryptic is working hard to fix the overpowered skills.
How about the endgame? For CO, there is a lot we don't know yet.
But you see, that's the problem. Even though CO is balancing and working hard to stabalize their servers, Aion has already been released. We know what the end game is, we know it's great. The pvp is pretty balanced (sorcerers are a tad bit OP...similar to destro locks of WoW in terms of OP-ness if you know what I mean).
The big deciding factor for me is the fact that Aion has already been out almost a year, it's very stable and has already balanced/improved the game so that I know when I buy the game and start out on the NA servers, I'll experience very little game-breaking bugs or glitches etc. etc.
Champions on the other hand is going to have a tough time with servers (most new MMO's do anyways), people who are in the game are more than likely there for end-game which they know nothing about. Aion has talk and videos of the abyss, castle sieges and raids etc. So people are going to work towards Aion's endgame in the long - run.
I'll definitely play Aion for a while, and perhaps down the road I'll even give Champions online a look. I've seen both game videos and read beta- reviews/impressions and I like what I'm see (or read) from both games.
Personal preference, for me the choice is clear.. Champions Online. I have ben playing the beta and having a blast, and in the end that is all that matters.
Can you do counter-strike versus the sims 3 next ?
Not going through all the positives and the negatives of both games but I'll just give one of my reasons for picking CO over Aion.
I will never have to worry about a low pop server (which happens to all MMOs during their lifetime) since CO only has 1 Server for all.
They are different games but its not an invalid comparison. People will probably choose one or the other, since they launch so close together.
ROFL!!!!!
I'll just make a couple points because for the most part I agree w/ you.
1) Aion's environmental textures are awful. Awful. Even at the very highest settings they are painfully washed out. It's a smear on an otherwise beautiful game. Aion also doesn't have a physics, if you run over and kick some debri, it doesn't go bouncing along blissfully, when you use an AoE and blow up some surrounding objects (doesn't exist in Aion at all) you won't see the massive explosion animations, smoke filling the surrounding area, and fragments of those objects bouncing alone in a dozen directions.
Aions character detail is very pretty. But the world has no life to it. Champions world is alive. It has cars driving around in the cities, it has tumbleweeds blowing along through the desert... it has benches, streetlamps, snowmobiles, storage bins, trashcans, tanks, etc etc etc that are all objects in the world that can be destroyed or picked up and chucked at an enemy. Collaterall damage results in large explosions which realistically will knock your opponents off there feet and sometimes fling them 100s of feet. When I go to an cluttered area and have a battle, it feels like a battlefield with all the colatteral damage/debris/explosions.
Here is a challenge. Go take a Electric type of character in Champions and level it to about 25. Max out all its major attack skills (because the graphic animations scale in impressiveness with the rank of the powers). of Gigabolt, Sparkstorm, Chain Lightning... and throw in a Lightning Field Shield block modifier... oh and hell, throw in Lighning form on top of that(the offensive slotted passive).. Go blow some baddies up.
Now go to Aion and create a high level Sorcerer. Do the same thing. If you can honestly tell my that Aion is in the same league as Champions when it comes to graphical animations, lighting effects, etc... well you need to be slapped. The first time you see a pack of Micro-munition missles spin and swirl through the air and hit there target with a dozen jarring miniture explosions you should come to realize Champions just flat out wins here.
Aion is great if you like nothing more than to stare at an idle character and pretty armor. If you want real world graphics in real combat, Champions destroys Aion. Flat out destroys it. There is a price for this though, and Champions requires a beast rig to run at max.
2) There is the time factor. Aion may not be Lineage... but if you honestly think you aren't going to have to devote a serious amount of time to that game for your character to not fall far behind the curve, you are sadly mistaken. The Abyss gear grind is staggering... and lets not lie to ourselves, gear is very important in Aion. Even more so as an open PvP environment.. This also lends the game to being very alt unfriendly. Champions is a very easy game to pick up and play for 30 minutes and accomplish something, Aion is not. This is what actually turned me off Aion eventually.... I just don't have 25+ hours a week to devote to MMO anymore... it would have been awesome 3-4 years ago though, but now your average player will just end up being fodder for the unemployed guy/kid who plays 12 hours a day... and there are a lot of those.
3) Customization. I won't comment on actual visual appearance customization, because I think both games are excellent in their own way. But actual skill/power customization goes heavily in favor of Champions. Aion's customizationis pretty sparse even by normal MMO standards. You have a few stigmas, and then some enchanting stones for gear... and thats it. In Champions you can handpick every single power, you can change hue and emination points, you can choose travel methods, you can customize your powers with advantages and rank them up, etc etc etc.... Champions is a juggernaunt on the character customization field, no other game even comes close.
4) Control & Feel. Animations are done much better in Champions on a "usage" level. You don't root yourself in place while your animations fire off. Flying combat is attrotous in Aion. When you jump off a edge in Aion(if you even can), your character hyper teleport/rubber bands... in Champions its very natural. You are constantly running into Invisible walls in Aion, In Champions they pretty much don't exist. The "feel" of Champions world and characters are just much more natural than Aion... you don't run into constant reminders that your running through a flawed virtual world like you do in Aion.
Aion is a great game, it really is. It has a year worth of extra content and polish that give it an edge up at launch. But look out for Champions to overtake it in short order. Champions simply has a much more impressive foundation to build off of. The only thing the game lacks is the time it takes to build tons of content and polish off all the rough edges (bugs, balancing, etc). Cryptic is pretty sharp on those types of things, and I expect Champions to be a monster of a game once the content starts flowing.
One has RMT item mall on top of a subscription, the other doesn't. And guess what, the "asian" game is the one without the RMT, hehe.
Champions gets boring after a while, when you've used your powers and played out 'your' character I didn't want to play anymore, pretty much it.
Im interested in both games as they are so different. I think champions would be a good game to jump into when you need a small break from Aion. I have pre ordered Aion, i usually only subscribe to 1 MMO so unfortunately champions looses out for now. I hope to play it sometime though.
Think id rather pick Fallen Earth over either of them seeing its coming out the same time, but I will be getting CO as well most likely because having played both Aion and Co betas I found CO to be loads more fun than the borefest that was Aion.
Champions online will mostly hold people that like super heros and reading comics just like CoX.
Many will try it that for sure but many will also leave after few days.
I believe you can use RMT to get rid of death penalty problems in AION. If this is the case, more RMT will be going on in AION instead of CO.
Basically, AION is for those that want to devote A LOT OF TIME to grinding and therefore have no life (AKA: Timesink)
CO for those that want a LIFE as well as being able to play a game.
P.S>>> Love the billboard in the game that warns about kids playing video games to much
It worries me that you rate Aion as even less 'fun' than champions as I find Champions the least fun MMO I have ever encountered to date (not all its own fault I am just bored of more of the same with no sign of progress),,,, I do agree you can spend many happy hours in the CO character creator but once you step outside ...oh dear... Character creator aside what is the reletive fun factor associated with each game during the levelling process (which is, in truth, the thing that long term will consume most time) and is Aion as guilty as CO of doing nothing new?
Edit; IMO CO structurally and thematically it forcebly treats/realises your character as a barbarian thug in a world full of dumb herding beasts... its more a fantasy game with a superficial comicy skin as there's no conviction in its theme.
I believe you can use RMT to get rid of death penalty problems in AION. If this is the case, more RMT will be going on in AION instead of CO.
Basically, AION is for those that want to devote A LOT OF TIME to grinding and therefore have no life (AKA: Timesink)
CO for those that want a LIFE as well as being able to play a game.
P.S>>> Love the billboard in the game that warns about kids playing video games to much
Don't make stuff up. There is 0 rmt in the NA version of Aion.
I believe you can use RMT to get rid of death penalty problems in AION. If this is the case, more RMT will be going on in AION instead of CO.
Basically, AION is for those that want to devote A LOT OF TIME to grinding and therefore have no life (AKA: Timesink)
CO for those that want a LIFE as well as being able to play a game.
P.S>>> Love the billboard in the game that warns about kids playing video games to much
I hate p*ssing matches about games, the whole "My Dad can beat up your Dad" is ridiculous.
I do have to point out though that there is no RMT in Aion, you don't pay real money for death penalties or in game items.
As for the grind, how is killing 1000 of a particular enemy for Perk points to unlock costume pieces in CO not timesink/grinding?
What a joke, i've played both betas and i can tell you Fallen Earth is not ready for release by along shot, yet its going to be release soon. If it had been Fallout 3 + mmo i would be all over it as well but its not. Its a totally unpolished game in graphics and gameplay and needs to stay in development longer maybe just maybe we might then get a great idea for a mmo being reailty.
CO does more things new than any MMO thats released in a long time. Combat, total character customization on every level, the nemesis system... just to name the big ones.
You have but to look over the shoulder of a person playing Aion and a person playing CO to see which one is obviously more entertaining at a base value. Aion may have more end-game options at this point, but thats really the only thing it touts over it.
Every questing MMO treats you as a thug for hire. Aion most assuredly does. It's the trapping of the world around you and the tools your given to perform that makes you "feel" like a super hero. When I drill a bad guy in the head with a semi-truck, or I save the city from an alien invasion, or I obliterate 10 thugs with a power and watch them all go sailing in differerent directions... I "feel" pretty super.
How much of a badass do you feel like when you scratch by taking on a single Pikachu and have to rest to tackle the next one in Aion? Oh noes, Pikachu called help!!... I'll need to pot for this battle! Yeah...Aion makes me feel like a real hero <sarcasm>
Pretty good read other than the over use of the word "Now". What did impress me is you managed to compare to entirely different, actually dramatically different games and have it makes sense. Kudos on that.
You make some good points but I think overall these too games will appeal to different crowd, with us more hardcore MMOers dabble or playing both in some cases.
I was in CB for both games and played characters past level 20 in both as well. I was pretty impressed with Aion as it made the fantasy genre feel fresh and even though it had "TONS" of grind kill this and deliver that quests it is very fun. The crowd it will most appeal to is the PVP crowd and that will be what drives most of the activity over 20th level in this game.
Champions strives, and succeeds in making you feel (as you put it) like a hero in a comic book world. There is quite a bit more in this game then people suspect as most folks have not gotten to some of the more interesting content. The powers end up awesomely powerful to behold.
I am still going to bounce back and forth in the beta events but to be honest I found Champion to be more fun for me and my personal tastes. I do think they need to develop more with PVP here and it will take a good villians expansion (player villians that is) with some Aion like PVPVE to make it really cool.
At the end of the day I always maintain two MMOs. I am playing AOC as well and may drop out of that and play these two. It depends though as there are some up and comers on the horizon though the best of them are a ways off. If I had to make a choice right now it would be Champions as it has simply sucked me in more than Aion has.
I believe you can use RMT to get rid of death penalty problems in AION. If this is the case, more RMT will be going on in AION instead of CO.
Basically, AION is for those that want to devote A LOT OF TIME to grinding and therefore have no life (AKA: Timesink)
CO for those that want a LIFE as well as being able to play a game.
P.S>>> Love the billboard in the game that warns about kids playing video games to much
Don't make stuff up. There is 0 rmt in the NA version of Aion.
OPPS my mistake, was thinking about the in GAME gold that would be spent to reduce the death penalty. That GOLD you can get from the KOREAN GOLD Sellers for RMT.
I believe that what you mean to say is there is no virtual mall in AION. Otherwise, it is foolish to think that there won't be any RMT in AION, just that the money won't go to NCsoft
CO does more things new than any MMO thats released in a long time. Combat, total character customization on every level, the nemesis system... just to name the big ones.
You have but to look over the shoulder of a person playing Aion and a person playing CO to see which one is obviously more entertaining at a base value. Aion may have more end-game options at this point, but thats really the only thing it touts over it.
Every questing MMO treats you as a thug for hire. Aion most assuredly does. It's the trapping of the world around you and the tools your given to perform that makes you "feel" like a super hero. When I drill a bad guy in the head with a semi-truck, or I save the city from an alien invasion, or I obliterate 10 thugs with a power and watch them all go sailing in differerent directions... I "feel" pretty super.
How much of a badass do you feel like when you scratch by taking on a single Pikachu and have to rest to tackle the next one in Aion? Oh noes, Pikachu called help!!... I'll need to pot for this battle! Yeah...Aion makes me feel like a real hero <sarcasm>
I have been in CO since alpha and really can't agree with the suggestion it does anything new at all...there are a few refinements (all in the avatar creation) but they are easily countered by the archaic/inapproprate approach to world design and questing (the nemesis system sounds cool till you actiually realise how rudimentary and simpistic it is).
By and large in a fantasy game it really doesn't matter that you are a thug because the theme is a chaotic and barbaric world...being a thug in a ' superhero' world is just completely inappropriate and its that kind of intrusion of arbitrary gameplay that destroys any conviction or immersion in CO.
I am hoping for an mmo that is immersive and involving, one where the game has some conviction in the theme imo CO fails miserably in these area's so the question is really, is Aion any better or worse?