Friday, September 15, 2006

Vanguard : Watch how boring our game really is!

Ten Ton Hammer has a set of four Vanguard:SoH beta videos up for your viewing pleasure. Unfortunately for Brad and friends they are just four more reasons not to play Vanguard.

Comments
  • The animations are stiff and repetitive. They do not look dynamic or fluid at all.
  • Whack. Whack. Whack. Nothing stellar at all found in the combat portions. Actually the combat looked quite boring and repetitive.
  • Did that big bad wolf just run through solid stone? Yep it did. Next generation graphics... same old problems.
  • Can the camera be any more jerky? It is commendable that they shot in game footage instead of a developer hacked ride by of the game world, but god damn is the camera really that laggy in the game? Were the graphical settings turned up a little bit high?
  • Hello I am "insert NPC name here" and my legs don't work. Once again this is supposedly a next generation MMORPG, but the NPC's still don't move and still need little indicators over their head to get the players attention. After playing with Everquest II's voice acting I was quite surprised by its effectiveness. Even if I just want to skip through the bullshit and get to the quest/merchant/etc. it was still nice that an NPC would beckon for me to come over and talk.
  • Did I mention how BORING combat looked? Just checking.
  • The one thing that I did like was the UI that was in a couple of the videos where they were fighting in the desert. It looked clean and manageable. It was hard to tell what everything did, but it seemed like there was a good and solid base to play the game.
Vanguard:SoH is going to fall flat on it's face. An MMORPG just can't afford to launch with next generation graphics when the majority of gamer's computers are still last generation. World of Warcraft hit on the fact that a lot of potential gamers just don't have souped up gaming rigs. Next generation graphics require bigger budgets and the choice to go with better graphics means you are sacrificing a good 3/4 of your potential customers. No I don't have numbers to back that 3/4 up, but the WoW vs. EQ2 has been more than enough evidence to convince me.

I truly feel sorry for Brad and friends... I truly do.

5 comments:

  1. Anonymous1:38 PM

    EXACTLY!!!!!!!!!

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  2. Anonymous3:20 PM

    I have to agree completely. My interest in Vanguard took a nosedive upon watching those videos. The only part that looked decent in any way was the interface, and that's only because it's a direct rip-off of WoW.

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  3. Anonymous4:49 PM

    I hear tell that the combat will be more involved when you're actually playing it. It's not a WoW clickfest, it's a strategic thread of events. If/when you get into beta (If you've signed up - give it a chance) you'll like it, most likely. It's like watching someone eat a steak vs eating it yourself. Which would you rather do? :p

    Oh, and I'm not bashing WoW. WoW has some great features I'd love to see implemented in VG. I - and most other players - simply don't want the 1337 battle.net crowd coming into VG, like they did in WoW.

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  4. Anonymous10:29 PM

    I keep hearing that combat will be awesome, but no one says that it IS awesome. If I were Brad, I'd want to show off some of the best features of my game, not EQ-style fighting with the tank in front and everyone else to the back and sides. Thoroughly unimpressed.

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  5. I don't care how great a strategy level there is to combat if it looks boring as fuck. I've played enough Japanese style RPGs to know that strategic threaded combat is best left to single player.

    Combat needs to be engauging both visually and strategically. The clicking involved in WoW is no more different than that required in EQ, DAoC, and most other MMORPGs.

    For not wanting to bash on WoW you do a pretty good job. I'm not here to hold up Blizzard and WoW as GODS of the MMORPG market, but I am sick of people saying "Oh, and I'm not bashing WoW. WoW has some great features I'd love to see implemented" and then immediately contradicting themselves.

    Oh and about the l337 b.net kiddies you talk about. WoW has 7 million players... B.net has never had that many users. So please keep on dismissing WoW's playerbase as a bunch of b.net kiddies. The players will be the same in Vanguard as they are in WoW. If you think otherwise then you haven't been around MMORPGs long enough.

    This constant belief that Vanguard will somehow attract "better" or "smarter" players is a rolling joke. This is one of the major reasons this game is going to fall flat on its face. Vanboi's as I like to call them are the 1337's and you better damn well hope some of those B.net kiddies come to help Vanguard out or it will be shutdown within a year.

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