WAR (Warhammer Online)

To the OP:

Just wanted to thank you for an excellent write-up on WAR. I am grateful that someone has finally written such a good, impartial review of a game.

I love this site but reading the forums for the last few months had just left me depressed about the genre as a whole. Many people seem to be incapable of doing anything but bitching and moaning about games that are supposed to be entertainment. I don't recall anyone being forced to play certain games or with certain types of player. Too many players feel this industry owes them something.

I'm glad someone has found the time to write something both honest and positive for once. It makes a change to read something that isn't full of bitterness and resentment for MMOs and the different types of gamers the play them. Shame I won't be able to say the same about some of the inevitable responses to your post. It never fails to disappoint me how some people are so quick to talk to others like dirt when they're hidden behind an internet connection.

Again, thank you for a wonderful read.

Great Post :)

I really hope the game is as good as you claim it is, I will defenatly be checking you're youtube account for the coming weeks.

You even respond elegantly to flamers, nicely done there and you had a very good point about the graphics. I for a time, wondered the same about WoW - WAR simularties and after your excellent details and some of your galleries and all your descriptions I can defintely see that those fears were unessesary. I mean, the characters themselves look absolutely amazing for any game and you said they could be in the hundreds on the screen and handle fine. I love the scenic views and absolute majestic feel of some monuments and lands. Coming from a guy who is sick to death of WoW, this game looks brilliant!

Good review. Very thorough. Thanks to the OP.

Holy text-wall, Batman!  Excellent review, and great to heard that the tabletop folks are jazzed you about it.  I'm a former 40Ker myself, but since I'll probably never get my MMO fix for that, I'll slum with the fantasy kids!

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Originally posted by Abriael
@admriker: I won't even reply to the accusation of "spinning", because it's honestly as laughable as it can be. Just the fact that you state that there's "no crafting" (which is absolutely false, crafting is there, and is actually FUN, as opposed to the usual gridnfest that forces you to make thousands of useless pieces of armor which are useful just to be sold to an NPC vendor. Complexity for it's own sake doesn't always mean quality) and define the graphics cartoonish and any similar to wow shows how little you know or understand about the whole game. It takes a sizeable degree of  ignorance not only on warhammer itself, but on graphics in general to find any similarity beyond the fact that orcs are green and dwarfs are short, fat and beardy.

This is a cartoon.

 
This is an illustration. Warhammer looks much more similar to the second than to the first (it actually has NOTHING to do with the first). It takes quite a big bias to find them anywhere similar.
Every single graphical element (Model complexity, textures that are aimed towards detail instead of simplicity, palette, lighting, proportion) goes in a very different direction than what was chosen by WoW's art directors.
The fact that you mention LOTRO and AOC is quite fitting, since they both display an extremely dull and flat art direction.
Anyway In your poorly veiled elitism you didn't even notice that RvR is a big, extremely involving and immersive social activity in itself (not to mention that you didn't even bother reading with any degree of attention beyond what would have served to form your weak arguments, otherwise you would have noticed that guilds have a whole tavern to use as a social base).
Anyone is entitled to his own opinion. But if i were you, i'd refrain from throwing random accusation of "spinning" towards people  that are just expresssing their view on the game. I express my opinion as a gamer, and let the marketing gurus do the "spinning".

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Owned...good job on the review too!

In the trash-heap of memes, whines, attacks, counter-attacks and thoughtless one-sentence ideafarts that are so common to forum discussion, it's nice to see an OP like this that reminds us of the positive and informative role that good forum posts can actually play.

Excellent OP. Thank you for taking the time to collect your thoughts and present them in a helpful way.

Very nice review! It made me much more interested in the game. I now know more what it's about. Thanks for your effort!

Really good reading makes even more anxious to play WAR.

This thread should be stickied. Period