This might be a bit biased since the last few years have been rather bleak for our genre so your mileage may vary.....

First, thanks to those people who seeded the torrent.  It still took forever to download the client but Direct2Drive and Fileplanet were no good for me.

Second, the patch file after the client went rather fast for me.  I read some people had issues.  Maybe since it was 2-3 am this morning when I patched, there were fewer people?

Third, I don't really know squat about the game but entered the RvR at lvl 1 thanks to a vid someone posted on how to do that.  I gotta say I enjoyed myself.  Obviously everyone was higher than me (yea I know my stats went up) but there was none of that one hit kill stuff that I've grown to loathe about Lvl/gear games.  I only died once before we won (Order - warrior priest).  I didn't do the most damage or heal the most, but I was able to contribute which to me is the most important (in contrast to WoW where I would get owned   -  yea yea I suck)

The PvE hasn't offered a real challenge yet, but I've only done a few quests and honestly PvE never really has offered that much of a challenge.

One of the most surprising things so far has been how my computer has handled the game (caveat - I don't think there were many ppl on).  I'm running a 2.2 w/ 2g ram and a 7800 card (I think).  At any rate, the puter is a cpl 2-3yrs old and I'm running on max settings.  Very happy about that and more than happy with the graphics.

So thumbs up so far.

I have seen a lot of complains about graphics being subpar. You say it's looking good. Who to trust now??

Would you post a screenshot or two?

Also que into some of the battlegrounds..

You may be level 1, but are bumped in levels when entering a BG, however your only as good as your real level, so if you only got 1 special, well thats all you can use.

This is how it was in CB, but havent tried it yet in OB. As a matter of fact, when the servers go live, I am going to try this again.

on a side note..

Some ppl are having problems with desktop crashes, I did on occasion get a blue screen of death in the PW1 & 2, in OB I seem to get more crash to desktop now.

It happens to me still, but more rarely now than the prior weeks when PW went live.

It depends do you care for graphics much or not.If you like WOWs graphics , for example , you would enjoy WARs too , as long as they are similiar.

 the graphics are far from sub par ... they are easilly online with any of the more contemporary games out now .. 

one problem i did have was i have dualcore/2 gig/ nvidia 8400 M 256meg laptop and kept getting booted after about an hour or so when I would try and join a scenario or take a flight path .. 

I turned my graphics from uber to balanced and plugged my modem directly into my laptop instead of my wireless router and connecting wirelessly .. one of the two worked .. not sure which lol .. 

even on balanced the graphics were fine to me 

the graphic is far better than wow.. and not as good as AoC, i my apinion, im glad they didnet make the graphic like AoC like, then they can focus on making the game good

Server is down but there are SS on the intertubes.

On the graphics, I prefer the best possible graphics (EQ2 on max, etc), but I don't have a problem trading some graphics for better PvP; meaning getting as many ppl on the screen as possible and still run smooth.  That said, I did like WoW graphics.  Yea they were cartoony but for WoW it works.  I really liked EQ2 on max settings (pure sweetness) but on my computer I could only run it that way during solo PvE.

I do think WAR graphics are better than WoW, but obviously they are working through some issues right now.

Hope that helps

P.S.  I thought I would be bummed while I was downloading the game and might have to go through the process of backcharging my credit card since D2D doesn't do refunds.  No such worries now, gonna keep this one (took a pass on AoC during beta).

Fking amazing ive been playing for a good few hours now and my first impression are im just blown away. the grpahics are amazing at 1900x1200 the textures on the moon in the dark elf starting area just dropped my jaw.

I know that sounds wierd but my god and im normmaly called a graphics whore so if im impressed then you know its gotta be half decent.

I have a pretty sweet rig and I'm running it maxxed out.  I think the environments look really good but I think the character models, animations, and spell effect are sub par.  I consider myself a graphics junkie so I love eye candy.  I like the big magical effects, smooth movements, and details, details, details.   Overall I'm enjoying beta and we'll see if there's any difference with the final version.  I doubt there will be any major improvements in the graphics arena.  I'll give the game a while before I buy it.   I've got a few characters to 6th, I'll play out the open beta and see how things go before I completely make up my mind.

Here is a screenshot or two, from last weekend preview. I havn't been able to upload the new shots yet mainly because I can't stop playing for long at all. It's a blast. The game looks pretty great to me.

www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/196999

I love the graphics so far, and gameplay is so smooth even during battles with lots of players so i think this game is gonna be just what i needed

I don't find myself looking at the graphics and saying wow, that looks good.  But. . .  I'm not stopping and saying, wow, that looks bad either.  The graphics are nice, and they keep you into the game.  It is easy to tell what is going on, things are smooth, the gameplay is fun.

So yeah, game is a blast to play, the graphics don't make you feel like you are playing an old game.  It just, feels and runs fun.

look i have been waiting quite awhile fo a new game thats decent and this game seems to be it. Anyone who is on the fence dont listen to all these idiots that just like to trash everything that comes out. This game has a few new twists like public quests that are great fun. I have been playing these games since everquest days and im telling everyone that this game is going to do much better than aoc.