Uhhh.....had a chance to play the beta weekend. I really thought it was going to be something different...but I am not sure what to think about this game. The concept is different, character creation and customization was good, but the overall look was just kind of silly. The toons look lime Manga/Anime cartoons. Two days wasnt enough to feel it out. Other than its a quest driven game. Will see how it develops from here.

well, to be honest the game is almost exactly how I expected it... well, I didn't expect character creation to be as good as it was, but otherwise it was pretty much what we all saw coming.

and for the record, I prefer the manga/anime style in the game.  I think it just looks weird when people try to make the characters look too real, it never turns out right.

In terms of avatar presentation and detail, I prefer Aion. In terms of world design and presentation I prefer LOTRO. Unfortunately, I don't think that mixing the two would give a good result. Still, it would be interesting to see a directX 10 client with the Aion graphics (since I'm been unfair and compare a directX 9 with a directX 10 game).

Originally posted by Xasapis

In terms of avatar presentation and detail, I prefer Aion. In terms of world design and presentation I prefer LOTRO. Unfortunately, I don't think that mixing the two would give a good result. Still, it would be interesting to see a directX 10 client with the Aion graphics (since I'm been unfair and compare a directX 9 with a directX 10 game).

Crysis does run with dx9 settings;) (if you want).

WAR artistic style beats all. Take a look on these (ingame) picture models:

www.chaoswarhost.com/Chosen_ss10.jpg

img245.imageshack.us/i/1234kl2.jpg/

Both WAR and Aion graphics look nice. Aion looks crisp and new, WAR looks smudged and battered. I think I'll pick Aion, just for the facial customisation alone.

I also wish directX 10 (or the newer 11) was more of a universally accepted standard. The world visual quality difference of LOTRO DX9 and LOTRO DX10 is staggering, going from bland to awesome.

Originally posted by Xasapis

Both WAR and Aion graphics look nice. Aion looks crisp and new, WAR looks smudged and battered. I think I'll pick Aion, just for the facial customisation alone.

I also wish directX 10 (or the newer 11) was more of a universally accepted standard. The world visual quality difference of LOTRO DX9 and LOTRO DX10 is staggering, going from bland to awesome.

I was talking about the artistic style, not the number of polygons and other technical stuff. I haven't seen any screenshots with characters that beat the artistic style of the two examples I linked to in Aion.

Mostly I see weird, scantly cled girls wielding 10 feet swords or girls, pretending to be boys, as male characters. Just look at the picture on the Aion logo above. I can't decide if that is a girl, boy or a transvestite.

But I guess that is anime style and not the fault of Aion.

I didn't mention polygon count either. I did mention how they looked like to me though.

Since however you mentioned polygon count, the difference between the two engines (Aion and WAR) is quite big in terms of performance. Aion seems to handle big crowds much better than WAR, despite the higher polygon count.

Originally posted by Ad-am

 the overall look was just kind of silly. The toons look lime Manga/Anime cartoons.

Sure, we all know the Wow "disneyland" or Vanguard/EQ2 "barbie lands" look much better.

/sarcasm

Originally posted by Ad-am

Uhhh.....had a chance to play the beta weekend. I really thought it was going to be something different...but I am not sure what to think about this game. The concept is different, character creation and customization was good, but the overall look was just kind of silly. The toons look lime Manga/Anime cartoons. Two days wasnt enough to feel it out. Other than its a quest driven game. Will see how it develops from here.

Want something completely different? Certainly not Aion or WAR, I'm afraid. Check out D&D Online vids in my signature, maybe this approach will come to your liking.

Today is the day that Turbine want to announce something "big" for DDO. It was kept in secrecy for a long time. Who knows what it is, but here's the pic D&D Onlines (DDO) Community reps have on their signatures:

twitter.com/Sarr

Cheers.

That's not what bothers me, what bothers me is that the Aion customisation engine allows for some major disfigurement. Like huge heads in skinny bodies, or huge bodies with a tiny head, slim body with big arms and similar weird things.

Images linked from aion source.

lol true if its like rune of magic ,the fun start later then beta lol

Originally posted by Xasapis

I didn't mention polygon count either. I did mention how they looked like to me though.

Since however you mentioned polygon count, the difference between the two engines (Aion and WAR) is quite big in terms of performance. Aion seems to handle big crowds much better than WAR, despite the higher polygon count.

So you are actually arguing that the anime influenced models in Aion actually look better (not technically but artistically) then the two pictures I linked to?

If so then you like anime style I guess, but I don't think it will be a hit in the west. The style that is, not the game.

Originally posted by Yamota

Originally posted by Xasapis

I didn't mention polygon count either. I did mention how they looked like to me though.

Since however you mentioned polygon count, the difference between the two engines (Aion and WAR) is quite big in terms of performance. Aion seems to handle big crowds much better than WAR, despite the higher polygon count.

So you are actually arguing that the anime influenced models in Aion actually look better (not technically but artistically) then the two pictures I linked to?

If so then you like anime style I guess, but I don't think it will be a hit in the west. The style that is, not the game.

To be honest it's subjective. I personally think they both look great.

One thing I loved about Warhammer was that one could be a low lvl player and still look decent. However I love Aion's art design (well for the most part, I don't like the vegetable weapons or some of the more outlandish robes such as the higher lvl asmodian female robes with the bell bottoms).

Aion (at least from what I've experienced) is pretty much what I was expecting and pretty much what the NC devs said it would be. No surprises for me.

To Yamota:

I like both graphics styles. A good anime subscription game was rare, so I'm glad that Aion is decent.

(For the record, I consider WoW cartoonish, not anime. Lineage 2 is old and a painful level grind. Guild Wars is not an MMO.)(Oh, and I didn't mention cartoonish as derogatory, I like how the characters look and especially how they are animated. A bit dated of course, but still looking decent.)

Originally posted by Xasapis

To Yamota:

I like both graphics styles. A good anime subscription game was rare, so I'm glad that Aion is decent.

(For the record, I consider WoW cartoonish, not anime. Lineage 2 is old and a painful level grind. Guild Wars is not an MMO.)(Oh, and I didn't mention cartoonish as derogatory, I like how the characters look and especially how they are animated. A bit dated of course, but still looking decent.)

I think that sort of shadows my feelings.

I'm not looking for "new and next gen" or anything like that.

What I've always wanted was a game that gave me game play that I would enjoy.

Loved L2 and loved the art design but it was all about grinding. I can handle long hard grinds but crafting was tedious and there really weren't any worthwhile quests. The pvp sieges were really what I was there for but they only happened every other week. Not much of an open world ganker as I enjoy just facing off with my enemy.

WoW had a far more polished game and had quests that I thought were fun. But the art design wasn't inspiring and bordered on silly for my tastes.

Loved Guild Wars but wanted more of an open world.

And I'm just not interested in sci fi. Don't know why as I love it but the only sci fi games that I will play are games like Master of Orion II or Galactic Civilizations.

Aion gives me inspring world and art design, quests so I don't always have to be grinding, crafting that seems a bit more fun to me and a pvp end game which is RvR driven which is more interesting to me.

So though Aion is not new and next gen it does give me a lot of what I want in a rather well polished package. And I don't have to give up my life to be comptetitive.

Originally posted by Ad-am

Uhhh.....had a chance to play the beta weekend. I really thought it was going to be something different...but I am not sure what to think about this game. The concept is different, character creation and customization was good, but the overall look was just kind of silly. The toons look lime Manga/Anime cartoons. Two days wasnt enough to feel it out. Other than its a quest driven game. Will see how it develops from here.

I don't know about you, but I found what I wanted. A simple concept game that takes many existing fun mechanics from different games (making it not a WoW clone, but a huge mix of many game's mechanics), puts great graphics and that's the result, like an ultimate MMO for me in this current generation.

Aion uses a modified version from the same engine as Far Cry, and an earlier version of the engine used by Crysis. Feels like animated realism for me.

I'm not seeking a game with features that doesn't exist (this utopic, sometimes twisted idea of a innovative game), instead, I've been searching a fun game and that is what Aion tried to and did a lot better than I expected it would.

Originally posted by EricDanie

Originally posted by Ad-am

Uhhh.....had a chance to play the beta weekend. I really thought it was going to be something different...but I am not sure what to think about this game. The concept is different, character creation and customization was good, but the overall look was just kind of silly. The toons look lime Manga/Anime cartoons. Two days wasnt enough to feel it out. Other than its a quest driven game. Will see how it develops from here.

 

I don't know about you, but I found what I wanted. A simple concept game that takes many existing fun mechanics from different games (making it not a WoW clone, but a huge mix of many game's mechanics), puts great graphics and that's the result, like an ultimate MMO for me in this current generation.

Aion uses a modified version from the same engine as Far Cry, and an earlier version of the engine used by Crysis. Feels like animated realism for me.

It's kind of funny that the thing that turns off the OP is exactly the thing that draws many of us to the game.  I like the fresh approach.  I'm not going to cry because the game plays like many other MMO's, because I knew it would.  Innovation is great, and it will come, but there's only so much you can do.  For me I like having this new world to explore, new lore in which I can become involved.  And all of the short skirts don't hurt :)

Im surprised people come here after the PE saying that the characters are anime and that turns them off, I mean, couldn't you get that impression just by looking at the screens and save the hassle of downloading it? You say Aion is not what you expected because of this...then what did you expect?

These non concrete negative reviews are pretty suspicious aswell, all of the points OP posted could have been posted by anyone after a 5 minutes research. Details = credibility.