Wife & I hit level 14 during OBT....  I have to say that I was quite happy with the crafting system... It is the one aspect I am looking forward to exploring on the 20th!

I've played the Chinese version and closed beta, but the open beta did disappoint me. The only reason being is that all of a sudden I couldn't connect any more. I was one of the many that got the "cannot connect to server" problem and I probably spent a good 10 hours the whole week doing different methods on many forums to try and fix it. It never got fixed. If a lot of people still get that problem on launch you will hear a large crowd roar.

But the game is awesome none the less.

The game is pretty good, but not worth paying for. So I'm going to go a head and pass on this one.

I had quite a bit of fun playing, mostly because it's a new setting, a new grind, new most things. I'm just so tired of grinding in WoW and FFXI, that having Aion come along and give me flying, and a sweet tank class that looks awesome and plays well is a godsend. I will definitely be playing head start, and release day.

P.S. Never really had a problem with lag, just had to turn my graphic settings down some, played like a chaaaarm.

P.P.S. Anyone looking to start a casual, fun guild? PM me. I'm looking for one, doesn't matter what server, preferably something in the midwest timezone though. AGAIN, casual, you have to be okay with a casual templar player.

See you guys in game.

Originally posted by purewitz

The game is pretty good, but not worth paying for. So I'm going to go a head and pass on this one.

Yeah it's not a bad game, I think some people may be having flashbacks on how they got burned with games like RF Online though.

Maybe its just me but this type of artwork still facinates me.  I am referring to grinding in one area and having the sky and surroundings go through different color changes in a day and night cycle creating an individual mood everytime I play.  It is not so much as eye-popping but what is called visual stunning and Aion has that only to be refined in later content release and expansions.

I played both a Elyos and Asmodian character to level 10 getting to their starting cities, ascending, and grinding in the first flying area.   I went exploring with my Elyos character and found a tree town/city that was probably the best of that type of fantasy I have seen in both MMO and regular video games.

I have 7.1 sound X-Fi Xtreme Gamer sound card and the sound is also very professional and in the 7.1 sound (maybe 5.1 am not sure).  I have some clicks and static at times but it is still good sound.  For a Beta that I just played through that was really well done.

I love what I have seen so far.  Some of the grinding areas may seem tight knit but over time I think it will play out compared to the early starting areas.

I am not urinating on the floor but I am looking forward to the launch when the play time counts. 

They have a hit and though it may not be as big as World Of Warcraft in its early heyday there will be alot of people that will enjoy this game.

Passed on the OB, 9 gigs is a bit much when they only offered 1 mirror to dl from for what, the first couple days of OB? (fileplanet queue was always long and the gamershell mirrors were fairly slow).

*shrug* maybe next mmo that comes out i'll give that one a whirl

Loved the game, made quite a few alts as I enjoyed playing with the character custimization.

been awhile since I had fun on a game. Am really bored with WoW.

Definitely will be playing it. Most likely as an Elyos as the Asmodians race sounds like a butt joke..

Where do Asmodians like to vacation?..........planetary resort on Uranus (yes that was bad but I just had to.)

Originally posted by Crichton

Passed on the OB, 9 gigs is a bit much when they only offered 1 mirror to dl from for what, the first couple days of OB? (fileplanet queue was always long and the gamershell mirrors were fairly slow).

*shrug* maybe next mmo that comes out i'll give that one a whirl

Sign up for the Star Trek Online Beta.  They are taking applications and very early for that matter.  That may be a good sign that there will be a long beta before Q1 2010.  That means fun.  :-)

I was wondering if someone that played CB could tell me whether the game is a persistent World, or is each land  instanced?  I couldn't stand how WAR did that,  I much perfer a world thats more open like WOW.

Forced PVP and very linear play is why this game is a pass. looks pretty for the most part played some of the Beta's which led to my pass decision.

Another pass for me.  Game is far too linear, and Gameguard is the deal-breaker. 

Originally posted by Tinagame

 

Loved the game, made quite a few alts as I enjoyed playing with the character custimization.

been awhile since I had fun on a game. Am really bored with WoW.

Definitely will be playing it. Most likely as an Elyos as the Asmodians race sounds like a butt joke..

Where do Asmodians like to vacation?..........planetary resort on Uranus (yes that was bad but I just had to.)

I'm playing Asmodians because it sounds like it came from Asmodeus, the lord of the ninth layer of hell.

Open Beta started out really rough. Lots of lag, rubberbanding, disconnections, etc. I have to hand it to NcSoft though for finding the problems and fixing them. Then because of the delayed OB playing time, another day was added to OB. I am very impressed with NcSoft of listening to the complaints addressing the issues, and fixing Aion to make it playable.

I'll be there Sept 18th, having pre-ordered Aion. With that kind of company support behind a game, the game will be a success!

I enjoyed it,  the flying alone sold me, and the graphics are impressive to say the least. I'll be there on 20th.

Much like any other MMORPG new to the market, I predict that AION: The Tower of Eternity is going to get off to a rocky start, then eventually flourish into something that many MMO'ers are going to really enjoy.  Sure it will have its set of ranters, flamers, haters, and nay-sayers, but so far the various builds of Aion have been for the most part pretty solid. When I think back on it, I remember another great MMORPG that also got off to a really rocky start, had its VAST share of nay-sayers, and turned out to be the largest, most successful MMOs on the market for a number of years.

The Closed and Open Betas felt more like stress tests, but that was okay with me.  NCSoft seemed to be scrambling to monitor and immediately address any performance issues that players may have had with their servers and new patch content as patch 1.5 was newely introduced to the U.S. audience with Open Beta.  The introduction of the update patch 1.5.0.5 (or whatever that last patch number was... 1.5.0.6?) was a nice addition towards the end of Open Beta, it seemed to clear up a lot of latency issues that some of my fellow Legion mates kept experiencing, although it caused a few issues with some others, especially those in Oceanic time zones.

I was a bit surprised that they kept the level 30 cap in place, since some hardcore players ground those levels out within a matter of two to three days, most likely eager to see new content they hadn't been able to view in Closed Beta, if they didn't already play the Chinese Aion client.  Sadly, they were disappointed.  I'm not too concerned with this myself, I'm glad that there will still be some surprises in store for us all come the 20th, the first day of the Head Start.

While I don't think Aion offers anything really revolutionary, I think NCSoft has done what so many other MMORPG developers have done before it, but in a grand fashion;  Take great ideas and features that exist in other games, and improve upon them within the confines of their game design in such a way that it all comes together in a cohesive environment that has much to offer players of multiple playstyles and tastes.  From the combat system to class design, from crafting and tradeskills to exploration and dungeon crawling, NCSoft has created a game with incredible artistic flair, extravagant detail and given the player enough creative freedom to immerse themselves into the world of Aion in such a way that they will feel as if they can truly individualize themselves in a unique fashion in order to stand out through an incredible character customization system, which seems to be one of NCSoft's strengths.

The combat system and its chained combinations aren't necessarily anything new, but it does allow the player to focus more on playing the game rather than concentrating on the best way to write a cast sequence macro, while also adding a unique flair to each individual class that executes their combo moves.  This isn't necessarily a BIG thing to give kudos for, but not everyone that picks up an MMORPG for their compute is a code monkey, and this makes the combat system VERY accessible.

All in all, I have enjoyed the Aion betas enough to pick up a pre-order and guarantees that I will be one of the fanatical fiends eagerly awaiting my preselected names for my characters on the 18th.

I am in a somewhat mixed bag situation myself.

I enjoyed the game during OB. The European servers didn't really experience the issues the US servers were experiencing, so our experience was quite different and overall pretty good and lagfree.

But, the community during Open Beta was downright horrible. Almost gave me flashbacks to the Darkfall community.

Never seen so much hate, racism, hostility, flaming, immaturity as during this Open Beta on both the forums as ingame.

This is really going to be a dealbreaker for me, if the community isn't going to vastly improve at launch!

The game can be fun, but the community really makes or breaks the game. And if the trend in Open Beta continues into launch, then it is sertainly going to break and hurt this game on the long run!

It's a real shame, that when PVP is playing a large aspect in a game... it somehow attracts the worst people on the internet and people think it's a free ticket to act like a total jerk and every social skill being thrown straight out the window (if these people had any in the first place I wonder).

So ... I will sertainly try Aion, but if the community doesn't improve during the first weeks.... I am out and it's bye bye Aion!

Cheers

I honestly wasn't interested in this game because I'm tied of the whole fantasy setting, but after the open beta I saw enough good that I'm pre-ordered.

First the graphics, very impressive. What was even more impressive is how well it runs on a good system. I was able to play the entire time with all graphics maxed on my SLI system running @100-150fps most of the time and only dropping into the 40-60fps range in very crowded areas. Was dueling all night last day of OB in Asmodian city (forget the name, the V named one) entrance with a ton of people standing around watching, private stores, npcs and game still ran great.

Second character customization. This is the best character creator since SWG. I would have never guessed this by Aions marketing because all the male characters in their ads look very feminine. I was pleasantly surprised to find I could make my avatar look anyway I wanted. You can make very cool looking dwarves, gnomes, giants, elves, humans, etc. and you can make them as ugly or pretty as you like. The armor and weapons are off the charts as far as looks go. Plus you can also make your armor and weapons look like whatever you want. The ability to swap the graphics on a good piece of equipment is a true innovation for this genre. Who hasn't gotten an uber piece or armor or weapon in a previous MMO then said damn, my avatar looks like crap or now I look like everyone else? Now you can get your uber equipment and make it look like whatever you want.

Third the gameplay. While there is nothing particularly new in the leveling process I found it to be polished and fun. I am also attracted to the open pvp aspect of this game. I loved WOW on a pvp server pre battlegrounds and arenas, when there was a real randomness to your encounters with other players. I did see balance problems but all games have these. Clerics are surely going to get nerfed, their about unbeatable in a duel as is. Overall I found dueling to be very fun and the wings add to the strategy.

While I don't like gameguard and it did prevent me from playing till NCSoft patched, it's not a good enough reason to pass on the game. Can't go through life letting paranoia keep me from trying new programs.

All in all I think this game is well worth the $60 pre-order. I may find in a month or two that I am sick of it but if that's the case I still consider it a value. Comparing entertainment value I pay that much for one PPV fight. One night at a sporting event can cost substantially more. So initial purchase plus 50 cents a day for the subscription is inconsequential IMO. I'll probably bail when SWTOR is released or I get into beta, but Aion is worth checking out for awhile IMO.

yesh but with gameguard it will make AION the spore of the MMO world.

Look up gameguard on wiki for the extensive list of applications that are affected by GG. They even block out anti-virus clients, stuff like xpadder (I made a very long and informative post about that), VMware tools, PowerISO (the people who use it legitly like I do to use for VMware and OS customization for businesses), and a long list of others. It also installs as a ROOTKIT! It has allready reportedly damaged people's systems just like the securom from spore did.

I enjoyed it, did'nt have any  issues with gameguard errors and the only lag i had was caused by my internet playing up on me.

Was dissapointed with the lack of areas you could fly in tho, especially considering its the AION thing.