The demo is just the tutorial... but you can spend all the time you want in it! Amazing, right!? Two whole powers, no power house, the same tiny little area to wander around in over and over and over again. Everyone knows the demo is pointless, but with F2P coming early next year it probably won't see any changes. Your best bet is to try to find a trial invite/buddy key.

The sabertooth mount in the Collector's edition of the latest expansion is useable as a mount from lvl 1. It does not start as a pet like the TSO mount. It's a pretty decent mount, too; +65% run speed and available in both armored and unarmored graphics.

My first MMO was Earth and Beyond, and god, I loved it. Losing it was tough. Nostalgia hit hard for a while there. Luckily it's once again running in one form or another.

Everquest 2 eventually filled most of the gap left by EnB, and it eventually became "that game I always go back to," for me.

Well, hopefully STO will help fill that void.

Otherwise, an EnB emulator does exist, as does a private server. A simple google search should lead you to it.

The first rule of EQ2 is: don't use CPU shadows.

Here are a few things to consider. GPU shadows only work outdoors, in the open environemnt, and they do look pretty slick. The light source is the sun or the moon, and the shadows move across the ground as these light sources move across the sky. You can choose either to leave indoor shadows off or use indoor CPU shadows. "Indoors" includes such places as dungeons and some instances, so if you had trouble grouping with CPU shadows turned on before, you'll probably still have trouble grouping with indoor-only CPU shadows. That being said, the GPU shadow system itself has almost no negative performance impact.

"What definition are you using for "MMO" if not that?"

He may be talking about the RPG in MMORPG.com, more than the MMO component. At any rate, I'm looking forwards to this game like crazy.

No, they don't. You still have to buy them, or just buy the retail box.

Yeah, I remember hearing about issues specific to the 8800's, but I've never experienced them myself.

As I understand it, the out of memory error is directly related to Windows Vista, not specific graphics hardware or drivers. I've seen it manifest on old 8800 hardware. If you aren't using Vista, then we're talking about different things. Anyway, I've seen two "solutions" so far. 1) Lower detail settings. I know, I know, we shouldn't have to make such concessions. I opted for 2) install more ram, upgrade to a 64bit version of Vista. Running with 6 gigs, I've never once seen the issue across multiple hardware setups.

My information is many months out of date, I'm afraid. Perhaps people have found a less expensive solution.

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. This downloader's working much better then the manager; no disconnects at all.

Using the Download Manager to grab the trial knocks out my internet connection after a few minutes of activity, even after dropping to 256 kb/s download, 32 kb/s upload. It isn't the server or anything like that, I literally lose the web connection through my router, but the local network remains accessible, and other computers sharing the network are unaffected.

I'm a patient guy, I'll restart the connection each time it happens if I have to, I just want to know whether I'll have trouble ingame as well.

Anyone else have this problem? Any recommendations?

"best graphics...fact"

I LOLed. But yeah, I've been impressed by the oeverall atmosphere conveyed in some of the screenshots, if not the actual graphics from a technical standpoint. I'll probably try it out again now that I've become bored with EQ2.

"The real bottom line-"

I'm going to cut you off here. You see, you cannot say what the real bottom line is, because it's different for everyone. In reality, the reasons for someone choosing PC's over Consoles or vice versa are very complex. The choice almost never revolves around one single issue like control configurations or ease of use.

I was surprised to see the ancient WoW vs EQ2 argument after the first few posts. Did nobody else notice how the races and descriptions were mixed up about half way down the article?... Did any of you even, you know, READ it? Or did you all just jump right into the discussion so you could fight over whose opinion is the "right" opinion.

Anyone else here not liking the idea of role changing? I always found it fun to figure out what class is needed most in the world, and then make a character to fill in that gap. Made me feel useful. If anyone can plays as anything at will, well, what's the point of specializing?

Either way, I can see Champions replacing CoH as my "screw around when I'm bored" game if the character customization is as good as they say.

I agree with many of the others here; the voting options are severely lacking. Older MMO's like EQ2 have been chugging along for years with between 100K and 200K subs (last I checked). The continuing support, frequency of ubpdates, and continuing development of large expansions would seem to indicate a successful MMO in this case, whether you actually like the game or not.

I suppose a line has to be drawn between MMO's released before and after the genre went mainstream. Before WoW, it seemed most companies would have been content with at least 100K subs.

Always travel with a group. You don't even need to be in a squad, just go where people are go, fight along side them, and keep an eye out for orbital strikes.

MAX armor is great for beginners, because it is just so very forgiving. Long story short, the threats to MAX armor tend to be more obvious and visible. Cloakers are much less troublesome as long as you keep moving and watch for mines. Stay near obstacles, and hide whenever you hear the missile lock-on indicator. Avoid big open spaces. Plenty of guys around will repair your armor if you ask.

Gotta cut this post short-

EQ2 is retaining its player base just fine. The player base isn't growing because the game isn't advertised!

I'm sure it's been said many times before, but the graphics engine is incredibly CPU dependent. I'm running a 1.8Ghz C2D and an 8800gts. At 1.8Ghz (1920x1200) the game will only run smoothly on Balanced. Overclocked to 2.4Ghz, it'll run on High Quality without breaking a sweat. Up till recently the game has run on just a single core, which means "upgrading" from a 3 Ghz C2D to a 2.66 Ghz Core 2 Quad could actually decrease the performance. The latest patch doesn't really make a difference; first core usage increased by five or six percent, second core stays at 100 percent.

I've been using an 8800gts for a year now without any trouble.

That being said, EQ2 stuttered terribly on 8600m GT and 9600m GT laptops I tried.

These arguments are all pointless. People who hate the game are not going to convince those of us who like it to hate it, and vice versa.

Myself; well I enjoy the game despite it's flaws.