http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=77570

To add an extra patch to improve the gaming experience and quality of gameplay, the official start time of the IGN Open Beta now is:

20:00 GMT (8 pm GMT)
(to check the current GMT time please refer to http://wwp.greenwichmeantime.com/)

We wanted to add the extra update prior to launching the servers rather than to fix it shortly after the start of the Open Beta.

Users who have registered for the Open Beta will also receive an information e-mail about this in their inboxes shortly.

Thanks for your understanding.

Hmm.. I got almost 2MB/sec yesterday. Maybe the crowd is bigger now.

To name few things:

-          Faction system has been removed

-          Rift system has been introduced – this made huge world not so huge because mounts and ships that ware vital for traveling purposes are merely fancy toys now.

-          Xp rate gain has been increased by about 300% comparing to what it used to be at launch. The effect is disastrous: you have to skip 80-90% of content, because you level to fast!  For example – let say there is 15 dungeons for levels 22-26.  So you start one of them at level 22, but when you are done, the xp gained by doing this dungeon kicks you to the level 26. So you must virtually skip 13-14 other dungeons because they are too easy for you.

-          PvP has been virtually eliminated by limiting it to one FFA PvP server, where one cleric or bear shaman can take out whole group of other players…

-          Majority of looted items has been made bound on equip or bound on pickup: this turns them into vendor thrash, because you cannot sell them to anybody.

-           Last update boosted quest items by about 30%:  this made crafting much less worth of an effort than before.

-          Customization of yours character has been severely limited: you practically have only most basic options available (height, eye and hair color, facial hair…not much more)

-          All classes have been revamped few times in order to “balance” them, so every class is much more powerful than it was at the launch. But mobs ware not adjusted respectively to meet these changes - they are still on this same level as they ware one year before: as effect what was a challenging fight before now is a boring grind…

Sorry for my English…

I quit after GU 4 went online. In its current state it is worst balanced game I have ever played, but it takes few weeks to experience it. But even more important is that developers are fully committed to turn Vanguard into one of the most casual mmorpgs on the market. They already lowered the difficulty to ridiculous level, stripping this game from any real challenge. And no flying/racial mounts or helms will make up for that.  

This game is definitely eWoWing with every so called "game update"... It used to be most sophisticated and complex title on the market (although technically it was piece of lagging crap). Now it looks opposite: performance improved drastically, but the gameplay itself deteriorated to “just another WoW clone”.

Originally posted by AlienShirt

It will be nice to pay $14.99 a month for a game that will still be in beta when it launches.

Considering this is the firs serious title since April 2007 (Lotro) I am willing to pay even for beta…

I wonder - I am in USA right now, but will move back to Europe in September: if I set up my payment options from USA and do not change my address at Funcom’s account will they still charge me the American rates? Does it make any difference if I buy and play USA or Euro version of the game?

I am impatiently looking forward to play AOC and WAR, but honestly – I do not expect them to offer any different approach to the gameplay than the already available WoW clones and I am almost sure I won’t stick with them longer than with any other game I played. And I understand that, because just like somebody said: we are not the majority. The majority pays the monthly fee and smashes LMB in order to ding as fast as possible. They do not create communities, do not post ideas/complains on forums, they don’t roleplay. But they pay and their name is Legion, for they are many.

The only thing I cannot understand is why no developer tries to target the more demanding player-base, who can be really loyal and sticks with the game for years, just by creating one or two servers with different rule types – much more rpg oriented and tougher than the regular ones...

Honestly:  Dx10 is the only reason to install Vista. This means Microsoft is trying to make money on gamers, selling them crapy OS with only one great feature – DX10, and this is simple bold encouraging to piracy...I am not interested in shooters, but after Crysis was released most of my friends installed illegal copies of Vista as a second OS, just to run this game in DX10. With modern HD having 500GB or more 2 OS are not a problem. I think MS is trying to abuse gamers, but has shot their own feet.

Originally posted by boojiboy

 

Originally posted by Yamota

The screenshots posted above illustrates what I mean with the average gfx. The static gfx are good, like the pictures, but this is a game and once things start to move it looks horrid. The animations of the characters are just plain bad and so are the spell effects.

But yeah, if this game was a slideshow then the gfx are great.

I don't agree.  Those screens were in the open, and were at about 100-110 fps.  But even in a dungeon (APW for example) with people, spells effects, mobs all over the place, it can still maintain 30fps and the animations, effects, everything is nice and fluid.

 

Admittedly, I've got a new PC now and it's got some power.  But even my old rig could make this game look gorgeous (dynamic or static) with the right settings.  When I get back home, I'll dig out a couple fight screenshots.  I tried to screen a ranger range fighting, because you can see the arrow, you can see the bow flex, great bow shooting animations overall.

Boojiboy, can you tell what rig do you have...?

There is a way to enable AA from driver level on 8800 card serie. Latest drivers are needed (forceware 169). Game looks A LOT better already with AAx2 enabled. And I haven't noticed any performance drop at all !  More details and screens here:

http://forums.station.sony.com/vg/posts/list.m?&topic_id=22405

Although this game disappointed me, I have to admit, that it has the best community I met in mmorpg so far. This and few other things like great graphic, great opinions about performance and stability (very true) and Tolkien’s lore encouraged me to try it out.  Unfortunate this game turned out to be an action game with RPG elements… Seriously - good old Diablo have more complex advancement system and more unique armory/weaponry/bestiary than LOTRO.

Everyone in LOTRO looks alike, have abilities on the same level (because abilities level automatically with you), and the trait system, that was advertised as a way to make you feel unique is a joke – eventually everyone will pick up traits best suited for his class and again everyone is the same…

Lately I came back to play Vanguard, and I cannot resist one thought : those two games are totally opposites: Vanguard have very rich and sophisticated world, and very complex RPG content, but technically it was a piece of unplayable junk. LOTRO quite opposite:  masterpiece of game-coding, seamless performance, but very shallow in its RPG structure.  Fortunately for me after latest patch Vanguard works smooth and stabile… I hope LOTRO will grow in future into more demanding RPG.

This is of course only mine opinion and I didn’t mean to offend anyone. Also sorry for my english  ;-/ .