http://eq2wire.com/2012/01/25/takeback-only-3-game-updates-this-year-gu63-slips-to-april/

posted by Smokejumper:

GU 63 (the next installment of DoV) is in April, not February.

You’ll start hearing about it soon. The Qeynos revamp (GU 64) is after that in mid-Summer.

I wish EQ2 had a good engine/render and a better parent company so I could switch to it full time as my only game/mmo/reason for owning a computer.

I play the f2p model once in awhile the game runs great on PCs now days.  The engine is garbage though but they have done amazing things with it.

http://eq2wire.com/2012/01/27/smokejumper-teases-game-update-63/

DoV, Book 2, Chapter 1! (GU 63) : Withered Lands and Skyshrine.

A big new overland, group instances, a contested dungeon, raids, and more!

I came back to check the game out about a week ago now and am actually enjoying myself. I was away for at least 1.5 years, and a lot has changed in that time.

The F2P change-over didn't ruin the game as much as I feared it would. I have a gold membership which charges monthly, the same a subscription, so it's really no different than paying a sub for me. I do get 500 cash points to goof around with, which is nice. I can get random social stuff with them at least.

Not sure how long the fun will last, but for now I'm enjoying it.

I'm not sure what to think about the Freeport revamp. For one, I used to like FP for its very weathered and "lived in" look. Now it's like an evil version of Qeynos, which always seemed too pristine for me.

I miss the old neighborhoods as well. Hard to believe they wiped out all that low level content "just like that". There were some fun quests in those areas.

I do like how the game has become a bit more colorful, especially in terms of armor/gear and mounts. Things seem a lot more lively now than I remember them being. EQ2 always had this very low-fantasy feel to it. Now it feels a bit closer to high fantasy, but still a notch or two below it.

All in all, not too bad so far.

Any word on if the DoV expansion will be part of the included FTP content sometime this year?

Originally posted by TangentPoint

I came back to check the game out about a week ago now and am actually enjoying myself. I was away for at least 1.5 years, and a lot has changed in that time.

The F2P change-over didn't ruin the game as much as I feared it would. I have a gold membership which charges monthly, the same a subscription, so it's really no different than paying a sub for me. I do get 500 cash points to goof around with, which is nice. I can get random social stuff with them at least.

Not sure how long the fun will last, but for now I'm enjoying it.

I'm not sure what to think about the Freeport revamp. For one, I used to like FP for its very weathered and "lived in" look. Now it's like an evil version of Qeynos, which always seemed too pristine for me.

I miss the old neighborhoods as well. Hard to believe they wiped out all that low level content "just like that". There were some fun quests in those areas.

I do like how the game has become a bit more colorful, especially in terms of armor/gear and mounts. Things seem a lot more lively now than I remember them being. EQ2 always had this very low-fantasy feel to it. Now it feels a bit closer to high fantasy, but still a notch or two below it.

All in all, not too bad so far.

 

The f2p was actually great for the game.  There are clearly more people around, and the community is still very good.  That 500 SC you get each month can be used for expansions or subscriptions.  A big tip is to look for triple station cash days.  You can get a one year membership for 30 bucks.

The complaint people have is that they feel that there is too much fluff in the cash shop that could be in the game, but EQ2 is a game with no shortage of fluff.  The development has slowed down in recent years, but then look at the size of this patch, looks to be quite big.  EQ2 is probably about average in new content now, somewhere between Trion and Blizzard (EQ2 got more content per year than Rift for the frst 4-5 years of its life).

Its also worth noting with Freeport, the 4 main 1-10 zones are still fully intact (Sprawl, Gaveyard, Sunken City, Ruins) and the neighbourhoods arent gone, they just are for racial quests.  The city needed a change, because it was such a shithole before I dont see how anyone would possibly want to live there.  Now it seems more proper and gloriously evil, as opposed to run down, it sucks to be evil.

Originally posted by Dukkha_Earl

Any word on if the DoV expansion will be part of the included FTP content sometime this year?

the GU63 April update will require players to own DOV if they want to visit the new DOV content

its not clear if there will be other f2p content in April

GU64 in summer will be the Qeynos revamp and probably a new Antonica public quest