Anyone heard of Aion?

[EniGmA1987]

Dont know if anyone has heard of this new game coming out soon, but it looks pretty cool. It is an MMORPG like WoW, from NC Soft. The makers of Lineage 2, City Of Heroes/Villains, Guild Wars, etc. I have only played Guild Wars from them so I dont know what the rest are like, but this game is not like Guild Wars at all. I know a lot of people didnt like how GW played, so that is probably a good thing.

for Graphics, the game uses a modified CryEngine so it is pretty graphically intense for an MMORPG. I can play it just fine on high settings, 16x AF, 4x AA, and 1600x1200 resolution with a single ATI 4890 and a Phenom 940. But it does get kind of laggy in cities with a lot of people.

Aion will be released on September 1st, and if you pre-order you can get a few special items. Although the items will probably be mostly useless like all games that have pre-order stuff. But at least you get a free pair of lvl 30 wings to fly with.


You can read more about the game here:
http://www.aiononline.com/us/










And some screenshots:

[zalbard]

Played closed beta tests 1, 2 and 3, and really enjoyed them. Looks promising.

[kuhla]

Played closed beta tests 1, 2 and 3, and really enjoyed them. Looks promising.

I played in beta 3. Was very fun. A good forum to check out would be www.aionsource.com

[Semicycle]

I've been keeping an eye on this game as well, but didn't get into any of the recent beta runs. The game is gorgeous but I really hope NCSoft learns from Lineage 2 and creates more then a huge grind session with an out of control economy. Let's not forget the limited Weapon and Armor Options once you hit high levels....everyone looked like a clone.

BTW, I played Lineage 2 for 4 years on and off

[EniGmA1987]

I think I have only done some grinding once so far in one of the betas. There are a lot of quests in the game and they give a pretty good amount of experience. Perhaps they learned too much and there wont be any/enough grinding at all this time around...

[Semicycle]

Korean based MMO without the grind??? I'll believe it when I see it

[labs23]

Oops, needs 56K warning.

I've never heard of this game before, and I'm not a fan of MMO, TBH. Anyway, the game looks good though. The modified "CryEngine" word catches my attention, LOL.

It could just be me but I'm seeing some Oblivion-looking textures on the game, just resemblance, maybe.

[Semicycle]

the lack of an end game doesnt bother me in an mmo, but i hope pvp will be worthwhile

[zalbard]

I heared the endgmae and pvp is almost nonexistant

The lack of end game PvE content was fixed in patches for Korean version already, 15+ group instances added.
PvP has been fine since the launch of Korean version.

[kadozer]

wow 15 instances in 1 patch? Looks like it has a ton of potential, I've been looking at the pvp vids on youtube. I'm also liking what people are saying about it in terms of difficulty.

[Xcel]

Is it going to have a monthly fee?

[Akrian]

Playing beta - game rocks =) .

[Heretic]

Is it going to have a monthly fee?

Yes. I'd expect the standard $15/mo, but I'm not sure if they've specified the actual rate.

[Xcel]

Yes. I'd expect the standard $15/mo, but I'm not sure if they've specified the actual rate.

That's a shame, I guess I'll wait for Guild Wars 2. I don't game enough to justify paying a monthly fee

[EniGmA1987]

Guild Wars 2 has some nice looking gameplay "specs", and it is supposed to be free per month like the original. I like Guild Wars a lot, especially for being a free monthly game. But it just doesnt have enough good skill combos in it, basically everything after the first campaign became massive ammount of mobs throughout the game with very little story, started focussing too much on PvP and dropping nearly all PvE. Then the nerf hammers started raining down and basically anytime someone found a decent combo it was nerfed and completely useless. That went on so long that all balance went completely out the windows and it game just seems like it doesnt work right anymore.

I am hoping this game doesnt follow down that same path, but it seems fine so far. The creators also seem to be taking the bugfixes and some suggestions much more seriously than during the Guild Wars beta events which is a good sign.


How did this last beta go that ends in 20 minutes? I didnt play at all this time cause I was letting my sister try out the game so she was on all weekend :/

[LIQUIDHERION]

anyone looked at continent of the ninth? If you can hunt down a HD video of the gameplay you'll see what looks like benchmark currently as far as graphics, combos, etc etc.

Unfortunately, by the time GW2 comes out I think it'll be overshadowed by many other clones that produce the platform. The edge they retain is that its free to play once you pay the initial cost. I wonder if they nerf hammer GW in order to "motivate" players to move on to GW2.

[DdotRoq]

I have the collectors pre-ordered... Might have a WoW killer here...

[Jamesrt2004]

anyone looked at continent of the ninth? If you can hunt down a HD video of the gameplay you'll see what looks like benchmark currently as far as graphics, combos, etc etc.

Unfortunately, by the time GW2 comes out I think it'll be overshadowed by many other clones that produce the platform. The edge they retain is that its free to play once you pay the initial cost. I wonder if they nerf hammer GW in order to "motivate" players to move on to GW2.

well im sure as you know what they are doing is with hall of monuments etc, you can keep your maxed titles and pets and weapons armour etc... soooo thats an incentive to start off fecking powerful lol...

GW2 beta will be early next year imo.... it took 7 years for gw to be made and it's been 5 since the announcement iirc of gw2 ... so a year of beta testing etc.. will be nice annoying how they keep delaying etc.. it sucks



but this game looks really great.... thats it's downfall .. wow is so big cos 90% of computers and laptops can play it and run it fine!!!

[EniGmA1987]

Ya, this game seems like the "Crysis" of MMORPG games when it comes to graphics. I guess that is to be expected since it uses the CryEngine though... I did notice that a lot of the world textures are kinda low res, whil;e the character and monster textures seem ot be much higher res. They probably did that to make it playable with such a large world and so many people in it. But the good news is that I can play this game fine on 1600x1200 witha single 4890, so people with lower end computers should be able to play no problem on 1280x1024 or 1280x768. But you will definitely need a graphics card from sometime in the past couple years to play this, any older and you will have to turn the settings way down.

Has anyone tried turning the graphics down all the way yet? I wonder how bad it would look all the way down, probably pretty close to WoW. The minimum specs are pretty down low...

Aion Minimum Requirements:
CPU : Pentium 4 2.0GHz
RAM :1GB
VGA :GeForec FX 5600(128MB), DirectX 9 or higher
OS :Windows XP

Ill have to see how it looks during beta event 5 at the end of this month.

[aintz]

I wonder how bad it would look all the way down, probably pretty close to WoW.

graphics from screens arent much better than wow.

the graphics dont fit in with one another, the difference between the models and the background is so huge, just look at the picture with the dragon.

[Soulwind]

The graphics are stunning.

The crafting system/economy is "interesting"

The PvE is (at least for the american version so far) so-so.

This is a VERY PvP centric game. Not to the levels of Lineage (which is pretty much nothing but PvP) or Warhammer, but still very PvP oriented.

Most of the PvP centers around the abyss area, but you CAN be ganked in your home region. From what I hear, ganking is not a big issue with the korean version as everyone's busy in the abyss, but it remains to be seen if this westernized port works out that way as well. (I doubt it though, the US PvP games seem to attract a larger segment of the a**hat players, imo at least).

Note that this Aion is a US/Westernized version of a Korean MMO that's been out for awhile now.

[EniGmA1987]

To anyone thats interested, Beta 5 is this weekend. You can go to Game Stop and pre-order the game for $5 to get your beta code. Try out the game and if you dont like it cancel the pre-order. If you like it, then you get early access to naming your characters when the game is released as well as a couple semi-useful items for early/mid game.

[spajdr]

And here you can check when next beta starts up and final game + list of beta servers
http://kindred.aion.tv/status/

[kaiden]

CBT6 this weekend!!!

[will1080]

My Guild is gathering members we have formed up with a group of other guilds to get things rolling at launch. Just click on my home page for info if you want in.