I can, I will...
Just not now, too busy playing the game still :-)
It's very, very good. Imagine Age of Conan without Conan, annoying community, grinding but with the whole world one overland map :-)
Here's a slideshow of some screenshots I've made:
The stills don't do the lush countryside justice though.
Yes the Interface is awful. It's bad enough to win a Darwin award when used on a console if you ask me, and the PC version's worse. Also if you're playing the PC version you *NEED* the following MOD that makes Skyrim Large Address Aware (using more than 2 GB of memory). For some reason Bethesda actually released a single patch to the PC game so far which disabled modifying its exe file so it's Large Address Aware. Weird stuff.
Without it the game's very prone to crashing due to a memory leak or two. With LAA it's still there but anyone with more than 2GB of memory (so both 32 bits and 64 bits OSes benefit from this) generally doesn't crash anymore.
Without it the game's very prone to crashing due to a memory leak or two. With LAA it's still there but anyone with more than 2GB of memory (so both 32 bits and 64 bits OSes benefit from this) generally doesn't crash anymore.
I'll add more pictures / more reviewiness soon :-)
ReplyDeleteGreat screenshots, looking forward to giving this game a go when I have the time.
ReplyDeleteFrom all I have heard, read and seen I know I will love the beautiful world, the exploration, and even the quests. I will probably be ok with the crappy UI as well. But I tired Mirrowind, Oblivion and FallOut. And I never got beyond the first hour. I don't want to play fist person games. And in third person something looks off. I heard it is a lot better in Skyrim. I have moved from 'I'll pass' to 'Ah, maybe', but not now. A busy month is coming up and then it's SWTOR time.
ReplyDeleteGuess I'll have to write a review on my 14 hours of SWTOR beta this weekend then :-)
ReplyDeleteI think you should do that SWTOR review, I guess you wanted to play solo and make up your own mind without having any of us Mutants getting in your way :) I'm intrigued by what you think, there are things I love about the game but things I really hate about it too, so much so I was questioning my purchase until I got really in to the crafting.
ReplyDeleteFeel free to write a review on SWTOR as well, of course. But your comment made it sound you have to it because you think I should play Skyrim instead of SWTOR. I am sure there are plenty of things very wrong with it. But this is what I wrote on MuTants forum:
ReplyDeleteI managed to play for half an hour last night while preparing dinner. The character creation was pretty solid. Nice varierties where needed, but not the meaningless overly detailed changes you can 't even notice in-game. One plus. I thought I created a really nice imperial agent cyborg, and it moved around quite smoothly once I was in the game. So that is already two plusses. On the very first mission I managed to double-cross my quest giver. Three plusses. I'm sold.
I know that this is not enough to convince anybody it is a good game. But it is for me. I will have fun in SWTOR for at least a few weeks. And I rather do those few weeks on crowded servers.
Oh no, not my intention at all.
ReplyDeleteI think SW:TOR is a great game and while it has some minor annoyances (like the chat box and low FPS around sub0instancing area's) I definately intend to play it after it's released. However, for me personally I think I'll wait till next year. For once I do not want to be in that initial (c)rush. Early January will be soon enough I think.
I did have a great time playing through the starter areas for Smuggler, Sith Inquisitor (light side) and Jedi Consular. I know, Inq and Cons are pretty close. But I wanted to try out playing a light side Sith and couldn't play a Twi'Lek Sith Warrior
*grin* sorry for jumping to the wrong conclusions. I can be a bit of an idiot sometimes.
ReplyDeleteI wish you good luck trying to restrain yourself from not joining us when Geek and I are posting daily our great adventures starting late December :)
I started on a review, but it needs a lot of polish still. The review, the game less so.
ReplyDeleteI am curious though about all the Mutants comments. After Phe's quote I checked out the MUforum, but saw nothing remotely like SW:TOR posts, let alone the comment Phe was quoting.
Is there a hidden section of the forums I do not have access to, horribly infrequent visitor of all things MU that I am?
On another note, I really got the sense that this game is best enjoyed with a static group of 3-4 people. For the Flashpoints especially. The rest of the content seems very solo or solo+companion oriented.
ReplyDeleteWe could of course try and give that another go? It didn't pan out all that well in Rift, but maybe we could agree on a Story group? I.e. dedicated characters we only play solo to get up to level/location for the next Flashpoint and only play with the static group partners? Maybe even pick a non-sunday day for it?
Dangit Phe, how do you guys manage this stuff in CoX. You are the expert :-)
The rather limited SWTOR info on the Mutants board is at MuTants->Other Games. The MuTants section is the top section, and only accessible to MuTant guild members. In theory you should be able to see it. it does have several useful links and posts by Geek (as usual).
ReplyDeleteI think the reason our COH stuff works so great is because COH has no crafting. So there is never any reason to do things solo. All quests scale to group size, and they're perfect for static teams. If we want to make it work in SWTOR we should try do create something similar.
We should use our mains to provide the crafting and funds. We should play as a group through all content even though it might be solo-able. Those bits might not be too challenging, but having company should make them more fun, and cleared faster. But even a bigger problem is probably consistent availability.
I think we are better off putting this idea aside for now. Let's just trying to team up when possible, and if we still enjoy the game enough one or two months from now start thinking about a fresh alts team.
Ah ok, the entire Other Games section is off-limits to me (Lani). It's not visible at all while logged in. Also checked through your posts hsitory but those psots don't show up.
ReplyDeleteSo sadly I was completely unaware of any MUtant interest in SW:TOR
I see your point about Static grouping. I think in Rift it was more our different time budgets coupled with a desire to steam ahead to the other content than crafting though. I actually used Crafting as a means to slow Lani down so she could stay in level range with your toon. But then I'd be on Suhaya in a team when you'd get online e.t.c.
By the way, did anyone make it of of the starter planet? I experienced a sensation a bit like in Age of Conan when you got out of newb island, but completely different. Yet similar. Not as strong though. Have to think some more on how to word it :-)
Mike and myself have been running around Dromund Kass, we occasionaly get to team but without a set group for teaming SWTOR is as unfriendly as Rift for grouping through quests, a little more so because of class quests, it's one of my beefs about it but considering its emphasis on story its understandable. Dromund Kass is lovely, I'd post some screens if my screenshots hadn't come out as pure black. I've asked Trib to give you access to that part of the forum, you are logged in right? :)
ReplyDeleteThe Mutants SWTOR activity is rather limited. Geek created the MuTants guild a while back. Only Mike, Geek are I are planning to play, I think. That is not even enough to get the guild auto created.
ReplyDeleteI haven't made it off the planet yet. But I think I know the feeling. Is it a bit the same as reaching sector 2 in Fallen Earth?
Just for good measure one of Geek's nifty links
Lani should have access to that part of the forum now
ReplyDeleteMagua is definitely playing swtor come release and I suspect Mike will be doing the same, he seems to be happy enough running around blowing things up :)
ReplyDeleteHeh Geek, either I was logged in, or Mutant forum was gathering information way beyond what's allowed under any country's privacy laws :-)
ReplyDeleteBut yes, I can see the Mutants section now and that the forum isn't as dead as it appears without that little nook of activity.
Off to read up on what you all have been up to now :-)
P.s. Phè, thanks for the offered luck but it didn't help. Damn you Pre-order schemes! Damn you all to hell!