Tabula Rasa

[Calindor]

Yeah it deinitely looks like its improving each day as time passes. They are planning to add Clan owned CP zones in the near future, which I would imagine to be very close to Aion castle siege system.

[Karnage]

They haven't released much on that, but I think It runs on the same principle as the normal CP bases.

[Howling]

The Escapist : Video Galleries : Zero Punctuation : Tabula Rasa

Pretty much sums up my TR experience..

[Chaos_Theory]

Originally Posted by Howling

The Escapist : Video Galleries : Zero Punctuation : Tabula Rasa

Pretty much sums up my TR experience..

LOL did the guy even breathe?

[Karnage]

My reaction is did the guy even play ten minutes into the game?

You can color your armor, why are you playing any game if you don't like any grind, and you can't go into any MMO thinking like he does. In Tabula Rasa, the most beautiful noise is the roar of your chain gun firing and hearing the screams of agony from your enemy.

[Zanaionic]

i bought the game for 12 bucks and couldnt play it on my crappy dell..

/cry lol. Once i get my new computer it will probably be too late to try it out in depth since aion will be right on the brink of Release(or so i hope).

[Karnage]

Aion isn't coming out for a year. ;_;

[Jman95]

Originally Posted by Karnage

Aion isn't coming out for a year. ;_;

EHHH! wrong. Though I don't know exactly how wrong you really are. It is possible though that you are entirely right in which case i hope you die.

The end.

[Karnage]

Hate to break it to you, but I am not wrong by much. It is at least half a year until comercial release. Beta on the other hand, could be within the next three months.

[Jman95]

Dude. Huge difference between 6 months and 12.
I'm not expecting it till atleast Jan or Feb 09.
I'd like to be able to beta test though.

[Marchosias]

Originally Posted by Howling

The Escapist : Video Galleries : Zero Punctuation : Tabula Rasa

Pretty much sums up my TR experience..

When I was in the beta I kinda got the same impression. It was a lot of fun for the first day or two, but I was left doubting its lasting appeal and content at the higher levels. However, after playing it again with Cal now (my trial is over early tomorrow I think), I'm actually having a great time with the game. There's still a grind, I guess, but it's so different in playstyle from your usual grind that it's actually fun.

I wouldn't so much say the game is a blend of shooters and MMORPGs, as I would say it's a blend of D2's combat with your traditional MMORPG. It's easy to call it a blend of shooters because you get guns and point a reticule, but that's where it ends. The skill system (how you use the skills, and to some extent how you get them) is much more similar to D2 than any MMORPG I've played. Every skill has 5 levels, the first unlocks it and the rest make it better or give you same variation on it (or both). For example, weapon abilities, which are passive, generally give you 10% bonus damage for each level you put into them, whereas another skill damages the enemies with elemental damage, each new "skill level" simply unlocks a new element, the "mana" cost is the same. As for how you use skills, there are two bars, one for you weapons (left click) and one for abilities (right click). That's where the D2 comes in, I think. The "shooter" feel is just a 3D representation of D2's "aim and click" combat system, and it actually works.

The problem with Yahtzee's review, aside from the fact that he clearly dislikes MMORPGs, and generally doesn't play games for their multiplayer aspects, is that he seems to think that changing the play style is a bad thing. He even says in the review, "If it's not broken, don't fix it." The game is trying to change a style of play, which as much as I love MMORPGs I have to admit gets very dull, into something that you can still grind, and you do in TR, but it doesn't feel like a grind. The basic combat is simply enjoyable, so you're out there grinding and it's just fun. When I'm running from place to place I don't even try to bypass mobs most of the time, I run in and I fight them, because it's just plain fun. I don't know if I can say that for any other MMORPG I've ever played. So, I think this new combat model that they're using is actually quite brilliant. I'm definitely going to pick this up when my trial ends.

[birdman]

Did he just say WoW is the best an mmo can get?










sigh...

[Calindor]

Originally Posted by Howling

The Escapist : Video Galleries : Zero Punctuation : Tabula Rasa

Pretty much sums up my TR experience..

That review meant a lot coming from a guy who doesnt like MMO's and considers WoW to be as good as they will get. The UI looks nothing like WoW at all, actually nothing like any MMO I've seen. You can keep dying your armour when you get new ones, there are hundreds of shades to choose from...I guess you would consider the PvE to be a grind and repetitive if you consider 10 hours into halo to be the same as the first hour into the game...not to mention you can level up by doing a siege style fight.

I guess most of what he's saying is true (even though it sounds like he played it for a grand total of 10 minutes), but i think he's ranting on MMORPG's more than just TR....I also dont see it appealing much to people who like shooters, and I find having capturable zones to be a good feature, especially when it doesnt take such a long term commitment to get one back. Its a welcome change of pace when questing, especially when you get good exp/loot fighting at them, and more importantly I cant see anyone not finding them fun...a lot of players just camp out those CP's just for the action at them. Not to mention, unlike most games there are well over more than enough quests in each zone/area to outgrow that area, you can ignore turning in quests at CP's until you see you own them again.


edit: Just saw Marchosias' post, and I agree, its not like a shooter style at all, the only similarity is you have a reticule and fire guns...And that is another thing about the game too, running around doing missions, you want to stop and fight everything along the way, because its just plain fun. In WoW when trying to run to my quest zone I would run through mobs then start saying in vent "AHH! Getting dazed is the worst part of this game!"..trying to run through and ignore mobs so I can do my quest, its frustrating trying to get by mobs. Or in L2 you just run through a field of mobs and agro a whole army of them that chase you for what seems like eternity ...I think they chase for a full 60 seconds or something close to that. In TR you actually want to fight all the mobs you meat along the way, its just plain fun and immersive when you have friendly NPC's getting in battles with you, and running into other players...check out my vid and say it doesnt look fun, the first part is just random mobs where I had a quest, the quest was only the 1 boss you see where the quest objective came up, during the other fight another player shows up and we kill the same mobs, then near the end you see another 2 players nearby in the battle...and its just a random battle going on out in the middle of the zone...My only concerns are the end game, which seem to be only PvP clan wars and duels/battleground arenas..Theres also those Clan owned CP's coming out I mentioned earlier...but it seems like it takes some time to get up there in the levels. Plus the classes are so different from a traditional MMO, so I think rerolling would be fun, also the cloning is pretty cool, where you can make a duplicate of your char whenever you want (a limit on how many times), it will just have a new name and appearance.

[Karnage]

Calindor reminded me of the only thing that I saw as an issue with the game. After level thirty, leveling almost grinds to a stand-still. I breezed through the first 30 levels in 2 weeks only playing 2-3 hours a day and it took me five days playing 4-5 hours to get to level 34 on my Guardian. I don't want to scare anyone away from the game, but this game does have a mildly difficult leveling process after a certain point, and you will die a lot. Don't worry, the death penalty isn't that much, mostly remenicent of Guild Wars and you can buy cheap items to lessen/remove the death penalty.

[Cylicon]

Yeah I recently started this up again, a fresh start though on Orion. Lots of things had changed from when I last played but sadly there still aren't any PAUs . Ah well, this will have to do for a bit.