Warhammer Online

Mythic Entertainment | Warhammer Online

Due for release in just a few weeks is the new Warhammer MMO. Theres a beta running and there are still keys available on various pages.

One aspect that appeals to me (even if the game itself doesn't) is RvR where whole realms go into combat. so in theory (danger starts here) you could have thousands of players fighting huge epic battles.

As my knowledge on the whole franchise is lmited I'll be waiting for a review/video review to see what the game could be like. The company made it clear that they had no intentions on beating WoW but instead just wanted to focus on a great game. Hopefully they manage to pull the second point off. I know there are certain aspects to MMOs but all companies that make them seem to have lost all sense of originality. At least AoC tried to bring in a more focused story and combat techniques. But my guess is that we are going to have to wait for the next big seller....which will probably be released by Blizzard anyway

I've been very excited about Warhammer Online, but never looked into getting a Beta Key, oh well.

I'll probably wait 'till a free trial is active so I can have a go for free, and see if I prefer it over WoW, although I'm going to cut down on MMORPGS for my A levels.

i like age of conan and wow as they have timecards so i can decide when to pay rather than have the money sucked out automatically looking back i should have done the same for XBL. i'll only look into it if it looks really promising and new....amd timecards. i have two wow characters and a conan one so i dont really feel the need to jump into another any time soon.

The game was released to the masses today and i did think of picking it up but there were no timecards on sale. I could have gone for the free month but i dont want it linked to a debit fee, id rather control it myself. i think the US has them so hopefully the UK will get them soon.

My review - might post some screens later

When I first saw preview videos for WAR I wasn’t all that impressed. It all looked clunky and the combat a bit lacklustre. However I felt the need to play it as MMOs are: games that last longer than 5 hours, games that get updated and expansions, have real people playing with you. Plus out of the MMOs I have tried this year like Warcraft, Conan, Lord of the Rings, none of them were bad games. Each offered something new. Warcraft is your MMO starting point with a good balance of friendly people and not so friendly and really easy to pick up and play. AoC , although a complete glitch fest has the best combat. Lord of the Rings has your story running in time with the books.

I decided to play as a Witch Elf, one of the Chaos classes and I noticed right away that these were the so called “bad guys”, ok the name gives a huge clue. The reason I say this is that in WoW when I was a Blood Elf for a short while I didn’t really feel that I was playing for the Horde so much as the Alliance with different races and banners. None of the quests made me feel "evil". For example (in WAR) one quest involved gathering some plants that would later be used to cause a slow agonising death to a High Elf rival. Right from the start you are killing off members the opposing force.

The character customisation isn’t great so be prepared to run into your double early on but in all fairness it’s going to happen sooner or later. The graphics are nothing amazing but I must admit that at one point I was amazed at the water graphics as I ran over a bridge so it has highs and lows. As far as I’ve experienced there is no load time between huge zones or zones at all.

With this being Warhammer there is a much larger PvP focus. From level one you can enter PvP instances and it’s great fun as you earn general XP and renown XP which gives you rewards. This makes PvP far more rewarding and it’s great fun. Only drawback is that there aren’t many players. I think I was just lucky in finding enough people yesterday. It’s a shame because the rewards are quite good as even kills by party members earn you XP.

Public quests are large group focus quests split into stages where you have to kill (x) NPCs and one boss at the end. After all that you are granted a reward and it mostly depends on how much damage you dealt plus a dice roll. These are meant to be done numerous times and earn you XP and Influence. The more Influence you gain the more rewards you get. It all goes towards a Chapter bar and when that bar fills you are granted the best rewards. However due to lack of players you will find yourself just killing the smaller NPCs just to fill up the bar than going through the whole thing. Plus normal quests can take you into that area so you’ll sometimes be filling up the Chapter bar anyway. Quite a nice touch but it would be better to do it properly.

For training you just have Career trainers in each settlement and every level or so you’ll be able to train a new ability. There is also Mastery training which I don’t seem to have unlocked yet. There are only 40 levels split into 4 tiers but the levelling feels a bit slower than other MMOs I’ve played. Maybe there are certain things I’ve grown used to in other MMOs but at least the game will last.

The game overall is worth a look if you feel the urge to play. It actually feels quite smooth already, sure some minor slowdowns here and there but nothing that breaks the game completely. I have spent the whole day playing and feel pulled in more and more as I progress.

If you want a new game that will be value for money then I would say that this is worth it’s price but you may want to wait until Christmas as loads of games like this will sell and more people will join. However the new WoW expansion is coming so some may feel torn between the two but I think this will be a worthy addition to the MMO market as both WoW and Warhammer have large fanbases and also people who like both and those looking for something new.

High praise, Billy. It must have really tweaked your fancy? You have an alienware that can play Crysis on orgasm mode. What for others with normal PCs? Do you think they will have less of an experience than you did?

Its quite a low spec game.

2.5 ghtz P4 (minimum)
1gig ram (xp) 2 gig ram (vista)
15gig HDD space
128mb graphics

Not bad. I presume that's a single core processor?

yeah cos its only pentium 4

Ah, that's what the P4 meant. :-P

Anyway, off to work... *cries* will be done at 1am.

IGN: Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning Review

heres the IGN review.

Ive never really been into this game but maybe i will have to pick it up and have a go.

You get the first month free as usual but you dont have to put in your payment details until after it's over. or you can use cards.

The PVP is very addicting. especially when you think you've lost then the whole team pulls it together and you win.

What is also good is that you dont even need to understand anything Warhammer related to play this. My only experience was a tabletop trial in a games workshop whn i was 12. but a start kit for £50 at that age...no thanks.