Darkness Rising in PC Zone

[Awarkle]

Well after watching aeon flux last weekend ive decided never to read anything reviewers right. I read loads of places that it was a rubbish film and after watching it thought "no its not a rubbish film".

ANywho as for darkness rising the expansion probbly wasnt as great as what it should have been and didnt really have the content that both cats and toa had.

I know what folks mean about the whole "every reviewer is a WoW fanboi" every other week i see on the bbc news website "this happens in wolrd of warcraft" and think. erm what about the other hundreds of mmorpgs on the market that never get a mention.

Dark age may not have the numbers of warcraft but lets be thankful that at least we dont have the tards from there

 

[Svartmetall]

There was definitely far too little content in DR for a retail content. What there was was very nice, but so little of it that some patches have actually has more content. Compare how much we got in Catacombs or TOA to how much we got in DR and it's a joke.

That said, the rest of that "review" is also a joke, sounds like a bitter little WOW kiddie who died in an RvR zone and decided to vent his spleen on the game as a whole.

 

[Sendraks]

he wasnt rating daoc, he was rating the near worthless expansion, though with daoc players if you give them loads of new content with loads to do they QQ about it.

He starts out as writing about the new expansion, but the review the degenerates into poorly founded comments about the game in general.

I don't think anyone here is deluding themselves that DAoC is without problems or that DR is the greatest expansion ever (though I happen to like its no frills approach, but then I liked the no frills approach of Iron Maiden's "No Prayer for Dying" album so sue me), but its far, far, far better than this reviewer gives it credit for.

 

[cHodAX]

Well after watching aeon flux last weekend ive decided never to read anything reviewers right. I read loads of places that it was a rubbish film and after watching it thought "no its not a rubbish film".

ANywho as for darkness rising the expansion probbly wasnt as great as what it should have been and didnt really have the content that both cats and toa had.

I know what folks mean about the whole "every reviewer is a WoW fanboi" every other week i see on the bbc news website "this happens in wolrd of warcraft" and think. erm what about the other hundreds of mmorpgs on the market that never get a mention.

Dark age may not have the numbers of warcraft but lets be thankful that at least we dont have the tards from there

Aeon Flux was a peice of crap, just because you disagree doesn't make everyone else wrong, of course it doesn't make them right either, everyone has an opinion and it is always best to form your own rather than be swayed by the opinions of others. I am glad you liked the film, personally I consider it 100 minutes of my life wasted

 

[PenrithRM]

Most accurate review that crappy magazine has ever produced in my opinion. Let's face it, the latest expansion is a load of crap and should of been the free expansion we are due.

Did sound like he was promoting WoW a little bit. Who can blame him, WoW is more well known than DAoC will ever be.

15,000 players is about right, i put that down to absolutley no effort into advertising. I can only see that declining in comming months as well.

Roll on the release of new MMORPG's, DAoC is getting old pretty quick!

 

[xxManiacxx]

Well 15k players online at prime time might be right. But there is far more subscribers then that.

And Darkness Rising expansion wasnt that good. Most stuff could have been implemented in normal patches.

But he really is a WoW fanboi.

 

[Flimgoblin]

Most accurate review that crappy magazine has ever produced in my opinion. Let's face it, the latest expansion is a load of crap and should of been the free expansion we are due.

Did sound like he was promoting WoW a little bit. Who can blame him, WoW is more well known than DAoC will ever be.

15,000 players is about right, i put that down to absolutley no effort into advertising. I can only see that declining in comming months as well.

Roll on the release of new MMORPG's, DAoC is getting old pretty quick!

reading sig...

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

 

[Efour]

15000 players online prime time is ok.
EVE online can muster about that many and is voted one of the best pvp mmos out at the moment.

WOW is shit, one of the worst games ive ever tried - almost as bad and pointless as city of heros. THe kind of people that play these games are just not as "mature" gamers as the daoc crowd. ITs all easy mode 1 button press, I win you loose. (TOA lol)

Camelot is a very old game and the RvR has never really changed in all that time its essentially the same thing every time.

THeres still no reason for people to control keeps or to seige keeps - the core of what this game was made about. its just a race to RR11 so people can say - look at me i am unemployed.

I dont think mythic will advertise daoc again. Every week i get emails from COH begging me to come back and giving me a freee months play.

GOA what u need to do is clusterise the whole of europe some more.
make everyone read english and pack us all onto 4-6 servers and give us emain pre NF and just have 24fg vs 24fg zergs.

 

[Svartmetall]

He starts out as writing about the new expansion, but the review the degenerates into poorly founded comments about the game in general.

I don't think anyone here is deluding themselves that DAoC is without problems or that DR is the greatest expansion ever (though I happen to like its no frills approach, but then I liked the no frills approach of Iron Maiden's "No Prayer for Dying" album so sue me), but its far, far, far better than this reviewer gives it credit for.

"Powerslave" is still better

 

[Howley]

Well after watching aeon flux last weekend ive decided never to read anything reviewers right. I read loads of places that it was a rubbish film and after watching it thought "no its not a rubbish film".

ur 1 in a million m8 ... that flim was nothing good
i know its ur opinion etc...but im soz, this is 1 of those times sum1 has to stand up and say ur opinion is WRONG !

 

[Marcus75]

WoW is an awesome game in many, many aspects but it's quite flawed in the most important aspects - PvP and endgame fun.

 

[Rediknight]

WoW is an awesome game in many, many aspects but it's quite flawed in the most important aspects - PvP and endgame fun.

I'm not defending WoW here, but the most important aspect in your opinion. Not everyone wants that, some people enjoy mincing around picking flowers and collecting fluff to make things out of in a world which makes Walt Disney look like Hammer Horror...

It's so bloody... thingy... ggrr, it makes me wanna do... stuff...

 

[Roalith]

It's so bloody... thingy... ggrr, it makes me wanna do... stuff...

Listen to the voices, you know they make sense...

Various people have tried to tempt me over to WoW on different occasions. The only time I've ever played it was approximately half an hour's worth of pootling around during the Beta. I could see instantly it wasn't for me. I know DAOC isn't exactly the be all and end all of gritty realism, but WoW just feels far too cartoony/anime for my tastes.

 

[Svartmetall]

In my opinion EQ2 is a vastly superior game to WOW.

 

[Corran]

Aeon Flux was a peice of crap, just because you disagree doesn't make everyone else wrong, of course it doesn't make them right either, everyone has an opinion and it is always best to form your own rather than be swayed by the opinions of others. I am glad you liked the film, personally I consider it 100 minutes of my life wasted

Aeon Flux was.... hmmm... neither bad or good... it had its times that were decent and bits that were damn right poor. Too predictable as well but then I say that about 99% of films I watch. Always can second guess what will happen even if i go in not knowing a thing about the film.... Just glad I didnt pay money to go see it... unlike Date Movie which was down right shit and waste of money going to see it (GF wanted to go cinema to watch it, wish i watched the shit copy I had sitting on PC and went to see something else )

Basically this is the problem... the reviewer is always going to be biased, I rarely listen to what other people say and form my own opinion. Someone says it shit wont stop me trying it in one form or another if the idea of it initially appealed to me, infact I rarely read reviews for that reason. What you like and what I like will be totally difference and so you either you look at the review of many people or you just dont bother reading them

 

[old.Whoodoo]

In my opinion EQ2 is a vastly superior game to WOW.

I agree, however, EQ didnt spend a gazzillion squid on advertising and fanboi employement. with obvious major back handers to so called "IT journalists" with "heres a free account for life, and a tube of KY jelly, ill be in the back office..".

Anyone noticed how WoW quotes 5 million accounts...doesnt say active, I wonder how many DAoC had, considering on its launch 90% were still on dial-up and were put off playing this genre of game due to lag etc...

 

[Svartmetall]

I agree, however, EQ didnt spend a gazzillion squid on advertising and fanboi employement.

Which is probably why it doesn't look like a starter MMORPG for 6 year old girls with My Little Ponytubby Has A Pixie Tea Party With The Carebears graphics and training wheels on the f**king side.

Unlike, for example, WOW.

 

[scorge]

i make it sound like DR was suppose to bring new players whice is not true, DR was an expansion for current gamers and maybe to get some old players back.

i disagee every expansion should be there to bring in new players.

 

[Flimgoblin]

i disagee every expansion should be there to bring in new players.

new graphics, horses, that sort of thing adds appeal to the game if not necessarily something new for newbies to do.

Not that newbies really need new things to do - they've got plenty already

What it doesn't do is get more people in the newbie zones for people to level with.

 

[Downanael]

Does he always write like that that? a bit confusing way tbh

 

[PenrithRM]

reading sig...

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!

DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!

Sorry, not really accurate. Im starting DDO headstart event in about 2 hours time

 

[semanon]

THe problem is that the PCzone review is now out there for all to see, decreasing the likelyhood of new players coming to DAoC. Relying on an old customer base is never good for any business. Keep them happy and on your side - yes, rely on them for your future - bad practice. That review will put off any new subscribers even thinking about joining DAoC. Tbh its about time GoA pull its finger out and invested a bit more in publicity, then again maybe they can't be arsed ( Warhammer coming out?).

Ref other games, I have had a crack at quite a few now. DAoC, with all its unbalaced classes, still has the best PvP/RvR setup by far. There are many MMOs out there with much better PvE engines though.

Ref DR no where near enough content to justify paying for the add-on but what they have added is very pretty.

 

[Castus]

sounds like a biased wow player doing the reviews

"omgz daoc expansion released, better slate daoc or it might make people realise how wank wow is!"

Wonder if blizzard pay the reviewers playing their game - probably don't need to actually, I'm sure MMORPG loyalty does it all itself (not that I've got that at all).

That aside DR is a pretty poor expansion in the scheme of things - it's got some nice stuff in it but it's nothing like ToA or Catacombs. However this guy ain't reviewing DR he's just going "wahh daoc sucks, play wow"

Tbh m8 if you read pc zone regular for the last few years you`d know that the reviewer regularly plays daoc and quite afew of the other mmo out there.Infact in his 'currently playing' status i think he has daoc has his named game.

 

[Sye]

Think i would of prefered to pay for patch 1.81 + 1.82 rather than pay for DR

 

[SoulFly]

Not in the UK it doesnt, he spoke only of UK figures. But yes, we still dont have that many players these days.

"in the UK". For your delicate information, the servers reside in France, just like the headquarters. Also, on the English servers there're nowhere close 15k players, in the europe, yes.

Just to clarify certain points here.

From the aspect of a new player daoc smells of weewere wee. The /level command has compeletely deserted all the old hunting grounds and due to this the new player will face horrible times, especially as a cleric. Oh well, the game is, still, slowly dying and Mythic can't fight against time. The game engine might run far, but the basic mechanics and rules the game is set on just won't do it anymore I think.

What I personally would like is WoW like encounters where you need to use heavy tictacs and important classes play a crucial role, such as a warrior for tanking. There might even be PVE only spells in the future to go with new encounters. Who knows what they will introduce this year, apart from the plan which was on the VN boards.

Meh.

 

[old.Whoodoo]

From the aspect of a new player daoc smells of weewere wee. The /level command has compeletely deserted all the old hunting grounds and due to this the new player will face horrible times, especially as a cleric.

Add to that the PLing that went mental last year, the grind of MLs and now CLs, yes its not good.

Oh well, the game is, still, slowly dying and Mythic can't fight against time. The game engine might run far, but the basic mechanics and rules the game is set on just won't do it anymore I think.

I dont agree, theres plenty that Mythic can do to keep the game alive, the first thing is to spot spending a shitload of cash on crappy GFX updates and concentrate on the things that are important to players, balance, quests, items, fun things to do by the seaside. Some quests are 4 years old and need a fooking good revamp, and some randomness to quests would be great too, instead of "You get XXXX quest - look up on the net, kill mob - job done!". The ruleset for RvR and PvE isnt that bad, theres certainly worse, the gfx are fine as is, minor issues like LOS, bugs and so on can be sorted in patches. They just need to start listening a LOT more and piss off with the bling.

What I personally would like is WoW like encounters where you need to use heavy tictacs and important classes play a crucial role, such as a warrior for tanking.

Agreed, but they have made a start, the champ quest is a great example of this, and once we all figured it out, the dragon is the same, which after time will get boring. But at least they are trying on this score Id say.

There might even be PVE only spells in the future to go with new encounters. Who knows what they will introduce this year, apart from the plan which was on the VN boards.

Meh.

But is it all too little too late, publicity like this wont help us old schoolers tempt back other vets, or encorouge new bods to pay to play. I dont think this article does the existing player base any damage, but it certainly crushes the future GOA financial gonads .

 

[Svartmetall]

Advertising, advertising, advertising. Still never seen anything even vaguely resembling a real advertising campaign in Europe for this game.

Advertising = players. Funny how that works. I firmly believe this game to be the best MMORPG out there, and to have years of life left in it; but it won't mean jack if no-one ever hears about it.

 

[Rediknight]

but you say that, i've never seen a WoW advert anywhere on TV, Radio or in anything other than a 'puter magazine /shrug

Just generally, unless it's cars, vampires or war it seems that no-one advertises more widely than magazines read by people who already know it's coming...

 

[SkarIronfist]

1. The old areas should be revamped up to the DR graphical standard. Basically the quest hubs should be around the towns. Use of instances (like what just happened for Darkness Falls in 1.81 ?) all the way up the level process in the old lands. This is what new players see 1st, they don't necessarily go into the catacombs area's. Be under no illusion graphics sells games. It may not hold the gamer, but it gets the initial charge of blood.

So a revamp of the old lands, increase the quality of the mobs, better use of instances. This would allow forts/castles to be included in the hills, to improve game area without expanding the maps. Put an instance under bloodfelg fort for gods sake.

Lets be honest if you were designing your quest mechanics now, rather than 4/5 years ago, then you would have allowed a more flexiable approach, than what we got.

2. The interface is poor - functional but poor. I can't remember half the commands ... (I am old I know ) The /social was a good step forward.

I think that we need to remember we are mainly expereienced players, we have our buffbots, we know about moderngrav (alb/hib equivalents), we know how game mechanics work. The best time to start the MLs etc ect

How many times have we all actually started a level 1 and just spent the day leveling up to 20 (thats all it takes tops).

So ultimately we are partly responsible for for the quietness of or inner realms. Hell it was only during the last couple of weeks and DR, that I have actually set foot in the original lands.

So if you are going to start a new character try and do it the old way, as a new player would experience it (wait till 1.81/1.82 though). Hell we must have enough characters now, that we can all take our time.

 

[AngelHeal]

lol "With barely 15,000 players online"

yes barely, thats nor allot for a game.