Archive for July, 2009
07.30.09
Posted in Aion at 12:08 am by Middea
This weekend as you are more than likely aware is Closed Beta event number 5!
Official news on the patch going live are here: http://na.aiononline.com/en/news/closed-beta-5-is-coming.html
I’ve been refreshing Facebook to get the latest updates on the English voice acting clips/sound teasers…
Balder, Asmodian high priest
Asmodian man
Elysean Lepharist woman
Elysean Lepharist man
Mau Interpreter
http://twiturm.com/dsa3 – this one didn’t make it into the game
If you missed them, voila, there you go!
Just to give you an idea, the Aion voiceover localization process involved:
• Approximately 200 speaking parts
• 200 voiced cinematics/cut scenes
• 8,000-10,000 lines of dialogs
• 45,000 voice audio files
• Three weeks of recording time (not including additional voice pickups)
Make sure you open up your NCsoft launcher, left click the down arrow on Aion and Update! With all the English voices and other such additions, the file is 438.3MB, a whopper, be ready to log in when servers go live!
Will you be playing this weekend? If so, what are you planning to do when servers go live?
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07.27.09
Posted in Puzzle at 8:30 am by Middea
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07.26.09
Posted in Aion at 1:26 pm by Middea
Lately, I have noticed a trend in the Aion forums, and I fear that it might carry over to live. The way beta is currently being implemented it is reinforcing the habit rather than encouraging people to enjoy the game.
Do you remember leveling your very first MMORPG character? The feeling of “Oh! Wow!” and then running around not quite sure what you were supposed to do?
I do… I was the noob priest in WoW that first started killing wolves… And I figured “Oh hey, wolves, they’re going to attack me! I must fire first!” So I started attacking any that patted near me, multiple wolves at once. I was freaking out because I thought they would all aggro me and as a caster I wanted to get the first strike off because I already figured out my melee skills left much to be desired. 
It was only a matter of time. I died. To mobs that would not have attacked me unless I attacked them first. Talk about feeling like a scrub when I realized that one!
I was a little concerned with catching up to my friends who had started a few months back, but mostly I was having fun, goofing off, exploring the world and picking flowers. I was not trying to reach max level as soon as possible.
Now I’m in the Aion beta, and while I did enjoy the questing and gathering, I felt myself pushing to reach level cap for the beta weekend. I did not even manage to hit 25, the level cap for closed beta 4. However, I did realize I was falling into my alt leveling habits. I skipped reading quests, I rushed to complete what was in my log, and I started grinding to make it go faster. Reach cap fast! Skip the joy of leveling because you need to be the highest level now!
It took me over two months in World of Warcraft to reach cap, and I miss the “innocence” of those days. The joy I took in discovering a new waterfall or finding out I could take a boat to the other continent. By the time I reached level 50 in WoW, I was bored of the leveling process, I instance grinded my way through BRD to reach cap. When TBC and WotLK came out, I was tired of questing and tried to instance as much as possible.
Aion is not WoW. The campaign quests are epic. I need to learn to stop rushing and read the quests. They are interesting! They progress the story! I need to make a conscious effort to stop and sniff the roses and enjoy the process, to regain what little innocence to questing I can.
I think this applies to many people who have leveled multiple characters or even just one in any MMORPG.
Sit back, admire the scenery, you’ll get to max level in due time.
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07.24.09
Posted in Aion at 8:19 pm by Fedoldinn
This past beta weekend has let us take a glimpse at the gameplay in this upcoming MMO up to level 25, finally giving us a bit of a taste for the PvP elements of the game as well.
With the fourth closed beta event behind us, we now have two more to look forward to; the July 31st weekend will be opening up levels 26 to 30, and a yet to be determined focus for the final closed beta on August 14th. For those of us who have been eagerly following any and every detail we can on this game, those weekends have been marked off on our calendars for some time now and we can’t wait to get what little game time we can in before the September 22 North American release date.
Let’s quickly run over the basics for this game. Aion is a massively multiplayer online roleplaying game (MMORPG) with two playable factions, the Asmodians and the Elyos. Within these two factions, there are four main playable classes: warriors, scouts, mages and priests. Each main class will choose between two subclasses when they specialize at level 10, making the true class list consist of: templars, gladiators, assassins, rangers, sorcerers, spiritmasters, clerics and chanters. There is currently a lot of information on the factions and the lore behind them, as well as the classes and their abilities elsewhere if you are interested in the finer details.
So what is it that sets this game apart from the rest? Well, my initial thoughts upon seeing it were that I couldn’t believe just how good the game actually looks. The graphics in Aion are stunning to say the least; the characters look incredible, the level of detail on gear is second to none and the environments are absolutely amazing. I haven’t seen any other MMO to this day that looks even remotely close to as good as this one. You will have to see it to truly understand and once you do it will leave you feeling slightly let down when you return to other games you may be currently playing.
The level of detail available on the character customization is also nearly mind boggling. You can start with the preset base features and pick and choose different combinations to form the character you will be playing. If you’re like me and somewhat lazy, you may be tempted to stop there; I urge you not to though and to take some time to play around with the finer details. It’s quite unbelievable how much you can change and to what degree you can really create your own character that will be unique in the Aion world.
Besides the stunning graphics and customization, what really got me about Aion as a whole was simply how fun it was to level. For the first time ever I actually found myself enjoying the questing process. Not only do the campaign quests do a great job advancing the story along, but even doing the optional side quests does not seem like a chore. I can’t recall a single quest that I really did not like during my time in the beta so far, which says a lot considering my normal feelings about questing in MMOs.
To put this into perspective, I leveled my druid in World of Warcraft from about 35 to 60 by instancing over and over again just to avoid questing. When the first expansion came out, I chose to do the same to get the druid from level 60 to 70. I would have paid any amount of in game currency in order to avoid doing a quest. I found them monotonous, boring, dull and generally an annoyance. I was all about playing for the end game content and considered the process of getting there a job I didn’t like to do. None of these statements apply to the quests so far in Aion. I’m eagerly awaiting getting back in game to level some more and figure out what quests await us.
With visual queues on the map to help you find the item or person you are looking for, an easy to use map overlay, and many other sweet, simple interface refinements, Aion makes the entire process of questing simple and painless. There is also a channel system that provides you with instances of the world server; if one quest or mob is being farmed you can simply hop channels to find an emptier instance of the area to play in. Basically, you’ll never really get stuck or bored for too long at all.
A few other quick things that I liked about Aion were:
- The flight system: Not only do the wings on the characters look incredibly cool, but the timed flight adds an element to PvP that will be interesting to see in action. Being able to cast in the air is amazingly fun even this early in the game.
- A varied PvPvE experience: Most of us cannot wait to check out PvP once we see more of the game and get a chance to get to the Abyss. So far, I’ve only encountered some random Elyos (we chose to be Asmodians) while questing who were out to have some fun killing us.
- Private stores: They add an interesting and unique twist on how you sell items. I think it’s interesting from an in game economy perspective and also quite fun.
From my short time playing Aion, I really do think this is one game you should take a look at if you haven’t already. It’s everything that other games haven’t been lately: stunning, exciting, different, but most of all it’s incredibly fun.
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07.23.09
Posted in Rant at 8:18 pm by Middea
Due to Middea’s recent wow quit and now Fedoldinn’s departure, this blog will be focusing on the upcoming release of Aion and will continue after it goes live.
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