Monday, May 19, 2008

The Signs of A Good Game

I spent most of the evening Saturday in Hyboria, experiencing one of the smoothest launches of an MMOG I've yet experienced. I was shocked at just how well Age of Conan ran when the servers finally came up after a short delay Saturday afternoon. The delay, at least at first, reeked of of "here comes the crashes". I thought for sure that when the servers did come up, they'd be down within moments, but the opposite proved true.

The lag was minimal, the players plenty, and the client... smooth as could be running on absolute highest detail. 30 frames per second, no graphical bugs or niggles... just uninterrupted gameplay for the rest of the evening. Finally, with launch, people can now see the game I've been playing and loving for the past few months. I only hope their open beta fiasco didn't do them any harm. Though early reports are that Funcom had a very high pre-order rate for this little gem, and I hope so. They deserve success for creating such a fun take on the genre.

Anyway, the purpose of this post...

I woke up Sunday morning and immediately went to log in. Sundays are ritualistic for me. I wake up, I go downstairs, I eat some awesome breakfast and I chill out with my wife while we figure out what we're doing for the day. Not this Sunday.

This Sunday I went right into my office and pulled my PC out of sleep mode. I had a few quests that my eyes wouldn't stay open long enough for that needed to be handed in. Later that afternoon I had made plans to go with some friends to see Iron Man (a 2nd time, it was worth it), and during the movie my mind kept drifting to my Tempest of Set (more on this later) and just how much fun it was to electrocute picts and Redhand Guards until they turned blue and black from the power of his spells.

I got home eventually but my buddy Adam wanted to hang out and play some GTA IV since he was waiting on his girlfriend to pick him up from my house. There I was, playing easily the best game of the year (maybe of the past 10) and all I could think about was JoBildo, the Tempest of Set.

Yep, it's a good game. I want to go home now. I want to go back into Hyboria. But hey, at least now the game's live, and it's running on all cylinders. Well played, Funcom. You've won me over for good.

More on my adventures later. Lots of work to do today.

Cheers!

7 comments:

Elementalistly said...

I agree...
I am having an issue right now...as I want to continue in my game of choice...(EQ2)
YET...
All I can think of is getting back to White Sands to do some killing...also want to get into the Acheronian Ruins...
The lightning effects in there were phenomenal.
As to group dynamics...is it me...or does the healer style in game seem...weak.
I could not keep my wife healed enough with my Priest of Mitra...and we seemed to die....alot..
I guess I will see how this progresses...
Still all new...so maybe something I am doing wrong,,,
Later

Bildo said...

Actually, you're right.

The healers are very weak in the beginning.

But at level 18 I now have 3 DOT heals, and a Rez. The heals can stack, and my Assassin buddy and I can't be touched.

Keep with it. Healers are rough at first but get much better in the teens. Not unlike Priests in WoW really.

Tim said...

I was waiting for this post from you. Reviews from all over are coming in very positive. Makes me regret telling me wife I was passing this game by.

Look forward to hearing more details.

Unknown said...

Small world, I took up blogging on mmog's not long ago and I posted almost the exact same thing about AoC just this morning.

Glad to find your blog, I see great minds think alike! lol :)

Bildo said...

Added you to the blogroll, Brent.

Welcome to the party. :)

Flying Norseman said...

Ok.. You aren't making this easy on me. I decided to pass on the game, but your cursed reports are leading me back in. Keep up the good work!

kmxs said...

The game is solid fun, I was pleasantly surprised by how good the launch went.

I agree with Bildo, the only time I don't feel like playing the game is when I've been sitting here for 12 hours and begining to go delirious