Comments on: Warhammer: Online – New Trailers

By: twb

twb — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 05:23:11 +0000

Is it just me, or does Paul have a kind of haunted, hysteric air about him these days? At first, he really seemed to be having a spot of fun, but now I feel slightly ill watching the videos. It’s like someone’s sitting behind the camera with a loaded pistol: “All right, Paul, we’re sixteen months late on the schedule, the graphics came right out of Half-Life: Opposing Force, and GW’s saying disturbing things about about pulling the license. The boys in coding tell me you’re funny, Paul. A funny man. A funny man who’s done a poor job of hiding his family from us. So be funny, Paul. Be funny like your life depends upon it.“

By: spirit7

spirit7 — Sun, 16 Dec 2007 18:55:01 +0000

The graphics look AWFUL.

By: Bamii

Bamii — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 19:59:17 +0000

Am I the only one who noticed that for about 80% of that movie Barnett is on a rampage about the “superduper” fact you cannot only be a female but *drum rolls* a MALE as well!? Seriously, I figured they would’ve at least be able to show us some ingame pew pew-ing by now. The longer this game is in development, the less enthousiast I get. I really want it to be good, I’m just really affraid it wont.

By: Saskwach

Saskwach — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 06:11:31 +0000

That video… irked… my ex-Warhammer fluff junkie personality. I tried not to listen but the whole way through I was hearing “Dark Elf society doesn’t allow male sorcerors!” and “That kind of risky magic stuff is WAY more orc style than Dark Elf. I mean, which one has the specifically designed Miscast chart with extra head asploding?”
Yes I have a problem.
As people have mentioned it’s a risky mechanic to make in an MMO but could be great fun and is very Warhammerish.

By: Arathain

Arathain — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 00:40:46 +0000

I think the dangerous magic thing sounds fantastic. I love the idea of an increased-risk-for-increased-power trade off, and as long as the player is able to manage the risk with their actions it’ll lead to all sorts of interesting moments. Can’t wait to see how they manage Orcish Shamans. Heads popping all over, I shouldn’t wonder.

That said, it’s hard to see how this’d fit in a gaming environment like WoWs high level raids and instances, where everything has to be known and controlled. On the other hand, if the game is a bit more flexible and forgiving, like City of Heroes/Villains, it could be heaps of fun.

By: malkav11

malkav11 — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 00:19:26 +0000

I could see the dangers of meddling with chaos for magical power represented as a meter that climbs whenever you use magic, increasingly debilitating past a certain point, fatal at the top, which would have to be carefully managed during play with, I dunno, certain recharging abilities, items, something quasi-setting appropriate. Kinda like the toxicity meter in The Witcher. I’d also like to see mutations from prolonged exposure to chaotic energies.

By: Nick

Nick — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 21:49:51 +0000

Paul Barnett is awesome.

By: Heartless_

Heartless_ — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 21:29:38 +0000

Damn all the haters.

Everyone needs to take Paul Barnett on the light side of things, as he talks about Warhammer lore more than WAR the game.

By: Jocho

Jocho — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:54:43 +0000

First thing first, these two vids comes from their latest newletter about two weeks ago, intended for the fans. That last video isn’t even intended to be used for the public, but for – again – the fans. They’re not demanding things so complete the game could’ve been out yesterday, but just *anything* to still their footage-hunger. That video is the first footage from the Chaos Capital we’ve yet to see, and it’s likely showing the little parts that are fairly done. There’s not even light-effects it it, yet (the game will have lightning-effect, and it makes everything look a lot better)!

Now, having dealt with that, the game seems to do a lot things good. It may share a lot of style with WoW, as warcraft is heavily warhammer-inspired, but the game’s focus is far away from WoW’s in the whole “everything goes to the war effort”-attitude and Open area RvR.

It’s also worth pointing out that much of what these “class announcement”-videos are no describing tutorial, but pretty much the concept of the class that’s meant to make the class sound exitning – to the fans.

Oh, and the Beta should restart anyday now. They’ve stated something like “middle of december” or just “december”, and is going to be a-few-day-long betas testing something in particular they’ll later work on with the feedback gathered. And during these two months, they’ve added several mecanics thanks to feedback, as well.

Now, to not sound like any sort of fanboy (which I will in any case), I am looking forward to see what AoC can do, too. It sounds like a really innovative, although niched, title that can be a lot of fun. I just don’t think that’s reason enough to dismiss this title as a generic wow-clone. And, as I’ve just stated, these vids ain’t, either.

By: Al

Al — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:49:41 +0000

why does the Chaos-style city appear to have been built on Xen? As a recovering warhammer addict, I recall little indicating cities floating in the aether… and certainly no headcrabs.

By: Garth

Garth — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 17:09:19 +0000

My problem with Age of Conan is that every single thing I read about leads me to believe you’ll require a Guild for anything endgame. Warhammer on the other hand, I’ve never been put off by, or engrossed by. It’s not that it’s “lolz a Wow clone” because they both have orcs and they’re both MMO’s, it’s more of a “what’s your identity?”

The head-esplode mechanic is, in my opinion, one of those things that will probably be nothing like what they originally, or even now, envisioned. First off, killing the character for doing what they are supposed to (Mage = spells) is a bad idea. I realise it’s part of the mythos, and I appreciate that, but this is a game, and telling someone every couple minutes they’re going to self-immolate for casting magic-missiles is probably not the best option. Conversely, if you don’t have this part of the lore (and a reason to not go balls-out crazy with spells) you’ve done more of the same.

So as I said, I predict a ‘ow, I hurt my hand’ effect, as opposed to a ‘blaraghhsdhsd’ explosion. Also, I think you’ll get about 50 warnings before you actually die, which isn’t Warhammery at all.

By: Glissando

Glissando — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 16:52:44 +0000

Still, I remain cautiously optimistic.

Of what? It doesn’t look to me that they’re really going to do anything better than WoW with four years of polish. You can shout ‘RvR’ all you like, it doesn’t change the sad realisation that this is looking a little like a sub-WoW car crash.

At least Age of Conan seems to be trying to do something new with Fantasy-MMO-dom.