By John Walker on December 14th, 2011.
The next MMO making its inevitable way to being free-to-play is NCsoft’s Aion, the flying game that does its best to never let you fly. Come next February and you’ll not need to pay to get into the game, via the powers of Gameforge. This is, say Eurogamer, NCsoft’s plan to “boost player numbers in Europe”. In other words, people aren’t playing the disappointing Western incarnation of the MMO, and they want to reawaken the servers. And this is a long-proven method.
By Jim Rossignol on May 17th, 2011.
Playing Brink this weekend made me worry. But not about the usual things. I was worried that there would never be another way to experience the details of its world – no possibility for further exploration of the Ark and its precarious situation. This isn’t something I normally think about when faced with a multiplayer shooter. I certainly had no interest in finding out more about the world of Quake III, or Battlefield 2, because nothing in them really inferred anything outside those isolated battlegrounds. Their conflicts were their world entire. Not so with Brink, and, now that I come to think of it, a few other worlds, too. I begin to wonder whether game fictions might be too readily disposable.
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By Jim Rossignol on May 6th, 2011.
The 2.5 update for Aion, Empyrean Calling, brings in some graphical tweaks and a new character customisation system. It’s really rather lavish, as you can see in the trailer below. It always amazes me to see the amount of content that gets poured into these games, and it’s a strange kind of cruelty that the actual game structure means the likes of me will never actually get to see it. I’d happily wander around as a tourist for a few hours.
Aion players can apparently already access the new patch on the test server.
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By Quintin Smith on January 27th, 2011.
Patch naming might be a lawless and uncharted field, but this is still the dumbest thing I’ve heard all morning. Back in November, Korean MMORPG Aion received its 2.1 patch. Today, it’s received… its 2.1 patch, part 2. Does that mean we’re playing v2.1(pt.2)? Foolish devs!
(Edit: Aha! RPS commenter and all-around clever human Kitz informs me that this is because us foreign types received the original 2.1 Korean patch in instalments, for some reason. Thanks, Kitz. Thitz.)
What is interesting about both iterations of the 2.1 patch is that they make this famously grindy game less grindy, so if you just wanted to play a fun game where you character flies around on a pair of modular wings, now might be your chance. Back in November the developers “significantly” increased drop rates, and with 2.1 pt. 2 they’ve lowered the quantity of materials required for crafting and increased the rewards you get for finishing campaign quests. Each patch adds lots of new crafting recipes, too. I’ve re-posted the trailer for the expansion, Assault on Balaurea, below. It has many wings in.
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By Jim Rossignol on May 25th, 2010.
There must be some Aion players out there in the seething RPS masses. Hands up – who is still playing? You still getting a kick out of it? Does this new “Assault on Balaurea” expansion tickle your fancy? Seems pretty standard fare for MMO expansions: higher level cap, new zones, new instances, and some tweaks to things like pet ownership, but it could be a big deal. The trailer, which I’ve posted below, is predictably gorgeous.
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By Jim Rossignol on November 24th, 2009.
Aion, the MMO about warring celestial warrior races, did rather well for NCSoft. The European and North American launch snagged 970,000 boxed unit sales, and probably a few more on digital download. Now though they’re looking to the future, and they’ve released this new trailer to show off some of what’s planned. There’s a graphical overhaul at the front end and – holy shit look at those giant fish – but more beyond that, including some serious boss monsters, underwater stuff, what I assume is player-owned housing, some dodgy-looking ostriches, a dude riding a horned dinosaur, some fighting-game-style finishing moves, and, damn, giant wandering colossi being attack with cannons…
Okay, yeah, that’s actually pretty spectacular.
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By Jim Rossignol on September 21st, 2009.
Aion is out tomorrow in Europe and North America, and the pre-order has been topping direct-download charts for weeks. But are you going to be playing? Did you get on the beta? Did you pre-order? Have you signed up for the full game? If you are playing, what’s the appeal? Do those wings really make all the difference? Or is this a case of hype over content? RPS communal-voicebrain: speak!
By Jim Rossignol on September 10th, 2009.
We do not have a handful of Aion beta keys to give out, because we sent them all off. You can’t get any now, even by emailing us, because they’re all gone. Any Aion beta-key begging correspondence will now be fed to the bile worms. I’ve edited this post instead of removing it, so you all know what’s going on. If you’ve not received anything by now then you didn’t get a key, sorry!
By Alec Meer on August 29th, 2009.
…in that you can now download the open beta client for this famously winged, Cryengine 1-powered MMORPG, but the servers for said beta don’t open until 6th September. Getting a key to turn that client into anything useful may be a bit of a fight, alas. Unless you’ve already got one from the closed beta or have preorded the game, your best bet is bloody Fileplanet, who are planning on their usual insidious trick of only providing them to paid subscribers. Which does rather mean this is not, in fact, an open beta, but instead a closed one with a pricetag. Growl. We’ll have a word with NCSoft next week and see if we can perhaps sort out a few keys to give away to RPS readers – no promises, but we’ll try.
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By Jim Rossignol on June 22nd, 2009.
Via IGN we get a massive Aion trailer (clickwards below), with the world, background, and factions explained by the American development team. Loads of game footage, plenty of action, and a general explanation of how a few aspects of how the game will play out. Looking up and seeing the other half of the world is a neat visual flourish. In fact it’s all looking rather impressive, and I’m now starting to see see why our Aion beta key giveaway was bombarded with over five thousand emails: the flying looks quite good.
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By Jim Rossignol on May 27th, 2009.
Compo now closed, and winners have been notified. Thanks for taking part!
Purdy-lookin’ forthcoming Korean MMO Aion – the one where flying plays a big role – is having a special European beta event on the 5th to 7th of June.The event will allow participants to play through the first twenty levels as an Elyos. To celebrate this, and, presumably to populate them servers, NCSoft are giving away a whole bunch of keys. Want one? Then all you need to do is email us. All gone, sorry!
Aion’s most recent outburst of prettiness is posted ‘neath the click, and it also happens to be the zone which will feature in the event.
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