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I’m happy to be part of the Aion Closed Beta on a press account they gave me. I can’t tell you enough good things about Aion the new MMORPG from NCSoft that is due to go live September 22. I’ve been in the Beta Test phase of many NCSoft titles, City of Hero’s, City of Villains, Auto Assault, Guild Wars, and Tabula Rasa. Each time the excitement is unparalleled. NCSoft is known for having flawless launches, and all indications are that this one will be nothing short of existential. To say that Aion is gorgeous, stunning or on a whole new plane in gaming would be understated. There’s a third dimension, the characters can fly. In this new MMO NCSoft has distilled down the intuitive user interface of Lineage 2, the graceful and powerful characters of Guild Wars and the other – worldly essence of the short lived Tabula Rasa. NCSoft has consistently tried to raise the bar higher with each MMO that they do. They take risks, and because of that innovation, they get long standing hits, as well as the occasional misfire. However even with the fails like Auto Assault and Tabula Rasa, they didn’t go away because they were crap, they were both ahead of the hardware, or the times. NCSoft also led the Free to Play movement with Guild Wars being the first MMO without monthly fees. And then offered Dungeon Runners as the first entirely Free to Play MMO. It will be interesting to see what financial model is rolled out with Aion. There hasn’t been a new MMO for the casual to moderate MMO gamer in a long time. There have been several fails though such as Vanguard, Hellgate London and Mythos to mention just a few.
Aion is gorgeous and stunningly beautiful, even on my MSI Wind Netbook with the settings turned down to low. There are many lovely female characters to choose from and this game is a likely front runner for best female avatars this year. The hair colors are as bright or subdued as you would prefer. The dainty, beautiful Elementalist from Guild Wars is reincarnated here as the Mage, and the Monk has become a Priestess. You won’t mind coming over from Guild Wars or Lineage 2 to this new game.
The controls are the most fluid I’ve ever felt on a PC game. It’s completely intuitive, I didn’t have to look at key maps or instructions at all. With point and click navigation, there’s no mistakes about where you want to go or who you want to talk to or slay. Mapping and everything else is right at your fingertips. They added what looks lke unlimited tool bars taking out that final complaint that I always had about Guild Wars.
Maybe it’s the tropical pastel landscape, or the waterfalls shrouded in sparkling mist? It could be the sunlower gardens swaying in the dappled sunlight, or the butterflies at play around your character’s head. What ever it is, this game has all the qualities to be a huge hit including that “je ne sais quoi”. It’s rare to be this excited about a game during the summer. I was so charmed by this game, the family didn’t know if they should go get Bayer aspirin or a bottle of Sake. Mark my words this game is going to be large and in charge for some time after it launches. I’m also predicting lotsa praise from critics, and awards as well. So whatever payment options there are or what ever it takes you are going to want this game. Kiss your WoW characters bye – bye when this one goes gold.
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