Ninja Baseball Batman - Angry Video Game Nerd

Warhammer and SEGA Status Update: In a Relationship

Warhammer Online. I could go on and on about this game and many others can as well. Whether or not people want to give it credit, it served its purpose as a staple game in player versus player online gaming. But I do not want to talk about Warhammer Online as a game that released in 2008, or even as a game that was developed by Mythic, then EA Mythic, then Bioware Mythic. We can easily discuss the EA Louse incident of disgruntled employees and the believe that the former Mythic head was forced to step down and not just leaving out of good decency as well as the belief by fans that Paul Barnett is nothing but a dirty English two-faced liar. I want to go back before all of this. Back to 2001. Yes, 2001...

The MMORPG world looked a lot different in 2001. RuneScape Classic (though known just as RuneScape until RS2 released in 2004) was opened to the world and Mythic released their first game, Dark Age of Camelot. Somewhere in that mix of a market just beginning to bloom as the internet became more readily available and online gaming began making its way into the hands of preteens (such as myself), Games Workshop saw an opportunity to enter into the market. So they snagged the title "Warhammer Online" in 2001 and held onto it. This is interesting because so many people complained about the tag of "online" and even laughed Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning being acronym'd to "WAR", but really they had no choice to not include the "Online" title.

So who did they turn to in order to license their world and create this online game? Well, they got a developer called Climax studios who started work on it. Games Workshop then went to work on finding a producer for the game. And can you guess who they got? Nope, not Electronic Arts. SEGA got the call, if you can believe it. Now what is more interesting is the fact that this wasn't just something that was formed and then we never heard about it again. No, in fact there screenshots released in 2003. Even more interesting is that a trailer for the game was shown at E3 in 2004. A legitimate trailer. Everyone can say that Warhammer copied Warcraft (ignoring the longstanding history of Games Workshop since the 80s) and was trying to cash in on the online department, but this game was thought of and created before the titan of online gaming that is World of Warcraft was released, or even announced. This is what is so astounding to me, though, is that the game SEGA was creating was by far superior in design and idea than what turned out to be a 4-year-too-late release that couldn't live up to its promises.

It's a tall claim to say that a game that never saw the light of day was superior to a game that received rave critical reception and sold 1.2 million copies within the first month of release. To that point, I will agree. But as a Warhammer fan, It's hard to agree with what the game turned into. What makes it even harder is watching this video below. It truly will bring bewilderment to anyone who loves the Warhammer universe that it never had chance:

Are you fucking kidding me? This shows you so many fucking armies from Warhammer that never got their moment in a Warhammer Online game that died within one year. And seriously, these are some quotes of articles regarding the SEGA UK publishing decision allude to more questions than answers. And I'm not talking about bad questions about the game, but seriously what happened that this didn't release in 2004 when it was slated to be released? Yes, you read that right: slated for released in 2004!

"The combining of Games Workshop's Warhammer universe and Climax's cutting-edge technology and game design is proving to be something genuinely breathtaking. Watching this game in development has been enthralling. Sega is delighted to be involved in this project and we're genuinely looking forward to a ground-breaking game."

That's Matthew Woodley, the European Marketing Director from SEGA Europe commenting on the game. Seriously, with that amount of praise what happened? And what about features within game? What can the players do? I found this snippet from a long dead article from Gamershell.com:

"Warhammer Online is a new massively multiplayer online computer game that allows players to take on the role of outlaws and mercenary adventurers within the grim and gritty realisation of Games Workshop's dark, gothic fantasy world of Warhammer. At the heart of the game is a combination of fantastic new technologies coupled with the deep and atmospheric Warhammer background and some of the most innovative player and character development within an online RPG. "

 So it begs the question, what really did happen? Well, this may be surprising, but it became evident that the cost to actually make the Warhammer world a reality was not within reach. This led to Games Workshop and developer Climax to cancelling the project and going their separate ways. SEGA and Games Workshop then also had to part ways as well since without a game, there was no need for a publisher. What happened was that the joint development between Games Workshop and Climax ceased, which meant Games Workshop was no longer contributing any funds to the project, but Climax pressed on. The amount of effort and time they had put into the game made it seem logical to keep on going. In fact, an interview with IGN in October of 2004 made the development seem positive, despite the loss of the join agreement with Games Workshop. Climax was still looking for a new investment partner to help overcome the obstacle of launch costs that games like Star Wars Galaxies had seen in the $30 million range.

They never succeeded...Climax and SEGA officially put the demon to rest in 2005, where Mythic Entertainment then purchased the newly available license for the Warhammer Fantasy universe. An article that took a look back by Massively I think really sums up the "what could have been" for this game. Enjoy the read and may your imagination forever be let down by the "what ifs" it presents:

Playable races announced included Humans, Elves, Dwarfs, Halflings and Ogres. Four starting classes were also released: Warrior, Academic, Rogue and Adventurer. Guilds would be called "Warrior Companies," and clothing and armor would be independent graphical layers that would go on top of your character's model versus the standard "reskinning" the basic character model that was standard at the time.

It was stated that the large game world (set in the Reikland) would take around 12 to 14 hours to walk its seamless 400 kilometers end-to-end. Along the way, players would find three cities, 12 towns, 30 villages, 30 farmsteads, 18 coaching inns, 15 dungeons and other various landmarks to explore. The game world's look skewed to the more realistic than stylistic, saturated with dark and muted tones. Weather effects were planned along with seasons, including snowfall that would actually accumulate over time and other effects that would affect combat.

This world wouldn't be predictable, either. Enemies would roam randomly, and if left unchecked, would start to congregate in even greater numbers and potentially build NPC camps.

Noise was made by Climax about getting away from level-based advancement toward a more skill-based system. The idea here was that you would earn reputation with a certain group and then join them to learn what career skills they could teach (including non-combat abilities). Careers were lumped into various tiers that represented the power and difficulty level of the skills. You could easily learn Career 1 skills, but you had to jump through a lot of hoops to access Career 2, and so on.

Once you accumulated a certain set of skills, you would find yourself fitting into a class of sorts. A Master Assassin required beggar, ruffian and herbalist skills, among others. The higher you went in the career tiers, the more you became flagged for PvP to members of opposing career sets. As far as I can tell, this type of PvP flagging would not be optional but integrated.

The debate could go on for which Warhammer Online truly had the better idea. WAR on paper was a monster of a game that was hampered by scaled back content and bugs, which is exactly what Climax was hoping to avoid to the extent of not releasing a broken product. Mythic and EA did not follow these sentiments and the Warhammer Online we know today was spawned.

But what do we have now? Well, if you know anything about the video game industry, THQ, a long standing publisher of many great games and a ton of shitty movie-licensed games, has been going through financial problems for some time now. THQ's assets are being auctioned off as we speak and it will be no more. So everyone knows and loves the Warhammer 40k Dawn of War games developed by Relic. Well, Relic was bought. By whom you may ask? SEGA! What's even more important is that this means SEGA has a unique position to possibly hold the 40k license, but that's assuming Games Workshop sticks with Relic and continues to support them, which apparently reports say they will. On the grander scale, however, is SEGA and their power with the Warhammer licence that they actually do have.

Yeah, SEGA has the Warhammer Fantasy license now. In December 2012, just over a month ago, they granted developer Creative Assembly the licence. Electronic Arts, on the other hand, no longer has their licence. That licence belongs to SEGA now, and graciously given to Creative Assembly.

So does this mean a new online Warhammer game will appear in the future? Maybe, but its unlikely from my perspective. If Vigil studios (also form developer under THQ and creators of Darksiders and Darksiders II) truly turned the 40k: Dark Millennium title into a single player game, then it seems not likely that a new online warhammer game will appear anytime soon. It's not even clear of Vigil has the rights to make the game anymore since it was a joint effort with Relic. With WAR dying out and Wrath of Heroes not taking off in the online competitive PvP market, I wouldn't even bank on a new fantasy based Warhammer game being released for a couple of years, and certainly not online.

But a boy can dream...and maybe one day, in the not too distant future, there is only WAR...

Path of Exile: A New Hope

First, let me start by saying I am still releasing a video observation of Path of Exile as well as debuting it on a newly create Youtube channel. I’m sure like two people got excited.

But let’s talk about Path of Exile and something that means a little bit more than the game itself. Path of Exile is developed by Grinding Gear Games and developed this game because they think that the recent releases of Action RPG games are absolute garbage. It’s hard to disagree with that sentiment and it’s that passion. Resident Evil, as an example, was birthed by this same exact sentiment in the survival horror genre. However, Path of Exile is interesting on a larger scale of the game industry and gives out a glimpse of hope for us as players.

So imagine this: you’re waiting playing this awesome game that your friends also play called Diablo 2. It’s this fantastic loot fest of a game that you can pour hours into and not think anything of it. However, time goes on and other games gain your interest, but you always kept that sweet spot of Diablo in your heart…that deep dark crevice of your heart that loves that dark and desolate hellish world. There are rumors of another entry coming out, but it dies out, then you hear about it again, then it goes away, then again. But this time, you got concrete evidence. A decade it may have been, but you can forgive the developer. It’s worth it for a game that should have endless amounts of content and polish. But you were too narrow-minded.

Suddenly, this game gives you basically a shitty MMORPG launch problem with DRM protection that won’t allow you to play the game unless you are 100% connected to the internet at all times. You play through the game, and it’s alright. But that’s it. Tons of content? Nope. PvP? Nope. Oh, but there’s an economy…and you can buy stuff with real money…yay?

Suffice it to say, Diablo 3 pissed a lot of people off. And at that, the graphic art style moved completely away from the original dark and creepy dungeons of Diablo and Diablo 2. Instead, the game seems more like WoW: The Action RPG You Never Wanted! Let’s be honest, Blizzard along with their butt buddies Activision fucked this up and shot themselves in the foot, and it didn’t surprise me. No one believed me when it was not worth the price of admission, which is overpriced for any PC game at $60.

So that brings us to Path of Exile. Price of admission? Free. Don’t believe me? Go download it and see for yourself. But it must have an item shop or some other cash shop right? Cosmetics only. Don’t believe me? Go download it and see for yourself. Well it’s free so the graphics must suck right? It has very well done visuals with an innovative art style that is dark and evil reminiscent of Diablo and Diablo 2. Don’t believe me? Go download it and see for yourself.

Or you can just look at this image. Do you see the difference here? Notice a different tone here?

Now, I’m not going to get into my observation of Path of Exile thus far, that will be in the video, but I want to talk about what this means for the video game industry and how this is a positive step for us as players. Action RPGs like this will no appeal to everyone. I’ve already talked to those that either just don’t get the fun in the genre and never really gave it a chance or whatever their opinion may be for not liking the game. And that’s fine, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I get that every game isn’t for everyone.

But what we have are developers who understand mechanics that make the game fun. This is a great example that developers are still game lovers as well and will game of passion and not just to suck money out of our pockets. These guys at Grinding Gear Games identified a problem plaguing a genre that they themselves loved and decided to take it in the right direction.

It also just goes to show you that you don’t need to force players to buy your game or buy items to make their character viable to even have fun. The recent surge in free-to-play competitive games like Planetside 2 and Hawken has really revitalized my faith in developers, but I still like cash shops are sometimes the only way to get on par with other people who have “progressed” through the game. This is evident in games like League of Legends where you can say how “fair” it is and if you put the time in, you can buy any character with points in game, but it takes for fucking ever. Sorry to say. And even then, if that one character is the only character you really enjoyed playing during that week’s free line-up and you want to keep playing it, then you better start grinding your way to get him or her. Or, you can put $10 in the game and just get the character you want and maybe a costume. I don’t approve of these kinds of money traps for something I’m not going to ever physically hold in my hands, sorry. Path of Exile focuses on just the cosmetics. There’s no currency in game, so there’s no item farmers. Trading with players and NPCs is based on a barter system, and it actually works.

It seems Path of Exile focused on the important thing and that is playing a dungeon loot crawler with randomized maps. There’s no worrying or grinding for that epic loot drop to try and sell in on the auction house for money. The sad thing is, this seems revolutionary, but it really isn’t. It’s just something game developers don’t get, for some reason.

Path of Exile is worth everyone’s support. Even if you don’t like the genre or even the game, just know that somewhere out there a developer cares about you. They care that you hate the games that saturate your favorite genre with garbage.

Hype Train to Nowhere

Cinematic Trailers are always amazing to watch and amazing to look at. They hype up games to unnatural levels to make players wet their pants at a chance to experience what they just saw. Unfortunately, few, if any, ever live up to the hype that their cinematic helped build. The same is true now as it was more than 5 years ago and far beyond that. 

This was the Warhammer Online Trailer from 2007. Needless to say, this trailer made me so excited to play WAR that I literally only thought about this game for the next year. Getting into beta test, I was addicted to the combat. Chaos-Empire T1 was a non-stop war on a massive scale that I only saw again during the Iron Rock server transfer that turned it into a super server, but no one from Red Eye Mountain could play their characters for a whole day. So we all jumped into a T1 all nighter, but that's a story for another day. This is about the trailer. I still get chills watching what seemed like the game of the century in the making. Bloody PvP built around the Warhammer universe. The tale of Warhammer, however, is filled with sadness for me.

Let's move on ahead...

This is the first Old Republic cinematic trailer. This made everyone excited and maybe a little too much. Maybe, just maybe, I was the only one mature enough to see through the CG trailer. Awesome as it may be for any Star Wars fan to witness, there was no way the cartoony looking game would ever be this bad ass. No way. Turns out, I was correct. Just because Bioware makes something does not mean it's automatically the greatest thing ever made, and now every one is aware of this fact.

Now, let's see something that has come up just this very day:

You can just feel those chills. How can this game be bad? And a beta sign up as well? Icing on the cake. While this post may leave you feeling empty with no real in depth look at the Elder Scrolls Online trailer, I implore you to walk away from this like I have. A cool trailer and a cool fight sequence with no added value to anything we've seen so far. Again, I still stand by my statements in my previous blog post titled A Pause for Concern that I believe staying power is not with this game. 

An interview today tried to address the staying power of the game, but the supporting evidence is exactly my point that everyone seems to be missing. In Bill Murphy's interview with Paul Sage, the games creative director, (which can be found here) he even states how excited and focused the team is on giving a player the ability to "build the character of their dreams." Oh, really? My friend is playing a Wood Elf, straight up, no exceptions. I like the Red Guard in previous games. No matter what, I'm forced to A) not play with my friend and B) not able to choose where my character fits in the overall war. Maybe my Red Guard doesn't want to be in your Alliance War. Did anyone ever think about that? Maybe I want to PvP and loot corpses and not go to Cyrodil to get a bit of action. Maybe I want to abandon my race and my people and side better with one of the other factions.

I don't care what you think is going to keep players "coming back for more," but your siege warfare isn't going to be it. I'll admit, I may still be jumping the gun and not giving this game the credit it deserves. I hope I'm wrong and every gamer finds happiness in ESO for the next decade, but I doubt it. But I've heard the same speeches from every AAA MMORPG in the past few years and they are all starting to run together now. Hopefully I see you all in beta, but time will truly be the judge of this game's fate.

It's 3 AM in the Mornin'

Eminem songs aside, I'm currently downloading Path of Exile to play me some open betaness (which happens like 60 hours. The game is going to free to play at launch is very Diablo-like (just like every overhead action RPG). The difference, here, is that "people" have said this is what Diablo 3 should have been. Normally, I wouldn't go for this, but I'm willing to give it a shot.

On a higher note, I'm planning to open a YouTube channel to use to show off some shit and will have some peeps co-host with me. The objective is to be just like every fucking other "let's play!" on YouTube with boring ass commentary and shit. So I guess, check that out when it happens.  Till then, here's a preview video of Path of Exile, so check it out.

And for all of you sports collectors out there, I know the design for the Topps 2013 has been out already, but the cards should be in retail stores within the next week or so. Anyway, here's the new design. It looks alright, I'm hoping the physical cards will 'wow' a bit more in appearance, though.

 Anyway, check back daily for posts and share this blog with your friends, family, neighbors, that hot girl at the coffee shop, and who ever the hell else is in your life. Just, get this out there and comment if you can. Also, join Google+ and stop being a little bitch.

ALSO THERE'S GOING TO BE A SUPERBAUGH. COINED HERE FIRST, FOLKS.

You're Not Demon's Souls, Sorry

I'm aware that I only recently griped about full-loot and perma death and all, but I feel I need to reiterate it with the game that really made me start to hate the idea behind the concept in MMO scapes. I bring to you all Wizardry...Online!

I'll start by saying Sony Online Entertainment. Everyone just had a moment of clarity. So, if you're all like "aww, well jeez, you can't judge a game based off of JUST that" I will agree with you. I will let those who destroyed one of the most beloved sandbox MMOs in gaming history to have another shot, even if it took me this long to do it. So let's keep in mind I'm judging purely off of looks, which as we all know is the only real way to judge anything. So let's dive in to what we can find.

Wizardry is a long standing game line and blah blah blah no one gives a shit. Let's cut out the back story and get right to the fucking gameplay and what they claim. So right off the bat at  http://www.wizardrythegame.com/ there is a bold quote:

Wizardry Online is the most hardcore fantasy MMO ever created. The difficulty level is insane. The dungeons are brutal. There is no auto-healing. Your crimes taint your soul. Your allies could betray you at any moment. And when you die, you die forever.

Ok, cool, sounds alright. I'm all about stupid hard difficult shit.  Plus it's free-to-play. Then  again, what isn't these days? But fucking I'm just going to say that they made a good choice in not making this pay-to-play because it looks like garbage and the second you die you're going to punch a wall.

Again, I cannot reiterate this fact, that I LOVE difficult games. I LOVE steep learning curves. I LOVE the sink or swim moments in games that show whether you truly learned how to play and succeed at the game, or you were just lazily coasting along. It's the only point to actually engaging in a game for me. Any game. Baseball, pinball, Mario Kart, and even that stupid fucking ball in a cup on a string game you get from shitty gift bags at children's birthday parties are all games that have a level of difficulty that I oogle over. I remember when Dynasty Warriors 2 came out and I was rolling deep on Zhao Yun at Hu Lao Gate and rocked through that shit. It was tough because I just jumped right into the Musou mode (story mode basically) but it still was just hard enough to be interesting, but not making me desperate for health. Then I came across arguably one of the most iconic "Oh Fuck" moments in hack-n-slash history. Lu Bu. Need I say more? He fucking rocked my balls. So I restarted and came to that point in the Hu Lao stage once more. You see, you could just walk around him and go straight to end the stage, but I said nay nay. I got this. I didn't. So I tried again, and again, and again, each time refining my strategy. I didn't do enough damage to make him flinch on hits. A full rotation from him would kill. His power attack alone would red bar my life. Arrows hurt him, but again he didn't flinch. But I did it. I finally killed that son of a bitch and it felt so good. And it continued to feel good in every Dynasty Warriors since.

This all related to one thing: challenge. Difficulty that is out of this world. Not acceptable by the majority of people who buy games for casual play. But there is a difference in enjoying a challenge and absolutely abhorring a challenge. Wizardry falls in the second of those, by the looks.

Seriously, watch this video. Do it, right now before you read any more.

Are you any more enthused to play this? Oh, we're going to be hardcore and have perma death! But you have to stand there and get your fucking ass handed to you by trash mobs. Nice. So in a game that is all about not dying, you have no way to avoid dying...unless you use pots...or back track to a fucking town to stay at an inn. Oh, and then you still only gain half of your health back. Not even like "Ok, I have to rest for 2 nights" No seriously, 50% is it. You want 100%? You pay. Money. Really real money. The shit that some dude pays you for working your ass off for 40-60 hours a week and you pay the developers of a piece of shit game so that your character gets enough health back to continue having fun. FUCKING BRILLIANT.

Look, we get it, it's a HERDCURRR GEAAM. You know what else is? DEMON'S SOULS! You know what game doesn't suck? DEMON'S SOULS! Seriously, just watch this. Ignore the guy playing it and talking over it, but watch the game play. Indulge yourself in the game play and notice how the player needs to engage with the enemies. You have chances and you die because YOU fucked up. You have options to engage and avoid enemies and their attacks, especially at around 5:30 or so in the video against the red eye knight.

The game itself though shows that you don't need some crazy perma death style game play to make a game hard core or difficult. The challenge comes from getting balls deep in a level with 20k souls (which acts as currency in the game) and praying that you don't die at the end of the chapter of that level. There's no garbage or bullshit. You have to proceed cautiously and intelligently and understand how your character plays and engage from there. Wizardry makes you run up to fucking guys that are 3 times your size and wail at them with your derp da derp sword. and then punishes you because the game play is god awful.

If a game wants to have hardcore combat with harsh consequences, go right ahead. But make a fucking game that doesn't suck first. Sort of hard to build off of shit. Sony, I love the PlayStation and all that, but your online entertainment branch needs to just fucking quit, sorry.

Oh, and before I forget, even ignoring the garbage ass Japanimation characters, I still hate the way this game looks. So yes, we can judge a game by its looks because it looks like shit, both visually and based off of game play. This is not that rare gem you're looking for. This is an instance of road kill where you get out of your car and go "Aww, eww...I'll just push it out of the way and leave."

And before anyone asks, the first time I made it to the boss fight below, I put my controller down and walked away. Didn't even try. The boss is really simple though, but I was so overwhelmed I was just like "naw" and decided to come back later on in the day after I picked up my brain matter from the ground.

The Greatest Thing You'll Never Play

Perfect World. Producers of some of the most well known free-ish games. Blacklight: Retribution, Torchlight, Champions Online, and now Cryptic Studio's Neverwinter. Yeah, it's a D&D game, which is am immediate "fuck that" from me. Sorry guys, but there's only so much birth control I can use, and abstinence because my wife is holding her goods hostage due to my nerdiness is not going to be one of them. With that being said, Neverwinter is a game that you don't care about. And why would you? The game isn't advertising itself to be the next big thing that every real PvPer will love. It's not about "massive" content and huge world bosses. It's not about gear grinding to do the next tier raid to get the gear to do the next tier raid. Hell, it goes against the tide to bring us just simple features and a simple game with a simple goal: fun.

Dare I say it again? Fun. Dungeon crawling goodness. Oh, and not just their own pre-scripted dungeons or some bullshit randomly generated Diablo crap. Again, one word: Foundry. The-Ultimate-Mother-Fucking-Time-Sink-Fucking-Feature ever. I really believe that they should use that to describe it - TUMFTSFF. Hard to say off the tongue, but people get the point.

So what the fuck is Foundry? Oh, nothing much. Just the ability to MAKE YOUR OWN FUCKING DUNGEONS AND HAVE PEOPLE FUCKING PLAY THEM. For someone like me, I don't feel like keeping track of character sheets and bringing my pewter warrior to my good 'ol buddy Dave's 'bachelor pad' and crack open a few Bud Lights and listen to some stupid fucking narrative where no matter what is happening I'm just going to try to steal everyone's shit until I get someone killed. Honestly, I just was never into that shit. I'll play fantasy sports all day and challenge a mother fucker to some Warhammer tabletop, but god forbid I play some pen and paper games. But I'm getting way off base here. Foundry is a modders dream and a feature that immediately establishes a lasting feature that will keep gamers playing for years. Not months, years. If I may quote directly from their site at http://nw.perfectworld.com/about/foundry :

You've played tabletop campaigns, sketched out dungeons and imagined ancient ruins, wishing all the while that you could make them come to life. Now, you can. The Foundry for Neverwinter lets you build and share the adventures you've always wanted to see.

The Foundry gives you the tools to build dungeons, castles, cities, foreboding woods and everything in-between. Build NPCs the way you see them in your mind's eye and populate your world with tavern keepers and soldiers, Queens and scullions. Lay the groundwork for an epic adventure that takes players into the depths of the earth in search of dwarven treasure, or pits them against near impossible odds to save the city of Neverwinter.

Easy to use, The Foundry also features a dynamic rating system that allows players to rate and highlight the best player-designed adventures.

NOTE: The Foundry is currently in development and due to the nature of games development, information and content found on this website may not be representative of the current gameplay experience.

Tired of the same old quests? MAKE YOUR FUCKING OWN! Tired of shit being too easy? MAKE THE HARDEST FUCKING PIECE OF SHIT FIGHT ANYONE HAS EVER SEEN! JESUS FUCKING CHRIST! According to their Q&A it will be built into the game to access it and you can access other player's published maps and rate them and recommend them and shit.

Now, that's all fine and dandy, but what about the combat? Well, this is where things get muffled because if you were curious about how the game played and looked up a video, you would not be blown away. I will tell you that straight up. However, from watching the individual class videos that have been released to date, I will tell you that the roles characters have are tried and true for the most part and the Alpha animations are a bit lacking (but not all moves are featured yet, so they could just be basic garbage moves we are looking at). The Control Wizard (obvious cc), Great Weapon Fighter (obvious PBAOE DPS), and Trickster Rogue (Obvious rogue) are the currently announced classes. Other reported classes are a Devoted Cleric and Guardian Fighter as well as 6 races featured on their website (Human, Half-Elf, Elf, Drow, Dwarf, and Tiefling).

The fighting is based on left/right clicks on the mouse and also activated abilities making the game more "action-y" than other MMOs. The videos that have been released make it look very basic, though, despite the emphasis on action-based combat. I would assume that once players are in control, you will see a lot more sleek-looking dodges, evades, and ability rotations that all competitive and serious gamers will love. This remains to be seen in the hands of real people and not demo garbage from E3/PAX.

But lets get into something more personal, PvP. At first glance, the game looks like PvP just doesn't fit in here. But I say nay! Well, there's not a lot of info on this matter except that it will be there...eventually at least. Yes, PvP has been a question asked by many towards the devs, but they has said something that excites me more than it disappoints me. It's the fact that they admit that PvP would be an after thought if they put it in the game for launch and it would suck balls. Yeah, they basically summed it up by saying that. The PvPers are picky and Cryptic Studios is well aware of that and they would rather have PvP implemented intelligently into the game after the PvE content is 100% complete. So we won't see RIFT shit where PvP just got thrown in there for shits and giggles and then they advertised it as being the most amazing thing ever when really it was just "Oh yeah, you can queue for this warfront and play our broken shit".

So what's left? Well, what's it going to cost?

Nada. Zip. Nothing. Not a damn thing. Time? I guess everything costs time, basically. So whatever time you put in is equal to money. That's the cost.

Yes, there is a cash shop. Before everyone throws their hands up and goes "UGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH" it's not that bad. Remember, PvP isn't even going to be there at launch. On top of that, the kewl weapons you can buy with real money are still level specific. While I never will agree with paying for better shit, It's just how business models are now-a-days and I have to deal with it.

I still have yet to pay for a single item from a cash shop in Lord of the Rings Online or Guild Wars 2 or League of Legends, so I don't see myself doing it here either. But what's better is that I said Guild Wars 2 had value because it wasn't a sub based game. I paid $60 and got my money's worth from it and still can be if I choose to at a later date. Neverwinter will be free to download the client and free to play and because you can group with friends or go solo or bring npcs along with you, who cares if Joe Shmo bought the uber-sword of winningestness? He can have fun in his little dungeon, and I'll have the challenge in my own. Plus, user generated dungeons have mobs that drop the same xp as the actual game and the loot chest rewards at the end of dungeons are based on the amount of time it 'should' take to complete. So if your dungeon only takes like 5 minutes to do, you will only get like 5 minutes worth of rewards, as oppose to a stupid ass crazy long dungeon where if you complete it, you can get a lot more. From what I've read, it seems that an hour is what the dev's consider a full dungeon from The Foundry.

This, though, is great for guys like me who are limited on time. If I'm up after work late at night and I'm like "alright, well I guess I can do something for 30 minutes" I can find a dungeon that is advertised to take that long and do it. Sure, it won't be an epic 1 hour or more adventure of crazy shit, but at least the game is giving options and not forcing me to raid for 4 hours a night to MAYBE get that epic chest piece I just need to have to move to the T2 "Dungeon of Same Scripted Bullshit"

So yeah, I can safely say that Cryptic Studios have moved their chess pieces very carefully for this one. They still have a lot of strong pieces, but they haven't quite put the queen in check, yet. We'll see what's up when this game releases in Q1 this year. From there, we'll see if PvP complements a solid game concept or ultimately adds a broken piece of content that will turn away potential customers.