Best Looking MMOs According to Me

This is a highly subjective site wide topic for this week and I'm guessing that's why not more people have tackled it yet on the MMO Voices Social Network.
That or there's only a few of us who actually really, really, really care about graphics. I rely very heavily on visual stimuli and we all have different reasons why we appreciate gaming. While I enjoy how a game plays like everyone else I take most of my pleasure from just looking at the games. So to me this is a topic that's near and dear. :)

What's really important for a game to be visually successful you have to make sense, I appreciate an environment where every element meshes perfectly together and nothing sticks out like a sore thumb or in some case sticks out because they are way more beautiful then anything else in the game. I like a well rounded visual experience and not every mmo is capable of offering this due to performance issues mostly. Sony in my book is guilty of cutting corners and stripping textures down to a sloppy pixelated mess when attempting to make games perform on slower systems. It's horrifying. Which is why poor Eq2 doesn't make it very far up my list even though that game has some amazing textures in certain areas and why Vanguard doesn't even make it. And now I'd like to move on to the games that to me have the very best graphics in the MMO sphere.

Age of Conan clearly deserves the number one spot, everything is on the same level graphically when it comes to quality. I can't really say that anything suffers visually because of performance balance and the reason it's so is because Funcom funnels people into instanced zones. You may not like this idea but you have to admit a game that does this can really push the graphics envelope to bursting, which AoC definitely does.

Ryzom is my second choice because the whole package fits together like chocolate, graham cookies and marshmallow. It's a delicious guilty pleasure for your eyes, the character models may not be to everyone's liking but to me they are so unique and beautifully done, not to mention very customizable. The artsy and ecological design of the world is very intriguing and just captivating, the colors are vibrant but not overwhelmingly so and you may find yourself running around just to try to see more cool and pretty sights.

My third choice is Final Fantasy XI, which might surprise some people considering how old the game is. But again the whole game graphically is on the same level of quality, models and environments just blend together in harmony. And if you're on the PC you can adjust the registry to push the background resolutions and you'll end up with a version better then the Ps2 or the 360. A game that can look gorgeous and stand the test of time like FFXI is a dream come true to me, I wish more MMOs took the stance of just making a great looking game playable on most rigs now and just keep tweaking them forever... And honestly I think devs have learned their lesson too.

And that's basically it for the best looking MMOs out right now, even the ones on the verge of releasing I have more issues with then those three visually, yes even beautiful Aion... And here's my top ten list for those interested, not everyone's going to agree (or no one will.. XD) but again my criteria is on how eye catching the graphics are in general and if they look like they all belong together, if the game has awesome character models but crappy ground textures or vice versa their ranking will suffer..

Playstation 3 Slim, who's excited, anybody?

So for a long time, since the playstation 3 first came out, I've been really reluctant to throw away any cash on this console or it's rival the Xbox 360. HD vs Blu ray? HD seemed more popular for a time, but when you get Sony and Disney all pushing for something, well I guess I should have had more faith?!

I've been a sony fan girl for a long time, loved my playstation and it's extravagantly priced child; the playstation 2 just as much. But for some reason when it came to the 3rd generation I just couldn't match the price tag this time around. More bills to pay and more responsibility, really who can blame me? I have a 17 year old brother who's been bugging me for years to just give up the wait for a better console day and get a 360. And he almost convinced me, if it wasn't for an impromptu purchase of a Wii last October I would have it by now.

But now all this indecisive aggravation is finally over as the playstation 3 slim has been officially unveiled! Take off a 100 green ones and give me a smaller more compact console and I'm ready to adopt one and call it Charlie. I'm really liking that if ever I need more space I can just buy a new drive and stick in there. Though this version does not support operation systems like Linux, then again it never crossed my mind that I'd ever install something like that on a console anyway. I am excited for free internet access and home, is home available yet anyway? I hope so!

It really does help that Final Fantasy 14 has been announced to be on this console, I mean I think it helps A LOT. I will be able to get my FF fix worry free along with other titles I was looking forwards to like Little Big Planet and Wet. SOE also a few titles heading that way in the future which makes me think my Ps3 will get a whole lot more use then my Wii is presently. My Wii right now is my personal gym and little else.

This weekend I'll check if Wal-Mart takes pre-orders and if not I'll just have to get up early on the 1rst...

Eq2 gets a facelift

One thing we can say about Everquest 2 is that it has known many changes and updates over the years and continually tries to stay on top of what gamers want. There's many out there eager to sell you on the evils of SOE and sometimes I'm one of them, but one thing that does very much strike me and has done so for years is the attention given to player feedback in their community forum.

Sure sometimes in game surveys that are given are really just courtesy and it doesn't matter what the populace votes when they already have firm plans of doing something. Which may or may not suck to you according to your point of view. But one thing we should always try to remember is that it doesn't matter how passionate you are about the game, it's not YOUR game it's SOE's (or insert company) and ultimately they have the first and last word. However if you pay close attention to the updates over the years there's a substantial amount of them that come directly from suggestion threads on the forums. I can't really think of another MMO that has done this at this level so far, maybe FFXI but Square Enix is just toooooooo darned slow to compete with SOE on that level.

A major gripe with a lot of people have always been the graphics. Someone or a group while developing the game misjudged which direction computer power would evolve and so the game just could not scale well with newer computers and no matter how strong your machine is EQ2 just ran about the same. With multi core support over updates in the last year has really helped in that department, but there are not stopping there! Incoming are new 3.0 shaders which will replace the 1.0 ones. Dramatically transforming shadows, contrast, lighting, reflections and so on. The really good news is that these shaders are small and lightweight and most of them are stored on the GPU instead of the CPU which means the game will not only look tons better it will run better as well. How exciting is that? Personally I feel like I'm an extreme sugar high. :D

Other things mentioned that are a priority for beautification are hair models for characters should we start prayers for the affectionately named play dough styles right now? Perhaps grass will have more toggles to control height so your halfling or fae doesn't keep getting lost and running into trees. But most importantly and totally trumps these things are SLI/Crossfire support, HDR support and general optimization.

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This Week in Weekly Famitsu: Interview info included

This Week in Weekly Famitsu: Interview info included

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Here are some notes I've taken from this translated article from the wonderful Corinth from Eorzeapedia.com!!

- The story will be pretty intense from the beginning and is a huge part of the game.

- The pictures we see of the fields, are in game screenshots.

- Weather effects will be in game, wind and rain were especially mentioned.

- Though not final day and night cycles should be around 1 hour long.

- There will be modes of transportation for people who can only play for short bursts of time: The only confirmed one is crystal teleports (aetherytes) and aethereal gates, which was not explained further what those were.. Looks like there's a waiting period between using a certain amount of teleports as it takes a toll on your body. (they'd don't want people tp hopping all over the place I guess)

- This is cool about the Guildleve: "It sounds as if the leves available to you will be shown on a calendar and you can make your choices from there. The jobs available might change from time to time, perhaps on a weekly basis or even change mid-week. They would like to make that change occur when players have days off, for example, during a weekend most likely. The timing is still being worked on by the development staff"

- Your class is decided depending on the weapon you hold, but the armor is separate. Some armors may be used with more then one type of weapon but certain combinations will be incompatible.

- Looking at a system where you can change ALL your equipment at the same time. In FFXI you do this with macros.

- Because both the armor and weapons affect your abilities, mixing them up can make you a hybrid class if you choose or a more specialized class depending on your choices.

- Leveling multiple classes will build your character's overall abilities.

- The devs have noticed some people did not care about their racial stats in FFXI and some people put a lot of emphasis on it. This time around they will make the stats superficial so people are free to choose what they'd rather play as.

Check out the link above for more specifics!!!

Races Named, Classes Revealed

Races Named, Classes Revealed from Eorzeapedia

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How To Glide in Aion

Once in a while when I look on gaming news sites I find comments where people who've played the currently on going Aion English beta complain on how you are not allowed to fly in most PvE (player vs. environment) areas for a game that keeps championing the ability to fly and aerial combat.

And I understand this somewhat it would be nice if it was a bit more like Perfect World where you can fly everywhere, especially since aerial combat in Aion is far more balanced... BUT!! There is still reason to be excited about your shiny wings, instead of flying everywhere you can glide!! At first this feature may seem lame and lackluster and a poor replacement for the real flying but once you get a hang of the controls it's actually pretty darned fun.

Here's the lowdown on gliding in Aion is you've yet to experience this fully yourself along with the assigned buttons you need to be using:

SPACE bar: This will start the gliding action or END it, yes it is the same button as jump. I like to press spacebar and jump and press again to start gliding. Best results are attained from a hill or low cliff.

R : Vertical ascent, pressing this will allow to catch a drift in the game's thermodynamics and glide upwards. I like to press this as soon as I can after I press space to glide and catch as much 'air' as possible.

F : Vertical descent, obviously allows you to go down. I use this when I want to land and/or when my flight timer runs out and just before pressing on spacebar to cancel glide.

W & S : Normally forward and backward while walking this controls your speed, the higher you are the longer you will glide and the faster using W. S will allow you to bounce up and catch some air. (Thanks Ephimero!)



Well okay that's about it, this should get you started to learn how to glide. It is not an automatic skill like flying which is rather straightforward and not all that different from walking, except you can go in more directions, but something you will have to practice to get really proficient at. What I really like about Aion's thermodynamics is that you really do feel like you are catching a pocket of air and it's not always predictable if you get a good one or one at all.
Best way to start practicing is to pick a nice little cliff side or hill and launch yourself from it, do try to move around as you are gliding, going left to right often as to catch these pockets of air.

Enjoy and have fun gliding around and spending less time running!! ^.^