http://forums.riftgame.com/rift-general-discussions/off-topic/299254-tera-closed-beta-video-impressions.html

SWTOR is the best MMO I have ever played. I am now level 50 and have more things to do than I can count. I have been a loyal fan of Star Wars since I was a kid, and I'm so happy that I finally have a ............. /end forum preview mod partrol safety net. ---------------------- (Because they like to keep you guys in the dark. shhhhhh. I want to show you what I experienced last weekend!) TERA Closed Beta Weekend: Impressions! Played it over the weekend from Feb 10-12. Leveled a Priest to 17, a Berzerker to 16, and a Slayer to 18. Feels like a Western MMO with chars that have an Asian theme. Not a grind at all which surprised me considering AION/Lineage etc. were HUGE *********** grinds. In 3 days just playing evenings I was able to get 3 chars to nearly 20, so its not bad. Graphics - Oh, wow. TERA is quite possibly the most beautiful MMO I've played yet. It's not that the graphics are the best ever created on a technical level - though they're certainly quite well up there - but the way the art style and design uses them so well. The world is just beautiful, and I can't wait to see more of it. The character designs are phenomenal. The combat animations are perfect. No other MMO comes close here. The last time I was speechless was when I first cranked AOC to absolute max settings. That was the only game that came close but not nearly as smooth at all in terms of FPS. The game is using a modified Unreal 3 engine. Even on my ASUS 72GX (2.5ghz Core 2 duo, 6 gigs ram, Nvidia GTX 260M) I can play on very decent settings with smooth FPS! But on my desktop: (37" LED monitor, 12 gigs ram, i7 960 CPU, 2X SLI GTX 470's) it is breathtaking on max and the engine is so optimized that it doesn't push my cards above 50% each. Gameplay: This is an action-based combat game. Imagine Age of Conan's combat system, but without the Rose or the need to chain attacks for a finisher. However, the system allows you to chain attacks in a macro build-in to the UI. The combat is very fluid. No delays on abilities and the need to actively block or dodge attacks makes it really fun and not a borefest. Combat: I could go on for pages about it, but it's all been said already if you read around. This is the important one. When it comes down to it, 90% of an MMO is the combat, so if a game is going to do just one thing really amazingly well, it has to be this. TERA nails it. The combat, at least so far, is endlessly entertaining. Started off a little slow but by the mid teens, I've already got so many fun abilities. I love that magic users can't just stand and throw spells like in so many other games, that they need to stay on the move and constantly take position into mind, it takes a class that tends to be too slow for me in most games, with combat mostly involving watching cast bars, and turns it into something intense and exciting. I open the skill window in one of the videos you'll see. The result is that if you use a specific ability you get a very small 1 sec. window of opportunity to chain another skill after it. The benefit is that subsequent abilities cast nearly instantly compared to a skill that would otherwise need its full cast time to execute. It makes for twitch gameplay and the need to also be constantly aware of your positioning relative to your opponent. This makes for amazing PVP and very fun PVE boss encounters (from what I've experienced). Mobs in PVE don't just magically have the /stick command when they fight you (remember /stick from daoc?). If you dodge a PVE target right when it attacks you, you can get behind it fast and own its face. There are no cast bars, you have to use your eyes and anticipate what will happen next. Its quite fun. Casters VS. Melee classes: I tried both and you can see the video of my lowbie Slayer and the level 16 Priest. The main difference is that all melee use the X axis only (left and right) while casters (including archers) use X and Y axies ( L,R,U,D) to kill ****. Now this all depends on your level of skill and what you like. If you're someone that prefers a bird's eye view of everything you do in combat you'll like melee. You can do that with a caster but you'll have to get down to get that target reticle aligned with your next victim or the person you wish to heal! Very interesting in both methods of play. I particularly loved the offensive AOE / Snare abilities of the Priest which was something I've never seen in an MMO before. Normally I *********** hate healing classes and think they are boring as hell but this Priest plays like a tankmage. You'll see right at the start of the Priest video I show you an example of how a Priest can quickly multi-target heal without ever having to look at or touch a health bar. If I was in a party with those people I'd also see their HP bar above their heads. This means you can play a healer and watch game instead of be staring at a goddam UI the whole time. Melee on the other hand have it easy, but not with everything. Only two classes are heavily armored: the Zerker (big axe mofo) and the Lancer (lance/shield). The Zerk is a dps class but can block with the axe. Lancer is a tank and can active block with a shield. The Warrior is actually a leather-wearing dual-sword wielding rogue that is mostly a tank (but can do decent dps). In all cases, they use X axis to target. If you're in front of it, it gets hit. There is no RNG here. There is no: your target blocked, parried, dodged, or you missed messages. The only time a target is going to block is if HE ACTUALLY USES BLOCK. The same with dodge. If you miss, it's because you can't *********** aim right. This is amazingly fun in PVP and I'll elaborate: PVP: Just wow. I am in love with the PVP in this game. In 2 weeks is the big PVP event so I'll make video of that but I will give you a quick example of PVP so far. I was in Velika the capital city the other night. There is this huge dueling sand pit in the middle of the city where people fight and others watch. I'm sure you can find youtube vids of it. But anyways, I was on my priest dueling a Slayer. He could charge me, knock me down, burst me, etc. I could snare him, jump away, and generally avoid his attacks as best as possible. The dynamics that come into play are with crystals. These crystals socket into your weapons and chest (curiass, gloves, and boots are the only armor slots needed). The rest of the customization is in the crystals and enchants you get. The crystals can augment your ability by say doing 50% more damage on crits to knocked down targets or when attack from the rear. Defensively, you can add crystals that reduce damage if you're below 50% hp, or give you MP5 or HP regen or a host of other options to tailor your playstyle. These crystals can then be saved in a template and you can quickly slot them in and out depending on what you're doing like tanking, dps, or pvp. This means you really don't have to swap "gear", you just need to swap crystals. I think it's pretty neat so far. As far as PVP balance is concerned I was very impressed with that. Long fights were the norm for equal level fights. The only time I got owned very fast was when I made a stupid mistake. This game punishes you for being dumb which I LOVE. This is not about who has the best gear, however, I'm sure that will come into play at max level for those that seriously push the Battleground stuff. Yes, there are BG's, but there is a lot of open-world pvp because of 'BAMS' aka 'Big *** Monsters'. These BAMs are like mini-world bosses all over the maps of the world and they drop excellent gear. You can solo or duo them (although it may take a bit. Just youtube BAM + a class + TERA). These BAMs are competed over and you'll find pvp there as well. Server VS Server PVP. Yes, I said it. You can raid another server with your guild. You physically zone in to their server to take over territory. Guild VS Guild - you can use war declarations on guilds. This reminds me of UO. You can go to war with other guilds. This is a 1 faction MMO. This means alliances matter and relations matter. There is also a Political system built-in. This is won through guild praise and other measures. This means the top guilds can tax regions (not like **** your wallet) but it makes them wealthy. I'm not clear on all that but you can earn top rank through PVP or PVE. Put it this way, I already pre-ordered the game (http://tera.enmasse.com). I haven't had this much fun in an MMO doing just about everything from travel to pve to pvp since DAOC. It really is THAT fun "FOR ME" so far. I'm just surprised it came from Bluehole studios (which is founded by the main brains behind the engine and design of Lineage 3) that left NCSoft *yay they're ******s* to own them in the face and make TERA (which for all intensive purposes could have been L3 but way more grindy and ****ty imo). So props to them. Here is a cool vid on one of the newbie dungeons: http://pc.ign.com/articles/121/1218085p1.html PRESENTATION: 8 GRAPHICS: 9 GAMEPLAY: 10 REPLAY VALUE: 10 SOUND: 6 Overall: 8.6

Other thing you'll notice is that these forums contain no Off-Topic discussion. So what the heck do they expect? They should have those here for this purpose. Not only that but they don't even have individual server forums. It's just a laughing joke at this point, just like the game.

Dude, they close my threads daily. I bet you they got "Proto" on their wall at the CSR offices there pinned to a dart board. hahahahahah

No, Bioware is NOT turning into Funcom because if it was, Bioware would become original and innovative. However, they are now owned by EA, which means Bioware is now just a name to remind you of what it once was. While Funcom definitely has its problems, it at least has the balls to push the envelope and create change in an otherwise stagnant market.

Same here.

Nope, I won't buy it. Not only because of this game's failure but because I know that the team that made M1 and ME2 are not the same people working on M3. It won't be good. All the real talent that was a part of EA/Bioware Austin has left the company since 2009. No one worth their salt wants to work for EA.

That's probably the most interesting facet of the review. It took me a lot longer to realize all of what he realized only up to level 20. I was a total fanboi though, it was bad. I refused, I mean REFUSED to listen to anyone that said anything bad about this game. Mind you, I beta tested this game for nearly 5 months, too. I really (I mean seriously) submitted dozens of bug tickets a week trying / hoping that things would get repaired prior to launch because I knew just how bad some of those bugs and missing features were! Ah well.

http://news.mmosite.com/content/2010-10-13/swtor_costs_300_million_and_will_be_a_great_failure_says_bioware_employee.shtml

Minutes only. However, when I do... I do it in style. Might as well put this last bit of $14.99 to good use my friend.

Yep, they sure are. I think the one thing you can take from it is just how bad MMO's have gotten overall in recent years. The creativity and innovation are just gone for whatever reason. "Least common denominator" was one of the phrases he used which is exactly how we see things being designed now.

I think all you have to do, as a vet, is read this article posted today: http://www.wolfsheadonline.com/swtors-300-million-virtual-bridge-to-nowhere/#b5414

One of the most popular MMO blogs for the past 5 years writes a very elaborate and thorough review of Bioware's epic Star Wars project. http://www.wolfsheadonline.com/ Direct link: http://www.wolfsheadonline.com/swtors-300-million-virtual-bridge-to-nowhere/#b5414 Enjoy the good read.

Are you kidding me? In 22 levels I didn't encounter a single bug, not 1 crash, 60 FPS even on my ASUS GX72 laptop which is from 2008. You're just flat-out lying dude.

Here is just some of what is coming to the game for the NA May 1st release: https://forum.tera-europe.com/showthread.php?t=26686 I'M TELLING YOU GUYS FFS THIS IS THE CLOSEST I'VE FELT TO DAOC LEVEL PVP/FUN. Its a friggen blast.