Zero Punctuation: Age of Conan

[BlueInkAlchemist]

@Gothmogll:

Fully agreed on RP in MMOs. The onus is on the players. It's been a long time since I spent any time in WoW as part of an organization that didn't involve forums, story posting and character development that required spending time outside of the game engine. And having only played the beta of AoC I didn't get to see the topless ladies. I guess they were saving that for production or something.

@Everyone who doesn't like the opening:

The previous reviews, for me, now have this nostalgic amateurish feel to them, like Yahtzee hadn't quite landed in the arena of Internet fame and credible notoriety. Now his reviews are bookended with professional dressings that put him in a ring with Adam Sessler and that yapping wench Morgan Webb, whose arse our hero would most decidedly kick, especially in WoW. Horde all the way.

 

[aikoyamamato]

first off: dont make your rethorical questions look like real ones
you are putting words in my mouth
i dont say you would have to play every class but develop at least a notion of the needs and strengths and weaknesses of other classes

Don't get your panties in a twist, I didn't mean it literally. My point was just that you're asking a little much in a casual review.

also i think you should have played a level 70 character in wow just to get feel of the endgame
you should have participated in a raid
and you should have done arena
otherwise you dont have a clue about wow

I disagree. Endgame (arena included) is another part of the game entirely and, again, takes a considerable amount of time to get to. Reviewing the earlier stages of an MMORPG serves to provide a person with information on how they'll be spending that time, which is important information to know. If you don't like how grinding to 70 works, you're not going to spend all that time grinding a character to 70 just for endgame. I agree that before reviewing World of Warcraft one should do raiding first, since it's a core part of gameplay and can be done early on, but this isn't a World of Warcraft review. It's an Age of Conan review. I haven't played much of the game myself, but as far as I understand it there's not really an equivalent of raiding in it.

and if you dont have the time to play all levels in aoc, go ahead and borrow a friends character, that should give you an impression
that is all

Yes, because we all have friends with high level AoC characters.

 

[commonperson]

Don't necisarily agree with your opinion but kudos and you are certainly entitled to it. In your review you mentioned not really having anything to do with the mythos before hand and showed reading comics etc. you may want to try reading the short stories. They are actually quite good and an interesting example of pulp fiction from that period. That being said I will adimitedly state I play the game and enjoy it but I completly see where you are coming from on this one. Until they get the PvP system in place people are going to keep acting like absolute jerks and ganking people. Any how, good work and even though I didn't agree with all the points good job as usual.

 

[Reaces]

I whole-heartedly agree with the issues you pointed out, but there are some things I'd like to add.
Having played the game myself up untill currently level 60 (going at a snails pace of a few hours per week) I can tell you that the reason you most likely got ganked so often is because necromancers are, at the moment, a tad broken at the lower levels. The minions make it insanely easy to level compared to the rogue and soldier classes that spend their time dying while trying to get past the quests, while on the other hand the necromancer himself is an easy target for other players... not to mention a naked one.

The reason I'm playing aoc right now, is not because of what it currently IS, but what it could be if the same effort is put into it as blizzard put into wow (allthough this is very doubtfull). I for one would love to play seige battels over destroyable cities, and have large-scale pvp in a less cartoony outfit.

Either way, my point would be that reviewing a game under development is usually not a complete review, reviewing an mmorpg is really hard and usually a lot more negative seeing as how they aim for higher level content. And aoc seems to be both, a very unfinished mmorpg, which is at the same time the reason why negative reviews should be kept in the context of the time when they were written aswell as being the reason why this game might turn out to be nothing more than a major waste of time for all parties involed.

 

[Sid Meier]

for Yahtzee to review EVE objectively he would have to play for roughly 6 months and play roughly 2-4 different accounts to fully immerse himself in the primary "paths" you could take.

Alot can be done in EVE, its a very nifty sandbox but to get to the "sweet spot" of the game AND be able to do stuff the right way would take quite some time alot of work, and patience.

I do not think EVE is a good game for Yahtzee to play, he might like it for the sake of griefing newbs, but unless my impression of him is fundamentally wrong based on his reviews I would say he is a much more action oriented/first person shooter kind of gamer, EVE is almost as much a business simulation in an anarchist society as it is a game.

I do not think Yahtzee would like EVE, it would be interesting if he did review it but he shouldn't waste his time on it, its a game you should only play if you know you will be playing it long enough to make a name for yourself. I play it, I like it, and I'm almsot able to fly a carrier and operate in Nullsec but this isn't a game for the faint of heart or the impatient.

 

[Luthorcrow]

On a side note, anyone that hasn't seen it should rent a film about Robert E. Howard called "The Whole Wide World." Great film for anyone that views Howard as just another pulp writer might find a new found respect for him or at least see the man in a different light.

 

[fablewho]

Right, well, since I never say anything on this site I figured I may as well throw in some cake. Well, not cake, but something funny. Is it funny? Nevermind, I'll just say it anyway.

If anyone remembers that old game "The Bards Tale" then they might know of the remake of it that came out back when the X Box and PS2 were still revered as gods or some such. In that game there were these kids who looks almost identical to each other, and all of them said they were "The Chosen One". This review of Conan reminded me of it.

I guess some of them were chosen in a way... Each of the dead ones got a song whenever you passed by their bodies. Others were chosen to be thrown in jail for their own good. I suppose you have to play the game to understand, but youtube or some site should have a few songs up.

 

[ElToRo15]

Nice review as always yathzee. I never thought paying for a game every month was a good idea so i just played one of those free Korean MMORPG's, Silk Road online to be specific. Argh! When are you gonna review rock band?

 

[Obeliskos]

Haha, "Thinderella".

I was kind of looking forward to you review Age of Conan. And does any else laugh every time he says "m-morpgrs"? (the pronunciation of MMORPGs out loud typed doesn't look too good..)

 

[EmperorDude]

I was kinda worried for while if I would continue watching ZP (the Lego Indianna review just wasn't funny for me and last weeks was only chuckle worthy) but I liked this one much more.

 

[geldonyetich]

Both funny and a pretty good take on the qualities of the game as always.

I have to admire his patience he didn't do the 5 second review on this: "It's a MMORPG. It's not a game so much as a life-sucking tragedy. Goodbye." The elaboration that went into this review is quite on-point.

I was briefly excited about Age of Conan, played it up to level 40, then the whole thing sort of fizzled out. Grind > Gameplay = Game Over.

 

[The_newfagg]

Ben croshaw the only reason the majority of us come to this site.

 

[Hollywooda]

WOT A GENIUS, FUCKING LOVED THAT...

 

[Ozz04]

Oddly enough this review made me what to try AoC

 

[Archedgar]

Way better?
I bought EQ2 online with all expansions.
I played it for 5min, then I turned that horrible game of.

They probably were the first, but not the best ones. Lineage II being a perfect example of a horrible MMO whereat you cannot even walk up close to a friend because your character will do anything in her power to walk AROUND that person instead.

Cartoony graphics is a crappy argument to use.

Which one of those games has 10 million subscribers?

Both of them had huge fan bases during their glory days.

EQ1 and Lineage 2 set up the majority of the MMORPG standards of today.

WoW is basically a knockoff of already successful MMORPGs of the era designed for children, which is why the difficulty is cranked *way* down and the enviroment is cartoony and childish.

Poor end game, bad interaction, -extremely- dumb/12 year old player base, heh.

 

[lostix]

As a law student, I Just wanted to say my vocabulary has increased as a result of watching Zero Punctuation. I don't know what to make of it really.

 

[Zephirius]

I'm sure Yahtzee remembers talking about oiling up his thighs for Age of Conan in his Haze review. I hope he enjoyed it. And no, I did not read 7 pages of comments to see if anyone else remembered this, so sue me.

P.S.: I hope he reviews Just Cause some time.

 

[Sozzals]

Finally an honest review....

 

[The9mm]

I'm sure Yahtzee remembers talking about oiling up his thighs for Age of Conan in his Haze review. I hope he enjoyed it. And no, I did not read 7 pages of comments to see if anyone else remembered this, so sue me.

P.S.: I hope he reviews Just Cause some time.

fanboy^^

 

[Zephirius]

fanboy^^

..How? I mean, I remember him saying that, oh no I've got a good memory. I've never even played Haze or Age of Conan and Just Cause has some fun guerrilla stu-..Oh right, troll. Nevermind.