Age of Conan Review

Here are my impressions of Age of Conan, after playing hard for 15 days or so. I have tried out many different classes. I am now playing a Priest of Mitra, as it best matches my play-style. Let me start by saying that this game has many redeeming qualities and will probably be vastly popular. My main character is level 35 (out of 80) and I fully intend on taking him all the way to 80. With that said, there are many things that need to change to make it my "dream game". Here is how I rate it in my "Big 8":

Graphics: 10/10 Absolutely the best in the industry. The result of this is high system requirements. I don't rate on this...maybe a should, but my 15-month-old system runs it fine and I didn't spend an arm and a leg for it then, so I don't feel that the requirements are outrageous.

Stability: 9/10 I have had very few (3-4) crashes out of the game while I was playing...none of these resulting in deaths. I have run into a couple of buggy quests, but for the most part, very stable and polished. This is how games should be released.

Linear/Sandbox: 3/10 This may be a matter of personal preference for me, but it is one of the main deciding factors for me when it comes to long-term playability. The game is very linear. You go from one quest area to the next and follow the story that is laid out for you. I much prefer games that give you the framework of the game and let you make your own decisions.

Tradeskills/Hobbies: 3/10 This category matters and it falls short in AoC. To get high marks here, a tradeskill must be a viable play method all by itself, I must be able to run my own vendor, and the goods that I make must be sellable. This game falls short.

Ease of Travel: 7/10 Again, this reflects some personal opinion, but running from place to place more than once is NOT FUN and does not substitute for content. In this game, getting from one zone to another is very quick, but moving within that zone is still prohibitively slow.

Uniqueness of Classes: 7/10 Let me clarify this rating a little. How the classes do their jobs in this game is unique, especially the priest classes who heal like no other game that I have ever seen. This is a good thing. However, there is not enough differentiation between the different classes in the same archetypes (priests, soldiers, rogues, mages). This was close to being perfect. A couple of examples of games that got this right are EQ2 and Vanguard.

Fun Factor: 9/10 This is a hard one to define. It kind of bundles up all the little intangibles to make a rating based on how fun the game is to play. Overall, this is a good one.

Interface/Customization Options: 4/10 When I first started playing, I thought this was going to be a strong suit for the game, but after playing for a while, it has some glaring deficiencies. The biggest is the quest tracking system. Most of the new-era games do quest tracking in exactly the same way and they do that because it works. Wow, LotRO, Vanguard... all of these did it right. AoC didn't. The interface is somewhat customizable with the built-in tools, but it mustn't be very easy to customize outside the game, because the mods that I have seen so far have really just been new skins. Stay tuned as hopefully this rating will improve over time.

Overall Rating: 52/80 Hey, I'm a tough customer. I'm also pretty disillusioned with the whole MMO industry right now as they seem to keep sending out different derivations of the same game. Give me something unique, fun, pretty and deep and you will get a high rating. Until that happens, take your score in the low fifties and be happy with it. It isn't the greatest thing since sliced bread, but it is almost as good as WoW. That is good enough to make the creator a lot of money and that seems to be what everyone is concerned with these days. Sigh.

Brief Review: The Last Mimsy (*** 3 stars)

I took my almost-eleven-year-old daughter to see The Last Mimsy on opening night. We both thoroughly enjoyed it. I have read a few reviews of people bashing it based on it's "Mysticism" and liberal views. I didn't see it. I saw a nice sci-fi story which was a fun, quirky, family-friendly movie. It was no ET, but it was pretty good. I could have probably gone to 3.5 stars if the acting was a little better. Both of the kids were a little rough at times and Michael Clarke Duncan proved once again that he should have retired after The Green Mile. On a positive note, Rainn Wilson (Dwight Schrute in The Office) was very good.

So, in conclusion, I would say don't hesitate to take the kids and see if you all enjoy this as much as I did. I think you will be pleased.

Vanguard Review at Gamespy

This is a very good review. It tells it like it is...both the good and the bad:

Vanguard Review at Gamespy