Vanguard: free month
Thursday, June 26th, 2008 - 5:51pm
Just got this in
Quote:
Come back to Vanguard: Saga of Heroes between June 26, 2008 at 12:01AM PDT and July 31, 2008 at 11:59PM PDT for FREE* to experience first-hand all the changes, updates and additions that have been introduced over the past year. Telon Rides On, is the latest in a long series of Game Updates to deliver performance enhancements, game optimizations, and new code specifically geared at making Vanguard a smoother running, more enjoyable experience with all the excitement and adventure that is Vanguard.
Convert your account to an active, valid paying Vanguard or Station Access subscription account before July 31, 2008 at 11:59 PM PDT and receive a special in-game Pack Camel mount of your very own! This mount is colored especially for those players returning to Vanguard during this promotional period!**
Your account has been reactivated. Simply log-in and join us in Telon for FREE and take advantage of the performance enhancements, game updates, and improvements!
Telon Rides On offers much more than just optimization enhancements:
Special New Mounts for each race level 30 and higher have been added along with the Citizen Favor system. Each race now has a unique mount to earn! – More InfoPsionicists will get two new abilities, Synchronize and Paralysis field. These allow you to reverse Time Trick effects and partially paralyze all opponents close to you for a short time – More Info
Many of the classes have received fantastic new visuals for their spells and abilities with new particle effects – More Info
We've added another performance optimization feature, the new "Anti-Hitching" code, which we hope offers improved performance and smoother gameplay – More Info
Check out all the latest news, updates and changes
Gamer Tag: Rantyr
Oh, I got one of those too. I still had the game installed so I patched it up and played for about an hour. I've been reading a lot of good feedback on various forums the past week or so. It looks like the current developer team patched up the game to be a lot more stable and faster.
When I played, in February, I really liked that the classes were unique and fun to play actually. But there's just something about the game that fails to catch me... I can't quite put my finger on it.
XBL/PSN Gamertag: KillTrash
i installed it again also back in Feb, but it was still a huge *yawn* Don't think i'm going to bother reinstalling again.
Gamer Tag: Rantyr
I actually really like the way a lot of the classes play in Vanguard.
Being fangoriously devoured by a gelatinous monster.
The class play wasn't ever really a problem for me in Vanguard. It was just the fact that the world was so boring and uninvolved. I always enjoyed playing my psionicist, but enjoying playing a class and enjoying the game as a whole are two different things to me.
XBox Live Gamertag: Lancejt | Zune | SteamID
PSN ID: Lancejt
A lot of people say that the world is huge and see that as pro. I actually don't like that. It makes the world look very barren with a lot of unused space that increases traveling time. It reminds me of Anarchy Online that had this huge world full of nothing with a few points of interest here and there.
XBL/PSN Gamertag: KillTrash
Huge, well populated world == Pro
Huge, barren wasteland == Con
Chumpy wrote:
Malor wrote:
Don't you mean "creates meaningful travel"? I never did understand what that even meant...
I poked my head back in just to jet around at 310% run speed with my 50 Bard. Now its just going to make my Age of Conan horse seem even slower.
VG is a fun and pretty stable game in its present state. You definitely can solo to cap if you desire, and there are a number of good dungeons to run as a group. Most classes are varied and fun. Crafting is deep, although thats a very subjective thing. Tons of quests to do and a reasonable amount of content for 50's, maybe a few good play months to finish all end game content barring the deeper wings of APW.
Still nothing new there for me to do, but I did enjoy doing the content in the game the first time around.
As an aside, I have to agree that big open worlds are generally dull. LOTRO did a good job of making an open world yet keeping it small enough so that it wasn't barren, but I still prefer well designed zones or playfields over boring connecting space any day.
I played the game sometime after launch and the game just felt stiff, buggy, and quite frankly a primarily boring world. I wonder if that has changed in the last year or so?
The Gaming Chronicles
PSN ID: Harbinger01
Steam ID: [GWJ] CrashedHardrive
Elysium wrote:
The game is definitely a lot more stable and bug free nowadays. They didn't fix the boring world for me though...
XBL/PSN Gamertag: KillTrash
The new cheap and accessible riftway system has helped a lot with the large barren landscape.
Being fangoriously devoured by a gelatinous monster.
I played after launch and initially enjoyed it until I hit the point where the amount of time required to get anything significant done was much more than I had available. I enjoyed the crafting system for 20 levels too before I got tired of it. Part of me is curios to take this opportunity for a free look at what they've done with the game in the last year and a half, but I don't have the time to play games I know I like, let alone spend it on something like this.
All I remember from Vanguard were the spiders. I think they only had about four monster models to draw from, so from levels 1-50, all I did was kill spiders.
Well, Cooking Mama didn't help me become a better cook, and Trauma Center certainly didn't help me become a better surgeon. I have the proof of both sitting in my freezer. -- imbiginjapan
Well, obviously this is all subjective etc etc, but I'm loving it. Of course, I loved EQ1 too, warts and masochistic pain and all. WoW is polished in every imaginable way, and 10,000,000 people love it that way, but AoC spoiled me and I prefer the more realistic graphics in AoC and VG over WoW. I also love the feel of exploration in VG. There is stuff to see and find everywhere. In WoW I never felt that way. I felt like the world was mostly on a preset path, with very little that wasn't known and written up on 100 different websites. There are a ton of classes and all have been very fun so far. I love the chained attacks and group-interplay. It's not for everyone, obviously, but I believe it has changed a lot since launch. I played very, very briefly in beta and couldn't stand it, and recently started re-playing again based on the PA and Ars threads, and am having a blast. I bought the collector's edition for $10 off Amazon.
XBox Live: Khoram
Warhammer Online: TBD
Is there no free trial for this game? Or buddy pass? I looked briefly and couldn't find one. The free months appears to only be for previous subscribers.
ThePolypusher
GH3 Stats
Trial should be coming mid August. That's when they have planned to launch the Trial Island and I think that will work out like a re-launch of the game.
Right now, I think buddy passes are the only option. You can find the game cheap though. I heard people paying $9 on collectors edition boxes. I paid $5 in February in a CompUSA that was closing near where I live.
XBL/PSN Gamertag: KillTrash
There are plenty of friend keys to be had. There are threads on the official forum, and I have about 6 left myself - let me know if you want one. The downside is that you will be looking at a *19* GB download. I felt paying $10 for the collector's edition was fine, even if I didn't end up liking it, over trying to download.
XBox Live: Khoram
Warhammer Online: TBD
Hmm... that's interesting. I was going to link to a thread on the official AoC forums I posted in yesterday where I did 2 huge writeups giving my honest impressions of VG and comparing/contrasting it (without being a fanboy, and trying to give AoC it's due)... but it looks like the whole thread disappeared. It's not listed on my profile under View Your Posts or whatever. It may be due to the fact that everyone else in the thread wanted to talk about putting their genitalia in a blender (to describe what VG was like - which is why I tried to inject actual statements for discussion into the conversation).
Anyway, if you want to know more, check out these links:
Unofficial fan-made trailer
Penny-Arcade thread
Ars Technica thread if you don't like PA
XBox Live: Khoram
Warhammer Online: TBD
Vanguard still has a lot of rough edges. They did soften them quite a bit by expanding access to the riftway system.
Crafting is still convoluted and I wonder if the accessibility of the game will lower dramatically once quest gear gets long in the tooth. Everything seems really good so far up until the high teens for most of the classes.
The pet controls and pet AI needs to be brought up to speed with WoW. Really anything less post WoW sticks out like a half giant's sore thumb.
They really need animation help. The shape-shifting models and animations are 100% amateur. The base characters idle animations are stiff and don't lend themselves well to the artificial doll looking player models. I really wish I could say that they compare favorably to AoC. AoC's animations and aesthetics for the humanoid models have much more style and personality.
But what they did get right, they got right in spades. The classes are unique, well rounded and powerful. They are all much more action oriented than WoW yet no where near as micromanagement centric and attack-mashing as AoC. I think the lot of the classes strike the perfect balance between both sides of the "special attack spamming" coin.
Class Highlights:
ranger - should be the model for the ranger class in mmo's going forward
bard - the music system is incredibly customizable and diverse
monk - should be the model for monk classes from now on
blood mage - the way to do a life leech cloth caster/healer
dread knight - not the best implementation of the anti paladin but I love adding block % to 2 handers so they can tank w/ them
necro - a mediocre necro implementation but the pet grafting mechanic is a great idea that is implemented averagely
paladin - how to do a healing tank mage without being overpowered
cleric - the epitome of melee battle cleric; if warrior priests in WAR are anything less, I will be extremely disappointed
disciple - if the warrior priests in WAR aren't like the VG cleric, then they should be like the Disciple
shaman - done much better in other MMO's but the patron pets are worth mentioning
warrior - a WoW warrior that has viability with an empty rage meter
psionicist, sorcerer, druid - great spins on the pure caster but lack of monster encounter polish makes cloth wearers frustrating
Being fangoriously devoured by a gelatinous monster.
Jumped back in yesterday and have to say I am impressed so far. I had trouble playing when VG was first released so I made almost zero progress in the game. No I am enjoying all the little discoveries you come across constantly in this game. Example earlier tonight I was fighting some earth elemental type creature and after killing it and looting I found I could use my Quarrying skill on its corpse just as if it was a harvesting node. After some discussion in chat I found out that many other mobs at the same way. You can kill a Treant and then chop up its copse for wood!
I agree completely and am happy to hear SOE is in the process of a complete player model overhaul.
http://vgplayers.station.sony.com/newsArchive.vm?id=620§ion=News
While I agree that Vanguard's animations and models aren't up to AoC's standard, what else is? AoC just released 2 months ago and has very high HW specs. I think that VG's models and animations, while not as good as AoC's, are still better than most other MMOs. I love the battle animations, especially for chain attacks and for monks. With 3.0 shader support enabled, characters look great to me, and the upcoming revamp should only make it better (please don't botch it, devs...). I just don't get how you think the animations are "100% amateur". Except AoC, I can't think of an MMO game I've played with better animations. They are certainly better than WoW's.
I won't disagree about rough edges, and the crafting (and diplomacy) system will make any WoW-raised crafter cry in terror, I'm sure (I still remember days of buying 150 plat rubies in EQ1 for "training" jewelcrafting, pressing combine, and getting nothing in return - lose the gem and metal materials, and get no skill increase. So anything less punishing is relatively "good" to me
). But it's hard to overestimate how fun and unique the overall feel of the classes is. After AoC's lackluster "you only get new stuff every 5 levels, and it's just upgrades to 2 of the 4 abilities you already have", it's refreshing to look forward to getting new and upgraded abilities every other level. I know WoW has that too, but there's a lot more classes and more diverse gameplay to be found in VG's classes than in WoW's. Though they could use something akin to WoW's hunter 
XBox Live: Khoram
Warhammer Online: TBD
I totally feel ya here.
I meant to say that the shape-shifting models and animations were extremely poor. At level 8, druids get the wolf shape spell. It looks and animates horribly.
And in general, the run and idle animations are too similar between different races, and are stiff. The half giant should move and stand like a half giant and not like a gnome or a wood elf.
Being fangoriously devoured by a gelatinous monster.