Wildstar

[Ian]

Wildstar is a new sci-fi MMO.  It released a couple weeks ago.  Initially I wasn't really attracted to it.  It has a cartoony style similar to WoW and some of the stuff is a little too cutesy, so I didn't give it much thought.  Then after its release I started to read a little bit more about it and decided I'd give it a try.

The mechanics in this game are actually pretty interesting, and dare I say fun.  I just passed level 20, and at 20 you gain access to your first dungeon.  The boss fights in dungeons are pretty awesome.  Every ability and spell in the game has to be manually aimed.  So you can't just be a static healer and sit in the corner clicking on your raid frames to heal people.  You actually have to get in to the fight, and aim your heals at the people who need them.  Meanwhile you have to actively dodge boss mechanics while making sure your own DPS finds its mark.  It makes for very dynamic boss fights and actually requires everyone pay attention and be on their game.

I hadn't had that much fun fighting a boss since my first raid in vanilla WoW.

There are also 'Adventures' which are different than dungeons, and you gain access to these earlier in the leveling progression.  They're a bit more open ended than a typical dungeon and allow players to vote on the decisions they'd like to make.  Overall I'm having a lot of fun with Wildstar.  I've dabbled in the PvP side battlegrounds and they're pretty fun too. 

They've really combined a lot of the things that really work and people find fun about other MMOs and combine it into a product that works without trying to totally reinvent the wheel.

Anyway, I've got two trial product keys available if anyone wants them.  First come first served.

I'm on
Bloodsworn PVP Server
Exiles Faction

[Don Jorge]

Noooooo! I am on Bloodsworn and lvl 24 but alas...Dominion...Chua Spellslinger too much fun!

[Ian]

Noooooo! I am on Bloodsworn and lvl 24 but alas...Dominion...Chua Spellslinger too much fun!

Human spellslinger, if I find you, I will kill you. 

[Sir Nate]

I think I've heard of it. Might be worth giving a try, since Wow and Guild wars were a bit bland for my liking.

[Ian]

I don't know how many of you, if any of you were hardcore WoW players.  It's inevitable to compare every MMO offering to WoW because it's the king, plain and simple.

One thing Wildstar has going for it that no other MMO has had since WoW's release in 2004, is that Wildstar delivered a complete MMO experience on launch.  It has a fully developed leveling system, crafting system, player housing, customization, a rich endgame, real raiding, battlegrounds, arenas... it's a complete MMO.  That can't be said of any other MMO in recent history.

Virtually every other MMO is released too soon and is missing major parts of the game with promises to get better over time.  Like SWTOR... awesome leveling, NO endgame on launch, and 2 crappy battlegrounds.

I think there's something to be said for a game that actually launches in a complete state, because unfortunately, that is not the norm anymore.

[Sir Edward]

Sadly, the entire gaming community has probably gotten used to the half-finished MMO launch. It's become the standard, which is actually fairly disappointing.

I haven't had much chance to try out Wildstar yet. I played a little, but over the last couple of weeks I haven't had a whole lot of graphical performance. My video card started a slow-death back in May, and over the last few weeks I've had it going through the RMA process, and thus have been running my older card. A day or two ago, I got the replacement card installed, so I'm finally back in business.

So I'm still sort of at the beginning in both Wildstar and Witcher 2, and trying to decide where I want to proceed.

[Don Jorge]

Sir Edward, what server are you playing on?

[Sir Edward]

I started up on the Bloodsworn PVP server. I'm probably still around level 2 or 3 right now though, since I just haven't been playing while my video card was in transit.

[Don Jorge]

exile or dominion?

[Sir Edward]

I was on Exiles... And of course my trial key expired. I'll probably play through some of the other stuff I'm working on for now, and see if I want to circle back to this one.

[Don Jorge]

Dominion have much better music...very catholic...if you ever played Eve Online they are like Amaar