I have a question regarding Champions Online. I read that the game has 5 zones. Just how big are these zones as that seems terribly small and limited.zomglolcats

I have yet to actually fly across a zone end to end. So far, I've encountered NPCs in any given zone with levels ranging from level 5 henchmen up to level 27 crime boss (to put in WoW terms, an elite elite monster [and no, that's not a typo...it is indeed a doubly elite mob]). However, from the distances I have been able to travel, I would guess that each zone is roughly as big as (if not a little bit larger) your average zone in City of Heroes/Villains.

Look up Clive Barker's Undying. Just thinking about it is giving me the willies.

...oh, and also the human campaign in Alien vs. Predator 2. Although, that's only part of the game, so it probably won't count as single scariest game I've played.

Pretty much digital copies (Impulse, Direct2Drive, GoG.com, etc...) are the main source of games that don't require the disc to run. There are some games that won't require the disc, even if you buy the hard copy version. Most of the time, though, these games started out requiring the disc...but the requirement was phased out using a patch. As mentioned, Unreal Tournament 3 (and all other Unreal Tournament games) had a patch that was released that removed the need for the disc. Similarly, Supreme Commander/Forged Alliance, Company of Heroes, Blizzard's entire catalog of games that have authentication keys have all had patches that removed the need for the disc.

Two recent games that came out that (surprisingly) didn't need the disc to run (right out of the box) are Spore and Red Alert 3. I say surprisingly because both games were published by EA...and EA had a nasty track record of draconian forms of DRM.

yes but regarding aion it seems that many people are really enjoying the beta, you know, pvpve, wings, combat, content. whereas for champions all i'm hearing is "character creation is awesome". there's only so much time i can spend in character creation.Kh1ndjal

I wish I could say that there are numerous varied quest types in Champions...but I don't want to mislead you. So far, there have been tiered quests...but they all revolve around the 'Go over there, kill X (a number) of enemy Y, and if they drop anything useful, bring it back to me'. Sure, sometimes they'll mix things up by including hostages or you having to kill a boss-y type npc, take his/her key card that opens the building he/she was standing in front of...but even then, it all comes down to go into the building and either kill everybody inside, steal whatever is inside after you've killed everything that moves, or activate X number of items inside the building.

That being said, crafting is also kind of fun (the experiment/development dichotomy is rather nice).

As for the gripes with Aion, the "Aion: Quite a surprise!" thread has a good split of people who enjoyed the beta, and those (like me) who didn't really care for it. Basic run-down goes like this:

• It's too much like WoW ("If I wanted to play WoW again, I'd just reactivate my subscription")
• Too grindy (If you think my above description for Champs sounds bleak, Aion's feels quite a bit worse...the only time I encountered a quest that didn't tell me to go kill X number of baddie Y was at level 4: "go gather 10 Aruns (or something...it's a beginner-level crafting material you gather from the ground) for me"
• Objective locations are too far apart and take too long to get there (I have an issue that compounds this annoyance, but you'll have to keep reading to get to it)
• Down-time between fights feels artificially long (even when resting)
• Character voices and sound clips repeat FAR too often and are FAR too annoying (my priest/chanter says a grand total of two words [not counting grunts]...and she will say these two sounds bites every single time I cast those two spells)

Okay, on to two new things that make me even less likely to enjoy the game (Aion):

• Let's suppose you are on a 'kill X number of monster Y' quest. The two mobs can have the exact same name, be the same level, and look absolutely identical, but if they are separated by so much as a road or some other fabricated border, one of the mobs will count towards your quest total, but the other will not. This happened recently to me (namely, yesterday), and it was where I had to kill 10 vicious worgs or something. The quest level was set to 13 or so, and so I wandered around looking for anything that was named vicious worg' and was level 12-13. After spending about 30 minutes killing every single viciousworg in sight (about six), I noticed that my quest progress was still sitting at 0/10. Turned out, I needed to be on the OTHER side of the road (a distance of maybe 20 meters) for my kills to actually count. Well...how was I supposed to know that?!? I mean, it asks me for a vicious worg...so I killed a vicious worg. Grr...
• For a game that advertisesthe fact that your character has wings as much as it does, I was kind of puzzled why they lock you out of using them as much as they do. Immediately after I had gotten my wings (with much heralding by the king/queen/regent/somebody officious), I tried using them...but lo and behold! "You are not allowed to fly in this area." This happens far more frequently than I would have expected (seeing as how flight and wings are plastered every where you look in this game [including splash screens]), and just feels far more artificially forced than it should. If it's to make it 'challenging' to get around, I would have expected the 1-minute flight duration to take care of that one (especially since you can't fly too high, lest you pull an Icarus and plummet to your death [or at least severe injury...followed by your death at the hands of the half-dozen pre-emptive attacking mobs you just aggro'd]). And if there's one thing that Champions handles well, is the use of your travel powers (namely, flight) to get to places where you shouldn't be: AA turrets that can smack you around so hard, your body will literally fly half-way across the map before you come to a stop. Here's a solution for Aion if they don't want people flying around to avoid obstacles: have crazy-hard npcs flying around performing combat air patrols or something, make them have a HUUUUUGE aggro radius that only triggers if your wings are active, and give them a lasso ability that either pulls you towards them or teleports them to you.

Sorry for the lengthy post. It's late, I'm tired, and I'm avoiding work that I REALLY need to finish up. All these things contribute to me making insanely long posts. Hmm...now that I think about it, maybe I should blog this...

i was thinking of seriously getting champions online this weekend. since i have a full 10 days and a bit more later to enjoy it. i cant get aion because it wont be released by then. unlike aion, noone on this forum has said something like "it's awesome" "it blew me away" or even "its great". too bad there is no free trial in the foreseeable future. and threads like these are putting me off...Kh1ndjal

After the open beta became actually 'open', threads discussing how Aion isn't all that it was made out to be started popping up.

As I said, the game is definitely worth about $30...maybe even as much as $40. So, if you can find the game for that much, I'd say go for it.

Personally, I really like the game. Out of the three MMOs that I've most recently tried out (Aion beta and DDO: Unlimited are the other two games), I find myself playing Champions the most. While content is a little on the light side currently, there is still plenty to do until you hit the level cap (granted, all that content is spread withint five zones)...and even after the level cap, there's still pvp arenas to engage in.

Honestly, though...I probably wouldn't have picked up the game if it weren't for a pricing error at the store I got it from. $50 is a bit much...$30 turned out to be just the right price.

Thread title should read "Batman platinum and poor impulse control will make you lose friends"...

:D

• Star Control 2
• Wing Commander 2 > Wing Commander 1
• Wing Commander 3 > Wing Commander 2 (even with the Kilrathi being reduced to Jim Henson muppets)
• Wing Commander 4 > Wing Commander 3, 2, and 1
• Ultima VII: The Black Gate (as has already been mentioned)
• The Beast Within: A Gabriel Knight Mystery > Sins of the Father: A Gabriel Knight Mystery (in some regards)
• Homeworld 2
• Duke Nuken 3D
• Longbow 2
• MechCommander 2

Personally, I really wish that there would be a Wing Commander: Armada 2...just thinking about that game using a current-gen engine, the availability of broadband internet, and multi-core processors makes me as giddy as a schoolgirl.

[QUOTE="eitremn"]

how about star trek online? bout the same time frame eh?

Franko_3

They've recently (as in, this past week) started accepting applications for their closed beta. So I would say that 2010 would be a fairly reasonable guess (although, it could very well take until the end of 2010/early-2011)

Personally, I REALLY hope they do. I'd like to play through Quest of the Avatar, Warriors of Destiny, Underworld 2, and (though it was one of the weakest games in the series) Pagan. When we got Quest of the Avatar, I was too young to grasp the fundamental concepts. When we got Warriors of Destiny, I too impatient and discovered a love of blowing things up (MechWarrior). I'd like to think that I've gotten to the point where I would immensely enjoy these games.