12/13/06

To start out, things are a little confusing in the startup area. You have to make sure you pay close attention to the wording to find your next location. At the low-end its very linear, hope this changes once the normal "game training" is over. Graphics are nice with lots of detail and also include very good background music and sounds. I would have to say the feel is a bit over powered for the class I picked. Mobs even to me or even one level up are not much risk and some mobs 2 levels up are the same. Will write more once I get into the game, but looks like there is more work to be done for a fair review.

One note is that the "starter" areas are split apart, so if you start with friends you may not be able to reach each other until you past all the "training" quests and moved out of the area. There are a number of husband/wife groups that are not happy with this feature and being unable to switch to the others instance. This might be something needing addressed as I play the same and would be something I wouldn't care for although my wife didn't make beta this time.

01/04/07

Okay, The holiday time is over and I've had a difficult time downloading the latest patch which appears very large. I've found that patching time is only permitted when the servers are up, which has been hit or miss for me to be able to get things patched. Will give more once I'm back in play and running.

01/07/07

Finally able to finish the patch and get back into the game. Some of the graphics appear much clearer to the eye and movement is much easier. I don't see near as many people now, but expect that's because they've all been able to move on during my download issues. I will solo as much as I can in this area then try to move on and find people to run with again. At this point, as a Hunter, you can point blank shoot your bow and to get that visual just think of the movie with the ending fight with the Elephants. I don't currently have any triple shots, but the ones that are available will deal nice damage on a target before it gets to you and you can continue with the bow to the end.

This is a very different feel from a lot of games and the shots feel instant with cooldowns of a few seconds. Leveling is much slower when solo at this point and I'm having some trouble telling agro from neutral mobs, but that should come in time. I am starting to enjoy the play since this last bunch of updates and the lag issues which may have been due to the tons of people that started at the same time as me.

01/10/07

This are working well at this point and even though I can't get with anyone else to play in groups still the solo play is still available. If someone wants to solo, I can see its possible however I'm going to take it that its much slower or the XP rating has been greatly changed on mobs since the starter area play. I was in groups in there and going over mobs was much faster so I'll just leave it to the number of mobs over time in a group. More as we go, but I need to move on from this area ASAP to see more of this world and see if we get less linear.

01/12/07

Changes made in beta program, haven't been reinvited back. It was just getting good to play.

01/14/07

Reinvite, will play more and give information.

03/26/07

End of Closed Beta, Pre-order starts 03/30/07 with Open Beta being 04/06/07.