[News]

Hi all,

We have just published our first impressions of *Warhammer Online: Age
of Reckoning*. If you could post a link on your site that would be very
much appreciated.

*Link:*
http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2008/10/05/warhammer-online-age-of-reckoning/1


*Picture:*
http://images.bit-tech.net/content_images/2008/10/warhammer-online-age-of-reckoning/fp_img.jpg


*Quote:
*/From our time with WOAoR, we’ve taken something of a mixed bag of
impressions that while by no means disappointing, doesn’t leave us
totally convinced of the game's merits. Goa has set out to create an MMO
which has the mass market appeal to grab some of the big fat money pie
that Blizzard has been scoffing for the last four years, and while many
parts of //WOAoR are similar to //WoW, the key focus of the game is
server wide PvP, rather than //WoW’s emphasis on organised PvE content.

This shift affects the whole game right from the get go, and you’re
encouraged, via the inclusion of public quests and in world RvR
battlegrounds, to spontaneously group with your fellow players to
accomplish larger PvP goals.

The problem is that large scale PvP is never going to be as ordered or
organised as PvE, and PvP engagements tend to be won on sheer strength
of numbers in the area rather than individual player skill or
co-operation. Obviously this isn’t so much the case with PvP scenarios,
but these don’t really offer anything which you won’t find elsewhere in
the genre, and are easily bypassed by players determined to level as
quickly as possible.

On that subject the whole process of levelling has almost been made into
a single player experience. There’s no real motivation to engage with
others and group together to accomplish goals – you can drop in and out
of public quests at will and all the remaining quests are strictly solo
affairs. While we can appreciate that some people just want a single
player RPG experience, surely MMOs should encourage player interaction –
isn’t that what the whole online part of the genre is about? Here, the
player to player interaction has been stripped to a minimum, and it
makes for rather lonely gameplay./
*

*Cheers guys!

Tim Smalley
www.bit-tech.net