And my vote is in :D
With the NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) lifted, those of us in the Beta for AION are allowed to talk and blog and whatnot about our experiences in this game. Makes sense, as it is being released in September. :3 They want to start getting word out, I am assuming. ^^ Me, I am more than happy to tell people. I love it so far, and for anyone who enjoys MMOs, I recommend this one HIGHLY, from what I have experienced so far.
After spending a few hours in AION, learning the attacks, the UI (User Interface), how to talk to others, what different items and descriptions do, and seeing the overall graphics of the game, even when they aren't at FULL...I love it. The ease of doing quests is incredible. It has a built-in quest tracker, and down on your mini-map it even shows you arrows of the quest people/areas that you need to go to. There are a lot of similarities between AION and WoW, so it made it easier to figure things out. But I will say there are a lot of differences, as well, and that is what makes the game that much more fun.
I made two characters so far, one male, one female. Both, though are Mages. I might change the male to a Warrior, who can branch off to two different types. In fact, each class can branch off into one of two specializations at LVL 10. To top that off, there are "Stigma Stones" that can be used to give your characters abilities normally outside their class abilities, giving them a wider range of things to do. At LVL 10 you also gain the ability to fly. You get an ACTUAL set of wings. I am really looking forward to that. My female mage, Athriuune, is LVL 5 right now, and will be 10 later tonight/tomorrow morning, at least I am hoping. ^^
As far as Customizing characters, I spent about an HOUR just messing with the different options for customizing both the male and female characters. I wanted to see just how MUCH you can do. It goes so far as selecting from about 40 or so different hairstyles, then you can change the color of the hair to ANY color you want...I mean literally...there is a whole spectrum bar underneath the basic color choices. Then you can pick lip color, skin color, your face type (Which includes different eye colors), tattoos (which include various scar designs for the males), and other decorations. THEN you have a whole OTHER screen you can play with...your body type. The first part is customizing your face completely...from style of forehead to cheeks to eye size and position on the face, to eyebrow positions and styles, lips, chin, ears...you name it. The body types...and this is incredible...you don't HAVE to be a basic skinny-mini. There are a couple body sizes for both male and female that give you a larger body size, like about up to size 20-ish or so. THAT I love. You can then go individually to arm and leg thickness, hip size, waist, chest(for females), hands and feet. You can even choose how tall you are and what your headsize is. There was one person running around with a little body and a big head with the name "Brain" ...I about died laughing. I have seen people running around who made there characters look like little kids. THAT is probably just the surface of what you can do with all this customizing. Later on, I am certain, you can change your weapons/clothing styles and colors, too. In the customizing section, you can even see what your character will look like in top-LVL gear. THAT is impressive.
I needn't say what I think about the graphics...or maybe I should. It is one of the HIGH-points in this game. Even though I didn't even set my graphics up to HIGH just yet, the quality is over ten times better than what you would experience in WoW. Not to mention FPS (frames per second)...I got an average of 35-50 fps where there were a lot of people in the area...more than I can say for Dalaran (Average of 15-20 fps if you're lucky). In some areas I was getting up to 80 or 90...60 seemed to be the cap in WoW for me. O.o; Gameplay is SMOOTH as hell...it seems no matter the FPS (probably unless it gets REALLY low), the movements and everything are very smooth and consistent.
As for the graphics themselves, I can show you side-by-side graphics of different things between World of Warcraft and AION.
Just to give you an idea of under water...
World of Warcraft:
AION:
No matter the angle, you can still see above water, unlike in WoW. In WoW, you can only see the rippling water from below...nothing above the water, like trees or landscape, like here in AION.
BIG difference. O.o
Here are some other water effects, and other graphics of the game, along with comparisons between WoW and AION.
World of Warcraft:
[Above water]
AION:
[Above water]
In this one you can see the quest tracker up in the top right corner. :D
World of Warcraft:
[Water level]
In WoW, to give you a better idea, you can't actually get a split-level waterline. It's one or the other. Above OR below.
AION:
[Water level]
Here you can actually SEE the distortion of the water, even though you can barely see the waterline. That's what's incredible.
World of Warcraft:
[Characters]
(>.> Twins, anyone...?)
AION:
[Characters]
(Yes, hair is VERY customizable, but this hairstyle, Brian and I BOTH picked without even knowing what each one picked. I shit you not. XD)
And here are some other random screencaps I took:
"I caught a fish!"
Catching fish and playing in the water.
My male mage getting rained on. :P (Yes, I used the same name as my DK from WoW, and YES, he is holding a HUGE leaf above his head to keep the rain off.)
I don't think I had the weather effects turned up for this, but there is rain falling in these.
So, overall, I am REALLY impressed with this game. It still has it's bugs and things to work out, but hey, that's what Beta-ing is all about. Playing the game to help the developers work out the kinks. ^^ And remember...my graphics were not set on full-high mode. I will do that tonight, and post more pics.
After spending a few hours in AION, learning the attacks, the UI (User Interface), how to talk to others, what different items and descriptions do, and seeing the overall graphics of the game, even when they aren't at FULL...I love it. The ease of doing quests is incredible. It has a built-in quest tracker, and down on your mini-map it even shows you arrows of the quest people/areas that you need to go to. There are a lot of similarities between AION and WoW, so it made it easier to figure things out. But I will say there are a lot of differences, as well, and that is what makes the game that much more fun.
I made two characters so far, one male, one female. Both, though are Mages. I might change the male to a Warrior, who can branch off to two different types. In fact, each class can branch off into one of two specializations at LVL 10. To top that off, there are "Stigma Stones" that can be used to give your characters abilities normally outside their class abilities, giving them a wider range of things to do. At LVL 10 you also gain the ability to fly. You get an ACTUAL set of wings. I am really looking forward to that. My female mage, Athriuune, is LVL 5 right now, and will be 10 later tonight/tomorrow morning, at least I am hoping. ^^
As far as Customizing characters, I spent about an HOUR just messing with the different options for customizing both the male and female characters. I wanted to see just how MUCH you can do. It goes so far as selecting from about 40 or so different hairstyles, then you can change the color of the hair to ANY color you want...I mean literally...there is a whole spectrum bar underneath the basic color choices. Then you can pick lip color, skin color, your face type (Which includes different eye colors), tattoos (which include various scar designs for the males), and other decorations. THEN you have a whole OTHER screen you can play with...your body type. The first part is customizing your face completely...from style of forehead to cheeks to eye size and position on the face, to eyebrow positions and styles, lips, chin, ears...you name it. The body types...and this is incredible...you don't HAVE to be a basic skinny-mini. There are a couple body sizes for both male and female that give you a larger body size, like about up to size 20-ish or so. THAT I love. You can then go individually to arm and leg thickness, hip size, waist, chest(for females), hands and feet. You can even choose how tall you are and what your headsize is. There was one person running around with a little body and a big head with the name "Brain" ...I about died laughing. I have seen people running around who made there characters look like little kids. THAT is probably just the surface of what you can do with all this customizing. Later on, I am certain, you can change your weapons/clothing styles and colors, too. In the customizing section, you can even see what your character will look like in top-LVL gear. THAT is impressive.
I needn't say what I think about the graphics...or maybe I should. It is one of the HIGH-points in this game. Even though I didn't even set my graphics up to HIGH just yet, the quality is over ten times better than what you would experience in WoW. Not to mention FPS (frames per second)...I got an average of 35-50 fps where there were a lot of people in the area...more than I can say for Dalaran (Average of 15-20 fps if you're lucky). In some areas I was getting up to 80 or 90...60 seemed to be the cap in WoW for me. O.o; Gameplay is SMOOTH as hell...it seems no matter the FPS (probably unless it gets REALLY low), the movements and everything are very smooth and consistent.
As for the graphics themselves, I can show you side-by-side graphics of different things between World of Warcraft and AION.
Just to give you an idea of under water...
World of Warcraft:
AION:
No matter the angle, you can still see above water, unlike in WoW. In WoW, you can only see the rippling water from below...nothing above the water, like trees or landscape, like here in AION.
BIG difference. O.o
Here are some other water effects, and other graphics of the game, along with comparisons between WoW and AION.
World of Warcraft:
[Above water]
AION:
[Above water]
In this one you can see the quest tracker up in the top right corner. :D
World of Warcraft:
[Water level]
In WoW, to give you a better idea, you can't actually get a split-level waterline. It's one or the other. Above OR below.
AION:
[Water level]
Here you can actually SEE the distortion of the water, even though you can barely see the waterline. That's what's incredible.
World of Warcraft:
[Characters]
(>.> Twins, anyone...?)
AION:
[Characters]
(Yes, hair is VERY customizable, but this hairstyle, Brian and I BOTH picked without even knowing what each one picked. I shit you not. XD)
And here are some other random screencaps I took:
"I caught a fish!"
Catching fish and playing in the water.
My male mage getting rained on. :P (Yes, I used the same name as my DK from WoW, and YES, he is holding a HUGE leaf above his head to keep the rain off.)
I don't think I had the weather effects turned up for this, but there is rain falling in these.
So, overall, I am REALLY impressed with this game. It still has it's bugs and things to work out, but hey, that's what Beta-ing is all about. Playing the game to help the developers work out the kinks. ^^ And remember...my graphics were not set on full-high mode. I will do that tonight, and post more pics.