Honestly, I'm really torn. I have a pretty serious gaming system here (Core i7-930 and a GTX 470), and the game is pretty laggy. Some of it's graphics related (the lift in Limsa turns the game into a slideshow), and some of it is the well-known input lag. Input lag isn't tremendously bad on some characters and in some games, but this game has a bit of a twitch component to it -- so the lag absolutely must be addressed. My sincere hope is that we're seeing this because the servers are overloaded (or being intentionally underpowered, as they did in CoH beta for stress testing) and the graphics engine is running in its debug mode. I may try turning down my graphics settings to see if I can get the right balance of playability and speed for beta.
As for the game play, I like the concept of the guildleves; they remind me a lot of the radio/newspaper missions in CoH, and they're great for some "instant action." I hope there's more standard questing that's just been disabled for beta, though, because one cannot live on guildleves alone. My hopes are raised by the fact that some of the NPCs seem to have quest lead-in text, but just aren't giving out quests at the moment.
I can't really evaluate combat that well due to all of the lag. I will say that the active/passive switching isn't very intuitive, nor are the cooldowns or casting times. I didn't particularly like playing my Pugilist for this reason. On the other hand, I love the fact that the UI focuses your attention on the middle of the screen. It improves situational awareness and keeps your eyes on the cool animations.
So, right now, I'm going to say it's a rough beta, but I'm holding out hope. I don't see any of the egregious game balance issues yet that, say, CO had during its beta (and still has). I'm about, oh, 50-60% convinced that I should preorder.
But, damn, is the game beautiful.
As for the game play, I like the concept of the guildleves; they remind me a lot of the radio/newspaper missions in CoH, and they're great for some "instant action." I hope there's more standard questing that's just been disabled for beta, though, because one cannot live on guildleves alone. My hopes are raised by the fact that some of the NPCs seem to have quest lead-in text, but just aren't giving out quests at the moment.
I can't really evaluate combat that well due to all of the lag. I will say that the active/passive switching isn't very intuitive, nor are the cooldowns or casting times. I didn't particularly like playing my Pugilist for this reason. On the other hand, I love the fact that the UI focuses your attention on the middle of the screen. It improves situational awareness and keeps your eyes on the cool animations.
So, right now, I'm going to say it's a rough beta, but I'm holding out hope. I don't see any of the egregious game balance issues yet that, say, CO had during its beta (and still has). I'm about, oh, 50-60% convinced that I should preorder.
But, damn, is the game beautiful.
The Freelance Wizard
Quality RP at low, low prices!
((about me | about L'yhta Mahre | L'yhta's desk | about Mysterium, the Ivory Tower: a heavy RP society of mages))
Quality RP at low, low prices!
((about me | about L'yhta Mahre | L'yhta's desk | about Mysterium, the Ivory Tower: a heavy RP society of mages))
