I was impressed by a lot of the console titles, even though they were not exactly my preferred genres. The new Infamous and Fallout titles look awesome, as does Marvel vs. Capcom 3. I hadn't even heard of the Epic Mickey project, but it looks brilliant - a really clever use of Mickey as a hero, with the magic brush as his weapon. It's very classic Mickey meets the Sorcerer's Apprentice crossed with Scribblenauts and an action RPG style gameplay. Their booth was one of my favorites - playing several videos on a constant loop and displaying large scale artistic renderings of game scenes. I love the idea, it's such a great homage to Disney as an animation studio that it actually works, whereas most "franchise" games (movie tie ins and the like) are poorly imagined and executed.
I was surprised to see some interesting FPS and RPG shooter titles that actually interested me. I tend to shy away from violent games because I dislike gore and have poor reflexes. However, these new types of FPS games that don't necessarily prize headshots intrigue me.
I spent a lot of time at the Aion booth playing their stacked (level 55, with lots of stigmas) Elyos Chanter. The expansion looks beautiful, of course, and I had forgotten just how much I adore the Chanter class and how it plays. I may even reactivate my account just to fool around and farm, something my twisted mind misses greatly. The new attacks look awesome, and apparently I can upgrade to the expansion for free. The features I was hoping would be implemented have not, though. There are vanity and practical pets - different pets offer unique bonuses such as extra storage or combat warnings. However, nothing about the dynamic seasons or player housing.
I also spent a lot of time at the Tera booth, watching the cinematic and gameplay. I nabbed a console for a while on Saturday afternoon, and explored the caster class and also played one of the melee classes a little bit. The combat system is brilliant, forcing players to actually aim their skills and position their character in real time in order to launch effective attacks. It does take a bit of getting used to, though. It plays a bit like Diablo 2, in the sense that they had one skill stuck to left and right click, allowing you to easily control the basic combat by maneuvering with your left hand (W A S D) and launching attacks with the mouse (left and right click). The Alt key allows you to toggle combat and passive modes, which remove the "aiming" function of the mouse and allows you to mouse over skills and navigate menus. The mage's skills were neat - a good variety that allowed for different combat styles. There were single direct damage spells that I aimed at single targets, and "wave" attacks like the old school "flame wave" from Diablo 2, that allowed me to sweep through multiple mobs when I got swarmed.
The booth guys were chatting people up, helping them figure out the controls and answering general questions. I am excited about the "no faction" aspect, but wary that the PvP system won't be fully open like Lineage 2. They hinted at a built in political system that is still under development, and assured me that PvP servers will offer "nearly" free-pvp that is still being tweaked. The gameplay was seamless - my main concern with the "no targeting" system - the most radical difference from previous MMOs - was server lag. One of the most frustrating experiences, especially in large scale pvp, is trying to target players who are not where you think they are. The game ran without any positioning issues due to lag at the demo booth, but that will be one of the things I need to test for myself on my own PC before I register a real opinion.
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