Wow down for a whole day on a weekend.  How annoying!  But it's open beta so everything is cool right? 

$200 Founders pack - Permanent Item Find Boost   5%

This doesn't seem right to me.  That is basically a major gameplay change.  I suppose you could buy consumables to do the same if you don't pay $200 but that's not the same thing and I'm guessing Founders could as well and get even higher magic find.  Imagine if Blizzard did this with Diablo 3.

Even if "Recommended" worked, I'd ignore it since it has no idea what build I'm going for.  For example, I'd use an item with overall lower stats if it had a higher single stat that I'm speccing for.

I had a fun game of ARAM but I'm still hung up over learning new heros and inventory system in a new MOBA when I've already put in the time in another.  That's pretty much how I felt about DOTA 2 as well.

I guess I'm spoiled by games like GW2.  I paid $60 for GW2 and never once did I feel inconvenienced.  I guess I was expecting a similar experience since I paid $60 for NWN but the bag/bank space and the multi currency issues are starting to annoy me.

I played Tilt's mission last night.  No complaints, it was pretty well done.  Only problem I had was the outdoor area seemed laggy for some reason.  Not sure if this is due to server load.  Unfortunately all the text was putting me to sleep, I shouldn't have started it at 1 AM when the queues finally let me in.  I knew going in that it was text heavy but I wanted the foundry bonus and the quest length said 20 mins although I think it took me longer than that.

Pay to win.  $200 to avoid sloppy coding.  Huge queues in an instanced game, inexcusable when these guys are supposed to know how to code MMOs and what to expect at launch.

I am on Mindflayer, but have no clue what my account name is.  I log in to the game with my email address.

How do I find my account name?

After you hit login, in that launcher window it says "Welcome <your account name>".

Mindlayer

@kublaiex

I don't think you need to specify character name, I think account name will add all characters.

Has anyone heard about future class additions? Five seem a bit shallow for a MMO. Or are the D&D 4e rules prohibitive in that area?

They will be adding more over time.  Warlock is almost ready but they didn't want to rush it in for launch.  Archer is next.  A class in Neverwinter is not equivalent to a class in D&D 4e.  A class in Neverwinter is a combination of class and package in 4e so that means there would potentially be more classes possible in Neverwinter.

I'm not really liking the art direction.  Is it just because it's a very early build?  Everything looks kinda bland.

Didn't think shards matter in this game.  It's supposed to be all instanced.

Long but good preview video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7AGKI6Crfw&list=UUGhs9S33RAeT5DEuKTO4Oew

I had the exact same impressions from the beta as this guy.

Honestly this sounds like a train wreck to me.  

That's pretty harsh LOL.  I suppose your opinion has changed quiet a bit after 2 years.

I finished this a few days ago.  Really good game but not my GOTY so far (that's Bioshock Infinite).  I felt some of the areas near the end stretched on a little too long.  I was just about ready for the game to end by that point.    What stands out for me are some of the environments: open forest area at night, the burning level, areas with intense wind etc.  

Also as everyone has already mentioned, this version of Lara is much better than cocky Lara.  I don't actually know if Lara was cocky in the last few games but I just had this image of her, not sure from where, Angelina Jolie to blame?

I find myself getting the itch to play this even though my initial impressions were lackluster, it started to grow on me.  I don't know if this will hold up long term but should be fun to play casually for a while.  One more week!

I got to level 10 and tried one match of PvP and it was really fun.

Also a big part of the class mechanic was locked until level 10, at least for the Cleric.  I wonder if that's true for all of the classes?  If so, then you really don't get a feel for the class until after level 10.

Multiplayer just kills the immersion since you have other people doing the same quest as you competing for the same drops/kills and dragging around clones of story characters that are supposed to be unique to the world.

I think maybe the writer is making a comment on all the sexism talk lately (ie. tropes vs. women video series) and giving extreme examples he/she is expecting to hear about Bioshock.

Yeah, the writer actually states that he doesn't think Bioshock is sexist.  The only problem is some of his arguments are just plain wrong.

Major spoiler alert if you read that article on sexism before finishing the game.

As a Star Wars fan, this game depresses me.  It turned out to be less Star Warsy than SWG.  At least in SWG I felt somewhat in character in what felt like an evolving world.  All that money they spent in TOR should have been spent on establishing a great Star Wars single player RPG franchise because it just doesn't work as a MMO.

Remember that one guy?  Well he's not with MS anymore

Come on, we knew this would happen.  Prophet Francis (the fat guy on youtube who uses an axe to break his xbox) predicted it in that video "..soon to be fired Adam Orth".

When is this coming out?

I played one match recently.  It still feels a bit floaty, like you are driving the gods.  I wish control/animation were more like Guild Wars 2.  Gameplay seems suited for beginners to MOBA but I'm not sure if it has enough to offer to LOL/DOTA veterans.  I'm still waiting to see the next evolution of the genre instead of the mostly clones that seem to be coming out.

Is there no jungler role in this game?

You don't really notice when playing but when watching someone else's video, it becomes obvious how intrusive the UI is.  A big line in the middle of the screen with range indicators?  Is this a fantasy action game or a tank sim?

Ooh, why can't you elaborate?  Did you have a fist fight with him or something?

For $25, it's worth the risk for me.  I don't have a lot of faith either but nobody else is making PvP only MMOs.

I'm in with the $60 founders pack.  I didn't really have good impressions when I played a beta weekend but I only gave it about 20 mins total.  Watching videos on youtube and reading some impressions convinced me.

I think it was the idea of Diablo or DOTA/MOBA like combat that appeals to me the most.  It also seems like this will be easy to play casually (it's F2P, dungeons are not serious time commitments, don't have to relearn 20 slot hotbar when I come back from taking a break).  And of course the user generated content could be pretty neat.

Maybe I am desensitized but I didn't find BI gory at all.  After finishing it I went back to Tomb Raider.  That is so much worse in terms of gore (not that I mind).  BI is just too cartoonish (a bit like Dishonored) for the violence to resonate much.  On the other hand falling onto dead bodies and watching head roll around in TR is a bit creepy.

I just finished.  It was a great ride and I loved the ending.

I hope this game is good but I don't have much faith in Marc Jacobs.  A guy who used to say he doesn't play the PvP part of the game much back in Warhammer Online interviews and now he is a self proclaimed PvP guru?

Superheroes + MOBA seems like the perfect combination.  But from the gameplay trailer, the animation looks really bad.

Monster Hunter WiiU.  I want to find out why this series is so popular.  I couldn't really get into the PSP version because of damn load times.

Here's another MMO that looks pretty cool: Black Desert

Brandon Justice thinks X-Com is a RTS - http://www.egmnow.com/articles/playstation_3/e3-2012-the-big-question-xcom-enemy-unknown/

This guy is the executive editor of EGM?

Alignment is not important and can be ignored completely. The combat isn't so challenging that you will ever need any specific monster for a particular boss fight. The mite that you get at the beginning of the game is more than sufficient but you can replace him with whatever your heart desires since it really won't make a difference. Basically, use what monsters that you like and don't fret about "combat efficiency."

This has not been my experience.  I wiped 5 times on a boss fight with a robot type mob.  Mite does no damage to it.  I had a lowbie familiar that cast thunder attacks and that was doing decent damage to it but would die in 1 or 2 hits.  Olivers spells did less damage but it's so easy to go OOM.  I barely got by and used up all my provisions in the process (prior to this fight I barely use provisions in fights).  Party members kept dying easily if I missed timing my "All Defend".  I'm playing on normal.

Cool.  I think I prefer AoW2 over most of the HOMM titles.  Hope this one will be good.

Regarding point 5, you also have to consider alignment (which will be explained later).  The main character doesn't have an alignment (sun, moon etc).  Sun does more damage to Moon.  Moon > Star and Star > Sun.  There's also element type (fire, water etc.) resistances but that's harder to judge in combat.  You can check it in the beastiary outside combat. 

I highly recommend leveling up some caster type familiars that have magic type that Oliver doesn't have access to immediately like water attack or thunder attack.  I didn't do this and nearly paid for it at a boss fight who was resistant to most of my attacks.

What new commands do you get when your 3rd party member joins?

Yeah I'm pretty sure I got my tactics options when the chick joined.

All out defence and offence were not mentioned until later.  At least now I can block boss attacks with other members.

It's weird that they don't give you the two tactical commands as soon as you get your first party member.  These commands are only unlocked a bit after the third party member joins.

I'm still using the mite in almost every fight, he's just so OP because of his levels and the amount of food I've given him.  Hard to get another familiar to catchup.

Let us know how nostalgic it is to reacquaint yourself with the beloved anime characters from the world of Wizardry