Everquest II

[Euphacent]

I recently downloaded the new Everquest II demo and thought it was pretty cool, so I ended up buying the game and I'm really enjoying it so far. I've been playing for about a week and a half so far and it's a nice change from FFXI. It sort of plays similar to WoW, but the game definitely has a different feel. The PVP has some nice consequences. If someone kills you, you go into 0.5% exp debt, they can loot some of your money, there's a chance they can take one of the items from your inventory that's not equipped (random item, random chance), and you lose some of your faction.

The quests are similar to WoW's (I haven't played much WoW, just up to 20, but my brother plays religiously so I know how the game is), where you walk up to people with an icon above their head, they give you a quest, which usually results in a quest line that takes you all over the place and progresively into new zones.

I haven't been to many of the zones yet, but I have seen some deserts (40-50 zone) that are amazing with HUGE sand dunes, giants, spiders, undead, etc, roaming everywhere while riding a magic carpet to a city floating in the sky... where all the thugs and gamblers hang out. The starting zone for the new expansion (Echoes of Faydwer) is a site to behold, too. The soundtrack is also very nice.

Anyhow, I'm done with FFXI so I'm going to be spending my time in this game. I really wish I'd picked it up maybe a year ago (after balancing/class branching issues) so I wouldn't be so far behind. I highly recommend at least downloading the demo and checking out the starting zone for the Faydwer expansion (you can only play as the new fairy race in the new zone). The game is a lot better than I thought it would be.

It's also nice to not have to sit around for hours trying to find someone to do something with.

 

[Ralin]

I am seriously considering playing this. Since I reactivated my account in FFXI, the few people I've run into have turned out to be stuck ups/full of themselves. It's like they think getting level 75 gives them the right to treat new characters with disrespect. I'll take constructive advice hapilly, but being an ass about it is another story entirely. Some people need a nice slap in the face every once in a while. What you do in a game will have absolutely no significant effect to the real world in any way at all...unless you met someone on the net and then in real life and became close friends.

I played the demo and I have to say I'm impressed. The only thing that disappointed me was the combat animations. However, from what my friend says, there are optional patches (about 3 gigs worth) that change all of that for the better. If I get it during the holidays, I'll be sure to track you down. What server are you on? I'll PM you if I get it.

 

[Kurgon]

I don't think it is a bad game at all. They just launched it too early and the bugs drove a lot of people off. Then they started Station Exchange servers which drove even more people off. Then they revamped the combat system which angered people that had stuck with the game up through that point. Then they revamped the crafting system because having it have inner dependancies was "too hard".

As it is now the game is very solid and has a polished sheen. They just burned a lot of people getting to this point and will never be a large population game again. I just wish they fixed most of the bugs before launch and stuck with a direction. You can't make a game that pleases everyone. Plus some areas just lag horribly for no apparent reason other than bad coding.

If the game they launched with was in the state that the current game is in it would have been better recieved and would be more populated/successful.

 

[Strid]

Played the original demo about a year ago, I think. Very neat game I just can't justify putting my faith in a long term relation ship with S.O.E. Look what they did to SWG and The Matrix...

I have an extra set of registration codes if anyone would like them. I bought the station access pack a while back and didn't use the EQ II codes.

 

[Euphacent]

I'm on the server Nagafen and I'm a Qeynos (good) character.

 

[Kurgon]

Qeynos is just Sony EQ spelled backwards if you didn't know. =O

 

[Euphacent]

Still enjoying this game.

My two highest characters are a 35 swashbucker and a 20 Fury. I was playing the swashie with two friends, but we're kind of redoing our group so we work together more effeciently. Right now I'm basically the main tank by putting out damage, while one friend plays ranger, and the other plays healer. The ranger is going to stay the same, but I'm going to be a fury for healing/dps and the current healer is switching to a real tank class.. this should work out really well in pvp. It's pretty cool how taunting someone actually changes their target. It really messes people up when they're locked on and chasing someone, then suddenly they turn around and are heading toward the tank.

 

[Jrodtaru]

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