Open Beta has been announced. September 6-13. Looks like we will be keeping our closed beta characters. No details yet on HOW the keys will be disbursed, but the open beta will be 1.5! Since everyone is pretty much yawning over Champions Online, I really think it would be cool if more of you checked the game out before launch. Those that preorder will get a 2 day headstart over the retail release too. Anyway I'll keep you posted when I hear anything more. Those of us who will be playing in the open beta will be on Siel, Asmodian side - you can also make Elyos characters on the same servers in beta, just not at launch.

 

I wasn't really much of a fan of the original Guild Wars, though I heard it evolved into something halfway decent through its numerous expansions. Well Guild Wars 2 is coming, and after seeing the official trailer, i'm pretty interested.

If you haven't checked it out yet, do so.. I think you'll be pretty intrigued.

http://www.guildwars2.com/en/

*yawn* seriously underwhelmed.

With the closed beta over and open beta pending (lord knows when) I had a chance to do some leveling on my Templar on C-Aion this last week and am drawing closer to the current level cap (45 in 1.0, 1.2 is still pending). I thought i'd share some screenshots.









The armor sets keep getting cooler and cooler, I can't wait to see some of the stuff in 1.5 when Aion finally goes retail. A month to go... YAY!

Hidoshi, that images rocks lol.

Curse has a new fansite dedicated to FFXIV, check it out...

http://www.ffxivcore.com/

Aion closed beta is going to be over in a few hours and the characters deleted. So post your best character shots so they can be remembered!

Here's a couple shots of my assasin...







And here is my Spiritmaster.







.... I love the... um... attention to detail...


Hopefully it wont be too long till the open beta test so more of you guys can try out the game.

These are about a week old but I thought i'd share.

Lore of Aion Cinematic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwciMQ3xjbk


Aion Patch 1.5 - Shadows of the Balaur

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVhpWGmehhU&feature=PlayList&p=1E5EBEADD47E6AAC&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=41

1 month 11 days remaining...

I think until we get more concrete information anything is possible. The tarot card system just seems like a cosmetic cover-up for questing. I would not be shocked if there was a leveling up system, but instead of the character its equipment... SURPRISE AND WELCOME TO YOUR NEW GRIND!!!!! I'm really trying to think outside the box for this game, but i'm terribly frightened of SE's habitual introduction of copied systems or at worst, broken systems, and painting it with a shiny new coat of paint, hoping to pass it off as groundbreaking. I really hope they start coughing up more information soon so we can speculate on facts not assumptions. 

I spent some time looking over the updated site, and I have to say, I am very intrigued. As usual the lore looks like its going to be amazing. I just hope against all hope that they've learned some of their lessons from FFXI. I noticed alot of mention of reasonable content no matter how much playtime you have in many of the info pages and that's a plus. I just hope its not just lip service. I think the watercolors of the planned cities sold me :)

score -1 for originality. Honestly, if they were going to just re-use so much stuff from FFXI then keep the names the same and just rename it Vana'deil part 2. After this much time in "development" I was hoping for something more original than just a shinier engine. Oh well, hopefully they allow more character customization than before. I'm curious to see how this "your equipment determines your job, etc." is going to work, because if that's the case everyone and their damned monkey is going to argue about gear drops. Sometimes infinite flexibility isn't a good thing. I expect to see loot whoredom magnified x 100.

Very cool, i'm actually playing around with SM right now. I really like the fact that your avatars actually upgrade visually as well as statistically. The high end flame and water elementals are sexy as hell.

No that's not Sanskrit that's Korean which is unable to display because the language pack isn't loaded in your OS. I had that happen today too. Rebooting the PC and relaunching fixed the problem for me.

This weekends beta event is up, who else needs a legion invite on Asmodian side other than ShiningHero?

Since we have another beta event starting this friday, I thought i'd kick it off with some new pictures. Enjoy.



This is just a pretty fly-by of one of the shattered moons that dot the sky. The Great Cataclysm certainly made an astrological mess.





Now I know everyone has seen the huge stone Golem at the end of the promo-video, but did you know its actually an in-game structure? Here is a distant shot of the behemoth laying dormant in the upper layer of the Abyss.





This is a closer fly-by of the inactive Golem.





Right up close to the beast for size comparison. Huge isn't it?





Here is a shot of the Asmodian Fortress Guardian. This is also the form that high ranking PVPers on the Asmo side can transform into, though on a much smaller scale.





This is a much closer shot of the same guardian. The attention to detail is quite amazing, even though I took this shot with graphics settings on medium. I miss my PC :cry:





Here's a side-by-side comparison so you can see just how HUGE these guys are. The Elyos guardian is viewable in one of the earlier pics I posted, just not as close.





Ah the Balaur. Here is an Elite footsoldier who decided to pick the wrong Templar to mess with.





Here I am smacking the same Balaur upside the head with my friend, and favorite cleric, Midori providing support.





Hidden deep within the sun that blazes in the middle of the Abyss lies the Divine Fortress. Here I am flying through the Eye of Ereshuntara (lots of aether rings too) to take a peek at the fortress. You'll have to wait for my next picture installment for more views of this place, and it IS awesome. :jealous:





And at long last, I finally hit 40 and got my new wings!





These things are amazingly huge, but so very pretty, and... twig free.





This is a flyby shot of my templar, with new wings above Beluslan Fortress.


Also, since this is the Abyss/Rifting enabled beta event, you slacker Asmodians better show up for legion invite so we can go pluck some pidgeons this weekend.